by Worth, Dan
Unfortunately, we aren’t able to properly see into the Achernar system as it lies over forty light years beyond the range of our deep range arrays’ new Shaper tracking abilities. Furthermore, we on the other hand are desperately short of anti-matter since most of the production facilities lie in the renegade systems, and we may need it if we are to repeat the success of the defence of Earth.’
On the map behind Cartwright, a blue shaded arc appeared, denoting the limit of how far they could see into enemy occupied space, the Achernar system highlighted beyond it. As the assembled officers watched, two systems within the visible zone were picked out. Their positions were such that they formed a triangle with the Achernar system over fifty light years to a side.
‘The Chittagong and the Santiago systems,’ Cartwright announced. ‘The first is home to one of the largest anti-matter production facilities anywhere in human space. Chittagong is sparsely populated. The inner planet, Khargola, is a small rocky world that orbits close to the parent star, a white dwarf. It has a small population housed in shielded habitats and who only live on the godforsaken planet so that they can tend the largely automated AM production facilities that band Khargola’s equator. Our intel. suggests that most, if not all, of the population have been enslaved by the Shapers, having been trapped in their habitats and been unable to escape. We need to achieve dominance in the Chittagong system and seize Khargola’s facilities intact. Given that the Shapers are defending the system with six of their own destroyers and a carrier battle group led by the Saturn class vessel Montezuma, this won’t be easy.
Santiago, on the other hand, presents us with a rather different tactical problem. The principal inhabited world in the system is the second planet, Valparaiso, home to two billion people and also home to training grounds belonging to the Army. At the time of its rebellion, over two hundred thousand troops were stationed on Valparaiso and we haven’t heard from them since. However, recon missions have detected signals indicating a strong Shaper presence on the planet as well as an estimated five Shaper vessels including one super-destroyer class vessel. This is in addition to two enslaved carrier battle groups led by the Pompey Magnus and the Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, the real objective here is to seize the deep range monitoring arrays on the planet. Santiago once marked the Commonwealth’s southernmost border and the arrays have been mothballed for almost half a century. They are reportedly intact and await re-activation and subsequent modification. We need to take a look deeper into enemy territory, especially into the Achernar system, with our new found Shaper spotting abilities, so we need that array. Once we have these two systems secured, I intend to use them as jumping off points for other missions into enemy territory and, hopefully, for an assault on Achernar itself.’
A susurration of surprise at Cartwright’s bold plan went around the room
‘Shit, he’s really talking about taking it to ‘em,’ muttered McManus.
‘It’s certainly bold,’ replied Chen. ‘I wonder who he’s placing in command of each operation?’
Cartwright answered her question almost immediately.
‘The Shapers doubtless recognise the strategic importance of these two systems and are defending them accordingly. I intend to hit them hard and fast. I shall command the mission to take Chittagong, with Colonel Igawa leading the ground assault on Khargola. Admiral Chen?’
‘Yes sir?’ said Chen, suddenly realising that all eyes in the room were on her.
‘You shall have overall command of the mission to take back Santiago. General Shale will take charge of the ground forces, including having command authority over Marine units, but it’s your show.’
‘Yes, sir. Thank you sir,’ said Chen, her heart pounding. She had just been handed an enormous responsibility.
‘Very good,’ said Cartwright, looking at her intently as if to gauge her reaction. ‘I’ve assigned eight carrier battle groups to each operation. The rest will remain here along with the bulk of the Nahabe forces in case of an enemy surprise attack after we have jumped, although a squadron of Nahabe gunspheres will be accompanying each task force. Now, here’s how the invasion of Santiago is to proceed: Admiral Chen, I shall be assigning the Churchill its own accompanying battle group of vessels. Each group will consist of a carrier, four destroyers equipped with the new cannon, two modified recon cruisers, four flak cruisers and four tactical missile destroyers. As well as the Churchill, you’ll be commanding the Leonides, the Nelson, the Marcus Aurelius, the Alamein, the Plataea, the Pericles and the Marine assault carrier Anzio.’
As Cartwright spoke, the screen behind him changed to show a map of the Santiago system, before zooming in on the space around Valparaiso. Icons and glowing arrows denoted the planned movement of ships.
‘The carrier groups and Nahabe ships will form the vanguard of the assault,’ Cartwright continued. ‘Admiral Chen, your initial task will be to achieve total command of the space around Valparaiso. All enemy ships are to be engaged and destroyed. No quarter is to be given to former Navy vessels seeking to surrender, even if their crews do not appear to be enslaved. They threw their lot in with the enemy and must now face the consequences, and we have neither the time nor the resources to process their crews. Shaper vessels will of course present the greatest credible threat and should be treated as priority targets. Valparaiso has one orbital station, San Pedro. It is not thought to be in enemy hands and can be bypassed for now. You have one hour to complete your objectives once you arrive at the planet. The Third Army Group under General Shale’s command will be following closely behind you. Their transports and escorts will drop out of their jump on the edge of the system and await your signal that it is safe to proceed. If they receive no signal or are in any doubts as to its authenticity, they will jump away. General Shale has over ninety thousand Army and around ten thousand Marine Corp personnel, plus armoured vehicles, artillery, gunships and heavy lift craft at his disposal in addition to the complement of Marines aboard the Anzio. The transports will have escorts in the shape of four more destroyers and two modified Thea class cruisers and are of course heavily shielded, but it is imperative that the transports not be placed at risk en route to their destination and their primary defence in the face of approaching enemy opposition will be to jump away. Understood?’
‘Of course, sir,’ Chen replied.
‘Once you have defeated the enemy’s naval forces, you must then turn your attention to the landing. Using the scanners aboard the recon frigates, you will need to pin-point enemy troop concentrations on the surface as well as Shaper communication nodes, before beginning a heavy bombardment to target them using the tactical missile frigates at your disposal. It will also be necessary to clear out anything moving around the landing zone here, on the southern continent.’
Cartwright indicated the map of the planet with his hand as the display zoomed in to display the topography of its southern continent in detail. Much of it was marked as being devoted to Army training grounds.
‘Sir, with respect, that’s likely to be in the midst of the enemy,’ said Chen.
‘Yes it is, but the area is one of gently rolling plains suitable for the landing of large numbers of troops. It is also only a short distance away from our objective, the deep range monitoring arrays located in the lower peaks of this nearby mountain range to the south. You are to suppress the enemy from orbit whilst the Marines from the Anzio make the initial landing and establish a landing zone and a base of fire at the foot of the mountains. They are to be reinforced by the marines travelling with the Third Army Group who will land ahead of Army units. Colonel Gunderson, you will have command over all forces on the surface of Valparaiso until General Shale is able to land his forces and establish a command post. Once a defensible beach-head has been established on the surface of the planet, you can begin to move on the offensive against the enemy after you secure the deep range monitoring arrays.’
‘Gunderson, eh?’ whispered McManus. ‘I’ve heard of him alright. Never met him b
efore in the flesh though. Guy’s a real hero: leads from the front and all that. Popular with his men, though he’s been known to drive them a little too hard a times. Still...’
‘Do you know everyone in the military?’ Chen whispered back.
‘I like to know who I’m serving alongside, so I keep my ear to the ground.’
Cartwright noticed them speaking to one another.
‘Admiral Chen. Is there a problem?’
‘No sir, no problem,’ Chen replied smartly. ‘My XO was just filling me in on the exemplary records of the General and the Colonel. It’s an honour to serve with such fine men, sir.’
Gunderson, who turned out to be the anonymous bull-necked figure that they had seen enter with Igawa, twisted around in his chair and stared intently at her.
‘Might I return the honour, Admiral? I’ve heard some pretty wild stories about your exploits. Looking at the medals on that uniform of yours I’m hoping that most of them are true.’
‘They are,’ said Shale, speaking aloud for the first time in brisk, booming tones, his grey moustache bristling. ‘The Admiral has quite a reputation amongst the fleet, and she’s killed more bloody Shapers than anyone else in this room, with the possible exception of our Nahabe friend here,’ he added, nodding in the direction of the Lord Protector.
‘Thank you, gentlemen,’ said Chen, aware that the entire room was now staring at her. ‘I hope I don’t disappoint. Yes, I have killed Shapers, and I intend to kill a lot more of them by the time we’re done.’
‘Glad to hear it, Admiral Chen,’ said Cartwright. ‘Now turning our attention to the operation in the Chittagong system...’
As Cartwright ran through the basic outline of the parallel operation to secure the anti-matter production facilities in Chittagong, Chen allowed her mind to wander and she began to consider instead the coming battle for the Santiago system that she had been placed in command of. It was an awesome responsibility, though no greater than being charged with the defence of Earth. Cartwright had placed a vast amount of firepower at her command, including the heaviest guns that the Commonwealth Navy was able to muster, but the fate of hundreds of thousands of troops, not to mention the course of the war against the Shapers was now in her hands.
Eventually Cartwright reached the end of his briefing for the Chittagong operation.
‘There remains only one more thing to add,’ he said. ‘Bar any unforeseen developments, we are go for the launch of this operation at oh eight hundred hours standard, tomorrow. From this point onwards, you are to return to your ships and a complete security lockdown will be enforced. Although you are still in the process of recovering personnel from across the system, no-one will be allowed to leave your vessels once they are aboard. All transmissions will be closely monitored and you must not discuss your mission objectives with your crews until after you have jumped. Admiral Chen, General Shale, Colonels Igawa and Gunderson, I need to speak to you in my office immediately. Everyone else, return to your ships, and good luck. The people of the Commonwealth are counting on you.’
Seating herself in one of the chairs in Cartwright’s office, between Shale and Igawa, Chen watched Cartwright as he sat behind his large wooden desk and steepled his fingers.
‘Let me begin by apologising for the lack of time I have given to you all to prepare for this operation. I’m afraid for security reasons we were forced to keep you all in the dark about our plans since we can’t even trust our own people these days, and the President only gave the go order for the operation once Admiral Hawkwood and others had successfully convinced her that the risks were acceptable. Things are not looking terribly rosy. The security services, those that we can trust, are working overtime to apprehend enemy agents in systems still loyal to Earth, but they have a lot of ground to cover and command believes it is only matter of time before a terrorist atrocity is committed or vital intelligence data is stolen. Command has drawn up detailed intelligence briefs on both objectives and you’ll need to go over them together before we depart.’
‘We understand, Admiral,’ said Igawa. ‘We live in unusual times. Thank you for being so candid. My men have been anxious to strike at the enemy for some time now and it was made clear to us from the nature of our recent training regime that something like this was likely. We are ready.’
‘Likewise, the Third Army Group is itching to get to grips with the enemy at long last,’ said Shale. ‘I had anticipated that some sort of ground action would be required to deal with the Shapers. My men and I have been studying what encounters have been recorded so far and have drawn up a number of possible tactics for dealing with them. We’re ready. We’ve trained for this and we’ve done this sort of landing a hundred times before against K’Soth occupied worlds.’
‘And these tactics that you intend to use?’ said Cartwright.
‘Massive and overwhelming firepower directed by real-time data from space-borne surveillance. We expect a mixture of massed headlong attacks when they take the offensive. In contrast, we fully expect them to resort to guerrilla warfare and ambush tactics when we attempt to launch our own offensives. Sadly, I think large scale civilian casualties may be difficult to avoid, what with the possibility that many among the planet’s population may have already been enslaved and that the enemy may be hiding among those who have not.’
‘Regrettably, I have to agree,’ said Gunderson, scratching the back of his shaved skull. ‘We may not have the time or the ability to distinguish the enemy from the local civilian population. It’s been a problem in wars for centuries where there are no clear lines of battle or the enemy have concealed themselves within the general citizenry. One thing about fighting the K’Soth: at least there was no danger of not being able to recognise ‘em.’
‘Hopefully the modifications to the Thea class cruisers should alleviate some of the difficulties,’ said Chen. ‘We’ll feed you as much information about enemy positions as possible, and give you fire support from the ships and close support from our fighters and bombers when you need it.’
‘And we will need it, you can count on that,’ Gunderson replied. ‘The enemy outnumber us.’
‘Indeed they do, Colonel, but I intend to strike at their chain of command. If we can identify controlling nodes that are directing their forces, they will be disorganised and leaderless, a mob rather than an army. They will still be dangerous, but hopefully you two can use this to your advantage.’
‘It’s a sound strategy,’ said Shale, nodding in agreement. ‘Still, it won’t be easy. Admiral Cartwright, what intelligence do we have on enemy movements beyond the range of our new modified array? What chance is there of an enemy counter-attack taking place?’
‘Intelligence is sketchy at best, hence the very objective of your mission. We believe that the bulk of the Shaper fleet itself is concentrated in and around the Achernar system, but so far that is pure conjecture. We are able to see far enough to provide you with warning of vessels approaching from that direction, but there may not be time to extract your forces from the surface in the event that the Navy were faced with overwhelming enemy numbers. You would in all probability have to stand and fight. We need to hold both worlds for as long as possible. I will issue a standing order to destroy the facilities on both planets should there be a likelihood of them falling into enemy hands.’
‘And the Navy, what would they do in face of a large scale counter-attack by the Shapers?’
‘I would do my utmost to defend you, and maintain control of the system,’ said Chen.
‘...with the caveat that ships should not be sacrificed needlessly,’ Cartwright added sternly. ‘Let’s be under no illusions as to what the Shapers are capable of. Even with our new weapons, they are formidable opponents and easily more than a match for our vessels. We may have halted them temporarily, but rest assured that they are up to something and we need to know what it is, and then we need to put an end to it. It is entirely possible that they are already marshalling their forces to strike against us
once more, and that they have planet killing weapons their disposal.’
