"Radikul Distrukshin making jamming pass," reported Quava. "Additional torpedoes going in. We're going to be a bit mixed in with some of the later torpedo sheaves."
"We'll also be ripplefiring our soliton batteries," Wilmot noted. "We may not be very effective against FEU torpedos, but we for sure can shoot down our own missiles."
Wolverson's smiling image appeared on Kalinin's private screen. "Soliton batteries will be at about 80% of maximum fire, Commodore. Bitransit torpedos are ready to launch. Ether screens are fully charged if they try to ram -- or an American torpedo fails its IFF check. We can't be firing our own torpedos, anyhow -- we'd take them out with our ether screen. We're just starting our firing pass --- now. The effective pass will take just under three minutes to complete."
Bellerophon massed nearly one billion tons. Her chaos gates, originally designed to power a ship stretching a spatiotemporal singularity through ten light years of space, gave her eight hundred times the generating capacity of a New York class BC. Very briefly, almost the entirety of that power was diverted into generating and deploying soliton torpedoes. More than 1200 of Bellerophon's soliton projectors ramped to maximum rate of fire. For the FEU sloops, the coming of the Bellerophon was the arrival of the Archangel Gabriel, firey sword laying about and destroying all in its path.
"Not getting a clear picture," Quava said. "Sloops within five thousand miles of us are blowing up, but I can't tell about further out. There's too much background to see anything."
"I've lost direct contact with the fleet forwards," Huang announced. "Plasma cloud from our exploding sloops is too bright to pull anything through. I do have contact direct sternwards, enough for targeting."
"Too many neutrino sources to image," Quava announced, "can't do it without auxiliary inputs. Every FEU sloop has a fusactor, high-power. I'd need to image hundreds of sources simultaneously."
"I thought we'd solved the neutrino detector problems," Kalinin said quietly.
"Yes, sir. For 50 or 100 ship engagements. We're over 450. Our scan resolution is inadequate," Quava reported.
"Even with limited detection arcs?" Kalinin asked.
"Working on that, Sir. When I went to limited arcs, I stopped seeing targets behind us," Quava answered.
"They can't sneak up on us," Wilmot interposed. "We're just going too fast. Focus forward. "
The Bellerophon, englobed in a cloud of incandescent plasma, swept scythelike through the FEU formation. Near the ship, the FEU flotilla lost ship after ship. Further out, events were masked by the ravening destruction of Bellerophon's soliton batteries.
"I have a neutrino scan," Quava announced. "There are -- under 100 FEU ships left. And those are almost all in front of us. Behind us? I make those to be two Dormice. Two dozen sloops in an annulus, as far from us as possible. Right up against the Mogadishu and Lake Chelan squadrons. The ones in front die as we approach."
"Completely strange strategy," announced Kalinin to no one in particular. "They could have run around us into the inner system. They could still retreat through the warp gate -- any sign of that?" He waited while scan consulted with her serviles.
"No, Sir. Metric has been flat since the Dracula came through, except for us launching bitransit torpedoes," replied scan.
"They must know they've lost," Kalinin said. "Why don't they retreat? Or surrender? Or at least try a serious attack, not this prancing around in little circles." He paused reflectively. "Dorothy, Josephine, I have a riddle. Find a fleet composition against which the FEU strategy would make sense. Cost and rationality of the defense fleet are not an issue. The Europeans aren't all idiots. They must have been expecting something, but what?"
"Perhaps they are trying to confuse us," Wilmot said. "Set us up for the next attack."
"Expensive setup," El-Rifai said. "Looks like they lost close to 20 million tons of warship. Though we never saw the Dracula fire at anything. That could have been a fake warship, not something that could actually shoot. A merchant full of rocks, with some extra radars mounted, for example."
"That's the last of the Dormice," Quava said. "New York squadron got both of them. We're emerging from the warp point. I show no surviving FEU ships. Curious. There was no sign of a surrender offer. Historically, FEU space forces have asked to surrender when hopelessly outnumbered."
"Historical was at Sol. The Solar Navy takes prisoners," Kalinin said.
"Don't we?" Quava asked.
"Yes. But they don't know that," El-Rifai said.
Captain Wolverson's face appeared on the screen. Kalinin nodded. "We actually collided with a sloop," said Wolverson. "Rather, the ether screens hit one, and the sloop flashed to cold plasma. That worked to design. 49 bitransit torpedos were fired. We had to delay their backtransits--lest they come back and get knocked out by our own soliton torpedos. We lost a lot of mains and soliton batteries to ripple fire. We're down to 75% in offensive and defensive power."
"We lost defenses?" El-Rifai asked in surprise. Bellerophon's screens should not have been that badly challenged.
"Screen generators are fine. Power mains are damaged by ripple fire overloads. All available servots are working on repairs. We should start getting bitransit data soon, if we're getting any."
OFFICE OF THE COMMANDANT
AMERICAN SOLAR NAVY
NEW WASHINGTON, WYOMING
November 19, 2174, 4:45 PM RMST
A discordant screech brought Daniel Jacobsen's eyes to the display above his desk.
STATES OF LINCOLN
PLANETARY SELF-DEFENSE FLEET
PRIORITY FLASH EMERGENCY PRIORITY FLASH EMERGENCY
From: Grand Commodore Pyotr Eustasovich Kalinin, Lincoln PSDF
Clarksburg Warp Point, Alpha Centauri
9:08 PM Lincoln Standard Time
November 18, 2174
To: Grand Commodore Daniel Jacobsen
Headquarters, American Solar Navy
New Washington, Wyoming
At 9:08 PM LST November 18, 2174 a major FEU fleet of unexpected composition transited the Clarksburg warp point and attacked Lincoln Planetary Self Defense Fleet ships picketing this point. Total FEU ship count approaches 500, including one BB (estimate 5 million tons), five CA (estimate 2 million tons), 10 CL (estimate 100,000+ tons), 450 Sloops (estimate 6000 tons). FEU fleet deploys substantial new technology, including CNO fusactors, 2 TW grasers, indeterminate new anti-missile weapons, ship-long-axis primary acceleration. Lincoln PSDF forces on scene (Bellerophon, 8BC, 32 CA, 24 MN, 13 CL(R), 3 CL(EW), auxiliaries) engaging. SLPSDF losses thus far 3 CA, 2MN destroyed, 3 CA, 1 BC heavily damaged. FEU losses thusfar 1 BB, 2 CA destroyed, 130 sloops destroyed, 100 damaged. Outcome presently in doubt.
ASN Liason Officer Christopher Ishi (CPT, ASN) on SBB Bellerophon confirms this report.
Could this be a hoax? Jacobsen wondered. Impossible. The verification codes were all there. Following the message was a five-minute video record. A random search showed scenes from the Bellerophon's Fleet Command bridge. A battle was getting underway. There was close to an hour delay here, noted Jacobsen, speed of light from Clarksburg to Lincoln surface, Pontefract tubes through to Earth. By now the battle might be over. If this were part of a coordinated FEU attack, their coordination suffered; nothing untoward was visible in the Solar system. Jacobsen pressed his right hand firmly against his identblock, waited the needed second for its servile to identify him positively, and began transmitting.
"This is Grand Commodore Daniel Jacobsen. General Broadcast. All Units, Bases, and Persons," he spoke. His deskservile confirmed where his message was being sent. "All Units, Bases, and Persons. Attention to Orders. Alert Red-Two. Alert Red-Two. Major FEU attack underway on Lincoln via Clarksburg warp point. This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill. Respond with maximum force to any FEU attack or maneuver preparatory to an attack. Do not initiate attacks on FEU positions. Jacobsen Out." He tapped the transmit block, opening a new channel. "Marilyn, I need a senior staff meeting, emergency priority." A
flashing blood-red icon appeared in one corner of his primary display. Distant chimes of To Quarters were audible. The light in Jacobsen's office changed color as a foot thickness of hardened cermet armor slid across his windows. "Marilyn, forward this message immediately to the press, Congress, the Secretary of the Solar Navy, and the President and Cabinet."
Jacobsen looked around his office. Everything was in reasonable semblance of its proper place. Servots would dust, straighten stacks of paper, water and feed the plants. He pulled the primary memory of his office computer and dropped it in his pocket. A gentle tug slid the safe from his desk. Within lay a pair of pistols and two dozen power clips. One pistol belted to his waist; the other and the remaining clips went in the hidden pouch in his dress coat. Did the weapons serve a purpose? The Women's Self-Defense Forces had always been extremely emphatic and literal about their interpretation of Morbius's words 'In war, every American shall go armed '. Not quite at a run, he headed out of his office. Two bodyguards, men of the Special Naval Landing Forces in full power armor, had reached the outer office; they followed him two steps to his rear. Behind him, the office servile soundlessly closed and locked the doors.
MANSION OF THE HIGH ADMIRAL
STARFLEET EUROPA
PARIS, FRANCE, EUROPEAN UNION
0213 HOURS ET 20 NOVEMBER 2174
The telephone shrilled. Bernard Rohan emerged from a deep sleep and grappled for the handpiece. Who was calling? "Good morning? Good morning. Rohan here," he managed to answer.
"My Admiral, this is Fleet Captain D'Aubisson at Fleet Headquarters. I have for you an emergency message from Admiral Blum in Fleet Operations, with graphical overlays." The voice over the telephone came clipped and harsh to Rohan's ears.
"Emergency? There is an emergency?" he asked. At least this would not come at the expense of his lawful hours of work. "Very well, the message. Graphical elements on send only...actually, I'm in bed. Sound asleep. Have you noticed the hour?" he asked bemusedly. For once he was sleeping alone. The alternative, however pleasant the English Marshal and her German and especially her Norwegian counterparts were, could momentarily have been inconvenient.
A holo display opened above the foot of his bed. "Good morning, Sadi," he managed cheerfully as Admiral Blum's visage appeared.
"Good morning, my admiral. My apologies for waking you. Forgive me, but this is an entirely secret message," Blum said delicately.
"That's understood. Only the two of us are listening," Rohan answered. "For once, I am only sleeping."
"Only sleeping? My most profound sympathies, my Admiral. However, the Americans have gone on a very high alert status," Blum explained. "Higher than anything we've ever seen. Here are graphics. All across the solar system. The Langevin solar observatory -- we have a few people on board -- at fifteen million miles from Mercury the Americans were tracking it, radar and lidar at combat power. Some fool Italian with an air freighter strayed from the east Atlantic lanes and got too close to the truce demarcation line. American Coast Defense Artillery threatened to open fire. They began counting down. There was a warning shot. He corrected course. The next shot hit his calculated path, would have blown him out of the sky if he had not changed trajectory. Of course, we kept this from the press."
"I see." Rohan was now entirely awake. "When did this happen?"
"It began about 2150, Paris time. Perhaps a few minutes earlier. North American continental defenses change so often that it's hard to be sure. But their warships in the Azores Truce high orbits fired up fusactors and brought up screens. That was followed across the Solar system. That's the anomaly. This must have been pre-planned. Neptune went on full alert -- report our scouts -- within fifteen minutes of Earth. That can't be faster-than-light message torpedoes. There wasn't enough time for them to accelerate above solar escape velocity and make a rapidity transition. Besides, they'd have needed to maintain close to 10c, which is impossible," Blum explained.
"This event is misfortunate," Rohan said. "There's no reason. The only skirmish was that accident months ago. Perhaps this was a drill for a pre-planned maneuver of some sort. Did they redeploy ships? Have you responded yet?"
"Admiral," Blum answered, "I sent out a precautionary warning -- Case Tangerine -- at once. From responses so far, many units had already applied your standing orders and gone to higher alert status."
"Did the Americans respond to you?" Rohan asked.
"Not substantially, Admiral," Blum answered. "Intelligence is doing a more careful analysis. The Americans had seemingly reached the alert status they wanted, and did not change further when we did. We have seen this before -- but not with a co-ordinated alert. Usually if something happens on Mercury, it's five or fifteen minutes to get word back to earth, and hours for the rest of the Solar system. This time, all across the system they went to high alert at the same time."
"Very good," Rohan said. "The Americans have shown us a new capacity, but one they cannot use in a transparent way to defend themselves. Unless we send them engraved invitations, a day in advance, telling them that we are about to attack. But why did they do this? And what did we learn?"
Blum shrugged. "There will be an answer in the morning, I believe. Intelligence did its usual excellent observation job. But if we've learned how they can support so much ship on so feeble a fusactor bank, no one is telling me. Well, the Americans always were very ingenious on technical issues."
"I believe that the usual standing orders are adequate," Rohan ordered. "Definitively repel any American attack. See what intelligence may have been determined. Avoid provocations that might lead to unplanned warfare. Advise the government of the situation. Is there anything else?"
"No, my Admiral, that is presently all," Blum said.
"One last thing occurs to me, though perhaps I must do this myself." He touched a pad. Clocks representing different time zones and lengths of days were passing through their cycles. "Not until mid-morning. And I'll need to wait a day, perhaps. Admiral T'RenRensen may be willing to note, after the fact, when our Gisbures allies are exploring the Centauri Warp point. Indeed, we need to reconsider this situation. When the Americans lose their interstellar colony, as they are about to do, they may blame us and decide to start a war. Of course, first they will need to learn that their colony is under attack, which might occur by next winter. Make a note for the staff to look at this within the next month, please."
"I'll have this done as soon as possible," Blum answered.
Rohan asked himself if that should have been considered sooner. Not really. The Americans were badly outnumbered. Their fleet maneuvers rehearsed only tactics appropriate for defending or relieving fixed points. Even if they wanted to attack the Union, they'd never practiced the appropriate maneuvers. It was in the nature of things for the Union and the Alliance to advance from commanding height to commanding height. Never was there any serious resistance. The opponents of social democracy might fume and mutter and stew, but finally they would reliably back down. Even the Americans would in the end yield, however much they had given the Union a temporary reverse a few years ago.
"You did the right thing to call me. We must wait for the next step from our opponents. Meanwhile, I could use some sleep," Rohan said.
"Very good. Sleep well, my Admiral," Blum said.
"And you also, when you have time," Rohan answered, closing the connection.
PLANETARY FORTRESS N-2
AMERICAN SOLAR NAVY
NEW WASHINGTON, WYOMING
November 19, 2174, 8:15 PM RMST
STATES OF LINCOLN
PLANETARY SELF-DEFENSE FLEET
PRIORITY FLASH EMERGENCY PRIORITY FLASH EMERGENCY
From: Grand Commodore Pyotr Eustasovich Kalinin, SLPSDF
Clarksburg Warp Point, Alpha Centauri
2352 hours Lincoln Standard Time
November 18, 2174
To: Grand Commodore Daniel Jacobsen
Headquarters, American Solar Navy
New Washington, Wyoming
Be pleased to learn that an FEU fleet attacking Lincoln has been destroyed. No FEU ships remain on the field of battle. No FEU ships were detected leaving the field of battle. There is no positive evidence that the FEU had even one surviving ship.
EU losses are provisionally estimated as
590 DE (6000 Tons, unknown class)
10 CL (130,000 Tons, unknown class)
5 BC (2,000,000 tons, unknown class)
1 BB (5,000,000 tons, unknown class)
for a total loss of 20 million tons. Technical data on all classes is attached.
American losses were
Destroyed:
BC Alabama
CA Antietam, Atlanta, Manzikert
MN Canandaigua, Lake Huron
Heavily Damaged:
BC Alaska
CA Bataan, Gettysburg, Jerusalem, Yorktown, Princeton, Brandywine
MN Lake Champlain, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Long Lake, Bass Lake
Moderately Damaged: MN Sturgeon Lake, Lake Chelan
Engineering Failure: CA Bennington
for 9 million tons destroyed, 14 million tons damaged but recoverable.
Bitransit torpedo scans report presence on the far side of the warp point of four FEU destroyers, estimated 30,000 ton mass each, escorting one large ship of totally anomalous design. A report is attached.
Kalinin, Task Force Clarksburg
Commanding
Chapter 23
"A guerilla war is a siege, differing from classical sieges in that one side has no positions. In every siege, each side sees its weaknesses and its opponents' strengths. Each side concludes it is losing and the other will soon triumph. More often than not, it is force of will, not superiority of arms, that decides the victor.
Centuries ago, during a French civil war, the occupants of an entirely beaten besieged city appeared on the city walls, dressed in their best party costumes. They cheered, sang, and toasted their opponents. Then the first lady of the city brought out the last piglet in the city, a piglet carefully fattened while children died of starvation, fed it by hand the last handfuls of wheat left in the city, tied it in a cloth of gold bow, and helped her husband lower the piglet over the wall as a gift to their opponents. The opponents looked at the pig, looked at the partyers, looked at their own desperate supply situation, packed their tents, and abandoned the siege they were about to win. Will and flummery triumphed over military rationality.
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