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Description
"You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you... I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skills in battle." - General Dwight D. Eisenhower (1944).

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Deviation music: D-day FDR prayer. (two steps from hell, heart of courage) - YouTube

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On October 3rd, 2060 AD, the NATO Space Force's Mars battlegroup was ready to fight EATA's. When the NSF Razor Star, NSF Athena of Steel, NSF Nuclear Hellstorm, and the NSF Caravan regrouped with the Mars battlegroup, the EATA Space Force ordered their ships to be battle ready as they were anticipating this attack for weeks after the fall of their exo-bases in the inner and outer planets of the Solar System.

When their orbits overlapped, all the NATO and EATA ships fired their guided projectiles first: KKVs and torpedoes. The first stage of this battle was spent shooting down each other's countless projectiles. Like all saturation attacks, there's always a few that manage to slip through. Multiple gunships on each side were destroyed. In the second stage, the ships ignored the range of their guns and fired anyway. On NATO's side, this included railguns and the 60mm guns on the Saber squadrons. The NSF Benjamin R. Rich deployed its Saber squadrons after the wave of projectiles was shot down while the NSF Athena of Steel fired all of its railgun batteries. The NSF Nuclear Hellstorm had torpedoes and KKVs to spare and begun firing those.

The ESF gunboats clashed with the Saber squadrons before they reached their inner fleet when NSF Razor Star became the spearhead of NATO's battlegroup as it flew right into the dogfighting between the gunboats, Saber squadrons, and the ESF Gorbachev's Slayer and Guardian drones. The ESF solar lances lased the hull of the Razor Star enough to slow it down which made it vulnerable to a gamma-ray strike. The EATA Space Force was quickly confident this battle was winnable since the ESF Red Dawn battlecruiser was not damaged and the NSF Razor Star was. That's when Boreum Station launched a multiple IPBMs into orbit to intercept EATA's fleet. With EATA's fleet distracted with NATO's ships, the IPBMs were not shot down, since EATA assumed they were just another wave of nuclear torps, as they deployed their payload: camouflaged neutron bomblets. These could not be shot down since they were so small, the size of golf balls.

These neutron bomblets exploded when they were near an EATA ship, and the neutron flux was so powerful that it killed the crew and destroyed the ship's avionics. That's when EATA figured it out: this battle was a diversion! Boreum Station, which specialized in nuclear testing on Mars, was the Dark Horse of this battle. Only the ESF Red Dawn and Gorbachev drone carrier survived the neutron bombardment. They decided to fall back and regroup with their battlegroup near Earth as all other ships were disabled and rendered inoperable. NATO's Mars battlegroup quickly picked off the remaining disabled ships.

EATA lost Mars.

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Captain's Log: Jason Shepard - NATO Space Force

Date: October 3rd, 2060 AD

Mars is finally ours! But at a great cost. Four of our gunships and six Saber squadrons were lost in this battle. My ship took heavy damage from those solar lances, but it was mostly exterior. I'm starting to question the effectiveness of NATO's Black Queen AGI tactician. To me, it almost seems like a lot of things are being left to chance and luck despite the cleverly strategized neutron bombardment from Boreum Station. Regardless, I'm glad we won this battle. The last ships of EATA's Mars battlegroup did an injection burn back to Earth. The gunboats and solar lances were the most difficult part of this battle. If we didn't take out the other five that were at Titan, this battle would probably have been lost.

The NSF M1A5 Scorpion battalions and Martian helicopters dispatched from Jamestown and Boreum Station managed to take Mars Base One. MBO was extremely hard to infiltrate and take over! That place had SO many traps set for us. This included land mines, tank mines, cloaked SAM turrets, suicide bombers, covered sinkholes, Vietnam-style spike pits, pop-up tank stoppers, transparent barb wire, and buildings rigged with C4 explosives. Despite this, we managed to take over the base. The base commander refused to surrender and died in one of the corridor firefights. The rest of the ESF personnel surrendered and are now POWs. Mars Base One is currently being redone to become a base for NATO. This base is a huge win! Occupying Mars with three self-sustaining bases will serve as a great head for NATO in the Solar System. The remaining ships of our battlegroup are plotting a course back to Earth to group with Earth's battlegroup. We finally have EATA cornered, and things are about to get very messy.

Just one more battle and then I can finally go home and see my family again.

Operation Downfall - Phase 5: Mission Accomplished

Addendum:

One of those Phantom Ships appeared right next to our ship. On radar and gradar, there was silence and then this thing just dropped right next to us without leaving any exhaust plume. This thing is likely using some kind of warp drive since its presence makes our gradars go crazy! When it appeared, our avionics glitched and malfunctioned. This is a clear act of war. They are obviously toying with us and getting more and more cocky, and the scary part is we couldn't even control our weapons! Whether these things are alien or not, I've had it! I'm scheduling a meeting with our battlegroup general about this ASAP. There's clearly a third party out here and I have a feeling they are going to attack us when the time is right. I'm beginning to question if EATA is the one we should be fighting right now.

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Trivia:

What would actual space combat look like? This guy nails it:

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité - YouTube

USSF Alan Shepard Orbital Combat Scene - YouTube

USSF Alan Shepard Space Combat Scene - YouTube

Description
"You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you... I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skills in battle." - General Dwight D. Eisenhower (1944).

---

Deviation music: D-day FDR prayer. (two steps from hell, heart of courage) - YouTube

---

On October 3rd, 2060 AD, the NATO Space Force's Mars battlegroup was ready to fight EATA's. When the NSF Razor Star, NSF Athena of Steel, NSF Nuclear Hellstorm, and the NSF Caravan regrouped with the Mars battlegroup, the EATA Space Force ordered their ships to be battle ready as they were anticipating this attack for weeks after the fall of their exo-bases in the inner and outer planets of the Solar System.

When their orbits overlapped, all the NATO and EATA ships fired their guided projectiles first: KKVs and torpedoes. The first stage of this battle was spent shooting down each other's countless projectiles. Like all saturation attacks, there's always a few that manage to slip through. Multiple gunships on each side were destroyed. In the second stage, the ships ignored the range of their guns and fired anyway. On NATO's side, this included railguns and the 60mm guns on the Saber squadrons. The NSF Benjamin R. Rich deployed its Saber squadrons after the wave of projectiles was shot down while the NSF Athena of Steel fired all of its railgun batteries. The NSF Nuclear Hellstorm had torpedoes and KKVs to spare and begun firing those.

The ESF gunboats clashed with the Saber squadrons before they reached their inner fleet when NSF Razor Star became the spearhead of NATO's battlegroup as it flew right into the dogfighting between the gunboats, Saber squadrons, and the ESF Gorbachev's Slayer and Guardian drones. The ESF solar lances lased the hull of the Razor Star enough to slow it down which made it vulnerable to a gamma-ray strike. The EATA Space Force was quickly confident this battle was winnable since the ESF Red Dawn battlecruiser was not damaged and the NSF Razor Star was. That's when Boreum Station launched a multiple IPBMs into orbit to intercept EATA's fleet. With EATA's fleet distracted with NATO's ships, the IPBMs were not shot down, since EATA assumed they were just another wave of nuclear torps, as they deployed their payload: camouflaged neutron bomblets. These could not be shot down since they were so small, the size of golf balls.

These neutron bomblets exploded when they were near an EATA ship, and the neutron flux was so powerful that it killed the crew and destroyed the ship's avionics. That's when EATA figured it out: this battle was a diversion! Boreum Station, which specialized in nuclear testing on Mars, was the Dark Horse of this battle. Only the ESF Red Dawn and Gorbachev drone carrier survived the neutron bombardment. They decided to fall back and regroup with their battlegroup near Earth as all other ships were disabled and rendered inoperable. NATO's Mars battlegroup quickly picked off the remaining disabled ships.

EATA lost Mars.

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Captain's Log: Jason Shepard - NATO Space Force

Date: October 3rd, 2060 AD

Mars is finally ours! But at a great cost. Four of our gunships and six Saber squadrons were lost in this battle. My ship took heavy damage from those solar lances, but it was mostly exterior. I'm starting to question the effectiveness of NATO's Black Queen AGI tactician. To me, it almost seems like a lot of things are being left to chance and luck despite the cleverly strategized neutron bombardment from Boreum Station. Regardless, I'm glad we won this battle. The last ships of EATA's Mars battlegroup did an injection burn back to Earth. The gunboats and solar lances were the most difficult part of this battle. If we didn't take out the other five that were at Titan, this battle would probably have been lost.

The NSF M1A5 Scorpion battalions and Martian helicopters dispatched from Jamestown and Boreum Station managed to take Mars Base One. MBO was extremely hard to infiltrate and take over! That place had SO many traps set for us. This included land mines, tank mines, cloaked SAM turrets, suicide bombers, covered sinkholes, Vietnam-style spike pits, pop-up tank stoppers, transparent barb wire, and buildings rigged with C4 explosives. Despite this, we managed to take over the base. The base commander refused to surrender and died in one of the corridor firefights. The rest of the ESF personnel surrendered and are now POWs. Mars Base One is currently being redone to become a base for NATO. This base is a huge win! Occupying Mars with three self-sustaining bases will serve as a great head for NATO in the Solar System. The remaining ships of our battlegroup are plotting a course back to Earth to group with Earth's battlegroup. We finally have EATA cornered, and things are about to get very messy.

Just one more battle and then I can finally go home and see my family again.

Operation Downfall - Phase 5: Mission Accomplished

Addendum:

One of those Phantom Ships appeared right next to our ship. On radar and gradar, there was silence and then this thing just dropped right next to us without leaving any exhaust plume. This thing is likely using some kind of warp drive since its presence makes our gradars go crazy! When it appeared, our avionics glitched and malfunctioned. This is a clear act of war. They are obviously toying with us and getting more and more cocky, and the scary part is we couldn't even control our weapons! Whether these things are alien or not, I've had it! I'm scheduling a meeting with our battlegroup general about this ASAP. There's clearly a third party out here and I have a feeling they are going to attack us when the time is right. I'm beginning to question if EATA is the one we should be fighting right now.

---

Trivia:

What would actual space combat look like? This guy nails it:

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité - YouTube

USSF Alan Shepard Orbital Combat Scene - YouTube

USSF Alan Shepard Space Combat Scene - YouTube