ROMA

by R. A. Ender

  Any ship located within tens of thousands of stadiums of the detonation would be destroyed. It was an end time weapon that had not been used in a war for centuries. Yet it remained the most potent weapon in the known universe and offered an incredible deterrent to most of the smaller empires and worlds that might be hostile to the Confederacy.

  Obviously, Richard thought to himself as he was about to resume speaking to the commanders, it was not a deterrent to the IAE but I guess they may regret that decision.

  “Commanders, you will be receiving arming codes from Captain Shelbus. Arm the device personally, and then place it in your computer core protection chamber. Even if you are destroyed, that chamber is likely to remain intact, allowing the bomb to remain active.”

  “All commanders of your squad are to do their best to protect your command ship. Now, more than ever, its survival will be the key to our fleets success.”

  “Our ultimate strategy is the complete destruction of the IAE fleet. I prefer to accomplish that goal with a traditional fleet action. But, if we fail in that effort, our strategy will continue through the use of these bombs. It will be the responsibility of the final surviving squad command ship to issue the detonation order to all of the bombs. Make sure you are the last and make every effort to preserve the lives of any ships that remain by issuing a full retreat order.”

  “But, remember,” Richard said as somberly as possible. “If that fleet remains, the Confederacy is doomed. Its destruction needs to be our priority. No one who escapes will be safe unless that happens.”

  Pausing again for a moment, Richard flicked his eyes over to Robin to ensure she was following his direction to transfer the arming codes. When he saw that she was, he finished his orders.

  “Are my orders clear, Commanders?”

  There was only silence. On an open comm line, the silence was acknowledgment.

  “Thank you all. Good luck!”

  Clicking the comm line closed, Richard turned to Robin and prepared to get to business.

  “Alright, how do we take down this fleet?” Richard asked her.

  Robin pushed a few more commands into her display and turned to him with a smile.

  “I thought you’d never ask!” She said with satisfaction.

  “I think our only hope is a surprise jump right inside their fleet formation. If they follow standard IAE tactical plans for a dominant situation, they should form up into a stable formation and drive towards us nice and slow.”

  Pushing a few buttons on her console, Robin brought the visual up on the main display.

  “They are already getting into formation, look at the high velocity of those stragglers in the back. We should have time to identify their formation, pinpoint our exit coordinates and jump right inside of them. It should give us a huge tactical surprise and those Dreadnaughts will be hard pressed to swing those big guns around with so many of their ships surrounding them.”

  “I think it is our best chance. Once in there, we just slug it out.”

  Richard looked at the main display carefully. Tapping his finger while he was thinking, he quickly threw up the fighter status report.

  “Well, we still have a lot of fighters including all those fighters Longus didn’t pick up before he jumped. We could send them ahead to take out a lot of those smaller fleet ships. I bet they could take down fifty or hundred before the fleets got into each other’s weapons ranges. Right?”

  Robin quickly checked the information and started nodding. “Yes, and most of those fighters only used energy weapons during our battle. Most of them are fully loaded with physical weapons. They should be able to do a lot of damage, actually. I’ll get to assigning targets and issuing orders. Give me a minute.”

  Robin began to furiously connect fighter squadrons with IAE targets, trying to pick out the weaker or damaged ships or gang up a lot of fighters on a single large warship. It took a couple of minutes before Richard saw on the tactical display that fighters were flying forward at full thruster burn. They moved far faster than the fleet would be able to.

  Hopefully, they put a nice dent into that fleet, Richard thought to himself while also keeping in mind that none of those fighters was likely to survive. With the still standing fight to destruction order, none of them would be able to limp home.

  “Looks like the fleets are formed, I’ll get the computer started on those jump calculations and exit points,” Robin said aloud, as she moved onto the next tactical task.

  But, as Richard watched, one of the IAE fleets disappeared from the tactical display.

  “Where the hell did they go?” Richard said sounding as controlled as possible given how alarming this sudden change was. Out of instinct, he stood up to get a more commanding look at the display.

  Clearly displayed was one IAE Dreadnaught surrounded by its fleet of roughly 600 ships. The other fleet had disappeared. So shocking was this move, that Robin had stopped her calculations.

  Suddenly, an ear-piercing alarm blasted and the tactical display blazed to life identifying a hyperspace exit of ships. So close was the existing fleet, that the sensors had already captured their silhouettes and identified them as hostile.

  It was the missing IAE fleet. They had jumped behind them. They had just been boxed in.

  For a brief moment, Richard was impressed by this tactical move, quite unorthodox for the IAE fleet commander.

  But, as he thought about it, it dawned on him that the IAE had just made a huge mistake, and he was about to exploit it!

  “They just divided their forces! What a terrible choice. Robin, send a quick micro jump to all ships. I want us to jump so we exit within a minute travel time of weapons range. That’ll give us more than enough time to get organized and blast the hell out of them. Plus, that huge hulk of a Dreadnaught doesn’t have a hope of turning around and jumping at us for at least 10 minutes after that. This is great! I bet Longus’ performance scared them enough to make a move and avoid our fleet replicating his kill rate. Another reason to praise that man later, no matter how foolhardy he was.”

  Robin couldn’t help but chime in as she was still calculating and issuing orders. “Foolhardy and a little irrational, and stupid, and insubordinate. I could go on.” She finished with a smile.

  Even Richard had to offer a small smile. But it was probably Longus that gave them this break, so he earns at least a little praise. But later, after we win, Richard finished his thoughts.

  “Done, orders have been issued. Jumping in ten seconds.” Robin said aloud to no one in particular.

  For the next ten seconds, there was no sound on the command deck beyond those generated by the computer. Everyone was watching the tactical display. Likely they were all hoping or praying, depending on the individual, that this stroke of luck would offer them a real chance at victory.

  Richard felt, for the first time since that IAE fleet had dropped into the system, that they had a chance. As he watched his fleet begin to jump into hyperspace, he saw their markers begin to blaze away from the IAE fleet, still getting organized after their own micro-jump.

  He watched as they passed the current location of the fighter groups, now somewhere about in the middle distance between the two IAE fleets. Only moments before, they were going to be the first to fight, the first to die. Now, it looked like they might arrive too late to help in the battle. But, at least they could outrun the fleet at the rear, so they were nice and safe.

  If we succeed, Richard thought, they will be invaluable to our second battle against that other Dreadnaught. As he considered that possibility, Richard began to input a post-battle strategy which would see his fleet withdraw to a point outside the inner system, and then jump back inside the second IAE fleet as the fighters began their engagement. With the fighters so close, they would again be able to jump right inside the IAE fleet formation which would likely be more fluid and loose when taking on fighters.

  Ok, ok, ok, Richard thought to himself, trying to calm his strategic mind. Let’s survive th
is battle before we plan for the next one!

  And as he said that, they exited hyperspace. The main display flipped to a live visual shot from the front of the ship. Ahead was the white and blue of Tionaga. One of the larger cloud formations sat behind the IAE Fleet, which looked as many small specs of dust atop the white surface. Richard left that visual up on the screen for a moment, as he usually did when coming out of hyperspace. Part of the joy of space travel is seeing what is outside. Staring at computer displays all day can be left to the pencil pushers at headquarters.

  But, they were in battle, so Richard threw up the main tactical display. It showed exactly what he had been hoping for. The IAE Dreadnaught surrounded by its support ships, driving forward in a tight and stiff defensive wall formation. The best way for a powerful force to meet another.

  Richard had always avoided standard formations as they tended to make squads rigid in their action, trying to maintain a safe place within the larger fleet, like fish in a school. Richard had successfully used a formation he referred to as the bubble. Each squad formed a protective sphere formation around one of their squad mates, often the squad commander, but not always. Each sphere flew with the fleet like a large group of bubbles rising to the surface. This allowed the bubbles to move around, almost bouncing off one another. It often made it very difficult for the enemy to target well on the first encounter, and even harder to maintain fire on a specific target.

  Again, the IAE were giving the advantage to Richard. In their formation, he could assign his squad bubbles to target individual ships and destroy them quickly, before retargeting another ship. After the first minutes of the engagement the larger fleet formation would break down into squad to ship engagements, but having already gained the momentum and first blood, it always meant Richard prevailed.

  I’ve never lost a fleet action before, in life or simulation, Richard thought with confidence. Today, I will extend that streak.

  “All ships, acquire your designated targets. Protect your squads and good luck. Fleet command out.” That would likely be Richard’s last verbal command until the dust settled.

  He now locked himself into his command chair securely. He pulled his consoles and personal displays close and in their usual order. He pressed a button and had command of his fleet at his fingertips.

  Richard watched the weapon range spheres on the tactical display. They now showed only forty-five seconds to weapons range. The spheres were colored red and green representing foe and friend weapon ranges. Once they met, it would change to magenta and the battle would begin.

  He could hear Robin locking herself into place, gearing up to personally command the Caesar Augustus and her squad. He could also hear Sara issuing orders to her tactical team in the battle tank behind him.

  I guess she never made it to the shuttle to deliver those bombs, he thought to himself removing that backup plan from his mind. And that makes me very happy.

  As the tactical display changed to thirty seconds to weapons range, he looked at his graviton bomb status screen. They all showed on board and ready on the tactical display. Richard keyed a personal sequence and changed all 10 bombs to “armed.” That made Richard happy, though scared that he had had to take that step.

  You can’t win every battle, right? Better prepare for the worst. That is what one of my professors once taught me at the academy. So far he had been wrong but… Richard let that thought trail off.

  A fast visual review of all his squads and ships showed them to be at nearly 100 percent. It was an impressive feat given they had just concluded a full fleet battle, even if the odds were heavily in their favor. I’ll have to award Mato with something impressive after this battle. He really got those engineering crews of the fleet at peak performance.

  The time display counted below the twenty-second mark.

  Having checked everything he needed to, Richard fell into watching the clepsydra count down the seconds, while also watching the progress of the IAE fleet, which moved along without change or imagination.

  They will hit us straight on and hope to hold their line. That will not happen!

  As a determined smile grew across his face, a light on his console indicated an incoming comm message. Richard cocked his head sideways for a moment.

  Who in hades? He thought realizing it couldn’t be anyone on board as they would speak with Robin. And it couldn’t be anyone in the fleet as they would have sent the message visually.

  Waiting a moment, he hoped the computer would identify the source next to the flashing connect button. But after a few flashes, it remained incoming comm message.

  Pressing the button, Richard spoke aloud into his station.

  “Admiral of the Fleet Richard Hilbornus of the Kordont Emperor Class Battleship Caesar Augustus. Identify yourself!”

  The time display counted below the ten-second mark.

  CHAPTER 43

  “Admiral, so formal!” Came the slightly humored voice, replying to Richard. The voice and the accent he recognized instantly.

  That sounds like Abad! Richard’s mind raced with the possibilities. Why in hades is Abad here? Is he coming in on our side? Where is his fleet?

  “General Abad! I am in fleet battle in a few seconds. What can I do for you in that time?”

  General Abad was already speaking before Richard finished his question.

  “Admiral, I need access to the precise position of the nearest Imperial Dreadnaught to the planet.”

  Touching two buttons on his console, Richard answered Abad with actions that explained more than he could say in the time permitting.

  “Done. Anything else?”

  “Thank you for the sensor link, we can handle it from here. Have your fleet break off, you will not regret this move.” And the line went dead instantly.

  Break off our engagement! Richard quickly looked at the countdown on the clepsydra. It had begun to run in the negative.

  I better not regret this, he thought as he opened a comm line to all fleet commanders.

  “All commanders, all commanders, hear this. Immediately break off the attack and leave the enemies weapons range at the best speed. Rendezvous at position Z. Repeat, break off the attack and leave the enemies weapons range.”

  Before he even closed the comm line, he felt his ship begin a high speed turn and run in a direction he already knew Jennifer had calculated to avoid the IAE fleet as best she could.

  From the display, he could see all his bubble formed squads begin to separate and fly off in completely random directions. The fleet maneuvering avoided any collisions thanks in part to the fleet ships all being linked to a small degree to his station and ship. The computer ensured that no one made drastic course corrections which would create collisions.

  Too bad, Richard thought. If Abad doesn’t come through as promised, we missed a golden opportunity in this battle!

  Looking over at Robin, who was commanding their local squad, he caught her eye.

  “He better deliver!” Was all she said as she returned to her station.

  Richard punched a few buttons to send his orders again by text to all the squad leaders, and provided the position Z coordinates again, in case anyone misplaced them in their system.

  Watching his tactical display, he saw a few shots by the enemy fleet at his ships, but nothing of substance. More worrisome was that he could already see the IAE fleet reordering itself.

  Ten denarii they are moving into a sphere formation around that Dreadnaught! And as he watched, he could clearly see that the IAE ships were indeed moving to form that shape. Well, we can’t attack them again until they meet up with the other half of their fleet.

  Most of the time, a sphere formation leaves a large portion of your main guns facing in the wrong direction. For assault purposes, it was useless. As a preservation effort, it was excellent, as the attacking fleet would always meet strong resistance and your capital ships are effectively protected. If a real concentrated fleet effort was made, the sphere could unfold its
elf into a defensive wall, and bring the full force of all its main guns on the approaching enemy.

  But now, they would fly in relative safety and reform into a massive armada we have no chance to destroy. I bet the IAE fleet commander won’t make the mistake of splitting his fleet again. Abad better have the goods!

  And as Richard had that thought, the comm line indicator again flashed. This time, it was a signal that a general message was being broadcast to all ships in the local area. Clicking a button, he brought it up on his station alone.

  After listening to the message for only a moment, he patched it through to all his ship commanders and put it up on the speakers in the command deck for all to hear.

  Jupiter may have just saved us! Richard thought as he listened to the general message again.

  “To all Imperial Alliance of Empires forces in the Tionaga system. Immediately come to zero station and prepare to be boarded! Repeat, to all Imperial Alliance of Empires forces in the Tionaga system. Immediately come to zero station and prepare to be boarded!”