Frontiers Saga 12: Rise of the Alliance (49 page)
Read Frontiers Saga 12: Rise of the Alliance Online
Authors: Ryk Brown
“I just hope it isn’t a staple that sticks with us forever.”
“I don’t know, I rather like it,” Nathan said.
“You always had an odd palate, son,” his father said, “even as a child.”
“So, how are things going with the recovery?”
“The first of the decon plants went into operation yesterday,” his father said. “There will be at least a dozen more going online by the end of the month.”
“That sounds pretty good.”
“It will take hundreds of them,” his father pointed out.
“Maybe, but considering it’s only been a few weeks now…”
“Of course. Of course. I shouldn’t be complaining,” the president said. “It is hard to be patient when there is so much that needs to be done.”
“I know the feeling,” Nathan said. “You should see our repair lists.”
“Pretty bad, huh?”
“We’ve had worse,” Nathan said as he took another bite of molo. “Not as bad as the Celestia, though. She’ll be in port for months, maybe a year. It depends on how quickly the Karuzara repair parties can get their own facilities fixed up.”
“Have you heard from them recently?” his father wondered.
“We get daily updates by comm-jumpers,” Nathan explained. “They appear to be ahead of schedule, but it will take them weeks just to get to the same condition they were in when they had first arrived, let alone what they were planning on already having done by now.”
“You’re not worried about another Jung attack?” his father asked.
“Not really. We’ve established with reasonable certainty that there are no Jung assets within ten light years of Sol. The closest ones are at Tau Ceti. So we’re confident that we have at least six months of peace and quiet.”
“We can certainly use it,” his father said, holding up a piece of molo on his fork.
* * *
For the first time that he could remember, Nathan entered t
he flight briefing room not as the speaker, but as a member of the audience. No longer was everything on his shoulders, and it felt good.
It was also the first time that everyone in the room was wearing the same uniform, and a common patch on their right shoulder, that of the Alliance.
Nathan took a seat in the front row between Jessica and Vladimir. Behind them was Commander Willard, Nathan’s XO, and Commander Telles of the Ghatazhak.
“This is different,” Jessica whispered as Nathan took his seat.
“But nice,” Nathan whispered back. Nathan glanced about the room. Cameron and her XO, Commander Kovacic were sitting to the other side of Jessica. On the far side of the aisle were all three Scout ship captains, Poc, Roselle, and Nash, as well as their XOs, all of them having just returned from recon and patrol missions.
The last two to enter the room were Majors Prechitt and McCullum, the commanders of the Aurora’s two fighter wings, or what little was left of them.
“Attention on deck!” Sergeant Weatherly barked from the entrance as Admiral Dumar entered the room. All in attendance rose smartly to their feet and came to attention, eyes forward.
“As you were,” Admiral Dumar ordered as he took the podium.
It was the first time that Nathan had seen Dumar in the standard EDF duty uniform that had been adopted by the Alliance due to its availability.
“As this may be one of the few times that the command personnel of all ships will be in the same room together,” the admiral began, “I’d like to take the opportunity to have an open discussion about our future plans on how to deal with the Jung threat that looms over all the worlds of this Alliance. However, first, I think I should outline the facts as we know them. Fact one; the Jung likely have near one hundred warships of varying size and strength. Fact two; the Jung have numerous fully industrialized worlds, complete with massive populations with which to support their military might. Fact three; the Jung have made it quite obvious that they wish to take the Earth as their seat of power. Fact four; the Alliance does not have the ships, manpower, or industrial base to go toe-to-toe with the Jung. Fact five; we have the jump drive. Let us all understand this one thing… As much of an advantage as the jump drive has proven itself to be, it alone is not enough to win this war. Even if all five of our ships were repaired and retrofitted with the best armaments and shields, and fully loaded with fighters, shuttles, and interceptors, we would still be no match for the Jung. Our ships, our weapons, our jump drives, are all operated and maintained by people. People need food, people need water, people need health care, people need uniforms… And the list goes on. What we need are those fully industrialized and populated worlds that the Jung have.”
Admiral Dumar looked at the people in the room as he took a sip of water. “I have reviewed Captain Scott’s original idea to rid space of all Jung ships within twenty light years of Earth. While this plan would give the Earth, and by extension the Alliance, at least a full year without threat of Jung attack, it leaves out a critical factor. Once you destroy all Jung ships within a system, what happens to that system? Do the Jung know who attacked them? Or do they blame the inhabitants of that system? While I suspect that the Jung will know that it was an outside force that attacked them, and not the local inhabitants, if you destroy their ships in orbit, what will the troops on the ground do?”
Admiral Dumar cleared his throat. “If we are to destroy the ships that occupy their systems, we must also destroy the forces that control their worlds. In essence, we must liberate such worlds. Within that twenty light year sphere there are eight fully industrialized worlds. The six core worlds of Earth, and two of the secondary worlds. This has been confirmed by our Scout ships over the last few weeks. It is these worlds that we must liberate, and make our allies against the Jung.”
“If the Jung forces are so superior in number and support, how are we supposed to liberate those worlds?” Commander Kovacic asked. “If you’re talking about a ground war, you’re talking about a lot of logistics. Even if we had the supplies, we don’t have the ships to get them to the battlefield.”
“In answer to your question, Commander, those logistical problems can be mostly negated by creative use of jump drive technology.” Admiral Dumar looked at the faces in the room. “To all questions there are answers,” he said confidently, “it is just a matter of finding them. Now that we have some time to look, we shall find them.”
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Episode 13
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The Frontiers Saga
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