Kelly Blake 3: Where the Stars Are Few and Far Between

by Rodney Smith

  G’Rof asked to have the flagship’s chief navigator report to him with an assessment of the impact of a decrease in fleet speed to FTL power 3.8 long enough to reposition all ships and achieve the completed new battle formation. The navigator reported each 15 minutes at FTL power 3.8 would cost them one hour on their arrival at G’Durin. G’Rof gave the authority to his flag Ops officer to reduce fleet speed to FTL power 3.8 for no more than 30 minutes, at his discretion. If he needed more than 30 minutes, he must ask G’Rof for more time, with a full analysis of exactly how much time was needed.

  * * * * *

  Admiral Chang reviewed reports from scout ships shadowing the K’Rang Great Armada. The fleet was slowly converting from their four columns to a more appropriate combat formation. He saw cruisers leading and forming a roof and floor for the drone carriers. The drone carriers would also be protected by a forming circle of destroyers. The frigates were forming an outer anti-missile/anti-fighter ring of protection. The corvettes, torpedo ships, and support ships were at max speed and held their original positions. Chang assumed the commander would either slow his fleet to give them the ability to maneuver into position or wait for arrival at G’Durin for them to move into position.

  Admiral Chang had to give the K’Rang credit, because reorganizing in high FTL was a gutsy call. A nervous helmsman could cause a bump, which would be disastrous to both ships and any others near them. A collision would collapse both ships’ FTL envelopes and bring them to an immediate halt, disastrous for the crews and any ship traveling behind them. Fleet had toyed with a FTL-capable torpedo for years, but couldn’t get enough speed out of them with the small FTL engines of the time to make them effective against today’s FTL ships in anything other than a head-on shot.

  He thought it might be worthwhile to renew that effort with the new smaller high FTL engines in development. He could see some scouts armed with such a torpedo getting in front of a massed formation and letting loose a number of high FLT torpedoes into its midst. The closing speeds would make evasion almost impossible. Relativity would preclude any defensive fire. It could be an effective weapon for destroyers, too.

  Admiral Chang called in his Ops officer to answer some questions. When he arrived, Chang said, “Ops, we have enough tracking data on the K‘Rang Grand Armada. Figure out where he is going to come out of FTL for battle and when. I also want you to do the same for the Armada coming in from Eridanus. The scouts have done a good job of killing their FTL comms router hubs, so they can’t coordinate their arrival and link up until they get here. I have my idea of where they will wind up, but I want your unbiased estimate on this, so I’ll keep it to myself for now.”

  The Ops officer answered, “Sir, we’ve been maintaining a running estimate of just that for two days now.”

  Admiral Chang smiled and said, “Good work anticipating me. So what does your estimate say?”

  The Ops officer activated the holographic projector and said, “Sir, we estimate at current speed and trajectory the K’Rang Grand Armada will drop out of FTL one hundred fifty million kilometers behind and above their home system.”

  He pointed to a spot in space behind and above the system.

  “The K’Rang commander is reorganizing as he flies. It is a prodigious feat. I give him chops for doing it. It is slowing him down slightly so that he can get his slower ships in position. He’ll be there in eight days and 13 hours. The Eridanus armada also appears to be aiming for a spot one hundred fifty million kilometers above their home system. They are estimated to arrive in six days and three hours. Our current ETA is 4 days and seven hours.”

  “Good work, Ops, that’s pretty close to my estimate as well. Put all that in a data file and get it to the Orion for the Angaerry.”

  Admiral Chang got up, stretched the kinks out of his sore back, went for a cup of coffee, and asked if his Ops officer would like one, too. The Ops Officer got up to fix a cup and sat back down.

  The admiral sat down, took a sip, and asked, “What do you think, should I move the Montpelier to G’Durin or stay put? I’m concerned about my ability to command and control four fleets from here. I’ll tell you what we’ll do. Bring the Resurgent back, in case we need to hop in there. Get it back from its cruise to Sirius system, best possible speed. Then I have a way to get there if things go south. That’s all I have. Do you have anything more for me?”

  The Ops officer shook his head, picked up his pocket terminal, and left.

  * * * * *

  Candy sipped her wine and looked up the stars. She did that a lot lately – looked at the stars and wondered where among them her husband was. She hadn’t gotten a message from him in a few days. She remembered her mom sitting and reading, waiting for Dad to come back from patrol or one of the frequent skirmishes with the K’Rang. She remembered how she kept a calm serene look on her face as she read the same page over and over. Candy remembered one of Dad’s deployments where Mom was still working on the same page until he came home.

  She knew the brave face was for Candy’s benefit and under the surface she worried. Candy remembered one time, in her fourth or fifth year, comforting her mom by telling her not to worry, Dad was too smart for any dumb old K’Rang to get the best of him. She remembered how Mom laughed and some of the tension left her face. Candy almost let the thought out that she wished she had a child to keep her company and give her something to think about other than herself, but she pushed it back. Kelly would get through this just fine; he would be back with her soon, and they would have a family together. She finished her one glass of wine and went to bed.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Admiral Thomas had all the K’Rang translators in her battle fleet identified, tested, and alerted to movement to support key positions once the fleet came under Angaerry command. She prepared simple lesson plans on battle fleet operations and sent them to Kelly to show to the Angaerry Commander and staff.

  She prepared three liaison teams to go to the main Angaerry fleet staffs. Each consisted of two qualified Space Warfare Officers in the ranks of Commander and Lieutenant Commander, two qualified Fighter Force Officers in the rank of Major and Captain, one senior chief intel specialist, and four translators. She left it to the chief and commander to develop their equipment list. Kelly had said the Angaerry liked sushi, so she had them take along a food tester set, just in case.

  As far as feeding the Angaerry, she had the replicator recipes that Kelly had provided. She sent those recipes to each food service officer on the ships that would be hosting the Angaerry liaison teams.

  She made room in her Flag Staff spaces for an equal number of Angaerry liaison personnel.

  * * * * *

  The commanding officer of the GRS Resurgent got a message directing him to reverse course and proceed to a rendezvous with the GRS Montpelier at best possible speed. Commander Thomas reversed course and pushed his speed to FTL power 4. He wondered who couldn’t make up his or her mind.

  * * * * *

  Shadow Force Commander (Baron) G’Rof received his fourth briefing on the reorganization for combat. He had just completed 30 minutes at FTL power 3.8 and resumed level 4. He waited while his operations officer verified the positions of each ship. Finally the operations officer turned to him and said, “Baron, we are complete.”

  Smiles broke out all over the room as realization hit that they were organized to come out of FTL and engage the Human fleets. G’Rof’s smile was biggest of all. He had wrestled with the options and not really liked any of them, but his operations officer put together a plan to achieve his vision.

  He still planned to drop out of FTL beyond and above the orbital plane of the home system. He was not able to coordinate with J’Kol because of the communications blackout imposed by the Humans. He would have to work on the assumption that J’Kol would think like he did and drop out of FTL far beyond the system and come back once the Grand Armada appeared. If he had time, he would integrate J’Kol’s armada into his force by type. If not, he will bring him
above his formation and go at the Humans en masse.

  He now had a chance to defeat these Humans, but to do that, they would have to get in close. These new drone ships were fine in theory, but missiles traditionally won battles for the K’Rang. To get in close, he needed to know where the Human’s main body was. He approved his operations officer’s plan to drop out the Armada’s scout ships before the Grand Armada dropped out of FTL. The scouts would find the enemy fleet or fleets, report their location and ship consist, and maintain contact at all cost.

  * * * * *

  Kelly finished his final lesson plan on carrier operations for the Angaerry fleet Commanders and staffs. He felt they had as good a grasp on the subject as someone who understood theory, but had never done it for real. The questions he answered showed a good understanding of the theory. Admiral Thomas and Pappas agreed to keep it simple: Find enemy, launch fighter CAP, launch attack craft, recover attack craft, maintain fighter CAP. The Angaerry were similar to the K’Rang in wanting to get in close and duke it out with missiles. The concept of standing their fleet off and using the attack ships to carry the war to the enemy was not what they were used to. Kelly won most of his audience over by explaining that the attack ship missiles would syphon off the K’Rang’s defensive missiles so that more of the Angaerry offensive missiles made it through to their targets. The Angaerry commanders liked that.

  After the general videoconference, Jotil Lenkva asked Kelly to stay on. Kelly waited for the other stations to drop off. When it was just his ship and the flagship on, Jotil Lenkva asked, “Captain Blake, what is your opinion of our ability to use your carriers effectively?”

  Kelly thought for a moment to make sure he had her intent right, then answered, “Jotil Lenkva, you and your commanders will do fine. Keep to the basics and you will be just fine.”

  She paused and said, “I wish I could have you as my adviser during this battle, but that is not possible, I understand.”

  Kelly answered, “No, but the officers that will be on your liaison teams will be experts in all aspects of fleet operations. They will be Space Warfare Officers and Fighter and Attack Qualified Officers. They will be current on all matters of Fleet Operations and able to advise you as well as or better than I. If you need my help, I am only a communicator call away.”

  She nodded assent, a trait she acquired from Kelly, and closed out the videoconference.

  * * * * *

  Major Mary Chen read and reread the operations order. She saw no mention of a mission for the six Marine divisions tagging along on this mad race to G’Durin. An assault landing on the planet was not even an on-order mission. She had recommended an assault and occupation of the K’Rang home world, as a means to possibly slow down the K’Rang Fleet’s reaction times. If they were worried about their nobility, they might pause.

  Mary wasn’t the only officer laying out a case for getting six Marine divisions out of the line of fire. It wasn’t as if the Marines could suit up and take out K’Rang ships with their blasters and disruptors. Mary hated to admit it, but Marines added nothing to the space battle. Ships were not grappled and boarded any more.

  The Fleet’s senior Marine commander finally was allowed to plan for the occupation of the K‘Rang capital city. It got the Marines out of the line of fire, gave them a meaningful mission and got them out of Admiral Chang’s hair.

  Work on the operations plan began at a feverish pace. They had three days to put together a plan for landing six Marine divisions and their equipment in a day, securing a hostile enemy city, and preparing to defend against an angry fleet that may not be too happy with their boots tramping over their capital.

  Mary got a draft plan to work from in a day. She studied the maps and images of the K’Rang capital before she looked at the specific tasks.

  The K’Rang capital was situated in a river valley running east to west between two mountain ridges. Twelve highly decorated and equidistant bridges connected one bank to the other. Ornate government buildings occupied the center of the city north of the river, with a ring road encircling them. Tree-lined, wide avenues radiated from this city center east to west and from corner to corner, faintly resembling an old Union Jack. Parks and stately homes lined these avenues. Minor monuments of some sort were situated at certain intersections. Other large monuments spanning the avenues looked like arches or rainbows.

  Mary looked for hidden defensive positions or bunkers and found none. She had heard the K’Rang nobility didn’t want their warriors around, except for ornamental purposes, but didn’t believe it. She also couldn’t believe the K’Rang home world’s population was only eight million K’Rang. She now knew what exclusive meant.

  She easily found the Shadow Warrior Regiment barracks on the westernmost fringe of the city, some twenty miles from the city center. The barracks was surrounded by six-to-ten-story office buildings, in an office park setting. It was cleaner than any barracks she had ever seen. Ornamental hedges divided the unit areas, parade grounds were meticulously trimmed. Shade trees lined every road. She saw no combat vehicle parking areas, no heavy weapons ranges, or even physical training facilities. In fact, she saw no military training facilities other than two small arms ranges. How combat effective could this unit be?

  She scoured her images again and found the K’Rang military cemetery two miles east of the governmental center of the city. It was massive, easily taking up a fifth of the square kilometers of the city. Mary hoped her brigade was not given that to garrison.

  She scanned the document, looking for tasks for her division, and found a map of the city divided up into six roughly equal boxes. The centerline followed the river and three relatively equal boxes were drawn north and south of the river. Mary’s division drew the center north box, giving them the governmental center, a large residential area, and a park running north of the governmental center to the mountains.

  She zoomed into the government section and saw two-lane roads, instead of the wide avenues and boulevards in the rest of the city. The buildings were all four or more stories in height, with a six-story marble structure in a park-like setting occupying the center of the governmental center. She looked for potential bivouac areas and found only parking lots and the park surrounding the center building to be suitable. She could only imagine what a division of Marines would do to the ornate trimmed hedges and gardens. K’Rang gardeners would be weeping for generations.

  The government center mystified Mary. Yes, the K’Rang only occupied 50 worlds as opposed to The GR’s 150 worlds, but where were the buildings for the bureaucrats? How could you run an empire covering as much of space as the K’Rang without a massive bureaucracy? She did a quick search and found the bureaucracy lived in the next system over. It seemed the K’Rang nobility had less love for bureaucrats than they did for the military.

  She shifted her view north into the residential area and saw what appeared to be more modern looking houses on larger lots – by K’Rang standards. The north-south avenue halfway to the mountains wound through a large park. It was obviously meant to bring a taste of the wilderness into the city. Its expanse of about 1,000 hectares could easily hold the entire division. She looked left and right of this park and saw more houses on tree-lined lanes, with small parks situated periodically among them. None were large enough to bivouac more than a company. She saw what appeared to be village centers, filled with small shops, interspersed among the residential areas. Another office park with six ten-story office buildings sat just at the base of the mountain ridge.

  She looked at the mission statement to occupy and subdue the capital city and saw a slight need for maybe putting company strongpoints in the residential parks, but would hate to be a company commander if the natives were armed with more than retractable claws and sharp teeth. Mary favored putting the main body of two brigades and division troops in the large rustic park and a brigade in the governmental center.

  Mary was called to a videoconference later that day for all division operations office
rs. The division G-3 presented the division operations plan. Mary’s thoughts on how to garrison the area matched the division G-3’s concept. Her brigade drew the governmental center. The rest of the division would occupy the large forested park north of the governmental center. Governmental center parking lots and large clearings in the park would serve as landing areas for the AS-500s. Mary was specifically called out and told that damage to the government center grounds was not a concern. In fact, the bombardment frigates had orders to rubble these buildings as they left.

  Mary left the videoconference and called her operations section together to pass out tasks and provide guidance. She briefed Colonel Maxwell on the plan and got his guidance. The brigade had a task to maintain a visible presence in its area of operations. He told her this would require vehicle and foot patrols, checkpoints, and possibly company strong points. She first had to divide up the governmental center grounds. A large parking lot adjacent to the park was allotted to the 1st of the 22nd Marines and brigade HQ for parking. The park was divided into quarters and each battalion was assigned a quarter for lodging, if none of the buildings were suitable. The remaining quarter went to the brigade HQ and brigade troops.

  She had one of her staff pull up a brigade roster to find any K’Rang linguists. She assumed the only ones would be in the intel company and the S-2 would scream like a stuck pig if she laid claim to any, but this was war.