Con-Red: Recourse (64 page)

Shifting his gaze back to the front of the command center Jon watched the mass of missiles approach Destona at building top altitude and hypersonic speeds.  The ADS detected a few flights of alien fighters patrolling around the city at the same time and the colonel watched as two of these flights began to maneuver towards these projectiles.  It was at that same moment that the missiles quickly changed direction and veered away from the city’s center.  Three of these warheads disappeared from sensors in this mid-course correction phase, knocked out by the defending fighter craft, before they reaccelerated out of range at top speed towards their four distinct targets. 

At each destination the first wave of missiles contained only decoys that split into fours
, attracting even more attention from enemy anti-air defense batteries.  These decoys over flew these designated targets to draw away the fire just as the second and third salvos hit home.  Through the Jayhawk night vision Jonathan watched as these warheads slammed into their targets at supersonic speeds.  The entire Mironia Spaceport assembly area erupted with multiple detonations from its storage facilities and fighter hangers.  Two missiles slammed into a pair of massive Thumper armored walkers and destroyed them thoroughly.  Another group of missiles struck the alien cargo transports still sitting on the landing field.  Each of these appeared to have been unshielded at the time and shattered from internal detonations after the high speed warheads pieced through their thin armor plating.

These deadly projections were guided to their individual targets with extreme precision by laser designators from Jayhawk drones flying high overhead as well as by a small unit of
Special Reconnaissance soldiers.  These soldiers had set up a hidden position upon a small hill overlooking the low lying spaceport from another a kilometer away.  It had taken them days to establish the position, but their work was paying off as witnessed by Colonel Hallsworth from the Bastion TACCOM over two hundred kilometers from Destrona.  He watched as the SpecRecs invisible beams allowed more of the missiles to slam into their targets.  The first of which were a number of large perimeter defense batteries and strange looking buildings surrounding the port. One of these buildings hit was assumed to be a command and control center of some sort do to the amount of defenses around it and the presence of bulbous sensor looking structures atop its roof.  In actually the place’s function was to coordinate the orbital cargo drops as well as a housing unit for the enemy elite Special Forces units.  Its destruction killed many of these highly trained personnel and severely limited their combat capability within the city and surrounding areas.

Jonathan watched when the last of this second missile wave impacted another of the hanger looking buildings and sent enemy soldiers tumbling through the air along with the concussive wave. 
Before the light of this explosion even faded the last salvo of projectiles flew over the area.  Each of these missiles was different and the colonel had to look careful to see the sides of each missile body pop off to dispense dozens of burrow mines throughout the spaceport.  These anti-personnel and vehicle munitions hit the ground and buried under the earth, denying the whole area to the enemy forces.  In the end almost three squadrons of fighter craft lay in ruin and hundreds of the enemy were no more, along with many tons of much needed supplies.

A similar seen of devastation had unfolded at the other major assault site
at EB Omega.  Colonel Hallsworth only had to shift his eyes to the right in order to see the direct overhead video feed from Jay Three, another drone orbiting the zone.  All around the assembly area buildings were on fire and spacecraft remains were strewn around destroyed landing pads.  Jonathan focus, however, shifted to the region that made up the center of the alien base.  In this area had stood a towering three pronged structure that had been studied by his Intel personnel for the previous four days.  No one had known what the thing was, but it had been erected slowly over that period of time and guarded heavily.  All presumptions pointed towards it being some sort of communications device.  Whatever it was, though, Jon had deemed it a priority target in the strike.  He was now rewarded with the successful destruction of the tower.  Close up images showed it shattered into multiple pieces from its upper two-thirds up by a precision missile impact, which had also been guided by another SpecRec unit operating in the area.

The other two groups of missiles went after enemy forces operating within the southern districts of the city, further restricting their movements.  Mainly the strikes were directed at the larger alien armored units, which were more difficult and costly to replace and also presented the biggest combat threats.  Even as these missiles were raining destruction upon the unsuspecting enemy, Centaur IFVs packed with soldiers and supplies raced towards the city’s northern outskirts at treetop levels.  Most entered Destona without resistance and proceeded to predetermined rally points at which they met up with some of the guerrilla units operating within the city.  They quickly disgorged their precious cargo and took on groups of civilians waiting there to be evacuated.  The Federation troopers riding in the Centaurs stayed behind and were distributed as reinforcements to the resistance units in the area.

Over
two hundred civilians were rescued from the ravaged city by the operation at the cost of one fighting vehicle.  That Centaur had unfortunately been detected by one of the still flying enemy fighter flights and destroyed followed a singularity missile attack.  Jonathan frowned at the deaths of his men and women aboard that vehicle, but at the same time couldn’t help by feel extreme pride at the rest of his troops for carrying out their mission so expertly.  His last look over the projected images on the tactical display gave him another chance to see Mironia and EB Omega still engulfed in flames and devastation. 

“Happy New Year,” Specialist Ceasaris called out
from beside the colonel, seeing him looking at the wrecked enemy bases.

Jonathan looked over and met Ahron’s eyes with a nod, “indeed.”

             
The shock of what had transpired with Rahias’s destruction could almost be palpable throughout the carrier’s bridge.  Most of the men and women manning the command stations had never seen actual death before, other than during simulations and wargames.  In addition it was also the simple fact that the enemy had managed to slip through the defense line so easily to cause such destruction. 

Admiral Singh immediately noticed
this drop in moral as soon as the research station disintegrated under the heavy assault.  A gasp and awe emanated from a number of consoles, but was silenced fairly quickly when the ship’s AI, unfazed by emotional conflict, unleashed its counter attack.  Under its direct control the heavy cruiser
Karabela
and the destroyer
Sirius
unleashed a salvo of heavy hypervelocity slugs into the already damaged alien vessel.  At this pointblank range it took less than a second for the shells to strike.  Whatever minimal shielding the enemy still exhibited barely slowed the armor piercing alloy projectiles traveling at one-third the speed of light as they tore into the hull.  Two of the larger Saber cruiser fired shells even smashed completely through the ship’s insides.  They emerged on the other side of the vessel before their warheads finally went off.  One second the enemy ship was hanging there in space, surrounded in the light of the fires burning from the station’s destruction, and in the next it was joining that expanding field of wreckage.  Its crew now hopefully passing through the gates of whatever hell these beings believed in, Achyuta Singh thought to himself.

“Dispatching rescue crews!” Captain Hinnamen called out immediately.

“Bottle up those feelings,” the admiral finally said as he looked away from the fading firing and the dispersing field of debris, “let them feed our resolve.  We still have a long struggle ahead of us.  Enough time to avenge those deaths.”

He knew he could not fault of his crew for their current state.  Unlike him they were mostly new to death and the horrors of war.  Some had witnessed battles before, but those had been mere scrimmages against groups of pirates and almost always handedly won.  Having been born in a time of war and strife Achyuta seemed breed for a life of combat.  Still in the midst of the horrible EnTech Crusades
as a rambunctious youth he had volunteered for Naval service with the UPF.  Excelling at the officer training academy somehow landed him a dream position with the infamous Rear Admiral Olivia Brolenkov.  He served as a junior officer on the admiral’s staff and learned everything he possibly could from her about leading and commanding crews into battle.  For some reason she had taken an interest in him, possibly seeing his true potential, and gave him increasingly more responsibility as time went by.

It was with her that Achyuta had first learned of the struggles and hardships of command.  Together they weathered the darkest days of the Federation in their resistance against the ostensibly unstoppable forces of the Enlightened Technologists.
  The storm had been rough and he had watched many sailors and soldiers die in those days in defense of liberty and freedom.  It grew harder as he himself became a commanding officer.  Every death fell upon him.  They were his responsibility.  With Olivia’s guidance Achyuta learned how to deal with such things, but she had also taught him that each causality must never be forgotten. Such was the hardship of command.

Funny how time changes, but some things seem to stay the same, Admiral Singh thought to himself at that moment.  It had actually been on an operation not too dissimilar from the one they had been assigned to now that he had met the love of his life.  During the evacuation of the
Plicatsia Colony the then Captain Singh stumbled upon this feisty, take life by the horns, woman that would soon after become his wife.  She had turned into the de facto leader of the colony after placing their governor under arrest when he wanted to capitulate to the EnTech Inquisitor.  Working together, under intensive assault, they managed to evacuate all of the civilians without much loss in life.  Those days were long past, but Achyuta still reminisced about them with his wife every so often. 

Once the hostilities had ended and peace one again reined, Singh had thought that perhaps he could finish his career and retire
happily with his family without witnessing such needless death every again.  Fate, it seems, had other plans for him and so now here he was once more, only a year from finishing his career, in the face of senseless killing and violence.  Once again fighting not only for his beloved Federation, but for each and every men and women under his command.  The feelings of grief and sorrow submerged themselves beneath the waves of his thoughts and instead turned to resolve against the new threat at hand.

“New graviton burst emission detected
, Buoy Twenty-Two, Grid Two Two Nine,” Regela interrupted his thoughts all of the sudden right after Singh’s words of encourage.  The Ship Management System instantly updated the battlefield map with this new possible contact.  At the same time the battle group’s sensor arrays shifted to that region of space a search for enemy ships. “Commencing wide-area search.”

“Speak of the devil,” Achyuta said under his breath and looked over at Captain
Nicholas Hinnamen who took a pause from his coordination table to glance back at that exact moment.

“Detecting multiple new contacts on spectrographic array.  Estimating five new vessels
, ranging from frigate to heavy cruiser in size.  Signatures match those transmitted by Athenia,” Regela informed not a minute later as the various sensors covered the area.

“Confirm detection of foreign hostiles,” Admiral Singh requested as he leaned forward slightly.

“Perhaps we got lucky,” Nickolas added from his position on the bridge while looking at the new tactile map that now showed five new sensor contacts surrounded in red.  Between them and the
Regal
CBG lay only empty space. At the right most edge of this view, however, Knight Squadron and the
Odessa
could be seen moving to the outside of the battle zone, towards their assigned waypoint with the faster fighters ahead.

“
Perhaps, but we proceed with caution,” Achyuta stated wearily, “continue full area sweeps for any new contacts.”

“Rescan complete, still detecting
presence of five hostiles,” Regela confirmed before adding, “Vampire and Trident also report good launch taking up position and awaiting orders.  All squadrons now deployed Admiral.”

Achyuta took a deep breath, knowing that the moment had finally come to a head.  He activated the fleet-wide comms, “all hands, all hands, this is the Admiral.  Prepare for contact with the enemy
.  This is what we have all been training for.  Whoever these beings are and whatever motives they have for attacking us are no longer important.  They have taken innocent lives and it has fallen upon us to seek justice for them and their families.”

With one last look around the bridge, Admiral Singh issued his new orders and felt the whole ship rumble softly beneath him as its powerful engines began to push it through space.  Under Regela’s ever watchful guidance
and coordination the entire three tiered formation accelerated forward into battle towards the oncoming enemy force.  The forward deployed fighters and bombers took up screening positions at the same time.  Achyuta saw these seven squadrons split into flights of two and spread out to cover a wider area of space well ahead of the battle group.  Both Cyclone squadrons moved off even further to the very edge of the CBG’s perimeter and began to await the enemy fighter that the admiral knew were surely soon to come.  In the meantime the bombers, comprising two full squadrons, hung back among the larger ships for protection while targets were designated for them to strike.

“
Hotel Two thru Six targeted, sir,” said Captain Hinnamen from his own Tactical Command station.

“Engage at your discretion Captain,” Achyuta ordered softly without looking away from the forward screen.

“RAPs outbound,” Regela called out a few seconds later and the admiral saw the map update once again with dotted flight paths plotted through the enemy space between the two opposing forces.

The twenty RAPs, Rocket Assisted Projectiles, of both medium and heavy calibers fired out of their cannons at almost one-third the speed of light. 
At that velocity Admiral Singh knew that it would take the projectiles no more than ten seconds to cover the million kilometers that now spanned between the Federation and Alien formations.  While the
Karabela, Sirius,
and
Rastaban
reloaded and recharged their capacitors for another barrage the carrier’s bridge continued to monitor the situation.  For a number of seconds nothing changed in their movements, however, with only four seconds remaining until impact, Regela began to detect a shift in the alien battle line.  Achyuta instantly knew that somehow they had detected the incoming projectiles and were taking evasive action.  He saw each of the five ship representations alter slightly in course away from the RAPs flight path.

Guided by electro-optically assisted laser designators the projectiles followed these movements with minor course corrections by their built in micro-thrusters.
As they continued to close on their targets rear rocket motors ignited on each shell and propelled them even faster.  With seconds remaining, first one and then another of the RAPs disappeared from the sensor display before impact as defensive fire from the enemy ships began to greet the projectiles.  Achyuta watched as more of them vanished with every passing second, sparking large distant explosions.  Still more than half of the original number remained and pressed their assault.  Everyone on the bridge held their breath as the ships and RAPs intercepted on the forward display. 

“Enemy jump signature detected,” Regela calmly spoke out.

Achyuta couldn’t help but hear the groans of disappointment as they all saw the enemy ships blink off the sensors before reappearing thousands of kilometers later even closer to
Regal’s
formation.  The projectiles, unable to turn back to retarget the ships continued on through space, no one seemed to notice that one heavy projectile was missing.  Suddenly, however, one of the enemy ships detonated among its peers and the admiral watched its remains spread out through space, now detectable on all sensors.  What no one could have known was that due to a miscalculation the enemy ship had actually jumped directly into the speeding projectile.  Its destruction finally brought back some life to the bridge that had somewhat been extinguished ever since Rahias had been annihilated.

“Energy spike detected, Hotel Three and Hotel
Four!” exclaimed one of monitoring stations just before a pair of great red-violet lances fired out from the front of two of the larger alien ships.

The first deadly beam
crossing the vast distance was directed at the Saber heavy cruiser, while the other slammed into the less massive Cosmos class destroyer,
Sirius.
  Disaster struck for the
Sirius
as the beam impacted its starboard shields just as it was firing another round of RAPs at the still surviving enemy vessels.  Four shells hit the large beam directly before they could even make it through the destroyer’s shields and instantly detonated.  The whole ship rocked violently in space as the explosions washed over its bow and starboard hull.  Captain Hinnamen quickly zoomed on the
Sirius.
  For a moment only the warship’s brightly flaring shields could be seen beneath the weight of the laser fire.  Just as suddenly as it had come the beam stopped, giving the
Sirius
much needed recovery time.

The
Karabela
happened to be luckier at that particular moment.  It too was in the process of reloading and reacquiring its target when the enemy attacked it.  She had just unleashed her projectiles only a fraction of a second before the beam hit her dead center at the front.  Unlike the
Sirius,
these heavy rounds traveled through the cruiser’s shields before the alien weapon passed through them and hit the shields.  Everyone on the
Regal’s
bridge watched the massive explosions blossom and the blast wave slam into the
Karabela’s
protective barrier.  Her heavy shields held, however, even under the tremendous onslaught and everyone saw them ripple towards the rear of the vessel.  Even so sensors and some communications equipment on the cruiser failed temporarily as the intense radiation particles of the alien beam filled the space around the ship.

Just like with its comrade the
Sirius
, this enemy beam quit its assault after another second and allowed the Saber cruiser’s shields to start their slow recovery.  At the same time damage reports began to flow in from both ships.  Those from the destroyer were easily confirmed by looking at the forward display.  Achyuta’s eyes moved over the ship’s hull and took in the blackened, fractured, cratered areas that now covered parts of the surface plating.  A number of these blasts had even punctured clear into the vessel itself, opening up decks to space.  The damage report from the vessel indicated all of these damaged sections and also the fact that multiple weapons systems had also been destroyed or put out of commission as well.  Repair crews were immediately dispatched to the areas in order to contain any further spread of the damage.