by Dietmar Wehr
Undaunted:
“Fire!” ordered Romanov. The five missiles fired at the ships did their job to perfection. All five ships were blown apart as the Mark 1 warheads penetrated past the unarmored outer hull before exploding. Undaunted was now firing her remaining seven Mark 1s at the sprawling complex on the moon’s surface. At this distance, it would take 89 seconds for the missiles to reach the surface. Long range optical scanning had not revealed any defensive installations. Apparently the SSU had not considered a FED missile attack a serious risk. With the missiles now on their way, Romanov turned to his Communications Station.
“Com, order the rest of the Task Force to head for planetary orbit. Colonel Ericson can land his troops at his discretion. Tell the cruisers that Undaunted will rendezvous with them when they make orbit.” A minute and a few seconds later, he watched enhanced video of the missiles hitting the surface. The complex was obliterated. Even as the fireballs began to fade, Undaunted was already accelerating towards Midgard.
Midgard Industries Tower/Midgard:
Murphy, now dressed, ran to the private elevator that would take him directly from his penthouse to the sub-basement level where the Ops Center was. Once inside he grabbed the hand rails. Even so, he nearly lost his balance as the elevator dropped at almost freefall speed only to come to a very sudden stop at the bottom. He ran to the Ops Center and as he entered he yelled out.
“What’s the situation at Durendal?” The horrified look on the Duty Officer’s face told him the news was bad.
“We lost contact a few seconds ago. Radiation sensors on the roof show multiple detonations on the moon’s surface in the half megaton range. Video surveillance shows that the complex was hit dead on.”
Murphy’s stomach threatened to heave, and he knew why. With the shipyard destroyed, the Union had lost any chance of engineering a military victory that would end the war. Unless the R&D people on Zanzibar pulled a miracle out of their hats, the SSU was doomed. He waited until he was confident he wouldn’t throw up before speaking.
“Okay, tell all our people to head down to the escape tunnel. There’s no point in staying here to be captured by the FED troops that are undoubtedly on their way. When everyone’s ready to leave, you and I are going to set the self-destruct, and then you can join them.”
The Duty Officer’s face lost all its color. “Understood, sir.”
Murphy was glad now that he had taken the initiative to order the robotic equipment that had been working for the last year to tunnel out and build a maglev rail line deep below the city. It went all the way to a set of warehouses owned by Midgard Industries at the edge of the city. Under the warehouses was an emergency shelter big enough to hold all the Union people with enough supplies to let them hold out for several months. Once everyone had left the tower complex, blast doors would seal the tunnel and protect the emergency shelter from the destructive effects of the 100 kiloton fission device buried at the bottom of the lowest level under the tower. Engineered to vaporize the tower’s foundation and cause it to collapse, the device was low-yield enough that collateral damage to the rest of the city would be minimal.
Murphy headed down to the lower level where the escape tunnel was located. He would make sure everyone was accounted for before heading back up to Ops to set the device. It seemed to take forever before Union personnel started exiting the elevators. Murphy organized the first group and deputized several of his staff to check off people from the master list as they arrived. With that task looked after, he returned to Ops.
“Any sign of ships or landing shuttles?” he asked the Duty Officer.
The DO nodded. “We’re monitoring the spaceport Control Tower. They’ve spotted two ships coming in on a fast approach. They were queried and responded that they’re SSU ships and that any resistance by Midgard residents would result in massive retaliation! What the hell is going on, sir?”
Murphy groaned with sudden understanding. It was bad enough that the FEDs had destroyed the Durendal complex on the moon, but they also intended to add insult to injury by making this attack look like the SSU was doing it. He didn’t like the implications of that. The threat of massive retaliation sounded like an excuse to commit mass atrocities. He thought fast. By the time the DO had received word that all Union personnel except for Ops people were accounted for and waiting on the maglev train, the only idea that Murphy could think of to undermine the false flag aspect of this attack was to time the self-destruct so that some of the ‘rebel’ troops would be caught in the blast. Maybe their bodies or their equipment would then give the game away when the locals picked up the pieces after the attack. In order to time the explosion correctly, someone would have to go up to street level with a remote detonator and watch the tower entrance. Murphy looked at the Duty Officer and the other two Ops Center staff. They looked scared. He knew them well enough to know that all three had spouses and at least one child back on Sparta. No, he wasn’t going to ask any of them to risk capture or death up above. He would take on that mission himself. He hoped Cate would forgive him for getting killed.
He told the DO what he intended to do and ordered the other two to get down to the train. When he and the DO had finished arming the device and setting up the remote detonator that Murphy carefully put into his pocket, he told the DO to head down to the train and take it to the shelter. When he was sure the train had left, he activated the closing of the tunnel blast doors and then made his way to one of the emergency exits that consisted of a tube with a metal ladder that brought him to an alley across the street from the tower. Once he was at street level, he looked up and saw a round object pass in front of the crescent moon. That had to be one of the ‘rebel’ ships. He looked around. The city was still quiet. Most people were still asleep. As soon as he had that thought, he heard sirens begin sounding in the distance and then closer as well.
Stepping quickly to the alley opening, he noticed a doorway in shadow and went to stand in it. The shrill sound of the sirens was starting to get to him. He realized that he was trembling. He was a naval officer, not an army puke. He belonged on a ship, not here on the ground, yet here he was. The sirens died down and a new sound was making itself heard. It came from above, and as he looked up, he saw the entire sky blocked by the bottom of a large spherical ship. The sound was picking up in intensity but dropping in frequency. Now he could feel the vibrations in his body. His attention on the ship was diverted by something that moved across his field of vision. It started as a black dot that rapidly grew bigger and seemed to be coming straight for him. He instinctively pushed himself back against the door. The black dot grew into a long, rectangular shape that dropped down beside the tower until it hovered about a meter above the street. He recognized it now. It was a contra-gravity tank, about six meters wide, ten meters long and approximately two meters high with a vicious looking gun protruding from the front. A hatch on the side opened and a dozen infantry in combat armor jumped to the ground and ran towards the tower entrance. He realized that he didn’t have the detonator in his hand. As he moved his right arm to extract the device from his pocket, his elbow hit the door behind him and the noise attracted the attention of one of the soldiers. He must have been wearing night vision gear because he pointed his weapon at Murphy and fired. Murphy heard the shot and felt the impact at the same time. The pain in his chest was so great that he didn’t remember falling down. When he opened his eyes, he was lying on the ground, and the soldier was standing over him. Realizing his right hand was still in his pocket, he concentrated on finding the detonation button. Between the soldier’s legs, Murphy saw other soldiers entering the tower as more tanks descended from the sky. He pressed the button.
Undaunted:
Romanov heard someone shout and turned his attention back to the display that was zooming in to a scene on the planet. A bright flash was expanding from the base of the tallest building in the main city. Romanov stood mesmerized as he watched the tower start to topple over in what seemed like slow motion. Wh
en the tower hit the ground, he saw the concussion wave spread out like ripples in a pond. So much for recovering enemy data records. He would order Ericson to have his troops search the wreckage but doubted they would find anything useful.
“Ground Force Commander on Tac 2, sir,” said the Com Tech.
“Put him on the main display,” said Romanov.
The angry face of the Colonel appeared in front of Romanov.
“Those fucking rebel shitheads booby-trapped that tower! I’ve lost two whole platoons! My people aren’t going to take any more chances. I’m taking the gloves off! No restrictions! If we can’t find the fuckers who did this, then we’ll take it out on the locals!” The image dissolved before Romanov could say anything.
“Get him back, dammit!” ordered Romanov. After a few seconds the Com Tech shook his head.
“The Colonel’s not responding to our hails, sir.”
Romanov banged his fist on his chair’s armrest. The Colonel was reacting emotionally when he should be using his head. The collapsing tower would almost certainly prevent recovery of the bodies of some of his people. That left open the possibility that those bodies might eventually be found and identified as First Fleet/Army Force troops. If the rest of the ground force went berserk and committed who knew what kind of atrocities, then the potential backlash could undermine Trojan’s long term plans. With the Colonel’s face gone, the display head shifted back to the zoomed in ground image. Romanov looked closely at the ruined tower. Clearly the rebels didn’t want their data records falling into Federation hands, but why destroy the whole tower instead of just the computer equipment, and what happened to the rebels themselves? Did they just commit mass suicide, or did the explosion serve a dual purpose of hiding their escape?
He ordered a replay of the explosion and watched it carefully. It was clear that the center of the fission blast was below ground and not at the tower base. He tried to put himself in the rebels’ position. The tower was more or less in the center of the city. When your base of operation is about to be destroyed, how do you allow dozens, maybe even hundreds, of people to escape without being seen? The answer had to be underground as well. That implied some kind of tunnel. Undaunted’s radar equipment was powerful enough to penetrate a few meters into the ground. Romanov ordered a deep penetration scan of the city. If he could find where the rebels had evacuated to, then the infantry could vent their rage on them instead of the civilians. Within less than a minute, he had the scan results. There was a large flat warehouse on the outskirts of the city that had an unusual underground structure unlike that below any other building. Romanov was willing to bet it was where the rebels were hiding. He told the Com Tech to try calling the Colonel again. This time he succeeded.
“Colonel, I’ve found where the rebels are hiding. They apparently escaped underground before the tower blast went off. Your people have a few tactical nukes I believe. Blasting the roof of their hideout down on top of them would do the trick, wouldn’t you agree, Colonel?”
“Yes, that would satisfy me and my people. Where’s this building?”
Romanov smiled. “Not so fast, Colonel. That information comes with a price. You’re not going to have time to recover all your dead from under the collapsed tower rubble. That means there’s a risk that the civilians will find them and realize who they really are, and that means that atrocities have to be kept to an absolute minimum to avoid a backlash against General Trojan. I’ll tell you where the rebels are if you give me your word that you’ll rein in your people and that your forces withdraw as soon as possible. Your demolition team can come up last.”
There was a long pause. So long, in fact, that Romanov was beginning to worry that the Colonel would reject the deal.
“Okay, Commodore. I’ll order my people to head back to the ship, except for the demolition team. Now about that target?”
Romanov gave him the location of the warehouse and then added, “I suggest you finish this off quickly, Colonel. If I think you’re stalling, I guarantee you’ll regret it.” The Colonel nodded and the image faded.
The Colonel did act quickly. Ten minutes later, all the infantry were back on the transports or on their way up. Romanov watched as the suspect warehouse exploded in an atomic detonation. Before the Task Force accelerated out of orbit, Romanov saw the depth of the crater left behind by the blast and was confident that they had picked the right spot.
Chapter Eighteen:
Day 008/2549
Palmgren was standing beside Drake’s Command Station when the Task Force emerged from its final micro-jump. Drake looked over at his Com Tech and nodded. That was the signal to try to establish long range contact with the Durendal base on Midgard’s moon. Two-way communication would be slow because his ships were still almost 10 light seconds away, but at least they could let the base know they were here. When a full minute had gone by, Drake said, “What’s the problem, Pierre?”
The Com Tech turned to look at his CO. “I’m not getting any response to my hail. In fact, I’m not receiving any transmissions from the moon base at all, sir, not even construction shuttle traffic. No radar signals either.”
“Okay, send a message to Midgard Ops letting them know we’re here, and ask them why the moon base is silent.”
Without waiting for the Com Tech to acknowledge Drake’s orders, Palmgren said, “I don’t like the silence, Roland. I need to get down there asap and find out what’s going on.”
Drake understood that Palmgren was hinting that Drake should order the Task Force or at least this ship to head for moon orbit quickly. Drake didn’t like the silence either, but he wasn’t in any hurry to get close. If the Durendal complex had indeed been attacked, there might still be enemy forces in the vicinity. So far Palmgren hadn’t made his request an order. Whether he had the authority to do so was a good question. Their orders for this mission were just vague enough to leave some doubt. Palmgren would definitely be in command of the training portion of the mission, but anything other than that was not so clear cut.
“Let’s see what the Tower says first,” said Drake. Palmgren, to his credit, said nothing.
The results of that attempt were the same. There was no contact and no transmissions of any kind coming from the Midgard Industries Tower. THAT was really ominous.
“We can’t leave this system without finding out what happened,” said Palmgren in a low voice. “Let me take one of the boats for a quick pass of the moon base and then a low enough orbit of Midgard to make a visual inspection of the city. You keep the ships up beyond the zone boundary. Okay?”
It was a reasonable idea. The missile boat could get to the moon and the planet a lot quicker and had some armor just in case it ran into trouble. “Take Zero Zero One. She’ll be ready to launch by the time you get to her,” said Drake. As Palmgren rushed to leave the Bridge, Drake made the arrangements.
It was almost three hours later when Drake got the text message from Palmgren’s boat.
Moon complex completely destroyed. They must have used atomics. Large pieces of wreckage are orbiting where battlecruisers should be. Long range detection gear shows much higher than normal radiation coming from center and edge of Midgard city. I expect to have visual data within 15 minutes. Palmgren.
The news shocked Drake and by the looks of it, his Bridge crew as well. The FEDs must have somehow discovered that the complex on the moon was an SSU facility and attacked it and the orbiting uncompleted battlecruisers. Drake had no idea how they had found out, although he wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that Majestic had deduced the real facts behind the operation from some obscure piece of data. His mission now was crystal clear. They had to get word of this disaster back to Sparta as quickly as possible. Without those battlecruisers, the whole war was now in doubt. Twenty minutes later he received Palmgren’s second message.
Tower has fallen over apparently due to self-destruct device. Emergency shelter appears to have been destroyed too. No sign of FED ships or ground forces except f
or one tank under tower rubble. 001 is heading to rendezvous point now. Palmgren.
Drake felt as if he’d been hit in the stomach. Site X and the Durendal complex were both gone, and the SSU’s chances of winning this war had now dropped to virtually zero. There was no way that they could rebuild the shipyard complex on Midgard’s moon now that the FEDs were aware of its potential, and finding a suitable substitute somewhere else would just take too long. He could see only two options now. Either the SSU mounted a very risky and desperate raid on Makassar to even the playing field again or they beefed up Sparta’s defenses waiting for the inevitable attack, hoping they could inflict crippling damage on the attacking forces. He gave the order for the Task Force to head for the rendezvous point. The 77 day trip back to Sparta was going to be a depressing one.
Day 084/2549
Romanov was surprised and a little pissed that Trojan hadn’t met him either at the Majestic Complex entrance or at the bottom of the descending escalator. Considering that his Task Force had engineered a major setback for the rebels, he considered that a personal greeting was not only the polite thing to do but was also earned. When he got to the inner section where Trojan’s office was, he learned that his Boss was up in Ops getting the latest Commandments from his Majestic God. At first Romanov thought the Lieutenant who had expressed that sentiment was joking, but there was nothing to indicate humor in the junior officer’s expression. As luck would have it, Trojan was just coming out of the Ops Center when Romanov got there.