Storm From The Shadows – Snippet 01
STORM FROM THE SHADOWS by David Weber
Chapter One
"Talk to me, John!"
Rear Admiral Michelle Henke's husky contralto came sharp and crisp as the information on her repeater tactical display shifted catastrophically.
"It's still coming in from the Flag, Ma'am," Commander Oliver Manfredi, Battlecruiser Squadron Eighty-One's golden-haired chief of staff, replied for the squadron's operations officer, Lieutenant Commander John Stackpole. Manfredi was standing behind Stackpole, watching the ops section's more detailed displays, and he had considerably more attention to spare for updates at the moment than Stackpole did. "I'm not sure, but it looks –"
Manfredi broke off, and his jaw clenched. Then his nostrils flared and he squeezed Stackpole's shoulder before he turned his head to look at his admiral.
"It would appear the Peeps have taken Her Grace's lessons to heart, Ma'am," he said grimly. "They've arranged a Sidemore all their own for us."
Michelle looked at him for a moment, and her expression tightened.
"Oliver's right, Ma'am," Stackpole said, looking up from his own display as the changing light codes finally restabilized. "They've got us boxed."
"How bad is it?" she asked.
"They've sent in three separate groups," Stackpole replied. "One dead astern of us, one at polar north, and one at polar south. The Flag is designating the in-system force we already knew about as Bogey One. The task group to system north is Bogey Two; the one to system south is Bogey Three; and the one directly astern is Bogey Four. Our velocity relative to Bogey Four is just over twenty-two thousand kilometers per second, but range is less than thirty-one million klicks."
"Understood."
Michelle looked back at her own, smaller display. At the moment, it was configured to show the entire Solon System, which meant, by definition, that it was nowhere as detailed as Stackpole's. There wasn't room for that on a plot small enough to deploy from a command chair — not when it was displaying the volume of something the size of a star system, at any rate. But it was more than detailed enough to confirm what Stackpole had just told her. The Peeps had just duplicated exactly what had happened to them at the Battle of Sidemore, and managed to do it on a more sophisticated scale, to boot. Unless something reduced Task Force Eighty-Two's rate of acceleration, none of the three forces which had just dropped out of hyper-space to ambush it could hope to overtake it. Unfortunately, they didn't need to physically overtake the task force in order to engage it — not when current-generation Havenite multidrive missiles had a maximum powered range from rest of over sixty million kilometers.
And, of course, there was always the possibility that there was yet another Havenite task group waiting in hyper, prepared to drop back into normal space right in their faces as they approached the system hyper limit ….
No, she decided after a moment. If they had the hulls for a fourth force, it would have already translated in, as well. They'd really have us in a rat trap if they'd been able to box us from four directions. I suppose it's possible that they do have another force in reserve — that they decided to double-think us and hold number four until they've had a chance to see which way we run. But that'd be a violation of the KISS principle, and this generation of Peeps doesn't go in much for that sort of thing, damn it.
She grimaced at the thought, but it was certainly true.
Honor's been warning us all that these Peeps aren't exactly stupid, she reflected. Not that any of us should've needed reminding after what they did to us in Thunderbolt! But I could wish that just this once she'd been wrong.
Her lips twitched in a humorless smile, but she felt herself coming back on balance mentally, and her brain whirred as tactical possibilities and decision trees spilled through it. Not that the primary responsibility was hers. No, that weight rested on the shoulders of her best friend, and despite herself, Michelle was grateful that it wasn't hers . . . a fact which made her feel more than a little guilty.
One thing was painfully evident. Eighth Fleet's entire operational strategy for the last three and a half months had been dedicated to convincing the numerically superior navy of the Republic of Haven to redeploy, adopt a more defensive stance while the desperately off-balance Manticoran Alliance got its own feet back under it. Judging by the ambush into which the task force had sailed, that strategy was obviously succeeding. In fact, it looked like it was succeeding entirely too well.
It was so much easier when we could keep their command teams pruned back . . . or count on State Security to do it for us. Unfortunately, Saint-Just's not around anymore to shoot any admiral whose initiative might make her dangerous to the régime, is he? Her lips twitched with bitterly sardonic amusement as she recalled the relief with which Manticore's pundits, as well as the woman in the street, had greeted the news of the Committee of Public Safety's final overthrow. Maybe we were just a little premature about that, she thought, since it means that this time around, we don't have anywhere near the same edge in operational experience, and it shows. This batch of Peeps actually knows what it's doing. Damn it.
"Course change from the Flag, Ma'am," Lieutenant Commander Braga, her staff astrogator announced. "Two-niner-three, zero-zero-five, six-point-zero-one KPS squared."
"Understood," Michelle repeated, and nodded approvingly as the new vector projection stretched itself across her plot and she recognized Honor's intention. The task force was breaking to system south at its maximum acceleration on a course that would take it as far away from Bogey Two as possible while maintaining at least the current separation from Bogey Four. Their new course would still take them deep into the missile envelope of Bogey One, the detachment covering the planet Arthur, whose orbital infrastructure had been the task force's original target. But Bogey One consisted of only two superdreadnoughts and seven battlecruisers, supported by less than two hundred LACs, and from their emissions signatures and maneuvers, Bogey One's wallers were pre-pod designs. Compared to the six obviously modern superdreadnoughts and two LAC carriers in each of the three ambush forces, Bogey One's threat was minimal. Even if all nine of its hyper-capable combatants had heavy pod loads on tow, its older ships would lack the fire control to pose a significant threat to Task Force Eighty-Two's missile defenses. Under the circumstances, it was the same option Michelle would have chosen if she'd been in Honor's shoes.
I wonder if they've been able to ID her flagship? Michelle wondered. It wouldn't have been all that hard, given the news coverage and her "negotiations" in Hera.
That, too, of course, had been part of the strategy. Putting Admiral Lady Dame Honor Harrington, Duchess and Steadholder Harrington, in command of Eighth Fleet had been a carefully calculated decision on the Admiralty's part. In Michelle's opinion, Honor was obviously the best person for the command anyway, but the appointment had been made in a glare of publicity for the express purpose of letting the Republic of Haven know that "the Salamander" was the person who'd been chosen to systematically demolish its rear-area industry.
One way to make sure they honored the threat, Michelle thought wryly as the task force came to its new heading in obedience to the commands emanating from HMS Imperator, Honor's SD(P) flagship. After all, she's been their personal nightmare ever since Basilisk station! But I wonder if they got a fingerprint on Imperator at Hera or Augusta? Probably — they knew which ship she was aboard at Hera, at least. Which probably means they know who it is they've just mousetrapped, too.
Michelle grimaced at the thought. It was unlikely any Havenite flag officer would have required extra incentive to trash the task force if she could, especially after Eighth Fleet's unbroken string of victories. But knowing whose command they were about to hammer certainly wasn't going to make them any less eager to drive home their attack.
"Missile defense Plan Romeo, Ma'am," Stackpole said. "Formation Charlie."
"Defense only?" Michelle asked. "No orders to roll pods?"
"No, Ma'am. Not yet."
"Thank you."
Michelle frown deepened thoughtfully. Her own battlecruisers' pods were loaded with Mark 16 dual-drive missiles. That gave her far more missiles per pod, but Mark 16s were both smaller, with lighter laser heads, and shorter-legged than a ship of the wall's multidrive missiles like the Mark 23s aboard Honor's superdreadnoughts. They would have been forced to adopt an attack profile with a lengthy ballistic flight, and the biggest tactical weakness of a pod battlecruiser design was that it simply couldn't carry as many pods as a true capital ship like Imperator. It made sense not to waste BCS 81's limited ammunition supply at a range so extended as to guarantee a low percentage of hits, but in Honor's place, Michelle would have been sorely tempted to throw at least a few salvos of all-up MDMs from her two superdreadnoughts back into Bogey Four's face, if only to keep them honest. On the other hand . . . .
Well, she's the four-star admiral, not me. And I suppose — she smiled again at the tartness of her own mental tone — that she's demonstrated at least a modicum of tactical insight from time to time.
"Missile separation!" Stackpole announced suddenly. "Multiple missile separations! Estimate eleven hundred — one-one-zero-zero — inbound. Time to attack range seven minutes!"
O.o
cool
*falls over dead from shock*
^_^
Google says May 2009 though.
*cries*
*Dies, but smiling*
Does anyone know if this is before or after the attack on Manticore?
I thought that the 8th fleet was on home defense since the loss of both home and 3rd fleet? in “At all costs”
If it is after then 8th fleet should have those new weapons to tear apart the peeps but my guess is this is a “flash back”
It’s a ‘flash back’ in the sense that we are seeing events (in AAC) from Mike’s POV. The snippets are leading up to Mike’s capture and release in AAC.
This isn’t going to be a “Honor Harrington” book.
It is another of the Honor Universe books.
Sequel to “Shadow of Saganami”.
However any port in the storm that is 2.5 years since “At All Costs” will be welcome.
Besides, the next Honor Harrington book should have “honor” in the title somewhere. :p
Yes I knew that it was not a Honour Harrington book as i have read all the honourverse books..
But I was wondering why go back? to events before AAC finished and on the peep/manticore side of the junction I thought the saganimi series were focused on the Solarian league/mesa/the cluster…. or is that a question that no one knows yet?
(Forgive me If I am asking dumb Qs)
Why go back? Because while in captivity the virtuous biotechnicians of Mesa, mindful of their need to protect galactic peace and civilization by eliminating the reactionary barbarians of Manticore, made some minor adjustments on her brain. Adjustments? While, of course, The Solarian League Navy is Invincible, it is certainly a saving of taxpayer dollars if enemy admirals have been programmed to surrender their fleets without a shot being fired.
I believe that with some work you can all find my series The Solarian League Navy Is Invincible,which explains, e.g., that Neobarb dreadnoughts are actually freighters filled with concrete, the weapons effects being produced by the Neobarb pinnace–we don’t think they can all produce frigates–duct-taped to one side of the ship.
Alistair, one thing to remember is that Mike was sent to the Cluster (in AAC) after she delivered the peace talk message. So IMO we’re getting to know her better before she’s sent to the Cluster.
It isn’t going back as such, as the events in the offshoot books overlap the main honor books in the timeline. It means we get to see some things from different perspectives :)
cool …. though i was dissapointed to find that it was not a sequel to AAC, but this will do just fine … it will be really interesting to see things from Henke’s perspective ..she is an interesting character allright and she has a unique view of things .as we can see above ..
cheers!!! :-)
wow ..also look at the fifth imperium snippets ..there are more snippets to the storm from the shadows there …cool ..
Ahh thanks Paul missed that bit about her being sent to the cluster probably to do with her parole right… the peeps wouldn’t let her go just to have her killing them again.
I might go and hunt the section down and read it again.
Any way it will be interesting if the book centers on her for this book.
Sweet! Just in time to (probably) take over for By Schism Rent Asunder.
get the impression that the main Honor storyline is doen for good. Anyone know if this is the case?
The Main Honor Series will continue. The last I heard the next Main Honor novel has to wait until after both this book and the sequel to Crown of Slaves.
I think the parole officers are not allowed to serve in known area of conflict by may serve in other areas. American cival war, parole union officers were station in the frontier to be used againsty Indians.
In this case Mike, could be parole if captureed but could not served in any area of direct conflict with Havan. Talbot Cluster becomes the obvious choice.
Earlier this year ,Storm from the Shadows was promised to arrive nex March,COS2 next April,and HH12 lator that same year.Now I SOS2 delayed until next May,COS2 “lator that year”and HH12 in 2010.I would ask why on the Baen’s Bar site but the “servor error “message appears as a response to the entry page and I don’t feel like waiting for the problem to be solved.I therefore ask here.
…
at all costs?
@ Rafe:
#
wow ..also look at the fifth imperium snippets ..there are more snippets to the storm from the shadows there …cool ..
Comment by rafe — June 22, 2008 @ 11:25 pm
Dear Rafe,
Please forgive the question
but what do You mean by
“fifth imperium snippets” ?
MfG
Joerg
I think the 5th Imperium snippets may be related to the Series that contains “Mutineer’s Moon” by David Weber. Though I could be wrong.
I, for one, am EXTREMELY please to see any Honorverse novel coming from the hands of David Weber. I just wish now that Holywood would wake up to the quality of his writing and stories and seek to turn a novel or two or all of them into movies.
All I can say is that its about GD time, I can only re-read a series of books so many times.
“All I can say is that its about GD time, I can only re-read a series of books so many times.”
NO KIDDING! I just started re-reading the Honor books again (I’m in the Short Victorious War now), and I am wondering what is going to happen when I finish At All Costs again – (which seriously kicked a$$ btw).
So it seems that the general consensus is that the sequel to AAC will come out sometime in 2010? Thats too long! I guess I’m going to have to start reading the other Honorverse novels and the Worlds of Honor books to keep me busy…
Wikipedia says that the Sequel to AAC will be called “Mission of Honor”
well this will be useful for the future I guess