Free EDEN (The Union Series) by Phillip Richards Page A

Recce or not, there was a
line drawn between the two of us that couldn’t be crossed.
    I waited while the
boss stared blankly down at my feet. ‘Anything else, Sir?’
    He took the hint,
jolting out of his trance. ‘No, no, that’s it, Andy. I will leave you be. Have
a good two days, and I will see you when you report back.’
    ‘I look forward to
it, Boss.’
    With that, the
platoon commander turned and made his way out of the gym. I watched him
negotiating his way around the equipment, thinking about what had been said
between us. Obviously the boss was concerned about my mental well-being, enough
to want to bring it up in conversation, but at least he wasn’t angry about my
decision to abandon my OP.
    But what was the ‘ something
big’ ? I remembered my conversation with the Welsh recce commander during
the holograms. Maybe he was right, and we really were going in. My patrol had
witnessed the Loyalists carrying out an action against a civilian target. If
the rogue army had turned upon the civilian population of the Bosque, how would
the Alliance respond, watching from the shadows? The Union couldn’t allow
genocide to occur on Eden - the global and even galactic implications could be
catastrophic.
    The Loyalists were a
dogmatic military and political machine, so transfixed upon the ‘superiority’
of their Union heritage that they refused to even listen to the Union itself. They
had transformed the northern province of Europa from a peaceful Union province
into a rogue state that fuelled their hate filled crusade into the Bosque. Talk
wasn’t an option. Sanctions didn’t work either, for although tough trade
restrictions were already imposed it was well known that the Russians allowed
materials and goods to freely out of the province, and probably sold Europa produced
goods back on to the Union anyway. The rhetoric was there, but the reality was
very different. Money was money.
    The only tool the Union
had left to wield was military might.
    That was it, I
thought, we were going in, and this time we were going the whole way. Once
again, the Union was going to war, and I was going with them.
     
    We were released from
the containment facility early in the morning, handed back our equipment, and
allowed to check ourselves into the local barracks. The section rapidly spilled
out into the city, disappearing in the time it took me to change out of my
combats and into my fatigues.
    I spent much of the
day wandering the streets of the various city domes, marvelling at the
magnificent display of wealth and power. It hurt my neck to look up at the tips
of some of the buildings, standing several kilometres high, each one home to
countless interplanetary corporations.
    There was no doubt in
my mind that Paraiso had profited from the decades of fighting to the west.
While Edo and Europa bickered over scraps in the Bosque, the rich Union
province traded freely with the neighbouring continents and Earth, protected by
its colonial masters. It sat atop vast mineral deposits, since its borders had
been altered at Edo’s expense after the Alliance was forced off the planet.
    It was stupid,
really. In stripping Edo of its mineral wealth, Paraiso had made its hostile
neighbour weak, making it an easy target for the Loyalists in the north. The
Loyalists, having been allied to the Union during the war years ago, believed
that Edo had been let off too easily, staking a claim on the Bosque. Now the
two provinces were at war, and eventually Paraiso would be sucked in as well.
Perhaps their greed would be their undoing, I thought.
    Eventually, after
several hours of wandering, I found a quiet park on the edge of the giant
crater, and a solitary bench that overlooked the entire city.
    Birds chirped from
within the tree branches, singing sweet songs that reminded me of home. Paraiso
had imported them from Earth, of course, since no creature could survive
outside the atmospheric domes. Only the plants could thrive in the harsh