“Banking east now Alain. Let them have it” said Parinya.
Alain didn’t bother to reply. He let his pulse cannon make the acknowledgement. He targeted the nearest AFV. Whiskey 1 was now around 1000m from the northern end of Terminal 1 and heading east running along the right flank of the enemy assault. They started receiving automatic pulse fire from infantry down below but against their armour it was futile.
The first AFV exploded under a hail of shot. The second one began reversing but was picked off by Tango 3 once it came out of the defilade position it had been in. The burning AFVs silhouetted the infantry who went to ground trying to find whatever cover they could in the flat barren ground.
Fire was now pouring into them from the 2nd Droid Platoon along with the 3rd Marine Platoon. Parinya banked left after a kilometre leaving Whiskey 2 to repeat the treatment. Their gunner targeted the infantry.
“Whiskeys stand clear” hailed Lima Charlie 1.
“They’re all yours” hailed Whiskey 2 as it to banked north.
The next missile from Lima Charlie 1 scored a direct hit into the centre of mass of the enemy infantry. This was too much and those rogan warriors still able began routing back to the industrial buildings from which they had mounted the attack.
“Cease fire” ordered Argha.
The counter attack had been defeated.
Chapter 12. Assam 0300, 25 May
The adrenalin had left her by now. Rihan sat weary at a table in Terminal 1. After the counter attack had been defeated they had moved into the other two terminals unopposed. It had still taken time to sweep them clear.
She had decided not to defend the two western terminals. Rather she left two standing patrols on that side to provide early warning. Argha’s force and the 2nd Droid Pl she left in Terminal 2. The rest she held back in Terminal 1.
The Alliance General had been overjoyed with the result, especially the destruction of over a hundred rogan. Rihan had advised Kirkland that her troops needed rest before going on another offensive. They had agreed to postpone the final attack on the city centre till 1100 tomorrow morning.
Emilio had agreed to stand watch for the next 3 hours. Argha would relieve him at 0600. She was going to get some kip as soon as Felix got back with their supplies. He was due in any minute now and it couldn’t come soon enough.
She so wanted to talk to Dave but the Resolute was cloaked again and so she filed her report and transmitted it ending with the initials IMYD.
Chapter 13. Resolute 0302, 25 May
On board the Resolute, Aubrey advised a weary Dave that Rihan’s report was in. He read it in silence.
“What’s the IMYD mean?” asked Aubrey.
Dave chuckled “I miss you darling…I’m off to bed Aubrey, good night.”
Dave came out of one elevator as Kat and the other Lima Bravo pilots came out of the other. They looked as weary as he felt. He wished them good night and went straight to his cabin.
Kat went to her cabin and took a shower. She was dog tired but a promise was a promise. She grabbed Chase’s pass key and in her gown moved quietly across the corridor and into his room.
He was sound asleep. She placed her communicator on the desk, peeled off the gown and climbed in next to him. She had to nudge him over, cuddling into his back. Subconsciously Chase acknowledged her presence with a sigh before continuing his slumber.
She started to reflect on the last 24 hours but a start was all she managed. In a minute she was fast asleep.
Chapter 14. Resolute 0700, 25 May
Dave felt incredibly tired when the alarm went off but he knew he had only an hour before he would have to do battle. He washed his face and meditated, just for 15 minutes. He dressed and hurried to the mess for a quick breakfast of muesli and juice. He saw a tired Aubrey walk in after completing her tour of duty. He beckoned her to join him.
“Anything to report?”
“Not really” said Aubrey. “Oh Reina sent a signal to say that they should arrive at 1010.”
“OK good. You look done in Aubrey. You better get some sleep.”
“Rihan was right, you know how to pay a lady a compliment.”
Dave rolled his eyes. “Sorry Aubrey what I meant was…”
“Don’t worry about it. Now that my eyes have regained their focus you don’t look so fresh yourself.”
“Touché.” Dave spied Li also coming in for breakfast and he asked him to join them. He too grabbed the cereal and sat down. Aubrey excused herself and left for her cabin.
“So how do you reckon your young pilots went yesterday?” asked Dave.
“Pretty good. Phillips had a panic attack early on but he went back out. He’ll be OK. They’re all very tired.”
“Everyone is Li. Fatigue’s our enemy at the moment but there’s not much we can do about it right now. We have a battle to fight this morning. I’m going to ask you to stand them all up for this.”
“All of them?”
“Yes all of them.”
“OK I better waked up Bravo flight.” He hailed his op centre and ordered the duty Sgt to wake up Bravo flight.
Chase heard the call on Kat’s communicator. Only then did he realise she was next to him. She was out to it though, so he leaned over and answered it. The duty Sgt was non-plussed about the fact that he was speaking to a male voice. He simply said “Lt Holbrook needs to report for duty in 20 minutes”.
Chase patted her bare thighs. “Come on sleepy head. Call to arms.”
“Oh no!” she moaned.
Chase turned over to face her. He kissed her eyelids, which were definitely still shut. “You need to be on duty in 20.”
The eyelids immediately opened. “Oh shit!” she said. She gave Chase a peck and was about to extract herself when Chase held firm. She smiled and cuddled into him. She relished his arms around her. It felt so comforting. ‘He really is a nice man’ she thought.
“That’s enough for now Chase. I got to go.”
“Oh shit” said Chase. “So do I.”
Dave left the mess as officers were hurriedly grabbing some sustenance. He grabbed Chase as he was about to go in. “Too late Chase I need you in the command centre now.”
Chase darted over to the buffet and grabbed two dry weatbix. He munched on these with Dave as they rode the elevator up.
Ivan had the watch. He was conversing with Jasmin about the transmissions they would send once they de-cloaked. Crystal and Chad were in deep conversation. Dave took his seat as did Chase.
Dave checked through the ship status and reports. All was in order. He checked the time. “Ten minutes folks. Ivan you need to do a readiness check.”
“Right Sir” he replied and quickly finished off directing Jasmin. He then went through his checklist.
“Chase, Crystal, Chad” said Dave grabbing their attention “when this enemy group warps in we need to give priority to their cap, don’t worry about the frigates. I reckon they will be low on missiles anyway.”
“They’ll launch their fighters at us Sir, for sure” said Crystal.
“Yes they will if they still have any. We need to assume they do of course. So Chase we will use our fighters defensively to take on their fighters and to ward off incoming missiles. But their priority is the enemy fighters.”
“Understood Sir. I’ll convey that to Lima Control now.”
“Yes do that.”
“Now Crystal we only have 200 missiles left. More will be arriving with the shuttle at 1010.”
“What shuttle?”
“I ordered the Sydney and Washington to escort the heavy shuttle here. They are due in at 1010. Anyway until then we have to limit our engagements. No ground strikes unless I say so.”
“Roger that.”
Dave saw that Ivan had finished his checklist. “Ivan I was just saying we need to conserve our missile stocks till we get replenished at 1010. So if possible we should try to manoeuvre within beam range of the enemy cap.”
“OK Sir but that will depend a lo
t on how far they are or does time not matter?”
“No, time does matter. We need to wrap this battle up post haste. We don’t want the enemy overhead when our shuttle arrives.”
“Right Sir.”
It was 0840 when Dave yawned for the third time in as many minutes. Still no sign of the enemy. He started to wonder if in fact the enemy would arrive.
Chapter 15. IRS Kunter in warp 0915, 25 May
Admiral Soola was impatient. He was cursing the decision to warp to Alpha Phi. He’d made it on the spur of the moment over Klaster against Draag’s advice. He had hoped to catch the enemy’s transports or maybe some frigates but all he found was empty space overhead and he had to embarrassingly flee when the surface batteries began engaging them.
Now he was warping back to Beta Phi desperate to arrive there before the third wave. He knew that he no longer had any ships contesting the space over Beta Phi. The question was, would this pesky enemy cruiser stand and fight.
The report he read over Alpha Phi from his ground forces made sombre news, although the latest defection had cheered him. ‘The third wave would rectify things’ he thought. He drooled at the thought of the twenty assault transports replete with 15,000 troops – the Ikeria Legion – not to mention their escort. He had sent the two caps and two frigates back to Chelora after the initial assault to escort this important asset. But he needed to either get there before they arrived or at the very least at the same time. The trouble was that warping through the great Dordallous Cloud was always a problematic undertaking as far as predicting the duration was concerned. They could be arriving at any time now.
So Soola willed his ships to warp faster. He knew it was a forlorn exercise but something primal was urging him to do so. He gripped the surface in front of him with his left hand, tensing his thumb and three fingers.
Felis stood by his station. Not for the first time this week he felt depressed. He chastised himself for not standing up more to his commander. The Klaster diversion was a serious mistake. ‘Soola has lost his touch’ he thought to himself. ‘Will that mean my destruction?’
Chapter 16. Resolute 0920, 25 May
“Enemy cap warping in. Make that two” said Crystal “and two frigates.”
“Holy shit” said Chad “Transports…lots…twenty huge transports.”
“Cloak holding?” asked Ivan.
“Affirmative” responded Jasmin.
“Range to nearest cap?”
“36,000” responded Crystal. “48,000 to the furthest one” she added in anticipation.
Ivan studied the holo. One enemy cap was on this side of the transports while the other was on the far side. One frigate was above the mass of transports and the other below relative to the Resolute’s current position above the planet.
Ivan looked at the timer to the arrival of their own transport. There was just 50 minutes. Not enough time to make two beaming runs across that distance. Ivan looked up at Dave who was watching him closely. He returned his focus knowing that his commander would expect him to come up with an option first.
He was doing the math in terms of missiles – 75 for each cap seemed to be the going rate for a kill provided you were within a few minutes flight time, which the furthest one wasn’t. That would leave him just 50 for the two frigates and then there was twenty fat transports.
“Ivan?” asked Dave.
“I can’t see how we can destroy all of them, given the distance and the missile stocks. Clearly the caps and the transport are the top priorities but we will have to rely on our fighters to ward off the enemy missiles and I can’t see how they can do this with the limited supply of missiles they have.”
“What have you got for us Chase?”
“Ivan’s right Sir. I do have a solution but you’re not going to like it.”
“Nukes?”
“Yes Sir.”
“Four enemy fighters launched…looks like CAP” said Chad.
“Which one is the Kunter?” asked Dave.
“Neither” said Jasmin. “None of these ships were here yesterday morning.”
“So these are a separate, new force.”
“Soola may arrive soon” said Ivan. “It’s always hard to coordinate warps.”
“Alright nukes it is. Jasmin stand by to transmit a warning to the Alliance and our forces that we will be employing nukes.”
“Right Sir.”
“How many nuke warheads do we have?”
“Twenty four Sir” replied Chad.
“Retain 40 missiles and 8 nuke warheads in reserve. Commit 40 at each cap, 20 at each frigate and 2 at each transport. Mix the nukes on a 1 in 10 pro rata.”
“WILCO” said Crystal. She let Chad do the transports while she focussed on the warships.
“Chase, advise Li we are using nukes. No fighter ops unless I authorise.”
“Roger.”
“Jasmin, once our missiles are away initiate cloaking and activate when online.”
“Sir.”
“Ivan, have James put as much distance between us and the blast area but I still want to be able to see Assam.”
“Got it.”
His team came back with the ‘readies’. “Engage” he commanded.
“Missiles away.”
“Decloaking…transmission sent…reinitialising cloak.”
“Hang on” hailed James from the cockpit. He engaged full thrusters and powered the big ship spaceward. The glare from the morning sun shone in his eyes, so he lowered his visor and held to a true course under full power. It wasn’t like the last time he had done this. Then it had been exhilarating. Now he was petrified. His display showed the missile tracks that were targeting them. He knew they had only 40 missiles in reserve.
Crystal kept up the running commentary on the number of missiles fired by the enemy, how most were defensive going for the spread that they had sent out but that there were two groups of forty, one from each enemy cap headed there way. Chad chimed in to advise that the enemy transports were now racing for the surface.
But it was the big nuclear explosions that everyone was waiting for. They were not disappointed. Of the 16 warhead 5 exploded. James was the only one witness the blinding flash albeit indirectly as he was heading away from the explosions.
But it wasn’t the flash he was worried about. He tensed for what he knew would surely follow. The first electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) wave overtook the speeding warship. Somehow the shields still held. The second shock wave hit a few seconds later.
“Shields below critical” called out Chad. “Shunting all non-essential power to shields.” The lighting dimmed in the control centre.
The third wave was immediately followed by the fourth and fifth. The rear shields failed on the fifth. Red alerts flashed on the main screen indicating that the two of the four impulse engines had failed. But they really didn’t need the alert to know that they had lost power. The ship slowed dramatically.
On James’ screen in the cockpit he saw the power indicators flicker for the two remaining impulse engines. “No, no, no, not now” he cajoled as he eased off the throttle, slowing the craft further.
“Impulse engines 3 and 4 offline. Heat build-up in E27” cried out Crystal.
“Damage control to E27” ordered Chad.
Chapter 17. Assam 0930, 25 May
Down on the planet many saw the flashes but many more were running to shelters as sirens blazed away. Sue led the evacuation of the marines at the spaceport in Niku. It was a tight fit but somehow they squeezed into the space below the old battery.
It was chaos in Assam. The rogan defenders holed up in the centre of the city had nowhere to go other than the basements of the high rise building. Civilians ran to the old shelters, found most of them locked and fled in panic to whatever basement they could find.
Rihan and her force were unprepared. Her reaction was to order the force to the only basement she knew of - the one under Terminal 2. As they ran across the apron helter skelter she recalled her own f
light on Klaster a year ago. Somewhere deep in her mind she could hear that bloody klaxon again. She started to panic even though she knew it was just her mind playing on her. Then she remembered the mantra and began chanting it out loud to drown out the noise within.
By the time she made the terminal entrance she had managed to regain control of her anxiety. She was still saying the mantra but silently to herself now. Argha met her and directed her down the stairs as the rest followed.
She was still repeating it inside the basement as she sat on the floor against the inner wall. She suddenly realised that there were all these frightened faces in the room with her. All were trying to cope with their fear. Even the normally irrepressible Emilio who was sitting opposite her looked incredibly stressed. Their eyes met and she smiled at him. He managed to smile back. They continued to look at each other for what seemed a long time but which was only a second or two. Each was then content to look elsewhere.
In that moment Rihan felt calm. Amongst all this commotion, all this panic and fear she felt … peace. She realised then that this beautiful state was there all the time. It was her true self. It was her fear that kept robbing her of this state. She closed her eyes and just revelled in this sublime feeling of contentment.
A couple of minutes later she asked herself ‘What just happened then?’ She wasn’t quite sure. ‘I need to contemplate this more. Yes that’s what Dave would say’ and she smiled.
Across town Art followed the crowd down to the lower reaches under the Alliance HQ. He had no idea there were five floors underground and the last three were behind blast doors. But he sat crammed into a room fearful for Sue. He didn’t even think about himself. He silently reaffirmed his love and hoped she would survive.
Chapter 18. Resolute 0930, 25 May
“Scratch Bogey 1 (the nearest cap), Bogey 3 and 4 (the frigates). I think we missed Bogey 2 (the furthest cap)” advised Crystal.
Insurrection: Book 3 of Warner's World Page 33