Blockade

by Chris Hechtl

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Lieutenant Kess Silvia nodded slightly as she noted the report of the enemy fighters launching. Her craft were on their final runs; there was no way to stop them. She had a solid lock despite the ECM and weapons fire around her. She listened as the bombardier finished lining up the shot.

  “Torpedo one away! Two away! Three away! Four away!” he said triumphantly.

  Her sister ship announced their quartet of torpedoes was away a beat later. The two lead bombers arrowed up and away to get clear of the battle space as soon as possible.

  The enemy's point defense was still fighting with her stealth and ECM. Contrary to expectations one of the guns remained on her ship and slamming rounds into her shields instead of dropping whatever lock she had and trying to acquire the torpedoes.

  Bomber 1 tumbled, shields out, a dead stick.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  A total of sixteen torpedoes, massive overkill, were fired at the cruiser. They were the latest generation of antimatter torpedoes. Their submunitions and ECM were all keyed to all of the tricks the Horathians had used over the years. Their smart computers coordinated their attacks with exquisite precision.

  The torpedoes were launched in four groups but formed three groups after launch. Several fell in line behind their fellows, using them as cover.

  The lead four torpedoes were chosen to use their grav lances to pierce the shields and take them out. Only one survived for that purpose but that was fine. Twelve more torpedoes were coming in right behind them at less than one-second intervals.

  Captain Stuart realized the game was up and ordered all hands to the escape pods even while the ship was pitching wildly and trying to fend the torpedoes off. The third torpedo hit shook the ship like a terrier with a rat in its mouth. The fourth knocked bore in and went off within the ship tearing it apart.

  The rest just added insult to injury by turning the splinters of debris and any escape pods into trace atoms.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Captain Lewinsky smiled slightly as the crew cheered. “Just a smidge of overkill,” he said dryly. “How goes the planet?” he asked.

  “No hits to anything in orbit.”

  “No hits, so I take it some got through?” the captain asked as the bridge quieted.

  The sensor officer nodded, sobered. “Two missiles and two streams of rail gun rounds got through to the planet. The rail gun rounds burned up when they hit atmosphere. The missiles went off in air bursts when they overheated. We don't know what the casualties are yet.”

  “Understood. Keep me posted,” the captain said quietly.

  Chapter 42

  Dead Drop

  Lieutenant General Pendeckle smiled as he shook hands with Colonel Bear. The bear's paw engulfed the human's hand for a moment. The bear pursed his lips but didn't complain much. He couldn't. The army's Sixth Division had shown up and their Marine Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth were in movement but until another army division arrived, he was stuck.

  Lieutenant Colonel Aberdy's First Division was coming with him to Garth. It was going to be a tight squeeze in the transports but at least it was just the one hop.

  Colonel Bear was even losing the Marines who had taken the planet. The newly-promoted Captain JG Red was being shipped home with most of his scratch unit for some much-deserved R&R and then reassignment.

  Archie had already put in his bid for the captain's services with Jersey.

  “You are lucky this didn't last a full year,” Colonel Bear said, shaking his head at the general and flicking his short ears.

  Archie smiled and patted the bear on the bicep. “You're just sore I'm pulling rank and getting out while I can,” he teased.

  The bear gave him a mock sour look. “Damn right I am!” he said and then cracked a brief tight-lipped smile. “If I can swing it, I'm planning on getting my people R&R on Garth rather than pulling back to Protodon. I think the big party is going to require all hands on deck,” he warned.

  Archie nodded soberly. What they were facing was mild in comparison to what they already knew was waiting for them in Horath. Word was there were some truly elite units there.

  “Just be careful you don't get tapped for SNHH. Not that pacifying an entire planet on your own isn't too bad on your resume,” he retorted.

  The bear snorted. Scuttlebutt had it that Valenko was up for his second star ahead of Dana because of Nuevo Madrid. Up until Garth, Dana had him one win for one; she'd taken Destria on her own after all. She was still trying to speed up her rest and refit in order to catch up with them for the next deployment.

  And the colonel had yet to get his first star. It wasn't fair in some eyes, but he knew he'd earn it eventually.

  They were both having mixed feelings about standing their personnel down and putting them in stasis as Valenko had done with Fourth Division. For long hauls it made sense, but no Marine liked to be shipped like cargo. And no one liked the idea of being in a pod all helpless. Not that they had much control as passengers in the ship either he thought.

  “Well, since he's calling for help in Garth or at least being polite about issuing invitations, I'll see if my people are up for an after-party,” Colonel Bear said with a half-smile.

  “That's the spirit I like to see,” Archie replied, giving the bear's bicep another squeeze. The bear brushed his hand off. He'd been teasing the bear about his muscles after they'd shared a gym during a workout schedule. Of course the bear had bench pressed twice what the enhanced human could do, but he'd still gotten razed over struggling with some of the two-ton load. “See you?”

  “Be seeing you. Kick ass.”

  “Roger that,” Archie said as he took a smart step back. The duo came to attention and exchanged salutes before he about-faced and boarded his waiting shuttle.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Garth

  Amadeus watched his staff as they oversaw the transfer of fighters from the CEVs into the carrier fortresses. It didn't take long; less than a day and each CEV had completed the transfer. Once they did, they were allowed a week in orbit of the planet for liberty and then they were turned around for the journey back to Protodon once more.

  The last load had filled the third carrier fortress. Now they had the four around the planet.

  He shook his head and turned his mind to other matters.

  Rebuilding TF 2.4 was a work in progress but moving forward rapidly. The recently-arrived Rear Admiral Red Stripe might be from Bek but he was a firecracker. The T'clock had a reputation as a rapier, able to keep the dance going in an engagement, sometimes winning sims against the odds. He'd brought a battle cruiser squadron with him as the new core of the task force. He'd also reorganized the force, putting Commodore Ch'ch'tt in command of the second BC squadron while the T'clock retained command of the first. If the Veraxin commodore had a problem with being supplanted, he hadn't voiced it yet.

  They'd had plenty of time working-up in Home Fleet and in transit, so they'd just needed to slot in to the remains of TF 2.4 and get everyone up to speed and on the same page. He estimated they had another week before they were sorted out. The rear admiral was already agitating to join one of the other task forces, but Amadeus had no intention of releasing the admiral. He knew damn well that the admiral would immediately pull rank on either Trajan or Dwight and cause chaos when they least needed it.

  They had a plan. What they didn't need was a last minute interloper coming in and shaking everything up. The plan would work or it wouldn't. If it didn’t, he trusted Trajan and Dwight to use their initiative to either consolidate or pull their chestnuts out of the fire and fall back and to hell with their pride. The new guy he was still unsure of.

  Which meant he needed to get a bit more time in with the Bekian, even if he instinctively felt like his fur was being ruffled the wrong way. Perhaps an exercise? He frowned and then began to outline a possible series of training exercises.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Rear Admiral Red Stripe shook his head in a Terra
n manner, even while his mandibles and antenna indicated annoyance and frustration. His dumb A.I. looked at him on his HUD but he ignored the construct. He had every right to be frustrated and not just because of his red stripes. His T'clock species had a variety of colors in their chitin pallet; red was normally not one of them. His stripes were digital too, created by a gene-engineer's pallet knife sometime in his family's history.

  No, that wasn't what was bothering him; he'd long learned to accept who he was. No, it was something else. The vice admiral was holding him to training. He would normally not have a problem with that; after all, that was all his people did in Bek.

  But, there was a war on. A war they were currently winning. He was eager to get involved and get his ticket punched, preferably before Horath fell. If he had his ticket punched, he was a shoo-in for his next star, quite possibly his third.

  Apparently, something was holding him back. He wasn't sure if it was prejudices against his birth world or if he'd rubbed the admiral the wrong way. The chimp was a bit prickly; he needed to find a way in to get the chimp to release his grip and let him move out somehow … soon.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  General Kodiak nodded as he read the latest report his A.I. passed on to him. First Battalion had secured the cities, freeing up the Marines that had been scratched up and thrown together for some downtime and retraining. Second Battalion had opened up new fronts by taking entire sections of the planet away from the Horathians. Third was his reserve but also his air arm and his fast reaction force. They had rolled up some but not all of the compromised enemy bases.

  Things were going well. Second Bat had roving patrols in the outback. They were also covering for Commodore I'r'll's engineers who were busy working on making friends with the natives with their engineering projects.

  Captain Briggs was holding back, he could tell just from their past experience together. But he didn't mind as long as it didn't cost him any of his people. The captain had no problem keeping his reaction forces busy though, even if there were a few false leads.

  He hoped that the captain wasn't feeding him false intel or that the enemy wasn't feeding false info to potential spies in order to flush them out.

  Aberdy's First and Archie's Second Divisions were at least three months out. Once they arrived, he'd lose command of the Marines to Archie. That was fine with him, Archie would no doubt take the initiative and have his people blitz the remaining holdout areas and possibly sweep the board.

  If that worked as expected, they wouldn't even need the cadre or any of the other Divisions currently in movement to his AO. He wondered if Jersey would divert them to SNHH or have them consolidate on Garth for the big push to come.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  General Kissinger scratched his chin and rough beard. He hadn't wanted to grow it out. He'd wanted to keep his face clean to maintain discipline, but Agent N'gumo had a point. Beards were warmer in the outback, and they helped them to blend in with the population.

  He grimaced as he checked the file he had been accumulating about the bear. They'd gotten a bit of a media blast about the bear after a Knox News interstellar broadcast had done a profile on the invasion force. Brigadier General Valenko Kodiak was a tough customer. The First Agnosta Recon Expedition was a bit of a joke, but he'd handled himself well. Antigua had been brutal; they'd shown some images and video of that. Protodon and Nuevo Madrid had really shown the bear's strategic mind. He wished he had more detail on those campaigns.

  After hearing about his record, he had a healthy respect for the bear and his achievements. If even half were true, he was in for a long hard road ahead of him. Educating his people to look past the exterior to the mind beyond was still a work in progress. Too many looked down in contempt at the other species and therefore underestimated them or their own abilities.

  He could see that hope of relief from Horath was beginning to fade in his men. He couldn't help it. There was no way to stoke that fire either. All he could do was to find ways, even small ones, to keep the fires burning even if they were embers. They had to stay alive and viable to at least harass the enemy.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Captain Ozman pointed to a group moving a tote and then turned to check on the others. She'd drawn out where she wanted things laid out in chalk but of course the first layer had covered that. She needed to delegate a traffic cop but couldn't spare anyone for the moment.

  This was her third move. She wasn't sure how much longer she could stay one step ahead of the enemy. Twice she'd come close to getting caught in an attack on one of their caches and redoubts. She'd watched a bitter battle from the trees at the last redoubt. The bases they had set up in the outback were turning into death traps. Even this one, in an old mine, was not something she was comfortable with anymore.

  She was starting to wonder about her long-term survival. The odds weren't good. They weren't before, but they were going even further south now that the Marines had gotten serious about kicking her people's ass.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Agent N'gumo was not happy about how effective the enemy's intelligence seemed to be. The enemy had rolled up a series of their bases, all in one area. That meant they'd been compromised. Some might have been found by drones and then personnel moving in and out might have been traced to neighboring ones.

  He didn't buy it. First off, they were all in one area. They were also consistent, which was ringing warning bells in his mind. He'd also fed some false leads to test his hypothesis to the rank and file and sure enough at least one of those false leads had been acted on.

  That meant they had a spy, quite possibly more than one. Ferreting out who was going to take a bit of work though.

  And it bothered the hell out of him that he was going to have to do that rather than study the enemy and find weaknesses for the general to exploit.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Captain Briggs nodded when he read the brief missive from Smith. Smith was right; the Marines were good but not that good. They needed to be more careful. He needed to be more careful about what he passed on to the Marines. He needed to find ways to confirm leads through other means rather than rely solely on his inside man's intelligence drops.

  That meant drones. Hell, it might even mean a few sacrificial lambs. The latest series of false leads told him someone was on to Smith. It might be time to pull the lad. Or, it might be time to hold back a little more … he shook his head.

  Politics seemed easier than intelligence lately. More straightforward though he had to walk the same razor line between sides.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Commodore I'rll was grateful when the third carrier fort was certified as operational. Her people were good, damn good. The Mulberry fortress design made it easy too. They were simple plug and play designs, everything just worked nicely and smoothly. There was one fortress left, a backup command fortress that was also a generic design. She was confident enough that they'd get it finished, so much so that she'd already pulled her people to get some downtime and then work on one of the fortresses in orbit of the planet.

  Her plan to expand the repair yard had hit a bit of a snag; the Admiralty just wanted her to get it functional enough to get ships turned around or handle routine maintenance. She hoped to change their minds as soon as she got the last fortress completed though. She was fully aware that the first of the prize ships from New Horizon would be arriving long before then though.

  The arrival of the third prowler squadron threatened to upset her schedule. To her surprise though the squadron passed on the layover and headed directly to the H002 jump point for their trip to the front.

  News that the first of twenty prize ships from New Horizon were going to arrive at any day was something she'd apparently missed until her A.I. brought it to her attention. And news that there were twenty-three more coming and even more behind that had her in fits. They were all civilian ships. Fortunately all functional so they could get away with a minor overhaul before being sent on to Antigua b
ut still more work for her and her engineers.

  When she got the news that more forts were going to be sent but the components stockpiled for possible use in H001, she was ready to snip someone's head off. Not that she could but it might have made her feel better.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Protodon

  Rear Admiral Montgomery was woken from stasis for their brief layover in Protodon. After a shower the admiral got dressed, and he and his A.I. began to pore over the downloads from the ansible.

  It didn't take long to get up-to-date, just long enough for the ship to transfer to orbit of the planet for a week's liberty for the crew. He even joined them, but he was more interested in seeing the sites he'd read about in reports and talking to potential recruits for ONI.

  Chapter 43

  H002

  To Commodore Dwight Harris and his various CIC's surprise, a squadron of ships arrived in the general vicinity of the Garth jump point more than two weeks ahead of schedule. They had arrived unannounced, two days after the completion of the ansible platform in the outstretches of the solar system. It was a welcome surprise and diversion once they realized who they were looking at but also a frustrating one since the new Poltergeist class prowlers proved to be elusive targets.

  He put out the incentive with a bounty; anyone who could lock one of the ships up would get an extra week of liberty at their next port of call. It was enough for the screen to pull out all the stops to try to hunt their quarry down just as the enemy would.

  Over the course of the week, right up until the ships jumped into hyper in singletons, not one lead proved out. It was frustrating and maddening to the sensor watched on the ships. He grudgingly admitted they passed. He was grateful for it; the little ships would need all the stealth they could muster.