by D. J. Holmes
“Which groups made it?” Johnston asked. “Did the one led by Clare Edwards get here?”
“Yes Major,” the woman replied. “As I understand it, her group was the first one here. They made it without any losses.”
“Thank you,” Pennington said to the woman. “You’ve made this old soldier happy. Now lead us to whoever is in charge, we need to find out what’s going on. We can’t stay here for long, the Indians will be scouring the forest for us.”
“How many of my men made it back?” Johnston asked the woman as she led them towards the temporary headquarters of the gamma site.
“There are four marines here,” the woman answered. “One of them is pretty badly injured. The rest seem to be fine.”
“Four,” Johnston said sadly. That meant three of his marines were unaccounted for. Perhaps one of the marines had been forced to flee to one of the other rendezvous sites. “And how many fighters made it back?”
“Along with the fighters assigned to guard the four groups that are here, another twenty trickled in.” The woman replied. “Most of them are injured or extremely fatigued. There is no way we can launch a new operation any time soon.”
“No,” Johnston agreed. “Even if we got lucky and there’s as many survivors at the other three evacuation sites. The Indians have won this round; I think we are out of the fight for now.”
“Never,” Pennington said as she balled her hands into fists. “We’re never going to stop fighting the Indians. They have come to our home, our planet. Even if it costs us everything. We’re going to keep hitting them. They have to know that as long as one Havenite lives, they do not own this planet.”
Quite a few of the evacuees had gathered around to see Pennington and Johnston as they marched towards the temporary headquarters. As he looked around at the bewildered, broken faces that came to greet them, Johnston saw the glimmers of a new fire being ignited as they listened to Pennington’s words. He didn’t know if she was speaking from her heart or if she knew everyone was listening to her, but he had no doubt those words would be repeated again and again by the survivors. Maybe the resistance isn’t out of this fight yet, he thought.
Any other thoughts of the future were knocked out of him as Clare came running up and crashed into him, knocking the wind out of him. “Careful there lass,” Johnston said as he tried to suppress a groan of pain as she brushed up against his wound.
“I thought I had lost you,” Clare said as she squeezed him harder. “Rebecca said she left you in one of the triage caverns. Then she never saw you again.”
This time Johnston couldn’t suppress it, “Urrgghh,” he grunted as she squeezed him.
“You need to let him go,” Pennington said as she tried to prize Clare away from Johnston. “He’s been injured; it’s amazing he has lasted this long. We need to get him seen to right away.”
“What?” Clare said as she jumped back from Johnston. Her eyes went to the gaping wound in his side. “I’m so sorry,” she said, tears welling up. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, here quickly, come with me, we have a medical station set up for the injured that are coming in. We need to get someone to look at that right away.”
As Pennington made her way to meet with whoever was currently in charge of Gamma site, Clare led Johnston to the medical station. Johnston wasn’t surprised to see Rebecca was helping out. To his relief, there seemed to be an actual doctor in charge.
“I’m so sorry I left you,” Rebecca said as she approached, looking guilty. “When the Indians breached the main cavern and began to fight down the back passageways we were ordered to evacuate. No one was able to lift you and we only had a few seconds. I injected you with a hypospray that would have slowed your heart rate right down. I was hoping the Indians would think you were dead and leave you alone. I’ve been worried sick ever since.”
“I don’t know if it worked or not,” Johnston said. “But I’m here now and at the least, I owe you my life for helping me when I was shot. So there’s no need to feel so bad. But I hope you won’t be insulted if I want to see someone with a little bit more expertise.”
“Of course not,” Rebecca said earnestly as she stepped out of Johnston and Clare’s way. “This way,” she said. “I’ll get Dr. Phillips to see you immediately.”
As Johnston lay down on a medical bed his mind wandered. He knew exhaustion was about to overtake him. Clare and Dr. Phillips were fussing over him, both with very serious looks on their faces, but he was happy. Clare was safe and most of his marines had survived the attack on the cave. Things could have been a lot worse. As he felt himself drift off, the sight of Sergeant Briar and two marines coming towards him forced him to fight for a few more seconds of consciousness.
“He’s not ready to talk to anyone,” Clare said as Briar approached.
“We’ll leave him be in a moment,” Briar said. “There’s something I need to tell him first.”
“What is it?” Johnston croaked, his energy fading. The sight of Briar approaching him told him more than he needed to know. The marine missing was obviously Moony. If he hadn’t made it back yet, it meant he was probably dead.
“We found it,” Briar said. “We bumped into one of our scouts who was trying to get away from the Indians as we fled the mountain. He had just been coming back from searching sector thirty-seven B when he ran into the Indians as they launched their assault on the hideout.”
Briar’s news gave Johnston a new burst of energy. He had been searching for an Indian base rumored to be under construction for over a month. Briar could be talking about nothing else. “You need to go there yourself,” Johnston said. “Do a recon of the site with your own eyes, then get back to me. I need to know as much about what they’re doing as possible.”
“Aye Sir,” Briar answered. “You just rest Sir; I’ll go see what the Indians are up to. Then, once you’re better we can go hit them hard. It will be a fitting payback for Lieutenant Moony.”
Johnston didn’t have the strength to agree, instead he lay back and closed his eyes. Finally, he could rest. But now he had something to make a quick recovery for. The Indians might think their attack on the cave had beaten the resistance. But they were soon going to find out Johnston was still alive.
Chapter 11 – Missed Opportunities
The first lesson drummed into every cadet is this, strike first and once you do, don’t stop striking until your enemy is defeated. The Empire will not tolerate any threat to its existence.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD
14th July 2467AD, HMS Endeavour, Magali System
“Targets are locked in Sir,” Lieutenant Becket reported. “We’re just waiting for the command to fire.”
“Very good Lieutenant,” James replied.
Currently Endeavour was cruising into the Magali system along with the rest of the British Fast Reaction fleet. After somewhat successfully avoiding the Indian fleet in New Delhi, they were now about to begin the real reason they had come into Indian space. They were going to raid as many of the main Indian colonial systems as they could.
Despite the damage Hood had taken in the battle at New Delhi, she was leading the fleet towards the colony of Magali. James guessed Rear Admiral Rooke was more than a little upset at the damage his flagship had taken. She was missing almost a quarter of her port side missile tubes, and despite the crew’s best efforts in the eleven days it had taken to get to the Magali system, by James’ estimation, she was still missing almost twenty percent of her point defenses. If the British fleet got into another large-scale engagement, Hood would be vulnerable.
Nevertheless, Rooke and his flagship were leading the British fleet from the front. No doubt he wanted to make sure that everyone knew he was still prepared to lead the way, despite the setbacks they had incurred at New Delhi. A quick and easy victory over the defenders of Magali would help improve the fleet’s morale. James knew confidence among his own crew had taken a hit. He was sure it was the same among the other ships of the fleet.
/> “Any update on what the defenders are doing?” James asked his sensor officer.
“Not yet,” Sub Lieutenant Malik replied. “Any warships that are in the system are in low orbit around the colony. It is almost impossible to detect them among all the other stations and freighters in orbit.”
“Whoever is in charge of the defenders is certainly keeping his cards close to his chest,” Mallory said.
“With an entire British fleet bearing down on you, I imagine you might want to be taking things one step at a time as well,” James said. “As long as we can’t detect his fleet, we can’t target all our missiles on Magali’s orbital industry. If nothing else, staying hidden will buy him some time.”
And that was why the British fleet was here. Besides New Delhi, the Indians had three major industrialized colonies, Nicobar, Cachin and Magali. By tricking the Indian fleet at New Delhi into allowing the British to head for Magali, Rooke had opened the way for the British fleet to attack two of India’s four most important colonies. After they dealt with Magali, Cachin was just six days away.
“Or maybe he is waiting for us to get close before he pounces.” Mallory suggested. “The main Indian fleet can’t be too far behind us. If the commander of the forces at Magali can hold us off long enough, he could allow Admiral Khan to catch us.”
“If that’s what he’s trying to do, it has to be a bluff,” James said. “The Indian fleet at New Delhi was significantly larger than our Intel suggested. There is only one way the Indians could have put together such a large fleet. They had to have stripped their colonies bare.”
“Still,” Mallory said, “if the defenders do have a few powerful ships, it’s going to be risky to engage them. Any ships they can damage now will have to be left behind. The defenders don’t have to beat us, they just have to cripple us and we will be stranded in Indian space.”
“Well,” James said, “there’s nothing we can do to help the rest of the fleet, but if that isn’t incentive enough for all of us to be at our best, then I don’t know what is.” As he spoke he looked at each of the bridge crew. Most of them already knew the stakes at play, but it wouldn’t hurt to remind them every now and again. Endeavour’s damage from the engagement at New Delhi was slight, but it had been a warning. Having to leave the heavy cruiser Wrath behind had been a blow to morale. And every one of the crew now knew that was a fate likely to happen to any ship that was damaged. The British fleet couldn’t afford to be caught in a long engagement, not when they still had to get to Haven and liberate the colony there.
“I’ve got movement on the gravitational sensors,” Malik shouted.
“Where?” James asked.
“Towards the edge of the outer system, near the shift passage that leads back to New Delhi,” Malik said. “It must be one of the lookouts Rear Admiral Rooke left behind to watch for the Indian fleet. Whoever it is, they are charging straight for us under full military acceleration.”
“I guess that’s the signal that the Indian fleet has arrived,” Mallory said.
“I imagine so,” James agreed. “If they are here, we’ll find out soon enough.”
Despite his confidence that they could handle whatever Indian naval forces were stationed at Magali, James knew the British fleet faced a serious threat. Khan’s competence was giving Rooke a dilemma. The Indian Admiral had done a masterful job of reorganizing his fleet at New Delhi and was coming after the British with all haste. By the time the British fleet had reached the shift passage to Magali and jumped out of the New Delhi system, Khan and his fleet were less than six hours behind them.
For the last eleven days Rear Admiral Rooke had driven his fleet hard. He knew Admiral Khan would be doing everything he could to catch up with the British fleet and bring them to battle. As a result, Rooke had been doing whatever he could to increase the speed of his fleet. The main problem was that while many of the British Navy’s newest and fastest ships were in the Fast Reaction Fleet, many of the ships that had joined to bolster its strength were older designs. They had inferior acceleration rates, top speeds and took longer to charge their shift capacitors.
The only saving grace was that everyone knew the Indian fleet consisted of just as many or more older warships. If Admiral Khan wanted to catch them, he would have to pull off some daring tactical move, or he would have to detach his slower ships and significantly weaken his fleet.
“Here they come,” Malik announced as ninety new contacts appeared on the gravimetric sensors.
Silence descended as everyone’s attention shifted from Magali to the Indian fleet. “It looks like they are all there,” Malik said after a minute. It had taken the ship’s computer that long to distinguish all the different gravimetric anomalies produced by the accelerating Indian warships.
“Let’s get back to the matter at hand,” James said. “There’s nothing Admiral Khan can do to us right now. Let’s make sure we hit Magali hard.”
The crew settled back in to watching the colony. RSNI intel suggested that the colony had four large Rakesh battlestations in orbit. They were the largest and most powerful battlestations the Indian naval engineers constructed. Each one had the equivalent firepower of a battlecruiser. So far, the British fleet had identified three of them, however the fourth was proving to be elusive. The main problem was there were hundreds of medium and large sized stations in orbit around Magali. Many of them were commercial or industrial nodes, yet there was likely to be a number of smaller battlestations as well as point defense stations placed around the colony to shoot down any missiles that tried to damage the orbital infrastructure. As a result, it was proving hard to identify the fourth battlestation, never mind identifying which orbital stations were military ones and which were civilians.
“Captain,” Malik said in concern. “I’m picking up multiple new electromagnetic sources coming from the colony. It looks like at least three more heavy battlestations have just come online. The energy readings suggest they are powering up their main reactors.”
“Impossible,” James said. “There is no way the Indians have built two more Rakesh battlestations without RSNI finding out about it. It must be a bluff.”
“There’s more,” Malik continued as if his Captain hadn’t spoken. “I’m detecting two heavy cruisers along with at least five other cruisers coming out of orbit, it looks like they’re taking up station beside one of the Rakesh battlestations.”
“It has to be a bluff,” Mallory said. “This explains why the defenders didn’t react immediately, I bet whoever is in charge of the Indian defenses over Magali has been using his time to alter industrial stations and civilian ships to give out military grade sensor readings. They’re are trying to scare us off.”
“I think you’re right,” James agreed. “But what is Rear Admiral Rooke going to think?”
They didn’t have to wait long for an answer. “We’re getting new orders from the flagship,” Sub Lieutenant King said from the COM station.
When James saw the orders he shook his head slightly. Rooke had fallen for the ruse, or at least, he didn’t want to take any chances with his fleet. “We going to fire one missile salvo at extreme range and then alter course,” he informed the bridge. His tone said he was less than happy with the orders he was reading out. “Lieutenant Becket, new fire orders will be coming in momentarily. We’re not going to target any of the Indian naval forces. We’re going to hit their industrial nodes as hard as possible instead. Then we’re bugging out of here and onto the next target system.”
No one on the bridge responded, they all knew from James’ tone that he wasn’t on board with the new orders. Yet they were all professionals, and they would do as their superior commanded.
At least we won’t have to risk our ships, James thought. They were unlikely to do much damage to the industrial stations in orbit around Magali. With the battlestations, and whatever warships were actually in orbit, the colony would be able to put up a lot of point defense fire against the single British missile salvo they
would have to face.
“Living to fight another day isn’t always the worst choice,” James said to try and take their minds off the fact that such an inviting target would be passing them by. It was one thing for him to think that, it was another for his crew to join him. If they really started to lose confidence in their Admiral then no matter how much they trusted James, he knew their performance and morale would be affected.
“I just received our new fire orders,” Becket announced. “We are going to be launching in five minutes.”
James didn’t say anything, instead he watched the timer count down. As the British fleet was cruising towards Magali at their top speed, they had a significant advantage in missile range over the defenders. Their advantage would allow them to fire and then turn away from the colony before the battlestations and warships in orbit could fire back.
“Firing,” Becket said when the counter hit zero.
Almost two hundred missiles shot out of their acceleration tubes from the British fleet. As soon as they cleared their motherships, their engines kicked in and boosted them towards Magali. Less than a minute after the missiles had been fired, the British ships angled up and away from the colony along the system’s ecliptic.