The Turning Tide (The Federation Reborn Book 5)

by Chris Hechtl

  As long as they just broke them in and didn't actually break the damn things she thought darkly.

  She rather liked the design of the carrier fortresses. Captain Abernly's people had done a bang-up job on the design. They used as much modular plug and play components as possible. Of course, it had done bad things for Garth's exports, dropping them to something like less than 10 percent, but she didn't care. That was the duchess' problem.

  They were still chronically light on ordinance and fighters. Only one of the forts was up to 100 percent on most of her board. She had passed on an order to keep them from doing any live fire exercises until they had a full stockpile on both forts. That would take another two weeks unless something else came up.

  The third carrier fortress was just about all they had time for this year. The Command fortress being thrown together beside it had turned out to be something of a necessary evil. They needed something to manage the weapon platforms and mines, coordinating the fire of the weapon platforms and dealing with the sensor platforms they were beginning to seed around the perimeter of the star system.

  That was another thing she owed her fellow captain, the design of the weapon platforms as well as the intel about the emergency fighters.

  The weapon platforms borrowed heavily from the emergency fighters as well as sensor platforms. They were all modular with exchangeable parts to simplify logistics. The weapons were spinal mount rail guns, the biggest her people could arrange to build. Their test fires had shown they had terrible accuracy due to the poor locally-built sensors so she'd switched to shredder rounds. Any ship that entered their range would encounter a fast-moving cone of metal. She was pretty sure it wouldn't be an enjoyable experience or even a survivable one.

  The news of the last battle had them grimly reassess the survival rates of the emergency fighters. She had ordered the production curtailed in favor of the weapon platforms and sensor platforms as well as the forts and expanding their solar farms. The remaining emergency fighters had been overhauled to the heavy weapon configuration as well as a bomber variant. They just couldn't survive mixing it up with the enemy's fighters, so her people no longer intended to do so. They would have to leave such roles to the Raptors and other fighters and keep out of range, sending lethal umbrellas of metal in coordinated volley fire at the enemy.

  There were over two thousand fighters in the star system, though most of them were Raptors, emergency fighters, or Tie-Uglies. And what was that about she thought in mild perplexity. She got why the salvaged and composite fighters were called uglies. Most of them were; they took parts from the scrap yard and hangar queens. Many were former hangar queens. Just about all of them was a patchwork of parts from two or more fighter designs all somehow made to work. Well, mostly.

  So, why the tie reference? What was that about? Why the link to men's fashion? Unless it was something kinky … or was it a reference to the knot of parts? The wiring harnesses that looked like a rat's nest from hell? She shook her head.

  Admiral Einezberg was fully onboard, something Agnes treasured. She had signed off on moving the orbital forts, but the duchess was still dragging her feet. Agnes fully understood; it would throw everything in the star system off for the entire month just to move the two beasts. Well, once the last two forts were built, they would shift the construction to the Bf994 jump point and assemble platforms there!

  At least she let me move most of the weapon platforms. Of course, moving them didn't require the tugs. The missile and rail gun platforms had been docked to destroyers and cruisers and then hauled over to the Bf994 jump point and dropped off. She didn't like how they'd arranged them, but it wasn't her call. She admitted she had a tendency to fiddle with things and micromanage.

  An urgent beep cut her thoughts off abruptly. “What now,” she muttered as she got the report of a fresh arrival in the star system.

  ~~~^~~~

  Captain Elaine Waters on the destroyer Reprisal felt almost intense orgasmic relief as her ship stabilized from jump and found friendly IFFs waiting in the star system. They'd made it. They'd gotten there in time to make a difference possibly.

  Hopefully soon, though she was smart enough not to say such sentiments out loud and thus jinx them. Instead, she settled herself. “Comm, lay on a line to the planet as well as any ship in the vicinity. Let them know who we are and that they need to get their butts in gear now. We've got problems,” she growled.

  “Aye aye, Skipper,” the rating replied with a nod.

  In a short period of time her terrifying knowledge would be someone else's problem.

  At least for the moment, Elaine thought. She was after all in a warship, duty bound to protect the star system.

  Unless … could she finagle a courier mission? She frowned and then decided to do a little discrete checking. It never hurt, and that was one job she'd happily volunteer for.

  ~~~^~~~

  Captain Soon Li of courier HVCC 55P1 swore as she received the news. The news hurt more than anything; her ship was just sitting there outside the yard. The yard dogs had promised to do something eventually, but she kept getting bumped in priority. Now it mattered, and she was stuck in a helpless ship.

  “Skipper, we're getting a comm request from the yard,” the communication's rating said almost sadly.

  “Oh?”

  “It's orders. I just got a copy. They are breaking us up, ma'am. They are abandoning the old girl and reassigning us elsewhere.”

  “They can't do that!” Captain Li protested as she took the tablet.

  “They say they can. Since we're stuck, I guess it isn't up to us anymore,” the rating replied with a mournful shake of his head. “We are so screwed.”

  “Keep that to yourself, but yeah,” Soon sighed as she read the orders.

  ~~~^~~~

  Duchess Tuckett was finally starting to feel like they were getting somewhere when the pair of carriers had arrived with their escorts several days prior. The twelve ships were a welcome sight, even if one of them was a CEV.

  They beat the so-called CEVs that had been sent to refit two months prior. Why, both of them had once been Clydesdale freighters! But the Admiralty was adamant that her yard finish the conversion and stock them up with locally-produced Raptors and pilots before sending them on to Dead Drop. She was still fuming about the idea and the expenses involved. But she had no intention of sending them or anything on until her southern approach was secure. She knew Frank would back her once he got the word.

  Agnes had convinced her to send another freighter loaded down with freshly-built fighters, parts, and ordinance to Dead Drop to see what had happened to the destroyer they'd sent and find out why they weren't getting relief from De Gaulte.

  Rear Admirals Rita Einezberg on the carrier Admiral Hanna and Pascal Akhmetshin on the CEV Ginsu had agreed with her once they had been brought up to speed on recent events. Admiral Einezberg had assumed command of the star system and all forces in it. She was still coming to grips with it. It definitely altered her arrangements with Agnes. The rear admiral didn't second-guess any of her decisions with her for instance. She just issued an order and expected it to be completed. That was taking a little bit of getting used to. Any sort of friction she might put up to remind the admiral to keep her in the loop had been curtailed due to the emergency.

  Agnes was onboard with the admiral though. She was pushing to use the tugs to move the forts. She didn't like it; it would throw the entire system's economy into chaos, not to mention cut off all work in the yard for weeks. But they had a point. Trying to arrange it though wasn't easy. She'd finally signed off on getting it done at the top of the next month.

  She was more or less happy with the decision and had put the threat of the Dead Drop jump point out of her mind when a fresh arrival came into the star system. This one came at the southern jump point and screamed bloody murder.

  Before she could fully grasp what was going on, the rear admiral had kicked up the defensive alert of the star system, halting all tr
affic as they received the download from Reprisal.

  Glennis licked her dry lips and fought to keep from gibbering in panic. A call to Agnes was immediately accepted. Based on the woman's ID tag, she was on the command fortress in orbit. That meant the time lag would be minimal. “Agnes, we need to alert Admiral De Gaulte. He needs to get here. We need a courier to go to the Empire now. We need help damn it!”

  She felt like kicking herself all over again for sending forces to De Gaulte. But she couldn't help it.

  Agnes hesitated and then nodded. “It's not up to me, ma'am. But I'll pass it on.”

  “I don't care!” Glennis shrieked. “Get those orders out and then get the couriers moving. Send them with a copy of whatever you've got plus all of our situation reports. But I want this done now,” the duchess said. “Before it's too late,” she said at a near whisper.

  ~~~^~~~

  Now you've done it Rita, Rear Admiral Rita Einezberg thought to herself as she paced on her bridge. She'd had a hell of a time getting the Admiral Hanna out of the yard to march to the sound of the guns and glory. Now her thirst to get another star was putting her potentially in the line of fire. And since she was senior officer in the star system, it fell on her shoulders to command the motley lot gathered there.

  Her two carriers and the two that Captain Ozman promised would be out of the yards shortly wouldn't amount to much against the force coming at them. She tapped out fresh orders to have all of the defenses pulled from the Dead Drop jump point and towed to the Bf994 jump point. The two carrier fortresses would be welcome indeed. She had mixed feelings about the weapon platforms though. The third carrier fortress and command fortress were only partially constructed. When she got to the bottom of the order, she paused and then went back and painstakingly laid out that those and the mines that Captain Ozman had devised could remain behind for the moment. The important things were the carrier forts and the weapon platforms.

  She winced when she noted the blistering missives from the duchess demanding why the forts hadn't already been moved. She shook her head. The stupid git had obstructed it of course! But she couldn't tell her that. Reality and the truth were inconvenient things that rarely got in the way of politics or of someone in politics looking for a scapegoat.

  Just to be on the safe side she copied all of the message traffic for the past couple of weeks into her private files and set up a bot to take a copy of her current traffic as well. Better to be safe and cover her ass than sorry.

  As she took charge, she saw her inbox being flooded by requests from every ship in the star system. A cursory check of them told her many of the Gather Fleet officers wanted to flee and abandon Garth. Well, that was too bad. She wrote out a non-discretionary order to clarify her movement order. They would either follow the order or be court martialed for cowardice in the face of the enemy, their choice.

  Lovely, she thought as she watched the task force she was in command of change course for the southern jump point. Orders were going out to all warships to gather there. As she watched the plot, she saw two icons disappear at two different jump points. At first, she thought something had gone wrong or perhaps someone had ran but then she remembered the Duchess had ordered couriers out to inform Admiral De Gaulte as well as the Empire. One wasn't even a courier; it was a frigate she noted with a small pang. Not that such small fry hardly mattered.

  That was all well and good, but she knew Cyrano would be in a hell of a fix. If he fell back, he could be potentially abandoning Dead Drop and moving into Garth and an unknown situation. Depending on his timing and how fast he reacted he could arrive in time to cover her and take over or too late to make any difference.

  It was a hell of a thing she knew. She was privately betting he'd fall back. He had no choice if he didn't want to be cut off in Dead Drop between two fleets.

  “Come on, Cyrano, come save my ass,” she murmured to herself.

  ~~~^~~~

  Captain Ozman had her work cut out for her as she scrambled ships under the orders of Admiral Einezberg's direction. There was a panic in the yard and in some ship companies. Some of the Gather ships wanted to flee she knew. Her office was being bombarded with urgent requests to get one ship or another buttoned up no matter how partial their rebuild was and back into space. She could see communication traffic from Admiral Hanna to all ships forcing them into some semblance of order. She was heartily glad command was on someone else's shoulders.

  Then she got the order from Admiral Einezberg to move the fortresses and weapon platforms. She groaned. The fortresses weren't designed to be easily moved; that was one reason why she'd been okay with delaying it. They could jink to some degree but towing them across the star system would take a butt load of tugs. Tugs she needed elsewhere. It would also take time if they were going to do it right, something she wasn't at all certain they had. As she started issuing orders to the tug captains, she noted that at least the admiral had exempted the partially constructed platforms.

  We might as well stop building them she thought. If Dead Drop had fallen, they would be pinned by two fronts. It was not a survivable situation she noted. She refused to give up however.

  She checked the status board and then nodded. The couriers had gone out to the Empire and to De Gaulte. She hoped and prayed the man had a plan to get them out of the mess they were in.

  She also hoped additional reinforcements would arrive in time, but something told her that they were probably not going to get that lucky.

  Chapter 18

  Horath

  When the courier vessel arrived with the news of the recent battle in Dead Drop, the Admiralty didn't have much of a chance to process it before the senior leadership was called in to face recriminations from the emperor. Emperor Ramichov didn't spare any punches as he paced the floor in the meeting room.

  “We have a certified moron running that fleet! More than one! They take one quarter of our active wall and the bunglers lose two of our best ships in one engagement! Two capital ships!”

  His fury was like a living thing, promising vengeance on anyone responsible. It was all too clear to those in the room that they had to abate it and if that couldn't happen, at least deflect it away from themselves. “To be fair they didn't know about the enemy having antimatter ordinance Your Majesty,” Admiral Cartwright stated.

  “How? How could they not know?”

  “Because Your Majesty, we're not getting any intelligence out of the Federation military. What we are getting is inferences from our encounters with them,” Admiral Newberry said before Admiral Cartwright could look her way.

  “Those that we survive,” Duke Rico, the secretary of war said sourly.

  Admiral Cartwright shot his boss a reproving look that said now was not the time or place for such reminders before turning back to their incensed ruler.

  “The reason we didn't know is because they didn't use it before, Father. They kept it in reserve,” Catherine stated firmly from her place at the table.

  The emperor paused and then turned to her. She rarely ever spoke up in meetings. His rebuke was there in his glare, the one that said children should be seen and not heard. But he didn't say it.

  “Yes,” Admiral Cartwright said with a nod of thanks to the princess's support. “But,” he said, taking up the narrative once more, “now we know they have it, so the surprise is lost. We can now anticipate it and allow for it in our planning.”

  “Right, how do we keep our ships from being targets?!?” the emperor snarled. Even the princess winced at what he said. “Well? Tell me that? Do you have some strategy to pull out of your hat or ass? I don't care which, but you damn well better have one soon!”

  “The answer is, more fighters and fighter defenses,” Catherine said quietly, resting her hands together in an attentive pose. All eyes turned to her. “The ordinance is on their bombers. They haven't put them on capital ship missiles.” The word yet hovered unsaid in the room. “They have few missile platforms as it is. A bomber is far more flexible
too. So, we need to put more carriers out as defense. Push the bombers away and make them pay for any attacks they try. Eventually, they'll realize it is cost prohibitive and try something else.”

  She regretted that last statement the moment she realized she'd uttered it out loud, but it was out there for all now. “My apologies.”

  “We need to dig our own antimatter weapons out and put them in use. Punch them right back and show them who is boss.”

  “Unfortunately, the weapons are degraded, at least the ones still in our armories. Those that aren't have been converted into fuel for our fighters and other craft. We're limited on antimatter as you know, Your Majesty.”

  “And we don't have any antimatter production going. None at all,” Countess Newberry stated.

  “Then perhaps we need to fix that,” the emperor snarled as he took a seat. “So, what else is there?”

  “Well, I'll remind you that it wasn't a loss, Your Majesty. We didn't lose Dead Drop. In fact, we forced the Federation forces into a retreat,” Admiral Cartwright stated.

  “So, you are turning a draw into a win?” the emperor asked, sounding slightly amused and bitter.

  “In essence and for public consumption, yes. We did beat them. We did force them back. We'll keep doing that.”

  “And if they lead with antimatter weapons next time?” the emperor asked.

  “As Princess Catherine stated, we'll have our own fighters stop them cold. Admiral De Gaulte is already working up plans to minimize the threat. Not only that but find a way to pin them so we can use our greater strength to its utmost advantage to crush their offensive wall and then blow past their wreckage to get into their rear.”

  “And from there really tear them up. Perhaps put an end to this war once and for all,” the duke murmured.