Forging Alliances Snippet 5

 

Chapter 5

 

Sector Capital, Sigma Sector

 

Admiral V’x’z’z’ll woke from his customary four hours of sleep and stretched slowly. He moved each limb individually, a ritual he had worked out in his youth as a form of meditation.

Once the task was complete, he moved out of his nest and to the deck. His AI brought up the HUD and nothing new jumped out to his attention so he went through his morning absolutions.

Once he was sitting in the wardroom having his breakfast, he sipped his honey and scanned the reports. Two more cruiser divisions had arrived at their intended destinations and had taken charge of their star systems. That was good. He was pushing the perimeter out further than Second Fleet had in order to take and hold more territory and deny it to the pirates.

If Second and Tenth Fleets were as successful as he assumed the sector was going to become a lot quieter in the ensuing years. That was good and bad. Good for the people, bad for him since he would eventually grow bored.

Hopefully, he would be able to swap out for another commander in the future. He wouldn’t mind an assignment closer to the action.

He did wish that Admiral Harris had been more successful in getting better yard facilities. There were three repair yards in the sector, one in Tortuga, another here in the sector capital, and a third in the western reaches. There were no construction yards. That seemed poor planning.

Then again as a Bekian, he understood the logic of his people in wanting to keep ship construction in their own hands. But he also knew that there was a finite amount of resources in Bek A and B. Eventually they’d run out. Besides, the people in each sector did not like it that their needs and desires were being ignored.

Whatever the decision, it was above his pay grade for which he could be happy. He checked the status and the schedule and then decided to make the rounds in his flagship and then pop in for the afternoon tactical exercise.

<<(O)>>

Delphi Station

 

Lieutenant Hermione checked the status board. Her principle was not going to be happy about the lack of progress but it was not surprising.

“Anything?” Admiral Montgomery asked.

“No, sir,” the AI stated.

“Damn.”

“Yes, sir. We are still in the early part of the window for the assault.”

“Yes, sir. I’ve found my patience eroding I guess,” Monty replied. “I wish we had an ansible in Eureka. We could have them do a deep gravitational scan and get a report back.”

The AI did the math. “The ansible to Eureka is still outside the window. By the time it arrives, we may know something by courier,” she reported.

“I see,” Monty said with a sigh as he tossed his tablet onto his blotter. “I’m starting to regret not moving further west.”

“Further west would have been exposed. There are fewer ansible links there as well,” the AI reminded him.

“I’m aware,” the admiral stated gruffly.

“Are you still considering an assignment in Beta sector after this wraps up?” Hermione asked carefully. Where he went, she did because they were literally joined at the hip. Or, more pointedly, she resided in his implants.

“Let’s wrap this up first. Then worry about the future.”

“Yes, sir.”

<<(O)>>

“We have one new tidbit,” Admiral Montgomery said to Admiral V’x’z’z’ll.

“Oh?”

“It looks like there was an intruder on our perimeter.”

The Veraxin looked surprised.

“A  battlecruiser was watching from well outside the established perimeter. It departed. We picked up the departure and just confirmed it.” The AI in Delphi station had been processing the video and sensor files over and over again to confirm the arrival and departure. He was dismayed that it hadn’t been caught earlier.

“Damn. When?”

“Eight months ago. Right around when Second and Tenth took off.”

“So, it was a spy and it ran to warn the battle moon?”

“Most likely.”

“So, they might go to where we think the ship is and turn up empty handed?”

Monty frowned and then shook his head.

“You don’t think so? Why?”

“Even if they have a faster route than we do to the target, our ships are faster in hyperspace. They’ll get there within a day or less. The window is tight but I believe Dwight can still pull off a victory.”

“Good to know,” the Veraxin stated. “Where else are they scouting?”

“I would assume Tortuga.”

“I will alert the picket there to be on the lookout.”

“Yes, sir.”

<<(O)>>

Eureka

 

Commodore Nunjen, commander of CruRon 2.1.4, found his new assignment much to his liking. The people were great. They were very technical minded; they were deeply curious about his ship’s new tech. Most held high security clearances so he had no problem with showing them the basics of the changes to the ship design.

Initially he’d thought he’d regret coming to the remote star system. Eureka was another El Dorado; however, a star system from the golden age of the Federation trapped in time until it had dropped out of its time bubble. The world was a “nerd’s heaven” according to the natives. Most of the planet’s population had at least one PHD. That was … surprising.

They had already started work on a repair yard and support infrastructure for his cruisers. A small production line for parts had also been started, all out of in-system resources with their local budget. That he appreciated greatly as well.

He had only visited the planet once briefly but he had admired what he’d seen. He was looking forward to visiting again sometime next month, schedule permitting.

<<(O)>>

In Hyperspace

 

The troop transport convoy continued its movement to the 192 star system. The troops remained in stasis for the time when they would be needed.

The transport of law enforcement personnel followed several weeks behind.

<<(O)>>

In Hyperspace

 

The ansible transport that had been designed to drop the ansible at the anchor point continued to move to the last known location of Second and Tenth Fleet warily. Her escort kept a keen eye out for trouble.

<<(O)>>

SR134-177

 

The ansible transport headed to Eureka reported into the hidden ansible platform with her escort. The crew waited to download the latest news and then the two ships headed out once more. They still had a long journey to get to their intended destination with their precious cargo intact.

<<(O)>>

In Hyperspace

 

Captain Can’t-sit-still buzzed softly, twitching in the captain’s chair. His courier was en route to the nearest ansible, which happened to be the 251 ansible with news of the first phase of the battle of the battle moon. The T’clock was looking forward to reporting in but wished he had better news. It would have been nice to have been the bug who reported the end of the threat, but that was for someone else.

Hopefully soon, he thought as he scanned the ship’s system displays. So far so good. They were making good time. The return flight to the former parking spot with the remains of the shell should be easier now that his ship was blazing the trail to the established jump line. From there it would be smoother sailing along the known route to the hidden 251 ansible.

<<(O)>>

“My, you’ve got to admire their persistence. Stubborn. Stupid, but stubborn,” Commander Montoya stated. “I didn’t know that pirates had such loyalty. Apparently, the code is just a suggestion?”

Admiral Harris slowed his stride as he entered the flag bridge. They were going on their eighth day. He looked around, and his eyed fell on a gremlin. The other officers didn’t see the imp but he did.

The gremlin seemed to examine the commander and then turned to look at the admiral and shake his head meaningfully.

“Something or someone tells me that isn’t the case here,” Dwight drawled, eyes locked on the gremlin.

“Well, if it isn’t loyalty, what is it?” the commander asked.

“I’m not sure. Possibly the fact that their families are in the battle moon, though I doubt that,” Dwight mused.

“Oh?”

“It might be that they just don’t have another plan. So, they are sticking it out,” Lieutenant Carr stated.

A hand with long fingers and wicked claws appeared in front of the gremlin. The hand was flat out and waggled a little.

“Close,” Dwight interpreted.

“Given the efforts that they put into security to protect the location of the battle moon it wouldn’t surprise me if there was something nasty in those ships. Something that was forcing them to remain on station,” the ship’s AI stated from where his holographic avatar was.

The gremlin turned to the AI, stuck his tongue out and then cackled and pranced about. The admiral turned to watch it caper around like a jester before it climbed a pipe and then took a swing at him. He ducked instinctively and then turned as it danced out the hatch.

“I’m guessing that was an affirmative,” Dwight drawled as the staff looked at him in concern.

“I take it there was a spirit here, sir?” the AI asked.

“Gremlin. And it more or less confirmed your hypothesis, which means this could get ugly.”

“Uglier than it already is?” Commander Montoya asked as looks were exchanged between the staff. “Honestly? If they fight to the death, I’m okay with that. Less paperwork.”

Dwight snorted.

<<(O)>>

Forging Alliances Snippet 4

 Sitrep:

So, Rea sent me back the manuscript. I now need to put the edits in and final pieces and then shoot it off to Goodlifeguide for final formatting.

 

In other news I've been having fun with the AI. I've animated a few of the covers. Some are wildly cool! I'll be posting them eventually.

 

Anyway, on to the snippet!

 

Chapter 4

Antigua

 

Admiral Irons was concerned over the way things were going. They were not anywhere near where he wanted to be. He’d expected to possibly go up against some remnant of the Xenos at some point, just not so soon, nor so close to Rho sector.

Were they going to be able to fight them and win? That alone worried him. The alliance between the Xenos and the Necrons … that was terrifying in its own way. It meant the Xenos were not going to respond as they had before. The psychological modeling and tactics that had been engineered during the Xeno war were now invalid. How do they fight that combined threat?

He frowned as he tried to game out the problem. Nothing really came to him. They needed more information.

<<(O)>>

Commander Protector noted his principle’s concern, fear, and frustration. He also understood the underlying causes for them and in many ways agreed with the admiral’s emotional state.

He sent a request to Captain Fletcher to see if the ONI AI had anything new of value to help distract the admiral. The AI responded with a negative after a few moments.

Pity, the AI thought.

<<(O)>>

Vice Admiral Horatio Logan looked over the production priorities one more time. Ever since he’d taken command of BuShips, he’d had to contend with a lot of politics, both internal and external, while also trying to deal with anticipating the future needs of the fleet.

Politics were the bane of his existence it seemed. At lease he didn’t have as many problems to contend with as Sprite did. They saw both internal politics in the navy and external politics with Congress, but Sprite was being picked on because she was a handpicked replacement and nepotism was whispered about her and others constantly. Some of those who kept the whisper campaign up did so to undermine her credibility. A lot of the attacks came from Bek.

If it bothered the AI, she didn’t show it as a mortal would. She just kept plugging away at her job. Apparently, she was another person who pushed that the best way to show off a critic was to do the job right so they had little to complain about and therefore looked like an idiot.

He shook his head and focused on his own problem children. They were legion it seemed.

Internally he had to find a balance between the gun club, the carrier club, and the cruiser patrons. It was sometimes a royal pain in the posterior.

There was a fourth group too of course—the folks like him who were into infrastructure. They included the orbital fortress people for some reason, as well as the recon people over at ONI.

How they’d been saddled with the spooks was anyone’s guess. He shook his head in disgust.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Lieutenant Beau, his AI, asked.

“Just trying to do the usual. Find balance where there seemingly isn’t any.” In front of him was a request form from a shipyard lobby to build additional ships in Bek.

“You mean find a way to make everyone happy?” she asked.

He snorted harshly. “I’m not that deluded,” he scolded. “No matter how much you give them they’ll always want more.”

“True.”

He sat back and rocked slightly in his chair for a moment as he gathered his thoughts. “I think the biggest problem is that we don’t know what we are up against.”

“I thought we did? Xenos? Necrons?”

“Yes, but what does that combine into? How far along are they? What sort of navy do they have? Force mix?”

“Xenos were nanite based. They grew their ships from cruiser grade to major capital ships.”

“Exactly. How long have they been at it? Are they focused on a balanced fleet or something else? Where do the Necrons play into this?”

“Ah. That is a big unknown. I’ve seen the debate in some of the forums.”

“Exactly.” Horatio scratched at his scalp. He had very thin fuzz on top. After a moment, he dropped his hand. “We need more intelligence.”

“Agreed. That is Admiral Subert’s shop. Until we get it, we have to go with our best guess.”

“Yeah, I know. I just hate being wrong.”

“Then don’t be. Focus on balance as you said, infrastructure so we can pivot and build rapidly when we need to and all of that as far away from the front lines as possible.”

Horatio nodded slowly. She was right.

“Of course we can let specialists do their thing. But I think we need to consider that we can’t produce large capital ships in quantity anymore.”

He blinked and then his brows knit in inquiry.

“The gate?” she asked helpfully.

Slowly he nodded. Again, she had a telling point. Nothing larger than a monitor could get through the gate. They were also ponderously slow in hyperspace. There was therefore no point pushing for anything larger than a super dreadnought or fleet carrier.

He began to nod to himself slowly. He was starting to agree with the admiral’s decision on the fleet mix. Vice Admiral Georgi Pashenkov had also emphasized fleet mixes that could easily transit the gate as fast reaction forces. There was no point building titan ships that were slow and couldn’t get to where they were needed in a timely manner.

“Okay, so, compromise with the gun club, no big battle wagons thank you. But we will build smaller ones up to super dreadnought class. I don’t think we need anything smaller than a cruiser.”

“At the moment, we need more light cruisers for scouting duties,” Beau warned.

Horatio nodded. She was right; there was a pressing need to find the other hyper bridge connections. “See if Ops can kick a few tin cans to do light scouting duty in behind the scenes locations. That might free up a few.”

“Patrols too?”

“Exactly. Some of the larger tin cans should have the legs.”

“Agreed. Should we convert the tin can production lines to cruisers?”

He frowned. “My knee jerk reaction is yes …,” he said slowly and thoughtfully. “But …?”

“But?”

“I don’t think it is the right reaction,” he said thoughtfully as he rubbed his chin. “We built Meridians on some destroyer size production lines.”

The Meridian class prowler was the largest prowler to date with the longest legs. It had been designed to be able to make the jump between sectors and to live off the land as it scouted in enemy territory for extended periods of time. It had an antimatter reactor as well as a fusion reactor.

“They are a bit big for them now. ONI actually had us stop production on the Meridian class in favor of the newest line,” Beau warned.

Horatio nodded thoughtfully. The new Poltergeist II class of prowlers were smaller than the Meridian but had better stealth, speed, and energy abilities. They had been ordered to go to Sigma and Tau and therefore no longer needed to sail between the sectors, burning time in transit. They also had stasis pods to supplement the crew for long voyages.

Horatio rested his elbows on his desk as he leaned forward. His fingers knitted together in front of him.

“Okay, memo to Phil, we need to know if we should produce more of that class if he has the budget, or fall back on the Meridian since they’ll need to get to Upsilon and Omicron eventually … or should we kick the two designs to R&D and see if they can come up with a hybrid?”

“Good points. If ONI lost the Bus and Ops lost the light cruiser division scouting Omicron, what did the enemy learn? How should we adapt to that breach?”

Horatio blinked and then sighed. “You would bring that up,” he growled as he rubbed his brows.

“Where were you thinking about producing them?” Beau asked as she tried to keep him on task.

“Hmm? Oh, we need to produce them in secure lines obviously. We built them all here …”

“Correct,” she prompted. “You are considering converting a destroyer line in Pi and Tau? Or combining all of the destroyer lines in each yard to one prowler line?”

“One line for each at the moment, the rest can stay idle. If I remember, the damn Nova Bombs were big mothers. So, we need to start planning on producing those, plus the carrier craft needed to deploy them,” he growled.

“Now that’s a lovely thought,” Beau murmured as she took additional notes. “I bet the spirits will just love that.”

<<(O)>>