TBntG-3 Chpt 34

=The Bull and the Genie=
==Chapter 34 - Book III - The Clan Invasion==
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===The Port Arthur Raid===
The combined Clan force erupted out of KF space, far from any Combine ships. Six capital ships, including a McKenna, they had no ground troops, no fleet train. This was not an invasion, but a probe. Dropships shook themselves into formation, and the force started moving in. 
"The Jaguars wished to take part in this raid, Quiaff?"
 
"Aff," Khan McKenna said. "But they were… unhappy that they had been forced to withdraw. It was feared that their warriors might exceed instructions in this case." 
 
After all, the Jaguars were the ones who most commonly turned what were supposed to be raids into ground invasions.
 
Their forces had suffered more than many others. Another reason the Jaguar's were currently having to rebuild their forces.
 
With truebloods. They'd even continued transferring old warriors to Frederick's command. 
 
Not the Snow Ravens. In fact they'd looked out to adopt new members of the Clan from Frederick's OZ. It had required… changes. 
 
Frederick was, of course, not a Khan. But to all intents and purposes, he spoke with a Khan's voice, especially when you considered that some actual Khans commanded less in forces than his Touman did. Not that you would know it from Frederick. He was always calm and polite and acknowledged the place of the clan leadership… which made certain Clan leaders look even more foolish. 
 
And most happily, the plan that Frederick had established would see the Snow Ravens and other Aerospace forces of the Clan's taking pride of place, stripping the Combine of it's ability to project power—or unleash it's Dezgra WMDs on other worlds.
 
And Port Arthur was a world with a large number of "Kamikaze" craft. This raid was to see how they performed, and to develop a strategy to defeat them— a strategy that Khan McKenna had played a role in forming. 
 
Another good thing about Frederick. He does not presume competence where he has none. He asks questions. 
 
The Snow Ravens had a higher tolerance for old warriors—becoming a naval officer took time. But other Clans were now starting to consider the waste of removing warriors who could still contribute. 
 
But now…
 
"They are sending out dropships," the Star Admiral said. "Mostly civilian models."
 
"Aff." She bent down and stared at the big holotank. 
 
Early. They want us to engage them away from the world. They must think this an invasion attempt. Two days until contact if we… "Plot for a Zero-Zero orbital insertion. Let us convince them this is an invasion."
 
"Aff." 
 
The days crawled. Lynn spent her time catching up on paperwork. It made no sense to show worry, after all. But then….
 
"We are coming up on commit line for Plan Dodge."
 
"Commit." 
 
To the Combine officers, it looked like the Clan had decided to run—the fleet started decelerating at a rate that would stop them far short of the planet. The enemy dropships accelerated.
 
"They wish to catch us, quiaff?"
 
"Aff, but a stern chase is a hard chase." After all, this would delay the time it took for them to get in range of their guns… and the Clans had some very special surprises. "Deploy interdiction units." 
 
The units launched from the big ships were not fighters. But small craft. Less well armed, on a ton for ton basis, they had endurance. And these small craft had been modified—banks of missiles, ER lasers, and anti-missile systems… all oriented on the stern and sides. The small craft could maintain formation while still opening fire on their enemy.
 
The small craft were crewed by older clan warriors. The danger was great, but the honor in defending larger ships was greater still. 
 
As the Combine forces drew closer, the big cargo ships started vomiting their suicide craft. 
 
"Two-hundred-fifty manned suicide attackers confirmed. Fifty fighters." The Sensor officer sounded nervous.
 
Lynn didn't begrudge him that. There was not a ship created that could survive such a torrent of fire. Unless it was properly defended. 
 
"Entering Extreme range—missile launches, numerous missile launches!" 
 
"They should have withdrawn their heavy craft, quiaff?"
 
"Aff." But from Frederick and the UMC's intelligence, anything hinting at a failure of will is punished…very heavily. "Commence firing." 
 
The big NPPCs and lasers started firing, joined by the missiles. The NPPCs were targeted on the enemy dropships, and even setting them to bracketing fire, there was only so much a dropship could survive. First one Mule, then another, came apart. The lasers and missiles were firing on the three hundred incoming fighters and suicide craft. 
 
A few of the suicide fighters had failed, tumbling or going dark.
 
Tsk. Poor workmanship. 
 
And then the missiles were in range of their screen, small craft and dropships opening fire on them. Most were stopped, some leakers got through, only to run into the AMS systems of the heavy ships. 
 
"Near miss on Lydon, minor damage…" 
 
"They are spreading their attack out." 
 
Lynn nodded at the Star Admiral's comment. "Many experienced officers were purged. I assume so were the trainers."
 
"Aff."
 
By the time the swarm got to the small craft, there were only 250 left, a hundred or so being destroyed in the attack. But now they ran into the fighters that had been launched—fresh pilots, along with the final surprise. 
 
"They are in range for the sub-capital missiles."
 
"Aff. Fire." 
 
The clans had been able to quickly reverse engineer the subcapital missile systems, and they were easier to mount than other subcapital systems. That was why, the ships in the fleet mounted a large number of Piranha class Sub-missile launchers. Her ship alone mounted 24 of them. 
 
Soon the dim sound of the missile launches was reaching the flag bridge, as more and more enemy icons vanished from the screen. The last dropship was destroyed, and of the enemy wave… twelve got into their formation, only to be destroyed by the close in weapons. 
 
Twelve small craft, two Pentagons Assault DropShips, and ten fighters had been destroyed. In the case of the pentagons and one of the small craft, there were no survivors, as the suicide craft had expended megaton range warheads on them. 
 
But on the whole…
 
The ships are built cheaply. But there is only so far you can go to make a cheap fusion engine, and they just lost two hundred and fifty of them, to say nothing of their dropships. 
 
"Secure from stations, and prepare to leave the system," she ordered. "We will send our report to the Clan Council and UMC."
 
Who we are at war with, but madmen make for strange bedfellows. The Kuritans will learn from this. But so have we. Most importantly, Frederick had stressed the importance of morale. They were throwing their most fanatical members away, but the more they were thrown away to no effect, the more damage it might have. He had called it "shaping the conflict." 
 
Lynn McKenna did not know if he was right. But no matter how poor the training, it took time to build their suicide sleds. Time, mechanics, resources, and unless the Combine wanted to surrender the world, they would have to replace it.
 
She sighed. Time to get to paperwork, and endure the not-at-all-gloating messages from the Ghost Bears, who had managed to hunt down some of the last warships the Combine had. 
 
Better them than the Jaguars, who still wanted to directly land on Luthien.
 
With that, Lynn bid the admiral good night and returned to her cabin. If it had been a battle, it had been anticlimactic.
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Book 3 - 34