Author's Note

And so a new story begins and hopefully I’ll finish this one, this particular chapter is not only the first story that’s over 7,000 word long but it’s also the first one I’ve done on Google docs rather then on Fimfiction itself which somehow made easier.

Now this story is a crossover with Marko Kloos’s Frontlines series and was also inspired by Carmine prophet’s Rules of engagement series though I aim not to make the same mistakes although what you and I consider those mistakes may differ so I would appreciate your opinion on the matter so I know what to avoid.

Anyway hope you enjoy, leave a comment because I like to read those and I’ll see you in the next one.

New Caledonia

“Hit! Bandits 1,5 and 6 are down!” The tactical officer of the Pacific Alliance Ship Washington says which is met with cheers within its square CIC.

It is June 4th 2188 AD and the Lankies, 20 metre tall quadruplets have sent a fleet of 36 Seed ships, three kilometre black cigar-shaped ships through the Alcubierre shoot at Williby the first human colony to fall to the Lankies in 2108 and the Washington along with its Battlegroup have just destroyed three of them as soon as they left the shot.

“Bandits are accelerating out of the node! New York is moving to engage bandit group designated alpha and California is engaging bandit group designated Foxtrot!” The Tactical officer says again as the Tactical Orb in the centre of the CIC updates regularly.

“Status on the Particle mounts?” A rough voice from the command pit in the centre of the CIC said, he was Brigadier General David Bosh of the Pacific Alliance Oceania Defence Corp’s Battlegroup Zata.

Turing from his post the Tactical officer replied “Alpha, Bravo and Charlie mounts are recharging but Delta mount is still primed sir!”

Nodding the General focused his gaze on the Tactical Orb which is the name for the holographic projections from the holotable which takes up most of the command pit. Every Orb shows its parent ship in the centre of the holographic display with all other items either moving or reorienting as the host ship moves in combat. On the Tactical display the Washington Class Battle-Carrier PAS Washington CVB-21560611 is displayed in the centre of a wedge formation of 12 other warships, two space control cruisers, four frigates and six Destroyers.

A few thousand kilometres away on either side of the Battlegroup are the sister-ships of the Washington, PAS New York and PAS California both Washington class Battle-Carriers with similar sized escorts. About One-thousand kilometres away which would classify as CQB in the vastness that is space, the remaining 33 Seedships are scattering on all sorts of vectors. Some were gathering in small groups, others going alone but all were burning one way or another.

Foucing on the 2 Seed ships that were burning on a head on course to Washington David Bosh called out to the helmsman and said.

“Helm engage ventral and aft engines get us above the two bandits coming at us head on designated as Bandit group bravo, Comms task the Colonel Yiman and Sergeant Fallon to go full power on their radios and keep the enemy’s attention whilst we target one of the bandits.”

“Aye sir!” Both officers said in unison and went to work.

On the Tactical Orb the Washington begins to rise and accelerate away from her battlegroup before the rest accelerate as well, forming up on the two space control cruisers Colonel Yemen and Sergeant Fallon.

Lanky Seed Ships in the first half decade of the war were seen as unstoppable by the two space powers at the time, the NAC and SRA, this was because their Seed Ships had about twenty metres of protection on the dam things and the only way to kill a Seed Ship back then is to either fly a huge concentrated mass near light speed towards the Seed Ship head on or fire a highly ionised particle beam at the thing and melt the armour away slowly.

Because of this for the longest time of the war until the late 2140s Battle-Carriers were the primary anti-Seed-Ship weapon both because of its Particle mounts and racks of orion missiles which were missiles that were propelled by Nuclear detonations whilst carrying a vast amount of ice to deliver the kinetic energy needed to kill a Seed Ship. In those days all the Non-Battle-Carriers would basically act as second-line units mostly acting as a screen force for the BCs however that changed in the late 2140s as both humanity’s technology and knowledge of the Lankies grew so did Mankind’s ability to fight them.

The result is that whilst most ships can’t kill a Lanky Seed Ship by themselves outright, they can still do good enough damage to make them a threat that can’t be ignored. So when the Colonel Yemen and Sergeant Fallon begin to engage one of the Lanky ships they didn’t do so with their secondary railguns but with their two primary high-ultraviolet-Laser arrays mounted on the bow section of their hulls, one array on the dorsal (topside) hull and one on the ventral (bottom) of the hull.

As the SSCs melted the armour of the Seed Ship away the Destroyers of both the Yemen and Fallon groups brought their railguns and small missiles to bear on the melted spots of the Lanky’s eggshell textured-like hull in the hole of penetrating the superstructure.

Though this kind of tactic has worked in killing Lanky Seed Ships in the past it required the coordination of all ships of at least a Seven ship strong battlegroup to be effective.

Whilst the Wasington only needs itself and enough power from her reactors or distance to kill a Seed Ship as is the case today.

As her battlegroup engages the first Lanky the Washington costs ballistic above the second one with her bow (front) section which contains the Particle guns pointed towards the Lanky’s dorsel hull armour as it slides in front of the veteran Battle-Carrier.

Before long at only 2,340Km the Washington’s delta particle mount fires point-blank at the lanky, for a short few seconds a new sun appears above Williby, its white-hot energy of untold giga guilles of ionised hydrogen and other particles slamming into the mesly twenty metre hull of the Lanky who despite their size in space and on the ground are not immune to physics, the blast at such close range would have blinded anyone looking at it but fortunately human warships don’t use windows.

“HIT!” The tactical officer says again which is again met with cheers all around the CIC.

General Bosh took a moment to have a look around the CIC.

Most of the men and women on the Washington had only one engagement under their belts minus the onboard brigade that modern Battle-Carriers have, the CIC crew were another exception as they were here when her Captain was in charge.

Speaking of which.

“Another kill to add to your ship’s kill list ay Captain?” Bosh said to the man sitting in the XO’s seat to his right.

Because of the Unified Service Act back during the NAC days the commander of a ship ranked as a colonel instead of a Captain however the term has still been in use as an informal gesture.

Colonel Jack Harason has been in command of Washington for three years and has earned a reputation for being an easy to work with, hard to understand kind of leader. Able to make his crew feel relaxed just enough to perform their duties in combat whilst outside combat he seemed hard to approach at times.

General David Bosh by contrast was a strict man in the face of the enemy, tolerating only the barest of laid back behaviours such as the cheering and the occasional joke or jab. When they weren’t being shot at or not in a formal strategy meeting however, to the crew Bosh can emit a fatherly aura, able to hangout with the enlisted not as a high-ranking officer of the Corps but as just an old soldier that can laugh and joke like the rest of the crew.

Turning his head in response to the General’s earlier comment Harason said “Two if we’re able to snag that second bandit before the Yemen and Fallon do, how many is that now?”

“Kills under our belts or kills under HER belt?” Bosh asked, referring to Washington.

“Our belts? But knowing the brass they’d probably put her kill count as the official one so I’d say hers” Jack answered in a familiar informal tone that was not only calm but had an amount of professionalism in his voice.

“Well if we managed to tag the second bandit that’ll make-” Bosh said before a voice came over the comms.

“MAYDAY! MAYDAY! THIS IS THE PAS NEW YORK! WE’RE CAUGHT IN A TWO PRONG! OUR ESCORTS ARE DOWN BY NINE SHIPS AND WE HAVE BREACHES IN OUR ENGINE BAY! NEED IMME-” The voice on the comm link cut suddenly as the blue icon on the tactical orb for PAS New York blinked out being replaced by a white sphere of explosive energy created by the breaching and detonation of the New York’s two main reactors.

“FUCK!” Bosh cursed looking over at the New York’s battle group to see that the situation is indeed as dire as the voice said.

9 of the New York’s battlegroup were out of action, either destroyed outright or crippled to combat ineffectiveness whilst the three remaining ships were a Space-Control Cruiser the PAS Archer, a Frigate the PAS Pittsburg and a Destroyer the PAS Hunter. From the looks of things on the tactical orb the New York’s battlegroup went up against five or more seed ships and downed most of them however the two remaining Bandits designated 8 and 2 respectively were able to thread the needle enough to gut the New York and put pressure on her remaining escorts.

On the Tactical Orb the Archer and Hunter are speeding away from the seed ships at a steady burn with their blue icons having a red outline around their icons indicating that they are heavily damaged, the Pittsburg is positioned between the Cruiser and Destroyer but decreasing its burn to put itself between the Seed ships and its comrades. However as the Seed ships close the distance due to their acceleration advantage the PAS Hunter turns around and starts burning in the direction of the Seed ships, due to its smaller size it was able to catch up to the Pittsburg…and overtake it.

It soon became clear to Bosh what the Hunter was doing and thus said “Helm! Turn us away from our second Bandit and burn towards the New York’s battle group, Tactical ready the last of our Orion missiles for a fire mission on the bastard!”

“Yes Sir!” came back the reply.

“It's too bad we came here for a resupply and not for a fight” The XO says which was correct.

The Washington in recent weeks have been on deployments that have meant more than a few regular resupplies, which was why they were at Williby to begin with. Normally a few Orion stations and a much larger force was stationed here for exactly this kind of situation but the platforms were in the middle of some vastly needed upgrading and the assets that were in the system were redeployed for some other offensive ops.

“Which is exactly what we SHOULDN’T be doing right now” Bosh thought as the last three of Washington's Orion 5 missiles separated from their racks and drifted away from the ship for a few seconds before they were in a safe range to launch but before that.

“Comms! Tell the Hunter to disengage and burn away and that we are Orions hot!”

“Aye s-” The Comms officer said just before Bandit 8’s icon blinked for a second and then the Hunter’s Icon turned from a blue sphere to a red cross with the word LOST next to it.

“Heavy Seed ship confirmed!” The tactical officer cried out.

Heavy Seed ships as humanity categorised them are the Lanky’s answer to humanity’s long ranged weapons, whilst not at all different from normal or “light” Seed ships they do have one thing that many captains fear, a large bow mounted penetrator launcher. Whilst only one can fired at a time the size of the Heavy penetrator compared to the small ones used in broadsides meant that a Destroyer would sustain heavy damage from just a near miss.
In this case the massive projectile almost obliterated the PAS Hunter, only serval small and a couple of big fragments remained.

“GODDAMMIT!” General Bosh cursed, slamming his left fist into the left armrest of jis command chair.

“Tactical launch Orions 5 and 4 at Bandit 8 and have Orion 7 take Bandit two” Colonel Harason said, temporarily taking over command whilst their commander got his shit back together.

On the Tactical Orb the blue inverted Vs representing the launched Orions suddenly began to speed away from Washington and towards the Lankies. Each second of their acceleration is met with a detonation of a Nuclear device that accelerates the missile to near light speeds along with many tons of ice packed tightly within, as the two Vs heading for Bandit 8 cruise along towards their target suddenly one of the Vs blinks out.

“Fuck! Orion 4 suffered a malfunction in its detonation pattern, it's gone!” The Tactical officer cursed.

Jack Harason also cursed underneath his breath, though he knew that a propulsion system that uses the detonation of nukes is bound to have a few accidents even with the newer model of Orion 5s.

“Let’s hope one is enough'' Jack thought as he watched the two remaining Orions speed towards their targets.

Ten seconds later there is a white sphere on the Tactical orb where Bandit 2 was, a few seconds later and no second sphere appears on the Orb.

“Shit Orion 5 missed sir, the bastard slowed down two seconds before impact.” The tactical officer said, nobody commented about how much force was needed to slow a three kilometre object down in just two seconds because the Lankies have done this before a couple of times and it was agreed that both their Seed Ships have really powerful engines and that the Lankies themselves are that tough to survive the Gs that such a manoeuvre generated.

“That’s still one less Seed Ship to worry about,” General Bosh commented.

The last Seed Ship then turned away from the last two vessels of the New York’s battlegroup and began burning away into deep space away from Williby.

“Bandit 8 is burning away! It's heading in line with ours so we hav-” The helmsman starts but is cut off abruptly when the whole CIC shudders like an Earthquake. On the Tactical Orb the hologram zooms in on the blue icon representing Washington until it become a 3D replica of a Washington Class Battle-Carrier, its starboard side lighting up in bright orange with a few pockets of deep blood red spread out amongst the orange patch which contrasts heavily with the bright blue hologram of the rest of the ship.

“Status!” General Bosh shouts as he tries to stop from shifting out of his seat to the portside.

“We’ve been hit! Damage reported on multiple decks!” The Comms officer answers.

“Hit from what!?” Colonel Harason asks, sounding very pissed at the moment.

“Judging form the Sensors, limited cam footage and the reports I say we were hit by a Flak Pen which must have been launched right as Bandit 2 went up in atoms, we didn’t see it because we were focused on Bandit 8 and were increasing our burn to speed up our interception thus limiting our method of evasion.” The Tactical Officer concludes before adding “We’re still combat capable sir the damage is mostly on the starboard ventral hull, Particle guns are still functioning and all our engines with the exception of the starboard manoeuvring thrusters are green.”

Another counter-tactic by the Lankies, Flak Penitrators or Flak Pens as they called by the enlisted were basically Penitrators that explode near a target and send out shrapnel at high speeds to either kill a wounded target or wound a target.

“Then bring us into the pursuit helm, don't lose the bastard! Comms inform California to take command of all able ships whilst we pursue and engage the straggler” General Bosh orders which are met with crisp replies.

Sometime later all that the Tactical Orb shows is the Washington and Bandit 8 in a straight line moving away from Williby, despite being 4 thousand Kilometres away the Orb was so zoomed out that the two icons were practically touching.

“Bandit 8 is commencing a deceleration burn! He’ll enter Particle gun range in 300 seconds!” The Tactical Officer notes.

“He could be preparing for an Alcubierre jump” General Bosh muttered before shouting out “ARTIMUS!”

Then a blue hologram of a human 21 year old girl in a military uniform appeared on the left arm rest of Bosh’s command chair.

“Sir?” The Pacific alliance AI Artimus asked whilst giving a crisp salute.

“Prep the sensors and our drive for an Alcubierre hack, I think this bastard is making for a node” Bosh answered.

“Aye sir” Artimus acknowledges before disappearing back into the neural network of the ship.

An Alcubierre hack was a technique developed in response to humanity not only discovering a Lanky Alcubierre node but also that the Lankies perceive time differently than humans resulting in a time dilation as with the case with the Avenger class Battle-Carrier NACS Washington in late 2120 where it reappeared three years later in 2124 but to the crew only six weeks have past. After some research into the subject via the Lanky node at Williby human scientists created a way to not only allow human ships to use Lanky nodes but also use them without the time dilation, the key components of this method are a type-10 Alcubierre drive and a smart type Artificial Intelligence.

“He jumped!” The Tactical Officer said 160 seconds later.

“So the bastards found more A-nodes in Capella huh? Comms inform California that we found a Lanky A-node and will be pursuing at best speed, will return if met with overwhelming force” General Bosh ordered.

“Aye sir” Comms replied as the Washington moved to the same part of space as the Seed Ship a few moments ago.

“Commencing deceleration burn” The helmsmen announced.

On the Tactical Orb the Washington slowly slides into the sphere representing the Lanky A-Node.

“Commencing Alcubierre hack now” Artemis said when Washington was finally in position.

Now it was just a waiting game which fortunately wasn’t long, just ten minutes after the hacking had started Artemis chimed in again with a satisfied voice.

“Hack completed sir!”

“Good all hands prep for Alcubierre jump!” General Bosh said as he fiddled with the straps on his command chair.

“All hands stand by at Condiation Level Red, I repeat all hands stand by at Condiatation Level Red and prepare for Alcubierre jump!” The Comms Officer announced.

As the alert sounded across the ship, crewmen who weren’t in the middle of an important task began to strap themselves into a seat or brace on a bulkhead. A few moments later a sense of electricity flared through the crew of the Washington and just as quickly as it came it went, and then they were in an Alcubierre bubble.

June 4th 2188 AD: PAS Washington: Hallway D35

I sigh as the electric feeling leaves my body, unlike my Grandfather whenever we go into Alcubierre I feel relaxed, the electricity acting as some sort of massage for my atoms.

“We in Alcubierre?” The voice of my patient brings me back to reality.

I looked at him for over a second to see if the jump had any effect on him, when the penetrator came into our hallway it caused a mess of electric explosions brought on by the overload and sudden change in power done by the impact.

The First class private I’m attending was next to one of those explosions which burned his left side, his face was mostly okay apart from the burns to the left side of said face but nothing the medbay can’t handle. His left arm however took a few pieces of shrapnel to the elbow and nerves next to the hand which siad limb looked like it would fall off at any moment if I had not applied the appropriate bandages and medication for it.

His left leg took the brunt of the explosion, sections of skin were missing and in one part of the leg you could see the bone. His right leg was spared the worst but is still burned along with the lower right side of his torso, his right arm and right side face are the only parts of his body still mostly intact.

“Seems like it” I replied as I finish bandaging the private’s left arm, which was hard enough in my Battle Armour what with my hands and fingers being a bit bigger due to the layer of Polychromatic-Combat-Hardshell but was even more hard due to the red emergency lights that were blinking being the only source of light in this part of the Battle-Carrier.

“Don’t suppose we’re heading to the nearest hospital?” The private asks weakly with a smile, despite my best efforts he already lost a lot of blood before I could stop it in most of his wounds and because he wasn’t in a VAC suit and in his usual BDU fatigues his organs are likely to be FUBAR.

He would need to be very lucky or have a miracle granted to him if hes to survive long enough to get treatment because despite the ship’s medical bay being pretty advanced it can’t treat the kinds of wounds my patient has and sadly I don’t think the Washington is leaving the system due to damage, if the damage was that bad we would’ve gone to Williby itself for repairs so factoring all those together my patient will probably be KIA in less than 5 hours if he’s lucky but if not…any moment now.

“Wouldn’t bet on it sailor-” I started to reply to his question before noticing the far off look in his eyes.

“Corpsmen!” I yelled to the officer down the hallway to my right even though it would be pointless.

A few seconds later the ship Corpsmen came to check on my patient though even before he shook his head at me I knew the poor kid was gone.

“Dammit” I thought as I stood up from the private’s body and let the Corpsmen do his thing.

To my left and up towards the bow of the ship is a closed bulkhead, where beyond is a hole leading to vacuum and the hazardous subspace within a Alcubierre bubble. The penetrator came through in a straight line and probably went through another hallway or two before passing ours and thus all bulkheads were shut to protect the rest of the ship's insides from the outside.

And to my right down the hallway to the aft of the ship a dozen other crew members in various states of injury are lined up on either side leaving some room in the middle for people to walk by, a few couple Combat Medics from one of our ship’s on board SI Battalions are helping out our ship’s medical crew though given the fact that we were meant to come to Williby for R&R and thus not prepared for combat many of these people won’t be going home without a body bag.

“Grayson!” A rough but familiar voice calls out to my right.

Coming towards me from down the hall is another soldier in GEN2 Battle Armour like me though he has a fancy computer on his right wrist but other than that his BA is the same as mine with the same colour camo and pattern.

“Hey Fallon!” I greet my friend before grabbing his wrist in a viking-like handshake.

“You know what the fuck happened?” I asked, given his job as a Combat Controller he would have had a better view of whatever fight Washington got in. I know for sure that the Lankies made an incursion as they have done ever since we took the Capella system back in 24 but that's about it.

“As we walk the Major wants to debrief the STT ASAP” Staff Sergeant Fallon says as he mentions to me to follow him and I do so glad to be away from the increasingly depressing sight.

“Long story short a Lanky Seed ship came in an hour before combat started, after we blasted that poor bastard we waited before 36 more Seed Ships came through one of which was a Heavy Seed Ship. We lost the majority of the New York’s Battlegroup including the ship herself before we turned from our little fight and blasted one of the two Seed Ships responsible but the Heavy Seed Ship jumped before we could finish him off, now we are in Alcubierre to wherever that bastard jumped to” Fallon says giving a brief rundown as we walked to the STT briefing room.

I’m sure that's not all there is to the story but I decided not to pry, for one I’m not an officer I am a Pararescue man or PJ. My job is to rescue downed dropship or fighter pilots and provide medical aid. My friend Fallon here however is a Combat Controller whose job it is to call down the thunder, Kinetic strikes, Air strikes whatever the fleet can give CCs direct which gives them the added perk of being linked to the Tactical-Network giving them an idea of what's happening around them.

Needless to say, we have very different jobs.

Later that day we arrived in our STT’s briefing room in Washington's grunt country, which is the nickname for the area assigned to the ship’s SI contingent.

Within is the rest of the Washington’s STT or Special Tactics Team which is the name for the group comprising all the special forces on a given ship, from simple specialists like me and Fallon all the way to Tier One Spec-Ops like the Fleet’s elite SEAL and SCAR teams and SI’s Force Recon, Helldivers and their Raider teams.

Currently STT Washington consists of 75 men and women about half a company, the makeup of our STT consists of a team of SEALs, two squads of SCARs, a Platoon of Force Recon troopers and a Squad of Pararescuemen plus a squads worth of other Specialists including a couple of Combat Controllers.

At the head of the Briefing room is our commanding officer Major Graves, an imposing man amplified in his Battle Armour nevermind his rough and scared face.

“Staff Sergeants Ben Grayson and Avery Fallon reporting sir!” I announce as we salute our superior officer before he dismisses us and motions for us to take a seat.

I took my place with the nine other members of the Pararescue Squad, next to our Squad leader First Lieutenant Hawkins.

“Staff Sergeant” Hawkins says as I took my seat amongst my fellow Pararescues.

“Lieutenant” I replied before Major Graves clears his throat to get our attention.

“Alright now that everyone is here here’s the situation as it stands right now-” The Major starts and he then gives a much more detailed version of what Avery told me.

After the Major gives his rundown, a soldier probably one of the SEALs asks “What's the situation on Williby?”

“From what we could tell our neighbours weren’t interested in helping out their space buddies in any way so pretty much the same old same old” Major Graves replies.

Ever since Humanity reclaimed the first colony to fall to the Lankies, we never really did pushed them off the planet; instead we drove them underground like the Lankies on Mars a few years after the battle of Earth in 2113. Because they’ve learned a few things about how we fight them they have made countermeasures which include making the tunnels inaccessible to Armoured Vehicles and ambushing the Infantry only forces deep within the cave network.

Those things and more made attacking the Lankies underground a almost impossible task but it can be done as with the Second Mars Offensive in 2166 though not without cost. As such due to the fact that the big bastards can attack from underground the Alliance only has a single massive base on Williby to act as both a guardpost and as a staging point for interception missions on Lankies that poke their heads out of their holes.

After answering a few more questions Major Graves got to business.

“When we come out of the shoot we’ll most likely be engaging the Lanky as soon as he knows we’ve followed him, as such I want all of you to remain in Hardshell until I order otherwise. However you all deserve some R&R so you're dismissed until we come out of Alcubierre Understood?”

“Yes sir!” We all replied at once and soon we were pilling out of the room at a steady pace with our Combat Hardshell still on.

Unknown System: Three Earth days later: June 7th 2188 AD

“We’re through!” The helmsman said amongst the loud klaxons of Combat Condition One.

“Status on Bandit 8!?” General Bosh shouted as he eyed the Tactical Orb again.

“There’s a Seed Ship in orbit of a planet deadhead, can’t tell if he’s our Bandit though” The Sensor Officer answered.

On the Tactical Orb straight ahead of the Washington 10,000KM away between her and the planet is their pussmed Seed Ship.

“Any other Lankies in the neighbourhood?” Bosh asked, gaining control of himself.

“Negative sir the bastard’s alone but I’ve pinpointed our location” The Navigation Officer said enlarging the Tactical Orb until it encompassed the whole system and then it was just a bright star amongst a hundred more, then a thousand.

“New Caledonia!?” Colonel Harason shouts what the whole bridge crew thought at that exact moment.

Although Capella A was the first system to fall to the Lankies in 2108 it wasn’t the only colony to fall that year, New Caledonia was like New Svalbard a shared system with the SRA back before the Pacific Alliance days. With the old NAC sharing one half of the system and the SRA the other, just four weeks after Williby was lost the NAC colony of Nova Tenis was lost to the lankies with the SRA colony world of Kherson falling in 2110 which left the New Caledonian system in Lanky hands.

“And now we get a chance to take it back at last” General Bosh thought as he observed the Tactical Orb.

Their Seed friend was making a burn towards the planet 20,000KM from Washington, although it's impossible to tell if he was already burning or just started burning when Washington came out of the shoot.

“Bandit’s breaking!” The sensor Officer informs.

On the Orb the Seed Ship was indeed breaking and before long his heading was directly towards the Washington.

“Artimus prep for evasive action the SECOND we are about to be hit Understood?” General Bosh orders.

“Aye Sir” The blue AI answers appearing on the General’s left arm rest once more.

“Sir Bandit is accelerating fast! He’ll be within firing range of the mounts in 80 seconds!” The Weapons Officer reports.

40 seconds later just halfway before it's in firing range the Lanky Seed ship pulls one last trick up his sleeve.

“He’s breaking again-no wait! He’s just reorienting” The Sensor Officer reports only for him to shout three seconds later

“HE’S TOSSING MINES!!”

“EVADING!” Artemis shouts as the ship shudders using its manoeuvre thrusters to dodge and weave between the incoming mines.

Using one of their most effective planetary defence weapons the Lankies launch their penetrator mines in an arc as their mothership accelerates giving them the speed they need to reach their target before they have time to evade.

On the Tactical Orb dozens then hundreds and then thousands of little red dots come streaming out of the Seed Ship before despairing in a wide area in front of the Washington.

Despite Artimus best efforts the Washington got too close to a couple of the mines, violent shudders rumble throughout the ship with a few sparks flickering within the CIC.

“Arrrttiimmuss?” Bosh asked, straining under the pressure of the Washington’s various evasive actions.

Artimus didn’t respond for a few seconds before she flickered on his left armrest again, clearly the damage was severe as she was somewhat affected.

“C-Cleared to-to f-f-fi-fire Tactical”

“Take this you son of a bitch!” The Tactical Officer screamed at the top of his lungs whilst he pulled the trigger under the stress of acceleration.

The shudder of the Particle guns was the last thing General Bosh felt before he passed out.

I woke up to the sound of a heartbeat monitor, my eyes staring at a red tinted ceiling from the emergency lights of the Washington. As I struggle to sit up in my bed a hand, which is in combat-hardshell, pushes back at me slightly to stop me from getting up too much.

“Easy there General Bosh” A young voice says, I follow the gloved hand on my left shoulder to my right and come face to face with a man around his late twenties. He doesn’t have a helmet so I could see his jet black buzz cut even in this darkened environment and he has baby blue eyes, all that to go along with pale skin very lighter than my own.

Overall he looks better than me who will hit 70 in a few months.

I check for his name plate which should be on his left breastplate which is the closest to me at this angle but the lack of light plus the pain I’m suddenly feeling dispels that plan and I follow the Young man’s pushing hand and lay back down on the bed.

“Artimus?” I call out my throat groggy, signalling to me that I may have been out for far more than a few hours.

“I’m sorry sir but Artimus is..” The young man said and immediately I knew the hard truth.

“She’s gone, isn't she Sergeant?” I asked noticing the rank insignia on the shoulder pads of his Battle Armour.

“Grayson sir, Benjamin Grayson” Sergeant Grayson answered before answering the bigger more impactful question.

“Just as the Seed ship was destroyed our ship took multiple penetrators from most angles, which not only ripped most of our remaining armour off but also disabling our particle guns effectively rendering us combat ineffective. Artimus’s core was one of the areas hit in the first few seconds of Washington entering the minefield that was swung at us, she was killed just after you lost Consciousness sir”

I sat there on the bed for a moment taking it all in.

Just then the door to the medbay across from my side of the room opens up and my XO Colonel Harason walks inside.

“Ah I see our resident CO is awake, diagnosis Sergeant?” The good Colonel asked

“He’ll need to take it slow for a bit to get his bearing back and take it easy on the movement to stop his head from spinning but other than that? He’s good to go” Sergeant Grayson said as I carefully got out of my bed with more success.

“Good carry on Sergeant. General first off your needs in the CIC, Major General Adams and the California are in system and he’s calling a meeting to discuss our situation. I’ll get you up to speed as we walk sir” Jack said as the Sergeant went back to work as me and my XO headed back to the CIC in the centre of the Washington.

We pass by dozens of men and women in uniform working on the walls, circuits and wiring all along the hallways as we near the Combat and command Information Centre.

“How long was I out Jack?” I asked my XO as we walked.

“A week sir, how much do you know at present?” He asked back and I told him what Grayson told me.

“Then I’ll start with this, after you got incapacitated I took command and ordered our drones to be launched whilst we wait for both reinforcements to arrive and repairs to complete, our Alcubierre drive was shot to along with Artimus’s core you see.” Jack begins.

“The drones that were first to the planet we found our Seed ship over found out that it appears to be the Lankies base in this system.”

“What about Nova Terris?” I asked, from what I saw on the Tactical Orb back in the CIC the planet we are orbiting must be Terris B which acted as a resupply point between Nova Terris and the Old NAC Alcubierre Node.

Jack’s face becomes uncomfortable for a moment as if I’ve touched upon a topic that's best left to someone else.

“It-It’s best if General Adams briefs you on that sir, that’s certainly what's being discussed at this meeting” Was all my XO said.

The CIC on the outside was shaped like a box in the Centre of the ship but in actuality on the inside it was a sphere-like shape with the space between the actual room and the outside occupied by thick armour belt which at the widest from the walls of the CIC to the nearest hallway was four metres thick.

We enter the CIC through the bulkhead towards the aft of the whole ship, where on the Tactical Orb on the holotable in the centre of the room is various windows revealing the faces of various ship commanders, most notably Major General Alex Adams the commander of both the Washington Class Battle-Carrier PAS California and her Battlegroup, Battlegroup Sera.

“Ah General Bosh, glad to see you up and about again, everyone I need to bring the Good skipper up to speed. Proceed with your orders and be ready for combat by 1450, Dismissed!” The Major General said as the holographic windows of the other ship commanders disappeared from the Tactical Orb, leaving Adam’s window and the hologram of the Alliance fleet as the only holograms on the Tactical Orb.

“I’m guessing we’re striking the Lankies in this system sir?” I asked as I took my seat in the command pit again.

The General gave me a look for a moment before giving me a smile.

“Don’t worry Bosh your old girl is sitting the invasion out, not just because there’s much you can’t do in your state but also because there’s a small mission I need you to put together. You specifically because you're the only asset we have to spare at the moment.”

“What’s our strength at present?” I asked, focusing on the hologram of the fleet in the centre of the orb.

“Battlegroups Zata and Sera plus the Archer and Pittsburg, a Carrier Task Force is also here carrying the 45th Tactical Brigade aboard the PAS Enterprise.” Adam says as each of the groups or ships are highlighted as he points them out.

The 45th is what caught my attention though “Have my passengers gone back to their friends then?” I asked.

Whilst a Battle-Carrier can carry a sizable ground force of two Space Combat Battalions an Assault-Carrier like the Enterprise can carry a full Brigade which is four to eight Battalions strong depending on their type. The 45th Tactical in particular because the Washington had been transporting its 3rd and 5th Battalions during its combat missions against the Lankies.

Of course a single Brigade isn’t enough to take a world held by the Lankies, the Battles to retake Mars during the earlier stages of the war proved that unless Humanity is willing to spend large amounts of munitions and time which they usually can’t afford, a very large ground force is needed to at the very least contest the Lankies. This ground force is usually a Army Corps sized formation which takes time to deploy, as such the 45th’s mission or missions is likely to launch raids of platoon or company sized to both soften the Lanky defences and to perform reconnaissance in force operations to ascertain where the Lanky Seed settlements are.

“Indeed they have and are in the final stages of preparation for their first few raids as we speak.” Adams answers.

“So I’m putting together a mission that somehow doesn’t involve Lankies?” I asked putting a little joke there for good measure but..

“Indeed it doesn’t” Adams replied with no hint of humour in his voice.

The Tactical Orb then pans away from the fleet and the planet we’re orbiting towards the planet of Nova Tenis where there were more hostile icons in a patrol orbit, however what got to me was the fact that instead of the icons being the usual bright red for hostels these icons were bright orange for unidentified presumed hostile.

“Sir are they?..” I started putting the pieces together.

“Another Alien race? Yes indeed Bosh they are” The general replied.

I lay back in my seat to take all this information in, the last time we encountered sentient alien lifeforms they’d tried to kill us and are still trying.

“So is it strictly recon your wanting or?” I asked, wondering for a moment why the diplomats aren’t here to take charge.

Straightening out his uniform in the window Adams said “The ROE will be ‘fire only if fired upon’ but depending on what the recon team finds they can use their better judgement as long as they understand that the higher ups, both military and civilian want to avoid fighting a two-front war if possible. But given that this new race has been around Nova for from what the drone gathered a few decades right next to the Lankies we can’t discount the possibility that they could be allies however small chance that is.”

Standing up from my seat I gave my superior a salute before saying “Understood sir I’ll have the mission underway soon”

“Good that’s what I want to hear, Godspeed General California out” And with that the window closes before I leave the CIC to prepare a mission package.

Prism’s Flank: 2022 of the Imperial Calendar: Planetary Capital: 10 days later

“Out of the truck bitch” One of my guards says as I am pushed out of the truck and onto the pavement of the main street running through the city.

I was halfway in getting myself up still chained when two of the Imperial Guard decided I was taking too long and grabbed both of my thinned arms and dragged me through the street.

I looked to either side of the street, each side housing two bipedal races one of whom I belong to.

The first were a race of herbivores who have a wide arrange of coloured coats as well as snouts on their faces and hooves on the ends of their legs, they were further divided between those with horns, those with wings and those without either. Compared to the other race they wear very modest clothing with a few having more exotic pieces such as jewels and gold rings.

They form the majority of the people gathered on this day and to many they thought this day would never come, that I who lead the resistance against their reign on this planet would be captured and brought before their masters to be judged all for a split second before continuing with my execution.

The second race who wore mostly rags and were the minority in the crowd were humans, the natives of this planet though their elders would state otherwise. To them they see a champion brought before their oppressors in chains, one who a few decades ago was one of the very people who oppressed them but using a reverse variant of the conversion potion I became a member of humanity.

My reasons were many and in a few minutes they won’t matter anymore.

“Ladies and Gentlecolts!” The voice of the lord governor boomed over the air as we entered the colony plaza in front of the Government palace where in the middle is a raised platform with a single pole being the only feature aside from the Lord governor himself standing with a microphone in his hand.

“Today is one where many of us believe would never come!” His speech continues as I am brought upon the platform and soon after tied to the pole facing back down the street I came from.

“For we have finally captured the leader of the Human terrorists cells here on our beautiful world” He continued before stepping out of the way and presenting me as if I’m a item up for auction.

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!!” There was resounding applause following that declaration.

If only they knew the truth.

If they knew who I really was or what really happened in the distant past, then perhaps their attitude towards the Imperial Government would be very different.

“Not like that’ll matter soon” I thought to myself as the lord governor continued his speech which I stopped listening to and focused on my surroundings before the two guardsmen from before blindfolded me, drowning my world into blackness.

The last thing I would probably see was movement from an alley to my left, it wasn’t that important as I know that somebody from the resistance would be here to see me off or maybe try and rescue me.

As futile as that sounds.

“-Ready!?” The lord governor shouted as I heard five sets of footsteps and five Lasguns being charged simultaneously, I then began bracing for the end.

“AIM!” I began thinking of memories from long ago, friends, family and loved ones that I would give anything to be with again.

“FIRE!” My last thoughts would be of my friends and I after we dealt with nightmare moon, together always.

But instead of the familiar sound energy discharges I heard what could best be described as an explosion.

And then screams, many screams.