by R. A. Ender
“Richard, I would like permission to take my ship and a small detachment to head off the supply fleet. They are already making a run to jump toward the far side of the staging area. My fleet can delay them, and everyone can join the battle after you destroy that pitiful escort fleet.”
A tone beeped in his ear, indicating that Longus was done his comment and waiting to hear Richard’s.
Before answering, Richard looked at the display. It was clear that the main bulk of his fleet was grouping together to engage the escort fleet which was moving rapidly toward them. As they were moving together, it was allowing a lot of escape options to the supply fleet. Longus and his ships were positioned to rapidly intercept the supply fleet, which was moving to the far side at a moderate speed though likely the best speed they could manage.
But Richard would not allow his fleet to be split. Even though they outnumbered the escort fleet over ten to one, even a small detachment sent away was vulnerable. It was not worth the risk. They must stick to their strategy.
“No, Hanno. Follow my orders,” was Richard’s short reply.
He watched to see that his order was being followed, but he still saw that at least fifty ships around Longus were not moving. Without hesitating a moment longer, Richard keyed the line open again.
“Hanno, order your detachment to move or I will open a line directly to those commanders.”
The implied threat of going directly to the commanding officers, and therefore bypassing his authority, must have been enough, for the ships began to head toward the sphere formation that was building up near the IAE escort fleet. More insubordination from him and during a fleet engagement! Unbelievable the arrogance of that man.
That said, Richard now clearly saw that at least fifty of his most powerful warships were quite loyal to Longus. He would have to find a way to deal with them after this battle and with Longus.
But, that did not mean that Longus did not have a strategic point. Selecting a few of his more loyal commanders, he sent specific orders for those ships to launch their Squalus fighters with the purpose to slow down and hopefully delay the supply fleet from jumping. They would be hard pressed to succeed, but any delay could help.
Pushing the nonsense with Longus out of his mind, Richard returned to the strategic display. It showed that the fleet had formed the double lined half sphere formation, though Longus’ part of the sphere formation was still not in place. The half-sphere, with the concave side facing the incoming IAE fleet, was moving in unison. As it approached the IAE fleet, Longus’ detachment finally joined, just in time to close the sphere.
As the IAE fleet flew inside, the double lined ships parted ways, as one line maintained the formed side of the sphere. The other line of ships performed a micro jump forward for a moment. When they emerged, they slowed, stopped and traveled back toward the other side of the sphere. Organized well, this forms a perfect sphere of ships, all pointing straight at the target in the center. That target is helpless under merciless weapons fire as it can only target a small part of the sphere formed fleet at a time.
Usually, a ship or fleet so captured simply attempts to flee the sphere. A practiced fleet commander can continually reform the sphere with orders to ships to perform micro jumps, or alter the formation quickly and pursue an evader. In either case, the fleeing enemy is at a disadvantage. As is often the case, the larger battle fleet often holds the dominant offensive position during any battle.
Oddly, though, Richard noticed, This IAE fleet is not fleeing.
He noticed in his display that they were wildly maneuvering within the sphere and targeting a large number of vessels. It was clear that they had accepted that they could not protect their supply fleet directly. But, if they could delay the Confederate fleet long enough, they would ensure most of the supply fleet continued on to Tionaga and safety. Moving around so randomly and firing at a variety of ships meant that they were harder to constantly hit without the risk of firing past and hitting a friendly vessel.
It was only a delay, they would ultimately be destroyed, there was no question. Leaving the comm system open, Richard listened for any offers of surrender but heard none. In less time than it took for their ships to jump into the staging area, the completed sphere formation had destroyed the final warship.
Immediately keying in a united wall formation order, all the ships repositioned and began to move as a unit to pursue the supply fleet.
The light on his private comm began to flash. Richard looked down and saw it was Longus again. Pushing a button, Richard said, “Go ahead, Hanno.” And pushed another button to initiate the tone that told Longus he was done.
“Richard, my detachment is twice as fast as these slower Royalist league ships. Let me go ahead and we will be able to destroy even more freighters. Those fighters won’t accomplish anything. The freighters can jump right through them if they wanted to.” And the tone rang in Richard’s ear.
He didn’t hesitate for a moment. “No, we travel as a united fleet.” And Richard didn’t hit the tone to end, he closed the private line and watched the strategic display.
To his satisfaction, Longus’ flagship remained at fleet speed. It did not break formation.
I guess his insubordination doesn’t go as far as to ignore a direct order, Richard thought happily. There is that at least.
Now at top fleet speed, about two-thirds the speed of light, Richard watched the freighter fleet. It had already made the course change that allowed it to accelerate a run to jump on course for Tionaga. He had been surprised to see that they had not randomly jumped to deep space to evade the battle and simply recalculate their run to jump elsewhere. Odds are, they were following orders that did not anticipate an ambush at a “safe” staging area.
That will change for next time, that’s for sure, Richard thought to himself.
As he thought that, the system registered the first ship jump. It was the lead ship which jumped, and since all other ships were up to speed, Richard marked that line as the supply fleets prearranged jump line.
Looking carefully at the map, Richard touched a button which brought his private line to Longus back up.
“Hanno, your detachment can move forward to the supply fleets jumpline and disrupt the jumps from there.” Clicking the end tone, Richard heard a brief reply from Longus.
“For Hade's sake! I could have done that minutes ago and destroyed so many….” And the private line clicked dead, and Richard saw the detachment of ships under Longus accelerate forward.
By the time Richard’s fleet reached the tail end of the supply fleet, only about fifty ships remained in the staging area. The other two hundred or so had jumped to safety. As they entered range, the fleet targeted a freighter, each detachment selecting a separate ship, and destroyed its engines. As these were hardened freighters with more powerful shields and hulls, it took longer to disable them.
Longus’ detachment was doing its best at the front of the jump line. Without getting into a hazardous position whereby a freighter might complete a run to jump straight into one of their hulls, Longus and his commanders were pouring weapons fire onto the ships, not targeting engines but targeting the freighters for destruction.
Further back, scattered along the route were a small handful of freighters which the fighter wings had managed to disable, but only a small number.
As Richard’s fleet approached Longus’ detachment, he watched as the last two freighters received enormous poundings from the fleet. One of the freighters was completely coated in color as the weapons touched every part of the ship and its shield shone brightly. Then, the shields blinked out, the color fell to the hull which glowed red for only a moment before exploding into a million pieces of white hot molten metal. The shards flew off in an even expanding sphere of white color. As it expanded the metal cooled rapidly to a bright yellow, orange, and red before finally disappearing against the black backdrop of space.
The other freighter, primarily targeted by Longus’ detachment, w
as just as covered in a colorful fire when it suddenly ran to jump and entered hyperspace. However, after a few seconds, the scanners registered an explosion further down the navigation course of the ship. It had exploded inside hyperspace and fallen back, spreading debris at light speed across the asteroid field.
Richard touched a few buttons and ordered the Royalist League detachment to travel back and capture or destroy any freighter along the run to jump path of the supply fleet. With a few more commands, he ordered the rest of the fleet to assume a standard defense formation.
As he completed that order, he saw the private comm line flashing again. Picking up the line, he knew already who it was.
“Richard, that was a horrible disaster! I don’t know why you are in command of this fleet! We had a chance to obliterate that entire supply fleet, all two hundred and sixty ships. My detachment could have slowed them down while you dealt with those warships.”
There was a pause, but Richard didn’t hear the end tone, so he waited for Longus to continue, as was protocol.
“Instead, we destroy perhaps thirty freighters and allow the bulk of it to escape. Destroying the end of a fleet means we probably missed all the high-value freight and war materials. We destroyed grain and uniforms, WORTHLESS!” Longus screamed.
His tone, absolutely incensed, now became booming and explosive.
“I WILL HAVE YOU COURT-MARTIALLED! This was a complete disaster. I need to be in command of this fleet. I KNOW HOW TO WIN THIS WAR! And it’s not by using THREE HUNDRED ships to destroy TWENTY escort ships! Unbelievable! This is absolutely insane. INSANE!” And this time, the end tone rang though Richard wasn’t sure it had been done on purpose.
What most upset Richard was that he knew everyone in Longus’ command center could hear him and knew how he was conducting himself toward his superior. Just like the incident in his private study, the public way that Longus expressed his insubordination was dangerous and very risky.
Speaking calmly into his mic and pushing the earphone into his ear further so that no audio spill over could be heard by his command center crew, Richard spoke.
“Longus, unless you want to be dismissed, check your anger now!” Richard commanded. Before he could hit the end tone, Longus was already retorting.
“Admiral, with respect,” though there was no respect in his tone, only extreme condescension. “This is my command given to me by the Commanding Admirals Council. You cannot relieve me, you don’t have the authority! And I resent a worthless fleet commander after a disaster of a battle threatening the only one with ANY SENSE with dismissal. You won’t be able to cover yourself with the chain of command or with superior ability. You have been proven to be a weak Punici, and I will not bend to your authority! Ridiculous!”
Richard waited a moment to ensure that he would not have to yell over Longus to be heard. Others might have needed that moment to calm themselves, but Richard had always been able to maintain an even temper despite the most vicious barrage because he always took the view that it said much more about the other person than himself. He could always view himself as rising above the other person, superior to them, as they dug themselves deeper into irrationality and anger. That mindset always kept Richard in control.
And, he effectively displayed his control as he spoke next.
“I am finished discussing this with you, Fleet Admiral Hanno Longus. This is a war and I am the senior commanding officer. The chain of command and the rules of conduct of the Confederated Union of Worlds Defense Force make it clear that I have full power and authority over you. Unless you want my Adiutrix legion to board your ship and arrest you, you will immediately stop your ranting, raving and insubordinate actions.”
Richard took a breath and used that pause to hope that Longus was listening and accepting what he was saying.
“As per our plan, the fleet will now jump to our prearranged deep space staging area to debrief, assess and repair before deciding our next strategic move. Once you are satisfied your ship is secure, you will immediately join me on board the Caesar Augustus for a meeting. Thank you.” And Richard clicked the private line closed and sat back in his chair.
CHAPTER 34
Robin had made sure she was on the command deck during the meeting. She couldn’t wait to see Longus storm out of the Captain’s office or moping out. Either scenario gave her the same gleeful feeling inside.
Just too damned bad I couldn’t be in that meeting! She thought to herself. But, it was a meeting between two Fleet Admirals, not really the appropriate venue for a Captain.
Besides, she was really enjoying being back on the command deck. Since they had freed New Earth, she had not had the opportunity to do more than visit. Once Richard had pushed her into a fleet coordination role centered on command readiness, battle strategy and overall strategic planning, she had not had a single command shift.
In fact, she had rarely spent much time on board unless there was a meeting or they were about to engage the IAE. Otherwise, she was on one of the fleet ships speaking with the commanding officer, the crew and generally making sure the ship was ready for battle. As much as it would be nice to let each ship govern itself, it had been a long time since the Western Fleet had dealt with any combat situation more difficult than a smuggler. Making sure that each ship was up for the task was important.
And if she wasn’t on board another ship, she was pouring over intelligence reports and updating the Old Colony region strategic map. Robin enjoyed the job more than anything she had done before, but it was a lot of work. Richard needed all the information boiled down and prioritized so that he could make the final decision.
As much fun as it was, it was nice to take a break and hang out with her friends on the command deck. The Caesar Augustus had not been damaged in any way, so once the ship exited hyperspace at the staging area, it was a relaxing time while they waited for a few ships to patch up minor wounds and plot their next strategic move.
For the past couple of hours, Robin had been casually speaking with Commander Jen Klodokus, Commander Sara Daridius, and Ships Doctor Etu while they all stood around Jen’s navigation station. It was so casual that Robin had even relieved Jen’s two navigation assistants and charged herself and Etu with those duties. Sara’s tactical command duties were equally limited while the ship hung in space.
It had given them time to catch up on the personal events. Robin had little to share, she had been far too busy to find more than a couple of opportunities for some good sex with some of the fine young men on board other ships.
Jen reported that after a little effort she had managed to arrange a weekly call to her wife on New Earth. She had taken her day leave on the planet to reconnect with her and had spent every day after that trying to arrange a permanent communication line. As she was far from the only request and intelligence got the priority in any direct contact with New Earth or their other allied worlds, it had taken some doing. She reported that Mato had helped her piggyback a live video feed on the computer backup transmission that occurred once a week. As the comm line could transmit far more quickly than the computer could output, there was a two-hour window where the video feed would not impact operations. According to Jen, the sessions could be quite frisky which earned a hard slap on the back and a big smile from Robin.
Sara, always one to avoid any kind of relationship with a fellow crew member for reasons of an unhappy separation from her past, had taken advantage of the fleet of ships to get a little wild. Richard had assigned her the role of analyzing each ships tactical capability and training, and improving where need be. That had led to more than a few extended stays on board other ships. Sara had taken full advantage.
Though getting close to her fortieth year, as a tactical officer that had risen from the army side of the Defense Force, the Adiutrix legion, she was well-toned and fit. Usually hidden away under a uniform, Sara still drew eyes with her sharp features, including her designer hair style perfectly cut to the middle of her neck, with sharp forwa
rd pointing tips. She also broke many a heart with her beautiful inviting smile which contrasted with her otherwise strong and hard appearance. It is a soft and warm smile she deploys whenever she is happy.
As Sara said without a hint of humor, she would not allow her personal training regime to be interrupted, so she had to work out with the men of the Adiutrix on every ship she stayed at more than a day. She claimed to have attracted some favorable attention during those workouts, performed in little more than shorts and a bra top. And Robin understood the difficulty in turning down the attention of young hard bodied men.
But, apparently casual had become serious. Sara’s reluctance for shipboard relationships made it difficult to find a mate. So, it was really wonderful to hear that she had met a young engineer from another ship in the merchant fleet. Sara spoke very warmly of him and was clearly containing her excitement even from her friends. They all knew it must be a great love affair. He had long blond hair and beautiful blue eyes. Despite the war, they had managed to visit each other’s ships many times over the past few months. The commanding officer of the merchant ship had a soft spot for Sara and agreed that she could visit as often as she liked, as long as she agreed to work while on board. On the Caesar Augustus, Sara didn’t even have to ask, being senior enough to authorize her own visitors.
Just as Sara was finishing her description of their most recent visit, Mato walked up behind the group and interjected.
