The marines from Eridani, Lepus and Taurus have formed a joint intelligence battalion nearly five hundred members in size to co-ordinate all intelligence movements. Their information has been coming to me via General Malcolm who gets three reports a day. These too are six to eight days out of date; but, give us an idea as to how this enemy functions tactically.
From all these sources, one thing you will all note is that our opponents think two dimensionally. What I will point out; is that, they came into our territory from plus to minus ten-degrees declination; and never exceed those boundaries. They look to their fronts, rears and sides; but, don't really pay attention to the space above and below those boundaries. At this time, it appears to me that this is their Achilles heel. My initial reaction to what I saw is that, we take a Fleet above and below and attack their rear interrupting supply and damaging the rear while the other three Fleets are still engaging them from the front. If I had to launch that operation, today, I would send three Groups from each Fleet and hold one in reserve at each battle line. And, I would attack with half the six Carriers raptors in the lead; placing three hundred guns and twelve hundred missiles ahead of the heavy craft. That would allow for a second launch of the same size, always holding three hundred in reserve as they are refueled and serviced. No supply vessels would be permitted in the battle area; until after the initial attack; so, we could determine how to protect them one at a time per Task Force, we would resupply. When attacking we would drag one frigate from each attacking Group behind us to come into the battle a little late. Their perspective might give us a better view of the field as a battle develops. We would use our reserve to counter any counter attacks. They would use probes to monitor their own space and ours at all times. They would have orders to fight under specific conditions. Initially, we would take no prisoners; aiming for total destruction of any vessels we engage. If the battle turns in our favor, we could revisit that philosophy if conditions permit us to attend captures. Communications drones would be in constant transit between Boots and Draco to keep each apprised of the others situation. All communications drones launched during battle will be run at forty percent to reduce communication time. All sensor probes will be programmed to run their drones at forty percent to reduce update time. Badly damaged vessels would be towed from the field and assisted when the opportunity arises. Destroyed vessels would be ignored until a battle ends. Mourning our losses during battle will only lead to additional loss of life.
Our initial attack would come from top and bottom in the form of an arc with Boots heading along the border in one direction as Draco heads in the other. This will put considerable distance between two bodies of three groups and their reserve. But would permit us to cut a path through the enemy lines. As we cross along their rear, we would have to be prepared to bring individual groups to bear on weakness we see and return them to the Fleet as quickly as possible.
So, using the information we have and the battle plan I outlined as a guideline of all the things that must be managed your jobs break into the following sections.
First, we will need better updates. Is there a way to get information from the battle field faster?
Second, we will need more timely intelligence. How can we improve the information and how quickly it gets to us?
Third, based on the first two, we will need to project all the different things an opponent may do in response to our action.
Fourth, we have to develop a plan that is based on the best possible information at the moment of attack.
Fifth, we have to develop several alternate plans to use in responses to actions we project the enemy may take in Step three.
Sixth, we need a reserve strategy. How much. Where to put them. When to use them
Seventh, we need an exit strategy in case we get into trouble using the reserve in item four for assistance in this stage.
I believe we should break into groups for this. A group should deal with the battle field update problem. Another Group should handle the intelligence issue. A third group should be looking at all information as it unfolds and projecting how our enemy reacts to attacks and changes in attacks. A fourth team should be looking our potential reactions to theirs. A fifth team should be dealing with the reserve issue. You sometime need reserve when you see you've almost locked things up. Sometime you need them to cover your exit, when you’re in trouble. You always need them to give you additional battle field intelligence. You always need them to help in any mop up. The sixth team should be taking the results from the other five and assembling an overall tactical plan with specifics for each Fleet and each Group. Remember, our attack is the most likely to succeed if it is a surprise and is delivered in an unexpected manner to throw the enemy off balance. These two things can overcome massive deficiencies. If you have surprise and originality along with the intelligence and communications advantage, you are probably going to win a war. The object of a plan is to use all your assets to your best advantage with the ultimate goal of defeating the enemy without losing them.
The last thing I want to add is that you should use every asset you have. That includes your people. If you think you have a ship's Captain who is the ultimate in figuring out intelligence problems, then, he or she should be in here, too. If you know someone who employs incredible simplicity and elegance to deal with complex tactical problems; then, that person should be here, too. Don't be afraid to bring in sub-ordinates. We have lots of room to put them up during our jumps.
I will leave it up to the four Tactical Commands to determine the makeup of any discovery groups. The Fleet Commanders will need to oversee all the groups; so, all the Groups can draw on their tactical knowledge. Don't forget to use any engineering help you may need to resolve impediments. And remember to draw on Moe and his assets for research information.
During this period, I will be the one in and out of the room. I will receive the communications updates and get security updates as they come in. I will be the one to actually order all the jumps; so, you can all concentrate on your tasks.
But, I will also be working on my plan. It is a fairly good beginning; so, I will be attempting to improve it as our picture improves. It can be our fall back if we don't come up with a better one. Or, it can be our plan with parts modified by ideas you generate. So let's get to it. I'll be out of the room for the next hour. Are there any questions about what I have said?" He asked.
"Yes sir, I have a Captain I would like to include in these meetings.' Nichols interjected. 'Others probably do, too. Can we not break to build our team with the others we think we need.?"
"Certainly, you are all very responsible grownups. You will not be locked in here; but, a certain amount of work must be done each day if we are to have our plan by the time we reach the staging area. We will have one day there to adjust for battlefield actualities. Then, we go!" The Admiral responded.
"Anyone else?" He asked; then he paused for a moment; and turned to leave the boardroom when there were no additional questions.
When Bryant slipped quietly back into the room he was astonished. Eight more people had joined the team. Three were Boots Captains, one was from the Detroit's Engineering Department and another was a Boots' Marine Major; he recognized all those faces. But three others had obviously come over from Draco. He monitored conversations as he roamed the room; but realized the boardroom wasn't really big enough for this. He mulled it over for a while as he continued to wander. He was happy. They were building an Esprit de Corp as a combined command; instead of, just being two Fleets operating together.
"Could I have your attention, please?' He called out and waited for the din to die down. 'I have two things for you. The first is that you don't have to be stuck in this room. The group working on the plan can be in tactical. The group working on intelligence could be working with the Marines; and, so on. Various departments have assets and people you may be able to draw on. When I am working a battle plan, I am generally all over the place. Stellar navigation has the best star
charts, for example. Anyway, you could all plan to be here two or three times a day for an hour each time; and, work from other areas that would assist you. It would also prevent you all from suffocating. This tactical planning group has grown considerably; and, the room is taxed to hold everyone. There is one more thing I forgot to mention earlier. If you have a lot of information on how your enemy reacts to things and you want to make it predictive; you would be wise to draw from counseling services. You would not believe how many times Commodore Bryant has given me insight into an enemy that helped resolve a situation. The Grays are an excellent example of that. Anyway, it’s up to all of you. Provided you have self-discipline; the entire ship can be your laboratory. The other point is a piece of news valuable to all of us. At my request, pleading, prodding and begging, engineering and astrophysics have worked together to develop a way to keep a worm hole open for long periods while moving one aperture, as needed. We couldn't travel through it. It takes too much energy to keep one that size open, indefinitely. It would be very tiny. They refer to it as a nano-wormhole. It can intersect the larger ones we travel through and the aperture can travel inside with us. At the same time, another engineering team found a way to continuously re-columnate a group of lasers to keep them from deteriorating in the wormhole. One beam can be surrounded by eight that protect it. The importance of this is that, we should be able to receive nearly instant updates, even as we travel in FTL. A message sent on a laser in a wormhole between two points ten light years across would take about nine hours to reach the destination, instead of just under two days. From the battle field, we are talking less than two days for a message to reach us here at Barnard's; and, as we travel closer the time is reduced. It also means that, we can receive these messages while in flight. We have sent a message by the old "snail mail" method advising them of the advance and asking them to watch for the aperture of our nano-wormhole which we will open and direct to their location. This means that, about six days from now, while in the vortex, we will start receiving continuous updates and intelligence as we travel the rest of the way to our staging area. It also helps in our communications during battle. The enemy seems to be as limited as we have been; so, this should give us a real advantage. I have asked engineering to find a way to adapt this to our long range sensor probes; so, they don't have to send drones; but, can send continuous streams of data in near real time. Please use this information in your planning and calculations. This is a major development." Bryant finished as the whole room broke into applause, hoots and hollers.
Pal approached him. "You know, sir; you've made the whole job a hell of a lot easier. No matter what we considered, that was the main stumbling block. We would never be truly sure of what we should do; until, we were almost right on top of the battlefield. I just wish you would have told us; but, thank you, anyway." She said sincerely.
"I couldn't tell you. My degree is in astrophysics; so, I knew the concept sounded feasible to me when I suggested it; but, until they succeeded it was just another one of my crazy attempts at junk science. Anyway, don't thank me. It was engineering and astrophysics." He said.
"Yes sir, but, it was you that had the vision to come up with the idea. Whether they did the grinding or not, it's your genius that made it possible." The Vice Admiral responded as everyone broke into a cheer.
"One thing you might explain is why do you really need to transmit nine lasers?" Stevens asked.
"Eight lasers act like an insulator and the one in the middle is the conductor carrying the data - like a wire. The outside ones protect the core from being assaulted by the forces in the wormhole. That way, the data stays intact. That idea is not so special. It's a pretty logical extension of applications we already have. But, the continuous nano-wormhole that can be moved as we travel is the big leap. I must admit that, I am kind of a little proud of that one. I screwed around with the Casimir for half a day, a while back and realized it would open useless wormholes at almost any level. The problem was that the less energy you put in the smaller the event horizon. I was thinking in terms of travel at the time; so, it seemed like a wasted effort. We couldn't use less energy for FTL. But, when this war started, the idea kept haunting me. My brain kept trying to tell me I could use this for this war. The more frustrated I became with the communications problem, the more the wormhole preyed on my mind. So, when it occurred to me that you could send a message through it, I pulled out my old university textbook and did the math. It turned out a wormhole that weak could be dragged all over the universe. And, it seemed to me that, it would pass through the energy of the vortex without interfering with our jump. It's too week to affect a jump. So, I gave engineering and astrophysics the idea and my calculations. I didn't hear a thing until they actually had built and tested the model. Stephen it just seemed like a hunch with a little bad math attached. I really didn't believe it would work. And you know what, Pal. I haven't done that kind of work in over twenty years; so, I had good reason to be unsure and not want to tell you." Bryant finished.
"It's okay, boss. We all understand. I'm just glad they didn't prove your idea on the day we land at the staging site. Thank goodness we haven't even left, yet." The Draco Commander observed.
"Anyway, keep working towards a scenario. It will help develop and prove a good framework for battle; even if, it requires major last minute alterations. We should be able to solidify whichever plan we need several days before landing; because of the communications improvements. We'll be able to do very fine tuning as we approach the field." Bryant ordered.
There was a lot of laughing and talking as they broke for lunch, later. Meantime, George advised all the ships in both Fleets to prepare for the first jump as in their orders from their Group Commanders. At fifteen hundred he released the order to the Fleet Commanders’ systems. Each had programmed their systems to generate their orders to Task Force Commands. This would domino down through the ranks to all the people in command of the bridges on the various ships. All orders would reference a plan number. Helmsmen and propulsion would only have to enter the plan number to activate the correct flight plan. The entire Mobile Fifth began to move. Each approached its jump point. They suddenly all disappeared, at the same instant.
Chapter 12 The Fifth RAC Forever
February 26, 2249
"Impossible is a word found only in the dictionary of fools." Napoleon Bonaparte
George was taking a few private moments, before the meeting. Aldebaran is a swollen giant near the end of its life. Its system is veiled with a thin wisp of dust and gas that probably indicates it has belched off a great deal of its mass, already. A denser hollow orb of smoky grit and gas surrounds it several light-years out. Four planets still orbit it; but, it is likely that, several more have been swallowed up as the star expanded. Two remaining ones are rocky; but, were originally probably gas giants; whose extensive atmospheres evaporated as the star’s outer perimeter approached. One is in now in what would be called the habitable zone of the star and sports a considerable amount of water over nearly ninety percent of the surface. It appears to have little life, if any; but, has been a good source of water and gas supplies in a pinch. A dim red dwarf orbiting at an average distance of ninety-one billion kilometers is a fairly bright point in the sky, from this perspective. This kind of red giant is intriguing. You never know when it will puff off its exterior and die. You certainly don't want to be too close; which is why George chose it as the staging site.
It is almost dead center of the two edges of the incursion; which are now at the three-hour-ten-minute and five-hour-five-minute right ascension points. The invasion, after spreading inward from its two arms, essentially now forms a wedge. At its innermost battle line, the war is raging between plus and minus two degrees; while, on the border, enemy forces can be found between plus and minus ten-degrees declination. It takes in both Theatre Command regions of Quadrant One Command; so, there are sixteen full fleets to draw from, minus the five already in the fight.
The new communic
ations system had worked well throughout the journey. From February 20th on, Fifth Mobile RAC was in continuous receipt of information no more than forty hours old. Updates became even more current as they approached. At Aldebaran they are now in constant receipt of updates and intelligence that is no more than a couple of hours old from the most distant sources.
The meeting George was hosting was to finalize a plan to work from. They would make a choice; and do the final tune up in twenty-four hours; just before launching the counter attack. This gathering was with just Fifth Mobile’s upper echelon. Admiral George Bryant, Vice Admiral Grace Tonaka, Vice Admiral Palakiko, Lieutenant General Ian Malcolm, Rear Admiral Stevens, Rear Admiral Nichols, Rear Admiral Laft, Rear Admiral Davies and Rear Admiral Moahu. These nine people had overseen what turned into a forty-eight-person team that developed all the scenarios. His eight sub-ordinates had sent him four plans; each with a multitude of alternatives as reactions to enemy action.
Meanwhile, he was noting how the surface of the big red star actually looked like it was boiling. He had never seen it before this. In fact, he had never seen most of the stars in the Empire up close. An officer might see two or three hundred in a career; but, there are thousands. He turned to the door in response to a knock on the frame.
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