Resilience (Warner's World Book 6)

by Dave O'Connor

  “Captain Simons I believe you are not dressed correctly” interjected Dave.

  Art was completely taken off guard and he looked to Sue for help.

  “He’s talking to you” said Sue.

  “Gee, I don’t know what to say” said Art.

  “I think that was obvious dear” said Sue and she gave him a nudge.

  “Thanks Dave…I mean Sir” sputtered Art.

  “You deserve it Art” said Dave. “Besides it gets us around a hurdle.”

  Art looked confounded.

  Sue rolled her eyes. “So we can have your room?” she asked Rihan.

  Rihan smiled and nodded. “Like old times.”

  There was now a steady stream of figures marching past the café heading to or from their cabins. One of these had a blond ponytail and answered to the name of Aubrey. There was a smile on her face and it wasn’t just because of her new badge of rank. She found the gang of four and joined them with a “morning tea time already?”

  Dave nodded with a smile. He was so pleased to see Aubrey so happy. “Like your digs?” he asked.

  “Nice to have a bigger bed. Shame there’s no one to fill it.” Aubrey looked at Sue. “You scored Rihan’s cabin didn’t you?”

  “Well actually Captain Simons here did” said Sue with obvious delight in her voice.

  “Congrats Art” said Aubrey. She turned to Dave “You know I wouldn’t have pulled rank on this.”

  “I know but it’s a convenient excuse to promote the bugger.”

  “High praise indeed” said Art feigning sincerity.

  Chase and Crystal entered the area and joined in the banter. A few minutes later Dave raised his voice. “Since we’re all here. I want to let my planning staff” and he looked at Aubrey, Chase, Art and Sue “know that this afternoon, while Rihan and her new XO are putting the crew of this fantastic ship through its paces, we’ll be meeting…somewhere, to sort out how we’re going to fight this new group of ours.” Dave turned to Rihan “where is our space?”

  Rihan shook her head and consulted her ShipNav. “Up on A deck there’s a Fleet briefing room aft of the central elevators. There, you should see it now.”

  Dave looked at his communicator and said “Yeah, I see it…terrific honey!”

  All the others looked on either in a confused state or amazed. “What did you just do?” asked Chase.

  “ShipNav” said Rihan.

  “It’s a new app. Check your communicator” added Dave.

  They all went to their communicators and after a few minutes of “Oohs” and “Aahs” they all agreed it was a great app.

  “Good, so there’s no excuse now” said Dave.

  “And that goes for you too darling?” asked Rihan in a mocking manner.

  Dave laughed and added “Hopefully!”

  Chapter 42. Audacity over Q2 1400, 5 October

  Rihan strode into the huge briefing room with Bill Praxton in tow. She nodded at those she knew in the seats, including Crystal, but for the most part these were strangers.

  Bill Praxton watched her closely. He had heard so much about her. ‘Hell, who hadn’t’ he thought to himself. She and Warner were the stuff of legend now. They had won just about every battle they had fought. There was an undeniable air of confidence in the way she presented and with a quick scan of the faces in the room he could see that confidence elevating the mood of all present.

  While there were a few rookies, most of the crew had been pulled from survivors of the battle for Polaris. Many had lost their ships but had managed to survive. Others had found out after the battle that their ship had suffered so much damage that it was not worth repairing. For them the wait for a new role had been full of mixed feelings.

  Bill recalled how Alex had told him that he had done his best to scoop up the best of this pool and assign it to the Audacity. “It’s the number one priority” had been the directive from Yomoto. Bill knew some of them, but for him too most were ‘unknowns’ save for a note in a file or whatever he had heard or read about them in the media. He was intrigued how Rihan would handle that. Bill’s biggest worry as he contemplated the challenges ahead while in transit had been how to gel this many people into a cohesive fighting unit in such a short space of time.

  “Ladies and gentlemen” began Rihan in an assured voice “you are the luckiest officers in the fleet. Make no bones about that. You have been assigned not only to the biggest and most powerful ship ever built, but to the group that will win this war.”

  “I have it on good authority” she said with a wry smile “that Admiral Warner aims to win this in short order. We will be going direct to the enemy’s home world of Istridium. It’s the enemy’s seat of power and their biggest arsenal.”

  She paused for effect and looked around at the faces. Then she continued “But don’t let that frighten you. Things are rotting in Istridium. The rats are turning on each other. The resistance is growing stronger and taking the fight to the Imperialists. Soon we will join the Republican Fleet and together we are going to kick in the door to that seat of power and sweep aside the rotting mess.”

  She again paused for effect. She had their attention. She deliberately spoke a little softer but maintained her eye contact. “But strong words alone are not going to be enough. No rattling of the sabres will suffice. Oh no, this is going to be a hard fight. You, me, we are going to have to be at the top of our game if we are to prevail. We need to fight as one. We need to fight for each other and look out for each other. That’s how we’ve got here and that’s how we will finish it.”

  “Now we have precious little time to gel as a team. Things are not going to run like clockwork and we will probably not be a well-oiled machine by the time we have to depart. That would be an unrealistic expectation. I can be tolerant of minor things” she said before another small pause. “But you won’t find me tolerant on the big things. I won’t ball you out for minor omissions but you had better make sure you can perform your key duties correctly and promptly. Trust me you won’t want to be in my sights if you fail in these. Isn’t that correct Crystal?”

  “Yes Maam” said Crystal emphatically.

  “Right” said Rihan “All those people who have yet to do the famil you need to listen up to the XO. For those of you who were aboard during the transit, if you have other essential duties to perform then you can be excused. Otherwise, tag along for the famil. It will give you an opportunity to get to know your fellow officers and impart any bits of wisdom you have picked up in transit.” Rihan turned to Bill. “XO, they’re all yours.”

  While Rihan was in full swing with the famil, Dave and his planning staff were coming to grips with the capabilities of their fleet and the likely enemy force over Istridium. Thankfully Angina had provided a comprehensive report of the known defences as of early September. Her report had a short statement in the covering letter that simply said ‘While the data on missile batteries is likely to remain valid for some time, ground units, fighters and ships are all subject to change at short notice.’

  Art had taken some delight in highlighting this segment in his opening presentation to the team. “Even so,” he continued “we can expect that no matter where we approach from they should be able to bring to bear at least 30 batteries and more like 40 over Slidwon, the capital.”

  “Gee” said Chase soberly. “There are three to four thousand missiles there.”

  “How many do we have in our group?” asked Dave.

  “2,600 ship and 2,288 fighter and bomber missiles per load out” answered Aubrey.

  “These bombers are they marauders?”

  “Version 2…stealth drones” chipped in Chase.

  “Still twelve missiles each?”

  “Yep.”

  “Actually, me and Aubrey” said Chase “reckon they’re our secret weapon.”

  “How so?”

  “Well the marauders don’t carry a pilot. So we can afford to put them in harm’s way where we wouldn’t expose a fighter. Me and Aubrey we
re…”

  “Aubrey and I” corrected Dave.

  Chase nodded. “Yes, Aubrey and I came up with this tactic…”

  “When pray tell did you do this?”

  “Yesterday, actually.”

  “What, so on your leave you mulled over tactics?” queried an incredulous Dave.

  “Sad but true” said Aubrey with an equally sad expression.

  “There were some interesting cocktails in the mix” chipped in Chase with a smile. Then changing his demeanour so it carried a hint of reproach he added “Not everyone has their partner with them remember?”

  “Fair enough” said Dave raising both hands, palms out. “So what’s this tactic you worked out?”

  “Bear in mind” said Aubrey “we are yet to game this out in the simulators.” Dave nodded.

  “And we could have missed things” said Chase “especially after the third cocktail.”

  “I get the picture” said Dave. “Aubrey!”

  “In a nutshell” said Aubrey “we use our lima’s (Lightnings) defensively and our mikes (Marauders) offensively.” Dave nodded. “We estimate that the enemy may have as much as three fleets, so around 24 caps and 30 lights plus two, maybe three, carriers.” She paused to see if anyone took issue on that estimate. No one did.

  “If they do what we did over Polaris and stay within their ground based fighter cover, they could have 700 fighters – 300 ground based, 200 in the carriers, assuming they only have two, and the rest spread amongst their caps.”

  “It’s a lot isn’t it” noted Dave out loud.

  “Yes it is. With six missiles a pop they can fire off a volley of 4,000. Their ships carry another 10,000. Not to mention the four thousand from their batteries, assuming Slidwon is the target.”

  “And don’t forget the space station. There’s another 1,000” contributed Chase.

  “That’s right” said Aubrey. “So all up they can launch defensively 19,000 missiles.”

  “That’s a mother-load” chimed in Art.

  “Too right” said Aubrey. “We don’t want to mix it on those terms, even with the combined fleet, we’ll suffer horrendous losses.”

  “What size volley can the Enterprise Group and the Republican fleet put out?” asked Dave.

  “The Enterprise Group has the Enterprise, ten caps and 14 lights along with 48 limas and 48 marauders. That gives us 4,500 torads and 960 javelins. The 1st Republican has a carrier, 8 caps and 10 lights with 100 fighters. That adds another 3,500 ship and 600 fighter missiles, albeit rogan missiles. All up over 9,000. So even if we add in our 4,888, we end up with fewer than 14,000.”

  “So we need to either draw them out” continued Aubrey “away from their ground based batteries and fighters or we run some hit and run preliminary ops to bleed their missiles. I doubt with the stakes so high that they will split their forces or be willing to send their fleet off on any op that takes them away from their ground based cover.” Aubrey paused, waiting for Dave’s agreement on that assumption.

  Dave could see that she believed it. He wasn’t so sure, but he resisted saying so at this stage. So he just nodded instead.

  Aubrey acknowledged his nod with one of her own. “But…” she continued “they may be lured out in frustration.” She held up her index finger to beg for silence. A mischievous expression appeared on her face. “What if we park the unstealthy part of the combined fleet a fair way out from the planet. It’s visible, it’s a threat and it’s there. They don’t see our group, even though it’s there and a lot closer.” She paused to check she had all their attention. She did.

  “Out of nowhere the marauders appear within stand-off range. They fire off their 1,152 missiles at the enemy caps, about turn and buster back to us. The first time this happens the enemy will be unlikely to have more than 20% CAP and most likely just from their ships. Say 100 fighters. They will fire off their 600 missiles defensively but either have to launch more fighters or use ship missiles to fire off the other 1,800 required for a two to 1 ratio. They won’t even get a crack at our marauders.”

  “Go on” said Dave.

  “So we rinse and repeat until they get mightily pissed off and decide to send out either some pickets or a flotilla or a whole fleet. That’s when we pounce on them with our fleet, beam them, either move back or warp away depending on the circumstances. In this way we can chew them out.” Aubrey looked at Dave with an expression that said ‘so what do you think?’

  “And what if they don’t come out?” asked Dave. “We’re going to eventually run out of fighter missiles. They have a whole planet to keep them supplied.”

  “Well actually we have…” and Aubrey was searching on her terminal “121,000 fighter missiles.”

  “Maybe here on Q2 but we will not be able to carry anywhere near that with us” said Dave. “The transports are all going to be heading back to Chelora to pick up more supplies.”

  “Point of order” said Aubrey with the smile of a Cheshire cat “we now have…” and she checked her terminal again “70 fast rogan transports at our disposal with another 300 or so expected before we depart.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Came in this morning” chipped in Chase with a grin.

  “Mmm” said Dave “well that is nice isn’t it”. Dave thought for a moment and then continued “It’s so nice to have options. In fact, if we park our fleet within say fifteen minutes of the marauders launch location, what will be the turnaround time for each strike?”

  “In theory, we could mount one every 45 minutes but probably safest to allow an hour” informed Chase. “Pilot fatigue will become a factor, not to mention resup from the transports, which we will have to go back to the main fleet for. According to the specs here, our beautiful new ship can carry 10,000 fighter missiles. That’s supposed to be split equally between the limas and mikes but there’s no reason why we can’t use most of them for the mikes. We could mount six strikes, then pull back, resup, rinse and repeat.”

  “I like it” said Dave as he smiled. “But we need to consider the things that can go wrong. For instance, what happens to our recovering mikes if the enemy does send out his ships and we need to pounce.”

  “We may lose some” said Aubrey “but that’s the beauty of using the mikes, we may lose the craft but we don’t lose a soul.”

  “Yeah, that’s true. But once we lose these craft we lose this capability and if that’s what is going to win us this battle then I don’t want to lose them unnecessarily. I’m sure there are other contingencies we need to look at. Put your thinking caps on. I have to go see the Admiral now. I told him we would be ready for a joint planning session tomorrow. So crystallise these thoughts, work up the SOPs and game them out. That should keep you busy till then.”

  Chase rolled his eyes “All beef an’ heart Sir…all beef an’ heart.”

  Dave smiled as he stood up. “Good work folks.”

  Outside the briefing room he hailed Rihan. “Just going over to the Kiev to see the Admiral. Don’t forget we are dining with him at 1800.”

  “Oh right” said Rihan. “What a day. Thanks honey I’ll see you then.”

  “Everything all right?”

  “Yeah just busy. So many new faces.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  Chapter 43. Kiev over Q2, 1830, 5 October

  They had just finished the entre when a first lieutenant walked at some pace up to Phil’s chair and whispered in his ear.

  “Excuse me” said Phil and left the dining area following the two pipper.

  “What do you reckon?” asked Rihan of Dave. Dave shrugged his shoulders and looked to Alex.

  “Who knows” responded Alex “but it must be important to get him away from his beer. We’ll find out soon enough.”

  A few minutes later Phil came back in. He was still deep in thought as he took his seat. He belatedly excused himself after he noticed that most were looking at him. Phil was conscious of the fact that this was supposed to be a celebratory dinner to honour
the victory over Cheklin. He simply smiled at his onlookers and cut himself another piece from his steak. A moment later he was munching on it. Everyone took this as a signal to let the matter lie.

  After Phil swallowed he looked across to Ivan. “You know Ivan I think you must have a record for the most promotions in one year other than these two here” he said referring to Dave and Rihan.

  Ivan always found these moments a tad embarrassing, though he was getting better at handling them. He noticed Jasmin’s look that bordered almost on admiration and with a raise of his eye gave her the hint. She changed her expression but still kept a smile on her face. He then replied to Phil “well I’m just fortunate enough to follow in their wake.”

  “Maybe” said Phil “but this time I do believe you may have eclipsed them. What do you think Dave?”

  “For sure” said Dave “and it’s nice to not have all the focus.”

  “Yes, you are the hero of the hour Ivan” said Rihan. She said it with such sincerity that Ivan actually blushed.

  “He’s my hero too” said Jasmin. “We’re going to marry” she blurted out causing Ivan to blush once more.

  People stood up and milled around Ivan and Jasmin, congratulating them. Dave turned side on but did not get up when Rihan rose and proposed a toast to their intended union. There was so much joy in the conversation.

  Phil also remained seated. He was glad for the diversion. Despite his best efforts, the signal in from Angina claimed his focus once more. The signal he knew put paid to any easy victory. ‘An assassination and two coups in one day’ thought Phil. ‘That must be a record for sure.’

  “Are you right Sir” asked Dave.

  “Quazor’s dead but there’s another one now” said Phil.

  Dave was a little confused with Phil’s cryptic response. But he assumed he was referring to the Imperialist First Consul. “Emilius Quazor?” he asked.

  “Yep. He was assassinated two days ago in a coup. But they only lasted a few hours. Quazor’s nephew, the one that commands the Imperial Guard, well he just marched those big walkers of his up to the council chambers and took over. It’s a full blown dictatorship now. By all accounts he’s a bastard of the highest order. It’s not going to be a push over Dave. No, we’re in a shit fight now.”