Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

Telgros: Township of Rula; June 25th, 003 SDE, 0430 hours:

General Kirk ducked her head, as a man said, “My apologies, Ma’am!”

She let out a breath, as she watched him maneuver the ninety kilogram shell he was carrying through the door. Once again she was really unhappy with sharing her command post with an artillery crew, but she was more unhappy with Richards. That thrice damned engineer taking apart vital war machines was certainly getting on her nerves. If all of them had been up and running, she wouldn’t have to be sharing one with an artillery crew nor would loaders be ferrying rounds through her CIC. It didn’t help that the cursed autoloader that was supposed to ferry rounds from the lower storage to the upper storage was offline.

Watching him go, she looked at the engineer half buried in a wall, “How much longer?”

“I almost have the last shell dislodged, give me another minute to clear the jam, and I can get the damn thing working again soon.”

“Oh? You found the issue?”

“Missing part, one meant to prevent things like this. We have a spare in the lower bay, thankfully.”

“So you mean this whole fiasco is Richards’s fault?”

“Looks like, she probably used it to fix a broken conveyor. I recall the factory people broke three of them last month alone.”

“I just hope that was the only missing part overlooked.”

The engineer was silent for a moment, “I had the same worry, but diagnostics read fine for the other systems. I’ll do an inspection just in case though.

She acknowledged that and then leaned over her tac table. This diversion aside, she still had a battle to command. Her lead elements had already engaged the Valorian defenders at Rula. The gates to the main garrison had been breached and several fortifications nullified. The Garrison was still putting up a fight and reinforcements had arrived from the port. Her foes had even brought a decently sized force of shielded hover tanks but she didn’t see any walkers. Right now, her tank elements were engaged in a tank duel with the Valorian tanks.

General Kirk had already taken a look at the intel they had on the Valorian MBTs. Compared to the Raptor, they were both lighter and faster. The lack of heavy armor allowed them better acceleration as well, but that was about all they had going for them. Outside of the superior mobility presented by the Valorian design she found them lacking in both protection and firepower. The Raptor’s main gun was a 155 mm (six inch) short-barrelled cannon, that fired a high velocity, shield and armor-piercing shell outfitted with a small photon warhead. The magnetic catapult that accelerated these shells could achieve hypersonic muzzle velocities allowing these shells to punch through pretty much anything. A single penetrating strike from this weapon could destroy a tank or cripple a heavy combat walker like her Scorpion.

In contrast, the Valorian tanks, were outfitted with a high-power plasma launcher that was basically a miniaturized plasma torpedo launcher. The superheated plasma rounds were accelerated to about twice the speed of sound and compressed into a rough shell shape and about the same size as a 120mm shell but three times the weight. The Valorian plasma shells were heavy, but so were current gen photon shells. It wasn’t much of an issue, and certainly worked to increase the punch of a weapon. The alien plasma rounds certainly did pack one, but she wasn’t impressed with their armor penetration. They might have worked against older tanks, but certainly not against the kind of armor found on modern ones. The Raptor had a uniform armor thickness of a meter that served to protect the vital compartments of the tank. Something the alien plasma rounds weren’t able to penetrate, at least not with the AIF intact.

In contrast, the alien shields were far less impressive. They were double layered, and about as strong as those on the Valorian fighters. Not that it seemed to help much against the Raptor’s high powered main cannon, or its secondary coaxial particle cannon. The RPL-257 was a potent anti-tank gun and she felt the designers chose well to include it, since it could destroy vehicles that didn’t warrant the use of a valuable photon shell. Afterall, the Raptor only had enough space in her ammo racks for sixty shells, she had to make them count. The RPL-257 however drew its ammo from the Raptor’s twin fusion reactors, making its ammo supply virtually limitless.

Not that ammo counts were going to matter much here. On the map, she watched a tank formation cross the river, and take position on a hill on the other side. Claiming it was three Valorian tanks and several infantry squads starting to dig in. In moments the first tank was gone. A photon shell penetrated the turret and detonated inside. A massive fireball was the result that sent the men on the hill diving for cover as the tanks dueled around them. Someone tried a rocket launcher, only to be gunned down by a defense turret on a nearby Raptor tank. Something rapidly reported to her and available on a second display that she now had monitoring that engagement.

A second shot rang out a moment later and with it came another kill. It seemed that hill would be claimed quickly, so she checked in on another site she had her eye on. A larger hill to the east and again on the other side of the river. Valorian troops were setting up positions on the hill. It was a good position, especially for artillery, since the site was defendable and had range on the Port. Yet, the aliens were not even setting up anything of the sort there. She did spot a few heavy weapons being set up, but the only thing of note were a few Valorian anti-tank guns. Basically man portable versions of the plasma launcher their tanks had, and even less impressive. Although perhaps a sight better than the plasma rockets their infantry were trying to use.

Kirk frowned, not that rocket really described them, they were shouldered weapons that worked by firing a compressed plasma shell. It wasn’t really a rocket, just like current infantry anti-tank weapons weren’t rockets. The modern weapon of choice was a Gauss cannon firing high-velocity shells equipped with a small photon warhead. It was big, and heavy, but it could punch through tank armor reliably. That didn’t make rockets obsolete, as they were also used. They were a bit more expensive but had the option for superior guidance.

Pushing those thoughts aside, she ordered one of her walkers to advance to the hill and redirected a force of six tanks and a company of marines to take the hill. They could move some of their artillery there to soften the port up for the main assault.

VCS Bountiful Treasure; Bridge; 0500 hours

Reidia leaned over the table in the conference room attached to her main bridge. She had been ordered to the colony at Telgros and was already en route at the best possible speed. What she had heard wasn’t that great, she wasn’t sure how well the colony could hold. It had already lost the outpost in orbit and the airbases on the ground. The Menace warship Enterprise wasn’t an easy target to contend with. She was fast, well-protected, and had competitive firepower.

Without defenses, the colony was currently at her mercy. What reports she had on that so far were best described as confused. From what reports did seem to line up, she had surmised that the invaders had landed a contingent of troops on the planet. Troops that were now marching north towards the port with heavy fighting occurring near Rula. There were some reports indicating fighting elsewhere, but she wasn’t sure how accurate that was. Worse, there was also an apparent delay in communications. Some communications even arrived somewhat scrambled. Reidia suspected the Menace were employing jamming, but it wasn’t complete yet which was why she was getting what information she had.

None of which seemed all that relevant to her primary mission. She had no data whatsoever on the current position of the Menace ships. Neither their flag nor the two escort ships. That sadly meant they were going in blind. Looking to her first officer, she said, “What do you think?”

The other woman tapped the moon she had spoken about earlier, “The position is passable. If we arrive on schedule the mass of the body should hide our energy signature. That will give us some time to ascertain the current disposition of hostile forces. Overall I think that spot is the best plan. But I must point out that if the menace anticipates that, we may find ourselves quickly under attack while we are still vulnerable.”

“Sadly yes, but I’m not sure we have a better spot.”

Her officer pointed at a gas giant a few AU distant from Telgros, “It would be slower, but we could jump out of warp here. At this range, we could more safely scan the area.”

“We could, but any scans would alert the enemy, we may lose the element of surprise. I would rather keep the initiative. After that last round, I don’t want to give the Menace the upper hand in battle.”

“Right, that flag of theirs is a real terror. I believe that ship alone could go toe to toe with most fleets.”

She had to agree, such ships, while rare, weren’t unheard of. The Krall Warhammer class battleships were very much capable of it, but the Krall were the most advanced power in this part of the galaxy. As such it wasn’t that surprising that their ships were a cut above. Krall plasma beam weapons were not only sustained beam weapons but also powerful. Able to punch through most energy shields through sheer power alone. While her own shields could resist the beam weapons on a lesser Krall ship. The same couldn’t be said of the powerful projectors mounted on their heavy capital ships like the Warhammer class battleships. The Krall also had advanced stealth technologies and access to powerful spatial torpedoes. Their Inversion drives also gave them the ability to protect their space with comparatively fewer ships, as the drive allowed them to respond to threats more quickly than more conventional hyperdrives or warp drives.

Of course, the Krall weren’t invincible, and while the Menace seemingly was, she knew that was just an illusion. Last time it had been disheartening to see them shrug off heavy hits and not even seem damaged. This time however, she had new insights from fleet that would help inform her strategy. Getting past that armor of theirs was still going to be a challenge, it was incredible armor really. Finding a chink in it was really half the battle now. She’d been told that an overwhelming barrage might bring it down, just like with an energy shield. Throw enough energy at it and something will get through. Then again, that was the case with pretty much anything, it was just a matter of scale.

Thankfully her mission didn’t require her to sink the Menace Warship Enterprise. The main goal was to keep them busy long enough for the response fleet to arrive. Her mind raced as she considered her tactics for the battle. A close gun duel was certainly something to be avoided. As the last battle had proven the aliens were able to shoot through her shields while at close range. While she had spent the last two months devising countermeasures, she had no desire to test them. Theory was one thing, but practice was quite another.

After a moment her first officer inquired, “So do we have a plan for the Menace Battlecarrier?”

‘I have a couple of ideas, yes. Now listen carefully, we have little room for mistakes.”

Telgros: Township of Rula; 0520 hours:

Kirk shifted, as she noted the key hills had been taken. They had also silenced the defensive positions overlooking the bridge. With the bridge now clear of resistance, the troops protecting it were free to be relieved. More importantly they could now start crossing the river in earnest. She ordered the supply train forward, while her forward units engaged the remaining units on the other side of the river.

As for the local garrison, they were surprisingly still fighting, but the main base had fallen. She merely had pockets of local forces still resisting. Annoying, but nothing more than that. The main goal was the port, they didn’t have time to sit here rooting out every squad hiding in the rubble. Something she would normally prefer to deal with, but time was critical here. Something she kept in mind as she gave her new orders, while keeping an eye on the map.