Home Is All We Have Left
Chapter 2
Home Is All We Have Left
18th of Germu, 3456 A.D Today is the day the Hierarchy rose to power. Imaryu, the closest planet to Ragrinok fell under control of the Legion. This took many by surprise as Imaryu was the ultimate battleground between the Dragons and their Synthetics. The Battle for Imaryu lasted over 4 centuries of fierce fighting by both sides. Cities would be captured, lost, captured, and lost again in an endless cycle. Once Imaryu fell, it only meant one thing, Ragrinok was next.
Ragrinok was the planet of the Ancients, our home. Everyone lined up to take a weapon, train, and even build mighty defenses to last out the synthetics. High City Might, the military district was constructed to begin building the first of the Hierarchy Task Fleets. Over 40 task fleets were constructed ranging from Dreadnoughts to Frigates. The first 3 High Fleet Admirals gained their rank, Blave Senthist, Juk Imbordi and Kinharg Langsly. Blave took control of the first Oxy Dreadnought constructed naming it the Ending Sorrow, named as a sign for the people that the sorrows of this war will end when the Synthetics Arrive. Juk took over the second created Oxy Dreadnought, calling it the Victory. Stating that the Dragons will survive and win. Kinharg took operations of the first Titan to get it constructed before the Synthetics arrived. By the 12th of Ulti, the Hierarchy created a formidable fleet, along with large planetary defenses. The 40 task fleets surrounded the planet, laying in wait for the inevitable.
12th of Ulti, 3456A.D The first Legion ship appeared from quantum leap, soon the rest of the fleet followed and began their advance to the planet. The Victory, rose the Hierarchy banner, letting it sail on the tallest point of the ship. Soon all the other ships of the Hierarchy rose their banners.
The Victory charges forward, all guns opening fire. The Victory's massive 325mm cannons began to pummel the first Legion Centurion Battleship. Soon the Victory's escorts followed behind and opened fire on the same Battleship. The Battleship shifted and swayed as the onslaught of cannon fire, missiles and torpedoes pummeled the hull. Soon the ship began to explode and torn in half. The Legion pressed forward beginning to open fire on the Victory. The Legion cannons were ruthless as they torn projectiles into the hull of the Victory. This didn't stop the victory from continuing their assault, but this assault would be short lived. A torpedo from a Legionnaire Cruiser slammed straight into the starboard side of the ship, digging deep into the hull and exploding. The Victory halted and the ship was a sitting duck. The Legion continued to pummel the Victory until a lucky shot hit right into the 2nd main battery. The explosion caused a chain reaction of explosions. The Victory bounced around as the force of the explosions was causing the gyroscope to fail. Soon the last of the chain of explosions reached the fuel compartment and ignited the entire fuel reserve. Causing on last large explosion in the back of the ship. The Victory was no more, the life support systems failed and the ship was nothing more then wreckage. Juk Imbordi was caught in the last explosion and his life ended. None of the crew survived.
The escorts of the Victory saw the ship go offline and the captains began to panic. The Legion now turning their focus to the smaller ships, opening fire on them with full force.
"I am not afraid. No one here should be, we are fighting for our home! What we do, right now, can shift this whole war. Fight! Our families need a better tomorrow!" Blave Senthist proudly stated over the intercoms to the rest of the task fleets. Soon the entire Hierarchy fleet charged forward. The Ending Sorrow, charged ahead of the Fleet and began to open fire on multiple Legion ships. Fighters and Bombers began to launch from the Airfields on Ragrinok and on the decks of the High Carriers. The Legion pressed their attack and finished off the last of the Victory's escorts. Pushing past the wreckage they began opening fire on the Hierarchy fleet. The Legion ships now in range of the planetary defenses and missile bays stored on the planet of Ragrinok, giving the planet the added firepower for the Hierarchy Fleet. Cannons all around High City began opening fire into the sky, Naval fleets from the Water District began to fire their missiles at the ships in approaching the planet. The Battle for Ragrinoks Space has begun. Ships from both sides collided and began to circle each other in a massive 360 degree field. Eleist Destroyers dropping large bombs onto Legion Ships below them. Lyss Cruisers using their planet beams on Legion ships in front of them. Oxy Dreadnoughts using their top deck mounted missile bays to hit ships above them. The Hierarchy was putting up a fierce fight. Jakli Carsus's Cruiser, the Kryta circled the main flagship, the Legion Achilles Class Titan, attacking its heavy armor and engines. Bombers from the Hierarchy were shelling the hulls of as many ships as they could. Fighter engaged each other a mist the large ship battle around them.
"Target the engines!" Jakli shouted at his gunner crew. "We disable this Titan and we can change this around!" Missiles launched from all missiles bays trying to disable the engines but with little success.
The Ending Sorrow, attacking with full force was the first target of the massive beam cannon mounted on the Achilles Titan. Blave saw the cannon charging up and the ship moving to intercept the Ending Sorrow. Blave ordered a full evacuation of the Dreadnought. Moments later lifepods would burst from the underside of the ship and fly towards Ragrinok. Just as the second wave of the lifepods were being boarded the massive laser open fired. The laser traveled through 4 other Hierarchy ships, destroying them instantly. The laser hit the Ending Sorrow and torn the ship into pieces, the ship exploded and became nothing more then wreckage in mere seconds. Blave managed to get away and back to Ragrinok but at the cost of losing over half of his crew.
With the loss of a second High Fleet Admiral, Oxy ordered all ships to retreat to the Planets atmosphere where we would take the fight onto land. As the Hierarchy ships turned and headed back into the planets Atmosphere, the Legion ships followed pursuit. Trying to take down as many ships as they could before they reached the planets surface. With the defeat up in space, it was now up to the rest of the people to fight for their home.
"There's something disgustingly beautiful about watching a massive fleet push through the clouds. Ship after ship, wreckage from exploding parts, fighter and bombers. Its both memorizing, but very terrifying to see as those very ships were our first line of defense. How large was the Legion armada? How could they have gotten past our ships so quickly and made them turn tail? Is this the end? Hope was slowly leaving the hearts of all the people around me. People began to panic as the wreckage began to shower around them. I too, was losing hope." Lead General, Sorrilth wrote in his journal, witnessing the Hierarchy ships retreating to the surface.
Oxy walked out of the Citadel Of War and looked up seeing his fleet being dismantled by cannon fire. His rage began to fuel him as he flapped his large wings and took flight. Flying over head of the millions of Dragon troops ready to defend their home, letting out a napalm fueled exhale into the sky, this was an old Ancient Dragon way of showing dominance. The people cheered to see Oxy taking his stand. Oxy then flying straight up, hopping onto the Kryta and running up it then taking flight once more towards the Legion Armada following behind. The Legion focus fired onto the Ancient. Oxy smiled as if the cannon and flak fire was merely tickling him. Letting out his Napalm breath onto the first Legionnaire Cruiser. Oxy's fire was so hot the metal began to melt, This leaving an entire melted metal line on the cruiser. Oxy then exhaled onto its engines. The engines already very hot from the battle, started to over heat immediately and the engines caught fire. The fire traveled through the pipes to the fuel where the fuel was ignited. The ship ultimately exploded and fell to the surface by the will of the gravity, in pieces. Oxy continued his onslaught onto other ships, doing the same thing.
"Today, is the day we show who Dragons really are, what we are made of! Stand and fight for your brothers and sisters! By the will of the Ancients we will be victorious!" Unica shouted into his intercom that made a broadcast to every ship and every corner of every street. The people began to cheer and roar. The shouting itself could be heard for miles away in every direction.
As the Legion ships neared and began to launch landing parties. The Water Navy rose their banners and the first Battleship, the WN Defiance opened fire with its massive top deck guns at the Legion ships. The Water Navy sailed into the large river, DeLooms Canal that divided most of High City, creating a defensive line in the river. This river was a obstacle the Legion must pass in order to get to Diamond Square, the center seat of the Hierarchy's Power. The city began to open fire as the Navy did. AA clouded the sky in flak and machine gun fire. The sky was nothing more then black smoke in a matter of minutes. The Hierarchy Fleet finally reaching the surface, leveled themselves to the ground and re-engaged the Legion fleet. The Legion fleet was landing into Hell itself.
Lyss, walked out and took flight, letting out sonic screeches at the invading fleet. This caused systems on multiple ships to go offline and even the synthetics themselves to power off.
Eleist slammed her tail onto the ground, causing a chunk of rock to fly up, grabbing it with her tail and launching it at Legion landing parties. Taking down as many as she could.
Even with all this power, the Legion ships pushed forward, creating landing zones around high city allowing for their troops to land and unload tanks, weapons, and soldiers. The Legion fleet was still very massive in scope despite the heavy loses. Legion Super Dreadnought fleet then pulled out from quantum leap. These ships were planet bombardier ships. Positioning themselves into the inner orbit and beginning to shell Hierarchy positions. Hundreds of thousands of Synthetics began their march into the city, the first line of defense on the ground was immediately wiped out with very little resistance to the Legion. The Legions first target was the DeLooms Canal, the main river keeping the Legion from taking High City.
DeLooms Canal stretches from DeLoom capital of the Water District to the far east end of High City into the Fuh Abyss Sea located within the Earth District. Here is the main trade route between DeLoom, High City, and out to Akelenda port used by both the Earth and Fire District. The river is about 2 miles wide going through High City, allowing for hundreds of naval ships to pile in and defend the river.
As the Legion continued their advance, the Navy raised their deck cannons and open fired into the distance. The advancing Legion soon were bombarded by multiple caliber shells all around them.
Admiral Klovond of the Water Navy orders a complete shelling of everything in front of the DeLoom Canal to devastate as much as possible of the Legion Army before it gets to the rivers edge. Soon enough the Legion countered and the Dreadnoughts in the inner orbit of Ragrinok turned their attention to the columns of ships in the canal. The Navy ships themselves were not built to withstand planet bombardment weapons as the Navy itself is out of date, these ships were used centuries before during the Fiery Civil War and were never taken out of service. This meant the Navy ships were easy picking for many modern weapons due tot heir lighter armor. This didnt stop the crewmen on the navy ships however, the artillery fire continued, shelling the Legion troops. With the Legion taking heavy long range artillery fire they decided to pull out their own Moblie Artillery Tanks and used them against the fleet. With taking fire from both above and now from the Legion MAT's, the canal became a warzone in seconds. The Navy have ships sink due to the intense fire. Admiral Klovond ordered all ships to beach themselves or find a spot to where if they sink, they can continue their artillery fire. Klovonds flagship, the Remarkable, beached itself on the closest river bank. Her massive cannons are now stationary artillery towers. Now sinking wasnt an issue for many of the now beached cruisers, battleships, and destroyers. The onslaught of artillery continued but the Legion pushed forward. Reaching the canal the Legion Main Battle Tanks began to take up positions and opening fire on the beached ships. The Remarkable and her large 220mm triple gunned turrets turned down and began shelling the Legion positions. The ground shook like a 7th rate earthquake. AA turrets on the beach ships turned their attention and begin ripping apart the Legion troops as they marched onto the bridges. It wasnt enough however, Admiral Klovond started to send a transmission to the nearby ships and the Dragon troops stationed on the far side of the bridge. "We cannot hold them here they will continue to advance we mus-" Just at that moment a shell from one of the Legion tanks slammed into the Bridge of the Remarkable, Klovond was killed instantly, his transmission being cut off before being able to give the order to take down the bridges. Now being to late the Legion troops began attacking the defensive positions cutting the Legion off from advancing forward. The advancing push made by the Legion was devastating to the Hierarchy. Not only did they take the bridges but now they have full access to the beached ships cannons and a full line of sight on Diamond Square. The old navy ships didnt require a working bridge to fire the turrets like most modern ships, this allowed the Legion to turn the guns on the Hierarchy positions at Diamond Square. The hope and faith the Hierarchy had was diminished as the Legion pushed forward to Diamond Square. It was only a matter of time until the Hierarchy had to face the Legion at the Center of Dragon Culture.
.. To Be Continued.