by R. A. Ender
Thankfully, few ships were being destroyed quickly, each turret needing to hold its fire and usually re-fire again before it simply knocked a ship out of formation, not destroy it. The reason was simple, they were not Royalist ships, these were Defense Force warships. Also, the energy needed to maintain engine thrust to climb out of the low orbit the Dreadnaught had sunk to and hold its shields against the planetary bombardment, meant less energy was available for its weapon systems.
And Longus added to the burden. At a signal, once the formation was assembled, he had all the ships redirect engine power to weapons. The stream of pulse fire red, orange, yellow and magenta looked like a rainbow of energy pouring down onto the shields of the Dreadnaught. Torpedoes were held as it was too risky to fire weapons into the stream of energy.
When the weapons impacted the Dreadnaughts shields, like the planetary side, they created little fountains of color. However, so many impacts were occurring that the fountains melded into a lake of colorful energy that just sat on top of the shields. Every additional hit meant more heat being built up in the generators. Every sustained fountain of energy from the planet meant more coolants passed through the generators.
Though Longus could not see the shield generators, he knew that with this much energy being poured onto the Dreadnaught it meant the coolant was beginning to warm to the point that it could not be cooled, and the generators would begin to melt down. Every generator that melted went offline, and though it meant more energy was available for weapons and engines, it meant a second closer to shield collapse. As formidable as the Dreadnaught was, its hull was no more powerful than most other heavy warships. Once that shield failed, the pulse weapons would melt the hull.
And once we stop… but Longus never finished that thought, as suddenly the shields collapsed. It appeared one moment that the shields were holding the lakes of colored energy away from its skin, suspended in space on a shimmering field. As the shield instantly deactivated, all the energy fell onto the hull of the ship like a great trap door opened suddenly and a lake of water fell onto a surface below.
Pushing a button on his console, while still standing, Longus turned his back on the view screen. “All ships, cease pulse fire and fire all torpedoes in two seconds.” And with that order sent, Longus raised his head to look at the rear of the command center where all his officers were watching the screen behind him.
Suddenly the entire room was filled with brilliant yellow-white light as hundreds of torpedoes were fired from the fleet. Longus turned as the light bathed the room before fading as the torpedoes flew away and toward the Dreadnaught.
Though it only took a few seconds, it felt like a long time to Longus. He watched the propellant of the torpedoes burn yellow-white, flying toward their target. As they got smaller, he imagined how bright the explosion would be.
He was wrong. The impact across such a wide hull area of hundreds of torpedoes was not bright. Their green and blue explosions danced across the black and gray hull, painting the side of the Dreadnaught in color. It engulfed the whole side of the Dreadnaught, keeping its shape but changing its color. Here and there, red flames jumped out of the blue-green cloud. Then, quite suddenly, the entire side of the Dreadnaught exploded into a bright red flash of color, before instantly fading to a deep red and black.
That flash of escaping atmosphere igniting did its final task. It pushed the Dreadnaught into the upper atmosphere. From the view of Longus, it was a large black shape dropping into a deep blue ocean with a bright orange halo of color around its shape. From the ocean below, the Dreadnaught suddenly became visible to the naked eye where before it had been obscured by the blue sky on the daylight side of the planet. Its entire hull became a massive orange-red fireball that fell toward the ocean growing larger and larger. As it fell, large pieces could be seen flying off in many directions, burning brightly yellow white before disappearing as they burned into nothing.
CHAPTER 29
Richard leaned back in his chair, anticipating and then hearing the creak that was sure to come as he hit just that certain angle. Despite only two days of occupying his temporary office at the New Earth Defense Alliance headquarters at LaGuardius Seccus, he had become very familiar with its personality.
He knew that when he leaned back, his chair would creak. It had annoyed him a little at first, as he always leaned back when he was speaking with someone using voicecomms, but it had motivated him to improve his sitting posture. That said, when he leaned forward on his desk to avoid the chair creak, the desk always made a popping noise, but it only happened one time. The room had a number of vents, and at least one of them made a rattling noise when the air system started up. After a thorough examination, he could not find the cause on the vent cover and assumed the noise was somewhere further up in the ventilation system and was echoing down.
The only other complaint was that the door needed to be pulled hard to open, as it rubbed against the top of the frame, but he had received virtually no visitors. Everyone was busy with their duties.
Almost immediately after the battle had been assessed as completed, Heather was whisked off to the Capital city of Roma to speak with the Senate of the Roman State. As the NEDA headquarters was located within the state of Roma, their political bodies had immediate jurisdictional control and first dibs on questioning their military. Richard knew, though he hardly had had any time to speak with Heather other than a brief kiss goodbye, that after that debriefing she would be off to meet with the planetary defense oversight committee.
That meeting would be much more consequential, as it had real power and authority over the entire planetary defense, not simply local authority over a base. That committee was made up of a single representative from all ten states. New Earth was the only human-dominated planet member of the Confederacy which had no single planetary governing authority, but individual states. As New Earth was the original human settlement, it evolved over centuries while interplanetary travel was still not possible. As such, over time, individual states were established for a variety of reasons. Gemberlic and Garouve were organized by the native population of the planet, the Gemberlicans. These small mammalian type species were the original inhabitants of the planet prior to the human settlements arrival. A very industrious people, they had established vast city like settlements in the northern giant forests, integrating their structures and technology directly into the trees. Their distant cousins, the Gemberlic of Garouve, had done the same but on an island far distant from the main continent.
The remaining states were all human creations. The original state was Roma, with its capital of the same name located on a continental peninsula. Designed and built to emulate Rome from Old Earth, it was a magnificent city and an old one. Some of the buildings, such as the Senate, were either built over 1,500 years ago or maintain the original building within a larger structure built to replace its function. It is widely considered the most beautiful city in the entire Confederated Union of Worlds.
Other states were formed by religious movements, such as Desh, or by rebellious elements, such as Ebos. Despite long ago uniting and ending all interstate conflict, the states remain. The only planetary governing is done by committees with a single representative per state.
Richard had grown up in Roma, far from the Capital city, in a single industry town in the vast Southern District. Therefore, he was very familiar with the political structure of New Earth, but not the nuisance or subtly to be able to anticipate outcomes.
His gravest concern was the planetary defense oversight committee. Pretty much the only thing Heather told him before leaving was that she really hoped they would approve a belligerent status for New Earth.
If she’s concerned they might not stand with us, he thought again for perhaps the hundredth time in the past two days, then I am really worried!
Their entire plan depended on New Earth siding with the Confederate cause. If it decided to declare neutrality, their ships might manage to have a safe harbor, but could n
ot resupply, refit or use the planet as their forward operating base. Having a secure and powerful base in the Old Colony region was a key to any future success.
When he had originally conceived and everyone had discussed the plan to free New Earth, no one had considered any chance of New Earth neutrality. Everyone had assumed that they had been sieged for over a year and a declaration of neutrality would gain them nothing.
Heather did not see it that way and she was much closer to the politicians than anyone else was. From the little discussion they had had, she seemed to indicate that everyone was very tired of war. Being planet bound and on high alert for over a year could certainly explain that. In addition, now that they had shown the power to defeat the IAE, there was a great deal of belief that their planet would now be shown the deference and caution that had been shown to Watabaeg, Kukatush, and Minnipuka.
The IAE fleet had been conducting an extensive propaganda campaign throughout the siege. Despite the source, the population had limited outside information and many had begun to believe their promises. Though it had only ever been a minority that advocated for surrender with the promise of good treatment, that minority now had additional leverage and were clearly the loudest voices in the public sphere.
Despite being busy with the coordination of shore leave, Richard had always kept a videocomm tuned to the most popular annal, and had been monitoring public censuses as best he could. The only faint hope that Richard clung to was that the celebratory mood and strong up swell in confidence would buoy the politicians into siding with his Confederate cause. They had met with Heather all day yesterday and were set to make an announcement today. Richard figured with so little time, they wouldn’t be able to consider a neutrality option with the great risks and unknowns that would involve.
As much as the political discussion fascinated Richard and kept him interested, the last few days had been unbelievably busy for himself and his entire fleet command staff.
After Admiral Longus had reported the conclusion of battle operations, Richard had ordered that all ship commanders immediately begin organizing a single day of shore leave for each and every member of their crew. Overruling all protests to the contrary, Richard had directly ordered that every member of every crew was required to spend a day on New Earth.
The complaints ranged from concern about eroding battle readiness, or more strongly that the ships would not be ready to handle an IAE counter attack. Richard had dismissed those concerns. First, he pointed to the relatively few IAE ships that had managed a run to jump exit from the system. Admiral Longus had provided a count of only nine ships that managed to escape. Even so, it would take an incoming fleet from the nearest world in Olympus Space at least a couple of weeks to arrive, so the threat was quite minimal. Second, he pointed out that having crews in perpetual battle readiness and in service for over a year was doing more to erode battle readiness than a day planet side would.
Other complaints were about repairing the ship, which Richard handled by pointing out that a majority of the crew were on board ship. Probably the most difficult issue to handle, which was argued by Longus himself, was that it would mean most of the crew would return with a viral infection of some sort and all crews would be less than full strength for at least two weeks as a result. Though Richard knew he couldn’t argue the point, visiting crews to any planet inevitably brought back viral infections as they had not been exposed to those particular viruses before and they would spread through an entire crew quickly in such confined spaces. However, Richard stated that he would ensure each ship was well supplied with medicines and symptom alleviation products, which at least made the shore leave still a good idea in his mind.
At the end of the day, he knew that he was in full command and all the command staff would have to follow his orders, but he always operated with an open atmosphere where any and all complaints could be aired and he could be challenged.
For Richard, it was important for the crews to get off the ship and relax without responsibilities for at least a day. It wasn’t long enough to recuperate or recharge and it certainly wasn’t long enough to de-stress. It was long enough to remember what they were fighting for. To interact with the citizens, maybe their friends and family or at least people like them that appreciated their efforts. Richard was sure that everywhere his people went, they would be warmly received. The stories he had already heard about families inviting soldiers into their homes for meals. He had heard about soldiers not being allowed to pay for meals, gaining entry to any destination for free, and being very popular with the woman wherever they went.
And that is exactly why it’s important! Richard thought to himself, as he watched the clepsydra on his video comm click down to an already chosen time.
It was about to be the start of the new day for the continent, and Richard was preparing to issue his last order to his command staff before taking a day of shore leave himself. He watched as the numbers slowly changed and at exactly 6 am local time, he opened the audiocomm to all his ships.
“Attention, Attention, this is Admiral Hilbornus speaking.” Richard now paused for a few seconds before repeating his call to attention again. After another pause, he continued with his announcement.
“It is now the beginning of the last day of our shore leave period. If you are a part of the third day, as of this moment, you are now on leave. Please ensure you are planet side as soon as possible. Please remember to conduct yourselves with professionalism, dignity for yourself, and respect for everyone you interact with. As you are still considered on duty as we are at war, no one can consume any substance which will compromise their mental faculties. Any such incident will result in court martial and severe punishment. Thank you all for your service and have a great time.” And so Richard usually concluded his announcement, the same one he had given the past two days. Today was different and he finished with a final order.
“And a final order. All ship commanders, you have worked diligently and have managed to organize the shore leaves for your crews without failings. Therefore, in appreciation, you are all now ordered to join your third-day crew shore leave. As of this moment, all commanders are on shore leave and must report planet side immediately. You have earned it and please enjoy it.”
And with that, Richard closed the audiocomm. Pressing a button, he also turned off the videocomm and stood up, letting the chair swing back up and creak loudly. Walking to the door, he pulled hard to open it and overcame the friction with the door frame. Exiting the room, he made his way to the exit door which was only a few steps away and emerged into a courtyard being lit up with a warm orange glow from the rising sun.
Richard couldn’t take more than a few steps forward before he noticed that Robin was standing outside along with his chief engineer Mato. Robin gave a big smile and waved a hello.
“I’m glad to see you are following your own order,” she said with a smirk. “I was afraid the end of my shore leave was going to involve dragging you out of your office.”
“Well,” Richard began, “I considered working through, but since Heather is not back yet with news, I figured I needed a break as much as anyone else. How was your shore leave?” Richard asked while pointing toward Mato.
Richard had known that there would be no way to order the chief engineer onto shore leave without a full-time escort to keep him planet side. Surprisingly, Robin had volunteered instantly and had forced him to visit with his family in Gemberlic.
“Honestly, the best time I’ve ever had. Mato’s family was so happy to see him and so proud. I cannot remember a more welcoming family and I had a wonderful time. And so did Mato! He couldn’t think of work for a second with all his family talking to him.” Robin finished explaining with a huge smile on his face.
“Hmmm!” Mato grunted his disagreement. “There was plenty of time for me to worry about that huge gaping hole in the first engine compartment. Maybe only ten out of our three hundred ships were destroyed, but there is plenty of damage to repair. I wi
sh we could have had shore leave after everything was repaired. I could have enjoyed it more.”
Richard just shook his head. “Mato, if we had repaired the fleet first, we would have had shore leave under the threat of a counter attack. Now, you are reenergized and can get the ship battle ready!”
“Oh, the ship is battle ready, don’t worry about that,” Mato said defending his ship. “I just want it to be perfect and it will be very soon. I got a chance to inspect the shipyards before my shore leave and they are untouched. Longus has been refitting the fleet as fast as he can. He is a grumpy centaur but a damn efficient operator.”
“Anyways,” Robin said trying to steer the conversation elsewhere. She knew that Richard and Longus had not managed to get along all that well. Though Richard had overall fleet command as he was also a Fleet Admiral and had superior battle experience, Longus constantly challenged him and was downright insubordinate. Richard had tolerated him and shut him down successfully to date, but he was concerned about the future. Without a command structure and organization to back the chain of command, Longus felt more powerful and free to challenge Richard’s command.
And now with a tremendously successful battle under his belt, Richard thought to himself. He may become even more difficult to control. Without question, the first victorious battle was a distinguished laurel wreath and a triumph. He had only lost ten ships, all of which were Royalist league. His entire Western Fleet of over two hundred ships remained intact. This in contrast to the destruction or capture of nearly the whole IAE Fleet. It was certain to boost Longus’ confidence and his willingness to defy Richard’s command authority. Richard’s real concern was about maintaining the support of the lower ranking command officers. They had served under Longus for a few years, which meant more than a few were willing to side with Richard out of spite or recognition of a superior commander. But, many were loyal to their commander, for better or worse.