Greenies

him immediately! We must insist that not a single orbiting asset around that planet be harmed in any way.'

'Mr. Warling,' Calvato said, 'I don't think you understand. This is a military decision that has been deemed vital for achieving the objective. We agreed to provide you folks with briefing material on the upcoming operations even though General Browning asked us quite forcefully not to. Now you're asking us to modify what is purported to be an integral part of the plan. I understand and appreciate all of the assistance you've given me and the other members of this council over the years, but I'm afraid we can't accommodate you in this instance. The launching of the spacecraft against the first of those satellites is less than five hours away now.'

Warling's eyes became steely, unfriendly for the first time during the discussion. 'Mr. Calvato, and all of you other politicians sitting around this table. I don't think you're quite understanding what we three CEOs are doing here. We didn't come here to ask you not to destroy our satellites, we came here to tell you that you will not destroy them. It seems that maybe you are letting your positions go to your heads to some degree. We are the media in this nation and we are responsible for putting each and every one of you in the position you are now in. We can remove that support as easily as we gave it. With a word to our staff members we can begin reporting the real story from Mars. Don't think we don't know what it is. We know about the horrid losses, the destruction of the armor, the thousands of wounded piling up in the hospital ships. We've been keeping that story suppressed in the interests of national unity but if you cross us, we won't hesitate to release it, nor will we hesitate to begin reporting on every unfavorable aspect of each of your lives, real and imagined.'

Calvato was looking pale. So were the rest of the council.

'I don't believe we're being unreasonable here,' Warling said. 'You are threatening to destroy a vital part of our assets — unnecessarily we are told — and we are simply preventing that. You give the order to stand down the anti-satellite campaign and everything remains status quo without any hard feelings. Is that understood?'

It was understood.

'Good,' Warling said. 'Then I suggest you take your vote or do whatever it is you do here and then get that order sent off to Mars before it is too late.'

They didn't bother to vote. The order was sent off ten minutes after Warling and the other two left the room.

Aboard the WSS Nebraska, Mars orbit

September 7, 2146

It was close to midnight and they had been locked in the briefing room for the past six hours. Major Wilde was with Rear Admiral Spears of fighter command and Rear Admiral Haybecker of attack command along with the captains that controlled each respective wing of spacecraft. They were trying to hash together a new plan to take out the Martian rail network around Eden without first taking out the satellites in the vicinity that would alert the Martians to their launch.

'This is just asinine,' complained Captain Biggers, the commander of Nebraska's AA-71 wing. 'I complained about this when they asked us to do recon and I'm complaining about it now. If the greenies are able to see us launch they swarm us before we can even approach the atmospheric entry point. If we can blind them to our launches, we could hit any strategic target on that shithole of a planet with impunity. Once we make atmospheric entry they have nothing that can touch us. Nothing!'

'I know,' sighed Wilde. 'I was as appalled as anyone by General Browning's sudden reversal of orders. I begged and pleaded with him to allow us to at least hit the nearer satellites but it was like talking to a brick wall. The order came directly from the Executive Council. The big three don't want to lose their satellites so they applied political pressure to achieve their goals.'

'They're letting a bunch of fucking accountants make military decisions for them!' yelled Captain Powell, commander of Nebraska's F-22s. 'It's the same shit they did back in the Jupiter War and look what happened there.'

'I know,' Wilde said, trying to be soothing but actually coming across in the bitter spectrum instead. 'But the situation is what the situation is. Our orders are to come up with an attack plan to level the Alexander Industries plant and to isolate Eden by rail to prevent re-supply and reinforcement. We need to start launching these sorties as soon as possible. So my question to you, gentlemen, is do we have the basics of a plan here or don't we?'

'We have the basics of a plan,' said Admiral Spears. 'We launch two major alpha strikes — one at New Pittsburgh, one at Eden. The New Pittsburgh strike will consist of twenty AA-71s escorted by the entire fleet of F- 22s. Our only target at NP will be the Alexander Industries plant. Assuming that even half of the spacecraft make it through to fire their lasers from attack altitude, that plant will be leveled several times over.'

'You got that right,' said Admiral Haybecker, 'If you get us safely to atmospheric entry my pilots will knock that place out. It's a sitting duck out there — a nice big target surrounded by wastelands and filled with high explosives.'

'We'll get you there,' Spears promised. 'The strike against Eden is a little more complex, however. We're being tasked with taking down an entire rail network and isolating a major city. We need to hit the two major freight loading facilities on the edge of the city and take out no less than twenty bridges and tunnels out in the wastelands on the approaches to the city. The targets are much smaller and the margin for error is much finer. We plan to send everything we have against Eden — ninety-three AA-71s escorted by the entire inventory of F-22s. Even so, there's a better than fifty percent chance we won't hit every target on one strike and we'll have to go back.'

'I think the real problem here,' said Haybecker, 'is the losses we're going to suffer. The F-22s are going to get pounded by the Martians on the approach and the AA-71s are going to get hit as they climb back out after their strikes.' He shook his head angrily. 'All of this could be avoided if they'd just let us hit those fucking satellites!'

Wilde ignored this last. They'd already been over what could have been avoided twenty or thirty times. 'So you're saying that the possibility of significant fighter and bomber losses on each of these strikes is more than significant?' he asked.

'Yes, man!' Spears yelled. 'Haven't you been listening to us?'

'I have,' Wilde said. 'And I sympathize, gentlemen, really I do. But my concern is that losses might be so heavy with one strike — particularly with the fighters — that we won't be able to launch a subsequent strike. Can the Martians cause such attrition on one mission that a second won't be adequately protected?'

Spears, Haybecker, and all of the captains nodded as one.

'Yes,' Haybecker said. 'If the Martians send everything they have after us they may very well cause greater than fifty percent losses in fighters.'

'Fifty percent?' Wilde asked. 'Is that an exaggeration?'

'Not in the least,' Spears assured him. 'The Martians have a wing of 184 F-22s at Triad and, as we've found, their pilots and gunners are pretty damn good. Now they've lost a few in the skirmishes we've had with them but not as many as we've lost. If we send every fighter we have to escort my bombers and the Martians send everything they have to try to stop them, it will result in a full-blown, knock-down, drag-out space battle of epic proportions between two forces that are pretty much evenly matched. Fifty percent losses for such a battle is very possible.'

'And with less than fifty percent strength in fighters,' Haybecker added, 'we would have a difficult time defending the armada if the Martians decided to send their own alpha strike against us. We would beat them off with the close-in defenses, of course — one of the big lessons of the Jupiter War is that small craft cannot stand up to fixed defenses on large space platforms — but with adequate fighter cover enough of them might get in close enough to score some hits, maybe enough to destroy a few ships. And you know they'd go after the Californias if they tried such a thing.'

Wilde shook his head, his frustration wanting to boil over. No matter which option they looked at, no matter which way they sorted through the scenarios available to them, they were going to take heavy losses and face a degradation of vital fleet protection. The only option that would accomplish their goals painlessly and effectively was the one option that had been nixed by men in suits two hundred million kilometers away. 'Okay,' he said. 'That at least lets us set the targeting priority. Since there is a significant possibility that we may only have enough assets to pull off one major alpha strike against the Martian surface, we'd better do the important one first.'

'The strike against the Eden rail network?' they both asked.

'Exactly,' Wilde said. 'Taking out the ammunition factory in New Pittsburgh is important — don't get me