Varnos Front War: Chapter 1 “If Only I Could Do More”

The wind blew over the beach in the cool summer air. Sirene preferred vacations like this. Just lost somewhere on a small island, alone on the sands of the beach. Well, she wasn’t totally alone. Sirene did have a few friends from SOL over to party with her on this private island on NOVA. The rich from SOL had vacations on NOVA all the time but they mostly stuck to the corporate owned commercial islands. You either had to be very rich, Corporate Royal mostly likely, or a certain kind of employer to get access to one of the private islands. These islands were in the southern hemisphere, dotted all around the SP Military base nicknamed the ‘Hawaii’ after a nearby city. Sirene was the latter, and right now she preferred to not think about work while on vacation.

“I hear you worked a good job but to have access this island… well I am impressed Sing” Said Ice, a former schoolmate from her college years, pointing at the horizon of the setting sun as she walked up.

“Don’t call me that for God’s sake, you know I hate that nick.” Sirene replied back with a cheeky grin turning to see her.

“Oh and you will beat me to a pulp like that poor guy the other night at the bar that you told your nick too.” Ice replied.

“Yeah, well, he was talking to a his superior, so I put him in his place. It's not like he will be hospital that long,” spoke Sirene sheepishly, “and I was drunk.”

They both laughed.

“You really didn’t need to invite us--” then Ice faded out like a hologram turning off.

“-minus 12 minutes to exit of Hyperjump. Prepare end of REM hyp-”

Sirene stood up on the beach letting her shoulder length blond hair blow in the wind. She looked down at her 6’ 1’ figure in that white bikini she’d never gotten around to wearing and sighed. Maybe her body would be gleaming the fading sun showing off the long hours in the gym, and training on the job for anti-personnel combat scenarios. Not that having top-of-the-line nanite enhancements of her muscular system was considered cheating by some in the health and beauty world. She looked back at the beach house and remembered spending this night not with Ice, but with fellow Wing-mates and Starfighter pilots. Joking, drinking, and having a good time during those few final days and nights before getting to middle-of-nowhere deep space.

Suddenly Ice reappeared in the same way she disappeared “--invite us to NOVA. I am busy you know.”

“With handling a major trade deal going your corp is in the process of bidding. You would never be able to be here cause we talked two weeks ago about it.” Said Sirene cutting off Ice who was now confused.

“Wait, when did we talk about this. Two weeks ago?! Sing this better not be a joke” whined Ice

“It is,” A flash of a XSF-123 Cockpit appeared in haze like a from fog in her face “- ** eactor Green, All Weapons Systems Green, HYRlO Sensors Green, Optical HUD systems Green, All**-” then just vanished into to warm air of NOVA causing Sirene to teeter drunkenly.

“Sirene, you look pale.” Said Ice but now in a concerned voice that now echoed instead of blowing away in the breeze of the beach air. She looked down at Sirene who collapsed to her knees in the pure shock from visual flash. “Are you alright?”

“I will be in a sec.” She Cringed.. I hate this part. She cried out as wild coyote screech leapt from her mouth and her skin sizzled, charged energy from an unknown source. Her brain was overwhelmed and Her vision faded a moment latter as everything dissolved into back to the simulate void is had come from.

--

Sirene’s eyes opened to a three layer Starfighter HUD.

The Base HUD was a spray nano smart paint feed from optical sensors across the Starfighter turning the whole cockpit into a 3D 360’ transparent view to the outside. Beside this nothing else had changed much from ancient jet fighters on earth except a little more room for the pilot since the cockpit was whole section inserted into fuselage of the craft.. At the moment it was displaying computer exaggerated rendering of the much more boring blur of hyperspace screaming by.

The Second HUD layer was in front Sirene’s from her airtight combat helmet. It mostly overlaid her vision with status of the fighter and her vitals. Though all this info could be pushed to either Base display or her eyes nanosystems. She just prefer it to be on her helmet. Some maybe the latent desire to feel like the jet fighter pilots of earth from a bygone era or something like that.

Third and final layer was her Atlantean Star Grade Nanosystems in her eye's vitreous humour with embedded nano-nerve contact that acted as back up. This fed combat system her current visual focus and what eyes were tracking.

Though all of this was redundancy it for the nano-nero interface in her lower C-spine all the way through all of her T-spine that allowed her brain via nanites to drive the fighter even if she was without appendages. Sirene never got a good answer from the R&D Arm if she was piloting her ship or was she just the back up for the starfighters AI systems? She really didn’t know anymore than that and after spending almost decade in these machines they started to feel more like another skin or secondary brain and far less like smart AI machine at a unsettling level. But in the end to Sirene was a means to an end. You could fly better than any other methods know and that was all that mattered in the end.

“Status STiM?”

“Systems are green. You are ready for exiting Hyperspace into combat zone in 4 minutes.” Said a calm, slightly feminine voice with a touch robotic cad cane to is measure. Sirene did not like her machines to sound more human than they had to. So a vocal profile mimicking her own and slightly modified to sound less human did the job to make if feel non human.

“Good, send confirm wake up info blast to all fighters.” She commanded. Within seconds one hundred and twenty five fighters confirmed they were online and pilots were awake up signal from deep REM sleep. It had been a long jump from the SP’s 2nd Mobile Fleet staging at almost six hours an 10 light years from the fleet. But Sirene wanted this drill to as realistic as possible given they might just deployed in similar methods. Also she knew this was only way to see if they might survive the worst case scenario situation. Sirene had both a personal pride and deeper reason she hoped they could succeed at this drill. If they did she just might be able appease doubt in her mind that they might not all make it back from this upcoming operation. But how was one to plan for operation that not even the 2nd fleet admiral had any clue about. Sirene opened a wing wide comms channel making mental note that first thing when she got back was to the Never Zero was grill Admiral Fraiser about what the heck High Command was planning.

“All right prepare to yank us out of hyperspace. Do it now!” With that order all of the Starfighters came out of FTL within seconds of the order all in one huge forward facing pyramid formation.

“Colonel Hardraft, here. All units check in.”

“Bitch’s Mane all Green Ma’am” Said 1st Lieutenant Fairs I wish I never lost that bet.

“Coma’s Punch all green Sir” joked Major Byes. At it again I see calling me names.

“Drunk Joysticks all green Ma’am” Captain Balecost replied. We are really shit bags when it comes to squad names in this wing.

“Glass Skies Help all green Ma’am” Captain Can called out. Or fucking lame at coming up with them.

“Dark Light’s Death all green SIR” Major Nira emphasized the last part with her infamous joking yet honest accent. Oh they done fucked up now.

“Majors’ would you like some special treatment this drill? Say BLOODY 3 HOURS AT NINE G’s?!” Sirene was Fuming. Some of the 2nd Wing swore was personified super giant for how often she snapped at people. But given the second and third in command always were pulling these sort of verbal jokes and teasing her every moment they were around her not it was as if she had some justification her for her flare ups.

The laughter of the two major’s broke across wing wide come only to followed by screams of horror as their star fighters suddenly started to accelerate without orders.

“I would have left you alone if you didn’t try me but it seems you both decided your fate. So have fun ” Sirene voice was disturbingly calm as everyone remembered why she was a Hardraft. Her attitude was what her maiden name implied she was not one to be messed with.

Two Star fighters broke away from the formation at steady 9 G’s acceleration with no internal dampers on. Both majors would be medically stable, thanks meds and nanobot enhancements of their bodies. One could be sure their would be much contemplation, while being pounded back in their restraints, to consider less infuriating methods when tease their CAG. Until then they had private non verb chat discussing the finer points Star Fighter acceleration curves.

Back in the main formation Sirene barked the final orders to the 2nd Wing.

“All right we all know what drill plan is so follow your squadron commanders orders. AR scenario 1230-56 supported by Never’s Zero 1st UM Squadron as aggressors is a go.”

And with that all all squadrons of IIDs SP 2nd Star Fighter Wing broke off into their own formations. With two lower lieutenants from Coma’s Punch and Dark Light’s Death now commanding as relief for the preoccupied major’s that were in High G ‘training’.

Sirene open private laser com channel to Master Sergeant Rails who was in her Squadron.

“Do you think they are ready for deep space combat?”

“I don’t think anyone can be ever ready for Open Space Combat in a star fighter Ma’am. Honestly the best we can do is hope we never have to be launched into such a scenario. You know space combat theory 101”

Replied MSG Rails with his radio announcers accent soothing her ears with its clear long waved vibrations.

“Throw many missiles as possible and block as many as you can with your PDL’s(Point Defense Lasers) at range then Kinetic Energy Blot slug-fest at close range.”

Sirene knew this was just team building and realistic training outside of sim tanks with some op tempo jump time for the X-52s Hyperdrives. But still maybe they could try to defy three centuries of META space combat theory. Rails yanked her dreams back to a realistic orbit.

“Yes and we both know our fighters would be shot down by any good PDL’s system this side of NOVA before we could bring to bare our SMACKs at optimal range.”

His voice ringed with the titanium truth modern space combat. If you were anything the size of a Starfighter caught in open space by average warship you were dead as fabs gnat in water no matter the numbers.

PDL’s could rip a Starfighters shields apart at ranges far before even the experimental starfighters of SP, which LTC Harddraft’s Wing was flying, could scratch the hulls of warships or let alone dent the shield’s of one.

“Right, Xin. We really are just fucked a million comets to Twin’s if we got into a fight with anything bigger than a frigate sized or bigger.”

Sirene knew this drill was for the worse case scenario they could be sent into fight. With the numbers of the wing they had a chance to get through this fight at least if followed the Battleplan exactly which should happened but in real combat almost never happened.

“You are trying to at least get everyone ready for the operation. I had commanders in the GSN(German Space Navy) never even did training beyond Sim Tank. Boy did we lose people the first real contact we had over Franke’s Nine. But remember there's only so much you can do before fate make its own calles. Anyways talk after.”

And MSG Rails disconnected the Laser com channel from his end.

Sirene felt relieved and ready for high G Combat as the AR’ systems came online and began counting down and at the zero Sirene's robotic AI vocal doppelgänger chirp

”AR Stimulation commencing”

A surge of electrified pain and adrenaline rush through her body as life support systems began preparing her body for G's maneuvers and into maintain alertness throughout potential the high stress combat. This happened along with nano nerve system beginning full data integration between her spine and STiM own neural network. Sirene tested the maneuvering thrusters

Starfighter essentially was another appendage to her brain and also was feeding her data in ways that really can't be described as analytical as much as having a set of new instincts defined by the combat computers. Really a sixth sense as pilot could feel what was what could happen and instantly react both with joystick and throttle of the fighter but also with the nano nerve system through STiM. Some pilots slaved their starfighters to completely hands-free others still forced as to many systems as possible to physical input as possible but the nano nerve system essentially in the end was always in the driver seat. At this point many experts argue that the starfighter is a super drone and that it has all the reflexive capabilities a computer but at the same time the human factor made it fly still very much like it was manned in its unpredictability and original tactical thinking.

“Alright, what is our status Lieutenant ?” barked Sirene over squad comms

“We are receiving contact signal from the SP corvette Hydra’s Mark 70,000 clicks out. R North level. She is under attack by a frigate with two full squadrons of fighter support by the last data burst.” Lt. Fairs replied

“All right we are going to assess the situation since we are the closest while Coma’s Punch are going cloak up and prepare for a backing us up from R high and north assault. We do not need to bring anyone else yet. Too the rest wing follow the briefing plan and see you on the other side” Said Sirene

With that the squadron began acceleration at 25 Gs towards the Hydra’s Mark. Sirene body itch for contact as she was pinned against her seat damped G force that were sitting currently at four times normal gravity. Real adrenaline is flowing now. Alright lets see how this goes. It was only 30 seconds later when the other squadrons on Search and destroy orders, began to report send in report.

A mental non verbal comms from Captain Can broke over the Wing Channel. ‘CONTACT CONTACT thirty boogies R south deep closing fast 10,000 clicks from us. We are engaging’ There was no time to speak in High variable G Combat.

Well that is our back now about our other-

‘Joysticks here, We are tracking, What the they already ON?! us “BREAK BREAK”-fu#$(^----------------’

Damn, Usually we use the drones to clear out ambushes. Not be ambushed

‘Status on Joystick ?’ Asked Sirene

‘They still up on the local combat network ma’am. Just fully engaged with 14 err 13 boogies. You can see the details on your hud as well’ Fairs replied

‘I know just want to confirm what I am seeing. Damn they are making short work of those drones. Though it’s a nasty furball now. Anyways we are 45 second from contact missiles are already on the way to meet us.’ said Sirene watching on her layer of the HUD the action be represented in 3-D and the incoming threats

‘Break formation ma?’

Sirene couldn’t blame the LT. Fairs on his suggesting He was fresh from the academe and still thinking by the checklist. There was much to teach that man. Still he had enthusiasm she could remember when first tasting real combat even if it was partly simulation

‘No let's punch through it. Assume closed cone formation and prepared blast through.’ Sirene itched for combat as she tightened her grip on the stick.

‘Sounds fun’ Replied Fairs and issued the order over squadron comms

Over 100 flanker missiles with a likely anti fighter payload closed in closer and closer till they were 400 clicks Sirene’s fighter alerted her this was suicide vector. She didn’t care.

“Alright Boys…. FUCK’ EM” and a quiet but deep rumbled from her fighter’s center belly rail gun as it opened up at 5000 RPM. Two thousand U.T.C. 50 mm shells shot head of the formation tearing apart the flanker missiles before they could unload their payload with their remains bouncing off shields of the starfighters at now 18000 meters per seconds and climbing.

‘All right we are free for hard burn’ And with that the Squadron engines light up the skies behind them with the with light. Pinned against the back of the cockpit at felt 7Gs with over 300Gs on the Start Fighter itself. Only the Acceleration dampers kept the ship and Sirene from falling apart under the stresses of this kind of acceleration. These new Masskin Drives could do amazing short burns when needed. After one minute it was quite. No Gs, no accelerations just watching the dance in the skies play out for the next few minutes and the data flowing in.

All the other squadrons besides her’s and Coma’s the kept running into contacts left and right. It seemed the play was to tie up her forces at the jump in point but it failed already however that was minor issue. The opposing force had double her fighter count and only 60 fighters had be shot down so far. They were out there and waiting for her move and then knew she was moving in after that hard burn.

So far sublight and hyperwave parts of the HYRIO sensors had not picked up any targets yet but they were passive at the moment only receiving the active data bursts from the Hyrdra’s Mark who was doing quite fine so for being out gunned and locked into a kinetic bolt sugfest with frigate twice her tonnage.

Ten minutes later Sirene’s Squadron began their move. ‘Unload all FISTs here then hard reverse burn. Go bright boys. Beers and a kiss for the first to dent the hull of that ships ass.’ and with that order the chacos began.

On the stub wings of her fighter all 8 FIST missiles launched from their pylons then her star fighter flipped to begin a reverse burn to get down to combat relative velocity.

“Incoming fire!, Incoming Fire!” Blared an STiM alert but her fighter already had begun evading.

Here We Go Cringed Sirene. The the G’s when from steady to erratic and feeling from all sides. Time perception slowed down as she commanded the evasions procedures. One moment everything frozen and was still as frost on rail then fake stars, UI and muted flashes from explosions transmitted from the sensors to cockpit HUDs screamed by as streaks of spherical lights flow around her. The G’s Forces pound her body like invisible waves of water that came from allsides or top or below. The ship didn’t care about her. She didn’t care about her body she only wanted to know one objective. Can I shoot this Fucker yet?.

Her Squadron had broken part in every direction possible to evade the PDL fire. It seems the opposing force wanted to keep the star fighters out of the equation as long as possible though the PDL’s left up as Hydra’s Mark gave its some 30 odd Flanker missiles to think about.

“This is is Hydra’s Mark we are barely holding up shields. They have about 10 min before destabilize due to enemy fire and we cannot run from this frigate.” said Captain of the Hydra. Also well combat data link was now available for her Squadron to plug into for shared combat info between all SP vessels.

‘LTC Hardraft here Captain, how do we take this frigate do..’ “UGnnnn”! only to have her star fighter shunt to its left hard to avoid PD fire again.

“Colonel you have two points to attack and your early missiles did do some work for this. Look at the Plan 12-C in the data burst2131221-----” The Hydra got hit hard by a volley kinetic fire cutting her off however the data burst got through.

Between dodging fire PD/PDL and shooting down anti fighter missiles she got the concept of the plan in 3 seconds. It was going to be full burst of what was left of the missile banks on the Hydra alone with few Smokes Nukes to blind sensors for her squadron to move in and use their skipper rockets to hit the stern shield projectors and engines. The only trick was that they had to get close like scratching the hull close to the frigate to work but if they could get within 3 KM the skippers could do the rest.

The next option and the safest was wait for Coma’s to come in with their high speed payload and strike at the same time problem being they might arrive too late for the Hydra but they could exploit the damage that her first strike missiles had done to the hyper wave systems meaning only sublight sensors were up and with Coma in cloaked mode they could ponce unseen but sirene had a better idea.

‘Hyrda do HARD Ping for mines and give me a report.’ in 4 seconds data poured in and she smirked though it was hard to see on her high g’s face. Got them with their pants down

‘Joystick and Darklight jump from your locations to this point on this burst then unload long range missiles and form up on Mane’ commanded Sirene

‘Glass finish your contacts and proceed to do the same and Major’s your punishment is rescinded for now move your butts to those jump point “NOW”’

‘Coma jump to these points under the data burst and wait for my command to jump again’

“YES MA’AM” The wing cried and in 20 seconds she had half her wing under direct command again and then it all fell apart.

‘All Fighters out of Hyperspace ma, and “CONTACTS, CONTACTS, Break, BREAK”’ Replied Major Nira as 200 DSF-125 Drones Star Fighters jumped out of hyperspace and began to attack Darklight and Joysticks squads broke apart like fireworks from the incoming fire.

So they were waiting for my hyper jumps it seems. Well fine.
‘Mane CAG to Captain hook me into the PDL system of your ship now I am taking command control of your ship PDL network’

“What the heck Hardraft that was not in the SIM briefing I am only here for your--- “SHUT UP AND GIVE ME FUCK CONTROL OR YOUR CAREER IS OVER YOU LITLLE DIPSHITING CUNT FUCKING SOB!!” ---“es, ma. Routing targeting and firing control via data link” said the shocked Hydra’s Captain

‘She real mad now’ thought both Major Byes and Major Nira to each other.

And with that Sirene with four other star fighters directed the PDL fire. The furrball lasted for two minutes but the loses were heavily one sided too opposing force drones not ready for precise PDL fire directed by for five fighters acting as spotters. They were routed with 130 drones backing off to get away from the PDL fire but she was down to only 48 fighters left so the drones surprise drop did get chunk of her fire power.

‘Coma, punch it.’ She knew Major Byes could handle the rest.

“Aye,Copy Mane” And with that slightly cheeky reply Coma Hyper Jumped from 30,000 to 30 KM away from opposing force frigate while the Hydra’s unloaded what was left of its missile banks. At the Same time the rest of the wing swung from R North West Deep to R West mid behind the Hydra with the goal of providing cover against the drones which were staying 6000 clicks R Center Deep away from Sirene’s part of the wing.

What is your move Now? and she saw it happen while she asked. 40 drones jumped from where they were to on top of Coma’s Punch but the missile payload was already unloaded so that local furry ball erupted.
‘Flight Bravo break Deep East and get out of here’ Flight Charlie Stay engaged Alpha and Echo form up on me and let's GET THIS BITCH for FLIGHT DELTA’ Ordered Major Byes as his squadron came under fire.

The rest of the drones began to burn rapidly towards the Hydra and Sirene countered with her forced. It was 90 AI drones loaded out for anti starfighter combat vs 48 her Starfighter in a mix from multirole to anti ship. It was going to high loss for one side. The 2000KM furry all began with in 30 second later. No orders but quick mental ones were sent. The between the vibrations of her fighters railguns and the shunting and thrusting pulling and pushing her like pinball she saw on her data link. Frigate destroyed due to reactor breach from close range fire from Coma’s punch fighters after shield failure thanks to two skipper shots from Major Byes.

Good Job you idiot….. oh FUCK. “You have been killed” Said a message like in video game from the 21st century and in a killcam like format it showed her shield sync level fell low enough for a shot from drone railgun to punch through shield and then starfighter’s port hull through to the cockpit it and hit her chest as it went out the starboard side. She drift in space watching the rest of the fight play out. The Hydra was able to fully help what was left of the 2nd Wing destroy the drones as they had in the sim lost central command and so were programmed to attack until eliminated. Sirene poured over the data stream and shook her head. Their performance was off the charts but one figure stuck out as a sore thumb LOSSES TO 2nd Wing: 109 fighters destroyed, 2 disabled, and 14 still jump-able. Total LOSSES 87.2% to Combat Personnel.

87.2% ……. 87.2%........ well I guess it's better than the prediction of 94.5% but still my wing would be dead. Sirene just stared at that number. It was a number she never wanted to see in real combat. Never but she looked at the number again burning it into her mind knowing it was the realty if they ever got into open space war.

“To LTC Hardraft, this Tech Ship Andrew. AR support of the training exercise is complete on our end. We heading back to the fleet for debriefing. Good job and safe trip.” Said a comms officer.

“This is Hardraft, thanks for your support Andrews will see you back at the fleet.” Replied Sirene in dismissive manner. The losses number was still on her mind

“Roger, Andrew out.” and the ship jumped out a few second later with the drone star fighters jumping after their control ship.

“Colonel, this is Hydra’s. We are leaving as well and thanks for waking up Actual” Spoke the comms officer hinting at her outburst.

“Oh that,” Sirene blushed slightly “Tell Him I owe him a drink at the next port for that.”

“Will do Ma’am, Hydra’s out.” and Hydra’s Jump out too.

A few minutes later all the wing formed up around Sirene fighter and waited for the command to jump.

“Colonel, they are all green and ready to go” MSG Rail told her on a private laser com line.

“I know Xin but do you know how much we lost out there? We lost almost everyone. Fucking everyone. I we would last one fight and be dead Xin. What is high command thinking even bring us along for this operation?”

“Ma’am we won.” Sirene didn’t respond “Sing we won that is what matters we completed the job. What happens next is a different story but I saw mission complete screen so I think we did what was need to be done now let's go home.”

“K, Xin but I am going to have a fist full of questions for person in charge of this operation.”

“That you will, Sing that you will.” And MSG Rails cut off the link after that.

Guess time to get home. And she opened Wing wide comms.

“Well done everyone. We won. So now lets get fucking home. That is your debrief and Squadron leaders your reports of the this mission are due one day from now. All fighters link up for jump.”

The forward pyramid formation of the wing winked out a few second later. Darkness consumed was left of the heat of the exercise and another ship that had just decloaked jumped out a few second later after sending a data burst.

“Following is combat data from SP 2nd wing deep space training exercise. Personally Recommend for the 2nd Wing to receive R&D TDU upgrade based on the Dial Chopper program. Also LTC Hardraft is as the data suggest high compatible the FD program tech. Recommend her nanonerve, and starfighter systems to receive upgrade as well along with FD program nanites infusion. Heading to Sol Sector as directed for next orders.”

On the other side of known space in a 100 light year radius around the Mackvin system a notification popped up 20 hours on The Director’s PDA. He Read the heading and then head a few decks down to his office for the details. “Well, it looks it time to start the party” as sat down he began to read a personnel file on the holo screen labeled: LTC SIRENE HARDRAFT of SP ENFORCEMENT ARM. POTENTIAL FD CANDIDATE.

Copyright © 2017 EmpReb and Jules Bismarck.

This has been something that took me two years to write and still need some editing(more like a lot.) But though you guys would like it so I am going to drop a chapter weekly or bi weekly depending on the response. Go ahead tear into I have some novellas I am working on right now that are far better than this but I really enjoyed writing and want to see what people think. Steem on!