All Enemies Foreign and Domestic (Kelly Blake series) (32 page)

* * * * *

      Ingrid was lost.
 
Even with the helpful directions from that nice Fleet Commander, she still had no clue where she was, much less her fiancé.
 
She came to an office, stuck her head in and asked if the clerk knew where 210th Aviation Squadron was.
 
To her surprise, the clerk said, “Right here.
 
You found us.”

      She asked where she might find Flight Officer 2nd Class Brad Mason.
 
The clerk gave her soldier proof directions, and she arrived at his accommodations in short order.
 
She cautiously stuck her head in, not knowing if it was single sex or coed and saw Brad right away talking to another female flight officer.
 
He saw her, ran over to her, and kissed her.
 
He dragged her over to the female flight officer, who was wearing her flight suit half way unzipped, with her arms out of the sleeves that were tied around her waist.

      Brad introduced them.
 
“Sheila, this is Ingrid, my fiancé – the woman that stole my heart.”

      Ingrid never got to reply, because fifty or so flight officers instantly mobbed her.
 
They hugged her and kissed her hand or cheek and passed her on down the line until she was deposited back in Brad’s arms.
 
She told Sheila it was nice to meet her and found out she was Brad’s co-pilot and weapons officer.
 
Brad asked if she was hungry and, with her positive reply, walked off together to find the dining facility.

      The accommodations weren’t the fanciest, but the meals served aboard the Behemoth were superb.
 
They feasted on the best steaks and freshest vegetables.
 
Considering that they would be on cold rations off and on for the next four weeks, they took full advantage of the meals on board.

      After lunch, they took a walk, looking for the mythical observation lounge often talked about, but never seen.
 
They turned a corner and almost ran into Commander Gibbons.

      “Hi, sir, I found him.
 
Would you happen to know if there is really an observation lounge?” asked Ingrid.

      Commander Gibbons said, “Sure is, come on and follow me.
 
I’d like to see the fleet arrayed around us and the other four Behemoths.
 
That would be a sight to tell the grandkids about.
 
Come on.”

      Brad and Ingrid struggled to keep up with the older man, who took ladders two steps at a time and practically jumped through passageway airtight doors.
 
They arrived at a door after climbing what seemed thousands of steps.

      He pulled out a key and unlocked the door.
 
He held it open for them and came in behind them.

      The view through the seamless plasteel bubble took Ingrid’s breath away.
 
She could see nebulae, galaxies, millions of stars, and the four other Behemoths lined up in a neat row.
 
Arrayed around the four transports were scores of frigates, destroyers and cruisers.
 
One battle cruiser, ominous looking in the new grey-black paint scheme, stood out from the rest.
 
The escorts looked protective, but the battle cruiser looked menacing with its embarked scout and gun ships.

      The commander walked over to them and said, “Look, I have to go inspect some more.
 
Close the door when you leave, too much danger of someone being in here when we make a slow pass by a star.
 
If the radiation didn’t kill them it would at least blind them.
 
I’ve got the only key; so just let yourselves out when you’ve seen enough.”

            
Ingrid and Brad spent a lovely afternoon in the privacy of the observation lounge until it was time to eat again.
 
She made sure he understood he would be her co-pilot when they returned from the campaign, with the benefits that went along with that.

* * * * *

      Vice Admiral Conover was in a similar compartment on the Xerxes while it made a slow pass by the assembled ships of his task force.
 
The five slab-shaped Behemoths took up a large amount of space.
 
The assault landing group and its escorts passed just above the Xerxes.
 
He had looked each commander in the eyes at his mission briefing and found them confident and ready.

      When the clock struck midnight in the capital city of the T’Kab capital world, all hell would break loose.
 
The heavy aircraft wings would lead the way through the ring ship, surreptitiously led into the T’Kab system by the scout ship Orion and assisted to a location behind the Neptune-size gas giant two planets over from the main planet.
 
After his review of the ships, he gave the order to execute at midnight.
 
The wheels were now in motion.

Chapter Sixteen

      Tammy led her wing through the local ring and out into the T’Kab home system.
 
She flew point and guided her squadrons around the gas giant and onto the sleeping capital city.
 
At the initial point above the planet, her squadrons split away and descended to blind and defang the enemy.
 
She stayed in orbit and remotely monitored their progress.

      Her flight engineer sat behind and between her and the copilot with a large data tablet, checking off targets as the squadrons reported them destroyed.
 
In less than an hour, every radar, control facility, and the ships on the two airfields north and west of the capital were smoking ruins.

       Tammy even did a bomb run on a long-range space sensor installation, where one of her squadron’s ship’s missiles had malfunctioned.
 
When she flew away, there was a large crater where the sensor had been.

      Her squadrons joined up on her and flew back in formation through the ring ship to their home station.
 
She had drawn first blood in the campaign against the T’Kab.

* * * * *

      Angie’s A-76s and F-53s attacked the stations in orbit over the planet.
 
Every ship attached to them was attacked with at least two medium missiles, destroying some, damaging others.
 
Emphasis on hitting the engines and ammunition storage ensured they would not be used against the fleet.
 
T’Kab warships were subject to multiple strikes until they were judged destroyed.
 
A single F-53 squadron split-loaded with anti-fighter missiles and anti-ship missiles damaged or destroyed an entire T’Kab annihilation task force as it attempted to power up and escape.
 
A-76s followed and took out the cripples.

      Angie controlled her wing from the Bolivar instead of an F-53.
 
She wanted to be out there with them, but there were too many moving parts to this operation, and it was easier to keep track of everything in her position in the Combat Information Center.

* * * * *

      Mary called her battalion to attention on the well deck of the GRS Milton and ordered her companies to load.
 
A Company and B Company loaded on one AS-600 lander with four X-55 hover infiltration transports.
 
Her Headquarters Company, C Company, Special Support Company, and five X-55 hover infiltration transports loaded into a second AS-600 lander.
 
The transports carried heavy weapons, extra ammunition, and communications gear.

      Mary unslung her Yestepkin carbine and marveled at its lightweight and compact size.
 
Valeri Yestepkin took a complex idea and made it simple.
 
Now the Yestepkin technology was in almost every weapon in the GR arsenal, from long range guns on cruisers that could reach out 200,000 kilometers and burn a hole through enhanced armor and shielding, to rapid fire guns in fighters capable of 100 self-contained energy pulses per minute that were perfect for bringing down fighters or small attack ships, to Mary’s carbine that could drill a pencil thin hole in anything on narrow beam or a hole in a house one could walk through on wide beam.

      Mary loaded last into the first AS-600 and the rear ramp sealed behind her.
 
She took the jump seat between the pilots, looked to the right at the cockpit of the other AS-600, and saw her executive officer in the jump seat.
 
She put on her headset and waved for him to do the same.
 
When his was on she wished him the best of luck and told him to give ’em hell.

      The pilot tapped Mary’s leg and said, “Attack craft are thirty minutes out, ma’am.”

      She looked at her watch, punched a button, and said, “Let’s move to our insertion point, Lieutenant.”

        
The lieutenant powered forward, while a force field formed seamlessly behind them, sealing the well deck.
 
The two AS-600s moved away from the Milton and spiraled around the gas giant, holding just within the upper atmosphere until the heavy attack ships struck their first targets.
 
Then they would burn in and land in the confusion of the strikes and quickly subdue the spaceport.
 
At least, that was the plan.
 
They powered towards the T’Kab planet and saw the heavy attack ships enter the atmosphere and start to burn in, followed by the medium attack ships.
 
Mary tapped the pilot on the shoulder and said, “Let’s go!”

      The pilot kicked it and the planet got real big real fast.
 
He turned the nose up as he started hitting the upper atmosphere.
 
The two AS-600s became just two more blazing contrails in the early morning sky, two of hundreds.
 
Mary could see explosions below her as missiles and guided bombs took out target after target.
 
By the time they were about to land, hundreds of fires could be seen from horizon to horizon.

      Mary told the company commanders to get ready.
 
She put on her own helmet and snapped her armored vest closed.
 
The pilots put the AS-600s down exactly where she indicated on the map and the rear ramp lowered, with a popping of their ears.
 
Both companies ran out the back and oriented on their objectives.
 
A Company took the terminal, which vaguely resembled a termite mound on Earth, and Mary heard the commander report only minimal T’Kab present.
 
Her executive officer reported C Company securing the southern perimeter and Special Company starting the ship-by-ship search and movement.
 
The C Company commander reported securing the western perimeter.
 
Her operations officer reported the battalion headquarters operational and reporting to division.

      Mary heard shots from inside the terminal.
 
She ran to the terminal, unshipping her Yestepkin carbine as she ran.
 
She came around a transport ship, surprising a worker, which she vaporized.
 
She went wider around corners after that.
 
Inside the terminal, she saw A Company corralling all the T’Kab in one large lounge.
 
Three T’Kab bodies littered one doorway.

      The A Company commander came over and reported they were still searching to be safe, but the terminal was secure, all comms cut, and observation posts established on likely escape avenues in front of the terminal.
 
He pointed at the three dead T’Kab and said, “These three acted more like surprised security guards than armed resistance.”

      He handed her something that looked like a crude weapon of some sort.
 
“They had these things and pointed them at us.
 
It looked like a weapon, but none of us can figure how it works.
 
Maybe G-2 can make something of them.”

She patted him on the back and ordered his X-55 and hers be brought up behind the terminal.

      She looked out the rear windows of the terminal, seeing some thirty or forty ships of various size and class.
 
Most were pulled up to round passenger walkways attached to the building like T’Kab legs.
 
The interior of the terminal was rough and looked like sprayed on concrete.
 
The building itself was one large open space about the size of a football stadium.
 
It looked like the terminal could handle about 20 ships at a time, plus parking beyond the terminal.
 
She moved next to her X-55 to listen to the final reports come in and observe her units at work.

      The Special Support Company rigged one ship parked near the terminal for movement and an AS-600 hovered, hooked up and gently lifted the much larger ship, moving it to the south fence line.
 
Several ships were moved using on-site spaceport equipment just for that purpose.
 
Only six ships had to be moved by the AS-600s or heavy lifters.
 
Mary climbed into her X-55, got a secure report and negative casualty report from all companies, called up to the division, and gave the spaceport secured codeword.
 
She called the two AS-600 pilots, thanked them for the smooth ride and released them back to the Milton.