by Max Jager
"Thank you for your candidness, Captain. Beth is, as I have said, an old protégé of mine. I also recognise how unwilling you must be to tell me about the problems on your ship. If I was less aware of your record, I might be tempted to think you were making excuses. But because of your... notoriety and the contributions you have made to my office, I am aware that that would be totally out of character for you." Here she gave a rueful grin. "I have a confession to make as well. It is probably my fault that you have been stuck with her. I told Admiral Dorcas and Admiral Andrews that Beth deserved to be aboard Mission when she deployed, and that they should not rob her of her triumph. When I said this however, I assumed, obviously incorrectly, that Mission would go to a slightly more senior captain, and that you would get one of the later Reprisals. I knew you would get one, it had been in the cards since we began to work out the concept. Dorcas in particular was insistent you have a part to play in the development of doctrine for them. In retrospect I should have known you would get Mission and insisted she be given one of the later ones, but, well, I couldn't help but hope. May I ask why you brought Commander Chant on board if you thought that he might prove problematic in your relationship with Beth?"
"Mostly because unless I accepted a complete unknown in the Tactical department, whoever I brought in would have wound up proving problematic, if to a lesser extent. And partly because I wanted an ally firmly in my corner. Coren and I go way back, as do Eva, Erik and I, but I have always been just that little bit closer to Coren for obvious reasons. And to be honest my mother played a part in the whole thing. I wanted someone around to tell me I had made the right choice vis a vis my mother's quest to get me married." Aaron laughed. "Ironically, he told me not that I was right to avoid it, but that Victoria would have wanted me to be happy. As for my treatment of Commander Darnelle, partly it's because she hasn't been playing well with others, and partly it's because I am weak and it is so easy to simply allow Coren to fill that space. I apologise, but I'm not sure what I can do to fix the problem."
"To be honest, Aaron, I can call you Aaron?" Here she paused and waited for Aaron's nod to continue. "I probably would have done something similar in your place. It isn't fair to Beth, but nor is it fair for you to have to do this without a co-operating XO. If she shaped up, would she still have a place in your officers?"
"Of course," Aaron responded. "The only thing keeping her from it now is her own stubbornness. It would take a period of readjustment, but I would be perfectly willing to let her take up her responsibilities."
"Good. That is all I can ask but I'm afraid I will ask more. If she doesn't shape up by the end of the shakedown, I want you to request a transfer for her and say it was simply a poor working relationship, differences of tactical opinion. I will countersign and ask to have her back. She will be my problem then." She sounded reluctant to ask more of him. "Would you be willing to do that, as a favour to me?I wouldn't want one bad deployment to torpedo her career permanently. If she doesn't shape up she deserves to have it delayed, but not destroyed."
"I think you overestimate my ability to influence her future, but I will do as you ask. I do, however, reserve the right, depending on her actions during shakedown, to take it to a higher authority." His voice suddenly even more serious. "Does that sound fair?"
"Extremely. Now if you will excuse me, Aaron, I must go see if I can't beat some sense into your XO. Enjoy the rest of the evening."
"Thank, you."
With that she moved away and left Aaron sipping his Scotch.
–
Eva looked up as Admiral Badim joined her and Beth at the table where they were quietly discussing the coming week.
"Commander Chandler, do you mind giving Beth and I a moment?" Admiral Badim's voice was pleasant enough, but carried a note of command.
"Of course, ma'am. Beth, be careful, these BuShips types might try to steal you back. I needed to talk to Sparky about his nutritional habits anyway, he won't have a metabolism like that forever." Eva teased as she walked away.
"What was it you wanted to discuss, Admiral?" Darnelle asked quizzically.
"What, in your professional opinion, is Aaron Hawthrone's greatest professional weakness?" Admiral Badim asked, careful not to let any emotion colour her voice.
"His greatest professional weakness..." Darnelle paused and seemed to mull it over in her mind. "I would have to say his over reliance on department heads to deal with him directly. He has a tendency to rely on the force of his personality rather than his real, delegated authority through his subordinates. If he is ever removed, there will problems with the chain of command in that he has not deliberately set it up for it to be easy for his XO to step into the void. Which most strongly exemplifies itself in his tendency to avoid collaboration with anyone but Commander Chant in tactical scenarios."
"And what would you say is his greatest professional strength?"
"He has undeniably fostered... an esprit de corps among the crew and officers under his command. I have never seen anyone accomplish what he has in the short time that he has been in command. It has been something to watch. Additionally he is a peerless tactician. Despite the six months of rust he must have, I still have yet to beat him more than once in five simulations." Darnelle allowed carefully.
"And what would you say has been the greatest contributing factor in his ability to forge said esprit de corps?" The question this time was fairly pointed.
Darnelle was silent for a long time. At last she spoke, "His force of personality. He used it to give the officers and crew something or rather someone, to rally around. By putting himself forward as their totem, their guardian angel, he gave them someone to work for, a face closer than the emperor and more immediate than their families. Despite being younger than some of them, he has become a sort of father figure, slightly distant but caring." The admission seemed to take a lot out of her.
"And why do you think he has yet to ask for your tactical opinion?" Again the question was pointed, probing.
"Because he and Commander Chant are already comfortable with one another. They understand how the other thinks. It makes it easy for the two of them to work together. They already have a common understanding." Darnelle now sounded defensive.
"Come on Beth. There is more to it than that. A man who goes to the lengths you have already admitted to forge esprit de corps does not exclude an officer simply because he finds it difficult to form a bond with them. In fact," Admiral Badim continued conversationally, "from his record, forming bonds with his subordinates is something he is particularly good at. The other officers under his command obviously respect and like him and are well on their way to forming strong bonds with him. So why is there no bond between the two of you?"
"I..." She paused here, "have not been helpful in the bond forming process." At last her iron control broke. "He doesn't deserve the command! It should have been mine! I have every bit as much right to it as he does. The only difference between he and I is that he has connections to Admiral Andrews and Admiral Dorcas and the God damn Crown Prince!"
"And your connection to me means nothing?" Admiral Badim asked pointedly.
"No, it means everything. It's why I'm still involved with the Reprisal project at all. Otherwise the three of them would have chucked me out on my ear!" Darnelle's voice was desperate now. "Only my connection to you has kept me on Mission at all. And for that I'm grateful."
"Beth, what I am about to tell you goes no further, do you understand?" Admiral Badim's voice was suddenly deadly serious.
"Of course."
"Mission was always supposed to be Aaron's. He was slated to take command before he resigned and went back to the capital. All that happened was that he was slotted back in where he was always supposed to be." Admiral Badim's voice was calm and level. "And yes, you were supposed to be given command of one of the Reprisals when they came online. Mission just happened to become available when Aaron resigned. Originally you were supposed to get Forthright but Captain James got her when he was rec
alled to active service at the same time as Aaron. You were going to be sent to be the XO on a dreadnought slated for rear area security before I stepped in and ensured your continued involvement in the project."
Darnelle seemed to deflate at this. "It might have been better if you had let me go. That way I wouldn't sabotage Captain Hawthrone's efforts to get his ship war ready. I'm not sure it's not the result of patronage that he has his place, but he is a competent officer."
"Tell you what, I want you to come and meet with me after your first week, if your watch schedule will allow. There are some things I'd like to show you. Things you wouldn't normally have access to. And then you can judge if he deserves his placement or not. How does that sound?"
Chapter 6
Chapter SixThe missiles came screaming in at .8C, boosted by the ridiculous acceleration their drives were apparently now capable of. Mission began to desperately launch countermeasures in what seemed like a vain hope that the oncoming holocaust could be averted, her missile crews working at the frantic pace only life or death situations could inspire. The incoming salvo had been launched by three of then new battleships that the Orindians had used in the initial stages of their onslaught which now hung around 16 light seconds off of Mission's port side. The new Orindian designs were a significant improvement on the designs the Imperial Navy had seen from them in the past. Mission as a battle cruiser, mounted only 14 missile tubes in a single broadside, while the new Orindian designs had 45 missile tubes each in a single broadside. That meant that in a single launch, the three dreadnoughts could produce 135 missiles and each dreadnought could put out a salvo once every 8 seconds. With staggered drive initiations, that meant that in a space of 24 seconds they could stack a salvo of 405 missiles. Salvo stacking was a relatively old practice, and relied on the fact that the enemies missiles took time to reach their targets and that an accelerating missile can over take a ballistic one. By carefully timing drive initiations, a tactical department could increase dramatically the size of a wave of missiles. There were risks in this, however. Missiles in and of themselves were vulnerable to proximity kills from detonations aimed at the larger target of the dreadnought. It was therefore considered imprudent to stack a salvo for longer the flight time of a missile from the other side. Even allowing for all this, under normal circumstances one of the battleships would have been more than enough to leave a battle cruiser like Mission nothing but a melted heap of slag in space. Now, however, as she brought her brand new EW online, her crew had hope.
"Bring the EW online, prepare for impact!" Aaron's voice carried an edge of panic as he shouted his orders even as he watched the plot, where the four merchantmen under Mission's protection were pictured, fleeing frantically for the hyper limit.
"Dear God," Coren said almost disbelieving. "When on earth did they learn to cycle their batteries that quickly?"
Previously, the main advantage of the Imperial Navy had been their ability to cycle their missile tube significantly faster than any other Navy in space. While the Orindians had not quite reached the 7 second mark set by modern Imperial dreadnoughts, but they had taken significant steps toward closing the gap.
"Well, they had to catch up some time," Darnelle responded with a wry smile. "They couldn't stay so far behind forever."
They watched with baited breath as missile after missile of the incoming salvo was intercepted by counter missiles, drawn away by decoys, and forced to early detonation by the strobes of electromagnetic jamming meant to destroy the vulnerable circuits of the missiles targeting systems. 90% of the missiles in the oncoming wave were forced off target or otherwise destroyed, but that still left 40 of the missiles on target. They detonated almost in one massive wave, washing the surface of Mission's adaptive shielding with nuclear fire. It proved too much, even for the battle cruiser's newly hardened and incredibly improved defences. The shields flickered and failed, allowing the last of the explosions to swell over the surface of the battle cruiser, boiling paint, blackening armour, and buffeting the ship about but that was all.
When the shuddering of the ship had ended, Aaron spoke over the screaming alarms. "Well, I guess that answers the question of how effective the new EW and shields are. All right guns, return fire, give 'em hell."
"Giving them hell, aye sir."
Even as the enemy dreadnoughts began to stack another salvo, realising at last the first would not be enough, Mission was stacking a salvo of her own. While most ships of the last thousand years of space warfare had been limited by the necessary directionality of launching missiles to firing missiles from a single side of the ship at once, the Empires tech types had discovered a way to launch what they called radically off bore launched missiles. The missiles would fly out of the opposite side of the ship, make a 180 turn, maintaining velocity, and come back over and above the ship. The Mark 16 was the first fruits of these experiments. That meant that while Mission had only 20 missile tubes in a single broadside, she could actually field 50 in each launch by using both the opposite broadside and the chase tubes. While still numerically incredibly outclassed, it meant she had a much heavier throw weight than the enemy would expect.
That meant that, when combined with Mission's smaller salvo cycle, in the 30 seconds Aaron took to stack his salvo, he had put 300 missiles in space. Normally, that would barely be enough to scratch the paint of a battleship. Salvo density would have to be much higher in order for penetration of the battleship's defence to be feasible, but the Bureau of Shipbuilding's genius kid brother, the Bureau of Weapons Development had come up with a new method of penetration. Rather than have EW built into each missile, they had seeded the normal missiles with dedicated EW platforms. These EW missiles were far more capable of confusing the defences of the dreadnoughts waiting at the other end because they were dedicated platforms, individually far more capable than the previously dispersed architecture had enabled. Further, they had been working hard to squeeze the fusion plants which powered the missiles smaller and smaller. This meant two things, first, that for the same yield, a missile could be both faster and longer legged or for the same range and speed, a missile could have a much higher yield. The Bureau of weapons, not satisfied with these simple improvements, used the same miniaturization technology used on the fusion plants to increase the yield of the warhead. This meant that the Mark 16 Missiles which filled Mission's magazines were the fastest, longest ranged, and most powerful missiles ever mounted by a battle cruiser. The Mark 16 even out ranged the missiles that the Empire had seen the Orindians use in the initial stages of the war.
Mission's twin broadsides fired repeatedly, stacking a salvo for 30 second. They suddenly screamed to life, rushing toward the dreadnoughts, focussing on the single lead dreadnought with all 300 new Mark 16s. They crossed the space between the two combatants with what to the Orindians must seem impossible speed. 22 seconds later, the first salvo slammed into the first dreadnought. They ducked and weaved through the counter missiles and jamming, 80 of them died getting through. 60 of them were drawn away from the dreadnought by decoys. The remaining 160 slammed into the shields of the dreadnought, which flickered and died, and once more nuclear fire flowed over the hull of a ship. This time, however, the armour was not as effective. Sudden rents in the skin of battleship opened, belching air and scrap into space. The dreadnought staggered, and righted itself. It would take more than that stop one of the gargantuan titans of a ship-of-the-line. The important thing as far as Mission was concerned was that her broadside armament had been particularly targeted, and half of her missile armament was now reduced to no more than slag and three quarters the missiles which she had been stacking, in one massive blow, were suddenly gone.
"Well, I suppose the other shoe had to drop eventually." Coren said ruefully. "It would have been too much to ask to take out a dreadnought with no more than a battle cruiser."
"We're not done yet. As soon as they are within striking range, set off the next salvo."
As the dreadnoughts had been stacki
ng their salvo, so too had Mission. As the second missile storm descended on them, this time significantly reduced, Mission's missiles lit off their drives in response.
As a result of the Mission'sfirst wave of missiles, the incoming salvo was reduced significantly. Mission's engineers had been working as madly as they could to restore her shields and had just managed but at a much reduced intensity. Mission's EW and counter missiles worked madly to draw the missiles away and kill them before they could reach her skin. Though they tried valiantly, they were not quite as effective as the first time and this time 85% of the missiles found their targets. 47 missiles exploded violently against the shields, which flickered and failed earlier this time, and the nuclear fire washed over the skin of the ship. Rather than boil paint and blacken armour this time, however, it tore great rents in the skin, spewing atmosphere and molten slag into space.
On the bridge, damage alarms were going off in every direction. Damage control was in a manic state, as engineering attempted to organise efforts to repair and seal areas now open into space. It was a scene of chaos.
"Damage report!" Aaron's voice barked out.
"We are down 6 tubes on the port side. Our energy armament is completely scuppered." Coren' voice came through the smoke which had begun to fill the air. "EW is badly damaged. I'm not sure we'll survive another salvo, sir."