Seras
Well-known member
Chapter 26.2 Operation Shiroyama interrupt: Side 2
3029
Sol System
A different Perspective
Precentor Elrich
Saturn Defense Force.
“Precentor?”
“Ready all defenses. A Warship is on its way to Terra. We will stop it. Has the emergency signal been sent?” Elrich asked, normally something like this would cause the Terra HPG to send a message to Ross 248, to the secret fleet.
“We don’t know! Terra’s HPG was ordered to be locked down. The request was sent to Terra but we have received no response.” Elrich grit his teeth. It wasn’t his Comm officers fault that Terra was currently imploding.
It was the damned First Circuit. The Warship entered system almost twelve hours ago. Blared out a video on all lines that had been almost too fascinating not to look into.
It had caused more issues for his command, than the Warship itself.
A young woman. Come to rescue her friend. Willing to leave only if he was returned, but otherwise would head to Terra.
A young Acolyte revealing the depth of all the corruption at the heart of ComStar.
And then years upon years of secrets now open and free. Elrich had been forced to order the data locked down. It didn’t matter what horrors the First Circut had done. Right now they had a duty that could not be set aside no matter the reason. Protect Terra.
That was all that matters.
“Sir! Reports from Adept Ekel, The enemy Warship is in range of an ASF Strike requesting permission to launch.”
Elrich sighed. Rubbing his forehead. “Any response from Terra?”
“Nothing new sir.”
Of course. Elrich sighed. Destroy the Warship.
The only order that Terra had sent. Obviously someone had decided that complying with the release of Acolyte Blake was unconscionable.
Damn them.
“Tell Ekel that a fire mission is go. Go with Blake.”
“Roger! Fire mission is go! Flights confirm green for launch!”
The command room of the satellite around Saturn was quiet for a time. Likely many of those brave pilots would not return. Just for the foolishness of some arrogant fools.
“I want a direct line to Terra, if they refuse to pick up, keep calling.” He demanded his Comms officer nodded. Hurrying to do as ordered. They both knew that if this continued many would die.
Elrich stood. Waiting. If it was any other time, the Warship docked at Titan would be active and ready. But it was undergoing maintenance after an accident. Damn the First Circuit for not even having the balls to be prepared!
He hadn’t even been alerted to the broadcast that even now he found himself slowly drifting towards! If he had known he could have begun preparing defenses for an attack!
He sighed. At the same, he secretly created a copy to send to an old friend on Luna. He couldn’t believe some of the secrets the First Circuit had been keeping.
—--
A different perspective
Adept Martinez Ekel
Martinez didn’t care about why this was happening. A fucking Warship? Hell yes he wanted to go out and blow that bitch up. There were a few pilots, older guys now that went out from time to time that had the very unique honor of having a battleship printed out on their helmet.
Martinez would be joining them today. Or die trying. He grinned, as an ASF pilot ‘or die trying’ tended to be a common refrain.
But he could do this, he had a lostech bird, all the defenses of Terra behind him, and an oversized target. He could do it.
“ETA until intercept?” He called out over his comms. He already had his own time, but as the Flight leader he still needed to make sure everyone else was on point. The short variance in times he got back was about what he expected, but everyone had it right.
Good. This was going to be one dangerous whale to take out. She would be shooting back through the run.
“Flight leader. We are being pinged by the Warship… I think she is sending us a transmission… Confirmed packet is a video message. ETA one minute until full signal coherence.”
“Interesting. Let me know when the message is complete.”
“Roger!”
Martinez kept his focus as he continued the calculations needed to ensure a clean pass by of the Warship. He could do it in his sleep, but it was always good to recheck the calcs. Last thing he wanted was to end up missing his target.
Not this time! He would take out this Warship! Make his name known across the Inner Sphere!
“Flight Leader. Transmission is complete.”
“Alright let me see what the Captain of that behemoth wants.” He accepted the file transfer from his wingman and began playing the message. Only to flinch as it opened with a direct view of a very angry face.
“Gauge Blake is on earth. I am here to collect him and leave. I want to do that peacefully, but I see you have decided force. Turn around Pilot. Save your men, and your life. Because if you continue on this course. You will die. I will have no mercy for any man that stands between me and my brothers rescue. Eisen-Blume out.”
The message simply ended. Martinez took a moment to huff out a laugh. How stupid. These Spherians think they can just come to Terra and throw their weight around?
“Alright everyone. These hicks think they are the big kid on the block. Let's teach them the power of ASF Pilots!”
“Roger!”
“You got it!”
He chuckled sending back message of his own, demanding they power down and prepare to be boarded. He had no intention of actually boarding them, but it was the correct thing to do. If they did power down, well. That just meant they would be even easier targets.
—---
“Commander. The ASF squadron sent a refusal. I won’t bother bringing up what they want.”
“Alright. Do we have their flight path?”
“Yes Commander.”
“Then swat them.”
—--
A different perspective
Adept Martinez Ekel
A few hours later Martinez was like all of his men starting to get bored. Flying straight in the blackness of space only to eventually intercept the enemy wasn’t exactly riveting.
“Any change on our quarry?”
“No Flight Leader, they haven’t changed course at all.”
“You would think they would at least try to avoid us. I mean really, what are th-”
—--
“Commander Confirmed destruction of four ASF by Gauss Slug.” Marcus called out with a whoop of delight. Really firing a weapon at this distance would normally be easy to avoid, but they were so far away I doubted they even noticed the firing plume that we sent out. Idiots. Just because a normal ship couldn’t calculate the coordinates of an intercept point this far away, didn’t mean the ISDF couldn’t.
You would think ComStar would know that by now.
“Good they will probably attempt to divert course. Keep harassing them.”
“Yes Commander!”
The game of cat and mouse continued.
—--
A different perspective
Adept Martinez Ekel
“Status!”
“Green! We lost red three and four.”
“Green We also lost Yellow one and two.”
“Green.”
“Green.”
“Damn bastards. Did anyone get eyes on what happened?”
“Flight Leader. I was close to Red three. It came out of nowhere whatever it was. And it was moving fast. It didn’t even register on my scopes before it hit.”
“It wasn’t an AC round. Moving too fast. Flight Leader. The Tharkad is equipped with Naval Gauss…”
“It fits the profile.” Another voice interrupted before Martinez took over.
“Alright! Comm silence. We are altering course. I don’t know how they scoped us, but I refuse to take any losses like this again. Everyone input new course. Every Flight should alter flight every thirty minutes until we intercept. Roger?”
“Roger!”
—---
“Commander ASF are diverting course… Evasive maneuvers. Their course will still intercept… Looks like two hours of additional flying. ETA five hours!”
“Continue firing at their assumed pathing. Lets try and take out a few more before they get too close. I’ll add additional launchers. Lets see how these ASF like the best of the SLDF.”
I say with a tight frown, as I pull my neurohelm back on my head. Burying myself into the ship. It wasn’t at all like a Mech. I wasn’t in control. Instead it was like I had a weird proprioception of having hands at different points of the ship.
The three Hangar bays on the ship had been completely converted, for quick adjustment. If I needed more weapons. Then I could convert them into quick fire weapon platforms.
Thankfully our appearance had done what I expected. ComStar was so focused on us, they had ignored the two Leopards that had flown out towards specific points I had ordered them to. The timing would be close. They would need to reach the metal nodes I had detected and lay down the Metal Extractor. Which would in essence give us infinite ammunition.
Until then I had my small storage, and a little trick. I had stored an absolute ton of metal on the ship in locations with a Nanoforge. Enough to fill the storage while building by extracting from the raw material.
So I had enough material for now for some adjustments. In two of the three hangars, a blazing green light appeared as from the open hangar new weapon emplacements were grown.
No holding back this time. No hiding. They wanted to pick a fight with me, then I would show them what it meant to fight a True Commander.
I was the only person on the ship that knew just how much this design was altered from the base. After all, the moment we had arrived. I had begun this Warship's permanent alteration into something else.
After all, a Warship had to be able to make Jumps. This ship no longer could. As her Jump drive had just been eaten away to provide more weight for weapons.
Normally I would laugh and call out taunts, probably make a Sidious reference to my fully functional Battle Station. But I wasn’t in the mood.
There wasn’t a hint of enjoyment in me right then. Only a furious coldness that promised that anyone who got in my way wouldn’t enjoy it.
Now I just had to wait. My Warship was changing, its insides adjusting to suit my plan. To hopefully keep us all from dying at the culmination of the insanity I had come up with.
Nanoforges all across the ship came alive. Normally a Nanoforge couldn’t affect its own platform. A bit of a weird quirk that I expected was a remnant of the Game. A repair mech couldn’t repair itself after all.
But the Warship was big enough that I could use different Nanoforges to alter a different section of the ship. Green light flooded over the ship as I continued to build up its weapons and armor all the while altering it for the plan.
I watched as the Metal storage, and the material stockpile began vanishing.
I just hoped the Leopards would be on time. Without them this would all fail.
—---
A different perspective
Adept Martinez Ekel
“The hell is that?” Martinez whispered to himself, as the Warship they were tracking was starting to come into visual range, but the massive green light it was emitting leaving a long trail behind it had Martinez completely confused.
“I want a scan, what is that Warship doing?” Martinez demanded, and his wingman went to work. His Royal Gotha had a better sensor package than his own Chippewa. Some random upgrade given to the ASF in the centuries since its production.
“Sensor can’t make out what it is at all, Flight Leader.” his Wingman offered back sounding just as confused.
What was it doing? Trying to scare them with lights, or something else?
“It doesn’t matter! We are here to stop this Warship for Terra! For Blake! We will not fail ComGuard!”
The surge of acceptance returned back to Martinez as he nodded. Good. He would do his best to be prepared for whatever trick the ISDF was thinking they could pull off, it wouldn’t be enough.
—-
As the intercept grew closer and closer our weapons began preparing. Gunnery officers grinning in delight at the brevy of munitions I had put at their fingertips including the ammunition resupply that meant they didn’t have to fear running out.
“Colonel Hiller. Are you ready?” I asked, the man had been looking dazed along with his crew as the full capability of what I could do was pushed right into their face. There was no going back I knew. And I had no regrets about unleashing everything.
I had decided a long time ago that the life of my kids, my friends, were more important than my own desires.
I knew there was no going back. No return to just Commander of the ISDF.
The Great Houses would never leave me alone now.
But to save Gauges life? To rescue my brother?
A worthy trade.
“Yes Commander! My men and I are ready… Give us the word and we will fire every gun you give us.”
“Good. Captain? I am turning over full command to you. Tell me what you need and it's yours.”
“Understood Commander. You heard the Commander! Get to your stations. I want weapons on target! Why am I not hearing our Gauss firing? They are close enough to be forced to divert their course to avoid it now! Fire! Fire Fire!” Kim yelled out instantly, getting everyone moving as they rushed to do as she said.
Slowly the lights of the ASF Approached. I continued to work on what I could to prepare surprises and weapons…
I wouldn’t make another mistake like Green Base again. These pilots were coming to kill my people. I would shoot their space scrap into space dust before I stop creating more weapons and firing.
The conversion was almost complete. But it was draining the ship drastically… I crossed my fingers and continued working.
I could see as suddenly Marcus jerked in his chair, looking to Kim but realizing she was busy he kept quiet and sent a small message to me directly.
I grimaced at what it told, but Marcus had been right. It would have to wait. Kim needed to focus on the fighters first.
“ASF fighters in intercept range! All hands! Begin combat operation!”
—--
A different perspective
Adept Martinez Ekel
“Something isn’t right.” Martinez couldn’t help but mutter as they finally slowed into an intercept course. It wouldn’t be a fast fly by unfortunately. They had been forced off course too many times, besides, the fighters knew they would need to put more than a single passes weapons on target to take out this beast.
Martinez really wished they had a nuclear weapon right now.
Unfortunately there hadn’t been any prepared for this operation. So they were moving with purely normal armaments.
“All fighters! Begin attack run!”
He squeezed his trigger letting loose his Chippewas LRMs first, his ER Large Lasers readying for when they were in perfect range. The ASF flight each had a target, weapons or sub systems. They had to take care of this beast.
His flights all began firing LRMs, or other long range weapons. PPC bursts, and Large Lasers pitting, and cutting into the armor of the Warship.
But it was the bombs that he knew would do the most. Each fighter released their bombs on a ballistic course. Once they hit. That Warship was going to be in bad shape.
Unfortunately a moment passed and a missile? He wasn’t sure what it was, but it had been shot out from one of the Warships hangars, and suddenly in a burst of spectacular red the LRMs all the ASF had fired were cut down.
He barely had a moment to curse when he realized the Warship was firing missiles back.
And they weren’t LRMs. His computer quickly updated him on what was racing towards him.
“Killer Whales incoming! Evasive Evasive!” He demanded as he saw the launchers fire, but it wasn’t just the launchers he had expected. The Tharkad had six Killer Whale launchers. It had been part of the ASFs attack calculations, that they would likely get at least two barrages from the weapons before the ASF could tear them down.
But it wasn’t six launchers! The Cargo bays were launching a barrage as well!
“Aim for the missiles!” Martinezcalled out as he tapped his thrusters, giving his Chippewa a bit of a kick to put him into a roll, her ER Large firing off not at the Warship, but into the firing angle of the missiles. He stuttered them, his ER Large causing a few eruptions as he used every second of skill he had accumulated in the cockpit.
Just a few more. They had to try and take out as many of the missiles as they could! Damn them! How many one off launchers had they put in the cargo bay! Bastards!
He grimaced as he noticed one of the Gotha go up in flames as a Killer Whale smashed into it, its evasive attempts for naught.
Just a few more! He grimaced the G’s of his forced adjustment of the nose of his Chippewa causing his eyes to darken as he forced the fighter well past the tolerance range.
And then as they cleared through the barrage with more losses than he would have ever dreamed of.
The Warship hadn’t stood idle after firing so many Killer Whales. Its main weapons had been firing putting massive NAC shells through ASF flight paths. Firing barrages of LRMs itself. Not counting the disco array of lasers… Not everything hit. In fact Martinez had a moment to almost laugh at how inaccurate some of the barrage was.
But it didn’t matter.
He felt himself go slack for a moment.
Not only did the six launchers on the front of the Warship fire again…
The barrage coming out of the hangar of the ship had just fired again!
“All flights! Abort! Full abort! Evasive now!” he ordered, already hammering his stick as hard as he could as his accelerator clanged, as he maxed it out.
If it was any missile but SLDF killer whales he might have had some hope. But it was too late. He and his flights. Friends, Rivals. Idiots he would normally see happy going up in flames were chased down by missiles that cared nothing for their skill. For the fact many of their ASF were Royal birds.
They were hunted down.
Despite the explosions that peppered the Warship, the massive wounds in its armor as it was struck again and again.
—--
“All ASF are in full retreat, or gone! No further enemy ordnance on target.” Kim called out after a few minutes. I was grimacing. The damage they had done was bad.
If it was anything other than this specific Warship. It would be in full retreat right now.
“Damage report!” Kim called out then, and we both frowned as the reports came in. If I hadn’t specifically reinforced the Warship for this plan that likely would have been enough to cripple it. More than a few bulkheads had been blown out and were venting atmosphere. It was only luck that we were so short staffed so no one was in them.
“Commander. Captain. Before the assault something important came up. Sending you the data now.” Marcus called out.
I watched as Kim frowned taking in the news. She turned to me.
“Repairs are underway.” I tell her firmly Letting the Captain ignore the problem. I grimaced, the front of the ship which is where most of the ASFs bombs had hit, had ripped chunks out of it, we were lucky that the bridge was so well protected…
I ignored it. The Nanoforges in the area had been wiped away. It would take some time to have the forges across the ship slowly push back into the damaged area… Or…
“I just need someone who can pilot an ASF.” I called out getting a nod as one of Colonel Hillers men nodded, and I directed him towards Bay 2. The former Small craft hangar had of course been repurposed as a fire platform, but it only took a few moments to consume a few of the Killer Whale Launchers and begin creating an NFX Stuka in their place.
Within twenty minutes it was launched from the bay and it was flying around us, the Nanoforge on the Stuka aimed as it began to repair the damage. It would speed up the process, ensure the front of our ship doesn’t fall off now that we were out of the environment…
Stop making jokes. I shook my head. This wasn’t the time for games. I refocused.
We should be alright. I doubt ComStar would know what we were doing. How could they?
The Inner Sphere still had no idea the Nanoforge existed. It was a completely out of context problem for them.
They could launch as many strikes as they wanted against the Warship. I would simply repair it after every one.
Although that only counted if we survived.
Then Kim called out, after her discussion with Marcus.
“Alright. So we have… Whatever those are. Jumping into the system. I want numbers. Can they catch up with us?” Kim demanded looking around as her bridge crew swiftly began checking.
“While they are doing that. I’m not getting any registry information.” I call out. “I have no idea what those are… Well other than Four Warships.” I grimace. They were. They had jumped into the system, and immediately began burning on an intercept course for us.
The problem is they had jumped into a pirate point. One I suppose ComStar kept secret. They were definitely moving faster than we were, but we did have a few advantages, one we were already accelerated and on our way.
The second was what we were planning.
“They won’t catch up until our retroburn.” The nav officer called out a few moments later much to the relief of our crew.
“Well that is good.” I mutter especially since that would tie into our surprise perfectly.
“Marcus get me a comm channel with them. Send them the package.”
“Understood Commander!” He called out his hands dancing along the comm console. The entire Bridge was relieved at that, despite the shock of the Warships appearance.
Although I still had no idea what they were. They weren’t in any of the SLDF records. So ComStar had been busy it seems.
“Repairs are estimated to take about three hours… If our resources hold out.” I add quietly to my report. My fingers crossed that the Leopards would get into position soon.
Otherwise we would be sitting ducks. Without our armor fully restored no way this plan worked.
—--
It was nine days from Jump point to Terra following standard times.
We were not following standard times. But even being chased by Four Warships that I had never seen before, receiving messages pretty consistently to disarm and shut down all weapons, didn’t change the fact that time was passing, slow as a snail.
With the Sensor we were capable of working in a skeleton of skeleton crews. Set the ship on its course and it didn’t matter much what ComStar was planning, they couldn’t do anything in any quick length of time.
Every time I went to bed, I was hardly able to sleep from the anxiety. The absolute insanity I had planned to reach Terra. Without even being sure I would have the resources for my plan to work.
It took two days of traveling mostly quietly after the first ASF response before the Leopards finally put themselves in position near some asteroids out in the blackness of space. Receiving their message that they were in position, that they hadn’t been blown away by ComStar security had been a load off my heart.
Inputting the construction order from half way across the solar system was a weird feeling. But it worked. Within minutes I could see the metal storage suddenly start increasing.
And that meant at least the plan had a hope. A chance of working. I sent them new coordinates. For more extractors, for when everything really hit off.
Instantly I finished the repairs that I hadn’t managed to complete with what we had left, and while that was working, I began building. The strongest defense would be right at the end. No chance ComStar didn’t try to send nukes to counter us, or at least every dropship that they had access to.
I expected the entire atmosphere of Terra to be filled with metal to stop me.
So I built. Almost out of a compulsive need. For days I worked on improving our chances. Building anything that I thought might be needed. All ready to punch us through to Terra proper.
And then. The moment came. The moment that I knew Terra would start really panicking. Where people would maybe potentially start realizing what absolute craziness I had come up with.
So I decided since it was close to the point of no return, that I would try one more time for diplomacy. God. If I could turn towards a jump point right now, and just never step foot on Terra, that would make me happiest. Especially with the whole Cameron thing.
So I made a call.
Marcus was the only other staff on the bridge when I went up to sit next to him. A message went out to Terra. A request for a conversation to end this.
“First Circuit. By now I am sure you understand the depth of my resolve. But this is unnecessary. Turn over Gauge, and I will leave never to return to Terra. Please. Think of how far this can go over one man.”
We waited, Marcus and I in quiet contemplation as the message was sent, and we both knew it could be hours before we heard a response.
So we waited still and quiet aboard a Warship that had a name, but that I prayed I would never have to tell anyone. For doing so would feel like an admittance to just how far I would go in this desperate gamble.
Even I had to admit what I was doing was foolish. This was the sort of thing that got people killed. A desperate rush towards an objective without proper planning. Even if I did think it would work. Even if the Nanoforge and my Sensor made this potentially possible. It was still a risk. A major one at that.
I was taking Homeguard into battle. Something that I had never meant to do. I was taking men and women that were on the backlines into a suicide mission to rescue a single man.
The longer the silence lasted the more I regretted all of this. Every inch of it. If I had just told Gauge more about ComStar. If I had convinced him not to go, to instead stay, to build the ISDF into what ComStar was meant to be.
To not leave.
But Marcus reminded me, with a hand on my shoulder jostling my armor a bit that I wasn’t alone.
He nodded. The two of us spoke without words. From knowing each other for our entire lives practically. Marcus, who had always been Bennys underling, who had played with us younger kids because Benny looked out for us.
He understood, and accepted. A single nod, without a word spoken, told me that he understood my fears. That I could practically taste blood from how I was worrying at my lip told me how he realized my fear.
But he said nothing. Needed to say nothing, because not a single member of the ISDF that I had informed of Gauges capture had hesitated a moment.
This wasn’t about me the Commander leading people that trusted me into a suicide mission. It was a group of people willing to be led into a suicide mission to rescue one of their own.
Gauge had taught nearly every member of the ISDF before he left. He was the one that taught us how to repair mechs. Every mechanic in the ISDF remembered his lessons. Every single one. Most of the lessons were recorded and played for young mechanics. Explaining complex repairs and how to fix them.
It wasn’t perfect. Even Gauge had admitted that, but it was what we needed when we first started. When Gauge was the only one that even knew how to take off a piece of Battlemech armor, much less fix a broken Fusion Engine.
Gauge who had guided the youngest of us in an education that put us on parity with any noble family, and some continued on to go beyond even them.
Gauge who had been the one many people went to when they had a problem. Because Benny was the older brother that no one wanted to admit to embarrassing idiotic acts, and Gauge would usually at least tell them how to clean up or fix their mess.
Gauge. Who was the first of the Iron Blooded. The First of the ISDF.
“Message received from Terra.” Marcus spoke simply.
“Play it.”
—---
A different perspective
Myndo Waterly
“It's a trick. She wants us to let down our defenses so she can strike.” She said simply at the gathered men of the First circuit. Well most of them. Huthrin the former Precentor New Avalon was gone.
He had disappeared in the night. Much to Myndos fury. The coward abandoned her at the moment where their leadership was most needed!
“Psych profile suggests that is unlikely. She is earnest. Almost improbably so. If we hand over the boy she would leave.” Nicholas offered with that smirk on his face as he looked right at her.
“Of course that is unlikely under the circumstances.” He added leaving no doubt what he meant.
“I refuse to cave to her demands regardless! This is Terra! ComStar are the caretakers of the cradle of Humanity! I will not be the one that allows a Warship to fly above our heads and rain hell onto Terra!” Myndo snapped a fist hitting the wood table with a thump.
No one seemed to care. She realized. Her First Circuit was melting down just as quickly as the rest of ComStar it seemed. Every riot they put down caused five more.
Already she had ordered the Comguard to pull back only to ComStar installations. Too many civilians firebombing ComStar equipment and personnel.
The personnel that were still around anyways. To Myndo’s horror more than a few of the ComGuards had actually had the audacity to turncoat. Joining the rioters. Protecting them against their compatriots. As if protecting rioters was anything but a betrayal of what it meant to be a ComGuard!
“Then Precentor Rom. What do you suggest?” She asked sharp as a Katana. The man had been seemingly loving the absolute destruction of everything he should have been desperately trying to protect.
“I will admit. I am interested in finding out what happens if we tell her the truth.” He offered, causing the rest of the First Circuit to choke at the idea.
“You want to taunt a woman with a Warship that is heading here that her objective, that she is seeking to recover is already dead?” Myndo couldn’t help but question, in shock at the Nicholas’s answer.
“I am curious which is stronger. Idealism, or vengeance. Considering the Warship will come regardless, I find the what ifs more interesting than the is.” He offered with a smile that had Myndo wonder if the man had gone utterly insane.
“No. Absolutely not. If our defenses in space fail, Gauge Blake being a hostage is the only thing that keeps the chance of her committing an orbital bombardment off the table.” Precentor Tharkad Ulthan Everson interrupted instantly. The man obviously cared more for his life than anything else right now.
“I agree.” Myndo said glaring, Nicholas simply shrugged, uncaring it seemed at her censure.
“Then I am afraid Myndo we have little that we can use to convince her. Victoria Eisen-Blume has already proven her commitment to her word, from her assault on Ko. If you recall?” Nicholas asked, with a certain emphasis that only made her anger hotter.
The Ko fiasco had been partially her plan. Of course almost no one knew that. It had been a solid plan at the time, to get the Lostech out of the hands of Lyran backers, and into the Combines. Considering the danger of the Fed-Com unification, it had been brilliant, only for it to fail horribly, and instead damage the Combine by completely destroying one of their regiments.
Nicholas must have discovered her hand in ensuring the former governor of Ko, Kagemuchi knew where to assault the ISDF dropship.
Damn ROM!
“Then we will have to prepare defenses on the ground and air. Put out a call to the Dropship centers. Get them into the sky to defend against the Warship!”
“Most of them fled already Myndo, most that remain no longer heed our commands. I am afraid many of the Dropship Captains that ran the Terra route are very upset about some of our choices regarding their union attempts, particularly why they keep failing.” Nicholas informed them with his ever present smirk.
“Then ready our ComGuard ASF pilots! We have thousands of them! If we send them up, there is no chance a Warship will survive.”
“Myndo. Most of the Airstrips have been taken over by rioters, it's more a full rebellion at this point. Even if we could get enough ASF into the air from Terra how many of those pilots have heard the Blake Broadcast? How many do you think will be loyal tomorrow? Or the day after?” Nicholas shook his head. “We already lost contact with one of the bases on Io. The last message we received was ‘We heed the Word of Blake’ I believe.”
Myndo felt her blood pressure skyrocket.
Was anyone around her not a traitor or incompetent!? How could this have happened, right as she finally found herself in charge of ComStar!? It was then she realized the rest of the First Circuit was far less concerned with the whole situation.
And she realized they hadn’t fought her taking power because they believed she should lead, or were too afraid of her.
No they were too afraid to be the one in charge when the shit hit the fan.
“Cowards. Every one of you. Look at you! ComStar is dying, and instead of standing and taking responsibility you all would rather put your feet up as everything around you burns? Wake up. They will hunt you down to the ends of the periphery and beyond! All of our necks are on the line today!”
“Yes Myndo. What exactly do you expect us to do? The entire Inner Sphere now knows our dirtiest secrets. All of us will be placed against a brick wall after a short but very pointed trial, and even our own people are actively trying to kill us.” Ulthan pointed out once more reminding Myndo of the many betrayals.
“I expect you to stand firm and act. We are ComStar. We are destined to lead the Inner Sphere!” She argued but it didn’t seem to have the effect she wanted. Most of the rest of the First Circuit seemed uninterested in her words.
“I believe this all leads us away from the reason for this meeting.” Nicholas reminds them, pointing towards the Holovid with the Commander's message.
“You are correct this time Nicholas. We need a response.” She said glaring at the rest of the First Circuit.
“We have only one option on the table. We either tell her Blake is dead, or we refuse to comply.” Ulthan spoke sounding bored.
Myndo frowned. She hated Dichotomous thinking. That they only had two options was wrong.
“If we say nothing, we gain nothing. We do not rule the Inner Sphere by playing to our enemies strengths… Very well. Let’s tell this Commander exactly what the cost of her actions is.” Myndo offered with a sinister grin.
If she was already here, ready to battle, then Myndo refused to back down. She would spit in this Cameron Commanders face, and see if she blinked.
—--
“Gauge Blake will be executed. If you wish to save him, you have only one choice. Complete Surrender. If you fire a single round at Terra. Blake will die. A gun will be held to his head until your surrender is accepted.”
I watched the message again quietly listening to the womans tone the way she looked half crazed. I sighed. I truly just wanted my friend back. I just wanted this nonsense to end.
“Send my request and her reply in a full ping across the entire system. Marcus add in one more thing for me. Record this please.”
I waited a moment before he nodded.
“This is Victoria Eisen-Blume. I have no intention of firing any weapons at Terra. But to the First Circuit? I am coming.”
I nodded. Ending the recording.
Damn them for forcing me to do this.
And damn me for being willing to do it.
I was silent for a long time. Watching space fly past. Long after the point of no return came and went. Despite the fact we didn’t slow down at the point we would normally need to to land safely.
I guess I had learned something from Theodore after all.
—--
I could tell the moment that ComStar realized something was wrong. That I wasn’t following the standard game plan. The four Warships were adjusting their course trying to find out what our course was. Normally we would have flipped around and started decelerating long ago.
We didn’t. Normally we would reach a point that would be easy for the enemy to catch up to.
We didn’t.
Normally people don’t come up with my insane fucking plan.
We did. The ComStar Warships accelerated even more when they realized we weren’t. Trying to catch up. But it was too late. They realized it, we knew it. That we weren’t slowing. Making no motion to do so. Well not entirely, we were activating some light retro thrusters but they were tiny ones. Just enough to help at the end. We weren’t accelerating anymore either, but that only half solved the problem.
Because when you started going real fast, slowing became an ordeal… especially when you didn’t want to splatter squishy humans across bulkheads. Which is the genius of my plan. Because slowing down is when you get attacked by ComStar. They had launched more ASF to try and hit us as we turned to slow down, the enemy Warships had thought the same, setting up a course that would have them meet us as we tried to slow down.
But we didn’t. I could practically feel the confusion in my enemies as we continued moving closer. Our course was set. The green fog of the Nanoforge is active hurriedly making the adjustments to the Warship.
I had practically covered it in weapons for when I expected ComStar to throw everything at us, but their actual attempts were almost anemic. The moon, and a few other satellites or bases, sent a force of ASF after us, but none really made any attempt to stop us. Almost like they were afraid of getting too close…
Oh right. We had murdered an entire squadron of ASF already.
What did they throw at us? Well like I said Anemic.
I jostled in my seat, as the shop rocked gently as the Quartet of PPC managed to hit home against our armor, but after that it went quiet. The last of the defenses on our path blown away with such overwhelming firepower that it forced Kim to adjust the engines to put us back on course.
I was forced to start breaking down some of the weapons after as our engines were struggling to keep us on course with how overweight we were. A few minutes of breaking down weapons and Kim sent me an okay that we were back on our course.
“Where are the rest of Terra’s defenses?” I couldn’t help but ask. ComStar controlled not just thousands of Pilots and ships, but Dropships, and satellites. We had just blown through some of the defense satellites, but they had barely reacted. Hell out of the three we were passing close enough to, only one actually fired. The other two were quiet. The fact nothing was seeming to be done about our approach was concerning.
“Captain! Commander! We are getting messages from Terra. A lot of them!”
I could see Marcus desperately trying to answer all the messages, since we were getting closer and closer the actual time from message to response was almost 1 to 1.
Kim was of course getting a little annoyed by the fact his console kept pinging over and over constantly as messages were received.
“What is going on?” I called out. Only for Marcus to finally have enough and pull his headset off.
“Apparently… Apparently Old Terran Governments are reaching out! We got a message from a multiple governments. I didn’t even know Terra had this many governments. I'm struggling here, but they want to know what our intentions are!”
“Connect them to me Marcus. All of them.” We were approaching earth at far too fucking fast. I didn’t have time for this!
The Holovid activated and I watched as more and more little heads were added in sharing space until I could barely see the twenty or so people I was on a call with.
But they could see me.
“This is Victoria Eisen-Blume. ISDF. We are here for a rescue mission to recover Gauge Blake. I am not here to attack Earth, but if anyone attacks us, I will respond with the full might of the ISDF.”
The voices all began talking interrupting and talking over each other into a heady mix of noise and voices.
I gave it a few moments, to see if any of them would actually shut up, but that didn’t happen. Too many voices talking at once. Leaders all wanting to be heard. Too much fear. I could hear ‘Warship’ practically every other word from all of them, along with another word I didn’t want to hear.
“Cameron.”
So I muted them.
“I am afraid, Terran Leaders, I am not asking. No one. And I mean, no one. Kidnaps, or holds my people hostage. Not the Combine’s Coordinator, or even the King of Merry Old England. This time, it is ComStar. I am heading to Hilton Head. Now. I will only say this once. So that there shall be no misunderstandings.”
“Get out of my way.”
I cut the comm message.
“Alright. Everyone Prepare for Operation!” I call out, since for some reason there weren’t any further Terran defenses coming up to attack us, it was time to prepare for the crescendo.
The entire Bridge crew got out of their seats to leave. Every one of them. We all floated for a moment in silence.
“If this fails. I am sorry. But thank you. For trusting me. For fighting beside me. For… For being my friends.” I tell them all in the quiet earning odd looks from Colonel Hillers men, but firm nods from the Highlanders, William looked proud for a moment from his position.
But for the ISDF. For my family. There wasn’t a dry eye in the bunch.
It was Kim who stopped me from saying any more. “The ISDF fights for what's right. That’s something you taught me Commander.”
Marcus spoke up next. “The ISDF takes on the tough tasks. Even if we have to take risks. If we never risk, nothing changes. And the ISDF refuses not to change the Inner Sphere for the better. You taught me that.”
Around the bridge. More words were offered. For once it wasn’t me giving the speech. But my people. My ISDF, my kids giving me a speech. I closed my eyes.
This was for Gauge. But also? It was for the Inner Sphere. The First Circuit had decided they wanted to be Tyrants. So I would act. The ISDF would act.
I had once told Katrina that I wanted to be a force for good. To be trusted by every side so that I could do more than just fight for territory.
I had thought I had failed. By joining against the Combine, I felt I had burned my own goal aside for the reality of life.
But failing wasn’t the end. Only giving up was the end.
So I failed. I had allowed myself to act in a way I hated. But I had done it. I wouldn’t ever say it was the right choice. The best choice. But it was mine. And here again. I would make a choice.
“ISDF! Here is an order from your Commander! Live! Not one of you has been given permission to die! Head out!”
“YES COMMANDER!” The entire bridge crew roared out startling the outsiders as they saluted and moved.
They would all be entering an escape pod, either in a mech, or without. I myself would be joining them once everything was completed. My Phantom was ready and waiting in an escape pod for me. But first?
It was time.
I sat back, and the effort I had been doing to modify the Warship began in earnest. As far as I know no one had ever thought to do something like this before. Not going this fast. Not with crew this green. And certainly not on Terra.
This was something new. Something impossible to expect.
As green light once more burst from the Warship covering it in a haze as more and more armor was added onto the ship in a second layer, a sort of egg around the weak insides. The entire thing took on a bullet shape. Dozens of feet thick armor creating itself from nothing. Growing around the ship.
On the exterior of the armor engines grew. Powerful ones, engines capable of shifting the mass up to more G’s than I really wanted to count. Each of them connected for a Fusion Engine to ensure they would have the power they need.
This is what had taken me so long to put together. Something new. The Noteputer hated new. It didn’t like me toying with it to create.
But I hadn’t given up. Would it work?
I don’t know. But I had done everything I could to try and make it so.
Inside the ship every hallway, every gap, was had been filled with more armor, or a foam to keep the ship from compressing itself during this stupid fucking plan.
God please let this work.
And so on the last approach to Terra, my Warship burst into such brilliant green light, leaving a trail of sparkling green fog behind us that it could be seen from ground. People watched a burning green light approaching closer and closer.
With no idea what it was.
“Operation Stardust Memory begins now. Hold on.” I inform the crew over the intercom, as I float out and rush to my escape pod. Kim and her pilots would be handling the maneuver from their escape pod which had been fitted with controls.
Slowly at least in the grand view of things, the ISDFS Tharkad class Warship, reached an angle that would allow it to hit the Terra’s Atmosphere. Normally going this fast, a ship would simply bounce off. Probably breaking into pieces in the process.
But we didn’t. At the first sign of turbulence, of our ship bouncing against the atmosphere the powerful engines ignited pushing us back against the atmosphere. And slowly, as the entire ship screamed at the forces pushed against it, as turbulence began building up to the point that most of us would probably black out, slowly. The Side 2 grinded itself into the atmosphere. Using the friction to slow down, grinding away feet of high grade battle armor in the process but losing speed at a ridiculous rate as we spun around earth.
And slowly the name of the Warship that I only added onto the bullet armor itself, a final touch. My only sign of my normal joking attitude, mostly because not naming a ship was bad luck, and we would need all the luck we could get.
Side 2.
For if you were going to drop onto earth to make a statement, there was no other name that had the same impact… Stop joking idiot. I cursed myself. Although after that I didn’t think of much else.
If not for the foam that I had made sure everyone would be encased in for the re-entry most of us probably would have been broken apart from the turbulence. Instead we simply were forced under incredible stress. The one thing none of us had been fully sure of was whether our armor or bodies would give out first.
All of us were praying to whatever God we worshiped that the ship would hold. That we wouldn’t all die in a blaze of fire over Terra.
—--
Everyone on earth could look up in to the sky. Watching as a fireball stretched across the sky. Slowing down as it circled the globe until finally, it had slowed enough that it wasn’t destroying itself through natural forces.
Yet when it finally breached the atmosphere, its performance wasn’t over. Finally having broken into the atmosphere, having slowed itself to an extent, it reacted. It broke apart. Splitting like a blooming flower. As the bullet-like armor fell away in four petals, the entire structure a deep rust red, from the heat, fire still streaking from the plates as they launched away from the ship within.
All across the world cameras had risen up. To watch something odd. Something strange. Now even more rose up. The sight of a Warship over Terra caused a horrified stillness across the population of everyone who saw it. Yet there was something awe inspiring about its reveal, The flower-like burst of fire and metal behind it appearing like a firework in the darkened sky.
Slowly, powerful engines littering the newly revealed warship burst to life. Not to fly, as the weight of the ship was too much for that, but it was enough to slow the fall of the Warship, and ensure it fell on target.
A small island off the coast of the Continental former United states.
Hilton Head.
3029
Sol System
A different Perspective
Precentor Elrich
Saturn Defense Force.
“Precentor?”
“Ready all defenses. A Warship is on its way to Terra. We will stop it. Has the emergency signal been sent?” Elrich asked, normally something like this would cause the Terra HPG to send a message to Ross 248, to the secret fleet.
“We don’t know! Terra’s HPG was ordered to be locked down. The request was sent to Terra but we have received no response.” Elrich grit his teeth. It wasn’t his Comm officers fault that Terra was currently imploding.
It was the damned First Circuit. The Warship entered system almost twelve hours ago. Blared out a video on all lines that had been almost too fascinating not to look into.
It had caused more issues for his command, than the Warship itself.
A young woman. Come to rescue her friend. Willing to leave only if he was returned, but otherwise would head to Terra.
A young Acolyte revealing the depth of all the corruption at the heart of ComStar.
And then years upon years of secrets now open and free. Elrich had been forced to order the data locked down. It didn’t matter what horrors the First Circut had done. Right now they had a duty that could not be set aside no matter the reason. Protect Terra.
That was all that matters.
“Sir! Reports from Adept Ekel, The enemy Warship is in range of an ASF Strike requesting permission to launch.”
Elrich sighed. Rubbing his forehead. “Any response from Terra?”
“Nothing new sir.”
Of course. Elrich sighed. Destroy the Warship.
The only order that Terra had sent. Obviously someone had decided that complying with the release of Acolyte Blake was unconscionable.
Damn them.
“Tell Ekel that a fire mission is go. Go with Blake.”
“Roger! Fire mission is go! Flights confirm green for launch!”
The command room of the satellite around Saturn was quiet for a time. Likely many of those brave pilots would not return. Just for the foolishness of some arrogant fools.
“I want a direct line to Terra, if they refuse to pick up, keep calling.” He demanded his Comms officer nodded. Hurrying to do as ordered. They both knew that if this continued many would die.
Elrich stood. Waiting. If it was any other time, the Warship docked at Titan would be active and ready. But it was undergoing maintenance after an accident. Damn the First Circuit for not even having the balls to be prepared!
He hadn’t even been alerted to the broadcast that even now he found himself slowly drifting towards! If he had known he could have begun preparing defenses for an attack!
He sighed. At the same, he secretly created a copy to send to an old friend on Luna. He couldn’t believe some of the secrets the First Circuit had been keeping.
—--
A different perspective
Adept Martinez Ekel
Martinez didn’t care about why this was happening. A fucking Warship? Hell yes he wanted to go out and blow that bitch up. There were a few pilots, older guys now that went out from time to time that had the very unique honor of having a battleship printed out on their helmet.
Martinez would be joining them today. Or die trying. He grinned, as an ASF pilot ‘or die trying’ tended to be a common refrain.
But he could do this, he had a lostech bird, all the defenses of Terra behind him, and an oversized target. He could do it.
“ETA until intercept?” He called out over his comms. He already had his own time, but as the Flight leader he still needed to make sure everyone else was on point. The short variance in times he got back was about what he expected, but everyone had it right.
Good. This was going to be one dangerous whale to take out. She would be shooting back through the run.
“Flight leader. We are being pinged by the Warship… I think she is sending us a transmission… Confirmed packet is a video message. ETA one minute until full signal coherence.”
“Interesting. Let me know when the message is complete.”
“Roger!”
Martinez kept his focus as he continued the calculations needed to ensure a clean pass by of the Warship. He could do it in his sleep, but it was always good to recheck the calcs. Last thing he wanted was to end up missing his target.
Not this time! He would take out this Warship! Make his name known across the Inner Sphere!
“Flight Leader. Transmission is complete.”
“Alright let me see what the Captain of that behemoth wants.” He accepted the file transfer from his wingman and began playing the message. Only to flinch as it opened with a direct view of a very angry face.
“Gauge Blake is on earth. I am here to collect him and leave. I want to do that peacefully, but I see you have decided force. Turn around Pilot. Save your men, and your life. Because if you continue on this course. You will die. I will have no mercy for any man that stands between me and my brothers rescue. Eisen-Blume out.”
The message simply ended. Martinez took a moment to huff out a laugh. How stupid. These Spherians think they can just come to Terra and throw their weight around?
“Alright everyone. These hicks think they are the big kid on the block. Let's teach them the power of ASF Pilots!”
“Roger!”
“You got it!”
He chuckled sending back message of his own, demanding they power down and prepare to be boarded. He had no intention of actually boarding them, but it was the correct thing to do. If they did power down, well. That just meant they would be even easier targets.
—---
“Commander. The ASF squadron sent a refusal. I won’t bother bringing up what they want.”
“Alright. Do we have their flight path?”
“Yes Commander.”
“Then swat them.”
—--
A different perspective
Adept Martinez Ekel
A few hours later Martinez was like all of his men starting to get bored. Flying straight in the blackness of space only to eventually intercept the enemy wasn’t exactly riveting.
“Any change on our quarry?”
“No Flight Leader, they haven’t changed course at all.”
“You would think they would at least try to avoid us. I mean really, what are th-”
—--
“Commander Confirmed destruction of four ASF by Gauss Slug.” Marcus called out with a whoop of delight. Really firing a weapon at this distance would normally be easy to avoid, but they were so far away I doubted they even noticed the firing plume that we sent out. Idiots. Just because a normal ship couldn’t calculate the coordinates of an intercept point this far away, didn’t mean the ISDF couldn’t.
You would think ComStar would know that by now.
“Good they will probably attempt to divert course. Keep harassing them.”
“Yes Commander!”
The game of cat and mouse continued.
—--
A different perspective
Adept Martinez Ekel
“Status!”
“Green! We lost red three and four.”
“Green We also lost Yellow one and two.”
“Green.”
“Green.”
“Damn bastards. Did anyone get eyes on what happened?”
“Flight Leader. I was close to Red three. It came out of nowhere whatever it was. And it was moving fast. It didn’t even register on my scopes before it hit.”
“It wasn’t an AC round. Moving too fast. Flight Leader. The Tharkad is equipped with Naval Gauss…”
“It fits the profile.” Another voice interrupted before Martinez took over.
“Alright! Comm silence. We are altering course. I don’t know how they scoped us, but I refuse to take any losses like this again. Everyone input new course. Every Flight should alter flight every thirty minutes until we intercept. Roger?”
“Roger!”
—---
“Commander ASF are diverting course… Evasive maneuvers. Their course will still intercept… Looks like two hours of additional flying. ETA five hours!”
“Continue firing at their assumed pathing. Lets try and take out a few more before they get too close. I’ll add additional launchers. Lets see how these ASF like the best of the SLDF.”
I say with a tight frown, as I pull my neurohelm back on my head. Burying myself into the ship. It wasn’t at all like a Mech. I wasn’t in control. Instead it was like I had a weird proprioception of having hands at different points of the ship.
The three Hangar bays on the ship had been completely converted, for quick adjustment. If I needed more weapons. Then I could convert them into quick fire weapon platforms.
Thankfully our appearance had done what I expected. ComStar was so focused on us, they had ignored the two Leopards that had flown out towards specific points I had ordered them to. The timing would be close. They would need to reach the metal nodes I had detected and lay down the Metal Extractor. Which would in essence give us infinite ammunition.
Until then I had my small storage, and a little trick. I had stored an absolute ton of metal on the ship in locations with a Nanoforge. Enough to fill the storage while building by extracting from the raw material.
So I had enough material for now for some adjustments. In two of the three hangars, a blazing green light appeared as from the open hangar new weapon emplacements were grown.
No holding back this time. No hiding. They wanted to pick a fight with me, then I would show them what it meant to fight a True Commander.
I was the only person on the ship that knew just how much this design was altered from the base. After all, the moment we had arrived. I had begun this Warship's permanent alteration into something else.
After all, a Warship had to be able to make Jumps. This ship no longer could. As her Jump drive had just been eaten away to provide more weight for weapons.
Normally I would laugh and call out taunts, probably make a Sidious reference to my fully functional Battle Station. But I wasn’t in the mood.
There wasn’t a hint of enjoyment in me right then. Only a furious coldness that promised that anyone who got in my way wouldn’t enjoy it.
Now I just had to wait. My Warship was changing, its insides adjusting to suit my plan. To hopefully keep us all from dying at the culmination of the insanity I had come up with.
Nanoforges all across the ship came alive. Normally a Nanoforge couldn’t affect its own platform. A bit of a weird quirk that I expected was a remnant of the Game. A repair mech couldn’t repair itself after all.
But the Warship was big enough that I could use different Nanoforges to alter a different section of the ship. Green light flooded over the ship as I continued to build up its weapons and armor all the while altering it for the plan.
I watched as the Metal storage, and the material stockpile began vanishing.
I just hoped the Leopards would be on time. Without them this would all fail.
—---
A different perspective
Adept Martinez Ekel
“The hell is that?” Martinez whispered to himself, as the Warship they were tracking was starting to come into visual range, but the massive green light it was emitting leaving a long trail behind it had Martinez completely confused.
“I want a scan, what is that Warship doing?” Martinez demanded, and his wingman went to work. His Royal Gotha had a better sensor package than his own Chippewa. Some random upgrade given to the ASF in the centuries since its production.
“Sensor can’t make out what it is at all, Flight Leader.” his Wingman offered back sounding just as confused.
What was it doing? Trying to scare them with lights, or something else?
“It doesn’t matter! We are here to stop this Warship for Terra! For Blake! We will not fail ComGuard!”
The surge of acceptance returned back to Martinez as he nodded. Good. He would do his best to be prepared for whatever trick the ISDF was thinking they could pull off, it wouldn’t be enough.
—-
As the intercept grew closer and closer our weapons began preparing. Gunnery officers grinning in delight at the brevy of munitions I had put at their fingertips including the ammunition resupply that meant they didn’t have to fear running out.
“Colonel Hiller. Are you ready?” I asked, the man had been looking dazed along with his crew as the full capability of what I could do was pushed right into their face. There was no going back I knew. And I had no regrets about unleashing everything.
I had decided a long time ago that the life of my kids, my friends, were more important than my own desires.
I knew there was no going back. No return to just Commander of the ISDF.
The Great Houses would never leave me alone now.
But to save Gauges life? To rescue my brother?
A worthy trade.
“Yes Commander! My men and I are ready… Give us the word and we will fire every gun you give us.”
“Good. Captain? I am turning over full command to you. Tell me what you need and it's yours.”
“Understood Commander. You heard the Commander! Get to your stations. I want weapons on target! Why am I not hearing our Gauss firing? They are close enough to be forced to divert their course to avoid it now! Fire! Fire Fire!” Kim yelled out instantly, getting everyone moving as they rushed to do as she said.
Slowly the lights of the ASF Approached. I continued to work on what I could to prepare surprises and weapons…
I wouldn’t make another mistake like Green Base again. These pilots were coming to kill my people. I would shoot their space scrap into space dust before I stop creating more weapons and firing.
The conversion was almost complete. But it was draining the ship drastically… I crossed my fingers and continued working.
I could see as suddenly Marcus jerked in his chair, looking to Kim but realizing she was busy he kept quiet and sent a small message to me directly.
I grimaced at what it told, but Marcus had been right. It would have to wait. Kim needed to focus on the fighters first.
“ASF fighters in intercept range! All hands! Begin combat operation!”
—--
A different perspective
Adept Martinez Ekel
“Something isn’t right.” Martinez couldn’t help but mutter as they finally slowed into an intercept course. It wouldn’t be a fast fly by unfortunately. They had been forced off course too many times, besides, the fighters knew they would need to put more than a single passes weapons on target to take out this beast.
Martinez really wished they had a nuclear weapon right now.
Unfortunately there hadn’t been any prepared for this operation. So they were moving with purely normal armaments.
“All fighters! Begin attack run!”
He squeezed his trigger letting loose his Chippewas LRMs first, his ER Large Lasers readying for when they were in perfect range. The ASF flight each had a target, weapons or sub systems. They had to take care of this beast.
His flights all began firing LRMs, or other long range weapons. PPC bursts, and Large Lasers pitting, and cutting into the armor of the Warship.
But it was the bombs that he knew would do the most. Each fighter released their bombs on a ballistic course. Once they hit. That Warship was going to be in bad shape.
Unfortunately a moment passed and a missile? He wasn’t sure what it was, but it had been shot out from one of the Warships hangars, and suddenly in a burst of spectacular red the LRMs all the ASF had fired were cut down.
He barely had a moment to curse when he realized the Warship was firing missiles back.
And they weren’t LRMs. His computer quickly updated him on what was racing towards him.
“Killer Whales incoming! Evasive Evasive!” He demanded as he saw the launchers fire, but it wasn’t just the launchers he had expected. The Tharkad had six Killer Whale launchers. It had been part of the ASFs attack calculations, that they would likely get at least two barrages from the weapons before the ASF could tear them down.
But it wasn’t six launchers! The Cargo bays were launching a barrage as well!
“Aim for the missiles!” Martinezcalled out as he tapped his thrusters, giving his Chippewa a bit of a kick to put him into a roll, her ER Large firing off not at the Warship, but into the firing angle of the missiles. He stuttered them, his ER Large causing a few eruptions as he used every second of skill he had accumulated in the cockpit.
Just a few more. They had to try and take out as many of the missiles as they could! Damn them! How many one off launchers had they put in the cargo bay! Bastards!
He grimaced as he noticed one of the Gotha go up in flames as a Killer Whale smashed into it, its evasive attempts for naught.
Just a few more! He grimaced the G’s of his forced adjustment of the nose of his Chippewa causing his eyes to darken as he forced the fighter well past the tolerance range.
And then as they cleared through the barrage with more losses than he would have ever dreamed of.
The Warship hadn’t stood idle after firing so many Killer Whales. Its main weapons had been firing putting massive NAC shells through ASF flight paths. Firing barrages of LRMs itself. Not counting the disco array of lasers… Not everything hit. In fact Martinez had a moment to almost laugh at how inaccurate some of the barrage was.
But it didn’t matter.
He felt himself go slack for a moment.
Not only did the six launchers on the front of the Warship fire again…
The barrage coming out of the hangar of the ship had just fired again!
“All flights! Abort! Full abort! Evasive now!” he ordered, already hammering his stick as hard as he could as his accelerator clanged, as he maxed it out.
If it was any missile but SLDF killer whales he might have had some hope. But it was too late. He and his flights. Friends, Rivals. Idiots he would normally see happy going up in flames were chased down by missiles that cared nothing for their skill. For the fact many of their ASF were Royal birds.
They were hunted down.
Despite the explosions that peppered the Warship, the massive wounds in its armor as it was struck again and again.
—--
“All ASF are in full retreat, or gone! No further enemy ordnance on target.” Kim called out after a few minutes. I was grimacing. The damage they had done was bad.
If it was anything other than this specific Warship. It would be in full retreat right now.
“Damage report!” Kim called out then, and we both frowned as the reports came in. If I hadn’t specifically reinforced the Warship for this plan that likely would have been enough to cripple it. More than a few bulkheads had been blown out and were venting atmosphere. It was only luck that we were so short staffed so no one was in them.
“Commander. Captain. Before the assault something important came up. Sending you the data now.” Marcus called out.
I watched as Kim frowned taking in the news. She turned to me.
“Repairs are underway.” I tell her firmly Letting the Captain ignore the problem. I grimaced, the front of the ship which is where most of the ASFs bombs had hit, had ripped chunks out of it, we were lucky that the bridge was so well protected…
I ignored it. The Nanoforges in the area had been wiped away. It would take some time to have the forges across the ship slowly push back into the damaged area… Or…
“I just need someone who can pilot an ASF.” I called out getting a nod as one of Colonel Hillers men nodded, and I directed him towards Bay 2. The former Small craft hangar had of course been repurposed as a fire platform, but it only took a few moments to consume a few of the Killer Whale Launchers and begin creating an NFX Stuka in their place.
Within twenty minutes it was launched from the bay and it was flying around us, the Nanoforge on the Stuka aimed as it began to repair the damage. It would speed up the process, ensure the front of our ship doesn’t fall off now that we were out of the environment…
Stop making jokes. I shook my head. This wasn’t the time for games. I refocused.
We should be alright. I doubt ComStar would know what we were doing. How could they?
The Inner Sphere still had no idea the Nanoforge existed. It was a completely out of context problem for them.
They could launch as many strikes as they wanted against the Warship. I would simply repair it after every one.
Although that only counted if we survived.
Then Kim called out, after her discussion with Marcus.
“Alright. So we have… Whatever those are. Jumping into the system. I want numbers. Can they catch up with us?” Kim demanded looking around as her bridge crew swiftly began checking.
“While they are doing that. I’m not getting any registry information.” I call out. “I have no idea what those are… Well other than Four Warships.” I grimace. They were. They had jumped into the system, and immediately began burning on an intercept course for us.
The problem is they had jumped into a pirate point. One I suppose ComStar kept secret. They were definitely moving faster than we were, but we did have a few advantages, one we were already accelerated and on our way.
The second was what we were planning.
“They won’t catch up until our retroburn.” The nav officer called out a few moments later much to the relief of our crew.
“Well that is good.” I mutter especially since that would tie into our surprise perfectly.
“Marcus get me a comm channel with them. Send them the package.”
“Understood Commander!” He called out his hands dancing along the comm console. The entire Bridge was relieved at that, despite the shock of the Warships appearance.
Although I still had no idea what they were. They weren’t in any of the SLDF records. So ComStar had been busy it seems.
“Repairs are estimated to take about three hours… If our resources hold out.” I add quietly to my report. My fingers crossed that the Leopards would get into position soon.
Otherwise we would be sitting ducks. Without our armor fully restored no way this plan worked.
—--
It was nine days from Jump point to Terra following standard times.
We were not following standard times. But even being chased by Four Warships that I had never seen before, receiving messages pretty consistently to disarm and shut down all weapons, didn’t change the fact that time was passing, slow as a snail.
With the Sensor we were capable of working in a skeleton of skeleton crews. Set the ship on its course and it didn’t matter much what ComStar was planning, they couldn’t do anything in any quick length of time.
Every time I went to bed, I was hardly able to sleep from the anxiety. The absolute insanity I had planned to reach Terra. Without even being sure I would have the resources for my plan to work.
It took two days of traveling mostly quietly after the first ASF response before the Leopards finally put themselves in position near some asteroids out in the blackness of space. Receiving their message that they were in position, that they hadn’t been blown away by ComStar security had been a load off my heart.
Inputting the construction order from half way across the solar system was a weird feeling. But it worked. Within minutes I could see the metal storage suddenly start increasing.
And that meant at least the plan had a hope. A chance of working. I sent them new coordinates. For more extractors, for when everything really hit off.
Instantly I finished the repairs that I hadn’t managed to complete with what we had left, and while that was working, I began building. The strongest defense would be right at the end. No chance ComStar didn’t try to send nukes to counter us, or at least every dropship that they had access to.
I expected the entire atmosphere of Terra to be filled with metal to stop me.
So I built. Almost out of a compulsive need. For days I worked on improving our chances. Building anything that I thought might be needed. All ready to punch us through to Terra proper.
And then. The moment came. The moment that I knew Terra would start really panicking. Where people would maybe potentially start realizing what absolute craziness I had come up with.
So I decided since it was close to the point of no return, that I would try one more time for diplomacy. God. If I could turn towards a jump point right now, and just never step foot on Terra, that would make me happiest. Especially with the whole Cameron thing.
So I made a call.
Marcus was the only other staff on the bridge when I went up to sit next to him. A message went out to Terra. A request for a conversation to end this.
“First Circuit. By now I am sure you understand the depth of my resolve. But this is unnecessary. Turn over Gauge, and I will leave never to return to Terra. Please. Think of how far this can go over one man.”
We waited, Marcus and I in quiet contemplation as the message was sent, and we both knew it could be hours before we heard a response.
So we waited still and quiet aboard a Warship that had a name, but that I prayed I would never have to tell anyone. For doing so would feel like an admittance to just how far I would go in this desperate gamble.
Even I had to admit what I was doing was foolish. This was the sort of thing that got people killed. A desperate rush towards an objective without proper planning. Even if I did think it would work. Even if the Nanoforge and my Sensor made this potentially possible. It was still a risk. A major one at that.
I was taking Homeguard into battle. Something that I had never meant to do. I was taking men and women that were on the backlines into a suicide mission to rescue a single man.
The longer the silence lasted the more I regretted all of this. Every inch of it. If I had just told Gauge more about ComStar. If I had convinced him not to go, to instead stay, to build the ISDF into what ComStar was meant to be.
To not leave.
But Marcus reminded me, with a hand on my shoulder jostling my armor a bit that I wasn’t alone.
He nodded. The two of us spoke without words. From knowing each other for our entire lives practically. Marcus, who had always been Bennys underling, who had played with us younger kids because Benny looked out for us.
He understood, and accepted. A single nod, without a word spoken, told me that he understood my fears. That I could practically taste blood from how I was worrying at my lip told me how he realized my fear.
But he said nothing. Needed to say nothing, because not a single member of the ISDF that I had informed of Gauges capture had hesitated a moment.
This wasn’t about me the Commander leading people that trusted me into a suicide mission. It was a group of people willing to be led into a suicide mission to rescue one of their own.
Gauge had taught nearly every member of the ISDF before he left. He was the one that taught us how to repair mechs. Every mechanic in the ISDF remembered his lessons. Every single one. Most of the lessons were recorded and played for young mechanics. Explaining complex repairs and how to fix them.
It wasn’t perfect. Even Gauge had admitted that, but it was what we needed when we first started. When Gauge was the only one that even knew how to take off a piece of Battlemech armor, much less fix a broken Fusion Engine.
Gauge who had guided the youngest of us in an education that put us on parity with any noble family, and some continued on to go beyond even them.
Gauge who had been the one many people went to when they had a problem. Because Benny was the older brother that no one wanted to admit to embarrassing idiotic acts, and Gauge would usually at least tell them how to clean up or fix their mess.
Gauge. Who was the first of the Iron Blooded. The First of the ISDF.
“Message received from Terra.” Marcus spoke simply.
“Play it.”
—---
A different perspective
Myndo Waterly
“It's a trick. She wants us to let down our defenses so she can strike.” She said simply at the gathered men of the First circuit. Well most of them. Huthrin the former Precentor New Avalon was gone.
He had disappeared in the night. Much to Myndos fury. The coward abandoned her at the moment where their leadership was most needed!
“Psych profile suggests that is unlikely. She is earnest. Almost improbably so. If we hand over the boy she would leave.” Nicholas offered with that smirk on his face as he looked right at her.
“Of course that is unlikely under the circumstances.” He added leaving no doubt what he meant.
“I refuse to cave to her demands regardless! This is Terra! ComStar are the caretakers of the cradle of Humanity! I will not be the one that allows a Warship to fly above our heads and rain hell onto Terra!” Myndo snapped a fist hitting the wood table with a thump.
No one seemed to care. She realized. Her First Circuit was melting down just as quickly as the rest of ComStar it seemed. Every riot they put down caused five more.
Already she had ordered the Comguard to pull back only to ComStar installations. Too many civilians firebombing ComStar equipment and personnel.
The personnel that were still around anyways. To Myndo’s horror more than a few of the ComGuards had actually had the audacity to turncoat. Joining the rioters. Protecting them against their compatriots. As if protecting rioters was anything but a betrayal of what it meant to be a ComGuard!
“Then Precentor Rom. What do you suggest?” She asked sharp as a Katana. The man had been seemingly loving the absolute destruction of everything he should have been desperately trying to protect.
“I will admit. I am interested in finding out what happens if we tell her the truth.” He offered, causing the rest of the First Circuit to choke at the idea.
“You want to taunt a woman with a Warship that is heading here that her objective, that she is seeking to recover is already dead?” Myndo couldn’t help but question, in shock at the Nicholas’s answer.
“I am curious which is stronger. Idealism, or vengeance. Considering the Warship will come regardless, I find the what ifs more interesting than the is.” He offered with a smile that had Myndo wonder if the man had gone utterly insane.
“No. Absolutely not. If our defenses in space fail, Gauge Blake being a hostage is the only thing that keeps the chance of her committing an orbital bombardment off the table.” Precentor Tharkad Ulthan Everson interrupted instantly. The man obviously cared more for his life than anything else right now.
“I agree.” Myndo said glaring, Nicholas simply shrugged, uncaring it seemed at her censure.
“Then I am afraid Myndo we have little that we can use to convince her. Victoria Eisen-Blume has already proven her commitment to her word, from her assault on Ko. If you recall?” Nicholas asked, with a certain emphasis that only made her anger hotter.
The Ko fiasco had been partially her plan. Of course almost no one knew that. It had been a solid plan at the time, to get the Lostech out of the hands of Lyran backers, and into the Combines. Considering the danger of the Fed-Com unification, it had been brilliant, only for it to fail horribly, and instead damage the Combine by completely destroying one of their regiments.
Nicholas must have discovered her hand in ensuring the former governor of Ko, Kagemuchi knew where to assault the ISDF dropship.
Damn ROM!
“Then we will have to prepare defenses on the ground and air. Put out a call to the Dropship centers. Get them into the sky to defend against the Warship!”
“Most of them fled already Myndo, most that remain no longer heed our commands. I am afraid many of the Dropship Captains that ran the Terra route are very upset about some of our choices regarding their union attempts, particularly why they keep failing.” Nicholas informed them with his ever present smirk.
“Then ready our ComGuard ASF pilots! We have thousands of them! If we send them up, there is no chance a Warship will survive.”
“Myndo. Most of the Airstrips have been taken over by rioters, it's more a full rebellion at this point. Even if we could get enough ASF into the air from Terra how many of those pilots have heard the Blake Broadcast? How many do you think will be loyal tomorrow? Or the day after?” Nicholas shook his head. “We already lost contact with one of the bases on Io. The last message we received was ‘We heed the Word of Blake’ I believe.”
Myndo felt her blood pressure skyrocket.
Was anyone around her not a traitor or incompetent!? How could this have happened, right as she finally found herself in charge of ComStar!? It was then she realized the rest of the First Circuit was far less concerned with the whole situation.
And she realized they hadn’t fought her taking power because they believed she should lead, or were too afraid of her.
No they were too afraid to be the one in charge when the shit hit the fan.
“Cowards. Every one of you. Look at you! ComStar is dying, and instead of standing and taking responsibility you all would rather put your feet up as everything around you burns? Wake up. They will hunt you down to the ends of the periphery and beyond! All of our necks are on the line today!”
“Yes Myndo. What exactly do you expect us to do? The entire Inner Sphere now knows our dirtiest secrets. All of us will be placed against a brick wall after a short but very pointed trial, and even our own people are actively trying to kill us.” Ulthan pointed out once more reminding Myndo of the many betrayals.
“I expect you to stand firm and act. We are ComStar. We are destined to lead the Inner Sphere!” She argued but it didn’t seem to have the effect she wanted. Most of the rest of the First Circuit seemed uninterested in her words.
“I believe this all leads us away from the reason for this meeting.” Nicholas reminds them, pointing towards the Holovid with the Commander's message.
“You are correct this time Nicholas. We need a response.” She said glaring at the rest of the First Circuit.
“We have only one option on the table. We either tell her Blake is dead, or we refuse to comply.” Ulthan spoke sounding bored.
Myndo frowned. She hated Dichotomous thinking. That they only had two options was wrong.
“If we say nothing, we gain nothing. We do not rule the Inner Sphere by playing to our enemies strengths… Very well. Let’s tell this Commander exactly what the cost of her actions is.” Myndo offered with a sinister grin.
If she was already here, ready to battle, then Myndo refused to back down. She would spit in this Cameron Commanders face, and see if she blinked.
—--
“Gauge Blake will be executed. If you wish to save him, you have only one choice. Complete Surrender. If you fire a single round at Terra. Blake will die. A gun will be held to his head until your surrender is accepted.”
I watched the message again quietly listening to the womans tone the way she looked half crazed. I sighed. I truly just wanted my friend back. I just wanted this nonsense to end.
“Send my request and her reply in a full ping across the entire system. Marcus add in one more thing for me. Record this please.”
I waited a moment before he nodded.
“This is Victoria Eisen-Blume. I have no intention of firing any weapons at Terra. But to the First Circuit? I am coming.”
I nodded. Ending the recording.
Damn them for forcing me to do this.
And damn me for being willing to do it.
I was silent for a long time. Watching space fly past. Long after the point of no return came and went. Despite the fact we didn’t slow down at the point we would normally need to to land safely.
I guess I had learned something from Theodore after all.
—--
I could tell the moment that ComStar realized something was wrong. That I wasn’t following the standard game plan. The four Warships were adjusting their course trying to find out what our course was. Normally we would have flipped around and started decelerating long ago.
We didn’t. Normally we would reach a point that would be easy for the enemy to catch up to.
We didn’t.
Normally people don’t come up with my insane fucking plan.
We did. The ComStar Warships accelerated even more when they realized we weren’t. Trying to catch up. But it was too late. They realized it, we knew it. That we weren’t slowing. Making no motion to do so. Well not entirely, we were activating some light retro thrusters but they were tiny ones. Just enough to help at the end. We weren’t accelerating anymore either, but that only half solved the problem.
Because when you started going real fast, slowing became an ordeal… especially when you didn’t want to splatter squishy humans across bulkheads. Which is the genius of my plan. Because slowing down is when you get attacked by ComStar. They had launched more ASF to try and hit us as we turned to slow down, the enemy Warships had thought the same, setting up a course that would have them meet us as we tried to slow down.
But we didn’t. I could practically feel the confusion in my enemies as we continued moving closer. Our course was set. The green fog of the Nanoforge is active hurriedly making the adjustments to the Warship.
I had practically covered it in weapons for when I expected ComStar to throw everything at us, but their actual attempts were almost anemic. The moon, and a few other satellites or bases, sent a force of ASF after us, but none really made any attempt to stop us. Almost like they were afraid of getting too close…
Oh right. We had murdered an entire squadron of ASF already.
What did they throw at us? Well like I said Anemic.
I jostled in my seat, as the shop rocked gently as the Quartet of PPC managed to hit home against our armor, but after that it went quiet. The last of the defenses on our path blown away with such overwhelming firepower that it forced Kim to adjust the engines to put us back on course.
I was forced to start breaking down some of the weapons after as our engines were struggling to keep us on course with how overweight we were. A few minutes of breaking down weapons and Kim sent me an okay that we were back on our course.
“Where are the rest of Terra’s defenses?” I couldn’t help but ask. ComStar controlled not just thousands of Pilots and ships, but Dropships, and satellites. We had just blown through some of the defense satellites, but they had barely reacted. Hell out of the three we were passing close enough to, only one actually fired. The other two were quiet. The fact nothing was seeming to be done about our approach was concerning.
“Captain! Commander! We are getting messages from Terra. A lot of them!”
I could see Marcus desperately trying to answer all the messages, since we were getting closer and closer the actual time from message to response was almost 1 to 1.
Kim was of course getting a little annoyed by the fact his console kept pinging over and over constantly as messages were received.
“What is going on?” I called out. Only for Marcus to finally have enough and pull his headset off.
“Apparently… Apparently Old Terran Governments are reaching out! We got a message from a multiple governments. I didn’t even know Terra had this many governments. I'm struggling here, but they want to know what our intentions are!”
“Connect them to me Marcus. All of them.” We were approaching earth at far too fucking fast. I didn’t have time for this!
The Holovid activated and I watched as more and more little heads were added in sharing space until I could barely see the twenty or so people I was on a call with.
But they could see me.
“This is Victoria Eisen-Blume. ISDF. We are here for a rescue mission to recover Gauge Blake. I am not here to attack Earth, but if anyone attacks us, I will respond with the full might of the ISDF.”
The voices all began talking interrupting and talking over each other into a heady mix of noise and voices.
I gave it a few moments, to see if any of them would actually shut up, but that didn’t happen. Too many voices talking at once. Leaders all wanting to be heard. Too much fear. I could hear ‘Warship’ practically every other word from all of them, along with another word I didn’t want to hear.
“Cameron.”
So I muted them.
“I am afraid, Terran Leaders, I am not asking. No one. And I mean, no one. Kidnaps, or holds my people hostage. Not the Combine’s Coordinator, or even the King of Merry Old England. This time, it is ComStar. I am heading to Hilton Head. Now. I will only say this once. So that there shall be no misunderstandings.”
“Get out of my way.”
I cut the comm message.
“Alright. Everyone Prepare for Operation!” I call out, since for some reason there weren’t any further Terran defenses coming up to attack us, it was time to prepare for the crescendo.
The entire Bridge crew got out of their seats to leave. Every one of them. We all floated for a moment in silence.
“If this fails. I am sorry. But thank you. For trusting me. For fighting beside me. For… For being my friends.” I tell them all in the quiet earning odd looks from Colonel Hillers men, but firm nods from the Highlanders, William looked proud for a moment from his position.
But for the ISDF. For my family. There wasn’t a dry eye in the bunch.
It was Kim who stopped me from saying any more. “The ISDF fights for what's right. That’s something you taught me Commander.”
Marcus spoke up next. “The ISDF takes on the tough tasks. Even if we have to take risks. If we never risk, nothing changes. And the ISDF refuses not to change the Inner Sphere for the better. You taught me that.”
Around the bridge. More words were offered. For once it wasn’t me giving the speech. But my people. My ISDF, my kids giving me a speech. I closed my eyes.
This was for Gauge. But also? It was for the Inner Sphere. The First Circuit had decided they wanted to be Tyrants. So I would act. The ISDF would act.
I had once told Katrina that I wanted to be a force for good. To be trusted by every side so that I could do more than just fight for territory.
I had thought I had failed. By joining against the Combine, I felt I had burned my own goal aside for the reality of life.
But failing wasn’t the end. Only giving up was the end.
So I failed. I had allowed myself to act in a way I hated. But I had done it. I wouldn’t ever say it was the right choice. The best choice. But it was mine. And here again. I would make a choice.
“ISDF! Here is an order from your Commander! Live! Not one of you has been given permission to die! Head out!”
“YES COMMANDER!” The entire bridge crew roared out startling the outsiders as they saluted and moved.
They would all be entering an escape pod, either in a mech, or without. I myself would be joining them once everything was completed. My Phantom was ready and waiting in an escape pod for me. But first?
It was time.
I sat back, and the effort I had been doing to modify the Warship began in earnest. As far as I know no one had ever thought to do something like this before. Not going this fast. Not with crew this green. And certainly not on Terra.
This was something new. Something impossible to expect.
As green light once more burst from the Warship covering it in a haze as more and more armor was added onto the ship in a second layer, a sort of egg around the weak insides. The entire thing took on a bullet shape. Dozens of feet thick armor creating itself from nothing. Growing around the ship.
On the exterior of the armor engines grew. Powerful ones, engines capable of shifting the mass up to more G’s than I really wanted to count. Each of them connected for a Fusion Engine to ensure they would have the power they need.
This is what had taken me so long to put together. Something new. The Noteputer hated new. It didn’t like me toying with it to create.
But I hadn’t given up. Would it work?
I don’t know. But I had done everything I could to try and make it so.
Inside the ship every hallway, every gap, was had been filled with more armor, or a foam to keep the ship from compressing itself during this stupid fucking plan.
God please let this work.
And so on the last approach to Terra, my Warship burst into such brilliant green light, leaving a trail of sparkling green fog behind us that it could be seen from ground. People watched a burning green light approaching closer and closer.
With no idea what it was.
“Operation Stardust Memory begins now. Hold on.” I inform the crew over the intercom, as I float out and rush to my escape pod. Kim and her pilots would be handling the maneuver from their escape pod which had been fitted with controls.
Slowly at least in the grand view of things, the ISDFS Tharkad class Warship, reached an angle that would allow it to hit the Terra’s Atmosphere. Normally going this fast, a ship would simply bounce off. Probably breaking into pieces in the process.
But we didn’t. At the first sign of turbulence, of our ship bouncing against the atmosphere the powerful engines ignited pushing us back against the atmosphere. And slowly, as the entire ship screamed at the forces pushed against it, as turbulence began building up to the point that most of us would probably black out, slowly. The Side 2 grinded itself into the atmosphere. Using the friction to slow down, grinding away feet of high grade battle armor in the process but losing speed at a ridiculous rate as we spun around earth.
And slowly the name of the Warship that I only added onto the bullet armor itself, a final touch. My only sign of my normal joking attitude, mostly because not naming a ship was bad luck, and we would need all the luck we could get.
Side 2.
For if you were going to drop onto earth to make a statement, there was no other name that had the same impact… Stop joking idiot. I cursed myself. Although after that I didn’t think of much else.
If not for the foam that I had made sure everyone would be encased in for the re-entry most of us probably would have been broken apart from the turbulence. Instead we simply were forced under incredible stress. The one thing none of us had been fully sure of was whether our armor or bodies would give out first.
All of us were praying to whatever God we worshiped that the ship would hold. That we wouldn’t all die in a blaze of fire over Terra.
—--
Everyone on earth could look up in to the sky. Watching as a fireball stretched across the sky. Slowing down as it circled the globe until finally, it had slowed enough that it wasn’t destroying itself through natural forces.
Yet when it finally breached the atmosphere, its performance wasn’t over. Finally having broken into the atmosphere, having slowed itself to an extent, it reacted. It broke apart. Splitting like a blooming flower. As the bullet-like armor fell away in four petals, the entire structure a deep rust red, from the heat, fire still streaking from the plates as they launched away from the ship within.
All across the world cameras had risen up. To watch something odd. Something strange. Now even more rose up. The sight of a Warship over Terra caused a horrified stillness across the population of everyone who saw it. Yet there was something awe inspiring about its reveal, The flower-like burst of fire and metal behind it appearing like a firework in the darkened sky.
Slowly, powerful engines littering the newly revealed warship burst to life. Not to fly, as the weight of the ship was too much for that, but it was enough to slow the fall of the Warship, and ensure it fell on target.
A small island off the coast of the Continental former United states.
Hilton Head.