Koban 6: Conflict and Empire (49 page)

Thad expressed his doubts. “What can we tackle with our gravity projectors here? Moving the planet is impossible, and pointless since it’s drifting in space already. Tilting its axis would be equally slow, even if we knew how, and it’s questionable if that would disturb them very much. Their ships would be in space long before earthquakes happened.”

Mirikami laughed. “Thad, you’re thinking on a way bigger scale than I am, and as you said, it might ruin the base for long-term occupation, but it won’t do what we need done right now. I’m thinking of using our projectors on objects more convenient in mass and size.”

Sarge misunderstood, “Tet, can we even pick up and damage ships individually with our focused gravity fields? Even if we can, I don’t see how just five of us can to that fast enough to so many. There would be about a thousand ships for each of us, and they could put crews aboard many of them to activate drives and escape before we could reach them, or they may have watch standers left on them. It would take us hours, if not an entire day.”

Mirikami said, “Nope. Not them. We just used Crusher pieces, indirectly maneuvered via our projectors, to crash them into Wendal. Here we have two intact ships of that same class.”

“They won’t sit still while we try to do that.”

“They will if we put a gravrod or two into their centers, to destroy their Bridge, damage their Jump and Normal Space drives, and rupture one or more of their fusion generators. Then we can use them as two huge gravity driven hammers, to smash them into the two main collections of large combat ships.

“I noticed that largest collections of Smashers and Stranglers are clustered around just two of the domes, with all of the Guardians and a scattering of other Smashers and Stranglers at the other two domes. I suspect the highest rank Thandol, following their nobility caste system, have gathered based on family connections. The most influential officers would be in the two domes where the greater number of Smashers are gathered. We should try to hit those ships with mile wide, high velocity Crushers, if we can figure out how to aim them. Aiming wasn’t an issue at Wendal.

“To keep the captains and crews trapped for a time away from their ships, we can simply fire at the domes a couple of times. If their officers and crews are scrambling to reach shelter under ruptured domes, they won’t have much opportunity to rush out to their ships. At Meglor, they left only skeleton crews on docked ships, and here, at this super-secret base, they may have done the same, or even left their ships empty.”

Carol voiced a personal concern, not wanting to offend Mirikami. “This will kill a lot of Thandol families in the domes, won’t it?”

He answered solemnly. “I assume it will kill Thandol in the domes, Carol, and in the warships. Although, I doubt they have families here, and I suspect it is primarily the military crews of those ships that are inside the domes. This isn’t a lush living world, a place where you would bring a family. It’s a secret base on a barren large rock, where they live under a dome when not conducting a military exercise. I hope none of us feels indifferent to their deaths, and we certainly should not be happy to kill them.

“Nor should we be indifferent to the probable loss of civilian Thandol lives, including their nonpolitical females on Wendal, because of the delayed disaster we initiated there. If our tactic worked to bring down the Crusher pieces, there will also be deaths suffered by some of the species they employ as their servants, even in the industrial sections at the equator on Wendal. There are nobles running those enterprises, and they probably want cheap hired alien help, to perform household duties. They weren’t our targets, but they may still be killed.

“I think we all should bear in mind a distinction between us and the Thandol. The Empire doesn’t regret collateral deaths, they actively seek to kill innocents to use as examples to others, whereas we try to avoid them. It doesn’t bring back those we inadvertently kill, but we regret their loss, and offer apologies and assistance, as we did to the Prada, Raspani, and Torki.”

Thad, knowing it couldn’t clear their consciences if they killed noncombatants, made an observation concerning Rogue 2. “This fleet, its crews and support personnel, were gathered here, preparing to kill millions of people on Tanner’s world. Based on the several hundred Stranglers they have parked here, many of those civilians were not going to die quickly, or painlessly.

“They aren’t even planning to take possession of that world, to preserve the population and industry for becoming a productive, if unwilling member of the Empire. They intend to conduct a purely punitive attack, because their petulant Emperor didn’t like it that we blew up his personal warship, despite his ordering surprise attacks that killed our civilian colonists. Their motivation is to force us to become their indentured servants, or die. Our motive is to stay alive and free, even if we have to do ugly and unpleasant things.”

“I know,” Carol answered, in a plaintive tone. “I’m glad I’m not the only one that wishes we didn’t have to do this. Against the Krall, it felt different. The Empire isn’t composed of animal-like barbarians. The Thandol have an advanced civilization, they build things, and they have citizens that are not constantly involved with war and killing. At least they don’t eat or exterminate every species they meet. If we defeat them, perhaps they can change.”

Maggi pointed out parallels from human history. “We’ve had cruel conquerors and oppressors of our own, but with enough time, a lot of time in cases of some of our ancient and ruthless empires, they changed as they assimilated those they ruled, or were forced to change by outside pressure. The Thandol have already had a great deal of time to assimilate and change, yet they did not. Now they require force from the outside.”

Alyson had her own concerns. “I wonder if this going to be as easy as it was at Wendal, or turn ugly like it did at Meglor. All we have are five small Scouts, with one fancy gravity gun apiece.”

“And total surprise,” Mirikami added, and said, “attacked by ships that have a control of gravity in a way they’ve never encountered. They aren’t prepared to defend against any sort of attack here, where they were confident they couldn’t be found.

“This is a unique opportunity. After this, they’ll stop leaving warships unattended, with lax security even at secret bases. If they intend to continue fighting us, they’ll have to adjust to the fact that we don’t behave like the subservient species they’ve walked over in the past. We’re bringing the fight to them, again, at another place where they have let their guard down.” Then he gave his orders to begin the attack.

“Sarge, if Thad will yield helm control of your Scout, you get to demonstrate your gunnery skill again. Carson, you only had a small asteroid as a practice target. You and Sarge get to put one gravrod into the center of one face of a Crusher. You two decide who shoots which ship. Maneuver to aim at the center of one of their flat planes from a quarter million miles out, to build high velocity, and you should launch simultaneously. The strikes should disable primary power and kill the Bridge crews at their centers. Use a second shot if required.”

He continued assignments. “Ethan, you and Jorl will project a strong gravity field below Sarge’s target once it’s disabled, and let your AI help you pull the derelict out of orbit. I want it directed towards the large collection of Smashers, parked around three sides of the gold dome. Take gravity gun shots at ships closest to any dome you can see as you steer the Crusher down.

“Dillon, you and Noreen grab Carson’s target, and maneuver it down towards the ships parked near the white dome, and take shots as you can. The ships nearest the domes are those they may be able to reach first and try to liftoff.

“Without atmosphere, there won’t be any complex friction to consider. The Crushers will come in at shallow angles, and the debris will sweep across the plains along their orbital direction. Try to position them so the debris paths will pass through the densest collection of ships you each can manage to hit. Even at an optimistic estimate, I think there are too many ships, spread too widely, for us to get more than a third of those parked near the gold and white domes.

“Thad and Alyson, after your gunner fires at the Crushers, be prepared with your projectors to aid with pulling them down out of orbit. With two fields per Crusher, you should be able to control its descent rate and direction. They have a huge mass and are moving fast, so slowing them and altering their trajectory may prove tricky, even with AI guidance.

“I’d like it if you can bring them down within a single orbit, before skeleton crews in any of the parked craft can grasp what is happening and lift off. We can’t conceal how we did this, as we tried to do at Wendal with the atmosphere. I hope it’s simply too confusing and improbable for them to put together that we have Olt’kitapi style gravity control. They may think the explosions on the Crushers knocked them out of orbit. Hard to guess what they’ll think, but they aren’t stupid.”

He continued designating targets, “Carol, you and Sergey will take pot shots at any of the larger parked ships you wish, particularly the Stranglers, around the yellow and tan domes. Maggi and I will first hit all four domes at least twice, to start venting their atmospheres. They’re rigid structures, so they won’t collapse. Our gravrods will likely vaporize on contact, and make relatively small entry holes. When the spatter of the high velocity material streaks through the internal air it will be superheated, and it should punch through some of the internal structures. This is mainly to distract them, and to trigger vacuum seals on the internal buildings and doors, in order to trap ship crews inside them until we’re gone. I can’t imagine any cautious species that would live in a pressurized dome, and then wouldn’t design buildings with automatic responses against exposure to vacuum. Humans wouldn’t do that, and our allies tell me we aren’t cautious.” He smiled at that.

After Carol’s earlier question, he’d decided it would be easier for her if she and Sergey were asked to focus only on military ships as targets. Mirikami didn’t intend any of them to reveal their stealthed location or their actual numbers. Which meant they would not be firing any of the four anti-ship missiles each Scout carried, or to use their heavy lasers. This meant they were limited to the relatively slow firing, but undetectable and devastating gravity guns. Each Scout had departed Haven with ten magazines, holding ten gravrods each, of the production version of the original test weapons.

That meant they only had five hundred rounds total, to destroy or cripple as many as possible of what the AI’s had now verified as five thousand eight hundred and forty-three combat ships, and several hundred support ships. They wanted to concentrate their shots on the larger warships, and to ignore the Guardians, support ships, and the Stompers. In order to do the greatest damage, it would require crashing the two massive Crushers on the plains where many of the parked ships were located, provided they could be brought down close enough to the selected domes.

Sarge and Carson maneuvered into position, and as agreed, waited for five minutes while their two targets moved to positions where the AI’s calculated was the best compromise location for their dual tasks. From there, it was theoretically possible each Crusher could be pulled down to hit their surface targets within a single orbit.

“Ready…, fire.” Mirikami called it for them.

****

Captain Fendrel, a
third cousin
of Farlol the 84th, was pleased with his orders to take Farlol Ascendant, to Rogue 2, to have his Crusher participate in the first major Thandol action against a well populated planet, which they believed was a Federation world.

When Captain Shanthot, of Detab’s Victory, a
second cousin
, was understandably the first Crusher captain named to accompany that fleet, he was granted the title of Fleet Commander, to lead the Emperor’s Fleet of Vengeance.

Fendrel had been afraid the political maneuverings of the other three third cousins, commanding the Empire’s Stampede, Emperor’s Foot, and Emperor’s Trunk, would secure the second most prestigious position. He had maneuvered and called in favors of his own of course, but he wasn’t all that well connected to anyone considered very influential in the Emperor’s Court.

He comforted himself that it was his record of accomplishments, suppressing or punishing recalcitrant subservient species worlds, which had earned him what was considered a choice assignment. His ego might have taken a hit had he known that it was actually just the name of his ship, Farlol Ascendant, which sealed the deal for him over his equally qualified competitors. The Emperor simply liked his own name. Fendrel would soon wish his ship had been named the Emperor’s Fat Butt.

As a recent arrival, his shuttle had just departed his ship for the gold dome, to join the revelry and debauchery the other fleet nobles had been engaged in for many cycles, as the fleet elements secretly and gradually gathered at Rogue 2. Crushers were such visible representatives of the Empire’s power, that they were sent here as the last elements.

Two of those other three Crushers would be extremely busy, traveling from world to world all around the Empire, to maintain the impression they were all involved in projecting the Empire’s might. The three security forces would notice if Crusher visits dropped significantly, suggesting the Thandol were gathering an unannounced naval force. The Ragnar already knew that, of course, if not where it was gathering, but they wouldn’t share this purloined information with anyone.