[005 - C] Langley System

[Hades]

Langley III
Base Camp

"Hey, don't run in the corridors!"

Lieutenant Osoba was ignored completely by the two children, and he was fine with it. In fact, he too had once again ran through corridors much like these, chasing some of the other officers' kids. The difference between him and the younglings that were now running around blissfully was that they would get a chance to live with a sky above their heads.

For better or worse, the massive plutonium deposits on Langley III had managed to get the government's attention. With a massive fuel crisis in their hands, they were earger to revert to less advanced but just as efficient methods of warhead production: fission. Conventional United Systems Military doctrine dictated that fusion warheads were always preferable to fission or fission-fusion hybrids thanks to their negligible fallout, but when given the choice between dirty nukes and no nukes, then that was no choice at all. After much controversy, the Department of Colonial Affairs approved of the colonization of Langley III.

The people in the colony were privileged. In the past six months, they had witnessed the most massive terraforming process in the history of mankind occur. Trillions of dollars had been spent to take Langley's sulfur content down to zero, and within a couple of months, the task had been accomplished. Instead, a copious amount of carbon dioxide was released, increasing the average temperature of the ice planet by ten degrees over the period of a month. The ecologists cried out in anger, but the colonists were more than happy to be able to spend more than a minute outside without freezing.

In return for the funds, the colonial administration had pushed plutonium mining to the verge. Shiploads of the precious heavy metal were shipped back to Sanctuary every week, thanks in no small part to the efforts of the drones.

Of course, the focus on mining had put other matters into delay. The colony defense systems weren't even complete, even six months into construction.

What the Lieutenant didn't know was that they would be very much needed today.

[Hades]

Langley III
Base Camp - Control Center

"Jump signature!"

"Resolve it!"

"Unknown configuration, they're definitely not our supply of meds!"

"Talk to me, lieutenant!"

"Four kilometers plus, its engines... Its engines match the Alarei signature..."

"Weapons?"

"Negative, our gun batteries are offline. We still haven't fixed the targeting mainframe."

"Get me Sanctuary on the line..."

The colony's head of security was not a happy man right now. He snatched the phone from the operating station, muttered a few words into it and then slammed it shut; as soon as his attention was diverted back to the operators, his hopes were once again broken.

"Enemy ships are loading ground strike missiles, nuclear payload. We've got a few minutes before they are ready."

"Reinforcements are on their way..." he muttered, finding it hard to convince even himself. 'Get everyone down to the bunkers."

[Hades]

USS Orion, SSBN-70
Combat Information Center

"Skipper, jump complete!"

Captain Osoba was relieved. The jump drives had done exactly what was expected of them: they had taken care of transit to the colony of Langley, and put the battlegroup in a low geostationary orbit around the third planet. He just hoped that the distress call wasn't real, that it was an exhaggeration, that it was just a mistake; to have to fight a second battle in the same day would be extremely inconvenient for everyone involved.

His hopes were crushed as soon as the RADAR operator spoke out. "RADAR contact, Alarei dreadnought bearing one seven eight mark zero one six. Configuration's the same as the last one, sir."

He just had to hope that luck would be on their sides in this engagement as he looked down to the map. The artillery systems were ready, so that was an added bonus; he just hoped the Carentan's nukes would be ready in time to save the third and final colony after the next jump.

"Spool up our FTL drives again so we can head to Chicago, commence fire with all batteries. I want an artillery barrage on that ship, now!"

---

Starboard Launch Tube 58
Hastings Cobra 087, Callsign 'Psycho'

For the second time this day, the fighter of Lieutenant Sam 'Psycho' Andrei was propelled through the confines of the launch tube and into space. He barely caught a glimpse of the massive artillery barrage that the Orion fired at the Alarei ship the moment its batteries had a firing solution, which tore into the hull and tore it to pieces. By the time he and his comrades got close enough to the dreadnought, it had been all but obliterated by the missile barrages and the countless artillery shells that had been plunged into its hull; they only finished the job, and within seconds, it was all over. The Alarei ship was torn to pieces, a reminder of why the artillery weapon system had been installed aboard the Dauntless-class dreadnought.

The first task of the pilots after that was not to go get some sleep, but to make rough combat landings on the deck of their carriers and prepare for the next deployment. There was one more colony left to save, and not much time to do it.

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