Carnifex (51 page)

"Note to self," Carrera muttered. "Have Sitnikov brief Parilla on plans for fortifications on the Isla Real and along both sides of the Rio Gatun. Also, check on progress in designing the expansion."

He tapped the side of his nose several times, thinking. "Hmmm . . . I hate to lose Kuralski but I think maybe I need to send him back to Volga for a bit."

 . . . providing you and Fernandez are right—and, no, I don't disagree—about war with the Tauran Union and possibly the Zhong being inevitable.

It is strange to think of us being on our own against the second- and third-ranked powers of this world. Always before we lived under the shadow, but also the covering umbrella, of the Federated States. We never
had
to worry about defense against anyone but them; and defense against them, as you helped prove almost twenty years ago, was impossible . . . 

"It was impossible then, Raul. Now? Now, if the entire force were home? I think the FSC would probably get sick of the bloodletting before they conquered Balboa again."
And what would
I
do in such a case? That's a no-brainer; my loyalty is to my Legion.

Carrera continued with the letter:

There are moments when I seriously doubt the wisdom of the course we have undertaken, moments when I doubt it is worth it for me to become President. But then I think of the Legion, of what we could do for Balboa if we could spread the wealth around without it automatically gravitating to the pockets of the idle, corrupt and useless rich.

In any case, enough of an old man's idle prattle for now. Your time is valuable and, so the newscasts and the intelligence reports say, well spent. Give my warmest regards to the officers, centurions, warrants and men of the Legion. I miss you all very much and look forward to your speedy and safe return home.

"Fine old man," said Carrera, putting the missive aside and picking up the next, from Fernandez.

Duque:

The only good news I have to report is that our friends above are due to receive a visitor that has to be most unwelcome. Apparently the UEPF, too, has an Inspector General and apparently like any IG, theirs is a pain in the ass.

Yes, this comes from our very special intelligence source. How long this source can last is anyone's guess, however. Sometimes I think that the best use of this asset is not in the detailed intelligence we receive, but in what it tells us about the mindset of the UE and the UEPF.

Patricio, they are not only more corrupt than we have imagined; they are more corrupt than we
could
imagine. For one thing, two slaves—and we didn't even know they kept slaves on their base on Atlantis Island—are going to be taken up to space shortly for the sexual amusement of their IG. The slaves are not necessarily expected to survive the experience. How do people like this get control of an entire world? How do we prevent them from gaining another?

"I'm working on it, Fern."

I think we are now in a position to begin to fulfill the other half of our contract with the Yamatans and move the
classis
to the Nicobar Straits. There are NO indicators that the Xamari pirates are anything but cowed for the moment, and even for the foreseeable future.

The rest of Fernandez's message was routine. Carrera finished reading it quickly and put it into the "save" pile. His AdC would see to it that the message joined several hundred others in a secure file with a self destruct mechanism integral to it.

The next report was from
Obras Zorilleras—
or OZ, though it had passed through Fernandez's office before being sent onward and bore his initials. It concerned several of the projects Carrera had been briefed on over a year ago.

Progress has been mixed, Duque. The auxiliary propelled stealthy glider, which we are calling the "Condor," exists in prototype and has been tested using ground based radar. The reduction in signature is between two and three orders of magnitude. We are planning a test using the FSC's airborne warning radar. This, however, requires three things: that we know the flight schedule of the drug interdiction patrols they run off our coasts, that we manage to get one of our people aboard their AWR flights, and that we have the prototype in position . . . 

Carrera read a handscrawled note in Fernandez's writing on the margins of the page. "I'm working on it."

On the other hand, the submarine—the Megalodon Class—has been nothing but problems. We've had to redesign the thing, twice, and scrap half a dozen proposals for the power plant. The acrylic casting apparatus from Anglia is still on order. Undersea gliding has proven to be somewhat problematic, once we did the
rest
of the math, and unless slightly aided by the propeller it makes more noise than simply using the propeller on its own. That said, in combination the two are quieter than either is alone.

Right now, it is a thin teardrop-shaped outer hull, a much thicker and cylindrical inner pressure hull, which will be powered either by molten carbonate or solid oxide fuel cell These are both expensive but almost within the budget you gave us. (Can we have more money?)

While we have dropped the idea of using a facetted fairing for the outer, non-pressure, hull, the better to reduce flow noise, we have modified the principle by connected the inner and outer hulls with conoidal projections which will do much the same thing. By this we mean that, once active sonar has reached and passed the thin, outer, streamlined hull, the conoidal connections will further scatter it and absorb it. This is only effective for active sonar, of course . . . 

"Yeah . . . right . . . "of
course"
 . . . what the fuck do
I
know about this shit?"

 . . . and active sonar is the least likely to be used. Still, the inner and outer hulls needed to be connected
somehow
and this way gives us something out of the arrangement.

The test ballast tanks for the Megalodon
are
prepared in prototype, since we were able to obtain the necessary acrylic casting machines (which are much smaller) and other materials needed for them. This is a new concept, and not one that everyone is in favor of. Still, they have the potential to be remarkably silent as compared to any other system in existence.

Basically, they take advantage of the very low boiling temperature of ammonia. The ammonia is kept inside of flexible tubing made of fluorocarbon elastomer with a sputtered layer of aluminum (750 Angstoms) followed by silicon monoxide (500 Angstroms) with an aerogel insulation layer. We are working on a different system, one using carbon dioxide rather than ammonia. This has issues.

"Pity I never studied any of the hard sciences but chemistry. This is all Greek to me. Still, OZ has produced before. They probably will again."

Carrera skipped ahead to the line,
We believe we can have a working submarine within fifteen months, and produce two every three months thereafter. Greater funding would increase this.

"Something to think about, anyway. But let's see some progress before we commit, shall we?"

We have a fixed prototype of the Self-Propelled Laser Aid Defense (SPLAD) and are working on motorizing it.

Work on the Self-Propelled, Anti-tank, Heavy Armor (SPATHA) has gone well. Design of the modification of the Volgan T-27 to a turretless anti-tank vehicle is complete and the Kirov Factory has produced the first three prototype vehicles. We have been successful in boring out the tubes from 152mm guns to 165mm, as well as in reducing the length of the tubes. Mechanisms to handle the reduced recoil from the shorter, lower velocity tube are designed. Kirov has subcontracted for three full, reduced recoil 165mm guns to mount in the prototypes' fighting compartments. They have also arranged to have the requisite machinery built and forwarded to us. Test firing of the High Explosive Plastic shell against standard tanks with pigs strapped in place of the human crew has shown catastrophic kills to the crew can be achieved by the HEP shell. (FYI, one test pig was impaled to its seat by the coaxial machine gun being torn from its mount and driven backwards. Most of the others suffered broken necks along with other injuries.) Kirov has further produced a composite armor design which can be mounted to the front of the SPATHA and which is demonstrated to be good against the best Tauran cannon for at least one shot in any given area.

A spinoff of this is in the realm of fortifications. When we looked at the design of the composite, and realized that the hexagonal plates within it, if scaled up, would serve equally well against aerially dropped deep penetrating bombs . . . 

"Well that's an interesting concept. Note to self: Advise OZ and Sitnikov to get together, too."

Speaking of air, we have been approached by an Anglian company that has a very interesting design for a series of lighter-than-air ships. We think you should consider it, or at least consider the smallest version that is intended for long term aerial surveillance. Their proposal is attached.

"Hmmm. Maybe."

Moreover, they have one mid-sized version built, capable of medium airlift or surveillance—if outfitted—that they are willing to provide, with flight crew, for testing in Pashtia. They say they will only charge for operational costs. The chief advantage to their system is that it is not actually lighter than air, but only
almost
as light as air. It is aerodynamically shaped, more or less like a pumpkin seed, and gets some lift from that. The shape is such that it does not need nearly so elaborate a ground setup to operate. Thus, it would be the first airship capable of tactical and strategic lift to undeveloped theaters of war.

"All right, then. Note to self: Have OZ set this up."

We have closed down the program on the terminally guided, reduced bore artillery shells, as Volga already has such a shell and is willing to sell. Their shell, which is 122mm with a sabot to fill the bore of a 180mm gun, seems adequate for the purpose you gave us.

Lastly, for purposes of this report, the Suvarov Class Heavy Cruiser has been re-equipped with new 152mm, long range guns, the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor is installed and has passed initial testing, and the refit is other wise 90% plus, complete. Crew have been assigned but are still in billets at Puerto Lindo pending completion of the refit.

XXXX

Report ends.

XXXX

"Well, that's not bad. Let's see what Lourdes has to say." For a moment Carrera felt an almost overwhelming surge of sheer horniness.

Most of Lourdes' letter was expressly designed to increase that level of horniness. In self-defense, Carrera skimmed over much of that. Then something caught his eye.

It was as expert a roping job as I have ever seen, Patricio, and I grew up on a cattle farm. Artemisia Jimenez culled your Sergeant Major from the herd, lassoed him, trussed him, and branded him hers with a dexterity I can only admire. And all in less than two weeks. The wedding is tentatively set for the week after the current contract in Pashtia is up and you, and the bulk of the legions, have returned.

And, yes, my love, I know what you are going to say, that he's more than twice her age, that he's a simple soldier and she's a sophisticated very near winner for Miss Terra Nova. I've spoken to her, personally and privately, and when she says she's in love, and moreover in love for the first and only time in her life, I believe her. Please trust me in this.

Besides that this is good for John, I must tell you it is good for me, too, as he's stopped whining about joining you in Pashtia and settled down to doing good work, the kind of good work he is better at than anyone, right here.

"Wow. The beauty queen and the old centurion? Wow. Note to self: appropriate wedding gift. Money? Possibly. House? Maybe. All expense paid honeymoon for a bare minimum."

They've asked me to set up the wedding and be the chief bridesmaid and I think John would like you to be best man. Xavier is, of course, going to give away the bride. I've been making one of the nicer upstairs rooms available to them so that Xavier can pretend not to notice that she's acting like a cat in heat and Mac's acting like a teenager.

Speaking of which, beloved, I will be wearing a mattress on my back when I meet you at the airstrip, just as you said. But
you
had best make sure you're the first one off the plane.

"Gotta love that girl . . . "

Gotta love it when a plan comes together,
Carrera thought as he watched the huge flight of helicopters pass overhead carrying Qabaash's brigade north to seize the summit of the pass. Qabaash had begged for the chance to go in first and, after a phone call from Sada, insisting that he needed the good press back in Sumer, Carrera had agreed. Besides, he'd seen the
Salah al Din
brigade in action both here in Pashtia and in Sumer. They were . . . 

Well, Hell. They're good soldiers under a first rate commander. I don't have anybody any better for this than Qabaash. Oh, sure . . . maybe Jimenez, back in Balboa. But he
is
back in Balboa while Qabaash is
here
.

Atop the mountain range the enemy awaited; intel from both the FSA and the Legion's own sources confirmed that. The air had been pounding their positions for two hours and would continue to do so for the just over an hour's flight to Qabaash's landing zone.

The pickup zone, here well below the mountains, was already hot enough to have to cut the helicopters' combat load. There would be no sling-loads underneath, either. Not that it would have helped all that much if the ambient temperature south of the mountain range had been less; the air above was thin enough that the choppers had to fly with reduced load anyway, despite the cold helping with the air density.

Strictly speaking, Qabaash's brigade was not going to be the first in. The Cazadors had claimed that honor as much as two weeks ago for some units, back when snows were still falling. Indeed, it was under the cover of the snows that they'd been able to come in by Cricket, chopper and even parachute, without being seen. It had been under the snow's cover that they'd been able to build hide positions undetectable to the enemy.