Posted by: RedKing
« on: May 20, 2012, 12:59:23 PM »Bowdry keyed his transducer mike to the squadron channel. “All ships! Target that Bastani vessel and open fire, all batteries!” He stood there, heart racing as all around him he heard the chatter and buzz of the Combat Command Center coming to life. He moved to one side, eyes transfixed on the large tactical holomap. Captain Hollister took the cue and sat in the captain’s couch, taking over operational control of the Vengeance.
“Designating active hostile as Heritage 1. Other vessel as Heritage 2. Launch 1st Squadron, weapons hot.”
“Aye sir, birds are aloft.” A cloud of blue specks appeared on the tacmap, the Vengeance’s squadron of Comanche fighters.
“Vengeance to Hawk One, over.”
A voice filtered over the open comm. channel, obscured partially by the noise inherent in trying to talk to a chunk of metal moving at a tenth of the speed of light. “Hawk One to Vengeance, read you, over.”
“Trawick, this is Hollister. Want your boys to unload a full salvo on Heritage 2. Copy?”
“Copy, Vengeance. Full salvo on Heritage 2, over.”
Hollister turned to Lieutenant Ellington. “Report on the frigates?”
“Sir, gauss coils almost powered up, gunners are acquiring a firing solution.”
“Good. Let’s show these bastards some fireworks. Fire at will.”
Gavin only dimly heard his XO directing combat, lost in his own thoughts as his eyes flicked back and forth between the orbital map -- showing two hulking shapes, gone from amber to a menacing red in the last several seconds – and the planetary map, where the blue “blob” of ground troops near the primary dome had gaping holes in it. He knew that less than a minute ago, those holes had been filled with Alliance soldiers. Soldiers who had been depending on his squadron, on him to safeguard them.
Sick to his stomach, he stepped over to a comm. console, swiped his palm to log in, and keyed up a channel to General Pontarelli. There was a delay of a few seconds, during which Bowdry’s mind raced through dozens of scenarios which all ended with the general dead, until finally the screen flickered to a distorted image of a young, terrified-looking field technician. “Uhh, okay, it’s working! Standby, uhh, sir. She’s coming…the general, that is.”
He saw Pontarelli storm into view, her combat armor covered in ash and the sky dark behind her. For a moment, she appeared to Bowdry as one of the Furies, come to claim her vengeance on him.
“What the holy hell was THAT, Admiral? Bluelips aren’t supposed to have goddamned nukes!”
“Caught us by surprise too. Those “bulk haulers” turned out to be strike cruisers. What’s your status?”
“It’s a goddamn massacre. 1st VAR is gone, 21st might as well be. 11th and the 104th Mobile took some hits too, but at least they’re still operational. They’ve breached the secondary dome, but we don’t know their sitrep yet. HQ didn’t take any hits, but we’re sitting ducks if those damn things fire again. Got any more bad news to tell us?”
“New bandits! Inbound on Truk!” someone yelled out behind him.
Bowdry glanced up to see a swarm of red streaks leap towards the troopship, and saw flashes of light all around the vessel. “Truk reporting 21% armor integrity! No breach at this time.”
He looked back down at the comm.. "You worry about your situation down there, we’ll handle things up here.”
“With all due respect, Admiral, I’m not impressed with your 'handling' so far.”
“Duly noted, General. Bowdry out.”
He looked back up in time to see the frigates’ gauss cannons start up, spewing a stream of metal shards towards the massive Heritage. It was like tossing a rock at a tank, but who knew…if you threw enough rocks for long enough….
“Designating active hostile as Heritage 1. Other vessel as Heritage 2. Launch 1st Squadron, weapons hot.”
“Aye sir, birds are aloft.” A cloud of blue specks appeared on the tacmap, the Vengeance’s squadron of Comanche fighters.
“Vengeance to Hawk One, over.”
A voice filtered over the open comm. channel, obscured partially by the noise inherent in trying to talk to a chunk of metal moving at a tenth of the speed of light. “Hawk One to Vengeance, read you, over.”
“Trawick, this is Hollister. Want your boys to unload a full salvo on Heritage 2. Copy?”
“Copy, Vengeance. Full salvo on Heritage 2, over.”
Hollister turned to Lieutenant Ellington. “Report on the frigates?”
“Sir, gauss coils almost powered up, gunners are acquiring a firing solution.”
“Good. Let’s show these bastards some fireworks. Fire at will.”
Gavin only dimly heard his XO directing combat, lost in his own thoughts as his eyes flicked back and forth between the orbital map -- showing two hulking shapes, gone from amber to a menacing red in the last several seconds – and the planetary map, where the blue “blob” of ground troops near the primary dome had gaping holes in it. He knew that less than a minute ago, those holes had been filled with Alliance soldiers. Soldiers who had been depending on his squadron, on him to safeguard them.
Sick to his stomach, he stepped over to a comm. console, swiped his palm to log in, and keyed up a channel to General Pontarelli. There was a delay of a few seconds, during which Bowdry’s mind raced through dozens of scenarios which all ended with the general dead, until finally the screen flickered to a distorted image of a young, terrified-looking field technician. “Uhh, okay, it’s working! Standby, uhh, sir. She’s coming…the general, that is.”
He saw Pontarelli storm into view, her combat armor covered in ash and the sky dark behind her. For a moment, she appeared to Bowdry as one of the Furies, come to claim her vengeance on him.
“What the holy hell was THAT, Admiral? Bluelips aren’t supposed to have goddamned nukes!”
“Caught us by surprise too. Those “bulk haulers” turned out to be strike cruisers. What’s your status?”
“It’s a goddamn massacre. 1st VAR is gone, 21st might as well be. 11th and the 104th Mobile took some hits too, but at least they’re still operational. They’ve breached the secondary dome, but we don’t know their sitrep yet. HQ didn’t take any hits, but we’re sitting ducks if those damn things fire again. Got any more bad news to tell us?”
“New bandits! Inbound on Truk!” someone yelled out behind him.
Bowdry glanced up to see a swarm of red streaks leap towards the troopship, and saw flashes of light all around the vessel. “Truk reporting 21% armor integrity! No breach at this time.”
He looked back down at the comm.. "You worry about your situation down there, we’ll handle things up here.”
“With all due respect, Admiral, I’m not impressed with your 'handling' so far.”
“Duly noted, General. Bowdry out.”
He looked back up in time to see the frigates’ gauss cannons start up, spewing a stream of metal shards towards the massive Heritage. It was like tossing a rock at a tank, but who knew…if you threw enough rocks for long enough….