The Ajax Incursion

by Marc DeSantis

  “If I may, Admiral Ronner, you should be aware that our displacement point put us in extremely close proximity to an RHN warship. Such a thing could not have been predicted. It could not have been avoided. It was a fluke, a chance happening that placed us at a severe disadvantage relative to it. The enemy was able to follow us from behind, and gain a superior position over us while our attention was turned toward the mission objective, which was the Aquitainian fleet. We were, like all spacegoing craft, hindered in detecting an object directly astern. The heat signature of the pursuing craft was lost in the wake of our ejected reaction mass.”

  “Fluke? An answer for everything, I see,” Ronner said. “None of that changes the fact that you lost over a dozen ships in a strike that should have resulted in no losses at all. You say that your assailant, a single destroyer, mind you, was hidden in your heat baffles? It is well known that ultra-hot reaction mass exhaust will allow that. So then why did you not detail a ship to perform reconnaissance around your fleet? That could have swept the area with its sensors. If this enemy ship was as close as you say it was, it would have been easily detectable, though it was in your particle wake and its shield was up.”

  “I did not think that such a step was necessary.”

  “Not necessary? I will put your exact words in my report on this. You’ve embarrassed the Navy, don’t you see, Heddrik? The whole of its efforts over the last decade has been to remold the fleet into a fast-moving, hard-hitting strike force that kills but doesn’t get hurt in return. Your calamitous showing in combat with the Halifaxian destroyer calls all of that into question! Tremendous amounts of money have been sunk into developing and building ships that can carry out the new strategy. An exchange rate like the one we suffered is unacceptable.”

  So that was it. It was not, and never had been, standard practice to detach a ship right after emerging from hyperspace to look for a threat in the rear. Yet someone had to be blamed for the catastrophe, and that someone was Heddrik. He’d been warned that was the way of the Ajaxian naval service. It did not make it any less bitter.

  “You will not be losing your commission,” the admiral said, taking up the data tablet once again and swiping across its screen with his index finger. “No, you see, the reconquest of this system is going to take longer than anyone in the upper echelons of the Navy expects. Nantes Station may be in our hands now, but the landings that you see out there?” Ronner gestured to the planet visible through the transparaplast. Dozens of assault ships and light carriers were deploying hundreds of small craft, each filled with combat troops. These had been descending to the surface of Pessac for several days, with the soldiers on board each seizing critical facilities on the ground. “This will not be over soon. No, I have seen enough of such invasions from orbit to foresee that the ARO will take far longer than any of our planners has estimated. They have short memories, and always gull themselves into believing that a clever invasion plan will deliver a world to them in a few weeks. They are wrong. It will take months, maybe years, before the world is fully pacified via the conventional arms of the Imperial Army. Pessac is said to be an image of Lost Earth. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Whatever the case, it is too valuable for the produce it can supply to the hungry people of Ajax to ruin with full-scale orbital bombardments. So we do it the hard way. That is where you come in.”

  “Am I to take part in the pacification of Pessac?” Heddrik was overcome with an unwelcome vision of him striding alongside a platoon of Ajaxian marines on the world below, toting a gauss rifle.

  Ronner’s eyes narrowed contemptuously. “Don’t be an idiot, Heddrik. You didn’t do that poorly. And your talents, such as they are, would be wasted in the mud. No, this is going to turn into a lengthy war, one in which the Aquitainians in the outer reaches of the system will run the blockade that we will be throwing up around Pessac to keep the surface resistance going.”

  “I was unaware that the ARO called for the institution of a blockade at all.”

  “It doesn’t. But our own planners are thoroughly wrong about how this will all unfold. Very soon, the Domain Navy is going to be busy blockading Pessac. That will be the mission given to our bigger ships and some of our faster ones. You, on the other hand, are going to hunt down, capture, or destroy, the blockade runners that inevitably will attempt to penetrate our cordon. I need every officer I have on hand to carry that mission out. You, you I need.”

  “That is a worthy mission, admiral.”

  “It is. Your ships will re-equip over the next three days. Then I’m sending you out. And try not to lose the remainder of your command.”

  Chapter Three

  Republican Naval Academy, Cold Bay, Halifax, Halifax system

  “The actions of Admiral Suarez have been questioned ever since the Battle of Hudson’s Moons concluded,” Rear Admiral Andrew More declared, manipulating by touch a massive holoscreen above his head depicting the unfolding battle. “Some believe that he should have pressed on and attempted to destroy the whole of the Venezian battlefleet. That has been the majority opinion over the last one hundred years. Others, of which I am one, believe that he made the correct choice given the strategic objectives of the Sellasian League and the political constraints under which he was operating. Can anyone tell me what some of those objectives and constraints were?”

  In the middle of the auditorium, a young woman raised her hand.

  “Yes, Cadet Tyson?”

  Cadet Shane Tyson stood, arms held behind her, at ease. “The primary strategic objective of the Sellasian League during the war with Venezia was to preserve the naval superiority of the League over the Confederal Navy. This would enable the League to maintain control over the most profitable trade routes through the northern quadrant of the Great Sphere, a key reason why the war broke out in the first place. Maintenance of that superiority would also allow the Sellasians to protect its vulnerable colony worlds, most of which had only recently been established in the systems that lay between the two powers.”

  “Very good. And the political constraints?”

  “The Sellasian League was to hold elections within three months of the battle, if I am not mistaken.”

  “You are not mistaken,” More said. “Go on.”

  “The president of the Sellasian League was concerned that a defeat in space would lead to his electoral defeat later that year.”

  “That is also correct. Well done. Please sit.”

  Cadet Tyson returned to her seat. More expanded the holoscreen to show the last stage of the battle, in which the Venezian fleet, which had been tactically stymied, but not truly defeated, turned and ran from the larger and stronger Sellasian fleet.

  “Admiral Suarez had them dead to rights,” More observed. “The greater part of his battlefleet had not been engaged in the fighting. Certainly none of his heavy units had been committed. The Venezian battleship division, meanwhile, had been hit hard by long-range attacks conducted by Suarez’s cruisers. Had he committed his battlewagons, and ‘gone for the jugular’, as we say in the fleet, he might very well have secured a decisive victory that would have ended the war then and there.”

  “Instead, he held his ships back, all of them, and let the outnumbered and outmaneuvered Venezians slip away. The reason cited was a mass launch of enemy antiship missiles that the admiral wished to avoid, but it is most probable that his fleet would have weathered the storm well enough to deliver a fatal blow to the Venezians. So the war dragged on for another three blood-drenched years until it ended out of sheer financial and moral exhaustion for both sides. The Battle of Hudson’s Moons is one of the largest engagements to have been fought in the Great Sphere in the last two centuries. It is also perhaps the greatest ‘what-if?’ scenario that the naval academies of this cluster wargame every session. But did Admiral Suarez make the right decision? If you had been Admiral Suarez, standing on the bridge of the Orlando, what would you have done?”

  A hand shot up at the front of the class.

  “Yes,
Cadet Stewart?”

  Cadet Gregorio Stewart stood. “I would have tried to destroy the enemy fleet. I, as Suarez, had the edge, a significant one, over the Venezians. I am confident that I could have won the battle, and with it the war.”

  “An aggressive decision. I like that, and I know many other officers in the Navy that would agree with you. What are your reasons for wanting to destroy the Venezian fleet?”

  Stewart’s eyes widened. “My reasons?”

  “Yes, of course. You must have a reason or two as to why you want to annihilate the enemy.”

  “Isn’t that why we’re in the Navy?” Stewart asked. “To fight and destroy the enemies of the Republic?”

  “Some would agree with you.”

  Stewart frowned. “I am confused.”

  “You, and many others, in the RHN and outside of it. Such confusion is common and perhaps inevitable.”

  “So was my answer wrong?” asked Stewart. The cadet appeared befuddled at being questioned as to why he wanted to bring down destruction on an opponent.

  “Not necessarily. Remember, the purpose of this review isn’t to give you the correct answer. It is to teach you how to think about how to arrive at the correct answer, something that will be of far more use to you when you are out in the black void.”

  “Routing the enemy would have won the war, most likely,” Stewart offered after a few moments of thought. “Instead, the war continued, many more lives were lost, and the conflict ended without resolving the underlying causes of the conflict.”

  “All of that is correct,” agreed More. “You may sit, Cadet Stewart.”

  Cadet Stewart took his seat, still clearly perplexed. More looked around the cadets in the hall. His class on modern naval history was the most popular at Cold Bay this semester, and it had been moved to a gigantic auditorium to accommodate all of the students who wanted to take a class taught by the ‘Hero of Victory Base.’

  “Does anyone have a contrary opinion?”

  A cadet at the rear of the lecture hall raised her hand. “Cadet Hu. You are recognized.”

  Cadet Cooper Hu rose to her feet and cleared her throat. “I think. . . I think that I would have backed off too,” she said. “I think Suarez did the right thing.”

  “Are you sure?” queried More. “The weight of opinion has been against him for many decades.

  “Mostly. It depends.”

  “Explain your thinking.”

  Hu nodded. “Suarez could have won the war that day and obtained huge benefits for Sellasia. In doing so the Sellasians would not have suffered the millions more dead and wounded that they did over the next thirty-four months.”

  “It sounds like you’re agreeing with Cadet Stewart.”

  “I am, but only up to a point,” countered Hu. “All of the benefits that Suarez would have garnered for his nation could only have come as a result of a thorough victory over the Venezians. However, there was still a chance, one that could not be ignored, that the Venezians might have found a way to win the battle. Or even if they did not win it, they might have held their own well enough to have made the victory over them pyrrhic for the Sellasians. All of that had to be running through Admiral Suarez’s mind.”

  “Indeed it was, as he himself has written in his memoir.”

  “There is more to my answer though.”

  “Which is?”

  “Suarez did not need to fight.”

  More smiled. “What’s that?”

  Hu cleared her throat once again. “He did not need to fight the battle at all. Sellasia was the stronger power in space by a significant margin. As long as the Sellasian fleet maintained its numerical edge over the Venezian fleet, it could dictate the pace of the war, and restrict the fighting to nothing more dangerous than what was, in the end, a holding action in their border systems.”

  “We’re getting somewhere. Please continue.”

  “If Suarez had risked his fleet in a bid to achieve a decisive victory, he might instead have suffered a defeat, and that would have left Sellasia much worse off than it was than when he let the Venezians go. Sellasia already had what it wanted, as a matter of strategic priorities, prior to the engagement. It controlled the space lanes. Its colonies, all of which had been established at enormous cost to it, were comparatively safe. Venezia was on the defensive. He did the right thing by not pursuing the combat any further than he did. That is what I would have done too.”

  “A cogent answer,” More said. “That is the opinion that a vocal minority of naval officers across the Sphere has shared for more than a century. Well done. You may be seated.”

  Cadet Hu sat. Cadet Stewart’s hand rose once more. “Cadet Stewart. You are again recognized.”

  Stewart stood. “Begging the admiral’s pardon, I wanted to point out something that has not been mentioned yet.”

  “Go on.”

  “Everything that Cadet Hu said is accurate. I agree. This is with the benefit of hindsight, yes, but it is worth something, I think. The war carried on and much more blood was spilled and treasure spent.”

  “There is no doubt about that,” More acknowledged.

  “The war ended, finally, with both powers drained. Both would experience sharp depressions not long afterward. It would be many years before either had regained their pre-war strength.”

  “Undeniably true. Why do you bring that up?”

  “The weakening of Sellasia and Venezia in the war enabled another state to come forward and exploit their inability to defend their outlying systems. Sellasia especially was hard-pressed to keep Ajax from grabbing its more far-flung systems.”

  At the mention of Ajax, several of the cadets in the hall hissed. Ajax was universally loathed in ways that no other power, not even Tartarus, with which Halifax was currently at war, was.

  “Perhaps, then, a shorter war, ended sooner by a dramatic victory at Hudson’s Moons, would have avoided the cost of the longer war that actually took place, and left both Sellasia and Venezia better situated to resist the imperial encroachments of the Ajaxians.”

  “Not a bad observation, Cadet Stewart. One made with the advantage of hindsight, as you admitted, but one that is nevertheless correct within the bounds of the thought experiment we are conducting. Please be seated.”

  “You see,” More continued, “as I mentioned earlier, the purpose of this class isn’t to give an answer to you. No two situations ever play themselves out in the same manner, no matter how similar they are. So the opinions given by Cadets Stewart and Hu are both worthy. Suarez could not have known what would happen in the next twenty minutes at Hudson’s Moons, and he certainly could not have known that the war would go on for as long as it did afterward. He also couldn’t have foreseen the rise of Ajax, which was unprecedented in its speed and gory violence, as all in the Sphere have since learned to their great cost. One thing is certain, however. Each and every one of you, whether you are a newly-minted ensign or an admiral in charge of a battlefleet, will face situations that will tax your decision-making ability to its limit.”

  “Cold Bay could never hope to impart to you sufficient specifics that would cover every eventuality. That is impossible. It would be ludicrous to attempt to do so. Some of the more common situations you will have covered in other classes. You’ve all been briefed on the finer points of interstellar law and the Accords that govern warmaking. That being said, no one can predict what you might find out there in the blackness of space. So it is better for you to take with you a collection of principles upon which you can make the best decisions possible for you, your ship, your crew, and the Republic which put you and your crew on that ship and sent you out among the stars. There is one overriding principle which you must bear in mind at all times. It should inform your every choice as an officer of the RHN.” More paused for dramatic effect. “I think that will be the topic of discussion for our next class. I will see you in two days.”

  “No, no, tell us now!” came numerous pleas from amongst the hundreds of cadets
crammed into the auditorium, who were looking to one another, bewildered. “Tell us now!”

  Grinning broadly, More held up his hands. “Oh, alright, if you insist.”

  Gentle laughter rose from the cadets, who were now in on the joke.

  “There is one thing that you always bear in mind. The Navy does not exist to destroy enemy ships, though it does that very well. It does not exist to win battles, though it does that too and has a roll call of victories longer than any other force in the Sphere. In fact, the Navy does not even exist to fight, though it does that well also. What is the purpose then of the RHN if it is none of those things? That is simple. The purpose of the Navy is to ensure the strategic security of the Republic of Halifax. All considerations are either in the service of that goal or are secondary to it. If you can win without fighting, then you should win that way, glory be damned. If you would prefer to fight, but running away would preserve your ship and crew to fight another day, more effectively, then your martial honor must be ignored. Your personal feelings are irrelevant.”

  “Your crew and ship are not yours to commit to battle because you are spoiling for a fight. You have command of a ship to ensure the security of Halifax. That’s the mission. Not every choice you make will have weighty consequences, but one day, your decision might have enormous ramifications. That is why I come down in favor of Suarez’s choice to forego delivering a potentially killing blow to the Venezian fleet. He acted in accordance with his navy’s highest goal, which was the security of Sellasia. He would have run too great a risk to obtain an uncertain benefit if he had carried on fighting. He wisely refrained. That is my opinion. I, and those who think as I do, are in the minority. You must remember that there is no verifiably correct answer to such questions. You ought to be able to refine your thought processes so that you can justify what you do according to the one, all-important mission that has been entrusted to the Navy and its officers.”