Chapter 25 :

Low Orbit, EX-5429 IIIa, Moon, 4th of March 2119.

UNS Adjudicator, Bridge.

Time, 00:49

Admiral Brander Thraile

The Admiral's comm panel beeped.

He looked down, it was from Elysium.

"Yes?" asked Marklund in a sharp voice.

Thraile dutifully opened the channel. The first thing he heard was the sound of gunfire, accompanied by alien shouts and the Commander's panting.

"Admiral!" he yelled, "Code Red! Code Red! Attack now!"

"What is happening down there Knight?!!!" demanded the Admiral.

"Contact! Contact!" there was another burst of gunshots. "Zone is hot! Light armed forces! HALO drop! HALO drop now!"

Thraile turned to Field Marshall Down.

"When can we get a HALO drop?"

The Marshall's accent was heavily australian, "As soon a possible, thirty minutes?"

He turned to Marklund.

"Then we punch through their fortress in half an hour."

"Hey," interrupted Samuelson, "We don't even have to go near those things. Let's go around and use Dropships alongside our carriers. We can HALO drop from there before retreating to a higher orbit and clear the space above."

"That'll work for me." admitted Down.

"Good!" concluded Marklund, "Let us do it."

The other officers nodded in agreement and, one by one, left the call. Thraile was worried about Elysium. He would be alone, in enemy territory, in a hot zone, with another half-hour to forty minutes to wait before pods would begin to drop on his position. Thankfully, he had also transmitted his coordinates, which lined up perfectly with a small city on the equator. Considering the inclination of the moon's orbit and their current position, and pure chance, they could burn towards the planet and flyby that location without too much struggle. Their window to drop everything would by tight and risky, but, according to Elysium, the time was now.

Thraile quickly switched on his C&C module and began setting thrust nodes. Then he mustered up his drop forces and assault transports, ordering men and equippment to be loaded up immediately. Five minutes later, he felt the vessels in his formation advance alongside the five other Task Groups.

He watched as the planet grew in size until it no longer fit in the bridge's windowspace. The timer on his C&C screen read T – 4:57, less than five minutes until drop.

He recieved a transmission, which he inputed into the ADS's targetting computers. He did look at it, Special Forces would be dropped farther out than regular or motorized battalions, but their defences would be thin. They were planning to make consecutive drops every few hours, each to reinforce it's predecessor. Taking in more troops, ammunition and medical supplies, and pulling out the wounded and dead.

It was all going to go down soon.