Against the Tide. [David Weber's Out of the Dark, Waifu Catalog Fanfic]

[Imperator Pax]

Winterborn Part 3
The subterranean machine was slowing, but had yet to come to a full stop, and date inputs were still coming in. Weather front notifications, temperature ranges and other information. It wasn't extrapolating second and third order effects. Kane closed his eyes against the dim red lighting as he rested his head against the black cushioned headrest and considered what they had accomplished. Most importantly they had severely weakened the Shongairi command and control. They had confirmed the existence of a service rivalry between ground and naval forces within the Shongairi services. That was useful, and exploitable from an intelligence stand point because the Shongairi command chain was hidebound at times.

Hidebound into preconceived strategic notions of war that they made mistakes that could then be exploited... and in this they had removed one of the more competent Shongairi ground leaders. That would potentially spark recriminations between the two services, as well as force less capable officers to cover larger areas of territory... or else the promotion of officers from the ranks. If their understanding of Shongairi rank structure was correct then junior officers probably wouldn't be respected outside of their original parent command and also likely considered less reliable than pre invasion officers of rank.

Of course in an ideal world the real effect would be that the Shongairi were forced by the loss of officers to grind operations to a halt... hopefully until such time as they could decapitate the naval side of things. By of course neutralizing the Shongairi ability to indulge in their favorite pastime of throwing rocks down into the Earth's gravity well usually at civilian population centers.

Unfortunately the Shongairi's computer systems were still frighteningly effect in manning a point defense system... it would have taken vast numbers of nuclear missiles launched in order to do anything. He had continued to return to the notion of the casaba howitizer idea... but no... energy weapons lifted into orbit would be much much harder to retaliate against. He was asking people to be patient, and had had to insist as the year turned that people with necessary skills not take up arms that they needed to remain in the safety of the underground...

Farmers especially, the truth was while they had worked hard to create a hydroponics array, raided cities and such and built food safe plastic tubs of tilapia and leafy greens people were going to want other sorts of food. Were going to need more and healthy foods once the invaders were banished from the Earth... and that meant needing farmers... a profession that had been in a steep decline in the developed world over the past century as more people took up other professions and moved away from where their ancestors had lived for generations... and that meant safeguarding them, including against themselves.

Kane's focus turned to the holographic map whose image had been all but burned into his psyche of all of North America's dead cities, and of the list of still other cities that had been struck by kinetic strikes in either the opening wave or as retaliation. The counter blow against the Shongairi had to insure they couldn't mount any further retaliation.

He let out a breath, as Marduk's daughter rested a hand on his collar. Ana moved more fully into his frame of view as he opened his eyes. How much simpler things would have been if that damned puppy had been stupid enough, if the fleet commander of the Shongairi invasion had been stupid enough to bring himself down to within the gravity well... but while the Shongairi had made many ham handed rash and foolish mistakes thickair had not come down to earth's surface. "I trust, my dear, that our guests are here." and with their wayward missing fly boy and his, or most of his contingent... which was good. Kane was glad that Torino was alive.

She allowed him to stand up and moved through the Montauk's hallway. The Shongairi intercepts had been a breach in communications discipline... expletives, swears, and superstitions. Kane had been focused on the information of his master display, the keep track of time until he could signal a 'code zeus' and lightning bolt the shongairi fleet into free floating debris...and the countdown to if that wasn't an option when he would be able to summon reinforcements of sorts from another dimension... but the panic in the Shongairi command spreading down from brigade, and up from company level at the shock had been a welcome surprise.

They padded silently down the halls. Picturesque grace, unencumbered by unnecessary battle rattle in contrast to others further down the platform to which the Montauk was parked at. The habitation block was a contrast from the Montauk's interior in that the it was a warm light not intended to preserve people's night vision.

Dave Dvorak was already present looking quite out of place among the throng of younger men and still not quite fitting in with the military personnel. Of course that was more body language than anything, the men and women honed by months upon months fighting the Shongairi expressed that in the way they stood. That was not to Dvorak's discredit, the former gun store owner had much like matherson served better in the resistance effort as sort of cobbled together staff and logistics chain than as a front line fighter. Matherson still went out to the front, in spite of Kane's objections, but the distribution of material, and the training aspect even just basic marksmanship helped the resistance.

The ambush relied on putting the first rounds on target before the Shongairi realized the fight was on them so basic marksmanship and familiarization with the M16/M4 or the AKM was critical. The average engagement distance in the south east was within two hundred yards, and that was skewed largely because of roadside ambushes as the Shongairi appropriated the highway system which meant long wide open spaces in the south.

Dvorak was however exceptionally a contrast for the trio to which he was in close proximity. The first was the familiar form, and bearing of Longbow Torino. Dvorak was chatting amiably with a big black marine noncom, but the final man, shorter than the marine but a presence entirely different was the real difference. "Ah, our host," The other green eyed man smiled broadly, an absurd curtsey, "My name is Basarab, Mircea Basarab," The smile showed off white, and sharp teeth. "I would say that we have a great deal to talk about."

"Vampire." Ana declared, Marduk's daughter not quite doing him the disservice of fully interposing herself between him and the man.

"Ah, yes of course," Mircea's smile grew even wider, "Your handy work was most impressive, my lady, the both of you have given the invaders quite the bother, I would say they were insurmountably flummoxed by your efforts... so much so that I just had to come and pay my respects to your efforts."Mircea's friends were unsurprised by the statement, Torino must have been informed already though Dvorak somewhat started slightly at Ana's statement, but he was paid no mind to as the vampire spoke animatedly as if they were all old school chums discussing the most recent sports game. Basarab had a clear and easy confidence, but that probably was that his fine boned features had likely made him quite popular with the opposite sex.

He did not need Zwei in his ear having run the name to make the guess. Lake Vidraru had been created by the communist government of Romania in the mid sixties as a reservoir for the dam of the same name. Romania which had as part of the course of wars earlier in the century gained Transylvania. "The forest of stakes, your handiwork." It wasn't quite an accusation

"A technique that I learned from the Turks," Mircea replied, "And thus showed to another invader in their turn. Just as from you, and my neighbors from the south did I consider the withdrawing to deep within the mountains mother earth so graciously provided for us. Though, this is," He gestured widely, and theatrically all around the habitation block, "is so much more comfortable than I thought, I should commend the consideration for your civilians you Americans put into such contingency planning."

Kane nodded, though he personally suspected most of the American civilians didn't consider this by any means luxurious, "You realize we must hide the civilians then."

"Yes, of course, indeed that is I am afraid where my judgment lapsed, I thought those under my protection were safe enough where they were, and the Shongairi took advantage of my lapse in judgment, and forced my hand." He shook his head sorrowfully, "A mistake I would rectify, "The Shongairi have been concentrating here in North America, reducing their presence elsewhere, they mean to kill all of mankind, and start fresh with our planet... we must strike my friend, and to do that I would board the sword of empire, their flagship... and put all of their leaders gathered there for a conference... to the sword."Mircea concluded with another broad smile as he spread his hands without ever quite addressing Ana's declaration.
--
Notes: We're back, I am planning tohave this chapter finished (Parts 4 and 5) hopefully by October that will cover Torino and Buschevsky as well other characters

 

[Imperator Pax]

Winterborn Part 4
Longbow Torino felt light headed...which was a fairly normal reaction he expected to ... well being a newly fledgling vampire. The shrapnel that had punctured his back and been dangerously close to cutting his spine had been fixed by that transformation but it was still hard to believe it... and that wasn't, that was far from the only thing Mircea had showed him on the flight over.

He'd always felt that Kane was astrange spook. Him, and his lady friend both... but it was a whole other kettle of fish from strange to watch the woman peel apart a Shongairi infantry fighting vehicle, the likes of which had killed more than one of his friends, with flame covered hands. Mircea had been eelated to speak of how they had vexed the invaders who had seen such demonstration, and Mircea had been equally elated of the impending rendezvous, and the bloodletting he expected to occuragainst the invaders as a result.

It had been, Torino wouldn't deny unnerving... and yet threateningly satisfying a prospect. It was something there ticking away in his inner place in his heart as the vampire spoke of taking the fight to Fleet Commander Thickair and retribution. Not the least of which was that Vlad's concern was that even without the biological weapon of mass destruction the Shongairi intended to deploy... there had been enough damage done that they were looking at a spiraling collapse of human civilization.

It hadn't even been a year yet, and he'd seen what it had done to the various big towns, and major cities of the United States. Torino could only imagine ... before Buchevsky and Mircea Baserab had told him their accounts... of what things in Europe must have been like. Mircea had confided that he would have liked to stop over in England had that been an option, but time did not permit that. The vampire, the older vampire had informed Torino, had said that wistfully a reminder that Vladislav Dracula the son of the dragon had seen centuries of war. That he had seen both world wars tear europe apart.

Mircea had explained that there were many many aliens... but omnivorous species were quite rare for the galaxy at large. Humans were tool using, and violent... but the Shongairi had not been concerned about 'us' bombing ourselves into the stone age because for the galaxy at large ... for the tech progression everyone else was much slower even on worlds with aggressive fauna, and dangerous flora as the Shongairi world was, and as most certainly earth was.

... that was the problem.

The Shongairi had unified early in their history.

"They, as a people," Mircea remarked looking around at the crowd, "came into the space age united... they are an empire, but one without any competitors on their home world... and war is largely unheard of in the long history of the galactic body to which the Shongairi had become a part of. A body, that thought to distract our invaders by throwing us to them, along with a few other worlds." The vampire remarked. "And the Shongairi loose initiative as we have all observed when their leadership is removed."

Nothing of the easy going speech was new information for Torino who was still sitting against one wall. "You want to board their flagship?" Kane's green eyes were flat, there was no raised eyebrow from the man in the heavy coat and he didn't seemed surprised by the proposal.

"Yes," Mircea all but purred in the affirmative, "I believe that by removing the head fromthe snake we can seize control of the flagship and while the enemy leadership is gathered prevent their retaliation. That is, as I understand the reason you have not used more pronounced attacks."

From what Torino had understood the Shongairi had been tentatively optimistic about two months into the operation to invade the earth thinking that the stockpile of surface to air missiles were depleting. In reality, at least to Torino's read that had been more a question of distributing systems, particularly man portable systems to fighters. The Shongairi response had been to restrict their bigger cargo birds to nominally safe rear areas but as his raid had demonstrated that didn't protect them from concentrated efforts. The Shongairi, especially after Mircea's activity in central Europe, had doubled down on North America, where the puppies were stretching themselves out and overtaxing their ground vehicle logistics.

Shairez had assumed that that meant field artillery, aircraft and armored vehicles had been destroyed...which wasn't true anywhere except western Europe where the geographical confines had made destruction of France, Spain, Portugal, and the Benelux armies a much simpler matter than parts of the continent further east or across the Atlantic. It was more that human resistance fighters had come to understand they didn't have the logistical background to support most of those heavier units... with the exception of artillery pieces. The Shongairi's reliance on thin aluminum skinned vehicles made them vulnerable to even outdated vintage human artillery of the previous century... but the real use was mortars which were much lighter and could be used to catch shongairi platoons in the open.

Torino had had heard all of this before of course. Kane had given a previous version of the briefing and Mircea had expounded upon the Shongairi's materiel losses of late. "The invaders never contemplated that our resistance would inflict these kinds of losses upon them, and did not bring sufficient numbers to occupy the planet." Indeed their numbers had been pretty damned optimistic Buchevsky had snorted at one point, "It is there where I outline our secondary reasoning, as you have said we must protect the farmers and," And Torino would have laid, all the worthless, money, he had in his wallets, the old vampire had been about to say peasants, or peasantry, "that winter is coming." He settled on, "It will be a cold one, and we are running out of time but in this the Shongairi have in their optimism brought us a gift in that their infrastructure that as I understand is largely still in storage or not yet ready to be deployed is a 'more generalized one'. The Puppies thought their forces enough to occupy three star systems we have proven them incorrect on that, but they continue to persist even if they have become desperate." Mircea remarked, "We need to take those industrial components in order to staunch the bleeding of the people."

Mircea's point was more about starvation and disease in displaced populations, forced to fleet from cities and towns that had been abandoned in the initial invasion...and now the cold months in the northern hemisphere had set in, and gas was for the most part very scarce. No gas made cross country travel hard, and also meant no tractors plowing fields to grow food.

Dave Dvorak was the only one who saw fit to bring up the roll of the dice this was.

"But, it is not much of one,"Mircea replied eyes glittering in the light, "The Shongairi have no reason to expect such a measure... and thus we have the opportunity to surprise them... and while they know humans are quite compatible with their education technology... the method by which they instill science and mathematics knowledge into their young they have no real knowledge by which to expect us to behave in this way. I have the means to board their vessel my friends, and with a small party, a body of picked men can lay upon them while they are unprepared to defend themselves." He gave a broad, too toothy smile quite pleased with the prospect. And, Torino wondered for a moment if only he was watching the way the Vampire's hands, fingers spread.

 

[Imperator Pax]

WinterbornPart 5
Mircea's delivery ... was one that left little room for opposition. Steven Buchevsky had known it was going to be that way to begin with... but he'd been a little worried about how it was going to be received... and maybe that was why Mircea had agreed he only wanted to speak with a small portion of the North American resistance leadership.

... or maybe he only cared about talking to Kane at all, and his was a way to establish his bona fides or shore them up. Not that Steven Buchevsky thought Mircea needed to prove anything to anyone even before Mircea had cut loose against the invaders. Buchevsky was pretty glad about that... the weather forecasts were pretty grim looking and from what Torino had told him the resistance over here was far from unified...

"There is no surviving legitimate authority." Kane remarked with a calculating look thrown to Mircea, that Buchevsky wasn't quite sure he liked either.

Mircea didn't seem to mind the look, giving a shrug, "Is that really a problem? For what we must do? We have no need to consult bureaucrats and bean counters for what we undertake is the defense of humanity and the homeworld against an invader who has slaughtered billions of us with near impunity."

The implication being not striking was insanity... or Treason.

"It is not the strike I am concerned with Mircea," Kane replied using the vampire's preferred given name, "We can, and if what you tell me is accurate of the Shongairi situation, we should do so forwith, I am merely working from Eisenhower's maxim of what happens then." That ruffled the surviving officers, Torino went rigid, "But that isn't likely to be your problem is it, Mircea, you don't plan to stick around for that do you?"

"The Shongairi invaded, tortured and slaughtered those under my protection," Dracula replied in a low cold hiss, "They mutilated children, infected them with disease, and lead to starvation," The vampire's teeth were bared, "I will take this fight to the invaders, and force the mto understand what they have inflicted on my people before I destroy them all."

"You mean to take as much of the Shongairi battle fleet with you when you go?"

"Yes," He replied the cold fury abruptly gone as Mircea's more genial tone reasserted itself, "I will have no need for the industrial ships and even if I did from what you tell me it is really the logistics of feeding people that is the real problem. We must distribute food, pass out blankets, and medicine to the effected, and the dispossessed..."

Shongairi MREs weren't great, but they made sure you got all the vitamins and nutrients you needed... which was the next part of the plan as Buchevsky understood it. The Shongairi were the same way after a fashion, they'd been coaxing collaborators into helping with regular food, with access to electricity heated and cooled housing, nominal protection.

Something that Mircea was prepared to leave to someone else, as he left to take the Shongairi warships back to their makers. Kane paused his fingers gliding along the surface of his console ghost like in its subtlety. "We'll only get the one shot, if it looks like you failed, I will have to fire on the Sword of Empire with all of the ion cannons that make it to orbit."

"I am very hard to kill." Mircea replied, "and I accept the risk, my intention to kill the fleet commander and take his ship." He stated more to the assembled men, "what you must be ready for are to sweep away the remainder, and prepare for the ground campaign to follow." The Vampire continued.

A series of ribbons of light coalesced into progress displays. "The network isn't complete, leaving aside that all of my launch sites are in the south eastern united states, and not across the continental US or in forward deployed centers I think we can accept that killing Thickair should create a sufficient distraction to freeze the Shongairi." An animation began to play as various trajectories into orbit appeared.

It didn't take a genius to recognize that the Ion Cannon Network had not been intended as a space oriented defense system, Buchevsky had to assume that the reason it hadn't been operational was to avoid antagonizing the Russians or Chinese, or making the Europeans uncomfortable by militarizing space, "Would it have made a difference?" Some one asked voicing Buchevsky's unasked question.

"Having more Ion Cannons to fire on the Shongairi fleet would be preferable," Kane replied ignoring the actual question, "I'm willing compromise given the target window of the Shongairi conference is ... too providential an opportunity to ignore." Mircea nodded pleased by the agreement." The timing of the launch though will be an issue." It would depend Torino recognized on the situation of the attack. The angle the satellites needed to be at, what side of the planet...where the western hemisphere was facing when the launch was begun. The other problem was that, "Is that it will take several minutes to reach space. The Shongairi or at least their computers will detect the launches."

"We will have to evacuate the civilians underground." Mircea stated, "Any Shongairi retaliation will devastate the area... if we are not successful." And probably would lead to even more devastation.

"As I said, it would be preferable to have more ion cannons but as outlined eliminating in one strike the majority, or ideally all of the Shongairi leadership might paralyze the rest for a mop up."

Mircea's smile was broad, "Then we are agreed."

"In principle yes." Kane replied acknowledging to Mircea that they were on the same page. That the vampire would board the Shongairi flagship that they would launch an attack and that if the effort failed they would try to break the shongairi's hold on orbital supremacy. "The ion cannons aren't space ships, the satellites have limited maneuvering, and take time to charge to full capacity. If the shongairi are able to return fire they'll destroy the network in most simulations unless the fleet is destroyed first." Hence why Kane had been hoping to wait until spring, a whole year between the invasion's start and the response... but they couldn't wait Torino knew that now. Not only was it the Shongairi, but it was human scavengers with guns that were part of the current problem as well.

The meeting broke apart with the two leaders having made their agreements, and the crowd split into congregating friends and colleagues. The holographic flashes of manmade lighting the animation of the ion cannons firing left floating in the open. Torino felt obliged to Mircea to attempt to point out, to explain the problem with the situation... or rather the situation of what would be if they succeeded. Even if they excluded the rest of the planet, which was insane given the situation and the logistics of space travel the Shongairi devastation of the American heartland meant presumably very little of the federal government survived. There were a handful of governors and officers of the army but no one in the enumerated chain of succession to take up the executive duties of POTUS.

Dave Dvorak bit his lip, "we're going to need to hold elections." The former gun store owner remarked... "I mean we are if we can even get that far. Right Rob?" He asked his brother in law, the former marine having stayed silent through most of these proceedings.

"Thats how things are supposed to work." Rob agreed, but then acknowledged that how things were supposed to work, how they'd been written hadn't been written in the expectation of the total breakdown of ... well basically everything. Outside of very local apparatus Torino wasn't exactly clear what existed beyond any of those local government agencies. "No body expected the cities to empty out and them not being able to buy food , or go to the store."

Or being to grow their own food, Torino though, either knowing how or having the means to do so... Torino moved away from the two men talking. Kane was looking over a map of North America, holographic motes with dates above them showed where the Shongairi had hit targets from orbit... so many from the start of the invasion and the big ass exercise Homeland Security had called for... making the Shongairi opening strike like shooting fish in a barrel as someone else observed.

"Should we tell the yankees, boss?" A heavy set man asked a long drawl from south georgia asked

Kane paused for a moment his fingers holding in mid air over the display, "I'll reach out to colonel matherson personally if that's what you mean.... the Massachusetts people as well. We'll need to begin hunkering down, but the specifics of what we are going to need to remain strictly need to know. Fripp?"

"Absolutely boss man." The man replied, which was a reminder to Torino of the lack of military decorum and strictures that being a resistance fighters entailed over a conventional pre invasion army.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Broken Sky 1
Kane found himself spending time examining the estimates on what the invasion had cost humanity in terms of industrial productivity. There was likely going to be an industrial revolution when they could start rebuilding... but they had to secure peace first, which was why Zwei kept the feed piped in from orbit. Mircea Baserab was making his last minute preparations... while he made the effort to keep people on message and maintain a normal operational tempo to prevent the Shongairi from assuming that something was being planned... but Mircea... well those weren't material preparations. Mircea didn't need equipment... as his plan was really quite simple and he already the shuttle which would take him up there. No, the real material challenge was on his end... of having Zwei monitor the fleet of the alien invaders... and the updates on the ion cannons waiting to be lifted into orbit.

Zwei had also modelled the expected weather fronts... not which were promising. It was going to be a cold winter, which they had already been expecting. The difference between chatter and the models though were the prolonged below average temperatures, and the precipitation expected. Zwei's models could be wrong but the predictions extended out into April... but well if they could make it to the anniversary of the invasion's opening... they needed to survive that long, and if the Shongairi had already been defeated then all the better.

In the mean time Kane had the documents, and the guess work of what they had lost already... and also waiting officers. Torino had only been one of those who had complained about the spreading starvation, never mind the spreading epidemiological threats ... but Kane knew his resources weren't limited. Medical care was dependent on specialists, and large quantities of complex machinery directly and indirectly to distribute pharmaceuticals.

Water purification was one thing, and if anything HabBlock residents ate healthier if undoubtedly smaller portions of food than pre invasion Americans. Kane was prepared to use non tiberium dependent cybernetics and equipment, but he didn't have an easy way to mass produce antibiotics, which was a problem for treating things that needed treatment of gram negative aerobic bacteria... which was what Mason at the door was now fretting about.

"I have heard the reports from out west," He replied as moved into the adjoining hard gray room replete with non descript fifties esque office furniture, "Andyes natural occurrences of plague are a problem," Most likely from the ground squirrel population's reservoir... and pre invasion treatment with streptomycin would have been easy to keep plague, or tularemia, or TB in check. The medical officers were already worrying bout it moving east or that apparently the Shongairi base in western Canada had apparently contracted the plague as well... but it was not going to be a war of the worlds esque solution... though it was a reminder of how similar the Shongairi were biologically to earth mammals... including their vulnerability to apparently flea transmitted illnesses, or diseases from dead bodies. "but we are at this point barely projecting influence into eastern Texas," That would have been an issue with just lack of manpower. The Shongairi weren't going out of their way to destroy human infrastructure but the highway system, and railway lines were... had been damaged as the cities they were built to funnel to had been flattened by the opening strikes, or the retaliation... the latter of which had thankfully slowed. "We are hurting the invaders, but they are at the end of their own supply chain," Hence the aliens resorting to human driven trucks, and operating on highways and interestates... but that knowledge also underscored the issue of human collaborators... and threatened to create problems with North Carolina's surviving governor... and the fact that his administration was muddling through the invasion this far along... and they had talked about Howell before, and Greensboro... but that had been before they'd been in a position to even consider launching a concerted effort to break the Shongairi grip on the orbital high ground... and then of course there was the problem that Mircea was choosing to leave Earth rather than remain behind to help... which regardless of how that suited Ana just fine the truth was Kane would have appreciated the affable vampire remaining... but there was something to be said for his somewhat optimistic plan of taking the fight back to the Alien homeworld.

Mason who despite the months on the run in the wilderness down from New England through the ravaged mid Atlantic states at six foot was still relatively stocky, started to protest. "The plague was apocalyptic in terms of devastating an unprepared Europe."

"We have already seen the apocalypse, Colonel." Kane replied green eyes flashes of emerald above high cheek bones, "And it is why we are taking precautions in handling refugee populations with screening," But there was little extra that they could feasibly, effectively do they wouldn't have planned to do already in terms of organizing refugee populations. The new Englander should have known that from how his own band from Massachusetts had been handled. Adding to that work load would have been performative at this point... it cost Kane very little to build habitation blocks that were segregated off to hold populations for observation.

... but again those populations would have to actually reach them. Moving from Black Mountain, and Asheville in western North Carolina to the upstate region of South Carolina to North Georgia and the blue ridge was easy enough without ever having to spend too much time above ground... but that was something that some people had a hard time to come to terms with especially coupled with other stress.

Still, even with only a limittedportion of the ranks present, the noise began to build. "This isn't a movie," Matherson protested, "Any kind of broadcasted call for an uprising will get people killed, and if we start putting out the word then it will get back to the aliens." Never mind that with the way communication tended to work, how the rumor mill tended to work across the devastated populace there would be confusion.

The only option was to sit on the information that they were going to do something. That wasn't going to be popular, especially with the need to still launch raids and attack Shongairi convoys. Too many of the men in this room, and far too many of the rank in file in their respective 'militia units' had grown up in a generation that had viewed the movie Independence Day as a classic piece of cinema.

... and it was ironically a parallel despite Mircea looking nothing like David Goldblum... and Buchevsky was hardly as skinny as Will Smith... but they would still be aiming to take out the Alien mothership... just not with a computer virus. That was only part of hte reason Kane hoped to keep things operationally compartmentalized... Mircea being a vampire was going to lead to a lot of questions... questions which were already spreading among the present members, and were going to extend to himself and Ana, and likely eventually Zwei who had much less contact with the various resistance cells... and yet as the crack, regarding the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, among chattering fighting men had been made at least some people were already taking such things well in stride. That didn't mean it should be assumed.

There was a break in the chatter as Dave Dvorak finally managed to gather enough attention to get a word in edge wise. "So, Mircea didn't seem to make such a big deal out of it," And what was after all a few centuries to a vampire. "But I think we should make a bigger issue out of the fact that the other Hegemony races just pointed the Shongairi at us... and from what we've seen it isn't as if the relations or even just the prejudices between member races are all that great or enlightened."

The Shongairi derisively referred to vegetarians... herbivores as weed eaters, and it seemed like there was reciprocation from herbivorous species towards carnivores and omnivores. There were also the Shongairi had been subjugating ...that Thickair's fleet had been assigned to subjugate two other primitive worlds.

And as much as Dave's moral outrage about the Shongairi warrior ethos and and the wider hegemony's view of the 'right of the superior species' might be worth talking about," Now, is not the time for that conversation." Kane replied, "Yes, the broader galaxy are a problem, and their behaviors are going to be a problem, but we have the more immediate problem of breaking the Shongairi's control of orbit, whatever political discourse shakes out, whatever history of the aliens needs to be studied, for the moment we must contend with the current calculus imposed by our strategic position."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Broken Sky Part 2
Kane recognized that the various guerilla cells were not dependent on central leadership. Local leadership sprung up from their own ranks especially given the lethality of modern combat. He simply couldn't be everywhere, and hadn't had the time to reach out and ingrain in any handful of individuals and organizations.

Then of course there was the timeframe. The Shongairi hadn't been aiming for the destruction of human communications networks directly... apparently it hadn't been planned for and adapting to the existence of telecommunications had been one thing, but even that had been made easier by striking major network centers more or less as a consequence of the outgoing kinetic strikes. The internet however had proven surprisingly more robust, and even now continued to exist and transmit data.

Just like with the physical rumor mill, the electronic one was filled with bluster and false information. "I wouldn't worry overly much," He replied to Matherson, the Yankee shifted as if to silently protest how much was overly much, "The Shongairi opened with a catastrophic strike, we estimate there are over three billion human dead. This attempt to coopt humans with talks of sameness because we both eat meat is clumsy at best, and even if it weren't a case of too little too late, I think we and Colonel Mason would concur that what is effectively advocating militarism would have found little purchase in Western Europe after1945." The Shongairi brigadier forced into a leadership role in Spain and Southern France could talk about how they were both 'the top of the food chain' but the puppy ground force commander on the other side of the pond didn't understand the psychology, or saw just enough similarity with humans that his handling of leadership was clumsy and double edged, because he was still assuming that pack leadership would mean human collaborators were apart of the pack.

"There are collaborators though."

"Yes," He agreed, "Butfar fewer I think than there could have been."

"You just said half the planet is dead, and the French have a history of collaborating."

Kane nodded, a smooth gesture, "Yes, denazification of western Europe was a bad joke. Truman was unprepared for the position he found himself in, and Atlee was an idiot, and Churchill was..." was too obsessed with the British Empire before the 1st​ world war's carnage, and that world ended with the guns of august 1914, "Well that is the past. We're not ready to project power into Europe at this stage and even after we break the Shongairi hold on the gravity well there will be plenty of more complicated problems closer to home."

Black Mountain, and Asheville were in the state of North Carolina which still nominally held a government from before the invasion. Howell represented a series of problems both in the context of resisting the invasion, and a potential post invasion situation. The problem though were the fall rains, and the declining temperatures. The disintegration of most state governments went hand in hand with the evaporation of public utilities like power, and water and it was going to be cold this winter... every was sick to death of hearing it but it was true. "The request for more weapons?"

"I have shipments prepared, for the fighters out west along the Mississippi as well. "Kane replied, "We'll make them available. RPGs as well," He added after a moment, "If the groups in Kentucky, and the Ohio valley do make attacks around the same they make attacks, and if not then it isn't anything that will draw Shongairi attention," But for now it was imperative to maintain operational security for strategic level operations, and give the impression that tactical operations against the Shongairi were still on both to other resistance groups to whom they served as logistical base for, and for the population at large. They had to avoid some well meaning idiot trying to reassure people that things were going to change soon, and for it to then get out. Even leaving aside Kane wasn't sure how the public at large would respond to vampires, but again something he had to put aside in the problem for later category for the simple fact that they needed to funnel weapons to groups that were still actively fighting the Shongairi further north. "I am aware there is a need for food and medicine but," Unfortunately the logistics of transporting truly palatable food was impractical... the best option for fighters on the great lakes was to seize shongairi rations which will unappetizing were completely safe for human consumption and filled out all the requisite caloric load. That wasn't a popular suggestion, they tasted like cardboard as did most high calorie food... they were basically MREs after all.

Things like AT 4s were vastly less trouble to transport, and disperse to more distant rebel groups but habitation blocks were capable of supply fresh food including greens. Greens were going to be scant this winter for people still living on the surface and they were also the most vulnerable to Shongairi reprisals. The problem was of course the question of what would happen after, as it was it hadn't taken long for local strongmen to appropriate whatever weapons they could gather and nominally oppose the Shongairi but seemed more interested in settled either pre invasion grudges or being otherwise petty tyrants.

Those sorts, for whom Mason, Matherson, and Torino all had had experience with along with the threats posed by collaborators in the here and now were a problem in the future where after the Shongairi where those weapons might be turned against them. It was in that, there was the other other problem. The informal militias to which Kane had had only limited exposure to directly, but to whom all too frequently whose care he charged the civilian displacement population lacked the truly secular grounding normal of western armies.

Black Mountain where Matherson had made his pre invasion living after leaving the Army was less of an issue. The dispersed surviving population of the Greenville metropolitan area however was... had adopted and were hardly the only ones to adopt the moniker of the Brotherhood of Nod, and that was compounded with an increasing flow of weapons, and armor. Ideologically there were competing arguments but the survival of humanity and defeating the invaders was a compelling unifying cause not just for the brotherhood but all regional human militias.

"Society has broken down, people aren't worried about being evicted or losing their jobs,"Matherson observed, "Its about security and safety. I was worried about my kids starving."

No one in Black Mountain had been at risk of starving since the end of Summer, "You have other concerns though."

"You said Mircea is Dracula."

"Yes,"

"So he's a super vampire."

"I am not quite clear on that," He replied, "He is a vampire, and a powerful one, he's certainly older than Buchvsky or now Torino who I surmise, suspect were only embraced very recently." Yet neither showed any real issue with being in daylight Matherson observed interjecting. "What about you and Ana?"

"I am, immortal." Kane remarked, "But not a vampire, neither is Ana for that matter."

"And that's not a problem for you?"

"I am confident that if Mircea can get aboard the Shongairi flagship his plan has a very good chance ofworking, Colonel. The Shongairi if we have to use nuclear weapons will have very good defensive coverage... so the plan is to use directed energy weapons. If I wasn't confident this could succeed at this juncture I would have insisted we wait. To try and better weather the coming winter, but Mircea's plan has merit so we will move forward with."

"People are already starting to react to the puppies, and aliens being real. Vampires, Wizards and whatever?"

Kane raised an eyebrow, "I have every confidence that that is a question people will be more capable of answering without the boot of an alien invader on their neck Colonel. We will destroy these invaders, and we will insure that they do not get a second chance."

"You cant promise that."

"I can be sure that it will likely not be in your lifetime then, the Alien's FTL that of their broader galactic community is slow. Mircea will be able to take the Shongairi fleet back if his plans go well and attack them without the wider galaxy being the wiser, because it will take decades even at faster than light speeds of their drives. We have time if the human race can but it through this year. I need those weapons delivered to the forces in the western theater, and to keep St Louis open."