Resurgence - Cataclysm Chapter 29
Rasalhague, New Avalon orbit
3/17/3153
0600
“Good morning, Star Colonel.” Lars Magnusson greets Rulia Vong on the bridge of the Rasalhague.
“Galaxy Commander, good to have you aboard.” Rulia responds, saluting.
After returning the salute Lars continues, “Any activity from the Blakist naval fleet, quiaff?”
“Neg. They continue to maintain a holding pattern well outside weapons range. My staff’s best guess is they are waiting for more ships. Already the odds are against us but, even more ships may spell certain doom.”
“Are they continuing to run equipment to Brunswick?” Lars asks as Rulia leads him to her holotable and she brings up a hologram of the units stationed in orbit above the continent.
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“Aff. While it has taken some time, I have organized all the naval assets so we can use our Wingei Bonaventure II paired with the Conqueror of the Conqueror Naval Star, to deter resupply runs. While we maintain air superiority, the Blakists still send in huge numbers of fighters and can even support from the ground with the air elements they have left. To maintain readiness in our naval blockade some days I must decide if the fight is worth the losses in men and material.”
“These are difficult decisions to make Star Colonel, I understand your thinking. While we have taken the West coast of Brunswick from Ith to Ultron the consistent raiding on other continents, on top of the looming threat of that fleet keeps us conservative in movements. There is no tactical value in taking back Brunswick when we have Rostock, Carlisle, and Cadbury to protect for food production.” Lars covers the full situation as he manipulates the hologram and points out the different locations and their resources.
He continues, “Refugee evacuations have brought a significant number of Avalonians to Albion and keeping those food production continents in our control is of the utmost priority. It really is just a waiting game.” Turning to Rulia, “Are you content with the scenarios we have played out and even using support such as the Rattlers should they attack?”
“Aff, Galaxy Commander. Even with these odds we have a chance to win in a naval battle.”
“What of operations on the captured Swordship?”
Rulia shows a clear expression of irritation at the mention of the captured Blakist vessel that was crippled when the Admiral Michael Saille crashed into it. “Even to this day teams are still finding Blakists holding out on board.” She pauses and brings up a hologram diagnostic. “We have only explored around seventy five percent of the ship. Between sealed hatches, spoil sport explosives, and Blakist holdouts it is a slow grind for a ship that size. We have our own troopers onboard, Fidelis, and AFFS all scouring the ship. Oddly, we have found materials that are not present in Ghost Bear territory or even recorded in the Inner Sphere. I would recommend speaking to Precentor Imala about that.”
“Aff, I will.” Lars takes a moment looking over the hologram. The section around the impact site is where all teams have entered the decks through. “Do we have access to drive systems or weapons?”
“Yes, Galaxy Commander. After the crash the orbit began to decay quickly and the drive system was sought out first. While we can only reactivate one of the main engines the thrusters along the length of the ship are strong enough to keep it in orbit. As for weapons we have control of some of them. We believe that the Blakists onboard have been reactivating weapons manually, occasionally one comes online and a guard fighter has to destroy it. A new wave of Fidelis just arrived this morning and they are ready to go. We find that mixing our Elementals with the Smoke Jaguars is a lethal combination.”
“I can believe that considering their heritage.” Lars grins and shakes his head. “Imagine the strength of those beasts paired up in the wild, a six-legged Ghost Bear and a Smoke Jaguar. They would never want for food.”
Both officers watch the hologram as Rulia returns it to the Blakists formation. “Wait… Are they moving?” Rulia leans in and squints.
“Star Colonel! The Blakist fleet is inbound!” a crewman shouts out.
Hitting the fleet wide comms Rulia begins issuing orders, “All fleet personnel to your battle stations, the enemy fleet is on approach, I say again, battle stations!” Her voice carries to every AFFS, Snow Raven, Ghost Bear, and Nomad ship in the fleet.
Looking across the bridge both officers can see changes in screens and colors as weapon systems power up and readouts change from alert to action status. “Galaxy Commander, do you wish to stay up here or move to the surface?”
“I will remain here Star Colonel; however, you will stay in command of the fleet. If it comes to sallying out onto the hull, I would love to loose some PPCs from my Karhu in a space battle.” Lars responds in a voice that shows he is clamoring for combat.
“Aff Galaxy Commander, let us kill some Blakists.” Rulia Vong states with resolve as she takes the commander’s chair near the Captain.
She begins taking all the data down and sorting out where units need to be and observing the Blakist’s projected flight paths. In just under three hours the fleet will be upon New Avalon. Rulia Vong begins transmitting the data to the surface so they can prepare.
“Star Colonel! Another Slip Tear!” a crewman shouts.
“Aff, Nav, where?!”
“Off our starboard Star Colonel, also about one hundred kilometers out!”
She turns and looks outside as does Lars. Both walk over and activate an enhanced imaging panel next to the ferroglass. “There it is.” Rulia states as she points to the glowing purple circle.
Ships begin to emerge through the tear in space. The panel begins showing IFF data. “Avitue is back…” Rulia exhales in frustration. Lars is glaring at the Swordship. On top of that, it is not alone. Both Warships it left with have returned and are running on their own. There are also two more Warships now. These main ships are flanked by support vessels.
“Now we have five Swordships and ten Warships in play. These odds are heavily against us.” Lars states with concern in his voice.
“Star Colonel, we are being hailed by the Angel Wing.”
She looks to Lars to see what he has to say.
“Star Colonel, you remain in command of the Naval fleet. If she desires to address leadership of the Allied forces then I will step in.”
“Aff, Galaxy Commander.” Rulia moves back to her command chair. “Comms, put the dezgra Blakist through.”
A blonde woman that looks to be in her fifties appears before Rulia. While Avitue is standing, Rulia remains sitting out of contempt and disrespect. Rulia refuses to say anything, as does Avitue. A classic contest of wills. On top of that Rulia feels like playing given that they have at least two hours until either group of ships arrive.
Three or four minutes tick by as the defiant women glare at each other.
Rulia looks to her comms personnel, points and says, “Kill the feed.”
“What the hell?!” Avitue blurts out.
“You can talk!” Rulia says mockingly.
“You Clan filth should never have been bred in the first place, let alone keeping me from my world. You are bastards of the Inner Sphere!” Avitue lashes out.
“And yet, you are the one clamoring to return from exile after being thrown out of the Inner Sphere. We returned because the greatest Star League General, Aleksandr Kerensky knew it was our destiny to! You simply festered into a new monstrosity to plague the Inner Sphere!” Rulia shoots back. Lars is standing beside her and enjoying every second of the verbal spar.
“You are now vastly outnumbered and well beyond your depth.” Avitue stops, returns to a forced calm stance and smiles from ear to ear. “You got me distracted bear cub.” She motions to a video feed that is now displaying next to her of a prisoner.
Rulia and Lars look in closely to see who they are looking at. Then it hits Rulia, who finds it difficult not to show her shock. Knight Joy is seated in a chair with her arms suspended above her. Her skin is sliced and bloody, she is hooked up to multiple tubes with different colored fluids, multiple fingers are missing and some of her hair has been ripped out of her head, and is still in the Mechwarrior gear she was captured in… every second Rulia looked on the heinous conditions became worse and worse.
“Your little Knight here led me on a wild goose chase in an attempt to thwart a surprise attack from you faithless heathens. That’s the only reason why we haven’t routed you already.”
“You will pay dearly for what you have done to that Knight, Avitue. You think mere numbers?...” Rulia scoffs then stands and approaches the hologram slowly as her elemental sized figure towers over the hologram. “You think mere sizes of ships? You think you win because of that? You fools have rallied nearly half the Inner Sphere against you just on this world. The numbers? Trillions of Inner Sphere and Clan personnel ready to cut down every last one of you and crush your people for good across hundreds of worlds.” Rulia glares at Avitue, still in control of herself. I can see it in her eyes; she has never truly encountered an elemental. Let alone a Ghost Bear Elemental. Rulia smirks before continuing.
Avitue looks back defiantly but does not respond.
“Bring your forces to New Avalon, the Ghost Bear is ready to feed on your corpses just as it did eighty years ago and just as we did mere months ago.” Rulia ends with this as she kills the feed herself with a quick swing of her arm.
“Well said, Star Colonel.” Lars adds as she turns back.
“Aff Galaxy Commander.” She responds as she mentally locks into the coming battle.
A Nav crewman again calls out the Star Colonel, “We have another slip tear near the Angel Wing.”
“Are more Blakists coming?”
“Neg, ma’am. It is from the larger fleet. They are also triggering another tear but not in this system...” The crewman adds, her voice trailing off.
“Not this system?” Rulia mumbles to herself in surprise.
Everyone on the bridge watches intently to see what the Blakists are up to. Rulia activates a bridge wide hologram that comes to life above most of the crewmen showing the main Blakist fleet that had been waiting. They begin to adjust their movement and turn to their starboard. One by one, each ship vanishes except for one Swordship which appears near Avitue’s smaller fleet.
All of the Ghost Bears on the Rasalhague bridge are thinking the same thing. Where the hell did they go?
***
Rasalhague, New Avalon orbit
3/17/3153
0900
“Star Colonel, you may be able to do it once more and you may be able to get all of them through but I would highly recommend against activating the slip tear upgrade again unless it is the direst of emergencies.” Precentor Imala says, his hologram standing before Rulia.
“I understand Precentor. I just want to make sure War Party is not ambushed so far from help since they just entered the system.” Rulia adds, “On top of that… the Nomad Exarch assures me, they are ready for a fight.”
“I would say that we all are. Even my company has been given the green light for combat ops versus Blakists down here. I look forward to hearing of your victories in the days ahead Star Colonel!”
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“Aff, Precentor. You as well.” Rulia cuts the feed and begins issuing orders to the comms crewmen.
Outside the Rasalhague, clouds of fighters and dropships are battling now that the Angel Wing and its attendant fleet have entered weapons range with the allied forces. Just shortly ago IFF pings were relayed from the system Nadir jump point that War Party had arrived after receiving the warning sent by General Lee in the weeks prior.
***
Stone, New Avalon system
3/17/3153
0900
Exarch Levin observes that the War Party fleet organizes as Star Colonel Rulia Vong outlined for something that is going to “surprise someone who even knows what the Fortress Wall is”. Once the ships are in formation everyone is looking into the system toward New Avalon. The Exarch is still unsure of what is going on.
A glimmer, then a purple glow appears before the Stone. Slowly a wavy circle widens and grows. Beyond it is the planet New Avalon. The hulls of ships can be seen around the edges of it. “Look Janella, the Harmonia and Necessitas… The Necessitas has taken heavy damage.”
“I see them Exarch, what is going on? How is this possible?”
“Exarch Levin, the tear has finished widening, proceed?” the Captain asks.
“Do it.” Levin says firmly as he grabs hold of the rail in front of him next to Janella, Ariana, Mason, and Justin.
Slowly all of the War Party ships advance. One by one they vanish through the tear. Reaching the other side the Stone’s sensors go wild with enemy contacts all around. “Get clear of the battle! Form up around the Yardships!” Levin shouts.
As they proceed forward, looking up, just a couple hundred meters above them is the Rasalhague. Aerospace fighters are pouring out of it with some returning. Across the hull are Battlemechs firing into the Blakist fighters. Levin spots one particular hull section where a Karhu is rapid firing PPCs at enemy fighters with a full binary encircled around it. That must be Lars.
***
Angel Wing, New Avalon orbit
3/17/3153
0900
“What the fuck are they doing here?!” Avitue yells in rage. “Pull the fleet back! Get us out of range but above Brunswick!” Of course he would call them out of the system right as my overwhelming victory is upon us!
Avitue is watching as one by one, numerous dropships begin appearing from a slip tear beneath the Rasalhague. She is running IFFs on all the new ships and can see the flagship is a Conquistador like the Nomad Refuge but, this one’s name is Stone. Her blood begins boiling as she slams her fists down.
“Spector Precentor, there’s more.” An Adept crewman mentions after she looks away. Turning back, she starts to read a list of other IFFs… Clan Nova Cat, smaller Merc units, Kell Hounds… How are there so many factions?!
“Get us into a defensive position and out of range. I will not kill my world like we did to the MagPus worlds. New Avalon will be mine and if it is a long fight they are looking for, a long fight they will find.”