Quote:"In war, the morale is to the material as three is to one." - Napoleon Bonaparte
Vogtland base, Dresden
Strategic Command
A man stood in front of the large monitors on one of the walls of the room, curiously looking into a parade of fighters sweeping across the field of view in wedge formation. One could say these monitors were actually windows, was it not for the fact that the room was hidden deep in the confines of the huge asteroid. Vogtland had no windows, only security feeds. Behind the man, a fervent discussion ensued.
- "I have the reports right here. Lets skip to the juicy part and just say it: with the exception of the RHC Varyag, we have no organised heavy capital ship support anymore."
- "We also don't have the necessary resources for a project of this magnitude."
- "Our forces on the Rheinland front need a boost. Just because the majority of our armies are engaged on the Corsair front does not mean -"
The standing man noted something in his personal notepad quickly, then turned around to face a table of others.
- "Gentlemen. I did not request you here to ask for your permission. This project is already underway, slated for completion next month."
One of the officers at the table stood up, carefully taking voice.
- "With all due respect, Kapitan Meisnerr: I have the reports right here. Construction cannot continue, we need a surplus of spare parts."
- "Read these reports to us out loud."
- "We are in shortage of two hundred square metres of hull plating to complete the armour, two out of three major engines and a dozen correction thrusters are still in need of components, and a transport of high quality polymers and alloys would speed up the smelting process of the armour plating considerably. The Outcast deliveries of weapons do not include high powered weaponry either -"
- "As you can all see we need to obtain a large amount of resources quickly, among other things." - Meisnerr interrupted, leaning across the table. - "I called you all here for a very specific purpose. We are going to revive the pride of the Red Hessian Army, a symbol for the entire Rheinland revolution to follow. This is far too important to let it fall behind schedule, so pay attention..."
Dublin system
- "To yer left, laddy!"
A Molly Werewolf swooped through open space, locked on an enemy, it's pilot ready to fire.
- "I got it!" - He shouted into the comms, and fired a volley. The Corsair fighter caught flame, as a missile exploded right on top of it. It spiralled out of control, finally breaking up in a magnificent fireball. The pilot who launched the missile took a moment of sliding through space to observe the flaming escape pod float away towards the Dublin sun, finally shouting a short comeback:
- "Take that, ya stinkin' diego!"
A short cheer from a few of the Mollys followed through the radio comms. They continued to fight off the overwhelming force attacking their positions, regardless of them being outnumbered three to one. Years of guerilla warfare has thought them to think nothing of their enemies' numerical superiority. The only thing they believed in was that they would prevail.
This battle however was different from the rest. They weren't protecting just their home this time around.
- "Oi! Get the two mutts inbound on the transports!" - one of the Dubliners shouted through the comms. Two Molly fighters broke off from the main wing to notice Corsair raiders inbound from the back, ready to open fire. The Mollys turned and pummeled the assailants with their cannons, forcing them to cancel the bombing run. The rest of the enemy force however kept pushing.
It almost seemed hopeless, until...
One more Corsair fighter emerged from the jump hole, spinning uncontrollably before exploding. It took a second for it to register with the combatants.
- "Here come the reinforcements, lads! Keep yer fightin'!"
Five fighters cruised out of the jump hole right after. This time not Titans. The lead fighter in the group immediately gave the order:
- "All units: engage ze Corsair fighters!"
The lead then took point, and the Hessian Odin fighters engaged their afterburners towards the battle. A minute after that, more Hessians joined the defense through that same jump hole. The promised help had finally arrived.
It took the combined defense force a few more minutes before routing all the attackers away from their position. Both groups continued on to New London, escorting the barely damaged transports of engine components on their way to the northern Omegas, in an attempt to bypass the Corsair blockade from the other end. The Mollys would help the convoy successfully escape the eyes of the BAF all the way to Omega-3. From then on, the convoy would safely pass through all the Hessian bases in the Sirius sector all the way to Vogtland, Dresden.
On Vogtland itself, Meisnerr's analysts would strike down a crucial item from the list: the engines were ready to be assembled and tested.
Frankfurt system
The traffic was unusually high at Mainz. For the crew of the station it was simply a slightly less than normal day, as both Kusari trade and convoys from Munich poured in on their way to Hamburg, all through a single crucial trade lane. The authorities knew of the implications, and the system was heavily defended at it's checkpoints, almost impervious to attack one would say. A lone fighter in the middle of the trade lane to Mannheim however was easily missed amongst the flurry of sensor data that all the ships in the system recieved.
The pilot of that fighter would spend a few hours awaiting for just the right convoy to start moving in. As his tuned sensor system picked up the mark, he would send a transmission towards the other end of the system.
- "Alpha wolf reporting. The goods are coming in, lets get this ball on the roll."
- "Roger that, Alpha wolf. We are inbound on your position, T minus three minutes."
From the vastness of space, almost hugging the radiation zone of the Frankfurt sun cruised at least a dozen fighters, protecting a retrofitted transport, the command ship of the group.
- "Approaching Mannheim scanners range. Lets see if this thing works."
Still in cruise, the transport had realigned it's mounted antennae and began what would be a flood of signal all across the system.
Mannheim station would attempt to warn the inbound traders of the massive force incoming on their positions, but to no avail. The signal interference would not let anything through the standard frequencies.
The group approached the designated trade lane, still seemingly undetected. The lead of the group was by now able to pick up the incoming convoys on his scanners.
- "Here come the pigs... disrupt the trade lane!"
A few swift shots to the magnetic accelerators, and the trade lane sequence would fail. By then all the stations in Rheinland would be notified of the failure of the trade lane ring, dispatching security and repair teams, however not before a few ships would get caught in the trap. Several Kishiro and Republican transport trains were stopped before the traffic halted, their escorts disabled before they managed to realise what was going on. The lead of the attack group would then broadcast on public comms:
- "Attention transports: Your cargo is now under Red Hessian control. Comply to our demands, and your ships will be spared."
Reluctantly, one of the traders responded.
- "*sigh* What do you want, pirate?"
The Hessian pilots laughed, and the lead once again spoke before engaging his engines.
- "Please. We are not pirates. We are revolutionaries. Now, follow our lead."
As the fighters took point around the transports, they forced them to follow them away from the trade lanes, to a dim dust ring in the distance. The group changed direction before actually reaching it, towards a couple of empty trains nearby. As they got closer, the pilots could make out the Republican logos on these trains, overlapped by a hasty looking spraypaint job resembling a crossed hammer and pickaxe.
- "Alright, we are here. Jettison your cargo pods, now."
- "You can't -"
- "Do it, or we will do it for you, and you don't want that."
The pilots of the transports knew they had no chance of escaping this with their cargo intact. The clamps on the corporate trains started to release one by one, and a Hessian heavy mover then carried the pods onto the stolen transports. Every transport that had ejected all it's cargo was then pointed towards Mannheim, and ordered to get out of the area.
All the while, the command ship of the group scanned the containers one by one. On board of it's bridge, the navigators stood by a screen as the scan data was being displayed. They were all curious what exactly they had just hijacked.
- "So, what do we have here, Oberleutnant?"
The team leader continued to skim through the reports for a few more seconds, before standing up and facing the rest of his crew.
- "Gentlemen.. we've struck the hull panel and metal alloy motherlode! Forward these scans to Vogtland immediately, and get ready to move out. We need to get all this to the shipyards at once."
The crew immediately went back to work. It wasn't over yet...
Omicron Alpha system
Omicron Alpha was heavily defended this day. Outcast patrols were always ever vigilant of any sign of potential invasion, but this day they seemed even more tenacious than usual. When a transport surrounded by at least seven fighters emerged out of the deadly Siniestre cloud, they didn't pause for even a second before sending the familiar recognition attempt transmission using a local known frequency.
- "Attention unidentified vessel: relay your identification data at once or be destroyed."
It took a second for the transmission to arrive right back to the two Outcast fighters, which were closing in on the convoy.
- "This is the RHT Bussard, transmitting IFF data. We were told you would be expecting us."
- "Affirmitive, Hessian ship. Good to have you. Proceed to Ibiza station."
The Outcasts took point, and within a few minutes the convoy safely reached it's goal. The fighters themselves remained in space, circling the position as a connection bridge emerged from Ibiza towards the mooring Hessian transport.
In a moments notice the docking procedure was complete, and the ship's airlock was evening out air pressure with the station. The tunnel doors soon opened, and five men emerged from the other side, onto the passenger deck of Ibiza station. The first four men were guards of immense size, mounting heavy weaponry on their backs, but still collectively carrying a large metal case. Behind them was a man wearing a grey uniform and a beret with a small pin on it in the shape of a crossed hammer and pickaxe. He was smaller than his guards, yet evidently higher ranked.
As soon as they exited the tunnel, he motioned for them to put the case on the floor, then took a crowbar from one of his men and carefully opened the case lid. The curious Outcasts looked into it and saw an extremely large stock of polished diamonds.
The Hessian officer took two steps back from the case, then asked:
- "Well, gentlemen?"
The Outcast guards startled, their lead took the initiative and responded:
- "Very impressive. Now, come with us."
The Hessian officer motioned again for two of his men to join him, and followed the Outcasts into one of the corridors.
They made a few turns until reaching a blast door of larger size than the usual cramped corridors of Ibiza. One of the Outcasts stopped at a nearby console, tapping in a few keys before the door opened to them, showing the contents of the room behind it. It was a cargo bay, with several very large gun turrets placed inside. The leading Outcast stepped over to the Hessian.
- "Plasma cannons and inferno turrets, as was requested. These ones have been specifically enhanced to accomodate the reactor specifications your engineers sent us... We're ready to load them up."
The officer looked at the turrets approvingly.
- "Well... lets wrap this up then."
Soon, the mechanical cargo loaders were in full operation, shifting the familiar metal crates off the Hessian transport and replacing them with the gun turrets. Before the transport was ready to move back to Rheinland, it's officer would send a transmission to Vogtland confirming that the required weaponry is now in the possession of the Red Hessian Army.
Vogtland base, Dresden
Strategic Command
- "Technicalities aside: what exactly is the status on the Von Rohe project?"
A high ranking member of the Hessian command sat faced towards the analyst officer standing in front of the table. Behind the officer was a display showing the overall schematics and progress of the structure of a ship.
- "Well... the delivered engines are fully operational, the armour plating is currently being forged, and the weaponry we obtained is undergoing testing as we speak. All in all I would say the ship is going to meet it's scheduled launch."
The Hessian general looked at his colleagues approvingly.
- "That's.. very good news - "
- "There is a discrepancy however." - the analyst interrupted, gathering the attention of the entire table. The analyst turned away from them, and directed his laser pointer at the screen behind him, scanning several marked points with it.
- "The entry specifications had ordered for the ship to have twelve universal gun emplacements. With the turrets that we made from the Outcast guns, we only have ten high powered weapons that we can effectively mount on the cruiser."
This created an audible murmur in the room. Was this a planning mistake? Meisnerr sat at one end of the table with a look on his face that implied he knew exactly what he was doing. He slowly rose up.
- "I believe I can answer your concerns."
The room was quickly silenced, and all attention was diverted at him as he continued.
- "You see, the checklist is not yet complete. There is one more thing. I kept it quiet until now so it could be confirmed, but it's live at this very moment. The Military has got their hands on two rather big guns lately, which were stored at the Karlsruhe until now. They are having them transported to Alster for processing, which no doubt includes mounting them on one of their battleships."
He threw a short glance across the room, before finishing up. He noticed a subtle smile cracking on the face of his intelligence officer.
- "The way I see it gentlemen... we have one chance."
New Berlin
The traffic was heavy today, as the Bretonian trade moved in in large convoys all the way to the Ring to obtain engine components. The lanes were crowded, and police were around all the major checkpoints to ensure that there are no collisions and that the flow goes through smoothly. In addition to the increased profit of the day, the Rheinland Military decided that the heavy congestion would provide a perfect screen for a convoy of their own, disguised as a Daumann ore transport. Comprised of several Wrath fighters and a very decorated gunboat, the ships entered Berlin through the Stuttgart gate. Without much delay they manuevered themselves into the trade lane and initiated the sequence, unaware that one of the civilian Eagles at the gate was carefully recording their movements...
At the same time, radio traffic was unusually high on a very obscure frequency.
- "We got Mikes on approach vector."
- "Affirmitive, begin the manuever."
Within the blink of an eye three Hessian fighter squadrons emerged from the Saarfeld, cruising towards the trade lane connecting the Stuttgart gate with the Bonn station.
- "We're nearly there.. take positions."
At this note the three fighter squadrons separated from each other, the side ones targetting two adjacent trade lanes while the centre one was there to safeguard the op.
- "This is Eagle Eye Two, we got a Bowex convoy approaching from Bonn. Get ready."
- "Roger that. Disable the lane rings on my mark..."
Scanners began picking up distant signatures of two incoming convoys.
- "Three..."
As the signatures drew closer, the Hessians disengaged weapon safety.
- "Two..."
A double check on all systems, all the fighters were ready to engage. The pilots put their fingers on the triggers.
- "One..."
- "They are almost on top of us!"
- "Go! Go! Go!"
Both teams at the lane rings fired simultaneously at the magnetic accelerators, overloading them with their energy weaponry. The incoming convoys fell out of the sequence in the same segment, both facing an entire squadron of Hessian fighters.
- "Now! Evasive manuevers!"
As the rebels thrusted away from their positions, the impetus of the trade lane had the two convoys drift right into each other, with ships smashing against ships in a flurry of complete disorientation. Before the Rheinland Military Wraths regained their composure, they were faced with a delta pattern of Hessians on an attack run on their position. As they came closer to the convoy escorts, they simultaneously launched a flurry of laser fire, crippling the defenders one by one before they even manage to react. The KDGA commissar onboard the gunboat shouted into public comms for the convoy escorts to hold their ground or be executed, but the morale breaking attack runs of the two Hessian squadrons were strong enough to maintain chaos in the ranks of the government enforcers.
In the mean time, the third Hessian squadron had disabled the shields of the military transport floating disoriented through space after colliding with a Bowex train. One of the fighters launched several missiles into the transport's engines to make sure it wasn't going anywhere on it's own. Right then, the remaining fighters positioned themselves at the front of the transport, and launched their harpoon shaped projectiles at it. In a moments notice, the fighters were engaging their afterburners back towards the Saarfeld, dragging the hapless transport along with it.
- "This is Hauler One to the rest, we're dragging the goods away. Good luck."
Meanwhile, the fight at the trade lane was not yet over.
- "Roger that, we will join you in a second. All right, wolfpacks: lets torch that fascist gunboat."
The fighter formation now faced the gunboat itself, thrusting at it from 2k away. It's fire dodged by the agile, well piloted Odin's, it could only watch as the first pass completely decimated it's shields. The gunboat commander quickly rerouted power from the shield batteries to the shield generators, and regenerated his protection. The formation had now turned around, beginning a second strafing run. The fighter fire began decimating it's shields again, until it's shields were down once again and the Hessian formation scattered. Targetted from all sides, the gunboat had no choice but to target one of the fighters and hope for the best. While the single fighter dodged it's fire, the rest unloaded all they had into the gunboat's hull, heavily damaging it. The dodging fighter then turned to face the military vessel, and fired it's mini razor. The projectile hit the now vulnerable reactor, and the gunboat suddenly powered down. A fraction of a second later the first explosion came from it's engine, as a ball of fire slowly consumed the entire ship. The Hessian formation turned for a final pass to observe the fireworks.
- "Objective eliminated. Good job you lot, we've teached the bastards a lesson in guerilla warfare today. Lets get back to check point alpha."
Just as the formation entered the sensor disrupting confines of the Saarfeld, the captured transport would be hauled straight into Vogtland base. The cargo pods would be discovered to hold exactly what the Hessians were hoping for: two energy optimised Battle Razors. The engineering crew would direct one of those straight to the dry dock, while sending the other to the R&D department...
Three weeks later
Vogtland base, Dresden
Parade room
A wing of Hessian Odins flew overhead the looking glass. Onboard the parade deck of Vogtland an entire company of pilots stood at attention along with most of the high command, and watched the air show. As the fighters passed, the soldiers stood down. There would be one more pass overhead in preparation for the launch of the newest flagship of the Red Hessian Army, it's third commissioned cruiser since the beginning of the organisation's existence.
- "How do I look?"
- "Very good, sir."
- "Right. Time to do the formality."
A man in a gray, minimalistic uniform walked in from the side of the hall, behind him two officers. He stepped on the platform in front of the viewport, positioned himself at the speaking stand and looked behind his shoulder, waiting for the cue. The anthem of revolutionary Rheinland began playing, and the last wing of Odins could be seen making a turn to pass over the parade room. One of the high ranking officers gave an order, and the company once again stood at attention. The Odins made a pass over the viewport. The man on the platform then turned towards the company, adjusted the microphone and began his speech.
"Soldiers. Miners. Comrades!
For years we have fought against fascists and barbarians, perfecting the skill of hit and run warfare. For years we have not only held but also liberated most of southern Sirius! While the valiant crews of our sister battallions do what they can to protect our holdings, we are the ones to spearhead every assault, every incursion into enemy territory. We handle new allies, we push back old enemies. We are at the front, we are the very ones firing the first shots in each important battle!"
The message came to the crew onboard the cruiser. The scaffolding was already being removed, and the couplings with the base were being released one by one.
- "Couplings one through five released. Couplings six through eight prepared for release."
- "Begin charging the fusion reactor."
The three engine exhausts lit up with a dim red light, before slowly brighting up. The silent hum of the powerplant starting the nuclear reaction resounded through the ship.
"Today our first shots will bear the strength of the entire Hessian war effort! Just like the Gotte Krieger and the Sternenfaust before, our new flagship is going to become the scourge of the enemy. Using it's superior technology, our crews will be reviled by the capital ship fleet of our foes. Our superior training and strength of will are going to become apparent during the battles to come!"
A utility vehicle cut off the last parts of the scaffolding, and took the pieces of metal away from the ship.
- "Fusion reactor at fifty two percent. Cut off external power... now."
The final couplings were released, and Vogtland had stopped powering the systems onboard the cruiser. The fusion reactor had by now started to quiet down, and lights on the ship blinked during the source transition.
- "External power cut. Reactor power rerouted to all systems. Power fluctuations minimal."
- "Run diagnostics through all systems and begin powering engines."
The engine exhaust started to change colour to a bright white, the lights on the cruiser blinked two more times as the diagnostics program ran through the reactor.
- "All couplings released. Prepare to throttle engines on my mark."
"Just like our forefathers who stood valiantly against the forces of imperialism on the dawn of Von Rohe's Day, we will stand by this symbol of the revolution on each push, and it will shine over us and inspire us to fight for our cause. It will lead us to victory."
Finishing the speech, the officer on the platform turned towards the viewport and saluted.
- "Engage throttle. Increase speed to 50 knots."
The cruiser slowly moved away from the base, visible in it's entire glory from the viewport of the parade room. The company once again stood at attention as the revolutionary Rheinland hymn resounded through the room.
- "Charge weapons and prepare to fire salvo."
- "Weapons charged."
- "Fire."
The cruiser gave an energy weapon salvo towards the Dresden sun, dimly visible from the cloud of smog. The violent electrical discharge of the forming balls of superheated plasma from the ship's cannons gave a sound similar to simple cannon fire.
- "Fire."
A second discharge was given, and the pilots on the Vogtland parade deck stood down as the ship moved into the distance, almost as if being slowly consumed by the orange cloud of the Giftnebel. The third Hessian flagship, the RHC Von Rohe, had begun it's flight.
Quote:"Victory belongs to those that believe in it the most and believe in it the longest. We're going to believe." - Randall Wallace