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Vandread: The Unknown Soldier
Chapter Twenty-Six: Breakthrough
Location: Nebula, Edge of Solaris System.
Staring into the colorful expanse through the main armored view port on the bridge of the Dauntless, Admiral Alex Graff thought only of the coming battle that would test all of the men and women under his command. It had been several months since they were forced from their homeworld. It was only a matter of time before they would engage in the battle that would allow them to liberate their home planet or die trying. He continued to remain deep in thought for a few seconds until he was notified by the primary sensor tech.
“Admiral, we are coming up on the edge of the nebula,” the female sensor tech reported.
“Alright,” he replied. “Notify the rest of the fleet,” he commanded the communications officer.
“Aye aye, sir,” the comm officer replied.
He sat back in his chair continued to stare into the nebula, ready for the coming conflict.
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“Captain, we just received word from the Dauntless, we are coming up on the edge of the nebula,” Ezra reported.
“Thank you, Ezra,” Magno replied. “BC!”
“We are about to exit the nebula, all hands prepare for battle!” BC announced over the intercom. “All Dread pilots, prepare to launch when given the order.”
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Suddenly, almost as one, most of the Solaris Defense vessels broke through the nebula. The sudden appearance of numerous vessels must have surely attracted someone’s attention, and it did. Several of the defending warships suddenly powered up their weapons in preparation of the brutal fight they knew was coming.
Captain Gunter Argust was eager for the fight. He was ready to annihilate these heretics to the last man. “General quarters!” he bellowed.
“General quarters! General quarters! Everyone to their battle stations!” the announcement rang throughout the ship as everyone stopped what they were doing and immediately headed for their stations.
“So it has begun…” Argust said silently to himself.
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“Admiral, we report multiple contacts closing, the enemy’s main line is approaching us.” the sensor tech reported.
“Bring weapons online and prepare to engage,” he commanded the chief weapons officer. His second in command, Marcus Randall, was currently down in the tactical operations room, keeping track of the battle down there. He was there also in the event the bridge of this vessel was destroyed, so the ship could still actively fight on.
“Prepare to fire the forward laser batteries, target that enemy Essex, and FIRE!” he commanded.
Several beams of white hot light lanced out to core into the nose of the lighter vessel, blunting its drive forward and nearly crippling it. Melted armor quickly froze for lack of atmosphere, although the areas where the lasers struck still glowed. It tried to respond, but most of its attack missed because of the damage dealt to it. The Dauntless poured another volley of laser fire into it, and the ship’s spine appeared to snap as it capsized and exploded.
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Hibiki launched immediately as the order was given. He pushed his Vanguard straight into the thick of battle. Not far behind were the Dreads under the command of Jura. There mission was more specific, the destruction of the Indomitable, the warship responsible for all the misery they’ve received. Now they only had to find its location among the enemy fleet. He immediately dodged to the left as a pair of missiles streaked past him. He charged directly toward his tormentor, only to have the fighter break away from him at a speed he couldn’t match.
“Dammit,” he cursed, knowing he couldn’t catch his target. This is going to be harder than I thought.
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Several hours earlier, the sun was beginning to rise over the mountain range, casting an orange glow over the area. The spec ops team had set up camp about five hundred-fifty meters from the facility. Aidan scanned their target through a pair of electronic binoculars. It was a moderately sized facility that was embedded in the rock, making it almost impossible to enter. The only visible entrance to him was a large armored door approximately eight meters in height. As was typical, there was a guard post on the outside of the door. He saw at least two guards in full body armor suits at the post. He lowered the binoculars and climbed down from the ledge where he was back down in the small area where they set up camp.
“What did you see?” Lieutenant Heinrich Steiner asked.
“The only entrance into the facility is a large, eight-meter tall armored door. There appears to be no other entrance,” he replied.
“So, do you think that they’ll just let us walk through the front door?” Deveroux, his communications specialist, asked sarcastically.
Aidan ignored the comment. “The only other possible way in is to pretty much climb several hundred meters of rock with a large possibility of being spotted. Plus, we’d have to haul all of our gear up there as well.”
“So, how are we getting in?” Hawkins asked. He never got an answer to that as Corporal Akida approached Aidan.
“Sir,” he said. “We’ve detected movement, and it’s heading in this direction.”
“What kind of movement?” Aidan asked, a little concerned that the mission could be blown before it could even begin.
“It appears to be a large group of men, at least twenty of them,” Akida replied.
“Damn,” he cursed under his breath and lowered his faceplate. “Good work,” he said to Akida. “Alright, let’s move out, I want to find a suitable location to set up an ambush. If they are looking for us, I don’t want any of them reporting our position.”
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The commander of the twenty-one soldiers searched the area for any possible threat. There was a possibility that a few commando or recon teams were dropped into the area to either take control of the facility, destroy it, or simply just spy on it. He was originally on the Avenger, but was transferred over to the facility along with several of his men. They were the ones that captured the two prisoners and acquired that strange fighter.
“I want all teams in a five meter spread with overlapping fields of fire,” he barked to his men.
They came across an area that appeared to have been occupied by someone not fifteen minutes ago. He signaled a couple of his men to check it out. Suddenly, there was a loud crack as a laser blasted one of the two soldiers in the chest. “Ambush!”
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Meia instinctively opened fire with her pulse laser rifle as Aidan shouted the order to open fire. She selected a target and sprayed him with several laser bolts. He dropped unceremoniously to the ground. The rest of Spectre as well as the Ghost teams laid down a murderous hellstorm of fire against the armed men. I less than three minutes it was over, with out a single casualty on their side. She slowly got up as Aidan walked over to where the last soldier fell.
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The commander of the facility’s recon detachment coughed up blood. He knew he was going to die, but he at least wanted to take one of these bastards with him. He had taken several hits, but he still had his laser pistol in hand. He attempted to raise the pistol as one of the battle armor soldiers approached him. The soldier used his armored foot and stepped on his arm, pinning it to the ground, forcing him to let go of the pistol.
The soldier lifted up his faceplate and spoke to him. “Recognize me?”
“You…” he gasped, his breath ragged. “You’re Mercer. How‘d you…”
“So, you do,” he replied. Mercer was holding a large, heavy pistol in his right hand. He aimed the pistol at the commander’s head and squeezed the trigger.
Aidan stood over the bloody corpse of the man he just executed. He was the enemy, and mission parameters expressly forbade the taking of prisoners on this mission. He turned and walked away from the corpse.
“Let’s move to a different location, I don’t want to be anywhere near this area when they find out we killed their men,” he said as he walked past Meia.
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“We found it!” Hibiki shouted over the commline as he spotted the Indomitable. It was near the center of the line, but was being held in reserve for some reason.
“Alright, stick with the plan, we are to attack and destroy the Indomitable before it can activate the P.N. Device,” Jura said through their tactical frequency.
“Apparently, they aren’t going to let us through,” Barnette said over the commline, in response of a heavy attack by a wave of fighters. Hibiki knew one thing, this was going to be one hell of a fight…
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Frustrated, Captain Argust cursed under his breath. His ship was one of the strongest in the entire fleet, yet it was being held in reserve. He was badly craving for a fight, and he wanted to be at the front of it, to crush enemy ships with the Indomitable’s lasers and missiles. And yet, they were holding him back. Then something suddenly caught his eye. It was the unmistakable silhouette of the Mejalean warship. Apparently he was going to get a fight…
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The battle has started. Feedback appreciated.