Chapter 449 (2/2)
The Treana'ad officer stopped, bringing out his pack and lighter. He handed it to the General. ”Keep it, sir.”
”Thanks, son,” General NoDra'ak said, lighting the cigarette. He started moving along the corridor, heading for the elevator. ”OK, here's the full mass tank question: Is the Admiral doing CYOA, still frozen, or trying to fix it?”
”Looks like he's trying to fix it and provide a teaching moment to his junior officers at the same time,” the Commodore said.
Smokey No nodded, exhaling gratefully. The nicotine washed away the anxiety and the smoke pushed away the pheromones of pain and anxiety.
”All right. My implant hasn't been replaced yet,” the big Treana'ad said.
”That's because you broke your skull, sir,” the Commodore said.
General NoDra'ak laughed. ”The worst part is, the days of the Breeding Chamber aren't that far behind my people, so when I cracked my head, my body was all 'ooh, breeding' and flooded my body with ecstatic paralytics.”
”First Lanakallan Armor is on the ground. Looks like General A'armo'o is sending out scouts and trying to connect with General Ekret,” the Commodore said.
”Do we have direct link with either of them,” NoDra'ak paused and panted, his remaining booklung burning.
”Line of sight laser communication only,” the Commodore said.
”That will only last until the debris gets too thick,” NoDra'ak said, pushing himself off the wall and clattering toward the elevator. ”This corridor is longer than I remember,” he tapped the controls. ”Flag Bridge.”
The lift door pinged when it closed and NoDra'ak leaned against the wall, taking the weight off his left side.
”Are you sure you shouldn't return to medical?” the Commodore asked as NoDra'ak lit a cigarette with one shaking hand.
”I would if I could,” he said. He shook his head and immediately regretted it when he got dizzy for a moment. ”The Admiral is an excellent fleet commander. If there was a fight for the orbitals and system control, he'd be the man to it right now.”
”But it's groundside,” the Commodore said.
”Exactly.”
The elevator pinged, slowly, and the doors slid open with a whoosh, exposing the Flag Command and Control. It was quiet but busy, which reassured NoDra'ak that things were at least nominally under control.
He moved up slowly and carefully next to Admiral Shtuklar, pausing to look at the map.
The icons for First Telkan and First Planetary Assault were blinking 'NO CONTACT', but the others were in contact. All were engaged. NoDra'ak was experienced enough to know the emoji for the Neko-Marines for ”Am in Combat with the Enemy” as well as knowing what ”DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA!” streaming across the Sons of Venus meant.
”Why no BOLOs?” NoDra'ak asked quietly.
Admiral Shtuklar jumped slightly, his spines raising slightly. ”Oh, General NoDra'ak, I thought you were still in medical.”
”Technically, I am. I came to see if you could use me in an advisory role,” NoDra'ak said, pitching his voice low.
”To be honest, General, I'd prefer if you took over theater command,” the Admiral said.
”I've got enough pain killers to get a human high in my system,” NoDra'ak chuckled. ”My mouth tastes like licorice ice cream and flat rootbeer.”
”Well, without Terran pilots for the BOLO/Terran cybernetic interface, I did not believe that the BOLOs would be combat effective,” the Admiral said. ”I talked to the Brigade Commander, he stated without a Terran their effectiveness would drop by nearly 48%.”
”That's 52% effectiveness sitting in the hangars,” NoDra'ak said. ”Don't ask. They aren't the Navy. Order. Even if your order is wrong, it will not be as wrong as doing nothing.”
Admiral Shtuklar turned and ordered the BOLO's to be loaded into the drop cradles.
”Let's see you op-plan,” NoDra'ak said.
”Right now, with our limited contact with groundside and limited intelligence, right now it's just engage the enemy and try to force it away from the civilian populace,” the Admiral admitted.
”How are they landing?” NoDra'ak said. ”Is it like the Telkan Dwellerspawn War?”
”No. They just appear on the ground,” Admiral Shtuklar said.
General NoDra'ak lit another cigrette. ”Launch temporal stabilizers and dimensional stabilizers. While your at it, set up a stellar mass stabilizer and send out probe arrays to the surrounding planets.”
”They're still getting into position. It's a big system,” the Admiral said. He consulted one of the holotanks. ”It'll be six hours until the entire system's temporal and dimensional stabilizers are in position, another nineteen hours before the stellar mass stabilizer is read just for deployment.”
Smokey No shook his head, ignoring the slight vertigo. ”Right here, put a temporal and dimensional stabilizer array up around the planet. Order the troops on the ground to activate the same systems. If the enemy doesn't have ships, isn't using mat-trans, and is still appearing on the ground, they're using dimensional or temporal shifting to bring in reinforcements,” NoDra'ak looked around the command center. ”Who's in charge of planetary N-space security?”
The Admiral shook his head. ”Nobody. We're running on skeleton crews as it is. Most of the transport ships are being piloted by VI and eVI systems. We were able to get roughly a third of the Task Force's ships up to minimum crews, but the Flag Bridge is undermanned.”
NoDra'ak nodded. ”All right. Tell the BOLOs that as soon as they get groundside they're to set up non realspace interdiction methods,” he looked at the holotank again. ”The Martial Orders aren't tied into your warplan?”
”They refuse to interlock because I deployed Casey,” the Admiral admitted without a trace of shame or prevarication.
”You haven't worked with The Idiots often, have you?” NoDra'ak asked.
Shtuklar shook his head. He was relaxing, his spines lowering. ”No. I'm deep space and outer system.”
”I'll handle it, you watch,” NoDra'ak said. He moved forward, the robotic legs on the left side of his assist frame whining. ”Guns!”
”Sir?” the Master Gunnery Mate asked, looking up.
”Throw the planet up here, with all ships that are carrying orbital bombardment weaponry,” he ordered.
Admiral Shtuklar moved up next to him, watching with curiosity as NoDra'ak started assigning targets for orbital strikes. Everything from huge missile arrays to kinetic strikes to plasma weapon hits. He moved carefully around First Armored Recon and First Lanaktallan, bracketed First Telkan, put out multiple ocean hits that would swamp uninhabited islands, then designated weapons to pound the central mountains. General NoDra'ak moved slightly so that Admiral Shtuklar could change the firing order twice. When he was done he waved at Admiral Shtuklar.
”Load that across the fleet, broadcast it to The Idiots and all groundforces,” Admiral Shtuklar said.
”Sir, First Telkan and First Planetary Assault are still out of contact,” a communications officer said.
”We don't know that they can't hear us, we just know we can't hear them,” the Admiral said.
Smokey No waited a moment, then lit another cigarette, relaxing in the harness. After a long moment he looked at the holotank.
The Martial Orders were still in the strike zones.
”Get me The Idiots,” Smokey No snapped. ”Put all of them right here in this tank.”
”Aye aye, sir,” The Commo tech said. After a moment each of the four commanders appeared on the screen.
”Why are you not responding to our warplan?” General NoDra'ak asked.
”We will not...” the Preceptor started.
”I am no longer...” the Joan said.
”DOKI!”
”WAAAAGH!”
”SILENCE!” NoDra'ak yelled. He managed to keep from wincing. ”This Task Force is responsible for repelling the enemy from this world. All of you know that an interlocked warplan is vital, yet you ignore it?” he gave the Treana'ad equivalent of a sneer. ”Do you think you can ignore plasma enhanced thermobaric high impulse fuel air weapons? Or a plasma strike?”
They all stared.
”Interlock right now or I'll stop caring about where you are! I have a warplan to execute and I won't stand for any bullshit grandstanding on the part of irregulars. All ground forces are in need of orbital fire support AND YOU'RE STANDING AT GROUND ZERO LIKE MORONS!” he bellowed.
His side hurt.
All of them looked down except for the Neko Marine, who started jumping up and down excitedly. Six others ran up behind her, waving placards and banners with NoDra'ak's face on it.
”You have ten minutes to interlock and clear my fields of fire, after that, I will be engaging in orbital fire. If your ships do not move to support the operations, I will be extremely upset,” he said. He leaned forward. ”You wish to question the Admiral's deployment of the Ringbreaker? I wholly approve, and think he should have gone in with a Gylfi configuration,” the four commanders blanched at that. ”But a Valkyrie configuration may work.”
”But...” the Joan said.
”In case you didn't notice, you're in direct combat with NivenRing Dwellerspawn,” NoDra'ak snarled. ”Perhaps it might make sense to you now why the Admiral chose to deploy a Ringbreaker against the very things he was trained and equipped to fight.”
More Neko Marines were waving placards with NoDra'ak's face on it. One came up behind the leader and hit her over the head with a placard.
”NOW GET IN FORMATION, PHILLIP STAB YOUR EYES!” NoDra'ak said, and made a chopping motion with his bladearm.
The communication's channel cut out.
He turned to the Admiral. ”I'm starting to feel fatigue. Can we retire to your briefing room?”
”Should I bring my staff?” Admiral Shtuklar asked.
”Just your immediate theater planning staff,” NoDra'ak said, stiffly moving toward the briefing room.
When he got there, he settled down in a chair, wincing as his bruised and cracked left side took his weight. The Admiral's planning staff filed in, most of them looking down. NoDra'ak waited till they were all seated, the Admiral included, before lighting a cigarette.
”All right, this isn't our finest hour, but by the time we got here the midget was already dancing and everyone ran off and left us to pay her,” the Admiral said. He shook his head, his spines rattling. ”Mistakes were made, mostly by me.”
NoDra'ak nodded. ”You've got forces on the ground to pull the enemy away from harvesting the civilians. That's a good start,” he sighed, feeling the pain ease up. ”Since we don't have any Confederate Army units on the ground, I ordered the new Army drop-pods to be dropped near First Telkan, to land within a hundred meters of any groups of transponders. That'll let the Marines build firebases and defensive points as well as bring more heavy weapons online.”
”I didn't think of that,” the Admiral said, shaking his head.
”This is your first ground campaign, you have no advisors, the chain of command was destroyed, and our most experienced troops are all dead,” NoDra'ak said. ”Most wars like that are lost before they've begun.”
”Do you really think we'll lose, General?” a Commodore asked.
NoDra'ak shook his head. ”No. I think it's going to be one of the nastiest fights we've seen in a while, but we have the Treana'ad Mobile Combat Hordes,” he gave the equivelant of a large grin. ”And my people had a victory rate of over 25% against the Terrans, we'll be able to give the Dwellerspawn a lot harder fight than they think.”
-------------
”General, can you hear me?” a voice asked.
Trucker's vision came back online, his cyberoptics finished with the self-tests.