LWDD-10

==Chapter 10 Lest we drown in the darkness...==
by Cannonshop
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November, 2769 - Eagle's Nest, Rim Worlds Republic
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The Rimjobs forted up in a selection of bunkers connected by hardened tunnels.
"The basic root of fortress doctrine, is waiting for relief. Tying down the attackers."  Colonel Ngo said casually.  "It's an endurance fight-can the defenders last long enough to be rescued."
"Our experts think six to eight weeks to break the fortress, Colonel, what do you think?" General DeChevalier asked, his image flickering on the portable screen.
Ngo frowned.  "Gun ports." he said, "Gun ports...elevators....air shafts....They've routed water from the aquifers to keep it supplied with fresh H2O for troop sustainment and power generation. So they're dumping waste heat into subsurface water bodies or maybe through a pipe into the rivers.  They've got to be using camouflaged sally ports, but no amount of camouflage is going to cover those once they're put in use.  We can break it."
"Say again?" Aaron said incredibly
"I said, we can break it." Ngo commented, "The question is what you want to pay for the opening.  They optimized for resisting armored attacks, specifically for resisting Battlemech forces."
"You've got a plan forming?" the General inquired
"I do. See? They have a lot more guys in there than it was designed to hold. Which means if they're running closed-loop life support like a ship? It's straining under waste they aren't prepared to process.  The simple solution is to vent-gate the wastes..."  he pulled up survey images and telescope photos over time, some from civilian and even media passes over the fortified site.
"What are you looking for?"  the SLDF Major he was liaising with asked.
"Blooms." Ngo's tone was distracted, "Heat blooms. Pollution releases subsurface in waterways. A base like that, it's still got a sewer, and that sewer's going to have an outflow."
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