Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Reprisal Page 5

  “Of course, that’s why you and I work together like we do. Now,” Ples said as he steered Zek by the shoulder into their small conference room, “Let’s talk about what you want to say tomorrow.”

  Avenger had moved again, this time to the staging area she had been on picket duty for earlier. Several task forces had joined together, and were being referred to as the newly formed Ninth Fleet, after the ‘nine’ in Task Force 96 that had earned such a reputation thus far in the war. With the recently promoted Admiral Illam in command of first the task force and now the fleet, the assembled ships were preparing for a rendezvous with a Talaran force, after which they would conduct a joint assault on a recently discovered mobile Priman shipyard. The information was sketchy, but scuttlebutt had it that there was a source inside Priman space that had leaked the information about the yard, and that there was a small window during which it would not be fully operational or well defended. Time was of the essence.

  Task Force 96 had a nose for trouble, participating in more than its’ fair share of fleet actions in the war so far. While the accompanying cruisers, destroyers, and other capital ships changed according to who was available, the core of the task force always centered around the heavy carrier Gallant, Marine Assault Ship Torino, hunter/killer Avenger, and battleship Majestic. When it came time to activate another fleet, the choice seemed obvious.

  Captain Elco, along with the other captains, was onboard the Gallant conducting final briefings and walk-throughs. He had left his new XO in charge, with orders to deliver some last-minute changes to the assault tasking orders to Loren and Cory. The XO had stopped by the Warbirds first, then gone on to the Viper’s hangar areas.

  While he was new to the Avenger, XO Enric Shae, a youngish human from one of the outlying worlds in the Confederation, was not new to the job. Six months ago, as XO of Torino, he had confronted Captain Sosus for violating orders and she had almost crossed the line with him. Captain Elco had asked Shae to let it go in exchange for owing the man a favor. Shae had taken him up on the offer when Torino went into drydock weeks later. He was never going to get the type of combat time he needed to advance in Confed while serving as the XO on a siege platform like Torino, so as much as he liked the crew and ship, he had contacted Captain Elco again. Avenger was still in need of an XO, and true to his word, upon request Elco had agreed to take Shae’s transfer.

  He’d been onboard less than three months, and already Shae knew that he was not the most popular man with the crew, who no doubt had heard how he came to be the XO by now. Still, military discipline ruled the day, and he had not experienced any problems. He did know, however, that he needed to tread lightly around the pilots on Avenger; Captain Elco had some sort of soft spot for them, though Shae couldn’t figure out why.

  He walked down the expansive corridor with its large airlocks, designed to protect the rest of the ship in case the hangar bay decompressed. The main corridor between the hangar bays was quite large, and was intended to allow a ship up to the size of a Prowler to transfer between bays. Upon entering the ready room, he stopped the first pilot he saw, a Qualen by the name of Grosh, who was the one whose sensor skills had initially discovered the Dison wreck, if his memory served correctly.

  “Lieutenant,” Shae asked, “do you know where I might find Captain Stone?”

  “Over at the command duty station, sir,” said Grosh, as he pointed at the raised platform that formed a pass-through between the ready room and hangar bay. Shae noticed that the Qualin was wearing a mix of several different variants of approved uniform, and looking around the ready room he saw more of the same relaxed dress rules and discipline.

  “Thank you, Lieutenant, that’s all.” Enric walked through the ready room and took the two steps up onto the command duty platform, a space that was really only comfortable for two people or less. That was in fact why Loren tended to spend much of his on-duty time there. It made him visible and accessible to his pilots, but along with the watch officer responsible for the duty station, it prevented drawn-out conversations with people other than his pilots (with the exception of the Captain) that wanted a piece of Loren’s time. When an aviator came over to talk, he’d step off the platform and let the officer have his say.

  When it was anyone else, he sat in his chair or remained on the platform, the cramped space usually compelling the visitor to make their stay brief.

  “Captain Stone,” Shae started. “I have some updated tasking orders for the operation tomorrow.” He held out his hand, a small data card between his thumb and forefinger.

  “Commander Shae,” Loren said by way of reply, standing up in deference to the ranking officer and taking the offered card, “thank you.”

  Loren stood there for a second, waiting in case the XO had something to say. “If you don’t mind, sir, I’ll take a seat and get this into the system.”

  Shae nodded, but stayed on the platform. “Can I have a word with you, Captain?”

  “Of course,” Loren replied.

  The Drisk woman working the duty station with him looked at Loren, then made to stand up.

  “That’s okay, the XO and I will go find someplace to talk,” Loren said.

  Loren stood up and led the way off the platform, Shae following behind.

  They went to Loren’s small office off the ready room, which he rarely used and was more of a storage space than anything else. Once the door had closed, Shae spoke up.

  “Captain, I just wanted to comment on the appearance of your pilots and your familiarity with them. They’re a bit disheveled, don’t you think?”

  Loren knew it was a rhetorical comment, so he kept silent and waited for the rest.

  “It just seems that discipline is a bit relaxed. It’s my understanding several of your pilots have a speed draw competition going that extends to all portions of the ship?”

  Loren couldn’t suppress a smirk, no matter how hard he tried.

  “That’s true, sir.”

  “You think that’s appropriate?”

  “Well, it did save Commander Elder’s life on Callidor.”

  “So I’ve read.” The Commander paused for a second, then continued. “Captain, let’s be honest here, officer to officer. I know I’m not Delgin Marks, and I know Captain Sosus doesn’t think much of me. What about you?”

  Lovely question, though Loren. How do you answer that?

  “Well, sir,” he began, “it takes time for your subordinates to accept you as more than just the person who gives orders. They have to trust you, that you are looking out for them. And they’re soldiers; they know you may ask them to die, but they also want to know you won’t ask them to do something you wouldn’t do, and that you wouldn’t spend their lives cheaply. I see no problems between us, sir. Do you have a concern?”

  “I was just curious about your pilots. They seem to be lax with several of the regulations about shipboard conduct.”

  “Well, I gave them a pass on several of the rules, and Captain Elco approved them.”

  “Yes, but doesn’t the familiarity and atmosphere keep all the ranks too close?”

  “It’s been my experience that it shows we’re all equals as aviators, and with us being in a state of constant action, I don’t think we can stay wound up constantly.”

  “That’s just it, Captain. Were not all equals; somebody has to give the orders and somebody has to take them. The Captain, to me, to you, your pilots. You’re their superior.”

  “It’s my feeling that we’re all good pilots, all qualified to be here, I’ve just been here longer.”

  “I see,” Shae replied thoughtfully. “And this won’t be a problem with them, taking orders from me?”

  “No, sir, it won’t.”

  “I’m still concerned about Captain Sosus and her pilots, so I’m glad to hear that from you, Captain. I’ll be on my way then. Briefing is at seventeen hundred, see you there.”

  With a salute, which Loren returned, the XO was gone.

  Loren leaned against h
is desk, arms crossed, and let out a sigh. Great. The XO thinks Cory needs to be watched, and by implication her pilots as well. Well, he might as well let her in on it, and hope she doesn’t try to finish the job she almost started on Torino the last time she had a run-in with him. He decided to take a quick look through the updated tasking order before he went over to visit her.

  Loren didn’t have much time to compose his thoughts as he strode across the corridor to Cory’s hangar bay. He had been hoping to sketch out some sort of plan for breaking the news to her, but he was at the hatch before he knew it and was no closer to a diplomatic delivery than he’d been when he started. Oh well, sometimes the plain, unpleasant truth was best.

  He entered the ready room and, not seeing her there, headed to her office. Unlike himself, Cory actually used her small office space regularly, and when he approached the hatch, he found the door open and her sitting inside.

  He knocked on the doorframe, and Cory looked up and smiled.

  “Enter, Loren. What can I do for you?”

  Loren entered, walking up to her desk and taking a seat across from her. He sat back and adopted a relaxed position.

  “I bring intelligence on the enemy.”

  “I see. Which particular enemy are we talking about?”

  “How perceptive of you to ask. It’s the one close to home, our new XO.”

  “Lovely. He’s really becoming a beloved and welcome addition to the crew,” she muttered under her breath as she closed up some documents on her monitor and tidied up her desk a bit. Her workspace organized, she sat back, crossed her hands in her lap, and continued. “Alright, I guess I’m ready. What did he do to us now?”

  “There’s a briefing at seventeen hundred tonight at which we’ll review the tasking on the joint op for tomorrow. He stopped by just a little while ago to talk and drop off some last minute updates, and he hinted at being concerned that you and your pilots will follow his orders. Then I looked through the new orders, and I think I saw what he had planned to test you. Have you seen the latest updates?”

  “I haven’t checked in the last hour, no,” she replied, but by the end of the sentence was back at her terminal typing and gesturing on the holodisplay with her hands to bring up the latest. Seconds later, she was cursing using several new and descriptive combinations Loren had never heard before.

  “Why in the Four Levels of Hell would that miserable, dirty, bastard hump do that?”

  “I presume you’re talking about our new tasking?”

  “Yes. He’s assigned the entire Avenger Air Wing as Close Reserve. We’re supposed to fly cover for the big ships while everyone else goes out to shoot? We’ve seen the Primans’ fleet doctrine- we don’t need to hold back our entire complement. He’s just punishing us, maybe testing us, I suppose, but he’s definitely showing us who’s boss. Sure, he played nice at first, but now he’s getting comfortable with this crew and he’s moved on to harassing us.” She paused for a second to let the anger bleed off a bit so she could begin thinking rationally again. “I should have shot him on the Torino, that’s what I should have done.”

  “Now, now, Cory, killing a senior officer never solved anything.”

  “You suppose he’s still that cranked about the Torino deal?”

  “Well, you clawing for your weapon probably didn’t earn you a spot on his next big social event guest list, I’d say.”

  “He needs to move on. Besides,” she added with a huff, “I wasn’t clawing for it. Have you talked to Captain Elco?”

  “I mentioned it once, second time Shae did it to us. I brought it up the most neutral way I could, but the captain didn’t change anything about the mission plan. Let’s face it; the XO has responsibility for all fighter mission planning, not the Captain. I got him to look at it once, but I can’t complain to the Captain every time Shae bumps us or gives us a bad tasking. Unless it’s something serious or detrimental to the safety of this ship, Captain Elco has too many other things that legitimately require his attention. Best thing about this is that Shae fancies himself on a fast track- he’ll request the very next assignment that he thinks will help his career. We just have to live with him for a little while until that happens.”

  “Do your pilots complain?”

  “Yeah, I hear a few grumbles. They’d rather be out doing something important, not sitting guard on a capital ship every time there’s a fleet op and we can’t think up a reason to get ourselves released to go in.”

  “So what do you tell them?”

  “Well, you can’t complain down the food chain, that’s all wrong, so I tell them he’s the XO.”

  “I still hate him.”

  “I tell them he oversees our mission planning and it’s on his authority to make sure Avenger is defended during any attack.”

  “I should have shot him.”

  “I’m glad we had this talk, Cory, it’s been good.” Loren grinned. “So, at least you’ll be prepared tonight when he breaks it to us.” He stood up and walked to the door, and delivered one last message while standing in the doorway. “Leave your sidearm here, though, ok?”

  Commander Velk strode purposefully through the vast main corridor of the newly commissioned and dedicated mobile shipyard. A product of Priman engineering, the design focused on self-reliance and independent operations, a trait exhibited by most Priman warships and no doubt influenced by the generations spent wandering through empty, lawless space on the edges of the galaxies and in the spaces between. The shipyard was large, with a fly-through framework spacious enough to hold any Priman vessel short of the large command-and-control ship Velk himself called his own. Its’ mass, however, was fairly low, since the framework was not fully finished hull, but just a lattice for anchoring vessels and construction essentials while working. A large bridge and living module sat atop the vessel, with engine pods ringing one entire end of the framework. Not intended for lots of movement, the ships functioned best when left in place near an established supply depot in a well-defended location.

  Velk had found one, a former Talaran Navy materials supply moon orbiting a strategically unimportant Talaran planet light-years from any contested front line. With no real tactical value, and a ready source of metals in-system, it was a perfect place to hide his new shipyard in plain sight. It was also the third one finished since they had made their initial thrust into the galaxy. While using captured Confed and Talaran yards was adequate for repair, his subordinates had determined that they could produce replacement Priman ships faster through their own shipyards rather than trying to refit captured enemy ones.

  So Commander Velk and one of his closest Aides, Representative Dag, walked the corridors of the Priman Empire’s newest addition, followed by a small entourage of advisors, aides, historians, and the command crew of the new shipyard itself. Velk stopped the tour as he arrived at the docking bay which held his personal shuttle, then turned to address the captain.

  “Captain Garnik, you say you’re fully operational, correct?”

  “Yes, Commander,” the captain responded crisply. The officer stood erect and proud, eager to prove worthy of the honor of commanding the facility. “The first components for a heavy cruiser will arrive in a matter of hours, in fact. We will begin spaceframe construction tonight.”

  “Excellent. I will return to my ship, and will be leaving soon. Update me if any construction begins before I leave.”

  “Yes, Commander.”

  With that, Velk and his entourage disappeared into the hangar bay and their waiting shuttle.

  The briefing would be quick, Loren thought as he strode into the new Combat Control Center ,or C3 for short. After the torpedo hit on Avenger that took the life of XO Marks and everyone in C3, the bridge module had been replaced, giving the ship a new Combat Control Center and bridge. While Captain Elco had retained his old captain’s chair, everything else was new. Few changes had been made to the original design, though a few upgrades had been made since Avenger’s commissioning. It was familiar enou
gh to make Loren feel comfortable, at least.

  Loren, Cory, Merritt, and one of Cory’s other section commanders were seated along one side of the table adjacent to Captain Elco, while Intelligence officers and various department heads and the XO sat on the other side. One of the Intelligence officers, a Qualin female, got up and walked to the main viewscreen and holo projector and activated the unit. The entire wall lit up, showing tactical schematics, supply data, and the faces of a host of other participants on the side displays. An officer from the carrier Gallant, flagship of the Ninth Fleet, was giving the brief. It was just a recap for Loren, as nothing had changed since XO Shae had delivered the updates that afternoon.

  Scraps of the brief filtered through, but he wasn’t focused on it. “…covert source with access to Priman spacelane usage… need to have perfect timing… while the Talarans approach from above the elliptic plane… Intruders, Talons, and Marauders approaching from behind… main body of the fleet… pincer movement on the shipyard…” He had seen it already; the Talarans tended to favor attacks from ninety degrees off the plane of the solar system, so they would go in that way while the Ninth Fleet approached from outsystem. Intruders and Marauders, escorted by squadrons of Talons and under the cover of electronic countermeasures provided by Prowlers, would attempt to sneak around behind the Priman forces and either shepherd them towards the Confed and Talaran fleets or catch them in a pincer movement. The Ninth Fleet would concentrate on the shipyard and any other targets of opportunity. They were to capture the system if possible, but since it was a Talaran system, the Confeds would take a back seat in that operation of it was deemed workable.

  The official part of the brief concluded, the monitor wall went blank, taking with it the faces of the other captains in the fleet. Captain Elco and XO Shae both added a few notes and words of encouragement, and everyone was dismissed. The pilots lingered after everyone else had left. Merritt strode to the monitor and re-activated it, giving the plan a quick once-over again.