[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

> [quoted text omitted]

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

> [quoted text omitted]

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