The logistics officer briefed the supplies status. As the 3rd ALG hadn’t fought yet, supplies were full. All ships were reporting full weapons capability.
The Admiral asked for a similar report from Steven Maynard. Maynard’s ops chief stood up and ran down their capabilities. “We have six full torpedo ship squadrons and over six thousand torpedoes. We have twelve Undefeated class cutters, and we have the Leviathan. Captain Chang has proposed a unique way to use it in our defense.”
Captain Chang stood. “Ladies and Gentlemen, as you may not know, the Leviathan is a special ship. It’s the size of a fleet battle carrier. It has a clamshell opening system that can swallow a ship the size of this flagship. It has an EMP weapon that can fry the solid-state circuitry of a modern ship and stop it in its tracks, causing it to drift unpowered in space. It also has four tractor beams. It’s this capability, along with the clamshell, that can be of high utility.”
“Two years ago, we stopped a freighter convoy traversing outside our entrance. We brought the four freighters in and unloaded the cargo for inspection. We found undeclared military items. There were 5000 autonomous mines, 2000 stealth mines, and 1000 autonomous missile pods. If you come out with a mine plan, I can lay mines at a prodigious rate with four tractor beams.”
The admiral whispered to his ops chief, then said, “That is wondrous news, Captain. We only have 1000 mines in the entire 3rd ALG. We can give you a detailed mine plan to start to work on and all of our mines. If you give my ops chief the specs on these missile pods, we can work them into the plan, too. Thank you, Captain, you’ve made me feel a lot better.”
The meeting went on for hours as ideas were advanced, seized upon, or discarded. At the end of the meeting, the skeleton of a plan had been decided upon. Now it was up to the ops staff and the Vigilant.
A similar meeting took place on board the K’Rang Fleet flagship. Fleet Commander J’Kalt was not happy with the results of his rehearsals. The fleet was still just a collection of ships, not a cohesive unit. He complimented the two Shadow Force Destroyer captains for their aggressiveness and admonished the other captains to emulate them. He chastised them for being slow and cautious, when their very survival may require they throw caution to the wind and charge headlong at a Human force of larger size.
“We will be going in without the benefit of detailed intelligence on the threat. We have to be ready for any situation. More than likely, we won’t know where the enemy is until we run into them. That is why these drills are so important. We must react faster than the Humans react and overpower them.”
He ran through the drills on the holographic projector one more time, then sent the captains back to practice them again and again until he was satisfied. Eventually, they caught onto what he was trying to do and started to act more like a fleet and less like individual ships in a crowd. J’Kalt slept well that night.
Kelly looked for empty sectors in his survey results chart. He had built a 35-degree cone of space with the apex (the pointy end) starting at the Human entrance to the star cluster and the base ending centered on the K’Rang entrance to the cluster. He had divided the cone by fourths down the long axis and divided the length by 20ths, making 80 sectors. As he finished a sector, it went from clear to red. When there were only a few sectors remaining, Kelly decided they were peripheral and not important. Kelly set course for the 3rd ALG at max speed. He had what the Admiral needed.
Kelly turned his survey results over to the Admiral’s Intel staff and they added magnifying data to the chart. They turned the chart over to the Ops Chief and he gave it to his Mine Warfare Staff Officer. The MWSO drew out avenues of approach and looked for ways to canalize the K’Rang where the Fleet wanted them to go, not where they wanted to go. He planned mine fields at key chokepoints, where adjacent hide locations for torpedo ships or fighters were available, and for autonomous mines to close off pathways behind K’Rang ships. The MWSO then turned his plan over to the Carrier Fighter Wing Commander, who coordinated with the Baratarian leadership and assigned defensive sectors to Fleet and Baratarian units.
The Admiral had the hardest decision to make. What would he do with the Marines? The K’Rang Fleet was composed of all combatant ships. There were no assault landing forces, therefore no need for ground troops. The Admiral made the hard decision to leave his Marines behind. He knew he would have three very angry Colonels in his office shortly.
The Marines and Ascetics had the mission to defend Lafitte City. They would move the population to safe areas outside the city and support them. The Marines’ long- range air/space defense system would be networked with the similar Ascetic system to defend the planet. If the K’Rang should defeat the combined 3rd ALG and Baratarian forces, they would be on their own until the cruiser group arrived.
After hearing the three colonels out, he ordered them to deploy to the planet with their wartime combat loads and carry out their mission. True professionals to the core, they saluted and set off to their respective assault support carriers and the planet’s surface. The 3rd ALG had no Marine general or staff embarked to function as a division commander and HQ, so the decision was made for the three colonels to come under the command of the Bishop-Commander of the Ascetics.
This left a decision on CDR Milton’s idea for how to use the assault landing carriers. Milton pointed out that when the assault landing carriers had their AS-500s unloaded, they were faster and nimbler than a frigate and the bombardment plasma guns were effective against combat ships at medium and close ranges. CDR Milton proposed to use the carriers as ultra heavy attack fighters.
The Admiral could ill afford to lose his assault landing carriers, but the firepower would surely come in handy in this fight if used in the right way. If they could use brown dwarfs as cover and pop out to fire, they might take out a few of the frigates or support ships. He ordered the three captains to concentrate on the rear of the K’Rang formation, especially their support ships and escorts. They were to leave the heavy ships for the rest of the group.
The Marines loaded all their equipment and war supplies on the AS-500s and departed for the planet’s surface. They landed in assembly areas and quickly organized themselves to accomplish their missions. Two battalions of each brigade were assigned to organize the evacuation of the civilians. The remaining battalions built the camp for the evacuees west of the city.
The heavy Marine brigade deployed its two long-range air/space defense systems along the southern ridge. The Ascetic system deployed on the north ridge. The Ascetic light battalions saw to law and order in the city. The Marine heavy battalions and the Ascetic heavy battalion deployed in the wooded high ground to the east of town. All units dug in and fortified their positions.
With the AS-500s and Marines on the planet’s surface, Fleet efforts turned to establishing the mine barriers and ambush positions. The CFW commander assigned specific ambush positions to units and ordered them to reconnoiter and establish routes into and out of these positions, minimizing their exposure to enemy fire. This was especially true for the assault carriers.
The Leviathan was a marvel at placing mines. Its cavernous mouth could hold thousands of mines. Its four tractor beams could precisely place the mines. It placed 2000 mines in one 18-hour day. By the second day, they increased efficiency and doubled the number. By the third, they had completed the mine plan. Now it was up to the K’Rang.
The Admiral worked with the frigates, the carrier, the replenishment ships, and two of the Baratarian captured freighters. The plasma frigates had long-range bombardment guns and defensive missiles. The carrier had twin pods of defensive missiles. The ALG could fire off 200 defensive missiles before the replenishment ships would need to reload them. They carried five reloads. The Admiral worked with the ships to choreograph their actions in support of the fighters, attack craft, and torpedo ships. By the end of the week, he felt he had created a cohesive team.