Solbidyum Wars Saga 6: Defeat of the Tottalax (33 page)

“Tibby, why wasn’t I told about these torpedoes?”  Regeny wanted to know.

“Honestly Admiral, I’ve been so busy with all that has happened in the past week that I haven’t been able to get around to it.  When we have been together we have either been focused on other issues, and it simply didn’t come to mind.

“One more thing, like I mentioned, we won’t have many of these new torpedoes.  I want them used sparingly, with regards to this mission at Weccies.  I will want to coordinate their use so none of them are to be used without my approval or order.  I’m hoping their use will serve to demoralize the enemy.”

“Tibby,” Regeny began, “What about this Tottalax prisoner we have; is there any way we can use him in fighting the Tottalax if they show up with the Brotherhood?”

“Maybe you can use him to broadcast a message to the Tottalax ship and convince them to give up helping the Brotherhood,” Captain Slater added.

“From what I have learned from Tot, it’s not likely to have much impact on them, but it’s possible.  He once was their ruler; some of them may still have feelings of loyalty to him.  It’s worth a try.  Thanks, Slater, good suggestion,” I said, and then added, "and Tot is not a prisoner!"

We were just about to finish up the meeting when my wrist com began beeping about the same time as everyone else’s in the room began to beep.  There was a calliope of sounds as everyone tried to answer their coms at once.  “Tibby here, “I said.

“Admiral,” I heard Marranalis’s voice begin, “there has just been an attempted attack on the transfer hub station.  The station is safe.  The attack started on the planet-side to the gate, and the station shut down the inner gate immediately.  All gates on the station are momentarily closed until a complete security check can be run.”

“Where there any casualties?”  I asked.

“None inside the station, but the troopers on the station looking through the gate said it appeared there was on the other side.”

“Where did the attack originate?”  I asked.

“Enpowor, sir.”

“Have we had any communication from Enpowor since the attack?”  I asked.

“No sir, I’ve issued orders in your name for troopers on Enpowor to go to the gate site and secure things,” he said.

“Good, you did the right thing.  Let me know as soon as you hear anything at all.  How many troopers do we have on Enpowor?”

“About 150,000, sir, I’ve issued orders for them to stand at the ready if we need them.  We have three frigates in orbit and the starship
GRASSIATE
is a day out from the planet.  I’ve not issued any orders to them.  I wanted to talk to you first.”

“You did good, Captain, contact the ships in orbit and put them on alert, then contact the
GRASSIATE
and have them go to Enpowor just in case.”

When I disconnected from Marranalis, I looked up to see everyone staring at me, obviously their conversations had been briefer than mine.  “So I guess you all know about as much as I do.  Obviously, the Brotherhood attempted to gain access to the transfer hub.  Our security system worked and they never made it aboard.  We don’t know what has happened on Enpowor at the gate location, but we have troopers on the way.”

“So it was Enpower where the attack occurred,” Regeny said.  “My contact only knew there was an attack and didn’t know where it originated.”  Just then my com beeped again.

“Tibby here,” I answered.

“Admiral, Marranalis here, I just got word from troopers who have reached the Cantolla Gate location on Enpowor, they said that there appear to be a number of Brotherhood troopers holed up in the building with hostages.  There are casualties that can be seen lying on the ground outside.  The enemy is refusing to negotiate and insist that unless the gate is opened, they will kill the hostages.”

“How many enemy and how many hostages?"  I asked.

“We believe there are about 10 enemy sir, and nearly 35 hostages.  There were a number of people that escaped when the attack started, and we’re trying to get details from them now.”

“All right, under no circumstances is the gate on the hub to be opened.  Contact the hub and have them remove the particle elements for the gate to Enpowor, and using the gate on the station that connects to the
DUSTEN
to bring those particles here.  Understood?”

“Understood, Admiral.”

“By the stars, Tibby, what are you planning to do now?”  Regeny asked.

“I’m about to transfer those attackers exactly where they need to be,” I said.

Once the team that had removed the sympathetic particles from the Cantolla Gate to Enpowor from the transfer hub arrived on the
DUSTEN
, I had them use the ship's gate to the Lunar prison colony.  I had the particles taken to the Moon where the troopers assembled the frame for a Cantolla Gate and installed the sympathetic particles in the unoccupied recreation room.  They also assembled several Cantolla frames which, while genuine, were not equipped with sympathetic particles and therefore inactive.  Gate frames were quite simple in construction, and we had an abundant supply of frames readily available. Signs and other objects were placed in view of the gate that gave the impression of it being a gate station.  As soon as everything was in place, I instructed Marranalis to have our troopers communicate with the Brotherhood troops occupying the Cantolla Gate building that we were agreeing to their demands, and requested they not harm their hostages...  I anticipated the Brotherhood troopers would insist we remove all troopers from our side of the gate, and that they would send a few hostages through before they would attempt to come through the gate themselves.  They didn’t disappoint me.  To expedite the enemy in going through the gate, at the moment we opened the gate we had some our troopers outside begin advancing toward the building.

At first the Brotherhood sent three hostages through the gate and then one Brotherhood trooper entered and quickly looked about.  He appeared confused, but seeing a number of Cantolla Gate frames and signs describing destinations, he must have assumed it was indeed the hub station.  I'm sure the reduced gravity effect from the Moon’s lesser gravity added to the realistic impression that the facility was on the hub station.  After a very quick look around, the first trooper signaled back through the gate to the others, on Enpowor, and four more joined him, each taking up a position where they could guard the doors at the ends of the room.  Then the remainder of enemy troopers poured through the gate, leaving half their hostages behind, as they heard an explosion triggered by one of my men outside the building.  The explosion was designed to make the enemy think we were breaching the walls and entering the building.  We could monitor all of this through security vid cameras at the Lunar prison facility.

As soon as the last enemy trooper went through the gate, we immediately shut the Lunar gate down remotely and activated the sleep-inducing ray that we had copied from the Tottalax.  Instantly all the people in the room dropped, unconscious.  Luckily, the Brotherhood didn’t have all their troopers wearing the hearing protective hearing gear that blocked the effects of the Tottalax weapon, and only supplied it to troopers on their ships.  Once the Brotherhood troopers were asleep upon the floor my security guards at the prison swept in and took their weapons and separated the hostages from the group.  When the Brotherhood troopers woke up, they found themselves in cells of the Lunar prison and out of communication with their Brotherhood superiors.

The entire operation took less than two hours, thanks to the Cantolla Gates, which made getting materials and people where they needed to be quickly, and because of the easy assembly design of the Cantolla Gates.  Admiral Regeny and Admirals Stonbersa and Kophious, as well as Captain Slater stayed around watching as the operation was carried out.  As it ended, Regeny said, “Tibby, that was ingenious.  I can’t believe the Brotherhood was so gullible in this assault.”

“I don’t think they were,” I said.  “This attack was either a ruse, or a test, but there is no way Ming intended for this small assault team to take the entire transfer hub.”

“So you think he was testing our security?”  Regeny asked.

“Maybe that was a secondary goal, but I think his primary intent was to get us to boost up security and increase our military presence in this sector, while drawing us away from where they intend to attack next,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“Come with me to the War Room and I’ll show you.”

The meeting room we were in was joined to the War Room, so it was only a matter of walking out the door and we were in the War Room.  Marranalis was at his station in the War Room and I instructed him to bring up the holographic display of the galaxy.

“Display Enpower’s location,” I said, and a star brightened in the galactic image as all the rest dimmed slightly.  “Now show us where Weccies is,” I said.  A star way across the galaxy lit up.  Now show us the location of Windsor.” Another star lit up on the same side of the galaxy as Weccies but a fair distance away.  “And now the location of Maisha.”  It took several seconds for Marranalis to find Maisha on the computer, but eventually it brightened in the 3D display.  It also was on the same side of the galaxy as Weccies.

“Now, if you have them, you have the location from which Ming sent his last message to us,” I said.  Again, some time elapsed as Marranalis needed to get the information from A’Lappe, but finally the location lit up.  It was between Weccies and Maisha.

“As you can see, all of these recent Brotherhood contacts have taken place in this region near Weccies, and we know that our intelligence is indicating that Weccies is an intended target of the Brotherhood for a large-scale attack.  This attack at Enpowor was a ruse to get us to pull more ships into this area, leaving this sector out here on the rim sparsely protected.”

“But Weccies isn’t in the Federation,” Regeny said.

“Yes, we’ve discussed that before, but it is of significant interest to us because if the Brotherhood should manage to take the planet, it would have a huge negative economic impact on the entire galaxy, the Federation most of all.  It would also give the Brotherhood immense wealth to pursue their conquest of the Federation.  If we are there to rescue Weccies from an attack that they can’t stop, we’ll be seen in much better favor by them.  We can use that friendly diplomatic relationship.”

“I’m not sure how the Senate will view this,” Regeny said.

“If we succeed, I don’t think it will be seen negatively by the Senate," I replied.

“Yes, but what if it fails?”  Regeny replied.

“We’ll have to make sure we don’t fail,” I said.  “For the time being, if you and Admiral Wabussie are still using your offices on Megelleon to disseminate false information to the Brotherhood, or whoever is monitoring that fungus, I would recommend you give the impression that we anticipate an attack in the center of the galaxy somewhere nearer to Enpowor, and that we are calling ships back to reinforce that sector.”

Since the advent of the Cantolla Gates, and new gate communication units which opened microscopically small gates for communication to be sent through, news spread like wildfire through the Federation. All through those that had gate transmitter/receivers.  All the signals went through special gates on the transfer hub to the other worlds, and since all the gates were in the hands of the Federation, those outside of the Federation military had no physical access to the transmitters to see how they worked.  Even if they had, it would have been difficult to figure out.  So I wasn’t totally surprised when I returned to my suite on the
NEW ORLEANS
that evening and found Kala watching hostage crisis on Enpowor being played out on the vid news broadcast.

The commentator was saying, “…the building surrounded and you can see them begin moving in on the facility.  You will hear what seems to be a loud explosion; we have yet to learn of its cause or if anything was damaged.  Federation troopers can be seen rushing into the building shortly after the explosion.  This was several hours ago and so far no one has witnessed any hostages or enemy troops being brought out of the building.  We have been assured by one senior official that all the hostages are safe, and the enemy hostage takers have been captured and are in custody.  However, we haven’t seen either.  We are being told that the hostages will be released once they have been debriefed by the Federation.”

The newsperson on the vid screen continued.  “Rumors are circulating that the enemy hostage takers were able to use the Cantolla Gate inside the facility but were captured immediately on exiting the other side of the gate.  However, we have no confirmation of that.  The Federation is reporting that six Federation troopers who were initially guarding the Cantolla Gate facility were killed in the initial assault by the Brotherhood.  So far, no names have been released as to who these brave men were, as the Federation is still trying to contact their families and relatives.”

“Hi,” I said as I came into the room. 

Kala gave a sighed, “I guess I don’t need to ask you what you were up to today.  Want to talk about it?  How bad was it?”

“It could have been a lot worse,” I began, “We have the Brotherhood attackers at the Lunar prison now, and the hostages will probably be back on Enpowor before morning.”  I related to her how we pulled it off, and Kala grinned.  “Leave it to you to have them break into the prison so you wouldn’t have to take them there.”