The Shepherd’s Path, Part 27: The Second Invasion
The relief force for the 7th fleet went in with a much larger number of warships compared to the first invasion force. While some in CEF command were concerned with land resistance, most considered the renegade 7th fleet assets the major concern. The second invasion force arrived in the Nereus system 735 NJ to a cold welcome. The exit point for the gate was surrounded by a minefield of nuclear ordnance and armed warships. CEF forces pushed on and eventually cleared the field, forcing the Shepherds’ forces to withdraw or face annihilation. As the Shepherds' space forces fell back the CEF commanders, sensing an opportunity, quickly began pursuit with a portion of their fleet. The rest was sent after the planet to begin the invasion proper. As the relief fleet extended itself, they were caught by complete surprise as the 7th Fleet jumped in from HO-03/5409.4 and took the gate point. With no place to fall back to, the surviving troop-ships disgorged their cargo on the planet as the scattered CEF warships were picked off or captured by their former comrades.
On the ground, Shepherd and allied local units went to meet the invaders. Using locations identified by the remnant on the ground as landing zones, the CEF assault quickly made landfall. The CEF forces were better prepared for the conditions, but not by much. Hover tanks were still of limited use, but frames proved much more effective when properly prepared with filters. The initial assault managed to occupy large chunks of territory, which proved more of a curse than a blessing as civilian resistance was high. Shepherd forces were spread thin and local units were paying in blood for every CEF soldier killed. The new SLEDGE-class GRELs proved to be much more resistant to conversion than the old versions, and the land war soon settled into a stalemate. The CEF, however, was on borrowed time, with no orbital support or resupply. 7th Fleet assets had the gate secured from both sides and intercepted anything coming through, while the Shepherds’ bolstered space forces achieved orbital superiority and used it to bombard CEF positions on the planet. In a final Hail Mary (no pun intended), the CEF launched an assault on Sanctuary itself, which was repulsed with near catastrophic losses to the assault units. It would take almost a year and a half, but eventually the CEF forces were broken, and the remaining scattered units once again began to fight a guerilla campaign as their major bases and entrenched positions were overrun. The relief forces had been prepared for this worst-case scenario, and were able to maintain a high intensity insurgency. The campaign was brutal as neither side showed mercy to their foes. The Shepherds’ leadership deliberately inflamed this situation, and many Shepherds began to view destroying the CEF altogether as the next stage of their mission to save New Jerusalem.
It was during this campaign that official contact between Terra Nova and New Jerusalem began. Before the second invasion, the Black Talons had attempted to contact forces on New Jerusalem, but the team was lost before any formal relations could be established. A second team was sent around the time the Shepherds shifted to securing planetary control, and successfully initiated contact. The Talons offered information and technology that would allow Shepherd forces to locate CEF holdouts both on-planet and in-system. In exchange they asked for the Shepherds to participate in their planned mass counteroffensive against the CEF. The Shepherds’ leadership accepted the offer, although some of the Talon leaders noted that the Jerusalemites didn’t seem to really need their assistance, and were just using the alliance to deal even more damage to the CEF. The Shepherds’ leadership came to the conclusion that they had enough forces to not only attack Home and eliminate the CEF bases there, but also send a relief force to Terra Nova via the Eden gate. The Talons agreed, though some were terrified about what would happen if Terra Nova were to end up on the Shepherds’ bad side.
In a dark room, buried in the depths of Sanctuary, Randa continued his work. The only light sources were the monitors of his station, each one flashing video images of battles and their aftermaths. As a member of the Shepherds’ intelligence arm, he was tasked with reviewing data captured during combat operations. He would apply facial recognition software, record unit markings, count casualties, and identify vehicles to then pass on to others to codify and report. Randa would normally have a handful of after action records to review at a time, but recent events had more than tripled his workload. He didn’t know why, exactly, but he had an idea. His clearance was high enough, and even if it wasn’t the video and images he was reviewing would have been a big clue. Offworlders from Terra Nova had arrived and they were showing up in a lot of the material he was reviewing. His analytical mind started making connections and came up with theories. These ‘Black Talons’, as they called themselves, made appearances in combat records that corresponded with the increase in activity, and specifically with high-value targets.
Today’s images were more of the same; mostly camera footage from angel pilots. Shepherds forces, the new Black Talons, and a battalion of allied troops from a nearby microstate were all visible at times. The battle was somewhat unremarkable. although his practiced eye noted the defenders seemed more organized than usual. The bulk were local forces that had thrown in their lot with the CEF. The Earthers had let the rabble take the brunt of the assault before attempting to break off. This group had finally been cornered and destroyed but at great cost, mostly to the allied forces. Randa didn’t know exactly what had happened at higher levels, but whatever these Black Talons offered had been well worth the price with these results.
Randa’s eyes flowed over the screens, drinking in every detail. Despite his attentiveness, he almost missed it. There, on the interior wall of a room, just as the angel that recorded the video passed by the open door. Rewinding to the point that he saw it and his eyebrows rose. It looked like some laser or blast scoring but a quick image enhancement showed it was painted. Despite the enhancement, he couldn’t figure out what it was, although his mind registered it as familiar. This type of graffiti wasn’t abnormal, but something about it reminded him of another operation from a couple weeks ago. He hadn’t been one of the ones to analyze it but he had looked through the report. Flipping through his files, Randa was rewarded with another image. This one was still taken by some combat engineers on cleanup duty. The same pattern, albeit with some battle damage, was painted on the side of a wrecked tank. Looking at the notes, Randa saw it had been flagged as just graffiti. No other instances of it were present, and the analysts had written it off as a unique decoration on that tank. Again, he felt like he knew what it was but couldn’t place it. Randa took a mental step backwards and began to review the specifics of the operations. His mind began to race. as he saw that this other operation had been only 70 km from the one he was reviewing now and had also been a case of heavy, organized resistance. The Talons were present too, which further raised his suspicions.
This would need to be passed on, outlines of a pattern where there really shouldn’t be one. As Randa put his notes in for his later report, he finally realized what the symbol was. An image came to him from his time in school learning about biology, and he recalled one creature from pre-ice age Earth. Once he realized it, he could not unsee it. He quickly noted this revelation before he returned to his review with a new thing to look for. He looked at it once before starting again.
<Image shows what appears to be an Earth scorpion in black, painted on the wall. Image consistent with image ref 102.365.4823.1>
