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{{I have a compliment of 30 Marines and two dropships, not much in my eyes for repelling an assault force, but it's worth a try}}

[Bridge - GNV Archangel]
"Get word to the marines, load up and move out. I want dropships ready to go ASAP, one landing on either side of the plant, set up a perimeter of our own and we'll assist the reaction force from the base." Lucas ordered.

"Aye, sir." One of the officers responded.

[Dropship Bay - GNV Archangel]

Marines were clustering around the two ships, loading up. Two groups of fifteen. They filed into the ships and awaited launch.

[Bridge - GNV Archangel]

"Dropships away, sir." The officer announced.

"I hope it's enough." Captain Alexander said silently to himself before returning to strategic thought. "Wait," He wheeled around to his weapons officer, "Prepare all missile tubes, we're gonna break whatever force is still outside the plant."

"Yes sir." The weapons officer responded, entering firing solutions.

"Get Captain Rivers on the line and tell her to keep clear for a moment," Lucas ordered, "I don't need to get reprimanded for friendly fire."

<>

[Lucy in the sky with diamonds...]

In space theres no real noise that can be made, nothing to transfer sound waves after all but high high above something winked, then another, devices the size of small cars hurtled over head at thousands of miles per hour as they rotated blissfully over head, their angels wings absorbing the most prevalent and accessible source of power in the universe; light, glinting blue in the darkness above the incident sight.

the Archangel was not the only GNV vessel within range, Observation satellites had been observing the action for several minutes now and merely passed the information here and there, as various men in suits argued over which was the best choice, Blue water wanted to call in Terrestrial Naval Fire support,a 16 inch shell would 'set those ******** straight' they yelled.. the Naval aviation arm just scoffed and pointed out the collateral that would make naval fire support useless, the point would be made but less casualties would be generated by a precision air strike, Spacedy command called them all fools and started to call the Aurora for ortillering the ******** out the location but all of them were set in place as the room was called to order.

'Gentlemen' Delacroix began 'As acting commander of the GNC I must stress that this is a situation that this LIC is highly likely to generate a inproportionate amount of Blue-on Blue fatalities.'

Many of the assembled captains nodded, but all wondered the same thing 'what do we do then?' Delacroix simple smiled and mouthed a simple four letter acronym T-H-O-R.

The Commander of Spacedy operations felt giddy and quickly downed his remaining coffee before grabbing for a secure line (blue phone) and calling up his CIC. Delacroix had a seat and Listened in.

"This is Captian Argincourt, get me Weps" the captain was put on hold for a few seconds as the secure line was transfered "I want the Tactical High Orbit Railgun stations online immediately, yes 1 through 3... prepare to fire on our mark."

['those who Drink from the Lethe seldom return']

The pitch black above the sight was disturbed as a large monstrosity roughly the size of an inverted semi-truck arranged itself in the bleak darkness over head, antennas co-ordinated with the OMNI sats around it and small thrusters carefully nudged the gigantic beast into a stationary position roughly over the site. again there was silence but high above three flashes int he sky above as current arced across both rail and armature as metal pole roughly the size of baseball bad was covered in a ablative shell was fired into the atmosphere ate tremendous speeds.

In the sky over the site red streaks made it look as if fire was falling from the sky above, but they weren't there for long enough, the projectiles traveling at several dozen times the speed of sound would impact the ground several milliseconds before the air even had time to carry their report to the unsuspecting targets.

The projectiles, thirteen in all, were fired in a semi-circular arrangement around the site aiming for those ares that put out the most thermal signature, by the time they reached the ground even with the heat shield they had lost nearly 30% of their mass due to friction alone, and though they carried no guidance, or explosive the force of their impact would be enough to uproot trees several meters from their points of impact and throw such light object as men and machines several dozens of meters more.

Unlike a bomb such kinetic projectiles did not generate massive collateral each shot was designed to destroy or disrupt a target and in doing so each site would suffer from several meter wise holes and be further exposed to the eyes above.

THOR, or more accurately Lethe Orbital defensive stations were designed for driving tacks, not blowing up areas, but the aftermath at each site would be notable, if only because it would happen without warning or notice to the targets, and though the GNC doubted it would end the fight they knew the confusion it would cause would be enough to sew confusion or with hope rout the disoriented enemy forces.

the only warning friendly forces even were capable of receiving came a few seconds before the firing, with operators putting orders up to the engaging ASDF forces.

'break left!' or 'pull up' or the more casual 'falling stars! watch out for raining limbs!'

this of course was also because the GNV wasnt about to let a squad of their own marines try and do a tactical drop into enemy active AAA... plus they had to admit, it was fun.

{{Dice roll is for missile hits on targets in forest}}

[One minute to LZ's - Dropships]

The sonic boom which eventually made itself noticable in the air after the passing of the THOR shot was enough to make any reasonably sane person want to mess his/her pants. Though the marines in either of the dropships merely smiled at the satisfying sound, knowing that it meant something was being destroyed.

The pilots would be turning around about now, giving the troops a "one minute" signal.

[Bridge - GNV Archangel]

"Missiles ready, sir" The weapons officer announced.

Lucas was watching the footage of the forest errupting into splinters as all hell seemed to break loose down there. "I want half of the missiles on that forest, get them off of Blue Knight. The other half still need to clear LZ's. Prepare to fire on my mark."

"Aye, sir." THe officer responded, awaiting the signal.

"Mark. Let them have it." Lucas ordered.

"Missiles away."

Missiles streaked down through the atmosphere, quickly overtaking the dropships and leaving vapor trails in their wake.

Half of the wave struck various points in the forest, with any luck destroying some of whatever was volleying shots at Blue Knight.

The other half of the wave struck the ground between the plant and forest, hopefully wiping out some of the ground forces still in the area and clearing a way for the marines whose dropships would be touching down not long after missile impact.

[Gaian Naval Command]

'THOR seems to have worked quite well, enemy artillery and AAA have ceased and IRIS says comm traffic is frantic'

Delacroix merely nodded ad the captains comments and turned to the commander of the Naval Air Arm.

"How long till you can get a Broadhead UCAV modified for EW in the air over the area."

the commander opened up a small portfolio and examined the broadheads capabilities as well as their current deployments.

"A minute or two give or take, we've got one on CAP monitoring radio traffic after that incident in Barton, its only at half fuel though it will probably have to land on one of the Epions' after the conflict."

Delacroix nodded and turned to a staff sergeant.

"Get a hold of the department of energy and have them redirect that stations power line output to a breaker in case they try to flush the system, we cant accept a complete loss of power as were arent entirely self reliant here, and were still under PR scrutiny, so make sure what ever happens there stays there.

Oh I almost forgot when the broadhead arrives on scene have it lock out the GNG frequencies and black out anything from 30 kHz to 5.8ghz... when done I dont want a cellphone, radio, or cordless phone working more than five feet from the origin."

The staff sergeant saluted and rushed out of the room.

[1 to 2 rounds till the broadhead arrives]

[Bridge - GNV Archangel - Don't Fear the Reaper]

Lucas watched his display as the missiles took out the triple-A in the forest. His attention was unfortunately focused more on the great mistake he had just made. He dropped to his knees on the bridge on the Archangel and thought of the people whose lives had ended in an instance.

"Damn..." Captain Alexander wouldn't even blink looking at the screen. He'd just condemned innocents to an early grave.

Bringing himself back to his feet he began to clear his mind. Lucas addressed his crew. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am aware of what my orders have just caused, but I will deal with taking the blame after we finish taking care of this opposition on the ground. I ask that you bear with me until this opperation is over, at which time you will most likely have a new captain."

His crew on the bridge all nodded in agreement. They still had a job to do, they would pay for their mistakes in due time.

The captain brought up a comm connection with Ms. Rivers. <>

[Dropships - LZ]

The Marines pilled out of their ships and immediately froze in place, some vomitted at the sight of the carnage, others fainted, and yet some (very few mind you) managed to keep their composure and move towards the power plant.

[Bridge - GNV Archangel - Fight or Flight]

Lucas couldn't believe the words that were about to leave his mouth. All those years in the academy, all the time training and serving his country. All about to be thrown away like it all meant nothing at all...

The doors to the bridge slid open, two MPs entered and approached Captain Alexander, each took one of his arms. "Lord forgive me for what I've done..." Lucas lowered his head and allowed the police to lead him back to his cabin.

[LZ]

Marine Private Richard Fitzwater tried to stand as he watched the vomit run down his visor. The gore all around him was sickening and boot camp hdn't quite prepared him for what he saw. His head felt like it was spinning, and his ears were ringing from the missiles which were detonated in air.

His squad leader came by and lifted him up by his shoulder, shouting orders to him and making hand signals, both of which were hard for Fitzwater to decipher. Richard did manage to gain enough clarity in the chaos of his head though to make his way towards the power plant after a few moments.

One of his squadmates came by and lifted him up by his shoulder.

Amidst the rockets that glared a harsh, glaring red, the missiles burst in midair, Rachele's blue VF, though horribly slagged, was still there. All four limbs had been vaporized or slagged to stumps, and a majority of the torso was melted and fused. As the fireworks faded, nothing resembling a variable fighter remained: instead, something resembling a horribly misshapen metal egg marbled with faint blue lines plummeted from the sky, crashing into the relatively nearby forested area.

One eye opened, slowly. It was very dark. Cautiously, she tried to open the other, only to find a strong stinging sensation that made her quickly shut it again. She reached a hand over to her flight helmet, and pulled it off, dumping it at her side. The dull thud had a faint echo to it that seemed to intimate her sudden and complete isolation. And now with the helmet off, the strong, acrid smell of burnt electronics filled the air, mingling with the smell of char, and the tangy-sweet smell of metal. She touched her hand to her face even as she scrunched up her face at the smell. That was blood running down over her other eye, she realized, and reached to wipe it clear.

The satchel was next. She reached back quickly, trying to find it. It was under a heavy dose of ash, but she could feel that it seemed intact. She placed her thumb on the lock, and was rewarded by the usual confirmation. "Identity confirmed, releasing lock. EMS disarmed." It was her own voice, and somehow it was very reassuring. There was a faint click, and then she was able to open it. Everything inside was meticulously organized, and by a touch, she was able to find what she was looking for first. She brought it out and in front of her, then snapped it. Light, of a neon green variety, suffused the cockpit's remains...and it wasn't pretty.

Comms. She needed comms. She checked the VF-1's communications suite, to find it as dead as she suspected. Her wristcomm came next. It was intact, but unable to get a signal through. Idly, she muttered, "Faraday cage..." and moved on. She reached to her side, and drew her Gallant H-90. It was a good, dependable, if entirely ugly laser pistol, and awkward to hold with its hollow-triangle shape. Still, if it could drill a hole, that would make her love it forever. She set it up carefully, and began a long, steady beam into the least electronics-occupied section of bulkhead she could find.