Defying the Prophet: A Military Space Opera (The Sentience Trilogy Book 2) (4 page)

Stillman’s
Great Raid
, they were calling it. It had evidently met all of Kalis’ expectations, as he’d been promoted to admiral and given command of the light 2
nd
Fleet, because of it. Stillman remembered asking himself
, “What would Chris do?”
during that entire raid. Whatever he’d done, he’d done for Chris. Ben still found it hard to believe that Chris was dead — that he’d never see his friend again. Ben hoped, wherever Chris was now, he’d somehow known of the raid and approved of what Stillman had accomplished in his memory.

Stillman wasn’t overly concerned about McAllister making a close-in jump, even though he’d be facing five task forces with only his two. He’d have Ginia’s Planetary Guard in-system fighters and the orbital forts to back him up if that happened. ECM had spotted an incoming scan earlier, probably by a Union scout wanting to check things out. Some of Carpenter’s Combat Space Patrol fighters veered off to chase the intruder away, as was expected. Kalis
wanted
the Federals to get a look at the Ginia system. As TF-21 was still in the yard, all that scan would show was Carpenter’s single task force in orbit around Ginia.
That
certainly ought to give McAllister something to think about…

* * * *

…and it did. McAllister called a meeting of her flag officers to discuss the scout’s puzzling scan records. If Kalis was hiding in the asteroids, they’d expect to see no ships other than local commerce vessels at Ginia at all. If he wasn’t, then they certainly ought to be seeing a lot more than just a single task force. 

Where the hell is he?
 

Was it possible that Kalis had already launched a major offensive against the Union, as a follow-up to the Stillman raid and McAllister’s force had passed by it, unnoticed in transit? 

He might have.  Kalis is an audacious old fox.

The Stillman raid gave proof of that. If Kalis had gone off on a major raid of the North, he probably would have left more than a single task force behind to guard Ginia, wouldn’t he? Maybe a second, or even a third task force was hiding amongst the asteroids. That would make sense, but why leave only a single task force vulnerable near the planet with his major strength out in the asteroids? With the Planetary Guard fighters available, unless that single task force stayed close to the orbital forts, McAllister’s five task forces would maul them. Even staying near to the forts, McAllister would still maul them — it would just be more expensive.

If Kalis had taken his whole fleet or more North, where did McAllister’s duty lie? Should she continue this ridiculous, politically-driven Ginia mission, or scurry home in hopes of surprising Kalis there? Her admirals were about evenly split on the issue. None argued hard for running back home, lest they be seen as timid, but most had that
look
that said that was exactly what they’d really like to do. If she did and Kalis wasn’t actually there threatening Waston, how would her superiors react to her aborting her mission to chase ghosts?  

It was McAllister’s decision in the end, just as it had been at the beginning.
Fuck it!
  If Kalis was tearing the shit out of Waston, that was the damned politicians’ problem — those both inside and outside of Fleet. McAllister’s safest route was to obey her asinine orders, if there really was such a thing as a “safe route” for her at all.

“We go in, mission option 3, one light-minute out. Launch fighters ASAP, on arrival.”

* * * *

Admiral Eileen Thorn detested the idea of leaving Missip to the Yankees, but she was determined to keep her 3
rd
Fleet concentrated. Having 3
rd
Fleet spread out all over hell’s half acre was what caused this damned mess in the first place. Thorn was glad she wasn’t the one who’d had to deal with their dumbass president, who’d royally screwed the pooch on their Tensee strategy.

I’d have probably strangled the twit. 

It took her three weeks to limp the damaged 3
rd
Fleet
to the
Mystic
Confederate Fleet Shipyard
,
hidden
within the Helix Nebula near Sextus space. Estimates were that it would take two months to make repairs to the remnant of the original 3
rd
Fleet. Once repairs were completed, Thorn would then be in the unusual position of having more carriers than she had fighters to put on them. 

Thorn decided that once she kicked the Yankees out of Missip, she’d forward one attack carrier and one light carrier, both lacking fighters, back to Admiral Kalis in Ginia. That would leave her with full fighter compliments for her three task forces — actually just a bit more, as she’d be short a light carrier, but had an extra attack carrier to make up for it. She’d cope.

* * * *

From information provided by Confederate Fleet Intelligence, it was expected the Union fleet would translate into the Ginia system at anytime, so every ship was fully manned. When the long range scans from Rikmon International Spaceport showed over 100 blips appearing at 002 by 003, one light-minute out, word was flashed to the Stillman’s two task forces and alarms sounded, calling the crews to battle-stations.  Combat armor was donned and stations were manned, getting ready to meet the enemy.  Carpenter’s TF-23 shot a message out towards Kalis’ ships in the asteroids and began launching fighters within six minutes of the flash alert. Ginia Planetary Guard fighters began lifting within 12 minutes. Stillman’s TF-21 cast off and began backing out of their slips at Norf Shipyard within 10 minutes. 

Even though they had been on alert with the first fighters ready for launch, the short double-transition disoriented McAllister’s green crews. Many forgot to use their stimulant injectors, so it took a full 48 minutes after transition to launch all of her fighters — a rate that made her want to pull her hair in frustration. She might have, had she not been wearing a combat armor helmet at the time. By comparison, Carpenter had all 230 of his fighters launched and on their way towards the Federal fleet within 16 minutes. 

Knowing he had the Yankees outgunned in fighters, Kalis’ strategy was to concentrate on eliminating what fighters the Federals did have, so
all
of Carpenter’s fighters carried anti-fighter loads. So did all 500 of the new Su-137 in-system fighters the Ginia Guard was launching. Since deployment of the Su-137’s the Confederacy bought from the Russians, the Ginia Guard actually had more fighters than it had trained pilots to man them. The Guard had trained on the Russian fighters, so their 250
Cobras
could be transferred to other areas, or retained as replacements for combat casualties, as needed.

Stillman’s 230 fighters began launching as soon as his carriers cleared their slips and reoriented their launch bays towards open space. Unlike Carpenter’s fighters and those of the Guard, Stillman’s fighters carried mixed loads. It took 32 minutes for Carpenter’s message to reach Kalis in the asteroids, but his 690 fighters began launching within 5 minutes of receipt of the message, all with full anti-ship loads.

McAllister figured Kalis might have ships hidden within the asteroids, so she ordered a destroyer squadron to loop back behind her fleet to scan behind them, without suffering from plume distortion. In McAllister’s flagship, the USS
Midway’s
Combat Information Center was ablaze with contact notifications. Almost 1,000 fighters were coming in from the planet. McAllister worried, as she saw that the fighters inbound outnumbered hers by 3:2 and it would take over an hour for her destroyers’ scan echoes to return and tell her what was behind her. Figuring that only half of the planetary fighters had anti-fighter loads, her 685 with all anti-fighter loads to defend her fleet might put a nasty dent in Kalis’ fighter numbers. 

As the two walls of fighters began to close on each other, Carpenter’s first wave of fighters launched medium range anti-fighter missiles at maximum range and then surprisingly peeled away. The startled Union pilots had plenty of time to engage active ECM and take evasive action, but none got off a shot at the retreating Confederates before they were again out of range. Less than one-in-four of the Confederate missiles actually resulted in a kill, but even at that low percentage, 43 Union fighters were lost with no corresponding losses for the rebels. 

The Union fighters had just enough time to reform to meet the next wave of incoming rebs from Stillman’s TF-21. This next wave of rebels again popped off a salvo at maximum range and peeled away, but the Federal pilots popped off a salvo at maximum range of their own. Again the Federals went into evasive gyrations and, this time, 41 of them were hit. Unfortunately for the Federals, their missiles were in a tail-chase pursuing the fleeing Confederate fighters, and most of their rocket motors ran out of fuel before reaching their targets. Only six Confederate fighters were lost to the Federal fighters during that exchange, but 22 more were destroyed by long range anti-fighter missiles launched from McAllister’s fleet. 

The third wave, consisting of Planetary Guard fighters, also popped a spread at maximum range, but instead of peeling away, as had occurred during the first two waves, they continued to bore in on the jinking and juking Federals. Before the Union fighters could reform, the rebs were within short, thermally-guided missile range and almost 1,000 missiles began screaming in on the Yankee fighters. Immediately after launching their short range missiles, the Ginia Guard fighters popped flares and swung around in an unbelievably tight turn, tighter than even the few veteran Union pilots would have believed possible. 

Much later, Alliance Fleet Intelligence analysts would identify the strange looking craft as Russian made, Su-137 in-system fighters. Without hyperspace capabilities, their power-to-weight ratio allowed for exceptional nimbleness and dog-fighting capabilities. The fact that the rebels had them, and in such numbers was ominous and alarming, as it indicated that the Russians were definitely providing weapons to the Confederacy. Federal analysts then had to wonder when other nations would also begin supporting the Southern insurrectionists.

At the moment, though, the Federal pilots of McAllister’s fleet had more pressing issues on their minds. Phosphorous flares were released and active ECM employed, as they desperately tried to evade getting their asses shot off. About one-third got off at least one missile at the now retreating Confederates, but the fleet batteries had to wait until the rebs were well away from their own fighters, before launching. When they did, a firestorm accelerated away towards the fleeing Guard fighters. By the time that particular exchange was over, over 130 Federal fighters were lost to merely 47 of the rebel’s in-system fighters. About half of McAllister’s 465 remaining fighters had fully expended their missiles and had to return to their carriers for rearming. 

When the Confederate’s first wave swung around for another pass, McAllister suddenly realized the enemy hadn’t launched a single missile towards her fleet. They were obviously intent on eliminating her fighters. A quick estimate revealed she had already lost ~ 220 fighters… almost one-third of her force in the first exchange, while even their best estimates of Confederate casualties stood at somewhere around 70. As the Confederates had already enjoyed at least 30% advantage in fighter numbers, coming out 150 on the short end, during the early going, was not a good sign. 

When her destroyer screen sent word that another 700 rebel fighters were coming at her from astern, pandemonium reigned when
Midway’s
inexperienced CIC controllers panicked at the news. McAllister realized she’d probably be without fighter cover completely by the time those fighters coming in from the asteroids arrived. Chances were, they were all loaded with anti-ship missiles — a
lot
of anti-ship missiles.

McAllister realized that her fleet was totally outclassed by what the Confederates had here at Ginia and it was definitely time to bug out. Word was sent and one massive barrage of long-range anti-ship missiles were launched toward that single Confederate task force that had broken orbit around Ginia, and was heading out to meet her. After launching that single missile barrage, McAllister’s oversized Union fleet ponderously came about, oriented itself away from the planet and accelerated towards transition speed. The Union fighters were recovered and McAllister eventually escaped the Ginia system, but not before losing 28 ships, including a light carrier, to the over 900 Confederate fighters chasing them with anti-ship missiles. 

Even before leaving Waston, McAllister figured that after losing so much of her original fleet strength due to the Stillman raid, the old
Gray Fox
would very probably kick the shit out of what little the politicians had left her. She’d been right, but McAllister never knew that her single massive missile barrage crippled one-third of TF-23’s ships, including Vice Admiral Carpenter’s flagship, the CSS
Coral Sea
. 

* * * *

Chapter-5

Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying “End-of-the-World Switch: PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH,” the paint wouldn’t even have time to dry.
— Terry Pratchett

Towards the end of a long meeting, analysts and strategic pundits of all shapes and sizes expounded on their pet theories on exactly how the Federals should be taking the offensive — while generally ignoring that fact that for the past year, they’d gotten their collective asses badly kicked virtually every time they’d tried it. Most of those plans depended upon utilizing fleet assets that existing on paper, but many of which were undergoing extensive repairs, or badly lacking in available fighters and/or pilots.

Commander Bat Masterson sat quietly in the back, wondering how the admirals suffered these fools. He certainly wasn’t there by choice, but under orders that Melendez was either unwilling, or unable to get him out of. Bat sat hunched over, trying to make himself as small as possible, lest one of the brass hats notice him and ask his opinion on something — an opinion none of them
really
wanted to hear. Sure enough, towards the end, Admiral Campbell searched him out and specifically asked what he thought of everything he’d heard at their long, boring, time-wasting meeting.

“Admiral, a couple thousand years ago, the most brilliant man on Earth was a theoretical physicist named Albert Einstein,” Masterson responded. “Einstein once defined
insanity
as ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’ He also said that, ‘Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.’” Masterson had been right. They hadn’t wanted to hear that.

“All right, Bat,” replied Admiral Bradley, shaking his head. “What would
you
suggest that we do, then?”

“Admiral, whenever we’ve attacked the rebs, we’ve gotten hurt. When the rebs have attacked us, we’ve gotten both hurt and embarrassed,” Masterson answered. “Judging from our current bent-over position, I’d say we need lube ourselves very thoroughly, because Kalis is very likely coming to slip us the
big-green-weenie
, while our backsides are still bloody from the last time he raped us.”

Bat’s immediate boss, Vice Admiral Enrico Melendez wanted to crawl into a hole. He was used to Bat’s irreverent, earthy, no-holds-barred method of speech, but you just couldn’t talk to four-star admirals that way. No, Melendez couldn’t, but obviously Bat not only could — he just did! Bat was just, well… Bat. 

Doug and Brad both knew
exactly
what they’d be getting when they demanded Bat attend these useless meetings in the first place. Bat was either the most irreverently brilliant man, or the most brilliant irreverent
man Melendez had ever met. He was never quite sure which description was more accurate. Bat had told him once that 4,000 years ago, a philosopher named Aristotle had said,
“Wit is educated insolence.” 
Educated insolence — that described Bat to a tee.

It was no wonder the promotion avalanche missed Bat. It must have parted like the Red Sea whenever it got close to him!

“So, you think Kalis will attack us?” Campbell asked.

“Yes, sir,” replied Bat. “Wouldn’t you, if you were in his position?”

“Where?” asked Admiral Bradley.

“Probably where we’d least expect it… where we’re the strongest.”

“Here?”

“Probably too costly, with all of the orbital forts ringing Waston, for him to try that ploy again,” Masterson replied. “Wouldn’t surprise me, though, if Kalis dispatched Stillman again for an encore performance of his
Great Raid
, possibly even beginning at Maylan, just to thumb his nose at us.”

Admiral Bradley wasn’t one to sneer at Bat’s legendary
sixth-sense
, so he immediately sent word to Vice Admiral Myron Brooks orbiting Maylan, crediting Fleet Intelligence for the warning. He sent word out to all of the other Alliance planets that Stillman had hit on his first raid as well.

Alliance Fleet Intelligence and, by default, their commander Vice Admiral Geoffrey Coxler, was receiving a LOT of credit for things they had absolutely nothing to do with, but originated out of Bat’s peculiar
sixth-sense
about things. Bat was continually greasing the wheels for yet more promotions for the Intelligence
spooks
, while he continued to languish as a mere commander. There was
something
incredibly telling about a system that allowed such an obvious disparity to exist.

* * * *

As tugs and rescue crews from Norf Fleet Shipyard crisscrossed Ginia space collecting broken ships, fighters and people, Admiral Benjamin Stillman found himself neck-deep in strategy sessions with Admiral Kalis. Confederate Intelligence reports indicated that only two Union task forces remained in orbit above Maylan… the rest having been withdrawn to the direct defense of Waston at Discol. It was believed that these two task forces could be isolated and possibly destroyed, as McAllister’s fleet at Discol was too short of fighters to intervene successfully.
Stillman’s Great Raid
had crippled several of the Alliance’s fighter replacement facilities in May and Kalis doubted that
those people
would risk their fleet in open combat without sufficient fighter cover. Kalis took a week to make emergency repairs before dispatching Stillman, and his now even lighter 2
nd
Fleet, to the Maylan system.

* * * *

Reportedly, Alliance Fleet Intelligence had determined that Stillman might be trying a repeat of his previous raid, beginning in the Maylan system, so the two task forces under Vice Admiral Myron Brooks stationed there were on high alert status. Brooks’ sister had been killed in Stillman’s attack on McAllister’s carriers at Waston earlier in the month, so he relished the idea of destroying the Confederate raider for personal, as well as professional, reasons. Personal revenge would certainly be sweet, but defeat of the infamous Confederate terrorist would almost assuredly make him an overnight celebrity and possibly get him a fourth star. Brooks saw headlines in his future.

Stillman’s under-strength fleet emerged from tachyon space a mere six light-seconds from the Maylan asteroid field and launched 230 fighters immediately, as his fleet headed in towards the rocks. As soon as his scanner returns identified Stillman’s transition, Brooks launched all 460 of his fighters and immediately got his under-sized fleet underway at top speed, to engage the enemy. Brooks had not yet been made privy to McAllister’s after-action report from
2
nd
Ginia
, so his pilots were completely surprised when the Confederate fighters employed the same tactics and launched medium range missiles at maximum range, before reversing course and fleeing back towards their carriers. The Federal pilots engaged ECM and undertook evasive action, but 34 of them fell without a corresponding loss by the Confederates. 

Stillman’s emergence close to the asteroid field had been detected, but the Federals had not been able to get an exact count on the raiders before their scan blips began merging with those of the asteroids. As Stillman’s first raid had proven so successful with only a single task force, Brooks expected nothing different this time around. Alliance Fleet Intelligence believed the Confederate task force that had languished at Tucky during the Tensee campaign had been recalled to reinforce the Confederate fleet at Missip, or wherever else they might have went. Accordingly, the Yankees had no idea that Stillman had just shy of two full task forces with him this time around — almost as many as Brooks himself possessed. 

Convinced he had Stillman at a 2:1 disadvantage, Brooks took a page out of now-Admiral Loggins’ Tensee campaign and continued attacking past the point of discretion, as his own casualties mounted. Brooks was blinded by his obsession to totally rout the Confederates… confident Stillman would break and run at any moment. His communications with Waston were so flowery and encouraging, the admirals in charge acquiesced and sent him the one additional task force he requested, on the guarantee that he would destroy the Confederate raider and avenge the embarrassment the Fleet had endured the previous month. 

Brooks wasn’t worried that Stillman still hung in doggedly amongst the asteroids — surprised, yes, but worried, no. As soon the Waston reinforcements arrived, he’d have almost an entire fleet at his disposal and Stillman out-numbered by over 4:1. Thus it was that Brooks was not at all prepared when 16 hours later, Kalis’ entire Confederate 1
st
Fleet suddenly emerged close behind him and crushed him like a bug. 

Stillman was the anvil and Kalis the hammer. Less than one-third of a task force escaped to limp back into Waston with news of yet another major defeat at the hands of the old
Gray Fox
, whose fearsome reputation had been merely legendary before, but was now approaching god-like proportions… on both sides of the fence.

* * * *

“What’s this shit about the rebels destroying an entire Federal fleet, right under your damned noses?” roared President Marrot at the two admirals standing stiffly at attention before his desk in the
Oval Office.
Admiral Campbell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Admiral Bradley, Chief of Fleet Operations waited for the president to wind down from his tirade before trying to answer. He obviously wasn’t done. The question was entirely rhetorical anyway, as Marrot had already been thoroughly briefed on the details of this latest disaster.

“And now, we have an entire Confederate fleet at Maylan, just a stone’s throw from here, thumbing their noses at us from within the same system?” Marrot continued screaming, “I want to know what you two pinheads plan on doing about it!”

“Mr. President,” Admiral Campbell replied calmly, “Fleet Admiral Kalis has more combat command experience than any dozen flag officers we have, combined. Most of the senior Fleet officers we once had, resigned and went South when their planets seceded. A majority of the senior ratings followed them shortly afterwards and even the ABI hasn’t figured out how they all managed that little disappearing act. Nor have they managed to determine if, or exactly
how
Admirals Mahoney and Bishop managed to steal almost 30% of the Fleet’s newest and best ships from Haven, where they were in mothballs. While we have more of everything, what little that Kalis has is better. Virtually all of our personnel are green as grass, compared to Kalis’ veterans.

“Also, there is something damned odd going on. The Southerners have been one step ahead of us at every turn and
that
needs explaining. It’s like they know everything we’re going to do before even
we
know what we’re going to do. Either Kalis has become clairvoyant or there’s someone around here with an incredibly high security clearance that is feeding him information by the ton.”

“I don’t care what it takes, I want those damned rebels driven out of this system,” Marrot responded a bit less heatedly.

“Admiral Campbell is right, sir. We’ve lost over seven full fleets to the Confederates’ less than two, during just the first year of this war,” responded Admiral Bradley. “Things are not likely to get much better for us, until we get that leak plugged somehow. We’ll have to strip virtually everything out of Minnos, Wisco, Mai, Cali and Oreg, to gather enough assets together to have a prayer of dislodging Kalis from Maylan. We just don’t have enough fighters and pilots left here to get it done, and still guard the surrounding systems against raids like the one Stillman pulled a month ago.”

“Do it,” replied the president. “Every day those damned rebels remain in this system is an intolerable embarrassment to this government. Maylan has always had Southern leanings, so with a Confederate fleet overhead, they might become heartened enough to secede, in spite of our Federal troops stationed there. The international community might even start recognizing those damned traitors as legitimate, or God knows
what
other disasters could occur, as long as Kalis is allowed to sit there.”

As soon as Campbell and Bradley left his office, Marrot sent a communiqué to Nork, summoning Consortium Deputy-Chairman Aline McCauley to the White House. 

The damned Consortium and their congressional lackeys are leaking classified information like a sieve, and this is exactly what I need to finally put a cork in the damned bottle!

* * * *