Emily responded to feidy. "Yes Fiedy your up, get Alex and prep for drop, your going in behind a pod storm." she said to through the comes, never missing a beat.
Ean nodded as the information came through, and related a slew of directions to Emily. She run the engines up and started them moving to pick up the cargo, but the trajectory would take them directly over the enemy. Of course, that was exactly what Ean wanted.
Less than a minute later he revived confirmations across the board.
"Hanger here, birds are in the racks and ready to launch."
"Arsenal is locked and loaded."
"Pod bay, we are ready for drop."
Ran smiled, saying aloud so Akio could hear "alright everybody, let's show these forces of chaos what we can do, eh?"
Following a resounding "aye captain", several processes would begin simultaneously, in such a beautifully perfect choreography. The various departments synchronized to create a seemingly chaotic mess of events. But when followed carefully, the sequence could be discerned.
The Hangar
To best understand what was happening, a look into what events led to the final symphony are needed. From the barracks troops would file out to their various sectors. Ground forces went to the pod bay and arsenal, while pilots went for the hangar. These pilots wore a customised combat armor like the standard issue IMP warsuit, but with several important differences. For one, the suit lacked the wings and thrusters the standard armor introduced, for another the only armament they carried was a single charge pistol, and a combat knife, both in a holster compartment in a thigh plate. And then there were the sockets, which will be explained shortly.
Each pilot located and moved under their designated hummingbird craft. The ships looked like little more thAn long rounded bullets, with one end tapering slightly before rounding out, and the other sporting two prongs between which glowed several output slots, the weapon system to those who would recongnise it. Each ship was about twenty eight meters long, and about five meters at the widest.
From the belly of each ship, a section opened and seperated like ribs sliding apart to reveal a mechanical arm that reach down to the pilot. This arm had a hand that split into four fingers, and each "finger" had multiple docking mechanisms. These sought out the sockets in the pilots armor, on the backs of the hands, the heels of the feet, the ankles, calves, thighs, upper and firearms. The "palm" of the hand had similar Dockers that integrated to the sockets located along the spine, shoulderblades, and finally locking to the collar none. Once full integratio, as complete, the instinct drive system kicked in. Each pilot was now able to control their ship like it was an extension of their body. They moved, and so would the ship.
The arm would then pull the pilot into the ships ribs, which would seal up once more. W9tiers moved the ships into loading racks, again a mechanism remiscient of bullets being loaded into a guns magazine. Once they were loaded, the airchief gave Wan the notification. And once he had given the go ahead, each ship in the magazine, five per, were launched along the glaives magnetized runways, and off the converted launching ramp.
Inside of a minute ten hummingbird craft were in The air, and the pilots opened the wings, like those the glaive used to fly, and began orienting themselves into a dive at the enemy.
The Arsenal
The rocksteady loadout is one the IMPs use regularly. It consisted of bunkers, defensive turrets, reinforced walls, and the odd utility device, mining rigs and communications beacons, mostly.
Out of all of these, the bunkers were perhaps the most elappreciated and impressive. Polycrete reinforced with carbon steel, sporting an electro kinetic generator that powered a plasma field barrier. Into these would be loaded four IMPs, along with a supply cache that held enough ammunition and rations for a week of prolonged combat, though unfortunately the plasma shield circuitry had never been able to operate in combat conditions for longer than thirty seconds. They were still trying to figure out a way to fix that.
In any case, once the go ahead was given by the captain, three of these had been dropped into the firing columns, which extended from their housings in the bottom hull of the ship. They took aim at strategic locations around the enemy location, and fired. They would impact shortly after the hummingbird bombing run.
Pod Bay.
In the barracks, one poor sob by the name of Kenny had somehow been left with point he censer, having no idea what it was, but being told to get it back to its owner, while also having no idea who that was. Needless to say, Kenny was more than a little stressed.
Thankfully, he was part of the battalion that would be taking to the fight in the relatively gentle drop ships.
The other batallion were loading into individual drop pods, which were being slotted into launch towers twenty at a time. With about fifty towers in the drop bay, each loaded to full bear, the cobalt glaive was able to drop up to a thousand soldiers into combat in less than a minute.
Now, compared to some other military endeavors, such as the famous imperial space marines, it wasn't nearly as impressive, but the cobalt glaive had a few advantages that nobody else did. The pods were made from a cheap yet durable material they made in site in the refinery. Each pod could survive orbital entry without breaking a sweat. But in addition to that the pods also make use of a trick borrowed from an encounter with some rather arrogant aliens Ean and the crew had encountered before. Each pod generated a holographic field around itself, making shimmering copies that three off the aim of even the most advanced anti aircraft or orbital defense systems. It was by no means foolproof, but compared to other drop pod systems, it was for more effective.
Each pod contained a single soldier, a minor guidance system, a ressuply cache, and communications equipment. This meant that each pod not only allowed the soldiers to be dropped right into the frontline, reinforcing already present troops, but also ressuplied that line, and insured they had communications available.
But perhaps the most fascinating part of the this particular tactic the cobalt glaive used was the effect it had on an enemy. The holographic field, when viewed from below, makes the pods look like meteorites falling from above. When there's over a thousand of these falling at once, it's rare that an enemy force can do much more than stare in awe.
Needless to say, this is the pod storm that followed the launching of the three bunkers.
The bridge, again.
Ean had given the go ahead, and the simultanous launching of the ships, firing of the bunkers, and dropping of the pod storm, brought a smile to his face. He then turned to plinth. "We're going to be moving ahead to get to the cargo. If you would be so kind as to head to the launch bay to board a troop transport, if be much obliged."