"You want us to what?"
"You heard me, captain. None of our frigates can get close until those MAC guns are offline, and this is our best shot we've got at disabling them."
Captain Helen McIntyre had gone through quite the plethora of experiences during her time as leader of Harmony's Aerial branch, the 'Wings'; she'd been there to help evacuation efforts when they were awaiting an attack from Typhon's fold weapon, she'd fought in orbit when the Amalgamation had made its final way to her home … but what the Embers' commander was suggesting was approaching insanity.
"Are we even sure such a maneuver would work?"
"It was Four who suggested it to my special tactics officer, and she seems to agree that it will."
Of course she knew who Four was, he'd been the one who'd convinced her and the rest of the civilian fleets to overthrow security on each of their worlds and hijack what ships they could to bring to the fight. But being a good Titan Pilot didn't mean he was an expert in naval warfare. "You trust their assessments?"
"With my life."
"If you're wrong, it won't just be your life you're gambling," she scolded warningly, her thoughts on the wellbeing of all her crew. Unfortunately, he was right in saying that they didn't have many options at their disposal. There was no indication that this 'Coalescence' event was ready yet, but the fleets would continue to be fired upon until either it was or they retreated. Neither was too enticing of an option to consider.
The comm stayed silent, the man on the other end allowing her a few moments to come to the realization that there really was no choice here. With a sigh that begged for forgiveness from those she was sure would not be returning from this trip, she opened it back up.
"Very well, Captain Taube. I'll scramble our fighters; our Hornets are now yours."
"Thank you, Captain McIntyre. We'll make sure their sacrifices are worth it."
"You damn well better," she couldn't help but add before cutting the line. She knew that these were desperate measures- but perhaps it would be that kind of shrewdness that ensured their survival as a species.
In any matter, she was simply grateful to not have to be the one to make the call.
…
The rattling of a dropship as it sped around was not something Gates had ever been, or ever would be, particularly fond of. For all the skill and prowess a Pilot brought to a battlefield, all of it was null and void in the air. All one could do was hope that their pilot was a damn good one, and wait out the trip.
Her fear of such experiences was only magnified upon learning that, according to this plan, she wouldn't even be allowed that increasingly appealing alternative- instead, she'd be subjected to the protective shell of a tin-can inside a tin-can, so to speak.
Unfortunately, this would be the easy part.
"You know, I always thought Four would get us killed one day- I just didn't think it'd be so direct," Davis muttered with an ever-present sardonic taint to his words. He sat next to her in the passenger's seat, fiddling with the stock of his Spitfire. He was used to lighter weapons, but this particular mission would require as many bullets with a punch as they could manage.
"It's nice to hear you crack a joke again," she said, turning to look at him. It was odd to see him in Pilot armor again, just as it had been odd to wear it herself. Their objectives had mostly been reconnaissance and infiltration for the last year or so- nothing quite so forward as this. But while it may have seemed unusual, she'd have been lying if she hadn't said it felt natural to slip back into the suit.
"Not many things to laugh about these days," he replied evasively, staring forward. "Figured I might as well get at least a few chuckles out if I'm gonna die."
"You Pilots are a cheerful bunch, huh?" muttered Sergeant Perez, the rifleman sitting behind them, frowning as he did so.
Any other day, she'd have agreed with Perez; she would have said something encouraging, would have assured them that they weren't going to meet such a fate.
But she didn't feel like lying right now.
"Wolf-Spider units, this is your escort; the WOH has your back. Ready when you are."
"Copy. Red-Team, acknowledge status."
"Red-1, standing by. Ground team?"
Gates quickly made sure Perez and the group behind the three of them were prepared as well, then thumbed her comlink. "This is Red-1 ground, ready and waiting."
"Copy that."
"Red-2, standing by. Check in, ground team."
"Red-2 ground, ready to go."
"Red-3, standing by …"
She switched off the receiver momentarily, turning to Davis as she did so. "Hey."
He returned her gaze questioningly. "Yeah?"
"Just wanted to say that … well, it's been an honor. I know you and I have had lots of friction in the past, but-"
He waved her indirect apology aside. "Oh please, it wouldn't have been nearly as fun if you and I had gotten along the whole time."
"Smartass," she muttered, rolling her eyes; but it was with humor that she did so. "In any case, I'm proud of you."
"The feeling's mutual, El. Hope to see you on the other side."
She nodded, and turned the comlink on once more.
"… standing by."
"WOH, the light is green. All Wolf-Spiders are prepped and ready."
"Copy that, Red-1. Awaiting orders from Captain Taube, stand by."
…
Barker gazed upon the massive battle-scape before him. He watched both the enemy and allies trade fire in the form of streaks of light, their ammunition contrasting too much against the harsh pitch of space to recognize the missiles and cannon rounds as anything else.
"Sir, Red-Team and the WOH are awaiting your word."
He nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Are the decoys ready?"
"Civilian shuttles have indicated so, yes."
Though he was excited at the opportunity that the result of this plan would bring them, regret was no absent from the emotions he felt at carrying it out. The cost had been minimized, only a pilot to each shuttle- but each was still a life guaranteed to be lost. If this tactic didn't work, they'd be down resources, people … and more than likely any hope for a future.
His jaw tightened. The price would be high, but not higher than failure. "Do it."
The communications officer turned back to their console. "Civilian shuttles, launch! Godspeed."
"Roger that, be sure to give our regards to Spyglass!"
Barker looked out the window again to see small, grey-colored specks begin to flood out from the civilian fleet. The Embers couldn't have afforded to waste any militant based resources in such a plan- but the civilians had more than enough ships, and few enough combative advantages to warrant them perfect for such a task.
Made it hard not to think of them as fodder, though.
"Launch the missiles."
…
Nearly one-hundred and fifty civilian shuttles quickly converged on a shared course, grouping together to appear as one larger target.
"Alright, form up people! You know your positions!"
Slowly, the sides of the massive congregation began to trail backwards, shielding their rear center from harm in a sort of dome-like shape. They continued forward at a moderate pace, mostly ignored by the orbital defenses due to their small size for targeting and lack of apparent threat so far.
That was about to change.
"Where are the nukes?"
On cue, a burst of light could be seen firing from the frigate behind them before it began to race ahead through the dark void to meet them.
"Confirmed, the EOS Inferno has launched the package! All shuttles, full speed ahead!"
As one, every ship ignited its thrusters and streaked forward towards their target; a MAC platform hovering north of the equatorial divide, one of which quickly took notice and alerted the cruisers surrounding it. It was barely thirty seconds before the first shells hit them, tearing through their ranks and eliminating lines of shuttles at a time.
"Hold the line! Do not evade, push on!"
They were halfway to the target now, and already they'd lost a substantial amount of ships. Every pilot watched out of the peripherals of their view-screens as orange flowers blossomed from the cockpits of their neighbors, accelerated rounds sometimes taking two or three shuttles at a time as they tore through the dome.
One bomb caught a shuttle at such speed that it simply wrenched it in half, each piece was sent careening off into other columns and inflicting even more damage as they swerved to avoid or were subsequently destroyed alongside it. Rapidly, the 'shield' of their dome was losing size and efficiency. Still, they pressed forward- retreat at this stage would certainly mean failure, and dishonor to those who had given their lives for them to make it this far.
"Almost ther-"
The comm abruptly cut out, only to be accompanied by the sight of a shuttle in front exploding and sending its hull debris flying in every which direction. A new voice sprang up after a moment, "We're almost there! Prepare to peel off!"
The orbital defense ships began to fire more desperately, almost shifting their entire focus onto the group as they ignored the rest of the fleets' frigates and bombardments, willingly taking critical damage in an effort to stop what they quickly were realizing was the true threat.
500 meters.
300 meters.
100 meters.
"It's out of their targeting range, now get the hell out of here!"
Inward and outward, the seventeen surviving ships turned about with the appearance of a massive, metallic jelly-fish and quickly sped away at the maximum limit. In their wake, they left behind a cluster of nuclear warheads which in turn split apart and sought out victims to unleash themselves against. Several set their sights on the nearby ships while the rest zeroed in on the MAC platform.
Within seconds, the area was composed entirely of white as the light from the detonations became blinding. The shuttles barely managed to outrace the initial blast, but were knocked off-course by the following shockwave which quickly dissipated in the vacuum of space.
Slowly, the light faded away and revealed the carnage; everything in the immediate vicinity had been almost obliterated, with the exception of some outlying ships' debris which caused even more chaos by spinning out and into other cruisers close to them.
"MAC station is down, you are clear! I repeat, WOH and Red-Team you are clear!"
…
"…Red-Team, you are clear!"
"Copy that, all wings form up on me. Protect the Wolf-Spiders at all costs!"
"Red-1 here, let's kick some ass! All ships, launch!"
Gates gave a small gasp as the lurch of the ship caught her by surprise, groaning anxiously as she whispered prayer after prayer to whatever deities watched from above that she and Davis not be blown immediately out into space due to what came next.
"Never took you for a religious woman, Captain."
She glared daggers at Perez. "Never was, but I don't think taking a chance on being wrong hurts our odds of survival."
The Wolf-Spiders were probably the largest non-frigate class ships used in warfare. While they lacked any great ability to defend themselves, their primary purpose wasn't combative- their flattened shape with an interior designed solely to transport and deliver consignments quickly to the ground from within the hook-like walls of their cargo-bays made them perfect for hastily resupplying ground forces when enemy lines made other methods too difficult.
But their purpose had been twisted somewhat creatively with the new plan. This wasn't a supply-run; it was a deployment.
Exiting the hangar, the Wolf-Spiders of Red-Team made them stand out as targets even with the current absence of a MAC station on their current course. As they began weaving around to avoid being hit, the WOH squadron of Hornet aerospace fighters moved in to assist.
Small fighters launched from the closest enemy cruisers as they moved to close the gap left behind by the nukes. Trying to stave off that eventuality as long as possible, the Hornets made it their job to either take them out or shield Red-Team with their own ships to ensure that the Wolf-Spiders broke through the blockade.
Concussive waves from the rounds that made it through and ate away at the shields rocked the ship, causing Gates to tense up and inhale sharply each time they increased in severity.
"This is Red-9, we've sustained critical damage! Going down, repeat, go-"
A split second of white noise filled the comm before it fell silent, giving her a feeling not unlike a block of lead finding its way into the bottom of her gut.
"Red-11 here, we've been hit bad! Give us some more cover!"
"Red-11, look for an opening and break off-"
"Negative, Red-1! We can still fly, we're gonna get these people on the ground. Might make the return trip a bit difficult, though."
Silently, Gates thanked the pilot for his bravery- they'd need every last troop on the ground to complete the next stage of their plan, and they were cutting it close as it was.
"Red-1 to WOH, Red-Team has cleared the blockade. Entering atmosphere. Thanks for the help, wing-leader!"
"Copy that, stay safe. Have fun down there!"
"I think those two choices are mutually exclusive," Davis remarked dryly next to her. She offered no response- she was just happy to have made it through at all.
The creaking of the ship around them grew louder as they left vacuum, the air around the ship creating resistance as it screamed downward through the sky. As it began to even out, she felt the pull of gravity replace the sensation of weightlessness that had been present in the cargo bay the rest of the trip's duration. Finally, the Wolf-Spider's angle was parallel to the ground and its speed began to decrease in preparation for what was about to follow.
"AA guns are locking onto us! Ground team, disengage safety clamps!"
Reaching up, Gates found the lever which, upon being pulled, released the metallic clamps around all four tires of the 'Gremlin' assault car they sat in. She could hear a similar sound of machinery from the 'Samson' transport vehicle behind them, indicating that its six airless tires were now free to spin on their own accord.
Reaching forward, she thumbed the ignition while noting the display indicating that the car had come to life and was ready to move. She placed both hands on the wheel and exhaled deeply, steadying her nerves and diverting all of her concentration to the job at hand.
"Wolf-Spiders, spread out! Ground team, we are three kilometers out from target, prepare to drop in five … four … three … two …"
With a loud, high pitched whine that signaled the cargo-bay's floor splitting apart as the doors opened into two halves, Gates, Davis, and Perez had half a second to watch before the Gremlin began to fall.
Slamming her foot into the gas pedal, the tires quickly spun up in the air to match their forward velocity. Gates felt like they were dropping in slow motion as she watched the grassy ground rise up to meet them …
WHAM!
Their bodies jerking forward from the sudden transference of momentum, Gates and Davis quickly readjusted and checked themselves. The landing certainly wasn't soft, but it had been as smooth as one could hope for considering what they'd just accomplished.
The wheels adapted to the new medium fairly quickly as they'd already been rotating when they'd made contact, and the Gremlin sped ahead without complications. Davis turned to look behind them to make sure that the Samson had similarly succeeded, and was relieved to find that it was following steadily after them.
To their left, they watched as a Wolf-Spider attempted to drop its cargo a half second before an anti-air round engulfed its right side in flames, and the ship dropped like a rock. The sound of metal and machinery pulling itself apart hid any screams that may have cried out from the occupants that had been inside. Miraculously, it appeared that a Samson had managed to drop before the missile impact, and actually landed reasonably intact despite its carrier's decimation. It sped away from the wreckage behind it and rejoined with the main group.
Davis looked to his right and saw Red-11, the only ship with smoke trailing heavily from its thrusters as it struggled to keep itself in the air. Even from here, the damage to its hull was apparent. But true to its word earlier, the group of vehicles inside made it to the ground without issue. The same could not be said for it as the billowing black smoke made it a rather obvious target, and as it tried to pull up it was subsequently blown apart by another missile.
He tried not to cry out in shock, and instead opened his comlink. "This is Red-1, tell all Wolf-Spiders to get out of here! Those AA guns will tear you apart!"
"Copy that, Red-1. We'll regroup with the fleet and bring reinforcements ASAP. Good hunting!"
In one uniform formation, the rest of the Wolf-Spiders slowly pulled away and up into the sky back towards the battle above. A few stray missiles were sent their way, but none made contact. Gates looked ahead at their target- a large compound which had been identified as the control station for all orbital MAC platforms. She could identify several large turrets off the bat, likely the very AA guns which had driven off their ships.
"Red-1 to all ground forces!" she yelled over the comms, "We're one kilometer and closing to the compound, be aware of turret defenses! It's unlikely they can hit us at this range, but-"
Her point was accentuated by the shriek of a missile as it impacted directly in front of a Gremlin in their convoy, causing the vehicle to flip in the air and come crashing down with a gut-wrenching cacophony of smashed metal.
"Evasive maneuvers!" she ordered, stepping even further on the pedal.
Each of the thirty cars or so continued to push forward, but in serpentine patterns when they could. Looking out the left and right, she could see and hear several more impacts in the ground, though thankfully it seemed as though their dodging was working for the time being.
In the backseat, Perez quickly stood up and poked his upper body out through the hole in the roof. Grabbing the handles of the mounted machine-gun atop it, he took aim at the offending turrets in the distance and opened fire, whooping loudly in conjunction with the ramping up of the gun's barrel. To their sides, other groups began to do the same, opening fire on the base while simultaneously trying not to be hit themselves.
As another round detonated far too close to them for Gates' comfort, Davis turned to her and spoke in a way that just made her know he was grinning stupidly under that helmet.
"Well, this sure as hell isn't safe- but it's kind of fun!"
"Shut it, Davis!"
A/N: As always, please leave a review to show your appreciation and thoughts, it certainly helps my motivation process to know people are still interested and reading.
Until the next time,
- Matteoarts
