And then there was the other problem. Their supply lines, already far too long, were even weaker now that they had almost reached Earth. Taking Terra Nova offered the chance to replenish their supplies without having to wait for new material to be shipped from Morrison — or Jackson’s Folly. It was all too easy to imagine the chain snapping, forcing them to abandon the offensive until they obtained new supplies. And every day they gave the Empire only gave the Thousand Families more time to prepare their fallback options…
He sat down and activated the portable display. A holographic image of the Core Worlds appeared in front of him, showing the location of known enemy fleets and fortifications. Quite a few worlds were heavily defended, even though they didn’t have superdreadnaughts of their own. The Empire had been willing to allow local defence forces for the worlds that had limited internal autonomy, but they had been reluctant to allow anyone outside the Imperial Navy to build anything heavier than a battlecruiser.
“The problem,” he said, “is that Terra Nova and Earth are close enough to allow mutual support. If we attack one, the other will send ships to assist our target. We therefore need to prevent them from doing that — and if we can get them to denude our target of its defences, it would be a definite bonus.”
“You won’t get them to denude Earth of her defences,” Cordova said. “I imagine they had an awful catfight over sending even one starship from Earth to Terra Nova, particularly after we took out Wolf 359.”
“Probably,” Colin agreed. He pointed a finger at Earth. “I want you to take your fleet, five of the arsenal ships and a handful of ECM-equipped destroyers and charge through the Sol System. Make yourself very noticeable, convince them that the entire fleet is raiding their territory. Don’t let them think about a threat to anywhere else.”
Cordova smiled. “And you will be taking the rest of the fleet to Terra Nova?”
“Yep,” Colin said. “We’ll give you ten minutes. If we’re lucky, the Thousand Families will recall the naval units protecting Terra Nova, leaving it ripe for the plucking. But if we’re not…”
He shook his head. “We should have the firepower to convince them to back down and surrender,” he added. “If they don’t, we can take out the shipyard with ballistic missiles.”
“That could be an expensive waste of effort,” Cordova pointed out. “They might notice the missiles.”
“We can destroy the facilities and then pull out, leaving the fortifications to wither on the vine,” Colin countered. “Your girlfriend will be upset, but we will have to live with it.”
Cordova stroked his beard. “She’s already going to kill me for Wolf 359,” he said. “Are you intent on getting us both killed?”
Colin had to laugh. “We launch the operation one hour from now,” he said. “Are you ready?”
“Yes,” Cordova boomed. “They will regret the day they ever heard of us.”
“I think they already do,” Daria said, tartly.
Colin smiled, then waited for them to leave the compartment and leave him alone. It was strange not having to plan an operation down to the tiniest detail, strange and wonderful at the same time. The Imperial Navy’s smarter officers knew better than to assume their subordinates could be trusted to carry out their orders, so they planned everything and punished each and every deviation from the plan. Colin, on the other hand, knew and trusted his subordinates. Besides, he knew from long experience that the time it took to send a signal back to the command ship and receive new instructions could be lethal.
And the Imperial Navy could never have launched an operation at one hour’s notice.
He allowed his smile to widen. The Empire would never be the same again.
“The post-battle analysis indicates that the point defence network at Morrison was badly compromised,” the analyst droned. “This created a cascading failure that knocked out individual nodes of the network, which resulted in the entire network eventually losing the capability to regenerate itself without shutting the whole system down and restarting it. The rebels took advantage of the collapse to disable or destroy the Morrison Fleet.”
Tiberius sighed inwardly as the analyst droned on. It was rare for someone so junior to be summoned to face the Families Council, which suggested that Grand Admiral Porter and Admiral Foster feared for their jobs. Not that he blamed them for that, he had to admit. The Families Council had been in an evil mood ever since news of Morrison had leaked out several hours ago. There was already panic in the streets and dire threats from various family gatherings.
“Fine,” he said, hitting the table hard enough to make them all jump. The analyst stared at him and started to splutter. “Let us ignore the precise technical details. Can Home Fleet be protected against a similar attack?”
“We can reprogram the network to work around a successful jamming effort,” the analyst assured him. “However, they will still be able to jam individual sections for brief periods of time. We would need to redesign the system completely to prevent the jamming from affecting it at all.”
“Good, see to it,” Tiberius said. He looked over at the other Family Heads, who seemed shocked at his sudden interruption. “The precise details don’t matter. What does matter is that we are on the verge of losing the war.”
He smiled at their shock, then pressed on. “The rebels are coming to Earth,” he added. “They may already be on their way. We need to consider ways to preserve what we can.”
Lord Rothschild leaned forward. “I admit that the war situation has taken a turn not necessarily to our advantage,” he said. “But the rebels seem to want everything. How can we surrender on such terms?”
“Then we try to offer them different terms,” Tiberius said. “We still have something to bargain with…”
The alarms sounded. “Or perhaps we might just have run out of time,” he said, instead. “The rebels are here.”
Commander Patrick Jones had never visited Earth before the mutinies, but he had to admit that he was impressed by the sheer volume of activity within the system. Earth, Venus, Mars and Jupiter were surrounded by a formidable network of orbital fortifications, industrial production nodes and asteroid settlements, while thousands of interstellar and interplanetary ships plied their trade between the asteroid belt and the planets. There was no shortage of targets for hit-and-run raids, even though there had been no piracy in the system for hundreds of years. But then, the Imperial Navy had long since driven pirates out of the system. It had been considered safe.
“Take us towards Earth,” Cordova ordered. “Then, once they have a solid lock, take us back again. Let them get a good look at us.”
Patrick shook his head in astonishment. Cordova was deliberately baiting Home Fleet, a formation with seven squadrons of superdreadnaughts under its flag. On impulse, he brought up the live feed from the drones Cordova had launched towards Home Fleet and examined their reports. Home Fleet seemed to be powering up, but very slowly. If they hadn’t been positioned within Luna’s gravity shadow, he would have seriously considered proposing a raid like the one they had launched against Wolf 359.
“Taking their time,” Cordova agreed. “But I doubt they will chase us.”
He looked over at the communications officer. “Transmit the recorded message,” he ordered, shortly. “I want the entire system to hear our manifesto.”