“Just so we’re clear,” said the fleet Commander, “I don’t have a problem taking your orders. Just don’t get offended if I offer feedback when I think you need it.”
“Good,” said Galen. “That goes for all of you, don’t hesitate to offer feedback.”
The infantry Captain said, “Well then, why don’t you go outside and fu—”
Galen stood and cut him off. “I said feedback, not insubordination. There’s a difference!”
The commanders laughed again. They knew the infantry Captain was just playing. Galen noticed a wink from Sevin, so he laughed too and sat back down. The commanders turned back to their terminals and busied themselves with their keyboards and screens. Galen flipped up the small screen in the armrest of the command chair and checked his personal account for messages. There was only one and it was from Mr. Burwell, his agent. All it said was, “Beware. Do not get taken alive.” Then it deleted itself.
Galen pondered the message. It was dated six days ago which meant it arrived very quickly. It was sent as high priority, passed from Ostreich to a communications network that sent signals to piggyback along established jump points with jump ships in motion in a series to make it possible for the message to travel that far, that fast. Important, because sending such a message outside the Panzer Brigade network was expensive. Mr. Burwell had paid for it himself.
Chapter Twenty Four
The Major came out of his office and laid his hand on Galen’s shoulder. “Hey, I got this. Take a break.”
Galen went outside for some fresh air. He climbed on top of the TOC and looked toward the air strip and noticed an Interceptor as it taxied out of its bunker and moved to the far end of the runway. It was a ground-based aircraft designed for atmospheric flight as well as maneuver in space. A dull flat black, the cigar-shaped fuselage was a full seventeen meters long and had retractable delta wings that would fold in during space flight. The nose had a 25mm Gauss rifle built into its center along with two lasers on either side of it. The aerospacecraft also had three weapons bays recessed in the bottom of the fuselage, covered with bomb bay doors that would open to deploy a variety of missiles. Towards the back were two more bays that held ionic propulsion modules that would pop out to either side for maneuver in space. Power came from a cold fusion bottle located directly behind the pilot’s seat. At the very end was the atmospheric thruster, a jet engine fueled by liquid oxygen and hydrogen. Its weakness was the lack of an energy-absorbing shield but its electrically-polarized air frame was thick and rugged and could absorb a great deal of damage before losing integrity. Expensive hardware for a unit the size of the Panzer Brigade, but a real boost to its combat power.
Galen studied the unit during what had been long, boring shifts in the TOC before the Mosh showed up. The Brigade improved its force quality substantially during the past year. It hired academy graduates as enlisted personnel. It also improved retention pay and bonuses for its combat veterans and developed a better in-house training program on Mandarin. The recent purchase of better armored vehicles, drop boats and now the addition of an aerospace wing boosted its combat capability. But there was no corresponding increase in revenue. Monetizing the improvements meant actually getting favorable combat contracts and successful combat operations were what would bring in the higher-paying contracts; an egg coming before the chicken conundrum.
Last on the list of items to improve the unit’s capability was the contract with a large mercenary fleet unit, retaining two jump ships and a battle cruiser for support. Galen knew it would be possible to call for more support from them but nothing could get here in time to make a difference. The battle cruiser was posted at the jump point for security. The two jump ships took turns bringing in troops and supplies but left when Alamo’s warehouses and barracks filled up. For the next week at least, the Colonel’s drop ship, capable of landing on the surface and jump travel as well, would be the only asset able to leave Alamo through the jump point and it had very little passenger or cargo capability. It had barely enough cargo space to carry the command tank and its crew. That tank would be the only armored fighting vehicle on the planet when it arrived.
The Interceptor darted down the airstrip, its jet engine roaring, a white flame fifty meters long shooting out its back. With only ten meters of tarmac to spare, it lifted from the ground and turned straight up at a 00 mil angle and blasted into the sky. In moments it was gone from view. Galen climbed down from the roof and went back inside the TOC.
“Welcome back,” said the Major. Galen sat in the seat to the left of the command chair. The main screen showed the Interceptor as it passed through the narrow midpoint gap in the rings, an occasional spark on its surface as it hit tiny particles of ring material. Although not a sold mass, the rings presented a problem for fast moving spacecraft. Over 200 km thick at the edge closest to the planet, the particles of the rings were made of heavier iron and other minerals toward the inside. There was a gap between that and the lighter ammonia and water ice that made up most of the outer ring. Still, the outer ring was substantial enough to cause problems. Trying to maneuver through it would be like trying to avoid raindrops by running around them. The old battle cruiser stuck in the outer ring was abandoned decades ago by the terraforming company because was caught between the centrifugal force of the rings that pushed it along and the planet’s gravity.
Spike was the Interceptor’s pilot and he dropped a sensor probe and aimed it at the Mosh fleet. Then he moved past the rings and angled a little to the right before firing a missile, the largest missile the Interceptor could carry. As it made its way toward the Mosh fleet, Spike moved around to their flank and fired his lasers. The missile nearly made it to their second light cruiser before it exploded, setting itself off before the enemy’s counter-fire could hit it. The missile did little more than annoy the Mosh but that was all Spike wanted it to do. The Mosh scout ships broke from their position in the fleet formation and headed for Spike.
Spike turned away and fled and then slowed down enough to allow his pursuers to keep up. Next he turned toward the midpoint of the outer ring and slowed a little more, to put himself just barely inside the estimated maximum effective range of the Mosh scout ship weapons. The lead Mosh scout ship fired a laser that missed by mere centimeters. Then Spike accelerated and then retracted his propulsion nacelles and tilted his Interceptor to splash belly-first into the ring material. The ablative coating on the bottom of his aerospace craft would absorb most of the damage and he had enough inertia to splash through to the other side. In a shower of sparks, his Interceptor went into the ring material.
Major Ross switched the video feed of the main screen to a probe on the other side of the rings. Explosions of white and amber flashed in the ring. After a tense moment, Spike emerged. He deployed his propulsion nacelles and rotated to face the ring and maneuvered backward to engage the Mosh scout ships at standoff range. Making a lucky guess, Spike let fly a burst of rail gun rounds that impacted the ring material right at the point where the first Mosh scout emerged. The rail gun fire caused bright, sparking explosions that briefly blinded the Mosh pilot and his sensors. The second Mosh ship emerged with both its propulsion nacelles blowing sparks. Spike gave it a face-full of laser fire, not enough to defeat its shields, but enough energy to push it back. It sank into the ring, obscured from view. Stuck.
Spike took that moment to turn and run. The first Mosh scout ship fired a laser that hit the Interceptor square in the aft and burned into the jet engine and ignited its fuel. The back section of the Interceptor blew off in a gaseous cloud that blocked the Mosh pilot’s view of Spike as he sped away, pushed faster by the explosion. Spike moved well into the firing arc of the prepositioned rail guns and stopped and pretended to be disabled.