Rumors of Honor (System States Rebellion Book 2) (28 page)

“And
what about a second strike on Makassar with four converted carriers? Do we go
ahead with that before we send the cease fire proposal to Earth?” asked
Janicot.

Foster
shook her head. “P2’s analysis of Commander Drake’s After Action report
indicates a high probability that a second strike would be a waste of time and,
in fact, that we’d suffer significant losses. If the FED’s reserve fleet of four
cruisers hadn’t been busy attacking our dummy shipyard site and instead had
been protecting Makassar, Drake probably would have lost a quarter to half of
his missile boat force. We can’t expect to be that lucky again. Those converted
freighter-carriers weren’t a waste of time, Admiral. We can use them to
transport the missile boats to Midgard so that the first two battlecruisers can
use them right away instead of having to come here to Sparta to pick them up
and then go on the offensive. That will save approximately 14 weeks, which the
FEDS won’t be allowed to use to build up their fleet even further.”

Janicot
smiled and, turning to Sorenson, nodded. Sorenson nodded back ever so slightly
and turned to look at Foster again. “And speaking of Midgard, what’s the latest
news from there, Major?”

“The
extra equipment ordered on Earth has been received and installed. Construction
of the first two battlecruisers has begun. Work on the other three will
commence on schedule in three months, but because of the experience gained with
the first two, the next three should be finished 8 to 12 weeks faster. Site X
has been set up and is now ready to take over if that need should arise.
Commander Murphy’s latest report is that the locals are very happy with the
economic spinoffs from the project and that security is still intact.”

Janicot
smiled at the mention of ‘Commander Murphy’. “Your husband has been back here
now what…two months?” Foster nodded. “When will he be heading back to Midgard?”
asked Janicot.

“Not
for another ten weeks, Admiral.” The tone of her voice conveyed the unspoken
part of her reply which was ‘if you don’t send him back early again’. Janicot
got the message and mentally nodded. He had no plans to send Murphy back early,
but in war shit happens, and he was certain that Major Cate Foster understood
that. Turning to Belloc, he said, “I have no more questions for Major Foster.
Do you have any questions for the Major or myself, Chancellor?”

Belloc’s
reply was relaxed and calm. “Not at the moment, Admiral. Naturally I may have
more questions after I read the planning group’s report, but I’m satisfied for
now. How about you, Mandy?”

Sorenson
shook her head. “I have no further questions right now, Chancellor. I’d like
another day to consider this recommended course of action. You’ll have my
recommendation tomorrow, if that’s acceptable.”

“Tomorrow’s
fine. In that case I think we’re done here. Thank you for another interesting
briefing, Major Foster.” Belloc nodded to Janicot and Sorenson as he got up and
left. Foster was the last to leave, and as she headed back to her office, she
wondered what mischief the Gods of War were about to engage in. The attack on
the dummy shipbuilding complex was a surprise, but only in terms of timing, not
the fact that it was attacked. It had served its purpose, but she couldn’t get
rid of this nagging feeling that things were going too well and that, sooner or
later, something nasty was going to hit them.

Day
320/2547

Trojan’s
personal transport, the Mach 3-capable recon craft set aside for his own use,
descended gently inside the extinct volcano that was now a Navy base and
shipyard. With the craft’s auto-pilot handling the landing, Trojan was free to
look at the prototype that was sitting on that bottom. It was small as ships
went, only 50 meters in diameter, although that was misleading. It wasn’t a
true sphere but rather a near-spherical shape that had 12 flat sides. Each side
was a five-sided pentagon. Majestic had proposed the radical design as a way of
foiling enemy radar, and while Trojan understood the principle behind it, a
part of him had remained skeptical until the prototype testing had confirmed
the principle. Radar waves hitting a true sphere would always be reflected
directly back to the radar emitter because there would always be some part of
the sphere that presented just the right angle. A 12-sided ship, if piloted
carefully enough, would always have its flat sides at an angle that reflected
radar energy away from the emitter. With no return signal to analyze, the radar
emitter would see ‘nothing’, and the ship would effectively be invisible to
radar and, as it turned out, to lidar too.

As
he exited the recon craft, a squad of his personal Guard arrived and took up
station to escort him to the Base HQ building. Trojan looked at them with a
critical eye. Their jet black uniforms with minimal decoration other than the
mailed fist holding lightning bolts patch, along with their weapons, were
appropriately intimidating. Trojan smiled at the thought that this squad was
just a small portion of the rapidly growing Elite Guard Division. Hand-picked
for their dedication and loyalty to Trojan himself, he would use them as his
shock troops when it came time to re-organize the Federation. As he finished
inspecting the squad, he saw the Base Commander running towards him. When the
approaching officer was still a few meters away, he shouted to Trojan.

“Word
just came in, General! Romanov’s Task Force is back! Mission accomplished!” The
out of breath officer was still smiling when he stopped in front of Trojan.

“That’s
good to hear, Commander,” said Trojan. “It’s about time we had some good news
to send back to those dimwitted politicians on Earth.” Trojan made sure his
voice was loud enough that the whole squad heard him. Reinforcing their
indoctrination whenever possible was always a good idea. Pointing to the
prototype, Trojan said, “Right now I want to talk about the test results. Give
it to me straight, Commander. Did the radars pick up this bird at all and if
so, how far away?”

The
Base Commander was now grinning from ear to ear. “No, SIR! The test vehicle
managed to get within five kilometers of the radar picket ship without any
detected microwave emissions whatsoever! I’m told the radar operators weren’t
even sure the test had started until the test vehicle announced its position by
com laser. We ran the test three times with exactly the same results.”

“Five
kilometers? How long would it take our standard anti-ship missile to cover that
distance?” asked Trojan.

The
Base Commander laughed. “Less than two seconds, General. Not enough time for
missile defense systems to locate, lock on and intercept it, not even with
anti-missile lasers.”

Trojan
nodded with a great deal of satisfaction. This was the kind of breakthrough he
needed to finish off the SSU. “VERY good! I’m extremely pleased, Commander.
How’s the design of the 400 meter cruiser version coming along?”

“We’re
making good progress on that, General. I estimate that the shipyards could
start fabricating hull components in another week or so if they were given the
go ahead.”

“Well
then, you tell them they’ve just gotten the go ahead. I want construction of
stealthy cruisers started ASAP and never mind continuing the capacity
expansion. We’re not going to wait for our long term target capacity. We won’t
need hundreds of ships like this. Half a dozen will be enough to wipe out the
SSU’s fleet. They won’t even know what hit them.”

“I’ll
pass that authorization to them right now if you’ll excuse me, General.” The Base
Commander waited just long enough to see Trojan nod before turning and running
towards the Base’s Communications Station. Trojan decided that he might as well
take a look inside the test vehicle while he had the chance. He had plenty of
time before Romanov’s Task Force dropped into orbit. As he started walking
toward the prototype, his Guard escort fell in beside him on both sides. He
made a mental note to himself to get out of the underground complex more often.
Having an Elite Guard escort was an intoxicating exercise of power that was
hard to resist.

Day
092/2548

Trojan
stood up and threw the data tablet in his hand against the opposite wall of his
office, just barely missing a ducking Romanov in the process.

“Unbelievable!
A Goddamned cease fire has been ordered by the Federation Council so that they
can negotiate an end to the war! Son-of-a-bitch! This throws all of Majestic’s
plans into the disintegration bin. They’re going to stop sending me troops,
just in case they’re not needed. I NEED those additional troops to fight for me
in taking control of Earth, not fighting against me defending Earth!”

“What
about Makassar? Did they order you to halt or slow down the buildup?” asked
Romanov.

Trojan
snorted. “No! They’re not quite THAT stupid. The buildup will continue, and
we’ll keep getting more personnel to man those stealth cruisers, but I have
been ordered to keep those new ships in this star system for defensive
operations only, unless specifically ordered otherwise by Admiral Chenko.”
Trojan’s expression became thoughtful, and he started to pace from one side of
the office to the other. Romanov had seen Trojan do this before and knew enough
to stand quietly out of his way.

Trojan
stopped, turned to look at Romanov and said, “Majestic anticipated this you
know. Oh, it gave the idea a low probability. That just goes to show you that
sometimes long shots pay off, but its already figured out a counter-strategy. A
rather cold-blooded strategy too. I don’t think I could have thought of it
myself. Essentially what it boils down to is this. We wait a few months. If the
negotiations don’t collapse of their own accord, then we give them a little
push by staging a raid on one of our own planets and making it look like the
SSU did it. That apparently dastardly stab in the back will enrage the general
public on Earth and force the politicos to give me the green light for
offensive operations. By then, there should be half a million trained troops on
Earth. I’ll make it clear that Majestic has determined that I need all those
troops here, ready to deploy before the stealth cruisers can begin operations.
When we’re certain that those troops are on their way here, you’ll take the
stealth cruisers and ambush whatever orbital defenses the SSU has around
Sparta. With control of Sparta’s orbitals, our troops will be able to land and
pacify Sparta. As you know, by that point, Majestic is predicting that the SSU
will start to collapse as member planets vote to leave the Union and rejoin the
Federation, but we’ll inform Earth that we expect heavy resistance from further
invasions, and I therefore need a lot more troops. By carefully managing the
final stages of the war, I’ll have enough troops to conquer Earth by the time
the SSU is defeated.”

Romanov
looked skeptical. “I don’t know, General. Convincing troops that we have to
attack Earth to save the people from the corruption and incompetence of the
Federation leadership is one thing, but for the false-flag raid to look
believable, our troops are going to have to fire on loyal Federation citizens.
I don’t know if they’re willing to do that. I’m not sure I could.”

Trojan
shook his head. “I’m not worried about that at all. My Elite Guards will do it
if I tell them to. All you have to do is escort their transports to the target
planet and make sure they can land safely. Will you do that?”

Romanov
closed his eyes and sighed. “Yes…I’ll do that, General.”

Trojan
walked over to Romanov and put his right hand on Romanov’s shoulder. “We knew
we’d very likely have to do something like this, but it’ll save billions of
lives down the road. Just keep that in mind.”

Romanov
opened his eyes and nodded. Maybe he could keep fatalities down to a minimum.
At the very least he would make it clear to the Guard Commander that his troops
were not to kill children. That resolution did not make him feel any better.
Damn the Union for proposing a cease fire!

Day
288/2548

Romanov
entered Trojan’s  office and sat down in the chair opposite his boss’s desk. “I
hear another courier arrived from Earth,” said Romanov.

Trojan
looked up and nodded. “The Chiefs of Staff are keeping me informed of the
‘progress’ that’s being made in the negotiations. Apparently our side had put
forward a proposal for a new peace treaty, and the Union negotiator’s reaction
was cautiously optimistic, whatever the hell that means. He told our people
that he would send it back to Sparta for consideration by the SSU leadership
but cautioned that a reply might take as long as five or six months if
consultation with other SSU member Heads of State are required. HQ’s so-called
experts are interpreting this as a sign that an agreement may be close, so I
think it’s time that we executed Operation Backstep.”