UNSC Infantry held the city. Marines had settled in on the outskirts as the Army moved in to hunker down in the place. Meanwhile, Jake's platoon stared out toward the enemy encampment situated at the top of one of the place's tallest hills, several klicks away from them. Sergeant Niura was on the radio, calling in a fire mission and arguing with the artillery gunners situated at the old camp they'd fought into when they first landed on the planet almost a week ago.
Jane hummed, doing her nails. She asked Jake, "Did you hear, man?" which got a questioning hum out of him. She said with little interest, "FLEETCOM sent in a second battlegroup headed by a newly-built Punic into battle. Can't believe we still have the balls to build Punics nowadays, but, hey, she's got shields and she's carrying hundreds of fighters, so..."
"Second front opened, then?" Jake asked, wishing for any news.
"More like we pushed into the next couple of systems," Ayaan commented as he peered through a pair of specialized rangefinding binoculars. He turned to Jane and Jake and told them "Navy's been sitting upstairs with its thumb up its ass waiting for us to finish fighting for this place..." as he lowered his binoculars. Grabbing a tin mug from behind, the man poured himself a bit of sugar from one of their MRE packets, before taking a swig of the black liquid inside. He let out a content sigh, then said, "Say what you will about our dogshit MREs, but the coffee's god-tier..."
"Heh," Jake snorted, "So, we still gonna be stuck on the ground 'till arty levels that command post?" He then motioned carelessly to the hilltop position. The enemy's HQ was a well-defended compound, lined with thick concrete walls, gun emplacements and bearing a massive radio antenna for communications. The shipboard EWAR AI of the leading Cruiser above had managed to hack into com long ago, only for the continuous cries for help from a Colonel unprepared for this type of warfare to echo through every day...
"Captain of the cruiser in orbit's setting to send a message to the Feds on all broadcast channels," The Sergeant murmured, "Meaning we might be done here if the assholes surrender."
Niko walked up the stairs of the battlements, letting out a yawn and stating, "We've seen them surrender a couple times. Don't know if their CO's gonna give up, though. He sounds like one of their hardliners..." with little passion for the job. Plopping his ass down next to one of the ramparts, the man set up the bipod of his LMG, shouldered it and peered through the scope.
Jake pulled out a cigarette with a grin, slid it between his lips and lit it, then closed the top of his lighter with a clink. He put it into the pouch on his chest, before looking to the Sergeant as she swore up a storm in Hindi. She sighed, rubbed her face, then said, "Command's only going to approve the fucking arty barrage only if the bastards don't surrender... I was lookin' forward to calling it in."
"A bit fucking brutal, ain't'cha today, Sarge?" Ayaan quipped. Marta snorted, while the Sergeant simply glared at the Arab man. He raised his hands defensively and quickly excused himself in Arabic, before bowing his head and turning back to check his gear. Marta snorted even harder, keeping her sniper pointed at the enemy's base. Ayaan scoffed, then stated, "Coruse the Kraut laughs..."
The Sergeant sighed, then replied, very annoyed, "Roger that, sir..." before patching in the message...
"This is captain Evans of the UNSC Battle Group currently orbiting the world the UCF calls 'Planet V'. This is a message to the remaining Garrisons on the planet's surface:We have seized your city and we have complete and total orbital and air superiority. We have had it since the start of the battle here. You will not be rescued. You will not receive reinforcements. Save the lives of your men and surrender to the nearest UNSC unit before we come after you. You have ten hours." The Captain's voice boomed through the radio and the speaker systems, calm and focused.
The group waited tensely for few minutes, Niura casually bouncing up and down on one foot as she looked through her own scope. The moment the white flag appeared on one of the base's battlements, the woman sighed and said, "Well. Next time..." before radioing in, "CARRONADE, this is HAMMER. Belay the Fire Mission Order, the enemy's surrendered..."
"You really wanted to flatten the bastards, boss?" Jane inquired. The Sergeant shrugged, packing her kit and motioning to Jake to hand her a cig. He sighed, a puff of smoke leaving his nostrils as he passed one of them and his lighter to her. She slid it between her lips, lit the tip and tossed Jake back the lighter. He thanked her with a nod, before Jane shook her head and said, "Great. Two lung cancer folks... At least make my job easy and go for flash-cloned lungs yourselves..."
The Sergeant and Jake let out short laughs while the others simply smirked, watching the troops near the enemy fort grab the POWs. Marta had made a quick headcount, then gave up and calculated them by some bullshit idea, coming up with almost six hundred men in the base, officer cadres included. Men and women, she thought as she saw chicks walking out among the enemy's troops, too.
Niko handed Ayaan a mug of tea, which the man took with a quick 'thank you' to his buddy, before he took a sip from it. The others stood up as well, moving toward the library they decided to use as a temporary headquarters. Army soldiers greeted the boys and girls of the Corps with nods, some of them, corraling enemy POWs toward specific spots in the UNSC's makeshift POW camp.
Jake looked up at the sky as the sun began to set, a cigarette between his lips. He checked radio signals as a gut feeling hit him. He hummed, then smirked as he looked up again. Seemed like Command had underestimated the enemy, then. An entire new force of Federation warships was coming in to try and relieve the planet, or retake it. He motioned to Niura, who approached, curious. He told her, "Feds sent a fleet up above. Command's counting about a dozen enemy ships."
"And we only have a Cruiser and six Frigates in orbit," Niura hummed as she looked up, "Gonna be interesting..." as she shifted her shotgun onto her back. She told Jake, "Navy's been looking to get us off this rock and onto the next when the time comes. Heard they're sending in Phoenixes and squadron of escorting Halberd destroyers... Plus one Thanatos battleship."
"Those old things?" Jake seemed a little surprised. Thanatos-class battleships had been some of the rarest, but also the deadliest warships the Covenant could've faced. They'd still taken them down in droves, the alien fuckers, but they more than once got a run for their money when one of the big girls came about. When Niura nodded, the Marine snorted and said, "Well, that's gonna be a nasty wake-up for the Feds... As if our fleet wasn't already."
"They flatlined an enemy picket while actively deploying us," Niura noted, "I think that's a good enough show of how our boys and girls fare in battle up there. Hoping the Feds get the fucking message and apologize soon, else they'll be losing a lot more than a couple transport ships..." and she turned her gaze back up to the heavens again. The first flashes of combat came into view.
"Honestly? Doubtful," Jake commented, "Individuals might see the truth, but the overall shitstorm ain't gonna end 'till we have boots in Geneva and their Sky Marshal in chains..." And he looked around at the UNSC forces and the enemy POWs that were helping clean up the roads. A Scorpion MBT rolled through the streets, infantry escorting it as it bulldozed away debris that provided a challenge for other vehicles to traverse.
"Yeah, maybe," Niura sighed, then told him, "You think Jane's gonna like you smoking even more, buddy?"
"She still owes me half a pack," He replied jovially, grinning as he took a deep puff from the cig and flicked some of the ash aside. The Sergeant shook her head, grinning, then stepped off, letting the Marine think things out about the current situation alone. He paused as he saw Civilians of the UCF step out into the streets to watch the UNSC forces occupy their city.
A young woman stareda t them, dumbfound. She wore a miner's uniform and had been apparently about to go to work. She took a step back fearfully as a patrol of Marines walked over into the square, only to stop, stunned, as they walked past her, completely ignoring her. She turned toward Jake, who was simply smoking a cigarette, before looking around at the city itself.
Damage had been surprisingly minimal, blown-out windows and destroyed enemy OPs notwithstanding. A UNSC Troop Warthog rolled past her and she meekly waved at it, only to see that female Marines manned the machine. She spoke to them, probably asking for a pick-up toward her workplace, presumably the Mine Shafts Sixth Mech had secured on a side push. The Marines nodded to her and she ran around the back of the Hog, before climbing aboard. From fear, a meek smile emerged on the young girl's face. She waved to Jake, who waved back and gave a thumbs up, before turning to see other Civvies coming out.
Families, the elderly and the likes. Some were being helped out of their houses or tended to by Marines and the Corpsmen the Navy had sent down with them. Others simply came to see the new occupation forces as they lounged around and treated POWs with basic human decency, much to the people's surprise. Jake smirked, snroted and shook his head.
Hearts and Minds, eh?
He looked back up to the sky...
In orbit above Planet V, wreckage floated in Low Orbit already. The husks of enemy armed transports, split in half, cored by missiles and MAC rounds and overall destroyed by the UNSC picket orbiting the planet. The UNSC Marathon-class Heavy Cruiser Tempest and its six-frigate escort, which included two Anlaces, watched the distant light of about a dozen new enemy ships approaching them from the edge of the planet.
Captain Tom Evans hummed, scratching his fresh-shaven chin and tugging on the reinforced collar of his grey combat uniform as the scarlet lights of Red Alert continued to flash as they had since the start of the battle. His gaze swept over the holographic table in the center of the CIC as he inquired, "Ammunition status?" his voice incredibly calm for being outnumbered. A holographic display screen appeared ahead of him, noting the exact number of shells and missiles they still had, alongside the percentage. He hummed and nodded, "Barely dumped fifteen percent on the enemy's picket here... Good. Prep the MAC and Missiles. Let's greet the enemy properly, since they seem so keen on retaking the planet."
"Aye, sir!" The Bridge crew hollered in reply. The man went up to the bow window of his warship, watching as the enemy ships closed distance. The first enemy shots made their way over. Energy beams lanced through the void, narrowly missing the hulls of the UNSC warships in combat formation. The six frigates formed a spearhead ahead of the Cruiser, while the cruiser itself was the tip.
A beam struck, cutting across the ship's bow shields. Orange light flashed as the energy shields on the UNSC's ship flared to life, deflecting or outright denying the beams while the Cruiser and its escorts prepared to return fire. The Anlaces were the first to do so. Twin beams of blue light shot out from the far sides of the formation. A crewman on the bridge of the Tempest called out the percentage of their shields after the strike.
More beams lanced out, the entire enemy battle group now in range to fire their weapons. One beam struck the shield amidships of one of the four Strident Frigates in escort of the Cruiser. The reply didn't have to come yet, thought Evans. He looked over to the holographic display as a four-dimensional figure represented in three-dimensional space appeared. He inquired, "Trinary. MAC solutions?"
"One hundred percent, sir. We're within effective range," The AI replied in a decisively Posh-accented male voice, "On your mark?"
"... Fire at will," He smirked, "All missiles and guns, clear to fire on the enemy vessels." And he prepared to watch the chaos unfold. The first items to launch from their silos were the various missiles of the UNSC fleet. VLSes let loose clouds, trails of fire following behind missiles as they angled, fired directional thrusters to stay on course and lanced toward the enemy ships.
First impact. The bow of a UCFN Corvette Transport took the brunt of the hit, an ARCHER missile detonating right on. The vessel took the brunt of the damage, only for more missiles to swarm in through the laser fire. Following up, lights flashed from the bows of the UNSC ships outfitted with a certain weapon. Ferromagnetic slugs lanced out and met the enemy fleet, two coring the already-damaged leading ship. Its reactor overheated and detonated, splashing the other two ships next to it with debris and fire.
The rest of the UCF fleet was stunned. Anlace beam weapons struck another ship in its bridge, boring through the armor and glass and vaporizing the crew. The vessel careened to the left, its engines flickering as its siblings returned fire, aiming straight for the Anlace. The Captain of the Cruiser ordered, "All ships, flank speed. Left and right prongs, pincer them. We'll take the fight right down the middle."
The affirmative replies came quick as each side split off from the fleet and took up their own wedge formations at the tip of which were the Anlace sisters. The Cruiser, meanwhile, switched the ammunition in its coilguns to armor-piercing as it moved forward. Two minutes later, as the vessel sped forward at maximum burn, its MAC had charged and the crew acquired solution again.
Beams of energy cut through the void, striking the shielded frames of the UNSC vessels and doing little damage as they, themselves, turned around to engage into the enemy's fleet. Ten enemy vessels tried to turn and engage the pickets, but the Anlaces and Stridents let loose with their main batteries, MAC and Laser fire peppering the bodies of the enemy vessels.
Return fire from beams and guns came, but too little to do any real, lasting damage. The Cruiser had lined up on the next ship leading the entangled enemy formation and fired its MAC, striking one ship and punching through to the next, causing severe damage to both as it closed to firing range with its Rampart batteries. Several dozen twin-mount and triple-barrel 50mm coilguns opened up, hot shells criss-crossing the void as they pierced the light armor of the ships' middles.
The enemy Corvettes returned fire, gun batteries turning to focus on the Cruiser as their lasers tried to take down the Frigates. The Anlaces closed distance, their own point-defense lasers firing. Armor melted on the enemy's reinforcement ships as enemy transport ships attempted to escape the slaughter. UNSC Point-Defense lit up the troop transports as they came out of their hangars, proximity fuse flak rounds ripping through the dark.
Another MAC round ripped a vessel in half, Archer Missiles slamming into the bodies of the other close-by vessels and cratering their hulls, killing the shipboard crews and the Mobile Infantry Division they might've brought with them. The laser beams of the enemy fleet died out one-by-one, until nothing was left. The last enemy warship now sank under the heavy barrage of the UNSC fleet's coilguns, hull peppered by holes.
The Captain ordered, "All ships, cease fire..." as he saw the last of the ships' reactors wink off the sensors, the vessel's lights flashing off. He hummed, then stated, "Prepare SAR birds in case someone or other made it to the Drop Pods. Scan the debris field and call up the Teutoburg Forest. We'll need a resupply on ammo and other various items. The refurbished Phoenix logistics ships we have will be a godsend later on, I feel..." He had murmured that last part to himself. He then ordered, "Stand down Red Alert, go to Yellow..."
As the lights of the ship flickered from burning scarlet to an ominous gold, the man stared out at the husks of the enemy vessels they'd sunk today. Some already fell into the atmosphere, a beautiful meteor shower for whoever was on the planet below to watch. He felt a pang of guilt, however. Scratching the top of his head, the man hummed to himself an old tune from back home. It soothed his mind and helped him ascertain the situation better than if he'd let his mind wander as he watched the husks floating through the void.
They'd just started killing humans again in a new war that nobody wanted. This was just gonna be that type of fucking day, wasn't it? At least the war wasn't in their own back yard this time, considering the fact that the Human-Covenant War barely ended less than a Decade ago. He rubbed his eyes and face, then turned back to the holographic table on the bridge, pondering what their next course of action was as the Phoenix-class support ship UNSC Teutoburg Forest joined their little picket...