Con-Red: Recourse (25 page)

“Another recon flight inbound Colonel,” Specialist Charles Helvik reported with his eyes trained on the sensor display in front of him.

Behind him stood Colonel Hallsworth, also watching the same screen while holding onto the back of the specialist’s seat to keep himself steady.
  This sure wasn’t the relaxing Christmas Eve he had envisioned previously, he thought to himself as the floor rocked under him when the Beacon vehicle hit another patch of turbulence within the relatively narrow mountain pass.  Cut through the mountain range many millennia ago the Bragor Mountain Pass created an almost perfect channel for winds to flow through as they came off the Velio Ocean that lay off to the west.  This condensation of currents that passed over the mountains created extremely fast and turbulent winds within the pass.

“Alright, slow us down and let them pass.  Let me know if their flight path deviates from the projected course,” Jonathan ordered, but at the same time knowing full well that his team already knew the entire procedure without him having to issue a single command.

They had been traveling this route since the moment they had evacuated from Destona almost three days prior.  During that time the enemy patrol flights had become a regular occurrence.  Whoever these alien attackers were, they were not stupid and the disappearance of an entire army group, along with tens of thousands of civilians could not go unnoticed forever.  The Destona defensive line had held them off longer than anticipated before it was overrun by enemy forces reinforced by gunships and more targeted orbital strikes.  A lot of good women and men had died in order to buy the evacuation as much time as possible and Jonathan knew that he would never forget their sacrifices.

The only reason for their continued survival and evasion was the shimmering force field spread out around the entire convoy in a dome like shape. 
The LARCGEN or Large Area Cloak Generator on the large Scutum class support vehicle allowed Jonathan to hide all of the evacuees and supporting army forces from the enemy’s prying sensors.  Jonathan looked up through one of the transports topside windows and saw the sky above shimmer slightly as the cloak field was hit by another gust of wind.  This field allowed everyone under it to see clear through, but stopped all electronic and visual signatures from getting through.  The field projected a reflection of the entire area under it to the outside world, but only with an edited image.  A sophisticated set of programs sifted through the image before its projection and took out every designated unit and vehicle within the field’s interior.

So far the cloak had been very effective against the sensors fielded by the invading aliens.  From high above the enemy reconnaissance patrols only saw the mountain pass below with a set of electro-magnetic guidance tracks running through it surrounded by
vetula grass as far as the eye could see.  It seemed as if the entire area was uninhabited, but that was far from the truth.  Under this deceptive dome a congregation of trains and vehicle of all different types huddled together and slowed moved through the area.  Their slow rate of movement was due to the LARCGEN’s computational limitations.  The system had never been designed to sustain a cloak field of such magnitude for this great length of time and with so many different vehicle variations.

“Sir, enemy is increasing sensor probe strength,” Specialist Charles Helvik relayed while his hands worked the holographic keyboard in front of him.

Beside sat Specialist Ceasaris, who also worked his keyboard to get more data on the matter, “LARCGEN is trying to compensate, Colonel, but it’s already stressed beyond safety limits.”

“I’m detecting increasing fluctuations from the cloak field.  Generator number two is beginning to show signs of damage and is engaging internal safeties,” Charles continued where his comrade left off and projected an overhead image of the entire cloak field.

Colonel Hallsworth looked over at the image and saw the field’s shimmer effect start to increase, indicating the growing instability within the cloak.  As he continued to watch the display before him the ringed perimeter began to flash slowly in a yellow color.  Within seconds, however, this yellow changed to a deep red and pulsed faster as the system registered a failure within the field generation process.

“Generator two just shut itself down, sir.  System is switching to backup power, but field integrity is still dropping.”

“Cloak field is beginning to condense,” Ceasaris added quickly as the monitor presented the data within the overhead image, showing the border of the field slowly start to shrink.

“We knew this was a possibility from the start,” Jonathan said and crossed his arms over his chest
, “relay the data to all pertinent personnel.  Distance to Bastion Mr. Helvik?”

“Just under fifty kilometers.  The field will shrink by more than half before we reach it, though.”

The colonel took a deep breath and knew the time had finally come to act, “set CON Red-One and initiate Romeo-Alpha.  Have Archer Three and Four target the enemy patrol, but hold for my order and put the Wildcats on standby.”

Having gone over the Romeo-Alpha plan many times over the past two days it didn’t take long for the orders to get carried out. 
The internal lighting within the command vehicle changed to crimson while both soldiers instantly split up the assigned tasks and transferred the given commands to their intended recipients throughout the entire convoy.  Acknowledgements of the orders appeared on the tactical displays almost immediately as the entire military contingent switched to the highest military readiness level and prepared for the coming battle.

Military police units redeployed within seconds and started to readjust the convoy’s formation
in order to maximize the effect of the shrinking field.  At the same time other military units readjusted their positions and closed all of their open hatches.  The Wildcats, a flight of four Dragonfire fighters that survived the initial attacks, powered up as soon as their pilots scrambled into them and began to levitate off their two transporters.  These heavy flatbed transporters had been repurposed during the evacuation and served as the fighters landing pads, holding a pair of Dragonfire’s each.  Each of the four fighter craft slide sideways off of their designated transports and held position in a lower hover, waiting for further orders.

These preparations for combat were quickly noted
as being out of the ordinary by the civilians within the convoy and panic among a number of them ensued.  Unaccustomed to the stressors of war, certain people began to act irrationally and Jonathan watched as a small group of vehicles broke away from formation.  They raced towards the northern edge of the cloak field, probably assuming that they could reach Bastion on their own by using speed to their advantage.  The group was already close to field’s edge, managing to cross the boundary even before Colonel Hallsworth could transmit a warning message.

“Enemy patrol
Alphas coming around, sir, fifteen kilometers out.  They have most likely detected the civilian vehicles.  Intercept ETA, five seconds,” Specialist Helvik called out just a second later, Alpha being the code designation assigned to the alien assault fighters by the command staff.  It also helped that the craft resembled the English letter A when looked upon from the rear.

“Detecting new separation from both fighters!” Ahron Ceasaris shouted in slight surprise and the computer squeaked out in alarm to call attention to the matter.

The Electro-Optical Sensor Suite, EOSS for short, was found to be the only system capable of tracking the stealthy enemy aircraft.  By tracking the craft visually instead of electronically it was not affected by whatever jamming or material the enemy used to defeat every other sensor system in the Federation’s current arsenal.  There was, however, a sever limitation to the EOSS.  It did not have the detection range of other systems and was therefore not entirely effective as an early warning system.  As such, most detected enemy ships were already within the engagement range of their weapons systems or close to it.

This fact was demonstrated once again as the enemy
Alpha fighters unleashed their missiles.  These as of yet unclassified weapons accelerated linearly to hypersonic speeds almost immediately.  After a long second of flight each missile arched down towards its target.  The civilians in the fleeing transports had no way of knowing that they had just sealed their fates and just seconds after their launch the two weapons detonated just meters above their two separate targets.  The resulting blasts were unlike anything those watching had seen before.  Both started as bursts of bright white light that quickly coalesced into tiny spiraling singularities, imploding the initial target before pulling in the nearest surviving vehicle and crushing it into nothingness.  The only evidence of the assault that remained was a small symmetrical crater at the site of the blast.  Throughout the whole ordeal only a loud sonic-boom gave any indication of something going wrong to the twenty-five men, women, and children inside those four vehicles before they all ceased to exist.

“They are pressing the attack Colonel.  Our gig is up it would seem,” Ceasaris announced and turned back to look at Colonel Hallsworth for new orders.

Jonathan leaned closer to observe the tactical display, horrified at the destructive power of the new weapon he has just witness.  He continued to watch as the fighter pair preceded on their course towards the convoy.  The pilots weren’t stupid and mostly likely knew something wasn’t entirely right when the four transports appeared out of thin air.  Their suspicions were confirmed moments later when the cloak field shrank once again, exposing twelve armored infantry vehicles from the 76
th
Regiment’s Charlie Company 2
nd
battalion.  This group of IFVs comprised the convoy’s outermost defense perimeter and was therefore the first to lose the protective cover.

“Archers, engage those fighters
at will,” Jonathan ordered with his hands clinched into tight fists in an effort to control the emotions that began to boil inside him from watching the senseless slaughter of unarmed civilians, “deploy the Wildcats as soon as those fighters are down and reinforce the defense perimeter.  I’m sure the enemy knows where we are now.  Our mission now is to get everyone to Bastion as fast as possible.”

A
red stream of laser bolts, from two different locations, raced up from the surface in acknowledgement of Colonel Hallsworth’s order and drove head on into the left most enemy fighter.  The two Sentinel Air Defense vehicles termed Archer Three and Four had been tracking the both of the fighters from the second they had been detected and as such their aim was perfect.  Both salvos of laser fire stitched across the fighter’s sides from their initial impact points, causing the enemy craft to falter in its course and its shields to shudder.

Another laser barrage ascended towards the ship, but missed as the pilot quickly recovered and began a series of avoidance maneuvers.  In focusing on this attack against him, the
pilot failed to notice the two missiles racing towards him.  The cloak field shimmered and rippled as the missiles pierced through it and slammed into the enemy craft seconds later.  One exploded against the shields protecting the left side wingtip, while the second sliced through the now weakened defensive barrier and detonated over the dorsal hull.  The resulting blast broke the Alpha’s back, causing it break in half in the middle of a high G turn.  A number of secondary explosions followed the first from within the two broken sections to complete the ship’s destruction.

The fighter’s wingman was not detoured, however, and pressed the attack further with the release of four more hypersonic missiles.  With these projectiles launched craft nosed down at a steeper slop and let loose with its own
energy weapons.  The missiles were targeted at some of the military vehicles exposed by the diminishing cloak, while the energy beams were directed into the cloak field, towards the estimated locations of the air defense systems. 

These launched warheads
quickly found their military targets to be more of a challenge than the previous civilian ones. Three of the vehicles targeted were IFVs and one was a Chimera battle tank, but all began evasive maneuvers immediately upon detection of the incoming projectiles.  Along with the maneuvers, each one fired off their own defensive weapons.  A hail of laser fire burst forth from the Chimera, while the Centaur IFVs let loose with missiles of their own.  One of the missile interceptors managed to strike its target dead on, causing the projectile to disintegrate in midair, while another missile exploded with proximity of its target.  That damaged projectile veered off course and slammed into the earth and detonated twenty meters away from another Chimera tank.  The resulting micro singularity was strong enough to slide the heavy tank towards it and slam it into the ground, crumpling its entire right side in the process due to the tremendous amount of gravitational force unleashed. 

Missiles three and four were more effective at causing damage.  Number three missed its target by only a fraction of a second as the Centaur’s slid aside at the last moment.  A pair of automated resupply vehicles following
in the IFV’s wake were less fortunate and disappeared in a brilliant explosion as their cargo holds full of spare munitions detonated from the primary missile impact.  This massive explosion and its accompanying plume of smoke dissipated almost as quickly as the triggered micro black hole stabilized for a fraction of a second, pulling in whatever matter remained in the surrounding area and obliterated it into nothingness.  The Centaur armored vehicle was caught in the first explosion, however, causing its shields to flare brightly before the pull of the singularity caused it to flip over and crash into the ground on its back and side.  One soldier was killed on impact and six others were injured to various degrees of severity.