Kelly Blake 3: Where the Stars Are Few and Far Between (25 page)

As she finished thinking through the plan, Colonel Maxwell called and asked for her input. She laid out her plan as she had just formulated it, and he approved it. Mary went back to her office and wrote it up. She called up the scout ship recon images and looked for places to land a dozen AS-500s that would facilitate their attack. She also needed to plot out the targets for the bombardment frigates. Nine hours later, she and her staff were exhausted, but the plan was complete. She sent it out to the battalions’ operations officers for their supporting plans, then turned in and was asleep almost instantly.

* * * * *

Kelly ordered a turn to starboard to enter K’Rang space. He ordered weapons to create a large hole in the K’Rang border mines and sensors. The disruptor guns made short work of the frontier barrier, which was less robust than its counterpart on the GR-K’Rang frontier, and they passed through. Kelly steered perpendicular to the border for an hour, and then turned parallel to it and set course for the ship construction planet. Lenkva provided some recon images of the planet, which sensors converted to be viewable on GR systems.

The images showed four space docks and a large ground support facility, including a spaceport and a space defense facility. The ground support facility appeared to be fabricating hull sections, which were loaded onto special cradle ships and carried up to the spacedock for integration into the hulls of ships under construction. There were also factory type buildings, probably producing internal ship components. Several cargo shuttles were parked at their loading doors.

The four spacedocks were dedicated to a specific class of ships. One produced cruisers, one destroyers, and one frigates. The fourth produced support ships for each class. Kelly thought it was a very efficient system.

The spacedocks were a standard K’Rang design. They were circular, with a central hub and five arms. Each arm held a ship in various stages of completion. Tractor beams held or moved hull segments around as efficient robot welders joined and sealed the seams. The central hub of the station appeared to contain internal components put into place after the hulls were airtight. A large hatch on the lower part of the hub supported cargo shuttle deliveries from the surface.

The space defense system was an older system and probably wouldn’t be able to detect the Orion. Kelly would take it out anyway. It might not have a problem detecting the Angaerry ships.

Kelly planned to attack the cruiser and destroyer spacedocks first. He would fire six missiles, one at each ship under construction, then two missiles at the station hubs. He would move around the planet and do the same to the frigate and support ship spacedocks. Then he would concentrate on the hull section construction facility, the spaceport, and the component construction factories.

As they approached closer to the stolen worlds, he searched out and destroyed their FTL comms hubs, finding four and disintegrating them with his guns. He also added all satellites to his target list – why let them talk to themselves?

The Orion entered the system and lined up on the first two sets of targets. Twelve missiles left the pods and ran straight and true. Kelly watched the missiles turn the spacedocks and partial ships into molten slag and then moved to the other two spacedocks. He launched another dozen missiles and condemned those spacedocks to the same fate. He had his turret gunners set weapons on narrow beam and dove down well into the atmosphere to give them a short enough range to affect their targets.

The spaceport erupted into flames. Ships of all types and sizes burned to the ground. The support facility partially disappeared, and what remained went up in a tremendous explosion and fire. Numerous ship sections under construction were sliced into pieces by the narrow disruptor beams. The component factories disappeared as two turrets raked them with disruptor fire. The too slow ground defense facility also disappeared under withering disruptor fire.

Kelly searched for more targets, but couldn’t find any worthy of the last missile in his port side pod. He would have to wait for something to come up.

He didn’t have to wait long. A cruiser came into the system. Kelly did not know if it was on patrol and here to investigate the loss of comms, here by chance, or here to take out a pesky scout ship. No matter which, he wasn’t leaving the system.

Jotil Lenkva leaned over to Kelly and said, “This is one of their newest cruisers, equivalent to a battle cruiser with a full shadow warrior crew. We Angaerry found them to be very tough adversaries. They have a jammer that affects our anti-ship missiles and is why we do not want war with them at this time.”

Kelly thanked her for this knowledge and moved the Orion behind the planet. He dropped the Orion to the surface, landed in a clearing in a mountain valley, and waited. When the cruiser passed overhead in high orbit, he ordered his gunners to program 12 missiles. He would fire six as they rose from the surface and six more when they matched altitude with it.

Kelly noticed Jotil Lenkva’s legs twitching as they climbed up from the surface under the cruiser. At 2000km, he launched the first six missiles. He directed the helm to come up behind and under the cruiser and then fired the second six. The cruiser had launched defensive missiles at the first six and all six missiles were intercepted. The second six were launched close enough to make it difficult for their defensive missiles to lock on in time.

The cruiser launched 10 offensive missiles at the Orion as she flew by. Kelly fired 20 missiles to intercept and had the helm execute an evasive pattern while Ops fired countermeasures. One of their second six missiles hit the cruiser just aft of the bridge and she lurched off at an angle for a few moments before straightening up and turning toward the Orion. Kelly fired six more missiles at the cruiser and dove down toward the planet, aiming for the terminator and the backside.

The previous hit to the cruiser must have damaged their missile control capability because all six of the third group of Orion missiles bore in and slammed into the cruiser, which disappeared in a series of cataclysmic matter/antimatter explosions. Kelly saw several escape pods under power. Good, he thought, they will carry the report of a Human ship attacking them and clear the Angaerry.

Kelly was about to congratulate himself when sensors reported one offensive missile inbound, port side, low. A sharp turret gunner took it out while it was far enough away to not even rock the Orion.

Chastened, Kelly asked sensors to report all targets. Sensors reported no targets within 500,000,000km. Kelly secured from battle stations and set course to parallel the frontier for four hours away from Angaerry space, shoot their way back across the frontier, and travel back to the Angaerry home world.

* * * * *

Admiral Thomas launched her attack on the K’Rang fleet in the Eridanus sector. She had her A-76's and the heavy attack ships fly into the systems and attack the fleet in orbit. Her F-53's provided fighter escort for the attack ships and CAP around the battle fleet. While the K’Rang combatants were engaged with the attack ships, she sent 1st and 3rd Assault Landing Groups to capture the depot planet. Four squadrons of A-76's from the Assault Support Carriers flew to destroy identified planetary defense systems. Four disruptor frigates and six Assault Landing Carriers fired their planetary bombardment cannons to take out other key defensive facilities. Once all critical targets had been neutralized, two-dozen AS-500s, each holding a company of Marines, headed to the surface.

The AS-500s landed at their preprogrammed landing sites and disgorged their cargoes. The Marines formed up on their leaders and moved out. Major Mary Chen came down with the third AS-500, with her jump command vehicle and small staff. She found high ground where she could observe the brigade’s advance and set up operations. Colonel Maxwell remained on the Assault Landing Carrier until Mary was set up, then came down with the next AS-500.

Mary looked at the situation before her as she looked due west at the depot. 1st of the 22nd was encircling the depot with its heavy vehicles, closing off escape or reinforcement. 2nd of the 22nd was marching on the southern fuel and ammo storage areas. 1st of the 15th was marching to capture the central HQ, tent city and general storage area to the north.

A-76's flying overhead requested targets, but Mary had none to give them, so she told them to stand by. She watched as 2nd of the 22nd cleared the unoccupied fuel storage area and held while 1st of the 15th cleared the general storage area and HQ. The 1st of the 15th then held while the 2nd of the 22nd cleared the ammunition storage area. They reported hastily opened boxes of rockets and grenades. Mary felt a tingling of alarm and told the 1st of the 15th commander to hold until the 2nd of the 22nd could clear their last area and move to support their movement into the tent city. She ordered 1st of the 22nd to move a heavy company up close to the southwest corner of the tent city.

Colonel Maxwell arrived with his command post vehicles and asked for a status report. Mary told him that they had cleared half the facility with no enemy contact. 2nd of the 22nd was clearing the ammo dump and found evidence of hasty ammo issue and she suspected a trap. She had 1st of the 15th holding outside the tent city until 2nd of the 22nd could support them with fire from the ammo depot boundary berm. She had also moved a heavy company up to the southwest corner of the tent city. A-76's were orbiting overhead, waiting for targets.

Colonel Maxwell thought she was being a bit too cautious, but they were ahead of schedule, so he could humor her. Besides, she might be right.

The 2nd of the 22nd commander reported he was in position. The 1st of the 22nd commander reported his company in position. 1st of the 15th reported he was ready. The brigade commander gave the word to go.

There was no response from the K’Rang for the first two rows of tents. As they moved into the wide street dividing the second and third tent rows, all hell broke loose. Fire erupted from trenches dug in front of the third row of tents. 1st of the 15th returned fire, but were forced back by heavy fire from the trenches. The 1st of the 15th commander requested an air strike on the third tent line and suppressive fire from the 2nd of the 22nd.

Colonel Maxwell approved and sent Mary down to put eyeballs on the target. Mary drove down to the HQ area and her aviation advisor suggested the 1st of the 15th put their heads down. The A-76's came in and strafed the entire tent city with emphasis on the ditch in front of the third row. Mortars from the 1st of the 22nd fired up and down the third row. 1st of the 15th moved out as the mortar fire ended and quickly cleared the ditch of defenders.

Mary moved away from her vehicle with a comms operator and found the 1st of the 15th commander. She tagged along behind him as he followed his two leading companies. After they cleared the first ditch, subsequent defensive lines at each second row of tents were weaker and could not hold up to the Marines’ disciplined attack.

Mary was about to congratulate the 1st of the 15th commander when an unarmed K’Rang ran out of the tent they were standing in front of, slashed at her comms operator with his claws, knocking him down, and turned on Mary. He was on her before she could draw her sidearm. She stepped to the side and, sticking her leg out, tripped him. She pounced on his back with both knees, knocking the breath out of him. She reached around his head, grabbed him by the snout, jerked his head as hard as she could, and he lay quite still. She stood up, pulled her sidearm, and kicked him as hard as she could in the ribs. He made no sound, so she picked up her comms operator. He had claw marks on his vest and comms control panel, but otherwise was unharmed.

She congratulated the battalion commander and moved back to her command vehicle to report the area was secure. Colonel Maxwell moved his command post to the depot HQ building and supervised the last bit of mopping up.

Later that evening, after Colonel Maxwell returned from the division commander’s briefing, they found out that there were a large number of K’Rang missing from the planet. All of today’s attacks only killed or captured 1,000 K’Rang, which meant there were another 1,000 in the woods somewhere hiding, or the intel reports were wrong.

Mary suggested getting one of the scout ships to map the planet and they would find them. A battalion of K’Rang warriors running around was not a good thing. She brought all three battalions into the depot, gave the southern two quadrants to the 1st of the 22nd and the northern two quadrants to the two light battalions. She called in Explosive Ordnance Disposal to come in and start disabling the larger ship missiles. Useable munitions like grenades and portable rockets or missiles were distributed around the perimeter. The brigade and battalion intel sections gave instruction in their operation.

Mary spent a good part of the night prowling the perimeter with the brigade commander, in expectation of a counterattack that never came. The next morning, Colonel Maxwell carried Mary’s recommendation for a scout ship to map the planet looking for K’Rang life forms. The division commander carried it forward to the 1st ALG commander, who recommended it to Admiral Thomas. She approved it and by nightfall there was a scout ship orbiting the planet, looking for 1,000 K’Rang.

* * * * *

The Visceral orbited the planet, searching for K’Rang life signs. Lieutenant Commander Watanaga made pass after pass, varying the sensors or mix of sensors to try and pull the K’Rang out of the background, to no avail. He switched to depth scanning, looking for underground facilities, also to no avail. If the K’Rang were there, they were well hidden.

* * * * *

Governor (Baron) H’Topa looked at the pitiful remains of his once promising world. 1100 were all that remained out of 5,000 K’Rang originally on this world they had named L’Vola, even though they never meant to keep it. Newly ascended Baron H’Topa had taken the governorship as his first duty to the Empire since joining the royalty.