“Alright! Extend it up now!” he told his team. Several of them managed to get underneath the nose of the long cylinder and started walking it into position. The base of the cylinder slid across the regolith until it clanked against the tower and then they walked their hands down the tube, raising it upward, reminiscent of the Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima in World War II.
Five more minutes and there was a twelve-meter-long rocket standing upright and locked onto a launchrail that was ratchet-strapped to a flatbed LoonieCartII. Hamilton looked a hundred meters down the road in front and a hundred meters behind them and there were two similar sights. That made him smile. The plan was coming into place. They just had to get the job done before the Ueys figured out what they were doing.
“Make sure the launch lugs are tightened down on the rocket, but not too tight on the rail. They have to slide!” Alton ordered them. “David, you watching all this?”
“Yes, Mr. Mayor, it looks like all is going together as planned,” David’s voice sounded back to him through his suit speakers. “And you should know that Schooner’s A and B have attacked and it looks like all of the UNE Forces are being surrounded in North Dome as we speak.”
“Great news!”
“Captain Blalock!” The young lieutenant commander turned from his station. “The convoy moving westward on the old gravel road has stopped.”
“We have current eyes on them, yes?” Blalock asked.
“Sir.”
“Bring up the latest video we have,” he ordered and sat still in his command chair waiting patiently. Blalock had been ordered to keep an eye on them, but intel reports suggested they were headed to North Dome to join in the fight. Blalock hadn’t figured they’d make it before the fighting was over.
“Here, sir.” The reconnaissance video popped up on the screen in front of them and they could see the old gravel road that ran from Luna City to Aldrinville that nobody used any longer. The convoy of three flatbed trucks and several LoonieCarts had spread out and there were troops scurrying about.
“What are you up to?” Blalock said to no one in particular. “Zoom in on that central truck.”
“Yes, sir.” The video zoomed in, revealing several of the soldiers lifting a long tube upright nearest some type of construction they’d put together on the side of the larger flatbed truck. “Hold one second, sir. Video is transferring to the next orbital platform in three, two, one.”
The video went black for a few seconds and then reappeared. Blalock knew it was from the lack of complete lunar surface coverage from the constellation. The blockade had a good seventy space vehicles at a one-hundred-kilometer orbital altitude spread over most of the entire sphere of the orbital inclinations. But there were some gaps in the recon view here and there. The gaps were short lived and the system handed off from one spacecraft to the next as one passed by and another moved into place.
“There! Look at that.” Blalock pointed at the screen. “Zoom in there to max view.”
“Sir.”
“Well, looky here. The Loonies have built themselves a rocket. I think they’re gonna try and shoot us down with that thing.” Blalock laughed out loud. It wasn’t quite a guffaw, but rather a laugh of disbelief.
“Is that even possible, Captain?”
“Well, yes, I suppose it’s possible. But three rockets against over seventy ships? Sounds like some symbolic gesture or stunt if you asked me.” Blalock thought about it for a second and couldn’t get any ideas as to why the Loonies would waste such an effort. “Well, we can’t let them just take potshots at us, can we? Helm, locate the nearest three birds in the constellation that can deorbit and strafe that location.”
“Got it, sir.”
“Dispatch them.”
“Sir.”
“Mr. Mayor! We’ve got ship movement in the constellation!” David’s voice came over the long-range net-encrypted channel. They didn’t trust those channels hadn’t been hacked by the Ueys but communications had to happen even if the enemy might be listening. “The radar system at Luna Thirteen and at the Aldrinville Dish site detected three of the blockade ships in the constellation applied delta-vee burns and are deorbiting. The radar guys at Aldrinville said they ran a filter on their tracks. They’ll be in firing range of you within the next twenty-two minutes. You can probably see them already.”
Alton turned and could see one of the men pointing upward at the blockade ships. There were two of them that appeared to be breaking from their orbit and headed their way.
“Alright. We have about twenty minutes before they can deorbit enough to be in range to fire on us! We have to keep moving and get the flight computers set up and ready for launch.” Alton looked at the timer in the upper-right corner of his visor and started it. “We were expecting this.”
“Sarah.” Alton changed channels. “How’s rocket two coming?”
“Rocket two is almost locked to the rail. Starting the electronics initialization now,” Sarah replied.
“Rocket three is almost ready, Mr. Mayor,” Carla said over the net. “Ready to synchronize the launch computers when you are.”
“Be advised that the Ueys have dispatched some ships. They’re on their way for us,” Alton warned the rest of the teams.
“I’m sending you the updated radar tracks, continuously,” David added.
“We see them. There’s time,” Sarah replied.
“He’s holed-up in the City Hall building, generals.” First Sergeant Meeks stood at ease in front of Nate and Tami, pointing down Dish Boulevard in the general direction of the town’s center. “We captured Suarez fifteen minutes ago. They’re rolling her in as we speak.”
“Great news, Shawn. Is McMillis still fighting back or just holding us off?” Tami asked her NCO. Nathaniel just listened and observed the battlescape map changing dynamically in front of them. The entire red color–designated forces were surrounded by blue lines, very thick blue lines, and there were just a few red-on-blue skirmishes scattered about.
“He’s fighting back from his cover point, but he’s trapped,” Meeks explained. “We also have some mopping up taking place here, here, and down here by Fountain Park.”
“I see.” Tami looked to Nathaniel as if he had answers. Nate shrugged.
“Hey, you and Alton are the masterminds of all this. But if you ask me, we need to capture McMillis alive. We need to have him surrender on video,” Nate said. “And Alton better come through for us on the blockade or none of this will mean anything.”
“I agree. Alright, then. Shawn, take the militia squads, and whoever else you need, and shut McMillis down. Once you get him to cease firing, call us.” Tami looked over at Nate and nodded approvingly. “I think we should also get teams to all the openings that were blown in the dome walls and start on repairs.”
“That makes a lot of sense to me,” Nate agreed. “I’ll get some engineers on that right now.”
“Major Carboni.” Lieutenant Gray shook the North Burrow militia leader’s hand. “There’s got to be seventy or more troops dug in down there. Any thoughts on getting them to throw their hands up and just quit?”
“Ha-ha-ha,” Carboni laughed. “Maybe we need to start playing old fashioned heavy metal over the city sound system.”
“Nah, they’d probably just like that.” Gray chuckled. “I suspect McMillis won’t quit as long as he thinks the blockade can swoop down and back him up at any time. We might be here at a standoff for days.”
“Well, then, Lieutenant, we’ll starve the bastards out,” Carboni replied. “I guess we need to be prepared for an overnight stay.”
“Moralles!” Lieutenant Gray called out to his staff sergeant. “You and Mallet get over here.”
“Yes, sir?” PFC Mallet was quick on the lieutenant’s heels.
“We might be here awhile,” Gray told them. “Isn’t there a pizza place about six blocks east of here?”
“Uh, yes sir, but I’m sure it’s shut down,” Mallet said.
�
��No shit, Private,” Moralles said with a raised eyebrow. “Chow duty, sir?”
“Chow duty,” Gray told the staff sergeant. “Pizza, sandwiches, whatever. Take a car if you need it.”
“On it.” Moralles turned to PFC Mallet. “Private, on me. We’ve got pizzas to cook. Ever turned on a pizza oven before?”
“What? Uh, no.”
“General, your Bravo and Charlie companies have been either wiped out or captured. Colonel Suarez is in our custody, currently receiving medical treatment for wounds she received during the battle. You are surrounded and if we make a push you have nowhere else to go.” General Tamika Jones spoke to the UNE Forces’ leader over an open video link. He sat with a scowl on his face and appeared to be chewing at his lower lip as his jaw tensed.
“What? Are you asking me to surrender?” McMillis literally spat to the side. “You don’t have me trapped. You are trapped. Here on the Moon, you are trapped! You can’t resupply. Your logistics lines depend on the kindness of Earth and unless we let anything through the orbital blockade you are at our mercy.”
“Be that as it may be,” Tami said slowly and methodically, parsing her words carefully so as not to lose her temper. “You are surrounded. And you cannot go anywhere. Please submit, General, so we don’t have to have more loss of human life today.”
“There will be more loss, Jones.” McMillis was seething with anger. “I’m calling into the blockade to rain fire down on Aldrinville, Luna City, and all the other colonies until you surrender. This little revolution is over. The United Nations of the Earth will no longer tolerate the insolence.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way, General McMillis. We’ll talk again soon. And, who knows, maybe in a bit you’ll have a change of heart.” Tami frowned and cut the video, not giving McMillis time to get the last word in.
“Well, that could have gone better, I think,” Nathaniel told her. “It’s in Alton’s hands now.”
“Yes, he better get on with it too.”
“Flight systems are synched up. Wi-fi signal between them is good,” Sarah and Carla separately confirmed from their stations. “We’re good to go, Mr. Mayor.”
“Alright, my clock shows the Ueys will be in range any minute now. No better time than the present. Let’s start the countdown on my mark. Five, four, three, two, one, mark!” Alton depressed the red button on the control panel and turned the key. The red button lit up and a green light on top of the panel turned yellow, then red. The clock on the panel started counting down from fifty-nine. “Fifty-seven, fifty-six, and counting.”
“Counting down on Two!”
“Counting down on Three!”
“Alright, listen, we can’t do anything more here. Everyone load up into the LoonieCarts and start heading back west toward the gravelpit entrance. We need to get clear before the Ueys start firing on this position.” Alton looked around to make certain he hadn’t forgotten anything. Hell, he wasn’t a rocket scientist. He was barely a good mayor, much less a mastermind revolutionary. But he knew to do a double check.
He motioned for the rest of the squads back and walked behind them as they boarded the vehicles. He stepped up on the back of the nearest cart and grabbed the cargo rack for a handhold. He tapped the top of the buggy with his right hand and the buggy started up. He watched the clock in his visor ticking down. The countdown for the rockets was at seventeen seconds. The countdown for the Ueys to be in range was at two minutes. The buggy jerked slightly as the high-torque motors turned the wheels against the soft lunar regolith. A bit of dust was kicked up but not enough to obscure his view of the rockets.
“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one . . .”
For a second Alton thought the rockets weren’t going to launch but then white smoke and orange sparks sprayed from the bottom and suddenly the rockets shot from the launch towers at extremely high accelerations. All three of them tore into the lunar sky, leaving behind a twisting trail. The smaller rockets along the base of them were canted at just the right angle to induce a spin on the rockets so they would be stabilized in the lack of aerodynamic forces from an atmosphere. The rockets flew beautifully.
“Stage separation should be any second,” Sarah said over the net. “Come on . . . come on . . .”
The buggy continued to accelerate westward as the rockets careened through the sky. The second-stage pyrotechnics fired, dropping the first-stage solid motors. A couple of seconds later the second-stage solid motors fired, pushing the rockets farther up and up. The trails of the three rockets spun apart from each other and appeared to be travelling in different directions. As they climbed Alton kept a watch on the telemetry feed coming back from them in his visor.
“Seventy kilometers and climbing,” he said. “Looks like velocity is currently at seventeen hundred meters per second and holding steady. Roll maneuver is about to go, right?”
“Roll maneuver any second,” Carla said.
“Mr. Mayor, the radar has the Ueys in range. Take cover,” David warned them.
“Altitude ninety-seven kilometers, ninety-eight, ninety-nine, engine burn out and . . .” Alton watched hopefully. The brightness of the engine burns was all he could see, but they were so far away now he wasn’t sure if he was seeing them still. Then a bright flash. “Telemetry reports detonation!”
“Detonation on all three rockets at altitude and velocity!” Sarah agreed jubilantly.
“Let’s get the Hell out of here!” Alton held on tighter and hoped the buggies could outmaneuver the orbital ships. “Take off road to the craters if we need to. Scatter and don’t give them any collective targets.”
“Captain Blalock!”
“What is it, Lieutenant Commander?”
“Sir, we just detected three explosions at one-hundred-kilometer altitude!”
“The stunt the Loonies were pulling,” Blalock said nonchalantly. “Have we got reports back on the mop up actions there yet?”
“Sir. Uh, no sir. B-but . . .” the lieutenant stuttered annoyingly. Blalock was going to have to have a talk with him about how officers carry themselves.
“Spit it out, Commander,” Blalock said impatiently.
“Sir, radar is detecting three very large expanding clouds of orbital debris. They are moving very rapidly over several inclinations!”
“Sir! UNE Rochester is taking on major damage and reports casualties,” the communications officer announced. “The Jiang Xhi reports catastrophic failure in life support.”
“What the . . . ?”
“We just lost the inspection station . . .”
“You clever sonsofbitches.” Blalock rubbed his chin, not believing what the Loonies had managed. “Call off the attack on the Loonies and evacuate all vessels from the blockade out past the two-thousand-kilometer mark.”
“Sir, at that altitude we can’t maintain stable orbits around the Moon.”
“I’m aware of that, nav. And I suspect the Loonies were quite aware of that too.”
Once the three rockets had reached one hundred kilometers’ altitude and an orbital velocity of over seventeen hundred meters per second, whatever was there when the engines cut off would be there in a stable orbit—just like the blockade ships. The nose cone of each of the rockets was filled with hundreds of thousands of millimeter-diameter iron pellets. Once the explosive charge in the nose cone detonated, the pellets were scattered into a debris cloud that would have relative velocities with any oncoming vehicles of at least a thousand meters per second. Every pellet was then a high-velocity rifle round. And most spaceships weren’t designed to take multiple impacts from that type of bombardment. Typical spaceship safety protocol was to detect debris fields and move out of the way of them before they hit and did any damage. If they didn’t move, the ships were destroyed and even more debris was spread about. Over time the debris clouds would spread uniformly about the orbital altitude creating a shell of nearly impenetrable debris. With no atmosphere on the Moon the debris field would be there pretty m
uch forever. This would make maintaining any orbital blockade of the Moon almost impossible. It would also make cargo and tourist trips to the Moon much more hazardous and would require calculated windows of takeoffs and landings. This way, nobody could come and go from the Moon without the help of global lunar radar debris tracking stations. What it meant was that there would be no more attacks from space. The Ueys and the Loonies would have to work together to maintain the Moon.
“Keep it moving, you Uey bastard.” PFC Mallet held a piece of pizza in his left hand as he nudged the line of surrendering UNE troops with the rifle in his right. “All weapons placed here in the pile. Explosives there. Nothing but suits. All visors are up.”
“Hands on your heads,” Moralles warned them.
Lieutenant Gray and Major Carboni stood behind their squads, watching them line the UNE soldiers up as they marched out of the City Hall building and surrendered. Several minutes passed and a car pulled up. Generals Ray and Jones got out of it flanked by First Sergeant Meeks.
“Has he come out yet?” General Jones asked Major Carboni.
“Not yet, ma’am.” Carboni replied. “But he can’t go anywhere.”
“Maybe he’s waiting to go last?” Nate asked with a shrug.
“No, he’s waiting on Hamilton,” Tami said. “The mayor is inbound. Any minute he should be here.”
“We’ll wait, then.”
Several minutes passed as the soldiers from Earth continued to file out into custody. The stacks of firearms piled up several meters high. Then a LoonieCart II rolled up beside them. It stopped, backed up and repositioned itself into a parking spot with a sign posted This Spot Reserved for Mayor Hamilton.
Battle Luna Page 32