Echoes from Yesterday: Pirates of the Badlands Series Book 4

by Sean Benjamin

  Blondie rose from her seat as he addressed her. She regarded him briefly and then replied with an even voice. “It is the conclusion of the intel section based on the available facts, sir.”

  Admiral Barrett smiled at her. He stated in a kind, smooth voice, “I didn’t ask you that, Lieutenant. I asked if you agree with the brief.”

  The response came instantly. “No, Admiral. I do not.”

  There was murmuring throughout the room but especially from the intel section officers. It was obvious this was not news to them and Blondie’s disagreement with the current assessment must be a running battle within the section. None of the intel officers liked that it was out in the open in front of the Admiral. From her seat down front, Captain Zerbe turned and stared up at Blondie, her face a neutral mask.

  Undoubtedly, the Admiral had noticed the unrest caused by Blondie’s few words, but he chose to ignore it and focused on her. “How do you assess the current situation?”

  “I think Admiral Claudia Kupin’s heavy battle squadrons have been joined by the 4th Carrier Division and the 17th Light Flotilla, and she is moving against us now. She will hit in the Electra System to take out the naval units and the two bases there, or she will hit next door to them against the trading hub at Signe. Maybe both if time permits. The Signe infrastructure would be the easier objective, but I think she goes for the military targets first.”

  Captain Zerbe’s voice was tight with suppressed anger. “Admiral, we considered this and –.”

  Admiral Barrett held up his hand for silence but did not take his eyes off the young Lieutenant. “Why do you think she is coming?”

  Blondie replied quickly. “The 4th Carrier Division and 17th Light Flotilla were depleted in recent engagements and pulled off the lines for supposed refit. The 4th has recently had a change of command and is now under Admiral Theo Chuikov who was Admiral Kupin’s XO when she commanded a battleship. Kupin achieved her flag rank three years ago. As a new admiral, she was put in command of the 4th Carrier Division when it was stood up. Chuikov moved up from XO and took command of the battleship after Kupin. Then Chuikov himself made flag rank and again succeeded her when he took command of the 4th Carrier Division after her departure. He has shadowed her for his entire career. Kupin and Chuikov are both proponents of the new aircraft carrier and its potential. This upcoming attack will be their chance to prove its worth as a weapon with a long reach and is perfect for raiding in enemy territory.

  “The 17th Light Flotilla is commanded by Admiral Erica Malinsky. She and Kupin were in the same class at their naval academy. They were good friends there and served together throughout their careers.

  “Admiral Kupin and her heavy squadrons have been off the lines for a short time. Now two commanders who have a personal loyalty to Kupin are also off the front lines and unaccounted for. If you believe nothing is going on, you have to believe that is a big coincidence. Those three units joined together would form a textbook example of an Orion task force missing only the supply component but Admiral Kupin will load up her ships and move out with only limited supply support.”

  Blondie shifted her gaze to the intel contingent before coming back to Admiral Barrett. “The simple fact is there is actually no intel whatsoever putting those three formations in the rear going through a refit and retraining cycle at this time. We are just putting them there since that is what we would be doing in that same situation. Admiral Kupin is not doing that.”

  One of the young intel officers, Lieutenant Thad Bichlen, had given the morning intel brief. He sat in his chair and stared up at Blondie. The morning brief had been compiled by all of the intel section, but he had organized and delivered the brief, so he regarded it as his baby and now somebody was calling his baby ugly. He didn’t like it. On top of that, he did not particularly care for Lieutenant Bychovskaya. In his view, due to her social status, she had no place in the officer corps. He should have remained quiet but now he spoke in the silence. “I suppose this special insight is something you learned with the pirates. Does Hawkins’ teachings cover this type of situation?” His voice had a sarcastic stain to it. Not too professional in front of senior officers, but he couldn’t help it.

  Blondie calmly looked down at him. “Captain Hawkins has at least two sayings to cover this. There is no such thing as coincidence, and no matter where you go in the universe, two plus two always equals four.” She looked back at the Admiral. “They will get some reinforcements to offset their losses, but they won’t take any time for training and integrating the new ships into their force. Once those ships join her forces, Admiral Kupin will move to steal a march on us. They’re coming, Admiral.”

  Admiral Barrett turned to Captain Zerbe. “You have considered this interpretation?”

  The response was quick and deliberately low key. “Yes, Admiral. All three of the enemy forces mentioned by the Lieutenant have been greatly reduced during a long period on the front lines. We believe they cannot be brought up to fighting shape in the short time they have been off the front lines.”

  As Zerbe spoke the final sentence, she glanced up at Blondie. From her seat at the end of the front table, Sky followed the conversation while watching Blondie at the back of the room. She had not missed Captain Zerbe’s casual use of the word “we” in her closing comment. Zerbe obviously did not regard Blondie as one of her people now. Sky had no doubt there had been behind the scenes scrimmaging in the intel section for a while, but it was out in the open now. Zerbe had rank and intel experience on her side. Blondie had keen insight, combat experience and, Sky had to admit, she had guts.

  Sky also realized Blondie didn’t much care about her career. Regardless of how this turned out, Captain Zerbe would not be happy with her, and this unhappiness would be reflected in her performance evaluation of Blondie. Blondie had to know this, but she was doing her job as best she could and consequences be damned. With Pirate Flotilla One, Blondie had been in a bar room shootout, a back alley fight, and two major space battles with the Goths. All that was followed by a raid deep into Orion space and several fights there. Unlike the vast majority of officers in this compartment, she was a seasoned combat veteran who had contributed greatly to the combat success achieved by the pirates. She had been there and done that, and Captain Zerbe didn’t scare her one bit.

  Silence reigned for a several moments. Admiral Barrett surveyed the room, pausing on the intel officers on one side of the briefing room, and then looking up at Blondie alone in the back row in the middle of the room. He turned to his Fleet Operations Officer, Captain Luther Norton. “If the enemy is hitting either of the two bases or Signe as mentioned by the Lieutenant, they have to pass through the Ascentra System. I understand the Sentinel Line is up and running in that system. Get a download from that sector of the line and we shall see what we shall see.”

  The Sentinel Line was a series of remote sensors covering far sections of space between the two empires. These sensors recorded assigned sections of space on endless loops and could be command directed to transmit the recordings.

  “Aye, Admiral,” Captain Norton replied and then continued. “Sir, you are aware the Sentinel Line in the Ascentra System is far from a solar power source. The download will require a recharge, which will keep the sensors from transmitting again for eight days. They will still record but we won’t be able to get any of the recordings for that eight day timeframe.”

  All the remote satellite recorders of the Sentinel Line used passive solar energy collection for their power source. These simple solar power systems hid the small spheres from sensor sweeps as they had no active power source to highlight them against the cold background of space. The farther away from the solar source the sensors were, the longer it took for them to recharge after using their stored solar power to send recordings back to Aurora space. The sensor system in the Ascentra System was far from one of the suns in that system and would not be able to transmit for eight days, as they would be slowly recharging their batteries.

&
nbsp; The Admiral considered this for a second and made a decision. “Do the download.”

  “Aye, aye, sir.”

  Barrett continued. “I will send a personal message to Admiral Levant in the Electra System and inform him on what might be in the works. Luther, I know there are no major forces in position to immediately reinforce that system, but I want to know who is closest and how long it will take them to get there. I want that soonest as I want to get a redeployment order out to them. Best to be on the safe side here while we await further information.”

  “Aye, aye, Admiral.”

  Again, the Admiral regarded all the participants in this discussion. It was clear what he was thinking. The facts were not in dispute, but the Admiral had been presented with two mutually exclusive predictions based on those facts. There was no middle ground and no compromise. Somebody was going to be very right and somebody was going to be very wrong. Admiral Barrett was not a vindictive man but, like all commanders, he kept score, and staff officers did not want to be on the short end of the score too often. Not career enhancing, as they say.

  Sky looked around the room in the brief silence. She knew Blondie had gained one important trait during her time with Raferty Hawkins. She learned how to consider all possibilities and not just what other forces were supposed to do in any given situation. In short, she had exceeded her Aurora Empire training and was on a different level now. She not only considered what was probable but also what was possible, no matter how unlikely. After all, the pirates made a living operating on the far side of unlikely, and Blondie had been with them for many months. Mallory had spent time with them also, and she knew what was possible for a military force with the right commander who had vision and the courage to carry that vision out. Suddenly a shiver went down her spine as she had a microsecond of insight. Skyler Mallory knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Blondie was right. The OrCons were coming.

  “We’re done here.” Admiral Barrett sounded a bit tired. Sky thought he might have had the same epiphany she had just experienced. As the meeting adjourned, Sky made it a point to walk out with the Admiral.

  He did not acknowledge her, but as they walked he suddenly whispered, “They’re coming.”

  Sky didn’t break stride or change her facial expression but she did reply. “Yes, they are.”

  Both statements were made with certainty.

  Chapter 11

  Admiral Trevor Levant leaned back in his chair in his day cabin. He looked upward and conducted a minute review of the overhead as he considered the implications of the high priority P4 he just read. He and Lawton Barrett went back years. Levant had been three years behind Barrett at The Academy and Barrett had been his company commander his first year there. Unlike many upper classmen who took special delight in tormenting the new midshipmen, Barrett had always looked after them. The entire company had liked and respected their commander. The two had crossed paths at various posts and in various ships throughout their careers. He trusted the man completely.

  Barrett made it clear that the Home Fleet intelligence community was split on their interpretation of the available information, but he ordered the Aegis flotilla to err on the side of vigilance. Levant needed no such direction. He knew his position here was tenuous. The Aegis base was a combined military and civilian spaceport above the planet of Lilitu. It was small compared to other bases of the Royal Navy. It was small because Lilitu was a completely barren planet. A large rock with an atmosphere. It was all desert with little water, little vegetation, and no indigenous life of any kind. The only spot on the planet with life was the surface base supporting the spaceport and all that had been imported. The base was twenty kilometers across. It was basic in all respects. Water had to be imported so was restricted to human use only. There was no vegetation on the base. The wind blew constantly at ten kilometers an hour or higher. Blowing sand was a constant annoyance to people and a constant hazard to technology. There were no military families on the planet and the only civilians were government contractors doing military support or a few custom officials, as Aegis was the port of entry for this sector so all civilian traffic had to stop for inspection and stamping of their papers. The customs was the only reason there was any civilian spaceport facilities at all.

  The nearby base of Buckler on the planet Senka was the smallest facility to carry the designation as a base in the Royal Navy. Senka was an exact environmental copy of Lilitu, but Buckler was built there to serve as a backup to Aegis, and Admiral Levant maintained one third of his ships at Buckler as Aegis was too small a space facility to homeport all the Royal Navy ships there. Also, the two bases were close together at this moment but their orbits were very different, so the two widely separated bases made it easier to patrol the Signe region to catch smugglers or pirates that are always drawn to a large trading hub such as this.

  The planet Signe was the largest populated planet in this region of space. It had a large civilian port with repair facilities for civilian ships. It was inhabited by a friendly population and was considered one of the great destinations for vacationers, travelers, or those seeking their fortune in the quadrant. In fact, the military had had Signe as a major base for many decades but the growing prosperity had caused the natives not to renew their treaty with the Aurora Empire. When the treaty expired, the planet took over the military base and turned it into a civilian trading point of great importance. The only problem was the Aurora Empire needed to maintain control of the trading routes and enforce the law for the region. Despite the Signe government wanting to keep the port of entry facility and customs authority on Signe while getting rid of the base, the Empire was having none of that. They moved to Lilitu and established a base there. They also took the customs authority with them as a stick in the eye of the Signe natives.

  A new treaty was written up and signed. It stated Signe could not be fortified or used by military vessels of any nation or planet. Military ships could not even visit the planet except for emergency purposes. With the banishment of the Royal Navy ships to two desolate planets, Signe got all the benefits of Aurora protection with none of the inconvenience. Nobody thought a war was coming anytime soon, so nobody in the Signe government saw the unusual military situation as a detriment to their defense. The fact was that if the two bases were destroyed, Signe could be easily taken intact and the invaders could use the facilities there as they pleased. If it were just a hit and run raid, Signe would be an easy target, as it had no defenses at all. In the heady days following the departure of the Zeke military, the idea of a war, any war, encroaching on Signe’s prosperity seemed preposterous. The easy living Signe natives weren’t the first group of people in history to make that mistake and they wouldn’t be the last.

  Despite being kicked off Signe almost sixty standard years ago, the Empire had to maintain a presence in the area and had to protect Signe and the trade that passed through there. Thus, the two bases on nearby barren planets came into being. These two bases and Signe comprised the lone Aurora stronghold in a vast area of space. The Royal Navy had neither the assets or desire to reinforce Levant’s force or the bases, and the OrCons didn’t take it previously because they would be faced with the same problems of manning an isolated stronghold with no support anywhere nearby. Neither side wanted to dedicate the many assets it would take to completely secure this area of space, so the status quo had prevailed despite the war raging around them. Levant thought the OrCons should have eliminated this entire area on the first day of the war and simply departed. Their mistake. Levant knew any attack force would outnumber his ships. He also knew the defenses of Aegis and Buckler were relatively old and sparse so would not offset for the difference in ship numbers. Despite this, he would make a fight of it. His operations officer, Captain Alastair Bond, immediately appeared onscreen. “Alastair, please step in for a moment.”

  The man did step in thirty seconds later. Levant motioned him to a chair and swung his floating computer screen around so his visitor could view the messag
e from Admiral Barrett. Bond looked at his commander after the message concluded. “Sir, not like Admiral Barrett to cry wolf so I would say we have a problem.”

  Levant nodded. “Can’t afford to ignore this even if it turns out to be nothing. Let’s review the defense plans and pick a good one. Also, have Jack Wilson call me. I got a mission for DesRon 22.”

  Captain Wilson reported by comm link to the Admiral. Four hours later, the six ships of Wilson’s Destroyer Squadron 22 broke seal and proceeded out of the harbor for points unknown.

  Chapter 12

  “Stormy One, Stormy Three.”

  Captain Joseph Heidl of the Goldenes Tor light cruiser Bergspitze shifted his eyes from scanning his ship’s bridge to scanning his command screen.

  “One here. What have you got?”

  The image of Fregattenkapitan Hans Stapler of the Goldenes Tor destroyer Regenwolke stared from the screen. “Three freighters coming across the border fast. IFFs are Sandy Hook, Summer Breeze, and Troy. All check out as being in Zeke territory according to recent records. They’re on the edge of my screens on my port side and coming right at you. You’ll see them soon. No comm yet.”

  His report was calm. It fit in perfectly with the situation. The border with the Aurora Empire was calm, maybe even boring. Heidl frowned. Whom was he kidding? Of course it was boring, damn boring. He had to admit he missed the Badlands. Or, maybe, he really didn’t like the way it all ended in the Badlands and wanted a chance at redemption. The only way to get redemption was to return to that region. During the last go around there, he had been XO of Bergspitze. His ship had been the flagship for Light Admiral Jochen Kaufmann. They had lead a six-ship escort force for the Orion strike group that had hit the Zekes in the Badlands at the beginning of their war. It had looked like a superb mission and a chance to witness the destruction of the old Zeke squadron stationed in the Badlands. It ended with his ship’s captain and Kaufmann dead, two squadron ships destroyed, and Bergspitze shot to hell. The light cruiser and two squadron destroyers, Regenwolke and Sterenhimmel, spent months in a shipyard far from the Badlands. The lone squadron ship left in the Badlands was the destroyer Abendhimmel.