Chapter Twelve:

Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, Archer, Sara Nubran Lunar Base

May 16, 7215

With full power and an active Titan in his control, Highlander smiled. Ghost voiced mirrored his thoughts, “I like having dis much power between my legs!”

The large hangar doors at the end of the bay began to swing open, as a voice came over the radio, “521st Titan Company, command has ordered the base on full Alert! Your orders are as follows…”

Mission Details

Mission Objectives: Objective 1: Protect the Base HQ. Objective 2: Protect Titan Factory. Objective 3: Protect the Medical Center. Objective 4: Protect Aerospace Hangers. Objective 5: Protect Emergency Center. Obj. 1: Destroy Hostile Forces. Obj. 2: Capture Enemy forces. Obj. 3: Destroy Enemy FOB. Obj. 4: Eliminate Enemy Commander. Obj. 5: Limit Civilian loss of life. Logistical Details: Operation Type:

Defense

Operation Location:

Beta, Sector 187, Pyillos System, Pyillos III, New Tarvanna City

Operation Terrain:

Temperate Grassland, Forest.

Operation Zone:

5,000 Clicks

Insertion:

Standard

Tactical Details: Hostel Forces:

Light Titan Company. Estimated 550 tons.

Assorted Armor Battalion x4

Assorted Aerospace Battalion

Power Infantry Battalion x5

Assault Infantry Battalion x 10

Heavy Infantry Battalion x 15

Light Infantry Battalion x 25

Civilian Assets:

Metropolis of New Tarvanna

New Tarvanna Emergency Responders

New Tarvanna Militia

Assets Infantry:

Infantry Weight: 4,000 Tons

Power Infantry – Battalion x2

Assault Infantry – Battalion x5

Heavy Infantry – Battalion x5

Light Infantry – Battalion x10

Armor:

Ultra-Light: 2500 Tons

MR-1970 Tomcat - Battalion x5

Light: 8500 Tons

MR-2100 Bobcat Humvee - Battalion x3

MR-400 Condor - Battalion x2

Marine:

Marine Weight: 1,000 Tons

National Guard Gunboat x10

Titan:

Light: 500 tons

Exicutor x8

Tomahawk x6

Squirrel x3

Thomper x2

Red Hawk x1

“Fuck!” Ghost spat. “Dat is a lot of manpower!”

Highlander could only agree with her. A single Infantry battalion held 1,000 men and women; that meant counting only the Light Infantry there was 25,000 hostile soldiers out there.

Breathing heavily Fireball almost gushed, “More for me to kill!”

Yeah… Highlander was pretty sure she was insane, but right now, it was the right type of crazy.

A map of the city came up on Highlander’s HUD. New Tarvanna was built in a roughly square shape almost 50km per massive side. Splitting the city into North and Souths sides was a river. Roughly, one-half the city sat on both sides with three large bridges crossing the massive river.

The North side of the city was bordered by thick woodlands. The south had Rolling fields of farms. The New Tarvanna military base sat on the South East corner of the city and had a 30-meter tall durracrete wall surrounding it. Heavy Laser Turret towers jutted up at regular intervals.

New Tarvanna was built like any modern city in the war-torn universe; with massive emergency bunkers spread evenly across the city. The block wide structures would take a direct hit from orbit or battalion of Assault Titans to crack in any reasonable amount of time. Designed to hold a million people for an extended siege, they were the universes ultimate civilian protection.

The bases command line had a split second of static before the voice returned, “Titan Jocks we are dividing up the city into four quadrants. First Platoon you have the Northeast, third Platoon you have the Northwest, fourth Platoon you have the Southeast, fifth Platoon you have the Southwest, and second Platoon is assigned as quick response. We are unsure where the enemy will be coming from, so stay alert. Get to your designated areas and report any enemy contact.”

Highlandr half shouted, “You heard our orders let’s get to it!”

Placing action to words, he sent the final commands to the Bay’s AI, having the scaffolding pull away from his Titan.

Exiting the bay Highlander used his map and headed for the closest gate out of the base. He was marching down a street when a radio crackled over his coms. Barely understandable from the large amount of static interference, the garbled words took him a second to parse.

“Highlander, please come in.’

Highlandr directed a bit of mental attention to his transmitter and refined the signal.

“Highlander here. Go ahead.”

The voice came in clear now and he could tell it was a young female voice, “Sir, Junior Knight Roso reporting in. I am with the 21st New Tarvanna Mechanized Infantry. We have been placed under your direct command sir.”

As she announced the info, a new line appeared on his Unit roster.

Highlander Fireball Ghost Xerkal 21st New Tarvanna Mechanical Infantry

He nodded after seeing a circle appear around a fifth blue icon on his map’s HUD. It looked like the unit was directly in front of him waiting at the gate. Zooming in on the map the single large blip split, and split and split, until finally hundreds of dots sat taking up most of his map. Eyes squinting in confusion Highlander examined the screen, and then zoomed out a bit.

A minute later, his unit rounded the last corner, bringing the gate into view a half kilometer away. To the left of it on the parade grounds, used for just this purpose sat the 21st. Highlander’s confusion cleared immediately. The 21st was a mixed unit; composed of two full battalions of MR-400 Condors, a full battalion of Light Infantry, and half a battalion of Heavy Infantry.

The condors were a fast lightly armored hover vehicle. Primarily used as a troop transport in the same way that the Humvee’s of the 22nd century were. They were crewed with one driver and had room for 3 passengers and a gunner on a machine gun turret. The craft was more lightly armored than the modern wheeled version, but had a top speed of nearly 250 kpH. This actually made it where his Tomahawk was the slowest unit in his command.

Seeing that the infantry were formed up in formation Highlander ordered, “Load up and fall in line.”

Like a well-oiled machine, the unit was loaded and moving out as the Titans filed passed a minute later.

15 minutes later and they were coming to a halt in the center of a massive bridge. Spanning the massive rivers nearly 2-kilometer width the bridge was located roughly dead center in the massive city. They stopped at a nearly invisible crease denoting one of the numerous sections that could be raised for Marine units or civilian shipping to transverse the blue-green waters that rushed underneath.

Zooming out on his map Highlander could see the approximate location of the other Defending units, including the New Tarvanna militia and Quick Response teams. Each type of unit was color coded for easy recognition.

Seeing the other Titan Packs were nearing their areas Highlander made his action plan. If they just stood there, they would grow lax and then react slowly when something did happen.

“Junior Knight Roso, I want you to divide up your unit into five detachments. Then assign one detachment to each of my Titans. I’ll be sending them out on moving patrols.”

A second later the radio chirped, “Understood sir. Creating detachments now.”

Highlander flipped over to the Jocks only channel with a mental command, “I want each of you to split up and take a section of the city. Get out there and start making counter clockwise rotations. Do not get repetitive and use the same roads. Try to stay evenly spaced apart too. We have a speed edge so, let’s use it here folks. I’ll be staying in the center for now. In two hours, we will rotate the central position. Make it happen Jocks!”