defenses. There were too many missiles coming in too fast for the
guns to stop them all. The Union ships have already reached their closest point
and are now opening the range again. It looks like the attack here is over,
General.”
“Any
word from Makassar?” asked Trojan. Even as he asked the question, he knew the
answer. Makassar was too far away to get word of any attack this quickly.
“No
word of any attack, only routine stuff, but as you know, that’s hours old. Do
you need assistance, Sir? I can have an infantry platoon and half a dozen
personnel carriers on their way there in seconds.”
“I’m
fine, but I don’t know if anyone’s hurt at Site B. Send some medical and
engineering people there just in case. I’m heading back there now to see for
myself. Trojan out.”
The
trip back to the Project Admin Offices seemed to take forever. Trojan had
considered taking his recon craft there instead, but a quick glance when he
exited the control tower revealed the fact that the craft had been knocked on
its side by blast concussion and was damaged. What worried Trojan now was the
lack of communication with Site B. There could be any number of reasons for
that. Not all of them were serious, but some were.
The
only bright spot when the groundcar pulled up to the building entrance was the
fact that the storm was easing off now. Trojan was still soaked to the skin and
would very much have liked to head for his quarters and the dry uniforms he
knew were stored there, but that had to wait. Checking on his people came
first. It didn’t take long to find out that no one was seriously hurt. A few of
the construction crew had minor injuries. The Project Admin building itself was
more or less intact, although blast fragments had damaged the communications
array, which explained the loss of contact.
As
he stood shivering on the observation platform overlooking the valley, he could
see that he had under-estimated the extent of the damage to Majestic. Most of
the computer panels that hadn’t been blown apart were either bent out of shape,
knocked over completely, or had suffered punctures from flying debris and were
now being damaged by rainwater. If more than 10% of the installed computer
components were still salvageable, he’d be surprised. The whole project was
almost back to square one again. At least the manufacturing plant on Danube was
still running. All they had to do was keep it going longer than planned, and
eventually they could replace the lost equipment. The engineering staff had
already come up with an estimate of the delay, taking into consideration the
loss of the two freighters that would have been used to carry the replacement
parts to Hadley. Seven months. That meant it would be well into 2545 before
Majestic came online, and a lot could happen between now and then.
Chapter Five
SSU
cruiser Jutland:
Drake
breathed a sigh of relief as the distance between Jutland and the planet began
to widen. Oracle’s prediction that all mobile defenses would be protecting
Makassar appeared to be correct. The strike force had only been targeted by
ground-based anti-ship missiles, and due to the strike force’s high speed, none
of those had gotten close enough to be a threat. They hadn’t even had to fire
any of their own AMMs. That allowed them to keep their anti-missile capability
a secret. Drake doubted if any of the FED orbiting satellites were able to get
a close up visual image of the Union ships. If they had, they would have seen
the ring of external missile launchers that resembled a belt of bullets on each
ship. With 377 external launchers, each one containing an anti-missile missile,
the upgraded patrol cruisers had a decent amount of defensive capability, and
with half of the AMMs pointing to the rear, it was just as easy to defend
against missile attack from behind as from the front. One drawback was that
each external missile launch tube had to be reloaded manually
guns to stop them all. The Union ships have already reached their closest point
and are now opening the range again. It looks like the attack here is over,
General.”
“Any
word from Makassar?” asked Trojan. Even as he asked the question, he knew the
answer. Makassar was too far away to get word of any attack this quickly.
“No
word of any attack, only routine stuff, but as you know, that’s hours old. Do
you need assistance, Sir? I can have an infantry platoon and half a dozen
personnel carriers on their way there in seconds.”
“I’m
fine, but I don’t know if anyone’s hurt at Site B. Send some medical and
engineering people there just in case. I’m heading back there now to see for
myself. Trojan out.”
The
trip back to the Project Admin Offices seemed to take forever. Trojan had
considered taking his recon craft there instead, but a quick glance when he
exited the control tower revealed the fact that the craft had been knocked on
its side by blast concussion and was damaged. What worried Trojan now was the
lack of communication with Site B. There could be any number of reasons for
that. Not all of them were serious, but some were.
The
only bright spot when the groundcar pulled up to the building entrance was the
fact that the storm was easing off now. Trojan was still soaked to the skin and
would very much have liked to head for his quarters and the dry uniforms he
knew were stored there, but that had to wait. Checking on his people came
first. It didn’t take long to find out that no one was seriously hurt. A few of
the construction crew had minor injuries. The Project Admin building itself was
more or less intact, although blast fragments had damaged the communications
array, which explained the loss of contact.
As
he stood shivering on the observation platform overlooking the valley, he could
see that he had under-estimated the extent of the damage to Majestic. Most of
the computer panels that hadn’t been blown apart were either bent out of shape,
knocked over completely, or had suffered punctures from flying debris and were
now being damaged by rainwater. If more than 10% of the installed computer
components were still salvageable, he’d be surprised. The whole project was
almost back to square one again. At least the manufacturing plant on Danube was
still running. All they had to do was keep it going longer than planned, and
eventually they could replace the lost equipment. The engineering staff had
already come up with an estimate of the delay, taking into consideration the
loss of the two freighters that would have been used to carry the replacement
parts to Hadley. Seven months. That meant it would be well into 2545 before
Majestic came online, and a lot could happen between now and then.
Chapter Five
SSU
cruiser Jutland:
Drake
breathed a sigh of relief as the distance between Jutland and the planet began
to widen. Oracle’s prediction that all mobile defenses would be protecting
Makassar appeared to be correct. The strike force had only been targeted by
ground-based anti-ship missiles, and due to the strike force’s high speed, none
of those had gotten close enough to be a threat. They hadn’t even had to fire
any of their own AMMs. That allowed them to keep their anti-missile capability
a secret. Drake doubted if any of the FED orbiting satellites were able to get
a close up visual image of the Union ships. If they had, they would have seen
the ring of external missile launchers that resembled a belt of bullets on each
ship. With 377 external launchers, each one containing an anti-missile missile,
the upgraded patrol cruisers had a decent amount of defensive capability, and
with half of the AMMs pointing to the rear, it was just as easy to defend
against missile attack from behind as from the front. One drawback was that
each external missile launch tube had to be reloaded manually
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