Fall of shadows, p.13
Fall of Shadows, page 13
part #7 of Steven Gordon Series
‘Then bomb the shit out of it and let’s move on.’
There was one Modloch who didn’t want to give up on it.
‘Lord Noch Man Drich?’
‘Commander Hookah.’
‘Lord Noch Man Drich, the men are ready to fight, eager to fight with you at our side. We can go down there and take them out. We can find that noble.’
‘He isn’t there, he has already run. It is an obvious trap. It is meant to delay us, tie us down, sap our resources.’
The Commander’s head dropped, ‘Then that means there is no further role for us.’
‘There will always be a role for you, you are a Modloch Space Marine.’
‘Not like this sir.’
A slow smile spread across Charlie’s face, ‘You are right of course. It is time for the special force we made to be dissolved. If it is ever needed again, you will have a core of professionals who have fought in this manner at your disposal to form it again.’
He let out a strange bellow, ‘Lord Noch Man Drich; stay with us, do not dissolve us.’
‘It has nothing to do with me Commander Hookah. I’m not even a member of the Modloch forces. I’m just here for the fight. The fight is now over. We started out with a hundred men. That is near a thousand now. We took thirty per cent casualties.’
‘Yes, but we killed ten times that number of Albany. We caught all those we were asked to and those who hid from us. We were something special.’
Charlie leaned against the table, ‘Your soldiers are some of the best I have ever fought alongside. What say you Bear?’
‘Damn close. I would serve with any of them again.’
‘There you have it. You will find no better compliment. You have a wife and children Commander?’
‘Yes sir.’
‘What about those that you command?’
‘A few, not all.’
‘Then it is time to give those people a rest. Let them get home, find a mate and sow the next generation of Modloch Space Marines. After that, feel free to throw them into a hopeless battle whenever you like.’
There was a great roar of laughter all around the table. Eventually even Hookah began to laugh. When it died down Charlie addressed Rannalld.
‘Is there some form of official unit citation that can be given to Hookah and his men for the job they have done?’
Rannalld was pleased, ‘There is. If you would also sign it. Two Royal signatures are always better than one.’
‘You have it.’
‘We will see to it right after this meeting.’ He turned his attention back to those around the table. ‘I find myself in agreement with Lord Noch Man Drich. Have a couple of ships wipe this place off the face of the planet and order the dispersal of the contaminant.’
The meeting broke up ten minutes later. Hookah looked sad but proud. A quick look into his mind told Charlie that the Marine was trying hard to find a way to explain this to his men so the blow would be softened. They had been hard to whip into shape to start with; but after the first battle, it had become a point of honour to get into the unit. Stories of glorious hand-to-hand battles with the Albany had done their rounds.
Rannalld nodded at Charlie and he followed him through. Rannalld pulled a root beer from his fridge.
‘Want one?’
‘Nah! Never been that fond of the stuff.’
‘Water?’
‘No, I’m fine.’
Rannalld popped the top off and sipped it straight from the bottle. He came over and sat down in his chair. He indicated with a hand for Charlie to sit down. He complied.
‘Your high command is getting pretty mad with me. Do you want to go now?’
‘Oh hell no. I want to see this through to the end.’
‘I wish you would participate more in the planning of things Charlie.’
‘I know brother, but it really isn’t my place. I don’t have the exclusive or expensive training you or any of your staff have, and they know that.’
‘They accept you.’
‘No they don’t. They accept the Bear, not me.’
‘You are sure about that?’
‘I still have to prove myself to them.’
‘You will never do that by leaning against the wall in there.’
Charlie shrugged and shook his head, ‘It doesn’t matter Rannalld. I will probably never see any of them again after this, but at least I hope I will leave them with the correct impression.’
‘What is your idea of the correct impression Charlie?’
‘That I can do my job. That I don’t interfere in things that I have no knowledge about. That I give them the respect they are due. When I first arrived, and you announced with great gusto that your brother was here and together we would take the fight to the Albany, you really alienated me from most of the staff. It has taken time for me to gain their trust.’
‘I think Hookah would marry you if he got the chance, along with his men.’
Charlie burst out laughing, ‘He is some guy, straight, honest and a damn good fighter. Trust comes from the bottom up Rannalld. You know that.’
‘I am a Royal, I have never had to gain anyone’s trust, I command it.’
‘Don’t give me that shit, you have earned that trust many times over, and you know it.’
‘I was never the best at officer school.’
‘That counts for nothing, some of the best Human commanders were academically poor.’
‘Now that doesn’t make me feel so bad.’ He laughed and took another slug of root beer, ‘Still, I think your words had some weight in there today.’
‘Aye, I think they did, but only because the Bear asked me what I thought, and half of them thought the same way anyway.’
‘You really aren’t giving in, are you?’
‘Nope. Over the past few years, I seem to have developed a talent for solving problems, not planning major battle campaigns. Way over my head brother.’
‘Then maybe it is time we addressed that.’
‘Go to hell! I’m due to retire from the military soon, not get out and start a brand-new career in a different army.’
Rannalld laughed, ‘You are a Royal Modloch, we all have to serve, whether we like it or not.’
‘Like to see you make me try.’
Rannalld howled with delight and smashed his fist onto the table, ‘I would lose, but it isn’t me who would be ordering you Charlie, it is Darrick.’
‘Hey, he made me a Federation citizen, a Royal Modloch, I had no damn say in the matter.’
Rannalld thought that was even more hilarious, ‘That is how it should be.’ He took a deep breath, ‘Still, I have enjoyed this time we have spent together. Your people fit in well here. The women have done their jobs really well. The men are really fond of them. I am surprised how well in fact. They all achieved accreditation by the way and the months they spent on board serving with us has fully qualified them to the first two grades in their respective fields.’
‘Awesome. Does that comply with Federation accreditation?’
‘Don’t worry Charlie, they are fully accredited. I had notice sent to your authorities and they replied with a rather muted thank you for the consideration shown.’
‘Well wasn’t that nice of them. So what now?’
‘Darrick want us to smash their moon and throw enough chunks at their home world to cripple the Albany for years.’
‘I have been wondering about that. Isn’t it illegal?’
‘No. From the legal perspective, any large chunks coming off the moon will be classed as collateral damage. Besides the moon is not in direct orbit with the planet. It is too far away to have an affect on it.’
‘I get it. Our moon has a direct affect on the tides on our world.’
‘Not so in this case, so it is legal. Our problem is smashing it to pieces and letting the pieces rain down on their world.’
‘If they get through.’
‘There is that. It will have to be sizable chunks.’
‘Are you hoping to land troops?’
‘No, just blast it to pieces from a safe distance. We will have to destroy what little they have of a fleet first. Then it is ours for the taking.’
‘You make it sound easy.’
‘It should be, but we won’t know until we get there.’
chapter 30
The Modloch fleet cut through the remnants of the Albany forces in a single morning. The Albany had mounted weapons on everything they could get their hands on, including freighters. The Modloch forces were riding on a high as they approached the moon. Their spirits were soon dampened. The first hundred ships to approach were badly mauled, a dozen ships fully destroyed. Rannalld sent in a thousand with twice the loss and no clear gain. On the third try the same results were realised.
Charlie approached Rannalld. He placed his hands on his shoulder. ‘Enough brother.’
He shrugged Charlie off, ‘We will blast them to pieces.’
‘Enough, call the ships back.’
His fury began to abate, ‘You had better have a way of solving the problem then Charlie?’
‘Get dozens of ships to return to the scene of the last battle. Get them to tow every hulk here. We will throw them at that moon all at once. That should give us a better chance of mapping out their defences.’
Rannalld had completely calmed down now. He studied Charlie intensely.
‘That is quite a good idea. It will take a couple of hours. We will convene in the war room in an hour and discuss it.’
It was over an hour later before the Commanders gathered. They were still mad at the thrashing that had been meted out to them. The intelligence officers were getting a roasting from Rannalld.
‘I simply don’t understand why you had no clue as to the depth of their defences.’
The junior officer was beginning to panic, but his senior held his ground.
‘I tried to warn you sir. No one has ever got near that moon. We know it is their primary base of ship building. We know it is where they made the city ship. It was bound to be heavily defended, but not even I expected it to be this bad. They have basically turned the whole damn moon into a city ship.’
‘Lord Noch Man Drich has suggested that we gather up all the ships and debris from the last battle and throw it at them.’
The old Modloch turned towards Charlie and dipped his head respectfully.
‘That is a good idea. We can ring the moon and toss garbage at it from all directions. It should help us map out their defences thoroughly. We can then try and find a weak spot, or cause one.’
The other Commanders also acknowledged Charlie with a nod. It pleased Rannalld.
‘How would that help us?’ The Bear asked, not quite up to date with the technology.
One of the junior officers answered him, ‘It all has to do with field resonance sir. Most of the debris will be obliterated, but enough should get through. It will strike the shields and send out ripples along it, like a pebble in a pool of water. We should be able to read those ripples. It will give us a clear picture of their shields, scope, power. All of that stuff.’
‘Excellent explanation, thank you. I am obviously out of my depth on this kind of thing.’ He looked over, ‘Charlie, this is more your thing. Would you take my place here?’
‘Eh?’
‘You understand field harmonics and that type of thing.’
‘Aye, I suppose I do.’
‘I am way out of my depth, but you aren’t. I would still like a Human at this table. Please.’
A Modloch Admiral suddenly gave voice. He emitted a strange growl and banged the table. The others soon copied until it became a chant. They all stopped together on a low note.
Rannalld smiled and addressed the two Humans. ‘That was a form of respect to the Bear. For a senior Commander to stand down in favour of a junior one takes a special kind of courage, that deserves the highest form of respect.’
Charlie felt he was being huckled. A glance into the Bear’s mind told Charlie he wasn’t. He was basically shouting for help. ‘I am way out of my depth here Charlie,’ was the direct thought Charlie caught as their eyes met briefly. Charlie gave him a simple nod and took his place around the map table.
The moon was there in all its glory. He could see dots where gun turrets and defensive satellites had already been mapped. While the others discussed it, he spun the moon around. He was simply buying time.
One of the other officers addressed him directly. ‘Lord Noch Man Drich, have you any other thoughts on this matter?’
‘Let us take it one step at a time. Let us gauge their defences properly then figure out exactly what we need to do to defeat them.’
A whole day had passed before they were ready. The light show was pretty spectacular. After the event was over the Commanders once again returned to the table to discuss their options. The technical officers were giving their opinions as to the makeup of the moon’s defences. The head tech officer summed it all up.
‘They have more than one defensive ring around the moon, the depth of those rings suggests that each ring has its own defensive shield. Even if we took out the first ring, we would still have the next one to deal with. I think there will be three. The moon itself must be one gigantic power plant.’
Rannalld slapped the table, ‘Two thousand ships never put a scratch in it! It would take the combined power of all our fleets together to hurt it. It is totally impractical.’
The officer gave a very Human-like shrug, ‘It would take a ship travelling at light speed to pass safely through those shields, but there isn’t enough room to stop it before it hit the moon, and it most likely wouldn’t last a second once inside the shields anyway.’
Rannalld knew he was looking at defeat at the last hurdle. It would still be a great victory, but the Albany home-world would be safe, and their ship building capacity unaffected except by their access to materials. More to the point, Darrick would regard it as a failure.
He looked around the table, ‘Has anyone any suggestions, before the Emperor puts us all out to pasture?’
Charlie’s mind had been racing. He also looked around, but they were all looking dejected. He caught Rannalld’s eye.
Rannalld smiled wanly, remembering some of Charlie’s words. ‘Brother, you are infamous for finding solutions to difficult and near impossible situations. Can you help me?’
‘I might be able to.’ All of their heads came up, but Charlie directed a question for the tech officer. ‘What if something solid hit that moon at light speed, what would happen?’
‘I’m not too sure sir.’
‘The Albany were propelling asteroids at Earth at light speed. Their aim was the total destruction of the Earth and all life on it. I believe they were going to wait for it to reform and terraform it. They had some technology that could advance the process by hundreds of thousands of years.’
‘Yes, you can attach powerful electro magnets to the core of a planet and pull it back together again in a few months after a cataclysmic event.’
Charlie waved his hand, ‘Not interested in that. I’m talking about here and now.’
‘We don’t have an asteroid or an engine to push it, it would take months.’
‘I might be able to get my hands on eight engines capable of faster than light speed. We used them to propel a planetoid through the barrier to the Evolka. I think it has been delivered, which means those engines are in transit somewhere. Forget the asteroid, what would happen if one of those rockets hit it; would it punch straight through it?’
‘Ah! I would have to run simulations, it would mostly depend on the makeup of the moon. Some parts of it have to be hollow.’
Charlie turned to the map table and projected the moon onto it. ‘I need some representation of the city ship and require it superimposed onto that moon.’
The officer’s fingers flew across the table, bringing up menus. He soon had what Charlie was looking for.
He nodded to himself. ‘Any idea how many ships they were pumping out each year, when they were building the city ship?’
All eyes turned to the intelligence officer. ‘Give me a moment.’ Rannalld began tapping with a nail, but was studiously ignored. ‘About fifty.’ The intelligence officer then did something else to the map. ‘They would need to be able to build about fifteen at a time, and most likely have another five docks ready for repairs.’
The space inside the moon was disappearing rapidly. Charlie spun the picture around, ‘Now we need to add power plants capable of powering the whole moon and its defences.’ Charlie’s mind translated everything to him almost in real time, and after watching the other officers he was able to use the console. ‘Let’s also add oxygen generators, and space for raw materials.’ He stood back and viewed the results. ‘The damn thing is almost hollow. I’m no engineer, but I would imagine the inner shell of the moon has been reinforced.’ He looked at the young officer. ‘Run your simulations on this model.’
‘I will need the mass and the size of those rockets sir.’
Charlie searched his memory banks. ‘I don’t have that information just yet.’ He turned to Rannalld, ‘I am going to require secure comms to Earth.’
‘I can arrange that. How long do you need?’
Charlie looked to the young officer, ‘Once I have all the information, maybe an hour to run as many simulations as we would require.’
Rannalld checked the time, ‘After lunch then.’
Chapter 31
It took half an hour for Steven to get back to Charlie. In that time, Charlie had got all of the data he required from Babes and had sent it to the junior officer.
‘Yo! Charlie.’
‘Stevie my man, how goes it?’
‘Not too bad, sorry about the wait, my mum has been dragging us over hot coals for the last hour.’
Charlie grinned, ‘I heard you were duking off.’
Steven laughed and reached up to take a drink off Komoru.
‘Thank you.’ He took a sip. ‘Komoru and I had a very long luxurious holiday.’
‘Pre-marriage honeymoon kind of thing.’
