Chapter 25a
Apocalypse Now
Coromodir
7th March, 3025
Santiago Espinosa
The world was crumbling, everything he'd fought to build taken apart piecemeal by his Niece and the cursed mercenary company she had contracted. "Lord Espinosa. Massive fleet has arrived and routed our forces at the jump points." His aide said in a tone containing an element of doubt and fear. "Lady Kamea has brought everything she can muster."
"Curse that witch." Victoria said as she planted herself in a divan. "If she wants a fi..."
Santiago held up a hand silencing her. "That vile little naive girl has developed a level of resolve that is almost impossible to believe, she has pushed and fought us on a dozen fronts and even when we had the support of the Taurian Concordat and Capellan Mercenaries we were outmaneuvered. I am done playing games." He moved over to the table and picked up a datapad handing it to Victoria.
"This..." Her voice paused, hesitating.
"Yes. I've authorised the full release of the Amaris Cache to your troops. Everything. This is our last chance to protect the Aurigan people from a weak leader. And if I have to employ nuclear weapons to prevent them landing until you are ready it will be done" Santiago's voice hardened as he looked out of the window to his office. "Take that Spidermech, your Battalion of Star League mechs and vehicles, and prepare to defend the city."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lady Arano had declared her plans and here we sat ready to carry them out. And yet, against my counsel she had decided that her own forces had to make groundfall first. They had to be the first to set boots on ground and declare themselves as those who accompanied the Sword of Restoration. And so it was I found my own dropships travelling at half the thrust they were utilising, coming in well after they had established a beachhead that would allow us to land in safety.
Miranda was sitting at one of the tactical stations looking worried. Something about this felt off, this. This was the last chance for Santiago to spring his surprise, and yet I still had no conception of what it was. Lady Kamea's troopships were about to hit Atmo.
"Launches detected." Admiral Spire said from the Fortress as we prepared to invert to lose velocity.
"What?" I said turning to the sensor consoles.
"Killer Whale missiles, surface launched!" He said studying the data. "Lady Kamea! Burn away BURN AWAY!" He broadcast desperately trying to get her to abort the approach. Her own Dropship began burning hard, along with most of the fleet. The first of the missiles reached the closest Union to the planet and all the sensors blacked out to protect their delicate equipment. ".. nukes. They have nukes..."
My blood went cold as the second nuke went off destroying a converted mule carrying almost two regiments of Kamea's infantry. "Spire. Isolate the launch sites. Are they mobile units?"
"Not a chance sir. Those are silo-launched missiles, they have to be." He said as he gave orders in a quick and clipped fashion.
"Duke, Admiral, we have isolated the launch sites. From what we can tell from sensor feeds provided by Kamea's fleet they appear to be new structures." He called up the data from the dropships telescopes and we saw the hardened bunkers and facilities from a high orbital view.
"Give me a topographical map with those locations and expected coverage... and add whatever outpost Comstar is operating from on the surface." On the strategy table the planetary map came up and the sites were added as pinpricks of light around the capital city, with at the centre of the city, an icon indicating the Comstar facility. "This is Warden to all Aurigan and Raven Guard. Begin burning for the L2 Point of Lyris. Admiral, fire up that Blackbox from Castle Nautilus and send a squirt to the Legacy to jump to the Coromodir-Lyris L2 point immediately."
The channels to Kamea were open and she came up. "Kane, don't put your ship at risk, those are nuclear missiles."
"Lady Kamea, no disrespect intended. But now is not the time. Have what you have left report to the Lyris L2 position, but leave enough room for the Legacy's jump." I turned to Spire. "Immediately on the Legacy's translation you are to have all dropships board the Legacy. Brook no disagreement, even from the Lady. This battle just turned into a very very big problem."
Miranda came over to the plotting table as I plugged in and began manipulating the data directly. The plots were simple, a prograde burn to clear the moon would bring Coromodir into full view. The capital would be visible twenty seconds after the Horizon was cleared leaving a clear firing solution.
The Jovian Pattern missile Battery could deal with the launch sites, but the Comstar facility had to be nuked before it could send a message with what it was witnessing. It would be tight, and require a great deal of luck.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kane's Legacy ; Melodium Concert Hall
Those I had selected as leaders had filed into the vast concert hall section of the Melodium as it played the music programmed into it. Kamea and her own leaders provided the larger volume of men and women filling the hall. Miranda stood next to me as the hologram projector armed.
"Ladies, Gentlemen." I said beginning the presentation as Admiral Spire stood next to me. He had gone over the numbers and run simulations. Kamea sat dead centre and waited to hear the plan.
"Welcome to Coromodir, Santiago has provided us with a far warmer welcome than expected, and I refuse to allow us to commit our dropship fleet to an all out assault on an enemy with surface to orbit nuclear weapons. Frankly, this situation directly calls for a Warship. And fortunately, I just happen to have one." There were tense chuckles around the room. "For the first part of the plan, I give you Admiral Spire." Stepping back I let him take the lectern.
His gaze passed over those assembled with a considering expression. "As of go-time, we are going to burn at a full six gravities to prograde, this will clear the moon in a very short span of time and give us a clear view over the horizon and towards Coromodir. We have identified twenty surface to orbit launch silos believed to be equipped with Nuclear-tipped White Shark missiles. We have also identified the Comstar facility."
"Identified, it's not like it was hidden?" One of the aurigans said.
"Perhaps not. But the fact is that it is a problem, the existence of the Legacy cannot be allowed to become common knowledge as anything more than a ghost story. Which is why, the first strike is going to be the destruction of that facility with a bombardment from plasma battery."
One of the men scoffed. "Its about five thousand kilometres to the planet, and you want to..."
"The rated effective range for a Ryza Pattern Plasma Battery is sixty thousand kilometres. The Jovian Pattern Missile Battery is rated for combat effective to seventy thousand kilometres. Both weapons systems are capable of engaging a target at twice that." Spire said and the non-Raven Guard went quiet with a naked fear at such a capability. "Now, if there are no more interruptions?"
Kamea spoke up. "Might this not provoke Comstar unnecessarily?" She was worried at the implications of the robes knocking down her door.
"Not unnecessarily. The exposure of the Legacy as a controlled, and real, warship would provoke unprecedented action by Comstar. They'd likely burn the reach to the ground just to find out where it is." I spoke up putting a hand on Spires shoulder. "You're likely to like the next part just as little."
Spire nodded. "Once the Comstar facility is neutralised, the Jovian missile battery will engage all the surface to orbit sites simultaneously," he paused, "however, due to the small size of the launch silos, it has been agreed that the only method to guarantee the destruction of the sites is the utilization of atomantic warheads with twenty-five kiloton warheads."
Kamea rose to her feet. "You mean to drop nuclear weapons on Coromodir!???"
I stepped forwards. "Yes." I said and there was an uproar from the Aurigans until I held my hand up for silence, surprisingly they respected it. "I cannot see any other way to reliably and rapidly take down the missile launchers, the Killer Whale in atmosphere has a range of about ten thousand kilometres, this means we are in range as soon as we poke our noses out. And I don't want 500 kiloton peacemakers striking the Legacy." The others all gave each other looks. "Once the Comstar facility is destroyed, it should take only a single salvo of missiles to take out ALL of the sites, all of which are not near any civilian assets best as we can tell. Atomantic Warheads are cleaner than traditional nuclear or fusion weapons and there shouldn't be any fallout."
Kamea shook her head. "All we've done, I can't let you use nuclear devices, it is too much." She said frowning. "I understand the necessity of taking out the Comstar facility, you make a good case there. But use different warheads. I can't allow you to nuke my homeworld and undo everything I have done."
I cursed mentally, but she was right.
"Admiral, use standard plasma warheads." I said. "The Lady is absolutely right, if word of nuking Coromodir got out we'd be facing Censure from every front. The fact we're bombarding from Orbit at all is going to be a hard swallow." The room calmed and Spire stepped forwards.
"Once we can confirm that the sites have been suppressed we will resume the invasion using the Dropships as well as deploying our Fury Interceptors as escorts in case other undiscovered launch sites reveal themselves." He zoomed in on the planet and a simulated run began. "During your approach, do not deviate from your course as prior to your arrival we will be conducting a mid-yield plasma bombardment of the LZ, here." The hologram zoomed in more, changing to a profile of the Capital city and surrounds. "The Seelie Plateau will receive the brunt of the bombardment and you will be making landfall at the heart of the bombardment zone."
One of the Aurigans raised his hand. "Admiral, if you're bombarding the site, how can we expect the ground to be safe for landfall without putting the dropships at risk?"
"The bombardment is calculated to be conducted with a very precise timing. By the time the Dropships actually make landfall the target site should have cooled from a liquid state into a solid mass, we aren't predicting any difficulties in the dropships landing, though the immediate environment is likely to still be significantly hot which I understand is an issue your mechs may have difficulties with." Spire stepped back as I moved back to the front.
"Thankyou Admiral." I said bringing up the hologram once more. "Please bear in mind, there is no alternative LZ planned. If the shit hits the fan, you won't have any pre-prepared assistance with it." I nodded and a few of my crew began handing out dataslates. "On the slates being handed out, all of you have been given your individual group assignments. All of you have a primary key area of operation with fixed goals. Per request of Lady Arano I will highlight. These objectives are all to be considered minimal collateral as an absolute priority." Maps of the city blew up for detail.
"There are a number of primary objectives. Securing the spaceport, power, industry and communication centres are at the top of the list, each of you will notice you share objectives with another leader. This is not a race, this is about providing both support, and doubling the chances of the objectives being done."
One of the Aurigans raised a hand and I nodded. "I've noticed there is no objective to secure the palace and the Espinosas on this." The man held up his slate, and there was a wide collection of agreement.
"Affirmative. Securing the Palace and bringing the Espinosas in will be done by a specialist team. I will be leading that team in the Preceptor of Death, Lady Arano will be in her Knight, Raju Montgomery, Samuel Ostergaard, Glitch and Dekker will be conducting that part of the operation. Leafy will be rigged as a specialist C&C variant and will be responsible for the seven Armigers we have left, their duty will be to secure the perimeter. All other forces are considered as backup only for this operation."
"Any questions?" I asked.
One of the men raised a hand. "What about infantry? If the ground is that hot.."
I nodded. "Infantry will be held in reserve until they can safely disembark without being baked into their armour. Anything else?," Nobody spoke up, "Well then. Let's go and save the world."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robes
"Have you dealt with the Espinosa's irritating messages yet Chapman?" The CO of the small ComStar facility said as the whine of the HPG settled down to a background hum of systems on standby.
"Yes sir. We also got a priority message from the First Circuit that we were to record any further evidence and transmit it immediately, the Espinosas use of nuclear weapons has not sat well with them I imagine." Chapman said as he faced the observatory. Waiting for the Restorations ships to reappear.
"What is that?"
"What si... what in hells..." Chapman dived over to the screens and watched it come burning from around the moon. "It's a Warship! I think... it's massive... too massive, preparing for a live transmission feed. Dammit! We've lost visual, massive luminosity spike!"
"Get what we have sent! They're launching more nukes against whatever i...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Santiago
Santiago dived over his desk as he saw the blinding spear of light punch down through the atmosphere, the shot from an impossible range for a direct fire weapon, he felt the ground drop from beneath him as the shockwave of the shot plunged into the city, the sound simply too deafening to even hear in the heat of the moment. The blinding flash of light made him wonder if he'd had a nuke flung their way. But soon the sound dropped to a dull roar and he stood, looking out over the city as Victoria dived into the room to check on him. They both stood there as they observed a glowing red sun dissipating in the middle of the city.
"The ComStar station..." Santiago said as the light faded, he swung the telescope near the globe around to view the site of the destruction and was in awe at what he saw. The only casualty of the blast, other than every glass window in the city, had been the site of the HPG station, though the waves of heat blazing out from it was starting fires and nearby buildings were beginning to glow with the waste heat of the shot. He swiped the comms on his table. "This is Director Santiago, give me a report! Victoria, go. You're up."
"Director. The blast was... I dunno, some sort of super PPC shot or something. But the station is entirely gone and that ship has just launched missiles. We're firing all the nukes we can at it." The report was quickly given by a man who was busy worrying about how much more important his own tasks were than assuaging the panic of the Director. "If you can excuse me sir, I have a defence to prepare."
"Very well. See it done, Victoria is on her way to prepare her unit." Santiago never heard the mans remark when the line was closed about the 'Damned bastard putting something scarier behind him