by Daniel Gibbs
“Good shooting, Lieutenant,” David said. “Communications, contact the Dutiful and Colonel Dyson.”
“Aye aye, sir,” Taylor said. “I’ve got the colonel for you now, sir.”
Dyson’s face again appeared on the monitor above David’s head. “Colonel, I owe you my life a second time. As does my crew.”
Holding back a rueful smile, David shook his head. “Just doing my job. How bad is it?”
“We lost an Ajax and two Meades. That was the largest attack force yet. We were concentrating our firepower on the Rands and didn’t get any kills before you arrived.”
David exchanged a glance with Aibek. “Understood. We’ll dispatch medical and engineering teams to whichever ships need them.”
“Much appreciated, Colonel.”
“We’ll jump back to the other Merchant Marine group as soon we’re able to. The drive stressed a bit on the way over,” David said, choosing not to reveal how close they came to disaster. “I left a squadron of fighters behind to protect them, but I don’t want to leave those guys alone for too long.”
“Of course.”
“Once our respective freighters clear the final jump, I suggest we rendezvous and discuss how we can outwit our foe.”
“Absolutely, Colonel. We can meet back up at rally point Charlie in six hours.”
“Agreed. See you then, and Godspeed, Colonel Dyson.”
The screen blinked off, and David found himself back within his head. Who is this Leaguer we’re fighting? He or she is better than most I’ve seen from their side. More importantly, did they make a lucky guess, or did we do something that gave away our plans?
7
Doctor Hayworth threw a technical interface tablet across the engineering space while screaming. “You idiots! You almost destroyed my reactor with overuse of the damned Lawrence drive!”
Hanson stared impassively, doing the same thing he had for the last ten minutes: let Hayworth rant and stay out of the way. This guy’s ego is big enough to need its own planet. “I think the key word is ‘almost,’ Doctor.”
“Oh, is it? You would’ve died too!”
Nice of him to finally realize that. “We all would’ve died, Doctor. Colonel Cohen needed to bail out friendly forces. This job is about risks at times.”
Hayworth got two inches from Hanson’s face. “When you’re making decisions that affect the greatest invention mankind has ever made, you don’t risk it.”
“It’s not my call, or yours,” Hanson replied. “Why not focus on what we can affect? The Lawrence drive won’t recalibrate itself, and the reactor still needs a thorough safety check.”
“I’ll handle the reactor,” Hayworth said matter-of-factly. “Lawrence drives are beneath me.”
“Whatever you say, Doctor,” Hanson muttered and turned on his heel to walk off. He picked up a portable tool kit and walked off toward the assembly that shunted power from the anti-matter reactor into the FTL drive. Lost in his work as he checked the power flow regulator and safety interlocks, he didn’t hear Major Merriweather come up behind him.
“Major Hanson?” she said.
Hanson nearly took his head off when he jerked backward, slamming it into the console he had crawled under. “Uh, hey, Major.”
Merriweather chuckled, a wide grin on her face at his hijinks. “How’s it going?”
“Everything looks good, but I’m doing a second tier of checks just to be on the safe side. Anytime there’s exotic particle release, I like to be extra careful.”
She nodded and winked. “Of course. I would do the same if I were the chief engineer of a ship.”
“Would you hand me that scanner?”
“Sure.” She picked up the handheld structural scanner and handed it down. “There’s a reason we don’t do back-to-back Lawrence drive jumps except in abject emergencies.”
“Colonel’s boat. He gets to call it the way he sees it,” Hanson said as he ran a quick scan of the power interface. “Good news. No fatigue beyond normal wear and tear.”
“Doctor Hayworth does make a good point. This is the only functioning anti-matter reactor powered warship, or ship at all, for that matter, in the Terran Coalition. It has to be protected.”
Hanson pushed himself out from under the console and sat up. “I don’t see an undue risk being taken, Major Merriweather. If we’d done another jump after this one, then yes, I would have insisted on an engineering stand-down. I’ve no interest in dying in a blaze of glory and be someone whose ship was lost to a Lawrence drive mishap.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to question you.”
I may have overreacted there. “No, I’m a bit tense. I’m sorry I bit your head off. On a different subject, why haven’t you put in a fleet posting yet? I’ve heard you mention several times in the last six months you’d like to try your hand at chief engineer.”
“Oh, mostly because Doctor Hayworth still needs my help, especially with the smaller versions of his reactor soon to come out. Like it or not, anti-matter power will likely be my life’s work.”
“Not a bad legacy,” Hanson observed.
“I suppose not. What about you? What’s next after being the chief engineer of the Lion of Judah?”
Hanson grinned. “Haven’t much thought about it. I might try for command track at some point, but I don’t think I want to make the decisions that come along with the big chair. I’m content to fix the mousetrap so that others can find the mice.”
“Interesting way of looking at it,” Merriweather replied.
“Well, our drive is ready to go with another hour of cool-off. I think I’ll let Colonel Cohen know and move on the next issue on my list.”
“Always another problem to solve, isn’t there?”
“Always,” Hanson replied as he stood. “Good seeing you, Major. I wish you continued success with the doctor.” I still don’t understand how she stands him.
Kenneth pressed the chime outside of David’s day cabin on deck one as the hatch was closed. It swung open, and Aibek’s massive Saurian form was directly in front of him.
Aibek gruffly pushed by. “Good morning, Mister Lowe.”
“Good morning, Colonel Aibek. Sleep well?”
Aibek paused and cocked his head to one side toward Kenneth. “Saurians require far less sleep than humans, so almost all nights, I sleep well. You know this, yet you persist in asking me. Why?”
“Small talk, sir,” Kenneth replied.
“Ah. Carry on,” Aibek said and stalked off down the passageway.
“Come in, Kenneth!” David yelled.
Kenneth ducked under the hatch, thanks to his height of over two meters, and presented himself in front of David’s desk. “You asked for me, sir?”
“Have a seat.”
Kenneth sat down in one of the chair’s directly in front of David’s desk and waited for David to speak.
“I’ve gotten some reports from both Colonel Aibek and Major Hanson that our contractor support has been less effective than usual lately,” David began. “I looked over your metrics, and while what we’re getting is far better than most, it’s off what I’ve come to expect from you. What’s going on?”
Kenneth sighed. I’ve been dreading him finally noticing. “This is going to sound stupid, Colonel.”
“Try me.”
“Remember Ms. Blackman?”
“I’ll never forget her,” David replied with a smirk. “There are few people I actively dislike. That woman is one of them. Don’t get me started.”
“Well, sir, she’s still in charge of our overall program. There’s been a push to bring another contracting firm in to supplement our efforts.”
“You know I hate contractor politics.”
“I do, sir. The problem is she’s insisting we add this other firm as a subcontractor to us, but I refuse.”
David sighed himself, closed his eyes, and looked up at the ceiling. “You realize I don’t have time for this, right?”
“That’s why I haven�
��t brought it to you, sir.”
“So why have you refused?”
“Because they’re woefully ineffective, have a poor reputation, and Ms. Blackman only wants them added because she’s in a relationship with the guy who would lead the project from their company.”
David’s face snapped down, and he stared at Kenneth with a look that bordered on rage. “That is preposterous and illegal.”
“I agree, sir, but it’s what she’s doing. Since I’ve refused, she won’t allow us to backfill people who find other jobs, get tired of being out in space for so long, or are injured and can no longer work.”
“Which is lowering the number of people you have to do the job and causing some things to be missed.”
“Yes, sir. I’ve been using overtime to make up for it, but at some point, the human brain becomes less able to do delicate work after it’s been going for twelve hours a day, seven days a week.”
“I get it,” David replied. “I don’t have time to deal with Ms. Blackman today, nor will I tomorrow. Once we put an end to these League raids on our supply lines, though… we’re going to have a very direct conversation with her. Clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Hold it together as best as you can and try rotating some people off. My suggestion to you would be to tell the XO and Hanson what’s going on and work with them to prioritize repairs. Get your people some downtime because we’re going to be in combat starting shortly.”
“Yes, sir, I’ll do that.”
“Very well. Dismissed.”
Kenneth nodded respectfully and stood up. He fought the urge to brace to attention and instead walked out the hatch. That didn’t go too badly. Just don’t want to distract David right now, especially with some petty nonsense. They’ve all got enough on their plates. He strode toward the gravlift and back to his office. God help us all.
“Welcome to our not-so-humble conference room, Colonel Dyson,” David said as he walked into the room, followed closely by Dyson, Amir, and Aibek. The familiar table and chairs had once been something of a wonder to him; no ship he’d ever served on had been so finely appointed.
“Impressive, Colonel Cohen. Nothing like a destroyer,” Dyson replied.
David gestured to the chairs. “Gentlemen, please have a seat.”
Once they’d all settled in, David continued. “Colonel, thank you for joining me. I thought it was best to discuss our strategy face to face. I’m concerned at what appears to be increasing concentrations of League ships.”
“Agreed,” Dyson said. “Every time we take one out, two more crop up in its place. That’s been our problem with the League from the beginning.”
“Quantity over quality,” Aibek interjected. “I’ve studied our foe and its history. Massed wave tactics which border on using sentient beings as cannon fodder with no hope of survival.”
“Not to derail our council of war on a history lesson, XO, but that’s been the calling card of government systems like the League throughout history. Human wave attacks where one person would have a weapon, the one behind didn’t, and when the first guy fell, the second would pick it up and keep fighting. Regardless,” David paused for a breath. “We need to strike a knockout blow to this particular battlegroup of Leaguers.”
“I’ve requested reinforcements, but command has told me they’re several days away, at best. Until then, we’ve got to hold the line and keep supplies flowing. The amount of parts needed for repairs, not to mention food and munitions, is staggering,” Dyson stated. “The slow bleeding of our merchant ships is starting to catch up too.”
“It could be why the League hasn’t attacked the station yet,” David mused out loud. “Weaken us first, then attack.”
“Perhaps,” Dyson responded. “Still, we’ve only got the ships we’ve got. I don’t see any other tactics besides what we did previously. My fast warfare group will escort one convoy; the Lion can escort the other.”
“What about combining the convoys into one unit?” Amir asked. “That would make them far easier to defend, would it not?”
“Unfortunately, they have two separate start points, Colonel Amir. It would add days onto the trip, and more stops where we could be ambushed.”
“I’m more worried about the fact the League seems to have very accurate information about where the convoys are inside of what is our space,” David said. “Have you discussed this with CDF Intelligence?”
“I have, but the answers have been less than illuminating. Their best guess is the League has populated our space with stealth drones.”
“The League’s stealth technology has never been anything close to on par with ours,” David replied.
“Except those mines…” Amir interjected. “Those were better than anything we have.”
“True. Very troubling and true. Thankfully, CDF Special Projects determined a countermeasure based on their EM signature through scientific sensors,” David said. “Still, we have the same problem we started with. Not enough ships and too much space to cover. Any ideas?”
Dyson and Aibek remained mute, but Amir spoke up. “I’ve got one, sir. It’s a bit out of the box.”
“I think we all know I’m a bit unorthodox,” David said with a grin.
“The same thing you did when we jumped out to respond to the distress call, except large. We time it so that we jump first, launch half of our fighter and bomber wings – more than enough to defend against the League formations seen so far.”
“And then after Dyson’s convoy jumps to its mid-point, the Lion preemptively joins his force, hopefully catching the Leaguers with their pants down,” David finished.
“That sounds pretty good to me, Colonel,” Dyson said. “I’d like to have some Marines standing by to storm any ships we might disable. Maybe get to the bottom of their fiendishly good intelligence?”
“Agreed,” David said. “Any objections or thoughts, people?” Receiving nothing but silence in return, David continued. “In that case, we’ve got our orders. Let’s get to implementing them.”
“Yes, sir!” Amir crisply replied, as did Aibek.
“Thank you, Colonel Cohen. Look forward to crushing these bastards with you,” Dyson said.
“Amen to that,” David said and stood, signaling the end of the meeting. “Godspeed.”
As the meeting broke up, David found himself walking back to toward the bridge. Something feels off with the League actions here. Perhaps they finally found some competent sector commanders, but I can’t shake the sense there’s something else going on here.
8
I thought I was in shape. Ruth dodged fallen branches and other obstacles in her way, thankful for the combat HUD and night vision optics in her helmet. After six hours of near constant hiking, the team had covered over thirty kilometers. They had used a vast forest for cover and were nearing its edge as the trees began to thin out.
“Keep up, cake eater,” Harrell hissed through the commlink into her helmet. “We don’t have time to lag. Daylight in four hours.”
Ruth rolled her eyes, though no one could see her. After all night with this guy, I’ll be cured of this ground pounder crap for the rest of my career. “Yes, Senior Chief.”
The symbol for “Hold” flashed through Ruth’s HUD. She immediately froze in place. “I’ve got several buildings about eight hundred meters away,” MacDonald said through the commlink. “Fan out, take covering positions. Rostami, get up here with your gear. I want ears on this farm yesterday.”
“Yes, Master Chief!” Rostami replied, his voice muted thanks to the commlink system.
The team spread out, while Ruth ended up next to MacDonald, hidden behind a tree and all but invisible thanks to the active camouflage system the suits they wore sported.
“Master Chief, looks like a decidedly low tech farm. I’m not detecting any power, any transmissions of any type, and no guards,” Rostami said.
Ruth scanned the farm herself with the onboard optical package in her helmet. It was just a
s Rostami had said, a nondescript farm in the what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. Do people live like this? I’d go nuts after three days. She noted a large barn some distance from the main house, along with multiple out-buildings.
“Wait a minute, Master Chief. I’ve got a powered vehicle approaching. Southwest quadrant,” Rostami continued.
“Can you get a fix on what it is?” MacDonald said.
Ruth turned her head and saw the headlights, plainly visible on the horizon. “League of Sol personnel carrier, Master Chief.”
“Crap. Maybe they saw us?” Mata posited.
“If they had any idea we were here, this place would have an entire army in it,” Harrell said in a haughty tone. “This is some security patrol. Mata here can smoke the entire lot of them before they know what hit ‘em.”
“Do not engage without my explicit order,” MacDonald cautioned. “Maintaining stealth is paramount.”
“Aw, shucks, I wanted to add to my kill count, Master Chief,” Mata joked back.
The vehicle came to a stop outside of the main house, and Ruth watched as two League soldiers got out. Identifiable by the black and gray uniforms they wore, she thought something was off about how they moved. The two men walked to the back of the vehicle and roughly pulled a third person out.
“I’ve got two tangos here, and what appears to be a civilian in distress, Master Chief,” Rostami said. “Confirmed, young woman. Possibly a teenager.”
Rage boiled into Ruth’s veins as she confirmed Rostami’s observations through her helmet optics. “Master Chief, we can easily dispatch these two. They look drunk to me,” she said. While she spoke, the Leaguers dragged the girl toward the large barn.
“Negative, LT. We’ll maintain overwatch.”
Ruth turned toward him. “They’re going to rape her.”
“I’d like nothing more than to waste the two mothers right here, LT. We do that, every Leaguer on this God-forsaken planet will be after us. Mission first.”