A Terran flotilla intercepts a Merseian task force. Cyntath Gadrol Cannonshield, Vach Ynvory, commands the dreadnaught, Ardwyr. The battle is cover for the departure toward Gorrazan of a Merseian squadron led by Qanryf Bryadan Arrowsmith, Vach Hallen, in the cruiser, Tryntaf, which, on arrival in Gorrazanian space, smashes defence squadrons and broadcasts propaganda at the planetary surface. An escadrille of twenty gunboats led by Afal Uroch the Lucky, Vach Rueth, leaves Tryntaf and enters the Gorrazanian atmosphere.
Warcraft attack. The escadrille evades. The Gorrazanians pursue, firing bullets, missiles and energy beams. Merseian gunners hit most of the projectiles. Most of the others, and of the rays, miss. Forcefields and armour absorb most hits. One gunboat falls. To evade a second defence force, Uroch takes his escadrille between peaks in a mountain range that he has studied in advance. Several pursuing flyers crash. Others lose contact. Uroch shakes off the remainder of the flotilla by going into space and hiding, free-fall, in the ionized gas from the nuclear detonations between two battling warships.
Re-entering atmosphere, the gunboats hide in a hurricane that takes them to their target where they shoot down defence missiles and aircraft. Their own missiles destroy a Folkmoot command centre, thus aiding the revolutionary Liberation Council. The gunboats fight their way back to Tryntaf. The squadron returns to Gadrol's fleet which eludes a Terran search and returns to Merseia.
As the omniscient narrator observes: epic material. The chapter closes with a Gorrazanian female singing to her dead child.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And all this was meant to distract the harassed Empire's attention from Magnusson and the Patrician system. All the better for Merseia if Terra was compelled to send assistance to the shaken Gorrazanian Folkmoot.
Ad astra! Sean
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