The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War) (47 page)

Quinn accepted the change of subject. That was just the way of things. People who got killed maybe got brief mentions for a while but then the living got on with being alive.

“
Word is you and your lot are on the way back out again,
”
Quinn replied.

“
Strike or patrol?
”

“
Strike. The eggshells have found things the Admiral wants squished.
”

“
I prefer strike missions,
”
Alanna replied taking a sip of her drink.
“
I like getting the first shot off. What else is going on?
”

“
A courier sneaked in while
Anubis
was busy getting all the attention. It had the mail and a couple of Hollywood
’
s latest offerings.
”

“
Anything good?
”

“
A Western, a sci-fi actioner, a chick flick, oh plus some song and dance from Bollywood.
”

Alanna
’
s eyes lit up at chick flick.

“
Have you no shame?
”
Quinn laughed.

“
I
’
m a girl,
”
Alanna replied with a grin.
“
I
’
m allowed to like chick flicks. Can
’
t stand science fiction though.
”

___________________

Ronan Crowe waited patiently outside the office of Admiral Laura Lewis, his cap resting on his knee, his mind drifting.
Deimos
was holding position at the outer marker and for the time being it was all quiet on this bit of the Junction Front. It wouldn
’
t last of course. It never did. All you could do was enjoy those quiet moments.

“
Captain Crowe,
”
said a staff officer.
“
The Admiral will see you now.
”

On entering the office Lewis greeted him with a welcoming smile. She was a very different person from her dour husband. Before the war she
’
d been operations head of Battle Fleet’s sister organisation , the Science Directorate. Seconded to them with
Mississippi
, Crowe had known her quite well. Now she was senior officer for Junction and its section of the front. Lewis had claimed for herself an office on the outer face of Junction
’
s centrifuge and through the hatch he could see the flare of an approaching hydrogen skimmer.

“
Ronan, good to see you again, and in the flesh,
”
she said offering a hand.

“
Thank you Ma
’
am, what can I do for you?
”

“
We
’
ll just hold a mo, Admiral Kanter is due to join us in a minute. Ah, here he is, hello Conrad.
”

“
Laura, Captain Crowe,
”
Admiral Kanter was operational commander of Junction Station
’
s combat units.

Once they were all settled Lewis began.

“
Unless the grapevine has suffered a rare breakdown you
’
ve probably heard that a courier has arrived. As well the usual stuff we
’
ve received several updates from Headquarters, some instructions and piece of good news. Firstly we
’
ll start with the good. Captain this came for you.
”
She slid a paper envelope across the desk to Crowe. He took a sharp breath. To transport a piece of paper across interstellar distance was a grossly inefficient means of transmitting information and the fleet only did it for a very limited number of reasons. Carefully he took the envelope, opened it and read the half dozen lines.

“
Congratulations
…
Commodore,
”
said Laura with a smile.

“
Thank you, Ma
’
am…
”

“
Keep reading, Commodore,
”
Kanter advised with a matching smile.

He
’
d initially managed to look past it but there it was:
‘
This promotion is establishment.
’
So unlike so many it wasn
’
t a
‘
hostilities only
’
promotion. This was permanent.

“
If the war ends tomorrow,
”
Laura said cheerfully,
“
I
’
ll have to start saluting you. Congratulations again Ronan. After all you
’
ve done, hell after the way you were treated after the
Mississippi
, you deserve it.
”

“
Thank you, both of you,
”
Crowe stuttered. Inwardly he shook his head in disbelief. He
’
d long accepted that the rank of Captain would be where he peaked in the fleet and less than a year ago he had been about to resign his commission. Now the fleet had put him firmly onto the flag rank track.

“
Unfortunately that is pretty much where the good news finishes,
”
Laura continued after a moment.
“
Things seem to have quietened down around Hydra Station. Whatever else happens, it looks like the Nameless aren
’
t quite ready to pick a fight with the Aèllr, so the angles there have been cut way down. The Nameless have learned from past experience that coming in here after us, suits us just fine. So the axis of their assault has shifted to Rosa. Now on the positive side, Headquarters isn
’
t taking any ships off us but on the negative, those reinforcements we were expecting are going elsewhere. Also Headquarters has some new assignments for us.
”

The holo emitter in the desk lit up displaying the local star systems.
“
Here
’
s the Nameless
’
s known route from the direction of Landfall, with the gates all along it.
”
She traced her finger along the line of star systems,
“
until it gets to here, opposite Junction. Then it spreads out, left and right, as well as up and down, giving them a supply line that is now covering the front. We
’
ve been burning them where we come across them but since they introduced those new smaller prefabricated gateways, they
’
ve been putting them up faster than we can knock them down.
”

“
At this stage,
”
Kanter interjected,
“
they have so many gates along the front, it
’
s a virtual lattice. Knocking out even a cluster doesn
’
t achieve much and with so many, the Nameless have a lot of flexibility for moving supplies forward.
”

“
Their main supply artery enters the lattice in front of us. And so far, logistics has been their Achilles heel. Those missiles of theirs are good but they need a lot of them,
”
Laura continued.
“
Headquarters wants us to relieve pressure on Rosa by making a concerted attempt to dismember the local gate network.
”
she gestured at the holo again,
“
So we are going to mount a series of attacks. Admiral Kanter will be hitting a number of the frontline gates, with the primary objective of drawing in the local Nameless forces. The strikeboat carrier
Vicksburg
and her escort will be doing distant strikes. Ronan, you will be taking
Deimos
,
Valkyrie
,
Meili
and two of the destroyers out to a distance of fifteen light years from Junction, where the main artery starts to spread out. Start taking down gates and if at all possible, the construction ships that put them back up. If we can smash enough gates quickly enough, then we overload their ability to effect repairs and get supplies to the forces assaulting Rosa.
”

Crowe looked at the holo,
“
Good thing I
’
m getting a pay rise, Admiral,
”
he remarked.

___________________

Deimos
hung dark and silent, just beyond the system
’
s primary asteroid field. The cruiser
’
s passive sensor arrays focused on the objective deeper into the system. The rest of the strike force waited behind, their own sensors covering the space surrounding them.

On the bridge of
Deimos
the temperature was just high enough to prevent the crew
’
s breath from misting and causing condensation problems. Still, if you sat for long enough, the cold seeped into you. Privilege of rank allowed Crowe to leave the bridge and walk around for a while, to get the blood moving.

With power levels low, the centrifuge was slowly spinning down and simulated gravity had now dropped to point seven Gs. He looked in on the pilots
’
briefing room. They were sitting reading while the two weapons operatives were playing cards. All four of them looked up as he stepped in.
”

“
Sir?
”
Alanna said in a questioning tone.

“
Nothing yet,
”
Crowe replied,
“
All ready here?
”

“
Yes sir we are.
”
Alanna paused and added:
“
may I ask how long we plan to hold here, sir?
”

“
At least another day, Lieutenant. If there
’
s no sign after that, we
’
re going to have to move on.
”

Three days earlier they
’
d knocked out a gate orbiting the second planet of the system. The guard ship protecting it had made a brief stand when
Deimos
dropped into real space, but when its missiles were swatted aside, decided discretion was the better part of valour and retreated to a safe distance to shadow them. A single salvo took out the gate and
Deimos
climbed away from the planet and jumped out in the direction of the next gate.

Deimos
had then dropped back into real space and rendezvoused with the rest of the strike group, before heading back. The gates themselves seemed to be damn near disposable as far as the Nameless were concerned, but there had to be ships tasked with replacing them. So far reconnaissance hadn
’
t seen them, but fleet intelligence seemed convinced they existed. Hitting support ships would put more of a crimp on the Nameless than simply destroying more gates but sitting stationary was leaving his ships vulnerable. Intelligence didn
’
t have much guidance to offer on when the Nameless gate-building ships would turn up.

Alanna and the two weapons controllers were still waiting patiently. Lieutenant Sinochem had returned to his reading. Sinochem was the replacement for the popular Lieutenant Deyn. Unfortunately he was more like Alanna - a grim faced survivor. Still they did their jobs.

“
Respectfully, sir, are we sure they even need this gate location?
”
she asked politely.

“
No, we aren
’
t,
”
Crowe replied.
“
But there are no other gates within several systems of here that we know of, so this is the best place.
”

It was twenty-hours before there was any activity in the system. A Nameless scout dropped into real space close to the location of the destroyed gate. A light minute away the human ships started to prepare, only to watch with frustration as the enemy ship made several in-system jumps before disappearing completely.

“
I wonder whether they go through this every time?
”
Commander Hockley asked out loud as another hour crept past with no activity.

“
I think we might have convinced them that this system isn
’
t worth keeping a gate in,
”
said Captain Singer of the
Valkyrie
across the laser hook up between the three cruisers. The commander of
Meili
, Captain Yitzchak, nodded in agreement.