A minute passed, and Shima crawled out on the far side of the sled. The transporter she chose was the closest one to her position. It wasn’t the best one by any stretch of the imagination, it was still being loaded, but Shima was running out of time and she knew it. She waited for the troopers to descend the loading ramp on their way for more cargo before moving.
Gina panned her weapon around the transporter watching for guards. There was a brief lull in activity, and Shima took full advantage. She sprinted up the ramp and into the cargo hold. Gina counted under her breath imagining herself in the Shan woman’s place. She had to scout out a good place among the crates to hide the transponder. She gave Shima a count of ten for that. Another count of five to activate it, and a further five to get back to the ramp.
Twenty seconds after her dash up the ramp should have seen Shima ready to get out, but luck turned against her. Gina tensed as the Merkiaari returned with more cargo, and climbed the ramp to stow it in the hold. She watched with fading hope as more and more cargo went into the hold, but there was no outcry or the shattering sound of blaster fire. Gina watched in disbelieving silence as the Merki reappeared and descended the ramp. The ramp retracted and the transporter powered up. Gina zoomed in and caught a glimpse of Shima’s frightened face before she ducked back into the shadows within the hold.
“Oh no,” Gina breathed. “Oh Shima, I’m sorry.”
Gina watched as the transporter moved away to join the others in the supply convoy. There was nothing she could do. Shima was on her own. Gina eased back, and put some distance between herself and the camp. As soon as she could, she began climbing straight up the ridge in an effort to get back to Rutledge in the next valley over.
She made it to the crest of the ridge unseen.
As soon as Gina had put the bulk of the ridge between herself and the Merki camp, she went active on her sensors. It didn’t take long for her to find Varya who was a friendly blue icon on her display waiting for her on the edge of sensor range. Gina quickly made her way along the ridge toward him. She could not see him, not even when her sensors assured her that she was within a few metres of him.
“Shima?” Varya said easing out of his cover.
Gina shook her head. “She did her job but…”
“Dead?”
“She couldn’t get out without being seen. She stayed behind.”
Varya’s ears lay back and then struggled half erect. “May her ancestors welcome her,” he said softly, and shook himself like a dog shakes off the rain. “Come Tei’Gina, we have new orders.”
She hurried to follow. “We do?”
“Rutledge and the others have gone ahead. The Murderers have attacked our line and broken through. To my eternal shame, it was my people who failed to hold the Murderers at bay. Your metal men fought and killed many, but they too have been overrun. Our camp is in danger of being surrounded.”
Gina gritted her teeth in anger. They had to get the General out of there! Metal men were what the natives called Marines in their mechs. For the Marines to have been overrun meant the enemy was mounting a major offensive. The timing of such an offensive was ominous when combined with the movement she had just witnessed.
“Let’s try and catch Rutledge,” Gina said, and pushed her jog into a run. Varya dropped to all fours to keep up.
* * *
Chapter 29
Combat Information Centre, ASN Victorious
Admiral Alice Meyers, commanding officer of TF19, paced anxiously. The holotank was the centre of attention, with most of her officers almost fascinated by the current view being displayed. She was more interested in what was happening on Sutherland. She stopped her pacing for a moment, and reached over the shoulder of a young ensign to bring up another view on his main monitor. He glared up at her in irritation for a moment before realising who was interfering with his station. Meyers ignored his whispered apology, and selected another view. This one was a simple list of assets in theatre, and was being constantly updated by CIC aboard Sutherland, and other ships within TF19. The satellite networks in orbit of Child of Harmony and Harmony were also linked in to Victorious’ CIC, giving her almost godlike control over information flow. It didn’t make her feel any better about the current situation.
Despite almost four weeks of constant battle, the Merkiaari ground forces had been reduced by barely a third. In that same time however, Burgton had lost almost eighteen percent of his vipers, and close to forty percent of his Marine contingent, most of which had died not two hours ago when their lines were overrun. The unpalatable truth was that the Marines had been caught with their pants down. Until now, the bulk of the Merki forces had been steadily retreating and that more than anything had fooled Major Papandreou of the 7th Marines into letting his guard down. Burgton on the other hand, had not been fooled. His lost men had all fallen in offensive operations in which he had inflicted awesome casualties upon the enemy. All his battles were victories, but he was so outnumbered that the losses he had sustained, though almost miniscule in comparison to those sustained by the Merkiaari, did in fact weaken him much more than they were weakened.
The long and the short of it was that although the Shan were now actively engaged in the fighting, they were in fact losing the war on the ground for Child of Harmony. It was just as Burgton said at their first meeting. They were fighting a delaying action, and trying to prolong things long enough to ensure that when Fifth Fleet finally arrived, there would be people alive to greet them. That was all very well, but watching the battles from orbit was harder than Meyers had imagined it would be. The strain of watching people she was responsible for die while she remained safe, was beginning to tell. She was getting snappish and short tempered. She tried to curb it, but lack of sleep and constant worry made that almost impossible.
“How long before Sutherland can launch again?” Meyers said.
“They estimate another twenty minutes, Admiral,” Joshua said, from behind her. “I think that’s optimistic. I would guess thirty five to forty minutes.”
“Why so long?”
“Her launch bays are still taking aboard our bombers from the last wave of strikes.”
“Damn.” Sutherland’s bays would be a chaos of landing, taxiing, and rearming spacecraft. It would take time to reconfigure the bays from landing to launch operations.
“Has the General made another request for air cover, ma’am?”
Meyers shook her head. “No. Commander Heinemann’s last report was routine. When is the next launch scheduled, and what’s the target?”
Joshua sat at an empty station to call up the data. “We have… hmmm. We have two launches scheduled for eighteen-hundred. Sutherland’s launch rails will be fully committed. The target is Intari—another bomb run. Commander Heinemann requested fighter cover for the bombers after what happened over Masaru. Captain Alston concurred with him. She ordered the bombers be accompanied by a second wing configured for air to air combat.” Joshua checked the time. “Sutherland reports on schedule for that double launch, Admiral.”
Meyers turned and regarded the holotank. It was still somewhat jarring seeing a battlespace consisting of a map of green hills and valleys, and not the more usual blackness of space populated with coloured icons representing ships and battle groups. The three dimensional map was perfect in its details. It could be zoomed in to show a single APC racing over the ground, or out to show the entire continent as seen from orbit. It was currently centred over a complex of valleys to the south of a city called Maseru. Maseru was shown at the top left corner of the tank while Charlie Epsilon, Burgton’s camp, was two thirds of the way down. Between the two, a blip crawled southward along one of the valleys. It was that innocent seeming blip that was worrying her.
“Show me the breakout please,” she said.
An ensign sitting at the holotank controls made a few adjustments and the battlespace reformed.
Meyers leaned on the consol to study what the tank was showing her. The enemy had broken through
in three places. The central column was pushing forward and heading directly for Charlie Epsilon, while another two had turned aside to roll up the natives where they were struggling to reform the line and oppose the movement. It was obvious they were outgunned. Even without the evidence before her, she would have known that. Most of them were civs—if any Shan could be termed such. They only had their hand blasters to fight with.
The remnants of the Shan military had been placed at the far ends of the frontline, in an attempt to anchor it. It was there that they were at their strongest. Burgton had placed some of their artillery in the centre with his own guns at Charlie Epsilon, and a good thing he had. He was now facing a battle that he had done everything in his power to avoid—a battle against a superior force from poor but fixed positions. Such a situation negated his viper’s speed and manoeuvrability, which was why he had been avoiding it. If he pulled out, he would be giving the Merkiaari free and open access to the south, and leaving almost half a million people to die. Perhaps worse than that from Meyers’ point of view, he would be giving them an open road back to Zuleika and the spaceport.
Things were coming to a head down there. She could feel it. The battle about to take place at Charlie Epsilon would be a turning point. She had to ensure it turned her way.
“Show me Charlie Epsilon.”
The battlespace reformed once again. Burgton obviously had no plans to pull out. His men were digging in. She keyed a control and a window seemingly hovering over the camp opened full of text. She scrolled down the list noting the number of defenders and their weapons.
“Any chance of getting another supply drop to them before they’re hit?” she said not liking what she found.
Joshua shook his head. “The General has been receiving drops from Grafton almost constantly since he learned of the break out, but he only has the two Wolfcubs. They’re on their way back to Grafton from their last run now. They won’t have time for another.”
Meyers nodded and closed the text window. “Give me a real time view over the camp.”
The map was replaced with satellite imagery showing Burgton’s vipers digging like demons at the wet soil. Still more were using their weapons to blast down trees while hundreds of Shan hitched themselves to ropes and pulled the logs back to camp. She ignored the murmurs of awe as a pair of vipers hefted a tree between them and trotted back to their dugout. They dropped the thing in front of it and ran back for another. AARs were raving at the trees and blasting them into tooth picks. She assumed the idea was to deny the enemy cover. Already a huge cone was taking shape with its narrow end pointed at Charlie Epsilon. Suddenly she realised what it was meant to be. It was a funnel. Burgton was offering the enemy an easy path to follow. Zooming in she found the now expected Marines burying mines and other explosives in a frenzy, while vipers dashed about adding their own nasty surprises. The Shan field guns, together with Burton’s howitzers, had been moved back from the perimeter and sighted upon the cone to add their destructiveness. In many places, pits had been dug with one sloping side facing the cleared zone. Burgton’s rocket launchers had been driven down the ramps. Only the launch racks were showing above ground.
“This is going to be ugly,” Joshua whispered.
“You’re not helping!” Meyers bit her lip and rubbed her forehead trying to think. She had to do something about this goddamned mess before it was too late. “Get me Captain Alston.”
“Captain Alston… not Captain Fernandez, ma’am?”
“Yes… no.” She took a breath. It wasn’t good procedure for her to contact Alston directly. It could be seen as a snub to her flag captain. “Get me Tomas first please, Joshua. Sorry for my bad temper.”
Joshua smiled briefly. “Part of my job, ma’am,” he said while he called the bridge.
She snorted feeling her mood lighten. “That’s as maybe, Joshua, but it’s still bad manners on my part.
“I have Captain Fernandez for you, Admiral.”
She took her aide’s place before the consol. “We have a situation at Charlie Epsilon, Tomas.”
“I’ve been keeping an eye on it, ma’am.”
“I knew you would be. I have something in mind that might help the situation, but there could be consequences… no scratch that. There will be consequences. A board of inquiry at the least.”
“I’ll back you on whatever you decide…”
She raised a hand. “I know you would, Tomas. But this decision is mine, and mine alone to justify. I will be contacting Liz shortly. I just wanted you to know what I’m doing, and that I’m not going behind your back because of a lack of confidence in you.”
“Thank you, Admiral.” Fernandez smiled briefly. “But that wasn’t necessary.”
“Indulge me. It makes me feel better.”
Fernandez nodded. “Good luck.”
She broke the connection. “Get me Captain Alston. A secure channel please, Joshua.”
Joshua nodded and contacted Sutherland. The monitor flickered and Captain Alston appeared.
“Good afternoon, Admiral.”
“Liz. Are you alone?”
Alston blinked. “I’m in my quarters… alone, yes Admiral. Is something wrong?”
“I want an immediate block on all further launches. I have a special op for your people. It will take all of them.”
“All of them?”
“Yes, all. I’ll wait while you pass on the order, Liz. I don’t want a single ship in the air until I say.”
“Yes, sir, Admiral.” Alston turned away to give the order. A few moments later she turned back. “Done.”
“Good. I’m going to ask you to begin recording this in a minute, Liz, but first I want to discuss the operation. General Burgton is digging in at Charlie Epsilon. He’s not pulling back.”
“He can’t,” Alston said.
“He could actually. Unless you’ve seen it, you can’t imagine how fast a viper can move, but Burgton won’t pull out and leave them to die. We’ve just about gotten to the point where joint operations between us are paying off. We can’t let them scurry back into their holes, Liz. We haven’t the numbers to fight them alone… not if we want some of the natives alive when Fifth Fleet arrives.”
Alston nodded grimly. “Agreed. Harmony is a charnel house.”
Meyers nodded. She was still having nightmares about what was happening down there. That was another reason for her decision. Decisions based upon emotion were suspect but not necessarily wrong. She would stand by this one.
“I want you to pick two pilots, Liz. I want your most reliable. I don’t care if they’re from the same formation. I want your best… clear?”
“So far,” Alston said.
“When the time comes, I want you to put them in direct contact with me. I’ll brief them personally. They will launch with the rest of your ships, and be protected by the fighters until they’re in position, but they’ll have their own special target to deal with. The main operation is primarily going to be a bomb run. There are two columns currently attacking Point Zero. I want them smashed.”
“Could be messy, Admiral,” Alston warned. “They are fighting at almost hand to hand ranges now.”
“I know. Blue on blue is always a nightmare, but doing nothing would be worse. All we can do is limit the damage as best we can.” Blue on blue was a term given to casualties caused by friendly fire. Not that any fire was ever friendly.
Alston nodded. “I’ll get on it right away. With so many Interceptors unaccounted for, together with what happened to us at Maseru, I’ll want extensive fighter cover for my bombers.”
“Agreed. You run this however you think best. The two pilots I mentioned… I want them armed with Zeus III missiles.”
Alston’s jaw dropped. “But… are you sure?”
Meyers nodded solemnly. “The target is the Merkiaari reinforcements we’ve been tracking. You know about that?”
“We’ve been tracking the transponder.”
“Good. We can’t see them, but we
know they’re there. We can’t hit them with anything like precision with conventional warheads. That’s why we’re using Zeus.”
“But the Accords specifically prohibit nuclear detonations in atmosphere. The Council will crucify you. You can’t…”
She raised a hand to silence the protests. “I have the authority, Liz. I alone will pay the penalty.”
Alston’s jaw clenched. “That isn’t what I meant. Of course I’ll back whatever you decide, but that doesn’t mean it’s worth the price you’ll pay. You’re throwing your career away… and maybe your life too. You know the penalty if a court decides against you.”
“I know, and I’ll pay it if it comes to that. I don’t think it will.”
“How can it not? The Accords are clear. There’s no wriggle room, Admiral. They were written that way on purpose.”
Wriggle room? She grinned. “There is only one possible justification for what I’m about to do, Liz, and that’s preventing the extinction of an entire race. Put that together with the loss of Burgton and his vipers, and the probable loss of our alliance with the Shan if we do nothing…” she shrugged. “I’ll be fine.”
Alston didn’t look convinced. Her eyes narrowed. “How do you feel about stacking the deck a little more in your favour, Admiral?”
“Go on.”
“Contact the Elders and ask them to make it an official request… or at least inform them what you plan, and ask they back your decision. What can it hurt?”
It could hurt a lot if the Elders said no, but she didn’t think Kajetan would allow that. She was one hard lady.
“I’ll contact them, but in the meantime, I want you to set up for the operation. I’ll brief the two pilots you choose after I’ve spoken with Kajetan.”
“I understand, Admiral.”
“Begin recording now, Liz.”
Alston nodded. “Go ahead, Admiral.”
Meyers took a deep breath, determined to give an order that might see her out of the service in a firm voice. “Captain Alston, in my opinion the situation on Child of Harmony represents a clear and present danger to the Alliance. General Burgton and his men are severely outnumbered. They’re in danger of being wiped out as are our Shan allies. Losing such a resource would be a devastating loss to the Alliance, and one I cannot in good conscience allow. I am hereby authorising your use of the Zeus III tactical nuclear missile, in whatever numbers you deem necessary, in the furtherance of the mission previously discussed.”
Merkiaari Wars: 02 - What Price Honour Page 43