The Peregrines, covered by fighters, enter the upper atmosphere of the moon. Once they reach the target zone, they open the ramps, and the armored Special Forces and Force Recon troops stream out.
“This is the easy part,” Captain Reynolds states over the link, “just enjoy the ride and the view.”
A few meters to my left, the rest of my group lights up. They haven’t really turned on any lights since that would simply be an excellent way to get killed by ground forces. In reality, this is simply the computer’s way of showing where fellow soldiers are. Around me, close in and in the distance, other soldiers began to glow in several different colors; my group is neon green. We twist ourselves around in the air and began to drift closer together. As we move, the computer transforms the surface into a topological grid overlay, on which several pinpoints glow in various colors. The points are our various landing zones.
I order the computer to highlight our target and any installations between the landing zone and objective. Quickly formulating a tentative plan, I have the computer send it over the link to my team’s computers, stating the plan in about a tenth of the time a briefing would normally take. This is a real bonus when you’re conducting your briefing as you and your teammates fall toward the surface of a planet at terminal velocity. Especially when the pre-deployment briefing is a mere general outline, and is adjusted on the fly depending on what is found once we deploy.
Ten minutes later, we land and quietly rally together. Well, as quietly as an armored man can anyway. After all, these aren’t really designed for stealth. They can take one hell of a beating, though.
Over the link, I tell my team of twelve, “You know the routine. Pair up, and no less than 20-meters distance. Keep an eye on your maps, and don’t get trapped in a firefight. Perry, you and Bender bring up the rear. Activate your camo if you already haven’t, and make sure your suit speakers are off. Link only.”
An hour of hard marching, with no enemy contact, and we stop five hundred meters from a building with a huge cannon sticking out of the roof. Thermal imaging shows several troops patrolling the perimeter and deep scans show the presence of another two dozen or so inside.
Our orders are to make our way to the facility and hunker down until all teams are in position, then take them out all at once. Thankfully, none of them are anywhere near any of the domed cities, so we can use antimatter rockets to destroy the cannons, as well as hopefully all of the Alkarin troops at the same time. I have my people dig some quick fighting positions as we wait so that we can avoid the worst of the blast when we hit the facility.
Then, we get the fun of waiting until the fleet destroys the bases from orbit. Once they have, the Peregrines will pick us back up and then join the Goliath and remainder of the fleet to attack the planet and moon in the inner system.
Command says they prefer to honorably engage face-to-face with swords and knives, but they do have rifles and other weapons as well. For all I care, they can put their honor in one hand, shit in the other, and see which fills up faster. All I care about is my people, so their honor can suck my dick. We have swords and our combat knives as well, but I don’t plan to allow them to get close enough for them to come into play.
Within the hour, all teams report that they are in position.
Telling the computer to set the yield of the missiles to 5 kilotons, one is launched, and after it hits the facility, the other is, too. The two 75-millimeter antimatter rockets completely devastate the building and cannon, ensuring that it’ll have to be completely rebuilt. Then, we kill any of the Alkarin unlucky enough to survive the blast. Of course, killing them after being so close to an antimatter explosion without being in armor is mostly likely a mercy compared to dying a slow, painful death from radiation poisoning.
Quickly moving off, we make our way to the exfiltration site to await pick up.
3 hours later, they’re back on board their troop carriers watching the displays as several dreadnoughts move into low orbit and fire missiles at the bases on the moon. The two gigaton explosions are easily seen, even on the daylight side. While there might be a few Alkarin troops left alive if they are dug in far enough underground, Admiral Abrams decides they aren’t worth the effort of cleaning up. After 8 hours of mandatory rest for the exhausted survivors of the battle for the moon, Goliath and the remaining fleet jump into orbit around the moon, and the fleet jumps for the planet and moon.
Emerging at the L5 Lagrange point, the fleet immediately launches their Ares, Archers, and Makos while the fleet spreads out to take up their assigned positions.
Eridani is a sparsely populated system, at least, it is planet-wise. A single massive Jovian planet 1.5 times larger than Jupiter, and three rocky planets, two of which orbit far too close to the star to be habitable. The third, which, according to information found on a data core, is named Arbin, and is twice the size of Earth, but is roughly the same mass due to a metal-poor composition.
Arbin has approximately 300 million Alkarin colonists, at least, that is what the AIs guesstimate, of whom roughly a third are warriors. A large part of those warriors are stationed on the moon, which is about 1.8 times larger than Earth’s moon. Nevertheless, the fleet, fighters, and troopships will make it rather dangerous to land on Arbin without first clearing out the Navy and ground forces stationed on it. Therefore, that is the first target of the Goliath battlegroup.
The battlegroup has lost quite a few ships due to the prolonged battle over the Jovian moon, so they now have:
1 planetary assault ship, 18 supercarriers, 864 carriers, 886 dreadnoughts, 2,119 battleships, 4,500 assault carriers, 2,250 troop carriers, 3,952 battlecruisers, 6,879 cruisers, 19,522 destroyers, 38,653 frigates, 64,223 strike fighters, 158,227 fighters, 118,266 fighter/bombers, 3,714,000 dropships, 7,000 heavy bombers, 1,344,286 gunships, and 2,000 transports.
All-in-all, the losses aren’t huge and don’t appreciably dilute the power of the battlegroup. The damaged ships are quickly being repaired by a combination of the self-repair nanites and the efforts of the crews. Even so, they are relegated to support positions until they are battleworthy again.
The fighters and strike fighters streak out ahead of the battlegroup as wave after wave of Alkarin fighters and troopships lift off from the moon and planet to intercept the fleet.
Admiral Abrams shakes her head at the futility of it all, wondering why the Alkarin are even trying to fight what they know is a far superior force arrayed against them. They have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning this battle.
She thinks, ‘They have to know what only 3 reinforced supercarrier groups did to their far superior numbers and tonnage of ships in and around the Jovian moon. And now, they are faced with the full might of an only slightly depleted planetary assault battlegroup while they have far fewer ships and fighters to throw into the fray because they sent massive amounts of reinforcements to the moon to simply be decimated along with the rest.’
The swirling battle for space supremacy lasts for less than 5 hours, but finally, the Commonwealth fleet destroys the last of the fighters and fleet that sallied forth to challenge them.
“Alright, target their bases on the moon,” Abrams orders.
A minute later, several anti-ship missiles streak away from the Goliath and moments later strike the eight bases on the moon, utterly destroying them and leaving huge craters where the bases once stood.
She turns to Cpt. Melton. “Take down the planetary grids.”
He nods. “Aye, aye, Ma’am,” and walks over to a station and tells the crewman there, “I want a full array of planet busters set for sub-orbital detonation to take down their planetary grid.”
“Aye, Sir,” answers the crewman. He sets up the targeting and then says, “Sir, I’ve set up the targeting sequence. You and the Admiral will need to authorize release through Cassiopeia.”
He nods, acknowledging the crewmen, not that he doesn’t already know the procedure. Much like how the old release for nuclear weapons required codes before they could be armed and fired, the only way the much more destructive planet buster missile can be used is if the two ranking members of the Goliath prove their identity with retinal scans and give their authorization codes to Cassiopeia.
A total of 16 of the huge missiles are fired after the authorization is given. That might seem to be far too few for a planet that is roughly twice the size of Earth, but at 200 gigatons each, their EMP bursts will cover a much wider range than the typical nukes of old would.
Slightly more than a minute after they are launched, they plow into the atmosphere of Albin and moments later detonate, electrifying vast areas under them. The grid overloads and quickly burns out.
“Order the fleet into orbit,” Abrams says.
A half-hour later, the fleet is arrayed around the planet. Then she orders several thousand dropships to drop leaflets with the Queen’s message to the Alkarin people living on the planet.
It’s a simple message.
‘To the Alkarin people:
ɥ ɔɻʍɔɘ ɳɵuɳɻɵ:
Greetings from Queen Sora Ueno of Earth.
çɘɥɽ ʑɘuɫ ɠyɰ ɽɔ yu uʑ ɵɔɘ.
Your Queen has declared war on our Commonwealth, and this is the result. I have no wish to destroy your people, but my soldiers have orders to do so if required.
ʒuyɘ ɠyɰ ʎɔɽ cɵbɻɔɘ ʃɔɘ uyɘ buɫɫʃɵɔɻ, c ɛɽ ɛɽ ɥ ɘyɻɥ. ɛ ʎɔ ɰu ʃɛɽʎ cuʒ ʒuyɘ ɳɵuɳɻɵ, ɓyɥ ɫʒ ɽuɻcɛɽ ʎɔ cɽ cu ɽu ɛʑ ɠyɛɘ.
Our armed forces far outclass yours in every way. This awful fact is one for you to ponder, and we solemnly assure you it is grimly accurate.
uyɘ ɔɘɫ ʑb ʑɔɘ uyɥbɻɔ ʒuyɘɽ ɵɹʒ ʃɔʒ. ɛɽ ɔʃʑyɻ ʑɔbɥ ɛɽ u ʑ ʒuy ɳu c ʃɵ ɽuɻɵɫɰɻʒ ɔy ʒuy ɛɥ ɛɽ çɘɛɫɻʒ ɔbbyɘɔ.
Epsilon Erandi is but the first step in our prosecution of this war. Your forces do not stand a chance of winning against ours, so we ask that you now petition your local government to end the war on your planet.
ɵɳɽɛɻ cɛ ɛɽ ɓyɥ ɥ ʑɛɘ ɵɳ uyɘ ɳɘubyɥɛ uʑ ɛɽ ʃɔɘ. ʒuyɘ ʑb cu ɰuɥ c ɔ bʎbɵ uʑ ʃɰ ɔçɔ uyɘɽ, ɽu ʃɵ ɔɽʍ ɔɥ ʒuy ɰuʃ ɳɵɥɛɥɛ ʒuyɘ ɻubɔɻ çuɹɰɫɥ c ɥ ʃɔɘ ʒuyɘ ɳɻɵɥ.
I urge you to surrender and begin the work of building a new, better and peace-loving Alkarin civilization. We should not be enemies, but friends, who learn from one another, trade, and live in peace.
ɛ yɘçɵ ʒuy ɽyɘɘc c ɓɵç ɥ ʃʍ uʑ ɓyɛɻc ɔ ʃ, ɓɵɥɥ c ɳɵɔbɵ-ɻuɹ ɔɻʍɔɘ bɛɹɛɻɛɖɔɥɛ. ʃɵ ɽʎuyɻc ɰuɥ ɓɵ ɵɫɛ, ɓyɥ ʑɘɛcɽ, ʃʎu ɻɵɔɘɰ ʑɘuɫ u u, ɔcɵ, c ɻɛ ɳɵɔbɵ.
You should take steps now to cease military resistance. Otherwise, we shall resolutely employ all means at our disposal to forcefully end this unnecessary war.
ʒuy ɽʎuyɻc ɥɔʍɵ ɵɳɽ ɰuʃ bɵɔ ɫɛɻɛɥɔɘʒ ɘɛbɵ. uʃɛ, ʃɵ ɽʎɔ ɘuɻyɻʒ ɵɫɳɻuʒ ɔ ɫ ɔɥ uyɘ cɛɽɳuɽɔɻ ʑbɵʑyʒ c ɛɽ yɰbɽɔɘʒ ʃɔɘ.
If you wish for the same, surrender to our troops when they arrive on the planet. You have my solemn promise that you will not be harmed, and will be given housing, food, and medical treatment.
ɛʑ ʒuy ʃɛɽʎ ʑ ɥ ɽɔɫɵ, ɽyɘɘc uyɘ ɳɽ ʃʎ ɥʒ ɔɘɘɛ ɥ ɳɻɵɥ. ʒuy ʎɔ ɫʒ ɽuɻɵɫɰ ɳɘuɫɛ ɔɥ ʒuy ʃɛ ɰuɥ ɓɵ ʎɔɘɫ c ʃɛ ɓɵ çɛɹ ʎuyɽ, ʑc, c ɫɛbɔɻ ɥɔɥɫɥ.
You have one rotation of the planet to decide.
ʒuy ʎɔ u ɘuɥɔɥɛ uʑ ɥ ɳɻɵɥ cɵbɛcɵ.
Queen Sora Ueno
ɠyɰ ɽɔ yu’
As much as Abrams would love to see them take them up on the offer, she highly doubts that the warrior class, who seem to rule the rest, will accept it. She tells herself, ‘Well, we shall see tomorrow. For now, it’s time to rest, rearm, and repair what we can until then.’
Patreon
tftc