Tipping Point in the Alliance War (19 page)

-
        
The Alliance Space
Marines will disembark last, in the same sequence. 

-
        
Major
Dawkins will be the last to disembark.

The
ships are docked and the Space Station deck crews quickly install the gangways,
to the space station deck.  The ‘little fleet’ sailors are lined up,
according to rank, and are prepared to disembark. 

All
ships communicate ‘readiness to disembark’ to the Brutus.  Major Dawkins
gives the ‘Execute!’ command and all of the doorways open in unison.  That
causes an eruption of applause and shouting from the throngs of people waiting
to welcome the returning heroes. 
Pandemonium.
 
That is a good word to describe the crowd noise.

The
noise level gets even higher as that first Navy Sailor steps out of her ship’s
hatchway, and walks down the gangway.  There is a steady stream of sailors
and noise after that, until all of the Alliance Navy sailors have
disembarked. 

Next,
the former Confederation Navy sailors disembark.  Major Dawkins is
apprehensive about their welcome.  They have been good sailors, while
under her command, and she remembers how many times they have voted to continue
on, with the Alliance mission.

She
need not have worried.  The Marine launch personnel have told the stories
of the former Confederation sailors and how much they have helped the mission
to succeed.  They are welcome in this place.  The noise level stays
at the same deafening volume for them, as they parade before the
crowds.  

Finally,
when it seems like the crowd must be exhausted and their throats worn out, the
Alliance Space Marine Corps personnel begin to exit their ships.  The
noise level cranks UP another notch.  All of the mission’s personnel are
heroes, but the Marines are the ‘heroes among heroes’.  These are the valiant
warriors who board ships in Space Armor, and take them captive.  These are
the pirates of space warfare, and the ‘rock stars’ for this generation.

***

And
last but not least, Major Sasha Dawkins exits. 
(She is well known, by
now, because her holograms have been circulating in the media for weeks.) 
Unbelievably, the decibel level goes even higher.  It is everything
the Marine Captain can do to keep from breaking down and crying.  The only
thing that keeps it from happening is the thought that her father is somewhere
‘up there’ watching and he wouldn’t want to see his baby cry.  And her
little boy
Nevin
- he wouldn’t want to see his mommy
cry.  She doesn’t cry.  She stands up straight and tries to walk like
a normal person, even though she doesn’t feel at all ‘normal’ right now. 
She feels as if she must be caught in some parallel universe and if she just
keeps walking she will find her way back to ‘normal’ space.  Walking is
especially difficult right now and requires a good bit of concentration,
because she feels like she is floating a few inches above the deck.

Eventually
she comes to the end of the welcoming crowd, but she isn’t in ‘normal’ space
yet.  It looks like ‘Admiral’s row’ - and the Marine Commandant is
there.  And there are important looking people dressed up in expensive
clothes.  But she knows what to do, in the company of Admirals - you
salute and say ‘aye aye sir’.  And, that is what she does.

***

Immediately
following the reception line greeting, Fleet Admiral Walls pulls her aside and leads
her to an auxiliary door.  He opens the door and she enters to hear the
cheers of her family, her husband and her CHILD. 
Nevin
is 7 years old – his birthday is next week – what a wonderful gift – to be with
him on his birthday. 
Nevin
and mommy embrace
and then make room for daddy (Zack) to get into the hug, as well. 
Everyone cries and cries.  The extended family surrounds the little Marine
family, with love and tears.

It
is awesome.  During the mission, Major Dawkins was constantly busy during
her duty hours but she had thought of her son and husband, often.  The
mission just kept getting longer and more complex.  Many times she had
wondered if she would see them again.  The Major’s method of coping with
her loneliness is to write poems for her son and husband.  She has almost
a book of them from this mission.  She is so glad to be done with poetry
and loneliness, for a while. 

***

After
about an hour, Admiral Walls returns to escort her back to the reception. 
He has made arrangement for the extended family to stay on the Station for a
few days, and for
Nevin
and daddy to stay for as long
as the Major is on the Space Station.  

The
Admiral keeps the Major at the reception for about three more hours – she is,
after all, the center of attention, for the Navy as well as for the civilian
media - which is ubiquitous.  Then the Admiral introduces the other ship’s
Captains, in order to refocus media appetites, and slips Major Dawkins out a
side door and into the care of an aid.  The aid ushers her away, to the
complex of rooms which is reserved for her family.  There, they cry and
cry again.

***

During
her time at the reception, Major Dawkins had made sure that the admirals were
aware of the very present danger from the 300 ship Confederation Fleet. 
And, she was careful to give Captain Niles the credit that he deserves for
making the mission a success.  It wouldn’t have happened without his
preparation and leadership. 

Fleet
Admiral Walls gives her an overview of the ongoing defensive preparations,
which - he admits - are not yet good enough to defeat the enemy fleet.  If
the invasion were to take place today, they would be in serious
difficulty.  In another week or two the defenses will be much stronger,
because of the arrival of ships and munitions supplied by other Alliance
planets.  He schedules some time tomorrow morning to meet with Major
Dawkins, so that he can get her insights into improving their defensive
preparations.

Then
he, reluctantly, asks about Captain Niles and the Courageous.  He is
expecting to hear the worst - that the Captain and his ship have been destroyed
- but the news from Major Dawkins leaves him still concerned, but not without
hope.  The Captain and the Courageous have been captured by an enormous
alien space ship.  That isn’t good news, but Admiral Walls knows that
Captain Niles is a resourceful leader and that the crew of the Courageous is
one of the best in the Alliance Navy.  There is still some room for hope
there.

***

Fleet
Admiral Walls’ discussion about battle strategy, with Major Dawkins, has been
fruitful.  She suggested that all launches with stealth capabilities be
used as either boarding party transportation or as missile assault ships, which
could fire missiles at ‘point blank range’.  Fleet Admiral Walls immediately
puts her in charge of organizing that effort.  Every available stealth
launch and everyone trained in the use of Space Armor are at her
disposal.  She can requisition any personnel or any assets – she begins
with the Admiral’s own launch and crew. 

(The Admiral
told Major Dawkins that the captured Confederation vessels are to be used only
as a last resort, but that she and her crews should be aboard those ships, and
prepared for battle.)

***

She
leaves that meeting and immediately recalls her crews.  Within minutes of
her assignment, she begins to issue orders to the entire Alliance Navy
Headquarters Battle Preparations Command – with the Fleet Admiral’s
authority.  Too much time has already been wasted. 

Within
hours, stealth launches begin to assemble – the Admirals’ launch is first to
arrive.  Every one with Space Armor experience is immediately conscripted
and summoned.  Her Space Marines are assigned to teach the ‘boarding party
forces’ how to board a Confederation vessel and how to disable it.  Everyone
will be taught the basics of the strategy first, and then as time permits,
crews will get ‘hands on’ training. 

Over
50 stealth assault-launches have been conscripted for the launch force.  Half
of the launches will be for boarding parties and half will be missile
launchers.  Fifty stealth launches, with fully trained crews, would be
enough to wreak havoc in a fleet of 300 vessels.  These are not fully
trained crews but they will have to do.

There
are enough Marines with Space Armor training to crew the ‘boarding party’
launches.  The missile launchers are to be
crewed
by Navy personnel, since they are already familiar with the use of launches and
missiles.  Their training focuses on stalking and assault
techniques. 

Coordination
between the ‘boarding parties’ and the ‘missile launchers’ is crucial - timing
is everything.  Some of Major Dawkins Marines are assigned to coordinate
between the groups and are in command of the overall operations.  These
Launch Commanders will direct the launch forces from the battle-space. 
All launches will be continuously connected to the ‘Command Launches’ via a
laser comm system.

Critical to the mission of ‘boarding party’
launches, or ‘missile assault’ launches is having a debris field, with enough
clutter to hide the gravity of the stealth launches.  The Confederation
knows about boarding parties and will be carefully searching for the telltale
gravity-wells of the stealth launches.
 
Major Dawkins plans on
getting that massive debris field by throwing lots of commercial shipping
vessels, mining ships, mothballed warships, and yachts at the Confederation
Fleet, before the Alliance Navy enters the battle-space.  Those unmanned
vessels, filled to the brim with junkyard cars, are to be controlled
remotely.  It is hoped that the Confederation Admirals will view the
conglomeration of vessels, as the Alliance Navy’s attempt to use civilians as
‘cannon fodder’ – which is exactly what the Confederation forces would do, under
these circumstances.

***

On a
Personal Note

Major
Dawkins thinks about sending her son and husband to the planet’s surface and
decides that it is a good idea.  She has seen what the Confederation did
to the planet
Egdffe
after the battle at
Capernic
.  They erased every trace of life from the
planet’s surface.  That will probably be the Earth’s future, if the
Alliance Navy Headquarters Space Station is destroyed. 

Never
the less, there is the possibility that the Confederation fleet, even if they
successfully destroy the Space Station, will be so depleted that they won’t
have the resources or time to destroy the Earth.  Any surviving
Confederation Navy forces will be under mounting pressure to leave the area,
because of an expected flood of Alliance reinforcements which should be
arriving soon. 

Zack
and
Nevin
will leave for the Earth and seek a shelter
immediately after
Nevin’s
8
^th
birthday
party.  God willing, there will be many more.

***

Volunteer
Forces

While
Major Dawkins is teaching the ‘launch forces’, the Alliance Navy is teaching
the ‘volunteer forces’.  These forces have been educated on the
consequences of failure – all life on the planet Earth will be
eradicated.  And they have been educated on when and how to fight.

Most
of the vessels for the volunteer forces have no shields, or armor, or
weapons.  It is acknowledged up-front that these assignments are suicide
missions.  The ‘volunteer vessels’ are to be positioned in back of the
Alliance Navy formation, but they will become a frontline force as the battle
progresses. 

The
‘volunteer crews’ have been trained
(minimally)
on fleet formations and
about effective fighting techniques, for forces of their kind.  It is
crucial for the ‘volunteer ships’ to stay in designated travel lanes, so that
the Alliance Navy warships and the Space Station defense forces have clear
‘firing lanes’.  A substantial portion of the training is dedicated to
teaching the pilots how to select appropriate travel lanes, for various battle
scenarios.

The
training is focused on the use of their most effective weapon – their
ship.  Ramming a Confederation vessel will be - by far - the most
effective method for disabling or destroying that vessel. 

In
order to ram a ship you must first get close to it.  That means that the
‘volunteer force’ is going to be most effective, when the Confederation Fleet
is involved in dog-fighting with the Alliance Navy Fleet.  At that time,
the ‘volunteer vessels’ will swarm the Confederation Fleet and ram as many
ships as possible.

The
civilian Corvette class speed boats are going to be part of the ‘volunteer
force’.  Some have weapons but most do not.  The only effective
weapon that the unarmed corvettes have is the ability to ram - just like the
ancient kamikaze pilots.  This group of volunteers is to come in at
maximum speed, behind the other volunteer vessels.  Hopefully, this ‘swarm
of hornets’ will overload the defensive systems on the Confederation
ships. 

There
are plenty of volunteers for the suicide missions – they will die a good death.

***

It
is nine days after the arrival of the ‘little fleet’ when the Confederation
Fleet emerges from warp-space, inside of the Earth’s solar system.  The
enemy Fleet emerges near the orbit of Mars, but Mars is presently on the
opposite side of the system’s star. 
(That good fortune spares the Mars
populace a lot of anguish.)

 There
is no discussion or negotiation about ‘terms of surrender’ or ‘rules of
war’.  The Confederation Fleet begins to attack anything in their vicinity
and Alliance Forces begin to assemble as a defensive shield, in front of the
Alliance Navy Headquarters Space Station and the planet Earth.

The
Confederation Fleet knows, from their scans, that the captured Confederation
warships are docked at the Earth Space Station.  The 300 ship Fleet isn’t
leaving until those captured ships are destroyed.  The honor of the
Confederation has been challenged, and a ‘duel to the death’ is the only way to
satisfy the insult. 

(Given
the choice, the Alliance Government might have surrendered the captured
vessels, for a promise that the Confederation Fleet would leave.  The
Alliance has the information package, which contains the design specifications
for the Brutus.  That information will enable the Alliance Navy to make
the necessary technological advances, without the captured ships.  The
Confederation Fleet Admiral doesn’t give them that option.)

Alliance
Navy personnel are unflinching in their determination to defend the
‘homeland’.  Everyone knows that it will be a fight to the death, but
there has been no mass exodus from the Earth - the birthplace of humanity is
sacred ground. 

***

The
Confederation Fleet seems to be content with waiting in the Mars orbit, for the
Alliance Navy to come to them.  For the Alliance, the longer they can put
the battle off, the better.  Warships and munitions are beginning to
arrive from other Alliance planets.  As soon as ships emerge from warp,
they are immediately placed in the Alliance Fleet formation.  The
Confederation Fleet Admiral probably took note of that situation, because he
decides to initiate the battle action.

***

The
Confederation Fleet begins to advance - the battle has commenced.

 The
Alliance responds by sending squadrons of Alliance Corvette star-fighters and
missile ships.  These speedy Corvette ships are not equipped with stealth
systems, but they are protected from energy weapons by shields, and protected
from projectile weapons by their speed and maneuverability.  

This
assault is a probing mission, which is designed to discern the defensive
capabilities of the 300 ship Confederation Fleet.  Losses are expected,
but the knowledge gained from the skirmish will inform future decisions. 

The
Confederation Fleet allows the Corvette forces to come within 200,000 klicks,
before responding with energy weapons. That response is a fleet-wide
coordinated barrage of laser cannon fire, which quickly overwhelms the shields
on the Corvette ships.  The Corvette ships take heavy casualties during the
brief skirmish and are quickly ordered to retreat.  The survivors of this
battle are recalled to the Space Station and are placed with the kamikaze
‘volunteer forces’.

The
Alliance follows with another probing assault.  The Alliance Space Platform
Missile Defense System launches large numbers of missiles, in rapid succession,
in an attempt to measure the effectiveness of the Confederation Fleet’s missile
defenses.  Some enemy ships are damaged and
a couple are
destroyed, by the Alliance missiles, but the Confederation Fleet’s defenses are
not overwhelmed.  The Alliance Admirals conclude that missile attacks will
not be effective, until the enemy Fleet has been fragmented and the command
structure has been disrupted.  

The
Confederation Fleet responds with a large volley of missiles, but their missile
assault is ineffective, and the Fleet Admiral takes note of that fact. 
The Fleet Admiral concludes that the missile defense system is the ‘strong
suit’ in the layers of protection for the Space Station and planet Earth. 
That defensive missile system must be dismantled before the Confederation
missiles will be effective.  That task is added to their ‘to-do list’,
right after the #1 task - the destruction of the Alliance Fleet.

***

When
the Confederation forces are within 10,000,000 klicks of the Space Station, the
Alliance debris-field vessels begin to advance.  Behind them, the Alliance
Navy vessels advance.  The volunteer paramilitary forces advance behind
the Navy Vessels, and last of all, the speedy Corvette fighters advance.

(Major
Dawkins’ ‘stealth launch force’ is being transported by the Alliance Navy
Fleet, and will be deposited, in space, after the debris field has been
produced.)

Major
Dawkins doesn’t want it to be too obvious that the debris field vessels are to
be sacrificed, so the Alliance Navy forces are close behind.  When the
Confederation Fleet opens fire on the debris field vessels, the Alliance Navy
draws back – leaving behind 53 stealth launches filled with Space Marines or Navy
sailors.  The stealth launches move forward, under the cover of the newly
formed debris field, and lay in wait, for the Confederation Fleet to pass.

***

(The
plan:  The surprise
boardings
and missile
attacks will come from behind the Confederation ships, and will happen in a
synchronized manner.  Boarding parties will attack first.  Then when
the Confederation warships begin to display erratic behavior, it will indicate
that the ‘boarders’ are inside.  At that time, the missile launches will
attack enemy ships, which have not been boarded.

It’s a
good plan, but it is based on the hope that the debris field will hide the
stealth launches, and also on the assumption that the Confederation has not
developed new strategies for coping with Space Marines.  Unfortunately,
those assumptions are not valid. The Confederation ships are now watching for
‘gravity movement’ in the debris field, rather than for gravity-wells. )

***

The
launches are stationary and undetected as the Confederation Fleet passes by,
but when the launches begin to move, the Confederation gunners quickly pick
them off.  About a dozen of the launches are destroyed in the first
movement. 

All
launches are told to stop immediately and to hold their positions.  Brutus
Marines, who are the ‘Launch Commanders’, diagnose the new Confederation
tactics and modify their techniques.  The Navy launches, which are
equipped with missiles, are ordered to fire one missile, and then to
immediately redeploy in a quick real-space hop.

The
missiles go out at a relatively close range.  The success rate is not what
it would have been at point-blank range - never the less, 9 Confederation
vessels have hull breaches, with fires which are visible.  Alliance forces
lose 3 of the Navy launches, as they redeploy.  The Confederation Fleet
moves out of range and the surviving Alliance launches follow, at a distance,
waiting for another opportunity. 

***

7 of
the 9 Confederation vessels, which were damaged by missiles, have fallen out of
formation.  These vessels may no longer be protected by the Fleet ‘gravity
movement’ detection system.  7 Alliance boarding party launches take
advantage of the distracted Confederation crews and slowly ease up behind them,
hiding in the wake of the warship’s powerful ion thrusters.  The purpose
of this boarding is to capture the ships, and then to use those ships to ferry
the rest of the ‘stealth launch force’ to the Confederation Fleet.

In
order to use the captured vessels as ‘Trojan Horses’, the communications
systems must be disabled before the crew can report the boarding.  The
‘comm center’ becomes the first target for the boarders and the self-destruct
circuitry is a close second.  Most of the Confederation ships are of a
‘cookie cutter’ design.  If you know the layout of one, you know them
all.  These Marines have all trained on the captured ‘little fleet’
vessels and know where to go.

The
first Marine boarding party launch, to reach its prey, attaches to the
Confederation ship – and the ship immediately explodes, taking the launch and
Marines with it.  The Launch Commanders instruct the remaining 6 boarding
party launches: “Do not touch a Confederation ship.  Maintain your
position, relative to the enemy vessel, and await further instruction.” 

It is obvious
to the Launch Commanders that the Confederation Vessel’s self-destruct
mechanism was triggered at the instant, when the Marine launch attached to the
hull.  It is necessary to assume, that all Confederation ships have this
same automatic self-destruct sequence. 

(Electromagnetic
force is used to attach the Marine launch to the enemy ship.  The
Confederation Navy must have figured out how to sense the activation, of that
electromagnet.  Then, they must use that ‘activation signal’ to
automatically self-destruct the ship, before it can be boarded.  What to
do?)

Each
of the 6 remaining Confederation target ships has a hull breach, and most also
have a raging fire.  The Launch Commanders select one of the Alliance
boarding party launches and instruct the pilot to move the launch close to the
hull breach.  Next, the launch is instructed to send 9 Marines on a space
walk so that they can enter the vessel through the hull breach.

The 9
heavily armed Space Marines propel themselves through the hull breach and begin
clearing away the Confederation sailors, who are fighting the fires.  The
Marines gain access to the interior of the ship through the portable airlocks,
which the firefighters use to come and go.  Once aboard, the mission is
back on track.  First silence the communications center, and then
disconnect the self-destruct mechanism. 

Success! 
The Launch Commanders explain the new boarding process to the remaining
boarding launch crews and order them to assault the enemy via the hull breach.

The
comm centers, aboard the 5 Confederation vessels, are silenced and the
self-destruct mechanisms are disabled, but the capture of the ships is far from
routine
.  There is heavy resistance from
Confederation sailors in combat battle-armor. The Marines are outnumbered and
the firefights rage for hours.  All of the Marine units take casualties
and some take heavy casualties, as the battles
continue.              

The
Launch Commanders’ solution for this problem is to send reinforcements.  3
boarding party launches are designated as ‘reinforcements’ and are sent to
assist - one ship at a time.  In some cases, the reinforcements can enter
through the hull breach.  In other cases the reinforcements make new
entryways in strategic locations, using the customary hull-breach entry
techniques – which are now an option, because the self-destruct mechanisms have
been disabled.  In either case, the 30 additional Marines quickly
overwhelm the armored Confederation sailors.  The reinforcements then move
to the next ship, and repeat the cleansing process.

A job which used to take minutes now takes all
day.  Only one boarding party launch is destroyed in this engagement, but
there are 46 dead, or seriously wounded Marines.  Three of the launches
are sent, via a circuitous route, to the Space Station with the dead and
wounded.  There are no Marines left to crew these launches.  They
will be used in the next phase of the battle – if there is one.

***

Now,
it’s time to get back to the original mission.  No word has gotten out
concerning the boarding, so the Confederation Fleet doesn’t know about the
‘change of ownership’. 

The 6 enemy vessels are under Alliance control
and fires are being fought by the Confederation crews.  The Marines open
the hangar doors on all six captured vessels and the surviving ‘stealth launch
forces’ fly inside and rest on the decks.  The 6 Trojan Horses begin to
follow the Confederation Fleet.

***

The
goal of the Confederation Fleet is to destroy the 8 captured ‘little fleet’
vessels, which are docked at the Space Station.  The Fleet is moving
resolutely in that direction, while destroying Alliance assets as it
goes.  Defense platforms, mining ships and anything else, along the way,
are completely obliterated.  The Confederation Fleet is being cautious and
is not leaving anything behind, which can hurt them later.  It is a slow,
methodical operation.

The
Trojan Horses catch up with the Confederation Fleet, when it is about 4,000,000
klicks from the Space Station.  The line of captured ships makes a right
turn and then begins to slowly traverse, behind the Confederation Fleet -
giving the appearance that they are finding their place in the formation. 
As the Trojan
Horse
ships move, the Alliance stealth
launches are being dropped off directly behind Confederation ships.

Only
the Navy stealth ‘missile launches’ are involved in the first phase of the
operation. The ‘boarding party’ launches lie back, and wait - they can’t board
any vessels until the Navy creates some hull breaches.

The
Navy ‘stealth missile launches’ are at ‘point blank range’ when they fire their
missiles.  The launches all fire at least 2 missiles and most of them get
3 missiles off, at close quarters.  From this action, there are 36 more
Confederation ships ablaze and out of the battle.  Others are damaged but
are maintaining their formation positions.  The stealth ‘missile launches’
retreat in a quick ‘hop’, but Confederation defenses are now prepared for that
tactic and are able to track the motion.  14 of the Alliance stealth ‘missile
launches’ are destroyed, while they are redeploying.