of housing labs, offices, recreation areas, and, of course, observation decks.
They came to a large and heavily reinforced door, with biometric scanners active. Ton felt his implants respond automatically to the computer’s handshake request, and the door began to open without comment from either him or the lieutenant.
If the curving corridor wasn’t enough to throw him off, the room beyond would be. He stepped out onto what seemed to be a catwalk, though as he looked a bit closer, it was clear that it was more of a suggestion than a required walkway. The floor around was transparent, probably transluminum or something stronger, he supposed.
Below his feet were two more decks built just the same, with people and equipment, but it was what was beyond that that gave him chills.
Open space, right under his feet as far as he could tell, and so very far below he could make out the running rights of the America herself.
Amazing.
“Admiral, this is Major Washington. He’ll be your primary field op.”
“Ah, excellent, thank you, Meadows. Stay close, if you don’t mind, we won’t be long.”
“Planned to, sir,” Lieutenant Meadows answered before turning to Ton. “I’ll be right over in the lounge there when you need me.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Washington managed to get out without sounding too stunned, he hoped.
The admiral turned to him after Meadows had left and gestured deeper into the room. “Walk with me a moment, Major.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m sure that you’re wondering about the absence of the Terra and the Canada,” Fairbairn said as they walked.
“It’d crossed my mind, sir.”
“Yes, well, I’ll supply you with a full report to your local inbox, but the short of it is that they went through the jump point to the next system to shut the front door,” the admiral said. “Something we’d hoped to avoid, but circumstances made necessary. Those same circumstances will, unfortunately, almost certainly put your team into the thick of things faster than we had hoped.”
“We’re good to go, sir.”
“I have no doubt. For the immediate future, Hayden is…or should be, reasonably secure. Unfortunately, the way we acted to ensure that security has our defensive plans somewhat more… complicated.” The admiral sighed. “Before, we knew where they were going to come from. There was only one direct route, and all other routes were…impractical, at best. The actions of Captain Richmond, the Terra, and the Canada will have forced the enemy to consider those as possible alternatives.”
“Then why did they shut the door as you said, sir?” Ton asked, curious.
“Because even with the advantage of knowing where they’d come from, there are limits to what we could stop, limits that the enemy
wildly
surpassed,” Admiral Fairbarin said, lips curling up. “Better to draw them into a war of attrition than to lose everything in one glorious battle, I’m afraid.”
“Understood, sir.”
“What that means is that as soon as I can scrounge up a few more ships to cover Hayden, we’ll be taking most of TF-7 out through one of the other jump points and begin running strike against known enemy installations between here and where we suspect they’ll be coming from,” Fairbairn replied. “If all goes well for the Terra and the Canada, they’ll be working their way back towards us doing much the same thing. The idea will be to bleed off their resources as they’re forced to respond to requests for help, as well as to deny them resupply from any of those locations.”
Ton nodded, he understood the strategy well enough.
“Do we have intel on the assets we’ll be striking at?”
“Some,” the admiral said, before admitting, “Not enough. Most are probably listening posts, but we know there are a couple resupply depots that Task Force Five never got a chance to service, and we have extremely high EF and GF readings from a system we’ve barely mapped, so that could be something
They came to a large and heavily reinforced door, with biometric scanners active. Ton felt his implants respond automatically to the computer’s handshake request, and the door began to open without comment from either him or the lieutenant.
If the curving corridor wasn’t enough to throw him off, the room beyond would be. He stepped out onto what seemed to be a catwalk, though as he looked a bit closer, it was clear that it was more of a suggestion than a required walkway. The floor around was transparent, probably transluminum or something stronger, he supposed.
Below his feet were two more decks built just the same, with people and equipment, but it was what was beyond that that gave him chills.
Open space, right under his feet as far as he could tell, and so very far below he could make out the running rights of the America herself.
Amazing.
“Admiral, this is Major Washington. He’ll be your primary field op.”
“Ah, excellent, thank you, Meadows. Stay close, if you don’t mind, we won’t be long.”
“Planned to, sir,” Lieutenant Meadows answered before turning to Ton. “I’ll be right over in the lounge there when you need me.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Washington managed to get out without sounding too stunned, he hoped.
The admiral turned to him after Meadows had left and gestured deeper into the room. “Walk with me a moment, Major.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m sure that you’re wondering about the absence of the Terra and the Canada,” Fairbairn said as they walked.
“It’d crossed my mind, sir.”
“Yes, well, I’ll supply you with a full report to your local inbox, but the short of it is that they went through the jump point to the next system to shut the front door,” the admiral said. “Something we’d hoped to avoid, but circumstances made necessary. Those same circumstances will, unfortunately, almost certainly put your team into the thick of things faster than we had hoped.”
“We’re good to go, sir.”
“I have no doubt. For the immediate future, Hayden is…or should be, reasonably secure. Unfortunately, the way we acted to ensure that security has our defensive plans somewhat more… complicated.” The admiral sighed. “Before, we knew where they were going to come from. There was only one direct route, and all other routes were…impractical, at best. The actions of Captain Richmond, the Terra, and the Canada will have forced the enemy to consider those as possible alternatives.”
“Then why did they shut the door as you said, sir?” Ton asked, curious.
“Because even with the advantage of knowing where they’d come from, there are limits to what we could stop, limits that the enemy
wildly
surpassed,” Admiral Fairbarin said, lips curling up. “Better to draw them into a war of attrition than to lose everything in one glorious battle, I’m afraid.”
“Understood, sir.”
“What that means is that as soon as I can scrounge up a few more ships to cover Hayden, we’ll be taking most of TF-7 out through one of the other jump points and begin running strike against known enemy installations between here and where we suspect they’ll be coming from,” Fairbairn replied. “If all goes well for the Terra and the Canada, they’ll be working their way back towards us doing much the same thing. The idea will be to bleed off their resources as they’re forced to respond to requests for help, as well as to deny them resupply from any of those locations.”
Ton nodded, he understood the strategy well enough.
“Do we have intel on the assets we’ll be striking at?”
“Some,” the admiral said, before admitting, “Not enough. Most are probably listening posts, but we know there are a couple resupply depots that Task Force Five never got a chance to service, and we have extremely high EF and GF readings from a system we’ve barely mapped, so that could be something
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