The signal was sent to an outer lander with a kinetic energy weapon launcher. The large weapons platform shot the massive hyper-velocity round out like a pumpkin seed and continued on its path.
The kinetic round took a moment to orient itself, nosed over and dove for the planet. The drivers in its body accelerated to a fraction of the speed of light then cut out. At those speeds additional aiming was unnecessary.
“Sir!” shouted a technician, as the round of congratulations swept the PDC. “Incoming K-E-W!” All eyes swung to the sensor screen but that was all they had time for.
The warhead was massive but contained no explosives; all its power was in the kinetic impact. On impact with the base of the bowl, directly above the thinly shielded control center, the potential energy of its descent converted to light and heat.
The fireball was mostly contained by the cone shape that had been carved out of the mountain, so the damage to the surroundings was mitigated. The few watchers had the amazing image of fire gouting out the side of the mountain forever imprinted on their brains, just before the kinetic blast erupted out of the top of the mountain. The mushroom cloud was all that they needed to see to know the fate of the poor souls in the command center.
CHAPTER 39
The White House, Washington, DC,
United States of America, Sol III
0558 EDT October 10th, 2004 ad
“And the Missouri is on the way?” asked the President, shaking his head at the carnage.
“Yes, sir,” said the secretary of defense, looking at his briefing papers, “and the Massachusetts. The Missouri will be on station within two more hours; she’s just coming upriver. The Mass was steaming near New York City and won’t be there for another twelve hours.”
“And the Planetary Defense Centers are out of action?”
“Pretty much, Mr. President. We’re caught between a rock and a hard place. When there’s a take off, we have to engage it. But when we do we lose a PDC. High Knob makes four that we’ve lost. But if we let the landers move at will, they’ll slaughter us.”
“What about Fredericksburg?”
The SecDef turned to the High Commander, “And?”
“And they’re still holding out, but that won’t last long. We’ve effectively exhausted the Peregrines, so we’re about out of reconnaissance assets. No reconnaissance assets mean no calls for fire although we’ve got some experimental stuff on the way. My guess is that once Fredericksburg is finalized they’ll turn outward to the north and south.”
“And we won’t try to stop them between the James and the Potomac, right?” asked the President of the United States, somewhat bitterly.
“Yes, sir. Fighting them with a battleship is one thing, and even then we saw the sort of damage we can take; the North Carolina will be off-line for months. But engaging them in open terrain, with hasty defenses, is something completely different. The forces still are not as ready as I’d like — heck they’re not ready, period, not for open field maneuver. Let us pull back behind the terrain defenses, like we planned, and pound them with artillery. That’s the way to kill Posleen.
“Now, down in Richmond they’re planning a forward firesack. But they have the terrain for it: Washington doesn’t. So we pull back behind defenses and let them break their teeth, then we sally and mop them up. I’m glad we reactivated those battlewagons, though,” he turned and looked at the video again, “damn me if I’m not.”
“What about C-Decs taking off and counterattacking?” asked the President.
“General Horner has released the Planetary Defense Centers to fire on Posleen ships now that the main force is down. The centers are not fully operational, and they only have a few heavy grav-guns each, but they should be able to take out any landers that take off between the mountains and the sea. There’s a little curvature problem in Maryland, but I don’t think the Posleen will be able to use it effectively. The PDCs are still under strict instructions not to engage actual landings. We don’t want them torn up like Europe’s.”
“Maryland,” said the President.
“The Twenty-Ninth’s forces got mauled, but Tenth Corps sent an extra division and that should do the job. If not, First Army has already ordered all the East Coast corps to send forces to Virginia. The Posleen in Maryland aren’t going anywhere, Mr. President.”
“But in Virginia…”
“In Virginia we have another problem. Once we concentrate sufficient forces across the Potomac and the James we’ll begin to retake Virginia. As I think we’ve demonstrated, there are two aspects to waging war with artillery when it comes to the Posleen. The first is that you have to see them to kill them. That means that they can see you. If they can see you they can usually kill you. So we need troops in prepared positions to call fire on them. The second is that, given observers, they are extremely easy to kill with artillery fire. They are the definition of troops in the open. That is an artilleryman’s favorite target. The second point, however, is that you have to be able to see them to kill them, and that means that we eventually will have to advance against them.
“When we do, I want our troops massed and fully prepared, with good artillery coordination in effect. Any harum-scarum attack in the glow of the good work put in by the North Carolina would be premature in the extreme, sir. We shouldn’t throw away a relative success now.”
The President nodded in thought. “Jody,” he asked, turning to the press secretary, “what are the networks saying?”
“So far they haven’t gotten any reporters into the area so there’s not much they can say. There have been some sharp protests about the military not allowing them on the interstates because they’ve been taken over by the federal government, but so far that hasn’t made the news. The only thing they are getting is whatever video we give them from the front.”
The President nodded and shifted in his chair as if uncomfortable. He looked at the television again and said: “General Taylor, give me your opinion of the Forward Defense argument.”
Taylor froze with his mouth open until he recognized how stupid the expression made him look. In a crystalline moment he saw the future laid out before him and realized that in good conscience, despite the futility, total and complete honesty was the sole option. “I think it’s a crock of shit, Mr. President.”
“Why?” asked the President, eyes narrowing.
“The proponents ignore every wargame ever played around it. Their contention is that the Posleen can be defeated in decent terrain because it permits maneuver of armored and mechanized forces. But when we’ve actually gamed it out, the Posleen can move nearly as fast and are more maneuverable than armored or mechanized forces. The Posleen may use primarily unaimed weapons and depend on mass fire, but between the heaviness of their weaponry and the aimed fire of the God Kings, mechanized forces in vehicles within one thousand meters of Posleen are slaughtered.
“If they are out of their vehicles and in prepared positions — not fortresses, just dug in — standard Army units have about a ten-to-one advantage over the Posleen. That is based on game theory and observational evidence from Barwhon.
“However, projections place Posleen forces at over one hundred to one for the total invasion.
“In this case we are talking about the five divisions in northern Virginia that will have time to dig in. Sort of, not well, just foxholes and bunkers and a little concertina. Locally emplaced minefields, some claymores, some Bouncing Bettys and M-833s. A division runs about sixteen thousand troops in its current configuration. About seven thousand of those troops actually fire weapons at the enemy.”