Back Home – The Dual War
by Warringer
Chapter 50
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Tenchi once again stood in the back of Dark Knights Command Center, looking directly at a large holographic display that showed all information he needed. Lady Seto, her advisors, Battle Leader Hak'ey and General G'Kot were also standing around the display, observing Tenchi. G'Kot had desired to see how the Earth fleet would fight and told about that during the planning session for 'Operation Pearl Harbor', as they had aptly called it.
Three smaller holograms in the periphery of the large main hologram showed the data from three Beholders in the three systems that had been chosen for the diversion attacks with Narn fleets. Those systems had been chosen because the number of ships in those systems was low and because of that the Doranians would be forced to draw ships from other systems to strengthen the defense of the attacked systems.
G'Kot was wearing an evil smile for everyone to see, while Hak'ey and Seto wore expressionless masks. Tenchi's face on the other side was showing ahis determination to make the operation going according to the plan.
At this moment, the fleet was keeping in jumpspace directly next to the impression Kotoks gravitation was creating in jumpspace, only the laser TacNet was shooting communication between the ships of 1st Expeditionary Fleet.
"Let's do this," Tenchi finally said." Status of the fleet?"
"Every ship signal ready."
Tenchi nodded.
"Order to all ships. Weapons and shields ready. Release Starfuries and prepare for return into normal space."
"All ships signal orders received."
Again Tenchi nodded and a small hologram showed how the Starfuries began to form up their formations in front of the fleet. He glanced back to the display that showed the data of the Beholder in the Kotok system and the space around the planet of Kotok. The red objects in the display were the Doranian ships currently in system, while six blue cloud were the representations of space where the jump points of the fleet would form.
"Jump on my signal," Tenchi said and concentrated on the display, waiting for the Doranian fleet to pass through the blue coulds.
"Executer jump," he ordered as the symbols of the Doranian Dreadnoughts passed through the coulds.
Six jump point generators, tore into the barrier between normal space and hump space, creating pin point holes in the barrier before widening them to full fledged jump points. In normal space the forming jump points diffused the quantum matrix of space for a short time, enough to heavily damage and destroy six of ten Doranian Dreadnoughts, while damaging the other four together with half of the Doranian Cruisers.
Starfuries were the first to leave the jump points, making best pace towards the Doranian orbitals, closely followed by the GDI ships.
"Commerce Jamming," was Tenchi's next order and the entire system disappeared behind a thick curtain of heavy electromagnetic white noise.
Tenchi looked at this display and noted with a slight smile that the fleet was dealing with the remaining Doranian Cruisers, before taking out the ships damaged by the jump points. Meanwhile the Starfuries were diving towards the Doranian orbitals, straving the few defense satellites and destroying several of them, like they had done over Rustoner, several month before.
"If all battles would be so easy," Tenchi said with a sigh." Take the shields of those orbitals down and get their shield emitters."
On Tenchi's order the weapons of the fleet concentrated on the orbitals quickly striping the them of their shields, allowing the Starfuries to attack their shield emitters.
"Recall the 'furies and deliver the packages to the orbitals."
Special missiles detached from the wings of several Thunderbolts, as they made best speed back towards their mother ships. The missiles came close rand closer to the orbitals before detonating in deadly showers of neutron radiation. They didn't destroy the orbitals, but rather killed any life aboard.
Tenchi ignored the stares of Seto, her advisors and Hakey at the fact that, while the missiles blew up in a spectacular display, they hadn't destroyed the orbitals.
"Signal to the fleet to plant our surprises. Tactical, tie in with Admiral Lobov and Fearless for synchronizing the orbital bombardment according to the pre-planned pattern."
While the Vorlock, one Vigilante and one Lupo began to use their Particle Cannons and spinal lasers to destroy all and any ground installations of the Doranians in surgical pin point strikes and with minimal losses of civilian lives, the rest of the fleet moved to plant mines and Ferron defense satellites all around the planet.
Several teams of explosive experts flew shuttles towards the orbitals, planting Narn high yield nukes to the surface and setting them up with the right sensors.
"Bombardment pattern finished, fleet signals that all mines are planted and that the orbitals are prepared."
Tenchi nodded and looked on the small watch in the upper corner of the hologram.
"Half an hour," he noted dryly." All ships gather for jump back into jump space."
Than he showed an evil grin.
"I want to see our surprises to blow up in the faces of the Doranians."
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"So they are actually trying," Admiral Dubinin noted dryly as he looked at the large holographic display in the center of the large Command Center of Shabazza.
The display was currently showing a number of slipstream wakes coming through the Corian Expanse from Narn space towards Earth. The Eye of the Beholder Network was once again showing its worth. With the size of the Expanse around them and the network, it was possible to get a good amount of early warning for enemy attacks. However it worked only for certain races, where the frequency the slipstream worked on was known, like the Doranians and the own drive.
"It would seem that way, sir," Seiler said." The Nomads just entered slipstream to relocate to Epsilon Eridani."
Dubinin nodded. One civilian problem less to deal with. Now only military ships remained in orbit. Than he grinned slightly. Now it was just Home Guard, six GODs, 45 Ferron Planetary Defense Network Satellites, twenty Ghostrider Pods and nineteen Solar Trees.
"Do we have a estimation about fleet strength?" he asked.
"No, sir," Seiler answered." They are keeping formation and as such the slipstream wakes are interacting and prevent an estimation of their strength. And we still go through the data from the Eyes in Narn territory."
"ETA?"
"About ten minutes."
Dubinin nodded again.
"Prepare everything for wide band jamming and electronic warfare."
Little did Dubinin know that he and the raid on Kotok would make the galaxy enter a new age of interstellar warfare with the introduction of jamming from Earth into space.
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Jeffrey Stiles grinned as he looked down at the dockyards of Liverpool.
There she was in all he red and rather ugly glory. But she still was something many prospectors and miner of Great Britain wanted to be crew members of. But why would anyone blame them for this. In a way it was a dream, a funny dream, but a dream nonetheless.
He snorted as the helicopter passed the port side of the large construction that lay in down on the ground. She would be the first privately owned ship in space, even if she didn't have a slipstream drive, but as a mining vessel, she would just go to the belt or out into the outer system to look for promising place to begin mining. And they would launch it next month.
Than he laughed as the large logo of the Jupiter Mining Company came into view, wondering how much they had payed BBC for using that name, combined with the name of the ugly red beauty below, the Red Dwarf.
"What next," he wondered out loud." Will someone build a TRADIS?"
In Geneva a redheaded scientist sneezed.
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"If you have saved another Shin'bi," Minako of the Yokokaze clan asked and gave Petersen and von Bismark a short glare," why didn't you bring him or her with you?"
Petersen and Bismark winced. They were currently sitting in one of the briefing rooms of Fukumishisan, the two humans, Haruka and the other rescued Shin'bi on one side of a long table, with the commanders of the station on the other.
"He didn't want to return home in his current state," Petersen finally answered after breathing in deep." Another reason is a life debt he is owing to one of the United States SEALs."
Rei of the Hinoke clan, the resident telephat of the station narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked at Petersen.
"What do you mean with his 'current state'."
"Doranians," Von Bismark spat out as if that would explain everything." He ended up in the hands of a sadistic 'owner', who saw him as personal guinea pig for several bionic experiments. Like removing most of his inner organs and tying him into the life support system of an armored suit. Or using a primitive AI to override his control over his body."
The Shin'bi, even those who knew about it, looked horrified, while the crew members of the station stared at Bismark.
"He ended up being some sort of organic battle robot for that Doranian," Petersen continued." Master Chief O'Neill managed to subdue him during an operation on Rustoner. He was brought back to the operation base where they managed to deactivate the AI. Professor Habuki offered him to repair the damage don to him, including cloned organs, but he refused, saying that he would not take the offer until his vengeance is complete and his life debt payed off."
There was a silence in the room and after some moments Rei nodded into Minako's direction.
"I see... Could you at least tell us his name and clan? That way we can inform his clan about his werabouts."
"Sogunryuu of the Yokokaze clan," Petersen answered and Minako all but froze up completely.
"I see..." she finally said and cold hatred burned in Minako's eyes.
Bismark who had learned quite a lot about Shin'bi body language, knew that this hated wasn't directed at him, Petersen or any other in the room. But rather against the Doranians.
"I take it that you know him," he asked after a moment.
"He is my brother."
"Ach du Scheisse..." was Petersens reply.
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Dubinin smiled. It wasn't a nice smile.
"Status?"
"T minus 50 seconds to projected slipstream event."
He nodded and turned towards the holographic display that hung behind him. The entire Home Guard, as well as the defense satellites had been drawn together to fight against the Doranian fleet, that was projected to leave slipstream in a red clouded area of space halfway between lunar orbit and Earth.
He looked trough the hologram and at Ryoko, who was currently in the command center to observe and get into the fray should the Doranians bring more ships that Home Guard could handle.
Of cause Dubinin and the rest of the Command Center had noted her new state of dress, namely that of a female 'golden age of piracy' outfit that seemed to be straight from those cheesy sixties and seventies pirate movies, with a Stars and Stripes bandanna around her neck. And that there was Ryo-Ohki who wore the same around her neck.
No one had asked, since just about everyone knew about her 'Letter of Marque and Reprisal', that made her the first US supported Privateer of the 21st century. Scufflebutt said that she was currently looking for a crew, that Ryan would give her a contact officer who used to be with the CIA and some sort of special permit that were more than the 'simple' 'Letter of Marque and Reprisal'.
"T minus 30 seconds."
Dubinin licked his lips and his glance went once again to the status display inside the hologram. He chuckled a little. The display itself was programmed by a human software company, which just happened to be Relic Entertainment, and as such, the display looked very much like the tactical display of Relics latest game 'Homeworld 2'. The game also happened to be used in several academies for training purposes, as far as he knew, or at least a modification of the game.
He looked at the icons of the seven Taskforces. Task Force 1 was consisting only of the Ancient Battleships. Task Forces 2 through 5 were one Pegasus and two Monsoon gunboats each, while Task Force 6 were the Vigilante and two Lupos. Task Force 7 finally were the Monsoon Bombers and four AWACS.
"10... 9... 8... Slipstream event!"
Dubinin raised an eyebrow. They were about eight seconds early, but still within the interpolated area of appearance.
Icons for Doranian ships began to appear on the display as the Beholders in trans-lunar orbit measured the fleet and the numbers began to climb, stopping at fifty Dreadnoughts, three hundred Cruisers and thirty Transports.
Dubinin straightened as the battle began with its pre-planned choreography. Part of the main objective was to take out the Transports ASAP, to prevent another LA, Sao Paolo or Pretoria. He had to suppress a slight chuckle as glowing white lines appeared between the six GODs and six of the Transports for a moment, before the virtual Transports blew up in a small virtual fireball.
Twenty small icons in trans-lunar orbit blinked up and smaller icons began to streak towards the Doranian fleet, indicating that the Ghostrider Pods had just launched their KKVs. They were sorely targeted on the Dreadnoughts, that meant that two KKVs would hit one Dreadnought in about one minute.
The battle hadn't even begun, nor had the Doranians moved as the next six Transports were blown up by the GODs.
Dubinin shook his head. The Doranians hadn't reacted as he thought they would, as in they were just now reacting, as the third GOD salvo took out another six Transports.
Meanwhile, Home Guard was moving to intercept the Doranian fleet. Moving in a wall shaped formation, TF 1 accelerated to thrust directly into the center of the Doranian fleet and would hit the loose Doranians formation like a sledge hammer, concentrating to reduce the Dreadnoughts shield strength for the KKVs.
TF 2 through 5 flanked the Doranians from left, right, above and below, while TF 6 was coming from behind. To make it even more interesting TF 7 would make bombing runs straight through the fleet, the Bombers having each loaded about five thousand tons of ordinaince. Nukes raging from 10kt to 500kt as well as several American MOABs, but mostly nukes, each fitted with a small booster stage to get them into the right direction.
GDI had learned from the nearly defeat several month ago.
The last GOD salvo destroyed the remaining transports and to Dubinin it looked like the Doranians were loosing some of their will to fight.
"Notify Nathan to activate the Aagenfelt Barrier System."
Dubinin grinned. The Aagenfelt Barrier System was a very interesting piece of technology. It suppressed the use of the slipstream drive and could force ships out of slipstream if they moved into the sphere of influence of the Barrier. Washuu had been very interested in that system as even she hadn't been able to develop something similar, yet anyway. Even Nathan had to confess that it was a system that was developed very shortly before the war that wiped out the Ancients and that he hadn't been able to finish it before the fall of Sol.
"Response from Nathan, Aagenfelt Barrier is online."
Dubinin nodded.
"Lets herd the cat to the Defense Satellites."