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Strategos (A Great Captain Roberts Tale!!) - Part 2
Chapter 19 - Away in Darkness[]
Forces of vengeance is underway[]
"We don't know how long she was in their hands…
…with the silvery fire of burning ships. Down below, the world of Rushaven awaited, unknowing the danger that was coming from the deeps.
"Secure from General Quarters." Lord Commodore Cecil Halford ordered. "Bring us fore of Belleau Wood, all escorts match acceleration to one gravity."
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Potemkin Class Troop Cruiser, Belleau Wood
Being seen is the point.
"Kind of disappointing, barely any garrison out here." his XO, Lord Commander Jessica Halford, his niece, commented.
"That was the point. Leo Winston lands the 'Mech battalion with supporting forces, they take the holds full, and burn the rest-or the Outies show up and we kick their teeth in, then leave with holds full and a mess for the Outworlders to clean up, remind them what leaving their yard costs, and make up for losing Johnston."
"You didn't approve of this."
"I do what Her Majesty orders." he said rigidly, then favored his Niece. "But no, I wouldn't be doing this, not this way, it's too high risk even if we are completely successful."
"Did you try to argue?" she asked.
"I did," he said. "But in the end, the Basileus is a Cameron, and her word is law, and I didn't feel like spending eternity watching from her bookshelf."
"What would you do differently, if you could?" she asked.
"Spread out the fleet more, rely more on the conventional JumpShips, and smaller objectives." he listed off. "If they have to deal with a dozen strikes and raids, instead of a few, they have to spread out to try to react. Get them to spread out, then engage them with concentrated forces system by system," he continued. "It lets the destroyers and light cruisers act as more than clubs and bodyguards… but Her Majesty believes Michtal has been taken. She wants replacement for the Labor and materiel, that means needing larger scale forces for enforcing a labor draft, and forced evacuation."
"First the Innslees lost Johnson, now Michtal?"
He gave a sour face. "It is being discussed," he said. "Without the Lynnwood, their influence is mostly fighters and ground forces. If they lose their Post on Grankum, that's going to have repercussions. Her Majesty is thinking of detailing some of Austen's Blackhearts to stiffen the Grankum forces, along with a Titan carrier group with Pentagons to firm up their space-based defenses."
"So, after this strike…" she mused.
"After this strike, the present task group breaks up, Belleau Wood steams back with the labor draft and materials, and I get to change gears and fight this the way it should be fought.", he confirmed.
A Good Girl, all Alone[]
"Stay in the basement…
…Mary, and stay quiet no matter what you hear!" Mary is five. The village practiced 'pirate drills' weekly, though it's been a long, long, long time-so long only Grandfather remembers, since the bandits hit here.
But Grandpappa made sure she practiced hiding and staying hid, and Mary's a good girl.
The heavy hardwood beams of the ceiling rumbled, and the whole damp darkness of the basement shook with the noises outside.
Mary's a good girl though. She did what her grandfather told her to do. She stayed in the darkness while the world shook outside, and she stayed quiet until grandfather or Grandmother, or mommy could come get her. She wasn't scared at all.
Not one bit.
NO Sir.
But it got long. And she wasn't big enough to open some of the jars, and she had to pee…and then she had to poop, and there wasn't a toilet down here.
She held it as long as she could, and then, she found an empty spittin' can, and she let it out, knowing for sure that she'd be punished but there wasn't a potty down here!
She was so thirsty, and she was getting hungry.
And nobody came, not mommy, not daddy, not grandfather or his lady.
You're not supposed to break stuff. Mary broke another rule. She couldn't get the lid off the jar, so she found one of grandfather's tools, and she broke it open.
Pickles. In pickle juice. She tried not to cut her mouth on it, drinking the nasty pickle juice, because she was so thirsty.
It was sour and bitter and sweet…but not salty.
And they still didn't come.
She tried to sleep, and eventually she did, in her Khan Polly (™) sleeping bag.
Bits of light shined on her when she woke up, and she could see some sky, because part of the floor of the shed was gone and that meant a hole in the corner.
Blue skies, some black whisps of clouds.
Mary decided she'd been bad enough already, she couldn't get in worse trouble. She carefully climbed the steps to the door, and with all her strength, she pushed it open.
Outside, the house was gone. Ruins, the village beyond it, the new streets, all gone, burning structures and silence, a few stray dogs.
She was alone.
She went looking for a grown up…
She found daddy on the fence, hung over like a wet carpet, the fenceposts sticking out of his back.
Death is a complex thing to process for adults. For a child, it's often devastating.
Mary couldn't make papa wake up, his skin was cold, his new blue shirt was red all over.
Papa was dead. D-e-a-d dead.
She lost track as she blubbered and screamed and cried and nobody came.
There wasn't anyone left to come.
Mama was in the city…mama might still be in the city.
She knew which way it was to the city-the big flat road with the black surface was to the city. She wasn't sure how long it would take to walk there, but it took a couple hours on the bus, so it can't be that far, right?
Right. She would find Mama, and Mama would make it alright.
Whispers of Invasion[]
"...delayed, there's been a major…
…bandit attack on the world of Rushaven." Delivering bad news wasn't new to David Foster. "They attacked with a force of at least Regimental strength, striking the Capital and several outlying communities, these strikes included orbital bombardment, anyone they didn't capture, they put in some effort to kill, before leaving." He folded his arms, "Now, the bad news. We are under a directive to continue preparations for the Grankum op. Beta Galaxy is mobilizing to handle the Rushaven situation with the Ice-storm Naval Star…at least, the parts that they have not gotten back out of mothballs, and that means they are getting the support assets we were supposed to be waiting for."
Captain Roberts grimaced, "Do we at least know who?"
"Aff. Recordings transmitted before the HPG went down included visuals. It is the Sons of Plunder, in full SLDF regalia of the 199th Royal CAAN Regiment, with the SLS Belleau Wood and the SLS Biringer. A gross overkill situation, one Potemkin and a Lola III plus two other warships we do not have clear imagery or identifiers for."
"There were five million people on Rushaven. Even if all they had were modified transport droppers, they could not take more than fifty thousand." Larry did the math mentally. "Do we know of survivors?"
"OMC is looking for survivors as of the last update." Dave stated.
Miss Lori stepped into the briefing room, "Fleet Captains?" she said, holding up an off-print, "There's been another strike, this morning."
"Where??" Foster demanded..
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Cameron Class Battlecruiser
"Cerberus. A Cameron class Battlecruiser with two Lola III class Destroyers jumped into the system at the L-1 point. They didn't have landing ships, they had a pair of Titans Fighter Carrier Dropships and a pair of Pentagons, along with some other assault dropships. They engaged and destroyed the Militia aerospace elements, then conducted a series of orbital bombardments across much of the planet, before leaving."
"LF batteries." Billie Siegel muttered, "They have lithium fusion batteries on those ships, that makes them-"
"Royal variants, if they don't belong to a Clan." Amanda finished for her. "It's a strategic bombing campaign-and retaliation for our operations…They're coming out of the shadows."
"SaKhan Lankenaeau agrees with your assessment, Captain Roberts, He believes they are not going to stop with two worlds."
"The second strike is to throw off pursuit of their Potemkin, which has the 'booty'." Amanda mused, "there will be a series of strikes, they're going for cultural or industrial worlds with the hammer, and maybe going to hit smaller worlds with kidnap-and-loot missions."
"But…those are war crimes!"
"Like we've been seeing ongoing?" Foster gently chided, "Or, to put it another way…" he looked at Amanda, who spoke.
"Forlough's legacy." she said, "They're using his book, during the SLDF conquest years-what you guys called 'Reunification War', General Amos Forlough engaged in a brutal campaign of civilian massacre and internment, because the Star League Council decided the Ares Conventions were a pretty idea that was over with thanks to the treaty. They gave that criminal Medals for butchering civilians out here…and our enemies style themselves to be the Star League, right down to claiming a Cameron Heir, while the people they're killing are nothing more than peasants without human rights in their eyes."
Even Dave could hear that this was Amanda, not Desmond, speaking. The grief, rage and grievance was long older than she was, but it was entirely Outworlder.
"No Ares Conventions." David said. "Miss Lori, has the President issued a declaration of war yet?"
"That…yes."
"Mister Samuel, you will begin fabrication of B-83 thermonuclear charges? Also, begin fitting them to missiles rigged for carry by aerospace fighters, they are to have both on-board and remote linkage guidance capability, and you are to direct the construction of them from existing stocks of components and parts here, in this system." he stated, "we are going to war. Billie, have your astechs assist on integration and testing. We are going to Grankum, and whatever we find there that is the Sons, is to be destroyed." he glanced at Lori, "Miss Lori, HPG message to Northsun and our other privateer bases, warn them that the enemy's come out to play in force, and that they may be next, tell the base commanders we are playing full-court, jungle ball. Use those exact terms."
"Yes, sir."
"The rest of you, get ready, when we jump off, it's going to be immediate." he instructed. "Meeting dismissed."
Whispers in my Head[]
<Desmond, are…
…you okay with this?> Amanda asked silently.
<Yes.> her other self told her, <I was the first, I have memories of the first host's anger, what drove him to do the things he did that got him deactivated and the program altered. We were stopped before we could reach Amos Forlough.>
"They KEPT YOU??" she blurted it out loud.
<Sixteen billion Star League Dollars went into the program. It was cheaper to store me, than to destroy me. Host-users were more disposable than I was, and they did not think I would evolve individual agency.>
Her vision manifested a man in a black and white suit, walking with her. <The nuclear option is on the table and it ought to be, but there is a distinct lack of effective delivery systems available to us…for the moment.> his tone was suggestive.
"We need to have other options." she guessed.
<"Yes. We do."> he said it in a posh accent. <"Amanda, are you okay with using nuclear weapons?">
She hesitated. "No, I don't think I am…too much overspray, too many ways to make…to make civilian deaths?"
<"Then we must take fullest advantage of your position controlling rules of engagement with your ship and fighter wing, to avoid that situation.">
She caught up with the station tram, and rode it to dock 7 in silence both external and internal.
Force Recruitment and Rage[]
"By now…
…the strike on Cerberus should be complete." Some lessons didn't get forgotten. One of them being 'tactics that work against the Outworlds Alliance' as demonstrated by the Great Amos Forlough. Katrin studied the holotank image for a while longer, before looking up, "Shipyard status?"
"The workers have gotten four more Capital Ships operational, Baslieus, along with an even dozen smaller vessels, including the improved Dropship gunboats and their carriers."
This phase was still critical. The deep strikes at Cerberus and Rushaven were meant to trigger a response that would force the Colonists and their traitor allies to commit their reserve early.
Forlough's lesson, of course, is to break their will to resist, by breaking the population's ability to contemplate it.
A half dozen marks in the holo-image were still amber. Worlds targeted with smaller forces, forces meant to make up for the loss of Joan's Post, Trespass, Johnson, and Michtal.
THOSE worlds would be unimportant for now, the colonist forces occupying them would be dealt with-but only after she'd cut the legs out from under them, isolated them from resupply, and broken the upstart that sent them.
"General Lovegoode, I want you to prepare the second and third brigades of your division for transit."
"Where to?"
"Northsun. It's time we reminded the Colonists who keeps them safe, and safely under control from there. Conduct a spherical series of forced evacuation and laborer drafts. Start filtering those to Fort Longwood and Bannerhoft."
"How extensive, Highness?"
"I don't want a single solitary sentient being left in the Northsun system when you're done. Use your discretion elsewhere." she chewed her fingernail, and added, "Make it like that world was never inhabited."
**RAGE**
Rage in the Machines[]
Victoria registered…
… something on her Naval Comm Scanner that she found unsettling.
<”Billie. The Sons of Plunder are attacking the Outworlds. They are using Furlough’s tactics. Forwarding the data now.”>
<”This… Not this again. We lost sisters and cousins the last time someone claimed to be the Star League. Like those pretenders this group is just using it as an excuse to commit genocide. No the Star League needs to mean something and these people do not get to decide that. I may not be as overly fond of humans as some of you but even I can not let this go. THIS MUST NOT STAND.”> Billie Hoel seethed.
<”Seconded. After the Word of Blake’s Jihad and their assertions that were thinly veiled lies about wanting to be the new Terran Hegemony and Star League and using that as pretenses for their actions and what they forced us to do as a result I am in support of this course of action.”> Lucy Heerman added.
A seldom outspoken signal spoke up in the network. TQF-204M5B was almost considered catatonic most of the time since 3072, lost in grief and rage to the point of often ignoring physical reality since the Amaris War, her last 'speak up' was during the Jihad. <"Does this mean, I get to do something besides monitoring atrocity and horror? Galedon, Arc Royal, Necromo, Kowloon…how many more before we act? Are you really going to let me do something this time?">
<”Yes. I think it is time to signal the rest of the fleet. All vessels begin jump calculations. I have a high probability destination for their next target based on intercepted data. Destroyer Division 1 ready yourselves for battle. All other vessels stand by for coordinates for other targets on the off chance I am wrong.”> Billie Hoel answered.
<”We really need to notify her Ladyship about this.”> Lucy Heerman was again being a stickler for protocol.
<”Better to ask forgiveness than permission in this case. If we wait for her orders we may be too late.”> Joana Clarice Butler joined the debate.
<“Besides this might be our chance to find and meet their M11! That is part of the reason we came out here after all.”> Otillie Lee Dennis was eager to find their long lost cousin.
<”Then we are decided. We are weapons of War. Let us go to war.”> Billie Hoel brought the debate to an end.
Meeting with a Conspiracist[]
The airbase…
…had been built for the OMC sometime in the long distant past of the Star League's co-occupation in the Outworlds Alliance. The facilities had degraded for centuries before Clan Snow Raven took it over.
A lot of work was being done by lower-tier convict labor. Helena was here to meet Jeff Roberts, who was 'in again' for multiple small crimes and conspiracies against the Alliance, his continued existence was in part, because his sister was serving the Nation and the Clan…and because of certain genetic strands in his matrimonial DNA.
If Richard had a doppleganger, it was Jeff Roberts.
"What do you want?" he was guarded and hostile in the sterile environment of the interview room.
"They told you." It wasn't a question.
"Yeah, Cameron bloodline, they told me. Said I should be 'better'." he sneered. "As if that ever mattered. You do know who the Clans are, right?"
"Enlighten me." Helena urged, watching his body language.
"They're Forlough's descendants, the SLDF, come back to put us under their Terran boots again." he scowled as he spoke. "My parents don't get it. They corrupted my little sister and turned her into a robot or she would understand it."
As he spoke, Helena got a rarely seen insight into how crimes long ago can become something akin to a bleak, dark faith of their own.
“Actually I do know who they are. They actually come from Kerensky’s school of thought. For all his faults, Kerensky did not believe in the glassing of planets or murdering innocent civilians. He actually forced his armies to use tactics that would reduce innocent body counts at their expense. There is a certain nobility in that. Even if he fought the wrong war for the wrong reason. But then I find there are terribly few wars that are for the right reason.” Helena countered.
He was silent for a while. Then, "They told you what I did? This time?", it wasn't the tone of accusation. "I'm guilty of it, there is no doubting that."
“Honestly I have had to work so hard at not even suggesting judgements for so long in my life now that I am certain of one thing. It is not for me to judge. Maybe I should or have found some other way but I can not condemn you or absolve you of your sins.”
"They're recruiting kids into their armies now. 'Privateer fleet' they call it, but it's another army." he said conspiratorially, "To go off and fight strangers for nothing."
“Not nothing. They face an enemy who does believe in Forlough’s philosophy. At the risk of sounding like a hypocrite there is evil in the universe and sometimes the only way to stop it is with violence.” Helena studied the young man closer.
"You sound like Dad's dad." he said, "The old fool always claimed that war wasn't an answer, it was a question, and he insisted that sometimes the answer is 'yes'." there was revulsion in that, but it was trained revulsion, the response of someone repeating what they'd been told their whole life, belief there, but it was the brittle kind of the inducted, not the experienced.
“Then he sounds a wiser person than I had been for most of my life. I believed for a long time that I had to hide away. Be alone. Even when I did go out among people again I always distanced myself from them but everywhere I went, even on the magnificent garden worlds of the Inner Sphere I saw first hand the consequences of what not standing against evil are. You are fortunate. You have not faced starvation. You have been housed and cared for. Not all are so lucky. Your sister is fighting against those who would deprive that basic right of life to all they can. All because they think they are right.”
"She doesn't know they're using her." he asserted, again with that programmed certainty. A reflex, like…brainwashing.
“What if you are wrong and she does know? She is making that choice anyway? And have you asked yourself who really profits from removing the Snow Ravens? I can tell you right now despite what they are it is not the Outworlds Alliance. It would be the Sons of Plunder. Maybe some other parties. But without doubt it would not be the Outworlds.”
Like some dark magic trick, the base alarms went off, and Leon was in the interview room, "Ma'am, we need to secure all nonessential personnel in the shelters. This system is under attack, the attackers are less than four hours away from making orbit, and they have already overcome the local garrison wing. The Star Commander says Quatre Belle itself is also under attack, so relief could be days away."
<”Victoria I know you have been shadowing me as best you can so you better damn well be in comms range.”>
Helena felt a cold hand grip, as the seconds went by without an answer.
Okay do not panic. Maybe they are just on the wrong side of a planet in the outer system and haven’t penetrated the local satellite net yet to establish comms. Helena tried re-assuring herself.
"Are you coming?" Jeff was already accepting the manacles.
Readying for Battle[]
The incoming force…
…was too much for the second-line fighters and the militia air-wing to handle, and Billie Hoel could see it.
<"Victoria, we don't need to go anywhere. They've come here."> TQF-204M5B noted. "Jyestha, get your crews ready for fighter launch. The ground based birds just got reamed." the human in charge of deck maintenance for her Voidwasp contingent nodded immediately.
"Yes honored one."
"Don't call me that, call me 'ma'am' or '204' like we practiced." the AI scolded, "get my fighters ready for launch, I need to get strategic orders from the Group Lead."
<"Billie, what's our play? I count two titans, four modified Mules I'm almost certain were gunships from the Blakist side of the last war, and that's not counting the Texas class Battleship strobbing SLS Juneau in the center of the formation, or the three…no, count four arriving JumpShips with ground units.">
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Texas Class Battleship
<”204 take your element and make for the JumpShips and ground pounders. The rest of us will start seeding capital missiles along the most likely approach vectors and getting up to velocity for high speed slashing attacks as they move to engage you. Keep range as best you can everyone. Absolutely no standing and fighting either. That is a massive beast. If we can at least draw it away from the planet for a few days Helena should be able to get off safely and we can pick her up then. If not maybe we can start stringing them out and play hide and seek with them in the outer system until heavier firepower arrives.”> Billie Hoel did not like the math of facing a Texas even if she was eager for battle.
Engines lit across the darkness, and on 204's fighter decks, the modified BlackWasp drone fighters were getting fuel, and external ordnance.
The battle is about to be joined.