Rumors of Honor (System States Rebellion Book 2)

by Dietmar Wehr

  “Weps, fire three HEs at each target.”

  The WO repeated the order and then confirmed the missile launch. Remington checked the interception eta. Less than six minutes. Her ship and the bogeys were now much closer than they had been when she launched the first volley. All six FED ships were now heading more or less directly for the oncoming enemy squadron. If neither side veered off, both sides would pass each other so closely that collision could be a serious risk.

  Remington was puzzled by this head-on tactic. Those Union cruisers could launch up to 20 missiles each every 15 seconds. Her squadron’s only defense against missiles were rapid-fire railgun cannon with six on each ship for a total of thirty-six. The closer they got to the enemy ships, the less time the railguns would have to track and fire on incoming missiles. Why the hell are we fucking around with these bastards? she asked herself. We should be veering off to one side to keep the range open as much as possible and smother them with missiles.

  SSU Task Force:

  Montoya looked up at the tactical display as it pinged for attention. The FEDs were firing again this time with three volleys of four missiles each. He wasn’t surprised that they fired again, but he was surprised that they waited this long to do it. They had given him time to re-establish contact with the other three ships and discover their status. Two could maneuver to some extent, one had no ability to maneuver at all. If he was going to go with his plan, they would have to maintain their present course in order to stay together. He was very tempted to order all four ships to fire at the FED ships. It would be very satisfying to smash those FED cruisers into scrap metal, but doing so would preclude inflicting the most damage possible on the planet’s industrial centers, and that was his only priority. His ships could fire at the planet or at the defending ships, but not both at the same time. He looked at his Weapons Officer who looked back and nodded. All four ships knew what they had to do. They were just waiting for Montoya to give the word.

  “Execute,” said Montoya.

  “First volley is away. All ships have fired, Skipper,” said the Weapons Officer. Eighty missiles veered away to head for a particular spot on the planet’s surface. He hoped he’d gotten the timing right. In order to intercept the incoming FED missiles with AMMs, his ships had to load and fire AMMs no later than 30 seconds before enemy missile impact. That left his ships with just enough time to fire five more volleys of HE missiles at planetary targets. He wasn’t worried about the 12 missiles that were heading his way now. His anti-missile fire would take care of them. It was the follow-on volleys that worried him. If the FED waited to see how their second volley fared, they would see his AMMs and adjust their choice of missile warheads accordingly. But if they did what he wanted them to do, namely fire their fission warhead missiles quickly, then his ships might have enough AMMs to intercept them, with a slight chance of successfully running the FED gauntlet and escaping out the other side.

  Makassar Defense Force:

  “Son-of-a-bitch,” said Remington’s CO as the tactical display showed a new red icon with the number 80 inside it veering off toward Makassar. After a one second pause he started to speak. “Commodore, I recommend…” He stopped. Remington knew that Commodore Stevens had interrupted her CO, but only he was able to hear what Stevens had to say. “If we switch to Alpha6 I’ll have just enough Mark 1s for two volleys…” There was another interruption. “Your orders are clear, Sir. Alpha6 it is.” Turning to look at the Weapons Officer, the CO said, “Weps, we’re switching to Alpha6. As soon as you have targets programmed and tubes loaded, you may fire and continue firing until we’re out of Mark 1s. Any questions?”

  “No questions, Skipper.” Remington realized that she was holding her breath and consciously let it out. Alpha6 under these circumstances meant that the ship would fire eight Mark 1 fission warhead missiles per volley. Two volleys would use up all of their remaining 16 Mark 1s. She wondered if the other ships in the squadron would also fire under Alpha6. Seconds later she had her answer. The squadron flagship fired eight missiles even before her own ship was ready. The other four ships of the squadron weren’t far behind. Forty-eight missiles, composed of six groups of eight, were heading for the Union ships. We should have co-ordinated our fire so that they all arrive on target at the same time. Stevens panicked. General Trojan isn’t going to like that, thought Remington.

  Montoya smiled as the display showed first six and then a total of twelve clusters of eight missiles each heading for his squadron. He was willing to bet that those 96 missiles had fission warheads, and there was just enough time to fire his volleys at the planetary targets and still be able to intercept the enemy fire with his anti-missile missiles. If that’s all the enemy could throw at him, then his ships would get through this.

  Makassar Defense Force:

  Remington shook her head in dismay. There were now 480 enemy missiles headed for six industrial centers on Makassar. Each center had its own ground-based, rail-gun cannons, and their effective range was enhanced by the fact that Makassar had no atmosphere to slow down the accelerated metal slugs, but hitting 80 missiles over an interception window of just a few seconds was a big challenge, and the industrial centers were too far apart for the rail-guns around one to help defend another.

  Remington watched closely as the two volleys from the FED squadron approached their targets. The tactical display zoomed in on the enemy ships. She saw multiple smaller and faster enemy missiles streak out and hit each FED missile. Some of the interceptors missed, but the enemy ships seemed to have enough to compensate for the misses. She heard a collective groan when the last of the two volleys were destroyed before reaching their targets. None of the Mark 1 warheads got through. Remington heard her CO clear his throat.

  “Commodore, I have a suggestion.” Stevens must have given him permission to explain. “We should continue to fire HE missiles. The enemy will have to assume that they’re nukes and will have to continue using their counter-missiles. With a little luck, they’ll run out before they pass us. When we see our missiles hitting their hulls, then your ship and the rest of the squadron can fire their remaining Mark 1s and they should get through.” There was a long pause followed by, “I agree, Sir. Alpha1 is the best way to proceed.” He looked over at the Weapons Officer again. “Okay, Weps, we’re switching to Alpha1 targeting. Fire when ready and continue until you hear otherwise.”

  “Alpha1 and continuous fire. Got it, Skipper. We’re reloading now. Firing in…three…two…one…NOW!”

  SSU Task Force:

  The cheers on the Bridge of Montoya’s flagship over the successful interception of all the incoming FED missiles died away as the tactical display pinged again and more volleys of missiles headed for the Strike Force. Montoya’s expression was grim as he counted how many times each FED ship was firing. When the number reached four he cursed silently and looked away. There was no way that his ships had enough AMMs to stop all those missiles. If those missiles carried nukes, the Strike Force was toast. After pondering the situation, he realized that while all four ships were unlikely to make it through the missile gauntlet, it might be possible to get one ship through. Checking the display’s sidebar data, he saw that Charger had the least damage and the highest acceleration of the four ships. The other two ships plus his own flagship would use their AMMs to protect Charger as long as possible. Once his mind was made up, the heavy burden of responsibility on his shoulders seemed to become lighter.”

  “Com, I want a tight beam channel to all ships, and I want the crew to hear this too,” said Montoya to the Com Tech.

  “Inter-ship and intercom channels are open, Sir.”

  Montoya nodded. He took a deep breath and began speaking.

  Makassar Defense Force:

  Remington’s attention was focused on the front wave of the latest missile volleys. With the range between the two groups of ships dropping fast, the time to intercept was now measured in seconds rather than minutes.

  “They’ve begun their count
er-fire,” said the Weapons Officer.

  “But not all of them,” said Remington. “One ship didn’t fire and…” She paused to make sure she really was seeing what she thought she was. “All the other counter fire is focused on protecting that one ship!”

  “Damn. They’re trying to sneak one through,” said the CO. “As soon as our first wave hits their targets, the Rebels will realize that we’re not firing nukes anymore.”

  It doesn’t matter, thought Remington. By the time they realize what we’re firing at them, they’ll have used up most or maybe all of their counter-missiles except for that one ship. The question will be do we have enough remaining Mark 1s to overwhelm that one ship’s defenses?

  When the Union ships stopped firing counter-missiles before being hit by any of the FED missiles, Remington nodded. That’s it! They’ve run out of counter-missiles! She watched with growing excitement as the counter-missiles cleared a path for that one Union ship, while wave after wave of HE warheads impacted harmlessly against the armored hulls of the other three ships.

  The range between them was now less than 50,000 klicks, and with the combined rate of closure at 987 kps, the two groups of ships would pass each other at white-knuckle range in less than a minute.

  A new icon appeared on the display. Commodore Stevens’ flagship had fired three missiles which the sidebar data said were carrying Mark 1 warheads. They were obviously targeted at the three ships that appeared to have used up their counter-missile capability. If the fourth ship elected to use some of its remaining counter-missiles to protect its comrades, that was okay too. It would then have less missiles to defend itself when the other four FED ships fired their Mark 1s at it during the last few seconds before the two groups would be at their closest approach to each other. With three seconds to go before Stevens’ missiles hit, those three Union ships vomited 60 missiles. Remington did the math quickly. Sixty missiles spread over six ships meant that each ship’s six rail-gun cannon stood a pretty good chance of intercepting those missiles. But she felt a chill go down her spine when she realized that those 60 Union missiles weren’t spread evenly over the squadron. They were all concentrated on just two ships.

  Events were happening fast now, too fast for the Weapons Officer to keep track. Stevens’ three Mark 1s hit their targets. One Union ship blew apart. The other two showed signs of major damage. The Union volley of 60 missiles reached their two targets, Corpus Christi and Vicksburg, before they fired their few remaining Mark 1s. Both ships stopped maneuvering and vented atmosphere. Remington shook her head. Stevens should have ordered them to fire first but hadn’t reacted fast enough. With the range now down to less than 5,000 klicks and only five seconds to go before interpenetration, the rest of the squadron fired their 13 remaining Mark 1s at the fourth enemy ship. It initiated counter-missile fire almost immediately. Twenty counter-missiles streaked out towards the thirteen incoming missiles. Remington held her breath. The two missile icons merged and…both disappeared. The Union ship had lucked out and stopped all the Mark 1s, even though the probabilities said that at least two FED missiles should have gotten through. By the time she realized what had happened, both groups of ships had passed each other and the range was now widening again.

  Remington heard her CO curse. One Union ship would get away now that the FED ships no longer had any Mark 1s left to fire. Remington turned to the Weapons Officer and told him to switch the main display to show what had happened to the attacked industrial centers. The news was bad. Enough Union HE warheads had gotten through the ground-based defenses to cause significant damage and loss of life at all six targeted centers. It was hard to see how this battle could be considered an outright victory. The Commodore would have a lot of explaining to do.

  Chapter Six:

  Day 90/2544

  It wasn’t quite the middle of the night when Janicot entered the underground complex that housed the SSU’s version of Oracle, but it was only half an hour to sunrise. Major Foster met him at the entrance to the lower level.

  “I know I told you to wake me in the middle of the night if necessary, but I was hoping to get the results by phone, Major.”

  Foster’s expression was gratifyingly apologetic. “That would have been a long phone call, Sir. Some of Oracle’s results can best be understood in a visual format.”

  Janicot grunted his acknowledgement as he walked past her. She quickly caught up to him as he spoke. “Can you at least tell me verbally if Oracle thinks we have a chance of winning this war?”

  Foster sighed. The Admiral wanted a yes or no, and the answer to his question was too complicated for that. “Do we have a chance of winning? Yes. Is the probability of winning high? No.” To her surprise Janicot didn’t respond. When they got to the conference room where the briefing would take place, he stopped and looked at her.

  “Well, at least we have a chance. I’m relieved to hear that. Okay, Major, you take as much time as you need to fill me in.” He turned and entered the room without waiting for her response. When he sat down at the oval table where the rest of her staff were already seated, she activated the 3-D holographic projector and called up the first image.

  “Thank you for coming down here, Admiral. I’ll just quickly summarize what we asked Oracle to analyze, and then I’ll get to the results of that analysis. As you know, Oracle was tasked with projecting the most likely sequence of events and the long range outlook based on an assumption that Operation Sledgehammer, and specifically the Makassar component of that operation, failed completely. By that I mean that none of our four Savannah-class heavy cruisers return and no significant damage is done to the industrial infrastructure on Makassar. It’s that last aspect that has the most impact on our future prospects. The graph in front of you shows Oracle’s projection of warship tonnage in thousands of metric tons. SSU tonnage is shown in blue. FPS tonnage in red. Because of our efforts to widen our industrial capability to more member planets, our tonnage capacity increases faster than the FEDs over the next 12-18 months, but when Makassar starts to convert its capacity to shipbuilding instead of capacity expansion, their resulting rate of increase in tonnage eventually exceeds ours by several hundred percent.

  “I should point out here that this represents the Base Case, which is defined as the projection of the status quo. In other words, what you’re seeing there is the outcome of decisions that have been taken so far, and this is only the logistical side of the equations. It doesn’t take into consideration Strategy and Grand Strategy. The SSU’s decentralized nature is both an advantage and a disadvantage. It’s an advantage from the point of view that the loss of any individual planet will not represent a significant portion of the Union’s total economic and military strength. It’s a disadvantage from the point of view that there will be many more planets that need to be defended. On the FED side, there are only two planets that have strategic value and therefore need to be defended, and they are Makassar and Hadley, both in the Franklin Tri-system.

  “At this point I have to address a major issue and that is the impact of having a Majestic computer directing FED Strategy and Grand Strategy. How do you program an Oracle device to anticipate the far more sophisticated thinking of a Majestic device? My staff and I have been asking ourselves that question, and I regret to say that so far we haven’t been able to come up with an answer. If Oracle could anticipate the thinking of a Majestic computer then it would BE a Majestic computer itself. Therefore, the SSU faces a very difficult challenge. In order for our Oracle to come up with a strategy that has a decent chance of succeeding, we needed to program Oracle with our Grand Strategy. As you know, Admiral, Grand Strategy is the political outcome that all military strategy is designed to achieve. In very simplistic terms, we want the FEDs to let us break away. The question becomes how do we convince them to do that? Defeating them in a series of direct military confrontations either in space or on the ground is unlikely given their current and expected numerical superiority UNLESS we engineer battles at a time and pl
ace of our choosing when we’re confident that we can win. The strategy I’m about to describe is risky, but it seems to be our best chance of achieving our Grand Strategy.

  “Oracle was told to determine the FEDs best economic and military strategy, and once that was calculated, then determine the best counter strategy that we should follow. The overall FED strategy is actually quite simple. At some point, they’ll have the resources to attack, conquer and hold an SSU planet. The obvious target is Sparta. They know that Sparta is the administrative hub and the single most important economic contributor to the SSU. If Sparta falls, the SSU will fall into chaos until a new capital can be agreed upon and set up. In addition to the obvious immediate economic and military impact on the SSU, there would also be a huge psychological blow. Oracle predicts that news of Sparta’s fall would motivate some of the less developed member planets to renounce their membership and rejoin the FPS if there’s no continuity of government. With enough momentum, that psychological impact could even spill over into the more developed group of planets such as Hekla or Gryphon.

  “Therefore the administrative functions represented by the Capital of the SSU cannot be allowed to be conquered by the FEDs. With that said, Oracle’s strategy is to shift the administrative, economic and military command structure of the SSU from Sparta to another secret location, which is being referred to as Site X for the time being. Political control will remain on Sparta with the understanding that Site X will assume political control in the event that Sparta is invaded and conquered. A duplicate Oracle capability will have to be built at Site X as a backup system. The location of Site X will remain a carefully guarded secret even from the SSU political leadership. It would be dangerous for you to know where Site X is if Sparta was conquered and you were captured. Setting up a backup Capital, so to speak, is THE defensive move needed to insure continuity of SSU government. All SSU member planets will be told that continuity of government will take place from and through Site X.