Resilience (Warner's World Book 6) (48 page)

Dave didn’t mind being the butt of her story. “Well go on, put it on” he said. He helped her. A minute later the green stone sparkled under the light to the admiration of all.

Rihan looked tickled pink. She gave Dave a peck on the cheek and then whispered in his ear “I love you!”

Chapter 53. Audacity over Q2 0815, 9 October

Dave sat down at his desk in his office on A deck, scanned the messages in his in box and stopped at the one from Charles Chen. It took him a good five minutes to read the message and another five minutes to ponder it. His first reaction was to share this with Rihan. But then he thought better of it. It would be a big distraction at a time when focus on the upcoming battle was paramount.

He drafted a reply to Charles thanking him for his message and saying that he would ponder it but that for the coming months he had to stay focussed on the war. He promised to give him a reply later, without specifying exactly when.

He sat back in his chair and pondered some more. ‘What am I doing?’ he asked himself. ‘It’s such a fanciful proposition.’ “Maybe I should just ignore it” he said out loud to himself, just as Rihan walked in.

“Ignore what darling?” she asked as she sat down opposite him.

“Nothing” said Dave. “Are we ready?”

“Almost. Just waiting on Julian to give me the go ahead.”

“Well he better come through. We need this ALS to work. It will give an edge in flight ops.”

“If it works” said Rihan but thinking better of it she added “I’m sure Julian will come though.”

As if on cue, Julian hailed Rihan to let her know they had a green light. “We’re good to go” said Rihan as she stood.

They walked out into corridor and headed towards the command centre.

“Have you given any thought as to what you want to do after this war is over” asked Dave.

“Make babies. Isn’t that still our plan?”

Dave smiled “That does sound appealing.”

Part 6
Back into the Fray

Repaired, reformed, recharged

With steadied nerves all focussed

Aware, alive and alert

Now bent to a new locus

What hasn’t killed you

Has made you stronger

Fear’s dreaded hold

Binds you no longer

Into the light

On a brand new day

You venture forth

Back into the fray!

Chapter 1. Slidwon 1530, 9 October

“Offensive action” exclaimed Hazon to the senior officers gathered around the conference table, “yes that is the rogan way. But we are not going to commit our forces piecemeal anymore.” He stared into the older eyes looking at him. They were all older eyes but only Nestor’s were senior. It pleased Hazon. It pleased him a lot to finally have the upper hand at these planning conferences. So often he had been ignored and so often he had been right. “The enemy has proved more than capable of defeating a single fleet” continued Hazon.

“But the humans defeated our combined fleet over Polaris” interrupted Vice Admiral Daeon Pugernon “and that debacle has put us in this precarious situation.”

“And who’s to blame for that?” countered Hazon “Sallusam, who was too arrogant to heed good counsel. Well that is not going to happen again. Sallusam rots in a Republican jail and good riddance I say.”

“The first change we are going to implement is to the way we exercise command. From here on fleet commanders will consult with their XO and operations staff about key planning decisions. There will be no more flying solo. It is too prone to making disastrous decisions and we cannot afford another.”

“That’s an insult” spat out Vice Admiral Cientum Figlis. “How dare you try and force this indignity on us.” Cientum looked around for support but then realised he had made a mistake. None was forthcoming. The nod from Nestor to Hazon sealed his fate.

“Hum” said Hazon. “That was your last outburst Figlis. Your days of command are over. You’re dismissed.”

Cientum again looked around for support and again got none. He dared not press again. He was now afraid for his family. His shame would be hard to bear but their loss he could not. He stood up, collected his things and left without saying another word.

The other faces were casting looks around the room but no one spoke. They waited for Hazon. He enjoyed the moment of silence it highlighted the power shift that had just taken place. Finally he spoke in a normal voice as if nothing had just happened.

“The second change is that we will not send our fleets to an enemy system without sufficient ground troops to occupy and secure the system.” Hazon looked around to ensure there was no dissent. “Third” he said holding up three fingers “We will not go off chasing enemy stealth ships. That is sheer folly. We must lure them to us, detect them and defeat them with superior firepower.”

“So you are opting for the defence?” Daeon asked.

“Yes and no” said Hazon. “Here, let me explain.”

It was a good half hour later when Daeon, the only one of the Admirals daring to engage Hazon in debate, spoke. “You really think they will attack us here?”

“I do and we need to be ready for them.”

“Even so, your strategy means that the Resistance in the other systems will go unchecked.”

“Till the 13
^th
RIF arrives at the end of the month. Then we will use it and the 14
^th
to retake Cheklin. We will commit three divisions to that operation. That should be enough ground forces to prevail. It will still leave three fleets here to secure Istridium.”

“But we’ll lose the sleth home worlds if we do not commit at least one fleet there” piped up Vice Admiral Simion Seglitus. He nervously looked around for support.

“Simion is right” said Daeon. Simion breathed a sigh of relief at being supported.

“Maybe” responded Hazon “but I would rather lose the sleth systems than Istridium. This is the seat of our power. It accounts for 25% of all military production.”

“And if we do, the sleth will come back at us” added Simion. “We have not treated them kindly and we cannot expect less from them.”

“But they do not have a fleet anymore” said Hazon.

“Yet they field… what is it… over 50,000 troops.”

“Spread out over eight systems” countered Hazon.  “They lack the transports to concentrate. The 33
^rd
Flotilla will suffice to prevent them doing so.”

“That assumes the humans won’t intervene. The Sleth systems are closer to Qwantum than Istridium.”

“True. But even if they do turn in that direction it will mean our operation to retake Cheklin will definitely succeed and we will have retaken our home world. We need to focus on the essentials. We no longer have the luxury to focus on multiple fronts.”

Simion looked to Daeon but could see he was not going to press the matter any further. So he nodded to Hazon.

“Thank you” said Hazon “this has been a good debate. We need more of this. We need to test our strategies before committing to them. We become stronger doing so. It is not a sign of weakness. Use your subordinates. They have wisdom. Draw on it. In doing so, you become a better commander not a weaker one.”

After the others had departed Nestor stood up and placed his hand on Hazon’s shoulder. “Well done my friend. You have your job cut out for you but you have made a good start.”

Chapter 2. Kiev over Q2 1000, 10 October

Phil was in the command centre observing the holo at the start of the exercise that would see a ground assault by the Federation Army’s First Division, commonly referred to as the ‘Big Red 1’, onto Q2. It would then link up with the two republican brigades and advance to Rollinium. All was going well so far. The Big Red 1 was now on the surface. Phil had a content look on his face. It was not to last long.

Alex came in and asked Phil to come back to his office. Phil knew that meant trouble. They walked in silence till they entered his office, where Gret, the sleth political liaison, was waiting. Phil cast him a wary eye as he gave him a “Good morning” and ushered Gret to take a seat.

“So what’s so urgent?” asked Phil.

“I have received a signal from my father requesting your urgent intervention to secure our home worlds” said Gret. His tone was calm and he had an expression on his reptilian face that was slightly more favourable than neutral.

“I thought we had been through all this” said Phil.

“Yes, but there have been developments. The resistance on three of our home worlds have succeeded in overthrowing the imperialists. We need your urgent commitment of transports and a modest number of warships to enable us to concentrate our force and recapture Slenthsl. We have three brigades of troopers ready now. They just need to be transported there and supported during the initial landings. We have a further two brigades on Slenthsl already engaging the imperialists. It is ready to fall. Slenthsl has ship production capabilities. Once we control those we can build our own fleet.”

Phil’s expression betrayed his feelings and these were not favourable. Gret, ever astute, picked up on these and so he skipped part of his spiel and went straight to the part that he thought would clinch the deal he was after. “In exchange for your support in this regard, we are prepared to offer you three brigades of sleth troopers once Slenthsl is secure. Your warships can escort them back here.” Gret even managed a soft smile as he cocked his head towards Phil.

A smile came over Phil’s face. It caused Gret’s own smile to broaden. But then Phil’s smile was replaced with a concerned look. “Transports I have” said Phil “but fast warships are in very short supply. How much opposition is there within your systems now?”

“Our latest intel is that the enemy has two caps and two frigates over Slenthsl and another pair of frigates warping between systems as required. We are prepared to commit our remaining cap and two frigates to the operation. We believe that if you commit the Audacity Group we would have enough force.”

“The whole group?”

“Yes but our ground troops will bear the biggest burden of any ground operation.”

“That’s as well, but for how long?”

Gret smiled. He knew this would be asked and he believed he had an answer that would please the Admiral. “We need 20 transports for as long as it takes to secure all our home worlds. Three months is our estimate. We would need another 12 to ferry our brigades to you and this should take no more than ten days.”

“And the warships?” interjected Phil.

“Four, maybe five weeks; six at the most.” There was a slight note of hesitancy in Gret’s voice.

“Mmm…that means delaying our main op yet again. We will need another week to ready them after they return here.” Phil consulted the calendar on his terminal. “That means slipping our op till the beginning of December. I’m not sure, the resistance on Slidwon will be able to hold that long. What do you think Alex?”

Alex had anticipated this question. “If we stick to our plan we can count on two battered brigades of rogan troops on Istridium – the 32
^nd
and 33rd. They are getting new recruits daily but they’re untrained. If we wait till the second week in December we will have these three hardened sleth brigades plus the Gelk. They’re due in on the 1
^st
of December, remember?” Phil nodded. “And they come with a whole corps of 50,000 troops.”

“I can see the merit in that” said Phil “but I am also worried about the readiness of Dave’s new ships. They really need some time to work up together. That was what the next two weeks were for.”

“Could we split the difference Admiral” suggested Gret. “We can wait a week.” Gret had a soft smile and his facial expression said ‘what do you think of that?’

“OK let me consult with my staff. I will give you an answer later today.”

“Of course. Thank you Admiral.”

After Gret left, Phil commented to Alex “smooth talking bugger is our Gret.”

Alex tilted his head and replied “Yes, he is that. For what it’s worth I reckon it’s a good deal.”

“Yeah, me too, provided we don’t lose those warships – or too many marines. We need to consult with Dave on this. When is his fleet due back?”

“They are scheduled back at 1600. I could ask them to return sooner.”

“No. It can wait till then. Ask Lawrence to hand over his role in the exercise and work us up a plan for this commitment. I want him to highlight any issues that could affect their return time.”

“Will do” replied Alex.

Ten minutes later it was an annoyed Lawrence McGreedy, the new OPS Officer at Combined HQ, that tore himself away from an exercise he had written and was supposed to be overseeing. He was in Alex’s office. “So what’s so important?” he asked. Alex took only five minutes to explain the situation.

Lawrence’s demeanour had changed. “I’m sure we can make this work.”

“The boss will be glad to hear that.”

“You know this is manner from heaven. My biggest concern so far has been having enough ground troops” said Lawrence. He stood his tall lanky frame up and added “I’ll be back.”

Alex smiled as he departed. He had always liked working with Lawrence. He had a great get up and go attitude. They had served together on Phil’s old staff at Special Operations for two years. But physically Lawrence did not look as robust as he once had. The tropical disease he had come down with had taken its toll. He now had an almost gaunt look to him. Reflecting on this took the smile off Alex’s face.

It wasn’t until 1630 that Dave walked into Phil’s office.

“How did it go Dave?” asked Phil.

“The ALS is working fine now” reported Dave. “The fighters and bombers got a real work out. Toyah impressed. She knows her stuff. She managed to coordinate the fighters from carrier and the caps really well.”

“Good to hear. Now I want to run past you a proposition that the sleth have just put to me. I said I wanted to consult with you before I gave my response. So nothing has been agreed. I want you to listen to this and hold off commenting till Alex and Lawrence have finished.” Dave nodded. “Alex?” asked Phil.