Retribution: The Augmented Human Rebellion - Book 2

by Lefler, Terry

  “Jason. His name is Jason,” says Honesty. She knew before she started that she wanted to name him Jason. She likes the name ‘Honesty’, and she likes the name ‘Justice’, for Cade Nemo’s son, but she just doesn’t want to force this baby into a mold. She wants him to be able to pick his own shape.

  ***

  The Inspection

  Admiral Justice Nemo has accompanied the AH Navy’s inspection team. He just came to personally welcome Admiral Meyers and her Sweetwater Fleet to AH Navy space, and hopefully, into the AH Navy.

  He hangs out with Admiral Meyers for some hours and then says, “I’ll stop by to see you from time to time. This inspection process is pretty boring and tedious. Perhaps I can take you someplace for lunch or something.”

  “That would be nice,” responds Admiral Meyers, in a voice that is softer than her Admiral voice.

  Admiral Justice, as the AIs call him, comes by every day and takes Admiral Meyers to lunch. And the lunch breaks get longer and longer. Everyone has noticed that Admiral Meyers is a lot happier now and has a song in her voice.

  ***

  Augmented Human Navy Headquarters

  Fleet Admiral Cade Nemo and Admiral Melissa Meyers have agreed that the Sweetwater Fleet should become a part of the AH Navy. And since the Sweetwater Fleet is already a formidable fighting force, they should continue under the command of Admiral Meyers.

  There are now 10 fleets, under the command of Fleet Admiral Cade Nemo. The new coalition of enemies arrayed against them has caused Cade Nemo and Sandra Guilles to come out of retirement for one more campaign.

  Intelligence indicates that the Darinx and Verm Navies together number over 1000 vessels. Although the AH Navy could gather that many vessels, they would not be as high in quality, as the Empire vessels.

  “It is good timing that Admiral Melissa Meyers has come to our aid,” thinks Cade Nemo. “Not only are her exploits the stories of legend, she also brings with her the most potent array of warships in our arsenal. And all of them captured from the Verm Navy - amazing.”

  “Not only that. My son is head over heels in love with her. It’s hard to get him to talk about anything else. Perhaps, I will live long enough to hold my grandchildren after all.”

  ***

  Augmented Human Navy War Council

  Fleet Admiral Cade Nemo concludes:

  “And so, it is the recommendation of this War Council that we take the battle to the enemy. It is our hope that the enemy fleets can be destroyed. But if not, then every effort must be made to lead them away from New Hope.”

  “I have recommended and the council has approved, that Admiral Melissa Meyers be named Fleet Admiral. She will command 5 fleets. Admirals Justice Nemo, Danion, Clay, and Wentr are now under her command.”

  “May God bless our people and save our land.”

  ***

  Preparations

  It was a great surprise to Fleet Admiral Meyers that she was promoted and appointed to direct the offensive, against the Darinx/Verm fleets.

  Since her promotion, she has worked tirelessly to get a grip on the reigns of leadership. It has been briefing after briefing and guided tour after guided tour. “I’m just now beginning to grasp the strengths and weaknesses of our fleets, and it is almost time for battle,” she thinks. “We must practice some fleet maneuvers, but bringing all 5 fleets together would be a mess. I will practice maneuvers with them, one at a time.”

  ***

  “How is maneuvers training going?” Fleet Admiral Cade Nemo asks her.

  “Surprisingly well, sir. The AH Navy is well trained and disciplined. We all speak the same language and communicate well. I plan on taking the fleets out, one at a time, to accompany Sweetwater Fleet on some missions. We need a shakedown phase, and we might as well be productive while we are shaking,” she answers.

  “Great plan,” replies Fleet Admiral Nemo. “Let me know if you have problems.”

  “Will do, sir.”

  ***

  Shakedown with Admiral Wentr

  “All ships. Fleet Admiral Meyers here. Commence operation ‘Divide’ on my mark. …………… Execute!”

  And they are off to shakedown the Meyers and Wentr Fleets, by attacking the seam where the Verm and Darinx fleets meet. It will test the communications and cooperation of the Verm/Darinx combined fleet, and will give the two AH Navy fleets some battle experience, together. In addition, it will serve notice that the Sweetwater Fleet has joined the AH Navy.

  This mission is a high velocity real space assault, using a constant acceleration of 50 meters/second/second, from a starting point about a million klicks away.

  There is a space between the Darinx and Verm fleets. This mission is designed to have the 2 AH Navy fleets fly through that empty space, and to destroy as many ships and as much infrastructure as possible. Freighters and Supply Depots are prime targets.

  Fleet Admiral Meyers is certain that her AIs can do this job, but she needs to see if the AIs in the Wentr Fleet can handle the high velocity targeting. The velocities are much lower than were used in the attacks against the Verm Facilities, but some of the AH Navy vessels are a little past their prime. This slower speed should still be good enough to get the job done.

  ***

  “All ships. Meyers here. Approaching targets. My AI is sending targeting assignments. Fire when ready. Good hunting.”

  ***

  The battle is over in a flash. The Augmented Human Navy Artificial Intelligences have targeted their assigned vessels, and have launched missile and rail gun projectiles long before the 2 fleets pass between the Verm and Darinx fleets. There are lots of explosions among the enemy vessels, but it is too early to tell how many AH Navy vessels are hit.

  Now it’s on to the deep space rendezvous coordinates for the analysis of the results. There were scout ships assigned to record the battlespace. The two Admirals chat and get to know each other, while they wait for results. Honesty has already guessed at 158 ships destroyed and 230 with substantial damage.

  ***

  Fleet Admiral Meyers has never actually met an extrucian. She has seen holos, but that is not the same. Augmented humans and extrucians are about the same size, and both species are highly efficient killing machines.

  Fleet Admiral Meyers is surprised by Admiral Wentr’s communications skills, and his calm demeanor. His mannerisms seem almost ‘human’, but his ant-like body makes the experience seem surreal. “That surreal feeling will probably go away after a few conversations,” she thinks.

  “How long have you been with the AH Navy, Admiral Wentr?” she asks.

  “Since before it began,” Admiral Wentr answers. “I was a pilot on a shuttle that took them to hijack their first Verm warship.”

  “Why have you stayed with them? I know that you are far from your species here,” Admiral Meyers asks.

  “These people have saved my planet from destruction 2 times. I will never leave them, unless they send me away. These are my people now,” answers the extrucian.

  ***

  The time waiting for reconnaissance results was time well spent. Melissa Meyers has a new friend named ‘Wentr a we’. She knows that he is someone who she can depend on.

  The reconnaissance results confirm Honesty’s estimates, and they also show that after the flythrough, some extra-circular shooting between the Darinx and Verm fleets took place. It might be possible to get the two allies at each other’s throat.

  One other thing that the scouts reported – the Darinx Fleet is up to 600 vessels now. That makes a force of over 1,100 warships – minus the 158 ships it lost today.

  ***

  Shakedown with Admiral Clay

  Admiral clay is getting up-there in age. But there isn’t any doubt about his mind. Just by being in his presence, you can feel his focus and solidity. And Admiral Clay is a normal human. “I wonder how he got here.” Admiral Meyers thinks. Aloud she says: “What kind of mission would you recommend, Admiral Clay?”

  “I wou
ld come in behind the Verm Fleet. And while I was there, I would be sending secret messages to the admiral in charge of the Darinx Fleet,” he answers.

  “Oh, I love it,” says Admiral Meyers. “Let’s make it happen.”

  ***

  There is no way to sneak 150 warships into deep space behind the Verm Fleet. There is nothing to hide behind. All you can do is to emerge at a safe distance from the enemy warships, and then engage them after you have formed up. So Admirals Meyers and Clay plan to shorten the time between emergence and engagement, as much as possible.

  The first step in the plan is to have the Augmented Human Navy ships do a Faster Than Light jump to a distance that is 15 light minutes away from the Verm Navy rear guard. That way, the AH Navy Fleet can do a visual inspection and can be reasonably certain that they won’t be jumping into occupied space, when they make the hop into the combat arena.

  Next they form the AH Navy vessels into assault groups, and arrange them into the attack formation that they want, before hopping into the battlespace. A 15 light minute hop is not going to mess up their formation by very much.

  After the AH Navy ships have emerged, they will immediately charge the enemy forces and will tidy up their formation, as they close the distance to the enemy.

  A fleet verses fleet battle against a superior force doesn’t seem like a good idea, but Admiral Clay wants to establish some new ground rules, for the Verm/Darinx Fleets. He wants to force them to guard their entire perimeter. That will make it more difficult for them to mass their behemoths for a brute force assault.

  Also, he intends to charge straight into the rear of the Verm Navy Fleet, and then to make a left turn and exit the Verm Fleet, while slicing through a part of the Darinx Fleet. Admiral Clay is betting that there will be confusion and conflict at the boundary between the Verm and Darinx Fleets.

  This will be another attempt to stir up trouble, between the two Empires. And just to make things worse, Admiral Clay is going to send Admiral Kjst - the Darinx Fleet commander - a highly encrypted message, as the AH Navy exits their position.

  It is a certainty that the two Empire fleets are monitoring each other’s communications. The Verm will copy the transmission, and decrypt the message. That message is signed by ‘Fleet Admiral Meyers’ and says: “Message received. Trap set”.

  ***

  “All ships. Fleet Admiral Meyers here. On my mark, initiate plan ‘Brave Heart’. …………… Engage.”

  And they are off. Fleet Admiral Meyers knows that the AH Navy will lose some ships and crews today. She usually makes every effort to avoid that, but this is war, and losses are inevitable. If successful, this attack will force the Empire Fleets to spread their resources and will increase the tension between the 2 allies.

  ***

  The Verm Fleet is instantly aware of the impending battle, and rushes more ships to the rear of the formation. That is the natural response to an enemy assault. But what Admiral Clay hopes is that the enemy ships will bunch up, and will then be unable to get out of each other’s way, as the charging AH Navy Fleet hits the enemy lines like a battering ram.

  There will be a lot of ships lost to collisions and confusion today. Fleet Admiral Meyers just hopes that the AH Navy losses will be relatively small, and that the long term benefits will justify the sacrifice of lives.

  The AH Navy combined Fleet is shaped in a spear formation, with a couple of layers of empty remote-controlled vessels, at the tip. These will be destroyed in the early stages of the assault, either by missile fire or by collision with enemy ships.

  ***

  As hoped, the collision of the two opposing fleets causes a crisis in the Verm Fleet’s command structure. They are prepared for a long distance projectile battle, but they are not prepared for a close-in energy weapons knife fight.

  The sacrificial ships at the tip of the spear position have been destroyed, and now it is all about energy weapons – at least for the Verm Fleet. They can’t use projectiles anymore because the enemy is inside of their formation. There would be a better that even chance that the Verm projectiles would hit Verm vessels.

  That is not the case for the AH Navy vessels. There is a crowd of Verm vessels all around. The AH Navy vessels fire missiles and rail guns as well as energy weapons, and they can be reasonably certain that even their errant projectiles will damage an enemy ship.

  Admiral Clay was right about the Verm ships “falling all over themselves” as they attempt to get out of the way. Mostly, the Verm ships are concentrating on moving rather than fighting.

  Fleet Admiral Meyers is in the Galactus with Honesty controlling the helm and weapons. Honesty has some help from humanoids in directing the defensive systems. Other AH Navy ships have fallen away, either because of damage or because they have been slowed by the battle, and Galactus is now at the tip of the spear.

  Honesty charges fearlessly through the melee of warships, and then makes the planned left turn in a smooth arch. Viewed from the point position, the battle has the feel of a snow plow pushing through the slosh of a wet snow.

  There is plenty of enemy fire, but not as much as expected. Confusion reigns in the Verm Fleet and there is no coordination of weapons fire. The ‘left turn’ is another surprise to Verm admirals, and there is a dearth of leadership at the command level. It is every ship for itself in the Verm Navy today.

  The AH Navy keeps up the pace as they push through the Verm Fleet. It would be suicide to stop, or to allow themselves to be slowed.

  Before long, the AH Navy Fleet breaks through the Verm line and into the space between the Darinx and Verm fleets. What will happen here?

  If the Darinx and Verm fire projectiles at the AH Navy vessels, while they are between the Empire fleets, the projectiles which miss will then go on to target ships of the other Empire. If that happens, Admiral Clay is hoping that the enemy fleets will begin to target each other.

  Without guidance from the commanders of the Verm Fleet, the Verm warships do target the AH Navy vessels while they are in the no man’s land, between the Verm and Darinx fleets. Verm projectiles, which miss their targets, then go on to target Darinx Navy vessels.

  Before long the Darinx Fleet is returning fire against the Verm Fleet. Much of the Darinx Fleet’s attention is on the Verm Navy’s barrage of projectiles. That causes their response to the attack by the Augmented Human Navy Fleet to be disorganized. Parts of the Darinx Fleet are attacking both the AH Navy Fleet and the Verm Navy Fleet.

  The AH Navy Fleet quickly slices through the Darinx Navy Fleet, and then heads into deep space. While exiting the Darinx Fleet, Admiral Clay launches the information probe to Admiral Kjst, with the encrypted message.

  After the exit, all AH Navy defensive system switch to the aft, and all vessels again form up into spear formations. This time the vessels in back will take the brunt of the projectile barrage. The rear-most vessels have been selected for that position, because they have the best projectile defensive systems.

  The exposure to projectiles is relatively brief, as the AH Navy vessels begin to melt into FTL space.

  ***

  War is Hell

  The cost of the battle, for the AH Navy, was 27 warships and 27 crews - along with many damaged ships and crews. Fleet Admiral Meyers is sickened by the loss. In the privacy of her quarters she breaks down and cries - Honesty comes to comfort her. Whoever said ‘war is hell’ was certainly right.

  It is some consolation that Verm and Darinx losses were over 140 ships. And that the Verm/Darinx coalition is frayed. Scouts, assigned to monitor the battlespace, report continuing projectile weapons fire between the two allies for over 4 hours.

  This should give the Verm and Darinx Fleets cause for concern. Their numbers advantage is going to quickly diminish, if the AH Navy continues to destroy 140 ships per attack.

  ***

  Shakedown with Admiral Danion

  Artificial Intelligence Admiral, Danion meets with Fleet Admiral Meyers aboard the Galactus. Honesty is so
proud to show off ‘her’ ship. And Admiral Danion is so proud of his ‘baby’. Then Honesty shows her father the design for the AI Exoskeleton. Now Danion is really impressed by that. He sees the potential for the Exoskeleton immediately, and asks her why she hasn’t had one made?

  Honesty answers: “I figured everyone was too busy with the war to spend time on this. But you could have some built, if you want.”

  “Let me take the design with me. I’ll see if my Engineering Section has time for this. I can see this as advancement in our AI technology, which could put us out in front of the Empires. There will be military applications as well as personal convenience.”

  ***

  During the tour of the Galactus, Danion says: “You know that your fighters can be flown by AIs, don’t you?”

  “I hadn’t even thought of it,” replies Admiral Meyers. If we ever get a surplus of AIs I will know where to put them.”

  ***

  “What would you suggest for a shakedown battle, Admiral Danion?”

  “I would like to lure them into a trap,” he answers.

  “That would be convenient,” responds Admiral Meyers. “As part of our last battle, we planted a message, which suggests that we are colluding with the Darinx Fleet to trap the Verm Fleet. What would you use as bait for the trap?”

  Danion muses: “What they want most is the location of New Hope so that they can destroy our home planet again. We could lead them to another uninhabited planet and convince them that it’s New Hope. If that works, they will stop looking for the planet and will just try to destroy the Fleet.

  ***

  The sacrificial planet is ready. Danion has already been working on it for months. There are hidden power sources scattered around the planet, to hint at underground cities, and there are some island beach homes here and there to suggest inhabitants. There are some large structures to simulate disguised space ship launch pads.

  “It looks pretty sparse,” thinks Fleet Admiral Meyers. Aloud she says: “Do you think they will ‘buy it’?”