I Can Still Hear The Screams

Posted on Tue Jun 16th, 2015 @ 1:09am by Major General Thomas Jackson

859 words; about a 4 minute read

Being a Division Commander, as well as a General Officer is by far the most comfortable position of my career. Yet, despite the mountain of paperwork, as well as the perks, part of my soul is still troubled. It is still trapped in the past. Almost twenty years has past since the War, the Dominion War.

Early in the war, as an enlisted man, I was wounded in action. While recovering from my wound on Betazed, I ended up leading a resistance group on what was now Occupied Betazed. Months later, as a freshly minted Second Lieutenant, my perceptions of war came to an end on November of 2374, on a rock called AR558. Some MACOS just made a successful last stand against the Jem'Hadar, with mainly phaser rifles. But most of that company would never go home. All over some stupid comm relay. When I led my platoon in to relieve them, they looked dead, even those that survived. There was this Chief Petty Officer who had a KWilT necklace much larger than mine. During the war, it became a battlefield custom for Marines to cut out the Ketracel White Tubes from the bodies of the dead Jem'Hadar they had killed, and run a string through them. Those with a bigger necklace were regarded as successful warriors. I almost feared this Chief more than the enemy. And then there was this poor Starfleet Captain, Sisko I think his name was, who seemed to forget how to talk. His eyes seemed to stare right through me as I informed him that our company was relieving him. He just turned around and walked away. The only words said were by the Chief, who said "Better you than me." I figured five months is a long time to fight. Thus ended Phase 1 of the "Siege of AR558".

My platoon was part of Alpha Company of the 1st Battalion, 327th Marine Regiment. We were all part of the 5000 man strong 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Marine Division, which was now tasked with defending AR558. Unfortunately for us, the Dominion blew a gasket when those MACOs held out. They responded by placing two complete legions of Jem'Hadar on the eastern side of the planetoid, about 20,000 plus. Thus the stage was set for Phase 2.

Phase 2 started out with frequent orbital bombardments by Dominion ships. The shield generators that the Combat Engineers set up took some, but not all, of the sting out of the attacks. Then we had some small unit actions in Death Valley. My first casualties occurred in these sporadic engagements. My platoon gave much better than they received, despite of the Houdini Mines.

When the game changed into a series of mass ground attacks, my platoon's good fortune came to an end. The Dominion's disregard for life was evident with the waves of Jem'Hadar that charged our positions. Between our pulse rifles and support weapons, we slaughtered the Jem'Hadar. No quarter was asked for, and none was given. Earth was a long way from us to tell us about the rules. But each attack brought them closer to our perimeter, until the fighting became a close quarters/hand to hand affair. I even had to use my knife to save a crazy Corporal who thought that he could tackle a group of Jem'Hadar himself. I later found out that Giaus Aquila was Magna Roman, which explained everything. I told myself that I would be watching him, if he lived.

When the final attack ensued, every officer in Alpha Company was either killed or wounded, except for me. Only half of Alpha would walk out of the battle, with me in command. Despite our losses, we all thought that we could hold indefinitely. Our high morale was deflated when Star Fleet showed up to evacuate us from the planetoid. So like good Marines, we used demo on the comm relay, and beamed up.

Our now troubled morale suffered more damage when we found out the Federation gave up the Chin'toka System all together. The Siege Of AR558 all happened for nothing in my opinion. Looking back, I will never look at that battle as an information bonanza for Star Fleet Intelligence. To me, it will always be looked at as a waste.

But it also served as motivation. When Alpha Company made a combat jump on Cardassia Prime a few months later, payback was the unofficial order of the day. It was Jem'Hadar Season. For the few Cardassians who still fought for the Dominion, they made for good bonus targets. The blood lust was real. Again, no quarter was asked for, none was given.

When the battle was over, I stumbled on a trio of senior officers inside a command structure. A Star Fleet Admiral and that Captain I met on AR558 were in the process of insulting a Klingon General. When they left, the General saw me, he offered me a drink. At that point, I was more than willing to try blood wine. The bodies in the room added a sense of poetry to the drink we shared. The War was over, but I can still hear the screams of AR558.

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