Blood War 1: Last Stand of the Legion: Rift (41 page)

He glanced at his situational display and saw Swift Boats inserting reinforcements into Wolf and Ceti. Their orders were to push their way down into the buildings as quickly as possible. Dasan had hoped by attacking every one of their positions at the same time to spread them thin and not allow them to concentrate their troops. The covering fire from the Legionnaires in the floors above the walkway was not slacking. Dasan watched as a squad of armored aliens came running out of Rigel Kent with those green targeting lights flashing, only to be cut down by concentrated sniper fire.

Dasan with Aijuba at his side had reached the first of the alien bodies. They were in piles, between the bodies were arms, legs and even severed skulls. It was a scene out of hell with blood so deep in spots it came over his boots. Dasan felt nothing as he moved through this surreal scene of carnage, all he saw was the woman stretched out for them to slowly kill for fun. He fired again when he saw movement in a pile.

Sergeant Taro was on Dasan’s right flank - he and his squad had been making good progress across the walkway. Standing on the walkway with the seventy-five and hundred story buildings literally blocking out the sunlight, made him feel as if he were fighting in some sort of strange natural arena of death. The buildings rose above him and his squad on all four sides. Their natural red stone exteriors and uneven sides only added to the feeling of being in a natural space.

Currently Taro had his squad spread out among outbuildings and a food kiosk, to his right was Masa and her squad and to his left was Yu and his squad. As they carefully moved forward, it was proving to be more of a cleanup job than a battle. This could not last. He could see more armored aliens entering the huge plaza from the building, some jumping from several floors above the walkway.

He didn't like it. Something was wrong. Sure, the Swift Boats had worked over both the Rigil Kent and Ly buildings but they should be taking more fire from those positions. Masa’s squad to his right was closest to Rigil Kent, behind some overturned movers.

"Masa, keep an eye on Rigil Kent. I don't like that we're not taking fire from that building."

"Count your blessings.... Fuck."

Then on the all-hands channel Masa said,

"We got aliens coming out of Rigil Kent; a ton of them."

Taro glanced at his heads-up and saw red arrows pouring out of Rigil Kent. Masa had her squad pulled some of the movers together into a barricade to face the new threat. Unless Masa could slow them down they would be flanked. From the looks of the number of aliens pouring out of Rigil Kent, Masa knew she would not be able to hold. Again they were a mixture of Spike troops and armored troops. The Spikes were running headlong into the massed fire of Masa's squad but they were not slowed.

"Taro squad, wheel right."

Taro's squad wheeled right as if they had been training together for years. Finding cover where they could, they began to pour fire into the mass of aliens as they poured out of the building along with Masa's squad. A couple of the Spike troops did make it to Masa's line but were quickly killed in vicious hand to hand.

"Taro to Sand, we got a ton of aliens coming out of Rig
el Kent."

"Sand, check, we got the same from Ly on the left flank. We're going to make our stand here. Find cover and dig in. Next pass by the Swift Boats will be the reinforcements."

Taro watched on his heads-up as the other flank bent back to face the aliens coming out of Ly. That would be Elias and Yu. The aliens had now forced them into a rough U shaped formation with the Colonel at the top of the U and the remaining units forming the arms. In the middle of the U was a food pavilion. It provided enough cover so Taro and Masa were not receiving fire from their rear. They couldn't retreat and they couldn't go forward. Looks like the shit was about to get deep and unless they got reinforcements quick it could end up a total goat fuck.

Taro fired at a Spike trooper who had just jumped over his squad trying to breach the line. His rail caught it in the center
of the chest and drove it back over the line. It fell and did not move. Taro slowly walked forward firing at the aliens and took his place in line behind a mover. The trooper next to him went down then another. Their suits immediately began to treat their injuries but they were down. They were not going to last much longer.

"This is Sand, get those fucking troops on the ground before we are overrun."

"Inbound, Colonel."

The Swift Boats weaved through the buildings of the complex as they approached for the insert. They slowed enough to make the insert and to provide close in support. The troopers began to drop out of the bottom of the Boats. They were doing an assault insert instead of landing. It was exactly what needed to be done but it would require more than one run to insert all of the troops. The Legionnaires dropped straight out of the bottom of the Swift Boat from a hundred feet. The drop was fast and unaided, ten feet before they hit the ground their retros fired and the trooper was able to land standing up and firing. It had worked just as Sand and Aijuba had hoped. He did not see one casualty among the troops that were inserted. It was too fast and unexpected for the aliens to get a good range on the troopers before they hit the ground. As the Swift Boats inserted the troops they were pouring their heavy weapons fire into the aliens in the open and the buildings.

The reinforcements ran to fill any holes in the
Legionnaire line. With aliens pouring out of three building at the same time; the attack had to have been a planned and coordinated attack. Dasan's attack had run right into one by the aliens. Dasan was standing back to back with Aijuba, Stine was kneeling and firing into the Ly attackers while Dasan fired into the ones from Rigel Kent.

Dasan stopped firing as he had to focus on the overall battle and not individual targets. They were being attacked on three sides. The flanks had bent inward to face the new attackers and they were holding for now.
The Swift Boats would insert more reinforcements on the next pass, but Dasan knew the two sides were too tangled up for the Swift Boats to provide supporting fire. In more and more spots along the hasty line the fighting had gone hand to hand. The reinforcements had been inserted but they were not pushing the aliens back.

To retreat to Sirius would only lead back to being trapped in
the building. Dasan knew he had a large majority of the alien force in the open and engaged. He simply did not have enough troops to beat them head to head. He had hoped that a concentrated rush with air support and reinforcements would have pushed them out of the buildings but it had not.

"Colonel, the Swift Boats will not be able make any more support runs as they are engaged with the aliens troop carriers and fighters," Stine said.

"What is their status?"

"They are more than holding their own but will not be able to disengage."

That did it. Their backs were against the wall. Dasan realized he had to use his weapon of last resort. The RC48 missiles were their only hope. The RC48 was filled with tens of thousands of smart flechettes. Each flechette was smart enough to tell friend from foe, so in situations like this when the enemy was too close for normal munitions it could be used to support the friendly troops without harming them; at least that was the theory but they had never been tested. Ecomcon had just delivered them and they had not had time to test them. The first tests had been scheduled to occur during the exercise so the Tarawa had several of the missiles on board and live.

"Do we have the Tarawa
Stine?" Dasan said.

"Yes sir, she had dipped into the atmosphere so she can communicate with us directly."

"Advise the Tarawa I want them to fire the RC48's at our position immediately. This is my call. Repeat, tell them that Sand is authorizing the call."

Sti
ne repeated the instructions to the Tarawa.

"He wants to speak to you sir. He’s switching frequencies."

The Captain of the Tarawa came up on Dasan's comm.

"Dasan, this is Heyden. Please repeat the order directly to me. I am recording it."

"Use the RC48's on our position immediately. I repeat immediately."

"Yes sir. Firing now," the Tarawa replied.

Dasan stood and looked up at the sky. He first saw the streaks to his right before he could really process what they were the first of the missiles exploded over the walkway. The concussion was so strong it almost knocked him to the ground. The air with filled with grey and white streaks.

Sergeant Taro had heard the order but had no idea what the RC48's were. He was not expecting an explosion directly over his head. It had gone to hand-to-hand. He had raised his axe to strike an armored trooper in front of him when it was slammed to the ground. In a split second all of the aliens in front of his squad were suddenly down. Not just down but were shredded by something. Taro was still trying to work out what had happened. It wasn't biological because it had torn through the armor of the aliens as if it were paper, yet none of his squad had been touched.

He glanced down at his feet; flechettes were buried in the concrete and steel around him in a perfect outline of armor
, it was some kind of smart weapon that only targeted the aliens.

"Come now. Finish them off," Taro yelled.

His squad moved forward, killing any still-moving alien and putting rounds into any that even looked like they might have survived. Taro looked down and saw an alien who had caught the flechettes in the face. It was a bloody mess and unrecognizable. It was simply torn to pieces. Taro looked up to see more armored aliens pouring out of Rigil Kent. Their green lights were flashing as their weapons targeting systems searched for Legionnaires.

"Squad take cover, more tangos out of Rigil Kent."

Taro and the rest of his squad took cover behind anything they could find and began to fire into the new wave of aliens. That is when the second missile exploded above them.

Dasan had seen the effect of the first missile and it could not have been better. It had worked perfectly on the aliens and stopped their attack. Dasan turned to Aijuba and started to say something when the second missile exploded above them. This time Dasan was thrown to the ground, his left arm and leg exploding with pain. He tried to move but could not; his left arm didn't seem to work anymore. He looked down to see both his left arm and leg were gone. They were laying several feet away from him. Then he felt the pain of the hundreds of flechettes that had pieced his armor and entered his body. His suit was working to stop the bleeding and close the wounds but the world was getting grey.

Dasan knew he didn't have long. Desperately he looked around to see that the second missile had finished off the rest of the aliens. Not a single alien was left standing, but his Legionnaires were and they were methodically going through the alien bodies and finishing them off. He saw Aijuba standing next to
Stein; she turned around to say something and then saw that he was down.

"Sand is down. I repeat Sand is down. Get me a corpsman. Corpsman up."

Aijuba knelt beside him.

"Dasan, Dasan you’re going to be all right. The corpsman is on the way. It worked the aliens are retreating. It worked."

"Sergeant Major, the Brigade needs a leader. Now return to your command."

"Dasan..."

Using the last of his strength he said,

"That is an order Aijuba."

Aijuba stood and seemed to have to force herself to turn away. She began barking orders to the troops. Dasan could relax now his troops were in good hands; maybe better than his. He reached into the pocket of his tactical vest with his right hand and pulled out the faded blue handkerchief the little girl with the grey eyes had given his so long ago. He had kept his promise to her and all of the other little girls in the Confederation he could relax now and let go. The last thing he remembered was the corpsman's voice saying,

"Sand is a red. I repeat Sand is a red. I need a medivac sled immediately."

LYTEN SYSTEM

RIFT

REFERENCE POINT 267.555

Lieutenant Steiner and the remains of his thrown together division were escorting the Lalande and Lupus. The alien ships in orbit showed up on Steiny Man's screen now, they were more than he had ever seen before. It sure looked like this was a day for firsts. He wanted the division to fight differently than in a gaggle.

"Division this is Steiny Man. We are going to fight this one with standard tactics. Grab a
wingman and find a target. Fighters first, if there are any left, and ships of the line next. Good luck.
Guerre à mort
."

"Steiny Man
, this is Buckethead. I got your wing."

"Hey, glad I got an old hand. Let
’s get some."

"You ain't said shit. What first?"

"No fighters so we get to pick them. I'm getting real tired of getting shot at by lots of guns. Let's go after a few of those troop or supply ships."

"Lead on."

Stieny Man picked the closet target on his situation display indicators. It looked like a big fat transport of some kind. It was actively searching with its defensive systems; his counter measures warning lights were going off across the board. He switched on his counter measures. Let's see who has got the best technology target number 529.

"I
’m taking 529 on this run. I have torpedoes left," Steiny Man said.

"Check
, right behind you."

The transport was firing missiles of some sort. His counter measures easily jammed them and they passed by on his starboard side. His target designator glowed green. He had good lock on.

"Firing."

The torpedo flashed away and headed for the transport. The starboard side of the transport lit up with all kinds of close
-in weapons as it tried to destroy the torpedo. The torpedo's counter measures as well as Steiny Man's ship were more than able to beat the alien ships. The torpedo struck amidships. What happened next, Steiny Man was not expecting. It exploded like a huge munitions bunker, all at once with a single huge explosion. No secondary explosions or slowly breaking up. It simply disappeared.

"What the fuck did you do?" Buckethead said.

"I don't know. Want to try?"

"Fuck yeah."

Buckethead took the lead as they chose their next target. This time when Buckethead fired, he got a solid hit but no huge explosion.

"Shit. That must have been a munitions ship
you hit. You always were lucky," Buckethead said.

"Well
, we better start paying attention. The Lupus and Lalande are under attack by destroyers."

"Roger that
, on your tail."

Steiny Man flipped and headed back to the Lupus and Lalande's position. They were both in a tough fight with those destroyers and needed help.

"Admiral
, the Lupus and Lalande are in heavy contact with the alien destroyers. Both have taken damage but are still able to fight."

"ETA for the cruisers to come with
in range."

"Approximately five minutes."

"Check."

Things were getting tight. Tamara needed those cruisers in the fight.

"Any additional Swift Boats?"

"Negative
, they are engaged."

Tamara watched the screen as the two destroyers twisted and turned avoiding torpedoes fired by the alien destroyers. The Lupus took a solid hit in the bow. Tamara glanced at the telemetry from the Lupus that recorded
its battle status. She had lost several gun mounts and her port torpedo tubes. It was a critical hit but the Lupus only increased her speed and fired torpedoes from her starboard tubes. Two torpedo tracks raced for the alien destroyers.

Her torpedoes struck the alien destroyer in the
amidships as she was turning away from her run. She took both torpedoes and seemed to shake them off and continue her turn. She was trying to come around for a broadside on the Lupus.

"Come on
," Tamara said under her breath.

The Lupus was turning toward the alien destroyer. The Captain was pushing her
hard; she must be at her design spec's limits yet she continued to turn. Tamara could picture the starboard torpedo spaces as the crews desperately tried to reload in midst of a turn that must be throwing them around their compartment like ping pong balls. The Lupus made the turn and was able to fire a torpedo. As soon as the torpedo had left her tube she was struck by another torpedo. She took that torpedo amidships. Tamara could see a large hole open in her side now, yet she increased speed to close with the other destroyer. Her five-inch guns were firing now. They were striking the destroyer in what looked like their bridge island on her stern. The aliens had no comparable weapons; she was trying to clear for a missile or torpedo shot but the Lupus kept closing.

Tamara desperately wanted to be on the bridge of the Lupus. She wanted to be in the fight not watching it happen. This was so much more difficult than she ever expected. Going back to her days as the Captain of the Lyre and ha
ving sent Sand on a patrol she knew would have casualties, she understood the weight of command. Yet simply watching the most important battle in human history was difficult despite the fact she was in command. She longed for the simplicity of a single ship under her command.

The alien destroyer was able to get off a missile shot. The missile struck the bridge of the Lupus. She seemed to stagger under the blow. She slowed. Tamara glanced at the readout. The missile had destroyed the bridge and killed everyone. She only had the emergency handling spaces left. She watched as the Lupus came back under control
and moved away from the alien destroyer who had suffered serious damage from the Lupus's five inchers.

"Who is in command of the Lupus?" Tamara asked.

"A Lieutenant J.G. And a Senior Chief."

"Those are
true sailors on the Lupus, make sure the record shows their actions and those of her crew."

"The cruisers are in range and have just fired."

Before the tech could change the screen, the destroyer the Lupus had been engaged with took a full salvo from the New York. It simply broke apart. The other destroyer that had been engaged with the Lalande broke off and headed back to the alien fleet. The cruisers were closing fast on the alien ships in the outer screen of the alien fleet came into range.

"Switch to window. I want to see this."

The giant screen in front of the CIC switched to a window view of the battle. The tech zoomed in for a closer view. The alien fleet was silhouetted against Rift. Their ships were winking lights as they fired at the approaching Task Force. Gold streaks of missiles mixed with the blue of the plasma weapons. Lyten was just coming up over the horizon and Rift became a red crescent framing the battles colors. It was a staggering sight. Then Tamara saw the platform. She had seen video but that did not prepare her for the true size of the thing. It looked like it was out of scale next to Rift; it was a true technical marvel. The missiles and fire coming from the platform told the story - it had impressive defenses but the support ships did not. No more than any Confederation vessel.

"Advise all vessels to focus on the support ships. We are not going to do much damage to the platform until we can concentrate all our fire on that one target."

"Aye ma'am."

The
Pereus shuttered as the main guns fired, the target was a destroyer but it turned just as they had fired and the salvo missed. The destroyers evasive maneuvers saved it but exposed the ship it was screening. Tamara saw what appeared to be a supply ship. It was very much like one of Von Fleets civilian container ships, thicker than it was long with huge silos attached to it's main deck that could be disengaged for delivery. The ship it took the salvo amidships. It broke in half and the two halves began to slow spin away from each other as some sort of liquid under pressure spewed out of the silos.

Tamara
had the alien fleet pinned against the planet with their troops on the surface and no way to maneuver. Tamara felt her pulse increase. This was it. They were going to push them off Rift and destroy the whole fleet. Even that damn platform.

"Admiral
, something is happening."

"Be specific where, what."

"I'm not sure," the young Lieutenant said. "Look at the surface."

In the dark part of the crescent of Rift
, Tamara saw first tens, and then hundreds of tiny white lights appeared across Rift. The dots of light were headed for the platform. They were not missiles they were something else.

"What are they?"

"Unknown Admiral please stand-by."

Then the Legionnaire assigned to the CIC to monitor the surface battle said
,

"Admiral
, the troops are reporting that the aliens are retreating. They are boarding their landing vessels and are leaving the surface."

Tamara stared at the screen not sure she believed what she was seeing. There was a lot of fighting left to do. The battle was by no means won yet. Their back
s were against the wall but why throw in the towel when they had so many troops on the surface. What was going on?

"Admiral
, look at the platform."

A whole side of the platform had lit up. It was
glowing gold with white streaks through the gold. A thousand kilometers from that side of the platform something was happening to space itself. First a circle of gold formed. Then the circle began to fill in with white light. The glow from the platform increased. The circle increased in size growing rapidly. It seemed to reach a point then collapsed upon itself. When it stopped glowing, there was a blacker than black circle in space. No stars were visible in the circle.

"It looks like a
wormhole," 

"Fuck that is what it is. They have figured out how to create a Krasnikov Tube," someone else said.

The newly formed wormhole seemed to grow in size until it stabilized. Tamara watched as ship after alien ship entered the wormhole and disappeared. Her instinct was to push their advantage and try to destroy as many of the alien ships as she could but she had not idea of the properties of the thing. She did not want to lose any people in who knew what kind of time space event. What kind of technology did that mean they had at their disposal?

"Have all units break off and return to our position."

"Aye ma'am."

Tamara watched as the hundreds of lights from the surface of Rift were taken on board the platform. She was not sure if she should feel elated or concerned. They had driven the aliens off but the
aliens had shown knowledge of a technology that was truly frightening. She was not going to lose the last of the Pleiades fleet walking into something she could not understand. She had made them pay and driven them off Rift. Tomorrow would be another story.

"Get me Admiral Rau
rk."