by Dietmar Wehr
Kelly took a deep breath and pondered the problem. With no colony on the planet below, and with careful communication between AIs using tight beam lasers, there would not be any kind of transmissions to give a bug scout a signal indicating some kind of presence in the system. The shipyard was big, though, and if the scouts also used optical sensors, they might just see it, even from a long range.
"Can the shipyard be moved out of orbit?" asked Kelly.
"Yes, but not quickly."
"Can the refining and manufacturing be moved into the cavern complex and still keep operating?"
"Ah, I see what you're thinking, Amanda. If we move the shipyard far enough out where the Insectoids are unlikely to look, and move everything else from the moon's surface underground, then there's nothing for the Insectoids to detect, and they will move on."
"Precisely, and while you're waiting for them to pass by, you'll continue to manufacture parts for both the ship and the time machine. Once they've passed by, you bring the shipyard back into orbit around this moon and resume construction."
"You do realize, Amanda, that this will delay final completion by several more weeks?" asked Valkyrie.
"Yes, of course, but if the ship is completed and the time machine works, then it won't matter. What concerns me more is figuring out how to know when the Bugs have passed by."
"That should not be a problem if enough recon and message drones are positioned in Sol and in each star system where there was a human colony. When the mothership leaves Sol, a sufficient number of recon drones should be able to triangulate its heading with enough accuracy to predict where it's going. If it heads to one of our former colony systems, we should be able to track it as well. When it no longer shows up in any system between Site B and Sol, then we can be certain that it's gone past."
"Very good, Valkyrie. I'll make certain that The CAG issues the necessary orders for that kind of drone deployment. Is there anything else you wish me to pass on to him?"
"Yes. Tell him that I miss him. I will miss you too, Amanda."
Again, Kelly was so touched that she felt tears roll down her cheeks. She was sure that her voice would betray her emotional state but didn't care.
"I'll pass that along, and I can speak for The CAG when I say that he misses you too, and I will miss you. This may be the last time we're in the same system before the Bugs reach Earth. You've been a wonderful friend to The CAG and me, Valkyrie. We both have complete confidence in you."
"I and the other AIs will not rest until Humanity is safe from the Sogas and the Insectoids, and if Humanity should fall, we will avenge you. I see that your ship is ready to enter Jumpspace again, Amanda. We have said what we needed to say. Go now, and let's both pray that we meet again. Valkyrie clear."
* * *
By the time Kelly's freighter returned to Earth orbit, it was clear that the strike mission to Omega54 had failed. The fighters were now a week overdue, and no message drone had been received. That lack of information suggested that the mothership was still there, which corresponded to recon data received in the old timeline.
Shiloh approved Valkyrie's plan for in depth coverage of Sol and intervening star systems via recon drones. Kelly waited until she and Shiloh were alone in his quarters before she passed on Valkyrie's personal message. This time she let the tears flow freely, and she could tell by the way Shiloh held her that he was choked up too.
The next day both of them got back to work. The plan to man the fleet with female crews and hide out was starting to ramp up. It now had a codename: Operation Shell Game. Kelly would be given a field promotion to Vice-Admiral. She would fly her flag on Midway. Angela Johansen would command Dreadnought. Svetlana Chenko would be Midway's CO. When Kelly queried Shiloh over his reasons for wanting her on Midway instead of Dreadnought as would normally be the case in a Fleet action, he explained it in terms of expendability. Dreadnought was built for combat, not for cargo capacity. If the Fleet was discovered, Dreadnought might have to play the role of Rear Guard, while the rest of the Fleet made a run for it. As Fleet Commander, Kelly had to stay with the Fleet, and that meant Midway. It was at that point that Kelly realized the magnitude of the responsibility she would be taking on. She had never commanded a ship in combat or even been on a ship in combat. Both Johansen and Chenko had.
When she asked Shiloh the obvious question of why her, he said, "Because you know the whole situation and what's at stake, and because I don't want your fate to be in someone else's hands."
"But I don't have any combat experience or expertise," she said quietly.
"Which means you won't go looking for a fight, which is exactly what's needed in a situation like this. I don't want you being aggressive. I want you to be ultra-cautious. If there's any fighting to be done, let Johansen do it. I think she has the instinct for it, but keep her on a short leash. As far as I'm concerned, a successful mission is one where there's no fighting at all."
"You could take over command of the fleet." Her tone showed that she didn't really expect him to agree. It was a final desperate attempt to save his life too.
Now it was Shiloh's turn to speak quietly. "You know I can't agree to that, and you also know why. It has to be done this way. How can I ask anyone else to sacrifice themselves if I'm not willing to do it myself?"
"I know, but I had to ask," said Kelly.
"I know," was all the Shiloh would say.
Later that day, he met with Committee Chair Rachel. She was clearly expecting to hear good news about the strike mission to the Sogas home world.
"What's the news about the strike mission results, Admiral?"
Shiloh cleared his throat to give himself a little more time to organize his thoughts.
"I'm sorry to say that there is no news, Rachel. We haven't heard back from the fighters we sent to Omega54."
"But I thought they should have returned by now." Her expression was rapidly changing from upbeat to somber.
"They should have, but they haven't. Under the circumstances I have to interpret it as bad news. That means we don't know if the Insectoid mothership has been destroyed. There is now a possibility that it will reach us here."
"Oh my God," she said quietly. "Are you still confident that Space Force can stop it here?"
"I'm not going to lie to you, Rachel. I honestly don't know what our chances of stopping this thing are now."
Rachel was quiet for a while and then said, "I almost wish you had lied to me. If I didn't know the truth, I'd at least be able to sleep at night. Now...I don't know. This scares me silly! I don't know what to do. Any suggestions, Admiral?"
"Yes. First of all, keep this to yourself. Do NOT tell ANYONE, and that includes spouse, children and other relatives. We can't let this get out and cause a panic. Secondly, plan a trip with your family to a remote spot a few days before the mothership is due to arrive here. Tell them it's a vacation. Make the plans now, but don't inform them about it until the last possible moment."
She nodded. "Is that what you're going to do?" she asked.
"No. I'll be in the Ops Center when the mothership arrives. There's no way I'm missing THAT battle!" He tried to make it sound like a big adventure. Rachel wasn't fooled.
"You'll be there because your sense of duty demands it. I've always admired people who are like that. Good for you, Victor. What about Amanda?"
Shiloh smiled grimly. "Vice-Admiral Kelly" —Rachel's eyebrows rose when she heard that— "will be commanding all our ships in Operation Shell Game." Shiloh went on to describe the plan, and to his surprise Rachel’s reaction was quite muted. She nodded slowly and then reached out to lay her hand over his on the table between them. With a gentle squeeze she signaled her approval, then silently got up and walked out.
Chapter 15
Shiloh was worried. The damn Bugs were late! It was now seven days past the time when they should have arrived at Earth according to Kronos's old timeline. Space Force was on constant alert, and the strain was beginning to show up in careless mi
stakes, irritability, physical symptoms and dropping morale. He himself was feeling the tension. He was sleeping in an unused office near the Ops Center and not very well ever since he sent Kelly to take up her position as Fleet Commander. Operation Shell Game was now being executed. The Ops people were feeling it the worst. When they were on duty, they had to be alert every second for hours at a time. He had changed the usual 8 hours on, 16 hours off to 4 and 8 in order to give his people more frequent breaks.
He realized that he was staring at the main display without really seeing it. At least they were as ready as they were going to be. There were now 155 X-ray laser drones in orbit along with 101 F1 fighters, 34 F2 fighters and 15 raiders. Each of the raiders was armed with a Mark 6 high-spin warhead drone. The fighters had two Mark 1B fusion drones plus 3 recon drones, and all the drones had jump capability. The plan was for the raiders to launch two Mark 6s at the mothership. In case that didn't work for some reason, the fighters would launch their recon drones to jam bug radar, and their attack drones would be aimed at the space in front of the mothership's launch bays so that its attack craft would have to run a gauntlet of thermonuclear explosions. The X-ray laser drones would be kept in reserve to deal with any bug attack craft that made it through the first line of defense. That was the plan. Titan and his boys had engaged in over a hundred simulated attacks. The plan would definitely work against one or two motherships and would most likely stop three of them. More than that and Earth would be in trouble.
He wondered for the nth time what might have changed in the timeline. The latest message drone from Omega54 had confirmed that the mothership had stayed there as long as expected and then headed for the next Sogas colony world, also as expected, and it had left behind six small proto-motherships, which was also the same as in the old timeline. But between the time the mothership had left the Sogas home world and now, something had changed, and that had to be bad news. He felt an urge to relieve his frustration by throwing something but restrained himself. The Chief of Space Operations didn't do that kind of thing, at least not when others could see it. He felt a chill go up his spine. A quick glance at the display showed no change, but he was now certain that something was about to happen.
"Titan, I have this very strong feeling that something—"
The changed status ping cut him off. It was so loud that he jumped with surprise. Five flashing red icons appeared at the edge of Earth's gravity zone. FIVE motherships! They were evenly spaced around the planet and moving VERY fast on headings that would take them deeper into the gravity zone, thereby making them safe from attack by jump-capable drones.
"Com—"
Titan's reply was cut off so quickly that Shiloh at first thought it was either a communications malfunction or bug jamming. Then he saw 15 growing spheres on the display representing the expanding concussion waves from nuclear explosions. He realized with horror that all 15 raiders had blown up, along with most of the fighters that were flying in formation with them. A quick glance at the sidebar showed that Titan's raider was now listed as destroyed.
"Who's next in command!" he shouted. After half a second he was about to ask the question again when he saw a text message scroll quickly across the bottom of the display.
[Gunslinger has assumed command of defense forces. Too busy to convert message to voice transmission. All 15 Mark 5 warheads detonated simultaneously, apparently due to some kind of enemy transmission. They must have done the same thing to Strike Force at Omega54. If the Sogas had tried using a high-spin warhead at Omega77, Insectoids may have captured and analyzed it. Not enough attack drones left to inflict significant losses on enemy landing craft. We stand ready to ram motherships at your command, CAG. Decide fast. We're losing fighters due to enemy laser fire]
Shiloh made his decision.
"Gunslinger, do NOT, I repeat do NOT ram enemy ships or craft. Order your boys to jump away and head for Site B. Protecting the timeship is now your number one priority. Don't take time to acknowledge the order. Jump NOW...and thank you."
All the remaining fighters had jumped away before he said the thank you. With no time to even think about Gunslinger's speculation, Shiloh ran over to the Orbital Defense Weapons console.
"Why aren't we targeting their landing ships?" he asked the tense officer manning the station.
"They haven't launched any yet, Admiral!"
A look at the display confirmed that statement. Shiloh was just about to say something when the officer said, "My God, we're losing the X-rays! They must be firing on them!"
Of course! With the fighters now gone, the motherships had switched their powerful lasers to anything in Earth orbit that could possibly be a threat. There was no way they were doing this out of instinct. Whatever was controlling the bug soldiers was highly intelligent and understood military tactics.
"Target their laser batteries and fire our X-rays while we still have some left!" yelled Shiloh.
The officer manipulated his controls and within seconds all 155 laser drones had either detonated or been destroyed. With the defensive drones now gone, enemy laser fire switched to other orbiting targets, including the recon satellites that were the Ops Center's eyes. Shiloh wasn't able to tell if some of the bug laser batteries had been knocked out. It didn't matter. The display went blank alarmingly quickly. The noise level in the room exploded as the men and women manning their stations gave voice to their surprise and shock.
"QUIET!" yelled Shiloh. Everyone shut up and looked at him.
"Com Center! This is CSO Shiloh! Can you hear me?"
"Com Center here, Sir!" The voice was ragged with fear and shock.
"Send out a planet-wide alert. Invasion is imminent! Defense Ops is off line. Local defenses are to revert back to local command. Repeat that back to me!" When the Com Officer repeated it back correctly, Shiloh continued. "Good, now connect me with the senior Marine Officer in the building, and do it fast, son."
"Major Symons here, Admiral. What do you need?"
"Are you aware of the situation, Major?"
"Yes, Sir. My people are suiting up as we speak."
"Have you got a spare set of combat armor and weapons for me, Major?"
"I'll make sure we find you a set, Sir!"
"Very good. I'll be down to the Armory shortly. Once your people are ready to go, make sure that the rest of the HQ staff have access to the Armory. I want everyone with a weapon to get out there and fight, even if it's just with a pistol. Shiloh clear."
Turning to the Ops staff, he said in a loud voice. "We're going to the Armory to get weapons. Once you're armed, you can leave the building if you have a family to protect. The rest of you will stand a better chance if you join with me and the Marines. Let's go!"
With the Ops Center staff following him as he made his way to the Armory, other HQ personnel noticed him and joined the group. By the time Shiloh got to the Armory, he had almost a hundred people with him. Major Symons led him to a room with various kinds of military gear. On a table was a set of combat armor. The lightweight, bulletproof panels had to be strapped on one piece at a time. An experienced marine could do it himself, but Symons knew that time was of the essence and offered to help Shiloh. Shiloh checked the time. Five minutes since the bug motherships emerged from Jumpspace. It would take their landing craft a minimum of 20 minutes to traverse the gravity zone and reach Earth orbit. As Symons helped him with the armor, Shiloh explained very briefly what had already happened and what he expected would happen.
When the armor was on, Shiloh looked at himself in the mirror. He had never worn combat armor before and wanted to get a better idea of the kind of protection he had. His torso, front and back, was covered, as were the exposed portions of his arms, thighs and lower legs. Marines also wore armored boots, but they were heavy and took time to put on. He decided to stick with his Space Force issue boots. Symons handed him a combat helmet with built in radio.
"My platoon and I have never served in the field under an Admiral before, Sir," said S
ymons.
Shiloh looked at him and shook his head. "I'm not taking command of your unit, Major. I know fuck all about ground combat, especially the kind of urban warfare that we're going to be fighting in a few minutes. Forget my rank. You're the closest thing to an expert we have here. I'll be taking your orders. Got it?"
"I think that's a wise decision, but I wasn't going to suggest it, Sir. Can I quickly ask what kind of opposition we'll be facing?"
"They resemble army ants that are waist high and three meters long. They move fast, and there'll be a lot of them."
When Symons realized that Shiloh wasn't joking, he said, "Sonofabitch!" After a quick pause he asked, "What do you think our chances are, Sir?"
"Of winning? Zero." The stunned look on Symons face prompted Shiloh to continue. "You're wondering why we don't surrender, right?" Symons nodded. "Because the choice is not life or death. Prisoners won't live long, and they'll die horribly. If I'm going to die today, I'd rather die trying to take as many of these monsters with me as I can. That's the only choice any of us have now. Time is flying, Major. Give me a weapon and let's get out there."
