The Avenging Talon carried five serpent vessels along with their various shuttles. They now left the hangar and formed up with the Gladius that also contained the sniper/scouts. Captain Lorenzo gave the order for them to depart. Their mission was to fly to the drop zone and make certain there was no evidence of the enemy. The Gladius would land. The snipers would take up positions on high ground, around the landing zone, in case of enemy scouts. The resistance was told to tie a red armband around their left upper arm as recognition. The ships came in visible as a signal to the resistance that landing was about to take place. Of course that also meant the defenders knew they were there. The Gladius came down and the five serpent ships took up positions around the landing zone. Tavia landed the Gladius. Alaya and her snipers exited and fanned out in all directions to find a good perch. They would scout towards the enemy when the legion was down. Tavia took a position with the air cover to watch for enemy action. They were too far from the capital for the enemy to arrive quickly on foot, but they may attempt to disrupt the landing with hovercraft. Scanning revealed the area was clear, but there was a large group detected coming towards the landing zone from the side away from the capital. Tavia quickly flew over there and confirmed that these were the resistance troops moving to the rally point. When the resistance saw the strange looking ship heading in their direction, they dropped into a defensive position. Tavia flashed her running lights to indicate they were safe and flew back. All scans were clear and she made contact with the Longinus. “This is Primary Scout Tavia Marshal, all clear at the landing zone and snipers in place.”
Captain Lorenzo received the message and told Legatus Edmonton, she may launch when ready. Almost immediately, 100 drop ships left the hangars of the 10th legion dreadnoughts. These carried the legionaries and their support personnel. Another ten drop ships came from the serpent dreadnought. A few also came from the Petrovian dreadnoughts. These carried some of the Petrovian marines to join up with the resistance. They sent all who were still able to fight. Also launching from each dreadnought was a drop ship with their portion of the legion camp that would be set up at the landing zone. Each cohort was responsible for their section of the legionary camp extending from their part of the wall towards the center road. When the camp was finished, it would be a square structure with four gates. From each gate, a street would run and the streets would intersect in the center where the command structure would stand. At each corner of the camp was an antiaircraft tower. If a cohort was by itself, its portion of the camp could be shrunk for only as many legionaries as they had. The drop ships came through the atmosphere and the serpent ships met up with them as cover. Suddenly an alert went up in the serpent ships.
“Raul, what do we have?” Tavia asked.
“Incoming surface to air missiles heading for the drop ships.”
“Evasive action, let’s take them down.”
The serpent ships flew to intercept the missiles. “Hit them with cluster missiles.”
The serpent ships fired cluster missiles at the incoming enemy missiles, and when the cluster missiles were a few kilometers clear of the serpent ships, they opened and blasted their cluster bombs into a cloud in front of the oncoming missiles. All but two of the missiles hit the clusters and exploded. The remaining two were taken out by flares from the drop ships. When the drop ships were one hundred meters off the ground, they divided into three separate hovercrafts. One was the hovercraft containing the cohort and this landed and discharged its legionaries and support personnel. This then became a gunship for air cover. Of the other two parts, one was a hover tank and one a hover antiaircraft gun. When the legion was on the ground, they would have air cover from the hovercraft, as well as tanks and antiaircraft protection. Next, the camp was landed and the legion immediately started to assemble the camp structure. Lastly, there came the command hover with Legatus Edmonton and her staff. Also aboard were thirty bodyguards from the Praetorian legion. Three hours after arrival, the camp was assembled and filled with the legion. The resistance was also arriving and found it hard to believe that the camp and all of the metal buildings in it was assembled in less than three hours. The legion was checking weapons and then turning in for the rest of the night, which on Petrovia was twenty hours long. The next day would have twenty-five hours of sunlight. Petrovia was slightly larger than old Earth and rotated half as fast. Since all corporations function on Earth time, but have different home planets, it makes life interesting.
After the camp was finished and the sensor screen was up, Legatus Edmonton called in Alaya and her snipers as well as the Gladius and the five serpent ships, who all landed in an open area near the camp. The serpents stayed aboard their ships for fast takeoff if needed. The serpent cohort from the Avenging Talon was camping outside the walls of the camp, except for the serpents attached to each cohort of the 10th legion, who camped with their cohorts. Bill Marshal met up with his wife and Tavia could see he was troubled.
“Something wrong, Bill?”
“Nothing important. We filled some of the gaps in the legion with marines, but I would have preferred some time to train with them. They are light infantry and don’t use shields. We plan to use them as reserves, but they are a weak link.”
“Bill, you worry too much. Anyway, that’s the Legatus’ problem. Your serpent forces will do just fine.”
Bill smiled at his wife’s boundless optimism and went to spend the night with her aboard the Gladius. Alaya was also aboard, thinking about her husband and daughter in orbit. She was not sure when she drifted off, but the ship’s klaxon awoke her and the crew at the appointed time. The Romani were up quickly and preparing for the day ahead. The plan was to fly to the city. Reconnaissance from orbit revealed that the mercenaries were camped just outside of Saint Petersburg. Apparently, the population made it a bit hot for them in the city, especially since Sinclair Corp was keeping them half starved. They also knew the Sinclair Fleet was no longer a threat. The Romani felt that this was going to be an open field fight, since any attempt on the part of the mercenaries to fight in the city, would also put them at the mercy of partisan activity.
Overnight, 8645 Petrov troops arrived and rested. They were now ready to reclaim their planet. The stage was set for the battle of Saint Petersburg. As dawn began to move into day, the cohorts re-boarded their hovercraft for the trip to the capital, the resistance fighters were taken aboard unarmed shuttles brought down from the fleet. It was a tight fit but they all got aboard. Their support personnel would be moved with a second trip. Since the resistance was not trained in Romani combat tactics, it was decided they would form on the flanks of the legion and protect the wings. The serpent cohort was at full strength and the one thousand serpents were given the honor to form the actual center of the line. Centurion Marshal’s Special Forces would go in as part of their regular cohort, the eighth, which was much reduced from boarding actions. In all, the Romani/Petrov forces numbered 15,000 troops with the Romani Marines filling in empty cohort positions. This meant that the defending mercenaries had a 5,000-troop advantage. There was no time to scout or to plan any distractions as had been the case on New Wales. This was going to be a straight up fight. Jack Dalton decided to work with Alaya’s sniper/scouts. He proved to them that he was a crack shot and would do as a sniper. The legion moved out in the hovercraft with the serpent ships and the Gladius providing air support. The hover tanks and antiaircraft hovers could keep up on their own. The command hover was in the center of the formation. The plan was to deploy in an open area, five kilometers from the mercenary camp.
The Mercenaries had not been idle. They had watched the space battle on their monitors and for a long time were not sure who was winning. They had heard rumors about the Romani for many years; however, until the battles on New Wales, these were just rumors. After New Wales was wrested from the grip of Petrov Corp., the Romani again vanished into the realm of rumor. Now, suddenly, here they were and they were Henrietta Upton’s problem. The space battle went against th
e Sinclair Mobile Fleet and now they were cut off from help and evacuation. Even if they won the ground battle, Sinclair would need to send a fleet to open the planet for movement off world. Overnight they had detected landings near an old mine over two hundred kilometers away. They fired a cluster of ground to air missiles at the drop ships, but some strange looking vessels fired some kind of cluster munitions that took out the missiles. Henrietta decided to save the few missiles she had left in case of flyovers. As a precaution, she sent for the two thousand troops sitting in Alexandranopolis, and they arrived safely in the night. She was now at full strength of slightly over 20,000 troops, but not all were of high quality. Three years ago, Sinclair Corporation had put out a contract for 30,000 mercenary troops. This had never happened before, since Sinclair had a large military and had just conquered Petrov Corp. Henrietta’s employers had won the contract but had to scour every insignificant dive bar to get enough warm bodies. They were told this was only a police job and they would be managing the population on the Petrov home world. The reality was not as advertised. She had already lost a third of her force over the last three years to insurgency. The problem Sinclair Corp failed to realize was that Petrov Corp refused to admit that they had been conquered. Henrietta would be the first to admit that her bosses shouldered some of the blame. She was told to be lax in consolidating gains, since the contract was based on continuing activity and not a set price, the longer it took to consolidate the conquest, the more money would flow to the mercenaries. Thus far, it had worked like a charm, but now she was on the eve of a major battle with no place to run. The camp was fortified with an Earthen work rampart and a ditch in front surrounding the entire area with only one entrance. Portable cannons and Gatling guns were mounted along the walls and could be moved if needed. The major problem was ammunition. They had plenty of small arms munitions and grenades, but only enough cannon shot for a few volleys and even the portable Gatling guns each only had three cases of ammo. They could also not withstand a siege; there was no source of fresh water nearby. Henrietta now saw her folly in camping outside the city, but when they were in the city, her patrols kept disappearing. It was now daylight and she suspected her time was running out. Just as this thought came into her mind, her aide ran in.
“General, the enemy is approaching by air with air cover. Those strange ships that shot down our missiles.”
“Order General Quarters and get the troops on to the rampart. Tell them to use defense plan F as we practiced.”
The aide ran out and ordered the pre-arranged formation for the manning of the walls. She hoped all was in readiness. She did not tell the troops that even if they won, they had no way of getting off the planet until Sinclair Corp reestablished itself in the surrounding space. She suited up with armor and weapons, and then left the tent to have a look at the enemy.
When the Romani reached the clearing, five kilometers from the mercenary camp, their hovers landed and the troops deployed. The legion always deployed the same way, with the first cohort to the left of the second cohort then all odd numbered cohorts to the left of the first and even numbers to the right of the second. Since the serpent cohort was being used as shock troops, they were arrayed, one hundred abreast and ten deep, with the third row consisting of an entire century of males carrying Gatling guns. The resistance was on the flanks with the hover tanks even further on the flanks, split thirty to a side. Legatus Edmonton was behind the infantry in her command hover with a visual of the battlefield from drones high above the area. With her were General Golov and Ambassador Perminov. Lt. Col. Teplov returned to her resistance unit to command it during the assault. Legatus Edmonton looked at her communications tech and said, “Release the cadence drones.”
“Yes, Legatus.”
Several large drones flew from the command hover and took position above the legion. These would sound the drumbeat through which the legion received its orders. To make certain there was no question about commands, they were given based on the speed of a drumbeat, known as the cadence. In front of the Legatus, was a series of screens showing the battlefield from all directions. She could see the fortified camp. It was not well constructed and too far from the city to allow for an orderly retreat if necessary. The fact that it was so far from the city, told the Legatus that the mercenaries feared the inhabitants. It does not take many troops to hold the capital of a planet, as long as you do it through fear. You do have to make sure the fear does not wear off though.
Legatus Edmonton turned to her communications tech, “Set cadence to advance speed.” Immediately the drumbeat sounded over the entire area. It could be clearly heard, not just by the legion, but also by the opponents. Part of its function was to demoralize the enemy. As soon as the cadence began, the legion moved forward as if a single being. The resistance was caught by surprise, even though they had been warned about the cadence. They took their cue from the legion and moved forward, as did the hover tanks.
Henrietta Upton watched the legion come together through her field glasses. She noticed there was something odd about the leading unit, and they were using shields except for those on the flanks. Her mercenaries outnumbered the enemy by a considerable amount. What concerned her was the large number of hover tanks. She had never had to deal with them before and they were mobile cannons. She had thirty cannons of her own, but only an average of three rounds per gun. When the enemy began to move forward, a constant drumbeat reverberated across the open plain. When she saw that the enemy attack would be concentrated on one wall, she had all of the cannons moved to the wall facing the attack. She called over her artillery commander. “Do you think you can take out some of those tanks?”
Commander Schwarz was originally from the Brandenburger Corporation and learned his artillery skills there. They were mostly on ships as a chief gunner, but since becoming a mercenary, he had to develop planet-based skills. He liked to think of himself as a crack shot. “Yes General. I can send a volley of thirty rounds into their tanks at your command.”
“Very well, do it.”
While this conversation was going on the legion had advance a half kilometer over the semiarid landscape. The reason the Legatus decided on a frontal attack had to do with the fact that the area around Saint Petersburg was completely flat with no terrain that could be used for shielding movements. When the legion reached the two-kilometer mark from the enemy, the battle began.
Commander Schwarz had half his cannons trained on each group of hover tanks. When the enemy was at a range of two kilometers, he gave the order to fire. There was a massive concussion as thirty cannons fired in unison. Unlike in space, the shots whistled through the air. The centurions all yelled, “Incoming” and the legion dropped to the ground with their shields over their backs. They slammed into the flanking tanks, which were in a loose, skirmish formation. This made them harder to hit, nonetheless, ten were hit, seven on the right flank and three on the left flank. Four of the tanks exploded on impact. The other six had various levels of damage, but three could still hover. The other three lost their repulsors and fell to the ground. Their turrets still worked, as did their firing mechanisms. They were stationary but could fire if they had a clear shot.
Legatus Edmonton turned to her communications tech, “Order the tanks to attack speed and tell them to suppress the cannons.”
“Yes, Legatus.”
The order went out and the tanks shot forward and began to zigzag as they kept firing their cannons into the rampart and the row of cannons. Again the Legatus gave an order, “Have the air wing take out those cannons.”
The order went out and the gunships shot forward and fired their turreted Gatling guns at the cannon crews. They fired their missiles at the cannons. As the hovercraft flew over the camp, the mercenaries fired their portable Gatling guns at them. This was answered by missiles from the gunships. Several gunships were hit by the Gatling guns and they suffered enough damage to take them out of the action. Two of them could not make it back to the legion, due to tur
ning problems and continued in the direction of the city, which was five kilometers on the other side of the enemy camp. They both hit the ground near each other and their crews, consisting of a pilot and gunner ran out of the craft and headed to the city. As they reached the city limits, they were welcomed by the population and Alaya Slone. The Gladius had gone invisible and landed in the city where it dropped off Alaya, Dalton and the marine snipers. While the mercenaries were concentrated on what was happening at their front, they were not aware of the dangers from behind. Five kilometers is too far for even the best sniper, but the mercenaries will have some problems if they retreat towards the city. The population welcomed Alaya and her squad, which was a relief. She also noticed that the inhabitants had armed themselves with anything they could find, since Sinclair forces had taken all their guns.
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