HOLDING THE LINE CHAPTER 150: END OF THE SPIRAL 1
(1/3)
BATTLE
GROUP AURIGA, CVBG-A
End
of the Spiral Part 1: "
Stand
to your glasses steady,
This
world is a world full of lies.
Here's
a health to the dead already,
Hurrah
for the next man to die!
-From
"Stand to Your Glasses" (WW1)
Written by...
James Andrew "JAG" Greenhow
<rambo.123uk@btinternet.com>
Daniel "Bugfix" Klette
<klette@gmx.net>
Jason "Dundradal" McHale <dundradal@firststrike-inc.com>
Andrew "Neo" Modeeen
<andrewm@innspros-inc.com>
Kevin
Tan <leeloo8@hotmail.com>
======================================
Corporate
Penthouse
Level 999, The Corporate Tower
Laifen,
1700
Hours,
======================================
The Patriarch paced the grounds of his massive stateroom, deep in thought. His
steel gray hair would turn even greyer at the thought of the things occurring
now at the borders of the Family's domain. Even now,
back during the K-Wars when Confed simply bought weaponry as soon as it rolled
off the production line. The same held true for the
Only yesterday did the Union authorize the purchase of nearly a hundred
thousand tons of munitions, spare parts and armament worth several billion
credits to be delivered, to, of all places, Nifelhiem, the site of their secret
prototype testing base. There had been several objections from the Families as
to using what was supposedly a top secret base for a battleground, but they
were annulled when both Family and invited Union strategists pointed out the
rather obvious benefits of Nifelhiem station in rather glowing terms. Not to
mention, most of all, that Nifelhiem was
insured down to the last bolt. From his own sources, he had ascertained the
Admiral's plan. It was audacious, but it did emphasize the Unions strengths as
well as maximizing the use of local terrain. Tanfen's natural tendency to
fortify sensitive areas to the point of being strongpoints capable of holding
off even a Porhen hunter killer unit only made more sense to the Admiral's
plan. The only thing the plan lacked was enough ships to pull it off.
Certainly, the killer satellites they had placed throughout the area would take
a toll on the enemy. In addition to the anti-matter mine fields and the
conveniently placed asteroid belt made it difficult to maneuver if one did not
have an exact astronavigation map of local currents and gravitational
influences. If one did not have an exact nav map, a ship could be shredded in
an asteroid field by unpredictable asteroid movements or run astray of small
hails of micro-meteorite fragments that could shred shields and tear through
hull armor like a battery of gauss rifle rounds.
Tanfen ingenuity insured that certain larger asteroid fragments were kept in
place with small geo-stationary boosters and then reinforced in sections with
durasteel hull plate so that fighters could use it to pick off incoming enemy
fighters as they passed through the gauntlet. They were protected by both the
rock and durasteel, like a fighter-sized bunker of sorts, along with the added
bonus that the fighter itself was difficult to detect barring visual sighting.
The ferrous quality of the asteroid field made detecting another hunk of metal
an equally difficult, if not nigh impossible task. Still for all of the
Tanfen normally insisted on cash, preferably upfront, and were adamant on not
selling on credit. Nevertheless, a Union victory was the only acceptable
outcome. Any other alternative, and the Corp would
risk losing all they had built up over the years in the
After centuries of sacrifice, they had found not one, but two. And not even the
hordes of Hell were going to take it away from them. Being rather cash strapped
at the moment, the
One thing neither the Patriarch, nor the Families Lai and Gan would budge on however, was the issue of additional reinforcements to the
front. The Senate, even though it passed a bill ordering all Homeguard units to
the front lines, had little effect on the TSF. It was all the more amusing
since the L&J with simple aplomb denounced the move and invoked Clause 78.
A Homeguard unit had a right to defend its homeworld first, in light of an
obvious threat. Simple as that. No other clause
barring a direct order from the Union Supreme Court could overturn that, and at
the rate things were going, getting a legal case sorted through before
Armageddon occurred was not on the high list of priorities of any government.
The Senate was literally jumping up and down in anger at that. They could take
all the time in the Courts if they wished. Not that Tanfen cared. Family and
corporate lives were already being lost as it is. To throw more into the
struggle was stupidity, and sheer waste. And the Homeworlds were to be
defended, at any cost.
His gaze took in the wall of weaponry that graced one panel of the room. Some
he captured on the field of battle when he was much younger, some were gifts
from those who knew the Family well, others were
curiosities, oddities and rare weaponry brought in from nearly every
civilization and culture known to humanity. An Egyptian khopesh sat in a place
of honor along with an ancient Chinese butterfly sword, in itself sitting above
a notched and well-worn regressive two-handed sword. Other oddities along the
wall were a Porhen Jaeger vibro hatchet, still stained with blood and an
ancient slug thrower, one of the first weapons created from ancient times on
Earth that fired caseless rounds. In faded writing on its polished sides, the
well maintained weapon still read H&K G-11. The patriarch gave a wry smile
and thought of grabbing the two handed sword off the wall, like he had when he
was younger, and then go out and simply cut his problems down to size. But
seeing that at the stage he was at now, a pack of L&J attack lawyers were
more effective than a ravening pack of Loyalists with him at the head. Subtlety
does count, even with the Corp.
A coreward map of the galaxy on the far end of the room depicted the crescent
like wedge of the Union of Border Worlds, and highlighted in green, Tanfen
facilities and outposts. Slowly, as reports from the front from TISD and the
TSF reached Laifen, the map updated itself, showing the battlefront, as well as
lost or destroyed Tanfen facilities glowing in crimson. He did not need to see
the screen.
The numbers were already burned in the back of his eyes, after dozens of
meetings with fellow Family members and Gan and Lai representatives. Harsh
words, harsher arguments and a feeling of grim desperation surrounded them all.
Billions of credits in shipping lost, hundreds of Homeguard mortally wounded,
or worse in the hands of the Children of Darkness, and Porhen Industries even
now gearing up for a concerted knockout punch that could hurt even a mighty
mega corporation. And even now, the Union Senate was insisting that it remain
neutral from Tanfen's Blood War with its mortal enemies, yet, still insisting,
even demanding that Tanfen assign more and more of its TSF to Homeguardsmen
duty.
Leaning back, seemingly out of sheer disrespect of protocol, was a green haired
woman, equally as old with gray streaks in her hair, taking a glass of chilled
water. Though she was clad in full body armor, she was equally at ease in it.
Every time she moved, her armor, Archer and reg claymore jingled. At the door
were two of her brethren, also clad in full body armor, and holding their naked
blades point down on the floor as sentinels. She had little doubt the seemingly
impassive sentinels would burst into action at the drop of a pin. She had
trained them that well.
"Its about ten minutes to show time, milord"
"I know Branford, yet, you drink?"
The woman nodded and grinned. "Aye, water it may be. But steady nerves I
need now milord. To calm the nerves for I worry more for your safety than
yourself."
The man snorted. They had been through more scraps and skirmishes than almost
anyone else alive in the Loyalist Order." Bah-you worry for me more than
my wife. See her? She is calm, and collected"
Branford gave a snigger. "Right. Then why is it
she was prancing up and down yesterday and demanding Sue Yen to clad you from
head to foot in a personal force shield, not to mention Class III body
armor?"
The Patriarch simply shook his head. "I will be fine. She is easily
flustered. I know the risks and.."
The screen behind him changed from the disposition of corporate assets into the
rotating stallion head logo of the corporation, followed by the TISD logo.
Branford stood up and walked up to, and behind his right. Sue Yen Ng Lai
appeared on the screen, her face framed with elegant raven locks of hair. Her
eyes caught the president.
"Milord president, this is an unusual
transmission that I feel requires your direct attention. It comes from the UIS,
and is appended with our standard security protocols and comes on a secure
channel, but is still untraceable. The proper passcodes
were given, and if my assessment is correct, I have President Hale of the Union
of Border Worlds on the comm. Should I let TPRO handle
this?"
She left it unsaid that most likely Hale was insisting that Tanfen commit more
of its TSF to Homeguard duty, and then engage the Nephilim on the front lines
or at least act as roving combat patrols near the front lines. No matter, he
would deal with it properly. He had more important concerns, namely the Blood
War.
"Patch him through please, Miss Sue." Branford stood out of the holo
cameras radius and crossed her arms even as she silently muttered to herself.
'The Ice Queen, and her accursed political machinations, not to mention damned
politicians…”
"Aye, milord"
Sue faded, to be replaced with the UIS logo of a raven, and then the symbol of
the Union of Border Worlds. The Patriarch put on his best smile as President
Hale of the UBW appeared.
"President Hale, what a pleasure to see you. How may I help you?"
"I'm fine. Have you eaten yet?"
The Patriarch nodded. He was an astute man to honor his culture so. Back in the
ancient days of immigrants off to distant lands, to have a meal was a luxury,
so much so, his ancestors, and the Family's ancestors often asked each other
when they met whether they had eaten. It was a custom handed down, and now used
as a customary greeting with old friends.
"I have, Mr. President. If you like, I would like to invite you here to
Laifen, to sample our fine cuisine. A scallopian
fang mignon perhaps?"
President Hale gave a smile and nodded. "In good time,
Patriarch. In light of recent events, I'd like to discuss your
commitment as a member of the Union of Border Worlds, and in regards to that,
your commitment towards the defense of the Union"
"As I have stated before Mr. President, in this hour of crisis, Tanfen
Corporation must defend that most important of its assets, the Homeworlds. I
have already spared all I can, including providing logistics support, and
additional materiel at a generous concession to your frontline forces. In fact,
the convoy is away now, escorted by the TCS Hades."
Hale gave a nod. "It is so, and I thank you for your generosity, but
please do reconsider, for the sake of everyone in the
"Your compliment is appreciated, but the TSF have their duty to protect
the Homeworlds Mr. President. I feel we have made that point clear in the
Senate"
Hale leaned closer to the screen. "I understand also that the Families
have been suffering a spate of financial, and legal
altercations, not to mention several incidents with Porhen Industries of late.
And that your assets are being redeployed to deal with these problems" He
left it unsaid that the Blood War was already nearly at its bloodiest pitch.
The recent full-scale battle on Gemini Prime certainly provided enough
propaganda and hate for both sides. Not to mention the financial and legal war
happening even now. Weaker subsidiaries were being snapped up now, by of all
things, non Feud involved corporations seeking to cash in on the conflict.
"Yes, that is true. We have been having…disagreements with our associates
in Porhen", the Patriarch put it mildly.
"If I said that in a quid pro quo arrangement that I can relieve your
burden somewhat would you reconsider TSF redeployment? Unofficially speaking,
as I understand, about several UIS agents would be having a junket on Laifen.
Perhaps, if you would speak with them, they could assist you in your
difficulties?"
The Patriarch could read between the lines. He was assigning the UIS to assist
Tanfen, in exchange for brute military assistance. During the Secession Wars,
and the recent Black Lance Incident, UIS was infamous for, and specialized in
industrial sabotage and subversion to impede the Confees, as well as fatal
accidents. TISD Intel, combined with UIS skill made
for a powerful combination. Certainly, brute force was not quite possible at
the moment in the Blood War. The situation now called for subtlety. Even though
both sides employed combat troops, skirmishing was occurring mostly at places
out of the public eye. Most of the war still occurred in the Trading Pits and
in the halls of finance, power and legal justice. Having assets there would be
more useful. For now.
"Interesting. By sheer coincidence, I recall the
44th Blades were to be reassigned for transfer to Nifelhiem soon"
Hale stopped breathing for several seconds. The 44th Blades, 'Damned for all
Eternity' were an anti-Porhen unit, specially trained to counter Porhen
offensives and consisting almost entirely of members who despised Porhen to the
core. The UIS had earmarked them before. Their fighting style was merciless,
relentless and brutal. They did not fear death. They welcomed it. That the Corp
was willing to relocate one of their most veteran units to the
"I see, Lord Patriarch. I appreciate your frank exchange of ideas. I will
forward a list to Sue soon." He left it unsaid that the list was the set
of code phrases to activate UIS deep cover agents in Porhen and near Porhen
affiliated facilities and also to get them to do interesting things.
"Always a pleasure to speak to you President Hale.
The 44th should arrive within 72 hours at
"You too, good day" The screen faded, to show the Tanfen logo once
more.
Branford shook her head. "Milord? Have you lost
your mind?"
The patriarch chuckled. "No Branford, far from it. It was a relatively
fair exchange. Brute force for subtlety"
Branford gritted her teeth. "Milord, Bellamy had the 44th earmarked
to move out to defend our forward base at Maywan.
Without those reinforcements, we can't extend our reach on the Archipelago.
We've almost reached their main HQ planetside. Just a
bit more, and we'll crush them and wipe them from the
face of the planet!"
"I know. We can shift several elements from the 160th and the Cougars to
hold onto the line, but our primary concern now is to staunch the flow of
collateral damage from the accursed Porhenners. We
have achieved most of our military goals, but TISD has taken grievous losses of
late. We cannot keep allocating TSF units to protect our convoys and holdings
and continue being on the defensive. UIS offers that chance for us to shift the
balance of the war. They can make up for that loss of the 44th, and drive
Porhen from the Union, at least, their more overt holdings and cause a loss of
their momentum, enough to perhaps also impede their advance."
A bell chimed. "We can argue over this later, Branford. It's
show time"
"Aye, I'll inform the pilot"
==================================================
CARRIER
BATTLE GROUP AURIGA, CVBG-A
TCS Shrak'har; Flight Deck
The Loki System, Vega Sector, Downing Quadrant
1715 Hours (CST)
==================================================
Ensign Jediah Wright, "Jed" to those that knew him, maintained a
quiet post beside the primary hangar of Catharx's Fralthi II-class cruiser, the
Shrak'har. The now-busy beehive of shuttlecraft activity and techs still
cleaning up the aftermath from CVBG-A's "Omega Strike" didn't even
seem to affect him, let alone bother him away from his reverie.
"Heya, Jed," came a voice that should have
been familiar to Jed, for it belonged to Lieutenant JG Amy St. Germain. A love interest of his, of a sort.
"Hello, Amy," Jed replied after a considerable pause. "You all right?"
Amy forced a smile for her friend. "Yeah, hangin' in
there. You, on the other hand... man, you look like shit. Getting any
sleep?"
"Not really."
Amy wasn't in her uniform at the moment, Jed noticed as the woman came up to
kneel beside him and rest an arm of comfort on his shoulder. Jeans,
sneakers, and a baseball cap that would be more likely seen on some greasy tech
than the former senior comm officer of the late, great
"Well, here we are, Jed," Amy said after a heavy sigh. "After
all the shit that went down... the two of us are still here, huh?"
Jed turned weakly to exchange a glance with her, and then returned to his
lonesome stargazing out the viewports. "Yeah... we are, I suppose."
Amy gave his shoulder a clap, and then rose to leave. "Look, I'll see you
around... catch up with each other - hasn't been a lot of time for that
recently, y'know."
"I know."
As Amy left the Kilrathi cruiser's flight deck, Jed shook his head scornfully.
Not at her, of course, but at the sheer magnitude of just how dismal the
situation was that he and his few surviving peers now found themselves trapped
in.
Looking about at Jed's Cat hosts as they scurried about with their business, he
couldn't help but feel that maybe his late friend Matt Turner had gotten the
better half of the deal with his own fate. "Yeah, Amy..." Jed spoke
to no one but perhaps his own inner demons, "... we're still here, aren't
we?" He brought his hands to bury his face in them. "And I suppose...
I suppose we should feel pretty fucking lucky about that, shouldn't
we...?"
Unspoken scorn from the Kilrathi around, wounded fellow humans from the Forge
that the Cats' med bay couldn't hold tended to, dead looks from flyboys that
had seen enough fighting in the past few weeks to sate even the most
bloodthirsty, cocksure pilots of the Space Force's ranks.
Jed Wright may have survived one Hell... but it was only to fall into the
embrace of his very own.
They'd traveled the downward spiral only to go further down... were they now
reaching the end?
=============================================
TCS Shrak'har, Bridge
Loki
System, Vega Sector, Downing Quadrant
=============================================
Visible
in the main viewscreen of the Shrak'har, fires and explosions still
wracked the shattered hulks of the Nephilim vessels and
Dodging
between them were also several SAR-23 Condor shuttles picking up escape pods.
Many pods were packed with injured and exhausted survivors but plenty of others
contained only corpses, those pods unable to get far enough clear of the
"How
many have we rescued?" Kalahn Catharx nar Vukar Tag dai Nokhtak, the TCS Shrak'har's commanding
officer, asked without shifting his gaze from the macabre but compelling
panorama displayed on the viewscreen.
"Around
a thousand, my liege," Shintahr Jak’ra nar Sho’lar, his XO,
informed him. Catharx did not reply, standing a silent vigil for the dead.
One
thousand, he
mused, one thousand out of over three. It beggars belief that a man could
kill so many of his fellows at one stroke. Two thousand enemies,
yes, but friends and comrades? What was Schaefer's motive? What sort of
a man could do that, and why?
"How
long has the Search and Rescue effort been going?" Catharx demanded.
"More
than three hours, Kalahn."
"And the last survivors? When were they picked up?"
"Approximately an hour ago, my liege."
"Call
off the search," Catharx ordered. "Recall the shuttles and plot a new
course: We will rendezvous with the rest of the fleet."
"Aye, my liege."
With
that Catharx turned and stalked from the bridge.
============================================
TCS
Shrak'har, Kalahn's Private Quarters
============================================
TO: ehanton@ubwn.valeria.crew
CC: intell-reps@confedHQ.com
FROM: catharx@tcn.shrak'har.crew
SUBJ: BATTLE
GROUP AURIGA STATUS REPORT (INTERIM)
Battle Group
Auriga achieved her mission in the vicinity of Loki IV-6 on 2681.045 c. 1415
hours.
The primary
mission target, 1 (one) Nephilim Tiamat class Dreadnought was destroyed.
Secondary
targets 1 (one) Hydra class cruiser, 2 (two) Orca class destroyers and 3
(three) Barracuda class corvettes were also destroyed.
Approximately
100-150 enemy fighters were also destroyed.
Battle Group
Auriga losses are as follows:
40 A/C,
breakdown as follows:
3 x F-106
16 x F/A-105
6 x F-108
8 x F-110
2 x TB-81B
2 x B-7
4 x Bloodfang
Mk2
Air wing
casualties are 27 KIA, 13 MIA (see attached file for listing).
Current
casualty figures are estimates, but approximately 2000 TCN personnel are
KIA/MIA. In addition, 17 TCMC were KIA.
Among the TCN
casualties are captain Eldon Vandermann (MIA, presumed
dead), Lt. Commander Ishii (MIA, presumed dead) and Commander Nathan Schaefer
(KIA). Ranking Chain of Command officer is Lt. Susan Anderson.
REPORT ENDS
=================================
TCS
Shrak'har, Kalahn's Private Quarters
=================================
TO: catharx@tcn.shrak'har.crew
(re-routed)
Message from comserver@tcn.valleyforge.crew.backup.downing.com
Unable to
deliver message to the following address(es).
<confedfltintel@tcn.valleyforge.crew>:
Message to <confedfltintel@tcn.valleyforge.crew>
cannot be delivered. This account has been disabled or discontinued. Message re-routed
through manual modus operandi.
--- Original
message follows.
Return-Path:
<confedfltintel@tcn.3rdHQ.mil>
The original
message is over 5k. Message truncated to
... suppressed.
X-Track:
Received: from
mx04.vega.com (151.189.8.80)
by mta447.mail.tcn.valleyforge.crew.backup.downing.com
with SMTP; 2681.045
Received: from
intel-rep (pp.130.245.tcn.3rdhq.torgo [151.189.130.245])
by
mx04. vega.com (Postfix) with SMTP
id
457712F4AA; 2681.045
Message-ID:
<001301c108c9$77d3c320$f582bd97@intel>
Reply-To:
_blank <confedfltintel@tcn.3rdHQ.mil>
From: _blank
<confedfltintel@tcn.3rdHQ.mil>
To: <confedfltintel@tcn.valleyforge.crew>
References:
<F181IjoEXtyocbCJD9w000032ca@vega.com>
Subject:
Request for Intel Report up-date
Date: 2681.045
MIME-Version:
1.0
Content-Type:
text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding:
7bit
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority:
High
X-Mailer: Navy
Navigator 5.00.2615.200
X-MimeOLE:
Produced By Intershop MimeOLE V5.00.2615.200
CC: intell-reps@confedHQ.com
FROM: confedfltintel@tcn.3rdHQ.mil
SUBJ: Request
for Intel Report up-date
ATTN.: Lt. Col. Ethan Coliver
Herewith you
are requested to submit a detailed (as detailed as possible) intelligence
report about the latest happenings onboard the TCS
Independently
to your report there will be an investigator assigned to the case. JAG Major
Helmut Hoth will be arriving within the next 24 hours to lead the official
hearing and to assist in the investigations.
We expect your
full report ASAP.
Sincerely,
Forbes
"Thank
you, Kalahn, sir!" said Lieutenant Commander Coliver who had been allowed
to access the Shrak'har's captains private quarters to personally receive
this high priority message.
That
was quick!,
he thought referring to the very unusual short time this intelligence report
came after
"Sir,"
he addressed captain. "May I ask whether and if when you sent a report to
Confed HQ and/or to Fleet Operations at Torgo?" [Fleet Operations at the 3rd
Fleet HQ based in Torgo was the one in charge for the HTL campaign on the
Confed side of it.]
"That
was about an hour ago, Lieutenant Commander. A bit less even. Why do you ask?
Is there something wrong?" Captain Catharx nar Vukar Tag asked and
his furry cheeks rose so that his eyes narrowed and could only be seen as
yellow slits. A typical sign for attentiveness with a
Kilrathi.
"No, nothing wrong with that. Just being curious.
My job, you know?!" Coliver was quick to put it down. Not too quick
hopefully to be suspicious for the superior senses of a Kilrathi, he hoped
right after. He was relieved when Carthax turned around with a content groan
and dismissed him.
A very contemplative Lieutenant Commander Coliver left the captain's
private quarters. Less than an hour. "This report is primarily be directed into the events/reasons for the sudden change of
command from Captain Vandermann to Commander Schaefer." Why, he asked
himself. Sure, that was a legitimate question. Yet … Coliver felt that
feeling in his stomach. That old and well-known feeling that told him something
was going on here. Seems like we're being watched.
He froze.
We
are being watched.