Chapter 137 (1/2)
The Lanaktallan Second Wave was a massive undertaking. They targeted 300 worlds across a broad front, each system had hundreds of ship dedicated to wresting the system away from the Terrans and to eliminate the Terrans from the system once and for all.
The best minds of the Unified Military Council had determined that 14% casualties would be sufficient for force the Terrans to surrender.
The First Wave and the anti-coreward section of the Second Wave had met with rousing successes. Resistance was limited, and many on the Unified Military Council believed that the Terrans had made the classic mistake of sending all their ships to combat the Unified Council strength in the Neo-Sapient Systems without guarding themselves.
Planet after planet, system after system, had fallen to the Unified Military Council and the Unified Executor Council's might.
Just how it was supposed to be.
But any human could tell them: If the battle is going easy its because you have ambushed a patrol, not the enemy's strength.
Tenmard's Star was a perfect target as far as the Unified Military Council was concerned. A single energetic young yellow star, three planets in the Green Zone, an asteroid belt full of resources, two gas giants, and four planetary bodies in the red and yellow zones. Two close to the star, two further away.
The Lanaktallan force consisted of 200 ships from the Unified Military Forces, 50 ships from the Unified Corporate Fleets, and 10 vessels from the Unified Executor Fleets. There was over a hundred thousand ground troops, complete with tanks, artillery, intra/exo-atmospheric fighters, and armored vehicles.
The Most High Executor knew that the system had no chance against his might.
The 142nd Fleet dropped out of jumpspace and right on the edge of the resonance zone. The first thing that happened was a nearby buoy began to transmit.
**Hello, and welcome to Terran Confederacy Territory!**
The Most High of the Fleet, Executor Most High Tanmalo'o, sneered. ”Get rid of that annoying thing.”
One of the cruisers fired a pair of particle beams.
The scan-tech noted that gravity focused around the buoy and it shifted.
**HEY! Watch it. That isn't how you communicate!**
On the cruiser the gunny master ordered to more shots at it. Each time, it shifted.
**Hey, Asshole! Watch it!**
The gunner master ordered four more shots.
Again, the bouy, nearly 11 light seconds, dodged out of the way.
**Hey, dickheads! Stop shooting at me!**
The gunnery master ordered a full broadside. Again, the buoy danced around on focused gravity.
**OK, that's it. I'm calling my big brother and you assholes are in trouble!**
The buoy seemed to dwindle away and vanish.
The Most High Executor sneered and turned away. ”All ships, move in system. We'll take the inhabited worlds one by one and move onto cleaning up the system after the Terrans have been pacified.”
For nearly two hours the massive armada moved steadily into the system. Vehicle masters checked out their vehicles, infantry checked their weapons and armor, ship gunnery masters checked the weapons as the ships went to action stations.
As the task force passed the asteroid belt a drive signature lit up, angling toward the fleet on an interception course. Like many Terran vessels it had ridiculously high acceleration, getting within ten light seconds in only minutes.
**OK, who's in charge over there?** was broadcast to all ships.
The Fleet Most High sneered again. ”Destroy that annoying thing.”
Lasers flickered and missiles shot out. The new object didn't even bother moving, just kept getting closer, the battle-screen flickering as it took the hits. The X-ray lasers created by the focused nuclear explosions and the ship-fired lasers were drained away by the battle-screens and used to add to energy storage.
**There you are. You know that shooting is a provocation and I'm within my rights to shoot back, right, genius?** the object broadcast directly to the Most High's flagship.
The Executor Most High frowned, his tendrils curling and his crests inflating with annoyance.
”Order Squadron Glorious Talon to eliminate that annoyance before it alerts the rest of the system,” the Executor Most High harrumphed.
Twelve ships, let by a battle-cruiser, shifted and began firing upon the newest object, which was only the size of a destroyer.
**OK, that's it. My little brother warned you assholes, I warned you assholes. I'm calling the Fleet and... well... heh, you won't see me, but I'll see you**
The Most High Executor snarled at the symbols displaying his fleet, cursing their incompetence, as the larger object twinkled and vanished.
”Most High Executor, we've got drive signatures approaching,” the Most High Sensor Technician called out. ”Five, ten, no, twenty five signatures. Designating them as Bogey Alpha.”
”Twenty-five ships, against my fleet? Bah, we'll sweep them aside and do what we came to do,” the Most High Executor snarled, inflating his crests with annoyance.
Minutes passed and the Terran ships vanished off the sensors. The sensor technicians, badgered by their supervisors, tried in vain to get them back.
The Terran ships did reappear, at a range of less than a light hour.
”Most High, the Terrans are messaging us,” the Communications Most High said, turning to the Executor Most High. ”Shall we respond?”
”No. Let these feral primates bleat for mercy to someone who might feel sympathy for their misbegotten species,” the Most High said.
Less than a minute later the viewscreen flickered, the 2D graphic of the system and the various ships vanishing to be replaced by another image.
The Terran was in a heavy seat, the faceplate of an armored vac-suit closed, his armor black with red edging and ”CARTER” on the right of the chest and ”TCSFN” on the left side of the chest.
”Oh, I think I can make you listen to me,” the Terran said softly. The faceplate went transparent, showing a dark skinned Terran with cold cybernetic eyes glaring at the pickup. Several of the Lanaktallan crew drew back in anxiety at the image.
”You are trespassing in Terran Confederate Space. You have not transmitted any recognizable national identification, and as such, you will be treated as a pirate force,” the Terran said. The Most High noticed that the image was needle-sharp, as if the Terran was in a vacuum. ”Which means,” the Terran's lips moved in what the lexicon told the Most High was a smile of pleasure. ”No quarter.”
”Get this being off my display,” the Most High snarled, his tendrils quivering with rage.
The Terran just stared, his face cold and hard, as the Most High Communications officer kept trying to regain control of the main bridge display. Every time he tried his station computer just replied with profanity, pornographic images, or mocking words including a hurtful nickname his older sister had given him.
”You can't make me do anything,” the Terran said. ”I could rip your ships apart without ever clearing my guns for action. Instead...”
he turned his head slightly. ”Execute the fire plan, Guns.”
Right as the last syllable was uttered the Most High's ship shuddered and groaned. Multiple impacts on the ship's superstructure warped it, the engines were blown into scrap, the shield not even glimmering with any intercepted weaponry, just a steady pounding.
Ships of the Task Force started to break up, spewing debris, as something kept pounding at them.
”Most High, the impacts are hitting inside the ship!” the Damage Control Officer called out. ”They're somehow bypassing our armor and shields!”
The shells kept impacting. Light C+ shells fired from ships nearly a light hour out, a hundred times what his own weapons were capable of.
The Most High's suit com came on and words scrolled across his faceplate right before his ship exploded.
**Told you I was going to get my older brother, asshole**
---------------
Task Force 34 was assigned to leapfrog First Wave into the Terran systems to continue to crush their systems beneath the hooves of the Lanaktallan might. They had stopped long enough to get data uploads from Task Force 11A, which showed that the Terran Confederacy had made the mistake of sending all of their ships into the Neo-Sapient and Uncivilized Species territory, leaving their core systems unguarded.
The task force was made up of just over a hundred ships, all designed to take control of and supress the Terrans found in any system.
The data upload showed that every time the systems begged for mercy, claimed they were peaceful, and then just stopped talking once they were shown that begging would not stay the wrath of the Lanaktallan war machine.
They had pacified or eliminated hundreds of species during their primacy, even defeating the Mantid race. The Terrans had no choice against the Lanaktallan and the progress and success of the First Wave showed that to anyone who cared to look.
TF 34 dropped in at the resonance zone and began moving in-system.
Two outer belts of asteroids in between two gas giants, then four planets, only one inside the Green Zone. Some refinery and extraction facilities in the asteroid belt, but the Most High in charge of TF 34 ignored them. They could be swept up and destroyed after the system's only habitated planet was pacified.