Balada: When death did not exist, nor yet Eternity Part I 048

Georgaian’s flags.h.i.+p, Balisha entrance.

Caliupus 29th

00:49 Imperial Fleet Standard time.

Georgaian looked at the entrance that was glowing red from the heavy bombardment, and he knew that it would not be long until the doors would be breached and the enemy would most likely rush through.

 He tore his gaze from the command deck screen, towards the farview that was displaying the battlefield map, his forces had formed a circle around the entrance way, and they were ready to pound into oblivion any s.h.i.+ps that tried to get through.

 Despite that, he was still sweating bullets, not just from the vast disparity in numbers between their fleet and Yemen’s, but also from the fact that they were seriously under staffed and although the s.h.i.+ps weapons had an auto fire function for such emergencies, it didn’t compare with having a real sentient being behind the missile launchers, domes and warp cannons.

“Not to mention the fact that, we don’t have any way of repairing damages quickly, we barely have one medical staff and a handful of engineers per s.h.i.+p and not even a full bridge crew! Oh well, at least’s it’s not raining.” he thought to himself as a small smile graced his fanged turtle mouth at the old, overused, but at least to him, still funny joke.

“Main door breached at point G-18! Enemy vessels have begun firing a concentrated volley trough the breach!” the tactical officer ,who was also doubling as the pulsar operator announced, as the mighty barrage from the enemy came through the heavy armored door and a wave of pure energy, from the  washed like a tidal wave through the hole, impacting it’s opposite wall.

Georgaian felt as the s.h.i.+p he was on started to shake violently from the sheer amount of indirect particles, the energy beams dispersed as they pa.s.sed them by only a few miles.

“Everyone hold tight and prepare to move to firing posts once the barrage stops. To the fire s.h.i.+ps operators, remember you must not join the battle until you are ordered!” Georgaian broadcasted, as he used his left arm to cling to his chair for dear life, the order he just gave out was meant for s.h.i.+ps to form a diameter that was smaller and closer to the breach, this would make them more vulnerable to the particle beams, but would give them a much better shot, and rate of fire when the enemy would rush through.

And just as abruptly the barrage appeared, it suddenly stopped, a moment of absolute silence followed then another, and another, and in those fleeting moments that felt like hours, Georgaian’s mind went through a thousand different thoughts.

But before he could properly think them through, another barrage of energy surged through the breach.

“All units return to s.h.i.+elded positions along the wall!” he ordered.

 The barrage stopped after about five minutes, and Georgaian was tempted to order the troops to firing positions once more, but he cautiously waited and a moment latter another barrage came from the enemy.

This one lasted three seconds and was followed by a ten minute break, after that, it was not followed by another barrage, but rather three successive barrages, that where all mere seconds away from each other, that where followed by an about 30 seconds break, and then the random pattern of firing and pauses continued randomly all throughout the hour.

“The taffer’s a clever piece of crud!” Georgaian thought to himself as he now realized he would be forced to keep his fleet in s.h.i.+elded positions and the random rate of fire meant that he had no way of guessing when the enemy would charge.

Tarkan’s fleet, Balisha meteorite walls.

Tarkan could not sense how the walls of the fortress where vibrating, from the constant bombardment the enemy was. .h.i.tting them with, from all sides while searching for potential breaches, but just the sight of it made him feel the force of the blasts in his stomach, all 300 thousand of them now knew just how serious the enemy attack was.

An average fleet commander would simply order the walls to the pummeled as hard as they could be, but not Yemen, or whichever officer was leading that part of his fleet. The barrage may seem to the average person no different from any other, but to the trained eyes of Tarkan, he could see the subtle genius behind it.

It was a barrage that was just hard enough for the enemy to not only map the surface, by a.n.a.lyzing the kinetic shockwave patterns caused the impacts, but also help confuse the Imperial pulsars, who already had to deal with the enemy’s magical jamming and siege spells. In addition to that, it was not so intense, as to make the dustroof fillings disintegrate, and although that would create a breach, it would also greatly increase the visibility of Tarkan’s fleet and allow them to see and move in time to plug the gap.

“But he’s a too seasoned a campaigner for that, he’ll continue his bombardment until he’s mapped every possible breach area, and after that, he’ll continue the barrage, until they decide to simultaneously open every breach and swarm us!” Tarkan thought to himself, and as he contemplated any potential counter plan, inspiration struck him, which he was thankful for, since it was that and not an enemy beam.

“All right sailors, we need to modify our formation, first I want every potential breach zone highlighted on the map, then we will do little something I call the ‘half-double punch’ ” Tarkan said and after finding out the location of the potential breach zones, he explained the rest of his stratagem to his captains.

Valyria’s Fleet, Balisha Breach.

Ataru, from the moment he had witnessed his first successful military operation and his first military disaster, which in the chaos of war turned out to have happened in the same battle simultaneously, he had know then and there, that each of the four flight types of air force s.h.i.+ps had been designed for a specific purpose.

The Impalers where bombers, that would pound both ground units and enemy battles.h.i.+ps, they were strong against those, but vulnerable against Pegasy fighters, and skywanderers.

The skywanderer’s main role was that of fighter-bomber, not exceptional in either roles, but it did good enough to hold the lines against both Pegasus and BEGS, and do a decent job against enemy s.h.i.+ps.

The pegasus where the strongest armored units of the sky and preyed on both skywanderers and Impalers and well as being able to engage light s.h.i.+ps and a skilled horseman/pilot could even attack heavy s.h.i.+ps.

Finally there where the BEGS, the so called ‘piranhas of s.p.a.ce’, these small bolts of thunder where specifically design for quick attacks, to cut down Impalers, wanderers and even hold their own against the Pegasus fighters.

The skywanderers, BEGS and Pegasus fighters represented the old dilemma between speed, numbers and armor, each with varying degrees of fire power, each design with its own strengths and weaknesses, and victory always depending on the pilots and how they were deployed in combat.

Ataru could see that the defense of the breach was a prime example of not ‘how to do things right’, in the sense that in a fight nothing ever went right or according to plan, rather this was a prime example of how to win by ‘s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up less than your opponent’.

The Volunians had adopted a tactic of missile bombardment on the diameter of the breach.

 The aforementioned weapons would impact the site and half of them would explode and raise a dust cloud, while the other half consisted of earth missiles, that quickly harvested the surrounding rock and s.h.i.+fted into Earthgolems, who would advance on foot through the dust cloud, towards the Imperial s.h.i.+ps.

They represented a threat to the fleet, since the golems could easily jump in the almost zero gravity field and board the s.h.i.+ps to wreak havoc.

This was a major problem for the Imperials, since they had a hard time shooting them down because of the sheer numbers of golems that where being deployed and the s.h.i.+ps couldn’t get to close to the breach, so the flight corps deployed most of its forces there, in order to stem the tide of those that couldn’t be stopped by the fleet.

And as previously stated it was a cla.s.sic example on how to ‘mess up the least’.

They were in the ideal bomber formation, BEGS in a loose spherical skirmish line along with several wings of Pegasus fighters encompa.s.sed the bomber formations, that was composed out of Impalers at the center  and on their left and right wings where the skywanderes, who acted as escorts and support.

When they came up to a target, the Impalers would drop their heavy pail load of missiles, spears and arrow bundles of the golems, and while the skywanderes would dive down and obliterate any survivors from the Impalers a.s.sault.

 As the formation turned, the Pegasus and BEGS who were equipped with arrows and crossbows would also fire a few strafing rounds and whatever was still moving, whilst the lancers and swordsmen would continue to guard the flanks from any enemy fighters that got trough, with support of the long range ones, if the need arose.

The Imperial defenders where divided into four formations, that would follow the simply pattern of launch from the carriers, fly to the breach, drop the payload and withdraw for rearmament, thus ensuring a constant bombardment on the breach.

“Things seem to be going well, dare I say it even ‘according to plan’.” Ataru thought to himself as his formation prepared to have their go at the Earthgolems.

*BLIP*BLIP*

His pulsar beeped signaling incoming enemy fighters to the mix.

“Come on Ataru, you don’t have a brain, but you do have a memory! Don’t forget all the lessons of war you learned over the years!” he thought to himself as he moved to attack.

“Squat squadron and Scissor squadron, this is Missionary squadron, you will accompany us to intercept the enemy, Pegasus Spider Squadron and Speed b.u.mp Squadron will support, the rest will escort the Impalers and skywanderer, also remember to lure them into the firing range of our s.h.i.+ps if you can!” Ataru ordered.

“Roger flight commander!”came the reply from the aforementioned squadrons.

Ataru locked on to an incoming enemy skywanderer, who similar to most of the Volunian crafts was shaped like a miniature version of their s.h.i.+ps, clearly designed for long range skirmis.h.i.+ng, but this was a close range battle and Ataru was equipped with a long, single edged saber that he put to good use, as he charged the enemy craft.

The skywanderer fired a barrage of arrows at Ataru, which he skillfully avoided by maintaining a straight line towards the craft, while gently dodging the enemy fire. Barrel rolling and such might look cool when viewed in movies and shows, but it was suicide in real life, also he didn’t feel like vomiting the whisky he had consumed earlier.

As he got closer to the Volunian fighter, he continued with his evasive maneuvers, which mainly consisted of small course modifications to the left, right, up and down. At a certain point in the fight the enemy started an evasive maneuver upwards and to the right, or at least that’s what it looked like, for Ataru was a seasoned flyer and he could see the subtle differences in his course change, which showed whether it was a real move or a faint.

He pretended to fall for the trick and slightly altered his course on an intercept to the supposed path of the Volunian fighter, but at the last moment, as Ataru had predicted, the fighter veered down and to the left instead, and before the pilot could evade him, Ataru also veered down and to the left and with both hands on the sword, he delivered a side slash all across the top of the skywanderer.

He used an ice sword, since in s.p.a.ce the surfaces of any fighter craft was always very hot, not only from the sunlight the local star would emit, but from its own propulsion systems and life support, and as anybody knows throwing something very cold on a heated surface is a good way to break it.

The top was its ‘weak’ spot, since the sides and especially the belly where the most heavily reinforced, in case of emergency atmospheric reentry.

And as the ice sword cut its way through the fighter, it showed to Ataru just how much it was purposely designed for skirmis.h.i.+ng, since his slash was so effective, he nearly went into a spin from the inertia the sword still had, after going through the craft like it was made out of paper.

“What the kriff? My BEGS suit has more armor that this!” he thought to himself as the craft exploded and the force of the blast impacted him.

Now some untried pilots and even some seasoned ones often did the mistake of trying to correct their course deviation, that the shockwave produced, instead of using it to gain momentum and some extra speed, but not Ataru! The blast pushed him down and to the right and he steered his BEGS suit in that direction.

As he did so, he saw ahead of him a full squadron of Volunian Pegasus fighters, and instead of trying to avoid them, he floored his acceleration and dived right into the heart of the squad, slas.h.i.+ng at the left side of the first Pegasus rider, the blast from his destruction propelled Ataru to the fallen foe’s left wingman who also fell prey to the BEGS Captain’s blade.

As he past the squadron and as the blast from the wingman’s destruction helped propel him further away, he twisted and bend his body so his front side could be directed to the remaining two Volunian Pegasus fighters, while his BEGS now flew ‘backwards’.

Despite being equipped for melee combat, he did have a crossbow on his person for situations like this, so with his left arm he drew it and aimed at the remaining foes.

The two Pegasy where circling around to get him, and he had to fight the instinct he had inside, that told him to fire while they were still turning, this position presented the largest target he could ever hope for, when fighting Pegasy, but he was not there to fight, he was there to win.

“Hold fire until the last possible moment! Hold fire until the last possible moment!” he chanted, as his finger twitched nervously on the trigger, while the Pegasus fighter drew closer, their deadly fire sarissas blazing, until they were about 2.7 kilometers from his person and he fired his crossbow at the closest of the pair.

There where three ways to shoot a bow or crossbow, namely: single fire, which fired one arrow for every time you pressed the trigger, rapid fire, that launched a continuous barrage of arrows for as long as you held the trigger, and pepper shot that when the weapon was used, it emptied the full content of the weapon with the press of the trigger.

But there was a fourth way that some would modify their crossbows for it, namely ‘salvo fire’ and a special firing tactic was derived from it, called ‘three card monte’.

‘Salvo fire’ was similar to pepper shot, but the magazine content was not fully emptied in that shot, rather the amount fired depended on the user.

‘Three card monte’  used ‘salvo fire’ that was divided into three shots, the first two combined represented about 30% of the full amount of arrows the crossbow had, and where fired in a more dispersed manner that those of normal pepper shot, this made them cover more ground but made them produce less damage on the intended target.

The third and final shot that consisted of 70% percent of what remained of your ammunition was concentrated into volley that was a third of the normal diameter of a pepper shot, they were more easily to dodge, but if you didn’t, well……….let’s just say you’re family won’t be needing a coffin of even an urn, after that.

In theory, a well trained soldier could use the first two volleys to herd the charging enemy together and the third shot to blast them to bits, but even veteran soldiers could make a mistake during the firing process, since it was a fairly complex technique that required a cool head, a steady aim and above all perfect timing,

To early and the opponent could avoid the first and second volleys or just not dodge them if he had a good enough eye, too late and he would be upon you before you can fire the third.

It was a risky gamble, but Ataru took it, since it was the best chance he had to win this.

He fired the first volley at the extreme left side of the riders, the closest dodged to his right; he then moved his arm and fired the second volley, hoping that the enemy’s wingman would see it as an overshot.

“Please G.o.d, help me! If I die here, my wife will kill me!” he prayed as he his aim for the third shot, and from the corner of his eye, he could see that his gamble had succeeded, the wingman had veered towards his companion and at the very last possible moment, when they were about 9 kilometers from each other, he open fire with his third and final volley, emptying his crossbow into them.

The arrows left the weapon, the special earth spell that was embedded into them made the arrows grow, from about double the length of their arrow heads to their full length in a split of a second, after that the energy spells embedded within the arrow tip began to activated.

 Once they impacted the riders, they released the spell that was stored in their tips and because of the sheer quant.i.ty of arrows that where launched, each of the four main elemental spells where present.

The two riders where burned, frozen, smashed and blown away, as their mounts and themselves where engulfed by a powerful magical energy explosion and for a moment Ataru looked like he may be as well, but he once more pivoted his front, back to the direction he was flying and steered his BEGS forward and upwards towards the surface of the breach and rode the explosion, but now without suffering some damage to his BEGS.

As he pa.s.sed along the surface of the asteroid, he slashed a few Earthgolems with his sword, cutting them in two, interrupting the spell which kept them together and turning them back into piles of s.p.a.ce rock, dust and sand.

As he made his way through the mindless golems, he neared the narrow breach; Ataru floored the acceleration once more, in order to pa.s.s over the breach as quickly as was possible, since he had too much momentum to steer away from it.

So he pa.s.sed over the hole and for a split second before him was not rock, or s.p.a.ce, or even the light of far away stars, but a great view of thousands of Volunian s.h.i.+ps, all aligned together, thicker than any gra.s.s field, all barreling their blasters at the entrance, as if some great swarm of t.i.tan hornets has come to a.s.sault this ‘honeycomb’.

Thankfully he managed to pa.s.s over it quickly, and found himself in the relative ‘safety’ of the meteor once more.

He looked at his pulsar and noticed that his Missionary squadron was now starting to regroup around him, as they were finished with their respective targets, but he also noticed that the squadron was missing two of its members.

“All flight leaders report in!” Ataru said through his windwaker, he pa.s.sed over the hole and during his brief stint over it, the captain saw the next incoming enemy wave.

“This is Nagira, Speed Squadron, b.u.mp Squadron, Manh squadron, Andle squadron have all taken heavy casualties, in addition we have about 120 units that are heavily damaged and need to withdraw and our ammo is at 70%, we’ve confirmed 7.700 boogies K.I.A.”

“This is Ivan, we’ve lost about 24 Impalers, three of the Impaler waves have used up their entire payload, and the fourth one is running on empty, request permission to withdraw and rearm.”

“This is Furio, skywanderes have suffered about 280 casualties, but we confirmed 4.800 hundred enemies as s.p.a.ce dust, and what’s left of them has withdrawn from the fight!”

That was a bad thing, since although they struck down more than 12.000 of the enemies fighters along with what the BEGS had cut down, but he had seen at least two more enemy waves coming, and against a fleet that size, even one that was devoid of carriers had at least another three more waves ready, making their total fighter force at about 60-80.000 strong, while they had started 5.000, they lost along with 480 who were badly damaged, and of his BEGS, almost a fifth of their strength had been depleted.

“All units that still have ammo are to hold the lines, rest of you get back and rearm!” Ataru ordered as he turned his head to gaze at the incoming second wave of the enemy.

02:18 Imperial Fleet time

“It’s  late, I got no arrows, my fuel crystals are half full, I’ve got about a quarter of my original force with me, against another five waves incoming, it’s cold as h.e.l.l outside and I’m wearing tropical clothes beneath my uniform.” Ataru thought as he moved his sword into an offensive stance.

“Let’s party!” he thought as he led his fighters once more unto the breach.