“Fine. Give me one of yours this time. Same pilot.”
This time the combat was longer, but he still lost. Not surprising, as the awareness level needed to get the most out of an Excalibur was something he wasn’t familiar with. We had the same problem with new pilots. They could handle the smaller fighters we’d started with, but it took them time to be able to handle the Excalibur properly. Now, we trained them in simulators on the lighter fighters until they could handle the Excalibur, before letting them into combat. We hadn't had that luxury to start with.
As a final simulation before a break, everyone had an Excalibur. We won of course, but we did lose a quarter of our pilots doing it. The American CAG, knowing better how to use the ship, had given orders on how and when to use what. Break postponed, we went again, and this time lost half our pilots. They were good. Just flying out of date ships.
During the break, we were all pilots, and rank meant nothing. The discussions were purely professional.
After the break, we started introducing the super-corvettes, and astounded all of them when they found they flew like a fighter did. More than half of them were unable to maintain the awareness to fight them properly. Those pilots went off into their own simulation, back in Excaliburs, and were shown the lighter Brawler as well, which most of them liked, and was still well beyond what they were flying.
The remaining pilots were upgraded to destroyers. Again, half failed to be able to use them effectively, but the ones who were started raving about the experience. These were put in Relentless, but failed to fight her effectively, mainly because her main armament was turrets. But put into Chaos, and those same pilots ripped through Trixone fleets the same as ours did.
In fact, the only pilots who were put into a Chaos on our side were Lacey and me. Neither of us had flown one before, but we’d both flown BigMother, so when we went head to head with the American CAG each, we prevailed, but the combat was totally insane, and lasted so long we were exhausted by the time Stars called a halt with no clear winner.
Some of the pilots who were not able to master the Brawler were actually navy rather than fighter. When we put them into Relentless, they performed more than adequately. Which gave us options for upgraded ships. Jane started thinking about pocket battleships again, with cruiser hulls given battleship turrets, and not much more than power generation and shielding. They would suit some of the American cruiser drivers a lot better than the new dreadnaughts.
Dinner that night was in a pilot’s mess on Stars, with the marines and infantry eating in a Marine mess, where they also got to talk with Lufafluf soldiers who’d fought the Trixone on the ground.
The diplomats didn’t return, so Stars assigned everyone accommodation for the night.
Back on BigMother, Aline wanted to play, but I zonked out the moment my head hit the pillow.
Sixteen
The diplomats didn’t return the next morning either.
Instead, Jane sent out Lightning limos to collect trader civvies, who wanted to see the trading system and what products were selling where. I made sure she was going to show them the premium accommodation options available on Haven. The richer of them might like to take up residence in the center of the network, and in a low tax society. All that space was available for sale or rent again, so why not spread the word it was available?
I also suggested to David our committee might want to think about leasing islands down on the planet for corporate headquarters. He sent me back the ping equivalent of tapping his nose.
The Lightnings went back out with the military going home, and came back with every single CAG and top gun from the sector fleets. This wasn’t a lot of pilots, as there were not that many carriers between the four sectors, and a handful of retired CAG’s who’d had wake up calls in the dawn hours, and told to be ready for an early pickup.
We put them through the same process as the day before, but in the simulators after trashing them in their own ships, we gave them Brawlers to start with. And instead of going head to head with our people, we put everyone on a Scimitar piloted by Lacey, and flung them at a Trixone fleet.
Once again, the results were brutal, but as the day went on, most of these pilots were able to advance to at least the destroyers. The CAG’s were put in the center seat of a Scimitar, and had to fight the ship and its three squadrons by themselves.
I found out after, there’d been a limo run to pick up marines, infantry officers, and senior NCO’s. They left with the pilots.
By the end of the day, Jane was certain we’d be getting a lot of volunteers, even if the sectors didn’t join us. I had her prepare one of the stations we’d appropriated from the pirates as a forward base for recruiting, and a movement center for families moving to Haven. Freighters were in the process of being turned into jump drive equipped ferries, and would be delivered docked to the station.
I sent a request to David to sound out if the Australian sector would allow us to put a station in the Apricot system, given it was not being used at all. By the time the diplomats returned, and were limo’d home, we’d had approval to do so, and it was being considered an Imperium embassy. We tentatively renamed the actually unnamed system as Imperious.
Another long day ended, and before dinner Aline and I joined the rest of the team in a spa. It had been a while, and we had the chance to catch up properly.
Things had changed.
I was now a commander in chief. Numero Uno. The big cheese. The head honcho. The sad git everyone expected to have a plan. Mind you, I always had been it seemed, just never allowed myself to acknowledge it.
Aline was my aide. We were ship bound.
The rest of the team were mainly on assault ships, and fighting on the ground. George and Grace were flying dreadnaughts. Annabelle was directing large ground actions from orbit, and didn’t go in with the troops anymore.
Such was war.
So the chances for a good naked soak together were few and far between these days. And appreciated when they happened, even if some were missing.
I sat there watching the byplay going on, but I was thinking forward as I usually did. I must have gazed for too long at Alison.
“What’s up, Jon?” she asked me, and conversation stopped.
“Just thinking.”
“Red alert,” yelled Alana, and we all started laughing.
I let them go, and waited until they were again looking at me intently.
“How do you think recruiting will go when we start?”
I looked around at all of them. They all looked at Annabelle.
“I think the sectors are about to have a serious problem if they don’t join the Imperium.”
“Explain.”
I thought I knew where this was going.
“I think across the four sectors, and from retirees still fit enough to reenlist, we can expect to fill at least a division of troops, and twenty or thirty teams of marines, made up from the various Special Forces units. The SAS in particular want our suits, weapons, and combat suits.”
“I’d be very surprised,” added Aline, “if we don’t get big orders to replace all their military equipment, including fighters. While you were all on the courses, and Jon was in the simulator, I was monitoring with Jane what everyone was saying.”
“Will the sectors join the Imperium?” asked Abagail.
“It’s looking likely,” said Jane through room coms.
“But even if they don’t, we can expect enough recruits to fill our needs?” I asked.
“I’d say so,” said Aline.
“Hmmm.”
“He’s got that look again,” said Agatha, causing everyone to smile.
“Spill it Jon,” said Amanda.
I looked at Alison again. She was a Lieutenant Colonel, and a much underutilized one.
“Alison, are you ready for your own team?”
“Hell yes, she is,” exclaimed Aleesha.
“Why Jon?” asked Alison.
I ignored the question,
and looked around them all again. My eyes stopped on Annabelle, and she nodded, but kept her face straight.
“Let me ask you all another question. Are any of you feeling inadequate to leading your own teams?”
They looked around at each other, but no-one spoke up.
“Jon?” asked BA accusingly. “What are you doing?”
I took a deep breathe, and jumped into the deep end, so to speak.
“If we get the marine recruits we want, I want to give each of you a team. Amanda and Aleesha, it will mean separating you, and as colonels you’d each command ten or so teams, under Annabelle as you are now.”
They both frowned, and I went on hurriedly.
“Alison, you’d take command of team one.”
She actually nodded.
I looked at BA next.
“Oh hell no, you don’t,” she exploded.
“What?” asked Agatha, looking confused.
“He wants to make us officers,” said BA, making it seem like a death sentence.
“Actually,” I said, pausing, “I was thinking of making all of you at least a major.”
Annabelle grinned. BA rounded on her.
“Did you put him up to this bullshit?” she yelled.
“No, of course not. But I saw it coming, and I agree, it’s long overdue. Every single one of you has already lead troops on the ground, and none of you fucked up in combat doing it. You’ve all been training new teams. In actual fact, back when Jon made Aline an officer, I thought then you all should have been. And Aline is on track to be a major very soon. I see no reason why the rest of you can’t be as well.”
BA hauled herself out of the spa, and looked down on us, stark naked and dripping.
“I’m not having any part of this bullshit. If you make me an officer, I’m done. I’m as high as I ever wanted to go, as high as I ever thought I could go, and this is all I want to be. Fuck this.”
Her belt shifted into ‘slinky red’, and she sprinted out, leaving the rest of us silent.
“That went better than I expected,” said Annabelle.
Seventeen
I tried to catch up to BA on the running track.
And failed. So I waited for her to come around again, and took off next to her. She doubled her pace, and I fell behind rapidly.
“Fuck it,” I said to myself, and went for a shower before dinner.
BA didn’t turn up for dinner. No-one commented on her absence.
Aline insisted on bed gymnastics that night, and it was quite late before we were lying quietly beside each other, hot and sweaty, but content. Angel turned up when we stopped moving around a lot, and went to sleep between our heads.
“You know Jon, you didn’t think this ‘getting their own teams’ thing out properly, did you?”
“Probably not.”
“But you have already set a policy.”
“Have I?”
“Sure.”
She grinned at me. My hand patted Angel and swept on across her breasts and down her front.
“Oi. Concentrate. This is important.”
“So’s this.”
My hand idly twirled the hair of her pubic triangle. She seized it, my hand that is, and pushed it away.
“Jon!”
“Okay, I’m listening.”
“What have you said about ranks and jobs?”
“What?”
“You tell me.”
“Aline, do we have to talk about this now?”
“Yes, we do. Because you fucked up dealing with BA, and now you have to fix it.”
“Is this my aide, or my lover talking?”
“Both.”
I sighed.
“Maybe we should have had this conversation before we took our clothes off.”
“Maybe, but we’re having it now, so you can sleep on it.”
“Sleep, yes.”
I caught her hand before she could slap me.
“Okay. Remind me.”
“You reward people with rank for what they do, and give them a job they are capable of doing.”
“So?”
“What’s BA good at?”
“Kicking arse, and telling Imperators she’s done?”
“And? What is it she actually does?”
“She’s the point person when the team go in at the shit end.”
“And so?”
“I’m not getting you.”
She sighed.
“She leads the team in combat.”
“I just said that.”
“But you’re not acting on it.”
“Why not?”
“What is she for fucks sake? Really?”
“A team leader. THE team leader.”
“Finally.”
“But officers lead teams, and she doesn’t want to be an officer.”
“Who said teams had to be led by officers?”
My mouth dropped open. Out of the mouths of babes. Sort of. She reached out and gently closed mine.
“So let’s look at it the other way around. Who leads teams?”
“The best marine leader available.”
“And their rank is?”
“Irrelevant.”
She clapped me.
“But it’s not,” I went on. “There has to be some sort of structure to the team system. Team one worked because you were the alpha team first, and you ignored ranks. It won’t work for other teams.”
“It might. But it doesn’t need to. Think about it. If we’re making new teams because you’re promoting new team leaders from the existing ones, then who’s in each team is yet to be decided.”
“Oh. Good point. BA can lead a team, and still be the senior rank in the team.”
“And while you’re at it, you could get rid of that stupid rank she has now.”
“What? Master Command Sergeant Major?”
“Yes that mouthful. As far as I can gather, that kind of rank should only exist once in an army, and not with a combat soldier. Master is not really a rank. It’s a long service acknowledgment in the American navy for senior Chief Petty Officers, to keep them enlisted and out of combat.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Who cares if it’s right or not? It’s the wrong rank for what we need, which is a senior combat marine rank.”
“What do you suggest?”
She told me.
I laughed so hard, Angel woke up, gave us an angry meow, and jumped off the bed.
Aline took the opportunity to run her hands down my body instead.
We forgot all about BA and ranks.
Eighteen
I opened a rift between Imperious and Haven, and Jane sent the station through.
Immediately the rift closed, freighters began undocking, and jumping out. All of them had ‘Jane’s Ferries’ in large letters on the sides. I noticed she’d even put windows in on several decks, although at the speed of jumps, they wouldn’t be seeing much at all. Still, it was an interesting touch.
On a whim I opened up the navmap for Imperium space, and sure enough, there were a dozen ferries blipping their way to various stations. Jane had obviously found an extension to her limo service, this time working with mass passenger transport. Good luck to her. I wasn’t going to be surprised if she set up a series of routes, doing dozens of stations every day. Give her a few more days, and she’d have them working our new big cat space as well.
Vonda Wellington and Walter Harriman came through on the station. Both being four star generals, they needed to be in any discussions about how to use any troops we picked up. Vonda had the command, but Walter was logistics and supply. They joined me in the conference room on BigMother, as well as Annabelle, Hobbs, Jack O’Neill, and Jane. Aline was sitting down the other end of the table, with the aides to the four stars.
I had Annabelle repeat what she’d told us the evening before. No-one disagreed with her.
“Walter, how are we on weapons and suit belts for several divisions of troops?”
&nbs
p; “Not as good as I’d like, Jon. We need a mass production facility, for just military equipment. We need side arms, swords, combat suits, the lot. I’d like to requisition one of the stations you took from the pirates, and have it converted to production, storage, and distribution of all things military.”
“Jane?”
“Take your pick, Walter. They’re all being upgraded at the moment, but we can start fabricating fabricators straight away.”
“Thanks,” he said. “I’ll talk to you after the meeting.”
All eyes went back to me.
“What are your thoughts on command structure, assuming we get a division from the Americans, possibly a second one, and then anything from battalions to brigades from other sectors? The big cats should be sending us troops as well soon.”
“Anyone sending us a division is going to be sending a two star commanding them,” said Vonda. “We need to be able to build them into the overall command structure.”
“I’m not too keen on having external generals running battles without any experience of our tech,” said Jack, “or how to use it.”
“Bothers me too,” said Annabelle.
“Maybe we don’t accept divisions,” suggested Vonda.
“How does that help?” I asked.
“We ask for brigade sized units, on the basis we’ll need to mix and match units from across the Imperium into larger forces. That way we only get brigadier generals, and we put our own two stars over them at the divisional level. If we get big enough to have more divisions than we have two stars, then we headhunt the good ones, and give them special training before they command anything.”
“Sounds good to me. Where do marines come into the scheme of things?”
“We group them into battalion sized units,” said Annabelle, “assuming we get enough, each one under a colonel, and reporting to their own one or two star. But if we deploy in divisional numbers, we’re going to need a two star on the ground, and a three star in orbit. In that mix, a couple of battalions of marines doing special operations, or simply being the tip of the spear, won’t want a second two star pissing in the first one’s pool.”
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