The Resolute fired off its remaining missiles at the incoming enemy missiles and took them all out bar four. These were despatched with the close in pulse cannons.
Chapter 18. Tumos 0058, 26 June
True to its ETA the droid pod carrying Jules touched down one km west of the facility. He was still unconscious inside his pod. The jolt of the landing and the absence of Gs aroused him. He felt like shit. Apart from the effects of the travelling, his inner demon, his fear of being shot again, began rising from within.
He checked the display and could see the battle was still going on at the entrance. He could see the icons for the other droids along with those for the two command droids occupied by Emilio and Sue. He knew he couldn’t stay where he was. It wouldn’t be long before the rogan detected him.
‘You can do this Jules’ he said to himself. ‘Right form them up.’ He hit the commit for the dismount and then punched in the tasking order to deploy facing east. He was the last ‘thing’ to get out of the pod and the least elegant in doing so. He mounted the command bot.
“Maam” he hailed “it’s Meyer I’m west of you. Where do you want these droids?”
“Right Jules” said Sue “Have them move up behind my droids and be ready to assault this location.” The location appeared on Jules display. It was right into a concentration of rogan at the northern end of the runway. “Then you better move yourself up into the tunnel with me.”
“You got it. I’m on my way.” Jules took thirty seconds to commit his order to the droids. There was nothing fancy. He used all the default settings, placed the forming up point (FUP) behind Sue’s droids and the Attack objective at the location she had specified. That was it. He flexed his hands on the movement controls for the droid and was soon striding down the runway at 10 kph just behind his droids. So far no rogan had engaged them. ‘I hope it stays that way’ said Jules.
Chapter 19. IRS Mailon over Polaris 0058, 26 June
Assani was cursing his commander’s folly. “We must warp now. Forget the strike” he said forcefully.
“Launch the strike” commanded Meeka.
“Twenty one missiles launched” called out the specialist.
Meeka turned to face Assani. “Now we can warp away.”
“Initiate warp” yelled Assani.
“Warp not engaging” came back the terrified voice.
“Try again” yelled Assani.
“It’s no use Sir.”
Assani looked with venom in his eyes at Meeka. “See what you have done.” He got up from his seat and left the command centre. Doing so normally would have invoked the wrath of his commander but not this time. Meeka was suddenly overcome with the realisation that he was not going to escape. He sat there unmoved, staring at nothing in particular. His staff were all staring at him. But he didn’t see them.
Chapter 20. Resolute over Polaris 0059, 26 June
“21 Enemy Missiles launched” announced John “heading for the planet. Can we commit our fighters?”
“Yes” called out Dave emphatically. He had a terrible feeling in his gut.
“Limas away.”
“Aubrey engage those missiles.”
“Roger.”
“Polaris incoming missiles – suspect nukes” advised Dave.
Kat and Rose shot out from the Resolute, turned and vectored after the missiles faster than any bullet ever travelled. They were soon at max speed and each launched six Javelin missiles. These travelled at 150 kps, a good 30kps faster than the enemy missiles. But the distances were so short relatively. It was going to be close.
The enemy missiles that were destined for more distant targets were all picked off in time but the two earmarked for the closest targets of Nova Vista and Tumos escaped interception.
Chapter 21. Tumos 0100, 26 June
Sue saw the big red alert message and her heart sank. “Emilio take cover, nukes on the way. Leave the droids as is.”
“Fuck. Will do” replied Emilio.
“Come on Jules get inside the pod” she barked.
Sue knew she had to reseal the tunnel. She fired the pre-planned charges as she closed the hatch on the pod. She strapped herself in opposite Jules, sealed her suit and set the emergency beacon to activate in five minutes.
Her mind was racing. She forced it to slow down by concentrating on just one thing – Art. She prayed he would be safe.
Chapter 22. Nova Vista 0100, 26 June
“Christ” exclaimed Harry as he hit the nuke alert. This would seal the lower levels where they were and send messages to all commands within 50kms.
The commander of the 39th Bn went white when he got the command. The pilot of the shuttle had immediately vectored away from Tumos and was now heading west at maximum speed.
Troops within the city manning checkpoints were now running to their shelters, Gen Shen Xian, included. He was bussled down into the downtown shelter on Maclean St along with fifty or so soldiers. The young one pipper with him, who had never seen action, looked like he was already dead. His face was ashen and the veins on his temple protruded and bulged with stress. “We’ll be all right down here” said Shen.
“If you say so Sir” said the young officer.
Rihan swallowed hard as she held up three fingers in front of herself – a physical reminder of how many nuke attacks she had or was about to take shelter from. She remembered the last time and how she had begun repeating the mantra. A smile came across her face. She felt calmer already.
She looked across to Harry. He was still strapping himself in to his chair. Not that it was needed down here but it was an ingrained response from eighteen years of service, most of which had been on board ships. He saw how calm she looked and he was impressed mightily. He smiled back. “They better not destroy my home” he said out loud. “I’m going to be mightily pissed if they do.”
That brought a lot of laughter from the others in the command centre. “Yeah that goes for me too” said Andy “fucking bastards!”
Phil smiled but his thoughts were already focussed on what happens after this. ‘They will pay’ he said to himself.
No one down in the shelters could hear the point missile defense system firing nor the railing of the pulse cannons as they attempted to engage the missile in the last two seconds of its journey to the spaceport. Thirty of the point missiles and twenty thousand pulse shots were fired. One of the point missiles exploded within twenty metres but was not powerful enough to destroy the missile. It did, however, manage to affect its course ever so slightly. The point of impact was shifted eight kilometres north east.
The manufacturing area of Durramside, 21 km NNE of the centre of the city was the new ground zero for the 1 Megaton blast. It burst in the air about 100m above ground level. All buildings within 2.4 kms, including the massive Mitsubishi auto plant, were levelled. The two residential suburbs to the north and west were also levelled. Thankfully the bay was to the east. The solar farm nestled south between the space port and Durramside was wiped out also.
The shock wave rolled out in all directions, causing severe damage to the spaceport structures. The Excelsior was effectively destroyed on the ground along with several other frigates that had left the battle above to seek shelter. Over a dozen large shuttles were severely damaged and several dozen smaller shuttles either destroyed or severely damaged.
Fires sprang up in the northern part of the city and they would destroy much before firefighters were cleared to deal with them. The huge winds generated by the blast quickly fanned the fires.
Most of the windows in the Nelson Tower apartments were broken along with many of the taller buildings along the northern fringe of the central business district.
Anyone caught out unprotected within the city’s north was likely to be burnt severely. The few exposed within the city centre received first degree burns.
For one millisecond after the explosion an electromagnetic pulse emitted. It tore out at the speed of light and fried all unshielded electronic devices. Ther
e would be a huge demand for replacement electronic devices within the city. Those at Polaris HQ were shielded and so escaped.
For the millions sheltering within the city centre, it felt like a very large earthquake. Those in the B16 command centre were physically unscathed but emotional effects were another matter.
Chapter 23. Tumos 0101, 26 June
There were no point defences left at Tumos. The missile was configured as a bunker buster and ploughed into the mountain above and 1km south of the front entrance to the facility before exploding. It vaporised much of the earth at the point of impact. It sent out a huge shockwave that blew away tonnes of earth. In effect it gouged out a crater 300m deep. It sent a huge shockwave underground creating a mini earthquake.
The top of the facility was actually 1500m below the top of the mountain. There was no penetration as such. But the earthquake rocked everything and everyone within. All internal buildings were on springs and while they rocked violently, the springs and their hardened structure saved them from destruction.
The same could not be said for the ships in various stages of construction within the huge hangars of the facility. Despite all the best engineering measures designed to protect them the two Phantoms in hangars four and five were severely damaged when their supports gave way. The new Resolute class ship in Hangar 3 was also damaged for the same reason but to a lesser extent.
Even though the tarmac in front of the entrance was a kilometre away from ground zero everything there was devasted. The initial flash melted the suits of the rogan warriors out on the tarmac. They would have felt they were being burned alive, but only for a millisecond before the shock wave hit and killed them.
The droids, even with their electronic and armoured shielding were all destroyed. The Rogan inside the AFVs fared better by being protected from the effects of heat. But they were no match for the blast wave. It flipped, rolled and smashed the AFVs crushing those inside. The big rogan transports were pulverised and torn apart in a second.
The pods that Jules and his droids came in were about 1.5 kilometres from the centre of blast. But they too were destroyed.
The gods answered Sue’s prayer that the earth around them would protect her. But they also sent a huge slide of earth and rock from the mountain wrenched by the blast. Tonnes and tonnes of material came to rest on top of her tunnel and spread out onto the runway like a huge spur of the mountain had just formed.
By a strange fate Emilio’s tunnel was spared from this calamity. He tried hailing Sue but to no avail. He tried hailing the facility but again to no avail. He was desperately trying to remember what the recommended procedures were after a nuke attack. His mind finally calmed enough to remember his console. He pulled it out and in a moment had the step by step instructions.
Everything felt extremely quiet in Sue’s pod. The internal light was still on and she could see Jules’ face looking at her with a sense of amazement. Jules was amazed, amazed to be still alive. He was also amazed at how he felt. He no longer felt under the grip of fear. For the first time since Klaster he felt somehow liberated. It was like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He smiled at Sue. At first it was tentative but soon he laughed out loud. He was overwhelmed by the sheer joy of being alive.
Sue smiled back at him. She then tried to hail Emilio but failed. She failed to get a hold of the facility. Finally she put out a call on the Polaris Fleet Emergency channel. But no one responded.
Chapter 24. Resolute over Polaris 0102, 26 June
“Get those limas back onboard, rearmed and ready to go” ordered Crystal.
“We’re going to need twenty minutes” advised Li.
Crystal looked to Dave. He shrugged his shoulders in acceptance and said “I don’t think the Mailon’s going anywhere in a hurry.”
“Ok let me know when they are ready to go” hailed Cyrstal back to Li.
“Will do.”
“Let the Aukland and Polaris HQ know what’s happening” said Dave to Jasmin.
But before Jasmin could do so Rudi hailed “Resolute SITREP?”
Dave responded “Sir we have to recover and rearm our fighters. Should take 20 minutes. We will then commence the boarding. Any news from Nova Vista and Tumos?”
“The nuke hit north west of the city. Polaris HQ is OK. No contact with Tumos yet. I don’t have any more than that I’m afraid. We have to make this guy pay Dave. I want him alive.”
“Yes Sir. We’ll do our best.”
“The Harlow groups’ just arriving. I’m going to transfer my flag to the Harlow and start sending these damaged ships back down. Nice job on those ships. Let your crew know I appreciate their work.”
“Yes Sir I will. Congratulations to you too Sir.”
The words hit Rudi like a slap from an unexpected quarter. He hadn’t even had time to think in terms of victory. He thought for a second. “Thanks Dave but it’s an appalling victory.”
“But a victory nonetheless.”
“Yes…I have to go Dave. Keep me informed with progress on the boarding operation.”
“Of course Sir.”
Chapter 25. Tumos 0103, 26 June
It was Mani down in the lower levels that first recovered. He hailed on the internal facility wide channel “It would appear we have survived folks. If there is anyone injured please report to the medbay or call in for assistance. Everyone else you know your duties. It’s just as we rehearsed. Let’s go.”
People began moving, slowly at first but the pace quickened as supervisors and managers got into their stride. One team brought in the mobile scrubbing unit to the main foyer. Separate damage assessment teams went to each building and hangar to inspect for damage.
The comms team arrived at the main foyer along with the squad of marines designated to provide their security. They were all suited. Once assembled, the foyer was sealed and Sgt Rene Wilcox tentatively opened the outside door. This was not the main hangar doors but the 3m high 3m wide facility doors off to the right of the hangar door. As soon as it started opening the synthetic generated voice within her helmet began alerting her “Warning extreme radiation. Warning extreme radiation.” She hit the control to stop the audio but the text kept appearing on the HUD of her helmet visor. She let loose the probe and kept the door opened a small way – just enough for her to get a signal from the probe.
She watched the small display on the probe controller that was strapped to her left wrist. There was no one standing anywhere outside. In fact there was no one outside to be seen. She made out a pile of scrap metal about 300m away to the north on the far side of the runway. But the probe confirmed no threats existed out here other than the radiation.
Rene opened the door wide enough to move through and beckoned her charges outside. Her brief was no more than five minutes of exposure. “Move it. The clock is counting” she hailed.
Her six marines followed her and then the comms team of three. She deployed her team in a semi circle facing north while the comms specialists erected their portable antenna. It was instantaneously erected on activation. First its tripod legs deployed and then it shot up its telescopic antenna to its maximum height of 30m. Two specialists secured the legs of the tripod by applying a clamping brace over each leg and firing bolts into the ground. It was all done in three minutes.
Rene bustled the group back inside, where they closed the door, and stripped out of their suits. These went into the material handling compartments setup by the scrubbing team. The team leader then had them strip down and enter the showers where they were bombarded with hot jets of steam and chemicals. It smelt terrible which comforted Rene in a way. ‘Anything this bad must be tougher than the radiation’ she thought. The whole process would take ten minutes per person and they could fit four people at a time. ‘This is going to be a right royal pain in the arse’ thought Rene as she realised there would be a lot more of this over the coming days.
Inside Mani broadcast his first message and was received by Harry at Polaris HQ. “Thank
god you’re all well” hailed Harry. “What about the droid operators. We cannot raise Chalker, Shavez or Meyer?”
“I will try and raise them after this call” said Mani. “They should be in their tunnels and we may need to dig them out. Trouble is the radiation levels outside are so high. No one can survive out there for more than five minutes at a time.”
“That will dissipate over time but they may not have that time” said Harry. Harry was distracted by his engineering specialist. “Just hold on for a moment” he hailed. He spoke with the specialist and then continued “We will send a special vehicle down to you. Not sure how long that will take. I will advise as soon as I find out.”
“Have there been any other nuclear detonations?” asked Mani tentatively. Part of him didn’t want to know.
“Just one north of the city here. Thankfully casualties are very low at least we think so right now. It looks like Durramside’s been wiped out and the areas around it severely damaged.”
“Can you check to see if my wife and family are OK. They should be at the Short Stop shelter on Maynard Ave?”
“OK I’ll have someone here follow that up.”
“And up above? Are there more landings by the enemy?”
“There is only one enemy ship remaining. No other landings.”
“Oh that’s wonderful news” said Mani. “I better try and reach Chalker.”
But Mani failed to reach Sue or Emilio or Jules.
Chapter 26. IRS Mailon over Polaris 0104, 26 June
It had taken Meeka almost five minutes to regain his wits after the shock realisation that they could not warp away. He had acknowledged the report of the two nukes detonating over Nova Vista and Tumos. He felt a mild satisfaction that the manufacturing facilities at Tumos would not be playing another part in this war.
Retribution Page 28
