Shaitan Wars 2: Wrath of the Shaitans (12 page)

World economy was strained as it is with the massive mobilization in space. Ironically, the same mobilization was also fuelling a large part of the human economy, which would collapse if investments into space were stopped.

Daniel was confident that USC in particular and various space organizations of Earth had covered the second possibility – the Shaitans attacking from a different direction. Every sector of space was watched by dedicated organizations for the last 40 odd years since the discovery of the first Shaitan ship.

The third option was the one that worried Daniel the most, although astrophysicists had assured him that it was the least plausible of methods in the short term. For the Shaitans to approach unpowered would mean that they would have to decelerate much further away from Earth, where their deceleration burn could not be noticed.

This would mean that they would have to travel a large distance at a very slow speed. This in turn would mean that they will have to travel a lot longer, probably a decade or two more. Other than the longer travel time that the Shaitans would have to endure, whatever advantage they would gain by sneaking in and catching humans unaware would be lost due to the additional preparation time they would give the humans.

Daniel was struggling with these options in his small office with a fantastic view. He was thankful about the artificial gravity this structure had incorporated. This was the first structure humans had built in space, which incorporated the simple solution of rotating a part of the habitat to provide artificial gravity. It made living in space for long duration far easier on the body and the mind, as well as on the health of one’s bones and muscles.

His com interface buzzed suddenly on every surface possible with a priority one call. It was his aide. “Good morning Zhu, what important news do you have for me today?” Daniel asked in good humor. Lijuan Zhu took everything too seriously. Her youthful exuberance meant that almost everything that she had to report was marked important. That’s why Daniel took a subtle dig at her about ‘important’ news.

“Sir they are back!” Zhu said in an excitable voice. Her face was brimming with excitement. Daniel could see the anticipation on her face to the coming battle. For her and many in her generation around the world, this was the culmination of all they had prepared for their whole lives. They had grown up dreaming of fighting aliens but not actually fought one yet. Daniel had fought the Shaitans before, and he knew better than to be excited about the prospects.

“Sir I have sent the details to your desk. Hawaii reported at 17:37 GMT a single ion plasma burn signature, exactly matching the signature of the Shaitan ship that you fought over Titan. If you don’t mind my saying sir, looks like you are going to get to kick their ass again!” Zhu said excitedly.

“The ass kicking wasn’t one way last time Lieutenant. They destroyed all our three ships with that single ship of theirs, keep that in mind. The fact that I and some of the others lived was sheer luck. It was definitely not a walk in the park.” Daniel reminded her.

“I am however surprised that they have sent only one ship again. We are far better prepared this time and should be able to stop that ship easily this time. It doesn’t make military sense for the enemy to be sending just one ship, when their first one got beaten.” Daniel said almost to himself.

Over the next one month, USC started planning the confrontation with the Shaitan ship that would happen in 5 years’ time, when it finally enters the solar system. There was an atmosphere of smugness and confidence in the planners as they went about preparing various contingencies. Humans had more powerful ships, and far greater number of them than last time. This time the Shaitan ship should really get its ass kicked.

It was nearly 6 weeks later, and Daniel was back on Earth. He was going through the usual rigmarole of liaison with the bureaucracy and sitting through interminable meetings of budget appropriation committees. There were the unglamorous things that the top brass of any military had to do, which no one ever realized took up more time than battle planning. He was about to get into the bed for the night, when he got a priority one call on his com.

“Sir, you are not going to believe this! There are more of them, and they are coming from different directions!” It was his personal aide Zhu again, excitable as usual.

“Calm down Lieutenant, and give me a proper report.” Daniel said in a friendly admonishing tone.

“Sorry sir, Hawaii reported at 05:47 hours GMT that they have detected ion plasma burn consistent with Shaitan engine burn, that is seven minutes ago. USC assets activated immediately across the world and in space. I just got independent confirmation, and I am sending the details to your terminal. They detected not one but three additional engine burn signatures! There are a total of four of them coming!” Zhu stated as calmly as she could, but her excitement was brimming over.

“Relax Lieutenant, it was expected that they would come in larger force this time, we have prepared for such a force. Our war games have consistently planned for defense against a fleet of 4 Shaitan ships. We expected them to increase their number of ships in powers of 2 – 4, 8, 16, 32 and so on, because that is the way they think. In fact we have even war gamed for the worst case scenario of 8 ship Shaitan fleet, although that scenario does not turn out very well.” Daniel said.

He was not that anxious since it was not the worst case scenario. As he was speaking, the terminal bleeped again with incoming data. Daniel thought it was the data Zhu sent about the Shaitan fleet detected, but Zhu was still on screen and her gasp caught his attention.

“Sir you are not going to believe this! Three more new Shaitan engine burns have just been detected!” Zhu said.

“That’s strange that all the ships of the fleet did not start up their engines at the same time.” Daniel wondered.

“Sir that is because… you have to see this on your terminal. You are not going to believe it if I just told you. The new three new Shaitan ships are coming from the opposite direction!” Zhu said.

Daniel flicked his terminal and saw the data for himself. It was not exactly from the opposite direction of the planet Shaitan, but at an angle of 164°, almost opposite. Now there were 7 Shaitan ships approaching from two different directions.

It was strange that the Shaitans sent 7 and not 8 ships. This would be the first time they would have done something that was not in powers of 2. Ships coming from opposite direction meant that there must be another Shaitan world somewhere in that direction. That was certainly not good news.

“Zhu, call an emergency conference of war room in two hours, and make sure that all the admirals and their staff are sent the data immediately, so that they have had a chance to review it by the time they come into the meeting. I am going to be attending from my office.” Daniel ordered his aide as he started putting on his uniform again.

Daniel sat reviewing the data known so far, waiting for the conference to begin in a few minutes, there was much to ponder over and discuss and there were so many new and unanticipated things to ponder like the new ships type that the ion plasma signature is suggesting and the new planet that the direction is suggesting, but a trivial thing kept riling Daniel at the back of his mind. Why have the Shaitans sent 7 and not 8 ships? Why break their penchant for working in powers of two?

The table pinged and he accepted his aide’s call. “Sir, sorry to be adding to the bad news every time I call you. The NASA deep space observatory is reporting that most likely there is a fourth ship coming from the new direction. The engine thrust of this ships is extremely faint suggesting that it is decelerating very slowly. That is the reason it was missed earlier.” The excitement and cockiness was gone from Zhu’s face and voice. Daniel could see from her face that this young woman was realizing what it really meant to fight off a Shaitan invasion.

“Sir, now with 8 Shaitan ships approaching, it this our worst case scenario?” Zhu asked anxiously.

Daniel replied with a sigh. “Lieutenant, we have not even conceived of a plan to tackle 8 enemy ships coming from opposite directions. I would say that this is worse than our worst case scenario.”

Chapter 8

An Admiral’s internal battles

Earth

June 2078

Daniel was in New York, at the heart of the civilian headquarters of the USC. The next few weeks were going to be excruciating. He would have to battle bureaucrats, match wits with politicians. He would have preferred a battle with the Shaitans any day.

As the military head of USC, it was his burden and responsibility to deal with the byzantine machinations of civilian bureaucracy and politics. He had never realized how much energy it took to get things done here, compared to the military. He now had developed a special respect for his predecessor, who probably had a tougher time getting things done when USC was just a fledgling department of the UN.

This task however was more important than anything else for not just USC, but the safety of Humanity. Even though it doesn’t seem to percolate through to the thick head of the bureaucrats and the politicians that the USC needed the new vessels now.

It didn’t matter what it cost, this was not the time to be counting the cost. Without those new ships, USC will not be able to defend Earth. What is the point of watching budgets and counting costs if there is no Earth remaining to use the balanced budget?

He had called in all the chips he had earned in his career to help him sway the decision. He had called in his old friends Takamori and Cheng, both of whom held considerable clout with their own country’s military establishment. Takamori was technically a subordinate of Daniel, but USC-GCF worked fairly independently under its own chain of command. As the chief of USC-GCF or the space marines, Takamori was not just a formidable voice in this debate, but Daniel could use his wisdom and the respect he commanded.

Cheng had not opted to join the USC organization. He had remained with the PLA, which made him and even important voice, especially to sway the Chinese bloc. He knew both the civilian and the military administrations very well.

Daniel had been desperate enough to even request the venerable senator Jason Golombek out of retirement to help him in this battle. In many ways Jason was the oldest veteran of fighting the Shaitans. He may have fought with remote ships, because that was all that human technology allowed at that time, but he fought the first ever Shaitan scout probe.

His most ardent supporter and star campaigners were his two old friends from Titan. The eminent astrophysicist Jorge Sterner and his lifelong friend and now a senator Ramesh Srinivasan. The career and life of the introvert computer science geek had taken a turn which no one could have ever predicted.

Ramesh was the undoubted leader and spiritual guru of the ‘Human First Faction’. It was not a party as much a movement. Although Ramesh was technically a Republican, his faction was spread across the political divide into the Democrats. The Human First faction formed a coalition which advocated belligerent budget and measures for the defense of Earth, and even advocated a preemptive strike on the Shaitan home planet, the technology for which was still being developed.

The real opposition for the Human First faction came from the Greens on one end and extreme fiscal conservatives on the other end, for different reasons. The Greens were still hopeful of reconciliation and treatment of Shaitans humanely if they were defeated. They had for example raised a stink at the massacre of the Shaitans in Titan. This had angered everyone who had fought for their lives in Titan.

Even a known pacifist like Mischa had been disgusted with the Greens when they called the battle on Titan cold blooded murder. The Greens had raised a stink and the questioning and the purported torture of Shaitan prisoners. Thankfully the Greens were a very small minority in most places except the Scandinavian countries.

The fiscal conservatives on the other hand were the usual shortsighted human types. Somehow there were still people who cared more about their balance sheets than their survival. Either that or the enormity of the treat to human survival had not sunk in amongst them.

Some of them were called ‘Threat deniers’, who denied that the Shaitans were a significant threat at all. They were reminiscent of the ‘climate deniers’ who kept denying that global warming was a real issue even after the island nation of Maldives went under the water. The extreme conspiracy theorists even thought that this was some kind of global conspiracy hatched by the UN and the Chinese in connivance with people in the US government. There were no aliens in the universe at all according to them.

USC budget problems was because USC had become a victim of its own success. The coordinated international efforts in space, both during the first incursion of the Shaitan scout and especially on Titan had ensured that Earth had never been threatened or suffered any damage. This gave the people of Earth a false sense of security.

Daniel entered the USC administrative headquarters building in Bronx with a measure of nervousness and trepidation. This was going to be the toughest fight of his life. He had Senators and ex-Senators, Generals, Admirals and Physicists along with him, along with a host of staff. Their opponent was an indifferent and slothful bureaucracy.

The USC budget appropriations committee meeting was usually a dull and drab affair. Not this time. It was being attended by the national representatives of the committee, as well as the joint chairs of the governing council. This was going to be a lively presentation, and there were sure to be fireworks.

After the usual greetings and formal opening of the session, Daniel started his opening statement. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to first open with a short briefing of the current military situation and our analysis of how it is likely to pan out. I would then invite any of the distinguished members of the committee to ask me for any clarifications on the military situation.