Chapter 3: Blood and Trinium
Part 1

2 hours later
127th Emperor Hetto
Home, Tau Ceti

Atvar was standing in the middle of the command deck of the banner ship. Looking the holographic overview of the aerial battles taking place all over home. While his tail stomp was stomping all over the place, which was a sign of anxiety and frustration.
Then Atvar spoke. "Hsing is the situation really that bad?"

"Yes exhaulted fleet lord, our killercrafts are taking up heavy casualties, and thier starships are now attempting to land thier ground troops." His agitant replied.

Atvar then asked "Whats the estimated time before they can land ground troops?"

"A little less than three hours, exhaulted fleet lord." Hsing replied

While listening to the conversation of the 2 males, Karel added. "We should order all our killercrafts to intercept and destroy thier starships before that happends, otherwise it would only be a matter of time before we would be fighting in the sands and streets of Home."

Then Atvar replied "That would severely increase our losses, but I see you are right Karel, after all the Emperor
-all three males lowered thier eye turrents at the mention of thier soveriegn-
Has given me orders to push back the Romans at any means nessesary. Which would include sacrificing those killercrafts.
Ok, Hsing get me communications with all the ship lords."

Hsing then replied "It shall be done Exhaulted fleet lord." As he pressed the nessesary buttons to get the fleet lord online with the other ship lords all over the conquest fleet.

As the fleet lord noticed that he was online, he said "Ship lords! Your new orders are to scramble every available killercraft to intercept and destroy the enemy starships before they land. You are given authorization to use explosive metal bombs as you see fit. And ready your ground forces for ground combat, let them pay dearly for every inch of Home that they set foot on." Then the fleet lord cut the transmission.

It was now Karel's turn to move. After hearing the order. He said "It shall be done exhaulted fleet"
After pressing the nessesary buttons to connect him the troops that was in his command. Karel then gave the order to the males under him.

Moments later
High Altitude
Home

While flying his killercraft over high altitude, the commander of the killercraft formation that Teerts was in said "Ship lord Karel is sending reinforcements of two more formations of killercrafts to our location. Thier estimated time of arrival is seventy two minuetes. Shiplord Karel has also given us new orders.
First and our primary mission is that after the reinforcements arive, together with them we are to engage and destroy the nearest Roman starship.
Second destroy as much of thier killercraft as possible.
Third maintain air superiority if possible and last
Last avoid getting killed.
Killer crafts armed with explosive metal bombs are authorized to use them against the enemy starships. That is all"
After hearing thier new orders Teerts talked to his wing men on the radio and said
"By the Emperor! -the males remembered thier training not to lower thier eye turrents if they heard the mention of thier soveriegn while flying to avoid unessesary collisions.- Thier sending two more formations!" taking a few seconds to do the math.
Then he continued "Thats fourhundred and ninety six additional killercrafts! With those numbers even those Romans would wish that they never were hatched at even the sight of that much killercrafts."
His wingman Rafla then replied "Indeed superior sir, that would make them pay for ever coming to Home."
Then both males dropped thier jaws in ammusement, as the thought of those Romans bieng punished for thier arrogance crossed through thier minds.

72 minuets later
Same place

"Atention all males within the formation the reinforcements have arrived. We are now to proceed to our target. Commence formation 56, which would give us maximum visual coverage while moving. For remember these Roman killercrafts are invisible to radar so we are to use visual targeting only and report immadiately when you spot one. May the spirits of emperors past watch over us.
As the three formations of killer craft were moving towards the enemy at maximum cruising speed.
Teerts was talking to his wingmen "...Rafla just make sure you hit those Romans with you explosive metal bomb, for your the only one whose carrying those in our flight wing."
"Superior sir, I would swear upon my grave that I will hit those addled Romans with every explosive metal bomb I have in my killercraft and make them pay for ever invading Home." Rafla replied ut most zeal as if he was relaying the Emperor's very words, then he added an imphatic cough to show how much payment the Romans were gonna get.
"As long as you guys would properly watch my tail stomp of course" he added.
Then Treerts replied "We would watch it as much as a hungry hatchling would watch his food. Therefore you have no reason for not hitting them"

Then suddenly a male on the front side of the formation said "... all my wingmales have been hit, expect enemy killercraft. I repeat expect enemy ki..." the communications was cut.
While pressing the buttons to launch countermeasures, Teerts thought that the killercraft pilot was mostlikely also hit by an air to air missle.
Then his said over the communications" May spirits of Emperors path watch over thier spirits in the afterlife."
Then several other males from all over the formation replied "Truth!" in almost perfect unison.
Then the airwaves was filled with radio chatter as hits were reported all over the formation.
"Two killer craft down!" said one male
"Four more down!" said another
"One more down" yet another male said
Teerts cant help but feel fury and fear for he was hearing so many losses yet not one of them ever reported hitting an enemy killercraft or just even sighting one. And they werent even near to thier target yet.
"How could these Romans ever hit and destroyed so many killercraft with out even bieng seen, did they have technology to remain invisible from plain sight as well as radar, or did they just have extreamly long ranged air to air missles?"Teerts asked the smoke filled sky of Home, which amzingly didnt respond, not even a word.
Then the talk between Teerts and the smoke filled sky of Home was interupted when a pilot said. "An enemy killercraft sighted, I repeat enemy killercraft sighted.
"Affirmative, I also have a visual" another pilot responded.
Finally! Teerts thought a chance to hit back on the ever elusive enemy, may the males near the enemy hit him.
As Teerts looked at the location of the sighting in the screen which was just fed in by the computer. He realized that the enemy killercraft's location was near him. And was just outside his weapon range. He made a small movement in his joystick to put the enemy killercraft in his path.
Taking a second to look at his radar screen, he saw that his entire wing was following his slight change in direction.
The he continued his movement and kept his eyeturrents swiveling to spot the enemy killercraft. Then true to the pilots word. There it was the enemy killer craft was running in circles, maybe evasive manuvers of some sort, but interestingly it was moving slower than the other enemy killercrafts did. But still faster than Teert's own killercraft, yet slow enough to be hit by the air to air missles of the Race.
Why was the enemy moving so strangely, Teerts thought. But grabbing control of his curiosity.
Teerts radioed his wing "Fire at will, destroy the enemy killercraft!" While saying that Teerts skweezed his joystick to fire a few of his missles.
Then with his eye turrents he kept track of the missles he just launched. He saw them move towards the enemy together with about tens of othe missles launched from the other killercrafts. They were spewing much smoke from thier exhaust.
Then a few of them hit the counter measures the enemy killercraft used, a few more missed due to the speed of the killercraft and the rest impacted the enemy killercraft. And almost imidiately the enemy killercraft exploded. The Roman pilot didnt even have time to eject, assuming of course that these savages have ejection seats. Teerts almost felt sorry for the Roman pilot, well almost. Then coming back to his senses he radioed the report of the first Roman casualty of the war to the rest of the formation.
"Enemy killercraft destroyed, I repeat enemy killercraft destroyed" Teerts reported on the radio
Then hearing that almost all the males of the formation hissed in pleasure, as finally the have brought one down.
But the short celebration was interrupted when an entire wing of killercrafts in the front most part of the formation were destroyed by the starship's anti killercraft missles as they became with in range. Then when they became in visual range of the enemy starship. Teerts saw more of those black colored aircraft of the Romans going inside thier starship, perhaps to refuel and rearm, Teerts thought to himself. Then as the killercraft hissed in warning to signify that the primary target was finally within range if thier weaponds.
He then radioed his formation to fire missles on the enemy starship "all killercrafts fire at will" he said.
Then he skweezed again his joy stick to let loose a couple of missles.
As he watched his front window, he saw his missles together with hundreds of other missles from other killercrafts race towards the enemy starship. A few of them were hit by the starships' skelkwak light based anti missle system but there were just too many missles to hit all. The view of theses extreamely bright lights destroying dozens of missles awed him, even though he already heared from the reports about what they can do, he still remained amazed. Now only if they were on his side, now that would have been great. He thought.
He was interupted from his thought by the sound of several explossions as the surviving missles hit the armor of the enemy starship.
As Teerts watched the enemy starship with both eyeturrents. He was amazed at how much little damage the enemy starship took.
"By the Emperor! Just what are these starships made of" Teerts exclaimed over the radio.
"I dont know superior sir, but it think its time to lauch both my explosive metal bombs." His wingman Rafla replied
"Truth!" Teerts replied
"We will fire our missles together with yours so that your missles would have a better chance of hitting" Teerts added.
Then as his wing man Rafla was arming his explosive metal bomb tipped missle, his alarm hissed in warning that his launch mechanism was failing.
So he radioed his flightleader" superior sir, there is an error in my lauch mechanism and it seems I have to drop my missles right above them, for they wont launch"
Then Teerts replied "Roger that, now, to the rest of this wing protect Rafla so he can drop those missles."
Then all the killercrafts of the wing went on coverformation on Rafla's killercraft and luckyly the enemy killercraft were busy killing other killer craft and the the starship's skelkwak defeces were just targeting missles launched by the other killercrafts, that thier wing was able to survive to get near.
When Rafla was about to drop the explosive metal tipped missles. His wingmates moved away to the othet side of the starship to avoid getting caught in the blast.
Then he relized that if he dropped them the enemy might target the missles and destroy them, and waste this perfect opportunity to destroy the Roman spaceship.
So he instead stired into a collision course with the enemy starship.
Then Treerts as he watched Rafla's killercraft's movement. heared from his radio, "Long live the Emperor, Long live the empire, glory to the Race." it was Rafla's last words.
Hearing that he concluded that Rafla would do the unimaginable and collide the craft with the enemy starship, and as if what he would say would change Rafla's mind, Teerts shouted in his radio" Drop the missles you addled fool! Drop them and fly away."
Then suddenly out of no where a light brighter than the sun apeared. Then a mushroom shapped cloud apeared, after the flash of light. After looking more closely at the enemy starship he noticed that a large portion of the enemy starship was blasted away.
Sensing their opportunity, the other killercrafts launched their missles. Almost all the hundreds of missles launched hit the Roman starship as their skelkwak defence system seemed to be disabled by the combat.
A few of those missles that hit were also tipped with explosive metal bombs. Which then created a few more mushroom clouds. Then as Teerts looked at what was the enemy starship, he could see a million pieces of its wreckage falling to the ground.
Then the radio became crowede again as the other males were hissing and chatting in thier radio, out of joy. For one of the enemy starship was destroyed.
Teerts could not feel so much joy, for this victory was bitter sweet. For they lost so much, he lost so much, he lost a good friend. Rafla was not just his wing man but also a long and close friend. They were friends since the academy. But that addled fool just had to sacrifice himself, Teerts thought.
These Romans would pay dearly for the sufferings that they had brought to Home, the sufferings they brought to him.
Then his trail of thought was unjustly interrupted by the sound of his CO's voice in the radio "... I repeat the Romans are retreating! The Emperot be praised we won this battle. We won!"

Same time
High Altitude
Home

"Ok men, our orders are simple
First Defend the starship Alexandria from enemy attacks
Second mentain air superiority
And last dont bloody get killed
Remember we are down to sixtyseven scramjets for the others are doing bombing runs on the enemies, so avoid close combat, just do everything in as far distance as possible." Flightleader Flavuis told his men

Then his men answered in perfect unison. "Sir, yes sir"

As they were doing interception flights around the surrounding airspace. A wingman from one of the outermost flight runs said "...Im detecting over fivehundred incoming lizard aircraft, uhmm... make that almost sevenhundred lizard aircrafts heading our way"

"Damn it! all scramjets move to intercept! Stop them before they hit the starship." Flavius ordered
Then he thought to himself, how could we win were hopelessly out numbered.
As he was moving to intercept he caught the enemy aircraft formation in his DRADIS, he gave orders to his men" Ok men, enage the enemy aircraft and oh, conserve ammunition for they have more aircraft than we have ALRAAM ammunition."
A few seconds later as an enemy aircraft was in range of his ALRAAM, he then skwezed his joystick letting loose a missle on the enemy aircraft after firing he quikly changed direction, to avoid getting inside the enemy's visual range.
After several minuetes of repeating the same manuvers again and again, he heard one of the pilots give a distress call "I need help! Debrees got caught in one of my engines and my aircraft is moving out of control, need assistance!"
As Flavius heard the distress call he realized it was one of his wingmen who was calling out for help. Then he have a quick view to his DRADIS screen. He saw the aircraft moving in circles and it was moving slower than usual, and was bieng intercepted by dozens of lizard aircraft.
So he said "Damn it man, eject now! your about to be hit!"
Then the pilot replied "Negative sir, there seems to be something wrong with my ejection. . . ." then the line was cut off very abruptly and in the same moment the aircraft disapeared from the DRADIS screen.
Flavius then gripped his hand harder on the joystick as a sign of frustration that the first Roman casualty of the war, had to happend on his watch. But it was no time for remourse it was time to deafeat these lizards for the glory of Rome.
So he got back to his senses and locked on to the nearest enemy aircraft and skweezed his trigger. Then a missle came out of his scramjet and hit its target a few seconds later. Pay back for killing his wing man, he thought. But somehow it just didnt feel enough
As he was busy attacking more targets, he saw a bright light eminate from the top starboard part of the space ship, he would have been blinded by the light if he didnt have his visers on. Then he felt a gush of air hit his scramjet. He thought "It couldnt be? Could it? Has a nuke hit the spaceship, if it did tens of thousands of loyal cirizens of the empire would have and are about to die"
Then as his eyes caught sight of the spaceship he was trying to protect, he saw that a large portion of which was missing. He then concluded that the impossible did happend, the Alexandria was indeed hit. But how did these lizards got through the scramjet escorts and laser defense systems. It would have been almost impossible, even with those numbers, he thought. But then some how it just got hit, he thought. Then it was hit again. Which was made plain ovious as several other mushroom shaped clouds apeared, which was preceeded by a couple of bright flashes of light. As he saw millions of debries which was formerly the Alexandria fall to the ground, he knew that thier objective has failed and so many Romans have died today.
Sensing that their primary objective has failed and there was nothing more left to do in the area but suffer more casualties he ordered his men
"Men you witnessed the death of tens of thousands of loyal citizens of the empire. But this is no time for mourning or grief, we will do that later but for now we are to retreat to the starship the Olympus and fight another day."
His XO said to him" Sir there are three pilots who crash landed, dont tell me we are to leave them behind?"
Then Flavius answered "leave them? Hell no, we will come back for them but in another time unless we want more pilots to crash land, as of now let us wish that these lizards treat thier prisoners as well as we treat ours."

Few Minuets Later
Low Altitude
Starship Zeus

On board his M-44 Gladiator tank Armored division commander Scipius Terranus, he was young by Roman standards for he was just 30 years old, was readying his armored division for their exit of the starship and thier upcoming ground battle. When he addressed his men on thier orders. So, on the comlink, he said "Soldiers of the 7th legion our orders are clear. That upon landing, we together with our infatry support, are to push the enemy as much as we can in all directions, once we reach at least twenty miles we are to halt and establish forward defences. For the Roman Senate and the People of Rome!"
After saying his orders Terrenus then pressed a button to cut him from the airwaves then all he had to do was wait for the starship carrying his division to land.
As he waited for what seemed like forever, he felt the shaking of his Tank even more entensely and he can hear the breathing of his driver and the beating of his heart more loudly now, but wether that was due to his adreneline or just his imagination, he could not determine.
Then suddenly he felt a large stomp and an alarm sounded, it was the signal that the starship has now landed, adreneline filled his body as the battle was about to begine. The he saw a bright light suddenly apeared, the doors are now open he thought.
He quicky tapped his communicator then said" Troops march!"
Upon hearing the order the surrounding Tanks began to move out towards the doors. His own driver also snapped into attention and began to move.
The ground campaign has now begun at last, thought commander Scipius.
As his Tank was moving he could feel the slight vibration and the soft humm of the fusion powered vehicle, then as his Tank got out side he could see the bright light of the star Tau Ceti through his vision ports. Then as he looked from left to right he could see the endless terrain, it was some sort of cross of the african savanas and desert sands.
Suddenly he heared pings that hit the Trinium aloy armor of the Gladiator Tank, it was the enemy helplessly trying to hit his tank using underpowered firearms, how helpless, he thought.
Then suddenly he felt a shake in the tank as a Lizard high explosive shell fired from one of thier tanks hit his own,
High explosive shells? Hmmmp, more like firecrackers, he thought. As the shells seem to just hit harmlessly and just made a little more than dents on the armor of his tank.
As he spotted the enemy tank he ordered his driver to stop. Then he entered the cordinates of the enemy tank to the computer, then a second later the gun fired and let loose a truely explosive round, which hit the enemy tank and exploded it into a thousand pieces. Seeing the demise of the enemy that tried and failed to kill him. He ordered his gunner to continue to move.
As they trailed the road, he again felt another shock as the tank shook on impact. When a Lizard anti tank missle hit his side armor. Realizing what happend he looked at left and right to see where the were hidinh and shoot them down before they ran. And sure enough he spotted them, they were hiding behind a ditche that they dugged but somehow they didnt even bother to run. Instead of wondering why they didnt, he just thanked God that they didnt. Then he pressed again the nessesary coordinates to hit the enemy, but before he couls finish. Another Gladiator tank beside him already fired and hit those foolish lizards who didnt even bother to run.
Then his tank formation again began to move, then he spotted a formation of enemy tanks in his viewer. He pressed his communicator and said"An enemy formation of atleast two dozen armored vehicles spotted five hundred meters west, move to engage."
Then the other tank commanders responded by saying "Sir, yes sir"
Terranus was now pumped up with adreneline, as the two tank formations closed on each other for this was his first tank battle and also the Roman Star Empire's first tank battle since the end of the last Great war which was more than a generation ago.
It was now his turn to show the Empire and his family how good of an tank commander he can be. After all most of the great generals came from the Great Family Scipius. From Scipius Africanus who saved Rome from
Carthage to Scipius Hespanius who defeated the Chinese invasion armada off the coast of Hespania. Who knows that maybe, someday people will hail Nov. 15 1891 as the time when a great roman general was born on the province of Germania and he might be remembered someday as Scipius Terranus of Home, He thought.
But he won't be remembered as that, he will be remembered having a different title.

Next Part 2
Watch out for more tank and infantry battles. Look at the Roman Star Empire's unique infantry part 2