by David Nash
“Alan, I want you to prioritize deciphering the Kernel signal, find it again so we can track it, and find us a new carrier signal as well. Get with Comms and see if we can frequency hop and jump carrier signals so that the Kernel won’t be able to jam us up again. If you need anything, this is the priority. Understand?”
“Yes General, I have most of what I need, but the use of the ships computer may speed up my research.” He replied.
“Then get aboard the Shuttle. I’ll see you back topside soon.” My germ partner turned and headed toward the shuttle loading the wounded, “Alan?” He stopped and looked back, “Did the Hive mind damage you?”
“No sir, we got away before they could alter my code.” He replied
“I don’t know what I would do without you Alan; I am relieved to know you are unharmed.”
We spent 2 weeks on Laphanes. We scoured the planet for any signs of hidden Kernels and Barkun survivors. We felt ourselves lucky that we did find a few hidden pockets of survivors. Unfortunately on a planet that once carried 2 billion souls, we only found 20,000. The loss of biologic life is horrific in scope, but what keeps me up at night is that we did not find enough ridden to account for anything near the difference.
As per our usual, we left a well-supplied team on the planet to entrench and act as caretakers. They would build deep into the planet and construct a base for planetary defense. Our goal would be to send colonists back to Laphanes once the war is over, but for now, the team is little more than speed-bumps and an alarm system if the Kernel comes back.
Our men are rested, our ships repaired to the best of our ability, we are almost ready to get back to war. The last thing we do before we go is to send word back to Earth about the new developments.
We have 7 more worlds to liberate before heading to Kernel Prime, however, all 7 were worlds that fully embraced the Kernel implants, so the planning assumption is that they are a total loss. We just need to remove the Kernel influence so we aren’t fighting a two front war. I pray that historians will show we made the right decision, I want to go straight at Kernel Prime and cut the root out by force, but we can’t afford to let any of the enemy escape. With the Replicator tech, it doesn’t take much besides time to create an army. Earth is living proof of that.
45
Colony Fleet
It is hard to believe that in a few short months we have travelled nearly 1000 light years from Earth. We only have 200 until we reach our destination, Kepler-62f. This planet is another icy planet, as it doesn’t quite have enough cloud cover to keep water liquid. This time that works to our advantage as it is a water planet. From our data, it looks like the planet is totally covered in water. This, as you can imagine will make colonization difficult.
Of course, with the surface covered in ice, we can dig down to the solid planet without trouble. Our plan is to create several huge tubes that will allow us direct access to the surface of the ocean from our subterranean base. Over time, scavenged mass can allow us to build a floating city anchored to the tubes. I imagine domed underwater cities and all manner of submarine transports.
For now, and the foreseeable future, the colony fleet is only concerned with getting a foothold on the world so that we can continue on our primary mission. Find the Burrougots and try to get the gorilla like aliens to become our allies in the war against the Kernel.
My thoughts are disturbed as the door to my cabin announces its opening with a chime and a swoosh, “Commodore Jones? Are you in here? Would you like to know how your littlest crewman did at daycare today?” All thoughts of work aside, I stand up from my desk and hide beside the doorway.
The office door slides open and as Isoken walks in with our toddler Abidemi; I swoop behind her and hold them in a tight embrace. “Daddy!” My one year old squeals joyfully. “Yes Daddy.” my wife repeats playfully.
I lift my wife up a few inches off the floor and hug her passionately. I set her down give her a kiss and ask “So how are my girls doing today.”
“Daddy play blocks” Abidemi says, As I walk to the living room to dig out the blocks Isoken says, “We have made some progress on the tunnel project today. Simulations finally showed a stable hyperspace link between transmitters.”
I jump up from in front of the toy box and run to my wife. I grab her hands and exclaim “Damn Girl, are you trying to be the next Einstein? That’s Great!”
“Actually husband of mine, I’d rather be like Mary Jackson, her skills had a much more practical use. Now, before we can discuss accolades though we have to make it work. We are still a long way off from actually building a hyperspace tunnel system. We are still in the theoretical stages.”
“Still, Darling, I worship your genius-ness and feel you deserve some accolades, how about after blocks we ask Bishop to play with Abidemi and you and I work on the practical?”
“Somehow I think you are getting all the reward in that instance, but accolades may be possible later.” With that Isoken walks toward the bedroom to change. As she leaves I notice a definite extra swish in her step.
My daughter grabs my face and turns it to hers “Daddy! Play!”
“Yes Baby, Daddy is going to play with you.”
Sedna
Admiral Weakley, Chief of Naval Operations, has just concluded his tour of the nearly completed project.
“If Operation Blue Harvest created battle stars, then Sedna should be designated a Battle Planet sir” says Vice Admiral Joseph Whales, commanding officer of Sedna.
“Well, if we ever make another, then we may have to give it a designation, so Joseph, how long until Sedna is fully operational?”
“9 months ago, we said 18 months, I wish I could tell you the timeline has advanced, but there is a lot to do, and well, Admiral, we are still 9 month from being fully functional.”
“Don’t bullshit me, we’ve know each other for nearly 30 years, I know you have a movie poster in your office that says; “beam me up” You always factor in a fudge factor. Give me a real estimate.”
“9 months, if I promised anything faster I could set you up for disappointment,” Whales said to his boss.
“Vice Admiral Whales, set me up for disappointment then, but make sure it’s a damn slight disappointment and not heartbreak.”
“Alright dammit, if you’re going to throw me over a barrel, then we maybe, MAYBE, can get it battle ready in 6 months. Admiral, when I say battle ready, I don’t mean fully mission capable, I mean it can shoot, move, and communicate. But pick one that won’t be totally up to spec. I am an engineer, not a.”
“Miracle worker,” Admiral Weakly interrupts and finished the quote himself. “We need this thing over Earth, Make it shoot 100% and be able to drive itself into combat, we can deal with the rest.”
“Yes sir, anything else for me while you are here?”
“Well, actually I do. Admiral Whales, before coming here I met with President Eastman, He has decided to make a change to free up some units. We are going to disassemble the dome port at the Mars Jupiter asteroid belt and Sedna will absorb that function. The President figures you have a planetoid at your disposal and could find the room to build on a space port.”
“Headquarters, Defensive Fortress, Space Port, does he want me to add a car wash and a dog groomer as well?”
“If he did, could you?”
“Your damn right I could! But it would jump us back to 9 more months.”
“Well then I will just have to do my job and stop adding to yours then. Seriously Admiral Whales, as soon as you can move and defend this hunk of rock, get to mars and absorb the space port. The added manpower and replicators should help you finish faster will it not?”
“It would, but how much of the replicators will be building ships, and how much will be under my control?”
“Ah, Joseph, you get all of them, by the time you can arrive, all the Battle Star groups should be fully outfitted. That just leaves your ‘battle planet’ to be outfitted. The President suggests you have 5 Battle Crui
ser groups and 5 additional Divisions of on-station Legion infantry. As commander, you will have to manage finishing your base of operations as well as building your own ships. I suggest you build at least two full cruiser groups before you throw your new capabilities into finishing Sedna. Because as soon as possible after your arrival near Mars, the Earth Fleet will join General Davis and you will be Earth’s defense force. Understood?”
“Yes sir, I understand, and will comply. I do ask that you keep the 6 month estimate as an estimate.”
“No promises Admiral Whales”
46
1st Battle Star Group: Transit to Diagoras System
“Gentlemen, here we are again. This is the last Barkun planet. After this job is done, we have 4 Sangren planets and then we can finish the job at Kernel prime.” I tell the assembled commanders and their senior enlisted leaders.
“You have all been there through the latest battles. Diagoras was a cakewalk, token resistance and the ability to end the threat from the air. Alcandros was a nightmare; they set an ambush and hit us hard. We can only expect Davos to be the same. I know we are telegraphic our moves and it seems like we are asking for a fight. Well, gentlemen, we are. The only way we can ‘re-break’ the Kernel carrier signal is to come in contact with lots of cloaked ships and kernels communicating using the signal.” I look around the room.
“Tactics say we should not be so obvious in out targets, but strategy says we must. This time we have to find the signal and go right for the kernel before they know we broke it.
Stay frosty and be ready for anything. Any questions?” All the soldiers in the room were bloodied warriors, they knew the stakes and they we all in. No one moved.
“Ok men, you all know what to do, so I will just get out of your way and let you do it. Dismissed.”
I have a lot of respect for the scrappy little Sangren, but as mind controlled warriors they don’t have the strength or the size to keep me up at night. While the Kernel prefers wave attacks and has no concern for their ridden slaves, the Legion tactics work well against such mindless tactical maneuvers. The lizard like Barkun, however, evolved to be warriors. Even as drones, their mass and muscle serve the Kernel well. This is the last Barkun planet. Even an old picket pounder like me can do simple math. We haven’t met a fraction of the implanted Barkun population in battle. The Kernel must be doing something with them. We have killed a few million, but planets hold billions and we have hit 5 Barkun worlds so far.
Every inch of my gut is telling me that this planet is a trap. I want desperately to nuke it from orbit and clean up the mess a dozen years from now, but I am not the only one that loves underground fortifications. Besides, I was not lying or exaggerating when I told my commanders we need a good fight so the scientists can figure out the wavelength of the new Kernel carrier signal.
At least, I know we are walking into trap. I have done a little booby-trapping myself. After some liaison work with President Eastman, We decided to stage some reserve forces just outside the system. The Third and Fourth Battle Star Groups were scheduled to arrive one transit point away from Diagoras two hours ago. Sedna is finishing construction at the Mar/Jupiter asteroid belt, Fifth BSG is at the Oort port, and the Rear Admiral Wuyain has taken her Sixth Battle War group near Kernel Prime to try to stir up trouble. We are relying on math and precision planning instead of radio traffic to coordinate the battle plan.
It’s actually pretty simple on the surface. 6th BSG and the Sexy Sixth Division will do a little hit and run behind enemy lines. They should have starter their attack three hours ago. Hopefully they can cause enough damage to force some of the Kernel fleet to leave the Diagoras System.
We will be inside the system within 15 minutes, and engaged in near orbit in less than 30. In 20 minutes the Third BSG will enter the system to assist Legion forces in the battle. The Fourth Battle Star Group will stay in reserve and be ready to engage as necessary, chase any Kernel ships retreating, or stay hidden as a strategic resource if they are not immediately needed.
With any luck the Kernel only knows about three of our 6 Battle Stars and with four immediately engaged it will give them something to worry about. The overconfident Kernel tends to make illogical decisions when pressed, which theoretically should not be possible. However, they have done a lot of things that goes against their base programming.
I got the idea from a story my Dad once told me about how the Japanese had understood the science behind Nuclear weapons early in the arms race, but the Army, who had the funding, believed them to be dishonorable. The navy wanted them, but could not afford the exorbitant cost. After Hiroshima, Japanese scientists did not believe America could have more than one of the highly expensive weapons. After the first bomb, they interrogated a US POW. The quick thinking serviceman had no information on the Manhattan project, but he knew his captors were worried. He made an outrageous lie that we had “a hundred of them”. After the US bombed Nagasaki, some officials began to believe the story and the Emperor surrendered. I figure, at this point, doubling down and showing we have twice the amount of aces we have shown may make the Kernel do something stupid.
Anyway, enough talk about mindset, the history lesson can wait until after the battle, it is time for me and Alan to go catch a ride with my Dozers.
TOC of RPS George Washington
Rear Admiral Lower Half Richards sat at his command chair in the tactical operations center of Battle Star 1. The admiral both admired and respected General Davis. Like his boss, Admiral Richards felt a trap was coming. However, all his years of naval command and experience fighting the Kernel made him question the wisdom of Commandant Davis’s plan.
A tried and true Navy man, every generation going back to the sailing ships of the British Empire had a member of the Richards family commanding a ship of war. He held his disagreements close to his chest. If the Boss wanted a fight, then Kevin Richards would ensure he got a fight. However, as a great commander, he did everything in his power to stack the deck so his ships could win the fight without taking undue damage.
RDML Richards has his two cruiser forces formed into a loosely packed formation. It resembled a three dimensional Vauban star. The concept was simple, but the execution was complex. It took a fleet commander with extraordinary skill and the trust of his subordinate commands to pull it off. A Vauban star was an ancient type of fort with a pentagon shape that had bastions at the corners. The fortified outcroppings allowed the fort to fire along the edges of its own fortress. The corner forts allowed for 360 degree fire along the entire edge of the fort. Any attacker would find no blind spots to use to enter the fort.
A Battle star with its two cruiser forces contains 34 destroyers, over 800 fighters, 23 assault ships, 32 busses, and 16 shuttles. The Admiral had them all in his complex order of battle. The ships were formed as groups of spikes set a distance away from the Battle star itself, but still within range of the huge ships defensive weaponry. Any single collection of ships could defend each other, 4 other groups of ships, and the Battle star itself, as well as receive help from any of those groups.
Every single crewman on Richards’s battle star had a combat role in the upcoming battle and they were drilled to a razor’s edge. All bulkheads were airtight and secured, and all crew were in battle suits. There was nothing left for the commander to do but pray and perform.
The Admiral watched as the assault ships broke formation and headed to the surface. He had friends among the leadership of the four brigades dropping to the surface and he had every intention to end the space battle quickly so he could support them with kinetic strikes if needed.
As soon as the drop ships were away the Kernel attacked.
They had finally decided to adopt human tactics after losing so many battles. Before they uncloaked the Kernels doubled up on the Destroyers. With 100 Kernel Punishers, they outnumbered the destroyers 3 to one. They uncloaked with firing solutions and their opening salvo gutted the destroyer force.
18 ships were destro
yed outright, with 10 more suffering critical damage. Of the original 34 Destroyers only 6 were still in the fight, and they all had serious damage.
“CAG, have the fighters focus on those Punisher Ships, leave the saucers to the Battle star.” The Admiral ordered. He believed that the fighters posed no real threat to his moon sized ship.
“Sir! The Punishers appear to be headed on a collision course with the Washington!” His sensor specialist said.
“CAG, your nukes are authorized. Stop those Punishers!” Richards commanded.
“Aye Sir!” The Commander of the Air Group relayed the Admirals orders to his counterparts on both cruisers. The orders were relayed almost instantly, but in the moments before the orders were heard our fighters fought against the Kernel fighters instead of the Punishers, which allowed them to accelerate toward the battle star.
While the smaller fighters had a much higher rate of acceleration, the relatively close distances made it the head start of the Punishers an insurmountable obstacle.
Within seconds 50 Kernels collided with the Battle Star. If done at full speed the resulting impact would have crippled the ship, however, at the last second all Kernel ships reversed thrust and hit with just enough force to break the hull.
“We are being boarded” Yelled the security officer.
“Prepared to repel boarders” commanded the Admiral over the Ships main intercom.
The other 50 Punishers split into two groups, each targeting a cruiser. 25 ships raced toward the smaller battle cruisers. The RPS Washington fired at near contact distance at the unprotected rears of the racing Kernel ships. The Damage was enormous, but the lack of Destroyers made the battle desperate.
The Kernel waited until they believed the infantry was off ship before they tried to board. However, a ship the size of a small moon needs lots of personnel. Besides the 2 full divisions of infantry attached to the Battle star, the ship contained 1000 enlisted crewmen, all of them were Legion, suited up, and trained to repel boarders. The Kernel ships were jammed full of the hidden Barkun slaves, but the Humans all knew they had to win or die.
