Portal Wars 1: Gehenna Dawn by Jay Allan Page B

Daniels was right;
he knew that. But it was still hard to see the big picture, to
decide how many mangled and dead soldiers an objective was worth.
“I know you’re right, Spider.” He paused. “But it’s just hard for
me to see it that way. That’s all speculation…and these dead boys
are real.” Taylor knew he shouldn’t be commiserating with a
subordinate in the middle of an operation, but he had to get
through all of this somehow. He tried to be the unmoving rock,
always there for his men, never in need of support himself. That
was a great image, but an illusion, an impossible standard.
    Daniels had to suppress a smile when Taylor
called him Spider. He’d picked up the handle when he was a sniper,
and none other than Jake Taylor had given it to him. Taylor was a
corporal and team leader when Daniels arrived on Gehenna. The
rookie was a crack shot from the beginning, so Cadogan made him a
sniper. But it wasn’t his aim that was truly extraordinary…it was
his patience. Daniels could stay in a hidden position, motionless
for hours, just waiting for his shot. One day Taylor compared him
to a spider sitting in its web waiting for prey, and that was that.
The name stuck.
    “Look at it this way, then.” Daniels turned
his head, glancing over at Taylor. “Maybe the war here will end
sooner…and in ten years a whole batch of kids won’t get blackmailed
into throwing their lives away because of this.”
    Taylor didn’t respond, but he thought about
what Daniels said. It made sense, but it was still hard for him to
accept that anything could justify the casualties and suffering his
people had endured…and he figured that next group of kids would
just get sent someplace else to die.
    “OK, Lieutenant Taylor, we’re all set.”
Captain Graves was walking up from behind. He had been in the rear,
supervising his crew as they prepped their equipment. The engineer
wore the same sand-colored fatigues as Taylor and his troops, but
his were totally soaked through with sweat, making them look
darker. Other than his obvious distress from the heat and the
silver Engineering Corps insignia on his shoulder, he could have
been any officer in UNFE. Except Graves was going back home
someday.
    “Very well, sir.” He tapped the com pad on
his helmet. “1st team, move out.” Taylor turned his head and
glanced at Graves, nodding. Then he followed his advancing troops
down the dimly lit corridor.
     
    “Machines moving down the west passage.”
Taylor could hear shooting in the background as Corporal Danton
made his report. Taylor had sent Danton and his team to investigate
the scanner contacts they’d been picking up. Jake had been afraid
it was an internal security force…a fear that now seemed
well-founded.
    The main force had worked its way deep into
the complex, locating the main power core after a lengthy search.
They’d encountered a few sentries, and they’d lost one man, but
they managed to reach their objective without running into too much
resistance. Graves and his men were setting the nuclear charge
while Taylor’s people guarded the approaches. Ideally, UN Command
would want to hang on to a facility like this. The potential for
researching the enemy’s superior technology was considerable. But
it was too risky to try and hold it. The base was deep in an
enemy-dominated zone, and they would likely launch a counterattack
to retake it. UNFE had only managed to mount an attack against the
facility because of surprise. The enemy thought the location was
secret, as it still would be had it not been for a random
communications intercept and some educated guessing by UNFE
Intelligence.
    The only tactically sound choice was to
destroy the place, thus beginning the long process of attriting the
enemy’s strength on the planet by destroying or capturing the
production facilities. There had been 8-14 factories on the Portal
worlds already conquered. If Erastus followed the pattern, the
destruction of this facility would