All That Was Lost

by Robert Byers

  “For everything they’ve promised us that’s not much to ask for in return.” He countered, he was getting annoyed with this now, they were his subordinates no matter what they thought. “With the weapons and the engines and everything else they are promising they would put us light years ahead of where we are. They also have a device that generates stable wormholes to allow us to travel even faster through space, where we need a few hours in void-space to reach Neptune from Pluto it only takes thirty seconds to reach it with the wormhole drive. And it uses renewable energy that is far superior to the solar panels we’ve been using.”

  “Wait, better engines? That’s interesting, can I see the specs on them by chance?” McIntyre was obsessed with learning and as head navigator he looked in on the engineering department.

  “I can try to pull some strings, but I can’t promise anything.”

  “I’m more interested in the sorts of weapons we are going to be getting. Is there a way they can help us root out this Rising Anvil movement?” this time it was his XO voicing her concerns.

  “Oh, the weapons they’ve shown us are very interesting. And I’m not sure about that. I would hope so, but I’m not sure how they would do that.” He stood up and stared at all of them. “Keep in mind that this is classified intelligence. If you are found speaking about any of this to anyone outside of this room, you will be charged with treason and you will be hung as such. Dismissed.”

  He sent them all from the room and sat in his chair again. He wasn’t sure what would come of the information but being ordered to read them in was an order and he followed his orders like a good soldier should.

  Chapter 10

  One Month Later…

  Tiberius looked at himself in the mirror and was amazed at how he’d changed over the weeks. He kept to his training regimen and he was in the best shape of his life, he was also shooting and throwing knives a hell of a lot better than he ever had before.

  Flexing an arm in the mirror he looked at the bulge and felt proud of himself. Never before had he even remotely liked the look of his body, all skin and bones. But now with the military regimen he was forced to keep he was able to pack on muscle and have a six pack along with some impressive biceps.

  “Done looking in the mirror?”

  He turned and saw Quintus standing there with Walsh and Ortiz, they’d become a close-knit faction ever since they fought off the borders and got those tattoos. And as he looked at his again, he realized how nice it looked on his bulging forearm.

  “I can’t help it, I’ve never looked in this good of shape. It amazes me.”

  “Well let it amaze you tomorrow because we have work to do.” Walsh told him, and he raised an eyebrow. “Cap has a mission for us so get in gear.”

  Walsh led them to the armory once they all were dressed in combat gear, the uniforms were all black with a vest to hold extra clips, two thigh holsters, one for a pistol and the other for their knife. Gloves and boots along with a belt that connected with the vest to ensure it stayed where it was supposed to, so they could keep protein bars and such there. They carried their helmets under their arms and when they entered the armory all four of them stood at attention saluting their captain.

  The only difference among their uniforms was the rank insignia on their shoulders, for his heroism during the assault Tiberius was bumped from Ensign to Lieutenant Junior Grade, he was just glad there wasn’t a big deal about it, he didn’t want it to be considered anything more important than lunch.

  “At ease men.” She said from across the room. “We have a mission and it’s going to be a rough one, I’m not going to lie there is always a chance that someone is going to die on a mission, but if you work as a unit there’s less of a chance, especially on a mission like this.”

  She held a mini holoprojector in her palm and let it display an image of where they were going. “This is Sanctum, it is one of the known bases that Rising Anvil uses to gather their troops. It’s also where one of their leadership lives.” The image changed to one of a man in his fifties with salt and pepper hair cut short and a cigar sticking out of his lips. He wore the uniform of a Rising Anvil member and he had multiple military patches to show his rank, according to what they saw he was ranked as a General. “This man is Geir Brager, and if our intelligence is correct, he is the head of the Rising Anvil.”

  They all looked at the floating image of General Brager, this was the man who was responsible for countless deaths at the hands of his terrorists. It was a dream mission that every soldier in the Imperium had fantasized about when this senseless war began.

  “That’s right men, you’ll be a part of the strike force that attacks his base. But I don’t want to see any heroics out there! I mean it, I don’t care who kills this sack of shit, I care that my men come back safe.”

  Tiberius knew she hated sending them on missions that were extra dangerous, but there was nothing that could be done about it. They were going into the belly of the beast in this one, and it would be harder than every training mission he’d been on before. And probably a hundred times worse than when they assaulted the ship.

  “Load up. Take everything you think you might need, we have carte blanch, so take whatever you feel is necessary.” She picked up her weapon and stepped back giving them the room.

  Everyone stood, debating between what to use and they were taking a while to decide.

  “This is going to become a close quarters op right Cap?” Tiberius asked as he looked between two types of rifles, one had a burst setting and an auto setting and fired small bolts of plasma, courtesy of our new alien friends. And the other was a modified shotgun style weapon that had the shotgun grip, fired shells filled with Nano bombs, courtesy of the R and D division back on Terra. The Nano bombs would impact something and once it did, they blew with the force of a stick of dynamite, so you know it would fucking hurt if you hit someone in the leg because there’s no more leg left after it got done with them.

  One nice thing about being this close to Jupiter was they got the chance to restock their armory from the R&D department on the Neo Victoria and they were able to get the new toys that came with their work. It also helped they were able to get some of the new reverse engineered alien weapons.

  “That’s right Vesper. At some point you boys will be entering his home and attempting to kill him there. Now that’s also if everything else goes according to plan and we don’t end up dead before we hit the colony floor. There’s always room for error.” She said laughing, hoping to relieve some of the pre-mission jitters the squad was undoubtably feeling.

  He picked up a shotgun and slung it around his back, checked the mag and took another two for it holding eight of the shells each. Tiberius took one of the Aritech 55D pistols that fired old fashioned .45 caliber bullets, checked the mag and slid it home into his thigh holster opposite his KA-BAR along with three mags he slid into a pocket on his vest. Lastly he took one of the plasma rifles and checked it’s charge, they had small batteries that powered the weapon and he took eight of them since they were so small. All together he was equipped with enough ordinance to take out a small platoon. And that wasn’t including the four smoke and four fragmentation grenades he pocketed.

  The others took their weapons, he noticed that Quintus took the shotgun and had plenty of mags for it, then remembered that Quintus preferred close quarters fighting because of his size. And he would probably have taken a battle axe if the option was there.

  Walsh took two pistols and two smaller sub-machine guns along with ammo.

  And then Ortiz took a rifle, a pistol, and attached a grenade launcher to the front of his rifle.

  The other eight soldiers took their own weapons and they were locked, loaded and ready for bear. Tiberius just hoped they were able to keep a good number of their squad alive by the end of the coming engagement.

  “Lets get to the birds boys. We’re on number two.” She led them to the hangar and to a dozen HM-23 Sparrowhawk gunships. Each ship held a complim
ent of twelve soldiers, a pilot, and a gunner. They weren’t boxy, but held the men comfortably, with a door and wall to keep the pilot and gunner separate and safe. It boasted a chin gun that spat .50 caliber rounds like it was nobodies business, a pintle mounted autocannon that fired larger caliber rounds with greater explosive power, and a tail gun that rotated and fired smaller caliber rounds, mainly to pick off infantry.

  They loaded themselves into the birds and checked each other’s crash webbing to ensure it was tight and would keep them safe. Their main weapons were hooked into webbing above them so they didn’t fly out of someone’s hand. Their helmets would keep them safe and pressurized if they were exposed to space itself. The helmet was a full wrap around that had a polarizing visor to keep their eyes safe from the bright light of an explosion, a full HUD with com suite.

  “Stand by men, we’re coming out of void-space in less than a minute and we’re expecting company.” The Captain said over their helmet coms.

  They could bring up all sorts of things like each members health and see their real time heartbeats or oxygen levels. They could see motion from the trackers in each person’s armor, even see their own ammo counters to see how much was left in their mag. It certainly was a nice thing to have access to. Not to mention it brought up any maps they had downloaded.

  They felt the stutter of returning to regular space and the Captain gave them all a thumbs up before she got secured as well.

  —

  Admiral Harcourt smiled as they exited void-space and he saw the colony drifting right where it was supposed to be. The colonies they used were cylindrical with spokes that came out from the center and had multiple solar panels on them to get their power, they also had their own artificial gravity thanks to the spin rate of the colony itself.

  When he was younger he’d served a tour on one of the colonies in the outer quadrants of the Imperium. It was a boring tour of duty and resulted in his first child thanks to a woman he’d met when he was allowed off base. All of them had the same basic design, but they could mess up a map easily enough which was why he made sure they snuck an aerial drone in when they sent a group to look for the General.

  And now they had the most accurate map of the area they would ever get. Updated just this morning.

  Three light cruisers moved away from the moon the colony was near and began moving towards the Integrity as quickly as they could. The Admiral watched with fascination as they tried to hail them and were denied, yet they hadn’t done anything to attack just yet. He was waiting for it. Waiting to launch a counter attack that would go down in the history books. He wouldn’t give all his secrets away too quickly.

  Finally there were strange shapes moving away from the three ships and his radar officer called out, “Admiral they’ve launched their fighters. It looks like four dozen F-85 Raptors.”

  “Good, launch the fighters!” he called out and the XO began calling to the fighter pilots telling them to launch.

  “Sir the Intrepid and the Endeavor have just reentered real space and are moving to assist.”

  “Good, then we should be seeing the other three cruisers soon as well.” The Admiral commented. It was a large operation, they knew this was where the rebels leader was located, they expected him to be protected by a large force on both ground and in space. “Lieutenant Crane get me a channel to the fighter squadron leaders.”

  “You have it, Sir.” He replied after a few moments.

  “Captains this is the Admiral speaking. I need a clear line to the enemy ships to open fire on them. I repeat I need a clear line to the enemy ships to open fire on them.”

  There was a chorus of “yes sir” and he looked back at his XO. “Sir, when do you want the Sparrowhawks to launch for the colony?”

  “They can launch in five minutes. That should be enough time for our fighters to do some damage to the other ships out there. By the time we move in to fire on their vessels our reinforcements should be showing up.”

  “Yes sir.” She replied and relayed the order to the pilots who would relay it to the squads in the cargo bays.

  “Bring the battle up on the forward screen.” The Admiral watched as the screen in front of them changed and showed the Stormraptor fighters that launched from the side hangars in the Integrity as they flew towards the enemy squadrons.

  The Imperium’s squads were outfitted with new phase weapons that would allow their beams to pass right through any shields the enemy had. He watched as three of the enemy fighters converged on one of the Imperial’s. And it fired clean through the nose of one of it’s enemies. The ship became a small sun for the briefest of moments before dying out and the other two veering away in a hurry.

  Their light cruisers tried to fire on the Integrity, but their weapons did nothing to the shield, glancing off or being absorbed depending on where they impacted.. He was sure the enemy captains were in awe and fear of the weapons the Imperials had developed.

  “Officer Mellan lock onto the bridge of the nearest enemy cruiser.” Was all he ordered, he knew what weapon to use, and so would his crew. “All squadrons get clear of the nearest enemy vessel now.”

  “Weapons are locked sir. Should I fire the ion canon now?”

  The Admiral nodded. “Do it, we’ll leave them sitting dead in the water.”

  It took a few seconds to charge the beam weapon, but when it was the energy it released was blue and arcing as it raced forward, it did not discriminate and would kill their fighters just as easily as it would the enemies.

  Two of their Raptors were caught in the ion discharges wake, their electrical systems were fried and they were left floating through space dead in the water. The ion discharge continued until it smashed into the enemy ship, slamming into the bridge and fizzling out once it was ninety percent through the ship. All of their systems went down almost instantly, life support, artificial gravity, lighting. The Admiral would have felt pity for these souls he was about to send into oblivion, if only they hadn’t taken part in a terrorist organization.

  “Lock on with the particle cannon.” He called out, then “Fire.”

  The ship didn’t even move as their main cannon chugged out a line of white hot energy straight at the enemy ship. It impacted the two fighters and obliterated them, continued on and slammed into the enemy cruiser. The energy sliced through to it’s core, igniting the reactor and setting it ablaze. The ship became it’s own small super nova.

  “That should make them think twice. Doyle, launch the Sparrowhawks.”

  Doyle spoke into her com and silently hoped that the Sparrowhawks were able to make it safely to the colony, and that the gods would keep them safe.

  Chapter 11

  Captain Sidonia nodded and looked at them. “Okay folks that was the XO, she says we are good to go so lets get down there and kick some ass.”

  The hangar bay door slid open and the shield that protected the ship itself acted as a shield to keep the atmosphere inside the hangar while allowing the ships themselves to enter and exit as they pleased. All fifteen of the birds began hovering and their engines pulsed sending them one at a time through the shield and towards the colony ahead.

  All of them knew there was a chance the colony would have counter defenses and six of the remodeled Raptors banked away from the Imperial forces and flew to support the Sparrowhawks. Flying in front of them the ships they led the way to the front door, a set of thick titanium doors that the Raptors fired their missiles at. They impacted and blew the doors inward, atmosphere vented and so did three spacesuits that moved just a little as the Raptors veered off, telling the pilots they’d just killed a few terrorists in the process.

  With the way cleared for them the Sparrowhawks flew into the opening. They moved through the first airlock and slowed, there were three sets of airlock doors and they hovered in front of the second set until the safety measure went into effect and a thicker slab of titanium slid down to cover the opening the Raptors created. Once it was in place the second set of doors slid op
en and they were able to make their way through to the third, from here they would enter the city that was the colony of Sanctum.

  A lone man stood just inside the third set of doors and he gave them a thumbs up from inside his space suit. The name tag on his chest read “Locke” and once the third set was open he waited for the gunships to finish their flight.

  The ships flew into the colony and all around them it looked like back on Terra. There was dirt and grass on what was the ground, there was an artificial sky above that was created by the colony’s holoprojector. On the ground there were also streets and buildings like a small city, there were houses, some bigger buildings that acted as storefronts. As they flew through the city they saw the army base that was essential to any colony. It was where they’d not only train new soldiers, but work on developing new weapons and technology.

  Four of the birds slowed and veered towards the base to drop their loads of Imperial soldiers to quell any rebellious people. For each bird there would be twelve soldiers equipped with enough ordinance to drop an entire platoon. But there was still that chance of missing something and being left in a pile of wreckage for any of the soldiers in the birds.

  The others kept moving and slowly, one at a time, they moved over to drop their own troops on the rooftops, each one with their own heavy weapons to support any of the loyal civilians. And to take care of any armor the base might have, and each base typically had at least three tanks and a half dozen air transports.

  The last five flew to the Generals’ home/headquarters to take the colony. As they hovered a foot off of the ground the pilots could see the traitorous soldiers moved to protect the General as they tried to cover the doors and windows to make themselves a physical barrier.

  On the ground there were no rocks or outcroppings to protect the soldiers. There were a few of the small cars and trucks that were used to get back and forth and were in the way enough to make small shelters for maybe two of them at a time. There were short trees every five feet and a set of bushes two feet from the balcony and stairs all around the compound that was high enough to protect them if they ducked down, but the foliage wouldn’t protect against much.