The Tanith Gambit

by Dietmar Wehr

  Viktor was quite pleased with the results of the last week’s events. With the exception of one, stubborn holdout, all the other island nations had formally accepted him as their King. They had also ‘volunteered’ to transfer considerable land to him. Some of that land would be handed over to the officers and crews of his Viking allies but there would be plenty of land left over. He’d chosen one of the islands to be his seat of power and his people were already getting the estate of the wealthiest man on the island, ready for its new owner and occupant. The main house was modest compared to what the Kings of Excaliber and Haulteclere lived in but it would do for a start. Two sites had been chosen for both his shipyards and his ships were already in the process of unloading all of the equipment, supplies and support personnel needed to get the base into operation. The holdout nation would soon join the rest. Viktor was certain of that. As soon as other Viking ships started arriving to answer the rally call, Viktor would tell them that if they wanted to do a little raiding while waiting for the rest of the strike force to arrive, they could raid to their hearts content on that stubborn island and only there. Instead of a raid every 3 or 4 years on average, that island would soon be raided every 3 or 4 days! He wondered how many weeks it would take before the holdout caved in. In the meantime, he was enjoying himself with his harem onboard his flagship and in between those sessions, he was reviewing recordings of local video broadcasts that showed female members of Loki’s news media and entertainment industries. There were several that caught his eye already and were on his ‘must spend a few hours with’ list. He was smart enough to realize that if he forced them to spend time with him against their will, there might be a public backlash against him so until such time as his throne was secure, he would essentially bribe them to cooperate. Not ALL of the Viking loot, had found its way to Haulteclere. Viktor kept most of the really impressive looted jewely for his own use and after 15 years of operating a Viking base, his stockpile of jewelry was substantial. It was good to finally be a King!

  Captain Valkanhayn watched the planet Xochtil recede into the distance as Star Knight accelerated away from the former Viking base, accompanied by the two Tanith ships operated by Marduk crews. What a disappointment Xochtil had been! The base was abandoned. Viktor, his ships and his people were gone and the locals didn’t know where he went. At least that’s what they said and Valkanhayn was inclined to believe them. If he were Viktor and wanted a secret base to resume operations from, he wouldn’t tell it’s location to anyone staying behind either. Vice-Admiral Saville was furious when it became clear that there would be nothing of value to take back to Marduk. The only thing the locals did know was how long ago the base was evacuated. They had missed catching Viktor by just over four weeks. A dozen Viking ships had visited the planet during that time and left again to head for another base. They would inevitably spread the word that Xochtil was no longer an operational base and that meant that the ambush operation, that Saville was leaving behind would eventually run out of victims, but not for a while yet. They had captured one ship already, which had arrived while Saville’s strike force was still in orbit around the planet. To Valkanhayn’s surprise, Saville had ordered the captured crew to be taken back to Marduk, along with the ship, in order to be properly interrogated. Valkanhayn thought that was a risky thing to do. The captured ship only had a minimal crew of Marduk people and the trip back would take almost nine weeks. That was a long time to try to operate a ship AND keep its old crew secure and fed. But Saville didn’t care what Valkanhayn thought. He was a mere Captain after all and a former Space Viking Captain to boot! Bargham could have taught Saville a few things about managing subordinate allies. But at least they were headed back home and Saville hadn’t tried to commandeer the two ships with Marduk crews as Prince Lucas had feared he might. They might be Marduk Navy officers and crewmen but while they operated ships belonging to the Prince of Tanith, they were officially seconded to the Royal Navy of Tanith and were required to obey orders only from that chain of command. Valkanhayn wondered how the transfer of the base to Amaterasu was going. He was also curious to see the new missile boat being put thru its paces. The stay on Xochtil had been disappointingly short but Prince Lucas’ orders had been clear. As soon as Xochtil was secured, the three Tanith ships were to return home without delay. He wondered if he would be made a temporary Admiral again upon returning home. This on again, off again, ‘field’ promotion was making Valkanhayn dizzy. It would be nice if the promotion was made permanent. Otto would still be the senior admiral of course but the Royal Tanith Navy was now getting big enough that a permanent Fleet Admiral was warranted in Valkanhayn’s opinion. But then again, maybe he was biased. Looking back at the main screen and the now much smaller planet of Xochtil, Valkanhayn yawned and wondered how many more years of his life would he spend travelling between planets.

  Chapter XIV

  As the pinnace carried Harkaman back to Rivington Base via a suborbital hop from the other side of the planet, he was finally able to let go of a major worry. With less than ten days left of his original estimate of 24 weeks before Viktor’s fleet could be expected, the fate of the Tradetown people and in particular Skye, were on his mind a lot. Sending them into the wild to wait out any ground-based Viking assault or orbital bombardment, turned out to be an impractical idea. It was the middle of the cold season now. Not cold enough for snow but cold enough to need the heat of a fire and any fire could be detected by orbiting ships. Then Harkaman had remembered that an orbital survey of Tanith done years ago, had revealed a large system of caves on the other side of the planet. It hadn’t been explored because there was no need to but a quick look now showed that it could comfortably accommodate thousands of people, with enough supplies to last for several months and the caves could be made warm enough with electric heaters. Getting Skye to leave her comfortable log cabin wasn’t easy but he eventually got her to agree. With Tradetown now completely deserted and no telltale fires to give its location away, it was entirely possible that Viktor’s fleet would not notice the place at all and leave it alone. The captured crews living on the island, on the other hand, were a different story. There was no question of moving them to the caves too. Besides the fact that there wasn’t enough room for all of the prisoners, mixing the two groups and leaving the civilians at the mercy of hardened raiders, was not even worth considering. No, the prisoners were on their own. If their fires attracted the raiders’ attention, then so be it. Harkaman privately gave them a 50/50 chance of being rescued by Viktor’s fleet or being vaporized by them.

  With Skye and the Tradetown people now as safe as could be arranged, he turned his attention back to the preparations for the coming battle. Both Beowulf and Amaterasu had come thru with their own missile boat bringing the total available now to four. The second Tanith boat had taken longer than estimated (again) and so Lucas made the decision to not build a 3rd boat now in order to gave the engineers and tech people more time to dismantle the shipyard and infrastructure. The shipyard was now completely gone and was in the process of being reassembled on Tanith Island on Amaterasu. All of the Rivington Base civilians and families of base personnel, were already on Amaterasu. The living quarters on the island were crude, crowded and not very comfortable but were adequate as temporary shelters. Most of the robotic manufacturing units were either already on Amaterasu or were on their way there. The remaining units were busing assembling counter-missiles. The mines on the moon had been stripped of all their equipment, which had been very carefully buried in a non-descript valley hundreds of miles away from Rivington Base. With four missile boats instead of the three that he initially assumed, Harkaman had been able to tweak the battle plan and Tanith’s 61 gound-based, anti-ship missiles were also loaded on board the four boats. In orbit around the planet were all eight Royal Tanith Navy ships plus 44 pinnaces set up for remote control and terminal guidance using auto-pilots. Five more pinnaces were on the ground at the Base and would be used to evacuate the remaining personnel at the
first signs of an incoming attack. All four missile boats were also on the ground receiving more counter-missiles.

  As his pinnace was about to start descending back into the atmosphere, Harkaman saw the pinnace’s Commander/Pilot suddenly jerk in his chair and slap his hand down on the Battle Stations Alarm button. With the alarm going off, the Pilot turned to Harkaman and yelled out.

  “Admiral! Ground tracking reports 30+ ships just emerged from hyperspace at a distance of 265,000 miles! Do you still want us to take you to the surface?” Harkaman thought fast. The plan was to load the missile boats aboard the Corisande II, on their way out of the no-jump zone. In order to do that quickly, his pinnace would have to rendezvous with Corisande in orbit but this pinnace was needed to help evacuate the personnel still on Tanith.

  “I need a comm. link to Defense Ops!” The Pilot nodded and snapped his fingers at his Communications Tech, who handed his headset over to Harkaman. As he put the headset on he ordered the Comm. Tech to switch him over to the Defense Operations channel.

  “...I say again, thirty plus ships emerging at two six five zero zero zero miles! Estimated speed is…two eight zero miles per second!” Harkaman was stunned. 280 miles per second was damn fast. At that speed they could fly right past Tanith in roughly 25 minutes and that’s apparently what they intended to do since they couldn’t possibly slow down enough to land on the planet directly.

  “This is Admiral Harkaman! Can we beat them to the other side of the no-jump zone?” Even as he asked the question, he knew the answer and the answer was no. At 280 miles per second, that fleet could enter the no-jump zone on one side, fly right past the planet and exit the no-jump zone on the other side before his ships could cover half that distance. Retreating from Tanith in order to make a stand at Marduk was no longer an option. The only way for the Anti-Viking forces to win the Battle of Marduk was to attrit the attacking force enough right here so that Marduk’s own defenses could prevail in their battle. That was a tall order considering the Tanith ships were outnumbered 4 to 1 in battleships but there was no other choice. His ships had to stand and fight whatever the cost. He was glad that Lucas and his Princess were safe on Amaterasu. Convincing Lucas to stay there while Harkaman fought the battle, was a battle all by itself but Harkaman had prevailed. The Old Federation needed Prince Lucas Trask more than it needed Admiral Otto Harkaman. The answer to his question merely confirmed what he already knew. The question now was, how to fight the battle and where should he fight it from? He didn’t know how yet but he had a hunch that the missile boats would be the key and that’s where he needed to be. Turning to took at the the Pilot again, he said,

  “I’m coming down. I’ll transfer over to MB001. Hold her there but the other MBs can lift off immediately and take up station with the orbiting squadron. Begin emergency evacuation! Has the computer figured out if Opertion Headshot is viable yet?” There was a pause and the voice from Defense Ops replied.

  “Your orders understood, Admiral. 001 is holding on the ground. Two, three and four are lifting off now! The tac computer has determined the Headshot is viable!”

  “Good! Pass the order to execute Headshot immediately!”

  “Execute Headshot immediately, yes sir! Any other orders, Admiral?” Harkaman considered what other orders to give. The Pilot heard Harkaman say he wanted to be on the ground and the pinnace was dropping fast. The plan to ram enemy ships using pinnaces on auto-pilot was being set up. The evacuation was underway. Everything that could be done right now, was being done.

  “No other orders right now! As soon as I transfer to 001, you people in the Defense Ops center can join the evacuation! That’s an order!” A pause and then the voice, now much calmer said,

  “Understood, Admiral. Good hunting, sir.” Harkaman didn’t bother to reply. He looked over at the Pilot and asked.

  “How long until we touch down?” Without looking at him, the Pilot replied.

  “90 seconds!” That was fast.

  “Put us down as close to the missile boat as you dare! I’ll be waiting at the ramp hatch. You can start lowering the ramp when we’re ten seconds from touchdown!”Without waiting for a reply, Harkaman pulled off his headset, tossed it to the Comm. Tech and ran for the elevator that would take him down to the boarding level. By the time he got there, the ramp was already dropping and the air turbulence from the open hatch was fierce. Cold too! The pinnace was seconds from touchdown and Harkaman noted with approval that the pilot was putting them down VERY close to the missile boat and on the side where the ramps from the two craft would be facing each other, thereby minimizing the time needed for Harkaman to run down one ramp and run up the other. As soon as he felt the vibration that confirmed touchdown, he was running down the ramp. As he ran over to the missile boat he looked up and saw that the two craft were only about 50 feet apart. Damn, that pilot was good! Even so, the globular shapes of the two craft meant that the distance between boarding ramps down on the ground was still about two hundred yards. By the time he got to the missile boat ramp, he was panting but he continued to run. The junior officer waiting at the top of the ramp saluted but Harkaman waived him off. No time for protocol now.

  “Tell the Bridge that I’m aboard and I want us in the air NOW!” yelled Harkaman as he practically flew thru the open hatch. By the time the elevator reached the Flag Bridge level, the missile boat was already approaching the sound barrier. As he jumped onto his Command Station Chair and quickly buckled himself in, he listened to the background chatter from the other personnel in the Flag Bridge. They were clearly nervious but no signs of panic. With his headset now on, he took a deep breath and looked at the main tactical display…and nodded in approval. Whoever was commanding that force was good! Their incoming vector was perfect. They would pass the moon at a distance of 12,000 miles, far enough to be safe from ground-based missiles but they, on the other hand, could fire standard atomic missiles from a considerable distance because the moon couldn’t dodge out of the way. So even if the missiles used up all their acceleration and coasted the rest of the way to the target, they would still hit whatever they’d been aimed at, unless they were intercepted. The same thing applied to attacking the Rivington Base. Theorectically, those ships could launch missiles from beyond the no-jump zone and the missiles would still hit the planet unless intercepted although firing at that distance reduced the accuracy of the bombardment tremendously. Still, if the intent was to make the defenders use up their limited stockpile of counter-missiles, it was still worthwhile. Harkaman quickly called up all of the defense scenarios from his simulations and reviewed the results.In theory, they had enough counter-missiles to defend Tanith and themselves but his simulations had assumed an enemy moving much slower. Any attack missiles fired by Viktor’s ships would have the 280 miles per second added to their own acceleration and the faster the attacking missile was moving, the harder it was to intercept. But merely defending against incoming missile fire wasn’t enough. Somehow his fleet of eight ships had to damage or destroy half the attacking force in order to give Marduk a fighting chance. Ramming the pinnaces into them worked well in simulations but no simulations were done using these speeds! Could the auto-pilots react fast enough if and when Viktor’s ships tried to dodge out of the way and would the pinnaces even last long enough to reach their targets since they would have to try to ram before the attacking ships used up all their anti-ship missiles. An idea started to form in Harkaman’s mind. He didn’t know if it could be done. He reached for a handset and called down to the boat’s Missile Officer.

  “MO here!”

  “MO? This is Harkaman. Can our attack missiles be programmed to cut off acceleration after 80 seconds and then resume guided maneuvering to target at the closest possible point?” There was a pause that seemed to last forever. Finally, the voice on the other end said,

  “Yes, Admiral. It would take a couple of minutes to program that into the guidance systems but it can be done.” Harkaman realized he was holding his breath and exhaled
.

  “Very good. Program all offensive missiles and pass the order to the other boats as well.”

  “Right away, Admiral!” After hanging up, Harkaman opened a channel to all his battleships and missile boats.

  “This is Admiral Harkaman. It should be obvious to all of us by now that we can’t beat this attacking force to Marduk so we have to stand and fight right here and right now! I have a plan. Here is what we’re going to do.”