"What do we do? We surrender, of course. Prepare to transfer the heavy cruiser crews to the lighter combatants. Double us up."
"Incoming message, Sir," Sharma said.
"On speaker," Horzen said.
What's it going to be, Admiral. I've showed you the cards. Fold, or double down? Horzen thought.
"Admiral Horzen. Admiral Anderson here. We accept your offer, Admiral. We surrender. We are preparing to abandon the heavy cruisers for the lighter combatants. We will flip ship first to avoid any closer approach to the planet. Once our crews are completely transferred, our lighter combatants will accelerate for home. I have sent these same orders to my subordinate commanding the ships south of the planet. Anderson out."
"Comm, record message. Message begins. Admiral Anderson. Admiral Horzen here. Thank you for allowing me to avoid slaughtering your spacers to no good end, Admiral. You may proceed as you have outlined. Maybe we will meet at an embassy reception someday. Until then, Horzen out. Message ends. Send it."
"Transmitting, Sir."
Jan and Jessen waited in the War Room for the results from Kodu.
"What's it going to be, do you think?" Jessen asked.
"No way to know. Admiral Horzen has a steady hand, though, and maybe this Outer Colony commander has a couple of brain cells wired to each other. Unlike Admiral Dorn," Jan replied.
"Here they are."
They watched the drones transitioning from hyperspace, and then waited for the download of the system views. When the download was complete, they watched the scenario play out, and listened to the message traffic.
"Thank God. I hated killing all those spacers," Jan said.
"I think that must be the last of the attacks for this round. We've seen three hundred and four Outer Colony warships now, and that matches Durand's intelligence on how many went missing," Jessen said.
"We can't quite let our guard down, but I think you're right. That's probably it,"
"There's still the follow-up operations."
"I know. But the ones we don't have to kill, we don't kill. It's better karma. At least this time we had an opposition commander who knew what he was doing," Jan said.
"Yep. Once it was game over, it was game over. Done. So when do we start the follow-up operations?"
"Have we identified the twenty systems involved in these attacks?" Jan asked.
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Are the drones all loaded with the latest intel?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
Jan took a moment, reviewed her orders and authorities from higher, and the plans they had put in place for the follow-up operations. Then she took a deep breath and issued the fateful order.
"Then you may proceed, Admiral Jessen."
The Outer Colony ships had flipped ship and continued one-g acceleration as they prepared for evacuation, which slowed their approach to Kodu. When they were ready to abandon ship, they cut the engines, folded out crew cylinders, and spun ship to maintain gravity and allow shuttle operations.
Admiral Harold Anderson and Rear Admiral Jane Gunther were observing on the bridge of one of the Outer Colony light cruisers as they and the destroyers accelerated for the inner envelope boundary and the hyperspace transition for the trip home.
"Admiral, the Outer Colony light combatants are continuing on profile to the inner system envelope boundary," Sharma said.
"What is their separation from the heavy cruisers now?" Horzen asked.
"Coming up on twenty light-seconds, Sir."
"Send the Attack 1a and Attack 1b orders."
"Transmitting, Sir."
Admirals Anderson and Gunther watched in the rear-facing display as the CSF weapons platforms transitioned from hyperspace, fired on the abandoned heavy cruisers from eight light-seconds out, and disappeared back into hyperspace. In seconds, the sixteen Outer Colony heavy cruisers disappeared into clouds of debris.
"And it wouldn't have made any difference whatsoever if we had been aboard them," Anderson said. "We can't fight that."
"No, Sir. It's clear now it was no bluff and you made the right call," Gunther said.
"Small consolation, considering."
"What do you mean, Sir?"
"We have a month's trip to get home, Jane. What do you think is going to be waiting for us by the time we get there?" Anderson asked. "Will there be anything left at all? Our leaders invited the whirlwind when they ordered us to attack the Commonwealth, and I think they're not going to enjoy the results."
Brunswick
The freighter at the hyperspace-1 boundary had been offloading drones for several hours. In addition to the ready standby of one hundred and fifty beam weapon drones and one dozen survey drones, a total of three hundred drones of mixed types now stood ready for deployment during follow-up operations.
As one, three hundred drones transitioned into hyperspace directly from their current position. They were organized as four groups of seventy-five. Each group of seventy-five had five hunting parties consisting of one survey and command drone and nine beam weapon drones. The other twenty five drones were a mix of kinetic weapon drones and warhead drones.
Each group had five Outer Colony systems on its itinerary.
Thirty-five CSF drones transitioned into Brunswick normal space at the hyperspace-1 boundary and engaged engines at one hundred percent. Twenty more transitioned into normal space halfway to the inner system envelope boundary, half north of the planet and half south of the planet. The last twenty transitioned into normal space at the inner system envelope boundary, again with half north of the planet and half south of the planet.
"Hyperspace transition. Multiple contacts. Reading seventy-five contacts. Five groups. Bogey One is thirty-five contacts. Bogeys Two through Five are ten contacts each. Bogeys One, Two, and Four are zero mark ninety on the planet. Bogeys Three and Five are zero minus ninety on the planet. All Bogeys are making five gravities. Sir, Bogeys One, Two, and Three are well within the inner system envelope. Bogey One is firing."
The group of thirty-five CSF drones transitioned into normal space within their own firing range of the planet. The nine beam weapon drones among them began firing on and destroying every heavy cruiser in orbit, ignoring light cruisers and destroyers. The other four groups of ten CSF drones split up and went after every heavy cruiser on patrol. The survey drone spotted the targets and allocated beam weapon drones. The beam weapon drones transitioned to hyperspace, accelerated to the target's position in hyperspace, then transitioned into normal space and fired. There was no escaping them.
As the main group of thirty-five drones accelerated toward and around the planet, four of them separated from the group. Three headed directly for the planet, and one aimed at a space station orbiting the planet.
The space station was operated by the Brunswick Special Services, or BSS. It had ensured the continuation of the Brunswick regime through the threat of orbital kinetic bombardment of any resistance on the planet. The detached drone that targeted the space station was a warhead drone. It was aiming for the station's spatial coordinates, which were at its center of mass. The drone actually penetrated the station to its center before detonating its ten-megaton warhead inside the station.
The other three detached warheads were kinetic energy weapons. They headed for the capital complex on the surface of Brunswick.
The ground shook as if from an earthquake. Brunswick Foreign Minister Dwight Andrews looked up from his desk through the large picture window looking out over the capital to see the explosion where the palatial residence of the long-time President of Brunswick used to be. He saw the strike come in on the Parliament building, and had just enough time to think the President was in residence and the Parliament was in session before the windows blew in from the shock wave of the first strike, and left him laying in agony on the floor, impaled with dozens of shards of glass. His pain was short-lived, though, as the strike on the Foreign Ministry building came in seconds later.
The survey drones verified the destruc
tion of their target list was complete and sent out a signal to all the other drones in the system. As the signal reached them, they transitioned into hyperspace and headed for the next planet on their list.
Coronet
Sixty-one CSF drones hyperspace transitioned into the Coronet system. Five hunting parties of nine beam weapon drones plus a survey and command drone, and eleven kinetic and warhead drones. The other fourteen kinetic and warhead drones originally spacing in this group had been used in the group's previous three stops.
One hunting party dropped in right at the hyperspace-1 limit, within weapons range of the planet. It immediately began firing on heavy cruisers in orbit about the planet.
Four additional hunting parties transitioned into the northern and southern approaches to the planet and hunted down Coronet heavy cruisers spacing within the system. Chased them down in hyperspace, then transitioned and destroyed them.
Six of the kinetic and warhead drones accelerated towards the planet. The secret police enforcing President-for-Life Charles Morgan's regime maintained two main centers, one on each of the two largest continents. Barracks, shuttle pools, command and control functions, and the leadership of the organization were all centralized in these two locations, well away from population centers to make them easier to defend from the population. Each of these received a ten-megaton warhead drone.
Three kinetic energy drones hit the targets in the capital city of Jewel. One hit the Central Party Headquarters, where the leaders of Coronet's one political party were meeting. One hit the Foreign Ministry, where Horace Higgins, the Foreign Minister of Coronet, had just sat down to his desk. One hit the presidential palace, where the foreign ministers of Brunswick, Lautada, and Coronet had hatched their plan against the Commonwealth two years before.
The last kinetic energy drone hit the so-called winter palace, a sumptuous estate in the tropics of the planet, where His Most Supreme Excellency Charles Morgan, President-for-Life, had just sat down to mid-morning brunch.
Seeing their work complete, the drones all transitioned into hyperspace and left Coronet. One system to go.
Lautada
Fifty-five CSF drones hyperspace transitioned into the Lautada system. This was the last of the five planets on the list for this group of drones. They transitioned in as five hunting parties of ten, and a group of five drones for planet strikes.
Lautada positioned its warships differently than many other star systems when they were on patrol. Rather than patrolling the northern and southern approaches to the planet, they patrolled in split groups somewhat ahead and behind the planet, both north and south. This was known to the planners, and four of the hunting parties transitioned into Lautada close to these locations, plotted ship locations and vectors, chased down their targets in hyperspace, and transitioned and destroyed them.
The hunting party targeting ships in orbit began firing immediately on the heavy cruisers orbiting the planet on planet leave and restocking rotation. They also fired on four ships the Lautadan Civil Patrol kept patrolling for the suppression of insurrection on the planet.
One kinetic strike was to the Parliament where the House of Lords was in session, including the Foreign Minister of Lautada, Lord Jeremy Lecroix. Lautada had no House of Commons. One kinetic strike was to the Palace, the residence of His Royal Majesty, King Leopold FitzHugh McCarron. One kinetic strike was to the Foreign Ministry. And one kinetic strike was to the headquarters of the Lautadan Civil Patrol.
As this was the month His Royal Majesty normally spent on his sprawling estate, with a huge complex of buildings, the ten-megaton warhead drone was targeted over the center of the one hundred and sixty acres of buildings.
With their work done, the fifty remaining drones of this group transitioned into hyperspace and headed for Jablonka.
Status Report
The same pattern carried itself out across all twenty worlds who participated in the attack on the Commonwealth. After they finished their itineraries, the two hundred survey and beam weapon drones returned to Jablonka space.
They had been gone less than twenty-four hours.
The meeting at the Chairman's Residence on Jablonka included the Chairman of the Commonwealth Council, Miriam Desai, the Foreign Minister, Sally Howell, the Justice Minister, Frederick Harrigan, the Defense Minister, Richard Wong, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Jan Childers, her strategic planning head, Vice Admiral Tien Jessen, the Chief of Naval Research, Admiral Kurt Wisniewski, the head of the Intelligence Division, Admiral Jake Durand, and his chief of staff, Vice Admiral William Campbell.
Miriam Desai was the last to arrive in the conference room, from her office down the hall. She looked around the room as she took her seat.
"We all appear to be here. You may begin, Admiral Childers," Desai said.
"Thank you, Ma'am," Jan said, getting up from her chair and walking to the large display on the wall.
Jan presented the attacks on Waldheim, Parchman, and Kodu, showing system views, playing the conversations between the CSF planetary commander and the Outer Colony commander, and summarizing Outer Colony losses. She then presented the results of the CSF's attacks on what she called 'secondary targets,' the twenty systems who had participated in the attacks on the Commonwealth.
Jan also presented estimates of the Outer Colonies' total losses in the attacks: two hundred heavy cruisers, thirty-two light cruisers, and thirty-two destroyers, two hundred and eighty thousand naval personnel aboard those ships, and an uncounted number of personnel on the planets.
At that point Jan opened the floor for questions.
"Are your attacks on secondary targets ongoing, Admiral?" Desai asked.
"No, Ma'am. They're complete," Jan said.
"And the Kodu attack was three days ago?"
"Yes, Ma'am. The secondary attacks all took place within forty-eight hours of the Kodu attack."
"Remarkable. And we believe the attacks against us are over now?" Desai asked.
"I'll let Admiral Durand answer that question, Ma'am."
"Our intelligence was some three hundred of the Outer Colonies' warships went 'missing' in the weeks leading up to the attacks, Ma'am. We have a pretty good count on the naval strength of all the Outer Colonies, and there simply aren't enough ships unaccounted for to field a fourth task force of the magnitude we saw in these attacks," Durand said.
"Nevertheless, Admiral, you are maintaining our defenses?" Desai asked.
"Yes, Ma'am. Our defensive posture has remained constant throughout the secondary attacks and remains in place now," Jan answered.
"As to the secondary targets on the planet surface, can you summarize those for me, please?"
"Yes, Ma'am. We used kinetic energy weapons against the executive residence, the legislature, and the foreign office of all twenty planets. The idea was to decapitate the regimes that had decided to attack us, to clean out the decision-makers responsible. The sequence of attacks was designed to catch as many of these people as possible, so the attacks typically occurred with the executive in residence, the legislature meeting, and during the work day when the foreign office would be fully staffed. We believe we were about seventy-five to eighty percent successful in that effort. The survivors will surely keep their heads down after such a display.
"We also targeted the mechanisms of tyranny where we could isolate them. Space stations used to threaten orbital kinetic bombardment of their own people, secret police headquarters on the ground, that sort of thing. We wanted to give the people a chance to reform their own systems, or at the least to keep the despots too busy consolidating their control at home to be interested in giving us any further trouble."
"I notice you did not target military headquarters or infrastructure. Is that correct, Admiral?" Desai asked.
This had been Jan's most controversial decision in target selection, and her advisers and subordinates were by no means all in agreement with her. They had split pretty evenly on the issue.
"Yes, Ma'am. There
were two schools of thought there. The winning argument in my mind was that leaving the military structure in place was actually in our best interests for several reasons. First, once we deleted the heavy cruisers from their ship inventories, their light combatants do not by themselves pose a military threat to us. Second is that, where the civilian leadership has been successfully decapitated, the military will probably be in a position to install a junta government that will keep order and prevent the planets from falling into internal chaos and famine. Third is that leaving the planets without any intact defense forces opens them to predation by other Outer Colony governments. We considered a free-for-all war among the Outer Colonies not to be in our best interests, given our commerce and carrying trade with them. Finally, it was our analysis – or rather, Admiral Durand's analysis – that the attacks against us were coordinated by their executives and foreign offices, and their militaries were, for the most part, simply following orders."
Desai looked to Durand, who simply nodded.
"I see," Desai said.
Desai looked down at her notes. No one else said anything as she gathered her thoughts. She looked back up, directly at Jan Childers. Her eye strayed to Jan's decorations, and she briefly flashed an impish smile.
"This whole affair has been masterfully handled, Admiral Childers. I don't think there are any more decorations that will fit on that uniform of yours, and I see you already have all the good ones, usually more than once. But know this: you have my enduring gratitude and the gratitude of this nation, for your service now and in the past," Desai said.
Jan simply nodded. She was too overcome to say anything.
"And much the same goes for you, Admiral Durand," Desai said, turning her attention to the Intelligence Division chief. "Although there's a lot of acreage available on your uniform for decorations, you intelligence fellows eschew them anyway.
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