The rockets were grossly underpowered for the heavier payload of these missile. It would correct course far more sluggishly, but these missile would be moving far slower than the original campaign – only one and half percent of light compared to over 4.8% of light. The targets were also far bigger, a few kilometers instead of the few hundred meters wide as originally designed. By all calculations, the rockets should do fine.
The last part of the construction of the missile sounded easy but was also a precision job. It was the task of filling up the missile with 500 tons of iron cubes. One couldn’t just dump them inside the housing of the missile and let them knock around. It could damage something or crush the delicate navigation electronics or the batteries. It would definitely unbalance the center of gravity of the missile and the rockets would not be able to accurately execute the course changes required.
Each block of iron had to be precisely placed and bolted on using aluminum straps. It was a slow and painstaking task. The problem for the crew of the Redeemer was that they had to do 12 such missile and all by themselves. Avenger was on Jehannum patrol. At least one ship had to be close to Jehannum to ensure that nothing was launched from there.
Kali was skimming Alpha Shaitan, refueling for its long journey outwards and then back for the bombing run, after which it would have to slow down and head back home, and then again slow down. It was a good thing that the bombing run was only at one and a half percent of light speed. If any faster speed had been required, then the Avenger class ships would have required a lot more time to complete the mission.
Kali had to head out almost 32 light hours north of the plane directly on top of the North Pole of Jehannum. Half that time it would be accelerating, and then the other half it would be decelerating to come to a complete stop. To put things in perspective, 32 light hours is almost six times the distance from Earth to Pluto. It would take Kali over 7 months to reach that point 32 light hours far.
The Kali would then start its bombing run, heading at full acceleration all the time till it reached right on top of Jehannum, by which time it would be travelling at one and a half percent the speed of light. It would take Kali over 5 months to make that run and reach Jehannum.
Once the Kali crossed Jehannum, it would then start full deceleration taking another 5 months to come to a complete stop. After that, the Kali would return back to Alpha Shaitan by accelerating half the time, and then decelerating the other half, similar to the first segment, and make it back in almost 10 more months. The total mission time was just under 25 months or just over 2 years.
By the time Kali returned from skimming Alpha Shaitan, a few weeks later, the crew of the Redeemer had finished the 12 missiles and the guidance systems had been tested. The crew of the Redeemer grumbled at having to do all the hard work all by themselves, having erected the elevator and assembled the 12 missiles.
The grumbling only stopped when the captain reminded them that their comrades on the Kali would be on a 2 year mission without a break or hibernation, while the crew of the Redeemer would enjoy the fruits of the space elevator all through that time, occasionally rotating patrol with the Avenger.
The cookie cutter kinetic missiles could not be accommodated inside Kali, neither could they be launched by the pneumatics like the crowbars or missiles, they were too big. Yet they had to be launched in an automated fashion, since precise timing was required. So an improvised solution was found. Four of the six shuttle of Kali were parked on the makeshift tarmac of the Devil’s workshop.
No marines were going on the mission, only the operational navy crew would be on board Kali, so only two shuttle were fine from a safety and emergency point of view. Shuttles were not part of this mission in any case. The 4 vacated shuttle attachment spots the hull of Kali were used to attach the KK missiles, three to each spot with the same strong electromagnets that held the shuttles. The electromagnets were controlled by the shuttle release systems which could be reprogrammed.
Kali bid its farewell to the crew and marines of the Avenger by radio and the Redeemer with a night of drinking, before it embarked on its two year mission.
Chapter 18
Beachhead
Over Jehannum, Alpha Shaitan System
March 2109
“Avenger, be advised that all 12 guided kinetics have been released as scheduled. ETA of the KK devices just over 10 minutes. All 12 devices operating nominally and are on target. Kali is now turning around and will start deceleration burn in a few seconds. We will be able to slow down enough to see our handiwork before we pass.” The voice of the navigator of Kali sounded on Capt. Jansen’s helmet. Kali was still a few light seconds away, so real time conversation was a pain. Worst part was that the distance would again start increasing as Kali passed by, and the communication would again become one way, as it had been for over a year now.
“Copy that Kali. Avenger is tracking the 12 packages just fine and confirms that their operations are nominal. Welcome back to hell.” The weapons officer on Avenger replied.
“Thanks for the welcome Avenger, I am afraid we cannot stay and hang around for too long, gotta run along. Just flew by to deliver the packages, will see you in a year, the drinks will be on you.” Came the wisecrack from Kali, then in a more somber note the voice added. “Hope all this was worth it. I guess we will know in a few minutes”.
Kali opened up its thrusters in the reverse direction, starting its 5 month long deceleration to come to a stop. The 12 Kinetic missiles slowly started drifting ahead of Kali, as they continued at the same speed as before – one and a half percent the speed of light. At a maximum acceleration of 0.3 m/s2, which was not really much just about 3 percent of Earth’s gravity, the missiles did not get too far ahead of Kali in the 10 remaining minutes.
Kali was only able to confirm that the missiles had hit the target. She could not see the effect of her bombardment as she had already crossed Jehannum while the KK missiles were still embedding themselves into the crust of Jehannum. The Avenger and the Redeemer had no such problems. They were observing and recording in high definition on all electromagnetic bandwidth from polar orbit. This would be a recording that would become the most viewed and forwarded video clip on the internet for many years.
The first visual indication that something had struck the North Pole of Jehannum came in the form of a circular string of pearls forming around it. 12 blobs of light arranged in a circular fashion around the Pole lit up with a blinding light for a few seconds. The energy released momentarily spread across the entire electromagnetic spectrum and gave off x-rays and UV light along with the blinding light.
Then for a few seconds there was a surreal calm as the lights at the impact point winked out for a just about 2 seconds. For anybody standing on the surface of Jehannum near the pole, it would have been eerie quiet for a moment as the sound would not have reached yet. A skin sensitive creature like the Shaitans might even have noticed a slight drop in air pressure. Then hell exploded on Jehannum.
A large but slow moving object that crashes into a planet or moon, like the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, makes a deep hole into the surface, as its momentum grinds on, taking it ever deeper into the surface. All the while such an asteroid keeps losing its mass on the contact surface to heat and shock of the impact, either until all its momentum is lost and it can go no further, or the asteroid has completely disintegrated. This creates a huge crater with material thrown out clear into space.
That is not how a relatively small but fast moving object like the KK missiles impacts. The 500 ton missiles were able to pierce a few hundred meters into the surface, by which time the shock of the impact had converted every molecule of the missile into its constituent atoms in a state of plasma. The incredible kinetic energy of the missiles had now completely been converted into thermal energy in that plasma which measured a few hundred million degrees.
Each of those 12 plasma embedded nearly half a kilometer under the surface was equivalent to a few thousand thermonucle
ar bombs going off simultaneously. There was no immediate explosion on the surface, but the shock of the impact and the heat of the plasma started travelling in all direction inside the crust of Jehannum at many times the speed of sound.
On one side of the impact sites was the cracked and tortured crust of the moon, while on the other side was the relatively hard packed crust near the Pole. The shockwave quickly found the weak points inside the cracked side of the crust, and started spreading, melting/vaporizing the rocks. As the heat cooked the rocks into molten slag, all the time the pressure was building up under the surface, which had only one outlet – the entry hole punched by the KK missiles.
Molten rock spouted out of those holes like an angry geyser hundreds of kilometers high. Some of that lava was ejected clear into space, while the rest slowly fell back on the moon in a slow parabolic arc hundreds of kilometers away. It was the most spectacular show from space as the crew of Avenger and the Redeemer saw 12 majestic spouts of lava in an almost perfectly circular arrangement spouting out of the North Pole of Jehannum, and then slowly falling back. It was as if someone had put a crown on the top of Jehannum.
The spectacular show however did not last long. Within a few minutes the lava spouts subsided, but now an equally spectacular show was taking place on the surface of the moon. A substantial part of the crust half a kilometer below the surface had been molten, vaporized, cracked, pulverized and generally reduced to nothing. There was now nothing holding up a swathe of the surface that formed a ring around the North Pole.
This ring of surface was half a kilometer deep and two kilometers wide. This entire ring now collapsed over a kilometer below the rest of the surface to expose a ring of lava around the North Pole. In the center of that ring, right at the pole stood a piece of the surface almost 12 kilometers in diameter. To someone standing on this piece of land, it would look like they were standing on a large plateau, almost a mesa, whose steep walls fell over a kilometer down into a lake of lava. The circular plateau felt like a fortress that was surrounded on all sides by a moat of lava two kilometers wide.
To someone looking from space, it felt as if a cookie cutter had gouged out a circle on the surface of Jehannum right at its North Pole. There was a spontaneous cheer that swelled across both the ships. It would take Kali the deliverer of the package, a few more seconds to catch the message sent from Avenger. “It had all been worth it!”
The lava hardened within minutes in the cold atmosphere of Jehannum. The solidified basin became the hard floor of the chasm that would separate the human beachhead from the Jehannum mainland. The crew and the marines onboard the two ships were in condition 1 alert and in their suits for a reason. They were not going to let up the heat and pressure created by the KK bombardment. The first phase of the exploratory assault would launch immediately when the surface defense of the Shaitans were still shell shocked and at their weakest.
“Ed, you have the green signal. The marines are in play. We proceed as per our primary plan. Captains, I assume that the Avenger, Genghis Khan and the Redeemer are on course with their part of the plan as well?” Hamid let Ed, Capt. Jansen and Capt. Sequeira know that operation ‘Beachhead’ was a go, now that operation ‘Cookie cutter’ had succeeded spectacularly, through a conference call.
“Copy that admiral, we are ready and going through our prep sequence as planned.” Replied Capt. Brogan.
“The Redeemer reports its readiness as well.” Answered Capt. Sequeira.
“The Genghis Khan reports its readiness as well.” Capt. Lai answered.
“4th company, 2nd Brigade will be the vanguard as planned. They are suited up on the Avenger and going through the foaming process. I am directing the operations personally on this one. They should be ready in 5 admiral. Follow up forces ready to jump on a 10 minutes’ notice.” Ed let Hamid know the Marines’ readiness as well.
“Very well then gentlemen, let’s proceed. All the best to you and your Marines general.” Hamid concluded not wanting to keep them from doing their jobs any further.
Sarah opened a private channel to her immediate superior while she was being foamed over. “Not that I am complaining sir, but any idea why the 4th company is the ‘chosen one’? The company that is always the sharp end of the stick?” She asked Capt. Song.
Kim Song laughed. “Don’t you know Sarah!?” He put on an incredulous tone. “It is because of you! There are two wagers going around the enlisted men. First one bets that the 4th company is thrown to the wolves first by the General in the hope that somehow he would get lucky and get rid of a certain troublesome blonde Lieutenant.
The other wager is that the General is so scared of the hard ass Lieutenant of the 4th company that he figures that the Shaitans must be even more scared of her, so it is best to send her company first and scare the living daylights out of the Shaitans, thus making it easier for the rest of his marines.” Kim laughed even harder as he finished.
“Very funny, sir… but seriously sir, why do you think we get the job all the time?” Sarah asked.
“Seriously Sarah. It is because of you. No the General is not trying to get rid of you, but it is because the 4th company is so good at what it does and all thanks to you and your leadership of the company.” Capt. Kim Song replied.
“Last time I looked, you were the commander of the 4th company sir.” Sarah retorted back.
“Oh… I am here only as your minder. You do the training of the Marines, the ass kicking and most of the fighting. My job is simply to keep you from doing anything crazy.” Kim was now grinning widely. Although he knew Sarah could not see him, he was acutely aware of how mad his words would make her.
“Thank you sir, for that vote of confidence.” Sarah said in a grumbling tone and went into a sulk.
Capt. Kim Song sighed and said. “I know this is not the best time to be talking about this, just as we jump into battle, but what the hell, we still have a few minutes to kill, so let me say it. It is not possible for one human to know the pain of another completely. We are all different, and things don’t mean the same to all of us, especially the loss of childhood and family.
I will never pretend that I know your lifelong pain Sarah, but if there is another person in this part of the universe who can come closest to knowing your pain, then it has to be me… and your brother of course. So let me say this. We are both survivors and children of the Holocaust. I am sure you have felt that life has unfairly taken away everything from you as a child, because that is the way I have felt all my life.
That thought made me angry, confused and obsessed with revenge. Since I could not get my hands on a Shaitan, I took it out on each and every person who came in contact with me, even though now I know that most of them have been incredibly kind and selfless towards me, letting this orphan boy grow up to what he is today. It took a life changing event for me to realize that unfortunately, and I have not been able to say sorry to all the people whom I have hurt in my life. My biggest regret when I die would be that I could not tell my foster parents how thankful I am for all the kindness they showed to me, even when I was being a perfect asshole.
I can appreciate your need for revenge Sarah, for I burn the same flame in my heart, but life has to mean more than just revenge. Life has to stand for something that gives joy and brings out at a smile in you and those near you. Just ask yourself this question as you plunge down the atmosphere of Jehannum, Kali. When we win this war, and there are no more Shaitans to kill, what will you look forward to in life, Kali? What will give you happiness, and how will you make those you care about happy?”
Capt. Song stopped his sermon as the countdown had reached its last minute. Each of them went about their last minute routines. This was going to be a fairly easy jump from an operational standpoint, if one ignored the defensive fire of the Shaitans trying to shoot you off the skies. Their jump was going to be from just outside Jehannum atmosphere, at almost zero lateral velocity.
Jehannum atmosphere was at 70% of that of Earth, whi
ch meant that the entry heating of their suits would be less and fairly safe. The Marines’ landing zone was almost right on top of the North Pole, right in the center of the circular beachhead created, and the neighboring area had been sanitized by the KK bombardment of Kali.
Nothing for tens of kilometers around the beachhead should have survived on the surface or just below the surface. So they should be fairly safe from ground based fire. The reasonably thick atmosphere ensured that laser and plasma weapons would not be targeted at them. The ground based firing, if it came would be primarily in the form of missiles or flak guns.
Missiles, unless they were nukes would be fairly useless against individual Marines jumping, and flak guns weren’t that effective either. Last but not the least, the Marines had both the Avenger and the Redeemer looking after them from space. They would try to kill anything substantial they can lay their eyes on.
What the Marines had to really worry about was the kind of reception they might receive once they set foot on the ground. They were entering the lair of the enemy, which would literally come crawling out of the ground. The 4th Company did not want to suffer the same fate as the expeditionary force.
The Marines were dropped off at the edge of the atmosphere by shuttles, with the two human ships keeping a watchful eye from a higher altitude. The shuttles were relatively safe at this distance and could easily run away from any missiles launched from the ground. The Marines went into their entry burn almost immediately, as they hit the atmosphere and their ablative coating started heating up to nearly 3000° Celsius.
Once the entry burn was over and the ablative coating shed, Sarah was struck by the stark beauty of the landscape below her. She was watching the moon in false computer generated colors, for it was completely dark in visible light of course. The computer scanned the view in all available spectrum and tried to generate a picture that it calculated would be visible if the view had been lit by sunlight as visible on Earth.
Retribution (Shaitan Wars) Page 31