The Mobius Loop - Part Seventeen

Posted on Mon Jun 30th, 2025 @ 1:20am by Lieutenant JG Rachael "Ripcord" Yamaguchi-Cullen & Fleet Captain Torilla Yamaguchi

Mission: Mission 121: The Mobius Loop
Location: Various Locations - USS Grey Wolf
Timeline: 1815Hrs - February 4th, 2394

Rachael paused a moment. "Go on." she inquired. She was no fool as she had heard variations of this tale before. Just not the unvarnished version.

Torilla took a sip of her drink while she regarded her daughter. "The Red Flight was not interested in peace at this point. They were only interested in control and revenge. They had a major falling out with the bronze flight and the two ended up in a major slugging match." she sighed. "The Green flight showcased why they were not to be trifled with when they re-entered the war with atomic weapons." She paused a moment. "Half of the Red flights Eastern navy was demolished in one single strike. But it didn't get the hint across. The Green Flight then decided to reduce one of the Red flights major cities to ashes, killing almost a million people in one single strike."

Rachael raised an eyebrow. "That worked on Earth with ending their second world war. I assume it worked for the Halanans," she commented.

"It did but the only flight left with any serious power was the red flight. Blacks had been almost exterminated. Green was still rebuilding from the first war, they had been neutral until the last year or so of the second war. The Bronze Flight had been utterly trashed. They lost almost all of their military strength along with much of their political strength too. The Blue Flight had been conquered and only regained their independence after the end of the war." Torilla paused. "Then a generation later. We come to the Third Unification war." She paused. "This was the meanest and the biggest." she sighed softly. "A new power was rising. The Unificationists, they were called and they wished to unify Halaa under their flag."

Rachael nodded her head in silence while she knew her mother didn't often tell this tale. It was a long and bloody tale, with millions shedding oceans of blood and in the end, nobody won. Except a government that was keen to exterminate the old way and order of things.

Torilla sighed softly. "The Unificationists had tactics and weapons that the flights had no answer to. They used scorched earth tactics against the flights. The first to go was the Green flight. The Black flight fell at the same time. The Blue Flight knew it was a losing war. They wanted to fight in it, but they couldn't resist anyway. They had neither the manpower nor the military power to resist." She then sighed, a moment later Torilla resumed her tale. "After several years of this back-and-forth slogging match, all over Halaa." Torilla paused. "The Unificationists decided that enough was enough. So they attacked the one place where the power of the flights was still strong." She regarded her daughter. "This was the site of everything the flights had and knew. Their last hope."

"Where was this place.?" Rachael inquired.

"It was a place called Wyrmrest," Torilla explained. "The unificationists attacked with a small force. Believing that a small group infiltration was better than a massive assault. What they didn't know was that the flights had broken their communications codes. So the flights knew they were coming, so they prepared for the arrival. What the flights did not know was that the message was bait inside of a trap." Torilla then sighed.

Rachael held her silence as she waited.

"The flights moved in more of their troops to protect Wyrmrest from attack. But the small group appeared after several airstrikes hit the place." She paused. "The firefight was short but the small group was easily driven off and scattered. But what the flights did now know was, that every single last one of these guys were suicide troops. They made it to specific locations where they all detonated various explosives. All small tactical nukes. About the size of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima at the end of Earth's second world war. This crippled the defences at Wyrmrest." she then let out a soft sigh. "Not that it mattered anyway. One of these suicide troops made it into the temple. Before committing the second-greatest crime in our long history. The Desecration of Wyrmrest." She paused. "The last man detonated a tactical nuclear weapon inside of Wyrmrest temple, shattering the will of the five flights to continue the war."

"Did the war end that day?" Rachael inquired.

"No, but the main resistance crumbled. The horror that the Unificationists had unleashed could still be felt centuries on. So did the weapons of mass destruction that they used. They burnt half the planet until its surface was but glass. A third of our species didn't escape the fires of the unification wars... Whats was worse was that the new order blamed the old order for starting the war. You know that old game, Rachael."