by James Rosone
The black objects falling from the enemy aircraft exploded in a series of long, thunderous explosions of flame and shrapnel across much of Dog Company’s positions.
Holy crap! What the hell was that? Major Hopper thought in horror. This was their first time seeing or experiencing Zodark fighters or their close air support units like this.
As the fireballs rippled across the forested area, Hopper watched dozens of his blue icons go from bright blue to a dull blue, letting him know they’d been killed. Many others flashed on and off, indicating the individual soldier had been injured.
Jesus, they nearly wiped out the entire company, realized Hopper.
“Patch me through to the Midway,” Hopper barked to his RTO.
A second later, a commander in the flight operations on the Midway came on. “This is Commander Hue. What can we do for you, Major?”
Hopper observed the face of the commander; he was nervous and stressed. Clearly, the Midway was still battling it out around the planet with the rest of the fleet.
“Commander, I just lost most of a company of Deltas from an enemy aerial fighter attack. Where is my air cover and my medevacs? My Deltas are getting cut to pieces down here!” barked Hopper angrily.
“I’m sorry to hear about that, Major,” said Commander Hue, clearly pulling up some information on his screen. “I’m showing a flight of Orions just now coming on station over your area. They just greased those enemy fighters you’re talking about. We’ve got six Reapers inbound to start an attack run momentarily. Do you need me to dispatch additional medical transport?”
“Yes, send additional medical transports and a med team to my location. I’m also requesting my reserve unit of Deltas and C100s to be deployed. How soon can you have them down on the ground?” demanded Hopper over the roar of the battle going on around him. With nearly an entire company wiped out, he needed Easy Company and his reserve unit of C100s on the surface yesterday.
“Uh, um, Major. We’re still in the thick of it up here right now. I can order the transports to head to your position now, but I can’t guarantee they’ll make it,” said Commander Hue. “If you can give us maybe another twenty or thirty minutes, things should be cleared up enough for us to start offloading the rest of your battalion.” The offer was less than convincing.
Major Hopper took a deep breath, trying to still his rising anger. “Commander, we need to get this ion cannon taken offline in thirty-two minutes. I need those reinforcements now, not in thirty minutes, not in an hour. Order the transports down and do your best to cover their descent. Archer Actual, out!”
Hopper disconnected the video feed and returned his attention to the battle still unfolding in front of him. Hearing the sound of a jet engine, he looked up and smiled.
A single Reaper swooped in from high up in the clouds. It unloaded a barrage of antimateriel rockets along the Zodark lines, facing the side of the line Bravo and Charlie Companies were charging into. The entire line of Zodark positions erupted in flames, black smoke, and shrapnel.
A missile shot out from the Zodark lines and chased the Reaper. The attack aircraft did several extreme maneuvers, barrel-rolling and popping off some flares and chaff canisters in an attempt to spoof the missile. None of it worked. The missile edged itself within a dozen meters of the Reaper before it suddenly blew out a blast of shrapnel that tore the rear half of the aircraft apart. Moments later, the pilot ejected from the destroyed aircraft before it disintegrated into a flaming fireball.
Two more Reapers swooped down and plastered the part of the base where the Zodark missile had emanated from. They also raked the enemy position with their blasters and dropped a pair of two-thousand-pound bombs, tearing the area apart.
With a gaping hole in the Zodark fortress, Hopper pushed his company commanders to get their units in the breach before the enemy could plug the hole. The reserve element of C100s now raced ahead of his soldiers into the breach. Many of them were cut down, but not before they inflicted some damage inside the enemy positions.
At least two platoons of human soldiers followed them into the fortress. With his soldiers and C100s inside the enemy base, they now worked to roll up the northern and southern lines in an effort to collapse their defenses. Then they’d be able to get inside the inner perimeter protecting the ion cannon and take it out.
“Sir, Captain Royce’s unit is finally in position,” said the S3, Captain Hiro. “Do you want them to continue to attack the east side of the base, or should we shift them around to go in and support Bravo and Charlie?”
“That’s actually a good call, Hiro,” said Hopper. “Send Royce the FRAGO and tell him to haul it over to the southern side of the base and go in through the hole Bravo and Charlie created. I need Royce’s unit to push past them and into the inner part of the base and take that damn cannon out.”
The fighting inside the Zodark base grew in intensity. Oftentimes it devolved into hand-to-hand knife fights at close range. Twenty minutes into the fight, two of Hopper’s three companies had made their way into the inner section of the fortress. It didn’t take them much longer to capture the enemy ion cannon, removing it as a threat to the human fleet in orbit above.
Shortly after the ion cannon fell silent, two medical transports landed near Major Hopper’s command post. Once the transports had landed, the influx of medical personnel went to work treating the wounded.
A few medics made their way over to where Dog Company had been located. They had the grisly job of sorting through the carnage to find the wounded soldiers and get them moved to the transports. Many of these soldiers had severe burns and shrapnel wounds from the enemy air attack.
While the medical transports tended to the wounded, eight Ospreys landed, offloading Easy Company and an additional two hundred C100s. The combat Synths were deployed in a wide-arcing perimeter around the ion cannon and battalion. If the Zodarks wanted to try and take the position back, they’d have to get through a couple of layers of defenders.
Twenty minutes after the Deltas had secured the ion cannon, the first wave of Republic Army soldiers landed. They brought their main battle tanks with them, along with infantry fighting vehicles and mechs. As more and more of the planetary defenses were taken down, the battle transitioned to rooting out the remaining Zodark military camps and installations throughout the planet. The first battle to secure a beachhead had been won; now they needed to win the war to liberate and secure the planet.
Chapter Three
Task Force Intus
Above Planet Intus
RNS George Washington
Captain Fran McKee read the damage report with a bit of concern. The fleet had taken a heavy beating during this engagement.
We need those new warships the Altairians are helping us build, she thought.
Turning to her XO, Captain McKee ordered, “Commander Yang, make sure we have some Vipers shadowing the Zodark withdrawal so they aren’t regrouping on the far side of a planet without us knowing.” McKee was functioning as the operational fleet commander until Admiral Halsey showed up with the transports carrying the ground invasion forces.
“Yes, ma’am,” came the quick reply from Yang as the new order was sent out.
Turning to her operations officer next, Captain McKee directed, “Ops, order the flight deck to launch their fighters and support the Deltas on the ground. Send medical transports down to evacuate the wounded as well. No reason to make them wait any longer than necessary for help.”
Returning her gaze back to the damage control board, McKee saw the three sections that had been red were now yellow. McKee sighed in relief as she realized the fires were under control, and the hull breach in section two alpha was sealed up. She’d lost two primary turrets and three secondary turrets in the engagement. It would take some time to get all the weapon systems operational again, but at least their superweapon, the plasma cannon, was still functioning and able to bring the pain when needed.
“Coms, how long until Admiral Halsey’s g
roup arrives?” McKee asked next.
Lieutenant Branson searched her screen for the answer. “Five minutes,” she replied.
McKee nodded in approval; things were moving right on schedule. Her task force had jumped into the system three hours ago and cleared a path for the Special Forces ships to land the first wave of ground forces. That was a key part of her task force’s mission. The Special Forces soldiers needed to take the planet’s ion cannons offline. Once they were down, the orbital assault ships could drop the hundreds of thousands of soldiers that were coming in the second wave with Admiral Halsey’s fleet.
True to their word, the Prims had jumped in their fleet to support the humans. Their ships were smaller in number but more capable than the Earthers. At least until the Earthers’ new ships came out of the yard.
Now that the Deltas had taken down the ion cannons, the Prims would jump in their own troopships and assist the Earthers in taking the planet back. The battle to retake Intus and the system was on. Now the question was how fast each side could take territory and build up its defenses to hold it.
“Captain, Admiral Halsey’s fleet is arriving,” her operations officer announced.
Watching the monitor on the bridge, Captain McKee saw dozens of ships blinking into existence a million or so kilometers away from her own ships. Staring at the screen, she almost did a double take when she saw how many ships were arriving—forty transports and orbital assault ships in all, far and above the largest human fleet assembled in one place.
“Captain, Admiral Halsey sends her regards,” Lieutenant Branson said, relaying the newest communiqué. “Her fleet is moving toward the planet now. She’s asking that we break off from our current position and establish a screening position for the transports.”
“Acknowledge the order,” McKee ordered. “Send the new instructions to the task force. Move to Beta formation. We’ll keep the GW near the planet, and in the middle of the fleet in case the Zodarks show up.”
A flurry of activity took place as the task force of battleships and cruisers moved to the outer edge of the cluster of transports and orbital assault ships moving into position above the planet.
With the next phase of the operation in Admiral Halsey’s hands, McKee was settling in to relax when, out of nowhere, alarm bells blared.
“We’ve got a wormhole appearing!” yelled Lieutenant Cory LaFine anxiously.
“Holy crap!” exclaimed Lieutenant Arnold, her operations officer. “That Orbot battleship from earlier just jumped back and brought eight Zodark cruisers with him. They’re emerging one million kilometers from the transports!”
No, no, no, this can’t be happening! McKee thought in shock. I was sure we’d destroyed that ship.
Captain McKee stood up. “Send a flash message to the task force to target all weapons on those Zodark cruisers,” she directed in a loud, authoritative voice. “Weps, focus everything we have on that Orbot battleship. Let’s finish it off this time, especially now that their shields appear to still be down. Navigation, move us into a blocking position to protect as many of the transports as we can.”
A flash message from the Voyager popped up next to McKee’s chair. “Captain McKee, I’m ordering the transports to FTL out of the battlespace. Buy us some time to get away until you can clear the battlespace again!” shouted Admiral Halsey. Her face contorted with fear and anger at what was unfolding around them, and alarm bells blared in the background.
“We’re on it, Admiral,” McKee replied quickly. “This is the same Orbot battleship we fought earlier. It’s already beaten up from our previous battle. Admiral, get the transports to align behind the GW if you can. We’ll do our best to help shield them from the enemy.” The message ended seconds later as the admiral went to work on getting the transports out of there.
“Weps, get us a firing solution on that Orbot ship and engage,” McKee ordered forcefully. “Focus all our primary and secondary turrets on them. Get that plasma cannon focused on its engineering section.”
Moments later, the primary and secondary turrets of the GW opened fire, sending dozens upon dozens of slugs at the enemy vessel. Their pulse beam batteries, Havoc antiship missiles, and torpedoes opened fire next. The entire area around the GW lit up with fire as the Earthers attacked the most formidable vessel of the enemy alliance.
Watching the monitor in front of the bridge, McKee had a hard time seeing all that was happening. Then she remembered that Admiral Hunt used to use the three-dimensional overview from some of the surveillance drones. Sitting down in her captain’s chair, McKee pulled her foldable monitor up next to her chair and tapped on the screen, pulling up the view she needed of the battlespace.
First, she noticed her battleships and cruisers rapidly closing the distance to get in range of the Zodark cruisers. That was a good thing. The Orbot ship, however, apparently saw what she was doing with her vessel and was maneuvering to get below the Earth ship, giving them a better line of sight on the human fleet.
McKee turned to her helmsman. “Lieutenant Donaldson, match the Orbot ship’s movements. Keep us between their ship and the transports. They’re trying to slip underneath us so they can get a better shot at our transports—we need to buy them more time to get out of the area.”
“I’m on it, Captain,” replied Donaldson.
“Brace for impact!” barked one of the operations crewmen.
The ship shook hard and shuddered as the Orbot ship’s primary weapon sliced a deep gash into the GW. The helmsman conducted an emergency maneuver as he moved the ship out of the path of the laser that was boring a hole in their armor. Countermeasures were launched.
“Where’s my jamming?” yelled McKee’s XO.
“I’m trying, but they’re burning through it,” came the terse reply of the electronic warfare officer. “We’re in too close to each other for it to work.”
“Firing the plasma cannon,” announced the weapons officer.
The main monitor briefly whited out and then readjusted as the plasma bolt shot out from the GW. In the blink of an eye, it plowed right into the Orbot ship. With its shields down, the plasma bolt blew a hole ten meters wide and a hundred or more meters deep. Debris blew out the hole as the Orbot ship vented atmosphere, sucking dozens of Orbots out into the vacuum of space.
The GW shook violently a second time as the Orbot ship’s primary weapons hit them again. The GW shook so hard from the hit, everyone grabbed for something to keep from falling. McKee checked the damage control board; red and yellow lights flashed on different sections of the ship, reflecting the serious damage from this last hit.
McKee caught a glimpse of two Viper frigates as they swooped in and unloaded a barrage of plasma torpedoes and Havoc antiship missiles into the Orbot ship before they were both blotted from existence.
The Orbot ship maneuvered out of the way of the plasma torpedoes heading its way. It managed to evade six or seven of them, but another dozen slammed into various sections of the ship. The enemy ship was too close to the human fleet to allow it much time or space to get out of the way of the devastating weapons.
All but one of the Havoc missiles was intercepted, but the one that got through delivered its five-hundred-kiloton warhead against the armor of the Orbot ship. The blast carved a several-meter-deep gouge along a quarter of the ship. Had the ship’s shields still worked, it might not have taken so much damage from the nuke, but the ship had lost its shield generator during the earlier battle before it had warped away.
The fighters the GW had launched earlier to help the Deltas down on the surface now joined the fray, attacking the enemy vessels as well. Their blasters and magrail guns couldn’t inflict a lot of damage on the Orbot or Zodark ships, but they were an additional threat the enemy had to contend with.
“Launching the bombers now,” announced her Ops officer.
The flight deck at the bottom of the ship scrambled their wing of unmanned bombers. They headed to the Orbot ship and released a volley of plasma torpedoes. Th
e bombers then turned around to land and rearm on the GW before flying back out to repeat the attack run.
Streaks of laser light flicked across the darkness of space. The Zodark and Orbot ships tore into the orbital assault ships, as well as the massive transports and freighters ferrying the human and Prim armies intended to capture the planet.
As she continued to watch the battle unfold, McKee mentally willed more of her bombers and torpedoes to hit the Orbot ship. A streak of light reached out and cut one of the orbital assault ships in half, and then another light beam ripped apart one of the massive freighters.
“Damn it! Get us into a better blocking position to keep that Orbot ship from hitting those transports!” McKee roared. “Every weapon and ship we have must tear into that damn ship now.”
The cruisers and battleships in her task force shifted their fire from the two remaining Zodark cruisers to the lone Orbot battleship. The volume of fire slamming into the enemy ship was tremendous. Slug after slug penetrated deeper into the armor and into its hull. Plasma torpedo after torpedo hammered the ship, causing huge fountains of molten metal to erupt out of the ship before the coldness of space froze it back into a solid state.
In minutes, the Orbot ship experienced a series of explosions on the rear half of the vessel that rippled through to the front. Seconds later, the entire ship blew apart in a bright flash of light. Debris from the explosion flew out in many directions, some of it slamming into nearby ships.
Turning to her weapons officer, McKee ordered, “Have the entire task force shift fire to those two remaining Zodark ships. Vaporize them now!”
The large plasma cannon on the GW traversed toward one of the Zodark cruisers. The enemy ships were picking up speed to get out of the area. As the cruiser turned to accelerate away from the GW, the plasma cannon fired. In a brilliant flash of light, the enemy cruiser blew apart. The rest of the task force made short work of the last Zodark cruiser.
