Chapter 10
Admiral Sethton was having a formal dinner aboard the Battlesphere "Rising Dragon". It was for senior officers only. Earlier that day, he had been in an intelligence briefing and update, as well as a strategy planning session. Admiral Sethton had also named Admiral Maxine Gordon as Deputy Force Commander.
Admiral Gordon had been surprised, to say the least. However, being the professional that she was, she accepted the post with thanks. She had been at Lantree, training for the past month, with the Emperor's forces. She was very surprised to receive the second in command slot. The Terran Federation would never allow an outsider to command so vast a force. She was very impressed with Sethton and his officers. They accepted her as one of their own.
"Ladies and gentlemen, a toast!" Admiral Sethton's voice rang out as he stood.
Everyone quieted. Dinner was over, and toasts had already been made. So this was out of the norm.
"I have just been informed that the Emperor has married Vonda Preston. We now have an Empress. I ask you raise your glasses in a toast to our new Empress, Vonda Newcastle," he said.
Admiral Sethton stopped and looked. Everyone rose to their feet and raised their glasses. "THE EMPRESS!" was the strong response, and everyone drank.
"Be seated. Now then, I want to," he was interrupted at this point, by the Battlesphere's AI voice.
"Battle Alert! Battle Alert! Incoming hyper tracks show a large concentration of ships due to breakout into local space in twenty minutes. Breakout will be approximately four hours space normal flight time from here," stated the calm voice.
That was close indeed! Either it was an unscheduled reinforcement, or another invasion attempt. Either way, Sethton dismissed the officers to go to their departments and ships.
"Admiral Gordon, a word, please?" Admiral Sethton said to Maxine.
"Certainly, Sir," she replied.
"I don't want you going out to your command," He told her.
"Sir, I," she was interrupted.
"I know. I know. But I want you to stay on the orbital fortress, 'Barnaby'. You knew this was a possibility. Transfer your flag there. You are going to be Commander, here. Besides the ships that are dedicated for planetary defense you will be getting your original squadron of ten heavy cruisers, as well as 100 strike fighters, which I will have detached to your temporary command here. Your job is to mop up anything that gets by us should that situation arise. Any questions?" Sethton asked.
"No, Sir. I understand. I just wish I could be out there with my men and woman," Maxine said with a sigh.
"I know. It's one of the first things we learn as officers. We send our people out to live or die, and sometimes we can't be with them. It's the price of command," Admiral Sethton said gently.
"I understand, Sir. It's just that I have always been with my crew, until now. I won't let you down, Sir."
"I know you won't. Dismissed to your station. And good luck."
Vonda Newcastle entered the 'Briefing Room' in the palace. Emperor Richard Newcastle, her new husband for one month now, had a huge holovision tank on the far wall. It was filled with scenes, and it took her a moment to figure it out. He had split the screen into four sections, and was watching four different aspects of the recent invasion of Lantree.
"Richard? I realize how important this war is. Do you mind if I watch one of the combat logs you have? I want to get a feel for what you're doing," Vonda asked a bit hesitantly.
Richard 'paused' what he was watching. He got up and went to his desk, motioning Vonda to come with him. He did something with the desk computer. A small screen rose from the desk and the words, BATTLE LOG, HMS BRISBANE appeared.
"The Brisbane is a Battleship. It has a long and honored history in our navy. The Battle log starts automatically when a ship changes to a battle status. How much do you know of the armament of our ships, my dear?" he asked her.
"Not very much, I'm afraid. I never paid to much attention to what the Navy did," Vonda admitted.
"For shame! Is that any way for the Empress to act?" Richard said, with pretended outrage.
"Well, I wasn't Empress, then. So now I want to learn!" she responded with a light punch to his arm.
"Assault and battery of your Emperor can get you tossed into the dungeon, you know," Richard said ominously.
"Which would make for very cold nights in your bed," Vonda responded with the same tone.
They both broke up into laughter. Richard looked at his new wife and thanked whatever gods there were, that he had found her. She was bright, intelligent, had a good sense of humor, and was willing to learn 'the royalty business'. Best of all, the people accepted her with a great deal of enthusiasm. They, too, had fallen in love with this new Empress.
Richard looked her in the eye, and made mental contact with her. Once that was established, he sent ship information to her and watched as she absorbed it. She gasped at the realization of the new information she had just acquired. First, was the fact that she had been clueless, before. Now she had an understanding, as good an understanding as Richard had, of the ship types and weapons and armament of the Empire.
He also gave her a basic understanding of tactics and strategy. He watched as she struggled with these new concepts. New, at least, for her. She had not been interested in the military nor had she had any type of military training at all. Now she was understanding what she had never known, before. Never had she been interested, until now.
"So let me get this straight. We have four basic ship types: destroyers, at 1000 meters in length; cruisers, at 2000 meters in length; battleships, at 4000 meters in length; and dreadnoughts, at 6000 meters in length. Correct so far?" Vonda asked.
Richard nodded. Vonda went on.
"Now destroyers carry 10 missile pods of ten missiles per pod. And each destroyer can fire a broadside of 6 missiles? So that would be 106 missiles fired if a destroyer let loose all at once? Too bad the pods are not reloadable. THAT would be awesome," Vonda stated with a musing sort of tone.
"All ships carry the same type of missle tube. So fire, reload, and fire again is a 20 second job. A ship can get a broadside off once every 20 seconds. A destroyer fires at a rate of 18 missiles a minute," Richard said to her in an encouraging voice.
"A cruiser has 15 external pods. Same amount of missiles per pod as pods are standardized at 10 missiles per pod. Fires a broadside of 20 missiles. That's 60 missiles a minute with an opening salvo of 170 missiles? Wow!" Vonda exclaimed.
"You've got it. A cruiser is a double decker. Two rows of ten missile tubes. Battleships and Dreadnoughts are tripple deckers. 3 Rows of missile tubes. A battleship fires a broadside of 45 missiles once every 20 seconds. 15 missile tubes per row. That's 135 missiles a minute. They carry 20 external pods. So an opening salvo from a battleship would be 245 missiles.
"Dreadnoughts are the biggest ships with the exception of my battlesphere. They carry 30 pods and have three rows of missile tubes of 20 per row. Firing a broadside of 60 missiles per broadside. 360 missiles can be fired at once with pods and first broadside. At 180 missiles a minute of sustained fire, the dreadnought is the deadliest ship in space, with the exception of my battlesphere.
" Before you ask, yes, there was room for more tubes, however, remember that each ship has to have anti-missile missile tubes, which are much smaller than offensive missiles, and anti missile lasers. Ships also need sensors on the hull. So space is at a premium. You have to trade off constantly with a star ship. There is just so much space. Then you have your drive pods, life support, crew's quarters, engineering. The space used inside, can dictate how much room you have for missile tubes. Magazine space is also required. Feeder lines to the missile tubes, it goes on and on," Richard paused, letting Vonda take it all in.
"I never realized how complicated it was," Vonda said thoughtfully.
"Your learning this all at once, and doing better than a lot of people would. Of course, I am a fantastic teacher," Richard said, striking a heroic pose.
"Someone needs their ego deflated a bit," Vonda said with a snort.
"Seriously, you have assimilated a lot of information, which sailors take a long time to learn. Go ahead and watch the log. Pause it, anytime you have a question. I will do my best to answer as clearly as I can. I am just glad you're interested. Oh, one more thing. All battle logs capture a minute or so of time prior to the Battle Alert. This gives a perspective as to why the alert was called," Richard said.
"I would think it is obvious. They are in a battle. They KNOW why they called the alert," Vonda said puzzled.
"I mean that it gives a perspective to people who were not involved in the battle: like you, me, the admiralty that sits on it's collective butt in relative safety, back behind the lines," Richard replied, grinning.
"Oh," Vonda blushed.
Shortly, after a brief instruction on how to work the pause, restart, reset, and other options she might want; Vonda started the log. She watched, fascinated, at a portion of peoples lives as they happened just three weeks ago. The first portion was a little boring. It dealt with setting, heading, and attitude, to the battlesphere.
All ships seemed to take their position, relative to the Battlesphere. She watched and listened in fascination as the incoming fleet was identified as being the enemy, and final courses for intercept were plotted and set. She listened as readings were ordered and confirmed. She listened with her heart in her throat, as the range wound down to missile firing range. She fast forwarded to missile fire then slowed everything to normal time.
"All ships this is Rising Dragon. Fire ripple-fire-plan Charlie. Dragon out," said a voice
"Send acknowledgment, Commander Tirling," Captain Tomas Evans said.
"Weapons, you are free to fire ripple-plan Charlie. Fire at will," the captain said mildly.
Readings changed as tiny dots representing missiles were fired, a pause, then more missiles. This went on for a couple minutes.
"Ripple-fire complete, Captain. All external ordnance is exhausted. Jesus! Look at what the Battlesphere put out!" gasped the Weapons Officer.
Try as she might, Vonda was unable to make out what had caused the Weapons Officer to react like that. She did not have the ability to read the information that was flashing on the screen. She groaned in frustration. For ten minutes they fired, and sent anti-missile missiles out.
Still, the ships drew closer and closer. She could see dots disappear from the threat screen, as enemy ships were destroyed. But she could tell ships on their side, had died too. Others had little orange triangles or red circles around them. She managed to pick up that the orange triangles meant the ship was damaged but was still very combat capable. A red circle meant the ship was badly damaged and must withdraw, or face destruction.
"Status change," she heard a voice say. "8 ships are breaking from the attacking force, and are trying to flank us."
"Very well. Notify the Dragon," Captain Evans said casually.
"Dragon instructs us to break off, and set intercept course. We will have Battleships Carver and Banton, as well as Cruisers Felix and Helga. Course plots have been updated by the Battlesphere."
Vonda watched, becoming tense without realizing it. 5 Imperial ships moved together to intercept the 8 enemy ships. From reading, she could see that these ships were all 3500 meters in length. These must belong to that alien race that had decided to help the Shas'vsaz.
Seeing that they were not going to be able to slip around the flank, the enemy adjusted their course and was on an intercept course with the 5 Imperial ships. Missiles started to fly at one another. Vonda had started to identify with the ship she was watching, and thought of it as 'hers'.
"Whats the ammunition status, Weapons?" the captain asked.
"Magazines for offensive armament, down to fifty percent. We are doing slightly better with anti-missile missiles, at 64 percent remaining. All nuclear warhead missiles have already been expended," the weapons officer responded.
Still the ships drove at each other. Missiles flew from the Brisbane. Her sister ships fired with her. Missile and counter missile flew. It was all too much for Vonda to understand. She gasped as a missile got through 'her' ship's defenses, and exploded.
"Damage report," said the captain.
"Missiles pods 3,17, and 33 are hit, and are off-line. Anti-missile laser number 2 is not functioning. Compartments 12 through 15 are open to space. 3 known dead, 6 missing. Damage control parties are on their way. Sick bay is notified," reported the Damage Control Officer.
She watched and gasped, as a moment later the Banton was destroyed with all hands, in a violent explosion. The cruiser Helga was totally destroyed, shortly afterwards. But the Emperor's ships were were giving as good as they got, or better. Banton had gotten off a broadside, and she had split her shots between 3 ships. One enemy ship was totally destroyed, and two others were damaged, with their speed drastically reduced. She felt like cheering when a salvo from 'her' ship, took out an enemy ship.
Another missile hit the Brisbane, and it shook under the impact. Alarms rang out, and the ship's acceleration dropped sharply.
"Whats the damage?" the captain asked.
"Forward drive pod two has been damaged, and is off line, Sir. Repair party is en-route. I am re-routing to stabilize our speed, but we still have lost twenty percent of our drives, Sir. No loss of life reported," the Damage Control Officer responded.
"Sir, all ships are breaking off. Battlesphere is sending an 'all ships' recall," stated the Communications Officer.
Vonda saw that it was true. She had missed seeing the enemy retreat, because she had been concentrating so hard on 'her' ship. She heard a chuckle from over her shoulder. Looking around, she saw Richard watching her.
END BATTLE LOG, HMS BRISBANE
"What's so funny?" she demanded.
"You are. I see you have identified with the ship and it's crew. That's a mistake you know. People viewing these logs should be dispassionate. They are an informational, and in some instances teaching, tools. It is very easy to fall into the trap of identifying with the ship's Captain.
"For your information, these logs have already been reviewed. The
Captain has been commended for his, and his crews, actions. Vonda, when
you view a log like this, try to look at it as a 'play by play', of a
specific action. That's what it is. Remember, the first rule of being a
reviewing officer is, don't get involved. Just look at the facts,"
Richard said, leaning over and kissing his wife on her forehead.