HAWTHORNE: My plan is a gamble. You are quite correct in pointing that out.
YEZHOV: Supreme Commander, have I heard correctly? Are you admitting that Director Danzig is right?
HAWTHORNE: Only in that Eurasia will soon be more vulnerable to attack.
DANZIG: Am I missing something, sir?
YEZHOV: I cannot fathom why you would disarm us. I hope you do not take offense, but this seems criminally negligent.
SARGON (Commander of Orbital Sector): I didn’t want to say this. In lieu of what I’ve heard here, however, I feel I must. Supreme Commander, Code Valkyrie will threaten the Earth with mass starvation. You must realize this. The open habitat policy between the Highborn and us is of a very delicate nature. Your gross violation of the understanding will doom millions, perhaps billions to a slow and painful death.
JUBA-RYDER (Director of Africa): This is unseemly. You gentlemen are openly accusing the Supreme Commander of sabotage. I protest in the strongest manner possible.
YEZHOV: If it’s any help in understanding the situation, Political Harmony Corps’ psychology profile shows the Supreme Commander to have a greater leaning toward the Highborn than to Social Unity.
CAPTAIN MUNE: (stands up.)
HAWTHORNE: (motioning Captain Mune to sit down) Would you clarify that statement, please, Chief Yezhov?
YEZHOV: I mean no disrespect, sir, but your thought patterns are nearer those of Highborn soldiers than a grounded practitioner of Social Unity.
HAWTHORNE: If a man came at you with a gun, Chief, would you fight with your bare hands?
YEZHOV: You are Social Unity’s gun, sir?
HAWTHORNE: I detest false modesty and bragging. So let me put it this way. Social Unity has hurt the Highborn twice and only twice. Each of those times, the idea that propelled the action that harmed the Highborn was mine.
JUBA-RYDER: Chief Yezhov is your enemy, sir. I suggest your captain take him outside and have him shot.
HAWTHORNE: The Chief is a deadly opponent, of that there is no doubt. He is also a master of the secret ploy. Today, as he has been doing the past few days, he has sown discord. Few can match him in that regard. Director Juba-Ryder, you are correct in pointing out that Chief Yezhov is a danger to me. The safest course is to kill him. However, it is not in my nature to throw away powerful weapons. Chief, I dearly hope you will employ your skills to kill Highborn rather than engaging in intrigue against me.
YEZHOV: I support you one hundred percent, sir. You wound me with these allegations.
HAWTHORNE: Your vote of confidence fills me with resolve, I assure you. Gentlemen, and madam, Director Danzig is correct in stating that our present plan will deplete our defenses. Commander Sargon is equally correct in stating that implementation of Code Valkyrie will cause mass hardship on Earth.
DANZIG: Then why are you sending this convoy?
HAWTHORNE: Because we’re losing the war. The Highborn have the initiative and we have not been able to wrest it from them. As long as they own space, we cannot win. Perhaps we can stave off defeat, but even that is unlikely. Because they control space, they can pin down one planet and concentrate on another. If we hope to win, we must win space control.
YEZHOV: Against five Doom Stars?
HAWTHORNE: You have hit the mark, Chief. The Doom Stars are the bedrock of Highborn power because those ships give them space-superiority. The Campaign for Mars has a single goal. We must destroy Doom Stars.
DANZIG: You told the Directorate that you hoped to gain control of the planet.
HAWTHORNE: I do.
DANZIG: But you just said—
HAWTHORNE: We must accept terrible risks in the calculated hope that we can destroy Doom Stars. I predict that the critical campaign for us is this one. We failed to destroy the operational capacity of the Sun Works Ring. Now, as has been pointed out, the Highborn are gobbling landmasses on Earth. Soon, they will control more of Earth than we do.
DANZIG: How can we win on Mars?
HAWTHORNE: The exact nature of the operational plan will remain unknown to those present. I have calculated, however, that in eight out of ten times we shall achieve victory.
YEZHOV: We must trust your military genius?
HAWTHORNE: What else do you suggest we trust?
YEZHOV: (to the others) Do I stand alone in my qualms?
DANZIG: I tremble at the depletion of our defensive stocks. But I can see the Supreme Commander’s logic. We must take the terrible risk if we are to stave off bitter defeat in two or three years.
HAWTHORNE: Well-spoken, Director Danzig.
SARGON: Is the implementation of Code Valkyrie absolutely necessary?
HAWTHORNE: I tremble when I think of initiating it, Commander. Believe me, this is a difficult decision. Yet it is not a one hundred percent certainty. I will hold Code Valkyrie in reserve.
SARGON: I strongly suggest it stay in reserve, sir, unless its implementation can guarantee total victory.
HAWTHORNE: I will repeat it: Those are my sentiments also.
SARGON: (nods slowly) Then with the greatest reluctance, I agree to your logic, although I am unfamiliar with the exact merits of your plan.
HAWTHORNE: Does anyone else have any other comments? …Chief Yezhov?
YEZHOV: As a faithful son of Social Unity, I concur with the majority, suppressing my will in the interest of solidarity.
HAWTHORNE: (rising) Social Unity shall overcome. That is my pledge, my dedication and my most fervent dream. This meeting is adjourned.
Two days later, Supreme Commander Hawthorne stood in the Space Command Center deep in the Joho Mountains of China Sector. These ancient coalmines had been converted into a headquarters and fortress.
It was intense but quiet in the command center. Many uniformed personnel sat at their consoles, staring up into blue-colored vidscreens. The screens showed many different facets of the war. There were enemy laser platforms, orbital launch stations, orbiting farm habitats, asteroids and a giant Doom Star at far-Earth orbit. The single purpose of their planned attack was to create a hole in the Highborn blockade of Earth and to screen outbound supply vessels for Mars. The position of the two Doom Stars—one in far-Earth orbit and one in Lunar orbit—had been carefully calculated.
Hawthorne brushed his moist palms against his trousers. He stared at a screen showing him a merculite launch site in Kazakhstan Sector. It was a barren plain with steel doors covering the blast pans.
“Ten seconds,” a woman down the row said.
Hawthorne stared at those steel doors in Kazakhstan Sector. Suddenly, they began to move. Then they were open and giant merculite missiles roared out of the Earth. The exhaust burned hot, but the giant missiles moved so slowly. Tensely, Hawthorne waited for Highborn lasers to begin shooting them down.
A deadly red beam lanced out of the heavens and struck a merculite. The missile was heavily shielded, but three seconds later, it exploded. The others were moving faster now. More lasers struck from the orbital platforms that ringed the planet.
Targeting the laser platforms and the orbital-fighter launch stations, Social Unity fired thousands of merculite missiles from sites located in a seven-hundred kilometer diameter. Six proton beams also lashed the heavens. It was the heaviest space attack since 10 May 2350 and the wounding of the Doom Star
Genghis Khan
.
The silence in the underground command center was ominous. Along with Hawthorne, the military personnel stared at the vidscreens. Hundreds of merculite missiles were burned out of the sky, and hundreds more were going to die.
The proton beams struck, however. The one from Stalingrad obliterated the Highborn laser platform known as LP-23. As the space platform broke apart on the many screens, a ragged cheer arose in the Joho Command Center.
“Strike one!” a colonel shouted.
Hawthorne smiled grimly.
Then other Highborn platforms died: LP-16, LP-40, LP-41 and OLS-10 and OLS-11. OLS was an acronym for Orbital Launch Station.
As always, the Highborn response was swift. From other orbital launch stations, heavy fighters dropped down from space. The sonic-booming orbitals attacked the proton beam installations. Anti-air flak-guns opened up. They fired depleted uranium shells and sabot missiles, and another blizzard-salvo of merculite missiles lofted. Heavy orbital fighters disappeared to growing cheers in the underground command center. Other fighters survived, firing missiles or dropping bombs. In five places, multiple nuclear mushroom clouds appeared.
In the command center, a chair scraped back as a major stood, shaking her fists at the screen and cursing the Highborn.
Hawthorne sympathized. He hated the Highborn. He hated being on the defensive. But today they attacked. As he studied the figures, over thirty-four percent of the orbital fighters were destroyed. Against the Highborn, those were fantastic numbers.
The loss of so many orbital fighters and the space platforms must have stung the so-called Master Race. A Doom Star engaged its engines and began to move from its position behind Luna. The Doom Star at far-Earth orbit also began to accelerate. There were two Doom Stars in the Earth System, each far enough away so they were out of range of the merculite missiles and proton beams.
Before the first Doom Star could leave its lunar orbit, however, the Social Unity attack slackened. In this brief window of time, Hawthorne had expended a third of the Eurasian merculite missile reserve and burned out two of the proton beam cannons. It was the unprecedented scale of the attack that had won them the destruction of Highborn space targets.
To use more merculites would leave the heart of Social Unity on Earth dangerously exposed to another strike. Military Intelligence had discovered ten asteroids circling in far-Earth orbit. It was a grim reminder of Highborn power. Also, the very scale of the merculite missiles launched had resulted in a twenty-three percent degradation of launch capacity. That meant many of the blast pans used for the missile launches had been worn down and would require maintenance to function again.
The merculite missiles and the proton beams were meant as defensive weapons, primarily against any asteroids and the close approach of Doom Stars. The use of the carefully built-up stocks of missiles and the burning out of two proton beams weighed heavily on Hawthorne and on the men and women dedicated to the space defense of Earth. Despite the conference two days ago, it also cost Supreme Commander Hawthorne in perhaps the most critical area, his power base. Highly ranked military men and women questioned his decision. This was a gamble. The Highborn might very well use the depletion of defensive stocks to launch an all-out space attack on the Eurasian landmass.
Hawthorne shook his head. Now wasn’t the time to worry about that. Now was the critical moment. Now a small window was open to launch the supply convoy to Mars.
“Launch the Orion ships,” Hawthorne said.
The orders went out from the Joho Command Center, and then the military personnel waited. The probable success or failure of the Mars Campaign rested on what happened in these next few hours. The Orion ships had to get into space and past the Doom Stars before they could close the gap in their blockade around Earth.
***
Waiting in one of the many convoy vessels, was the prime clone of the late Madam Blanche-Aster. This clone had been the bodyguard who had survived the detonation of Mother aboard Hawthorne’s bullet train.
The clone’s name was Lisa Aster. As a former bodyguard, she knew guns, knives, unarmed combat and security arrangements. She was a master at kinetics and reading body language, trained to note the subtle signs of those readying themselves to kill. The late Madam Director’s death infuriated Lisa. She attributed it to the Neptune clone, the one tampered with by the cyborgs. Thus, Lisa hated the cyborgs and wanted to see them destroyed.
The clone Lisa Aster waited with thousands of other people aboard the Orion ships because Supreme Commander Hawthorne had given her a mission. Once the supply convoy reached Mars, she was supposed to study the cyborgs and discover their weaknesses.
Lisa Aster lay on an acceleration couch. Like stout General Fromm on the other couch, she wore a vacc-suit and a helmet. She had a buzz cut of pale hair and a narrow face with intelligent features.
Words sounded in her ears, something about four, three, two, one—
Then Lisa Aster’s world dramatically changed. The first nuclear bomb exploded with a mighty sound.
BANG!
It shoved her hard against the acceleration couch and made everything rattle around her. She clenched the bars beside her and then clenched her teeth.
BANG!
BANG!
The gigantic, Orion ship lifted from an underground launch-bunker in Kazakhstan Sector.
It was a crude booster and one of the most powerful propulsion systems known. Weapons-grade U-235 was the fuel, nuclear bombs. A bomb detonated under each booster. An immensely thick metal plate absorbed the blast as it was blown spaceward. It looked like a city block, with tall buildings, lifting out of the Earth and heading for the clouds. Those ‘buildings’ were supply spaceships. Lisa Aster peered at a screen in her ship and saw the clouds jump nearer at each bone-crushing
BANG!
After the Orion ship’s thick metal plate, was tons of hardened ablative foam. The foam’s single purpose was to cushion the shock to the riding spaceships clustered and perched at the front.