Retribution (30 page)

“Yep I reckon that’s a pretty good bet. I agree that the surprise effect will mean they should prove very effective but against a large force they won’t survive out in the open. Maybe we should rethink and deploy them inside?”

“How about, we rig some automatic defence systems, just inside the entrance to those tunnels. That should buy us some time.”

“I’m still not sure about it.”

“I reckon me and Emilio will have as much chance of surviving out there as in here. Out there we can do a lot more damage.”

Dave could see she was set on it. “OK do it” he said biting his lower lip.

Chapter 28. Resolute over Tumos 1700, 23 June

After arriving back on the Resolute, Dave headed for H deck. He found 1
^st
Lt Julian Smythe in his ‘lab’. Julian had his back to the door, bent over his workstation, totally absorbed in his AI code. He did not notice Dave entering. When Dave asked “How is it going?” it took Julian by complete surprise and he nearly fell off his chair.

“Oh it’s you Sir” said Julian, regaining his composure. “Almost there.” He turned to face Dave briefly with an earnest expression. “I just need to make this last tweak.” Then he swivelled back to his screen and finished typing his code change, hit the ‘build’ command and with his hands behind his head swivelled back to face Dave again with a satisfied expression.

“You we’re right about the heavy weapons. My little trial nearly ended in catastrophe. I had to manually abort before one of the droids fired a Rizstorm. I think I’ve perfected the conditions now. Take a seat Sir and we’ll watch how they go about this boarding op now.” Julian confirmed the build was successful and then uploaded it to his demo team of four droids. “Up there” waved Julian to the monitors on the wall.

“Which one?” asked Dave.

“The four on the right are the individual droid cams and the four on the left are the observation cams I’ve set up in our test area outside. You see this one here, he’s the team leader and …there he goes. He’s just ordered his team to assault down this corridor and clear out each of the rooms. If one of them goes to use a heavy weapon, then it will fire on my screen here and I’ll override it. But it shouldn’t happen.” Julian turned and gave Dave a wicked smile. “Well that’s the theory anyway. OK the first pair is approaching. D1 has thrown his stun grenade. D2 races in and rezzes the dummy rogan. All good.”

“Now they come out and support the second pair. Oh, well done boys” said Julian. “Of course Sir, one clean result doesn’t mean it’s perfected. I’ll be running a series of autotests throughout the night. It’ll be a bit noisy down here.”

“You’re not going to stay up the whole night are you?” asked Dave.

“No Gunter and Adrian are going to pull shifts. We reckon two hours each should suffice.”

“Excellent work Julian. So you’ll upload the new doctrine to all the droids?”

“Only the ones on board Sir.”

“OK they’re the only ones we’ll be likely to commit to boarding ops anyway. But eventually when we get the others back on board you’ll need to update them too.”

“Exactly Sir.” Julian had a puzzled expression on his face.

“What’s wrong?” asked Dave.

“Well with Emilio, I mean Chief Shavez, committed down there, who will command the droids in the boarding op?”

“I was hoping you would.”

“Me Sir? I’m not really your warrior type. I mean look at me.”

“I am looking at you Julian. Can you think of anyone else?”

“Well…”

“Good it’s settled then.”

“Is it Sir? Surely we can find someone with a better knowledge of tactics.”

Dave put his hand on Julian’s shoulder and looked straight into Julian’s eyes. “We both know that your understanding of tactics is excellent. That’s not the issue here is it?”

“I suppose not, but I’ve never … been in combat before.”

“Well you’re not going to be are you, not directly? Just stay in your Command droid and issue your platoon the orders.”

“What if I end up exposed?”

“Then I recommend you shoot your way out.” Dave paused and then added with a smile “But avoid the heavy weapons.”

“Oh thanks Sir” said Julian with feigned appreciation.

“In any event Julian you’ll be supported by the 30
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and I’ll make sure Jim Bucknell looks out for you.”

Chapter 29. Nova Vista 1700, 23 June

“Well thanks everyone” said Phil to those assembled in the basement level 6 fall-back area. “Our little drill proved successful. By my time that was just under 3 minutes. Now remember everyone this system effectively ‘stands to’ at 0800 tomorrow. All staff are to be armed at all times.”

“Also remember that Captain Peebody is the HQ Safety officer. If he says move, you move no matter what you are doing. I’d like also to introduce Lieutenant Commander Art Simons. He is my liaison officer, my eyes and ears. If you can’t get hold of me, hail him. If he passes on a command then consider it comes direct from me. All right thank you all. Dissmissed.”

Phil waited till the area had emptied save for Alex, Rihan and Art. “From tomorrow morning we will operate out of the Polaris HQ op centre. Rihan I want you to run the centre and keep me informed of any developments. I’ll be taking over Rudi’s office – it’s just a few metres away. I’ll pop in as time permits. Alex I want you focussed solely on the evacuations. You’ve got your team sorted now haven’t you?”

“Yes Sir.”

“Art you stick to me like glue until I unleash you OK?”

“Sure.”

“All right then. Everyone try and get a good night’s sleep.”

Chapter 30. Nova Vista 0815, 24 June

Rihan looked at the holo in the ops centre. It was zoomed out so she could see the entire system. The Polaris sun was in the centre. The small oven of a barren planet, known as Archer, orbited closest. Then there was Polaris in the habitable zone with its two moons – Afridas and Sentia.

Mentos was third from the sun, smaller and much, much colder than Polaris. It was home to no one save for the miners. But now days most mining was fully automated. The actual human population on Mentos amounted to less than a thousand.

Then came the inner asteroid belt known as the Achmed belt. It stretched for thousands of kilometres before empty space. A long, long way further out lay the gas giant Sibu. The reason there was such a gap was Sibu’s gravity well that was systematically sucking in the rock at the outer edge of the Achmed belt. It did the same to the rock on the inner edge of the outer Holstrum asteroid belt.

Rihan populated the holo first with the civilian shipping. ‘Boy there’s a lot’ said Rihan to herself. Around Polaris she could see the warp belt designated for civilian craft to warp in and out of. Icons were flashing on and off every few minutes. Well below the warp belt there was the domestic belt for domestic shuttles flying between cities of the planet. This was alive with craft. From her god like perspective it looked like a spaghetti of lines.

There were also intra system craft including a couple that plied their trade between the two moons. There were six en route between Polaris and Mentos and two between Sibu and Polaris. Rihan checked their status and was pleased to see that they were Polaris bound. All civilian craft would be grounded upon arrival on Polaris effective now.

There had been a lot of debate about whether doing so would arouse rogan suspicions so in the end they opted for a simple subtefuse that recalled all craft of two specific types ostensibly top check and rectify a possible fault. It just so happened that every one of the current craft out there came within the specified types. The craft were being impounded on their arrival along with their crew. They were not happy but Rihan was.

She also knew that the two craft from Sibu would be carrying the majority of the mining personnel from the two giant platforms that orbited Sibu. A few volunteers remained to service the automated mining craft that were based at these platforms.

They would be in danger for sure but hopefully would be evacuated by FFS Argonaut and FFS Frankton, the two frigates operating around Sibu. They had three tasks to perform. First, they had to act as piquets and provide warning of any craft warping into the blind spot behind Sibu. Second, they had to deactivate the rogan device on Arcwright and third evacuate the remaining staff from the Bowager and Dengonen platforms.

Similarly FFS Warspite and FFS Shanghai operating around Mentos would provide piquet duty. They would not be evacuating anyone from Mentos. There was just too many people. But the settlements on Mentos all had hardened shelters.

Rihan overlaid the holo with the ships of the COP as broadcast by the Arcwright sat. It showed two frigates around Sibu and another two around Mentos. Six of the Polaris Home Fleet caps were in orbit around the planet with 7 frigates. A further two caps and three frigates were shown as on the deck of the planet.

Rihan then turned that overlay off and activated the overlay for the actual COP. It told a different storey. It had the two frigates around Sibu and the two around Mentos. Around Polaris there were already too many ship to display their individual icons at this resolution. Instead there were several task group icons. There was one for the Ark Royal group (Ark Royal carrier, 6 caps and 12 frigates), one for the Aukland group (8 caps and 10 frigates with FFS Aukland leading) one for the Resolute group (1 cap an 1 frigate) and another for the Harlow group (currently 3 caps and 6 frigates based around FFS Harlow).

Rihan added the Reinforcement Schedule Omega 1 overlay and this augmented the Harlow group with another 3 caps and 4 frigates expected in later today. That would bring it to 6 caps and 10 frigates. The Enterprise group was expected tomorrow. It would have the Enterprise carrier, 8 caps and 12 frigates.

That would see two carrier and two cruiser groups deployed in orbit around Polaris, plus the Resolute group.

Phil stuck his head in. He was attracted by the display, so he walked in. “Impressive hey?” he asked.

“Well let’s hope so Sir.”

“Where’s Admiral Holland hoisting his flag?”

“On the Aukland.”

“Mmm…good ship.”

“You know, many of these ships are under manned or manned with inexperienced personnel.”

“True and I wonder what manning problems our foe has?”

“Good point” said Rihan. “Let’s hope we can add to their manning problems.”

“Or alleviate them in the most dramatic fashion” said Phil with a smile.

Chapter 31. Tumos 1300, 24 June

Sue climbed out of the back of her command droid and jumped onto the floor inside the main entrance. Emilio had just left, having finished his lunch. He was standing to in his tunnel ready to issue orders. Sue had left the engineers busily installing the automated defence systems at her tunnel and knew that another group was working on Emilio’s tunnel.

She wiped her brow with a sweat rag. It was very hot inside the droid out in the sun during the middle of a summer’s day. She hoped she wouldn’t have to stay in one outside for any length of time.

1
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Lt Lincoln Bell caught up with her just before she entered the dining hall. “Excuse me Maam” he called out from behind her. She turned her head to see who it was. She’d only known Lincoln a few days and was still trying to work him out.

On the one hand he was a reservist with over eight years’ experience, including two years full time duty. But on the other hand he was a real worry wart. Ever since she had told him he would be in charge of the inner defences he had been fretting about one thing another.

“What is it Lincoln?” she asked.

“Can we get the engineers to install a flechette device out the front of Hangar 2?”

“I’m not sure how they are placed and whether there are too many more devices. You need to follow up that directly with them. You’re in charge inside here. You need to make your own decisions. My focus is outside.”

“Yes Maam. OK will do.”

“Good. I need to get my lunch now.”

“Of course Maam” and Lincoln left her.

‘If he’s like this now, what’s he going to be like in a real fight?’ she asked herself. The two rookie one pippers in charge of the two marine platoons posed different problems. One acted all gung ho but she knew that wouldn’t last long when pulse shot began twanging about him. The other one looked like she’d fall over with the next breeze. ‘Heaven help us…I had better make sure they don’t get in.’

Chapter 32. FFS Aukland over Polaris 1420, 24 June

“Five, six, no seven bogeys have just warped in” called out the excited defensive battle systems operator in the command centre.  “Three caps and 4 lights bearing 210 up 15 range 9,000.”

“Verify friend of foe” ordered the watch officer.

“Oh sorry Sir…friendly…I’m sorry.”

The watch officer shook his head in disappointment. Rudi cut the quickest of glances but chose not to make the young lieutenant’s discomfort any worse. He knew that everyone’s nerves were on edge. Thankfully in this case the watch officer was on the ball.

“It’s the Moscow Sir” said the comms officer. “Hailing you now is Captain Jorgen.”

Rudi welcomed the newcomers and invited the Captain on board for a briefing. But he kept it short, keen for this new group to join the Harlow group and be on station.

They had three other false alarms with civilian craft warping in. By 1630 Rudi was in need of a rest. He went back to his cabin and began entering into his diary the day’s events. This was a practice he had started three years ago after his wife died in a car accident and his doctor advised him to reign in his high blood pressure. He popped the pills each day but he attributed most of his wellbeing to this daily practice.

He started as he did each day with the words “My dear Marnie…” It was as though he had never stopped his daily conversations with the woman he still loved. The psychiatrist had warned him that this would just prevent him from starting a new chapter, possibly with someone new. But he didn’t want a new chapter. He was content with this one.

And so he wrote ‘Tis the eve of the greatest day of my career. How fortune has shined on me. I know you wouldn’t see it like that but that’s always been the way with us hasn’t it? I now command the biggest space fleet ever assembled over a human planet and the fate of billions hangs on my decisions and on the actions of a relatively small number of warriors. It’s an awesome responsibility Marnie. But like you keep saying I am equal to the challenge. I wish you were here to hug and to hold. But as always I caress your sweet face within my heart. Your beloved Rudi.’