So Fight I Read online

  “Is there anything else to this?” David asked.

  Ugh, I don’t want to open this can of worms up with the colonel. “Honestly, I got crosswise with Ms. Blackman soon after she was assigned.”

  “Details?”

  “She asked an engineer to redo a manual using a template that’s not CDF standard. When the engineer objected, she told me to fire him.”

  David broke into a wide smirk. “And after working with you for a few months, I’m going to go out a limb here and say you told her to pound sand.”

  “I was polite about it.”

  “I’ll deal with her,” David said with finality. “Why haven’t you been recruited by the government yet anyway?”

  “They tried. I said no enough that it doesn’t come up anymore.”

  “Why not? There’s a pension at the end of service.”

  “Because I won’t have any job I where I can’t remove people who don’t do theirs. Especially when we’re doing things that matter as much as keeping ships in operation for the war effort,” Kenneth said.

  “Did I mention lately I find your perspective to be refreshing?”

  “No, sir… er, no.”

  David smiled. “Well, keep it up. Anything you need from me?”

  “We’re good. Special Projects has a list of things for us to do a few miles long,” Kenneth replied. “At this rate, the list will only be halfway done in three years.”

  “I pray in three years we won’t be fighting this war.”

  “Me too.”

  David stood up. “I’d better be getting to the bridge myself. See you around, Kenneth.”

  Kenneth jumped up. “Thank you again.” As David walked off, he was left standing in the mess. Time for me to get back to work.

  4

  December 29th, 2460

  CDF Military Complex

  Canaan

  Admiral Resit Kartal, Supreme Allied Commander, Space Force for the Canaan Alliance, walked into an ornate conference room within the vast military complex on Canaan. Dozens of stories tall, extending deep into the ground, and so heavily reinforced that sustained orbital bombardment couldn’t destroy it without the use of strategic weapons, it was the crown jewel of CDF military administration. I prefer spartan quarters in the fleet to this overly soft palace. Warriors must stay focused on the battle. The comforts of home dilute that focus and cost lives. He had called a briefing with his senior staff, and leaders of the joint fleet. Operating strictly on a need-to-know basis, he and his most senior strategic advisor, and a specific CDF Intelligence officer who was present with them, had prepared to change the course of the war.

  As soon as his Saurian form appeared in the doorway, everyone in the room—military and civilian—leaped to their feet. Those in uniform braced to attention.

  He ticked off two seconds before speaking. “At ease. You may be seated.” Kartal took his place at the head of the table.

  Kartal’s head scales flushed a deep purple as he began his address. “Thank you all for coming on such short notice. Today, we have much to discuss. A breakthrough has been achieved in our struggle with the League of Sol. CDF Intelligence has discovered the location of the space station that the League uses to project power across our arm of the Milky Way.”

  Kartal was used to everyone paying attention to what he had to say; the stars on his shoulder guaranteed it. Everyone leaned forward, all the more interested in what he just said. “We have spent the last week ensuring the intelligence is correct. We double-, triple-checked the location and sowed stealth observation drones throughout the area. You, as the commanders of the space carrier battlegroups that make up our allied space force, now have a new set of orders. Every possible ship will stage at Canaan in a week.”

  A human general who commanded the Ark Royal’s SCVBG—Space Carrier Battlegroup—spoke. “Admiral, we’re in active combat across several fronts. Shouldn’t we be more cautious, consolidate our strength… finish driving the League off our planets, and then strike back?”

  “General Goodson, please tell me, what strategic value do marooned planets with no ability to project power have?”

  The man’s face contorted. “There are citizens of the Terran Coalition on them, living under the thumb of League occupation. That outweighs every other consideration.”

  “Does it? Would they like to momentarily be out from under the thumb of the League, or forever? I have briefed this until I am white in the face. If we do not decisively strike back against the League and force it to fight on our terms, there will be no victory. No! Our strategy will be to leave a token presence to keep the attention of League listening posts, and bleed every available combat ship off the front. I want a minimum of five hundred ships assembled for this battle, ladies and gentlemen.”

  “Admiral, if I may, what’s your tactical plan for taking this League strongpoint?” Goodson asked.

  “Deceptively simple, General. Kill Leaguers. Kill the Leaguer reinforcements. Capture the station. Keep killing Leaguers!”

  It wasn’t lost on Kartal that several of the humans exchanged worried glances with one another. The Saurians, though, nodded their approval. Strong is our desire for combat. “The entire plan is available for viewing inside of the special compartmentalized communication suite on your flagships, or within this facility. I expect everyone to read it front to back, understand it completely, and be ready to execute by 0900 on Friday. That’ll give you a little under two days.”

  “That’s not a lot of time, sir,” a brigadier general said from in the back, giving voice to what Kartal suspected many of them thought.

  “No, it's not. There wasn’t a lot of time when the Royal Saurian Navy joined this war. We answered the call. There is rarely little time in war. This is actionable intelligence, backed by real-time surveillance. For my service, that’s the gold standard. I assume it is for the CDF as well?”

  “Yes, sir,” the general replied, his tone appropriately chastened.

  “Any other questions?” Kartal counted off five seconds mentally. “Good. Dismissed.”

  David walked through a door marked as “Briefing Gallery C” in Canaan’s main military complex. This place is huge. Repurposed as the Supreme Allied Headquarters for the joint CDF and Royal Saurian Navy Expeditionary Force, it was so big, it was like its own city. Together with Aibek, he made his way to the assigned seat in the theater. There were rows and rows of seats; over a thousand in total. The entire room was jam-packed with ship commanders and their executive officers, as well as generals and other high-ranking officers from both militaries.

  “All the shining brass blinds me, Colonel,” Aibek commented in sotto voce, taking his seat beside David.

  David couldn’t help but snicker. “That’s your go-to line about flag officers.”

  “It is consistently funny.”

  “Point taken.”

  Waiting patiently for the briefing to begin, David’s mind ran wild with possibilities. What could be so important as to drag what looks like half the ships in the fleet back to Canaan? They’d successfully pushed the League out of Terran Coalition space and recovered many of the occupied worlds, including the deep space mining operations that would fuel the shipyards of both the Coalition and the Saurians for decades to come. Whatever it is, it's big.

  Suddenly, the room quieted down dramatically; from his seat two rows back from the front, David could see why. Admiral Resit Kartal walked onto the stage, dressed in a combat utility uniform. He’d been consistently impressed by the admiral. While some would let commanding a fleet of over eight hundred ships go to their respective heads, Kartal didn’t. It was always about the mission, and he was humble to a fault. Standing nearly six feet seven inches tall, he was massive even for a Saurian. The top of his head had a unique blue scale; David had never seen another Saurian with the same color scale combination before.

  “Members of the Coalition Defense Force and Saurian Royal Navy, thank you for joining me today. I hope to explain over the next
hour our plan to deliver a crippling blow to the League’s military efforts in the Sagittarian arm of our galaxy,” Kartal said as he opened his remarks. “Lights, please.”

  The lights in the briefing theater dimmed, and a central holoprojector came to life. Classification markings indicated the briefing was rated as Top Secret, Special Compartmentalized Information with a caveat that marked it as viewable by all properly cleared members of the Canaan Alliance.

  “What you are about to see is the culmination of six months of strategic planning and execution by the Allied Expeditionary Force staff,” Kartal continued. “I’d like to start by thanking the crew of the CSV Oxford, and specifically Colonel Robert Sinclair, who first found the location of our target.” Kartal paused for a moment as the holoprojector switched projections to show a system close to the edge of the Sagittarian arm. “It has been a mystery for some time to us as to how the League can seemingly throw endless amounts of war material at its enemies, while it lacks advanced logistical infrastructure in our region of space. Running in stealth mode, far ahead of our advance, the Oxford’s communications intercept team discovered the holy grail. We have found the League’s main logistical supply hub for its war efforts against our two nations.”

  The holoprojector’s image switched yet again to show a sprawling space installation that, when viewed against the League ships present, had a truly massive scale. David marveled at how many years it must have taken to build such a structure.

  “The Oxford has been monitoring this installation for the last two weeks, as we wrapped up clearing the League out from our space. With all known League battlegroups on our side of the frontier neutralized or forced to retreat, we are now in a position to strike a decisive blow in this war. Colonel Sinclair will now join us to explain what he’s learned about this installation and present our battle plan. Colonel?”

  Robert Sinclair walked out onto the stage to stand next to Kartal before the two men shook hands. “Thank you, Admiral.”

  Kartal handed Sinclair the small handheld clicker that controlled the holoprojector.

  Sinclair quickly moved the presentation forward, showing a tactical map of the area around the League space station. “As you all can see here, the League installation is a sprawling collection of modules. We think it was built over many years, perhaps even decades. From what we can tell, there are numerous weapons emplacements, meters of armor protecting key areas, and large numbers of small tactical craft based within it. This thing is like an old-school castle or strongpoint. Getting in will be hard. Capturing it will be even harder.”

  At the mention of the word “capture,” there was a wave of murmurs throughout the audience. Sinclair held up a hand. “Ladies and gentlemen, I did say ‘capture.’ We’ll need this installation for when we turn the tide and invade the Orion arm, taking this fight to Earth. What better way to do that than to use the League’s handiwork against them?”

  David found himself nodding his head up and down, along with many others in the room. Turning the League’s base against them to use in invading Earth… that’s ironic and quite amusing.

  “Taking it is not going to be easy, however. And every day, it gets harder. The League is sending reinforcements from its core worlds to reinforce their invasion fleet. Our best estimate is that we neutralized seven out of eleven battlegroups deployed against us, and most importantly, we eliminated three out of four fleet carriers they had in the fight.”

  Sinclair pressed the clicker’s button again, and the holoprojector display switched to highlighting static defenses around the League station. “As you can see here, we’ll be flying into a hornet’s nest. We believe there are roughly three hundred static weapons emplacements on this base. There’re also nearly four hundred starships in orbit, along with at least a thousand fighters and bombers. In short, this is the most heavily fortified military installation the CDF or RSN has ever planned to attack.”

  The room was utterly silent as Sinclair continued to speak. “Our battle plan is simple. We will stage five hundred and twenty-three starships in three separate rally points around this installation, at maximum Lawrence drive range for the largest vessels in the fleet. We’ve made a calculated risk to jump the carriers in with everything else, so we can quickly launch all available combat spacecraft they hold. All told, we will put nearly two thousand fast movers in play, along with every capital ship we can spare. Both the CDF and RSN will only hold back enough ships to defend our core worlds. We are, in effect, ladies and gentlemen, all in. This must work. Period. Failure is not an option.”

  Sinclair paused for a moment, then turned back to Admiral Kartal. “Admiral, the floor is yours, sir.”

  The massive Saurian admiral stepped forward, his eyes scanning the room. “You all are here because you command the ships that will follow my flagship into battle. Together, we will be victorious over the League of Sol. This is not the final battle, nor is it the end of this long and bloody war. But it will be the day that we banish the League from our galactic arm, and someday, it will be recognized as the beginning of the end for the League of Sol.”

  Kartal paused for a moment. David wondered if the briefing was finished or if the admiral had more to say. “When we finally reach Earth and eradicate the League of Sol from this galaxy, I promise you all that the Leaguer’s version of French will only be spoken in hell.”

  At those words, the room erupted into cheers and wild applause. Mixed emotions washed over David. The League is evil, and we need to defeat it. But are we cheering for the deaths of millions? If we’re not careful, we’ll end up just like them.

  Kartal held up his large, scaled hand. “Do not celebrate prematurely, ladies and gentlemen. This battle will be hard. It will be bloody, and it will be long. We move out three days from now. I expect to see all ships ready to go. Good luck, and Godspeed to you all.”

  As Kartal walked off the stage, the lights returned to average brightness and the mass of officers began to stand and head for the exits. David and Aibek stayed together, moving with the sea of humans and Saurians. Soon after they left the theater, General MacIntosh approached.

  “Colonels,” MacIntosh said as a greeting.

  David tensed. “General.”

  “General,” Aibek said right after David.

  “Colonel Aibek, would you give Colonel Cohen and me a few minutes alone?”

  “Of course, sir. I’ll see you back on the Lion, Colonel.”

  David cracked a smile. “Go get Admiral Kartal’s autograph.”

  All three men laughed as Aibek walked away. David looked at MacIntosh. “What can I do for you, sir?”

  MacIntosh gestured down a corridor that led further into the facility. “Walk with me.”

  Over the last two months, David and MacIntosh had repaired the falling out they had after the events on Monrovia; he’d taken great care to nurture their relationship and ensure he carried out his orders to the best of his ability. He fell in beside MacIntosh, and they strode forward.

  MacIntosh was the first to speak. “Colonel, how are you doing?”

  “I’m holding up, sir.”

  “Three months of nearly constant combat has to take a toll.”

  “It does, sir. Two hundred fifty-eight is the number that sticks in my mind.”

  “The Lion’s KIA total since you took command?”

  “Yes, sir. It’s important to remember them.”

  MacIntosh nodded. “Yes, it is, Colonel. But it’s also important to remember why they’re gone, and what we’re fighting for.”

  “It doesn’t change that those people are never going home.”

  “What do you think about the plan?” MacIntosh said.

  “At a high level, it makes sense. I’d need to review the actual operational details to offer an informed opinion, though.”

  “We’ll all have that opportunity, Colonel. I’ve reviewed the operational plan at length, and I think it’s our best chance of success. Admiral Seville is a capable and intelligent op
ponent, who even as he’s lost many engagements over the last few months, has managed to extract a heavy price from both our nations,” MacIntosh said.

  David recalled some RUMINT—military slang for rumor intelligence—which was floating around the fleet. “I’ve heard the Saurians aren’t happy with the losses they’ve sustained.”

  “CDF Intelligence believes that the League has focused on destroying Saurian ships specifically to drive a wedge between our two peoples. Good news for us is that President Spencer and Chief Minister Sherazi appear to have a bond between them that’s as good as steel. There’s no daylight in their desire to destroy the League.”

  “But if hundreds of thousands of Saurians lose their lives, they could easily falter.”

  “Yes, they could. Our job is to make sure it doesn’t happen, and we defeat the League and Seville, once and for all, at this logistical base they’ve established,” MacIntosh stated firmly.

  “We’ll give it everything we have, sir.”

  “I know you will. General Pipes sends his regards.”

  David’s face brightened at the mention of his old mentor, General Benson Pipes. “I haven’t been able to call him lately, not enough vidlink credits left since we’re so far out. It’s hard enough to get a call through to my mother once a month.”

  “Anything you’d like me to pass back?”

  “Just that I’m doing well, and I hope he is too.”

  “He’s made a fine addition to my joint staff. The man is a logistical wizard.”

  David laughed. “What’s that old saw… professionals deal with logistics?”

  “And amateurs debate tactics,” MacIntosh finished. “Good luck out there, David. I wish I were going out with you, but I’m stuck in the rear.”

  “Without the work you’re doing, sir, we wouldn’t be where we are. The new technology your team turns out will eventually win the war.”

  MacIntosh smiled and stuck out his hand. David took it and shook it firmly. “Godspeed, General.”