Mission 8 - Campaigning - Part 1

  TA419 - 21/03,

  TSU Owned Fuel Refinery, Beta-6.

  A vibrant flash of blue shot from Chas's rifle, cutting through a Type-B in an instant, "Knock out four for me," the young pilot hollered.

  "Oi, watch you don't hit the buildings," Moncha snapped over the radio.

  "Ya ya, don't you worry, boss."

  As had become his near-daily routine for over a month, Chas found himself in the middle of a battle. Just him and Moncha, the rest of their forces a little behind. Intel had suggested the enemy hitting an installation just above the moon, but it turned out Rememberence was going for a massive refinery complex on the moon's surface instead. The delay meant that only the two Casnels could make it in time.

  The ace duo now stood on its rocky surface, around them a whole compound of infrastructure, chimney stacks and buildings housing dozens of fuel tanks, a vital part of keeping any military going.

  The refinery's own forces had held off the Remembrance invaders long enough for Chas and Moncha to make landfall; now, it was a one-sided massacre as the Casnels busted through enemy Vijiaks.

  Spotting a Type-B coming in from above, Chas took careful aim and fired again. The rifle was a generic model, but thanks to the absurd generator output of his machine, it fired a blue beam of insane intensity. It would only survive a few shots before burning out, but rifles were cheap, so it hardly mattered.

  The shot slammed into the unsuspecting Type-B, then out the back and into the Type-A, hiding in its shadow, destroying both instantly.

  "Bullseye!" Chas cheered. Those Type-As were the real threat; they had learned that the hard way. Each looked almost like a stag beetle; the craft would latch onto a ship, satellite or anything else, cut into it with its ‘horns’ and deploy a strike team inside the target. That's how they'd destroyed his once home, Vandis, and more recently, Defence Platform 3. But the trick was seen through now, and pilots like Chas all across Columbae’s forces knew what to look for and prioritise destroying these insertion craft.

  Looking around for more things to shoot, an odd ping popped up on Chas’s sensors, "Civilians? Commander, a couple of people still seem to be here, maybe twelve total."

  "I see 'em; watch your feet. There's a shuttle behind you. They must think this is their best chance to make a break for it," Moncha said back.

  Chas watched the twelve ant-like figures in thin space suits below him exit what looked like an administration building. He smiled, "Gotcha, I'll give them cover."

  "You do that, just watch the heat fr--" Before Moncha could finish, Chas's eyes shot to a new enemy coming in. He quickly raised the rifle and fired.

  "Boom, one shot, one kill," he cheered as the Type-B exploded above.

  Returning to the escapees he'd so valiantly protected, Chas was surprised to see they were gone.

  "They head back inside? Scared of my rifle, I guess."

  "Ya, something like that," Moncha slowly replied, an odd shake in his voice that Chas had never heard before, "Yazan and Gemon just took out someone on our six; the ship is nearly here. Move up and start pushing the enemy out completely."

  "Roger that boss-man," Chas replied cheerily, though his eyes drifted briefly to the space by his feet. He couldn't shake an odd feeling, a chill up his spine. Still, there was a fight to be had; he couldn't afford hesitation.

  In the end, it was just another day, another raid foiled - nothing more, nothing less.

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  ****

  TA419 - 30/03,

  Outskirts of TSU held space, Outer Rim Patrol Fleet Two.

  Major Elton’s fist trembled. After his first battle in the war a month ago - which had ended in the sinking of Defence Platform 3 - he had partaken in several more minor battles. He had even caught sight of the red-highlighted Chevalier on occasion. All told, their record remained the same: while the loss of the platform had been TSU’s defeat, the Chevalier had run from him, and thus, it had been at worst, a draw in Elton’s favour. Today changed that.

  Their inside source claimed that today's target of Rememberence’s ongoing raid campaign was the fifteen ships of Outer Rim Patrol Fleet Two. Elton had been sent to intervene. The information had, in a word, been ‘wrong’.

  The attack occurred an hour before the LongParish could arrive, but weirder still, it had ended abruptly. A small force under the ace known as The Scarlet Scourge had appeared, briefly skirmished with the patrol fleet’s mechs and then left.

  It had been close. Elton had been listening to this report as the LongParish arrived and moved into formation with the fleet. He had just barely given the order to scatter, roaring down the carriership’s captain’s complaints.

  Just barely out of range and arguing over the radio with the patrol ships to do the same (they didn’t), four of the vessels had exploded. The ensuing blast caught four more. The result was seven sunk, five listing and minor damages to the remainder with only the LongParish unscathed.

  Elton could hardly believe it. The exact same plan: send in elite mechs as a distraction, sneak in infiltrators or bombs, then retreat and watch the show. For a second time, that plan had nearly caught him, and for a second time, he’d failed to tell anyone else in time to evade. He couldn’t pursue in the direction of the Scourge’s forces; no he’d have to stay and have his forces rescue who they could from the ruined patrol fleet. This was her resounding win.

  Elton almost missed his old fighter jet; its cockpit had been tiny versus the space of a mech’s, and its capabilities limited, but maybe he could have given chase with that. Not that it would have been faster than a Casnel, but because its lack of arms would have given him an ample excuse not to help with recovery efforts. The Major had joined the war late and spent most of the first two years as an instructor, sending pupils by the dozen to their deaths. It had made him a pretty shitty person at the time. Back then, all a TSU pilot could do, tank or jet, was aim for joints and vents with high explosive rounds. The early Vijiaks had been very weak to this tactic; however, it required landing such shots under extreme conditions. Elton had been awarded the ‘Vijiak-Knight’ honour for his achievements, but that title felt hollow to him. Vijiak knights had originally been an Abhialen award, just one more thing that TSU had spitefully appropriated.

  But Elton did have a name he was proud of, Thrice Times Hawker, that had been dubbed on him by people; by the rank and file who saw him fly back then. An unofficial ace’s title similar to those used by the Abhialein aces like the Scourge and Bane. He’d gotten it for downing three Vijiaks with his jet in a single battle.

  He was proud of that, yet two people had utterly outshone him at the time. Of course, the First Casnel and its Magi pilot, and one other. A ‘nameless ace’, someone also with the Vijiak-Knight award. The man had fought all three years of the war in jets as well, and despite barely having any widespread recognition (certainly far less than Elton), those who kept abreast of such things all knew - Commander Donald Moncha had the highest confirmed kill count of any pilot, second only to the First Casnel. And now, Elton had learned, Moncha was back on the front line. The field commander for the rouge unit, daily stopping attacks like the one spread out in from of Elton. Succeeding where he was failing.

  Elton had thought he was better. Higher rank, more and vastly stronger subordinates, newer warship, at his command. Yet Moncha was out there, a Casnel of his own, winning battles, facing off against aces regularly. Meanwhile, here was Elton, being run circles around by the Scourge, again.

  This had to be the last time. He would pit his battalion against hers one on one, a fair fight, and win. And then Elton would go and beat the Bane of Konpei, too. Yes, Elton was by no means unaware of the irony that his current fixations was on The Scarlet Scourge, Remembrance's second-ranked. Nor was his hate towards Moncha, a man also forever in the shadow of the First Casnel, any better. He would beat the Scourge and the Bane both, and when he did, he’d prove once and for all that he was the strongest, better then flaming Donal Moncha and better than she had ever been.

  For now though, begrudgingly, he would turn Casnel 003 to work unburying soldiers trapped inside the sinking patrol ships.