Chapter CIII: Sirius Business - Flames of a Frozen Hell
Niflheim/Ceta V(b)
Sirius System
8.6 light years from Earth
Outside a domed city on the southeastern hemisphere of the ice world the Espheni invasion force was stranded upon the native Cetan armies were braced in a defensive posture to repel a rapidly approaching Espheni army. It was a bright clear day; the ice was smooth and dry with a high southerly wind whipping across the seemingly endless flat landscape. Missiles were repeatedly launched out of tubes embedded into the ice around the edges of the buildings attached to and surrounding the dome. These short to medium range missiles flew off beyond the northern and western horizons. The light from a small number of these missiles when they exploded could be seen as tiny faint flashes in the distance. Crescent shaped sub-orbital aircraft also whipped around the city and tore off into the north where they bombed an enemy still too distant to be seen.
Up to this point the Cetan ground forces had been fighting a defensive war. The enemy quickly seized control of much of the other side of the planet that had been most affected by the EMP and the bombardment early on. The inhabitants of this world had appealed for aid from their allies but so far no assistance had arrived. Unwilling to nuke their own cities from orbit or use long range ballistic missiles against them the Espheni were able to establish secure bases from which to build up their forces. From then on out the Espheni had launched wave after wave from their entrenched positions in those cities against the cities which were still free of their influence. Initially the defenders had great success holding back the tide and lost little ground to the endless waves of Espheni forces. After repeated attempts attrition began to take its toll. The defenders ranks wore thin and one by one the free cities fell to the alien conquerors. As they spread the Espheni grew stronger inching ever closer to breaking the stalemate that persisted on the surface. This besieged domed city was critical in maintaining that stalemate. It was the only inhabited, fortified location for a great distance in any direction thus making it a strong point by which long range missiles and other immensely powerful indirect fire weapons could be utilized to stop large armies from reaching it. In fact just this day they had launched six fusion warheads to annihilate Espheni armies coming towards them from the north and the south. To counter this the Espheni began to tunnel under the ice and use submersible bio-craft to ferry their forces across the ancient ocean beneath the thick ice sheets to the west of the city. At the point they emerged the Espheni armies were dangerously close to risk using a high yield nuclear weapon without posing a risk of its fallout blowing back to the city which launched it. They now had to rely on more conventional tactics to repel this next wave of attack.
While their long range weaponry continued to hamper the advance of a very large contingent of Espheni ground forces the Cetan defenders readied themselves to face those that would inevitably manage to get through. Their forces numbered around five thousand spread out around the edge of the city with another three thousand soldiers within the city and its sub-levels. The defending forces were most concentrated around the north and west sides of the city but retained guard posts and lighter battle lines surrounding the entire dome in case the enemy had stealth technology that had eluded their scans and recon flights. Being on the side of the planet which had not been disrupted by the massive EMP-style weapon the dome's anti-air defense grid of laser and missile turrets along with the skyward facing energy shield were fully operational. These systems were adjusted to deal more so with the threat of indirect fire coming into the dome rather than Espheni airstrikes as their own air forces held clear control of the skies throughout most of this world.
On the front lines to the west of the city the leader of the city garrison and commander of the southern front waited with their men. Ahead of them were rows of crawlers, boxy roughly trapezoidal tanks and armored personnel carriers with thick claw like treads to dig into the ice sheets. The crawlers had an assortment of weaponry ranging from a forward mounted heavy energy weapon along with twin missile batteries to a smaller set of rotating laser or plasma turrets. Some crawlers had a plow blade set in front of them both for added armor and to clear away snowdrifts, something that really wasn't a problem in this arid part of the world. Behind the crawlers were a motley assortment of repulsor lift skirmisher bikes which operated by utilizing the planet's magnetic field to slightly reverse the effect of gravity in the vicinity of the bike enabling them to fly or hover a short distance off the ground. These skirmisher bikes, usually only equipped with forward mounted lasers or light pulse cannons if anything at all were tremendously fast and effective at outmaneuvering the much slower enemy mechs. Their speed however made them difficult to control and they had little to no armor meaning that one or two well placed hits could effectively destroy them. In addition to the lumbering heavily armed crawlers and the agile skirmisher bikes the Cetan defenders had artillery pieces on halftrack crawler treads which featured a dish shaped directed energy weapon for line of sight targets and twin angled mortar tubes for indirect fire. For their third line of defense the Cetans had their own mechs. These were humanoid in shape with bulky arms and thick solid legs. Compared to their Espheni counterparts they were more heavily armed and armored but considerably slower, especially on the ice. They had additional armor panels reinforcing the shoulders, back, chest, hips, thighs and feet of the walkers. In this environment the armor panels were colored white to match the ice but in other locales the armor could be painted any number of colors. The hands of the Cetan mechs had four fingers, two on each side with either a pulse cannon or laser embedded in the middle of the palm. Some mechs had one forearm replaced with an even heavier Gatling gun style weapon, a giant blade or spike. They could also be outfitted with missile launchers between the shoulder panels and the neck. The head on most of these machines contained the primary CPU which ran the AI and much of the sensitive sensory equipment though there were backup sensors positioned on the chest and back for remote operation. Some of the mechs were outfitted with an omnidirectional laser sphere or temporary shield projector on top of the head as well. Those mechs with these features also had a larger mid-section extending out from their back to support the increased power demands of these items. The shield projector could produce a force field around the mech for a few minutes before it had to cool down. While not a permanent defense these devices could be a lifesaver for a mech pilot who found themselves in the thick of a firefight with no means of escape. Due to the added cost and power requirements the shield generators were only on the mechs capable of supporting a pilot. That being said, these machines could be remotely operated, controlled by onboard AI or piloted manually in some models that had a cockpit positioned in the chest. Skadi had several hundred of these mechs at her disposal on the front lines and a thousand or so more inside the city in case the enemy broke through. If their armored divisions should fail to hold the line, behind them at the edge of the city and intermixed between the dome's external structures were the Cetan foot soldiers, the last line of defense. They were clad in thick cold weather armor, a mix of high tech polymer plating and a low tech lining of synthetic fur. The armor also had small battery pack that powered systems which further warmed or cooled its occupant and also powered communications, friend or foe recognition software, night vision and infrared sensors. It was important that this armor remained sealed because one of them could freeze to death in a matter of minutes when exposed to the elements outside, especially in this wind. The Cetan shock troops were equipped with pocketed plasma guns, pulse rifles and tripod mounted laser cannons. For close combat they carried knives and pole axes which could be energized by a self-contained power source which was visible as either crackling electricity around the blade or a steady blue or yellow glow which surrounded the striking portion of the weapon and consumed it making it appear like a lightsaber in axe or knife form. These energized weapons allowed the user to cut through armor which the blade alone could not pierce. They also made valuable survival tools for any soldiers left stranded in the cold wilderness as they could provide a heat source which was sustainable for months. The command post where Field Marshall Skadi and the commander of the city garrison were positioned was on the roof of a two story armored building positioned on the north side of the western access gate to the city which was currently sealed by a two meter thick metal door. The command post had numerous gun emplacements, high walls to hide behind and a slanted transparent roof extending from the side of the dome. An enclave of computer consoles displayed data from the city's sensory equipment and gave real time access to each of the units deployed in this theater of war.
In time the explosions at the edge of the defenders field of vision grew larger and more numerous. They could see not only flashes on the horizon but the detonations of missiles shot down in midair. Moments later the sight of enemy ground fire could be seen shooting off into the pale teal and silver sky. The defenders could see the weapons being discharged by their own aircraft as they made their attack runs and observed one of them being shot down. While the Cetans enjoyed air superiority the Espheni mega mechs anti-aircraft weaponry was more than capable at fending off an unbridled stream of airstrikes.
In spite of the frigid weather the mechs advanced at a steady swift pace towards the domed city. The Espheni mechs and mega mechs had been modified for cold weather operations prior to landing on this world. They knew the external conditions they were walking into here prior to their arrival although they failed to expect the planet to be inhabited by such a technologically advanced race of beings. The skitters too had been modified to withstand the cold. These were not the same type of skitters that were rampaging across the surface of the earth. They sacrificed the strength of their armor for the ability to generate and retain tremendous amounts of body heat in order to endure the cold and stay limber in combat. These skitters were faster and shorter lived than their temperate cousins though they were derived from the same basic life form.
Soon the enemy came into view to those observing them through their one-piece binoculars. There were literally thousands of mega mechs and hundreds more standard mechs stretching out in a loose formation from one end of the horizon to the other. Behind these mechs, still unseen to the defenders were massive four legged spider and scorpion shaped walkers and an endless horde of skitters.
"There's so many of them. Where the hell do they keep coming from?" the observer near the command post remarked as he took measure of the magnitude of the enemy force approaching them.
It was known by Skadi that the invaders had quickly seized control of their manufacturing facilities on the other side of the planet and were using them to pump out mechs in record numbers. This accounted for why the ratio of mechs to skitters in nearly all recent engagements was in the range of 40-100 to 1. They certainly had the means of breeding more skitters as well though Skadi did not know exactly how they were doing this. Certainly the invaders had already taken losses in excess of the size of the force they had landed with. Skadi herself had overseen operations which combined had in effect annihilated that original invasion several times over. One thing for certain she could give to her adversary was that they sure could replenish their forces at an alarming rate, even considering the advanced manufacturing facilities they had seized early on from the Cetans. The pace at which the Espheni could throw men and materiel into their war effort was what made the battle so difficult once the invaders managed to dig in and fortify. The Espheni were an infection upon Niflheim, any single enemy warrior or great army of them could be disposed of with relative ease but unless the invasion was completely exterminated down to the last they could replenish their ranks within the proverbial blink of an eye. The only thing the aliens couldn't seem to replace were the overlords, of which Skadi personally had the pleasure of killing two. The Cetans could barely keep their weapons production up to match their losses, but it was their manpower that was slowly being depleted. If they did not receive reinforcements from outside they would be forced to result to scorched earth tactics or suffer a slow and painful defeat.
"North side has reported no less than ten thousand in range." added the communications operator seated at one of the computer consoles.
"East side recon teams are reporting additional forces approaching from 200 scores out." the communications operated added as a new report came in.
"Lady Skadi, do you believe we can hold this city against such a host?" the garrison commander asked.
Skadi gave no response right away; instead she went over to the surveillance console and examined the data that their "eye in the sky" was feeding them. The garrison commander followed behind her as she checked on both planetary intelligence and the display detailing the city's defensive systems. While going over the militarily pertinent data in her head she also glanced over at the monitor displaying the status on the city's power, ventilation and climate control systems.
"Should I give the order for my people to evacuate? We have enough transport lifts to move the population to Vaargen if we leave now." the garrison commander inquired of her after she did not reply for a few minutes.
"You would be better to put guns on those transports and send them into battle Commander. We've lost three cities to the east and cannot afford this one to fall. I will not retreat." Skadi insisted.
The city's mounted missile turrets burst forth with a tremendous barrage of rockets directed at the great host of Espheni mechs which surrounded at a distance over half of the approaches to the city. The mechs in turned launched an immense salvo of their own rockets and fired their chain guns and pulse cannons into the air to intercept the incoming missiles. Many of the rockets struck each other as they passed; many more were shot out of the sky by the mechs and the mounted laser cannons on the city's defenses. No defensive screen was perfect and thus rockets slammed into the dome and the surrounding buildings. The dome was scorched and shaken by the flames and the impact of the explosions yet remained solid and unharmed. The nearby buildings sustained damage and the soldiers gathered nearby took their first losses when the mech rockets crashed into their ranks. On the other side of the battlefield the Cetan rockets obliterated several dozen mechs and left scorched pot marks in the once pristine white ice sheet, now scorched with rings of black and grey.
The Cetan airstrikes intensified and the mechs sped up their approach. Blue spheres were dropped in the areas where the mechs were the thickest. These spheres expanded with a sparkling blue flash and disabled all the mechs within the energy sphere before it dissipated. In more sparsely populated regions of the mech line the airships employed rapid fire red laser bursts to tear through the mechs and destroy them one by one. The mega mech's shoulder turrets continued rotating around and firing back at the aircraft as the mech lines continued to race ahead.
As she watched their airships fall one by one in the fight Skadi ordered the skirmisher bikes to engage the enemy. The bikes raced out ahead amidst a hail of bullets and energy pulses coming from the mechs. Some of them were hit head on and destroyed, prompting greater evasive action by the rest. One of the riders was struck and dismounted leaving his bike charging forward like an unguided missile crashing into the ice next to a standard mech. When they closed in near enough to the enemy lines they fired upon the standard mechs, cutting many of them down and lobbing grenades at the mechs and mega mechs as they passed by. A mega mech landed a few lucky shots and annihilated two of the bikes as they weaved through the first ranks of the Espheni line.
While the front ranks of mechs engaged the lead ground forces in the form of skirmisher bikes the indirect fire from the dome shifted to the foes that had been further beyond their reach. Missiles slammed down into the spider walkers and decimated entire platoons of skitters. Several of the spider walkers crouched down allowing a massive cannon to raise up out of the armor on their backs and fire a seething hot ball of bluish white energy towards the dome's defenses. When the Espheni artillery rounds hit they destroyed several of the missile batteries and laser defense turrets as well as brought a few buildings crumbling down to the ground. The dome itself being immensely strong by design remained intact. The repeated bombardment from the spider walkers began landing amidst the assembled ground forces in front of the city thereby prompting them to scatter out to mitigate the damage done.
As explosions erupted dangerously close by Skadi now deployed the crawlers which as their name implied slowly crawled towards the mechs which were heavily engaged with the airships and skirmisher bikes. She directed the airships to ignore the mega mechs and engage the spider walkers which were causing immense grief to the rear lines of defense. The long range artillery units then took up the slack against the mega mechs turning their dish shaped energy weapons in the mechs direction. A cone of energy focused at the center of the dish and directed a potent red beam forward which instantly turned a mega mech into a pile of molten slag left steaming in a liquefying puddle on the ice. The skirmisher bikes continued to confound the enemy, picking off mechs one by one. The standard mechs at times would break away and give chase though they stood no chance of catching them. The fires on the ice had additional negative effects on the Espheni forces. On the cold dry ice the mechs had sure footing but when they passed by the freezing liquid pools left by the intense heat of the firefight they would slip up and stumble, sometimes even fall over if they weren't careful. This made them easy prey for the skirmisher bikes.
The crawlers slowly drew closer and engaged the sparse vanguard of the mechs that had gotten through the artillery bombardment and the skirmisher bikes. Their heavy weaponry made short work of the light mechs and their armor was sufficient to minimize the damage they received in return. The crawlers took direct rocket blasts and rolled straight through them with only minor damage to their seared outer shell. Ahead of the bulk of the crawlers the repeated bombardment by both sides had caused sheets and clumps of the ice to fracture and crumble. This left craters rimmed with jagged ice out in the open and more disconcertingly created empty spaces between two ice sheets which could collapse at any minute. This became apparent when an advancing crawler rolled over one of these weak points as it was firing upon a row of mechs. An errant mech rocket struck the ground near the crawler and became the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. The ice sheet split and a large slab of it jilted sideways causing the crawler to roll over on its side.
While the artillery and bikes thinned out the immense horde of mechs and mega mechs charging in the center the second line of mechs including many of the four legged ones split to the north and the south along with two thirds of the skitters behind them. To counter this Skadi ordered the crawlers to divide into two groups and get into position to block the Espheni's flanking maneuver. She then readied her own mechs to handle the direct assault on the enemy center.
Before she could give the order for the mechs to deploy Skadi's attention was drawn elsewhere. The enemy forces in the east were now closing in and their air forces had come into visual range. Skadi immediately pulled back her airships strafing the skitters and heavy mechs in the rear lines and sent them to intercept the squadron of incoming beamers. The city's defenses shot down the few beamers that were scouting ahead of the main squadron, slicing them in half with red hot laser beams. Missiles were launched to down the craft further out but the beamers were able to fool or disable their guidance systems leaving only the ones that were lucky enough to score a dead on hit. The beamers closed in and opened fire with jagged blue energy bolts to destroy a few of the city's air defenses before the Cetan aircraft arrived and made short work of many of them. The remaining beamers circled back to the east and drew off the Cetan aircraft in pursuit, thus allowing their ground forces to advance unimpeded by bombardment from the skies.
Soon enough the reinforcements arrived and the city was caught in a classic pincers maneuver. The arrival of the Espheni reinforcements from the east meant that a sizeable portion of the Cetan forces had to be redirected to the defense of the east side, thus negating most of their hard fought gains in the north and west. The south side wasn't safe either; the western Espheni division along with some of the new reinforcements had moved out to flank the city from the southern extreme as well. The heavy mechs moving north also still posed a significant threat as they outran the slow moving crawlers en route to intercept them.
In the south while the two armored groups lumbered along the ice trying to cut each other off the skitters charged the southern line. When they got within range the defenders let loose with everything they had. A red energy pulse splattered a skitter open leaving only a fan shaped black spray of bubbling blood and incinerated flesh discoloring the ice where the creature had once been. Laser cannons sliced through the skitter's exoskeletons with ease, removing legs and arms and chopping down several skitters at the waist. Smaller bursts fired in rapid succession from handheld rifles scorched the outer shell of the skitters and knocked them back. Here the heat resistant shells of the skitters proved their worth in repelling the searing hot energy bolts. The skitters wearing body armor had their armor damaged by the plasma bolts but their skin beneath was able to diffuse and absorb the heat of the attack, charring the outer layer of skin but failing to pierce through to the creatures' internals. Seeing the ineffectual nature of their weapons the Cetan soldiers switched over to kinetic rounds which ripped through the skitters' hides and cut them down where thermal based weaponry had failed. Unlike human weapons which struggled to breach the skitters' body armor, the Cetan kinetic bolts punched through skitter body armor and flesh. Their heat resistance only went so far as the intensity of the lasers and the Cetan heavy weaponry cut through the skitters' ranks with ease. Unlike the unarmed, mostly unarmored skitters on Earth about half of these skitters carried long thin two handed staff weapons which fired purple bolts of energy. These weren't the smaller stun sticks however; these energy bolts could tear through flesh and armor to kill their intended target. To the Cetan forces advantage the skitters weapons had a noticeably shorter range than their own pulse rifles and heavy weapons. The skitters didn't stop to shoot back though; they popped off a few shots as they continued to close in. As they didn't break their stride to fire the shots weren't the most precisely aimed. The bolts hit the ice and nearby buildings as much as they struck Cetan soldiers. The horde of skitters thinned out to a trickle as it crossed the ice field amidst the intense firepower levied against them. The trickle of enemies slipped into the outer lines of infantry ahead of the structures at the city's fringes and engaged the Cetan soldiers in hand to claw combat where they held the advantage against their shorter limbed humanoid opponents. Their assault in turn reduced the firepower directed outward which in turn allowed more skitters to close to within weapons range. The city was like a man surrounded by a swarm of army ants. They went down easily but there were way too many of them for the defenders to keep up with. Eventually the aliens would reach the city and start stinging the defenders where it hurt.
As if an answer to their prayers help had just arrived above the wispy pale skies high overhead. One starcarrier and two heavy cruisers bearing allegiance to the Cetan nation of Vanaheim, of which the ice world below was a colony of, entered into high orbit. From the carrier's main hangar several fighter/bombers were launched and descended into the atmosphere to strike various targets outside of the range of the city which Skadi was defending. Another group of fighters circled around the carrier as a single transport craft was being prepped for launch.
A faint ping was heard from the comm unit in Skadi's ear. Soon after Skadi's comm crackled to life as a voice coming from a newly arrived ship in orbit addressed her.
"Field Marshall Skadi, this is Captain Ymir of Vanaheim Defense Force Star Carrier Group Theta." the voice addressed her.
She wiggled the small round device in her ear to clear up the signal and cancel out the background noise of the battle before tapping it once to acknowledge the message.
"Go ahead Captain, I read you loud and clear." Skadi replied.
"We have a representative of the USC here to see you on urgent business from the council. He will be landing at your location shortly. Please alert citadel defenses to stand down. We are transmitting authentication codes now." the captain told Skadi.
Skadi walked over to the row of consoles and pulled up the data packet sent from the ship.
"The code checks out; clearance to land granted. I'm alerting citadel air defense now. Be advised we are under heavy attack at the moment so I hope your representatives shuttle has an adequate escort." Skadi informed the starship captain.
"Copy that Marshall. Speaking of the attack we're observing you now and I believe we may be able to offer some assistance." the captain told Skadi.
"Oh really, well then don't keep us waiting Captain." Skadi remarked back.
She heard a brief snicker over the comm. "Tell your skirmishers to pull back to the city. We have a surprise for you." the ship captain told her.
"Will do. Field Marshall Skadi out." Skadi replied before tapping her comm link twice and then turning to issue the order to the skirmisher companies.
Upon receiving the order the skirmisher bikes disengaged and retreated away from the mechs, firing on the mechs with handheld energy weapons from the side as some of them passed by. The mechs gunned down a few of the bikes and dismounted a rider or two as they were turning around to break away from the fight. Once the skirmishers had started racing away from the mechs they lobbed grenades out of their rear launchers as they turned tail and ran. The grenades exploded as they struck the mechs and the ice in their vicinity, blasting off mechanical limbs and kicking up a large clouds of frothy frost. As the bikes sped away mech rockets, bullets and beams from the mega mechs were projected towards them. A bike hit by a rocket exploded leaving a streaking fireball that dropped down and skidded onto the ice, breaking into a thousand pieces. Another one took a grazing blow from a bluish white energy pulse and lost control, doing a barrel roll and crashing into the frozen ground off to the side. Beams, pulses and bolts of energy also issued forth from the Cetan lines and flew towards the mechs passing harmlessly by the retreating bikes as they went by.
Now that the Espheni forces at the heart of the western line were left alone were about to receive the surprise that Skadi had been promised. A tiny crimson twinkle sparkled in the clear pale sky high above the thin wispy clouds stretched out in a long strip like torn cotton balls. A large red laser beam rained down from the sky into the heart of the Espheni army and instantly vaporized a battalion of mechs. The beam melted the ice which sent superheated jets of steam shooting up high into the air where they refroze shortly after escaping the immense heat source from the energy beam. The misty droplets from the newly frozen steam plumes were then carried off by the wind and fell back to the ground as snow. The beam gradually moved backwards deeper into the Espheni ranks turning mechs and even skitters to ash as it approached. The ashes were then either burned off as gas or blown away by the rapidly swirling wind currents generated by the differential temperatures in the vicinity. When the bright red beam ceased it left behind pools of bubbling water which started to cool down and freeze over again. Around the edges of where the beam struck where the ground was still solid blackened husks of molten mechs and the scorched remains of skitters where scattered about. Only a sparse few enemies remained where there had once been a great multitude bearing down upon the city nullifying a good deal of the danger on the western front. Seeing this Skadi redirected her forces to the north and south where alien forces were already intermingling with her own as they drew precariously close to the city.
"Send skirmisher companies to the rear of the northern lines. I want six battalions of infantry moved to the southern gate on the double. Their foot soldiers have already made it around our crawlers." Skadi ordered, issuing commands by proxy to the units in the field.
Her comm link lit up again. "How did you like that?" the Captain asked her.
"Thanks. If you wouldn't mind a few more applications we might actually have a shot at holding the city." Skadi replied.
"You're forces are mixed too close with the enemy. I can't in good conscience fire the main cannon with such high levels of collateral damage involved. We've picked up additional divisions heading your way but they've started jamming our scans since our last attack. If you spot them have your fighters mark their location for us and we'll take care of it. Once they are marked do not engage; don't go to them, let them come to you. That way we can assist you from up here." the starship captain spoke through Skadi's earpiece.
Meanwhile on the southern front skitters had evaded the Cetans mechanized forces and were assailing the ground troops on the inner line. Most of the skitters never made it into the streets external to the dome but those that did slip through began to deal damage to the Cetan soldiers at close range. As time wore on more and more skitters broke into the outer city only to have their advance halted at the south gate by reinforcements from the west that had just arrived. Out on the ice the crawlers and Cetan mechs engaged the Espheni mechs who were playing to their advantage in terms of speed and maneuverability. The Espheni forces, including the heavy four legged mechs kept close to their enemies but stayed mobile, effectively running circles around them while exchanging fire and occasionally lobbing a projectile towards the city.
On the northern front the skirmishers tore through the rear ranks of skitters while the soldiers and Cetan mechs on the city line took on the advancing mechs. A few of the Cetan airships swung around to thin out the population of the enemy mechs, one of which was shot down in a spectacular explosion caused by a mega mech's shoulder mounted pulse cannon.
On the eastern side of the city the oncoming alien forces were assailed by Skadi's airships and bombardment from the remaining city defenses. The battle lines were thinnest here where the enemy forces were freshest. The airships couldn't yet mark targets and disengage because Espheni beamers remained and were keeping them trapped in the fight, often unable to take shots at ground targets because of the air to air threat. Skadi ordered half of her mechs on the west to circle around to the north and relieve the northern mechanized forces to buttress the outmatched line on the east of the city. She also sent two additional battalions of infantry through the city to reinforce the east gate.
"Marshall, be advised the USC representative's shuttle is on its way." the starship captain informed Skadi as she directed her forces in real time via the comm link and operations displays.
Meanwhile inside the city the civilian population was unnerved as soldiers jogged through the main east-west transit corridor from one gate to the other. The sounds of battle echoing dangerously close to their protective dome only further increased the tension. To provide added air cover to the imminent landing of a high level official's shuttle civilian transport craft were being outfitted with weapons and launched out of the hangar bays. This action frightened some civilians and enraged others who became curt with aviation officials now that the option of evacuation seemed lost to the city now. The officials tried to settle down the people who were now growing into an unsettled mob. Reverberations from long range Espheni artillery detonating as they struck the dome only frightened the people more. Several teams of soldiers were brought in to quell the intensifying mob in case the situation got out of hand.
The transport craft turned gunships flew out over the Espheni mechs firing from their assortment of waist mounted and rear mounted weapons. The mechs took damage and several of them blew apart, lost limbs or fell over. The mechs fired skyward with rockets and energy pulses grounding two of the gunships and utterly destroying a third. Another gunship took two bolts to the side and rear of the craft, jittering it and leaving a smoking hole next to the right aft thruster port. The gunship's pilot restored stability and continued on with the other aircraft to strike the four legged artillery mechs at the rear of the formation and the ranks upon ranks of skitters beyond that.
The thunderous sounds of battle drew near and drove herds of the city's residents into a panic rushing towards the center of town where the main access shaft to the subterranean levels was located. More soldiers and peace officers were diverted from the defense of the city should the gates or outer dome be breached. The diverted forces attempted to peaceably escort the topside population to the lower levels.
Outside the dome aerospace fighters dove down from the sky and opened fire on the alien forces closing in on the Cetan city. The heavy mechs refocused their fire towards the skies and shot down one of the space fighters while taking severe damage within their own ranks from the strafing run. A second wave of fighters descended and shot down five beamers as they converged near the domed city and circled around it. With the skies over the dome secure two more fighters and a transport craft passed through the atmosphere and descended directly above the top of the city dome. The upper hatch on top of the dome opened up as the transport drew near. The transport craft then entered in through the hatch and docked with the city's spaceport inside.
"Marshall Skadi, the USC representative has arrived." one of the city administrators raised Skadi via her comm.
"Send him to the command post. I'll be waiting." Skadi replied.
She couldn't pull away from her duties, even for a moment; the siege was evolving too rapidly. She personally coordinated her forces and their air cover to keep the Espheni armies from breaking into the city. With how busy she was it seemed like no time at all when the USC emissary came through the upper access door from the dome to Skadi's external command post. Skadi directed one of her subordinates to fill in for her as she turned to greet the representative from Space Command.
"Marshall Skadi, the United Space Command is calling together the Council. Your presence is requested on Vanaheim." the representative informed her.
"Better late than never. We've been sending requests for aid for days and only now they acknowledge our need." Skadi grumbled.
"I will be on my way as soon as the city is secure." Skadi replied.
"My Lady, We must leave now. The matter is of the utmost importance and the Council will not suffer a delay in considering it. If you are not there they will not wait to allow you to make your case and will come to a decision without your input." the representative urged her.
Funny how the Council's sense of urgency changes when they were the ones making the requests Skadi thought.
She let out a disgruntled sigh. "Leave now? And abandon my people in their time of need?" Skadi said angrily.
"Lady Skadi, I am but a messenger. I cannot sway the Council one way or the other." the representative replied.
"Lady Skadi, without reinforcements from the Council this entire world will be lost." the garrison commander told her.
"Very well. I must go. See to it that this city still stands in the hands of the Vanir when I return." Skadi told the garrison commander.
"Only my life and the honor of my clan I shall not fail you." pledged the garrison commander, placing his right fist in the center of his chest and bowing his head down in the customary salute of his people.
Skadi placed her hand in the center of her chest and then extended it outward palm opened in return of the salute and then departed with the USC representative. They made their way through the city around the evacuation routes where the population was being funneled underground with distant explosions rumbling all around outside. They quickly boarded the shuttle and made preparations to launch. The upper hatch opened as one of the starfighters quickly dispatched a beamer that had broken through and was making a direct attack run on the structure. After being shot down the beamer crashed straight into the side of the dome. The dome did not breach, it did not crack but was covered by a bright flash when the beamer exploded into hundreds of pieces after slamming into it. The flash sent a group of people into a frenzy breaking out of an orderly line, pushing and bowling through people to get underground. The flashes of stun grenades went off as the situation quickly began to devolve while the transport launched.
As the transport craft ascended Skadi watched as a blazing red beam struck the rear lines of the eastern advance force. The beam cut a huge swath through the Espheni forces, single handedly reducing their strength by a noticeable fraction. The space fighters gathered around the transport and flew ahead of it to clear the way in case an errant beamer or missile made an attempt on the craft. Higher and higher the transport rose with Skadi looking down through her window at the battlefield beneath her. The enemy forces, many of which were masked from her sensors on the ground now became visible as tiny dots like a mass of fruit flies. She knew the odds were against them but only now she realized the extent at which they had been outnumbered. Silently she hoped that her valiant warriors would be able to overcome the immense cloud of foes tightening the noose upon them.
As the pale silvery blue sky dissipated into the blackness of space the small fleet that had come to her aid appeared in view. The starcarrier which formed the command ship of the group was in higher orbit with a starfighter wing surrounding it. The two heavy cruisers remained at the edge of the upper atmosphere with the front of their vessels pointed towards the planet's surface.
The starcarrier was a flat rectangular vessel, in general shaped like a small pack of gum but rounded on the sides with an additional bulge on the top and two engines protruding out of the sides. The majority of the carrier was its hangar bay which comprised the entire central structure. When the blast doors were fully opened on all decks this made the starcarrier look hollow. All of the ships operations were conducted from the pill bug shaped bulge atop the craft. Here also were the living quarters for the crew, pilots and guests and all the facilities that supported them. The upper bulge had a raised tower at the rear of the bulge from which flight operations were overseen and a smaller disc shaped structure extending up from the middle of the bulge which was the main bridge. The ship's bridge in an emergency situation could be launched and operated as a standalone craft.
The heavy cruisers could be said to have a shape roughly akin to a doorstopper having a broad bulge in the rear and a sloping side profile which ended at a blocked off nose where the main cannon was positioned. From a front profile view the ship bulged at the sides more towards the rear and got narrower as you got closer to the front but not to as significant degree as the vertical dimensions shrank. These bulky ships were surprisingly nimble in space though were not capable of entering planetary atmospheres. They had several broadside weapons and missile tubes throughout the ship and one focused energy weapon at the front of the vessel which could range in power from what was observed on the planet's surface all the way up to a single blast that could vaporize a city or a relatively large asteroid with a single shot. The cruisers primary weapon was in appearance a reflective black smooth horizontal ovoid object recessed inside a square shaped port comprising much of the front of the vessel.
When she came into orbit Skadi saw the forward mounted primary weapons of the heavy cruisers light up and fire upon the surface twice before the shuttle entered into the main hangar of the starcarrier. After the shuttle landed inside the hangar bay the fighters outside were recalled. While the fighters returned Skadi briefly met the captain and was shown to her quarters. Skadi left her guard detail posted outside her quarters when she went inside. She didn't bother to check the accommodations of her quarters and instead went straight to the window. The small portal looked straight off into space; she couldn't see what was happening high above her world. Her worry drove her to pick up a data pad and link it with the ships sensors to observe the situation on the ground. She reviewed the unfolding battle where she had been and the other enemy movements elsewhere on the planet. She was concerned at the massing forces around the city she had departed from. Conversely she was pleased by the fact that her forces elsewhere had retaken the upper section of a city they had once lost due to its garrison being drawn out to assail her own city. They never could seem to dislodge the aliens from the subterranean realms of the cities though. The close quarters combat favored the enemy in those places. Still any inkling of an offensive was better than what they had been doing.
While Skadi was contemplating the planet's defense the fighters and their pilots secured and made ready to depart. Once the carrier's full complement of fighters had landed the hangar bay doors closed. Not long after that the carrier departed and engaged its main engines, accelerating it to near light speed in a matter of minutes. The cruisers remained behind and continued to provide orbital support to the beleaguered planet. The aliens would soon learn to stay out of the open lest risk being consumed by pillars of all consuming light from the sky. The teetering stalemate would be frozen solid for a time though air superiority and weapons platforms in orbit would not dislodge the enemy from their hiding places. In order to retake this world Skadi would have to convince her allies in the Council to send aid. Should fortune show her favor when she returned to this world again it would be at the head of a great host by which she could end this invasion once and for all, or so she believed.
