War
03 Dec 2016Niatra
Onnes Gateway is coloured in red. The station’s interior is flashing from the turning cones of alarm bells. All screens read “ATTENTION, STATION IN LOCKDOWN”.Niatra was sprinting from his office to bay 18 from the other side of the Station. He passed guards and soldiers in combat fit, patrolling hallways, checkpoints with civilians undergoing an inspection and combat pilots running to their vessels.
On his way he met Andy, who was jogging to his own FDL.
“We have multiple groups attacking LFT 37, Combat Force and Blood Brothers are on their way. Our own pilots are being dispatched to the systems, patrolling space, nothing will slip our grasp tonight!”
Niatra responded:” Yeah we got an official declaration of war, finally. Several wings inbound, it will get bloody and costly.”
Their FDLs flew in formation out of the spacedock. A few others joined into the line, creating an impenetrable wall of death.
“All pilots please report readiness”, Andy announced over comms.
“PCV Hetzer, all lights green” Niatra responded. The others followed, reporting the same.
GPL’s Titan wing descended into the formation, building the core of the spear, surrounded by FDLs and one clipper. The smorgasbord of colours jumped into supercruise, flying to the staging point of the war: ISIS. The wings formed up and after a fierce Battle, the fighting dried off. Pilots moved to repair stations and with several downed enemies, they withdrew to Andhrimi, closely followed by the allied forces.
Exhausted Niatra dropped into his bed that night. After a quick shower he crawled up to the woman beside him, sleeping fast and steady. Her arms around him, her breathing and her heartbeat gave him confidence to keep going, to hold strong.
The Battle of Andhrimi was hard. The number of forces were equal as well, but the offenders got lucky shots in. Losses were significantly higher than before, though still it seemed at the end of the day, the allied forces took the smaller beating. Paladin space was safe again…for now.