Talosian Chronicles 6: Armageddon (24 page)

"Commander! Multiple orbital inbound tracks! Vector west to east. All contacts read as hostile! IFF has them as Imperial fighters. I'm showing bombers as well, but they are hanging back still in high orbit.
Tiamat
is engaging a squadron of light cruisers but reports heavy cruisers are also approaching," the tracking officer reported.

"Operations, get our Wasps launched for intercept. What's the status of rearming the heavies?" Almas asked.

"About forty percent, Sir. Borealis squadron is returning to rearm. They're down one fighter, the pilot was rescued and Condor
Borealis
retrieved him before heading back," the operations officer reported.

"Have the techs get a spare ready for that pilot, we're going to need him. Once the Wasps are clear, begin launching the heavies by squadron. I have a feeling our guardians above us are going to need the help," Almas ordered. "Try to mix the Condor bombers in with the Shadows for launch; that way they have some protection."

The operations officer only nodded as he relayed her orders.

"Mid-Pacific weapons are are locked on; they have engaged. Chenzhou Base and Pearl Harbor have also launched fighters. Intercept in six minutes," another of the operations officers reported. "All West Coast weapons are tracking and will engage as soon as they come into range."

"Tracking, how many bombers do we have?" Almas asked.

"I count twenty-one gr'nshe bombers. They are maintaining altitude for the time being," the officer replied. They are avoiding the remaining orbital fortresses."

"Tell the Shadows those are their primary targets for now, but try to save the missiles for the big ships," Almas replied. "Have the Condors go on the hunt for bigger game once they get up there."

Arlen moved closer to Almas and spoke quietly. "Why does it feel like everyone is more nervous now than they were when the Super Nova arrived?"

Almas smiled at him sadly. "We knew we could beat the Caldarians. With them, it was only a question of how much damage they would do before we could. The Empire is an entirely different opponent, with a vastly larger force and weapons roughly equivalent to ours. They are not here to take over and enslave the planet, they are here to destroy it. While the Caldarians were relatively careful about what they destroyed, the Empire will not have such a restriction."

"Will they even deploy ground forces then?" Arlen asked.

"I simply do not know, General. I would think they would only do that if they believed their space forces were no longer sufficient to accomplish the task. In which case, the force they would deploy would be those special troops the Admiral encountered at Hyperion," Almas explained. "They are very difficult troops indeed."

Major Dentin arrived at the same time Glen T'dran, Almas' wife, did. Bill was there to help Arlen coordinate the bases ground forces. However, Glen wanted to speak to Almas about the Hospital annex and Jim Beechers self-appointed rescue missions.

"Almas, I need a moment to discuss a few details for my tasks. Do you have a moment to spare me?" Glen asked respectfully.

"It may well be only a moment, Glen. What is it?" Almas replied.

"We have recovered a few more doctors and other medical professionals during rescues. They have volunteered to assist our medical staff. We need permission to allow them some training so they can." Glen replied. "They won't have time to be completely trained, but some of the information is restricted."

Almas nodded. "Granted. The time for restricting such knowledge is well past us now."

Glen nodded. "Thank you, one of our doctors, and three of the Earth doctors as well as several nurses would like to accompany Captain Beecher. I would like to have them fitted for ship crew armor to protect them."

Again, Almas nodded. "Granted; with the understanding that unless they remain as Terran personnel, they will have to surrender the armor when this is over. However, they cannot have weapons. We do not have the time or the personnel to properly train them in their use."

"Understood, and thank you. Lastly, may we add a landing area for the freighter next to the annex to allow the ship to land and unload directly into the hospital?" Glen asked.

"As long as the addition is made last. We need the facility too much to delay it's construction. The ship will have to land on the ground for the time being," Almas replied.

"Thank you. I will go and make our preparations. Captain Beecher said he will be asking for permission to depart shortly and asked if there was an area he should head to first," Glen asked.

"The West Coast has been hit very hard, Lady T'dran," Arlen said. "However, it is also radioactive. If Captain Beecher goes there, please make sure no unshielded people leave the ship."

"Thank you General; I'll be sure to tell him," Glen replied and left the room.

"Operations, do we have any unassigned fighters?" Almas asked.

"A few, I was adding them in to other squadrons. Did you have something else in mind?" The operations officer asked.

"I would like two wasp or hornet fighters to accompany Captain Beecher for protection. Can we do that?" Almas asked.

The man nodded. "I have two unassigned wasps. One of them doesn't have a pilot, but we'll figure out something."

"Good, try to keep watch over them while they're out, but don't endanger the main mission to do so," Almas ordered.

"Commander, I have a request for air support from San Diego; The transports that landed have self-destructed, but the troops and armor are still causing trouble. Do you have anything we can send them?" Bill asked.

Almas didn't answer him immediately, but instead seemed to be concentrating on the unfolding battle in the holotank. "Operations, recall two of the unassigned Shadows and give them to Major Dentin. Sorry Major, but that's all we can spare for the moment."

"It'll be enough, Commander, thank you," Bill replied and returned to his own duties.

"Commander, our Wasp and Hornet squadrons are engaging the enemy fighters. Shadows are four minutes from bomber intercept," Operations reported.

Almas nodded. "Put ESAR on hot standby. General Irons, be ready for incoming enemy fighters and bombers."

When Arlen looked a question at her she gave him a slight smile. "If those bombers are not carrying the chemical weapons, then they are waiting to locate our ground based weapons and fighter bases. If I were the enemy force commander, I would use the fighters and bombers to locate and destroy any anti-missile defenses we might have before launching the chemicals."

"That's exactly what their doing, Commander; Chenzhou Base is reporting they are under direct attack. Four squadrons of bombers are attacking the Ground based guns and one full squadron is heading for the fighter base. Three squadrons of bombers have dropped from the enemy formation and appear to be heading for Pearl Harbor and the mid-Pacific weapons. We can expect the same to happen here, but most likely on a much larger scale," Operations reported.

"Intel, send a report up to command; tell them we suspect the chemical weapons are being carried in the larger ships. The fighters and bombers are to remove the planet's defenses," Almas ordered.

"Yes Sir, but I can tell you that nothing that could be considered a chemical weapon has been so far discovered in the wreckage of destroyed enemy ships. No trace of the weapons has been found so far," the young intelligence officer reported.

"Perhaps that part of the vision was wrong, or the ships carrying them have either not yet been destroyed or were destroyed in hyperspace?" Almas speculated. "To many unknowns yet to form a working theory."

"Remaining Bomber squadrons are descending. Eight for the western coastal area, two are coming here, six more are spreading out and moving further inland. "Shadow fighters are engaging! Defense installations are switching target priority to the bombers."

"Missiles are on full rapid fire, our guns and lasers are on standby until they get closer," Arlen reported. "Bill, make sure our guards are protected, and tell Captain Beecher if he's gonna leave he better do it in the next few minutes or not at all."

Bill nodded to his commander, but was busy issuing orders.

"Commander, if the purpose of this attack is to destroy our defenses, then they should be sending in troops too, it seems fool-hardy to rely completely on an air attack for this," Arlen said.

"I agree, but there are have been no transports yet reported either near Earth or even in the enemy fleet, at least to the best of my knowledge," she replied. "Imperial transports are much different than the transports the Caldarians use. They are the size of a medium cruiser, and carry a lot more troops and equipment. They are heavily armored and shielded much like a capitol class ship which makes them much more difficult to destroy. Once on the ground, they have a very low profile and can camouflage themselves to the surrounding area making them hard to find and hard to hit."

"It sounds like I should be glad they don't have any with them," Arlen replied.

Almas nodded. "While this aerial-only attack doesn't make a lot of sense; I am glad they are not using them."

"Captain Beecher is departing; we are launching his escort fighters," Operations reported.

Almas nodded. "Let us hope they get clear of the area before the bombs start falling."

"We are vectoring them to the south; we'll turn and head for the coast over Mexico, and begin working they way north. They will be trying to avoid the weapons installations and thus the enemy target areas for the time being," Operations replied.

"Smart," Almas nodded. "Let's just hope the enemy doesn't take an interest in him."

"Coastal guns are firing on the bombers. Some of the enemy fighters have left the main skirmish and are screening the bombers over Hawaii, several others are moving to protect the rest of the bombers coming east," the Ops officer reported.

"General, all weapons free. Fire as soon as they have targets. Please send an alert to all continental weapons systems to expect enemy bombers with fighter screen," Almas said. "Ops, let our people know we will be attacked very soon and to please take shelter. Make sure all unprotected personnel are underground, close the flash shields on all above-ground buildings."

"Imperial light cruisers entering the atmosphere over eastern Asia," the operations officer said. "Denise," he said getting the Intelligence officer's attention. "Can you take a look at this? It doesn't make any sense."

"Whatcha got, Sir?" the young woman replied and walked over to him.

"It's those cruisers, they don't seem to be heading for any specific target. Their course terminus is over open ocean south east of Japan," the operations officer said.

She looked at the plot in confusion a moment then a frightened look. "Computer, show us the topographical information for that area."

The computer did as instructed and a dark line appeared under the spot that tracking said the ships were heading to. "What is that?" the Ops officer asked.

"The Mariana Trench; the western edge of the Pacific tectonic plate. It's also one of the places where the Earth's crust is the thinnest," the woman replied. "Computer extrapolate the effects of multiple, high yield anti-matter detonations both at the bottom of the trench, as well as sub-surface."

"Insufficient data for accurate prediction given existing parameters. Above ocean bottom detonation would result in small scale tsunami that would dissipate before reaching land," the computer replied.

"Whatever they are up to, it can't be good. I'll work on this over at my station, but I would recommend you take them out as quickly as you can," Denise said.

"I agree," Almas said, showing that she had been listening. "Operations, coordinate with Chinese and mid-Pacific bases. Take them out as quickly as possible. Intel, as soon as you have a working theory, I would like to hear it."

"Yes Sir," both officers replied and got back to work.

Things in the command center got pretty hectic shortly after that. Despite the best efforts of the fighters, several of the Imperial bombers and fighters made it into range to attack the base. The ground shook from multiple missile strike to the surrounding area. Two missiles impacted the base shield, but it held, barely, long enough for drones to repair it restoring it to full strength.

The base did take damage. The roof in the 'grand hall' cracked, dropping plasticrete, rock and sand on the floor. Several civilians were injured and one died when part of one of the shelters near the outer edge of the facility collapsed. In the main hanger, one of the heavy lift gantries used to move fighters was damaged when a part of the ceiling came lose and hit it before crushing a damaged fighter.

All alone the western seaboard of the Americas, Allied fighters were trying to stop the Imperial ships form destroying the two fighter bases and hundreds of weapons emplacements. The South American fighter base took heavy damage when it's shield failed during the bombardment. It was still mostly functional, and the drones were working to restore the shield and landing areas.

The weapons emplacements were suffering the most. The Bombers would make a single pass at the big guns, launching heavy missiles, before moving on to their next targets. The fighters would follow them in to capitalize on the damage from the missiles. It was a sounds strategy that worked pretty well. The defense forces lost forty-one weapons emplacements. The loss weakened the defenses, but they had been spread out enough for the other weapons to take up some of the slack. Out of the forty-one sites that had been destroyed, only three of the accompanying shelters had also been destroyed; killing roughly one hundred and fifty thousand civilians.