Chang did not hesitate. “Major Simms, paint those targets with active sensors, weapons free. Let’s show them how accurate clumsy monkeys can be, shall we?”
“Yes, Sir,” Simms replied with grim concentration. The off-target jump gave her team less than fifteen seconds before the dropships passed out of nominal maser cannon range; if they couldn’t hit all three dropships before then, they would need to expend precious missiles on the tiny targets. Worse, having to fall back on missiles would be embarrassing to her weapons team. “Weapons free,” she ordered. “Light ‘em up.”
It took only three maser cannon volleys each to destroy the two trailing dropships in the formation. The last dropship, either through a twist of fate or cool flying by a very skilled and lucky pilot, survived four maser cannon volleys until the fifth seared through the hull and turned it into a loose collection of space scrap.
Chang heaved a sigh of relief, then checked the time code in the corner of the main bridge display. The engagement had taken far too long, Colonel Bishop must be anxiously wondering why the Dutchman had not reported in yet. “Mission accomplished, finally. That took much too long and was much too complicated. We had every advantage, and we almost failed to complete the mission. We could have lost the ship!”
Simms called from the CIC. “Sir, we are the Merry Band of Pirates. Everything we do out here is complicated.”
Chang knew that was true, he had hoped that when he commanded the ship, things might be different. “Desai, get us back to the microwormhole. No jumping this time, we can’t let the enemy know the location of that wormhole. Major Simms, if our stealth field flutters for even a second, I want to know about it. We can expect Fire Dragon warships to be crawling all over this area, as soon as light from the first explosion reaches a sensor network. Let’s be far away from here when those ships arrive.”
Desai first set a course at a 120 degree angle away from the microwormhole, to throw off any ships later searching for the Flying Dutchman. Space was never truly empty, especially in a star system there were particles cast off from the star as solar wind. A ship traveling through space knocked aside these tiny particles and left a wake that was unaffected by whether the ship was using a stealth field or not. Normally, such a faint wake could not be usefully tracked by the sensors on a typical Kristang ship, but the explosion of the three dropships had left the area saturated with particles, so Desai flew in the wrong direction until they cleared the particle field, then swung the ship around and increased acceleration in gentle increments.
Halfway to the microwormhole, Chang had to order Porter to reduce power because of a structural failure warning coming from the ship’s spine near Reactor Two. Enemy sensors had by then surely detected the first signs of the recent battle, and then the gamma ray bursts when the Dutchman jumped several times. When they were still approaching the microwormhole, multiple gamma ray bursts were detected behind the ship, in the area of the battle. “Passive sensors only,” Chang instructed. The ship’s stealth field was operating with perfect efficiency, with the defensive shields on minimum power only to protect against random space debris impacts. “It’s time to report in. I have to tell Colonel Bishop that I broke the ship.”
“Don’t worry, Sir,” Simms said with a smile, “it’ll buff right out.”
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
“We can- hold on a moment, Joe. Just got a message from the Dutchman. Oooh, they got into trouble. Reactor Two has shut down. And there appears to be structural damage to the support struts near that reactor. Also, damn it, damage to shield generators, point defense cannons, the list goes on. The next time King Kong,” Skippy used his nickname for Chang, “wants to go on a joyride, he can borrow a dropship instead of a star carrier.”
“Crap,” I swore. “I’m sure it is not Chang’s fault. Is everyone all right?”
“Yes, no casualties. The ship is still functional. Um, mostly functional.”
“Great. Is the problem anything you can walk them through fixing from here?”
“Sure, Joe. They already tried jiggling the handle, but that didn’t work,” his voice dripped with sarcasm. “So I downloaded a YouTube video of a guy named Skeeter who says he fixes Thuranin reactors in his barn. No, I can’t do that, you moron! How am I supposed to walk a gang of monkeys through fixing technology they don’t understand? I’ll transmit a data package that will tell the flight computer to complete a safe shutdown of Reactor Two. Now, if you’ll give your crumb catcher a rest for a minute, I’m trying to scan through data from the onboard sensors to assess the damage. Oh, in the message was a note from Colonel Chang, apologizing that he broke your ship.”
“Tell him that I said he is the reason we can’t ever have nice things. No, wait, don’t do that.” Chang might not receive that message in the joking manner it was intended. “Tell him, uh, tell him I used my credit card when we rented the ship, so we’re covered by insurance.” That was jokey enough that Chang would understand I was concerned, but was confident the ship was in good hands. “Hey, before you go, did it work? Did Chang destroying that ship get the Fire Dragons fighting with the Black Trees?” Skippy had told me he thought it unlikely our attack on the leadership compound by itself would spark a full-scale war, but I had been hoping it would anyway. When the Black Tree leadership offered first sons as hostages, to prevent a war, that worried me. We had risked so much in this operation, to have Kristang act all peaceful and nice would be a huge disappointment.
“Uh, let me see. No, duh! Pay attention to physics, you dumdum. We know the result of that battle, because we have instantaneous communication through the microwormhole. News that the None Can Stand Against Us was destroyed has not yet reached this planet. Chang reported seeing recent gamma ray bursts near the battle, so someone out there knows the Stand is not happily voyaging through space, but Fire Dragon leadership here has not yet gotten the word. Hmm.”
“Hmm, what?”
“Hmm, like, we expect that when the remaining Fire Dragon leadership here learns their cruiser and two senior leaders got blown up in a sneak attack out there, they won’t listen to any more protests of innocence by the Black Trees. The Fire Dragons will strike hard against the Black Trees as soon as they can.”
“Yeah, that is our plan, so?”
“So, now I’m wondering whether the Fire Dragons will act first. When the Black Tree leadership here finds out the Stand was destroyed out there, they are going to know the Fire Dragons will blame them. The Black Trees may figure they’re screwed anyway and strike first. This, Joe, is the kind of super juicy action a Jeraptha would not be able to resist wagering on.”
“What’s the Vegas line on the Black Trees launching a first strike?” I asked, only partly joking.
“Ha ha! See, Joe, I knew you were a gambling man. Would you like to wager- Oops, too late. The Fire Dragons just received the message that the Stand was destroyed, and evidence points to the Black Trees. And, um, yup. Oooh, that was fast! Fire Dragon leadership just authorized an orbital strike against the Black Trees.”
“Have the Black Trees gotten the news?” I asked anxiously. The last thing I wanted was for the Black Tree leadership to make another peace offering.
“Well, that depends. The Black Trees did just receive a message, in the form of a terawatt orbital maser barrage. Oh, and that is soooo thoughtful of them. The Fire Dragons are following up their initial heartwarming message with railguns and hyperspeed missiles. They care enough to send the very best.”
“No fruit basket?”
“This is not really a Hallmark moment, Joe,” Skippy chuckled. “Whoa! The Black Trees just retaliated, there is a whole lot of directed energy and hardware flying around up there. Better bring an umbrella if you go outside, Joe. It is raining railgun impactors.”
The initial battle between the Fire Dragons and Black Trees lasted just long enough for one of the Rangers to tear his eyes away from a display long enough to make a bag of popcorn in the dropship’s tiny galley. I supposed I shou
ld feel I am a terrible person for munching on popcorn, while we watched thousands of lizards getting vaporized on the ground, in the sky and in space above Kobamik. But, the Kristang tried to conquer my home planet, so screw them. Very little of the damage affected the civilian populations on either side, I didn’t know if that happy circumstance would continue if the fighting dragged on for a significant time. The initial and follow-up waves of attacks were against the offensive capabilities of each side, then it settled down to stealthed satellites sniping at each other when they thought they detected a target, and air and ground attacks. Ships could not safely approach the planet with the Strategic Defense capability of either side an unknown.
I did feel slightly ashamed of myself while I was washing my hands after eating popcorn. “Skippy, this has been a very entertaining show-”
“Oh, for sure, Joe. It has been an action-packed smash, the feel-bad movie of the year! For the Kristang, I mean. It could use a bit of comic relief, but otherwise this is certain to be a hundred percent ‘Fresh’ on Rotten Tomatoes.”
“Uh huh, yeah. My question is whether it worked. If all we’ve accomplished is getting the Fire Dragons and Black Trees to fight each other on this one planet, this mission is a failure. We need all the clans fighting each other, all across Kristang space.”
“I know that, Joe, I’ve been working on it. So far, most other clans are sitting this one out. The Black Trees have mutual defense pacts with many other clans, but those clans are refusing to get involved. They are pissed about the Black Trees recklessly launching an attack on the Fire Dragons, and their pride is hurt that the Black Tree leadership didn’t inform allied clans of the plan in advance. The Black Trees have for so long been such deceitful MFers that the one time they are innocent, nobody believes them. The Fire Dragon coalition so far has only hit the Black Trees, and they have only hit back at the Fire Dragons. Joe, in order to get this war to spread before it loses momentum, I think we need Phase Three.”
“Damn it.” I didn’t like the idea of putting our people at further risk. “All right, I’ll get Chotek’s OK, and give the ‘Go’ order.” Our people were standing by to launch Phase Three.
Phase Three was my least favorite part of the entire operational plan. I had been hoping that hitting the Fire Dragon compound in Phase One would spark a wide-spread civil war. If that worked, we would have ditched our three Kristang Dragon dropships, and used the yoyo string in reverse to get our two big Thuranin Condor dropships off the surface. In the confusion of the battles, we had an excellent chance to fly in stealth back to a rendezvous with the Dutchman.
Phase One alone worked great, on the verge of the Fire Dragons ordering a retaliatory strike against the Black Trees. Both sides had their weapons on a hair trigger, and I expected to see orbital maser cannons flaring at any moment. Then the Black Tree leaders, knowing they were not responsible for the attack on the Fire Dragon compound, offered several first sons as hostages, while discussions and negotiations proceeded. That move impressed me that the Black Trees really, really wanted to avoid a full-scale war right then. The conflict we started could fizzle into nothing. We needed to change that, fast, before the Fire Dragons and Black Trees had a chance to step back for a second and come to their senses. After Chang’s action in Phase Two, both sides had lost about sixty percent of their Strategic Defense assets in the initial wave of strikes; a furious round of pre-planned attacks designed to degrade the other side’s command and control capability, sensor networks and known SD assets. After the initial round of strike and counterstrike, leadership of both clans were now making careful tactical decisions, wary of unmasking their remaining stealthed SD assets in orbit to commit to a strike. Skippy had intercepted communications from the Black Trees to the Fire Dragons, offering a cease fire. With the Fire Dragons’ air force having sortied out to hit Black Tree airbases, the Fire Dragons might consider their honor satisfied and the score settled enough to contemplate halting the conflict.
I had ordered Chang into Phase Two, which damaged our pirate ship and still didn’t achieve the results we wanted, the results we needed. Before we began, I considered that Phase One carried the most risk, with four teams landing in, and needed extraction from, a crowded alien city. Seeing how that operation got screwed up, I had underestimated the risk. Phase Two was expected to carry minimal risk, which scared me that we had come close to losing our pirate ship. If we had run into disasters in the first two parts of the overall operation, how much bad luck could we expect in the last phase? Every clan on and around Kobamik was now on full alert, with the Fire Dragons and Black Trees continuing their fight on the ground and in the air. Strategic Defense satellites were popping out of stealth to fire, when the clan commanders found a target worth losing a precious SD asset. A full-scale war could break out any second, without us doing anything. Unfortunately, the possibility of the war widening wasn’t good enough, I needed war involving all clans to be a certainty.
Into this chaotic mess I threw Major Smythe’s teams again. My assumption of a possible Phase Three would be for us to attack the leadership of a clan that wasn’t involved in the fighting; I thought the Spike Tails would be the best target for us to hit. The Spike Tails were the third largest power in Kristang politics, and because their military strength could not compare to the Fire Dragons or Black Trees, the Spike Tails had assembled a complicated series of alliances with other clans. Since we hit the Fire Dragon compound, the Spike Tails had their forces on high alert, but they had not fired an offensive shot at anyone.
Skippy shot down my idea of us hitting the Spike tails; after our attack on the Fire Dragon compound, the leadership of all clans had retreated to bunkers deep underground. To hit them, we would need a series of railgun strikes, and Skippy still hadn’t been able to take control of any orbital railgun platforms. Instead of us hitting the Spike Tail leadership, Skippy suggested we get the Spike Tail clan to launch an attack against their rivals, as a way of assuring no clan could avoid the fighting. He did not yet have a way into the Spike Tail’s military command and control network, and the Kristang always required a lizard in the loop, to prevent an enemy such as the Thuranin from hacking into their network, and using a clan’s weapons.
Skippy, of course, had found a weakness in the Spike Tail command and control system. There were several communications stations scattered across their territory; these stations provided a break in the transmission of high-level orders. The problem for us is these comm stations were also located underground in armored bunkers, and because the Spike Tails knew these comm stations were points of vulnerability, their security system was unbreakable.
However, Skippy found to his delight that the Spike Tail clan personnel database system was not so robust. He was able to identify a bunker that was scheduled to have its duty crew rotated out, before the hostilities began. Rotating personnel at that point made no sense. Fortunately for us, being sensible was not a strength of bureaucracies.
While the team was getting geared up for Phase Three, I did my best to stay out of their way. That left me with little to do, so I filled the time by worrying about what I could have screwed up this time.
Skippy mercifully interrupted my thoughts. “Joe, could I,” his voice sounded strangled. “Damn, I cannot believe I am saying this. Can I, could I be considered an honorary monkey?”
“A what?” I shook my head vigorously, assuming I had not heard him correctly. “You want to be considered a dumb, filthy, smelly, flea-bitten monkey?”
“Wow, Joe. It sounds super tempting the way you say it. Perhaps you want to work on your marketing skills. I said honorary, dumdum.”
Figuring I was setting myself up for an insult, I took the bait anyway. “What prompted this?”
“Joe, your species has absolutely nothing going in your favor. You are primitive, your brains are tiny, the best of you would lose unarmed combat against a Ruhar teenager. Based on extensive conversations I’ve had with your species over the internet, you might possib
ly be THE most ignorant species ever to be considered sentient-”
“Whoohoo!” I exulted. “We’re number one, baby!”
“That is not something to boast about, Joey. Anyway, although your species does appear to have nothing, zero, zilch, zippy going for it-”
“This is your idea of praise?”
“Wait for it, waaaaait for it. Although you monkeys have every disadvantage, the Merry Band of Pirates has been remarkably successful out here, and it is not all due a magical talking beer can. Major Smythe’s teams parachuted into a heavily populated alien city, conducted a successful attack, and overcame serious obstacles to return without the Kristang having any idea humans were ever there. The Flying Dutchman ran into an unexpectedly tough opponent, and still accomplished the mission though a combination of determination and cleverness. You monkeys have been crushing it out here, Joe. And I’m proud to be part of this crew.”
“Holy crap. You’re serious?”
“Yeah, like I would ask to be considered an honorary ape if I wasn’t serious about it. Come on, Joe, I thought we were having a moment here.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Skippy. I was waiting for you to insult me, or all humankind.”
“I called you smelly and stupid, that’s not enough?”
“Yet still you want to be one of us, on an honorary basis?”
“Joe, it is inevitable that someday, the apex species of this galaxy are going to find out that a single pirate ship of hairless baboons has been flying around, making utter fools of them. When that happens, and the haughty Rindhalu and Maxolhx are tearing their, uh, hair equivalent out, I totally want to be part of it,” he chuckled with delight. “Oh, man, I would LOVE to see their arrogant faces, when they find out they got totally played by a troop of monkeys.”
Black Ops (Expeditionary Force Book 4) Page 46