Europa Strike(53)

“Got a few ideas about that, sir. I have some people looking into it.”

“Anything else?”

“Two spare A-M power plants in the bugs. We’re not hurting for power. Oh! Almost forgot, yeah. Two of those SDV Mantas we were bringing in for Project Icebreaker.”

Jeff frowned, remembering those incredible explosions of light and life deep beneath the surface of the sea off the Bahamian coast. “I’m afraid Icebreaker is going to be on hold for a while, until we sort out the Chinese problem.” He thought for a moment. “Still, you might have our supply people go over them, and make a note of useful electronic components, computers, control boards, that sort of thing. If we need spare parts, we might cannibalize them.”

“Aye, aye, sir. I’ll need to detail a crew to offload ’em from the supply bug, though. I guess we could put ’em in Storage Twelve.”

“Do it. So, with rationing, we eat for four weeks. Any other likely shortages?”

“Just one.”

“What’s that?”

“Marines,” Kaminski said. “We have a Chinese ship hot-footing it our way. I don’t know what she’s carrying in the way of troops and weapons, but you can bet it’s at least the equivalent of the Roosey. Before too long, we could find ourselves outnumbered three, maybe four to one.”

“Or worse,” Jeff said. “Intelligence said they were coming on a minimum-t intercept. They could be here in four days.”

“Sounds like they’re in one hell of a hurry.”

“Yes it does, doesn’t it? HQ thinks they’re trying to get in here and do their dirt before we can get a ship in here to block them. I have to concur. Beijing has to know that they can’t win in a long-term war with the rest of the CWS. Which suggests that they have short-term goals they can meet before they have to accept a negotiated settlement.”

Jeff typed out a command on his PAD, and the vidview on the bulkhead flatscreen changed to a topo map on the region of Linea Cadmus at 20 degrees north. The base crater was clearly visible, almost five kilometers across, with a tiny lake in the center and red dots marking the E-DARES facility and various buildings and constructs scattered about the surface. Rather than using voice entry, he unrolled a keyboard flat on his desktop and started typing, continuing to talk as he entered notations on the map.

“Damage to the base by the Chinese strike wasn’t too bad. We lost the microwave tower…here…and some damage to the landing field and other static structures. Fortunately, most of the buildings here—and especially the E-DARES facility—were designed to ride out the shock of Europaquakes, so they came through pretty much intact.

“But that means the CWS base is going to be a tempting target for our visitors. It’ll be a lot easier for them if they can take over the base, especially the E-DARES, instead of starting from scratch somewhere else.

“We need as much advance warning about the Chinese intentions as we can manage. I think we can assume their overall intent is hostile, but we need to know where they’re landing, and when, what direction they’re coming from—and whether or not their ship can provide close space support.”

“Yes, sir.”

“We’ll want radar and lidar units set up round the crater rim, of course, but keep some in reserve. I want to see about sending out mobile recon units once we have an idea where the Chinese have touched down. We’ve lost our own space eyes, which puts us in a hell of a bad spot, but I’m thinking that we might use lidar sets on lobbers to extend our spotting range over the horizon. And we might put some advance OP teams out along likely lines of approach.”

“Surface time is limited to twelve hours at a stretch, sir,” Kaminski said. “And Doc’ll be checking for cumulative exposure. Anyone who blacks his badge is going to be grounded.”

“Work out a rotation schedule, then.” He leaned back in his chair, scowling at the flatscreen. “The trick is going to be spotting the bad guys out there, before they get within range. Chaotic terrain. It’ll be damned hard to see them until they’re practically on top of us. And harder still when they’ll have a ship in orbit, while we don’t. The bad guys have the high ground, Ski, and they’ll know exactly where we are. I don’t mind telling you I don’t like this one bit!”

“Me neither, sir,” Kaminski said. “You now, if I was them, I’d try to hit this base from space. Mass driver bombardment. Or missiles. Except…”

“Yes?”

“Well, I was just wondering. They’re coming here to make contact with the Singer, right?”