Masterfem would continue to operate under pressure, as if those ships would return before her forces were all down, the ships unloaded and troops deployed. Bledso, not wanting the Krall to suspect that their next invasion plans were known, the commander at New Dublin would continue to scramble in ignorance to land her forces recklessly, without the knowledge that the large groups of clanships leaving New Dublin were not returning. She lost troop ships that could have made safer landings a week later.
The Krall Joint Council believed the third invasion, hitting far from New Dublin, would leave the enemy military commanders reeling, with their relief forces spread too thin. Humans were about to learn that sheer numbers, in a population of nearly a trillion, didn’t automatically translate into enough trained fighters, or their being placed where they were most needed.
Every Krall was a warrior, and each could participate in the fighting. However, less than one percent of all humans were even being trained as soldiers. Over half of the trained and experienced fighters were presently deployed on Poldark or on Rim worlds relatively close to Poldark, which had seemed the most threatened region. The less experienced and fresh troops were being held in reserve on New Colonies in Human Space, just inside the Rim region on the same side where all of the Krall’s major attacks had occurred. Until now.
The majority of those inexperienced reserves were now headed for New Dublin.
Current PU planning was for an eventual build up to a ten billion strong human army, pitted against at least the billion Krall warriors now estimated to be inside Human Space. To the Krall, even this number was not a serious force, although they only had another two billion mature warriors distributed among their hundreds of clan ruled planets. Even the Joint Council didn’t know their actual strength in total warriors was that low. No reason to care either, when they could double the number of novices old enough to fight in half a breeding cycle if they reduced culling.
However, Telour knew the number of human fighters was increasing by two hundred thousand or more every month, and a very small number of the newest human warriors were proving to be remarkably efficient and highly capable. It was those humans that had hit Krall planets, having an impact far greater than their low numbers implied should have been possible. Nevertheless, under the aggressive leadership of Telour as Tor Gatrol, they would teach humanity that there was no basis for their ridiculous belief that there could be noncombatants in their society. Their present rate of military training was far too low for what this Tor had planned for them.
Telour, listening to a report from a courier returning from New Dublin, heard that Gatlek Pendor had ordered a third of the fleet of clanships there to prepare to Jump to Telda Ka in two hands of days after the courier left. The clanships were currently opposing the arrival of the human troop transports and navy escorts, and when the majority of clanships left, more of those human troops would reach the ground safely. Good, more human forces on the ground there meant Pendor would have a good fight, and even fewer would be available to rush to the more vital world of New Glasgow.
The travel time for the courier to Telda Ka was two hands of days, so the first of the clanships were already on their way back here. Another one thousand or so should leave New Dublin four days later, and half of the last thousand would follow in yet another four days, leaving Gatlek Pendor five hundred clanships for his use, the same as the new Gatlek, Fistok of Mordo clan on Poldark, had been allowed to retain for his support.
Telour’s mind was busy with plans. The earliest the invasion fleet could be loaded and ready to launch again, he estimated to be perhaps forty days in octal numbers, just over a month in human time measure. After launch, that force should reach the surface of the next target world and have a strong foothold established in about that same amount of time. That was a hundred octal days in all, or a bit over two months before humanity knew what they faced next.
He’d need to give thought to which human worlds he would target for punitive destruction after that. No doubt, the Great clans would insist on having some input on his decision. That could be tiresome, but he would demand the ultimate decision to be his own, to assure the last world in the string of destruction fit his plan’s timetable.
The Olt’kitapi ship would have to come directly here to him first, of course. There was no possibility Telour was going to miss stepping onto the control deck of one of the ancient ships, knowing that he would command its actions. The future histories would detail that event, and contain the words he said that day. His role in advancing the Krall along the Great Path would be far more important than Kanpardi’s had been.
However, he had no intention to travel with the ship on its mission of destruction. It was impossible to predict what it would do when it eventually learned that it was tricked into killing intelligent life, or exactly when those first deaths would happen. There was no reason for the new Tor Gatrol to risk being stranded inside the ship if it simply quit responding to commands. It might return to where the other ships were kept, but some of them had simply vanished, probable suicides in Tachyon Space.
He calculated the time needed to summon an Olt’kitapi ship, which should arrive after the invasion forces had landed on New Glasgow. There would be a two-week courier trip to the planet where they held the soft Krall. His emissaries would need time to choose a qualified operator, gather that pilot’s family members to hold as hostages, then travel two days to reach the huge moon where the living ships were hidden. The return trip, with the dedicated guardians of the ships closely watching the soft Krall, would require but a single day for that ancient ship to reach Telda Ka, even from that great distance.
He would send the courier to fetch one of the ancient ships just before the invasion fleet lifted from Telda Ka. In human terms, this gave the solar systems that Telour would select a mere two months of continued peaceful existence.
****
Mirikami shared some news. “Chief Haveram reached Poldark with Joe Longstreet, and he also took Corporal Eddie Condor. All three had the new chip. Nabarone not only agreed with our plan to reveal our Kobani genes for speed and strength, he told Joe it was about damned time.” He grinned.
“After Joe Mind Tapped him about the chip’s long-rage ability, Henry promptly agreed to send a courier to Earth to contact Chairfem Bledso. His next sentence was a typical one for Henry.” He laughed and repeated Joe’s quote. “Where the hell is MY goddamned chip?”
“He’s right. We need to get one to him, even though he seldom even gets his butt off planet, let alone enters a Jump Hole.”
Thad offered an amusing warning. “When he gets one that works long-range while in Normal Space, you’ll be hearing a lot more remarks like that one.”
“Probably. However, he did make an obvious change to my plan to contact Bledso that should have occurred to me. I was too focused on Henry using his influence to get her to agree to meet with me on Earth. Instead, he sent Joe and Big Bird in the courier as my messengers, using his authorization codes. That’s where Joe was when he made his report, while in transit.
“Now there’s no need to wait for a reply from Bledso any longer than it takes Joe to contact her. The Comtap is going to revolutionize communications, when muddled headed people like me remember to use it properly. Joe and Big Bird can demonstrate our communications ability directly for her. A meeting that might have taken a month just to arrange should produce an agreement within two weeks, assuming she goes along with us. We’ll have near instant communications in the future, if some of our people are allowed to stay with the navy.”
Sarge nodded. “That’s comforting. Now you don't have to enter the lion’s den on Earth, just to get her agreement to put us on their ships.”
“I may not have needed to go, but Joe and Eddie went, and all of you that are offering to do liaison still have to get aboard navy ships, which is a bit like putting you in a bunch of small lion’s dens. I think you’ll all be fine, because they are going to want what we offer.
&nbs
p; “I’ll be on the Mark with that test circuit of Max’s, to coordinate with you before you Jump, and stealthed in Normal Space observing the action after the fighting starts at K1. Most of our own ships will join the fleet in some capacity. Bledso will certainly have some admiral calling the shots, and we’ll just be a cog in a large integrated fighting machine.”
“A cog?” Captain Lebeau, of the Pride of Gaul, sounded indignant. “How are nearly a hundred of our ships a mere cog?”
“Francois, we haven’t even had much of a fleet with which to practice until the last couple of months. Our ships look exactly like the enemy ships, at least when we’re not in stealth mode. If we aren’t properly integrated into their force, we could have some friendly fire accidents. Our one hundred ships are only about ten percent of the fighting ships Henry thinks the navy has available. They’ve reduced ship size for greater numbers. No new dreadnaughts or battle ships were built after the last K1 attack, since they make too juicy a target for a suicidal Krall in a clanship.
“None of our captains, me included, has ever fought in a fleet battle, even if some of us were in the navy at one time. The existing large ships might go along for firepower, but they’ll need heavy screening and have to move often.
“Once the shooting starts, a ship with the new stealth is revealed when they fire, and can be identified by the kind of weapons used. Our clanships will be identified as possible Krall by any of the fleet AIs. Therefore, I plan to let the fleet commander decide how best to use us and keep us safe from their weapons. Whoever that commander proves to be.”
****
Chairfem Bledso smiled. “President Medford, I’d like you to meet our newly appointed Fleet Admiral. You obviously know of her by reputation and you have both been in some of the same meetings, but I understand the two of you have not actually been introduced.”
Bledso did the honors. “Madam President, I’m pleased to present Fleet Admiral, Lady Lela Chatsworth.”
Chatsworth saluted, and President Erthrid Medford awkwardly returned the gesture she seldom used. She had been prepared for a handshake, as she had shared with the Chairfem so many times in the past. Knowing you were the commander in chief, and acting like one were different things. Medford had no military background, and military rituals were foreign to her political instincts. That was something Bledso recognized and avoided with her each time they met, and the president suspected the Chairfem had political aspirations of her own, once her military career ended.
Medford initiated the conversation, but was unsure of the proper military form of address. Was it Admiral or Fleet Admiral? She started by simply repeating the new rank of the former Admiral. Technically, the president had nominated Chatsworth for the promotion, but she had relied on Bledso’s and the Secretary of the Navy’s recommendation.
“A Fleet Admiral. It has been quite some time since we’ve had someone with that rank. Congratulations. I believe the last person to hold that rank was Academy Superintendent Golda Mauss.”
There was an awkward pause, before Bledso rescued her president from her misstep. “Not quite, Madam President, Vice Admiral Mauss was once considered for promotion to Fleet Admiral, when we though the war would be mainly fought in space. That didn’t occur once the ground warfare aspect became the primary mode of combat with the Krall. There was no longer as much emphasis on the naval aspects of the war, and the position of Fleet Admiral was never filled.”
In fact, the ground war was forced on humanity by the Krall, who wanted it that way, and Vice Admiral Mauss had led the only two fleet actions of the war against the Krall. Her brilliant second attack against K1 had been quite successful in that theatre. However, when a few of the Krall followed the fleet to its repair base, using a then unknown technology, they suddenly appeared over Rhama, where the docked fleet was unprepared for the nearly unstoppable ultrahigh velocity Eight Ball attacks of collapsed matter. The planet was devastated by a near extinction level impact, and a Krall ultimatum was issued, to not attack K1 from space again. President Stanford, favored to be reelected that year, lost in a landslide. The planetary scale disaster pushed the next president, and other politicians who won their respective elections riding the wave of public sentiment, kept the navy largely out of the fight. Until now.
Vice Admiral Mauss wasn’t fired for her tainted success, the only thing near a victory in the war to that point, but her career stalled when her staunchest civilian supporters lost reelection. She resisted calls for her resignation, serving in a low visibility desk job for several years, and eventually was appointed Superintendent of the Planetary Union Naval Academy, located on Earth’s Moon.
Her strategy, flexibility, and quick thinking shown in her two confrontations with the Krall were appreciated and respected by those that had served under her, and those officers later rose in rank. Both Bledso and Chatsworth had served under Mauss, and they had fought in both Operation Deep Lance, and in Operation New Lance.
Medford, her memory refreshed by Bledso, felt her face redden. “Excuse my poor memory, Fleet Admiral Chatsworth. I was a new Member of Parliament when the second attack on K1 happened, and I had never even met anyone in the navy or in any military service at that time.
“The Planetary Union was utterly unprepared for war, and few of its citizens, myself included, had any notion of how serious the Krall threat was back then, or how desperately we needed to rebuild our military capability. It was six years later, when I ran for and was elected to a Senate seat that I started to learn what an exemplary job our military was doing. I found myself a junior member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, where I belatedly discovered what it took to maintain our vital military branches. I became an ardent supporter then.
“After my inauguration last year, I had an opportunity to meet Superintendent Mauss when I visited Luna Base and the Academy. I received a hurried briefing from an aide on her career just before we met, and I vaguely recalled a mention that she had been considered for Fleet Admiral. The first person to be considered for that rank since World War II I was told. I hadn’t thought to inquire further, because her position was Superintendent by then. She made a considerable impression on me. I presume you know her personally?”
Chatsworth answered with a smile, glad to put the president at ease over her gaff. “Yes Mam. The Chairfem and I both served under her, and she has always impressed me as well. She’s a brilliant strategist.” Then, in a bit of inspiration, she made an off the cuff remark on a subject she and Bledso had been discussing, shortly before being ushered into the president’s office.
“I could use Superintendent Mauss’ advice and experience when I go up against the Krall. She seemed to know when they were about to do something unexpected, and quickly had a counter move in mind.”
Medford cocked her head in thought a moment. She may never have had a single second of military experience prior to becoming commander in chief, but she hadn’t risen rapidly to the top of the political heap by failing to grasp clues in a conversation. The Fleet Admiral could choose anyone she wanted to serve under her. It was unlikely that Mauss, expected to retire within a year or two, would pass up another chance to fight the Krall. She clearly loathed them. Chatsworth could request any navy personnel she wanted, so why wouldn’t she simply offer Mauss a position on her staff, or command of a ship?
Suddenly, the flash of insight arrived. It was a political matter, not military, and Chatsworth was indirectly seeking approval to talk to Mauss. Not from Bledso, but from Bledso’s boss. There could be objections against her taking along the admiral that had failed to protect Rhama. However, no one was ever blamed for the invasions of Bollovstic, Poldark, New Dublin, or even of K1 itself, the former colony of Greater West Africa. The navy was now trying to prevent the invasion of yet another world. It was time to blame only the Krall for Rhama, not those that fought against them.
“Admiral Chatsworth, I believe anyone going into a gang fight should take the best fighters with them. I suggest you invite a bull
dog like Golda Mauss to go along. The navy and I can find another admiral to replace the Superintendent.
“Later, after the attack on K1 becomes publicly known, I can make an announcement that Mauss was with you. I think you should find a roll for the admiral who bloodied the Krall’s nose so bad they said ‘No more!’ I urge you to recruit her. She was unfairly pilloried in the press.”
Medford knew she had it exactly right when she saw the relief and obvious gratitude of both Chatsworth and Bledso. Clearly, the Chairfem wanted her Fleet Admiral to have the best advisors along with her as possible. There would be some blowback in the press and from her political opposition about allowing Mauss to have an active role in another fleet action, but that would come after the fact, because there wasn’t going to be a whisper that this attack was even being planned.
****
A week later, Bledso’s aide reluctantly interrupted the Chairfem’s working lunch at her desk. “Mam, a courier from General Nabarone has contacted Denver SPC, requesting permission to land.”
Bledso took a sip of coffee to wash down a bite, as she used the moment to absorb what she’d heard. “Space Port Control said the courier from Nabarone called to land at Denver, not Washington?” Army headquarters was there, not here, so it made little sense.
She asked, “Is it just from Poldark, or did they say from Nabarone himself?” It made more sense if the courier was from Admiral Foxworthy.
“Mam, they used General Nabarone’s encrypted recognition code, and relayed a recorded request from the general that you personally meet with his messenger.”
“Damn it Gale, I’m shoulder deep in coordinating the units that Chatsworth needs to take with her, coming up with cover stories for their movements. I don't have time to argue about Henry’s reduced naval support at Poldark. Foxworthy is preparing to leave with most of her squadron to join the fleet.” She suddenly realized the current date.
Koban 4: Shattered Worlds Page 49
