Retribution (29 page)

‘So when is it right and when is it wrong?’ he asked himself. ‘Legally it’s always wrong. But morally, now that’s a much more difficult question.’ He recalled how a year ago he had justified it by saying that he needed to support his crew so they would support him. ‘But the circumstances with Brennon are not the same as it was with Sue. Sue had been captured by the enemy. It was a case of not abandoning her. Brennon is anything but abandoned. He just happens to be at a site that could be attacked. Mmm…and if he is…then what?’

Dave rolled over onto his side and tried to close his eyes. He should sleep.

‘The other difference’ he thought ‘was that on Zuon he wasn’t putting any other operation in jeopardy.’ But then Dave reflected on that and knew that the loss of his ship could have jeopardised others, just not directly.

Dave shook his head slightly, annoyed at his mind. He closed his eyes, breathed in and repeated his mantra. He breathed out and repeated the mantra. Again, again and again….till sleep claimed him.

Chapter 24. IRS Mailon over Chelora 0010, 23 June

“About time” hailed Imperial Admiral Meeka Sallusam.

“I am sorry Admiral” said Read Admiral Dugar Mugailen “Provisioning took longer than anticipated.”

“Yes, yes. It always seems to, Mugailen.”

Dugar was not going to be drawn on that point. He knew Sallusam did not hold him in high regard. But the feeling was mutual.

Satisfied he wasn’t going to get a reply Meeka continued “I’m transmitting your orders. Study them carefully. We warp in twenty.”

“Of course” said Dugar ‘What a pompous ass.’

Chapter 25. Resolute over Tumos 0600, 23 June

Dave woke early from a dream in which Aubrey disobeyed his direct order not to intervene. In his dream he had to make a snap decision and he found himself intervening too. He knew it was wrong but felt compelled.

After washing his face he sat for meditation. From deep within the void he realised what he must do.

He found Ivan in the officer’s mess just before 0700. “Ivan I need to see the Admiral. I’m going to leave you in charge today. Mani will let you know what tests to run and remember the missile test at 0900.”

“Sure Sir” said Ivan. “Leave it to me. When will you return?”

“Don’t know. It all depends when I can see the Admiral and where Mani has sent you.”

Ivan smiled. “Like that hey?”

“Don’t let him flog you the whole day. We need to be on station from tomorrow. I’d like to give the crew some rest beforehand.”

“Right Sir, I’ll be forceful then” said Ivan with a smile.

Chapter 26. Nova Vista 1230, 23 June

Finally the conference ended and the bodies started moving through the door past Dave as he waited in the corridor. Phil was talking with Rudi as they came out into the corridor. Phil was surprised to see Dave.

“You need to see me?” he asked.

“Yes Sir” said Dave.

“Follow me back to my office.”

Dave was content to follow from a distance allowing Rudi his precious one on one time with Phil. Rudi was still in discourse with Phil when they entered his office and Rudi just sat down. Phil saw Dave at the door and gestured with his upturned hands as if to say ‘what can I do.’

Dave nodded and held up five fingers. Phil held up ten. Dave sat back down in the open area outside Phil’s office. A few minutes later Rihan and Alex came walking back from the conference. Rihan looked delighted to see him and they hugged. Alex discreetly headed back to his office.

“What brings you back stranger?” said Rihan.

“You of course” said Dave.

“Yeah pull the other one” and she pecked him on the cheek and pulled out of his embrace so she could see his face. “You’re here to see him aren’t you?”

“Afraid so.”

“Oh well there’s no competition there” she said with big smile. “What’s up?”

“Come on in Dave” bellowed Phil as Rudi left.

“I’ll tell you a bit later” said Dave and he pecked her on the cheek and headed into Phil’s office.

“Anything wrong?” asked Phil.

Dave sat down after closing the door. Phil took that as a sign that this was not going to be light banter. "Sir I would like a change in my orders so I can exercise my own initiative to intervene in the defence of Tumos and Butros Alia.”

Phil looked at him warily, trying to work out why Dave was raising this now. “Why?”

“We both know how important those facilities are. Together they provide our war winning edge. Their defence is vital. We should have more point defences there. We should have ships dedicated to their defence. I realise our resources are stretched thin and I appreciate your future intentions for the Resolute and Phantom. But those future intentions are not worth losing those facilities.”

“And what you don’t trust my judgement to release you to intervene if the need arises?”

“Not at all Sir but we both know that seconds can be vital and you may be engaged in some other equally vital decision like the defence of Nova Vista spaceport or whatever.”

Phil nodded and used the time he needed to think by looking at his subordinate. He knew there was something else that had prompted Dave to come all this way. “Is this about Brennon?”

“No it’s not about Brennon” said Dave but Phil detected something in Dave’s voice and expression. He had not known Dave to lie to him, well not directly. ‘Of course’ said Phil to himself. “It’s about Aubrey isn’t it?”

Dave finally nodded. “You’re good” he admitted.

“Years of experience” said Phil with a smile. “You’re worried she may exercise her own initiative and disobey your direct order. Is that it?”

“Well yes and I want to save her the crap that I had to go through after Zuon. Besides it does make sense for the reasons I said before.”

Phil looked at Dave intently for a good minute. Then he said “OK I agree to the change in order. But that initiative rests with you, not Aubrey. Is that clear? And Dave don’t lose my ships. Aubrey may think the Phantom is her ship but it’s mine, always has been and always will be. Is that understood?”

“Yes Sir. Thank you.”

“Anything else?”

“No Sir, that’s all.”

“How’s the testing going?”

“Good Sir. Ivan’s finishing them off as we speak.

“He’s a steady pair of hands that boy” said Phil.

“Yes he is.”

“All right Dave get out of here and good luck.”

“You too Sir.”

After a goodbye lunch with Rihan, they borrowed Alex’s buggy and she drove him out to the spaceport. He gave her one last hug and watched her briefly as she drove away. He hopped onto the walkway and felt content as he was effortlessly conveyed along the big corridor to the shuttle gates. He alighted at gate 4 and Rudi was waiting there for his shuttle to arrive.

“Good afternoon Sir” said Dave.

“I see you’ve finished with the Admiral?” said Rudi.

“Yeah, just a quick chat.”

Rudi was too sensitive and astute to pry where he had no business. So he changed the subject. “Well let me take this opportunity Captain to say that having you in reserve helps me sleep at night.”

“Why thank you Sir. I’m sure you won’t have need to call on us though.”

“But you never know with a battle do you – just how it will turn out.” Rudi’s mind was momentarily deep in thought.

Dave could only imagine the pressure that was on this man, entrusted with the Federation’s future. Rudi did not look like a worrier. No he looked strong and resolved. But as the hour of decision approached he was obviously well aware of the risks and the randomness that can play such a vital part in determining the outcome of combat.

“I’m confident and I know the Admiral has every confidence in you Sir. We’ve got the biggest fleet ever assembled and we should have the element of surprise.”

“Yes we do. Thank you Dave.” Rudi paused. His eyes were shining. “Good luck. I think that’s my shuttle now.”

“Good luck to you too Sir.”

Chapter 27. Tumos 1530, 23 June

Parinya touched down Whiskey 1 near the facility entrance and Dave walked out content that the construction work looked to be all finished. The structure on the opposite side of the runway had been demolished. The two fortified positions near the entrance were not only finished but manned by marines. Dave stuck his head in and was given a quick tour by the duty sergeant.

“We’re just here for the show really Sir” said the sergeant, referring to his three offsiders in the western bunker. It’s these fleshettes and auto pulse guns which ‘ll do the damage.” Dave was impressed with the automatic armoured turret. But he was concerned how these marines would make their escape once under fire. He had no delusion about these bunkers lasting. They would just buy time. But he didn’t want to lose anyone in them if he could avoid it.

“So what’s the SOP if it gets too hot here?” he asked.

The sergeant smiled and said “better stand back Sir.” He hit a large button on a nearby panel. This opened a panel in the floor, revealing a crawl trench. “Goes back inside and we then blow it once we’re in there.”

“Excellent” said Dave. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“My thoughts too Sir.”

Dave exited the bunker and did a quick check of the other one. It looked good. When he came out he was met by Sue, who looked like she had been racing.

“How are you Sir?” she said. “Sorry I wasn’t here to meet you. It took me ten minutes to drive here. Can you believe that?”

“Yes I can. It’s a real rabbit warren in there. The batteries look set. How did the tests go this morning?”

“Fine. The auto batteries are really fast. I don’t see us manning manual batteries much longer. There’s more in store. Do you want to have a look?”

“Lead the way Sue.”

“Do you mind if we grab a brew first?”

“Now you’re talking!”

After picking up their hot drinks, Sue took Dave around in her buggy. They ended back at a briefing room in the main complex where Sue brought up the facilities schematics on the holo.

“This is great” said Dave “you really get a sense of it. Have you given some thought as to how you will fight it?”

“A bit but I must say it’s going to be bloody difficult holding them if they break in. As you can see there are just too many options to cover with the forces we have. I would like to propose something. It’s high risk but it’s the only plan I think that will give us a chance of holding out for 24 hours.”

“I’m listening.”

“Well my plan aims to keep them from getting in by fighting them outside. First off, the blast doors here are the toughest I’ve ever seen. They’ll be here forever trying to burn their way through with the beam weapons on their AFVs and armoured shuttles. It’s going to take them a shit load of explosive to breach them too. They may have that much explosive but even so they will have to have the time out there to set it up.”

“Well I’m not going to give them unmolested access” continued Sue. “I propose to preposition my two droid companies outside.” Dave was horrified. Sue raised her hand. “Hold on, hear me out.” She highlighted two areas. The first was west of the western battery and the second east of the eastern battery.

“I took the liberty of getting the engineers to dig out two tunnels into the mountain at these points. They’re not very big – just deep enough to fit a column of pods in with a bit of extra width so the droids can dismount and walk out.” Dave looked back at Sue and smiled.

Feeling his encouragement she continued. “So assuming some enemy transports survive the fly in, we let them unload and form up unopposed. They’ll first be engaged by the two bunkers for as long as they last. Once they run out of ammo or are knocked out the enemy will then have to move forward and setup their charges. That will be my signal to dismount the droids, form up and assault from both east and west.”

“Very inventive Sue. But you know it’s only going to work once and if the enemy has enough forces you’re going to lose the entire droid force and probably only buy a few hours of time.”

“Yeah but if there force isn’t that great we stand a good chance of wiping them out. They will be caught out in the open in a cross fire. Even if they are in such numbers as to wipe out the droids, they will have sustained heavy casualties and we still have two marine companies inside plus all those flechettes and autocannons.”

“Have you considered the possibility that the enemy brings down one of their caps and uses its beam weapons against the front door? They are a lot more powerful than those on their AFVs.”

“Yeah I asked Mani for the specs and he’s confident the blast door will hold. Besides you won’t let that happen will you?”

“Well we’ll try. Are those pods going to be safe in those tunnels from nuclear attack?”

“We think so, from a top down impact. Not from the side on.”

“Have you noticed Sue how you’re more likely to take greater risks with a droid than a human. That’s fine in itself but we have to be careful.”

“What do you mean?”

“Lest we get too used to taking such risks and apply them when commanding real humans.”

“I think I can tell the difference. They’re pretty ugly actually” and she grinned.

“Well compared to you anyway” came back Dave with a smile.

“Why thank you” said Sue. “So do you approve?”

“Oh” said Dave as he just thought of something “one last thing. Where will you and Emilio be?”

“I thought we’d divvy up the support droids and I’d take the western group and he’s take the eastern group.”

“But you’ll be exposed once the droids are wiped out.”

“We’ll both stay in our respective tunnel. If worst comes to worst we bunker down inside the pod.”

“I don’t like that. Can’t you control them from inside?”

“We tried that earlier today. There’s too much signal loss.”

“What about rogan jammers?”

“That works well against normal comms traffic but we found on Beta Phi that it has little effect on the extremely high frequencies used by the droids. So droid comms should remain unaffected.”

“I still don’t like the thought of you and Emilio being out here on your own.”

“You’re assuming all the droids are destroyed?”