by Charles Lamb
----*----
Brian was on the bridge as they came out of FTL. His weapons officer immediately alerted him to the presence of the two NeHaw destroyers and the transport. All were exactly where they were expected to be and none gave the slightest indication they planned on moving any time soon.
He ordered Independence to take a blocking position between the two forces and gave the green light for the destroyers to begin operations. As he watched his display, he saw the six destroyers converge on one of the two cities.
----*----
Jake was suited up and ready to roll in the cargo bay of D-1. With him were two squads of first platoon and two troopers from the 10th Cavalry. His was one of two destroyers intended to drop right at the city limits.
Their plan was fairly simple. Taking lessons from the Marine Raiders in the Second World War, they split their forces, but only on a single target. The Raiders tactics involved moving behind a larger force and attacking their unguarded rear while a larger main force distracted their approach.
In this case, D-1 and D-2 were to drop at the cities edge, drawing the Netite to them, while D-3 and D-4 continued past as if to continue to the secondary target. Once the Netite were engaged at the cities edge, D-3 and D-4 were to circle back and drop on the enemies exposed rear.
D-5 and D-6 were instructed to land and drop their heavy vehicles at the main forces edges, preventing any flanking by the Netite and placing the attacking forces in a crossfire from the vehicles big guns.
Jake had drilled his marines that this was not like any enemy they had ever faced. They really needed to fire from cover and maneuver. This enemy had weapons that breached armor. Besides wounds, lack of containment would kill, as the atmosphere wasn’t breathable.
As he watched, the hangar door dropped and the two 10th Calvary hover cycles were in the lead and the two squads lined up behind Jake. With a green light, both cycles launched, with Jake and the troops right behind.
They had planned for a short drop, receiving only occasional fire from the city limits. It was almost as if the Netite weren’t sure what was happening. As his troops hit the ground, they took up defensive positions. The destroyers were under orders to retreat to a staging position behind the drop.
With that, Jake gave the troopers above them the high sign and they did several high-speed passes, firing at any Netite target they found. That did the trick as a hail of fire erupted skyward.
The cycles took several hits, but none critical, as they retreated to the fallback position.
That was the signal for the four squads to open up on targets of opportunity at the city limits. In response, there was a second wall of fire, directed at Jake’s positions at the city edge. Firing from cover, his marines returned fire, their fire discipline a credit to their training.
“Jake, I can see the Netite are emerging from the city,” Jake heard Sara report from the Revenge combat control room.
“Tell me when they are firmly committed,” he replied.
As they continued to exchange fire, Jake had his troops retreat under fire, drawing the Netite farther from the cover of the city structures.
They were approaching the most dangerous part of the plan. As the Netite emerged from the city, more had a clear line of fire. Suddenly Jake heard the sound of the heavy guns opening up at the edges of the line. That meant the Netite had pressed far enough beyond the city to spread out.
“Jake, we should drop,” he heard Sara say.
“Go for the drop and then the destroyers,” Jake replied.
With the drop of the troops behind the Netite, the destroyers were to target the open space between Jake and the city limits. That put them between two forces and fire from above.
Suddenly Jake heard, “Crap, they dropped us too close, we are dropping in the middle of their rear!”
The destroyers had apparently closed too close to the rear of the Netite and now his Marines were in the thick of them.
“Sara, show me,” Jake commanded.
His display changed to the video from one of the destroyers. Below, his marines were in a hand-to-hand fight with the Netite. Firing in all directions, they were killing blue apes, who themselves were firing back. Some had rifles while others carried pistols in one hand, and long thick blades in the other.
As he watched, one marine took a blade across the stomach. It didn’t cut the suit, but sent the marine flying across the open area. Several more were hit by blaster fire, killing them instantly at such close range.
“Order an advance. I want destroyer cover fire now!” Jake ordered as he began an assault under fire, “Have the 10th cover those marines!”
He began leapfrogging his troops forward, having one group cover fire while the other advanced. With the addition of the destroyer fire from above, it was almost like following a line of artillery. As they advanced, they encountered stray Netite in small groups, separated from their main force. Each was cut down in place.
“Sara, status?” Jake asked as they continued their advance.
“The 10th is flying cover as the surviving squads retreat and regroup. The Netite are scattered, but there are still a couple hundred spread all over.”
Suddenly a huge explosion erupted between Jake’s marines and the Klinan city.
“Make that less than a hundred,” Sara corrected.
“Ok, let’s finish this,” Jake ordered.
As all the units converged, the last of the Netite battled on, no quarter asked or given.
----*----
Honan had watched the entire battle, horrified at the brutality displayed. While he was gratified his community was cleansed of the beastly Netite, he wasn’t so sure these humans were any more civilized. He couldn’t have been more wrong when he underestimated their ability to equal Netite brutality.
----*----
Jake had everyone gather at the edge of the city once the fighting was over.
“Sara, what’s the status of the other Netite force?” Jake asked.
“They have abandoned their location and are on their way to yours now. You have a few hours yet. We think the NeHaw are directing their actions from the destroyer, but other than that, they have given no indication of hostility.”
“Casualty report,” Jake asked, not wanting to hear the answer.
“One dead and two wounded on the first team, all the wounded are already in route to Revenge.”
“And,” Jake asked.
“Ten dead and three wounded from the second team,” she finished, the pain apparent in the tone of her voice.
They had lost an entire squad to a bad drop. Besides the mere fact of the loss of life, they had another force headed their way of equal strength and this time no surprise tactics to offset the superior numbers.
----*----
The NeHaw on LeSoc’s destroyer were not pleased. They had just witnessed the impossible. A force less than a tenth the size of the Netite had obliterated them. There had been one moment where the attacking troops dropped right in the middle of the Netite rear, creating quite a spectacular event. However, the leading elements halted that with a push from the front.
Again, LeSoc’s sensors started alerting as several more NeHaw ships appeared, entering the solar system. One was a battleship. LeSoc had never seen one before, they were almost ships of legend because they were so scarce. This should prove interesting, he thought.
----*----
Brian was supervising the unloading of the wounded when all hell broke loose. They had just offloaded the last marine when his ship started shuddering violently.
“Captain to the bridge, we are under attack,” someone sounded over the PA.
Racing to the ladder, he scrambled back onto the bridge as another round of blasts shook Revenge.
“Status,” Brian asked as he took the command chair.
“A NeHaw battleship, four cruisers and six destroyers just dropped out of faster than light. The battleship has opened fire, and both the Independence and D-1 are returnin
g fire with us,” his tactical officer replied.
“Damage report?”
“The stasis shield are holding for now, but we need to get away from the cross fire ASAP,” tactical replied.
“Get us some clear space,” Brian ordered the helm, “Tell Independence and the destroyers to do the same,” he ordered communications.
He then hit the comm. button and addressed Sara in the combat control room, “Sara, tell Jake we have a NeHaw problem up here right now. He may need to improvise for a bit as we might need his destroyers.”
----*----
For Jake that was the other shoe dropping. Of course, the NeHaw had set a trap. He had expected a show of force in some capacity, but a battleship was not in the mix. He had estimated that two cruisers and six destroyers would more than handle the ten or fifteen ships they might gather. This was a Hail Mary play on their part.
He now had to come up with a plan to overcome a force with a 20 to 1 advantage over him without his heavy hitters and no tactical support. Moreover, Brian had his one ace in the hole.
----*----
Continuing to take a pounding, Brian had Revenge and Independence reposition so they could better coordinate their firing. As one of the NeHaw destroyers crossed their path, they doubled up on it, a large ball of energy their reward as it exploded.
With several of their own destroyers back in space, he ordered them to draw the cruisers away while they continued to pick off the NeHaw. He reminded them to use their missiles on the cruisers, killing their shields. He then continued to maneuver the two cruisers around the end of the battleship, preventing it from presenting an entire broadside.
As they did so, the wayward NeHaw destroyer would present a target of opportunity. After the second exploded, the other four withdrew, leaving the battle to the two human cruisers and the battleship.
----*----
Jake had his troops move into the city, taking positions in the structures that allowed them to observe the oncoming Netite force from above. With only little over one hundred marines, he was pushing for every tactile advantage he could find.
Firing from above they had an opportunity to inflict serious damage on the approaching force at a distance. Would it be enough was the question? The last engagement had proven the only passive Netite was a dead one.
At this point, his one ace in the hole was the 10th. Once they engaged the Netite, they could circle behind and hit them where it hurt. Jake’s big concern there was they had taken a beating in the last battle, the shielding not quite as forgiving to blaster fire as it was to traditional projectiles.
Jake noted a couple of the “Odd Squad” had combat suit patches indicating possible breaches. Abby and Joe both assured Jake their troopers were good to go.
----*----
Brian was becoming concerned. They had eliminated three of the four cruisers and three destroyers, but at the cost of two of their own destroyers. Even with the stasis shields, if they were caught in a battleship broadside, they were toast. It overwhelmed the shields, causing them to collapse. By this time, Sara had joined him on the bridge, the combat command room abandoned as nonfunctional.
They had been using the shield busting missiles from Georgia, but while they worked great against the cruisers and destroyers, the battleship seemed to swallow them up.
This last trick was all he had left, “Launch the Rogers and the backups.”
Jake had managed to add two more fighters in the two destroyers with the vehicles. One each in the rear of the hangars, they were shielded under a stasis parking pad.
The six fighters broke into pairs of two, each fighter erupting in rail gunfire as they first passed the battleship and then the destroyers beyond. Two of the destroyers immediately exploded, apparently their captains killed in the passes.
A few seconds later, four of the fighters converged on the remaining cruiser, causing it to explode as well.
Just as Brian was starting to feel some relief, Independence exploded off the port bow, having drifted too far into the battleships line of fire. He felt like he was kicked in the gut at the thought of all those people he had known, gone in a flash. Sara’s face had gone white.
Just as quickly, the same ship vaporized one of the Jolly Rogers and a companion fighter. The battleship was killing them off, one by one.
----*----
The Netite advance was spread out over a wide line, not allowing themselves to be bunched up for easy pickings. Once they were in range, Jake gave the word to open fire. He watched an entire part of their advancing line drop. It was not enough. They continued, returning fire, causing the marines to retreat between shots.
Once they were close enough, Jake ordered the 10th in, they having gone wide earlier. As they made their pass, Jake saw two riders shot from their rides, the cycles crashing into the oncoming mass and killing more Netite. Jake had the feeling they were in big trouble.
----*----
Brian had the feeling he was in big trouble. He had the remaining fighters retreat, regrouping with the remaining two destroyers. Positioned in a Mexican standoff with the original three NeHaw ships, they all watched, as the battleship seemed to have it in for Revenge. Nothing the other ships had done dissuaded it from its pursuit.
Brian had swung Revenge to the edge of the Klinan solar system, attempting to bring the battleship nose on. If he could concentrate his fire at the tip of the ship, he might create a significant enough breach to disable it.
As the battleship closed, Brian ordered the last of the missiles and all guns to fire.
Miraculously, the battleship nose erupted in a huge ball of flashing energy. As Brian looked at Sara in disbelief, two Lanai patrol ships passed on either side of Revenge with a dozen fighters as escorts. Both ships had their rail guns streaming fire along the sides of the battleship.
From Revenge, they could make out pieces of the battleship coming apart from the streaming fire. With the patrol ships heavy plated steel hulls and stasis shields, the battleship guns had little effect. After completing their pass, the NeHaw ship broke in two, its innards spilling out into space.
The crew of Revenge watched as their own battleship slowly passed by, more fighters streaming from the hangar opening. None of the fighters had pilots.
“Where did they find a crew?” Brian asked Sara.
----*----
The Netite were literally at the city gates, the marines having cut the original force in half. They had continued to pick them off during their advance to the city. However when one dropped there was another to take its place. At this point, they still had almost a thousand to deal with, and all no more than one hundred feet away.
From the audio reports from his people, he was down to ninety marines and six troopers, although two of their cycles were down.
The Netite had halted their advance, in preparation for a final assault. Jake watched as they massed in groups aligned with the streets below, creating a situation where Jake was about to become surrounded. If the Netite flooded into those streets, they had nowhere else to go, as the rooftops were too far apart.
As he was hunkering down for their last stand, four fighters did a sweep from left to right, energy cannons blazing and decimating the oncoming force. Jake could see all of the cockpits were empty.
The marines all cheered as the Netite went down in flames from above.
Jake stood up from his rooftop position and asked, “ALICE-3, is that you?”
“Did you miss me?” was her reply.
----*----
HeBak sat in his ship at the edge of the human solar system, watching the spaceship traffic going in and out of the gravity well that contained his retirement. This had become a ritual, every decacycle, for the last few kilocycles. Since the disaster of the Battle of Klinan, as everyone was now calling it, he had been coming here to see how he might slip in unobserved and steal away with enough wealth to retire early.
Emissaries from worlds outside of Nu Tau Beta were flocking to this solar s
ystem, all requesting recognition and with desires to align with the humans. He hoped to find a way to slip in with a convoy and enter unchallenged. So far, he had no luck at all.
After the battle, things on the home world had gone from bad to worse. The High Council was searching high and low for an answer to the human problem. All HeBak’s efforts to misdirect them away from this planet fell through after the Klinan declared this barbaric race the saviors of the galaxy.
Worst of all, the devastating loss of the battleship and the Netite mercenary army crippled the NeHaw military effort. The battleship, one of only two remaining, was a huge loss. This was compounded by the fact that the Wawobash, whom were now renegade, originally built all three and was unavailable to build any more for the NeHaw, since they now built apparently unlimited quantities for the humans.
As for the mercenaries, while there were always more to be had, the invincibility factor was gone. Previously, should the Netite be invoked by the NeHaw, worlds would capitulate immediately. Now that the humans had wiped out their entire landing force, while outnumbered over 30 to 1. This proved they were not only beatable they, were completely outclassed by the human forces.
With no space traffic to speak of at the moment, HeBak zoomed his display, searching for the third planet from their star. Looking at the planet, once located, he instantly focused on the bizarre malformed ship in orbit there. He knew it from the images captured on Klinan as this was the human battleship. It lacked the smooth, curved lines of a proud NeHaw craft, giving it a crude, utilitarian appearance.
He had watched the video of the battle several times, displaying this same ship as it turned the fight, destroying the NeHaw fleet. He had seen as it then released smaller ships that destroyed the remaining Netite on the planet below.
HeBak still didn’t understand why the humans had let the two remaining destroyers leave orbit unmolested. It was their observations and recordings that had provided the High Council all the evidence they needed to declare war on the humans. He had heard it described as mercy, by other races, but the act was lost on him.