File 11.9 - Operation Silence Break

Four days later, the day finally arrived. Schir trained with each of the teams personally working on their tactics and skills. Everyone needed familiarity with the new Skins. She especially needed to practice with the new beast delivered to her. It was an unwieldy and frightening thing that actually made her scared to control. She felt the power in it and couldn’t even breach half of the full extent of what it was possibly capable of doing. She only hoped it was enough to get close to an equal footing.

But she couldn’t do any more training. It was now down to the truth. Did she do enough to prepare them for the battle? She didn’t feel good about their odds. They had no advantage with the field. It would be purely based on the skills of the pilots and power of the machines and she saw how that went. ‘How many more of my team is going to die?’

Ten Bishamon packed away in each of their drop ships. All of the Skin drop ships clustered together in front of the battle fleet. Much of the fleet had to go through a refit as none of them were intended for anything other than space combat. The years of preparation needed to make the fleet able to fight in Earth atmosphere and gravity were critical.

The basic plan of Operation Silence Break was the Skin dropped in for a blitzkrieg offensive to rapidly capture territory and then the battle fleet descended for support fire and holding captured positions during the advance. It was a significant area to cover, but the intel on the Earth defenses made them confident.

Inside her Bishamon Custom, Schir watched the declaration of war speech by President Lapin. “People of the Earth Colonial Federation, today marks an important point in the history of humanity. We sit on the cusp of total peace in the Earth Sphere and unity. It’s been four years since the end of the War of Unification that finally brought all colonies together as one. Much blood and tears were shed to make that dream a reality.

“It is my dream, our dream, to live in a safe and secure world where we can all work together in common goals and not see enemies. With the Federation, we finally no longer see each other as enemies, but friends, family. And though the tragedies of the past are hard forgiven so too it is my dream that we can bring the misguided and wayward lost souls trapped on the Earth into our open arms. It is not easy, but that is my dream.

“With this declaration, I hope that it can be the last that must be made. I believe this will be the last war that must be fought. And humanity can look to the future together.”

“Lapin has a way with words, but hell if I’ll ever give a hand to those demons,” Warrant Officer Dyullai commented over the open line. She wasn’t the only one with similar feelings. Schir knew Wells had the same thoughts as her.

Schir thought about the girl she met on the island, Shizuka. ‘There’s at least one good one worth helping…’ Though, she did also have trouble seeing anything more than demons from those that piloted the Four Devils.

“May this bring a swift end to the dark age of humanity and usher in the future!”

As the broadcast ended, a new voice came over all military communication lines. The General of the Earth Theatre addressed all soldiers, “Operation Silence Break is a go! All drop ships begin Earth entry!”

A rattle went through the ship as the thrusters ignited. Schir stared ahead at the monitor visualizing the hidden unknown fourth Devil. The Ghost as they had dubbed it. They had next to no data on it other than the sniper rifle. She made it her target for several reasons, not least of all being that they killed the Commander. Her hands tightened on the control sticks. ‘I’ll avenge you today, Commander.’