The Icarian Legacy Collected Edition: Brave Souls - First Strike (Volume 3) (109 page)

He spent more then a year with them and got used to all their pranks and jokes. And above all he missed Aria.

The crew was sharp. It was obvious that Anders trained them good, and just like on the Excelsior most of them were young.

The first part of their mission was over…

Barrett watched as the marines spread out. They moved fast like they always did clearing the perimeter and expanding the LZ.

He smiled.

He was expecting much worse. But the fleet did its job well. He knew that there was almost a legion of the enemy in the base that was his primary target but he also knew that they would stay put. He had teams watching for any movement but so far there was none. There were dacarian units spread out in the jungle but they represented no danger. The rebels were hunting them.

Two marine divisions were supposed to land near the rebel fortress and help them clear the dacarian legionaries. He was about to contact them when he saw Rivers approaching.

“It’s good to see you again Major. The admiral mentioned you have men inside that base.”

Rivers smiled.

“You know the Brits sir. They have to be close to the fire…”

Barrett smiled.

“Will they be able to open the gates?”

“Davis thinks the answer is yes. I guess will know in the next 24 hours. If not he said we could use the way they went in. The problem is we’ll need a month to go in that way.”

Barrett nodded.

He knew about that entrance. Davis sent all the information in his last communication. But it was nota an option he considered.

He turned to one of the officers.

“Lieutenant Dane will show you to their quarters.”

Rivers nodded and knowing he was dismissed followed the marine.

Abbot rushed out of the drop ship as soon as it hit the ground. All around him the other marines did the same. The enemy opened fire at once. He could see that they knew they were trapped. The ground was blasted and hot, a result from the kinetic strike from the fleet. He wondered how many of them died when it hit. Judging by the numbers they faced not enough.

The drop ships rose and opened up on the enemy positions from above. He saw the Assault transport landing. As it did its point defense shredded the enemy ranks.

As soon as it landed choppers and tanks started coming out and after them the marines followed.

“Sir we have a heavy concentration on the eastern perimeter and there are signs that some enemy units managed to get deeper in to the city.”

“The armored and air units will help us clear them here.”

He turned towards his XO.

“Tell the second armor brigade that they should clear the eastern perimeter.

“Yes sir.”

Marines fell down all over the place as the well placed enemy fire hit their positions. It was obvious that the dacarians were fighting to the death. And considering what happened just moments before he couldn’t blame them.

“Ok tell the boys it’s time we finish this. Move out.”

All along the front marines moved. As they did their armor, artillery and air support opened up on the enemy forcing them down.

The progress was slow but soon the dacarians were forced to fight on two fronts as they were hit in the back from the rebels.

In the end none of them survived.

And eight hundred marines lost their lives.

Henderson watched as the reports from the units already on the ground came in. A third LZ was established close to the rebel base.

The units were going down at a faster rate now that there was no danger. The enemy base was surrounded. They were still buttoned down not showing them self but Major Davis reported of heavy fortifications and a well prepared legion. 

The fleet was spread in position above the planet watching for any enemy activity. If all went as planned he expected to finish the mission in one week. Far faster then it was previously planned. His units started liberating the camps on the planet. At least those where there were slaves that were still alive. In many places the dacarians started killing them the moment the world was attacked. It just showed that they were an enemy that deserves no mercy.

He raised his head as a soldier entered.

“Sir Admiral Levin has asked for all senior officers to join him on the Hyperion at 20 hundred hours.”

Henderson nodded.

“Thank you lieutenant, inform General Barrett that the moment the second division hits the ground I want the attack to start.”

“Yes sir.”

The soldier closed the door and Henderson returned to his papers.

So far about thirty percent of the units were on the ground. He planned to land just several more divisions. There was no need for a larger presence.

As he finished he looked at the clock. He had five more hours. Enough time for a short rest.

Zero hour…

Levin watched as the captains of the ships and the commanders of the army units filled in.

It was time to discuss the next phase of the plan and in a way celebrate their success. He planned to keep it brief.

He never expected to hold this meeting this soon. But the developments down on the ground and in space were far better then even the best projections.

The enemy fleet was destroyed, his ground forces were almost totally removed and the population decimated. And even as time went by he knew that the rebels and freed slaves were exterminating the last survivors.

Simonson and Jennings were the last ones not present.

He knew that several army generals as well as the marine commanders were absent but he expected that. And he knew that General Henderson spoke in their name.

He looked at the clock.

Five more minutes…

Excelsior did its job good. They mapped all the ships, the transit routes of the ships entering and exiting the system, they even catalogued the warp points.

But they couldn’t notice what they didn’t know.

Arcadia was a transit hub. A planet where the Dacarian fleets stopped to resupply before continuing to their final destination the Lacarian Front.

It was a front in which the Empire faced a dangerous foe, one whose resistance was far stronger then expected. The fleet losses were great. After thirty years of war finally they managed to break through their defenses and attack their core worlds. And the strong defenses forced the commanders on that front to ask for reinforcements.

And those reinforcements both ground troops and fleet entered the system from unexpected vector.

And it was a fleet that simply dwarfed the human fleet in fire power and numbers.

G’kan watched as the sensors picked up the information. He was lucky that they spotted the wreckage of the small task force that patrolled this system.

“Who did this?”

The question was rhetorical. He knew that none of his officers could know who the attacker was. Not yet. But he planned to find out. Who ever they were he knew that he has the forces to destroy them.

He had nineteen hundred and twelve ships under his command.

Ten percent of those were troop carriers but the others were the best the fleet had.

“Is it possible that the Lacarians launched a task force to attack this deep in the empire?”

He looked at Zukar.

“I doubt it. And why attack Arcadia? Drukat is still here and they reported no enemy forces. If anyone attacked this sector that would have been their primary target, they could have crippled us.”

“You know that there were reports of unknown contacts on the periphery. Our scouts reported of advance race they destroyed anyone who contacted them. They reported of a dozen destroyed civilizations.”

“I don’t know. A civilization like that would have to be careful. A war with the empire is something that I doubt anyone would like. The Lacarians made the mistake of attacking us. You know what happened there.”

“My lord the sensors are detecting enemy ships in orbit around Arcadia. We have two hundred and eighty contacts. And we have ten ships in the sector of the hidden warp point.”

“What about our forces?”

“No contact my lord. We are detecting several large debris fields across the system. I think it’s safe to say that every base and station is destroyed. There are a large number of dust particles in the planets atmosphere.”

“Tell the fleet to spread out and assume attack formation. Detach task force ten to destroy those ten ships.”

As the fleet spread out a group of eighty ships detached and headed towards the ten detected contacts.

The Kinkaid and its task force drifted slowly on the edge of the system.

Robertson had a job to confirm the hidden warp point as well as keep an eye for any unwelcomed guests.

He turned sharp as the sensors reported unknown contacts.

He watched lieutenant’s Cox face go pale.

“Sir we have a missile launch.”

“What?”

“Sir we are detecting two hundred missiles heading our way.”

He could see the enemy missiles moving towards the task force.

And as the other ships in his small fleet moved he knew that they saw them as well.

“Find the ships Mr. Cox. And send a warning to the rest of the fleet. Let’s hope we are not late.”

Task force seven was consisted of the Kinkaid a Deadalus class heavy cruiser, its’ sister ship the Kasumi the destroyers Essex, Hamburg, and Kursk and five corvettes.

As they assumed formation they placed them self in a way that they covered their flanks and also presented their full armaments towards the position from which they guessed the enemy would come.

“Sir…we found the bastards… sir we have to warn the fleet.”

Robertson didn’t ask why.

He could see on the screen. Eighty ships were headed his way. But that was not what worried him. The sensors detected a large blob further behind them

Over eighteen hundred contacts of various classes including a large number of dreadnoughts and battleships.

“Go full active on the sensors. Do a sensor sweep I want to know the classes of those ships.”

A moment later he got his answer and his face went pale.

Three hundred dreadnoughts four hundred and fifty battleships, seven hundred and ten cruisers of both classes…

He stopped reading after that.

He knew that this was not a fleet that was coming for them. It was a fleet in transit, that had to stop and pick up additional forces here before moving on but now it was here to stay.

“Send a code Broken circle. And go to read alert. Inform me the moment you have confirmation that the message is received.”

Izzard watched as the missiles approached the enemy force. He could see them moving in to formation.

He knew that he outnumbered them both in class as well as firepower. But they were unknown.

His task force consisted of ten battleships twenty cruisers ten destroyers and forty frigates.

As the missiles accelerated his fleet fired the other long range weapon its rail guns and then accelerated. A moment later he noticed the seraphine fighters closing in on the enemy.

“Now we’ll see what they are made off.”

Roberts saw the fighters as they approached. The enemy plan was good. The fighters would arrive after the missile and rail gun barrage. It was a plan that would have worked against a different enemy. But humans long ago learned how to fight against missiles and fighters. The only unknowns were the rail gun rounds.

The moment when the missiles came to fifty thousand kilometers the point defense on the human ships went active. The lasers fired first destroying half the missiles and then concentrating on the rail gun rounds and the fighters.

Then the Aegis system went on line and the humans hips seemed to explode as every weapon on their hulls facing the coming onslaught fired. They filled the space with projectiles heading at fantastic speeds. One minute later the space between the human and the dacarian task force exploded as the rounds met each other. Of the hundreds of rail rounds the dacarians launched only few managed to go through the first human wave but they were stopped by the second. And then the hundred fighters met the best defense they could imagine. They were good, more then good. They knew that they were the best pilots in the known galaxy but not even their fantastic skills could save them from the point defense of the human ships.

They died first by dozen then tens and in the end the last survivors were hunted down. And then the human ships fired back.

The dacarian ships relied mostly on energy weapons. They had stronger hulls and shields but not even they could withstand the hit of three MAC rounds.

As the human projectiles hit their shields shimmered. They stopped the first, managed to almost stop the second but the third round got through. And the first dacarian battleship died.