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  “What?” Dr Hamis asked. He looked uncomfortable and confused. Admiral Jarvis tried to hide her scorn as she gazed at his face. It always seemed the same to her, the politicians were your friends until something bad happened. He had the look of a man looking for a way out.

  “I think the Admiral is referring to the ships and troops preparing to leave the colonies. The signal sent to Prometheus would presumably have said the same thing? Something along the lines of an automated distress beacon to draw all Union forces to one area.”

  “My thoughts exactly, General.”

  “What percentage of their forces are leaving, and how well defended are the fallen colonies?”

  “What does it matter? We have to control the Anomaly!” said an almost hysterical Dr Hamis.

  “No, I think we can use this an opportunity, if you are up for something of a gamble?”

  Admiral Jarvis nodded in agreement.

  “Yes, General, what are you thinking?”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Private ownership of long distance starships moved into a new era when the East Proxima Trading Company was founded. Based upon the exploits of the trading companies of old earth, this company expanded quickly. Starting with a fleet of ex-military cargo ships, the company soon found over thirty obsolete ships with which to ply the colonial trade routes. As the colonies developed, so did the companies making money trading between them.

  Origins of Private Space Travel

  The atmosphere in the conference room was electric. In the centre was the three-dimensional display showing a detailed holographic representation of the entire Confederacy. Dozens of planets and colonies filled the middle as they circled the unusual binary star system of Proxima Centauri. Each planet followed its elliptical orbit, and a series of ghostly lines indicated their paths. A cloud of lines and dots showed the substantial number of warships, transports and other vessels in the System. The entire display looked similar to the space traffic controllers control boards where they monitored all space traffic.

  Admiral Jarvis examined the representations of the many ships making their way through the System. A number were travelling on routine causes to deliver goods and supplies, but there were many IFF neutral vessels. These ghost ships had one more thing in common; they all started their exodus from the colonies. Some had already started the journey, and others were forming up into small groups and then moving off together. It was a migration on a scale never seen before, and it worried her a great deal. They were leaving for a reason, and she was sure it was not for the benefit of the Confederacy. If it was good for the Union, then it was bad news for her. She sighed quietly and looked back at the expanded group in the conference room. The meeting had been running for only a short time, and already another two more people had been brought into the discussion.

  “Hit them and hit them hard before they can regroup,” said General Rivers as he finished his own briefing.

  Dr Hamis shook his head firmly in disagreement.

  “I do not agree, General. If they want to leave, why not let them go? We have some of the colonies back, so our government is stable on Kronus. Pursuing them may simply encourage them to come back and carry on the fight,” he said with as much passion as he could muster in his voice.

  A scrawny looking man motioned for his turn to speak. He wore a dark suit, and looked suspiciously at the decorated and experienced officers in the room. Dr Hamis nodded to him and indicated for him to start.

  “I agree with the President. As the newly selected Minister of Defence, I have reservations about using our limited forces without an obvious strategic benefit. The newly chosen cabinet is deeply concerned at continuing the war outside of our sphere of influence. While I recognise the great strides Admiral Jarvis has made during Operation Perdition, it is surely time to consolidate. If we pursue either of the options proposed by the Admiral, we risk the very places we have only recently taken. If the Union forces intend on leaving Proxima Centauri, then good for them. We do not want them here, and if they leave, we will save the blood and expense of continuing the war.”

  “You’re joking, Defence Minister?” said an angry looking General Rivers. “So far, we have taken back no major populated worlds. Euryale and Skylla hardly count for the loss of most of Prime, Kerberos and Orthrus as well as the other less populated worlds. We control the least industrious of all the colonies in Proxima Centauri. Don’t forget, our enemy is resourceful and fast. With the colonies of Orthrus and Kerberos, they can rebuild and re-equip faster than we can.”

  The Defence Minister shook his head furiously.

  “Not at all. We have Prometheus, and we have a functioning government. Surely that facility can be used to repair and construct heavy equipment as and when it is needed? Your own reports indicate the unused potential of the site. It is quite clear that strong civilian leadership is required. The military has had a free rein in this crisis since the destruction of the Confederate political system,” said Dr Hamis as he faced off directly towards Admiral Jarvis.

  “There is also the possibility of making use of the Union’s developments in synthetic construction. With the appropriate resources and personnel, we could replace our losses in just a few months without risking a single citizen. That is something I am sure the voting public would like to hear,” he said firmly to Dr Hamis.

  “What?” demanded General Rivers.

  Admiral Jarvis shook her head in disbelief.

  “You are suggesting we reactivate the equipment on Prometheus to construct more Biomechs for battle?”

  “Why not? You are already using them on the front line,” the Minister retorted.

  “The Jötnar are a special case, and I have already made a firm agreement that control of the Biomech facilities on Prometheus will not be used.”

  “An agreement? With whom exactly?” asked Dr Hamis.

  General Rivers brought down his fist in his desk. Though it was out of sight via his hologram, the sound and fury were obvious.

  “You know full well who. The price of Commander Gun and his Jötnar to join us was incorporation into the Confederacy, and the shutting down of the equipment. The machines can only be reconnected and operated again with his permission. He has the data chips with the authorisation codes.”

  “Treason!” cried the Acting President.

  Admiral Jarvis was starting to lose her temper at the lack of foresight being demonstrated by Dr Hamis.

  “You forget your place, Mr President. The Confederate military have restored the office, cabinet and council through blood and sacrifice. The leadership of Kerberos capitulated without a fight, and the politicians throughout Proxima vanished overnight. Without the military, your title, position and ideas will die in hours. The Union, the Zealots and the Biomechs are still here. Just because some have left doesn’t mean we have won. Have you even seen a Biomech?”

  “You are of course forgetting about Alpha Centauri,” said Rear Admiral Churchill, who until now had been silent. The senior officer was now the second in command of the fleet after Admiral Jarvis and considered one of the most aggressive commanders in the fleet.

  “We are not talking years or months. With these troop movements and ships travelling to the Anomaly, we are seeing a substantial change in strategy for the Union. Admiral Jarvis is correct in her assessment that the enemy are making big changes, and we must adapt with them or face the possibility of extinction. ”

  Dr Hamis and the Minister started talking loudly to each other, and to the surprise of the group they started arguing. The three officers looked on in despair before General Rivers tried to break them up.

  “Stop! This is getting us nowhere. It is very simple. We have information on ship and troop movements in Proxima Centauri, and we need to adjust our plans accordingly. Admiral Jarvis has the options available to us for the next month. Anything after that will be futile if we lose the System. This isn’t a war we can come second place in, and the Confederacy and the Echidna Union can never be friends,
never! It is their stated goal to persuade or force every colony and every citizen to join them. We have all seen what this means. You have seen the chambers and processing plants on Prometheus. They want to use our citizens as nothing more than raw materials to create their synthetic creatures.”

  The group quietened for a few seconds, each listening to the stern voice of the General.

  “Now, perhaps we can listen to the Admiral and her suggestions.”

  “Thank you, General. I arranged for this discussion between the senior civilian and military figures to update you on these critical and highly unusual developments. Based on the latest intelligence we know, the enemy has changed tactics, and this is a major turning point in the war. The enemy is leaving their captured territories weak while they send everything they can in one direction. That tells me their destination is more critical to their long term survival than the colonies they have taken.”

  “Perhaps this was their intention all along? Not to control the colonies but to take something from them to use in the Anomaly or on the other side?” suggested Admiral Churchill.

  “That is a possibility, and a very good one. What is important to us right now is what do we do? We have good intelligence on their numbers and movements, so that is enough to form some basic judgements on. The question is what do we do with this intelligence?”

  She zoomed the map in to just the Proxima Centauri sector.

  “We can continue our current course of action, or we can change our strategy to capitalise on this. If we stay, then we move on to our next major target and continue Operation Perdition until every colony is ours. But the enemy has seen what we can do. They might be planning on blocking the Anomaly prior to a final blow against us or even moving their forces to Alpha Centauri. Do we send everything we have to the Anomaly? If so, what is our intention? Do we engage the Union in a single battle and possibly cripple them for the duration of the war? Alternatively, we can ignore the Anomaly and strike the seceded colonies in a fast multi-pronged offensive. This decision concerns where we concentrate our efforts to achieve our objectives. Has our goal changed?” she asked while looking hard at Dr Hamis.

  “Citizens of the Confederacy elected me for one reason, to protect them from the Zealots and their allies. My priority is to keep them safe. After that, the rebuilding of the Confederacy, but not at the expense of the people. In this case my recommendation is to continue with a slow but steady campaign to reclaim the colonies. Let the Union do what they want with the Anomaly. It doesn’t affect us in the slightest.”

  “What about their command and control technology. I understand we have made strides in understanding this?” asked the Minister.

  Admiral Jarvis motioned to her right where Rear Admiral Churchill stood waiting. Like Dr Hamis and General Rivers, he was another holographic model, so designed so that all five could take part in the videoconference. His image shimmered slightly, the only visible way of checking whether he was real or not.

  “The information regarding this transmission from the Anomaly confirms the intelligence we have recovered. When the 13th Fleet was ambushed, a number of our capital ships were taken over and turned against us. We assumed at the time they had been captured or even worse, the crew had mutinied. The enemy controlled ships were able to respond quicker than any of our own vessels and were able to outshoot in both accuracy and speed. We were forced to break and run for the Proxima System or face annihilation.”

  “What is your point, Admiral?” asked the Minister.

  “My point?” he answered, sighing with exasperation. “The signal from the Anomaly matches part of the signature of the unidentified signals we detected prior to the ambush.”

  Dr Hamis stamped his foot, and the gesture gave him the impression of an impertinent child. He still looked angry as well as confused. Turning to face the Admiral, he launched into a vicious tirade.

  “You already knew about these signals and didn’t tell us? What is this incompetence? This information could have saved lives, Admiral! Are you working for the enemy?” he demanded.

  Rear Admiral Churchill was surprised at the outburst, especially the implied attack on his integrity as a naval officer. A quick glance at Admiral Jarvis reassured him that she took the President’s comments no more seriously than he did. He scratched his cheek for a second, giving Dr Hamis the irritation of having to wait for an answer.

  “Well?” he demanded impatiently.

  “Treason you say? Where were you three months ago when the colonies were being overrun? Now, back to things that are more important. Until the transmission from the Anomaly, we had nothing to compare this data to. Prior, during and after the ambush there were terabytes of data collected by our computers, but almost all of it encoded and impossible to break. We have identified the relationship between the signals. That is just as important, perhaps even more so.

  It is in my opinion the time to strike hard and fast. Whatever happens in the Anomaly, we still need to tighten our grip here, in our home System. I vote for an accelerated and committed strike against the remaining colonies. Our intelligence suggests their defensive forces are less than a quarter of what they were a week ago. We can split our forces into three divisions and hit each site hard. It will not be easy, but if we are successful, we will regain our citizens and resources ready to fight the next stage.”

  “We don’t have the manpower to hit four locations at once. If we maintain the blockade on Prime, we could possibly send three forces to strike Kerberos, Agora and Orthrus. This would give us just a few ships in reserve in case of an emergency. This would achieve those objectives suggested by the Minister and ultimately reduce casualties. A drawn out attritional war works to their favour, not ours.” General Rivers added.

  The Minister actually nodded in agreement, noticing the olive branch being offered to him by the General.

  “What of those heading to the Anomaly? Don’t we have forces trapped there?”

  “Yes, that is a problem. The Furious Battlegroup can hold but not forever. At the current speed, the enemy forces leaving Proxima will take nineteen days to reach it. Even at maximum burn, anything we send will take another day on top of that.”

  “Twenty days to the Anomaly? Can’t we get there faster, Admiral?” asked the Minister.

  “No, Minister. We cannot break the laws of physics. The location is a long distance from any of our settled worlds. We can make the trip faster, but the ships need time to slow down, or they will simply move straight past the final destination.”

  “If only we could get some people there first, we could blockade the entrance to the Spacebridge and block the enemy,” said General Rivers.

  Admiral Jarvis appeared to be ignoring them all as she gazed at the map in front of her. She pressed two buttons and it altered the shape to a two–dimensional flat view of the planets and their orbits.

  “What do you see here?” she asked, pointing to some shapes on a wide path and leaving Prime.

  “A number of our ships that have left Prime, and it looks as if they are on course to rendezvous with more vessels from Prometheus.”

  “Exactly. These vessels are the closest to the Anomaly. If they changed course now, they would arrive approximately thirteen hours before the first of the Union ships.”

  “Are you sure about that, Admiral?”

  She looked at him with a look that told him to not question her mathematics ability again.

  “Time is of the essence, gentlemen. I suggest we conduct a risky but potentially war winning operation. It will require speed, timing and a great deal of courage on the part of our brave men and women. If we are successful, we will save lives and guarantee the Confederacy a secure and safe future. I think it is a risk worth taking.”

  Dr Hamis looked to his Defence Minister who gave him a curt nod.

  “Okay, what do you have in mind?”

  Admiral Jarvis smiled and turned back to the map. It expanded to show the area of space around the small group of ships.r />
  “These vessels comprise enough for a modest taskforce. We have the Santa Cruz and Yorkdale as well as a dozen other cruisers and escorts. We merge them with the resupply convoy from Prometheus into a force at this waypoint, and then send them all at maximum speed to the Anomaly. I understand the vessels from Prometheus are carrying equipment and weapons for the Jötnar. The force will reinforce the Furious Battlegroup. Once the area is cleared, they will mine and blockade the Spacebridge. I will follow with an additional cruiser squadron and the Wasp to provide a rearguard and to mop up any surviving ships. I anticipate I can arrive within forty-eight hours of the Yorkdale taskforce.”

  “What about the rest of the fleet?” asked Rear Admiral Churchill.

  “You will liaise with General Rivers and utilise all remaining forces including the fleet, marine and army transports to hit the three most important colonies.”

  “Yes, if we split them up into two divisions based around one marine transport and the army transports, we should have more than enough to conduct two landings at once. What if the Union ships turn back?”

  “That is one of the reasons I am taking Crusader to the Anomaly. It is the most important ship in the fleet, and the Union won’t be able to resist the chance to take her out once and for all. You will take all our forces, including all frontline marine and army units, to Kerberos, Agora and Orthrus. Use everything and the reserves to do this. By the time the enemy reaches the Anomaly, we should have wrested control of our main colonies back from them.”

  “Won’t that spread our forces thinly here?” asked General Rivers.

  “We are already thin. Keep your forces in no more than two divisions and concentrate your force. I suggest you target two locations and hit them with everything you have. Once secure, regroup and then hit the third and final colony. Contact Commander Anderson on Prometheus, and arrange for him to divert any frigates or newly constructed hardware to assist you.”