At the Evacuation of Leos
07.03.124 ASY
The Static committed ruthlessly, their force accelerating and closing range with the badly outnumbered Hypatian forces. The sniping battleships are ignored for now, save for slightly increasing the range of their own interdiction and increasing the mean frequency of their randomwalks. The periodic ship, hit from extreme range by the neutronium longlances, was a distraction relative to the lighter Hypatian carrier-and-escort formation. The sharply angled Static and their bare handful of captured NEGL ships crashes like a tidal wave into engagement range with the Hypatians, weapons releasing and blazing away at the interloper warships.
Without communications, the Arkasian response is piecemeal and disjointed, but appears somewhat more coordinated than it is as multiple subformations burn hard to break orbit in relatively close sequence, the vanguard of a slightly more reluctant and strung-out movement by some of the NEGL ships to move into engagement range of the Static. As they move, Arkasian ships begin dumping shuttles and their surviving landing craft and gunships, following the lead of the Hypatians in supporting the evacuation of whoever was left. A few of the Arkasians also launch Javelin missiles, with by-now-predictably ineffectual results… except for those from one formation, which had spent the intervening hours clustered with the Phoenixi ships, devising new ideas. Their missiles send their particle beams on time and on target, catching the dozen or so Static vessels off-guard. Still, it was just a drop in the bucket, and the leading Arkasian vessels whip through a firing pass against the Static before decelerating hard and joining the Hypatians. Other Arkasians strike from different angles; some decelerate hard into positions with the Hypatians as the first did, while others fly by, skitting out of engagement range and then circling back around for another attack.
Towards the surface, the Arkasian shuttles joined those of Hypatia and the others in their descents, their escorting gunships suppressing any Static air defense that showed itself. More than one pays the cost, the unlucky Osprey or Peregrine spiraling down and crashing into the surface or detonating in mid-air after being hit by ground fire during their runs. In the chaos, evacuation transports slip through towards the designated zones, mostly unmolested as any identified enemy positions on the flight path are flattened by ortillery from one of many Arkasian or NEGL assault carriers and expeditionary cruisers whose guns overwatch the evacuation proceedings. With each group of transports are Arkasian Guardians, intent on identifying Blanks from Arkasians and ensuring that those who arrived back with the coalition fleet would be threats only to the enemy.
“Well… shit.”
“I take it that means Static?”
“Yeah, definitely. I can smell it from here.”
Brianne and Valdemar crouched along the treeline, their ad-hoc company a few hundred feet behind them while the ranking NCO and their resident Static-detector Arkasian Guardian scouted out the path ahead, towards the collection point nearest the caves they had been hiding in when the Hypatian signal came through.
Brianne cracks her knuckles carefully. “We don’t have time to go around them this time,” she says, as she palms her lightsaber off of her belt. “Bring the squad leaders up here, and I’ll explain the plan…”
The enemy force, based on Brianne’s observations, was a Cavalry element from the NEGL Auxiliary’s 48th Corps, blanked likely without firing a shot and equipped with Zohan Medium Tanks and Mesre APCs. Conversely, the ragtag collection of survivors were a combined unit of light mechanized, with a pair of Arkasian Fencer IFVs, a handful of NEGL Kodiac IFVs and one tank destroyer, a single Arkasian Lynx-Lancer Light Cavalry Vehicle, and a trio of Blazer II APCs. The company’s M892 Utility Vehicles, alas, had been abandoned en-route; they hadn’t been able to handle a bout of difficult terrain, and there had been no time to ferry them with the other vehicles.
“Alright,” starts Brianne. “We’re out of time. We have less than an hour to make the drop zone. We’ve got to punch clean through these guys and make a break for the beacon. We’re going to launch a combined infantry and light armored assault on their position, with the aim of breaking through. We don’t need to hold the position; knock out the tanks and move. Platoons will maneuver at the discretion of their COs. We have infantry anti-tank ordnance: use it! The Zohans and their 100mm cannons are the priority targets; they’re thinner skinned and more heavily armed than the Mesres. For the Mesres, try to knock out the treads and gun if you have a lighter weapon like a 40mm; we don’t need total kills, just to disable them. Punch through the formation, and regroup by squad at the evacuation zone. Five minutes to position, and then open up with the first volley from me. Good luck, and Stars watch over us all.”
The coalition units space out, while Brianne does her best to stay focused, her eyes darting across the enemy formation for any sign that they’ve been spotted. There’s no indication of that, however, and she spares glances up and down her own line, watching her vehicles and infantry moving into position. It feels like an eternity, each second seeming to tick by in slow motion. Suddenly, shots, spinning over her head. And then a fusillade, the coalition and Static units firing and, if not quite in position, scrambling to get there.
Even with surprise ruined, the initial barrage from the coalition was devastating, given their positioning. The vehicles opened up first, in a barrage of cannon fire and then with the whoosh of missiles, shooting through the air at their victims. From the Zohans and Mesres, and wave of plasma shotgun and CIWS fire, intended to intercept some of the missiles. As the initial wave of vehicle-munitions launch, the infantry set up for their shots, Double-Taps and Shortbow IIs and Eridani Axehead rockets, even the odd Vasily anti-tank rifle, opening up with a ripple of rocket launches and the ‘pop’ of a salvo of 40mm grenades fired from supporting launchers.
The Zohans, pivoting to engage, fare poorly, their armor and active defenses not being thick and numerous enough to keep them from quickly becoming flaming wrecks or disabled hulls blocking the Static forces from maneuvering. The Mesres do better; while one goes down under a fusillade of missiles, others stubbornly endure, sometimes after taking multiple hits, and start throwing return fire that cracks against the shields of the coalition vehicles and, in one case, pierces clean through a Kodiak without concern. That Mesre faces the same fate a moment later, though, as the Yokai variant tank destroyer fires its main gun, and puts a 120mm energy-sheathed round through its armor.
After the initial salvo, and while the vehicles trade missiles and cannon shots, the infantry engage with their light machine guns and rifles, and another smattering of grenades, before moving up by fireteam, with staccato bursts from their own carbines laying cover. The Static hunker down and maneuver around their vehicles, using the more heavily armored tanks and APCs for cover from the coalition attack.
For most people, charging into a gunfight with a sword is an easy way to be shot down. Guardians are not most people. The Guardian Lieutenant ignites her saber and moves forward, jumping and then changing direction in mid-air to avoid an aimed burst of fire. She rolls into cover and fires a burst from her carbine to dispatch the shooter, before continuing her advance. She pushes herself forward, focusing in on a target in particular. She ignites her saber again, and flips, flinging it like a dart to spear one Blank before pulling it back, sidestepping a burst of fire, and running a second through. She fires a burst from her carbine, staggering two more before cutting them down with equal aplomb. Given a moment’s respite from enemy fire, she jumps up onto a nearby Mesre and, with a labored stroke, spikes the main gun with the saber’s plasma beam before slicing off the main remote weapon station’s sensors. She backflips off just in time, before another fusillade from the Static can cut her down. Unfortunately, a slug clips her leg in the process; she hisses and rolls onto the other side of the Mesre, meeting up with Valdemar and the rest of his squad… minus one, who was back on the hillside.
“Half a dozen, at our 11 o’clock,” she says, gesturing. “Winged me, nothing serious. I’ll cut left and draw them, then you drop them.” She claps Valdemar’s shoulder, and then ducks around, heading the other way around the Mesre. She pops out for a moment, firing a burst at the Static soldiers, and then ducking as a fusilade comes back down on her. She fires blindly for a moment, and then pops up again, from a different angle, up and over the Mesre with a flip. She makes it halfway across before she suddenly drops to the deck, feeling a shot whizzing right through where she had been. She sees Valdemar’s squad open up on the Static, and she rolls to the side and kicks herself off the edge of the tank while they’re distracted. But not distracted enough; as she rolls to her feet, one of them shoots at her, sending her scrambling and rolling under the Mesre. She fires another blind burst with her carbine, growling as she feels a rough punch, in her right shoulder. She reaches her hand to the wound, and it comes back bloody. Careless idiot! she curses herself. No time to rest it. She grabs her saber with her other hand and rolls out again, casting it forth towards the cluster of enemies. She misses, it passing over their heads. It does decapitate one a moment later, though, when she pulls it back to her hand.
Suddenly, the Static position explodes, in a series of blasts. An Auxiliary, a bright-teal Czearian, with an Akki automatic grenade launcher stands grinning, having just emptied the burst chamber. “I’ve got you, Lieut…” he starts, before she reaches out with the Force and yanks his legs. He goes down, just as a burst of canister shot from a Zohan’s cannon stitches through the air where he was.
“Move it! Displace to the rally point!” she calls, gesturing at Valdemar’s squad as well as the Czearian. “I’m on the tank!” She rushes forward, kicking off to the side to avoid a burst from the vehicle’s 25mm pintle cannon before she tosses her saber, aiming for the remote weapons station. The point defense from the tank sees it coming, releasing a wave of plasma fire that strikes it mid-air. The saber explodes.
“Oh.” She freezes in place for a moment, and then dives again at another burst of fire from the autocannon, rolling forward presciently inside its firing arc. She scrambles at her belt, but comes up empty; all she has are a few spare magazines for her carbine. She uses the carbine nonetheless, climbing onto the front of the tank and then firing an extended burst at two more Static, who finally drop after taking multiple hits each. She changes the magazine quickly, letting the old one drop to the dirt, before she realizes how she’s going to die. The Mesre, whose main gun she had killed, and which had lost a track and taken several other hits, wasn’t dead yet, and it was slowly pivoting towards her on its live track. It had no main gun, but she could feel the gunners’ deadly intent, with the two 15mm heavy machine guns quite intact. She curses and fires at them, her darts punching holes in the weapon mounts but not disabling them. Just as they finish pivoting, something strikes the Mesre like a hammer, blowing a gaping hole in the side and ending its malevolence. The Yokai tank destroyer was still in action, and someone had designated the Mesre as its target.
“Come on Brianne!” It’s Valdemar and his Eridani. The Zohan notices at the same time she does, pivoting its turret to bring its weapons to bear on the disobedient fireteam. Brianne moves, clearing the zone. The Zohan keeps its eyes on the 4 pointy-ears, it’s autocannon a moment from opening up and ending things. Valdemar yells “Now!”, and fires the Akki he had taken from the Czearian, sending a second burst of anti-tank grenades towards the Zohan. Two axehead missiles fly from the rest of the squad, with the last holding what looks suspiciously like a target designator, and is.
The tank has to pause, and respond. The point defenses trigger automatically, though one of the launchers is still recharging from destroying Brianne’s lightsaber. A flash of plasma fire detonates one of the axehead missiles. The second strikes true, embedding in the side of the vehicle and detonating in a jet of molten plasma. There’s a blast, and the turret of the Zohan flies off. Brianne dives into the team’s position. Valdemar kneels by her.
“Why is it you’re always shot?” he asks, gently. He reaches for a medical injector and places it near the wound, before discharging it.
“Occupational hazard of running at guys with guns with a sword,” she grunts in return, wincing as the injector discharges to fill the wound with a gel and staunch the bleeding. “You’re supposed to be at the rally point.”
“Yeah, and where would you be if we were?” he retorts. “Besides, I’m a Sergeant. Babysitting Lieutenants is part of my job.”
Brianne snorts, amused, and moves to get up; Valdemar offers her his hand, and she takes it, and the lot of them book it as Brianne adds, “Right, guess that’s universal. Thanks, Sergeant.”
The landing zone was a mix of Arkasians, Leaguers, Eridani, and Hypatians organized into a perimeter. There were a disconcerting number of bodies and vehicle hulls scattered around the area, which has been cleared by some kind of orbital munition, going by the lack of greenery and the shards of glass around the area. The call of “Halt!” from a Hypatian with a loudspeaker and the number of guns pointed at them explained that rapidly. They halt. A battlemage sprints forward, approaching cautiously. When she finally reaches within about 10 meters of them, she gestures. “Clear!” she calls back.
“Move up!” The Hypatians with the microphone again. And then, a moment’s rapid movement later, they were inside the perimeter.
“There will be time for a debrief starside,” a grim Arkasian Marine explained to the ground. Brianne had tried to argue for staying; another Guardian firmly ordered her into space, on account of her injuries. The Eridani had tried to argue for staying too, to allow more Arkasians on the perimeter to evacuate now rather than later. The Marines stared incredulously and then all-but-shoved the Eridani soldiers into a transport with what might be described as indignation. That particular transport offloaded their adhoc company onto an Arkasian Fleet Expeditionary Cruiser less than two hours before the planet burned. The survivors could be sorted back into appropriate units at Kinsara.
At Avalon Prime
The tens of thousands of ships of the Northeast Gamma League Auxiliary’s primary fighting force mingled with the others; some were reinforcements from the Eridani Imperium and the Hypatian Commonwealth and the Phoenix Domain, while others were Arkasian, tens of thousands of shiny new warships docked in neat little rows, with small groups periodically breaking away and joining the NEGL forces as the Starfleet and some of their more integrated allies recrewed from their older hulls into the many new hulls that had arrived courtesy of the Martian nations.
Of course, there were differences across how the various nations were adapting to the Arkasians’ Thanatos Protocol. The Kinsari had hopped to implementing the changes with their usual cheer… though the chassis of their MD-Sm/s units were shorter and oddly lagomorphic, for reasons that would be obvious to anyone that had ever seen a Kinsari. The Arcadians, meanwhile, grumbled loudly about the MD-Sm/s drone units and were less enthusiastic about abandoning their domestic ships for Arkasian designs. Fortunately, the spacious and comfortable interiors typical of Arkasian vessels did much to ease the transition process, and the drones proved useful in making the lives of sapient crews much less tedious.
Partway across the system, the Avalon Staryards worked ceaselessly, heedless of the current surplus of hulls. Those new ships would be crewed and operational soon enough, and getting domestic production up to par was a top priority. They weren’t only building ships; in fact, the bulk of their current production was retrofit modules for Avalon Star’s dyson swarms which would make them useful for more than just self-replication. Still, some ships were taking form amidst the scaffolding. Two enormous scaffolds, new and unblemished, held a pair of supercapital vessels that foreign intelligence would recognize as partially-finished Overlord-class Sector Control Ships. Smaller scaffolds (in relative terms only) held new battlecruisers; a few of the Pandora-class like those from the foreign contracts and a few older Infinity-class, but also the new Aurora-class. A bleeding-edge design, the Aurora-class hadn’t been ready for mass production, and these first few examples were prototypes, intended for trials before iterative limited production could begin. The 2.5km long battlecruisers dwarfed their predecessors by nearly an order of magnitude, and were also significantly larger than the Meridian II and Cabot-class flag battleships that currently led Arkasian fleets. Size doesn’t mean everything, of course… but it meant the Auroras would have a few tricks up their sleeve their smaller counterparts couldn’t imagine.
