Scaevola's Triumph (Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy Book 3)

by Ian Miller

  So, what now? Sit back and defend Ulse?

  Not at all, Gaius continued. They had worked out what the objective was, and how it was going to be attacked. Their defence had prevailed, and a major section of the enemy fleet had been destroyed. Now the enemy would have a very acute problem. They had advanced almost a thousand light years by travelling at a speed near that of light. They had started with a huge fleet, but each time they had conquered a planet, a fleet of sufficient size to defend a counter attack had to remain at each planet. Every ship surplus to that requirement should have been deployed to the attack on Ulse, and that would be expected to include the best of their main-line battle fleet. Much of the attack fleet had been destroyed, and now the enemy was constrained to those ships left to defend planets. They could not concentrate these forces without giving up planets, and they had no idea where Ulse would counter-strike. They also had the problem Ulse had had. News of the defeat would take a thousand years to get back to enemy home territory, and while reinforcements might be coming anyway, the urgency for them could not be appreciated. Now was the time to take the initiative.

  Attack what?

  That would depend on Ulse's objectives, and that was more subjective. An objective would be a planet that, if deprived from the enemy and added to Ulse's domains would have the greatest effect on following battles, or alternatively, it might be a planet that would help Ulse's cause, was well placed in terms of launching further attacks, and was felt to be relatively easy to retake. There was no clear answer, and in any case, there was little point in divulging targets to the enemy, thus allowing him to concentrate his forces there. Yes, the enemy commander may be able to work these out for himself, but he could never be sure, and the price for guessing wrongly was the loss of a further strategic asset.

  How did he know that a large fraction of the enemy fleet was destroyed? That may have been only a tiny fraction.

  If that were true, Gaius shrugged, then the enemy commander had just blown away victory. The defence had held, but not with much in reserve. Had the enemy deployed twice the number of ships, he would have prevailed. The only real way to gain victory was to decide on objectives, and throw everything at them.

  But you might lose everything?

  You might, but if you commit your forces in small lots, you will eventually lose everything. Of course you don't commit everything at an objective unless you think you will win. If there is an objective you simply cannot take, or believe you are unlikely to take, you should find somewhere weaker to attack. You do not send forces out to fight; you send them out to achieve something, in the expectation they will have to fight to achieve it.

  So you feel it is wrong to send out small forces?

  Not at all! Small forces are correct for lightly defended targets, or perhaps to harass the enemy, to attack his lines of supply, and so on. While the ultimate goal might be to attack the enemy's home planet, realistically that would be a long way in the future. The immediate objectives might be merely to retake a planet that might be a critical source of war materials, or one that was likely to lie on a line of supply, or perhaps merely to irritate the enemy, or perhaps as a feint, to obscure the eventual line of attack.

  So what about building ships until we have an immense fleet, then sending out this immense force to the closest planet the enemy have, face their fleet, and defeat it?

  That depends, Gaius pointed out, on the information you have. As a general rule, doing nothing to the enemy for a period is not the way to go about things. Yes, you are rebuilding, but so is the enemy. If the strategy is to defeat the enemy by outbuilding him, then impeding his building efforts by carrying out raids is an important contribution.

  As for attacking a specific planet with massive force, you don't know their fleet is at the planet you have chosen to attack. They may install major defences on the planet and deploy their fleet on now unprotected Ulsian planets, or they may even abandon a given planet if their recent defeat leads them to change objectives. As a general rule, time is of more use to whoever had the most recent reversal of fortunes, as they are in the most vulnerable position to rapid attack. The more time you give, the better that side can rebuild and repair the damage.

  While Vipsania was watching this, she could not help feeling that the debate was too dry. When she asked him about this, she was told that he had been advised to present things that way. She protested that nobody was going to be swung by this, and he had no answer.

  But as it turned out, the Ulsians were swung. Gaius had given the advocates of action more material for their debates, and these raged on. At the end of each debate, which may have taken weeks, the debaters had to decide on a course of action, and achieve a two-thirds majority vote. The results of the votes poured in, all advocating action.

  The next step was to go from the abstract to the particular. Such planning was to take place secretly, but many of the meetings had recommended that Gaius attend, in fact since many of the top Generals and Admirals had been recorded as being against such action, and since they also had a record of either losses or no combat experience at all, there were even calls for Gaius to be given a command of a small fleet. This call was greeted with absolute derision by one of the top Ulsian commanders, a commander who had actually won a small battle.

  "That shows how much you know about warfare," the Admiral scoffed at one of the proponents of this course of action. "It is one thing to ride around on horses swinging swords, but it's a totally different matter to fight a modern war."

  "Perhaps," came the dry reply from the clearly incensed Ulsian who had made the proposal, "and perhaps it's one thing to win a minor battle when you totally outnumber a small enemy patrol caught by surprise and a totally different matter to win a campaign."

  The Admiral was furious. How dare this . . this . . criticize his victory. He was . . .

  What he was did not matter. The seed had been sown. There was an increased ground swell. The problem for Gaius was clear. He had to discuss strategy with this Admiral.

  When they first met, he tried to make the point that this was not his idea, and . . .

  "In which case, why don't you leave right now, you primitive little . . ."

  "Because like you I have been given orders," Gaius said coldly. He stared at this blustering Admiral, and an intense dislike of him swelled up within. "I shall obey them, as I assume you will."

  The planning meeting proceeded with an icy silence. The first session was largely devoted to each participant receiving what intelligence was available, with the intention of returning in three weeks. Little was said, and this Admiral virtually refused to even look at Gaius. Eventually, in frustration at nothing happening, Gaius got up and announced that since no further discussions seemed to be taking place, he would go away and read his documentation elsewhere.

  There were immediate protests. Ulsians did not walk out of meetings. However Gaius was saved by another junior Ulsian, who also got to his feet and announced that under the rulings on meetings, if nobody spoke formally to the matter of the meeting for ten minutes, any participant could declare the meeting over, which he was now formally doing. Gaius was amused to see that this officer had apparently not done his career much good.

  The following morning Gaius was about to attack his pile of information when the Tin Man announced he had a visitor. Kuldek entered, and with a flourish, he announced he should put the pile of information away, and go with him. He was to be tested for suitability for independent command.

  Chapter 27

  Gaius accompanied Kuldek to one of the military centres, where he was greeted by an older Ulsian Admiral, who smiled at him, and said with a challenge in his voice, "Gaius, you now have the opportunity to fight ten simulated battles against an Ulsian Admiral, who, I might add, thinks you're a waste of time."

  "I see," Gaius said with a reserved tone. As Vipsania had noted, he was making enemies unnecessarily, and he had to do something to reverse that trend. The problem was, what?

&nbs
p; The Admiral chuckled, and continued, "The rules are these. There will be two scenarios, and you will fight five battles in each, all from the same initial position in each scenario, although the rules might change, depending on what happens. I shall allocate scores, depending on what I feel the tests show, and there will be no appeals permitted. Following that, a panel will consider the outcomes and will either recommend you for command or not. Are you prepared to proceed under these rules?"

  Gaius gave a shrug and said, "Yes." These simulations would undoubtedly be weighted against him, but there was no real choice here, Gaius thought to himself.

  "You do not wish to challenge my judgement?"

  That was almost a challenge itself, Gaius noted. He took a slight breath before replying, "I've seen enough warfare that I'll know whether I make the grade," he shrugged. "After that, if I do it's a question of whether Ulse wants me. If these are the rules the Ulsian military wishes to put in place, then they are the rules."

  "You don't wish to question whether they're fair?"

  "There's nothing fair about war," Gaius laughed bitterly. "You win because you're better, because you've trained harder, because you've adopted the better strategy, or sometimes even because the Gods happen to smile on you that day. With Ulse's recent string of losses, I'd have thought you might see that."

  "Yes," the Admiral muttered, "I was told you could be a bit like that. Never mind. Let's get started. The first scenario involves the current situation. You will command ten enemy warships, and you have been warned that there may be Ulsian activity in the region. Your opponent will, of course, command whatever Ulsian resources are present. You start from a recently conquered planet to which you have escorted freighters, and your warships are about to leave the planetary system. Your orders are to return to a designated destination, and the exercise involves how you get out of the planetary system on the correct course. You must not simply travel in the opposite direction, because that would be a violation of orders."

  "Do I have to leave on a specific path?" Gaius frowned.

  "No, you have operational freedom to go wherever within the planetary system you wish, but you must remember if you start going in some odd direction, the enemy will see your motors, and know exactly where you are, and in many cases will be able to place himself in the path you will eventually have to take while you will be totally unaware of his manoeuvres.

  "Now, over the next four days, you must learn the basics of how to handle these ten ships. You may practice any manoeuvres you wish and put in place any pre-arranged instructions you wish. You will be given advice from your friend Colonel Klendor, and if you wish you may retain him as an advisor during the battles. However, you must command."

  "But I don't have to invent signals protocols?"

  "No, of course not, and Klendor will advise you in advance what sort of manoeuvres your ships can carry out. Oh, and you can assume your crew are fully conversant with how to fly the ships. You have to decide what to do, but you can assume that your decisions will be carried out properly."

  "I assume that in the process of leaving, I am going to meet an Ulsian fleet?"

  "A force commanded by the Ulsian commander you are competing against. You can assume he will be fighting as he would normally fight, and he will be fighting to beat you. Klendor will advise you on tactics that he is likely to use, but there is no requirement on him to use any standard Ulsian tactics at all. Basically it's a one on one contest."

  "Is it even?"

  "You will fight the scenarios as they actually happened first, but variations may be added to counter the fact that you will have learned about your opponent. Your objective is not necessarily to win, but rather to do as well or better than the actual commander at the time, or alternatively, force your opponent to do worse than the commander at the time did. If you are in a bad position, your goal is to do as well as you can, and to hold your losses to a minimum. If you're in a good position, you are to press home the advantage, and do as much damage to your opponent as you can. Do you understand?"

  "Of course," Gaius said.

  "You realize," the Ulsian Admiral said, "the assessment has to be partly subjective, because the exercises are only simulated?"

  "I know," Gaius said, "but you certainly can't have a real battle, with lots of Ulsians getting killed, just to settle a question like this."

  "Yes, but do you accept our decisions?"

  Gaius sighed, and said, "On my planet, quite odd decisions could be made by the Princeps, but the commanders have to accept them, otherwise there is no discipline, and without that, you might as well not take the field. I shall accept your decision. I may not like it, but that's another matter."

  "Good!" the Admiral said. "Now, if you wish to impress, you should make the best use you can of the next few days."

  * * *

  For the next four days, Gaius practised handling ships in formation. His thinking was that, with ten ships, he would pretend they were ten cohorts, so he practised splitting them into groups of three and handling coordinated manoeuvres, he practised uniting them into wedges, lines, double lines, and had them attack phantom lines in line, as wedges, as pyramids, every formation he could think of. He found out how much firepower was required to defeat an Ulsian ship, how long he would have to fire from how many ships to deliver it, which were the vulnerable points, how fast which ships could move, how tight they could turn.

  He then asked about the discipline he could count on. As far as Ulse was concerned, for the first scenario enemy discipline had never faltered, therefore whatever he ordered would be carried out, immediately, as long as the ships were capable of it.

  He then asked about scouts and intelligence gathering. The Ulsians were unsure, but acknowledged that there were sensors available, and a prudent defender would deploy them. He would be permitted to deploy sensors in advance of the exercise.

  * * *

  The day arrived for the first scenario. Klendor stood beside Gaius as the instructions were read.

  "You have a fleet of ten ships, and you have recently escorted an attack fleet to this planet, which has been conquered by your forces. Part of the attack force remains to defend the planet, but much of it has been deployed to clear local space of enemy ships. Your force has been given orders to fly to a different star system. You are ordered to leave the planet and accelerate out of the star system on this course . . ."

  "I have been told," Gaius said, "that I would be allowed to place sensors . . ."

  "Defence sensors have been placed about every major planet," the Admiral said, "and in some additional places. We decided to put these in place rather than give you your opportunity because in this scenario you would not have been senior enough to overrule the planetary commander, who needs the sensors far more than you do. Do you wish to object?"

  "No," Gaius said flatly. He knew where he wanted them, but he had to admit that that would be for a one-off use, and if he were the planetary commander he knew whose interests would be paramount. Added to which, in real battle there was no point in debating the merits of the situation.

  "Good. Then, there's your chair."

  Gaius sat in it, and immediately ordered long-range sensor sweeps. There was nothing found. Gaius nodded, and demanded that they be continued, and that all officers on duty maintain full alert. After thirty minutes of sweeping with sensors, he ordered the fleet to begin acceleration to leave the system.

  Nothing happened for five hours, other than the announcements of distances. They passed through an asteroid belt without event, and continued outwards. When they left the asteroid belt, Gaius began a zigzag course, designed to average to the desired course. The sensor readings still gave no indication of a problem, so Gaius ordered officers not on watch to get whatever rest they could.

  There was nothing more to do other than to sit back and wait.

  Nothing happened for a further three hours, other than those on the bridge with him had refreshments. Then there was a call, "Anomaly detect
ed up 30o, port 20o."

  "Distance?" Gaius asked.

  "Indeterminate."

  "What do you mean, anomaly?" Gaius asked.

  "It means something's there, but they have no idea what," Klendor advised.

  "It's not a planet? comet? anything natural?"

  "There's nothing on the charts."

  "Battle stations!" Gaius ordered. "Charge weapons. Maintain present course. Advise other ships on secure link, and inform me when in standard wing battle configuration."

  "Aye sir."

  "Aren't you jumping to conclusions?" Klendor asked. "You're being influenced by the fact this is an exercise."

  "I suppose I am influenced by the fact I know I have an enemy to beat today," Gaius replied, "but I would do this anyway. I know I am at war, and there's something out there I don't understand."

  Klendor nodded. Little happened for a couple of minutes, apart from the crew reporting battle-readiness.

  "What do we know about the anomaly now?" Gaius asked.

  "It's disappeared."

  "Order ships into close wedge formation," Gaius ordered. He turned towards Klendor, who he had to assume was, besides his advisor, also part of the team monitoring his performance, and asked, "Suppose they were Ulsian ships rendered invisible, and suppose some glitch occurred in which the cloaking was incomplete. What is the maximum distance that measurement could have detected the Ulsian?"

  "Three further minutes on your current flight program."