Another chapter of The Will of Resistance! As you saw last time, Resistance basically decimated Imperial Army once again. But this also upset Molt even more than before. What is his plan for the next part of the war? Well. Read and learn.
But first, reviews.
To Perseus12: Hell yeah!
To Hank: Actually, I always have a break from writing. I don't have time in the week, so I write only two days a week, more precisely on Saturday and Sunday.
Okay, with this out of the way, let's get to the stuff.
Chapter 19
,,New front"
August 30, 2150
09:43
Fort Terhis
Two day safter the biggest battle of the war yet, peace again returned to the Alnus Province. After the air raid on the Sadera, destruction of Imperial Army and Battle of Tyran River, Empire was again licking it's wounds.
In the meantime, Resistance soldiers were celebrating another victory. After the events of the battle, most of the soldiers were given a day off, but had to stay at the base in case if something happens. But fortunately, the days after battle were quiet.
Additionally, after some talking and preparing, two things were declared. First of them, was creation of Kingdoms Coalition, so former Allied Kingdoms joining together as one alliance, not only vassals of the Empire. Second, was the declaration of Kingdom of Falmart, a country which on Resistance's papers was marked as 'GOVERNMENT IN EXILE'. As said by Eriksson, Pina was put as the head of state.
"Say 'Aaaaaaa'."Yuko said.
"Aaaaaa."the cat girl replied and ate the sushi.
Rest of White Squadron looked at it with smiles on their faces.
"See? Told you it's worth it."Liz said.
"Actually, you was right."Yuko replied."Seyi is really nice younger sister."
Hearing this, everyone risen their eyebrow.
"Seyi?"Aquexymeva asked.
"It's her name."Yuko said, pointing at the cat girl.
"Oh, she finally told you her name?"Ester asked.
"Yeah, yesterday. At least, she's not cuddling into me like at the beginning."
Other members of the squadron could only smile.
Meanwhile, in the command center of the base, commanders of Task Force 03 were studying the map of Elbe and Shwarz Forest. Although plan was already made to take down the Elecdrago, there were still several things needed to be talked through, especially after the battle.
"What are our next moves?"Jessica asked.
Admiral Chesterfield rubbed her chin.
"What we surely know, is that we don't have to worry about Sadera for few more Earth months and our biggest problem currently is Elecdrago."she replied.
"Exactly. Because of that, it will be our top priority target now."Eriksson said.
"It will be hard."Uki'Oparla said."You really are sure, that Recon 3 is everything that is needed?"
"Well, they are the only ones with dragon fighting experience."Magar said."So, if properly supported, they will have a chance to deal with this thing."
Uki'Oparla just nodded.
Right then, Eriksson's hand terminal rang. Captain pressed some buttons on the terminal and soon, face of his First Officer appeared on it.
"Egon?"Eriksson asked."What's the matter?"
"Well, Sir…There was a situation."Egon replied.
He then started telling what happened earlier that day. And as commanders listened closer, they widened their eyes.
Five hours earlier…
Angier Prime, Maghreb Naval Base
It was a sunny morning in the main naval base of African Union Maritime Corp on Angier Prime. Unlike number of naval bases around the planet, this base was simple dock, where number of larger and smaller vessels traveling on water were stationed. Although not as important as African Union Navy, Maritime Corp, and it's counterparts in other countries, still played crucial roles in defending planets owned by various Earth's nations.
Base itself was placed on an island in the middle of Al-Abdullah Ocean, biggest body of water on Angier Prime. Maghreb Island, called after the other name for North Africa, was island filled with jungles and forests. It also held an air base, where African Union fighters and other spacecraft were held.
But today, something unexpected was going to happen in the base.
Aboard maritime Heavy Cruiser Congo, two sailors were leaning on the barrier and talking about their own stuff.
"And then he simply rammed that thing."first sailor said.
"Really?"second asked.
"Yeah. I heard Mehmed saying it. He was on that ship then."
"And to think, that naval piracy is still a thing, even on different planets."
"At least, it's not as notorious as space piracy."
Second sailor nodded and looked into the bay. And noticed something.
In the middle of the base was a black hole. But not that black hole, but hole in reality, as you could say it. It appeared out of nowhere and suddenly started rapidly growing.
"What the…?"first sailor asked.
Suddenly, something flew out of it. When sailors looked at it, they saw wyvern.
"Holy shit!"second sailor said."It's a Gate!"
New Gate started growing even more and more things started coming out of it, in form of wyverns and wooden galleys.
"What the hell? Galleys?"first sailor asked.
But before someone answered, there was an alarm and voice in the PA system exclaimed:
"Man your battlestations! This is not a drill! I'm repeat, this is not a drill!"
Two sailors looked at each other and quickly ran to their positions.
All around the base, ships started leaving their docks and went straight to the battle. More and more galleys started pouring from the new Gate, as well as more wyverns appeared in the air. But successful AA fire from the ships managed to quickly take out few of them.
"Sir, number of enemy vessels in front of us!"helmsman of maritime Destroyer Sierra Leone said to his captain."Should we open fire at them?"
Captain smiled under his nose.
"No."he said."Helmsman, full speed ahead!"
Without saying anything, helmsman turned full speed ahead and ship simply rammed into the galleys, sinking seven of them in a row by ramming.
Wyverns then turned their attention towards the air base and some of them already landed and started wrecking havoc on the airfield. However, AU Marines started pouring out of the base and started holding the ground against the unexpected attack. Around, number of enemy units started to fall.
From his office, admiral Samir Nahaman, commander of the base, watched the battle. Fortunately, his men were doing their best and base looked like it was going to be defended, luckily. But he never could be 100% sure, so he activated his hand terminal and saw Egon't face on it.
"Admiral."Egon said.
"First officer Sammer, there is a situation."Nahaman said.
Admiral quickly presented the situation to young officer, making Egon wide his eyes.
"Second Gate?"he asked.
"Yes. Can we count on you?"admiral said.
"Of course. We're gonna be there soon."
And as he said it, he did it. Around ten minutes later, giant shape of RNS Dwight D. Eisenhower fell from the sky and started engaging the enemy wyverns, firing it's AA guns at them. Additionally, hangars were opened to let fighters and dropships out. Soon, base was filled with reinforcements.
With every second, what was supposed to be a victorious counter-attack by glorious Imperial Navy, ended the same as attack on Alnus few days prior. Wyverns and galleys were being torn to shreds and going down, while Resistance forces were becoming more and more confident of victory.
"Okay, let's finish this."Egon said to the weapons officer.
Weapons officer nodded and pressed buttons on his console. Soon, missile silos of the ship opened and number of missiles flew out of them. They targeted wyverns and galleys and just seconds later, all enemy units on the water and in the air was changed into a fireball.
After few more minutes, everything was over.
Two hours later…
Entire bay of the base was decorated with burned wood from the galleys and bodies in Imperial uniforms. Although soldiers were doing their best to clean the whole thing, there were simply to many corpses. Several wyverns were also laying on the air base's runway. African Union soldiers will surely have a lot to clean.
Base command also demanded to know the casualties on their end, but as it turned out, they weren't severe. Heavy Cruise Congo was boarder three times and ended with one crewmate injured. Around two fighters were damaged by the wyvern riders and some buildings had claw marks after wyverns. But mostly, the damage was acceptable.
What wasn't acceptable, however, was the Gate. In two hours after the battle, Gate didn't stopped to grow. Finally, it stopped after it grew so large, that it could fit a five kilometer long and three kilometer wide Olympus Mons-class Super Carrier. It was six kilometers wide and two kilometers tall. Because of that, half of the bay was now occupied by the literal black hole.
Egon, admiral Nahaman and several captains were currently in the base's command building and watched the whole cleaning operations.
"We should do something about it."one of captains said, pointing at the Gate behind the window.
"Exactly, we can't just let it be here like this!"another added.
Soon, whole room was filled with screams and shouts of arguing captains. Admiral and Egon looked at each other.
"Could you please stop?"Egon asked.
Captains looked at him.
"By this time, we talked about this with admiral Nahaman. And we diced what do we do."Egon said.
"So? What are you waiting for, tell us!"one of captains demanded.
Admiral nodded.
"Of course."he said.
By few seconds, everyone held their breath, waiting for what admiral was going to say. Honestly, they were stressed, as they thought, that to take care of this Gate, admiral wanted to send a nuke at it and blast it out of existence.
But what admiral actually said, was more surprising.
"We're gonna cross it, like the one in Terhis City."Nahaman said.
Silence fell in the room.
"R-Really…?"another captain asked.
"Yes."Nahaman said."Together with ships of Task Force 03, we're going to cross the Gate. In that way, we could also aid our units, which are currently on the other side."
Captains looked at each other and nodded. They couldn't argue with this statement. They already had ground and air dominance, so why don't also get naval dominance?
"We're moving out in the next thirty minutes."Nahaman said."Congo, Sierra Leone and Cape Town will lead the way, with Ike following them close. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!"captains exclaimed, saluting.
"Great. So get on your ships now!"Nahaman ordered.
Without hesitation, captains and Egon left the building and quickly made their way to the their ships. Thirty minutes later, Heavy Cruiser, Destroyer and Frigate were moving towards the Gate, with Ike flying right behind and over them. Soon, four ships entered the Gate and started their travel.
Meanwhile…
Falmart, Blue Sea
Legate Jonus Ma Logos, commander of Imperial Blue Sea Fleet, looked around the Blue See to see his glorious galleys. They were loaded with soldiers and wyvenrs, preparing to another attempt to conquer the other world. Because, sure, enemy could control the ground and air. But they couldn't have fleet powerful enough to defeat Imperial Navy.
This is why he already sent some of his best galleys forward, to scout the area and inflict as much casualties on the enemy as possible. And because none of them returned, he assumed, that they successfully carried out their task and now prepared for his arrival.
Gate was already visible in front of him. True, it grew quite large. But this only made more way for his galleys. Now, he just had to join rest of him ships and make sure, that these barbarians will in fact be subjugated.
"Your Highness, we will cross the Gate in around twelve minutes."the galley's captain said.
"Good. We have to make sure, that these barbarians will not make any moves."Jonus replied.
Right then, the observer at the mast widened his eyes.
"Your Highness!"he exclaimed.
"What?!"Jonus shouted to him.
"Something is coming out of the Gate!"
Jonus looked in the Gate's direction and actually saw, that something is coming out of the Gate. These couldn't be his galleys, as these things were too large. What was that?
Answer arrived in form of three gray colored vessels sailing out of the Gate and stopping in front of his fleet. Just by looking at them, he could say, that these were Other Worlders' vessels. What meant his scout fleet was defeated. But how? How did they defeated his galleys? That was impossible!
But there were only three of them. So he was sure, that his entire fleet will easily win with them.
"Sailors! Attack these…!"Jonus tried to shout, but was stopped by observer:
"Your Highness! Something more is happening!"the observer exclaimed.
Jonus sighed and waited for another enemy vessel to appear from the Gate. But what truly appeared, was something, what shook Jonus to his very core.
It was a beast. Nothing else could describe it. Enormous flying beast with gray skin, decorated with blue stripes. On it's belly, sailors could see six blue lights. It hovered over Other Worlder's vessels, like it was guarding them. Like mother guarding children.
"By Flare…"Jonus whispered."What is this monstrosity…?"
Meanwhile, inside the Heavy Cruiser's bridge, Egon watched the radar of his operator. He could see the galleys under them and nodded.
"That's a nice welcoming committee."Egon said.
"Sir, missiles locked on the enemy vessels."weapons operator said."Do I have to open fire?"
But Egon shook his head.
"No, I have better idea."he said.
He then turned to the main engineer.
"VTOL engines-full power. And bring us down to them. Additionally, tell AU ships to keep away for few minutes."
Sailors saluted and started doing their tasks.
Back with Jonus, seasoned Imperial naval commander watched the flying beast with shock and disbelief. The blue lights on it's underside were so hypnotizing…
"No!"Jonus exclaimed, shaking his head."Men, prepare for battle!"
However, in that moment, the flying beast started lowering it's altitude and got closer to the fleet. Jonus could swear, that the light's on it's underside become even brighter than they were at the beginning.
His thoughts were confirmed, when first galley was caught on fire, as beast flew over it. Beast continued it's flight forward, burning all ships and people it flew over. Some archers even tried to fire arrows at it, but they burned in the air before reaching targets.
Jonus watched this, don't knowing what to do. He could see his entire fleet falling into panic, but he didn't knew, what orders he should give.
This was his last thought, as flying beast flew over his vessel and burned it down.
Mighty Imperial Blue Sea Fleet basically ceased to exist.
Now…
After receiving news from Egon about the new Gate and how Resistance vessels crossed it, captain Eriksson demanded a dropship for himself. Pina, as well as Bozes, Hamilton, Gray and Shandy, decided to accompany the captain. Members of White Squadron were with them too, but they were flying in their fighters.
Side hatches of the dropship started to open, revealing the panorama of Blue Sea behind them. And over it, everyone could see the enormous shape of over 400 meters long RNS Dwight D. Eisenhower, with Gate some distance behind him.
Hamilton, Gray and Shandy, the sight of such an enormous vessel for the first time was breathtaking. For Pina and Bozes, which spent more time aboard Ike, this wasn't as impressive as before.
Flying machines made their way toward ship's side, where the hangar door started to open. Force field used in space was turned off and both fighters and dropship flew in. They touched down and were their occupants left them.
"So good to be home."Yuko said with smile.
"Yup. I missed good ol' Ike."Jackie said.
Ester then told her squadron to go and check their rooms, while she, Eriksson and Rose Knights go see Egon.
Captain Eriksson walked out of the dropship and immediately was greeted by all sailors saluting him.
"At ease."captain said.
Sailors stopped saluting and returned to their jobs. The group in the meantime walked to the elevator leading tot he Command Deck. Soon, they were at their target and walked past more sailors, which saluted their captain.
The group then made it's way towards the bridge, where Egon stood over the holo-table. Seeing his captain, First Officer saluted.
"Captain."Egon said.
"Egon."Eriksson said."So good to see you again."
"The pleasure is mine, sir."Egon said."The command is all your once more."
"Thank you."Eriksson said, sitting in his chair.
Seasoned naval officer looked around the bridge and smiled.
"I missed this."he said."Anyway. Please meet."
Egon then looked at Rose Knights.
"Princess Pina and miss Bozes. Nice seeing you again."he said.
"The same."Pina said in English.
First Officer risen his eyebrow.
"By the time you last saw them, many things changed in their lives, so, you know."Ester said.
"Okay then."Egon said.
Captain then again stood up and walked to the table. On it, he could see the holographic image of the area beyond the Gate.
"I guess, that you're planning to soon move rest of the fleet through the Gate?"Eriksson asked.
"Well, not exactly. We're going to leave some ships behind, just in case."Egon said."But admiral Chesterfield's second-in-command stated, that he could show you new acquisitions of our fleet."
Captain, as well as everyone else, risen their eyebrows.
"What acquisitions?"Bozes asked.
"First of them should be here…about now."Egon said.
And right when he did, a new shape started to come out of the Gate. First, it was just it's nose, but soon, middle section of the vessel and it's engines part appeared and machine started hovering over the Blue Sea alongside Ike.
For Falmartese, which didn't knew all Resistance ship types, this one seemed just as another Cruiser, as it was as large as Heavy Cruiser. But Resistance soldiers knew exactly what it was.
"Holy Order Grizzle-class Guided Missile Cruiser?"Ester asked."How?"
"Well, we weren't sitting idly in Angier System. We performed some missions beyond the system and during one of battles, we captured this ship. It was assigned to our fleet afterwards."Egon explained.
Eriksson and Ester nodded. It was pretty common in the twenty years of Great Galactic War, that Resistance captured enemy vessels, especially, when shipyards couldn't keep up with replenishing lost vessels.
"And who is commanding it? I would like to know it's captain."Eriksson said.
"Of course."Egon said."Connect with Selene."
Communication officer nodded and turned to his console.
Few seconds later, a hologram of woman in UNSA Navy uniform with cap appeared. But what was most attention-bringing, was a pair of long, rabbit ears, which were hanging down from her head. She saluted.
"Captain Tyuule of Guided Missile Cruiser RNS Selene, reporting for duty."Tyuule's hologram said.
Eriksson, Ester and Knights widened their eyes.
"You? How…? When…?"Hamilton asked.
Former Battle Queen smiled.
"I just ended my accelerated course on Angier Station. It actually happened at the same time, as Selene joined TF03."Tyuule explained."I chosen the name, by the way."
"Actually, it's good name."Pina said.
"Why do you think so?"Ester asked.
"Selene was probably the greatest Battle Queen Warrior Bunnies had."Pina replied."She lived over 400 years ago and led Warrior Bunnies in numerous victorious wars."
Everyone nodded.
"By the way, how did you got in command of this thing?"Eriksson asked.
"I had the highest scores on simulators."Tyuule replied.
More talks were stopped by another ship emerging from the Gate. And this one was bigger. Much, much bigger than Heavy Cruiser. It was fully black, three kilometers long and had three headed snake painted on both it's sides. It slowly flew out of the portal, hovering away from the place where two Cruisers were, to make more place.
"No. Now, you have to be kidding…"Eriksson said.
"No, we're not."Egon said."Another acquisition of our fleet, is one of Hadadrian Vekabrle-class Super Battleship."
Right then, another hologram appeared next to Tyuule. This time, it presented a Hadadrian, in his full captain uniform. Falmartese jumped back, seeing Hadadrian for the first time. The alien saluted.
"Captain Kora'Ged of RNS Free Will."the Hadadrian said with resounding voice."Under your orders."
"How did you get to our fleet?"Ester asked.
"We simply had enough of Holy Order methods. Also, we couldn't look at how much HO corrupted our race. This is why we defected to you, to help save our specie."captain replied.
Eriksson nodded.
"And can I know, what force do you have with you?"he asked.
Hadadrian nodded.
"Of course."he said."Except of our ship, we have four full Marines battalions, three armored platoons, two fighter wings and number of on-board factories and power plants."
"Impressive, I must say."Eriksson said."It's good to have you in our fleet. And the last acquisition?"
This was to Egon. He just pointed towards the Gate.
Another ship emerged from it. It wasn't as big as Super Battleship, bust was surely bigger than Cruisers. It also had an airstrip on it's side. Again, Ester recognized the vessel.
"What the…?! Admiral-class Space Warfare Carrier? But all were destroyed during UNSA-SDF War!"she exclaimed.
"Turns out, that not all."Egon said."We found this one while on a recon mission in Holy Order occupied system. We got it's SOS signal, which was broadcasted on old UNSA frequency. Ship was sitting on planet's surface. It's crew landed there after battle with SDF fleet, waiting for help. It didn't came, so they thought, that SDF simply don't let any fleet near the planet."
Ester then noticed the inscription on Carrier's side.
"UNSA Courageous. This ship was also marked as destroyed."she said.
"Yes. This is why so long nobody came fore them. And because this system was not in any way of trade or travel route, nobody came there for so long."Egon ended.
Third hologram appeared in the room, showing elder, dark skinned man, older even than Eriksson. He had a long, white beard of an old wizard and captain's cap on his head.
"Captain Sawimbi Berlos of Courageous, sir."the man said.
"Good to meet you, captain."Eriksson said."Sorry, that you had to come back to service in such hard times."
"I know. Your first officer already briefed me on the situation."Berlos said.
Eriksson looked at the holograms of three captains and nodded.
"In the name of admiral Amanda Chesterfield, I hereby welcome you in Task Force 03."he said.
The three saluted.
"Well, now we have access to the Navy."Ester said."What should we do with it?"
"First, we need to let Sadera, that our ships are now here."Eriksson said."But how and what we do?"
In that second, idea appeared in Pina's head.
"I think I know."she said.
Sadera
The two days since the Other Worlders attack on the city were full of sorrow and fear. Nobody believed, that they will be able to strike Sadera, yet they did it. And with full effectiveness, destroying number of warehouses, army camps and wyvern stables. Black smokes were still visible over the city.
Additionally, the leaflets dropped by them were able to reach to some of the city's inhabitants. This is why the next day, a huge crowd started marching on the Imperial Palace. The people believed, that if they actually give the Emperor and senators to Other Worlders, they will be left alone.
But the plan didn't worked out, as the Imperial guards easily dispatched the crowds and the rest of the day was spent on removing the bodies and burning them down.
Currently, Emperor Molt stood on a balcony in his palace, overlooking the city. He sighed. King Zander left the city already, after signing an alliance with Sadera and ensuring, that he will send some troops to reinforce Imperial Army. Especially after their another defeat on the hands of Other Worlders.
As he was standing like that, something suddenly caught his eye. As he looked into the sky, he saw something…the sky was bending and distorting?
But before he could say anything, out of nowhere, an enormous beast appeared in the sky. It's appearance sent a powerful shockwave, as always during hyperspace jumping in atmosphere, which literally broke all glass windows in the palace, sending pieces of glass flying. Molt could only watch in horror, as the beast flies over his head, with blue lights coming out o fit's belly.
Right then, something flew out of the beast. A long object, which turned in the direction of the Senate building. Before Molt knew, there was a giant explosion, which left the Senate building in ruins.
Another panic erupted on the streets, while giant beast turned around and flew back to the Blue Sea.
XXX
There it is. Shorter than the others, but I wanted to use it to introduce the new front in the story. More precisely, I wanted to finally get Resistance ships on the other side. Hope you like it.
Now, trivia:
Grizzle-class Guided Missile Cruiser-main type of GMC used by Holy Order Navy. Often found in their fleets, it's serves as the mobile missiles platform, supporting Destroyers and Cruisers with long range missile fire during their assault.
Verkable-class Super Battleship-the main and most numerous class of Hadadrian Super Battleships. Armed with number of high-caliber artillery and missile launchers, even without it's armor it's great danger.
Also, a disclaimer. Although all ships are armed with missiles, they often use them in the beginning of the battle, while by the rest, they mainly focus on using their guns. While Guided Missile Destroyers and Cruisers, as well as other ships, are equipped only with missiles, both long, medium and short range.
Okay, with this said, I can say see you in the next one.