I ran through the systems as the planet’s defences opened fire. Some of them were standard missiles that had been left in orbit only to be triggered when the orders came, others were much nastier, including a missile that split apart into several other missiles just before it entered laser range. I couldn’t hope to handle it myself; I could just set priorities and allow the computers to handle the rest of it. If they failed to take out a missile in time, the Devastator might be destroyed along with the remainder of the fleet.
“The Admiral is recalling the cruisers,” Kitty said. “Captain…”
She broke off. Where the cruiser Michael Galloway had been, there was now nothing, but an expanding cloud of debris. The cruiser had been closing to intercept one of the escaping freighters and the Captain on the freighter had suddenly tripped the self-destruct system. They had to have loaded a dozen nukes onto the freighter to get that effect, I realised suddenly; the cruiser hadn’t stood a chance.
“They should have stood off and fired into the drive if necessary,” the Captain grated, angrily. I shared his frustration. “Anna, take down the planetary defence systems on the ground, now!”
The planet was firing on us itself. They’d installed massive laser cannons, each one far more powerful than anything we could mount on a starship, trusting them to sweep space clear of invading starships. How had they done it so fast? I found myself wondering. How could they have prepared all this in a mere two months? Anna fired back, launching Kinetic Energy Weapons down towards the ground-based defences, only to see some of her KEWs burned out of space by the lasers. The remainder of the fleet was clearing local space of orbiting defences, but as long as the ground-based systems remained intact, we couldn’t hope to support infantrymen on the ground.
“Got one,” Anna said. A red icon vanished from the display. I didn’t want to think about what that meant on the ground. The installation would have been devastated, but what about the surrounding countryside? Had the Heinlein defenders installed their weapons well away from the civilian population, or had they emplaced them right in the midst of their towns and cities? The death toll might be horrendous already. It would only get worse when the troops started to land. If half the rumours and stories I’d heard about Heinlein were true, it was going to be a nightmare. “We’re clearing the way forward.”
I nodded to myself. The Devastator was designed for bombarding the surface of a planet. No matter what the defenders did, they couldn’t prevent Anna from unloading hundreds of KEWs onto the surface, devastating defence installations and government centres. Their starships, which seemed to have retreated, should have targeted us first. They might have crippled the entire invasion…
No, I realised. Admiral Hoover would have pushed on regardless. I had the feeling that nothing short of death would deter him from his mission, even if it cost him the entire fleet. Failure would be punished at home; success, even costly success, would be feted. The cruisers and the battleship could bombard the planet if they had to, even if they didn’t carry the same weapons as the Devastator. They could still take the planet. They would still take the planet.
And orbital space was clear.
“The Admiral is signalling to the fleet,” Kitty said. There was something in her voice that brought me up cold. “Land the landing force!”
Chapter Fifteen
The UN possesses what it regards as the perfect ground combat doctrine. Put simply, it involves seizing control of the utilities (power, food, water, etc) and then using it to control and coerce the enemy population. The doctrine was designed, however, for worlds where the enemy were barely equipped and often unarmed. It couldn’t fit a world where the enemy was often better armed than the UN’s forces. This should not have been a surprise. When the UN invaded Heinlein, there was little in either side’s arsenal that would have been unfamiliar to an officer from an earlier, pre-space age.
-Thomas Anderson. An Unbiased Look at the UNPF. Baen Historical Press, 2500.
The display sparked with new icons as the first wave of shuttles launched from the troop transports, heading down towards the surface. Heinlein, at least, hadn’t named its capital Landing City or some variant on the theme; the capital city, Lazarus, was actually smaller than most capital cities. If the data could be believed, Heinlein’s population was spread out all over the planet, rather than being concentrated in a handful of cities. I was no expert in ground combat tactics, but it struck me that occupying the entire planet would take years, and far more infantrymen than we had.
“Move us into position to cover them,” the Captain ordered, as the shuttles flew down towards the ground. “Anna, target and destroy anything that attempts to impede them. We must have that spaceport intact.”
“Aye, sir,” Anna said. Now that local space was clear, there was less for me to do, but I watched my console carefully anyway. They might have hidden other stealthed weapons on their moons, or somewhere in orbit among the debris we’d missed. The satellite system the Admiral had been so keen to seize had been destroyed in the crossfire. He wasn't going to be pleased about that. “They’re barely five minutes from parachuting down to the surface.”
I nodded, watching carefully. Earth had its orbital towers, but few other planets had them, not when a space cable or elevator would be sufficient. Heinlein, however, had neither, which meant that the only way to move troops down to the surface rapidly was to use spaceplanes and heavy shuttles, which in turn meant that we had to seize and secure all the spaceports. Heinlein didn’t even seem to have many spaceports, or airports, and losing one of them could be disastrous. The fleet was settling into low orbit now, using lasers to pick off any aircraft in flight to prevent them from engaging the shuttles, but if the spaceport were to be lost…
“They’re going to know that too,” I muttered. The Captain turned to look and me and I flushed, feeling an idiot for speaking out loud. I had no choice, but to explain myself. “They have to know that we need the spaceports as well, sir.”
“Quite right,” the Captain said, gravely. I had the faint impression that he was humouring me, for whatever reason made sense to him. “The garrison may even have lost the spaceport after a battle that would render it nearly useless.”
I frowned. “Then why…?”
“Because it’s not actually that easy to render a spaceport completely non-functional,” the Captain explained, calmly. “The landing pads and runways will still function – its not even easy to mine them without being obvious – and the infantrymen can take them without serious problems, particularly if we provide covering fire from orbit. Once they have the spaceports, we can begin landing the main force and advancing out to seize the cities.”
Unwisely, I pushed it further. “But doctrine says to seize the cities at once,” I protested. “How can we do it at once?”
The Captain grinned. “We can’t,” he said, dryly. “Doctrine says a lot of things that I just impractical, Lieutenant. The task of the people on the ground is to try and keep to doctrine as much as possible, while knowing when to ignore its demands that we do the impossible just to please the beauecrats back home. Our task is to support them and prevent the enemy on the ground from counterattacking before the troops have landed in sufficient strength to defeat any attack. Watch your screens and wait.”
I turned back to my console, relieved. Somehow, talking to the Captain sometimes left me with the sense that I had barely escaped a horrifying death by the skin of my teeth. On impulse, I set the console to inform me if there was anything I needed to deal with and brought up the images from the overhead sensors. The spaceport was a good twenty miles away from the city – no one in their right mind would build a spaceport right on top of a city – but it still looked built-up to me. It was surrounded by hangers for spaceplanes, barracks for crew and servicemen and even a handful of gardens, for reasons that escaped me. It was a massive installation…and, as I looked closer, I could see figures scurrying over the tarmac.
“They have what looks li
ke an infantry unit dug in at the main building,” Anna said, flatly. “I am engaging…”
A moment later, the main building vanished in a massive explosion, just as the first infantrymen began to fall down towards the ground. They hit the ground and formed up, taking fire from two different buildings, which Anna promptly destroyed as well. As the shuttles swooped around and unloaded the second set of paratroopers, the first set started to advance, driving the enemy forces out of the buildings. I watched, fascinated, as the battle raged over the spaceport, with the defenders taking heavy casualties. In lives alone, the Devastator had just paid for herself. Without her, the attackers would have been wiped out before they could secure the landing zone.
“The heavy shuttles are launching now,” Kitty said, from her console. I flicked back to the main display and saw the heavier shuttles racing down towards the ground. Some of them drew fire from handheld weapons, but only one was hit, spiralling down towards the ground and exploding in a massive fireball. I stared in horror – there had been a thousand soldiers crammed into that massive craft – before turning my attention back to the spaceport. Now that the ground had been secured, the infantrymen were spreading out, calling in supporting fire as they needed it. As the heavy shuttles began to disgorge tanks, I realised that we’d actually secured the beachhead.
“Good,” the Captain said, tightly. “Anna, continue to watch the ground carefully and be prepared to offer support the minute they require it. Kitty, does the Admiral have any special orders for us?”
“We’re just to remain in orbit for the moment until they deploy additional orbital bombardment systems,” Kitty said, accessing the fleet database. The Captain didn’t look surprised. Unlike the cruisers, or even the battleship, Devastator was hardly a multi-role starship. The only other thing we were good for was transporting reporters and perhaps specialist troops. The thought reminded me about the reporters and I wondered how they were coping. I hoped that it wasn't well. “The Admiral sends his compliments to your gunnery officers and requests that you stand by to dispatch ground-controllers if necessary.”
“It probably will be necessary,” the Captain said, annoyed. “The infantry on the ground have a habit of calling in fire on targets they barely need to destroy. John, after you have tended to your charges” – it took me a moment to realise that he meant the reporters – “take yourself off the watch list and brush up on how to call in fire from the ground. If someone has to go down, it will probably be you.”
“Thank you, sir,” I said, despite myself. I wanted to set foot on a new world, but I doubted that Heinlein would be any safer than Terra Nova for a long time to come. “I’ll get right on it.”
“No hurry,” the Captain said. “The reporters can wait for another hour or two.”
The next hour seemed to pass very slowly. I hadn’t realised how tense I was until I tried to move, or how tired. Combat seemed to sap the energy from me, even if I wasn’t in any danger any longer, unlike the men and women on the ground. The rapidly-growing infantry force on the ground was moving out now towards the capital city, trying to seal it off before more of the population escaped into the countryside. The orbital imagery suggested that they would lose that particular race. The entire population seemed to be on the move.
I linked into the ground-based communications system and listened as the infantry advanced. There were two bridges between the spaceport and Lazarus and the defenders had dropped both of them into the water. As the infantry milled around, waiting for orders and bridging equipment, the defenders struck again and again, showering them with mortar fire and sniping from a safe distance. The infantry became more trigger-happy as their helicopters advanced overhead, clearing away the defenders until two of them were downed by handheld anti-aircraft missiles. The remaining helicopters promptly fell back and forced the troops to advance on the ground, inch by bloody inch. The bridge was repaired, allowing the infantry to advance…right into another ambush.
The system is more limited than I realised, I thought, angrily. In some ways, it was like a game – spot the ambushers before the ambush was tripped – but with very real consequences. The Heinlein defenders were good, perhaps as good as the Marines, or better. We rarely spotted an ambush until it was too late and as for the mines…by the time the infantry finally reached the city and started to seal it off, there was an entire string of burned-out tanks and IFVs behind them. The commanders on the ground, to judge from their signals, were growing frantic.
“They’re refusing to take prisoners,” one of them protested, in horror. “They just killed and butchered three of my men!”
“Call in an orbital strike,” another – harsher – voice insisted. “Kill them all!”
“Stand ready to deliver strikes on the city,” the Captain ordered, drawing my attention back to the ship. “If the Admiral wants it to fall quickly, he’ll have to order strikes.”
He was wrong. As the infantry pushed into the city, they met no opposition, apart from a handful of civilians who engaged them, as insane as it seemed, with handheld pistols. The infantry went through them like a knife through butter, but even so, they took casualties. The only real resistance occurred at what was supposed to be the Government Centre, which was held by a reinforced infantry company. Eventually, the commander on the ground called in a KEW strike and destroyed the building.
“Stand down from battle stations,” the Captain said. “John, you can go tend to your charges now; Kitty, Anna, pass control over to your seconds. Go get some rest.”
“Captain,” Anna said, “You’re exhausted too. You need some rest as well.”
“Later,” the Captain said. I was surprised that she dared to speak to him like that, but they had served together a long time. “You go get some rest. I’ll join you when Konrad arrives, ok?”
“Yes, sir,” Anna said.
There was no need to turn the secondary tactical console over to another officer, so I locked it and saluted the Captain, before departing the bridge. I had only thought that I was tired before, I realised numbly; I felt as if I wanted to collapse into my bunk and sleep, and yet I also felt horny. I stopped that line of thought when I realised that two of the reporters were on the verge of looking attractive, but still…having survived the battle gave me a charge. I barely thought about the infantrymen on the planet, but their war was only just beginning. I had the feeling that it definitely wasn't going to end quickly for them, or for us. Who knew how long Devastator would be forced to remain in orbit around Heinlein?
“Well?” Frank Wong demanded, as soon as I entered their stateroom. The reporters all looked utterly terrified, although I saw no reason for their terror. They hadn’t seen the enemy starships on the offensive, or the massive planetary defence batteries on the surface. They’d just known that there was a battle going on…and they'd been trapped in their stateroom, almost as prisoners. Perhaps I should have felt a little sorry for them – they wouldn’t have known what was going on and therefore would have only had their imaginations to feed their fears – but I found it hard. They were obnoxious beyond belief. “What happened out there?”
“We won,” I said, flatly. They stared at me for a long moment, and then began snapping off questions, which I answered as best as I could. “Yes, there had been a battle, yes, we’d taken losses, yes, we’d taken the high orbitals, yes, the troops had landed…”
It seemed never-ending. I was grateful beyond words when Ellen Nakamura entered the cabin, giving the reporters her faintly-menacing smile. “The battle is over and the Admiral has proclaimed Heinlein a member state in the United Nations,” she said, and began her own explanation of what had happened. Apart from the detail that a battle had taken place, it didn’t seem to agree with mine on any point, even the fundamentals. She spoke of cheering crowds welcoming the UN infantrymen and hundreds of corrupt government officers being arrested and handed over to the infantry for their own protection. I knew for a fact that none of that had ever happened, but I kept my mouth
firmly closed. It wouldn’t gain me anything to dispute her version of events. It was the version of events that would be spread back home and believed by everyone.
“You will all be allowed to go down to the planet soon enough,” she concluded. I felt a brief moment of sympathy for the reporters – the planet was nowhere near as safe as Ellen was promising them – but not much. They would probably end up getting killed on the ground and good riddance. “Lieutenant Walker will see to your requests tomorrow if you wish to go down sooner, but the transport is mainly required for infantry for the next week and we may not be able to fit you in.”
I half-expected a series of demands for immediate transport to the surface, but no one moved. “Let Walker know tomorrow,” Ellen finished. She gave them another half-smile. I watched in astonishment as the reporters responded to it and wondered where the real balance of power lay. “Enjoy your sleep, knowing that it is peaceful because of the valiant efforts of the Peace Force.”
Martial Law 1: Patriotic Treason Page 15