The Shark Boats by Leo Champion

Author:Leo Champion [Champion, Leo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Argilla Tabula
Published: 2013-09-04T04:00:00+00:00

*

Three huge dreadnoughts were lined up at the dock at Diego Sud. The docks of the large harbor, about fifty-five miles from the nearest point on the USC coast, were filled with military shipping. More ships lay in the wide, calm harbor or moved between the headlands. Supply ships, troop carriers and their escorts. The city around the harbor was Southern-style in architecture and scope; there were even a couple of tall buildings. From somewhere not too far away came small-arms fire. Training fire, from the evident lack of concern anyone else had about it.

“Clearly a war port,” said Turner, as they waited for the convoy to begin moving. He stood in the cockpit with Reiner and Calina.

“Yeah,” said Reiner.

“Wonder what the locals think about that. Being drawn into a war with the USC.”

“Diego Sud’s always been close to us. Politically and socially, as well as physically. And they know that they’re on the PNA’s list. Their government’s conscripting like hell and they have four divisions ready in case the Norks get this far.”

Turner gestured at another dock, under construction by crane-bearing barges.

“I see your government’s investing hard in the place. Don’t expect it to fall, do you?”

“You oughta see t’ other side of de hills,” Calina said. “They’s building fortifications. Me, don’t think them buggers plan on it fallin’.”

A flight of monoplaned Dunebug fighters came in low over the harbor, the roar from their oversized engines briefly making conversation impossible. When they’d passed, Turner spoke again.

“Makes you wonder. Look at all the investment you guys’re putting in. Supposing you win this war or get a truce, you planning to walk away from it all? Or is Schuylerville going to reason, hey, we have an army here anyway, may as well keep the place?”

Be polite to the son of a bitch, Reiner told himself.

“I’m a squadron commander,” he said. “Last I heard, Schuylerville didn’t consult O-4s on strategic policy. But the last I heard, the Colonial Period was over.”

“Sadly, huh?” asked Turner.

Oh, stop being a dick, Reiner thought. Everyone knew that Centralia’s primary motivation for getting into the war on the USC’s side would be so they could take a piece of the islands for themselves. And keep them.

That was better than the alternative, which would be Centralia getting and keeping a large chunk of the USC proper.

Centralia joining the war on Northern’s side would wipe out Mayflower, which held its side of the isthmus with a northwards-facing line of fortifications considered the strongest in modern history. That in turn would allow PNA troops to drive south to the USC’s northern border, opening a probably-disastrous continental front.

And putting PNA divisions into the middle of Centralia. How can Durant even consider that Ramirez, with his record, wouldn’t betray him the minute we were beaten?

That was a possibility he very much hoped he wouldn’t see.

“Attention all Convoy 416 escorts. Move to Point Alpha. Repeat, all 416 escorts to Point Alpha,” came the radio.

“Squadron Ten, roger,” Calina answered without needing a prompt from Reiner.

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