Resilience (Warner's World Book 6) (58 page)

Chapter 3. Audacity over Slenthsl 1400, 14 November

Rear Admiral (RAdm) Dave Warner, commander of the Audacity Group of Federation stealth ships had a concerned look on his face as he terminated the call from the command centre. He was seated at his desk in his office on A deck of the Federation Fleet Ship (FFS) Audacity.  He was about to rise from his chair and make his way to the command centre when an alert appeared on his screen advising he had a new message in from Charles Chen. He knew it would be Charles’ brief on all things political. Charles had taken upon himself to post these weekly updates to Dave despite the fact that Dave had already told him that he was not yet prepared to commit to running.

In fact Dave had not discussed this with anyone, including his wife Commodore (Cdre) Rihan Kabel, who was also his Flag Captain. In the small battlegroup of stealth ships that he commanded she managed the Audacity and doubled as his Chief of Staff (COS). The notification occasioned a pang of guilt. This was the only thing that Dave had so far withheld from his wife.

He reasoned with himself that it was because he did not want to divert her focus from the monumental military operation they were soon to embark on. But he also knew he did not want to face up to the decision at this stage either and he knew his wife well. He knew she would be compelled to argue it out. That was her nature. He loved her deeply but he just needed time to finish off this war and then he would share it with her. So for now he dragged the message into his ‘Personal’ folder and set himself a reminder to read it later this afternoon.

Right now he had more pressing matters. He exited his office and headed for the command centre at a quick pace. “Rihan” he hailed as he walked.

“Yes” replied Rihan.

“I need you in the command centre. We have a problem below.”

“On my way.”

Dave entered the big circular command centre with the large holo display in the centre, surrounded by work stations. Dave slotted into his Admirals seat. “Put me through Crystal” he directed to Lieutenant Commander (LCmd) Crystal Wong the lead battle systems (BS) officer who currently had the watch. At the moment she was the only other person in the command centre. By the time Crystal had the sleth commander on the line, Rihan had jogged in and plonked herself down in the Flag Captain’s seat next to Dave. Captain (Capt) Aubrey Bellard, group Operations (OPS) commander, and Cmdr Sue Chalker, one of her Ground OPS officers, had also sat down as had the sleth liaison officer Colonel (Col) Obri.

“Colonel Elinth for your Sir” advised Crystal.

“Yes Colonel, what’s the problem?” asked Dave. Dave listened to Elinth with growing concern. Rihan could see the frown lines on Dave’s forehead as the conversation progressed.

“So let me get this clear” said Dave with a hint of annoyance. “You left the fighter base with only a platoon defending. It’s been overrun by a rogan company that you didn’t know about. They have taken hostages and have control of the base’s magazine.  You’ve surrounded it with your 2
^nd
battalion but the enemy will only surrender to a human force.”

“Yes” said Elinth. His long reptilian face looked clearly uneasy in the conference screen.

Rihan leaned over and whispered into Dave’s ear. Dave nodded to her and then asked Elinth “What type and how many munitions are in the magazine?”

“It wasn’t destroyed in our initial strikes, so it was virtually full of conventional missile munitions.” Elinth paused while he thought how best to word his next remark. “According to the manifest there should be 200 nukes.”

“Well that’s a nice pickle you have landed us in Colonel” said Dave and now there was no hiding the level of his annoyance.

“What does pickle mean?” asked a nervous Elinth.

“It means you have fucked this up good and proper. That’s what it means.”

Elinth struggled with the form of expression, as expressed by his translation system, but he had no problems in reading Dave’s demeanour.  He was a very proud sleth but even he knew he had cocked up and he chose to be silent rather than to fuel the anger within Dave. Dave turned to Obri who had a disappointed expression and just shook his head in disbelief.

Dave rolled his eyes. “Upload a SITREP and we’ll work something out. In the meantime make sure your troops do not attack. I’ll be sending someone down to command the situation. We’ll be in touch shortly.”

Elinth simply nodded and was glad when the call was terminated by Dave. Dave looked around the room at the others and said “Options?”

Twenty minutes later they had the draft plan displayed on the holo. Sue’s husband and Dave’s best friend Capt Art Simons had joined the planning group. He was Dave’s Intelligence Chief (INT) and political officer. Like Dave he was ex-special forces and used to being Dave’s go-to person when it came to tricky situations like this.

“So Art, just take it one step at a time down there. See what terms these rogan want. They’re cut off and desperate by the sounds of things. So don’t inflame things…”

“You telling me to suck eggs” said Art with a smile.

“Yeah I suppose I am. Anyway Nick Hope’s platoon will have your back. If you need more back up just call. The bottom line is to secure those nukes, preferably without blowing the base sky high.”

“Got it.”

“I’ll give you half an hour to get ready. I’ll sit in on the O (orders) group at say 1500.”

“I’ll see that he complies” said Sue and she whisked her husband out of the command centre. As they descended down the elevator to B deck where Art would grab his combat gear before proceeding to the ‘ground’ decks, Sue said “Make sure you don’t do anything stupid.”

“When have I done anything stupid?” said Art in his defence.

“Oh let me see, Assam, yes in Assam you were stupid and nearly bled to death.”

“OK apart from Assam?” Sue lowered her forehead and looked at him with that knowing expression, which Art knew all too well. “All right, I get the point. I’ll play safe.” He gave her an expression which said ‘better.’ He got a peck on the cheek for his effort.

At 1500 Dave walked into the briefing room on Starboard E Deck. To speed things up 1
^st
Lt Nick Hope’s entire Second Commando Platoon (2
^nd
Cdo Pl) were there along with Art, Sue, LCmd Reggie Hollows, commander of the 3
^rd
Commando Company (Coy), Cdre Gordon Gilbert, the Group Ground Commander, Capt Chip Anderson, commander 1
^st
Battalion (Bn), 3
^rd
Marine Brigade (Bde), Cdre Toyah Larsen, the Group Flight Commander, LCmd Alan Chimbu, commander 3
^rd
Fighter Squadron and LCmd Debbie Mandrake, commander of the 2
^nd
Combat Support Squadron.

This was Art’s show and Dave left him to run it. He sat off to the side with Sue, Gordon, Toyah and Reggie. Art was brief and direct. If the instructions bordered on scant, it didn’t seem to faze the special forces (SF) soldiers.

“Any questions?” said Art at the end.

Nick looked around at his team leaders and then the rest of the troops. The impassive faces dominated while a few shook their head. Nick faced back to Art and said “Looks like we’re all good but I have one question. If things get hot do we come under command of the sleth ground commander or what?”

“I think that’s a definite ‘or what’” replied Art. He looked to Dave but Dave gave no indication he wanted to say anything, so Art continued. “I’ll be calling the shots and I’ll liaise with the sleth ground commander. We do want to support our ally here but our prime focus is on securing those nukes come what may. If need be, I’ll call for backup support and I’m sure the good commodore” said Art looking at Gordon “will send in the cavalry.”

“The rest of your company will be on five minutes’ readiness and the 1
^st
Bn will be on 30” advised Gordon in his matter of fact, no nonsense voice.

“That works for me Sir” said Nick. “That’s all from me” he added to Art.

“Any comments Sir?” Art asked Dave.

Dave shook his head. “Just good luck.”

Chapter 4. Ark Royal over Cheklin 1200, 14 November

RAdm Samantha Shepherd stepped out of the warthog onto the hangar floor of the Federation carrier Ark Royal. The handover had alas been brief but she understood the need for the 1
^st
Republican Fleet (RF) to depart for Qwantum post haste.

Originally she had been disappointed when she had been ordered to secure Cheklin while the rest of the combined fleet attacked Istridium. She had hoped for her group to be part of what she knew would be the defining battle of the war. But she was, if anything, a true professional. She knew the importance of securing Cheklin, not just militarily but politically.

She had seen the disappointment on the faces of her subordinates too. She was still drawing on her incredible self-discipline not to show any on her own.  So she strode into the command centre ten minutes later holding her frame with that steady poise she had cultivated all her career. Her hair was cut short. A residue of vanity dictated that it be dyed to match the sandy colour that was once its natural state.

She sat down in her fleet commander’s chair. Her posterior filled more of the space than she cared for, but that was inevitable now that she was approaching fifty years of age. She was pleased though that she kept her figure in check with daily exercise. Yes she was big on self-discipline but unlike many others she was careful not to overdo it.

Her light blue eyes scanned the holo, noted the icons for her ships – 1 carrier, 11 caps and 12 lights. This included the two caps and one light from the rogan Group Bala. They were in geo above Lewista at 30,000 kilometres (30K).

She also noted that apart from the 40 rogan fighters that were now on CAP around her group 12 of her 48 lightnings (fighters) were also on CAP. Her flight commander, Cdre Bluey Thompson, had already begun the training program they had agreed to and there were currently two flights of her 48 marauders (bombers) making a mock attack on one of Group Bala’s ships.

Samantha gave a smile of approval to Bluey who was already barking instructions to the flight decks below.

“Bit slow off the blocks Maam” said Bluey by way of explanation. “But don’t you worry we’ll soon blow the cobwebs away.”

“I have no doubt” said Samantha as she took her seat. ‘They are a well-oiled machine’ thought Samantha. But they had not seen action since the battle of Polaris and Samantha was aware, and just a touch concerned, that they may lose their edge running drills in a backwater.

Two thirds of her pilots were green. They had lost so many over Polaris. But those that survived were now veteran and they had spent many a session in the simulators during their long warp from Polaris transferring their hard earned experience to the new pilots. She knew that Bluey was keen to get some actual flying time to consolidate much of their simulator training.

“Bluey, when is the combined exercise scheduled for?” she asked.

“1530” responded Bluey but his focus was on his screen. “I’ll have this batch finished in time.” Bluey turned to face her and with a cockney smile added “We’ll hold our own. Don’t you worry about that!”

“These Republican pilots must be pretty good to have survived and prevailed through two major actions.”

“True. But their craft are crap. Nah, we’ll wipe the floor for sure.”

“Don’t be too cocky Bluey.”

“Who me?” asked Bluey with a wry smile.

Chapter 5. Neeblo 1430, 14 November

Fleet Admiral Felis Draag, the supreme military commander of the Republican forces, boarded the hopper bound for Lewista’s spaceport. His gear was already stowed. He leant back into the seat resting his large rogan head with its extended cranium back into the headrest. Cdre Kraag Balun, head of Republican Fleet OPS, was already in the seat next to him. With his large angled eyes he stole a glance at his boss but neither felt like talking. That had all been done. Even Interim President Meelanda Orocash had stopped pestering him, now that they were finally going to depart.

Felis reflected on the last few days and smiled to himself as he recalled how Meelanda seemed anxious about the interstellar flight she was about to undertake. She had been like a rock during the height of the conflicts that racked Cheklin and now was petrified about a simple warp to Qwantum. ‘But maybe she’s more anxious about what must follow’ he posed to himself. ‘Or maybe not’ he added after a little more thought.

The hopper took off and rose to a comfortable cruising altitude of 3,000m. This was a recent luxury, now that hostilities here were over. He recalled the hair-raising rides across the tree tops he had undergone earlier and then an image from one of those flights came flooding in. It was during the night after one of the rallies. He and Evie Plentun, the young resistance leader, were sitting opposite each other and each massaged the other’s feet. A warm loving feeling coursed through Felis, reminding him of why he was going on this mission. It gave him heart and resolve.

Ten minutes later, he spied the spaceport. He could see the lines of vehicles that were part of the reconstruction process. The craters in the runways and bays had all been repaired, though two of the terminals still had rubble around them.

“They’re getting on with it” commented Kraag.

“Indeed” replied Felis.

“I wonder how long it will take to get back to normal?” asked Kraag.

“I hope we never go back to that normal” said Felis and added a wry smile.

Kraag chuckled. “Do you know Felis” said Kraag “I am actually looking forward to our new order, our new life. I feel incredibly honoured to have been part of what we have done.”

Felis could see the sincerity in Kraag’s eyes. He smiled warmly but then added “You know we’re not done yet.” Kraag acknowledged him with a nod.

Half an hour later Felis was pleasantly surprised as he boarded the Republican Fleet Ship (RFS) Eltekin. Admiral Veego Paga, commander of the 1
^st
Republican Fleet, had provided an honour guard and welcomed him with all pomp and ceremony. “I must say Sir” said Veego “that you cut a very fine figure in that new uniform.”