Assault Line. Макс Глебов

six hours, having quietly slipped past the intelligence targets, the probes returned to our ship along a wide arc. We did not risk the use of communications and took the probes aboard. When a computer-processed video stream began to appear on the projection screen, we were shocked for a while to remain silent, and then Yoon Gao said with a changed voice:

      “Well, Mr Chairman of the Commission of the Ministry of Defense, now we really have to go home.”

      We stood in front of the screen for a long time and looked at the image of the enemy cruiser, which was ulcerated in the bow by a multitude of many, not even breaches, but some uneven cavities and through holes, either melted or or eaten through by a strong acid or something like that. The whole hull around them was covered in a nasty whitish coating. Meanwhile, the strange weapon that corrupted part of the cruiser’s side seemed to continue to operate, albeit in a severely weakened state. The armored alloy turned into some kind of rags that continued to fall off from the damaged areas. The escort ships released many small repair robots which treated affected areas with streams of some powder, that reacted violently with the whitish coating, producing gases rapidly scattering in the vacuum.

      “We have to find those who did this, Yoon. The enemies of our enemies may not become our friends, but we have no right not to take that chance.”

      Chapter 1

      As soon as we reached the nearest hyper-beacon, the information packet went through a chain of relays to the Federation capital. I took advantage of my position and sent it directly to the Minister of Defence, so, by the time we arrived, the entire leadership of the Ministry, together with the General Staff and personally the Commander-in-Chief, were on the verge and really excited about this. In fact, we couldn’t add anything new to the information, but as it turned out, the follow-up meeting to the intelligence raid was postponed until I arrived, which surprised me.

      A ministerial fly-car with a colonel as its escort, in violation of all rules, flopped on the landing strip right in front of the recon ship that just landed on the tarmac. Ten minutes later, I was walking into the conference room on the top floor of the Ministry of Defence building. I took Yoon Gao with me just in case, after all, the personal observations and comments of the professional space recon officer may have helped not to overlook important details. But the commander of our ship was not allowed in the hall, with a polite reference to the closed list of participants in the meeting, and he was asked to wait in the break room for a summons to the hall, if any.

      “All right, gentlemen,” Tobolsky opened the meeting, “you are all aware of the results of Captain Lavroff’s raid. The information obtained by him and his men has the highest priority of importance, so I asked you to prepare your ideas and proposals for this emergency meeting at such short notice.”

      “Mr Lavroff,” the President found me with his eyes, “while you were on your way to Earth, we all had ample time to get to know the details of the information you gave us. Do you have anything else you’d like to add to the facts that we already know?”

      “Commander Yoon Gao and I have set out all the facts in the information packet to the fullest extent possible, Mr President,” I said while rising, “The rest are my personal thoughts and conclusions, which will be more appropriately conveyed in the course of the general debate.”

      “Well, then, let’s start with you, in accordance with the ancient tradition, as a junior officer here,” grinned Tobolsky, “Give your thoughts, Mr Lavroff.”

      I went to the podium next to the presidium table, where were sitting in comfortable seats President Tobolsky, Defence Minister Bronstein, Chief of the General Staff General of the Army Mazilescu, and Minister of Military Production Zwerev, whose position I so brazenly claimed in private with the President. In the hall opposite me sat the senior military commanders of the Federation and the heads of ministries and departments involved in the war and military production.

      It was the opportunity to speak to such an audience that I saw as one of my intermediate goals, and not only to speak, but also to make sure that my opinions are listened to. Well, in the long list of steps to complete the task I can tick the next box. Let’s get started.

      “Gentlemen, I will try to put my thoughts as concisely as possible,” I threw in the opening phrase,“What I saw in the quarg back areas says two things. First, we underestimated the enemy’s military-industrial potential. In three to six months, the enemy is confronting our Fleet with no less than ten, but rather more, Titan-class ships, which, when used together, will be able to neutralize the defense of any of our star systems, including the Solar System.”

      The audience was moving and a quiet hum went over it, but I just kept going: “That will happen if we do not fundamentally change anything in our military industry and economy, although it is not certain that even if we want to make the necessary changes, we can do it in time.

      Second, it can be considered proven that the quargs have another enemy with whom they are waging war. At first glance, this is good news for us, but I have the strong feeling that our potential ally is losing this war, and the tide of war has been reversed recently. How else do you explain that the quargs have been able to afford a sharp increase in fighting in our direction? So, for the foreseeable future, the Earth Federation may face the sad fact, that the enemy will have at its disposal a very large number of troops and fleet units, which will be transferred to our theatre of operations. The combination of these two factors will leave our Army and Fleet with a task that they, with all their heroism and high-quality training, will not be able to accomplish simply because of the overwhelming superiority of the enemy in numbers and power of armaments.”

      “Don’t you think you’re darkening the picture, Mr Lavroff?” The Minister of Defense asked me a question, “Because many of your conclusions are predicated solely on your own assumptions, not based on reliable facts.”

      “All I’m saying is a negative scenario, Mr Minister,” I answered carefully, knowing Bronstein’s temper, “There, beyond these walls, more than 200 billion lives depend on our decisions, and we must be prepared for any scenario, even one that is pessimistic.”

      “Do you have any specific suggestions, Mr Lavroff?” The Minister of Military Production Zwerev asked the question in a small but firm voice, “What my ministry could do, for example, if things go your way?”

      “To temporarily nationalize the defence industry companies, Mr Minister,” I did not hesitate to reply, “Only by placing military production under the strict control of the State can the output of military production be rapidly increased to the quantities we need at a reasonable cost, but, again, this measure alone will not suffice.”

      There was an outrage in the audience. No one expected me to say that. Tobolsky raised his hand and the noise stopped.

      “Gentlemen,” the President said firmly, “we are gathered here to make important public decisions. Please remember that and keep your emotions in check. Nor did I expect Mr Lavroff to make such an offer, but I would like to hear his arguments to the end. Continue, Captain,” the President called me by my low rank, either he made it clear to me that I had to think over what I was saying, or he simply did not wish to use civil form of address in the circumstances.

      So, I continued: “The Earth Federation has become too loose and amorphous, gentlemen,” I thought I’d drop off some long-standing thoughts in my head, because I didn’t know if I ever get a similar chance, “There have been similar precedents in our history. You all remember World War II. Germany, a great power that had managed to subjugate almost all of Europe at the beginning of the war, was too late in converting its industry into military uses, and it did so only by the end of 1942. Three years of war, the Germans on the home front continued to live as if there was no war. So what? Their army entered the war as the most powerful and capable fighting force in the world, but by the end of the third year of the confrontation, it had lost its advantage and suffered decisive defeats in Russia and northern Africa.

      We’ve been on this destructive path for 15 years. Remember the first, the most difficult years of the war, as it once seemed. That’s when the economy was mobilized. Nobody thought about profit, profitability, rights and freedoms. Everyone knew it was us or them. And we had