It was there, in the chaos and confusion of the front-line zone, that the elderly volunteer was found, succumbing to the wave of patriotic enthusiasm, caused by the hysteria in the media. He arrived from the central worlds of the Empire to help the authorities of the system to rescue people trapped in ruins and to rebuild destroyed cities and military facilities. It was quite reasonable, by the way, and plausible.
But Dr. Silk did not hold back, he could not keep away unnoticed, engaged in some low-key debris removal, when millions of affected civilians were in urgent need of medical care, and medical personnel and equipment were woefully lacking. The doctor remembered his younger years, when as a field medic he used to pull guys and girls back from the brink of death, those, who had been cut with plasma cutters from the warped armored compartments of the walking tanks after the battle.
The doctor opened himself up. He was still listed as Colweg, a service systems engineer, but the medical knowledge and experience of an unremarkable volunteer suddenly surfaced. He explained that he gained this knowledge while maintaining medical equipment, but it nevertheless drew the attention of the local security officials and, through them, of the General Las agent. After that, the issue of identifying the missing doctor was no longer a problem, and now Las knew exactly where to look for Silk, but it looked like the head of the Ministry of Defence security was too late after all.
A general toads offensive a real one, not that invented by Shuns journalists struck the Empires peripheral systems entirely unexpectedly. The online clamor, extinguished by the assurances of the new acting commander-in-chief, has just subsided. There was even talk of a large-scale counterstrike by Admiral Diers staff, which again required a mobilization of all forces and reserves. But the toads were unwilling to play along with these plans. A simultaneous attack on seven star systems shocked the Empires fleet and army. Kappa Giyan had not yet been attacked, but Las was well aware that if this continued, its turn would come very soon.
Major Tealc, said the General into his communicator, Get my ship ready for takeoff immediately. Were going into the front zone, so provide an escort.
Three destroyers? asked the Major.
No, Las hesitated for a second, considering the situation, add an escort cruiser to them.
It was a mess around the toads-attacked systems and nearby stars. The Empires best warships, which over the past month had been gradually concentrating in initial positions for Admiral Diers planned spectacular counteroffensive, were now being rushed to battle sites to plug more and more holes in the defenses. The hyperportal network could not cope with the enormous flow of ships and cargo, making battleships and aircraft carriers wait for hours for their turn to make a jump. Those hyperportals whose coordinates the toads scouts managed to determine before the strike were attacked and were either destroyed or severely damaged, and all standby mobile portals have already been engaged by the fleet in the most critical areas.
It was not for nothing that the toads had been relatively quiet for almost three months, allowing Dier and those behind him to weave their intra-imperial plots in relative comfort, but, unlike the imperial officials, they were not engaged in simulation of ceaseless activity, but were actually preparing a powerful strike.
Despite General Lass high status, his small squadron found it very difficult to get into the Kappa Giyan system. The stationary hypergate emplaced in the system were jammed for days ahead with transports of urgent military supplies and the wounded rescued from the ruins of cities. Of the three backup portals placed one jump away from the system, two were severely damaged after toads attacks, and the third portal was completely unable to cope with the endless stream of ships seeking to enter or leave the system.
Do you have any idea who youre talking to, Colonel? Las could hardly contain his emotions, looking at the image of the tired and frenzied officer in the uniform of the military transport service, Im the head of the Ministry of Defense Security Department! And you claim you cant find a slot in the transfer schedule for my ships?!
I can, General, answered the Colonel with utter hopelessness in his voice, but not before 12 hours. I have shipments with «super urgent» status waiting in line for hours. And this includes stasis pods with women and children with complex injuries that can no longer be helped here. People die every minute on these transports without any help. What can I do? Make them wait any longer?
Las gritted his teeth. He did not know how to explain to the Colonel, who was certainly right in his own way, that by rescuing the inhabitants of Kappa Giyan, he was jeopardizing the operation on the outcome of which the lives of billions of the Empires inhabitants might depend.
All right, Colonel, the General finally made up his mind, Theres no need to change the schedule. Put my squadron in line to jump in 12 hours, all but one ship. My medium recon ship will fit in the hold of the evacuation transport going into the system. Give me the coordinates of the portal where they jump to you, and alert the commander of the next ship in line that hes going to Kappa Giyan with the cargo.
Las was taking a risk. He was well aware that his escort would not be able to join him for at least 15 hours. Anything could have happened in that time, from an invasion of the toads in the system to the appearance of heavily armed rivals from the Imperial security service. In either case, having warships behind him wouldnt hurt the General, to say the least, but Las saw no other options.
* * *
The star whose planetary system we chose as the first test object of attack, or rather, reconnaissance-in-force, did not have its own name in the Federation catalog. It was a classic yellow dwarf, which received an unofficial name Star G from one of the analysts, whether by the first letter G in the name of its spectral class, or maybe by the first letter in some other word, the author did not specify.
The beginning of the operation followed a pattern that we had already worked out many times. The escorted mobile transport ring segments arrived in the vicinity of the attacked system and docked. This time, given the scant information about the enemy, I decided to take precautions and chose a point to set up the portal two linear jumps away from the star.
15 Black Dragons, a hundred «Invisibles», 24 huge quarg aircraft carriers, and a light force of two dozen destroyers and an entire squadron of recon ships under the command of Rear Admiral Yoon Gao came through the hypergate and fell into a marching formation, preparing to accelerate to make two successive jumps to the systems borders. This time I did not plan for long combat operations and capture of planets, so the supply transports and landing ships have remained on the bases.
We came out of the jump in the outer asteroid belt. The system met us with a complete lack of any reaction to the appearance of an impressive enemy fleet on its outskirts. And it was despite the fact that a few days ago our reconnaissance probes could not even get close to its borders. There was only one conclusion: they were waiting for us. It was unpleasant to realize this fact, but at least it became clear that we were not wrong about one thing: the toads did not have enough warships to directly confront our squadron in open space.
Commander, Sir, the system is saturated with industrial and mining infrastructure, the senior analyst reported looking at his screen, but there is no transport fleet activity typical of such systems. There is a high probability that the enemy detected us at a distance of one jump from the system and had time to evacuate the shipyards and factories. It is also possible that we were discovered even earlier, but this means that the toads know the coordinates of the transport ring.
Pass the order to Commander Somov to undock the portal and jump immediately, ordered I, knowing that we could not afford to lose the opportunity to quickly return to the Federation space. The transport ring, of course, still had its guard ships, but I didnt want to take any chances anyway.
The tactical projection was gradually replenished with scan data, but compared to the usual picture seen when entering an enemy star system, the degree of detail of the picture left a lot to be desired. Our scanners were clearly countered by something very powerful, far superior to our scanning and electronic warfare systems.
Rear Admiral Yoon Gao, what measures have been taken to scout enemy defense systems?
Unmanned probes have been sent to the three central planets, Commander, Sir. They are escorted at some distance by five medium recon ships and three Ghost-class destroyers, so the toads dont try to shoot the probes down with some little thing like patrol corvettes. With their help, they used to prevent us from even approaching the boundaries of the system.
The Ghosts dont have enough firepower, Rear Admiral. Even an attack by two or three enemy corvettes could be a problem for them.
Theres no counteraction so far, Fleet Admiral, Sir," objected Yoon Gao, "and sending Black Dragons to cover the probes
I agree," I nodded, "its a completely unnecessary risk.
Meanwhile, the picture was beginning to become clearer. As the distance to the enemy decreased, the probe scanners began transmitting more and more detailed information to the squadron ships.
How many of them are there said Admiral Fulton in amazement as the tactical projection displayed the largest sites of the orbital defense of the fourth planet.
I understood the Admiral well. This was really the first time we saw anything like this. Even Earth was protected by only 15 orbital fortresses, and it was thought that this number was even excessive. There was something unimaginable going on here. A dense network of hundreds of large marks surrounded the planet in a sphere. It was not yet possible to examine these sites in detail, but their size unambiguously indicated that they were not analogues of relatively weak rocket and artillery monitors, with which we dealt at Luyten-5, but full-fledged orbital fortresses.
Rear Admiral, continue reconnaissance of the fourth planets defense system, and assign several groups to search for a hyperportal, I ordered Yoon Gao, According to the prisoners statements, it should be in this system, and somewhere near the boundaries of the stars zone of influence, but so far our scanners dont see it.
Doin it, Yoon nodded and disappeared from the channel, switching to giving orders to his subordinates.
I did not like what I saw. I had no doubt that my squadron was no match against the network of orbital fortresses of the toads, but to turn around and fly away would be unforgivably stupid. In order to come back here later for a real assault, we needed to understand what the enemys defenses were capable of. Based on what we saw in the battle of the Delta Trianguli, the range of our drone torpedoes was longer than that of the toads guns, but weve never dealt with their orbital fortresses before, so I couldnt say anything with certainty.
The destroyers accompanying the reconnaissance probes approached the orbital fortresses within torpedo launching distance. They had no torpedo weapons on board, but the enemy could not know that, and I hoped that if the toads had something more long-range than the main batteries of their battleships, they would use it. However, our provocation was not successful, the fortresses remained silent.
«Invisibles» One through 30, prepare to accelerate towards the fourth planet. Commander Klitch, I addressed to the squadron commander of the quargs, who had miraculously survived in the melted wreckage of his flagship at the Battle of Delta Trianguli, Assign five of your aircraft carriers to join up with the «Invisibles».
Doin it.
Seven destroyers from the first division and battleship Denver, escort the drone torpedo carriers to the attack line and cover their retreat after the salvo. The squadrons task is a torpedo strike on three enemy orbital fortresses the 75th through the 77th.
The fleet split up. The main force remained behind the orbit of the sixth planet, without entering the stars zone of influence, and one Black Dragon and seven destroyers began approaching the toads planet, escorting the Invisibles and aircraft carriers. The enemy was bound to react to such a threat, of that I had no doubt.
We have never been able to see in detail what the orbital fortresses of the toads are. Even at maximum proximity to them, probe scanners gave only a fuzzy, blurry picture. But at least we could see the fortresses, and the surface of the planet was not scanned in any way.
The fortresses combine their camouflage fields into a common veil through which our scanners are unable to penetrate, reported Yoon Gao, Im afraid that when it comes to the assault, the force fields will also form a single spherical shield over the planet.
If things are so bad, then why did some captive toads agree to work for us in exchange for promises of high positions in the occupation administration after our victory? So they dont really believe in the indestructibility of this defense, answered Fulton with a doubt in his voice, scrutinizing the image on the screen.
Well know everything soon enough, Officers, Sirs, I replied as I watched the «Invisibles» and aircraft carriers approach the torpedo launching line, If the toads are able to surprise us with something, it will happen now.
A wave of ripples went through the image on the projection screen. For a fraction of a second it blurred and then became clear again. The eight orbital fortresses closest to the ships approaching the opening fire line were enveloped in purple protuberances, and after ten seconds a blob of energy resembling a small but brightly flaring artificial sun formed above each of them. The envelopes of the just-born luminaries, reaching an unbearable brightness, burst and fell in themselves, collapsing into dots, and from these points to the seven destroyers and the Black Dragon rushed lightnings of absolute darkness, slightly illuminated in some places by a dark gray, making them distinguishable against the blackness of space.
The destroyers disappeared in bright flashes. No debris, no internal explosions, nothing. Just a spherical wave of scattering photons. Denver was a little luckier, although I couldnt really call it luck. The battleships protective field flared up and instantly went out. It was able to absorb some of the energy of the enemy salvo, but not all of it. The volley of toads could not completely destroy this Black Dragon-class battleship, but what was left of it could no longer be called a warship. A pathetic melted fragment barely a quarter of its original size remained of the once formidable fighting machine.