Talosian Chronicles 2: Star Dancer (44 page)

“This is Petrie, what’s up?” the man replied.

“We have guests coming, E.T.A. is twenty-five minutes. From the looks of it, this is going to be a full attack, including nukes and anti-matter. Please make sure all your people are suited up for the duration,” Ty said.

“I ordered them all into their armor when you first told me about the ships. We’re ready for them,” Petrie replied.

“Good, I’ve also activated all the weapons systems, so your heavy guns should be hot. Good luck out there,” Ty said.

“In case I don’t get the chance to say it, Colonel Anders, thank you for letting us be a part of this. This is what Marines are meant to do.” Petrie replied.

“Semper Fi, Colonel,” Ty said.

“HOO-ahh!” Petrie said and closed the channel.

“Do we have missile lock yet?” Ty asked.

“Any second, Sir.” The other man in the ops center replied.

“Feel free to light them up as soon as you do, Corporal. All weapons are free to fire as soon as they have a positive lock.” Ty ordered. “Remember, there are a lot of friendlies, and normal jets up there.”

“Will do Sir,” the man replied.

“Connors, have our troops get to the surface and help the civilians get to the shelters. I want everyone off the surface before any of those bombers get into range,” Ty said noticing that there were still people running around on the surface. “What’s the problem up there anyway?”

“Two children are missing. We’re checking to make sure they aren’t already in the shelter, but they are still looking for them on the surface too,” Private Connors replied.

“If they aren’t found in fifteen minutes, then we’re going to have to give up. It’ll be too dangerous for the civilians up there,” Corporal, what’s
Star Dancer
doing?”

“Still en-route to Earth Sir, she should get her about the same time the enemy does. Operations has just ordered all fighters from Phoenix base to launch and get here as fast as possible,
Star Dancer’s
Marines are getting ready to deploy, but I’m not sure where they’re going yet,” Corporal Ramirez said.

“Not too many places for them
to
go, is there, Corporal?” Ty asked.

“Sir, I meant I don’t know if they are getting ready to come here, or they are gearing up for a boarding operation,” Ramirez replied.

“Who are they going to board?” Ty asked, confused.

“Sir, the Super Nova is also in route to Earth,” Ramirez replied.

“Fuck! I forgot about that big bastard. Okay, keep me posted,” Ty said, then touched his communit again. “Main Medical, this is Ty.”

“MedBay, what’s up, Colonel?” Doctor Johnson replied.

“It’s party time, are you all set up down there?” he asked.

“Already? I thought we had another hour!” she said in surprise. “We will be in five more minutes, Colonel.”

“That should be fine, Doctor. Do you need anything?” Ty asked.

“Do you think you could get the Caldarians to simply turn around and go home? That would be really helpful,” the woman replied sweetly. “Everything else we pretty much have a handle on.”

“Multiple targets locked! Missiles away!” Ramirez reported.

Ty shook his head. “Nope, I guess they didn’t get the message, sorry Doc.”

“Keep your head down, Colonel,” the doctor replied.

“Will do, Anders out.” Ty said closing the channel.

“Connors, use the base sensors to find the kids then get everyone underground
now
!” Ty said. “If they are in range of our weapons, we are in range of theirs!”

“I’ve been trying Sir, I’m still looking, but they haven’t shown up yet,” the private said.

“Sir, I have inbound missiles! Missile defense systems are tracking and firing!” Ramirez reported. He looked over at Private Connors. “We’re running out of time, Amigo, I would get the civilians to the shelter, and keep looking for the young ones with soldiers.”

Connors nodded. “I’m issuing the orders. I’d just like to know where they could have gone that the sensors wouldn’t be able to find them.”

“Where are the only places in the compound that the sensors don’t work?” Ty asked.

“There aren’t that many, near the shield generators or the power units, mostly,” Connors replied.

“What about close to the edge of the shield itself?” Ty asked.

Connors shook his head. “There are sensors on each of the poles all around the perimeter, if they were close to any of those, we’d know about it.”

“Well, send men to check out the shield generators, and power units. Bring all the domestic drones up from the underground base, program them to look for the kids, and turn them loose. In ten minutes we’re going to be trading energy with live Caldarians on the ground,” Ty said. “We’re going to need every Marine we have. Ramirez, warn the Marines about the missiles.” 

“Fighters and assault carriers are following the missiles. It looks like they are serious this time,” Ramirez said.

“Those missiles must be shield piercers. I was expecting heavy anti-matter, or nukes,” Ty said.

“Sensors do say they are carrying anti-matter, but you are correct, Sir, the amount is consistent with shield piercers,” Ramirez replied.

“Control, this is Elias. I found them! They were playing on top of the mesa next to the shield Generator. They’re both unconscious, which would explain why they didn’t come running when the alarm sounded. When the shield went active, it stunned them,” Elias explained. “I’m carrying them, and we are running for the shelter.”

“Elias, its Ty. Make for the admin building, and take the elevator down from there. It’s closer to your location. Be advised, there are missiles coming, it’s going to get hairy out there before you can reach cover.”

“Understood, I just handed one of the young one’s off to a Marine, we’re heading for the Admin building,” Elias replied.

“Impact is imminent! All units! Take cover!” Ramirez called.

The command center shook with the impacts. Of the shield piercer missiles, alarms started sounding from the computer system.

“Shield down to thirty percent. We have fires in sections one and four! Damage control to sections one and four!” Connors ordered.

“Get the drones working on those shields, we can’t take any more impacts!” Ty said.

“I’m on it, Sir!” Ramirez said, typing furiously on his keyboard.

“Sir, three Marines have minor burns, and six more have damaged armor. No other damage to offensive or defensive systems,” Connors reported.

“Thank you,” Ty said, he filed that away in his mind, and he feared they were going to take a lot more damage this time.

“Fighters and assault carriers are firing on the shield. Assault carriers are again landing in section twenty-three, outside the front gate. All enemy activity is centered there,” Ramirez reported. “The Marine’s shield is still at full power.”

Ty had consulted with Petrie and his company commanders and decided that the most likely place for the enemy to attack would be the place they attacked first. It was really the only place they could land their ships that would give them the opportunity to provide covering fire for the other ships.

Also, it was the place that was the closest to the main compound, which was their primary objective. So, they had developed a strategy that would counter that scenario, while still giving them the flexibility to move if the enemy did, in fact, assault another place on the shield. However, that did not seem to be the case.

“Marine shield is taking heavy damage,” Ramirez reported. “Enemy will breach in ten minutes.”

“Send out the skirmishers, let’s try to take some of their attention off the shield. Activate the anti-assault weapons systems,” Ty ordered. “Set them to begin firing as soon as the shield fails.”

Out on the enemy landing area, the assault carriers didn’t actually land this time, instead, they began ‘dropping’ their payloads of troops and equipment. They hovered a few meters off the ground, and opened the bays that faced away from the incoming fire.

“These fuckers are a lot smarter than the bunch we fought the first time. Expect the carriers to join the air attack once the troops are off-loaded,” Ty said.

“Control, this is Petrie,” came a voice over the comm unit.

“This is Anders, what’s up Colonel?”

“It looks like these bastards are playing for keeps this time. They’re using the ship’s shields to protect their troops during the offload. Also, we’re seeing our shield glowing where they have their fire concentrated,” Petrie reported.

“That’s where the breach will be, Colonel. We’re doing everything we can, but it’s going to happen. Once they punch through there, the shield will collapse from the overload, and then it’ll be a shooting gallery,” Ty told him.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Will those ships continue to protect their troops after our shield falls?” Petrie asked.

“No, once the troops move away from the ships, they’ll be unprotected. After the ships are unloaded, we expect them to lift off again, to hit us from the air, or move back for long distance cover fire,” Ty said.

“This is what they should have done the first time. I think we’re in for a fight,” Petrie said.

“Yes we are, keep your head down, Colonel,” Ty replied. “They have air support this time.”

“Do we have air support?” Petrie asked.

“Yep, they’ll be up there too, but you can never be too sure,” Ty said.

“That’s true, Petrie out.”

––––––––

M
any things began to happen, and all of them seemed to happen at the same time.
Star Dancer
arrived at Earth and began atmospheric defense operations, the assault carriers finished off-loading their cargo and moved back to land and use their larger weapons as cover fire, and the shield covering the marines collapsed from the overload of energy being dumped into it. Most of the rest of the assault force arrived overhead at that time as well.

Unknown to Ty, two planetary assault missiles got past Cobalt Squadron in deep space, one was taken out by
Star Dancer’s
guns, but the last one made it into the atmosphere. Its target was Denver, Colorado.

Cobalt squadron had followed the missiles all the way in, trying to stop them. But once they hit the atmosphere, the fighters had to slow down or risk overloading their armor because of the friction of the atmosphere.

After the missile escaped even
Star Dancer’s
guns, one of the pilots from Cobalt broke formation, and dove for the missile.

“Falcon, where the hell are you going? You’ll blow up before you ever get close to it!” The flight leader called.

“Boss, my family lives in Denver. I have to try, if I survive this, you can kick my ass for disobeying.” Falcon replied as he pushed his fighter to maximum speed, and began full automatic firing of all his weapons, and setting his shields to maximum.

From the ground, millions of people looked up and saw a bright, glowing streak moving rapidly after another streak. None of them actually knew what they were looking at, and for a few of them, it would be the last thing they ever saw.

Falcon didn’t even try to shoot the missile, he flew his Shadow fighter, as fast as it would go, right into the missile. The impact alone would have been enough to destroy the missile, even if Falcon’s ship hadn’t exploded due to overload. He exploded three hundred meters short of his target, but still accomplished his goal. The concussion triggered the warhead that had armed when it entered the atmosphere. At an altitude of almost a hundred thousand feet, the hundred-plus megaton anti-matter warhead detonated.

At that altitude, the flash was visible from well out in the Pacific Ocean, all the way to Cincinnati, Ohio. In the high planes and along the west coast of the United States, thousands of people were blinded, and hundreds of people suffered from flash burns. Seventy-three died from burns. Fire departments all over were stretched past their breaking point as hundreds of fires began in an instant.

––––––––

T
alos, New Mexico

Earth, Sol Sector

Combat location:
Eden

––––––––

U
p on the surface, chaos reigned. The Caldarian troops rushed forward
en masse
. But the Talosian Marines, mixed in with the US Marines, broke the rush. Forcing the troops to advance slowly behind armor.

Several of the troops paired up and carried a shield with them. It was a thick piece of armor that had a small shield generator mounted on it. When the shield failed, it would automatically reset itself. While it cycled through it’s cool down, the thick armor of the hard shield served to absorb the energy and impacts from the Talosian weapons until the shield generator could reactivate. The system would eventually be over-come, but it bought the enemy troops enough time to move a considerable distance forward.

“Primary shield failure eminent. Standby to shift power grid to weapons systems,” Ramirez reported.

“Power system ready, weapons systems ready,” Connors reported. “Weapons deploying.” On the surface, several new ground mounted weapons rose from their underground storage places, and the water tower once again opened up.

“Switch now!” Ramirez ordered.

“Switching, weapons systems are hot and locking on, power systems switched. Anti-assault weapons are engaging the enemy assault carriers and heavy armor,” Connors reported.

“Good, our Marines need the help,” Ty said.

“Damn! We just lost two anti-air turrets!” Ramirez reported. “Those bombers are accurate as hell.”

“Set the rest of the bombers as the primary targets for the rest of the AA (anti-aircraft) units. Can we shift any construction drones over to fix the ones we lost?” Ty asked.

“Sorry Sir, everything I have is busy fighting the fires, or trying to fix the shields. I’ve already had to abandon the labs and assembly areas.” Connors replied.

The bunker shook and the lights failed but came right back on. “Surface power plant is gone. It took a direct hit.”

“Fuck, what’s out reactor status?” Ty asked.

“We’re at one hundred and five percent. Engineering is trying to cut systems out of the loop to ease the load,” Connors replied after some fast typing.