The Battle for Sinope: Jovian Wars Book One by Tom Briggs

Author:Tom Briggs [Briggs, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-19T22:00:00+00:00

They returned to where they started the day. Mark, Luke, and their mother were back in her conference room. The major difference was the additional attendees were missing, replaced by Arnel Tibayan.

“Mr. Tibayan, I know you have many other duties to attend to, so please begin,” Carrie said.

Arnel had set the table with holographic three-dimensional renderings of the mining facility on Sinope. Mark had visited there many times, and it looked identical to the scene he would see if he was in a pattern ready to land—except for a few differences.

“This is what we saw on Sinope when we went to pick up the prisoners last week,” Arnel said. “You can see next to the operations building they’ve landed a freighter converted for troop transport. During the invasion it was likely they landed over one hundred troops.”

“More than enough to overwhelm an unguarded facility,” Carrie said.

“Yes, Governor. Fortunately, our people did not put up a fight and surrendered to the unit’s commander.”

“Are they operating the facility, yet?” Luke asked.

“No, and I don’t think they’ll be able to for a while. One thing the miners did was erase all software in the facility before surrendering. We have backups here on Europa, but the JCR will have to purchase their own and have personnel trained to install it. The next cruise ship from Earth left there about a week before Governor Jackson died, and it’s unlikely this problem was foreseen.” He paused. “Oh, I’m sorry.”

Mark saw his mother had her right hand on her face with her fingers squeezing her eyes. He patted her on the back, and she took a deep breath.

“It’s all right, Mr. Tibayan,” she said. “That was a critical piece of information, and I don’t want you holding back because I might get upset.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to do this tomorrow?” Arnel asked.

“No, sir.” She put her hands on each of her son’s shoulders. “Before these two young men were born, I served in several military units and lost a few friends. Their deaths were far more tragic than that of my husband, who lived a glorious life.”

Mark almost shed a tear himself. Arnel noticed; however, his gaze was more a question of guidance. Mark nodded.

“Yes, Governor,” Arnel proceeded. “My point was that unless they knew our people would erase the software, they would not be prepared today to fix it. Also, I don’t believe they developed their plans before the death . . . before Governor Jackson passed away.”

“There were no preparations on Callisto or Ganymede,” Mark said. “Had there been rehearsals, our reconnaissance would have noticed the troop movements and probably determined which buildings were used for those rehearsals.”

“There are times when Europa is on the other side of Jupiter from those moons,” Carrie pointed out.

“Correct, except with Europa being on the inside orbit, we get a perfect view of their Jupiter sides for a majority of the time between Minos and the Farside Base. Then we have a steady stream of mining ships returning from Sinope and our metal-mining operations on the other moons.

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