Author's Note:

Coment9: Honestly, never seen the documentary. Much prefer to come up with everything myself, and then seek to come up with logical counters to strategies I have made one side or the other implement.

Jensonkiin: Thank you! Honestly, I used CIC simply because I got it from Battlestar Galactica. It has now been fixed, thank you for bringing it to my attention.

07/08/2157

The situation on Scafell had fallen into a new norm, with neither side willing to dedicate and risk forces to attacks or offensives. Of course, instead, the priority had shifted toward reconnaissance. Neither group had a particularly good idea about the other, baring the observations made from orbital imaging or the RAF attack run. This new paradigm resulting in a whole new form of battle. The battle to obtain information, and equally, deny the enemy that same information. A battle in which the aliens seem to have a patented advantage, their minuscule drones being too small for most British Anti-Air systems to target accurately, and capable of flying close enough to the ground to be out of the firing arcs of most roof-top mounted guns. Greyhound missiles were worth their weight in gold, so could not be wasted on such targets, so instead the duties of repelling these drones fell upon the common soldiery, and so, Drone Shooting became the pass time of the men stuck within the trenches.

It started off simply being a required duty. Should a drone be spotted, the men should seek to open fire and take it down. This quickly developed into the conscripts and soldiers alike putting bets towards who can bag how many drones, in spite of just how hard it was to take one down, and how many managed to even make it to the city proper. This began to change, these drones began to provide what can only be described as firing practice for the troops, and as skill levels rose, the numbers of drones shot down increased steadily. As did the bets, and the organisation of these bets. By the 28th, it was almost an established sport in and of itself, and given the positive impact it was having, command was disinclined to discourage or dismantle it.

Of course, there was no doubt by that point the aliens had gathered more than enough information for what ever purposes they desired, considering how many drones made it through. Especially considering the fear that they may be being used, infact, to model the accuracy and efficacy of British front-line troops and defensive positions, however the risk of them getting further into the city and leaking the exact configuration of the urban defences, was ranked as far higher than them being able to create such a model. Of course, General Williams would not allow them to gain such an advantage without his own efforts to gain information on their invaders.

In the early stages of the conflict, following the air assault by the No.1 and No.2 Squadrons, a set of long range drones were launched. Far larger than those used by the alien invaders, there was no chance of them being able to hide from the alien defences, they had an entirely different purpose. The heavy anti-air artillery that was reportedly being established turned out to be a ground-based GARDIAN laser system. This was astonishing, it both showed just how advanced their foe was, being able to power such powerful laser turrets with portable generators, even if said generators were the reactors of the landed troop transports. This was combined with a range more than double that of British GARDIAN laser systems when used in atmosphere, at 50km compared to the British 20km. This was particularly important, as British air-to-ground ammunition had a range of 35km, a fairly middling range for human munitions of the type. This rendered atmospheric GARDIAN systems non viable for use by British, or even human, forces in atmosphere. An issue these aliens clearly did not have, seeing how effectively they swatted the drones out of the air the instant they entered that range. Of course, until approximately 11km the drones can hide behind the horizon, seeing as the alien lasers were mounted on turrets on 10 meter tall towers, but that hardly helps with reconnaissance as in order to hide from the lasers turrets, the drones also have their vision blocked by the horizon.

The solution was a risky one, armoured Groups Alpha and Beta would both move up to within 160km of the alien landing site, just within the range of British city-based Greyhound ground-to-air missile installations, with a strengthened mobile anti-air complement sourced from the AA defences of the city, and HQ Squadron. This would allow their Winchester Electronic Warfare Vehicles (WEWVs) to be in range for their medium altitude reconnaissance drones, commonly referred to as MARDs. These would seek to fly just outside of enemy GARDIAN range, at an altitude of 4,200 meters. Of course, at such a range the lenses and detection equipment of the drones was put to the test, but it was the best that they could do. What made the situation worse is that, unlike the alien drones which were so extremely small that it was nonsensical to target them with AA equipment, the British drones were still rather conventional fixed wing aircraft. A flying wing type design, with a rear push propeller and wing span of almost 3 meters, it was apparently an entirely viable target for the aliens' fighters, which rendered any intelligence gathering operation a timed affair, limited not by the fly time of the MARDs, but rather the time it took for the alien fighters currently circling their base to noticed, and then shoot down, the drones. Which was particularly astonishing as it clearly indicated just how capable those alien aircraft really were.

In the face of this, the order was given to simply use as many drones as they had with them to get as much information as they possibly could, after which Groups Alpha and Beta would fall back. Despite the aliens' best efforts, this was successful, and granted the British a significant amount of information regarding enemy movements, composition, and the aliens themselves. It became clear that they were preparing for an all out assault, with almost all their forces moving around their base like angry ants, moving supplies, equipment, and vehicles in a pattern entirely alien, yet still recognisable as preparation for a major troop movement. One which could only feasibly be considered to be going in one direction. Towards the city.

It turns out this alien species was indeed as humanoid as thought from the air raid's observations. Bipedal and seeming to be only slightly taller than the average human. What was interesting was the fact that they all seemed to be equipped with some variant of a hard suit form of armour, something which has been under talks and development within the British military for a while, and just further indicates that these aliens were both better equipped, and certainly more prepared, for this coming battle. Those that were not wearing their helmets though, brought even more interesting observations. They seemed to be reptilian. As far as could be determined from drone-obtained imaging and video, they seemed to possess some form of hard carapace over their entire face, with large scales covering the back of their head and neck. This sparked significant debates between various medical, xenobiological, and other academic groups which had been conscripted to assist with the informational analysis. They debated viciously about whether they were reptilian, or in fact avian, arguing that the facial carapace could very well be some form of out-growth of a beak of some form, with yet others arguing that they could be neither if their planet had not followed Earth-like evolutionary history.

Of course, none of this semantic debate mattered to the military, which were far more concerned with the implications for combat performance, particularly that if such a carapace were thick enough, and present upon the rest of their bodies, it could present an additional level of resistance and protection against weaponry and attack. A troubling thought, even with the blatant advantage they possess to the resilience of their infantry thanks to their force being entirely equipped with armoured hard suits. All information regarding these aliens was rendered publicly available, seeing no need to keep it secret from the civilian population, and with a patented interest in making sure those manning the trenches, and later, urban defences, knew what they were facing.

The resulted in a major side effect of these discoveries, namely that these aliens had begun being referred to as "Trigger happy Dinosaurs", owing to their appearance. A naming convention that had quickly spread like wildfire among a population which had only so far been able to refer to them as either the "enemy" or "alien". However the main aspect which interested those within The Bunker's command centre was the aforementioned blatant activity in preparation for an attack consisting of a majority of their substantial forces. Which estimates had placed at more than 50,000 infantry alone.

"As you can see," Baxter pointed towards the Dinosaurs' large number of heavy armoured vehicles upon the holographic table. The data obtained from the drones had been plugged into a VI which created a 3D representation to present upon the table for their convenience. "They clearly possess a substantial armoured complement, add to that the shear number of infantry they have, and the clear conclusion is that they intend to conduct a full assault utilising primarily armoured and infantry components."

"We cannot discount an aerial assault, considering just how well developed their troop transports were for their initial deployment. Further more, just because we have only seen one aircraft type, does not mean they are not capable of providing Close Air Support. For all we know their 'fighters' are in fact perfect multi-role aircraft, capable of fulfilling all roles without even a change in armament." Ward leaned back from the table with a sigh. The stress was clearly getting to him, and his previously thick black hair was going grey in quite a few areas. "It is the holy grail of air power, something which every nations' air force has been attempting to achieve for a while now. That these bloody 'saurs have managed to achieve that… It is just another sign of just how much they out match us."

It was a relief they were no longer arguing as much, that was for sure, however defeatism was infectious, and he could not afford his men losing heart. "We have no idea if they have managed that. For all we know they may simply have no doctrinal need for CAS. I mean, we all know how much the Royal Navy argued in the early days of space militarisation that orbital bombardment would fill that niche. These aliens may very well have come to the same conclusion." Of course, the thought process and doctrinal development quickly became a dead end after the Berlin Treaty forbade any bombardment on Earth, which would inevitably be the main site of any international conflict.

"Which presents its own issues, we can defend against CAS, we cannot defend against orbital bombardment," while Ward had become even more reserved with stress, Baxter had only mellowed out socially. His aggressive focus in regards to strategy, had not. "What I think is apparent is that Groups Alpha and Beta as they stand cannot hold them back long if they push all at once, which is seemingly very likely looking at the preparations they are making. Instead, I propose is that we focus on improving their effectiveness, reinforcing them with more mechanised forces from the Army proper, dedicate more air support to them, hell, use the HQ squadron to reinforce their tank complement as well."

The primary concerns about the effectiveness of Groups A and B were sourced from the exact nature of the alien armoured vehicles. They were large, very large, which lead to the educated assumption that they utilised a mass effect core to reduce their mass to manageable levels. Considering their apparent mastery of the Mass Effect, albeit no where near to Prothean levels, this was all but certainty in their minds. Which further lead to the assumption of the utilisation of kinetic barriers, and thick armour to justify the size. They would be monsters. Physically, they were angular beasts, and distinctive from the rest of the vehicles used by these aliens. Most of their vehicles utilised a number of large wheels for propulsion, but this, this was their only tracked vehicle. It featured a steeply angled upper and lower glacis, tracks entirely covered by thickly armoured skirts, and a large engine deck. Equipped with an oversized main turret with a wide mantlet mounting twin main guns. It also featured a second turret atop the first seemingly equipped with dual machine guns of some description. Conservative estimates say that they would be more than capable of fighting two Centaur IIIs at once, assuming it was as well armoured and armed as it looked.

Much like their hard suits, it seemed to lack any form of camouflage, instead opting for the white, grey, and brown colour scheme common to this alien faction. Which could very well be the colours representing the nation these aliens align with within their own political environment, a unified species was considered rather unlikely going from the example Humanity presented, the only example they could go off of. All of which is besides the point, as the lack of camouflage was incredibly puzzling, a seemingly basic concept which can be cheaply implemented for massive benefits. A concept which most human militaries had developed fairly far, to the extent of actively adapting camouflage. The only viable conclusion that had been derived was a possibility of a cultural priority in showing something via the colour scheme, because the idea that they would simply be too incompetent to consider camouflage was clearly implausible to the extreme.

Considering that they had almost 300 of those super-heavy tanks, to their 70 Centaurs, this was particularly concerning. Which is not to mention the fact that their troop transport, as far as can be determined, is the size of a Centaur, and equipped with what appears to be an MBT grade main turret, and exists in large enough numbers to transport a substantial number of their infantry. It was fair to say that their armoured regiment simply could not compete at all, which threw the first delaying stage of the battle into serious risk of being non-effective, or worse, wasting their valuable armoured vehicles before they can be used most effectively in the tight confines of Scafell city.

"We cannot do that, not only would that simply result in even more losses of our aircraft out in the open air, where they are most vulnerable to the superior numbers of the enemy, but we cannot compromise trench or city defences. I would actually argue that Group A and B can fulfil their functions even better with such a large enemy attack. They can conduct long range hit and run tactics against their advancing column, the enemy would be unable to respond appropriately without compromising cohesion and their protection against air assault. Not to mention the fact that you forget that they will be under heavy artillery bombardment all the while." What Baxter did not bring up was the fact that they all knew that such bombardment would be short lived if what their drones had seen was what they thought it was. Counter battery fire would certainly come, and it would come fast. While the British military did still utilise MLRS weapon systems, the small Scafell garrison did not have any, the 155mm artillery mass-railgun was a far cheaper weapon. The dinosaurs, by particularly concerning contrast, seemed to have a number of what is thought to be their own MLRS equivalents…

They had managed to gather a much more complete picture of the natives following their intensive information gathering campaign. The miniaturisation of mass effect technology which had dictated Council race technological development for the last few centuries allowed for incredibly small, cheap, and nimble drones, which could then be used to great effect in scouting over incredible ranges, as well as obtaining valuable data regarding enemy composition and capabilities. Data which was now being looked over thoroughly by the officers within their HQ. These natives seemed to follow the general physical pattern of sapient life, matching the majority body format and scale seen among races that they had made contact with. Bipedal and between the height of an average Salarian and average Turian, they were not some Rachni or Elcor deviation from what is commonly regarded as the most evolutionarily probable sapient form factor.

What was of particular note was their equipment, they seemed to entirely lack any form of hard suit for armour, instead being equipped with some form of fabric based uniform. The bulky nature of the uniforms worn by the armed examples, and how unbulky the clothing worn by the unarmed examples was by contrast, led to the conclusion that they do feature some form of armouring, presumably located over their vital organs. They also lacked proper fully encompassing helmets for the most part, instead relying upon a helmet which left most of their face exposed, with their eyes covered by a piece of red transparent material spanning the gap in the helmet over their eyes, and fastened by some form of strap. One drone which got particularly close to a native seemed to observe some from of HUD being utilised within the partial-mask, along side what is presumed to have been a rather panicked expression which exposed a number of their teeth. In the minority of cases, instead of the transparent partial-mask, they were equipped with a full facial covering, with none of the native exposed above its shoulders. Seeming to utilise a thicker version of the normal partial-helmet, along side a separate face mask with an inbuilt breathing apparatus of some form. The conclusion has been derived that these examples must be some form of elite force within the defensive army, roughly 1,500 have been observed compared to more than 40,000 of the former variety.

A particularly interesting aspect of their fabric-based uniforms is its camouflage, when within their trench network it matched the colours of the surrounding environment, however the few drones which made it to within city boundaries showed that when the native troops transitioned between the city and outer defences, the colours shifted. A particularly poignant example being footage of a native in their fabric uniform going between the two zones as a drone watched. Their uniform transitioned smoothly from a brown and dark grey colour scheme to a light blue and grey scheme, including the colouring of its helmet and weapon. This seems to be some form of primitive version of a Tactical Cloak, impressive in its own right due to the fact that they managed to equip their entire force with even a primitive version of such an expensive technology.

However, it was determined that it should not present much of a difficulty. There was a reason modern galactic militaries did not utilise camouflage except for elite forces equipped with Tactical Cloaks, specifically the fact that modern helmet-mounted sensory equipment rendered such basic visual camouflage ineffective. Instead, modern armour is painted or coated in specific compounds to give such sensory equipment specific difficulty, to disguise IR signatures, etcetera, with no concern paid towards visual deception. In turn, their usage of such camouflage clearly indicated that their helmets, partial-masks and full-masks all lacked the sensory equipment necessary to render such practices ineffective.

One astonishing observation made by the drones that managed to make their way into the colony proper was that there seemed to be a large number of unarmed natives moving around as if they were not in any danger at all. They are presumed to be civilian, for in any society akin to Turian or Krogan which lacks a distinction for civilian, they would most certainly be armed by this point. Which renders the discovery even more astonishing for the fact that that leads to the conclusion that they are actively continuing with their lives in spite of being quite literally invaded as they walk. Of course, civilians or not, the fact that they are unarmed resulted in the Fleet General strictly ordering the General to disallow firing upon them, or any native without a weapon, if it can be helped. Presumably to avoid the ire of what they hope to be a new loyal client.

The small size of their armoured vehicles, and slow speed relative to their size compared to galactic expectations, leads to the assumption that they have yet to utilise mass effect drives within such vehicles. Reports from the pilots who engaged the native air assault during the early days of the invasion indicate that only their particularly large aircraft utilises kinetic barriers, or a drive core at all. Combined with the usage of large-bore weaponry which either seems to only partially be mass accelerators, or even simply chemical propellant based, this indicated a rather backward civilisation in regards to the usage of Element Zero. The fact that not even their armoured vehicles are equipped with kinetic barriers as far as they can tell, further supports the idea that their infantry certainly wont be. They appear to hold a serious advantage.

However, they would still be attacking a foe who is dug in, who can then fall back towards an urban environment, which their drones have shown is already prepared for urban combat, with fortified buildings, road blocks, all the hallmarks of a city ready for war. Which results in an even higher need to finish the fight before it begins, ideally before they can dig in in the city.

"From what we can determine, they should be incredibly reliant upon cover, presuming they seek to preserve their own lives," an assumption Desolas was forced to use, none of their observed behaviour was in line with a hive species akin to the Rachni, and even the Krogan sought to preserve their own lives, to a degree. "Their presumed lack of kinetic barriers, or even basic hard suits, will limit their infantry's flexibility, entirely reliant upon pre-prepared defences and what ever forms of cover they can find. This should provide our infantry substantial advantage, however, to ensure a quick victory we must strike hard, and seek to disrupt their retreat back to the city. If we can force a rout…"

"If we can force a rout, we will force them to surrender far earlier than they plan for. I am certain they plan for that, in fact. Their positions and apparent usage of defence in depth despite defending a single isolated target, indicate that they intend to delay us rather than halt us. To be fair, that is all they can hope for, however this has a horrible implication. The implication that even with how large the Suppression fleet is, they think that they could be saved by a relief force." The General had been in nigh constant contact with the Fleet General recently, and it was becoming clear to him exactly why. "I have warned the Fleet General, but he refuses to consider the risk this presents. He argues that the only way they can hope to survive is to hope they will be saved, regardless of whether it is actually possible. He thinks that this is some form of collective coping mechanism for the natives. That is quite frankly, absurd."

"Sir, analysis has come back. The native troops displayed substandard aim and precision when firing at our drones. Their infantry weaponry is more potent than the standard Phaeston rifle, albeit at a lower rate of fire." Of course, they had been waiting on that for a while. He had heard that the drone operators had particularly enjoyed the assignment, a common sentiment being that it was a similar experience to playing a vid game like the 'Terminus Pilot' series. The whole operation was remarkably novel, existing within Turian military doctrine for a while, a means to assess an opponent with fair accuracy, low cost, and no loss of life. It just never seemed to actually end up being used, seeing as they had not seen anything approaching peer-to-peer conflict for over a thousand years, and most conflict with non-peers was simply resolved in orbit or space. Of course, as par for the course, training in its usage was still granted, and it was still used in the customary military exercises, but that is hardly the same as actual combat usage against a new, and unpredictable, race. At least, unpredictable until they knew more.

"Good, yet another advantage. The chances of early success grow. A trifecta of concentrated strikes upon their outer defences should cripple them completely, and the subsequent movements to cut off all retreat from their trenches should break them. Even if they do not surrender at that point, they would not have enough men left to properly defend the city, and progress should be swift." Of course, as was standard of Turian military practice, the grand plan was only created on the large scale, smaller scale movements were only loosely dictated by said plan, the actual execution was entirely up to the discretion of lower strati officers. This practice allowed for a degree of flexibility to respond to the chaos inherent to war, albeit, no where near to the degree that the Asari enjoyed through their focus upon small unit warfare.

The issue of mines had been discussed and dealt with earlier. While there was no evidence of the usage of mines, as the could determine from their drones, that could just as easily simply be evidence of competence in the laying of said mines. Especially when one considers that such a mine field in combination with the trenches and their rather barbaric spiked wire coils spread out in front of them, would make it nigh impossible to de-mine the region without coming under significant amounts of enemy fire. The solution was simple, they would drive their main battle tanks over the regions they were to attack through. While this risked the loss of a few of their tanks, they should have more than enough underside and lower frontal glacis protection for the job, not even including their kinetic barriers, and they had more than enough tanks for this to be suitable. This was a gamble however, should the enemy large gun positions be capable of penetrating their armour, the tanks could simply end up as burning husks, blocking the way for following troops. Should the guns prove capable of such, which they doubt, they would simply detonate the mine fields using their artillery.

The reason they could not use that from the start is that their artillery would be focused on another job. Counter-battery fire. Given just how reliant the natives seemingly are on large-bore weaponry, it is almost certain they have a variety of artillery guns, and a variety of other guns which can be jerry rigged for that purpose. Hence, suppressing such artillery was of paramount importance. After the enemy artillery is silenced, their next job shall be suppression of enemy defences ready for the assault itself, as well as taking out priority anti-air defences. Their Crepitus mobile artillery platforms will move up with the main column to within their effective range of 115km, and set up for these roles. They would be outside of the maximum range of the natives' anti-air defences, as they had been determined thus far, so should be easily protected from enemy air assault by their own aircraft, those that will not be dedicated towards wrestling control of the airspace within the city that is.

Prior to the last stage of the advance, their fighters shall attack enmass and attempt to take down substantial numbers of enemy anti-air defences before returning to the capital ships in orbit. By the time the advancing forces reach the point where they are vulnerable to enemy attack, they will be covered by the vast majority of the friendly fighter complement, which will be focused upon ensuring the enemy air force cannot disrupt the attack. This does render them vulnerable to what remains of the enemy anti-air defences, however momentum is key to the success of the assault, and enemy air power would be key to their efforts to disrupt it. Ideally they would have destroyed enough of the enemy anti-air defences prior to this stage for them to not be able to cause enough casualties to matter in the larger scheme of things.

The advance itself will be conducted with the First Amalgam Group of Aemulator main battle tanks at the forefront, with the Second and Third Amalgam Groups forming mobile screening groups escorting the advance to either side. Each Amalgam group being formed from the various Armoured Companies from the numerous legions which make up the invasion force, which grants each Amalgam Group the flexibility of being formed form many many smaller constituent units, and arguably less or more importantly, retaining the individual identities of each Legion's Armoured Company within them. The actual infantry component of the attacking force would be transported via both IFVs and APCs, to be deployed into combat at the enemy's trenches.

The main invasion force would split upon reaching 1.5km from the native fortifications, splitting into three equal components, the First Amalgam Group alongside its third of the main infantry component would stay where they were, while the Second and Third Amalgam Groups would split off with each their own third of the infantry, going left and right respective, around the city to attack to either side. Upon all three formations being in position, the order to attack shall be given, and all shall push with all their strength at once. Pushing through the Trenches, before splitting up behind them to do as much damage as possible, and deny them retreat as long as possible. Then comes the ugly urban fighting, and while he would be safe within the confines of the still fully manned base, his brother would be in the thick of it, his Armiger Legion having been assigned to the frontal assault with the First Amalgam Group. He does not envy Saren.

Life had entered a new lull in the Trenches. When the invasion had first started, there was a panicked full deployment, in case the assault were to occur straight after landing, and since then they had become his, and many others', home. Hardly the type you would see on vids depicting Britain's fight in the first world war, these were clean, precise, and featured concrete walls and floors. The cover for the men upon the firing step was formed by armoured panelling reinforced with an absolute tonne of sand bags filled with the dirt that once filled the trenches. Before that lied the barbed wire. Even though rumours had run rampant that the Dinosaurs had full powered exoskeleton armour like some form of superhero, or super villain, he was still confident they would get tangled in the wire. Before that were the minefields, the key point of the defences which allowed such trenches to still be viable in modern warfare, rendering tanks and infantry alike unable to just assault the Trenches without first de-mining the whole bloody field, during which they would just be target practice.

Behind him lied the paramount parts of the defences, the reinforced pillboxes and gun houses. Every 50 meter stretch of trench featured three passages back to the second line. Behind the second line, stood the third trench line, behind which stood the pillboxes and gun houses. For every aforementioned 50 meter stretch there were three machine gun pillboxes and three anti-tank gun houses, which used the same 60mm mass-railguns as seen on the Lionhearts. These would be key in suppressing any enemy advance, particularly in countering enemy usage of armoured vehicles to safely clear the minefields. Of course, in order to be useful to such a degree they were heavily protected with incredibly thick concrete reinforced with steel-ceramic composite plates.

The plan as it was explained to him and his fellow conscripts was simple, they would hold the first trench until the enemy managed to get through the minefield, at which point they would fall back through the passages to the second line, and collapse the passages after them. There they would hold properly, protecting the anti-tank emplacements as long as possible. As soon as the situation became untenable, they would be ordered to fall back to the third and final line, whose sole purpose as to allow for an organised retreat. Upon manning the third line, they would begin falling back in stages, through the retreat passages towards the city proper. Between the second and third trenches were rows and rows of concrete and steel anti-tank traps, which alongside the obstacles that the pillboxes and trenches themselves presented, should avoid enemy armoured vehicles from pursuing them until the traps were dealt with.

The actual accommodations for them within the trenches consisted of large dugouts positioned on the second and third trenches, which were fairly comfortable all things considering. Cramped though they were, they were fairly well furnished, with comfortable beds and chairs, tables, and even televisions and other luxuries, most of which were apparently donated by the non-conscripted population. Though, a large portion were also delivered from the possession of the conscripted themselves. His dug out featured his own tele for example, as well as Kane's sofa and Sidney's VR set. As far as he was concerned, this was effectively a day job, though the training was tough the actual gig was not that bad. Even the dugouts dedicated towards showers and other… hygienic necessities… were well accommodated and had a degree of consistently maintained cleanliness.

"Harry!" Think of the devil, and he shall arrive, in the form of a rather loudly yelling Kane making his way through the tight passage to the front line. As usual, his loud entrance drew the ired gaze of most of the other men and women at the gun step, resulting in a rather more quiet follow up statement. "You seen the news?"

"Of course not, I have been standing here staring at diddly squat with my rifle's scope, you know my shift covers the day time, you know, when the news channels are active?" Each dug out housed four, three dug outs to a section, or nine to a platoon. Those four served in seven hour shifts during low alert. Medium alert would call which ever two of the four had most recently had a rest period to join the one on shift, and high alert would bring everyone to the frontline. An organisational necessity to ensure that at any given time one forth of the force were at the front, without unduly tiring the defenders before an actual attack began.

"Just a figure of speech, seriously. We have almost ate half our food stockpile, and the Governor is PISSED."

"What? Last I heard they had hoped for the stockpiles to last until October. If we have already eaten half-"

"The end of August, yeah, shits hit the fan. Apparently someone fucked up somewhere, miscalculations here, too much food sent there, black market shenanigans. She is out for blood, and has already announced an increase in the severity of rationing."

"Shit," great, more rationing. He would have to rely more on his black market connections to keep him well fed then.

"Yeah, and she is launching a full investigation to find those responsible for the shortage. Already heard people speculating that it will just be a show court when she finds them. Black market could even be in jeopardy." Well there goes that plan. He was not the only one out here which used the market. While the rations were enough to live on, they were hardly enough to live comfortably. Of course, he understood that hard times call for hard measures, but the black market would exist with or without him, may as well make use of it.

Before he was caught slacking, he quickly restarted his watch, Kane's shift started now, and his ended in an hour, leaving him five hours of general work after, and finally two to three hours of free time. The main downsides of the gig, honestly, were the uniforms. They did not fit properly, the Flak jacket was damned heavy, the helmet was weighty enough to make his neck ache, and the goggles pinched, hard. Of course, he was sure, when the bloody trigger happy aliens attacked in force, he would be happy for the protection offered by his equipment, and the thick bullet resistant plastiglass of the ski goggles, but right now it all just resulted in an incredibly uncomfortable watch. He was damned jealous of the actual soldiers from the Army, word was that they had the ACTUAL equipment, proper composite armour plates which weighed a sight less than their steel-ceramic ones, same with the helmets. That and they apparently got some damned cool masks which offered more protection, and actually covered the entirety of their faces. The rumour that the masks' respirators meant they couldn't smell flatulence not with standing. Of course, their equipment was all from the Martian armouries, while him and the other conscripts had to do with what could be mass produced locally, as quickly as possible, so he guessed it was a wonder he had anything better than a T-shirt and frying pan on his head.

The only particularly advanced piece of equipment he had was his rifle, a damned modern thing, an actual Mass Accelerator. Ammo supplied by a chunk of iron inside which had tiny shavings taken off, shaped into tiny hollow-point bullets, and then accelerated by honest to god space-magic. It went WAY over his head, but luckily the only things he had to remember was basic cleaning, how to aim, how to shoot, and to take care to not overheat the damned thing. Apparently it was far easier to mass produce than the other equipment, something to do with the tooling in consumer electronics factories being far more conducive to conversion to the role, he didn't care, it shot good. From what he heard from some of the other guys who actually had their own firearms, the difference between the SA23 and the common chem propellant based guns of old, was night and day. As the name would suggest it was brought into service almost 35 years ago, the first Mass Accelerator small arm adopted by the British military, and even now the technology had barely made its way to the civilian sector. Granted, that was only in Arcadia and Russia, most everyone else kept the technology restricted to military usage, but the point stands.

Then, in an over exaggerated whisper audible to pretty much everyone he was sure, Kane began to share his 'wisdom' regarding the food crisis, the political situation in Scafell, and the war in general. As usual, he just zoned him out for the next fifty eight minutes, glad that he only really shared one hour of waking time with the man. As usual, nothing to see through the scope, and he was pretty sure the sensor equipment they had these days made such watches fairly useless, they would know they were attacking long before they came into view of his scope, or binoculars. Then again, it could simply be a means to ensure they were not taken by surprise even in the worst case scenario, and a mechanical backup was always a wise idea he guessed. As the time wore on, he began to consider his post-war plans, which mostly revolved around getting the hell of this planet. The allure of exploring a new virgin alien world is fairly harshly tempered when an advanced extraterrestrial race invades it. Others had apparently had the exact opposite conclusion, wishing to leave the planet yes, but because living intelligent alien life had been confirmed, they wished to explore the galaxy. All the luck to them, getting into Romeo would be a bitch, but serving in humanities first interspecies war could be considered good work experience for all he knew.

The NCO blew his whistle, and his shift was up. Time to maintain and clean the trench, thankfully without the continual drone of Kane's incessant need fill the air with noise.

12/08/2157

Travel through the daisy chain of relays that formed the spine of British extra-solar territory was slow. To transition through a single relay, the entire Grand Fleet had to pass through one ship at a time, and with an armada so huge it did not simply take an age to do so in and of itself, but an age to organise such a movement. At least language barriers were not an issue thanks to the translators. The optimistic predictions of arriving within half a month of launch turned out to be wildly inaccurate, and he just hoped that Scafell could hold that long, assuming they had not fallen yet, or been bombarded into a large crater from orbit.

The Fleet Admiral was in the Ops Room of the HMS Victory, he really did not have much to do, most of the administrative work was being conducted by the countless other officers, or their VIs. Of course, he had to be there to give off the final orders to transition through each given relay once their calculations were done, and the plan for full transition of the fleet complete, but that was hardly a significant job. What did not help was the stress of the whole situation. For all they knew this alien race was absurdly more advanced and capable, and the next relay they open shall spit them out in the face of a waiting enemy formation. Which would be particularly scary as it would mean the vast majority of British colonies had already fallen, which of course also rendered it extremely unlikely. However, that did not stop the paranoid fear from seeping in. Days of what amounts to silent, and uninterpreted, travel through empty systems, all the while officially being in a state of war, really did a number on his nerves.

He had already gone over his plans for fleet action repeatedly. They were to enter the Scafell system, and should an enemy fleet presence be detected, proceed as fast as possible to engage. The priority would be ensuring the HMS Canada reached close enough to the colony to launch land forces immediately, so they would have to push the aliens aggressively. Hence he had adapted the standard British naval doctrine to the purpose. The Dreadnoughts would form a standard battle line, four abreast in the centre line, with three abreast lines 'above' and 'below' it. The most modern, and hence best protected, ships would form the centre line. The Light Cruisers and Destroyers would form a grid interdiction formation in front of the battle line, their GARDIAN and CIWS systems protecting the capital ships against anything which got past the Frigate screen, which would be deployed at a very small radius from the battle line to allow for the most aggressive push he dared. The flanks would be secured by Heavy Cruisers, and pushed by their Battlecruisers, which should be the main modification upon the standard strategy that allowed for such an aggressive push. Specifically, no matter how confident the enemy are, having four Battlecruisers pointing directly at your broadside is going to make you reverse as fast as your retro thrusters allow. The Battlecruisers will all be concentrated on the 'right' flank, with the Heavy Cruisers mostly on the 'left' to best facilitate this strategy, concentration of firepower will be key in the manoeuvre.

Of course, the primary role of their Fleet Carriers shall be fairly doctrinally standard. They have no idea how many Carriers these aliens can field, so ensuring his battleline is properly screened by fighters is of paramount importance. Unless the enemy is confirmed to be vulnerable, the plan calls for an extremely cautious CAP and reserved usage of interceptors. Strike craft are only to be deployed aggressively should either the enemy formation present a significant weakness towards them, or should further pressure need to be applied to force them back to allow for swift deployment of Canada's ground forces. HMS Cyrpus' forces shall serve as reserves.

"Sir, the fleet is ready for transition." Good, took their bloody time.

"Give the order."

The fleet begins the process of transitioning across the relay, ship by ship. Frigates go first, ensuring a proper picket is formed by the time the larger ships join them on the other side. Next the Destroyers manoeuvre into position and get flung across the galaxy, followed by the Light and then Heavy cruisers. Finally, the Dreadnoughts and Battlecruisers move into position, with innumerable massive white flares of their steam-based RCS systems firing spread across their entire hulls. The final ships to pass through are the Fleet Carriers, which arrive on the other side to the sight of a fleet already reforming its formation, for the long trek across the system before preparing for another relay transition. There were still many, many, left before they could save Scafell, and hopefully, take the fight to the alien invaders.