A few hours after the crash a complete list of casualties were on a smaller screen of the bridge of the Equinox. The only screen which remained intact. There are six men reported dead and three more missing. Personell with lighter and mayor injuries are reporting in every minute. Critical structural damage all through the ship, several fires are still burning in some areas. Most weapons are totally useless, just like the shields. The only positive thing in the report is that the power core remained stable, however on 23% capacity.
-We have to abandon the ship. In case they come after us.
-Yes, you're right. Download all information from the computer to portable devices and encode them. Load the most important samples into containers and we will try to hide them. Someone try to repair the radar! I want to see when they're coming! Also I want three groups of two men to look for some kind of cave or anything which can't be scanned easily where we can put those containers. And everyone get some weapons, food rations, everything which we need to bunker down for a few days... -said Roy.
Or weeks.
A loud voice from the left "Someone take out that jeep!". A worried shout from the rigth "No can do, sir! I'm pinned down!" Again from the left "Dmitriy! Grenade!". Bullets slamming the wall. "Dmitriy! NOW!" Pulling out the pin. Throw. Back to the cover. Huge boom. "Nice work! Now MOVE!" Running towards the burning jeep. Man burning, trying to get away fro the jeep. He's crying out loud as the flesh burns down from his bones. Someone turning out from the corner of the building. Raising the weapon. Too late. Enemy shooting. Aiming. Huge smash to the head.
-Dmitriy! Wake up! -The lieutenant clips the ears of Vitalievich. -Damn! What are you doing? -Do you know what happened? And where are you? -We crash landed... On a planet.. I don't know where exactly. Status report Sofya? -Lieutenant Daniil and Junior-Lieutenant Gromiko are dead. Junior lieutenant Daguestin has an internal injury, he won't be able to survive without immediate operations. Suan Jia and me have a few scratches, but nothing more. You seem to have no mayor injuries either. The Borodino is nothing but a piece of scratch metal. No power at all, several hull breaches. We were very lucky to reach the surface at all. -How about the liner and the other ship? -No idea, sir. We lost them when we entered the atmosphere. But I tried to follow their trajectory. If they didn't turn we must be a few kilometers from them. -Okay, let's figure out where are they.
Dmitriy slowly gets up and walks to a console. Taking off the side of it he turns on the emergency power.
-The radar seems to be working, but we need more power. Any chance Sofya? -I'll try.
A few minutes later the radar was operational and they located the crash site of the liner. It was only 5,4 kilometers from them.
A woman salutes as she enters the bridge. -Lt. Suan Jia reporting, sir! -Stand down Suan, it's an emergency situation, we don't have the time for this. How's Daguestin? -Dead. His lungs were filled with blood. He didn't have too much chance. -Damn. Okay, let's get some armours, weapons and rations. We're leaving ship. I'll try to revert all power for a last emergency transmission.
Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.
Forge tapped his cane against the command chair. Final preparations were underway for the International, as well as it's escorts Barricade and Romanoff. It was a small battlegroup, but it would be needed. The Borodino was a fine vessel, and would not fall to a mere few ships.
"Sir, XKR Fighter Wing Striker and and XKR Bomber Wing Vanguard have entered formation with the battlegroup."
"Captain Villiers?"
"She borrowed Commissar-Major Kirov's Insugent."
"Excellent. That will do." Forge paused, weighing what could be there.
"Tell the Barricade and Romanoff we might be entering combat against multiple vessels of their class."
"Are you sure?"
"Would you rather me say we'll be entering combat against multiple hostile cruisers?"
The man shut up, returning to his work. Forge shook his head.
"This is Colonel Forge. All vessels, move out."
______________________________
The Battlegroup slipped through the Jump Hole Network, making excellent time to Coronado.
"Watch your fire; the Colonials have set up shop, so let's not make them angry." Forge ordered. "Move to the Borodino's last known location; Have half of Striker Wing scout ahead, the other half stay with us. They may still be lurking."
The group entered cruise, the fighters fanning out as the bombers stayed close to the International. Forge frowned as they detected nothing but the odd Colonial patrol.
"Sir, we have a Nyx patrol hailing us."
"Have Captain Villiers answer that - do not deviate course."
______________________________
Tori groaned. "Thanks Jake, leave me to do the diplomacy." She keyed the comm. "This is Coalition Fighter Wing Striker."
"This is Patrol Nu, what's with the warships?"
"The Storm-class vessel Borodino sent out a distress signal."
"The Olympia detected that. But is the cruiser necessary?"
"We lost a Storm; and not just any. So, where did it go down?"
"Yuma. But that's in our territory."
"You going to not let us rescue our people?"
"You wanna start a diplomatic incident?"
"I'm no diplomat, I just shoot people."
A tired sigh came from the man. "We'll escort you."
"Thank you."
_____________________________
"She didn't cause a diplomatic incident. Excellent."
"You had faith she wouldn't?"
"Well, she had to learn sometime."
The Battlgroup re-formed with Striker now flying cover. The Nyx wing took up a lead and flanking positions, leading the battlegroup to Yuma.
"Entering the Yuma Defense Perimeter. The Archer has been informed."
"Roger that." Forge leaned forward. "Vanguard, set up a perimeter around the geosynchronous coordinates of the crash site. Striker, patrol with the Romanoff[i]. [i]Barricade,lock airlocks and take on a Marine team. Priority is to evac Vitalievich and his surviving crew."
"Roger that." Forge dug a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it. "Have Villiers and one of the Striker Wing head for the crash sight with the Marine teams." He took a puff of the cigarette. "If anything non-Colonial opens fire, take them down."
(06-14-2019, 12:25 PM)Sombra Hookier Wrote: If everyone was a bit more like Lanakov, the entire world would be more positive. Including pregnancy tests.
"Now YOU listen to me. Even if you offered me a billion credits, I wouldn't throw my men back there in a frontal confrontation with the Colonial fleets. That would be suicide, and I've not signed for a suicide contract. We're not going back there until YOU bring in some help on your own. Maybe hearing your voice will have our target...well, reason a bit. Yes... Yes, I understand. We've got a few men on the planet already. Yes, they're trained to do just that, they have their orders already. Good, I'm glad you're seeing reason in this. We'll stay hidden for the time being, report to me when you're ready... The Tide, over."
He sighed, and gestured to his radio man to shut off the communication. "What did she say, boss ? What's our next move ? When are we going in ?" "Not much, nothing, and I don't know. For now, we'll just wait. I don't want this to turn into a system-wide battle, we're not equipped for this. Let's just hope our men on the ground are doing well... Tell the mechanics I want a complete check of the stealth systems, let's not draw any attention on us till it's the time."
The radio man nodded and repeated the orders down the chain of command.
Three shadowy figures emerged from a small spaceship, which they camouflaged with a homemade net as soon as they got out. After walking a few kilometers away from it, they stopped and went prone directly on the ground.
Two of the men took their binoculars and the last one aimed down the scope of his rifle. No sound was emitted during this quick preparation. A few minutes passed, then the man in the middle touched his ear and whispered.
"Team November ready and in position. Observing the crash site. It's the liner. No sign of the gunship. A lot of activity around it, they're moving some sort of stuff, I can't see what it is...Over."
Some minutes passed before the man heard the answer.
"Copy that, November. Team Sierra also in position. We have a visual on the liner, and on you, November. Good cover. We're getting into position and waiting for the last two, over."
It took only a few seconds until new voices appeared in the radio channel.
Team Echo and Whisky were also in position. Everything was set.
Team November's leader was the last one to speak. "Everyone, get ready. Remember the clockwise engagement rules : don't fire all at once. First shot is us, then Echo, then Sierra, then Whisky, and so on. Three shots per shooter, no more. Then withdraw as fast as you can. Target whoever you can, no priority. Don't kill if you can. And avoid firing on the target. To my signal..."
The first bullet, muffled by a silencer, whizzed towards the crash site.
(06-14-2019, 12:25 PM)Sombra Hookier Wrote: If everyone was a bit more like Lanakov, the entire world would be more positive. Including pregnancy tests.
Roy was overseeing the unload of the most precious samples into smaller containers, when one of the groups arrived back.
-We have found a very long cave, walls composed mostly of lead, so it will be pretty hard to scan it, but we have found several junctions. We have checked two of them, and they have a lenght of more than 200 meters. We didn't investigate further.
-Sound good. Let's take everything inside. Take the injured ones first. Call back the other groups and try to map the caves.
Roy helped taking one of the stretchers to the cave then rushed back to the ship. Most of the cargo was already on it's way and only a couple of men wandering inside and around the ship itself.
-Captain, only that six containers left and.. umm.. well the bodies of...
-We will come back as soon as we manage to get out of this place in one piece, but I don't want any more casualties. And that mad woman won't get anything from me. I swear if I...
-What woman are you talking about?
-Nevermind. Just get this thing done.
-MAN DOWN, MAN DOWN! - a shout could be heard from behind one of the crates.
As Roy turned towards the direction the shout came the man near him collapsed with a big hole in his head.
-SNIPERS! GET TO COVER!
Two more were hit by the attackers, but only on the legs. They were crying in pain and asking for help, but nobody wanted to leave his cover.
-Someone get a visual!
-I think one came from 8 o'clock!
Roy checked which way was the liner laying and set the rifle he was holding to full auto mode. He spot a smaller hill covered with bushes, which could make an excellent sniping position, but there could be at least a thousand more places. He leaned out of is cover and opened fire at that position. He emptied the whole magazine then started rushing towards the crashed liner.
The three fully armed coalitioners proceeded towards the liner as quite as they could. They were about 20 minutes away from the crash site, but they knew that their enemy has landed nearby too. The landscape didn't help at all for the little team as they couldn't see further than a few meters.
-Take defensive positions around this tree. -said Dmitriy.
The two women, one with a heavy machine gun in heavy armour kneeled behind a fallen tree, the other in medium armour, holding a VLR-compact rifle ducked behind a bigger bush. Dmitry started climbing up the big tree his submachine gun and the seeker rifle on his back. He could clearly see the crash site, but couldn't see anyone around it. Then suddenly someone jumped from behind a crate and opened fire seemingly at the nothing then started rushing towards the liner. In that second he glimpsed the muzzle fire from about 30 meters from him. He took the seeker rifle from his back and see through the scope. He could only see one man with a sniper rifle. The sound of the single shot, thanks to the special design of the coalition rifle which dispersed the it, could be hear from everywhere.
Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.