Resilience (Warner's World Book 6) (51 page)

The timings display on her terminal showed each of the sequential tasks, working backwards from the 0710 sunrise. Aubrey was focussed on the ‘latest start’ time which said 2310.

She glanced across to Dave and caught his attention and then stated “If we are to put in this ground assault tonight, we need to start at 2310.”

“Looks like we will be cutting it fine then” replied Dave. Despite the fact that he had a sleep during the afternoon in preparation for a long night, he was already feeling tired. “Let’s take a break for an hour.”

“Crystal and Mandy you better stay here” directed Rihan. “Cindy and Felix relieve them in half an hour.”

At 2200 the command centre was full again and Cindy had already recovered the probe and confirmed there was no enemy frigate on the far side of Slenthsl. It was this fact that was responsible for the quiet in the command centre as minds pondered the options.

Crystal piped up first with “They’re either gone or are lurking behind one of the other planets or out in deep space. They’ll have to warp back here to intervene. If we attack now it will be too late for them to have any real impact.”

“I second that” endorsed Chase.

Dave looked to Rihan who gave a nod. “Accepted” states Dave. “Start the ball rolling Aubrey.”

“Launch comms probe” ordered Aubrey.

“Launched…two minutes to activation” announced Cindy. The comms probe bustered out on its path that would take it out another 20K away from the group. There it would broadcast a very short data transmission to the rest of the group conveying the latest orders. An additional five minutes had been allowed for the recipients to review the plan. More time for this would have been good but they did not have that luxury.

At 2310 the Audacity’s impulse engines were engaged and the big ship accelerated to 65 kps. This was not its max speed. But by choosing this it enabled any of its subordinate ships some leeway to catch up.

The plan called for the three caps to close to within 10K range of their respective targets and conduct beam attacks on the enemy ships. They had some latitude in terms of their attack location provided their attack was timed for 2330. The Audacity would loiter 25K out from the enemy ships along with the Phantom and Condor frigates. This would put them at 55K above the planet and outside of their ground based missiles. They would only intervene if the caps got into trouble. Once the caps beamed their target they would move at max speed back to the Audacity. Provided they high tailed it they should be safe from enemy ground based missiles.

The Audacity reached its objective and loitered. Dave hated this part. All his ships were cloaked and so there were only ghosted icons on the holo other than for the solid ones for the enemy ships. Everyone was silent, watching the timer count down.

Mandy and Felix were scanning their terminals for any new sightings. Cindy had her cyber-attack all set in case it was needed but every few seconds she stole a glance at Art’s terminal as he scanned the reports streaming in from the planet’s indie channels.

“Qwela fell yesterday to the sleth” announced Art. “But according to this report, which is…four hours old…the rogan are counterattacking to regain it.”

“Where’s Qwela?” asks Dave.

“300 clicks south west of Nenrit” advised Col Obri, the sleth liaison officer. He had come forward from his observer chair and picked up the holo wand from Sue’s workstation and used it to bring Qwela into view. “Our 8
^th
Brigade most likely.”

“Thank you Obri” said Dave. He gave Obri a nod and Obri took that as the signal for him to sit back in his seat.

Toyah, Sue, Chase and Aubrey were at their ops stations and were in essence spectators. Gordon was sitting in one of the observer chairs behind Aubrey. He had the ground plan opened on his console but he’d long digested it and was content to just to sit and wait for developments.

At 2329 Crystal announced “Attack in one folks.” She visually made eye contact with Mandy, Felix and Cindy. They each gave her a non-verbal signal confirming they were ready. “In five, four, three, two, one.”

There was a momentary delay before Mandy announced “Beam attacks underway.” A few seconds later she added in a very matter of fact manner “smote all enemy ships.”

“Ground based missiles fired. Lots” announced Felix and then in a slightly higher sounding voice added “Lots and lots.” His voice lowered to its normal cadence. “At our caps…570…80, 600. 600 runners. Our caps bustering back. They’ll be good.”

“Warp the transports” commanded Dave.

“Command sent” announced Aubrey. “Decloaking.”

“Reactivate cloak” commanded Crsytal.

“Belay that” directed Dave. “We’re out of harm’s way. Let’s see if our impie frigate is tempted to show itself. Besides I’m sure our ships would appreciate a definite fix on us.”

Dave was busy with calls to his cap commanders. He was taking the opportunity to verbally confirm arrangements before they recloaked.

“Fighters launching” announced Felix.

“Got to go Ivan” hailed Dave as he terminated his call. He was now regretting his decision to decloak so soon. He should have waited before sending that command to the transports.

“We have three streams totalling 120 fighters” announced Felix and added “they’re heading our way, surprise, surprise!”

“All limas to CAP” ordered Dave. “Toyah have the squadrons from our caps fire their load offensively and your group defensively one for one. All ships prepare to engage leakers as required.”

“Roger that” said Toyah “but they’ll probably release early and turn back. We may not get a shot at them in time.”

“Do it anyway.”

“Confirmed. But I recommend we have the cap squadrons burst to 40K, release and buster back.”

“Do it.”

It took the enemy fighters almost five minutes to climb to 20K and released their missiles. They were all fired at the Audacity. “Shit we have 720 missiles coming our way” announced Felix.”

“Defensive javelins away” announced Torah.

In the same time as the enemy fighters climbed to their 20K release point, the 36 limas from the caps dove to reach the 40K mark and fired at the enemy fighters. The javelins were faster than the rogan fighter missiles but it would be a race to see how many of the enemy fighters they could take out.

“Ground based missiles launched” announced Felix. “200 at cap limas, 600 at javelins targeting their fighters.”

“Cap lima’s will be fine” announced Toyah after checking the possible intercepts.

Two minutes later Mandy announced “We’ve splashed 42 of their fighters. Looks like the rest got back down.”

All eyes were now on the missiles tracks engaging each other around the 40K zone. The superior smarts on the javelins gave them the edge in the deadly dance underway. But they were not full proof.

“130 leakers” announced Felix. “Engaging one for one. Close-in to auto.” Felix had no delusion about his capacity to do a better job than the AI in managing the close-in defence systems. “Slaving caps” announced Felix “Allocating 45 from each. Engaging one for one.” This would in effect have the caps fire 45 of their ship missiles at a portion of the 130 leakers. The AI would handle the allocation to avoid double up. The net effect was that the group as a whole was engaging the leakers two for one.

Crystal was pleased with the way Felix was handling his duties. He was proving to be a steady hand under trying circumstances. She wanted to praise him then and there but knew better than to distract him.

A minute later Felix announced “All down bar three. Brace.”

The ‘Brace’ command wasn’t needed in the end as the pulse and short ranged beam defences took out the enemy missiles. Felix finally let out his breath and managed to smile in relief. Crystal was about to say something but was beaten to the punch by Mandy who announced “Bogey four detected. It’s in the asteroid belt. Range 210 million…that was 24 minutes ago.”

“Is it moving?” asked Crystal.

“Yes…it’s warped away” advised Mandy. “Requesting vectors from caps” advised Mandy. This would send a signal to each of the caps and asking them to send back their vector of the enemy craft. In this way she would get a triangulation, albeit not a good one. She was not requesting one from the other ships because that would decloak them.

Dave waited patiently for the result. It would affect his next move.

“Not our way. Looks like out of the system” advised Mandy.

“Well you can bet the powers to be at Slidwon will know about this soon.  Oh well at least we can proceed with our insertion” commented Dave. “Well done everyone…”

“Great work Felix” said Crystal and then realising Dave wasn’t finished she looked at him apologetically.

Dave smiled back at her and said “Yes excellent work under pressure there Felix.”

Felix beamed with satisfaction and Mandy gave him a gentle wack on the back from her adjacent seat.

“I’ve got a Colonel Elinth of the 8
^th
Sleth Bde wanting to speak with you Sir.”

Dave turned to Obri, “Do you want to take this?” asked Dave.

A smile came over Obri’s face and he lifted his communicator and hit the control to take the call. “Elinth, you old rascal, this is Obri.”

“Obri, looks like I have just lost my bet. I was sure you wouldn’t show. But I am glad you have arrived. We could do with a hand. How many are with you?”

“Just the 1
^st
for now. The 2
^nd
and 3
^rd
won’t arrive till tomorrow.”

“With all three we will win here for sure. We’re having a rough time at the moment though. Looks like the enemy have thrown their reserves at us. I’m uploading coordinates for the DZ. When can you arrive?”

“We have to wait for our transports. They will be here in…three and a half hours. Should have the 1
^st
Bde down to you by dawn. Will have to wait till the next nightfall to insert the others.”

“That works for me. We hold the DZ for now but the enemy is counter-attacking. Best get down as soon as you can.”

“We will…wait, Rear Admiral Warner wants to speak to you.”

“Colonel Elinth” hailed Dave.

“An honour to speak with you Admiral.”

“Can you provide us with all the intel you have on known enemy forces, especially missile sites and fighter bases.”

“Of course. I will do so straight away. We’ve knocked out most of their sites and bases. There are really only three fighter bases and you should already have their locations no?”

“Yes we have those that engaged us. Is that all that are still operational?”

“All we know of. As to missile sites, as far as we know the enemy only has mobile missile batteries. We knew of ten yesterday but they have since moved. The ones that fired at you now will have certainly moved on.”

“OK, but I would still like an intel exchange as soon as possible.”

“Straight away Admiral. Welcome to Slenthsl.”

Five minutes later Art advised he had the upload of intel data from Elinth.

“Good” acknowledged Dave. “We need to find and destroy those batteries…” his voice trailed off as he had a thought. He then turned to Gordon and said “I may have a mission for your commandoes.”

“Sure. What do you have in mind?”

“Normally we’d go for the missiles sites first. But with them being mobile the only fixed targets are their fighter bases. I plan to bombard these but we really need eyes on the ground to designate them. I want to insert three teams to do that.”

“And you want them to go now before the main lift?”

“Have to. We’ve only got limited lift capacity.”

Gordon nodded. “What happens if they need to exfil in a hurry?”

“Not a problem, so long as it’s before those shuttles are needed for the main lift. Otherwise they may need to go doggo till we can get to them.”

Sue who had been listening to the conversation was already working the controls on her station. “How’s this?” she asked, directing their focus to the holo with a wave of her hand.

Gordon and Dave both turned to the holo and could see that it was now zoomed in on the area encompassing all three fighter bases. The three task  icons for the insertion by the three warthogs were highlighted. The sequential dismount, infil and target designations tasks were also there.

Gordon borrowed the holo wand and started interrogating the task data. He noted the three team leaders and their team members. As he scanned the order of battle he checked their skill set. He knew they were all trained in target designation but old habits die hard. He zoomed the holo in so he could get a better idea of how far the DZs were from their objective. When he got to the third one he asked “is that the closest we can get them?”

Sue dragged the DZ a little closer. The insertion route updated and she expanded the route data. “Yeah” she replied “See the increase in likely detection. If we bring ‘em closer, there’s now a 40% chance of visual detection.”

“Alright. Leave it as it was. Looks good.” Gordon turned to Dave “You happy?”

“I am if you are” said Dave with just a hint of a smile.

Gordon smiled. “I’d like to brief them then or do you need me here?”

“No you’re good to go Gordon but come back up when you’re done.”

“Will do” said Gordon as he got to his feet. “Reggie” he hailed as he strode out “I have a job for you.”

“Toyah” said Dave “once we have dealt with their fighters I want you to go hunting for those missile launchers.”

“Sure” acknowledged Toyah. “How many probes can I burn up?”

“Try and limit it to six OK?”

“We’ll try” said Toyah. Her expression though didn’t fill Dave with a lot of confidence. But he knew they had to flush them out and to do that they needed to bait them with a detectable target and it was always better with a probe than a fighter or a bomber for that matter.

“May need to escalate to a marauder strike.”

“Understood.”

“May need to be a whole flight to be credible.”

“Well let’s just take it in stages hey?”