“Yes Maam.”
Chapter 8. Lima Bravo 2 over Beta Phi 0020, 25 Mar
Kat entered the rack, already cloaked and following Rose. Rose went around once as agreed and handed over to Kat to lead the others. Rose then banked away and powered on to the release point, where she fired off the two probes.
Immediately Rose registered the enemy’s active radar and within a few seconds her AI was alerting her to two incoming missiles. She re initiated the cloak but it would take a few minutes before activating. She powered spaceward away from the rack. She engaged her defensive targeting system. It ID’d both missiles and paired off a response of two missiles for each one of the enemy’s. She fired as soon as she had the green light. She then turned sharply powering out of the atmosphere and into space.
Her eyes were now locked onto the screen. The two enemy missiles and her four were now activating their counter measures and avoidance profiles. It took no more than twenty seconds to resolve the engagement with both enemy missiles destroyed.
Now Rose had only two missiles and she would need these for her defensive reserve. She changed course back to the rack position trying to make out the other fighters. It was very difficult. According to her system she was right there but her visual scanners had not picked them up. She checked the time and knew she couldn’t muck around any longer.
“Kat I’m empty bar two. Take them in. I’ll stay here.” Immediately the enemy fired another two missiles her way.
Kat realised that Rose had just sacrificed her own security but also knew that they had to proceed under cloak to get within range and launch their strike. She was in a dilemma. ‘Do I support Rose or go in?’
“Lima Bravo proceed with the strike” hailed Li “We’ll protect Lima Bravo 1.” In making the transmission he had brought the Resolute out of cloak. He wouldn’t have done so lightly. Li hailed the command centre “Intercept required against missiles targeting LB1.”
“Roger that” said Chad “Missiles away.” Four missiles were fired from the Resolute.
Kat throttled up to near max power heading for the release point. She checked her visual scanners and confirmed that Juko was right behind her. She was heading straight for the brightest spot on the dark surface known as Assam. She was momentarily transfixed at the beauty before her. The lights of the other cities combined to make a spider’s web of light that criss-crossed the planet’s surface. She nearly missed the green alert. ‘Shit’ she said to herself and fired her six missiles towards the object of beauty she had been admiring.
She banked hard and using the retros in combination with the thrusters, she performed a hard turn. The G’s were immense and she almost felt crushed as she powered away. The red alert light fired and she saw a stream of missiles on the display launched from below.
Juko and Sammy followed suit. They were enduring the same punishment of gravity and seeing the same threat.
“Lima Bravo, fire your defensive missiles” commanded Li. His voice pulled Kat out of her focus on dealing with the physical pain. Her eyes saw the defensive AI was just waiting for her to commit. She pressed the fire button, felt the shudder and then initiated cloak again.
Juko and Sammy did likewise. There six missiles were charging to engage the enemy missiles. But they were outnumbered two to one. Rose fired off her remaining two missiles but knew that these would not be enough.
“We need help” she hailed Resolute. “Twelve incomings. Intercept required” she reported more formally.
“Help’s on the way” hailed Li.
Chad launched another ten missiles to protect the fighters. He also followed up with another ten directed at the now detected enemy battery.
The enemy battery was in imminent peril. It had fired off its last supply of missiles. The rogan commander ordered his troops to abandon the site. They were running as hard as they could for the nearby industrial building south of the spaceport. Only three made it. The ground rocked with the explosions from 28 missiles. The nearby building including the one the three survivors had run into began to collapse under the combined shock wave. Everything for a radius of 1500m was affected with most being levelled flat.
An old apartment block along Brooker St was unlucky enough to be just within the perimeter. There was chaos all around. The top ten stories fell to the ground. Most of the residences had fled but there were still dozens who hadn’t and the lucky ones were scrambling out of the wreckage and fleeing south away from the spaceport.
Rose gathered up her pilots and led them back to the Resolute. The battery was declared destroyed and the signal sent to commence the next phase of the attack.
Kat climbed out of her lightning into the hangar on F deck. She looked a little harrowed from her experience. There was certainly no high. She looked around at Rose as she took off her helmet. She could see the strain on her face too.
Li Nahn was there to meet them. As soon as all four were on the deck he asked them to follow him into the briefing room. He went through the routine in short order. He emphasised the need to stay focussed on the prime objective and to remember that while cloaked they had support from the Resolute. He then concluded by saying “I need you for CAP in one hour.” He knew that would not go down too well and his assessment was confirmed by the expressions on the faces in front of him.
It was a tired and subdued Kat that met Chase for a coffee up in the officer’s mess. He was off duty and had his hopes of some quality down time dashed when Kat informed him of her next mission.
“Oh blast” he said. “That’s a bit gruelling isn’t it.”
“Yeah it is” acknowledged Kat “but hey we got away pretty easy up until now.”
“So how did it go?”
Kat told Chase everything, grateful for the opportunity to debrief to a friendly face. It wasn’t so much about the actions but how she experienced them, how she felt. Somehow it helped to share these. She did most of the talking and soon her alarm went off.
“Oh really?” she asked incredulously. “I have to go Chase.”
He walked her to the elevator and kissed her on the forehead as her beautiful eyes were looking up at him. She leaned close to his ear and whispered “I promise I won’t talk when I get back. I’ll let myself in.”
She left Chase with a big smile on his face.
Chapter 9. Assam 0040, 25 May
Lima Charlie, forgoing the need for cloaking, began a series of rolling strikes at the spaceport flying in at low speed and relatively low altitude, though careful to be above the range of any short ranged air defence systems. With the data feed from the earlier probes they went hunting for the AFVs identified around the spaceport.
Rihan committed the droid pods and Whisky 1 and 2 to conduct the assault. “Felix, the battery’s been destroyed and we’ve launched the ground assault. I want you airborne asap. As soon as they have secured Terminal 1, I’ll give you the green light to insert.”
“Roger Maam.”
Whisky 1 was once more in the van. Parinya headed north flying the warthog nap of the earth she skirted the city. She was flying over the tops of farms and open scrubland. When she crossed the big Mekahn river she turned west and headed for the spaceport. She couldn’t help notice the fires raging to its south.
Lima Charlie was cab ranking its fighters with one fighter making a pass at the spaceport every few minutes. It would select a target, fire one missile at it, bank and return to the rank. In this way there was a constant stream of fighter attacks.
Parinya had no chance of seeing the fighters. They were too high and too fast. But she could see the effects. She saw one missile strike Terminal 1 where they were heading. Another struck at a big hangar north of Terminal 1 and another south near the end of the runway.
She could see Terminal 1 ablaze now. It was located to the north and on the eastern side of the north south runway. The spaceport was arranged with four terminal, two on each side of the runway. Terminal 2 was also on the eastern side of the runway at the southern end. Termin
al 3 and 4 were on the western side, with Terminal 3 to the north.
“Ready Alain?” hailed Parinya.
“Sure am” said Alain. He had his 30mm pulse cannon trained on Terminal 1. They were four K out. He could see the burning wreck of one AFV but otherwise still could not identify a target. He decided to turn off the thermals because of the brightness from the fires.
Parinya too had turned off her thermals. She could see quite clearly now except for on the northern side of terminal 1 which was not illuminated by the fires. Agha was standing up now looking out the cockpit. He pointed to the pad on the eastern side of Terminal 1. It looked clear. Parinya focussed her full spectrum scanner on it and it came up clear. “OK that will do” she said to him.
“Lima Charlie this is Whiskey 1 we are designating the LZ as the pad east of Terminal 1. We’d appreciate you not shooting at us.”
“WILCO Whiskey 1, we’ll shift our bomb line southwest 500.”
“Thank you.” She then hailed the rest of her flight and gave instructions for the LZ.
With Whisky 1 and 2 hovering at less than 100m altitude ready to provide covering fire, the four droid pods went in. They started taking small arms fire from the eastern end of Terminal 1. This was met with the railing of the pulse cannons from Whiskey 1 and 2. The enemy fire stopped almost immediately.
The droids of Charley Coy disgorged from their pods and formed up into teams. Emilio’s command mech could be seen walking amongst the droids. He issued orders for the 1st Pl to clear Terminal 1 from the east while 2nd Pl flanked north to clear the area and then to enter the terminal from the northern entrance that was some 300m from the eastern edge. 3rd Platoon provided a base of fire and could be committed as a reserve if need be.
Emilio left the platoon mechs to fight their own battles. He found it far too difficult to micro manage. He positioned himself with 3rd Pl and monitored progress focussing on the assault droids from 1st Pl.
He could see that there were still rogan defenders inside. But they were no match for the droids firepower. Bright electric discharge could be seen flashing on and off in staccato fashion as the droids overran the enemy within the terminal rezzing them as they went.
The rogan defenders broke and ran westward within the terminal down the two main corridors. The group in the northernmost corridor ran into the 2nd Droid Pl and were wiped out.
The group in the southern corridor were pursued by pulse fire and the distinct sound of metal on hard surfaces. They were aiming for the intersection that lay about 100m ahead where they could head south and escape the pulse fire. More of their comrades dropped and finally the rogan warriors routed. Their commanders were no longer able to control the headlong rush to escape the metal monsters.
Individuals tried to escape by diving into the rooms that accessed the corridor. But these were easily destroyed. A small number fired at the glass window in the gate lounge and jumped out onto the landing pad. They were cut down by 3rd Pl. Only a handful made the turn south and they were soon confronted with the fire that was consuming all things combustible in that wing of the terminal. They too tried to escape back out into the open only to be cut down by Alain’s pulse fire.
It was a brutal and ruthless assault. It was all over in fifteen minutes. Forty three rogan were dead, three droids destroyed and two damaged. Not one human lost their life.
“Terminal One is clear” hailed Emilio.
“Well done Chief” responded Rihan. “Make sure you secure the area with at least one platoon. Hotel 1 and 2 will arrive shortly.”
“Roger.”
Felix brought in his two hippos in amongst the smoke that now hung over the area. Emilio used 3 Pl to secure the area, 1 Pl to fight the fire and 2nd Pl he committed to a Probe into Terminal 2. They met only desultory long range fire which stopped once the droids got to within 200m of the building. The two warthogs provided supporting fire and as soon as the droids reported back that the northern end was secure they dropped off Argha and his marines. Parinya then led Whiskey 2 back to pick up Rihan and the remaining marines.
Chapter 10. Resolute 0100, 25 May
Dave was supposed to be in bed but he couldn’t sleep not with Rihan down there and the assault underway. Aubrey had the watch. She had just relieved John. One of the first things she noticed was the missile stocks both for the Torads used by the Resolute and the Javelins by the Lightnings.
“Excuse me Sir” she said interrupting Dave’s focus. He raised his eyes up from his station. “Check out our missile usage and current stocks. We’re at 60% for the Torads and 50% for the Javelins.”
“Mmm…” replied Dave. “When’s the next shuttle get into Alpha Phi?”
Aubrey was about say the same time as today but remembered that that one had come from Klaster. This next one was coming direct from Polaris. She queried her station and then replied “In four hours.”
“We can’t leave now Aubrey.”
“No but we could have them warp here. They could be here by 0930 allowing for a little leeway.”
“But we don’t know how things will stand then. Most likely we’ll have an enemy cap and two frigates to deal with before that and there’s talk of more rogan reinforcements arriving who knows when and with what.”
“All the more reason to make sure we are fully armed. Let’s assume we take out this enemy force at 0800. We’ll probably go through 150 of our remaining 200 missiles. Any subsequent encounter and we’ll be toast.”
“All right order Reina and Herb to escort the shuttle here.”
Chapter 11. Assam 0130, 25 May
Rihan was approaching the LZ in Whiskey 1 as Argha reported the capture of Terminal 2. Meg Kenau in Tango 3 was in overwatch at the southern edge of Terminal 1. Sully Mulldoon in Tango 4 was moving at speed to Terminal 2. He came under fire from two AFVs to the south east. Their beam weapons perilously close. Sully’s driver instinctively veered to take cover behind the western side of the Terminal. Meg’s big pulse cannon barked at the source of the beam on her left. It stopped. She engaged the one to the right and it too stopped.
At over two clicks, the enemy AFVs were outranged. Meg was effectively in standoff being able to fire at them without them being able to effectively fire at her. Both her and Sully were trying to give a contact report at the same time.
“Stop Sully” hailed Meg in an authoritative tone. Sully heeded and Meg continued. “There must be fifty or more enemy soldiers advancing from the SE range 1900m. Request immediate support.”
Argha responded “Deploying to face now. Chief can you order the 2nd Pl to change facing and engage this threat.”
“WILCO.”
“Lima Charlie, enemy infantry assaulting from SE 1900m towards Terminal 2. Engage.”
“Parinya don’t put us down just yet. Bank left and engage that enemy attack.”
“Not a good idea Maam. Better to bank right and wait for Lima Charlie to unload.”
“OK do it.”
“Argha” Rihan hailed.
“Maam” replied Argha. The noise of intense firing came crackling through the comms channel.
“Once Lima Charlie unloads, we’ll fly past with the Whiskeys and strafe them from the north.”
“OK but that won’t happen for what…four minutes.” Argha then hailed Emilio “Chief can we have some fire support from those support droids of yours?”
“Sure…OK I see your target. Coming in.”
The two support droids just north of Terminal 1 each fired two missiles. They went almost straight up and straight back down as the range was just 2 km. Argha wasn’t even sure of the effective blast range of the droid missiles let alone how accurate they were so he had conservatively set the target loc further back – midway between the enemy front line and the industrial building they had come from.
The missiles came in pairs. The first two were obviously too far back.
“Drop 300” advised Argha.
“Roger dropping 300.”
The second pair landed ab
out as close as Argha would have liked. He instinctively ducked down. The gate lounge he was in was lit up by the explosion and it was a good 1500m away. He poked his head back up over the window sill. The low scrub over the otherwise barren ground was alight and he could see bodies lying about. The enemy was yet to recover from the strike.
“Another salvo?” asked Emilio.
“Negative” interjected Rihan “Limas on final run.”
Sully ordered his driver to turn and head back so they could get into the firefight but then he had second thoughts and asked him to turn back and instead head south using the Terminal as a shield. He came to the end of Terminal 2 as Lima Charlie delivered its first missile into the assaulting force.
His driver edged out until his gunner said stop. He had a bead on one of the enemy AFVs. It had stopped and let the enemy infantry that it had previously led press on past it. The gunner fired but missed. He fired again but the enemy AFV had reversed fast in the interim.
The second AFV now fired its beam and it struck Tango 4. With his head out of the turret, Sully was blinded and collapsed back into the turret. Sully’s driver reversed at full power. Sully was screaming in agony. His gunner grabbed him and in the subdued lighting inside the turret he tried to pull Sully’s arms away from his face but couldn’t. The driver was screaming about an enemy AFV. The gunner let go of Sully and looked though the sights but it was too late the beams from two enemy AFVs superheated the armour plate, penetrating and burning all oxygen within the vehicle not to mention all flesh.
“Maam” hailed Meg over the sound of her quanto guns suppressing the enemy infantry “I can’t raise Tango 4.”
“Don’t worry just keep engaging the enemy. We’re coming.”
Parinya with Whiskey 2 in behind her had done a full circle anticlockwise and was now heading south towards the spaceport. She could see the enemy AFVs firing their beams and even make out the many figures now only 1200m from Terminal 2. Despite the missile attack they were still coming in rushes.
Insurrection: Book 3 of Warner's World Page 32