Smoke on the Wind

by Sean Benjamin

  “With our plan, we will hit their home system for the first time in this war. Their civilian population has been spared any real involvement in the fighting. That will change when we hit the Metal Moon. We will also take out their base at Rurik and, if the numbers favor us, we will destroy the fleet stationed there. We will also eliminate one or both of their raiding task forces in the vicinity of Wanderlust if they decide to attack there. After our attack in their home system, their scared civilians will demand some of their military resources be dedicated to protect the home system. The leveling of their major base at Rurik will leave a hole in their defense of the home system that they will have to plug with continuous patrols while they rebuild the base. The destruction of one or both of their raiding task forces will reduce their navy and take one or two quality naval commanders off the board. I think all three are achievable, but we can declare a victory if we accomplish the hit on the Metal Moon in their home system. We get their civilians up in arms and there will be repercussions throughout the Orion Confederation. People not in the home system will figure that if the home system can be hit, any place can be hit, and those people will also demand protection even if they are on the far side of the Confederation. Although it is beyond the scope of my mission, if the Royal Navy starts hitting soft targets such as merchant ships, corporation headquarters, and economic centers, the OrCon navy would be hard pressed to cover everything. Even though they are not elected by the people, the OrCon government is still made up of civilians and civilians always think military people dying in a war is totally acceptable but, when civilians start dying in big numbers, then it is a whole new reality.”

  The Queen nodded. “I trust in your judgement, Black Hallow.” She looked at a clock on the wall. “Admiral Wu should have arrived by now.” She touched a button on her desk. “Is the Admiral here?”

  A voice answered immediately. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “Please ask him to step in.”

  “Of course, Madam.”

  A second later the door opened and the Chairman of the Military Establishment entered the room. Hawkins stood to shake hands amidst the introductions. Hawkins sat back down as Admiral Wu settled in a seat next to him. Both men turned their attention to the Queen.

  The meeting got formal. Alexis said, “I understand you received the ship list Admiral Wu sent to you.”

  Rafe nodded. “We got it a day out of Hartley. You have been generous with your ships. Thank you for that and for setting up the logistics to get all the commanders to Hartley.” Raferty shrugged slightly. “I know it is unusual for all captains to attend such a brief, but they need to see me and my people.”

  Now Wu entered the conversation. “I think that is a good idea. I have seen to it personally that transportation will get them there with as low a profile as possible. I do agree with your assessment that large formations of ships on the move is a development to be avoided. Destroyers and light cruisers are bringing the captains to you. Since the majority of these officers are coming from only a few areas, it won’t take that many ships to get the captains to you.

  Rafe replied, “Thank you for that, Admiral. Very kind.”

  Wu shook his head, “Not at all. I sense an opportunity for success here, and I want to support it as fully as possible. I wish it could be more ships.”

  Hawkins looked directly at Wu. “I’m very happy with this force. I know I will be getting good commanders and hard fighters. I thank you, and the Queen, for your support.”

  Alexis now said, “Let us discuss who you want from the Royal Navy to command within your forces.”

  Rafe nodded and replied, “Admirals Lawton Barrett and Trevor Levant and Captain Jack Wilson. I have personal experience with all three and like what I’ve seen. They are fighters and can act independently if required by circumstances. They are aggressive but also value their people. They will be determined in pursuit of victory but won’t be stupid.”

  The Queen smiled and nodded. “The two admirals have good reputations and Jack doesn’t within our navy establishment. However, I know Jack from The Academy, and he is a fighter. I love the man.”

  Alexis looked at Admiral Wu for his input while also managing to convey that a disagreement on his part would be a bad thing. The Admiral could see which way the wind was blowing here and, besides, he thought all three were good choices. “The three officers will be reassigned to the Duke.” He now hesitated and then plunged forward to an uncomfortable topic. “Regarding ship assignments, as you saw from your list of ships, the two independent squadrons are being assigned to your strike force. They are inquiring as to their assignments within your forces and have some ideas they wish to discuss with you.”

  Hawkins stared at Wu. Both men knew that the Defense Minister, Lord Cunningham, was behind the resistance the two squadrons were putting up. Cunningham was fighting for his political life but was doing what he could to save his private navy. The fact these two personal squadrons were even assigned to Hawkins showed how short of ships the Royal Navy was at the moment and that Cunningham’s political power was at a low ebb right now.

  Rafe gave a cold smile. “When I get into the habit of letting subordinate forces pick their own missions, I’ll be sure to let the Hounds from Hell and the Death Dealers know it. I also don’t like units that are on their own agendas, so we will be taking care of that problem on day one. I will be disbursing their ships among my other forces. I am also getting rid of their asinine names. We do have Wolfpack in my flotilla, but nobody gets to pick out a badass name for their squadron until they establish a record of success. I fail to see such a record in regards to those two squadrons.” He paused and stared directly at Wu. “Of course, I will be letting my three commanders choose their subordinate squadron commanders. I am positive the two admirals commanding those two squadrons will not be chosen so, with those two squadrons dispersed, I would have no need for those two admirals so you can have those men back to do with as you will.”

  Now Admiral Wu gave Hawkins a cold smile. The Duke of Black Hallow was doing exactly what Wu had been trying to do for months. The two squadron commanding admirals would be without support. The Defense Minister had personally selected the commander who had suffered the recent defeat at Excandor and, on a personal note, many of the company officials from his Aeonian Conglomeration were about to go on trial for slave running in the Badlands. He would not be able to protect his two admirals as he would be too busy protecting himself, his brother, his corporation, and his political career. Wu would destroy the two flag officers. The CME had had reservations about this whole Black Hallow episode, but he was now thinking all this might work out quite well. He talked in a friendly tone. “Your Grace, in addition to the two squadrons, your ships are coming from Home Fleet ships augmented by reinforcements from the Electra System under Admiral Levant. I just want to caution you that Home Fleet was greatly depleted in the recent fight, so it is not the force you may remember from your time at Wanderlust. They are anxious for a rematch so will be ready to go. There are five more ships not on the list we sent to you. As it happens, there are three Spinnaker destroyers and two Horse class light cruisers, fresh from sea trials, in need of assignments. I’m giving them to you.”

  Hawkins nodded. “Thank you for that. I know you must be stretched thin in several areas. I’ll assign the five new ships to the defense of Wanderlust. I don’t want to throw new crews in new ships into the deep end of the pool for their first taste of combat. They can fight at Wanderlust first.” Wu nodded in response. It was a smart move, and Wu was a bit surprised. He thought Hawkins might have no problem burning up Royal Navy assets for his own personal mission as he had no real connection to the navy and would return to the Badlands after the fight, so the battle’s aftermath and casualty lists would be irrelevant to him. He now saw that wouldn’t happen. Wu came from a navy family so considered himself as being in the Royal Navy all his life, and he loved the organization dearly. He had been apprehensive about Hawkins for that reason.
During this war, he had seen enough of his navy sacrificed for personal agendas. This wouldn’t happen under Hawkins. Yes, this Black Hallow appointment would be just fine.

  Rafe went on. “I assume you both saw in the plan that I’m going to put the shipboard marines back together as one unit, and they will do a ground assault at Rurik. They can take out all the underground stuff that an aerial attack would never get to. That will also resonate with the OrCons. They will have to devote some resources to enhancing base defenses against ground assault in the future.

  “I also want all the marines’ air defense systems you can spare. I understand the system is named Slingshot. I know some of these systems are on the ships coming to my force, but if there are any more systems around, I’ll take them.”

  Admiral Wu replied, “Slingshot is a portable missile defense system but it is short range and takes time to set up and load, approximately one hour. The anti-missiles magazine has a capacity of six missiles and then has to be reloaded. That’s quite a burden for your marines on Rurik given they are going to be pressed for time, and the fleet overhead should be able to protect them.”

  Hawkins shook his head. “It is not for Rurik. I’m going to set them up at Wanderlust to help protect the missile boats. I know the system is short range, but it can cover the boats in their low orbit with their interceptors. We’ll set up those systems just prior to the battle, and the OrCons won’t know they are there until the systems put out a defensive volley. Just another layer of protection for my freighters.”

  Wu replied, “I’ll send you every system I can lay my hands on. We should have some in the supply line and a few at the training school.” He changed topics. “I think we have your twelve derelict freighters. Seven are mothballed, but we can get them on line fairly easily, and they will be modified as you requested. The other five were found at various locations. We will get them all to Wanderlust as you requested.”

  Hawkins nodded. “Thank you for that. I want those freighters to sail into Wanderlust while creating much noise. Those freighters and the five new warships coming into harbor will make the OrCon spy ship watching Wanderlust think there are more warships there than is the actual case. I don’t think the OrCon raiders will hit Wanderlust until they hear of our attacks in their space, but you never know. If they find out Wanderlust is damn near empty, they may hit it before our own attacks as they take advantage of the window of opportunity. I hope they are fooled by the freighters and five warships moving in so will hold off until after our attacks.”

  The Queen had remained quiet as the two professionals had talked but she asked, “You think one of the OrCon raiding forces will hit Wanderlust?”

  Raferty shrugged slightly. “It depends on their locations in relation to Wanderlust, Madam. They must have some sort of intel gathering in the area. They have been raiding for over a month and haven’t been close to being caught. Someone or something is watching Wanderlust. My intel people think it is a spy ship augmented by passing commercial vessels. That ship will know when the Royal Navy ships assigned to my force depart Wanderlust, but she won’t know the destination. It will take them time to confirm we have departed the area into OrCon space. Once word of our attacks on the Metal Moon and Rurik goes out in OrCon message traffic, if the raiders are close enough, I think they will hit Wanderlust in retaliation while thinking the base is empty or near empty of warships that could defend it. Once they get the news of our attacks, they will know they have about four days before we get back to Wanderlust, and they will be anxious to take advantage of the opportunity to offset the defeats in the other two battles. I have a couple of other wrinkles I want to try at Wanderlust to help in the defense. We need to kill the majority of the enemy ships attacking Wanderlust because we won’t have enough warships there to pursue them if a significant number get away after the fight. I want to take out all the damn raiders, and this might be the only chance to do so.”

  Wu and Alexis nodded. Wu changed the subject. “Before I forget, I must thank you for the intel reports on the OrCons you have begun sending me from your own sources. I must admit I am impressed. Although we have only been receiving reports for a short time, it is clear your OrCon intel system must be well placed to get the information on enemy forces and their operations that you have provided.” Wu gave Hawkins a knowing smile. “One might even think you have a spy ship off Rurik.”

  Rafe gave back the same smile. “Since spy ships are outlawed by a variety of treaties and agreements, they can’t possibly exist so I could never steal one and, of course, building one is far beyond our capabilities, so we couldn’t possibly have such a ship. We’re just taking an educated guess about Rurik traffic.

  “As far as the Moon, we have had informants in the OrCon merchant fleet for years, and they have passed through the Metal Moon many times. That made getting its specifications easy. Getting insight into what ships will be there when we hit the place will be a challenge. We are going to have a man there for two days preceding the attack. It is the comm between him and our force in subspace that is the problem. We will have him do a burst transmission just prior to our force entering subspace roughly twenty-four hours before the attack. Not the greatest answer, but we’ll have to make it work. Regardless of the situation, I can’t imagine our destroyers going all the way there and Jack Wilson calling off the attack because he has a funny feeling. Our ships will have the element of surprise working for them, and their targets will be stationary. Total annihilation of the enemy ships there would be nice but not mandatory. A high casualty count and disabled ships will achieve our objective there.”

  Wu asked another question. “I assume you’re not doing that same type of surprise attack at Rurik as at the Moon because of the minefield?”

  The OrCons maintained a thin minefield one-hour flight time from their Rurik base. This globe of mines encased the planet. It was much too thin to be a deterrent but was perfect for an early warning system. Any force attempting an attack from subspace would have to pass through the mines. If the ships were in subspace, they could not see the mines so would be depending on luck to get through unscathed. Single ships or a small group might have luck on their side, but any sizable attack force would not. The magnetic mines wouldn’t be attracted to ships in subspace but would still explode if a subspace ship hit one of them. Ships in subspace have no shield capability, so a mine strike could be fatal.

  The OrCons kept a number of small patrol craft behind the minefield on continuous sentry duty. Their mission is not to attack the invading force but to guard the minefield from intruders and report on any incoming threat. Then the small craft would stay out of missile range and follow the attackers while providing constant updates. Any minefield disturbance would give the ships at Rurik at least thirty minutes to prepare before the attackers could get through the field and rush to get into missile range of the outer edges of the spaceport. After the mine explosion, the attackers would be down a ship, have lost the element of surprise, and have an enemy patrol craft providing continuous intel on them while the Rurik base prepares for a fight. No way that ends well for the newcomers unless they had overwhelming numbers.

  Raferty nodded at Wu’s remark on the minefield being a hazard. “We looked at it a dozen different ways and couldn’t figure a way to get through the minefield while staying in subspace to keep the surprise factor. Now the plan is we will come out of subspace in front of the field, blow our way through it, and let the base know we’re coming. Since we are giving the enemy fleet based there several hours to get underway to chase our Moon attackers, there shouldn’t be all that many ships in spaceport there when we arrive. The base should have few ships there for defensive purposes but the warning of us breaching the mine globe will not be a showstopper. It will take us a half hour to get from the minefield to within missile range of the spaceport. When we do, we start pumping missiles downrange. Once we close on target, we will unleash the Royal Marines. We will systematically destroy that installation—in space, on the
surface, and below the surface. We will not have an accurate count of their ships there until just before the battle. Their fleet has to abandon their pursuit of the Moon raiders to return to reclaim their base. If the numbers favor us, we will fight when their fleet returns to defend their base. If the numbers are too much, we will run. I want the victory at the Metal Moon. A victory there lets the OrCons know the character of the war has changed. Everything else is a nice-to-have, not a got-to-have.”

  Alexis watched both men as they talked. She was now satisfied that the man she had selected for command was taking the charge seriously and was not succumbing to an urge to produce some grand plan to win the war in one battle while sacrificing much of her beloved Royal Navy to do it.

  Hawkins must have been reading her mind. He looked at the two Zeke leaders. “I know you both love your navy and much has happened to that organization in this conflict. Casualties are a fact of war, but I want to assure you I will not risk one life or one ship in pursuit of glory or trying to achieve the ultimate victory. I’m here to win a few battles and get momentum moving in the right direction. After that, I am returning to the Badlands.”

  The Queen stood up and both men rose in response. “I knew you could win, but I wasn’t sure about the cost. Now I am confident in both aspects of this operation. Thank you.” She extended her hand across the desk, and Raferty shook it.

  Both men took their leave of the Queen. Admiral Wu walked Hawkins to the back of the palace and the waiting shuttle. At the door that led out to the landing pads, he stopped and smiled at the pirate peer. “I had the same worries as the Queen, but I am also won over.” He took a card from his pocket and handed it to the Raferty. “My comm address and personal number. Let me know if you need anything. If I can get it for you, I will.” He leaned toward Hawkins and talked in a soft voice. “I am sure you know your appointment was not met with universal approval. If anyone gives you less than one hundred percent effort and loyalty, tell me. I will deal with them. If any of the Royal Navy officers in your force are not to your liking, fire them. I will cover you from here. We need a win, and I think you can get it. Your plan is audacious, and that is good. There has not been a whole lot of that on either side. I’m looking forward to seeing it succeed.”