Battle
I have never heard such a silent scramble. The corridors of the command ship seemed to resonate with the hollow steps of my comrades. No one dragged their feet, of course, but no one said a word as I rushed by a stream of blank expressions and red and black uniforms.
Silently, my squad arrived in Hanger Bay 12 within 15 seconds of each other. Petrova was hard faced and stern once again, almost making it seem as though I must have imagined her rare display of emotion not even an hour prior.
Her briefing was quick and to the point. The Praetor Jurdis House had learned news of our beloved leader's death, and decided our spirits would be weakened, allowing them to take this sector completely. They were sorely mistaken, and their display of disrespect to the late Lord Hakim was a big mistake on their part.
Soon enough we were jetting out of the command ship to meet our enemies. We were outnumbered 3:2, but it was nothing we couldn't handle.
Squad 72b is not a front line, cannon fodder squad. We are a small specialty squad designed to take out strategic targets. We let the Leroys charge head on into the front, and for the first 8 minutes, we in 72b sat back and picked off the rare Praetor Jurdis fighters that made it through the fray to our space.
Finally command found us a target. An enemy heavy missile ship with 5 heavy fighter escorts were making their way around the bulk of the battle, seemingly on their way to the command ship to cause some damage. We set course to intercept.
Once the enemy saw us coming, the 5 heavy fighters gunned ahead to clear the path for the missile ship. We approached in a spread pyramid formation. Petrova took the lead in the middle with myself and Ivonov behind her on her left as the first and second left wingers. Nikitin and Dash took up the right.
I don't remember much of the battle. I do remember that the usual thrill of combat was replaced by a dull unrelenting determination. Mindlessly we worked together to dispatch the enemy fighters. We fought without any imagination or tricky maneuvers, but pressed on with relentless discipline and flawless execution of our regular routines.
Ivanov and two of the heavy fighters were eliminated within 6 seconds of each other. The remaining 3 heavy fighters pulled off a clever feign and managed to knock out both the right wingers Nikitin and Dash simultaneously, while sacrificing one of their own to my cannons. It just came to me now that those two had a wager on who would last longer. No doubt they would have been arguing in the cloning chambers shortly after. Then again, no one was of the mind to consider wagers or other trivialities.
It was now Petrova and I with even odds against the last two heavy Praetor Jurdis. An audio crackle from home base indicated the enemy had another wing of fighters en route to our location. We had between 2-3 minutes to finish off these 2 fighters and take out the missile ship before we were highly outnumbered.
I heard Petrova’s voice crackle through my headset giving the occasional tactical command. We worked together flawlessly for the next 75 seconds until both enemy fighters were scattered debris, and we started on our race to the missile ship. We gunned it into overdrive, trying to catch up to the fleeing target. While we were much faster, the reinforcements were approaching from the flank and were not far off.
Petrova and I each had a pair of light tactical missiles. We armed them and managed to get a lock on the enemy target just in time. The 4 missiles flew in rapid succession, and the enemy reinforcements wildly tried to shoot them out of space.
I was impressed that they managed to destroy two of them with their cannons. It was futile, however, as the other pair flew true and detonated on their target. We didn’t have time to watch the pretty lights as a few of the heavy warheads in the enemy ship detonated, though. We gunned back to home base to meet with our squad mates and form up for the next assignment.
There was no next assignment, however. House Vladislav fought with such unmatched skill today that the enemy saw their numbers drop too fast, and called a retreat with the bulk of their force.
When the battle was over, and all pilots finally dismissed for the night, we returned to our quarters much the same way we started the battle. For such a victory, I did not hear a single cheer from the men and women of House Vladislav.
S. Gat, Sergeant 1st Class
Silently, my squad arrived in Hanger Bay 12 within 15 seconds of each other. Petrova was hard faced and stern once again, almost making it seem as though I must have imagined her rare display of emotion not even an hour prior.
Her briefing was quick and to the point. The Praetor Jurdis House had learned news of our beloved leader's death, and decided our spirits would be weakened, allowing them to take this sector completely. They were sorely mistaken, and their display of disrespect to the late Lord Hakim was a big mistake on their part.
Soon enough we were jetting out of the command ship to meet our enemies. We were outnumbered 3:2, but it was nothing we couldn't handle.
Squad 72b is not a front line, cannon fodder squad. We are a small specialty squad designed to take out strategic targets. We let the Leroys charge head on into the front, and for the first 8 minutes, we in 72b sat back and picked off the rare Praetor Jurdis fighters that made it through the fray to our space.
Finally command found us a target. An enemy heavy missile ship with 5 heavy fighter escorts were making their way around the bulk of the battle, seemingly on their way to the command ship to cause some damage. We set course to intercept.
Once the enemy saw us coming, the 5 heavy fighters gunned ahead to clear the path for the missile ship. We approached in a spread pyramid formation. Petrova took the lead in the middle with myself and Ivonov behind her on her left as the first and second left wingers. Nikitin and Dash took up the right.
I don't remember much of the battle. I do remember that the usual thrill of combat was replaced by a dull unrelenting determination. Mindlessly we worked together to dispatch the enemy fighters. We fought without any imagination or tricky maneuvers, but pressed on with relentless discipline and flawless execution of our regular routines.
Ivanov and two of the heavy fighters were eliminated within 6 seconds of each other. The remaining 3 heavy fighters pulled off a clever feign and managed to knock out both the right wingers Nikitin and Dash simultaneously, while sacrificing one of their own to my cannons. It just came to me now that those two had a wager on who would last longer. No doubt they would have been arguing in the cloning chambers shortly after. Then again, no one was of the mind to consider wagers or other trivialities.
It was now Petrova and I with even odds against the last two heavy Praetor Jurdis. An audio crackle from home base indicated the enemy had another wing of fighters en route to our location. We had between 2-3 minutes to finish off these 2 fighters and take out the missile ship before we were highly outnumbered.
I heard Petrova’s voice crackle through my headset giving the occasional tactical command. We worked together flawlessly for the next 75 seconds until both enemy fighters were scattered debris, and we started on our race to the missile ship. We gunned it into overdrive, trying to catch up to the fleeing target. While we were much faster, the reinforcements were approaching from the flank and were not far off.
Petrova and I each had a pair of light tactical missiles. We armed them and managed to get a lock on the enemy target just in time. The 4 missiles flew in rapid succession, and the enemy reinforcements wildly tried to shoot them out of space.
I was impressed that they managed to destroy two of them with their cannons. It was futile, however, as the other pair flew true and detonated on their target. We didn’t have time to watch the pretty lights as a few of the heavy warheads in the enemy ship detonated, though. We gunned back to home base to meet with our squad mates and form up for the next assignment.
There was no next assignment, however. House Vladislav fought with such unmatched skill today that the enemy saw their numbers drop too fast, and called a retreat with the bulk of their force.
When the battle was over, and all pilots finally dismissed for the night, we returned to our quarters much the same way we started the battle. For such a victory, I did not hear a single cheer from the men and women of House Vladislav.
S. Gat, Sergeant 1st Class
# posted by S. Gat @ 19:23
