War in the Galaxy
A Science Fiction Novel
Read Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, and 34.
35
The assault occurred in waves. Gurney and Heni were in the second wave.
Federation artillery put down a heavy bombardment against the outer fortifications for an hour before the first wave, and Federation bombers occasionally slipped in to try to soften up the Coalition forces. But these were mostly taken out by Coalition antiair defenses. By the time of the first wave, the base's outer walls were still standing.
Until a Federation bomber dropped in from low orbit and, dodging three Coalition fighters, flew straight at the wall itself.
It was clear the pilot didn't see any point in trying to drop his payload and escape. He crash-landed into the outer wall just as the first wave was reaching it. Two of the Coalition fighters on his tail pulled up at the last moment, but the other was caught in the resulting explosion, which opened up a half-kilometer breach in the wall. Into this breach poured Merian tanks and commandos.
The first wave of Merians was comprised of crack troops specially trained for just this sort of assault. They were some of the most elite special operators in the Merian armed forces, each one supposedly capable of holding his own against two or three dozen ill-trained fighters at once. Equipped with the latest self-targeting rifles and bunker-busting grenades, they quickly overwhelmed the Coalition combatants on the outer wall, establishing a foothold and opening up room for Merian tanks to roll in.
It was a battle of attrition. The first wave faltered under heavy fire from sky and ground, but the second wave came in at that moment to relieve them. Gurney and Heni made it to the wall without issue, but found themselves pinned down as soon as they made it inside. They hunkered down under some rubble and tried to withstand the barrage which came at them from the inner walls.