Titan Battle, page 33
His words were met with silence at first. The forty faces stared back at him. Then, some nodded. Others said "yes, sir". It was obvious to everyone that this was a quickly assembled group of commanders, and that errors were bound to happen.
Thorim barked. "I want everyone to assemble as many marines as possible onto as many atmospheric assault landers as possible, and then send these assault boats to all 5 disabled Thornguards in a surround just outside each Thornguard's main weapon range. At my signal, I want every assault boat to dive towards each respective enemy Thornguard and latch onto each Thornguard's hull so the boarding can commence.
"The enemy will know the moment they see our assault boats come out of orbit that we're trying to marine board their disabled Thornguards, so that's why we won't have to simultaneously begin the assault on each Thornguard together. Still, since the Thornguards are about 10 minutes travel from each other in space, I expect all marine assaults will begin within 20 minutes of each other.
"Since the disabled Thornguards are much closer to Earth than Mars, I want all Earth regiments to capture Thornguards 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Still, I want all martian units to head towards Thornguard 1 and 2 even though it will take much longer than my Earth units. I expect we will suffer significant — although not crippling — casualties, because the Thornguards will be able to freely use their main weapons, their tachyon pulse cannons, to shoot at our marine assault boats during our assault. Ideally, I would have liked to disable their TPCs with my pulsars, but that is not an option, as that will give the enemy too much time to self-destruct and wipe out their computer cores. Any questions?"
The faces in front of Thorim were taking it all in. Some nodded while others cringed, probably because of the amount of time they had to accomplish the mission.
Thorim continued. "No questions? Good. I am transferring the internal internal schematics of each Thornguard to each of you as seen by the sensor suits on board each pulsar. Using the information I'm about to give you, I want everyone to prioritize taking over each Thornguard's power core and command center, and to plan the best way to get to these two crucial areas as fast as possible.
"I must remind all that this is an once in a million chance. This is the first time we can actually capture real, fully intact enemy warships — especially enemy capital ships — that's not already a debris field — because usually the enemy's capital ships are well defended by escorts and other capital ships that would normally make marine assaults impossible. This time, all of the enemy's intact capital ships are both immobilized and isolated… they are spread over a distance of a 10 million kilometers, making existent the perfect conditions for a marine assault — so let's use this once in a million opportunity and not waste it! We're lucky that they're all isolated and can't share a combined defense."
His subcommanders nodded enthusiastically.
"Now… any questions?" asked Thorim.
"Yes, sir," said one woman. "What do we equip our marines with? What type of conditions do we expect on board their Thornguards?"
Thorim nodded. "The same we can expect on their orbital structures. We will need armored suits, because the enemy may very well deplete the oxygen inside their ships. We will need antigravity boots, because the enemy may alter the internal gravity to halt our advance. You will need stun grenades, because we will need to interrogate prisoners later for intel."
Several other questions popped up and Thorim answered them quickly. Soon, it was time.
Thorim spat, "Everyone get it? Do it now! Go! Go! Go! The sands of time are more important than the diamonds at this point!"
One by one, his marine subcommanders salute and close their link to the channel.
Godspeed, thought Thorim.
Chapter 57
15 minutes later…
Marine storage bay, Marine Assault Boat 1, en route towards Thornguard 5
Erin "Mark" Fields' stomach grumbled as she felt her assault lander's gravity field switch from planetary gravity to artificial gravity. Her stomach protested again when her nostrils detected the odor of someone's puke.
Get yourself together! she wanted to yell, but she knew she was experiencing the same thing. No matter how many times she entered combat, she got pre-battle jitters that made her nervous… except, she never threw up — not once.
Get yourself together and rise, Mark. You're their leader. Show them what you got! She stood up in the dark cavernous storage bay full of other marines. "Ok, I want everyone on board," she said. "When we latch onto that enemy warship, we will move as fast as possible through its corridors," thank gods that they actually have hallways and corridors, after all, how else would their own crews maneuver inside their ships? — "until we reach section omega. Omega is the warship's power core. We must get there and defend it at all costs."
"Yes, Major!" her marine team yelled in unison.
"It should not be hard," she continued, "as the enemy must be too surprised initially to offer resistance." As for what type of resistance, we have no idea. "Still, we should be ready to expect anything."
"Yes, Major!"
Her next thoughts flashed through her head at lightning speed. What she kept to herself was this: In short, I have no idea what to expect. The only times we actually faced heavy resistance was during attacks on a fortified ground position on a planet — and enemy orbital structures. Humans have never actually successfully gotten close to an enemy warships with marine landers so that the enemy warship could be boarded. Nobody knows what types of weapons the crews of enemy starships have in their arsenal. Or if they even have weapons. Nor do we know if they even have armor, for that matter. In short, we're completely clueless. If the enemy was really prepared, they could have automated gun sentries or internal force fields that can cut a human marine into ribbons. Given that we don't know what to expect, we can expect anything.
"What I want everyone to know is this," said Mark, this time as loud as possible. "What ever we face, what ever comes at us inside that enemy warship, know this: We ARE the United Federation's marines and we will give it all we got! Remember your oaths. We will hold steadfast to our values: honor, courage, and commitment — and we will use these values when the going gets tough. Because when the goings get tough, marines get tougher. We will fight to accomplish our mission, at any costs, for the sake of our little blue planet, our motherworld. We will show these Argonans that entering the human home system will NOT be richly rewarded."
"Hurra!" yelled 100 other voices in unison. "Hurra!"
The sound of cheers bounced inside that little dark chamber so loudly that it hurt her ear drums, but Mark grinned anyway, knowing that everyone was on board.
Then, she sat down, and began the task of memorizing the maze of corridors and chambers inside the Thornguard. She wanted to be the sharpest thing out there, because she wanted to succeed in her mission at all costs.
That Thornguard was hers.
Flag Bridge, Federation Battleship Carginan, outside Thornguard-5's main weapon range
Twenty minutes later…
We're finally ready, thought Thorim as he eyed his new marine transports hovering on the pixelmap in a circle around enemy Thornguard-5.
Thorim stared at Thornguard-5 — there were four other Thornguards that were equally immobilized, but this one was the first to be marine boarded because it was closest to Earth. As his eyes scanned it, he noticed its operational TPCs. For the past twenty minutes, Thorim had ordered his pulsars to keep firing at Thornguard 5's tpcs, but the damn things were indestructible.
Even now, his three pulsars were still firing at its main weapon, but no matter what, the tpc didn't go down. He would have to marine assault Thornguard-5 with the Thornguard's tpc operational.
Worse,Thornguard Five's point defense lasers were also fully operational, but… Thorim wasn't too worried about that. The armor of his marine assault boats were made to withstand enemy point defense punishment meant only for taking out missiles and fighters.
Thorim gazed at the pixelmap. Once he saw that all of the marine assault boats meant for Thornguard-5 had finished positioning in a circle around it, he knew it was time to order the attack. Even though it would take another 4 minutes for the other marine assault boats to position themselves around Thornguard-4 — which was .6 light minutes away — Thorim knew that the earlier he began the attack on T-Five, the better. By now, all Thornguards should have been alerted to the possibility of a marine strike, and Thorim was a little suspicious why none of the Thornguards had self-destructed, yet.
It's time, thought Thorim. "Marine assault boats two to twelve, begin the attack on Thornguard-5."
"Yes, sir," said the subcommanders in control of each respective marine assault boat.
He looked at all the marine assault boats on the pixelmap that surrounded T-5 — each one appeared as blocky pieces of metal from his view — and they all began moving. While small on his pixelmap, he knew each marine boat was 80 meters long and armored to the max to withstand the point defense punishment the enemy Thornguard would surely fire at them during their path towards latching.
Each assault boat was loaded with some 100 marines.
Thorim was also very aware that soon the marine assault on Thornguard one to four would also take place within the next twenty minutes. It simply took the other marine assault boats longer to get there, as Thornguards one to four were further away from Earth.
As he stared at the battlemap as a whole, Thorim's nerves nevertheless got to him. He felt a little impatient, because he wanted to capture as many Thornguards as possible — and he knew that any additional time that passed made that possibility less likely as it gave the enemy more time to defend or self-destruct their ships —
Calm down, Jason. What isn't already at their destination is soon making its way over. You can't change the laws of physics, so don't sweat it.
For now, he resigned to the task of watching his marines and their commanders attempt to board the first of five Thornguards. The commandeering of Thornguard-5 was under way.
xxx
All eleven marine assault boats dove towards the lone Thornguard in the center. As of result, the distances between the human marine boats and the Thornguard shrunk rapidly.
130,000 kilometers.
120,000 kilometers.
110,000 kilometers.
At 100,000 kilometers, the Thornguard used its directional thrusters to angle its main weapons — its dual TPCs — so that at least some of human assault boats were within its firing envelope.
And then… it fired both cannons.
Two massive beams slashed out into the void. Both hit, disabling marine assault boats four and eight. While 'four' was only partially hit, causing it to lose only propulsion control, 'eight' was hit in its entirety. Marine Assault Boat 8 lost 40% of its forward hull, and then exploded into two lifeless pieces. All 100 marines died in the explosion.
By the time the Thornguard recharged its dual TPCs, the other nine marine boats had already closed the distance to 30,000 kilometers.
Marine storage bay, Marine Assault Boat 1, assaulting Thornguard 5
Mark grit her teeth upon seeing MAB-8 blow up. What had once been a 80 meter long solid armored structure full of marines had been utterly devoured by a tachyon beam meant to destroy entire capital ships.
There was no contest.
Through Mark's helmet-infofeed that tied her into the main computer, she could see what was happening outside her assault lander.
The Thornguard used its maneuvering thrusters to change direction, again. It aimed its pulse cannons, again. This time, there was no chance of a miss. This time, the distance between it and the human MABs was only 20,000 kilometers.
The Thornguard fired its tpcs.
Two huge beams of armor-devouring tachyons sped out at the remaining MABs. At her.
Immediately, she saw the pilot of her boat suddenly twist her transport's trajectory. It wasn't perfect, because her MAB wasn't agile like fighter, but it was as close to a fighter's jinking as it could be.
But at this distance, she didn't think it'd make a difference.
Luckily, she was wrong. The beam hadn't been aimed at her.
The beam struck MAB-2 dead in the center. That's Sullivan's command! thought Mark, gasping.
MAB-2 was wiped off the map. 60% of it bubbled away, demolecularized — the remaining scattered as debris, dead marines and all.
"Nearing latching distance!" her pilot yelled. "Get ready!"
"Get ready, everyone!" yelled Mark through the company net, as she watched her distance with the immobilized Thornguard close to 5000 kilometers.
4000 kilometers.
3000.
2000.
1000.
CLUNK.
In her helmet display, she saw her transport suddenly attach itself to the outer structure of the Thornguard. It was a perfect latch — right above what the marine computer designated as corridor F9 inside the Thornguard.
"Beginning drilling!" yelled the pilot.
She suddenly saw three large monomolecular drills lowering from her MAB. They descended until they touched the surface of the Thornguard's armor. Then, they activated.
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
"Two minutes!" yelled the pilot.
Mark exhaled. She had made it. It had begun.
Flag Bridge, Federation Battleship Carginan
That's the fifth assault boat to go down, though Thorim. At least the rest were able to latch.
He counted them. Five got blown up by the Thornguard's tpcs, but six managed to clamp onto the Thornguard's surface. He thought he had lost a significant amount of marines, but then resigned to optimism. What did he expect? At least the remaining marine assault boats from the first wave had made it.
And… even better, more were coming, like a swarm. Some of the new MABs that were coming out of Earth's orbit were heading for the other Thornguards, but some were still heading to Thornguard-5. Thorim made sure of that.
Reinforcements are coming. More are going to die, of course, but what are the deaths of a hundred marines compared to gaining control of an alien Thornguard?
Chapter 58
Marine storage bay, Marine Assault Boat 1, drilling into Thornguard-5
"Drilling done!" yelled the pilot of her MAB. "Opening made! You are a go! Marine Company 1, go go go!"
Mark saw the opening inside her MAB that led to the inside of the Thornguard. It was a long smooth corridor with walls made of carbon nanofiber armor, drilled brilliantly to perfection. "Alright, marines," she yelled, "activate your powered armor. Activate your antigravity boots. First wave goes in first. Angel, you're a go! Second wave will be right behind you!"
"Yes, ma'am!" yelled Sargent Hernandez. "First wave, let's go in!"
Mark watched platoon A as the first of her many marines entered the Thornguard. Her helmet allowed her to tie into the infofeed from the sensors of every member in platoon A.
She saw…
The first of many marines pour into the alien corridor…
There were no aliens there.
Hmm… any alien crewmembers must have been scared away.
Her first group of marines did it by the book. They took up defensive positions inside corridor F9 so that the next group of marines could enter.
My turn, thought Mark. "Alright! Second wave, go! Go! Go! Platoon B, let's go!" She turned to Sargeant Villiers, who stood beside her inside the MAB. "Lead the way, sarge."
"Yes, ma'am!" said Villiers. "Platoon B, follow me! I want two lines so that two men jumps into the hole each time. We get to lead the major, so don't fuck up! Grim and Bullions, you two first!"
Mark watched as two privates jumped into the hole. Once they went in, two more men jumped in, and then another two. Each man went through the length of the hole, and soon Mark could see their icons moving through the alien warship's corridor F9.
Soon, it was her turn. She walked to the hole in the ground of her MAB, and then leapt into it.
She was a little disoriented at first, as her suit's artificial gravity pullers planted her feet onto the walls of the hole. But once her dizziness was over, it was a simple matter of walking the distance through the hole made through drilling the Thornguard's armor — and into corridor F9.
When she reached the end of the hole, she leapt into corridor F9 and was amazed.
My gods, it was a huge tunnel. The alien corridor's width was massive. It could have easily fit 20 marines side by side — no small feat on a warship, even if it was an alien one.
