Authors: Max Feinstein
The gunship commander
seemed to be no fool, however, and the ship started to rotate almost instantly towards the incoming fire in order to present the still shielded sections of the craft. As it rotated its front in the direction of the barrage, Felix could see the remaining beams stitch their way towards the forward section. One caught a lucky break and exploded against what seemed to be a protruding weapons emplacement, scorching the surrounding area. The rest of the particle beams impacted against a glowing forward shield and caused no remaining damage.
This time the large ship responded in kind to the continued abuse and released a wave of missiles towards the direction from which the tanks were firing. Accompanying those missiles were also pulsing beams of amber energy, reaching out towards enemies unknown.
From his vantage point Felix watched as the incoming particle beam barrages ceased for a moment, wondering what kind of damage the gunship had caused, but was glad when the beams came back to sting the ship from a slightly different direction. This time, though, there seemed to be fewer of them, which his TacNet quickly confirmed with an update showing the destruction of two MT-75 Chimera tanks.
Felix
started to wonder how long this could keep up and guessed that some of the marines were thinking the same as two of them stepped closer to stand on either side of him while watching the engagement. The gunship’s shields were starting to falter again, but it was still a big threat. As he watched the enemy ship started to accelerate towards the location of the army tanks on what was probably a search and destroy mission. All of the sudden the gunship slowed and unleashed a hail of rapid laser fire from two different locations on its hind quarters, reaching out into the sky above and behind it. Felix had seen something like it before, mostly on naval vessels and quickly turned his head in the direction where the enemy was firing. There was nothing there except for gray sky, until a small explosion appeared in the distance, which was followed by another even closer this time.
Finally he saw them, almost invisible against their surroundings, a pack of large missiles racing towards the gunship. They were moving so fast that
Felix only had a second to register them before the remaining four slammed into the top and rear of the gunship. The massive blast consumed the entire ship, ripping it apart from the inside, and propelling pieces of it in all directions. From the unleashed destruction Felix could tell the attack had been overkill, but his experience had taught him to always be safe than sorry. As he continued to watch the rising cloud of smoke with pride, a trio flight of Dragonfires’ flew across the warzone and through the blackened cloud in delta formation. Each one conducted a victory barrel roll before banking away and accelerating into the distance as low altitude.
It was at this moment
, when the burning carcass of the gunship crashed down, that the Marine Special Forces operatives finally showed their emotions and let out a loud victory cry almost in perfect unison. Felix accepted the destruction of the enemy ship with a mixed of happiness and pride, but also a sense of anguish for the lives lost during the planetary invasion. He didn’t even want to think about how the civilians were fairing around Frontiera, silently hopping that whoever the aliens were, they still operated under some form of Rules of Engagement and stuck to attacking primarily military targets.
A weight on his shoulder broke his train of thought and he turned his head to stare into the greenish visor of Katherine Questok
as she leaned her elbow against him, “not a huge victory, but every bit helps, right Army?”
“Yes ma’am. I just hope we bring t
he fight to them again and soon,” Felix replied as he looked at the slightly taller female marine.
“
Call me Kath,” she half interrupted him in her pleasant voice, “I’ve never been a fan of that ma’am stuff.”
There was a rather loud explosive
pop
behind them both at that instance, coming from the direction of the downed shuttle, causing him to almost miss her girlish laugh. With a smile on his face Felix turning towards the noise and felt the armored hand leave his shoulder. He turned around just in time to see the shuttle squeal and groan as it was quickly compressed into a small irregular mass of metal. Felix had assumed before that the satchel charge had been an explosive one, but now saw that it had in fact been implosion ordinance. To his understand, the charge created a micro intensive gravity environment that could implode almost anything within its effective radius.
“Alright everyone, our job here is done. Broke and Jade, you stay behind as rear guard and recon. Follow behind in ten.
Rest fall back to Point Bravo,” Colonel Slaige commanded over the TacNet and issued specific orders to marines that were nowhere in sight.
With instructions received
Felix deactivated his carbine and felt it shrink in size before pinning it back into the recess within his chest plate. He took another look at Sergeant Questok, who glanced back at him with a nod, and jogged back to where Nolan was standing with General Stelle still over his shoulder. On his visor projected map Felix could see the other Army units within the surrounding area starting to retreat from the area.
A series of tremors, preceded by a similar number of distant explosions, ran through the entire terminal in short succession. Standing inside his CC-38 Beacon Command and Control vehicle Colonel Jonathan Hallsworth felt the vivid vibrations run through the vehicle’s floor and up his entire body. With hands crossed over his chest he leaned towards the display screens oriented along the entire side of the armored vehicle’s interior and waited for the two soldiers sitting there to update the displays accordingly. At the moment one of the screens showcased the whole of Destona, with various portions in red to indicate enemy control, while the others were focused on the areas immediately surrounding the Urles underground HTram station.
This friendly area, highlighted in blue, was the northern edge of the city and happened to be the most heavily populated. This was the reason why the military had fallen back and concentrated itself within this area. It had established a defensive line along the entire perimeter in order to keep the civilians out of harm’s way until an evacuation could be conducted. Their protection had
come at a great cost to the army units fighting block by block, building by building, to keep the enemy at bay. An area wide TacNet blackout didn’t help matters either, making the task of fighting the enemy that much more difficult. Laser datalink relays had been brought online almost immediately, but their effectiveness within the dense urban environment left much to be desired as they could not penetrate buildings nor send information around corners. Drones had been launched to assist with communications, but many had been shot down by roving fighter patrols. Still, even with so much hardship and restriction, they fought on without reprieve and to the best of their abilities; united under a common purpose.
It was because of such network limitations that Colonel Hallsworth
had to watch his steps as he slowly paced back and forth within the armored vehicle’s interior, as numerous hardline data cables ran across the metallic floor. These cables had been scrounged from all around the HTram station and repurposed, with the help of diligent Army combat engineers, to be used in the transmission of data from the warzone above them. The data came from multiple units hidden throughout the city, whose job was to gather and compile all the data sent through the laser data-links and manually transmit that data through actual landline cables to different command posts. Urles Station functioned as one of these temporary posts for the time being.
How things had changed
since his arrival less than twenty-four hours ago, Jonathan thought to himself as he ran his hand over his short dark beard. He had arrived on planet with most of the 76
th
Regimental Combat Team to replace the 93
rd
RCT, who had just completed their 1 Standard Earth Year or 13 Frontiera month equivalent rotation. Only an hour after watching the entire 93
rd
depart from the planet on their way to a much needed rest the entire planet had become engulfed in war.
He remembered the mad scramble to get everyone combat ready as they all realized what was happening. With the complete wireless network blackout there was no warning as to the attack and his RCT had been in no position to fight, with most of their equipment still needing to be unpacked from storage.
Colonel Hallsworth beamed with pride, however, at how swiftly and professionally his team had responded to the immediate threat when word had finally reached them through a courier from another unit. They had all formed up and did their best to get as many supplies as possible from the storage crates before advancing into the city in order to set up a defensive line again the alien threat, as were their orders from high command.
A new Tac
Link ID marker appeared on the side of his vision, revealed by the functional laser data network within the underground station, and informed him of a soldier approaching him from behind.
“Any new orders fr
om command, Lieutenant Ankar?” Jonathan asked without taking his eyes off the displays, a frown crossing his lips as parts of the defensive line broke and shifted further to the rear once more.
When no answer was given by the lieutenant, Jonathan let out an annoyed breath and turned around towards the man quickly.
He registered the officer’s strained hesitation almost instantly, but the shock took a moment longer to discern behind the man’s emotional mask. The lieutenant was a fairly new officer with no real combat experience, but training should have at least prepared him to react appropriately to almost any situation imaginable. That simple fact told Jonathan all he needed to know.
“We don’t have all day soldier, what is it?”
Colonel Hallsworth ordered more forcefully this time, trying to snap the man out of his daze.
That harsher tone seemed to do the trick and Jon watched the other’s eyes do a quickly double blink as he snapped out of his stupor. The soldier’s training kicked in almost
immediately right after, causing him to straighten his stance.
“Sorry sir!” h
e said loudly, a little ashamed of how he had acted moments before, “it’s just that that last orbital strike… well it hit Helivek. Ceribus is dead, sir, as is his entire command staff.”
The entire interior of the command vehicle went silence with that last sentence and Jon felt both of the COMINT officers stop working and turn towards them. Helivek had been the designated code picked for the city b
unker housing the General, codenamed Ceribus, and his staff of top officers. General Zellor’s and his staff had been in charge of the entire Destona defense and evacuation planning. They had managed it from the beginning and with them out of the picture, the whole operation fell to the person next down in the chain of command.
“I must inform you, sir, that
as the highest ranking surviving officer, you are next in line to take command of all military assets within the warzone,” Lieutenant Ankar stated after a short pause.
Now it was Colonel Hallsworth who stood in shock and silence for what seemed like an eternity. His mind reeled at the terrible news j
ust presented. Such scenarios had only been discussed and studied during officer training, but had never before materialized into reality in the history of the UPF. The responsibilities of such a command had never appealed to the Colonel were not something he had ever strived for. Being a colonel and commanding at the regimental level had been his dream from the moment he had graduated the Zergada Officer Academy. Having achieved that goal years ago, Jonathan had little want of advancement beyond that position.
Fate, however, seemed to care very little about a person’s wants or desires. As such it had thrust the Colonel head-on into a destin
y he had never dared to imagine. A destiny, that for a single moment, Jonathan Hallsworth felt completely inadequate and unprepared for. He had been happy to simply carry out the orders of his superiors to the best of his abilities in ways that he saw fit, but now he was responsible for every action in the entire warzone. All these lives were now in his hands to lead to safety or face almost certain annihilation.
It was the cry of a scared youth outside that reminded Jon more directly of what was at stake here. That cry was not alone, he realized as his hearing registered hundreds of other crying and weeping voices within the station. Most, but not all, of those were children. Among them were frightened mothers, fathers, and even some grandparents that huddled together in the now crowded underground complex with no idea of what the future entailed for them. None of them had ever really experienced war, except for simflix perhaps, and had no idea of how to react to the situation. Because of this simple fact
, they had no choice but to follow all orders given to them by the local authorities and had converged on the massive Urles station with the promise of evacuation.
They had entrusted those in charge to keep them out of harm’s way in this warzone
and as such their futures had fallen into Colonel Hallsworth’s fated hands. With no new orders coming from those in higher command positions, every decision now fell upon him to get right. Right or not, though, Jonathan decided in that single moment to embrace the circumstances dealt him and protect everyone in his care to the best of his abilities.
From the second that resolution affirmed itself a wave of unprecedented calmness washed over him. He knew what had to be done and how to set those plans into motion.
“Lieutenant,” Colonel Hallsworth finally said in his state of calm and clarity, “prepare the civilians for evacuation. We proceed as planned in one hour.”
He heard an acknowledgement from the officer
while already spinning around quickly towards his communications team. There was much that still needed to be accomplished in order to make the evacuation go smoothly. The coordination between all the various elements needed to be exceptionally precise and they already had all the objectives in place. They just needed orders on when to execute those commands.
Once again Jonathan looked over the display monitors to gauge the position of all friendly forces within the area, noting that the defensive line had shifted further back still. Some areas had given up more ground than others as they faced the heavier numbers of the opposition. The delayed feed even showed a number of
attack runs by the enemy fighters, causing various amounts physical damage to surrounding builds, but lucky not much in the way of casualties.
The Colonel clinched his jaw slightly at the sight of the attack and slowly leaned in a little further to study the two monitors more closely. He rested his hands on the back of a seat used by one of the soldiers and surveyed the enemy movements as well as the positions and numbers of units now under
his command. Jonathan let instincts guide his actions, just like he had always done in the past. His father’s words were always in the back of his mind, reminding him that data could only guide one to a certain point. There were times when it was more prudent to follow one’s own gut in making decisions.
“Ceasaris,”
he finally spoke, while straightening his posture, “exodus is a go. Initiate Phase One.”
Twenty-four hours prior he would have heard and witnessed the acknowledgement to his command almost instantly, but with TacNet completely jammed and nonfunctional it took thirty seconds to
a few agonizing minutes before the orders were received by the landline stations and relayed to units in the field. For this plan, however, this disjointed effort would have the wanted effect. As Jonathan watched various army units finally started to pull back from the defensive perimeter. Slowly, but surely, different portions of the line broke until the entire front was no more, becoming simply a serious of tactical retreats under enemy fire.
The intended effect
on the enemy forces was almost immediately apparent as the displays began to show enemy units starting to advance into the abandoned position. Block after city block became conquered in minutes after hours of heavy resistance as the army units pulled back. On the projected map in front of him a dotted line appeared, stretching through the district as the defensive line had. This, however, was a preset line that all units had to cross before the next phase of the operation could begin.
“Last
unit just reported clear, sir,” Specialist Ceasaris reported minutes later as the monitor updated with all friendly icons now behind the dotted red line.
“Very well specialist, let
’s start Phase Two, shall we?” Colonel Hallsworth said with a small smile finally gracing his lips.
That very same smile disappeared only seconds later when a caution notification appeared on the display, just as the specialist started to transmit the newly issued order.
“Sir, Captain Fiahmsa reports that one of his squads is still within the engagement zone. She requests permission for a rescue attempt.”
Something always goes wrong,
Jonathan reminded himself as he shook his head while running a hand through his hair. Before he could make the call, though, he needed more information. To get it he used his neural link to call up that team’s location, watching as the map on the display shifted and moved to his will until it settled on the area from which that squad last reported. A blue army squad indicator appeared over one of the office buildings in the area as well as a small open eye like symbol at the top left corner of the map image.
That symbol was the universal indicator for an aerial drone
, one of a handful still remaining aloft, and let the commander know that one was currently available to him. Upon selecting the icon the display showed him that it was a Jayhawk drone flying recon throughout the city. These bird-like drone were designed to specifically mimic the flight pattern and profiles of local avian wildlife to mask their intentions. The disguise had seemed to work, at least for now, as all of the drones were still in operation and none of them had been targeted by the enemy forces.
Again Colonel Hallsworth waited for his commands to be relayed to the orbiting drone and finally after almost a minute a new window opened on the monitor, showing a somewhat delayed video feed. The video smoothly scrolled sideways as the Jayhawk adjusted its flight course and soon brought the designated building into central view
. Signs of intense battle became immediately clear to the Colonel as his eyes focused on the rubble surrounding the trapezoid shaped building. The west face of the building had once been of a rounded construction, but that was not so anymore. That entire face seemed to be completely destroyed now, with a large pile of debris at the base.