"Frank, Mike, Sylvia, Juan, y'all come in, come in. Have a seat." Moore tried to sound relaxed and eager to see them. After all, he hadn't been fully briefed on the situation in the Oort Cloud yet.
"Mr. President." General Sylvia Patourno smiled and shook his hand. "I can honestly say that I've never been happier to see you alive and well, sir."
"Thanks, Sylvia. Now let's hear about our operation out in the Oort, shall we?"
"Well, sir, I'll brief you and Juan will jump in here whenever." She nodded to the secretary of defense.
"Of course I will. You know me." He smiled as he interrupted.
"Sir, it was pretty grim for a while. In fact, it was so grim that we thought we were going to lose both the Madira and the Blair. Each of the supercarriers took heavy damage and suffered major crew losses. The attrition of our mecha and ground forces was bad. Of the thousand pilots deployed during the operation, only about four hundred survived. The top flight units of each supercarrier lost senior experienced officers." The general paused briefly to gauge the president's response, but Moore held quiet and expressionless.
"Yes, sir. Things didn't go as planned at all," the sec def added. "It appears that the Seppies had two large mass driver guns in the area that intel had missed. There was also an unexpected teleport into the battle that consisted of a fully loaded hauler and several other smaller ships, including the one that teleported to our space to kamikaze the Moon."
"The two Ares-T pilots that came through with it were part of the Sienna Madira's flight wing," the national security advisor, Frank Duckett, added. "In fact, one of them was the CAG for the supercarrier. He gives a pretty dark description of the battle, Mr. President. He's a very well-spoken young man. You might consider him as a spotlight hero in your next national address, sir." Frank grinned slyly and nodded with a raised eyebrow. Alexander caught the NSA's hint. It sounded like a good idea.
"You said two pilots?"
"Yes, Mr. President. His wingman, a young woman, stayed with him the entire time. Both of them attacked the battle cruiser themselves to try and stop it from making it to Luna City."
"Two fighters against a battle cruiser? Now, that is damned heroic." Moore was missing something in this story. "Wait a minute, how did these two know that the battle cruiser was going to Luna City?"
"That is another really interesting part, sir," the sec def said, then turned to the chief spy of the country. "DNI?"
"Uh, yes sir," the director of national intelligence, Michael Lewis joined in. "Operation Bachelor Party was started actually during President Alberts' term, though I can't say he paid much attention to it. I've briefed you on it before."
"Yes, so?"
Abigail?
Yes, sir. Operation Bachelor Party was set about to place an operative inside the Separatist community. The operative was put into position by a navy Ares pilot on the morning before the Martian Exodus. She was last heard from later that day with a warning that the Separatists were leaving to Tau Ceti.
Right, I remember that.
Who was the pilot?
A Lieutenant Commander Jack Boland, callsign DeathRay of the Sienna Madira squadron Gods of War. Records show that he is now Commander Boland.
Okay.
"It turns out that," the DNI continued, "when the battle cruiser teleported into the middle of the attack the agent contacted the CAG because he was the same pilot that had dropped her into the Reservation on Mars years earlier."
"You're shitting me now, right?" Moore looked back and forth at the faces of his senior defense and intelligence staff. They were serious as far as he could tell.
"No sir, it was a lucky coincidence," the NSA added.
"Well, how about that. These two get a medal. No, wait. We blew the hell out of that battle cruiser. I was there," Moore said. "Where is this CIA agent now?"
"The last communication she had with the pilots was that she was trapped on the ship, and they believe she was killed when the ship was destroyed, sir."
"Damn. She deserved better," Moore replied.
"I agree, sir." The DNI nodded.
"All right, all right. It went bad at first. So, then what?" Moore leaned back in his chair and propped his chin on his fist.
"Marines, sir. Armored E-suit Marines," Marine General Patourno said proudly. "A small recon team known as Roberts' Robots fought their way into the facility, found a teleporter, teleported themselves to the big gun on the moon planetoid, and took it."
"Ooh-fuckin'-rah," Moore said as he sat up straight.
"Semper fi, sir. Then our boys figured out how to use the big gun against the Seppy bastards and blasted the hell out of them."
"Hot damn, that's what I wanted to hear! Now, those marines definetly get medals and promotions." Moore stood excitedly. "And now?"
"The facility is ours, Mr. President," the sec def said.
"Goddamn. That is great news, Juan. General, that is out-fucking- standing!" Moore stood up and shook their hands, congratulating them.
"Yes, sir."
"Uh, sir," the sec def interrupted Alexander's jubilation. "They have a lot of wounded and damage that they have to deal with out there, and at best, the U.S.S. Thomas Jefferson is still a week away. Recall, it's a three-month trip at max hyperspace. We need more presence there also in case the Seppies try to pop through the teleporter."
"Yes, yes, of course, Juan. Send three supercarriers loaded to the gills out there and bring our troops that fought this one home. And every damned one of them gets a promotion, you hear me? And I want medals splashed around liberally."
"Yes, Mr. President."
"And send a damned QMT-4 team out there to set us up a teleporter between Earth and there."
"Yes, sir," the sec def said, and then had a blank stare on his face for a brief moment as if he was talking with his AIC.
"Has anybody figured out how the Separatists managed to teleport a battle cruiser from that facility in the Oort Cloud all the way to the Moon?" Moore sat back down.
"No, sir," the NSA replied.
"We have teams working on it, Mr. President," General Patourno added.
"Tell them to work harder. Give them more money or whatever else they need. I'm still president for at least two more months no matter what happens Tuesday. We need to learn as much about that technology as we possibly can and as quickly as we can."
"Yes, sir."
"You two get with Abigail." He pointed to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the sec def. "I want to get some of this in a speech for an address to the nation sometime tomorrow. I'm going to declassify the existence of this threat now that we took it from the Separatists. And I want to meet these two pilots. And those AEMs when they get back."
Moore had the beginnings of a plan for winning the election, and this was a major part of it. "In fact, I want those two pilots with me when I give the speech."
"Yes, Mr. President."
"Okay, Frank, Mike, I'm sure you two want to talk about yesterday in Orlando. So talk."
"We found a teleport pad in the bowels of one of the Disney engineering centers," Director Lewis said. "It was a closed-down section of the park that hadn't been used in years. Somehow, the Separatists built that thing right under our noses. DHS and the FBI are still working out how they managed that. We dismantled it and sent it out to NRL to be studied and retrofitted for other use. I hear it looks like a copy of the QMT-4 from the Tyler. That brings us to the leak, sir."