Chapter 27: MSS Stacy Wilmer

New Pentagon, Military Headquarters

Denver, WestHem

Sunday, June 16, 2154

“Just how bad is it, Admiral?” William Jacobs, Chairman of the WestHem Executive Council, was surprisingly calm, at least to those who didn’t know him. Those who did know him could tell he was furious and barely holding it together.

Fleet Admiral Henry Overstein, Chief of Naval Operations, was in Jacobs’ line of sight when the question was raised. Overstein also knew that his career in the WestHem Navy was effectively over. He would be retiring before the end of the day. The only question he had was whether he would be allowed to continue living in Aspen or be dumped naked in a Brazilian ghetto.

“I can’t sugarcoat it, Chairman. The total losses were thirty-seven ships and the Ganymede fleet base. The only possible positive aspect was that ninety percent of the ships were obsolete relics from the mothball fleet. We sent them to Ceres and Jupiter to free up more modern ships for Martian Vengeance.”

“Excellent. Your excuse is that it’s not so bad because the Greenies wasted all that effort killing old ships and not new ships. At least we didn’t make them work for it,” said Jacobs.

Overstein stood there and took it. There was nothing he could say to mitigate what had happened. In addition to three-dozen-plus ships, the Greenies had killed twenty thousand officers and sailors. If EastHem wanted to, they could walk into either Ganymede or Ceres with not much more than a busload of little old ladies. Ceres was currently protected by a single Cheney-class stealth ship. The Ganymede base was reduced to an Argentina-class dreadnought and half a dozen Edisons and Cheneys. Worse, there were no more reserves to be sent. The mothball fleet was now reduced to ships in such poor shape that it would take six months or more just to make them habitable; capable of combat would take at least another six months. By then, Martian Vengeance would be over.

Jacobs asked, “How did they do it, Admiral?”

Overstein sighed. He wished his autoflyer had crashed that morning. “That part is not clear. In Ceres, only one ship got away, a Cheney. They reported that they detected a pair of Owls moving away from Ceres. At Ganymede, one of the surviving Edisons reported an Owl leaving the Jupiter orbitals but couldn’t give more than a sixty percent confidence level. Even those reports are questionable. Intelligence says that all the Martian Owls are in Mars orbit. Their Owls are the basis of their offensive force, and they keep them there as protection against our return. It’s their captured Seattles that they send out. They have a detachment of Seattles defending Rhea, for instance. Still, Seattles and Owls have totally different signatures. In addition, the number of torpedoes fired at Ganymede was greater than what Owls could have launched. Naval Intelligence believes it was Martian Seattles, but only at a moderate confidence level.”

“Wonderful. And the attack itself?”

“Stealthed torpedoes launched at long range and receiving targeting information through stealthed decoy drones. We have had evidence since Martian Justice that the Martians have developed drone decoy technology.”

“Again, wonderful.” Jacobs thought for a minute. “I’m going to want a complete analysis from Naval Intelligence.”

“Yes, sir.” Overstein turned to his aide and said, “Let’s set that up immediately.” The aide nodded and tapped his computer.

“And Admiral, I have some men outside. I’d like you to go with them, please.”

Overstein nodded and said, “Of course, sir.”. So, it was to be Brazil after all.

Executive Council Offices

London, EastHem

Friday, June 21, 2154

Anthony Billings, Chairperson of the EastHem Executive Council, was sitting at the head of a conference table attached to his office. There were four other people in the conference room. Sitting next to him was Sylvia Dortsheer, technically Councilperson for Southern Africa and actually the Councilperson responsible for Martian affairs. Sitting across from her was the Foreign Minister, James Horstel, the highest ranking official responsible for Mars below the Executive Council level. The other two men wore military uniforms. Major General Archibald Bullstrode was the Commander of EastHem Military Intelligence. He was accompanied by a man in the uniform of a colonel.

Billings looked at Bullstrode and said, “You asked for this meeting, General, and said it involved Mars. This gentleman is...?”

Bullstrode answered, “This is Colonel Juan DeMarche, Chief of Naval Intelligence. He is the man responsible for knowing about all the naval vessels in the Solar System, ours, WestHem’s, and Mars’. We are here to report to you about a pair of major naval confrontations between WestHem and Mars.”

Dortsheer looked at Billings and Horstel, both of whom had curious looks on their faces. She turned to Bullstrode and said, “We weren’t aware of any confrontations. Are you saying there was a battle? I thought WestHem was planning on an attack in 2155.”

Both Bullstrode and DeMarche nodded. “Yes, ma’am, that is true. This was not the WestHem Navy attacking the Greenies. No, the Martian Navy attacked the WestHem Navy’s positions in Ceres and Ganymede.”

The three civilians looked stunned at that. Billings asked, “When? What happened?”

Bullstrode answered, “Last Saturday, the Fifteenth. It’s taken us all this week to confirm the details, at least what we can confirm. Neither WestHem nor the Martians are talking, but Colonel DeMarche is prepared to lay out what we have developed so far.”

“Colonel, welcome,” said the Chairperson. “Please, proceed.”

Bullsgtrode nodded at his deputy, and DeMarche stood and went to a podium near the monitor. He picked up a remote and pulled up the presentation they had prepared. “Chairperson Billings, Councilmember Dortsheer, Minister Horstel, thank you for giving me this opportunity. We have been working on this for most of this week since we first learned about it.”

He threw a diagram of the Solar System on the monitor. “This is a representation of the naval forces of WestHem, EastHem, and Mars as of a week ago. As you can see, the bulk of EastHem naval forces are either in Earth orbit, lunar orbit, or near Callisto. WestHem, however, was more spread out. In addition to Earth orbit and Ganymede, they also had a major detachment near Ceres. WestHem has been changing their deployments since Martian Justice.”

With that, DeMarche discussed the reactivation of WestHem’s mothball fleet. Both WestHem and EastHem had reserves of older, less capable ships in long-term storage. Once the ships were obsolete, it made more economic sense to keep them in a caretaker status than scrap them. “After Martian Justice, WestHem took so many losses that they were forced to reactivate their mothballed ships. Roughly ninety percent of their ghost fleet has been reactivated. The only ships not reactivated are so ancient they’re more dangerous to their crews than to the Martians. Those reactivated ships are mostly older versions of their modern designs, Argentinas versus Californias, Edisons versus Seattles, Cheneys versus Owls, that sort of thing. These ships are less capable, but they are available, and they’ve been paid for.”

“We have a ghost fleet, too,” said Billings.

“Nothing new about that, sir. What’s new is that these reactivated ships have been sent to Ceres and Jupiter to free up the newer models for service in WestHem’s upcoming offensive against Mars, Martian Vengeance. They have also been building new ships at a breakneck pace to make up for the massive losses they took during Martian Justice.” DeMarche threw another graphic on the screen showing shipbuilding in WestHem.

“So, what happened last week?” asked Dortsheer.

The schematic of the Solar System was thrown back up. “Last Saturday, the Martian Navy attacked the WestHem detachments at Ceres and Ganymede, destroying both. They destroyed ninety percent of the WestHem fleet at Ceres and eighty percent of the fleet at Ganymede. One thing I would stress is that they scrupulously avoided attacking any civilian assets at either location. They went to trash WestHem’s navy and succeeded brilliantly.”

That made Billings sit up straight. “Excuse me? The Martians sent their Owls to Ceres and Ganymede? How did they manage to sneak them away from Mars?”

DeMarche shook his head. “No sir, their Owls never left Martian orbit. They have eight Owls and always have five or six in Martian orbit and one or two in Earth orbit under extreme stealth conditions. We have agents in Triad, the city, not the base, and they report that the Owls have not left Mars. They have reported that two detachments of two Seattles each left Mars in the spring. At the time we thought they were going to Rhea. We know they have an existing Seattle presence there already. The thought was that they were either reinforcing or replacing the Seattles in Saturn orbit. Now we know what they were really up to.”

“The Martians are going after WestHem, not just eating their attacks,” commented the Foreign Minister.

“Exactly. We think this is a major increase in Martian capabilities and intentions. They are confident enough to begin offensive action and capable enough to routinely destroy enemy fleets.” He turned to the Chairman. “Sir, you said the Martians sent their Owls to Ceres and Jupiter because you believed, like all of us did, that only their Owls were good enough to do any damage. The Martians don’t agree. They have upgraded their Seattles and think they are good enough to act as front-line units, and they are right. As best we can tell from our agents in the New Pentagon, WestHem lost over three dozen units and didn’t get off a single shot or see a single Martian ship. Now they are building ships of their own. We don’t have many details, because they are building them at their new Phobos Shipyard, but they might be capital ships or tankers or freighters. Specifics aren’t available, but we know they are a new design and are big. They use engines designed for California-class superdreadnoughts.”

“These guys are feeling frisky,” commented Billings.

“Maybe so, sir. The attacks were a smart strategic move for them. They know that WestHem is going to want to keep forces around Ceres and Ganymede. By hammering them, they not only destroy the detachments, but they also force them to reassign more capable ships from Earth back to Jupiter and Ceres, weakening the forces they plan to send back to Mars.”

“This is part of why I wanted you to hear from Colonel DeMarche,” said the general. “The Martian Navy is coming into their own. They are no longer just reacting to WestHem. They have the ships and the manpower, and their officers are all combat veterans. That means a lot. Now WestHem is the one reacting and doing it badly! Every analyst we have is looking at the coming Martian Vengeance operation and predicting it won’t go any better for WestHem than the last two invasions. What happens then? They already contemplated nuking Mars. We don’t need that! If things go nuclear, they go nuclear for everybody!”

“General, you had a reason for telling us all this. What are you trying to tell us?” asked Dortsheer.

Bullstrode was slow in answering. “Part of this is simply my responsibility to keep you informed. One of the reasons we supported Mars was because of the old bit about the enemy of my enemy is my friend. By supporting Mars, we weakened WestHem. I can guarantee that you will be getting calls from some of your generals and admirals suggesting that we use the new status around Jupiter as a golden opportunity to take Ganymede. The same with Ceres. That decision will not be one I will be involved in, but I would argue against it. We do that, and WestHem is going to go ballistic, in every meaning of the word.”

Billings raised an eyebrow but nodded. Bullstrode continued, “I would also counsel that we continue to maintain good relations with Mars. Remember that little dustup with them in Rhea a few years ago? We sent a frontline Henry to deal with a couple of what we considered second-rate anti-stealth ships and they handed us our balls. They didn’t just stop us; they captured that ship with a pair of shuttles and sent the crew back as prisoners! Now this. They managed to time simultaneous attacks across interplanetary distances, and that takes some doing. I know that NewsComp broadcasts that EastHem has the finest military and navy in the Solar System, but maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea to test that proposition.”

“Thank you, General. We appreciate your concerns.”

Commodore’s Office

Whiting City, Saturn Orbit

Monday, June 24, 2154

“I’m sorry, Commodore. I know I’ve failed,” said Commander Jane Harbaugh, Commanding Officer of MSS Hardass. Hardass was a Titan derivative, a combination fleet tanker, supply ship, and fighter transport. Harbaugh and Hardass had been sent to Rhea to train and conduct war games, trying to find out how to use the unique capabilities of the Hardass-class of warship.

“Nonsense, Jane. You did the best you could. I’ve had some of my own people analyzing the trials and reporting to me. Don’t blame yourself. The design simply doesn’t work,” answered Commodore Amanda Honeysuckle. Honeysuckle was the commanding officer of all Martian naval forces in Saturn orbit.