The entire campaign represented something of a doubling down on holding Gliese 250. We were attacking a group of systems known as "The Tail," a chain of three stars with no lateral warp gates at all, just one in and one out until the last system, which had only the one. The entire thing was a dead end, with no discovered route in or out except through Gliese. That made the systems easy for us to defend once we took them. As long as we held Gliese, the worlds of the Tail would be safe from attack. Of course, if we lost Gliese and didn't take it right back, the systems and any forces deployed down that dead end were cut off and as good as lost. They'd fight, of course, but trapped with no hope of resupply or reinforcement they'd stand no chance. If the enemy took Gliese back while we were still in the middle of the campaign, we'd have a disaster on our hands as bad as Achilles.
With no usable real estate in the system, the battle for Gliese, if and when it came, would be a naval affair. The little maneuver we'd pulled off to grab the station was only possible because it had been a surprise attack, and there were no Caliphate naval forces posted in the system. But now the navy had done everything it could to bring force to bear, and if the Caliphate came back they'd have one hell of a fight in space. And I do mean one hell of a fight. As long as our invasion force was deployed down the Tail, Gliese would host the biggest concentration of naval force deployed anywhere since Operation Achilles.
We even had an allied PRC task force in-system to bolster our defenses, which was a new level in cooperation between the two powers. In addition to bringing 8 cruisers and a number of support vessels, the armada delivered Captain Akio Yoshi, an observer and liaison officer who would be coming with us on the campaign. The general attached him to my battalion, and asked me to make him as comfortable as possible.
I took the general's charge seriously, and checked and rechecked all the arrangements. I inquired about his billeting arrangements and found that he'd been assigned VIP quarters, which were quite a bit larger than my own. I checked them out to make sure everything was ready for his arrival, and I assigned a private to act as his orderly and assistant while we were on the station. I tried to arrange for one of the officer's clubs to have some Japanese dishes available while he was here, but since we'd only taken the station a few months ago, the supplies were still fairly limited, and they couldn't really accommodate my request.
I had a basic course in Japanese at the Academy, but the language curriculum was one of the things that had given way to the wartime acceleration of the training program, and my resulting ability to stammer a few words did not exactly facilitate communication. I was as likely to call his mother a rhinoceros as I was to offer a respectful greeting, so I took a portable AI with me when I went to the landing bay just in case his English was no better than my Japanese.
I could have saved myself the trouble. After we exchanged our respective salutes he greeted me warmly, in perfect English. "Major, I am glad to finally meet you. We in the PRC have heard much about your exploits, and I have been a particular fan. I am most honored to be your ally, and I sincerely hope one day to be your friend."
He extended his hand, and I grasped it firmly. "Captain Yoshi, I am very glad to meet you as well, and quite grateful that your English is far better than my Japanese."
He laughed heartily. "My father was the PRC ambassador to the Alliance for almost ten years. I grew up in the Georgetown Sector of Washbalt. No doubt one reason I was assigned to this duty."
"Well that should make things much easier on me. I'm from New York myself." I motioned for the orderly to collect the bags. "You must be exhausted. Let's get you settled into your billet. The private will bring your baggage to your quarters immediately."
"I would be most grateful, Major. And if I may make a request?"
"Certainly, Captain Yoshi, what can I do for you?"
"It’s been a long day, and I’m starving. Is there anywhere on this station that makes a good burger?"
I started to answer him, but couldn't stifle my laugh. He looked at me quizzically, so I explained about my misadventures with the officer's club kitchen, and we both laughed again.
"Your efforts were most kind, Major, but you needn't worry. Ten years on your east coast, remember? If I can get a good rare burger and a pepperoni pizza with a decent beer to wash it all down I'll be just fine."
We had another laugh, and then we downshifted into small talk as we made our way to the officers' club, where we had two rare burgers that Akio pronounced, "quite excellent considering where we are."
We got along immediately, and while there was very little common ground between his privileged background and my, shall we say, grittier past, it turned out we were very similar in many ways. We agreed to dispense with the "major" and "captain" stuff, except in front of the troops.
I learned a little more about the liaison program over the next few days, and I thought it was a great idea. In the past allies tended to operate in overall cooperation, but generally undertook their own separate operations with minimal joint planning. Combined task forces, like the one taking shape in Gliese 250, were quite rare, and any suggestions at embedding allied liaison officers into active strike forces would have elicited shouts of "espionage!"
But mistrust was starting to give way to necessity. Since the Unification Wars, there had been no formal, long-term alliances or treaties between any nations. Certainly, some of the powers were more likely to support others - us and the PRC or the Caliphate and the CAC, for example. But there were no long-term arrangements, and each war set off a desperate scramble to attract allies, with the belligerent powers offering their prospective new friends all sorts of choice bits of the enemy empire in return for joining the fight.
But the scale of war in space was increasing, and it was becoming more crucial to have long-term allies. No power was strong enough to stand alone. The CAC and the Caliphate had as close to a permanent alliance as existed, which put enormous pressure on us. We could have handled either one of them, but not both. As both were usually fighting against us, and the PRC was the blood enemy of the CAC, an alliance made all sorts of sense.
For six years we had fought both the CAC and the Caliphate alone, and our defeats were largely the result of being spread too thin. If the PRC had entered the war at the beginning, the strategic situation would be enormously different. We might have even won the war by now. But there was still tremendous distrust between the superpowers, and these wheels turn slowly. Maybe it starts with two officers, a couple of hamburgers, and a night spent drinking too many beers.
Akio fit in very well, and he got along with everyone. He was very friendly and easy-going, but when I pulled up his file and read it I realized that this guy was one hell of a fighter too. In the couple years since the PRC had entered the war he'd been in five assaults, the last two as a company commander.
His first assignment was commanding a platoon protecting an exploratory expedition on a newly discovered planet. The CAC, which also claimed the system, sent in two companies to take out the whole group. Akio's platoon dug in and held out for 5 days against five to one odds before PRC naval support arrived and the CAC forces withdrew. He had 65% casualties and was wounded twice, but he held the place and kept every civilian member of the expedition alive.
I was going to have trouble keeping this guy a safe distance back from the fighting, I could see that now. And I didn't want to end up having to tell the general how I got the PRC liaison officer scragged.