The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War) (63 page)

“
Well when you get back up there, Lieutenant, make sure to put him through his paces.
”

“
Yes sir,
”
Alanna replied. She looked like she was about to say something more but then stiffened to attention. Turning Crowe found himself looking up at the dour face of Admiral Lewis.

“
Commodore Crowe,
”
Lewis said,
“
before we start I would like to have a word with you.
”
His cold eyes flicked to Alanna.

“
Lieutenant, if we could have a moment
’
s privacy.
”

The two of them walked slowly to the back of the room in silence. The Admiral was notorious within the fleet for his lack of interest in small talk or in playing political games. Certainly he made the fleet
’
s political leaders nervous. After the
Mississippi
Incident he
’
d backed Crowe to the hilt, which was probably, the only reason Crowe had retained command of a ship. But equally Crowe had no doubt the Admiral would send him into the machineguns without hesitation if he judged it necessary. So it wasn
’
t just the politicians he made nervous.

“
I assume your ship is ready for the operation?
”
Lewis asked as they reached the back wall.

“
Yes sir,
”
Crowe replied.
“
The Lieutenant was just informing me that our new pilot has arrived. Once we know what the operation is, we
’
ll be able to make final preparations.
”

“
How is your ship holding up?
”

Crowe was about to say something blandly positive but stopped himself. This wasn
’
t a man who wanted bland anything.

“
So far the machinery continues to perform but my engineering department is working very hard.
Deimos
doesn
’
t berth as many engineers as a Myth Class and there isn
’
t space or life support capacity for any more. The turret rings of the flak turrets are starting to show signs of wear. At current levels of activity she
’
s going to need a full refit in twelve to eighteen months.
”

That was something civilians failed to understand - just because a ship didn
’
t have holes blasted in it didn
’
t mean it was fine. Peacetime restrictions on acceleration and manoeuvring, designed to limit the wear and tear on a ship
’
s structure and systems, were one of the first things to go out the airlock in wartime. Add hits and even near misses and the result was ships that got tired fast, particularly
Deimos
. She had never been designed for battle line work. She
’
d been intended to escort fighter carriers and similarly sluggish ships, so she hadn
’
t been as sturdily built as a heavy cruiser. No micro fractures had been detected yet but that was only a matter of time.

“
That
’
s acceptable as long as we get that time Commodore,
”
Lewis replied.
“
What do you know about the coming operation?
”

“
Only what the grapevine is saying.
”

“
Which is?
”

“
An offensive to push forward the Junction Line and envelop the current the Nameless gate network.
”

Lewis smiled humourlessly.
“
It would appear for once we
’
ve managed to wrong foot the rumour mill. It wouldn
’
t be a bad plan if we had the warships and the support vessels to make it work.
”

“
Why the misdirection sir?
”

“
The press and the rest of the entertainment industry don
’
t have the sense or discipline to keep their collective mouths shut. The Nameless send their scouts over the Junction Line and I would be surprised if they don
’
t have ships hanging at the edge of this system listening to our radio transmissions. So misdirection is needed.
”

“
So what are we doing?
”

“
You
’
ll find out in a few minutes Commodore, but
Deimos
will be heavily involved. Which means there is a point I would like to impress upon you and the rest of the senior officers. While this operation is important it is not so important that we can afford to lose many ships doing it, particularly ships like
Deimos
.
”
Lewis looked directly at Crowe.
“
Whatever else happens Commodore, bring your ship back.
”
He glanced towards the front.
“
It would appear things are starting,
”
he said before walking away.

“
What was that about sir?
”
Alanna asked in a rare display of curiosity as Crowe took his seat.

“
The Admiral just wanted a word,
”
Crowe replied,
“
to make a few points.
”

Alanna waited to see if Crowe would add anything further but he remained silent. Then Admiral Wingate strode onto the main stage and came to a halt in the centre, his hands folded behind his back.

“
Ladies and Gentlemen, your attention please,
”
he announced.
“
Your pads are now unlocked, so please turn to page one. Before we get down to details we will start with a brief overview.
”
The Admiral started to walk back and forth across the stage.
“
This combined operation will represent our first major sortie beyond the Junction Line since it was established. It will also see an unprecedented degree of co-operation between Battle Fleet units and those of the national militaries. This operation will have two distinct aspects. The first and most important is codenamed Operation Kite String. This will be a convoy of thirty-two transport ships, which will be forced through to Landfall.
”
A murmur of surprise ran around the room,
“
The second part, operating in support of Kite String, is to be called Operation Vindictive. This will see elements of the First and Second Fleets strike at a series of critical gates in the network that faces the Junction Line. These attacks will serve a twin purpose: pulling away units that might intercept Kite String short of Landfall and disrupting the Nameless supply lines. They may perhaps also open further opportunities in the future. Commodore Tsukioka will now take us through both operations in more detail
…”

___________________

“…
the convoy escort will be organised into two distinct elements - Heavy Cover and Light Cover. Heavy Cover will be under Admiral Hyland and will consist of the battleship
Fortitude
, six cruisers and nine destroyers. They will be tasked with escorting us from the Red line to the Blue Line. Light Cover, of which we are going to be a part, will be under the command of Admiral Kennedy on board the heavy cruiser
Horus
. As well as
Horus
and us, there will be two more regular cruisers, a pair of auxiliary cruisers and six destroyers. This is the route we will be following to Landfall.
”
Crowe tapped the control and the wardroom holo activated showing a simplified star chart. Collectively the officers of
Deimos
leaned forward to study it. The convoy would be taking a distinctly sub-optimal route, zigzagging twice across the commercial track but mostly staying well clear of it.

“
Transit time is going to be in the region of four and a half weeks. The systems where we are going to drop back into real space for cool downs have been chosen because they are particularly isolated. Recon units haven
’
t sighted any Nameless units in these systems and Headquarters believes that with the exception of the last system we will transit through, these systems are out of the jump range of the Nameless. That last system is borderline. Intelligence believes the Nameless will have to run risks to get there. So we may or may not see them.
”

“
Can we not skip that last system?
”
asked the gunner.

“
No,
”
Crowe replied.
“
We aren
’
t going to jump to the edge of the Landfall system before jumping to Landfall itself. We are going for a thread the needle jump, straight for Landfall, so we need our navigators to get a clear positional fix.
”

“
That will require some mighty long jumps,
”
Hockley said.
“
Can we make jumps that long without melting the heat sink?
”

“
The book says we can,
”
replied the navigator.
“
Hardware is the real issue.
”

All heads turned towards the engineer.

“
We can do it,
”
he said in a vaguely belligerent tone.
“
It
’
s the transports I want to know about.
”

“
Well, the need to make long jumps has put a real limit on the selection of ships for this op,
”
Crowe replied glancing at his notes,
“
At the top end we have the American drop carrier the
USS Liberty
, which can certainly match and exceed any jump
we
can manage. At the other end of the scale we have
SS Solar Queen
, which is nearly a quarter century old and basically first generation.
”
A few people winced.
“
But basically we
’
ll leave behind any ship that suffers an engineering fault and can
’
t make the jumps. If it happens before we cross the Junction Line they return to Earth. After the Line, they
’
ll be left at one of the isolated systems to await our return.
”

“
Ouch,
”
someone muttered.

“
One final point. We
’
ll be carrying our fighters to Landfall, but once we
’
re in, unless we take the Nameless completely by surprise, we
’
ll be in action and the fighters won
’
t be able to land. Instead they
’
ll be landing and resupplying from the auxiliary cruiser
Buffalo
, which will be positioned within the escort perimeter. Any questions?
”

At the back of the wardroom, where she had been standing with her arms crossed, Alanna raised her hand.

“
Sir, what is object IA0147?
”
she asked pointing at the relevant contact, marked as being in the Lagrange Point between Landfall and the planet
’
s moon.

“
It
’
s listed as being an asteroid - high metal content, local designation Breaker
’
s Rock. It was being moved towards Landfall
’
s Moon for the orbital industries when the war started. It got parked there before the planet was besieged,
”
Crowe replied after checking his notes. It
’
s not important in itself but the local space gate the Nameless use to supply their forces on the planet is close by, so we
’
ll be dog legging in slightly to destroy it as we go past. Any other questions?
”

Heads were shaken and there were murmurs of
‘
no
’
.

“
Alright, we leave in six days. I want this ship as ready as it possibly can be,
”
Crowe said.
“
If we
’
re lucky we
’
ll be in and out of Landfall before the Nameless even know we
’
re there, but we aren
’
t counting on luck.
”