Mutineer (Empire Rising Book 7)

by D. J. Holmes

  “Thank you High Councilor,” James said as he bowed as deeply as he could. “It is the dark matter dispellers, you cannot use them beyond your territories. One of the greatest defensive advantages your Alliance has are your artificial shift passages. If the war was ever to come to your space, you could rapidly redeploy fleets along your internal artificial shift passages. Any attacker would take weeks or even months to rearrange their forces while it would take your Alliance days. That is a massive strategic advantage. You cannot risk throwing it away by developing artificial shift passages beyond your borders. Certainly not ones that lead to Mindus and so to the Invaders space. By all means, move portable Way Gates to already existing shift passages. But I would strongly recommend that no artificial shift passages be constructed.”

  Though the High Councilor had asked James to explain himself, he spoke directly to Admiral Ellian, he was the one who needed to grasp what he was saying. When he finished, Ellian looked over to Admiral Dur’ack. James thought he saw the Varanni Admiral give a very slight nod. “You speak wisely Vice Admiral,” Ellian responded. “Perhaps we are so familiar with artificial shift passages that their importance can be forgotten. We will take the weight of your advice into consideration.”

  James sat down, he had to stop himself from letting out a deep breath and a verbal ‘pheeww.’ For a few seconds there was silence in the chamber as most of the people present stared at James. Thankfully, another speaker stood and asked more questions of Ellian. James was very grateful for the room’s attention to move away from him.

  Chapter 31

  Like the rest of the Empire, the Imperial Navy has a complex command and bureaucratic structure. Nevertheless, the First Admiral of the Navy holds almost god like power over the commissioned fleets of the navy. The Empire has simply been in too many wars to allowed desk admirals to compromise wartime decisions. The First Admiral may have to fight tooth and nail with navy bureaucrats to get the funding allocations she desires, but when it comes to wartime strategy, her authority is only second to that of the Emperor.

  -Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.

  As Ya’sia led James and his staff out of the High Council chamber, Carma appeared and approached them. “Admiral Ya’sia, Vice Admiral Somerville, the military High Command is having a strategic planning meeting and I’ve been asked to inform you both that your persons are requested. One of my aides will show you the way.”

  James glanced over to Scott. “Don’t worry about your staff Vice Admiral,” Carma added. “I’ll take them on a tour of the capital if that is all right with you?”

  “I’m sure they would be very happy with that,” James replied. “If it is permissible, I’d like to bring Rear Admiral Gupta with me. She is my second in command and has almost as much battle experience as I do.”

  Carma looked to Ya’sia before answering. James didn’t see Ya’sia’s response, but it must have been positive. “Very well Vice Admiral, I’m sure our Admirals can accommodate one more person in their meeting. You better get going now, the meeting was scheduled to begin immediately after the High Council session.”

  “Then we will take our leave,” Ya’sia responded. “Thank you for informing us Carma, enjoy showing off your capital to our guests.”

  Carma bowed slightly as she replied, “I have no doubt I will. And it will give me a chance to ask some questions of my own.”

  James winked at Scott as he moved after Ya’sia and the Varanni who was to be their guide. He knew Scott would enjoy answering questions about Earth almost as much as she enjoyed asking them about the Varanni civilization.

  The room he and Ya’sia were led to was much smaller than the High Council chamber. Despite that, it was arranged with almost exactly the same layout. The room was circular and a series of curved tables allowed up to ten people to sit and face one another. James was thankful the strategic planning meeting wasn’t going to be large. He was already struggling to remember names and ranks without having to meet lots of new faces. Of the four Varanni who were already seated, he knew two. Admirals Dur’ack and Ellian were accompanied by two other naval officers who wore similar rank insignia.

  “Thank you for coming,” Dur’ack said after he, Gupta and Ya’sia sat down. “The campaign you both fought against the Flex-aor means both of you have more actual battle experience than all of the Varanni fleet’s senior Admirals combined. Vice Admiral Somerville, your input today in the High Council, though unusual, was helpful. We therefore wish to discuss some things further with you.”

  “It would be our pleasure to be of assistance,” Ya’sia replied formally. “You honor the Crian people by allowing me to be a part of your planning. I hope it is a sign of our growing partnership.”

  For a second James was taken aback, he hadn’t seen Ya’sia show so much deference for anyone before. Then he remembered how the Varanni military worked. Whilst there was a high degree of political cooperation, militarily and technologically the Varanni had always kept themselves apart. Now they are inviting the Crians in, James thought. Clearly Ya’sia saw this as a significant step for her people. And for yours too, a small inner voice reminded him. The voice spurred him into action. “It is my pleasure as well,” James said.

  “Very good,” Dur’ack responded. “Let me introduce admirals Tel’ec and Jorum, along with Ellian, they have been working with my staff in planning our response to the Invaders. Jorum will be commanding the fleet we send to Mindus space if the High Council’s second proposal is accepted and Ellian will be going to Jaranna, the Mindus homeworld, as part of our military attaché.”

  “This is my second in command, Rear Admiral Gupta,” James said after he, Gupta and Ya’sia had given a small bow of recognition to the two Varanni Admirals.

  In turn the four Varanni admirals recognized them and Dur’ack continued the conversation. “To begin with, we are very keen to hear both of your assessments of the Invaders’ weapons technologies and tactics. Especially yours Vice Admiral Somerville. According to Ya’sia’s reports, you have fought in more than twenty different naval engagements. That must give you an eye for quickly assessing an opponent’s tactics, must it not?”

  “I hope that it does,” James replied. “Though, as I’m sure you understand, most of my expertise is in dealing with Human opponents. So too is Gupta’s, she has actually fought in almost as many battles as I have. We have discussed the Invaders’ tactics at length and I thought her input would be helpful.”

  “Then we are happy for her to be a part of this meeting,” Dur’ack responded. “Please, share your thoughts with us.”

  James glanced at Gupta and she gestured for him to begin. “Well, the Mindus sent us recordings of four battles they had fought with the Invaders by the time your scout discovered them. The last two are the ones of the most importance. We have a theory in our military. The first space battle between two unknown combatants usually shows us little about how each side will fare in the ensuing war. Unless the war can be won in one or two decisive battles, it is not the side that wins the first engagement that has the upper hand in the war, but the side that can adapt their tactics and technologies the fastest.

  “The Invaders won their first two engagements largely due to their numbers and the tactical surprise they were able to gain over the Mindus. There are some things we can learn from these battles. Like how the Invaders prefer long-range missile duels. In both opening engagements, the Invaders could have used their numerical superiority to close the range and use their directed energy weapons to quickly finish off their opponents. They did not. They preferred to keep their distance and expend a lot of missiles to win the engagements. That is something worth noting. Yet in the third engagement they abandoned this when the Mindus began to put up a fight. The third engagement was the first time the Invaders took heavy losses and in response they closed the range and made use of their numerical superiority.

  “That tells us something important about them. Their commanders are flexible, their strategies and tact
ics adaptive. More illuminating than this, is the way in which the latter two engagements were fought. In both battles the Invaders were fighting with a significantly smaller numerical advantage than when they launched their surprise attacks. Instead of keeping their fleet operating as one large unit, in their latter engagements they operated as several independent fleets. Yet at no point was any fleet out of support range of the other. If you examine their missile salvos carefully, you’ll also see that they were highly coordinated. It seems to me that this is a tactic the Invaders use for large naval battles. Fleets of a thousand or so warships operate together to outflank opponents and bring large missile salvos from converging points against a single section of an enemy fleet. I do not know about your warships, but Human warships are far more effective when engaging just one enemy missile salvo coming from one direction. Having to divide our target acquisition sensors and point defense fire greatly reduces their effectiveness.

  “The Invaders’ tactic is a good one, however it is very difficult to pull off. There is always the danger that one fleet could be isolated and overrun. Employing such tactics suggests the Invaders are very confident in their ability to fight in and win large naval actions. If your assumption that they have conquered large sections of the galaxy is right, then I am not surprised. It is likely they will have a highly trained and efficient officer pool that has a lot of battle experience. If nothing else, the battles show us that they will be difficult opponents. As I said to the High Council, it is my people’s experience that no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. Everything we’ve seen about the Invaders suggests that will certainly be true with them. Whatever tactics we employ against them, they will be quick to adapt and counter us.”

  When James finished speaking the four Varanni Admirals looked at each other. Dur’ack was the first to speak, “That is insightful Admiral. Already you have expanded our knowledge. I’m interested to know, have you thought of a counter to the tactics we have seen these Invaders use in naval engagements?”

  James nodded. “It is something we have discussed in depth. However, not being familiar with the capabilities of Varanni warships, our responses are more based on our own capabilities and what we know of Crian warships.”

  “Nevertheless, your ideas would be helpful I’m sure,” Dur’ack responded.

  “We’d be happy to share what we are thinking,” James said. “Rear Admiral Gupta is actually the one who has been working on this the most. I will let her elaborate.”

  As Gupta talked, James watched each of the Varanni Admirals. Essentially what he and his command staff had come up with was a series of battle plans that sought to negate the Invaders tactic of splitting their forces into large, powerful, but also vulnerable fleets. A number of the battle plans made use of the gravimetric relay. James knew that the Crians had no such technology and, as far as he knew, neither did the Varanni. The gravimetric relays allowed Human ships to communicate with each other across vast distances in real time. That ability would allow Human and Crian fleets to operate independently of one another and yet coordinate their efforts. It was thought that making use of the gravimetric relays would allow Human and Crian fleets to outmaneuver the Invaders’ fleets and gain a localized numerical superiority in any naval engagement. Another tactic Gupta discussed involved luring in one or more of the Invaders’ fleets into what Gupta called a killing field. It was a tactic that she had borrowed from the ancient battles of Earth’s history. Essentially, the plan called for whatever force was opposing the Invaders to split up and mimic the Invaders dispersed fleet formations, then, through a series of complex maneuvers, one of the Invader’s fleets would be drawn out of position and set upon by two or more Human or Crian fleets.

  There was no way to know if any of these tactics would actually work, the Invaders might have encountered them before or be wily enough to anticipate what was happening. Still, they were the best he and his staff had come up with. After Gupta was finished, each of the four Varanni Admirals asked questions. Soon he and Ya’sia were drawn into the conversation as well. Each tactic was analyzed and various refinements were suggested and assessed and adopted or dismissed.

  Once Gupta had exhausted all the tactics she and James had developed, the Varanni Admirals began to discuss ideas they had themselves. In doing so, they revealed a lot to James about the Varanni’s weapons technologies. As he suspected, their energy weapons were formidable. It appeared the large cannons their dreadnoughts carried out-ranged Golden Hind’s most powerful energy weapon by a factor of two. Whilst their missile advantage over Human weapons wasn’t quite as significant, it was still impressive. Where the Varanni really excelled was their point defense weapons. Even though Ellian explained it to him, he didn’t understand how their electricity arc weapons worked. He tried his best to remember Ellian’s explanation so he could repeat it to Scott later in the hope she would have more luck in figuring it out.

  With each tactic the Varanni Admirals suggested, he, Gupta and Ya’sia did their best to tear them apart and put them together again. Some of the Varanni Admirals’ ideas were good, indeed they seemed like they would maximize the advantages Varanni warships had. On the other hand, it quickly became apparent that some would not work, or were not advisable. All in all, James thought the meeting extremely profitable.

  At one point, he pulled out his datapad to access some detailed information he couldn’t quite recall. As he did, he was surprised to see the time. They had been discussing tactics for nearly three hours. When he commented on the fact, he wasn’t the only one who was surprised. Despite that, no one indicated they wanted to stop. James understood, after the long High Council session, it was a pleasure to be talking strategy and battle tactics rather than politics.

  “There was one other reason why we invited you to meet with us,” Dur’ack said when it seemed everyone was fresh out of new tactics to discuss. “Ya’sia submitted a report on your fleet’s weapons technologies. There are three areas where it appears you have developed impressive technologies that would greatly benefit our warships and the fleets of our allies. I have been informed that your mission to us is purely a military one not a diplomatic one however, I wanted to discuss the possibility of you sharing your technologies with us. As you know, our Senate has already agreed to share all our weapons technologies with our allies. I’m sure it would not be hard to convince them to trade some of those technologies with you in exchange for the technologies we desire. Specifically, I’m thinking of your miniature inertial compensators, your advanced electronic countermeasures, and your gravimetric relays. If we could incorporate those technologies into our fleets, it would give us an even greater advantage over the Invaders.”

  James sat back in his chair and let out a deep breath. “That is quite an ask,” he replied. “You are asking us to give up our most advanced technologies.”

  “We are,” Ellian agreed, “but what we are offering in return would be a fair trade. May I ask, how you came to develop these technologies? Your species’ rapid technological advance has more than impressed many of my own people and these three technologies are the pinnacle of what your species has accomplished.”

  “Well…” James said as he glanced at Gupta, his cheeks reddened slightly. “To be honest, we can’t take too much credit, at least not for the inertial compensators. The effect of our miniature compensators was accidentally discovered. It happened when we combined our own technology with that of a Human colony which had developed separately from the rest of our race for several centuries. Independently from our homeworld, they developed their own shift drive technology and inertial compensators. When we combined the designs, we discovered the effect our miniature compensators produce. For the other two, the gravimetric relays are something we have been working on since discovering the ability to detect gravimetric waves. And our ECM, well, Human nations have spent the last half a millennium pouring money into research and development in that area. In fact, that may be one of the key differences between my spe
cies and yours. It is a sad fact, but a fact nonetheless that wars have often been the drivers of our quickest periods of technological advance. I’m sure if someone was to count it all up, astronomical amounts of money have been spent on developing our military technologies over the last five hundred years. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that many of the civilian technologies my people take for granted originated in military research sites.”

  “That is very different to how our societies have developed,” Jorum agreed. “Six months ago we might not have looked too kindly towards a species with such a history. It doesn’t sit easily with many of us still, however, given the change in our circumstances, we are happy Ya’sia discovered you and your species. Do you think a trade is possible?”

  James shared another glance with Gupta. He wasn’t surprised to see her shake her head slightly. He had no diplomatic authority and he couldn’t make such a deal. In reality, he had no authority at all, he had been relieved of command. Yet taking his fleet to help another species was very different to making diplomatic bargains that would affect Humanity’s relationship with the Varanni for years if not decades. A part of him felt like making the trade anyway, after all, he was already in for a penny, why not for a pound? However, the rational side of his brain, the political side, the side that spoke with his wife’s voice, told him he shouldn’t. If he made a political deal now, it was more than likely the UN Interplanetary Committee would reject it, simply because he had made it. He would be robbing Humanity’s diplomats of the opportunity to enter a formal relationship with the Varanni. After thinking things through, he shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I do not have the authority to make such a bargain. I am more than happy to send a frigate back to Earth with my recommendation that such a trade be made. Perhaps you could convince your Senate to send a diplomatic ship with my frigate and negotiations could be carried out immediately. That is the best I can offer. Even if I give you the technologies now, you wouldn’t be able to retrofit your ships to make use of them before you propose to depart for Mindus space. If you send a diplomatic mission to Earth and make the trade, you could be refitting the ships that haven’t left your space within months. How does that sound?”