ROMA

by R. A. Ender

  That feeling was exasperated by the entrance of Sara into the room and her quiet ordering of her men to guard the door outside and maintain security.

  By this time, Longus was watching all that was going on, and leaning forward to discuss with his executive officer. Robin was also watching what was happening, and shot a look back toward Richard with a clear What’s Up? question. Before either of them had a chance to speak, Richard stood up.

  “Mato, thank you for your report. We can all review our copy later. We have a special guest whom Sara has advised me is bringing news. Sara?” Richard announced somewhat deceptively. He didn’t know why Sara had brought the courier into the meeting room, it was not usual practice to do so. Therefore, his statement was not true, but she would not have brought a courier in directly without a really good reason, and his forcing her to speak meant everyone would appear to learn together, while he still maintained an air of having advanced knowledge. A good position to maintain when you are the top commanding officer.

  “Thank you, sir. I’m sorry to have rushed our courier in without notice, however, he brings very important news I felt needed to be heard immediately,” Sara explained quickly. She continued with a quick introduction. “This is Commander Javad Klu of the Watabaeg Militia, a special courier for General Abad.”

  With that, she took a step back and adopted a position that allowed her to see all that was going on in the meeting room, and maintain guard over the door.

  As she stepped back, Commander Klu stepped forward and plugged a device into the computer access point at the side of the meeting table.

  “I will not waste any more time than I have had to already explain this intelligence to three junior officers. General Abad sent me here with this urgent news in the hopes that it would help your cause.”

  Klu expressed his displeasure with the fleet’s intelligence collection process with a single sentence and then seemed to throw himself into a well-rehearsed and exceptionally succinct presentation.

  “As you know, Watabaeg continues to maintain our neutrality in this war. This information has been collected by our Militia units to serve our great Republic. As it is important to the Confederated Union of Worlds as well, General Abad sends it along without further comment.”

  “We have received information and confirmed it with visual documentation from one of our agents that the Imperial Alliance of Empires fleet has invaded the Lochalsh system and begun an effort to force a swift surrender from the planet. We have tracked a large buildup of forces in that system in the past few weeks. In addition, the IAE fleet has been observed bombing the planet from orbit. In the file that I have just transferred to your system, you will see video and sensor records which show a concerted bombing campaign being conducted against the planet surface using energy weapons, physical bombs and the use of mass driving techniques. An ore freighter has been seen in system transporting asteroid materials to ships in orbit, and the sensors have clearly been showing a massive rise in planetary atmosphere particulate counts.”

  As Klu ended his description of the mass driving attack, Longus slammed his fist onto the table top making an enormous and shockingly unexpected noise. Richard saw a few people around the table jump and a few glasses almost fall over. Longus’ face was red with anger, and his jaw was as stiff and menacing as Richard had ever seen. Klu was about to continue, but Longus could not help but jump in.

  “Commander Klu, does your file contain video of mass driving?”

  Klu shot an annoyed look toward Longus, obviously wanting to continue his preplanned presentation. But, he nodded confirmation and touched a few buttons on his pad to bring the video onto the main display, removing Mato’s fleet preparedness graph that had remained on the screen.

  The video began with a distant shot of a planet. On the left side of the video was the sun for the system, and on the right side was the planet, half illuminated. Within a few moments, the camera moved to zoom in on a small section of the illuminated side of the planet. As it approached, a fleet of ships began to appear between the sun and the planet. At first, they were only brief sparkles of light, but as the camera continued to approach, the gray hulls and the brilliant engine flares began to become distinguishable.

  At a certain point, the camera suddenly stopped moving toward the scene and simply maintained a steady shot. As it did, you could clearly see objects as large as some of the ships moving from one side of the fleet toward the planet's upper atmosphere. As the object hit the air, it began to burn brightly from the friction. Those streaks of light could be seen descending toward the continents, that were partially visible from the camera's perspective. It was also possible to see large dust clouds, very round and circular, which seemed to grow larger if you concentrated on one for a few seconds.

  Suddenly, Commander Klu jumped in with some explanation after letting the scene play silently for a few moments. “As you can see, the IAE fleet is positioned in orbit and is launching various asteroid materials toward the planet. Based on the small circular dust clouds, we know that that material is surviving entry, meaning they are selecting the most durable minerals as their bombs. In addition, if you wait a moment and watch this area of the screen, you will see a large impact.”

  On the screen, a yellow circle suddenly appeared over an undisturbed part of the continent on one of the shorelines. At the moment it was a great gray and black mass on a very green continent, likely a major city. As they all watched, a red spot appeared in the middle of the gray and expanded outward in an ever larger circle. At the beginning, it was a bright red, but that color quickly faded and was replaced with a brown-gray color as the circle expanded further and further.

  “Our intelligence has confirmed that that is a large hardened mineral asteroid striking the Lochalsh city of Fort Casheyl, which is the largest city on the North East Island chain. It is unknown how many people were killed in that attack, but the death toll is likely quite large.”

  Commander Klu paused for a moment. The mood in the room was one of devastation. Everyone was quiet, no one was speaking. No one was angry anymore. Even Longus could be seen touching his eyes to avoid tears running down his face. It was one thing to hear about attacks on cities from orbit. It was quite another to watch an attack kill so many souls so quickly. Even more painful was to watch the randomness. Mass driving was impossible to aim, it was a vicious barbaric bombardment tactic designed to be cheap, easy and compel surrender.

  Richard had seen that technique employed by the Canua against Veselyy, but only in school videos since it took place centuries ago. He had never known the IAE to use that technique. It was shocking to watch.

  Commander Klu softly cleared his throat and continued to speak, this time clearly not following his script. “It is the opinion of the Watabaeg Militia Intelligence service that the IAE is desperate to subjugate Lochalsh so that they can reduce their supply line and redeploy their forces against you. Having their war fleet divided leaves it quite vulnerable. It is worth remembering that mass driving has not been used in the two years of this war, despite multiple planetary sieges that lasted some time. Not that it excuses its use now, but it shows a significant tactical change.”

  “The file does contain detailed fleet information as well, but it is at least two weeks old at this point, and the IAE have control of the Olympus Jump Gate allowing faster fleet movements.”

  “Do you have any questions?” Commander Klu asked as he wrapped up his presentation and sat down, clearly wanting to avoid the mood of the room.

  After a brief moment, Longus spoke looking directly at Richard. “May I speak freely, Admiral Hilbornus?”

  Richard looked over with a skeptical face and a slight but very controlled nod of his head. Longus received the message clearly, as he nodded respectfully before speaking.

  “Sir, I think I speak for everyone when I say that I think we have our next target. We need to go after these guys hard and now. We cannot let that,” and with that, he pointed decisively with his
hand at the screen before choking a bit on his words. “We…we cannot let that stand!” He finished, regaining his composure.

  Richard nodded agreement but his mind was elsewhere. His instinct of late was to instantly oppose any idea coming from Longus and this was no exception. But he was thinking to himself of good reasons why. They were not hard to find.

  “First, thank you Commander Klu, and please ensure that you thank General Abad. This information is absolutely vital and I appreciate his sharing it with us. Second, though I share your emotional reaction Fleet Admiral Longus, I do not share your tactical assessment. Can you explain the strategic and tactical advantage to our fleet traveling to Lochalsh to engage the IAE?”

  Longus now seemed a little taken aback. It had been often the case that Longus asserted his opinion without providing specifics. He had always left Richard to state the specific strategy and tactic and spent his time picking those suggestions apart. Now, Richard had turned the tables and this should allow him to finally have the upper hand against Longus. I hope anyway, Richard thought to himself.

  It did take Longus a little time to answer and he began poorly, with some stumbling making Richard happy.

  “Well…tactical and strategy…uh… decisions are hard to make off the top of my head. But,” and now Longus recovered his usual bravado and style. “But, it seems to me that we need, from a propaganda point of view, to hit that IAE fleet. It could produce a victory and would allow us to clearly advertise their evil act across the galaxy. It might be enough to push them off their fence.” Longus gestured with his thumb toward Commander Klu.

  “I think the tactical advantage to having all the world's rising against their oppressors would ease our future efforts. They would no longer have safe systems in which to rearm, repair and plan.”

  Longus now reached forward for his glass of water, and while swallowing he gestured toward Richard to hear his thoughts on what he just said.

  Having listened while also considering all the tactical options, Richard felt he was quite prepared to quickly lay out a far superior plan, but he wanted to bait Longus a bit more first.

  “What makes you think that the five conquered worlds will rise up? They can’t do more than retake the planet surface and now they face the risk of mass drive attacks. I think it will have a chilling effect on any forceful resistance, don’t you?”

  Longus thought about that statement for a second but clearly, couldn’t think of an answer that would satisfy. But, Richard sat quietly waiting to hear his answer, forcing Longus to say something, however unsatisfying it might be.

  “Well…that may be so, but it will stiffen the resolve of the existing free worlds…” and Longus was cut off from an unexpected source, Robin.

  “Free world, you mean. New Earth is the only Old Colony region planet that is free, and I think they showed their resolve is strong as Germanic warriors!” Robin said while crossing her arms showing her opinion of Longus’ suggestion in her body language.

  “I was speaking of the Vev’tev worlds, and,” again waving his hand toward Commander Klu, though with a softer gesture this time. “and the Triumvirate worlds. They all remain free and are likely to resist more strongly if they know of the mass driving and know that we are acting to protect those poor souls on Lochalsh. Don’t you think that would help your civilian governments consider supporting our cause, Commander Klu?”

  Longus now reached out to Klu for some support. If he had truly expected any, he was deeply disappointed. As concise as Klu had been with his prepared presentation, he was just as concise in cutting any potential support for Longus’ theory out from under him.

  “I am not a politician. The use of mass driving has already been given to all the Republics within the Triumvirate before it was delivered here today. And our fleets are our best protection against it.”

  Longus continued to look at Klu with an air of hope that he would continue with something more, but he did not, leaving Longus’ only choice to look back at Richard and try to throw it back into his court.

  “Well, what is your great plan?” Longus spat out with all the bravado he had left.

  This time, Richard took the opportunity to lay out a precise and airtight plan.

  “Longus, I share your emotion, I do. And, I say to you all,” Richard now swept the room with his eyes to meet the gaze of everyone as they were all focused on him. He used his best commander technique to convey complete control and confidence. “I say to you all that we will get those involved in the mass driving. Whether we bring them to a court of justice or the cold justice of deep space, they will pay for their crimes.”

  “But,” and now Richard returned to look directly at Longus. “This is not the time for rash and emotional reactions. Our strategy is working. The tactical change proves it has been working. And now we have a chance to cripple them with a second strike against that supply run.”

  At that, Longus jumped in and tried to undercut Richard again. “That means we do nothing about the mass driving and let the people on Lochalsh be slaughtered. That is not acting! All you know how to do is play it safe!”

  Richard had his chance to put Longus in his place and dump what was left of his ego in the trash.

  “When it comes to this fleet, to this crew, you’re damned right I’ll play it safe! We don’t have the luxury of acting wildly, we can’t risk. All that stands between the end of the Confederacy and the subjugation of all humanity is this fleet. That needs to inform our every decision, we need to be cautious, deliberate. We need to play it safe!”

  Richard let that hang in the air for a moment. He wanted the emotion to sink in. He wanted to see if Longus had any fight left in him. Anyone else, Richard would have been certain he had utterly conquered and dominated. But Longus was the most bull-headed and egotistical man he had met, and he did not take that for granted.

  But, Richard was happy to see that Longus was finally beaten. He bowed his head and started playing with his pen. That was Richard’s signal to lay out his strategy, and he took it with pleasure and more than a little glee. He didn’t dare look at Robin. He could just sense her reaction by just sitting beside her and the last thing he wanted to do was celebrate with her in front of a defeated man.

  “I see in this tactical change more than desperation. I see it as a bold move designed to allow that supply fleet to arrive at Tionaga. I think that supply fleet is vital to the IAE fleets continuation of the war. Without it, they are fundamentally crippled. I doubt their masters back home will offer another chance at resupply. They must be looking at this war as a lost cause and may be considering a withdrawal. The damage is done to their mortal enemy, they can claim a victory on that alone, return with most of their fleet and probably steal our Olympus Jump Gate technology.”

  “I have been informed that we can still intercept that supply fleet at Tionaga when it exits hyperspace. And I say that we do that.” Clicking a few buttons on his display, he launched his proposal that his team had developed yesterday and that he had worked on part of last night. As he spoke, the animation played on the screen showing the proposed battle plan.

  “As you can see, based on the supply fleets run to jump, we expect that our fleet can arrive in Tionagan space first. It will provide us with time to handle any garrison force that may be present. In addition, once that supply fleet arrives, we will put our full fleet toward destroying it as quickly as possible before jumping out of the system.”

  “We will risk no ship. Any ship that is forced to override the heat safety protocol on their shield generators will be ordered to jump out of the fight and regroup at a deep space location.”

  “Our task will be to destroy that supply fleet. We are not retaking Tionaga. We are destroying the vital supply run, capturing the Olympus Jump Gate for a quick trip back to New Earth. This is a mission which is focused on a single task. We must avoid any temptation to fly too high and risk the sun melting our wings. I will not have this fleet drowned by hubris.”

  “O
bviously, detailed plans will be provided to all command staff. Commander Klu, I would also like to send the plan home with you. Can you ensure that General Abad receives it? I want him to be aware of our plans, even if he cannot participate.”

  Commander Klu nodded agreement with that request. Richard then looked around the room at everyone else. As he passed Robin, she gave him a victorious smirk. She was proud of his triumph over Longus.

  Finally, Richard’s eyes settled on Longus where he maintained his gaze until he spoke.

  “All I ask is for you to keep your word. We will destroy that supply fleet no matter what.” Longus now stood up and stretched out his right arm toward Richard, pointing straight at his heart, offering an oath of loyalty.

  For his part, Richard stood, stretched out his right arm toward Longus’ heart, and grasp his forearm. “We will defeat them!” He affirmed. With that, Longus grasp Richard’s forearm, and they both squeezed their hands tightly.

  CHAPTER 37

  The clepsydra turned red, and all the lights in the command deck began to lower to a dull background light. The time showed only five minutes remaining until the fleet exited hyperspace at their final destination. As numbers began to race lower, the red warning lights began to fill the small room with a bright red glow replacing the soft white light now fading to black. Only around the various stations with their large lighted display screens was that red glow pushed aside.