“Are you saying that our pilots aren’t a match for them?”
“Admiral Tolwyn can answer that better than I can, sir. The Concordia’s met Imperial Guard and kicked their butts, and I’ve done my share of kicking. But, sir, you are talking about odds of up to two and a half to one. If they cripple but one of our carriers, the odds instantly jump to over three to one. We could take down five of their ships and they’d still be ahead of us.”
He hesitated for a moment.
“I don’t know what production is like back home, but I never did trust the promises of all those new ships we kept hearing about. Sir, as far as I know we simply don’t have any more reserves. We’ve lost half our fleet carriers in the last year. We lose four more in a single action and those furballs will be at Earth’s front door.”
“The best defense is a good offense,” Banbridge said quietly.
“I agree, sir. That’s why I said it was a gutsy move, but you wanted an opinion and I guess I just gave it to you.”
Banbridge looked at Jason closely and Jason found himself wondering if he had just sunk his career and would be working a security patrol base at the far end of the confederation until his teeth and hair finally fell out.
O’Brian looked over at Jason with barely concealed rage.
“Mr. Bondarevsky,” Banbridge finally replied, “four weeks ago I took part in a series of full-scale computer-holo simulations of the battle we are planning at Vukar. That simulation confirmed exactly what you just said. If the Kilrathi arrive with ten carriers, we will most likely kill three, perhaps as many as five in the first strike. But that will leave five left over, and half our strike fighters and bombers already out of the fight due to damage or depletion.”
Jason felt his blood chill at the term depletion. What it meant was that more than one of his friends would be floating through space, torn into tiny chunks of frozen, flame-scorched meat.
“After our first strike they will reorganize, pursue, and most likely destroy our carriers in turn, perhaps losing two or three more of their ships in the process if we should decide to strip our own defensive combat patrol and sortie them straight in for another offensive strike. We replayed that simulation from every angle possible and it came out the same.”
“Quite frankly, and quite coldly, it’d be worth the trade-off if we were outproducing them in capital ships and trained pilots, but we are not. We’re just barely hanging on. You are right, if we lose four more fleet carriers, half of all we’ve got left, the war is lost.”
Banbridge sighed and leaned back in his chair. Jason wanted to ask him why he was then going to pursue the attack anyhow but knew he was going to get the answer, and had said too much already.
“Out of that simulation came a plan. What we have to do is to divert three, better yet four of the enemy carriers. If we’re facing six or seven rather than nine or ten, we just might clean their clocks. What we have to do is get them to split their fleet.”
Jason looked around the room.
“And I guess that’s where we come in,” Captain Grierson said quietly.
The Admiral nodded.
“As of this moment Tarawa and the escort ships Intrepid and Kagimasha are hereby designated Strike Force Valkyrie. The First Marine Battalion is hereby reassigned for transport aboard the Tarawa with ten landing craft. Captain O’Brian, you are hereby promoted to acting commodore of this strike force.”
O’Brian puffed up visibly and smiled.
“And your mission is this, gentlemen.”
Banbridge reached into a briefcase and pulled out a small portable computer and holo projector and opened it. A three-dimensional image of a sector of space suddenly appeared to float in the middle of the room over the desk.
“Holy mother,” Jason whispered and Banbridge smiled.
“Your mission is to drive straight into the heart of the Kilrathi Empire and to launch a strike on their home system.”
O’Brian’s features instantly deflated and a look of near panic filled his eyes. Jason looked over at him, expecting the man to instantly break down. O’Brian lowered his head.
“If anything will split off the home fleet it will be this action. We’ve traced out a route into the Empire which will follow back trade lanes, using a recently discovered jump point that will take you across a dozen sectors in a single leap. From there, you’ll be down into the bottom side of the Empire nearly five hundred parsecs from here and just four jumps from their home world of Kilrah. You’ll then drive straight up, relying on speed and stealth. The key point, however, is that you will let the Kilrathi know you’re coming.”
“Know we’re coming?” O’Brian asked, his voice a barely controlled whisper.
“Precisely, that’s the heart of the plan. We expect that once you’ve completed that long jump, the Kilrathi home fleet will be over halfway out here to Vukar and then, suddenly, you push the backdoor alarm bell. They’ll be between a rock and a hard place. They won’t know about the trap waiting at Vukar, but they will know about you. We expect that interior defenses will be damn near stripped for their offensive. Ignore you, and the home planet gets a hell of a shaking up. Abandon the offensive and race back home and honor is lost for not immediately retaking Vukar.”
“So they’ll split off several of their carriers to come back in and take care of us, while the rest of the fleet presses on to avenge the honor of the Dowager Empress,” Svetlana said quietly.
“Precisely,” Banbridge said, his features grim, as if the battle was already joined. “They’ll walk into the trap with part of their fleet missing and we’ll smash it to pieces. If it works, it just might trigger a political crisis that could bring down the Emperor himself and at the very least we’ll have bagged half a dozen of their finest capital ships.”
“It’s a hell of a plan,” Grierson said, “but frankly sir, what about us? I mean, I was sort of counting on being in on the victory parade and telling my grandkids how I helped win the great Kilrathi War.”
Banbridge nodded and looked over at Tolwyn as if expecting him to speak. Tolwyn remained silent and Jason sensed that all was not right between the two.
“You’re on your own,” Banbridge said quietly. “I expect your task force to reach the home system of the Kilrathi. Do as much damage as you can, though I should add that for political reasons, the Emperor’s residence is off-limits for right now. We have information that the outer moon orbiting Kilrah is a major military construction base and naval yard and I would suggest that as your primary target. We could bomb their capital for propaganda purposes but I want hard results that are going to help us out here on the front line.”
“Damn, I wanted to see the Emperor fry,” Jason snapped out angrily. “If we’re going to be that close, why not go for the head furball and waste him?”
“We’re trying to trigger a civil war here, not a holy war of revenge, so he is strictly off limits. If we hit him the entire Empire will bury its differences, unite under Prince Thrakhath, and go absolutely berserk,” Banbridge said coldly.
“The second moon of the home planet is nothing but one giant military base and carrier construction center; it’s an ideal target worth hitting and the one I’d recommend, but our surveillance is sketchy so that is not a hard and fast order.”
“You are to stay in the area until the Kilrathi fleet jumps back in after you. Once that happens, we expect to already be engaged at Vukar. We’ve traced out several escape and evasion routes; get out, and make a run for it.”