Federation Reborn 2: Pirate Rage (71 page)

"They added a fourth goal, taking territory and holding it. That's new," Turner reminded her.

"I believe it's to create a place to work from, a nodule approach, but I may be wrong—a pirate haven. Send the fleet in, take it, then base your operations there instead of hauling it all to Horath for processing. Sort of a preprocessing node," Sprite said. “Though with the empire being launched, that has obviously changed.

"
Tortuga
," the commander agreed. "Mythical pirates den in the Caribbean on earth."

"Oh, not quite mythical, there is or was a modern equivalent. More than one in my time actually,” Admiral Irons said. All eyes turned to him. “But we get the point. Pirates have had places like this where fences meet to buy their stolen cargo, ships, or enslave any surviving captives or places to hold captives being ransomed."

"Ouch," the commander said wincing at the thought.

"Yes. finding one is something every captain and admiral dreams of and dreads. Many have been known to booby trap the place. Sending in troops can get dicey." He left off the mission to find
Daikoku
.

"Yeah, I can imagine," the commander replied dryly.

"Anyway, one of the reasons I made the long jump from Triangula was that I wanted to work my way to Bek. We currently have a diplomatic mission in the works there on
Caroline
as you know. But we need to seize and hold B101a1 as well, not just picket it."

"Wait, Admiral, back to the pirate fleet thing, the fleet … I noticed some intel we had overlooked,” Portia said, looking to Monty. “Or at least I missed,” she added hastily when she noted his expression. “I'm a bit confused, but from my perspective it seems that the intel stated that the Horathians send out a fleet once a year or so in some sort of ceremony. Each fleet goes off in a different direction. Galactic north, south, east, west, and the zenith and nadir. Why?"

“Well, first off you have to consider the source. We got that from ten POWs. It isn't necessarily true, and it may be disinformation,” Monty stated. “But they were sending convoys out more often over the past twenty years,” he finished.

"I think they are maximizing their profits while looking for hot spots. The fleets can either take them out or bottleneck them, or if they do find one that hammers back, they focus on it until it's destroyed," Sprite stated.

"Pyrax," Nara said.

"Us," Vestri said. The doctor looked to him and then nodded. He picked up his cup of coffee and took a sip then set it back down. “I guess I'm glad we've been such a thorn in their side then.”

"Exactly. Which means capturing these two systems and turning them into black holes is essential,” the admiral said, pointing to the holo image of the star map and highlighting B95a3 and B101a1. “They are the direct routes to this side of the sector. Plugging them means any fleet already here will eventually be tracked down, and it keeps them from getting in behind our lines and wreaking havoc."

"So we can concentrate our forces for maximum effect and then move them in strength, not scatter them in penny packets in every system as a defense force," the commander said nodding.

"Exactly. I, see, my plan back when I was in Pyrax was to send
Destiny
to Agnosta, get a handle on what happened there, then when they returned I was planning to send a frigate and
Prometheus
there to help rebuild and build a forward base while
Destiny
went to Gaston and a few of the other neighboring systems. We would establish relations with neighbors, feeling them out and set up recruiting stations. We would also set up basing, defenses, and work out their joining the Federation while helping them to get up to modern civilization standards in health, welfare, education, civics, and industry. We'd put a frigate in each star system right off to picket the system as a DEW, a Distant Early Warning system. Since frigates could be built in a couple of months, I thought we'd start there and then build up."

Portia and Vestri nodded. "Ah," the bloodhound said. “But no help from the empty star system.”

“No,” the admiral said. “But I'd picket it anyway, as we are doing now. The problem is, the frigates do not have the staying power or firepower of a larger ship. Eventually we'd have to swap them out for tin cans, and then light cruisers. We'd also need to build up defense forces as well.”

“Understood. But that wasn't the full plan though, sir,” Monty said, eying him.

The admiral blinked then smiled politely to the intelligence officer. “I see someone did some of his homework. You are correct. At the same time we were to do all of that, I wanted
Fuentes
refitted and then sent to make a run to Bek. A sort of Hail Mary," he said.

"You mentioned the system before, Admiral," Portia said. “I read the files we have on it. It was pretty messed up. The economy was in tatters due to the nature of the jump chain connecting it to the rest of the Federation. Immigration had stopped due to a crisis with the navigational guild wanting a larger cut of the fees to run ships through the rapids. Just prior to the war there was speculation that the entire jump chain was about to be abandoned or cut off completely.”

"When I was there, I turned it around," Admiral Irons said simply.

"Oh?"

"It was before Trinity actually. Long story short—during the opening stages of the Xeno war, I was sent there with just my duffel, a credit voucher, some documents, and an industrial replicator with orders to build some sort of resupply base and minor repair node. I worked with the civilian government and did a bit more. By the time I received orders to leave, we had built a class two repair yard and a class three supply system with two class one nodes nearby. I did this by the way when the Xenos first got into Pyrax and blew Eden. "

The officers blinked or expressed their own form of consternation for their bio forms. Commander Turner whistled appreciatively. "All that? You built all that, sir?"

“He could have done double that given enough time and resources,” Vestri said loyally.

"I was bored," Irons shrugged. The others chuckled. "Since I haven't found any word of them in anything I've picked up, I'm wondering if they are still around and what they've done over the past seven centuries."

"Yeah, that's something," Monty said rubbing his chin. “It's the perfect place for refugees to go … if they could get there. But one changeling with nanites would end it all,” he warned.

The admiral winced. “Yeah, that's been my concern as well.”

“There could be Xenos in the star system you mean?” Nara asked, voicing her concern as the room quieted.

“It is a possibility, however an unlikely one.”

“But still …”

“Remember P34cv9? It's infested with Xeno nanites. Nasty buggers,” Monty said. “Hopefully we'll do something to fix that eventually,” he said turning to the admiral.

“One major miracle at a time. Personally I'm of the opinion to leave sleeping dogs alone,” he said. He glanced at the Logistics Commander. “No offense Portia.”

“None taken, sir,” she replied.

"Do we turn over that rock, sir? I mean what if something else comes out and we've got a war on two fronts to deal with?" Commander Turner asked. “I mean, I know it's too late to stop
Caroline
but …”

"It's … it is something to consider. But the empty systems we want to bottle neck against Horath lead to Bek as well."

"They do?" Nara asked. The admiral pointed to B101a1. She nodded. “So close to Pyrax,” she murmured.

"It's a long jump, not many knew about it even back … a long time ago I mean," the admiral said.

"Oh."

"Worth it, Bek is a rich system. They were building a massive space-based colony when I left. At one point there was an agro colony on that chain as well, Nuevo. I have no idea if it is still there or not. Quite possibly."

"Ah."

“But nothing came out though,” Monty said, seizing on a point they hadn't considered. “Nothing in or out for centuries,” he said.

“Nothing that we know of, you mean,” Sprite reminded him. He grunted and acknowledged the qualifier.

"So, back to the strategic topic, we need at a minimum to take let's see, B-95a3, B101a1, and B103c5? For depth? Perhaps even B97a and B-97b if we can swing it? And hopefully TF22 can hammer Dead Drop and even Garth before they have to pull back?" Commander Turner asked hopefully.

The admiral shook his head. "No. B-95a3 yes. It's not ideal with four warp points to cover but if we hold two of them that just leaves two to guard and we can assault Nuevo Madrid when we choose. South, um," he checked the map on his HUD. "Bravo 101a1 as I mentioned. The same system we had the battle in a year ago."

"Sir?" the commander wrinkled his nose. "Why not 103?"

"It's got two assault warp points to cover. 101 has one. If we can limit that, I'd prefer it," the admiral replied.

“We could move the forces picketing B100 omega into B101a1. Consolidate them there on the B103c5 jump point,” Sprite said. “I understand that was the original plan once we get Destria sorted out. It would allow us to control that entire jump chain and secure Kathy's World, Richalu, Destria, and Hidoshi's World from invasion.”

“An entire jump line secured. Nice,” Nara murmured.

"Ah. But not so in B95a3. It's got problems as you mentioned," Lieutenant Commander Portia Bloodhound, their G-8 logistics officer said. “It like the other empty star systems has no gas giant to gain fuel, nor materials for local resupply of materials.”

"No. We'd have to ship everything in, and that's prohibitively expensive in time and material. That's a compromise unfortunately. I'd rather be a little more inward towards Horath, in B-97a or b to block them off on that jump chain, but the further in we go the longer the supply chain is for us and the greater threat potential for being cut off or bypassed comes into play."

"And once Horath notices we've got a stopper in the bottle, they will try to hammer it. That's what you meant about the pirate fleets," Turner said with a nod. “It's why we saw the two
Derfflinger
class BCs in Protodon.”

The admiral nodded once. "Right. Which is why we need the quickest turn around we can get. Our troops can work on finishing up in Protodon and assaulting Nuevo Madrid. That will give them additional combat experience."

"Ah."

"But that's only if we can get the stopper in now. If they move a fleet through before we're ready …," the commander warned.

"Ask me anything but time, yes I know. It sucks. We've got the three shipyards now, each can turn out a warship or support ship a day now that we've got our production ramped up and all the bugs worked out,” he nodded politely to the Neobloodhound and then to the Dwarf.

The commander nodded. "But that's pushing BUPERS and causing manning issues."

"Right. We're getting about fifty to a hundred volunteers every month from the various star systems but only a few have enough shipping to get them back to an academy in those numbers. And even when they do, we've got a 50 percent failure rate at the moment,” he said, eying Matilda.

“I'm doing my best, sir. We've got a lot of ground to make up with a lot of the recruits,” she stated.

“True. Which is why recruits from established space colonies or higher industrial star systems like ET, Antigua, Seti Alpha 4, and others are priorities,” the admiral said. “I was hoping for more, but right now I'll take what I can get," the admiral said dryly.

"And we're not getting the best either. We've got to train them. Trained spacers are one thing but two-thirds of our new recruits are from agro worlds like Gaston. Though Seti and Epsilon Triangula recruits are at least tech aware or more so than some of our raw recruits," Matilda said. “They give us a better foundation to build on faster. The agro people don't know how to learn. They are eager but give up hope quickly when they realize how much under water they are.”

"We train them. If they can't pass muster, we keep at it until they do. If they still can't wrap their heads around it after a while, we'll hot wash review and they will either stay in their present low rank or we'll toss them to the marines or the army," the admiral replied with a shrug, “or the various recruiting stations we'll be setting up eventually.”

"Gee, thanks. It won't help man the new builds though," the commander replied dryly.

The admiral smiled. "Don't mention it." He frowned briefly then shrugged. “Just remember two things, Commander.”

“Sir?”

“Ask me for anything but time like I said before. And secondly …,” he saw Turner straighten and square his shoulders as the admiral's somber tone got through to him. It was a famous quote that had been bandied about a lot right along with defeat in detail. “No plan survives contact with the enemy. He wants to live and win just as badly as you do.”

Commander Turner and several other officers nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Good.” The admiral surveyed the room. “
Maine's
division is due to arrive in Protodon within two weeks. The
Justice
division's window will open a week after as well. I understand they've entered the Kathy's World system?” he looked to Turner who nodded. “Good. Once Admiral White gets his hands on them, he's going to have a minimum amount of time to get his force beaten into shape and then off to B-95a3. I understand he's already sent
Shepard
to check on her division mate. Most likely
Almirante Grau
will return for resupply just before TF22 sails. Anything we can do to help make their mission a success, do it. Now, Captain Montgomery, did you have anything new to discuss?”