The Great Expanse
22:24
"Keep it coming!"
Captain Nurudo, a member of the blue-skinned humanoid Vantoran race, ordered the Infantry troops to keep the fire up as they held off the advancing SFF troopers. He bought enough time for Skandar and Joey to to get beamed back up to the Laevus before starting to slowly inch back himself. Above him, a Viper gunship, painted silver and black, started to descend on the Fantine troopers, spraying laser fire. Some Fantine foot soldiers went down screaming as Nurudo and the others threw themselves to the avoid the strafing gunship. Fortunately, a Thunderbolt swooped out of the darkness like a kestrel and took out the attacking enemy ship.
"Retreat!" The Vantorian ordered. "But remember to keep covering the troops."
"Right on!"
As soon as the captain fired a couple bolts of his rifle, he turned to find the extraction point of one of the Laevus carriers hovering above them in the air.
"Mayday! Mayday! This is a code black!" Mikhail's voice came in. "We have incoming enemy ballistic missiles. Drop your current objectives and pull back to the nearest Laevus for extraction. We need to flee back to base now."
Having just received this piece of troubling news, the captain glanced up to the star-studded sky to see dozens of red streaks, resembling burning meteors. Feeling panic settle in his body, he made a mad dash for the nearest extraction point, ducking enemy fire in the process. Jumping over the body of a dead shocktrooper, he finally rendezvoused with the remaining troops of his regiment as well as some of the other infantry divisions.
"Captain, this is the largest casualty count we had in a long time," a Nimoydar, a humanoid with yellowish skin and pointed ears similar to an elf, informed him.
"Well, we are up against a formidable foe unlike those Orc militants or the armed groups in Verona," Nurudo assured his soldier, patting his back. "Besides, in our previous battles in the past, we had much higher casualty counts. Ours paled in comparison compared to the Survivalist bastards."
His soldiers chuckled as the beam enveloped them in a blinding light before they felt gravity release its hold on them, taking them to the belly of the carrier like a magnet.
---
"Booyah! 5 Hunter UAVs under my kill count!"
As Adlan boasted about downing the drones, two Lightning fighter-bombers under his command flew in front of his cockpit.As he glanced over his helmet's visor, he thought he saw several deep red streaks in the velvet sky. They reminded him of scratches done by Lupobear claws on their prey.
"All flights, this is Honor lead!" He shouted in the radio. "Do you copy? I see various unidentified flying projectiles coming in hot from the east. You all read?"
"Clear!" Strygar responded. "I can't discern what they are."
"Negative here as well." Ari had joined in. "Let me patch that to Mikhail."
A few tense moments later, Mikhail had given them the order to retreat as they already had their targets. After turning a SFF Wasp copter into a ball of flaming debris, Adlan gave the order to his squadron to retreat back to base. Ari and Strygar had repeated the action at once in order to avoid delaying the withdrawal of the Fantine airmen.
"Fantine X, may I have your attention please?" Zayda's sharp voice cut through the vox system aboard the aircraft. "I had my team send a UAV to scan the projectiles and we have confirmation that they are Hydra missiles, used exclusively by SFF. They are going to overtake you in a matter of minutes if they continue to bear down on you at the rate of their current speed, assuming that yours and the missile's speed remains constant."
Adlan felt a chill take hold of his chest. He was pretty sure the others were feeling like this as well. His brown eyes warily fixed on the bright red lights on the horizon that were gradually taking rod-like shapes.
"And how do we expect to outmaneuver them?"Ari's voice came in. Adlan could discern the slightest hint of desperation in the lead pilot's voice.
"How about you guys sacrifice a few of your planes in order for the rest of us to take off with our objective?" Heinrich suggested from the Laevus he was sheltered on.
"What?!" Strygar thundered. "Are you out of your mind? I won't put my aviator's lives on the line over some hare-brained plan.
"No, I think I have a better plan!" Adlan blurted out.
"Well, we are all ears," Ari responded."Anything to spare my pilots."
Adlan took a breath, steadying his thoughts as he glanced out of the cockpit window, seeing the trails grow larger by the seconds. His radar showed dozens of rods converging on their position from the northeast.
"Instead of turning tail and fleeing like Lyga kits, we face the missiles head on and take them out while the carriers return to base. "
A hushed silence fell over the vox.
"You do realize that the yield on the warheads cover a wide radius?" Skandar tried to dissuade his colleagues from taking on a risky business.
"I am quite aware, but there is no other way to ensure the survival of our quarry. Now Ari, do I have your leave to attempt this feat if no one else does?"
"You are not alone." Ari whirled his Eagle around, the red lights of the missiles glinting off the plane's canopy. "We are in this together. For duty and honor!"
"For duty and honor!" All voices chanted.
Adlan took in a breath before pressing the lever down. The thrusters of the Thunderbolt kicked in, giving the plane an extra boost of speed in order to meet the oncoming projectiles.
---
"How are you both doing?"
Heinrich, his shocktrooper helmet off, approached the two Kithars where they rested in the bridge of the first Laevus, guarded by shocktroopers and Air guards. The female, clutching two sleeping kids to her chest, glanced up at him.
"Quite shaken, to be honest, but we are indebted to you for the brazen rescue attempt. "
Bartleby glanced up a well. "I agree. I must say I love how you showed those blackclad berserkers what you are made off. Man, if I could only have been a part of that."
Heinrich chuckled as he knelt down beside them. "Well, I am glad you see us as badass. After this affair, I may ask the bossman about recruiting you since you must have the warrior spirit in order to evade the horde of Survies. "
"Hey, I fought in the Second Kanys war as well as a few other minor skirmishes." Bartleby shrugged. "I can lend you my experiences as as either a foot soldier or a special ops operative."
Before Heinrich could open his mouth to respond, the ship started to shudder violently as if an earthquake had struck. The two Kithars clasped onto each other as Heinrich fell forward, face first. The guards stumbled about, as did the rest fo the crew manning the ship.
"What the hell happened?" Heinrich demanded, rising up.
"Look out the window!"A bridge engineer pointed out the window.
The leader of the shocktroopers glanced out the window to see a bright red light glow in the horizon. He felt his heartbeat become erratic.
Did one of those blasted missiles explode?
---
"Strygar, take your squad to the left flank, Adlan, you go right, I'll take center."
"Roger!"
Strygar felt the G-forces push back against him as he lead his small squadron of warplanes to confront the surface to air missiles. His knuckles white as they clasped the black lever,the blinding glare of the missile's boosters reflecting off of his visor.
"Now is the time to order your men to release everything in your arsenal to weaken the missiles, of not destroy them,' Ari intructed.
"I hate to break to you, but not all of us have much left of our arsenal, securing the extraction point," Strygar noted.
"Well, give it all you got!"
Strygar nodded and complied. Touching the black screen with green digits, he selected all weapons and let a barrage loose in the pathway of the missiles. As the sky between them was filled with red streaks and green lasers, nothing remarkable appeared to happen to the oncoming projectiles. However, several seconds after the arsenals of the Fantine Air Corps made contact with the warheads, one of the weapons managed to be knocked slightly off course and collided with a couple other Hydras, resulting in a bright crimson light illuminating the northern sky.
Blimey, that's a beautiful sight!
Strygar watched the spectacle in awe. In a matter of seconds, his awe turned to terror as the shockwaves of the explosions violently rattled his aircraft, causing spidery cracks to appear on the windows of the cockpit. From his rader, several blips that marked the missiles petered out as did a few Fantine aircraft. Those poor bastards might have been unlucky enough to be stuck in the radius of the collisions.
"That is several less Survie weapons we have to deal with." Ari's voice shattered silence. "We still have at least a dozen more. My aircraft has taken some light damage, but what about you guys?"
"My windows are cracked," Strygar responded.
"My left wing is virtually in tatters." Adlan's voice sounded wary. "The alarms are going off."
"Sorry to butt in here." Zayda had decided to join in on the conversation from HQ. "I am aware I have no place in the conversations of airmen, but those who are at risk should either eject or fly back to the Laevus's if they can't make it back to the base. No point in throwing away the lives of good pilots ."
"Very well. Adlan, you take those in all squads who are unfit to fly out of harm's way. Strygar and I will lead the rest to put the Hydras out of commission."
"Sounds good!" Adlan responded to Ari as he set out to lead the limping,smoking, and faulty planes back to the Laevus.
"If I may, I'd advise you guys to aim for the fuel tanks. The weakness of hypersonic missiles are generally unprotected."
"Copy that, Mikhail,"Ari replied. "Strygar, you and your unit should act as the decoy and I'll take my unit to put those Hydras out of commission. "
"Why do I have to be the decoy?" Strygar demanded.
"Relax, after all this, I'll pay for our next rounds of Eastern Island Sake. That is assuming you survive."
"Oh, for the sake of Zygmar!" Strygar grumbled.
He then ordered his crew to follow his formation.
---
Roughly an hour later
SFF Missile Defense Base
"Sir!" A radar technician went to report to the Defense Official."The missiles have all failed to reach their targets."
Sythe, sipping on his wine, nearly choked once he heard the news. "What? How? Why?" He glared at the young brown-haired Muus boy.
He followed the human boy who donned some rodent like fur on his arms to the large screen in the middle of the base and noticed the blips were gone , but the large three glowing ovals that represented the Laevus air carriers were still on screen, heading south. Enraged by the sight, he threw his wine chalice at the screen before turning to address his subordinates.
"Well? Why are you sitting there like lame Logrets? Send a force after them at once!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth that a hologram of Sergeant Devolle popped up.
"Sythe, please report the status of your objective. Have you taken them out?"
---
Uh oh! I wouldn't want to be Sythe. Then again, who does?
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