Outlier earth, p.25
Outlier Earth, page 25
He is getting ready to attack you, Daisy intimated.
I want him too. I told Dustu and my two 'protectors' outside NOT to come in when he attacks me unless I'm on the ground under him.
Ama saw his neck muscles tightening and his body shift slightly in the chair. He leapt straight across the table with his arms outstretched to strangle her. She knocked his arms outward and slapped the heel of her palm against the side of his neck that he went flying past her and crashed into the floor and wall behind her – unconscious. She looked up at the cameras her 'protectors' were using and said – would one of you get me a cup of coffee. He'll be out about three or four minutes and I'd like something to drink while waiting for him to attack me again…thanks. Oh - just black is fine."
Two minutes later one of the soldiers tapped twice on the door, unbolted it, and handed her a coffee while watching the guy on the floor who was definitely down for the count.
Captain Li became conscious slowly and decided to play like he was still out.
"I know you're conscious," Ama said. "I can see why you don't have any women with you if this is how you treat them. Shall we start again."
Li saw he was behind her and to the side a bit. He wasn't going to let this opportunity go to waste. He starting getting off the floor letting his anger assuage his hurts. He lunged to hit her at the base of her neck with the edge of his hand. He wanted to break her damn neck.
Ama spun left in her chair suddenly and blocked his chopping hand while punching him right in his solar plexus. The breath whooshed out of him and she grabbed the front of his prisoner jumpsuit. His forward momentum had been slowed by her punch but she slung him onto the table flat on his back. It didn't knock him out but he lay there gasping for breath and coughing for several minutes.
"Got some of that anger out of your system yet. You are attacking my country. We are trying to fathom why you are doing it. I know your targets. At least we aren't targeted here with some of your nukes – those could be nasty. See. I told you I'd give you more information than you'd give me."
Captain Li struggled off the table and collapsed into the chair. He said nothing.
Ama turned to the cameras, looked up and spoke in Phafalotoi, "He's not going to tell us anything so he has zero intelligence potential – take him out and use him for molecular disruptor practice."
"You can't do that. I'm a prisoner of war," Li said.
"Hold up a minute guys," Ama said to the cameras. "Why not?"
"There are laws – rules that say you cannot execute prisoners," Li said in perfectly understandable Phafalotoi.
"Laws you say. Did my country sign some document? Some treaty with your government?"
"No."
"You say - we are at war…correct? Did your government let my government know they were declaring war on us? Have you already notified my government?" Ama asked.
"No…not yet. We will tomorrow. We have timed messages tomorrow to let your government know we declare war after we destroy your bases." Captain Li sat back up straight even though he was hurting. "Kill me if you wish. I will say no more." He knew he had said too much.
◆◆◆
Ama contacted Alan through her link. Alan. Captain Li – the prisoner just stated that they would send our government tomorrow when they "destroy your bases." He said tomorrow – not the day after tomorrow when the ships are supposed to land. Have we missed some?
You have another prisoner – right? Alan thought back to Ama. The one from India. He is still unconscious. Put up a calendar with the wrong date and use drugs to bring him out of it. Have Daisy get you his file and start with that. Tell him we blew up all the ships and the attacks on our bases wasn't successful. See if you can corroborate anything. I'll spread the word to all our ships in orbit to try to stop any spacecraft – that's the only way they could attack since three-quarters of all our bases are inland. I'll get the defensive posture tightened up.
Ama was angry at this prisoner. He wasn't going to tell anything willingly. His infiltration team had killed several of the soldiers she had met here at the base. She remembered their names. Ama went into the cell with the unconscious man. They had kept him unconscious until they were ready to question him. Ama turned to the doctor. "What's his state?"
The doctor looked at the man and was upset to be dealing outside his ethical parameters. "He's in light burst suppression now. He should come out of it in a minute or so with what I gave him. I need to stay here and monitor him."
"Not happening doctor. This man killed five soldiers from here and his country has not declared war on us."
"I need to…" the doctor started to say before Ama took him by the elbow and guided him out of the room. She told the two guards outside that this would be like the last two and for them to just watch the monitors.
Ama saw the man beginning to stir as he was becoming conscious. All the instruments were beeping and dripping – designed to annoy people so they'd come and shut them off. Ama was good with tech and had no problem shutting them off.
"Good Morning, Lieutenant Bannerjee. I am Amba," Ama said in Bengali. "You gave us quite a scare. You've been out for three days."
"Where am I? What day is this?" he asked starting to get out of bed but he stopped when he realized he was totally nude and had an I.V. drip and a catheter.
"Let me unhook you first. What's the last you remember?" Ama asked.
"Where am I? What is this place?" Bannerjee asked.
Ama remembered Daisy's briefing. "You are Lieutenant Hrishab Bannerjee. You are 28 years old and grew up in West Sikkim in Geyzing. You studied electronics at the National Institute of Technology in Ravangla."
"Am I a prisoner? How did you know that about me? What day is this?"
"This is the 19th. What we do with you depends on what my government decides to do since your countries never declared war on this country before your invasion. We'd been tracking your plans for years and when you implemented those plans – we were forced to stop you."
"You could never stop us. Where am I?"
"You are inland. It's funny but you alone killed more people than your whole invasion fleet. Some of those men were my friends. I'm told you're supposed to be released as soon as we finish reprisal raids to your home countries infrastructure."
"Crazy female nuisance," he said and started to get out of bed.
"Let me help you with that," Ama said and reached over and yanked out his catheter. The lieutenant screamed, grabbed his crotch, and curled up groaning on the floor. Ama came in behind him and picked him straight up – holding him over her head facing the ceiling. "Hold still so I don't drop you," she said. She then slowly placed him on the bed like his weight meant nothing. The lieutenant was naked – shivering on top of the sheets. "Why would you attack our bases that are so heavily defended? So many of your soldiers. We almost missed your group on the Gulf Coast at that refinery. You were the last group of eight."
"The alien traders suggested the KEWs on your bases. It wasn't our idea."
Ama turned, banged on the door, and nearly ran out of the room when it opened. Daisy. Alan. Sara. They're going to drop kinetic energy weapons on the bases. Get our cruisers into a protective orbit. They can just drop rocks on us and we can't do anything.
◆◆◆
Alan ran to where General Viho had just gotten up from an unfulfilling sleep. He looked rumpled and worn. "Where are your cruisers? Show me your main bases." The General looked questioning and Alan explained. "They are about to drop rocks on our main bases – KEWs."
"Can we stop those?" the General asked.
"I'm sending my ship to protect this base but I can't protect others too," Alan was obviously upset because even his shield couldn't protect from even small asteroids sent to earth. Sara. Get our ship up there and destroy any of their ships you see herding rocks. Let me know. You direct them. Here's a map, Alan was viewing the maps brought up by the General.
Alan. The ship is moving into position. There are three ships herding asteroids. I'm sending it after the rock that threatens this base. There are already other asteroids released on other ballistic paths. Your ship has moved toward the rock coming to this base. We have to get close to it to disintegrate it. The ship moved to parallel its entry path. The heat flare is making it difficult to get close enough due to the spalling. It's getting smaller. The rock has enough mass that it's taking a while…done. I've sent the ship toward the next closest one. We're not going to be able to stop all of them and they'll not have the means to do much. Get more cruisers up here to destroy these cruisers or this war is lost.
Alan gripped the chair back so hard the plastic cracked while looking at the display links to the other bases across the continent. This wasn't going to be as cut and dried as I thought – like a deadly whack-a-mole game. "General Viho. You're going to lose some of those bases."
"What are you talking about? I have our cruisers engaging enemy ships right now. We outclass them in almost every way."
"They've already released several asteroids. We're going to lose that one near the southern countries in about two minutes. My ship stopped the asteroid targeting us but couldn't do both."
"There are over 40,000 troops there and good anti-aircraft defenses. They should be safe."
"You don't get it General. They've already released four asteroids. I destroyed one and should get another one threatening the base north of us. You need to destroy their cruisers and do it soon so you can target their fleets. Keep a link to all your bases and you'll see as they go blank."
General Viho had his techs set up video links to nine major bases. Smaller ones would be contacted sporadically.
"We are tracking a fiery path of an incoming right now. We launched anti-ballistic missiles at it." There was a pregnant pause. The delay was excruciating. "They hit it but it's still coming. Lasers aren't stopping… " The screen went to 'signal lost'. The mood in the room was chilling.
General Ollocot came in just then. "Okay people. We'll show these wretches we're no pushover."
The troops in the room just looked at him as another base was cut off in mid-sentence.
◆◆◆
Captain Chen from Henan Province looked on with satisfaction as the small asteroid he had been herding for months crashed into the base on southern fringe of the continent. He could see the cascading flow of the huge shock wave. His ship the Revenge was aptly named. This is the way to fight a war – remotely – he thought and laughed. So much for their technological superiority.
"Captain. We have a ship approaching us fast sir. It's not answering hails."
They were already at battle stations in their ship suits in case of a breach. "Alert counter-batteries. Laser turrets should…" The Revenge tore in half as another missile targeted the larger remaining segment. The Revenge debris was in a low enough orbit to provide colorful fireworks over the next week.
◆◆◆
Alan, Sara thought. Our ship destroyed two of the five asteroids that were already released. One of the defense cruisers was able to deflect one of the three remaining but that was a fluke. It was deflected from the base but destroyed the town next to it. You saw where two bases were totally destroyed. The defense cruisers have destroyed all their remaining space fleet I perceive. Now we have to concentrate on their approaching sea fleets!
Yes. All ships with war materiel: weapons, missiles, and aircraft definitely. All ships carrying fuel supplies explicitly. The 10 kiloton tungsten rods will destroy most of the surrounding ships. Get the ones with nukes too, Alan thought and he was relieved this worldline never developed submarines.
Yes Master, Sara thought to him. You realize we've been through this before…nervous are we.
We almost died because I was too blind to see the obvious. They could figure out kinetic strikes too. How long will it take to decimate their fleets, Alan thought to Sara.
I am over their Eastern approaching fleets that are still a day or two from getting in range. I am going to spoof commands for longitude and latitude strikes and timing for the different cruisers. It shouldn't take but a few hours and then I'll move to message the fleets approaching the West coast.
◆◆◆
General Ollocot was ranting about the two bases and the city that had been destroyed. "We lost 40,000 troops at the base in Yuman (West coast) and another 20,000 at the base at Haida (northwestern continent). The city of Wichita (where Houston was in Alan's timeline) lost over a two hundred thousand civilians. This is a colossal screwup. General Viho. You were in charge."
Sara. Time for the drooling pleasure session.
"General Viho. I think…" General Ollocot starting moaning and had an erection that was obvious. He collapsed on the floor and was gasping while rubbing his hands up and down his chest and groin.
Alan nodded to Major Dustu. Major Dustu approached General Viho who seemed undecided. "Sir. It appears the General has become unbalanced seeing all the deaths. I think he was going to put you in charge." General Viho lowered his brows. "In fact, sir. I'm sure of it. Shall I?"
General Viho looked around and saw everyone staring at him. "Carry on people. The general is suffering from all the deaths but we must carry the fight back to these…" He was about to say people but that would humanize them too much. "…these fiends with no honor." The General looked about and then realized his space fleet should be moving on the approaching sea fleets. "Is our space fleet moving to interdict those ships?"
A lieutenant caught up in the moving assets replied. "General. Our ships have destroyed their space fleet sir. They say they've got their targets laid out in the fleets."
"Very well," he said while trying to decide how to send support troops to the areas of the destroyed military bases.
Chapter 26
Chinese Fleet – Mid Ocean - South Atlantic
Admiral Yuan turned to the Captain of his flagship when he finished reading the note from the communication officer. "Excellent news Captain. The base at Haida has been destroyed. I'm sure it is only hours before the bases near the East coast have been destroyed as well."
Captain Ko did a perfunctory bow and went back to scanning. He felt something was off but could not discern why. The fleet around them was more than sufficient to destroy resistance three times the strength they projected. He had been enticed to command the flagship by the Admiral's insistence that the 'war' would be over in weeks. They even had nuclear weapons, however crude they might be, he thought. He turned to look at the Fleet Air Defense Destroyer, Guided Missile Frigates, Guided Missile Destroyers, surrounding his Aircraft Carrier.
He considered the Hainan that carried two nuclear devices aboard. That ship was one of the newer builds and was classified as a Helicopter Landing Deck (LHD). The Changhe Z -24 heavy lift helicopters it carried were able to each carry a single 12,000 kg fission bomb. They were to only use the devices if they needed to intimidate their foes. He thought back about the odd path he took to come from Cheju Island to be Captain of this carrier. He saw the Indian destroyers task force at the horizon to starboard and shook his head. They had to drag along because of the older and larger ships.
"Captain! We've lost all satellite communications."
"Battle stations!" the Captain shouted. The alarm blared out all over the ship.
Admiral Yuan knew better than to try to micromanage. The captain acted just in the manner he would.
The first tungsten rod was detected by the defensive radar network. "Captain. We have an incoming object. It's on a ballistic trajectory. It appears like it will hit the Indian destroyers task force. Sir…" said one of the air defense operators.
"Aiy!" Captain Ko exclaimed and stared numbly at the blinding flash, as the horizon lit up and the boiling cloud billowed up into an angry mushroom cloud. "Brace for impact," he yelled as he prepared for the shock wave that would inevitably follow the detonation.
"Captain. We have two more inbound tracks toward our positions."
"Message the fleet to disperse. Emergency speed. Evasive maneuvers!" he shouted knowing the blast radius would cover his entire fleet. He was not religious but he said a prayer that some would survive. The weeks-long-war looked like it might be even shorter than that…
An Allung ancient weapon – the special tungsten rod KEW dropped from the Winikobo Space Cruiser was guided directly into the carrier's flight deck. The aircraft carrier was obliterated as were the surrounding ships. The second rod missed any ships and hit the water. The weapon detonated at depth and created a circular wall of water that raced outward destroying all the fleeing ships not directly in the blast radius.
The allied ships from smaller countries that were lagging a day or more behind rode out the waves and stopped – many turning around and deserting their task forces.
◆◆◆
General Viho let out a breath of relief when he heard the news about the satellites and the Eastern fleet. "How are our surveillance satellites doing? How many have we lost?"
"We haven't lost any sir. I don't think they can detect them," the comm officer reported.
"Amazing," the General said. That tech may have saved us, he thought. He wondered about Danuwoa's origins and how he fit in with all this stuff. Well – as the Europeans say – don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
◆◆◆
The fleets approaching from the west were at battle stations after losing their satellite communications. Admiral Jiao was conflicted. He had been ecstatic when he had received word that the bases at Yuman (West coast) and the base at Haida (Northwest) had been destroyed. Those would have been tough to overcome if they responded quickly. He would have had to use the nukes to take them out if they couldn't be isolated and overrun. He had gone to battle stations when they lost satellite communications and it hadn't helped his mood.
