2175 C.E.

XI: Welcome to the Homefront

Official Transcript: HNN Frontline News: 08/27/2175

HALERMAN: Welcome Hegemony citizens to this newest segment on HNN Nightly News, Frontline News, a segment that explores the war in various fronts. I'm your host Josiah Halerman. Last week we took you to the distant reaches of the Nova colony using new temporary warp gates established by the Terran Interstellar Authority and we explored the desperate plight of the Novan rebels. Since that time, it should be noted that fighting in Hanson Harbor has begun to breach surface levels; it looks as if the invasion planned by General Chaffin was a success. Tonight, we'll be continuing our exploration of the Terran war effort with a new segment covering the fighting much closer to home, in fact on Earth itself. It's a small war effort as one might expect from fighting that occurs on Earth, since the vast majority of Earth's nearly 13 billion humans live in peace and prosperity and have pledged support to the Hegemony and the war effort. However, there are some who have taken up arms against the state in the interests of the Grushan and Novan rebels. We explored the destitute conditions that citizens of the so-called Novan alliance live under; a number of opportunistic would be tyrants in our own Africa have taken up the drum of Nova's own imperialistic government and hope to enforce that same oppressive, divided regime on Earth. We go now to the borders of Congo in the African Union, where Hegemony forces are preparing to make a major breakthrough against revolutionary forces.

[Fade out. Scene shifts to a tropical jungle area. Subtitles denote this as Ghana, Africa. An explosion in the distance rises from the trees and the muffled sound of it reaches the camera]

HALERMAN: What you just saw was a Hegemony air strike on Ghanan forces situated on the border between Ghana and Togo. African coalition forces have rendezvoused here to meet the Hegemony invasion with what few troops they can muster. Hegemony intelligence indicates that the defense of Ghana has been determined, but that ultimately, the superior tactics, technology, and equipment of the Terran Hegemony have worn down the poorly equipped defenders.

[Camera hovers on the smoking wreckage of a Ghanan exosuit. A charred body of the pilot hangs out of the smoking remains]

HALERMAN: This unfortunate rebel soldier is wearing the latest in African combat equipment developed jointly, so we're told, by African research firms and Grushan development teams sent to Africa shortly before the rise of the Hegemony. As you can see, although his powered exoskeleton provides significant protection, ultimately this was not enough to shield him from Terran weapons technology. If you look over here, you'll see the latest in Terran combat designs. This is the MM-23 Calamity, a fully automated machine warrior. It has 50cm frontal armor, a massive 240mm main gun and targeting so advanced that its designers boast that it could hit a bird's nest in a tree in the middle of a forest five miles away. They also tell us that the system has enough redundancies as to be practically indestructible even if the Africans could bust its outer armor, a tough task at best. It's powered by a tenth-generation micro-fission reactor that's safe to the environment if breached. It's piloted remotely by operators working for Ambience corporation, which manufactures the positronic core and Interlink software to run it. The Terran Hegemony Army currently has five thousand Calamities operating on the Africa front, and this is just one of many.

[The automated tank roles over the scorched exoskeleton and the corpse inside, crushing them under 12 tonnes of weight]

HALERMAN: Godspeed, Calamity. Calamity tanks also use breakthrough technology developed by the Grushan themselves and perfected by Ambience Corp. engineers that allows it to extend its caterpillar treads into individual legs, enabling it to navigate central Africa's difficult terrain. Ghanan forces currently possess similar tank technology, but with their infantry vulnerable to heavy weapons and artillery, and with their dependence on dwindling manpower has crippled their capabilities. African insurgents have sprung up in great numbers all over central Africa, but their efforts against Terran army equipment such as this.