Campaign, p.1
Campaign, page 1
Campaign
The Globur Incursion
Book 8
D. Rebbitt
Campaign: The Globur Incursion Book 8
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Copyright © 2023 D. Rebbitt
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 9798395071866
DEDICATION
Over a year ago, we saw one country invade another. Instead of people running to a refuge and yelling for help, we saw quite the opposite. The people of Ukraine stayed. They fought and asked for weapons and ammunition. The things they needed to continue to fight. They are still locked in a fight for their freedom and their country.
Our world is filled with ersatz heroes. Influencers on social media, entertainers, and even political figures. True heroes stand for a cause larger than themselves. They risk it all for others—for people they do not know.
Their deeds will not grace the pages of magazines or social media. They do not seek recognition, only the ability to serve a cause. There is no cause nobler than seeking to stop oppression and aggression against those who cannot protect themselves.
Real heroes may be hard to see sometimes, but there are thousands in Ukraine whose names we will never know. They serve as a reminder of what true sacrifice and heroism really look like in a jaded world.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
A word from the author
GLOSSARY
Chapter 1
The many months since the Chaco system attack and the fallout from the witch hunt at Gateway had played out pretty much as expected. It was a whirlwind of political butt-covering and a corresponding whirlwind of new ship construction.
With the truth about the Globur finally out—mostly out. Rim worlds were, more than ever, acutely aware they were under threat. Hundreds of thousands of citizens, mostly from rim worlds, flocked to the call of the Fleet so they could defend their homes and loved ones.
Building new ships took time, as did training new recruits. The expansion of the Fleet was unprecedented. There were still some–driven to the periphery—who thought the buildup was too much. The peace movement, headed by the People for Peace, spewed their propaganda, saying the people were being manipulated and saw themselves as a resistance to the police state.
The so-called “police state” had branded the PFP a terrorist organization. Not many took them seriously anymore. The entire movement had lost credibility and momentum.
The months had passed, and the planned outposts for interstellar space were coming out of the yards. There were plans for several layers of defense. Asking anyone to sit in an outpost on the wrong side of human space was a death sentence. The first layer of the detection network was being built inside what was now called human space.
The Globur had been quiet since the destruction of their battlegroup in the Chaco system and the liberation of the Mongolia system. Grand Admiral Medici had convinced the Senate that caution and preparation were needed to assure victory for the next system that would be liberated. That meant more task forces and more Marines.
Marine training depots had sprung up across the rim. Some of the rim planets less likely to be targeted now had their own Marine training depot and a sizable Marine garrison, at least a brigade. The value of a Marine garrison using guerilla tactics on an occupied planet had been clearly demonstrated in Khan. Every rim planet now had weapons caches hidden from detection all over the planet.
The priority these days was a bit more defensive-minded than the times during the assault on the Mongolia system. The uproar after the Chaco system attack had dictated that. The Fleet was prioritizing the emplacement of the basic network of outposts to detect and track Globur incursions into human space. Out of necessity, these were inside human space.
Every rim system had a relay with the best available quantum drive detector, significantly more compact now than the original design. The first mobile detector had to be carried on a freighter that accompanied the task force. The new relays had much better range than the old detectors and even included limited maneuvering capability to dodge kinetic strikes and some basic weapons. Laser batteries and attack missile launchers would let them defend themselves against a destroyer-class Globur ship. Unfortunately, quantum torpedoes were still too precious a commodity to allocate to relays.
Planetary defenses now included maneuverable launch weapons platforms with capital missiles. Those had not saved the Mongolia system but had exacted a toll on the attacking Globur.
Rear Admiral Stutz watched as the outpost came online. His task force 18 was in interstellar space—rim space. Outpost 12 expanded the Globur detection network. The outposts were also a relay. They could communicate instantaneously with the other outposts and Fleet Headquarters. Outposts were designed to be tough. They had the latest weapons and were designed to stand off at least three Globur destroyer-class ships, in theory at least. Since they had no quantum drive and simply floated in interstellar space, they were also hard to detect.
However, Stutz thought glumly, the Globur only needed to watch the pattern of ship movements to find the outposts, assuming their quantum drive detectors could see that far. Human detectors once could not see that far. They still could not see into what was termed Globur space, enemy space being a term frowned upon. It was usually a dangerous assumption to think that Globur technology was in any way behind theirs. The aliens seemed to have capabilities at least as good as the humans, and often better.
TF18 was assigned escort duty to get stations up and running, so another deep incursion like the Chaco system would not happen again. Chaco was a major imperial system that had been attacked without warning. The arrival of the battered TF17 under Rear Admiral Jones had just managed to prevail against the Globur. A pyrrhic victory. After that, Jones’s carrier, Valkyrie, had spent months in a repair slip.
Outpost 12 brought its reactor online, and the communications between the flag bridge and the outpost intensified as the reactor was closely monitored. The outposts were not tested before deployment, and reactors could be a bit twitchy. Task forces 17, 19, 20, and 21 were all out shepherding outposts. This was the last one for TF18. Each of the task forces had been assigned four stations to deploy. The 16 stations formed a detection grid 50 light-years in diameter, greatly enhancing the Fleet’s ability to track any deep incursions.
The reactor startup went flawlessly, and the outpost’s crew began bringing their secondary systems online. The outposts were shipped in pieces to fit inside a standard freighter. Civilian contractors assembled them on-site. The location was classified. Another security measure meant for a human foe, Stutz thought idly. The Globur do not think like us, and they do not communicate like us or with us. There’s no need for such security measures. Just the comfort of routine.
Stutz shifted in his command chair, scanning the flag bridge. Everyone was intent on their holodisplay or their link to the ship’s AI. His carrier, Wraak, was still pristine despite months of hard use, emplacing the outposts and drilling the crew and fighters. Even though she had never seen a battle and still felt like a new ship, the crew operated like a fine-tuned machine. TF18 had been commissioned after the liberation of the Mongolia system, and Stutz had been pulled as the captain of TF14’s flagship Ryoshi to take the chair in command of TF18.
The fighter wing commander was running an exercise with the wing. Fighter losses had always been high, and as the wing commander put it, vigorous preparation increased the survival rate. The Globur habit of destroying survival pods meant that few pilots survived if the Globur were in range.
Harry Stutz sighed as he watched the outpost spin up the rest of its systems, lost in thought. The lull is just about done. The planning has already started to liberate the systems taken by the Globur. No one holds any illusions that the populations on those planets have survived intact. The Senate expects victory, and now we have the forces to make that possible. Of course, while we have been building our forces, we can expect that the Globur have been doing the same.
***
Life on Khan was good for Homer Sanderson. The first assault division had expected to be lifted off soon after the plane
TF14 and TF16 patrolled, looping back and forth between the Mongolia and Chard systems, watchful for track detections. The system defense strategy proposed by Rear Admiral Jones had proven its effectiveness giving the task forces the advantage of velocity and vector to counter attacks on systems. It was proven in the Mongolia system when Rear Admiral Pang had successfully thwarted a Globur attack. The area had been clear for months.
The Marines were still training to stay sharp, but their ranks had been savaged by the battles they had fought. More recently, people in personnel raided the division to build cadres for new battalions, brigades, and divisions. There were a lot of promotions flying around, but Homer wanted none of it. What he wanted was right here.
Lilly Veranze stirred as their cabana bed rocked in the breeze coming up the Tuul river. She had arrived several months ago with a special team to study the Globur prisoners they had captured. The planet had not yet been fully secured.
Sanderson smiled as he remembered the day the shuttle touched down. Captain James had drawn his attention to it. “Shuttle coming in. Some scientist types,” she had commented.
They had stood in front of a company of combat suits. They were like sliver sentinels—all empty since the Marines matched to them were on shore leave.
It seemed everyone was in on the joke but Sanderson. He had not noticed until after that a small crowd had gathered. The shuttle hatch opened, and Sanderson felt his heart stop as he saw that dark ponytail of hair as Lilly shielded her eyes against the morning sun.
He stood agape as she spotted him. “Homer!” she had cried as she ran toward him.
The second or third time she yelled his name, he was jolted into action. It felt like his heart would burst from his chest as he rushed toward her. She ran right into him.
“Lilly? It’s really you!” He hugged her fiercely. She pulled his face down for a kiss, and he was lost in the moment.
He recovered to see a bunch of Marines with arms crossed, smiling at the spectacle. He waved them off and heard James putting the run on them with her trademark growl and snarl.
He and Lilly had wandered off and found a quiet place in the deserted city to catch up. She was there to do a job, and Homer was overjoyed when the word came down that the division would stay in place until further notice.
He did not care that some politicians were in a panic or that more ships were coming. As the months progressed, there was more than enough to do on Khan. As veterans were transferred out, replacements came in. Green replacements who required training with their teams, squads, platoons, and companies.
Many of the new people were already hard cases. They had served in the governor’s bodyguard and fought alongside the Marines in a guerilla campaign to liberate Ulaan. They were a welcome addition to the Blue Meanies. Sanderson’s leadership had concentrated on getting the new Marines more suit time to hone their skills and to better use their suits and augmentation in combat.
Being in garrison also meant that there were weekends. Some Marines had traveled back to Albion to be with their families while on leave. They came back reporting that the number of ships being fitted out was mind-boggling. However, the civilians’ attitudes toward Fleet personnel remained about the same—something between curiosity and disgust at their augmentation. Military people couldn't hide the outward sign of that life-saving augmentation—their skin’s blue dusky hue—from a population still afraid of all bioengineering after the Cyborg Wars more than 400 years ago.
But on Khan, things were very different. Fleet personnel were treated with reverent respect. The local population had tossed out their senator, the catalyst for the liberation of the system, when they realized that he had been driven by his greed and lust for power. He had been among the first to flee when the Globur came.
The new senator was much more in touch with the people. She was a survivor of the huge Globur construct that consumed people and churned out Globur. One of her first official acts was formalizing the governor’s blood pact. Any Fleet member or Marine could come to Khan and be given land and support for as long as they lived.
That offer was starting to look good to one Homer Sanderson. He had passed on a promotion to stay with Lilly. He had only accepted the battalion sergeant major appointment when Captain James was promoted to take over the first battalion. She had asked him and expected him to say yes. After all, they had been through, he couldn’t say no.
The river flowed slowly, and the occasional off-duty Marines floated past on inflatables. They called it rafting. They seemed unsure what to do when they floated past the legendary Sergeant Major Sanderson. He held a finger to his lips so they would not wake Lilly.
Heaven cannot be better than this, Homer thought idly.
Lilly stirred and looked up at him. Her face broke into a smile. “Homer, how long have I been asleep?”
“Did you want a rough estimate or to the second?” Homer teased.
“That long, huh?” Lilly said as she sat up. The top of the cabana left them in the shade, and it was a beautiful day. Large white clouds slid across an azure sky. It was hot, but not unpleasantly so.
Lilly jumped off their cabana bed for two. “Come on, Homer, let’s take a dip!” She laughed as she ran into the river.
Homer leaped upright, ran after her, and scooped her in his arms. It was no use swimming. His augmentation made him negatively buoyant. Just then, another group of Marines came floating around the river bend. Sanderson was only head and shoulders above the water, holding Lilly in his arms. Their augmentation would have tagged him right away.
They started to scramble to stand to attention—an awkward thing on the rafts. “At ease, Marines,” Sanderson called out, seeing they were all trainees on a 48-hour pass. “We’re off duty. Relax.”
“You as well, Sergeant Major!” one yelled as the small group floated past.
Homer and Lilly watched the Marine trainees float away around the next bend in the meandering river.
“I will never get used to how they look at you with some sort of awe, Homer,” Lilly said. “You never talk about what happened here on the planet. The nightmares…”
“Come with the territory, Lilly,” Homer finished her sentence. “Before long, we’ll get the call again. But right now—we live for right now.” He kissed her softly as the water flowed around them.
Chapter 2
Grand Admiral Medici sat in the planning meeting and listened to reports on the construction status of various ships and task forces. What a difference. A year ago, we had 16 warships under construction, not counting corvettes. We were begging to lay down more hulls but were only allowed one task force at a time. Now we’re pushing out task forces two at a time and more.
The ships were being built, but the production had outstripped the Fleet’s ability to fit combat systems to the ships. For the first time, the discussion turned to having civilian contractors fit out the combat systems, including weapons.
“There is no question that it can be done by contractors,” one of the captains was saying. “The concern is that the manufacturers have already expanded, bringing additional security risk. Having functional systems installed by contractors may mean that some military-grade technology might get into the wrong hands.”
Vice Admiral Galong, in charge of Fleet logistics and supply chain, nodded her agreement. “We are dealing with the most sophisticated weapons systems known to us. We must balance the security risk against the benefits, which are quicker deployment of the completed ships and the commitment of an enhanced ability to respond to the Globur threat.”
There was a general agreement in the room. “Perhaps we can control the contractors themselves a little more?” asked one of the captains. “Send them somewhere remote—like the Gateway base? That would mean they would never be able to simply ship things out. Communications and data transmissions can also be controlled.”
