The Line of Succession Vol. 03 - The Final War

It turns out that the third planet was the Lomaxxes military 'warehouse' and they were almost strictly hardware oriented. Military personnel made up the vast majority of occupants. Consequently, the planet was almost literally a storage depot of smaller attack craft, and defensive weapons. Coupled with a heavy defensive force shield, this was a tough nut to crack. Tlandin's commander, Admiral Dwan Kom fan, was literally licking his lips at the thought of taking them out with the Super-Dreadnought named for the Bassin ancient home planet. Tlandin's crew was heavily leavened with Bassin recruits, and this was just 'icing on the cake' as they say.

The second planet proved to be the Lomaxxes home world. Such as it was. Their society and civilization were way down on the intergalactic scale and it was obvious that the hierarchy was more concerned with military conquests than with the well being of their people.

The first planet, the one closest to the red dwarf star, was a farm, if you will. Totally devoid of anything other than several widely spaced enclaves of 'lower' life forms, being 'herded' and guarded by Lomaxxes para-military. The Go-mash were directed to liberate the affected peoples and transport them off planet. Several of the rescued peoples from the Kledrif had been recruited and suited up to accompany the liberating forces. Commander Rem-ton Huty was looking forward to his, and the Go-mash's first strictly military engagement.

The engagement continued to unfold and we picked up two returning warships coming from out system with numerous ancillary units in tow. The Repulse moved to engage and as the warships entered the system- SURPRISE!- Repulse neutralized them both with a quick surgical EMP attack. The first ship shuddered before attempting to engage her shields and as the onboard systems failed, the reactor controls did, too. She disappeared in an orgasm of nuclear fire.

The second ship managed to get her shields up, but it didn't save her totally. Her electronics were scrambled and her crew was scrambling to stabilize her reactor. Consequentially, the ship lapsed into uncontrolled forward progress and she was hailed to surrender. She couldn't respond, or no one was able to respond. So she just drifted to her doom.

Repulse's commander monitored the lack of response from the enemy warship. For a brief moment, he thought to let the ship meander on while monitoring her response. But the Imperial command of 'No quarter' was still in effect, so finally he just sighed and gave the order to destroy the vessel.

"I'll be so glad when this is over", he said to everyone on the bridge, and no one in particular as the anti-ship missiles streaked out to impact the floating hulk. Seconds later, it too had joined it's sister in non-existence. War was getting weary.

The engagement of the third planet was continuing and finally the planet's shields collapsed. Admiral Kom fan had surrender notices broadcast to the planet in all four languages as per Naval reg's. The answer was a volley of anti-ship missiles and a sortie of sting ship type spacecraft. The Tlandin easily defeated the small ships and her force fields handled the missiles with only minor disruption to stability. The Admiral ordered the ship to back off an additional distance just to be safe. He then smiled and ordered the deployment of one of the new 'planet busting' weapons. This would be the first use in combat of the weapon, and the Bassin Admiral was confident this would be the end of battle on planet 3, as it was being referred to.

The ovoid shaped projectile was deployed and armed, shielded, and sent towards planet 3. It accelerated to near warp speed thanks to the small fusion power plant on board. As it approached the minimal atmosphere, it was detonated. At first, there was nothing. The weapon's techs thought it was a dud.

It wasn't.

Subsequent analysis showed that the minimal atmosphere allowed the weapon to get closer to the surface than was thought, or planned. That was deemed to be part of the problem.

It detonated and the explosion, and EMP incursion propagated the effect to the surface AND the interior of the planet. There were significant underground structures housing personnel, weapons, spacecraft, and ordinance, not to mention large scale fusion reactors.

When it finally connected with the contents of the storehouse planet,..... well, it wasn't pretty.

Fully two-thirds of the planet was blown apart, disintegrated by the explosion. The Tlandin was far enough away, according to the projected results from intelligence, to safely ride out the blast. But she was working on the wrong figures. She should have been farther away. No matter. Her shields were up. At least, it saved her from physical contact with the blast. The EMP blast and the shock wave roiled her around inside her force field. The reactors scrammed, systems shut down, gravity shut down, atmosphere was cut, and warning klaxons screamed alerts. Injuries multiplied. There were a few serious injuries, read fatalities, but she was still basically just 'dead in the water' as the saying went.

The blast caught the other three super-dreadnought's attention, and Repulse moved to assist Tlandin. Canberra moved to cover the Lomaxxes home world, and Coventry moved to cover the two Go-mash transport/warships with the subjugation of the inner planet, where the poor 'cattle' were kept.

The two divisions of occupation troops were moved to the surface by their attack shuttles. Coventry's shuttles supported the Go-mash and engaged a few small enclaves of Lomaxxes found on the four small island-continents. It was a quick engagement and soon there were no enemy forces on the ground. The Go-mash secured the compounds where the captives were kept and freed them all. They then re-united them with any individuals that were freed from the Kledrif that knew them and the resulting reunions were startling. The peoples were over joyed in many instances and devastated in most, when they realized that many of their families and friends were gone. They were devastated and if the Lomaxxes had been around, it would have been brutal.

Command had been talking with the Department of Settlement and Colonization. The subject of how to handle the approximately four hundred rescued peoples had been the prime topic; now it appeared that there were more than three thousand displaced peoples additionally involved and they were trying figure out what do. Then the Imperial Department of Justice got involved and the talk moved to the establishment of a new penal colony. Something self sufficient, out of the way and inhospitable to house incorrigible criminals- or loathsome, despicable races.

Meanwhile, the Canberra was deploying Marines to invade the second planet. Battle shuttles dropped into the atmosphere and the landing sprays saturated the surrounding grounds, turning the ground the gray ceramic-colored consistency that marked a landing zone. Force fields were set up, and now there were armored vehicles and anti-grav launches deployed to support the Marines. Twenty thousand Marines, engineers, and supporting medical staff moved to engage the defending Lomaxxes forces. There were four different concentrations of enemy forces around the capital city, numbering approx. twelve thousand troops, all lightly armed as would be expected of home world garrisoning forces. There were also some fifty smaller units stationed around the planet at four other smaller cities on the main land mass. All total about an additional ten thousand men. Or Lomaxxes.

The attack shuttles neutralized the fifty smaller enclaves and a good portion of the smaller cities. Collateral damage. Caleb and Company "A" were assigned to advance on the primary city and search out and capture the Locs Dem-ab, the leader of the Lomaxxes government, and any of the ruling class they could find. No quarter to be given. Two thousand men formed up and with armored vehicles in support, they raced towards what appeared to be Lomaxxes capital.

Company "B", and Company "C" moved out in a flanking movement, with Company "D" in support of the main attack, while three attack shuttles provided air support. It was a brutal advance, and the Lomaxxes were forced to give ground quickly- but not quickly enough, as the four units rapidly overran the enemy forces.

Soon the imperial forces were at the outskirts of the city. The city wasn't terribly sophisticated compared to Terran standards. No building over six stories tall, and numerous low rise structures. Coms isolated and located the command nexus in a two story bunker with a four story tower at each corner.

The shuttles targeted the four towers at the corners of the bunker. Two minutes later there was just the bunker. Company "A" moved in and the other two flanking units stepped up support fire on the building. Company "D" moved in to backstop the initial attack. "A" move to the blast door at the entrance to the building, and Major Lomer gave the breach order. The door exploded and at the same time, the shuttles deposited troops on the roof. A breach of the roof was initiated, and the building was entered from two axis.

Cal and Cwasir led the Marines into the dim interior and immediately came under fire. They directed two fire team to open a corridor into the main building and met up with forces from the roof. They cleared the top floor and all the rooms on the ground floor, leaving only the basement. A broad staircase led down to a heavy fire door. It was the only way down, and sensors indicated life forms beyond the door.

They attempted to initiate contact with the occupants beyond but the enemy was having nothing to do with it. So a sapper team set charges and blew the door. But they didn't rush in. They held back and slowly individuals came out. Civilians, it seemed. As best as could be determined many were females, with many small children. Caleb nodded to Cwasir and the two lead squads rushed the room. They entered a situation room filled with military types and obese, ignorant looking individuals. Caleb walked up to the most important looking shit and thumbed his translator.

"I'm looking for Locs Dem-ab."

A short, skinny, anemic looking insect straightened up and said something in guttural speech. Caleb turned to him and held the translator box to his face.

"Are you Locs Dem-ab?"

"I am. Who are you, invader?" he sneered.

Caleb turned to his second, Lt. Laurence Olsen, and told him to cuff him, shackle him, and get him to a security cell on the Canberra ASAP.

The Lt. Saluted and proceeded to follow orders while the Lomaxxes spluttered and shrieked. Soon he was gone, and the Major ordered everyone else tied up and moved out. Then Intell moved in and started to dissect the computers and consoles in the room. The info started to flow into the Canberra's data banks and from there back to Command. This was a gold mine- annexed worlds, conquered races, planets with unexplored minerals, and habitable worlds. This would almost make the expedition worth while. Eliminating the Lomaxxes from the known galaxy was now the whipped cream and the cherry on top.

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HIMS Larocyn, high Earth orbit

Command was reveling in the victory. They finally felt some closure with their age old nemesis and they were feeling pretty good about it. But the Crown Princess was still trying to get some info on the good Major's status. She was pacing back and forth in her stateroom, aging as she worried. Lt. Sanchez buzzed her room and accessed the bed chambers. She was grinning from ear to ear.

"YOUR HIGHNESS! GOOD NEWS! They're all fine. The after action report just came through and there were minimal casualties. No fatalities and no tall, good looking Majors were injured!"

Katirine slumped to a chair and exploded. The tears came with a vengeance and she was sobbing uncontrollably as Esmy raced to her and threw her arms around her. Kat clung to her and they sat there crying. The tears slowly ebbed but the embrace tightened. Then Kat eased back and looked into Esmeralda's eyes and their lips met. At first Esmy thought,' No, no, I can't do this. But I want to. SOOO badly.' The kiss intensified and soon they were meshing against each other. Esmy reached for Katirine's pert breast and caressed her hardening nipple.

Suddenly, she lurched apart and jumped up, panting.

"NO, sister, I can't do this. I love you more than anything and this would be wrong."

Katirine looked at her friend and saw the pain in her eyes. She knew what she said was true, and in a different time and place, she would have welcomed their relationship maturing past this stage. But she also knew that her love for Esmy was not compatible with her love for Caleb. They were two different states and she could never reconcile them. She rose and went to Esmy, taking her hands.

Esmy started to pull away and said, "I'll request a transfer. I will get out of your life and never mention this again. I'll say that.......'

"NO, YOU WILL NOT!" shouted Kat.

"I will not permit it. That is a command. YOU are my sister, in all ways that are possible. You will be my Maid of Honor when I commit to my Consort. YOU will be the godmother of our first child. YOU will be our children's favorite aunt. I will always love you, not like we would wish could be, but as we want it to be. I COMMAND YOU, ESMERALDA. ......It is my wish, sister." She leaned it and kissed Esmy on the lips.

"For all time, Esmy. For ever."

Esmeralda burst into tears and hugged the Princess.

"Thank you, my sister," she whispered.

"Now, let us go and confront my mother to learn the status of my first love. Come, Lieutenant."

The two young women composed themselves and wiped their faces, and made their way to the Command Bridge. They entered to a scene of intense activity and action. Representatives of the Justice Department, Bureau of Colonization, the ever present Military authorities, and several different social agencies were all running around clamoring for attention with the communications techs to the fleet, while the Empress and the Command Staff were huddled over the situations board.

The empress's security chief, Major Alvin Dowss, saw the Princess and her security detail enter and leaned into Her Majesty's side and whispered. She turned and smiled at her daughter and Lt. Sanchez.

"Katirine, how are you feeling?"

Kat smiled at her mother and said, "You Imperial Majesty, I grieve for our fallen heroes. We will honor them when they return. Until then, let us assure ourselves that this is the last of these such 'occurrences' to befall our civilization. Your Majesty??"

"Well said, Princess. You do our house honor. Know also that the entire Task Force has been awarded the Imperial Legion of Honor, the Empires second highest award for valor and bravery in combat."

The Commanding General of Imperial Marines coughed and cleared his throat. "Uhh, Your Majesty?"

The Empress turned and looked at him. "Yes, General?

"OH, RIGHT. There is also the matter of a certain Major of Imperial Marines being promoted to Colonel. Some thing about bravery and leadership in combat." She grinned and turned to the General, an old family friend.

"After all, Your Highness, it would not do to have the Crown Princess's Consort be married to less than a command rank now, would it??".

The Princess gasped, then squealed. She clutched Esmy's arm and almost jumped up and down. There were numerous chuckles and laughs around the situation room, and gradually the atmosphere returned to business. The Empress thought long and hard about her daughter and her 'friend'. 'I'm going to have to have a sit down with the Lieutenant soon, I think,' she thought. She filed it away for the future.

"Now, on to more pressing matters. We are going to have the Lasde, aka Go-mash-1 as she is known, remain on station for a while, along with three destroyers, to establish a working colony on planet 1 and to segregate the surviving Lomaxxes to the new, self-supporting penal colony we will be establishing on planet 2.The Go-mash have agreed to set up a support garrison on planet 1 to aid in getting the colony up and running."

The General referenced the assemble representatives and that the Command Staff had established several projects to be accomplished to further the end of the campaign.

"Canberra will remain on station for another few weeks-sorry, your Highness- to set up a command station on planet 1, which we have petitioned the colonization Bureau to rename Thompkins, in honor of the late Colonel. Planet 2, well, we really don't care about a name. They can call it shitstorm for all we care- pardon, Your Majesty, Your highness."

The Empress waved her hand and turned to the assembled throng.

"Well, we have a wedding to prepare for. And a return to normalcy for when the fleet returns. Let's get to work, people."

The hustle and bustle returned and the Empress sighed.

'Hopefully, that is,' she thought.

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The end of Part 3. Part 4, The Wedding to come soon. (I hope.)

Now, courtesy of my 18yr. old granddaughter, lighten up, as they say-

I think you all know Ariel, the Little Mermaid. But do you know why she wears seashells??

Simply; B-shells are too small, and D-shells are too big.

Again, Thank you. Go COOGS.