Terran Dawn: Woe to the Vanquished pt. 1
13 Jul 2018Damian "Devil" Blaide
May 20th 3304, high orbit of Hathor in DahanThe array of ships was out there, in front of them. They could not be seen with the naked eye yet, but every now and then a brief flash from an afterburner signalled their position in the distance. On the scope, however, the vast swarm of red blips was plain for all to see. The section of the Federal Navy under the command of the i Bootis Democrats was fast approaching the battle line of the Earls of Dahan.
“Capital class signature detected.” Blaide’s COVAS blurted out.
“Here they come.” Danae Park commented dispassionately just as a large section of space contorted and ripped open to allow the long sleek form of a Federal battlecruiser to pass into normal space. It was miles away, but the huge ship – unlike its smaller colleagues – was easily observable even at a distance.
“ID the cruiser.” Blaide commanded his co-pilot.
“FNS Thanatos.” Park answered after a second.
“Huh.” Blaide mused “I’ve faced it before.”
“Oh?” Park said turning to her boss.
“Twice actually. Over two years ago at Ross 970 and shortly thereafter in Kaluhet. Neither one was an easy engagement.” Blaide fell silent remembering the old long-forgotten battles that had likely registered nowhere except in the local news at the time. For those who fought in the hellfires of the Battle for Yaping Hub in Kaluhet, the memory was sharp and acute. For anyone else, chances were neither ‘Yaping Hub’ nor ‘Kaluhet’ meant anything. Such was the way of the galaxy.
“Enemy is coming within range, sir.” Park said clearing her throat. Blaide snapped from his reverie and opened his comms.
“Group Command, this is Shadow Leader come in, over.”
“Shadow Leader, this is Command, over.”
“Capital hostile hot towards main force. Shadow Squadron will strip and engage, confirm if cleared to proceed.”
“Shadow Leader, you are cleared to engage. Make ‘em bleed. Command out.”
…
13 days earlier, Azeban City in Eranin
“Incoming call.” Blaide’s office AI notified him just as he walked in through the door.
“From?” He enquired annoyedly. He had just returned from Akkadia and was not in a particularly good mood. His head still hurt from the blow he had suffered in Corlington’s apartment.
“John Kelbor, General. Commander-in-chief of the Terran Colonial Forces military.” Blaide sighed and sat down by his desk.
“Patch it through.”
John “Crashbx” Kelbor’s tattooed face appeared on Blaide’s holoscreen. Kelbor nodded curtly and – as was his custom – proceeded to get right down to business.
“Dahan is getting hot.”
“I know.” Blaide said nodding. Dahan was a site of a black operation conducted by the 315th. Under Blaide’s direction, the operatives of the 315th had been harassing the operations of the i Bootis Democrats for several weeks now. Additionally, they had provided discreet support for several political groups in opposition of the Democrats. The goal was simple – leech the resources of the iBD so their hold on LP 98-132 would slacken and make a political coup possible. Thus far it was working.
“These Earls of Dahan…” Kelbor began “…I received a report that they declared war on the Democrats and simply attacked.”
“A bit brash perhaps, but not unexpected.” The Earls were one of the political rivals of the iBD who had received covert support from TCF.
“It seems that the Feds are giving them a beating, they just lost a major engagement and are on the run.”
“You’ll want us to intervene?”
“I’ve given the order to covertly deliver weapons and supplies for the Earls, and I want the 315th to provide them with tactical and operative assistance. I’ll assign additional units under your command, they’ll be entering the conflict under cover as mercenaries.”
“Very well.” Blaide nodded.
“We don’t want this war to reach a quick conclusion – just keep the Earls in the fight. The longer the iBD have to fight in Dahan, the more we have time to prepare.”
“Understood. Blaide out.”
…
“Incoming fire! Shields down to 30%!” Park’s voice sounded terse as the Red Horse shook from the impacts.
The Thanatos’ batteries were spitting a continuous stream of fire towards it’s assailants. The Federal gunners were finding their marks alarmingly well as a Viper in Blaide’s command was vaporized before his eyes. He flipped his assist off, and hit boosters putting his Fer-de-Lance into a corkscrew barrel roll. The G-forces pressed him tightly into his chair, and the stress put a tingling and slightly numbing sensation through the nerves of his cybernetic left arm’s man-machine interface. His chronic headache increased into a throbbing, stabbing sensation.
“They’ll hold.” He said through gritted teeth. “That cruiser is nearly done, we just need to get close enough so their batteries have a hard time targeting us.”
Though the Federal cruiser was decimating them, the Shadow Squadron was giving as good as it got – flames sprouted from several places along the hull of the gargantuan warship – the results of the attack runs of the TCF pilots masquerading as a mercenary company. The heat relays were the weak point of the big ship, and they were nearly all gone now. Only one remained, and Blaide had it in his sights.
“Got the relay on scope. Locking on.” Park called as Blaide aligned the Red Horse parallel to the hull of the Thanatos, now speeding close enough so that most of the flak missed them.
“Going too fast, sir! We can’t hit the relay at this speed!” Park protested.
“You just keep an eye on that scope, Park, let me worry about flying.” Blaide replied.
The relay was small, but the Red Horse’s sensors displayed the location with a targeting rectangle. Blaide aligned his heavy fighter on an attack vector and pressed the trigger – a second later multicannon fire trailed towards the quickly nearing rectangle.
“Relay integrity 60%, 40%, 20%. Shit, we’re taking hits! Their escort fighters found us! Shields down to 20%!” Park cried. Glancing at the scope, Blaide saw three flashing red blips as the Red Horse’s shields were flickering under the duress of their fire.
“Just a little longer…”
“Shields at 10%. We need to bugout soon, sir!”
“Calm down Park…Gotcha.” Blaide grinned wolfishly behind his helmet’s visor. The targeting computer displayed 0% integrity on Thanatos’ final relay. A small explosion where the targeting rectangle had been signalled the demise of the all-important piece of tech. Blaide pitched the Red Horse tightly up and engaged his afterburners.
“She’s waking out!” Park exclaimed as space around the cruiser started to ripple and the ship slowly slid into frameshift. The escort fighters broke formation and scattered as they realised their big friend was gone and they were now facing superior numbers as the remains of the Shadow Squadron converged on their leader’s position.
“Group Command, this is Shadow Leader. Capital hostile is grandslam. I repeat capital hostile is grandslam.”
“Shadow Leader, this is Group Command. Good work! We got them on the run now. We’ll mop things up here. You’re cleared to disengage at your discretion.” The voice of the Earls’ commander rattled through the comms.
“Park, open a channel to the Shadow Squadron.” Blaide ordered.
“Yes sir. Channel open.”
“Flight leaders, this is Shadow Leader. Report state.”
“Shadow Leader, this is Flight One. Strength 50. Ammunition joker, fuel tiger.”
“Shadow Leader, this is Flight Two. Strength 60. Ammunition joker, fuel joker.”
“Shadow Leader, this is Flight Three. Strength 30. Ammunition bingo, fuel joker.”
“Copy Shadow Squadron. Divert to bearing 120 by minus 40, 45 clicks and standby.”
Blaide retracted the Red Horse’s hardpoints and boosted away from the fighting, which was now quickly becoming a rabbit hunt as the Earls’ forces were driving the Federals – shocked at the defeat of their cruiser – before them.
“Incoming call, sir. It’s commander Razgrits.” Park said as they were moving away from the battle zone.
The commander with the callsign Razgrits was one of Blaide’s men in the 315th. A somewhat brash young pilot, but not without ability.
“Put him through.”
The commander’s face appeared on the holoscreen of the Red Horse. He was likely sitting on the bridge of his Anaconda -class corvette “Zealot” which had been active in the warzones of Dahan for several days. He adjusted his stylish black shades and nodded to his commanding officer.
“Boss.”
“Raz.”
“You took care of that cruiser?” Razgrits asked, massaging his neck and wincing slightly. He was probably already well past his max flight hours even with combat situation allowance.
“Yes. The Feds are on the run and it looks like the Earls will be claiming the field today.”
Razgrits nodded “Same thing here. I’ve been here with my crew and Koert helping the Earls defend their flank. Not a moment ago, the Feds made a 180 and are withdrawing en masse.”
Commander Koert – another 315th pilot – had also been active in Dahan recently. He was a silent one, didn’t speak much, but like Razgrits he also showed promise.
“What’s next boss?” Razgrits enquired.
“We’ll withdraw from Dahan. The Earls and iBD have been at this for weeks and neither side has been able to decisively defeat the other. For some reason.” Razgrits smirked at the comment.
“They’re spent, I’ve been getting reports that they’re already talking terms for an armistice, so we need to vanish and prepare for our next move in LP.” Blaide continued.
“You don’t think the Feds will try one last push?”
“No.” Blaide shook his head and continued.
“That battlecruiser was the iBD’s final trump card, and it didn’t work. There’s likely a very angry congressman somewhere who will demand large sums from the iBD to cover up the fact that they got one of the Federal fleet’s cruisers into the drydock in some inconsequential skirmish in an unimportant system.” Razgrits nodded.
“Fair enough, boss. We’ll head for home then. Razgrits out.”
The black-haired commander’s image flickered out and the holoscreen shut down.
“Do we head for Eranin as well?” Park asked. Blaide nodded.
“Yes. Lay in the course” Blaide opened the channel to his squadron. “Shadow Squadron, set course to home plate.”
Several dozen flashes signalled the departure of the TCF “mercenaries” from Dahan. Behind them, they left two exhausted armies and the silent dead.