Battle Lines Snippet 4

    For those of you who don't know, Rhea has BL and will be finishing it sometime this week. As soon as she does, and as soon as I process it, I'll be shooting it off to Goodlifeguide.com for final formatting...
Okay, here it is...:

Chapter 2

 

Convoy 8b arrived in Agnosta in a chain of light explosions. To some it looked like a freight train of ships coming in, all neatly in line with the escorting frigates and destroyer Mary Apple on their flanks. The static discharge and rippling of space time as they exited hyperspace was eye searing.

The convoy carried more than a cargo of precious equipment and recruits however. Newly promoted Rear Admiral Phil Subert was among the passengers.

He had recovered from his injuries and was ready to get to work. They were planning a brief stay in the star system however. The 6 freighters, 1 transport, and 3 warships passed on their IFF and greetings to the picket force and orbital fortresses protecting the jump point zone and then lumbered in toward the blue and green orb.

Some of the passengers would be getting off Admiral Subert reminded himself. All of the 943 Marine enlisted recruits as well as some of the Marine sleepers from Lemnos.

There was a single lonely Army officer, newly promoted Captain Poon Yee. He would be joining them on Agnosta. Captain Yee had come up through artillery but was the only army officer they had. Admiral Irons had put him in charge of rebuilding the army using the Marine base and training as his initial template. It was a daunting task, one Captain Poon seemed unsure about.

There was some concern about the division of resources. The Marines were the traditional spearhead of the Federation ground forces. Unlike the Army they were multitaskers, handling many different jobs and roles beyond the ever visible guards that the public saw or dealt with. They had their own air arm as well as special forces. They were light on artillery and armor however. They were the ones who were sent in to board ships or stations or to form a beachhead on a planet. Then the Army came in to consolidate the beachhead and then move inward to take over a planet.

Normally a smart native population surrendered once a hostile force had control of their orbitals. That wasn't always the case however, so invasions became a necessity. Even the threat of one could force a capitulation and eventually surrender. But once a world was captured you had to deal with its sometimes restive and unruly population. Terrorism, IEDs, and other common ground threats had to be dealt with.

The Army would be needed to garrison captured worlds, sure, but not for some time to come. They of course needed to get the ball rolling on recruiting and training the forces, but with the Marines needing the lion share of the warm bodies to handle ship, station, and invasion forces the Captain had offered to transfer his commission to the Marines. Admiral Irons had asked him to stay the course for the time being. They could always fold the army forces into the Marine corps if it didn't work out.

233 recruits who had expressed a desire to join the army were in the convoy with him. Colonel Forth's people had already polled the Marine records for officers and enlisted who had expressed a desire to join the army. Two ensigns in the star system had come forward right away, both were descendants of army officers, or so they said.

One noncom and 1 enlisted had expressed an interest but were elsewhere. Sergeant Snorkle and Private Bailey had on record that they were descendants of Army personnel. Both had expressed repeated interest in a transfer but both were on their way to Protodon with Admiral White.

It would take time, at least 48 hours, to unload once they were in orbit. The convoy ships would then be refueled and reloaded with returning freight and passengers and then sent on out once more.

Admiral Subert, 6 precious ansible cores, along with all the material destined for the Pyrax shipyard and ships were destined for Pyrax. Ships like Tris and 779 made regular runs between Pyrax and Agonsta but they could only carry so much per load. The loads had to be prioritized for shipment. Some things like drives and reactors had priority over others. It was a given that the admiral and the ansibles would be on the first flight.

Admiral Subert had 2 members on his staff. He was lucky, both were sleepers. Amadeus didn't have any or so he'd heard. Saul was shaping up well. Ensign, no, Lieutenant Junior Grade Roman Taylor. The young man was one of two doctors in the sleepers. He was good though the admiral was fairly confident the gangly man would come into his own once they were in Pyrax. For the time being he left the lad alone to his 'research.'

He'd tried to get his hands on newly promoted Lieutenant Commander Yan Li Wong. The raven was a genius with ships, he'd be a great asset running the yard. But John had been adamant, the raven had been immured in Antigua digging into the problems with the downloads from Lemnos while also helping Commander Sindri with the yard expansion projects. He shook his head. He knew he couldn't have his way all the time, but that sucked.

Phil wasn't certain of Lieutenant Colonel Forth. He was a character, of that he was certain. A quiet man, but apparently the jarheads worshiped him. They'd had a bit of friction over ansible discussions. Nothing major, but enough to let the visiting flag officer know that the Colonel was both stubborn and used to seeing things his way.

He wasn't too keen about how presumptive some of the officers were. Some like Forth hadn't been trained, hell, they hadn't gone to an academy, college... he shook his head. But John was right, it was a chicken and the egg sort of thing. He'd needed officers and noncoms to train the following generation. They had caught up, or so he said. Phil wasn't so sure. He had noted a lot of point failures in some of the people John had so much faith in. It was time someone did something about it. Which was what he intended once he got to Pyrax and took over.

It bothered him that a jumped up yeoman and engineering tech was a captain in charge of the yard and the entire star system. What had John been thinking? He shook his head.

One of the first things he did once they were off the jump point and in transit across the system was to order 1 corvette to go to B-452c, strip the satellites there and remain on station in the empty cross roads system until the next convoy passed through. They would return after 2 months and be replaced by another ship. The picket commander was not happy about the orders but she took on fuel and stores and then moved out within an hour of receiving them.

Admiral Subert made certain the lieutenant, nor others, called Admiral Irons behind his back to complain or try to jump his command. Once the corvette was gone he returned to the anticipated tour of the facilities.

The naval base in orbit was simple, a complex of warehouses and housing facilities to handle the load of people and material passing through the star system. Warehouse stations were under construction at the B-452c jump point but they had only just been started. Once they were up and running along with a tank farm convoy ships would be able to make the turn around right on the jump point, unload and reload in a day and then return to B-452c.

Shipping the material that way was a bit of a pain, after all they had to load and unload in Agnosta. They also had a bit of a bottleneck with the ships coming and going from Pyrax to Agnosta. Apparently Captain Logan had gotten a leg up on the process by stockpiling material in Agnosta's orbital warehouses but the ships were barely keeping ahead of the demand. Admiral Subert made a note to do something about that when he got to Pyrax.

He was amused by the orbital training facilities for the Marines. They had towed an asteroid into orbit, hollowed out caverns in it in order to use it as a space training facility. Airlocks and structures were attached to the surface in various places. It was crude but effective. He nodded in approval.