Alaya reached into a pocket on her chest armor and pulled out a communicator. “Use this and we will pipe you through.” She then said through her communicator, “Tom, I have given Admiral Wilson a communicator, patch what he says through to both fleets in the open.”
“Yes, captain.”
“You have the floor, admiral, no tricks or we will destroy what is left of your fleet.”
Frank Wilson knew when he was beaten and he never had many tricks up his sleeve. He never had to, since no fleet could ever challenge the Sinclair Navy until today. “Attention all ships, this is Admiral Wilson. Cease all hostilities. To the enemy commander, we surrender.” Wilson practically threw the communicator back to Alaya and left the bridge. A serpent was about to follow him, but Alaya told them to let him go. Wilson went back to his quarters to find the furniture toppled from the hit to the forward missile room. He picked up a chair and set it straight. He then went to his cabinet and brought out a fine new bottle of bourbon. He did not bother with a glass but rather opened the bottle and took a good long drink as he sat there and thought over how the day could have been better. He took another drink, pulled out his service pistol and put a bullet into his head. This was how the previously illustrious career of Admiral Frank Wilson, the Commander of the Sinclair Mobile Fleet, ended.
After he sent his wife on her mission, Christopher Slone turned the battleship towards the continuing fleet battle. Slone’s ship was attacked outside the fleet formation and as the battle raged, the fleets moved a bit further away. Admiral Wilson must have told his ships to stay clear, since he was intent on recapturing the battleship. As the Rising Star moved back towards the fleet, Slone had a panoramic view of the action. He ordered the bridge armor down and could see the space ahead filled with drifting ships trailing fluids, debris and bodies. Every ship was damaged on both sides and many were no longer able to maneuver. Slone knew this battle was nearing its end, he just did not know who was winning. It was his job to use his ship to tip the balance.
Space battle was not the same as land battle. Both types of battles started out pretty much the same, with each side eager to win and certain of the righteousness of their cause. It then became a slugfest and as he watched, he could see some ships still trading cannon fire. The Avenging Talon had joined the fleet after capturing the Vermont and it was engaged in a lively cannon duel with a relatively intact Sinclair dreadnought. The space around the ships was filled with smaller ships ferrying boarding parties back and forth while attempting to avoid getting in the crossfire of cannon duels. Most of the Romani dreadnoughts had grappled an opposing dreadnought and both ships were locked in a death grip from which only one would prevail. This was the intense part of space battles. Whether one fleet surrendered or not, this part would end when both sides were so badly damaged that they both faced a common enemy, space. When a modern space vessel received too much damage, it had to break off combat, if it could, and fight the loss of internal control. If that battle was lost, then space won and the ship became a derelict. No matter what damage was done in combat, only space had the power to kill everyone aboard a ship with its relentless vacuum. Slone could see that more ships from both fleets were engaged in survival than combat and that told him this battle was about to end. Before he could attack the nearest, still mobile, Sinclair ship, word of the Mobile Fleet’s surrender came over the communications network. The fleet wide cadence ceased immediately and all cannon duels stopped, as did boarding actions. The battle of Petrovia was over.
Chapter 14 – The Battle of Saint Petersburg
As was the Romani policy, once the battle was over, they did all they could to help the former enemy with casualties and repairs. There was plenty of each on both sides. The Romani destroyer squadron had no damage at all. The Sinclair Mobile Fleet never knew there were invisible ships out there firing on them. They were all too busy dealing with the ships they could see and figured the missiles were coming from other ships. The battle involved a total of 50 Sinclair ships and 50 Romani/Petrov ships. The difference in the battle was a much greater concentration of dreadnoughts and cruisers on the Sinclair side. The invisible destroyers were not the major factor they had been in the fight with Petrov Corp over New Wales. This was due to the better formation used by the Sinclair fleet. At the end of the battle, the only ships that could still function well were the Rising Star, Avenging Talon and the twenty destroyers. A formidable group for handling a small fleet but they were not enough for a major battle. However, that was not the concern now. First, all of the ships had to be patched and atmospheres reestablished within. From his vantage point outside the fleets, he could see the full extent of the damage. Some ships on both sides were still under their own power but all of them were trailing fluids, fuel, debris and bodies as weakened bulkheads continued to collapse under the pressure of vacuum on one side and atmosphere on the other. Slone sat in the captain’s chair and knew that most of the ships in front of him were fighting for their lives, not in battle but against the common enemy of space.
“Tom put me through to the Longinus.”
“Yes, captain. The line is open.”
“This is Captain Slone, is Captain Lorenzo there?”
There was a lot of crackling on the line but soon Juan Lorenzo’s voice came through, “Christopher, what is your condition?”
“We are fully functional. The serpents remounted the three cannons that were dismounted; we suffered only about fifty casualties among the serpents, and a thousand among the mercenaries. The Avenging Talon is also still operational.”
“That is better than I hoped. Most of our ships are in need of basic repairs if we are to become mobile again. We will also have to deal with the Sinclair ships which are now ours by conquest.”
“Alaya reports that the admiral’s ship is running on batteries and will soon be out. The fool fought the ship while on batteries.”
“I will want to talk with him when we have sorted some things out.”
“Juan, if you want to talk with him you will need to hold a séance. He put a bullet in his head after he surrendered.”
“That is unfortunate. I have ordered Captain Rand to set up a picket line with the destroyers. I want you and the Avenging Talon to stand guard over the battlefield. We may need Commander Diana Gardener to help with emergency repairs.”
Slone ordered the remaining serpent ships flying along with the battleship to become visible and help guard the area. He also told Alaya to leave Centurion Ash in charge of the Vermont and return to pick up Diana Gardner to help with repairs. While the battleship was moving into position, Slone contacted the Invicta. Captain Price reported that the ship was badly damaged but life support was working, as was the power. The main problem was that the children’s section and sickbay were trapped by a collapsed bulkhead. It would take them some time to remove it but life support in those areas was working. The Gladius landed on the battleship long enough to pick up Diana Gardner and then took off for the Invicta to help with the bulkhead problem.
As they approached the Invicta, they could tell their ship had taken a beating. She was held tightly against a Sinclair dreadnought by the Romani grappling mechanism. The Gladius landed in the Invicta hangar and the crew disembarked immediately. As soon as the engineering techs working in the hangar saw Diana, they went over to report damage control. As Diana was assessing the damage to the ship, Alaya and Tavia ran down to the children’s area. When they arrived, the engineering crew was cutting away a bulkhead that had been bent by an explosive shell on the deck below. When the bulkhead bent, the end bowed just enough to overlap the pressure door to the sealed section containing the children’s area and the sickbay, which was full of casualties from the early part of the cannon duel. The engineering techs cut away just the part overlapping the door seal and they were able to open the door and enter the area. Alaya and Tavia went in and as soon as Olivia and Allen saw Alaya, they ran to her.
“Mommy, is the big battle over?” Olivia asked.
“No Mommy, Allen and I knew you and Daddy and Aunt Diana and Uncle Tom would win against those bad people.” She then gave her mother a big hug just as Diana came in and got a big hug from Allen. Alaya was so happy to see her child. She contacted Christopher right away and told him to tell Tom Gardner that both children were just fine. The next several hours were spent stabilizing the damaged ships and assessing the level of damage in each one. It was also time to count the casualties and plan for the next phase. Three hours into the cleanup, Captain Lorenzo ordered all captains and primary centurions to transfer to the Rising Star for a meeting. The main conference room of the flagship, NR Longinus, took a direct hit and was unusable. The upper decks of the battleship, those devoted to the starliner ruse, were depressurized from combat, but the forward hangar was the military one and it was sealed and had access to the lower decks. The shuttles all landed there. Alaya and Diana were also recalled to join the discussion. After landing, Captain Lorenzo first went to check on the Sinclair prisoners, who were being guarded by the serpents along with some of the mercenaries. Lorenzo confirmed the promised payment of one ton of gold and offered to drop them off near any corporate boarder of their choice when this was over. Spider was impressed that the leader of a powerful government would actually fight alongside his troops and was hoping to become part of this force.
“Captain Lorenzo, would it be possible for my troops and I to become part of your republic? We are bone tired of fighting for money and would like a more permanent home.”
“You will have to take that up with the Petrovian government, when we have ejected the rest of the Sinclair forces. The whole of Petrov space is now part of our republic, so if you live here you live within our lines.”
“Then we will await the outcome of the battle, unless you have use for us. We are willing to earn the right to settle here.”
“That will be a decision for the provisional government. I will inform them.”
Before more could be said, Juan Lorenzo moved on. After his inspection of the battleship, he followed Christopher Slone to the conference room. This was actually the military mess hall and was huge, as one would expect in a ship holding thousands of personnel. When Captain Lorenzo entered, everyone stood at attention until he told them to sit down and relax. There were many bandaged wounds around the hall and it was obvious the fighting done by the legionaries and the navy was fierce. Lorenzo knew all of his captains and he could see some were missing and replaced by first officers. In the case of the cruiser assigned to the sixth cohort dreadnought, NR Fortem, the rest shift captain sat in. Lorenzo knew the ship had lost both its captain and first officer. The rest ship commander would receive a field promotion to captain and become the captain of the cruiser. By all accounts, she had fought the ship with honor after the loss of primary command personnel. Captain Lorenzo called the meeting to order.
“Officers of the 10th legion, I congratulate all of you on a job well done. The combat tapes are already on their way to Nova Romae and soon the Republic will be singing your praises. But we have lost many a comrade and it is time to take stock and prepare to throw the Sinclair forces off this planet.” This was met with cheers and applause. Slone marveled at how easily the Romani forgot the last combat and were ready to embrace the next one with enthusiasm. “Along with the tapes and an account of our victory, I also asked for repair crews and freighters full of spare parts. We cannot be certain when or if a counter attack will take place but we must be ready.” A great deal of head nodding followed that statement.
“First off I need a report of casualties to assess our fighting capabilities. Doctor?” Captain Lorenzo nodded to the chief medical officer of the legion.
“Captain, we are still assessing the full casualty count. Since I knew what was next, I thought it best to report on our remaining effect strength.”
“Good use of time, doctor. So what exactly is our remaining effect strength?”
“Broken down by service, the legionary strength is just over 50%. We can field an effective army of approximately 5800 legionaries out of the 11,000 we started with. Some cohorts have fewer casualties than others have. Among the Serpent cohort, casualties were light and they are only down 42 troops, mostly wounded with only 12 dead from cannon duels. The wounded serpents will be back in the line in a few days.”
If serpents actually smile, Alaya swore she could see both Captain Artok and Centurion Ash smiling at the fact that serpents were much stronger than humans were. The doctor then continued. “Marines stationed aboard the ships have a remaining strength of close to 70% of the total we started with, but some ships are down to less than 10 of the 100 they started with. Finally, the naval personal were mostly lost in the cannon duels due to depressurization. We estimate naval personnel strength at 80%, but again varying from ship to ship based on total damage.”
“An excellent and concise report, doctor. I will let you go to attend to medical matters, however, before you go, do you have any idea of the approximate casualties among the enemy?”
“By rough count, they suffered close to 60% overall casualties. We came out ahead but at a horrible cost.”
“War is like that doctor, thank you for your report.”
The fleet medical officer left and the rest of the meeting got down to business. Legatus Edmonton was also present, since her part of the operation was coming up.
“Lt. Col. Teplov, what is your assessment of the enemy’s positions on Petrovia?”
Larisa Teplov stood up and asked for a map of her planet. A hologram of Petrovia appeared above the table. “We have two major cities, our capital, Saint Petersburg, and the larger city of Alexandranopolis. Over the last four years, enemy dispositions have changed very little. The planet is held by a mercenary force of approximately 20,000 with close to 18000 in the capital. Alexandranopolis is predominantly a mercantile city. A lot of money but not much fight. The capital is the key to holding the planet since it is the seat of government and contains the Petrov palace, the home of our CEOs. As with all CEOs, the Petrov family was very secretive and paranoid. From the palace, the government can monitor all activity in the system and monitor all message capsules passing through. It is the ideal place of control and we are certain it is the headquarters of the mercenary leadership.”
“Legatus, how soon could we mount a ground attack?”
“I have been monitoring the recovery of the cohorts after boarding actions and I would like to rest them a full 24 hours, after which we will be ready on your command.”
“I think we all deserve some rest, though the naval personnel will have to continue with repairs even as we are engaged on the planet. Legatus Edmonton and I have discussed how to go about this and we feel that first we should land at the rally coordinates for the resistance and meet up with them. I want to bring the legionary camp down to that spot as a base. We will then put our ground plans into action. Lt. Col. Teplov, where is your rally point?”
Larisa Teplov punched in the coordinates on the computer and a red dot appeared on the projected globe. Lorenzo looked closely at the area after enlarging the projection to show only the surroundings. “What is this feature?” Lorenzo pointed to a rise on the projection near the dot.
Larisa looked at it. “That is an old mining complex. It was abandoned close to a century ago.”
“It looks like there is a lot of old equipment still standing.”
“Yes there is, most of the mining complex that was above ground.”
“Legatus, I am thinking we could put a camp down next to that area and it might appear to be part of the complex. After your 24-hour rest, I suggest we await the return of the night cycle on that spot on the planet and then bring down the camp and the cohorts. This way we can attack the following morning.”
All at the table found this plan to be sound. “It is time to contact General Golov and let her know of the timetable.”
Slone called up to the bridge and tol
d Tom Gardner to send a tight beam transmission to General Golov in Romani code, which they had given her for her techs before she last departed the fleet. The response came back quickly.
“This is General Golov, to whom am I speaking?”
“General, this is Captain Lorenzo. First, I wish to inform you that the Sinclair Mobile Fleet no longer exists. Secondly, we will be landing the second night from now just after twilight in the area of the abandoned mine near your rally point. Have your troops come to that mine during that night. We will be attacking the Sinclair forces at dawn, two days from now.”
“How did you manage to destroy the Sinclair fleet?”
“The newly reconstituted Petrov fleet arrived before we engaged and their help was invaluable.”
“Send my compliments to Captain Abramov.”
“Another old friend of yours also came along, let me put him on.”
Lorenzo nodded to Igor Perminov who was also at the meeting. “Alisa, so good to hear your voice again after all these years. Soon we will have our planet and our lives back.”
“Is that you, Igor. You are indeed a welcome voice from the past. Normal life seems like a dream of a distant memory. I’m not even sure what I would do with it.”
“Well, my friend let us hope we get to find out. I will see you in two days. I will be landing with the Romani.”
“Till then, my friend.”
The transmission ended as did the meeting. Orders for all commands would be issued the next day so they could be gone over with the various cohorts. Larisa Teplov would be landing and returning to her resistance command and Jack Dalton would be joining the party as an observer for the Lagarde Corporation. Everyone returned to their ships for a hard day of repairs. Twenty of the twenty-five Sinclair dreadnoughts were still reparable and would be a valuable addition to the fleet. A number of cruisers were also reparable. The Sinclair destroyers were all trashed. It was decided to repair the least damaged ships as best they could, in case there was a counter attack. If need be crews would move from more damaged Romani or Petrov ships to less damaged Sinclair. Since the Romani maintained the same basic ship design as the corporations and they all spoke human standard, there was no problem switching ships. At the end of the 24-hour period, they had cobbled together a fleet of twenty dreadnoughts that could hold their own in a battle. With the twenty untouched destroyers and a few functioning cruisers, they had a substantial fleet. As long as Sinclair did not have any more battleships, they would do fine. While the repairs continued, the ground forces were all told to get as much rest as possible. The orders were passed to the primary centurions and the marines, who would also be needed. Orders were also given for the placement of the fleet. Slone would be sitting out the ground combat and would continue to protect the fleet. However, his wife would again be right in the middle of the action. She joined up with some of the marine snipers who had fought under her command in the New Wales liberation. Her reputation as a good, sensible commander was well known and there was a waiting list to join her sniper squad. Her squad consisted of 25 snipers that would also act as scouts ahead of the legion. After the forces were rested and the terminator passed over the landing area turning it from day to night, all ground forces were ordered to their drop ships and awaited the command from Legatus Edmonton.
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