From Darkness

[Manticore]

LAMBERT

Even though Hamburg had been a frequent battleground in the long war between Liberty and Rheinland, it had been quite some time since the Liberty Navy had hit the system in any form of attack. So when thirteen Navy Guardians emerged from a tradelane into Hamburg orbit, they were greeted by a decidedly underwhelming show of force. Four Military Wraiths - and a Daumann transport with escorts, who promptly fled in the opposite direction.

“Let’s pave the way for our friends. Torch these jokers!” Peterson ordered over the squadron comms. His Guardian leapt forward, first into the fray. Lambert kicked his thruster to life, following him in.

As the rest of their unit followed, the Wraiths silently moved to engage. Lambert spared a moment to admire their bravery – they were likely the Kanzler’s honor guard, duty-bound to protect him at all costs. And they would die for their Kanzler, just like so many others.

What were a few more lives on the tally of this war, especially when they stood in the way of a chance to bring it to an end?

Blue fire rocketed from Peterson’s ship as he opened up on the lead Wraith, and Lambert followed suit. He was flying a standard-issue Guardian equipped with Vengeance lasers – one of a few of the snubcraft kept aboard the Mesa Verde for escort and close support purposes. They fired in rapid, staccato bursts, and the Wraith couldn’t dodge all the fire from both Guardians. Several blue bolts splashed across his front shielding, causing the narrow shape of the Wraith to briefly glow white.

Green bolts flew back at them, and Lambert instinctively broke to the right as Peterson peeled off to the left, starting his turn as the Wraiths screamed past. The two Guardians formed up again behind the Wraiths, and together they opened up on the lead Rheinlander again as he chased another Libertonian fighter.

One of Lambert’s bursts hit home, then two of Peterson’s. The Wraith’s shields flickered, and then died as her pilot broke off his own firing run to weave madly. Lambert strained to follow the moving target as he filled the space around the Rheinlander with long bursts of energy. He scored a couple of lucky hits, softening the Wraith’s armor as Peterson suddenly blasted ahead to close the gap further.

“Let’s see if you’re ready for… this!” Peterson exclaimed over the comm as a plume of exhaust separated from his ship. The Rheinlander was just a beat too slow, and the missile closed the gap before he could fire a countermeasure.

A split second later his Wraith was a rapidly expanding cloud of debris.

Peterson whooped in triumph as Lambert noticed a second Wraith flicker off his sensors. Rheinland’s elite or not, their numbers disadvantage was only growing worse.

“Nice shooting, sir. It’s probably time to call in the big boys, isn’t it?” Lambert said.

“Good idea, Kappa-13,” Peterson replied, now switching to their operational designations. There was a small burst of static as he switched to the task group’s general comm. “Command, this is Kappa Leader - we’ve cleared the way for you. Just finishing off the last two little guys here at the planet.”

“Understood, Kappa Leader,” Polstari’s stern voice responded. “We’ll be there shortly.”

Lambert and Peterson jumped back into the fight, which was actually more of a chase at this point. The two remaining Wraiths had split up, and were both wildly dodging off in different directions – not even bothering to try and shoot back. The other Libertonian pilots chased them, trying to score the lucky hit that would finish the job.

Moments later, Lambert’s sensor readout flashed as new contacts came into range. Friendly capital ships burst through the nearby trade lane one by one, and the Wraiths immediately seemed to decide that the odds had finally reached the point of impossibility. They rabbited, fleeing for the inner system roughly in the direction of Alster.

“Let them go,” Peterson ordered, and the Guardians broke off and moved to form up alongside the capital ships.

“Let’s get this going,” Polstari said over the task group comms. “Deliver the payload.”

“Copy,” Falkland’s voice gruffly acknowledged, and the Mesa Verde broke off to approach Altona, spectacularly backlit against the planet’s icy glow.

As the modified Bison drew up alongside the spindly shape of the station, Lambert spotted the white streaks of the Marine demo teams quickly crossing the gap. Moments later, there were several flashes along the station’s flank as the demolitions experts blasted into access ports and docking bays. Right on cue, the Verde disgorged several smaller vessels – the two Kodiaks and several smaller assault shuttles which, between them, contained the ship’s entire marine contingent. Zeroing in on their targets, they spread out and headed for the fresh wounds in the station’s armor.

The Mesa Verde peeled off and headed back to the rest of the fleet, her job now complete.

“All teams report successful insertion. Resistance minimal.” It was the voice of Major Baugh, the CO of the marine unit. “We’re proceeding to clear the station.”

“Acknowledged,” Polstari replied, as the capital ships entered a defensive formation, arrayed against the trade lane to Alster. The Rheinlanders would probably send something their way before they could finish the operation, but it wouldn’t be anything large enough to crack the defenses of the task group.

Peterson dispatched his own orders, instructing his pilots to space out and maintain sensor watch for anything hostile headed their way. Lambert followed Peterson on a sweep of the near side of the planet, to be sure nothing nasty decided this would be a good time to head up from the planet’s surface.

All was quiet, and for this brief moment, Liberty was the de-facto owner of the space over Hamburg. Lambert keyed into the marines’ tactical net as they swept the station. He wanted to at least be on the comm when they found the chancellor.

“This one’s clear, move on up!”

“Clear here too.”

“Where is everyone? No contact with… any hostiles.”

“Keep moving, Private! We’re sweeping the whole damn thing.”

Lambert grinned as he recognized Gunny Brack’s voice. Still, it was unusual that they hadn’t encountered any station personnel yet. Perhaps the entire station was out to see the Kanzler’s…

“This looks like the mess hall. Breaching in three, two…”

There was a muffled blast that echoed over the comm, and then screaming chaos. Lambert’s brows furrowed – that had been too big a blast for a breaching charge…

“Man down, man down!”

“Contacts! Enemy contacts! They’re everywhere! Open fire!”

“There’s too many!”

The voices continued shouting in panic, not just from one section of the station, but all at once. The marine unit was engulfed in utter chaos at a pivotal moment. Lambert heard bursts of shooting in the background as the battle was joined.

“Fall back to Rally One! Contingency Bravo! Contingency Bravo, damn it!” Even Major Baugh sounded strained as the order finally came.

Lambert’s panicked fingers flicked over the console, switching back to the task group’s comms. “Sir, something’s wrong down there…”

He was interrupted by the exclamation of one of the other Kappa Squadron fighters. “Holy—Sir, something big’s headed this way!”

“I need more details than that, pilot!” Polstari snapped back.

But it was too late, as a Rheinland heavy cruiser burst from the lane and immediately began moving as it opened up on the Libertonian capitals. Another cruiser was right on its heels, followed by a battleship, and then another cruiser. Streams of green fire streaked from the dark, hulking shapes of the Rheinland ships, as the Libertonians struggled to react.

“Hostiles inbound! Fighters - break and attack!” Polstari’s voice was now tinged with alarm. “Captains – execute Defense Plan Echo!”

The composure of the task group’s captains was admirable as they maneuvered into formation and began returning blue fire of their own – just as a second Rheinland Battleship emerged from the lane and began spewing Wraiths from its bays.

Lambert followed Peterson as he whipped his Guardian around and headed back for the fray, as the first friendlies began to vanish from his sensors amid screaming chaos.

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