Talosian Chronicles 6: Armageddon (26 page)

"We might have a chance, Kids; it looks like the jerks have already been damaged. Fire your missiles while we still have a lock on the fighters, then concentrate on the transport!" Paula ordered.

The missiles made quick work of the wounded fighter. It exploded in space. The other fighter took heavy damage, lost power and crashed into the lunar surface several klicks away. Paula noted there hadn't been an explosion and made a note to check it out later. The remaining missiles, having no target, quickly locked on to the transport and shot in to hammer on the ship's shields.

As a troop transport, the ship had been designed with heavier shields and armor for going into a battle zone. However, the heavy, concentrated fire from the drones forced the bigger ship to climb in an effort to reduce the ground fire that was quickly reducing their shields. The pilot soon learned that greater altitude held other dangers.

Just as the ship was about to get our of the drones range, it was hit by two much larger missiles fired from the base defense weapons. The shields failed, the entire front of the ship was blasted away, it lost power and began falling back toward the moon.

"Nice shot with those missiles, command. The fighters are down and the transports is coming down with a dead stick and no power," Paula reported.

"Good work getting them to climb high enough for us to target them, Dasher. You're going to have to make sure no one makes it out of the wreckage," command replied.

"Understood command. Be advised, one of the fighters crashed out here, but did not explode. I think the ship might still be more or less intact," Paula warned. "They were carrying nukes."

"Do you have it's location?" command asked.

"Not exactly, just a vector from our location and approximate distance," Paula replied.

"Good enough, give it to me, and I'll have the inbound fighters check it out," command replied. Paula relayed the information and the short video of the 'crash' as the transport impacted the surface at the northern edge of the Sea of Showers. "Transport's down, command. We're on our way."

"Understood and good work. Be careful with the transport; the troops are probably still fully mission capable," command replied. "We'll send another FROG squad, and the fighters will assist after they check out the crashed enemy ship."

"Dasher One, charlie-mike," Paula replied using the military code for 'continuing mission'. She changed over to her squad channel. "Okay kids, lets go make sure none of the troops from that transport can still cause trouble. Command says to be careful, since the troops and their equipment are probably still fully operational."

"That would be something; they came down like a brick and rolled after impact. I'm damn glad I wasn't on that ride!" one of her troops said.

"How do you want to do this boss? There is like, literally no place to use as cover out here," her second asked.

"We'll stay close to the edge and move north. Try to limit your exposure, but there are some places we're just going to have to make a run for it. There's another squad on the way, and we should have some fighters arriving eventually," Paula explained, looking over a map of the area. "Either way, let's get moving kids!"

"Dasher One, this is Thumper flight. We're nearing your location, do you…" Paula heard before alarms started going off in her cockpit. "Radiological alert! That damn fighter must have hot-wired one of his missiles! All Thumpers; scramble!"

"Missile track is to the west and on the deck, Thumper flight," Paula reported.

Thanks Dasher, we got it," the harried sounding pilot replied.

Paula saw to Wasp fighters rapidly pass over head, heading for the downed fighter, but she knew the rest of the flight had gone after the missile since she could see them on her scope for the time being.

Just as Dasher squad was closing in on the enemy crash site, there was a bright flash off to the west, well over the horizon. Thumper flight had since left her tracking scope since they had to fly low to get the missile. So it came as a harsh surprise when the remaining two fighters called in over the command channel.

"Command, this is Thumper three-one-four. I can't raise my flight leader. Do you have them?"

"Negative three-one-four, missile was armed off the rail. It was a shield piercer in the hundred megaton range. None of them got clear in time." Command paused. "I'm sorry, Ted."

There was silence for a few moments. "Understood Command. Enemy crash site located. The pilot is still alive and looks to be trying to fire off his other missile." A moment later, the pilot continued. "Fighter destroyed, no survivors. We're heading back to Dasher One's position."

"Understood Thumper. Good hunting," command said sympathetically.

"Dasher this is Thumper, it looks like they're expecting you. When we passed over we got a quick look at their position. They're using the crater from the crash as cover. There was a lot of wreckage at the ship, but it looks like there is still enough there to give you a problem. We can work the heavy stuff, but your going to have to deal with the troops."

The fighter sent her a short video of their fly-by, slowed down so they could see what was where.

"I see that. Before you start your attack, can you give me a high fly-by so we can see exactly how their set up? The edge of the crater is obscuring a lot of ground in what you sent me," Paula asked.

"Can-do. Be advised, I'm showing Dancer Squad FROGs approaching from the north. I'd bet the enemy has no idea they're coming," the pilot replied.

"That would be us; nice to see you folks left us someone to play with!" a new voice entered the conversation.

"Welcome to the party Dancer. About time you lazy bums got here!" Paula replied. "It looks like the enemy is set up to engage us, and has no idea you're coming up behind them. Feel like giving them a surprise?"

"Oh that sounds too good to be true Dasher. This sounds like fun!" the new guy replied.

"We'll keep their attention focused on us to the southeast. You come in from the north and spank them," Paula suggested.

"They'll have about four hundred meters from the northern rim to cover; if we time a strafing run to cover their advance, they should be able to pull it off, Dasher," the pilot said, showing the 'aerial image' of the battle site.

"Sounds like a plan, we'll move in and wake them up," Paula said. She switched to her squad channel. "Okay boys and girls. Let's kick this hornet's nest! Try to keep as much of their attention on us as we can; we're the distraction. Stay frosty; they've got hover tanks along the crater rim." 

"Time to show off those fancy moves you like so much, boss!" one of her troops replied as they all opened fire on the edge of the crater.

Above them, the two remaining fighters of Thumper flight dove in on the hidden hover tank line, firing missiles and raking the crater with laser fire. On her scope, Paula could see the five FROGs from Dancer squad vaulting over the low ridge on the edge of the sea. Using their anti-grav units, the units advanced very quickly across the open plain. The enemy did seem to notice them since they were trying hard to kill Dasher and the two fighters.

"Party-time," Paula said to herself as she ran her drone forward to a new cover position that would giver her a better firing angle. She dove and spun into the cover as two hover tanks tried to target her.

"You know you're not on a tumbling mat in college anymore, right boss?" one of her troops said.

"Hey, if it works; I'll use it!!" Paula replied as she targeted one of the tanks.

"Dancer in position, let's do this Thumper," the other squad leader called.

"Amen brother!" Thumper replied as the two fighters flipped back around and dove in again.

"Watch the crossfire, kids!" Paula warned her squad.

When the tank she had been working on suddenly exploded. She was surprised, the bulk of the attack was in further to the west. "Thanks for the assist on that tank!" Paula called.

"All part of the service, Ell-tee," a quiet voice replied. Paula saw that one of the Dancer squad had stayed up on the rim of the Sea. She looked closer at it's designation as saw it was equipped with an special type of mass-driver. Basically it was a anti-armor sniper rifle in place of the right side guns. Instead of missiles, it also carried a special electronics package that not only hid the unit from the enemy, but could provide electronics counter-measures for it's squad-mates.

"Thumper, this is Dancer Strike. Their are two heavy tanks that seem to be having a run of luck. I'll paint them for you," the soft voice said.

"Missiles sync'ed," Thumper replied. "Bringin' the thunder. Thanks for the hand-off Strike. Heads up folks, this is gonna rock their world."

When the missiles hit the two tanks from directly above, the resulting explosions filled the crater with shrapnel and confusion. The Imperial forces began to retreat from the edge of the crater only to discover Dancer squad had appropriated their crashed ship as cover. The bottom of the crater became a killing field was Dasher reached the upper edge and added their guns to those of the fighters and the other squad. The Imperial troops and vehicles had no where to hide, but continued to fight back until there were only a few soldiers left. They had been hiding in the wreckage of one of their personnel transports. When they looked up to see where the enemy was, they saw the nine FROGs standing boldly on the rim of the crater with their weapons trained on them. Above, the two fighters slowly circled.

After a brief communication, the remaining imperial soldiers dropped their weapons and walked out from cover. As one they all removed their helmets and fell to the lunar surface.

"Why do they have to do that?" someone asked quietly. "Wouldn't it have been more honorable to go out fighting?"

"Command, we're done here. No prisoners," Paula reported.

"Good work, all of you. Thumper Flight, return to base for an escort mission to Earth. Dasher and Dancer squads, find a place to park your drones and take a fifteen minute break, but stay on comms and close to your control sets," Command ordered. "This isn't over yet, but we're getting a lull for the moment."

TDF
Star Dancer

TDRS
Necromancer

Earth Space

Sol System

"
Apache
actual to Guardian actual, Raptor Priority!" Jana's voice issued from the speakers.

Ian touched the accept icon. Raptor Priority meant it was vitally important and Ian also knew Jana and her teams had been hanging around the 'third' wave fleet since they arrived in the system. They had been sitting on the far side of the system, apparently content to let the rest of the Imperial forces do all the fighting.

"What's up Jana?" Ian asked.

"Our friends out here have run out of patience. They're moving in, they're going pretty slowly for the time being, but they are definitely on their way to Earth. Current ETA is about two hours," Jana replied.

"I guess it makes sense, were pretty much at a stalemate in the battle. Both sides have taken a lot of damage. What is the final count on that fleet?" Ian asked tiredly.

She smiled at him sadly. "Eighty-four ships, forty of them are those weird transports. We've been planting demo charges on their hulls, since we got here but couldn't get them all since we had to make our own anti-matter. We tried to focus on the fighting ships, so they should lose another thirty-three ships once we detonate them. We can plant a couple more before they get too close, though." She paused. "Are you alright Sir? I reported most of that when we arrived."

He smiled back at her. "I got knocked in the head pretty good since then. Continue to plant your charges, but be ready to bail on short notice. I'll see what I can scrape together to stop them."

"Have we taken that much damage?" Jana asked, concerned.

Ian nodded. "We've taken pretty significant losses. However, the Empire has taken a shit load as well. Over-all, they've taken more than we have, but the fighting is still pretty wide-spread. They started running low on missiles a few hours ago, and that's given us an advantage; they will lose this fight… eventually.

"Earth is still safe, but there has been a lot of damage. Several of the world capitols took direct hits and the leaders were killed. So far, the UN is still safe, but New York has been heavily damaged thanks to the Caldarians. Civilian casualties are estimated in the millions. There's still some fighting going on down there, but it's isolated and mostly under control now.

"The Centauri system is still fighting. That battle has turned into a running battle of attrition. Both sides are getting worn down, but so far, the planet has been left alone. Some of the space facilities have taken damage, but none of them have been totally destroyed. We're going to have a lot of work on our hands getting everything rebuilt after this is over with," he finished, tiredly. He sighed. "We've lost three hundred ships, a hundred and seventy thousand soldiers and ship crew. Another two hundred thousand have been recovered from wrecks."

"Jesus, we had no idea it was that bad," Jana replied, shocked.

Ian nodded. "No one does, we've been keeping that information classified for now. We don't want morale to suffer. We'll let it out when the fight is over."