Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or Worm. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with a commercial purpose. It is not for sale or rent.
Chapter 15
=MK=
Part 1
=MK=
14 January 2011
secure bunker
White House
Washington DC
United States
Earth Bet
The closest thing President Hayes could compare this to was an Endbringer attack in progress, just with a fraction of incoming information he had access to during that particular kind of disaster. Whatever jamming devices the Mandalorians used were fiendishly effective, cutting off drones and even the single low-flying satellite the US military could get on station above Dragon's compound before everything went to hell. Ironically enough, before all was said and done, all the data they could directly gather came from a couple of enthusiasts living on the edge of Vancouver possessing tinkertech phones and hard-line connections to the internet. That happy state of affairs allowed them to see rough images of a light-show when Dragon's base let lose with enough firepower to make at least a whole armored division blush in embarrassment and very soon it became clear what those weapons shot at. The sky above the base was on fire, with countless burning streaks coming down, fast.
This continued for a few minutes before blinding light lanced from descending fireballs struck something the cameras couldn't see and then the feed cut off. That caused even more commotion within the bunker and soon they got unconfirmed reports that at least half of Vancouver lost power as if everything electronic had been fried by powerful EMP strike.
A few minutes later, the jamming cut of as suddenly as it appeared, and shortly thereafter, various command posts could re-establish connection both with the satellite and those drones which hadn't either crashed or ended up shot down after wandering within the base's defense perimeter.
Dragon's compound was vaguely recognizable – many buildings were on fire, others were little more than burned-out husks, and almost the whole outer defense perimeter was mostly gone, replaced by something closely resembling a lunar landscape, though some glassed, glowing craters were distinctly out of place for such a comparison. In contrast, here and there, frozen and intact weapon emplacements towered above the ravaged landscape, while blurry figures crawled all over the place.
"Mr. President, I think we just saw the effects from and orbital insertion, something straight out of Starship Troopers or something similar." General Grissom eventually broke the silence gripping the bunker. "We'll know for certain once we review the records from any surviving drones and see what that satellite saw." The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs pointed at the main screen. "Based on this, the aliens can conventionally take any base we have in short order, and we won't be able to do anything but inconvenience them as things stand."
If they bothered with conventional assaults and putting boots on the ground was left unsaid, however, Hayes heard it loud and clear. With assets like that monstrous ship, which was right now on the final approach to Dragon's base it, in fact, it was already landing near it according to a drone feed, unless you really wanted the real estate, you didn't need to invade places. Standing out of range and pounding any resistance into impotence and capitulation was a very viable tactic.
"We'll need to hold a press conference, and soon. Reassure people, try to convince that the sky isn't falling despite all the evidence for the contrary. Get me a line to that ship's Captain if at all possible, contact the Canadians, promise them all the help they need for Vancouver and get FEMA on it…" The President paused to gather his thoughts, while aides ran to carry out his instructions. "I'll need to address both the House and the Senate, schedule something for tomorrow evening and ensure that both party leaders will come to the White House either sometime tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest, we need to coordinate a response before this gets away from us. Marlene, make sure they're both aware that we won't tolerate any partisan bullshit on this! I'll call a state of emergency if I have to, but we will maintain order and I don't need some ambitious fool pouring fuel on the fires!"
Hayes' Chief of Staff hurriedly typed notes on her tablet and nodded sharply in response.
"Next, Brockton Bay, we need that place locked down and properly secure before some cape decides that provoking the aliens is a great idea, no matter all evidence to the contrary." Hayes stood up at that and pointed at the screen showing a high-altitude image of Dragon's ravaged base. "I won't have a repeat of this on American soil, much less within one of our cities! We have to clean up house, now, or the Mandalorians will set it on fire while they're doing it for us! I can promise you, none of us will like the consequences if that happens." He turned his attention to Costa-Brown. "Chief-Director, I won't tolerate your organization's usual legal and political maneuvering. You will either fall in line and do your best to aid us in containing this, or I will find someone willing to do it, am I clear?"
=MK=
Dragon's base
Canada
Earth Bet
Five minutes after the assault began, there wasn't a single operational weapon emplacement within the base's exterior. The building themselves were a different matter. Breaching their way to the primary shield, so it wouldn't be able to activate and potentially seal them inside, and the main reactors, in order to shut them down before a potential fail-safe could overload them and ruin a very so far, very well-executed operation, took some doing and led to otherwise avoidable casualties, though none of them fatal. Liberal application of firepower opened the way to the primary shield generator, followed by hopefully surgical strikes which disabled it, yet preserving a lot of equipment for study.
Reaching the reactors themselves proved harder and more time-consuming. With all corridors leading to them flooded either with near plasma or swimming in liquid nitrogen, the Combat Engineers decided to make their way in, using careful application of explosives and laser drills that were hastily flown in from the Vendetta to reach the control room, which was dark. In the end, they decided that the fastest way to neutralize the danger was to cut off the fuel supply for the fusion reactor and engineer a controlled breach, venting plasma and channeling it towards corridors full with liquid nitrogen so nothing of value would be lost.
Breaching the central building of the compound, supposedly containing the primary servers turned out to be a more involved process. It was protected by its own shield and finally shutting down the base's primary power source didn't affect it at all.
"This could have gone better." Commander Ordo muttered. He critically examined the second primary target of the operation, made sure that their captives were already secured, and on the way to the Vendetta and called Captain Fel.
"Vendetta Actual, Raider Actual, we have the Dragonslayers bagged and en-route to your brig. We need some heavier firepower to breach the defenses surrounding the other primary objective."
"Raider Actual, Vendetta Actual, affirmative. Heavy Combat Engineering Company is disembarking as we speak and will be en-route to your location momentarily. If necessary, we'll deploy SPHAs to burn through the shield. Keep me apprised on any further developments, Vendetta Actual, out."
While Kole was speaking with the Captain, the Infiltrator team gathered nearby. A glance was enough to tell him they were through some heavy fighting – everyone's armor carried the scars to prove, however otherwise they all appeared to be all right. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said about his Shock Troopers. So far, there were thirteen confirmed dead with two wounded in critical condition who might not make it. While when all was said and done, those were more than acceptable casualties for this kind of operation, the losses still stung… and were incredibly light compared to what something like this would have cost early in the Clone Wars, while everyone was still trying to figure out how to fight a proper war.
"Ma'am, do you want to take a crack at this or should we wait for the Combat Engineers?" Ordo politely asked the Force Adept.
"This is your show now, Commander. My work here is done and I'll be returning to Brockton Bay on the first available transport."
=MK=
Part 2
=MK=
14 January 2011
Dragon's base
Canada
Earth Bet
Armsmaster's beard twitched – the only outward sign of his real feelings, while he watched two… vehicles, which had a disturbing resemblance to Mobile Suits come into view and walk down a nearby hill. Those things were huge, wasteful, inefficient, they were Mobile Suits for God's sake. Real ones, very much working, and the sheer waste of materials put into them almost made him cry out in despair. The things he could do with the materials and equipment that made such obscene monuments of arrogance possible… The thought was enough to make a grown man cry…
Colin paid no attention to Narwhal, who had removed her helmet, so she could let loose her long silver hair and put her distinct horn on display. She was staring at the approaching mecha as well and regretting that her phone didn't survive the assault. She needed pictures of this, even better, if at all possible to drag Masamune to see the Mobile Suits, because otherwise, he would never let her hear the end of this. The Tinker had a few passions left, mecha and super sentai anime were on the top of that shortlist.
It didn't help that those had an aesthetic that vaguely resembled the Zakus, Masamune had proudly displayed on posters all over his workshop, not to mention the small models he liked to tinker with, allegedly to help him decompress…
For such large machines, the Mobile Suits were surprisingly agile and fast, and not just because their huge strides could eat up distance like nobody's business.
They were armed too, with the leading machine having a truck-sized backpack and something resembling scarily huge flamethrower in its hands. Narwhal's guess wasn't far from the true – that was an over-sized plasma cutter meant to cut into warship armor, either for SAR efforts, to expedite the breach into generally disabled enemy combatants or to help up at the breakers.
Incidentally, devices such as this one turned out to be very effective at removing all kinds of more mundane obstacles and opening up enemy fortifications…
Up close and personal, when there was no one to intervene, such plasma cutters could help overload shields as well, which the engineering vehicle began doing as soon as it reached the central building within Dragon's compound. Blinding stream of plasma struck the defense barrier just above the ceiling, and the heat was unbearable even at a significant distance.
"Narwhal, Armsmaster," The Sith's voice dragged the two Parahumans away from the light-show.
"Ms. Veil." Narwhal nodded. "I'm glad to see you made it in one piece as well."
"I've dealt with worse." The alien woman said in a dismissive tone. "Your assistance is appreciated and won't be forgotten. I'm sure that official contact and certain offers aimed both at the Guild and the Canadian government would be forthcoming in the near future." The Chiss' unsettling eyes focused on the Tinker. "Armsmaster, what do you intend to do now? We both know that your organization won't necessarily take you back with open arms."
"I'll see this through the end." Colin's face twitched. "Whatever end."
"In that case, I'm offering you an invitation to the celebrations surrounding Empire and Victory Day. That way you'll have time to get your head straight after the murder of your friend. You will also be at hand if Vicky manages to put Dragon back together. If we're lucky in that regard, I'm sure she could use a friendly face."
"And you're doing this of the goodness of your heart?" Narwhal asked skeptically.
"By the Force, no! There are multiple benefits from our end. First, we won't have to dig Armsmaster here out of whatever deep dark hole his organization might decide to stash him into, and thus avoid some awkward issues with people we hope to work with. He'll have some hopefully stress-free time to see first hand what we can offer, knowledge and resource-wise if he decides to sign up with us for the long haul…" The Chiss smiled happily, speaking earnestly as if what she was saying was very much obvious and natural.
"You don't intend to let us have Dragon's servers, do you?"
"We didn't commit a warship, deploy a Battalion of elite Shock Troopers and so far lose at least a dozen of our best soldiers out of mere benevolence. If at all possible, we'll bring Dragon back. However, no matter if that pans out or not, we will keep all the technical data we can recover as a consolation prize. If we let your organization have the data drives, there is no guarantee we would see any of their contents unless we have a repeat of today's exercise and that is in no one's interest."
"So you're altering the deal," Narwhal muttered. "I shouldn't be surprised, you're a Sith and from what I see, you wear the title proudly."
"Thank you kindly. I've earned it." Aria's smile didn't even flicker. "As for the deal, it is not altered. If we're unable to put Dragon back together, you're free to gather any and all tinkers and thinkers you can, and we'll provide the data drives so you can do your best. Not that we don't necessarily trust you, but well, we don't fully trust you yet. Trust is earned after all, and we barely know each other."
While they spoke, various transport ships and their escorts came over the base and landed to either pick up Shock Trooper units or disembark line infantry, which took charge over security, while even more Combat Engineers swarmed all over the compound.
"This is not right…" Armsmaster ground his teeth and glared at the scavengers already pocking Dragon's technology.
"We bled for it, it's ours now. Rule One of International Relationships, Armsmaster: might is what matters most. Rule Number Two – diplomacy is dressing up might with flowery language, doing your best not to have to use it, if you're particularly benevolent, or doing everything in your power to ensure someone more powerful doesn't use theirs against you." The Sith explained as if she was quoting someone.
"That's the first time I hear it put quite this way," Narwhal commented.
"As I understand it, before the war a lot of diplomats and governments wouldn't have put it that way either. It's a different age now, a much more dangerous age."
The way the Sith said it, she considered the current state of affairs a good thing, which served as yet another reminder for anyone listening, about who and what they were dealing with.
The shield protecting the compound's central building flickered out and a shrill alarm echoed over it, gaining everyone's attention.
"Raider Elements One to Three, prepare to breach. Steel One-One, follow right behind them…" Commander Ordo's voice cut through the alarm's scream like a hot knife through butter, amplified by his armor speakers.
"Well, it's time to see if we'll complete the second primary objective of this operation or if I should go find Saint and demonstrate the scope of my frustration…" Aria muttered and walked towards Dragon's inner sanctum.
They had to face even more automated defenses, however between a Sith spearheading their advance, a platoon of Combat Engineers bringing all kinds of deadly toys and three Platoons of Shock Troopers, the Mandalorians got to secure the building in record time, suffering no permanent casualties; unless you counted eight slagged, frozen or cut apart droids. Half an hour later, after painstakingly checking for traps, several small droids breached the server room and began scanning its contents. At the same time, a team of slicers did it's best to take control of Dragon's orphaned systems and ensure that both the Birdcage and the various quarantine zones the AI used to maintain, remained properly locked down.
"We're not familiar with this kind of data storage, however as far as we can tell, it's physically intact and we should be able to safely recover the data-cores." The Lieutenant in charge of the Combat Engineers explained.
"Well done, Lieutenant. Secure the data-drives and bring them to the Vendetta. I'm sure my Master will have transport ready to take them to Victoria as soon as practical." Aria announced to Armsmaster's profound dissatisfaction.
What did he expect? That making a deal with the devil would have no negative consequences or that he could get away with it? His fingers twitched, missing his halberd. The Sith met his eyes and raised an eyebrow, a gesture that somehow held a great amount of meaning. It wasn't gloating, that much Colin was sure. He was sure he saw something akin to understanding mixed with something else, he didn't quite get.
=MK=
If you want to support my writing or discuss this story, see the following links:
Pat re on: Delkatar's writing corner
the space battles forums - this is where most discussion over my stories takes place
the sufficient velocity forums
the alternative history forums