Post by Commander Garrett Garland on Dec 11, 2005 4:34:33 GMT -5
…has died down in the city thanks to the continued vigilance of ComStar and the planet’s militia forces. Despite the locally based Legionnaire mercenary unit’s failure to stop the Blakist attack group making a run on the Damocles Dam, the heroic actions of Major Antony Kelter diverted over ninety percent of the flood waters to the uninhabited Philomel plains. Knowing that he didn’t have enough forces to directly oppose the Blakist thrust towards the dam, Major Kelter swiftly outpaced the Blakist aggressors in a VTOL, landing on the Damocles Lake’s opposing side. Without any time to spare, the Major opened the floodgates of the Philomel dam, allowing nearly all of the lake’s waters to harmlessly fall into the northern plains. Upon returning to the city, the Major’s VTOL took heavy fire and crash landed near the main battle’s epicenter. Linking up with ComGuard forces, Major Kelter joined in the final push to liberate the capitol building, the last Blakist stronghold. To their horror, Major Kelter and the ComGuards found that they were too late; the Word of Blake had already executed the planetary legislature including Kelter’s own brother. As the highest ranking public official, Antony Kelter has taken on the planetary governorship to ensure the successful restoration of all of Sheratan. Later tonight, the governor will be making his first public announcement, brought to you exclusively by Channel Four News, a ComStar subsidiary. This is Chris Zondervan signing off, and remember, keep it…
I clicked off the tri-vid in disgust—I couldn’t listen to that ComStar lapdog any longer. I couldn’t believe it—the Legionnaires portrayed as mercenary scum, ineffectual and careless while it was the almighty ComStar and the noble Antony Kelter who saved the day. If only the people knew…
I’d gone over the past week’s events over and over again in my head. ComStar had ‘destroyed’ (all of the damage had been superficial of course) its own HPG, after carefully baiting The Word of Blake. The bait was quite appeasing indeed: a secret meeting between the Primus and one of the Precentors—if the Word could take both out simultaneously it would essentially decapitate ComStar, killing its head and one of its possible replacements. At first I didn’t understand why ComStar had sabotaged its own HPG, it seemed that it would make the deal a little too sweet for the Blakists, they’d expect a trap, but it was perhaps the only humanitarian thing ComStar had done. Had the HPG station still been functioning when the Blakists arrived they wouldn’t have bothered with a commando team to destroy it before a message could be sent—they’d have probably used atomic weapons to eliminate any possible threat of Davion reinforcements to the system. Little did they know that the station was secretly operational the whole time, just waiting for the Word to enter the system so that it could call in the ComGuards, effectively trapping the Blakist forces within the Sheratan system. I’d been told that the naval battle thousands of kilometers above the battle for Gellen’s Heights had been spectacular with several DropShips burning up in the atmosphere. Eventually the ComStar flotilla had downed the entirety of the Blakist invasion fleet but it had come at a cost—the Blakists had refused to surrender their JumpShip; instead of letting it fall into enemy hands the Blakists had ruptured their own liquid helium cooling tanks, effectively destroying the priceless JumpShip.
And so the ground battle had raged on, oblivious to the battle overhead. Something which still bothered me was Kelter’s part in the battle. It was as if he… knew beforehand that the Blakists were going to attack the dam—he would have needed to have opened the floodgates a good half-hour before the dam was breached—and we hadn’t even noticed the fleeing Blakist lance by then. And ComStar—they couldn’t spare any forces of their massive counter-invasion army to stop the Blakist thrust at the dam? Was that not the most strategically important aspect of the battle? It was almost as if the entire battle had been choreographed not only to defeat the Blakists, but to raise Kelter to power, to improve ComStar’s public relations, to inspire fear of the Word… and to discredit the Legionnaires. Hell, we were nearly kicked off this rock—but thanks to an ‘unknown benefactor’ (I had my suspicions) and some backing from ComStar, fearful that their secret would get out (the public thought the Blakists were trying to secure a Brian Cache), we managed to hold onto our plot of land west of Sheratan, but we’d certainly be watched closely by Kelter. He’d even assigned a liaison officer to ensure our cooperation with the new planetary government.
Laying back in the medical bed, I rubbed my eyes with my remaining hand, but I couldn’t seem to clear the fog of war. I guess I should have considered myself lucky, just being alive—but that was all I was. I’d lost my ‘mech, my body, and my reputation. It was I, the commander of the Legionnaire forces who personally failed Gellen’s Heights, and when it came down to it, it was I who failed the Legionnaires themselves. Secretly I was more glad than anyone for the return of Wolf and Maxwell for I could no longer bare the burden of command. Perhaps in time my confidence would be restored, but until then I could only hope that responsibility would fall upon the shoulders of others…
I clicked off the tri-vid in disgust—I couldn’t listen to that ComStar lapdog any longer. I couldn’t believe it—the Legionnaires portrayed as mercenary scum, ineffectual and careless while it was the almighty ComStar and the noble Antony Kelter who saved the day. If only the people knew…
I’d gone over the past week’s events over and over again in my head. ComStar had ‘destroyed’ (all of the damage had been superficial of course) its own HPG, after carefully baiting The Word of Blake. The bait was quite appeasing indeed: a secret meeting between the Primus and one of the Precentors—if the Word could take both out simultaneously it would essentially decapitate ComStar, killing its head and one of its possible replacements. At first I didn’t understand why ComStar had sabotaged its own HPG, it seemed that it would make the deal a little too sweet for the Blakists, they’d expect a trap, but it was perhaps the only humanitarian thing ComStar had done. Had the HPG station still been functioning when the Blakists arrived they wouldn’t have bothered with a commando team to destroy it before a message could be sent—they’d have probably used atomic weapons to eliminate any possible threat of Davion reinforcements to the system. Little did they know that the station was secretly operational the whole time, just waiting for the Word to enter the system so that it could call in the ComGuards, effectively trapping the Blakist forces within the Sheratan system. I’d been told that the naval battle thousands of kilometers above the battle for Gellen’s Heights had been spectacular with several DropShips burning up in the atmosphere. Eventually the ComStar flotilla had downed the entirety of the Blakist invasion fleet but it had come at a cost—the Blakists had refused to surrender their JumpShip; instead of letting it fall into enemy hands the Blakists had ruptured their own liquid helium cooling tanks, effectively destroying the priceless JumpShip.
And so the ground battle had raged on, oblivious to the battle overhead. Something which still bothered me was Kelter’s part in the battle. It was as if he… knew beforehand that the Blakists were going to attack the dam—he would have needed to have opened the floodgates a good half-hour before the dam was breached—and we hadn’t even noticed the fleeing Blakist lance by then. And ComStar—they couldn’t spare any forces of their massive counter-invasion army to stop the Blakist thrust at the dam? Was that not the most strategically important aspect of the battle? It was almost as if the entire battle had been choreographed not only to defeat the Blakists, but to raise Kelter to power, to improve ComStar’s public relations, to inspire fear of the Word… and to discredit the Legionnaires. Hell, we were nearly kicked off this rock—but thanks to an ‘unknown benefactor’ (I had my suspicions) and some backing from ComStar, fearful that their secret would get out (the public thought the Blakists were trying to secure a Brian Cache), we managed to hold onto our plot of land west of Sheratan, but we’d certainly be watched closely by Kelter. He’d even assigned a liaison officer to ensure our cooperation with the new planetary government.
Laying back in the medical bed, I rubbed my eyes with my remaining hand, but I couldn’t seem to clear the fog of war. I guess I should have considered myself lucky, just being alive—but that was all I was. I’d lost my ‘mech, my body, and my reputation. It was I, the commander of the Legionnaire forces who personally failed Gellen’s Heights, and when it came down to it, it was I who failed the Legionnaires themselves. Secretly I was more glad than anyone for the return of Wolf and Maxwell for I could no longer bare the burden of command. Perhaps in time my confidence would be restored, but until then I could only hope that responsibility would fall upon the shoulders of others…