Space Odyssey: Spectre

"Motherfucker! Cadet Steel-" Tani yelled in anger.

"I know, stay silent. How does the Union already have hands on military spacecraft?" He asked over the comlink. He had verified it by hacking their systems.

"They are old scuttled ships. They are supposed to have been destroyed. Hell, I used to fly on one of them. Make a note of that, it means any number of ships we have scuttled within the last three years could be in Union or enemy hands." The Bird's Nest Sergeant announced.

"They are doing another grid search in attack craft, in a different formation than last time. They also have people searching on the ground. This Admiral Lee has probably realized we are concealed under something. No one has started anything up top but if it does start the heavier they involve the federation the better it will be on us." He responded, calling out what he saw.

"Good keep watch on the ground and air. We will watch the space to see- what the fuck? Who the fuck is this?" The Sergeant actually sounded really surprised this time.

Steel glanced at it and frowned, who the fuck indeed. Those ship designs did not look like anything in any database. But they kind of looked like-

—-----------------

Admiral Lee actually reeled back in surprise. Initially this was difficult, then it became bad, but now it was just strange. Several Victorium ships had arrived, one large one as big as a warship, along with five smaller ones about the size of a cruiser and then three ships the size of cutters. This was the biggest gathering of them he had ever heard of. It was not a fleet used for skirmishes.

"Admiral sir, I don't know what happened they just appeared-" One of the bridge crew began panicking, he was supposed to know if a ship was going to warp in.

"It is fine, start recording all outside feeds on all our ships. Even the fighters. Inform the soldiers on the ground to turn on helmet cameras. Deploy two squads of Mecha to the surface. Ship Captain, inform Central Command. It is unlikely we will get possession of the ship. We are going to get as much footage as we can and anything else we can get our hands on." The Admiral declared.

"Sir, who are they?" The captain asked.

"The Victorium. I am opening their file and disclosing it to all officers on the ship. Rank Private and above. Read it when you have the opportunity, unfortunately it is a short read. Any and all information that brings forth new intelligence will be a valuable asset." Admiral Lee announced and a flurry of movement began, when they went to follow his orders.

"I have Central Command on long range communication!" The captain announced before moving the call to the table.

"Admiral Lee this is Central Command-"

"Yeah, whatever. We have a Victorium Fleet here. I repeat, the first military offensive that the Victorium is commiting to is on Waterswan-2. I have changed our mission parameters. I request that command discloses the existence of Victorium to the entire military and general population." Admiral Lee only partially paid attention as they began cursing on the other end.

"Negative Admiral-"

"Understood, we are busy now. Unless you are sending us some backup, don't contact us." Admiral Lee then hung up, getting a strange look from the ship captain.

"Sir, was that wise? Won't they be cross with you?" He asked.

"Your accent is slipping and I do not care. I only need the here and now Captain. That was just a courtesy call while I thought of my plan." The Admiral then connected himself to communications. "All fighters scramble. You have a green light on all targets, if the Union gets in your way you can kill them too. Ground troops, I have a feeling you are about to have company and lots of it. What are the Victorium doing?"

"Smaller craft just left the ship heading to the planet. Looks like three… troop carriers." The man guessed.

"We have seen their attack craft, check the file." Admiral Lee pulled up the image of the ships. "You are right, those are not attack craft. Warn the ground troops…wait." He suddenly just thought of something and smiled. "They probably have better scanners, they are going to where the ship is. Track them when they land and scout the location." Admiral Lee smiled as he looked at the image of the ships. This was the kind of fight he liked.

—--------------

Steel frowned as he nervously bit his lip in anticipation. Then all of his screens shuddered and glitched for a moment. He quickly typed trying to figure it out and then he had an idea as three smaller ships were launched from the newest arrivals.

"Tani I am not a hundred percent certain but I think we just got scanned by the new arrivals. They may know our location." Steel communicated over the radio.

"We have no clue. But could it be from the same group that had that invisible ship. What do you think Steel? You got the best look at them." Tani asked over the comlink.

"I think it is. Be prepared for an uphill battle. Their tech is better than ours. The federation is backing off. I think that the admiral has realized the same thing I did." Steel pointed out.

"I agree. Cadet Steel be prepared to fire on them. I will contact the Border if it seems like they are coming straight at us to get intel." The Bird's Nest Sergeant calmly stated.

Steel switched up his systems, preparing to walk out the mecha he got his personal equipment ready. His helmet was on and his weapons were prepped for him to throw on at a moment's notice.

Not even a second after he finished his comlink lit up. "All units be aware, the alien species known as Victorium are hostile. Steel, get out there and roll out the welcome mat. Stay alive and aware."

'"Yes sir."" There was a unanimous response over the comlink.

Steel moved his mecha out of cover; the Victorium were still out of range but the federation craft were not. "Firing on federation, the Victorium are still out of range."

"Affirmative."

He did not even know whether it was Tani or the Bird's Nest Sergeant who gave the order. But he grinned as he fired a volley of artillery shells into the air then he spun up the heavy chain gun aiming for an aircraft that was in view. The craft tried veering out of sight but it was too late. It was low enough that the heavy chain gun melted the cockpit.

Then his comlink lit up as the ship's communications were connected to theirs. It sounded like things were getting heated up there as well. There was one thing he did hear though through all the chaos. The Vibrational Scanner was online, and they were closer to the ship then they thought. Ten minutes at most before they were at the entrance.

Steel watched the skies as the federation ships started to give their area a wide berth. While the Victorium as they were called seemed to not care. As soon as they were in range he launched the missile. It sailed through the air and the ship lit up as it impacted the shield.

"Damn, drop ships have shields." He called over the comlink, which surprisingly made it go quiet for a moment before it lit up again.

He ignored it as he fired a few more missiles and then fired his chain gun at the front of the lead ship. The first few shots were blocked but the front of the drop ship lit up blue like electricity was racing across it. But then it disappeared and the front of it was dented, then the missiles impacted causing it to explode and veer off into the distance. "First drop ship down, kinetic ammunition to take out shields. Explosive to destroy."

He then turned his attention to the other two drop ships which veered off course and dropped altitude to get out of his line of fire. He lit up the second one, causing its shield to light up but it got behind cover before he could hit it with a missile so he fired three artillery shells to where it roughly landed. He only got two shots on the other one before it disappeared out of sight.

He saw a plume of blue fire as his artillery landed. It was the same as when the first one crashed. "Second dropship was destroyed but they got a chance to land. Dropship three got past me. Refocusing on federation and laying down artillery fire."

He aimed at another ship that was veering too close and shot a missile before firing artillery on nearby choke points. He stayed like that for a few minutes running out of fire power when Tani called out.

"Steel, how clear is the sky? Can our birds take to it?" Tani asked, it sounded like she was organizing while the Bird's Nest Sergeant was doing something else.

"As clear as I can make it. Enemies are all staying out of my range. They likely are going to move in close with explosives before sending in air support once my toy is down." Steel responded.

"Understood. Launching Hawks and Osprey for air support. Good luck pilots." Tani seamlessly switched over to ordering.

"Thanks war table. Going airborne." Steel watched as first the Hawks and then the Osprey flew out of the hangar and base. Taking to the sky breaking through the line of spacecraft that were around.

Steel barely got a chance to react as he saw a spot of blue fire heading straight for his mecha from one of his cameras. He tilted slightly and the cabin heated up. While several cameras on that side of the mech went dark.

"Steel to Tani, they have invisible soldiers and plasma weaponry. They just fried half my cameras and literally turned up the heat in here. It won't be long before I have to abandon and get on my feet." He turned his mecha so his working cameras were covering as much area as possible.

He changed his artillery zone to the two choke points that led to the front of the base, where its only entrance was located. The ground shook as the first few landed, hitting something as the area was littered with green and parts of a body. It appeared out of nowhere but now they knew.

He did not get a second artillery volley off. A number of plasma fire shots hit his mecha coming from the ridge above. The cabin heated up quickly as all of his cameras went down and a moment later all of his systems went down.

"Damn. Whore of Crystoph is slagged, unrecoverable."