The Aerospace Battle over Oberon Six began with a clash of fighters. Vulcan Heavy fighters faced off against Combine Shilone Mediums Fighters, Oberon Sabre Light Fighters, and a smattering of Rapier Heavy Fighters as the respective Dropship fleets closed with each other. The Vulcans let off shots from their Gauss Rifles that destroyed several enemy fighters from extreme range, but the more disciplined Combine pilots were already going evasive the moment they detected target locks, avoiding destruction.
Once again the Vulcan heavies spewed forth ferronickel slugs from their Gauss Rifles, once again they took out some Oberon and less disciplined combine fighters, but once again the more disciplined and veteran pilots managed to evade the shots that came in from beyond the range of their own weapons. One last shot from the Gauss Rifles was all that the Vulcans would get before the enemy began to fire back. It proved no more effective than the first two.
Then the two groups of fighters began firing at each other, and soon a massive furball had erupted between the two Aerospace fleets. . .
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Group Leader Stanislaw 'Stach' Komorowski winced as he saw the warning light up in the HUD of his Neurohelmet telling him that an enemy LRM from one of the Rapier Heavy Fighters was coming for him. With a growl, he sent his Vulcan into a series of evasive maneuvers, hoping to ditch the missile lock with erratic movements.
"Come on, Tania, old Girl, don't fail me now!" He hissed as the immense forces he was putting his fighter through weighed heavily on him, even with all the technology that would normally keep such things at bay.
"Still talking to your fighter, Stach?" Came the voice of his wingman, Erich 'Goat' Bock.
"Goat, if you have time to shit talk you have time to help me out!" Snarled Stanislaw.
There was an explosion from somewhere up and to the left and Goat called back, "Just did, Stach. Combine Shilone was about to pounce on you from above."
Stach snarled as he spotted an enemy Sabre flying straight for him, firing medium lasers at him head-on. He pulled hard on the yoke of his Fighter, banking suddenly to the right to avoid the lasers. As he did so, the missile that had been chasing him rocketed past to explode into the canopy of the enemy Sabre. The last image Stach had of the Oberon Pilot was an open-mouthed scream as he realized just what was about to happen to him.
Stach didn't have time to dwell on that, though, because one of his Squadron Leads, Karolina 'Smoke' Lindelöf was in trouble. Her squadron had been jumped by two squadrons of enemy fighters and were down to half-strength. Smoke herself was facing off against four-to-one odds in terms of enemy fighters.
"Goat, we're going to help Smoke out." Ordered Stanislaw.
"You're the Boss, Stach. I'll keep the Dracs and Pirates from jumping you." Confirmed Goat.
Stanislaw pulled his Vulcan around and rocketed for Smoke's position. She was pretty badly outmatched and her ferro-aluminum armor was scorched in several places from glancing laser hits. Part of her fuselage had been punched through by an autocannon round that, thankfully, hadn't taken out anything critical, but her Vulcan was in a bad way. Smoke was still challenging the enemy, though, letting off a burst of Short-Ranged Missiles from her SRM-Six Launcher that scattered the two Combine Shilones that the pair of Oberon Sabres were trying to herd her toward.
As the Oberon Sabres began firing at her, however, Stanislaw pounced on one of them from above, a snapshot from his Gauss Rifles punching through one of the Sabres and utterly destroying the engine, causing the fighter to go up in a ball of flame. There wasn't much that could stop a Gauss Rifle slug at close range, after all. The other Oberon Sabre broke away and suddenly found itself being cut to ribbons by Goat, who opened up with all three of his lasers. The large laser on Goat's Vulcan sliced through something critical and the enemy careened off, having lost power, drifting in space.
"You all right there, Smoke?" Called Stanislaw.
"Stach, are you a sight for sore eyes!" Huffed Smoke.
"Where's the rest of your squadron, Smoke?" Questioned Goat.
"Gone! Valhalla and Shamrock had to duck back to the dropships to repair damage. Harpy, Jinn, and Calico didn't make it. I'm the last one in the field right now." Huffed Smoke.
"Right, you're coming with us. We're gonna be forming an ad-hoc squadron as we go. Somehow, I suspect yours isn't the only squadron that's been having a rough go of it." Nodded Stanislaw.
"Right." Agreed Smoke.
It would later transpire that Stanislaw's hunch had been right on the money. Of the eleven squadrons of Aerospace Fighters that would begin the battle, five of them would be depleted by forty percent or more casualties, either damaged or outright destroyed. The remainder would get off lighter, at around twenty percent casualties damaged or destroyed. It was Alpha Wing of the Third Flotilla's Fighter Contingent who got hit the worst. Of fifty-four fighters in Alpha Wing, some thirty-two were damaged or destroyed. Sixty percent casualties. That would be tallied later, though.
For now, the Dropship Fleets of both sides had finally closed, and the swarm of dueling fighters was replaced with the thunder of guns. . .
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Commodore Emma Clarke frowned as her Pentagon Two-class Assault Dropship, Cú Chulainn closed with a pair of hastily repainted Achilles-class ships that still bore the insignia of the Ninth Pesht Regulars. The Fighters had done their job and cleared the battlespace of any enemy fighters, though they'd paid a heavy price to do so. Now it was their turn to clear any enemy Dropships and open up the path for the Ground Forces to make planetfall.
There was just one problem. Her orders were to capture any Combine ships if able for use in some sort of negotiating strategy going forward. She knew the Grand Duke's strategy would probably work, though the Combine would accept it only grudgingly and would definitely be planning for round two later on. That was why she'd sent out the assault shuttles with their marine compliments to try and take the pair of Achilles-class Dropships.
She was more concerned with the Fortress-class that was firing its Long Tom at her battle line. Already, the Leopard Two-class Cait Sith had been pounded into scrap by the fire of the enemy fortress, venting atmosphere and trying desperately to do damage control. The Achilles Two-class Linnorm's Tooth had stopped to do search and rescue and been pounced on by a section of four Intruders and Overlords that had rounded the moon of Puck and taken them by surprise.
Now there were two ships that had been completely disabled. It was likely there would be far more before the battle was over. Fortunately, for Commodore Clarke, Commodore Mickiewicz had managed to swoop in to shore up her flank against surprise sections of enemy dropships from behind the moons. From his flagship on the Pentagon Two-class Assault Dropship Kokenhuza, Commodore Mickiewicz commanded the utter destruction of the enemy's surprise attack, smashing all four of the enemy Dropships while losing only a single Achilles Two-class damaged enough to be put out of action.
That left Emma free to focus on the fortress and the ships that were supporting it. Fortunately, she knew just how to express her displeasure. The Cú Chulainn, along with three other ships, the Aspern-Essling, the Kutná Hora, and the Frederica, opened up with full salvos on the enemy Fortress class, reducing it to so much scrap along with its escorting Leopard. Smelling blood in the water, Commodore Clarke ordered her battle line to push forward.
What she found when she did so was a scene of utter confusion. Several enemy ships were firing on several others. Just as she was about to demand scans be taken, however, Commodore Mickiewicz hailed her from the Kokenhuza with a clarification of the situation.
"Our orders were to capture as many ships as possible, so I sent my assault shuttles ahead to do that. You were focused on the Combine ships for the Grand Duke's plan. I was focused on ways to sow as much confusion among the enemy as possible." Explained Commodore Mickiewicz.
And with that, Commodore Clarke ordered her battle line forth to take advantage of her fellow Commodore's plans. The confusion helped a lot in the ensuing battle as enemy ships, captured by Commodore Mickiewicz's marines, fired on ships still held by enemy hands. It also helped that some of the enemy was hanging back to protect the collection of JumpShips and thus, would be facing Commodore Niskanen as he attempted to capture the Jumpships instead of fighting them here.
She and Commodore Mickiewicz still lost another six ships put out of action by damage or outright destroyed for a total of nine Dropship casualties before the end. In the end, however, the fighting over the planet wasn't the bloodiest for the Dropship forces. No, that would be the fighting at the Jump Point, where Commodore Niskanen attempted to capture the Jumpships in the face of fanatical resistance.
The Combine, it seemed, really didn't want to lose their Monoliths. . .
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Commodore Niskanen growled as another of his ships got hit with a suicide attack from what fighters remained to the enemy. It hadn't helped that the Combine had decided, for some ungodly reason, to deploy mines suddenly at the Jump Point! It flew in the face of all common sense! You were essentially taking the chance that your own position wouldn't need to be evacuated because if it did, you'd get hit with your own mines more likely than not. After all, a hot Jump could cause significant turbulence in local space as the K-F drives began to do their thing, which in turn would scatter your minefield further.
Of course, in this instance, those fanatics seemingly didn't care about their own casualties. Commodore Niskanen had lost two ships to mines and two to kamikaze attacks before they'd even closed enough with the enemy Dropships for their opponents to begin firing. As it was, if they lost one more ship, they'd be down to two-thirds strength! It was just fortunate that they still had the capacity to transport the Regiments planetside even in that case. It'd be slower going than usual, though, which meant more time for things to go wrong.
With a growl, Commodore Niskanen sent out his assault shuttles even as he ordered his remaining ships to focus fire on the enemy escorts. He knew that it was likely that the Grand Duke's plan to avoid immediate Combine retaliation would be more successful if he captured more of the Combine Dropships, but honestly? Commodore Niskanen would err on the side of caution on that front. If he really had to, the Grand Duke could simply fix up any crippled Combine Dropships in the Iron Land Yard, after all.
As his remaining ships brought their firepower to bear on the Combine's remaining Dropships, however, they still didn't have everything go their own way. The Achilles Two-class Dropship Illmarinen was hit by a full Autocannon Salvo from three separate Combine Achilles-class ships and finished off with a mass LRM Strike, going nova as the reactor core breached. The Illmarinenwould be lost with all hands. Its destruction also scattered Commodore Niskanen's left flank, the battle line forced to break into skirmish order to avoid damage from the explosion.
That would have been it for Second Flotilla if not for two things. The first was the arrival of elements of the First and Third Flotillas to bolster his line, and the second was the success of boarding operations on two of the Combine Dropships that immediately fired on a third Combine Dropship, creating a momentary bit of confusion that Commodore Niskanen pressed to the hilt.
His ships bulled forward, bolstered by reinforcements, firing salvos at the enemy as they did so. Suddenly, one Combine Achilles lost power from battle damage, followed by another going up in a ball of flames, and then a third being captured thanks to the boarding actions of Second Flotilla's Marines. That began the domino effect that would see the Combine and their Oberon Puppets fully lose this battle.
It would only take another couple of hours or so. . .
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Eventually, the battle for control of the Orbitals of Oberon Six was won after five hours of fighting. All the enemy JumpShips had been captured, including Both Monoliths, along with Five Combine Achilles-class Dropships and six Oberon Dropships of various models. To do so, the casualties were high, however. The highest they'd been yet, in fact. I wasn't relishing the number of letters home that would need to be written to grieving widows and anxious mothers.
An average casualty rate of thirty-one percent in Aerospace Fighters and six percent casualties in dropships may not seem like much to the untrained eye, but given how those losses were skewed heavily towards certain units? Yeah, it was a heavy toll.
Regardless, however, I couldn't think about that right now. We had a landing to organize on Titania and a battle to win. Precentor Hope's information had been good so far, at least the parts I could verify. Dadaocheng City had indeed been declared the new Capital of Oberon Six when the Precentor's intel had said it would be. I had to trust the other stuff he'd sent me was accurate as well.
I waited in the cockpit of my Heavy Metal Custom Highlander as the Dropships began to descend down onto TItania to disgorge our regiments. I'd done this multiple times before, but each time I was forced to rely on an old friend to settle the jitters in my stomach, especially with all the casualties that our Aerospace Flotilla had taken. The flask of Krupnik went up to my lips as I swallowed the Honeyed Spirits. It burned going down but settled the jitters enough for me to focus.
Moments later, the Dropships began touching down and the Mechbay doors opened up. I stepped out of the Dropship in my Custom Highlander and out into what appeared to be a fairly pleasant Alpine area. Lots of mountains and trees, and it almost seemed like a nature hike more than a combat drop. I knew better, however.
Somewhere a few klicks east of here was the ambush position of the Fourth An-Ting Legion, one of two Battlemech Regiments the Combine had offered as Volunteer Forces. That's what the Precentor's intel had said, and I didn't think I was walking into a trap right now. The situation was too different from the conditions you'd expect for that. For instance, if I'd been walking into a trap, you'd have thought I'd come under fire before now.
As I and Second Guards marched toward the Fourth An-Ting Legion, my HUD pointed out exactly what I'd been looking for off in the distance. A hidden, pre-fab, base in the mountains complete with Mech Hangars and everything. I could see the Dragon Heavy Mechs painted in the colors of the An-Ting Legions on sentry duty in the base. The Precentor's intel was right on the money. There was a Combine Mech Regiment here waiting to ambush a landing against the more conspicuous base in the Valley Below. Now it was our turn to ambush them.
I sighted down on one of the enemy Dragons that was standing sentry with its back turned to me with my Gauss Rifle and squeezed out a round. The ferronickel slug smashed into the weaker rear armor and punched into the reactor, forcing the safety overrides to kick in to shut down the reactor, mission killing that Dragon. An alarm klaxon began to blare as the An-Ting Legion suddenly realized they were under attack. Then, Second Guards and I boiled out of the Alpine Forest, charging into the fray.
And there was no more time for introspection, only combat. . .
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AN: The next chapter is already up on my Patreon, so check the link in the threadmarked post if you guys feel like throwing me a couple bucks to get chapters in advance. Everyone who does is super appreciated and I can't thank my patrons enough.
So yeah, heavy casualties in the space battle. The fight for Oberon Six has only just begun and already it's looking to be a baptism of Fire for the Grand Ducal Guards. The Combine's Volunteer Forces are no joke, and the Oberon Aerospace Forces are all veterans on top of that. Thankfully, Jozef is doing better than he has any right to do against a Major Periphery Nation backed by a Successor State.
Largely, that's cause he prepared for this, both in terms of technology and training. The outcome here isn't really in doubt now that Jozef has the enemy's battle plan and knows he can trust the accuracy of the intel. It just remains to be seen how large the butcher's bill will be before the end of the fighting.
At any rate, the next chapter will be the Battle of Titania.
Stay tuned. . .