“There is a risk of our agents being revealed, Praetor,” warned the Intelligence Officer from his console attached to edge of the communications department.
“They knew the risks when they signed up. Besides,” he sneered, “any agent that can’t send out a coded transmission and then survive for less than the day it will take the Mighty Punisher and the rest of the fleet to arrive at Aegis Prime is hardly worth the Empire’s investment into their training.”
“As you say,” the Lieutenant Commander said neutrally, turning back to his work station.
Cornwallis gave the Intelligence officer an enigmatic look.
Over the next two hours the Imperial Flotilla and their allies in the Glorious Fleet of Liberation got to watch as the Aegis SDF panicked.
First massing together as if to offer a stand up fleet battle and breaking apart, the main group falling back on the planet, the secondary group beating a speedy yet disciplined retreat toward the hyper limit. The third and final group consisted of individual ships that broke formation and ran in any direction but the Imperial Flotilla’s.
“Their star system has five Battleships, call me impressed,” Cornwallis stated as he looked at the array of forces.
“My understanding is they’ve already lost a number of them in the battles to keep this Sector free. They try to keep that information classified but since Rim Fleet was re-tasked to the Front, Imperial intelligence now estimates they have completed two and lost three in various battles to save the Sector,” reported Lieutenant Commander Jacobs.
“I’ve read the reports. I’ve also noted that the five Battleships this planet lays claim to are attempting to flee the system. Notify the ‘Negotiators’ that allowing those Battleship to leave would have serious ramifications for the population they leave behind,” said the Senator.
The intelligence officer hesitated. “We are talking about potential war crimes here. The rules of war and the dictates of man expressly indicate that—” Jacobs started.
Cornwallis turned to his Chief of Staff. “Who is this Lieutenant Commander who speaks to me as if I needed his advice?” he asked in a furious voice, cutting off the Lieutenant Commander mid-lecture.
Jacob’s mouth snapped shut.
“I’ll see it doesn’t happen again,” the Commodore said, his expression frozen.
The Senator turned away.
“Shift change in the Intelligence section,” ordered the Chief of Staff.
Stiffly, the Lieutenant Commander stood up and marched off the bridge. Within two minutes a harried looking Senior Lieutenant hurried into the room to man the recently vacated console.
“Update. What’s the status on the Monitor?” Cornwallis demanded.
The Senior Lieutenant froze and then rapidly pulled up the required information. There was a brief conference with the Sensor section before the new Intelligence Lieutenant turned back to the Senator.
“With respect, Intelligence has turned up no sign of any Monitor class star ships within the Aegis Star System. If one was ever here it must have left before we arrived,” reported the Intelligence Officer, he then looked down at his console and then back up to the senator, clearly trying to hide any hint of nervousness or unpreparedness on his part, “as for the intelligence reports from our local agents, we just started receiving the transmission, we’re still waiting to decode it.”
The Senator’s lips made a thin line. “It’s not your fault the Monitor isn’t here, however I want that intel report inside my inbox as soon as it’s decode and not one minute more,” he ordered.
“Yes, Praetor,” said the Senior Lieutenant.
The report, when it came in, stated, among other things, that the Monitor they had been so eager to capture had departed not two hours before their arrival.
“Unbelievable,” muttered the Chief of Staff.
“Any sign of enemy action, Intelligence? Did they somehow catch wind of our desire to head them off before they could jump that Monitor out of the star system?” asked the Senator.
“I don’t see how, Sir. Not even our agents knew we were coming when we did. Of more critical note is the lack of indication as to the exact destination of that Monitor,” said the Senior Lieutenant.
“If we knew where she was going we could send out a task force to capture her,” agreed Cornwallis speaking now to his Chief of Staff, “unfortunately…,” he trailed off.
“It might be worth sending out some Destroyers or Cruisers to hit the star systems within her jump range,” suggested the grey-bearded Commodore.
“Oh Cruisers, definitely. Even a Destroyer squadron is unlikely to be able to both find the Spine’s Government in exile and either capture her or report back in time before our forces reached her and she jumps away again,” mulled the Senator, “yes I think you’re right. It hurts nothing at this stage to deploy several Cruiser squadrons to try and track her down. Who knows? We might even get lucky.”
“I’ll pass on the order,” said the Commodore.
Cornwallis nodded and then, now that all hope of capturing the Monitor and thus the Spineward Sector’s incipient government in exile, before it could escape, had disappeared, got back to the business at hand; subjugating this star system in the name of the Imperial Senate and the Empire of Man.
“The locals report that their Battleships have gone rogue and are no longer reporting to orders from the home world, as are a number of smaller warships, mainly Destroyers and Cruisers,” reported Communications.
“As expected. It’s a thin ruse and easily seen through but not unexpected or surprising. After all, those Battleships are their star system’s only hope for eventually reclaiming control of Aegis Prime,” said the Senator.
“You speak as if they’ve already lost,” remarked the Commodore.
“Haven’t they?” asked Cornwallis.
His Chief of Staff tilted his head in acknowledgment of the point.
“Sir,” reported Comm. “The Ambassadorial Representatives from the Confederation report that they need more time. The Aegis Government is stalling, attempting to hold out for better terms but they say they expect that given enough time they will be able to achieve an acceptable settlement for all parties involved.”
“They had their chance. Inform the Representatives that the Imperial Navy no longer requires their services and pass along the new rules of engagement to the ship captains of the fleet both Imperial and Confederation,” said Senator Cornwallis.
“Sir the Representatives are protesting your actions in the strongest terms. They say—” began Communications, his eyes unfocused as he began to relay the objections of the Old Confederation politicians.
“Enough,” the Senator said with ringing finality, “thank the politicians for their time and then politely cut the channel,” he ordered.
The Comm. officer swallowed. “Aye-aye, Praetor,” he said, following orders.
As the Imperial flotilla and their Confederation allies continued to advance on the Aegis home world the locals started calling for the Senator directly.
Cowrnallis ignored the increasingly shrill cries of politicians, both those among his fleet and on Aegis Prime until finally Aegis Star System broke like the weak reed it really was.
Minutes before the Imperial Fleet ranged on the Aegis home world, with its fleet of SDF warships massively outnumbered by a factor of at least ten to one, the Aegis Government announced its unconditional surrender.
Within hours Imperial Marines were landing in every major population center on the planet and the newly installed Imperial Governor, accompanied by a regiment of Imperial Marines, assumed control of the planet's central government facilities.
The Conquest of Aegis was over and Aegis was announced as the capitol of the Empire’s newest Provisional Province, the Spineward Province.
Within twenty four hours of seizing control of the planet and its orbital facilities, the Imperial Flotilla and Grand Fleet of Liberation, roughly the same size as it was when it arrived, set course for
the hyper limit.
A garrison of warships had been left behind to secure the new Provincial Capital while the former warships of the Aegis SDF had been added to the fleet—with a shiny new complement of Old Confederation officers and Imperial Marine jacks on board to keep them loyal.
Chapter 37: Dire News
By the time we heard what had happened to Aegis we were already receiving reports that the Imperial Fleet was advancing in our direction.
“Are these reports accurate?” I asked grimly. If it was true then the situation was dire, the Empire had struck twice in rapid succession. First arriving in Central to destroy the Sector Capitol before we could get there to defend it, and not inconsequentially sending the entire government of the new Confederation into flight. Then, without giving so much as a hint of warning, attacking Aegis and declaring that Star System their new Provincial Capitol after they conquered it—which took them all of a couple days.
“We’ve gone over the raw sensor feeds directly from Aegis warships that were in the star system during the attack and there can be no doubt: they match up with the data taken from our own scouts who had been shadowing the Imperial fleet. The warships they show in the attacks match up with the scans we’d taken of the enemy hulls.”
“Two Core Worlds taken in as many weeks, and in the meantime we have no choice but to twiddle our thumbs performing clean up duty? This situation is intolerable,” I growled, turning away. This was dire news. Our previous opponent, Admiral Arnold Janeski, had been determined to bring our Fleet to battle before subjugating the rest of the Sector but Charles Cornwallis appeared to have a different agenda. We’d been avoiding combat and he was now telling me he was more than willing to attack our Core Worlds, one by one, until we were ready to stop running away and give him the battle he desired.
A battle, I thought with gritted teeth, where he gets to pick the star system. He wouldn’t fight us at the time and place of our choosing, where we were backed up by tough orbital defenses.
“Sir?” prompted Lisa Steiner.
I realized I was gritting my teeth so hard they were making noise, and promptly smoothed out my features. Even if they were entire star systems away, I couldn’t give my enemies any advantages.
I took a calming breath and ordered some tea. After it was on the way I turned to my Chief of Staff.
“This situation is intolerable,” I said, in no small part because of the waves of criticism pouring in from the news networks on Central who speculated that I’d allowed the attack to happen, arriving just too late to do anything, out of pure spite for the way that Central and the Sector Assembly had held my feet to the fire over my long and storied career of piracy. The fact that that long and storied career was just that, a story, a work of pure fiction constructed out of whole-cloth by my political enemies to slander me did nothing to stop waves of protestors demanding the media and government take off the kid gloves and start talking truth to tyranny. My tyranny. My completely and utterly non-existent tyranny.
I flicked on the network news channel where a chanting screaming mob had descended on local governmental centers.
“Tyrant go home!”
“Stop raiding the space lanes!
“Montagne lied people died!”
“Bring back my sister!”
“You let the Imperial Navy raid our homes!”
“Don’t fear the tyrant! Speak truth to tyranny!”
“Coward!”
“You’re nothing but a Grand Failure!”
Each angry fist shaking citizen with a grudge was glorified on the Cosmic News Network before the news anchors showed up to ‘put everything into perspective.’
In disgust, I shut off the holo-vid.
“The people here only understand what their leaders tell them. If they’d been out there with us...” Lieutenant Commander Steiner shook her head sadly.
“They’d probably only hate me all the more for being a fraud instead of a real Admiral. The fact of the matter is that we’ve done the best we could. There was nothing more we could do to stop them than we’ve already done,” I said wearily. Watching the very people I’d defied politicians, pirates, Bugs, warlords and Imperial attack fleets getting their hate on with me their target just sucked all the wind right out of my sails.
“I mean I was out here fighting for them and they want to burn me at the stake. Speak truth to tyranny? When have I ever been a tyrant at anything but the dinner table?” I groused.
“Sir, you can’t let a few angry, uninformed and hurting people from Central say about you, stop you from doing what needs to be done or else you’re not the little Admiral this fleet has come to believe in, respect and follow,” Lieutenant Commander Steiner informed me strictly.
“Little?” I glowered, fighting the smile that threatened to break out around the edges because even though I knew it was the pet nickname given me by the members of my fleet I couldn’t admit to the name. Not openly and especially since it was a slander on my entirely on the bottom end of ‘normal’ height. Or at least that’s what I told myself.
“Yes. Despite what you might think, the extra thick soles don’t entirely hide it,” she instructed me.
I drew back in offense. It was one thing to tease, but this was a strike right in one of my weak spots.
“Says the woman who is probably the smallest officer on the ship,” I retorted.
“Exactly how I like it,” she informed me breezily, “a girl doesn’t want to open ‘all’ the doors by herself, after all.”
“You’re shameless,” I scoffed.
“Hey, I was born in the right body,” she said, thumping her chest proudly, “100% all natural person here, that’s me.”
“What am I going to do with you?” I asked, defeated by the proud way she was bragging about herself and taking advantage of the various males on the ship.
She turned serious. “You’re going to stop watching the holo-vids, not let random uninformed citizens get you down, and prepare to fight like you’ve never fought before,” she said matter-of-factly.
I gave it serious contemplation before looking at her seriously, “I can do that.”
Her pixie-like face turned up in a smile and she shook her head at me. “Good,” she said patting me on the shoulder, “now get out there and figure out how to win this war for us.”
It was a tall order but I was as ready as I was ever going to be.
“I’ll give it a shot,” I informed her.
There was a beep and Lieutenant Commander Steiner pulled out her data slate.
“A courier just jumped in system with priority message for you, Sir.”
“More bad news?” I sighed, imagining which other star systems might have been attacked, their defenses laid waste by the Imperials.
“I can’t tell,” she said looking perplexed, “I know it’s from the Droids but the file isn’t accepting any of my encryption keys.”
“Send it to me,” I said.
She pursed her lips then sent it to me.
“Thanks,” I said, entering my encryption key and watching as the file opened up on my personal data-slate.
“What’s it say?” she asked, craning her head around curiously to get a look.
I pulled the screen in close to my chest. “Ah-ah, that would be telling,” I said wagging a finger at her.
She huffed but leaned back. “Well is there anything else I can do for you, other than delivering secret messages?” she asked.
“One second,” I said now that she was safely out of range and then pulled up the file.
I grunted as I read through the file but at the end of it I was smiling. This could actually work. It had taken far too long and meant risking an entire star system, but as long as it wasn’t inhabited even if we weren’t around to clean it up later the risk to the rest of the Spine was minimal.
The risk to the Glorious Fleet of Liberation on the other hand…
I gave a shark like smile.
“You’re up to something, I k
now it,” Lisa Steiner said like a dog scenting a fresh kill, “is there anything I can do?”
I nodded. “First I’m going to need you to send a return message to the Droids. They need to start transporting their…cargo as soon as possible,” I said judiciously.
“Done,” she said briskly.
“Then you’re going to need to contact Commander Spalding. It’s vital he link up with the Droids and help get them to the front lines as soon as possible. I think…one jump out from Hart’s World would do just fine,” I said. We wouldn’t be using Hart’s World, Cornwallis was entirely too canny and determined to not let us back our fleet up behind a Core World’s defenses after the last time we handed its head to an Imperial fleet. But an uninhabited star system within jump range of Hart, one that we didn’t control or have scoped out at all?
That might be possible—a whole other kettle of fish as they used to say.
“Do you want to let me in on the secret or are you determined to keep your Chief of Staff from knowing what all the mysterious goings on are about?” she inquired, sounding irked.
I gave her a knowing look but said nothing. She’d know everything she needed to sooner or later, when the time was right.
“I see,” she huffed.
“I don’t want you to get your hopes up over such a long shot,” I dismissed, “somehow I doubt they’ll even manage to get their cargo into the same star system as the ‘Glorious Fleet,’ let alone make a decisive difference,” I said breezily.
“I don’t believe you,” she said bluntly.
I gave her a wounded look. “Are you trying to peek behind the curtain and ruin the Montagne magic?” I demanded as she continued to look at me steadily.
“Keep your secrets,” she said giving in gracelessly, “but you’ll never convince me or anyone who’s been in this fleet since the beginning that any secret ‘surprises’ involving Chief Engineer Spalding are destined to fail.
I gave her a smile with no small amount of triumph in it but said nothing. If she knew the truth she’d be horrified, and I honestly didn’t know if my hacked together glimmer of a plan would actually work. Far too many things could go wrong as it was. It was better if word slowly leaked and they believed in a Spalding surprise without knowing what dark powers we were playing around with.
Admiral's Nemesis Part II Page 41
