There were smiles all round.
“What’s the plan for deployments though?” asked Hobbs. “Stars can deploy about a division I understand, but we only have one ship able to do that.”
“Orion’s Belt wouldn’t take much work to carry troops instead of fighters,” said Jane. “And both could be modified to launch Cobra dropships instead of Excaliburs. If we dock the Cobra’s in the existing launch tubes, we don’t need much maintenance deck behind them, just mainly room to embark and disembark troops. The flight decks below them only need to run down the sides of the ship, with a landing spot and elevator for each dropship. We use the freed up space down the middle of the ships to dock more assault cruisers, or dock Scimitar’s for fighter deployment.”
She looked at me.
“We could even dock BigMother under one of them, so an entire divisional force moves as a single ship.”
“That would give us two divisions of mobile forces,” said Hobbs. “Each one capable of taking on a major Trixone landing.”
“And we have smaller brigade and regiment sized units,” added Annabelle, “for either holding actions, or putting on the ground before a pending attack to hold key positions. Marine units could do those, or ones like the Lufafluf battalion.”
“We need to rethink our assault ships as well,” said Jane.
“How so?” I asked her.
“All of our assault ships are based around taking a long time to deploy anywhere, so they have an enormous amount of wasted space used for accommodations. Now we have the jump drives, deployment anywhere is going to be a matter of minutes to hours, not days. So if we rip out all the accommodation, and just have deployment armouries and ready to deploy areas, we can significantly increase the number of troops on each ship, even the frigates. In fact, you could deploy a company of marines in a standard Gunbus if the whole deck is just armoury and deployment bay.”
There were wise looking nods all the way around.
“Fine, work up a proposal with Bob, and find out when he can do the work. Or if it can be done without a shipyard visit, just using builder droids.”
“Confirmed. Which ships?”
“Both Orions. I think we can move fighters to Scimitars shortly. If we get enough of the really good CAG’s joining us, we can give each one a Scimitar and three squadrons of Excaliburs, and assign one or two to each Orion. Any others get to escort our other assault ships. Talking of which, modify the lot, including the frigates.”
I looked at Jack.
“What do you want to do with Homer, Jack?”
Homer belonged to Jack personally.
“Let me ask you a different question, Jon. Are you claiming Gold Coast as your own personal planet?”
He was grinning, and they all suddenly were.
“Am I that obvious?”
“Yes,” said everyone together.
“I guess I am then. What of it?”
“You can have Homer if you give me title to a nice big tropical island, and a permanent rift between our digs on Haven, and the building I will be building there.”
“Done.”
I grinned with them, and turned back to Jane.
“You better talk to Bonko about his cruiser. In fact, you better find out what he wants to do. He may want to retire, now we look like having some forces to use instead of stretching him thinly.”
“There is nothing thin about Bonko,” laughed Jack. “If you like, I’ll talk to him.”
“Good. Let me know what he decides. We need more assault ships anyway, Jane. Can you look into possible conversions as well?”
“Already doing it. Are we going to continue rifting troops in by stations?”
“Yes, but it can only be done when there is no immediate threat of the station being destroyed. So if we get ahead of the Trixone advance and dig in, we’re going to need ships to get the troops there. Once the battles are over, we can rift in a station, and then send in relief troops.”
“Which reminds me,” interjected Walter. “We’re going to want a second tier of troops, for going in to relieve anyone besieged, or to mop up plant remnants while the core units go off to another battle or a well-earned rest.”
“Another reason for using brigades or less,” said Hobbs. “It allows us to move units around a lot easier than divisions. If we can, we make up two divisions for the Orions, and whatever units we have over get the better colonels to command them, and we billet them in the military zone on Haven, being moved around by fast deployment assault ships.”
I could see they were all in agreement.
“So, do the math on senior officers needed.”
They all looked serious for a moment, and turned to look at Vonda and Walter. Both had much more experience at being senior generals.
“The way I see it,” said Walter, after Vonda made a ‘you go’ motion with her hand, “with what’s been said, we’ll need a three star on each Orion in overall command, plus a two star on each to command on the ground. Each brigade needs a one star. The marine units commanded by colonels, reporting to the two star.”
He paused.
“Then we need another three star to co-ordinate the second tier forces, plus the one star and colonels, depending on the unit sizes.”
Vonda was nodding. Annabelle was frowning. I made eye contact with her. The math didn’t work. We had no three stars at all, just a four star, a couple of two stars, and a one star. We did however have a two star admiral on one of the Orions.
“Do we really need the three stars?” I asked.
“Maybe not initially,” said Vonda. “But we need to plan for them if we get more than two divisions and mixed allsorts.”
“Recommendations?”
Everyone looked at Vonda.
She made them.
Nineteen
I had lunch with the alpha team.
BA was a no-show again. The rest looked pensive, although Annabelle was positively cheerful, which I think freaked the rest of them out. Aline was enjoying the reactions, although I did wonder if she really wanted her own command, instead of following me around. Trouble was, it wouldn’t work, and we both knew it.
With the help of some subtle conversation, I now knew none of the non-commissioned on the team wanted to be an officer. Aline had been an anomaly in that regard. It cemented a course of action.
One thing I needed to know, required me asking.
“Can you two function apart from each other?” I asked Amanda and Aleesha.
They looked at each other, did their mental communication thing, and looked back at me.
“Yes,” they said together.
“We thought about it,” said Amanda.
“And realized we’ve been doing it for a month now,” said Aleesha.
“We’re in the same ground actions.”
“But leading different units all the time.”
“Will you two stop doing that?” barked Aline.
We all grinned. Their alternating was legendary. And very annoying.
“We’re not going to be thrilled about it,” said Amanda, “but everything has been leading in that direction for a while now.”
“And we can communicate with each other at long distance,” added Aleesha.
“So if I give you both a battalion, you’re happy with it?” I asked them.
“Yes,” they said together again.
I looked at Alison.
“Whatever you want me to do.”
“Okay then. We just need to wait and see how many troops we get to use.”
Lunch finished with happier people, and I just hoped some of it rubbed off onto BA. I could order her to come see me, but it wasn’t something I wanted to do.
While I had them, I called Vonda and Walter into a meeting with Annabelle, and the marine and SAS team leaders. Those not with us appeared by hollo.
I went over the need for more team leaders, and the probable need for between two and four understrength battalions, at least to start with. Understrength in
terms of beginning with ten teams each, which was two hundred troops, or two company’s worth.
No-one seemed to have a problem with Amanda and Aleesha commanding the first and second battalions, or with spreading the SAS and any Special Forces units we picked up, across the battalions. Likewise allocating Alison to command the third battalion, and Sam Jackman-O’Neill the fourth.
The main order of business was assessments of team members who were ready to lead their own teams. Most of these were sergeants of one level or another anyway, but a few were lieutenants ready to be promoted to major. Aline made a list, in order of best to not so best, which we’d allocate as we formed new teams.
All in all, it was a productive meeting. After it, I opened a rift over to the Imperious station, and Vonda and Walter stepped through, on their way back to Haven. Team leaders went back to their teams, and I headed for my ready room.
Jane touched base with me about the Orion redesign, and I signed off on the changes. She convinced me to leave twelve fighter launch tubes at the front on each side of the ship, and four squadrons of Excaliburs. Since we didn’t have spare Scimitars, it was better to simply leave that capacity on the Orions, and it didn’t affect dropship numbers enough to matter. When you’re talking about kilometers of ship side, you could fit a lot of launchers in, even if they were twice as big as before. And she was using the two ships per tube system for the Cobras as well, doubling the launch capacity.
Neither Orion was going to need a shipyard, but both needed to be out of range of combat for about a day. I gave the go ahead, and several of the Chaos dreadnaughts were moved to cover Orion’s Belt.
Midafternoon, David contacted me with the news all four sectors would be joining the Imperium, each of them intending to declare formal independence from Earth space the next day, and all agreeing to keep their space open to each other’s traders. I found it interesting that although the sectors were to all intent and purposes separate political entities, none of them had formally separated ties with Earth before. With the jump point to Earth closed now for good, it was simpler for them to do so.
Likewise, the Sci-Fi sector would be proclaimed the next day as well, and recruiting for the Imperium would begin immediately, with ferries already docked at stations down the spine to pick up whole families and their possessions. It would probably take a few weeks to move a million people, but I was informed a lot of key military would be ready to move the next day regardless, even if their families followed a week or so later. Jane had cloned off another avatar to directly handle recruitment of non-sector ex-military people, regardless of if they were moving to Sci-Fi space or not. And she was already using a lot of security droids pretending to be people, ready to interface face to face as people arrived.
Vonda received the job of talking to all four militaries about what troop units they were prepared to second to the Imperium. Bigglesworth took on the job for CAG’s and fighter pilots, and Jedburgh for naval officers, and their bridge crews. They knew what we needed immediately, and what we wanted as resources allowed. It saved me needing to be involved, and let’s face it, why have four stars if they didn’t make themselves useful building their areas of the military?
Next, I had Jane organize transport for all the ship captains, leaving their XO’s in command, and also for the remaining marine teams. She started setting up the Stars auditorium to gather everyone in, and getting butler droids ready for a formal dinner.
I figured this was going to be the last time we’d get together as the team we were, and I needed to address everyone in person as to the changes coming. To that end, I spent the rest of the afternoon preparing. Lightnings converged on us over the next couple of hours, using the Gold Coast rift from Haven, and a lot of jumps.
Shortly before five, I shifted into dress uniform, went down to the deck two living room where everyone else invited was waiting, and opened a rift over to Stars.
They followed me through.
Twenty
“Things are about to change.”
I was alone on the rostrum this time. Everyone else was seated out in the auditorium. The room went still.
“As you should be aware, the four sectors we’ve been courting are joining the Imperium tomorrow. And the new Sci-Fi sector is officially forming as well, also joining the Imperium.”
There was a round of applause. I waited for it to ease.
“This is probably the last time we’ll meet as this group. Most of us fought the Midgard War, and the Darkness War, and we’re a team, regardless of which part of the Imperium military we’re in now. By necessity, we’re about to have a huge influx into our ranks. And everything will change.”
More applause.
“Up until now, our ships and our focus has been defensive. This changes. Some of our ships are being modified already, and many we took from the pirates will be as well, as we change from the expectation of needing accommodation on ships while they stay on station, to ships only needing to jump in, deploy, collect, and jump out again. We’re going to pack more troops on each ship, and have a lot more troopships. Why?”
“Because Bob loves changing things!” yelled Agatha, causing a lot of laughter.
“That too. The Americans are sending us six brigades of troops, and the British, Australian, and Canadian sectors are sending a brigade each. We also expect to get a brigade from the new Sci-Fi sector as well. This will give us two divisions of troops in addition to what we have now. With the possibility of more once we talk to the other sectors down the spine.”
The applause was louder this time.
“The two Orion titans are being modified at the moment to each carry a division of troops, and be able to rapidly deploy those troops using various frigate to cruiser sized troopships, and massed Cobra dropships. Their missions will be to hit planets under attack, or about to be attacked. We will also deploy troops using the new rift stations, and these will be used when the space above the planet is secured.”
I paused, and looked around the room.
“Obviously, we’re going to need a few changes to personnel assignments. The first and second Imperium divisions will form the first tier of our new army. Other units will be assigned to the second tier, doing special assignments, and providing relief forces for after heavy fighting, or where we need to garrison for a short time.”
I paused again, and my eyes went to Vonda in the first row.
“General Wellington assumes command of the Imperium army. Lieutenant General Hobbs will command the second Imperium division, based on Orion’s Belt. Lieutenant General Smith will command all marine units, and the second tier forces. Brigadier General O’Neill, please stand.”
Jack looked surprised, and after a dig in the ribs from his wife, stood.
“Brigadier, you are promoted to Lieutenant General, and placed in command of the first Imperium division, based on Orion’s Stars. Congratulations.”
He looked poleaxed for a moment, but recovered. His eyes glazed for a second, and then his suit insignia changed for the new rank. He saluted me, and I returned it. I nodded, and he sat, where Sam promptly kissed him. There a few catcalls and wolf whistles, which I let slide.
“The colonels Peck, and Lieutenant Colonel Jackman-O’Neill, are hereby relieved of command of teams one and six respectively.” Now it was Sam’s turn to look shocked. “We expect to be gaining at least thirty new marine teams, made up of British and Australian SAS, and American and Canadian Special Forces, and space marines. To this end, Colonel Amanda Peck will command Marine Battalion One, Colonel Aleesha Peck will command Marine Battalion Two, Lieutenant Colonel Vogane will command Marine Battalion Three, and Lieutenant Colonel Sam Jackman-O’Neill will command Marine Battalion Four.”
The applause was thunderous this time, and I had to wait for it to stop. This time it was Sam getting kissed by her husband.
“To start with, the battalions will be light weight, comprising ten teams each. As we receive or train more teams they will be distributed to
each battalion. Lieutenant Anders, please stand.”
A young looking marine stood, coming to a rigid attention.
“Lieutenant, you’re promoted to major, and assigned to command team six.”
His eyes just about popped out. I could see Sam chuckling at his discomfort. But she also had a proud look on her face. His suit changed a few moments later with his new rank, and he also saluted me, which I returned. He sat immediately.
“Master Command Sergeant Major Baracas, please stand.”
BA stood and braced, looking like her world was about to end. I sent a withering look at her, and she took it.
“The rank of Master Command Sergeant Major is no more.”
I paused, while she flinched. I don’t think I’d ever seen her flinch before. I didn’t let up though.
“And you’re done when I bloody well say you’re done. Is that understood, marine?”
There was a shocked silence. No-one expected me to yell at BA. Although I noticed Annabelle and the twins had their hands over their mouths, presumably silently chuckling. I think they’d guessed where this was going.
“SIR, YES, SIR!”
“Good. Once upon a time, there was the joke about the Corporal Captain. And for a while I did consider it. But then I thought of something better.”
“Marine Baracas, you are given the rank of Sergeant Colonel. There will only ever be one Sergeant Colonel in the entire army. The insignia will be the same as you have now, with the exception of the stars being replaced by a bird. You are further placed in command of Marine Team One, assigned to Marine Battalion One.”
I looked at her with a stern expression.
“Are you happy now, Sergeant Colonel?”
“Ecstatic, Imperator.”
Her uniform insignia changed, she saluted me, I returned it, and she sat. I let myself chill out, and smiled.
“Master Sergeant Weaver, and Senior Sergeants Merritt and Henquist, please stand.”
Abigail, Agatha, and Alana, all stood and braced.
“You are all promoted to Sergeant Major, and will become team leaders for the first three new marine teams. Congratulations.”
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