Citation Series 1: Naero's War: The Annexation War (13 page)

“Does a larger cannon have a greater effective range
?”

“Yes, just like a rifle can usually shoot farther than a pistol. Dreadnaughts and battleships can engage targets at extreme ranges that other ships cannot. They have the biggest guns and the most power. Cruisers, destroyers, and frigates have smaller guns and specialized weapons such as shield negation missiles, but can usually rely on their greater speed and maneuverability to get them in closer to do damage faster and get back out. And it is far easier to have smaller weapons fire at higher rates of speed. So, if they do get in close in the mix, they can do a lot of damage very quickly, especially if they fight in formation and optimize their concentrated fire
.”

“Then why doesn’t the Alliance simply build all dreadnaughts if they are the best? Why have all of these different ships? Different sizes. Different types. Fleet carriers, strike carriers, pocket carriers. Dreadnaughts, battleships. Heavy cruisers, strike cruisers, light cruisers. Destroyers, missile frigates. Gunships and drone ships. Minelayers. What good are all the various starfighters? Why not have just one all-purpose fighter that’s the best of them all
?”

Naero laughed, and popped up some more comfortable nano lounge chairs for them to recline in after their meal
.

She sighed. Tarim had so many questions. This was going to take some time. More than she thought
.

Above them, the blue battleship finally blew up the red one. Naero swiped that simplified holo simulation away, with a
wave of one hand.

She proceeded to explain why modern interstellar navies used different types of warships–even highly specialized ones–for different purposes and missions
.

“Tarim. Look at all of these designs. Different types of warships serve different functions and are better at performing certain functions and tasks than others. A standard fleet is normally fifty main warships:

Five Assorted Carriers, of three main types. Usually launching their fighters in coordinated sorties from the rear, or behind the protective screens of the rest of the fleet. Carriers could also be used as flagships
.

Five Battleships, sometimes led by a Dreadnaught class ship, or super-battleship as the flagship
.

Ten Cruisers, of three main types
.

Twenty Destroyers, three main types
.

Five Specialized Missile Frigates

Five Specialized Gunships

“Assorted minelayers, couriers, transport, supply, and lesser support ships. Not considered primary warships, or ships of the line.”

Naero went on explaining the capabilities and uses of each type of warship, and their roles in the fleet
.

Carriers both protected the fleet from other, enemy starfighter waves, and sent fighters on the attack themselves. Truth be told, all warships of destroyer class or larger carried their own complement of starfighters, however small, for ship defense. Carriers could simply carry and deploy large numbers of starfighters at a time in waves. Once they launched their contingents, carriers were such big targets that they normally defended themselves to the rear, or in the center of battles, behind the main formations of the other warships
.

Starfighter waves were often wild cards that could turn battles either way. They could slip in quickly and cause lots of damage, and then rip back out just a fast to go somewhere else
.

Dreadnaughts and Battleships had the firepower, heavy defenses, and moxie to go right at the enemy and take the fighting straight to them, ship-to-ship. Cruisers and destroyers often protected the flanks and rear of the fleet normally, With their high speed, high rate of fire, and exceptional maneuverability, they could do many things and pull tricks that the larger ships could not
.

Other specialized ships served their specialized functions as need
.

They broke off their conversation not long after dinner
.

Naero had other duties she needed to attend to
.

Tarim thanked her profusely, insisting that between Tyber’s vidgames and her training, he was finally beginning to understand
.

Naero promised to continue working with him. He still had a lot of questions about Spacer society in general and their form of self-governing
.

She hadn’t even begun to discuss those matters, or firing profiles and attack vectors, or jump drives–let alone all of the various standard and specialized fleet formations, that all warship captains and officers were expected to know, understand, and execute
.

But Tarim was right. He wasn’t a Spacer
.

Spacers like her understood and studied all of this kind of complex naval warfare data from an early age
.

The survival of the Spacer Clans had often been determined by such mastery, time and time again, many times over.

15

They cycled through the rear areas to refit and resupply for a few days.

Naero accepted a challenge for a knife
-sparring session with Captain Imala Kalada of
The
Warhorse
. She looked forward to a good workout in one of the special knife rooms she was developing.

And Imala
promised to give her one.

Captain Kalada was seven
millimeters shorter than Naero. A tiny, wiry young woman with brown eyes and straight, shoulder-length, jet black hair. When she smiled the right way, one could easily mistake her for a cute young girl, or perhaps even a child.

Naero knew better than that
.

For sparring practices, they obviously could not use real blades
.

Any ship captains who would allow themselves to be wounded in sparring matches, and rendered unable to command, could be brought up on lapse of
judgment, negligence, and dereliction of duty charges by their superiors. And rightfully reprimanded or disciplined.

Instead, for
knife sparring purposes, Naero and Imala used various energized shock blades, made out of semi-flexible conducting filaments. These practice blades were specifically designed to have a similar weight, heft, and balance as real blades, and could even be thrown with great accuracy.

When the blades struck properly, they gave the opponent a painful shock, and left behind a bright,
programmable, fluorescent stain to mark a jab, stab, slice, or cut. Such markers could be reset after each match.

Quite ingenious really, and invaluable for training purposes
.

Naero moved quickly and deftly on her feet, not letting Imala tangle her up or trip her. Footwork and positioning in any up close fight situation were crucial
.

Imala knew that well
, too.

F
or once Naero thought she might have an advantage against someone shorter than her. In truth, not many Spacers were.

Yet Imala remained
both tricky, fearless, and quicker than a box of snakes.

After several
initial passes, and a few grappling sessions, all of their clashes ended in mutual kills. A deadly tie.

Neither one of them could claim any victory over the other
.

Imala was equal to her in speed, raw skill, and ferocity
.

Naero had a slight advantage in size and strength, but strength in a knife fight did not always count for much
.

Slower opponents thrice Imala’s size would do well not to get into a knife fight with the little Apache woman, whatever their strength
.

She would cut them to pieces and lay them open in seconds
.

After half an hour, their stalemate endured
.

Each time Naero thought she found an opening in her opponent’s defense, Imala would also manage to slip through hers
.

Both of them were sweating after such an intense work out
.

Sweating but happy.
Each of them kept probing and trying various tricks.

Naero tended to smile when she fought
.

Imala’s face usually remain
ed impassive.

But every now and then,
Imala would voice a fierce war cry, and launch an attempt at another overwhelming assault.

Naero had her own war cries that she
used to inspire, and drive herself on.

They clashed repeatedly. Sometimes
they stood close in together, cutting, jabbing, feinting, parrying, and blocking each other for several intense minutes.

They finally took a breather
.

Imala burst out laughing once they sat down to replace some fluids
.

“This is hilarious. It’s like fighting my whole family in my Clan. My mother and father, my brothers and sisters. We have the same problem. We’ve all gotten so good with knives–that we’re more or less equals. We can get lucky here or there, but none of us can
ever really defeat the other.”

Naero handed Imala a frosty
borbble of Jett.

Imala eyed it
suspiciously. “I’ve seen this stuff around before. What the heck is it? I usually don’t enjoy soft drinks.”

Naero grinned
.

“Boy, do you have a treat in store for you. Jett is a citrus-based beverage, based on the black night orange. You’ll love it. It’s my favorite
.”

Naero sucked one down and reached for another
.

Imala took a sip, and then shrugged
–as if it were nothing, and slowly drank hers.

It was Jett. Naero couldn’t believe it
.

“You don’t like it
?”

How could people not like it?

Imala shrugged again. “It’s okay. At least it’s cold and quenches your thirst.” She even made a little bit of a face. “A little too sour for me.” She finished hers, and then reached for another box of the standard, fruit punch nutrient lix, that most practice rooms stocked as a default.

How could anyone in their right mind pass up Jett for that regular junk? Oh…well. More for her
.

They went back to talking blades and knife tricks
.

Each of them had their own strong opinions and ideas
.

Imala suddenly shook hands with her, right up to the elbows in the warrior’s embrace. Naero returned the favor
.

She smiled again. “Thanks,
N. We’ll have to do this again. It’s just what I needed.”

“Anytime, Imala
.”

“My friends and family call me, Ima. I wish you would too. We fight side-by-side and protect each other. I’d be proud to call you my sister
.”

Now it was Naero’s turn to smile. “We are sisters, Ima. I’d like that. Some of us are closer than others, but anyone who fights beside me, I consider my Clan, my blood
.”

Ima grinned
“As it should be.”

They embraced briefly
.

Ima offered Naero one of her special Clan Apache fighting knives
.

Naero in turn gave her one of the new battle blades that Tyber had developed. She showed her all of the different modes
.

Ima lifted her eyebrows. “Impressive. We’ve tried to do something similar, but our teks couldn’t get them to function properly
.”

Naero nodded. “
We had a lot of trouble with it too. I’ll send Ty over to have a little training session with your teks and knife fighters. He’ll teach them what to do.”

Ima stood up. Their time was up. Both of them had other duties to attend to. “Next time,
N. Let’s try sparring in zero-G. That’ll be fun. Bring some of your best blade fighters, and I’ll bring a few of mine.”

“You bet. Let’s plan on it
.”

“Oh, that reminds me. We’re
also having a little problem with our shield buffering on our power core on board
The
Warhorse
. My people are stumped, and engineering was never one of my strong points. Do you think your guy can check it out and give us some tips?”

“Sure.
In fact, he actually helped develop the new shielding profiles and adaptive parameters for the Alliance. I’m sure he can sort out what your bug is.”

“Thanks. Later,
N.”

She waved after Ima as she ducked out. Then Naero gathered up her own gear
.

“See ya!”