He looked at the icons on the surface of objects that were not visible on the visual. Twenty brigades of portable shore defense artillery, to augment the more permanent type of emplacements. All to shoot down objects that might threaten the planet.
Next he moved out to the units close to the planet. The forts and docks, just like what would be around any industrialized world. They too were perfect. Augustine I was sitting at her station, a hundred thousand kilometers out from the planet. Her consorts sat there with her, and the ships of the Imperial Protection Squadron sat nearby. The squadron consisted of a battleship, two battle cruisers, seven cruisers, three heavy and four light, and eight destroyers. They always went where the Emperor did. Or at least they had before the development of wormhole travel. Now they were superfluous, and Sean was thinking of disbanding the formation so the ships could be used elsewhere. But the knowledge of their existence was a great help to the deception plan, and so at this place and time they were still useful.
He scanned the entire system, looking at each group of assets, using their flagships to actually look at the ships in the units. It was an impressive display of power, and most of it a lie, what could be seen from space. He looked at the units out beyond the hyper barrier. Most of these were hidden from sight, he could only see them by the icons generated by their transponders. The view from each wormhole com equipped ship was still fantastic.
God, but I hope this goes off as planned, he thought as he dismissed the display, and was no longer standing overlooking the entire Universe. The room was again a thirty meter square by twenty meter high chamber. The trio of chairs in the center of the room was now visible, no longer hidden by the holographic projection.
Sean wondered if the other great commanders of history had felt this way before a battle. Caesar, Charlemagne, Nelson, von Manstein, Constance. Who the hell am I fooling. I’m not even in the same league with any of those luminaries. I would have to be an arrogant fool to believe that.
He dropped his doubts at the hatch and assumed his best look of total confidence, reminding himself that it was a skill that all great military commanders possessed. If it was the only talent he possessed, it would have to be enough. At least I don’t have to worry about snipers taking potshots at me from the rigging of the enemy ships, he thought. He exited the chamber and walked as if he hadn’t a care in the world, his Marines guards falling in around him.
* * *
PLANET CONGREEVE IV.
Father Matias Josue sat with his flock around their night fire, looking at the sky. The lights of several stations were visible in that sky, though the priest knew there were also objects out there that he couldn’t see. And they’re putting at risk all my work here, and the lives of these people.
He had become close to these people, and those of many other of the neighboring tribes. They were still hunter gatherers, though with work they could become first farmers, and then city dwellers. Eventually, they would rise to the level of technological civilization, and join the community of the Empire, if one still existed. And if it fell, they would still survive, though as slaves to the Ca’cadasans. He was enough of a realist to know that was not a desirable conclusion, but still better than having the surface of their world left lifeless by relativistic missile strikes.
He looked out over the plains, to lights in the distance, what was made to look like a city, even though there were no buildings, no roads, just lights. He looked back at the tribesmen, all individuals, no two having the exact same body plan. Yet still one people.
“What bothers the Father tonight?” he was asked by the one who was the titular chief of the tribe. Not that it gave him any power over the others. The other hunters followed him because he was the best in the hunt. As soon as he aged to the point where that was no longer true, he would no longer be the chief.
A much more practical system than we have, thought the Priest, putting down his plate of rations. At first, the natives had been distrustful when he wouldn’t eat their food. Even with his nanites, the fungus based meat was deadly. He had taken the time to earn their trust in other ways, sharing hardships with them, engaging in the hunt. “I am worried,” he responded in their language, the learning of which was a task that had taken considerable work. “You know that tomorrow my people will engage in a battle.”
The chief gave a hand raise of agreement, though the Priest was still not sure he understood the concept of war. The Fungoids did not war on each other. They compromised, unless that was impossible. Then they had champions fight in a bloodless test of strength and will, to the victor going the disputed territory.
“It troubles me chief, because one of their weapons might destroy this world,” continued the Priest.
“They are that powerful?” said the Chief in a tone of frightened awe.
“They are that powerful,” agreed the Priest. “They would not mean to do that.” Neither side, as far as he knew. “But it can still happen.”
The chief stood up on his three mismatched legs and moved with surprising agility to the center of the circle, waving his spear/staff in the air. “My brothers,” he said, shouting out to the other thirty odd members of the tribe. “We must pray that we survive the coming day. We must pray to the Gods, and to the God of the aliens. We must call upon their mercy. And we must ask for a victory for our friends.”
The Chief looked out over the plain, toward the lights of the faux city. “And we must turn off the lights that show in the night, so they may hide our planet from those who fight in the space the Father has told us about.”
“No,” said Josue, standing up and running into the center of the circle. “You must not go and turn off the lights,” he yelled. “My people will not let you do that.”
“Then we will make them,” yelled the Chief, waving his spear. “We are the People, and we will make the intruders on our world leave, if we must.”
“Stop. You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“They took away the Big Rock Tribe,” said one of the hunters. “One day they were there, the next, nowhere to be found. What happened to them?”
This is getting bad, thought the Priest, wondering if there was anything he could do to stop them. Short of pulling a weapon on them and threatening them, he couldn’t think of anything.
“Wait. My people have mighty weapons. You will put yourself in danger if you pursue this in this way. You need to meet with them. Talk with them.”
“And what good has that done us in the past?” yelled another hunter. “They have come and taken our land from us, without asking. We must drive them from our land, before it is too late.”
“Please,” yelled the Priest.
“And he is one of them. He tells them what we do.” The hunter started toward the Priest, holding his spear at waist level, the tip pointing at the human.
The Priest looked at the native, one he knew to be one of the more volatile of the tribe. If any could commit murder, this was the one. And the human was totally unarmed, not even a mag pistol on him. He was a man of peace, and there hadn’t seemed to be a threat before this.
“Stop,” yelled the chief, and the native halted in his tracks. “The Father is not our enemy. He has done what he could to stop his people from taking from us what is ours. He is not to be harmed.”
Josue breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t sure how he would have fared against the powerful aborigine. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t have fared well.
“Tie him up,” said the chief, pointing at the Priest. “He must be kept out of this.”
Josue started to protest, but the natives were on him before he could move, pulling him to the ground. They produced ropes and tied him securely, as only hunter gatherers could do.
“We must go and rouse the other tribes,” yelled the Chief, pointing to a small group of hunters. “Run, and tell the River Tribes, and the Green Mountain Tribe, what we are doing. Tell them to meet us at the lights. We will turn them off.”
The natives ran off i
nto the night, while the Chief continued to rouse his tribe to a fever pitch. They’re like children, thought the Priest, trying to think of something to say. They don’t know what they’re doing, or the risk they’re taking.
After some hours the Chief led the rest of his tribe into the night, the Priest yelling after them, still trying to stop them with reason. He continued yelling long after they had disappeared into the darkness.
* * *
“We have a situation down here, Admiral,” came a call over the com.
What the hell now, thought Rear Admiral Adrijana Miroslav. She had been having trouble sleeping anyway, what with the worry of the coming operation. Even with the conscious control of her reticular activating system that all humans possessed, sleep was not coming easily this night. And then, when it had finally come, this. “What the hell is going on down there?”
“Something stirred up the natives, ma’am. They’re tearing up our lighting systems at site A Four.”
“What stirred them up?”
“I have no idea, ma’am. What do you want us to do?”
I’m really glad I left orders for them to call me before doing anything about the natives, she thought as she went over her options in her head. Otherwise, we could have a real bloodbath down there. And I’m sure the Emperor would not be pleased if we started killing the most unusual sentients in the Empire.
“Look, Major Smirnov,” she said, calling up the image of the Marine on the holo on her nightstand. “Do not do anything to hurt those natives.”
“Then what am I supposed to do? Let then turn off one of our decoy cities.”
Miroslav shook her head. She doubted that they would be able to do that much in the day or so they would have before the attack came. “Put some men in battle armor and herd them away,” she finally said.
“And if they attack my men?”
“Look, Major. If they can hurt your men in battle armor with spears, I guess we need a new contractor to build our suits. Just get a couple of hundred men out there, surround them, show them they can’t hurt you, no matter what, and move them away from the area. What’s so difficult about that?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll get right on it.”
We never tested sonics on the Fungoids, or any kind of chemical agents. So we really don’t know what will happen. My luck, a low level sonic stunner would kill them.
“One last thing, Major. Make sure that none of them get hurt, much less killed. If any harm comes to them, I’ll have your ass. Understand?”
“Yes, ma’am,” said the officer with a tremor in his voice. The holo went dead.
What a fucking nightmare, thought the Admiral, thinking about trying to sleep, then deciding against it. I need to get down there and supervise. Hell, it’s only a half hour drop to get to that area. We should have picked a different system, but the ice age looked so good, on paper. The way it would highlight the heat and light signature. But we never figured on recalcitrant natives, selfish trillionaires, or the Goddam Church.
“I need a shuttle for my personal use,” she said over her com. “Immediately.” She got out of bed and pulled on her clothing, at the last moment belting on her sidearm. She didn’t expect to use it, but it never hurt to have it.
* * *
“Welcome aboard, Archduke Marconi,” said Sean, grasping the hand of one of the leaders of the Lords’ opposition. “And how was your trip?”
“Truth be told, I’m still having some trouble getting used to wormhole travel, your Majesty,” said the Archduke. “That feeling when I step through, disorienting, to say the least.”
Sean nodded. That had been the major complaint to wormhole travel. The feeling that one was stretched across infinite time and space, even though by all measures it was as near to instantaneous as possible.
“I am so happy that you decided to come out here and observe our little operation,” said Sean, meaning every word, while hoping that the operation did go off as smoothly as he hoped. This man can do a great deal toward getting the opposition on my side, he thought. “Let me show you to the war room, and then I’ll assign a senior officer to give you a tour of this ship.”
“I know you have more important things to do, your Majesty, with a battle coming up tomorrow. A junior officer would be fine, to both show me the ship and explain the operation.”
And getting you on my side is the next most important, well, maybe third most, of this whole exercise, thought Sean, leading the Lord toward the larger than normal flag bridge called the War Room.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Marconi, marveling at the hundreds of stations in multiple rows along both sides of the huge chamber. “What are all of these stations for, if I might ask?”
“For command and control,” said Kelso, walking up and standing beside the Lord. “We have to have tight control over some of our units if we want to pull this off.”
Sean activated the holo, which started showing a graphical representation of the plan. It was sped up ten-fold, and still took over an hour to roll through the entire thing.
“My god,” exclaimed the Lord after the presentation. “I have never seen anything like it.” He turned toward the Emperor, the question on his face. “But, I thought you military types liked to keep it simple, to reduce confusion.”
“Normally, that would be true,” said Sean, looking back at the holo that showed his force victorious, which seemed like wishful thinking at the moment. “We prefer to just go after the enemy and slug it out. Keeping it simple, as you say. But we really can’t afford to slug it out with this enemy. We’ll still get into a furball, but hopefully with all the advantages on our side.”
“Well, if it works, you and your staff will go down in history as military geniuses. But if it fails?”
Then we’re the goats of all time, thought Sean. If there’s anyone around to even remember us. Maybe it will go down in the Caca history books. Not really what I’m looking for, but a distinct possibility.
“You are welcome to watch the action from this chamber, my Lord,” said Kelso, gesturing to the VIP seats arranged around the one end of the holo. “This is the best protected part of the ship. You should be safe here, my Lord.”
“Unless your plan goes to shit,” said the Archduke with a wan smile. “Then there is no place safe enough.”
And that’s God’s own truth, thought the Emperor, trying to keep up the facade of the confident Monarch. And then there will be no place safe in the Empire.
Chapter Twenty-Two
CONGREEVE SYSTEM. NOVEMBER 18TH, 1001.
Sean was once again in the observation and control chamber, the view of the system again giving him a Godlike feeling. Only this time it was real, every system was live, and his anchor was sitting with him.
“You’re sure I won’t be too much of a distraction?” asked Jennifer, her eyes wide as she looked over the holo presentation that seemed to put her in the middle of space.
“You are my balance, honey,” he said, reaching out a hand and taking hers. “Now watch, and try not to worry. We’ve got this.” The day of battle has arrived, and this day will determine if I have an Empire to leave to our children, or not.
With a thought he changed the holo to a tactical representation that showed all of the visible forces, as well as every major asteroid in the belt, every planet and moon, every large iceball in the Kuiper Belt and Ort Cloud. Also on that tactical were the icons of the enemy fleet, head on, looking like a tsunami on its way to drown those it didn’t crush beneath it.
He felt Jennifer tense up, her hand tightening on his. “My God,” she said, staring at the icons. “Are we going to be able to beat that? It’s just too massive. We can’t stop that, can we?”
“Listen to me,” he said, reaching over and putting his hand on her face, turning her head his way. “We will beat them. You and me, and all of these people around us. We will beat them. Do you believe me?”
She nodded her head, unable to speak. But still able to let
him know her feelings.
I shouldn’t have brought her along, no matter how much she argued. I would have rather have had her break up with me, as long as she had remained safe at home. But it was too late for that. He could still send her through a wormhole back to the Donut. There were plenty of passenger gates in the system, brought in for this operation. But I need her now. Someone who believes in me.
He changed the perspective on the holo, a top down view of the system, and several light months out to the deeps of space. His scouts were doing a good job, sitting out there and sending their information through their wormholes. He could see the entire enemy fleet laid out, or at least what they thought, based on tracking the confusion of several thousand hyperdrive tracks. They’re going to send in a scout force first, just like we thought. And hopefully they’ll see what we want them to see.
“Your Majesty,” came a voice out of the air, the com that he had ordered piped into the chamber so Jennifer could hear what was going on. “We estimate they will be at the hyper I barrier in a little under four hours. Carrier Task Forces Four and Five are requesting permission to launch.”
“The mission is a go,” said Sean, looking at those enemy ships coming in. “All units. This is the Emperor. Mission is a go. All units with early fire missions are released to fire, as soon as the mission profile calls for it. Repeat, mission is a go.”
He changed the holo again, zooming in on the carrier task forces that were stationed well outside the system. Icons were appearing near them, hundreds of them. He reached out and tapped the icon of one of the carriers, and the view switched to a new vid, showing a fleet carrier of an unusual design, the large hyperdrive projectors top and bottom indicating a VII ship.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 06 - The Day of Battle Page 30