Chapter 284: (TerraSol) (2/2)

The Executor Wave was already taking hits that even their more powerful shields couldn't withstand and were taking casualties even as they moved into the system.

Part of their problem was that, like any good cargo cultist, they had slavishly followed what they thought they should do. Their lack of concern for the first two waves, the fodder waves, was a byproduct of the War Stallion mentality that the more aggressive members of the Herd were there to be sacrificed to wear the enemy down, run them out of ammunition, and clog their guns with the dead.

They weren't concerned with casualties, their minds overlaid with the thought processes of War Stallions, their common Lanaktallan brains misfiring with connections that made no sense.

The other problem the Lanaktallan were having was in design.

Not just the fact that by Terran standards their technology was obsolete, but rather the designs themselves.

Over the millions of years they had been designed, redesigned, rebuilt, retasked, designed by committee, and eventually over-designed.

Rather than the Terran method of dedicated vessels with a few multi-role vessels the Lanaktallan had gone ahead and made sure that every ship could tackle every circumstance.

Their torchcraft space fighters were capable of space superiority fighting, close combat support, bombing runs, strafing runs, carrying missile payloads, operating inside or outside of atmosphere, and anything else someone had thought up.

They were the ultimate multi-role craft.

They just couldn't do any of it well.

Not that the Lanaktallan understood that. Any War Stallion, hell, any Terran, and possibly half the Telkan Marines could have told them that for every mission you design something for it takes away from the original mission.

Not that they would have listened.

The huge clouds of Lanatkallan torchships of the Corporate Wave slammed into the waves of System Defense Light Attack Craft (Space Superiority) of the Terran Confederate Space Force and the Terran System Defense Force.

The Lanaktallans were fighting to get past the Terran craft and make attack runs on the capital ships and then the planets and moons.

The Terrans were just there to kill Lanaktallan torchships.

Space erupted in atomic and antimatter detonations, shattering energy weapons, and flights of missiles.

The Flight Operations Commands of the Lanaktallan Corporate Fleet watched in horror as the casualties mounted and ordered the second flight to launch, ordering them to go to the rescue of the first wave.

He was informed that the second wave was loaded up with intra-atmospheric weapons and weapons designed to strike at planetary targets.

He didn't give a second thought.

He ordered the second wave stripped back to bare weapon mounts and reloaded for light attack craft close combat.

It would take nineteen minutes, even with full automation, to strip the ships. Another twenty-six to load them back up, ten to do all the checks, and five to launch them all.

He was satisfied when his orders were obeyed.

It was an hour he didn't have as the Terran second wave, consisting of heavy 'bombers', went over and under the point blank knife fight melee of the superiority fights and made their attack runs on the Lanaktallan carriers.

He panicked and ordered the ships to be reloaded with space superiority packages.

The Terran craft made their attack runs, ships exploding behind them, until their weapon bays were empty, their creation engines overheated and spilling slush.

The problem was...

...there were still more.

The first troopships made their landings.

On Ganymede.

Ground combat for the Sol System had begun.

With a single word, repeated, shrieked, over and over and over.

”DOKI!”