John Ringo by Eye of the Storm

John Ringo by Eye of the Storm

Author:Eye of the Storm
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Space Opera, General, Science Fiction, Imaginary wars and battles, Adventure, Soldiers, Military, Fiction
ISBN: 9781439133620
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2010-05-24T22:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER SEVEN

"The SS has thirty percent of its heavy equipment in shipment," Tam said. "The remainder will be arriving over the next couple of weeks. They've already begun training on the gear. Muehlenkampf feels that three months will be necessary for them to become fully trained on the systems."

"He lifts two weeks after they get the final shipment," Mike said. "If he has three months on planet to train in, all good. But a trained unit on Earth does us no good if Gratoola falls."

"I'll send him the message," Tam said. "Lieutenant General Stewart has a brief on Hedren capabilities and methods prepared."

"Go," Mike said, looking over at his son-in-law.

"I did hardly any of it," Stewart admitted. "The J-2 was preparing it before I took over. So I'm not going to take credit. Here goes:

"Hedren primary method of hard insertion is through the matter wormhole. The unit inserted is, as was previously briefed, the equivalent of a heavy armored corps with combat supports including in-system attack craft. But that's not enough to take a planet. They're really just there to establish a bridgehead. They generally will land near a notable feature of the planet, a capital city or such, and take that as fast as possible. Then they sit on it until more forces arrive through hyper-jump."

"Why not just attack through hyper?" Mike asked.

"Think about it from a defense point-of-view, General," Stewart said. "Defenses are based to point outwards. The Hedren Fleet arrives hard on the heels of the ground assault. Suddenly you have ground forces holding a position, ones that can engage into local space from the ground, and a fleet jumping in on you. Dimensional warp tech won't hyper in any closer than the ley-line system, which means well outside the life-zone of most systems. Therefore, the fleet has to fight its way in. If they don't have ground force, they then have to make a combat drop on the position. Better to have a secure area for landing. The defenders have to make the choice of engaging the ground forces from space or the incoming fleet."

"Attack from both axes," Tam said.

"Correct, sir," Stewart replied. "It's not just a ground attack, it's a full-court press. Following a successful attack, the planet is then invested by the fleet, more forces are landed and spread out to control the populace and reduce resistance."

"So the ground force portion, except for the fact that it's really heavy and definitely less spread out, is the equivalent of airborne forces dropped behind the lines," Mike said. "They take a major psychological position, if it's a city it's hard to dig them out, then sit on their gains until relieved. They're going to be screwed if the follow-on forces get stopped."

"Nijmegen?" Tam said.

"You're thinking of Arnhem," the former paratrooper said. "Nijmegen was the 82. I need to get with Takao and see what he thinks are the chances of stopping the incoming fleet. Otherwise, our forces are going to be the Brits. TOE?"

"Himmit have given



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