Athens Coastline
Skimming across the surface of the ocean, massive ripples turned into souring waves in their wake, the new hover tanks moved at almost unprecedented speeds, what was more amazing, is that even though they were approaching mach 1, they barely felt a thing. 'Such are the wonders of modern technology' the commander thought with a smirk.
"Sir we got incoming banshees, coming in from behind!"
"Shit, bring your weapons online but don't turn to engage, fire whenever you get a lock, but we need to get to the beaches, they can't fight us in a city."
The massive missile batteries on the MLRS quickly turned to face the rapidly approaching interceptors, bursting from the cascading clouds above, the scarlet and black hulls reflected the morning sun in a bright golden fury of colour, not soon after, mixed with streaks of acid green energy, proton cannons firing wildly.
The constantly strafing tanks barely avoided the energy blasts that slammed into the watery depths, the immediate counter attack was deadly. Nearly a dozen MIM-146 ADATS-2 missiles streaked skyward in the direction of the attack, multiple explosions mixed with the cloudy atmosphere, but the blasts kept coming.
Even now the commander grimaced, the city was but a mere 2 dozen kilometres away, but even going at these speeds, it may as well have been a thousand, the fighters behind them were certainly making him feel that way.
"We just lost Omega-15, sensors are detecting more inbound fighters!"
"That's it, everyone move to engage on my mark, save as many missiles as you can but.."
"Their friendly sir! 302's are incoming at mach 6."
"Belay the last order, continue the attack, omega 1-14 will join up with me at Glifada, the rest of you, take the main harbour."
The constant blasting of the still strange, but undoubtedly powerful energy stopped, the roaring scream of hypersonic fighters clashing against each other could be heard even from the reinforced cockpits of the hover tanks, as they broke off into two groups, they felt a mixture of emotions, each taking a severe toll on them. Anticipation, fear, smugness and the like, but one of the few things they all knew, and took to heart was this.
GDI will take no further crap form Nod.
New York System
The armada moved together in a tight formation, surrounding the massive 590 metre long Pukov Strike Carrier, 8 Prometheus battlecruisers held from all directions, with a mix of Swiftsure's and Hammond destroyers in between. Hundreds of fighters flew around each ship, each Prometheus held a full squadron ever since the Daedalus upgrade, which basically rebuilt the Prometheus class from ground up, but this was not to forget the Pukov's fighter wings. 4 full squadrons of Suhkoi-57 'Sabers' the first commercially produced star fighter, rated on similar level to the F-302B, the sole Kossac Fighter/Bomber squadron, but none of them compared to the fighter only known as the Suhkoi-67 Basilisk.
Built along the same lines as the saber, the Basilisks is the leading interceptor in the Russian fleet, considered even a equal to the GDI Phoenix in capabilities, and in some cases, it had an advantage. The basilisk was the only human cloakable fighter other then the Nod banshee.
"This is Chekan to the Pukov, the blackguard will cloak and jump ahead of the main fleet, on your orders we will begin the attack." Ivan Petrov informed the bridge of the massive carrier to his port side, his father, Admiral Petrov was her captain, and his sons served in the premier fighter squadron in the Russian forces, some thought of them on the level of the GDI Ace Squadrons, the 45th Flying Tigers, or to a lesser extent, the Vampires. In war-games, he frequently went toe to toe against Alpha-3 of the 45th, despite all this, he could never remember his name.
His musing was cut off, the reply from the Pukov came, "Acknowledged Black Guard 1, your orders are to hold position near high priority targets, once we begin the engagement, you are too fire at will.'
"Roger that Pukov," switching channels to his brother Nikoli in the fighter next to him "Okay Incubus, prepare the squadron for the jump, we have our orders."
"Understood Ivan."
12 fighters instantly plunged into their newly created windows, the main fleet continued on without them, the small purple portals ignored by the giant capital ships, they had their own mission to complete.
Athens
"On final approach, radars picking up a few derelicts on the beach, looks like the special ops boys did their job, now its our turn, you all know your targets, take them out!"
The 14 hover tanks made the transition from sea to land with incredible smoothness, sliding from the now clear beaches onto the empty streets with equal ease. Short range sensors picked up several enemy signatures down the main street of the suburb, the tanks quickly moved into a multi-pronged flank, taking every possible street to surround the nod forces.
The gliding units found a trio of old Bradley light tanks patrolling the outer edges of the city, no doubt nods main forces were caught up holding the main CBD, which was still a hub for resistance. Omega group charged in, Each unit firing a single missile at the tank force, even the standard, non-naqaudah enhanced variant of the missile was overkill against the unsuspecting force, they were plowed down almost instantly, yet the small squadron of hover tanks didn't stop, they rushed down the streets, quickly purging any nod forces, and leaving the startled populous of Athens thanking what ever respective deity they believed in freedom.
Hammerfest Base
Inside the massive command centre, under layers and layers of defenses, from the external shield grid around the base, to the individual layers of titanium armoured doors, that filled every corridor, Hammerfest was truly a fortress in the modern term. However, behind all these layers, there was a rightful purpose for the extensive defensive measures, held in the centre of the room, was a large polished oak table, rectangular in shape, letting the group of people sit in the position that suited them. However what was strange was that several of the groups weren't actually in the building, instead a holographic image of person, be they leading the GDI flagship on a patrol, or high above the planet in an orbital fortress the size of a small city.
"Then it's agreed, we'll be pulling back main forces towards Austria, there we'll meet Nod in their offensive." General O'Neill informed the delegates of the GDI Joint Chiefs.
"What's the status of the African 'front'?" asked Lieutenant General Cameron Mitchell's, chief of GDI's Airforce, with no small amount of sarcasm, O'Neill nodded towards General Wright, Chief of Ground Forces, the short English man had not wanted to give this news, especially with the first counter attack under way, "we just lost cape town 34 minutes ago."
No one was truly surprised, but South Africa was the lone nation in GDI left on the African continent, and Nods constant assaults on the country, left it overwhelmed by multiple nations military, let alone the super-advanced forces that Nod had been saving for conflicts with GDI.
The graying general Gunther von Esling near the back was the first to comment, "Well with that front gone, we can expect things to get tougher in Europe, how is the Asian front holding up?" being the GDI commander of the European Front, he constantly had to deal with forces being pushed back, nations being conquered, and ultimately absorbed into Nod, whatever extra help, from any front, could make his, and his forces job, that much easier.
Solomon's hologram smirked slightly, probably at the one piece of good news today "The Chinese's have successfully turned the line, and with the support of the Russians and Indians are pushing on the offensive, thankfully those Titans we lended them are being put to good use, estimations on the liberation of Pakistan is 2 months."
The supreme commander rose his arms in exaggerated appreciation, looking to each chief he gave a questioning glare "Well that's some good news, why can't the rest of you give me that? Dropping the act at the small chuckle the spread the room, he continued "What's new on the attack on Athens?"
Von Esling reported "General Stavros has organized the remaining loyalist military in preparation for our assault, hopefully, with the cities liberation, we can finally hit Nods underbelly."
General Mark Shepherd, commander of Taskforce Firestorm continued, "The new Hover Tanks are inside the harbour districts, minimal resistance so far, but their holding position just incase, the main assault force will arrive in approximately 3 hours, but they'll need additional air support."
"Banshees causing problems again?" Mitchell's asked.
Nodding briefly, Shepherd replied", Yes, and the problem is, that we can't rely on long range bases, our fighters are losing ordinance against them."
"Primary weapons?" Wright asked, noticing the snorts the Airforce general were given.
O'Neill was the one to respond with no small grin on his face "Do you know how hard it is to dogfight against those things? They turn and move, faster then even our top F-302's, not to mention they cloak."
Eyes widening at the answer, Wright conceded "Point taken, but what are we going to do? Bring in a carrier to the Aegean sea?" at Shepherds nod he rolled his eyes.
"What? You want to try and get a carrier Battlegroup inside the Mediterranean?" the general asked sarcastically, knowing full well that any naval ship these days were a slow moving target, especially in the seas that Nod routinely patrolled from the skies.
"Well there is one thing we could do…" O'Neill suggested, activating the lone TV screen at the end of the room, showing the view of Hammerfests shipyards. Two massive dry docks stood out amongst the many, in their bays, held the twin forms of GDI Dreadnoughts, both at separate levels of construction. The ESS Freya was the most prominent, a few months away from completion, the 2nd Thor class started construction alongside the Thor, her longer construction time due to her no being rushed into service, unlike the first ship. The third however, had barely begun, started soon after the Thor left the dry-docks, the Odin's keel had barely being laid, and she wouldn't be complete until the following year.
However, behind the prominent docks, were numerous smaller facilities, holding ships ranging from Freedom class Battleships, to Kodiak corvettes, one dock in particular held a ship not much smaller then the battleships, but a radically different design, based on its construction from different governments, as well as to support its unique shield systems. Held within the monstrous bay, was the ESS Nemesis, third of the Yamato class strike carrier.
Pendergast was the first to object, "Oh no, it's not even finished yet."
His counter-part across the room disagreed, Vice Admiral Ronson argued the point "Only the hyperdrive and heavy weapons, we only need it as a temporary base, then we'll put her back in the dry-docks for the final refit."
Near the end of the table, their superior took both their opinions under consideration, being stationed almost permanently on earth, he had seen little of the recent combat, but his days as commander of former US Navy were fresh in everyone's mind, Fleet Admiral Jacob Keyes mused for several moments, in the end it formed a question of his own ,"That's a big assumption, we know the Yamato class can take a hell of a pounding, but what if we lose her before she's even finished?"
Shepherd shrugged "It's either that, or no air superiority above the city, for one I'm all for it, if she gets a pounding we can buzz her out of their in no time."
O'Neill considered it all, giving a small glimpse at General Davis's concerned look in the opposite direction , but ultimately he stuck with his original thought "I have to agree, I'll give the orders personally."
The SGC commander nodded seemingly absent mindedly, before addressing the other chiefs "Excuse me for a moment, but new Intel for one of our protectorates shows incoming hyperspace windows, I'll have to cut this short." With O'Neill's nod, the hologram warped into nothingness, leaving the empty leather chair in its place.
"Baal's on the move?" Solomon asked the rhetorical question.
"Must be, at least he's not attacking any of the Asgard Protected Worlds, that still doesn't help us when that's only a quarter the number of our protectorates, and with the goa'uld on the move….we might have to start being selective."
Pendergast didn't like the idea, if earth couldn't protect the worlds like they promised, why offer protection to that many worlds in the first place? "Can't we ask the Asgard to spare a few ships to their protectorates? An O'Neill or two in each world would sure make Baal think twice about attacking them."
O'Neill almost jumped at the question, he was going to save this until later, but since it was brought up…."We'll from what Carters told me, we can expect a good dozen or so ships coming to their outposts, not the big ones unfortunately, but a new destroyer type."
Ronson smiled at that "What, they leant that bigger isn't always better?"
"Pretty much, considering its still the size of a Prometheus, I guess they learned from our example."
"What are they called?" Von Esling asked
"Mjolnir, but our techs at the Asgard world call it the hammer, too hard to spell otherwise." Shrugging at the thought, but secretly agreeing, in the almost constant talks he had with Thor, he learned exactly how different the Asgard language was, Daniel constantly offered to teach him it, after collecting it from the various Norse languages, he managed to get the hang of it, soon becoming fluent, but then again, he was the ambassador, and O'Neill was the grunt in a suit.
"How many can we expect?"
"Estimates show that there will be at least 400 in both galaxies by mid-next year."
Mitchell's did a long drawn out whistle, "Shit, those guys sure know how to build ships, especially for one world."
The supreme commander nodded in agreement "Wonders of advanced technology General, especially now that their clone problem is solved somewhat."
"At least they got something worthwhile out of Atlantis's database, you'd think the ancients would know something about tiberium, the spread is making its way north, at least its slowing down in the Alps."
Wright injected, "That's not going to stop it for long, the French are having a fit over it, I even heard their considering evacuating the entire nation to the colonies."
Ronson gave a mixed look of confusion and shock, "That's a bit extreme, evacuating the southern parts to the north maybe, but the entire nation..Into space at that?"
"Hell from what I've heard, they've already picked a planet, nice and isolated at that." O'Neill informed the admiral, only reinforcing the point.
"If their leaving their military behind, that's all I ask for, the support from Russia will help in Europe, but we need all we can get." Pendergast said, the others nodded with agreement
O'Neill started packing up his reports and the like "Now I think that's all, unless anyone else has anything to bring up?" at when everyone shook their head, or equivalent O'Neill grinned "Very well, meeting adjourned, now if you'll excuse me, I have a carrier to launch."