Alien Backlash Page 36
He suddenly realized that no one had counted the population up. Because he hadn’t asked anyone to. Because he had thought the numbers insignificant. And if he had asked, he would have itemized the Niseyen as he thought they and the Loridsyl were the only threat. And he assumed most of them were now in the warships so unscannable. “We cannot get them from the air, at least not when they are so spread out. I think we should establish a Foothold and hold until we are resupplied. Maybe at one of the cities. We know where Sarah is — our Foothold should be there, where the governors are, where the strategists are. Our shield power will protect our ships.”
“The planet shield will have time to recharge and could target us before we are relieved,” cautioned the Chief Navigator. “Although I dislike such a strategy, we need to capture survivors and use them as shields. It will be months before we are resupplied.”
“So we should use their tactic and scatter once we defeat them?” asked the quartermaster. “That could be a problem if we take prisoners. We are running low on supplies but could resupply from the cities when we take them. I take it we will not be retreating?” she asked Kedlijercylix.
“We will not!” he thundered.
The Tactician was ready with a plan. “We should do this by the book. The gunships should pass through here first, the damaged ones in the center. It is the point where we first noticed a power drop. Once they get through safely, most ships should accelerate away and go to the capital city. It has power and supplies. They will not have been able to take everything with them. The troop ships will go next and make the area safe, search for booby traps, scan for ambushes etcetera. Two gunships should stay to escort the bigger ships through the shield, the Fortresses coming through last. I have marked on the screen where we can all land and have assigned sites to every ship. The area is relatively flat. The gunships will drop their troops off then form the outer perimeter, overlapping shields with the gunships once all are down, and the Fortresses will be on the inside holding their shields to protect from aerial attack. Standard Foothold configuration. Once we are down and secure I have several plans for expanding but I suggest we do this by the book and allow for much greater opposition than is likely. I should not like to be caught out again,” he added fervently.
“Any discussion?” Kedlijercylix asked. There was none. “Implement this plan,” he ordered and walked out.
Once he was out of hearing, the quartermaster asked, “How many of our ships are damaged or destroyed?”
“The troopships are undamaged. We have lost four gunships and five others have some damage. Two Fortresses are damaged. All the damaged ships can still fight although I have ordered one gunship to land ASAP.”
The quartermaster replied, “And we thought this would be easy. You realize I did not provision for a war. I was not financed for that. I am sorry I have been so difficult. I still cannot believe they actually intend to fight us! I was shocked when they defeated the resupply ships.”
The Tactician said wryly, “It is now obvious they intend to fight. At least we were not wasteful with what resources we did have. And our cyber programs are much better than the resupply ships’ ones. Do we have enough for a Foothold and a possible siege?”
“Adequate, just, if we are relieved within three months as has been promised. The loss of those resupply ships was not crippling because I have learned never to rely on them. I have never had an occasion when they have been destroyed but I have had them diverted, had the wrong ones sent with the wrong supplies, and I have been frequently short-changed. All experienced crew and soldiers will have packed food. Enough to last three weeks. Only idiots don’t — although we will have a few of those. I find soldiers tend to be very realistic and anticipate that there will be a fight. Probably a good survival tactic.”
“So the situation is a little better than you told Kedlijercylix.”
“Of course.”
He smiled, and went off to cheer up Kedlijercylix.
“So she said we can just last three months, with rationing, when she knew there was at least a three-week grace in food. What did she say about ammunition?”
“She didn’t mention that,” said the Tactician.
“Probably the same. Soldiers usually pack that too and batteries. It infuriates me, all the arguments I have had with the financiers who fight over every supply, complaining about pilfering, wastage and creative accounting on the part of quartermasters everywhere. ‘Quartermasters hoarding syndrome,’ it’s called. An honest quartermaster would be a disaster and I’m thankful that she isn’t one. I never cease wondering about the stupidity of having to account for every missile given how fast they are expended in war and how many miss their targets. People have no idea how much ammunition is used in just a minute during a war. But my biggest worry is the shield. It will have time to recharge before we are resupplied. Maybe that is why the Loridsyl have refused to surrender. The situation is not good. The loss of the resupply ships might be crippling. I wonder how fast old Kasthidill will resupply them. Very fast, I hope.”
“Maybe if we threaten the Loridsyl? Tell them, open fire again and we will annihilate you. No more fighting and we will let you leave?”
“Yes, that would probably work. Loridsyl fight well but they like to survive. Maybe that shouldn’t be our biggest worry, though. It is infuriating not to know your enemy. Not to know how they think. I usually get given more Intel than I want but here I have two unknowns, the Terrans and the Cats. This Sarah isn’t typical. She was angry, not frightened. That frightens me! What does she know? What is she planning? What resources does she have? How many fighters? How is it that the civilians are so organized and so obedient? Will some of them fight? It will be a hell of a problem if they do. They might be suicide bombers like the Niseyen, which would be a disaster. One suicide bomber can equal a hundred soldiers or more in tactical advantage. I don’t like odds like those.
“What should I do? I could eliminate the shield, but that would use up all my resources. I would have to destroy each individual shield generator. Too risky. That will allow nothing for the Foothold and if the civilians do fight, we will be outnumbered and the civilians have the home advantage. I will have to risk it and bypass the shield.”
The Tactician listened in silence since he had no Intel and nothing to add. “The quartermaster was right,” he said in frustration. “We were not adequately financed to fight a war anyway, and now we are severely hampered without those resupply ships.”
“We are not used to having to fight! Usually the sight of us is enough and opposition melts. In my long career, I have very seldom had to fight. And I have never been in a fight where losing was even possible.”
The Tactician felt chilled. Losing was possible? He wondered what Kedlijercylix knew that he didn’t, and had a nasty thought. “Did Kasthidill say he would replace those resupply ships?”
“I am not sure if the message got through, although the spectator fleet will have ensured the Universe knows about the resupply ship disaster. They say none of their messages are blocked.”
Kedlijercylix walked off, leaving a stunned Tactician behind him. So all that talk about resupply in three months maximum had been a lie to try to settle the fleet. He sighed, wondering if the fleet had been fooled like he had. It looked as if they were indeed going into battle, but they were not assured of victory nor of a quick resupply. He doubted a siege would be comfortable. He might even end up having to fight. He shuddered. This was not what he joined the military for.
On every ship the geeks moved into position, readied their equipment and waited for their battle to begin in cyberspace the moment the shield went down. Then they could start to jam all communication, upset all targeting, interfere with every piece of the enemy’s equipment they could influence and start to inform any incoming missile that it had reached its destination before it had, that it had gone the wrong way, that it shouldn’t explode, that it should return to sender…
Chapter Thirty-Four
Meanwhile on Torroxell, planes of all shapes and sizes had been readied and had left using crew trained on simulators, trained on other planets and including large numbers who had never actually flown spaceships except in a simulator. Sarah had declared that if they thought they could fly and they had passed the simulator exam, they could fly. Dai was less convinced.
Annoyed because they weren’t listening, Sarah gave yet another media interview. “The Loridsyl inform me the shield has failed. You should now assume the worst. The Loridsyl will give us a few minutes’ warning when the Keulfyd come through the shield and we estimate it will take an hour from then for any enemy to arrive here. I trust everyone is prepared to move, finally? After I have been telling you for days what to do? If you’re not packed by now it’s too late. The capital city will be a prime target. The other cities less so, but I have also advise them to leave. As you have repeatedly been told; if you want to help, follow the Okme to help with the wounded or follow the fighters to help there. You can learn to load in minutes, you can fetch and carry, there is a lot you can do to help. And we can do with that help,” she added with feeling.
“Beating the Keulfyd will not be easy but we must. I have been told that many of you believe we cannot win. You calmly expect we will surrender and the Keulfyd will benignly rule here. They will not! We Terrans will not tolerate that! We will rule our own planet or we will die fighting. Now, sort yourselves out and don’t annoy me any more. My daughter and I are going to kill any Keulfyd who gets within range of us. And the shield is now down.” She walked off into the forest to the tree she had picked out for herself days before.
A few minutes before this, up above her head, above the shield, their plan studied and locked in, the gunships had manoeuvred themselves into a wedge formation and moved towards where the shield was, waiting for it to go down but still staying out of range. Kedlijercylix and the Tactician watched and waited until the demise of the shield was detected. “We can see that maybe two hundred ships have launched off the planet,” murmured the Tactician. “It won’t be long now.”
Another minute passed, then the Communications Officer yelled, “The shield is down!”
“Notify the spectator fleet,” the Tactician ordered. “Tell them to get out of the way.”
“Already done,” she replied. “Messages incoming, multiple warnings, Niseyen military and others coming this way from above, a hundred and fifty-two ships coming into range and five hundred-plus ships from the planet accelerating towards us.”
“Commence attack!” ordered Kedlijercylix. He watched the Battle Holograph as the fleet moved into its pre-determined wedge and advanced, shields on full, within the previous known range of the planet shield. Hundreds of ships rose to meet them, colored red in the Holo, and the spectator fleet, colored yellow for neutral, moved hurriedly away. Ships converged on him from space and the planet. He still had trouble with the idea that they would actually dare to attack him, but it certainly looked like it! Both groups would soon be in range.
There were several tense minutes before the Cyber Officer reported, “A good hit. That’s mucked up their coordination and formation. Some of them are returning to the planet, crippled. Most are continuing on but their ships are obviously affected, especially the civilian ones. The Niseyen military don’t appear as badly affected. They will all now be out of communication with each other. I will report again when they try to open fire if I see any potential problems.”
As Kedlijercylix expected, they were attacked as they got past the giant generators of the shield. The Tactician muttered, “Mostly Niseyen military ships but a fair smattering of others, including the ones using that unknown ID that wiped out our resupply ships. And what looks like another Race, largish in body size going by the ship models. Using our ships, blast them! Lots of whoever they are.”
“And Okme,” said Kedlijercylix, annoyed. “I did not expect to be attacked by Okme, yet here they are in large numbers and even some in warships. They don’t normally send warships away from their only planet. So many surprises. So many more attacking ships than expected. Where did they get all these ship’s crew’s from? I do not like surprises. I do not like lack of Intel.”
He liked it even less when the Cyber Commander reported, “Most are in a standard overlapping pattern to give a cross-fire. How are they doing this? They’re moving at random to dodge our fire yet still maintaining attack formation. They are tightly together yet I have seen no collisions. How can this happen when they are so close? This is not possible without computers and their computers should be jammed. They may be firing on manual and possibly targeting the same way, but they have some method of communication. I can see flashing lights, the same as the resupply ships reported — that could be some kind of primitive system. Whatever it is, it seems to be working.
“And our cyber strike has had no apparent effect on the incoming ordinance. We are taking hits. I can’t influence the missiles. I should be able to jam them. I should be able to make them explode before they reach us. I should be able to send them back! None of my programs are working! Those bloody Loridsyl!”
The fire became more and more coordinated, multiple hits converging on the same part of the individual ships’ shields. Some ships were being hit repeatedly. The Battle Holo showed zero casualties to fifty-nine of theirs, but Kedlijercylix knew almost all of those ships were the ones that had been destroyed or knocked out of the fight at the beginning of the cyber war. Still, it was so gratifying to see those flying in poor control or spiralling down out of control.
Waiting his turn in what was virtually an attack queue, Dai sat watching as Mykad flew his ship while he, through her, kept his mind on the orders coming from the planet. He analyzed the plan, helping to coordinate his little piece of the whole battle. He was busily reporting back a bird’s-eye military overview of the effectiveness of their fire, in awe of the Cats’ coordinated flying. He watched the shields of the Keulfyd with a practiced eye, noting the increasing effectiveness of the fire and accuracy of the gunners. He reported the destruction of the two gunships remaining to protect the Flying Fortresses. But more than that, the Loridsyl’s predictions about the strategy of the Keulfyd fleet was accurate. They were relying on their cyber war, and it wasn’t working!
The increasing damage to the Keulfyd shields was nearly as effective as it would have been if the computers had been switched on. Which they couldn’t be, because they wouldn’t be able to work! All of this observation and analysis was being done by people like him he mused, where it would normally be done by computers, and relayed back via the Cats to the five observer ships overseeing the battle and reporting to the General in the command bunker.
The General who had never fought in reality but who was trained and experienced in tactics, strategy, war games, and in the reading and interpretation of Battle Holograms. Around him were Cats, Terrans, a few Niseyen, an Okme and a Priskya in her tank.
The General, whom Dai had found on the settler list and was recommended by Dinkisid, had intended a quiet retirement before his recruitment. “This is easier than I anticipated,” he murmured to one of his aides. “The speed and effectiveness of the communication is gratifying.” His confidence grew as his orders were obeyed, the cyber attack was bypassed and the Keulfyd flew naively into the trap. He wondered how the Keulfyd Commander was coping. Few fight the Keulfyd, he thought. Did they think we would, or did they expect us to surrender?
Up above him, Dai wondered if he would survive this. Mykad moved their ship to start the attack run. Back in the gunnery position, Dylam and Jesan sat, touching, as Dylam concentrated and Jesan strove to keep his mind on the job and do what his father had told him. He tried not to be overwhelmed by the huge flow of information coming in as he sought to make sense of what he was seeing. He wished he had been able to practice this! He felt Dylam’s thought almost underline some of the areas he was looking at as they moved into the attack position. He followed her lead and instructions as they fired together as one. He
felt her excitement and grinned, realizing she was enjoying this as much as he was!
Her compliments flowed back into him as she commented, < Well done, little one. Your concentration is good for a Niseyen. I know this is difficult for you, to filter out your task from the whole. You have to do very fast what I have learned to do over my whole lifetime, and I am a lot older than you. And you did it and did it well!>
His mind was a cluttered mess and he was constantly distracted. She wondered how he could think at all with such an illogical, disorganized mind, but he had. They had fired together, co-ordinated and hit the target! She remembered what Chris had told her: “Praise what they do well. Validate the huge task this is for them. Expect that they will be able to refocus on what is vital. They can multitask. Their brains will be able to cope. Just focus them when they need to focus. Try not to criticize, as that will probably undermine their concentration and lower their performance. Treat them like children, which mentally they are.” She had, and it had worked.
Now she felt his concentration intensify, his confidence grow and his determination to do even better sharpen. She felt his focus narrow as he struggled to filter out the distractions and focus on her. She felt a strange shift in his mind as if he had managed to construct a filter: his thoughts suddenly clarified and the focus narrowed yet again.
Kedlijercylix studied the tactics of his opposition and their ability. He studied those with the IDs neither he nor the computer knew. Whoever one lot were, they were probably larger than the Terrans because their ships were bigger and they fought well, albeit a bit recklessly. Some of their tactics were different. He noted the unexpected coordination as their enemy was increasingly getting hits through the shields. This should not be possible!