Resilience (Warner's World Book 6) (17 page)

“We should have five batteries up and running by then” responded Rotina “but we’ve only got 500 missiles left. We should have seven fighter squadrons but we’re low on missiles for them too, just 700 enough almost for two loadouts.”

“That’s it?”

“Yep.”

“Worst case scenario is those transports are a mix of troops and missiles” announced Felis.

Kraag nodded. “Most likely and they probably have more coming in.”

“So they’ll probably get something down here then but it won’t be a lot. The key is redeploying our forces while they control the skies.”

“It’ll be Lewista for sure. They’re parked right over it. They need a spaceport. It’s the biggest. It’s the seat of government – well was and probably will be.”

“But the main reason is the Mintoslum facility. That’s why they are here in such force, so quickly” said Felis. “We need to get more troops there, preferably not from the ones we have at the spaceport.”

“I’ll get the rest of the Ecrustian’s on the march” said Bonitis. “It’s going to take some time though by road.”

“Just do it. Get a warning order out to all forces to stand to by 0700.”

“Already done that.”

“Good. You need to get some sleep too. I’ll take over.”

“How about I take the watch” said Selinta “I can’t sleep anyway.”

Kraag looked to Felis who nodded.

Chapter 20. Batlasan 0630, 16 September

His aide woke him up at the appointed hour. Puros was still weary but he’d had less and now there was much to do. Ten minutes later he strode into the command centre. “What’s the status of the resupply?” he asked. It was still underway according to the watch officer but the 1,000 new ship missiles and a similar number of fighter missiles should be finished loading by 0650.

He glanced at the holo and saw the two new icons for the reinforcing battalions. That made him feel good. “Repairs?” To this he was told that all ships were now serviceable. The watch officer began stepping through the state of each ship but Puros cut him off with “Organise a virtual conference to start in ten minutes. All ship commanders plus those of the new battalions. Get me my breakfast. I’ll take it here.”

“Did the probe survive?” he asked. Yes was the answer and in a few moments he was reviewing the results. It was clear the enemy were digging in around the Lewista spaceport and the Mintoslum facility. That would make it difficult but with the reinforcements he felt a renewed confidence.

His biggest shortcoming now was a lack of light shuttles. Due to the losses, he only had the ability to insert a battalion at a time. But if he could wrest control of the spaceport he could unload his new reinforcements direct from their big transports.

He concluded that he first needed to destroy the enemy fighters and any remaining batteries. Then conduct the assault with his light shuttles and use his fighters to blast his troops into the spaceport. Once that was in his hands he would bring in the reinforcements and then drive them onto the facility.

Chapter 21. Neeblo 0730, 16 September

Selinta was still wired up. The pills she had taken an hour ago helped her fend off sleep when there was little to do but now they had kicked in big time and she found her mind eager for things to focus on.

She was supposed to have woken Kraag and Felis but opted to let them sleep when 0700 came around. Nothing was happening up above.

The comms officer at the old fighter base south of Lewista rang on the land line that had been set up last night after the jamming robbed them of their normal comms channels. He had been responding to Felis’s order to set up a jamming capability. He had told her he was going to draw on the city’s power supply and that there may be a significant reduction in supply for the city while the jamming was underway. Selinta had told him to go ahead anyway.

At 0740 a test was run. It blacked out half the city and came to an abrupt halt. The comms officer asked permission to tap into the grid for the southern region. Selinta OK’d that too.

At 0750 as both Kraag and Felis came into the ops room Selinta took the call from the comms officer. She could tell by his excited voice that it had been a success and a smile came over her face. She hung up and briefed her superiors.

Felis listened patiently. He was impressed with Selinta but he could see a look in her eyes which he recognised from his own experience with stay-awake drugs. “Thanks Selinta. Job well done. When did you take them?”

Selinta confessed “a couple of hours ago.”

“Well you may as well stay then” said Kraag with a wry smile.

“May as well” said Selinta.

“Tell your new comms buddy that we’ll only use that jamming capability if the enemy makes another assault.”

“Already told him that.”

“Very good” said Felis and gave her a smile. Selinta smiled back appreciating his praise very much.

Chapter 22. Neeblo 0925, 16 September

“Incoming” announced Selinta “lots of fighters heading our way.”

“How many?” asked Felis.

“Forty three and counting. They’re just streaming out.”

“Direction?”

“Southern region, probably Lewista but won’t know for sure just yet.”

Felis knew what his old boss was up to. His own batteries had relocated during the lull and the enemy needed to locate them so they could destroy them. He would be using the fighters to force his batteries into action and then he would silence them with the beam weapons.

“Their ships are descending.”

“Yes” said Felis. He also knew that if he did not engage the fighters, they would go on to attack his ground troops around the spaceport - that many could do real damage. The alternative was to engage their ships. But he estimated he lacked the volume to overwhelm the enemy ships defences and he would still suffer heavy losses on his troops.

“Wait until the enemy fighters enter the atmosphere (100 kms) then engage with our batteries one for one. We will wait till they unload their payload, then launch our fighters to hunt them down as they climb back up. Keep our fighters below 100kms.”

It took the enemy fighters a good two minutes to form up into squadrons. As each squadron formed up into a delta wing formation they took off for the planet.

“I count 60 enemy fighters’ said Selinta. “Coming into effective range now.”

But no batteries fired.

Chapter 23. Batlasan over Cheklin 0930

Puros was getting frustrated. He was rubbing his thighs again. ‘Why don’t they fire?’ he asked himself. He dismissed the possibility that they had no more launchers or missiles. ‘No my opponent, whoever he is, has decided to let me bomb his ground troops into smithereens. Well so be it, you fool.’

“Enemy missiles fired” announced the defensive systems officer.

“Engage those batteries” ordered Puros.

But at this point the order out to his ships was not delivered. The Resistance were returning his own medicine and jamming his signals. “Spare me” said Puros. He knew that his subordinate commanders would eventually realise what was happening and act on their own initiative but it was costing him valuable time.

Eventually each cap did fire its beam weapon at a launch site. But what struck the offensive systems officer was that instead of a few concentrated launch sites, there were now dozens. “They’ve dispersed their batteries” he announced.

It was going to take a lot longer to wipe them out but Puros was determined to do so. “Continue” is all he said.

Within the atmosphere his fighters were now desperately firing their own defensive missiles. Despite the initial order of one for one, most pilots opted for a more conservative two for one. This soaked up 250 of their 360 missiles.

On the surface individual mobile launchers were now scurrying away from their launch site, having fired their initial volley only. Shoot and scoot was the name of the game and speed was of the essence. Not all were fast enough.

Chapter 24. Neeblo 0932, 16 September

“Launch fighters now” ordered Kraag.

From four separate bases 61 fighters began launching. They were accelerating at max power to climb through the atmosphere and engage the enemy fighters as they tried to return to their mother ship.

As soon as they were detected they were engaged by the enemy ship missiles. But Puros opted for a one for one engagement. He wanted to conserve his ship missiles.

Thirty imperial fighters pressed home their attack at the spaceport. A few succumbed to the short range missile systems in support of the 2
^nd
Ecrustian Bde, but most unloaded their ordnance. Over 100 missiles devastated the structures around the spaceport. Despite the fact that most of its personnel had sought underground shelter, the 2
^nd
Ecrustian Bde suffered over 200 casualties, one hundred of those when the shelter under hangar three caved in.

A minute later those same imperial fighters were scrambling to avoid destruction as they tried to return to their carrier. Resistance fighters were forced one moment to fire defensive missiles and the next offensive strikes of their own. It was a melee albeit over a huge area.

It was all over in two minutes. Because of the jamming it was not possible to get immediate results. Over the next five minutes as the calls came in Felis realised that they had suffered the loss of 22 fighters, 26 launchers and over four hundred personnel. Lewista spaceport had been put out of action, not that it was possible to use it with an enemy fleet overhead anyway.

On the positive side their tally of enemy losses amounted to the destruction of 46 enemy fighters. That was a major loss for the enemy and would curtail their ability to support what Felis now knew was coming.

“Make sure the surviving batteries are restocked and ready to fire as soon as possible” ordered Felis. “Bonitis, get me the commander of the 2
^nd
Ecrustain on the line.”

Felis knew that the commander, if he was still alive, would be incredibly busy right now but he wanted to ensure that his prime focus was on repelling the assault. When the call came through he was surprised at how well the commander sounded. Perhaps the effects of shock thought Felis. He didn’t talk for long and the commander appreciated that. When he hung up Felis thought ‘it’s certainly a different feel when you are this remote.’

“Here they come again” announced Selinta. “Shuttles, lots plus 25 fighters…where do they get them from?”

No one answered Selinta’s question.

“Our fighters are still rearming” announced Kraag.

“OK the key here are those shuttles. We’re probably not going to stop them from unloading. There’s just not enough time. So we nail them on the way back. Whatever launchers we have ready now, engage them on the way in. The aim is to expend their fighter missiles. Delay our fighter launches till they are returning.”

“Got it” said Kraag.

“Bonitis,” said Felis “put a rocket up the bum of that 3
^rd
Ecrustian. Have them force-march, do whatever, but they need to get to the spaceport as fast as they can.”

“What about the 1
^st
?” asked Bonitis.

“No, they stay at the Mintoslum facility, even if we lose the spaceport.”

“Why? What’s so important there?”

“The devices they used in Qwantum.”

Bonitis instinctively put the four fingers of his left hand through his grey hair. “They developed that here?”

“Yes. We can lose the spaceport but not that facility. Is that understood?”

“Understood.”

Chapter 25. Batlasan over Cheklin 0954, 16 September

Puros rubbed his hands. It had been messy and costly, in terms of his fighters. That was for sure. But he felt confident now that his assault would succeed. He watched a little apprehensively as still more resistance launchers fired missiles at his assault craft. But he watched with delight as his fighters were able to neutralise all but a few of the enemy missiles. He lost just one shuttle on the run in. They landed at the spaceport. He would have to wait before he knew how his ground troops were fairing.

“Find that enemy transmitter – the one that is jamming us - and destroy it” he barked.

Chapter 26. Neeblo 1000, 16 September

As Felis watched the arcs on the holo representing his remaining fighters Selinta yelled out in a higher pitch than usual “More ships incoming.” All eyes were searching the holo display for the new icons. They popped up some 400,000 kms (400K) away, sun side, a little below the system plane.

Kraag’s jaw visibly dropped. Just when he thought they could handle things here.

“Definitely rogan ships” said Selinta. She double tapped on the icons on her terminal in front of her for their data. “Looks like the 2nd RIF.”

“Hail her” said Felis but then realised they couldn’t. “Fuck this jamming.”

“I suppose we’ll know soon enough” said Kraag. Felis could tell the disappointment in his tone.

“All right, listen everyone” said Felis “they are probably hostile but we won’t know that for sure for some time yet.”  He knew that the best defence against an anxious mind was a task at hand.

“So in the meantime we need to stay focussed on the task at hand. Bonitis find out the ETA for the 3
^rd
Ecrustian. Rotina find out how many fighters we can have available by the time that fleet gets here. Kraag order all batteries on the other side of the planet to redeploy to the southern region. You’re responsible for assigning them. Selinta I want to know everything that’s pertinent about the 2
^nd
RIF. OK come on let’s do it.”

Kraag piped up a minute later. “It’s going to take the 2
^nd
RIF just under two hours to get here.”

“Thank you” said Felis. “How do I call the President on this antiquated system?”

“Let me do that for you Sir” said Selinta.

Felis briefed Meelanda who was in the middle of a media interview. She stood up from her chair and said “We’ll have to continue this later” and she and Evie made their way across to the ops room. Felis simply pointed to the icons for the 2nd RIF.