by Chris Hechtl
Those who had wronged him would deeply regret that mistake he vowed. Of that he was certain.
Chapter 20
With Epsilon Triangula a big question mark, Admiral Subert modified his original plan. Once the first North Hampton class light cruiser Tumuloch, named after a famous Tauren explorer, was free of the yard and Kittyhawk had finished her second set of working-up exercises, Admiral Subert sent Kittyhawk, two frigates as escorts, one small freighter as a supply ship, and one small freighter with an ansible and ansible station to secure Hidoshi's World. The ansible ship was to set up an ansible there.
The plan was for the escort carrier to secure the B-100 omega star system with her escorts once the supplies and fresh marines made it in to Hidoshi's World. With Kathy's World anchored north of them on the other end of the warp chain, they would be the stopper in the bottle to protect Richalu and Hidoshi's World. They would also cut off the occupational forces in Destria. Eventually the fleet and marines would mount an expedition to retake the star system when assets were available.
The rear admiral was amused by the various ship names when he read the latest build schedule. Many were familiar to him; they were names carried over from tradition: Defiant, Enterprise, Voyager, and Firefly, for instance. The name Firefly had always been used on small cargo vessels for some reason up until the admiral had rammed through the ship's name as an HC. Enterprise was designated as an HC despite the name's original origin in World War II as a carrier. Even the hull number 1701 was carried over, like the HC Defiant's 74205. Hull 74656, the LC Voyager, was lined up as a scout cruiser. Some traditions were apparently resurfacing. Some were worth keeping, but some needed an overhaul. He shook his head.
The battle cruiser Maine was named as such because her Newmann class ship had replaced a Derfflinger hull that had been scrapped. The Newman class ships had been slowly replacing the older design.
His check on the status board made him find a sour note in all the green. Damocles and Bounty had finally departed for Protodon with the marines but it had come at great cost. Not only had he lost two more frigates, four corvettes, and four gunships, but a third of their shipping between Pyrax and Antigua had been cut. Their largest transport had been detailed along with a medium one and a medium collier to carry the marines and their gear to Protodon. That cut personnel shipping between the shipyards by half. They would be in transit for twelve weeks and would be gone an estimated twenty-two weeks before reaching Antigua. That was if they didn't have any engineering casualties or Amadeus held them up in Protodon! He sighed.
He kicked himself for not re-appropriating the Oasis of Space and using it instead. He shook his head. What was done was done he thought with a pang. He made another note to do something about shipping again.
What he liked about the new ships was that Commander Sindri and that captain … he frowned and then nodded. Commander Ssir'alth had named a ship after a famous Naga captain from the Xeno war. He made a note to look into that. He liked that idea, the idea of honoring some lost friends and possibly family.
One thing he had to do was reinforce the Gaston picket since Firefly was not in the star system. The planet's authorities were screaming three shades of a fit daily about upping the picket force. He frowned. He'd originally intended to have Destiny and possibly another collier carry in a quartet of gunships and a supporting station for them to use. Now with something going on in Epsilon Triangula, he felt something more significant was in order.
Sun-Yat and Dupleix were finished with their recent renovation and working up. He tapped their status. He'd intended for the two Apollo class corvettes to do some exercises together, but they could do that while watching over Gaston. He tapped out the order and then shot a copy to the ship's captain, logistics, and Saul. He tapped out a note to Saul to alert the governor or president or whatever in Gaston that they would be there in a few weeks.
The EC John Paul Jones was working through her exercises. Commander Valdez had been on target with the EC's fighter compliment, though they still had a lot of teething issues. He'd poached some of the fortress and Kitty Hawk's squadrons for the fighter squadron's leadership. He snorted at the nasty note one lieutenant forwarded to him. That was tough. The young man had made the right call. The others might have to break in a greenhorn, but the experienced personnel were overdue for reassignment. Promoting them and giving them squadron and the CAG assignment was a good call.
There was a bit of a nasty tiff brewing with the support and maintenance teams though. He knew just how to head it off, however. He tapped out an order to send the ship to Epsilon Triangula behind the scouting light cruiser. He frowned, tapping his chin and then pulled up the stats. He had Intensity assigned to the ship as an escort but was at a loss for a support ship. He was fresh out he noted. “Damn,” he muttered.
He tapped out a rough plan for the ships to scout the system but not to engage unless Firefly was there and needed support. Instead they were to report back. He looked in his inventory and then clenched his fist. “Damn again,” he muttered, noting a lack of courier vessels. He forwarded his plan to Admiral Irons with a note that they needed more colliers and couriers.
Yesterday Horatio had convinced him to reactivate and finish the Nelson destroyers that had been partially finished. Akizuki, John Hancock, Myron, and Griffin would go a long way to fleshing out the convoy escorts going to Kathy's World, Briev, and elsewhere. And the last three ships had been basic frames so they could modify them to the new Flight VI standards. He was curious about how that would work out. The best part was they were going to use the idle frigate production line to finish the small ships. They already had most of the parts too, so the frigate's construction centers could still continue to work on churning out minor parts for the cruisers and carriers.
He was still sitting on the captain's other brainstorm, to create small repair and freighter ships using the corvette and frigate production line. Liberty ships he called them, which was cute; it harkened back to the times like during World War II when the allies needed mass produced shipping.
They were small. The freighter version could only carry a thousand tons of freight, but the captain almost had him sold on the modular design. He'd certainly done his homework by showing how the basic frame could be adapted to a dozen or so different ship types. They'd be small, but they could churn out a lot of them.
The recent battle in B-452C had pointed out the lack of a mobile repair ability in the fleet, which was what he was focusing on—one beyond the small replicators some ships had. Having a repair ship or ships plural available and positioned in strategic locations would be handy he thought. And when they weren't doing repairs, they would work on infrastructure projects he thought. He snorted. Another thing Horatio had pointed out. He wondered where the man had gotten the idea. Oh yeah, his daughter's ship. He shook his head and set the idea aside for the moment.
Once they had the yard and production sorted out, John was supposed to start shipping him components to finish the antimatter production facilities in the star system. Captain Logan had directed his people to build the facilities as well as the empty core of other facilities, but they hadn't been able to fill them with the necessary equipment to do the job.
It was too bad since they had that lovely plasma tap just sitting there churning out power without much use for it now that they were adding fusion reactors to all the stations and facilities. Antimatter would go a long way to evening the playing field in the long term … once they got the pieces to the puzzle in place.
Shipping the parts from Antigua was easier than building another tap there. And it would be quicker. He would have to make a note to remind John of that later in case he waffled on it.
The two ansibles had finally departed for Seti Alpha 4. Now he regretted their departure. A little too late he thought. One of the corvettes was destined to remain in Seti Alpha 4 as a picket force in that system as agreed to in Antigua. He hated that. He hated the idea of politicians telling him what to do wi
th his forces.
If they didn't have the ansible set up in the star system, it would make sense. But with it he had some forewarning of an attack from that direction. Of course, the planet wouldn't have much of a warning without the satellites Prometheus had left behind … or that picket ship. He sighed and let the matter go.
His last courier had been sent to find Prometheus and warn her something was going on in Epsilon Triangula. Again he made a note to build more of the damned things. They had the corvette lines sitting idle … he frowned thoughtfully and then added an amendment to his note. He spent a few minutes jotting out the idea. He then cut and pasted it to Saul to clean up and run by Horatio. A courier needed a good hyperdrive, but she didn't need weapons or a lot of other warship hardware.
“Sir, we're getting word at the Agnosta jump point. The regular run has come in. She's carrying navy recruits,” Saul reported over the intercom.
“Good,” the admiral replied. “Are they resupplying the picket in B-452C?” he demanded.
“Let me check … yes, sir. The convoy departed Agnosta on schedule for Briev fifteen days ago. They are scheduled to drop off a resupply package to the picket Providence and then continue on their way.”
“Good.”
“Sir, the convoy is at half strength?” Saul asked, sounding confused.
“That's because half of the transports were backstopped so we can ship jarheads and supplies to Kathy's World and Protodon.”
“Ah. That explains why Bounty has remained in that star system, sir.”
“Yes. She's an Arboth; we need her on the front not nursemaiding the sheep,” the admiral replied. He could see the reasoning in keeping Bounty back to escort the transports in. They didn't want to lose a shipment of jarheads and equipment to the pirates, which only emphasized his point about seizing B-452C and keeping it.
“Yes, sir.”
“Is that it, Saul?”
“Um, don't forget your 1100 meeting with the staff, sir. And you have a call with the lieutenant governor after lunch. And …”
“Stop,” the admiral said. “Okay, I get it. The usual busy day. No photo ops this time, right?” he asked, voice dropping into a dark hint of warning.
“No, sir. I've told public affairs not to do that again. And I'm checking on that just in case.”
“Good. I don't mind doing my part, but I don't like being ambushed by the media.”
“I don't blame you, sir. You've got … twenty until you need to move to the conference room, sir. Unless you want to do a virtual meeting?” he asked hopefully. Some of the staff were already en route to the annex.
“No, no, we'll do it the old fashioned way.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
“Have personnel go over the crew compliments of the ships that are going to launch in the next two weeks. I don't want any more clashes like what went on in Kittyhawk and in the John Paul Jones.”
“Aye aye, sir,” Saul said, making a note.
---<>---<>---
Saul sighed as he noted the bear's presence. Captain Valenko always seemed to put the admiral in a good mood. Could it be a natural inclination to be nice to the grizzly? Out of fear or a memory of fuzzy teddy bears? He snorted. The bear could hardly be described as a teddy bear!
“Everything all right, Saul?” Valenko rumbled.
“Yes, just fine.”
“Good. I've got the fortress compliments worked out. Colonel Forth has sent me the latest file on transfers though. I need to go over it before I talk with the boss. Any idea why he wanted to chat?”
“No, not a clue,” Saul said, shaking his head. He frowned. He hated that. He hated being out of the loop.
“Okay,” the bear drawled.
“I was reading up on your history. F platoon? Is it really as big a legend as they say?”
The bear crossed his arms and then shrugged. “Some make it out to be more than it was. It was a ball buster. It's now the standard on Agnosta however.”
“Ah,” the commander nodded.
“Some of the other DIs were softballing training. Taking it light, putting more emphasis on looking pretty, and marching in neat tidy lines than in breaking things and killing people,” the bear said with a slight grin and ear flick. “Which is why whenever they went into simulated combat with us, they got their asses thoroughly kicked.”
“Ah. I see.”
“Yeah. How goes the hunt for the staff?”
“I think I'm cursed. I found a flag lieutenant, but she's not working out. The admiral's already told me to be on the lookout for a replacement,” Saul admitted with a sigh of resignation. “I've got him a steward though,” he said happily.
“Good.”
“Yeah. She's not happy …,” he cut himself off before he mentioned the admiral's growing gambling addiction.
“I bet. Taking care of someone is a full time job. Managing their schedule, all that. But you already know that of course,” the bear said, waving a hand.
“Yeah,” Saul replied, bobbing a nod. They both felt a ping on their implants at the same time. “He'll see you now, Captain.”
“I see that. Good luck with the recruiting,” the bear said, entering the office warily.
---<>---<>---
Horatio was proud of his achievements. He had finally convinced Admiral Subert to retool and reactivate the gunship and corvette production lines to build couriers as well as small transports and other support ships. The small transports wouldn't carry much, but they would help out with the shipping situation. Many of their parts could be used on larger hulls as well.
He had sold the admiral the idea on the assurance that they would be great training grounds for the other production lines and that they would be secondary in priority. If the other lines had an issue, they would poach from the transport/courier line to make it up or shut it down until the problems were rectified. The first courier had been rammed through the production line in record time and was already out with Damocles. A second and third courier had been dispatched to other star systems.
Horatio smiled as he looked out the window of his shuttle to the yard. They were finally hitting their stride. The cruiser production line was up and running smoothly. They had just kicked Tumuloch out to the fitting slip so she could start her trials. Voyager wouldn't be far behind.
The carrier production was going well and so were the transports and couriers. He'd even managed to squeeze a courier out, and she'd passed her tests with flying colors so well she'd shipped out with Bounty. He hoped every ship did that well.
His eyes lit on the battle cruiser line. The first Flight II Newmann class ship, the Lady Liberty was going to be launched soon. In a week he thought. Her sister ships Freedom and Justice were coming along nicely, though the sheer scale of their production had been daunting. There had been a lot of teething issues to get a handle on, but now the construction line was in full swing. Fortunately, by laying so many hulls in advance they were getting a leg up on production, shaving time from each ship.
His eyes turned to Bismark's slip as they passed it on their way to the annex. He wished they could do more than that he thought, watching tugs shifting the hyperdrive components out of the collier that had carried them and then into the gaping holes in the Tauren battleship's flank. Spotlights were all around lighting the work area up. He watched until they were past, craning his neck and moving to keep an eye on things until they were out of sight. Then he sat back. Once Bismark passed her hyperdrive tests, she was going to ship out for Antigua to finish her rebuild. Hopefully they'd get her back soon.
He knew it bothered Admiral Subert as well as Admiral White that they were going to have to split the cruisers and battle cruisers down the middle. Antigua was going to do the same thing, though he was confident John would set some ships aside for his reserve. But Subert wanted the ratio between him and White to be two to one while White wanted the reverse. He snorted. He didn't envy John having to play King Solomon. At least he was keeping it even, and they had timed i
t so Bismark wouldn't depart until Lady Liberty was finished and commissioned.
He was glad the admiral had cut back on the commissioning ceremonies; they were turning out a ship every other day! There was no way they could keep up with them all. In a way it was a disservice to the ships, their crews, and the people who built them, but most understood the necessity. Keeping it short and simple made sense. It was a bit too much like the dark times during the Xeno war, but hopefully, once they won the war with Horath, they could go back to tradition and ceremony.
And maybe, just maybe, he'd be retired or in his grave when the stuffed shirts started having their way again.
---<>---<>---
Bounty and Damocles departed from Agnosta for Protodon behind schedule. The two destroyers were limited to the speed of their slowest ship which happened to be the large transport.
Captain Harris had rubbed Ian McGuyver raw a bit before the two officers had settled down. They eventually tempered their lively competition with exercises to train their ships and crews as division mates. Captain Harris was the senior officer and didn't let the other officers forget it. “Sometimes I think the man has let the power go to his head,” Ian said to Doctor Glenn.
“I'm not so sure, sir. I think he's got a lot on his mind. But I also think the reality is sinking in. If it hasn't yet, it will soon.”
“Reality?”
“Of being responsible for everyone. For knowing lives are counting on you. I know, I know,” the doctor held up a hand. “You get that as a captain. Yes, I know. I get that as a doctor. But this is different.”
“Well, let's hope reality doesn't smack him in the face. We'll be right along for the ride and get smacked too,” the captain replied.
“True.”
“I know he and I were taking bets on if we'd run into those Nelsons or other ships. But I doubt it. Oh,” Ian waved a hand. “There is always a chance a ship or two might be on her way back to Protodon.”