23.1

Chapter 23.1 Operation Shiroyama Part 3.

3029

Lockdale

Green Base

With the alarm going I rushed out of the room. Colonel Marcus Shield, of Homeguard would be taking over command for the defense as it stood. Since, while I had been busy shipping metal out of the system, they had been practicing learning the ins and outs of the defenses.

While I had slept, after a long day of pushing buttons on my noteputer about what to construct. They had been practicing.

While I talked with mercenary captains, and argued contracts. Homeguard? They had been practicing.

So I wasn't that worried about the defenses. I am pretty sure Marcus would murder me if I tried to interfere in his moment.

The poor boy. It was finally his time to shoot some enemies.

But while the red alert alarm ran through the entire base, I had a few ideas to ensure this wasn't going to go bad.

Plus. Well… I slowed my breakout sprint now that I was alone, "Fuck!" I cursed smashing an armored fist into the hallway wall. "Fuck fuck fuck!"

I rested my head against the cold wall. This was a fucking disaster. I tapped my head against the wall a few times. How was I going to fix this? A Cameron? That name had so many connotations both good and terrible.

If I was named Skywalker I would have less problems!

I would have to deal with this. But another time. When I wasn't about to defend my people from an attack.

At least this gave me an excuse to run away from the Highlanders… Would I have to thank Theodore for rescuing me from this?

No. I don't think I would. I hurried off. Enough feeling sorry for myself. I had a job to do.

I ran into one of the hangars. My private one in fact. One that I used to make stuff if I needed to do it myself with a Nanoforge rather than a factory. It was quiet here. My people were busy manning weapons and preparing defenses. Hangars weren't going to be as active Especially not mine.

Since the Hangar was out of the gravity, so you know. It could be used as a hangar. I floated up to a wall I pressed my hand against the secret panel, and it opened revealing a room. Well. It was technically a mechs cockpit. It would give me access to the Nanoforges in the hangar. That I had complete control over.

Technically I could do this from a mech as well, but the hidden room was just…

Fuckin awesome? Fuckin Awesome.

So I settled in, dropping the neurohelm on my head and starting up the system. Instantly I was connected. Screens all around me updating with everything, Including a holo map of the entire system.

It also registered me as active in the communication channels.

"Commander."

"Marcus. What do you need?"

"Nothing for now Commander. I'm assigning firing solutions as we speak. We won't hit much from this distance, but I figure throw enough metal at them eventually someone will make a mistake. Or at least tire them out. I imagine being under constant fire for twelve or more hours won't be fun." Marcus replied voice only. He was probably in the war room staring at his own stellar map.

I stared at my own. Zooming in, looking into the ships of my enemies, and frankly?

I was a little shocked at what they had brought.

"Marcus, that is a lot of nukes."

"It is Commander." He offered dryly. I ran from dropship to dropship, checking holds, checking what the sensor was telling me. Most of the dropships had either ASF, or Mechs. In fact any space that usually would hold tanks, was replaced with mechs. Or nukes.

Weirder was almost all of the dropships that carried ASF, also had cargo bays full of… Junk? Literally junk. One had farming equipment? One had what looks like building supplies? The ones that didn't have scrap had Missiles. A lot of missiles. Nuclear missiles. I tore my eyes away from that fact to notice even more.

Every ASF Theodore had brought with him, was carrying at least one nuke. The fighter itself… They had strapped nukes to the noses of the ASF.

"They really are breaking out everything." I grumble. Where did they even get this many nukes!? My hands were already running through my noteputer. I would need more AMS.

A lot more AMS.

And I would need it farther out. Very likely, by the time the nuclear missiles came into range of Green Bases AMS, it might already be too late.

"Okay Marcus, I'm going to work on reducing the nuclear threat. If you need anything let me know. This is what Homeguard was made for. I believe in you."

The line was quiet for a moment. "We won't fail. There is no failure for Homeguard Commander." The line ended. I nodded. Good man.

Now it was time to do some fuckin goofy ass space engineers level engineering. Fuck. I suck at games like this!

—-

A different perspective

Theodore Kurita

"Tai-sho. The station is attacking as expected. We are initiating maneuvers. We estimate an hour after retro burn we will grow too close to properly avoid all incoming fire." Theo nodded. The captain of his new Colossus was a skilled dropship Captain. One of the best in the Combine. Captain Takamori had been the only choice to captain Theos' Colossus.

It had been with his help, and the brilliant minds of the entire Combine working together to get this plan working.

"Understood. Do everything you can to minimize damage, and ensure our arrival."

"Of course Tai-Sho!"

Theo turned away heading off the bridge. This part of the battle would as always be outside his hands. Of course his ship was well protected by other dropships, but there was nothing he could do any further.

As he left he noticed Yorinaga waiting for him. The man, unlike Theo, had chosen not to wear one of the recovered ISDF armors. Instead wearing an old SLDF cooling suit.

"Your anxiety has been noted. Calm. Remain as still as lake water." The older man offered simply, seeming to be completely unbothered by the fight to come.

Theo wanted to grit his teeth. To snap back, but instead he swallowed it down and nodded. Firming his face into a cool mask. Yorinaga nodded then.

"I wish there was something I could do. I don't like being forced to rely on another for my survival."

"That is war."

Theo wanted to snort at the dry reply. Yes. It was, but that didn't make him feel any better. He had been in dangerous drops before, but this was…

It was a Kamikaze.

Theo alone knew his father had sent an order for Theo not to go on this journey.

It had been thrown aside. Theo knew he could not follow that order. He felt it. That he must be here for this fight. How could he ever call himself Coordinator if he did not act when needed?

"You should not have come." Yorinaga offered as if reading his mind, earning a swift chiding look in return.

"Keep your voice down." He ordered instantly. The morale among the men was already bad enough.

Yorinaga ignored the chiding. "You were given an order by your father not to come."

Theo pursed his lips. Apparently he was not the only one to know. "I was, but this is something I must do."

"You will face death today. Are you prepared?"

"I am… A message was sent to my father about my children. My wife and children are making their way to Luthien, in case I fall here."

For once Yorinaga actually looked surprised. Earning a moment of humor from Theo. So the older man was still human yet.

"I see. I congratulate you on your marriage, and the birth of your heir."

"I do this for them. So that even if I fall, they will find their inheritance still exists. For the Combine. I will sacrifice my life, to ensure my children will see it."

"Then you are ready." Yorinaga nodded firmly, looking pleased.

"Come. I want to ensure everyone else is ready as well." Theo ordered stalking the halls. He would do his best to ensure discipline was maintained.

"Understood. Heika."

—--

A different perspective

Mike Haufenpfah

Mike was a little concerned when the red lights had turned on along the ceiling of every room and hallway.

"What's going on?" Mike asked, turning towards the only armored form in the room. Simon was a good man. He had made sure Mike could get recordings all over the station, and had managed to get him interviews lined up.

He also was the best cook on the station. So Mike made sure to make sure he was always kind to him. Never anger the cooks after all.

"Red alert means inbound attack. One second." He ordered walking over to the comm units on the wall. A press of a few buttons, and a message began playing.

"Warning Combine attack detected. Multiple jumpships detected."

The automated message blared through and Simon shut the comm off after a moment. The man seemed to take a moment, a deep breath before he regained himself. "Alright. All of you will come with me. We will put you somewhere safe."

"No." Mike denied instantly, he looked to his crew, and received hesitant nods all around. "We are here to capture the fourth succession war. We didn't expect to see much combat, but we did expect to see some. Let us set up somewhere." Mike wouldn't let this opportunity slip by. He may be stuck on this station for now, but he still got reports from all over. His crew capturing battles knee deep in mud on worlds all over the Inner Sphere.

The Combine was dying, and he would be damned if he failed his duty in capturing this.

Simon sighed, his broad shoulders sinking. "Alright. Follow me, I'll get you access to an external view bay where you can set up some cameras, after you go where I tell you to stay safe. Deal?"

"Deal!"

—--

"So if I put this fucking thing here. It should keep it from spinning itself apart… Hopefully." I grumble. Seriously designing a spacecraft… If you could call it that. In the span of a few hours was bullshit. Luckily. I was a cheater, and I didn't need anything someone had to pilot.

The design was taking shape. And by design… well function over form. I switched the comm channel over to who I needed to speak with. "Duncan. I need a few shuttle pilots. Send them down to my hangar."

"What? Commander!" His voice staticed as I had basically connected to the room he was in to get my order through. "Alright. I'll… figure something out. Anything else?"

"No, that will be fine!" I cut the channel. Okay now to attach the design to an actual shuttle craft… And let it disengage. I didn't want my kids outside in a shuttle if I could help it.

I flipped channels. "Marcus. I'll be sending out some orbital defenses shortly. Here are the details." I forwarded the design to his command computer.

Having direct access to everything in the WarStation through a neurohelm was amazing…

Wait. Shouldn't I have one of these set up for Marcus too? It would probably speed things up… Fuck.

Next time.

"Commander… This is the ugliest thing I have ever seen… I love it. I'll forward this to Mara, she is doing our firing calculations, she will tell you where to place them."

"Don't tell me, I'm having Duncan send me some shuttle pilots to move them out. Just connect Mara to them.."

"Will do."

I cut the comms. Setting up the order. The hangar burst into a massive green light as all the Nanoforges built into it activated at once.

Then I switched to a little extra bit I had been working on while designing this station, but I hadn't ever finished.

There was a limit on how much time I could dedicate to it while building it after all. But now?

Well fuck I had nothing else to do but build!

This was easy. I had done turrets before after all. In fact it was almost relaxing. Most of the hangars in Greenbase were currently empty. So I simply locked the doors remotely, and turned up the green juice. It would take time of course, but as I checked a screen noticing the stream of metal supplies I could only watch as it kept dropping and shooting up as things were built.

A beep alerted me to a message. I almost didn't answer it…. "Yeah Eris what is it?"

"The Northwind Highlanders are suited up, but I don't know where the Royal Highlanders were stored…"

"Right. Right. Let me.. Check." I lied as I quickly checked my production bays, finding one that wasn't in use, and queued up a few Royal Highlanders.

"How many Mechwarriors do they have with them?" I asked as I was queuing the numbers. Fiddling a bit with the paint scheme. Luckily the paint scheme I was looking for was actually in my database.

Helm had a lot of shit after all.

"Eight."

"Alright. Eight mechs are on their way to hangar B6. Once they are active. Hook them into the Homeguard defense channel. Marcus will tell them where to go."

"Understood Commander… Vicky. Where are you? We are about to be under attack, and I don't even know where you are."

"I'm in hangar A1. I have a bit of a surprise for all the Nukes the Combine are bringing to the party. Just get suited up Eris. I'll be joining up with the defense once the time comes. Until then I'm better used, setting up a few surprises."

"Fine. You do realize we can't have you get killed here right? I mean you ar-"

"Psssht! Sorry Eris, Can't hear you too much static! Pssht. Call you back." The line died as I punched the end call button.

Fuck. That girl had better not open her damned mouth! I wouldn't be able to keep this quiet if it hits the rumor mill!

I sighed. Okay. This would help. Hopefully enough to keep anyone from tasting nuclear sunlight.

I focused back on my little surprise. It was coming along well. I ran through a few checks, to make sure that the fire control was actually connected. Each turret would be fully contained. Fire control, Heat sinks, ammunition.

My hands blurred, running through my noteputer, looking for anything to push another idea forward. Another way to stop the damn Samurai from ruining my day. I just needed to… do something.

—--

A different perspective

Theodore Kurita

They were approaching the true danger zone. The sight of the Station ahead of them firing round after round into his ship's path, had caused more than a few worried glances out the window.

Thankfully Captain Takamori had been right. While the Station was constantly lighting up from its guns firing. Thanks to a console that had been added to his Colossus that had apparently come from a Warship, they were better able to read the firing solutions, the ISDF used, and continue to avoid them. ComStar had provided the oddest equipment to him. But Theo had no time to consider where they had gotten it.

It was now that they were hitting the mid point that the enemy would begin to understand their plan.

Theo spent a quiet moment in his thoughts. He was already strapped into his mech. As were all of the mechwarriors. All the better to potentially survive if hit.

When the dropship moved past the midpoint, where they would normally begin retro burning, none of the dropships did so. No. Instead a split appeared in the dropships. Those containing the Samurai readying for the battle ahead shifted to better engage their thrusters to avoid incoming fire. While allowing their gathered acceleration to continue catapulting them towards the asteroid. The others, those carrying the ASF with their deadly payload?

They sped up. Accelerating even faster.

This was now a battle of endurance. First because the Mechwarrior dropships were burning to their max thrust at random intervals from side to side, to change their reentry corridors to avoid the Naval weapons from the station.

Second. Because those aboard the forward dropships, would be forced to experience the max acceleration of their dropships from now on.

Theo breathed out, grunting as the thrust pushed him into the seat. But this was nothing, for it lasted only moments. Soon the retro burn would begin and it would truly not be pleasant. Every mechwarrior including himself had been fitted with an electronic device that would track the G's they were undergoing and squeeze their body to keep their blood to their brain.

It would help. But their endurance would be tested. After all, the plan was to hit maximum thrust on the retro burn to try and limit the time the Station would be capable of firing. Hours of high G thrust.

He would endure. His people, Samurai all, would endure.

He flipped a switch, a prepared message sent out over the channel. A recommendation from Captain Takamori. And Theo was glad he had offered his advice. Because gritting his teeth would have made a speech difficult. But sending it now? Sounding calm and collected. That could only help.

"You were chosen. Not for your honor. But for your lack of it. You faced the honorable choice once and turned your back on it. So your family suffered. Today. You are faced with a second chance. Succeed here, and your Honor will be restored. To be named by the Coordinator himself in the records of fallen Samurai."

"Your family will be taken care of. Your sons will have opportunities to become Samurai. To pilot mechs, or become leaders of the Combine. Your daughters will be treated as Princesses. Your wives will be honored and housed by the Coordinator himself. All you must do in exchange today. Is your duty."

"You must die."

"But like all Samurai. You will die, taking your enemy with you. Banzai."

The open Comm channel was closed soon after. So as the frontline Dropships broke away. He was not forced to listen to the crys of Banzai, being returned over and over.

—--

"They aren't slowing down. The hell are they planning?" I groaned looking over their equipment with a sensor once more. Lots of nukes. Lots of mechwarriors… No, I realized it. Lots of mechwarriors in the slowly appearing second 'row' of dropships. Ones that didn't have nukes!

I flipped the comm. "Marcus, tell me you noticed what I just did." I burst into the War Rooms comms without preamble.

The line was quiet for a moment. "No. Tell me." He demanded a moment later, chatter filling the background as everyone tried to figure out what I had seen.

"The dropships aren't retroburning. The first row of dropships are the ones carrying nukes and ASF. The second row behind aren't carrying any nukes, but have their mechs. I bet, they are going to try and commit a.. What the fuck is it called? Who cares. A flash strike? The first row won't slow down. They are going to keep accelerating, just zip right past us. But launch their nukes. We will be dealing with canned sunshine while their mech dropships retro burn."

The channel was full of chatter for a few minutes. I waited, listening to arguments and discussions. Finally I realized they probably forgot I was here.

"Marcus, I want a probable course for those dropships if they aren't going to slow down-"

"You are wrong Commander." He cut in instantly.

I blinked. Well that was… Good?

"They aren't going to bypass us. They are going to ram us." He spoke utterly confident.

Oh.

That was way less good. "Shit. Even if we hit them we will still have massive chunks of metal raining down on us…" I mutter, thinking about what I had seen on board their ships. "The scrap. That is why those things are full of garbage!" My mind raced. Naval weapons would do a good job of taking them out… But even if we take out the dropships that will still be a lot of metal accelerated towards us.

"Commander, make more of your little ships. Having them absorb some impact will help."

"Will do."

I took a moment to wrack my brain. Even as Green light burst out in the hangar. I didn't want shuttles to be outside with the enemy getting even closer, but sometimes needs must.

But I had a feeling my extra surprise was going to need an upgrade… A lot of upgrade.

—-

A different perspective

Mike Haufenpfah

Mike had a grand seat for this adventure. After a bit of back and forth, they not only had cameras set up in a viewing room that was set up outside on the asteroid.

Apparently Vicky enjoyed staring out over the asteroid on the ground level. It was a tiny room connected by a long tunnel, and it led to a small dome that allowed someone to sit and look out over the surface.

It was perfect.

But he wasn't there.

He had tried, but after Simon informed him frankly, that the dome would likely shatter if anything hit around it, he had decided to leave a camera there and nothing else.

Instead he was in a room that had been set up to connect to many of the external cameras! He had the same sight as all the guns that were pointing out into the blackness of space!

And all were being recorded. It would be hell later to go through so much footage, but it would be worth it.

So he was staring at a dozen screens along the wall that all showed different sights.

"Mike we have a problem." Allen whispered as he came up beside him, purposefully looking calm to the rest of the crew but Mike could feel his tension.

"Hit me."

"We have exterior cameras. I did a check. Tried to figure out just how much metal is rocketing at us right now. We should evacuate. Now."

Mike frowned but wiped it from his face a moment later.

Allen was ex-LCAF. He actually used to be a gunnery officer on board a Dropship. His experience on dropships, and big guns had helped Mike plenty of time on the sets of The Immortal Warrior.

It had also saved his life a few times when groups got a little too eager to have control of the show.

"Brief me."

"Too many drive plumes. Way too many. This isn't a raid or something Mike. This is a full on invasion. The ISDF has some serious firepower here, sure. But I don't expect this to be a clean run. The snakes wouldn't attack like this unless they had a plan too."

Mike sighed considering. He had signed on understanding he could die during this his crew had of course understood that they were at risk too. But he would do everything he could to keep them alive.

"There isn't anywhere to go Allen. We don't exactly have a jumpship to run towards. And the planets in the system are dead."

Allen shifted uncomfortably.

There was a reason Allen wasn't in the LCAF anymore.

He was a bit of a coward. Perfect for work on movie sets. Not so good in stressful situations.

"Allen. We are in this now. The only thing we can do is record as much of it as possible, and if we win. Great. If we lose. We hope whoever is in charge is a fan." Mike joked. Looking around. He noticed all of his crew were watching. Despite the whispered conversation. He hadn't been quiet enough it seemed. "We all signed the contract, didn't we? We all agreed to record this for posterity. We can do that here. Hiding away. Getting images of guns facing space… Or we can go out there and record one of the biggest battles of the Final Succession War." Mike reached over and grabbed one of the cameras.

"I know what I intend to do."

He walked out of the room. His crew to a man racing after. They had a job to do. Live or die.

—-

A different perspective

Marcus Shield

Marcus had been staring at the system map for hours now. Zooming in and out at different times to check on the equipment of each dropship. To see if there was anything further he could use.

"Colonel! Hit on one of the lead dropships!" The call came out to a cheer from all of his staff. He smiled, zooming out to see the map show a real time display of the dropship turning itself into scrap.

"ASF launch detected! It seems they are reacting." Another voice called out and Marcus watched as every dropship started releasing their fighters. Now that they had lost their first dropship. It seemed it was time.

"Begin flak screening. I want every AC we have firing!"

If nothing else, hopefully the thousands of rounds they were shooting off into the black would hit something.

And so it began. As the dropships with mechs began slowing hitting huge G's to slow down in time. Probably causing half the crew to pass out just from the force. The forward facing dropships continued to accelerate. Their ASF with them.

The loss of life was going to be staggering. Marcus couldn't help but think before remembering that to the Combine the numbers here were nothing. A drop in the bucket. The loss of equipment would hurt them more.

That only fueled the pit of fury growing in his belly.

"Colonel! Nuclear launch detected!"

Marcus scowled. Damn them. The dropships had begun launching their nuclear missiles simply lobbing them at Green Base. Some would fall behind the acceleration of the Dropships themselves, which would mean they would be facing a rather consistent barrage for quite a while if they kept this up.

"Tell me we have a firing solution on these dropships?"

"We are working on it Colonel! This is complex Astrophysics here!" A call came back and he huffed.

Fair enough. It wasn't like he was good enough to be making those calculations himself.

He hoped they were ready. Homeguard would be getting a baptism in fire, in a very literal sense if this didn't work out.

—--

A different perspective

Natsuo Hitomaki

"Banzai." He whispered to himself. It had been a slowly repeated refrain ever since the Tai-Sho and his speech. Natsuo had once proven himself a coward. Had caused endless trouble for his family. And now he had a chance to ensure his son would not be tarred by the same brush.

No, his son was brave. He would learn well in high level schools. Become a Samurai!

"Banzai!" He grunted as the G forces had taken their toll. Acceleration continued. Everything came down to the initial assault. The Fortress 'Green Base' had too many weapons. Too many defenses for a normal assault to work. They had to soften it up so that the Samurai could land.

That is when they recruited Natsuo. A skilled pilot, and now. A man that must succeed. He clicked the button again. Launching another few Nuclear tipped missiles on collision course with the base. They would hit long after Natsuo was dead.

But they would hit.

He closed his eyes as he fought against the G's. The dropships had been modified, everything that wasn't directly necessary for him to pilot it forwards had been stripped out. Replaced by armor. Fuel, or additional thrusters.

It was less like piloting a dropship, and more like piloting a missile.

But he was sure it was coming. His death. The enemy fire had grown stronger. Already the rate of casualties had gone up. Leaving streams of metal and activated nuclear weapons on a collision course with the Fortress.

Or at least that was the hope.

"Banzai." He grunted as he adjusted his angle, ensuring he would hit even if he was struck by one of their weapons.

That was his job. Do everything he can to ensure even if he is killed before he hits, that his dropship lands.

Luckily, as much focus as his dropship was getting, Even more was being sent towards the ASF ahead. The fighters that were much faster than his dropship, had accelerated ahead. The ASF nuclear missiles would be first. The brave pilots would be second. Piloting their nuclear armed ASF to guide the missiles in. The dropships Third. The barrage of nuclear weapons they had been firing for some time Fourth.

Four waves. Before the Tai-sho would be there. Hopefully it was enough to keep the defenses distracted. No. It would have to be enough.

Enough that something must get through.

He watched ahead in a flash of light as a fighter disintegrated. Hit by the defensive batteries of the Fortress. He breathed out. "Banzai!"

Something happened. A flash in his brain that something was wrong.

And then nothing.

—--

I watched as more and more ships began to falter. Our batteries growing infinitely more accurate when it took less and less time for each round to actually reach their target.

The fact that each dropship was exploding into a cloud of debris that was still on it's way only made the whole thing frustrating.

There was no way we could destroy every piece of garbage heading our way.

Luckily with the sensor we could focus on the nuclear weapons in the debris. Yet, to my annoyance the Combine were going to extremes. Even the escape pods of the dropships had been weaponized. They auto deployed whenever a Dropships died, and would burst out of the wrecked ship, and then reorient towards Greenbase.

The damn things were full of bombs. Nuclear or not.

Seriously Theo, enough was enough!

I was in a frenzy continuing to build more of my surprises. It had become too dangerous for my shuttle pilots to head out, So instead I had put my little spacecraft on a launcher, and gave them a little booster, and just thrown them out the hangar.

Just for something to do.

Marcus was taking care of it pretty well, but I was feeling antsy.

My comm chirped insistently. Again. I had been pushing that particular comm request to the side for a while now, but if I didn't answer I bet she was going to come find me.

And well. I gave in.

"Eris, what is it?"

"Finally! Commander! You need to stop whatever you are doing and move it. That Hangar isn't nearly protected enough in case of a nuclear attack. The enemy are getting close enough that it's time to move into the interior!"

I hesitated. As I watched another of my little ugly ships launch out into space.

She was right. The accelerating Dropships would be here soon.

"Alright. I'm moving to the defense point."

"Thank God. Hurry up please. The Northwind guys are getting antsy with you being so close to the surface. They are ready to come grab you, if you don't get down here."

"R-right… Of course." I mutter, so awkward! I didn't want to have these mercs getting all protective, that was weird!

I cut the channel. Took off the Neurohelm, as I floated out of the hidden room. I could just see some of my little ships boosting up and out of the tiny gravity of the asteroid.

I turned, hurrying out of the hangar. My preparations would have to be enough. It was time to get somewhere safe for when shit hit the fan. Because it would.

—-

A different perspective

Marcus Shield

"Let's hope this works." Marcus said watching as the nuclear missiles, ASF with a death wish, and dropships burned into the danger zone.

He flipped the comm to an open channel for the full base. Every room, every hall would hear him.

"This is Colonel Shield. All exterior hatches need to be locked down. All bulkheads will be closing in five minutes. Enter into your assigned defensive bunker and strap in."

He already was. A chair bolted to the ground with a full harness including a neck guard.

Vicky was a little excessive about safety. "Alright people. Let's shoot every piece of debris out of the sky."

The sound of the guns echoing through the base picked up. The faint vibration went from a faint staccato to a massive constant rumble, as everything began firing.

Despite the accuracy of the sensor, and the pure amount of gunfire coming out of Greenbase. It wasn't easy to shoot at missiles. Much less ASF fighters that were pulling so many G's Marcus was pretty sure half of them had already died, and they might just be using a computer pilot by now.

The speed of the incoming enemies was… Just a little ridiculous.

"This is Commander Eisen-Blume." The voice suddenly echoed over the rooms comm. It took a moment for Marcus to realize it was an open frequency. She wasn't speaking to him. She was speaking to the Combine.

"I know you are sacrificing much for this. I can respect your dedication. Your sacrifice even as I despise it. Calling for your own people to commit suicide to try and kill your enemy is a failing of a Commander."

"I am sorry, that you were born into the Combine. To be led by such despicable men. To never be treated with the care you deserve. I promise you this, Combine Kamikaze pilots. I will find out after this, who you were, what your names were. I will ensure that they will not be forgotten. Even as the rest of the Samurai behind you are forgotten to the ravages of time."

"But I also can not allow you to complete your task. I wish you luck in your next life."

There was a pause. As nothing happened.

"Also… I suppose I should thank you. I always wanted to do this, but never had an excuse before." She muttered.

Marcus looked around, the others in the room his officers, and gunnery experts, all looked confused.

And probably a little exasperated.

What the hell was Vicky planning!?

"I made a big red button just for this you see. Goodbye."

A moment later a squawk from Mara. "Commander! What the fuck!?" The scream came in just as Marcus felt it.

The entirety of Green Base began shaking, and Marcus realized after a moment what it was, as the sensor system suddenly lit up.

"You crazy bitch."

Marcus stared, as it looked like almost the entire front of Green Base exploded.

As thousands of Killer Whale Launchers fired in tandem. Each of them informing the Firing control system in the room what they were targeting.

"I call it Macross Missile Massacre!" The comm offered a completely un-insightful comment from his Commander.

But of course she sounded thrilled. The laughter was a little evil, but you know what? Marcus would let it go this time.

Because that was a lot of missiles heading towards the speeding ASF and dropships.

—--

A different perspective

Captain Takamori

Takamori stared in awe. This Green Base truly was a surprise. Even at the distance his dropship was at, as it retro burned hard to slow, he could still see the smoke trails spread off the asteroid fortress. It looked like a blooming flower. As it unfurled.

But a deadly one without a doubt.

"This woman truly is an Iron Flower." He couldn't help but admit. He closed his eyes. The amount of firepower released would destroy much of the first few waves.

He may very well be seeing the turning point of the battle before him.

Truly battle was beautiful.

"Captain?"

"Nothing. Nothing. Continue with full retroburn. We must trust in the courage of the Kamikaze. We carry the heir of the Dragon. We must not fail."

"Yes!" His crew called back, but Takamori took another moment even as the G force continued to push down on him to appreciate the view of the asteroid base.

"A deadly flower"

"Blooms beautifully red in war."

"The Dragon lives on."

He considered it for a moment. It could use some more work. But it was a pleasant enough remembrance for this.

If he survived he would need to write it down.

—-

The sensor was the only thing that allowed us to keep track of what was happening. I was deep in Green Base now. In the cockpit of the Phantom.

The amount of explosions happening above our base was a little ludicrous.

Killer Whale missiles were monsters. Made for tracking and killing ASF, they were fast, and incredibly accurate.

The problem was, the speed we were dealing with. The ASF I fired at, were traveling more like kinetic kill weapons. Then fighters. They had spent hours accelerating at their maximum.

So the Macross Missile Massacre had one real point to it, and it wasn't to wipe out the entire enemy force. Although it might do a good chunk of that.

ASF fighters would never rush straight towards the barrage of missiles. They would try to dodge, to juke.

My thought was. Hey if they dodge too much, they will probably zip right past Green Base. It's not like at the speed they are going it's easy to adjust your path. So they either dodge too much, and miss the base, or don't dodge and get hit!

I am a super genius!

I almost wish I had little fans, and some robot crabs… Putting that on the list. Washu was my spirit animal after all.

That was what I was hoping for. Put enough of a threat in front of the ASF fighters face, and hopefully they would flinch.

Watching the explosions begin. I could only shrug.

It had done something. But not quite what I wanted. The ASF had released all their normal missiles first. Then most of the fighters had slowed down with only a few maintaining their speed.

The fuckers actually waited until the last moment and detonated their nukes. Taking out huge swathes of my Killer Whales.

And unfortunately letting a lot of fighters through.

But there were still more missiles, and the ASF were forced to react again.

Some of the ASF had then tried to dodge the Killer Whales, some managing it considering the speeds they were operating at, some failed and were hit, turning their ASF into scrap racing towards Green Base. Some though didn't even try to dodge. Instead a few had worked together and literally screened the killer whales. Letting one ASF through for every five or six that were guaranteed to be hit.

Brave bastards.

So that was that. The enemy were here.

Green Bases other weapons continued to fire, and I watched as even more of the ASF failed to survive lasers that arced out. Although still the skill of the Combine pilots was not to be denigrated. Some continued to dodge, or work together in teams to shield a few of their fellows just to keep getting closer and closer.

More and more enemy missiles were launched.

But it was the ASF themselves that were stealing my attention.

The damn things were basically manned nuclear missiles at this point.

Closer and closer they came.

Until the first missiles came close to my little surprise spacecraft.

They weren't exactly pretty. Bricks floating out in space above the surface of Green Base. Well spiky bricks.

Because they were basically solid armor, with as many AMS as I could fit along their outer section, a fusion engine, a sensor system, although not my good one, and enough ammo to fire their AMS for a good while. It was…

Ugly. The sort of thing a child would make.

But as the missiles the ASF had fired started getting close. They engaged. My Fusion powered AMS bricks opened up. And created a near solid wall of AMS fire. Instantly many of the approaching missiles disappeared, some exploding, some simply being stripped down fast enough they couldn't even engage their explosives.

When the first nuclear missile went off, it took a few of them with it, but that was fine. That was the whole point.

Anything to reduce the risk of this battle.

But it wouldn't be enough. The ASF flew right past. AMS systems weren't able to lock onto their frames. And then it was down to the green base defenses.

A second Macross Missile Massacre exploded out from around the base as I hit a second large red button. As LRMs by the thousands screamed into the sky.

Each ASF would find itself facing a wall of LRMs all searching for it.

The explosions started not long after, and I stared as more and more of the ASF fighters were turned into particles as their frames were sanded down by the never ending missiles.

But even that wasn't perfect. Some of the ASF launched even more nuclear missiles, and the explosion wiped out the LRM defense. Creating the path through.

If you didn't mind flying through the remnants of a nuclear explosion.

I guess they should be thankful. Those men were dead either way.

"All hands. Brace for Impact!"

The alert sounded and I did just that.

The entire asteroid shuddered.

Once and then again. And again.

The Nukes had landed.

—--

A different perspective

Theodore Kurita

"We confirm multiple Nuclear detonations on target. We have damaged the defenses!"

Theo let out a breath of relief. "Captain, how many impacts?" Theo was quite happy that it had worked. The amount of fire the Station had put out had already destroyed more dropships than he had hoped they would lose over all.

Just another sign that the ISDF must be ended. Here and now.

"Three confirmed impacts Tai-Sho."

Theo winced glad he was hidden within his mech. So much sacrificed only to land three nuclear weapons?

"How long until the second wave?"

"Ten minutes."

"Inform me of any changes."

"Understood!"

Three he thought. Hopefully it would be enough to break open the massive rock.

—-

A different perspective

Marcus Shield

"How much have we lost?" Marcus demanded only moments after the after shocks hit. The base had shuddered, but not a single light had flickered.

Vicky built bases good.

"Multiple weapon platforms are offline. Sending repair requests!"

"Exterior cameras are damaged, but sensors are fine!"

"Exterior hull is damaged! Hangars D3 to C4 are venting atmosphere! Locking them down!"

Marcus nodded, checking himself the display that showed all the weapon systems. One of the Naval Gauss had taken a hit by a nuke.

But this was Green base.

"Regain firing solutions! Add repaired weapons into the barrage! I don't want those Dropships to touch our walls!"

"Understood!"

—--

A different perspective

Mike Haufenpfah

His crew were racing. Footage of the nuclear strike had been recorded and saved.

What a crazy situation. But he was grinning. If he survived this, it would be an amazing documentary!

"Mike!" Caroline called out rushing down the hall barely stopping as she grabbed his arm. "Come with me right now, You need to see this!"

Mike wasn't one to argue with someone speaking in that sort of tone, so he grabbed his camera and hurried after.

Green Base was like a maze inside. Sometimes branching hallways would lead to nothing just circling around until a dead end. Usually with a water fountain, or a small restroom with a bench there waiting. As if whoever had decided to design this thing had a twisted sense of humor making someone walk for a mile only to realize the path they were on was a dead end.

Sometimes you would find yourself losing gravity depending on if the section you were in actually connected to the gravity device. But for the most part it all made sense. Other than those odd paths.

Those really weird paths.

But Mike let himself be pulled along, Caroline was a solid sound crew. She wouldn't call him if not for something important.

The shudder of the nuclear impacts aside.

That had caused everyone to take a few minutes to smoke or just be thankful they were inside.

Then Caroline turned a corner into a Mechbay,

A Mechbay currently in use, and he slowed to a stop as he looked over the gantries.

"See!"

"Yeah. I see." He didn't say anything more. Because that was when he turned his camera on.

Because he knew what those colors meant. He had used them once in the show.

It wasn't everyday though that you saw eight pristine Royal Highlanders, wearing Royal Blackwatch Tartan.

"Get that mic active Caroline. We have some interviews to do!"

—--

I watched as the dropships filled with garbage and nukes began falling into the accurate range of our guns.

The fact our first barrage took out two of them, must have given them a shock. Do you think nuking me is enough to put me down? Hah! The Nano forge repairs meant we hadn't lost too much firepower, only a few of the gun battery structures on the outside of the base were gone. Usually where it was too hard to get a nanforge in place without letting the whole solar system see the green light.

So the guns began firing, and already some of the dropships broke apart. But the worst part about these dropships was that even if they were destroyed we had to keep firing at them.

Honestly I had to give Theo credit. The rain of debris that was falling onto Greenbase just from those dropships would be keeping us occupied for a good while. Plenty of time for his retroburn to get his mech filled dropships on point.

At least, that was his hope.

And I rather enjoyed crushing the hopes and dreams of tyrants.

The guns fired over and over. The few that overheated, or took damage, were repaired in a flash of green and continued firing. And now? With how close these dropships were getting, it was shooting fish in a barrel.

The Dropships that remained continued firing missiles and weapons forward, the sneaky buggers even dropped their nuclear filled escape pods.

And so the Samurai charged.

And so they died. Naval Large lasers cutting swathes in the debris fields. Naval Gauss targeted active ships to knock them out of action, and Naval AC's began roaring into the sky. Barrages of firepower that made the Ko Artillery park look like preschoolers playing plastic army men.

Round after round went up, and in exchange, metal that was coming down was destroyed, knocked out of its trajectory or simply disintegrated into more manageable size.

All the while my little AMS bricks lit up the sky. Their tracers bright red.

—--

A different perspective

Theodore Kurita

The image before him was beautiful in a way.

They had finally come close enough to see what they were. Small satellites that were covered in AMS. How they had so much lostech to waste it on these oddities confused Theo all over again. But watching them was… Interesting.

When they fired, it was like… A flower blooming. Theo scoffed at himself. Wondering if perhaps it was a purposeful act by Eisen-Blume. It was beautiful though. The streaks of red were so dense at times that you couldn't see the station behind it through the streams of red. A twirling red arc. A Hanabi, Fireworks, in the sky.

And then a detonation would occur.

Theo was thankful most of these weapons were not the Combines own. Too many wasted munitions. If he was Coordinator he would have been forced to order his own death with how wasteful he was being with their nuclear stockpile.

But it had been agreed. This was the only way to get through the dense array of guns sitting atop the Station. Either destroy enough of them to land, or use nuclear weapons EMP to damage the targeting systems.

The concern had been, there was something at play. The Warship when it had been struck, it hadreacted instantly, the men sent to destroy that monster had been wiped out before they even realized they were in danger.

It was partly why the assault here was so continuous. Hit them hard enough and keep hitting them so they didn't have time to destroy his forces.

It was only through the knowledge that Green Base was nearly empty at this time that even gave them that hope. Theo knew there would be serious losses before landing. But if enough of his men landed, there would be few defenders left.

That was what they had learned from a ComStar adept posing as a Mercenary. The first intel they had gained on what this 'Green Base' was like.

He had been confident with how empty the base was as the adept was given a tour, that they had a limited guard contingent. Relying mostly on the overwhelming power of the naval weapons.

Well Theo was here to remind the Inner Sphere, that Naval weapons could be defeated.

He just hoped he would survive to see it.

"The Ikari was hit… They are confirming they will launch drop pods."

Theo was listening to the chatter among the bridge. He had been connected to their comms, so he could understand the situation as the Captain did.

"They will likely be unable to slow enough." Captain Takamori responded simply. Theo nodded. The man was honest. The deaths of those mechwarriors would be almost guaranteed. Best to let the crew understand what would be at risk if they were struck. If they failed.

He grunted, as another maneuvering burn was engaged. The sweat pouring down his face was testament to just how many G's he had been forced to endure in this action.

But while his men would be tired, they would fight like wolves. They all understood that if they fail they die. There would be no retreat from this attack.

But this was it.

The civilian dropships meant to distract the enemy, and hopefully actually manage to land were ended. Not a single one managed to make it through to hit the asteroid.

But the debris would.

Thousands of tons of debris sprinkled with bombs that were set to detonate if they got close to the asteroid.

It would have to be enough.

—-

The fact we managed to stop any of the Kamikazi dropships from crashing was only half the problem. The guns were still going. Blasting bigger chunks of the 'falling' dropships out of the sky. Reducing the damage the mass of metal would do when it rained over my asteroid.

The many bombs, and nuclear missiles still coming in, were being taken care of as best as possible. Considering they weren't manned, and their paths were now 'locked' in, we were making good time taking them out. Some of them would still hit. I knew, yhere was just too much junk in the sky, too many of the missiles were protected by hulks of falling dropship.

"Commander."

"Marcus, what do you need?" I asked, I was mostly focusing on repairs through out the asteroid now. There was nothing else I could do.

"We have a problem. We can focus on the missiles and debris, or we can start shooting at the enemy dropships."

I realized what he meant. The debris landing would do a good job of covering the dropships final re-entry. A lot of guns were about to go offline when the nukes hit. We could keep firing at the debris to limit damage to Green Base, or we could just start popping dropships.

It was a hard choice to make. The nuclear weapons weren't likely to kill any of my people. We were deep enough inside the base to prevent that, but it would rip out chunks and damage structure..

It would mean the few dropships that managed to land would have direct access inside.

On the other hand. Focus on the nukes, meant more of the enemy dropships would land, but they would have to go through a more intact and capable Green Base.

In the end. The idea of letting DEST teams access to the base without at least a couple of stable blast doors in their way made my decision for me.

"Marcus. Focus on the nukes. We can handle the mechs and infantry once they land. But not if we don't have walls to hide behind."

"Understood Commander. Full focus should be on the enemy nuclear weapons!" He called out, obviously speaking to the war room.

I sat back. A few more Killer whales were readied as well when I had a moment's thought. If the nukes started getting too close, hopefully a little missile on missile violence would help. Although the fact the targeting of the missiles was basically dead, as I was firing at 'dead' metal made them mostly useless against anything. I had tried firing a few Killer Whales out into the metal just to see, but the lack of anything to lock onto meant for the most part the missiles were simply crashing into the debris.

Then falling back down.

All the while the battle raged. Cannons fired, and the first debris started landing. Large thunks, echoing through the long corridors of the base as more and more trash hit.

The first non nuclear bomb hit with a bang, causing a rumble through the base, and according to my sensor taking out a chunk of my LRM turrets.

That was added to the repair que. But more and more came. Trash smashing into our turrets, damaging, or simply pinning the weapons under tons of metal.

Then. All was quiet for a moment.

Then suddenly it wasn't. The base shook like crazy. The first nuclear missile of this barrage slipped through.

More weapons went offline. I launched a few Killer whales from my control console. To try and stop a few more that looked like they might slip through.

And it continued more garbage and trash taking out more and more weapon systems. And in a not funny, but still sorta funny way. The trash was causing more issues for me than the nukes.

I could repair a damaged system. I really couldn't remove the scrap. Not unless I wanted a massive green light to pop up right in front of the oncoming combine.

Another nuke.

This one hit a hangar and dug deep into the base. But I was able to seal some of the outer doors, and start the nanoforge on sealing off the damage.

That was one hangar that would literally lead to a solid wall of armor if the combine thought it was a weak point.

And it continued.

The crashing noise that echoed through the base continued, on and on. I could watch the sensors as my Homeguard did their damndest not to allow even one more nuke through.

I kept them topped up on weapons, as best as I am able, but it was a ridiculous task.

Seriously Combine? Where the hell did you even get all these nukes? Did you grab every single nuclear weapon from the Combine strategic stockpile?

Yet, in the end, while it certainly scraped plenty of defenses off the front of my base with each blast. It wasn't an impossible task to repair.

A final Nuclear impact rocked the base, and for the first time there was a shudder in the lights. It had damaged some of the power system, but my redundancy had simply re-routed around the damage. With a few seconds of work, it was repaired anyway.

Then. As the sky above cleared for the most part from the threat of nuclear weapons. The approaching dropships were all that was left.Awarded ×19191