Rumors of Honor (System States Rebellion Book 2) (19 page)

“Very
good. As soon as you’ve replenished your consumables, I’m going to send 1st
Fleet back to Hadley with orders for General Trojan to attack Sparta as soon as
possible. I think the enemy has rolled the dice on an all-or-nothing strategy,
and if we hit them fast, we can catch them defenseless and maybe put an end to
this Godawful war once and for all!”

Romanov
thought fast. “Do you think it might be a good idea to detach a few ships to
remain here in case the enemy tries again, Sir?”

“I’ll
take it under consideration, and I’ll let you know before your re-provisioning
is complete.”

“Understood,
Sir. I would also recommend that we try to recover or at least send people on
board the larger pieces of wreckage. We may be able to gain some valuable
intel.”

“Hmm.
Stand by while I see if that’s doable.” Romanov heard Chenko ask someone else
about that possibility. A few seconds later Chenko came back on the line. “No
can do, Commodore. Those large pieces are not only flying past Earth pretty
fast, but they’re also apparently tumbling pretty fast too. The engineers here
don’t think we’d be able to gain access to them. Anything else you want to ask
or bring up before I sign off?”

“No,
Sir. Thank you for your call, Admiral.”

“Tell
your people that I said they did well. Chenko out.”

*  
*   *   *

Drake
stood patiently beside the Com Tech and tried not to let the claustrophobic
atmosphere of the freighter’s small and now crowded Bridge get to him.
Eventually the Com Tech leaned back and took off his headphones.

“Jutland
has stopped transmitting, Sir. The last signal was the code for executing the
self-destruct.”

Drake
looked around and saw that the others were showing the same relief that he was
feeling. At this distance from Earth, they couldn’t be absolutely certain, but
it seemed as though the battle had gone about as well as could be expected.
Drake looked over to the freighter’s CO.

“You
can take us home now, Jack.”

That
generated a round of congratulations between Drake and the other cruiser
commanders who had joined him on the Bridge to monitor the battle. Drake’s
usual cautious optimism gradually surrendered to infectious enthusiasm. They
had pulled it off and not just the final battle near Earth. The raid on
Makassar had turned out well too. Thank God he had taken the flagship Oracle’s
recommendation to send only the armored cruisers down to within missile range
of Makassar’s industrial targets. Those fusion bomb pumped x-ray laser
satellites orbiting Makassar had come as a nasty surprise, but the thin layer of
collapsed matter protecting those five cruisers had absorbed most of the laser
energy, and damage had been minimal. He shuddered at the thought of what those
energy beams would have done to an unarmored ship. The existence of that type
of weapon was a valuable piece of intel for the Union. It was clear to him at
least that the FEDs were pursuing a different R&D strategy. P2 back on
Sparta would have to take that new tech into consideration on future
calculations.

Chapter Twelve:

Day
293/2546

Trojan
stepped out of the entrance to the Majestic Complex, as it was now known, and
took in a lung full of air. He couldn’t remember the last time he had breathed
natural air, and Romanov’s return was a good excuse to come up and remind
himself how good it smelled. Naturally it was raining, but he didn’t mind. The
overhang kept him dry, and the rain made the moist air smell clean, something
the air purifiers in the complex still couldn’t do.

He
watched the aircar gently touch down and Romanov get out. With the road and the
makeshift spaceport gone in order to help camouflage the existence and location
of the Complex, the movement of supplies and personnel now had to be done by
direct air transport to the Complex entrance.

Romanov
smiled as he saluted, and Trojan did the same. They had already spoken briefly
by radio when 1st Fleet was approaching Hadley, but Trojan felt a face to face
meeting was not only necessary but deserved. He extended his hand, and Romanov
shook it.

“Welcome
home, Ivan. I reviewed the battle after we talked. You handled it beautifully.
Textbook example of maximizing numerical and technological advantages.”

“Thank
you, Sir, but I can’t help feeling sorry for those poor buggers. They didn’t
stand a chance, and they had to have figured that out before they died.”

Trojan
let his smile evaporate as he nodded. “A lot of good people are going to die
before this damned war is over. Just remember, we’ll minimize how many die if
we stay on the path to our ultimate goal.” When it was clear that Romanov would
not respond to that, Trojan smiled again. “Let’s go down to my office and
discuss a few things over some vodka. I presume you brought some more with you
to replenish our dwindling stock?”

“Sure
did, General. It’ll arrive here soon.”

As
the two men entered the tunnel and got on the escalator, Trojan turned to
Romanov. “Who’s idea was it to detach four ships to remain on defensive
patrol?”

“Mine,
Sir.”

“Hm.
I doubt if it was necessary, but I’m sure it made the politicians feel safer.
Who’s in command of that task force?”

Romanov
grimaced. Trojan wasn’t going to like the answer. “Stevens.”

Trojan
shook his head. “Why am I not surprised? On the other hand, the Old Man can
keep a close eye on Stevens if the Union should attack again, so I suppose it
does make sense from the Old Man’s point of view.”

“Has
Majestic expressed an opinion yet on the Old Man’s orders to attack Sparta?”

Trojan
waited for the two of them to step off the escalator before replying. “As a
matter of fact, it has. It’s only giving a 61.8% probability that the attack
was a sincere attempt to overpower 1st Fleet and a surprisingly high 34.6%
probability that the attack was a deliberate sacrifice to entice us to do
exactly what the Old Man wants us to do. The remaining probability covers all
other possibilities. What do you think of that?”

“I’m
shocked that the machine would give that high a probability to the idea that
the Union would deliberately sacrifice 16 ship crews. Could they really be that
cold-blooded?”

Trojan
shrugged. “They might have asked for volunteers. Do we even know for sure that
there WERE crews on those ships?”

Romanov
thought that over carefully before answering. “Actually, we don’t know that for
sure. The wreckage was moving too fast and tumbling too fast to be able to get
our people aboard.”

“How
convenient for the SSU,” said Trojan. They said nothing more until both were
comfortably seated in Trojan’s spacious office with drinks in their hands.

“Makassar
got hit again,” said Trojan. “From the timing, it’s clear that the Union fleet
stopped there on their way to Earth. Whoever commanded that fleet had enough
smarts to limit the bombardment to his five armored ships. The lasersats worked
perfectly, but we don’t know how much damage, if any, they inflicted on those
ships. Based on what those ships did at Earth, I’d have to say not very much.”

“How
much damage did Makassar suffer?” asked Romanov after taking a sip of his
vodka.

“We’re
just about back to square one in terms of infrastructure. Casualties were light,
all things considered.”

“Just
about what Majestic expected. Chenko’s not going to like it.”

Trojan
smiled. “No, I expect he won’t, but it’s too late now for him to try to relieve
me of command. The troops here will back me if there’s a confrontation. Let’s
change the subject. I’ve decided that we’ll go ahead with the attack on
Sparta.”

After
a short pause, Romanov said, “They’re probably going to be ready for us, you
know. I hope you’re not going to order us to fight to the death no matter
what.”

“Oh,
they’ll be ready for us alright. That I’m sure of. And no, I’m not going to
expect you and your people to commit suicide. Here’s what I want you to do
instead.”

Day
343/2546

The
Flag Bridge on board Conqueror was dead quiet as 1st Fleet emerged from
hyper-space. The 3-D main tactical display quickly stabilized with what new
data was available, which right now was limited to astrogational data only. 1st
Fleet was using passive sensors, and so far there were no signs of any ships or
missile boats in orbit around Sparta. Romanov frowned. If Sparta was actively
scanning its surrounding space with microwave radar energy, his ships should
have detected it by now, but so far nothing. The lack of radar beams meant that
his ships wouldn’t be able to detect reflected microwave energy from missile
boats already in orbit around the planet, and that worried him. 1st Fleet was
still 300,000 kilometers further out beyond the hyper-zone boundary, which
itself was almost 5.4 million kilometers from the planet. Therefore the chances
of having missile boats close to his ships right now was very small, but the
lack of definitive information made him nervous. The Spartans were playing it
carefully, and that meant he had to as well. When three minutes had passed
since their arrival and still no sign of any ships or boats or even that the
Spartans were aware of their presence, Romanov decided to make his opening
move.

“Romanov
to Fleet. Begin 360 degree active scanning.”

The
display showed a rapidly expanding shell of radar energy around the green icon
representing 1st Fleet. The effective range of ship-borne radar was roughly 1.5
million kilometers or five light seconds. That was due to the fact that radar
arrays that were more powerful were also too large to be able structurally to
withstand the kinds of acceleration that a warship could generate. Prior to the
war, it hadn’t been considered a problem. Romanov made a mental note to himself
to recommend that the R&D boys try to come up with a solution for it now.
When enough time had passed for the shell of radar energy to reach the
effective limit and for reflected energy to return, it became apparent that
there were no ships or missile boats within a radius of 1.5 million kilometers.
His relief quickly turned into annoyance that he still didn’t know how strong
the planet’s mobile defenses were. Damn the Spartans for fighting in an
unconventional manner! He decided to wait a bit longer to see if there was any
response by the Spartans.

Spartan
Space Force HQ:

Janicot
heard the door to his makeshift bedroom open. Before the visitor could say
anything, he said, “Are they here?”

“Yes,
Sir. Twenty-four ships at approximately 5.7 megaklicks range. Velocity is less
than 100 kps, but we’re still narrowing that down as we get more data from the
optical bearings of the reflected sunlight.”

“Okay.
Tell Ops that I’ll be there shortly. Alert the ground crews, but nobody lifts
off until I say so, got it?”

“Got
it, Sir.” The officer left, and the room plunged back into darkness, but Janicot
was wide awake now. The FEDs had taken the bait, just as P2 had predicted. He
quickly got up, turned the light on, and made sure his rumpled uniform was
presentable. Once this battle was over, he could sleep in his own night clothes
in his own bed again instead of using this temporary room at HQ. Satisfied that
he wouldn’t embarrass himself with his appearance, he left the room and was
soon in the large Operations Center. The Duty Officer saw him enter and
approached him.

“No
change so far, Admiral. We’re updating Commodore Palmgren with the enemy’s
position. The Secretary For Defense and the Chancellor have been notified and
are headed for the Emergency Command Post. P2 is standing by to assume tactical
command.”

Janicot
thanked him and put on the headset the officer had offered him. He could use
that to communicate with all ground and orbiting forces instantly if necessary.

“CSO
to Task Force Leader,” said Janicot in what he hoped was a calm voice.

“Task
Force Leader here, Admiral. All boats are ready to lift off,” said Drake.