Eye of the Storm

CHAPTER SEVEN

“The SS has thirty percent of its heavy equipment in shipment,” Tam said. “The remainder will be arriving over the next couple of weeks. They’ve already begun training on the gear. Muehlenkampf feels that three months will be necessary for them to become fully trained on the systems.”

“He lifts two weeks after they get the final shipment,” Mike said. “If he has three months on planet to train in, all good. But a trained unit on Earth does us no good if Gratoola falls.”

“I’ll send him the message,” Tam said. “Lieutenant General Stewart has a brief on Hedren capabilities and methods prepared.”

“Go,” Mike said, looking over at his son-in-law.

“I did hardly any of it,” Stewart admitted. “The J-2 was preparing it before I took over. So I’m not going to take credit. Here goes:

“Hedren primary method of hard insertion is through the matter wormhole. The unit inserted is, as was previously briefed, the equivalent of a heavy armored corps with combat supports including in-system attack craft. But that’s not enough to take a planet. They’re really just there to establish a bridgehead. They generally will land near a notable feature of the planet, a capital city or such, and take that as fast as possible. Then they sit on it until more forces arrive through hyper-jump.”

“Why not just attack through hyper?” Mike asked.

“Think about it from a defense point-of-view, General,” Stewart said. “Defenses are based to point outwards. The Hedren Fleet arrives hard on the heels of the ground assault. Suddenly you have ground forces holding a position, ones that can engage into local space from the ground, and a fleet jumping in on you. Dimensional warp tech won’t hyper in any closer than the ley-line system, which means well outside the life-zone of most systems. Therefore, the fleet has to fight its way in. If they don’t have ground force, they then have to make a combat drop on the position. Better to have a secure area for landing. The defenders have to make the choice of engaging the ground forces from space or the incoming fleet.”

“Attack from both axes,” Tam said.

“Correct, sir,” Stewart replied. “It’s not just a ground attack, it’s a full-court press. Following a successful attack, the planet is then invested by the fleet, more forces are landed and spread out to control the populace and reduce resistance.”

“So the ground force portion, except for the fact that it’s really heavy and definitely less spread out, is the equivalent of airborne forces dropped behind the lines,” Mike said. “They take a major psychological position, if it’s a city it’s hard to dig them out, then sit on their gains until relieved. They’re going to be screwed if the follow-on forces get stopped.”

“Nijmegen?” Tam said.

“You’re thinking of Arnhem,” the former paratrooper said. “Nijmegen was the 82^nd. I need to get with Takao and see what he thinks are the chances of stopping the incoming fleet. Otherwise, our forces are going to be the Brits. TOE?”

“Himmit have given us a full order of battle for the assault forces as well as for follow-on and the total fleet,” Stewart said. “At least, what they believe to be the current TOE on the first two and a pretty good count on the last. They’re not sure, though, how much of the latter will be sent to Gratoola.”

“Any idea where the attack will occur?” Mike asked. “I mean, in advance.”

“Well, there are several possibles,” Stewart replied. “The imaginatively named Gratoola City, which is where the capital government buildings reside, the Corridor, which is a big industrial belt… There’s a pretty good sized list. If you’re asking me for a crystal ball hunch; Gratoola City. The Himmit say that a sohon mentat should be able to detect the field when they generate it, but it’s no more than twenty minutes or so before the Hedren emerge. Which I’m given to understand is an energetic event.”

“Define energetic,” Mike said.

“Big boom,” Stewart replied. “The jump displaces all air and other matter in the region they invest. Non-nuclear boom, but you don’t want to be right on the spot that they come in. By the same token, sufficient matter disturbs the insertion, sometimes to the Hedren’s detriment.”

“They go boom?” Wesley asked.

“They go boom,” Stewart confirmed. “Or break. Apparently, if you’ve got a big enough building, instead of blowing up the building they come out on top. Since this tends to break even their CSUs, they generally don’t come in on cities. With that parameter, the analysis section came up with a list of probable landing zones for the Hedren for each of the probable targets. I’ve got a little list.”

“Good,” Mike said. “So are all the ground assault forces waiting to go on Daga?”

“No,” Stewart said. “They were apparently pulled back to Caracool for rest and refit. According to the Himmit, once a planet is initially quelled the shock forces return to rear areas to get prepped for the next mission. Then they jump, basically, twice. Once to the next jump point then to the objective. In the meantime, pacification forces, heavy on Glandri and with some Imeg, start filtering in to replace them and start pacifying the populace. There’s some combat forces on Daga Nine but mostly it’s the new pacification units.”

“Get me an Orbatt for those forces,” Mike said, turning to his chief of staff. “What about Second Division?”

The ‘consolidation unit’ had been the nearest nearly coherent force to the Hedren attack. Scattered across fifteen worlds, it was slowly being pieced back together.

“We’ve consolidated them on Darcra,” Tam said. “No pun intended. Three month transit time to Gratoola. But I’ve seen the efficiency reports. They’re not going to be worth much as assault troops. I’d even question their utility at rear area control. Frankly, I don’t think sending them straight to Gratoola is wise. I’d rather reconsolidate them with new leadership and put them through a good hard train period.”

“Again, well trained troops elsewhere do us no good,” Mike said. “If they die on the sword, they’re still going to do some damage. Move them to Gratoola.”

“Received and understood,” Tam said, trying not to sigh. “And then there’s the Legion.”

“I thought they were too far out,” Mike said.

“Information lag,” Tam replied. “The Legion had been consolidated on T-1478 Alpha after an assault there. Their next target was U-2652. Fortunately, a courier caught up with them. I sent orders to have them return to Earth immediately. They should be here in less than a month.”

“Time to get them to Gratoola?” Mike asked.

“Two months,” Tam said. “You want to send them too? General O’Neal, if you send everything to Gratoola, there won’t be anything to cover other planets!”

“If we lose Gratoola they can build another one of these things and then they can go anywhere,” Mike pointed out. “And, as has repeatedly been mentioned, it’s the capital of the Federation. We’re going to hold Gratoola if I possibly can. Less for the latter reason than the former, I’ll admit. But holding Gratoola is a must. So, yes, send them to Gratoola. How do they look?”

“Well, it’s the Legion, isn’t it?” Tam said. “They fight to the death because the alternative is death. Some of the units are pretty good. Overall, they’re better than Second Division but not much.”

“It’s something,” Mike said. “Next.”

“Status of standing up forces. Brigadier General Richards.”

“The conscription system is just getting into gear,” General Richards said. With all ground forces federalized under Strike, Mike’s J-1 had the unenviable task of overseeing the latter. “There hasn’t been a selective service program in decades. It went out after the War. We’re using various databases to find qualified personnel, but given all the underground economy… Recall of former military is better but not much. We’ve lost track of a lot of them. Again, it’s a matter of combing databases and sending letters certified mail. We’ll get down to sending the local sheriff or whatever if we have to. So far, the majority of those we’re pretty sure we found have been showing up. Not that that has been all beer and skittles.”

“Why?” Mike asked.

“Well,” Richards said, shrugging. “There were a lot of promotions in the War, especially of rejuvs since the ones that got it tended to be… Oh, say like the Generalmajor. But just as he ended the war as a Field Marshall in charge of half the combined European armies and is now back being a Major General… ”

“We don’t have the soldiers to take back all these generals,” Tam said. “Not nearly enough. What we need is captains and first sergeants, squad leaders. What we’re getting are generals, colonels, very senior sergeant majors… ”

“Any sergeant major that can’t run a squad shouldn’t be a sergeant major,” Mike said. “Any general that can’t remember how to run a company needs to be made a fucking private. Do you get my drift?”

“You’re kidding,” General Richards said.

“I made Muehlenkampf swallow becoming a Major General,” Mike said. “Not that he wasn’t willing enough. This is a guy who was a general before my father was a gleam in his daddy’s eye and who commanded ninety fucking divisions in the war.” Mike swallowed for a moment at the mention of his father but plowed on. “That’s thirty corps, ten armies, three or four army groups. If he can suck it up the rest can. You will fit them into the TOE as necessary for the good of the service. Do I make myself clear?”

“Oh, this is going to be sooo fun,” Richards said. “Yes, sir, you’ve made yourself perfectly clear.”

“Think of it this way,” Mike said, shrugging. “Would you rather be sitting in this fucking room or commanding a company or a battalion?”

“Hmmm,” Tam said. “Put that way… ”

“No,” Mike replied. “If I don’t get a battalion, you don’t get a battalion. But what I’d really like is to be a captain again… ”