by David Nash
Any surprise we have is lost, as we have to assume the Kernel have some means of espionage.”
“We Mr. President?” I ask
“Yes we you dumb ass hick. And knock it off with the Mr. President bullshit. Don’t act like you weren’t planning on doing this without me, or that I was going to shoot you if you did not agree to tell me.” With that, Eastman pulled out a well-worn MEU (SOC) .45 out from his coat and sets it on the table.
“There,” He says, “Since it looks like I won’t have to turn your head into a canoe, I might as well lighten my load a bit. I love those old 1911 pistols, but damn they get heavy.”
“They are meant to be comforting, not comfortable” I say, “So since you’re not going to shoot me, and I am apparently crap at planning a war, do you wish for me to resign.”
“You are just stuck on stupid today aren’t you Davis. “He said shaking his head. “I can shoot you and say you were controlled by the Kernel and no one would bat an eye, we would build you a big statue and have a holiday weekend in your honor, but if you resign, disappear or go to jail I would have to tell why, and frankly, as dumb as you are, you have a good plan. What we are going to do is modify it a bit to ensure your amateur hour security is our strength and not our weakness. I will let you quit after you win but by everything that you hold dear you better win. Failure is not an option.”
With the hard part out of the way, President Eastman and I discussed high level strategy. It was decided that we could not fight a war on multiple fronts, and to collapse our lines back to Earth, Sedna and our two Space Ports. We would leave a detachment hidden at our planets to build internally within the planets themselves in order to create defenses and war supplies like combat suits and fighters. Our Terraforming operation is automated, so in that respect it doesn’t matter if we are present on a planet or not.
Furthermore, it was decided that as we liberated planets under Kernel control, all living biologics would be transferred back to Earth. We agreed that bringing Barkun to Earth would be a political hot potato, but this level of war demanded all biologics forget their differences and fight against the true puppet masters in our galaxy.
36
High Earth Orbit: Bridge of the Battle Cruiser PRS Cold Vengeance
I stand in front of the main screen inside the Tactical Operation Center of the Battle Cruiser PRS Cold Vengeance. Admiral Morse is on a side screen from the bridge of the battle cruiser. Admiral Bradly is beside me, in contact with his two brigade commanders.
“Alright, last chance, is everything ready?”
Each of my commanders gave an affirmative answer; I looked at the screen to address Admiral Morse, “Admiral, have you made contact with the Oort Fleet?”
‘Yes General, Admiral Stephens reported that RPS Dawn Rider is on station with jump coordinates calculated, With the communications delay they can be within defense range of Each in 15 minutes of the signal being broadcast.”
“Has Admiral Hunter reported in?”
“Yes Sir, he reports that the RPS Quiet Man is fully manned and all ships docked and functional, they are fully cloaked and are in areocentric orbit of Mars and are ready to jump, they can make an insisted jump to Earth within 5 minutes of the alert being broadcast.”
5 minutes is a long time when you are firing down on a defenseless planet.
“He has acknowledged his secondary position once the battle is won?” I ask Comms.
“Yes sir, he knows that as long as his ship is functional he is to jump to Cecrops once the battle is won and RPS Dawn Rider is on station.”
“And the ring forts?”
“All report fully functional, linked, with 1/3 of their fighters remaining on ready 1 status and the rest suited and on ready 30.”
“Well 150 fighters ready to fight within one minute will have to do. We can’t put it off any longer. Patch me through to the preprogrammed media list per operational order blue falcon.”
The screen came alive with them multiple images of the talking heads of the world. Coffee drinking Chuck’s face was promptly displayed in one of the center images of the screen.
“I spoke to them in a carefully rehearsed lie, which while necessary, sticks in my throat:
Hello people of Earth, I come to you in a time of great Danger, the Confederation has fallen and evil has come for all species. We do not face the extinction of man alone, but of our Centaurus allies, the Barkun, and what is left of our closest friends the Sangren.
The longer we sit in a defensive posture the more time the Kernel has to build ships, hive minds, and cyborgs that we will have to eventually fight.
For nearly a decade I faced the threats to Earth with the help of a few firsters, Most of them died earning Earth its freedom.
Now an army stands with me, with you, with the biologics of the universe. We must destroy the evil that is called the Kernel. If we don’t, all intelligent life we will be eradicated.
It is with great sadness that I must take the necessary action without the blessing of the Republic, and I do not lightly leave Earth without a Fleet in the space above.
However, until the sphere port in the Mars/Jupiter asteroid belt can build another Cruiser Force I must do just that.
Good bye Earth, the Legion will kill the Kernel, or you will not see me again.
With my last words the screen went blank and Admiral Morse jumped the Cruiser to hyperspace.
Transit Point to the Sangren System
RPS Cold Vengeance sits cloaked and silent at the last transit point to the Sangren system containing the Sangren home-world.
Joining me in the TOC were the entire remnant of the Sangren race, I place my hand on the shoulder of my old friend Rear Admiral Aegeus Alejandra Udom.
“Aegeus, you know you do not have to be present for this action?” I say gently.
The grey alien turns toward me and clasps my forearm with surprising firmness for such a spindly body. “My Friend, I appreciate your concern, but we can do no less than witness the finally moments of our race. Do not concern yourself with our feelings, as this is not the fault of humans. We look on this as a release of our people. The Kernel has already killed them. Do as you must General Davis.”
The other Sangren nodded solemnly in agreement.
“Helm, is our hyperspace generator fully charged?”
“Charged and rested sir. We have sat long enough to have full jump capability.”
I turn toward the screen showing the Bridge, Admiral Morse, is the Cold Vengeance ready?
“Yes sir. Ready and willing Sir.”
“Comms, what is the status of the other ships in the group?”
“All ships report good to go sir.”
“Admiral Bradly?”
“Sir, the Brigades are ready and willing!”
Alright put me on the big speaker.”
The 1MC whistles and sounds in all ship spaces aboard RPS Cold Vengeance and its docked Cruiser Battle Group.
“This is Commandant Davis. As you are well aware we are taking the offensive against a devious and evil collective of sentient computers, but what you don’t know is that our actions are not only sanctioned by, but we planned by President Eastman and Myself.” I pause as I gauge the shock on my TOC crew. “I know that is a shocking revelation to take into battle, but we are going to war, and I felt you needed to know the truth. I am proud of each and every one of my Legionaries, your willingness to fight with me, even though what you thought was an unsanctioned mission fills me with an unshakable appreciation for your sacrifice. As we go into battle, know that Earth is protected by two cloaked Battlegroups just like this one. We did not leave unprotected, we set a trap. The kernel thinks Earth is an easy target. They will learn the truth today.” Once again I pause to watch the faces of my staff as they take in my words.”
“Legion, what we do today is heart-wrenching, we are about to sterilize the home-world of our oldest allies, the Sangren have a history of sacrifice in the cause of protecting humanity.” I lo
ok to Aegeus and he nods at me. “The Kernel has taken over every living soul on this planet, and we are going to end their pain. Then we are going to start taking the fight to the mechanized bastards.”
“Once the Planets are free we will blockade Kernel prime and destroy the Kernel once and for all.”
“Legionaries, how do you feel about that?”
“Are you in? ALL IN!”
“ALL THE TIME!” The voices in the TOC were deafening, I could almost feel the shake as a little over 3500 warriors screamed out over the combined ships in the Cruiser Force.
“Admiral Morse, take us into battle!”
Part IV
Cry Havoc!
37
Earth System: Dome Space Port: RPS Quiet Man TOC
It has been 10 days since the General left the system. The expectation of attack is waning, and boredom is setting in making readiness suffer. This is where iron discipline makes a difference. The fighter crews are rotating ready 1 every 3 hours. The second third sits in the flight briefing rooms on ready 10, the third group in getting rack time at ready 30. Our flight crews are doing the same. I know sitting in a fighter for 3 hours is not comfortable, but the three hour rotation gives them 6 hours of rest per cycle.
Throughout the fleet, each legionnaire knows that an attack is imminent, but normalcy bias is a bitch.
It was almost a relief when we received the call from Ring Fort 1 saying the Kernel had arrived and a guardian ship and 10 Punishers had arrived and were moving toward Earth.
I signaled the bridge “Captain Cancio, sound General Quarters and prepare to jump to Earth!”
“Aye Aye, Commodore Morse, Sound Battle stations!”
Klaxons sounded throughout the ship as the lighting turned red.
A few seconds later my screen shimmered and the Captain became visible. ‘Sir, we are prepared to jump on your command, our predesignated jump destination is clear and we will appear between the Kernel Guardian and Earth!”
“Put me on the 1MC”
The 1MC whistled “Here it is, Legion protect Earth, cut down all those Punishers, and then focus on the Guardian!”
To the screen I say, “Captain, focus on the guardian! Jump at will!”
I felt the normal hyperspace shimmer and then we were in the middle of a battle zone.
We came out fighting. As practiced, the ships all broke free and gravity plates on the Cruiser pushed them away as they all turned to different attack vectors and began their individual missions. As soon as all ships were safely away the Quiet Man turned and began firing at the Guardian ship. The spherical ship was huge; the Guardian ships are massive warships, about 6 miles in diameter, which dwarfs the 1800 meter long Cruisers.
Cancio knew how to fight his ship, as Commodore to the entire Battle group; my job was to run the battle. This meant, realistically, that I was a glorified planner. My commanders knew the mission, and it was their job to accomplish it.
We had weapons placed down the sides of the cruiser, and they were highly effective against smaller ships, or so our designers said. However, they just could not cut it against such a huge weapon as a moon sized Guardian, I say moon sized, because while not as big as the Earth Moon, it was similar in size to Deimos, one of the moons of Mars. For something that big, we needed to use the spine rail gun. With a mile of room to accelerate, we could get the tractor trailer long projectiles moving at 3000 mph, the 1x10 meter iron slug weighed over 272 tons, but they hit with the kinetic energy of over 50 megatons of TNT.
Even with multiple reactors, the lights dimmed with each firing, you could feel the massive energy being released as the monster rounds blasted out of the nose of our Battle Cruiser.
Not only did our own rounds shake the mile long battle ship, the Guardian fire impacted on us as well. With the drain on our power supply from firing the rail cannon our shields suffered. Smoke hung in the air as wires heated and burnt under the enormous load.
Warnings populated my screens as hits breached our hull and damaged crucial systems, I pushed that out of my mind, as the ship was Captain Cancio’ s responsibility as I forced myself to focus on the battle.
As a whole we were winning, our ten destroyers were more than a match for the punishers, and the 320 fighters released from the 4 motherships were a massive offensive edge. Our spherical fighters we a huge improvement over the Kernel saucers and we quickly dominated the battle space, at least with the notable exception of the guardian.
We hit it several times, and did grave damage, but it was able to target multiple ships. Quiet Man traded punches like Trooper Thorn and Red Danagher. It is a brutal beat down of powerful shots being absorbed, with the winner being as much about how much you can take as how much you can give. While the Cruiser took the most damage, the Guardian ship’s point defense lasers destroyed fighters like they were ants to be burnt in a magnifying glass. We also lost 3 destroyers to the secondary weapons of the moon sized ship.
However, just as we were on the ropes, The Dawn Rider appeared behind the Guardian and without bothering to deploy its ships began firing straight into the Kernel vessel.
“Hell, it’s about damn time! Glad to see you made it!” I radioed to Admiral Stephens.
At just that moment, two motherships made a suicidal run at the mothership, it was almost out of a movie, one was shot down, but the other managed to fire one of our nuclear penetrator rounds into one of the craters made by the Quiet Man’s railgun. With the internal structure of the Guardian compromised, the nuclear warhead exploding deep inside the hull cracked it along the fault line created by the impacts of the two cruiser’s fire. More rounds, and two more nukes from the fighters broke the ship down completely, but after the first nuclear weapon the ship was no longer combat effective.
Admiral Stephen’s appeared on my personal screen. “Bret, you took some brutal hits, how’s your ship”
“Jasper, she did well for her first taste of combat, but she took a beating, it appears we will survive, but we are in for some long repair time.”
“Do you need us to switch missions?” My British counterpart asked.
“No, the General knew we would have battle damage. It’s my understanding that his intent was to leave the stronger of the two cruisers here to protect Earth. I don’t give a shit what comes out of the cookie catchers on those media bastards Davis would never risk Earth.”
“Well, at least let me swap motherships and replace your damaged destroyers. We have enough replicators in system that getting us back up to speed won’t take long, and it will leave to focus on your Cruiser.”
“I accept, send them over immediately, you know my orders were to jump as soon as practicable after the battle.”
“Well Brother, go write a story for a man to teach his son, and be remembered when cups are overflowing.”
“Jasper, just because you are British doesn’t mean you can butcher Shakespeare. But yeah man, I appreciate the sentiment, but don’t be jealous….”
“Screw you Yank!” He laughs
“Yeah Haters Gonna Hate!” I respond back jokingly then cut the feed, I have work to do.
38
Sangren System: RPS Cold Vengeance TOC
The Battle Cruiser jumps into orbit, to my relief, the intelligence gathered by our cloaked few hyperspace capable fighters is accurate, there are no guardian ships, just massive amounts of punishers and fighters.
It seems that the Kernel is using the enslaved Sangren’s to destroy their own planet to build and launch hundreds of saucer shaped fighters.
On a mass to mass ration, and even a ship to ship ratio the Kernel have the advantage, however, out fighters are greatly overpowered compared to their saucers. However, as smart as these computer despots are, they can’t match human creativity and pure seat of the pants flying.
For a moment I wish Captain Hickerson was here to see this. His charging directly into the mouth of 10 fighters was a thing of legend; however, I don’t have time for reminiscing. I have a battle to run
.
Inside my operations center, I have an officer that serves as a liaison to the CAGs on the motherships. He relays targeting orders, but we rely on the individual air group commanders to determine how best to accomplish those orders.
We know we are outnumbered, but that our strength is that were outgun the older fighter design. Therefore, our tactics are to double up on fighters, using our fighter spheres in two man teams. They mark individual enemy ships and overwhelm them. Our strategy is nothing new, Sun Tzu wrote of it hundreds of years ago, we attack an inferior force with a superior one. We use our strength against his weakness, and are able to obliterate the fighters. This quickly reduces their numbers so that we face a more numerically even force.
Unfortunately this does not work with the larger ships; we only have 10 destroyers and the Cruiser herself. We are facing 30 punishers. If we try to partner up we will be set on like a pack of wolves. Once again, instead of getting overly creative, we rely on the Art of War once more. We formed a tight defensive knot of ships; our destroyers parked themselves around the Cruiser so they could take advantage of its point defense and secondary weapons. Basically we tried to become a porcupine with all the main weaponry facing outwards.
With great skill we rotated around to target any ships careless enough to get in the path of the cruiser’s main rail gun. A single hit with the rail gun would destroy a Punisher.