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Mission 5 - History Begins to ‘Creek’ - Part 2
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TA419 - 14/02,
Bridge of ‘His Majesty’s Axe’ - Station in Airspace Near Defence Platform 3.
The TSU orbital ‘Defence Platforms’ stood as monuments to the half-decade of peace achieved at the end of the prior war. Larger than any warship, these space stations represented a shift in TSU ideology to government.
Before the war, the planet Bhaile''s defence net was laughably slow, primarily because of the belief that no one but TSU could ever field many spaceships.
The net, an array of ordinary satellites, and smaller space stations (many commercial and so small they couldn''t possibly hope to keep track and process all the natural traffic in the solar system) would detect an anomaly - an asteroid entering the solar system say - and beam that information down to TSU headquarters on the planet below.
At this point, headquarters would analyse the data, confirm it as a threat or not and then pass it to an authority. Said authority would then give a command that would be beamed back to the satelite, which would finally notify the nearest fleet.
This was fine for notifying TSU of slow-moving objects, like asteroids entering the solar system, that were entire days away and most likely to burn up in the atmosphere anyway - the issue came with warships.
A satellite spots a flotilla moving between the two sister planets, six ships. Unable to track all flight paths, it presumes these ships to be nought more than merchant vessels. The flotilla changes course by just a few degrees, heading slightly more in Bhaile''s direction. Still nothing to worry about; until that is the course changes three more times to be pointing right at the planet.
At this point, the satellite raises a flag. After a delay, a fleet is finally sent to intervene. By the time it arrives, the enemy flotilla is already on top of them, deploying Vijiak''s at close-quarter range while TSU vessels scramble to launch antiquated fighter jets. It was by this simple method, among many others, that the Abhialen Revolutionary Army used to overwhelm and decimate the already outdated and underfunded warships of the TSU Navy five years ago.
After the war, fixing this system was the highest priority; the Defence Platforms had been the answer. Each station orbited the planet on a different path, with the absolute best of sensor equipment and processing facilities. They could track every legal movement in the solar system and instantly flag any rouge courses.
Platforms 2 and 3 were both commanded by a rear admiral and number 1 by the grand admiral, meaning no more delays in action; an instant authority to respond as news came in. Add to that the cannon equipped to each station, magnitudes bigger than even the strongest battleship''s equivalent - and the platforms had become the marker of the Union’s rebuilding efforts - the pride of Admiral''s Columbae''s military reforms. And something any would-be enemy of TSU would have to face...
Admiral Agitate glanced around his bridge. He stood at the front, a standing console hooked to all other stations in front of him, no chair. Abhailen Admirals never sit. Not much of a boost without gravity on your shoulders, but a staunch tradition, no less. A railing by his side, Abhialen Admirals also shouldn''t get ping-ponged around should the bridge be impacted.
Before him, the rows of operators at their stations, all linked through his terminal, ready to maintain every aspect of the ship in the coming fight.
"All stations ready, Sir."
"Excellent, put me in contact with the field commander," the Admiral said. The Scarlet Scourge''s face, with its wild mane of crimson hair, appeared in the terminal, "Admiral, Sir."
"You are our arrowhead today, Commander. I expect great things. An addition for you: one extra ship has been spotted heading for the Platform. We believe it to be the Vijiak-Carrier of a TSU ace. If the need arises, hold them off, but only go for a kill if one presents itself on a platter; the main mission takes priority."
"Roger that, Sir. I''ll keep a lookout for it."
"Very good, then let''s begin phase two, everyone. Commander, you have the go-ahead to launch."
****
TA419 - 14/02 - Same Time,
TSU Vijiak-Carrier ‘LongParish’, Hangar Bay, Far Side of Defence Platform 3
"How much longer?!" Major George Elton barked.
"They''re not sure, Sir, the techs are doing what they can," his young aide said.
Elton was known as a Vijiak Knight, one of TSU''s most elite. Although his ship had its own captain, everyone knew it was his. The LongParish, a modern Vijiak-Carrier. The long rectangle had a mouth at either end, running along its entire length, two magnetic high-speed rails - the largest runway of any carrier in service. The LongParish was the best in its class for rapidly deploying its twenty-six mecha at incredible distances rapidly. It was also broken.
It had been a terse couple of days. Ordered to back up Defence Platform 3''s defences, a Platform known for being underfunded, was one thing. Ending up arriving late, only for the catapults to malfunction? That was catastrophic.
Elton was not happy about more than that, however. The LongParish was his. His shiny new carrier ship intended to ferry his men and his Casnel. The Cheval De Troy, the ship that had carried the First Casnel, the spearhead that had ended the last war - had fought near daily for an entire year in some of the fiercest battles in recorded history - so how was it his carrier had fucked up this badly on its very first foray?
Elton was well aware that Platform 1 had the home fleet, the grand admiral’s five hundred ships. Platform 2 had a defence fleet, too, one hundred ships. But 3 had only finished construction months ago, and there''d been growing resistance; parts of TSU that wanted to focus less on defence and more on oppression, the radicals. Others wanted to return to pre-war policy, cut military funding, and invest instead in colonising further into space.
The bureaucracy and heel-dragging had led to a measily twenty-five ships and the station itself being here. Elton was the Columbae’s attempt to ease that. His twenty-five-man battalion were the best of the best, and he had been given one of the new Casnels.
But now they were late, too far away to help when the largest Remembrance fleet deployed so far in the ongoing conflict, fourty ships, was barrelling towards the Platform.
With a heavy sigh, Elton turned to his only remaining option, "Tell the Captain to get this damn thing fixed, I''m going out."
"Out, Sir. But to where?" the aide replied
"They gave me a Casnel with supposedly the longest-range weapon in existence. Pft, they said this ship was the best, too. Let''s hope the Casnel proves more reliable.
****
TA419 14/02
Orbit around TSU Defence Platform 3
A massive flaming great-axe swung through the air and smashed into the frontal armour of a MBT-Mk2. The blocky biege mech fliounder, the sheer impact more than it had ever been designed to withstand, the grinding, snarling teeth of the axe''s chainsaw blade ripping apart its armour. A moment later The Scarlet Scourge''s calabar mk2 bisected her foe.
"Alfrick fail back, you''re too extended. Jasta move left a bit, keep that package in your shadow at all costs," she spoke into her comm lines, as Chevalier 002 laid the still red hot axe on its shoulder.
The battle had entered its opening blows. Scarlet''s battalion of twenty-one machines had gone in first as an arrow head, diving into the twenty-five ships and over a hundred enemy mechs defending the platform, they moved fast amd viscously, going for the fastest kills possible and ducking between anit-mech fire on all sides from the defending warships.
Behind them, Admiral Agitae’s fleet had also opened fire, with the numerical advantage and the ability to manoeuvre more the the TSU ships - stuck holding positions around their stationery Defence Platfourm - The Rememberence fleet had already sunk one TSU ship. Things were going exactly as planned.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
It wasn''t easy by any metric, for a first fleet battle as field-commander, this was quite the baptism. Her single battlion was outnumbered and outgunned, they had to move fast, any hesitation in her orders, could lead them to being cornered. However any more units then this and not only would it be unmanageable but it would mean leaving their fleet open to a similiar assault, and so dozens of other Rememberence mechs had stayed behind in formation around the Admiral''s ships, while her force flew between the endless streams of fire, literally metres awat from the tall bows of the enemy vessels.
Just as Scarlet was picking her next TSU MBT to cripple, a frantic sound broke from her comms board, "ARGHHH--"
"Ma''am, Jeroumo has been hit, I didn''t even see it!"
"Calm down soldier," Scarlet spoke firmly into her mic, "Check, any sign of what it was?"
"Can''t be but, I could swear there a mech out there, but it must be miles away."
Scarlet didn''t hesitate, "Jasta, Manfred, take over, I''ll check it out."
The TSU ace she''d been warned of, if a Casnel like the ones encountered by Sesha was here, she knew only she could safely face it.
****
Agitae rubbed a hand through his short bearded chin, he stared out the large windows of his bridge, in front was the station, the cross-shaped beacon of TSU supremacy. Around it the now only twenty-four ships, each emiting continuous ray of all colours, energy beams cutting across the black night sky.
His own fleet was deployed in a simple pattern, a capital ship in the centre, two lesser ships a piece to the north-west, north-east, south-west and south-east of it and repeat. In total thirty ships allianed like this, ten behind them ready to swap in and out as needed. This allowied them to keep up a constant barrage, while also letting any damaged ship retreat and plenty room between vessels for more complex maneruors. If something came at them from above or below, they could turn without risk of harming one another. In a battle with the superior numbers on their side it was a solid formation.
The situation gave the Admiral a nostalgic feeling. Once Abhialien warlords had spent two years in fights like this. Outmatching TSU fleets in both tech and tactics, they had overwhelmed and crushed thousands of enemy vessels in battles like this, to the point that even five years later, TSU had barely rebuilt an eight of the forces it should probably have porptionate to its population.
For the last few weeks his forces had been fighting a gurella war, small detachments, smaller targets. After today that would be the case again, but for just now, here he was once more. Standing upon his bridge, overseeing a straight battle, with clear lines, with more then a handful of ships on either side - for the first time in five years, it almost felt like ‘the good old days once more’ - sad then, that such a straightforward battle was only the allusion he intended to give.
They were moving fowards but not at max speed. Aside from sending in Scarlet''s battlion the admiral had no intention of entering Vijiak range, nor of ever actually getting his forces that close to Defence Platform 3, he merely sought to give the illusion of a charge.
The results so far were excellent but just then he saw a single lightning bolt. It came from far behind the station, miles away in fact. What he saw was the first live-firing of the enemy Casnel, though even he with all his expeirence couldn''t know that. It was to Agaitae just a beautiful, desturcive light cutting across the battelines.
His attention turned to the station itself. A barrel the size of a warship ran through out the platform, and it was begining to glow. In reality it was no different to the cannons on his ship, or even a Vijiak’s rifle. A massive stream of super heated energy used as a projectile.
He licked his lips, finding out just what that cannon could do in practise was a nice secondary goal of this mission; "All ship''s prepare for impact, evasive maneours!" he bellowed.
The defence platform fired. A scalding, golden light lit up the black of space, its ridiculous pulsing diameter streaking through the sky in between its defending ships. Any vijiak caught in its path was eviscerated, instantly attomised.
The admiral layed a hand on the railing before him.
A Moment after firing it struck the ship north-east of His Majesty''s Axe. It peirced the small triangular vessel instantly, cutting into it with a violent surge of heat. Then the beam was gone, the attack finished.
The Admiral craned his head to see the damage with his own eyes, The fore and aft of the ship remained yet its centre, was simply a hole where a warship had once been. He bawked at the unyielding power, as the stricken ship began exploding, as every not evaporated system and fuel cell malfunctioned and exploded.
The defence platform weapon was even greater then they''d epxtected.
****
Scarlet whizzed through the battlefield at unreasonable speed. Warship cannons and dozens of Vijiaks alike tried to gun her down, but like a red comet she passed between laser fire and bullets without ever losing speed.
Before long she was behind the battle, ignoring completely the firing of the weapon, she came out from behind a rear guard TSU warship and into relatively empty space. Finally stopping she set her Casnel''s magnification to max. The main thing she saw was a the pixelated shape of a rectangular grey vessel, clearly the extra ship the admiral had mentioned. But just barely visible a ways out of from it, was something little more then a ‘stickman’. She knew instantly it must be the enemy Casnel, a sniper ace of unbelivable portions.
She took a deep breath and reached into the drawer underneath her pilots seat, retrieving a glass syringe, then plunged it into her arm, "Pah weak shit," she murmed.
The Scarlet Scourge was no stranger to doping, usually much stronger product then this, but she knew going berseker against an enemy literal miles away was utterly pointless.
This syringe did little more then force her adrenline up and open her endorphines. For most it would of been an almost debilating chemical experience, to the Scourge it was barely a scrath of the itch. Still she knew she needed every ounce of reaction time. Two of her men had already been shot out of the sky by that far off foe. She had to hope her presence would be a juicy enough target to force the enemy to fire just on her.
She rose her Casnel''s shield over her cockpit block. Could one Casnel''s superweapon pierce another’s armour? She had no intetion of testing that. With bated breath she watched the far off figure grab a stick from its back, presumably a metal rod of some kind and insert it into its right arm. She couldn''t make out details or design from here but she could guess, "Some sort of railgun then? Hyper accurate at range, strong as heck but slow firing. Suits me."
It would be impossible to dodge once it fired, she would have to dodge the second before that, some small telegraph, some tiny tell the weapon was ready.
The smallest flash of blue, just a faith glow at this distance, a spot of blue against the otherwise white figure. Scarlet happily took it, throwing her machine controls down her mech divided. The startling, searing shock of blue lightning cut over head, inches from her helmet.
''Hope no one was directly behind me,'' she mused, though the thought belittled the absolute rush of excitment at how close it had been.
Her enemy was unperturbed, he drew another rod and aimed again. Scarlet dodged once more at the second of the flash, this time to the left.
"Fuck!" the Scourge yelled as the blast grazed across one of the Chevalier''s feet, exactly where her torso would have been had she chosen to dive downwards again. Her cockpit shock slightly, its circular shape dissipating the force for the most part but feeling it at all told of the attacks great strength. Scarlet’s enemy had already adpted after one shot. The leg scared, the Goibhnui armour had held but her screens indicated clear damage, the railgun could definitely harm her machine.
Their game of chicken countinued for two more shots, both times she barely dodged the blue lightning, taking glancing blows that set alarms blazing, but it was enough.
"Package delivered Ma''am, were retreating," Lt.Manfred called over her comms
"Thank fuck for that," Scarlet replied, wiping a bead of sweet from her brow. She immediately set her mech to move backwards, but didn''t dare turn her back. Flying using just the rearview cameras she quickly returned to the reargard TSU ships.
At the last moment, as a final bolt of blue lighting cleaved through the sky, Scarlet ducked behind the nearest enemy ship. The lighting smashed into it. Finally in an odd sort of cover, the Scourge made her retreat.
****
"God Damn her, the hell is this!" Elton screamed, slamming a fist against his control panels. He hadn’t been made a fool of like this before, it was inconceivable that anyone could dodge him at such a range and yet. ‘No’, he slowly thought. Just once before someone had humiliated him like this, long ago. It couldn’t be her obviously, she was dead and had been a TSU pilot, but perhaps this enemy was similar in a way, someone who could make light of the VIjiak Knight. That thought chilled Elton’s blood.
"Sir, report. The enemy is retreating. Also the ship you hit is fine, it won''t sink."
Elton ignored that second bit, "retreating why? They have the numbers."
"Two of their ship''s have fallen to the Defence Platform’s cannon, a third is listing and two more took damage from the fleet''s fire.. Plus you took out two of their strike team’s mechs," the aide said.
"So? You think they weren''t expecting losses against that cannon? And its hardly just me they''re scared of, hell their Ace just made a fool of me. This is their only chance, after today no one will be able to refuse the grand admiral a full fleet to guard this platform. Todays it has twenty-six defenders, tommorow it''ll be 200. The hell''s their game?"
It was then Elton realised it. Had the enemy deployed a strike team of mechs, or were the mechs simply guarding something else? Did the enemy really intend a battle of artition, would they risk forty ships to take out twenty-fix, when in the next battle it could be five-hundred ships they were up against?
Why had the enemy ace made themself a target, only to play chicken and retreat? Why had admiral Columbae wanted Elton here to defend this place?
"Henry, put me throgh to the platfourms command centre, this is a trick--"
Too late.
His speically designed scope gave Elton a front row seat. As the Remembrance fleet dispersed to the far corner of his vision - the platform exploded. Midway through firing another blast of its cannon no less. In fact the attackers had probably rigged explosives to the cannon, have the platforms own energy cause it. ‘Of course,’ Elton realised, ‘The fleet was a decoy, the focus of everyones attention. Meanwhile the strike mechs cut in deep and dropped off a bomb or insertion team or something. That Ace wanted to capture my attention to prevent me spotting whatever it was her men were transporting in!’ How could I be so damn blind! If only my stupid ship hadn’t broken, maybe we could of–’ Elton let his thought drift, there was no point berating himself like this, it was already too late.
The platform’s explosion was monumental, the massive cross shape that dwarfed the ship''s arround it, bulging outwards, metal changing colours, fire spewing out only to be quenched by the vacum of space. Multiple defending ships getting cuaght in the blast.
Their enemy didn''t care about the defence fleet, they didn''t care if all twenty-six ship''s survived, any they sunk was just a bonus. They had come for the platform, and as it lit up into a massive searing white explosion, a second sun in the sky, it was clear they had succeeded.
"Blast," Elton scowled.