EMPIRE: Renewal

by Richard F. Weyand

  There was no one else in the entire Galactic Holdings organization who knew anything about the project at all, other than they had been sending some pretty hefty consulting bills to the Imperial government for their activity. The billings simply referenced Project One, Project Two, and Project Three. As those invoices always got paid, the bean-counters in Galactic Holdings didn’t care. They were the top-grossing consulting groups in the corporation, as all their time was being billed out.

  Like Jared Denny’s Sintar Specialty Services, the members of the Galactic Holdings consulting groups were scattered across human space. The presentation was given in a VR simulation of an auditorium-type room, with the members of all three groups present. They were absurdly young, ranging from the mid twenties into their early thirties.

  Becker sat in an armchair to one side of the speaker’s well, facing across the space, but Ardmore, Burke, and Drake watched in the management channel, unseen by anyone else.

  The members of the consulting groups showed up five to fifteen minute early. Precisely on time, Franz Becker and his armchair popped into existence and the room hushed.

  “Are we ready to get started?” Becker asked.

  “Yes, Mr. Becker,” John Moore said.

  “Are you the spokesman, then, Mr. Moore?”

  “I’m the emcee, sir. We drew straws. We also drew straws for the order of our presentations. Mr. Carras will go first, then I will present, then Ms. Botello will present.”

  “Very well, Mr. Moore. Proceed.”

  Moore nodded to Demetre Carras, and Carras got up from his front row seat and moved out into the speaker’s well.

  “Good morning, sir. Our group concentrated on analyzing the Imperial Navy ship designs used during the Sintar-Alliance and Sintar-Democracy of Planets wars over three hundred years ago. Our modern ship designs are basically refinements on those designs. Like Jared Denny and his designers, we took a clean sheet of paper and reimagined ship design.

  We kept the crewless ship concept intact. That proved its worth in those wars, we believe. What we looked at instead was the weaknesses in those designs as revealed by those wars. The places where ship design dictated strategy.”

  Carras put a diagram up on the display, which, through the magic of VR, appeared to be perpendicular to the viewer’s line of sight no matter where one was seated.

  “One of our first changes was to question the need for the missile impeller. Much of the size and complexity of those ship designs was a consequence of the inclusion of an impeller, yet in those wars missile impellers were rarely used in combat. In addition to the complexity of the missile loader, the power requirements for the impeller and the resulting engine size, and the length imposed on the ship by the impeller length, the central position of the impeller was an issue. The impeller is largely empty space, forcing heavier elements of the design out away from the center and increasing the polar moment on all axes, thus reducing maneuverability.

  “One of the largest concentrated masses is reaction mass, all contained in standard shipping containers located around the ship’s periphery in one or more belts, as you see here. It did make replenishing reaction mass easy, and we wanted to retain that feature, but without increasing the polar moment. We also wanted to use the complete container capacity of the vessel for missile box launchers, which dominated the offensive capabilities used during those wars.

  “On another issue, the availability of hypergate projectors was a central issue in many of the battles of those wars. The Empire ultimately mounted hypergate projector containers on many of its ships, and used those ships as picket ship tenders, giving picket ships enhanced maneuverability both within and outside the battle space. We wanted to include a hypergate projector within the ships internals, not for projecting a hypergate for other ships to use, but to give every ship in the fleet an inherent hyperspace capability. Refinement in hypergate projectors over the years now makes this an economical move.

  “The design we came up with is shown here. We call it a missile frigate. It is little more than an engine and a hypergate projector. All its internal spaces between components comprise a reaction-mass tank. That reaction mass is circulated around the components rather than use a separate cooling system. The entire outside surface of the ship is covered in missile containers, two layers deep. The missile capacity of this vessel matches that of an Imperial battleship of the present time, but in a package the size of a light cruiser with maneuverability approaching that of a picket ship.

  “One breakthrough concept with this design is the replenishing of the reaction mass. Reaction mass containers are mounted on the outside of the ship, as a next layer of containers outside the layers of missile containers. That reaction mass, though, is then pumped into the internal tanks and the reaction mass containers are shed. So we’ve retained the container-based replenishing of the reaction mass without the large polar moment that typically results.

  “I’m open to questions, sir.”

  Becker was also open to questions on a VR channel from Ardmore, Burke, and Drake. Burke sent Becker a question, and Becker asked it of Carras.

  “Mr. Carras, as the reaction mass gets used up in the ship, you apparently lose your coolant system. How is that handled?”

  “Yes, sir. That’s an excellent question. There are two countervailing considerations. One is that the internal spaces shown here as reaction-mass storage are in fact subdivided, and those portions providing the primary coolant function are used last. The second consideration is that the ship’s overall mass decreases with the use of the reaction mass, and so the strain on the engine and hypergate components decreases, also decreasing heat generation.”

  Burke sent Becker a short note – ‘Nice!’ – and Becker responded to Carras.

  “Very good, Mr. Carras. Thank you.”

  Carras sat down and Moore got up.

  “I’m next, sir.”

  “Proceed, Mr. Moore.”

  “Yes, sir. Our group concentrated on the missile engagements of the Alliance and DP wars, and tried to consider the situation when the two sides have equal technology and moreover have access to each other’s designs.

  “One thing we can do is spoof the Identify-Friend-or-Foe systems. The IFF systems keep one side’s missiles in the battle space from targeting their own ships. One thing we can do there is broadcast the enemy’s IFF signals, so their missiles simply won’t attack our ships. That is always tried in war, but it is difficult because you don’t have access to the enemy’s hardware designs. They can potentially use IFF signals their hardware can make, and yours can’t. That’s not the situation here, which gives us options.

  “Of course, they have the same options, especially once they’ve seen us doing it. We considered this, and one of our people proposed a brilliant idea. That’s Padma Sahni’s idea.”

  Moore gestured to her in the audience and she stood for a moment and waved to Becker. She sat down and Moore continued.

  “The idea is a missile that, rather than a warhead, contains a large number of IFF spoofers. The missile accelerates up to speed, transits to the enemy fleet, and then shoots out a cloud of these spoofers. They basically send out an IFF signal that says ‘Hey! Over here! We’re the enemy.’ The enemy’s missiles then target their own ships.

  “The advantage of this approach is that, while it can be difficult to impersonate an enemy’s IFF signal well enough to fool a missile into believing you a friend, it is beyond simple to generate an IFF signal the missile recognizes as not a friend.

  “This is likely to be devastating, particularly the first few times it is used.”

  Becker asked another question from Burke.

  “Mr. Moore, why would the missile give credence to your spoofed IFF rather than the legitimate IFF of the enemy ship?”

  “I’ve simplified things for my presentation, sir. What the spoofers actually do is garble the legitimate IFF so it no longer convinces the missile the ship is friendly.”

  “I see, Mr.
Moore. And can’t the enemy then abort his missiles once they turn on him?”

  “Yes, Sir, but, first, missile aborts have something of a checkered history. Some may fail to abort. Second, the enemy has then expended a large amount of his offensive capability and reduced his depth of salvo. That provides advantage in the overall engagement.”

  “Have you gamed this approach, Mr. Moore.”

  “Yes, sir. We actually have plans for the devices – the missile and the spoofers – and are ready to build prototypes for live testing.”

  “Very good, Mr. Moore. Thank you.”

  Moore nodded to Marta Botello and sat down. Botello walked out into the speaker’s well.

  “Good morning, Mr. Becker.”

  “Good morning, Ms. Botello. Proceed.”

  “Yes, sir. We concentrated on the manpower issue. If there were a war between parts of the Empire, where would the spacers be, for either side? The answer is, scattered across the Empire. Some of them will be in their own side’s territory, but others will be located on Imperial Fleet Bases in the other side’s territory.

  “Where are the commanders of these fleets? Same answer, scattered across the Empire. When we considered that, we began thinking of this potential war not as a typical naval war, but as a cyber war and a ground war.

  “Why a cyber war? The Empire controls the QE system, including the military’s QE system that allows spacers to remotely pilot and fight their ships. With the right controls and redundancies in place, you can simply turn off their ships. Cut their access to them. Seize control of them yourself and use them against them.

  “With the Empire controlling the network, there is no possibility of internal resistance to the Imperial Navy. There is no possibility of a fleet or portion of a fleet mutinying or rebelling against the Empire. It is an outgrowth of going to unmanned ships. I’m not sure it was recognized at the time, but I would not be surprised if the Emperor Trajan saw this. I daresay most people did not.

  “Then it becomes a ground war. With one’s ship crews on the ground, many of them in enemy territory, they are vulnerable to attack, subversion, or extortion by ground combat elements. One shudders to think, for example, of what even a company of M15 Imperial Marines main battle tanks could do to an Imperial Fleet Base’s deployment buildings. Or a flight of Imperial Marines attack ships.

  “The paramount things then are to maintain control of the Imperial Navy’s QE network and VR system, and to have individual, ship, formation, and fleet control of their access to their own ships, and to have, in key places, Imperial Marine commanders who are loyal to the Throne.

  “We’ve gamed these scenarios, and have several suggestions about the network tools required, as well as the best staffing deployment to aim for, assuming some military commanders are loyal and some are not. Some of those are counter-intuitive, but we discuss the results of our gaming the scenarios and why we believe these are the best recommendations.”

  “Thank you, Ms. Botello.”

  Becker got up and walked to the center of the speaker’s well. He was getting feedback on another channel in VR from Ardmore, Burke, and Drake.

  From Ardmore: “Learning from history. Wonderful.”

  From Burke: “Very insightful.”

  From Drake: “Bravo.”

  Becker addressed the assembled consulting groups.

  “Thank you so much for your presentations. You are to be congratulated. I’m impressed by the depth of thought and development that went into them all, and by the insight and subtlety you have shown in crafting solutions.

  “I am looking forward to reviewing your detailed reports. You should continue investigating this area and billing your time to respective project numbers. I will likely have refined assignments or new assignments once I have had a chance to review your detailed reports.

  “Thank you, again. Good work. Carry on.”

  Becker and his chair disappeared from the channel.

  Ardmore, Burke, and Drake dropped back into Drake’s private living room in the Imperial Residence.

  “That was incredible,” Burke said. “Why fight them? Why not just take their weapons away from them?”

  “Oh, and we have a better warship design, anyway,” Ardmore said.

  “Yeah, if we don’t just have their missiles attack their own ships,” Burke said.

  “Now I think I know how Trajan the Great must have felt when Jared Denny came up with the latest new thing,” Drake said. “Every one of those was a damned good plan. Those consulting groups are not cheap, but the cost is minor in the light of those kinds of ideas.”

  “Saves lots of money in the long run,” Ardmore said. “That’s how Trajan was able to win those wars with fewer people and fewer ships than his enemies. And they were lopsided victories to boot.”

  “I had thought of better ships, somehow, and refining our missile effectiveness while decreasing theirs, somehow,” Burke said. “But that last presentation was a real eye opener.”

  “In two ways, really,” Drake said. “Not just taking remote control of their weapons systems away, but in the vulnerability of our people on the ground.”

  Burke nodded.

  “And I’m afraid the Imperial Marines aren’t the same organization they were a hundred years ago, Jonah,” Burke said.

  “Yes, I know. I’m not sure what we do about that, though,” Drake said.

  “You might do what the earlier Emperors did, Jonah,” Ardmore said. “Elevate the best of the Imperial Marines – people you are absolutely sure of – to the Imperial Guard, then deploy them out with the Marines. That gives you eyes on the ground.”

  “It also gives you someone who can intervene, Jonah,” Burke said. “As Daniel Parnell did on Dalnimir during the Earth Sector Crisis.”

  “That’s probably worth doing,” Drake said. “It doesn’t increase the payroll any, but it does give us some core loyalists all across the Empire, including in the enemy camp. I’ll talk to General Hargreaves about it.”

  “Meantime, I am going to be very interested in reading those groups’ full proposals,” Ardmore said.

  “Oh, you betcha,” Burke said.

  The Military

  The reports from Becker’s consulting groups – now called Project 1, Project 2, and Project 3 – came in and were ardently studied by Ardmore, Burke, and Drake. They were long and detailed, and it took two weeks of study before they were in a position to discuss them.

  “We’re ready to talk about them now?” Drake asked at lunch one day.

  “Yes, I think so, Jonah,” Burke said.

  Ardmore nodded.

  “OK, then let’s do it after lunch. I’ve left the afternoon open.”

  After lunch, they sat in the three big armchairs in the private living room of Drake’s apartment.

  “So let’s take them one at a time,” Drake said. “What about Project 1?”

  “I think we should probably game the new ship design against current ships, and maybe build a prototype to see if it performs as advertised,” Burke said.

  “If Project 3 is right, though, why would we build new ships?” Ardmore asked. “There’s no navy out there to fight that we don’t control through having control of the network.”

  “There’s an ‘if’ there, though, Jimmy,” Drake said.

  “Actually, there’s two ‘if’s, from my point of view,” Burke said. “If Project 3 is right – and there isn’t a workaround, or some other way to bring our own hardware to bear against us – and also if no one else builds an effective navy in secret and then pops on us ships that can give us serious trouble.”

  “But who’s got the resources to build a navy like that, Gail?” Ardmore asked.

  “With the tax base the sector governors have, Jimmy?” Burke said. “And if they stop paying the Empire taxes? Those Project 1 ships look pretty inexpensive to build, and the report says you don’t need spacedocks to do it. The manufacturing capacity of any group of sectors starts looking pretty menacing to me. If the
y have smart people, too, to think up that kind of design, it could get ugly. Besides, all we’re talking about right now is gaming it and prototyping it.”

  “OK, given that, I think I agree with you, Gail,” Ardmore said.

  “So we’re all agreed on Project 1?” Drake asked.

  “I think so, Jonah,” Burke said.

  She looked at Ardmore, and he nodded.

  “OK, what about Project 2?” Drake asked.

  “Same answer, same reason,” Burke said.

  She looked at Ardmore, and he nodded again.

  “OK, so what about Project 3?” Drake asked.

  “Of course, that’s the big game changer, right?” Burke asked. “It seems to me we should start building those network tools the report recommends into our setup. Also moving around certain officers, in both the Imperial Navy and the Imperial Marines, the way they recommend.”

  “Are you happy they’re right, because some of those recommendations look counter-intuitive to me,” Ardmore said.

  “I understand,” Burke said. “Putting the least reliable people into the most troublesome sectors sounds like bad news all around, but I think it’s more a case of making sure our own people are in control behind the lines. I think that’s right.”

  “All right,” Drake said. “So we pretty much go with all three recommendations across the board. Which brings up another problem. The top-level commanders.”

  “I don’t know enough of our status there, Jonah,” Burke said. You don’t meet with them much.”

  “I don’t meet with them at all, Gail,” Drake said. “Operational command is pretty much in the hands of the sector governors. Which means I don’t have a lot of experience to draw on in terms of changing people out. The operations people aren’t here. And the ones out in the sectors are unavailable to me.”

  “Let us look into that, Jonah,” Ardmore said. “We’ll see what we can find out.”