Chapter 37: Live Fire Training

A Sa'arm scout had been tracked by a probe as it explored the uninhabited planet Darkford. The headquarters analysts expected a small hive ship to reach the planet within a window of six to eighteen months from the time the scout left the system. Only thirty percent of the planet's surface was water, but that was still enough water to hide both North and South America in more than one of its oceans.

Daniel Boone and Sir Galahad waited at the rendezvous point, which was about half a light-year away until Valdez returned from a flyby of Darkford. Captain Harris reported, "There's no sign of activity anywhere in the system. I believe it's safe to proceed." The smaller and faster ship had scouted the Darkfordat system to insure that the Sa'arm had not arrived sooner than expected.

"Thanks for the update, we're heading in," the Captain Collins responded. All three ships engaged their FTL drives and moved into Darkfordat. In addition to being on the list of planets that would soon get the interest of a Sa'arm hive ship, it was also only a few light-years away from Truman, placing reinforcements and supplies within easy reach.

Commanders Rawlings and Diego were aboard Valdez and had made detailed maps of some areas of the land masses during earlier scouting missions. Their surveys identified several faults that ran into oceans. Lesa sent some probes into the more promising of the geological features and was soon getting results from the little robotic prospectors.

In the meantime Sir Galahad ferried dozens of surface craft down to the planet that started mapping the ocean floor looking for continental shelves, underwater plateaus, or stable mountain ranges that were covered by no more than fifty meters of water.

When a couple of extinct underwater volcanoes were found about 75 kilometers apart and no closer than 400 kilometers from the nearest significant body of dry land, Daniel Boone moved into position above the pair of drowned mountains and prepared to drop the pods she carried.

From a synchronous orbit it would take a full eight-hour shift for the eight lighters to ferry 60 industrial-class replicator pods to the planet below. The 48 pods that would provide the housing and environmental support for the human core of the small outpost were left to make their own way down without the benefit of lighters, except for the AI pod which a lighter gently delivered to the surface of the ocean.

It took three days for all of the habitat pods to be linked with a network of passages. After the last of the cylindrical corridors was pumped dry, the colonists had access to the residential pods from the transporter nexus in the command and information center.

Other pods in the small complex housed the arsenal, medical facility, gymnasium, and community mess hall. Transporter pads located in the foyers of the CIC, the medical facility and the central pod of the manufacturing cluster were the only way on or off the planet for the time being.

Two days later the 60 replicators, which were located 75 kilometers from the habitat pods, began accepting material from the twelve mining complexes scattered about the ocean floor. They would soon be building additional habitat pods and other critical facilities for the garrison that would be in place to repel the Sa'arm after they landed.

One of the replicator's first tasks was the construction of protective domes that would allow them to operate without shields. They also built connecting passages along the ocean floor that lead from the protective domes to a central pod containing transporter network pads.

Twenty families manned the underwater outpost. They would direct the construction of barracks, weapons, and assault craft and generally prepare the facility to house a brigade and its equipment in the coming months. Living and working underwater was not really that much different from conditions in other hostile environments.

Tuan and Lesa had not brought their entire families and had chosen to cohabitate in one of the residential pods. Celeste and Donna were brought along because they were the only women in the two families who weren't pregnant or nursing an infant. Celeste had valuable skills outside of the pod and was dragging the somewhat reluctant Donna around with her.

"I'm not smart enough to do the things you do," Donna complained.

"Nonsense," Celeste rebutted. "You've dealt with a stair-step horde of hellions for more than a decade. I doubt I have that kind of multitasking talent."

"This isn't much different than my pod on Azahar," Tuan remarked as he entered and looked around.

Lesa laughed, "No? Just take a look outside, Captain Nemo. It's a brave new world out there."

Celeste took Lesa and Tuan for a tour of the facility as soon as the first mini-sub came out of the replicators. "The domes not only provide protection for the replicators and a wet-well for launching amphibious craft, but they also camouflage the units' radiation from heat right on through the visible spectrum. Even though they're in shallow water you can't easily see them until you're within twenty meters of one."

It was true. Tuan and Lesa knew where the units were, but could only see one or two of them at a time.

Celeste let the small craft settle onto a ledge on the slope of the submerged volcanic cone. "It's so peaceful and beautiful here," she observed. "I almost hope that the Sa'arm don't show up."

The three of them took in the beauty of the seascape in silence. Each of them had thoughts of sex flit through their heads, but none of the images took root right away.

On the way back Celeste observed, "You know what? I'm the last member of the household who hasn't gotten pregnant, and we've been out here for well over a year, closer to two."

"It's barely been ten weeks," Tuan countered with a smile and was backhanded in the solar plexus for his obtuse remark.

"Ow! You're so physical!" Tuan complained to Celeste. "I think Kim has been a bad influence on you."

Celeste just smirked in response.

Lesa mused, "Donna's little one is two. She's about due for another bun in her oven as well. Think you're up to the task or shall we tap into another sperm bank?"

Tuan got serious for a moment, "Do you really want me to be the father of more kids after what I did with our daughters?"

Lesa snickered, "I heard about that. Seems like you had about as many options as Takashi when the twins slipped into his bedroom the first time."

"I could have ... should have said no," Tuan had not yet released his guilt for having sex with his own daughter, and thoroughly enjoying it. "The worst part is that I'll likely do it again."

"Good," Lesa remarked. "They need to have some quality time with a real man periodically. They really shouldn't stick to a diet of boys. So, can I help while you get Celeste and Donna preggers?"

"Do you really think that they'll need help?" Tuan was not completely out of his playful mood. "I figure Donna would know how since she's been successful six times as I recall. It's been a while since Celeste has handled a dick, though, it's been at least three days. You might need to show her how it's done."

Tuan and Lesa were knocked sideways a bit as Celeste hurriedly mated the small craft to the docking collar. She flipped several switches to complete the seal and shut down the submarine's systems. "I'll show you what I know about making babies, Mr. Wiseguy! Get him out of his clothes while I strip, Lesa."

"What about me?" Lesa asked with her bottom lip poked out.

"I guess you'll have to bat cleanup this time," Celeste suggested.

Tuan was laughing as Lesa tugged at his clothing until she sucked his semi-rigid tool into her talented mouth. In three strokes his glans was tickling her tonsils. In five strokes he was stone hard and stroking her throat well beyond her tonsils.

"I'm ready," Celeste said as she flipped the armrests up on Tuan's seat and proceeded to straddle his lap with her slender legs. Between the stimulation Lesa and Celeste were pouring into the task at hand it wasn't long before Celeste's womb had some little visitors.

Daniel Boone returned to Azahar after dropping the first load of pods. She came back to Darkford with William Penn and Antoine Laumet. The three ships carried the balance of the Home Guard Militia and their equipment. The brigade's pods were quickly dispersed among the prepared facilities. They began staging ordnance and equipment in bunkers all around the planet, including some that were in remote areas on dry land.

Colonel Dean Gotti remarked, "It's ridiculous when you look at it objectively. We have less than a thousand troops with the mission of defending an entire planet! Armies with hundreds of thousands of combatants have failed to defend a single city in past wars on Earth."

Lieutenant Colonel Lesa Crews smacked her father's arm. "We don't need no negative waves, daddy-o. None of those Neanderthals on Earth had our equipment or your fine leadership."

Gotti snorted, "Don't try psychology on me, Peanut. You're not too old for a spanking."

"Ooo, I like spankings!" Lesa responded

Dean looked at her from the corner of his eyes, "Then again, maybe you are."

Lesa changed the subject as she pointed out the obvious on the wall map. "We can't get equipment into this land-locked ocean with the underwater tugs. We're going to have to use lighters to transport anything that won't fit in a transporter stream. I'm setting up an industrial complex here." She pointed to a spot about forty kilometers from the far shore. "We can't be certain that lighters will be able to get through once the Sa'arm hive establishes their defenses."

Gotti scowled, "Don't get pedantic with me, Colonel. You probably enjoy being spanked too much for that to be a threat, but I'll come up with something unpleasant. What's your recommendation?"

Crews smiled and considered challenging him, but thought better of it. She knew she should be more professional in front of the others. "Sorry. I'm used to dealing with less fortunate commanders. We should find a suitable spot away from shore and establish a manufacturing complex."

Gotti frowned, "Shouldn't we set up mining sites first?"

Crews stifled a smirk as well as her reflexive smart remark. Her answer sounded more respectful, "No, sir. The transporters can send the raw materials anywhere, but we can't use transporter pads to send replacement assault craft, or return the damaged craft to the depot here for repair."

"Of course," Gotti responded. "And thanks for not rubbing it in."

The preparations didn't reveal so much as a ripple in the water when the Sa'arm showed up a few months later. The plans had been made, the traps had been set, and the troops were deployed. Now all that they needed was contact with the enemy. This was one of the toughest parts of combat, trying to get some rest before engaging the enemy.

The Navy made a show of defending the system by destroying several of the hive ship's screening vessels in a fighting retreat, but they allowed the colonization ship and its defensive escort to penetrate the seemingly weak Confederacy defenses and land unmolested.

The communications technician looked up. "Mr. Gotti, er, Colonel, sir. The hive ship has landed. I've got the coordinates."

Lesa barely recognized the man as one of the mercenaries who had accompanied her dad to the big extraction from Earth so many months ago. He was even bigger now, and younger looking. Along with the others, she turned her attention to the map the tech projected onto the wall.

Someone in the small room remarked, "It looks like they landed as far as possible from any significant body of water. Do you think they know about us?"

"They don't like water," Gotti observed without directly addressing the nervous individual. "And, that particular range of mountains has a lot of resources. Their scout must have done a good job of exploring this planet. They knew where to go."

He turned to Lesa. "Well, Peanut, we have a long way to fly before reaching the nearest target. Let's get some scouts out there and start moving equipment in as close as we dare. Let me know when it's in place, and I'll make the call to the fleet."

"We have a cache about 50 klicks south. We kind of thought those mountains would interest them," Commander Nguyen advised. "We can send troops there by transporter as soon as you like. It'll take about two weeks to get a tunnel under their landing site."

Gotti smiled his appreciation. "Good work! Let's get some troops in place to prep the cache and start the tunnels. I want three tunnels that approach from any angle other than the direction of the cache."

An inert satellite in a low orbit suddenly broke apart a week after the tunnels were started from the cache. The Sa'arm ignored the small objects until they began exploding one at a time a few minutes after impact. The Sa'arm may be deaf, but they clearly had some means of detecting explosions. Gotti was concerned. If they could detect explosions, then they may also be able to detect the vibrations caused by the machines and equipment that were approaching them from underground.

The Sa'arm units that investigated the explosions found nothing but a bit of debris and some disturbed soil. They quickly lost interest and returned to what they had been doing.

The assault ships Veracruz, Bon Secours and Guantanamo were at a rally point near the Darkfordat system. They joined a fleet of 33 warships with Vice Admiral Benjamin Grayson himself in command from the CIC of Sir Galahad. The spacious CIC and updated communications array on Sir Galahad was superior to those on the capital ships.