Chapter 10
Everyone must have taken Drill Sergeant Gunmetal to heart when he had dismissed company D for leave, because of the one hundred ponies to have completed training, all one hundred of them returned for roll call.
It was right after this that they had been assigned to their permanent postings. Both Summer and Joker had been assigned to the first platoon of company B of the first battalion, under Lieutenant Madeline Wolsey herself, while Pender on the other hoof had been assigned to a platoon in company A. The rumours had to have been true, there were heavy casualties out in the field and they’d broken down their training company to fill the vacancies.
Summer felt a little better about the situation knowing that she would be serving under an officer like Wolsey. Her reputation preceded her, and now she was sure of it. Summer would be coming home, she could feel it.
…
Thunderchild.
Summer had never seen anything quite like the ERS Thunderchild, she was the first of the newest generation of Aerial Assault Frigates. The front runner of the Thunderchild-class was one of the most advanced ships in the Equestrian Republican Navy, aero- or wet-navy notwithstanding. The Thunderchild-class represented a shift in Republican ship building, away from slower, heavier ships with huge kinetic rail cannons, to lighter, more agile ships designed to support major operations by establishing air superiority over a battlefield, and once air dominance had been achieved, it would be able to support infantry on the ground by providing remote air strikes.
This was a radical change in tactics, older ship classes, like the heavier City-class cruisers and Twilight Sparkle-class dreadnoughts, while hosting much heavier armour and firepower also had the misfortune of lacking manoeuvrability. If they were to park themselves directly over a battlefield they'd be nothing but a sitting duck, and every hostile fighter and missile would be gunning for them until they were dead. Cruisers and dreadnoughts would be forced to focus their attentions on fighters and missiles, and wouldn't have time to support the infantry like they should be. Thanks to this, cruisers and dreadnoughts needed to sit back away from the battlefield and rely upon infantry to radio targets up through the chain of command, and wait for the dreadnoughts to align their guns to it. That was a slow process; it would almost be easier and quicker for infantry to assault everything but the most fortified targets.
Another problem was, since the dreadnoughts and cruisers had to sit back and fight at a distance, it was left to fighters, usually from wet-navy carriers, to enter a battlefield and establish air dominance. While there hadn't been anything particularly wrong with that in the past, fighters still had a limit to fuel and ordinance that they could carry, Fighters carried out fights against other fighters usually through the use of air to air missiles. Now, when each Equifighter Tornado air-superiority fighter carries eight missiles, those are quick to be used up. Requiring each fighter to return to their carrier to refuel and rearm after their payload had been deployed.
As one can imagine, this isn’t particularly efficient. So having a capital ship able to do the same job in a way that works better? The Navy is all over it.
Summer was quite impressed by the Thunderchild. The ship itself was a hundred and thirty metres in length. Twenty five metres wide and twenty metres tall, she was certainly not a small ship. Her sleek and streamlined design, in conjunction with the lifting body principle, helped to keep her in the air when moving, and through the use of its thrusters, could hold its position above a battlefield and provide support to the Army’s content.
The ship’s bridge sat in a control tower at the stern of the ship, some ten metres above the rest of the hull, gave the perfect position to survey the battlefield from, and was easily one of the most important spots on the ship, and one could tell so by the fact that the bridge deck was adorned with two of the largest interceptor cannons that Summer had ever seen.
‘Wow’, Summer said as she glanced through the cockpit window from her seat. ‘Glad that Thunderchild is on our side’.
‘You and me both private!’ Lieutenant Wolsey said, nodding her head in affirmation.
They had been assigned their posts, and the company was now en route to Cloudsdale, where the Thunderchild sat docked, waiting for them to arrive. Summer glanced back out the cockpit window. Here she thought that they were riding in style to get here, the Hellfire-class carryall that they were riding in couldn’t hold a candle to the Thunderchild.
The Hellfire-class was the standard troop transport and gunboat operated by the Republican Navy. Hellfire-class crafts were used in a number of different roles, gunboat and air ambulance being most common. The modular cargo bay could be configured in a number of different ways, from being able to carry supplies and vehicles to the battle from the ship, to being used as a bulk troop transport. Like the one they currently sat in. This Hellfire had been configured with an extended troop bay, allowing for fifty passengers to sit relatively comfortable. Hellfire’s were twenty metres in length, with a wingspan of about sixteen metres, though with the added troop bay, this particular carryall was about thirty metres in length and ten metres wide.
Summer looked around to each of the ponies around her. Private Joker sat quietly to her left, not saying a word. Lieutenant Wolsey was on her right. The oddest addition to their group, however, was none other than Gunmetal, the former drill sergeant had requested demotion after the end of their training to colour sergeant so that he could be transferred into the field. Colour Gunmetal would be serving as the lieutenant’s platoon sergeant, if anything; this made Summer a little less worried about their chances.
The Hellfire moved to dock with the Thunderchild, and out the window of the front cockpit she could see Cloudsdale coming into view.
This Cloudsdale was not to be confused with the Cloudsdale of the Old Monarchy, in those days, Cloudsdale was said to have been literally made of clouds. Not this one. This Cloudsdale was a floating fortress of steel. Serving as the mobile fleet base of the Republican Navy, Cloudsdale usually found itself hovering over Fillydelphia.
The Hellfire made a sharp ninety degree turn, and slowed to a quarter speed as it entered the Thunderchild’s docking bay, touching down gently on the deck. The engines died, and the order came to file out.
Summer did as she was told, and filed out behind the lieutenant, as the crowd of soldiers dispersed between the two Hellfires, Summer instantly noticed two other mares clad in naval officer’s uniforms. One a unicorn, the other a pegasus.
‘Lef-tenant Wolsey?’ the unicorn mare asked, stepping forward. ‘Captain Dula Heartstrings, commanding officer, this is my second in command, Lieutenant Commander Ice Wind’.
Wolsey stopped, offering the two mares a salute. ‘Heartstrings? Sounds familiar...’
‘I’m the granddaughter of Lyra Heartstrings’, the captain said simply.
‘Ah! Yes! Yes! Of course, very pleased to finally make your acquaintance captain’, Wolsey said.
‘I’d like your assistance on the bridge once you get settled, there’s a matter that we need to discuss that could use your expertise, lieutenant’, the captain said, offering her a small smile.
‘Of course captain... I’ll just set down my bag and be right up. Ma’am!’ Wolsey said, offering the captain a salute.
‘Excellent! Good to see such enthusiasm!’ the captain said with a smile, as she returned the salute.
‘What are you doing standing around private?! Move it!’ the booming voice of Colour Sergeant Gunmetal came from directly behind her. Summer jumped in surprise and stopped loitering around the lieutenant and trotted off as quickly as she could to her bunk without having broken into a full out run.
Curiosity was starting to get the better of her; she wondered what exactly the matter was that Captain Heartstrings had requested the lieutenant’s help in? The more she thought about it, it probably had something to do with how the Thunderchild would be inserting into the battlefield. Summer had no idea what to expect on the way in. They weren’t the first troops being sent in. The first deployments had been nearly a fortnight ago, but Summer didn’t know anyone who had already been deployed, and thus, had heard no information about what to expect.
‘Once more unto the breech, Summer Lightfall, once more’, Summer said to herself as she trotted along. She knew she didn’t have anything to worry about. With Lieutenant Wolsey and Colour Sergeant Gunmetal leading them, she knew that they would all be coming back alive. After all, where on Belleau could you have possibly found more capable leaders?