(Planetary Defense Command Bunker, Nuevo Edo)
“Group Alpha reporting in. Invaders at Point Alpha
destroyed. Two gunboats lost, some damage to Breath of Hades, and down four fighters and three bombers. Tarpit
in that area went down when the dreadnought died.”
Premier Fukuya’s head snapped around from the screen she was
studying to focus on the speaker when she heard that last part. “Why weren’t we
informed of that as it happened?”
General Akagi spared the young woman reporting the news, and
said, “I imagine they were busy fighting for their lives at the time, and did
not bother checking those sensors until they were through dealing with people
shooting at them.”
Fukuya sighed, and nodded to her friend. “Continue your
report, Lieutenant.”
“Point Beta remains at full strength, but the tarpit traps
were layered with five times the needed strength to blanket the three primary
attack points, so they are being forced to move at sublight until they can
clear the tarpit.”
“Point Gamma was hit hard, ma’am. That was the only group
without bomber support, and it shows. They are down to four fighters, five
gunboats, and one Assassin operational, the Shadowdancer.
All other assassins and the Shinokage
are too damaged to continue the fight, but should be repairable, according to
damage reports.”
Admiral Saez whistled appreciatively. “That’s impressive,
considering how badly they were outgunned. I’m surprised they didn’t lose more
people.”
“Point Delta is holding. The fighters are making all the difference
there, ma’am. The enemy carrier attempted to use their fighters to attack us,
but the Black Star squadrons annihilated them. Black Star has lost six gunboats
and we’ve lost four, but all Assassins and capitol ships are still in the
fight. The Jubilee just finished off
the enemy dreadnought. Remaining enemy ships from Point Delta have pulled out
of effective range of the platforms. Ten cruisers and twelve frigates
remaining, most damaged but still fighting.”
“What about the carrier? Are the Marines in play?”
“Thunderfury
reports the Marines have landed, and are meeting heavy resistance. However, ion
cannons appear to be keeping the enemy self-destruct systems offline, so they
may actually be able to capture the ship intact.”
“ADMIRAL! Multiple tachyon surges at Point Beta!
Unidentified fleet just entered the system!”
Admiral Saez, General Akagi, and Premier Fukuya all shouted
out at once, “WHAT?”
(X’thari Carrier <Unpronounceable
Chittering>, Point Delta, Nuevo Edo System)
First Company, Black Star Marines, had been joined by the
newly established Second Company for this fight. Between Black Star personnel
and their families, and new recruits from Nuevo Edo or Dimiya, the Black Stars
were more than could be fielded in a single company. Fortunately, the Thunderfury was designed with the
ability to just barely carry two Companies with their command and logistics
staff. Provided, of course, that it was for short spells. Hot-bunking Marines
was not something you did for extended periods if you could help it. More than
that, and they would need a second Assault Craft. Fortunately, he’d gone with
Captain Am’rica to talk to the eggheads that designed some of the new ships,
and put together what they’d need for a full assault craft, as well as
something for special forces teams, when a Raven-class
wasn’t available.
And right now, Second Company was getting their trial by
fire. Most of them were Locals, so he’d gotten together with their Major, and
come up with new tactics that took advantage of what they learned in the raids
they launched during the Civil War, especially the Venus op. The benefit of ‘immortals’
on the battlefield was impressive, but respawn times meant you couldn’t just
human wave a strong point with a platoon until you broke them. And the Locals
weren’t just sitting back on their thumbs and letting First Company do the
really hard work. They were Marines, not Army, after all! However, if your door
kickers and rearguard didn’t feel like dying was ‘game over’, then you got a
whole lot of options that opened up to you.
First Company led the way into the breach when the Thunderfury pulled up next to the
X’thari carrier, when they used their ‘gravpacks’ (gravitic movement assistors
did NOT catch on with the Marines, for reasons) to rocket out of the Thunderfury and into the open hangar bay
of the carrier. That was where the first real fight came, and Khan was pleased
to say that all his Marines, even the new people on Second Company, did damn
fine jobs on their first ship to ship insertion.
Now that they had completed the hardest part, getting on
board, they had to try and get control of the ship. There was no ‘ask for
surrender’, and no ‘stun them’ or ‘take them alive’. Everyone knew the score.
The X’thari would not allow themselves to be taken prisoner, so they all had to
be put down, as fast as possible, or Bad Things™ would happen. That said, with
no knowledge of the ship’s plans, they had to play this by ear. So, Second
Company went aft, hoping to find whatever passed for an Engineering section on
this tub, and First Company was headed towards the center of the ship, looking
for the bridge.
As they were advancing, Major Khan (he really needed to get
a full battalion together so the rank was correct) called a halt as he found
what they really needed. Looking over to one of his officers, he yelled,
“Comms, are we still in contact with Raven aboard Shinokage?”
“Spotty, sir! Last communication said that they’ve been
taking a beating. But I have stable comms for the moment, if you need them.”
“Then plug in to this terminal! I know our specialists are
all kick ass codeslingers, but I need a map, and I need it yesterday!”
“Accessing… we have good connection to Raven. Wait one…
Right! She’s found us a schematic of the ship, but it is hard to read because
of being alien. She’s highlighted two sections for us, though. ‘Engineering’
and ‘Central Control’. Guess that is what it translates out to.”
“Forward that map to Second Company, and tell them to get
moving! I don’t want this tub blowing up around me, and I know they don’t,
either! First Company, move out! We have a Central Control to capture!”
(NEN Santiago, Point
Delta, Nuevo Edo System)
“Captain, I must insist you go to the infirmary!”
Captain Gonzalez shook her head, further annoying the ship’s
medical officer who was trying to patch the head wound she’d suffered in that
last exchange with the enemy cruisers. “I’m not walking off the bridge of my
ship in the middle of a fucking battle, doc. Keep it so the blood stays out of
my eyes, and then go look to the more seriously wounded. Either we’ll get
through this and I’ll have plenty of time to sit in the infirmary, or we’ll all
be dead. Now go!”
The doctor gave her that dirty look every doctor must learn
in medical school for when a patient is being ‘unreasonable’ by their
estimation, but they don’t have the authority to simply force them to stop what
they’re doing and take their medicine. Fortunately, the whole ‘in the middle of
a battle that might kill us all’ thing got through the doctor’s indignation at
her refusal to leave her post immediately. The bandages would do fine for now,
as long as they didn’t take another hit like that last one.
She hit the call button on her bracer. “Nagai, status!”
Nagai Juri, her Chief Engineer, was one of the brighter
technical minds on the planet, to the point where she’d been told that there
had been some rather… lengthy back-room talks between the government and that
Commodore Mollen who ran Black Star. Seems they had wanted to poach her for
their crews. Considering that she was catching up on tech that was at least a
hundred years ahead of where they were, that said something about the young
engineer. Ana was glad to have her.
“Captain! We managed
to get the shield generator back online, but I can’t promise how much damage
it’ll be able to soak. Engines are at 57%. I might be able to get as much as
65% for a little bit, but we’d be getting towed back to dock.”
“What about the primary weapon? When can we fire again?”
“Relays are shot,
captain! I can do a workaround, but it isn’t going to be efficient at all.
You’re looking at double the charge time, at least! And that’s if we don’t
explode the next time you fire. I can maybe get you one shot, but that’s it.”
“Captain! We’re detecting multiple tachyon surges out by
Point Beta!”
“Is there anything we can do about it right now?”
“No Ma’am.”
“Then keep an eye on whatever’s going on, let me know if
something becomes relevant. Comms! Get me the Cortez!”
“Online.”
The main viewscreen was shattered, but the monitor at her
side was (miraculously) still intact. Looking into the picture, she said,
“Captain Ara, our primaries have been knocked out. What is your status?”
“Primaries online, but
that last attack run took a lot out of us. Engines are at 32% and holding. One
more good attack, and we’re finished.”
“All right. We just have to hold out for a little while
longer, until the bombers from Black Star get back our way. Lets link up with
the Wakizashi. They are in about as
good shape as you are, so Santiago will
lead the attack run on Cruiser 16. Let’s try to keep them away from Aikawa’s life pods!”
“Understood. Forming
up with Wakizashi now. Good luck,
Captain.”
Gonzalez sighed as the connection broke off. Quietly, she muttered. “Yeah, we’re going to need it.”
Then she took a breath, and said, “All right, prepare for attack pattern
Delta-3!” She hit the communicator again, and said, “Juri, give me everything
you can to the shields! We’re going to need them!”
“I’ll do what I can,
Captain.”
“Captain! Ships coming out of warp at the edge of the
Carrier’s tarpit envelope! It is the group from Point Alpha! Dragons incoming!”
“All right! Continue attack plan. Reroute all power to
shields. Let’s look big and bad so the others can send these aliens straight to
hell!”
(Planetary Defense Command Bunker, Nuevo Edo)
“Ships at Point Beta have been destroyed!”
Saez looked up from the tactical screen where she’d been
following the battle closer to the planet. She was Admiral in name only, she
knew, since she’d never commanded a fleet in combat (hell, her ‘fleet’ was all
brand new) but she was learning everything she could from watching the Black
Star forces. When you built an entire fleet out of force multipliers, that
could add up, fast. But she had also noticed the weakness of such a system. The
Commodore’s forces at Point Gamma, which he’d led himself, had been savaged.
They’d managed not to lose any of their larger ships, but no one had heard from
the Commodore himself since the Shinokage’s
last attack run.
Now, she saw that the previously untouched group at Point
Beta had indeed been wiped out, thanks to the mysterious fleet that had appeared
in a burst of tachyons. Commodore Mollen said that the Empire used technology
like that, but they should be far out of range from any Imperial worlds. “Do we
have identification on those ships yet?”
“We’re running them through the Black Star algorithms now,
Ma’am. They appear to be Imperial designs. Three superdreadnoughts, one
carrier, and support craft. Appears to be a standard task force. INS on the
lead ship reads INS Triumphant.”
“Admiral! The enemy carrier’s tarpit field has gone offline.
All other ships have been destroyed.”
“Very well. Have our ships form a perimeter with the Black
Star ships. Launch S&R shuttles to begin rescuing pilots and pick up escape
pods.”
“New contact, the BSS Starlight
Raven just launched from Shinokage!
Transmission incoming!”
Commodore Mollen’s face appeared on the screen. He looked to
be injured, but otherwise he was still breathing, which wasn’t bad, considering
that Shinokage had gone toe to toe
with a dreadnought.
“Admiral, I see you’re
issuing orders for S&R and a perimeter. The Imperial task force is here
because of me. I called in a favor or two, and was able to get them to send a
few ships.”
“A few, Commodore? Your gift for understatement astounds me.
But where did they come from? You said their ships didn’t have the legs to
reach us from Imperial Space with their transition drives.”
“They don’t. But the
Amazon system is within range, a fact I’d forgotten until my contact asked
about it. They used the Gateway to form up in the Amazon system, so they could
jump in all together, instead of coming through the Gateway one at a time. But
it took a bit longer than we expected to get everyone moving the same way,
which is why their arrival was delayed.”
Admiral Saez nodded. “Well, I’m glad you called in those
favors, Commodore. I do not enjoy the thought of what those fresh ships would
have been able to do to our defenders when we’ve already been beat up as much
as we have.”
“Always happy to help,
Admiral. If you’ll give the task force an orbital slot, I’ve been informed the
Empress of the Terran Empire would like to make her first diplomatic visit to
Nuevo Edo and confirm its status as a free port.”
“We’ll send orbit information and language translation
software to them now, Commodore. And congratulations. We weren’t certain you
had survived, for a while.”
“Neither were we. All
Black Star ships are returning to orbit, and we’ll start working ships through
the yards in the order of what we can get back online fastest. Mollen out.”
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Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37
Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy GameLit):
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Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL
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City of Champions Online (Superhero GameLit):
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Lewd Dungeon (Dungeon Core GameLit):
Book 1 - Welcome to the Apocalypse https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BB34DHF
The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T
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