Defense Council Secretariat, city of McNair, Commitment
“Now let me turn to FedWorld force dispositions.” Fleet Admiral Jorge cued the next holovid slide, this one speckled with red icons marking the estimated positions of every Fed warship identified by Hammer intelligence and endless reconnaissance missions.
“In general, what we can see is the same trend we have observed for some time,” Jorge continued. “Apart from ships tasked with operations against our home planets, the Feds have been progressively building up the forces around their Fleet base at Comdur. Here.” He stabbed a marker down into a thick mass of red icons 10 or so light-years galactic west of Terranova.
“We now know for certain that these are the forces assigned for the invasion. We do not know which planet they have selected as their primary target, but our assessment is that it is almost certain to be Commitment.”
A small shiver ran through the men around the Defense Council table. The consequences of a successful Fed invasion of Commitment did not bear thinking about.
“Now, in addition-”
“Forgive me, Admiral,” interrupted Tobias de Mel, councillor for internal security.
“Sir?”
“How can we be sure that planetary invasion is what these ships are for?”
“Well, sir,” Admiral Jorge replied, “in part, it’s because of the nature of the forces assembled. The last reconnaissance drone fly-by of Comdur positively identified the planetary assault vessels Cheng Ho, Jefferson, Al-Fayed, Adams, and Yamamato. We also have unconfirmed intelligence reports that the planetary assault vessels Shrivaratnam, Nelson, Washington, Tourville, and Monroe have been tasked to Comdur, though we don’t yet know when they will drop in-system. All told, we estimate these ships have close to 400,000 marines embarked.”
“Kraa!” de Mel hissed. “That’s one hell of a lot of marines. Are we sure we can stop this, Admiral?”
That is a damn good question, Jorge thought. “Absolutely, Councillor,” he replied, his voice emphatic, confident. “When we launch Operation Damascus, all the ships tasked with the invasion will be in orbit around Comdur. When we have finished with them, the Feds will have barely enough warships left to protect their home planets. They will not have the ships they need to conduct offensive operations. They will also have suffered massive losses of experienced spacers and marines. So yes, I am sure we can stop this,” he said flatly, even though it was a lie. Anyone who believed that there was any such thing as an absolute certainty when it came to space warfare was a fool. These were politicians, and in Jorge’s book at least, that automatically made them fools when it came to all matters military.
“Now, in addition to the planetary assault vessels, the latest reconnaissance fly-by shows the bulk of the Fed fleet’s heavy units in orbit at Comdur station. We have also. .”