by Darold Higa
“President Devon,” the Admiral began. Lindsey’s head spun. President? “I am required to inform you that as per the Constitution of the Federation of Renspa, you are the current President designate. We received information that Federal One has been destroyed in orbit of Aurora and President Harrington is presumed dead. Vice President Smith and Secretary Grummand have been assassinated, and the rest of the cabinet has been evacuated as per Operation Clausewitz. We are now at war with Narthia, and it appears that they have launched a massive surprise attack against our forces. Sorry Lindsey, the two of us drew the short end of the stick. We have been selected by automated lottery to remain behind and serve as the acting Government of the Federation.”
President Lindsey Devon slumped back into her seat. “Well, Virginia,” she responded, “what do we do now?”
4563 July 05
Somewhere in the Northwind Sea
Aurora
Renspa Federal Republic
Peter frowned. President Peter Hamilton was clearly not having a good day. The emergency pod he was sitting in was bobbing in the water. Brenda was still unconscious, and Martin, the Federal Security agent, was bleeding from a wound to his head. He had stopped most of the bleeding, but was afraid to move him any more, for fear of making things worse. He glanced at his communicator. Wherever he was, there was no signal. The Narthians had probably destroyed or jammed the local ComNet.
Peter recalled the shock of hearing of the Narthian invasion just as he was returning from his nephew’s funeral. The message had been relayed through the local military base and not through the communications center on Federal One, suggesting that things were confused and not going well for the Federal Space Patrol. As his maglev pulled into the space station he was immediately escorted up to the space terminal via express car on Aurora’s only skyhook. Aurora’s tough anti-pollution laws meant that there was no real spaceport on Aurora, and so the Captain of Federal One suggested that the skyhook would be less risky than attempting to do a manual landing of the presidental shuttle at Aurora’s outdated military facilities.
Since news of the invasion had barely leaked out of Newport, the spaceport was fairly empty. Just as the President was about to enter Federal One, he ran into an old family friend. He had sent the rest of his staff ahead, with the exception of Brenda Sorenson, and of course his ever-present Federal Security Force detachment. As Peter exchanged a few words about Wesley, Federal One, visible through the giant viewports in the spacestation, exploded in a barrage of missile fire. Debris from the spacecraft hit the side of the space station, cracking the viewport in a thousand places before emergency shutters could slide into place. Through other viewports in the distance, the familiar profile of Narthian Cavalier fighters could be seen. Emergency alarms went off everywhere. Before Peter could even react, a member of his security detail had already grabbed him by his suit and was pulling him in the direction of the nearest emergency escape hatch. Gunfire broke out in the distance, as it appears that other members of the security detail were engaged in a pitched gun battle. Peter, Brenda and one security agent were stuffed into the escape pod, while the others remained behind, fighting the unseen foe. The last thing Peter saw through the small window in the escape pod was Alex, one of the few members of the security detail he had really befriended, get shredded by gunfire as the pod detached from the space station and plummeted back towards Aurora. After that, everything went black.
The next thing he knew, Peter had found himself bobbing in Aurora’s northern ocean in the spaceport escape pod. To prevent from getting seasick, Peter tried to outline what little information he had. He was the President, after all, and he knew the entire Federation must be in chaos. He had to figure out what was going on, and more importantly, how he was going to get back to Newport so that they could organize their defenses. First, why did Narthia send a detachment here to Aurora? Since this funeral had literally only been arranged two days ago, he doubted that the Narthian Navy had anticipated his presence here. Aurora, aside from being an agricultural planet and home of the President of the Federation, only really had one other bit of strategic importance, namely it was the planet on the hyperspace network that was closest to the border with the Narthians. Extending the network to Aurora was one of those political acts of patronage that won him a lot of points earlier in his career as a senator. Once Aurora had been connected, locals contended that it was now an obvious target if war broke out with Narthia, and the very small military base here would have to be expanded. Too bad we hadn’t gotten around to that yet, Peter thought to himself.
Put in that perspective the reason for seizing Aurora was apparent. The HyNet was that one bit of technology that reminded everyone that the Long Dark Night was truly a step backwards for technology. It had taken humanity all this time to be able to once again manufacture the huge hyperspace driver units that made interstellar commerce as simple as getting on a maglev. Even the Renspan HyNet contained a fair number of pre-collapse driver units that had been salvaged from all over Renspan deep space. Because of the HyNet it was possible for agricultural products from Aurora to be transported across the stars cheaply. It also meant that seizing Aurora would give the Narthians access to a ready-made logistical network. Instead of spending fuel transporting supplies with them in fleet support ships, they could use HyNet traffic to keep their fleet supplied. It sounds like they planned on trading flexibility for striking power. Perhaps that could be used against them, Peter thought to himself.
Peter set that thought aside. While he had determined why Aurora had been attacked, he had not made any progress in determining how to get off of Aurora. As he looked at the two unconscious bodies next to him, he realized that he hadn’t even determined a plan to get out of the escape pod. His first priority was to get ashore. From the look of it, the Secret Service man wasn’t in very good shape. It was time for Peter to take command of the situation. Peter snorted at the thought. Ultimately such political clichés were meaningless. He took off his jacket, rolled up his sleeves and opened up the emergency kit that was in the wall of the escape pod and began taking inventory. Right now, war or not, President or not, he was a person stranded in an escape pod with two unconscious people. The rest of the universe would have to wait.
4563 July 05
Central Military Command
Luna
Narthian Empire
Colonel Benjamin Tsai surveyed the giant datatank in the middle of the command center. Around him were smiles as generals and admirals milled about carrying champagne flutes. He felt pride that so far Operation Tempest had been a stunning success. The elaborate political, economic and military deception that had been carefully planned and orchestrated by the Project Humantide team under his leadership had caught the Renspan military completely by surprise. Ben surveyed the vast datatank. He knew, in the back of his mind, that his team’s ability to mask the movement of such large numbers of ships and personnel halfway across humanspace would probably be studied and analyzed by military historians and strategists for some time to come. It was an odd thought, but one that filled him with a sense of pride and accomplishment.
“We now have a preliminary report from Banner Blue and Banner Green.” The clinking of glasses and the low murmur of conversation in the command center went completely silent. Colonel Tsai felt a knot in his stomach. Things could still go badly if somehow the Renspans or Spincorans had managed to cut through the maskrova at the last moment.
“The Renspan 2nd, 3rd and 7th Fleets have been destroyed, most of them in their moorings. Casualties are far below estimates.” The room erupted into cheers. Once the cheering subsided, the staff officer continued.
“Special Forces Command reports that R5 has secured the two main Newport skyhook terminal facilites. Landing operations will commence within the hour.” Another loud round of cheers broke out. Not waiting for silence, the officer continued. “Linodan Fleet and remnants of the 7th Fleet have destroyed the Northern Task Force and escaped to New Boston. I
t is suspected that elements of the Renspan civilian government escaped via HyNet.”
Colonel Tsai winced. He could barely hear the news over the din of officers busy congratulating themselves and quickly made his way to a personal data terminal to bring up a more detailed report. To those present, the wholesale destruction of three front-line battle fleets and the seizing of the skyhooks to the enemy capital far outweighed the destruction of a few antiquated auxiliary fleets and the escape of a few thousand ships. For Ben however, it set off alarm bells. Those damn Spincorans, he muttered to himself. Linodan Fleet and Sokolov Fleet, Spincora’s so called 93rd Provisional Fleet was a last-minute wildcard in all of the simulations that had been run. Within the next ten hours, the Renspan 10th Fleet would also be in striking range of Newport. The 10th Fleet, operating with the 221st Expeditionary Force, as it was apparently now called, could muster around 15,000 ships. 15,000 ships posed very little threat to the substantial force that had now massed at the Renspan capital, but it also meant that any further advance in the direction of New Boston would require moving in force. Already the plans worked out in the previous months would have to be adjusted to take this into account.
Ben considered the news of the Renspan civilian government’s escape from Newport. R7 Special Forces had managed to successfully complete a number of assassinations, but it was obvious that Renspa had not been completely decapitated. He had an unconfirmed report that one of the secondary fleet actions to secure the supply lines to Newport from Narthian space had encountered and destroyed Federal One. If true, the escape of the government had to be weighed against the considerable windfall of killing the Renspan President. All of these factors were completely beyond the scope of the Humantide simulations. He knew that once war started, the orderly day-to-day activities of large numbers of people would be interrupted and any kind of simulated view into the future would be impossible. Even with things going mostly according to plan, unpredictable events were starting to accumulate. These things start off as grains of sand, but as time progresses they begin to form larger and larger disturbances. Eventually, he knew, these small factors would turn into an avalanche and would have more impact on the final results than the starting parameters. Still, there was little he could do except to keep adding these factors into the model.
Ben’s thoughts were interrupted by the force of an enthusiastic hand slapping him on his back. It was a somewhat tipsy Admiral Hsin. “I had you all wrong Tsai!” Benjamin could smell the alcohol on his breath. “You have handed Narthia a great victory today! You have served the Empress well. Stop worrying over reports and have a drink!” Benjamin’s boss, General Ho, nodded in agreement and also slapped him on the back. Benjamin turned off the datatank in front of him and the report disappeared. He would worry about all of that tomorrow. Tonight, he was a hero and he decided it would be in his best interest to play the part.
4563 July 05
Newport City Skyhook Orbital Terminus
Synchronous Orbit Over Newport
Renspa Federal Republic
Wynne went over her command checklist. The virtual menu floated in her surround datatank, casting a blue light on her face. As she pointed at different menu items new virtual displays appeared, each filled with information on the critical systems of her 15-meter tall Templar power armor. She had already run through the list twice before, but keeping busy was the only way to fend off the tension of her impending mission. Her unit, the 2nd Platoon of the Banner Blue 32nd Planetary Assault Division, 321st Regiment, called the “Just Eagles,” had been selected to be the first power armor division to make the descent via skyhook into Newport City, the capital of Newport.
Now that the OLST Waikiki had finally docked with the Newport City skyhook orbital facility, Lieutenant Wynne Chu’s orders were to reinforce the R5 Commandos that had already secured the planetside terminus facility. So far Renspan forces had been caught totally by surprise and were disorganized, but resistance was growing. The lightly armed R5 troops were holding out, presumably due to the fact that Renspan forces were afraid of causing considerable civilian casualties. At her last briefing, there had only been a few minor small-arms skirmishes between R5 and local forces. Still, should the Renspans decide to put up a fight to sever the orbital elevator, they would need heavy forces to hold the terminal facility. Power armors were considered superior in maneuverability and flexibility to tanks and infantry fighting vehicles for urban conditions and had been selected for this mission to provide heavy firepower support to the powersuits that were also scheduled to descend to Newport skyhook terminus.
Wynne was still uncomfortable with the idea that her entire company would be involved in urban fighting. Her unit was trained as a mountain unit, involved in reconnaissance in hostile mountainous terrain. There were other units that were trained for urban missions, but for whatever reason, her unit was selected for this mission. Considering the size of the mobilization and the scale of the invasion, she supposed that many units would be assigned to missions outside their pre-war training disciplines for purely logistical reasons. The image of some unit with underwater combat units sitting on a mountain top somewhere made her chuckle. At least, she thought, we use the same equipment as the urban combat units and have general urban warfare training. She also knew that Newport was a planet that had a lot of mountains, so they might have a chance to exercise their specialty later on down the road. If things went as planned however, the war would hopefully be over before that would be necessary.
The docking facilities at the Newport City skyhook orbital station were among the busiest in humanspace, yet the process of moving from the Waikiki to the cargo facility proved to be extremely simple since all civilian traffic had ceased. Once the Waikiki had formed a hard dock connection with the station, it was a short walk for the power armors into the designated loading dock. Wynne nodded with approval as her unit moved into position. In a matter of minutes, her entire platoon of four Templars had loaded into the first elevator. 1st, 3rd and 4th platoons were also in the staging area, preparing to load into the elevators that would follow. The vast army of support personnel for the giant machines would follow later, once a new perimeter was established and secured.
“Captain Leong, 2nd Platoon ready for transport.”
Captain Leong’s face appeared in front of her in the datatank. “Very good. Depart as soon as possible. Rendezvous with R5 forces and hold at the loading dock until arrival of 1st platoon. Once 1st platoon secures the dock, advance to your designated security point. Expect powersuits to relieve R5 once the entire company has secured their initial positions. Good Luck Lieutenant Chu. For Terra!”
Wynne saluted as the doors to the giant elevator cab closed. Normally, a skyhook’s descent to the planet’s surface would take a full day. Since the Narthians were concerned with getting as many forces planetside as quickly as possible, energy efficiency and passenger comfort were not a concern. This meant that the entire elevator system was set to drop at freefall speeds. Wynne gave the all clear signal to the elevator operator. Suddenly she felt her stomach leap upwards as if the floor had dropped out from under her. It was her dislike of this sensation that had made her choose mountain recon instead of orbital assault as a specialty. She glanced over at her platoon status monitor. Images from pilot cameras in each of the other three Templars of 2nd platoon were projected along with information about each pilot and the status of their power armor. Sergeant Wang and Sergeant Lee looked like they were on a roller coaster ride, eyes fixed downward, looking absolutely thrilled. Sergeant Yu on the other hand was pale, eyes shut tight, looking downright miserable. Wynne figured that was probably a lot closer to what she looked like at the moment. Clenching her fists she fought her instincts and looked around. Unlike most Narthian skyhooks, Renspan engineers had gone through the extra effort to make every wall of the cargo elevators transparent. The surround datatank gave her the illusion that she was floating in the exact spot her powered armor was standing. Looking up, she saw th
e orbital facility rapidly disappearing above, and looking down, she saw Newport growing larger below. Swallowing hard, Wynne fought a bout of nausea and cursed whoever had thought that a glass elevator from orbit was a good idea. She turned off her monitors and attempted to concentrate on her checklist one last time. The full scale ground invasion of Newport was underway.
4563 July 05
New Marine Royal Navy Training Center
New Marine
Ladera Marginal
Patricia pulled the clip in the Romanov pistol she had taken from the MP. Luckily it was full. Still, with just a pistol and a single clip of ammo, her chances of making it off planet looked pretty slim. She figured that at minimum once she made it off of the base, she stood a pretty good chance of blending in with the local population. Until a few moments ago she had been a trusted ally. Now, the base military police were hunting her down. So far she had been lucky and had managed to break free. Still, she knew if she didn’t figure out what was going on quick, her luck would run out. She briefly paused to see if she could piece together some idea of why she was being hunted.
Exactly 15 minutes ago, Captain Patricia Wainwright had been teaching a class on Narthian fighter echelon tactics to a room full of New Marine fighter pilots. She had been selected by the Commander of the HMS Brightstar to act as a liaison with the New Marine Republican Army. Among the independent nations of the Ladera Marginals, New Marine was a firm ally of the Spincoran government. As she was finishing up class, two New Marine military police showed up to the door of the classroom. At first she thought it was somewhat odd, but just assumed that it was the base commander who had sent for her. She realized that something was amiss as they approached the base HQ, since a large number of MP vehicles parked outside. Once she heard gunfire, her suspicions were confirmed. Patricia broke free of her escort and escaped.