by Ryk Brown
“Flash traffic from the Falcon, sir. They’ve located the Dusahn battle group five light years outside of the Rogen system, thirty minutes into their recharge cycle.”
“What’s the Falcon’s status?” Nathan asked.
“They’re playing peek-a-boo with the battle group, keeping tabs on them, waiting for orders.”
“Understood,” Nathan replied. “Alert the fleet and Rogen Defense Command, wake the senior staff, and have everyone meet me in the command briefing room in ten minutes.”
“Aye, sir.”
Nathan sat up on the edge of his bed. “It’s going to be a long night.”
CHAPTER TEN
Nathan left his quarters five minutes later, heading straight for the bridge, a mere thirty steps away. “Comms, contact Commander Kaguchi on the Gunyoki platform,” Nathan instructed as he stepped onto the bridge. “Tell him I need two squadrons with full combat loads, ready to move to our flight deck within the hour.”
“Yes, sir,” the comms officer responded. “The XO asked me to add Doctor Sorenson to the briefing roster.”
“Good idea,” Nathan replied, turning to exit, tapping his comm-set on his way. “Cheng, Captain.”
“I’m on my way, Nathan,” Vladimir promised.
“How long until those additional energy banks are ready?” Nathan asked as he headed down the corridor.
“Seven, maybe eight hours.”
“Skip the meeting, and get them done in six.”
“That’s impossible!”
“Not for you, it’s not,” Nathan replied, turning the corner toward the command briefing room. “Make it happen.”
“Chort,” Vladimir cursed, ending the call.
Nathan reached the end of the starboard corridor leading into the command briefing room.
“Captain on deck!” the guard called from the doorway.
“As you were,” Nathan ordered before anyone could stand.
“Sorry, I’m late,” Abby apologized, entering from the doorway on the opposite side of the room.
“Close it up,” Nathan instructed the guards as he took his seat at the head of the table.
The guards at both doors stepped outside of the room, closing the doors behind them.
“Lieutenant Commander Shinoda,” Nathan began, “if you’ll please update the room.”
“Aye, sir,” the lieutenant commander replied as he switched on the holographic map display floating over the center of the conference table. “Fifteen minutes ago, the Falcon located a Dusahn battle group here, approximately five light years outside the Rogen system.”
A flashing red icon appeared in the hovering, three-dimensional star chart.
“The group is as we expected: two battleships, a dreadnought, two frigates, and twelve gunships from the Pentaurus sector, along with the two battleships from the Orswellan system.”
“Is the Falcon still in sensor contact with the target?” Cameron asked.
“After avoiding detection by the Dusahn BARCAP, the Falcon moved to a position trailing the battle group and located just enough old light to establish their arrival time, course, and speed before disengaging long enough to dispatch a comm-drone. They are currently conducting a trailing PAB op to monitor the target.”
“Pardon my ignorance,” Abby said, “but what’s a PAB op?”
“Peek-a-boo,” Jessica told her. “They stealth-jump in at the edge of sensor range, conduct a quick scan, then jump back out.”
“And you seriously call it a ‘peek-a-boo’?”
“It fits,” Jessica said, shrugging her shoulder.
“What’s the Dusahn battle group’s current status?” Cameron asked.
“They are on course for a direct attack against the Rogen system; however, due to the current positions of Rakuen and Neramese, it is impossible to tell which planet they’ll target first.”
“Aren’t they about twelve hours early?” General Telles wondered.
“Yes, they are,” the lieutenant commander confirmed. “Based on their current speed, we believe that they’ve accelerated to maximum jump speed in order to get here faster than usual.”
“They knew that Hesson warned us,” Nathan realized. “They were counting on it so we’d think we’d have more time to prepare, and get caught off guard. That’s why they killed him…to prevent him from warning us, once he became aware of their faster rate of travel.”
“General Hesson is dead?” Cameron asked. “When did this happen?”
“We learned about it a few hours ago,” Nathan replied. “I didn’t think it was worth waking anyone.”
“Can’t say that I’m going to miss the bastard,” Jessica commented.
“If they’re traveling that fast, then they’ll have to decelerate before they can attack,” Cameron realized.
“Otherwise they’d zip right past us, barely able to get off a shot,” Nathan added.
“If the Dusahn ships accelerated, then they have probably spent considerable propellant to do so,” General Telles said, “and they’ll spend even more to decelerate. This could work to our advantage.”
“Maybe they’ll have to stick to minimal maneuvering,” Jessica said.
“Unlikely,” Nathan insisted. “No ship’s captain would go into battle without a fully charged jump drive and more than enough propellant.”
“They might have done a gravity-assist maneuver along the way to accelerate,” Cameron pointed out.
“Well, they won’t be able to use one to slow down,” Jessica said.
“The fact that they’ll have to slow down helps us,” Nathan said. “It gives us warning and a way to calculate when they can attack. It gives us a safe window.”
“A safe window?” Cameron wondered.
“As long as they’re going too fast to attack, we know they won’t attack,” Nathan explained.
“Unless, of course, they attack with a batch of jump missiles targeted at Rakuen and Neramese,” Jessica said.
“They won’t,” Nathan insisted.
“Why not?” Abby wondered.
“They don’t want the Rogen system,” Nathan reminded them. “They want the Aurora, and me. If they destroy Rakuen and Neramese, we’ll cut and run, and they’ll have to try to locate us again. That’s why they haven’t already glassed it. That’s why they’ve been sending just a few ships at a time to attack us.”
“Well, they’re not sending just a few ships, now,” Jessica stated.
“No, they’ve probably decided they couldn’t wait any longer, for fear that we’d be back at full strength,” Nathan said.
“At least we know all those Gunyoki anti-recon patrols weren’t a waste of time,” Cameron commented.
“Indeed they were not,” the general agreed. “Had the Dusahn been able to monitor the Aurora’s progress, they may have attacked in force long ago.”
“How long do we have?” Nathan asked.
“We know their battleships take eight hours to recharge a fully drained jump drive,” Lieutenant Commander Shinoda explained. “Assuming they began recharging the moment they came out of the jump, and assuming they were making max-range jumps, then we have about seven hours. As the captain said, once they begin decelerating we’ll be able to make a pretty good guess at how long we have before they can attack.”
“That’s a lot of assumptions,” Cameron commented.
“Yes, but we believe they are reasonable ones,” the lieutenant commander defended.
“How do we know what speed they’re looking for?” Jessica wondered.
“We’re using the maximum speed we’ve seen them use during an initial attack, the accuracy and maximum tracking rate of the turret weapons, and some basic physics, to come up with a best guess. However, Captain Taylor is right; it is based on a lot of assumptions.”
“Abby,” Nathan bega
n, “how long until the Nighthawks are ready?”
“With Leta’s help, we’ve come up with a pretty straight-forward way to protect the Nighthawks from the disruptive effects of the Dusahn shields,” Abby explained. “It’s really a combination of three things: tying the Nighthawks’ reserve jump-energy banks into the weapons, taking its reactor down to idle before passing through their shields, and wrapping its reactor with a simple physical shield using gravity plating from our own decks.”
“How many have you modified?” Nathan asked.
“Just the one, so far,” Abby replied. “However, the first one is the hardest. Now that we’ve got the process documented, we can have multiple teams working simultaneously.”
“Can you have all eleven of them modified in time?”
“Ten of them, yes,” Abby replied. “The one we used as a prototype had to be taken apart in order to figure everything out. It’s going to be awhile before we get that one back together.”
“But you can get the other ten ready in time,” Nathan confirmed.
“Yes. It won’t be easy, but I feel confident that seven hours is sufficient.”
“More like five or six,” Nathan corrected. “Once the Dusahn start slowing down, we’ll have to attack right away, or they’ll jump into the Rogen system and begin bombing both planets just to put us on the defensive.”
“That, I’m not so sure about,” Abby admitted, “but we’ll do our best.”
“I thought he said seven hours,” Cameron stated. “Why five or six?”
“Because I intend to attack Orswella before we attack the Dusahn battle group,” Nathan replied.
“Captain,” Cameron began to object.
“The matter is not open for debate, Captain,” Nathan interrupted. “The moment that battle group starts decelerating, we’re jumping to Orswella.”
“Assuming our long-range jump drive is working by then,” Cameron said, a little testy after having been cut off.
“Captain,” General Telles said, “while I do not oppose your plan to take out the Orswellan shipyards, I see no reason why it could not wait until after the Dusahn have been dealt with.”
“After dealing with that battle group, we may not be able to attack Orswella,” Nathan replied. “Besides, I don’t intend on just destroying those shipyards,” Nathan added, “I plan to liberate the Orswellans.” Nathan immediately raised his hand to stop the many objections and questions that his staff would undoubtedly have. “This, too, is not up for debate. I have thought this through, and I have my reasons for this decision. This is the best course of action. Now, there is a lot to do, and little time to do it in, so I suggest we get started.” Nathan paused again, waiting to make sure everyone in the briefing room was on board. “Commander Prechitt, since Commander Verbeek is still on Casbon, you’re acting CAG. I need you to come up with an attack plan to take out the Dusahn ground forces on Orswella using precision weapons launched from Reapers. Lieutenant Commander Nash has the enemy positions.”
“What about air cover?”
“You don’t have any,” Nathan replied, “but we’re bringing two squadrons of Gunyoki with us to keep any fighters launched by the Jar-Razza from getting down to the surface. Hopefully, that will be enough.”
“Fifty Gunyoki?” Commander Prechitt said. “It’s going to be standing-room only on the flight deck.”
“Park them on the aprons if you have to,” Nathan said. “We don’t have time for them to fly there on their own. They’ll have to piggy-back with us.”
“I’ll make it work, sir,” Commander Prechitt promised.
“Cam, while we go to Orswella, you’re staying here with a Reaper carrying a TAC-COM pod.”
“Shouldn’t I be with the ship?” Cameron insisted.
“I need you, here, to supervise the defense of the Rogen system, should something happen to the Aurora.”
“You mean, if you don’t make it back,” Cameron surmised.
“I don’t think I need to tell you how many things could go wrong with this,” Nathan said.
“Not going to be much of a fight without the Aurora.”
“Do what you can, but cut and run before it’s too late. You never know, we might still be alive and, if we are, we’ll meet up at the fleet rendezvous point.”
“Then, the defense of the Rogen system is not a fight to the death,” Jessica surmised.
“No, it is not,” Nathan confirmed. “If everything goes south, we will cut and run. I’m not going to risk losing everything to win a battle, when there’s still a war to fight.”
“What about the Orochi?” Cameron said.
“I’m taking half of them with me when we attack the Dusahn battle group,” Nathan explained. “You can figure out how best to use them to defend the Rogen system if it comes to that. That’s why I need you in the TAC-COM pod.” Nathan looked around at the faces in the room. “Rock,” he said, putting his left fist on the table, “hard place,” he added, putting his right fist down, “us,” he finished, pointing to the center with his left hand. “It’s not the first time we’ve been in this position, and it probably won’t be the last. Let’s get to work, people.”
Everyone in the room rose from their chairs and headed out, except for Cameron who waited until they were all out of earshot before speaking. “Are you sure about this, Nathan?”
“Hell no,” Nathan admitted, “but, like I said, rock, hard place, us.”
* * *
Vladimir threw his hands up in frustration as he looked up at the stack of energy cells, in what was once the compartment for an antimatter reactor. “What are you doing?” he yelled at the technicians busily connecting the cells together. “One connection per cell! One connection!”
“What about a backup?” one of the technicians questioned.
“We don’t have time for a backup!” Vladimir argued.
“But, if the draw is too high for a single line, the breakers will blow!”
“That is why we are using breakers with higher loads! What do you not understand?”
“But the lines might overheat!”
“They won’t overheat unless we do several long jumps in a row,” Vladimir explained. “We do one jump there, and one jump back, and then we’re done with it. Single connections! We can add backups later when we have time. Now, do as I say!”
“Aye, sir!” the technician replied.
“Gospadee!” Vladimir exclaimed, storming away.
“Damn, he’s pissed,” one of the technicians commented.
“He’s crazy if he thinks these things are going to hold,” the other technician insisted as he continued connecting cells. “They are going to fry, and we’re going to be stranded in the middle of nowhere.”
“What was he talking about? Jumping to where and back?”
“I don’t know,” the other technician said. “They don’t tell us anything.”
* * *
“There are twelve bases spread all around the main city of Ausley, each of them designed to house around six thousand troops,” Commander Prechitt explained. “In addition, there are numerous substations all over the suburbs surrounding the city. These stations usually support, maybe, one hundred troops each, all of whom live in private residences.”
“If they don’t live in the stations, how are we going to target them?” Nathan wondered.
“Based on my discussions with Commander Andreola’s daughter, I believe the men assigned to the suburb stations were the first to be moved out. We’ll take as many of the stations out as we can, just in case, but our focus needs to be on those twelve bases since that is where most of their remaining ground forces will be concentrated.”
“Agreed,” Nathan said.
“What about other infrastructure?” Cameron wondered.
“There are multiple spaceports all over the city,” Lieutena
nt Commander Shinoda said. “They’re like bus stops, shuttling people to and from the shipyards. Those might be worth taking out.”
“If we take out the shipyards, there’s no need to take out the spaceports,” Nathan argued. “Besides, I’d prefer to leave their infrastructure intact.”
“Even if we take out every base, and every station, there will still be armed troops on the ground,” General Telles warned. “The Orswellans are not prepared to deal with them.”
“What do you suggest?” Nathan asked the general.
General Telles took a deep breath. “We will need boots on the ground,” he said reluctantly.
“You’ve only got one hundred men, General,” Cameron stated.
“And nearly five hundred Corinari, itching for revenge,” the general added.
“Will that be enough?” Nathan asked.
“If you leave the Reapers and Gunyoki behind for our use, and send the Glendanon as support, it will be. I can use the Reapers to move my teams around, as needed, and act as close air support.”
“It will take the Glendanon twenty hours to get there,” Cameron warned. “That means you’ll be on your own for nearly a day.”
“Then, I suggest you get them en route as soon as possible,” General Telles urged.
“Boxcars can get you there in just a few hours,” Jessica suggested. “Three of them should be enough.”
“We’ll add a fourth one with fuel and ordnance for the Reapers and Gunyoki,” Nathan added. “Worst-case scenario, you retreat to the boxcars and wait for help to arrive.”
“This is all assuming you are successful in taking out the Jar-Razza and those Orswellan cruisers.”
Nathan nodded agreement. “I’m kind of hoping that once we take out the Jar-Razza, the cruisers will lose their desire to fight.”
“And if they don’t?” Jessica asked.
“Then we attempt to disable them,” Nathan replied. “Destroying them will only be done as a last resort.”
“There is one more thing,” Lieutenant Commander Shinoda said. “The Gunyoki have taken out two Dusahn recon drones over the last two hours.”
“How close?” Nathan wondered.