by Ivan Kal
Chapter Twenty One
Sanctuary space
Adrian walked hurriedly towards Leviathan’s conference room, following close behind was High Prime Paul Isaacs. Leviathan had met up with the rest of its fleet. The Second Fleet was there as well and their mock battle was scheduled to begin tomorrow. Before that Adrian wanted to get to know the commanders of his fleet. He entered the room, Paul and he were the last to arrive. The other commanders were all there in person, even though Leviathan was equipped with a hologram conference, they could all sit on their own ship and appear as if they were there in the room. Although this was somewhat limited by lightspeed. The ships needed to be close enough that the lag wasn’t too long. But for their first introduction Adrian wanted to meet them in person.
He knew most of them. Some of them were former Ship Masters of the 8 warships Olympus built in Sol. Adrian looked around the room at the young faces, no one looked older than him, but he knew that all were. That was another thing that changed with the gene therapy. There was no longer expectation that the leaders needed to be older. Now skill and knowledge were put first, no one cared if you were young, only that you were good at what you do. As Adrian entered the room no one stood up, there were subtle nods in his direction, acknowledging his presence, the atmosphere was relaxed as it was supposed to be. Adrian went to his seat at the head of the table and sat.
“Most of you already know me, and those that don’t, know about me. Nevertheless, I wanted to begin this meeting by introducing myself and telling you what you may expect from my command.” Adrian said. He looked around the room, making sure that he had all of their attention.
“My name is Adrian Farkas, I am Fleet Commander of the Olympus Frist Fleet. I want you to know that my command will be more relaxed outside of combat situations. Each of you may run your ship as you wish, unless instructed differently by me. There will be a regular drill schedule and each of you will be required to pass the minimal readiness score. If your ship fails to attain a passing grade I will interfere, if the problem persists, I will contact the Fleet and ask for your ship to be reassigned. Don’t take this as a threat, I will stay out of your business as long as you meet my standards. In combat situations, whether they are simulated or real, you will follow orders of the flagship implicitly. I welcome any insight and suggestions, but the final decisions rests with me. Are there any questions?” Adrian asked.
“How will the score be calculated?” Ship Master Leia Kim of the light cruiser Conqueror asked.
“The score will be calculated based on multiple parameters, such as the overall atmosphere amongst the crew, the time it takes for all stations to go to various stages of alertness. The detailed report, will be sent to each of you by the end of the day.” When no one said anything he continued. “I assume that you had the chance to get to know each other before I arrived. If not, I urge you to do so. I will host a relaxed dinner this evening, the details will be forwarded to your imps. That will be all.” They got to their feet and started to shuffle out of the room. Adrian remained seated.
“Force Leader Smith, Force Leader Krylov. Stay for a moment.” Adrian said. The two commanders looked at each other and then took their previous places. Force Leader Altsoba Smith was in command of the battleship Battle Song, and Force Leader Nenad Krylov was commander of the battleship Protector. They were in command of the two task forces of the fleet named Alpha and Beta.
“I will not take much of your time.” Adrian said. “As task force leaders, it will be up to you to make sure that my orders are followed to the letter. I can’t have ships disobeying in the heat of battle because their commanders believe they know better. You need to make sure that all commanders under you understand this. I said before that I welcome suggestions and insight, but that is not permission for them to go off on their own. I know that all of you went through the academy back in Sol. I know the limitations of those simulators, and I know that each of us are accustomed to working alone. This is the first time any of our ships will act in unison, and I plan on showing everyone during war games tomorrow the power of a fleet. That said, there will be times when I won’t be able to see the whole picture, or when there simply won’t be time to ask for instructions from the flagship. It is a great burden, but it is up to you to learn to differentiate between times when you need to follow my orders to the letter, and times when you need to bend them. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Fleet Commander.” Force Leader Krylov and Force Leader Smith said together.
“Good.” Adrian looked at the two commanders. They held themselves formally, there was nothing that suggested that they were uncomfortable with him, but Adrian knew that they must be.
“I want you to speak freely, there will be no repercussions.” Adrian said. The two Force Leaders looked startled for a moment. Adrian pushed forward and spoke again. “Tell me, do you have a problem with me being in command, or are there others that do.”
They didn’t speak immediately, they remained silent for a minute, but Adrian could see them steeling themselves to speak. Finally Force Leader Altsoba Smith spoke.
“There has been some talk of favoritism.” She said slowly. Adrian nodded, he suspected as much.
“The Fleet heads decision is final.” Adrian said. “I assume that the talks about favoritism come from my connection to Laura Reiss, while she is the head of the Fleet the decision comes from the Fleet board. I was selected because my scores are the highest in the fleet, and because I have the most, or rather the only experience in a real battle.”
“That experience is part of the problem. The only reason you have that experience was because you were in the right place at the right time, any one of us could have been in that position. And with the virtual simulators being as advanced as they are, all of us have experience, the simulations have reached the level where they can be called real.” Force Leader Krylov said.
“You are right, anyone could have been in my place. But the reality was that it was me. Would you have had the same thoughts if it was someone else? What if it was you.” Adrian said to Krylov.
“Ah well…” Kyrlov began, but Adrian cut him off.
“None of you would, and you know it. I know that my counterpart in the Second Fleet doesn’t need to deal with this. The only reason I have to, is because of my connection to Laura Reiss. And barring that, all of you know that I deserve this position. My simulator scores are highest in the Fleet, and I have experience.” Adrian said. The two remained silent.
“I don’t want to fight my subordinates while I need to fight my ship and fleet. I need you to tell the others that I will not tolerate anyone interfering with my authority. Is that clear.”
“Yes, Fleet Commander.” Both said in unison.
“That is all.” Adrian said, dismissing them. They both got up and left the room.
“Well, that almost made it seem like you want to command the fleet.” Iris said.
“I can’t have them thinking differently.” Adrian said.
“That went well.” Paul said. He remained quiet during the meeting.
Adrian grimaced. “Truth? I thought it would be worse.” Adrian said.
“They are all professionals, you have nothing to worry about.” Paul said.
“We’ll see.”
***
Adrian was sitting in the Leviathans command center. The room was the same shape as the command center on Athena, that of a half sphere. The stations were also in the same positions, arranged in a semi-circle around the command chair and the holographic table in the middle of the room. The only major differences were in software, others were only esthetics, with the stations, chairs and holo-table now being sleek and metallic silver in color. The top of the dome ceiling emanated soft light, while the rest was colored white. The walls were made out of smart material, and could also serve as reproduction devices. Any video streams could be shown on any part of the wall, as well as a full 360° view from the outside of the ship. The view looked as if the command
center was on top of the citadel, with only space around them. It served no tactical purpose, but it was an amazing experience. Athena, Adrian’s previous command had the same capability. The holo-table in the middle now showed the representation of Adrian’s fleet on one side and that of Second Fleet on the other. The display on the right side of Adrian’s command chair held detailed information, gathered from the ship's sensors, including distances between ships in his own fleet, the distance to Second Fleet, the status of every ship in his fleet and more. The holo-table showed similar information only less detailed. This information was shown below the “map”, the part of the hologram that showed ships, the area around them and their movements, scaled down of course. Adrian’s chair also had a new system, called the command board. In front of Adrian was a holographic map, similar to the one on the holo-table just smaller, and it was presented in a half a circle around the command chair when turned on. Directly in front of the command chair was the map, where he could interact with the representations of his ships, on the left side was a list of comms, where Adrian could open a comm link just with a swipe of his hand, on his right was information about the fleet. It was developed as a way of commanding fleets, the old system with every command being verbally transmitted via comms was inefficient. Adrian could with a mix of hand and implant commands give orders to the fleet, similar to the strategy games he played when he was younger. He could select any ship, plot a course he wanted it to take, order it to attack, choose which weapons it should use and more. The orders were then sent to the ship or ships. The command board had its own FTL comm device, that worked independently from the one used for regular communications. Dreadnought class ships were the only ones that had the command board, so the other ships had one extra FTL comm installed with the purpose of receiving orders from the flagship, and for sending reports about the ships, damage. This process was automated, though commanders could add anything that they thought was relevant to the report. They could offer suggestions to the Fleet Commander, which would be shown in the form of a message in a queue on the Fleet Commanders c-board (command board). The entire system was designed with an Ai in mind, one that would look through all the information and give the Fleet Commander information that was most important, while also managing and accelerating the whole system. For Adrian that would be Iris, in a normal situation, now she was too busy guiding the simulated battle to offer any help to Adrian. It was decided early on that the commanders of individual ships were the ultimate authority on their ships, and as such could chose to disregard the orders to a certain degree. But if they did, they needed to have a very good reason, or face penalty. And while Adrian could send commands over the command board it was up to the ship commanders to decide how to execute those commands. Above the map on the holo-table, was a timer, it was counting down from 20 minutes, and was now entering its last five minutes. When the counter hits zero, the war games would officially begin, and both fleets would be free to maneuver. Prior to them starting, both Fleet Commanders put their fleets in formation. The game was simple, after the counter hit zero, both fleets would move with intent to destroy the other. The ships will not fire live rounds, everything but the ship movements will be simulated. Ai’s on ships simulated damage by shutting down those areas of the ship that were “hit”. Adrian studied his opponent's formation, both fleets were positioned on the sun’s plane. Fleet Commander Johanna Stern chose to put her fleet in a formation that was obviously meant to safeguard her ship. And that was her first mistake. Her light cruisers were at the front of the formation all 4 of them in a line, behind them were the 3 heavy cruisers, two above the plane and behind the line and one below the plane, and behind them was her flagship dreadnought Monarch flanked on each side by a battleship. The cruisers served as a shield for the more powerful ships. Adrian had closely examined all the information provided on the dreadnought class. Leviathan was Adrian’s greatest weapon. Dreadnought class ships, are heavily armored, armed with amazing weaponry, the only drawback was their maneuverability. Leviathan was more maneuverable than Athena, but less than a battleship, and much less than a light cruiser. The speed wasn’t a problem, Leviathan couldn’t outrun a light cruiser, but it could keep up with a battleship. The dreadnought power source was greater, and its drives more powerful, and that compensated for the much greater mass. But it turned slowly. So in Adrian’s mind the formation that protected the most powerful ship in a fleet was pure folly. Fleet Commander Stern was a navy commander in Concordis Navy before she joined Olympus, and in Adrian’s experience those that made that transfer from water based military into space one, didn’t really adjust well. Oh, they had great knowledge of strategy, and Adrian didn’t doubt that Fleet Commander Stern would be able to adapt her tactics to anything Adrian threw at her. But the manner in which she placed her ships told Adrian that she hadn’t yet fully grasped the capabilities of her fleet, and that was something Adrian could use against her.
Adrian’s formation was almost a complete opposite. Leviathan was at the front of the formation flanked by the two battleships, behind them were his heavy cruisers, two above Leviathan, and one below, and then behind them his four light cruisers. Adrian had already prepared the orders for his commanders, there was nothing in the rules that said he couldn’t, and the orders would be executed as soon as the counter hits zero.
Two minutes later the clock hit zero, and the command center of the Leviathan sprang into motion. Adrian sent out the command via his command board. High Prime Paul Isaacs relayed to his command to the command crew of the Leviathan. While Adrian had command of the entire fleet, his High Prime took over as the commander of the Leviathan. Almost in unison the entire First Fleet started moving forward. A soft vibration was felt through the ship, meaning that the ships internal dampeners were working hard to negate the acceleration of the ship. Otherwise, all of them would have been just splatters on the walls. The damper was a technology they adapted from the device they found on the Union ship.
Adrian focused on the hologram, it showed no change in the positions of his opponents. Which was to be expected, the light of their movements didn’t yet reach the Leviathan. Two fleets had been placed just outside of extreme missile range. And as First Fleet moved closer and closer, Adrian started to wonder why he wasn’t seeing enemy fire, he assumed that they would fire immediately. A minute later there was still no movement from the Second Fleet, by the computer's calculations the light should have reached them. If they moved when the counter hit zero. Which meant that they didn’t move immediately. Adrian executed another command.
Paul received the order immediately and instructed Navigation Handler to continue on the same course. A few second later the ships around Adrian started to change course. The two battleships flanking the Leviathan started to peel off to the sides, gathering speed in order to keep up with the Leviathans straight course. The battleships were followed by the light cruisers, which increased speed to catch the battleships, two on each side, they fell behind the battle ships. The three heavy cruisers increased their speed to catch the Leviathan, two above and one below. Adrian renamed the two battleships and their escorts as Team 1 and Team 2. As they took their positions, the first signs of the Second Fleet’s movement started showing on the holo. The Second Fleet started moving forward in unison. And a minute later the light and heavy cruisers started firing missiles, two minutes later 1400 missiles were fired. Adrian smiled, he hoped that Stern would take the bait. The greatest obstacle in space warfare is the light speed limitation of the ship's sensors. The greater the distance between the ships, the greater the lag time between what your sensors are telling you and what is happening in that moment. The missiles that the Second Fleet fired, where in fact fired a couple of minutes ago, before Adrian split his formation. Battles in space were very different that those on a planet. At great distances, everything you saw happened before the light reached you, so you were in fact reacting to an afterimage. You were fighting a ghost. The key to winning battles in space was in
anticipating your opponents moves, and in guiding them into moves that favored you. Adrian was aware that every move he makes would be seen after he made it, and he planned accordingly. On the holo in front of Adrian and the one in the middle of the command center, the missiles and their track were showing, their targets were his two battleships, or rather the positions in which they were previously. The missiles were guided, so they will adjust, but by then it will be too late. His opponent planned on overwhelming Adrian’s defenses by having her light and heavy cruisers fire all of their missiles. It would have worked if Adrian had not split his ships, the forward point defense turrets couldn’t handle that much missiles in time. His forward ships were his most armored ones, he probably wouldn’t lose any of them, but there would have been damage.
Adrian issued more commands on his board, a moment later Paul relayed those commands and Leviathan started firing explosive shells in a wide arc in front of the ship, it effectively blanketed the area with shells. A few more seconds, and the incoming missiles started dying, from the combined firepower of Team 1, 2, and Leviathan. Two minutes later they were gone. The Second fleet still kept its formation and course, coming straight at them. By now they should have seen that Adrian’s fleet was changing formation, in a minute they will see him taking down their missiles.