[GZG] [GZG Fiction] Dear Ma.... 5 of 5

Naqib (Captain) Tariq Hamidullah of the 57th Islamic Federation
Airborne, to his fiancee September 26th 2196

Halimah my dearest,

Today is my 20th day in action. It seems like it has been years. All
that has come to pass for myself and my battalion would be scoffed at as
the ravings of some lunatic, as being impossible. Only Allah knows why
the few of us left alive are so. I've seen all my very best friends
killed close beside me. It is exceptionally hard for me to believe this
is all really happening. Never have I dreamt such horror. I never
guessed such terror could grip your soul, squeeze your heart and gut
until your find it hard to breath. This business of landing deep in
enemy territory, taking and trying to hold a position that is
continuously assaulted and shelled from all sides until friendly troops
break through is something I hope I am never tasked with again. While
glory will shine upon and lift up the names of all who have given their
last breath here, I am ashamed to admit I do not wish to be among them.

When we jumped it was as if the Hayca were waiting for us with
everything they had. They started while we were still high - their
rounds sounding like hail as they pinged off our jump shields. My glider
chute was even on fire when I landed, right in front of some kind of
mini-railgun emplacement. I shed my harness like some reverse butterfly
sloughing off its wings and then crawled and crawled. It went on for
hours, crawl, fire, crawl, fire, crawl, fire, reload and all the while
with shots whistling past my ears. Right now I can't tell you what else
went on, but let's just say the story gets good from here. I sincerely
hope it won't be too long before I can hold you and tell you personally
all that has happened. May Allah continue to smile one me, as it is only
Allah that has brought me safely this far! 

Hali', I love you more than I can ever say, more than all the stars in
the sky, sand in all the deserts and much, much more than life itself.
I've realised this so many times over these last three weeks. Whenever I
thought I was going to be killed I thought of you and regret would flood
me, a regret of missing seeing and marrying you. I think even the
blessed prophet himself would say my love for you has been tested deep
and well asnd found unwanting. 

Goodbye for a while, may all that you know keep you safe and well. I
wish I was with you. 

Tariq 

>>>>>>

Captain Govinda Kamat Usha, captain of the 2nd Martian destroyer
flotilla, to his cousin Jambhala 
September 27th 2196

Jambhala, 

How does this crazy life of ours go with you? Have you made a triumphant
return to Mumbai, mounted on a white elephant with golden tusks?
Remember how we laughed at such plans as children? Well given how things
are swinging so well at your end of the siege, I would think the time is
getting ripe for it.
 
Down here we have had our own brand of fun. We've just returned to port
for the first time in 19 days and never a dull moment. For such a great
movement of troops and equipment it was a remarkably well-thought-out
and well-run. The orders were all good and clear and sensible even, no
difficulties at all to speak of! Even the Kra'vak played their bit right
on cue, sometimes melting before us and other times striking out with
grav tanks and small but deadly boats. They gave us a merry thrill. 

During the actual invasion, in the opening phase, we had to go on ahead
to out a shore battery. We were quite a bit scared and felt isolated and
very lonely closing in on the peninsular alone. We took some fire, but
it was mostly glancing. It was almost rather dull on that first day
after we'd shelled ahead of our forces advance. The landing went on
steadily, but fairly uneventfully for those on the tail end. We did
occasional requested shoots, but spent the rest of the time helping the
grav tanks and APCs they were using as landing craft and taking off the
wounded. 

The second through fourth days weren't nearly as plain sailing. A nasty
north-wester came up, nothing as strong as the monsoon at home, but
strong enough in the shallow seas here. Pretty much the entire fleet,
right up to the destroyers, were shipping seas at anchor. On the fourth
day it was particularly bad and it felt like they were dropping all over
the place. On the fifth we got some orbital vid coverage, the beaches
along Osuga was littered with the remnants of at least three wrecks.
Fuel was an issue by the end of the blow as none of the tankers could
clear harbour and meet up with us, but in the end all was fine. Mines
were the issue in the end - they were becoming a serious nuisance for
the ships as we couldn't just lift over them like the grav escorts. 

When you get the opportunity, I would appreciate (quite profoundly) if
you could direct a shipment of Italian or Icelandic wine to Skala,
preferably red. A few casks or even a crate of bottled would suit. Let
me know the costs and which account to pay it into. Failing that even
some Delta Cherry would do wonders. 

My regards to all. 

Govinda 

>>>>>

Marcus Reid, IT-corporal NAC 51st IT detachment, writing to his father
and Aunt September 30th 2196

Dear Dad and Auntie May,  

I'm sorry for letting quite a bit of time slip by without writing. I was
shipping round a bit from fortress to fortress across the Margaritifer
Line and wasn't given much freedom to write beyond my formal maintenance
wires. Then I had thought I'd be rotated back to Nirgal, and kept
putting off writing until then. I did eventually realise that trip
wasn't to be and tried writing you at least once a week, but I can't
seem to get finished with personal pieces of writing these days, I tend
to just delay, going from day to day. So I've decided to stand on myself
now. The way it looks, I'll probably be with the troops leaving for the
main push on Ojika Jima in four or five days. Given how bloody the
fighting has been around Osuga, Orduna and Severns its probably best I
make myself write now. I don't wish to be overly dramatic, but I may
never get another chance. 

I did go in with the main attack across the Binzert Channel, the Krak
blitz up the comms so bad they have reinstituted combat IT. But I am now
back from that beachhead. As you may have probably heard from the Times
embed's report, we had some pretty narrow escapes up there. I hope it
didn't unduly worry you to hear that. The worst by far was when the Krak
shelled the convoy I was riding in. Two enormous shells, like orbital
slugs, hit only 3 vehicles up, a little off to the right. I had nodded
off, and got quite a shock to find myself bouncing about and the APC
flying tilted up through the air. When we cleared the chassis, we could
see the two APCs to our fore had had their sides blown through and the
truck that had taken the direct hit was little more than shoe-box sized
pieces. I jumped down to take a closer look and help with the wounded
when more rounds came in. I got thrown across the road and over a wall,
landing in a cushion bush (thankfully), which broke my fall quite
nicely. I ache, and all my bare skin was scratched, but at least nothing
was broken. The spot on the APC where I had been standing before I
jumped down seconds before was covered by about a tonne of vehicle
parts, rock and rubble. I was very lucky! 

I was in a VTOL that had its left pod smoked, but the pilot got us down
ok that time and a couple of other times I had some of the smaller Krak
artillery slugs hit within a metre or so of me, but with the ground so
chopped up and muddy along the line I got sprayed a bit and landed on my
butt once rather unceremoniously, but basically little damage as the mud
absorbed the fragments. 

I even spent a bit of time with the paradee's, the capsules they drop in
are really interesting and I volunteered for a drop with them, yes
despite the danger. They are by turns an intense and playful bunch;
singing karoke in the run-up to the jump, but all business once on
station. They wear form fitting jumpsuits now so wedding rings and such
are much less a concern, but most still tape them up or take them off.
One guy had his knotted through his great grandfather's dog tags. I had
to fix his helmet rig before we emplaned and when I swung by I found him
just in his trousers. Standing there backlit by the barracks wall-light,
shirtless, crew-cut, dog tags he looked like someone out of those
archaic flats from the global wars in the 1940s. Funny though there was
some discussion about reintroduction of tags, given auto collection of
nano-tags is much harder here, but in the end they opted not too, seemed
too extreme a step given no one in the Terran forces has worn external
tags in about a century.

You'll be happy to know that the last remnants of my Mars Fever are all
but gone. I have a few discoloured patches on my skin and minor
scarring, but I sport a new moustache to cover those. It is quite small
(the scars are quite small and if I were not so vain I could do well
enough without my caterpillar lip). My anaemia is now quite gone and
I've been generally feeling as well as you can in this place. My only
complaint is that it has been quite some time since I heard from you, I
expect that I shall see something from you soon though, now the Mars end
of the blockade is lifted. 

I did receive a vid from Conrad Marshall though. You'll never believe
it, they are making a VRcinnie of his ebook! Imagine Conrad's wild tales
turned into VR! It's quite astounding, especially given how many times
you chased us from the attic as children, telling us small boys should
stop pretending to be knights in this day and age. He says they've
already shot the outdoor scenes down in Brasilia. In typical Conrad
style however, he can't tell me how it ends as he won't have the script
completed for months yet! One step, but only one step ahead, that's out
Conrad. He doesn't expect it to be ready for release until next autumn,
but he says Mitchell Keller will be doing the meshes. The Mitchell
Keller working with Conrad! And they're going to ship me the first cut
to test out for them!! I am fit to bust with excitement!

Guess that's about it. Did you get that final op Dad or are you still
using your walker? I used to think you were so stubborn and old hat
using it, some warped martyr mark because you didn't die with your men
on Kayleigh. I quite hated the symbolism of it. Looking around at the
injured here though, I don't hate it quite so much. I don't think any of
them will be so stubborn as to use a walker and a mangled leg over a
grafted prosthetic, but they're not all moving on as easily as I thought
you should back then.

On to happier thoughts now, I'm glad that spring will soon be with you.
Is the flower garden as beautiful as always Aunt May? 

I'll write again just as soon as I can. 

Love

Marcus

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