Other fighters received targeting information from orbit, and launched missiles. Some of the sites housed remote controlled energy weapons, but most were simply repeaters, designed to make life difficult for an attacker. John had a wealth of missiles, and he intended to destroy everything that could potentially represent a threat to his people.
Missiles began to detonate, some of them hit by defensive energy weapons, some hitting rebel sites. John was in a hurry, but he wasn’t in a rush. His fighters ensured that every single site that potentially posed a threat to his people received a missile, followed up by a fighter that carefully edged to within visual range to ensure that it was scrap.
As they drew within five hundred kilometers they began to encounter small hamlets, farms and agricultural processing facilities, silos, barns and outbuildings. His instructions were that everything was to be considered hostile, but he also instructed his crews to avoid coming within a kilometer of the buildings, avoiding the possibility that a farmer tried to bring down a fighter with a personal weapon. He actually didn’t care about the farmer so much as he worried that the effort might succeed.
John broadcast in the clear again, warning the populace that any weapon that was fired, or even trained on his fighters would be attacked and destroyed. He warned all civilians to take shelter, and then he repeated his warning. He finished by saying that anyone living, working or even accidentally near a weapons site was in grave danger of being killed.
He lost a fighter to an energy weapon. Moments later four fighters launched missiles, three of which struck the site. The crew managed to survive the crash, and a shuttle was on the way to pick them up. A second targeting radar came up, but was struck repeatedly by his fighters own energy weapons. They followed up with missiles.
At one hundred kilometers distance from the city seventeen separate targeting systems went live. All the fighters within range promptly dropped to hover a few feet off the ground, and nearly one hundred missiles erupted towards the source of the emissions. Most of them shut down, but John’s space-based satellites – inserted shortly after taking the system – provided accurate targeting information, allowing the missiles to continue to the targets.
Despite all his preparation and precautions, fighters began to get hit. The rebels seemed content to trade one ground-based energy weapon for one fighter. Fortunately, they weren’t coming close, but each downed fighter was another knife in his heart.
The federal fighters carefully edged forward. It took less than five minutes to ensure that all seventeen energy systems were destroyed, and his forces began moving forward again. Missiles began to appear. John couldn’t afford to allow the rebels to force his fighters to shut down their drives, but as soon as a fighter got targeted, it sought shelter behind a hill or some other protection while other fighters targeted the missile. It proved to be slow going, and the methods and tactics John was using were being invented or reinvented on the fly.
An alarm went off on John’s command deck. James calmly announced from his position as rear security for the formation of carriers and missile ships, “Sir, we’ve got fresh energy readings, distance, six million kilometers, coming in from system south. We estimate roughly nine hundred fighters. So far, we don’t see carriers or other large craft. They’re carrying a very large relative velocity, and since they’re accelerating we think they may not intend to decelerate to match orbit.”
John thanked him and looked over at his communications tech, who nodded her head, “Sir, we concur, there are nine hundred sixteen fighter-sized craft. If they remain on course, and continue their present acceleration, they should be within missile range in…sixteen hours, ten minutes.” John’s eyebrows rose in surprise – that meant they must have been under acceleration for many hours to attain that great a velocity, and it must have been outside his detection range.
He did some rough mental calculations. He didn’t think that the rebels on Orleans could have been in real time communication with the approaching force of fighters. He asked for input from his tiny staff. Lieutenant Garcia said, “Sir, the probability is that this is part of the same rebel fleet that departed Orleans. They may think they can catch us either unaware or engaged in a ground assault.”
John smiled faintly, “This might not be ‘part of the same rebel fleet’, it might well be the entire rebel fleet; however, I agree, and of course, if their hope was to catch us engaged in a ground assault, lucky them. Their timing was excellent. Not perfect however. We have some time to finish our present operation and get our crews back up to replenish and on station. I want our ships to reposition on the far side of Orleans from the approaching ships. I also want our techs to prepare for as large a launch of electronic aids as possible. I’ll give you details later. Meanwhile, let’s get our ships moving to their new position. I’ll want to send off a courier, but not yet. Contact CAG Eisenstein and ask her if some additional fighters would help. Also, I need to know how many of the modified heavy missiles we have. Oh, just in case these fighters intend to meet up with their carriers after they blow past the planet, let’s send a flight of light fighters, see if we can’t find the carriers. Um, make that two flights, heavy missiles. Get them underway as soon as practicable.”
John looked at the central plot, and asked, “Communications, see if you can backtrack their flight path, and look for signs of the enemy ships. Their carriers have to be either following along behind them, or they jumped ahead of them. It’s far more likely that they’re a few million kilometers to planetary north, but we’ve not seen anything so I suppose these fighters could be a long way from their carriers.”
John asked for an update from CAG Eisenstein. She replied, “Sir, we’re continuing to meet resistance, but it doesn’t seem to be terribly organized. Additionally, we’ve found a surprising number of energy installations that never came up.” John smiled grimly, “We’ve been trying to undermine their will to fight – this is the first indication that we’ve had some success. I want you to press home the assault, and if additional fighters will help, I can have them on station within the hour. As a reminder, you are not authorized to destroy the site of that missile launch. You are ordered to target all space or air worthy craft, even if it’s grounded. Everything. I’ll make another broadcast within the next few minutes, warning civilians to avoid all military installations, not to attempt to flee the city and to take shelter. If you get even a sniff of radiation, let me know.”
She said, “Yes sir. If conditions don’t change, we should be on the outskirts within one to two hours. From there, it will take an additional but unknown amount of time to finish the suppression of their defenses. As a guess, five hours, total.” John thanked her, not saying that he would be astonished if it only took five hours.
John ordered James in with half of his fighters.
It took ninety minutes to reposition his small fleet in the shadow of the planet, relative to the approaching fighters. He would now be invisible to the approaching enemy fighters, and although they would know roughly where he was, they wouldn’t know if he was remaining in orbit or accelerating away from the planet. That would change – all the enemy had to do was spread out to be able to get a peek at the far side of the planet, and since his ships would have to remain under drive to maintain position, they would be visible.
John made another broadcast, “Citizens of Orleans, federal forces are now within one hundred kilometers of your capital city. We are attempting to limit the loss of life, both civilian and military; however, understand that we will target and destroy every operational military installation we encounter. I have not received one single communication from your government; therefore, I must assume by its silence that it takes responsibility for the construction and use of prohibited nuclear weapons. I now possess a list of three hundred and seventy two names of elected officials, military personnel and various scientists, engineers and technicians who I believe to be implicated in this crime against humanity. That list is now available to you. If you
are on the list, you are ordered to make your way to Hospital Eugenie, there to await federal officials, who will take you into custody. Do not travel by air. If you know of people on this list, and you do not take prudent steps to deliver them – alive - to the hospital, I shall consider you to be a co-conspirator in this crime. Be aware, citizens of Orleans, that a conviction of this nature carries with it the possibility of a death sentence. If you think that to be a harsh penalty, think of the consequences of the detonation of a nuclear device within your city limits. That is all.”
One hundred of James fighters began arriving at their carriers. The pilots would get a few hours of rest before having to face the approaching rebel fighters. Meanwhile, several hundred fighters that had been participating in the ground assault were streaming up to their carriers for a reload. Some of the ground fighters had slipped around to the opposite side of the city, where they encountered very little opposition. John sent forty additional fighters to join them, and they began an approach to the city.
His flight leads had shown initial amazement when John laid out his plans for the conquest of Orleans. They had never even considered the possibility that a space fighter could be used like an ancient ground assault tank, yet the results to date had been remarkable, and his pilots had become adept at hiding behind hills and in ravines, popping up to fire a laser or missile, and dropping back down out of sight.
About one third of the crews of his downed fighters had survived to be picked up by a variety of small utility craft and shuttles. He now had numerous teams of Marines making they way toward the city via commandeered private vehicles. Two of those squads were now within fifteen kilometers of the outskirts of the city. They had taken a small amount of ground fire, but remarkably, they’d suffered no casualties.
John now had slightly over five hundred fighters engaged on the ground, and seven hundred either on station or on board their carriers. He intended to have all seven hundred plus fighters on station and roughly fifty thousand kilometers out from the planet. They would launch their missiles in three waves, with the first designed to whittle down the rebel launch, expected to be as large as thirty-two hundred missiles; the second would target any leakers, and the third would target the rebel fighters themselves. Although John would have two hundred fewer fighters than the enemy, he had a huge advantage in missiles. The rebels were using tried and true tactics that had successfully worked for three years; today however, the huge federal manufacturing advantage had led to equally large military advantages.
As his ground attack pressed forward, his people began to see more indications that the government was crumbling. As much as the people of Orleans disliked, or more probably, hated, the federal government, their abhorrence of weapons of mass destruction had become so firmly embedded in them that many civilians now seemed to be openly aiding the federal assault, and many more were obviously passively helping.
John finally received a message from a group that claimed to have taken over from the civilian government. They asked for an immediate cessation of hostilities while they continued to take control of the reins of government. John replied, “If you will identify your center of operations, I will alert my ground forces to avoid targeting that area, and as soon as it is safe, we’ll have some ground troops take up positions to protect your people from possible reprisals. Meanwhile, we will continue to attack all military personnel who continue to resist our lawful efforts to gain control of the planet.”
The speaker, a woman with a decidedly heavy French accent protested, “Sir, we are doing everything possible to take control of the city. However your destruction of our orbital installations has made it almost impossible for us to even communicate with our citizens, much less obtain their support. I wish to lodge a protest with your superiors over your unprecedented destruction of what amounts to decades of work.”
John counted to ten, then said, very quietly, “Madam, your protest is acknowledged, and will be forwarded to my superiors. For your information, your government had multiple opportunities to open communications with me, and refused. Additionally, you should know that my commanding officer ordered the destruction of your orbital installations many days ago. I did everything possible to avoid carrying out those orders. While I deeply regret following them, the responsibility lies with your own government. Meanwhile, as long as your committee deals with me in good faith, I shall do all that I can to assist you.”
The city defenses continued to crumble. Within another three hours, virtually all military installations on the planet had surrendered, creating a headache for John, who needed to verify that the many dozens of weapons installations were out of commission. Most of them were hundreds to thousands of miles distant. He did not have enough soldiers to go around, and he only had a small handful of Marines.
He asked his communications tech, “How likely is it that rebels on Orleans will be able to learn of the approaching fighters?” His tech promptly answered, “Sir, it’s possible. We don’t know if they have the necessary equipment, but their university definitely could.” John nodded, “We need to speed up the ground assault. If they know about the incoming fighters, they’ll be able to determine by the formation that it’s an attack on our forces.”
He talked to the commander of his ground assault, “CAG, as you know, we have an inbound force of rebel fighters. You have about five hours before we have to deal with the assault.” She acknowledged the time limit, “Yes sir. I believe we’ll have neutralized most of their defenses by that time, but it will take a lot of time and resources to mop up.” John said, “Move as fast as you can without taking unnecessary casualties.”
John was still struggling with mastering the ability to sit or stand on the command deck of a carrier while his crews fought. During one engagement he watched the admiral, and learned a great deal about exuding calmness under fire. Unfortunately, learning that something was possible, and actually emulating it were two different things.
He’d talked to James about that experience, and James had laughed, “You’d best forget trying to emulate that man. The only nerves he has are locked away in long term storage.” John grinned, “I could do that.” James laughed, “You couldn’t stand still if you were dead. We’ll have to hire someone to sit on your casket.” John snorted, “You’d have to borrow the money from your wife.” James pretended to look surprised, “You know, that’s right, I’m married to the daughter of a plutocrat.” John nodded, “Almost correct. You mean to say, one of the many, many daughters, and the only one who is mentally challenged.” James grinned, “She married me, so I’m thinking she’s awfully intelligent, even brilliant.” John sighed, “Well, possibly. I think it must have been your brains that attracted her – it certainly wasn’t your looks.” James fired back, “When God asked you if you wanted good looks, you thought He meant ‘books’, and told Him you could get them from the library.” John nodded solemnly, “Too true.”
Now, as John stood on the command deck, he had to force himself to look calm. He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down. Coffee was just the thing to calm nerves.
Two hours before the rebels entered heavy missile range, three hundred additional federal fighters began streaming out from their carriers, joining the four hundred plus already on station. All were armed with a full load of light missiles. The light fighters had been sent down to Orleans, where they were contending with numerous pockets of resistance.
They now had two small squads of Marines inside the city, but the going was very slow. John didn’t know for certain, but he thought that the attack on Orleans might represent a first in the war, meaning the first time in over three hundred years, that humans had fought a war, or at least a battle, on the ground.
Once again, John’s background in history came to his aid. He had a total of two hundred forty Marines on board, and as soon as Orleans refused to surrender, he’d assigned all the officers and non-coms a number of military history books on ground combat. He gave them eight hours, then he brou
ght them together and they hashed out some basic tactics, apparently developed and last used by American ground troops in the twenty-first century. Oddly, John’s troops were not as well armed as those ancient troops had been. One of them, however, didn’t seem to require much. He’d been on the DeKlerk with John, and had kindly offered to work out with John, in the process managing to teach John a certain amount of humility.
One of the non-coms had remarked, “According to what I’ve been reading, those soldiers had to carry anywhere from thirty-six to forty-nine kilos of equipment. I’m just as glad not to carry all that weight.” John said, “You’ve got the same assignment they had– enforce your will on a hostile populace. I’d be very, very careful – just because Orleans doesn’t have a thousand years of violent history behind it, and reportedly more personal chemical weapons than people, which is what those soldiers and Marines were facing in that particular region, it doesn’t mean the enemy won’t try to kill you, it just means they’ll have to be a little creative. As you’ve seen, they’ve already proven themselves on that score.”
Now, John sat and tried to look calm. On the ground, his fighters were trying to deal with a heavily armed complex that reportedly housed the site where the nuclear weapon had been manufactured. In space, his carriers were huddled two hundred thousand kilometers out from the planet, which they were using to hide from over nine hundred enemy fighters.
Hawk Genesis: War (Flight of the Hawk) Page 29