Talosian Chronicles 5: Raptor Squadron (21 page)

"The
Damocles
went down to the spaceport to assist
Icarus
in the securing of the freighter. However, Lissa is helping; she's protecting the shield and transit systems.
Prometheus
is fully involved protecting Rominy. All other AI are similarly occupied," Star reported.

Ian nodded his understanding. "So the only help you can get is for us to blow these assholes up as quickly as possible."

"Yes Admiral," Star confirmed. "Both Lissa and I are rapidly approaching our limits."

"Are the cyber-attacks on Rominy as heavy as at Starlight?" Ian asked.

"No, however, there is a higher concentration of Imperial troops in that city," Star replied.

Major Eischens backed her up. "She's right there, Sir; they're really dug in too. We could take them out quickly, but we'd have to level the city to do it. Evacuation is only estimated at twenty-nine percent. The Imps aren't helping out in Rominy."

Ian nodded. "What's the status of Starlight's evacuation?"

Major Eischens had to check his notes. "Twenty-five percent. Remember, Starlight had almost twice the population of Rominy."

Star grabbed her head and screamed as she fell to her knees. Her hologram wavered, became transparent and began flickering. "Ian, Lissa's off-line! They got in! Power system… Reactor overload… can't… stop…" her hologram failed completely and she was gone.

"Chief Laskar to the AI core! Emergency! Star is off-line!" Ian shouted.

"On our way Ian!" Bill replied, it was clear he was running.

"Chloe, spread the word and get our people out of Starlight now! Try to find out how much time we have before the reactor goes critical. Comms! I get me the
Icarus
!" Ian yelled.

"Corvis here, whatcha need Sir?" Ian could hear weapons fire in the background of the call.

"Corvis, they hacked the power grid. The city reactor is going critical,
Damocles
AI is offline. I need you to get out of there and drag
Damocles
with you! I have no idea how much time we have, but you gotta move. NOW!"

"Admiral; there's still civvies down here!" Corvis replied.

Ian closed his eyes against the pain of the next order. "I understand Corvis, if you can get some of them, do so. But if you are not clear of that city in five minutes, you'll never leave."

In a final attempt to rescue as many people as possible, every vehicle, including military tanks and other hovercraft were loaded to maximum before running at full speed for the camps south of the city. The heavy tram was loaded to critical capacity and sent on. Loaded busses got on the main route south and sped away with as many people as they could carry. Even the Marine assault shuttles were loaded to capacity and beyond.

The
Prometheus
AI, now named Poli, tried to stop the Starlight reactor. He managed to gain evacuees critical time to get out of the city.

"Give us an orbital view over Starlight!" Ian ordered.

The hologram in the tank cleared away to be replaced by a real-time view taken from one of
Star Dancer
's belly mounted weapons. There was a bright flash at the eastern edge of continent, next to the ocean; followed by an expanding greyish-white cloud.

"Oh my god!" Chloe said softly.

"Major Eischens, how many were left in the city?" Ian asked.

Sadly, the major replied. "We don't have a solid count yet Sir, but we are estimating at least two-hundred, sixty-four thousand people remained."

Ian nodded "Where are the rest of the mecha heading now?"

It took a moment for the team to respond as each person dealt with the horrible loss at Starlight. "Uh, they are changing direction…" Chloe said as she typed furiously on her keyboard. "They're not all going the same direction though. It looks like some have turned for the camps south of Starlight, and the rest are headed for Rominy."

Ian nodded. "Isolate the reactor and power grid at Rominy; if possible shut it down completely. Wait, what's the Zephyr doing?" Ian noticed the icon representing the ship was still dangerously close to Starlight.

"Commander Harris landed the ship, loaded as many people as he could, then used the ship's shields to protect those he couldn't load. He's asking for evac shuttles for the people that were left outside. He has a lot of injured there," Major Eischens replied because Chloe was busy with the orders for Rominy.

Ian sighed and nodded. "Contact the fleet and see if they can send shuttles to help. Hell, anything that can carry people would be good at this point."

"Sir, the General has sent their troop transports with orders to move those folks to the refugee camps. The Fleet is sending every available shuttle as well, they are also sending medical and emergency support equipment and personnel to the camps," Chloe said, rejoining the conversation.

"Good, pass along my thanks, and be sure to let camp coordinator know of the additional assistance," Ian ordered as a soft alarm was heard and Chloe began typing again. "What's going on?"

"It's those damn mecha, they're not running past everything anymore, their stopping to destroy every house and town they pass. They're killing everyone they can find." Chloe replied. "I'm asking for the fleet's light cruisers to get down there and assist in stopping them. If they are going to slow down enough for that, then we can take them out with missile strikes from the cruisers."

Ian nodded. "Good, also let the fighters know they can use their missiles as long as the area is clear; same rules of engagement as the cruisers." Ian thought for a moment. "Can anyone think of anything we can do from orbit that wouldn't destroy the countryside in the process?"

"Sir, Major Laskar reports Star will be back online shortly. He said she shut down from overload and had to be reset," one of the techs reported.

Ian nodded. "Please pass along a request that he call for a councilor to assist her. She's going to blame herself for the tragedy at Starlight."

"Will do, Sir," the tech replied.

"Did we lose any troops at Starlight?" Ian asked gently. He was still trying to deal with the event.

"Yes Sir, we did," Chloe replied. "Two companies of Terran Marines and one company of Alliance Marines. They had remained behind to ensure more seats could be given to the civilians on the shuttles. It was reported that they had loaded as many as they could in ground vehicles and headed south. Due to the timing of the event, there is no way they could have gotten to safety in time. Interference is blocking their locater's, but we are still scanning for them just in case."

"What of any shelters in Starlight, could any of them have survived?" Major Eischens asked hopefully.

Chloe nodded. "Some of the outer shelters could have survived, but as I said, the interference is still pretty heavy. Fleet ESAR teams are preparing to begin searching the area. They will be launching in a few minutes," Chloe reported. "I've asked Admiral T'rolith's ESAR Chief Dhawes to take command of the operations."

"Perfect. Good work, Chloe. Make sure we lend as much support as we can spare to their efforts." Ian then refocused on stopping the now rampaging mecha. He typed in the commands to open a comm channel to all combat troops. "People, this is Admiral Williams. If you have not heard by now, we have lost the city of Starlight. Enemy mecha infiltrated the command computers for the city power grid and detonated the reactor. At this moment, those same mecha are turning on the general population and murdering as many as they can. This cannot be allowed. These… animals are not worthy or honorable adversaries. They are murderers deserving only of our utter contempt. We must destroy them before they can kill any more of our people.

"I know you are tired, every one of you have done very well in this campaign. I have truly been honored to have been your commander for this mission. However, the Empire saw the need to murder innocent civilians and sent these… things here to do just that. It is our duty to protect those civilians. So I am asking you to give just a bit more; seek out and put these animals out of their misery before they can harm anyone else. May the light of freedom guide each and every one of you. Good luck."

Ian's speech did actually inspire the troops. Within two hours the count had been reduced to three, as yet unaccounted for, mecha that had landed in the ocean. It was suspected that they had been destroyed as the water was very deep there, but Ian would not accept that until the wreckage had been verified. A special drone was built and dropped in the sea-trench. It did verify that two of the mecha were indeed dead and on the bottom of the trench. However, that left one unaccounted for. The drone dropped in that area found nothing; no trace of it. The search was focused on the area between its landing and the closest population center, as well as the city of Rominy, which was several hundred miles inland on a major river that emptied into the ocean.

Elements of the fleet took up position over the eastern seaboard of the main continent and began high-resolution scans of the entire coastline extending hundreds of miles inland. Nothing moved that those ships did not see. Commander Harris put the Zephyr in the river just east of Rominy and used his scanners to watch the river bed. He used his shuttles and fighters to scan the river through the city and as far inland as was thought the mecha could travel.

It was eventually discovered as it tried to get into the fresh water intakes for the city. The Zephyr equipped four fighters with lamprey torpedoes to engage it while two marine assault shuttles covered the intakes with force fields after dropping their troops. Since the assault shuttles were blocking its way, it ignored the fighters and attacked the shuttles. As soon as it came out of the water to do it, the fighters from the Zephyr blew it into scrap.

The remaining Imperial Marines on the planet dropped their weapons, but quickly died before they could be taken into custody. Their armor quickly and efficiently cremated their bodies, leaving nothing for forensic examination. In the Imperial commander's office, a note was found, written in Talosian.

"The Sword are not us. The Sword answers to a higher clan. May the souls of those lost forgive us and find peace in the next world."

Along with that puzzling message came the reports that several survivors had overheard Imperial soldiers talking about the arrival of the 'sword' and how they needed to get as many people out of the city as possible as quickly as possible and by any means possible. It was shortly after that the Imperial soldiers began escorting civilians to Alliance lines.

When Major Eischens made his after action report, he offered a conclusion for the actions of the Imperial soldiers at Starlight. "From everything we can piece together Sir, the Imps knew the mecha were coming and feared them. That's why the forces in Starlight helped get the civilians out. They knew it was going to be the primary target."

"What about Rominy? Why didn't they help?" Ian asked.

Eischens shook his head. "Rominy was either not a target or was considered to be a secondary priority. It's almost impossible to tell; hell maybe the commander there didn't agree with trying to save the civilians. I doubt we'll ever know for certain Sir."

Ian nodded. "Package up all your data along with your report for Alliance Intel to go over. I'll be sure to include your summations in my report to High Command. You and your people did good work, Paul. Thank you."

"Sir, about that sword unit; the only markings they had were the observed insignia. Any data they might have carried was destroyed with the unit. Tracking is not completely sure of their planet of Origin, but are certain it has to be within thirty-five light years based on reaction times. Back tracking their course led to what is believed to be interstellar space. The whole area is completely uncharted by any Alliance race, so we have little data on that sector. It is possible that the Empire has a base out there we have no knowledge of."

Ian was thoughtful for a moment. "Equip a survey probe with a hyperdrive and a standard cloaking module. Launch it on the return course of the sword ships. It is to stop periodically to make a scan but once it hits forty lights have it self-destruct after sending its data. Make sure it can't be captured or tampered with, either."

Major Eischens nodded. "We'll get it set up as quickly as we can." He glanced back down at his data pad. "Alliance Planetary Aide is holding at the system boundary, but they're getting very insistent about being allowed into the system. Do we continue to keep them out?"

Ian nodded. "Yes, until the Terran forces leave, they stay put. I don't want the Empire knowing our location yet."

"With respect, Sir, I think that might be a little late; I mean we're getting more and more Alliance personnel every day back home. Some of them have to be spies; there's just too many of them," Major Eischens replied.

"I agree, Paul. There are also several hundred Alliance security agents and a very wide variety of creative and innovative traps in the mix as well, but you don't know any of that. Only four people know of the details; one Commander, two Admirals and the head of Alliance security who set it up personally," Ian replied.

"There actually is a head of security then? Rumor has it that no one actually runs that department," Eischens replied.

"There is, I've met with them personally," Ian replied and then sighed. "As soon as your security checks are complete, I'll be releasing the Fleet back to High Command. I've asked Admiral T'rolith to leave a ship here to handle the transition back to civilian control. So once you finished your checks, get your folks ready to depart."

"Yes Sir," Major Eischens replied, saluted and left Ian's office.

"Alex, have the day's arrangements been completed?" Ian asked.

"Yes Sir, I was about to interrupt you, you're falling behind schedule. Commander Jennifer Williams and the Ambassador's party are waiting for you in landing bay Alpha." Alex replied.

Ian nodded and picked up the helmet for his armor/duty uniform. "Well, grab your helmet and let's get moving then."