"With all due respect, sir, we won. Our victories were unprecedented. We destroyed ten enemy dreadnoughts in a single day without losing a single ship. What more could possibly be enough for you? Why are we being punished instead of praised?"
"Whether you shall be punished or not remains to be determined, Captain. You are not here to win battles. You are here to generate data, so our strategists can use that to win battles later. If you killed one hundred enemy dreadnoughts it wouldn't matter. And there is still the matter of our loss of operational secrecy. That last dreadnought escaped, with full knowledge of what the Void Dragon can do. Does that concern you?"
"No," Wen said. Admiral Song had been standing there silently, but he made eye contact with Wen for a few seconds. Too late for warnings now, Admiral. The die is cast.
"It seems you're determined to make your case, Captain. Very well, let's hear it. Why is this not a problem?"
"It's time, Mr. Wu. We've tested the Void Dragon's conventional capabilities; we've established her limitations, and her strengths. The only thing left is to see how we perform against an enemy who knows we're coming. This would have to happen eventually. I say let them know. I don't think they can stop us even if they do. Further, I don't believe we've realized the ship's full capabilities. I'm brainstorming all the time, you'll see."
Wen ran out of things to say and Wu let the silence hang for a little while. "Are you finished?" he asked finally.
"Yes, sir."
He turned his back on them, glancing out the window.
"Hm...very well. I must confess myself intrigued, Captain. Your quick thinking preserved the ship last time, so I'm inclined to indulge you. As for you, Commodore Jiang, I should like to remind you to keep the operational priorities of High Command foremost in your mind. Leaving the Void Dragon in system without sufficient support and tied to a fixed objective was extremely careless. I don't want to see any more mistakes like that.
"We're prepared to accelerate the timetable this time, but don't take unnecessary chances. We have no way of knowing how the Enemy will react to this development. Their data should be incomplete, perhaps more incomplete than they realize, but they’re aware something is up and will be a lot less predictable. You must account for this. I need you to take good care of my Captain and my frigate. I'd hate to have to come back here. Am I clear?"
"As a purple Zhongxing sky, Mr. Wu," Jiang replied.
"Wonderful!" Wu said, his manner becoming progressively cheerier. "And Captain Wen?"
"Yes, sir?"
"The Void Dragon cost us millions of man-years in productivity. I will not see them wasted. Meanwhile, the dreadnought gap increases every year. It won't be long before we can no longer meet them in open space, unless something changes, of course. You will protect our investment or I'll find a captain who will."
"Understood, sir."
"Now I shall take my leave. You're cleared to resume operations once Song and Bruzio are satisfied the shift accuracy issue is dealt with. Why, I think the Captain is on to something. So what if they know about our new ship? We still have the initiative. They're reacting to us. That hasn't been the case since Harbin. Let's make the most of it shall we?"
There were stiff nods all around. Wu made his way for the exit. At the threshold he paused and turned his head back. "I like you, Captain," he said, "Don't disappoint me." A smile genial and a little menacing crept across his face, and he left.
"Well then," Song said, "That went better than I had any reason to expect. You're both dismissed. If you see Professor Bruzio please tell her to come see me at her earliest convenience. I know how she gets when there's a problem to be solved and she hasn't been responding to my messages. You'll be cleared once we figure things out. It will most likely be a few days; Enjoy your liberty."
Jiang and Wen filed out of the office in silence. As Wen turned in the direction of her quarters Jiang stopped her.
"You stood up for me back there, Wen. I won't forget this."
"Anytime, Commodore."
Chapter 7
In a few days time Admiral Song gave his approval, and the crews of squadron Wolf Five returned to their ships.
They were topping off their supplies while Wen supervised. She spotted Tian and waved her over. "So what was the problem, anyway?"
"Kind of a stupid mistake, actually." She looked a little embarrassed. "Let's see, how do I put it...well, you know our sensors?"
"I'm familiar, yes."
"Right, right, well the basic idea is sending treated photon radiation out in pulses that bounce off the local celestial objects and return to the ship. It's not that simple of course, but that's the gist of it. The return path isn't direct. There's actually a whole complex chain of additional particles sent out that push the returning photons into a trajectory for where the ship is going to be, not where it was."
"And?"
"And the Void Dragon is too fast!" she said brightly. "The information wasn't updating quickly enough and we were outrunning our old scans, throwing everything off. Increased light-noise made it worse. It's fixed now, mostly."
"Only mostly?"
"Our solution is just a stopgap. Overclocking the sensors puts more stress on the core than I'd like. In the medium term we'll need to design entirely new scanners that account for our additional speed. I'm sure the mass production model will have them; that's where Bruzio is, making sure of it."
She covered her mouth. "Uh, you didn't hear that from me? Right?"
"Right," Wen said.
Just before they were ready to get back underway a messenger ship arrived, one of the three-day-old encrypted news couriers that brought back word from the wider galaxy. High Command had released strategic directives indicating Enemy activity was likely to be erratic and unpredictable. They were cryptic as to possible reasons why. Wen and her crew knew more than most, and took extra care in their final system checks.
After a few casual sweeps of outlying systems to get back into the swing of things the Void Dragon received a signal that Commodore Jiang wanted Wen for a teleconference.
"Mr. Nima, you have the conn. I'll take it in my office." What's this about? I thought it'd be business as usual for awhile.
She flipped on the screen in her office and opened the channel. The display split into four. Commodore Jiang was there, as well as Captain Li of the Kongming, and the captains of the Two Rivers and Jade Wind who were a man and a woman she hadn't had much direct interaction with.
"Commodore, Captains, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Good morning, Captain Wen. I've brought you all here because that messenger ship didn't just bring a general alert," Jiang said.
Interesting. Wen decided respectful silence was best for now. She'd never been in a position to receive confidential briefings before.
"Is the Enemy behaving strangely?" Li asked.
"That's the problem. They aren't doing anything," Jiang said.
"Surely that's a good thing," said the Captain of the Two Rivers.
"High Command disagrees," Jiang said. "Enemy activity has dropped off to almost nothing. Many feel they might be massing for a major offensive into our inner colonies."
"Do you feel that way, Commodore?" Li asked.
"Could be. Could be they're breaking off contact until they have a plan for dealing with the Void Dragon. Either way, the holding pattern this war has been in since Harbin will be broken shortly. Something's about to give. The inner colonies are on high alert and marine garrisons are being reinforced everywhere. It's too soon. We're not ready to counter a big push."
"What does this mean for us?" Wen asked.
"Nothing for now. We'll be checking in more frequently and might be called on to harass Enemy landings if that's really what they're planning. The Void Dragon might also be used to slip in last minute reinforcements if it comes to that. If we aren't called for a special mission we'll just keep going about our business."
"Perhaps some additional drills for my marines, if we ha
ve time," Wen said. "They get restless."
"I'll see what I can do, Captain, but I don't want any time-consuming commitments. We need to be ready to respond at a moment's notice. Anyway, for now it's back to the hunt. Your astrogation officers should have the patrol itinerary. Jiang out."
Nothing came of those warnings. It was as if the Enemy had disappeared, withdrawing into the depths of uncharted space. No invasion materialized and no patrol could detect even a hint of their activity.
Wolf Five's patrol route was just as quiet as any other. They had no contact for weeks, not even a brief glimpse of the Enemy before they shifted out. If they were out there, they didn't stay in one place long enough to be detected. Once it looked like a large scale invasion really wasn't in the wings, Jiang consented to drilling the marines with a few combat drops. Major Zhamisce and his troops were only too happy to stretch their legs.
As tedious as it was to spend weeks combing the black for nothing, the crew still had jobs to do. The marine detachment wasn't fairing well at all. There had been no further incidents in the mess hall or elsewhere, and Major Zhamisce kept them busy, or tried to. Even so, morale was at a low ebb. Their equipment only required so much maintenance and they only had enough space for pushups and jumping jacks.
Even if they weren't making themselves a nuisance to the rest of the crew, idle marines had a tendency for self-destructive behavior. Long periods of monotony bred carelessness, and there were several instances of their powered exoskeletons being improperly cleared for duty and malfunctioning in the field. A trooper nearly died when his suit's jump jets failed in the higher gravity of the world they were drilling on. The incident generated such an amount of acrimony and finger-pointing that Wen felt the need to check in with Major Zhamisce to see what was what.
I've never actually called someone to my office to get chewed out before, she thought. Almost exciting.
Major Zhamisce entered her office and stiffly saluted. He looks nervous. I think I'll try not to be too much of a bitch this time.
"At ease, Major. I assume you know why you're here?"
"I take full responsibility, Captain. It was gross negligence on my part to allow my marines into the field with equipment that had been improperly cleared."
"Improper? How so?" Wen tried to keep her tone formal but non-accusatory.
"Our suits can function in a wide variety of environments with variable temperature, gravity, and pressure, including the vacuum of space. Some locations require more prep time and modifications than others, but with proper transport, a marine can fight anywhere. Lance Corporal Gao's lateral thrusters were not reinforced properly and failed in the higher gravity of the planetoid selected for our last drill."
"And thrusters are important?"
"The most important part of our equipment save our flechette guns and life support, if required by local conditions. Mobility is life for us."
"I can relate. And how is trooper Gao?"
"Stable. He broke both legs and herniated two discs in his spinal column. It would've been much worse if he'd been attempting a large jump. In certain conditions we can clear one hundred meters or more. This was just a short vault over some rough terrain, and thank goodness for that. As it is, the autosurgeon was able to insert some carbon fiber braces and a round of nanites to repair the damage. Still, he'll be out of action for a week at least."
"And he's alive, never forget."
"I never will, Ma'am."
"It was fortunate we were there to pick him up quickly, then."
"With respect, you don't know how true that is, Ma'am,” Zhamisce said emphatically. “Conventional landing craft can take us from orbit to planetside but not back up. Our bases have autosurgeons but on a planet with no infrastructure we'd have been stranded with no way to care for our wounded. It's a situation I've been in before."
"No space elevators on the front lines, then?"
"None, too easy to destroy. The last planet I served on before being deployed here was completely compromised, and the Enemy had a tight orbital blockade. We had to wait for a gap to escape on rockets. Rockets! Ancient technology, but it served to get us to the transport in orbit that shifted us out."
"There must be many marines stranded on Enemy-occupied worlds."
"Thousands, maybe more, Ma'am. This ship is a revelation, honestly. You were able to come right down and get us when I sent the distress signal. I thought I was about to lose one of my marines. I'm grateful, really."
He sounded genuine enough to Wen and Zhamisce had managed to keep his marines out of trouble for the most part, which must’ve been more difficult than she knew. She decided wrap things up. "I'm glad. Think your unit has had enough excitement for a while?"
"More than enough. I assure you, these issues will be dealt with and next time all proper maintenance procedures will be followed. I'll check and double-check myself!"
"See that you do, Major. I'll let you get back to your duties."
"Thank you, Ma'am."
Zhamisce saluted once more, turned on his heel and walked out.
***
"Looks like we've got a bite, Captain," Xinren said, sounding a little hopeful.
"Check it again. I don't want any false positives like last time. Mr. Nima bring us about and signal the Liangshan," Wen ordered.
It had been a long month with nothing so much as an Enemy ore freighter on scan and Wen desperately wanted this to be the real deal. The longer they went with no contact the more suspicious she became of the Enemy preparing a nasty surprise for them.
The downtime had allowed them to refine their patrol procedures, though. The Void Dragon could simply cover more ground than any other ship so they spent much of their time out of effective communication range of the rest of the squadron, counting on their speed to escape if they ran into trouble.
"I've got seven objects orbiting that moon in a loose formation, pretty large for a conventional battle group," Xinren said.
Could that be it? Maybe the Enemy has been merging their smaller patrols into larger ones. "Go to general quarters. We need to rendezvous with the rest of the squadron, full speed ahead."
"Wait," Xinren said. "It's five Enemy dreadnoughts and two satellites. From the configuration I guess they're surveyors of some kind. They're emitting signals that don't look military. Looks like we've run into a mining outpost."
Interesting. Maybe Jiang will let us land the marines and take it out once we're done with the dreadnoughts. "Any progress on that signal, Mr. Nima?"
"Just a moment, Captain," he said. "Void Dragon to Flag. Void Dragon to Flag. Hostile contact confirmed. Repeat, hostile contact confirmed. Five dreadnoughts orbiting the moon of planet five. Satellite activity indicates likely mining outpost. Acknowledge."
It was a few seconds before the Liangshan replied; they were still pretty far off.
"Jiang here. Looks like you've found them, Captain Wen."
"Planning to engage, Commodore?" Wen asked.
"Yes. After so long we can't afford to let this opportunity slide, but be careful. Void Dragon, I want you to stay in our wake, just like the first time. We'll approach conventionally, no shifting in. It'll take some time and they'll surely see us coming but I want every opportunity to see what they do. Once the rest of Wolf Five is in engagement range I want you to initiate a greenshift jump and pop in directly on the Enemy flank. Hopefully, this will take them be surprise. We'll keep the pressure on while you light them up. Copy?"
"Copy that, Commodore."
"Good luck and good hunting, Jiang out."
Wen opened a line to engineering on her private screen. "Tian, I want you prepared to go hot as soon as possible, we'll be greenshifting right on top of them."
"Understood, Captain, everything will be up and running by the time we fall in to formation," she replied.
"Outstanding. Xinren, I don't have to tell you what I need, do I?"
"No Captain, you don't." Xinren's face looked grim and determined. It had been a whi
le.
"Caution, people. I want to emphasize caution. This will not be a repeat of last time. We won't be overextending ourselves. The rest of the squadron will be covering us, and we're going to support them. Remember your responsibilities, and carry them out carefully with no hasty mistakes. Take your time and remember your training. Do this and the Enemy will get a nasty surprise. I think they need to be reminded why they're afraid of us!" Wen spoke to the whole bridge.
The bridge buzzed with nervous energy as the command staff went to work. They slipped into the Liangshan's wake and began their slow drift towards the Enemy. Once they were about a minute away from contact Jiang signaled them all.
"Steady on everyone, they may flee once they spot us," she relayed.
There was some frenzied activity at the gunnery station and Xinren spoke up after conferring with his subordinates. "Another Enemy squadron is approaching from the underside of the moon! They used it to conceal their position!"
"It's a trap!" Wen shouted.
"That's not all," Xinren said, his voice rapid. "They're weapons and shields are already online and they're too close for us to break off. We'll be caught between the two groups; they have us," he said.
The eager anticipation about them turned to dread. We were expecting something like this but fell for it anyway. Even so, Wen saw an opportunity.
"Engineering, prepare to shift!"
"Agreed, Captain. It looks like we don't have a choice," Jiang said, resigned. "Void Dragon, prepare to withdraw. You're more valuable than we are and don't need to share our fate. We’re not fast enough to escape but you are."
Wen winced, that hadn't been her idea at all. "Negative, Commodore! You don't have to throw your life away on our account! I have a plan; we can make it through this," she said.
"I don't see how, Captain. My first priority is to assure your safe return. If you have an alternative then be quick about it!"
"You'll just have to trust me. We're losing precious seconds here. I need you to align the rest of Wolf Five with the second Enemy battle group since they’re closer. Ignore the bait squadron for now. I assure you you'll have time to get in position, but I need your clearance to proceed. What do you say, Commodore?"
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