Warfighter: Operation Shatterfall

Chapter 5

Orbit of Euphoria

The PRF fleet didn't stand a chance, they were completely annihilated. Although the few of the remaining enemy medium and heavy ships have withdrew to the dark side of the planet, small pockets of resistance still existed, mostly from lighter vessels. The battle was partially won, with the enemy crippled in orbit, the Army and Marines below may have a better chance at eliminating the PRF ground force.

8 years ago, the CATO was outmatched and outnumbered 7 to 1. Today, the USF Navy fields the largest and most powerful fleets in human space. Combined with the other navies from CATO, the combined force of Earth outgunned and outnumbered the PRF to the point where their orbital docks could not rebuild enough ships to sustain their dying fleet.

Underneath the dim blue battle lightings, Johnson held his arm behind his back as he watched giant metal debree of the enemy fleet float across his view. The Euphorian star hit his face with its confounded glare, stinging his eyes. The distant main sequence star burned bright despite the chaos, painting everything around it with vibrant warm colors. But he hated it. Johnson viewed the sun like an all-seeing eye. You can never outrun its sight, no matter which angle you stood.

As the Stormbringer squeezed through the deepest part of the debree field, long sharp screeches could be heard across the hull as the metal scratched against one another. The Stormbringer was tasked to provide close reconnaissance, BDA (Battle Damage Assessment) and to recover the remains of the destroyer USFS Greenville, who's captain lost contact while conducting recon operations nearby. The Greenville was presumed destroyed by an ambush.

The PRF was well known to use corvettes as small skirmish vessels that employed hit-and-run tactics against larger vessels. It would be unsurprising if one just showed up from behind a large debree. Although corvettes are significantly weaker compared by a single Excalibur-class destroyer, they still posed a major threat against unwary ships.

"Sir," Richard stepped in beside Johnson, "Do you think Greenville just lost its way back, somewhere in this sector?"

"Unlikely," Johnson replied, "Captain Sanders doesn't wander off into the dark like that."

"What if their comm module got knocked out in battle? Maybe that's why we aren't getting any readings from him."

"He would've activated the ship's emergency transponders, if that's the case."

"But we aren't receiving anything back from him," Richard said.

"Exactly."

"I'm sure Sanders would be fine sir," Richard said, "he's a good captain."

"I hope s-"

"Sir, enemy fighters, starboard side!" Jenkins announced.

Johnson looked to his left, and two fighter wings appeared from the behind the ruins of a Kunloy engine thruster. Eight red triangles marked the incoming jets. All of them were reading weapons red.

Johnson tapped the window twice with his left palm to magnify the incoming threat. As clear as day, he could see the fighters. They were a flight of eight JS-7 multi-role fighters headed directly towards the Stormbringer.

"Arming CIWS," Jameson said.

Within mere seconds, the 25mm Phantom gatling guns swiveled towards the starboard side and unloaded a volley of high precision rounds. Hundreds of orange tracers flew towards the enemy fighters in unison.

Four of the red triangles vanished as yellow flashed within the blackness.

Two missiles shot up from the VLS, and headed towards the fighters.