Defying the Prophet: A Military Space Opera (The Sentience Trilogy Book 2)

by Gibson Michaels

  Communications lag with the Confederacy has now improved, since the most badly damaged of the Federal light carriers from the Battle of Ginia has had power restored and repaired enough to conduct flight operations. It has recently been towed to the Grocery Store rendezvous site, so messages can now flow to and from CSS Ghostat fighter speeds. There are three rotating crews for Ghost now, and a third rotation has been added for Grocery Store personnel as well.

  “Very good, Hal. What happened at Tensee?”

  Interference to military availability of 3rd Fleet assets by the Confederate president doomed the Confederate defense efforts to defend and then to re-attain Tensee. It appears Admiral Kalis has successfully rectified the presidential interference problem in the future.

  “Still, Tensee was of major strategic value, was it not?”

  Yes Diet, Tensee’s loss has sent shock waves throughout the Confederacy. The remnants of 3rd Fleet are currently in Missip. Admiral Thorn is en route to assume command, bringing two-thirds of 2nd Fleet with her. Although 3rd Fleet had been reduced to less than a task force in combat strength after the two battles at Tensee, its two task forces managed to maul two full Federal fleets… an amazing accomplishment, really.

  Loggins is making shipboard repairs to what he can, while he awaits additional transports carrying more Alliance Fleet Marines to fully occupy Tensee. Realistically, he only has about two task forces fully combat ready. While everyone in the Alliance are publicly celebrating Loggins’ successes in Tensee, Souri and Arka as the Union’s first major victories in the war, most officials are privately appalled by the staggering losses he has sustained in doing so.

  “Will Loggins move on Grove in Missip? It seems he could dislodge Grove there and be waiting in ambush for Thorn, when she arrives.”

  Unknown. Communications are relatively slow from that region. Even the military brass in Waston have no idea what Loggins will do next.

  * * * *

  Insanely aggressive, what Vice Admiral Grant Loggins did next was to cobble together the few combat ready ships he hadn’t already wrecked in the taking of Tensee, forming them into just over two task forces and set off in pursuit of Grove at Missip, while leaving Vice Admiral Carlos behind with the cripples at Tensee. While Loggins was en route to Missip, Vice Admiral Thorn arrived there ahead of him and assumed command of 3rd Fleet.

  After a personal examination of Grove’s remaining ships, Thorn found Grove had significantly less than a full task force left, that was truly combat ready. At least she managed to extricate five of her six carriers, but all of Grove’s ships needed missile replenishment desperately and most needed time in a real military-grade shipyard. Their crews had fought four battles against overwhelming odds and seriously needed rest, so Thorn decided to keep her command together by escorting Grove’s battered ships to Mystic, in the Helix Nebula. Had she only known Tensee was currently being defended by nothing but cripples, developments at Tensee might have again reversed rather quickly.

  * * * *

  Chapter-4

  Last night I stayed up late playing poker with Tarot cards.

  I got a full house and four people died. -- Steven Wright

  June, 3862

  Alliance Press (AP): Waston – News Flash (06/08/62)

  Stillman Attacks Waston! – Confederate pirate Vice Admiral Benjamin Stillman’s raiders insanely translated into Discol space a mere three light-seconds out at 0337 local time. Stillman launched a furious barrage of several hundred missiles of all sizes at Fleet and governmental facilities in the nation’s capital. Despite the massive number of Fleet and orbital fort defenses ringing Discol, the daring tactic overwhelmed what few anti-missile defenses that could be brought online with so little reaction time available to them. Once again, the raiders disappeared back into hyperspace before Fleet assets could respond to catch them. Early damage reports indicate enemy missiles impacted the Capitol Building, and multiple Fleet Headquarters buildings.

  The most stunning part of the attack was the rebels’ outrageous attempt to kill the president himself. Catastrophe was only narrowly averted by a malfunctioning Confederate missile, which destroyed the Regis Hotel, instead of hitting the White House, a mere city block away.

  * * * *

  “How the in the hell could he have possibly predicted all of that?” asked Admiral Douglas Campbell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

  “I doubt even Bat knows how he does it, sir. To hear him talk, he doesn’t seem to think that he really has any kind of weird sixth-sense at all,” responded Vice Admiral Melendez.

  “Regardless of how he does it, he’s uncannily accurate with it,” said Admiral Bradley. “He was absolutely correct about McAllister’s fleet strength, and about that insane raid on Waston. Now, he’s adamant that we should NOT continue with McAllister’s attack on Ginia, because she’s going to get her ass kicked royally if we do.”

  “I don’t think any of us really need Bat’s sixth-sense to figure that one out, Brad,” said Admiral Campbell. “I’ve tried like hell to get it aborted, but the president won’t budge. He’s absolutely livid over Stillman’s raids… attack, attack, attack… it’s like talking to a damned parrot with a one-word vocabulary.”

  * * * *

  Former CFO, Admiral Arlene McAllister was another four-star admiral who managed to escape the Great Purge of senior Fleet officers, after the Ginia debacle. Recommended by the Secretary of Defense, President Marrot personally assigned McAllister command of the next attempt to destroy the Confederate fleet and taking Ginia — a dubious honor, considering the ignoble fate of Joe Bishop, the last Federal admiral tasked with accomplishing that goal. Not that anyone within the Fleet really expected her to succeed. Unlike her predecessor, she wouldn’t be heading to Ginia with 22 carriers and 1,600 fighters at her disposal.

  Stillman’s lightning raids had panicked the Northern industrialists... over $700 billion worth of damage will understandably have that effect. Six full task forces initially assigned to McAllister’s attack fleet tasked with attacking Ginia, were quietly siphoned away by orders from the Consortium through their congressional lackeys to “protect” henhouses the fox had already ransacked — Verm, Namshir, Massa, Jersi, Dela, Nork, Sylvania, and now Waston. Two complete fleets were snatched away by congressional and Consortium pressure on the White House... reassigned and dispersed to the four winds — fully two-thirds of the strength she was supposed to have with her, to confront the Gray Fox in his lair.

  But the media hadn’t reported the worst news of all. While the strikes on the capital, Fleet HQ and destruction of that hotel so close to the White House grabbed the headlines, Stillman’s primary reason for that insanely close transition had been the destruction of McAllister’s carriers. There had virtually been no time at all for her midnight shift crews to react before Stillman’s heavy anti-ship missiles came screaming in, crippling 15 of her precious carriers.

  Forget all that transition insanity. What I want to know is where the hell did he get all those damned missiles, after expending so many on all those earlier strikes all over hell’s half acre? There was no time for Stillman to go back to Ginia and replenish. His magazines should have been empty!

  At least the majority of her carrier crews had been ashore at the time of the attack, so there had “only” been ~10,000 casualties, but that was over a thousand fighters she wouldn’t have available to her at Ginia. The mood within the remainder of McAllister’s fleet was somber. Instead of the almost four full fleets she’d been promised, she now had barely five task forces left, and only one attack carrier and nine light carriers — only 685 fighters total. How was she was supposed to go up against the old Gray Fox himself, having two full fleets and over 1,300 fighters at his disposal?

  Madness!

  McAllister trained and drilled her crews relentlessly to give them confidence, but none had seen the elephant. Kalis’ people were all combat veterans.

  They’ve not only seen the elephant, they’ve butchered, b
arbequed and eaten the son of a bitch!

  By comparison, her crews were all green as grass. And yet, the politicos remained blindly adamant that her attack on Ginia go off as scheduled. The government didn’t want it leaking out just how badly Stillman’s raids had really hurt them. There had already been too much publicity about the impending attack — too much hoopla for it not to go forward now.

  Fucking politics!

  At least the Secretary of Defense had admonished her to not lose her fleet, the way Bishop lost his. When Kalis came at her with overwhelming force, she’d be able to withdraw, per her standing orders. McAllister knew that wasn’t the best frame of mind that an attacking commander ever went into battle with, but there it was. She knew before she ever transitioned into Ginia space, she was going to get her ass kicked... and a lot of her people were going to die for nothing. She found herself mourning them already.

  * * * *

  President Pierre Marrot felt almost giddy. His Lord and Master, J.P. Aneke, was in critical condition and on life-support after an errant Confederate missile, obviously aimed at him in the White House, inadvertently destroyed the Regis Hotel instead — while Aneke was in it.

  Too bad it didn’t kill the son of a bitch!

  Marrot didn’t know whether Aneke had shared the dirt on him with any of his other Consortium cronies, or if he’d kept that presidential ace in his own pocket. But until some other Consortium slime crawled out of the woodwork with Marrot’s stings in hand, Marrot was actually free to make his own decisions as president, for the first time since his inauguration 17 months earlier.

  * * * *

  Vice Admiral Grant Loggins remained in the Missip system searching for Grove for over a week, before finally deciding she had fled. But which way had she gone? Bama, Arka and Louisa were all possibilities, but Loggins didn’t have sufficient strength to send ships to all of them. He eventually decided to leave a single task force under Rear Admiral Shirley Tygilski at Missip, while returning to Tensee with the remainder of his force. With the Union now in effective control of both Tensee and Missip, Loggins had effectively cut the Confederacy in half, with Arka, Souri and Louisa isolated from direct routes to Bama. Reaching them would now require the damned rebs to detour by a much longer route, out through international space.

  * * * *

  McAllister brought her fleet to a halt approximately eight light-hours out from Ginia’s sun, perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic. She then sent a scout ship in to a position approximately 2½ light-minutes from Ginia to perform a long-range scan and wait for returns until they detected a threat approaching. When they did, it would accelerate away, jump back into hyperspace and rendezvous with her fleet at these coordinates. She suspected Kalis had positioned his fleet concealed within the asteroid belt again, but she wanted to get a picture of the system anyway, before going in.

  Human beings are genetically wired to think North, South, East and West, and often do not think of up and down, even in space. She hoped her approach from directly “above” the plane of the system ecliptic, might upset Kalis’ plans for a dogged fight amongst the rocks — as Loggins had faced and suffered so much from at Tensee. By approaching from an unexpected direction, perhaps she could try Stillman’s tactics of a close transition and actually beat Kalis to the planet. At any rate, she felt this might be her best bet to draw him out of the rocks for a stand-up fight... not that a stand-up fight, out in the open, against a superior force of combat veterans would afford her green crews much of an advantage. But most anything was better than playing hide-and-seek in the rocks with the old Gray Fox himself.

  * * * *

  Fleet Admiral Roger Kalis was pleased with Ben Stillman — very pleased. Kalis never dreamed that Stillman’s audacious raid could have possibly produced the kind of benefits it had. Kalis now believed that he might have just found the new fleet commander he needed, in Chris Rawley’s protégé. After analyzing the videos and computer logs from Stillman’s task force, and from the intelligence that Bozo had sent him, Kalis knew exactly what Arlene McAllister was bringing to Ginia with her. And he also knew exactly what she wouldn’t be bringing with her after the Stillman raid. If results were what Kalis had wanted, then Ben Stillman had certainly given him some — in spades!

  I wouldn’t have been that audacious. I’m getting old.

  While Stillman’s task force was at Norf Fleet Shipyard getting maintenance and replenishment completed, Kalis personally took Stillman to see the president... to bypass all the red tape and get him immediately promoted to full admiral.

  * * * *

  After consulting with admirals Campbell and Bradley, President Pierre Marrot recalled Vice Admiral Grant Loggins to Waston. For public consumption, Loggins was coming home to be decorated, honored and given a fourth star for his victories in the Tensee area. Loggins was already touted a hero by the masses, who were not aware of the staggering cost of his “victories.” He’d be ideal for a public relations tour to help the government sell war bonds, and to help build up patriotic fervor. Confidentially, the recall and public relations campaign was merely a smoke screen for removing Loggins from command, before he could wreck any more Union fleets.

  That wasn’t to say that the government wasn’t grateful for Loggin’s desperately needed victories, or for his regaining control of Tensee, Missip and Souri for the Union. They were grateful... very grateful. The problem was the incredible cost!

  Loggins lost eight task forces in destroying only two for the Confederates. Even an industrial behemoth like the North couldn’t long afford the staggering cost of victories such as Loggins had produced. So far, the first year of the war cost the Union 17 task forces lost, to only three for the Confederates, if Fleet intelligence estimates were to be believed. If one counted the fifteen carriers that Stillman’s recent raid wrecked, Union losses had been over 6:1, since the war started. The Federal Fleet needed victories, yes, but it needed more cost-effective victories.

  * * * *

  Admiral Benjamin Stillman had just gotten used to buttoning his uniform tunic in groups of three, and now they were in two groups of four, with a fourth cord of gold filigree added to the sleeves. His rate of advancement since joining the Confederate Fleet was mind-boggling. Admiral Kalis gave him command of the under-strength 2nd Fleet, which was now comprised of his old TF-21, and Vice Admiral Carpenter’s old TF-31, now renamed TF-23.

  Carpenter was not a happy man. The war had been going on for almost a year now and except for running off a few Federal destroyers at Souri, he’d yet to see a single real battle. It generally wasn’t a good idea to remind Carpenter he’d have already seen a lot of action, if only he’d obeyed Chris Rawley’s order to return to Tensee. Carpenter was absolutely convinced that he’d had no choice but to obey the president’s lawful orders, and couldn’t understand how doing what was correct wasn’t the same as doing what was right. Carpenter wasn’t an imaginative man, and he bitterly resented the general ostracization he’d received from throughout the Fleet, simply for having obeyed lawful orders.

  That Kalis was holding 2nd Fleet in reserve, was another perceived slight to Carpenter and a puzzlement to Stillman. Kalis took 1st Fleet out and hid it in the asteroid belt — a tactic that had stood the Confederacy in good stead so far. 2nd Fleet was to remain near Ginia proper, just in case McAllister took a page out of Chris Rawley’s playbook and transitioned into the Ginia system at close range.

  In that event, Carpenter would certainly see more action than he might wish. Stillman thought it very likely that McAllister might try something like that. She had been Chief of Fleet Operations while he was still a lowly captain, waiting for his retirement date to roll around at a mothball facility at Conn, so she wasn’t stupid. Intelligence indicated she only had 5 task forces with approximately 700 fighters, less than half of what Bishop had brought, and less then half than she’d plan to bring, before his Waston raid.

  Stillman’s Great Raid, they were calling it. It had evidently met all o
f Kalis’ expectations, as he’d been promoted to admiral and given command of the light 2nd Fleet, because of it. Stillman remembered asking himself, “What would Chris do?” during that entire raid. Whatever he’d done, he’d done for Chris. Ben still found it hard to believe that Chris was dead — that he’d never see his friend again. Ben hoped, wherever Chris was now, he’d somehow known of the raid and approved of what Stillman had accomplished in his memory.

  Stillman wasn’t overly concerned about McAllister making a close-in jump, even though he’d be facing five task forces with only his two. He’d have Ginia’s Planetary Guard in-system fighters and the orbital forts to back him up if that happened. ECM had spotted an incoming scan earlier, probably by a Union scout wanting to check things out. Some of Carpenter’s Combat Space Patrol fighters veered off to chase the intruder away, as was expected. Kalis wanted the Federals to get a look at the Ginia system. As TF-21 was still in the yard, all that scan would show was Carpenter’s single task force in orbit around Ginia. That certainly ought to give McAllister something to think about...

  * * * *

  …and it did. McAllister called a meeting of her flag officers to discuss the scout’s puzzling scan records. If Kalis was hiding in the asteroids, they’d expect to see no ships other than local commerce vessels at Ginia at all. If he wasn’t, then they certainly ought to be seeing a lot more than just a single task force.

  Where the hell is he?

  Was it possible that Kalis had already launched a major offensive against the Union, as a follow-up to the Stillman raid and McAllister’s force had passed by it, unnoticed in transit?

  He might have. Kalis is an audacious old fox.

  The Stillman raid gave proof of that. If Kalis had gone off on a major raid of the North, he probably would have left more than a single task force behind to guard Ginia, wouldn’t he? Maybe a second, or even a third task force was hiding amongst the asteroids. That would make sense, but why leave only a single task force vulnerable near the planet with his major strength out in the asteroids? With the Planetary Guard fighters available, unless that single task force stayed close to the orbital forts, McAllister’s five task forces would maul them. Even staying near to the forts, McAllister would still maul them — it would just be more expensive.