JUBA-RYDER (Director of Africa): This is unseemly. You gentlemen are openly accusing the Supreme Commander of sabotage. I protest in the strongest manner possible.
YEZHOV: If it’s any help in understanding the situation, Political Harmony Corps’ psychology profile shows the Supreme Commander to have a greater leaning toward the Highborn than to Social Unity.
CAPTAIN MUNE: (stands up.)
HAWTHORNE: (motioning Captain Mune to sit down) Would you clarify that statement, please, Chief Yezhov?
YEZHOV: I mean no disrespect, sir, but your thought patterns are nearer those of Highborn soldiers than a grounded practitioner of Social Unity.
HAWTHORNE: If a man came at you with a gun, Chief, would you fight with your bare hands?
YEZHOV: You are Social Unity’s gun, sir?
HAWTHORNE: I detest false modesty and bragging. So let me put it this way. Social Unity has hurt the Highborn twice and only twice. Each of those times, the idea that propelled the action that harmed the Highborn was mine.
JUBA-RYDER: Chief Yezhov is your enemy, sir. I suggest your captain take him outside and have him shot.
HAWTHORNE: The Chief is a deadly opponent, of that there is no doubt. He is also a master of the secret ploy. Today, as he has been doing the past few days, he has sown discord. Few can match him in that regard. Director Juba-Ryder, you are correct in pointing out that Chief Yezhov is a danger to me. The safest course is to kill him. However, it is not in my nature to throw away powerful weapons. Chief, I dearly hope you will employ your skills to kill Highborn rather than engaging in intrigue against me.
YEZHOV: I support you one hundred percent, sir. You wound me with these allegations.
HAWTHORNE: Your vote of confidence fills me with resolve, I assure you. Gentlemen, and madam, Director Danzig is correct in stating that our present plan will deplete our defenses. Commander Sargon is equally correct in stating that implementation of Code Valkyrie will cause mass hardship on Earth.
DANZIG: Then why are you sending this convoy?
HAWTHORNE: Because we’re losing the war. The Highborn have the initiative and we have not been able to wrest it from them. As long as they own space, we cannot win. Perhaps we can stave off defeat, but even that is unlikely. Because they control space, they can pin down one planet and concentrate on another. If we hope to win, we must win space control.
YEZHOV: Against five Doom Stars?
HAWTHORNE: You have hit the mark, Chief. The Doom Stars are the bedrock of Highborn power because those ships give them space-superiority. The Campaign for Mars has a single goal. We must destroy Doom Stars.
DANZIG: You told the Directorate that you hoped to gain control of the planet.
HAWTHORNE: I do.
DANZIG: But you just said—
HAWTHORNE: We must accept terrible risks in the calculated hope that we can destroy Doom Stars. I predict that the critical campaign for us is this one. We failed to destroy the operational capacity of the Sun Works Ring. Now, as has been pointed out, the Highborn are gobbling landmasses on Earth. Soon, they will control more of Earth than we do.
DANZIG: How can we win on Mars?
HAWTHORNE: The exact nature of the operational plan will remain unknown to those present. I have calculated, however, that in eight out of ten times we shall achieve victory.
YEZHOV: We must trust your military genius?
HAWTHORNE: What else do you suggest we trust?
YEZHOV: (to the others) Do I stand alone in my qualms?
DANZIG: I tremble at the depletion of our defensive stocks. But I can see the Supreme Commander’s logic. We must take the terrible risk if we are to stave off bitter defeat in two or three years.
HAWTHORNE: Well-spoken, Director Danzig.
SARGON: Is the implementation of Code Valkyrie absolutely necessary?
HAWTHORNE: I tremble when I think of initiating it, Commander. Believe me, this is a difficult decision. Yet it is not a one hundred percent certainty. I will hold Code Valkyrie in reserve.
SARGON: I strongly suggest it stay in reserve, sir, unless its implementation can guarantee total victory.
HAWTHORNE: I will repeat it: Those are my sentiments also.
SARGON: (nods slowly) Then with the greatest reluctance, I agree to your logic, although I am unfamiliar with the exact merits of your plan.
HAWTHORNE: Does anyone else have any other comments? …Chief Yezhov?
YEZHOV: As a faithful son of Social Unity, I concur with the majority, suppressing my will in the interest of solidarity.
HAWTHORNE: (rising) Social Unity shall overcome. That is my pledge, my dedication and my most fervent dream. This meeting is adjourned.
-10-
Two days later, Supreme Commander Hawthorne stood in the Space Command Center deep in the Joho Mountains of China Sector. These ancient coalmines had been converted into a headquarters and fortress.
It was intense but quiet in the command center. Many uniformed personnel sat at their consoles, staring up into blue-colored vidscreens. The screens showed many different facets of the war. There were enemy laser platforms, orbital launch stations, orbiting farm habitats, asteroids and a giant Doom Star at far-Earth orbit. The single purpose of their planned attack was to create a hole in the Highborn blockade of Earth and to screen outbound supply vessels for Mars. The position of the two Doom Stars—one in far-Earth orbit and one in Lunar orbit—had been carefully calculated.
Hawthorne brushed his moist palms against his trousers. He stared at a screen showing him a merculite launch site in Kazakhstan Sector. It was a barren plain with steel doors covering the blast pans.
“Ten seconds,” a woman down the row said.
Hawthorne stared at those steel doors in Kazakhstan Sector. Suddenly, they began to move. Then they were open and giant merculite missiles roared out of the Earth. The exhaust burned hot, but the giant missiles moved so slowly. Tensely, Hawthorne waited for Highborn lasers to begin shooting them down.
A deadly red beam lanced out of the heavens and struck a merculite. The missile was heavily shielded, but three seconds later, it exploded. The others were moving faster now. More lasers struck from the orbital platforms that ringed the planet.
Targeting the laser platforms and the orbital-fighter launch stations, Social Unity fired thousands of merculite missiles from sites located in a seven-hundred kilometer diameter. Six proton beams also lashed the heavens. It was the heaviest space attack since 10 May 2350 and the wounding of the Doom Star Genghis Khan.
The silence in the underground command center was ominous. Along with Hawthorne, the military personnel stared at the vidscreens. Hundreds of merculite missiles were burned out of the sky, and hundreds more were going to die.
The proton beams struck, however. The one from Stalingrad obliterated the Highborn laser platform known as LP-23. As the space platform broke apart on the many screens, a ragged cheer arose in the Joho Command Center.
“Strike one!” a colonel shouted.
Hawthorne smiled grimly.
Then other Highborn platforms died: LP-16, LP-40, LP-41 and OLS-10 and OLS-11. OLS was an acronym for Orbital Launch Station.
As always, the Highborn response was swift. From other orbital launch stations, heavy fighters dropped down from space. The sonic-booming orbitals attacked the proton beam installations. Anti-air flak-guns opened up. They fired depleted uranium shells and sabot missiles, and another blizzard-salvo of merculite missiles lofted. Heavy orbital fighters disappeared to growing cheers in the underground command center. Other fighters survived, firing missiles or dropping bombs. In five places, multiple nuclear mushroom clouds appeared.