Nearly all the Vishnu workers had volunteered to accompany the base ships, and maintain, repair and service the boats, in hopes of being permitted to immigrate to Ilocan after the war. Of course, the possibility of prize money only added to their willingness.
Three Santiago supply ships disappeared before one managed to limp back home and report the mined jump points and the attack gunboats. Minesweepers were dispatched, and all of them promptly disappeared as well.
A minesweeper was sent out escorted by the only warship remaining in the Santiago system, a partially repaired frigate. It returned a week after jumping out, reporting that a number of small, fast, well-armed boats had attacked them. The minesweeper, their last, had been damaged and unable to escape. It was presumed destroyed.
And so the Ilocano privateers had their first warship prizes. By this time, a system had been worked out; when a ship was captured, especially if it was damaged, like the minesweeper, its crew was held on the mother ship while Vishnu techs checked the prize over and made any needed emergency repairs. Then the prisoners were hauled to a moon prison, and the prize jumped for the mine.
The frigate was hastily re-repaired, and dispatched to Ilocan with orders for the return of at least one of Santiago's three Old Empire-pattern destroyers, to defend the home planet from an unexpected Ilocano offensive capability.
Meanwhile, off-planet commerce had come to a stop. No traders emerged from Santiago's jump point. The frigate had reported the existence of a beacon notifying incoming traffic that the jump point had been mined. It had been ordered to attempt to destroy the beacon enroute to Ilocan, but it was not to delay or engage hostile forces in order to do it. The Santiago high command was shaken. Something was going on, but what?
The frigate managed to pick its way through the jump point minefield, and outrun the gunboats, though it was forced to fight something of a rear-guard action as it found its way through the minefield to the second jump point. However, when it emerged in the second recal system, it was caught by the edge of a mine blast. Suddenly it was engaged in battle with five darting, jinking gunboats. The Captain launched two message torpedoes aimed at the Ilocan jump point. Fifteen seconds later a collapsium-plated rocket penetrated his hull and hit his fusactor, and his ship became an expanding ball of hot gases.
One of the message torps encountered a mine, but the primitive AI of the other somehow managed to avoid them, recognized the jump point, and slipped through it unharmed.
Chapter 11
Admiral Juan Manuel Gonzalez-Villareal was stunned by the incoming message. All incoming jump points mined? Impossible. The Ilocano savages didn't have the technology. Small, fast attack craft? Incredible. Ilocan had no space presence. He thought hard. Maybe there was something to it. A couple of supply ships were overdue. And what had happened to the frigate that sent the torp? Send back a destroyer? That would be no problem. These ignorant savages weren't doing anything but huddling in the wilderness, hiding from the Admiral's forces. Oh, they had a certain primitive cunning, and they were causing trouble for his ground forces, but they had nothing to threaten his orbital force. Come to think of it, why not send two of his three destroyers home? Fewer mouths to feed, and maybe there really was something for them to do at home. One destroyer should be plenty here; especially with the frigate and corvette he had monitoring the comm satellites.
One of the destroyers emerged into the first recal system within fifty meters of a drifting mine. The other, Furioso, commanded by Capitan Raul Rojos de laVega, emerging a few minutes later, noted the higher-than-normal radiation readings, but did not connect them with its sister ship. Captain de laVega had been warned that the jump point might be mined, so they proceeded dead slow, all sensors straining to detect the lethal spheres. One had to be destroyed by a laser blast when it wandered too close.
The Ilocano boat force watched helplessly as the Santie destroyer picked its way through the minefield. The jerry-rigged boats were no match for an Old Empire-Pattern destroyer, and every one of them knew it. Onboard the base ship, the Captain prepared a message torp, reporting the destruction of one Santie destroyer, and containing all the information they could gather about the other one. He would send it on to the mine. It was essential they keep track of the whereabouts of the Santie big guns. There was a rumor that a raid on Santiago itself was in preparation. They would need to know about this.
Furioso, meanwhile, was creating, as best it could, a map of the minefield. Once clear of the minefield, it boosted max for the next jump point. As it approached the jump point, Captain de la Vega slammed a fist on his chair arm as another minefield was revealed.
By the time Furioso emerged at Santiago, Captain de la Vega was a worried man. There had been beacons at the jump points to both Santiago and Ilocan, warning off visitors. And all those damned mines! There had been hundreds of them. Every trip would be a gauntlet threatening death. Oh, his destroyer had nothing to fear, now that they knew of the threat. But how were they to get supplies to Ilocan? Civilian freighters didn't have military-grade sensor suites. It would be nearly impossible for them to avoid the mines and make it to Ilocan. The damned savages had destroyed all the farms near Homesafe (ridiculous name). Moreover, patrols could only be made in force, with armor. Troops couldn't harvest grain while looking over their shoulders or scanning the ground for lethal traps. Their own siege force was threatened with food shortages!
Admiral Gonzalez-Villareal had even offered the Ilocanos full Santiago citizenship if they would only stop fighting and surrender. Propaganda broadcasts on the captured Worldnet had trumpeted all the benefits of citizenship; the guaranteed annual wage, working or not, the free lifetime health insurance, all the hundreds of programs for which they would be eligible. Amazingly, these savages were too stupid to take advantage of the offer.
Nothing worked. The Ilocanos kept fighting and killing. The weapons used had slowly moved down the technological spectrum as the blockade prevented resupply. Instead of surrender, though, now soldiers were dying from arrow wounds, poisoned blowgun darts, and truly diabolical booby traps. It had been necessary for the Admiral to hold classes for the troops to explain some of these weird weapons. Yet, the troops kept dying.
It was infuriating! They had enough firepower in orbit to turn the planet into a radioactive cinder, and still these people would not surrender!
When he reached Santiago, things were not a lot better. Frightened people and jittery officials were everywhere. There were beginning to be shortages of some imported products, and the government was beginning to fear riots in the streets as well as a possible invasion by an enemy who wasn't even supposed to have any space ships!
There were no minesweepers left, but two tugs had been fitted with jump engines, and his first orders were to escort the tugs to the Santiago jump point, and clear the mines. And shut off that damned beacon that prevented supplies from reaching Santiago! Captain de la Vega saluted, sighed, and reboarded his ship.
Meanwhile, the problem of the three destroyers — now two — had not escaped the Ilocanos. Their patchwork fleet of privateers was no match for even one of the big warships, much less two. All they could do when one of them was nearby was huddle in their base ships with power down to minimum to escape detection.
Thoughts naturally turned to the armed Chata-class Mong was calling Ilocan's Revenge.