Chapter 4 – Star Fall Bridge, Colonial Army Command Ship Achlys Colonial Start Position, 5 Light Years from Earth (30 Minutes after Valkyrie Battle Group jumped)
"General, I really think we should wait for the Admirals signal." The young and frustrated Captain said to the increasingly red faced General Mayor.
"Well fortunately Captain I don't have to listen to your opinion. I'm in charge of the landing force not Admiral Nagala and I'm ordering you to proceed. Its time and I'm not waiting around any longer. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir" said the defeated Fleet officer before picking up his headset.
"Liberation Command to all units, First wave is ordered to begin jump sequence. Landing operations are to commence immediately upon deployment."
Receiving the order the five hundred and sixty two ships of the first wave began to empty from the space around them. In a few minutes one and a quarter million men of the Colonial Army and Marine Corps would start landing on Earth.
'Tigra' Class Marine Assault Barge 478 10 minutes sub-light travel from Earth
Standing on the bridge, Marine Colonel Karl Deon had a clear view of Earth as they came out of the jump. It wasn't what he had expected. Instead of the ordered Fleet formations that should have been securing the space in front of him, there was a confusing mêlée on explosions, energy bursts and what looked like blobs of light flying up from the planet.
Looking at the DRADIS screen he tried to make sense of the situation but all could see was a moving mass of colonial signatures spread over the battle space.
"By the Lords of Kobol what the frak is going on?"
"Sir, I can't get anyone on the Fleetnet. Something is jamming our comms, what should we do?"
"We follow orders. Take us in and prep drop ships and Raptors. Let's get on the ground. We're not doing any good up here Captain."
"Yes sir" The ships Captain responded before turning back to his controls and lowering the blast shields, which blocked the view.
Home World Command Operations Centre 300 Meters below the Pentagon
"Sir, more than five hundred additional ships just appeared." Captain Haley said looking at the two Generals behind her.
"More warships?" said General O'Neill looking away from the 3D display for a second.
"Err, I don't think so sir. I'm reading negligible weapons. Based on the number of life signs I'd guess there troop ships sir. "
"Oh this just keeps getting better!" Jack said tartly.
"Captain, order ground stations to target the new ships." Hammond commanded.
"Yes sir, and the Defence Net?" Haley said not looking up.
"No, keep them locked on the enemy warships." Hammond replied.
Bridge, Colonial Army Troop Barge 321 Five minutes sub-light travel from Earth.
Lieutenant Helen Marca winced as she watched through the exterior cameras. One of the other Troop Barges ahead of them had taken a direct hit. Although armoured the large vessels were not designed to sustain this kind of onslaught. As the damaged barge began to break up her drop ships and shuttle struggled to clears the stricken troop carrier. Each one banking and heading for Earth, determined to carry on their mission.
Despite the efforts of the smaller craft, Helen was sure the bulk of the four thousand troops onboard were unlikely to escape. She was quickly proved right as another enemy blast hit her engines causing the ship to explode, the resulting debris adding to the hazards facing the ships behind.
In the decks below her, she knew their own embarked troops would be cramming the halls as they struggled to get aboard the drop ships. She only hoped they could get away before they too started coming under the Earther's merciless fire.
Picking up her assault rifle she stepped through the hatched and headed down to join her men.
Ground Station No.36
30 miles East of Ladakh, Kashmir, Republic of India
Major Somnath Sharma of the Indian armies elite Para Commando force adjusted his maroon beret as he stepped out of the air-condition trailer. Looking up, he watched as another burst from the ion cannon raced up into the sky.
Ground Station thirty six, like its compatriots around the globe, was not a fixed installation. From an early stage it had been decided to try and avoid the mistakes of the Tollen. Mounted on a specially build HGV the ion canon was just part of the mobile weapons site. Travelling with it was a convoy of support vehicles including a specialised command truck and a trailer mounted shield/cloak generator. The whole station was designed to be able to be moved and relocated at a moments notice if needed. As an added benefit this also allowed the stations to be setup in countries that were not aware of the Stargate program. Despite being a long time ally, India had been one of those countries until the British Ambassador had lobbied heavily for them to be included.
That had been five years ago, since then India had become a full member of the IOA and had become involved in all the major joint projects. They had their own F304, the INS Indra, under construction as well as dozens of personnel off-world, including in Atlantis where Major Sharma had spent six months. Above his head, pilots of the Indian Air force flew and fought alongside those of more than a dozen nations. For some one like Somnath, who grew up in the slums of New Delhi, these were all things to be rightly proud of. They had indeed come far.
CIC, Battlestar Pegasus
Sol System, 9 Minutes Sub-light travel from Earth
The Pegasus shook with another direct hit from the moons surface.
"Damage report!"
"Our underside defence zone took heavy damage. Three batteries destroyed and another out of action and we have a hull breach between frames twenty one and twenty two. DC parties are responding."
They needed to get out of there and they all knew it. As tough as the Pegasus was she couldn't sit there and take this punishment for much longer.
Jurgen came around the console so only the Admiral could hear. "Helena we need to get out of here." He could see she was torn, Helena Cain was not someone who ran from a fight. He watched as her face hardened as she made her decision.
"Prepare for FTL jump, were going in closer."
Jurgen's mind did a complete three sixty as it went from first relief to horror. He knew Helena didn't want to retreat but jumping closer to the planet was suicide. He was just about to ask her what she was planning when the CIC was rocked once again, sending them all to the deck. It took him a second after he got back to his feet before he realised the Admiral was still down.
"The Admirals hurt, get a medic!" Jurgen called as he lent down next to the unconscious Cain.
CIC, Battlestar Mercury (BSG-61 Mercury Battle Group)
8 minutes sub-light travel from Earth
"Commander, the Kobol is moving out of formation and not responding to hails" the coms officer said above the frantic hubbub of the CIC.
"Is she damaged?" Said the XO seeing the Commander was busy.
"No sir, she doesn't appear to have taken any hits." Then the communications officer stopped and looked up shocked. "Sir the Kobol just fired ship-to –ship missiles into her own escorts, three ships heavily damaged."
"What in Hades?" Exclaimed the CAG, taking his eyes from the DRADIS screen he had been watching with the Commander.
Rounding on the CAG "She's been boarded, take a Marine detachment and get over there." The Commander said firmly.
Home World Command Operations Centre
300 Meters below the Pentagon
"Sir, the Korolev just reported they boarded one of the enemy motherships and have taken the bridge." Walter said looking over his shoulder.
"Really?" Jack said looking round.
"They only have limited control at the moment but they are trying to disrupt the attack." Walter continued.
Raising an eyebrow Jack turned to Hammond. "General, you know I hate to be unoriginal but..."
Already knowing where he was going with this Hammond leaned in to Walter and responded. "Contact Landry, Have him start prepping SG teams for boarding operations."
Above Colonial Landing Site Gamma (Kazakhstan, Central Asia)
Earth Orbit
Despite the constant fire from Earth's defences the landing had begun. The skies were already filling with hundreds of troop shuttles, drop ships and armed and unarmed Raptors. Besides them on their decent were dozens of larger Marine Assault landing ships and Army Heavy Transports, each carrying hundreds of men along with heavy equipment needed by the Liberation forces.
More than three hundred thousand men landing on a country even most Earther's couldn't find on a map. Like the other four sites, it had been chosen for its location. The rolling tundra offered large open areas onto which the Colonial force could deploy and setup beachheads relatively unopposed.
As soon as they hit the ground, hatches were opened and out poured their cargo of men and equipment. On the larger ships heavy ramps descended to allow the armour and vehicles they carried to race out on the planes. Everywhere defences were being setup and units formed up ready to move out. For the men and women of the Colonial military this is what they had trained for, what many had waited there whole lives for, and in the long years of peace had almost lost hope of ever experiencing. This was the great adventure, this was war.
10 miles East of Colonial Landing Site Omega
Near Alice Springs, Northen Australia
The Twelve Colonial Marines piled out of the two Raptors as soon as the hit the ground. Lightly armed there's was one of dozens of similar teams securing road junctions and strategic points around the main landing site.
Fanning out they quickly started setting up positions around the deserted crossroads.
"Sarge, do we have to wear these masks?" grumbled one of the marines as he jumped into a gully and began assembling his support weapon.
"Yes private, until the docs say otherwise they stay on. No telling what diseases these people have."
"What people sir? There's no one frakking here!"
"Stow it Marine, that's an order."
Home World Command Operations Centre
300 Meters below the Pentagon
Moving away from the hologram of the Sol system to the large war table nearby, Jack O'Neill and General Hammond looked down on the close up map of the Earth. On it the four landing sites was being projected.
"The invaders appear to landing in these four location sir". Lt Colonel Davis said joining them at the table and indicating the four slowly expanding red circles on the map.
"Except for Kansas those location are all isolated. We are going to have problems getting troops to them if we lose air superiority."
"Ya think! I guessing that was kindda the point! Anyway, If we lose in the air its not going to matter." Jack said before continuing "They will reinforce their positions and use them as a base to strike out. We need to beat their Fleet. It's a simple as that."
Colonial Landing Site Alpha
Sankuru Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa
Karl watched as a column of Marines formed up and began marching up the road. It was a reminder that for all the technology they had brought with them, that when it got right down to it war was about boots on the ground. Despite however much the Fleet liked to pretend otherwise.
Right now he didn't have nearly as many as he should. The landings had supposed to be the easy bit of this operation. The intelligence officer had been confident when he had briefed them. Earth didn't have a space force and although they had Surface-to-Air missiles they weren't expected to encounter them. That was the whole point of having landing sites here in the middle of no where.
Bitterly, the Marine Colonel wondered where that intelligence asshole was now. He would love to see him explain how the 'primitive' Earthmen had wiped out a third of his command before they had even made planet-side. Their unexpectedly high casualties weren't even the worst of it. They had no contact with the Fleet, which meant no air cover, no ground strikes and no resupply. They were on their own. They could refuel their Raptors and fit them with rockets but they needed Vipers to defend against the Thirteenth's aerojets, something even that moron of an intelligence officer had suggested may be a concern.
No contact with the Fleet also meant no Navsat relay or mapping data. That might not have been a problem if the had decent imaging of the area. Unfortunately some bonehead had decided that close in aerial scans would tip off the Earther's. All the maps they had were based on long range telescope images and were next to useless.
Looking up in to the sky Karl made a silent prayer to Athena for their luck to change.
CIC, Warstar Zeus (BSG-14, Fleet HQ Group)
Sol System (30 minutes Sub-light from Earth)
"LOS signals still can't get a lock, their moving around to much." The exasperated coms officer said shaking her head.
"Admiral, Imaging just sent this up. They just took it off the telescopes." A technician said stepping forward.
"What the frak! We didn't signal them to jump in. What is that idiot Mayer doing?" Nagala said handing the image to Commander Pax.
"Prep another courier Raptor. We need to get them to pull back before the Earther's slaughter them." The Admiral continued.
Nagala wasn't confident it would do a lot of good. So far they had sent eight Raptors on similar courier missions to the other groups and none had returned. She needed to get control of the situation. Without communications there was no way to reorganise the fleet, they needed to pull back and rethink this.
"FTL Drive back online"
Finally some good news .The Admiral thought. Their FTL drive had taken a hit just as they were about to jump. They had been trying to get working ever since, looks like they just succeeded.
"Prepare for jump."
"What about the Agamemnon? Their FTL is still down." the Tactical officer asked.
"We have to leave them behind. If we don't pull the other Groups back now we lose the fleet."
Viper 213 – Minotaur Silver Spar Squadron (BSG-61 - Mercury Battle Group)
Earth Orbit
Zak Adama knew he was in trouble even before his fuel master alarm came on. Having gotten separated from his squadron he'd practically ran into the planet. Slowing down, he finally stopped trying to evade the enemy he'd assumed was chasing him since his wingman had been killed. Scanning the surrounding space he tried to decide what to do.
He couldn't see the enemy but that wasn't very reassuring under the circumstances. The black enemy fighters not only didn't show up on DRADIS but were practically invisible until they opened fire.
Even then you couldn't get a missile lock. Despite repeated attempts to close to gun range he'd been unable to get a bead on one long enough to get a kill. Every time he tried the Earther's just broke off and scattered in to the black of space. So far all he succeeded in doing was to use up his ammo.
About the only thing that seemed to be going right was that the Earther's hadn't blown him out of orbit, Then again that was probably because they didn't think a single ammo-less fighter rapidly running out of fuel was much of a threat. Zak could see their point.
Frak, what would Lee do? Zak thought. Though of course, Lee would never get in to this position in the first place. Watching a group of drop ships heading towards the planet Zak made up his mind. He didn't have the reserves to get back to the Minotaur anyway so his best bet was to land and refuel.
Turning his Viper around he moved to follow the drop ships on their descent towards landing site Omega.
'Pump and Go' Gas Station
Interstate 70, Kansas (54 Miles from Colonial Landing Site Epsilon)
As Pete Shanahan stepped from his car he was too engrossed in the call to notice the other vehicle parked at the gas station.
"Mark, don't you think you're over reacting, it's just a toy. It's not like he sent them enlistment papers."
"Look I'm sure he's just trying to be nice." Pete said sighing "No Mark, I'm not defending him." rolling his eyes at his friends response.
"No, no I agree. He should respect your views. You're their father, I understand." The Denver cop said putting the soda can he was carrying in the trash can.
"I can't talk to her, buddy she's you're sister. Besides after that stunt you pulled she won't listen to me. You know I'm still pissed about that by the way. Why didn't you tell me she was engaged?"
"Ok, ok. Look I've gotta go, speak to you later." Pete finished looking down and shaking his head as he ended the call.
Looking up it only took a second to register the heavily armed Colonial soldier, his weapon pointing at him. Instinct made him reach for the gun he'd normally carry on duty. The seconds it took for him to realise he didn't have it were enough for the other man to fire. The three explosive rounds killed him instantly, throwing him backwards and colliding with the trash can in the process.
"Frak Dore, Why'd you do that for?" said the Colonial Sergeant stepping out of the shop.
"Sorry sir, I thought he was going for a gun." replied the shaky looking soldier kneeling by the body.
"Its ok Private lets get out of here." replied the Sergeant helping his man on to his feet.
What a frakking mess he thought finally before heading back to their parked reconnaissance vehicle.
All TV/Radio Stations broadcasting within Kansas, USA
"This Is the EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM. A State of Emergency is currently in effect for the state of Kansas. All residents are required to stay indoors until further notice. For your own safety do not attempt to travel at this time for any reason. All Military and National Guard personnel should report for duty assignments immediately. This is Not a Drill. This Is the EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM..."
CIC, Warstar Zeus (Colonial Flagship)
10 minutes sub light travel from Earth
As soon as the Zeus emerged from the jump she began broadcasting to the rest of the fleet. Within the armoured Combat Information Centre, Fleet Commander Admiral Nagala turned to her Senior Communications Officer.
"Are we getting through?"
"Sorry Sir, even with the boosted signal we are only getting to a handful of ships beyond our own Group."
"Fine, we will do this the hard way. Prepare to jump us to the nearest Assault Group. We will do this one group at a time if we have to."
"DRADIS Contact!" pause "It's the enemy ship, they followed us. Taking fire!"
The room shook under the multiple impacts "Damage Report!"
"FTL offline, multiple hull breaches. All coms are being jammed."
"Frak!"
"Sir we just picked up the second wave jumping in."
"Damn it, we need to get them to turn back before they get slaughtered."
Over the last hour the space around Earth had been turned in to a crowded melee. Once ordered formations had either broken apart into chaotic dog fights, or had collapsed in on themselves trying to seek mutual protection from the fast Earth ships.
Neither tactic was working and the Colonials were taking heavy casualties. There seemed to be nothing the Admiral could do to stop it. Under heavy fire only the Colonial Army and Marine ships were still advancing, desperately trying to follow orders and get their troops on the ground.
USAF Strike Carrier Thor
Engaging Warstar Zeus
"Colonel, enemy mothership appears to be disabled. "
"Finally!" huffed Caldwell, leaning back in his chair as the Thor strafed a nearby Strikestar as in looped out of the Colonial formation.
"We are intercepting a message from the mothership. It appears to be trying to order a retreat."
"Very good Lieutenant. Contact General Hammond."
Home World Command Operations Centre
300 Meters below the Pentagon
"General, the Thor reports one of the motherships is sending out a retreat order but our jamming is blocking it. He is requesting instructions."
Despite inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy Earths defences were being overwhelmed. Her ships had long since expended their conventional weapons. Even their energy weapons and shields were beginning to succumb to failures after an hour of near continuous use. They were rapidly approaching crisis point. They still had not deployed nukes but then nor had the enemy, despite scans showing that they carried them in large numbers. A large scale nuke fight so close to Earth could only end badly for them. Hammond didn't want to be the one to start down that road until he had no choice.
All things considered, if the enemy wanted to retreat he could see no benefit in stopping them.
Making up his mind the General leaned forward. "All units, desist jamming operations."
JOC, Warstar Zeus (Colonial Flagship)
10 minutes sub light travel from Earth
"Admiral, Fleetnet and long range communications are back online." The communication Officer reported from his station as the Admiral entered the room.
"What happened?" replied the Admiral, relieved but surprised.
"I don't know sir, it all just started working. The Earthers must have stopped jamming us for some reason."
Nagala didn't like the sound of that. There could be only one reason the Earth to stop and that was because they had decoded her retreat order. If they could break Colonial military codes they had a problem. However it wasn't one she could deal with right now. "What is the status of the Fleet?"
"All groups have acknowledged and ships are beginning to jump away. Sir, we have a lot of ships disable or without FTL, including at least sixteen Battlestars."
"That's half the Fleet."
The comms officer nodded and went pale as he clutched his headset. "Spartan Battle Group reports Battlestars Hector, Nova and Arcadia destroyed along with half their escorts. They only have two ships capable of FTL and both are engaged in rescue operations. They are requesting assistance."
The Admiral could only nod as she watched the screens in the JOC gradually come back to life, the information begining to come in from the newly restored Fleetnet. The picture that was forming was far from good. The 'Valkyrie' Class Battlestars of BSG-14 had been caught completely by surprise and only one was currently able to manoeuvre let alone jump. The six Strike Groups had been stalled short of the planet and they'd all taken heavy casualties.
The Admiral blamed herself. She should have left standing orders to fall back if they encountered unexpectedly heavy resistance. Although she doubted the campaign was going to be as easy as the President believed, she hadn't ever imagined the Earthers to have such powerful space defences. Nor had she anticipated that they would lose coms. That had been what really killed them. Without being able to order her units to retreat they had gotten stuck, to stubborn to fall back but unsure of how to advance. Sitting ducks for the Earther's guns.
"Mercury is reporting enemy boarding parties have taken Battlestar Kobol. They are attempting to retake her but the Earthers have seized the CIC and retracted the flight pods."
Just as the officer finished speaking the screens in the JOC froze again. The Admiral didn't need the confirmation when the coms officer relayed. "Fleetnet and long range coms are down. The Earthers have resumed jamming."
Of course they had Thought Nagala. They didn't want to give them a chance to reorganise, just leave.
Yep, Pete's dead, long may the potato head rest in piece. I did toy with the idea of dropping a Battlestar on his head but destroying Kansas to remove one character seemed... excessive.