The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War) (52 page)

The Lieutenant glanced towards Willis, only replying when she nodded.

“
Well Ma
’
am, their speed through jump space is a lot slower than ours. Those leaving from Sickle Two, based on the last set of intelligence estimates, the protected cruisers could make the passage in twenty days with one fuel stop. Their armoured cruisers and the super destroyers would need at least twenty-five days with respectively one and two refuelling stops. The six personnel transports
…
sorry, but the available information is a lot more vague. I would guess the same as the armoured cruisers. Those coming from Sickle One, we can add another three days perhaps.
”

Willis found it heartening that her ship commanders had not seem to have paid too much attention to Kinnear
’
s scepticism. Instead they were embracing the idea this was the long feared Rizr assault.

“
So that would mean the earliest they could arrive as a combined force would be
…
a week today,
”
Romanek mused.

“
When is
Deceiver
due back?
”
Daler asked Willis.

“
Gentlemen, gentlemen,
”
Kinnear said as he stood and strolled to the front of the room.
“
We
’
re all getting very ahead of ourselves and reading far too much into ship movements. Like every other fleet, the Rizr move their ships around. I would remind you all that we
’
ve seen almost nothing of the Rizr since
Deceiver
destroyed one of their ships.
Deceiver
’
s
success has told them that they cannot take Dryad.
”

“
Or has told them that we
’
re weakened to the point that we have to use tricks,
”
Romanek replied.
“
If they tried attacking our shipping last year sir, we could simply have sent in a couple of cruiser squadrons and given them a slap.
”

“
That is a guess Lieutenant Commander,
”
Kinnear told her calmly.
“
Anyway
L09
is on her next run out. I am confident that when it returns, we will see all or most of the missing ships.
”

“
Sir,
”
Willis replied evenly,
“
L09
isn
’
t due back for another ten days. If the Rizr
have
moved they could arrive before the courier gets back here.
”

“
What to you plan to do then, Commander Willis?
”
Kinnear asked as he crossed his arms.

“
I plan to muster all of my ships here, cancel the escorts of the in-system transports and recommend that all jump capable transports come here to Dryad Two and remain here.
”

“
Commander, you
’
re talking about shutting down the economic activity of this entire solar system!
”

“
Yes sir.
”
There was no point in avoiding it, a complete shut down was exactly what she was asking for.
“
If a Rizr taskforce arrives in system, any transports at Dryads Five or Four will be easy prizes.
”

“
And just how long do you plan to continue this lock down, Commander?
”

“
Until we can recall Vice Admiral Melchiori and the ships of the Frontier Force. If we send an FTL transmission to him today, he stands a good chance of being back here before the Rizr.
”

Kinnear didn
’
t reply and instead studied her thoughtfully.

“
Can I speak to you privately Commander?
”
he eventually said.

After the startled occupants of the small office close to the briefing room had been hustled out the door, Kinnear turned to face her.

“
You certainly know how to stir things up, Faith,
”
he said wearily.
“
You
’
ve got everyone in there convinced that an invasion fleet is about to jump in at any moment.
”

“
But not you sir,
”
she replied.

“
No, Commander, I am not convinced,
”
he said shaking his head,
“
not convinced at all. I
’
ve been here a long time. I know some people think I
’
ve been here for too long, but I like to think I
’
ve been here long enough to know this corner of the universe pretty well. Of all the Tample star nations the Rizr are the one I have the least respect for. That ruling Junta of theirs is a gang of glorified bullies. Show weakness and they
’
ll go after you without mercy, show strength and they back off.
”

“
That might be the case sir, but I don
’
t think we
’
re showing strength,
”
Willis replied.

“
And I think Admiral Shibanova has you all jumping at shadows.
”

Willis felt herself stiffen angrily. Kinnear saw it.

“
Don
’
t misunderstand me. Shibanova was a fine officer, but he was in the wrong place. The mistake was by Headquarters. A man like him could have done great work on the Nameless front.
”

“
What kind of man do you believe he was, sir?
”
she asked stiffly.

“
A man of action Commander. But they sent him here, to a backwater theatre.
”

“
Sir, I have considered the possibility that this might just be military manoeuvres but I don
’
t think it is. Taking this system is their primary strategic objective. Now
’
s the best chance they
’
ve had in nearly twenty years.
”

“
Six transports won
’
t carry enough ground troops to take the system Commander. And in all seriousness, what would it achieve? As soon as modern ships arrived, any Rizr troops would be cut off.
”

“
It
’
s true those transports can carry no more than battalion each. But there are no more than a couple of hundred armed men in the entire system, and most of them are policemen, not soldiers. So that is enough to take the entire system, with plenty of human hostages available to use as shields. Melchiori cuts them off but then what? Without a base or supplies, he
’
ll have to retreat within days. We
’
d need ground troops of our own to root them out and assuming we could even come up with them, there would be heavy civilian casualties. At the very least the Rizr would be in a position of strength for any negotiations.
”

“
Commander that might be a possibility, but it
’
s a low probability.
”

As the two stared at each other, Willis sensed that she had failed to sway the Admiral.

“
Sir, I would like to request that an FTL signal be sent to Vice Admiral Melchiori, requesting that he bring his ships back here as fast as possible.
”

“
No.
”
 

“
Sir, I…
”
Willis started to say but Kinnear cut her off.

“
Melchiori has his own task. I will not drag him away from that to face a danger than I believe is neither real nor present Commander.
”

“
Sir, I will be making my request in writing. I will also make those preparations which are within my authority to make.
”

“
Including a travel freeze by in-system transports?
”

“
Yes sir. I will also send one of the recce couriers to summon Melchiori.
”

“
If you decide to do this, it will cost you Commander, you do realise that?
”
Kinnear said grimly.
“
A travel shut down will cost the corporations hundreds of millions and they will make sure it costs you your career. Headquarters will not protect you. If you yank an entire task force out of position to confront a phantom, they will see you as a hysteric!
”

Willis
’
s mouth felt desperately dry. As threats went that felt very plausible.

“
Let me make myself clear Commander. You have the authority for this. But I won
’
t back you up on it. You are on your own!
”

“
The Rizr can
’
t arrive as a task force earlier than the twenty-first, so there is no point transport shutting down before then, but by the twenty-first, I will instruct that all transports have to be here.
”
She didn
’
t know whether it was her imagination but she thought she heard a slight tremble in her voice.

“
So you
’
re set on a course of action that will either see you go into combat or the ruination of your career.
”
Kinnear sat down heavily and gave her a disgusted look.
“
You know how to give yourself options Commander.
”

___________________

When she was in school she
’
d read a lot of old war novels. They were usually badly written and as formulaic as hell but even so, she
’
d loved them. They were probably the reason she
’
d decided on a military career. In nearly every book the moment would come when the hero had to make a decision and they
’
d go the way their gut was telling them. Well this was her moment but her gut wasn
’
t telling her anything beyond what it thought of dinner. Her decision was based on an interpretation of the available data.

It had come as a huge surprise when, shortly after first contact with the Tample star nations, human diplomats discovered that the Tample were in fact the oldest known spacefaring species, with jump capability well over a century and a half ahead of the Aèllr. Like the Aèllr, the Tample managed to unify their home planet under a single world government but unlike them, they couldn
’
t maintain that control over their colony worlds. Instead, some time around the end of Earth
’
s eighteenth century, the Tample Federation fragmented into six major and nine minor competing star nations. After that the Tample as a species, politically, socially and above all, technologically, stagnated. In the case of the Rizr that was mostly due to a lack of living space.

Despite a military ruling class, Rizr was potentially the richest of the star nations. But their ambitions were kept in check by the very nature of their world. It had started out merely as a mining colony, on a planet not particularly suited for life. The mineral deposits made the star nation potentially wealthy, but the harshness of Rizr
’
s environment meant that much of that wealth was soaked up just keeping its small population alive.

Dryad Two on the other hand, on the surface of which an unprotected human could survive for twenty minutes or so, was a potential paradise for the people of Rizr. They
’
d once tried to take Dryad and fluffed it. Apparently heads had quite literally rolled for that failure, but now, for reasons beyond their control, they had been offered a second bite of the cherry. Rationally Willis could acknowledge that Kinnear might well be right. But if her gut wasn
’
t telling her anything, her head was saying they couldn
’
t afford to allow this chance to pass them by.

So assuming the Rizr were coming and that they had picked up one or two extra protected cruisers that had been engaged in raiding, they could be facing anything up to five armoured cruisers, nine protected cruisers and ten destroyers. Against that she had her own
Hood
, plus
Typhoon
and
Cyclone
, both Storm class ships, just as old as
Hood
. They lacked her centrifuge but unlike
Hood
hadn
’
t lost their broadside sponsons so had fifty percent more guns. Then there was the raiding cruiser
Onslaught
and of course the Continental class cruiser
America
. Hawkins Base had once boasted three full squadrons of fighters, but those had been redeployed to the Nameless Front months ago. There were still a few fixed defences dotted about the system but none of these was capable of standing off a fleet.