Setting the Battlefield
track: mission briefing
The crew murmurs slightly as Captain Grimrock calls my name. As I walk to the front of the briefing room, the murmuring falls away, leaving behind a disciplined silence. What a change it is from the first time I addressed them nearly a month ago. Despite their attention, most of them seem nervous. That's a given, seeing as we turned and left the Fifth Fleet behind almost immediately after telling them where we were going and why.
I even managed to trick Kyrie onto the Spirit of Adventure before we did. She was kicking at the bulwark doors as I left, furious that I'd leave her behind. I'll probably pay her a terrible price with my body later on should I survive this... but this operation is far, far too risky for her to participate in.
“So here we are again. Every time I stand up here it seems that we're about to do something terribly reckless.” I joke. There are only a few laughs and a couple of cheers, but I can see a good number of them have begun to relax. Taking Grimrock's lesson to heart, I've decided to at least pretend to be a confident leader, even though I'm just a lowly ensign. I put all my doubts away and prepare to speak.
“There's a good chance we'll all be court-martialed if we make it out alive,” grunts Grimrock, instantly putting all of them back in a tense mood.
“Captain.” I groan.
“So we don't just have to make it out alive, we have to make it out as big damn heroes, you space maggots! Let's see any court try us then!” he roars, and the crew returns it enthusiastically with a roar of their own.
“Ensign, if you would please start the briefing while everyone's excited, that would be perfect.” he gestures with a grin.
Well, now that he's gotten them all pumped up... I nod and begin my presentation. A hologram of the Earth appears, the solar panels forming a clear ring around the equator. “Yua, bring up everything I need.”
“Right on it, Master. Everything you need, coming right up.”
Fleet details, distances, current position of the colony and its trajectory, our location – all of this appear as red squares, blinking close to the Earth. The hologram zooms in closer to the colony and its escort.
“I'm sure some of you have already heard of this, but we suspect that the enemy plans to drop the Lothal on Earth. According to its trajectory and calculated position, the colony will land on Ankida should the drop go ahead as scheduled.” There are grim nods here and there, and looks of shock all around. “What the fuck!?” shouted Jean. “That's fucked up, man! Why'd they do want to do that?”
“Let's not get into the politics of it right now,” I say firmly, and bring up the intelligence we have on the escorting fleet. “First, I want to talk about the odds we're going up against.”
“The enemy capital ship presence seems to be ten Mahakarya cruisers, eighteen Doge cruisers, and two Gynoid battleships. This fleet constitutes a full half of their current strength in the Earth-Moon sphere. Interestingly, their CF contingent appears to be under-strength; there are only about fifty CFs that Imperial scouts managed to observe, consisting of Centeotls and Vizala IIs. A fleet of this size could possibly carry up to 200 CFs.”
“Could they be hiding those missing CFs somewhere?” comments Naim.
“It is a possibility,” I agree. “There is another explanation for this, though. The UNS and Indus appear to be bulking up the rest of their forces near the Moon, preparing to take Sin's Eye. The CFs contingents there are over-strength in numbers coinciding with this operation's under-strength contingent. I think we can likely rule out any surprises on that part. This does not mean, however, it is going to be a cake-walk.”
I bring up a picture of a few enemy combat frames.
“We expect that the Ghostlot and the White Fangs are going to be present. We've managed to evade them thus far, but that will no longer be the case. Furthermore, intelligence indicates that the Scarlet Lightning will also be participating in this operation.” There is a low rumbling throughout the audience at the mention of her name. Jean drowns it out with a cheerful laugh. “That's what we have you for, right?” Murmurs of approval accompany his statement. It looks that they are confident I can match her, for some reason.
I nod and smile. “Leave her to me.” The crew cheers. I'm not so confident myself, but fights are not always determined by pure skill. Still, I'm surprised at how casually they seem to be taking the prospect of taking on a force many times our size.
“Can we expect any reinforcements?” asks one of the bridge crew.
“I'm certain Fifth Fleet will come, and so is the Captain. Fifth Fleet would have joined the other Imperial and Higashi to fight off the Sin's Eye assault had Captain Grimrock not informed Admiral Langorn of this operation. For that matter, I believe the Imperial Sixth Fleet and Higashi Third Space Fleet are moving away from Sin's Eye to trap the colony's escorts between themselves and the Fifth. They will not arrive in time to assist us in the battle should the colony drop actually occur, but their escorts will have no place to run after that.”
“Our main objective is to delay the Lothal until the Fifth Fleet arrives. Admiral Langorn's flagship, the
Rosen, is armed with six nuclear warheads. We will attempt to pin the colony in position and distract its escorts so that the Fifth can take it apart with nukes. According to our calculations, it is impossible for the ground-based defense systems to totally destroy the Lothal before it hits. By reducing the bulk of the colony before it begins its descent, the missiles launched from Earth may be able to blow away enough of the rest that Ankida can escape the worst. For the operation to be successful, we will need to hold the enemy off for at least an hour.”
I leave out any mention of there possibly being 4 million civilians still in the colony and imply that it is already depopulated. Any doubt on the part of the crew could be fatal. Besides, if they do not know, they have plausible deniability.
I take a deep breath, preparing to outline our main battle plan...
***
The Kaguya-hime is just one warship against thirty, but without its supporting firepower our work will be far more difficult. How should I deploy it?
A. I have it stationed over the curvature of Earth so that it is not spotted by the enemy on their low approach. They will begin the battle from a safe distance, though fire-support will not be as effective that far away.
B. I have it closer by, noticeable by the enemy but not in the field of engagement. It is a alluring target, and by presenting it I should be able to distract some of the enemy forces. I will also benefit from better fire-support.
***
We are still stuck with the two Vizala IIs and Anhur, there being no time to get the new Onuris frames before we deserted the fleet. I've gotten Tabitha to jury-rig some extra equipment for me based on my specifications, however; decoy balloons imitating Anhur's signature, an extra beam saber, and leg-mounted micro-missile launchers for both Anhur and the Vizalas. My role will be to be the sacrifical black lamb, attracting everyone's attention towards me. Naim and Jean are ready for the fight, but considering that the White Fangs and the Scarlet Lightning are in the mix, should I have them support me or the Kaguya-hime?
A. They should defend the Kaguya-hime from any enemies getting too close. The cruiser's continued fire-support is vital to my success. I'm confident I'll find a way to handle the enemy aces by myself by relying on Anhur's speed and perhaps my knowledge of them.
B. I need their help with the enemy aces – better safe than sorry. I don't want to be massively outnumbered by enemy frames too. They are to stay close to me to watch my back, splitting off only if there are urgent threats going after the Kaguya-hime.
***
Finally, as we have arrived early, there are a couple of tricks I can pull to rig the battlefield in my favour. I have a few small tricks ready, but unfortunately we only have time to work on one of the major ones.
A. We utilize the Kaguya-hime's spare munitions to set up a minefield. This will distract, wound and slow down the enemy forces, giving me plenty of chances to swoop in and exploit the holes in their lines. This also allows me to fight utilizing the terrain to my advantage as I know where the mines are and they don't. The mines will be disguised amongst debris from junk satellites and trash from the Kaguya-hime.
B. There are plenty of communications satellites around this particular part of Earth orbit – I hijack them to broadcast interference signals around the battlefield. This will mess with long-range transmission between the capital ships and the CFs and interfere with their chain of command, as well as prevent the frames in the field from calling in targeted fire-support salvos. The confusion will slow down their forces as well.
C. I'm loathe to show this hand right now, but I can hack into the Solar Ring system and realign the mirrors. Hundreds of millions of people are going to go without power, but I can redirect the energy gathered into a large coherent laser pointed at the enemy forces. It won't be enough to destroy the colony, but the beam is strong enough to damage enemy ships should they stay in the line of fire, and to fry CFs in seconds. If I manage to sustain the beam, it could also begin budging the colony slightly, making our task easier.