<INS Yamato,
Ban Thera System>
How had everything gone wrong so quickly?
Admiral Yamamoto sighed as that thought crossed his mind
once again. He only allowed himself the luxury of such thoughts here, in the
privacy of his quarters on the Yamato.
The superdreadnought was the first to be commissioned since the death of the
last Emperor and the start of the Civil War, and he’d made it his flagship when
he was given command of Eighth Fleet.
He had no illusions about why he got this ‘promotion’ to the
back end of nowhere, guarding the border with the Ihm Imperium. He never went
against the Emperor’s will, but within naval circles he was known as being
outspoken against a new war of aggression. There were too many problems within
the Empire that needed fixing, and could use the resources a war would strip
away. He laughed at the idea that any conquered planets would pay for the cost
of bringing them into the fold with the new slaves they’d take, as though the
planets were just sitting there like fruits waiting to be plucked from the
tree.
But he was old. Even with the life extension treatments that
made him look like a man half his age, war was a young man’s game. At 87, he
was the oldest serving Admiral in the Fleet, and one of only two (now that the
third had joined Princess Merida), that remembered the last war from personal
experience. That had been a long, bloody affair, and the enemy had been very
good at targeting command officers. In the years since, many of the admirals
had left the service, either retiring or being forced out as the younger
generation cut their teeth on pirates and border skirmishes. A couple years
ago, he had considered retiring, as well, heading off someplace quiet to spend
his remaining years away from the horrors of war.
And then the Emperor had been killed, along with most of the
royal family. Emperor Travis had taken the throne, and Princess Merida had
challenged him, now being called the ‘Rebel Empress’ by many in the Fleet. The
Empire was clawing itself apart, revealing some of the problems he had long
counseled needed fixing. Unfortunately, this meant that retiring was simply not
an option any more. There was no honorable way for him to quit his post in the
midst of this civil war. Even if he had someone within Eighth Fleet who was
capable of taking his position at need.
Unfortunately, there was no one who could fill his shoes,
and still have the same kind of connections and influence back at Fleet
Command. Connections. Half his connections had been wiped out with the attack
that had destroyed Fleet Headquarters. If he’d still been stationed in Sol at
that time, he’d have likely died with them. Perhaps it would have been better
if that were so. He was feeling his age more recently, as he saw reports from
the front.
What had been a stalemate had turned troublesome as raiders
attacked several key targets with kinetic weapons. Losing Fleet Command was a
body blow, to be sure, but the deadly danger was the way the following attacks
had been designed to disrupt logistics of the Empire. Too many of these young
officers thought that superdreadnoughts won wars. Yamamoto was old enough to
know better. Superdreadnoughts won battles. Transports won wars.
Without missiles, a superdreadnought was reduced to beam
weapons, needing to get within ‘knife range’ before they could attack an enemy
that could stand off and throw missiles at them, knowing that some would get
through. Without replacement parts, the engineering staff was limited to what
they could manufacture aboard ship, and there was simply no way to repair some
delicate electronics in the field, to say nothing of replacing weapons and
sensors that might get blown off the hull in battle. Without supplies, the
impressive medical facilities of the superdreadnought would quickly become
little better than a frontier clinic when dealing with casualties. Without food
shipments, the crew would have to rely on emergency rations or what they could
get in local ports.
And that was just the fleet side of things. With the
civilians, the problems were even more pronounced. No, a superdreadnought was a
fine tool, and necessary for anchoring a defensive line or battering through an
enemy’s force, but it was the numerous military transports that won wars. Whether
it was food shipments, replacement crews, spare parts, or ground troops, the
transports were critical to any action away from base.
The young crowd, though, they did not see that truth. They
had not learned it in the fires of war. They never saw ships burn because they
had run out of missiles when supplies were disrupted by the Confederate or
Federation raiders behind the lines. They had not been forced to eat emergency
rations for weeks on end because the supplies were short.
His musings were cut off by an alert sounding across the
ship. Calling the bridge, he said, “Report!”
The officer of the watch responded nervously, though that
was no surprise with a junior officer talking to an Admiral. “Admiral, we have an unscheduled transition
at the edge of the system. Long range sensors showing a single ship, perhaps a corvette.
We have not received communications from the ship yet.”
“Very well. I will be on the Flag Bridge momentarily. Alert
all ships to set Condition 2 across the fleet.” A single ship, no matter the
class, would be little threat against the fleet as a whole, but if there was
some kind of emergency deployment order or an attack warning, it would have
them already leaning in the correct direction.
“Aye aye, Sir.”
With that, Yamamoto closed the line, and saw to getting a
fresh uniform on. The timing of this interloper’s ‘visit’ was curious, since it
was only an hour before the morning watches would report for duty. Ship time
coincided with Navy time, which paid no attention to the time on various
planets that might have rotation periods measured in hours or weeks and years
that were just as varied. Navy time was based on Imperial Standard time, which
was based on the time in Nova York, on Earth, where the Imperial Palace used to
be. Any Navy ship should be on the same standard time, and transitions were
nearly instantaneous, regardless of what a person’s mind told them, so why at
this time of ‘day’?
Ten minutes later, he stepped onto the Flag Bridge of the Yamato. The normal bridge was where the
Captain would be, preparing to fight his ship if it came to that. The Combat
Information Center, buried deep in the heart of the ship, was where the XO was
stationed. The ship could be flown and fought from CIC, which was why they
separated the command officers like that, to keep the ship fighting should the
bridge get hit. But both were focused on just the Yamato. The Flag Bridge was something else, filled with viewscreens
and tactical readouts, the space was what some entertainment shows would call a
‘war room’ for Eighth Fleet, and was geared towards helping the Admiral command
and control the fleet as a whole.
Looking at the tactical screens, Yamamoto easily identified
the fleet displayed in their formation near Ban Thera V, known as Bragua by the
locals, moving into a simple battle formation. The shape of the formation
wasn’t too important, just that the formation changed the position the ships
were in. With the revelation of ships using kinetics against Fleet ships and
installations, Yamamoto had issued an order for Eighth Fleet that no ship was
to remain on the same position or track for more than four hours at a time. He
would have liked for constant motion, but that was impractical over the long
term. The wear on ships and crews would be insufferable. But at least he could
limit the usefulness of any potential ‘snipers’ by making them have to approach
closer to get useful targeting data. Maybe then he’d be able to spot and kill
them before they ripped through our ship like a bear tearing through a deer.
“Report!”
Commander Fitzroy, his aide, looked up from the tablet he
was holding, and said, “All ships reporting Condition 2. No sign of hostile
action from the unknown. Preliminary IFF signal indicates that this is the INS Abcissa, attached to Naval Intelligence.
No records of any such ship on file.”
Yamamoto shook his head. “There wouldn’t be, if they were
Naval Intelligence. Have they sent the proper authorization codes?” Fitzroy was
a recent addition to his staff, a member of this new religious order that the
Emperor had created as a way to help mold the Empire in his image. Frankly, the
man was a zealot, and something about him disquieted the Admiral. More than the
solid blue eyes, at least. And more and more of them were starting to pop up throughout
the fleet.
“Yes, sir. It is an older code, but it checks out.”
Yamamoto nodded. “Very well, what does Naval Intelligence
want with us today?”
Fitzroy looked annoyed at that. “I don’t know, sir. Their
Captain only responded to hails by saying he was under orders to speak to you,
and you alone. And the orders from Command he sent simply said that you were to
repair aboard the Abcissa for a
classified briefing. He said his code clearance was ‘Handsome Swordsman’. I’ve
never heard of a code clearance like that.”
Ice water ran through Yamamoto’s veins. Of course a
Commander like Fitzroy wouldn’t have heard of Handsome Swordsman! That code
clearance was not known to anyone below flag rank except for the captains of
superdreadnoughts. Not even the Emperor or his staff knew about Handsome
Swordsman, to ensure deniability, should the existence of the code ever be
leaked to the public. This was, after all, the code used when one was preparing
to use biological weapons to end a particular threat, or (rarely) in the
acquisition of new biological weapons for use or study. Sending an asteroid to
impact a planet with mass drivers, or even using nuclear or chemical weapons
was one thing, but unleashing a plague? That was an order he had hoped never to
come to him.
“Prepare my shuttle. I’ll head over at once.”
An hour after that, Yamamoto, with Fitzroy behind him, was
stepping off his shuttle in the bay of the Abcissa.
The uniforms of most of the people in the bay were correct, but the group of
six in front of him as he exited the ship were most certainly not in proper
uniforms, not even for Naval Intelligence. They were dressed like a special
operations team, but not one the Navy would have. For one thing, one of them
had clear non-human modifications, making her look like some kind of knelfi
catgirl.
Yamamoto stopped at the foot of the shuttle’s ramp, and
waited for the commander of this group to introduce himself. Instead, he was
surprised to see the man immediately raise his assault rifle, and place a
three-round burst squarely in Fitzroy’s chest! Yamamoto turned to see his aid
fall to the ground, and stiffened as he felt the man move past him, before
putting another three-round burst through Fitzroy’s skull, just to make sure
the job was done.
He looked around, slightly wild-eyed, and noticed that none
of the other five people in black seemed concerned with the situation, and even
the ‘normal’ crewmembers seemed to be avoiding paying attention to this area of
the small hangar bay as they tended to the shuttle. And that’s when he noticed
the artwork on the wall of the hangar. All Imperial ships had two pieces of
artwork on the walls of their hangar bays. The first was the Imperial flag,
bearing the crest of the royal family. That much was fine. The second was a picture
of the ship’s crest, along with their name. That one, however, clearly
identified this ship as the Jubilee,
which he knew had been attached to Admiral Scheiner’s forces before Edena…
The man who had shot Fitzroy moved back in front, and nodded
slightly to him. “Admiral, welcome aboard. I’m Commodore Mollen, and the
Handsome Swordsman code was a fake. I’m sorry for the subterfuge, but we needed
to make sure we could speak privately. I have a message for you from Empress
Merida and Princess Sheila.”
Be sure to read my published works!
Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):
Frozen Soul https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT
Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37
Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy LitRPG):
Volume 1 - Tutorial https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB
Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X
Into the Black (Sci-Fi LitRPG):
Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL
Omnibus I - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077X2KR7Y
City of Champions Online (Superhero LitRPG):
Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1
The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T
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