Chapter 1

The armada of ships glided towards the planet Earth. The huge dreadnought of the Imperial fleet defending the planet aimed its guns at the approaching Federation ships. The two fleets were huge with a multitude of ships on the Imperial side. They had squadrons of fighters and bombers with corvettes in support. On the frontline there were frigates and battle cruisers with mass driver artillery for their main guns. These weapons stuck out as the ships bared their teeth. Large carrier groups with an escort of cruisers housed more fighter classes. At the rear there was the dreadnought and a small section of battleships.

The federation armada was a lot larger than their opponents but only contained few types of ships. They were frigates, battleships and the landing crafts. These moved in a mass of grey towards the Imperial defenders. The Imperial dreadnought opened fire with a crashing of the barrels launching the shells out. These accelerated through the emptiness of space till they reached the opposing ships. The shells slammed into several ships and one struck a hit on a frigate in its middle. An explosion followed which ripped through the hull and tore the ship in two, flames burst out of the open sections as oxygen escaped.

The rest of the ships were soon in range. The vessels all opened fire in continuous volleys as they came even closer in. The mass drivers of the Imperials fired out with varying sizes of shells in a volley at the opposition. The Federation ships had more plasma based weaponry which was a shield of magnetic forces holding together a lump of molten plasma shot from the cannons on the ships. These had a dark blue tint to them as the shielding of the shot burned away in its flight. The rounds crashed into both sides which struck ships everywhere. The fighters and bombers soared across the now small space between the two sides and engaged the enemy.

All around there were ships exploding, firing and broadsiding extremely close to each other. The Imperial dreadnought was surrounded by the enemy and was taking a huge amount of fire, a beast being attacked by a swarm of killer bees. It did shoot back and took out multiple vessels with both heavy cannons and shorter range auto-cannons hurling out thousands of smaller projectiles in a mini-gun type fashion. The bombers and corvettes attempted to provide support by attacking the ships assaulting the dreadnought but it was not enough.

A critical strike saw a heavy plasma round slam into the underside of the vessel where multiple hits had already struck. The armour plating gave way and the plasma continued into the underbelly of the mighty warship. It was ripped into and where followed by another accurate shot which hit the engines at the rear of the ship, this caused a chain reaction where the fuel feed system was torn apart and promptly caught fire. The burning fuel raced along the pipe system overwhelming all safety measures in an unstoppable inferno, when it hit the main fuel storage units the section of the ship exploded with almighty force. At the rear fire erupted from the engines. As the ship broke apart escape pods flew out and away from the dying husk but towards the still on-going battle

Aside from the battle raging all around, landing craft descended into the lower orbit. Large ground cannons fired up into the craft, but did minimal damage. Shuttles with both infantry and vehicles launched from the craft and sped towards the planet. The ground cannons had much more effect with these shuttles and many were turned into fireballs which hurtled down and smashed into the city below. London was the crux of one such attack on the planet as a command and control centre was present there which oversaw the defence of the wasteland that used to be the human home-world

Ground Marshall Andrew Greyman was an Imperial soldier stationed at one of the ground cannons in the centre of London which fired up at the swarming attacks. The cannons were of a large construction which towered up into the air occasionally belching fire, some were aimed at the ships in orbit whereas some were targeted to landing shuttles. These were s surrounded with smaller AA positions to protect them from huge formations of federation air attacks. They all were in constant fire sending the rounds up into the air at the rapidly approaching assault forces.

A bomber squadron flew over the city and dropped their payload on various target. The AA and cannons locked onto them quickly. While the cannons was too slow and couldn't get a properly aimed shot off the AA positions could.

Most of the squadron of ten were shot down before they could retreat. O

In the hailstorm one ship exploded into a fireball and smashed into the Big Ben clock tower sending chunks of the tower off and down onto the street. The Marshall was currently standing in the by an AA site. He was a tall dark, short haired man, well built with a thin beard. He wore a grey, blue and black camo uniform in a leopard skin pattern, a flat cap with a holographic display on the left eye and chest body armour with knee pads over the uniform. He had an assault rifle slung over the shoulder with a pistol on the hip. At that moment Greyman was speaking loudly in a deep voice, to a holographic screen in front of him, which projected a miniature, flickering version of the person on the other end of the line.

"Assault troops are raining down everywhere, doesn't help that we are vastly understrength. If attack in force this position will fall" The hologram paused before answering

"Sorry the command centre is requiring all our reserves, I have nothing to give you. That gun cannot fall, it is critical to our defence. If it does fall then the Federation's troops will be able to land and they will be able to deploy their heavy vehicles"

"I will try, but don't hold your breath"

An explosion nearby signalled that the area was under attack. The Imperial troops wore the same uniform as the Ground Marshall but a full covered helmet, and all carried the standard railgun. This was a long frame about the size of an adult arm with a thin box half its length mounted on top, this housed the ammo. The weapon fired a small charge of accelerated metal with a plasma based encasement keeping the projectile on course. When the gun was fired the round sped out of the barrel by the use of a chemical reaction much like the old fashioned assault rifles used centuries before. The Imperial position was strewn across the rubble of the city area with the occasional mounted autocannon in the buildings. All together the Imperials had 100 men in the position which was meant for many more. Greyman rushed to a barricade created when a building collapsed across the street. The federation infantry were charging towards their position.

The troops stormed across the rubble strewn area but instantly were slowed by shots coming from the entrenched Imperials. Greyman fired off his rifle a few times from cover next to a few others who did the same. A soldier next to the Marshall was struck by a bullet which went straight through his helmet and out the other side. The man crashed to the ground. It didn't take long before the Imperials were slowly being pushed back from their positions and closer to the cannon, all the Federation men needed was a good rocket strike before they could land their heavy tanks and APC's. This target was given to them when an Imperial garrisoned building was overrun and the line of sight from the second story gave them perfect view to the tip of the cannon. Greyman saw this and ran towards the building.