First Command (28 page)

New Helsinki System, Solarian Republic

RSNS
Titan
DD-0023
Elliptical patrol of New Helsinki Outer Orbit

March 9th 841 AE (2802 AD) 19:10

As Jonathan and his XO rushed onto the bridge, the emaciated face of Governor General Curtis vanished into static.  Throwing himself into the command chair, Jonathan immediately began issuing orders.

“Mr. Krishna re-establish coms, Mr. Gopal bring up tactical display, Mr. Trendale your needed in auxiliary.”

“Aye sir,” Trendale said saluting smartly he turned to leave just as Serviceman Sayer, Gopal’s tac plotter screamed.

“HOLY HELLS!” he looked up shaken. “Skipper nuclear…nuclear detonations reported in Haggerdam, Valhor, and Therenfall” New Helsinki’s capital and two largest cities.

“Oh my god,” Sandra Chan whispered.

Jonathan slammed his fist onto his armrest, squeezing his eyes shut and holding back tears. The feeling of utter helplessness as New Helsinki’s three largest cities vanished in a blink of atomic fire was indescribable. Millions of people had just had their lives snuffed out and for what.

‘Calmly now, Jonathan, calmly’
Titan’s
Captain thought to himself. He looked around his bridge. His crew, his people, was all stunned, but they were looking toward him. They were looking toward their captain.

“Mr. Trendale, auxiliary please.”

Trendale snapped out of his daze and ran toward the
Titan’s
auxiliary control, where he would command the ship if the bridge was lost.

“Mr. Krishna, inform
Nimble
to continue current course and make all speed to the Navy base at Chaucer’s Gap. Ask them to send Commodore Ordan with my compliment. He is to transmit as soon he is out of the system that this is a
CASE RED TANGO JULIET
.” The universal Solarian signal for under hostile attack “Mr. Gopal get me a tactical readout of what's happening ground side. Mr. Halman,”

Halman looked sick, and his face was white as death, his eyes empty. Jonathan rose and walked over to him.

“Marcus, look at me.” Halman did. He wasn’t panicking, not yet, “Marcus, take a deep breathe, calm down. Take your helmet off and breathe.” Halman did as he was told. His hands were still trembling, but after a few deep breaths his face became less white and frightened.

“Marcus, I need you to plot all possible inbound trajectories of a hostile force including one coming from our own territory, alright?”

Halman was much calmer now. His nod was neither self assured nor cocky, but it was close to what some would call confidence.

“Yes Captain.”

“Good son,” Jonathan said walking back to his chair. “Ms. Chan plot an intercept trajectory on each of those routes. Mr. Yower give me flank speed, but keep her in orbit. If an enemy appears, I want to be able to hit them hard and fast.”

“Sir,” Lt. Krishna spoke up. “
Nimble
acknowledges receipt of message and replies, ‘
On our way. Titan good hunting.’
It’s with Captain Oron’s compliments sir.”

Jonathan smiled slightly, “Ask
Swift
to break patrol route and fall in with us, then get
Hope
on the horn and tell Lt. Rene she’s now in charge of coordinating all rescue efforts in the cities that were hit. Also broadcast in clear, that I’m declaring New Helsinki under quarantine. All merchant vessels must immediately clear orbit and change course out of system. Any ship that fails to comply in one hour will be considered hostile and fired upon.”

“Captain,” spoke Lt. Commander Gopal.

“Yes, Mr. Gopal.”

“Sir, its chaos down there. I have units both local and our own requesting orders. First responders are deploying from surrounding regions toward nuke sites, but their logistics train is all screwed up and their coms are all buggy cause of the EMP. I…wait one…sir
Skylink-1
ground station, and three mobile OD batteries are reporting they are under attack by unknown number of hostiles. Your orders sir?”

Jonathan punched the com button on his chair, “Lt. Varden are you there?”
“Yes sir.”

“How many of your people are combat ready?”

“Sir, first and second squads in light gear, third and fourth at damage control stations. Both Testudo teams ready to go.”

“Lt. could you kindly inform all your people that for once they will earn their place aboard this ship. I need your whole platoon suited up and ready to drop in 15 minutes, take both shuttles. Your orders are to hold the ground station of
Skylink 1
at all cost. Understood?”

“Sir, yes sir.”

“Oh, and Lieutenant.”

“Yes sir?”
“Retreat?”

Lt. Varden despite the direness of the situation broke into a huge grin “Hell sir.” He answered quoting the motto of the III Marine Expeditionary Force, and ancient mantra of Marines everywhere.

Jonathan now turned back to Lt. Krishna, “Mr. Krishna can broadcast in the clear groundside. To all Solarian and New Helsinki forces this is Lt. Captain Jonathan Pavel commander of RSNS
Titan.
Governor Curtis, the Prime Minister, Brigadier Treos, Colonel Jixi and most other members of New Helsinki were in Haggerdam when it sustained a devastating nuclear attack, at the hands of the NHLF a group of renegades that claims to liberate this world, but now tries to destroy it. As the condition of our leadership cannot at this time be ascertained, I’m taking command of all forces in system. New Helsinki Auxiliary Forces are to begin immediate full-scale mobilization, units closest to Haggerdam, Valhor, or Therenfall are to establish a perimeter and aid relief efforts where practical. All other units will act under
CASE RED
conditions, and prepare to repel enemy orbital invasion. All Interior units are to secure OD batteries and reinforce
Skylink 1
ground station. The terrorists have disabled the main com buoy. As such, I have dispatched via courier a message to Command apprising them of our condition. Help will come, but not for several days,” Jonathan paused. “End message Mr. Krishna. We must mourn later, now we are needed.”

Krishna fiddled his dials, “Message sent sir.”

“Alright,” Jonathan said bringing up his tac display. “Let’s sort out this mess.”

Just then the alarms began to sound.

“Sir,” Lt. Chan reported her face near panic. “Relay from outer system sentinel buoy showing contacts entering system. At least three are warships designation Sierra 1, Sierra 2, and Sierra 3. Eight other contact patterns appear to be heavy troop carriers. Sir,” Chan looked up her face confused. “The troop carriers are pinging the transponder codes of the New Helsinki Army. The old one sir.”

Jonathan cursed. It was a damn invasion after all, “Any transponders from Sierra’s?”

Chan shook her head, “It’s the Colonials sir.”

New Helsinki System, Solarian Republic

Outskirts of Haggerdam

March 9th-10th 841 AE  (2802 AD) 07:00hrs Haggerdam Local Time

‘They never talked about how dark it got,’ Lt. Chloe Rene Captain of the
RSCRS Hope
thought as her ship
circled the mass grave of four and a half million people that had just a few hours ago been the city Haggerdam. After the mushroom cloud had dispersed, the ash from Haggerdam’s funeral pyre was blanketing the sky leaving the ruins dark and foreboding.
Hope,
as a search and rescue ship, was created for planet-side disasters, and as such it was aerodynamically designed to be able to fly in atmosphere. She carried a crew of fifteen including three flight surgeons and two rescue jumpers. Her large cargo hold could be converted into a hospital with enough beds for 50 people, and she was loaded with medical supplies and search and rescue equipment for both space born and terrestrial operations. Rene tried to keep her face calm as her pilot, Specialist Reginald Mi-Lun, brought
Hope
around for another pass. Radiological sensors indicated ground zero was near the Blue Zone. The weapon appeared to be in the 32-kiloton range. This was quite weak by modern standards, only about twice the power of the city buster dropped on Hiroshima at the end of the Second Global War, back on Terra. Much less than the weapon that had obliterated New Thrace during the First Martian uprising.

“Set us down on the airfield,” Rene ordered her pilot.

The spaceport and Interior base seemed largely intact being far enough from the blast to avoid outright disintegration. Still, the shock wave had caused a mini tsunami in the bay flooding the spaceport, and beaching a number of ships, scattering cargos, and demolishing a number of structures. Something, or more likely several somethings, on the docks had been flammable. The tsunami had ended in seconds, but it hadn’t been powerful enough to completely flood the docks leading to several large fires now raging throughout the spaceport.
Hope
touched down on the main landing field of the National police base. The scene outside was utter chaos. Men were running about in total panic. Others just sat on the ground too stunned to move. They all had blackened faces and soot stained cloths. Leadership, organization, and discipline were all gone. Even the best men fouled in the face of atomic fire. Chloe Rene steadied herself as she left the bridge, and made her way down the narrow hatch to the cargo bay. Her crew were already unpacking emergency supplies. Three of her men including her XO Warrant Officer Junba Coleman were giving themselves anti-radiation injections and putting on hazmat suits. Anti-rads could negate the long-term effects of radiation poisoning, but they could do little to mitigate the short-term symptoms. Rad poisoning caused loss of hair, vomiting, diarrhea, skin lesions and internal bleeding. Anti-rad nanos repaired damaged cells and mended organs ensuring anyone exposed to fallout that took sufficient doses of anti-rads would live. However, they would feel extremely ill for an extended period of time. As such, the only way to operate in a fallout zone without straining resources was with protective gear.

Rene strapped on her own gear and signaled for a coms check.

“Com’s good LT,” Junba said.

“Okay well try to get things organized, flight surgeon Torric?”

“Aye Ma'am.”

“You're in charge of triage. As of now, this is not a ship. It’s a field hospital.”

Rene and her men stepped through the airlock,
Hope’s
shielding would keep the fallout from entering. Outside was in total chaos. Men in Interior Troops, New Helsinki Auxiliary Forces, and Provisional Police uniforms, and people in civilian clothing ran about trying to douse the fires, help the injured, or just move debris out of the way. Two men, one an Interior Major and the other a New Helsinki Auxiliary Captain, ran up to her and her men.

“Ma'am thank the gods you are here. I’m Major Daniel Collins bless you.”

“Captain Adle Ortenbur, Ma'am,” the New Helsinki introduced himself in accented Chinglish. He was far more stoic than his companion.

“I’m Lt. Rene Customs and Rescue Service, Captain Pavel of
Titan
has taken command of all in systems forces, and he’s ordered me to coordinate first responders here and at the other sites.”

Captain Ortenbur’s dirty face became even more ashen, “Other sites?”

“Valhor and Therenfall also got hit. We don’t know how bad yet.”
Ortenbur vomited.

“Major, Captain, I’m designating this CP for the Haggerdam Disaster Zone. Major get your people organized, and get those fires out. We need to get this situation under control.”

Looking toward the ash shrouded ruins across the bay and imaging the other two craters that use to be cities, Chloe Rene knew that was easier said than done.

Chapter XV

New Helsinki System, Solarian Republic

Space Elevator
Skylink 1
Anchor Point

March 9th 841 AE  (2802 AD) 9:00hrs Haggerdam Local Time

It had taken hundreds of millions of solars, and close to a year to illegally import a dozen fully armed combat skimmers piece by piece in addition to the small arms body armor and ammo the insurgents had needed to fully outfit Gustav Valbern’s strike force. The Solarians preferred to use indigenous security forces whenever possible to help take the strain off their own resources. Orbital elevators and their ground anchors, however, fell exclusively under Solarian force’s sole protection. The
Skylink 1
anchor point was roughly the size of a small city. In addition to being a strategic asset, it was rapidly becoming a major commercial port as the engineers brought more berths online in the orbital section. Being such a valuable asset, meant that it was well guarded. The security contingent consisted of a reinforced company of Interior Troops numbering 180 men plus a CRS Customs Enforcement contingent of 25 men and 25 Naval Engineers that kept the elevator functional. In addition to the official contingent charged with security and engineering, there were over 1,700 dockworkers and another 1,000 plus transient population. Valbern’s four hundred-man strike force had them both outgunned and outnumbered at the garrison. The Anchor point was in such chaos from the confusion following the reported nuclear strikes, no one on board saw the approaching skiffs until after their missiles and rail guns had demolished the station’s point defenses. One missile went wide and struck the
Ventur,
a coal freighter tied up in the harbor. The resulting explosion wrecked the cargoes being unloaded and loaded on the docks. Fire spread rapidly. Damaging the docks, however, denied Valbern’s men their best landing point. To control the Anchor point, it was necessary to seize the primary generators, and the command center. Both were located at the center of the anchor point, the area that was the most heavily defended. Four skiffs pulled up to the outer guard wall. One took a direct hit to its counter grav from a shouldered fired missile from a particularly fast reacting Interior Trooper before a different skiff’s auto cannon blew him away. The three-remaining skiffs began discharging their troops via grapple hooks and ladders. Gustav came over the wall with his men leading from the front. He had speed and surprise on his side, but the security detachment was well trained. The insurgents managed to take the primary power generators quickly, but they were thrown back with heavy casualties. Gustav ordered his eight remaining ships to collapse their perimeter and land their troops. He had a choice. He could either, maintain a perimeter, and maximize his maneuverability while leaving his options open for retreat, or he could overwhelm the defenders with superior numbers. He gambled that with the nuclear strikes against the ODBs the Solarians wouldn’t be able to reinforce their troops on the anchor point before he secured it. He gambled wrong. Both of
Titan’s
assault shuttles each loaded with two squads of Marines, and a Testudo fire team tore through the atmosphere firing their missiles and auto cannons. Four skiffs blew up on the first pass, and three more were heavily damaged. Two sank within minutes, and the third began to flounder. On the second pass, the Testudoes were released. One went wide and fell into the sea were the pilot would wait fourteen hours for rescue. Another blew up on drop, the victim of a well-aimed rail gun. The surviving six landed successfully on the platform and began carving out a LZ with heavy weapons fire. The shuttles set down discharging their Marines who moved in standard assault formation. Testudoes moved first, pouring fire from all four-weapon points and firing grenades. Marines in light body armor followed supporting the suits, and taking anything they missed. Half an hour after the first bombs had gone, off Gustav's strike force had already taken 75% casualties and was now cut off fighting for its life against vigorous Solarian counter attack. Gustav tried to rally his men until a hail of .50 caliber rounds fired from Solarian battle rifles obliterated him.