Chapter 29: Combined Operations

It wasn't often, Admiral Conrad Helfrich conceded, that Minister of Defence Roger Chen showed up at Combined Operations Combat Information Centre. It was rarer that the Minister of Foreign Relations, Thomas Kinkade, would deign to darken this impressive room's doorstep – in fact the Admiral couldn't remember a previous instance. When President Lucy Yamashita followed hard on her cabinet members' heels, Conrad knew something dreadful was up. The last time the four of them were together resulted in the entire crew of SFS Firespike spending some three weeks nude on Spica; he wondered resignedly which of his crews were going to be forcibly stripped this time. His only consolation was that on top of his General Staff, General Henderson and his staff were here as well – maybe it would be an Army unit this time instead.

The message torpedo from the embassy on Spica had just arrived, and now they watching the news reports from Arcturus with at first disbelief, then with increasing irritation. The Admiral turned to the President. "And in reality the accused is still sitting in prison on Spica? This 'Travis Breckenridge' person?"

Lucy nodded firmly. "I have vid-mail from our ambassador to Spica, Mike Miller, from the Ambassador for Arcturus, from Denebian representative Shirley Templeton, and from the First Minister of Spica. All of them have met with the suspect we now know to be Jacob Lawton in the time since the Chairman of the Arcturus Planetary Council made his grand speech claiming the prisoner was now in Arcturan hands and denouncing the perfidy of the so-called Latecomers."

As those in the room growled, the Admiral turned to Lucy. "How do you want us to handle this?"

"With kid gloves," Lucy shrugged, "but with an iron fist within." She pressed a button on the console in front of her. "Mike and his brain trust have an initial plan, although they've freely conceded that use-of-force planning should be in the hands of the military. They have an advantage over us: they've been dealing with Arcturans, we haven't. We're going to use this plan; you and you," she pointed at the Admiral and the General, "need to expand on it."

The visage of Mike replaced that of the Chairman of the Arcturus Planetary Council. The words, "STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL" briefly flashed across the screen, overlaying his face. "Mr. President, Mr. Kinkade, we believe an attempted coup d'etat on Arcturus to be imminent, probably led by its own Planetary Council. The Government of Arcturus will continue to defy the Government of Deneb Algenib, and instead will try to brazen it out. We have enough evidence from the person who has admitted responsibility for the murder of the two engineers and the destruction of Bucyrus for the Government of Deneb Algenib to declare either a State of War, in which case the alliance clause between Deneb Algenib and Solaria kicks in, or a State of Police Action, which in this case is very much the same result. In that event, we – that is to say, the Embassy staff and the representatives from Arcturus and Deneb, with input from the Spican Minister of Foreign Affairs – have come up with a suggested plan of action to handle this situation.

"First, we recommend that the Fleet immediately send a ship to Arcturus to continue to monitor the situation planetside, and if possible to extract our Trade Representative. We believe that as our Representative is aware of the true facts, he is a threat to the regime and they will try to eliminate him. We are strongly suggesting that this ship has stealth capability, if such a vessel exists.

"Second, we suggest we engage in psychological warfare. By taking over the airwaves on Arcturus, we will be able to broadcast news feeds from Spica, Solaris and Deneb Algenib. These should emphasize how the Deneb Algenib Government is requesting the extradition of the entire Planetary Council on charges of conspiracy to attack Denebian property and conspiracy in the deaths of the two engineers killed on SS Bucyrus.

"Third, a show of force is needed to back up those demands. That show of force may be required to perform ground operations, as it seems that the Planetary Council is completely divorced from the reality of their position vis-a-vis interstellar diplomacy, and possibly with regard to the situation outside their own clan compounds. Nobody on Spica who is currently up to speed on the situation on Arcturus has military experience and the Denebian military, while competent, is purely defencive in nature so we'll have to leave the use of force to the Solaria Federation's Armed Forces."

With that, the video portion of Mike's briefing ended.

Hard as nails, President Yamashita turned to her assembled admirals and generals. "Well?" she growled.

Admiral Helfrich turned to his Army counterpart. "For an invasion, how many men do you need?"

"What kind of opposing force are we looking at?" General Henderson demanded of his Head of Intelligence.

"Officially, they've got police forces and that's about it. They do have some armoured vehicles, but they're intended for riot control, resistant to light fire from laser rifles but a squad force in rapid-fire mode can easily cause the machine to overheat and force the occupants to choose between evacuating or being cooked. We've caught some reference to a clandestine group called the 'Frontiersmen', we think they consist of the males of these six so-called Founding Families. They're armed, but with nothing more serious than laser rifles and hand grenades, but will probably be able to call upon the police services' armoury – the government fears a popular uprising more than an invasion. War plans call for a brigade force of about 5,000 men."

"So one Normandie-class vessel should handle it, then?" Admiral Helfrich asked. The Normandie-class assault carriers were designed to drop a brigade into a hostile planet, and if necessary extract them.

"Yes, Sir. Caution calls for a second brigade and Normandie-class ship in reserve in orbit. We'd like at least one if not three Monitor-class planetary bombardment ships, and a pair of attack carriers."