Chapter 3 - The Ants are Here (Part 1)

Libran Ocean, January 12th, 1948

It was early in the morning and some of the crew on Bastion Delta were performing maintenance on the radar systems. Unbeknownst to them, a group of bombers flew from the aircraft carriers of the Antarean North Group. Having no radar to detect any aircraft, the crew were caught off guard by the attack and in the first bombing wave, half of Bastion’s “Alpha” Group were destroyed, leaving Group “Beta” to request reinforcements and defend.

The Battle of the Bastions - POV of Lt. Julie Lishturn of the Antares Imperial Airforce, Extract from Diary Entry

We were part of the second bombing run. I took off with my squadron this morning from the AIS Skorpius Alpha in my T-V Attacker. Our dive bombers, attack aircraft and towards the bastions. When we saw the structure. It was split into two groups, each of them had a cluster of seven towers connected to each other by a walking platform. The first bombing run did well as we saw half of one of the two groups already destroyed.

I can make out a bunch of Orionite soldiers hastily exiting through the hatches and running towards the flak guns and AA guns that were mounted on each of the top of the towers. What followed were a flurry of shells fired in the direction of us.

Our planes dodged and weaved around the shells that exploded around us. Some of our comrades got taken out and plummeted into the sea below, but their efforts were not enough to deter us and before long, the light bombers ahead of us dropped their payload onto the towers, destroying four of them in the process. Our attackers (including mine) and dive bombers got close enough to release our rockets, which flew through the skies. Some of them smashed into the towers, heavily damaging them before our dive bombers followed suit and dropped their bombs, finishing off the remaining towers.

It looks like we are done with our duty for now and are ready to return to our carrier for refueling and repair in case we are to be called to go another round. I took a glance back and all but one tower of the group that survived the bombardment and its stubborn crew continued to shoot both attacking and returning bombers, downing a few of them in the process.

As we banked eastward to go back to the Sarga, I got a better look at the chaos that was the bastion. One tower in one group was bending into the sea, weighing down the other towers connected to it while another in the opposite group was destroyed in an explosion, rocking the superstructure in the process.

I am writing this in the quarters, waiting with my comrades for further orders on Sarga while our planes are checked for any damages and refuelled for the next bombing run. This would only be the beginning of our squadron’s duty.

Meanwhile back at the bastion, the ORS Bullfrog from Port Delphinus had just arrived and started to provide the remaining tower of Group Beta with AA support. But the ship only managed to take down one plane before a level bomber scored two direct hits. And with that, the bastion’s only reinforcements were gone.

About half an hour later, the bastion was completely destroyed and North Group was free to continue. At that time, the Orionite gunboats and destroyers from the port. They were supposed to arrive with the Bullfrog at the bastion but they weren’t able to depart until that moment and the only battleship at port, the ORS Charon, wasn’t ready to deploy. With superior firepower and aircraft, the Antareans were able to sink the entire port fleet with minor damage to their ships.

The ships arrived at Madison Island where they started blasting coastal defenses in Port Delphinus. The Local Police, together with the naval personnel and army were able to stage a defense on the beaches while evacuating civilians.