WoWS3 Chpt 16

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==Weapons of War Saga: The Final March- Chapter 16 - ==
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===Reconnection between old comrades===
Battalion HQ Office - Camp Fortitude
New Lazarus
2nd November, 3142
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Major Ezekiel Snow Raven had left the Privateers to follow Helena. Now here he was doing something that if you had asked him nearly two decades ago he never would have seen himself doing, leading soldiers into battle.
He had been selected to be the ground commander for the operation on Alkalurops.
Which meant he was working with her again.
It was not that she was rude, aggressive, condescending, but her habit that she was engaging in even now that drove Ezekiel insane.
“Ichi, Ni, San, Shi!” Tarter stopped singing as Ezekiel walked up. “Hello. Been a while since we worked together.”
“Yes. Churchstone almost twenty years ago during the surrender ceremony I believe was the last time we saw each other. I see you still insist on your favored pastime.”
“Oh don’t be such a grump. I could start singing Fortunate Son.”
“Please don’t.”
“Only because I like you. So this is your final line up?” Tartar smiled.
“Aff.”
“Spend all that time getting your units to work together and Helena has to go and force you to reshuffle. Must be annoying.”
“Aff, but I understand why and we should not take for granted that our organization will be static. Ground forces tend to be just as free form as space forces so it is something we should get used to. We cannot liberate these worlds. So we must be in then out before the Falcons can respond and we must assume they will have planet moon jump points pre-plotted.”
“Sir, hey who’s the kid?” A fresh faced Corporal walked up to the duo holding a dispatch.
“KID?!?! YOU DID NOT JUST MISTAKE ME FOR A CHILD! Grrr! Let me at him!” Ezekiel used all his Elemental phenotype strength to lift the small remote off the ground as it squirmed.
“On the desk and quickly. These remotes are not as light as they may seem. Dismissed, Corporal.” Ezekiel made sure the Corporal was well away before setting Tartar back down.
“I’ll remember that one.” Tartar grumbled.
“”Well we have more important matters to attend to as the landing day is rapidly approaching.”
“You’re right. And it would do no one any good if I put a stupid Corporal on sick call for acute idiocy.”
Tartar started singing a Gregorian Chant.
Ezekiel knew this one quite well. It was what Tartar sang to herself to calm herself down. There had been many that had the misfortune of confusing Tartar for a child or making light of her slight stature during the War of Plunder.
He did the other thing that he knew would help calm her down and he was one of the few humans she would let do this. He hugged her.
“Now shall we get back to work?”
“Yeah. Jeez look at the standard transit time on this one! Okay we have to non-standard that or this is a no go right off the bat.” Tartar studied the chart with Ezekiel.
“A risk but one that must be taken.”
“Okay. With no HPGs we have to operate on a fair bit of trust. Standard jump jump skip I think. Then we get you landed here. Images show it to be a good spot. Nearest garrison is an hour away by march.”
“Aff. I will set my main picket line here. With you watching from above I can react into this forest if need be and the large canyon here will cover my other flank.”
“And this service road here goes right by the LZ. Okay so how does this go wrong?”
“There is a larger than anticipated garrison at the facility itself. Options?”
“Divert to the target of opportunity here. It should draw out a response and failing that it is still a good target to take out. Now what if the enemy shows up early?”
“You boost over the magnetic pole to help hide your course, using the gravity to slingshot around back to the pickup zone all while leaving a trail of bearings only capital missiles in your wake.”
“See? We’re learning how each other thinks and thus how we’ll react. That will be super helpful. May I?”
“You earned it.”
“Yay! {The Wolf became infested with fleas, the Falcon flew into a window, the Bear dug in for Winter and never came out. The Jaguar got its tail caught in a rocking chair. Thus the curse of Focht was released on this day at Tukayyid….}”
“That song really?”
“I know. It loses something in the translation to English.” Tartar resumed singing as she left the office.
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===Prison Break===
Way out in the outer system
Alkalurops, Jade Falcon Occupation Zone
18th December, 3142
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Tartar and her small entourage materialized in real space, so far away from any sizable body that their detection would be a matter of divine intervention in favor of the Jade Falcons.
SLS Undine had been left to monitor the system for a while now.
“Undine Actual, this is Tartar actual. Situation report.”
<<“No Warships. Jade Falcon Merchant came through on the 11th. Have not seen anything since.”>> Bruno Unger’s voice came over the comm system with a slight crackle.
“Excellent. Starting my charge and jump calculations for the Planet Moon point.”
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24th December, 3142
Local Time: 20:13 
Tartar and Undine materialized between the moon and planet within moments of each other.
Dropships detached and immediately began spewing fighters to strike the identified garrison bases within range.
To the Falcon’s credit they did not take long to get their few meager Aerospace assets into the battle but with the initiative against them and only a modest garrison on world Tartar and Undine swept the defenders from the sky in only a matter of minutes. They moved away from the non-standard point to make room for what came next.
At 22:03 the transport Jumpships materialized.
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LZ 1
The Command Van that Ezekiel was in rolled off the ramps. The thumps of his supporting artillery and air support hitting the nearest garrison posts or laying minefields to help secure his flanks could be heard even through the walls of his van.
The deployment was too slow. They would have to work on that.
His forward units were probing toward their primary objective already while his main picket line was still forming up.
The clock was ticking too fast now.
“Falcons are marshaling a Trinary in grid A12.” Tartar reported from her orbital position.
“Noted. I calculate an hour before they hit my lines.”
“Agreed. Vectoring airstrikes now.”
Ezekiel watched his displays.
The waiting for the next reports was excruciating.
“Contact. A full star of solahma infantry at the primary target are confirmed.”
“Conventional?”
“Aff.”
Ezekiel expected more and that worried him.
His Battle Armor troops had little trouble gaining entry to the complex after a few minutes.
The feeds from the cameras confirmed his worst fears. Some of the guards had stayed inside and turned their weapons on some of the prisoners. Some clearly objected and had become victims of their comrades.
There were survivors among the prisoners. It was like Grankum all over again. Clearly malnourished and mistreated.
The guards that were executing prisoners were not staying to fight.
"Sic 'em." 
They'd planned on using the "K-9" unit of quad drones for flank security…well, the damned things would get through the barriers faster than heavier units, and someone had to stop the murder of those civilians.
“No quarter for war criminals.” Ezekial ordered.
The Trinary that tried to push up to meet his forces was already whittled down to a Binary and still too far away.
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The Prison Complex
Cal Ornstein was born on Lazarus, and he'd been training with the Robots for months. 
"Sic 'em" came over the channel. Cal glanced at his fellow operators, "Did he just say-?"
"Yes."
Cal's job was overseeing four Doberman class autonomous combat drones. "Siccing 'em…wow…"
He updated the instruction-set and sent it to his 'dogs'.
Outside the control van, the four-legged combat robots dropped out of their carrier vehicle and spread out.
"Network's good, shared processing's up, distributed sensor feeds are up…" 
He'd joined hoping to be a soldier, instead, he was overseeing 1100 kilogram robots from a seat.
He could see the advanced units making their way inside already. A few had already been reporting horrors.
He found it perhaps a little too easy to issue the commands to chase down the last of the guards with what was now coming over the tacfeeds.
The rest of the prison garrison was already trying to run for it. Fortunately the motor pool was still clogged up with a good number of them.
Somewhere outside, (map grid A16) a Doberman unit jumped onto the back of a hovertank, and sank its viborblade jaws into the hatch while smaller blades dug into the armor for grip.
Tearing its way into a Falcon solahma vehicle full of guards who'd just used antipersonnel gauss rifles on prisoners.
"Get 'em boy, good boy, good boy…" Cal muttered as the first enemy face from inside the tank was captured on video, right before the dobie's 'mouth' (a modified mission manipulator) took that head off. The fire from the Firedrake finished cleansing the interior of the vehicle with fire and burning darts.
He looked over at his fellow operators. One was vomiting into a trash can. Another managed to at least get outside. The other just stared at his screen. "Holy shit…"
Cal sighed, and per the drill, he shifted the control displays for the two pukers and Steckley to his station, taking temporary control of the pack while his buddies got their shit sorted.
"Chopper 4-22, northeast, gun position, Sic Balls." he ordered.
Part of the pack diverted to attack a dug in anti 'mech gun.
It fired off a burst but there were simply too many before the pack was on it, chasing down the gunnery crew that tried running for it.
He scanned the feeds and spotted someone in a feathered cloak-an Officer, a Trueborn. 
"Cujo 2, Fetch."
The Trueborn tried to hold their ground with a laser rifle, but the large robot simply devoured his left leg from the knee down, putting an end to that fight.
"Good boy, good boy!!" 
The reports of sectors of the prison now being secured were coming over the tacfeed.
They had come and they had delivered on their promise. It was a Violent Night indeed. Soon it would be over though.
He checked for any more hostile contacts. None showed on his screens now. So he started a roving patrol to secure a flank of the perimeter.
The medical teams were now on scene and pulling people out.
So, Cal took a short break and got some coffee. 
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Alkalurops AAR
Losses 7 Doberman Battle Armor completely destroyed
6 heavily damaged
2 Operators relieved for cause
Special commendation to Operator specialist 3rd Class Ornstein, Calvin H.
3 KIA from the forward Infantry teams
17 wounded
6 Starseekers shot down by enemy AA fire, four pilots recovered, 2 MIA.
113 prisoners succumbed to existing trauma or guards firing on their prisoners.
504 successfully evacuated.
75 Jade Falcon solahma prison guards KIA
13 taken prisoner
12 escaped
No survey conducted of enemy garrison positions.
Major Ezekial Snow Raven
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===Search and Rescue===
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The Major found him at the repair point, armpits-deep in a Doberman (unit 6-11).... 
"Sir, I'd stand but-"
"No worries, Specialist. Who's running the dogs while you're working on this one?" The Major asked.
Cal shrugged, "Payman's team, sir." he said, "They've got the perimeter units.." he finished pulling the salvageable components as he answered, "Rover here's going to need Depot-level, their damn gauss darts got into the processor core."
"So…deadlined."
"Yes, sir. That makes seven we can't fix in the field, and I think Rover's software didn't make it to the backup-that gun position had ECM going."
“A shame but not unexpected. Indeed I expect our foes to step up their use of ECM going forward.”
"I reckon so. What's the dispo, sir?"
“504 souls saved. Though some are in such terrible shape I expect we’ll lose some on the trip back. Our losses were reasonably light but… We’ve got two pilots out there we can’t find. We’re not even sure they managed to eject.”
"Huh…so you need me to take Fido and the pack and go looking, sir?" Cal asked.
“We only have two hours left before our orders dictate us to lift off. Search as best as you can in that time. I’d prefer not to leave anyone behind if we have a say in the matter.”
Cal stood up, wiped grease off his hands, "Sir yes sir. Gimme a grid set and I'll have the pack sweep it, shouldn't take more than an hour, sir."
“Grid A17.”
Cal whistled and made hand motions, and a pack of twelve Doberman drones disconnected from their charging stations and fell in. "I'll need to borrow some tweets to get the dogs there, sir."
“Already arranged.” The chopper blades could be heard outside the FOB.
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Grid A17
There wasn’t much left to find of Ensign Meyers. Just enough to confirm it was him could be seen in the remains of the cockpit.
The body was recovered quickly by the support team.
It took almost to the last minute he had of searching around where Ensign Lothman’s fighter went down before he found her, injured and hiding in the brush of the forest.
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Medical Bay
SLS Cossack
Orbit of Alkalurops'
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“So you’re the one I get to thank for pulling me out alive.” Lothman might have been pretty once before but now...
“Yeah.” Cal answered.
“Thanks. I owe you one. Next time we’re back at port?”
“Sounds nice.” Cal actually had no interest in what she was offering.
He already had someone and even if all she was offering were drinks, well that was a good way to lead to something inappropriate.
Best to just blame it on not being able to sync up due to her needing to heal and him going out for deployment.
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===Paying Respects to the Past, Looking forward t the Future===
LZ 1
Summer, Jade Falcon Occupation Zone
24th December, 3142
Local Time: 2359
Brody wanted to lead this one himself for his family came to New Lazarus from Summer long ago.
He stepped onto the soil of the world of Summer. He wanted to be the first and wanted it to be just as Helena had asked. Right at the stroke of midnight.
The tracers, beams of energy weapons, and explosions filled the sky.
He was technically operating outside the bounds of his orders right now but he would not be doing so for very long and the Falcon garrison on Summer was much more focused around LZ 2 and he knew his troops could hold on for the few minutes he needed for what he was about to do.
Before him was the grave of Lady Lestrade. The one from so long ago in the days of the original Star League. He was glad to see that the Falcons had not desecrated it.
With the help of a Corporal he set up a stand and placed a wreath with a simple message embossed on a ribbon wrapping the wreath.
The Star League shall return and with it shall be a great wave of justice.
Quickly the two of them got back on the landing craft and shortly after they joined the rest of the operation at LZ 2.
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