Post by Attero Dominatus on May 28, 2009 1:44:30 GMT -5
They all took a good look at the image I placed on the table. The layout of the camp they were constructing fairly standard. In its complete state, it would have eight towers with laser turrets to engage ground and air targets and a ring of mines. So far, most of the inflatable structures were in place and four of the towers were up. They were just beginning to construct the circular wall to surround it. A large derrick was in the process of being raised over the shaft entrance, which was meant to lower people down to the object.
"Four of us versus an entire company of battle hardened commie soldiers," Flannigan said in disbelief. "You are one crazy woman!"
Thomas was annoyed by the old man's constant pessimism. "It can be done, we just need to find a hidden position, like here..." he pointed to a small valley about four kilometers from the base, "...and hit the bastards with a lot of preparation fire."
"Then that is where we will land," I said.
"They'll call in a broken arrow on their own position once overrun," Jason said defensively.
Captain squid speaks the obvious, Thomas said in his mind. "They won't be calling in anything if we cut off their communication."
Just as Jason was about to talk about home-on-jam weapons, I spoke up. "A high attitude nuclear explosion will disable their satellites and disrupt communication for hours."
"You got nukes too huh," he said in disbelief. "Just how the hell do you get all this stuff?"
Right now, Thomas was the only one I could trust with any of my secrets, but I had no plan to mention my methods if I could help it.
"I have my ways, but that is not important right now."
Anna thought about the inevitable counter attack. "They will eventually find out about us and attack."
"Which is why we are going to wait for them to complete the base and then capture it."
My words hit Jason and Anna like a bomb and even Thomas was somewhat surprised by what he just heard.
Memories of an attack on a similar camp played through Jensen's mind; that battle was won but at a high cost. "Commie bases are tough to crack; laser towers, mortars, minefields and motion sensors make the area surrounding it a killing field."
"Once we have killed as many of the-"
A surge of evil radiated in the distance, cutting off my reply. The creatures were back.
My passengers all wondered what was wrong with me. "Are you okay?" Anna asked.
I regained my composure. "Once we have killed as many of the clones as possible..."
"General quarters! General quarters! All hands to battle stations. This is not a drill" I sensed Tong shout.
"...We will cover the base in smoke to blind them and impede their laser weapons...."
"Report!" Yusef demanded from one of the Enlai's engine rooms.
"...We will use terahertz imagers, what you call 'radar scopes,' to see through the smoke."
"Two hundred and thirty thousand klicks...twenty, no, thirty ships," the gunnery officer said.
Their hearts sank. Even Yusef's delusions of grandeur faded after hearing those numbers.
I needed to prepare my ship to fight if necessary. "I need to go check something."
"Load all strategic missiles and set warhead guidence systems for ship to ship intercept," Yusef ordered.
I rushed into the cockpit and made sure all weapons and defenses were armed.
"Loading tubes one through thirty eight," the gunnery officer replied.
"Targets bearing three three two one one mark two seven five eight. Velocity: eleven k.p.s. and decelerating" the sensor officer reported.
"They are conducting an orbital insertion," Tong replied.
Yusef came up with an idea. "Target ETA to orbit?"
"About sixteen hours, the sensor officer replied.
Yusef had Tong and the gunnery officer repeat the warhead arming procedure but ordered them to hold fire for now. "Have the Kabir and Guevara run cold and deploy a minefield."
"Yes sir," Tong replied.
He hesitantly relayed the orders.
"Have all other ships burn into an elliptical orbit, with the apogee near our jump point."
A feigned retreat was difficult to execute but devastating if executed properly. I headed back to the mess.
"We have incoming ships."
"Alien?" Anna asked.
I nodded. "Thirty of them."
A surge of fear shot through all three of them. "The communists appear to be putting a minefield in their trajectory," I said.
Memories of a disaster played through Jason's mind. "Bomb-pumped x-ray lasers; those damn things crippled my destroyer -- the Thompson -- and killed most of my crew during a mission to break through the Commune’s siege of Asgard for a convoy of relief supplies from Hope, the Æsir system's most distant planet," he said angrily. "Maybe they'll give those bugs hell too."
I pressed on with the attack plan. "We will release the nuke on our next orbit and detonate it as soon as we are at a safe distance to cripple their ground to space comms."
"What yield are we talking about here?" Jason asked.
"One hundred megatons."
"Holy shit!" Thomas responded, remembering the amount of destruction that even the kiloton-range tactical nukes used by both sides of the Storm War could cause.
I went over to the armory and grabbed four rifles and then came back and handed them to my passengers. "These are Mark Forty Eight multi-purpose rifles."
Thomas grinned. "Oh how I wish we had these back on Asgard."
"This weapon fires eight millimeter caseless rounds from a sixty round magazine." I slid an empty magazine into the weapon and then removed the weapon's barrel.
"It is highly modular; put on a longer, heavier barrel and you have a sniper rifle, or add that barrel and a two hundred round hi-cap magazine and you have a light machinegun that can still be used as a sniper rifle in single fire mode."
I showed them how to aim with the heads up display, how to change display and firing modes and other weapon components (such as collapsible stocks and bipods), and how to use the iron sights if the display or ballistic computer failed. Thomas and Jason took to it easily due to their military service but Anna had a lot to learn.
"The mark forty eight is an extremely reliable weapon, but if you have a misfire, I will show you how to clear it."
Again, Anna had a little bit of trouble, but Jason would be there to help her. I then handed them their sidearms and ammunition.
“The mark twenty seven personal defense weapon will be your fallback weapon. It is capable of single fire, three round burst or full automatic. Don’t let the size of the little five millimeter rounds fool you; they will go through class three body armor at one hundred meters in earth standard atmospheric density.”
The weapon was simple enough that even Anna was okay with it. Now I needed to show them artillery we would be using. "Come with me down to the cargo bay."
I opened the big container, revealing what vaguely resembled a pair of ancient Bofors anti-aircraft cannons mounted on wheeled carriages. "The sixty millimeter Mobile Fire Support System is capable of both direct and indirect fire," I said, pre-setting each weapon's fire control computer because I did not have time to teach them how to use it fully. "I normally use these in automatic mode with laser guided shells to eliminate the need for target bracketing, but mortars are generally more effective with crews to reload the five round magazines and change ammunition types as needed."
I looked over at Anna and Jason and explained to them how to enter the target data we would call out to them and how to load and fire the weapon, and then explained what shells we had available.
"Seeker shells?" Anna asked.
"Heat-seeking cluster munitions."
"Which magazine is which?" Jason asked.
I closed the weapon container, and then opened one of the heavily armored ammunition boxes. "Magazines with a red band contain high explosive. Orange is for seeker shells, grey is for smoke, white is for incendiary, blue is for training-"
"And the magazine with lightning symbol?" Anna cut in.
"Jamming shells, to impair counter battery and air defense radars," I replied.
After explaining the very basics on indirect fire and running them through two mock fire missions so they could remember what to say and do, I went over the plan with them one more time. Once that was settled, moved over to another large container and opened it. Inside it was a black cylindrical object that was about the size of a small car. "Is this our nuke?" Thomas asked.
I opened a small panel, revealing a computer terminal. "One of three I have," I replied.
I pressed the power button to turn on its small computer and then entered the arming code.
Thomas laughed. “Seven seven three four spells hell upside down, which is where the commies are going.”
I set the weapon’s fuse to command detonation and set its yield to maximum, then closed the panel and looked back at him. "Why do you think I chose that code?"
I walked over and opened the inner door. Thomas shoved the big bomb into the airlock. Once it was sealed, we went up to the cockpit. There was nothing more to do except wait for the next flyover of the base.
Thomas darted for the co-pilot/gunner seat, wanting to be next to me. I felt yet another slight pang of jealousy from Anna as she took the Electronic Warfare Officer seat. Jason placed himself in the Commander's seat, directly behind me.
Thomas looked at the Multi-Function Displays, which currently showed the armed status of the weapons and defensive systems. "You're ready to rock and roll," he said enthusiastically.
I switched the display from external view to a map and placed a waypoint on our orbital path.
Thomas was curious. "Is that where we release the nuke?"
He had that look on his face that all soldiers do when they were about to face combat and his emotions reflected that. "That's also we de-orbit."
Jason and Anna both thought we were going on a suicide mission.
When we flew over the base a second time, I took another still. All of the structures were now complete. The wall was about halfway complete and mine-laying vehicles were circling the base.
"We cannot wait for them to complete rest of the base," I said.
"Why not?" Thomas asked.
"If we don't act now, the two commune destroyers might come over the horizon and detect us as we release the warhead."
A new source of life took me by surprise. Some of them were human and some of them were alien.
"New contact!" Anna said, afraid it was another alien ship.
"Bearing?" I asked.
"One eight seven five by zero one three four. One hundred forty eight thousand kilometers."
They were more survivors from the Columbus. I sensed they managed to capture an abandoned transport and slip out amidst sectarian violence between two of the major factions.
"Incoming radio transmission!" Anna shouted.
"Play it," I said, wanting them to hear the voices of their crew.
"This is Corporal Dina Ivgi to any ship in the area. Please respond."
The sound of her voice made the jubilant. "Dina!" Thomas shouted excitedly.
Jason was anxious to talk with her. "Anna, activate the tight beam."
That Jason would try to give orders on my ship offended me, but I let it slide.
It took Anna about a minute to find the right buttons. "Tight beam on."
"This is Commander Flannigan."
"It is so nice to hear your voice again. What's your position?"
"I cannot give that out with communist and alien ships in the vicinity."
Images of suffering and death played through Dina's mind. The carnage she saw was so disturbing that it sent a shiver even through me, and I have witnessed things that would drive most people insane.
"You won't believe this, but we seemed to be in another dimension. About a third of us were taken and subject to some sort of experimentation."
"How did you escape?" Thomas asked.
"Nice to know you're alive too," she replied. "These aliens are not one big happy family, and we escaped by-"
"The communists are deploying orbital mines," I cut in.
"Mines. We migh-"
“We lost the signal," Anna said.
Thomas did not like what he heard. "Fuck!"
I looked over at him. "They made it this far," I said reassuringly. "They will make it."
None of them said anything. They were understandably upset.
"Four of us versus an entire company of battle hardened commie soldiers," Flannigan said in disbelief. "You are one crazy woman!"
Thomas was annoyed by the old man's constant pessimism. "It can be done, we just need to find a hidden position, like here..." he pointed to a small valley about four kilometers from the base, "...and hit the bastards with a lot of preparation fire."
"Then that is where we will land," I said.
"They'll call in a broken arrow on their own position once overrun," Jason said defensively.
Captain squid speaks the obvious, Thomas said in his mind. "They won't be calling in anything if we cut off their communication."
Just as Jason was about to talk about home-on-jam weapons, I spoke up. "A high attitude nuclear explosion will disable their satellites and disrupt communication for hours."
"You got nukes too huh," he said in disbelief. "Just how the hell do you get all this stuff?"
Right now, Thomas was the only one I could trust with any of my secrets, but I had no plan to mention my methods if I could help it.
"I have my ways, but that is not important right now."
Anna thought about the inevitable counter attack. "They will eventually find out about us and attack."
"Which is why we are going to wait for them to complete the base and then capture it."
My words hit Jason and Anna like a bomb and even Thomas was somewhat surprised by what he just heard.
Memories of an attack on a similar camp played through Jensen's mind; that battle was won but at a high cost. "Commie bases are tough to crack; laser towers, mortars, minefields and motion sensors make the area surrounding it a killing field."
"Once we have killed as many of the-"
A surge of evil radiated in the distance, cutting off my reply. The creatures were back.
My passengers all wondered what was wrong with me. "Are you okay?" Anna asked.
I regained my composure. "Once we have killed as many of the clones as possible..."
"General quarters! General quarters! All hands to battle stations. This is not a drill" I sensed Tong shout.
"...We will cover the base in smoke to blind them and impede their laser weapons...."
"Report!" Yusef demanded from one of the Enlai's engine rooms.
"...We will use terahertz imagers, what you call 'radar scopes,' to see through the smoke."
"Two hundred and thirty thousand klicks...twenty, no, thirty ships," the gunnery officer said.
Their hearts sank. Even Yusef's delusions of grandeur faded after hearing those numbers.
I needed to prepare my ship to fight if necessary. "I need to go check something."
"Load all strategic missiles and set warhead guidence systems for ship to ship intercept," Yusef ordered.
I rushed into the cockpit and made sure all weapons and defenses were armed.
"Loading tubes one through thirty eight," the gunnery officer replied.
"Targets bearing three three two one one mark two seven five eight. Velocity: eleven k.p.s. and decelerating" the sensor officer reported.
"They are conducting an orbital insertion," Tong replied.
Yusef came up with an idea. "Target ETA to orbit?"
"About sixteen hours, the sensor officer replied.
Yusef had Tong and the gunnery officer repeat the warhead arming procedure but ordered them to hold fire for now. "Have the Kabir and Guevara run cold and deploy a minefield."
"Yes sir," Tong replied.
He hesitantly relayed the orders.
"Have all other ships burn into an elliptical orbit, with the apogee near our jump point."
A feigned retreat was difficult to execute but devastating if executed properly. I headed back to the mess.
"We have incoming ships."
"Alien?" Anna asked.
I nodded. "Thirty of them."
A surge of fear shot through all three of them. "The communists appear to be putting a minefield in their trajectory," I said.
Memories of a disaster played through Jason's mind. "Bomb-pumped x-ray lasers; those damn things crippled my destroyer -- the Thompson -- and killed most of my crew during a mission to break through the Commune’s siege of Asgard for a convoy of relief supplies from Hope, the Æsir system's most distant planet," he said angrily. "Maybe they'll give those bugs hell too."
I pressed on with the attack plan. "We will release the nuke on our next orbit and detonate it as soon as we are at a safe distance to cripple their ground to space comms."
"What yield are we talking about here?" Jason asked.
"One hundred megatons."
"Holy shit!" Thomas responded, remembering the amount of destruction that even the kiloton-range tactical nukes used by both sides of the Storm War could cause.
I went over to the armory and grabbed four rifles and then came back and handed them to my passengers. "These are Mark Forty Eight multi-purpose rifles."
Thomas grinned. "Oh how I wish we had these back on Asgard."
"This weapon fires eight millimeter caseless rounds from a sixty round magazine." I slid an empty magazine into the weapon and then removed the weapon's barrel.
"It is highly modular; put on a longer, heavier barrel and you have a sniper rifle, or add that barrel and a two hundred round hi-cap magazine and you have a light machinegun that can still be used as a sniper rifle in single fire mode."
I showed them how to aim with the heads up display, how to change display and firing modes and other weapon components (such as collapsible stocks and bipods), and how to use the iron sights if the display or ballistic computer failed. Thomas and Jason took to it easily due to their military service but Anna had a lot to learn.
"The mark forty eight is an extremely reliable weapon, but if you have a misfire, I will show you how to clear it."
Again, Anna had a little bit of trouble, but Jason would be there to help her. I then handed them their sidearms and ammunition.
“The mark twenty seven personal defense weapon will be your fallback weapon. It is capable of single fire, three round burst or full automatic. Don’t let the size of the little five millimeter rounds fool you; they will go through class three body armor at one hundred meters in earth standard atmospheric density.”
The weapon was simple enough that even Anna was okay with it. Now I needed to show them artillery we would be using. "Come with me down to the cargo bay."
I opened the big container, revealing what vaguely resembled a pair of ancient Bofors anti-aircraft cannons mounted on wheeled carriages. "The sixty millimeter Mobile Fire Support System is capable of both direct and indirect fire," I said, pre-setting each weapon's fire control computer because I did not have time to teach them how to use it fully. "I normally use these in automatic mode with laser guided shells to eliminate the need for target bracketing, but mortars are generally more effective with crews to reload the five round magazines and change ammunition types as needed."
I looked over at Anna and Jason and explained to them how to enter the target data we would call out to them and how to load and fire the weapon, and then explained what shells we had available.
"Seeker shells?" Anna asked.
"Heat-seeking cluster munitions."
"Which magazine is which?" Jason asked.
I closed the weapon container, and then opened one of the heavily armored ammunition boxes. "Magazines with a red band contain high explosive. Orange is for seeker shells, grey is for smoke, white is for incendiary, blue is for training-"
"And the magazine with lightning symbol?" Anna cut in.
"Jamming shells, to impair counter battery and air defense radars," I replied.
After explaining the very basics on indirect fire and running them through two mock fire missions so they could remember what to say and do, I went over the plan with them one more time. Once that was settled, moved over to another large container and opened it. Inside it was a black cylindrical object that was about the size of a small car. "Is this our nuke?" Thomas asked.
I opened a small panel, revealing a computer terminal. "One of three I have," I replied.
I pressed the power button to turn on its small computer and then entered the arming code.
Thomas laughed. “Seven seven three four spells hell upside down, which is where the commies are going.”
I set the weapon’s fuse to command detonation and set its yield to maximum, then closed the panel and looked back at him. "Why do you think I chose that code?"
I walked over and opened the inner door. Thomas shoved the big bomb into the airlock. Once it was sealed, we went up to the cockpit. There was nothing more to do except wait for the next flyover of the base.
Thomas darted for the co-pilot/gunner seat, wanting to be next to me. I felt yet another slight pang of jealousy from Anna as she took the Electronic Warfare Officer seat. Jason placed himself in the Commander's seat, directly behind me.
Thomas looked at the Multi-Function Displays, which currently showed the armed status of the weapons and defensive systems. "You're ready to rock and roll," he said enthusiastically.
I switched the display from external view to a map and placed a waypoint on our orbital path.
Thomas was curious. "Is that where we release the nuke?"
He had that look on his face that all soldiers do when they were about to face combat and his emotions reflected that. "That's also we de-orbit."
Jason and Anna both thought we were going on a suicide mission.
When we flew over the base a second time, I took another still. All of the structures were now complete. The wall was about halfway complete and mine-laying vehicles were circling the base.
"We cannot wait for them to complete rest of the base," I said.
"Why not?" Thomas asked.
"If we don't act now, the two commune destroyers might come over the horizon and detect us as we release the warhead."
A new source of life took me by surprise. Some of them were human and some of them were alien.
"New contact!" Anna said, afraid it was another alien ship.
"Bearing?" I asked.
"One eight seven five by zero one three four. One hundred forty eight thousand kilometers."
They were more survivors from the Columbus. I sensed they managed to capture an abandoned transport and slip out amidst sectarian violence between two of the major factions.
"Incoming radio transmission!" Anna shouted.
"Play it," I said, wanting them to hear the voices of their crew.
"This is Corporal Dina Ivgi to any ship in the area. Please respond."
The sound of her voice made the jubilant. "Dina!" Thomas shouted excitedly.
Jason was anxious to talk with her. "Anna, activate the tight beam."
That Jason would try to give orders on my ship offended me, but I let it slide.
It took Anna about a minute to find the right buttons. "Tight beam on."
"This is Commander Flannigan."
"It is so nice to hear your voice again. What's your position?"
"I cannot give that out with communist and alien ships in the vicinity."
Images of suffering and death played through Dina's mind. The carnage she saw was so disturbing that it sent a shiver even through me, and I have witnessed things that would drive most people insane.
"You won't believe this, but we seemed to be in another dimension. About a third of us were taken and subject to some sort of experimentation."
"How did you escape?" Thomas asked.
"Nice to know you're alive too," she replied. "These aliens are not one big happy family, and we escaped by-"
"The communists are deploying orbital mines," I cut in.
"Mines. We migh-"
“We lost the signal," Anna said.
Thomas did not like what he heard. "Fuck!"
I looked over at him. "They made it this far," I said reassuringly. "They will make it."
None of them said anything. They were understandably upset.