by Chris Hechtl
“Pass,” Jack said.
“Someone's getting cheeky,” Debby replied with a look at the A.I.
“No, I'm experimenting with how precise I need to be with you organics,” the A.I. replied.
“Sure you are,” she drawled.
They had the two colliers and two tankers in orbit, along with a bunch of dispatch ships. One of the colliers was loaded with supplies. The other was mostly empty.
Jack wanted to change that.
“We've gotten a request to expedite a resupply mission with the collier,” Jeeves reported. “One of the tankers is to go with it back to Janus to refuel the fleet. We have a list of parts they want as well. And I'm getting a request for priority repairs for the two destroyers,” he reported.
“Hmm,” Jack said as Sharif groaned.
“The destroyers have minor damage. Most of it is deferred maintenance that is overdue to be processed,” Jeeves said, interpreting Sharif's groan as one of support for the crew. “No casualties reported on either vessel.”
“Well, that's good to know,” Debby replied.
“Lay on a signal to the carrier,” Jack said.
“The Shinyo. She is thirty-four light minutes out, Governor,” Jeeves warned him.
“Then record this. Captain …”
“The captain is Captain Rubicon,” Jeeves replied in a text file for Jack's implants.
“All right, Captain Rubicon. We've just received Admiral Kepler's orders to expedite a refuel and resupply of your munitions' collier. I'd like to modify your orders. Call it a humanitarian mission …”
(@)()(@)
Captain Rubicon and Captain Beaudry reluctantly signed off on modifying their orders and sending one of the other colliers to Janus with the munitions' collier and tanker. Jack made certain his people sent along care packages to Janus after he got word of how bad off they were. He also had them pack materials for the prisoners as well as supplies for the Marines and militia there.
The collier was filled and cleared the station as the munitions collier bellied up to the space station. The missiles were kept in platforms off of the space station for safety and security reasons. Tugs moved them into the cargo bays while personnel moved food and other supplies through the ship's docking ports to the station.
Within twelve hours the collier was packed to the brim and ready to depart.
(@)()(@)
News of the victory spread through the planetary news channels like wildfire. The Tauren POWs had access to the news network. Through the translation programs, they found out about the battle. Broken Tooth shook his head at the news.
Sergeant Dorsi entered the compound to see some of the bulls morose again and others clearly distressed. “Something I missed?” the bear asked, turning to Broken Tooth.
“Is it true? The battle?”
“Ah, you heard about that?” the sergeant asked warily. Clearly, someone hadn't filtered the newscasts he thought, kicking himself for the oversight.
“Yes. Is it true the fleet has run away? Defenders are supposed to lay their lives down to protect a herd world!” Broken Tooth said, working his jaw.
“Apparently, someone forgot to tell them that. They didn't like how the battle was going and left,” Sergeant Dorsi said. He went on to stress that the losses were light.
“What they will do with the captives? Broken Tooth asked, hanging his head.
“For those who surrender, we will contain them and feed them as we have with you,” the sergeant replied gently. “We will not harm any who surrender.”
Getting them to surrender was the trick he thought as the Tauren looked away and the breeze picked up. He'd heard reports of the fighting on the planet.
“Will you bring them here? Or us there?” Broken Tooth finally asked.
“I don't know; such decisions are not mine to make,” Sergeant Dorsi said.
“Can you find out?” the Tauren asked, turning to him to look at him.
The sergeant nodded slowly. “I will try.”
“Thank you.”
“Which do you prefer? Going to them or the Taurens coming here? To be honest there are a lot fewer of you here, so it would be easier to move your group. But I don't know how welcoming the planet over there will be. The Terran survivors there are … angry,” he finished lamely.
Broken Tooth nodded. “Perhaps we can do something about that. Build bridges as you have with us. Maybe they will allow our people to live in exchange for helping to rebuild their world,” he said.
The Neobear noted the change in possessive pronoun. It was an interesting thing, something others may not have noted, but he'd had a few lessons from the Navy spook.
“That's a good idea. Can you take it to your leaders here? Have them come up with a formal proposal? I'll do the same from my end. I can't make any promises, but at least it will get some people thinking about the idea,” he said.
“Agreed,” the Tauren replied with a nod of relief.
(@)()(@)
Janus
Admiral Kepler was amused when she got word of the resupply mission in the morning report. The munition collier had made good time on her return; apparently, Governor Lagroose had expedited her resupply. But he hadn't stopped there. The tanker was in company with the ship, as was one of the other colliers. She scanned the report as she sipped her first cup of coffee. She nodded in approval when she read the notation about their cargo. All three ships are fully laden with cargo and supplies. In fact, they were stuffed to the deck heads with fresh supplies not only for the fleet but also survival material for the surviving population below. That would be a big help she thought as she looked up to the sound of her steward slipping into the wardroom with her breakfast.
“The colliers are bringing in fresh food, Abe,” she said with a brief smile as she set the tablet down.
“Which will be much appreciated,” the steward murmured as he slid the tablet aside and placed her plate down. “We are nearly out of fresh fruit and I've tried to find a supply from the ground but there isn't any worth having,” he said with a shake of his head.
“Well, we'll see what they've sent,” she replied as she picked up a fork to dig into the omelet he had crafted.
(@)()(@)
Cristi was still wrestling with everything going on, all the changes. Her emotions were finally settling down, but it was hard. It was even harder to deal with people who were bitter that the aliens were getting almost the same treatment as her people were.
She was tempted to ask to pull up stakes. The admiral had offered it in sympathy when she'd heard about their losses. There were few structures left to live in. Some of their hardware was still being found and rebuilt, but it was hard—take for instance her sister and the truck Arjen had found and she'd rebuilt. She shook her head. It was running; she gave her sister that much. Keeping it running though …
Sometimes she thought it would be best for everyone concerned to just pull them all out and ship over to Pyrax. But her pride refused to go that route. She knew it was stupid. Winter was coming, but … no. This was their world; they'd endure.
So, she was still confused as to why the navy had wanted her on hand at the crack of dawn when the new ships had arrived in orbit. They'd asked her to bring along some extra hands, but she hadn't wanted to pull people off the projects they were on. Many were working on trying to build shelters with the Marines or plant what they could before the fall killed the crops.
When she saw the first of three shuttles touch down, she whistled. She hadn't seen such activity since the Marines had landed. Her whistle stopped abruptly as she realized the first wasn't a personnel shuttle but instead a cargo craft.
Her brows knit in confusion as it taxied over to the improvised taxiway the Marines and Navy had built in the spaceport. Her confusion doubled as the craft parked just as a similar shuttle touched down on the runway and a third lined up for its own landing. When she saw the boarding ramp of the first shuttle drop her, confusion ended. “Oh!” she said one hand
to her mouth.
“Courtesy of Eden,” the Neochimp cargo master said with a tight-lipped smile as he handed her a clipboard. She turned to sign it dumbly as Marine personnel moved in with machinery to help with the unloading. “What is it?” she asked, sketching her signature.
“There is a message too,” he said, pointing to a line. She frowned and looked at the tablet then had to angle it so it was out of the sun so she could read it easier.
“What are neighbors for?” she asked, wrinkling her brow in fresh confusion. “Signed Governor Lagroose?”
“The Marines have their own resupply but about a third of the cargo coming in is yours,” the cargo master said, taking the tablet. “So, where do you want us to put it?”
“A third …?”
“Yeah. About seven hundred tons actually. Food, some gear to help your rebuild, and survival gear,” he said, checking the cargo manifest again.
“Um, yeah, um, let me make some calls,” Cristi said as excitement raced through her. She waved to Bogi who had been tinkering with the old truck she'd found and repaired. Bogi turned and looked at her with a puzzled frown. When Cristi waved with both hands for her to come over, Bogi rolled her eyes and stomped over to find out what was going on.
“You're going to need more trucks than that,” the cargo master said as the second shuttle lined up next to the first and began to drop its ramp. He shook his head and went over to the team unloading to point to an area to unload until the civilians could get their act together.
(@)()(@)
Pyrax
The arrival of reinforcements in Pyrax brought a sudden quickening of the heart to everyone. The initial fear of an enemy force attacking was quickly followed by intense relief when Jeeves received the IFF from the ships that had arrived.
Second fleet had gotten a second task force to kick off the next phase of the offense. Two battleships, Potemkin and Misaka, were welcome sights, but so were the two dreadnoughts, Bayern and Aki, along with the four carriers, four escort carriers, sixteen cruisers, eight destroyers, two converted colony ships turned troop transports, plus a generous fleet train.
Admiral Lawrence Rutledge was in overall command. He took his forces to orbit of the planet and bluntly requested a resupply and informational download that Jack and Captain Rubicon were only happy to oblige with.
Instead of sending one of the Terran dispatch ships with news of the arrival to Janus, Jack convinced the admiral to send the news by way of the Tauren dispatch ship already stationed at the jump point instead of waiting the five days it would take for a dispatch ship to leave orbit and get to the jump point.
Captain Yeo Kun Lin and his crew were excited to finally give the little ship a shot. They got underway as soon as they received the orders.
(@)()(@)
Janus
The arrival of the Tauren dispatch ship spooked Second Fleet. They thought the worst until they got the IFF from the ship followed by the download of the ship's log and message traffic. Jan felt intense relief when she got the news from the dispatch ship of the relief force.
“Finally!” Willard said triumphantly. Word spread quickly across her bridge and through the ship. She knew it would be all over the fleet within minutes. That just left some chores she had to do.
“It's time to get in there and shut them down permanently before they have time to adapt,” Jan said firmly as she started to write a series of fresh orders.
Jan frocked Captain Bao to the rank of commodore. She knew she would have to leave Republic and a CEV with a pair of destroyers and a dispatch ship to picket Janus. The captain, now commodore, was long due for a promotion, as were most of her officers and crew. She would leave him in charge of Janus in case the enemy had some sort of reinforcements in the pipeline. A similar arrangement was going to have to be made in Pyrax before she went on the offense she thought. When she was finished making arrangements, she ordered General Falcon to pull up half of the Marines. The militia, natives, and remaining Marines would have to hold the fort on their own.
Once she was certain her arrangements would work, she sent the dispatch ship back to Pyrax with orders to bring the reinforcements to her.
“While they are whistling up our reinforcements, we're going to work on a plan. I know we don't have a lot of intel. Hopefully, that will change. But until then we need to work with what we've got. So,” she turned to Ensign Lex. “Lex, work with Alton. Pull up everything we've got on the home herd worlds, specifically the closest one to us. Most likely the enemy will try to stand and fight there. We'll need a menu of plans.”
“I think we can base some of their industry on what we saw here,” Willard supplied. “Just expand on it.”
“By what factor?” the A.I. asked.
“We don't know the age of the colony. I'd go with a hundred times what we saw here,” Willard mused. “And we don't know of any fixed defenses. I think we’re better on the side of caution and count them in until we know differently,” he said.
“And remember, we've been sending reports back to Sol. Undoubtedly, the Taurens have been doing the same. We don't know if they've come up with more fighters and bombers, but I'm betting they have. So, we need to factor that in as well as a large amount of missiles,” Jan stated.
“Aye aye, ma’am. It is sounding like a tough nut to crack,” Alton said.
“I know. We'll get more when we get with the scouts,” Jan said firmly. “Now, let's see what sort of rabbits we can pull out of our hats.” She frowned, then shook herself. “One thing—I want some Tauren representatives with us. Pick a few and make sure we are on good terms with them and that we've got enough supplies to get them through to their own worlds.”
Willard nodded, but she could tell he wasn't thrilled about the idea. She ignored it. “From what I've read in the dispatches and the bio that the admiralty sent along to us, Admiral Rutledge is battle line. He'll be in charge of the battleships and dreadnoughts. That will leave me in command of the carriers, and Seong will be in control of the screen. How can we use that to our advantage? A pincer?” she asked, turning to Alton. “Pin the enemy between our carrier wings as a hammer and the battle line as the anvil?”
He nodded slowly. “It's an idea to keep in mind, ma'am. I guess it depends on what we find on the other side. I think we can also …”
(@)()(@)
Pyrax
The dispatch ship arrived with orders for the reinforcements to join Second Fleet in Janus and go on the offense. Admiral Rutledge immediately issued orders for his people to get ready to get underway. All planetary leaves were canceled, and a general recall went into effect within minutes of his reading of the orders. He even called in Captain Beaudry and two of the three repair ships to go with his own fleet train. That would give Second Fleet four repair ships. Cadmus was ordered to remain behind to continue building missiles and components with the civilians.
When Jack got the word, he had his people pull out all the stops and stuffed them with as much supplies as his people could manage. “One way or another we're sailing as soon as the last sailor and Marine is back onboard,” Admiral Rutledge stated.
“Understood. We're expediting the transfer as quickly as possible, Admiral,” Jack replied.
“Good,” the admiral said before he disconnected the circuit.
The news agencies covered the frantic resupply mission. Emotions from their viewers were mixed; some were ecstatic by the sight of the ships but worried that they were leaving. Others were also happy at the sight of the ships and happy to see them on the offense.
Jack was caught by a reporter who pounced on him as he picked Alyssa up from school. “Governor, your thoughts on the fleet leaving?” the reporter demanded.
“They are going to kick ass. We've done what we can to support them. Now it is up to them,” he said simply as he steered his daughter into the car.
(@)()(@)
A week after the fleet had departed the star system, Thales arrived in the star system with an alien s
hip in company with them. The picket was covering the southern jump point so the unexpected arrival to the east was a surprise.
Jeeves' sky watch program alerted the picket and shared the data with them, alerting them of the arrival.
“What the hell?” Captain Rubicon demanded when he got the news. “Is it Tauren? What are they doing here?” he growled as the ship came about and focused her sensors on the new arrivals.
“No, sir. A new species,” the XO said, shaking his head as he put up an image of the vessel. The range was long but the computers handled it easily, enhancing the image to show the alien lines of a beetle-like vessel. It had curved nacelles jutting out from it at odd angles.
“Well, this ought to be good. I hope they have a damn good explanation for showing up with their new … friends,” Captain Rubicon growled. He turned to the communication's section. “Lay on a laser to them. I want to know what they have to say. And while you're at it, let the planet know we've got company.”
“Aye aye, sir,” the rating replied dubiously.
Chapter 39
2245
Rolling Meadows
The Tauren Fleet exited the hyperbridge to their home sector and then took time out of hyper to resupply the fleet. The effort was expedited, not only due to their own sense of urgency but also due to the changes wrought in the fleet by the upgrades. The Alpha bull was tempted to set up an ambush at the site but his last ambush had fared poorly and still stung in his mind. No, he needed to fall back on a place where he had to defend.
Seven eight of days later the fleet arrived at the nearest Tauren home herd world of Rolling Meadows.
Upon emergence, the sensor ratings reported a massive sighting of neutrino and gravtech signatures. As their long-range sensors began to clear their hyper wake, it became clear what those sensor sightings were.
The home herd worlds had taken the Alpha bull's warnings seriously enough to assemble half of the fleet there in Rolling Meadows for a push back. The Alpha bull saw an eight of great defenders and lesser defenders in orbit of the planet as well as the support ships and cruisers and sighed in intense heartfelt relief.
