Mission's Edge

by Max Jager

"Thank you, sir." Beth smiled at him. "I think we've done pretty well myself. Our energy armament accuracy is still not quite where I would like it to be, but a little more drilling and the rough edges will be shined off."

  "We're actually working on that already." Coren' voice held no note of defensiveness. "We think we know what's throwing it off. The cannons are bucking just a little more than previous designs because they're more powerful. It will just take a little more practice."

  "Do we know where we are going to be sent?" Eva broke in.

  "We don't, not yet. Forthright is just about ready to start her acceptance trials. She should leave her construction slip three days from now. I imagine that we will be waiting at least until she's ready to deploy before they start to work us like dogs." Aaron grinned at the men and women in the room. "Which means that we will have at least two weeks head start knocking all the sharp edges of and shining up all the rough spots. And if we are not significantly better than them by the end of it, I will be very disappointed in us."

  Just then, the hatch opened and admitted Jenny. "Begging the Captain's pardon," she said with an urchin like grin, "but Admiral Dorcas is on the comm, sir. He'd like to speak with you and the XO."

  "Well, ladies and gentlemen, far be it from me to keep an Admiral waiting. Talk amongst yourselves while Beth and I deal with the latest wrinkle." Aaron rose with wink and followed Jenny through the door into his office, followed himself by Beth. The comm was already on the screen and Dorcas was waiting.

  "Aaron," he said without preamble, "How soon can you be ready to deploy?"

  "I don't know, sir. Not long. We would probably need to refill our magazines and supplies and acquire the appropriate astrographic charts and other downloads, but after that immediately." Aaron gave him a game smile. "Why? What fire do you desperately need our help to put out?"

  "I'm afraid I will be sending you and Forthright and your consorts, who we are still rounding up, to the back of beyond." Dorcas looked apologetic. "What do you know about the Ephesus system?"

  "Not a whole lot if I'm honest." Aaron looked rueful and continued, "I know that despite it's religious sounding name, it was colonized originally by a very mixed bag of individuals. That while it should have been a cash machine from the beginning due to its resource base and position between two Empires, it has had only mediocre economic performance. It was admitted to the Empire on request 200 years ago, when they decided Imperial rule was preferable to languishing in the economic stagnation that they were experiencing. They opted against being a protectorate because they thought that there would be more economic gain by completely integrating into the Imperial economy. And while it hasn't worked out as well for them as they hoped, it has boosted their economy. I only know that because our family business is actually involved in the systems shipping industry."

  "Well, that's more than most people know. While they are not strategically significant, it is resource rich. There are several other systems in the general area which would make much better forward fleet bases than Ephesus, and as a result we have accorded it relatively low threat level." Here Dorcas paused. "At the same time, we need to reassure the people there that they do mean something to us and because of its resource base, it makes a good target for commerce raiding. Exactly the sort of assignment your vessel has been designed for. We have experienced some losses in that sector, so we know something is happening, but are not quite sure what."

  "My understanding was that Forthright wouldn't be ready to deploy for at least another two weeks. Has there been a development we don't know about?" Beth asked.

  "We have been doing as many of the acceptance trials in the dock as we can. It should accelerate her trials by about four days. That means you have a week and a half to drill your light task force to combat readiness. Forthright will probably have to join some of the exercises via simulation, but we have to expedite your deployment as much as possible." Dorcas smiled. "I'm afraid you're going to be in command of this mission."

  "Who did you give Forthright to?" Aaron asked.

  "To Captain (JG) Bartholomew James. While he has been in the navy longer than you, you are still a senior grade captain. Your jumping rank has caused some interesting chain of command aberrations. Not that we blame you, it's just made things interesting." Dorcas's voice took on a wry humour as he spoke.

  "So have you decided what consorts we will be deployed with?" Aaron asked curiously.

  "You'll get four light cruisers, and six destroyers. We aren't sure which light cruisers you'll get yet. But it's not an insignificant force, especially given that you will be getting the new Chivalry class destroyers." Here Dorcas began to get excited. "Your destroyers will be Lancelot, Roland, Galahad, Gawain, Parcifal and Kay."

  "Is there something you're not telling me about this assignment? Ephesus is nowhere near the front, so why are we getting so much fire power?" Aaron asked.

  "As I said, we have experienced some losses. In total, we have lost four convoys in the area around Ephesus. So far only one merchantman has escaped." Dorcas was suddenly very serious. "The sensor data they had was not as good as we would have like, but from what we can tell, the same sort of heavy cruisers you encountered at Amery have been pulling these attacks. That heavy cruiser was a serious customer. I'm sure you would agree that your victory was a freak accident. The fire power is therefore justified."

  Aaron was silent for a moment. "So basically, we have no idea what we're sailing into?"

  "No, I'm afraid not. Unfortunately, that heavy cruiser is one of the new classes we don't have a lot of information about. They weren't particularly pivotal in the initial stages of their campaign, their dreadnoughts were the major surprise. We're hoping that they have only made equivalent upgrades in their cruiser design rather then leaps and bounds. Either way, you should be more than enough of a match for the cruisers. It's the destroyers I am more worried about. But you'll need them for operational flexibility." Dorcas sighed. "In some ways it would be better to wait until we have finished working up all of the Reprisals and then give command of the overall mission to a commodore and call it a day. Unfortunately, the time scale for that would be entirely too long, which means you get to carry the can."

  "I suppose we will have to work with what we've got. When will you know which light cruisers you are going to be able to shake loose?"

  Dorcas paused and gave the question some thought. "Probably by this time tomorrow. Our original plan was to wait until we had worked up all of the first wave of Reprisals but we just received word of the most recent losses as well as the sensor image of the heavy cruiser. This has meant we have to expedite your deployment, which I am sorry about."

  "Well, we'll do our best to work up and be ready to deploy in a week and a half, but surely that is asking a lot of Forthright and Captain James. Especially considering how long it takes to get a squadron organised. It's going to be tight." Aaron sounded dubious.

  "Are you up to it?" Dorcas asked, genuinely concerned for his protégé.

  "If I'm not there will be hell to pay for you and for me, so I had better be. What do you think Beth? Can we do it?" Aaron turned to his XO.

  "I think we can, sir. As you say, it will be tight, but if you're willing to shift a little more of the local load to me so that you can manage squadron affairs, we can mange." Beth responded.

  Aaron nodded, thinking through the implications of their new assignment. "We will, of course, do our best, but we are not miracle workers."

  "I understand that." Dorcas said. "We can only ask that you do your best. I know that your best is a head shoulders above most. I have faith in you."

  "Thank you, sir."

  –

  "Skipper, the XO's compliments and Forthright has just made station keeping position and her captain is on the comm." Lieutenant Cameron was once again in Aaron's ready room, delivering a message from the XO.

  "Thank you, Lieutenant, most timely." Aaron smiled at her. She had come a long way from the stammering nervous
girl who had delivered the original briefing on the EW capabilities of Mission. He followed her out of the ready room and out on to the bridge.

  "Madame XO, I have the con." Aaron said as he stepped up on to the dais to the command chair.

  "Aye, sir, you have the con." Beth responded. "The comm is on your terminal."

  "Thank you Beth." Aaron smiled at her and then turned to the terminal beside him. "Good afternoon, Captain James, welcome to theCrusher. How are things on your end?"

  "Good afternoon, Captain Eagles Reach. Things are... rushed. We are spaceworthy, but at this point I wouldn't want to take us into combat. We still have far too many rough edges and the equipment isn't yet second nature. We also still don't have a good feel for the way that the improvements to our war-fighting technologies has changed how we operate." He gave a rueful laugh. "We haven't really had a chance to try any of it out."

  Aaron smiled wryly in return. "Well, we have had a whole three weeks with it so we'll be happy to show you the way forward. It appears that not having quite enough time will be a continuing theme for us over the course of this whole deployment."

  "It does indeed, it does indeed." Captain James paused and thought for a moment. "What were you thinking in terms training schedule?"

  "I was thinking that I would allow three days for you and yours to settle in. By that time the rest of the squadron should have arrived and we will be able to begin planning in earnest. I would like to meet with you and your officers tomorrow for dinner when you have had a chance to look at what your trials will look like, if that would be convenient. Bring your thinking caps." Aaron responded.

  "Sounds like a plan. We will talk to you closer to the time. Forthright clear."

  "Well, this should be interesting. Either Captain James is more honest than most officers I know, or things really are in a state with him." Beth said from behind Aaron. "I wonder what the Chivalrys will be like?"

  "They should be in better shape than we are. Their acceptance trials have been over for nearly six months. Most of them have been on their first deployments already. The ones we are getting were some of the first built. Lancelot is under the command of Jacob Smith, like most of the captains we're getting, he's young, but has a lot of experience. I don't know the others personally, but their personnel jackets would make them seem to be made of the same stuff. It seems that Dorcas has tried to pick as many captains of the same mould as he can." Suddenly Aaron changed tacks. "The morning despatches came with news of our light cruisers. We're getting two Reliants and two of the new Prince Regents; Captains Piotr Kolokstov, Ernesto Aguinaldo, Jeremiah Braun and Yukiko Ichiju commanding respectively. I've served with Captains Ichiju and Kolokstov before. Yukiko was my JTO on Defiant when we fought at Amery and Kolokstov was boat bay officer when I was TO on the Nelson. Both are good officers. I've never even heard of Aguinaldo, but again, his jacket seems to indicate he too is cut from the same cloth. Braun appears to be a staid and steady sort. Calm and cold under fire, and unflappable under most circumstances. This should be an interesting deployment."

  "As you say, sir. Do we know when to expect the arrival of the rest of the squadron?"

  "The Chivalrys should arrive tomorrow and be ready to start working with us immediately. Yukiko and Prince Richard and Braun and Prince Edward should arrive tomorrow as well. Kolokstov and Indefatigable and Aguinaldo and Courageous should arrive the day after." Aaron ginned, "We then will have the whole band of misfits together and ready to rumble. Or at least ready to practice rumbling."

  "So, basically, Dorcas has put together all of his most childish captains, and given them a nigh on impossible task in the hopes that it grows them up?" Coren laughed from his post at tactical. Of all of Mission's officers, Coren had been the strongest objector when Aaron had outlined what it was the admiralty had asked them to do.

  "Well, perhaps not grow us up so much as give us a place to expend our energy." Aaron replied gamely. "Besides, this whole rush thing was becoming old hat. They needed to add a level danger to the whole thing to stop it from becoming stale."

  "I wish they'd kept their new hats to themselves." Beth said grumpily. "Or at least they would actually allow our current hat to get old."

  Coren laughed, "But that would make sense, and the Admiralty can't start doing that! It would ruin their image."

  "Yeah, but it would take down my stress quotient by a factor of 20." Beth said. "Well, at least we get another week to knock the edges off, before we are deployed."

  "All right you two, that's enough. We have a job to do and it's no good talking about how difficult it is." Aaron's admonishment was gentle and aimed just as much at himself. "Why don't we get together tonight, and start building some scenarios that we can use to drill the squadron and hopefully make it a force worth fighting?"

  –

  "The way I see it," Beth began, after the dishes had been cleared away, "is that one of the primary problems we are going to encounter is that the destroyers will already be used to working together, while the rest of the squadron will not be. It will be less of an exercise in teaching the whole squadron to work together, and more an exercise in figuring out how to integrate several new parts into an old system. Oh, sure, the destroyers will have to change some of the ways they operate, based on the new missiles and missile defences we have at our disposal, but by and large, they already know what they're doing."

  "I agree with your analysis, but I think that the new technology might change how we interact with them more than we realize at this point." Coren returned jovially. "After all, the missiles have so vastly expanded our engagement range, that traditional screening elements, at least until the enemy catch up, will mean relatively little, provided we can play cat and mouse and keep out of range."

  "I'm not convinced, that despite our superior acceleration, we can count on consistently staying out of engagement range. We would have to be constantly accelerating toward and then away from the enemy with perfect timing. Stacking salvoes would be next to impossible. If we run up against something heavier than us, I doubt we'll be able to do as well as we did in the initial stages. Realistically, we shouldn't have been able to wipe out the enemy missiles that thoroughly. I know it was based on our best appreciations at the time, but since then we've had another hard look at the data and increased their penetrating power." She paused for a moment and then continued. "I don't think we can quite count on our penetration being that good either. Their shield generators almost have to be better than that. I mean, these are dreadnoughts we're talking about here. I don't know why they failed like that, the scenario didn't tell me but I doubt they will in actual combat."

  Aaron had mostly listened up to this point. At last he spoke. "I think you're both right. I don't think we can count on taking out a dreadnought on our own. The difference in power levels is just too much. And I think Beth is right. We must have drastically underestimated their penetration power given how well they swept the field at Arezon, Beta Orionis, and Gamma Orionis. At the same time, we need to ensure we stay out of the enemy's engagement envelope for as long as possible which will require a refocus of our screening strategy. This will take some better appreciations of the enemies capabilities. That will mean time and more combat, sadly. So before we make any drastic changes to screening and defensive strategy, we need to discover how our offensive strategy has changed. The Chivalrys will all be able to fire the Mark 16, granted, at a lower initial velocity, but their range and acceleration remain the same. And if we're stacking salvoes, initial velocity will only change the calculations, not the actual strategy. Of the four light cruisers, however, only Prince Regents are Mark 16 Capable. I think we need to base our defensive doctrine based more around the Reliants than the destroyers, and our offensive strategy should be based on the Mark 16s. With this in mind, how do we want to go about drilling?"

  Coren and Beth both sat silent for a moment, and then Coren spoke. "The biggest changes will be to how we operate at range. We will the need the most time t
o strategically adjust to that new reality. That being said, new defensive doctrine will be important to squadron survival, so we shouldn't leave it too long to figure out how we're going to work this out."

  "I agree," Beth said slowly. "But at the same time, until we have better appreciations of enemy engagement effectiveness, we can't really build a realistic defensive doctrine."

  "So what you are both agreed on is that we tackle offensive doctrine first, then defensive doctrine, hopefully after we have better analysis of the enemy. We begin drilling, as two separate forces then as coherent unit later. We will want to do both just for operational flexibility but we have to start somewhere." Aaron gave them a rueful smile. "I have a feeling we will be doing a fair bit of detached operation on this assignment."

  "I had an idea for that." Coren said, a mischievous grin crossing his face. "Why don't we have a little competition? Pit one half of the squadron against another, see who has the best gunnery, and so forth. The winner will win everlasting glory, at least until the next one."

  "I like the idea. It will take some doing to accomplish it in a short period of time, but it should be manageable. We can set it up for the end of Forthright's acceptance trials. That should make things as even as they will get and it will give us time to set it up and get a feel for how the Chivalrys will stack up." Beth chimed in. She then turned to Aaron "Do you want me to draw up some ideas for the exercise, or do you want to wait and involve the others in the process?"