The fall of House Dredd 6

Lilk raced up the landing ramp and into the idling star ship in the palace hangar.

Once she was inside, she pulled a data-chip out of her pocket and placed it in a slot on a console on the ships bridge. Barley a second later the ship was filled with a blue glow as the hologram of a blue woman appeared above the console.

"I'll get the ship ready, leave everything to me." The blue A.I. woman said as she began starting the ship so that they would be ready to leave at a moment's notice.

"Thanks Saph, I'm going to make sure the others got onboard alright." Lilk said to the A.I., Sapphire.

Lilk and the others, apart from Cliff and Ash, had all made it to the hangar bay and most were currently boarding the ship so that they could evacuate. Sabine, Xaz and the old master warriors were preparing to defend the hangar bay from any republic troops that might try and attack them.

They hadn't heard from Cliff or Ash since they had made it to the hangar, but they were hoping that the two warriors were okay and were just too busy to activate their comms.

"Multiple contacts on the motion sensors" Xaz shouted to the rest of them as he pointed his blaster at the hangar bay doors.

The defenders tensed preparing to hold off the enemies that might be about to poor through the hangar doors. Sabine had a knife in each hand and was using the force to levitate five others behind her, their wickedly sharp tips pointing towards the doors ready to be launched at any unfortunate enemy to break in.

The hangar doors opened but instead of a onrushing squad of republic soldiers they revealed a group of droids.

The defenders relaxed as they realised that the droids were friendly and were the reinforcements that had been sent to help them. The droids ran into the hangar and began taking up defensive positions.

The final droid to enter moved towards the ship and it became obvious to everyone that he was carrying an armoured figure across his metal shoulders.

"Cliff!?" Sabine yelled and rushed up to the droid, "Is he okay?"

"I'm fine, keep telling these droids I can walk on my own but Alpha here insisted on carrying me." The armoured form of Cliff said from his place on Alpha's shoulders.

"You have multiple broken bones and have lost a large amount of blood. Walking would only exacerbate your injuries. Please stop resisting our attempts to help you." Alpha said in a monotone.

"See only a few broken bones and some blood loss, I'm fineee" Cliff said, his armour was cracked around his left side and was matted with blood from both himself and the republic soldiers he had been fighting. His left arm also hung uselessly by his side, the bones in it clearly broken.

"Ugh, put him down over there," Sabine said gesturing over to the landing ramp of the ship, although she was acting annoyed she was happy that Cliff had re-joined them and was clearly able to keep fighting if he had the strength to joke around.

The defenders got back to setting up their defences with the droids now there to help them.

"Another contact on motion sensors" Xaz shouted, and the defenders once again tensed in preparation for a fight.

This time the doors opened for a armoured figure to slide into the room at high speeds before rolling to a stop in a prone position. The figure then fired the big sniper rifle in his hands and a second later a mine that he had implanted in a corridor wall exploded.

The distant screams of a squad of republic soldiers sounded as the explosion lacerated them with fire and shrapnel before the hangar doors closed once again sealing them in the room.

"Alright Ash?" Xaz called out to the prone sniper.

"Yeah, you?" Ash asked back.

"Same as ever, how many are out there?" Xaz asked.

"Lots" Ash told him.

"Brilliant" Xaz said sarcastically.

-

"Launch all bombers, have them target the enemy ground forces as well as strategic positions. Send a squadron to level the enemy spaceport, I don't want any ships leaving the planet's surface.

Have our escorts hunt down the rest of the enemy fleet and start positioning us and the Remembrance for an orbital bombardment." Admiral Pryll ordered his crew who fearfully obeyed.

The bridge crew of the Titan were terrified after the admiral had ordered the Sand Eater to self-destruct and weren't eager to try and question his orders.

The hangars on the Titan and the Remembrance started spitting out republic bombers and their fighter escorts and soon a mass of small craft was racing towards the planet's surface.

The bombers began arranging them selves in large V-shaped formations as they flew.

They entered the atmosphere away from the Aria city and then began flying fast and low towards it.

"All squadrons listen up. You all have your targets programmed into your targeting computers so no excuses for you missing your drop points or getting lost.

Most of the marked drop points are danger close for the infantry on the ground but the admiral says not to worry about that. Do not return to the fleet if you still have bombs in your ship, we have been ordered to do as much damage to the city as possible, that is your priority.

Green squadron break of break off once we are about to enter the city limits and destroy the enemy spaceport, lapis squadron will break off too and provide you with a fighter escort.

Everyone else will proceed to the battlefield in the city centre and begin our bombing run. The ground forces haven't been able to crack the enemy defensive line, so we are going to blow it right open.

AA defences on our approach have already been delt with by the ground forces but there might be some left inside the city limits, they will be the responsibility of the fighters to deal with, everyone else focus on the bombing run." The commander space group from the Titan ordered the bombers and fighters from his position in the cockpit of the lead bomber in the first V-formation.

The bombers flew over the city and began their attack sequence.

-

Diz Dredd grimaced as he took cover inside a simi-ruined building.

Rubble rained down on top of him from a massive detonation from a bomb dropped just outside the building. The enemy bombers had blitz through the battlefield and laid waste to everything in their path.

The surviving warriors of house Dredd were now scattered across the ruined battlefield and were fighting back bitterly against the republic forces.

The republic soldiers hadn't been able to escape the bombing run unscathed however. The close proximity of most of their troops to the house Dredd positions had led to a lot of friendly fire casualties from the bombs dropped by the republic bombers.

"My Lord!" Rus shouted as he staggered to his feet from his position on the floor, he had been knocked off his feet by the over pressure from the bombs.

"The spaceport has been hit! Damage reports indicate several of the civilian ships have suffered serious damage from falling bits of the spaceports roof, the hangar bay doors have also been damaged.

….We wont be able to evacuate the civilians from the space port without doing repairs and with the enemy fleet baring down on us I don't think we will get a chance to do that." Rus reported, his voice strained.

Diz cursed in frustration, anger, and sadness. The reality of their situation settling in.

"Try and reach the republic fleet, maybe we can negotiate for the safety of the civilians." Diz told Rus suddenly feeling very tired.

"…I can't get through. The republic fleet is receiving us, but they just aren't responding." Rus said and Diz cursed again.

"Order everyone to fall back to the space port. We'll try and hold the republic off while the engineers try to fix the ships enough for the civilians to evacuate.

Its going to be a long shot but its all we can do." Diz told Rus and Rus ran off to relay the order.

Diz then brought out a portable holo-communicator and rested it on a small table before kneeling in front of it and removing his helmet. After a moment the image of a young girl appeared on the holo-communicator, worry shown on her face.

"Dad! Are you okay? What's going on?" the holographic girl asked in concern.

-

Lilk looked at the image of her father in concern, he looked exhausted and defeated.

"Dad! Are you okay? What's going on?" Lilk asked worry clear in her voice.

The hologram of her farther flickered as an explosion rippled through the background, there was clearly a pitched battle raging around the man.

"I'm sorry little one, I know I promised we would be able to spend more time together but I don't think that is going to be able to happen." Her farther said a sad smile on his face.

"No, dad what do you mean" Lilk said, her voice breaking slightly as a bit began forming in her stomach at the implication of what her farther was saying.

"You will need to evacuate in your ship immediately, the fleet has lost the battle in orbit so it will be dangerous but it is your only chance." Her farther told her firmly.

"But dad what about you?" Lilk asked, desperately hoping the answer wasn't what she feared.

"The spaceport was destroyed and the republic space craft are launching bombing runs against the city…. You are the only ones you have any shot of escaping off planet." Her farther said solemnly.

"We could wait for you. You could still escape with us." Lilk pleaded.

"NO, Lilk listen. There isn't any time you have to leave now." Her farther said sternly.

"Dad please, I don't want to leave you behind." Lilk said tears beginning to prick the sides of her eyes.

"I'm sorry little one, you have to. You will be the leader of the survivors, you will need to stay strong." Her farther said before turning to look behind him as another explosion detonated somewhere out of view of the holo-video.

"I have to go. stay safe little one and remember I will always love you." Her farther said with a smile on his face as he put his helmet back on, his face suddenly blocked by its expressionless visor.

"I love you too dad…" Lilk said trying to stop herself from crying as the hologram in front of her winked out of existence.

Lilk sniffed and rubbed her nose on her sleeve before trying to act strong, "Saph, get ready to leave I'll go get the others outside."

"Okay, we are ready to go as soon as everyone is on board" Sapphire said softly, the A.I. not wanting to upset the girl by bringing up the conversation she had just had with her farther while they were in a crisis but silently promising to help her through it once they were safe.

Lilk just nodded as she ran towards the ships ramp to make sure everyone fighting to defend the hangar got onboard even as she began letting them now what was happening over the comm.