Chapter 62

McCock held his weekly full staff conference with the outriding captains joined by tight vidcom links. The Chencon were a day out from the Harbourian system and were making a change in their formation.

Sir Henry led the discussion setting out the Chencon formation in more detail but the basic change was a shaking down into four divisions with the command group more fully integrated into a group. The meeting's consensus was another enveloping manoeuvre and a possible planetary cleansing. Keith Grant made the point that the Damasa operation, in retrospect, had appeared tentative with some last minute shuffling about of the heavy cruisers.

Rosemary informed the meeting that Sat was talking a bit more freely and she was forming the opinion that the Grand Admiral's explanation had been an attempt to get Sat 'on side' and when he appeared to disagree, the plan was laughed off. Sat, believing that the plan was not for real, had felt justified in using it to obfuscate matters. Sat had not been kept up to date on events and still didn't believe the courier was probably sabotaged.

Sir Henry reported on his efforts to warn the Harbourians of their possible fate,

"The politicians I manage to speak to do not believe me and the media think my warnings are a ruse. I've shown the vids of Settlement and I have been complimented on the excellence of the fakes. The media types who talk with me rather than laugh, tell me that the courier had been sent by the USW Senate to report upon the damage to the capitol and to make arrangements for the arrival of reinforcements to the RHSN to defend the city. That probably explains why we haven't seen their navy return.

Future enemy intentions after arriving at New Liege are unknown and I am not going to hazard a guess because there is literally nothing upon which to base one."

Rosemary suggested

"Sema?"

Sir Henry simply shrugged.

The discussion settled down to the nuts and bolts of the group which tried not to impinge upon the prerogatives of the First Officers' matters. McCock then threw his thought onto the table;

"Why not return to Mountserrat? There is nothing we can do out here and back there we can exercise with those Mounty MCs and plan a defence of Orion arm if they come back that way. Those cruise missiles would enable us to make the Chencons pay a heavy price if they do and the lesser star systems are now critical to Mountserrat's restoration."

"Aggy, what Mounty MCs?" Keith Grant demanded.

"Didn't I tell you? Sorry, people, I forgot. When I was recruiting the second lot of Avers, Blue Hills passed on a message from Admiral Cunningham that the Mounty MCs were down at Scapa loading cruise. Aubrey Waramanti commands them."

The comments from his staff were not polite; not insubordinate, but not polite.

Slow's observation

"We probably didn't need to come out here in the first place."

Was not let pass by McCock

"Yes we did, we had to come to Renmark's assistance."

No one disagreed with that proposition.

The vidcom links were broken down and the meeting broke up with Slow to coordinate the change of course and the inner staff to begin planning exercises with RMN MCs. Sir Henry and Rosemary remained seated longer than the other participants and both carefully scrutinised McCock's face before departing.

119 (Reformed) held in cosmic in a loose formation about U93 over Mountserrat and watched the vids from the extended take of U95 over Harbouria. Two Chencon divisions passed over New Liege and the harbour orbitals which 119 in another life had put out of operation. The other two divisions had diverged well to either side of the capitol city. Even knowing what was likely to happen did not prevent the feelings of profound shock that was felt by all when the Chencon fleets utterly destroyed all the accumulations of residences on the globe. Sir Henry observed

"Nothing should surprise us when we consider the past history of mankind; there is record of a warlord in Old Earth's prediaspora times who destroyed everything in his path."

McCock said it for them all,

"It is difficult to think of them as the enemy at this point. Diety take and preserve their souls."

Not surprisingly, that was the same attitude maintained by the Royals who were also watching the vid take. The protagonists in the war in this region had, even at the worst period of the Harbourian dictatorship, fought in accordance with the rules of war and respected the Geneva Conventions; there had been breaches, but they were only notable because of the very infrequency of such actions. A grim determined sadness settled over the Allies.

The return of 119 (Reformed) was greeted formally with appropriate honours for the return of a detached force. 119's captains were a trifle tardy in returning the compliments and the tardiness was received by the double flash of riding lights signifying the space equivalent of the 'raspberry'.

McCock quickly made arrangements to inspect his most recent acquisition and was gratified but not too surprised at the progress the crews had made towards forming a coherent company. Denny gave full marks to Peter Lowell and Hugh Avers. The only cause for tension was Commander Hugh Aver's frustration at being referred to as "The Laird" and called "Baron" when spoken to directly. The Mounty Avers took great delight in the practice and had told Commodore Viscount Denholt that the ennobling of Aver was a new thing; they had prided themselves on being lower deck but could see that in these most unusual circumstances, ability had been rewarded. And, by Diety, it would be recognised. Hugh's more repeatable explanation was that they were taking the 'mick'.