by Rodney Smith
The draft plan said: The Assault Support Carrier Essex and the Assault Landing Carrier Illustrious will break off from the fleet upon dropping out of FTL. They will race to the far side of the system and approach G’Durin during a brief two-hour window, when all three moons are on the far side of the planet and unable to fire on the two carriers parked in geostationary orbit. They will launch two AS-500s carrying two companies of the 1st of the 15th Battalion and Alistair’s special team down through the atmosphere to treetop level. They will then fly low level to the K’Rang Intel HQ building and land. Alpha Company will assault the building. Bravo Company will secure the grounds. The special team will retrieve what files they can. Then everyone will load up and be out before the moons come out of planet shadow and in range to fire on the two carriers. The Essex will provide CAP and close air support if the assault force meets any effective resistance, or if the imperial guards regiment should respond in time. The timing is critical, but with 30 minutes in, one hour on site, and 30 minutes out, it should be a success.
They sent their plan through channels to Admiral Chang, along with Alistair’s letter, and had an almost immediate approval. Mary set up a holographic 1/8-scale model of the Intel HQ Building and surrounding terrain, and walked them all through it until they knew it blindfolded. Colonel Maxwell told her and the 1st of the 15th Commander that she would be going with them to coordinate support from the carriers. Mary looked for vantage points and CP locations while on the ground. She sat down with the battalion commander to make sure the two of them were in synch. He would request support and she would get it for him. She would take three comms operators and her air and gunnery liaison officers along. 26 hours until ETA and they were ready – providing they dropped out of FTL on time.
* * * * *
Elder J’Kol called in his aide, Shadow Leader G’Motta, to tell him what had transpired and give him a new command. G’Motta walked by the Imperial Guardsman with wide eyes and even more so when he saw J’Kol sitting in his azure robes. He walked to a point five steps from the desk and came to a rigid attention.
“How may I serve the Empire, Excellency?”
J’Kol smiled and said, “You may sit down, dear friend. You stood by me when I was expecting to have my throat slit. Now that I have received a promotion, as it were, I am in a position to help you. I can offer you the command of the lunar defense facilities, if you want it.”
G’Motta came to stiff attention and said, “I serve the Empire. Direct me as you wish, Excellency.”
J’Kol stood up, walked over to G’Motta, steered him to a chair, and gently pushed him down into it. He backed up and sat on the edge of his desk.
“Shadow Leader G’Motta, you are my aide and my friend. I plan to use you as my rational voice. When I come to you with a proposal I am unsure of, I will brief you on it and expect you to give me your honest opinion. If it is garbage, say so. If it is workable plan, say so. I want your honest opinion at all times. My offer to you of the lunar defense command was only an offer, not a command. Consider it. If you want it, say so and it is yours. If not, say so and we will find another. You are not pressured one way or the other.”
Shadow Leader G’Motta remained seated this time, and said, “I would be honored to command the lunar defense facilities.”
J’Kol smiled at his friend and told him, “It is yours, my friend. Report to the spaceport at 1400 for a shuttle up to the lunar defense HQ. You will be met by your second in command. Take out as many of the Human ships as you can.”
G’Motta stood up, sniffed noses as brothers with Elder J’Kol, asked to be excused, and departed for his new command.
* * * * *
Admiral Chang had one more conference with his top commanders at the 24 hours out mark. Jotil Lenkva video conferenced in, but the others appeared in person. All four of his admirals sat around the table, as did the admiral commanding the heavy attack ship division. Admiral Chang went around the room and asked if all were ready. One by one, the commanders said ready, as did Jotil Lenkva. Admiral Chang responded in a strong affirmative tone that he was ready, too. He also told his commanders that once they had destroyed the lunar defenses, he would transport his command ship to G’Durin to more closely supervise the coming open space battle with the approaching K’Rang Great Armada.
Jotil Lenkva asked if she could make an ancient Angaerry battle toast. Admiral Chang told her to go ahead. She wished that their victory be swift and their prey be slow. Admiral Chang thanked her for the sentiment and gave his last guidance before battle was joined.
He told them, “Take out the lunar defense quickly. After the defenses are down, I want the Marines landed within an hour to start securing the capital city. I’ve decided to have the three fleets maintain position 10 million km out from the system’s Kuiper Belt and use the fighters first, to chisel down the incoming fleets. I want to reduce the Eridanus armada by half, if not destroy it altogether, before the arrival of the Grand Armada. I want a relentless series of assaults by A-76's and the heavy and medium attack craft to keep the K’Rang off balance and unable to respond. The fleet should be able to cut down the number of his 100-150 ships quite easily.“
“We will need to mass our forces before the K’Rang Grand Armada arrives. We will all form up on the 1st Combined Fleet. I want a triangle forward formation – 1st and 2nd Combined Fleets in line and the Angaerry fleet centered and above. We orient on the Grand Armada. Fleet commanders may set their own internal formations.”
“As before, the K’Rang commander has limited fighter drones, so he will want to close quickly to missile range. We want to keep our fighters and attack craft out in front. Practice your rapid missile reload capability once we deal with the Eridanus crowd.”
He turned to his supporting heavy attack commander, Admiral Palankak, and asked, “How many squadron sorties can you fly per day?”
“Admiral, I will have three wings with a total of nine squadrons. I can give you 27 squadron sorties a day. I took some losses against the Eridanus armada, so I’m down to six squadrons of A-100's and 3 squadrons of A-120's. I can bring in 3,240 missiles per division sortie or any combination needed.”
Admiral Palankak continued, “I have a question about the lunar defense emplacements. Is there any way to suppress them as my ships come in? The A-100's firing the hypervelocity missiles require the pilots fly for several seconds straight at the target to let the missiles’ gyros stabilize. That makes them very vulnerable to defensive fire during the run in.”
Admiral Chang pondered for a few seconds then answered, “Before your attack ships come in, every A-76 squadron in the fleet will have attacked the emplacements at least twice. Long range heavy missiles will be fired at them from battle cruisers. That should be suppression enough, but I will have the A-76 squadrons attack along with your ships to provide additional targets for them to shoot at. Will that be sufficient?”
Admiral Palankak said, “Thank you, sir, that will be more than sufficient.”
Admiral Chang stood up. “Ladies and gentlemen, I wish you all good luck. Let’s give the K’Rang what they deserve. Dismissed.”
* * * * *
Acting Shadow Force Commander K’Rel of the Eridanus Armada could not see how he could approach the Home system, drop out of FTL a day or two before the Grand Armada with his armada’s 112 ships, and make any positive effect on the battle. There would be a massive Human fleet there ahead of him, waiting to pounce. He did not like the odds and did not like the result of fighting a swarm of Human attack craft. Even if he were to evade the humans, rendezvousing and integrating with the Grand Armada under fire was also not a preferred course of action.
He called in his best navigator and proposed a task for him. He was to find where and when his armada and the Grand Armada would intersect if he turned to a heading that would put them on an intercept course. He planned to move into their path and broadcast a wideband signal in their direction every 10 minutes, telling them to stop at his location.
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The navigator laid out the difficulties of his task: He did not know the precise start point of the Grand Armada, he did not know at what point the Grand Armada planned to stop, he did not know the true speed of the Grand Armada, and space is a very big place. He could be light years off in his calculations.
K’Rel said, “Put your best navigators on it. At worst, we sense their passing and come in right behind them. If we can overtake them, we might be able to get a signal through using normal comms. All I ask is your best effort for the Empire.”
* * * * *
Mary Chen and Alistair spent a day with Alpha Company, running through breaching drills, room clearing, interior security, and computer equipment identification. They didn’t have a building schematic, but assumed it would be similar to other K’Rang office buildings that Alistair had seen before. After all, engineers were engineers and tended to do things in a “form follows function” mindset. All the fancy artwork, promenades, and pavilions were saved for the ornate buildings of the government center. Alistair expected to find elevators and stairs, because elevators break down. He expected the main computer center to be in the basement, because it’s easier to cool and people want offices with windows. Computers don’t care.
He expected to find security doors to the computer area, possibly with armed guards. He instructed Alpha Company in the use of the disruptor gun as a cutting tool. Several inches of high carbon steel could be cut through in seconds. He showed them how to employ three guns at narrow beam to cut through a door in one-third the time. He demonstrated how to use cuff tape to secure any prisoners. Opening his reporting officer bag of tricks, he pulled out two barrage jammers the size of a disruptor battery pack, and issued one each to Alpha and Bravo Company Commanders. It would block broadcast and landline communications so the target couldn’t get the word out. That completed his training for the assault forces.
Mary dragged him along to the pilot briefing, and the two of them helped the pilots develop their flight plans for getting in and out. The spiral in from the carrier to just above the surface was simple and easily worked through. The path from there to the building required some effort. Alistair pulled up a plot of all spaceport approach and air control sensors. It showed the area outside the city’s immediate surroundings to be sparsely covered. The only area of concern was the entrance to the eastern mouth of the valley. They would have to be literally at tree top level to be shielded from the sensor. One of the pilots looking at the display saw a pass from the other side of the mountain ridge, practically into the building’s parking lot. He suggested flying on the north side of the range and turning down that pass to come at the building from the north. On their way out, they could take the more direct route.
Mary felt pretty good about their chances for success. Again, everything depended on dropping out of FTL at the right time and catching the K’Rang unaware.
* * * * *
Shadow Leader G’Motta surveyed his new command on the second moon, V’Kina. He walked through a large multi-story, bowl-shaped room with tiered circular rows of computer terminals, all facing a central large holograph projector. The projector displayed the space in and around the home system. An unusually short shadow leader led him into an expansive office with a glass wall overlooking the main room.
Shadow Leader F’Rer, a diminutive Shadow Leader, guided him through and spoke to him in a slightly shaky voice, “Shadow Leader G’Motta, I am assembling your primary staff to brief you on our operations. It will take a few moments to gather them together. All have been working in their sections to improve targeting efficiency, sensor response time, gun lock-on times, and damage control drills. We learned a few things from targeting that scout ship a few days ago and are attempting to apply them. Is there anything I can answer for you while they gather?”
“The first thing you can answer is why am I waiting?”
“Sir, we were not informed of your appointment or arrival. The shuttle schedule has been irregular ever since the scouts fired on and destroyed two shuttles, in retaliation for killing their colleagues. It was a mistake to fire on that scout ship. It gave away our maximum range. Your predecessor was on one of the shuttles that were shot down. Ah, I see we are gathered. Please follow me, sir.”
G’Motta walked into a large conference room with a circular table. A holographic projector occupied the open center. All personnel stood at attention behind their chairs. G’Motta stepped up to the first to the right of his chair and asked his name and duty title. He walked all the way around the table. When he arrived back at his seat he told them all to sit.
“Gentlemen and Lady, I am Shadow leader G’Motta, formerly commander of the lead task force in the Eridanus sector, most recently Aide de Camp to Elder J’Kol. I am your commander. I understand I’ve come as a bit of a surprise to you and have dragged you away from your duties, duties meant to make this facility more effective and more lethal. I wish to encourage this. You are all released. I will come find you to get a briefing from you individually.”
He called over F’Rer and had him schedule 15-minute briefings plus questions for the next six hours. He started with the operations section immediately outside his window wall.
G’Motta walked to the operations officer, H’Geta, and asked him to quickly describe his section. He pointed out into the room and showed how the computer terminals were organized into thirds. Each third controlled the emplacements of one of G’Durin’s three moons. The bottom row of terminals controlled the long-range sensors looking out farthest. The middle row controlled prioritization of inbound targets, deciding in what order targets would be engaged. The top row controlled the guns, actually aiming and firing them.
G’Motta asked, “How many targets can be engaged at once?”
“Shadow Leader, six guns per moon can engage 18 targets every minute. It takes 45 seconds for the guns to recharge and 15 seconds to aim and fire the guns. The guns were designed to take out major combatants, but I do not know how they will do against the smaller Human fighters and attack ships.”
G’Motta thanked H’Geta for the information and moved on to engineering. There he met Y’Fira, the chief engineer. He asked him to explain his function. Y’Fira described his function as maintaining the power systems for the three emplacements. Dual matter/anti-matter generators, each capable of powering the facility by itself, powered each emplacement and the control facility. Redundancy was built into every aspect of the emplacements. G’Motta asked if there were any critical functions or capabilities that were not redundant. Y’Fira said that the operations center was the only single point of failure in the complex. If the Humans took out the control center, the gun emplacements would go silent. G’Motta thanked him and moved on to the next section.
Most sections conducted routine support functions. He quickly worked his way through them in 15 minutes or less. His last stop was through the connecting tunnel to one of the actual gun emplacements. He walked under the magnificent guns in their mounts, capable of breaking the back of even the newest battle cruisers out to half a million kilometers. When he returned to the operations center, he asked why the command to fire on the scout ship was given. The operations officer explained that the former commander did not expect to hit the scout ship, but was attempting to chase it off when it turned into the blast and just disappeared. They were all astounded that the guns were effective that far out.
G’Motta thanked him and called the operations officer and his supervisors into his office, to give them the benefit of his recent experience against the Humans. He told them of the different classes of ships from frigates to destroyers to cruisers and the deadly carriers. He spoke of the attack ships from the small carrier-launched attack ships, the fast attack ships that fly like fighters, and the large slow attack ships that come in relentlessly and launch hundreds of missiles at a time. He sat down with them and worked out how to fire on each type of target on the basis of the target characteristics, threat, priority, and capability of the guns
to track and fire. After his first day as commander, he felt he had added value to the command and improved operations.
* * * * *
Kelly was in his cabin when there came a knock on the door. He said, “Enter,” and Connie stuck her head in the door.
“We’re almost there, sir.”
“Fine, sound general quarters and prepare to come to 0.9c.”
Kelly came out of his cabin as general quarters sounded throughout the ship. He took his position in CIC, as crewmembers rushed to their battle stations. He mentally timed them as “Ready!” reports came in from all sections.
Connie, on the bridge, gave the order to come to 0.9c. The Orion smoothly decelerated to just under FTL. The star of the K’Rang home system shone brightly dead ahead. Sensors operators automatically found and categorized all targets around them.
Kelly said, “Sensors, call out all targets.”
The senior sensor operator called out the five 1st and 2nd Combined Fleet’s scout ships, two 1st Division scout ships, and no hostiles.
The Valiant was the first to ping Orion’s IFF and hailed them. “Welcome to the party, Commander Blake. None of our other guests seem to have arrived.”
Kelly read the name of the Valiant’s captain off his screen and replied, “How long have you been here, Lieutenant Commander Groenier?”
“My ship and the Vicious got here yesterday. The Volatile and Victorious were here when we arrived. The Vengeful and Vanguard came in an hour behind us. There’s not much going on at the moment. The only activity was the moon shuttle up to the big moon early today. We’ve been knocking them off for shooting the Velocity. They only fly when they have all three moons able to provide cover fire now.”
