Robotech: Pyrrhic Wardance
- A Sentinels-MOSPEADA Serial
Chapter Two: A New Mission
By SithKnight-Galen
A/N: This is a disclaimer to state that the term Robotech, Macross, Mospeada and all references to Robotech and it's established characters are registered trademarks to the American Military complex and multiple Japanese business interests. I have no desire to cross either of these entities so I take no credit for their work. However, the characters depicted in this story are the creation of my insanity, and therefore entirely mine, even if some of them bear some likenesses to people I know and love (sometimes). Use them only with my express permission.
I love comments and complaints. I thrive on knowing how people tick. Besides, I need to get in some more lightsaber practice and I need volunteers. Now on with the Story::
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Brandon left the flight deck to go to the post-op de-briefing letting the fatigue of the last few hours finally slacken his shoulders and seep into his body. Although the beachhead was successful, it was not a very easy thing to do, or to hold. If nothing else, the Invid were fanatically, and fatalistically tenacious. Ahh well, such is life, he supposed, especially in these trying and crazy times.
'I really hope that we will be able to take it easy after this……at least for a little while. With Hunter's Corps liberating the Haydon system and General Edwards finally showing his true colors and leaguing up with the Regent, we are getting close to the breaking point. Seven months of constant fighting, and not even the people that we had come here to deal with in the first place. I bet the historians are going to have a ball with the irony of that one.'
The fighter squadron captain paused in his musings as he was joined by his Beta attachment partner. The Lieutenant had something of a wry smile on his still boyish face. He was also whistling a little ditty from one of those Japanese cartoons he was so fond of., which was never a good sign. At least he didn't too often over the TAC-net. The flimsy in his hand wasn't a good sign either.
"So what are you so happy about, Martin?"
"Heh, well seems I was able to make ace with that sortie. And we shot down over two hundred of those pincers and crabs. Looks like we seriously got somebody's attention from upstairs."
"What do you mean?"
Craig handed over the flimsy, that bemused look still on his face.
"Here, take a look for yourself, bossman."
Bernard slowed his gait down just a bit as he read the report over, his own look darkening slightly. Martin wasn't kidding when he had said that they had impressed somebody upstairs. But was that really a good thing by the looks of these orders. Probably not, but who was he to complain?
"You sure this is for real, man?"
"As real as Reinhardt's waggly whiskers. Flynn handed me that as soon as I was cleared on the TARMAC. She said she was gonna give it to you or Janine, but you had already left and Jan's still buttoned up in her ship checking it over. Man, that second to last pass really did a number to her bird. I am surprised she was even able to make it back to the ship." Craig scratched his head while he talked, the euphoria from the recent battle finally leaving his own body, even though he knew that he would probably still be wired for the next few hours.
"Yeah I heard that Cartwright and Miller had to get rushed over to surgery. I can't wait until we get re-enforced with those new Super Alphas they promised us."
"Yeah, that would be really nice. And they could also figure out to armor my Transports so that half of us don't get torn to ribbons during everyone of these puddle-jump missions," a low female voice adds from behind the duo. Both turn and smile at one of the topics of their earlier comments, Commander Janine Derringer herself. The petite raven-locked pilot looked up at the other two with yet another fatigued face. Unlike the fighter pilots, she did look like she had been drug thru hell over the course of the last sixteen and a half hours.
"Yeah, I guess that would be nice, then we could actually not have to worry so much about keeping the "cranes" covered so closely," Craig mused aloud as they approached the door to the briefing room. "Babysitting those birds isn't exactly the easiest way to pull the hammer on "slugs", if you know what I mean. Besides, we need boats that can survive more than one or two kamikaze pincer ships. Or at least give you guys something with a little "Oomph" to fight back with."
"You know we have been asking for that for months now."
"Make that years."
"Well, they feel that the LEGIOS teams assigned to each boat are usually sufficient enough as a deterrent for the Horizonts to be any more heavily armed than they are. Just think about it, do we really want Atkins trying to chase down every Pincer in the sky just because he has a ship defense laser on his fuselage?"
Brandon then stepped thru the doors before his friend or his wife could shoot back a reply, a smile on his rugged face. That smile faded slightly upon him taking in the faces of those already present in the briefing room. Some of those faces he already knew, but there were quite a few of them he didn't immediately recognize, but by their unit patches and shoulder pips, knew what they were doing, even if they were GROPOS. He nodded to the other two Squadron Commanders and the ranking Army officers as he took his seat.
"I thought we were going to a de-briefing, not another war council session," Craig leaned over and whispered as soon as he took his seat on his CO's right, Janine taking one on the left.
"So did I," Brandon whispered back as the briefing staff entered the room and began to take their places at the head of the rows of chairs, and Major General Caruthers took his traditional place at the podium.
Major General Elliott Caruthers was known as one of the more pragmatic warhorses currently in the REF command stable, coming up from the ranks of the Mechanized Infantry and Destroid Corps during the First Robotech War. While he was on the latter end of middle age, he still carried himself like a career soldier and had been known to mix it up with his men and women during some of the earlier campaigns in the war. His steely blue gaze swept over the officers in attendance as he began to speak in his low, slightly southern drawl.
"Good evening ladies and gentleman. First, let me congratulate all of you on a job well done. The lightning raid on the Invid hive complex on Graja III has completely neutralized the target and has been considered a rousing and complete success by High Command. The mop-up operations are expected to last another 72 to 96 hours, and then the battle group will be breaking orbit to rejoin the main fleet. The population of the Graja Homeworld would like to extend to us their eternal gratitude, and once they have their infra-structure back up and running, they will be sending envoys to the REF Provisionary Council to work out formal trade and military support agreements."
The slight smile of pride that has been on his face fades as he dims down the light, and a 3-D holo-projector comes to life in front of him on planning table. Another screen pops onto the wall display behind him as two junior officers begin handing out sealed order packets.
"Before any of you ask, yes, we do have another assignment before us. I will not lie to any of you and tell you that this is going to be an easy assignment, or promise you that all of you will be coming back, should you all decide to take on this mission. Before I continue, does anyone have any objections to being included in this mission?"
The general scans the crowd and notices the uniformity of the naval combat wing pilots and army combat officers as they watch him, not a one seeming to want to be left out of the mission."
'Ahh, a good bunch, and eager to get this over with. Hopefully, with a bit of skill and a lot of luck they may actually get this wish If Intel and Hunter are correct, and we can actually catch both that Sleazebag Edwards and the Head slug himself together at the same time.' Caruthers thought with an inner smile of pride. He hated to send these "kids" out to do the job he should have been leading himself, but this was their time, and it was what they were trained for. Now if they would all only come back from it.
"We have finally discovered the location of the Invid Homeworld, Optera, courtesy of our counterparts within the Karbarran military. Elements of General Breetai's Zentraedi battle armada are already en-route to the planet, and we have been selected to add our presence to the combat zone. We will be joining the SDF Jutland battle group when we reach system. However, we do not want to reach the system blind, especially since the expected Invid defenses around their Homeworld will be expected to be three to five times as tenacious as that around Tirol.. Therefore, we have been requested to send a small unit to conduct a force recon of the Opteran system, and to target and map out probable landing zones and targets."
The general again paused to allow this new information sink into the crowd before him. After a thirty second pause and quite a bit of murmuring, a hand shot up from the second of the four rows of assembled officers. A destroid pilot or military specialist from the unit patch.
"Pardon me, General, just how big of a recon force are we talking here, and composed of what? Is it going to just be a quick fly-by, or are we planning on dropping down ground assets as well?"
"Good question, Major," the general replied quickly, re-gaining the initiative. "And I will try to answer them as best as I can. We are looking at both ground and air based recon drops, hopefully of a Combined-Arms company size or a bit smaller. We are looking at using the R&D's new "cloaking" technology on all vehicles and equipment that will be assigned that uses proto-culture, since it has been proven that the Invid seem to track our equipment by our energy emissions."
Another hand shot up from the back row of the crowd."
"Yes, Lieutenant."
The lanky, slightly pale man in the lab coat with the goldbars on his shoulders stands up, re-settling his glasses on his face as he asks his question.
"Doctor Graffson, Alien Studies Division. Is this mission volunteer only, or will only certain persons be selected for this General? Also, is this strictly a pop and drop, or are we going to be down on the ground long enough to gain more long-term data as well?"
Caruthers smiled as the researcher sat back down. Good question, real good question, and he hoped his answer didn't disappoint this crowd too badly, or perhaps only some elements of it from what he had seen so far.
"Yes, this mission is volunteer priority, since the survivability, and success of this operation is critical for the coming campaign. We want people who are willing to do what it takes to get the mission done, and get out, no matter what the costs. Your job will consist of going in, getting intel on a variety of sites around the planet via various drop points, staying on the ground long enough to assess strength and defensive capability, and then get out, re-grouping in the outer system. Now, do we have any volunteers for this?"
Caruthers quieted down again as a junior army captain walked up and stood beside him, a clipboard in hand. For a few moments, there was no movement as everyone regarded their neighbor, or the un-opened packets before them. Then the Major who had spoken before stood up.
"Major Darmouth, Second Company, Seventeenth ATAC, Mechanized Infantry. My unit volunteers for the ground reconnaissance of the Opteran Homeworld. My unit has performed this mission before, and we know how to handle ourselves…..adequately….in the field when it comes to going into hot zones and coming back."
Caruthers smiles and nods to the Captain who then jots down the information from the dark complected officer.
"Are you a Cyclone Unit or a destroid Unit Major?"
"Combined Arms, sir. Two platoon of destroids, two platoons of Cyclones, and my headquarters platoon, which is also Cyclone trained. All we need air assets and a way to get on the planet intact."
"Good. Pick your ten best destroid pilots and top fifty Cyclone operatives. Doctor Graffson, are you willing to accompany the Major and his men on this operation?"
The scientist coughed before speaking. He recalled the last few times that he had been assigned to elements of the Combat Branches of the REF, and how often he was frustrated by his in-ability to complete his own mission in furthering the understanding of the Invid's symbiotic relationship with the Proto-culture flower of Life and their bio-organic technomancy. He also remembered the last two times he had gone out into the field, both times with elements of Darmouth's "IronWalkers". While he had survived the missions and was able to accomplish all goals both times, he had to fall back on his combat training more times than he had cared to. However, on the good side, they did know how to keep him protected and respected the fact that he actually did have a mission that wasn't necessarily military in scope.
"Jawohl, General. That arrangement should be more than acceptable."
"Good deal, Doctor. Now who do we have for the air asset……"
Janine stood up and spoke next, interrupting Caruthers, rare for her but she knew she had heard a challenge in the military specialist's voice as he made his statement about his unit's abilities.
"Commander Derringer, 148th Transport Squadron.. I offer my flight of Horizonts to the mission. We have more combat time under fire and less ships lost to enemy fire than any other rapid transport unit in the fleet."
"Horizonts, eh? Give me the names of your two best crews, and we will go with them."
"Yessir, That would be my own crew, " Jan replied with a knowing smile. " And Lieutenant Commander Youngman's crew."
"Do you have any preference for who provides your fighter CAP escort?," the general asked.
"Yes she does, General Caruthers." Brandon gave his wife a brief look before speaking again. "Seventeenth ATAC, Diamondbacks VFW. First and third flights are at full strength."
"Good to hear, Captain. First flight should be sufficient for this Operation. You will go ahead and grab the file folders marked Zone 4-23-Alpha-2. That will be your operational theater of operation. This mission is classified Z-3 Black. Please only pass the information that you will find there amongst the final pilots and crews that will be selected to carry out this mission. Your teams will be shipping out in forty-eight hours, as soon as we get your mecha re-fitted and loaded."
The general then turns and glances over his adjutant's shoulder, then looks up at the other assembled officers.
"Thank you for your time everyone. This meeting is concluded, You are all dismissed."
With that, the general and his general staff filed out of the room, followed by many of the other officers and pilots. Brandon spied his army opposite for this mission gathering his own things and talking with a brown haired First Lieutenant also sporting the IronWalkers logo on his shoulder patch. The two stop talking as Derringer walks forward, and wait to see what he has to say.
"Hello there, I'm Brandon Derringer, your fighter escort leader. It'll be a real pleasure serving with you guys."
"Hmm, I bet. Major Ryan Darmouth. This is my second in command, First Lieutenant Marquis Tribanuiski. He'll be in charge of the destroid contingent for this operation."
The other man merely nods and then re-adjusts his beret as he checks over the paperwork in his hand, re-shuffling a few pages.
"So, Major, do your people have any special accommodations or anything that my people should know about before we get started?"
Darmouth eyes the burlier man for a long moment before answering. He picked up his unit baseball cap and placed it on his head as he spoke.
"Actually, I do have one. Make sure you flyboys don't forget your jobs, and get us down to the planet in one piece. We will handle the rest. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go brief my soldiers, then check up on my wounded."
With that, the two REF army officers brush past, are joined by a senior NCO, and the trio leave the flyers behind. Brandon watched them go with a bemused look even as Jan slipped an arm around his back. Shaking off the odd feeling, he smiled down at her.
"Let's go grab some chow. I don't want to have to think too much about this mission and all the problems that it is going to be until tomorrow morning."
"You're on dearest. After all, I much prefer to spend my last free evening for awhile with you and a nice bottle of the sparkly."
Laughing lowly, the couple exit out of the briefing room as well.
SKGà Well as I said before, like it or hate it, just review it!!
Oh yeah, to be continued…::enter Robotech theme music::