Eleven days later we approached the Torrus system and slowed to a stop. More than 9,000 Dakar warships and another 6,200 Prassi vessels were waiting for our fleet. The Colonel immediately began handing out battle plans and both fleets quickly agreed to the targets they were given.
When the fighting was done, and if we were victorious, the Dakar would reclaim Torrus and its vast riches while the Prassi took Barithia and 32 other systems that bordered their territory. Humans would have the prize of no longer being chased. It was a deal that all three species could live with.
With the battle plans set we lifted off into attack formation. Our targets were two Milgari cruisers and then an assist against one of the orbiting Torrian platforms. This time, all ships would be making use of the Yacabucci field generator. Milgari ships were to be frozen in place without their ion weapons while we attacked.
When the order was given our ships accelerated to a set speed and the image projectors were turned on. It would be a five hour ride before the fleet would decelerate and attack. The Prassi and Dakar would follow shortly after. I was once again faced with the hours of waiting before a big event was to happen. Garland sat mostly staring straight ahead.
When the deceleration happened there were nearly twice the number of Milgari ships as anticipated. The Yacabucci web quickly held them in place. Garland fired at the first cruiser on our target list, severely damaging it’s ion cannon, but the cruiser fired back. The ion bolt clipped our port wing. If not for the reduced power it was able to direct our way it would have shattered our outer shield.
The negative ion web was holding the ships in place, but their ion generators were still producing internal power. I immediately got on the comm, “Those ships have power! Drop ion bombs if you have ‘em. We can’t sustain the damage they are dishing out!”
Garland unleashed one of our five bombs and the cruiser’s gun went silent. With a single quick pass, its ion cannon was eliminated along with its engines. We moved on to target number two.
The second cruiser fired repeated shots as we approached. I flipped the switch on our multi-ship image projection and suddenly three Defenders were bearing down on the Milgari cruiser. We dodged the first two ion bolts but the third found its mark and shattered our outer armor. It was a hit that Garland was not prepared for. “Ugh-hic-ugh! Gaw-hic! GAW!”
Garland again made a pinpoint hit knocking out the cruiser’s lone battle cannon. I spoke, “If nobody told you yet you don’t fight with your mouth open. When those blasts hit this solid hull you really get knocked around. Keep your teeth together or you run the risk of biting off your tongue!”
Garland replied, “We never got that feedback in the simulators Sir, I’ll be gritting my teeth from here on out!” I followed up with a roll and a pass of the cruiser’s engines and once again Garland earned his pay, “Nice shooting Harr!”
Our automatic targeting application then identified two new cruisers and a battleship on our target list. I did a long throw of one of our ion bombs towards a nearby cruiser as I headed towards our next target. I was sure it would help whoever had it on their target list.
I overrode the next cruiser on our list and instead headed towards the one after at a constant speed. I was banking on the image projection masking our approach. Garland yelled out, “We don’t have the cloak any more Sir! I hope you are not counting on that!” I pulled up hard on the stick, “Crap! That got shed with the outer skin! You just saved our asses Garland. Remind me to buy you a drink when this is over!”
I again reacquired our original target and flew in fast in a random spiral. We took a hard hit to our underbelly and again we were shaken to the bone. Six layers of Tantric had been stripped away. Two quick shots from Garland and we moved on to the next cruiser target.
I took a moment to scan the battle console for a check of our casualties. Of the 1,186 Milgari ships 318 had been destroyed or disabled. We had lost 406 Hawks, five frigates, 12 destroyers, 16 cruisers and a battleship. The Raiders were holding their own.
As we approached the next cruiser we were joined by Jerry Shiller in a Hawk, “I got your wing Chief! Let’s knock’em dead!” We split our trajectories and came in from two directions. Again the Milgari zeroed in on the Swift and again we took another hit. Four layers were singed from our tail as the shot came in from a distance. Garland and Shiller both had a positive strike and the cruiser’s gun exploded in a bright flash. Shiller then nailed the cruiser’s engine, taking it out of the fight.
I spoke, “One last ship on our targeting computer. Make those shots count as we are going to need all of our armor to get near that station we have coming up next. From what I can see the Dakar and Prassi are having a difficult time with them!”
We were soon joined by a second Hawk piloted by J.B. Sommers, “Wooohaw! Let’s kick some savage ass!” Sommers swooped in with a first pass, taking out the port cannon on the battleship. Shiller moved in next taking a direct hit to his probe just as he popped the trigger on his cannon. The Milgari bolt entered the probe as the negative bolt was materializing on its tip. The Hawk disintegrated in an instant. Shiller was gone.
Garland was unable to get off a clean shot as we passed. I dropped an ion bomb. Sommers swooped back around and finished off the second battle cannon, “Move on to your next target Chief! I’ll stay and carve this sucker up!”
The next target on our list was a Torrian station. Five Hawks and a Raider were already engaged. I selected a target sequence from a list, “Garland, we are hitting gun five on your console. If you can squeeze of a round at gun six as I cut away please do so!” As I spiraled in I released our fourth ion bomb. A shot from cannon eight eliminated the bomb before it had a chance to arm and go off. We then took another hard hit, this time it was our port wing, eight layers of Tantric were instantly burned away.
On the next run two of the Hawks met their end. Garland nailed our target but just missed his shot on our cutaway. With the two Hawks eliminated we now had three cannons on the station tracking us. Every attempt at a run was met with heavy fire, forcing us to break away before getting close enough to fire.
A Pilot of one of the Hawks then came over the comm, “This is Judd in the Derringer, my probe has been sheared off making my cannon inoperable. I���m asking for a pickup after which I have an idea that might just give us a chance at knocking out some of those guns.”
I replied, “This is the Swift, standby for pickup.” We came to a stop and the cargo door opened slowly. Dennis Judd floated in and the door was closed. He spoke, “Tap into my flight computer. I have a spiral in flight plan that will ram my ship into one of those guns, if it makes it. But what I was thinking was that we line three or four of us up right behind it and let it take the hits from those cannons until we can break off and fire on them on our own.”
I replied, “I like the way you think Judd. Bingham and Reaper! Apply the flight plan from the Derringer to your nav computers. We are going in using the Derringer as a shield! Split off on my mark and hit the cannon that will be designated on your screen.”
The four ships were brought in line and the attack began. As we approached the Derringer applied its multi-ship projector, she had one of the few that were still operational. We closed to the breakaway point just as the Derringer took a hard hit to her hull. The three ships following the Derringer, split away and fired on their designated targets. Three of the four cannons were destroyed. The fourth continued to fire at the incoming automated Hawk before it crashed hard into its turret. Four guns had been disabled.
We then used a similar strategy on the final three guns with one of the Hawks taking the heat up front. Myron Jones was down to his last few layers of Tantric when the last of the guns on our side of the station went silent. Myron broke away from the fighting for an attempt at repairs in one of the nearby cruiser���s docking bays. I landed the Swift in the bay of the Hawthorne as it pulled alongside the station and extended its breaching tubes. Seconds later, 40 Marines scrambled down the tu
bes to storm the station, I joined them.
Captain Dave Metz was leading the squad I was now a member of, “Anderson! Peoples! Take point and shoot anything that moves.” Two Milgari then entered the hallway we had breached, blaster fire shattered the steel walls just in front of us, sending shrapnel our way.
I got on the comm, “Where���s our ion bomb! Let���s get this power off!” Garland replied, “We have one left Sir, deploying it now.” Fifteen seconds later the blaster fire ended. Metz moved the squad forward, “Remember, clear those walls before you come to a door. They like to shove poles through there at you and unless you want to be a Milgari Kabob you pop a few rounds through in front of you.”
The fighting on the station was intense. The Milgari fighters threw everything they had at the intruders, literally. On the third hallway Peoples took a chair to the left shoulder, fracturing his collarbone. Thompson was hit by what appeared to be toaster, cracking his face shield. It took an hour of our slowly moving forward before the core of the station was found. Charges were set and the teams evacuated back to the breaching tubes. As the Hawthorne pulled away explosions could be seen exiting from the Torrian station. Our target had effectively been destroyed.
The 408 floating platforms in orbit around Torrus were no less difficult to handle. After taking out the guns at one end of a platform we again used the breaching tubes to make our way aboard. There were no more ion bombs available to knock out power. We would be fighting our way through the platform with blasters.
Anderson again took point as we crept down a hallway. Two Milgari then stepped out of a door and began to fire. Anderson���s right arm exploded in an ion flash. Captain Metz stepped up firing bolts of his own. The two Miltgari fighter’s chests exploded. I reached down and grabbed Anderson by his remaining arm and dragged him backwards.
The squad medic was immediately on the fallen Marine, “Hang in there Andy! You focus on breathing and I���ll focus on getting you patched up!” After a quick set of bandages and a pain shot Anderson stood on his own. The medic helped him back towards the breaching tube.
In our next encounter a Milgari bolt struck a wall panel just opposite from my position. I felt an intense burning in my left forearm. A two inch piece of hallway steel was sticking out of my now bleeding appendage. I stepped back and the medic removed the metal shard and cauterized the wound. “You���ll live Chief. Head back to the medical bay and they will get you a pain killer and get you back in the fight. I used my last one, I���m waiting for a runner with supplies.”
Garland then came around the corner with a medical box. As he set it down a Milgari bolt came screaming past, narrowly missing my right ear. Garland was not so lucky. The bolt entered the top of his helmet. His head exploded down through his neck, pressing his shoulders wide apart and exposing his red shirt through his torn combat suit. The medic looked at him and shook his head, “Here���s your pain shot Sir, I���ll take care of the mess.”
We came to a point where the Milgari held a strong position. Bulkhead beams blocked any effective blaster fire we had. We had no good approach to their position. Metz had ordered a charge string laid out on a wall in an attempt to work our way behind them. The charge failed to penetrate the reinforced bulkhead wall. As we stood crouched, huddled behind a short wall, I reached into the combat pack of the Marine next to me, “Hey, just borrowing a couple of these grenades.”
I pulled the pins and held the triggers, “How about you guys give me some cover fire!” Sheila Mason nodded and stood. I rose as I heard the low rumbles from her blaster as repeated bolts went down the long hall. The two grenades were quickly away and I dropped back behind the wall as blaster bolts zipped over our heads. Booom! Booom!
I jumped up and sprinted down the long hall towards the bulkhead with my blaster raised. A Milgari Marine then came into partial view, he was bleeding but raising his blaster rifle towards me. I dove and slid towards him, firing off bolt after bolt. The Milgari���s right leg first exploded and as his upper torso began to fall. A second bolt entered his chest, ripping it wide open.
As I lay fully exposed in the hallway, I pulled the two grenades out of my own combat pack and rolled them just past the bulkhead wall. Booom! Booom! I stood and sprinted. Again I dove at the base of the bulkhead sliding just up to the corner. I rolled over into the hallway and opened fire on the six Milgari that were attempting to regroup from the blast of the grenades. Blaster bolts quickly ripped into each of them as Metz and two other Marines were standing behind me. The stronghold had been cleared.
We continued our push deeper into the platform until all of its guns were silenced. It had been a costly exercise with 12 of Metz��� marines killed of severely injured. I had lost Garland. But the platform had been taken.
The news coming back from the other platforms was similar. One by one they fell victim to the massive onslaught of the three species. The Prassi had lost two thirds of their fleet, the Dakar almost half. Our numbers were also hard to swallow as nearly 40% of our ships now lay in ruin or were scattered amongst the planets of the system. Debris from the great battle was drifting everywhere.
When the last of the platforms had been taken the fleets assembled in orbit around Torrus. I opened a comm channel to the Torrian leadership to ask for their surrender, “I am speaking for the alliance of species parked in orbit over your cities. You will unconditionally surrender or be destroyed. This is your only chance at ending this fight with your lives. You have 30 seconds to comply.”
It was a long 30 seconds that yielded nothing but silence. When the timer hit zero every weapon on the ground was fired into the air in defiance. The Dakar were the first to move. In seconds, the capital city of Torrus was being pummeled by 46 Dakar battleships. A similar scene was repeated in every major city on the planet. The Torrians would not go peacefully, violence was their way.
The Prassi quickly joined in the mayhem. They wanted their pound of flesh in revenge. I ordered our fleet back to a distance. We still had 20,000 Milgari ships coming our way. But the Torrians would no longer be a menace to our existence. Within the day they would all be dead. Crushed, burned and obliterated in a defiant suicidal defeat.
When the fighting on the planet had ended I got on the comm to all of our ships, “This day��� possibly one of the greatest days in our lives��� is coming to an end. We have lost many in this fight, brothers, fathers, wives and mothers. But the time of the Torrians is at an end. I will call for an immediate celebration for the day. But there is still a force of 20,000 Milgari warships out there, coming our way. It is a force still powerful enough to defeat us and to then attack and overrun the Grid. And until those ships are destroyed our job is not yet done. So, celebrate this great victory today, for tomorrow the fight resumes!”
It was a somber speech, not meant to detract from the tremendous victory at hand, but our war was not yet over. A vast and powerful enemy remained. I took the Swift and made my way to the Slaughter. After landing in the bay I walked to the bridge. The Colonel was waiting with an evil grin on his face, “You did it Don! You just won this war! Our only task now will be to keep those Milgari ships away from the Grid. I don���t yet know how we will do that, but I do know that we will!”
The Colonel looked at my blood soaked and tattered uniform. He reached out and took my hand in his giant steel palm and shook it, “Congrats Mr. President!” As he grinned and chewed away on his Omega root he looked downward and spit a wad of juice on my pant leg. He smiled, slapped me on the shoulder and then turned back to his men. The Colonel would enjoy the short celebration, for he knew that tomorrow would once again bring war.
Chapter 21
The following day the celebrations had ended and the three species had once again aligned their fleets for war. It had taken all of my diplomatic skills to convince the Dakar and Prassi to stay and fight. I had argued that they should at least see what the Milgari force would be bringing. If it was overwhelming they
could always turn and run.
The following day came and went with no Milgari, as did the day after and the day after that. I began to wonder if they had turned back towards the Grid. It was a chilling thought and I brought it to the attention of the Colonel and Admiral as we sat in the Slaughter���s mess hall, “I don���t think we can wait here any longer. If they turned back at the Grid it has either been captured, destroyed or it jumped away. I know we had our standard military fleet there, but it would be a suicide mission to try to defend against that massive Milgari fleet.”
Both the Colonel and the Admiral concurred. The Milgari were not coming and we needed to know the fate of the Grid. I was preparing to signal the Dakar and the Prassi to tell them we were leaving when an aide came into the mess hall waving a paper with news, “Sirs! We just received a broadcast from the Injector. I have the message!” I stood and beckoned the aide to read it aloud.
Don, the cure for the Torrian drug worked. We were lucky enough to have infected the flagship of the fleet before they began their move. After they turned back towards Torrus to follow after our ships the cure finally took hold of the captain. After a short time of confusion he ordered the fleet to stop. He was unsure of exactly what it was that he was doing.
While the fleet sat idle I continued to inject the other ships with the cure. The more that turned the more the confusion grew. Once the ships had all been injected I hailed the captain. After a long discussion he was in a state of disbelief of how they had come to where they were. As the cure finished its work and the fog cleared they began to remember what had been transpiring. I told them we would offer what assistance we could. I wasn���t sure what that might be, but I told them just the same.
AMP Blitzkrieg Page 22
