Nova Romae (The Adventures of Christopher Slone Book 2)

by Donald Nicklas

  “Please be seated, admiral, and your adjutant as well.”

  A man wearing dark purple armor with gold insignias spoke this. In front of him, on the table, there was a rather large hat with a feather. On the wall behind was a golden eagle looking to the right with its wings outstretched and a wreath in its talons with the letters, S.P.Q.N.R. None of this made any sense to him. As the admiral sat, a steward came in and brought drinks.

  The admiral picked up his glass and smelled vodka. Before he could remark on this, the older officer sitting in the middle stood up and held up his glass. “Vashe zdorovie” he said to the admiral’s surprise and all at the table downed their glasses. As was the custom in the Petrov Corp, they then banged the empty glasses on the table and sat back down.

  “You drink to my health, am I to believe that?”

  The officer who was clearly in charge then spoke, “I am Consul Juan Lorenzo of Nova Romae, this is Captain Freemantle, who commanded the fleet during the action and this is Captain Slone, who is an observer. I wish you long life and good health. We will honor the terms of your surrender, I only wanted to meet you to assure you of this. I also want to ask if you think your ground commander would be amenable to evacuating the planet without a fight. It would be preferable to all if there is no further bloodshed.”

  “I have already spoken to him and he will not be amenable. He feels his position is secure.”

  “I thought as much. My people have done some math and it seems your remaining vessels will not be sufficient to hold the surviving crews of our prizes. Therefore, we will add two ships to your fleet, the freighters you have with you in orbit.”

  Lorenzo placed his gaze on the admiral. “Would you care to tell me why the political prisoners on those vessels are all women and children taken from their families on the planet?”

  Now the admiral started to feel a little uncomfortable. How much should he tell these strangers of the plight of the Petrovians? “The freighters are under control of the land based command. We had nothing to do with them.”

  “Interesting. We will have to ask your general when we take him captive.”

  Admiral Perminov was completely taken aback at the audacity and absolute conviction of these strangers that the land battle would go in their favor. Again, he wondered, who are these people? The rest of the meeting was purely social and no other questions were asked of the admiral. If these were not enemies, he would have enjoyed their company. He had some more vodka and the best hors d'oeuvres he had eaten since visiting the Petrov capital. These people travelled in style, no doubt about it. As the time came for him to return to his ship, he had to ask one more question that kept bothering him.

  “Consul, if I may ask. What corporation do you belong to?”

  Lorenzo looked at him as a father looks at a child who just doesn’t get it. “We are not part of any corporation. We are a democratic federation of systems.”

  As Admiral Perminov left on his shuttle, he kept replaying that answer in his head. Now he knew there was a powerful corporation behind all of this, since democratic federations died with earth. One or more of the rest of the big seven corporations were in play here. During the Petrovian preparations, the Romani also had a lot to do. They never kept the Petrovians under guard or harassed them in any way, and this was yet another puzzle to Petrov Corp forces. Their ships had not even been disarmed nor had their crews or marines. This was the strangest enemy they had ever faced and the history books of the corporations had no parallel. A less honorable person may use this to attack them, but to what avail. He would leave their supreme confidence to be dealt with by General Fedin, with whom the Romani had allowed constant contact, also against the normal rules of war. The Romani had their own casualties to deal with, as well as helping the Petrovians deal with their wounded. Never did any of the Romani medics and doctors show an ounce of animosity towards the Petrovians. The six Romani destroyers taken out in the battle were in various states of damage. One of the center destroyers was heavily damaged with 30% casualties. The other destroyers suffered moderate to minor damage and would be back on line for the next battle, if that did not take place for at least a week after the Petrovians left. A few destroyers, like the one of Captain Rand, had a few hits that were easily repaired. Admiral Perminov offered the services of his people to help with disposal of the dead. He was told they did not commit their dead to space. He was not sure if he should ask what they did with them, so decided to leave it be.

  The Romani were true to their word and Admiral Perminov left the system with his dreadnought, two destroyers and the freighters, now packed with their surviving crews. The women and children were taken aboard the dreadnoughts for removal to the planet after the land combat. Before their departure, the Petrovians were allowed to commit their dead to space in the way of all corporations, by sending them into the sun or out into space. Consul Lorenzo asked the crew of the Draco to launch and follow the Petrov fleet and give warning of the strength and arrival of their main battle fleet. The Draco, commanded by Allen Farnsworth, invisibly followed the enemy out of system. As soon as all enemy ships were out of the system, the Romani dreadnoughts decloaked and the ground war was about to begin.

  In the hidden bunker of the resistance, Alaya, Tavia, Ian and the resistance forces were glued to the monitors. They were tapping into the New Wales satellite system to watch the battle unfolding in near planetary space.

  “What are your people doing, sending destroyers and cruisers against dreadnoughts?” Ian asked, expecting the worst. “Even if they win by sheer numbers, the damage they’ll take will render them incapable of further action and leave us high and dry. Why didn’t they send any dreadnoughts?”

  “What they are doing isn’t our concern, uncle,” Tavia said before Alaya could respond. “I trust them and we need to make sure we’re ready when they land. We have to disrupt the Pets communications and take out their command and control if we can.”

  “You left as my niece, but I see you came back as a soldier. This is not the safety I wanted for you.”

  “I trust the Romani and hope to become part of them when this is over.”

  “Well, let’s see if they win, first.”

  After the first contact, the monitor showed one of the Petrov cruisers moving away from the fleet and heading to the planet. At the present course, it would crash onto the planet. Though Alaya was maintaining radio silence, she was monitoring the Romani frequencies and could hear the battle unfolding. She also noted a constant drum cadence in the background and wondered what that was.

  “What is that cruiser doing? It’s pulling away from the fleet and trailing parts of its hull,” Ian asked, knowing Alaya was monitoring.

  She responded, “That’s a destroyed Petrov cruiser falling from the sky.” Alaya was careful to use the same wording that Diana had when they told the resistance how they would know when the liberation was in progress. She also knew from the chatter it would fall into the ocean.

  As this discussion was going on, the battle above them was ending. A sudden cheer went up in the room. Ian turned to the monitor tech and asked what all the shouting was about.

  “The Romani destroyers just tore into two of the dreadnoughts, sir. I think they may be out of commission.”

  “Did the Romani cruisers finally engage?”

  “No, sir. The destroyers hit them hard and then went on and took out three of the five Petrov destroyers. The Romani cruisers are holding back. They have now stopped and the destroyers are disengaging. Looks like the Romani had six destroyers taken out of commission.”

  Ian turned to Alaya, “What’s going on. Why have the Romani broken off combat?”

  Alaya was listening to her earwig and put up a hand for silence in the room. Suddenly she broke out in a big smile. “The Petrov fleet has asked for terms for their surrender, the terms were given and accepted. The battle is over.”

  Ian looked dumbstruck, as did some of the others who knew a little about space combat as the co
rporations fought it. The rest of the personnel only knew stage one of their deliverance was over and a loud cheer with many hugs went through the room. The next week was filled with questions and oddities. The magnanimous actions of the Romani were debated, as was the release of the freighters containing their citizens. They only relaxed when they were told the women and children had been taken off and were aboard the Romani ships. No message pods left the system while the remaining Petrov fleet was in the system. The Romani destroyers, who would shoot down any message pod, interdicted planetary communications out of the system. Finally, the time came and sensors indicated all surviving Petrov ships and the freighters had entered the outbound slipstream. Almost immediately, the resistance monitor tech jumped up from his station. He looked around for Ian and when his eye found him, he flagged him over. Alaya and Tavia went along.

  “What is it? Has a new Petrov fleet entered the system?”

  “No sir. As I was watching the near planet activities of the Romani, 10 dreadnoughts suddenly appeared.”

  “What slipstream did they come out of?”

  “That’s just it sir. They suddenly appeared in orbit above Penllyn. We never saw them come from anywhere.”

  Ian turned to Alaya, “Any thoughts on this?”

  Tavia had to work hard to repress her smile, since she was not allowed to tell what she knew. Alaya gave a short response. “The Romani Dreadnoughts have arrived with the ground forces. We should get ready. They won’t waste any time.”

  Ian was speechless, but ordered the strike teams to gear up and be ready for orders.

  Another group on the ground was monitoring the activities in space. The Petrovian command and control was located in the Balin corporate building. This building was said to be secure, yet the military governor had disappeared from his office and several others had been ripped to shreds in the first floor office. Since then the guards had been tripled to make sure the building was secured. General Fedin was in the room when the space battle raged above them. Perhaps raged was too powerful a word, since it was almost over before it started. Whoever this enemy was, they took out the invasion fleet with destroyers in a single pass. The general had never thought much of the admiral. After all, he was at the end of his career commanding a fleet of second-rate vessels meant only to keep a space presence in a system already conquered. Things will be different when the main battle fleet arrives. Until then, he need not worry. Much to his surprise, the victors, who called themselves Romani, allowed open communication between the general and the admiral. Despite this, they were not allowing any message capsules to leave the system. Fedin had tried to launch one as a test and it was promptly shot down. The Romani let Admiral Perminov take his remaining ships and leave the system, after a week of recovery and dealing with the wounded and the dead. As far as Fedin was concerned, none of the dead were deserving of an honorable burial. They simply stood there and acted as targets. None even engaged the enemy. Now it was going to be his turn.

  If the Romani had any plans to liberate the planet, they would have to do it soon. The general assumed transport with Romani ground troops would be arriving. They would have to act fast. Sensors indicated the admiral sent a message capsule to the Petrov capital before entering the outbound slipstream. For security reasons only the capital knew where the main battle fleet was. A good precaution, but given the number of transits needed it would be close to a week to 10 days before the fleet would arrive. With the Romani only bringing 10 cruisers, each holding 100 marines, the most they could muster in troop strength would be 1000. Far too few troops to take the planet back. The general was about to leave the control room when an alarm sounded on the sensor screen.

  “Report soldier,” General Fedin said.

  “Sir, we just picked up ten dreadnoughts.”

  Ah the second shoe, Fedin thought. “How long is their transit time to planet?”

  “That’s just it, general. They appeared in orbit above Penllyn. One second they were not there and the next they were. They are launching small vessels.”

  “Contact all commands. Call them to battle readiness to repel invaders. Have all brigadiers report here for orders. And run diagnostics on your equipment to find out why we were not aware of those dreadnoughts before they were in orbit.” He didn’t wait for an answer, but went into the adjacent conference room where his brigadiers were arriving.

  When the last Petrov vessel entered the outbound slipstream, they were accompanied by an unseen companion. The Draco entered alongside the last freighter but soon passed the slower ship to enter along with the destroyers and dreadnoughts. As the Draco entered, the military ships pulled away from the slipstream and waited for the slower freighters to arrive in the system. The Draco would continue to follow the fleet, allowing them to be an early warning for the Romani.

  As soon as all Petrov ships were gone, Consul Lorenzo ordered the tenth legion to decloak and all of the dreadnoughts became visible. He opened communication with Legatus Edmonton, who was waiting aboard the command shuttle while the cohort was aboard six drop ships with a century on each. They had been aboard for two hours awaiting the call to action. The cohorts of the other nine dreadnoughts were also aboard their drop ships awaiting the general order to deploy. From space-based photos of the planet, she had decided on a large plain about 10 kilometers south of the city as the area for the legion to deploy. Once deployed, the Legatus would be the supreme commander of the mission and the navy would only play a support role and only if needed. The Consul outranked her on land, but Lorenzo decided to let the Legatus have the glory.

  “Victoria, you have command. You may deploy when ready and good hunting.”

  “Thank you, Juan,” the Legatus said and then turned to her communications tech. “Open the combat channel. Attention all drop ships, deploy to set coordinates. Be ready for resistance. Deploy now.”

  From each dreadnought, six drop ships left the hangar deck and dropped rapidly into the atmosphere. Behind them came the command ship carrying the Legatus. With the Legatus was Slone as an observer, to learn the ways of his new people. As the son-in-law of the first Consul, he was on the fast track to command. It also helped that he proved himself in combat for both Sinclair Corp and the Romani in the Border Worlds combat. The drop ship was an oblong about 10 feet high for ample headroom. It held one hundred troops with support personal and carried two additional vehicles in the rear compartment. One vehicle was an anti-aircraft weapon and the other was a small hover tank used for ground operations. The command drop ship carried the Legatus and her staff of 50, which included all of the techs needed for communications as well as the various drones for a full view of the battlefield. Part of the personnel in the command ship was the thirty elite bodyguards for the Legatus. As they descended to the rendezvous area, they knew their surprise was complete. No resistance came from the ground. The cohorts from the other vessels came into view. When the drop ships land, they will break apart into 60 antiaircraft guns, 60 hover tanks and 60 gunships. The human need to make everything multitask was always present. As the legion was landing on the planet, the Petrov brigadiers were just entering their meeting. The sudden appearance of the dreadnoughts had the desired effect of confusion at the very moment when they should have had their wits about them.

  When the drop ships launched, Consul Lorenzo sent a message to Alaya. It was time for the resistance to disperse and head to their mission targets. These included electrical generators and command and control communications. By the time they got to their positions, the meeting with the brigadiers had broken up and the generals had returned to their troops. The Petrov military now knew the extent of the danger and they were less concerned than at the beginning. There were only an estimated 5 - 6000 enemy troops forming south of the city. The Petrov forces outnumbered them two to one.

  As General Fedin watched, this strange enemy began to deploy their troops. He could see they were deploying in a square formation. Each one of their units formed a square and the entire f
orce consisted of 10 squares, five in front and five more behind them with a command platform between. Their drop ships regained altitude and then split into three separate vessels. One antiaircraft hovercraft, one hover tank and the remaining ship had a turreted Gatling gun.

  Since they encountered no resistance, the Legatus ordered her command ship off the ground and had the legion move to the north-south highway located on the western edge of the park landing zone. The legionary order of march was always the same; the lead cohort was number six, then five, four, three and one, the command ship hovering just above the ground, then cohorts two, seven, eight, nine, and ten. The quality of the cohorts was measured by the number from one the best to ten the raw recruits. This made sure the best cohorts anchored the center of the march and surrounded the command gunship, which was always with the first cohort. In front of each cohort went three hover tanks, three antiaircraft hovers, and three hover tanks with the same number of antiaircraft behind each cohort. The gunships were divided to cover each flank as the legion moved.

  As the legion marched towards the city, things were happening underground. The resistance was split into four groups, with Alaya’s and one of the others assigned to the command and control structure, while the others were to stand by and harass the enemy troops where they could. There were about 600 resistance fighters total in the three major cities of the continent housing most of the population of New Wales. Of those just under 400 were in Penllyn and ready to take on the Petrovians. Their main task was to harass and damage infrastructure that the enemy might use. However, all depended on the demolition groups taking out command and control, along with power generators to create the confusion they needed.