First Command
Page 25
He handed Debran a small packet of paper and said, “Sir, you have been served.”
Debran, confused, asked, “Served? Served with what?”
“Why, your divorce decree, of course.”
Friedrich looked at the man as if the man had just been hatched.
“What are you talking about? I didn’t ask for any divorce proceedings.”
“No, sir, Mrs. Debran…excuse me, Ms. Halscomb requested a divorce and that divorce was granted by the Captains’ Court of Barataria this afternoon.”
Debran built up into a full rage and shouted at the small man, “Whom do you think you are dealing with, little man? I will have that divorce issued by your kangaroo court overturned before the sun sets.”
The little man advanced on Debran, causing him to take an involuntary step back.
“I am Emilio Rondage, senior partner of the law firm Rondage and Jompe. Ask your legal advisers if they want to tangle with me in court, any court, even those you’ve bought in the Rigel system. This divorce is absolutely legal and the GR Fleet can testify to it. One of the codicils of the Surrender Agreement was that GR courts would uphold decisions handed down by Baratarian Courts before the surrender document was signed, as long as they did not violate GR law. This divorce is legally binding.”
Debran did not know what to do. He had never been treated this way. He looked around for sympathy from the crowd and found none. He turned and stomped away. Julia would never see him again.
Thorson stood beside her and said, “Ms. Halscomb, I know this is sudden, but would you do me the honor of being my wife?”
She smiled and said, “Mr. Thorson, wait, is Thorson your last name or first name?”
Thorson smiled back and said, “It’s my last name. I am Francis Jesse Thorson.”
“Well, Francis, I would love to be Mrs. Francis Jesse Thorson.”
Thorson picked her up and twirled her around to applause from the assembled dignitaries.
When he let her down, he said, “Rondage has sufficient evidence of Debran’s corruption of the Rigel legal system that he can argue in GR court that Debran made it impossible for you to get a fair divorce trial in the Rigelian courts. He thinks he can get you a 50% settlement anyway. That’s enough about that. Where do you want to get married and honeymoon?”
She smiled and asked, “We can worry about that later. Do you think you can get my ship back before it is stripped?”
Thorson smiled. Yes, he thought he could do that.
* * * * *
Irina Bugarov was in the crowd that day. She was on the opposite side of the field and hoped to reach the scout ship and AS-500 across the massive parade field, but there were too many people and too many Ascetics providing crowd control to get over there. She and Terri found a shady spot on the hillside and sat down to watch the show. She and Terri had dropped the tired old women disguises and cleaned up. They got more than a few admiring glances, especially Terri.
Her heart swelled when she saw the F-48s and A-76s fly over the field. Yes, Fleet had come and rescued them, just like she knew they would. She had never lost faith in the Fleet.
As the crowd winnowed out, she and Terri worked their way across the field. She knew she was breaking protocol by walking between the Ascetic formations returning to their barracks, but she didn’t care. She was free. Today was her Independence Day.
She reached the empty reviewing stand and looked around for an officer. She assumed everyone went in the large tent or up into the ships.
She called up into the ship and a petty officer from the quarterdeck came down.
“Can I help you, ma’am?”
‘I hope so. I am retired Major General Irina Bugarov of Fighter Force. Could I speak with your captain?”
“Captain’s not aboard, ma’am. I believe he’s in that big tent, ma’am.”
She thanked him and they wandered over to the tent, but the Ascetic guards had orders not to admit former captives. Irina made a note of the scout ship’s name. She would write a thank you note when she was back in better surroundings.
The petty officer went back up the gangplank and joined Chief Miller.
“What was that all about?” Chief Miller asked?
“I don’t know. Some crazy old broad said she was a major general or something. She wanted to see the Captain. I told her he was probably in the big tent.”
Chief Miller shook his head and asked, “Why do all the crazies call themselves generals? Log it.”
* * * * *
Fleet Commander J’Kalt reviewed the scenarios presented by his battle staff. The spy ships’ report from the Human sector had been transmitted to them and gave them an idea of what they might have to face. In their considered opinion, the best option was to conduct a reconnaissance in force into the star cluster. This gave them the greatest benefit for the least losses. The two shadow destroyers should lead the formation, as they had the best sensors and were best able to pick out the route through the cluster.
The Shadow cruiser and three light missile cruisers would follow, to be able to provide long-range support to the Shadow destroyers. The six fighter defense frigates would ring the formation, to provide flank security against Human fighters and fighter-sized craft. The remainder of the ships would form up with the six missile/gun destroyers behind the cruisers, followed by the ten support ships guarded by the four gun frigates.
The corvette J’New would remain at the opening to the cluster, to provide a communications relay and rear security. It would warn the fleet and Main Worlds if enemy ships got behind the fleet.
J’Kalt approved this plan and established rehearsals for the opposite side of the two Main World systems behind them.
* * * * *
The long-range sensor probe reported the power up and movement of the K’Rang Fleet. It tracked them as they moved to behind the nearest Main World system. It repositioned itself autonomously and reported its new position when it sent the data on the K’Rang Fleet. It got occasional glimpses of the K’Rang Fleet practicing movement and dutifully sent that info on, also reporting the Missile Corvette continuing to monitor the known entrance to the star cluster. As the corvette moved around the entrance, it forced the sensor to periodically withdraw into the cluster to maintain secrecy.
* * * * *
Captain S’Kal of the Missile Corvette J’New was looking over the shoulder of his senior sensor operator, H’Talli. He had been called to observe some sort of anomaly in the sensor scans, but he could not see it.
“Play it back one more time, H’Talli, I don’t see what you are trying to show me.”
Sensor Lead Technician H’Talli wasn’t sure he could see it either, but he could sense something was there. He ran the file back and ran it forward at slow motion.
“There, just there. See it, sir? That flash, just there.”
The captain saw a brief flash, but nothing else. He asked how many times he had seen that flash and was told just this one time.
“Lead Sensor Technician H’Talli, watch this area. If you see anything more, let me know.”
Captain S’Kal returned to the bridge and thought to himself that if his lead sensor technician was operating on such a hair trigger, what was it like among the junior crewmen? He would have to advise the med tech to start looking at crew physical well being more closely.
H’Talli assigned two sensor techs to watch that area, to put fresh eyes on the anomaly.
* * * * *
Chief Blankenship was first to tumble to what the K’Rang were doing. She correctly assessed that they were practicing movement to contact and quick reaction drills. This gave the analysts on the Golden Eagle an idea. Admiral Minacci called a commander’s conference on his flagship for all involved, including the Baratarian leadership. The conference was to develop a plan of attack for the impending K’Rang incursion.
Kelly was not asked to attend the conference. He was charged with conducting a high-resolution gravimetric survey of the star cluster.
Kelly understood what the Admiral wanted, but asked, “How soon do you want me back with the data?”
The Admiral put his hand on Kelly’s shoulder and said, “Get me good enough, but I wouldn’t turn down perfect. Just don’t leave any hidden routes that would give the K’Rang a way around behind us.”
Kelly said, “Aye aye, sir,” and returned to the Vigilant.
Chapter Sixteen
The Admiral called the meeting to order. Present were Steve Maynard with his senior Undefeated class ship captain, his Torpedo Ship Wing Commander, the Ascetic Bishop-Commander, and the captain of the Leviathan. The Marine Brigade Landing Group Commanders and Group ship captains, with the exception of Kelly, were all present.
The 3rd ALG Intel Chief briefed the enemy situation. The ops chief briefed the friendly forces. He told the assembled leaders that a cruiser squadron was enroute to reinforce them, but was a week away. They would have to go this one with whatever they had.
The senior Marine Commander gave the Marines status. They had two light brigades and one heavy brigade with armored hover transports, self-propelled medium plasma artillery, armored hover guns, and the long range air/space defense system capable of firing missiles or plasma bursts into planetary high orbits.
The logistics officer briefed the supplies status. As the 3rd ALG hadn’t fought yet, supplies were full. All ships were reporting full weapons capability.
The Admiral asked for a similar report from Steven Maynard. Maynard’s ops chief stood up and ran down their capabilities. “We have six full torpedo ship squadrons and over six thousand torpedoes. We have twelve Undefeated class cutters, and we have the Leviathan. Captain Chang has proposed a unique way to use it in our defense.”
Captain Chang stood. “Ladies and Gentlemen, as you may not know, the Leviathan is a special ship. It’s the size of a fleet battle carrier. It has a clamshell opening system that can swallow a ship the size of this flagship. It has an EMP weapon that can fry the solid-state circuitry of a modern ship and stop it in its tracks, causing it to drift unpowered in space. It also has four tractor beams. It’s this capability, along with the clamshell, that can be of high utility.”
“Two years ago, we stopped a freighter convoy traversing outside our entrance. We brought the four freighters in and unloaded the cargo for inspection. We found undeclared military items. There were 5000 autonomous mines, 2000 stealth mines, and 1000 autonomous missile pods. If you come out with a mine plan, I can lay mines at a prodigious rate with four tractor beams.”
The admiral whispered to his ops chief, then said, “That is wondrous news, Captain. We only have 1000 mines in the entire 3rd ALG. We can give you a detailed mine plan to start to work on and all of our mines. If you give my ops chief the specs on these missile pods, we can work them into the plan, too. Thank you, Captain, you’ve made me feel a lot better.”
The meeting went on for hours as ideas were advanced, seized upon, or discarded. At the end of the meeting, the skeleton of a plan had been decided upon. Now it was up to the ops staff and the Vigilant.
* * * * *
A similar meeting took place on board the K’Rang Fleet flagship. Fleet Commander J’Kalt was not happy with the results of his rehearsals. The fleet was still just a collection of ships, not a cohesive unit. He complimented the two Shadow Force Destroyer captains for their aggressiveness and admonished the other captains to emulate them. He chastised them for being slow and cautious, when their very survival may require they throw caution to the wind and charge headlong at a Human force of larger size.
“We will be going in without the benefit of detailed intelligence on the threat. We have to be ready for any situation. More than likely, we won’t know where the enemy is until we run into them. That is why these drills are so important. We must react faster than the Humans react and overpower them.”
He ran through the drills on the holographic projector one more time, then sent the captains back to practice them again and again until he was satisfied. Eventually, they caught onto what he was trying to do and started to act more like a fleet and less like individual ships in a crowd. J’Kalt slept well that night.
* * * * *
Kelly looked for empty sectors in his survey results chart. He had built a 35-degree cone of space with the apex (the pointy end) starting at the Human entrance to the star cluster and the base ending centered on the K’Rang entrance to the cluster. He had divided the cone by fourths down the long axis and divided the length by 20ths, making 80 sectors. As he finished a sector, it went from clear to red. When there were only a few sectors remaining, Kelly decided they were peripheral and not important. Kelly set course for the 3rd ALG at max speed. He had what the Admiral needed.
* * * * *
Kelly turned his survey results over to the Admiral’s Intel staff and they added magnifying data to the chart. They turned the chart over to the Ops Chief and he gave it to his Mine Warfare Staff Officer. The MWSO drew out avenues of approach and looked for ways to canalize the K’Rang where the Fleet wanted them to go, not where they wanted to go. He planned mine fields at key chokepoints, where adjacent hide locations for torpedo ships or fighters were available, and for autonomous mines to close off pathways behind K’Rang ships. The MWSO then turned his plan over to the Carrier Fighter Wing Commander, who coordinated with the Baratarian leadership and assigned defensive sectors to Fleet and Baratarian units.
The Admiral had the hardest decision to make. What would he do with the Marines? The K’Rang Fleet was composed of all combatant ships. There were no assault landing forces, therefore no need for ground troops. The Admiral made the hard decision to leave his Marines behind. He knew he would have three very angry Colonels in his office shortly.
The Marines and Ascetics had the mission to defend Lafitte City. They would move the population to safe areas outside the city and support them. The Marines’ long- range air/space defense system would be networked with the similar Ascetic system to defend the planet. If the K’Rang should defeat the combined 3rd ALG and Baratarian forces, they would be on their own until the cruiser group arrived.
After hearing the three colonels out, he ordered them to deploy to the planet with their wartime combat loads and carry out their mission. True professionals to the core, they saluted and set off to their respective assault support carriers and the planet’s surface. The 3rd ALG had no Marine general or staff embarked to function as a division commander and HQ, so the decision was made for the three colonels to come under the command of the Bishop-Commander of the Ascetics.
This left a decision on CDR Milton’s idea for how to use the assault landing carriers. Milton pointed out that when the assault landing carriers had their AS-500s unloaded, they were faster and nimbler than a frigate and the bombardment plasma guns were effective against combat ships at medium and close ranges. CDR Milton proposed to use the carriers as ultra heavy attack fighters.
The Admiral could ill afford to lose his assault landing carriers, but the firepower would surely come in handy in this fight if used in the right way. If they could use brown dwarfs as cover and pop out to fire, they might take out a few of the frigates or support ships. He ordered the three captains to concentrate on the rear of the K’Rang formation, especially their support ships and escorts. They were to leave the heavy ships for the rest of the group.
* * * * *
The Marines loaded all their equipment and war supplies on the AS-500s and departed for the planet’s surface. They landed in assembly areas and quickly organized themselves to accomplish their missions. Two battalions of each brigade were assigned to organize the evacuation of the civilians. The remaining battalions built the camp for the evacuees west of the city.
The heavy Marine brigade deployed its two long-ra
nge air/space defense systems along the southern ridge. The Ascetic system deployed on the north ridge. The Ascetic light battalions saw to law and order in the city. The Marine heavy battalions and the Ascetic heavy battalion deployed in the wooded high ground to the east of town. All units dug in and fortified their positions.
* * * * *
With the AS-500s and Marines on the planet’s surface, Fleet efforts turned to establishing the mine barriers and ambush positions. The CFW commander assigned specific ambush positions to units and ordered them to reconnoiter and establish routes into and out of these positions, minimizing their exposure to enemy fire. This was especially true for the assault carriers.
The Leviathan was a marvel at placing mines. Its cavernous mouth could hold thousands of mines. Its four tractor beams could precisely place the mines. It placed 2000 mines in one 18-hour day. By the second day, they increased efficiency and doubled the number. By the third, they had completed the mine plan. Now it was up to the K’Rang.
The Admiral worked with the frigates, the carrier, the replenishment ships, and two of the Baratarian captured freighters. The plasma frigates had long-range bombardment guns and defensive missiles. The carrier had twin pods of defensive missiles. The ALG could fire off 200 defensive missiles before the replenishment ships would need to reload them. They carried five reloads. The Admiral worked with the ships to choreograph their actions in support of the fighters, attack craft, and torpedo ships. By the end of the week, he felt he had created a cohesive team.
Admiral Minacci called another commander’s conference to receive readiness appraisals from his commanders. All commanders reported fully ready to accomplish their assigned missions. Minacci congratulated them on their hard work, then dispersed the ships to their assembly areas. Minacci called Kelly in last.