Shaitan Wars 2: Wrath of the Shaitans (20 page)

The bridge was in the center of the ship, so it could not have centrifugal gravity like the central habitat section of the ship. Thus the captain’s ready room and now the flag bridge had no chairs or tables in this zero g environment. The conference room and now Gerald’s makeshift ready room was in the habitat section and thus had chairs, which made conversations more civilized and comfortable.

Gerald looked wistfully at his lost ready room once more, and saw the admiral floating out and heading towards him. He nodded at the admiral and got a nod of acknowledgement back. “Sir we will be reaching the interception point and coming to a complete stop in just over an hour. We would need your decision on which direction to head by then sir.” Gerald said curtly.

Fabi smiled a playful mischievous smile and said. “I have made my decision captain, but since I have some time as you said, and I can see that you are not terribly busy either, why don’t we play a little bit of a mind game captain? If you don’t mind that is.”

Gerald quite enjoyed his verbal sparring with the witty admiral, so he was game and nodded so. Fabi asked him. “If you were the Admiral, which direction would you have chosen to go captain?”

Gerald thought for a moment. Not because he had not thought about this issue before. It was all he was thinking about for the last few hours. He was trying to figure out the trick in the admiral’s trick question. He was sure there was a trick or a catch in the question. This Russian was a sly fox.

Not being able to figure out the trick in the question, Gerald answered. “There are equal number of ships on either direction. They are exactly the same configuration as far as we can tell. They are exactly the same distance from us in either direction. Frankly sir, it is a tossup. Statistically it 50-50 as far as I am concerned. I cannot find any differentiating factor on which to favor one direction over the other.”

“Yes. Right you are. But you only see what your eyes can see. What about things your eyes cannot see?” Fabi asked. His mischievous smile had never faded.

Gerald had to work hard not to roll his eyes. There goes the admiral with his gobble-de-gook philosophies which only he understands. He wondered, why then was he waiting with bated breath to hear what the admiral had to say. Gerald gave an enquiring look to the admiral.

“One comes from the direction of Alpha Shaitan the first planet we knew of. The other comes from a new planet – what are they calling it? Aahh… Beta Shaitan. Such a… what is the word… uncreative name, no? I hope they find a better name for this newly discovered home planet of the enemy.

Anyway, what is important is one comes from a planet that has fought us before, while the other comes from a planet that has not seen us or fought us before. Which one would you prefer captain?” Fabi asked still holding his smile.

“I thought of that before admiral, but is clear from their co-ordination that they are in touch with each other, probably for all these years starting from the time when they discovered us. I am sure that both of them have the exact records of whatever transpired in our previous encounters. So why should one set of Shaitans know us better than the other?” Gerald protested.

“You are considered the most diligent and studious captain in USC. That is why you got command of the first Nautilus class vessel captain. I know that you have studied every line of every report of the Battle of Titan written by anyone who is anyone. You have been doing this for many years, probably from the day you joined the academy.

Yet could you confidently say that you ‘know’ the Shaitans the way Admiral Cloutier or Gen. Takamori or Lt. Gen. Parkinson knows? Would you for example be able to judge a bluff from a Shaitan or be confident about their reaction to your own bluff?” Fabi asked and Gerald nodded to the negative.

“I know that none of the Shaitans coming from the originally discovered world were there for the last battle either. I am thinking though, if they are intelligent and social like us, what they were doing when they were growing up? What were you doing when you were growing up captain? You were hearing the stories about the clever tactics of the humans on Titan, no? You were hearing the treachery of the Shaitans on the mountains of Titan, no?” Fabi was asking but he knew the answer, Gerald nodded.

“So that makes you think that you know the Shaitans a bit, no? Even though you have never fought them. So it is with the Shaitans from the original Shaitan world. The other Shaitans though – from Beta Shaitan, they don’t hear much stories when they grow up. It is not their people you see, so their captain only read reports. They do not feel us in their bones like the Shaitans from the other side. Sorry… forgot that the bastards don’t have bones.” Fabi laughed at his own joke, Gerald just gave a smile.

“So that admiral is your logic to go towards the direction of Beta Shaitan?” Gerald asked with a hint of sarcasm, indicating that he was not fully convinced.

“Yes captain, unless you have a better reason to go the other way.” Fabi replied, not caring whether he had convinced Gerald or not. “You see captain, when you have nothing better to go on, it is better to fight from here…” Fabi pointed towards his gut “than from here.” Fabi pointed to his head, and then broke out in his trademark smile again.

Then the admiral spoke again but this time almost to himself. “Yes captain that is the reason. That and the fact that we will indulge in a little bit of Maskirovka!”

“Excuse me admiral, my Russian is a bit rusty, but could you please explain this “Moscow-rovka”? Daniel asked a bit irritated and sarcastic.

Nothing could wipe out the smile from the admiral’s face though. He replied patiently. “Of course your Russian is rusty captain. You know no Russian in the first place, no? It is a pity. If you had been born a hundred years ago, you would have known the meaning of Maskirovka.” Fabi said the word slowly and emphasized the pronunciation, so that Gerald got it right.

“You Americans paid a lot of attention to us Russians then. Especially to our Maskirovka. It is a Russian word for the art of deception specially when put to use in war. Good thing we are fighting on the same side now, you Americans and us Russians. Now together we show the Shaitans some good old Russian Maskirovka, eh? What do you say?” Fabi said in his usual jovial manner.

“Do you have a specific plan in mind sir?” Gerald asked, trying had to be polite and hide his testiness.

“Yes and no, captain. I have a plan, but it is not specific. Daniel told me that you are the most technically sound captain in USC. Let me put that to the test, eh? I give you the bones and the structure of our Maskirovka, you put the flesh with your technical knowledge. How does that sound, good?” Fabi asked. Gerald blushed a bit at the compliment but didn’t say anything and just nodded.

“We better go to your ready room, the one I grabbed from you before we continue. I see you looking at it longingly. Don’t worry captain, this battle will soon be over and you will have your ready room back.” Fabi said as they as they walked over to the former ready room and now the admiral’s bridge. Fabi excused his two staff members who were monitoring something, and then closed the door.

“The Shaitans speak to us for the first time, and what do they say, eh? They threaten us, take hostage. They turn out to be no better than the street golovorezy… what do you say in English… ‘Street thugs’. We think of them as advanced aliens, and they turn out to be street thugs! Bet they keep the police busy on the Shaitan streets just like the streets of Moscow.” Fabi found his own joke funny, but he continued.

“By the way, you realize the direction from which the threatening message came don’t you?” Fabi asked.

“Yes from the fleet approaching from the original Shaitan planet side.” Replied Gerald.

“You know what I am thinking? I am thinking if these Shaitans have a unified command between these two converging fleet, then where is that likely to be? I am thinking maybe it will be on the side which is doing all the talking and threatening, no? If we want to communicate with the Shaitans, the message will come from the flagship, no? So I am thinking, maybe it is the same for the Shaitans. That is also one of the reasons I decided to go in the opposite direction.” Fabi said.

“I am not sure I understand that admiral.” Gerald asked.

“It is better to go in the direction not led by an experienced admiral, no? We may have a better chance with our Maskirovka. What do you say?” Fabi asked, and Gerald nodded in agreement.

“Anyway, we know why they threaten. They want the two parts of the fleet to meet up before they engage. It makes sense no? So they take our people on Mars hostage and think we will not attack to save our people. We know that the Shaitans themselves would have sacrificed their own kind if they were in our situation, but somehow the Shaitans know that we will not sacrifice our own people.”

Then the eternally jovial admiral’s mood suddenly turned dark. Gerald didn’t have a good feeling about this, especially when the admiral had asked for them to move into a closed room. Admiral Fabi Kalinin was not known to keep secrets.

“Looks like we two species are getting to know each other’s mind well, no? War has this effect. You get to know the heart and mind of your enemy better than your lover. Only this time we are going to surprise the Shaitans by behaving like them…” Fabi left his words hanging.

“What do you mean sir?” Gerald asked circumspect.

“We are going to abandon them Gerald… We are going to fucking sacrifice our own people on Mars!” Fabi stopped himself from kicking the bulkhead just in the nick of time, once he remembered that he was in a zero-g environment and would have gone flying back. He had dropped his mask of the jovial Russian and had now become the grim Russian. Gerald also noticed that this was the first time the admiral had addressed him by his first name.

“You can’t be serious sir. There must be over 250 people out there on Mars!” Gerald asked disbelievingly.

“222 military personnel and 35 civilians, 257 to be exact Gerald and I wish I was joking. The final confirmation from Admiral Cloutier arrived a few hours ago. We will now be coordinating directly with USS Resolute. We have the lead, so we will be giving the go-ahead signal to Capt. Strong, she will wait till then. She will be fighting impossible odds. I think we will need all the sympathy ourselves, otherwise I would have given some to her. She is a ‘Boj-baba’… a tough lady. I am sure she will pull through somehow.” Fabi said with an air of resignation.

“Sir the whole idea of fighting for humanity was not to lose our humanity. If we start behaving like the Shaitans, how are we any better than them? Sacrificing 257 humans for a tactical advantage is just not us humans.” Gerald said, still not believing the admirals could take such a heartless decision.

“I know what you mean Gerald. Do not think less of Admiral Cloutier for this decision. He has closer friends, in that camp than any one of us. He is doing his duty and the right thing. If it had been a mere tactical advantage, then what you said would have been true, but it is more than that, at least we think it is more than that, and we cannot take even the slightest chance with the survival of humanity, even at the cost of every soul on Mars. Such is the burden of command captain, be prepared for it because one day you may have to make those decisions.” Fabi said seriously. Gerald noticed that the admiral’s English grammar had improved drastically in this closed room conversation.

“Sir, what do mean by ‘it is more than that’?” Gerald asked, curious now.

“What do you think those six ships heading towards us are?” Fabi asked seriously.

“We suspect that they are some kind of specialized war ships sir.” Gerald replied.

“We don’t suspect Gerald, we are almost certain they are war ships. When your troop carrier gets defeated first time, you don’t send weaker ships to escort your second wave of troop carriers. You send war ships to escort them.

Only now those war ships are no longer escorting the troop carriers. One troop carrier is alone on Mars taking hostage and putting itself in danger, while the other is also alone inching slowly towards Earth. Why do you think so? Why put your troop carriers in jeopardy, when you have escorted them for a quarter light year all the way to the objective?” Fabi asked.

“It would look like they are using the troop carriers as bait sir.” Gerald replied although he was not very certain.

“Yes it does, doesn’t it? What does it tell you about their intent and their tactics?” Fabi asked, but Gerald gave a shrug to indicate that he didn’t care take a guess and wanted Fabi to continue.

“It tells us that the troop carriers don’t form any critical part of their attack plan. We could have concentrated on those troop carriers at any point of time with significant force and destroyed them. The Shaitan admiral knew that, he was probably hoping or even counting on that.

It would have lessened the pressure on his warships. The Shaitan admiral is almost desperate for his two parts of the fleet to meet up. I can understand the tactical reasoning for wanting to do so, but that does not explain the desperation to be willing to sacrifice two troop carriers containing thousands of Shaitans.

They are planning to attack Earth, but feel no need for their troop carriers, which means that they have no intention of landing troops to attack. They are desperate to preserve their war ships, which can only bombard from orbit. So their intention is clear. Just remember the size and yield of their missiles and the size of those warships, and how many such missiles each of them must be carrying, and I am sure you get the picture.

There is another worrying aspect about their psychology. Remember the Shaitan ship over Titan, and what it tried to do as a last desperate act? We don’t think that individual Shaitan captain was particularly suicidal or vindictive. We believe, that is the normal way the Shaitans think.

This means that once the six warships meet up on this tangential point, turn 90° towards Earth and start their run, there will be no way to make them stop unless we are able to destroy them completely on the way. Even if a ship is damaged, it will continue its suicidal run all the way to Earth.