Scaevola's Triumph (Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy Book 3) (39 page)

"Yes," the general smiled, "we have spies. We sent a shipload out a few months before this fleet set out, and we have some messages from them. One piece of good news is that the M'starn are quite arrogant, and are ruling as occupying autocrats. It seems that even if over seven hundred and fifty years of occupation have transpired, they haven't attempted to integrate the Ulsians into their society."

"Why's that?" the Lieutenant General asked. "I would have thought that it would be highly desirable to try to get the conquered people on your side."

"We don't know," Slaben shrugged.

"A more important question," Gaius asked, "is why are there Ulsians there at all?"

"What?" one of the Colonels asked in a tone of indignant anger, as if Gaius had implied that Ulsians were not worth keeping alive.

"I'm not sure how to put this," Gaius said, as he quickly tried to calm down the indignation, "but it may be important. I believe Ulsian reproduction is only carried out −"

"There's one hive on each planet," Slaben interrupted, as he turned towards Gaius and nodded, "and you are correct. This is important. Originally there were four hives on the central planet, but it seems three were exterminated. We do not know why this one survived. Presumably they made some sort of deal with the enemy."

"That's unacceptable," someone said.

"That's practical," Gaius retorted. "The alternative's for them all to die, and that's not a very good long term strategy."

"Quite so," Slaben acknowledged. "Now, if there are no further comments on this topic, we should continue."

"I'm sorry, sir," Gaius said, "but it is important at least to the extent that we need to know whether we shall have the support of the Ulsian population."

"I would expect that there will be support for their own species," the General said, "however we cannot expect anything overt before it is clear we are going to win. Remember, they have to live there afterwards if we fail. Now, from our point of view, there's good news. As you might expect from the sheer logistics, the enemy haven't got huge numbers of ground troops there, and there appears to be little heavy armour. Their major forces have always been battle ships, and, of course, the fixed defensive weapons on each planet. Unfortunately our spies cannot give complete deployment details on these, but we do know where some are, hence we shall at least destroy them early. If we can neutralise their space fleet and get our forces on the ground, we should prevail."

"And the bad news?" someone asked.

"That's for Admiral Claudius," the General said, and all heads turned towards Gaius. "In terms of fighting ships, we appear to be outnumbered. Besides the expected defensive forces, they have an attack fleet here too."

"The bad news applies to you too," Gaius offered, "at least until you all get out of these ships."

"Too true," the Lieutenant General agreed wistfully.

"So our first decisions are to select our objectives, put them in order, and decide how to go about achieving them," General Slaben said.

Since they did not have the force to do everything at the same time, there were basically three options. They could try to reach one of the two key planets with an invasion force, hoping that their warships could protect them sufficiently that enough would get through. The more surprise they could achieve, the better their chances. The third option was that the transporters could be parked while the battle fleet went out to clear out the enemy. If they succeeded, the invasion should be straightforward, and this option got some endorsement from two of the Colonels, until a Major General pointed out that if Claudius lost, the rest of the invasion fleet would have no protection, and they would all be destroyed.

While these discussions were proceeding, neither Gaius nor General Slaben spoke. Gaius was quite amused. It seemed to be yet a further example of the Ulsians talking their heads off rather than someone make a decision, but then he reflected that more than once he had done the same with his juniors.

"The main issue from my point of view," Gaius offered eventually, "is how close can we get before the enemy know about us?"

"The detection system will pick us up in about three hours," came the technical answer. "If we stopped decelerating, it would still take nearly two days to get there."

"Pick up what?" Gaius asked curiously.

"Our exhausts," the officer said, as if this was obvious. "They won't actually see us, or detect our mass, until we're virtually on top of them, although, of course, they can estimate mass from the exhaust power and rate of deceleration."

"Then we should send out a small force to knock out at least one detector system," Gaius said, "and preferably one on the line out from the planet we aren't going to attack."

"The one we aren't . . ?" a Colonel protested.

"Make them think we have more forces further out," Gaius shrugged. "While we know we can't attack on two fronts, they don't."

This point was agreed, and eventually it was decided that they should attack the inner planet and its moon, first because the moon contained the prime objective, and if, overall, they failed, they might still succeed in that limited objective; second because they had two targets close together; third, Ligra 2.0 was the only planet where, if they took it, the result would be critical; finally Ligra 2.0 was the only target where they had sufficient information on fixed defences to mount an initial high intensity attack that might result in an early landing approach. If they attacked something else first, these defences would presumably be moved and built up during any delaying period. Also, while they may not be able to take both at the same time, the enemy would not be sure which would be the first target. This agreement committed the force to action, and the whole meeting suddenly went quiet, almost as if realization suddenly struck that this was not an academic discussion. As Gaius remarked later, he had never seen so many silent Ulsians in the same place.

"Sir!" Klendor said, breaking the silence. "Permission to speak freely?"

"Granted," Slaben nodded. "If you're at this meeting, you're expected to contribute."

"With respect, sir, I believe that merely destroying this detection system there," and he used a light beam to indicate the station out from the outer rocky planet, "is not sufficient."

"And you suggest?" Slaben asked curiously.

Klendor looked at Gaius almost apologetically, so Gaius smiled, and nodded that he must continue.

"I believe sir that a small force could do more. If we knock out the detector system and drive at high speed towards Ligra 3.0 we shall get free shots at any warships powering up consequent to what message they get from the detectors. One ship then peels off at high speed and knocks out this communications system here," and he pointed to the screen again. "With that out, sir, the central star stops communication. The main planet will receive this information in this sequence: one, the outer detector is knocked out; two, warships are attacked; three there are no further communications. They won't know what to do, and they may send part of their fleet out here on a wild goose chase. If you can time your approach correctly, it may make things easier."

Slaben thought for a moment, then turned towards Gaius. "Your thoughts?"

"It seems an excellent idea, sir," Gaius said, "provided the raiders don't get carried away. With the start they have, they can always outrun the enemy."

"Approved," Slaben nodded, after a moment's thought. He then addressed Klendor. "Your idea, you will command. What force do you think you need?"

"Only five ships sir," Klendor said.

"Agreed," Slaben said, then he added, "Yours, those three ships," he said, and pointed to a command diagram, "and for the last ship . . . Claudia Lucilla." He paused, then turned to Gaius. "That meets with your approval?"

For an instant, Gaius was stunned, then he realised he could say nothing regarding his sister. He had approved the attack. If it were too dangerous for his sister, why was it not too dangerous for the Ulsians? He thought for a moment, only too aware of the glances in his direction, then he realized he had to say something, and something the others had not thought about to justify the length of the pause. Under no circumstances could he give the others grounds for thinking that he was contemplating the protection of his sister. Finally he said, "I suggest one addition to the force. There should be a further craft containing a moderate-sized detachment of infantry and gunners, with sufficient cannon-power to repel a small enemy space force."

"What for?" a puzzled Colonel asked. "Surely you're not thinking that such a small force could take a planet?"

"You don't know the enemy fleet deployment?" Gaius asked Slaben.

"We don't have that information," Slaben acknowledged.

"Under most circumstances it will be a waste of time," Gaius agreed, "but there might be a lightly defended minor outpost on the planet. From what I make out, there is only one moderate sized settlement there, correct?"

"Essentially correct," the senior intelligence officer said. "There are a few squibs of settlements, but only one worth while."

"Nothing has happened for over seven hundred and fifty years here," Gaius said slowly. "They thought up until very recently, and maybe the news has yet to filter through, that Ulse would likely be wiped out. Whatever, they have no reason to believe we shall attack, and most of their defences are ships. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that it is essentially undefended. If that were the case, we might take one planet without effort, and that would really confuse the enemy. They may then think Ligra 3 is our first goal. However, if we do that, we have to have some means of holding it against a small force perhaps exercising on the planet. I know that what I am suggesting may be a waste of time, but it would be silly not to have the means to take advantage of a gross enemy error."

There was a further stunned silence until the second Lieutenant-General pointed out that the deployment of one attack barge would make little or no difference to the primary attack, and he agreed that it might be able to give the impression, by taking a minor outpost, that the Ulsians intended to land at Ligra 3. That might throw up enough confusion to make it easier elsewhere.

"Agreed," Slaben said. "That small carrier will follow. It contains enough pulse cannon that if a reasonable space on the planet can be taken, then we fire on enemy ships approaching the planet." He turned and saw the looks of disapproval. "I know," he said. "This doesn't make a lot of sense, but think of it from the enemy's point of view. If anything is certain about that plan, it is this. If it succeeds, we can be sure it's not going to make it easier for the enemy to know how to deploy his space ships. And if he deploys a major fleet towards Ligra 3 there'll be plenty of time to evacuate the troops there, and I'm sure Admiral Claudius will welcome attacking half rather than the whole enemy fleet. Also, if our first battle is inconclusive, we might yet welcome an alternative base. Now, let us consider the main objective. Depending on how the initial battle goes, this is how we shall deploy . . ."

Gaius gave Slaben increasing looks of respect. Each troop ship was given instructions, conditional on what happened between the warships. They were not specific, but rather general instructions on the attitude the commanders should take. Nobody could predict where the gaps would come, but there were principles to follow on whether to take them, and to ensure all the ships followed the same plan. But overall, everything depended on his forces because if they could not at least tie the enemy warships up for ten hours, there would be no further battle.

When he finished, Slaben then gave the floor to Gaius. He was now to give the order of battle for the battleships. He thanked Slaben, walked towards the screen, keyed up the list of ships, then calmly gave the order of battle. As he returned to his seat when he had finished, he was quite amused to see the stunned expressions. No Ulsian would deploy like this!

Chapter 31

A small shuttle from the troop ship left Klendor's group and applied maximum deceleration, the intention being to put off a small squad to take control of the sensor array. The sensor would pick this up, but the sensor array should be essentially undefended. The group would pass by at approximately one-quarter light speed, heading for the third planet.

As the sensor system came into detector view, Klendor received a report that there were two enemy ships tethered to it, presumably carrying out repairs. As the ships approached, signs could be detected of frantic attempts to get their motors started. By the time the four ships reached the sensor, the enemy ships had finally begun to move, but too slowly to take evasive action. The computers determined the optimum firing pattern, and as the small wing soared past, two bursts of pulse cannon were fired from each ship.

What Lucilla saw was black, the controls on her ship indicating weapons discharge, a bright flash, then black again. Her droid controller offered to show what had happened at a high magnification and with time slowed significantly. There across the screen were the two ships crawling at almost negligible speed from the array, their motors forced to be at their minimum power so as not to damage the sensors. Nothing seemed to happen, although the corner of the image indicated that the pulse cannon had commenced firing. Then tremendous bursts of energy tore into these ships, peeling off masses of metal, then in turn the motors became incandescent and the ships effectively vaporized, destroying all on board. Lucilla shuddered, as she realized this too could be her fate if all did not go well.

Klendor's image appeared on her screen, congratulating the other ships, and then ordering maximum deceleration. It was important not to arrive at Ligra 3 at such a velocity that they could not stay.

Following advice, Lucilla returned to her bed. With several hours with nothing to do, she might as well get some rest. That was the plan. In practice she found sleeping strangely difficult so she ordered some Ulsian music. She alone of the Terrans seemed to have made some progress at coming to terms with this. As it happened, her droid realized she could not sleep, and made its own special selection. This was successful. As the music droned on, Lucilla lost interest and when she finally realized that the music had stopped, several hours had passed. She ate the meal that had appeared, brushed her teeth, and returned to the bridge.