Rumors of Honor (System States Rebellion Book 2) (31 page)

“Congratulations,
Vice-Admiral Romanov, on your splendid victory at Midgard.”

Romanov
was a little taken aback by his apparent promotion to 2 star flag rank but
tried not to show it.

“I’ve
just updated Majestic with your After-Action report, and the results are quite
encouraging. Majestic is convinced that those battleships you found and
destroyed were the SSU’s last ditch strategy to gain military superiority. If
we hadn’t developed our stealth technology, they would have punched their way
through our Makassar defenses and blasted it back to square one again. They
could have then sent those battleships to Earth and dictated terms to the
Council.  But now that those ships and the shipyard that built them are gone
AND now that WE have the upper hand with our stealth cruisers, Majestic is of
the opinion that the war, for all practical purposes, is over. The only thing
left to do is the mopping up. That’s why I’m sending you to Sparta with three
stealth cruisers as soon as your flagship can be resupplied. Your orders will
be to smash their mobile and planetary defenses. Once that’s done, you’re to
send one ship back here while the rest keep a careful eye out so that they
don’t rebuild their defenses. By the time you send word back that the coast is
clear, I’ll have accumulated the necessary troop transport capacity to send my
troops to Sparta, where they will land and take control. After that, you’ll do
the same thing with the other major planets in the SSU. Any questions,
Admiral?”

“Yessir.
On my return trip, I’ve given a lot of thought to what we tell Earth about what
happened at Midgard. I know the plan was to portray that attack as a rebel
attack to undermine the ceasefire, but in light of what we discovered there,
plus the fact that the tanks and infantry bodies left behind in the tower
rubble will almost certainly be identified as coming from First Fleet/Army
Force, may I suggest that we tell Earth that Majestic was able to deduce the
fact that the shipyard on Midgard’s moon was a rebel operation and that
Majestic recommended that raid? We can also claim that the mere existence of
that covert operation was a de facto violation of the ceasefire by the rebels
with the obvious intention of using those battleships to resume the fighting.”

Trojan
looked thoughtful for what must have been 20 seconds and then said, “Yes,
you’re right about the bodies and the equipment being identified. We can’t go
ahead with the false flag attack strategy even though your Task Force
identified itself as SSU ships during the approach to the planet. How do we
explain that?”

Romanov
thought fast. It was likely that news of that transmission would not reach
Earth for many months. By then Chenko and Masterson would have gotten Trojan’s
report claiming a major victory by destroying the covert shipyard operation. If
anyone on the Council raised the issue of the false flag transmission, Trojan
could just deny it outright.

“We
deny we ever sent those transmissions. We even go so far as to falsify the
ships’ communications logs. If the issue won’t go away, we can also claim that
the transmission was an attempt by rebel agents on Midgard to smear your
reputation.”

Trojan
smiled and nodded. “Yes, that should work. Good thinking, Admiral. I’ll take
your suggestion about revising our story over Midgard. Sorry you won’t get any
R&R, but the sooner we crush Sparta and the other major Union planets, the
sooner we can turn our attention to Earth. I guarantee you that you and your
people will be able to get off your ships for a while before we start Phase 2.
Come to my office and have a drink with me. That’s the least I can do before
you get ready to leave again.” Before Romanov could respond, Trojan put his
hand on Romanov’s shoulder and gently nudged him in the direction of his
office.

Romanov’s
new Task Force, consisting of three stealth cruisers, left orbit 34 hours
later. As Hadley receded on the main display, Romanov recalled the tone of the
briefing he’d given to his senior officers. He saw anticipation and fear among
them. Majestic had predicted strong defenses around Sparta, but Romanov wasn’t
worried, not after seeing how a stealth cruiser could sneak right up to an
enemy ship undetected. Still, it was going to be a big battle no matter what.
His only concern was whether his three ships had enough Mark 1 fission warheads
to do the job.

Day
086/2549

As
Drake and Palmgren entered the conference room for the debriefing, they noticed
that not only was Secretary for Defense Sorenson there, in addition to CSO
Janicot, but that the Chancellor was there too! Drake and Palmgren exchanged
nervous looks as they sat down opposite what Drake was already starting to
think of as the Inquisition. He saw Janicot look over to the Chancellor, who
nodded back. Janicot turned to look back at Drake and Palmgren.

“We’ve
gone over both of your After-Action reports. In spite of how this might look,”
he paused, glancing at Sorenson and the Chancellor, “neither of you should feel
that your actions are going to be challenged. If we don’t seem happy to see
you, it’s because of the news you brought back. But we’re not going to shoot
the messengers, so you can both relax.”

Easier
said than done,
thought
Drake.

Janicot
continued. “The loss of the Durendal complex and the Site X facility on Midgard
are serious blows to the war effort. In fact, that’s almost certainly an
understatement. The truth of the matter is that P2 now gives the SSU only a 3.4%
probability of winning this war, and the only reason it’s not zero is because
we’ve recently received word from Zanzibar that they’ve made a propulsion
breakthrough in jump drive technology. The new jump drive will allow our ships
to travel four and a half times faster through hyper-space than we currently
do. Our only hope now is to convert our cruisers and carriers fast enough to be
able to outmaneuver the FED ships that Makassar will soon start delivering, if
it hasn’t already. What we want to discuss with both of you is the mystery of
how the FED ships were able to catch our battlecruisers by surprise. The
wreckage that you detected,” he nodded to Palmgren, “was clearly what was left
of the battlecruisers, but according to our latest progress report from
Durendal, at least two and maybe as many as four of them had the capability to
maneuver and had skeleton crews on board to prevent exactly this kind of
ambush. If FED ships were detected entering the hyper-zone, why did the
battlecruisers remain exactly where they were? Any thoughts on that?”

Drake
looked at Palmgren and waited for him to speak, but he didn’t. Drake had asked
himself that very same question on the way back, and he could see only one
possible answer.

“The
only way that I can see the FED ships getting close enough to catch the
skeleton crews by surprise without being detected is if they’ve made some kind
of breakthrough themselves that renders their ships invisible to our radars,”
said Drake. Both Sorenson and Chancellor Belloc reacted with shock. Janicot’s
expression remained poker-face neutral.
I’ll bet he’s already thought of
that too,
thought Drake. Palmgren’s expression was skeptical but he stayed
silent.

“If
that’s the case, then maybe we should switch to P2’s Hail Mary attack on Earth
instead of waiting for them to attack us here,” said Janicot, looking over at
Sorenson and Belloc. Sorenson opened her mouth to speak but Belloc beat her to
it.

“Maybe,
but before we roll that dice, I want to consider alternatives carefully.
Durendal wasn’t expecting to be attacked by radar-invisible ships, but if we
assume the FEDs have that capability, what can we do to improve our own
defensive capabilities in case they attack us here?” No one answered. After
about five seconds, Palmgren leaned forward.

“Optical
sensors.” When he was sure no one was going to jump in, he continued. “We can
have almost 100 missile boats here if we bring some in from other planets. If
we station a ring of boats let’s say two light seconds out beyond the zone
boundary, then they should be able to detect cruiser-sized ships in between the
boats and Sparta. The FED ships will appear as dark spots against Sparta’s
brighter background.”

“What
if the ships approach Sparta from the night side; then the planet will be dark
as well?” asked Janicot. Palmgren looked stumped. Drake had an idea.

“We
might still be able to detect them by the difference in heat signature from a
cold ship compared to the planet’s surface, which should be warmer.” Drake
looked at Palmgren who nodded before speaking.

“Yes,
that might work. It should be easy to test this idea too.” Sorenson and Belloc
were looking at Janicot for his reaction.

“Well,
I agree it’s worth testing,” he said, “but I’m not sure if it will work well
enough to make a difference. That far out, a ring of boats that doesn’t leave
any gaps in coverage would take more than a hundred missile boats. Just off the
top of my head, I’d say several hundred.”

Palmgren
shook his head in disgust. “Yes, you’re right, sir. I should have thought of
that.”

Drake
was vaguely aware that Janicot and Sorenson were discussing something, but his
attention was on how to make optical detection work. When he thought he had a
possible solution, he waited for a break in the conversation.

“There
may be a better way to use optical detection,” said Drake.

Sorenson
looked annoyed at the change in subject, but Janicot was not. “Fire away,
Commodore.”

“Well,
let’s assume that the FED ships are radar-invisible. Unless they’ve made their
missiles radar-invisible too, they’d have to get VERY close to their targets so
that their missile flight times would be too short for the target’s
anti-missile defenses to react in time. Any attack on Sparta would have a
primary goal of eliminating our mobile defenses, which are mainly our missile
boats but also include eight cruisers. Suppose we use those cruisers as bait by
keeping them in a tight cluster hovering directly over the Capital at a very
low altitude, low enough that our ships would be easily seen by optical detectors
on the ground. If the FED ships then get close enough to generate very short
missile flight times, they should be close enough to be detected by the ground
optics too. With optical detection from multiple directions, we’d be able to
compute interception data for our missiles that won’t be able to rely on their
own onboard radars.”

“And
what if the FEDs missiles are also radar-invisible?” asked Sorenson.

Drake
didn’t have an answer to that one, and when that became obvious, Janicot
interjected. “Then we’re royally screwed, Madam Secretary. They’d be able to
stay beyond the zone-boundary if they wanted to and fire missiles at our ships
and boats with impunity.”

Sorenson
looked away in disgust. Belloc just shook his head and sighed. Drake felt sorry
for the Chancellor. He looked tired and demoralized.
He’s been Chancellor
for ten years now. No wonder he looks beaten down.

“Any
other ideas or questions?” asked Janicot. No one answered. “Okay then, we’ll
see what P2 makes of the optical detection idea, but there’ll be no rest for
you two I’m afraid. We need to exploit the jump-drive breakthrough as quickly
as possible. Unfortunately, our tech people here on Sparta aren’t trained on
how to retrofit existing ships. We have to send them to Zanzibar to be trained.
That’ll be your responsibility, Commodore Drake. You’ll take three light
carriers of your choice, without missile boats, to Zanzibar. While the techs
are being trained, your three carriers will be retrofitted. Commodore
Palmgren’s assignment will be to take the other two carriers to Hekla to pick
up their missile boats and bring them back here. Unless there are any
questions, you’re both dismissed.”

Drake
did have a question, but he wanted to ask Janicot in private. Palmgren was
already getting up to go. Since it looked like the Admiral was going to stay
longer to talk with the Chancellor and the SecDef, he decided to leave as well
and wait for Janicot outside the conference room.

He
didn’t have to wait long. Just over five minutes later, Belloc, Sorenson and
Janicot exited the conference room. Janicot didn’t looked particularly
surprised to see him waiting in the corridor.

“Something
on your mind, Commodore?” asked Janicot.

“Yessir,
can we step back into the conference room? I have a question that I’d prefer
not to ask out here in the corridor.”

Janicot
didn’t hesitate. “Certainly.” He stepped back into the room with Drake behind
him. Drake closed the door.