Free The Last Charge (The Nameless War Trilogy Book 3) by Edmond Barrett Page A

warships,” Lewis replied. “The Nameless would have to cross through their gun range to escape.”
    “And how the hell are you planning to get this fast division into this happy position?” Fengzi asked sarcastically. “The Nameless will not put themselves in a vulnerable position knowing there is a force wandering around somewhere in the solar system. This fast division will be chased down and crushed, or forced to retreat to Earth or another mass shadow.”
    “The fast division would have to be concealed. The Nameless cannot seek what they do not know exists,” Lewis wondered, half to himself.
    “Where?” Fengzi asked, returning to his exasperated tone. “Both my staff and yours have looked at that thoroughly! The only place we could ‘hide’ a squadron would be out beyond the heliopause in interstellar space and that’s no use. As soon as they arrive, the Nameless will jam the FTL frequencies. That will limit this fast division to light speed communications and sensors. If the Nameless do move into this position of vulnerability, the fast division won’t even know until hours afterward.”
    “Then we hide them inside the solar system.”
    “Hide! There is nowhere we can hide an entire squadron! One or two ships might be able to go silent and not be spotted, but unless the Nameless suddenly become complete idiots, they’ll do a complete sweep of the system and get close enough to Earth to compare whatever we have in orbit with their force projections of us.  Except for Saturn’s lower rings, there is no orbit into which we can put a force of ships where they won’t be spotted – and that’s in an even deeper mass shadow, so no use.”
    “Then don’t put them in orbit,” Lewis said slowly. “Land them.”
    “What!”
    “Put the ships down and cut to silent running. The remaining heat profile can be masked by the surrounding material.”
    “Exactly which ships are you planning to do this with?” Fengzi demanded. “We only have a couple of dozen strike boats that are even capable of landing on the Moon!”
    “I wasn’t thinking of Earth’s moon. I was thinking of Mars’s – either Phobos or Deimos . The transmission lag between Earth and Mars is about thirty minutes.”
    Fengzi opened his mouth to retort, but then stopped and looked thoughtful.
    “Mars’s mass shadow is shallow and Phobos is small – escape velocity is what… ten to fifteen metres per second?” he said after a moment.
    “About that. Mars has been evacuated. It would need to be a strike group, fast enough to get into contact and strong enough to do damage when it got there,” Lewis replied.
    “What ships are you thinking of?”
    “Hmm, Warspite , a flak cruiser and maybe half a dozen Statesman class cruisers – or a batch of three Myth class ships, plus destroyers.”
    Fengzi raised an eyebrow, “ Warspite ? Surely it would be better if it was a ship other than the Home Fleet Flagship.”
    “On full burn, Warspite can nearly match the acceleration curve of a heavy cruiser. The only other battleship we have that can match Warspite for pace is old Fortitude and she doesn’t have even nearly the same firepower. No it would have to be either Warspite or no battleship at all, and it would need a battleship.”
    “That leaves you with a problem of a missing ship. They’ve seen Warspite , when they don’t see her here, that will be a giveaway.”
    “No. Her sister ship…”
    “ Yavuz Sultan Selim ? She’s not ready, they’re still building her.”
    “She’s mostly done, currently she’s missing several engines. Planetary Defence is already due to take her over and use her as a crude starfort, but what’s important is that a vessel with the correct silhouette will be visible,” Lewis said.
    “Well, that still leaves you with a lot of ships to hide and you haven’t explained how you plan to land ships that were built in orbit and were never designed to put down.”
    “In classic rocket ship fashion –