CHAPTER XXVI: TERROR FROM ABOVE

High above Jeranu the Ravens kept close air support for the slowly descending Military Airlyters. The forty Gretch attack probes stayed close as well.  Inside the two hundred Drop Ships the Sith Kyries were suited up with circular aero-propulser packs with enough fuel for ten minutes of flight. They were armed with twin winged  launch tubes containing Sulfra homing missiles that were programmed to self-launch at pre-selected city targets once image-locked.

The Drop Troopers themselves would have to rely on weapons casings dropped along with them that would follow them to the ground at a distance. These were loaded with KA-47s, magnetic thermal detonators, and DM (Dark Matter) ball charger shield generators.

The Drop Ships were about to reach their drop point and all two hundred of them split up from the main group along with fifty escort Ravens and twenty Gretches. The other three hundred Airlyters proceeded with their descent into the heart of Jeranu. Panicked Red troops outside the capital made urgent requests to re-enter the city. Communications were in progress when suddenly fire erupted inside the city.

Red Army Field Commander Wilbourne spotted the break away at his forward command post near the Red and Gold Army Headquarters and ordered the Aerial Turbo-Repulsers to open fire as soon as the descending craft were in range. At 10,000 feet the Turbos lit up the sky with a barrage of fire. The Ravens then swiftly swooped down to destroy them with a volley of Nexia missiles and T-Packs. But the hail of fire was intense with most of the missiles being destroyed in the air along with twenty of the Ravens.

The Drop ships then commenced unloading their troops. Huge exit ramps opened at the rear of each Airlyter as groups of Drop Troopers lit their aero-propulsers and flew with continuous referencing Lectrovision sights. As soon as a target was sighted, the Sulfra homing missiles launched automatically and image-locked their targets. From the streaks in the sky it was becoming obvious to the Whills on the street that the targets were military in nature.

The first Sulfras hit the Red and Gold Army HQ, reducing it to burning rubble. Thousands of Sulfras rained down on the city striking the Fleet HQ, Military Sensor Stations, the Red Army’s forward positions and parked military equipment located in the heart of the city. As the troopers flew to pre-planned staging areas thousands of weapons casings rained down to the ground. As soon as the Drop Troopers landed they immediately detached their aero-propulser packs and scrambled for the nearest drop casing to unloaded its contents, arming themselves with as many weapons as they could carry.

Fighting broke out immediately between the Drop Troopers and Red Army troops in the city. Many of the Red troops in hardened positions had watched the Drop Troopers slow descent and took the opportunity of firing on them when they were most vulnerable. Thousands of Drop Troopers died as the Red troops opened up with their SH-5 assault turbo-pulse rifles, watching  Sith blood spray from their convulsing bodies or burn to death once their aero-propulsers were hit. Other Red troops rushed the landing  Drop Troopers with Thermion Staffs and ran them through with a vengeance. The city’s Turbos kept up a continuous stream of fire on the Ravens and landing Airlyters, whose Kyries jumped off the exit ramps in large groups. Many came out firing in all directions, cutting down Red troops and Whill civilians alike. The bodies of friend and foe lined the streets as powerful fire fights erupted.

Here and there around the city the scattered one thousand armored Ball Rovers and Vulkan Mechquin responded as soon as the Airlyters approached for landings in the street. Many Airlyters were hit by the Ball Rovers' discharger fire, but the landed Kyries often approached them from behind and hurled magnetic thermal detonators onto their armored hulls- blowing them to bits. The Mequin Royal Mounted fared little better as they raced with speed throughout the city streets locking onto and destroying many Airlyters  with twin dischargers before succumbing to a hail of fire from masses of concentrated fire from hundreds of KA-47 Hailstorms. The Titan Class Vulkans were armored as well but their slung turbine engines were prone to fire and many mounts died as the fuel lines became ruptured. This caused an immediate explosion which tore the mounts to shredded pulps of mangled flesh. Many mounts burned to death as they frantically rushed the landed Kyries who were forming up and marching through the streets killing every Whill civilian in sight.

The Turbos were cutting through the Raven defense and hitting many of the Airlyters, their fifty Drop Troopers and Kyries blow to pieces or burning to death in erupting fireballs. In the space of twenty minutes firing more than sixty Ravens had been destroyed and close to one hundred Airlyters. Yet the Sith continued to strike the city’s core installations and communications were cut again after two Sulfras took out the hypercom relay tower near Crystal Lake. Military coded light signals and probe com carriers tried to keep communications open, but the Gretches knocked them out in furious low-level attacks.

In the War Room, the Tactical Holomorphic Display Grid now was covering three areas: the battle in the Valley, the Garvin Heights approach, and now the capital. Imperator Bevins demanded frequent updates from the field, but the com channels were down again. The war in the Valley was just about to heat up as the Sith Black Army approached the gap even as the Gold Army prepared to engage the Sith with everything they had.

The Amber Commandos at Garvin Heights monitored the situation gravely, knowing that the Sith held the upper hand and would certainly break through and head for the capital. The main concentration of Red Army troops were frantically trying to re-enter the city but were already being engaged on the streets by thousands of armed Kyries. Everyone in the War Room could hear the powerful barrage by the Turbos and the thunderous sounds of explosions nearby. It was only a matter of time before the Palace of Light itself was struck. The Queen nervously paced the floor as she watched her beloved capital under assault by the Sith.

Not far away, near the Sacred Temple, Lady Kaliah’s mount Dark Beauty had been racing across the countryside when the Airlyter Drop Ships first appeared. Looking back on the High Hills estate, she watched in horror as streaks of Sith missiles headed toward the beautiful mansion she had grown up in.

Commander Stavane was watching the smoke rising from Jeranu through his lectrovision device when the Sulfras hit. The mansion erupted in a huge mushrooming fireball, killing all fifty Amber commandos and laying the estate to waste.

Lady Kaliah felt weak, her heart aching for the unnecessary loss of life, but she was determined to reach the temple before it was too late. She regained her strength and tugged hard on the impulse controls sending Dark Beauty racing forward in the midst of battle.

I must reach the Sacred Temple before the Sith arrive. The Holy Book must not perish and along with it, we the Whills. We are the Founders of Light from the Beginning whose visions have guided the galaxy towards peace. The warrior Sith must not be allowed to prevail here- at any cost. Darkness cannot be allowed to rule the galaxy.

Meanwhile, the remaining Ravens were taking hits from the concentrated firepower of the Turbos. Altogether, eighty of the hundred star fighters had been shot down or destroyed. The forty Gretches had all survived and were staying low, not following the Airlyters but moving away from them. This caused the loss of over one hundred more Airlyters- a total strategic loss of nearly 10,000 troops, leaving the other surviving 15,000 to fight the capital battle alone. A lone Raven pilot tried to re-call the Gretches but all com link transmissions were rejected. Had the Whills jammed them somehow? Or was this part of some master plan Lord Rexor had in mind?

The Raven pilot would never find out as his inattention for the moment cost him his life as his ship was hit by a Turbo barrage, breaking the Raven in two in a mid-air fireball.

Below his falling fiery wreckage, the three hundred Airlyters that did manage to land or drop troops now placed 15,000 troops firmly on the ground. They were to assemble near Dreyden Park and slowly move towards the inner city. They were NOT to move back towards the outer city perimeter to engage the 90,000 Red Army troops attempting to re-enter the city. That would be handled by the Gretches.

The Dark Master himself had planned the destruction of Jeranu and had ordered Suvoi to modify the new GR-25N models with a secret self-destruct timing mechanism. No Gretch had ever possessed such a device- it went against the very purpose of the machine and Suvoi‘s reputation, “attack to the death“. But the Dark Master personally assured the leader of Suvoi Industries that this device would kill more Whills than ever and that Suvoi would forever be remembered in the chronicles of time. Suvoi complied but wondered how this would be accomplished. The self-destruct mechanism was placed within the Rekurium-S core with a substance that Suvoi knew nothing about- a shielded injector of some sort containing some form of radioactive material.

Back at the Sacred Temple word had just come in that a scout party had witnessed the destruction of the Queen’s High Hill Estate. The Amber Commandos were is shocked dismay, but for Boman Braggs it was devastating news. His heart sank and he raced to mount his Vulkan once again only to be stopped by the veteran Commander Blair at gunpoint. “If she was there Boman, then she is surely dead and you cannot do anything about it,” Blair stated plainly. “Your duty is to serve the Queen and you are to stay here and help us guard the Sacred Temple. Lady Kaliah would have wanted it that way, son.”

Boman dismounted and, lost in  distress, wandered back to the outer defense wall after saluting Commander Blair without a word. Blair re-holstered his weapon, but to make sure Boman didn’t attempt a third try, he disconnected the fuel feed lines inside the Vulkan’s slung underbelly turbine engine, letting the fuel seep out of the side panels and pour into the street.

Boman didn’t know if Kali was alive or dead, only that his heart was broken once more. Looking down at his custom light saber Kali had help him build... he wondered if everything they had been through in life was in vain. The Sith were winning this war and darkness stood to rule the galaxy should the Whills perish. No one else in the galaxy could bring peace and without Kali in his life, Boman might just as well have been better off living alone on Na’Bayia forever. All hope seemed lost.