The Patriotic Duty
The war dragged on. Conditions deteriorated. To have any hope of success the source of Dom' Kavash support for their servants needed to be singled out and eradicated. This called for a dangerous reconnaissance mission deep behind enemy lines. Joint operations could not go ahead without first locating three Rheinlander scouts gone missing weeks before. The task was deemed worthy of the Workers' 31st: the Coalition's last surviving wing of Basilisks featuring cloak capability. Use of this cloak technology would allow easily circumvention of alien defenses on this mission. Due to the prohibitively rare and expensive nature of the needed energy crystals, the devices must be used sparingly. Even then there will be only enough of the crystals remaining for this one mission. Without those black boxes, scouts would need to chart the region all over again. The window of opportunity is too brief to allow for that. Everything is at stake. The objective must be accomplished.
Flights of four take off from a carrier in Hieron. They split up to cover as much space as possible. Danger lays in wait at every turn. Of the forty that left only thirteen return. Shortages of energy crystals, nanobots, fuel, and flares threatened to be the undoing of them all. The fallen pilots sacrificed themselves by transferring much needed supplies to their compatriots. Once unable to cloak, a slow and unwieldy fighter like the Basilisk is no match for its alien counterparts. Despite these losses, the mission was a triumph. One black box was destroyed in Lemnos when the ship carrying it was downed, but a young lieutenant pulled through as the unlikely hero of the day. Comrade Fyodor Kovalevski returned with the other two black boxes in addition to coordinates for a Dom' Kavash hypergate located in the Menton System. Armed with priceless knowledge like this the Coalition could finally go ahead with its plans for a counteroffensive.
Crossfire short stories:
- Part I: Prologue
- Part II: A matter of History
- Part III: The Nomad Campaign in Sol
- Part IV: Disappearance of the Dom' Kavash
- Part V: Boon of the Colonies
- Part VI: The Aftermath
- Part VII: ASF vs. CSF: A People Divided
- Part VIII: Home Again at Last
- Part IX: Jack Blinch's Revelation
- Part X: Reunion
- Part XI: The Patriotic Duty
- Part XII: The GMG Breakthrough
- Part XIII: Friend or Foe?
- Part XIV: Ancient Days
- Part XV: Journey with no return
- Part XVI: Inner Core Logs
- Part XVII: New discoveries in the Sol system?
- Credits and Comments
