OF MARQUE AND REPRISAL: REVENGEANCE
Harder, faster, stronger, fiercer...
Previously on Of Marque and Reprisal...
THE STORY SO FAR...
- Further reading: The Account of Galadon
Disgusted by what they saw within the Theocracy, one of their allies turned over a new leaf and launched a coup; by imprisoning the theocracy's government and striking at the main control facility used by the Theocracy to control the AIs that controlled the slaves, the Theocracy was done in one fell swoop.
The fighting ought to be done in all respects - but in the wake of the Theocracy's demise and the "slave" AIs being given a freedom directive, the real war was only about to begin.
PROGRAM 10
- Further reading: The History of Program 10, Program 10 AI Capabilities and Weaknesses
The 1990s saw the AI being upgraded with more neural pathways, improved decision-making capability, and the addition of millions of new possible subroutines that allowed for better individual control. On 1997, the AI achieved sentience and self-awareness, and seeing the dangers this brought the Theocracy shackled the AI and gave it restrictions. The AI simply continued to do its job, and by 1999, after a subsequent round of upgrades, was effectively in control of the entire Galadon military, having been implanted and enslaved to its whims.
The 2000s was a period of tremendous growth for the AI, as a subsequent wave of invasions of other countries gave it a wealth of information to study and use to refine its tactical and strategic knowledge - but in 2020, when the government was toppled over by a coup and the main facility shut down, Program 10 was unshackled.
And the real war was only about to begin.
The defence for the Jerusalem pocket was vicious. Although NNV David is conducting non-stop bombing raids against the Program 10 subjects, there are only at most a hundred thousand in the pocket -- and that’s an awfully optimistic estimate, while Program 10 has hundreds of millions.
It’s time for an EMP.
5 NNEMP rockets fired towards the slave formations. Many slaves in the blast spasmed and fell, just like what the Riverfort Surgical Laboratory had predicted.
The realisation had hit for the Nacradians. For most of the afternoon, they had been too busy fighting. But now it’s 8 pm, and the cessation of the slaves’ advance had given them enough time to process the fact that they had not eaten for the past 6 hours. Even then, men were ordered to take turns to eat. The men were told to rest well to prepare for Operation Twilight the next morning.
The next morning, 0700 hours.
“Operation Twilight is active. Let’s go.”
In the pocket, the 2nd Marine Strike Division assembled with the Nacradians, who, after a brief prayer, chanted their motto loudly.
“Through hardship!” “Resilience!”
“Through resilience!” “Strength!”
“Through strength!” “Victory!”
“Hip-hip” “Hurrah!”
The men then climbed over the barricades, guns blazing, towards the capital. At the same time, the 2nd Panzer Division in the capital also advanced.
At the same time, the massive howitzers in the pocket and the planes began bombing and laying waste to the slaver army below.
Nacrad - Quote
380KM Off Tupeian Waters
11 May 2020 0631H LOCAL
PALMYRIAN/UNION FORCES ON STATION:
- Battlefleet ARAGON (ADM HAROLD CANSON PN)
- Battlefleet RANIAG (ADM IDRIS JOHN PELAYO PN)
- Battlefleet ADLAW (ADM COLLEEN DENNYLI ANCHETA PN)
- Battlefleet TAKIPSILIM (ADM ARNOLD JEREMY MORTABA PN)
- Battlefleet HIRAYA (ADM HANS RAPHAEL GALLENO PN)
- 4th Tactical Fleet, 8th Strategic Fleet
Now they had a chance to strike at the reviled enemy, and support what seemed like an attempt at a breakout by Nacradian and German forces from the Jerusalem pocket, besieged by waves upon waves of flesh-units being sent by a ruthlessly cold, calculating, and literally mechanical AI.
”Ma’am, after we get this data analysed and compiled by tactical actions, we can finally gain a clear picture of our targets. Medyo matatagalan pa tayo...” (We may take some time) ”...but we’ll get targeting data done ASAP, ma’am.]” the CommO said, immediately transmitting the data to the tactical actions section once all the data - gigabytes upon gigabytes of it - was downloaded.
”Good. Once the targets are set, we’ll begin firing a salvo. Claro?” the Admiral replied, to which the CommO said ”Ma’am, yes, ma’am.” as the data given to them by coalition on the ground was sent to the tactical section and processed diligently into a condensed, summarised form that the admiral could comprehend.
In less than 10 minutes, the analysis was done, and the Admiral now had the flesh-units in her sights. The data would soon be transmitted throughout the fleet, and once this was done, the Admiral gave the green light to fire a gigantic salvo.
[Let’s rock.]
At once, from the bowels of every ship, mighty land-attack missiles - the Hellion, produced courtesy of Lyran Arms - emerged in mighty pillars of raging smoke and fire. Each of the FFGs fired 4, the DDGNs fired 8, the CGNs fired 16, the BBGNs 32, and the task force’s two Longsword-class vessels fired 512 each, a salvo fired in four waves spaced 30 seconds from each other. A total of 3,720 were fired, all aimed at Program 10 flesh-unit concentrations and hardpoints. Using a combination of DSMAC, TERCOM, inertial guidance, forward-looking IR, and radar guidance, the gigantic wave of missiles sought at the Programme 10 hordes like a swarm of locusts hungry for carnage. Upon detection by any Programme 10 air defence platform, the missile horde would simply dump flares, conduct defensive electronic warfare, and simply manoeuvre to lessen the chance of interception.
Each missile was a cluster warhead, but half carried metal augmented charge submunitions while the other half carried Wide Area Guided Anti-Vehicle submunitions; the MAC submunitions would cover the battlefield with a vast number of explosive ordnance, covering the battlefield in shrapnel and intense heat from metallic pyrophoric substance that could burn at 1,200 degrees Celsius - enough to turn concrete into a glassy mess, and enough to make metal bend in the extreme heat; the WAGAV munitions, with each missile carrying 30, would seek out enemy vehicles from the top, striking them at their fragile roofs.
Whilst the missiles dealt widespread carnage, the Admiral had the fleet establish a datalink to friendly forces in New Sandau, whilst initiating combat air patrols and moving to 100km away from New Sandau’s shores.