Were you there when
Kardiac delivered the
Convert or Die speech?
When he delivered the
final ultimatum to the
Polian people?
Any that doubted him who
were there, realized he
was magnificent.
Flood Plains - Savatti Prime - Savatti System - Former Polian Alliance
~~*~~
The night had come swiftly, and the alien world became a warren of shadows. The former Imperial warlord, sat in the cockpit of the Zero, watching the debris from the Dakin cruiser disintegrating as it entered the atmosphere. Following it, one of the triumphant Amsus Raptors was conducting a planetary survey to discover what was interesting enough to draw an Imperial warship and three Dakin cruisers.
"Is it over?" Captain Jetsenbek asked standing in the cockpit hatch behind the young Colonel, staring up at the burning shooting stars lighting the night sky.
"For one, at least," VonGrippen stated in reply, looking at the Kardiac Lance-Captain who slid into the seat beside him. "The Bandit should be jumping out of the system in an hour, she has one of the Dakin cruisers still chasing her… The last one has the Amsus Battlecruiser on the ropes, the rest of the Raptor flight are moving in to cover their mothership. It should be over in another hour or so."
"I never thought space battles would last so long," Jetsenbek said, sounding awed by the twenty hour slug-fest that had stretched from one end of the system to the other.
"Most can last days," VonGrippen replied simply. "It all depends on the weapons used, and the tactics of the Captain." He shifted a little, drawing his mech-pilots coat tighter about him, glad for its warm fleece lining in the face of the chilly evening air. "It is mostly swift clashes, followed by cat-and-mouse games. Rarely do ships just sit put and shell each other into submission, that kind of fight is best left up to Battleships and Dreadnaughts. Raptors are skirmish fighters, and Amsus Battlecruisers are usually dependant on support ships for cover while they fight. Our friend up there," he nodded. "Doesn't seem to have any Predators, which leads me to believe the Amsus are running short on fighters."
"Because of the Dakin spiral-wave cannons?" Jetsenbek suggested.
VonGrippen inclined his head. "It will be interesting to see what Amsus High Command does as a response to the Dakin threat, whether they pull assets from the fortification of Earth, or if they develop something new…"
"The Amsus don't develop," Jetsenbek replied shaking his head.
"They do now," VonGrippen replied, knowing that Strega and her GN-2s wouldn't allow the Dakin to gain too much ground in the newly acquired Polian Alliance. It was a matter of pride.
"Are we in trouble?" Jetsenbek asked, checking out the cockpit window, looking to where the other pilots of his team were sitting around a small camp fire talking and eating Nick's cooked food with the Karin marine Vichet, and the enigmatic logistician, Ben.
"Here?" VonGrippen inquired, shaking his head. "Not yet, Captain, so long as you and your ITEs can perform well. But if you mean the war in general? Every one's in trouble out there. This war is beginning to spiral out of control, dragging more and more races into its madness."
Vichet nodded, "then it has to stop, right?"
VonGrippen shrugged his shoulders, his eyes staring out of the cockpit window up at the debris. "Fires usually have a way of burning out… eventually."
BC-1459 - The Dakin Front - Borland System - Former Polian Alliance
~~*~~
Iago sat pensively on the bridge, brooding over the holographic map of the Dakin insurgency. He was charged with dealing with it, Strega dispatching him out to the middle of nowhere to personally oversee the ruthless eradication of the Dakin problem.
They were a minor irritation to her, but to Iago, they were a full fledged thorn in his side, worming its way through his happiness and threatening his 'privileged' position in Strega's inner circle.
He would have to take steps to deal with it, quickly, before she noticed and took steps to eradicate his failure.
There was no doubt in his mind, Strega was the most dangerous thing in his universe, beside that, even the Dakin seemed minute. He knew, eventually, he and the other GN-2s that worked for her would have to take matters into their own hands and remove her from power. Before she gained enough experience, and influence to realize that the biggest threat to her came from her brothers and sisters.
That, however, was a matter for the future. Right then, his biggest enigma lay in the Savatti system.
He checked the Intel records again, his fingers brushing over the computer display he'd set up on a small mount beside his chair. Reviewing the data that was fed to the Amsus communications net from an emergency buoy. It was a precisely configured coded distress call, set to transmit on a frequency only the Amsus claimed to know. Who had sent it, and why?
To further complicate matters, the only vessels he had close to the remote system was a lone Battlecruiser returning to the supply base at Ord-Kinya after the successful siege of a Dakin asteroid outpost close to one of his supply line. Low on missiles and its predators devoted to the protection of supply ships, the cruiser had jumped to Savatti with a light Raptor wing, emerging into a Dakin ambush.
That, alone, should have been cause for concern. Just the addition of the Imperial warship, identified as the Kardiac vessel Ranger's Bandit, had been in the system as well… that served to add an extra dimension to the issue.
"What is Savatti?" Iago asked aloud, looking over at his Inquisitor.
Braax as usual, provided no help, "Savatti is a barren system, with a lone planet capable of supporting life. There are no mineral deposits of note, limited resource potential, even the soil of Savatti, according to Polian records, is devoid of many of the nutrients necessary to make it a potential agricultural colony."
A completely useless world, with nothing of interest.
So why was the Empire interested enough to dispatch a ship to it? A diplomatic mission, perhaps? The thought of a Dakin-Imperial Alliance was troubling, but then again it was unlikely, the Dakin stood to gain nothing by allying themselves to the Empire. As an ally the Empire had nothing to offer the Dakin, even co-ordinated war efforts would, ultimately, prove pointless as the two fronts were simply too far apart to be of consequence to each other.
"If you are so concerned with this world," Braax suggested, "we can always divert a battalion of troops to secure the world, and investigate further."
Iago gave a momentary look towards the flotilla of warships mustering a few jumps away, preparing for a push on some of the Dakin rebellion colonies. Considering carefully what the loss of a battalion would mean, and whether it was worth it to satisfy his own curiosity.
"No," he shook his head. "There is no need, yet. Advise the Amsus Captain in charge of the Savatti operation that I want a thorough investigation of the planet, and ensure I have a copy of the orbital planetary survey. Tell him to use any resource he has at his disposal, and to report anything peculiar immediately."
Flood Plains - Savatti Prime - Savatti System - Former Polian Alliance
~~*~~
VonGrippen sat in his Δ07, feeling the vibration of the Mech's long strides as it ran across the fen, heading northwards, sprinting through flooded fields of peat filled with plants that resembled wild rice blowing in the strong wind.
He was bringing up the rear as the four ITE Mechs formed a protective wedge ahead of him, sprinting across the boggy ground, trying to reach the next patch of cover before the Amsus Raptor could make it's next low pass over the ground, surveillance cameras flashing as it went.
The Mech's were covered with mud, giving them all much needed camouflage. It would provide them some cover, but VonGrippen didn't fancy their chances of remaining hidden if the Raptor caught them out in the open.
If the ITEs were the Mech equivalent of large cats, the Δ07 was the Mech equivalent of a linebacker, heavy shoulder plates of reactive armour. Powerful digitigrade legs throwing it into a furious gallop through the mud. The advanced gyros keeping it stable on the uneven ground as it boosted through its sprint.
He was continually jostled in the cockpit, thrown against his harnesses with each powerful pace, his knee was screaming at him for a break, and part of his new found emotions pleaded with him for a rest. But iron resolve, combined with the plain fact that all of their survival depended upon it, meant he had to keep going. He soldiered on.
"Raptor on approach," Ben warned through the TAC-net. A passenger in the lead ITE, he had been carefully watching the Raptor on passive RADAR, as it screamed through the sky searching for something. "Correction, I have two Raptors on scopes now, they appear to be broadening their search pattern."
VonGrippen gritted his teeth as he powered the Mech through the mud, decelerating as he approached the cover of the large mushroom capped trees, moving inwards slowly as ahead of him, the ITEs formed a defensive semi-circle, auto-cannons tracking the pair of Raptors that were sweeping in their direction.
The Δ07 moved slowly into the middle of the ring, its protective cowling over the pair of missile pods retracting as the Colonel's hands hovered over the targeting computer, readying the SLA missiles should he need to shoot a Raptor from the sky.
"Dakin fighters," Ben called out the warning through the TAC, as the red flitting saucers dropped through the threatening clouds, descending upon the Raptors, weapons blazing.
"Things are getting a little too crowded around here," VonGrippen murmured, watching the Raptors break and engage the fighters. The heavier frigates sweeping up to meet the charge of the saucer-fighters, cannons and missiles booming.
"Order's Colonel?" Jetsenbek pressed, sounding anxious.
VonGrippen flexed his hand over the missile controls, looking up at the dogfight raging in the sky above him. "If we engage, we give away our position, and neither of those aliens will appreciate us interfering in their battle. My guess is the Dakin reinforcements just arrived in system, and the Amsus will soon be too distracted to notice us making a dash for the ruins."
He reached down, pulling out the tablet PC, scanning his eyes across the map, plotting their relative position to the ruins, a few more hours and they'd be able to reach their destination. But that left very little time to find what they were looking for, if it was still there…
The Raptors screamed towards orbit, the Dakin fighters in hot-pursuit, climbing once again through the cloud coverage.
"Go," VonGrippen ordered tucking the tablet away again, "we need to reach the objective as fast as we can…"
The Δ07 turned, accelerating once again, as the Imperial Mech's made a full on charge once again, knowing that their time was limited.
BC-1459 - The Dakin Front - Borland System - Former Polian Alliance
~~*~~
Iago had trouble sleeping, tossing in the uncomfortable bed in the sterile quarters, eventually sitting upright and reaching for the pitcher of water that sat on his nightstand.
Something about Savatti was plaguing his mind, and he sat there, staring into his glass of water, trying to think. What was it about the seemingly innocuous world that refused to settle in his thoughts?
He dropped the glass suddenly, leaping to his feet and sprinting through the Battlecruiser to his command centre, falling into the command chair and hauling his display screen back towards him.
There are no mineral deposits of note, limited resource potential…
He studied the Raptor's orbital survey images, his finger running over the abnormally regular patterns of the geological maps. Squared depressions, like something had been cut out of the ground hundreds of years before.
"Strip mining," he murmured, sitting back in his chair. There had once been a mining operation on Savatti, and given that the Polian database listed the planet as being useless, the mining had to pre-date the Polian occupation of the sector.
He called up the date of the Polian survey, noting that it was only a couple of hundred years old; in fact the whole Polian occupation was only a few hundred years old. He shifted in his chair, uncomfortably as he accessed historical records, trying to figure out who was in the sector before that, but the information was frustratingly absent. The last records of a territorial claim on the sector was a good five hundred years ago, when the Kule were dominion masters of the entire region of space.
The Kule.
Accessing the orbital photos again, Iago zeroed in on a number of thick black groves growing on the Eastern Continent. Mushroom groves, unique to former Kule worlds, and if he wasn't paying attention, he would have dismissed them as typical.
It posed a new question, what the Dakin and the Empire were searching for in an abandoned Kule settlement?
"I have new orders for our primary invasion forces," Iago said evenly. "I want them to divert for Savatti, I want that world locked down… Order our battlegroup to set a course for that system; I want to arrive there as soon as possible."
Obediently, his Amsus crew bent to their new task, abandoning the prosecution of the Dakin Rebellion in favour of a much richer prize.
Stratosphere - Savatti Prime - Savatti System - Former Polian Alliance
~~*~~
The Dakin command ship ploughed through the cloud cover, its weapons erupting in a wave of fire that detonated one of the pin-wheeling Raptors that sought to hamper its decent.
The mile-long warship was without match in the system, one of the few remaining Dakin Command ships the Amsus had been unable to destroy during their reign of terror over the former Polian Alliance.
A veritable city in space, the large saucer gleamed with light as it dropped lower towards the surface of the planet, drop hatches cycling open deploying the shock-trooper transports. Smaller spherical vessels that hammered into the ground, sewn like wild seeds ready to sprout power armour across the ground like weeds.
The hatches yawned open revealing the arena-like array of shock-troopers. Instantly the column launched, Polian designed armoured suits that shot out of the transport in a wave, leaping and bounding across the muddy fields of the planet, spreading outwards to secure the planet and fortify quickly. Mottle-red armour-plates, affixed to large bladed like appendages that housed the Zero-point weapons reminiscent of the Polian's own Kabalik staves.
They were a horde, spreading out, ready to do battle for the insignificant world that they considered theirs. Loyally serving their Prelate, and ruling class that had deemed the remnants of the Polian Alliance their birthright.
But their initial invasion wasn't without hindrance, as their mother ship was rocked by in-numerous explosions, sections of the great saucer incinerating under the missile barrage as a wing of Amsus Cruisers swooped down upon it, covering Amsus landing craft, which were divesting their drop-troops, their own seeds of war that spread across the muddy plains of the world. Raptors falling to the ground to drop infantry, before rising into the sky again to return to ferry more to the surface.
A fleet of Amsus warships moved into attack formation above the world, a mixed flock of gleaming predators, radiant where the distant sun touched their armoured hulls and bird-like wings. Each carried in its belly a score or more of Mechs, infantry and equipment equipped for an invasion of monumental proportions.
Drop-pods accelerated downwards, as saucers and predators fought desperately across the field, Amsus troops and Dakin powered armour in deadly pursuits and dogfights, crisscrossing through the upper-reaches of the stratosphere amidst tracer rounds, missile tracks, and Zero-point-array fire from the cruisers.
All hell had broken loose on Savatti Prime.