Ground Control, page 6
“Resupply?” Veronika asked. “We’re not hitting a forward depot?”
“No,” Heather said simply. “I’ll be scouting those some while you are gone. Your job is to scout a series of Zerzan worlds on their rimward frontier.”
“We got the food and fuel to make it there and back in one go?” Veronika asked, already running the numbers in her head.
“We’ll load Yong Hao to the rafters,” Saša said. “Same with Hui Di and especially everything we can load onto Jiao Joy, our supply freighter. Still gonna be tight, so that will limit our ability to stay on station.”
“What about piracy?” Veronika asked, unprepared when Heather turned to Saša and smirked.
“Told you so,” the Warlord offered.
“You did,” Rocket Frog acknowledged, then turned to Veronika. “Extra marines means extra mouths eating our food. Not sure what we’ll find out there, so we’re just going to scout our primary target for Heather, then look at who we can hit down the line to set all their alarm bells to ringing. I promise you that we’ll figure out a way to bring along a troop transport next time.”
“Second Supply Freighter, converted?” Veronika asked.
“Something,” Saša nodded. “Probably end up having to steal something from Zerzan, then throw a bunch of engineers and welders at it, because we’re going to be out in the field for maybe a year on this one, if we do it right.”
“A year?” Veronika asked, aghast. “Can we do that?”
“Left everything behind that wasn’t Expeditionary,” Heather said. “Bringing Able and Baker, then I have sent home orders for Kyulle and the other five to start shipping food and materials forward on any hull they can manage. We’ll run them in convoys, using that to occasionally strip off an escort before sending the others home to further build up forces in the gap.”
“Hell of a way to build up a big fleet out here,” Veronika noted.
“And I’ll need it,” Heather grimaced. “At some point, we’ll have to engage with one or more Overlords. Maybe that entire fleet returned for another try. That’s what I’ll be scouting while you distract them in their own interior.”
“Can we actually stop something like that in a pitched battle?” Veronika asked.
“I’ve tasked Alber’ d’Maine and Morninghawk to figure out how to do it,” Heather nodded. “If they can’t find a way, it can’t be done.”
Veronika would have to agree there. Two of the most aggressive, dangerous commanders she’d ever met. Grandfather still spoke approvingly of d’Maine. And he would like Morninghawk, if they were ever together.
“What do you need from me?” Veronika asked.
Saša pulled out a tablet and fired it up.
“Here’s what we know…”
Chapter 12
Balhee Cluster Heavy Destroyer Stormhawk, DeepSpace
Makara would have liked to have gone with Griever, but he understood that Heather needed him more. Heavy Escort, on the van, leading them in.
Closest to the enemy forces.
Morninghawk.
And he really missed having Samnang with him, for her patient brilliance and calm certainty.
Because he needed to do something crazy.
Worthy of the epics that would no doubt be written about this.
Heather Lau, Book Two, perhaps, where Book One was really Heather and Phil and the Pirates.
Here, she was Ground Control, save that they were in deep space.
He watched the airlock finally finish pressurizing and open with the usual beeps. He’d been doing this for thirty years at this point, the last seven of them with Phil and then Heather.
The man who entered was something of a stranger, but still a legend that Makara felt like he understood at a fundamental level.
Alber’ d’Maine. Former Command Centurion. Currently a Test Pilot for Bedrov, acting as Tactical Officer on Tuloong, as well as occasional Admiral of the White when Heather needed him.
In person, short and muscular. Heavy iron workouts and the right diet, in spite of being near sixty these days.
And a killer.
Bedrov had mentioned quietly that d’Maine heard a goddess of war whispering in his ear occasionally. Not Athena. She commanded from Shanhai Pass. One of the lesser-known ones. No lesser, though.
“Permission to come aboard?” d’Maine asked from the far side of that line.
“Granted and welcome,” Morninghawk replied. “Come, I have a conference room prepared.”
They ended up in one of his working spaces. Adequate, with access to projectors and screens as needed. Coffee. Pastries. d’Maine suffered it in polite silence, but Makara understood.
“Heather needs to kill an Overlord,” Makara said simply, skipping all the bullshit small talk that only got in the way with a man like d’Maine.
“And survive,” Alber’ nodded.
“There is always that,” Makara nodded.
He didn’t need to defend himself as a warrior with d’Maine. Few could say that.
“They know how far a Type-4 can hit?” d’Maine asked.
“Reasonably,” Makara acknowledged. “We’ve used them enough times. The rest is physics.”
“Bubble Guns are shorter range,” the warrior nodded. “Light Plasma Cannon goes a little farther, but not that much. And those are a surprise.”
“What is the actual range of a Type-4, if we decided to push?” Makara asked.
He was not prepared for the smile on the man’s face.
“Stupid long, if you sacrificed beam coherence for range,” d’Maine said. “But then you lose killing power in close. Not necessarily a downside with Zerzan, since they don’t have anything in the middle range between carriers and aeromechia. Might present a problem against stations, but those don’t move.”
Then d’Maine darkened. It was a cruel thing, even to Makara’s eyes.
“Yes?” he asked.
“Expeditionary logic,” Alber’ nodded. “We used to use all sorts of other things, back before the smart folks hired Bedrov to invent the future. Wondering if we need to reach back two generations.”
“What do you have?” Makara asked.
He’d heard whispers of futuristic superweapons developed by the infamous Lady Moirrey, as well as Yan and the retired Pops Nakamura. And those three had personally killed a god, so he was happy to listen.
“We used to use a kind of heavy weapon called a Primary beam,” d’Maine offered. “One shot, cartridge kind of weapon, so you were limited by your supply chain. Same as the drone missiles we used to use up by the shipping container. Bedrov made us transition entirely to beam weapons. Greatly simplified our ability to stay in the field. Lots of automation as well.”
“What was a Primary?” Makara asked, intrigued.
zu Wachturm had mentioned them in the early parts of Jessica’s history, but not gone into any great detail, because everybody knew what they were before they had been rendered obsolete.
Or had they?
“Take a Type-3 beam,” d’Maine explained. “Cut out a lot of safety interlocks to let you pump too much energy into the capacitors. Then fire everything all at once. First time, a pirate who was desperate tried it and the explosion blew out the entire weapon mount, killing the crew. At the same time, it punched a hole in a police destroyer trying to arrest them.”
Makara considered that amount of power.
“Somebody figured out how to build the thing to detonate a small nuclear explosive, then focus all the energy into a beam in that instant when it went off. Still destroyed the shell, but the ships were built to fire them like old-fashioned bullets, ejecting the burned-out remains and loading the next one. Those things took up a lot of space on a ship. Removing them eventually opened volume to mount a Type-4 instead.”
“After you melted Shivaji,” Makara noted.
“It worked,” d’Maine shrugged. “And we learned what was needed to build the Terrible Twins, VI Ferrata and VI Victrix.”
“Could we build them here?” Makara asked.
“I’d take a Titan Bolt and work from there,” d’Maine said. “Pretty sure that the Scholars of Yaumgan have something they could adapt, if you went deep into their files. I’m given to understand that they did a lot of weapons research, but didn’t deploy most of it because they were already ahead of everyone else and didn’t want certain secrets getting out.”
“What’s that get us?” Makara asked.
“Lemme ask the expert,” Alber’ replied.
Makara watched him work the controls of a comm for a few moments, then Yan Bedrov’s face appeared in the projection, staring back at them for a long moment.
“I already don’t like it,” Yan said simply.
Alber’ laughed out loud.
“I can always call Frog instead and ask her to build it for me,” he replied.
“Didn’t say I wouldn’t do it,” Yan challenged. “What stupid shit have you two come up with this time?”
“Take something native to the Cluster and build me an updated Primary beam,” d’Maine offered.
“Titan Bolts,” Yan said automatically. “Maybe take the power capacitors from a Power Tap. Why?”
“I need to kill Overlords at surprise range,” Makara offered. “They know what the Type-4 can do. I’d like to frighten them.”
Yan’s eyes narrowed.
“I’d say you’ve spent too much time around d’Maine,” he replied. “But I also know Kigali too well. How soon until you need this?”
“You expecting the war to be over tomorrow?” Makara challenged the man. “Heather needs us to hurt Overlords. The aeromechia are a swarm of killing wasps, but only if they can catch us. If we kill their carrier, they become greatly reduced in their overall threat.”
“Frog’s going forward with Griever,” Yan said, seemingly turning to look at Alber’ now. “I’m commanding a warship in service. That limits my free time to do this, unless you want to step back up and take both jobs.”
“You still handle it in battle itself so I’m clean on Tactical?” d’Maine asked.
“Easy enough,” Yan nodded.
“Then I’ll wear both hats and you’ll wear two,” Alber’ acknowledged. “You need to send a note back to someone in Yaumgan with the next supply run, to see if they already have something designed. And to get ready to build whatever you come up with.”
“New hull is a year and a half out,” Yan challenged next.
“Build them as sister ships to Stormhawk,” Makara challenged back. “That’s an excess of power already built in, plus the heavy centerline mounting you probably need, even if it turned out to be a turret of some sort.”
“Long range sniper needs a turret,” Yan pointed out. “You point your bow at someone and they’ll go defensive in a hurry.”
“That’s already a win,” Morninghawk snapped. “Thuringwell.”
He felt d’Maine’s nod beside him. Sneak up on Fleet Carriers and damage them badly from surprise. Force the enemy commander to recoil and recalibrate everything.
Win half the battle right there, like d’Maine and Shivaji had done that day against Fribourg.
“History does not repeat itself,” Yan growled.
“No, but it does rhyme,” Morninghawk growled back. “Heather has to kill fifteen Overlords eventually. If she has to chew her way through fifteen thousand aeromechia, she loses. If they stay back out of range of my lance, that forces them to waste time on sailing close, since their wasps can’t jump.”
“That’s why I built the damned Gunships in the first place,” Yan said. “You folks need to remember that the Lights have enough firepower to be a threat, even if I built them to kill aeromechia. Go shark on the carriers. Now, anything else, or can I get to work?”
“That’s it for now,” d’Maine said. “We’ll chat when I get back to the ship.”
And Yan was gone.
“He’s right, you know,” Makara pointed out. “The Light Gunships could also threaten the carriers. And do it like Buran used to. Maybe they don’t have the firepower of the Heavy Wing, but aren’t we trying to scare the hell out of the Overlords?”
“You scare their commanders,” d’Maine countered. “They hold back aeromechia to protect themselves as close cover. That weakens their assault formation.”
“And?”
“And we still don’t have enough firepower to hold off even the smaller forces, if it comes down to a clash of the titans,” Alber’ said.
“We’ll find a way,” Makara said simply. “Heather’s counting on us.”
They shared a nod.
It had to be something elegant.
Zerzan already had a hammer big enough to do the job, if they could land a blow.
Morninghawk needed to prevent that from happening.
Chapter 13
Date of the Republic February 24, 417 EM Shanhai Pass, Deep Space
Heather was in her office, with Iron Spear seated across from her and Yan next to him. The pilot wasn’t uncomfortable, but a bit awkward as Bedrov finished his explanation.
“What are the odds that the Overlord has enough defensive firepower to matter, when we get up in his face?” Iron Spear asked bluntly. “Our job is to protect the Warlord, with Griever gone. Can’t do that if I’m dead.”
Yan started to speak but Heather cut him off and opened the comm.
“Donatien, could you join us?” she asked.
He’d written it down. Iron Spear was just having that moment of pushback you got from top pilots.
The hatch opened and Donatien strode in.
“Yes?” he asked simply, standing just inside.
“How many guns and what rating does an Overlord have?” she asked bluntly.
“Eight Type-2 equivalent,” he replied without opinion. “Three down each flank, plus one dorsal front and ventral aft.”
“Type-2 equivalent,” Heather said. “Not even the Pulse-Two, because we invented that and they haven’t refit their entire fleet yet. The aeromechia continues to be their be-all, end-all expression of power.”
“What happens if we do kill one, then?” Iron Spear pressed. “That’s two thousand crew and pilots dead or starving.”
“They get a chance to surrender,” Heather said. “Or die for their fanaticism. Makes me no difference at the end of the day.”
“Understood, sir,” Iron Spear nodded. “Beyond usual, juvenile fantasies, this isn’t something we’ve really trained on.”
“Start now,” she told him. “Yan, you go with him and start some sort of training program with Ainsley. I want them ready when I am.”
Both men rose and departed. Instead of joining them, Donatien slipped off to one side, watching her.
“You look like hell,” he offered when the hatch closed and they were alone.
Heather shrugged.
“Too many problems,” she said. “Not enough hours in the day.”
“You could take some downtime,” he offered. “Not like you don’t have a lot of senior commanders around you to carry the load.”
“I couldn’t do this much without you handling everything you have,” she said.
He nodded and moved to the seat Yan had left.
“They won’t be prepared for a wave of Light Gunships suddenly taking advantage of their JumpSails,” he offered. “I wouldn’t be, and I am a better commander than Bellamy is. More fluid, even then. He’ll fail once badly. After that, I can game out a set of defensive measures he’d likely take. Been talking with Bedrov and d’Maine on it in broad details. What will you do when you find them?”
“In the old days, we had scouts that would drop out at the edge of a solar system and listen for signals intelligence,” Heather said. “My job, when I was Executive Officer on CS-405 with Phil. Scouts. Nobody builds them in the Cluster, and I didn’t want to take the only one Raizō Tanaka had at Kyulle, because he needed to scout the interior a lot harder than I need it out here.”
“Who do you send without the Heavies?” he asked next. “Griever has the scout with her.”
“Probably Morninghawk,” she smiled. “He wants to be closest, after all. Best way to do it. And they are more used to thinking like pirates than most of my people are.”
“Then we go for broke?” Donatien asked.
“The first run will be just like Jessica Keller used to do it, in the First Expeditionary days,” she nodded, feeling some of the stress slide off her shoulders. “Come out at high speed, hammering anything that moves, biggest to smallest, to do the most damage before the sharks could react. They were semi-Sentient warships, with the brains turned down to something like sleep when they weren’t needed. We caught one that way and got a hard kill before it could blow itself up. And I’ve got the people I need to replicate that here.”
“And you’ll use Iron Spear second time around?” he asked. “Or defensively if they catch you somewhere? I could see them deploying everything and charging. Amable is like that. Then you rush him from a short hop and hurt him. Do those two battles succeed in forcing him back?”
“Unlikely,” she shook her head. “I’m counting on Griever to do that. How many Overlords does Zerzan have?”
“A chunk more than one hundred but less than one-fifty,” he said. “Past that, I can’t really say, though it will be close to that number. We never needed more than that, to sustain Unification on restive worlds while expanding to new ones.”
“And how many worlds?”
She knew. This was to get his thinking in the right place. The Zerzan place.
“Over two thousand,” he nodded. “They will panic after you start hitting soft places. That withdraws Bellamy’s invasion?”
“It will take time for that message to reach him,” she said. “That line of communication is longer than mine to Kyulle. He might push forward and hurt us before he can be withdrawn. And he might decide that he’s been successful enough to hold forward, in spite of being recalled. Tough to say.”
“Agreed,” he nodded. “I can offer educated guesses, but there are limits.”
