Federation Reborn 1: Battle Lines (6 page)

“Aye aye, sir.”

“I'm not happy about just having
Bismark
on hand as our heaviest asset to protect the star system. She's not even 60 percent strength either,” the admiral shook his head. “We're going to need to do something about it. And shipping the parts in from Antigua is out.”

“We may need to send the ship to Antigua then, sir?”

“She's supposed to be the flagship of Fleet 1. I
think
John will give her back,” the admiral said with a slight hint of disapproval. “I don't want Amadeus to get his hands on her. He'd never send her back,” he said, thoroughly disgusted.

“Do you think he's okay, sir?”

The admiral eyed the chief of staff and then looked away. “I don't know,” he said quietly. “We won't know until he gets into Protodon and takes the system or is bounced out.”

“I see, sir.” the chief of staff shook himself slightly. “Well, if you want a contingency plan to look into Epsilon Triangula and south, that mean's she'll need legs and the firepower to handle anything she runs into, which means a tin can. I was thinking; if we can shave off a tin can from the convoys, it might work. We can swap out a pair of frigates since they are only making two system jumps. A side benefit is that they've been broken in compared to the new ships just coming out of the yards.”

The admiral sat back thoughtfully in his chair and listened to the proposal with interest.

Chapter 3

The Neochimp rear admiral mused a bit as he watched the plot. He was always a bit maudlin while in transit; there was nothing to do but worry. He knew he wasn't as bad as Phil but bad enough. His problem was he wanted action. He wanted to
do
something. Running sim after sim palled after a while.

They knew
Hecate
had made it this far. She had a sixteen-week head start, but she had been going slower than TF 22 initially. They were catching up despite their nine-week late start. Nine and
a half
weeks he thought with a pang. Those nine weeks had been precious; he'd had the ships doing workup exercises even while transiting across Antigua to the B-459c jump point as well as while they were in real space in the empty red dwarf system. He'd even managed to convince John to give him another squadron of fighters and a division of frigates during that time period. He suspected he'd need them badly in a few short weeks.

He wuffled a sigh and then turned inward to think about how a forward deployment made sense even though he privately admitted he wasn't happy about the force mix or prep time involved. But moving forward took some of the pressure off Antigua. It allowed them to fight in someone
else's
backyard, protecting the vulnerable shipyards from attack. And they were moving in the right direction, toward Horath. March to the sound of the guns he thought in approval.

His force was labeled 22 for Task Force 2 of Fleet 2. It was made up of the newly constructed
Arboth
class destroyer
Yris'ka'th
,
Cutlass
,
Viper
, two
Horseshoe
crab
class frigates, four
Apollo
class corvettes, four gunships and four squadrons of fighters led by First Lieutenant Meia. Two of her squadrons were scattered in the boat bays of the three destroyers; the two others were stored in one of the freighters that was acting as their fleet train. The gunships were attached to the sides of
Cutlass
like limpet fish to a shark.

They had gotten around to fleet labels, though Amadeus wasn't certain what the point was at the time. Ships stationed at Pyrax were labeled First Fleet. Antiguan ships were Second Fleet. His force was Task Force 2 of Second Fleet, the first task group being made up of the battle cruiser
Maine
and the ships that had remained behind in Antigua to defend the system and vital shipyards there. He was exercising fleet command for the first time, and although he'd expected to run a screen of destroyers or a cruiser or even a battle cruiser division, it was the best they could do. And Irons assured him they would have more ships in the pipeline for him as follow-ons to thicken his forces. They'd damn well
better
be in the pipeline he thought. They'd better have them to him soon too; he was pretty sure he was going to feel buck ass naked pretty damn soon. Their forward deployment was a bit risky, but no one won a war by sitting on their ass.

He shook his head and tugged on an earlobe at his train of thoughts. Finally he exhaled slowly and turned to what really bothered him.

He had strict orders to not to risk his command if the odds were against them. He didn't like it, but he understood the reasoning. He'd seen it during the Xeno war. It was better to lose a world and star system and fall back rather than get annihilated and lose the people he had with him. They'd gone through that hard Darwinian logic during the Xeno war. It was contrary to everything the fleet stood for, to die to protect the civilians under their care. But they had to be realists and take the big picture. They had more than one world at stake and only so many assets. Not only the ships, but also the personnel involved. Each was a precious resource not to be abused or expended lightly.

He and the other sleepers had become acutely acquainted with how far down the well the Federation had fallen. More like off a cliff he thought with a shake of his head. He never imagined being in such a scenario. Irons had been making bricks without straw for a while; hopefully, with people like Amadeus, Phil, and the other sleepers, they would stiffen things up. Lead by example. And pass on some of their hard-earned knowledge to those who were joining them.

One medium freighter turned tender-transport trailing along behind his warships was loaded with a platoon of marines and their equipment. Another was loaded with gear to picket a jump point. Just one jump point and not a lot of gear given that it was a medium class freighter. The large freighter carried a precious ansible as well as some spare parts, a small automated gas refinery platform, and two fighter squadrons. The last freighter was a lumbering bulk freighter stuffed to the deck heads with missile pods. She was his ace in the hole, a missile collier. They were going to be a long way from home. She didn't have the doors and fire control that
Lassie
had, but she'd do just fine. He didn't want to shoot himself dry; they'd have to fight smart.

The tanker and courier he hardly thought about. The tanker was a medium ship, the smallest in the fleet's tanker group but also the fastest. Not that the added speed did them any good with the bulk freighter slowing them down he thought with a mental grimace. The courier was their fastest ship, but they had been so common in his day he hardly thought of it.

“We're getting close to the exit to B-458, Admiral,” Ensign Rich Marshall stated. “A little late but better late than never. Once we've gotten
Hecate's
download, then the work begins.”

The AI was a dumb AI created by Commander Sprite. He wasn't one of the canned AIs she had created from templates for Pyrax, but he did keep a human form. He'd grown a bit but didn't have the speed and flexibility of a smart AI. Since he was newly brought online, he was also feeling out his position. He'd settled in nicely in
Yris'ka'th
though despite the skipper's grumbling about wanting a Naga AI.

Marshall hadn't been blind to the ship he inhabited though. He'd chosen the name of the marine lieutenant who'd been on board the
S'rnoth
under Commander Yris'ka'th and had taken over the XO's position when her XO had been killed in the initial clash.

The admiral eyed the dumb AI and then turned away. “No, that won't be until we get to Protodon.” Late indeed he thought. Three days late jumping out and then they'd lost two more on the way due to minor but vexing engineering hiccups with his flagship. Not an auspicious beginning.

“I meant my work, sir. I'll have a lot of processing to do.”

“That you will. Sifting through the data will be fun. We're only staying in B-458 long enough to get Hecate sorted out, refuel and rearm, then we're going in. You'd better work fast then.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

The chimp nodded in dismissal and then returned to his thoughts. He'd wished for his own AI chief of staff, but the
Arboth
didn't have the computer support to handle two AI tied to her network. Or to put it in proper context, Marshall wasn't willing to share his network with another AI.

Amadeus shook his head. The skipper had given up his quarters to the Admiral in a grand selfless gesture. He wouldn't forget it, though it put some of the other officers out since that had filtered down the chain. He had to remind himself that the destroyer really wasn't set up as a flagship. He needed a cruiser. A heavy cruiser at a minimum. He'd
get
a cruiser even if he had to snatch
Firefly
, if she ever showed up in his AO that was. He doubted that would happen anytime soon.

It was … not quite foolish but a bit premature perhaps to have put the large ship on patrol in the western side of the sector. Sure they were showing the flag, catching people up, and maybe chasing out the occasional pirate but what could one ship accomplish? He shook his head. Yeah, they'd taken down that
Cutlass
; he was grateful for that. But still, he could use them on the front.

---<>---<>---

Five days late TF22 jumped into B-458 and caught the encrypted Identify Friend or Foe transmission of the waiting frigate. They put in a whisker laser call as they flashed their IFF through the flagship's tachyon transceiver.

Four hours later they got the transmission from across the empty system. Captain Gruber seemed grateful and relieved to see them. “Better late than never, Admiral. It's good to see you.”

Admiral White nodded. “We'll meet up and you can pass the data over to us. But transmit your synopses now so we can get started.”

Three hours and forty-six minutes later they got the reply. “Aye aye, sir,” the captain said, going straight to business. “The air is getting a bit thick over here, Admiral; we're looking forward to hooking up soon.”

“I'll alert the ships in the fleet train to be ready to resupply you,” the admiral replied. He hated trying to converse over that distance. Even using a tachyon transceiver was a pain in the ass. “
Yris'ka'th
out.” He turned to the Naga captain. “Move us out, Captain.”

“We're ready to get underway, Admiral. All post jump chores have been finished; all ships are in synch. Moving out now.”

---<>---<>---

They met up with
Hecate
thirty-nine hours later. As the destroyers came alongside the smaller ship, the frigate's communications lashed out to their receivers to download her carefully gathered intelligence.

The frigate's download and initial synopses grimly confirmed their fears. Four destroyers was stiff opposition. It also gave them an idea of the conditions in Protodon and on the planet. Once Amadeus had digested the report, he held a conference with the captains and senior officers to discuss it and its implications.

“It is going to be tight, odds in their favor, Admiral,” Captain Gruber stated.

“We're navy. They aren't,” Lieutenant Commander Opal, captain of the
Cutlass
stated diffidently. She was new to her rank and command. She also seemed to resent that the rear admiral had chosen
Yris'ka'th
as his flagship over her larger ship. True, her ship did have some room to her, but Amadeus hated the ship's basic design. Her midship’s boatbay arrangement made her horribly vulnerable to being split in half.

Amadeus had originally wanted
Xavier
, but Captain Sampson's inexperience in the hot seat had bothered him. He'd settled on
Yris'ka'th
because Captain Ssri'allth had the most experience and had a string of good to excellent sims to his record. His sims while in the hot seat of
Hecate
against Captain Samuels and
Maine
had been impressive. He'd lost of course. No frigate could handle a battle cruiser, but he'd pulled off several nasty tricks and maneuvers. Enough to earn respect from the admiral and grudging respect from Captain Samuels. She'd had to work to win each battle, and she knew it. Besides, it was his decision; Njet would have to lump it the chimp thought.

“Let's not get too overconfident here. They may not have our skills or all of our hardware, but they have been at this longer than we have,” Lieutenant Commander Waters stated. He pecked his right index finger into the table top. “I know we're good but we've got a long ways to go and we've still got some rough edges. So we need to proceed with caution.” He shot a look at the admiral.