Chapter 5 Part 8
Chapter 5: The Battle of Victory Bay
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Part 8
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Victory Bay outskirts
Kronus
Lieutenant Astra loved her Lighting Interceptor, she really did! That adamantite clad fact did nothing to make her dearly wish she and her comrades were flying better, much better machines. Both their supposed allies and the murderous Eldar had fighters that totally outclassed anything the Empire could put in the skies of Kronus. Fifteen minutes of fighting saw multiple Imperial squadrons decimated for little to no gain. The enemy was faster, more maneuverable, had better acceleration, and worst of all, the auspex couldn't see the real target through the countermeasures broacasted by the Eldar. That simple fact made missiles useless and forced the Imperial pilots to close in for dog-fighting, precisely the wrong thing to do when facing the Eldar.
As if to rub copious amounts of salt into the raw wounds, the only reason there were any Imperial aircraft in the air were their "allies", who flew wicked armoured tanks that turned on a dime and packed a whole squadron's worth of firepower. The Xeno aid was very cold comfort for all too many Imperial pilots, including everyone else in Erica's original squadron. During the fight above Victory Bay, she had to assume command of the shattered remains of multiple squadrons only to watch and hear them die one after another while they desperately tried to keep the enemy from blowing up the city below them.
Considering how the day had been going, Erica really shouldn't have been surprised at what happened next.
"Behind us!" Lieutenant Vitae shouted from the backseat. With the Auspex being next to useless, his primary job was to look all around and warn her when an enemy went after them from behind.
"Hold on!" Astra hissed and threw the Lighting into a dive. The interceptor shook from near misses, while she tried to find an operational AA battery to drive at, which would hopefully dissuade the Eldar pilot for pursuing her. She managed to splash one enemy fighter by baiting its pilot into a wall of AA fire that merely dinged her armoured fighter but shredded the light xeno craft.
This time, she couldn't see a single conveniently set up AA position, damn it!
The Lighting screeched and shook, its controls buckled in Aria's hands, however she managed to retain control, if barely.
"We're hit!" Vitae exclaimed, as if Erica didn't notice! "We just lost some armour I think..."
"Why are we still alive!?" Astra wondered aloud, while her head snapped every-which way searching for the Eldar fighter. A moment later she saw it overtaking the Lighting in a steep climb, trying to evade solid emerald beams. It managed to avoid three bursts, then a fourth, though the fifth scored a solid hit on the belly of the sleek fighter, which promptly vanished in a green-tinted fireball.
"Sweet merciful Emperor..." Vitae muttered as a huge Necron fighter flew past the Lighting, shook its single crescent shaped wing at them, made victory roll in full display and only then it boosted away in search for more targets.
Erica was sure she would never live it down, being saved by filthy Xeno. Either that or the fact that the damned aliens had better fighters, the bloody lucky bastards...
As it turned out, Lieutenant Astra might not have to live it down after all...
"Broadsword 1-1, Crown Actual, I've got another tasking for you. We have a single operational bomber squadron remaining, you're to assume command of our remaining air assets in the area and escort them in for a strike on the advancing Tau armour. Don't worry about the Eldar, they're beginning to disengage and our allies will continue to harass their air-power. Just concentrate on escorting those bombers in."
That was easier said than done, much easier, however Erica wasn't ready to backtalk the General-Militant in charge of all Imperial forces on Kronus. Flying in the face of the Tau's air defenses might be survivable, a firing squad or worse for disobeying order and showing cowardice in the face of the enemy? Not so much.
"Crown Actual, Broadsword 1-1, escort in a ground strike, aye. We'll do our best and then some, Broadsword 1-1, out."
"Well, it was nice knowing you, LT." Erica's Auspex officer interjected. "Huh, scanners are clearing up, the Eldar might actually be pulling back…"
"That still leaves the Tau, Marik. Broadsword 1-1 to all Aeronautica elements receiving this, form up on me above our airfields. We've got a tasking from up high."
It wasn't until then, that Erica could afford to pay any real attention to the city below and the reports she could gleam about the situation on the ground. There were dozens if not hundreds of fires blazing all over Victory Bay, flashes of green, red and white explosions lit it up, though the fighting was apparently dying down. The same couldn't be said for the outskirts. Astra flew high enough to see flashes of explosions and energy weapons all over the place, signifying heavy fighting.
"Broadsword 1-1, Thunder 1-1, I'm glad you're still around." New markers appeared on Erica's Auspex screen showing six fat and slow Marauder bombers, no doubt loaded to the brims with ordnance. If there were any Eldar left to intercept them, Lieutenant Astra knew that those machines and their crews would be dead meat.
"Thunder 1-1, Broadsword 1-1, the pleasure is mutual. We'll keep any pests away from you. Do we have a tasking?"
"Broadsword 1-1, Thunder 1-1, transmitting target coordinates now. Be advised, we've got confirmation about Tau fighters in the area harassing our tank regiments."
"Of course they are..." Erica muttered.
Only twelve interceptors converged to provide escort, a far cry from the hundred and twenty strong air wing that rose to meet the Eldar just a few minutes ago. Damned Xenos…
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"Stormguard Actual to all Storm elements, we've got the Xeno where we want them, we've got an air-strike inbound to soften them up and the artillery is finally set up and secure, with saturation barrages on the way! All units, you're free to maneuver independently. The counter-attack behinds after the first artillery barrage is complete, ETA sixty nine seconds and counting!" Colonel Fahid Roval spoke proudly into the vox. "We've done a good thing today, and we're about to do something even greater! I'm proud of every single one of you!"
He was in overall command of all armoured regiments the Guard had on Kronus, or at least what was left of them. He lost a lot of tanks and personnel during the fight with the Orks and consequent Tau treachery, however a lot of the hardware abandoned in the field would be recoverable if he won this battle. Unfortunately the same couldn't be said about his crews and drawing people from the other regiments would be merely a stopgap measure, one that would hurt future performance, just not as much as not leaving any recovered tanks back in the depot without crew. However, those were ruminations for the future, he first had to win this battle.
Venerable Leman Russ tanks made the core of his force, which he used from dug in positions to maximize their defensive advantages. He was lucky that his tanks were manufactured on proper Forge Words and were built up to speck, complete with all the advanced gear that they were supposed to have, otherwise the good old Russ would have been dead meat facing Tau armour in anything resembling realistic conditions. Even better, he had a relatively large contingent of tank-killers brought in case they faced Eldar armour, which ironically wasn't his problem – the Astartes were dealing with that monumental headache to the south.
Missiles, railgun slugs and plasma rained all over the dug in Imperial forces, and they responded in kind with direct fire, the few precious MLRS and other integrated artillery assets that General Alexander allowed him to control for this engagement. The command vehicle shook from a near miss, Roval could see tanks from both sides die thanks to direct feed provided by servo skulls and a few Necron equivalents skulking around, most importantly, he could see that the Necron armour was moving, fast too. By the time the artillery struck and the aeronautica was in position to rain hell upon the Tau, the blue bastards would find their escape road slammed shut behind them. Then they were going to die – Roval had precise orders, the Tau had to be destroyed as a field force today, and the Colonel was eagerly anticipating doing precisely that after what those blue freaks did to his regiment!
Hundreds of shells screamed overhead and Colonel Roval smiled a terrible smile. The ground shook with fire and thunder, the world doing its best to end through the intense bombardment.
"Stormguard Actual to all Stormguard Elements, attack! Show no mercy, offer no quarter! Kill them all! For the Emperor!"