The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War) (68 page)

Eulenburg
’
s warning had been received and heeded. Positioned on the flank of the escort screen, the heavy cruiser
Amun
was still carrying her original secondary armament, a pair of fifteen centimetre railguns. Within
Amun’s
fire control centre, calculations were being run to use Landfall
’
s gravity. Amidst all the high technology, the projectiles
Amun
fired were little more than space age cannonballs, sent curving round the planet. But against these solid lumps of metal, the Nameless
’
s escort satellites, the ones that had bled Landfalls fighters, were helpless. Railgun rounds, delivered at the rate of three to a jammer, smashed through the cloud of missiles put up by the jammers and reduced all six of them to chaff. With their destruction the homing beacons for Douglas and Endeavour Bases could be heard loud and clear, but from Anshan there was only silence.

From the Chinese troop ship
Beijing
, ship-to-ship shuttles and one-man drop pods started to descend from the hangars. Hundreds of volunteers landed around what had been the site of the Anshan shelter, to assist anyone who had got out. But for the rest of the convoy there was no further reason to linger, so they shifted orbit to cross over Endeavour.

SS Lever
came in first. As she crossed over the top of the base, her guidance systems locked onto the beacon below. Then at a single electronic command, sixteen drop pods tethered to her flanks fell away. As they burned into the atmosphere,
Lever
fired her engines and started to climb away. Astern the next ship lined up, while above the Nameless manoeuvred into position.

___________________________

13:55 Hrs Douglas Base time

Breaker
’
s Rock continued to peg at them. As Kite String settled into drop formation, Crowe discerned that Breaker
’
s firing pattern was changing. That first devastating salvo had been indiscriminate, but now they were alternating salvos between the escorts and the transports. Worse, there was obviously some kind of rearming facility at or near the asteroid and some of the Nameless escorts were making use of it. The remaining Nameless ships were positioning themselves to join with the fire from Breaker
’
s, creating an eruption of flames in the space over Kite String as every gun burst into life. Crowe could feel himself start to sweat. In open space
Deimos
could at least manoeuvre to some extent to avoid some of the missiles hurtling towards them, but over Landfall, that option was denied to them. Waves of missiles burned down on them, trying to find a way through the wall of plasma bolts, flak rounds and canister shot put out by the escort. But even when their defensive fire struck a missile, its threat wasn
’
t necessarily removed. Fragments, or even near complete missiles, tumbled down into Landfall
’
s gravity well into Kite String. Crowe winced as half a missile ploughed into the destroyer
Tiger Shark
. Even without a warhead the impact was devastating for such a small vessel. Her guns and engines both cut out abruptly as she lost power. Without propulsion she started to orbit away from the convoy.

Tiger Shark
’
s
squadron mates and a couple of the fighters tried to cover her, angling out from the convoy to buy the wounded destroyer time. But there was only so far they could go and as she slipped beyond their protection, her engines remained inert. Crowe glanced toward communications, but the lieutenant shook her head.

Two missiles went in and a column of fire poured out of the top of the hull as a reactor scrammed itself. If anyone on or off
Tiger Shark
had hoped to save her, that was the moment when they must have realised they had to save themselves. Escape pods blasted clear even as more missiles homed in on her.

Thirty kilometres away Dubious
’
s systems gave a brief hiccup and then the fighter
’
s radshield glowed as the radiation from
Tiger Shark
’
s
reactor purge washed over them. Moving back into position over the top of the convoy, Alanna shook her head in mute anger. She
’
d spent Dubious
’
s last three missiles trying to protect the destroyer, a bad investment of resources. With
Buffalo
gone there was no way for her to rearm, bar landing on
Deimos
. She glanced towards the cruiser and even at distance of fifty kilometres could see streams of gunfire coming from her. There was no way
Deimos
could stop firing long enough to her to land. That had left them relying on their guns, but fighter guns didn
’
t pack enough of a punch and they were now being more or less ignored by the descending missiles.

“
Okay, this isn
’
t working.
”

“
Skipper?
”
Schurenhofer asked.

“
We
’
re going to try something,
”
Alanna replied as she pulled the stick back and opened the throttle. Astern, her move must have taken Curious by surprise. She
’
d heard nothing from Malm since Breaker
’
s. He was still flying but it seemed as if his coms were completely fried.

The two of them arced up above Kite String, beyond flak gun range. Ahead of them another wave of missiles was hurtling down. With a brief wing waggle to warn Curious, she turned and plunged down ahead of the missiles, guns firing back at them. Cap ship missiles usually crossed through Dubious
’
s gun range before her little guns could have much effect, but this time first one then a second blew, while Curious claimed a third before they breached the firing zone and pulled away.

“
Good work, Dubious,
”
the radio suddenly crackled.
“
All fighters. Follow Dubious
’
s lead.
”
Alanna gave Schurenhofer a brief grin before she pulled Dubious back into a climb. Then Commodore Crowe
’
s voice came back up on the radio.
“
This is Flagship, to all escort ships. Drop on Endeavour is now complete. All ships are now moving to Douglas Base. Everyone keep it tight and keep up the good work!
”

“
Two down, one to go,
”
Alanna said to Schurenhofer as they commenced their next arc up over the convoy.

15:03 Hrs Douglas Base time

The wait in Four C had been agonising but aside from a brief communiqué to ensure they had uplink to the convoy, Eulenburg had kept his silence. The convoy commander was the man on the spot and issuing orders to him wasn
’
t going to achieve much more than cause confusion. The display was so cluttered he could barely make out what was happening anyway. Certainly the convoy had lost ships and he could only hope that the losses hadn
’
t included too many of the supplies they so desperately needed.

“
Admiral,
”
Gillum said quietly from behind him.
“
We
’
re getting more reports from the surface. The Nameless are increasing their artillery strikes.
”

Eulenburg glanced at the big display of the surface. There wasn
’
t much movement from the four circles that indicated Douglas
’
s point defence grid.

“
They
’
re firing shrapnel rounds. They
’
re going high and bursting right over the base,
”
Gillum continued.

“
Casualties?
”

“
Not many. The load moving teams are current in dugouts sir.
”

“
But they have to come out to collect the cargo,
”
Eulenburg said grimly.

“
It
’
s more than that, sir. The drop pods and troop landers will have to attempt to fly through that.
”

Eulenburg turned and stared at the ground display holo, which showed a succession of disappearing and reappearing lines indicating streams of incoming missiles. The Nameless were learning. In the early days they
’
d kept their launchers stationary, making them vulnerable to human counter-battery fire. Since then they
’
d learned however.

“
They
’
ve obviously received reports of the landings at the other shelters. Damn it these things react fast!
”

“
Our batteries are doing their best but we can
’
t put down enough fire…
”

Eulenburg turned back to Gillum.
“
Get me the convoy commander on the line.
”

Within a minute the face of a weary looking Commodore appeared on his communications screen.

“
Commodore Crowe of the
Deimos
. Respectfully Admiral, I
’
m a bit busy at the moment,
”
he said.

“
You
’
re about to get busier still Commodore,
”
Eulenburg replied.
“
I need one of your ships to provide ground fire.
”

Crowe looked away before looking back to the communications screen.
“
Admiral, I
’
m barely hanging on here as it is. I expect to come under heavy assault within the next few minutes.
”

“
We
’
re already under heavy assault Commodore. The drop zone is under fire and I don
’
t have enough artillery left to suppress it. Unless I have a ship, any supplies you drop will be flying through a storm of steel.
”

Crowe looked away from the coms screen again, presumably towards his bridge holo. On his own screen Eulenburg could see the convoy formation shifting as ships due drop on Douglas worked their way downwards through the formation.

“
Do you have their firing locations, sir?
”
Crowe asked.

“
Approximate Commodore, but accurate enough for heavy calibre railgun fire.
”

“
Alright sir. I
‘
m giving you the
Amun
for twelve minutes. After that I
’
m taking her back,
”
Crowe conceded.
“
Bridge, Coms. Order
Amun
to assume a low orbit and prepare to accept firing instructions from the surface.
”

“
Thank you Commodore. When you have suppressed their artillery, I will launch my atmospheric fighters to escort the drop down.
”
Crowe acknowledged him with an abrupt nod before disappearing from the screen.

As he watched, Eulenburg saw the heavy cruiser
Amun
detach from the convoy
’
s protective screen, after which contacts abruptly separated from the cruiser and streaked downwards. On Four C
’
s main ground display, circles of territory, kilometres across, suddenly blanked out. Even though Four C was hundreds of metres below the surface and reinforced with concrete, Eulenburg felt the ground beneath his feet shake and saw dust streaming from the ceiling. Gillum glanced upwards.

“
That
’
s going to cost us,
”
he muttered.

On the holo, lines were disappearing as Nameless launchers went silent, likely trying to redeploy, but the cruiser was going to blanket the area around Douglas. As Gillum had said however, that was going to cost them. The shelters were deep but if they were feeling it in Four C, then there were going to be cave-ins. But that was tomorrow
’
s problem.
“
Their artillery fire is slackening,
”
Eulenburg replied.
“
Launch the fighters. Instruct the ground teams that the drop is commencing.
”

___________________________

15:13 Hrs Douglas Base time