13
The Battle of Shini
Threebeard looked up in the sky and gasped. Hundreds of fighters were overhead getting ready to unload their bombs on the Loyalist forces. It was routine strategy to soften up your opponent before you sent in the hovertanks and infantry, but this was unreal. Threebeard hadn’t ever seen or even read about such an intense aerial attack. Fortunately, most of the Loyalist forces were not where the enemy thought they were. They had been carefully moved to each flank in anticipation of the hovertanks’ invincibility. Now Threebeard was doubly glad he’d chosen that strategy. Had his troops been on the front lines most would have perished in the first few minutes of the assault.
After several kyloons the hovertanks began to move. They met only token resistance and blasted across the Rini River without breaking stride. When the infantry finally made it across the river the hovertanks were twenty kylods ahead of them. TGA command didn’t seem surprised by the lack of resistance or, if they were, they didn’t make any adjustments to their battle plan. The hovertanks just kept on blasting away at anything that moved, keeping up their breakneck speed.
As the TGA infantry began to thin out, the main Loyalist forces attacked from both flanks. The infantry seemed stunned by this development and kept looking ahead expecting the hovertanks to come and protect them. They’d marched hundreds of miles, fought two major battles and were tired and confused by the civil war that had broken out. Morale was low because they’d seen unprecedented death and destruction at the hands of the hovertanks and because most of them had pledged an oath to defend the Supreme Mandate and yet they knew their new leader would soon renounce it.
The TGA’s front line was hammered and pushed into a rectangular mass of infantry. They were getting crushed together by the unexpected attack from the highly motivated Loyalist forces. Although outfought and sustaining high casualties because of their superior numbers, they were finally able to dig in and stop the Loyalist advance. For almost two kyloons both sides fought hand to hand at great cost in blood and toil. Although the TGA controlled the skies their fighters couldn’t help them much due to the close proximity of two armies.
Finally the TGA command realized what had happened and recalled their hovertanks. They turned and moved swiftly toward the rear of the Loyalist divisions. General Zitor watched the battle on a big screen from his command post. He turned to Threebeard. “They’re going to slaughter our divisions. I warned you this would happen.”
“It would have already happened had we not moved our troops to the flanks. At least we have inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy.”
“But isn’t there anything we can do? I can’t bear to see our soldiers ripped apart by the hovertanks.”
“Pray to God for a miracle,” Threebeard said softly.
A yellow spot started to blink on the screen. General Zitor squinted at it, seeming confused. “What’s that?”
Threebeard smiled. “I believe your prayers have been answered, General.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Yellow flashes are Loyalist fighters,” Threebeard explained. Several more yellow lights began to flash. “It’s the 1st Airborne! They’ve come.”
“What are you talking about? The 1st Airborne was destroyed at Rini.”
“It’s been resurrected—the Liberator has come through again.”
General Zitor looked incredulously at Threebeard. “Even so, we know fighters can’t stop hovertanks. All they’ll be able to do is slow them down.”
“I wouldn’t bet on that. Remember the hovertanks that were destroyed at Rini?”
“I saw that report but it didn’t explain how it was done.”
Threebeard looked up at the screen again. Hundreds of yellow lights were now blinking. “Three Loyalist fighters destroyed fifteen hovertanks. I wonder what a thousand will do.”
While Threebeard and General Zitor were watching the battle from their command station, Tam, Red and John were leading the 1st Airborne into battle. They’d hastily broken up the division into ten wings each with five squadrons of approximately 20-25 fighters. Three wings were offensive and would be attacking hovertanks. Two were defensive and charged with the responsibility of engaging any enemy aircraft that tried to interfere with the attacks on the hovertanks. As they approached the front line they were met by a dozen TGA fighters.
“R2 to 4th Wing Commander.”
“W4 here.”
“Take care of our welcoming party, would you?”
“Yes, sir.”
Twenty-one planes peeled off and headed for the enemy craft. The others began dividing up and heading for their positions along the front line. The hovertanks were just starting to return when the assault began. From the deck of their command post, General Zitor and Threebeard watched the fierce battle raging over the plains of Rigimol. They screamed with joy when the first hovertank exploded. They sighed with anguish when a Loyalist fighter was hit and fell helplessly out of the sky.
It was difficult to determine how the battle was going but one thing was clear: both sides were inflicting serious damage to the other. General Zitor counted forty-four hovertanks destroyed and Threebeard advised he’d seen eighty-one Loyalist fighters shot down and an equal number of TGA fighters taken out. Reports from the infantry divisions were similar. In nearly three kyloons neither side had gained any territory, but both had suffered incredible losses. The battle seemed to be a stalemate.
“What should we do, General?” Threebeard asked. “Do we continue the battle until every last soldier on the battlefield is dead?”
“What choice do we have? We can’t stop fighting. They’ll run all over us.”
“True, but our soldiers need a rest. They can’t sustain this level of battle much longer. I’m sure the TGA soldiers are just as weary. If there is one thing that is clear, this battle will not be decided today.”
“So, what do you propose?”
“It’s getting late. The sun will be setting soon. Order a cease-fire and see if the enemy will let us rest for the night.”
“All right. I’ll contact our division commanders and so order.”
The Loyalist rifles became quiet but the TGA continued to fight until they realized they were not getting return fire. Their officers apparently understood the gesture and welcomed it as the battlefield grew quiet and darkness enveloped them. It was a victory of sorts for the Loyalists as the TGA had expected to run over them and by this hour be fifty kylods into Rigimol.
As darkness approached, the 1st Airborne Division withdrew to their new Doral Mountain base. By their count they’d destroyed over eight hundred hovertanks but had lost nearly three hundred fighters. If you add in the destruction of twenty-one battleships, two cruisers and fifty other naval vessels it wasn’t a bad day for the Loyalists. Of course, nobody knew what the body count was on the ground. Thousands had died although not nearly as many as expected. Threebeard’s strategy had been brilliant and with Commander General Leek Lanzia’s daring theft of nearly twelve hundred TGA fighters, the momentum in the Tarizon Civil War had once again shifted.
Videl Lai answered his GC with great anticipation. A report was due from General Bratfort on the latest offensive against the regular Loyalist Army. He had expected good news.
“Chancellor. I’m sorry to report that our advance has stalled.”
“What! How could that be? You should be half way to Shini by now.”
“I know. We were surprised by an unusually strong Loyalist air force.”
“What air force. All but a few of their fighters were destroyed.”
“That’s what our intelligence had reported, but they either stole some of our planes or somehow got a lot of our pilots to defect. All I can tell you is that over a thousand planes came after us and destroyed over eight hundred hovertanks.”
“Eight hundr
ed?” Videl gasped. “How is that possible? Didn’t you get those anti-aircraft batteries moved to up the front lines.”
“We ordered them but we didn’t rush it since it was thought there were no planes to worry about.”
“Where did these fighters come from? I’m going to have the head of the person responsible for this disaster!”
“I’ve been told they came from the Gallion. The Loyalist attacked the base this morning and took control of it. I’m told the entire fleet of ships there have been destroyed.”
Videl was so angry his arms began to shake and he could hardly breathe. “This is unacceptable! We cannot let these Loyalists scutz delay us another day. I want you to get those anti-aircraft batteries up there and push General Zitor and his troops so hard they have no choice but to surrender.”
“Yes, sir. Do I have your permission to use our new weaponry. The morale of the Loyalists is very high and we need something to dampen it.”
“Yes. That’s a good idea. I’ll make sure they know it’s coming so they’ll have something to think about.”
“Very good, sir.”
Videl Lai slammed down his GC. “Get me Admiral Brunns on the line!” Videl screamed.
Admiral Rugge Brunns was a short grey-haired man with a stern demeanor. He’d been an officer in the TGA for over forty cycles and had been in charge of the Tarizon Repopulation Project for the last ten cycles before the war broke out. He sided with Videl Lai when he made his play for power because he shared Videl Lai’s hatred for nonhuman life-forms.
During the Nanomite War he’d seen his platoon silently smothered to death while they slept. He himself had been sealed in a crystal tomb and only survived because he was paranoid enough to sleep with a gun at his side at all times. When he awoke, struggling to breathe, he unloaded his gun breaking the seal on his crystal tomb. The eight small bullet holes allowed enough air in for him to breathe until a rescue party finally arrived to free him.
His aide advised the Chancellor that Admiral Brunns was on the line.
“Admiral, what’s this I hear about an attack on your base?”
“Yes, they took control of it this morning, but we have it back under control now.”
“How did this happen?”
“Ah. Well. . . . While we were busy getting fighters to the front line they somehow penetrated our security and took over the tower. At about the same time a contingent of seafolken, who had somehow penetrated our sea defenses, placed explosives on all of the ships. They were aided by seafolken slaves on the ships and mutants employed on the base. We had no warning before ships began to explode.”
“How could you let something like this happen? Do you know what those planes they stole did to our hovertanks? We lost over eight hundred of them because of your incompetence!”
“Mr. Chancellor. How can I secure the base when my own sailors mutiny and hundreds of our pilots defect? And how am I to defend against the nanomites who I can’t even see? This was not my fault. I have warned central command that we shouldn’t have seafolken on our ships and mutants working on our bases. It’s pure insanity.”
“You’re right about that. Have all the mutants and seafolken still on base shot for treason and fumigate every building on the base so we won’t have any more problems with nanomites. I’ll issue similar orders for all our military installations.”
“Yes, sir.”
“In the meantime, you are relieved of your command. You let me down, vice-admiral and I’m extremely disappointed.”
“Vice-admiral?”
“Yes. You’re lucky I don’t demote you to captain. You’re a disgrace!”
Videl slammed down the phone again and stood up. At that moment Lt. Muri walked in. She noticed his angry face. “Bad news?”
“Incompetence! Utter and complete incompetence!”
“You mean General Bratfort?”
“No. No. Admiral Brunns. The dirkbird allowed the Loyalists to steal over a thousand planes and wreck havoc with our Rigimol offensive.”
“That’s hard to believe,” Lt. Muri said. “I can’t imagine them even trying such a thing.”
“No military man in his right mind would have tried it. It was Leek Lanzia, I’m sure. He’s the only one ignorant enough to do something so bold. He’s been lucky so far but his luck is about to run out.”
Lt. Muri looked at Videl worriedly. “Why? What are you planning to do?”
“Two things. First, his little darling is going to Pritzka Prison where traitors belong and as soon as the baby is born I’m taking it away from her. Then I’m going to make the soldiers of the Loyalist Army wish they hadn’t been born.”
Lt. Muri gave him a puzzled look.”
“How are you going to do that?”
Videl smiled wickedly.
Lt. Muri’s eyes widened. “No. You’re not going to—?”
Videl nodded. “Yes, I am. It’s time to put an end to the Loyalists once and for all.”
A cold chill darted down Lt. Muri’s spine.
Tarizon, Civil War, Tarizon Trilogy Vol 2 Page 8