The Second time

The Order Wars
By Elite Sirius Fighters Commander Battlespud
Monday, May 12, 2008

Chapter One: Operation: Drifting Storm
Stardate: 3016

Years ago, it had been prophesied by many that the new millennium would bring peace, understanding, and the seducement of battle fleets throughout the colonies. They were wrong. Within 5 years, diplomacy was failing between the isolationist Kusari and Rheinland and the more open Liberty and Bretonia. Within ten years, it was dead. Within 15, Fleets of both sides prowled the cosmos eradicating colonies and enemy fleets as pirate movements gained strength and billions of soldiers and civilians simply ceased to exist. All the while and ancient foe bided its time rebuilding and preparing for a new war.

Staff Sergeant Thompson ran a final diagnostic on his armors sensors before strapping into the pod and getting ready for a drop into a war zone. He saw a few privates having trouble with their suits vacuum seals but there was simply no time for them. The Order Battleship Osiris dropped its new energy shields and a series of thuds resounded throughout the secondary hull as the pods were launched into space. On his pods rear camera monitor, he saw the Osiris take several direct blows from the Westfalens' port tachyon cannon batteries. With each impact, the OS Osiris groaned as her armor and inertial dampeners were stretched to their considerable limits attempting to compensate for the inertia transferred with each blast. However, this meant nothing to Thompson. He was a veteran in the Marines and as such had along ago learned not to "love" any piece of equipment, be it the Osiris , or a cadet under his command. He would do whatever it took to save those under his command, but he would not jeopardize the mission for anyone. As his pods inertia was leaked away by the low powered inertial dampeners and attitude thrusters, he switched camera perspectives. Around the planet, a battle raged. Dozens of Liberty and Bretonian capital ships exchanged laser fire with the combined Rheinland and Kusari Armada. Even as he watched, the Bretonian Cruiser, HMS Alumni lurched as explosions dotted her starboard "wing" and the once proud vessel lost power and slowly plunged in the alien gravity well.
To his pods right, a dozen of his fellow soldiers pods were vaporized when a Rheinland Banshee class light fighter formation opened fire with their low yield point-defense lasers. They then evaded two Liberty Defenders, launching a torpedo and detonating it between the two heavy fighters, crippling both. While a dozen pods was damaging, it would have little to no affect on the situation on the ground. Thousands of such pods had been launched out of the depleted fighter bays of the Liberty and Bretonian Capital Ships. The marines jobs were to land on the ground and neutralize several key Anti-Orbital cannon emplacements. While not capable of penetrating a Battleships’ armor, the cannons could do severe damage to a lesser vessel such as one of the powerful cruisers which were the only ships capable of defeating the massive Battleship Westfalen. While much smaller and with lighter armor than a Carrier, Battleship, or Dreadnought, their forward cannon packed enough punch to penetrate meters of battle plate. However, Thompson left the battle up here for the Squids. His job was in a dirtier place. A minute passed without incident and he felt the heat and speed of reentry. Thompson adjusted his controls, gritting his teeth against the array of G-forces as his inertial dampeners attempted, without much success to compensate. The pod impacted the dirt more like an old chemical rocket than a landing device and Thompson grabbed his laser rifle and photon pistol, checked again to make sure there was no damage and jumped out. Across the plain where he had landed were at least 200 drop pods and two Leviathan class landing craft, of the five assigned. Each of those Landers carried over 100 marines and infantry, quite a blow to the Battalion he was to command against the Rheinland division of over 12,000 men and women. The sergeant knew, that however brave his troopers were, they were no match against that kind of firepower, not without orbital support. If the Osiris was available to provide missiles strikes and laser bombardment he might have risked the operation. But under the current strategic conditions, he had no choice but to draft a completely new plan. He knew that while guerilla warfare was the best for this kind of operation, the enemies sensor grids and orbital superiority as well as air support prevented them from being able to disengage...
However, Thompson spent too much time thinking and he heard the distinctive sound of Valkyrie Heavy fighters. "Everyone Down!" he cried and they did as they were ordered. However a few eager and scared cadets fires a burst of shots from their rifles at the fighter-Bombers and were promptly hit by a barrage of laser fire, killing both of them as well as a surrounding squad. Then, seeing the troops on the ground the ships peeled off, returning just over two minutes later with friends. A pair of armored transports held formation inside the fighter squadron that escorted them. At first, Thompson did not understand the significance of the troop carriers and dismissed them as quickly as he saw them, ordering his heavy troops to focus on the more maneuverable and better-armed fighters. This proved to be his undoing. Finally, realizing the enemy plan once he saw the underbelly of the carriers, he nearly screamed. Instead, as his training demanded he restrained himself and cued the Team COM and told all of the squad leaders to scatter their troops immediately. He dove towards the ground covering his head; but before he even landed, the bomb impacted and the concussive wave slammed him against one of the drop pods. He felt pain throughout his body and tasted copper when he saw another three of those retrofitted transports. Each one had several high yield warheads on the bottom. They disengaged the safety locks over his troops, raining death form the sky and killing hundreds. His vision began to dilate as he watched the supplies burning as men and women screamed, on fire from the heat released in the lethal explosions. They dove to the ground and rolled in the dirt as comrades attempted to save them. He saw one corporal shoot his only friend in the battalion, Corporal Chadson. He did not hate that man though, he had spared the corporal great suffering. Slowly, reality faded as did the sounds of screaming and violence that surrounded him as he drifted away. “Sergeant, are you there? Sergeant? Sergeant! Hello, are you there sergeant?