Osdal (Harmony War Series Book 3) Read Free

had on Mark’s first deployment. There weren’t any new recruits, only veterans with hard eyes and lined features.
    Mark turned his implants on, his view showing the same Heads Up Display his helmet would. Everyone was healthy, and the battle net confirmed that there were no enemy locations in the area of Reclaimer.
    Mark turned to the net where information and orders were passed through, and where there was a chat room for all Troopers.
    The post he was looking for was at the very top.
    Orders:
    Check Troopers’ status.
    Prepare for reinforcements.
    Commence training.
    Proceed to Osdal System.
    Mark let out a sigh as they exited the spine in a press of bodies. The spine held all of the enlisted Troopers in a central area, running the length of the ship.
    “’Sup?” Jerome asked, sounding tired and bored.
    “No indication of how much time we’ve got to train, or how long it will take to get to Osdal,” Mark said.
    Jerome was a shorter, tanned man, but training and augments had turned him into a hefty slab of corded muscle. He could easily carry his armor, ammo and two other Troopers with the same load out.
    Mark and Tyler had accepted him into their brotherhood; they’d fought together on Sacremon and that friendship had only grown with time.
    “Awesome,” Jerome said, his eyes smoldering as he ground his teeth in annoyance.
    Second Lieutenant Haas turned as they were walking so he could include the 18 Trooper platoon in his announcement. “Captain Ortiz wants to see us.” Haas was a solid man, heavyset like everyone else, with sandy blonde hair and eyes that had been dulled by loss, anger and fatigue.
    The platoon didn’t ask questions, but straightened as they followed.
    People talked here and there, but there was little to talk about. They were only ever woken up to fight someone. They all knew that the group calling themselves Harmony had been using Masoul as a testing ground, and it had taken two Earth Military Force Carriers to destroy Harmony in Masoul.
    Some eighty thousand Troopers had died to secure the system.
    If that was just their testing ground, Osdal’s going to be hell, Mark thought as the lift stopped.
    Their platoon had lost thirty-two people in Masoul.
    Second Lieutenant Haas sat at the front of the conference room, and Warrant Zukic sat next to him. Their entire Platoon was arranged around the conference table, waiting for their orders.
    Captain Ortiz was a fire-plug; short, strong as a tank, always pissed off and just waiting to snap. Yet, under all that, he was a good tactician, and he knew when to stow the anger and look at the situation in front of him.
    He cared about his Troopers first and foremost, and people respected the man.
    “Smoke them if you got them,” he said, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. Others did the same, if for no other reason than to remove the taste in their mouths.
    Mark chewed on gum and pulled out a pack of chewing tobacco.
    Ortiz sank into a chair, and Mark had his chew encased in gum when Ortiz started talking.
    “Osdal is in open uprising; thing’s a shit show.” His eyes unfocused before a hologram appeared in the center of the table, showing the Osdal system. There was a sun, five planets and a thick Oort cloud. The first two planets from the sun were uninhabitable. The third planet was covered in organic materials - it was called - and the fifth was an iron-based planet, high in rare metals, called Osdal Actual. Refining facilities lay across the planet, and in-orbit processing stations took the materials from Osdal3, Osdal Actual and the Oort cloud, and then turned them into whatever their clients needed.
    The whole system had been turned into one massive material supplier.
    “Been doing it in the open for Twenty-One years. They didn’t spread like they did in Masoul; they were already in every area across the system. The entire fucking thing is hostile.” He took a drag of his cigarette. “There are twelve million people in all of