People : ~1959/Stories/MenthaPeora


People / Dan Mattia / Stories / MenthaPeora

Battle for Mentha Peora

The first battle of the First Polaris War

It was a dark and gloomy day, like always, in the city of Mentha Peora. The city was located in the center of Proxima Centauri, an LSA controlled planet devastated by nuclear warfare in the Earth Wars of 2056-2082. The citizens of this cold and boring city were just waking up to start another laboring day of decontaminating the planet.

The planet’s atmosphere was horrible. Citizens and LSA garrison soldiers had to wear gas masks all the time. However, the planet held many vital resources, making it very valuable.

Major Timothy Fronchette woke up at 0545. He looked out the window and saw marines doing morning exercises. He took a shower and put on his uniform. As he was walking to the armory, Sergeant Peter Holmes, comms officer, approached him with a distressed look on his face.

“Sir, come to the comms room, quick! Urgent message from the High Council!”

“Calm down, Sergeant.” They ran to the comms room and Fronchette turned on the vid-link.

“Timothy, get your pilots ready. Activate all defenses. We have a new enemy, the Mars Federation.”

“The same Mars Federation, the aliens from Mars that killed the human council years ago?” Fronchette asked, a look of confusion upon his war-torn face.

“Yes. This time they mean business.”

“And now they want the LSA dead?”

“Yes, I’m afraid so. They’re headed for you. Prepare your fighters!”

“Mentha Peora Base, over and out!” Timothy looked at the Sergeant. “Sergeant, turn the raid alarm on! Wake up all the pilots! Activate the defenses! Hurry!”

“Y’sir!” The Sergeant, probably in his 20s, ran through the streets of Mentha Peora Base, sounding alarms and waking marines and pilots.

The Major ran out the door and to the armory. He grabbed two machien guns and some ammo. His friend, Sergeant Carifou, approached him. “Give me one of those guns there, Timmy.”

“Arnold, this is no time to joke.” He hands Arnold the gun. “Get your squad and follow me!”

At 0604, bombs were being dropped on the planet’s surface. Fronchette and Carifou along with their squad ran to the vehicle area and jumped in uncovered jeeps. They drove to the city and had the people enter the cellars of their houses.

Back in 2056, Colonel Dan of the United States Space Force defended the very same spaceport on this planet, right near Mentha Peora. Back then, it was a nice resort planet. During that war, it was destroyed by tons of nuclear weapons.

Fronchette jumped out of his jeep before it had time to stop. He sprinted to the mayor’s office. They mayor had the city hide in the basements of their homes. Just then, Fronchette and his officers that followed him recieved a single message.

“Help!”

“Get over there now! Lock and load, marines!” Fronchette yelled. His following squad jumped in jeeps, reloading their weapons. The jeeps drove at such a reckless speed that some of the accompanying troops still in their leisure uniform lost their hats.

When the squad arrived, aliens were everywhere, overwhelming the human forces. At that time, Fronchette walked into the comms room and recieved a message from Earth.

“Timothy, tell the marines to pull back. Atmospheric fighters are disengaged and prepared to bomb the enemy. We don’t want any dead marines.”

“Yes sir.” He closed the vid-link and blurted out a message on the loudspeaker. “All marines, pull back to bunkers! LSA atmospheric fighters are about to begin bombing run! All marines are ordered to pull back to their bunkers on the double!”

At 0657, the bombers reached the area and began dropping field-nukes.

The mission was a complete success and no marines were killed in the sweep. 3/4 of the alien assault squad was destroyed. The bombers were out of bombs, which left 250 marines against the 1000 enemy aliens still left. The marines were outnumbered and out-gunned, but still gave all they had.

“How many have we lost?” Fronchette asks the medic.

“We’ve lost about 200, sir.”

Fronchette curses loudly. “Get me LSA High Council on the vid-link, now!”

“Aye, sir.”

“This is the High Council. Yes, Mr. Fronchette?”

“How do you expect me to win while my forces are outnumbered and out-gunned?”

“I’ll have 2nd Fleet drop down some orbital drop pods. ETA, five minutes.”

“Thank you.” He shuts down the vid-link and turns to a Cadet near him. “You fly?”

“Y’sir, I can fly, sir!”

“Good. I’m promoting you one rank up. Now get a squad and kill those nasty things!”

“Y’sir!” The Cadet runs out the door in full uniform. Moments later, the sound of twenty fighters rocketing into the air can be heard.

Drop pods came crashing down outside the base, leaving craters up to two meters wide. Marines came rushing out with loaded guns, shooting at the alien intruders.

“Sir, our forces are still outnumbered, 700 versus 563,” the tac officer reports.

“Another curse is heard from the Major. He says to the tac officer, “Get me a pilot’s helmet now! I’ll take ‘em down myself!”

“Y’sir.” Two minutes later the tac officer comes back with a helmet in hand. “Here you go, sir.”

“Thank you.” Fronchette walks out the door to a fighters. Half a minute later, he zooms into the air.

There is a loss of recording during this time. Many LSA soldiers don’t know what happened, and those who do won’t speak of it. The only thing everyone does know is that Fronchette never returned, and his fighters was never found. However, the LSA did win the battle, with not that great of a loss.

Status of Battle: Victory

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