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Day 008/2549
Palmgren was standing beside Drake’s Command Station when the Task Force emerged from its final micro-jump. Drake looked over at his Com Tech and nodded. That was the signal to try to establish long range contact with the Durendal base on Midgard’s moon. Two-way communication would be slow because his ships were still almost 10 light seconds away, but at least they could let the base know they were here. When a full minute had gone by, Drake said, “What’s the problem, Pierre?”
The Com Tech turned to look at his CO. “I’m not getting any response to my hail. In fact, I’m not receiving any transmissions from the moon base at all, sir, not even construction shuttle traffic. No radar signals either.”
“Okay, send a message to Midgard Ops letting them know we’re here, and ask them why the moon base is silent.”
Without waiting for the Com Tech to acknowledge Drake’s orders, Palmgren said, “I don’t like the silence, Roland. I need to get down there asap and find out what’s going on.”
Drake understood that Palmgren was hinting that Drake should order the Task Force or at least this ship to head for moon orbit quickly. Drake didn’t like the silence either, but he wasn’t in any hurry to get close. If the Durendal complex had indeed been attacked, there might still be enemy forces in the vicinity. So far Palmgren hadn’t made his request an order. Whether he had the authority to do so was a good question. Their orders for this mission were just vague enough to leave some doubt. Palmgren would definitely be in command of the training portion of the mission, but anything other than that was not so clear cut.
“Let’s see what the Tower says first,” said Drake. Palmgren, to his credit, said nothing.
The results of that attempt were the same. There was no contact and no transmissions of any kind coming from the Midgard Industries Tower. THAT was really ominous.
“We can’t leave this system without finding out what happened,” said Palmgren in a low voice. “Let me take one of the boats for a quick pass of the moon base and then a low enough orbit of Midgard to make a visual inspection of the city. You keep the ships up beyond the zone boundary. Okay?”
It was a reasonable idea. The missile boat could get to the moon and the planet a lot quicker and had some armor just in case it ran into trouble. “Take Zero Zero One. She’ll be ready to launch by the time you get to her,” said Drake. As Palmgren rushed to leave the Bridge, Drake made the arrangements.
It was almost three hours later when Drake got the text message from Palmgren’s boat.
Moon complex completely destroyed. They must have used atomics. Large pieces of wreckage are orbiting where battlecruisers should be. Long range detection gear shows much higher than normal radiation coming from center and edge of Midgard city. I expect to have visual data within 15 minutes. Palmgren.
The news shocked Drake and by the looks of it, his Bridge crew as well. The FEDs must have somehow discovered that the complex on the moon was an SSU facility and attacked it and the orbiting uncompleted battlecruisers. Drake had no idea how they had found out, although he wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that Majestic had deduced the real facts behind the operation from some obscure piece of data. His mission now was crystal clear. They had to get word of this disaster back to Sparta as quickly as possible. Without those battlecruisers, the whole war was now in doubt. Twenty minutes later he received Palmgren’s second message.
Tower has fallen over apparently due to self-destruct device. Emergency shelter appears to have been destroyed too. No sign of FED ships or ground forces except for one tank under tower rubble. 001 is heading to rendezvous point now. Palmgren.
Drake felt as if he’d been hit in the stomach. Site X and the Durendal complex were both gone, and the SSU’s chances of winning this war had now dropped to virtually zero. There was no way that they could rebuild the shipyard complex on Midgard’s moon now that the FEDs were aware of its potential, and finding a suitable substitute somewhere else would just take too long. He could see only two options now. Either the SSU mounted a very risky and desperate raid on Makassar to even the playing field again or they beefed up Sparta’s defenses waiting for the inevitable attack, hoping they could inflict crippling damage on the attacking forces. He gave the order for the Task Force to head for the rendezvous point. The 77 day trip back to Sparta was going to be a depressing one.
Day 084/2549
Romanov was surprised and a little pissed that Trojan hadn’t met him either at the Majestic Complex entrance or at the bottom of the descending escalator. Considering that his Task Force had engineered a major setback for the rebels, he considered that a personal greeting was not only the polite thing to do but was also earned. When he got to the inner section where Trojan’s office was, he learned that his Boss was up in Ops getting the latest Commandments from his Majestic God. At first Romanov thought the Lieutenant who had expressed that sentiment was joking, but there was nothing to indicate humor in the junior officer’s expression. As luck would have it, Trojan was just coming out of the Ops Center when Romanov got there.
“Congratulations, Vice-Admiral Romanov, on your splendid victory at Midgard.”
Romanov was a little taken aback by his apparent promotion to 2 star flag rank but tried not to show it.
“I’ve just updated Majestic with your After-Action report, and the results are quite encouraging. Majestic is convinced that those battleships you found and destroyed were the SSU’s last ditch strategy to gain military superiority. If we hadn’t developed our stealth technology, they would have punched their way through our Makassar defenses and blasted it back to square one again. They could have then sent those battleships to Earth and dictated terms to the Council. But now that those ships and the shipyard that built them are gone AND now that WE have the upper hand with our stealth cruisers, Majestic is of the opinion that the war, for all practical purposes, is over. The only thing left to do is the mopping up. That’s why I’m sending you to Sparta with three stealth cruisers as soon as your flagship can be resupplied. Your orders will be to smash their mobile and planetary defenses. Once that’s done, you’re to send one ship back here while the rest keep a careful eye out so that they don’t rebuild their defenses. By the time you send word back that the coast is clear, I’ll have accumulated the necessary troop transport capacity to send my troops to Sparta, where they will land and take control. After that, you’ll do the same thing with the other major planets in the SSU. Any questions, Admiral?”
“Yessir. On my return trip, I’ve given a lot of thought to what we tell Earth about what happened at Midgard. I know the plan was to portray that attack as a rebel attack to undermine the ceasefire, but in light of what we discovered there, plus the fact that the tanks and infantry bodies left behind in the tower rubble will almost certainly be identified as coming from First Fleet/Army Force, may I suggest that we tell Earth that Majestic was able to deduce the fact that the shipyard on Midgard’s moon was a rebel operation and that Majestic recommended that raid? We can also claim that the mere existence of that covert operation was a de facto violation of the ceasefire by the rebels with the obvious intention of using those battleships to resume the fighting.”
Trojan looked thoughtful for what must have been 20 seconds and then said, “Yes, you’re right about the bodies and the equipment being identified. We can’t go ahead with the false flag attack strategy even though your Task Force identified itself as SSU ships during the approach to the planet. How do we explain that?”
Romanov thought fast. It was likely that news of that transmission would not reach Earth for many months. By then Chenko and Masterson would have gotten Trojan’s report claiming a major victory by destroying the covert shipyard operation. If anyone on the Council raised the issue of the false flag transmission, Trojan could just deny it outright.
“We deny we ever sent those transmissions. We even go so far as to falsify the ships’ communications logs. If the issue won’t go away, we can also claim that the transmission was an attempt by rebel agents on Midgard to smear your reputation.”
Trojan smiled and nodded. “Yes, that should work. Good thinking, Admiral. I’ll take your suggestion about revising our story over Midgard. Sorry you won’t get any R&R, but the sooner we crush Sparta and the other major Union planets, the sooner we can turn our attention to Earth. I guarantee you that you and your people will be able to get off your ships for a while before we start Phase 2. Come to my office and have a drink with me. That’s the least I can do before you get ready to leave again.” Before Romanov could respond, Trojan put his hand on Romanov’s shoulder and gently nudged him in the direction of his office.
Romanov’s new Task Force, consisting of three stealth cruisers, left orbit 34 hours later. As Hadley receded on the main display, Romanov recalled the tone of the briefing he’d given to his senior officers. He saw anticipation and fear among them. Majestic had predicted strong defenses around Sparta, but Romanov wasn’t worried, not after seeing how a stealth cruiser could sneak right up to an enemy ship undetected. Still, it was going to be a big battle no matter what. His only concern was whether his three ships had enough Mark 1 fission warheads to do the job.
Day 086/2549
As Drake and Palmgren entered the conference room for the debriefing, they noticed that not only was Secretary for Defense Sorenson there, in addition to CSO Janicot, but that the Chancellor was there too! Drake and Palmgren exchanged nervous looks as they sat down opposite what Drake was already starting to think of as the Inquisition. He saw Janicot look over to the Chancellor, who nodded back. Janicot turned to look back at Drake and Palmgren.
“We’ve gone over both of your After-Action reports. In spite of how this might look,” he paused, glancing at Sorenson and the Chancellor, “neither of you should feel that your actions are going to be challenged. If we don’t seem happy to see you, it’s because of the news you brought back. But we’re not going to shoot the messengers, so you can both relax.”
Easier said than done, thought Drake.
Janicot continued. “The loss of the Durendal complex and the Site X facility on Midgard are serious blows to the war effort. In fact, that’s almost certainly an understatement. The truth of the matter is that P2 now gives the SSU only a 3.4% probability of winning this war, and the only reason it’s not zero is because we’ve recently received word from Zanzibar that they’ve made a propulsion breakthrough in jump drive technology. The new jump drive will allow our ships to travel four and a half times faster through hyper-space than we currently do. Our only hope now is to convert our cruisers and carriers fast enough to be able to outmaneuver the FED ships that Makassar will soon start delivering, if it hasn’t already. What we want to discuss with both of you is the mystery of how the FED ships were able to catch our battlecruisers by surprise. The wreckage that you detected,” he nodded to Palmgren, “was clearly what was left of the battlecruisers, but according to our latest progress report from Durendal, at least two and maybe as many as four of them had the capability to maneuver and had skeleton crews on board to prevent exactly this kind of ambush. If FED ships were detected entering the hyper-zone, why did the battlecruisers remain exactly where they were? Any thoughts on that?”
Drake looked at Palmgren and waited for him to speak, but he didn’t. Drake had asked himself that very same question on the way back, and he could see only one possible answer.
“The only way that I can see the FED ships getting close enough to catch the skeleton crews by surprise without being detected is if they’ve made some kind of breakthrough themselves that renders their ships invisible to our radars,” said Drake. Both Sorenson and Chancellor Belloc reacted with shock. Janicot’s expression remained poker-face neutral. I’ll bet he’s already thought of that too, thought Drake. Palmgren’s expression was skeptical but he stayed silent.
“If that’s the case, then maybe we should switch to P2’s Hail Mary attack on Earth instead of waiting for them to attack us here,” said Janicot, looking over at Sorenson and Belloc. Sorenson opened her mouth to speak but Belloc beat her to it.
“Maybe, but before we roll that dice, I want to consider alternatives carefully. Durendal wasn’t expecting to be attacked by radar-invisible ships, but if we assume the FEDs have that capability, what can we do to improve our own defensive capabilities in case they attack us here?” No one answered. After about five seconds, Palmgren leaned forward.
“Optical sensors.” When he was sure no one was going to jump in, he continued. “We can have almost 100 missile boats here if we bring some in from other planets. If we station a ring of boats let’s say two light seconds out beyond the zone boundary, then they should be able to detect cruiser-sized ships in between the boats and Sparta. The FED ships will appear as dark spots against Sparta’s brighter background.”
“What if the ships approach Sparta from the night side; then the planet will be dark as well?” asked Janicot. Palmgren looked stumped. Drake had an idea.
“We might still be able to detect them by the difference in heat signature from a cold ship compared to the planet’s surface, which should be warmer.” Drake looked at Palmgren who nodded before speaking.
“Yes, that might work. It should be easy to test this idea too.” Sorenson and Belloc were looking at Janicot for his reaction.
“Well, I agree it’s worth testing,” he said, “but I’m not sure if it will work well enough to make a difference. That far out, a ring of boats that doesn’t leave any gaps in coverage would take more than a hundred missile boats. Just off the top of my head, I’d say several hundred.”
Palmgren shook his head in disgust. “Yes, you’re right, sir. I should have thought of that.”
Drake was vaguely aware that Janicot and Sorenson were discussing something, but his attention was on how to make optical detection work. When he thought he had a possible solution, he waited for a break in the conversation.
“There may be a better way to use optical detection,” said Drake.
Sorenson looked annoyed at the change in subject, but Janicot was not. “Fire away, Commodore.”
“Well, let’s assume that the FED ships are radar-invisible. Unless they’ve made their missiles radar-invisible too, they’d have to get VERY close to their targets so that their missile flight times would be too short for the target’s anti-missile defenses to react in time. Any attack on Sparta would have a primary goal of eliminating our mobile defenses, which are mainly our missile boats but also include eight cruisers. Suppose we use those cruisers as bait by keeping them in a tight cluster hovering directly over the Capital at a very low altitude, low enough that our ships would be easily seen by optical detectors on the ground. If the FED ships then get close enough to generate very short missile flight times, they should be close enough to be detected by the ground optics too. With optical detection from multiple directions, we’d be able to compute interception data for our missiles that won’t be able to rely on their own onboard radars.”
“And what if the FEDs missiles are also radar-invisible?” asked Sorenson.
Drake didn’t have an answer to that one, and when that became obvious, Janicot interjected. “Then we’re royally screwed, Madam Secretary. They’d be able to stay beyond the zone-boundary if they wanted to and fire missiles at our ships and boats with impunity.”
Sorenson looked away in disgust. Belloc just shook his head and sighed. Drake felt sorry for the Chancellor. He looked tired and demoralized. He’s been Chancellor for ten years now. No wonder he looks beaten down.
“Any other ideas or questions?” asked Janicot. No one answered. “Okay then, we’ll see what P2 makes of the optical detection idea, but there’ll be no rest for you two I’m afraid. We need to exploit the jump-drive breakthrough as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, our tech people here on Sparta aren’t trained on how to retrofit existing ships. We have to send them to Zanzibar to be trained. That’ll be your responsibility, Commodore Drake. You’ll take three light carriers of your choice, without missile boats, to Zanzibar. While the techs are being trained, your three carriers will be retrofitted. Commodore Palmgren’s assignment will be to take the other two carriers to Hekla to pick up their missile boats and bring them back here. Unless there are any questions, you’re both dismissed.”
Drake did have a question, but he wanted to ask Janicot in private. Palmgren was already getting up to go. Since it looked like the Admiral was going to stay longer to talk with the Chancellor and the SecDef, he decided to leave as well and wait for Janicot outside the conference room.
He didn’t have to wait long. Just over five minutes later, Belloc, Sorenson and Janicot exited the conference room. Janicot didn’t looked particularly surprised to see him waiting in the corridor.
“Something on your mind, Commodore?” asked Janicot.
“Yessir, can we step back into the conference room? I have a question that I’d prefer not to ask out here in the corridor.”
Janicot didn’t hesitate. “Certainly.” He stepped back into the room with Drake behind him. Drake closed the door.
“I wanted to ask you about my assignment to shepherd the carriers to Zanzibar. If Sparta is going to be attacked, it’ll likely happen before I can bring those carriers back here. I think I can be of more use commanding the missile boats during the attack than sitting on my thumbs at Zanzibar or in hyper-space, Admiral.”
Janicot stepped over to the oval table, sat on the table edge and folded his arms in front of him. “Since Commodore Palmgren is senior to you, he would be in overall field command of Sparta’s mobile defenses, including of course the boats. That means that you’d have to take his orders, which means you’d have little or no opportunity to exercise your own initiative. I know that YOU know that, so I can’t help wondering if there’s some other reason for your request to stay here.”
Drake hesitated. The Old Man was right, of course. He did have another reason. He was just reluctant to admit it. “I think the outcome of this next battle for Sparta will decide who wins the war. I want to be a part of that battle. I think I’ve earned the right, Admiral.”
Janicot sighed. When he spoke, he spoke slowly and in a low voice. “The war is already lost, Drake. The Chancellor realizes that even though Sorenson refuses to admit it. Even if we defeat their attack fleet here, they’ll just come back in six months with a bigger one, and if we somehow defeat that, they’ll come back with an even bigger fleet. The reason why I’m sending you to Zanzibar is that when Sparta falls, Palmgren will mostly likely be killed in the battle, and that leaves you as my only experienced flag officer. You’ll have to take charge and try to make the best of the situation.” He paused and looked around as if to make sure that no one else could hear him. “Something I didn’t share during the meeting is P2’s recommended backup strategy. We now have over 10,000 scientists, technicians and their families on Zanzibar. That’s a hell of a brain trust. If we can get enough transport capacity to Zanzibar, all those people and their equipment can be evacuated to some place that the FEDs won’t know about. Given enough time, they may be able to come up with the technology to allow an experienced flag officer like yourself to liberate SSU planets from FED control. It’s a long shot I know, but P2 has calculated that it’s our best backup strategy. If, no when, the FEDs take control of our orbitals away from us, I’ll send out a final message by couriers for all SSU ships to head for the emergency rally point and await further instructions from you and only from you. When you get to Zanzibar, your first task will be to send a courier or ship to the rally point with orders to send all ships back to Zanzibar. You take whatever actions you deem necessary to keep our brain trust people out of the hands of the FEDs. You would have found out all this from secret orders on the way to Zanzibar, but I’m telling you now. Questions?”
Drake was stunned. Deep down, he knew there was very little chance that the SSU could win the war now, but hearing the Chief of Space Operations declare the war lost was still a shock. He was also shaken by the realization that if he led the evacuation, he probably would never see Lorelei again. Even after all this time, he still held out the hope that both of them would survive the war and still feel the same about each other. The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on him either. His missile boat fired the first shot of this war, and now it looked as though he would be in command of the last military operation of the war. Correction...of THIS war and who knew, maybe the first shot of the next one. But if he was going to be in charge of the backup plan, then he had some concerns.
“I’m going to need as much transport capacity as possible. All those people and their equipment and enough food for at least a year, plus equipment to set up a new colony from scratch somewhere. If we don’t get enough ships to do the move all at once, then we’ll have to move them in stages, and that’ll take months. My initial concern is if the FEDs start sniffing around and asking questions when they get here. No matter how well we cover our tracks, the weakest link will still be people who know about Zanzibar and who might give up that secret under chemically-enhanced interrogation.”
Janicot nodded. “I’m open to suggestions.”
Drake thought for a while and then snapped his fingers. “Got it! We’ll temporarily move everyone to another SSU planet that only I and the ships’ senior officers will know the location of. Once we get everyone and their equipment moved, we should have enough time to build up food supplies and equipment for the new colony. If we can also retrofit them with the new jump technology, that’ll enable us to search farther out for a good location for the new colony. The further away we can get, the less probability of the FEDs finding us. So the sooner ships get to Zanzibar, the better our chances. What if you sent out the rally call now instead of waiting until after the battle?”
Janicot frowned. “I’m not sure how the SecDef would react to that. She might interpret it as being defeatist, which I guess is exactly what it is if you come right down to it. I think Belloc would understand, but he has the burden of trying to keep morale up, even though he knows it’s a lost cause.”
“Okay then, in that case, we do it covertly.” Drake paused to think through the details. Janicot waited silently. “I think I should get to Zanzibar as fast as possible to get things organized there, but there should be someone here who’s in charge of gathering equipment and sending ships on to the rally point. No offense Admiral, but I don’t think that person should be you. You’re too high profile. If we’re going to be sneaky about this, it should be someone else. That person would need authorization from you to do what has to be done. The less you know about the details, the less you can be forced to give up.”
“That all makes sense. Do you have anyone in particular in mind?”
Drake thought for a few seconds. “Cate Foster?”
“Yes, she already knows about Zanzibar, and now that her husband’s dead, there’s nothing to hold her here. She can leave on the last freighter and start a new life on the new colony. Of course she may not want to leave, but if she agrees to take on that responsibility, you can have her. I’ll make sure she has all the authority she’ll need. Anything else?”
“Not right now, sir.”
“Fine. We both have a lot to do. Let’s get to it.”
After leaving the conference room, Drake headed straight for the Strategic Planning section of the building. He found Foster in her office. It was obvious that she’d been crying. She gestured for him to have a seat. He made sure her office door was closed first.
“I’m sorry that we had to bring you bad news, Major.”
She nodded. “How certain are you that Bret is dead?”
“Not 100% certain. I suppose it’s possible that Commander Murphy wasn’t in either the tower when it collapsed or the emergency shelter when it imploded, but if he managed to avoid those two events, he’d still have FED ground troops to worry about.”
He was about to say more when Foster interjected. “Even if he was still alive, how would he get back here? None of our ships are going there again, and if he attempted to board a freighter, he’d have to go to Earth first and risk being identified as an SSU defector. I wouldn’t be able to go to Midgard for the same reasons.” She paused. Her expression was remarkably calm under the circumstances, Drake thought to himself. Foster continued. “I suspect that you didn’t come here just to offer your condolences. What’s on your mind?”
Drake filled her in on the plan to shift the brain trust temporarily to another SSU planet and eventually to a brand new colony, as well as on what he needed to be done here while he went to Zanzibar.
“Make sure you hop on the last freighter outta here. We’ll need people like you to build the new colony, and besides, we can’t afford to let the FEDs get their hands on you,” said Drake with a smile.
“I’ll take on the mission of arranging for equipment and ships to be sent to the rally point, but I’ll have to think about whether I want to join the new colony or not.”
“Surely you see the risk that you’d be taking by staying here. The FEDs would have to be crazy not to interrogate the Head of the SSU’s Strategic Planning Section,” said Drake.
Foster took her time answering. He was right of course. She had lots of bits of information in her head that the FEDs would love to hear about. The smart thing would be to take Drake’s suggestion.
“All right, you’ve convinced me. I’ll make sure I leave before the FEDS get here. Give me a list of what equipment and supplies you want me to scrounge, plus the Old Man’s authority, and I’ll get started.”
