Admin56

==Chapter 56 - The Administrator==
Westerstede system
Jade Falcon Occupation Zone
December 25, 3147 - 0300 hours local time
The first warning of the impending attack, came at the planet from sunward at 0300 hours local capital time.
Gravel.
25 million tons of mining slag released after 30 days of acceleration from the outer system. Fist-sized chunks moving at 2200 meters/second along a plotted course that included a gravity-slingshot around the primary star.
The mining slag is mostly bubbles of silica, nickel, hydrogen, and nitrogen, ranging from fist-sized to the size of a civilian automobile.
Jumping the slag into the oort cloud hadn't been that big a deal. Trainee crews bringing in Pocket Warships with drop-tanks and towing adaptors to move it along a course that would pass close to the planet, with a small amount scraping the upper atmosphere, that was just using a stopwatch and a calculator.
Maintaining total radio silence through this phase? that had proven to be the real challenge, second only to assuring that the approach vector for the 'shotgun spread' would keep the sun in the way of any nosy astronomers among the Jade Falcon's 1st Falcon Striker Cluster or 11th Falcon Velites? well, apparently the Mongol movement doesn't put a lot of stock in star-gazing unless something jumps in close enough to trigger their early warning alarms.
For the most part, the relativistic projectiles did two things:
1) obscured deep radar while passing the planet, by providing the Falcon aerospace and naval assets a large, fast-moving target of indeterminate size coming from sunward.
2) shredding or damaging orbiting dropships, and creating a fantastic light show for the population (what was left of them) right about sunrise on Christmas day.
A few 'rocks' were intentionally released to fall (within a margin of error of .001%) on military-only sites planetside. Sites occupied by barracks, 'Mech bays, and fortifications.
These weren't spectacularly large, and the intentionally low density of them meant instead of penetration of the crust, the energies would be released fairly close to ground level.
The most important part, is the disruption of Radio communication, Radar installations, and command-and-control.
The second wave of rocks followed a similar path, blanketing the other hemisphere of the planet in electromagnetic pulses, ionospheric disruption, bright lights in the sky, and a few minor hits to fortified complexes and military installations. the most important ones, being the mobile HPG systems set up to coordinate with other forces of the Clan.
Jade Falcon Pocket Warships and the CJF Chaos Sailor mobilized immediately, and began searching for the source of this attack.
They didn't get to spend much time looking.
Jade Falcon owned transport jumpships were hit almost simultaneously with the 'rockfalls' by Cutters from the LCN, whom had arrived in the system quietly over the last 20 days, using non-standard points, or calculated jumps into the deeper oort cloud-far from the usual detection ranges of even very alert military planners.
The Lyran attack on their transports was not restricted to traditional rules. No challenge was issued, no mercy and no quarter shown. instead, missile fire and Subcapital Cannons tore through transport ships at the zenith and nadir points like a machine gun through single-ply toilet paper.
Aerospace pilots found themselves under attack by fighters and coordinated small craft, while Assault Dropships or 'Pocket Warships' found themselves on the receiving end of being hunted by an enemy who seemed to appear out of nowhere, an enemy that lobbed megaton-scale thermonuclear ordnance instead of the usual, and accepted, half-kiloton warhead most often used during the war against the Word of Blake.
Leaving the Chaos Sailor in a position where she had to thrust for a jump point, only to find two warships emerging-not cutters but, full-scale warships.
Denial of Retreat.
The Mongol forces of Delta Galaxy would have to fight.
Confidence, however, was high-while their trothkin might have been spread across four star systems (Pobeda, Horneburg, Westerstede, and Cameron), They were in linked HPG contact, and word could get-
The request from the Fourth Falcon Dragoons on Pobeda arrived around 0345 hours, describing a similar-even identical, in some ways, naval assault on that system. At 04:30, the request was overlapped by demands from the Fifth Battle Cluster, at Horneburg came in, describing the presence of a full-scale Battleship in addition to the carriers and Kowloonese-style Cutters. the Garrison cluster holding the world of Cameron didn't even bother to call for aid.
There were more active warships in the Westerstede system, than Star Commodore Sithra Buhallin had ever seen in her entire life.
...and they all belonged to the Lyran Commonwealth.
On the tactical plot, the destroyers were moving in an echelon formation, two more had appeared, giving nothing away on any monitored channel but, telescope imagery showed a sort of 'barbell' shape with double-coned ends, large engine nacelles...
Landmark-Class "Those are Kowloonese built ships." The results from the successful defense of Tharkad by one such vessel had been analyzed from the last transmissions of the only Jade Falcon warship there-and the type was impressive-at least, in terms of the damage it dished out.
"I believe, they have grown tired of losing to us..."
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