The swirling green-white star of Zeta Serpentis gave the usually jet-black starships of the NDI and Draconian Alliance a shimmering green glow as they drifted through empty space in a wall formation. "Starchaser to Celia -- our preliminary scans have revealed no hostile or alien contacts in system. We'll cover these two quadrants," he highlighted the left quadrants, "Feel free to cover these two."
"Celia, this is Tami Star Fortress. Repairs are currently underway from the Elysian attack. Everything's going to be okay here, Taisho," another transmission blurted in. The communications officer was off-duty at the moment and all the messages were apparently set to play as they were received so Henry wouldn't miss anything.
"Acknowledged, Starchaser," replied Henry, as he sipped some highly caffeinated beverage. The escort ships of the Celia have now detached from their mothership. Without even changing their course, the powerful sensors of the four escort Yuis began sweeping the right quadrants of the system. Henry then turned his attentions to the other message. He was glad that the repairs had begun on the rest of the 3rd XF. It was a slight comfort to know that the Celia would have a Star Fortress to return to once her mission was complete.
A Byakko carrier began to launch XF-14Es equipped with advanced sensor pods along with a sensor shuttle out to cover more area at a time. The remaining NDI vessels fanned out in their individual squadron-sized units, passive sensor scanning the area. Scalar differentialometer sensors of both groups began to pick up a high-density object hiding in the mass shadow of one of the rocky, barren moons of the system's fifth planet. A squadron of XF-14Es moved towards the object to further investigate.
Further communications traffic continued to ensue on the Celia's bridge. "Celia bridge, this is Muru Parasparta-Taisho, Grand Star Army 21st War Fleet. My fleet has been placed on standby to assist your mission if desired. Let us know if you need anything, preferably in advance. Parasparta out," a female voice announced. She sounded annoyed.
The sensor shuttle coordinating the fighter drone's reconnaissance effort sent a system-wide allied broadcast. "I'm receiving incredible levels of electromagnetic interference. "It's like a damned Tatsumaki is bearing down right on us with her ECM. But I can't get a bearing on anything." The transmission, however, was highly garbled, fading in and out of intelligibility throughout the duration of the transmission.
"Acknowledged, Taisho," replied Henry, as he viewed the scan results on the moon. "Be advised, we have detected heavy EMI in our local area. Stand by," he added.
Two Otomo destroyers -- the Grandsaber and Goldflame -- began to bear down on the shuttle's last known location, raising their own countermeasures. "We are looking at a heavy duty temporal distortion field, folks. I haven't seen one this powerful since the fleet exercises with the 45th last year," said the tactical action officer onboard the Starchaser.
A disheveled-looking neko in a gray uniform suddenly burst into the Celia's bridge. She took her seat at the Communication Officer's station. "Glad you could join us, Kioko," said Henry in a calm and level voice. "Sorry, sir," the girl replied in a low whisper.
Following the cue of their NDI allies, the four Yuis have all stopped scanning the rest of the system, and combined their sensor powers on the moon, looking for anything other than static caused by the EMI.
The Sierra-Romeo destroyer, Halberd, emerged from above the two smaller destroyers, the two forward frontal lobes on its bow starting to glow a faint orange as they emitted a tremendous load of psi to counteract the effects of the distortion field. Just as the field was starting to dissolve, two white beams tore through space, piercing cleanly through the Goldflame's starboard side. A few seconds passed after the destroyer was hit before explosions rippled down its side, culminating in a spectacular detonation of the once mighty Confederate warship. Before the Grandsaber's captain could even give another order, the ship lost power -- completely. The ship was surrounded by a glowing white field.
"We're under attack! Fire at will, I repeat, fire at will. N.S.S. Goldflame completely destroyed. All hands lost," said Commodore Pedro Maya, sitting up in his seat. "Distortion field is dissolving, prepare targeting solutions."
"Contact!" shouted Henry. "Be advised, 21st Fleet, the NDI just lost a destroyer! All hands of the Celia battlegroup, battle stations!"
"Attention crew, the ship has been placed at battlestations," Celia's voice calmly announced as the ship's computer automatically set off alert klaxons and put up the distortion shields to full capacity.
"Roger, Taisho, I am dispatching a division," Taisho Parasparta replied. "Standby."
As the distortion field dissolved four silver-white cruiser-sized vessels emerged. They were very long and very narrow -- much like a flying spear as they drifted through space. They focused on the Halberd, which was maneuvering around the enemy vessels, red-white beams tearing through space down towards the center-most cruiser -- its Hard Beams. The Hard Beams impacted with the ship's shields, tearing 50 meter wide holes in the shielding systems. This strike was followed up by a energy projection cannon blast. "This is Captain Fauria, requesting assistance immediately! I'm clearly outgunned here. It'll take another thirty seconds for my quantum detonator to charge!"
"Commodore Maya," Henry's voice came over on a secure channel, "we have a division on the way. But this is still your show here. How do you want to do this?"
Combat information filtered through the allied network quickly. NDI battle groups would converge on the enemy head on, while Draconian Alliance vessels would provide long-range fire support with torpedoes and psi attacks. "Flank them," he replied, sending them coordinate data that would put their ships above and below the enemy vessels. They were looking to surround the enemy detachment and systematically destroy them.
An excessively large force of starships began to appear roughly 100,000 miles to the rear of the 3rd XF ships. The 21st GF ships numbered a total of 405,500 ships all clustered around the massive Iori-class Star Fortress that served as their base. "Currently arriving," Taisho Parasparta sent the Celia. "Any data on their composition?"
The Halberd was reeling from consecutive hits from the Sentinel cruisers, only surviving because of its enhanced shielding capacity, but even that was starting to break down. Judging by the amount of firepower those cruisers possessed, they were merely playing with the destroyer. Meanwhile, the Grandsaber was under siege from within, as the crew of the vessel battled against an invading force of Sentinel troopers. But the vessel was cut off from all communications and was classified as KIA by the combat computers.
"Acknowledged," said Henry as he watched the coordinates being passed onto the 21st Fleet. "We got four enemy cruisers, using field-based weapons. The NDI has requested a flanking maneuver," he said in response to Taisho Parasparta.
"One hundred regiments, to above and below," Taisho Parasparta relayed to her fleet. The ships maneuvered to create a V-shaped zone of overlapping fire with the Sentinels' general location in the middle of it. It was very efficient, thus far...
Henry watched as the main view screen of the bridge showed the countless YSA ships close in on the Sentinel cruisers. The weapons of the Celia Battlegroup, of course, were hopelessly outclassed. The four escort Yuis now began diverting their sensor powers to the rest of the system, in the hopes of preventing any surprise attacks on the combined fleet of YSA and NDI warships.
The Sentinels were patient and as allied forces moved to surround them, they unleashed hell; slow-moving, arcing orbs of white began to rise up from the hulls of the cruisers, clearly expanding in circumference with every passing moment. The Draconian battle group began to volley anti-warship torpedoes into the fray, hoping to simply overwhelm the Sentinel units with numbers. The Sentinel cruisers proved highly-resilient to enemy fire, standard beam weapons either reflecting away completely or simply dispersing along the length of the cruiser's hull. These ships appeared to possess no shielding of any kind.
At the behest of the 21st Fleet's Taisho, the 2 groups of Star Army ships fired interlocking fields of Transposition Flux cannon fire. The effect wasn't subtle; the weapons were for literally tearing apart space-time in the area. Not every ship with a cannon fired because there was simply no need for overkill with such a weapon.
Henry watched with concern as the enemy cruisers deflected incoming NDI fire. There was not really anything further that he could do to help. He directed one of the Yuis to direct all of its sensor power onto one of the Sentinel cruisers, in the hopes of learning something about its armor composition.
The glowing white orbs suddenly burst as the 21st fired, hundreds of thousands of beams lancing through space at superluminal speeds, each seeking out an enemy vessel with incredible ferocity. Much like what happened to the Goldflame, these beams ignored virtually all-known shielding systems, putting enough energy into a target to pierce cleanly through, causing rampant depressurization followed by a spectacular explosion. Still, in the midst of transposition cannon fire, the Sentinel vessels evaporated in the ensuing chaos.
The 21st War Fleet's ships immediately began to effect repairs. A second wave of ships raced to replace the first ones, which had been saved largely by virtue of Zesuaium armor. External devices and pieces had been sheared away by the energy, leaving windows blown out, sensors dead, and seals broken. Most of the ships could be fixed in time, though. The first two groups hobbled their way back toward the Iori Star Fortress, some on fire, some being towed.
NDI vessels caught the brunt of the Sentinel onslaught, Sierra-Romeo vessels erecting psionic walls of defense around the allied fleets, which were inevitably punched through on the way to their targets, but ultimately dispersed a lot of the energy released before they reached their targets. Still, 55 vessels suffered total or crippling damage from the blasts. 45 ships were listed as KIA from the NDI while an additional 37 from the Draconian Alliance also were listed.
The Starchaser's port side was disfigured with a massive gash in its armor along the total length of the vessel. ".....send out rescue shuttles ASAP! Starchaser to Celia -- what is your units status?"
"Turrets 16 through 24 are lost," said the Starchaser's DEIMOS avatar. "Effecting repairs now. Deploying MACE troopers."
The 21st War Fleet's hoarde of scout ships eagerly searched for signs of additional targets while the initial group fell back to recover. Taisho Parasparta sent a transmission. "Everybody nominal?"
"We're fine. The bastards didn't even bother firing at us," replied Henry. "Rescue shuttles are en route from the Star Fortress. Stand by, Starchaser."
The Star Fortress deployed over a thousand small shuttles to go out and find survivors. Each carried a pilot and some crewman in a spacesuit whose job it was to get the victim aboard, then administer first aid. They hurried; time was precious in such matters.
The four Yuis continued to scour the system with their sensors, now looking for any remains of the enemy ships. The region hit by the Transposition Flux cannons, however, were going to be very uninteresting to scan for a very long time.
On the allied tactical screen, over 3,500 survival pods were sending out their beacons to the rescue vessels which were sent out to save them. Still, there weren't enough to grab them all, so XF-14s equipped with tractor beam pods were sent out to tow the pods back to friendly vessels. Meanwhile, Commodore Maya looked at the carnage. "What kind of weapon was that?!"
"It's similar to the new Orion D's main weapon system -- the Draconian Weapon. Obviously, because of the Sentinel's connection to the ancient Draconians, they have a far more advanced and tactical-use for it."
The DEIMOS avatar onboard the Starchaser continued to explain. "Their armor is a very high-grade of Xintium alloy -- compared to ours, I'm guessing this is several generations beyond what we've been able to produce. Regardless, it seems as if the Yamatai transposition weapons did them in."
After a minute or two, another 4000 shuttles were deployed from the Iori--it's remaining compliment--as all available pilots and medics got to the shuttlebays.
"The transposition cannons are not affected by armor, as they are based on destroying the space a ship is in rather than the enemy vessel itself," Taisho Muru Parasparta explained needlessly. "We generally try the 5th-dimensional beams first, but there is a history of this type of enemy being able to counter them. Our next option would have been anti-matter."
As salvage shuttles headed towards the disabled Goldflame, they expected to find a ship that had been totally devastated on the inside. As marine crews boarded the vessel, they were greeted to the sight of hundreds of Confederate crew members dead or dying along with the dead remains of some Sentinels. There was a single survivor, a shell-shocked marine with hundreds of spent 6.65mm shells surrounding him and a smoking E9 battle rifle. His Phalanx armor was severely damaged.
"Identify yourself, marine," said the marine leader, shining his light on the marine.
"Smith. Enlisted Private Three Trevor Smith," said the soldier, dropping the battle rifle and sighing.
"Any more survivors?" replied the marine leader, sweeping the area.
"Rivetti....he....." Smith clenched his teeth. Despite the amount of painkillers running through his system, he still felt the pain. "He went to get the Cap'n....but.....his IFF went dead....you gotta see if he's alive....."
"Taisho Chen, do you have any plans for my fleet?" the 21st War Fleet's Taisho asked.
"Take it easy, marine. We'll get your friend, but right now we gotta get you to the infirmary," said the marine leader. He pointed to two medics who moved in to secure Smith.
A report popped up on Henry's private viewscreen, showing that the four Yuis failed to detect any remnants of enemy forces within the system. "Is anyone else wondering about why four cruisers were stationed at a single moon in the middle of nowhere?" he asked Commodore Maya and Taisho Parasparta as he directed the Yuis to scan the moon where the EMI originated.
"They knew we were coming," replied Maya. "I'm getting reports from other advance units searching for the Sentinel stronghold that they've been attacked in the same manner."
Taisho Parasparta frowned. "I'll immediately distribute my other four divisions to render assistance." Of course, by now, that could be more of a mop-up.
"They must be probing our true fighting abilities," said the DEIMOS avatar. "They'll continue to engage us in these little skirmishes until we force them into an end game."
"Our presence has always slammed the scales down in your favor with the Jaaq'tah," Parasparta said. "We'll do the same with this enemy."
"What are your plans in the short term, Commodore Maya?" asked Henry. "We could be close to the mission objective by now, but many of our ships are in need of repairs, including your Starchaser."
"Hopefully," replied Maya, looking at another holographic screen with orders from the CONSTRACOM. The expression on his face changed dramatically. "...the Ninth Fleet.....it's gone....." On their screens, a mammoth Sentinel mothership hovered over the remnants of the moon of Vajra. The remains of half a Suzaku dreadnought floated past the mothership.
JP by:
Wesley Davis
Derran Tyler
Yangfan Wang
"Star Army" is a trademark of Wesley M. Davis and StarArmy.com
"Celia, this is Tami Star Fortress. Repairs are currently underway from the Elysian attack. Everything's going to be okay here, Taisho," another transmission blurted in. The communications officer was off-duty at the moment and all the messages were apparently set to play as they were received so Henry wouldn't miss anything.
"Acknowledged, Starchaser," replied Henry, as he sipped some highly caffeinated beverage. The escort ships of the Celia have now detached from their mothership. Without even changing their course, the powerful sensors of the four escort Yuis began sweeping the right quadrants of the system. Henry then turned his attentions to the other message. He was glad that the repairs had begun on the rest of the 3rd XF. It was a slight comfort to know that the Celia would have a Star Fortress to return to once her mission was complete.
A Byakko carrier began to launch XF-14Es equipped with advanced sensor pods along with a sensor shuttle out to cover more area at a time. The remaining NDI vessels fanned out in their individual squadron-sized units, passive sensor scanning the area. Scalar differentialometer sensors of both groups began to pick up a high-density object hiding in the mass shadow of one of the rocky, barren moons of the system's fifth planet. A squadron of XF-14Es moved towards the object to further investigate.
Further communications traffic continued to ensue on the Celia's bridge. "Celia bridge, this is Muru Parasparta-Taisho, Grand Star Army 21st War Fleet. My fleet has been placed on standby to assist your mission if desired. Let us know if you need anything, preferably in advance. Parasparta out," a female voice announced. She sounded annoyed.
The sensor shuttle coordinating the fighter drone's reconnaissance effort sent a system-wide allied broadcast. "I'm receiving incredible levels of electromagnetic interference. "It's like a damned Tatsumaki is bearing down right on us with her ECM. But I can't get a bearing on anything." The transmission, however, was highly garbled, fading in and out of intelligibility throughout the duration of the transmission.
"Acknowledged, Taisho," replied Henry, as he viewed the scan results on the moon. "Be advised, we have detected heavy EMI in our local area. Stand by," he added.
Two Otomo destroyers -- the Grandsaber and Goldflame -- began to bear down on the shuttle's last known location, raising their own countermeasures. "We are looking at a heavy duty temporal distortion field, folks. I haven't seen one this powerful since the fleet exercises with the 45th last year," said the tactical action officer onboard the Starchaser.
A disheveled-looking neko in a gray uniform suddenly burst into the Celia's bridge. She took her seat at the Communication Officer's station. "Glad you could join us, Kioko," said Henry in a calm and level voice. "Sorry, sir," the girl replied in a low whisper.
Following the cue of their NDI allies, the four Yuis have all stopped scanning the rest of the system, and combined their sensor powers on the moon, looking for anything other than static caused by the EMI.
The Sierra-Romeo destroyer, Halberd, emerged from above the two smaller destroyers, the two forward frontal lobes on its bow starting to glow a faint orange as they emitted a tremendous load of psi to counteract the effects of the distortion field. Just as the field was starting to dissolve, two white beams tore through space, piercing cleanly through the Goldflame's starboard side. A few seconds passed after the destroyer was hit before explosions rippled down its side, culminating in a spectacular detonation of the once mighty Confederate warship. Before the Grandsaber's captain could even give another order, the ship lost power -- completely. The ship was surrounded by a glowing white field.
"We're under attack! Fire at will, I repeat, fire at will. N.S.S. Goldflame completely destroyed. All hands lost," said Commodore Pedro Maya, sitting up in his seat. "Distortion field is dissolving, prepare targeting solutions."
"Contact!" shouted Henry. "Be advised, 21st Fleet, the NDI just lost a destroyer! All hands of the Celia battlegroup, battle stations!"
"Attention crew, the ship has been placed at battlestations," Celia's voice calmly announced as the ship's computer automatically set off alert klaxons and put up the distortion shields to full capacity.
"Roger, Taisho, I am dispatching a division," Taisho Parasparta replied. "Standby."
As the distortion field dissolved four silver-white cruiser-sized vessels emerged. They were very long and very narrow -- much like a flying spear as they drifted through space. They focused on the Halberd, which was maneuvering around the enemy vessels, red-white beams tearing through space down towards the center-most cruiser -- its Hard Beams. The Hard Beams impacted with the ship's shields, tearing 50 meter wide holes in the shielding systems. This strike was followed up by a energy projection cannon blast. "This is Captain Fauria, requesting assistance immediately! I'm clearly outgunned here. It'll take another thirty seconds for my quantum detonator to charge!"
"Commodore Maya," Henry's voice came over on a secure channel, "we have a division on the way. But this is still your show here. How do you want to do this?"
Combat information filtered through the allied network quickly. NDI battle groups would converge on the enemy head on, while Draconian Alliance vessels would provide long-range fire support with torpedoes and psi attacks. "Flank them," he replied, sending them coordinate data that would put their ships above and below the enemy vessels. They were looking to surround the enemy detachment and systematically destroy them.
An excessively large force of starships began to appear roughly 100,000 miles to the rear of the 3rd XF ships. The 21st GF ships numbered a total of 405,500 ships all clustered around the massive Iori-class Star Fortress that served as their base. "Currently arriving," Taisho Parasparta sent the Celia. "Any data on their composition?"
The Halberd was reeling from consecutive hits from the Sentinel cruisers, only surviving because of its enhanced shielding capacity, but even that was starting to break down. Judging by the amount of firepower those cruisers possessed, they were merely playing with the destroyer. Meanwhile, the Grandsaber was under siege from within, as the crew of the vessel battled against an invading force of Sentinel troopers. But the vessel was cut off from all communications and was classified as KIA by the combat computers.
"Acknowledged," said Henry as he watched the coordinates being passed onto the 21st Fleet. "We got four enemy cruisers, using field-based weapons. The NDI has requested a flanking maneuver," he said in response to Taisho Parasparta.
"One hundred regiments, to above and below," Taisho Parasparta relayed to her fleet. The ships maneuvered to create a V-shaped zone of overlapping fire with the Sentinels' general location in the middle of it. It was very efficient, thus far...
Henry watched as the main view screen of the bridge showed the countless YSA ships close in on the Sentinel cruisers. The weapons of the Celia Battlegroup, of course, were hopelessly outclassed. The four escort Yuis now began diverting their sensor powers to the rest of the system, in the hopes of preventing any surprise attacks on the combined fleet of YSA and NDI warships.
The Sentinels were patient and as allied forces moved to surround them, they unleashed hell; slow-moving, arcing orbs of white began to rise up from the hulls of the cruisers, clearly expanding in circumference with every passing moment. The Draconian battle group began to volley anti-warship torpedoes into the fray, hoping to simply overwhelm the Sentinel units with numbers. The Sentinel cruisers proved highly-resilient to enemy fire, standard beam weapons either reflecting away completely or simply dispersing along the length of the cruiser's hull. These ships appeared to possess no shielding of any kind.
At the behest of the 21st Fleet's Taisho, the 2 groups of Star Army ships fired interlocking fields of Transposition Flux cannon fire. The effect wasn't subtle; the weapons were for literally tearing apart space-time in the area. Not every ship with a cannon fired because there was simply no need for overkill with such a weapon.
Henry watched with concern as the enemy cruisers deflected incoming NDI fire. There was not really anything further that he could do to help. He directed one of the Yuis to direct all of its sensor power onto one of the Sentinel cruisers, in the hopes of learning something about its armor composition.
The glowing white orbs suddenly burst as the 21st fired, hundreds of thousands of beams lancing through space at superluminal speeds, each seeking out an enemy vessel with incredible ferocity. Much like what happened to the Goldflame, these beams ignored virtually all-known shielding systems, putting enough energy into a target to pierce cleanly through, causing rampant depressurization followed by a spectacular explosion. Still, in the midst of transposition cannon fire, the Sentinel vessels evaporated in the ensuing chaos.
The 21st War Fleet's ships immediately began to effect repairs. A second wave of ships raced to replace the first ones, which had been saved largely by virtue of Zesuaium armor. External devices and pieces had been sheared away by the energy, leaving windows blown out, sensors dead, and seals broken. Most of the ships could be fixed in time, though. The first two groups hobbled their way back toward the Iori Star Fortress, some on fire, some being towed.
NDI vessels caught the brunt of the Sentinel onslaught, Sierra-Romeo vessels erecting psionic walls of defense around the allied fleets, which were inevitably punched through on the way to their targets, but ultimately dispersed a lot of the energy released before they reached their targets. Still, 55 vessels suffered total or crippling damage from the blasts. 45 ships were listed as KIA from the NDI while an additional 37 from the Draconian Alliance also were listed.
The Starchaser's port side was disfigured with a massive gash in its armor along the total length of the vessel. ".....send out rescue shuttles ASAP! Starchaser to Celia -- what is your units status?"
"Turrets 16 through 24 are lost," said the Starchaser's DEIMOS avatar. "Effecting repairs now. Deploying MACE troopers."
The 21st War Fleet's hoarde of scout ships eagerly searched for signs of additional targets while the initial group fell back to recover. Taisho Parasparta sent a transmission. "Everybody nominal?"
"We're fine. The bastards didn't even bother firing at us," replied Henry. "Rescue shuttles are en route from the Star Fortress. Stand by, Starchaser."
The Star Fortress deployed over a thousand small shuttles to go out and find survivors. Each carried a pilot and some crewman in a spacesuit whose job it was to get the victim aboard, then administer first aid. They hurried; time was precious in such matters.
The four Yuis continued to scour the system with their sensors, now looking for any remains of the enemy ships. The region hit by the Transposition Flux cannons, however, were going to be very uninteresting to scan for a very long time.
On the allied tactical screen, over 3,500 survival pods were sending out their beacons to the rescue vessels which were sent out to save them. Still, there weren't enough to grab them all, so XF-14s equipped with tractor beam pods were sent out to tow the pods back to friendly vessels. Meanwhile, Commodore Maya looked at the carnage. "What kind of weapon was that?!"
"It's similar to the new Orion D's main weapon system -- the Draconian Weapon. Obviously, because of the Sentinel's connection to the ancient Draconians, they have a far more advanced and tactical-use for it."
The DEIMOS avatar onboard the Starchaser continued to explain. "Their armor is a very high-grade of Xintium alloy -- compared to ours, I'm guessing this is several generations beyond what we've been able to produce. Regardless, it seems as if the Yamatai transposition weapons did them in."
After a minute or two, another 4000 shuttles were deployed from the Iori--it's remaining compliment--as all available pilots and medics got to the shuttlebays.
"The transposition cannons are not affected by armor, as they are based on destroying the space a ship is in rather than the enemy vessel itself," Taisho Muru Parasparta explained needlessly. "We generally try the 5th-dimensional beams first, but there is a history of this type of enemy being able to counter them. Our next option would have been anti-matter."
As salvage shuttles headed towards the disabled Goldflame, they expected to find a ship that had been totally devastated on the inside. As marine crews boarded the vessel, they were greeted to the sight of hundreds of Confederate crew members dead or dying along with the dead remains of some Sentinels. There was a single survivor, a shell-shocked marine with hundreds of spent 6.65mm shells surrounding him and a smoking E9 battle rifle. His Phalanx armor was severely damaged.
"Identify yourself, marine," said the marine leader, shining his light on the marine.
"Smith. Enlisted Private Three Trevor Smith," said the soldier, dropping the battle rifle and sighing.
"Any more survivors?" replied the marine leader, sweeping the area.
"Rivetti....he....." Smith clenched his teeth. Despite the amount of painkillers running through his system, he still felt the pain. "He went to get the Cap'n....but.....his IFF went dead....you gotta see if he's alive....."
"Taisho Chen, do you have any plans for my fleet?" the 21st War Fleet's Taisho asked.
"Take it easy, marine. We'll get your friend, but right now we gotta get you to the infirmary," said the marine leader. He pointed to two medics who moved in to secure Smith.
A report popped up on Henry's private viewscreen, showing that the four Yuis failed to detect any remnants of enemy forces within the system. "Is anyone else wondering about why four cruisers were stationed at a single moon in the middle of nowhere?" he asked Commodore Maya and Taisho Parasparta as he directed the Yuis to scan the moon where the EMI originated.
"They knew we were coming," replied Maya. "I'm getting reports from other advance units searching for the Sentinel stronghold that they've been attacked in the same manner."
Taisho Parasparta frowned. "I'll immediately distribute my other four divisions to render assistance." Of course, by now, that could be more of a mop-up.
"They must be probing our true fighting abilities," said the DEIMOS avatar. "They'll continue to engage us in these little skirmishes until we force them into an end game."
"Our presence has always slammed the scales down in your favor with the Jaaq'tah," Parasparta said. "We'll do the same with this enemy."
"What are your plans in the short term, Commodore Maya?" asked Henry. "We could be close to the mission objective by now, but many of our ships are in need of repairs, including your Starchaser."
"Hopefully," replied Maya, looking at another holographic screen with orders from the CONSTRACOM. The expression on his face changed dramatically. "...the Ninth Fleet.....it's gone....." On their screens, a mammoth Sentinel mothership hovered over the remnants of the moon of Vajra. The remains of half a Suzaku dreadnought floated past the mothership.
JP by:
Wesley Davis
Derran Tyler
Yangfan Wang
"Star Army" is a trademark of Wesley M. Davis and StarArmy.com
