“No, not a thing.”
“Hopefully, we won’t see any reaction. The T’Kab have no long-range FTL comms because we took out their relays. If I was that fleet commander and saw the K’Rang running like a scalded rabbit towards my home world, I’d put two and two together and figure he was running to where help was available and why would there be help near the home world, but an invasion was in progress. I’d send my fastest ship to the other fleet and get them into the fight and not a frontal assault like this guy is heading towards, but a flanking attack. If this guy slows down, you’ll know. He’s waiting for the flank guy to get in place.”
The captain looked at the plot and agreed with Commander Gibbons’ assessment.
“Okay, Jim, but what would you recommend we do now?”
“Now? Nothing. We have fire missions on the boards that we are supporting. Those guys on the ground need us to bring fire down from heaven, but if it gets dicey up here we are going to have get out of here. I would message Conover’s staff and find out under what conditions we should bug out. We have a lot more Corps to bring in before we’re done. We’re important to this operation.”
“Thank you, Jim, “ the captain replied, and then he set off to do exactly what Jim suggested.
* * * * *
Vice Admiral Conover was thinking along the same lines as Commander Gibbons. He had his Flag Operations Officer send one of his scout ships over to make a close observation of the small fleet at the other system and another to scout out the expected path for a flank attack. It was only ten ships, but ten ships hitting your flank when you are not ready can be devastating. He contacted the Angaerry Fleet Commander and asked if they had seen any movement out of the planet’s fleet. Their commander, Letoo Hinba, reported no activity from his vantage point.
He studied the plot and read messages. He came to the message from the captain of the Behemoth. He saw the wisdom of his query and ordered Operations to prepare an emergency retrograde plan for the big transports and issue it as an on order mission.
With that done, he called Lieutenant General Tsien to give him an update. Ivor’s face showed on the screen and he looked tired.
“Ivor, you may lose some support up here in about three hours. I know the T’Kab are getting organized and coming at you, but we have a situation up here.”
He explained the problem with the K’Rang leading the T’Kab home fleet right to him and the possible flank attack. He laid out his pending orders to the Behemoths to bug out if the situation got messy and what impact that would have on the divisions.
Lieutenant General Tsien said, “Ben, you do what you need to do and get those big ships out of here if it looks dicey. We’ll be all right. But don’t endanger those big transports. We have a number of corps to bring in if we’re going to prevail, so keep those transports safe. Send them to a rally point where they can be called back once you give the all clear.”
Vice Admiral Conover agreed and promised to keep them safe. He would send them through the ring ship to Gagarin, if need be.
* * * * *
The T’Kab commander could not believe what she was seeing as the Human fleet resolved on her sensors. Scores of ships appeared before her. She saw a line of frigate-sized ships, a gap, then larger ships in a line. What could they be protecting? It was an hour before she saw the four carriers and five Behemoths targets resolve as large ships. She wondered how much of the home world could be left if these immense ships were attacking. She now came in range of the first distress call broadcasts from the home world defense council and understood the level of devastation being visited on her planet.
At 90% of their range, Vice Admiral Conover ordered the frigates to launch their offensive missiles. Thirty minutes later the destroyers and cruisers launched theirs, followed by 2/3 of the fleet’s fighters and attack ships. Hundreds of missiles flew into the T’Kab formation, enough to destroy any normal formation. The peculiar T’Kab box girder exoskeleton of their ships made them unusually resistant to missiles designed to penetrate two pressure hulls and vent the atmosphere into space. Nonetheless, the T’Kab fleet took a terrible beating.
The fighters armed with ship killers and mini-seekers arrived just as twenty corvette-sized ships launched out from the T’Kab ships, some of the ships on fire. The corvettes were similar to the K’Rang penetrator corvettes, even to the dart look of the extended sensor out the nose. The corvettes boosted by the leading fighters and had to be picked up by the second wave of fighters. The fighters, two squadrons of F-53s from the Garibaldi, decelerated rapidly to zero, turned and burned in pursuit. The corvettes passed the fighters as the fighters accelerated and gained on them. The corvettes were aiming at the biggest targets on their screens, the carriers and Behemoths. Missiles and gunfire from the cruisers and destroyers took out 11 of the corvettes and the fighters came within gun and missile range.
The corvettes started a carefully orchestrated ballet of evasive maneuvers as the F-53s missiles left their launchers. The maneuvers saved three of the corvettes, but the other six were not so lucky. Mini-seekers hit those six corvettes in the engine nacelles, causing them to spiral out of control. Two flights of F-53s chased the six down and finished them with guns. Sixteen F-53s stayed on the three corvettes’ tails and fired missiles and guns, but the jinking corvettes kept forging ahead, aiming at the home of the very fighters on their tails, the carrier Garibaldi. As the three corvettes drew closer, the Garibaldi’s defensive guns and missiles were fired en masse as the corvette’s engines surged the speed to 0.9c.
Missiles hit two of the corvettes and the carrier’s close in weapons system disabled the final corvette, but it was so close that the momentum carried it into the carrier’s side. Two warheads exploded with enough power to crater the side. The damage affected the emergency bridge, crews’ quarters and galleys, and aircraft maintenance crews’ sleeping spaces.
Damage control parties and good airtight door closure saved the Garibaldi. The explosions, while killing the alternate bridge personnel and several engine room mechanics, had little effect on the ability to fight the ship or launch and recover aircraft.
Every pilot’s blood was up after seeing the damage. The remaining ships in the T’Kab home fleet had but 25 minutes to live. So many missiles hit the remaining T’Kab ships that the fleet was obliged to move back towards the planet to escape the flying debris.
* * * * *
Vice Admiral Conover monitored the Garibaldi’s damage control reports. Her crew was doing a great job of fighting the flames, sealing the hull breaches, and rescuing crewmen. The wounded were evacuated through the gate to medical facilities on Armstrong, the closest Galactic Republic world. He listened to the casualty reports, over 32 dead and wounded, mostly personnel whose battle stations were in that area. It would have been worse if most had not been on battle stations or if the corvettes had hit higher or further back. Either would have made the carrier not combat capable.
Conover turned off the reports and concentrated on the remaining fleet that had yet to appear. He had to make sure he wasn’t surprised again. He had the two scouts report on what they had or hadn’t found. The two scouts’ captains reported no contact with the T’Kab Fleet either in the system or on any approach to the home world. Where could they be? The other fleet was smaller, but still dangerous. While he waited on the scouts to report on the other system, he called in his K’Rang liaison officer.
“I don’t know how you handle these things in your fleet, but your flotilla commander nearly cost the Galactic Republic a carrier. He did cost this operation one. The Garibaldi will be sent back for repairs. Now you can notify your command and tell them to take what was left of the K’Rang flotilla and send them home or relieve the commander and send him home. He is not a part of this operation any longer.”
Shadow Commander J’Vel said, “His relief from command was just waiting for us to determine your wishes on this matter. He is confined to quarters, pending the arrival of a scout ship to carry him h
ome for his court martial.”
Vice Admiral Conover didn’t know what the K’Rang punishment might be for the flotilla commander’s actions, but he didn’t ask and didn’t care.
* * * * *
The T’Kab reserve fleet commander was more cautious than the home fleet commander was. She heard the report from the frigate commander sent by the home fleet commander and thought, “She is charging into a trap. She was chosen for that command because she was impetuous and lucky. Surely the enemy would come with a major force, not just six ships.”
The queen ordered her fleet to abandon the guard planet, retire to a spot where there was an active FTL comms relay and she could communicate with three civilization fleets that would pass nearby on their way to their next assignments. Her fifteen ships would join up with their eleven combatants each and she would be able to meet this furry biped fleet in a space and time of her choosing.
She pushed her captains to make maximum speed before biped scouts discovered them. They went out the far side of the system, the star masking their FTL signature, as the Scout Force ship came in on the side facing the home world.
In twenty-four hours, the reserve fleet was ordering Civilization fleets to rendezvous with her at her given location. In three days she had quadrupled the combat power at her disposal.
* * * * *
The ground battle was intensifying. The T’Kab were calling up units from areas not controlled by the 5th Mobile Corps and sending them into the surrounding region during the night to ambush convoys or attack roadblocks. Prodigious use of surveillance aircraft reduced that threat and in response they began to put together large unit attacks to hit key sites like the spaceport.
A queen was organizing just such an attack. She brought together three swarms to battle the bipeds. Each swarm of 3500 T’Kab had the total manning of a GR infantry brigade. She planned to concentrate her forces on the southeast corner of the spaceport and overwhelm the defenders. She ordered her commanders to penetrate deep into the facility, kill as many bipeds as possible, and destroy all the supplies they could.
Lieutenant Colonel Chen was looking at the same corner post. When they initially dropped in, they were concerned with two airfields to the north and west which had since been rendered non-combat capable. In addition, the enemy was becoming bolder and more aggressive and she saw this corner as a vulnerable spot. She would talk to her general to see if he would move one of the brigades to reinforce this corner. Until then, she relocated her battalion from the terminal to the corner, and told her executive officer to divide up the area and start digging in, while she went to find some engineers to help them.
She set out to the terminal to inform her commanding general of her plan and see about getting some heavy units to flank her position. She stopped off at the engineer battalion command post and requested a trencher, a cat or two to help build fighting positions, and a backhoe to dig in an instabunker or two. She had already had the instabunker delivered; she just needed a hole to set it into. The engineer approved her request and ordered the necessary equipment and engineer soldiers to execute.
She entered the division headquarters next and asked for a few minutes with the CG. She laid out her plan and her request to have some heavy units on her flanks, and the CG called in the operations officer to put out the necessary orders to the brigades. He called a commander’s call for first thing in the morning to go over a new defensive realignment. He told the operations officer, “If they come at us, it will be in force to match our own. I sure will be happy when there’s another corps in here so we aren’t the only targets.”
* * * * *
Mary didn’t sleep that night. The engineers had not done as much as she wanted done before they retired for the night. She ordered her own heavy equipment specialists to fire up the engineer equipment and work on the defenses. They dug trenches from position to position. They sank the instabunker and dirt-mounded it for protection. She had two mortar battery positions dug and the mortar platoons set up in them.
She had a team from A Company “requisition” three small instabunkers and dig holes for them in each company area. She had all the heavy weapons and vehicles put in positions and dug in. She had C Company string tangle wire across the battalion front. B Company had the heavy equipment specialists so they were kept busy enough; the special company built some improvised mines and explosives to go into the wire. They also put out some special munitions brought for the initial assault, but never used. These were Mary’s little surprises.
Mary saw the first glimmer of dawn approaching and called “Stand to.” Her battalion put down what they were doing and occupied their fighting positions. Mary was in the process of inspecting each company’s defensive positions when she saw a flash in the near distance. Recognizing it for what it was she yelled, “Incoming!” and dove into the nearest trench. The round fell short of the spaceport fence, so Mary used the time before the next one hit to call a situation report to division while she ran for her bunker.
When she reached her bunker, the exec was already calling a counter-fire mission to the mortars. Within seconds, six rounds were headed out in response and the opposing mortars were silenced. It was then through the early morning gloom she saw it – a moving carpet of black coming at her. She ordered all weapons to fire and climbed out of the bunker to get a better look, while she called another situation report to division.
The division deputy operations officer drove up, took one look, and ordered the Quick Reaction Force to come to Mary’s location. Artillery started landing in the middle of the black carpet. As the dawn approached, Mary could make out the effects of the artillery and saw swaths of the T’Kab just lay down and not get back up from the effect of the air burst rounds going off just above the ground, sending razor sharp shrapnel into the advancing T’Kab soldiers. It was not enough. Mary heard more artillery start to fire behind her and saw its impact on the approaching soldiers, but still they pressed on.
They were now 300 meters from the spaceport fence and moving fast. Mary’s company commanders gave the order to fire and entire files of the black shiny soldiers went down. Fifth Corps’ AG-122s stationed at the spaceport started strafing and bomb runs over the approaching mass, but there were so many of them it was like spitting in the ocean.
* * * * *
The queen could sense victory in her grasp. The resistance was stronger than she expected, but she was almost to the wire and she had lost less than 10% of her initial assault force. When she breeched the fence it would be ripped back, allowing for unimpeded access to the interior for the follow-on second swarm. The initial assault force would split and turn left and right, widening the breach. Then she would send in her third swarm. With both swarms attacking deep into the interior, she would have her victory. This base was the biped’s link to the forces in orbit. If she severed that link here, now they would dry up and blow away, not able to feed or supply themselves. The citizens were set to rise up and attack all the control points in the city.
The queen saw the flying machines move off to the northwest. She saw this as a sign that even they could see the pointlessness of resisting her. Then she saw an orange light in the sky as a hot glowing ball of fire descended from on high. The plasma bomb landed in the middle of the first swarm assaulting the perimeter and a thirty-meter circle of soldiers disappeared in a cloud of smoke and vapor. Soldiers out to 50 meters just lay down, facing away from the explosion like felled trees. Another and another slammed into her lead force to the same effect. When a fourth and fifth landed in their midst, she could sense them falter. She rode forward in her transport to near the leading edge and stepped out. The sight of a queen on the battlefield stiffened the soldiers’ resolve and they continued forward, firing as they went. She was only 200 meters from the fence line. Her soldiers’ fire was keeping the enemy’s heads down and the enemy’s individual fire diminished. She could still see victory if she could get inside the fence and in and amongst them.
She rub
bed antennae with soldiers near her, sending the message, “Press on.”
That message got passed from soldier to soldier and they moved faster. They were now 100 meters from the wire and firing on the move. Occasionally she saw a biped go down. Fire from the bipeds’ front line was starting to have an effect. Heavy vehicles now arrived behind the defensive position. The queen started slipping on the gore and ichor upon the ground as the bodies started stacking up. Mortar shells and beams of destructive force landed and passed around her, but none got close to her.
* * * * *
Mary looked through her binoculars and saw the queen. She quickly called a fire mission to her mortars and walked mortar rounds ever closer. When she felt she was right on, she ordered them to fire for effect. Six rounds left the tubes, went almost straight up due to the close proximity to the target, and plummeted down. Two more salvoes of six rounds were fired and in the air before the first rounds hit. The eighteen enhanced plasma rounds vaporized a 100 by 50 meter oblong of tightly packed T’Kab soldiers. Mary scanned the area with her binoculars, but no longer saw the queen. That was the first of Mary’s surprise weapons.
The T’Kab faltered for a moment then quick marched towards the fence line. Companies from the 1st Battalion, 22nd Marines (Heavy) formed up on Mary’s flanks and behind her positions, and poured fire from their transporters and assault guns into the massed T’Kab. The battalion commander found Mary and said, “I’m Dave Cantor, the CG said I work for you. Is where I put my guys okay? I figured you’d want them engaging the enemy as quickly as possible. The rest of our brigade will be setting up behind you shortly.”
Mary told him to bring his command post up behind the bunker and have his mortar carriers emplace and start firing about 500 meters back and work their way forward to 100 meters from the fence line. Mary stuck her head into the bunker and saw a team from division fire support had arrived to take over running fire missions from her exec. More and more sorties were flying in. More artillery was firing in support, including some 5th Corps artillery firing from inside the city. Two bombardment frigates were now dedicated to supporting Mary and were working on two concentrations of T’Kab units the size of the one attacking Mary. Both were hidden in a forest a kilometer from the spacedock. The frigates were tearing them up pretty fiercely. A third frigate was moving into orbit to further assist and it was 23 minutes out.
All Enemies Foreign and Domestic (Kelly Blake series) Page 23