Retribution (34 page)

But it had not been all one sided. Rudi noted that of the 62 Marauders that launched their missiles a further 21 were destroyed before they could recover. They had suffered over 50% casualties. Rudi wasn’t so concerned, these were drone craft. He was concerned that of the 24 lightings launched in the strikes only 9 returned. He had lost in the missile exchanges a further three caps and 8 frigates. It was a huge butcher’s bill and it robbed any sweetness that this victory may have created.

He took a deep breath in and forced himself to look back at the holo. The rogan vanguard and transports were now engaging the ground based fighters. Half the remaining rogan fighters, around 100 craft, accelerated to engage the rising Lightnings and Thunderbolts. Another 100 enemy fighters stayed close to the transports.

Chapter 8. IRS Mailon over Polaris 0046, 26 June

Chaos was taking over from the normal rigid discipline in his command centre. Meeka was in a state of shock. The loss of so many ships had taken its toll and he still didn’t know how they had survived.

“Sir we need your decision” said Assani Chandah. Raising his voice he repeated “Sir what is your decision?”

Meeka finally registered his chief of staff. “What?” he said quietly like nothing had happened.

“Do we warp away now while we can?”

“Right…do we still have our transports?”

“Yes all of them, though I don’t know for how much longer” said Assani and pointing to the holo display showing the swarm of ants milling about the vanguard group.

“And how many ships?”

“8 caps and 19 frigates plus our ship.”

“Missile strength?”

“30 percent.”

Meeka pulled himself forward to view the display and noted that the van was now within 20,000kms. “The enemy back there has spent its missiles and fighters. Only these fighters and the ground based missiles remain. We can still prevail. Press on.”

“Sir I don’t recommend that course of action. Destruction awaits there” said Assani pointing to the planet in the centre of the holo. There was real strength in Assani’s eyes. Whenever he had recommended a course of action like this Meeka had heeded it. Assani expected him to do so now.

But there was a first time for everything. Meeka already knew they were beaten and he would wear the shame forever but he would extract his own retribution for this. He stared back at Assani. “Press on. That is my order.”

Chapter 9. Resolute over Tumos 0047, 26 June

Now that the main attack had been prosecuted Dave was about to commit. The Resolute was still cloaked at 40,000 kms and the enemy was now 20,000 kms below them. Dave knew that they would be getting ready to hive off their transports. They had to act now or be too late. He knew Aubrey would be camping at the bit.

But just at that moment he was hailed by Harry “Resolute and Phantom Hold, do not commit.” Harry was eyeballing Phil in the chair next to him. “We still have our ground based missiles.”

“Damm it” muttered Dave.

“Damm it” cursed Aubrey in the Phantom.

Dave stared at the holo display, focussed on just one icon, the Phantom’s. He stared for a good thirty seconds. It remained stationary. He let out his breath.

Chapter 10. Nova Vista 0048, 26 June

Andy was watching the cas reports on his ground based fighters. The Thunderbolts were dropping like flies. The Lightnings which accounted for no more than 30% of the total complement were fairing much better. They had been engaging now for five minutes and most had spent their supply of missiles and were returning back to base.

Of the 320 that managed to join the battle only 68 Lightnings and 87 Thunderbolts remained. “RTB (Return To Base)” commanded Andy. He would need to have them rearmed and relaunched to support the ground phase which would come next. “Launch your missiles.”

The missile specialist hit commit and looked on with a certain amount of glee as over 2,000 Plectras climbed out of the atmosphere and then accelerated at 135 kilometres per second (kps).

Rihan, who had just finished adjusting her uniform after hurrying back up from her sleeping quarters, asked “How far away are they?”

“The enemy is 13,000 and closing” reported one of the specialists. “Oh look they are starting to split up.”

It was true. Now that the Federation fighters had been spent, the surviving Rogan ships felt emboldened to hive off to their respective  objectives.

“Intercepts in 15 secs” called out the missile specialist. “Yes!” he yelled out. There were too many hits on too many targets all in a hurry to call out each of them. So they all waited glued to the display. It quickly racked up the hit, destroyed and survivor counts. “Oh yes…look at that.”

No one said anything in response. They all waited and waited and then saw the warped away count incrementing.

“So what do they have left?” asked Harry.

“A carrier, 3 caps, 4 frigates and five transports plus what looks like about fifty or so fighters.”

“Where are those transports going?” asked Harry. “Engage with the Movons.”

“Engaging.”

640 light Movon missiles climbed to engage the rogan transports that were on their final approaches, escorted by the few remaining fighters. The enemy ships began climbing back up beyond the 25,000 km range of the Movons. It would be a race to see who got their first.

The rogan fighters let lose their remaining missiles and took out a third of the Movons. Another 100 or so were shot down by the enemy ships. Eighty or so burnt out before hitting a target. But there were just over two hundred hits. Most of these were on the enemy transports.

Two surviving transports ploughed on. Their objective was Tumos. On board were two thousand warriors of the 41
^st
Brigade of the Rogan Imperial Army (RIA). Their mission was to destroy the Resolute and its construction facilities.

“Damm” cursed Harry as he saw the two enemy transport icons enter the atmosphere. He glanced across to Phil with an expression that said “Now?” Phil nodded. “Captain Warner” he hailed.” “Two transports entered the atmosphere headed I think for Tumos. Engage.”

“About time” said Dave.

Harry also sent orders for the droids at Butros Alia to move to Tumos. To General Xian’s liaison officer he asked “What can you get to Tumos asap?”

“The 39
^th
Battalion’s at the spaceport.”

“Send it now.”

Art went over to Phil and said in a quiet voice “I should go with them.”

Phil knew why Art wanted to be there but he knew it would take him a good fifteen minutes to reach the spaceport and he wasn’t going to hold up the 39
^th
’s deployment for him. Phil shook his head. “Sorry I need you here.”

Art looked frustrated but he accepted the decision. He withdrew back behind Phil’s chair and gazed at the holo in front. ‘Don’t do anything foolish Sue’ he said to himself.

Chapter 11. Tumos 0050, 26 June

“Shit” said Sue as she could see the transports heading for her location. The alerts had already fired on the stations inside the facility. All non-combatants had moved to the lower levels. It had been pandemonium due to the hour of day. Most personnel had been asleep and it took the best part of ten minutes to get everyone down to the lower levels. Only the Marines remained at the top levels.

Outside in her tunnel, Sue activated the droids. She checked her data links to confirm Emilio was doing likewise. She could see that the two detachments of Marines in the front fortified positions were still at their posts.

The missile battery had fired off every missile. She knew that the Resolute and Phantom were on their way to help. But she also knew it was too late for them to prevent the landing. The radar feed indicated the first enemy transport would touch down in thirty seconds.

The droids were disembarking from the pods and lining up in a column ready to move. Sue would wait till the second transport had disgorged its passengers and everyone was engaged in breaching the main entrance.

“Are you ready Chief?” she asked.

“Almost” replied Emilio.

“Remember we wait till they are engaged in front. Wait for my command.”

Chapter 12. Butros Alia 0051, 26 June

Sgt Jules Meyer held his breath as the droid pod took off. He had forgot to let it know there was a human aboard and he felt like his whole body was being crushed with the force of Gs being exerted.

His eyeballs felt like someone was squeezing them but somehow he managed to see the ETA on the screen. It said 0058. He wasn’t sure he could hang on that long. He didn’t. He passed out a minute later.

Chapter 13. Aukland over Polaris 0052, 26 June

Rudi saw the rogan ships climbing back above Movon range. He wanted to finish these off but his remaining ships had less than 4% missile stocks left and most were carrying damage ranging from minor to severe. Three of his surviving caps were effectively out of action, along with seven frigates.

He was tempted to order the rest to close with the enemy but their superior beam range made that too risky a manoeuvre. He did not want to lose any more ships or lives.

“How many fighters and marauders do we have ready for launch?” he asked.

“Most are still recovering or being repaired” came back the fighter specialist. “Right now we have a total from both carriers of 7 Lightnings and no Marauders.”

“Is that all?”     

“Yes Sir.”

“Polaris” hailed Rudi.

Phil recognised his voice and answered the hail. “Yes Rudi its Yomoto here.”

“Sir we’re out of missiles, no effective fighter force available and most ships are damaged to some degree. Can the Resolute take on those remaining enemy ships?”

“I’ve just committed them to assist at Tumos, where the enemy transports have just landed.”

“What about more fighters then?”

“Afraid not Rudi, you’ll have to wait for the Harlow group. They will be here in what?” asked Phil to Harry. Harry held up one hand and flashed his five fingers three times. “Fifteen minutes.”

“They will probably get away then.”

“Maybe but that’s the best we can do for now.”

“Can’t you get the Army to help there and send me the Resolute?” The enemy flagship is there. She’s damaged. We can take her but I need the Resolute and I need her now.”

Phil pondered Rudi’s words. “OK you have her.”

“And the Phantom?”

“OK.”

Chapter 14. Tumos 0053, 26 June

The rogan warriors of the 41
^st
Brigade disembarked in rapid fashion. Their instructors would have been proud of them. From the second transport a troop of beamer AFVs began rolling onto the tarmac, not more than 300m from the facility entrance. The warriors coming out of the first transport were even closer.

They were immediately engaged by the automatic pulse guns in the two fortified positions. It would take a whole minute before the first AFV began engaging these positions with its beam weapon. The first hit was enough to convince the occupants of the position to evacuate via the tunnel. They left the AI to keep fighting. It would be a fight to the finish. The finish was not long away. The second and third bursts from the AFVs beam weapon destroyed the position.

A similar outcome befell the other position. But there were over a hundred rogan casualties on the tarmac resulting from that briefest of engagements.

It still took Sue a good twenty seconds to react and order Emilio to launch their attacks. She was inside the command droid and directed her company to assault the enemy massing in front of the facility entrance. Her line droids moved out, formed up rapidly and began the assault.

She also placed a series of on call support tasks for her support droids. She had four of these powerful units and they immediate exited the tunnel and deployed either side of the tunnel entrance. As the line droids relayed target requests automatically to the support droids, these were prioritised and executed. The Support droids began laying down a series of salvoes from their missile launchers. Most were aimed at the enemy AFVs. As these exploded the rogan warriors who were now trying to lay demolition charges on the front entrance, quickly changed facing towards Sue’s force of droids.

Emilio was running a little behind and his force did not start assaulting for another thirty seconds. The Rogan then realised they were being assaulted on both sides.

Chapter 15. IRS Mailon over Polaris 0054, 26 June

“Sir, we should warp away” recommended Assani. He was no longer confident of his influence over the Imperial Admiral. There was pleading in his eyes.

Meeka saw it but felt little empathy. “Yes we will but first we will launch one more strike.”

“What purpose can be achieved by that?” asked Assani.

“Retribution” spat out Meeka. “Arm all remaining missiles with nuclear warheads. Allocate to these targets.”

“But this includes Tumos. What about our own warriors there?” asked Assani.

“They are doomed already. We both know that” said Meeka. There was the resolve of cold steel in his eyes.

It frightened Assani and few things did that nowdays. He realised his commander was obsessed. He looked down at the list of targets. There were twenty cities and another ten facilities. This would be viewed not as a surgical strike but a strike of annihilation.

“You know there will be no coming back from this. They have won here and they will want their revenge, if you go ahead with this. Billions will die because of this. Billions of rogan.”

“So be it. Ready the strike. How long to change over the warheads?”

Assani was feeling desperate - anything to delay this. “Five minutes - with all the damage.”

“Aargh….just get on with it.”

“But Sir…”

“Just do it” yelled Meeka.

Chapter 16. Resolute over Tumos 0054, 26 June

“What, you want us to about turn and abandon Tumos?” asked Dave.

“That’s right Dave. I want you take the Mailon and destroy the rest.”