‘The destroyers, sir?’
‘Point defence. I expect we’ll need it. Targets of opportunity where they can engage.’
‘Aye, sir,’ Leeforth said, turning back to her console.
Ape looked at her slim back, just visible around the structure of her acceleration couch. Leeforth had always reminded him, just a little bit, of Gillian Gilroy, the mother of his son. He told himself that he had not allowed that to affect his judgement when he had asked her to become his executive officer, but right now, before they went into full-scale battle together, he allowed himself to recognise the fact that there had been more than a little partiality in the decision. She was an excellent XO, but she also reminded him that there were things other than warships to think about.
Ten Kilometres Outside Yorkbridge.
Janna looked across at the woman sitting beside her, a tall, scarlet-haired woman with a chest which matched her own. She remembered seeing the same figure, or almost the same, at the party after her partnership registration ceremony. Except that version had been shorter, with less chest.
‘I still can’t believe you came to one of my parties,’ Janna said, mostly for something to say.
Winter looked relaxed, but she was driving, manually, as fast as the car could handle. ‘Sharissa is a friend, and Aneka is…’ She glanced at Janna. ‘She isn’t exactly my daughter, of course, and I’d never try to replace the mother she had, but I put a lot into what she is now. She’s more than a friend, far more than a part of a project I was made responsible for.’
‘It’s odd. I mean, you’re this super-intelligent artificial mind. Somehow I’d have thought that would make you less emotional, but here you are creating attachments to ordinary people.’
‘I can be unemotional if I need to be, but I see no point in denying myself the full range of interaction possible with other beings. My feelings for Aneka have never stopped me sending her into dangerous situations where I thought that was the best course of action.’
‘She’s safe now, though? She and my daughter?’
‘They are a long way away from here, Janna,’ Winter replied, and hoped that the woman would not recognise the evasion. ‘Now we just need to get you somewhere safe.’
‘Why are you protecting me? I’m no one…’
‘Ella would likely dismember me if I let anything happen to you, and while I don’t think she could really do me too much harm herself, Aneka would help. Besides that, Sharissa will do a much better job knowing you are somewhere safe and I can spare an avatar to achieve that.’
‘And Sharissa?’
‘Is a survivor. Elaine has assigned her to a duty which will help our position and put her in as safe a place as anywhere else on the planet. Don’t worry, Janna. We’re all going to get through this, or none of us will. If it’s the latter then worrying over it is pointless.’
The Islands.
‘Senator,’ Sharissa said as she walked into Elroy’s lounge, ‘I need you to come with me, now.’
Elroy looked away from his wall screen where several Representatives were chattering at once and frowned. ‘Agent Torrence,’ he acknowledged. ‘I am a little busy.’
‘Yes, sir. We have a transport waiting with a full communications rig. You’ll be out of touch for a couple of minutes, but we need you on it.’
Maybe it was the fact that Sharissa was carrying a heavy-looking carbine and dressed in combat armour, maybe it was her tone, but Elroy had the feeling she was not really making a request. He cancelled the mute on his end of the debate. ‘Representatives, I need to go offline for a few minutes. I’ll be back with you soon. Please remember that the Navy is fully ready to fend off this attack. What we need now is calm and the public following their local emergency plans. I suggest you all begin implementing those.’ He cut the connections without further comment and got to his feet. ‘Where are we going?’
‘We’ve got an FSA submersible stationed off one of the outer islands. It was designed as an emergency command and control vessel should the land-based facilities be compromised. Secure, difficult to detect, capable of hiding in deep water if needed.’
‘Winter thought of everything, didn’t she?’
‘Almost everything.’
‘You think the Herosians will make it to the surface?’
‘They don’t have to, Senator,’ Sharissa replied. ‘My information is that they’re likely to get at least one heavy gunship within striking range, and right now you’re sitting here not far enough from their biggest target.’
Naval Command.
‘How long until first contact?’ A display appeared on Farmer’s personal screens showing a timer counting down. Just over two minutes until the first shots were fired. There were fighters launching already. Farmer could feel his heart rate increasing, knew that adrenalin was pumping through his veins. This was it, the moment when the Navy showed what it could do, and he was the one in command of the operation.
‘Sir, we’re getting analysis of the Herosian battle formation through from the Argus.’
Farmer glanced at his unknown Commander. ‘And?’
‘The vectors suggest that they’re planning to push through with their gunships. Fifteen gunships armed with planetary bombardment weapons, each carrying three landing craft.’
‘They won’t get that close.’
‘Yes, sir, but, sir…?’
‘Spit it out, Commander.’
‘It’s not a large enough force. They can’t be meaning to take the city with thirty squads. They’re going to target the spaceport, and us.’
Farmer felt his stomach lurch, but his brain kicked back in quickly. ‘We’re in a bunker designed to stop nuclear weapons and we have orbit-capable defence missiles. Besides, they won’t get that close.’ He turned away, glancing at the timer just as it ticked down to zero. ‘And I have other things to keep me occupied.’
BC-101 Hand of God.
The only sounds on the bridge of the Hand of God came from the instruments and systems. The crew said nothing, they had no need to. Their implants ran software which tied the entire, active crew into a network of synchronised, highly skilled components operating within a highly complex and efficient system which was their warship. Via external link, the ship’s Captain was part of a larger network with the other ships in the fleet, coordinated through the Argus.
Charlene Tasker watched as the Herosian battleship ahead of them, a Xinti design they had repaired and re-commissioned, entered their firing solution. They had been tasked with its destruction because they had technology which matched it, possibly exceeded it. A thought in her mind blossomed into a stream of gamma-rays bursting from their main weapon system. One hundred gigajoules of energy transmitted through space as high-energy photons.
To Charley it almost felt as though she was screaming destruction at the Herosian ship.
FSA Submarine.
‘The Hand of God has engaged with the Herosian Mordra Kai-class,’ Truelove announced.
Pierce, sitting in a small office off the main operations room, nodded. ‘The rest of the fleet?’
‘Engagement in about four minutes.’
‘Those Old Earth ships are fast. They have some quite considerable technology.’
‘Yes, sir. Senator Elroy is on his way. We expect him to arrive in five minutes, then we can submerge.’
‘What about communications?’ Pierce asked. He was used to space and the idea of being in a tin box was fine, but underwater was less of a pleasing concept. Water would crush you…
‘There’s a buoy. It limits our depth to around a hundred metres, but it gives us a far smaller signature than this hull.’
Pierce nodded and Truelove turned back into the operations room. ‘Have we got that network up for the Senator?’ she asked anyone who might have an answer.
‘Second office is configured for it,’ one of the technicians said. Truelove’s implant supplied her with a name: David Gallow.
‘Thank you, David,’ she replied and
she got a smile in reply. If there was one thing Winter had taught her it was that knowing people’s names was important. She doubted Pierce knew many of the names on this boat.
‘Nice touch, using his name.’ The voice was in Truelove’s head, transmitted via her implant. She glanced at its owner, but Janine was busy at one of the terminals. ‘Did I teach you that?’ the voice added.
‘The other you, yes. Winter used to know the name of every captain of every ship in the Navy. I think she knew every agent in the Agency.’
‘It’s easy when you can just download the files and run facial recognition.’
‘I have to rely on my brain for the last bit, but that’s where I got his name from.’
‘You’re going to end up leading the FSA. You know that, right?’
‘Eventually, maybe, if we live through this.’
‘Have some faith.’ Janine turned around and spoke aloud. ‘The Vertol’s overhead.’
‘They’re early,’ Truelove responded.
‘Yeah, well, Agent Torrence is flying it.’
Truelove grinned. ‘All right, let’s get them aboard. Prepare the ship for underwater operation; we’re diving as soon as our guests are through the hatch.’
FNf Delta Brigantia.
‘Frigate!’ Anderson snapped. ‘Port side, twenty degrees down…’
‘Got it!’ Grant’s voice came back over the intercom. He was a technician with a speciality in gunnery, but he was pretty useful at firing the things too.
In the port side console in front of Anderson, Hughes was timing his shots on the main gun and directing one of the three forward turrets. He had to work with their pilot, Shari Prentice, to get the main gun in line for firing since it was a fixed, forward-facing mount. She had to line up his shots and try to avoid getting hit at the same time and she was doing it with the skill of a woman who had, apparently, been born in a pilot’s chair.
Anderson let them work, keeping an overview of their environment with the help of Baron, their navigator and sensor operator. So far her crew was living up to its reputation, but they were barely engaged in the battle and there were a lot of ships out there who wanted them dead.
She saw the bright flash of a missile detonation as the keel turret took it out a few hundred kilometres away. Lots of Herosians wanted them dead, but they were going to live through this if it killed her.
LV-101 Argus.
Norden followed the flow of battle, his expression serious. He wondered whether Farmer was seeing the same thing he was, or whether the arrogant Jenlay was seeing only the Herosian losses.
In truth, he considered that unlikely. The superior technology of the Old Earth ships was proving highly effective and the losses were primarily in Herosian and Jenlay forces. Farmer had to be seeing that and, given the characterisation Norden had formed of the Jenlay Navy’s command, the result could go one of two ways. Farmer might get angry and try throwing his forces in harder. It seemed more likely that he would get scared and go on the defensive.
As the final stages of the Herosians’ initial battle strategy played out and their forces turned to create a shield around their gunships, just as Norden had predicted, he solidified his prediction of Farmer’s reaction. The formation was a battering ram to drive the gunships through to New Earth. Given the earlier estimations of their available ground forces, that meant they were coming for Farmer himself and while Norden was sure the Admiral would risk a few civilian lives, he would not risk his own.
Naval Command.
‘Get the troops in from the city,’ Farmer snapped. ‘I want a defensive formation set up on this island and the spaceport. Get the missile batteries online and start scanning for targets.’
‘Sir, they’re over an hour away at this pace,’ the Commander said.
‘Do it! All ships to defensive formations. I want full orbital coverage. Get that Old Earth battleship in position above us. Lighter craft to harry their rear, everything else form a barrier. We can’t let them get through.’
The Commander, whose name was Litia Henderson, turned back to her console and began issuing orders. In a window at the rear of the display now, she could just see part of an email she was writing whenever she had a spare moment. It was to her partner in Yorkbridge, only a few kilometres and an eternity away, who she was sure she was never going to see again. She estimated she had time to finish it, maybe another ninety minutes, but she wanted it done and sent in less. When those gunships got in range, she was quite sure she was going to die.
FNb Admiral Banfry.
‘New orders coming in, Captain,’ Leeforth said.
Ape looked down at a screen which had changed to show the new battle order. ‘Of course, now we’re on the defensive because he’s worked out they might get in range to shoot at him. Swing us around, full thrust for New Earth. I want as many batteries as possible on defensive fire so give us an oblique course. Engineering, I want a prediction on reaction mass usage.’
‘Think we can stop them getting through?’ Leeforth asked. It was apparent from her tone that she did not.
‘No. If we’re lucky we can thin them out some before they get there. Tell the squadron to run interference for us; most of them are better equipped for fast retreats than we are.’
Leeforth swallowed and turned back to her console. The main engines had already kicked in at full burn, but the battleship was not exactly a speedy vessel. The Captain was right: this was going to be a tough run.
Norden Forest.
Janna had insisted on seeing what was going on and refused to let Winter turn the displays in her ship off even though she sat there with a look of horror on her face as the battle’s progress unfolded in front of her.
‘So many lives,’ Janna whispered.
‘So far we don’t know the actual casualty level,’ Winter replied. ‘We’re looking at equipment disabled more than people hurt.’
‘But people will have been hurt,’ Janna countered.
‘Yes.’
‘Do you think it’s possible they’ll win? The Herosians?’
‘It’s a battle, Janna,’ Winter replied flatly, ‘just about anything is possible.’
Yorkbridge Mid-town.
The reports on the battle were not exactly detailed, or complete, but CFM was reporting as best it could, frequently citing the changing position as an excuse for the lack of information. Katelyn sat on the couch in the apartment she shared with Dillon, her partner, and watched it with a mixture of frustration and growing alarm.
‘This isn’t looking good,’ she said.
‘No,’ Dillon agreed. He was busy in the kitchen and she was not exactly sure why. She was not hungry and she could not see how he could eat under the circumstances.
‘It’s sketchy, but I get the impression the Herosians are closing in on the planet.’
‘No, they’re closing in on the city.’
‘What?!’
‘Stands to reason,’ the big man replied. ‘There’s not much on this rock worth attacking. They may hit the orbital station, but their main targets are going to be the spaceport and the city.’ He sounded too calm.
‘Oh.’
‘So get your ass off that seat, we’re leaving.’
‘What? Where are we going?’
‘Underground. The subway might not be safe, but it’ll be a lot safer than a tower block if they start bombing. Get that sleeping bag out of the second bedroom. We might be down there for a while.’
Feeling slightly dazed, Katelyn got up and headed for the bedroom door.
FNf Delta Brigantia.
The Brigantia swung hard around and, still moving in the direction its momentum was carrying it in, opened fire on the nearest gunship. Its turrets were engaging missiles and ships in all directions, but still the odd beam cut across her hull.
‘Damage report,’ Anderson requested.
Scotts, the chief engineer, responded almost immediately. ‘She’s holding together. We’ve got a coolant leak somewhere in the reacto
r. I’ve isolated it, shouldn’t be a problem. Hull is intact, but I’d appreciate it if Shari could dodge a few more of those graser beams.’
‘She’s doing the best she can. Keep her flying.’
‘Doing the best I can.’
Anderson allowed herself a small smile. ‘Did you hear that, Prentice? Scotts wants you to dodge more.’
Prentice’s voice sounded strained when she replied. ‘If he wants to come up here and see if he can do better…’
‘Pretty sure he can’t. Pretty sure no one can. You’re the best pilot in the Navy, and don’t you forget it.’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ Prentice replied, sending the ship into a tight spiral which avoided a particle beam and brought her in line for another shot from the main gun.
Herosian Flagship.
Sin’Doffis watched the progress of the battle in a holographic display not unlike the one Norden was using. The main difference between the two was that Norden knew who had built his tank; Sin’Doffis considered the thing something akin to magic, much as was the case with most of the Xinti battleship it was housed in. It worked, that was all he cared about.
What it showed was that they were taking losses, but those losses were within tolerance. The defending forces were not faring so well. Calculation suggested the Herosian fleet had inflicted twice as much damage as it had taken in the initial assault. As he had expected, the Jenlay had gone to a defensive posture after that and their proportional casualty rate had dropped, but they were still losing people and ships faster than his fleet was.
‘When will we have the gunships in artillery range?’ he asked of the Commander acting as his assistant.
‘A little over half of one hour, Admiral. We are taking losses, however. The Jenlay are specifically targeting those vessels.’
Sin’Doffis nodded. ‘Yes, and taking heavier casualties because of it. Tighten the defences around the core and accelerate. Plough through them.’
Naval Command.
Aneka Jansen 5: The Greatest Heights of Honour Page 22