No sooner than the connection was confirmed and stabilized, General Hadim’s deep voice broke through Bastion TACCOM’s overhead speakers and his video image appeared on the central display board, “Colonel, it is good to hear from you and see that you are well. There has been much uncertainty these days with the ever changing environment we live in.”
The accompanying data packet gave Jonathan every indication of what the General was referring to. Over the past two days the alien forces occupying the better part of Westera had seemingly launched an all-out offensive against the General’s forces in a bid to completely quell the combat effectiveness of those defending troops. He instantly saw that the new data indicated that many units were now below fifty percent in strength and number. There had also been a great amount of territory lost in the tactical retreats due to the relenting attacks of the enemy ground and space forces. General Hadim was trying hard to preserve as many units as possible for the day when a counterattack would be warranted. To Jonathan it seemed like the enemy was trying to focus most of its current efforts on defeating the smaller army garrison on the other continent before turning their attention back on Telfor.
Now it was Colonel Hallsworth who grew ridged at seeing this new horrifying intelligence, “sir, I think it’s time, then, that we showed whoever these beings are that while we might be down we are not at all out of this fight. It’s time we show them we still have some teeth left and bloody their nose instead, for a change.”
Jonathan thought he noticed a minimal smirk from the elder commander after his comment, “Well said Colonel. We will all fight on as long as we can. Is everything ready on your end?”
“Yes sir,” Jon replied and looked over at Ahron Ceasaris who nodded in confirmation, “all in the green and ready to synchronize on your command.”
“Very good, we’re initializing the link up now,” before the general even finished a new program window opened on the screen and Ahron instantly confirmed the transmission, allowing it partially take over some commands within Bastion’s TACCOM. In response a new timer popped up and began to count down.
“Looks like we are out of time Colonel,” Major Girard stated at that moment from beside him and pointed to the sensor display on one of the other walls. “We have a number of Alphas closing on the drone’s position.”
“Seems like we will have to cut this short, sir,” Jonathan said while looking up at the General’s image being projected on the display. Behind him a few of his staff officers could be seen huddling around a TID table.
“Alright Colonel, give the bastards hell. Good luck,” General Hadim added and gave Jon a slight nod.
“Thank you sir, to you as well,” he was able to wish back just as the image vanished and the communications drone disappeared from the sensor display.
“They got her sir,” the major confirmed and stiffened more, her eyes glancing up at the clock counting down the remainder of time before the attack.
In acknowledgement Jon simply nodded and looked around the command center. Everyone was at their designated station concentrating on the task at hand. By the time he turned back towards the screens the counter finished its march. Without delay Bain initiated the attack and distributed orders among the multiple combat units already in place to carry them out. The first phase was conducted by four spread out and hidden artillery batteries. These units each launched three different salvos of missiles at various targets before switching fire to enemy patrols and formations closer to the mountain range. The secondary barrages were done with HE and plasma shells to devastating effect against the alien ground troops. Jonathan watched a number of enemy patrol squads vaporize under the impact of superheated plasma and high explosive fire as they tried to recon a number of mountain passes. Other units were at first more fortunate, protected somewhat by the rocky surrounding as well as their transport carriers. These same units, however, were then attacked by Federation armor vehicles. Both Chimera tanks and Centaur IFVs broke cover around these formations and managed to surprise the enemy further. The Colonel watched a number of these large troop transports detonate in midair and fall to earth as their surviving comrades retreated. Not leaving anything to chance his armored units continued to pour destructive fire into each of these crashed alien craft, killing any Teddies that tried to crawl their way out of the burning wreckage. Their tough armor wasn’t enough to protect them from the intense firepower of the vehicle mounted particle cannons.
Through the data relay feeds Jonathan was able to watch live as the tanks and fighting vehicles approached the enemy crash sites. Blue particle beams discharged every so often as these combat vehicles detected motion among the wreckage. On the main display he could see a lone figure emerge from the flames and stumble towards a nearby bolder for cover. That large stone instantly exploded a second later as one of the Chimera’s fired upon it. The now exposed enemy soldier was then targeted by nearby Centaurs, its body almost entirely vaporized under the assault of their main guns.
“Ten seconds to impact,” Bain warned and switched the main central display to show the missile barrages approaching their targets.
Shifting his gaze back to the front of the command center Jon watched the mass of missiles approach Destona at building top altitude and hypersonic speeds. The ADS detected a few flights of alien fighters patrolling around the city at the same time and the colonel watched as two of these flights began to maneuver towards these projectiles. It was at that same moment that the missiles quickly changed direction and veered away from the city’s center. Three of these warheads disappeared from sensors in this mid-course correction phase, knocked out by the defending fighter craft, before they reaccelerated out of range at top speed towards their four distinct targets.
At each destination the first wave of missiles contained only decoys that split into fours, attracting even more attention from enemy anti-air defense batteries. These decoys over flew these designated targets to draw away the fire just as the second and third salvos hit home. Through the Jayhawk night vision Jonathan watched as these warheads slammed into their targets at supersonic speeds. The entire Mironia Spaceport assembly area erupted with multiple detonations from its storage facilities and fighter hangers. Two missiles slammed into a pair of massive Thumper armored walkers and destroyed them thoroughly. Another group of missiles struck the alien cargo transports still sitting on the landing field. Each of these appeared to have been unshielded at the time and shattered from internal detonations after the high speed warheads pieced through their thin armor plating.
These deadly projections were guided to their individual targets with extreme precision by laser designators from Jayhawk drones flying high overhead as well as by a small unit of Special Reconnaissance soldiers. These soldiers had set up a hidden position upon a small hill overlooking the low lying spaceport from another a kilometer away. It had taken them days to establish the position, but their work was paying off as witnessed by Colonel Hallsworth from the Bastion TACCOM over two hundred kilometers from Destrona. He watched as the SpecRecs invisible beams allowed more of the missiles to slam into their targets. The first of which were a number of large perimeter defense batteries and strange looking buildings surrounding the port. One of these buildings hit was assumed to be a command and control center of some sort do to the amount of defenses around it and the presence of bulbous sensor looking structures atop its roof. In actually the place’s function was to coordinate the orbital cargo drops as well as a housing unit for the enemy elite Special Forces units. Its destruction killed many of these highly trained personnel and severely limited their combat capability within the city and surrounding areas.
Jonathan watched when the last of this second missile wave impacted another of the hanger looking buildings and sent enemy soldiers tumbling through the air along with the concussive wave. Before the light of this explosion even faded the last salvo of projectiles flew over the area. Each of these missiles was different and the colonel had to look careful to see the
sides of each missile body pop off to dispense dozens of burrow mines throughout the spaceport. These anti-personnel and vehicle munitions hit the ground and buried under the earth, denying the whole area to the enemy forces. In the end almost three squadrons of fighter craft lay in ruin and hundreds of the enemy were no more, along with many tons of much needed supplies.
A similar seen of devastation had unfolded at the other major assault site at EB Omega. Colonel Hallsworth only had to shift his eyes to the right in order to see the direct overhead video feed from Jay Three, another drone orbiting the zone. All around the assembly area buildings were on fire and spacecraft remains were strewn around destroyed landing pads. Jonathan focus, however, shifted to the region that made up the center of the alien base. In this area had stood a towering three pronged structure that had been studied by his Intel personnel for the previous four days. No one had known what the thing was, but it had been erected slowly over that period of time and guarded heavily. All presumptions pointed towards it being some sort of communications device. Whatever it was, though, Jon had deemed it a priority target in the strike. He was now rewarded with the successful destruction of the tower. Close up images showed it shattered into multiple pieces from its upper two-thirds up by a precision missile impact, which had also been guided by another SpecRec unit operating in the area.
The other two groups of missiles went after enemy forces operating within the southern districts of the city, further restricting their movements. Mainly the strikes were directed at the larger alien armored units, which were more difficult and costly to replace and also presented the biggest combat threats. Even as these missiles were raining destruction upon the unsuspecting enemy, Centaur IFVs packed with soldiers and supplies raced towards the city’s northern outskirts at treetop levels. Most entered Destona without resistance and proceeded to predetermined rally points at which they met up with some of the guerrilla units operating within the city. They quickly disgorged their precious cargo and took on groups of civilians waiting there to be evacuated. The Federation troopers riding in the Centaurs stayed behind and were distributed as reinforcements to the resistance units in the area.
Over two hundred civilians were rescued from the ravaged city by the operation at the cost of one fighting vehicle. That Centaur had unfortunately been detected by one of the still flying enemy fighter flights and destroyed followed a singularity missile attack. Jonathan frowned at the deaths of his men and women aboard that vehicle, but at the same time couldn’t help by feel extreme pride at the rest of his troops for carrying out their mission so expertly. His last look over the projected images on the tactical display gave him another chance to see Mironia and EB Omega still engulfed in flames and devastation.
“Happy New Year,” Specialist Ceasaris called out from beside the colonel, seeing him looking at the wrecked enemy bases.
Jonathan looked over and met Ahron’s eyes with a nod, “indeed.”
XX
January 1, 2487 S.E.D – Post Invasion Day 12
Rahias, Pisces Sector
FNV Regal - Carrier Battle Group
The shock of what had transpired with Rahias’s destruction could almost be palpable throughout the carrier’s bridge. Most of the men and women manning the command stations had never seen actual death before, other than during simulations and wargames. In addition it was also the simple fact that the enemy had managed to slip through the defense line so easily to cause such destruction.
Admiral Singh immediately noticed this drop in moral as soon as the research station disintegrated under the heavy assault. A gasp and awe emanated from a number of consoles, but was silenced fairly quickly when the ship’s AI, unfazed by emotional conflict, unleashed its counter attack. Under its direct control the heavy cruiser Karabela and the destroyer Sirius unleashed a salvo of heavy hypervelocity slugs into the already damaged alien vessel. At this pointblank range it took less than a second for the shells to strike. Whatever minimal shielding the enemy still exhibited barely slowed the armor piercing alloy projectiles traveling at one-third the speed of light as they tore into the hull. Two of the larger Saber cruiser fired shells even smashed completely through the ship’s insides. They emerged on the other side of the vessel before their warheads finally went off. One second the enemy ship was hanging there in space, surrounded in the light of the fires burning from the station’s destruction, and in the next it was joining that expanding field of wreckage. Its crew now hopefully passing through the gates of whatever hell these beings believed in, Achyuta Singh thought to himself.
“Dispatching rescue crews!” Captain Hinnamen called out immediately.
“Bottle up those feelings,” the admiral finally said as he looked away from the fading firing and the dispersing field of debris, “let them feed our resolve. We still have a long struggle ahead of us. Enough time to avenge those deaths.”
He knew he could not fault of his crew for their current state. Unlike him they were mostly new to death and the horrors of war. Some had witnessed battles before, but those had been mere scrimmages against groups of pirates and almost always handedly won. Having been born in a time of war and strife Achyuta seemed breed for a life of combat. Still in the midst of the horrible EnTech Crusades as a rambunctious youth he had volunteered for Naval service with the UPF. Excelling at the officer training academy somehow landed him a dream position with the infamous Rear Admiral Olivia Brolenkov. He served as a junior officer on the admiral’s staff and learned everything he possibly could from her about leading and commanding crews into battle. For some reason she had taken an interest in him, possibly seeing his true potential, and gave him increasingly more responsibility as time went by.
It was with her that Achyuta had first learned of the struggles and hardships of command. Together they weathered the darkest days of the Federation in their resistance against the ostensibly unstoppable forces of the Enlightened Technologists. The storm had been rough and he had watched many sailors and soldiers die in those days in defense of liberty and freedom. It grew harder as he himself became a commanding officer. Every death fell upon him. They were his responsibility. With Olivia’s guidance Achyuta learned how to deal with such things, but she had also taught him that each causality must never be forgotten. Such was the hardship of command.
Funny how time changes, but some things seem to stay the same, Admiral Singh thought to himself at that moment. It had actually been on an operation not too dissimilar from the one they had been assigned to now that he had met the love of his life. During the evacuation of the Plicatsia Colony the then Captain Singh stumbled upon this feisty, take life by the horns, woman that would soon after become his wife. She had turned into the de facto leader of the colony after placing their governor under arrest when he wanted to capitulate to the EnTech Inquisitor. Working together, under intensive assault, they managed to evacuate all of the civilians without much loss in life. Those days were long past, but Achyuta still reminisced about them with his wife every so often.
Once the hostilities had ended and peace one again reined, Singh had thought that perhaps he could finish his career and retire happily with his family without witnessing such needless death every again. Fate, it seems, had other plans for him and so now here he was once more, only a year from finishing his career, in the face of senseless killing and violence. Once again fighting not only for his beloved Federation, but for each and every men and women under his command. The feelings of grief and sorrow submerged themselves beneath the waves of his thoughts and instead turned to resolve against the new threat at hand.
“New graviton burst emission detected, Buoy Twenty-Two, Grid Two Two Nine,” Regela interrupted his thoughts all of the sudden right after Singh’s words of encourage. The Ship Management System instantly updated the battlefield map with this new possible contact. At the same time the battle group’s sensor arrays shifted to that region of space a search for enemy ships. “Commencing wide-area search.”
“Speak of the devil
,” Achyuta said under his breath and looked over at Captain Nicholas Hinnamen who took a pause from his coordination table to glance back at that exact moment.
“Detecting multiple new contacts on spectrographic array. Estimating five new vessels, ranging from frigate to heavy cruiser in size. Signatures match those transmitted by Athenia,” Regela informed not a minute later as the various sensors covered the area.
“Confirm detection of foreign hostiles,” Admiral Singh requested as he leaned forward slightly.
“Perhaps we got lucky,” Nickolas added from his position on the bridge while looking at the new tactile map that now showed five new sensor contacts surrounded in red. Between them and the Regal CBG lay only empty space. At the right most edge of this view, however, Knight Squadron and the Odessa could be seen moving to the outside of the battle zone, towards their assigned waypoint with the faster fighters ahead.
“Perhaps, but we proceed with caution,” Achyuta stated wearily, “continue full area sweeps for any new contacts.”
“Rescan complete, still detecting presence of five hostiles,” Regela confirmed before adding, “Vampire and Trident also report good launch taking up position and awaiting orders. All squadrons now deployed Admiral.”
Achyuta took a deep breath, knowing that the moment had finally come to a head. He activated the fleet-wide comms, “all hands, all hands, this is the Admiral. Prepare for contact with the enemy. This is what we have all been training for. Whoever these beings are and whatever motives they have for attacking us are no longer important. They have taken innocent lives and it has fallen upon us to seek justice for them and their families.”
With one last look around the bridge, Admiral Singh issued his new orders and felt the whole ship rumble softly beneath him as its powerful engines began to push it through space. Under Regela’s ever watchful guidance and coordination the entire three tiered formation accelerated forward into battle towards the oncoming enemy force. The forward deployed fighters and bombers took up screening positions at the same time. Achyuta saw these seven squadrons split into flights of two and spread out to cover a wider area of space well ahead of the battle group. Both Cyclone squadrons moved off even further to the very edge of the CBG’s perimeter and began to await the enemy fighter that the admiral knew were surely soon to come. In the meantime the bombers, comprising two full squadrons, hung back among the larger ships for protection while targets were designated for them to strike.
Con-Red: Recourse Page 54