Attrition
18 Mar 2023RedivivusCrowd
"Ghoul here, Thargon Swarm neutralised, moving to engage Medusa class Interceptor.""Fireball, you've got Caustic missiles inbound! Take evasive manouvers!
Radio chatter flew back and forth as officers on board the Fleet Carrier's command deck struggled to keep track of the carnage that was taking place just a few million kilometres away.
Graves' face remained dispassionate and neutral as he listened to the reports from the conflict zone.
This is making Jormbu look like a light skirmish by comparison. Graves kept these grim thoughts to himself as he turned his attention the status read-outs of their assets in the field.
The displays aboard the command deck showed the current status of several wings engaged with xeno forces throughput the Lahua system. Each wing usually consisting of a T-10, an AC-2 and 2 Vultures. A well rounded and powerful unit by any measure.
But it just isn't enough Graves thought bitterly to himself as his eyes darted between screens. For every 10 of them we kill we're losing one of our own. It's not sustainable.
These thoughts were interrupted as Graves watched a display flash yellow as one of their vessels suffered severe damage. Graves ground his teeth as he saw which ship it was. "Nurse", a T-10 acting as the support vessel for the SCARF wing near one of Lahua's space installations.
If they lose Nurse the whole wing will have to withdraw from the AO! Shit! Right as Graves was about to issue orders, the display flashed red, indicating that the vessel had been lost.
"Fuck." Graves mouthed silently to himself before addressing the SCARF wing's lead. "Ghoul, this is Overlord. You and SCARF 3 are to disengage from the AO and return to POJ, acknowledge over."
There was a brief pause before Ghoul's crackly and garbled response came back over the bridges speakers, his voice monotone and flat, "Ghoul here, requesting permission to conduct SAR of Nurse's wreckage? Over."
Graves responded immediately, "Granted, conduct SAR and RTB to POJ, over and out." Graves turned his attention to other portions of the battle. Ghoul was a veteran of the battles of Jormbu and Muracing and had been fighting the xenos since then.
I trust him to get it done, but most of the ADF's pilots are still too green. They're getting killed before they have the chance to gain enough experience.
Graves listened to the chatter flying back and forth, while SCARF were still in the AO he needed to keep his finger on the pulse and try to prevent any more support ships from getting targeted.
For brief a moment Graves thought about Nurse. He had gotten his callsign when he tried to get everyone to call him "Doc" and the others had laughed at that and called him "Nurse" instead.
Graves pushed Nurses' loud laugh and crap jokes out of his mind as he refocused on the matter at hand. No more losses, at least for today.
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*T-10: Type 10 Defender
*AC-2: Alliance Challenger
*POJ: Pride of Jormbu
*SAR: Search and Rescue
*RTB: Return to Base