Henry nodded, relieved. The aliens had put up one hell of a wall of point defence, but the humans had kept their distance – and, as always, the aliens had switched to targeting the torpedoes as soon as they were launched. It had probably come very close to saving his life, more than once. He sighed as he took his seat and stared down at the deck, bitterly. Now he was no longer focused on keeping himself alive, he felt himself starting to think about Janelle again. What the hell was he going to tell her?
“Excuse me,” a voice said. Henry jerked upright to see the CAG just in front of him, his eyes dark with irritation. “Is there something, perchance, more interesting than me in the room?”
“No, sir,” Henry said. His thoughts might have wandered, but he knew the right answer. “I was just thinking ...”
“Thinking isn't doing,” the CAG snapped. “Which is fortunate, as otherwise we wouldn't get any work done at all.”
He gave Henry another glare, then moved his attention to the rest of the pilots. Henry couldn’t help wondering if the CAG knew who he was and what he'd done with the Admiral’s Flag Lieutenant. But there was no way to know, not now, He knew he’d been very lucky that no one had noticed him being escorted to the Admiral’s office or there would be countless rumours sweeping through the ship. Hell, if the rumourmongers realised that he’d been sleeping with the Admiral’s Flag Lieutenant, they’d have some truly awful rumours to spread. And if that happened ...
Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to concentrate on the CAG.
“You will remain in the ready room at all times,” the CAG said. “We expect the aliens to reinforce this system as quickly as possible. You will be responsible for covering our evacuation if the aliens arrived before we make our daring escape.”
Henry nodded in unison with the other pilots. It might have been aimed at him – non-pilots were not welcome in the ready room – or it might be nothing more than a wise precaution, but he couldn't deny that it
was
a wise precaution. The aliens could hop through the tramline from Target Two anytime they liked.
“No sleep in the machines, this time,” the CAG added. “Take a nap here, if you feel you need it, but don't leave this compartment. Or there will be murder done.”
He strode over to the corner and sat down, picking up a terminal and starting to flick through it listlessly. Henry eyed him for a long moment, then reached for a terminal of his own. He hadn't bothered to write any letters to his family – there was too great a chance of them being intercepted – or a log of his own. How could he when he had no expectations of privacy? But he would have liked to write a note to Janelle ... absently, he wondered if the Admiral had said anything to her. Did he care about her enough to try to protect her from harm?
It's the duty of a senior officer – or an aristocrat
, he remembered Duke Winchester saying, once.
You must protect your subordinates, because loyalty is a two-edged sword. If you are not loyal to them, they will not be loyal to you
.
He put the terminal down, cursing his life. If he wrote a message, it might be intercepted by the media; nothing, no matter how sensitive, was ever completely wiped from military datanets. The safest place to put a message, he'd been taught, was paper. Paper, at least, could be destroyed. But he didn't dare write anything when his fellow pilots might see it.
I'm sorry
, he thought, tiredly.
I’m so sorry
.
***
“It's good to see you, Admiral,” the Rhino said. “We're having a bit of a problem here.”
“So I see,” Ted said. He knew very little about fighting on the ground, but it looked alarmingly as though the aliens were winning. But then, they seemed to have infinite reinforcements within easy range. “I’ll enter orbit in five minutes. I suggest you start identifying targets for us.”
“Understood,” the Rhino said. “And thank you.”
Ted nodded, then looked over at Lopez as the connection broke. “Order the frigates to provide fire support to the forces on the ground,” he commanded. “Then call the transports and tell them to enter orbit and start recovering the troops ...”
There was a bleep from the sensor console. “Sir, we just picked up a message from the recon platforms,” Lopez said. “A large force just entered the system from Target Two. Force composition matches Force Two, with a handful of additions.”
Ted gritted his teeth. The aliens had clearly managed to get off a message before they’d been wiped out. Their old trick of hiding a courier boat near the tramlines seemed to have paid off for them once again. And they’d ensured that he didn't have time to evacuate the equipment along with the men on the ground.
“Understood,” he said. “Update the Rhino ... and tell him they’d better hurry. We may have to leave very quickly.”
“Aye, sir,” Lopez said.
Ted took a long breath. An idea was starting to work its way through his mind ...
... But would they have time to make it work?
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Get down!”
Charles threw himself to the ground as the alerts screamed in his ear. Moments later, the ground shook violently as the first KEW crashed down, only a kilometre from his position. He used his suit to burrow deeper into the ground as shockwaves passed over his head, then relaxed as stillness returned. When he pulled himself back to his feet, he found himself looking on a scene from hell.
“I think they got them,” Sergeant Jackson said.
“Yes,” Charles agreed. He’d been near KEW strikes before, but only one or two isolated weapons used to clear the way for his soldiers.
This
, on the other hand, was over a hundred projectiles, each one aimed at an alien vehicle or troop formation. The alien forces had been completely wrecked, while the vegetation had been flattened or set on fire. “I think they did.”
“All right,” the Rhino said. “The aliens have a large fleet inbound, so let’s try not to waste time. Case Omega is now in effect. Return to the base and prepare for immediate departure.”
Charles wasn’t surprised. Under Case Omega, the human troops would abandon most of their equipment on the ground, leaving certain weapons primed to fire at alien starships as they entered orbit. It wouldn’t take the aliens long to deal with them, but it might just buy the escaping humans some time. But if there was an alien fleet inbound, it was alarmingly likely that they would have real problems pulling
everyone
off the ground in time.
“Charles, you and your men are to return to the FOB,” the Rhino said. “You've been assigned a departure slot already.”
“Let's hope the computer works,” Charles said, as he turned to lead the way across the shattered countryside. The logistics computer was an American attempt to avoid having to bring a logistics section along with them, but early results had not been encouraging. Human logistics officers could be convinced that serving units really needed extra supplies; the computer, it seemed, was less capable of understanding mission requirements. “And that the aliens don’t try to impede our departure.”
***
“At current rate,” Lopez said, “they will enter engagement range in two hours, forty minutes.”
Ted nodded, very slowly. The aliens were pushing their drives as far as they could, as if they feared the human troops would lay waste to the planet after they left the surface behind. He couldn't deny that it was a tempting thought, but all the old arguments against mass genocide still held water. Besides, there might come a time when humanity and aliens could share the same worlds. There was no point in destroying a place that might one day include human settlers.
“Unfortunate,” he said. “How long will it take to load everyone on the transports and start running?”
“Roughly two hours,” Lopez said. She paused. “If the logistics computer can be trusted, that is.”
Ted scowled. Nothing went according to plan, not even the most careful plan devised by a hundred careful planners, who tried to account for every variable.
Something
always went wrong. A shuttle would develop drive problems, a team of soldiers would be caught out of place, the aliens would start firing on the shuttles with previously undetected antiaircraft weapons ... there were just too many possibilities. But they had no choice.
He worked his way through the problem, piece by piece. The aliens would catch up with the fleet and force a battle. That much was clear. Or the aliens would head towards Tramline One themselves and block his line of retreat. That would force
him
to fight a battle on their terms. It wasn't something that could be allowed. Or could it?
“Watch them carefully,” he ordered. “And see how they react.”
Time ticked by slowly as the first shuttles dropped down to the surface and returned, hauling a number of Marines back to the Marine Transports. Judging from some of the commentary, they were complaining loudly about being the first to leave, even though there was no time for any real complaints. Ted let out a private sigh of relief as the Royal Marines were returned to the transports, then placed in the queue for transfer back to
Ark Royal
. This time, if the aliens tried to board again, he would have reinforcements on hand to deal with the problem.
“It's proceeding smoothly, without interference,” Lopez said. “Do you think they’re letting us go?”
Ted shrugged. “I think they’ve reasoned that it would be easier to take us out in space rather than on the ground,” he said. “Or maybe their command and control networks were shattered by the bombardment and they're still putting them back together.”
He turned his gaze back to the alien fleet as the drones probed the outer edges of its formation, noting that it was definitely Force Two ... but with a handful of minor additions. Ted was privately relieved to see that, even though Force Two was far more powerful than he cared to face. At least it suggested the aliens couldn't produce a whole new fleet in time to be a factor in their escape.
There was a
ding
from the console. “Sir,” Lopez said, “they’re altering course.”
Ted nodded, unsurprised. The aliens had reasoned, correctly, that they couldn't prevent Ted from abandoning and destroying Target One, if he felt like it. Instead, they were putting themselves between Target One and Tramline One, as he’d anticipated. But he didn't feel any relief at watching the aliens keeping their distance. Instead, he knew he would have to force a battle on their terms.
“Tell the fleet to start making preparations to deploy mines,” he ordered. It had taken an hour to work out how to deploy the mines to best advantage ... and he knew it could fail easily. But the aliens would have no reason to expect it. “But we will hold position until the last of the troops have returned to their ships.”
He turned his attention to the display monitoring the situation on the ground, carefully
not
looking at the near-orbit or deep space displays. The Rhino hadn't sounded too keen on the idea of ordering an evacuation, but there was no choice, not really. And besides, they’d learnt a great deal about the aliens, captured tons of pieces of technology for the boffins to look at and forced the aliens to react to humanity for a change. The mission had been far from a complete waste of time.
“Admiral, Captain Junco sends his compliments and informs you that we now have fifty-two alien prisoners in his hold,” Lopez said, suddenly. “He wishes to know if you want to return them to the lifepods?”
“No,” Ted said. Quite apart from the danger of Force Two believing that the humans had rigged the lifepods to blow – a crime against humanity, according to international agreements the aliens hadn't signed – they’d taken the aliens captive now. “He is to hold them until we can arrange a transfer.”
He looked down at his console for a long moment, then back up at Lopez. “Have a platoon of Royal Marines dispatched to assist,” he added. “I don’t want any problems with the prisoners.”
“No, sir,” Lopez agreed.
***
“That's the last of the Marines off the mudball,” Farley reported. “The planet is deserted now, apart from the aliens.”
“Excellent,” James said. He looked up at the icons representing the alien starships, knowing that the Admiral would have no choice but to order an attack. “And our status?”
“We’re as ready as we will ever be,” the XO confirmed. “They’re just waiting for us there.”
James nodded. The aliens held all the cards – or so they thought. If the human ships charged their position, there would be a battle on alien terms. But if the human ships tried to evade, the aliens could just keep themselves between the human ships and the tramline ... or intercept if the humans tried to head for another tramline. For a moment, James contemplated trying to return to Target Two, but he knew it would be far too dangerous, not when they knew so little about alien-held space. Their best bet was to try to beat Force Two before it could tear them apart.
“Back into the fire,” he muttered. “But we’ve been in tight spots before.”
Amelia gave him a sharp look. “Anything as bad as this, sir?”
James smiled. “Last time, it was just us facing a bad-tempered alien battlecruiser,” he said. “This time ...”
“We’re facing an entire war fleet,” Amelia pointed out. “I think it’s a little different.”