Audacity (Warner's World Book 5) (49 page)

“Not with the resources and facilities here Sir. But at a fleet base well I believe we can improve it.”

“Can we increase the range?”

“Not really sir. Well we could if we had a lot more probes. But as you extend the range you need more and more. Given our resources I think this is as good as we can expect for now. Also it takes hours as you saw just to position them all. It would take a lot more time for a bigger array.”

“I see” and Hatzu rubbed his chin as he thought. “It’s going to be useless on the attack but useful on the defence. OK very good. Bring all our probes back and get the Elanwul back into formation. I want to be back in warp as soon as possible.”

Chapter 10. Resolute to Q2, 0710 4 September

Crystal was on the walking machine in the gym when Dave entered. He nodded to her as he hopped on the adjacent exercise bike. As he peddled up into his usual cycle Crystal asked “what happens to John and the others in Rollinium if the enemy fleet is already there?”

“They will have to take their chances as best they can” said Dave. “Much will depend on whether the enemy comes with substantial ground units or not. But don’t worry, the Resistance will protect them. Besides they are all capable of looking after themselves.”

Crystal didn’t reply. She just kept thrusting her wiry arms forward and back with the levers as she paced out with her legs. Dave cast a look at her and thought to himself that she looked like one of those ronin warriors from Japan that he remembered reading about from his school days – right down to the black tights and her long black hair done up in a series of tight folds like a samurai. It then struck him that Wong was a Chinese name not a Japanese one.

They both continued with their exercise in silence. With a shake of his head Dave realised he was being an idiot. She obviously cared for John but he didn’t really know the status of their relationship. So he had to tread carefully. “You miss John?” he asked as casually as he could make it sound.

She pretended not to hear him and continued with her rhythm of motion. Dave looked across to her and could see a tear running down her face. He wanted to say something but was unsure. He often found it difficult in these situations and he wanted to avoid putting his foot in it. ‘Empathy - share something about yourself Dave’ he said to himself.

“I really miss Rihan” he said.

She hit the stop button on her walker, wiped her face with her towel and turned to face him. “But she’s not in real danger. Is she?”

Dave knew in an instant that he had muffed it. He stopped his bike. “I’m sorry Crystal. You’re right she’s not.”

“It should be me down there on Q2, not John” she said with her eyes welling up. “I was so selfish. I’ve always been so selfish. I’m going to hate myself if anything happens to him.” She used the towel again to wipe her eyes.

Dave stepped off the bike and put a hand on her shoulder. Six months ago she would have recoiled at such a gesture but right now she wanted to be held. She leaned her head into his chest and sobbed. She really sobbed for the first time in her adult life. Dave gave her a reassuring pat on the back but then just held her there.

She finally stopped and he dropped his arms. She reached for the towel and wiped her eyes. “Sorry” she said and began walking to the door. Just before she reached it she turned and added “Thanks.” Dave nodded as she left.

Chapter 11. Spectre over Q2 1600, 4 September

There was no denying it now. Both probes on the far side of the planet had relayed back the same detections. Sheldon looked at the icons appearing on the holo and his heart sank. There were five caps and five lights but no transports. That was something to be grateful for. It meant that, at the most, the enemy had two battalions of troops, maybe less.

Anita stood next to him having come into the command centre when she heard the news. With one hand on the back of his chair she leaned over to check some data on his screen. Seemingly satisfied she stood upright and said “they’ll be sending probes around. We need to signal the Resolute and Fleet asap.”

Sheldon nodded. Then he called out “Michael, report what’s happening here to Rollinium Control, the Resolute, Kiev and to the Phantom too.”

“Roger Sir” said Michael.

“Meg” he hailed.

“You seeing what I’m seeing” asked Meg.

“Five and five?”

“Yeah five and five. We staying or going?”

“We’ll stay but cloaked. We’ll wait till the Resolute arrives. We stick to the plan OK. No shooting unless it’s at their shuttles.”

“With that many ships even if we fire all the missiles we’ve got it’s unlikely we’ll get a hit on any shuttle.”

“True. OK we’ll hold our powder then till the Resolute arrive. But let’s redeploy 400K further back along Q2’s orbit. We’ll maintain that distance relative to the planet. That way we can keep them under observation no matter which side they end up on. Here I’m sending you your objective loc. Wait till the Resolute arrives and then we take her lead.”

“Agreed.”

“OK I’m just going to advise our friends below, then that will be my last transmission. Good luck.”

“You too.”

Chapter 12. Rollinium 1610, 4 September

John took the initial hail from Sheldon but put Sue on straight away. Sue took the news that the Spectre and Raptor would not fire till the Resolute arrived in her stride. She understood the logic of it. But it did mean that the only missile defence they had was her support droids and they only had a measly 48 missiles. She knew there would be no engaging the enemy ships. It would be pointless. But the enemy’s shuttles that was another matter.

Sheldon believed they would move around the planet to attack Rollinium directly, which meant they would have at best a couple of hours. They would need every minute so she wished Sheldon the best, terminated the call and then hailed Art who was currently in the city with the Resistance leaders.

The Resistance, to their credit, had taken advantage of the break from hostilities that they had enjoyed these last ten days to dig in around the spaceport. There was still rubble everywhere from the last attack but within it there were a series of fortified posts. After Art relayed the news to Rentra there was a flurry of activity around the spaceport and throughout the city.

John looked up at Sue from his chair in the control room. When she finished her call he said “They’ll beam us for sure. I reckon we’d stand a better chance across the other side.”

Sue pondered for a few moments. They had debated this very question at some length and the consensus had been that the basement here in the main terminal could withstand a beam attack. But now that it was more than likely she agreed with John. “OK sign off and let’s get going.”

Chapter 13. IRS Guglin over Q2, 1620, 4 September

Hatzu was under no delusion about the apparent absence of enemy craft. He suspected the enemy stealth craft were still here lying cloaked in the dark of space. But he hoped to shed some light on that and had opted to stay on the far side of Q2. His objective in terms of his first attack would be Rollinium but he would wait for the natural rotation of the planet to bring the city under him rather than go chasing after it. It would come within beam range in the middle of the wee morning hours.

In the meantime he was deploying his secret weapon. Well he knew it wasn’t a weapon per se but it would allow his weapons to target the enemy. He was laying a trap that he hoped would temp the enemy to make a run at him. It was diabolically simple. He would raze Rollinium with his beam weapons.

He had already dismissed the idea of an assault with his ground troops. He was only carrying two battalions worth and knew they would be insufficient to hold on against the Resistance forces. He lacked enough fighters to adequately support them. His roster said he had 31 effectives, which meant at best he could maintain one squadron on station and he’d rather use those for CAP.

He looked at the time again and saw that his ladar array would not be in position for almost three hours. This was his most vulnerable time. He had pushed out his frigates to create a wide box. Within that his capital ships were arrayed in a relatively tight arrowhead ready for their bombardment tasks. The array when it completed would be the outer box.

Chapter 14. Spectre over Q2, 1800, 4 September

The Spectre had now gone to the far side of the planet, its passive sensors identified the enemy craft. They saw several probes being launched but thought this was standard practice for any fleet wishing to maintain detection around the planet.

Anita looked at the holo expecting to see more activity. But like the previous time she looked a minute ago, nothing had changed. “Looks like it’s going to be a tedious long night” she said to Sheldon. He nodded.

Chapter 15. Rollininium 0245, 5 September

The beam attack started like all beam attacks with a searing bright light. In this case it was five searing bright lights. Each cap fired its beam weapon in bursts of around 10 seconds. Where it anticipated hardened shelters, such as around the spaceport it increased the duration to up to 30 seconds. But the drain on power was immense and after ten minutes the attack stopped.

Ten thousand kilometres above the planet they were rewarded with a few bright lights from the many fires sparked by the attack. But down on the ground in the city of Rollinium it was horrific devastation. The downtown area of the city was ablaze with many towers destroyed.

The raised expressway that had once been the conduit for the imperialist attack on the spaceport was no longer raised in many sections. The industrial areas on either side which had already seen much fighting were once again engulfed in a mini firestorm.

Out of one of the bunkers recently build on the far side of the spaceport runway emerged a command droid occupied by Sue Chalker. Convinced that the bombardment had finished she quickly accelerated her droid to 15 kph and made her way across the runway in big giant strides. Through her thermal imaging she could see that the runway itself had a huge fissure cut through it. She leapt across in one bound and headed to the main building.

But it was hard to make it out. A huge jet of fire from a ruptured gas main was playing havoc with her thermals. She switched them off till she manoeuvred around the fiery obstacle. It was then that she realised the main building was no more.

“They really worked it over” she hailed John. “It’s totalled. I can’t see for the rubble where the entrance was and there’s a huge crevice where I think the main concourse ran. We did well to relocate.” She got no response from John. “John, are you there?”

She turned around to see the whole area where she had just come from engulfed in flames. There was a huge explosion and a massive plume of flame that rose high in the sky. She raced back, leaping again over the rip in the runway. But as she approached the heat grew in intensity. A warning signal fired. She ignored it and pressed on.

“Warning…Danger” came the artificial voice from within the droid. “Max temperature threshold exceeded. Warning. Danger…” Sue shut down the warning message. But the heat inside now was rising rapidly. She was sweating profusely as the droid’s legs continued to move. Another plume of fire shot up in front of her and she realised it was hopeless.

She withdrew back to the runway. “Chad” she hailed. But there was no answer. She tried again but to no avail. “Oh fuck” she said. “Art, you there?”

“Yes darling are you alright?” he responded.

“I’m OK but I think we lost John and Chad.”

“Shit” said Art deflated. “Are you sure?”

“They’re not responding to my hails. There’s this massive fire. I don’t know. I can’t get any closer.”

“I can’t get to you in a hurry. It’s a bloody mess here. The HQ building’s the only building left standing in this block. Anyway you need to deploy your support droids…to repel the attack.”

“Right…” said Sue

Chapter 16. Spectre over Q2 0345, 5 September

Anita had woken Sheldon when the beam attack started. Even from 400K away you could see the intense bright lights. They watched on, both sickened by the sight and knowing what devastation it would be inflicting upon those down below. They waited, with not a word spoken, for signs of shuttles but saw none.

Finally Sheldon managed “Interesting.”

“No assault do you mean?”

“Yeah. There would be no better time than just after the bombardment.”

“Maybe they’re not going to occupy - just snuff the life out of the place.”

“Maybe. Could be waiting on reinforcements.”

“Then why start the bombardment now?”

“Good point” said Sheldon. “But there’s not much we can, nor should, do at the moment. I’m going back to sleep…well back to bed anyway.”

Chapter 17. Spectre over Q2 0700, 5 September

Sheldon caught up with Anita in the officers mess. She was tired but something was troubling her and she needed to share it with her boss. She sat down next to him at the table and shook her head when he offered her some of his toast. “You know what’s really odd?” she asked.

“I have a feeling you’re going to tell me.”

“If Rollinium was their objective you would have expected them to stay in geo above it but they haven’t. They are staying in the same location on the far side.”

“They’re probably just going to let the planet rotate their targets for it.”

“Yeah that’s what I thought too. But they haven’t adjusted their position ready to engage another target or conducted another attack at targets within range of their current position. Don’t you find that odd?”

‘Yeah but is it significant in any way? Probably not.”

“I don’t know. It just doesn’t make sense.”

“Well no more attacks, that’s a good thing.”

“Yeah I know, be grateful for small mercies” said Anita. Sheldon smiled at her. “OK I’m off to get some sleep.”

Chapter 18. Rollinium 0800, 5 September

Art finally got through to where Sue was on the far side of the runway. The whole area was scared black. A gentle offshore wind was blowing the soot and dust towards what remained of the main building and the sea beyond. Rogan civilians were responding to their supervisor trying to clear the debris from what used to be the entrance to the bunker where John and Chad had been.