Resilience (Warner's World Book 6)

by Dave O'Connor

  The Audacity reached its objective and loitered. Dave hated this part. All his ships were cloaked and so there were only ghosted icons on the holo other than for the solid ones for the enemy ships. Everyone was silent, watching the timer count down.

  Mandy and Felix were scanning their terminals for any new sightings. Cindy had her cyber-attack all set in case it was needed but every few seconds she stole a glance at Art’s terminal as he scanned the reports streaming in from the planet’s indie channels.

  “Qwela fell yesterday to the sleth” announced Art. “But according to this report, which is…four hours old…the rogan are counterattacking to regain it.”

  “Where’s Qwela?” asks Dave.

  “300 clicks south west of Nenrit” advised Col Obri, the sleth liaison officer. He had come forward from his observer chair and picked up the holo wand from Sue’s workstation and used it to bring Qwela into view. “Our 8th Brigade most likely.”

  “Thank you Obri” said Dave. He gave Obri a nod and Obri took that as the signal for him to sit back in his seat.

  Toyah, Sue, Chase and Aubrey were at their ops stations and were in essence spectators. Gordon was sitting in one of the observer chairs behind Aubrey. He had the ground plan opened on his console but he’d long digested it and was content to just to sit and wait for developments.

  At 2329 Crystal announced “Attack in one folks.” She visually made eye contact with Mandy, Felix and Cindy. They each gave her a non-verbal signal confirming they were ready. “In five, four, three, two, one.”

  There was a momentary delay before Mandy announced “Beam attacks underway.” A few seconds later she added in a very matter of fact manner “smote all enemy ships.”

  “Ground based missiles fired. Lots” announced Felix and then in a slightly higher sounding voice added “Lots and lots.” His voice lowered to its normal cadence. “At our caps…570…80, 600. 600 runners. Our caps bustering back. They’ll be good.”

  “Warp the transports” commanded Dave.

  “Command sent” announced Aubrey. “Decloaking.”

  “Reactivate cloak” commanded Crsytal.

  “Belay that” directed Dave. “We’re out of harm’s way. Let’s see if our impie frigate is tempted to show itself. Besides I’m sure our ships would appreciate a definite fix on us.”

  Dave was busy with calls to his cap commanders. He was taking the opportunity to verbally confirm arrangements before they recloaked.

  “Fighters launching” announced Felix.

  “Got to go Ivan” hailed Dave as he terminated his call. He was now regretting his decision to decloak so soon. He should have waited before sending that command to the transports.

  “We have three streams totalling 120 fighters” announced Felix and added “they’re heading our way, surprise, surprise!”

  “All limas to CAP” ordered Dave. “Toyah have the squadrons from our caps fire their load offensively and your group defensively one for one. All ships prepare to engage leakers as required.”

  “Roger that” said Toyah “but they’ll probably release early and turn back. We may not get a shot at them in time.”

  “Do it anyway.”

  “Confirmed. But I recommend we have the cap squadrons burst to 40K, release and buster back.”

  “Do it.”

  It took the enemy fighters almost five minutes to climb to 20K and released their missiles. They were all fired at the Audacity. “Shit we have 720 missiles coming our way” announced Felix.”

  “Defensive javelins away” announced Torah.

  In the same time as the enemy fighters climbed to their 20K release point, the 36 limas from the caps dove to reach the 40K mark and fired at the enemy fighters. The javelins were faster than the rogan fighter missiles but it would be a race to see how many of the enemy fighters they could take out.

  “Ground based missiles launched” announced Felix. “200 at cap limas, 600 at javelins targeting their fighters.”

  “Cap lima’s will be fine” announced Toyah after checking the possible intercepts.

  Two minutes later Mandy announced “We’ve splashed 42 of their fighters. Looks like the rest got back down.”

  All eyes were now on the missiles tracks engaging each other around the 40K zone. The superior smarts on the javelins gave them the edge in the deadly dance underway. But they were not full proof.

  “130 leakers” announced Felix. “Engaging one for one. Close-in to auto.” Felix had no delusion about his capacity to do a better job than the AI in managing the close-in defence systems. “Slaving caps” announced Felix “Allocating 45 from each. Engaging one for one.” This would in effect have the caps fire 45 of their ship missiles at a portion of the 130 leakers. The AI would handle the allocation to avoid double up. The net effect was that the group as a whole was engaging the leakers two for one.

  Crystal was pleased with the way Felix was handling his duties. He was proving to be a steady hand under trying circumstances. She wanted to praise him then and there but knew better than to distract him.

  A minute later Felix announced “All down bar three. Brace.”

  The ‘Brace’ command wasn’t needed in the end as the pulse and short ranged beam defences took out the enemy missiles. Felix finally let out his breath and managed to smile in relief. Crystal was about to say something but was beaten to the punch by Mandy who announced “Bogey four detected. It’s in the asteroid belt. Range 210 million…that was 24 minutes ago.”

  “Is it moving?” asked Crystal.

  “Yes…it’s warped away” advised Mandy. “Requesting vectors from caps” advised Mandy. This would send a signal to each of the caps and asking them to send back their vector of the enemy craft. In this way she would get a triangulation, albeit not a good one. She was not requesting one from the other ships because that would decloak them.

  Dave waited patiently for the result. It would affect his next move.

  “Not our way. Looks like out of the system” advised Mandy.

  “Well you can bet the powers to be at Slidwon will know about this soon. Oh well at least we can proceed with our insertion” commented Dave. “Well done everyone…”

  “Great work Felix” said Crystal and then realising Dave wasn’t finished she looked at him apologetically.

  Dave smiled back at her and said “Yes excellent work under pressure there Felix.”

  Felix beamed with satisfaction and Mandy gave him a gentle wack on the back from her adjacent seat.

  “I’ve got a Colonel Elinth of the 8th Sleth Bde wanting to speak with you Sir.”

  Dave turned to Obri, “Do you want to take this?” asked Dave.

  A smile came over Obri’s face and he lifted his communicator and hit the control to take the call. “Elinth, you old rascal, this is Obri.”

  “Obri, looks like I have just lost my bet. I was sure you wouldn’t show. But I am glad you have arrived. We could do with a hand. How many are with you?”

  “Just the 1st for now. The 2nd and 3rd won’t arrive till tomorrow.”

  “With all three we will win here for sure. We’re having a rough time at the moment though. Looks like the enemy have thrown their reserves at us. I’m uploading coordinates for the DZ. When can you arrive?”

  “We have to wait for our transports. They will be here in…three and a half hours. Should have the 1st Bde down to you by dawn. Will have to wait till the next nightfall to insert the others.”

  “That works for me. We hold the DZ for now but the enemy is counter-attacking. Best get down as soon as you can.”

  “We will…wait, Rear Admiral Warner wants to speak to you.”

  “Colonel Elinth” hailed Dave.

  “An honour to speak with you Admiral.”

  “Can you provide us with all the intel you have on known enemy forces, especially missile sites and fighter bases.”

  “Of course. I will do so straight away. We’ve knocked out most of their sites and bases. There are really only three figh
ter bases and you should already have their locations no?”

  “Yes we have those that engaged us. Is that all that are still operational?”

  “All we know of. As to missile sites, as far as we know the enemy only has mobile missile batteries. We knew of ten yesterday but they have since moved. The ones that fired at you now will have certainly moved on.”

  “OK, but I would still like an intel exchange as soon as possible.”

  “Straight away Admiral. Welcome to Slenthsl.”

  Five minutes later Art advised he had the upload of intel data from Elinth.

  “Good” acknowledged Dave. “We need to find and destroy those batteries…” his voice trailed off as he had a thought. He then turned to Gordon and said “I may have a mission for your commandoes.”

  “Sure. What do you have in mind?”

  “Normally we’d go for the missiles sites first. But with them being mobile the only fixed targets are their fighter bases. I plan to bombard these but we really need eyes on the ground to designate them. I want to insert three teams to do that.”

  “And you want them to go now before the main lift?”

  “Have to. We’ve only got limited lift capacity.”

  Gordon nodded. “What happens if they need to exfil in a hurry?”

  “Not a problem, so long as it’s before those shuttles are needed for the main lift. Otherwise they may need to go doggo till we can get to them.”

  Sue who had been listening to the conversation was already working the controls on her station. “How’s this?” she asked, directing their focus to the holo with a wave of her hand.

  Gordon and Dave both turned to the holo and could see that it was now zoomed in on the area encompassing all three fighter bases. The three task icons for the insertion by the three warthogs were highlighted. The sequential dismount, infil and target designations tasks were also there.

  Gordon borrowed the holo wand and started interrogating the task data. He noted the three team leaders and their team members. As he scanned the order of battle he checked their skill set. He knew they were all trained in target designation but old habits die hard. He zoomed the holo in so he could get a better idea of how far the DZs were from their objective. When he got to the third one he asked “is that the closest we can get them?”

  Sue dragged the DZ a little closer. The insertion route updated and she expanded the route data. “Yeah” she replied “See the increase in likely detection. If we bring ‘em closer, there’s now a 40% chance of visual detection.”

  “Alright. Leave it as it was. Looks good.” Gordon turned to Dave “You happy?”

  “I am if you are” said Dave with just a hint of a smile.

  Gordon smiled. “I’d like to brief them then or do you need me here?”

  “No you’re good to go Gordon but come back up when you’re done.”

  “Will do” said Gordon as he got to his feet. “Reggie” he hailed as he strode out “I have a job for you.”

  “Toyah” said Dave “once we have dealt with their fighters I want you to go hunting for those missile launchers.”

  “Sure” acknowledged Toyah. “How many probes can I burn up?”

  “Try and limit it to six OK?”

  “We’ll try” said Toyah. Her expression though didn’t fill Dave with a lot of confidence. But he knew they had to flush them out and to do that they needed to bait them with a detectable target and it was always better with a probe than a fighter or a bomber for that matter.

  “May need to escalate to a marauder strike.”

  “Understood.”

  “May need to be a whole flight to be credible.”

  “Well let’s just take it in stages hey?”

  “You got it.”

  Chapter 4. Audacity over Slenthsl 0000, 29 October

  Down on G deck 1st Lt Nick Hope and his platoon sergeant Feris Borman were digesting their new orders. They were standing around the holo in the big briefing room along with LCmd Reggie Hollows, the Commando company commander, and Commander Benny Johnson, OPS for 3rd Bde.

  “That’s a long walk from DZ Charlie and not much cover” said Nick to Gordon.

  “Yeah but there’s too much risk of detection if we drop you closer” said Gordon. “It’s all open ground. Thankfully it’ll be dark.”

  A few minutes later, Nick and Feris stopped asking questions. Reggie asked Nick “so what do you think?”

  Nick looked at his boss and could see that she’d already made up her mind. This was Reggie’s first commando company command. Since it was formed three months ago the unit has yet to be actively engaged and Nick knew she was keen to prove her company’s mettle.

  “My guys are up for it” responded Nick. “They’re kitting up as we speak.” Nick looked to Feris and asked “Anything?” Feris shook his head. Nick turned back to Reggie. “We’re good!”

  Reggie was pleased with the response. She acknowledged it with a nod and turned her head to Gordon.

  “Remember” said Gordon “after 0200 you’re on your own till after the first lift lands. Just designate and keep your heads low. No need to engage. OK?”

  “Got it” said Nick with a confident nod.

  As Gordon headed back up to A deck he felt good that Nick Hope would be in charge. He was one of his most capable platoon commanders. By rights he should have been a company XO by now but the commandoes had their own rank structure where roles were one notch higher than in a line company.

  He knew that Nick had seen action before, albeit not against a rogan enemy. He wasn’t a cocky fellow like many other commandoes, but he was confident in his abilities and of his platoon. ‘No he’ll do fine’ said Gordon to himself.

  Fifteen minutes later after the platoon briefing had finished, Nick let Feris do what he does best, organise the platoon. While Feris was martialling his troops, Nick took the opportunity to claim one of the small briefing rooms to finish off an email to his wife, Lizzy. He’d been trying to write for days now, ever since he received an email from his sister Clare. And for days now he just could not believe what Clare had said was true.

  He’d been telling himself that Clare was mistaken but only now, with the pressure of a real op underway, did he finally countenance that maybe his wife was cheating on him. The image that had dogged him ever since he lifted off from Polaris was Lizzy bent over in a rage yelling abuse at him about him deserting her yet again. That was a week before he shipped out.

  ‘You promised me’ she had cried ‘two years you said.’ But no explaining about the fact that there was a war on would convince her that he had no say in his transfer from Benning Special Forces school to an operational unit.

  He had felt guilty but deep down he had been glad. As he had told his former CO (commanding officer) ‘I didn’t join special forces to be a desk jockey.’ He viewed being an instructor as only one step up from a desk jockey. But he had accepted the posting to placate Lizzy.

  They had made love the night before he shipped out but as he said his goodbye the next day he knew that things were not the same between them. He had been writing to Lizzy every few days since. His last email from her was back over Chelora and he knew the mail was still coming in, just not from her.

  “Hey boss, we’re ready” hailed Feris.

  Nick let out a sigh, closed his console and grabbed his rifle. “I’m coming.”

  Chapter 5. Whiskey 3 to Slenthsl 0030, 29 October

  The stick of three warthogs eased out of their respective bays into a dark vacuum. Cloaked, they headed in single file for waypoint Alpha, where they would split up and individually head to their respective DZs. Nick was going in with Team Charlie to DZ Charlie. Feris was going in with Team Bravo to DZ Bravo and Sgt Ange Bao was leading her Team Alpha to DZ Alpha.

  It had been SOP when splitting the platoon to multiple objectives to always assign Alpha to the first objective and so on. Other platoons mixed it up but Feris, always a little superstitious about such things, insisted doing it this way. N
ick was not superstitious at all but he let Feris have his way on this.

  He and Feris had served together before, when Nick was just a one pipper and Feris a team leader. He liked Feris a lot and had successfully argued for him to be his platoon sergeant when they were both assigned to 3 Commando just a few months ago.

  Nick checked the time. Twenty one minutes to go. He glanced at Sgt Ron Dilby, leader of Charlie team, and the rest of the troops in the warthog. Everyone seemed calm as though it was just your usual training exercise. But Nick knew they would all be a little nervous. He knew he was. He gave Ron a nod and Ron nodded back.

  Nick eased his helmeted head back against the seat. He knew they had already passed into enemy missile range and if detected could be destroyed at any minute but he also knew there was little he could do about that. Like many soldiers he was a bit of a fatalist. If it happened, it happened.

  Other commanders he had served under would use this time in descent to either give a little pep talk to the troops or to go through the plan one more time. Nick knew that his troops knew what to do. They had trained and exercised for just this type of mission dozens of time since departing Polaris. He was not one to nag or repeat himself when it came to directions. Neither was he one for geeing up the troops. He could motivate soldiers and with his tongue if he had to. But he preferred to lead by example and right now he thought the best example was a calm demeanour. So he closed his eyes.

  But his mind turned to Lizzy and he knew that was not good. So to give his mind another focus he decided to review his plan once again. He could have brought out his console from the side pocket on his left leg but instead he opted to use his heads up display (HUD) on his helmet’s visor. This way the troops in the shuttle wouldn’t start wondering what he was doing. He tapped the control on his helmet to make the visor go opaque. He was now inside a dark space and his troops would think he was catching some z’s.