by Rodney Smith
He was sure the K’Rang commander must have severe headaches, wondering where the Humans were and what they were up to. Avi was tempted to keep going in this direction to locate and engage the K’Rang fleet, but that was not the plan.
He checked course plot and saw the zigzag pattern so they would avoid K’Rang worlds along their path. They needed to keep the K’Rang wondering where they were for the longest time possible, until both combined fleets blockaded G’Durin.
* * * * *
Tammy suited up for another mission. Her 17 ships would be the trailing squadron today. Scouts reported 23 ships destroyed by yesterday’s mission, and the remaining K’Rang ships had abandoned the system containing the planet Liwei and joined the task force at the next planet in the line. Intelligence estimated that there were 50 ships at the next planet. Tammy would assess whether a follow-on A-76 strike would be necessary.
Tammy waited in her cockpit for the go signal. She would be last to go, so she used that time to go over messages. One was from Candy, asking for her to let her know she was all right. She said that she had finally gotten rid of the ethics violating gifts by donating them to the local museum. They wouldn’t take the jewel-encrusted sword and she had to return that. The matched pair of pistols were another issue she had to deal with, as they were proscribed. The local civilian authorities put her in a Catch-22 situation. They told her she would be charged with possession of proscribed weapons if she kept them, but told her their shipment through Armstrong space was also forbidden. She eventually handed them over to the local Explosive Ordnance Detachment for destruction. Boom! Problem solved. She closed with how much she missed Tammy, and for her to keep safe and come back to see her when she could.
Tammy typed a quick message, telling Candy about her new job. She left out the sad details of yesterday. It would just make Candy worry. Tammy mentioned she had flown some missions with Angie, but she had joined a Carrier Flight Wing and Tammy had lost track of her. She asked if Candy knew what Kelly was up to. She looked up and saw the lead squadron moving to the runway and finished her message with a promise to come visit as soon as this unpleasantness was over.
Tammy pulled out behind the second squadron and waited to line up on the runway. She had a new wingman today and watched him carefully as she lined up. They took off together and climbed quickly to give any possible missile teams as fleeting a target as possible. The squadron joined up on her and she set course for the next captured world. She found it interesting that Marines were on the world already, rooting out the K’Rang with the help of armed citizens. The K’Rang preference to die rather than surrender and the citizens’ take no prisoners policy didn’t leave many prisoners for interrogation.
She saw burning attack ships and destroyed K’Rang ships as she entered the system. Obviously the K’Rang were ready this time. She looked for targets, but found only more destroyed or seriously damaged K’Rang ships and more destroyed attack ships. Seeing a peculiar radiation signature, she spotted two K’Rang battle cruisers coming out of the upper atmosphere of a gas giant, behind the second squadron.
Tammy told her squadron to focus on the two battle cruisers, top section on the right cruiser, bottom section on the left. She warned the other squadron commander to check his six. They went evasive and turned hard left away from the two cruisers. She closed the distance on the two ships. They must have been so focused on her sister squadron that they didn’t see hers approaching.
She ordered her squadron to fire and a swarm of missiles left the internal bays. She turned her squadron away and sent them back to base, while she remained to decide if another strike was needed. The two cruisers reacted too slowly to the inbound missiles. The majority of the missiles struck the two super cruisers and split them into two large burning pieces. Her sister squadron attacked a line of five frigates leaving the upper ammonia atmosphere of the fifth planet. Only one continued under its own power. She counted ten maneuvering K’Rang ships and called back for another strike. It was time to head for home.
* * * * *
Angie saw a target appear in the outer ring of her monitor. She considered avoiding it, but chose to go investigate and at least identify it. Her squadron was flying deep CAP on the fleet’s right flank. As she approached, she saw the target resolve into a K’Rang planetary scout, one of the big ones. It was a cigar shaped ship, designed more for planetary surveys then combat recon. She ordered her squadron to break into four ship sections and attack in series.
Angie activated her jammer and armed her two medium missiles, carried just for this eventuality. She told her trailing sections to separate by 200m for the run. She goosed her sensitive throttle and sped up to 0.9c. Her section flew into missile range and launched all eight missiles, then pulled away. The second section did the same. The first eight hit astern and broke the stern off the scout. The second eight blew off the bow. She called off the attack by the third section. Shortly after, the 35th showed up and she took her squadron to the barn.
* * * * *
Admiral Chang was as happy as an admiral could be. He had just stolen a march on his counterpart. He could do whatever he wanted to G’Durin before his adversary arrived. The scouts with the combined fleet reported a 30-minute head start over the K’Rang scouts, who were still determining how they had been snookered. His scouts shadowing the K’Rang Grand Armada reported the armada didn’t start moving for two hours after the fleets had given the K’Rang scouts the slip.
The K’Rang Grand Armada was heading toward G’Durin at max speed, which was a full FTL power below the combined fleets. The Humans would get there first and destroy everything associated with FTL before the K’Rang Grand Armada could arrive. In addition, there was no way the K’Rang fleet in the Eridanus sector could arrive in time. Admiral Thomas had done a marvelous job holding them in place and whittling them down.
He read the report and saw that she had learned a lesson in attrition yesterday. She took out over 50 K’Rang ships, but at the cost of an entire A-120 squadron, 25 A-76's and two A-100's. It was a great victory, but he could tell by the wording of her note that the losses stung her. He needed to send her a note back congratulating her on her victory and encourage her to press on. He also made sure the system knew to backfill her losses quickly. She had so far cut the K’Rang fleet almost in half and he wanted to reinforce success. He started by assigning the reserve battle fleet to her.
Chang also ordered scout ships within range of G’Durin to make best possible speed and start identifying FTL and defense-related targets. His admirals would need to assign targets quickly, so they could savage G’Durin and be ready to repulse the grand fleet when it arrived.
* * * * *
Candy was dancing around her house. She got messages from Tammy, Angie, and – most importantly – from Kelly. She read the message from Tammy first and found out she had been made squadron commander. Tammy talked about light things, which Candy thought hid the pressure from the additional responsibilities. She composed a message back, talking about trivial things like the weather and shopping and wishing Tammy success and a speedy end to the conflict.
Angie’s message was typical Angie, bold and brash, just like she flew. She wrote about the thrill of flying in combat and the terror that went with it. She wrote of how proud she was to be the commander of the Fighting 68th and how it was the best damn fighter squadron in the universe. She also wrote about the pain of losing pilots, but how she had trained them the best she could. Candy remembered her dad mourning the loss of scouts from his squadron and how he reached a peaceful state by deciding that he had trained his crews as best he could. She wrote that to Angie, and told her that her dad trained his crews so hard that they thought combat easy in comparison.
Kelly’s message was filled with descriptions of the wonders he was seeing. He did not tell her where he was, but she had a clue that he was in a first contact situation with a race that would help with the K’Rang. She could read between the lines very well. He told her ho
w much he missed her and wanted to be with her. He apologized and said how he felt terrible about leaving her alone so soon after the wedding, and felt like he had abandoned her. She replied that he was an idiot, that she knew what she was getting into when she said she would marry him. She told him how much she loved him, whether in person or light-years apart, and be as careful as he could and come home to her.
* * * * *
The Angaerry task force’s victory over the K’Rang emboldened them. They felt that now they could take back their worlds and hold them from future K’Rang aggression, especially with the damage the Humans were doing to the K’Rang Empire. They wanted to to go back and clean the K’Rang out of the stolen worlds. They would destroy the K’Rang infrastructure and tell the K’Rang they had three weeks to get out before the Angaerry came back.
Jotil Lenkva’s flotilla was reinforced, resupplied, and sent back to the stolen worlds. Kelly again followed as an observer. Jotil Lenkva told her ship commanders that they would emulate the Humans by first taking out any warships around the planet. Then they would give warning to abandon all FTL ships and facilities. After a reasonable time, they would start with space docks, spaceports, FTL ships on the surface, and any FTL servicing or construction facilities. As for the raw material worlds: they would be taken down to rubble, with all mining, processing and refining facilities destroyed.
Kelly couldn’t fault them. That was what Fleet was doing to the K’Rang main worlds they came across. He decided that he would inject himself and this ship when he felt he had to, and loafed along behind their formation at FTL power 4.
The task force arrived at the K’Rang provincial capital and found no K’Rang FTL ships. They transmitted a warning and received a rather rude K’Rang standard reply. Before Kelly could react, Jotil Lenkva’s flagship fired a burst that destroyed the K’Rang capital building, then transmitted the warning again. A much nicer response followed.
The task force moved to the next system, one with a quarry planet. They transmitted the same warning and received a similar message to the first one. A burst of fire from a frigate set a smelter on fire and converted it to a pile of rubble. Again, they received a much more conciliatory response the second time the warning was given.
Moving on to the next inhabited world, the task force made short work of two planetary defense ships and transmitted their warning. The K’Rang here must have been warned, because their response, though chilly, was polite and almost agreeable. The next planet was the one Kelly had attacked. It took the warning, told them their FTL capability had already been destroyed, and thanked the Angaerry for not attacking them again.
The last planet was another quarry world. It called the task force and surrendered. They had moved all their people out of the facilities and into whatever could be scraped together or away to make blast shelters. The task force systematically destroyed every mining, transport, and refining facility on the planet. They left food producing, housing facilities and minimal energy facilities for the time being.
They went methodically through all six worlds. Returning to the provincial capital, they spent an hour reducing its FTL capability to zero. They destroyed three spaceports, a dry dock facility, and the spacedock. The raw material world next over had all mining and processing facilities destroyed.
Jotil Lenkva also destroyed all orbital satellites and ground communications terminals. Now they were blind, deaf, and mute. She left them dwellings and food production capability and not much else. She left only one world their full energy production facilities, because the majority of the settlements were going into winter and would need the heat.
Jotil Lenkva made sure they all knew she would be back and would transport them off the worlds if they did not arrange for their own. Kelly contacted Jotil Lenkva on a captain-to-captain circuit and asked how they were to arrange transport when she had just destroyed all their FTL ships and communications? Jotil Lenkva answered that the Angaerry would send a message to the K’Rang, after the Human-K’Rang conflict was resolved, to evacuate their people or they would clear them for them. Kelly laughed and said, “You’d best make sure we win first.”
Jotil Lenkva said, “Of course you’ll win. I have every faith in you.”
* * * * *
Tammy read the report on their last mission. They had lost two A-100's, 18 A-120's, all from one squadron, and over two squadrons of A-76's. Tammy recoiled at these numbers. Those were 138 crewmembers and pilots that will never see their families again. How could they keep this up? Yes, they did take out 50 K’Rang ships, but the ugly math of war was almost too much for her. These feelings she had been keeping to herself, but they weighed on her.
She heard a knock, looked up to see Commander Tanaka, and sprang to attention. He waved her down and asked if she had a moment.
“Of course, sir, as much time as you need.”
He closed the door behind him and said, “Tammy, you look like shit.”
This knocked her back in her seat.
He continued, “You’re letting the losses get to you. You can’t do that. Yes, mourn your losses, but move on. You have a mission to accomplish.”
“Tammy, I feel your loss and those of two other squadrons, as well. In total we’ve lost five ships and 60 crewmen. I knew all of them.”
“Talk to me. Get it out. Get it off your chest. You have it all bottled up inside and it has to come out. Talk to me.”
Tammy sat in her chair looking down. Commander Tanaka was about to ask her again, when he saw tears drop from her eyes and hit the floor.
“Go ahead. Cry it out. You’re not alone. There are others doing the same thing. The A-120 wing commander just did while I was with him a few moments ago. Let it all out.”
He searched her desk for tissues and found a partial box and handed it to her. She dabbed her eyes and blew her nose.
“I feel so weak. Crying, just like a woman.”
“The 2nd Medium Attack Ship wing commander is a two meter tall male and he was just shedding more tears than you 40 minutes ago. You aren’t crying like a woman. You’re crying like a human.”
Tammy dried her eyes again and blew her nose. She felt much better.
“Thank you, sir. I’ve had that bottled up for days. Just couldn’t let it out. I was afraid if I started I might not stop.”
“You’re tougher than that, Tammy. When we raise our hands and swear our officers’ oath to the Republic, we do so with an unwritten line that we may have to sacrifice our own life or others’ lives in the defense of the Republic. Our own life is easy to sacrifice. It’s others’ that is the hardest. Now, we have another mission to fly tomorrow. We’re not going to be as predictable as we were today.”
* * * * *
The word of the second raid upon the stolen worlds hit the capital city like as storm. Angaerry by the hundreds were in the streets dancing and celebrating. The national dishonor was now avenged. Jotil Lenkva was a global champion, having vanquished a superior foe and forced the surrender of the K’Rang occupiers of the Stolen Worlds.
The power of a major victory can sway the populace. Kelly and the ambassador were called to the office of the Military Minister, Jakah Burin. Jotil Lenkva showed up with her large van. Kelly, Ambassador Thorson, and their two translators piled in and rode over to the ministry.
Jotil Lenkva escorted them up to the ministry front door. An honor guard of Angaerry Marines flanked the left side. Jakah Burin met Kelly and the ambassador at the van and asked if Kelly would care to inspect the honor guard. Kelly couldn’t turn him down. He walked up one rank and down the next, then stood in front of them and saluted, saying he was very impressed. He would stand beside them in combat any day. They stood a little taller as he dropped his salute.
The minister led them up to his office and through to his conference room again. He brought up his holographic projector and oriented them on K’Rang space.
“Gentlemen, it appears your two fleets have vanished. Sometime yesterday, both fleets slipped
away from their K’Rang scout shadows and have disappeared. This has caused some consternation among the K’Rang military as you might suspect. They had expected to deliver a master stroke in a few days, but now are in total disarray.”
Kelly sat up very straight and asked, “Minister, how do you know all this?”
The Minister smiled that peculiar Angaerry smile and said, “I know because the K’Rang tell us. We have FTL communication links within what remains of their secure fleet communications system. Please keep this to yourselves. It is a most fruitful source of intelligence for us.”
Kelly and the ambassador both had amazed looks on their faces. The Minister smiled that smile again. Ambassador Thorson asked the Minister, “Is this why you brought us here?”
The minister said, “No, we would like to thank you, Captain Blake, for showing great skill and courage against the K’Rang. You led us to within a few weeks of pushing the K’Rang off of our worlds. We would like to induct you into our Circle of Honor. It is a great honor. We have never offered this to a non-Angaerry before. The High Minister would like to present you the award tomorrow afternoon at the Palace of the Republic. If you agree, Jotil Lenkva will pick you both up at 1400 and deliver you to the Palace. The ceremony will be at 1500 hours. Please wear your dress uniform.”
Ambassador Thorson said, “Of course we will accept this award. It will be a singular honor for all of the Galactic Republic to have the first non-Angaerry member of the Circle of Honor. We are most grateful.”
Minister Jakah Burin then led them in a discussion of what Admiral Chang’s strategy might be. The minister correctly guessed that the fleets were speeding to G’Durin for a final showdown with the K’Rang. He offered up studies of G’Durin’s defenses that Admiral Chang might find useful. Kelly skimmed them as the strategy discussion continued.
