Imperial Command

by D. J. Holmes

  “Aye Admiral, the computer says ETA is fifteen minutes,” the pilot replied.

  “Very well,” James responded as he shimmied back and forth in his chair to get comfortable. Then he turned and looked out the viewport. With luck he’d be able to get a glimpse of some of the latest Imperial warships as they carried out their shakedown cruises. It was eleven months since the Karacknid attack on Earth and Andréa had two or three warships coming out of their construction yards every week. There was always something interesting to see.

  When the shuttle landed at Grand Forks Air Force Base, James thanked the pilot and informed him that he shouldn’t be more than an hour. Then they were to go to the outskirts of Shanghai where Christine had a military strategy planning meeting with her senior Admirals. Stepping off the shuttle, James saluted the Commodore who was waiting to greet him.

  “Welcome to Grand Forks Admiral,” the Commodore said. “I’m Jefferson, the ranking officer here. You’re scheduled to meet with Captain Black and Razor squadron. If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you to their training facilities.”

  “Thank you for the welcome Commodore, you may lead on,” James replied. As they walked, he asked a series of questions about the base. Three squadrons of Spitfire fighters and one of Lancaster bombers were stationed here. In the event of a Karacknid attack they would launch to join the forces in space. James wished all their fighters could be based on fleet carriers. That would give the fleet a far bigger punch on offensive operations. Yet it was far easier to produce a Spitfire fighter than a multi-thousand-ton carrier. The reality was that for the foreseeable future many Spitfire squadrons would have to be assigned to surface bases.

  When they got to a large hangar, Jefferson stopped beside a door with the keypad. “This is as far as I go,” he explained. “Even I don’t have clearance to know what goes on in there. Though they can’t hide everything. I must say, the new tech certainly looks good. I’m keen to put my boys up against Razor squadron when we get the go-ahead.”

  James nodded knowingly, though he had no idea what lay within the hangar. He had a suspicion that it had something to do with Captain Scott and Xui-le. Scott and Xui-le had spent months together on Regin in the Liberty system and a number of their ideas were still being teased out and put into production.

  Reaching forward, Jefferson tapped the intercom built into the door’s control panel. “Commodore Jefferson escorting Grand Admiral Somerville,” he said.

  After a few seconds a voice came over the intercom. “Acknowledged Commodore, the door is open, Admiral Somerville may proceed.”

  “Good luck Admiral,” Jefferson said as he shook James’ hand. “I’ll be back out here when you’re done.”

  “Thank you Commodore,” James replied before entering the hangar. Within seconds he knew he was going to have an interesting hour, for parked right in front of him was a vehicle he had never seen before. Clearly it was a space fighter like the Spitfires. Yet it was no Spitfire. Its angles were sleeker and there didn’t appear to be any attachments for a plasma missile. Nor were there the two barrels of the twin plasma cannons Spitfires were armed with.

  “She’s a beauty isn’t she Admiral,” a naval captain said as she walked around from behind the fighter. “I am Captain Black,” she added as she snapped to attention. “And this is one of our Corsairs.”

  James returned her salute and then reached out to touch the spacecraft. Whatever its hull was coated with, it looked and felt like nothing he had encountered before. “A new fighter?” he queried.

  “Almost,” Black answered. “An interceptor might be more accurate. Notice the lack of attachments for weapons.”

  “And no plasma cannons, what is she armed with?” James asked as he tried to recall what an interceptor was. Though he was only vaguely familiar with the aircraft developed by the different Human nations centuries ago, a vague idea was coming back to him.

  Black gestured for James to proceed to the interceptor’s nose section. As he moved, James saw that the entire nose section of the fighter was one single laser cannon. “The Corsair’s reactors don’t have enough surplus energy output to release a laser beam with the same punch as a plasma bolt. But seeing as we don’t intend to be taking on capital ships with their valstronium armor, low powered laser beams are all we need. With her engines at full power she can put out sixty beams per second. With her capacitors, she can fire streams of twenty beams within a five second window before having to recharge.”

  “She’s designed for just one purpose.” James said. “An interceptor, designed to take out enemy fighters before they can launch attacks against our capital ships.”

  “Exactly Admiral, you have the gist of it. I was the test pilot for the first prototype. Since then we have been training up our first squadron. I’ve only got four Corsairs here, but the rest are scheduled to arrive over the next two months,” Black explained.

  “What kind of specifications are we talking about?” James asked as he walked around the interceptor.

  “With less weight and the type III miniature inertial dampeners, she can pull acceleration rates thirty percent higher than our current Spitfires,” Black answered. “You’ve seen her hull coating. It’s the latest stealth coating. She’s so small that she can bend the electromagnetic energy from enemy sensors around her rather than trying to absorb it. It should mean we can get very close to enemy carriers. The idea is that we can hit their fighters as they’re launching and forming up, or we can sneak right in behind whatever enemy craft are approaching our fleets and hit them before they know we are there.”

  “How has she performed against our Spitfires?” James asked.

  Black smiled, “That’s what you here to see Admiral. We’ve been carrying out simulated battles with several Spitfire squadrons from around Earth. We have one scheduled to begin in twenty minutes.”

  “All right,” James said as he returned Black’s smile, a simulation would be exciting. It would certainly be better than being given a technical briefing on the finer points of the Corsair’s design. “Can I get in the cockpit before we meet your pilots?”

  “Of course Admiral,” Black responded. She turned away and made a series of hand gestures to a group of ground crew technicians. “They’ll have the staircase for you in a moment.”

  “Thank you,” James replied as he smiled again. That was one of the benefits of the new position Christine had promoted him to. As Grand Admiral of the Imperial Fleet, he could pretty much do whatever he wanted to do when it came to things like this. “Tell me,” he continued as a new thought occurred to him. “Is there some intelligence about Karacknid designed fighters that I haven’t come across yet?”

  Black shook her head, “Not to my knowledge Admiral, though with the Varanni having already put their own fighters into service, from what I hear most of the naval strategists expect it’s only a matter of time before the Karacknids do likewise. As I understand it, it is one of the key advantages we have over them.”

  “Indeed it is,” James replied. “One I hope we keep for a long time. But if they do develop their own fighters, I’m glad to see we are already making steps to counter them. I’m eager to see just what you and your pilots have got.”

  “And we’re eager to show it,” Black assured him. “Ah, here are the technicians.” She added when a portable staircase came rolling towards the Corsair.

  For the next ten minutes Black gave James a detailed run down of everything in the Corsair’s cockpit. By the end of it, James felt like he might just stand a chance of flying one himself. Silently he promised himself he would have a go one day soon in a flight simulator to see just what the Spitfires and Corsairs were like. Wing Commanders who had served under him had offered to take him out for a real flight, but he had never had the courage. In a simulator he could make a fool of himself and no one else would need to know.

  “All right Admiral, I think my people are ready,” Black said as James climbed out of the cockpit. “This is Lieutenant Foster, she
is our logistics officer, she’ll see you to the simulator control room. I have a Corsair to fly.”

  “Good luck Captain,” James said as he turned to Foster. “Let’s get this started Lieutenant, do you know what simulation they will be running?”

  “I believe it is a standard ambush scenario,” Foster answered as they walked through the hangar to the main control room. “They’ll be going up against Scarlet Squadron from IS Enterprise. Here we go,” she continued as they entered the room and she gestured towards two seats that faced a large holo projector. Beyond the projector twelve simulation cockpits formed a semi-circle facing where James was to sit. “We can monitor everything from here.”

  “This should be interesting,” James said as he took a seat. A few seconds later, the holo projector hummed to life. It showed a rocky world with a thick planetary ring. Within the ring a small mining station was clearly visible. In the distance twelve contacts were being displayed, they were slowly approaching the station.

  “In the simulation, the mining station has reported some anomalous readings to the system Commander. Scarlet Squadron has been sent to investigate. That is all they know,” Foster explained.

  “You mean they don’t know about the Corsairs?” James asked.

  Foster shook her head. “We regularly runs simulations with different squadrons to keep our project a secret. The pilots don’t know they are up against real Human pilots, nor that Corsairs even exist. It is designed to test their reaction to our interceptors as well as train our pilots.”

  And it will make the simulation look good, James added to himself. He knew full well that a part of why he had been invited to see the simulation was so that he would be a voice for the project within Christine’s Inner Council. Every week they had to make decisions about the allocation of resources. Black had said that she hoped to have a full squadron of interceptors for her pilots to train in within the next few months. But that could very easily be changed if some other project took the materials or staff they needed. Heck, the whole project could be scrapped it if was determined that the resources would be more cost effective elsewhere. Hence why they want to put on a good show.

  Good show or not, James was still keen to see just what the Corsairs could do. As he watched, the twelve Spitfires carried out a slow pass over the rocky world, their active sensors on alert, looking for anything suspicious. Just before they closed with the mining station, a flash of electromagnetic energy appeared from deeper within the planet’s asteroid ring. Barely seconds later the Spitfires reacted. In formation they turned and raced towards the asteroids, their engines and thrusters going to full power. Just moments after they began to turn, Black’s Corsairs announced themselves by going full throttle on their engines. They had been hiding in open space all along. Using their stealth coating to maximum effect, James thought. The Spitfires, already in the middle of a turn, were caught with their pants down. For a full ten seconds they were at the mercy of the Corsairs as they desperately turned again to stop their attackers from getting in behind them. Black’s squadron made good use of their time. Nine of the Spitfires were shot down before they could bring their plasma cannons to bear on the interceptors. Three managed to dodge every laser beam that was shot at them. A dogfight quickly ensued. Being faster, nimbler, and having laser beams that put out far more shots, the Corsairs quickly shot down two more of the Spitfires.

  “It’s just Scarlet Squadron’s commander left,” Foster commented

  James nodded. Whoever was piloting the Spitfire was good. It was clear they had practiced dogfighting before, even if it wasn’t something the manual stipulated. The manual will have to be changed, James thought as he took a mental note. If the Karacknids did develop their own fighters, all Spitfire pilots would need to be as capable at dogfighting as making attack runs on enemy dreadnoughts. As the battle continued, the Spitfire actually managed to turn the tides on the Corsair that had been chasing it. Fooling the Corsair pilot into a loop, the Spitfire pilot got in behind the Corsair. It took Scarlet Squadron’s commander just seconds to blow the Corsair apart. Before the Spitfire had time to celebrate, another Corsair was upon it, lashing out with laser beam after laser beam.

  “That’s Captain Black now engaging the Spitfire,” Foster explained.

  James nodded. The dogfight ended almost as quickly as it had begun. Clearly Black’s pilots needed more training, but Black herself knew what she was about. As the simulation ended and a new one began, James pulled up Black’s service record. He nodded to himself. Black had flown three combat missions before being transferred into the Corsair research and development program. One of which had been during the battle of Earth. By fighter pilot standards, she was a veteran.

  “This scenario is of an attack on a squadron of battleships and fleet carriers,” Foster commented when a simulated fleet appeared on the holo projector. There were three battleships and two fleet carriers along with twelve smaller escorts. “Scarlet Squadron and a squadron of Lancaster bombers from Enterprise will launch the attack. The Corsairs are already on station, they’re currently carrying out a CSP, that’s a carrier space patrol. They know nothing more than that they’re tasked with protecting the fleet.”

  “This should be a real test,” James responded. This time Scarlet Squadron would know what they were up against. For several minutes nothing happened, then Scarlet Squadron and the squadron of bombers lit off their engines. They were just five minutes out from the fleet Black was tasked with defending. At once her ships banked towards the threat. Moments later, half of Black’s squadron pushed ahead of their comrades. James wasn’t sure what Black was doing until Scarlett Squadron accelerated to move ahead of their bombers, then it became clear. Scarlet Squadron intended to engage Razor Squadron in a dogfight and allow the bombers to push on to their targets. Black was going to sacrifice half her squadron to make sure she had a clean shot at the bombers.

  Over the next five minutes things played out as James had predicted. Scarlet Squadron and the forward half of Razor Squadron ended up in a tangled ball of twisting and weaving fighters. Two Spitfires from Scarlet Squadron managed to break away from the engagement and tried to intercept Black’s half of Razor squadron. However, they were both shot down at long-range before they could waylay Black. Then, despite the Lancaster bombers’ best efforts, Black’s interceptors were on their heels. The bombers, designed solely for racing in to strike an enemy’s capital ships, had no defenses. They disappeared as they were taken out one by one. However, their commander was far from a fool. As soon as it had been clear the Corsairs were going to engage his bombers, he had split them into pairs which had then spread out. The extra time it took Black’s Corsairs to cover the distance between each pair was costly. Five bombers got close enough to the fleet that the capital ships’ point defenses had to open up on them. Moments later, six new contacts appeared, racing away from Black’s Corsairs. James’ eyes narrowed when he figured out what they were. He swung around to Foster, “I thought they had no missile ordinance?”

  Foster smiled, “Black wanted to keep it a surprise. They are our new anti-fighter missiles. They have a limited range and a small warhead. But they are very fast and agile.” She nodded back to the holoprojector.

  James turned just in time to see three of the five bombers taken out as the missiles raced up behind them and detonated. The final two bombers somehow managed to dodge the missiles. One fell to a point defense plasma bolt from a battleship, but the fifth got close enough to release its two plasma missiles. James leaned forward as the capital ships switched their fire to the plasma missiles. Despite their best efforts, one avoided being hit. Seconds later it crashed into one of the fleet carriers. Moments after that, the entire carrier detonated as secondary explosions caused one of its main systems to overload. James sat back in his chair and let out a deep breath. A fleet carrier had a crew of eight thousand and took more than a year to build. A Lancaster bomber that took a couple of weeks to build and had just one pilot had taken it out
.

  When he looked back at Foster, he saw she was disappointed. He suspected Black felt the same way, they had lost one of their charges. But only one, James thought as he turned back to the dogfight. Only three of the six Corsairs Black had sent to engage Scarlet Squadron were still alive. Yet they had taken out seven Spitfires. James suspected their anti-fighter missiles had played a part in that. As Black’s six Corsairs turned and charged towards the dogfight, Scarlet Squadron’s Spitfires broke contact and raced away. Black charged after them, using the Corsairs’ higher acceleration rate to close the distance. She was clearly intent on killing as many of Scarlet Squadron as she could. She probably thought she needed to make up for the strike on the fleet carrier. James nodded, Black might think her simulation a failure, but it wasn’t how he read things. Black’s twelve Corsairs had gone up against twenty-four enemy ships intent on destroying the squadron of battleships and carriers. Without Black’s Corsairs, James imagined pretty much every ship in the squadron would have been destroyed. If it had been a real battle, the losses would have been cataclysmic. If the Karacknids did develop their own fighters, they could rip a Human fleet apart in a matter of minutes. Black’s Corsairs had turned back all but one of the enemy attack craft. With two squadrons, they would have crushed the attack, James was sure. All right, he said to himself, he didn’t need any more convincing. The Corsair program had won him over. He would be fighting their corner in any Inner Council debates that came up in the future. It may yet take the Karacknids many months or even years to develop their own fighters, but when they do, we need to have Corsairs in the fleet ready for them. We cannot afford to be caught out even once.