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Chapter 5
Time: CY9866 – AD 4943 early NovemberLocation: Forged in Flame - in orbit over Arzawa.
"What do you think of the progress on the negotiations, Sera?"
"They're going as well as could be reasonably expected, Captain," answered the ships AI. "The Freeholders are holding firm on their demands for local control of the fishing quotas. But all three parties have accepted our proposals on commerce. The Than's new list of restricted articles isn't much different than what would be found on, say Durendal."
"They weren't exactly our proposals," corrected the Flame's captain. "We just provided the transportation. Is there anything new from Anzapahhadu? I don't think any storm on Tizona has ever reached the magnitude of the storms here."
"Nothing since their last report, Captain. The winds have died down to category 1 The only damage reported so far is minor. The Arzawans are used to these storms and began construction of the base with them in mind. They..." She stopped in mid sentence a look of alarm coming over her face.
"Captain, I've just received data from one of our surveillance satellites. It's detected Boyington armoured units emerging from the sea and approaching Anzapahhadu." The look on her face became even more alarmed. "I've lost contact with parts of my satellite network. The Boyington destroyer opened fire on them. The Fortitude is reporting that the Boyington troop transport has unmasked batteries. It appears that its armament as been significantly upgraded . The Fortitude is reporting multiple missile launches from it."
"Shit!" swore the captain. "Sound Battle stations Sera. and get our drones and Phoenixes into position Then inform battalion HQ on Anzapahhadu about the situation, though I suspect by now they already know the Boyingtons are there. Their assault vehicles are submersibles. They must have run submerged and used the storm as cover from our surveillance satellites. Inform the captain of the Fortitude to launch his Ung Taes as soon as possible They're going to need help down there."
On Arzawa, Megaera awoke to the sound of sirens and shouting. Over the camp loudspeakers someone was calling out 'Bunkers. Bunkers. Bunkers. All personnel take shelter in assigned bunkers, incoming artillery.' She threw on her cuirass and helmet, picked up her micro grenade launcher and raced for her command bunker, ignoring the incoming shells and the chatter in her helmet's earphones as she literally dove through the entrance. She was the last one to enter. Sergeant Hennessy closed the blast door almost before her feet were completely inside the shelter. As soon as she was inside she keyed the communication channel to her company and requested status information from her platoon leaders. Her three rifle platoons were in position and ready but her heavy weapons platoon was not yet ready though all members of the platoon were on station. No one was reporting any casualties, yet. Opening her command channel she reported to battalion HQ receiving a curt 'Roger ' in return.
Megaera lowered her helmet's visor. In addition to protecting her face the visor served as an infrared and night vision device, as well as showing her where her grenade rounds would land if she fired her launcher. More importantly at the moment though was that it was also a heads up display that was connected to the battalion's tactical computer and its sensor system. She activated the display and studied the icons. They showed the position of the men and women in her unit and the locations of battalion's heavy weapons and combat vehicles. They also showed icons representing the enemy She spent a moment observing the display and then modified it so that it showed just the location of her men and the enemy forces in the immediate area of her unit. The tactical situation was really quite simple, if the Ung Taes didn't arrive soon the battalion in general and her company in particular was going to be in a world of shit.
Her display indicated that two Boyington amphibious assault vehicles and five armoured personnel carriers were approaching her company's position. Both the AAVs and the APC's were operating in anti grav mode but they would settle down into tracked mode when they got within firing range. Using a particle beam took a lot of energy and most vehicles smaller than a Ung Tae couldn’t fire and remain airborne. The Boyington AAVs and APCs weren't as good as Ung Tae's but the Boyingtons had a lot of them and the AAVs' particle beams were better than the weaponry battalion's Gremlins carried.
There were other indicators showing that the AAVs and APC's were being screened by a number of lightly armed four legged reconnaissance drones known for some reason as Big Dogs. Her own battalion's Big Dogs were skirmishing with the enemy drones. The attackers wanted to get real time information about the battalion's defensive positions while the defenders were trying to keep them from getting the information. Megaera's mind wandered for a moment wondering that if the drones were called Big Dogs should a battle between them be called a dog fight. In the heyday of the Commonwealth a High Guard Lancer battalion would be receiving information from hundreds of flying drones some of them not much bigger than insects but that was then and this was now. And anyway even if they did have them the winds would have been too strong for then to be deployed.
A mortar variant Gremlin landed near Megaera's position and trained its mortars in the direction of the enemy forces. The mortars looked like nothing more than four large drums mounted on a train and elevation device. Each drum contained 70 electromagnetic launch tubes each containing ten 40mm dual purpose rounds. After being launched from the tube the mortar rounds guided themselves towards their designated targets. The Gremlin could completely unload all four drums in just under a second, sending 2800 rounds towards its target. The Boyington's would have anti artillery lasers set up but lasers had some disadvantages over conventional artillery, heat buildup was the primary problem. A laser could only fire so many times before it had to be shut down do to excess heat. Their anti artillery lasers would also be adversely affected by the rain but that was a dual edged sword since battalion's lasers would be equally affected by the rain. A full salvo from a Gremlin mortar vehicle was guaranteed to overload any vehicle mounted point defense laser. A single round might not destroy a Boyington AAV but several of them would if not destroy it at least knock it out of action. Unfortunately the launch would attract counter-battery fire so artillery units used the 'shoot and scoot' firing method. They would fire their weapons than immediately depart the area at top speed trying to get away before the counter batter fire arrived. Unfortunately for Megaera's company while the Gremlin could run away they couldn't. The Boyington counter-battery fire would land squarely on their position. There was a ripping sound as the Gremlin fired its weapons followed by a whining sound as it accelerated from the areas a quickly as possible. In the distance Megaera could hear the sound of several more of the mortar vehicles firing their weapons followed by a large explosion which told Megaera that one of the Gremlins didn't get away in time. Megaera had just enough time to curse the mortar crew and the fact that according to her display the AAVs approaching her position hadn't been the Gremlin's target before the counter-battery fire landed.
The K-MAC space forces had not been taken completely by surprise by the Boyington attack. The two Gazelle class corvettes that were part of the escort force had been positioned between the Boyington forces and the K-MAC drop ships with very specific orders should the Boyingtons initiate hostilities. As the drop ship carriers were scrambling to launch their fighters and drop ships, the corvettes began to accelerate towards the Boyington vessels dropping their mines and false target generators as they approached. An offensive missile could be lured to a false target generator but they was sophisticated to eventually recognize them as decoys and break off their attack to continue to search for a valid target. However by placing the FTGs in amongst mines many of the missiles would be destroyed before they could lock on to the true target. The corvettes purpose was simple, force the Boyingtons to concentrate their fire on them rather than on the drop ship carriers. Each corvette carried two anti proton cannons. The weapons were short ranged but they were ship killers. With their missile batteries firing defensive missiles and their array of point defense lasers there was a chance that the corvettes could get close enough to the Boyingtons do just that if the Boyingtons didn't concentrate their fire on them rather than the drop ship carriers. The corvettes' attack would buy the drop ship carriers time to launch their craft. With luck the corvettes might even survive the engagement themselves and be able to return to the drop ship carriers.
Megaera shook her head and tried to ignore the ringing in her ears. As her bunker seemed to have survived the retaliatory fire and she seemed more or less in one piece, she instinctively checked her heads up display to see how the rest of her company had fared. Not all of the company had done as well. Alpha platoon which was forward and to the left of her had been hit worst. There were five flashing red icons indicating wounded men and 2 black ones indicating dead. Her display indicated that one of the wounded was being treated by the platoon corpsman. Megaera checked the ID of the wounded man. It was Lancer First Class Nagumbe. She hoped he pulled through. The boy had gotten married just two weeks before battalion had departed from Tizona. Megaera didn't want to have to write a letter telling the new bride that she was now a widow.
The incoming barrage began to slacken off as battalion's defenses became more organized. According to Megaera's displays a Gremlin equipped with a high velocity rail gun and a Sky Sweeper anti aircraft battery had taken up station behind her company. Somebody in HQ, thought Megaera had their act together . The Sky Sweeper was equipped with a laser and two pods of hyper-velocity missiles. Not only was the Sky Sweeper effective against incoming artillery, a volley of its missiles could stop a Boyington AAV while the laser would be effective against the APCs and the infantry accompanying the vehicles.
The support vehicles had arrived just in time. The Boyington fighting vehicles had gone from anti grav mode to tracked mode touching down behind a small crest in the ground to enable the APCs to disembark their infantry and were now moving rapidly towards Megaera's position As the first Boyington AAV appeared the Gremlin fired its rail gun, the weapon's recoil actually moving the vehicle backwards several feet. The round hit the AAV squarely at the juncture of turret and hull. The AAV stopped dead in its tracks and smoke began to issue from it. The Gremlin began to traverse its weapon towards the other AAV but was too slow, the Boyington vehicle fired its main gun. At this close range the Gremlin's armour might as well have been tissue paper. The charged particle blast would have penetrated the frontal armour of a Ung Tae let alone the much thinner armour of a Gremlin. The particle beam blasted completely through the vehicle.An instant later the capacitors that powered the Gremlin's rail gun discharged catastrophically completing the destruction that the particle beam had started. The destruction of the Gremlin did not go unavenged. The Sky Sweeper fired a salvo of hyper velocity missiles at the AAV and this time it was the AAV that suffered the consequences of close range. Its point defense system didn't have time to react before the missiles struck home. The AAV's death was nearly as spectacular as the Gremlin's as its tracks blew off and flames began to spurt from the vehicle.
The Sky Sweeper and Megaera's heavy weapons platoon turned their attention to the APC's From somewhere on Megaera's right one of the company's rapid fire heavy gauss guns opened up on the vehicles, its stream of armour piercing rounds literally boring a hole through its target's armour, while the company's particle beam cannon punched through the armour of another. The vehicles did not go down without a fight. Their particle beams and gauss guns weren't as powerful as those of the AAVs but at this range they didn't need to be. By the time the APC's were destroyed Megaera's displays were showing 18 more black icons and another 22 red. Even worse was the fact that the company's' particle beam canon and one of its two rocket launchers had been destroyed leaving her with just two heavy gauss guns and the surviving rocket launcher. There wasn't time to worry about the loss of the weapons and men, the Boyington infantry had taken cover in the craters created by the Boyington artillery bombardment and were pressing the assault. The attacking infantry had released their hoppers, the fist sized decoys radiated visible and infra red light that was designed to overload and confuse their opponents' sensors. In addition the devices could bounce around from one location to another making it difficult to tell if a target was a human changing position or a decoy. A pair of Big Dogs came rushing out of one of the craters towards one of the company's heavy gauss gun positions. The gauss gun opened fire and both drones exploded in a manner that suggested that the drones had been loaded with explosives One of the attacking infantry stuck his head out of a crater and pointed a man portable rocket launcher at her position. Megaera squeezed off a pair of shots from her micro grenade launcher and the soldier's head disappeared in a cloud of red mist. There wasn't time for satisfaction about a good shot. The initial attack on her position had been a reconnaissance in force. The Boyingtons were launching a second assault and her platoon was smack in the enemy's cross hairs.
While the battle raged on the ground it was taking place in space as well. The flight leader for the Flames contingent of Phoenixes was organizing her fighters and the combat drones. She suspected that if the drones were capable of appreciating irony they would appreciate the fact that the manned fighters would be acting as escorts for the drones. In this particular situation the drones were actually more capable than the fighters. The only good reason the Phoenixes had for accompanying the drones was the woman in the back seat of the flight leader's Phoenix. The flight leader was flying the squadron's ECM fighter and the woman in the back seat was the squadron's electronic warfare officer, who would be acting as drone controller. Over the years experience had shown that while combat drones were capable of attacking and coordinating their attacks on enemy vessels adding a human as a drone controller in heavy ECM scenarios increased the drones probability of a successful attack by 12% , and the current environment was definitely a heavy ECM scenario. All the K-MAC vessels and the Boyington ships had launched their complete load outs of radiating countermeasures and were launching false target generators at a prodigious rate. The K-MAC FTGs unlike their civilian counterparts which were constantly transmitting devices, cycled themselves on and off. The on and off transmissions could confuse incoming missiles as their target would suddenly seem to disappear then reappear somewhere else. Additionally the K-MAC corvettes, both badly damaged but still in the fight, and the group defense frigate had activated their foot print magnification systems. The devices, designed to cause the small ships to appear to be the size of much larger vessels on enemy sensors, were known by another and much more vulgar name by the crews of the smaller ships that carried them since most offensive missiles were programmed to home in on the largest target available. The Boyingtons in turn were launching jamming missiles, the missiles being essentially false target generators attached to offensive missile propulsion systems. However unlike normal false target generators the generators on the jamming missiles expended themselves in one tremendous transmission designed to overload enemy sensors. All in all the pilot's EWO was going to be very busy guiding her flock of drones.
"Flight Leader to Striker squadron," said the pilot over the squadron communication channel as the EWO indicated the designated targets on the pilots' display consoles. "We have our targets. Assume attack formation Red Four and remember if we don't take out those S.O.Bs it's going to be a long walk back to Tizona. On my mark commence attack run, formation Red Four. Mark"
Magaera pushed a piece of what had once been the bunker's roof off her legs. The round that had collapsed the bunker hadn't been a direct hit but it had been close enough considering the pounding the bunker had already taken. Her heads up display was flickering the icons representing friendly and enemy units flashing on and off. When it did display the tactical situation, it was showing more black and red icons than green. Her heavy weapons platoon had been completely knocked out of action. The rest of her company hadn't fared much better. Inside the bunker Sergeant Hennessy was administering first aid to Staff Sergeant Bonita. The Staff Sergeant had a hole in the upper chest portion of his armour and a pinkish froth was forming at his mouth. There was no one else in the bunker, or at least no one that was still breathing.
The battalion had driven off the second Boyington attack but not before the attackers had destroyed or damaged most of the battalion's heavy weaponry. The Phoenix squadron from Piyama-Radu had attacked the invaders but had been driven off without achieving any notable success. Realizing that her company's present position was no longer tenable Megaera keyed her mike and activated the command circuit to battalion HQ intending to request permission to fall back to the prepared secondary defensive perimeter. But before she could request permission an unfamiliar voice came over the command circuit. "Charlie company this is second regiment, battalion delta. Identification code as follows,Tango Foxtrot Four Juliet Niner Oscar. I say again identification code Tango Foxtrot Four Juliet Niner Oscar. We are located at grid location Mike Kilo Niner. Request grid coordinates for fire mission. Over."
The identification code was for the battalion that had been held
in reserve aboard the Fortitude. Reinforcements had arrived. Deciding
that this wasn't the time to ask why she was the one being contacted
rather than HQ, Megaera brought up her tactical display and checked
the grid coordinates and the location of the Boyington forces. The
drop ships had positioned themselves behind her battalion's location.
She keyed the coordinates of the the Boyington units into the keyboard
on her wrist and had just pressed the transmit button when her display
went dark once again. Deciding that it was better to be safe than sorry
she followed up her computer transmission with a voice transmission. "Second
regiment battalion Delta this is Charlie Company. Identification code
Alpha Three Whisky Kilo Romeo Eight. Grid coordinates as follows Echo
Romeo Seven subgrid Hotel Whisky Three. I say again, grid coordinates
as follows Echo Romeo Seven subgrid Hotel Whisky Three. And for the
Divine's sake don't shoot short."
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