Chapter 29: Vengeance Begins

Fleet Admiral’s Bridge

WHSS Maryland, Earth Orbit

Wednesday, January 1, 2155

Fleet Admiral Roland Roswell looked into his monitor. He was about to give the final order to launch Martian Vengeance and wished, once again, he had managed to get out of this assignment. Originally Joe Bunson had been tapped as the commander, but he had heard about the plan before it became official and managed to put in his retirement papers in a space of thirty-two hours, a new record for bureaucratic efficiency. Not so fortunate was Fleet General Franklin Westford, whose paperwork was halted mid-retirement by his selection as the commanding general of the Marines being sent to Mars. He was now on Boxcar II, a new construction Panama II-class transport selected as the Marine command ship.

There were a lot of new ships in the fleet heading to Mars. Martian Hammer and Martian Justice had destroyed almost three-quarters of the WestHem fleet built before the Martian revolt and in the period between Martian Hammer and Martian Justice. Since Martian Justice, the shipyard at Departure City had been working twenty-four hours a day building new ships specifically designed to counter Martian torpedo attacks. How that would work, Roswell wasn’t sure. The designers had doubled the number of anti-torpedo lasers on the new construction Panama IIs and California IIs, and the fire control systems were upgraded. Whether that would be enough was yet to be seen. Roswell had been a vice admiral at the time of Martian Justice and was second in command to Admiral Stewart, the commander of the Californias that hadn’t died during the convoy battle and had taken command of the assault force when it returned to Earth.

Stewart managed to retire after he got back to WestHem, and Roswell was promoted to Admiral. The losses in Martian Justice were so severe that the Navy and the Marines couldn’t afford to bury all the senior officers like they did after Martian Hammer. Instead, in a surprising measure of common sense, the New Pentagon refused to cashier every senior officer assigned to Martian Justice. InfoGroup and NewsSys had pushed for public investigations and hearings, followed by public executions; ratings and ad revenues would have paid for some of the losses they had suffered in Martian satellites lost in the second invasion.

Instead, most of the other corporations argued against that decision. AgriCorp and the other agricultural corporations wanted Mars back; capturing Mars was critical to getting their hands back on all the food that the Greenies were sending to EastHem. Likewise, Standard Fuel Supply and Jovian Gases wanted to get back the business they lost on Mars, as well as capture the Saturnian assets the Martians had developed. All the other major corporations wanted to regain the assets they lost on Mars, too. By recapturing their lost assets, they could rebuild their balance sheets overnight, restoring their stock prices.

In a stunning break with tradition, InfoGroup and NewsSys found themselves overwhelmingly outvoted by the other corporations. Not only would there be no punishment for the officers involved in Martian Justice, but Martian Vengeance would be run by the professional officers of the WestHem Marines and Navy. The corporations would not be sending civilian advisers along to supervise the admirals and generals, they would not be selecting targets, and they would not be dictating strategy and tactics. InfoGroup and NewsSys reporting teams would be present to broadcast interviews and press briefings but would not be allowed to specify when operations would launch, so they could maximize their audiences back on Earth. The broadcasters back on Earth would have to do the best they could without that level of access.

Now it was time to see if what they had learned during Martian Hammer and Martian Justice would pay off. WestHem had built a brand-new fleet, specifically designed to survive the nuclear torpedoes launched by the Greenies’ captured Owl fleet. They would take losses, but nowhere near what they suffered in the first two campaigns. The Marines would decide when and where to attack, and not be told when and where by a ‘Senior Adviser’ from InfoGroup. Now it was time to make it happen.

Fleet Admiral Roswell keyed his communications program and linked to the leadership group. He gazed on the faces of his senior commanders. “Gentlemen, it’s time. We need to get things moving. Admiral Carson, have your captains inspected their ships?”

Barry Carson nodded. Prior to the launch of Martian Justice, a Martian Owl had snuck close enough to launch small nuclear limpet mines. Three had attached themselves to ships and then been detonated once the fleet left Earth orbit, killing a freighter, a Panama, and a Seattle. This time, biosuited sailors had inspected the exterior of every ship every day and made sure no mines had attached themselves. Carson was the overall commander of the ships assigned to Martian Vengeance. “Yes, and they are still inspecting them. Give me five minutes warning and I will get them in at that time. What they did before was a one-time event.”

“When we are done here, that will be your five-minute warning.” Roswell said. “General Westford, your Marines are loaded?”

Franklin Westford smiled and answered, “As of four hours ago. The Marines being shown on InfoGroup being loaded onto the transports are from old vid footage. I don’t know if their talking heads are aware or not, and I don’t much care. We are ready to go.”

Roswell switched his gaze to Admiral Wilson Barnswallow, commander of the Californias that were escorting the Marine transports. “Admiral, I know this has been discussed before, but from the time we launch, I want F-22s screening us twenty-four-seven, a real ball of string. If anybody sees anything, I want fighters going after it.”

Barnswallow nodded and replied, “Yes, sir. That’s the plan. We even brought in extra tankers for fuel during the transit. As soon as we launch, we’ll be sending out the fighter screen.”

Roswell continued pressing his subordinates, checking on their status. Everything had been planned out and timetabled ahead of time, and this was the final check. He finished with, “Admiral Carson. This is your five-minute warning. Get your men inside. We launch for Mars at 0648.” That was a change in itself. InfoGroup had requested the launch at 1000 Eastern Time, to maximize audiences across North America, their primary market. Admiral Roswell had ignored the request and hadn’t even responded to it.

“Yes, sir.”

Intelligence Office

MSS Ballbuster, Earth Orbit

Wednesday, January 1, 2155

“Skipper, it’s started,” said Lieutenant Marcie Swallows. Marcie was the commander of the MPG intelligence detachment on the Ballbuster. As a child, Marcie had wondered about the laughs she occasionally heard when her name was spoken; as a teenager she had simply smiled when questioned.

Captain Steven Sugiyoto was one of the Martian Navy’s most experienced commanders. He started out a Martian sailor in the WestHem Navy. Recruited by Matt Belting for the new Martian Navy, he had been Executive Officer of Mermaid, one of the Owls captured during the Revolution. During Martian Justice he had been Commanding Officer of Ballbuster, the new name of Mermaid. In between, he had supervised Ballbuster’s transformation from WestHem Owl to Martian Improved-Owl Mod Two and had done several Earth reconnaissance patrols. It looked like he was going to miss Martian Vengeance, though Belting had promised that he would be intimately involved by the time it ended. Sugi looked at Swallows and said, “Well, it’s not like they didn’t advertise it. What’re they doing?”

“They just launched from Earth orbit. They are moving at half maximum thrust and trying to avoid any EastHem ships. Best guess, based on the stuff I’m not allowed to tell you, they go to full acceleration after they get past the Moon and away from EastHem.”

“Subtle, Marcie, subtle.” The Martian Planetary Guard and Martian Planetary Intelligence maintained detachments on all Martian Navy ships, tasked with accessing WestHem and EastHem sources and letting their ship COs know what was going on. It was an open secret that the MPI had infiltrated WestHem’s military communications and the New Pentagon’s databases. The ships in Earth orbit had an augmented detachment to perform reconnaissance on both WestHem and EastHem shipping.

“Send a note to teacher?” she asked.

“Sounds like a plan. Maximum stealth, minimum chance of interception. Send full details,” Sugi agreed.

“Roger that, Sugi.”

Admiral’s Office

Triad Naval Base, Mars Orbit

Wednesday, January 1, 2155

Admiral Belting took the call in his private office. It was Colonel Marcus Slackass of the Martian Planetary Guard, the Director of Martian Planetary Intelligence. “It’s begun, Marcus?”

“It’s begun, Matt.”

“Anything we weren’t expecting?”

“Not a thing,” Slackass replied. “We just got word from Ballbuster. Earth is almost the closest they’ll be in their orbit. They launched about five minutes ago.”

Belting nodded. “It’s their optimum launch window. They can be here in seven weeks, at which time the communication lag back to Earth will have dropped to under four minutes.”

“Anything else to tell me? Any changes from their proposed operational plans?”

“Nothing in the WestHem Navy’s reports, and Ballbuster reports that nothing new seems to be going on. We’ll know within a day or two for sure, but it’s everything they were advertising ahead of time,” answered Slackass.