Over the preceding week, the amount of subversive activity in the Empire increased tremendously. Installations exploded without warning on many worlds. The enemy seemed to be focusing in particular on the long range scanner installations, perhaps hoping to strip the Empire of its early warning capability. The recently colonised Gaius system was the worst hit, losing its newly built surface-to-orbit batteries and its weapons factory complex. Efforts to rebuild what was lost began immediately.
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It was the most powerful force the empire had assembled to date.
Even as the remains of Task Force Reprisal were limping home from Mygeeto, Task Force Biocide was preparing to get underway. The intelligence returned from the latest batch of Companion Cube Droids was disturbing. None of the droids had lasted long in the target system, but before they had been destroyed they had sent back some very disturbing images. The logs showed mottled, twisted, organic shapes, rising from a great complex of pulsing spheres and jutting spines, spitting fire from numerous orifices.
Admiral Sheppard reviewed his fleet organisation. It was not nearly as comprehensive as he would like - many of his subordinates whispered that that would not happen until all matter in the universe had been turned into HAB weaponry – but it should be sufficient for the task at hand.
Code: Select all
Task Force Biocide - Admiral Sheppard Commanding
Main Battle Unit
INS Star Fist - StellarFortress - Battlecruiser - Admiral Sheppard
INS Big Stick - Peacemaker - Star Cruiser - Captain Julian
INS Darth - Peacemaker - Star Cruiser - Captain Onasi
INS Final Judgement - Peacemaker - Star Cruiser - Captain Pelranius
Starfighter Support Squadron
INS Lucky Bastard - Legacy - Light Carrier - Commodore Hotfoot
INS Black Prince - Legacy - Light Carrier - Captain Verhec
INS Full Refund - Legacy - Light Carrier - Captain Nephtys
INS Thermopylae - Legacy - Light Carrier - Captain Spartan
Space Superiority Squadron
INS Dharma II - Guardian - Gunboat - Commodore Knight
INS Knight - Guardian - Gunboat - Commander Net
INS Python - Guardian - Gunboat - Commander Monty
INS Monster - Guardian - Gunboat - Commander Lag
INS Degan - Guardian - Gunboat - Lieutennant Commander Patrick
INS Snardbody - Guardian - Gunboat - Lieutennant Commander Zed
The fleet dropped into realspace low over Corulag, intending to catch the enemy off guard. Contact with the enemy was almost immediate.
Seemingly endless swarms of enemy fighters were arrayed between the fleet and its objective, closing fast. The Imperial carriers started launching fighters as fast as they could, but it fell to Commodore Knight's squadron to hold off the first wave. The six gunboats roared ahead, aiming to catch the bizarre enemy fighters in a crossfire. Their guns had surprisingly little effect however, and the enemy destroyers soon retaliated.
“Ah, the machine-slaves come to visit us, as I knew you would. This conflict is inevitable, yet unnecessary. You have clung to your machines for so long, and now at last we have come, ready to show you a better path. Alas, I sense that you will need some persuading.” Every officer, every crewman in the Imperial fleet could hear the strange voice in their minds.
The INS Snardbody reacted slower than the rest of the squadron, her green crew lacking the practiced precision of the Knight's or the Dharma II's. The enemy concentrated fire and the gunboat burst apart into a cloud of flaming debris.
“It is so sad, ending your existence before you even have the chance to appreciate the true glory of the organic. I suppose you are already half-dead though, trapped in your space-going coffins?” The female voice was soft, almost sensual, yet with an alien sibilance and hungry undertone that made Admiral Sheppard's skin crawl.
“Jam that transmission! I will not have enemy propaganda in my comms system.”
“It isn't in the comm sir... I don't know how they're doing it. Some sort of telepathy?”
“Get out of my head damnit!”
”Admiral Sheppard, I am Co-ordinator Lakeena, and I am here to show you the true path, whether you like it or not.”
“Very well. We will silence than transmission at the source. Main Battle Unit, concentrate fire on the closest enemy capital ship. Captain Julian, take the lead.”
“Aye sir.”
The hideous enemy cruiser had an unnatural resistance to turbolaser fire, even with its shields gone it took far longer to die than any creature of bone and flesh should. Finally the incoming bolts began to tear its vitals apart. The thing died with a horrible psychic wail that left many of the Imperial crew temporarily stunned. An enemy destroyer soon followed; it had gotten too close to the Imperial carriers and massed fire from their self-defence armament blew it apart.
“Despoilers! What value do your ugly wedges, your dead metal ships have compared to the grace and elegance of our leviathans? Even your people, yes I have the measure of you know, almost machines yourselves with your rules and your hierarchies and your cold determination to kill. I can see that I must teach you the error of your ways.”
The enemy counter-attack was ferocious. In pressing the assault on the enemy cruiser, the Imperial cruisers had left their carriers exposed, an opportunity the remaining enemy destroyers exploited.
“Captain Nephtys! Don't leave the formation! They'll pick you off...”
“Sorry sir! Damage to the engines, took us a while to correct the differential thrust. Oh no.. sir, the station is firing on us!”
The INS Full Refund disappeared in a chain of explosions as magazines full of bomber ordnance were touched off. The ship was blasted apart before any of her crew could make it off.
Meanwhile Lieutennant WesFox was fighting desperately to save the Final Judgement. The big cruiser was being harried by a vast number of enemy fighters, which were administering a death of one thousand cuts. WesFox killed what he could, but his TIE Defenders were so few, too few – and the regular TIEs were not in the same league as the enemy fighters.
“I'm sorry sir, we can't stop them. Recommend that you abandon ship.”
“Too late for that son.” Captain Pelranius's voice was grave but firm. “They're blasting the escape pods anyway. Don't be guilty. You did your best...”
In the CIC of the Star Fist, Admiral Sheppard watched his cruiser die, his face an emotionless mask.
“The enemy destroyers are focusing on the Thermopylae now, she's about to lose shields. Our cruisers are engaging that support ship.”
“Maximum thrust, all tubes. Risk overload if you have to, but get us into the thick of it. And put me on the PA.”
“This is Admiral Sheppard. All rules of hereby engagement are suspended, all batteries to fire on targets of opportunity. I would rather accept the loss of a few of our own ships, than let the enemy have this battle.”
Intensive fire from the Star First eliminated the second enemy capital ship, at the cost of wiping out the INS Monster with friendly fire. The battered carrier squadron managed to claim another organic destroyer.
All of the enemy's attention was on the Star First, and Captain Julian had exploited this to bring the two remaining Imperial cruisers within point-blank range of the enemy station. Heavy turbolasers spoke and the giant structure was soon bereft of shields and leaking atmosphere.
“No, you must not! What monsters are you, that you would try to destroy the nest-spaces of the People? Why do you not see that we are better than you, that absorption into the Biosphere is the best fate you could wish for?” The alien voice was almost pleading, but the tone soon changed. “If you will not listen, then you must die.”
Fresh waves of fighters launched from the station and headed straight for the INS Thermopylae. The carrier almost disappeared in a flurry of short-range mass-driver fire. The enemy's heavy guns focused on the Big Stick, pounding the cruiser's engine section. The bombardment was accompanied by waves of unarmed ships, freighters perhaps, that seemed dead set on ramming her. The cruiser's guns blasted most of them apart, but the heavy rain of debris continued on a ballistic trajectory and slammed into her hull.
“What the devil are they doing?” Admiral Sheppard mused. His question was quickly answered.
“Sir, this is Julian, we've lost propulsion, pinpoint strikes on all thrust tubes. I think they're... confirmed, sir those impacts destabilised our orbit. We're falling into the upper atmosphere.”
The INS Big Stick spiralled down out of orbit, wreathed in flames as she plunged deeper into the planet's atmosphere. It was curtains for the INS Thermopylae as well, blasted in half by a massive final mass-driver salvo. This was to be the enemy's last gasp. All of their warships were debris and Commodore Knight's squadron had finally managed to kill the bulk of their fighters. The station was a wreck; Lieutenant Commander Redleader had been steadily picking off weapons emplacements with his bomber squadrons, and there were few operable systems left.
Admiral Sheppard ordered his flagship to close to point blank range. “Finnish it.”
“Murderers! Machine-minded zombies! This was merely the newest of our outposts, the weakest of our defences! I will return, and when I do you will submit!”
“What, she wasn't on the station?”
“Sorry sir... a small ship just jumped out... it had been holding position in high orbit, didn't pay it any heed. I guess that was her shuttle.”
“We will hunt her down, Lieutenant. She can run, but she cannot hide from the Empire forever.”
The victory at Corulag was achieved at the highest cost ever paid by the Empire. There was no ground invasion; the planet's biosphere was almost completely transformed by the bizarre alien life, and large organic structures dotted the surface. Admiral Sheppard ordered Base Delta Zero, to commence as soon as the surviving crew had been rescued from the wreck of the Big Stick.
It was the first time the planetary extermination protocol had been enacted in the history of the Rationalist Empire. It would prove to be the first of many. For days the Star Fists's turbolasers unleashed hell on the surface, charring vegetation to ash, burning away the hideous alien structures, heating the crust until it began to liquefy. When she was done the planet had been reduced to a barren wasteland, completely devoid of life.
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Excerpt from 'With Flag and Turbolaser', Chapter 6 'Henceforth, we are the Damned', by Fleet Admiral Uthin Samuel.
With the luxury of hindsight, the attack on Gaius was inevitable. You have to understand that at the time we were fixated on the underworld and the blood god cultists as two independent threats. Little consideration had been given to the notion that whether they knew it or not, there could be a common ultimate master.
The planet was defended by the Victory-class INS Gallifrey, commanded by Captain Parallax, and a medium-sized defence platform. The surface-to-orbit batteries had of course been knocked out by sabotage a few days earlier. A full account of the battle has been given in many other works, such as the excellent “Grave of Heroes : A History of The Gaius System”, so I will restrict myself to the essentials.
The lead elements of the enemy fleet arrived with massive fighter support. Their bombers were primarily armed with ion cannon, which they concentrated on the Gallifrey. The ship quickly lost shields and suffered damage to its fire control systems.
The crews went to manual control and returned fire with an amazing ferocity. Despite horrible damage and overwhelming odds, Captain Parallax led his crew in the destruction of a frigate and a gunship before weight of numbers overwhelmed him.
The destruction of the INS Gallifrey left the station unsupported. In a desperation move, construction workers at the orbital docks launched the incomplete Tartan gunboats they had been fitting out. The ships performed more than admirably considering their poor condition and the non-existent training of their crews.
The two Tartans, combined with fire from the station itself managed to destroy three more enemy light frigates. Meanwhile the station's fighter garrison made a gallant effort, sending many cultist fighter pilots to an early grave.
Ultimately though the enemy numbers were simply too great.
The enemy had apparently learnt from their experience at Weyland; at Gaius their troop transports were following close behind the attack fleet, deploying before we could mount any kind of relief effort. To this day I'm not sure why they didn't jam the video transmission from our ground forces, I find it very unlikely that they lacked the capability. I suspect they took pleasure in knowing that we would be forced to watch helplessly as they massacred our people.
With the loss of most of her production and defence facilities, the situation on Gaius was grim. The civillians huddled in the one structure that still had some cover from orbital fire, a small durasteel smelting plant. Efforts were made to set up defensive turrets, but the cowardly infiltrators had stolen vital parts from the armoury. All Lieutenant Flagg could do was deploy his stormtroopers near the refinery and wait for the cultists to attack. When an enemy scouting force began firing AT rockets at the structure, he delivered a quick and deadly response.
Alas, it soon became apparent that enemy had sacrificed their infantry with the express purpose of drawing Lieutenant Flagg's force into the open.
The enemy artillery made short work of the entire Imperial garrison, and when once that was done the cultists marched forward.
The enemy tanks drew up in front of the refinery in a line. For a few moments they just held position, motionless. A few of our civilians began to shout out, offering unconditional surrender, promising anything if only their families would be spared. All they heard in return was a discordant chanting, the foul litany rising to a crescendo and then breaking down into howls and whoops as the rockets fired again.
No mercy was shown. A few tried to run from the collapsing refinery, but the rapid-fire quad lasers on the enemy tanks cut them down before they got ten metres. I can clearly recall watching the feed from the external cameras, grimacing at each innocent death right up until the point that the final barrage cut the transmission.
The Gaius system was now in the hands of the Blood God. This was the first time any Imperial planet had fallen completely into the hands of our enemies.
What was worse, with our fleets ravaged from the engagements at Mygeeto and Corulag, an immediate counter-attack was impossible.
On the other hand, since it was death by reentry, I probably had time to get to an escape pod and perhaps, with enough bribes, might survive the court martial and command a ship again.
We were defeated?!
