"And what about you?" Bionica asked, immediately grabbing the opportunity to figure something out from the normally taciturn Nicole.
"I hope it doesn't get to that point," the young commander answered evasively.
Then I noted to myself the change in Nicole's emotional state. Just a week ago, the girl would have answered without hesitation that she would remain true to the Empire under any circumstances. But now, having seen confirmation of the fact that the ruler of Unatari trusted her completely and was prepared to assign her even the most important missions, the young fleet commander had begun to hesitate and think about the basis for her blind loyalty to the Empire. Taking advantage of the situation, I asked Nicole a question about herself: what did she want more of in life, now that her dreams of glory and military medals had come true?
Nicole ton Savoia sighed heavily and answered almost immediately, without a second thought:
"Right after my rapid ascent up the career ladder, I hit the ceiling. I have lots of experience leading star fleets in combat conditions and, as a commander, I am significantly more capable than the military civil servants in the Imperial Joint Chiefs, who have the power to raise my rank. They also understand that, so they will never agree to recognize my merits and will not allow me to become an admiral. They'll make excuses about my young age, insufficient number of years served, or find a bunch of other reasons why the commander of the magnificent Perimeter Sector Eight Fleet just cannot be given the rank of admiral."
"And, in human history, has there ever been an example of such a young star fleet admiral?" I asked Bionica, and she answered momentarily that she had not discovered any such cases in the database.
"And that's the whole thing!" Nicole shuddered. "My name could go down in history, if not for the rigidity of the Joint Chiefs bureaucrats!"
I drummed my fingers thoughtfully on the tabletop, because Nicole's dream was hard to accomplish, even for me, the ruler of a huge star government.
"Nicole, not all the admirals of my fleet have made rank through the Imperial Military. For example, the Alpha Iseyek Kheraisss Vej and Masss Azhzh became admirals through a vote in the Swarm and were appointed by the Swarm Queen. As the present Swarm Master, it isn't even a small challenge to me to give you the rank of admiral. But I'm afraid that such disdain for army traditions will be looked on negatively by the Imperial Military, so such a path is probably not for you..."
The girl nodded in silence, listening to carefully to me and not moving her gray eyes from my face.
"Then I see only one path for you — prove your competency to even the most obstinate skeptics by winning in battle against several recognized admirals. You already have a certain reputation as a talented fleet commander, and you need to build on that. I will do everything I can to help you in this matter, but the main part of the work will have to be done by you. I'm afraid that even the King of the Unatari State is powerless to grant your wish. It would be easier to give you a title and appoint you ruler of a star system than to make you admiral of the space fleet..."
"Your Majesty, I understand..." Nicole said with sadness in her voice, then suddenly lit up and smiled: "Although my own star system and aristocratic title would also not bother me."
"Then Nicole, I offer you the following — if you succeed in the upcoming battle in Uvi, I will give you and your future descendants that star system in perpetual use. You have my word as a Crown Prince!"
Third Power
"THREE MINUTES to warp tunnel exit!" the captain's assistant of the Curse-80 told me, and hurried to turn away so I wouldn't notice his pale lips and fingers shivering in anxiety.
But I not only noticed, but decided to point it out:
"What's got you so worried, space lieutenant?"
The young officer was clearly embarrassed, but still answered my question honestly:
"Yes, Your Majesty, I do have a bit of the willies. I'm worried about whether the frigate group managed to breach the minefield for us."
"Oh, that..." I waved it off with exaggerated carelessness. "You really don't have to worry about that, the enemy has played themselves here. What did the Blue House cloakers watching our fleet see? A group of one hundred fifty of our light ships accelerating toward the Uvi system warp beacon and jumping there at the exact same time. The enemy knows the flight time between the star systems, and the composition of our fleet, so there's really no nuances expected. I'd have fallen for it. What's more, at the exact estimated time, down to the second, a group of frigates will have arrived in the minefield, so it should have blown. But what the enemy was not expecting is that our ships didn't all make one long jump the whole distance, but two jumps with a minute break at a midway point. And that the frigate group arriving to the minefield started from a totally different part of the Paada star system. Of course, based on the time, the frigates should have already played their role and set off the thermonuclear mines. Now, our main fleet will show up on the arena. Bionica, countdown!"
My gorgeous blonde android put on her headphones and started counting down.
"Five, four, three, two, one. We've arrived!"
There was in fact no sudden explosion after that, so the space lieutenant's fears really were misplaced. As for me, I was hoping with my whole soul for our fleet to have a good arrival to the star system, so I sighed in relief, then issued a command:
"I need a tactical grid as fast as possible! Report on the situation!"
"The enemy fleet is twelve hundred miles away! A huge number of markers on the radar. Identification by radar signature is underway. Elevated background radiation. Lots of small debris."
Alright then, it looks like we made it just fine. The enemy must have slept through our arrival. Now, my fleet's mission was to get into combat formation and dictate the terms of the space battle to the enemy.
"All ships! Accelerate toward the second planet. Forty Curses go in a compact group. Do not release drones for now. Radio-electric fighters after them — twenty Thrushes and twenty Umoyge, maintain distance of twenty miles."
"The enemy has begun maneuvers!" Nicole said, and I also noticed that around three hundred small red dots had started approaching my fleet. But the majority of the small Blue House ships were still next to their battleships.
I asked for the position of our cloakers to be determined. I got an answer almost immediately that Ghost-10 was fifteen miles from the core of the enemy fleet, Ghost-14 was at a safe distance, three thousand miles away, as ordered, while Ghost-11 had gone off to the next star system Ukravi and was tracking potential enemy reinforcements there.
"Great! First wing of stealth bombers, prepare for attack. Get jump coordinates from Ghost-10. Report back when ready. Only attack on my command, otherwise you'll reveal yourselves and kill our recon ships!"
"My Prince, do you really think the enemy doesn’t know we’re going to bomb them? Look at how compact their ship group is!" Nicole ton Savoia posited with doubt in her voice.
"I'm sure that the enemy commanders will realize we have stealth bombers, but not be expecting that we are able to get them moving this fast..."
My speech was interrupted by a message from the communications officer:
"Crown Prince Georg, incoming call request from the battleship Serenity. It's the flagship of the Blue House Second Fleet. Shall I put it through?"
I gave my permission and a frail gray-haired old man appeared on screen in a Blue House Space Fleet uniform. After seeing his gold epaulettes and Five-Star Admiral patches, I realized I knew this man already:
Moridin ton Miro, Five-Star Admiral of the Empire, Commander of the Blue House Second Fleet
Age: 129 years
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Class: Military
Achievements: Meritorious Veteran, Ex-Head of the Academy of the Imperial Joint Chiefs of Staff, Author of many textbooks and treatises on space battle tactics, Has been awarded the Emerald Star and Silver Comet for participation in interspecies conflicts
Fame: +13
Standing: +24
"Before us is a true living legend! I read his textbooks in the Academy!" Nicole ton Savoia whispered to me, her head bowed in respect to the veteran.
"Yes, I am also familiar with his works on tactics," I confirmed. "But I thought he would have long been retired with honors..."
The gray old man on screen spent a few seconds trying to focus his weak eyesight on the screen, after which he creaked out:
"Alright then, I could have guessed. The unbeatable Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky ton Mesfelle — who else would have been foolish enough to dare jump toward my fleet? What can I say, Crown Prince? I'm a bit sorry that I'll have to break your streak of brilliant victories."
"What are you talking about, Five-Star Admiral?" I asked in sincere surprise. "My fleet has already successfully jumped to Uvi and now has every chance to defeat you. However, considering your long service and respectable age, I am willing to let your fleet retreat honorably, retaining all your ships. Believe me, Five-Star Admiral, I'm only doing this out of respect for you. In general, there are very few enemies I'd allow to avoid battle with honor."
But the old man still got offended at my words:
"Crown Prince Georg, you seriously underestimate me, and that rubs me the wrong way. I've spent half a century doing battle with enemies of the Empire and acquired significant experience in space combat. And after that, I spent three years lecturing young fleet leaders on battle tactics. Yes, I may be old now, and was already retired with honors until I was invited by Duchess Ovella to command this fleet but, trust me, no matter how good you are, there's no way I can lose with a six to one ship advantage!"
"My Prince, the first wing of stealth bombers is ready to attack!" the commander of the bomber squadron's voice rang out in my ear.
I gave an order to begin the attack and looked back at my ancient opponent.
"Five-Star Admiral, in my time, I read your tactics works in the most attentive fashion. It is all written from a very knowledgeable perspective. Your great experience really comes through. But military science is not stagnant. Methods of conducting space battles are constantly being perfected. Like now, you're referring to the alleged fact that you have more starships. But is that really so?"
I held a pause to give him the chance to evaluate the results of my bombing. Yes, the five Surprises did just the trick — from what I saw, not only were one hundred fifty or two hundred of the enemy frigates destroyed or damaged, but the cruisers took a serious blow as well.
"So then, back to the topic at hand, Five-Star Admiral," I continued, as if nothing had happened. "Twenty percent of your fleet is already out of commission and that's just the beginning. As such, I will return to my thought. An advantage in numbers just because you have a huge quantity of frigates is of absolutely no importance. In the end, the fleet that wins will be the one with the best trained crews and balanced starship composition, not some vaunted number."
"Let's see how Your Highness will talk when my frigates catch up with and immobilize your cruisers," he said with a slightly tortured smile. "Then, my battleships and heavy cruisers will go to firing distance..."
"If I allow them to do so," I parried. "Five-Star Admiral, if you think those three hundred frigates that are now trying stubbornly to reduce the distance to my ships will have even the slightest significance in battle, I'll order my fleet to stop."
Nicole, sitting to my right, shuddered and looked at me in alarm, hoping I had been simply joking, but I smiled reassuringly to my pretty assistant, then turned to Bionica:
"I need information about the main and reserve frequencies the Blue House fleet is using for communication, and also how their signals are encoded. Find out from your androids serving on the enemy ships. When you have that data, send it to our radio-electric fighters. Have them drown out any sensible information on these frequencies."
My synthetic assistant nodded in silence, although it seemed to me that the order didn't make the android too pleased. Oh well, she was worried, but I no longer had to expect any sensible actions from the enemy, for the next few minutes at least. Now was the very time to make use of that:
"All ships! Change trajectory toward the sun. Perpendicular to the previous course. Prepare to meet the first group of Blue House frigates. Small ship defense, split up into groups of five, pick your own targets. Fire at will, one volley, one ship down. Curses, only release your drones on my command, don't spook the enemy too early. Electros, deafen the nearest frigates. If the enemy's heavy calibers suddenly jump into close combat, electros immediately turn to them. As soon as they're within thirty miles, release drones. Get ready... Now!"
One thousand six hundred military drones, made from tech copied from the Aliens. Each such drone was no worse than a frigate-class ship in combat power, and even surpassed such ships in speed. It was all over in just one minute.
"My Prince, we lost four drones. No losses among our ships," reported Nicole ton Savoia, not able to keep the happy smile off her face. "This is just unbelievable!"
My assistant didn't say anything about the enemy losses, and there was no need to. I could already see that only a pitiful group of five Pyros had escaped, having rushed away from the terrifying slaughter where three hundred of their ships were shot down in just one minute. Neither the Blue House battleships, nor heavy cruisers made a warp jump into that meat-grinder in order to aid the dying frigates. Either they didn't have time, or didn't get such an order from the fleet commander. By the way, as for the commander...
The old man on the screen had a very gloomy look on his face and was holding his hand over his heart. Yes, it most likely was a severe trial for him, watching his fleet get taken down while unable to impede the bloody slaughter.
"Five-Star Admiral, I'm back," I said, drawing the enemy fleet commander's attention. "Your fleet is now half its initial size, while my fleet has yet to lose a single ship."
"What do you mean?" he lit up. "What about the few dozen Unatari fleet ships that blew up in our minefield?"
"Those were automated ships, uncrewed, all retired frigates — my modern take on fireships. Not a single living person suffered in the minefield explosion, while the several androids who did take part were backed up in advance so they could be restored after the battle."
That was the final blow for the old man. The Five-Star Admiral fell heavily into his seat and buried his head in his hands. His young assistant appeared on screen with a glass of water and some pills. I waited patiently for my opponent to come back to his senses.
"Crown Prince Georg," the old man finally said a few minutes later. "This is the first time in my life I've ever been so despondent. I'll be honest, I don't see any way of getting near the much faster Unatari ships without taking monstrous losses among my frigates. Staying where we are is also not an option; your cloaked bombers will just keep hectoring my ships. Every step I take has an effective counter. Yes, I still have a huge advantage in numbers and volley weight, but I just have no idea how to use it. How can I bring my battleships into play if my nimbler enemy can simply zip out of range?!"
"I'm glad that you've realized that, Five-Star Admiral. Yes, I came to Uvi with this fleet composition, because it's the perfect counter to your armada. My fleet's mission now will be simply to plague you, take nips at the remaining group of starships, then warp disrupt the most valuable of your ships when the Blue House Second Fleet tries to retreat. And you will be forced to retreat, because Unatari heavy ships are already speeding down a warp tunnel here. And that will include five carriers with fifty battleships each, which will leave you with simply no chance."
"Yes, I already know that. My recon ships saw your armada starting off," the old man agreed.
"See, you cannot win, Five-Star Admiral, so I'll return to my initial offer. I respect your past service and have absolutely no desire to see such a storied military career end with a crushing defeat. So, I offer to let you avoid complete ruin and flee to the Ukravi sy
stem with all the ships you have left. I want your descendants to think of you as a talented fleet leader and tactician, who managed to get his bearings in good time in a complicated situation and save his most valuable starships. But I do have one condition: before retreat, you evacuate the Blue House soldiers from the station. There's no reason for them to die ingloriously in battle with Alpha Iseyek. I give you three hours to collect them and promise not to impede the retreat of your ships. You have my word as a Crown Prince!"
The Five-Star Admiral thought very long and even conferred with someone I couldn't see on screen. Finally, the old man gave his reply:
"I accept your gracious offer, Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky ton Mesfelle. And at the same time, I relieve myself of my duties as Commander of the Blue House Second Fleet. I must admit, my time has passed. Military science really had made significant progress, and I wasn't prepared for all the changes. The fleet will be taken over by my deputy, Vice-Admiral Hugo ton Miro. He will evacuate the soldiers loyal to the Blue House from the station and remove the ships from the Uvi Star System. And I'd like to thank Your Highness for caring whether I retain my glorious name for my descendants."
Global standing increase. Current value: +8
Standing change. Empire Military faction opinion of you has improved.
Present Empire Military faction opinion of you: +61 (veneration)
The screen went dim. I gave an order to my ships to increase the distance from the Blue House fleet to eighteen hundred miles and not to take any aggressive measures. And when I got up from the console, preparing to leave my temporary headquarters, I was stopped by Nicole ton Savoia:
"My Prince, I understand everything. Five-Star Admiral Moridin ton Miro is an honored veteran, respected by the Imperial Military, so you had to treat him with respect. But why are we just letting his ships go? Why not try to capture the battleships with warp disruptor, so we can take them and include them in our fleet?"
A Game With No Rules (Perimeter Defense Book #4) LitRPG Series Page 9
