The Heinlein System took on shape and form on the main display. It was a fairly mundane system, as systems went; three rocky planets, two gas giants and one life-bearing world. Heinlein itself rated a 92% on the Planetary Scale — 92% like Earth — which made it habitable enough to support the human race without major terraforming efforts. The inhabitants probably wouldn’t want to move. By now, despite UN regulations, they had probably adapted the planet completely to their specifications. I winced when the scale of industrial activity became apparent. Heinlein was the most industrialised system I’d seen, short of Earth itself. The asteroid belts swarmed with miners and industrial stations.
I remembered what the Senior Chief had said about the UN needing to conscript trained workers from the colonies and shivered, despite myself. Heinlein didn’t seem to pay homage to the UN’s rules and, despite that, had somehow developed a vast industry. There had to be millions of trained workers the UN could kidnap and take back to Earth to turn into slaves, despite the dangers of trusting an industrial plant to conscript workers. Would it not be easier, I wondered, to train new workers on Earth?
“The fleet has finally responded, sir,” Kitty said. “The Admiral is ordering the fleet to form up on the flagship and has designated a spot for us.”
“Pilot, move us into position,” Captain Shalenko ordered, tightly. “Tactical, link into the fleet datanet, but remain alert.”
Twenty minutes later, the fleet was finally moving towards Heinlein. The Admiral had ordered us to emerge from the wormholes at roughly an hour from the planet, even though we could have emerged a lot closer, perhaps even in orbit around the planet. I hadn’t understood at the time, but I understood now. If we’d emerged in range of the planet’s defences in such a chaotic state, we’d have been turkeys in a turkey shoot. I was surprised that we hadn’t been attacked upon emergence anyway, but perhaps Heinlein was conserving its strength. Who knew what had happened since the last report had reached Earth?
“The Admiral is trying to contact the garrison, but there’s no response,” Kitty said, into the growing tension. I almost wanted the attack to begin, just to get on with it. The tension was almost worse than the battle. “The isn’t even any chatter from the planet’s surface.”
“They must have been wiped out,” the Captain growled. He didn’t sound surprised. I’d learned enough about supply problems to understand how the garrison must have felt. They’d been trapped and then starved out, or perhaps forced to expend all their ammunition…and then defeated. It would have been fairly easy without any orbital bombardment system overhead. “I wonder if…”
“The Admiral is signalling the planet,” Kitty added. “Captain, would you like to hear it?”
The Captain nodded. “This is Admiral Hoover, Commanding Officer of Task Force 17,” the Admiral’s voice said. He sounded as if he were trying to be strong and resolute. It didn’t sound that convincing. “You are hereby ordered to comply with the terms of the UN resolutions concerning your planet and stand down all your defences, permitting my forces to occupy the planet’s surface. If you refuse to comply, we are authorised to use deadly force.”
“Well?” The Captain said, into the silence. It would take nearly seven minutes for the signal to reach Heinlein and another seven for the reply, if any. “Is there any response?”
“No, sir,” Kitty said. “I’m still not picking up anything from the planet at all.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Captain Shalenko said, tightly. “A planet with nearly a billion humans on must produce some radio chatter.”
Kitty looked flustered for the first time in my experience. “The briefing notes suggested that they had created a landline infrastructure for most of their communications traffic,” she said. “They may choose to limit their radio communications to prevent us from picking them up.”
“Good thinking,” the Captain said, grudgingly. “Try and see if the asteroid belts are producing…”
“Emergence,” Anna snapped, as red icons flashed into existence. “Five starships, unknown configuration, closing fast!”
“Stand by all weapons and defensive systems,” the Captain ordered, swinging his chair around to stare at the main display. Five blood-red icons were moving towards the green icons of the fleet with obviously hostile intent. “Point defence is cleared to engage incoming missiles. I repeat, point defence is cleared to engage incoming missiles.”
“I’m picking up targeting sensor emissions from the unknowns,” Anna said, as red-green sweeps of energy crossed the display. “They’re locking on…and firing.”
I blanched. No UN ship, short of a battleship, could have fired such a volley in one broadside, or turn so quickly and launch a second broadside. The fleet’s point defence systems were already locking onto the incoming missiles and torpedoes, burning them out of existence, but there were so many of them. I knew that some ships were going to be lost…
“The Admiral is authorising us to return fire,” Kitty said. “The cruisers are engaging now.”
The cruisers opened fire, but the newcomers, instead of closing for a standard engagement, vanished back down their wormholes and disappeared. The Captain swore a mighty curse in a language I didn’t recognise, but I understood. The Heinlein starships — if that was what they were — had tricked the cruisers into firing off expensive missiles, for nothing. The swarm of incoming missiles were striking home now; I saw a cruiser stagger, before somehow resuming its course and speed. The drive field had saved the crew, barely.
“Emergence,” Anna said, again. This time, only three starships appeared, shot their missiles, and vanished again. Lasers and other energy weapons raged out towards their prey, but seemed to have no effect. “Captain, they’re targeting the troop transports specifically.”
“Understood,” the Captain said. His gaze flickered to the display and he swore again. This time, I didn’t understand why. “Kitty, raise the Admiral and warn him of the threat to the transports. If we lose them, we may as well go home and abandon the entire mission.”
I saw what he meant, suddenly. The UN simply couldn’t afford to replace any lost starships and the troop transports, among the largest ships in the Peace Force, simply couldn’t be replaced quickly. It took years to build them, years that Heinlein could use to make itself all the more impregnable, or even take the offensive. I saw the UN’s dilemma clearly for the first time. If it took the boot off the colonies, the colonies would very rapidly out-produce it and eventually destroy the Peace Force. If it kept the boot on, it would find it very hard to maintain the tempo of operations. No wonder they were touting Terra Nova as a success! If the UN pulled out tomorrow, so what? Terra Nova wouldn’t be building starships anytime soon.
“The Admiral is warning the cruisers to continue to cover the flagship,” Kitty reported. “There is no explanation attached to the orders.”
Captain Shalenko said nothing, but I could guess what he was thinking. Coward.
“Continue to maintain watch,” he ordered, finally. “Engage any hostile missiles that come within range, regardless of their targets.”
“Aye, sir,” Kitty said. “Enemy starships have retreated again.”
“They won’t do anything else,” Captain Shalenko predicted. “Just by doing what they are, they’re tearing us apart.”
The next hour wore on slowly. Exactly as the Captain had predicted, the Heinlein starships kept jumping in and our, firing off their missiles and vanishing again before anyone could shoot back at them. Their only saving grace was that they didn’t have time to run proper targeting solutions, although it didn’t seem to matter that much. A cruiser was destroyed and another seriously damaged, left behind the rest of the starships. Somehow, I doubted that it would remain intact for much longer without the protection of the entire fleet. The battleship came in for particular targeting along with the troop transports, but our luck held. The Admiral survived the attacks and his ship remained intact. Somehow, I wasn’t sure if that were a good thing or not.