Into the Black: The Battle for Earth 9 by Stuart Grosse

Author:Stuart Grosse [Grosse, Stuart]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: LitRPG
Goodreads: 39713881
Published: 2018-04-02T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 88 – The Battle for Earth

(INS Jethro Gibbs, Earth Orbit, Sol System)

Rear Admiral Anthony DiNozzo was less than pleased with the current arrangement of forces in the system. One of four flag officers now commanding the defense of Earth, he had only gotten this position because the highest-ranking admirals, as well as the fleet commanders who would normally be in charge of such an important post, were caught in the first attack of the ‘Ghost Fleet’.

That fleet (the damn Intelligence department couldn’t pin down how many ships they actually had, but thought it was at least six) had played a critical role in reversing the tide of the civil war, to the point that an invasion of Sol seemed all but inevitable. That left a lot of room for new promotions, but the most promising candidates were either dead, already assigned to other fleets, or were going to the new ships that had been coming off the line since the war’s start.

DiNozzo had been promoted, sure, but he knew his career was going nowhere. He wasn’t politically reliable enough for the new Emperor and the new Navy. He wasn’t cult material, basically. So until someone more reliable was at a point where they could do the job, he was in a position of some authority, but still under the command of those who were cultists.

He commanded a third of the overall defensive fleet for Earth. Just Earth, not the whole of Sol system. But it was still impressive, on paper. Unfortunately, most of his ships were either completely new hulls without even a shakedown cruise or relics from the reserve fleets that had been ‘prettied up’ to look like top of the line vessels. His ships also were on skeleton crews, and all his captains and officers were the ‘unreliable’ types, like himself. And they were flying in a lazy, predictable formation in orbit of Earth.

In other words, they were sacrificial lambs left out for the slaughter, in hopes that they’d draw in the Ghost Fleet and the Empress’s forces to attack, letting the rest of the fleet hidden behind Luna ambush them. And so his crews were all the problem children and general nuisances that all navies had, but also those that were, like him, not willing to join the Emperor’s cult. Well, for the most part. There were a few cultists in the fleet, but mostly they were in the ships that were expected to survive the battle.

One thing that had been concerning him, though he hadn’t mentioned it in any of the high-level planning missions, because no one wanted the opinion of an admiral of questionable loyalty, was that this whole thing was dependent on the ‘rebels’ flying directly into the trap. Sure, it looked good, on paper, and his flagship the Gibbs had been modified to look like the fleet flagship from a distance, but he could do basic math, like anyone else. It had been just under a month since the fleet base at Alpha Centauri had fallen.

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