Chapter 449 (1/2)
Welp, I've truly stepped on the cat-girl's tail, Admiral Shtuklar thought to himself, staring at the holotank. He gave himself a physical shudder, shaking his head, then stood straight for a moment, looking over the protocontinent.
He turned to a second holotank and waved his hand through it, dismissing the estimations of post-battle casualties for the civilian populace. It was currently glitching due to SFC Casey hammering apart a large piece of the protocontinent so it next to useless.
He quickly put up his entire ground-side TO&E. First Lanaktallan Armor, First Telkan Marine Division, First Armored Recon, 1095 Treana'ad Ground Warfare Horde, and a good amount of other units. He quickly tabbed up a unit and designated it ”First Planetary Powered Armor Assault” and moved Casey from First Telkan Senior NCO to that unit.
Being honest with himself as he worked, he admitted he had screwed up. The fact that 7th Army had been wiped out had shaken him and he had made a midshipman's mistake by just reacting and throwing everything he had at the enemy in the hopes of stopping them.
He closed his eyes for a second and remembered the time the bridge had taken a hit and the entire responsibility for a super-carrier had fallen on him as a LT JG in the middle of a heavy battle. He had reacted then too, and while his decisions had been lauded, he had always looked back on that and wondered if he could have made better decisions and saved more lives.
He brought up the RoE from several past battles involving 7th Army and stopped at the RoE for the Second Telkan War AKA Telkan Dwellerspawn War.
”RoE Update,” he called out. ”Transmit to all units but First Planetary Assault,” he snapped. He turned and looked at the planet itself, thinking fast.
Scans were worthless so far, only showing blurring movement of a large amount of something, but other than that, nothing. He looked up the maximum range of a weapon and began working.
”Fab up Second Mantid War phasic munitions and have the guns loaded,” he tapped out different areas, keeping away from the civilian centers and trying to ensure Lanaktallan and neo-sapient troops would only catch the edges. Telkan troops had high resistance to psychic so he ordered that they go to max suppression and ordered phasic munitions to be fired up on their positions. He set them for detonation at 25,000 feet. ”Load and fire as the rounds come in.”
”Sir, that will put our own troops in danger,” Master Guns said.
”It's that or they can't see the enemy,” Admiral Shtuklar said. ”Right now it looks like the only ones that can actually see them are Terran troops and possibly Telkan,” he wrapped up his initial plan. ”Send that to the Martial Orders with my compliments, not as an order.”
He shook his head, reaching back and rubbing the spines on the back of his neck flat before blinking his eyes several times.
”I miscalculated, but that doesn't mean the battle or the war is lost, as long as I do not compound my mistakes,” he said out loud. He caught the eyes of several of the lower ranking officers. ”Nobody is perfect. Even Grand Admiral Yulkratian made strategic and tactical mistakes.”
He saw understanding in the JG officers as he continued. ”Bring up SFC Casey's file, run a search for Novastar power armor.”
”It's a big file, sir,” Lieutenant JG Utrepnik said.
”That's why you're doing a search,” the Admiral said. ”Put it on holotank nine.”
”Aye aye, sir,” the intel analyst said.
The file appeared, massive, full of locked subfolders.
NO MATCH appeared.
”Give me a profile on Novastar armor from armory files,” he ordered.
NO MATCH
”Historical database,” he ordered.
THAT got matches, but a quick look through only showed deployment during the Niven RingWars, the Mar-gite Invasion, and the Lretknit Genocide. Nothing else.
”Lieutenant Hefflelu'ump,” the Admiral snapped.
”Sir,” the Communications Technical Officer asked.
”Get me data on that suit, the munitions it uses, and compare to what Sergeant Casey is currently using,” he said. ”Cross reference the Niven RingWars and the Mar-gite Invasion and any other war or battle that involved heavy civilian casualties and mass destruction.”
”Aye-aye, sir,” the LT said, turning back to his console.
He turned back and looked at the holotank of the world's protocontinent. ”First Telkan is currently engaged. Give them the order to do a fighting reposition. Get them away from Casey. Order Casey toward this mountain range right here, the locals can live with losing a few mountains.”
He typed rapidly.
The RoE update was quick and dirty as far as Rules of Engagement went.
”Attempt to minimize civilian casualties due to heavy munition deployment. Be aware that less than 30% of civilians reached shelters.”
”Do not deliberately target infrastructure that poses no value to invading force.”
”Avoid blue on blue, green on blue, or blue on pink incidents.”
”Terminate the enemy with extreme prejudice without consideration for long term ecological effects.”
”Maneuver to avoid exposing friendly units to damaging direct fire and indirect fire.”
”Authorization for planet breaker or continent buster weaponry is hereby forbidden without proper authorization of a full review board.”
There was more, but that was the best that the Admiral felt he could do in the limited time he had.
”Update Casey with this as soon as possible,” he said, flipping it over.
The Admiral's XO moved up to him.
”You know this is going to make your review board looks worse,” the Vemtrinian said softly.,
”Only politicians and fecalweasels worry about their careers when billions of civilian lives hang in the balance,” Admiral Shtuklar said. ”I screwed up, the responsibility is mine, and I won't find some poor midshipman to throw at the lawyers while I make my escape. In my entire career I have never done such,” he looked at his XO. ”And no officer worth his braid ever should.”
”You could not have known,” The XO tried again, reminding himself that he wore the lapel pin of a small horned demon with spectacles, a quill, and a scroll for a reason. ”that Casey was what he is.”
The Admiral shook his head, making sure that the junior officers could hear. ”In the Space Force Navy it is too easy to think the only big guns are aboard our vessels. We even look at BOLOs and give a slight sneer at their firepower compared to our battle wagons,” he said. ”I reacted to the situation, concerned that each minute I 'wasted' thousands or tens of thousands of civilians were dying.”
He pointed at the map. ”Now, because I did not take the scant amount of time to at least slightly familiarize myself with my available assets, who knows how many civilians will pay the price,” he shook his head. ”No, One, the fault lies solely with me.”
”Before the Terrans all dropped dead, you were the Admiral of the carrier group,” the XO said, waving his hand. ”You can't be expected to coordinate group assaults.”
The Admiral shook his head. ”No, and that is a problem. An officer of my rank should have been at least familiarized with ground assault coordination. As I well know, a lucky shot to the flag bridge could leave a midshipman in charge of any entire planetary assault,” he shrugged, feeling much more at ease. ”That gap in training should be brought up to TRADOC as soon as possible.”
He tapped the holotank with one taloned finger. ”But that will come later.”
”Sir, signal from Lieutenant Colonel Smrivit,” one of his commo officers called out.
”Holotank Eleven,” the Admiral snapped.
The image appeared, wavering and shot through with pixelation and artifacts. The Rigellian female was speaking, but all that was coming across the audio channel was pops and hisses.
”Colonel, we do not read your audio, we have you on visual,” the Admiral said. He reached out and tapped a few keys, making sure that his words were shown visually across a scroll bar at his chest level.
The Colonel cocked her head for a moment.
NO VISUAL AUDIO ONLY appeared in front of her.
”Find out why the signals are inverted,” someone snapped.
”Status report,” the Admiral ordered.
”Shelters at max cap STOP 2.2 billion at risk STOP Enemy prioritizes civilian 'harvesting' above engagement STOP Primary attack phasic enhanced energy weaponsSTOP Enemy using dimensional or temporal shift to make landings no space vessels needed/detected STOP.” Scrolled by the Colonel's image as her lips moved.
”We understand. Have deployed Ring Breaker Class Planetary Assault Unit to attract enemy. Phasic munitions will be fired from orbit ASAP,” Admiral Shtuklar said.
”Enemy harvests brains STOP Infiltration Attempts Detected STOP Uploading images/data of Infiltration Types STOP Current Force Levels are at 8 (EIGHT) percent STOP” appeared. ”Cannot hold REPEAT Cannot Hold STOP.”
The image wavered and fuzzed for a moment. She spoke again but only disconnected characters came across before she vanished.
”We lost her, Admiral,” the communications officer said.
”Keep trying to reestablish contact,” he said.
”Data packet upload from SFC Casey,” another commo officer said. ”Data pack only, no real-time.”
”Put it up, let's see what he's facing,” The Admiral said.
---------------
Smokey No stared at the doctor who was securing the mobility harness to him.
”General, you have two impact amputeed legs, a collapsed lung, and blood filled spiracles on your left side, as well as missing your bladearm and arm on that side,” the doctor said.
”Be that as it may, we are engaged in combat,” General NoDra'ak said. He coughed for a moment before looking at the Commodore. ”What's Trucker's status.”
”They're retuning his implants. Apparently he went through some kind of brain tissue change after he'd been in the diagnostic rig,” the Commodore said. ”He's conscious, but he ain't happy about it.”
”Not psychic my big bruised ass,” NoDra'ak mused. He coughed again then winced as pain rippled down his side. He looked at the Commodore. ”He was complaining of an itch down his spinal column a couple of hours before the crash translation and reported to medical for a full cyberware diagnostic.”
”Terran precognition often manifests as itching or skin tightness, correct?” the Commodore asked.
NoDra'ak nodded. ”Or lightning,” he chuckled, then groaned.
The Commodore put his hand to his datalink. ”First Lanaktallan Armor is landing, First Armored Recon is engaged with the enemy. First Telkan is still pinned down in Casey's destruction zone. The Neko-Marines made direct orbital pod drop into a disrupted area. The Sons of Venus deployed via mat-trans.”
”The Martial Orders?” NoDra'ak coughed. He gratefully inhaled as the doctor draped a breathing abdominal cover onto his body.
”Sisters of Wrath mat-transed in, same with the Brotherhood of Mars,” the Commodore said.
”That's the best I can do, General. I do this only under great protest,” the Mantid doctor said.
”I understand,” he said.
The harness he was in lowered him to the floor then unhooked. He used the robotic legs on the harness to turn slowly. He was clumsy and ungainly, no female would ever find his dancing appealing in the robotic harness, but it was better than nothing.
”Admiral Shtuklar is updating the groundside RoE's,” the Commodore said.
”Normally ground commanders would have drawn up their own RoE's, but they've got a lieutenant in charge of an entire Division who has largely been OJT, a Lanaktallan who is used to being the final military authority, and a Hikken who has only been with the Confederacy for a few years,” NoDra'ak said, coughing as he moved out of the recovery bay. He spotted a Treana'ad officer moving down the corridor. ”Smoke?”