Commonscape
By: Griffin
Copyright notice: All characters belong to their respective owners, all
original characters and plot elements belong to me.
Note: Most of the Andromeda crew is current as far as about 2 months ago. Farscape crew is quite a bit older.
Summary: The Alliance captures the Science Facilities of Yevin Three and makes some startling discoveries.
Falling Rain. (Part 2)
Sabra-Jaguar Marine Forces, 11th Regiment, Delta Battalion, Baker Company was ordered to hold the ridge around Facility Four in the cold hard mountains of Yevin-Three.
They had taken the ridge less than one solar day earlier and had built themselves bunkers to protect themselves from the bombardment of the Peacekeeper artillery.
But that artillery was too focused with holding the Alliance artillery at bay to focus on the Marines and their Luxon shock trooper counterparts.
So the two forces had spent the last several arns shelling the inner bunker ring with mortar fire.
Their artillery support was being held out of effective firing range by the Peacekeeper gun batteries.
Orders had come down from Regimental Command that they were to storm the facility and remove any resistance. The artillery would be used as a distraction.
Baker Company was spread across the ridge, waiting for the orders to come down from Major Geris with First Platoon.
Third Platoon was firmly entrenched in the remains of Peacekeeper Bunker Line Seven. Their mortar teams were dropping explosive shells on the bunker like below, but to little effect. The inner bunkers were much more resilient than the first line had been.
Sergeant Ivan Derik looked down the sight of his gauss rifle at the bunkers below.
Occasionally someone would dash between those bunkers and hunker down. They seemed to be carrying a long-barreled weapon. He assumed that whoever was down there was a sniper looking to take out the mortar teams.
Ivan had countered that threat by moving his mortar teams back out of sight. And he had set up three snipers of his own.
They were hidden behind sand bag barriers, invisible to anyone below. He had ordered them to take out anything they saw.
He frowned as a crack echoed up from below, the muzzle flash visible in the dark of night.
One of his snipers responded with a shot of their own and Ivan watched as one of the bunkers erupted in pulse fire in the general area of his sniper.
"This is Second Platoon, thanks Third. That sniper was driving us crazy," a voice announced over the com and Ivan grinned.
"No problem. Any word from First Platoon?"
"Boss says we'll be rolling soon. The artillery is loading smoke shells now."
"Copy, Third Platoon out."
Ivan looked down into the valley and frowned. Soon.
* * * * * *
Lieutenant Reci Gosi frowned as she watched her best sniper fall.
Those damned Alliance forces had been watching her sniper run between buildings and had waited for a muzzle flash to tag him.
She shook her head as looked out the port hole into the dark of the Yevin night. On the ridge above she could just barely make out the shape of thrown together bunkers built by the Alliance.
She turned from the port hole to inspect her own bunker.
Built to withstand anything but the heaviest of bombardments, the Class-One bunker was reinforced with the best Peacekeeper materials available.
But when it came down to it, this bunker was going to be nothing but a well- built coffin.
She knew that there had been two full Peacekeeper marine regiments defending Facility Four. Seven thousand well-trained and armed Marines to protect something that command didn't even want them to know they were protecting.
The twenty bunker lines protecting the valley ridge had each carried a platoon of marines. One thousand of those seven thousand marines had been on that ridge. And all but two were dead.
Another three thousand were entrenched in Bunker Lines Fifteen through Thirty-Five. Fifteen marines were positioned in each of the ten bunkers in each of those Lines.
Another two thousand marines were positioned in the trenches that surrounded the facility itself. They were the last line of defense. They were extremely vulnerable to mortar and artillery fire, but it had been thought impossible to get artillery within range of those trenches.
The remaining thousand marines were support personnel or were crammed into the facility as security guards.
Intel had reported that there were only two companies of marines and shock troopers currently holding the ridge around them. But they were protected by artillery and had the advantage of being up-hill. They would cut any counter-attack to pieces.
And there were six more companies moving up the other side of the ridge for the attack on the bunkers.
Satellite surveillance had been knocked out, leaving the Facilities blind. But it was entirely possible, and indeed likely, that those marines would be carrying 'Bunker-Buster' missile packs. Man portable missile launchers that fired weapons more powerful than artillery.
Reci frowned as the first rays of dawn crawled over the ridge.
* * * * * *
Dawn was all they were waiting for. The eastern line of bunkers was blind against the light of Yevin's blue-white sun. So they didn't see the Nietzschean marines or Luxon shock troops casually moving down the ridge.
The other companies of ground troops remained in position. Until the first rounds of artillery fire erupted and smoke shells rained down on the western side of the facility.
Four companies of the Alliance troops charged the eastern lines of bunkers and the reaction was expected.
All of the defensive fire was focused westward, to the charging marines and shock troopers.
Mortar fire rained down on the bunkers and then brilliant flashes marked the hill side as bunker busters erupted from their launchers.
Huge rockets hissed down the hillside, their targeting sensors seeking portholes to bury themselves in.
Nietzschean bunker busters were renowned for their ability to crack anything. Their seeker heads could find any opening and tear a bunker open like a can of emergency-rations.
They didn't fail in their mission very often.
The reinforcements had brought two hundred, one for every five Nietzscheans. One for every bunker left protecting the Facility.
Forty-one percent of the bunker busters totally destroyed their targets. Eighty-two of the two hundred bunkers and over twelve hundred marines were taken in that first launch.
Other missiles tore holes in bunkers or permanently blinded the occupants, creating gaps in the protection.
The holes in the defenses were enough.
As the Peacekeepers focused their defenses west, the eastern attackers found very little the way of defense.
* * * * * *
Lieutenant Reci Gosi pushed her pulse-cannon through the porthole and started firing.
Her marines followed suit and every remaining bunker began spraying pulse rounds into the two thousand charging enemies.
Facility Four was the most heavily defended Facility on the planet. It had the toughest bunkers and the best marines.
The enemy obviously had prepared for that. The enemy marines were wearing armor that protected them well. The shock troopers were running low to the ground, hard to hit from the bunkers.
Gauss and pulse fire pinged off of the bunkers as the enemies opened fire.
Reports began flowing over the coms of deaths as the attackers sent rounds through the portholes in the bunkers. And the marines were firing some sort of smart round that sought out a target once inside the bunker.
Reci growled as she downed a charging shock trooper but quickly frowned as he was replaced by three more.
She swore harshly as she switched to full-auto and began firing indiscriminately.
She pressed the secondary firing stud on her handle and a spread of five grenades belched from the grenade launcher mounted to the underside of her rifle.
The enemy began slowing, their attack waning as more and more of them were killed.
Reci thought at first that they had stopped the assault. Then she realized that they weren't stopping, they were digging in.
She asked herself why, but the answer became quickly apparent as huge armor units rolled over the ridge.
Somehow they had landed tanks, artillery on wheels.
Those tanks perched themselves on the hilltops and lowered their barrels. The crash of artillery fire echoed through the valley as hyper-velocity explosive rounds coughed from the barrels.
Explosions rocked the bunkers as the artillery slammed into the sides. Bunkers that had been damaged by the bunker-busters collapsed and it became obvious that the bunkers were a death trap.
"All units, retreat to the trenches!" Reci ordered over her com as the hatch to the bunker hissed open.
* * * * * *
Ivan grinned as the Peacekeepers began abandoning their bunkers.
"Charge!" He yelled and the marines and shock troopers scrambled from their foxholes.
Ivan raised his rifle as he charged down along the flat valley floor. He squeezed the trigger and a hail of gauss rounds flew forth.
Peacekeeper marines fell as their backs were riddled by gunfire. Some turned and dropped to their knees, leveling their pulse rifles for return fire.
Anyone who did that was dropped before they could squeeze off a round.
Ivan dove behind one of the now empty bunkers as his troops found cover. The marines had made it to the trenches. The quad-barreled rifles mounted along the trench edges hissed as they fired one-hundred rounds per microt.
Marines and shock troopers fell under the hail of rounds, but not many.
"Mortars!" Ivan ordered and the marines quickly set up to shell the trenches. "Command can't hit those trenches with shells, too close to the compound. Use standard shells and some stunners!"
All around the Facility mortars belched shells. The rounds arced over the short distance and landed squarely in the trenches.
Explosions rippled along the trenches as round after round hit home.
Ivan looked around the corner of the bunker and frowned as he spotted the Peacekeepers preparing for a charge. This was going to be interesting.
* * * * * *
Reci Gosi fixed the bayonet to her rifle as she prepared to scramble out of the trench. The sheer number of marines was supposed to overwhelm the Alliance forces. Theoretically, at least.
"All units, CHARGE!" A voice announced and the Peacekeeper Marines charged from the relative safety of the trenches.
The Alliance forces rose from their hiding spots and stood firm as their guns opened fire.
Luxons drew their Qualta blades as the Peacekeepers charged, ready for the hand-to-hand combat.
Nietzscheans continued to pour gauss fire into the charging masses, their guns spraying dumb rounds into the crowd. There were enough targets that smart rounds were unnecessary.
Peacekeepers fell in waves as the Alliance troops sprayed armor-piercing rounds into their ranks.
But then the marines reached their enemies and the hand-to-hand combat began.
Luxons cut down enemy after enemy with their massive blades. Nietzschean drew knifes and charged toward the Sebatians.
It was a massacre on all sides.
* * * * * *
Sergeant Ivan Derik wrapped his arm in gauss as he sat in the bunker designated as the command location for Baker Company. As the highest ranking officer of Third Platoon, he was one of the people that Major Geris needed to talk to.
Lieutenant Terinson of First Platoon, Lieutenant Rocio of Second Platoon, Lieutenant Ulrich of Fourth Platoon and Lieutenant Grace of Fifth Platoon were gathered in the good-sized bunker to hear what their commanding officer had to say.
All told Baker Company had lost seventy-eight of its marines. Almost a third of its original compliment.
"Okay, people," Major Taman Geris, Commanding Officer, Baker Company, said as the hatch to the bunker as closed.
The portholes in the bunker's sides were all closed. They were going to insert into the facility.
"We're going in," Geris said, confirming what Ivan already knew. "But we can't go in heavy. The place is too damn small for a heavy scale insertion. Their security is probably extremely intense. If we sent too many troops in their auto-cannons will tear us down."
"What are we going to do then?" Lieutenant Polis Grace asked curiously.
"We are going to run a small team insertion, each cardinal direction. Each company has been ordered to assemble a team. Ten Marines, ten Luxons. The Luxons were more than happy to volunteer to run the whole thing. Regimental says we need a presence in there. So here we are."
Taman looked at each face in the bunker.
"I know all of your combat backgrounds. With the exception of Lieutenant Rocio, each of you has gone through urban combat one time or another. Some- " he looked at Terinson and Derik "-more than others. But I need volunteers. Particularly, I need one of you to lead the insertion team on our end of things."
The Platoon commanders looked at each other, each hesitant to volunteer. Ivan stood.
"Sir, I probably have the second or third most experience in urban warfare, particularly in close quarters insertion."
"True, your service in the capture of that Drago base was noted throughout the Corps and specifically flagged when you were assigned to this operation. Sergeant, you are hereby promoted to the rank of Sergeant Major and placed in command of Insertion Team Baker."
Ivan nodded as saluted.
"All you need now is nine more just like you."
* * * * * *
Sergeant Major Ivan Derik and Squad Commander Ra'Eran stood at the head of Insertion Team Baker. Nine Nietzscheans and nine Luxons stood behind them in full insertion gear. They were wearing heavy body armor, carrying short barreled weapons and had six flash-bangs grenades each.
The only thing standing between them and their mission was the hatch on the Facility.
Nietzschean demolition teams were rigging that hatch as they waited.
The lead demo-tech raised his hand to indicate the lock was ready to blow as the squad scrambled away. IT-Baker hugged close to the walls on either side of the hatch as the shaped charge was triggered.
The charges exploded brilliantly, throwing the hatch inward and leaving the entrance ready.
Private Relond lead the way, infra-red goggles activated as she turned the corner. Ivan heard her flechette gun cough as she took out Peacekeeper marines.
"Clear," she shouted out the hatch and the other troops filed in.
Command had split the team of twenty into five squads of four. Two Nietzscheans and two Luxons were assigned to each team. They were given five paths, the maps taken from one of the already conquered facilities. Ivan and Ra'Eran were assigned to completely separate paths to ensure that if one of the paths was ambushed the team would still have an officer in command.
Ivan and his team moved through the passages of the facility, taking out marine after marine as they advanced. Their target was specific, the computer core at the heart of the facility.
All four teams moved quickly, securing passage after passage and room after room.
Ivan turned a corner and ducked as a hail of pulse rounds slammed into the wall.
He pulled the pin on a flash grenade and heaved it around the corner. The familiar thud was his signal and as Ivan turned the corner he found five Peacekeepers struggling to stand.
He squeezed his trigger and cut the marines down without a second thought. * * * * * *
Lieutenant Reci Gosi set the detonator on the tiny charge and hurried back around the corner.
The attacking Alliance forces had already advanced through half of the facility on all sides and were moving fast.
She was in command of the last stand. Forty-seven marines and eighteen scientists at the computer core, was all that was left of the once proud Reizer Regiment.
She made sure that her pulse cannon was fully loaded and chambered a round. The sensor systems that were left indicated that the Alliance forces were less than eleven minutes away. Almost game time.
* * * * * *
Ivan frowned as the resistance to their advance disappeared. And fast too.
They were gathering somewhere near the heart of the complex. That much was obvious.
"This is IT-Baker-One, resistance has flat-lined. Estimate remaining forces intend to put up a fight in the heart."
"IT-Baker-One; we concur. Similar reports from other IT units. Be careful, IT-Alpha lost a team to a remote bomb. It looks like they are sticking charges on the floor and triggering by remote."
"Acknowledged, Command, IT-Baker-One out," Ivan said as he closed the com- link with the Insertion Command. "Let's go, Relond out front. Keep an eye open for mines."
Private Relond nodded and stepped around the corner, her eyes scanning the area through infra-red goggles.
A Luxon followed, and then Ivan with the other Luxon taking up the rear. The four advanced very carefully through the facility, they didn't want to be the ones to set off a mine and end up on the KIA list at the end of the day.
Ivan listened as other teams announced the capture of vital areas of the base. Command and Control, Communications, the Hanger Bay, Weapons Control and most importantly Security had all been taken by Alliance forces.
"This is IT-Charlie-Six to all units. We have control of Security and are beginning sweeps for explosive charges. If possible we will neutralize them; otherwise we will upload locations to your suits."
Ivan signaled Relond to hold while the information was processed through their Heads-Up-Displays. He nodded to her when the information was finished and smiled as he spotted a serious of explosives ahead.
"Thanks," he whispered to no one in particular as Relond disable the explosives with an ECM charge. * * * * * *
"This is Alliance Major Taman Geris to all Peacekeeper forces inside Facility Six. Your base has been captured. We have control of your C and C, your Security and your Hanger. There is no escape. Throw down your arms and come out quietly. You have half an hour before we come in there. And we will not take any prisoners."
Reci frowned to herself as she considered the options. Surrender and spend the rest of the war in a Alliance prison camp, or go out fighting.
The options weren't too appetizing.
But if she did manage to reach Peacekeeper Command after this war, she would be either dismissed or demoted. The Science Facilities were listed as a Class-Red Priority. They had to be held, it was that simple.
And from what she had gathered, Reci knew that four had fallen and the other was in the process of being invaded at the time of communications blackout.
Which meant that she wasn't going to be the only one that her superiors would be looking to decapitate, if she survived of course.
* * * * * *
Thirty minutes, exactly, after the ultimatum had been given, Ivan and Private Relond were moving forward, their Luxon comrades close behind.
Ivan pulled the pins from the two grenades he held. In the Academy he had been given commendations for his ability to throw a grenade from either hand. Or from both.
The two flash grenades joined the one thrown by Relond in blinding the remaining marines in the Computer Core.
Ivan turned the corner and his flechette rifle coughed sharpened slivers of death. The three other members of IT-Baker-One followed, firing as they moved.
Two scientists and one marine survived, though heavily wounded as they were. And as she regained consciousness, Lieutenant Reci Gosi realized she had failed.
* * * * * *
Dylan frowned as he was awakened from a blissful sleep.
"Yes?" He asked as he activated the voice-only transmission.
"Sir, a courier has just made translation from Yevin. They are filing battle reports and carrying a top-secret report from General Si'Peral."
"I'll be on the Command Deck in five minutes," Dylan said as he scrambled to get dressed.
The result of the operation was obviously a success, if Si'Peral was sending top secret reports via Courier instead of limping back in pieces.
Dylan had only met Si'Peral once before the General had shipped out, and he didn't seem to be the type to waste a perfectly good courier for nothing.
* * * * * *
Dylan, John, Crais, Li'Taran and Leo Tiral were the only ones who saw the message from Si'Peral. They were the only ones to see what had been found in the Science Facilities of Yevin Three.
"What are they?" Leo Tiral asked as he looked at the holo-grid image of the tiny pod.
"Those are transport pods," Crais said as he looked at the strangely familiar craft. "Though they are not of the design I am familiar with."
"What are they for?" Tiral asked in response.
"They aren't transport pods," John answered as he frowned. "They are space pods. And they are built for one reason. To take full advantage of wormholes."
Note: Most of the Andromeda crew is current as far as about 2 months ago. Farscape crew is quite a bit older.
Summary: The Alliance captures the Science Facilities of Yevin Three and makes some startling discoveries.
Falling Rain. (Part 2)
Sabra-Jaguar Marine Forces, 11th Regiment, Delta Battalion, Baker Company was ordered to hold the ridge around Facility Four in the cold hard mountains of Yevin-Three.
They had taken the ridge less than one solar day earlier and had built themselves bunkers to protect themselves from the bombardment of the Peacekeeper artillery.
But that artillery was too focused with holding the Alliance artillery at bay to focus on the Marines and their Luxon shock trooper counterparts.
So the two forces had spent the last several arns shelling the inner bunker ring with mortar fire.
Their artillery support was being held out of effective firing range by the Peacekeeper gun batteries.
Orders had come down from Regimental Command that they were to storm the facility and remove any resistance. The artillery would be used as a distraction.
Baker Company was spread across the ridge, waiting for the orders to come down from Major Geris with First Platoon.
Third Platoon was firmly entrenched in the remains of Peacekeeper Bunker Line Seven. Their mortar teams were dropping explosive shells on the bunker like below, but to little effect. The inner bunkers were much more resilient than the first line had been.
Sergeant Ivan Derik looked down the sight of his gauss rifle at the bunkers below.
Occasionally someone would dash between those bunkers and hunker down. They seemed to be carrying a long-barreled weapon. He assumed that whoever was down there was a sniper looking to take out the mortar teams.
Ivan had countered that threat by moving his mortar teams back out of sight. And he had set up three snipers of his own.
They were hidden behind sand bag barriers, invisible to anyone below. He had ordered them to take out anything they saw.
He frowned as a crack echoed up from below, the muzzle flash visible in the dark of night.
One of his snipers responded with a shot of their own and Ivan watched as one of the bunkers erupted in pulse fire in the general area of his sniper.
"This is Second Platoon, thanks Third. That sniper was driving us crazy," a voice announced over the com and Ivan grinned.
"No problem. Any word from First Platoon?"
"Boss says we'll be rolling soon. The artillery is loading smoke shells now."
"Copy, Third Platoon out."
Ivan looked down into the valley and frowned. Soon.
* * * * * *
Lieutenant Reci Gosi frowned as she watched her best sniper fall.
Those damned Alliance forces had been watching her sniper run between buildings and had waited for a muzzle flash to tag him.
She shook her head as looked out the port hole into the dark of the Yevin night. On the ridge above she could just barely make out the shape of thrown together bunkers built by the Alliance.
She turned from the port hole to inspect her own bunker.
Built to withstand anything but the heaviest of bombardments, the Class-One bunker was reinforced with the best Peacekeeper materials available.
But when it came down to it, this bunker was going to be nothing but a well- built coffin.
She knew that there had been two full Peacekeeper marine regiments defending Facility Four. Seven thousand well-trained and armed Marines to protect something that command didn't even want them to know they were protecting.
The twenty bunker lines protecting the valley ridge had each carried a platoon of marines. One thousand of those seven thousand marines had been on that ridge. And all but two were dead.
Another three thousand were entrenched in Bunker Lines Fifteen through Thirty-Five. Fifteen marines were positioned in each of the ten bunkers in each of those Lines.
Another two thousand marines were positioned in the trenches that surrounded the facility itself. They were the last line of defense. They were extremely vulnerable to mortar and artillery fire, but it had been thought impossible to get artillery within range of those trenches.
The remaining thousand marines were support personnel or were crammed into the facility as security guards.
Intel had reported that there were only two companies of marines and shock troopers currently holding the ridge around them. But they were protected by artillery and had the advantage of being up-hill. They would cut any counter-attack to pieces.
And there were six more companies moving up the other side of the ridge for the attack on the bunkers.
Satellite surveillance had been knocked out, leaving the Facilities blind. But it was entirely possible, and indeed likely, that those marines would be carrying 'Bunker-Buster' missile packs. Man portable missile launchers that fired weapons more powerful than artillery.
Reci frowned as the first rays of dawn crawled over the ridge.
* * * * * *
Dawn was all they were waiting for. The eastern line of bunkers was blind against the light of Yevin's blue-white sun. So they didn't see the Nietzschean marines or Luxon shock troops casually moving down the ridge.
The other companies of ground troops remained in position. Until the first rounds of artillery fire erupted and smoke shells rained down on the western side of the facility.
Four companies of the Alliance troops charged the eastern lines of bunkers and the reaction was expected.
All of the defensive fire was focused westward, to the charging marines and shock troopers.
Mortar fire rained down on the bunkers and then brilliant flashes marked the hill side as bunker busters erupted from their launchers.
Huge rockets hissed down the hillside, their targeting sensors seeking portholes to bury themselves in.
Nietzschean bunker busters were renowned for their ability to crack anything. Their seeker heads could find any opening and tear a bunker open like a can of emergency-rations.
They didn't fail in their mission very often.
The reinforcements had brought two hundred, one for every five Nietzscheans. One for every bunker left protecting the Facility.
Forty-one percent of the bunker busters totally destroyed their targets. Eighty-two of the two hundred bunkers and over twelve hundred marines were taken in that first launch.
Other missiles tore holes in bunkers or permanently blinded the occupants, creating gaps in the protection.
The holes in the defenses were enough.
As the Peacekeepers focused their defenses west, the eastern attackers found very little the way of defense.
* * * * * *
Lieutenant Reci Gosi pushed her pulse-cannon through the porthole and started firing.
Her marines followed suit and every remaining bunker began spraying pulse rounds into the two thousand charging enemies.
Facility Four was the most heavily defended Facility on the planet. It had the toughest bunkers and the best marines.
The enemy obviously had prepared for that. The enemy marines were wearing armor that protected them well. The shock troopers were running low to the ground, hard to hit from the bunkers.
Gauss and pulse fire pinged off of the bunkers as the enemies opened fire.
Reports began flowing over the coms of deaths as the attackers sent rounds through the portholes in the bunkers. And the marines were firing some sort of smart round that sought out a target once inside the bunker.
Reci growled as she downed a charging shock trooper but quickly frowned as he was replaced by three more.
She swore harshly as she switched to full-auto and began firing indiscriminately.
She pressed the secondary firing stud on her handle and a spread of five grenades belched from the grenade launcher mounted to the underside of her rifle.
The enemy began slowing, their attack waning as more and more of them were killed.
Reci thought at first that they had stopped the assault. Then she realized that they weren't stopping, they were digging in.
She asked herself why, but the answer became quickly apparent as huge armor units rolled over the ridge.
Somehow they had landed tanks, artillery on wheels.
Those tanks perched themselves on the hilltops and lowered their barrels. The crash of artillery fire echoed through the valley as hyper-velocity explosive rounds coughed from the barrels.
Explosions rocked the bunkers as the artillery slammed into the sides. Bunkers that had been damaged by the bunker-busters collapsed and it became obvious that the bunkers were a death trap.
"All units, retreat to the trenches!" Reci ordered over her com as the hatch to the bunker hissed open.
* * * * * *
Ivan grinned as the Peacekeepers began abandoning their bunkers.
"Charge!" He yelled and the marines and shock troopers scrambled from their foxholes.
Ivan raised his rifle as he charged down along the flat valley floor. He squeezed the trigger and a hail of gauss rounds flew forth.
Peacekeeper marines fell as their backs were riddled by gunfire. Some turned and dropped to their knees, leveling their pulse rifles for return fire.
Anyone who did that was dropped before they could squeeze off a round.
Ivan dove behind one of the now empty bunkers as his troops found cover. The marines had made it to the trenches. The quad-barreled rifles mounted along the trench edges hissed as they fired one-hundred rounds per microt.
Marines and shock troopers fell under the hail of rounds, but not many.
"Mortars!" Ivan ordered and the marines quickly set up to shell the trenches. "Command can't hit those trenches with shells, too close to the compound. Use standard shells and some stunners!"
All around the Facility mortars belched shells. The rounds arced over the short distance and landed squarely in the trenches.
Explosions rippled along the trenches as round after round hit home.
Ivan looked around the corner of the bunker and frowned as he spotted the Peacekeepers preparing for a charge. This was going to be interesting.
* * * * * *
Reci Gosi fixed the bayonet to her rifle as she prepared to scramble out of the trench. The sheer number of marines was supposed to overwhelm the Alliance forces. Theoretically, at least.
"All units, CHARGE!" A voice announced and the Peacekeeper Marines charged from the relative safety of the trenches.
The Alliance forces rose from their hiding spots and stood firm as their guns opened fire.
Luxons drew their Qualta blades as the Peacekeepers charged, ready for the hand-to-hand combat.
Nietzscheans continued to pour gauss fire into the charging masses, their guns spraying dumb rounds into the crowd. There were enough targets that smart rounds were unnecessary.
Peacekeepers fell in waves as the Alliance troops sprayed armor-piercing rounds into their ranks.
But then the marines reached their enemies and the hand-to-hand combat began.
Luxons cut down enemy after enemy with their massive blades. Nietzschean drew knifes and charged toward the Sebatians.
It was a massacre on all sides.
* * * * * *
Sergeant Ivan Derik wrapped his arm in gauss as he sat in the bunker designated as the command location for Baker Company. As the highest ranking officer of Third Platoon, he was one of the people that Major Geris needed to talk to.
Lieutenant Terinson of First Platoon, Lieutenant Rocio of Second Platoon, Lieutenant Ulrich of Fourth Platoon and Lieutenant Grace of Fifth Platoon were gathered in the good-sized bunker to hear what their commanding officer had to say.
All told Baker Company had lost seventy-eight of its marines. Almost a third of its original compliment.
"Okay, people," Major Taman Geris, Commanding Officer, Baker Company, said as the hatch to the bunker as closed.
The portholes in the bunker's sides were all closed. They were going to insert into the facility.
"We're going in," Geris said, confirming what Ivan already knew. "But we can't go in heavy. The place is too damn small for a heavy scale insertion. Their security is probably extremely intense. If we sent too many troops in their auto-cannons will tear us down."
"What are we going to do then?" Lieutenant Polis Grace asked curiously.
"We are going to run a small team insertion, each cardinal direction. Each company has been ordered to assemble a team. Ten Marines, ten Luxons. The Luxons were more than happy to volunteer to run the whole thing. Regimental says we need a presence in there. So here we are."
Taman looked at each face in the bunker.
"I know all of your combat backgrounds. With the exception of Lieutenant Rocio, each of you has gone through urban combat one time or another. Some- " he looked at Terinson and Derik "-more than others. But I need volunteers. Particularly, I need one of you to lead the insertion team on our end of things."
The Platoon commanders looked at each other, each hesitant to volunteer. Ivan stood.
"Sir, I probably have the second or third most experience in urban warfare, particularly in close quarters insertion."
"True, your service in the capture of that Drago base was noted throughout the Corps and specifically flagged when you were assigned to this operation. Sergeant, you are hereby promoted to the rank of Sergeant Major and placed in command of Insertion Team Baker."
Ivan nodded as saluted.
"All you need now is nine more just like you."
* * * * * *
Sergeant Major Ivan Derik and Squad Commander Ra'Eran stood at the head of Insertion Team Baker. Nine Nietzscheans and nine Luxons stood behind them in full insertion gear. They were wearing heavy body armor, carrying short barreled weapons and had six flash-bangs grenades each.
The only thing standing between them and their mission was the hatch on the Facility.
Nietzschean demolition teams were rigging that hatch as they waited.
The lead demo-tech raised his hand to indicate the lock was ready to blow as the squad scrambled away. IT-Baker hugged close to the walls on either side of the hatch as the shaped charge was triggered.
The charges exploded brilliantly, throwing the hatch inward and leaving the entrance ready.
Private Relond lead the way, infra-red goggles activated as she turned the corner. Ivan heard her flechette gun cough as she took out Peacekeeper marines.
"Clear," she shouted out the hatch and the other troops filed in.
Command had split the team of twenty into five squads of four. Two Nietzscheans and two Luxons were assigned to each team. They were given five paths, the maps taken from one of the already conquered facilities. Ivan and Ra'Eran were assigned to completely separate paths to ensure that if one of the paths was ambushed the team would still have an officer in command.
Ivan and his team moved through the passages of the facility, taking out marine after marine as they advanced. Their target was specific, the computer core at the heart of the facility.
All four teams moved quickly, securing passage after passage and room after room.
Ivan turned a corner and ducked as a hail of pulse rounds slammed into the wall.
He pulled the pin on a flash grenade and heaved it around the corner. The familiar thud was his signal and as Ivan turned the corner he found five Peacekeepers struggling to stand.
He squeezed his trigger and cut the marines down without a second thought. * * * * * *
Lieutenant Reci Gosi set the detonator on the tiny charge and hurried back around the corner.
The attacking Alliance forces had already advanced through half of the facility on all sides and were moving fast.
She was in command of the last stand. Forty-seven marines and eighteen scientists at the computer core, was all that was left of the once proud Reizer Regiment.
She made sure that her pulse cannon was fully loaded and chambered a round. The sensor systems that were left indicated that the Alliance forces were less than eleven minutes away. Almost game time.
* * * * * *
Ivan frowned as the resistance to their advance disappeared. And fast too.
They were gathering somewhere near the heart of the complex. That much was obvious.
"This is IT-Baker-One, resistance has flat-lined. Estimate remaining forces intend to put up a fight in the heart."
"IT-Baker-One; we concur. Similar reports from other IT units. Be careful, IT-Alpha lost a team to a remote bomb. It looks like they are sticking charges on the floor and triggering by remote."
"Acknowledged, Command, IT-Baker-One out," Ivan said as he closed the com- link with the Insertion Command. "Let's go, Relond out front. Keep an eye open for mines."
Private Relond nodded and stepped around the corner, her eyes scanning the area through infra-red goggles.
A Luxon followed, and then Ivan with the other Luxon taking up the rear. The four advanced very carefully through the facility, they didn't want to be the ones to set off a mine and end up on the KIA list at the end of the day.
Ivan listened as other teams announced the capture of vital areas of the base. Command and Control, Communications, the Hanger Bay, Weapons Control and most importantly Security had all been taken by Alliance forces.
"This is IT-Charlie-Six to all units. We have control of Security and are beginning sweeps for explosive charges. If possible we will neutralize them; otherwise we will upload locations to your suits."
Ivan signaled Relond to hold while the information was processed through their Heads-Up-Displays. He nodded to her when the information was finished and smiled as he spotted a serious of explosives ahead.
"Thanks," he whispered to no one in particular as Relond disable the explosives with an ECM charge. * * * * * *
"This is Alliance Major Taman Geris to all Peacekeeper forces inside Facility Six. Your base has been captured. We have control of your C and C, your Security and your Hanger. There is no escape. Throw down your arms and come out quietly. You have half an hour before we come in there. And we will not take any prisoners."
Reci frowned to herself as she considered the options. Surrender and spend the rest of the war in a Alliance prison camp, or go out fighting.
The options weren't too appetizing.
But if she did manage to reach Peacekeeper Command after this war, she would be either dismissed or demoted. The Science Facilities were listed as a Class-Red Priority. They had to be held, it was that simple.
And from what she had gathered, Reci knew that four had fallen and the other was in the process of being invaded at the time of communications blackout.
Which meant that she wasn't going to be the only one that her superiors would be looking to decapitate, if she survived of course.
* * * * * *
Thirty minutes, exactly, after the ultimatum had been given, Ivan and Private Relond were moving forward, their Luxon comrades close behind.
Ivan pulled the pins from the two grenades he held. In the Academy he had been given commendations for his ability to throw a grenade from either hand. Or from both.
The two flash grenades joined the one thrown by Relond in blinding the remaining marines in the Computer Core.
Ivan turned the corner and his flechette rifle coughed sharpened slivers of death. The three other members of IT-Baker-One followed, firing as they moved.
Two scientists and one marine survived, though heavily wounded as they were. And as she regained consciousness, Lieutenant Reci Gosi realized she had failed.
* * * * * *
Dylan frowned as he was awakened from a blissful sleep.
"Yes?" He asked as he activated the voice-only transmission.
"Sir, a courier has just made translation from Yevin. They are filing battle reports and carrying a top-secret report from General Si'Peral."
"I'll be on the Command Deck in five minutes," Dylan said as he scrambled to get dressed.
The result of the operation was obviously a success, if Si'Peral was sending top secret reports via Courier instead of limping back in pieces.
Dylan had only met Si'Peral once before the General had shipped out, and he didn't seem to be the type to waste a perfectly good courier for nothing.
* * * * * *
Dylan, John, Crais, Li'Taran and Leo Tiral were the only ones who saw the message from Si'Peral. They were the only ones to see what had been found in the Science Facilities of Yevin Three.
"What are they?" Leo Tiral asked as he looked at the holo-grid image of the tiny pod.
"Those are transport pods," Crais said as he looked at the strangely familiar craft. "Though they are not of the design I am familiar with."
"What are they for?" Tiral asked in response.
"They aren't transport pods," John answered as he frowned. "They are space pods. And they are built for one reason. To take full advantage of wormholes."
