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*Disclaimer* All Location, Names and Characters are © Jordan P. Unless Otherwise Noted

The Retalian race and original concept is © Tom M.

February 2005 */Disclaimer*

Author's Note: So this is the long awaited chapter 3. There isn't a whole lot going on at this point in the story, just getting into the action. The next chapter will be the battle for Clino and its development. As usual, feedback is welcome and appreciated. When Chapter 4 will be done is a mystery as I haven't started on it yet, anyways, enjoy.

Chapter 3

Tuesday August 3, 2009 A.D

In Orbit of Acacia - Landing Group 1A - Aboard the Frigate Phorma

Warning sirens blared out a piercing ring and lights flashed an angry crimson. "Attention," a voice said over the ships intercoms, "We have been hit and critically damaged by an enemy vessel, enact protocol 343: abandon ship!" The ship listed and rumbled as another anti-matter warhead pierced through the MetaIron the ship was constructed from. Atmosphere vented from the dying Frigate and blast doors closed, trapping those who were to slow, condemning them to death.

In the short period of time it took the Retalian fleet to reach Acacia after their first act of war the Retalian government was surprised how quickly and effectively the Human's had been able to amass a fleet of battleships in an doomed attempt to defend their planet. Though it was a valiant effort, it wouldn't stop them.

Soldiers ran as fast as their legs would carry them towards their designated landing crafts. The ships were not meant to be launched this far out from a planet, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Qua ducked under a hose spewing superheated coolant that was leaving the ships reactor and headed for the inter-cooling system, if she had touched it she would have left a very grotesque pile of melted flesh and charred bone.

Qua could see her designated Lander down the corridor, others from the aquad she commanded were running inside the Lander. She could see the large metal ships, which resembled large boxes, already departing the ship. Qua arrived at the ship and walked in through the rear hatch. She quickly scanned the cramped personnel bay and checked that everyone was inside; they were. Feeling content she walked to the cockpit of the ship and watched as they prepared the Lander for flight. "Fuck the starting sequences; get us out of here now!" The pilots, already nervous enough as it was, took longer than it should have to break the Lander free of the Frigate. The Lander free floated in the vacuum of space before the engines kicked in and the Lander lurched forward. Standing without any harnesses in a ship with its own gravity wasn't the best idea and Qua was thrown to the floor, much to the amusement of the soldiers inside.

Qua stood up cursing under her breath and walked over to an empty seat and sat in it. Metal bracers came down from above and held her shoulders in place, locking her into the seat. As the Lander turned and moved horizontally along the Frigate towards Acacia the soldiers inside watched in silent horror as two Human vessels moved towards Phorma and continued pounding it with anti-ship missiles and a still unknown weapon that fired a massive metal slug at 4,300km/s. One of the slugs streaked away from a Human destroyer and punched a molten hole in the side of the Frigate. Qua couldn't help but watch in fascination as the weapon tore into the Frigate so easily. The Frigate listed more from the power of the slug and soon its life support and power systems systematically failed. She knew that all those poor souls inside the ship were going to dead in a matter of seconds. One more of the demonic slugs punctured the Frigate and drove into the ship's engine bays. The protection surrounding the fusion cores of Phorma failed and the back half of the Frigate detonated in an eye-watering fireball. As the explosion died quickly in the vacuum of space, the entire rear of the Frigate was simply gone.

The Landers gathered and swarmed en mass towards the planet the Humans called Acacia. Each Lander held about a single Platoon of soldiers and Qua the Lieutenant and her NCO, Milan, was her second in command. He sat across from her, a blank expression on his face. She and Milan had been in the same boot camp as many of the soldiers she now commanded had been and now she was leading them into their first battle. The thought of her hometown carried her back to the last intimate night she had shared with Nalz. The last R&R pass she had been issued before leaving the planet for the system she was now in had been only for two days and she had spent too much time of it with family and friends to be alone with Nalz. Her mind drifted to those times when they were interrupted by the pilot at the front of the craft yelling to his cargo, "We're entering the planets atmosphere, its ganna get hectic from here on out." As soon as the pilot finished his sentence the ship began to experience extreme turbulence. Qua wondered to herself how these ships managed to stay in one piece during planetary re-entry.

Flames burned along the sides of the ships as the intense heat formed plasma on the sides of the ships. The outside of the ships were made of MetaIron, the same as the much larger Frigates, but the Landers were 'painted' with a special heat-dissipating coating to further protect the ship from the intense temperatures.

Qua mumbled to herself as the turbulence subsided and the craft entered the planets lower atmosphere; next problem: landing. The ships were equipped with reverse thrusters on the front of the craft that would slow the ship down to enough for the chutes to not be ripped apart when they were deployed. The designers hadn't thought of that until after the first test flights. Then once the ship had slowed enough five parachutes would burst from their protective packs on the back of the ship and slow the craft significantly. Once at a decent speed wings would extend from either side of the ship and the ship would engage its 'PlanetSide Flight' mode where the craft would be flown like any other aircraft by the pilot. The Landers were equipped to be VTOLs (Vertical Take Off and Landing). They would come in on the LZ (Landing Zone) and the wings would once again retract and the ship would engage the four thrusters located on the bottom of the ship. Large metal 'feet' would extend out of their resting place and the ship would supposedly land softly and disengage its cargo. Or so they said in the manuals.

In reality the landing stage was the most nerve racking experience. Even in training when they hadn't first gone through a planets atmosphere it had always been hell to experience. When the reverse thrusters kicked in you'd experience a gut wrenching change in G-forces from the sudden deceleration. After the pre-determined burn time for the thrusters ended the parachutes deployed and ones lunch often came back up the way it had gone; which would explain the grated floor inside the Lander.

Qua's body was jerked towards the front of the ship once the reverse thrusters had started up. As the seconds ticked away she prepped herself the best she could for the next phase of deceleration.

Jark sighed as his craft's chutes deployed without error and relaxed in his chair. He hated the anticipation as the fuel gauges for the front firing thrusters drained and the moment the chutes deployed drew closer; if those chutes failed to deploy or were destroyed he would have been a dead man. Jark looked over to his equally relieved co-pilot and was about to speak when the cockpit filled with a shrill siren and was lighted by a crimson light. Quickly he looked up to the view screen and watched as the ships computer highlighter an incoming object on his HUD (Heads Up Display). Readings showed high heat signatures coming from behind the object. His eyes widened as the computer spoke an answer he didn't like in an emotionless monotone voice, "Incoming ballistic missile, beginning evasive maneuvers."

"Shit!" Jark moaned. At this speed there wasn't much maneuvering especially with giant sails behind ones ship; just free falling. The Lander's had no point defense systems besides a single chain gun under the Lander's cockpit and at these speeds deploying it would do more harm than good so destroying the missiles not a possibility. The distance ticker next to the highlighted missile drew closer to zero with every passing second. Slowly the missile grew in size as it drew ever closer to doing it's job; destroying him. "All Landers, we have incoming missiles, take evasive action immediately," he croaked before the missile slammed into his Lander, engulfing it in a brilliant fireball. The intense heat setting off the munitions onboard, adding to the fireworks. The burning wreckage continued on it path towards the planet.

Qua cursed as the news of incoming missiles and destroyed Landers came over the battleNet. Every downed Lander meant less fighting strength and a greater chance of failure and failure was not a viable option to her. Each turn the Lander made was felt by each person in Lander's metallic belly. The pilots of her Lander were doing there best and she hoped that was enough. She quivered in anticipation as another sudden change in G-forces signaled the detachment of the parachutes and deployment of the Lander's wings. 'Not much longer now,' she thought to herself as the pilots begin to gain control on the Lander in preparation for the coming assault.

Only twenty-four Lander's had been destroyed by the missile barrage. It was in the acceptability zone on some commanders view screen but to someone who would be down in the dirt, missing those numbers that had been lost. Only a total of seventy-six Landers were left which was around 3,800 soldiers, quite a bit but with over 1,200 casualties from the first missile barrage (For all she knew there could be more) the lost Landers and troops wouldn't be available to cover the ground that would need to be taken and held. Other massed landings were being conducted all over Acacia but reinforcements for the landing Brigades that would need them the most were still not going to be to Acacia for another week. With the amount of casualties that were going to be taken getting to and taking over the cities that each landing was supposed too would be high most likely higher than expected because these were going to be the first ground fighting encounters with the Human's. Then the subsequent losses taken trying to hold the city against an unknown amount of enemy reinforcements long enough to be reinforced and re-supplied themselves was going to be a difficult task.

"Five minutes to touchdown," the pilot bellowed, pulling Qua from her thoughts on her current situation. She decided to take the time before landing to brief her, she emphasized to herself, soldiers again before they were unceremoniously sent in the fray.

"I know you have all heard this spiel more than once already," she began, "but now it is absolutely imperative that you all will remember what to do and now is the most important time to emphasize our objectives. We are to take the city the Human's have named 'Clino' by tonight, which means we will not be taking prisoners. We can expect them to treat us the same, so if you find yourself in a situation where capture is a possibility keep fighting! Clino is an important staging area for their local military and is a key target in our invasion of these bastards' planet, if we don't take this city they will be able to use it as a re-supply and reinforcement area and will strike at our brothers and sisters in arms with extreme efficiency. It is our job and our duty to not allow that to happen. In three minutes we will be entering into our baptism of fire and we will prevail. The Humans struck at us with no cause and now it is our turn to return the favor." Qua paused and looked over the faces of her soldiers that she could see and smiled to herself. They all knew what they had to do and the pride they felt and the hatred they held smothered the fear they all felt deep inside.

"We will be landing about a kilometer from the city of Clino. We will be using tactics suited for attacking a fortified enemy position. Find the nearest cover and lay low until our forces are coordinated and when the call goes up the machine gunners and heavy weapons will cover the advancing infantry. Fire and move tactics are the order of the day.

"Intelligence doesn't know the total troop number based in Clino or what sort of heavy weapons, artillery or armor they may hold. The Landers will provide limited air support with their chain guns but most will be heading back into space to hook up with Frigates that need Landers. It is now our turn to do as our fathers and mothers did long ago, gear up soldiers, the time has arrived to payback the Humans for what they did." Qua ended her speech, her voice filled with malice. The timer ticked away the last seconds as the Lander's closed to the ground. Inside she felt scared and unsure of her abilities to command but the look on her soldier's faces told her they would follow her to their doom. 'Which I may very well be leading them too,' she thought to herself as the Lander settled on the ground and the rear hatch doors opened. The bracers that held them in their seats released and the soldiers began to file out of the plain gray Landers.

Mark stared his subordinate down as the man nervously reported General Hawkins' reply to Mark's requests for reinforcements. "General Hawkins has formally declined your request for another Brigade to reinforce the city of Clino and that any further requests for more reinforcements will be declined unless more substantial evidence can be given as to the need for the reinforcements in Clino," the clerk finished, his hands shaking slightly as he handed Mark the letter.

Mark reached over his desk and took the letter from the clerk and opened it. Not bothering to read the contents of the letter he flipped it over and picked up a pen and began to write on the paper.

Dear General Hawkins,

I am once again requesting that another Brigade be injected into my current forces at the city of Clino. Need I remind you that the enemy vessels are currently bearing down on out planet? If they choose to land near Clino and I have no doubt in my mind they will, I will be undermanned and will not be able to hold the city for more than a day at the most optimistic. The city is only being defended by two Brigades, two Battalions of which are engineering. I am asking you to please take your military doctrine bullshit and shove it up your ass, send me the Brigade or I'm pulling out of Clino and handing it over to the enemy. The civilian population has already been evacuated so I will feel no remorse handing over the city if it means saving the lives of my men and the lost of my rank.

Sincerely,

Mark Graham

He folded the paper back up and handed it to the nervous clerk. "Take that to your boss and be quick about it." The clerk merely nodded in reply and saluted before turning and jogging out of Mark's office. Mark signed and rubbed his eyes, it was early and already it had been a long day. The past two weeks had been spent coordinating the defense of the city by the severely insufficient numbers that he had; he should have been asking for a Division. However, with what little forces he had, he felt they had the city covered to the best of their capabilities. Fields of fire had been marked and cleared, mines and anti-personal devices had been laid and the miniscule amount of armor he commanded was covering major roadways.

The phone on his desk rang loudly, vying for his attention over all other things. Quickly he picked up the receiver and put it to his ear. "Yes," he questioned. The voice on the other side of the phone was quick and panicked.

"We have over 90 incoming bogies on radar. They all appear to be landing craft and they are coming in fast!"

"First, calm down, you're no good to us panicked. You know the plan, fire the AABM's (Anti-Aircraft Ballistic Missiles) and spread the word that an enemy landing on Clino is imminent," Mark replied using as much mustered calmness as he could. Now was not the time to sound worried to one of his men.

"Yes sir, AABM's away," the soldier replied.

"Affirmative, over and out," Mark replied. He turned in his chair and looked out the second story window of his office. The missiles streaked towards the coming craft leaving behind smoky trails that drifted over the city. He knew the AABM's would only delay the falling of Clino into enemy hands. It was only a matter of how long he could hold the city.

Yay, it's finally over. If you have reached this message by reading the story than I thank you.