The Advisor
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I've been advised I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: Shortly after Battle Group Castle.
"Actually, it does, Colonel. That's the second part of the message for you. Since the Han Worlds are in such disarray, we're upping the ante, so to speak, on colonies such as Saint George. There's a transport about a week behind my X-boat with an expeditionary Royal Aerospace Force wing aboard. It has two squadrons of some 36 A 57 Rooks, which is an attack aerospace craft and a similar number of F 27 Firefly fighter bomber craft. They also have a flight of recon ships and one of electronic warfare ships, both based on the Firefly, and about six of each and some refuelers and transports. I'm sure there'll be more coming to you, but no decision had been made when I left."
The next eight days were very busy ones for everyone. One thing that Saint George was not ready for was an influx of high-performance aerospace ships. There were only two airports in the entire colony that could handle those ships, so they all were very busy trying to see what airports could be upgraded and what difficulties were in the way.
On the eighth day, HMS Drake and HMS Hardy, fast transports arrived in system escorted by the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter and four destroyers. The first aerospace craft to land was piloted by Colonel Gibson, the wing commander.
Gibson jumped out of his cockpit and ran over to Rick, came to attention and saluted.
"Colonel Guy Gibson reporting, sir."
Castle returned the salute.
"No need to be so formal, we're both colonels, after all."
Gibson smiled.
"In that case I am the first to give you the news, Major General Castle, sir. You've been given a temporary promotion to major general and are in command of all UK forces on the planet, except for the Space Navy and they're technically not on the planet, are they?"
Castle was shocked.
"A major general. That's highly unusual for a mercenary."
"I suppose you can take it up with Sir James Pilkington if you wish, sir. By the way, he sent you some major general's insignia." Gibson held out two shoulder boards with a crossed baton and saber under a stylized star. "Congratulations, sir. I think you should ask your wife to put your new insignia on."
"I'll do that." Rick said with a smile.
"I'll need to get my unit down, sir and then I'll brief you. I understand you were given some idea of what we'd be bringing, but there are some changes. I managed to talk the MOD into giving me an Aerospace Rescue Squadron. They fly a well-armed and fast vertical take-off and landing aircraft. Can't make orbit, but it doesn't need to. And I have an airfield engineering group to help set up some new airfields for you."
"And I understand that your battle group will be headed this way with a number of other mercenary units, but nothing was set when I left the UK."
Castle nodded, still stunned at being a general.
"Let me know when you're ready to brief me, Colonel."
They saluted and Gibson went off.
A small vehicle pulled up in front of Castle, driven by Sergeant Major Saava.
"Need a ride, sir?"
"Back to the war room. Kate needs to see this." He held out his new insignia.
"They made you a major general, sir?"
"That they did. I just hope I can go from commanding an oversized battalion to commanding a large ground and aerospace force."
"You did all right with a large unit before, sir, like on Santa Cruz. And you have your wife to help you."
Castle laughed.
"That I do, Sergeant Major. That I do."
Kate was stunned that her husband was now a general and cried as she put his new rank insignia on but gave him a burning congratulatory kiss afterwards.
Later that day, Castle was called before Prime Minister Douglas of Saint George. Also, there was Admiral Paredes, and to Castle's surprise, Kate and Sergeant Saava.
"General Castle, we understand that you've been promoted to major general and put in charge of all of the UK's forces on the planet Edo."
"That's correct, sir. I had been meaning to get together with Admiral Paredes to coordinate our activities, and I will just as soon as…"
"There's no need for that, General. I've been talking with the admiral, and he agrees that the forces of Saint George should also be put under your command. Admiral Paredes has no combat experience aside from a run in with some smugglers decades ago, and he feels that a divided chain of command could be disastrous. Congratulations, you are now also a major general in the service of Saint George."
Kate stepped forward and after a bit of discussion, put his new rank insignia on the button of his cammie shirt where it could be seen as well as his UK insignia.
He appreciated the kiss he got from her more.
It was two days before Colonel Gibson was ready to brief Castle, his staff and Admiral Paredes and his staff.
"We've examined the two main airports here, the one at Saint George City itself and the one over at Grand Island. They're fine. All we've had to do is set up our support units and that's ninety percent done. We plan to start sending our photo recon birds and electronic warfare birds to get a look at the enemy. We've reviewed the intel from your satellites and don't expect to find anything we don't expect, but we'll look anyway."
Colonel Gibson pointed at a map. A red dot appeared in the north.
"We do want another main air base in the north. There's a pretty good field at a place called Saint Simon. I've sent some of my engineers to update it, lengthen the runway and put in more hardstands, as well as fuel and ammo storage areas."
He tapped the map and a dozen red dots appeared.
"The VTOL rescue birds don't need much in the way of an airbase, since they can take off and land vertically, so there are a dozen existing airports near the continent of Ambrosia they can use. We'll move them around based on where we're flying."
"The bad news is we don't know how much damage we can do to our enemies right now. A lot of the little that they had in the way of industries was destroyed by you already. Most of their war industries are in small factories. Your four enemies like to make cheap, simple submachine guns in factories no bigger than an average house back home. Tracking them down and taking them out isn't going to be easy since they're located in towns right next to stores, schools, and little factories making civilian goods."
"Colonel," Castle said, "we do not want any kind of carpet bombing here. If possible, we'd like those people to be at least neutral towards us even if we can't make them our friends."
"I had no intention of doing that, sir. And once they start sending their armies south, we'll really unload on them."
Since most of the officers present knew little about the UK's Royal Aerospace Force, Gibson described its organization and explained the capabilities of his various aerospace craft.
Then the briefing was over.
Two days later, the first flights over Ambrosia began. Only a few radar and lidar stations were noted and they were simple civilian air traffic control stations that would be easy to jam. A total of five missiles were fired at the ships and all ran out of fuel well before they got anywhere near the ships.
Two days after that, they lost their first aerospace craft.
Sunset Two One, a photo recon version of the F 27 Firefly, had had a very slight damage to a rotor blade on a compressor. This damage had not been caught during routine maintenance. The blade weakened and a part of the blade, not as large as a person's thumbnail, broke off and went flying. Unluckily, it damaged a fuel line and the line began leaking hydrogen. A soon as the hydrogen hit the hot engine, a fire started.
Sunset Two One was being escorted by and F 27 fighter, Sunset Two Two, whose pilot saw smoke and them flames.
"Sunset Two One you're on fire. Punch out. Punch out!"
Captain Jimmy Grant duly ejected some seconds before his ship exploded over Free Land. His parachute deployed and he floated to the ground. Everyone on the ground for many miles had seen and heard the explosion and then the parachute and the pilot headed for the ground.
Sunset Two Two called in the loss and its location, to the Aerospace Rescue Squadron. They dispatched the nearest rescue bird, an HH 14 Tempest while Sunset Two Two orbited over Captain Grant. He called Grant on the emergency rescue frequency.
In the meantime, a division of four F 27 fighter bombers took off to cover the rescue.
"You okay down there, Sunset Two One?"
"Sure, why wouldn't I be?" Grant answered sarcastically.
"Just checking."
"Two Two, I see a dust cloud headed my way off to the west."
"Okay, good buddy. You just hang in there and I'll take a look see."
Two Two put his nose down and dove towards the oncoming dust cloud. The cloud resolved itself into a pair of small trucks filled with armed men. Two Two went over them at Mach 2 about a hundred and fifty feet up. The sonic boom knocked most of the men out of the truck and the rest ran for it. Two Two cranked his ship around and hosed the two now empty trucks with his cannon, reducing them to scrap.
He then headed back to where Grant was.
"You still okay down there?"
"Couldn't be happier. You wanna eject and join me?" More sarcasm.
"Then who'd watch over your ass?"
"Good point."
Another voice broke in over the radio.
"Sunset Two Two, this is Bandsaw Five One. We have your IFF squawking and have you on radar. You're over Sunset Two One?"
"Sure am. I just had to smoke a couple of trucks headed his way, so you may just get a little bit of work. Is Shadow inbound?"
Shadow was the radio call sign for the rescue birds.
"Affirmative. They're about twenty minutes out."
Another voice broke in.
"Bandsaw Five One, I can see vehicles headed ours. Almost due south of here."
"Okay, I'll take Bandsaw Five Four and go discourage them."
The two craft headed south and dove. The vehicles, sensibly, headed into the woods. The two Bandsaws flew over the woods above the height that any known enemy missiles could hit them.
"Did you see anything?" Bandsaw Five One asked his wingman.
"Negative. They headed for the woods too fast. I've got three hot spots down there on my infrared, though. Must be them."
"So, they could be troops or just some farmers out for a ride?"
"No way to tell." Bandsaw Five Four replied.
"As long as they stay here, there's no problem for Sunset Two One. And we don't want to shoot up a bunch of dumb ass civilians."
"Hey!" Bandsaw Five Four said. "I can see a culvert over a dried up stream bed. It's between the vehicles and Sunset Two One. We knock it down, they can't get to him."
"Okay. You can do the honors since you saw it."
Bandsaw Five Four selected his smallest guided bomb, aimed and fired. Seconds later the culvert was blown up.
The two craft headed back to join the others.
"Bandsaw Five One this is Shadow Three One. You have a passenger for us?"
"We do, Shadow Three One. Sunset Two One says his area is cold and we have no unfriendlies nearby. Go get him."
Shadow Three One circled the waving pilot and landed. Two commandoes and a medic ran towards the pilot.
"Your name and rank, sir?" Asked the senior commando.
Pilots never used their names and ranks in the air, so rescue personnel made sure they had the right person and not an enemy who'd taken a real pilot's clothing and equipment.
"James Simcoe Grant, Captain."
"You okay, sir?" Asked the medic.
"Tip top. Now can we get the hell out of here?"
They ran back to the rescue bird and boarded. The ship's jet engines roared and lifted the ship back into the air, then it moved slowly forward and began to rise. Soon it was on the way back to base.
Sunset Two Two radioed them.
"When you get back to Saint George Air Base, come to the O Club. We'll buy you a drink or two."
"Roger that, Sunset Two Two."
TBC