Karl sauntered in, no worse for the wear from the downtime on Uden.  "Admirals...Captain...Doctor Christie," he offered by way of greetings around the room.  He glanced at the map, his eyes registering that targets were marked...but who went for which ones was not.  With a vague nod, he looked away from the map, taking a seat and waiting for the others to show up.

Roy strode in crisply, Larry following him through the door.  He gestured with a slight nod of his head and Larry went and parked next to Mila...sitting upright and attentive.  Roy's eyes went to the map...

"Good...nice to find out just what we're doing down there," he said, in a tone that was just a little too pleasant to be a grumble.  Giving a nod to those in the room, he walked over to stand by the map, looking over the options and already working on formulating tactical approaches for each target, if that was where the shuttles were sent.

Mila grunted and sat up. She wasn't going to be outdone by a larg, not even one she loved!

  As  everyone assembled   Hack  smiled  and  waved to the  table ....This is Vera....

 Shadow     stooped at the door  GAve the  two guards  a  Coffee  and  what fixing packs they wanted Then entered..

 he   handed out  Tea  and Coffee to everyone  As Hack watched  him , his eyes  following   the LC  as Beth and Lyri  tried not to laugh..

  stopping at the Admiral he handed   Admiral Hack a  Cup... he froze  as he saw the  stern look.ahhh?..You don't  want coffee?
 Hack chuckled  and took the  Cup  and  began fixing    his  drink... he saw Mila was there and frowned.. , he broke  a  sausage  in Half  Giving  one half to LArry and Her...sorry  Mila?  hope you like sausage..

 Now that our Waitress  is  done serving everyone...

 Shadow looked a bit sheepish as he reached  for  a Milk packet and  sugar..

  Th beth powered up the  Monitors that showed Dusk and Lilit  on the 'Vera's Fall"..  being sued  as the Blue Verian Flagship for this battle...

 Sarah  on another screen, Admiral  Hirg on another  and lastly Colonel Cummings  on the last one.

 Welcome  everyone ... this is to sort out the basic  plan of action.... Humans have  a saying,  'everyone has a plan, 'till you get punched in the mouth".... so?  this  is
 our general plan....

 we  have audio goign to all the  Commanders   of  our  ships , including the    Dropship commanders... This needs to be said, out right... The Deltas Fleet, isn't  going to the Sol System, until its time to go there.... One of two things is going to  happen,  1... the angels will have to fight the  Demons, even if just token resistance... that ties things up... or  Two,....The   demons get  Earth handed to them, and will have to try to control a population , that will, kill them and  kill each other... it won't be a happy place to  be. As cold as it sounds.. Its not our Problem.. The great Savior, GE-FI will have to step up..and seeing how  the   COMs  went, and everyone in the Black saw or heard it..so? its no longer our problem...

 Pointing at Vera...THIS... is our problem..  we   crush Vera... that separates  Vampic and Roussian space.. they have to go way out the back and  to hook up with each other, and that would  take days, if not weeks

 alot of us on the Hermes  and the Delta  Fleet have an Axe  to Grind  with Adem..so..yeah.. we're not leaving...

 In about  17 hours, i will issue the  COM CAll to vera, as a planet, to  surrender Adem and Evert... i do not see them doing it.. and I know  damn well  those  two will not  turn themselves over..   if they do?  we'll  have to stay  and help the Udenese   take over
  as proctors .... otherwsie.. we  are going the flatten  alot of  area, kill alot of verians, and hope they 'stay neutral' when we're  done.... those who want to keep fighting, will receive no quarter...

 ..Now.. the  3 Verian and  one Vampic vessel are hovering over the North Pole of Vera.. its  highly  unlikely they  plan to  come out  and attack form there, with only four ships..... Colonel Cummings..  You will swamp those   four ships  with   transport troopers... I want the captured, or destroyed... if   they must be destroyed..try to have them   aimed  at the nearest  city to  crash land.... if  you cannot get to the bridge.. then  blow them to the  nine hells...

 ..Right Sir..Already done

 we have people on the planet... Occui, for the most part.. they have  confirmed that Adem and Evert moved out of  the capitol with its  Ion Dust Contamination .. they moved to the Vidda  Mountains about 1000 miles south of the North pole... The  Estate of the Apple is there..... its  a fortress... but we have  ways in, thanks to the Occui.

 to the east and the west  as  two big plains.. the plains of Corga, to the east..and Suntra to the west... we will be  landing  at the  southern most edge of the plains... and  move up... there  is  a  small mountain-hill range between the  two,,, Nivaians , Naragrans, gava  and some Apefolk  will be   move  up that range to eliminate any   ambushes, and...or... discover  any tunnels  systems we might be able to use... Tor the West.. Sanri will lead  the  Transport troops  towards the mountains  and   engage  with Verians there... Apefolk will lead  the   troops   at Corga...

 Hyrians  and Felrites will be  dropping in, behind the    Mountains to the North..they will fight thier  way south the   the Estate..when there is a beach head..another   dropship CP will be set up, pumping  more troops into the attack from the north.

 Sarah.. the Burians have  our Port flank..rumors  have it, that a Demon Med tech ship is coming to aid the Verians with a small escort..your job is to stop   ANY of those
 ships  from coming in..you will tell them to turn away..if they do not. you destroy the escorts..if the Med tech ship does not turn away..you destroy that... it will make us even for the  Canary being destroyed   by Ambassador frans  and   Ge-Fi's friends..

Admiral Hirg..  your ships  have  our  starboard  side... no ..NON-APF vessel makes it to Uden space... if you have to board them..do it... any ship you capture  goes to your fleet... Sarah?.. same for the Verians, if you can capture  a ship or two.. add it to your fleet..i do not care  what you do with the prisoners.

 Roy.... we're sending  down  all  3 shuttles  down to the west of Suntra... there is  an COM teach Outpost there.. your  teams  will either take  it..or destroy it ..if you take it , Drop ship troopers will hold it... if not..drop ship troopers   will follow in your wake, for any installation  you might  come across... we will have  beach heads at all the landing pints  for Ammo, med tech and evac..every place you take , and hold, gives us another 'safe place ' . Somewhere past that COM Tech  is  a side  door to the   Estate... it may be a bolt hole.. but for us..its a way in...  there should be Occui there  waiting
 for you..they may even use  green smoke to tell you  they have a way in...

 Colonel Cummings.... tell your  troopers,  that any tunnel they find, put   up Green smoke.....and  send people in to see where it  leads ..

 Then he looked up at Shadow,Occui reporters    airfields  at the North pole..and Under the Vidda  Mountains... we also have to assume other  airfield  will be launching what they have as soon as they get a grip on what we are doing.. your  first order of business  will be  to  strafe the   plains of Suntra with  fighters from Delta  One..... Delta  two fighters  will take care of   Corga... Delta  4 will  meet anything  coming from the south.. Delta   3 will take the   North... The Burians   and  Hyrians  will try to keep the  Black Clear.. and the   EMS ships are  going to shell the nine hells out of the southern Hemisphere with Ion rounds..

 Now.. Roy?  Doc Henry ?.... were going to need the Largs... the Nivarians will be taking  thier worts and  LArgs up   the  divide... but Larry..Mila  and the  two new ones.. are going to be used  in the tunnels.. you are to take the Mechs  as well.

 LArry  thumped his tail

 ..not those tunnels!

 Larry looked at  shadow, tilted his  head  and thumped his tail again.

 ..Captain Nilsson?  we are goign to need your  aricraft to hit  behind the  troops , meeting   our  troops   in the plains...  the fighters  can chew up  troops and  even tear up a few bits of armor.. But the estate is  said to have   'pill box' like structures....

 Lilit spoke up.....They do... one  every half mile or so.. they use   cap ship class  Heavy Pulse... There was a time when Hyrians landed on Vera.. they   too..charged the  estate.. the battle lasted  days, and the Hyrians had to leave, because of  heavy looses... since that time, they had no further use  for those   emplacements..but they  kept them operating  because of  Historic value...

 Hirg   also spoke up,warlord  Lilit  speaks true..I was an ensign on a destroyer then.. we could not send  for any more   troops, we lost near  300,000..and twice  that woudned... our Admiral turned  us  around after shelling the planet out of frustration..neither us, nor the  Verains ever tested   each other again, Until the Battle of the Line.

 well?... I won't  say we are better? I will say we are better prepared... a few of those    guns are going to be knocked  out  by the orbital  shelling.. there  will be    Cap ships  firing  for 30 minutes  all around the globe..but...only the south will be hit  with  Ion Rounds in addition to  hard  ammo  hand heavy Pulse..

 questions?

Karl gave a tight grin as he processed the information about his mission.  Just the kind of thing he liked.  "Yeah, one question, since we have a couple of people here who are at least vaguely familiar with them...these pillboxes--how high do their guns elevate?  Are they geared more to anti-personnel or anti-aircraft?"  The answer would do a lot to determine just how he would engage them.  In his experience, a pillbox was an armored fortification against ground engagement...just how armored would be something he'd have to find out.  But if they were anti-aircraft positions, he'd have to engage from a much greater distance...

 The Admiral Looked at  Lilit's screen  she  shook her head,It was  built in the time, when those  who  left the  One Tree.. thought they would  become  masters of the system.. the guns were  made to defeat the troops on the ground... they have  masses  of  fighters in the
 mountains and Underground Hangers


  Shadow said,..and day will become night..such as it was, when the fighters  filled  the skies...  Captain Si looked at him...

 There was a bit of a frown,sure?.. but if my name was Homer..everyone would have said that was  a masterpiece of  word craft...

Roy grinned.  "Never got into reading Homer, but there was a similar story told about the Battle of Thermopylae...someone said that the Persian archers were so numerous that when they fired a volley, it blocked out the sun.  One of the Spartan warriors overheard the comment and answered, "That's good, it means we'll be fighting in the shade."  Of course, we'll most likely be underground by that time, so we won't notice the difference."

He looked over at Admiral Hack.  "Shouldn't be a problem, I'm sure the largs will make a good report for themselves.  Larry's already demonstrated his capacity for search and destroy operations in enclosed spaces, I expect Tess and Freddy will be very nearly as effective, albeit a little less energetic about it after it's gone on for a while."  He chuckled softly, visibly fond of all the largs.

He turned to Henry.  "Guess that means I better figure out who, out of each shuttle, I want to make responsible for the largs, and which ones are going on which shuttle, so I get time to introduce them and and make sure they're comfortable with each other.  Can we take care of that first thing tomorrow, Dr. Christie?  People are winding down for the night, probably best to not drag them tired and cranky to make their first impressions on Tess and Freddy."  He laughed a little at the thought.

Karl nodded at the response.  "Good to know, frees me up for a closer range of engagement, which gives me better options for accuracy...it's the difference between trying to hit the pillbox, or trying to hit a specific point on the pillbox."  He thought for a moment, then asked, "Are the troops manning the weapons likely to be armored?  If they aren't, a couple of incendiary rounds right outside could suck all the air out of the space...if they are, that'd just be an inconvenience for them...probably raise all kinds of hell with their targeting systems, trying to pick a target through a wall of fire..."

He was already mentally preparing a loadout, turning to focus on the map again.  "And how many of these pillboxes are there?" he asked.  There were a few options going through his mind...

   Once More , The Admiral turned to  Lilit...


  neither Uden  nor Vera  has had a   very large   space Navy..we  made trips to  planets  now and then..most planets that  either  thought us gods, or some 'powerful'  figure in thier myths.... so... Adem's   defense of  of the   Estate  was set for  ground forces and    fighters..... after the   battle  and the peace  accord , he   would joke that he only wanted   the   guns to fire away from the estate, that if   troops got past those  Gun, there  would not be many left....

 Hennings   nodded,,, The Maginot line..it  worked for a bit, Until the germans
 simply went around them...

 Last time we  were there...some 200 years ago.. they  had 100  of them  around the Mountain.. with 20 of them on an'upper  tier'.... in between them, troops  would  huddle with   heavy pulse...that you cam ..MGs?..... but..our  fighters     could chew up the  troops, , but  could only  dent the    big guns shells..a few Undenese  made to to some of the front guns,   and threw in   explosives .. I would assume  those have been repaired.... the  guns  have
 an overlapping arc.. with the  '2nd  tier' block houses  in between  those in front...anti aircraft  in the state , itself   help to keep away   drops  my troops to the north .

   Hack    zoomed in on the  two plains   and the   Mountain.... so?..  the  troops int eh plains will have to  move... leap frog style   to keep   shelters from the Guns... with Luck our  fighters  will  trim down the  troops between the   blockhouses.....there has to be a point  where they are 'under the Guns.. and the  block houses  cannot   harm them..but the 2nd  tier  can fill in.... a little... of that...

 He looked at CArl....You don't have to knock them all out.... knock out   some in the middle, and the  tiers  behind them... that will give  the  troops a lane  they   can surge  through.....we need  that at Both plains..Shadow.. you will send  Messages  to the other
 WC's  to strafe  any troops  that  can reach After the shelling ends... Carl will come down with you and  hit  the pill boxes... Colonel Cummings?.. you'l relay the message to those   leading the ground attack...once they get to the  block houses, they can use them as  cover  to  move  towards the estate...

  Nil?   Contact the  Delta Commanders.. Tell them to   start thier  Bombardment 10 Miles , to  the south of the Estate...walk it up   north until the get   10 miles past the estate..this should  take care of some of those bunkers... and  provide  'fox holes' for the troops  to   leap frog.. Shadow  will bring the fighters in  after  the    walking barrage  reaches   the estate.... this should also provide  Carl with a decent look at the ones he needs to  knock out... the more that we knock out in the middle.. gives  those troops   a wider passage..

 and if  Adem and Evert are killed in the shelling..

 ..then this battle  should  end  a might   more quickly

  Mila  is going to come in handy  for search and destroy, as you move up the tunnels.. her chip should  aid her in warning  Henry..and  for Henry to  try and understand what she is seeing..the LArgs    , we know can hunt... they are   Panzers to Mila's Stuart.

In reply to brief (msg # 120):

Sarah attended the meeting from aboard the bridge of the Cold Stone, "LT Robertson please ensure this is pushed to all Burian vessels real time. Want all my Captain's listening in."

She had been about to ask about capturing the potential Demon vessels expected from the portside, when the Admiral answered the question. Kill or Capture whichever was possible, "To be clear Admiral, given the opportunity are we free to capture the Hospital ship should it arrive? The escort it was abundantly clear, but the line about trading for the Canary seemed to indicate to her that they simply wanted to kill an enemy med ship... though in her mind capturing and re-purposing would be more of a sting as it'd at the least replace the ESN capacity lost to some extent.

 Sam nodded and replied to Sarah," Already done Commodore." Sam quickly opened secure Comm links to all of the vessels of the Burian fleet so all Captains would hear this meeting. Sam thought capturing the Hospital ship was a much better idea then destroying it, and might hurt the Empire more. Sam also began using the enhanced scanners of the Cold Stone to locate any enemy ships within range.

   Hack  shrugged,... Commodore ...you have the right of it..it would be  good to capture the med tech ship...but we must assume there  would be   some  ill  empire folks on there...If it is close enough to   come here.. they would have to be handling  wounded from the last battle...

 ..as  cold hearted  as it sounds..destroying it  will give  the Empire  the  realization, as they will be treated  as they have treated others..... to be quite honest, the lives  of the Empire  folks on that ship do not matter to me.. so you will make that call, i will support you either way...

anything esle?

Karl nodded as his mission was clarified.  There would be potential anti-air fire from the estate, the initial barrage may or may not knock it out.  "One more question, Admiral...permission to prioritize anti-air defenses before the pillboxes?  As long as they've got any air-defense capability, all our craft, fighters to dropships, are at risk, and if I don't have to avoid anti-air fire, my options for hitting the pillboxes increase a lot."  It seemed a common-sense measure to him, but if Hack already had something else in mind, he wasn't going to duplicate efforts.

  HAck looked Grimly at Karl.  after the  walking barrage, and the  fighter  wave, the fighters  will break up.. to what Shadow   gives them as thier  Priorities  ..knowing the
 LC..there will be alot of ground support..

  Shadow shrugged and smiled.

 to that end, they have to knock down  fighters  and chew up  troops... with any sort of luck..this  gives you   your  shot  at what you  wish to target... if you feel you need to knock out   the estates  AA..then you do it... we have no other Mornignstars... you're...it..

 ..Now , Roy?..  I want your  shuttles  to  set   down.. about   5 miles  from  the estate....in the  trees..when  you  fine the Occui.. the  shuttles  should  move up to protect that area while you go in...Prisoners  aren't needed...body count is  good..make it look more devastating  for  the    Media...

 ...speaking of  reporters...

 ..yes..you have to take her..she doesn't have to have fun...

 I can Guarantee that

Roy nodded, at glanced over at Karl.  "If it's all the same to you, Captain, I'd appreciate you knocking out the air defenses.  I mean, five miles is a long ways for an anti-air gun, but I'll focus on the assault better if I'm not worried about losing a third of my assault team to a lucky shot."

He turned back to Hack.  " No prisoners, check.  Take the comm center, establish a beachhead, hold it until a dropship reinforces that point, then follow the Occui into the tunnels and clear them as we go."  He gave a curt nod.  He liked missions with clear objectives.

Sarah listened to Hack speak, rather than planning one or the other she decided to make the decision at the time of if the ship arrived.

"Another question Admiral, this might be a bit of a silly one, but are we certain the tunnels aren't exhaust vents for a buried warship? If we all recall many people lost their lives when that thing took off, with the Udenese ambassador nearly one of them. Also are we taking any precautions to prevent that?"

 Lilit answered  Sarah , for the  Admiral....there are escape vessels, but they are nothing but glorified   Assault shuttles..... I know  nothing of the   floor plan of the Underpart of the   Estate..But  Adem's ego is  as big as the  complex. He will think  himself, well covered, and perhaps   have  some   bolt  holes.

 Thank You Warlord.... Now..  for all you listening... i want to make this  crystal clear.... The Verians  were...at best..part-Time   APF... even in the Days of the AP, we
 never  heard of them , Until Shade  and Dusk...or..if i should  phrase it rightly.. the Death of Lady

 we saw them stand  by, when it looked  like Everest might be  destroyed, by  Hyrians on thier side of   Everest Space..it took  Dusk Shadow  standing up to   Evert , to   change that   bit of actions..to the Point were she was   struck down by Evert herself....

 ..Adem  is  fooling  himself , if  he thought there wasn't a price to  pay, for turning to the Empire... form us..it means  destruction, after they  took part in the last battle....for the  Empire. one can only imagine, tribute  sent  by Verians.. that would create a Verian-demon cross breed... This?  is not  just a battle  to   put  all of Uden space under Uden's flag... this is to eliminate  the threat of    Verian-Demons  entering the war,... any Verian who  is taken up arms against us, we need not take prisoner... and? any noncombatants that show  any form of hate towards   the APF,  cannot  be  considered to be non combatants..The Udenese , I am sure.. will   cleanse the place  as needed... But  for   this battle... we want to make sure the  numbers are up on thier  butcher's Bill.

 If there is nothing else... its   time to make your prep and get some sleep... I am looking at this, as  another  Aqra..

Karl listened as Sarah asked her question, pondering it a bit as Lilit and Hack responded.  "Pretty sure there's only the minutest chance of this turning into another Bura scenario.  The Burian ship was out in the wilderness, in an area that nobody had under any sort of surveillance for...oh, probably as long as there had been Empire forces on Bura.  This is a known landmark that was pretty well documented, from the sound of Warlord Lilit's answers, for probably longer than any of us have been alive, and it's unlikely that a Creshian vessel of that size could have reached Vera totally unobserved by the Udenese or Calimites."

He glanced over at Roy.  "Doesn't mean they won't have some nasty surprises in them, but you shouldn't be caught in the engine blast of a reactor drive."  He grinned and continued, "We'll make sure you have a safe landing, Sergeant-Major, even if that just means being such a pain in the ass that they're too busy shooting at me to notice you."

Well That;s it then....  Jump off  at  8:00 PM  Ships  time

 Shadow    Gives  an 'all -around salute'   heading to the door...   what will be interesting..is  the  fighters that  are on Vera?.. are they the Elie?  or  did they waste  them all in the LAst battle

 Morris hobbles   out   with Rivets close  behind,

[7 blank lines suppressed]

 >>> leaving to?

Mila accepted her piece of sausage with a polite wag of her tail, ate it, and yawned cavernously.

Her Human was clearly paying attention to the talk-talk, so she drifted whilst sitting upright... until she heard her name. Her ears came forward as she listened, then Larry thumped his tail beside her, and she put her head to one side, then looked over to Larry and gave him a quick lick.

Henry listend to the Admiral, taking particular note of what he, Mila, and the largs would be doing.

When Roy spoke, he turned to him.

"Do you want each larg to have their own handler? I'll see if any of the bio-techs are interested, they at least have animal handling experience. Or do you have someone in mind?"

"I didn't have any particular people in mind...but all things considered, I'd rather it be someone with combat experience.  I'd hate to run the risk of one of the largs taking wounds because their handler got overwhelmed by the action and either froze or panic-fired...and I don't want to put that on any of your techs' shoulders.  Friendly-fire incidents can haunt you for a long time...I've seen them end some brilliant careers.  But if you've got someone down there who you think is ready to watch out for a larg as well as themselves and their team when it all hits the fan, I'm willing to listen."  It would have been easy to be condescending with those words...Roy wasn't.  His voice had an earnest concern in it.

"Got it. Doubt anyone is quite that compentent in combat. I certainly am not!"

Henry had a wry grin as he nodded. They might call him the 'warrior professor' but he didn't really feel he was that good at combat. There again, he'd got into some hairy places and still was here...

 Morning..before    invasion of  Vear.........))))

............................

   Shade   was helpign  Beth with the  'war room'  screens,, After last time the   screens  were moved  back a   bit.. but the  admiral insisted on  seeing out of   Hanger  Dec between  C &B   flight's...flight lines. Both torpedo ships   were ready.

 Brant Wilson  looked  bummed out.. dressed up and ready but  sat by the  torpedo craft as a  BAck up.

  4   ESN painted  Mantis with no  numbers  sat back prepped in ready in the 'pool ' section behind the  Torpedo planes.

 Dana , Sneak and a few others LAdies  were  on dec.. they  were made to were  chest armor , at least  as they  hand   hot and cold  drinks  and    triangle sandwiches for   folks  before  the Jump off.

 Wendy sat   at the flight lines   slowly  trying to eat a sandwich, because Shadow told  her , he didn't know if they would be coming back tonight

 Others  were starting to gather  around   waiting for the last minute  word from the Admiral. The    mobile  stairs  were  in place  by  Hanger  Bay 2 .

 People shuffled  around   drinking, trying to eat..some folks  light  and  talked loud, others  were  quite..staring  at nothing, feet shaking,, fingers  tapping.

 Some troopers  leaned against   crates  with their  eyes  closed  listening to music on head  phones.

 Pilots  walked  around  in mixtures  of   enviro suits... light  armor   or  Medium  armor

  Mechs were gathered   near the   shuttles , waiting  so see which ride  the  drew.

  Rivets talked to the  shuttle  pilots   as they  talked about the LArgs...  Not wanting to left Roll by himself, and  not in the    bunker   with gregor and  the other  Civies... 'larg Master' Roll sat behind the Mech tables, with Gregor.. Roll wore his little uniform, Gregor  had a war   collar  on..well.. it was a dog collar that  Sneak glued  some  bits of Metal on... but the little beastie  was looking around  thumping his  tail as he waited  for the Big LArgs.

 The  2  nivarian  troopers   studied  Roll we  ate a sandwich  while he  held  gregor  and  watched all the people  moving around.

 Val  came up  to help set up a separate feed  for all the besaties..she would also keep an eye on Roll and get him  tot eh SEC  if there was boarding action

 Shadow  came striding down the ramp way a Big Cocky grin on his face..  the crew  greeted him with  waves, shouts and salutes...

 Higgins   was  near him as he looked  for Abby,..some of these people looked  scared... some don't seem to care?  don;t they know some of them won't be back?

  Shadow     frowned for a moment and hissed at him,..and if you think like that?..you might be 'some of them'..check your  machine...

 Higgins looked  like some one punched him  as  Shadow whispered to him.. and  went to check his  machine.

In reply to hanger (msg # 140):

Orria had arrived early and was doing her part wearing her armor, and helping Beth set up the screens, route connections and get everything ready.