Read Online Retribution: The Augmented Human Rebellion - Book 2 by Terry Lefler - Free Book Online Page B

one will.
    The trip will take a few weeks, so the Admiral and crew will have time to
get ready.  Admiral Meyers begins to eat her meals with the sailors. 
There is a bond between them and a new level of camaraderie.  Besides
that, the Admiral wants to hear their ideas – she really needs a good idea -
and good ideas can come from anywhere.  She steers the conversation to the
impending attack, near the end of every meal.
    There are always fresh ideas.  Day after day the ideas change, as
the sailors have time to talk among themselves and to sleep on it . 
And the sailors are excited that an Admiral – and a huge one at that – would
want to hear what they think. 
    Everyone agrees that it is a suicide mission.  There is no way that
the Retribution can get close enough the Verm home plant – Tenock – to even fire a
missile.  True, the Retribution has an advantage because it was a Verm Navy
battleship, before it was hijacked.  That may be enough to get the ship
near the Tenock system, but security will be so tight that the ship will certainly be
identified as stolen.
    Some ideas suggest gaining control of a routine in-system service vessel,
like they did at the Military Academy.  That idea could work again, but
there will be so much security that the Retribution won’t be able to
reconnoiter the Verm system, or to rig a vessel.
    The other idea that keeps surfacing is for the Retribution to become part
of a Verm fleet, and to enter the system as part of the security force. 
That idea has promise.  If they don’t think of something else, the Admiral
will choose that method.
    ***
    Near the end of the journey, a Seaman 1 st Class explosives
expert named Kaa-Gref ,
of the arecand species, gives his proposed solution.  He says:  “Get out in deep
space, and gather a few small astreroids.  Point them all at the Tenock system – coming
from different directions.  And have them arrive at the Tenock system, at the same
time.”  
    “Adjust the course so that they will pass close to the planet Tenock , but not close
enough where the Verm Navy would be suspicious.  Hide a few missiles, with
conventional warheads on each small asteroid – and program the missiles to hit
the Emperor’s Palace.  Program the missiles on all asteroids to fire at
the same instant.”
     “Then we leave, before the time of the strike.  We won’t know
if the mission is a success or not, but at least we can say that we
tried.  That would be better than all of us dying for nothing.”
    The Retribution’s Tactical Officer had decided not to accompany the ship
on this mission, so that position is now open.  “Seaman Kaa-Gref , you are right
now promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and will serve as the Retribution’s
Tactical Officer.  Prepare immediately to implement your suggested course
of action,” says the Admiral.
    ***
    Back With the Fleet
    In their conversations, Fleet Admiral Duncons had stressed to her that the missions must be successfully completed before the
Sweetwater Fleet can return home.  In the cases of the attacks on the
Military Academy and the Emperor’s Palace she didn’t stick around to see the
results.  But they did deploy probes to record the results and then to
launch to deep space coordinates.
    The Admiral dispatches scout ships to retrieve the information on each
probe.  The ships are instructed to emerge some light minutes from the
calculated position of the probe, in order to visually verify that there are no
ships waiting to attack them.  Then they are to hop close to the probe,
and to command the probe to transmit the recorded information.  The scout
ships are not to retrieve the probes – it would be a simple matter for an enemy
to rig those probes to explode, after retrieval.
    ***
    The results are in.  The Military Academy tower has fallen, and the
attack on the Emperor’s Palace was unsuccessful.  That means that the
Sweetwater Fleet cannot return to Darinx space, until there is a