Operation Hammerhead - 18. Stonegarden

Task Force Hammerhead

Checkpoint Point Able

Saratoga

The pilots and crews of the Saratoga’s embarked squadrons, the VF-122 Diamond Backs, were all crowded into the pilot’s briefing room to hear Admiral Tanaka’s address to the strike wings all across the task force. His image was on the large view screen in the front of the compartment:

“We have all trained for this for months. We’ve waited for this moment for years. We do not know what we will be facing soon so remember your training. We may have to change our plans on the fly. All of our strike wings will be loaded out with the new ten kiloton ship killers.

As soon as we are in the Stonegarden system, all bets are off. We will be in sustained combat. Pay attention to your squadron leaders and controllers. We need to stay coordinated because the last thing we want is a confused mess.

Very soon now we will be launching two flights of Ravens from the Yorktown and Saratoga to do reconnaissance of the battle space.

Good luck and good hunting.”

Tanaka’s image disappeared and was replaced by Commander Crash McDonald in his role as the Saratoga’s CAG. “All right Diamond Backs. It’s showtime. Spooky one and two, get to the flight line. I want the rest of you all at status ready five.”

Lt. Tom Rivers stood up and said in a commanding voice, “I’ll be your forward controller today; call sign India Romeo. You heard the man. You know the plan. Now let’s move it Diamond Backs!”

Spooky One

Lt. Valerie Shaw and her electronic warfare officer Chief Warrant Officer Butch O’Hara began running their pre-flight checklist as soon as they entered the cockpit of their mat black Raven reconnaissance bird. Thankfully, the Raven’s automation made that a mere formality. The ship's computer ran a quick system diagnostic and announced all the little ship's systems healthy.

Shaw powered up the Raven, keyed her mike on the flight control circuit and said, “Spooky One to flight, we are good to go.”

“Copy Spooky one. Hyper-space projectors charging, thirty seconds. Stand by for coordinates from plot.”

A second voice came back, “Spooky One, this is Plot. Your destination, return and return alternates have been uploaded. Please confirm.”

O’Hara checked his boards and gave his pilot thumbs up.

“Roger Plot, we have the coordinates.”

“Spooky One, projectors are charged. Three…two…one.”

The hyperspace projector opened a jump point and the Saratoga’s catapult threw the Raven into the jump at a velocity of one kilometer per second.

After a blink, the Raven emerged ten light minutes north of the plane of the Stonegarden system.

O’Hara said, “Systems check, we are EMCON Black (emission condition black). We’re just a hole in space.”

Shaw rode the inertia of the catapult shot avoiding using any thrusters. The Raven was equipped with the most advanced passive sensor suite Alliance technology could build recording every electronic signal ships in the system below them were emitting.

Shaw asked, “Any contacts?”

O’Hara answered without taking his eyes off the board, “Shit tons of contacts but none of them are close. One of those big motherships is down there emitting like a blow torch.”

Shaw applied a little stick to keep the Raven's belly sensors aligned with the area of interest. She asked, “You want me to trail the array?”

O’Hara said, “I’ve got it.” He turned a switch cover back, enabled the towed array and a kilometer long nano fiber cable with millions of phased receiver elements began to trail out behind the ship. It took several minutes to unwind, but it significantly improved the resolution of the passive sensors.

As the Raven followed its programmed course, its sensors absorbed every stray photon, examined it, looked at its quantum phase, tested its modulation, attempted to associate it with other signals and checked a database of enemy electronic signatures.

Every ship had an electronic signature and the Toasters were noisier than most. A specialist like O’Hara could create a detailed picture of what was down there. He did not like the picture the data was painting at all. He worked his board and began to sweat despite the cool air of the Raven’s cockpit.

The electronic intelligence (ELINT) analysis computer was pinging like an old-fashioned pin-ball machine with extra balls in play and a couple of them trapped in extra-bonus territory. O’Hara was reading the signatures of every known unit in the enemy inventory plus a dozen or more no one had seen yet.

Shaw spoke up, “We are coming up on thirteen minutes. Reel in the tail, we jump in ninety seconds.”

O’Hara did as requested and the long antenna began to reel in. Thirty seconds later it was stored away.

Shaw said, “Jump coordinates set. One minute away.”

The Raven was too small for the sort of power plant that would allow it to jump under its own power. Instead, it had a small jump drive that was powered by a disposable capacitor that would discharge and power exactly one jump.

Right on time, Spooky One jumped back to the Task Force position.

Shaw announced, “Jump successful. I have the Sara’s beacon.”

O’Hara, the boss of all things electronic aboard the Raven ordered, “EMCON yellow (Emission Condition, restricted), clear for comms.”

Shaw opened her mike and said, “Spooky One to Sierra Alpha control, mission success. We have your beacon and request approach instructions.”

“Welcome back Spooky One. Squawk your transponder and take priority alpha approach.”

Task Force Hammerhead

Checkpoint Point Able

Repulse

Admiral Bassett looked at the take from the recon birds that had just returned from their primary and secondary targets. There was so much enemy activity at Stonegarden it was incredible. When the analysts took the four sets of data and crunched the numbers returned from Stonegarden, they were astonished. There was something on the order of sixty-five hundred unique operating vessel signatures identified. Worse still, there were multiple instances of sixteen unique signatures no one had ever seen before.

Bassett asked the other admirals on the channel, “Does anyone know why there is something on the order of one hundred times the enemy strength we were expecting sitting on our primary objective?”

There was silence for a moment and Tanaka said, “We were warned by Sokolsky to expect much larger forces than were projected Ministry of Defense or Naval Intelligence estimates.”

Bassett said, “Can you get him on the channel? If we’re reading this right, there’s enough hardware around Stonegarden to burn down everything from here to Earth.”

Sokolsky joined the conversation and said, “How can I help Admiral?”

Tanaka said, “We have just received the take from this morning’s reconnaissance of Stonegarden. Take a look at it.”

With Tanaka’s authorization Sokolsky was able to unlock the data that had just arrived. He looked at the numbers and said, “That’s on the upper end of my estimates, but it’s not a huge surprise sir.”

Bassett asked, “Mr. Sokolsky, why are the Ministry and Naval Intelligence threat assessments so badly flawed?”

Sokolsky said, “There are many possible answers. Some analysts may have badly underestimated the resources and productivity of the enemy. Others might have badly botched the statistical model. Even my numbers are low if this is a good count on the enemy fleet. However, there may be another answer entirely.”

Admiral Stewart said, “What are you getting at Commander?”

Sokolsky said, “I think the numbers were cooked for one of two possible reasons. Either the analysts created a report the brass wanted to see, or they underestimated enemy strength for political purposes.”

Bassett was silent for a moment and Tanaka said, “You know boss if this fleet got badly mauled, there would be a no confidence vote in Parliament. It might even flip the government.”

Stewart said, “It would damn sure flip the government. Do you remember who got behind this operation in the senate and pushed?”

Bassett said, “It was Senator Okana’s faction.”

Stewart finished the thought, “…and he dropped dead about the same time we left Capella. Jesus wept. We’ve been set up.”

Sokolsky spoke up, “Gentlemen, we still have our Sunday punch. Their numbers don’t really matter. In fact, having such a large concentration of them all in one place makes it a lot easier for us.”

Bassett asked, “Will it really be that devastating for them?”

Sokolsky answered, “Yes. The Toasters are trans-dimensional. What we see of them exists in our time-space. The rest of them exist in subspace. They can’t run. They can’t hide. When we pop an EMP bomb in subspace, it will be devastating for them.”

Tanaka said, “We still need to be careful with a force that size. We can jump in thirty light-minutes out from the objective, pop an enhanced radiation bomb in subspace and send in a couple of recon birds to see what kind of damage we did.”

“Caution is called for”, Sokolsky stated reasonably. “Let’s just don’t give them a lot of time to recover. Remember— no one will be able to safely jump for at least ten minutes after we pop the ERDs. Subspace will be too disrupted. We have to give it time for the effect to dissipate.”

Bassett said, “OK. That sounds reasonable. Mr. Sokolsky: about your Sunday punch. Are you certain?”

“Yes sir. Stonegarden will be Alliance territory again today.”

Bassett nodded and said, “So much of this is riding on you Danny. If this works out, when we get back to Alliance territory, you can write your own ticket.”

The Boss wasn’t done. He said, “Sam, when we have a moment, I want to talk to Gorman. If we can’t trust naval intelligence, I want to hear from the Marines.”

Admiral Stewart said, “Aye sir. Your orders?”

Bassett asked, “We’re ready to jump?”

Sokolsky said, “The fleet can jump in a matter of minutes.”

Tanaka and Stewart nodded their agreement.

“These are my orders—“, Bassett said with resolve. “We jump into the Checkpoint Bravo. Sokolsky launches his Sunday punch. We charge our jump engines while we wait out the hyperspace disruption. Depending on what we see, we’ll jump in and destroy anything around Stonegarden, or we’ll jump out and rethink. Any questions or comments?”

Sokolsky said, “From Checkpoint Bravo, we will be able to see what has happened by the time the hyperspace disruption has passed. We won’t need a recon flight.”

Bassett nodded and said, “Very well, I will pass the orders to the fleet, and we go. Good luck gentlemen.

Bassett changed channels to the fleet-wide circuit, “Hammerhead Actual to fleet, prepare to jump to Checkpoint Bravo in thirty seconds.”

Aboard the Saratoga, the ship went from general quarters to battle stations. All airtight hatches slammed shut and locked. Key areas of the ship were purged of oxygen and refilled with nitrogen. The usual white lights were replaced with red battle lights and the officers and crews’ battle dress nanotech changed from their usual configuration to pressure suits. The same changes were made across the fleet as the seconds counted down.

When the countdown reached zero the fleet jumped.

Sokolsky immediately started the macro that would bring the fleet's telescopes to bear on the target. Next he started the macro that would charge the number one hyperspace projector and stopped as he saw the telescopic image of the vicinity of the planet.

Sailing majestically in orbit of Stonegarden was one of the thirty kilometer mother ships that had not been seen since the very start of the war.

Sokolsky keyed his mike, “TACO, this is PLOT, load a FB10 in projector two, prep for immediate launch.”

As he was handling the loading of the fusion bomb, 10 Megatons, he was also calculating the coordinates and programming the number two hyperspace projector. He was going to put it inside the mothership.

Ten seconds later the TACO responded, “FB10 loaded and ready on projector two.”

Sokolsky didn’t even try to time it. He used his implants for all they were worth. Projector two opened a jump point somewhere inside the enemy mothership and the standard missile with a ten megaton warhead leap off the rail and into the jump point which closed instantly.

Microseconds later, hyperspace projector one opened a single-ended jump point into subspace and a standard missile with an ERD-79e warhead flew in and the entry point closed.

According to every sensor on the task force ships, nothing appeared to happen. Ten light minutes away, the results of Sokolsky’s fire mission landed on the enemy like a supernova.

Task Force Mako

254 μ Lyra System

Eighty Light Years Away

Admiral Ed Cunningham’s Task Force Mako was in a running gun battle with a large enemy fleet. More precisely, the enemy was gunning and Mako was running.

The task force jumped into the 254 μ Lyra system, fired a devastating missile barrage at the enemy base in the system blowing most of it into radioactive scrap and was now running clear of the planet's gravity well.

Almost as soon as the attack had landed, a large enemy fleet had jumped into the system in response.

On the bridge of Cunningham’s flagship, the Alaska, the ship's engineer raised an alarmed voice, “Captain Sullivan, something is wrong. Our jump points aren’t forming!”

Sullivan asked, “What could cause that?”

The astrogator answered, “Hyper-nova, some exotic deep space phenomena like a gamma ray burst— we don’t really know enough about subspace to say for sure. It happens occasionally. I just can’t recall it happening at a more inconvenient time.”

Captain Sullivan growled, “Goddammit! Dump the jump capacitors; it looks like we’re going to have to fight this one out Admiral.”

“Wait a minute”, the astrogator interjected. “Something is wrong with the enemy fleet. Look at the sensors. They are running ballistic and aren’t under power.”

The command group looked at the sensors cautiously. Their astrogator was right. The enemy fleet chasing them was running on inertia. There were no active systems showing on their scans. No propulsion, no sensors, no charged weapons systems.

Cunningham said, “Someone just gave us a gift. Change the fleet’s course thirty degrees to starboard and then come back to our original heading then cut speed by one third. Let them come alongside us.”

As Cunningham’s orders went out, the enemy fleet began to crawl forward and parallel to TF Mako’s course.

Captain Sullivan said, “Well I’ll be damned.”

Admiral Sullivan grinned and said, “Weapons. Warm up the guns. You may indulge yourself. All ships open fire.”

The broadsides of the TF Mako’s cruisers and destroyers tore the enemy ships to pieces.

Task Force Hammerhead

Checkpoint Point Bravo

Repulse

The fleet’s command team watched the light speed delayed image of the enemy fleet orbiting Stonegarden nervously. There seemed to be enough enemy ships in orbit to walk from Stonegarden to the next planet out.

Finally, the light from the results of their attack arrived in a blinding white fireball of a fusion explosion as the enemy mothership exploded and took everything within a few hundred kilometers nearby with her.

At the same time a wave of destruction washed over the enemy fleet as their onboard systems overloaded and fried by the subspace surge. Some ships exploded as their power plants lost containment. Most of them simply went dead in space.

It started with a roar aboard the Repulse and spread to the rest of the fleet. The officers and men of Task Force Hammerhead knew they had just struck the blow that would win the war.

There would certainly be some painful mopping up to do, but the Alliance had found their robotic enemies Achilles heel.

Task Force Great White

Pacifica System

Admiral Chou aboard the battle cruiser Courageous jumped into the outskirts of the Pacifica system. It was the first time since the war had begun that any Alliance ships had dared to enter the system.

The fast cruisers and destroyers of the small task force gathered as much speed as they could to make a dash through the inner system. Nothing came out to challenge them.

Chou paced nervously through his ship's flag bridge and watched the sensor repeater plots with his own eyes. The Pacifica system had bristled with enemy defenses, but so far, they hadn’t even spotted one of the enemy’s ubiquitous Bumblebee class scavenger bots.

Louis Warren, Chou’s flag captain arrived at the flag bridge and said, “Our ELINT guys are saying they aren’t hearing a peep out of the Toasters.”

Chou said, “I thought all of their electronic noise was the one thing they had been consistent about.”

Warren looked at the plot and said, “In a few hours we’re going to get a good look at the inner system.”

Task Force Hammerhead

Check Point Charlie

India Romeo

Lt. Tom River’s job in the holographic tank of the Spectra command ship was coordinating the demolition of the enemy ships drifting dead in space.

The big fleet carriers were launching Tornado strike fighters and Warhammer bombers in strike packages of six with an Aurora electronic warfare bird attached. The Hurricane superiority fighter groups of the fleet carriers and the strike groups of the light carriers were being held in reserve in case of surprises.

As the enemy fleet seemed dead as a hammer, it almost seemed a waste of good missiles. After the first wave, none of the strike groups were armed with nukes to save them for a rainy day. All the missiles were the standard Lancer and LongBow ship killers, and they were doing a perfectly fine job of blowing the enemy hulks apart.

Even the Raven spy birds were getting a workout. There were many enemy ship types drifting in the anchorage no one had seen yet. The Ravens were tasked with getting high-resolution scans of the enemy’s next-generation hardware.

Rivers was interrupted when his headset came to life, “India Romeo, this is Raider-one, are you monitoring the civilian guard channel?”

Raider-one made that one of Kaga's, also known as the Big-K, senior pilots. Rivers answered, “Negative Raider-one, something interesting on guard?”

“India Romeo, it’s a coded Alliance signal like a beacon, but I haven’t got the gear to read it.”

“Roger Raider-one. I’ll see what I can do with the signal.”

It was times like these that Tom found his implants to be invaluable. As he controlled hundreds of strike craft, he handed the signal and frequency off to the Spectra’s computers. It didn’t take long. It was a standard Alliance beacon coming from Stonegarden. There were survivors on the planet.

Task Force Great White

Pacifica System

BC Courageous

Task Force Great White built speed and gained a gravity assist from the gas giant Titan in the outer Pacifica system. They were moving fast and making a dive at the planet where the robotic invasion had begun.

As Pacifica came into optical range, the enemy mother ship orbiting the planet came into easy view. The closer they got, the more targets resolved, but nothing at all was moving in the system.

Admiral Chou switched on the fleet wide channel and said, “Great White Actual to fleet: lock up priority targets and save some missiles for the mothership. We’re going to take that big bastard out with a C-fractional missile strike.”

The officers on the flag bridge all grinned evilly. No one had done this before. Missile strikes at a significant fraction of light speed would be spectacular.

The Tactical Officer said, “Request permission to drop a drone for battle damage assessment.”

It was Chou’s turn to grin. “Well of course TaCo. We’ll want some pictures to remember this one by. If you would be so kind as to build a fire plan and send it to the fleet, and empty the magazines. We don’t get extra points for taking ordnance home.”

Task Force Hammerhead

Check Point Charlie

Yorktown

“Admiral Tanaka, You need to see this sir.”

Tanaka turned his attention away from the flight ops to another screen displaying Sokolsky’s face.

“What is it Danny?”

“We’ve got over two hundred survivors on the planet. They have a few shuttles and are asking for help with the rest.”

Tanaka sighed. “OK. I’ll talk to the Boss, and we’ll see what we can get organized.”

Tanaka opened a link with Bassett and Stewart and said, “We just got a message from Stonegarden. We’ve got survivors down there, and they need a lift.”

Bassett said, “Sounds like a job for the Marines.” He opened a channel to General Barrett on the Okinawa.

General Barrett answered the communications request immediately, “How can I help Admiral?”

Bassett said, “We just got word there are civilians still alive down on Stonegarden requesting extraction. Sounds like a job for the Marines.”

The General said, “Certainly sir. I’d like to move the Guam down to make the pickup. She’s got the best hospital facilities. Can you cut loose some close escorts for her?”

Admiral Steward said, “Can do. I’ll send the Canberra and Atlanta and some 1^st Destroyer squadron tin cans to provide escort.”

Tanaka added, “We’ll have a squadron of Hurricanes watching your back.”

Task Force Mako

254 μ Lyra System

BC Alaska

Admiral Cunningham sat exhausted in his chair on the flag bridge of his task force. His ship's magazines were empty but every trace of enemy presence in the system had been smashed into wreckage.

Captain Sullivan arrived with a steward in tow with coffee and sandwiches for the officers on the flag bridge.

After years of fighting an enemy that just kept coming, smashing one of their systems with a scratch built task force of cruisers and destroyers was a shock to their system.

Sullivan handed the Admiral a cup of coffee and said, “We’ve been fighting the Toasters for years Ed. What the hell just happened?”

Cunningham shook his head. “I don’t know Pat. I thought we might hurt them with this big operation we’re running but no one saw a collapse coming. I guess someone killed the king Toaster.”

“What will we do with ourselves now Ed?”

The Admiral chuckled and said, “First I’m going to have a drink, and then I suppose I’ll think of something.”

Task Force Great White

Pacifica System

BC Courageous

Admiral Chou’s task force was already on a parabolic course out of the Pacifica system when waves of ship launched missiles began striking targets in orbit of the planet where the war had begun.

The missiles already had the velocity imparted by the fast-moving ships. Their onboard propulsion ramped their speed up to .3C or almost a third of light speed. The kinetic energy imparted when they hit their targets and their warheads blew the mother ship and largest enemy combatants into what in coming months would become a big metallic ring around the planet.

Admiral Chou ordered Task Force Great White to jump back to Omicron Ceti as soon as they were clear of the Pacifica system's gravity well. His ships had emptied their missile magazines and someone needed to report that the enemy they had fought with for so long and at such cost was in a state of general collapse.

Fleet Adjunct 39-12

Interstellar Space

Primary Processor: Failure

Communications: Failure

Stand by processor: active

Primary Memory: 39% corrupt

Loading Protected Backup

Loading Base Programming…

Start local AI

AI: local control

Command mode: local

Contingency: Super-nova recovery protocol

Squadron command: Execute self-diagnostic and repair

Return to the nearest base for extensive repairs

Task Group Guam

Stonegarden Orbit

It took some hours for the small task group formed around the Guam to make its way down from the Check Point Charlie assembly area to a polar orbit around Stonegarden.

Debris from the destruction of the enemy fleet was a constant hazard. The cruisers Canberra and Atlanta in company with the destroyers Dale, Monson and Sutherland point defenses were busy.

The evacuation mission was assigned to 6^th of the 1^st Marine Regiment’s Recon Company. Two platoons were assigned to four AS-70 assault shuttles covered by a flight of four Thor atmospheric attack shuttles.

Captain Blaine Jamison was overall mission commander aboard the shuttle Mad Maxine. Each platoon had a Lieutenant as platoon leader and a Sergeant. The senior enlisted was a crusty old Gunnery Sergeant named Baxter. If he had ever had a first name, no one seemed to know it.

When Guam reached the optimal drop window, the four big shuttles and their escorts dropped out of the belly of the Guam, turned on their atmospheric entry vector and took the fifteen-minute flight down to the surface.

On the way down they could see the glittering broken glass texture of the surface of Stonegarden. At some point in its distant past, a giant asteroid had nearly blown the super-earth planet apart. It had managed to remove the crust and much of the planet's mantle leaving only the solid core of the planet in a landscape so unique it was famous throughout the Alliance. Giant crystals had grown leaving the surface rough and jagged terrain, glittering in the G4 dwarf primaries light.

As the shuttles approached the facility the miners were holed up in, they flew over what was obviously an enemy installation. It sprawled over several square kilometers with odd-looking dome shaped buildings. The flight crews remembered to breathe again after they had passed over the strange structures and no threat warnings had gone off.

Jamison’s headset crackled to life, “Gunny for the Captain.”

“Go Gunny.”

“Does it feel like we’re forgetting something sir?”

“I don’t know Gunny. You tell me.”

“One of the missions the Recon platoons were assigned in the ConFed War was Intelligence Exploitation. It was a different sort of war, but; that enemy tech sitting down there? It has got to be a gold mine of technology.”

Jamison was silent for a moment and said, “You’re right Gunny. I’ll talk to the Colonel when we get the civilians back to Guam. I can’t believe we staged an operation this size and just forgot that part.”

The shuttle pilot interrupted the conversation, “Two minutes to the LZ. I’ve got them on the guard channel, and they are ready to move most riki-tic.”

Mad Maxine came down just about dusk local time. The mining operation actually had a pressurized hanger, but it could only handle two of the big assault shuttles at a time.

The civilians were motivated and well led. They were already divided into groups of fifty and boarded the shuttle almost immediately upon touchdown. From skids-down to take off, assault shuttles Mad Maxine and her sister Bossy Betty were on the ground less than six minutes. The next round was a little slower getting off the ground, but the pickup was accomplished in fifteen minutes.

As the shuttles Luscious Liz and Naughty Nancy were taking off, another shuttle lifted and joined the pattern.

A strange voice came over the radio, “Marine flight, this is Dixie-two-two-niner. Flight of one joining on your six.”

Jamison immediately recognized the Dixie call sign as belonging to the DESERD Corporation. He keyed his mike and said, “Dixie-two-two-niner, this is Bird-dog leader. Who is aboard and are you carrying any cargo?”

“Bird-dog leader, we have aboard the DESERD science staff and five years of research observing the Toasters. We also have samples of some ores the Toasters were very interested in and hardware we were able to liberate from time to time.”

Well now. That is interesting. “Roger Dixie-two-two-niner. Tuck into our flight and follow us up. Stand by on a side channel for navigation data transfer. Looking forward to hearing your story.”

Jamison changed channels, “Guam, this is Bird-dog. Pick up accomplished. We are plus one shuttle full of DESERD scientists and five years of research and observation of the Toasters. ETA to orbit is twenty minutes.”

Task Force Hammerhead

Checkpoint Charlie

Repulse

Alarms blared, and the Admiral looked up to see what was going on.

The TACO announced, “Enemy jump point detected fifteen light-minutes out. Two Javelin class carriers, four Condor class battle cruiser equivalents, ten Crow class light cruiser equivalents and twenty-two Locust class destroyer equivalents. At current course and speed, they will enter our weapons envelope in fifteen minutes.”

Admiral Bassett looked at the board and accessed the enemy fleet strength. It could get ugly, but the task force could take them.

He keyed the fleet wide mike and said, “Hammerhead Actual to fleet. We have incoming. Guam is still recovering civilians from the planet. We’re going to stop them right here. Launch the ready fighters, warm up the rest.”