Post by EmperorMyric on Dec 17, 2017 13:40:58 GMT
"Singapura Singapura
Tetapku cintamu
Kekal api setianegara
Terlindung masa depanmu"
(Singapore Singapore
Forvever I will love you
Immortal are the patriotic fires
And protected is your future)
Lagu Negara, 2nd Verse
----------------------------------
The orders barked flew to and fro between rushing soldiers as the troopers ran to the firing positions with great speed. The rebel force was approaching nearer and nearer, its masses of infantry marching closer and closer as their armored transports accompanied them into battle. The whine of mortar shells pierced the air, and then the ground flared and burst into the air as the explosive charge detonated upon contact. While the shells mostly landed on the expanse of land between the IRS lines and the Rebels, some took out a few men; spraying charred pieces of flesh all over the now crimson snow coloured from the blood, and some hit the roof of the structures. Not much damage though, considering the armor plating built onto them.
While others rushed to the frontlines, Xiang Wei entered a supply depot and scanned through the items in the protective lockers. He searched for a while, and eventually found what he wanted. Cylindrical in shape, with a cranking lever at the side, the object he found was a coil of power cables. Xiang Wei grabbed the object and inspected it for any defects or damages that may hinder its usefulness and once there was none he quickly left the depot with it. He ran for the nearest Thermo-Generator and began to do his work with the cables he had in hand.
While the Singapore Spirit was strong, it was still a fact that the IRS were not only outnumbers, but outgunned as well. The soldiers were willing to fight to the end, but such only delays the inevitable with their relatively meager weapons and fatigue. They knew that they would not win the battle, but the war could be won still, and the way to ensure that was to bring in reinforcements. The trooper's transponders and pack radios did not have enough strength to penetrate through Tau Volaris's ionic atmosphere back into outer space to their ships and could not receive any either, but the Headquarters building had a deep space long range transmitter which definitely would solve their problem. All it needed was juice from the HQ's generators, and the generators needed a constant flow of electricity from at least a Thermo Generator. The plan became simple. The engineers would set it up and request help, while the fighting force would buy time and push back the rebels. Expected outcome was no longer survival, but the arrival of more reinforcements to destroy the rebel force and revitalize the war effort.
Xiang Wei jammed the cable into the energy port at the side of the Generator and thew the coil aside as he dashed to the control panel to gain access to the generator's systems. The rectangular structure not taller than him moaned to life, the three 'boxes' on top of it which are the fuel cells glowing bright orange as the combustion process starts. On the panel the percentage of electricity stored in the storage batteries slowly racked up from zero to ten percent. Xiang Wei fished out a Portable Control Drive and plugged it into the Generator's control systems, connecting it with his arm computer. Gaining wireless control over the Generator's sub-systems, he quickly eyed the control panel before dashing off back to the HQ with the wire, uncoiling it as he ran.
Explosions drummed in the air as rockets streaked across the air from both sides, hitting both the approaching rebel forces and the IRS positions. Singaporean troops were thrown into the air from the shockwave of the blast, while some of the rebel APCs were taken out of commission; some merely incapacitated wile others destroyed into bits. The enemy infantry stopped marching and took caution in their advance, returning fire from the safety of cover behind their APCs or on their bellies on top of the snow. One brought up a heavy laser repeater and started spraying beams of deadly light rays in the direction of the IRS's firing lines.
The battle was going as expected to Redhan's imaginations. Pitting up all their odds against the superior enemy, of course the outcome was simple and undeniable. All of his troops, him involved as well, are going to die and the Line would fall. He had weighed and thought up of all the possible scenarios, with the fighting spirit included as well. No alternatives, they are all going to be eliminated by the rebels one way or another. The question was, will they survive long enough for their dastard plan to work? Redhan flashed himself a crazed grin as he thought of this, as he thought of a good death in blazing painful glory...or the barren wasteland with graves filled by the corpses of men who died in vain.
The Major snapped back to attention when he saw something red at the corner of his eye. Widening in sudden realization, Redhan ducked, bringing himself in the safety of his makeshift foxhole and did not have enough time to shout a warning before the red lights splashed through the bodies of his men, the laser burning through the cracked armor and then through the flesh. Redhan crawled over to the bodies and examined them. They were all dead.
"Fucking hell,"
Clutching his assault rifle, Redhan peeked over the edge of the foxhole and scanned the battlefield. The rebels were dangerously close to the lines and the lone infantry groups were already in mid-firing range of the IRS lines, with their mechanized assets trailing not far behind them. The APCs were diverse in shapes and sizes, coming from the different nations they once associated themselves with. Further back, a few IFVs started firing their armaments, the cannon and laser fire barrage overwhelming the Line as entire squads flashed up into bits of flesh and blood. Some of the Heavy Weapons were not so lucky, their own weapons struck and exploding into flames, spraying volatile fuel onto themselves and burning them alive. The unfortunately bastards ran out of their foxholes and trenches alight. The rebels laughed at the sight of men 'dancing' frantically and let them burn slowly to their agonizing death, putting down their rifles and focusing fire on surviving targets.
Major Redhan turned his attention away and looked to the front. Not good, more than half of his forces on the frontline already destroyed and there were not enough on the reserves to replace them. No point replacing them either, in fact it was a waste of precious manpower to deploy them straight into a killing field. They were needed behind the lines for a last stand. The Major looked for all his remaining men. Not many were left, around 20 or so were still alive and they were taking cover in no cover at all, only hoping the bullets and beams would missed them as they lay prone on the snow.
He heard the lethal rumble of an engine and the familiar crunching on snow. Redhan quickly glanced in front and cursed at what he saw. It was time the monstrous silhouettes of the APCs have reached the Line. Now, one of them, was just one second away from running over his foxhole. A thought came to mind and Redhan grinned madly at the insane bravado he was about to commit. Re-positioning himself nicely under the APC's belly so he would not be crushed by the threads, Redhan waited until it passed. Once it did, he quickly grabbed onto one of the latches on the hull and found himself dragged across the snow. Climbing up the APC to its top, Redhan fished out a pistol from his holster. He dashed across and fired his pistol at the gunner, scoring his neck. The dead machine gunner slid into the passenger compartment and the surprised murmurs of infantry was heard along with the metallic click of guns. The Major maintained a low profile so other APC gunners would not notice him and shoot him on the spot. Clutching a grenade in his hands, he threw it down the hatch after he primed it and waited the inevitable. Panic shouting was heard and a resouding 'boom' was music to his ears. Bringing up his rifle, Redhan leaped down into the interior of the APC. The grenade did its work, the explosion and resulting spraying of thousands of shrapnel in a very tight space eliminated virtually all of the men inside. Charred bodies torn apart and punctured lay on the seats with flesh stuck to the inner walls. Turning to the driver compartment the driver was injured but was still alive and struggled to reach for the wheel. Throwing the rifle to his side and reaching for his knife, Redhan grabbed the driver's face and jammed the knife deep into his abdomen, took it out and this time stabbed it deep into the neck. The squirming faded to rest and the pulse became non existent, and he pulled out the knife, wiping the blood away on his uniform. Redhan made his final glance to make sure everyone was dead, and then climbed back up to the turret.
Xiang Wei gasped for breath as he plugged the thick cable into the power distributor and tapped a few buttons on the screen of his portable arm-mounted computer, accessing the Thermo-Generator's power flow controls and diverting the energy to the wire and through that, to the power distributor of the HQ which would then supply the energy into the Energy Storage banks from which power is again redistributed among the HQ's various systems. Storming into the generator room, Xiang Wei dashed for the control board and focused the power transfer to the Operations Room above where the Deep Space Long Range Transmitter module was located and operated from. With the status reading green, he then made his way to the elevator on the first floor. Seeing through the thick bulletproof window panels, Xiang Wei watched the devastation unfold before him. Smoke rose through the air and munitions exploded from the firefight, and the yellow flashes of supersonic projectiles and the multi-spectra of light streaked across the snowy air, blasting the ground into ghostly mist and black smoke. Nearer to him, medics, or at least what seemed like medics, were rushing to and fro the frontlines loading wounded soldiers on the stretchers away from the battlefield and going back to the killing zone to pick up more. The elevator arrived and Xiang Wei took his eyes off the scene and went inside. The lift doors closed, and ascended upwards to the Operations Room.
Redhan felt his body aching from the fight and the winter cold but shrugged the feeling off. He looked at the weapon mounted on the APC's turret. Simple in appearance and rectangular in shape, it felt like any other mounted gun, with a trigger and some sights, which for this particular weapon, it had an advanced sighting scope mounted on it. However, Redhan saw what this weapon fired. It did not fire bullets or projectiles. The weapon he manned now was in fact a Heavy Laser Repeater, and it was a Separatist model he recognized from his encounters with them on Judiran II. Turning the turret towards the rebel advance, Redhan took a deep breath and aimed the weapon carefully, selecting his targets and ranking them. He planned to take out the advancing infantry, disable the APCs and suppress whatever that was left. The trigger clicked as it was pressed and the barrel glowed brilliant red as crimson rays left the muzzle. The weapon flashed as the short but powerful rays of laser were fired at the general direction of the rebel troops.
The laser blasted through the enemy ranks, burning through entire squadrons whole. The survivors were taken by surprise and ran for cover behind the hulls of the APCs. Another barrage of lasers came firing at them again, this time at the APC gunners. Their heads were shot off their necks before they could retaliate and the subsequent wave slammed onto the APC's hull, some melting through and causing spalling, spraying molten bits of metal in the interior at the unlucky infantry inside. Redhan turned the gun towards the wheels, melting some of it and the molten slag jamming the delicate machinery. The APCs stopped dead in their tracks, unable to move. More rebel soldiers tried to fire back at Redhan, but were simply taken out by the Major's returning fire. A bullet pinged off the protective armor plates covering Redhan's left. He rotated the turret there and the muzzle faced his new enemies; rebel infantry behind the APC he captured trying to take him out. He fired the gun at them, watching in delight as the lasers ripped them apart into pieces of burnt flesh and armor bits. Redhan caused havoc in the enemy's ranks, buying time for the soldiers to fall back, regroup and reform a firing line.
The elevator doors opened, and the empty sea of computer terminals and towering holographic panels greeted his presence. Xiang Wei hurried to the main computer and waited impatiently as it took time to receive power and boot up the Operational Systems. Taking a hefty 5 minutes, the OS finally managed to load all of its subsystems and gave access to Xiang Wei. He quickly checked the Energy Storage Banks and seeing that there was adequate power, he used the interface to activate access to the transmitter and divert all 90% of available power to it. The lights flickered off and the elevator motors whined to a stop as there was only enough power to run the main computer and the transmitter of the HQ. Gaining control of the transmitter, Xiang Wei inputed the communications channel tags of the IRS Fleet above in orbit and sent an urgent request for reinforcements as well as video feeds from the HQ's cameras to show the Fleet what was happening on ground. Once it was finally done, Xiang Wei set himself against the wall and slumped downwards, the fatigue from the running, rushing and the bitter piercing cold getting better of him. He saw the screen blinking green as the request was accepted and reinforcements were underway. Xiang Wei smiled to himself as he accomplished a great task and the world around him faded to black as he closed his eyes, letting his tired and worn out body rest and recover.
"APC Delta Three-Five has gone rogue and is turning on our units! AT teams take it out!" crackled the combined garble of the transponders of the dead passengers, drivers and the gunner as their commander barked the orders for Redhan's actions to be immediately put to a stop.
"Tsk, bloody shits!" Redhan grunted as he saw the anti-tank rockets zooming in to his position. He jumped out, just before the warheads crashed into the vehicle and exploded it into bits of flaming wreckage and ignited fuel. The Major was in time to not get blown apart, but not in time to get thrown off by the blastwave that came afterwards, he found himself getting propelled several metres through the air before landing hard on the soft, but chilling snow. Redhan swore that he heard few of his bones cracked on impact though he was not sure, at least he knew he was not completely paralyzed as he lifted up his upper torso and saw his own body. Stray red hot debris pierced through multiple spots on his legs and stomach and his uniform and armor was badly scratched through. Redhan could not get up and fight; he could not feel his legs. At least he knew he fought to the end, and if this is his end, he accepted it. Redhan coughed up blood. He knew he was not going to make it for long, that blood was sign he had serious internal bleeding. As blood trickled from the edge of his mouth, Redhan gazed towards the icy sky.
Through the electric storms and the snowy fog in the horizon, flashing red and yellow objects appeared and streaked towards the battlefield from above like meteors. Redhan gave himself a small laughter, and in the process, coughed out more blood and almost choked on it if he did not stop. As he felt his cling on his life fading away, Redhan started reliving his memories of the past. The times when he was an innocent child to the energetic rebellious days of his youth and finally to his adulthood when he had met his wife during army service. In the sky above, a ghostly picture of Natasha and his unborn daughter he never got to see when the mother perished along with it in Judiran II, Nina, materialized in his eyes against the crimson background of the Singaporean flag. Redhan smiled, he didn't knew death felt so good.
The drop pods slammed onto the ground in the middle of the enemy ranks, crushing vehicles and soldiers alike under its massive weight and impact. The pods opened up, and immediately the fury of the IRS came striking out; its legions of marines and armored tanks and walkers closing in to clear up the rebel force. In mere minutes the battle was finished and what survived the counter attack retreated to bring the warnings back to their commanders. The reinforcements secured a perimeter around the base and attended to the IRS survivors, helping the medics to carry and treat the wounded, and ferry the dead to a pile. More pods arrived, this time containing additional supplies and base modules to get the outpost up and running, and revitalize the Singaporean war effort on Tau Volaris.
In the black voids of space, Admiral Gala gazed at the statistical reports, live video footage from the HQ's cameras and the tactical map detailing the military units and structures on ground. The operation was not going as excellent as he would have hoped, and counted on his lucky stars that he did not chose to send the entire invasion force in the first wave on the advice of his commanders. Gala however, knew that he must continue the operation and work towards winning the war, for he knew that ultimate victory would earn the Singaporeans back at home more peace of the mind.
He stared at the planet surface, its seemingly hostile orbit glaring intimidatingly at him.
"They shall feel the wrath when the IRS strikes,"
Tetapku cintamu
Kekal api setianegara
Terlindung masa depanmu"
(Singapore Singapore
Forvever I will love you
Immortal are the patriotic fires
And protected is your future)
Lagu Negara, 2nd Verse
----------------------------------
The orders barked flew to and fro between rushing soldiers as the troopers ran to the firing positions with great speed. The rebel force was approaching nearer and nearer, its masses of infantry marching closer and closer as their armored transports accompanied them into battle. The whine of mortar shells pierced the air, and then the ground flared and burst into the air as the explosive charge detonated upon contact. While the shells mostly landed on the expanse of land between the IRS lines and the Rebels, some took out a few men; spraying charred pieces of flesh all over the now crimson snow coloured from the blood, and some hit the roof of the structures. Not much damage though, considering the armor plating built onto them.
While others rushed to the frontlines, Xiang Wei entered a supply depot and scanned through the items in the protective lockers. He searched for a while, and eventually found what he wanted. Cylindrical in shape, with a cranking lever at the side, the object he found was a coil of power cables. Xiang Wei grabbed the object and inspected it for any defects or damages that may hinder its usefulness and once there was none he quickly left the depot with it. He ran for the nearest Thermo-Generator and began to do his work with the cables he had in hand.
While the Singapore Spirit was strong, it was still a fact that the IRS were not only outnumbers, but outgunned as well. The soldiers were willing to fight to the end, but such only delays the inevitable with their relatively meager weapons and fatigue. They knew that they would not win the battle, but the war could be won still, and the way to ensure that was to bring in reinforcements. The trooper's transponders and pack radios did not have enough strength to penetrate through Tau Volaris's ionic atmosphere back into outer space to their ships and could not receive any either, but the Headquarters building had a deep space long range transmitter which definitely would solve their problem. All it needed was juice from the HQ's generators, and the generators needed a constant flow of electricity from at least a Thermo Generator. The plan became simple. The engineers would set it up and request help, while the fighting force would buy time and push back the rebels. Expected outcome was no longer survival, but the arrival of more reinforcements to destroy the rebel force and revitalize the war effort.
Xiang Wei jammed the cable into the energy port at the side of the Generator and thew the coil aside as he dashed to the control panel to gain access to the generator's systems. The rectangular structure not taller than him moaned to life, the three 'boxes' on top of it which are the fuel cells glowing bright orange as the combustion process starts. On the panel the percentage of electricity stored in the storage batteries slowly racked up from zero to ten percent. Xiang Wei fished out a Portable Control Drive and plugged it into the Generator's control systems, connecting it with his arm computer. Gaining wireless control over the Generator's sub-systems, he quickly eyed the control panel before dashing off back to the HQ with the wire, uncoiling it as he ran.
Explosions drummed in the air as rockets streaked across the air from both sides, hitting both the approaching rebel forces and the IRS positions. Singaporean troops were thrown into the air from the shockwave of the blast, while some of the rebel APCs were taken out of commission; some merely incapacitated wile others destroyed into bits. The enemy infantry stopped marching and took caution in their advance, returning fire from the safety of cover behind their APCs or on their bellies on top of the snow. One brought up a heavy laser repeater and started spraying beams of deadly light rays in the direction of the IRS's firing lines.
The battle was going as expected to Redhan's imaginations. Pitting up all their odds against the superior enemy, of course the outcome was simple and undeniable. All of his troops, him involved as well, are going to die and the Line would fall. He had weighed and thought up of all the possible scenarios, with the fighting spirit included as well. No alternatives, they are all going to be eliminated by the rebels one way or another. The question was, will they survive long enough for their dastard plan to work? Redhan flashed himself a crazed grin as he thought of this, as he thought of a good death in blazing painful glory...or the barren wasteland with graves filled by the corpses of men who died in vain.
The Major snapped back to attention when he saw something red at the corner of his eye. Widening in sudden realization, Redhan ducked, bringing himself in the safety of his makeshift foxhole and did not have enough time to shout a warning before the red lights splashed through the bodies of his men, the laser burning through the cracked armor and then through the flesh. Redhan crawled over to the bodies and examined them. They were all dead.
"Fucking hell,"
Clutching his assault rifle, Redhan peeked over the edge of the foxhole and scanned the battlefield. The rebels were dangerously close to the lines and the lone infantry groups were already in mid-firing range of the IRS lines, with their mechanized assets trailing not far behind them. The APCs were diverse in shapes and sizes, coming from the different nations they once associated themselves with. Further back, a few IFVs started firing their armaments, the cannon and laser fire barrage overwhelming the Line as entire squads flashed up into bits of flesh and blood. Some of the Heavy Weapons were not so lucky, their own weapons struck and exploding into flames, spraying volatile fuel onto themselves and burning them alive. The unfortunately bastards ran out of their foxholes and trenches alight. The rebels laughed at the sight of men 'dancing' frantically and let them burn slowly to their agonizing death, putting down their rifles and focusing fire on surviving targets.
Major Redhan turned his attention away and looked to the front. Not good, more than half of his forces on the frontline already destroyed and there were not enough on the reserves to replace them. No point replacing them either, in fact it was a waste of precious manpower to deploy them straight into a killing field. They were needed behind the lines for a last stand. The Major looked for all his remaining men. Not many were left, around 20 or so were still alive and they were taking cover in no cover at all, only hoping the bullets and beams would missed them as they lay prone on the snow.
He heard the lethal rumble of an engine and the familiar crunching on snow. Redhan quickly glanced in front and cursed at what he saw. It was time the monstrous silhouettes of the APCs have reached the Line. Now, one of them, was just one second away from running over his foxhole. A thought came to mind and Redhan grinned madly at the insane bravado he was about to commit. Re-positioning himself nicely under the APC's belly so he would not be crushed by the threads, Redhan waited until it passed. Once it did, he quickly grabbed onto one of the latches on the hull and found himself dragged across the snow. Climbing up the APC to its top, Redhan fished out a pistol from his holster. He dashed across and fired his pistol at the gunner, scoring his neck. The dead machine gunner slid into the passenger compartment and the surprised murmurs of infantry was heard along with the metallic click of guns. The Major maintained a low profile so other APC gunners would not notice him and shoot him on the spot. Clutching a grenade in his hands, he threw it down the hatch after he primed it and waited the inevitable. Panic shouting was heard and a resouding 'boom' was music to his ears. Bringing up his rifle, Redhan leaped down into the interior of the APC. The grenade did its work, the explosion and resulting spraying of thousands of shrapnel in a very tight space eliminated virtually all of the men inside. Charred bodies torn apart and punctured lay on the seats with flesh stuck to the inner walls. Turning to the driver compartment the driver was injured but was still alive and struggled to reach for the wheel. Throwing the rifle to his side and reaching for his knife, Redhan grabbed the driver's face and jammed the knife deep into his abdomen, took it out and this time stabbed it deep into the neck. The squirming faded to rest and the pulse became non existent, and he pulled out the knife, wiping the blood away on his uniform. Redhan made his final glance to make sure everyone was dead, and then climbed back up to the turret.
Xiang Wei gasped for breath as he plugged the thick cable into the power distributor and tapped a few buttons on the screen of his portable arm-mounted computer, accessing the Thermo-Generator's power flow controls and diverting the energy to the wire and through that, to the power distributor of the HQ which would then supply the energy into the Energy Storage banks from which power is again redistributed among the HQ's various systems. Storming into the generator room, Xiang Wei dashed for the control board and focused the power transfer to the Operations Room above where the Deep Space Long Range Transmitter module was located and operated from. With the status reading green, he then made his way to the elevator on the first floor. Seeing through the thick bulletproof window panels, Xiang Wei watched the devastation unfold before him. Smoke rose through the air and munitions exploded from the firefight, and the yellow flashes of supersonic projectiles and the multi-spectra of light streaked across the snowy air, blasting the ground into ghostly mist and black smoke. Nearer to him, medics, or at least what seemed like medics, were rushing to and fro the frontlines loading wounded soldiers on the stretchers away from the battlefield and going back to the killing zone to pick up more. The elevator arrived and Xiang Wei took his eyes off the scene and went inside. The lift doors closed, and ascended upwards to the Operations Room.
Redhan felt his body aching from the fight and the winter cold but shrugged the feeling off. He looked at the weapon mounted on the APC's turret. Simple in appearance and rectangular in shape, it felt like any other mounted gun, with a trigger and some sights, which for this particular weapon, it had an advanced sighting scope mounted on it. However, Redhan saw what this weapon fired. It did not fire bullets or projectiles. The weapon he manned now was in fact a Heavy Laser Repeater, and it was a Separatist model he recognized from his encounters with them on Judiran II. Turning the turret towards the rebel advance, Redhan took a deep breath and aimed the weapon carefully, selecting his targets and ranking them. He planned to take out the advancing infantry, disable the APCs and suppress whatever that was left. The trigger clicked as it was pressed and the barrel glowed brilliant red as crimson rays left the muzzle. The weapon flashed as the short but powerful rays of laser were fired at the general direction of the rebel troops.
The laser blasted through the enemy ranks, burning through entire squadrons whole. The survivors were taken by surprise and ran for cover behind the hulls of the APCs. Another barrage of lasers came firing at them again, this time at the APC gunners. Their heads were shot off their necks before they could retaliate and the subsequent wave slammed onto the APC's hull, some melting through and causing spalling, spraying molten bits of metal in the interior at the unlucky infantry inside. Redhan turned the gun towards the wheels, melting some of it and the molten slag jamming the delicate machinery. The APCs stopped dead in their tracks, unable to move. More rebel soldiers tried to fire back at Redhan, but were simply taken out by the Major's returning fire. A bullet pinged off the protective armor plates covering Redhan's left. He rotated the turret there and the muzzle faced his new enemies; rebel infantry behind the APC he captured trying to take him out. He fired the gun at them, watching in delight as the lasers ripped them apart into pieces of burnt flesh and armor bits. Redhan caused havoc in the enemy's ranks, buying time for the soldiers to fall back, regroup and reform a firing line.
The elevator doors opened, and the empty sea of computer terminals and towering holographic panels greeted his presence. Xiang Wei hurried to the main computer and waited impatiently as it took time to receive power and boot up the Operational Systems. Taking a hefty 5 minutes, the OS finally managed to load all of its subsystems and gave access to Xiang Wei. He quickly checked the Energy Storage Banks and seeing that there was adequate power, he used the interface to activate access to the transmitter and divert all 90% of available power to it. The lights flickered off and the elevator motors whined to a stop as there was only enough power to run the main computer and the transmitter of the HQ. Gaining control of the transmitter, Xiang Wei inputed the communications channel tags of the IRS Fleet above in orbit and sent an urgent request for reinforcements as well as video feeds from the HQ's cameras to show the Fleet what was happening on ground. Once it was finally done, Xiang Wei set himself against the wall and slumped downwards, the fatigue from the running, rushing and the bitter piercing cold getting better of him. He saw the screen blinking green as the request was accepted and reinforcements were underway. Xiang Wei smiled to himself as he accomplished a great task and the world around him faded to black as he closed his eyes, letting his tired and worn out body rest and recover.
"APC Delta Three-Five has gone rogue and is turning on our units! AT teams take it out!" crackled the combined garble of the transponders of the dead passengers, drivers and the gunner as their commander barked the orders for Redhan's actions to be immediately put to a stop.
"Tsk, bloody shits!" Redhan grunted as he saw the anti-tank rockets zooming in to his position. He jumped out, just before the warheads crashed into the vehicle and exploded it into bits of flaming wreckage and ignited fuel. The Major was in time to not get blown apart, but not in time to get thrown off by the blastwave that came afterwards, he found himself getting propelled several metres through the air before landing hard on the soft, but chilling snow. Redhan swore that he heard few of his bones cracked on impact though he was not sure, at least he knew he was not completely paralyzed as he lifted up his upper torso and saw his own body. Stray red hot debris pierced through multiple spots on his legs and stomach and his uniform and armor was badly scratched through. Redhan could not get up and fight; he could not feel his legs. At least he knew he fought to the end, and if this is his end, he accepted it. Redhan coughed up blood. He knew he was not going to make it for long, that blood was sign he had serious internal bleeding. As blood trickled from the edge of his mouth, Redhan gazed towards the icy sky.
Through the electric storms and the snowy fog in the horizon, flashing red and yellow objects appeared and streaked towards the battlefield from above like meteors. Redhan gave himself a small laughter, and in the process, coughed out more blood and almost choked on it if he did not stop. As he felt his cling on his life fading away, Redhan started reliving his memories of the past. The times when he was an innocent child to the energetic rebellious days of his youth and finally to his adulthood when he had met his wife during army service. In the sky above, a ghostly picture of Natasha and his unborn daughter he never got to see when the mother perished along with it in Judiran II, Nina, materialized in his eyes against the crimson background of the Singaporean flag. Redhan smiled, he didn't knew death felt so good.
The drop pods slammed onto the ground in the middle of the enemy ranks, crushing vehicles and soldiers alike under its massive weight and impact. The pods opened up, and immediately the fury of the IRS came striking out; its legions of marines and armored tanks and walkers closing in to clear up the rebel force. In mere minutes the battle was finished and what survived the counter attack retreated to bring the warnings back to their commanders. The reinforcements secured a perimeter around the base and attended to the IRS survivors, helping the medics to carry and treat the wounded, and ferry the dead to a pile. More pods arrived, this time containing additional supplies and base modules to get the outpost up and running, and revitalize the Singaporean war effort on Tau Volaris.
In the black voids of space, Admiral Gala gazed at the statistical reports, live video footage from the HQ's cameras and the tactical map detailing the military units and structures on ground. The operation was not going as excellent as he would have hoped, and counted on his lucky stars that he did not chose to send the entire invasion force in the first wave on the advice of his commanders. Gala however, knew that he must continue the operation and work towards winning the war, for he knew that ultimate victory would earn the Singaporeans back at home more peace of the mind.
He stared at the planet surface, its seemingly hostile orbit glaring intimidatingly at him.
"They shall feel the wrath when the IRS strikes,"