CHAPTER 3

WAR!

The UCAT and AA (ASIAN ALLIANCE) warships collided with one another with the AA seemingly getting the upperhand on the first day of the war. The AA were able to sink six UCAT warships and drove the rest away. However, on the second, third and fourth day, the UCAT returned with more warships, and planes started bombing the mainlands. With communications disrupted, the AA warships were unable to communicate with each other. On the fifth day of the war, UCAT ground forces touched down in Korea and captured its solar energy processing plants. The Koreans furiously battled the enemy, however its smaller armed forces proved no match for the overwhelming invaders. The takeover was quick but fortunately, the Korean President was able to escape to Japan.

Advance technology kept Japan afloat. Its warships and warplanes kept the UCAT from coming any closer. Admiral Hatto directed the operations at sea where Japanese warships confronted the UCAT warships in open battle. Japanese defenses are tight and the UCAT warships are unable to advance. UCAT fighter jets were also confronted by Japan's elite fighters. Missiles shoot up in the air and everytime it does, a UCAT or Japanese fighter jet fell down to the open sea. It's a vicious fight and for a while, it seems the Japanese are getting the upperhand. However, more UCAT warships are arriving everyday with no support whatsoever from other members of the ASIAN ALLIANCE that the Japanese Government realized it is just a matter of time before Japan's defenses are finally breached.

In Southeast asia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia suffered mild attacks from the UCAT. For some reason, the UCAT did not try to engage the Philippine warships and is just content on firing from a distance. AF220 Fighter Jets which are more advanced than the one felled by the X24, engaged the jets for some time then retreated back to their warships.

"What are they doing?" asks a serviceman. "Why don't they try to cross over and fight it out with us?"

"They are testing us." says Captain Saturno of the PWS-Macapagal. "They are studying our moves." Then he looked towards the person manning communications. "Do you have something for me now?"

"Sorry captain." says the serviceman. "We still can't pick up anything from the satellites. It's as if they are no longer there."

"I don't get it." says another. "A few days ago, those satellites are like christmas trees in this monitor."

"Something must have been blocking our signal." the exo said. Saturno looks at him.

"Or the satellite's signal is not reaching us." says Saturno.

POOOMMM!!

"They resumed firing." says the serviceman.

"Putcha!" Saturno shouts angrily. "How long do we have to wait here? I'm getting tired of this."

"Sir, head command has reiterated the order that all warships maintain defensive positions." says communications.

"What do they expect us to do?" says the exo. "Wait here and get creamed without a fight?"


INSIDE the USS Silver, Captain Moore is also yearning to engage the Philippine warships.

"If they would only come out of their territory. Damn it." says Moore then looks at his executive officer. "Explain to me why we have to wait for them to come to us?"

"Strategy captain." says the exo. "UCAT Command wants them fragmented so they can't help each other."

"But," the exo added, "if they do decide to come out and engage us, we are to pull back and wait until they return to their territory."

"So high command isn't comfortable that we can beat these assholes?" Moore said while scratching his head. "How very comforting." Then he glanced at the monitor tracking the projectiles being fired by the USS Silver and being destroyed in the air by Philippine warships.

"I'm starting to get bored." the captain complains.


BACK inside the bridge of the PWS-Macapagal.

"One more hit sa mga lintik na ito and I'm heading out will all weapons blazing." says Saturno.

"The Macapagal is primed and ready captain." says the exo. Saturno glanced at him then shook his head.

"Does anybody gets jailed for insubordination?" says Saturno with a smile.

The exo smiled back. "Yeah. But in the face of war... they got shot."


MANY miles away, three X22 Fighter Jets are roaring in the sky. Soon they were joined by X24 Screamers.

"Glad you could come!" greets the team leader. "Do you have your orders?"

"Yes team leader." the lead X24 pilot answered him.

"Alright." says the team leader. "With communications down, head command is ordering us to become a telephone line. One very long line. To do this we need to stretch out as far as we can and hope we can pick up something. Allocate 30% of your power to the microwave linkup module."

"We can only allocate 5% of our power." says the pilot from the X24. "The Screamer is built for speed, not broadcast information."

"Then you will use that speed to record radio signals that are not available in our range." says the team leader while punching coordinates and team formation to his computer. "I'm sending coordinates to your systems, now."

The pilots received the information in their computers. "Alright." says the team leader. "Break formation in 3, 2, 1... BREAK!"

VRRROOOOMMMMM!!!!

The fighter jets break formation, each one going to his designated coordinates. The X24 screamers climbed to 20,000 feet. 22,000, 24,000... The X22 stayed in 18,000 feet and once they reached their designated coordinates, hovered in the air as they go online to one another.

"The bridge in the air is now online." says the team leader.


MEANWHILE in Malacanan Palace, the President is currently in a meeting with his chief of staff General Ramon Obarra and secretary of defense Roberto Dinghal. A beep in the general's handheld informs him a message has been patched through. The general reads it then smiled.

"The X22 has completed the linkup." says the general. "Now we wait for the X24s to complete their sweep. But all the same Mr. President, I recommend we mobilize our ships and engage the enemy head on."

The President turned his face towards Roberto. "What do you think?"

Roberto cupped his chin. "I have to agree with the general. Whether we like it or not, war has come to us. The presence of UCAT warships near the Philippines spells big trouble for us. The WNL is planning something and I warrant you... it isn't good."

The President nodded. His mind is thinking, calculating the risks. General Obarra leaned closer and talked in a low voice. "Time is running out Mr. President. We need to decide what to do now and do it quickly before everything is lost."

The President looked at him. "Are we ready to fight this war general?"

The General smiled then nodded. "Ready than ever."

The President glanced at Roberto. Roberto nods. He looked back at the general.

"Attack."


A BEEP alerts the serviceman manning communications that a message is being patched through.

"Sir," says the serviceman. "Head command has given the rest of the fleet orders to engage the enemy!"

The captain grits his teeth and smiled. "Red Alert! Ready the X17 bombers. Target those warships. We're attacking now!"

Engines at full power, the warships moved as one. The captain of the USS Silver has been alerted. He watches the monitor and wonders.

"Are we gonna get some action after all?" says captain Moore smiling. "Red Alert! Battle stations everyone! We are going to war!"

"Captain, remember our orders." says the exo.

"Damn it Johnson, I'm not going to run away. These monkeys finally decided to attack and I will face them in open battle. We are going to attack." says the captain.


SKKRRREEEEEE!!!

X17 Bombers shoots up from the flight deck. A220 strike bombers hovered from the USS Silver and joined the others coming from five other warships. Pulse turrets activates and targets the Philippine warships. Particle and Plasma repeaters goes online and targets the UCAT warships.

Captain Saturno watches the monitor as they near the UCAT warships, then looks at his exo and muttered. "The game begins."


SKKRRREEEEE!!!! The X24s screamed in the air at Mach 8. The team leader watches his mini computer screen then noticed something. The jet's communicator is picking up data streams.

"I'm picking up data streams at port 192. Confirm." says the team leader.

"Yep team leader. Port 192 is live, so is port 178 and port 182" says the pilot.

"Mine is port 155, 127 and 164." reports another pilot.

"That is good news!" says the team leader. "Enable direct to drive transfer so we can retrieve the information back in the base."


40,000 feet above Japan, a floating commsite receives the data the X24s have been sending and sends back data of its own. However, before the commsite is able to finish transmission, an air to air missile hits it, destroying the commsite and reducing it to piles of flaming steel as it fell down. An A220 strike bomber flew past the burning cellsite as it falls to the ground.

"Striker here, just knocked out 27 of 80 commsites." says the pilot.


BACK to the screamers, a pilot noticed the abrupt termination of one of his comm ports.

"What the heck? A comm port stopped transmiting data!" the pilot reported.

"Are you still within in range?" asks the team leader.

"I'm still in range... I think." says the pilot. "Well actually I can't tell anymore since the source is no longer there."

"They must have been knocking out the comm sites." says the team leader. "We have to bring back as much data stream as we can."


BACK in Japan. AF210 Bombers are dropping projectiles throughout Japan. The UCAT warships have advanced on their original positions and are now pummelling the remaining warships.

The warship WS-War Machine is moving into position. The large japanese warship Orita is taking a lot of damage but is also dishing damage of its own. It managed to sink seven UCAT warships in four days. The War Machine sneak up to the side of the Orita and opened fire.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

The Orita repositioned its turrets and started firing. The War Machine took damage on the side and it is forced to withdraw to a safer distance. AF209 Jets shot up from the War Machine and pummelled the Orita with air to ground missiles.

WHABOOOMMM!

The formidable warship is aflame but doesn't sink. Inside, the crew of the Orita is trying to re-align systems that has shut down. The Orita is capable of re-aligning its systems so it stays online. However, in this case, the Orita has taken much damage that its computers are failing to re-activate the systems that were shut down.


HIGH UP in the sky, five russian CK311 Scanners flew over Yasuno in search of the hidden base.

"Intelligence suggest a hidden base here." says the lead pilot in russian. "Activate search sensors. Full power."

The eye of the scanners opened up and scans the ground. A computer image appears on their monitor where a mile long transport system from underground that seems to have been cutoff on a mountain is very visible. The lead pilot smiles.

"Arm Drillers." says the lead pilot. The bellies of the CK311 opened up and three six feet machines are dropped to the ground with pinpoint accuracy.

POOOOMM!! The machines fell with such force that it sends dust and soil 52 feet in the air. The machines started drilling underground.

"Scanners to base, we have jackpot." says the lead pilot.


BACK in Philippine territory. Philippine warships have engaged the UCAT. X24 Screamers tries to disorient the A220 bombers whose bombs when dropped are capable of destroying a warship. X31 Lawin Fighters faces the A220 and pummelled them with plasma repeaters.

BADABADABADABOOMMM!!

"Evasive action! Evasive action!" shouts the lead pilot of the A220. The bombers break formation. Two A220 were hit by plasma bullets and exploded in mid-air. The X31s circled back for another approach but a beam of intense light suddenly hits one of their own and it burned in mid-air before it hits the water.

"Charged lasers!" shouts the X31s team leader. The jets flew away evading the lasers from the USS Goodman. The 17 foot Laser cannon builds up energy then shoots another beam of light hitting the PWS-Ejercito damaging its flight deck.

"Particle charges!" shouts Captain Estroja of the PWS-Ejercito. "Fire!"

POOOM! POOOM! POOOM! POOOM! The charges hit the USS Goodman damaging its lower hull. However, the warship is far from defeated and its laser cannon targets the X31's coming in from the side.

FWOOOOOMMM! KABOOOOMM!! Two missiles coming from the PWS-Ramos hits the USS Goodman on its side. The warship repositioned its laser and targets the PWS-Ramos.

"Are the reflectors charged and ready!" shouts the captain of the Ramos.

"Ready captain!" says engineering.

"Activate!"

The warship is enveloped with a semi-transparent shield. The USS Goodman fires!

RRREEEEEEEE!!! The laser hits the shield deflecting multiple strands of thin light and hitting a number of UCAT and Philippine warships. However, the intense energy coming from the lasers broke through the shield and damaged the hull of the PWS-Ramos.

KABOOMMM!!!

"Putang---" screamed the captain as he holds on tight to prevent himself from falling to the side. "Damage report!"

"Decks 4, 5 and 6 have sustained damage captain!" says a serviceman.

"Six?" says the captain. "That's engineering!" Then he grabbed a comm-unit. "Magsalin. Report!"

"Captain!" points the exo. The USS Goodman is charging up its laser. "They are ready to fire again." The captain dropped his comm-unit.


Inside the USS Goodman, the captain is furious about the sudden change of plan.

"We are supposed to back away! That's the plan! What the hell is Moore thinking?"

"Sir we are only moments to fire." says his exo.

"Then by all means---" but before the captain can give the order the laser cannon which was hoisted above the ship was destroyed when a bomb was dropped by two hypersonic X24 jets from the Philippine Navy.


The explosion was very visible in the bridge of the PWS-Ramos.

"Yeah!" shouts the captain of the Ramos. "Cluster missiles! Fire!"

SHOOOM! SHOOOM! SHOOOM! SHOOOM! SHOOOM! SHOOOM! The missiles hit the USS Goodman with such force the warship leaned to the other side. The ship is now aflame.

The X24's roared its engines as it circled back, does some aerial acrobatics and moves in for another kill. However, an A250 Nightcrawler is moving up behind them. The pilot cliked the trigger. Two missiles blasts off towards the X24s.

MISSILE ALERT! MISSILE ALERT! The computer has detected the missile coming straight at them. The pilots kicked in the engines, the missiles followed.

"Isn't it easier to just launch a scrambler?" says Vergara.

"And miss all the fun?" says Arrate. "Come on, let's see if we can outrun the missiles!"


BACK in Yasuno. The Mechanized Drillers reached the transport tunnel that leads to the hidden base. The Drillers' scanners activates and calculates the distance of the target. Suddenly, its body opens up to reveal a large circular pod that hovers as it comes out of the drillers.

In the air, the pilot of the CK311 receives confirmation from the drillers. The pilot smiled as he punches a button in the control panel.

"Garushkov here." says the pilot. "The drillers have activated the nukes. Request permission for WIPE OUT."

Inside the bridge of the russian warship. Admiral Karazski steps on the bridge with Captain Voraspov and pressed the comm button.

"Permission has been given." says Admiral Karazski in russian. "Wipe that base out of Japan for good."

"With pleasure." the pilot replied then he punches the execute button in his control panel.

Underground where the drillers are waiting for confirmation, the nuke pods received the order and powered up for the assault. The pods roared through the dark tunnel calculating remaining distance and power needed to obliterate the hidden base. At the end of the tunnel, the Japanese have detected the intrusion and is now activating defenses to destroy the pods. The large metallic door transformed to reveal several cannons and several energy shields activates to shield the base from the explosion. The pods detected defense systems being activated and reacted by multiplying deflector shields and allocating power for sudden surges.

Multi-particle beams fire away from the cannons. The pods evaded the beams quickly enough that the beam hits parts of the tunnel creating large holes. The pods evaded the beams again and again and the Japanese realized the pods are much faster than the cannons. The cannons began a quick transformation and when it is finished, it is now a mini-cannon and resembles more as a chain gun now. The mini-cannon unleashed its fury by firing particle spheres repeatedly, 0.02 microsecond at each burst. This time the pods were hit and it scrambles to evade the deadly assault. One pod was unable to evade the attack and was obliterated when it was hit several times. The other pod tried to evade the attack by hiding in the rubble but was eventually destroyed.

UP IN THE AIR. The CK311 Scanner Jet was joined by several other UCAT Jets, the american A212, the british BZA500 and the french UC909. The bellies of the jets opened up and dropped drillers of different designs. A japanese manning surveillance inside the hidden base was instantly alerted.

"Three more machines are digging their way in!"


MEANWHILE inside the UCAT Headquarters. Fleet commander Trudd is monitoring everything that is happening in asia. The satellite A574 is sending fleet activity by the minute and he smiles to think that everything is going according to plan.

Suddenly, an officer goes up to his chair and asked for his name.

"Fleet commander Trudd?" says the officer. Trudd's eyes glared menacingly to the officer. The officer steps back. "President Barter requests your presence in London sir."

"The WNL Headquarters?" asks Trudd. "No. Tell the president I have a lot of work to do here."

"Um, sir. The President sends a Hovercopter for your transport. He insists on seeing you sir." says the officer. Trudd stared at the officer. The officer balks at the stare and looks down on the floor. Trudd senses the officer's fear breathed deeply then smiles.

"Then to London we will go."


TO BE CONTINUED