Vessels of the Protectorate United Navies part 14: The Liberator's First Descent
"Coordinates confirmed, trajectory is calculated!"
"Hull integrity check!"
"Atlas Alpha through Eta are green!"
"Shields check!"
"Final checks complete, Captain. All sections reporting green across the board. We are ready."
Captain Soaribyss stood there on the bridge of her ship, the first of its class, the first about to perform an action no ship flying the flag of Liberation had ever done before them. Cogitator banks were humming all around her, hundreds of hololiths and display screens bathed the bridge and its crew in artificial light. Some of that crew had to monitor their workstations as they processed incoming or outgoing information from and to the rest of the ship. Yet in the stable orbit they held above Senavtis Secundus, there was not much they needed to do right at this moment. Instead, most of them were now looking at her, wanting to witness what would now follow. The order that may well be their collective death warrant, slim as that chance was.
"Aye, it is time then."
The Captain's throat felt dry, a subtle rasp in the tone of her voice. Soaribyss turned to her first officer, taking in the man who had been by her side ever since she had been a watch officer more than two decades ago, who had followed her from command to command and still stood right next to her. She reached out for the microphone on her Captain's station. Soaribyss took a deep breath, a severe mien on her lips and her shoulders squared. Her second in command called out.
"Open the main circuit, the Captain will address the crew!"
The broadcast alert rang out for several seconds before abruptly cutting out.
"This is Captain Soaribyss. Men and women of the PNS Phoenix, we are here on this day to write history. Every single one of you has volunteered to be in the position that you now hold, aware of the danger we all would be facing. Just as you, I volunteered for this command. We all have witnessed how this vessel we call our home was wrought by the hands of the Bringers of Renewed Greatness. We all have trained and exercised and forged ourselves into a crew that I could not be more proud of being a part of. The Phoenix is the first of her kind and through our hard work she is finally ready for her final test. Today we will see if she can fulfill her intended purpose! Today we will find out if she can take the plunge into war-torn skies as is her destiny! Today we will learn what it means to become the hammer that descends down on the enemies of the Liberation! So take heart when I say that the Liberator will wield us and bring us to bear against all who would dare to hurt the people of the Protectorate! Take heart, this shall be our moment! Take heart, we are the ones who crew the first of the Liberator class cruisers and we will never falter!"
By the end of the Captain's speech, the bridge crew were all on their feet, roaring and shouting in agreement. Soaribyss had access to the cameras spread out throughout the ship and as she witnessed how the rest of her people were celebrating she felt proud at what they had accomplished. The noise slowly ebbed until it was quiet enough for her to give the order.
"All preparations for descent are made. Initiate rapid atmospheric drop."
Four long siren tones rang out throughout the ship as the cruiser began its meteoric descent.
The PNS Phoenix had spent several hours in geosynchronous orbit above Senavtis Secundus, prepositioned for the coming trial-by-fire. Its thrusters had been sitting idle as the crew had performed their checks again and again until the margin of error was small enough for this test to finally commence. Now, with a grace belying its ungainly shape, the Phoenix began to slow down, retro thrusters burning to aim it at its target. The Ork Rok which had carried the xenos menace that was now spreading out across Senavtis Secundus had somehow survived impacting on the planet's surface. Now it served as the central stronghold for the greenskin menace that threatened to reduce the industrial world to a scrapyard.
Fittingly, the Phoenix and the Liberator class had been conceived as a response to a costly victory against the Orks decades ago. While parts of the accompanying ground forces were already deploying down to the planet's surface in defensive actions, the main force was waiting for the Phoenix to descend down on the head of the foe to then follow up right behind it.
"Entering the Exosphere!"
Things were now going to happen rapidly. The AG-13 Altas anti-gravity engines were already spun up, taking on the enormous weight of the ship as the planet began exerting ever stronger gravitic forces on it.
"Plasma sheath is beginning to form!"
"Atmospheric friction within safe parameters! Thrusters and AGEs are compensating for turbulence!"
The Phoenix became cloaked in light and fire, a massive shockwave following behind it. Captain Soaribyss' eyes were glued to the speed gauge and altimeter. The ordered chaos around her played out without her input, her crew had trained for this moment countless times and they were proving to her that her confidence in them was warranted.
"Initiate final deceleration!"
"Power to In-At thrusters… now!"
The plasma and shockwave were shed as the Phoenix ignited its in-atmosphere thrusters, leveling out against the planet's surface at an altitude of five kilometers.
"Status report."
"Aye Captain! All sections of the ship are green!"
"Excellent, report to the fleet: Phoenix on station, we will begin suppressing the enemy and then deploy our contingent of assault infantry."
"Understood, transmitting message to the fleet."
"Captain, the greenskins have opened fire on us. Flak weapons are raking our shields."
"We are on station, ground support command now has authority to prosecute targets at will."
"Aye Captain, Ground Support Command can prosecute targets at will, confirmed!"
"Also, give me a visual feed on whatever GS is targeting."
One of the larger screens on the bridge lit up, already zoomed in on the Ork Rok. While the asteroid ship had survived its crash landing, it wouldn't ever be leaving the surface of Senavtis Secundus. The twisted scraps of the Rok's engines were still smoking, possibly powering whatever crude onboard systems remained intact.
"Looks like the Orks have made efforts to fortify their position."
The Rok's impact had left a large crater and the greenskins had turned the crater ridge into a line of fortifications with trenches, bunkers and artillery positions, all manned by numerous Orks.
"A formidable defensive position by Ork standards. This could very well turn into a slaughterhouse for our troops."
"Ground Support Command just ordered weapons free!"
Missiles rained down cluster munitions on the Orks, unleashing a storm of deadly fragments over the greenskins' heads. Vigil laser batteries blew up artillery pieces with pinpoint accuracy, melting the rickety contraptions into slag. The ventral accelerator cannon turrets blasted the bunkers with high explosive and incendiary shells. The return fire from the Orks petered out, not even scratching the outermost layer of the Phoenix's void shields.
"Inform Colonel Kwiksam and flight control, the 75th assault infantry is cleared to disembark and begin operations."
Tyn Daybrooks was not a member of the Bringers of Renewed Greatness. He had had the chance to join their ranks, being born on Adumbria Prime meant that he was quite familiar with the titanic shipyards of his home system. He had instead elected to join the army and follow in the footsteps of his uncle, meaning that he primarily prayed to the God of Battle. Yet in that moment, standing in the shadow of a spaceship as it fires away at the enemies of Liberty, witnessing an Ork walker be cut in half by a laser beam, he could understand why one would truly believe as the Borgs do.
"Damn. They really didn't leave anything for us."
"Daybrooks! Stop looking like a belly-up grox and get moving. We got people to free from those greenskins."
"Yes sergeant!"