A Rain of Fire by Ralph Kern

Author:Ralph Kern [Kern, Ralph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, military science fiction
Publisher: Ralph Kern
Published: 2020-03-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

Colonel Tor Hest

Asteria – 15 Km East of Port Rorian

A group of fighters roared through the red-hued sky overhead in a V-formation, heading back toward the aerospace fields set up to service them. The attacks against the incoming fleet and aerospace strikes against the gathering Kingdom and Republic forces at Port Rorian were relentless, as much designed to break the enemy’s morale as it was to inflict material damage.

The thunder of their passage left a lingering ringing in Hest’s ear. She let it subside before turning to look forward at the men and women of the 7th Armored Brigade, and gave a nod of satisfaction. Behind the soldiers and personnel, hulking silhouettes of mechs stood, each one radiating power.

They’d blazed a path across this continent, driving the Republicans and Kingdom alike before them. The enemy had crumbled. Oh, they’d fought tooth and nail. But they had fallen more rapidly than even the most wildly optimistic of the Hegemony battle plans had predicted. This new type of warfare had already proven a resounding success.

But success brought its own problems. Not that they risked getting bogged down in the kind of bloody trench warfare of the first Great War, but that they were advancing too fast. The beleaguered support corps were working themselves to the bone to keep the front properly provisioned, but the supply lines were getting long and stretched between the secured landing sites and the ferocious battles of the front.

But also, momentum had to be maintained. For if they lost that, then the enemy would surely consolidate. And the storming advance would become mired, and thrust them right back into the meat grinder of a conflict like that of the last war.

In other words, the logistics corps would just have to work harder. For the moment, though, her brigade had rallied up at one of the staging areas, situated at an old freight service area on the Mortain Highway. Soon, they would be marching again.

Another flight of Wolf fighters thundered over, one of them leaving a smoking trail behind, the sure sign of battle damage.

The Aerospace Corps might be taking the glory of the real fighting at the moment as the enemy fleet swept toward Asteria, and on the ground, softening up the opposition. But the army had been the ones who’d secured this place. Stopped the enemy from merely scattering then reforming later, keeping that pressure on with their steady, relentless advance.

And, the only resistance worth mentioning left on this world had all been driven toward one place.

Port Rorian.

Now her brigade, over a hundred mechs, and nearly three thousand troops in support, would be joining a dozen army divisions of Army Group Alpha positioning to encircle the starport city.

If the Kingdom thought they had anywhere to run to, they were mistaken. Sorely mistaken. The coming fleet would be pounced upon. Anyone left to land would not be able to lift more than a fraction of those on this world. For the remainder, at best, they would be sieged.

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