Peripherally, she could see O’Garran stand to his full height below her, his face very white against the darkness around him. “Yesterday’s positions?”
“You heard right, Sergeant. Tell them to get moving. We don’t have a lot of time.”
O’Garran’s attempt to ask two questions at the same time produced a comical gobbling sound for a moment. “Ma’am, are we—? I’m not—What do you mean, we don’t have a lot of time?”
Opal unclipped the snooper scope from the side of the ladder, reeled in the fiber-optic probe back down through the manhole’s pry-bar slit. “You’ve seen the reports on the fiber-com. Ever since the last of the clone units deserted, the Hkh’Rkh have had to send out a slew of fresh units working perimeter clearance like fire brigades. If one of their regular sweeps gets hit hard within five hundred meters of the Roach Motel, the fire brigade gets the word, rushes in, and snuffs out the flames. In this case, that means us. They’ll assume we’ve played all our cards and are either going to sit back or eventually unass this place. Either way, they’ll want to get here fast. Make sure they get us.”
“Why? As a reprisal, an ‘example’?”
“Hell, no. For security. They’ll know that an ambush like this wasn’t mounted by the general insurgency. That makes us a high priority target. Firstly, we could be an intel goldmine. They’ll guess we’re not locals, so they’ll want to grab some of us to squeeze and debrief since they’ve got no idea—yet—what kind of coordinated efforts they’re up against today.”
“And what’s the second reason we’re a high-priority target?”
She sealed the snoop scope back in its pouch. “Given where they want to establish a safe perimeter—about five hundred meters out from their compound—we are a serious and organized rear-area security threat that got inside the zone they thought they’d cleared.”
O’Garran nodded. “So they’re going to come back and clean out what they missed: us. Okay, so let’s go back into hiding.”
“Whoa there, Little Guy. I didn’t say anything about hiding. I said we’re going back into yesterday’s positions, which are about four hundred meters back to the north, along the probable advance route of the Hkh’Rkh fire brigade.”
Wu looked over. “So you mean to attack them, too. A much larger force, and mostly unwounded.”
Opal heard the grim tone but ignored it. “That is correct. But we’re going to hit them from behind. I’m betting that four hundred meters north of this contact point, that fire brigade is still going to be moving fast, with minimal flank and rear security precautions. And you did leave the demo charges in yesterday’s positions, didn’t you Mr. Wu?”
“I did as you instructed.”
“And now you know why I did so. And now we’ve lost another minute we can’t afford to lose. Move.”
As they crouched into the stooped jog that was the fastest way of traveling through the fiber-optic conduits, O’Garran kept close behind her. Close enough to whisper, “Major, I’ve got to ask: what in the hell are we doing? I mean, why mount another ambush before we get the ‘go’ signal for the final attack? What will it accomplish—?”
“It will clear the path to the Roach Motel, sergeant.”
“So you’re baiting them in to clear this sector. Why?”
“Because we don’t have enough forces to spare for a rear guard when we make our own assault.”
“Our own assault? What do you mean? Assault into what?”
“Assault straight into their compound, Sergeant. That’s the objective of the final attack, after all.”
The moment’s silence seemed to double the force behind O’Garran’s urgent, hissing whisper, “Into their compound? Major, particularly with our losses, we’d never survive an approach to their hardpoint, let alone fight through it into the Roach Motel.”
“Who said anything about going through the hardpoint?”
“Well, how else—?”
“Little Guy, tell me. What are we in right now?”
“Uh… fiber-optic conduits. And the very occasional sewer.”
“And a number of buildings in the Arat Kur compound—particularly the ministries complex near the palace—were wired for fiber optic, weren’t they?”
The brief silence told her that he saw it. “So we’re taking out both these Hkh’Rkh forces to make the exos believe that we’re weakening this area in preparation for a frontal assault on their compound.”
“Right. And since they’re too smart to sit holed up, waiting for us to hit the compound—”
“—They’re going to send out a good-sized preemption force to break up any gathering attack, eliminate us, and then finish the job of securing their perimeter in this sector.”
“Right again. And where’s that force going to come from, given how overextended the Hkh’Rkh already are?”
Another pause; another tactical realization. “They’re going to tap the internal security detachment that’s covering this part of the compound. They can’t have anything else left as area reserves.”
“Exactly. They’re going to draw down this salient’s security complement to come out after us, try to take us out on the streets, before we can conduct a frontal assault.”
“But you said we’re not going to be assaulting frontally—”
“Because we’re not even going to be on the streets. While they’re out looking for us, we’re going to be in the conduits under the streets, and under them. All the way into the heart of the Roach Motel.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Darzhee Kut bobbed when Urzueth Ragh pointed out the relayed sensor readings. “The human fleet is preparing to engage our own in cislunar space.”
First Delegate Hu’urs Khraam swiveled towards him. “It is the expected melody, but how can you tell?”
“They have discontinued the centrifugal spin of their habitation modules and are retracting the booms.”
“Earlier than at Barnard’s Star. Do our tactical analysts anticipate differences in this engagement?”
“Several, Hu’urs Khraam. Firstly, the human force is much larger than ours on this occasion, and the ships are not second echelon or decommissioned craft. It is the gathered cream of their several fleets, both in terms of hulls and personnel. Secondly, this time they are moving faster than we are, yet their trajectory will allow them to use Earth’s gravity to pull them tight around the planet and strike us again. Or, by changing when and how much they boost, they could use that gravity to slingshot them out of cislunar space at extreme velocity.”
“So they have far more control over whether there will be a second firing pass, a second phase to the engagement.”
“Your pitch is perfect, Esteemed Hu’urs Khraam. They can either run and minimize their losses if things do not go well—”
“—Or come around to finish us off if the first engagement has gone in their favor.”
“Regrettably true, First Delegate. But I do not impugn our planning. We presumed that they had no such forces left. There was no reason for us to fear or refrain from being so deep in Earth’s gravity well.”