by D. J. Holmes
Before Johnston could reply, his COM unit beeped. The pattern told him it was urgent. Pulling it out, he saw a message had been sent to his datapad. Moving over to the kitchen table he grabbed his datapad and sat down. Opening it he saw he had a flash alert. “What is it?” Clare asked as she followed him and sat down.
“I don’t know yet,” Johnston replied as he pulled up the file. He was certain it wasn’t going to be good news. He skimmed through it. When he was done, he set the datapad down and his hands tightened into fists. He was no expert in naval affairs, but he had picked up enough over the years to read the situation. James’ fleet was outnumbered and in trouble. Even if it made it back to friendly territory, what could so few ships do against so many? Memories flooded Johnston’s mind. Holstein was a very different colony to New Shanghai, but it would make no difference. The Karacknids were fierce warriors. They would crash over Wu’s marines like a cavalry charge from a millennium ago. The cost in marine and civilian lives would be horrendous.
“What is it?” Clare asked again.
“Operation Counterstrike hasn’t gone well,” Johnston began as he sketched out what General Wu had sent to his senior officers. “James’ fleet encountered a new Karacknid battlefleet of ten thousand warships. He sent a messenger frigate here with the news. He fears that the Karacknid fleet will drive his ships back towards Human space and attempt to conquer us.”
“Can they?” Clare asked, her voice rising.
“With ten thousand ships?” Johnston said as he turned to her. Slowly he nodded. “If they can bring that many, I don’t think there’s anything we can do.”
Clare’s face fell. “What is happening?”
Johnston glanced at his datapad. “Commodore Clayton is preparing the orbital defenses. Wu is activating the colony’s Militia and preparing the ground defenses. My cadets are to be reduced to half day training. The rest of the time we will be helping prepare the defenses.”
“They think the Karacknid battlefleet will come this way?” Clare followed up, her eyes widening.
“It’s a strong possibility. They attacked through the German colonies last time, but they may come against us. If they do, they’ll likely bring ground forces to occupy our colonies. We need to be ready to face them. If they attack us here, the longer we can hold them up, the more time we will buy for Earth.”
“What can I do?” Clare asked as her expression changed and determination filled her voice.
Johnston smiled at her reaction. It was easy to see her as the woman who had fought alongside his marines in the Haven resistance against the Indian occupation force. With an effort, he softened his features. “This time, you do nothing,” he said as he took her hands in his. “I’m putting you on the first shuttle back to Earth.”
Clare pulled her hands from his as she vigorously shook her head. “No way,” she insisted. “I’m not leaving you.”
“You are,” Johnston said as he used his faster reflexes and vice like grip to take Clare’s hands again. “This is not something we are going to argue about. I’ve already fought one battle against a Karacknid invasion force. I have no desire to do so again. But if I have to, I am not doing it with you here. If they come against us with as many ships as James says, there will be no relief force. They will take the colony and it may never be retaken. If I’m to fight and die here with my marines, I can’t do it knowing you are here too. You’re going back to Earth… There’s nothing you can do here, but if we can hold them up long enough, then you may be able to help us from there.” Johnston knew Clare wanted to argue with him. Gently he squeezed her hands. “Please, I can’t do my duty if you are here. When they come, they will not care about the rules of war or protecting civilians. I can’t have you here. There will be an evacuation, you must go with it.”
As tears ran down her cheeks, Clare nodded ever so slightly. Johnston pulled her into a hug. “Thank you,” he whispered into her ear. “Thank you.”
Chapter 33
In modern times the Emperor and Empress are advised by a cadre of senior Admirals who form the Imperial Navy’s High Command. Often it is they who decide upon and carryout military strategy. In the first years of the Empire our leaders exercised their role as Head of the Military much more literally.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.
Imperial Palace, Earth, 7th May 2484 AD (two weeks later).
As naval officers filed past her into the briefing room, Christine held out her hand and stopped Koroylov. Despite the gravity of the situation, she gave him a brief smile. “I’m glad you are here with us,” she said to him.
Koroylov returned her smile, though his was far grimmer. “I’d say it was fortuitous, but given the news, I’m not so sure about that.”
“Someone has to take the lead, and you are who we need,” Christine replied. Koroylov had returned to Earth from Alpha-one Fort less than a week ago as his flagship underwent a routine maintenance and upgrade cycle. Just an hour ago James’ messenger frigate had arrived with news of the Karacknid battlefleet he had encountered. Christine had appointed Koroylov as the senior commander of all of the Empire’s forces outside of those that were part of the Counterstrike Fleet. He had commanded Earth’s defenses during the first Karacknid invasion. Though Earth had been nuked by the Karacknids, Christine had every confidence in him. Besides her husband and Admiral Lightfoot, he was the best commander Humanity had.
“I’m not so sure about that,” Koroylov replied as he gave Christine a slight bow., “but I will do my duty for my Empress.”
Christine patted his forearm and gestured with her head for him to head into the briefing room. When all of the naval officers and her Inner Council were present, she moved to the head of the oval table. “The situation is dire,” she said as soon as she sat. There was no time to waste with pleasantries. “Admiral Koroylov, your staff will understand just how dire better than me. Please, brief the rest of us and then we must take any and every action we can to prepare ourselves. I’ve already sent word to Varanni Prime. We can update them with our plans as soon as we are done here. I’m hoping they will be able to dispatch a fleet in time.” With the Kulrean tachyon pulse generator, Christine knew that Admiral Jorum would already be reading James’ report. She had no idea how many ships the Alliance had near their border with Human space, but she had pleaded with him to send all of them.
“Thank you Empress,” Koroylov said formally. “None of us have had long to analyze and think through the Emperor’s news but given the nature of what he has informed us about, it does not take much of an imagination to foresee what is likely to happen. The best-case scenario is that the Karacknid battlefleet does not have the necessary supplies to launch an immediate attack. If the late Commodore Scott’s guess was correct and the battlefleet has come from another theatre of war, then they will have used up a lot of fuel traveling to the Karacknid HQ system. Added to this, Operation Counterstrike caused a lot of disruption to the Karacknid supply situation in and around their HQ system. It may be that Emperor Somerville inadvertently disrupted the build-up of supplies that must have been going on in preparation for the battlefleet’s arrival. If this is the case, then it may be several months, likely six to nine, before the full Karacknid battlefleet moves against us. However, there are indications that we will not be so lucky. We know that the Karacknid battlefleet was willing to immediately pursue Emperor Somerville’s fleet out of the HQ system. That suggests they are at least ready to begin limited offensive operations. That brings us to the worst-case scenario. If the enemy battlefleet has continued to pursue our Emperor’s forces, they could be here within two months.”
As Koroylov paused, Christine looked at her gathered advisers. Shock and dismay was written on many faces. Yet there was a hardness there too. They had been living under the threat of a second Karacknid attack for more than two years. They had prevented one less than a year ago, but everyone had known it would come sooner or later. Operation Counterstrike had been meant to buy them time, but
they had known it could only delay the inevitable. As the silence lingered, Christine forced herself to speak. “We must operate under the assumption that we have only two months,” she said as she looked from face to face, holding each person’s gaze for a second or two. “We cannot underestimate this threat. Anything and everything that we can do must be done to stop this Karacknid battlefleet. We all know the stakes at play here. If we fail it will be the end of our civilization. The first question we must answer is,” Christine continued as she finished working her way around her advisers and returned her eyes to Koroylov, “what direction of attack do we expect them to take?”
Koroylov glanced over to Nogamoro. “There’s no way to know for sure Empress,” the Japanese Admiral answered. “Admiral Lightfoot failed to attack their supply base at Jaranna. With it still intact, the shortest route here would be through Alpha-one Fort and German colonial space like their previous attack. This would also mean that if the Karacknids plan to push on towards the Alliance’s unprotected flank, their supply route would be relatively short. However, the battlefleet is pursuing the Emperor’s fleet. If they continue to do that, then they would come at us through Alpha-two or Alpha-three. They would then have to push through Japanese or Chinese colonial space. At present we can only guess at what they will do. As more updates come in from Emperor Somerville we will have a more accurate picture. But it may take a few weeks to know one way or the other.”
“Three potential lines of advance,” Fairfax commented, his concern evident. “We do not have the resources to adequately defend one, never mind three.”
“Indeed we do not,” Koroylov agreed. “But you are forgetting one thing. Emperor Somerville will know the dilemma we face. He will do whatever he can to lure the Karacknid battlefleet after him. That means we must risk making the assumption the Karacknid route will be via the Alpha-two Fort. It would be my advice that we make our plans on this assumption.”
“Whatever fortified system they come through; does it really matter?” McCarthy asked. “Those forts were designed to hold back a Karacknid fleet of one thousand warships. And only for long enough to buy us time to pull ships to cover such an incursion. Can any of them, even with the reinforcements we might rush to them, hold up to a fleet of ten thousand ships?”
“No,” Koroylov answered decisively. “It is impossible. We do not have the time nor the resources. That is why my second recommendation is that we abandon the border forts immediately. We should pull back our forces from each of them and concentrate them along the Karacknids’ predicted line of advance.”
“But if your prediction is wrong,” Fairfax complained as he turned to Christine, wide-eyed. “If the Karacknid fleet takes another route. Or even if one of their border fleets notices our forts are abandoned, the Karacknids could push into our colonies uncontested.”
Christine nodded to her Chief of Staff, she shared Fairfax’s concern. Turning to Koroylov she raised an eyebrow. Koroylov cleared his throat. “Either we risk the colonies, or we accept Earth will fall,” he said unapologetically. “You cannot protect both. I do not know what our chances are at saving Earth, slim though they most certainly are, they will be none if we do not concentrate our forces.”
Christin’s jaw tightened. She had sworn to protect all of her Empire’s citizens. Yet she knew she had no choice. She had to listen to Koroylov. “Very well,” she relented, though it pained her greatly to abandon so many of her citizens. “You may send orders to pull back all of our border fleets. If we cannot hold the border forts, then where will we make our stand? If we fight in the Sol system we will risk the Karacknids destroying everything we have built up since their last attack.”
Leaning forward, Koroylov activated the room’s holo projector. “This is what I am proposing,” he said as an image of the border regions with Karacknid space appeared in front of everyone. New Shanghai was in the center of the image. “If the Karacknids pursue Emperor Somerville and he falls back along his supply lines, then he will fall back to New Shanghai. A lot of work has gone into building up the system’s defenses. It is our most heavily populated colony along the frontline with the Karacknids. If we can get enough reinforcements to New Shanghai and Somerville manages to extract his fleet largely intact, we may attempt to make a stand here. At the very least, we may be able to delay the Karacknids long enough for our allies to come to our aid.”
“What do you mean?” Commoner Nicholls asked. “How can you delay a fleet of ten thousand ships. Even if we pull back our border fleets, we will not have the numbers to match them.”
“No, we will certainly not,” Koroylov said as he shared another glance with Nogamoro. “But we have other ways of fighting the Karacknids. What I and Admiral Nogamoro wish to propose is a complete mobilization of our military and civilian transportation networks.”
“To what end?” the leader of the Loyalist party in the House of Commons asked.
“To tow and transport as many orbital battlestations, defense satellites, space fighters, and Imperial Marines to New Shanghai as possible. Also to convert all the freighters and civilian craft we do not need for transportation into armed military ships. We do not have the time to arm them with anti-ship missiles launchers, but we can mount as many point defenses on them as we can get our hands on. If we can fortify the system with thousands of defense satellites and fighters and add our own fleet to the defense, we may be able to present the Karacknid battlefleet with a nut it cannot crush in one go. If our fleet is based there, they will not be able to pass by New Shanghai and strike at Earth for our fleet will threaten their rear supply lines. Our border forts are too far away to attempt to reinforce them in this way in the time we have, but it may be possible with New Shanghai. We have hundreds of battlestations and thousands of defense satellites and fighters throughout our colonies. If we can concentrate them at one point and force the Karacknids to fight us there, we may be able to hold them off long enough for help to come.”
“What you’re talking about isn’t just pulling back our warships from the other colonies, it’s abandoning them entirely,” Christine said, shocked at the desperation in Koroylov’s voice. She knew the situation was dire, but Koroylov was making it sound even worse than she had believed.
“Unless we throw everything we have at this Karacknid battlefleet, we will lose,” Koroylov said as he leveled his gaze at Christine. “We must do this or we will lose,” he pleaded.
Christine swallowed hard. She was already committed and there was only one answer she could give. Nevertheless, it didn’t come easy. “Of course, I’ll have my cabinet draw up the necessary orders immediately.”
“Thank you,” Koroylov said as his shoulders slumped. “I will have my staff pass on to you everything we think we will need. It goes without saying that requests must be sent out to all of our allies and friends. We need everything the Alliance, the Vestarians, and the Conclave can send us. And we need them on their way immediately. They may not be in time to help us defend New Shanghai, but if we can slow the Karacknids, they may be the only warships left to defend Earth.”
Christine felt her heart skip a couple of beats at the gravity of Koroylov’s words. It sounded like he didn’t expect to survive the coming battle. If he didn’t think he would, then he likely thought James wouldn’t either.
“You plan to head to New Shanghai?” Fairfax asked.
“Immediately,” Koroylov replied. “Nogamoro can work out the finer details of what we need and follow with Home Fleet as soon as it’s ready to depart. But if I am to organize the defense of the system, I would like to depart today. I need to get a proper lay of the land and see what condition the defenses are in. I can send regular reports back to update you on exactly what we are going to need.”
“If that’s what you think you need to do, then you may depart as soon as my staff officers and yours are content we know what you need,” Christine said to Koroylov. “Rest assured, we will be reaching out to all our allies. Even the Kulreans. It may be that the
y have other worldships that they could send here. Maybe we could even convince them to send the two they have in orbit to New Shanghai. Surely that would make the difference?”
Koroylov shook his head. “Against ten thousand Karacknid warships, we’d need ten or maybe even twenty worldships to turn the tide but everything we can get will help. So you may try. Without Superintendent Hallock here I doubt they’ll send more ships. But anything is worth trying at this stage.”
“I will try,” Christine promised. With the tachyon pulse generator, she could send a message to Hallock within the hour. She had no doubt he would sympathize with their plight, but she knew that the two worldships that were orbiting Earth had cost Hallock all the political capital he had with his own species. Surely ten thousand warships will change their minds? Christine had no doubt that if the Karacknids conquered Earth and Varanni Prime, Kulthar would be next on their list of targets. “Is there anything else we need to discuss at this stage?”
“There is one thing,” Fairfax said, though he didn’t meet Christine’s eyes. “Colonel Johnston. Koroylov mentioned shipping Marines to New Shanghai. If we are expecting some kind of ground battle, surely he should command our forces.”