Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

June 24th 003 SDE, 1335 hours; 35 minutes since the first attacks began:

The admiral was silent for a moment as she sat at her desk. Digesting what she had just been told. Telgros was under attack. According to reports, menace fighters launched simultaneous attacks against all three ground air bases and the local starbase. As near as she could tell the Menace had achieved in less than twenty minutes total orbital and air supremacy over Telgros. Such an action could only mean one thing. Yet she was left with a question, why of all places did they pick Telgros?

In any case, she couldn’t allow this to stand. She had already sent the 149th fleet to reinforce Telgros, but that was before she had heard of the attack. It didn’t help that her warning to the outpost had arrived too late for them to do anything meaningful. Perhaps if it had been earlier the alien attack would not have been so damaging. At least, not so quickly and decisively.

Pulling out a map of the local surface, defense garrisons and installations. She started considering how the colony could hold, long enough for the fleet to arrive. The longer they held, the easier it would be to repulse and dislodge the enemy. Letting them take the colony would be unacceptable. Glancing to her aid, she inquired, “to confirm, only the air bases have been hit. The ground side defenses remain largely intact?”

“So far, but it’s only a matter of time before other installations are hit.”

She looked at the map. The port itself was the most heavily defended site on the colony. It was protected by ground shields, surrounded by a security net, and was protected by multiple fortified gun batteries. 14 batteries were inside the port itself and capable of ground-to-space fire. These gun banks contained three concussion cannons, and forty heavy pulse guns. More than enough to tear into most capital ships. There were also plasma missile launchers and light pulse cannon emplacements in the port.

Outside the port was a perimeter of sixty additional heavy gun batteries, and along with two hundred lighter emplacements. More than most colonies might have, but a sign of how much the clan valued the colony at Telgros. It was an important source of wealth, and the vast warehouses at the port stored vast quantities of valuable minerals at any given time. There were also nearly a hundred thousand Confederation troops on the planet as part of the garrison, plus an additional two hundred thousand on the clan Minara’s payroll. Troops loyal directly to the clan. All to protect the nearly three million people there and the investment the clan had made in Telgros. The colonies primary industry was mining, with a secondary industry in refining, but there were plenty of other jobs to fill to support those industries. The local port required fuel to supply the transports, fighters and cruisers that visited the colony. As such there were deuterium refineries on the planet, which needed workers to operate, people to maintain them, and people making parts to keep them running. All those workers also needed food, and Telgros had plenty of fertile land to farm. It was a growing colony, with room for more. The clan even had plans for another wave of colonists to expand the industry.

The big question was where the aliens would land. The port was ideal for landings since it was designed to accept huge numbers of large shuttles every day, but it was also the most heavily protected site on the planet. Obviously, the aliens would seek to take control of the port quickly, but it wouldn’t necessarily be the site of initial landings. If they wanted it, they likely wouldn’t bomb it too heavily, as they would want to make use of the port. Given those assumptions, she tried to figure out where the aliens would land.

As she was looking, she noticed a site to the south, not far from the destroyed Airbase at Hesa. Hesa had been picked as an Airbase given the calm local weather and relatively flat geography. Yet those same conditions made the area ideal for the construction of a spaceport, just like the one at Yular. If she was going to land troops it would be here, the open area would be hard to defend, especially from the air, but since Hesa was already neutralized that was irrelevant. With air superiority, they would be able to land largely unopposed and the lack of air cover would ensure they could do so without worry. Yet that left issues with approaching the port, as there would be a river between the landing zone and the port.

Still it was a thought, although perhaps not one she had to be too worried about. It was the generals on the ground that would have to decide how to defend against this invasion of Valorian soil. In the meantime, she would have to consider what options she had to buy time for the reinforcements to arrive. To that end she checked ship positions in the area and noticed that task force 97 was in range, the lead ship was the VCS Bountiful Treasure. One of the few ships shown to be able to compete with the alien vessels. Still it would take her over a day to reach the system, but still faster than the week and a half for the main force she had sent before the attack.

Telgros: Township of Rula; June 25th, 003 SDE, 0230 hours:

The grounded pilot stepped off the back of the truck she had managed to board on the way to Rula. Alongside her were a few other survivors from the attack at Hesa. Her roommate wasn’t one of them, and she was a bit worried that she might not find them. Well former roommate anyway, her quarters were a pile of rubble by now.

They hadn’t yet reached Rula, but the truck wasn’t going to go further. They were out of gas, but at least the town was in sight. She looked out over the town. Where she could see several columns of smoke rising from the town. Beyond the buildings the wide gentle banks of the river could still be seen and from the look of it the bridge was fine. She couldn't help but conclude that the town had been bombed, but unlike the base, it seemed to have avoided the worst of it. Seeing as the town was still there.

A soldier stepping out of the truck commented, “I guess it was too good to hope that Rula wouldn’t be hit.”

“At least the town seems to still be here.”

“We better get into town then, we know the truck ain’t going anywhere. Not unless someone has a hydrogen cell in their pack they didn’t tell anyone about.”

There were a couple of laughs, but no one turned up any fuel for the truck. So they had to walk the rest of the way to town. Thankfully they ran out of fuel in sight of the town and someone came to meet them about halfway there.

A young man stepped out of the vehicle that came their way. He forced a smile, “Welcome to Rula. I hope you brought some good news.”

She shared a look with the others, “Well Hesa got bombed and from the look of it so did Rula. At least the town still seems to be here.”

The man sighed, “Alien shuttles strafed the town late last night. Of course that was the distraction.”

“Distraction?”

“Alien troops captured the bridge and blew up the heavy anti-air battery on the west side of town. Amazingly we have had surprisingly few civilian deaths despite the rain of fire on the town.”

Someone asked, “How many?”

“An old man, father of three young girls, a member of the Wright clan. He was a teacher, age 73. He was out by the bridge, teaching a young woman how to fix some mechanism. The other man who died was a bartender, no known children, age 39. In his case, he was walking home when a panicked young driver swerved onto the sidewalk, killing the bartender and injuring two others.”

That did seem fairly light. She would have expected more, the base had been hit hard and here the town seemed to have only lost a couple of unlucky guys. It didn’t seem right.

She spoke up, “have you heard anything from the other air bases? The port? The starbase?”

“No, nothing, but long-range comms are out. Tower’s fine, but we aren’t getting anything more than static.”

Jamming? Why would they be... unless? She took a look around, “We need to get into town fast. Something is up.”

Telgros: Township of Rula; June 25th, 003 SDE, 0243 hours:

The young pilot looked out the window. From here she could see the bridge quite clearly. It was a wide bridge forged of polished metal and painted in bright colors. On either side of the bridge were several buildings clustered near the bridge. On the nearside of the bridge there was even a tower, at least five floors tall.

At the moment she could see that the brave infantry were making an attempt to retake the bridge. Several squads were pinned behind some barricades as they slowly returned fire, but they didn’t seem to be making much progress. Notably due to a heavy weapon mounted in the tower. The air buzzed with the whine of energy weapon discharges from both sides.

She looked away, a question on her lips, but before she could say anything another voice spoke up. “I don’t like this. I mean why take a bridge of all things?”

The pilot silently agreed, she didn’t like this either. Nothing here felt right. A sudden boom silenced the room before the conversation could really get started. She looked out the window, but the battle below was unchanged. Blue bolts of energy flared from the invader’s positions. Keeping the stalwart defenders bogged down and unable to reclaim lost ground. The bridge didn’t even look to have been damaged either. There was no sign of a boom.

Another soon echoed, just as someone ran into the room, shouting ‘We are under attack!!!”

Well that was rather obvious. Hesa was a crater, alien soldiers were on the bridge and several buildings were on fire. By this point you would have to be oblivious to not know the colony was under attack. A third boom shook the room, just to make that point. By now she was pretty sure the aliens were bombing something, even if she couldn’t see it. Something reasonably close by from the sound of it.

Telgros, High Orbit, EFS Enterprise, Lower War Room 0300 hours:

Forrest looked up when the door opened to admit the captain of all people. He blinked, not expecting him at this hour. “Couldn’t sleep, sir?”

“Actually I was up late dealing with all the paperwork. Figured I would check in with you before going to bed. Thankfully, I can operate on low sleep thanks to my implants. Don’t know what I would do without them.”

“Drink coffee, or whatever that sludge we get served instead is?”

He chuckled, “That never worked for me. Anyway I was more interested in the campaign than talking about morning rituals.”

“I’m quite happy with our men so far. Operation Crippled Eagle went perfectly, all three enemy air bases were neutralized and the threat of the local starbase eliminated. Secondary objectives were secured or eliminated as required and we now hold several key points for the next phase of the campaign. Operation Silent Panther is progressing slower than I would have liked, but I am pleased to report that Alpha Division has successfully landed.”

Countryman nodded, he recalled that the chain of command had divided the forces onboard into several commands. The twenty thousand soldiers they had were split into two divisions, Alpha and Beta, with each division containing two Regiments, which were in turn made of five Battalions, which were composed of four companies each. A company was then further broken into fifty-man units referred to as Platoons, which could break down further into squads. The last of which was the only division that didn’t really refer to a set number of men. Although they did at least fit a certain range depending on duties. Countryman recalled that they had deployed a single company of marines to the surface for the initial attack and not all at once. The gunships had inserted a single squad at a time, at designated locations, while conducting attacks in several waves.

“Excellent, was Richards able to get the required Scorpions ready in time for the deployment?”

“She was, I’ve attached ten Scorpions, and six hundred Raptor tanks to Alpha division. All ten of the Scorpions have been outfitted for long-range artillery support. In addition to them, I have attached about a thousand supply trucks, and fifty mobile artillery batteries. Along with a number of armored half tracks for mech speed.”

“Caliber?”

“178-millimeter Photon shells, same caliber as those carried by the Scorpion.”

“What about lighter combat vehicles? Any ST-42s? Or ARV-22s?”

“Yes to both, attached to the division’s recon elements. I also assigned a few ST-42 scout tanks to help protect the larger half-tracks.”

He nodded along, understanding why. The ST-42 could transport a single squad and their supplies. Allowing it to serve as a light transport, but it was more there for rapid response. Giving a commander an option to move troops to a trouble area quickly and bring with them a capable fire support platform.

The ARV-22 Sentry on the other hand, was a cheap fast vehicle with light armor and a single heavy weapon mount. It was versatile and great for scouting out and probing enemy positions. Just not much more, it had seats for three people. More importantly it had a protected heavy weapon mount, which would keep the gunner safe from most small arms. He knew it was also a very popular light vehicle and some commanders had made great use of it for more than just recon.

“Sounds good. I look forward to the progress report.”

“I’ll let you know when Alpha division takes the port. Right now they are marching north, the first recon elements are reaching a township called Rula by the locals now.”

“I recall we identified an important crossing point there.”

“Yes a major bridge that would allow us to cross the river more quickly and easily than in other locations. Taking Rula would save us a few hours on the march to the port.”

Countryman recalled that in the past it could have been more, but the advent of Hover technology allowed the creation of vehicles that could cross a river much more easily than the wheeled vehicles of the past. Yet bridges were still pretty vital since it wasn’t easy for troops to cross a river, even with modern armored suits. Although the suits did help, it was better for troops to be ferried across by vehicles or marched across a bridge. The biggest delay if they lost the bridge however, would be the logistics train. They were heavy vehicles, designed to carry a lot of cargo for the troops, but they weren’t able to cross a river as easily as a modern tank or transport vehicle. They would need a bridge to cross, there just wasn’t any way around it.

Forrest changed the subject, “On a different note, what do we plan to do when we pull out? I’ve seen the survey reports, this place is a treasure trove.”

“I’ve been meaning to discuss it with Ruri. I’m leaning towards making another attempt at her orbital mining project.”

He blinked, “Destroying the planet might be a bit much.”

Countryman chuckled, it would seem that way indeed. He spent a little longer discussing the idea before leaving the room. It was late after all.