Frozen Soul, and other works: Chapter 138

(BSN Dykhaniye Smerti, Nuevo Edo Orbit)

Captain Zylna stepped off her shuttle with Lieutenant Daelen, the head of her Marine detachment. The Black Stars apparently used what they called ‘tactical teams’ for their ship-board security and ship-to-ship or ship-to-ground actions, but the Confederate Navy used their Marines, probably because they had a lot of them, and needed to put them to good use somewhere. Taking a moment, she looked around to get her bearings. It was still amazing that a group like the Black Stars had been able to capture a fully-functioning Imperial carrier during the civil war. Of course, it probably had more to do with pride than anything, with a captain not wanting to surrender to his ‘brothers’ and face the shame of admitting they’d chosen the wrong side, or some crap like that.

It was still an impressive sight to see, however, with the Imperial flight deck filled with the fighters of the Black Star ships, especially those new Dragon bombers that had made such an impact on the Fleet chat nets when their existence was disclosed. Poor pilots were bemoaning the thought of being stuck in a bomber, while commanders were quietly freaking out about the destructive capability of the Dragons with those torpedoes of theirs. There were people saying that this may mean a change in fleet tactics overall over the next couple decades, as carriers became more important than dreadnoughts for fleet operations.

Taking a breath, she turned her eyes front, and stepped up to the officer in the black uniform of the Black Star Navy, and offered a salute. “Captain Faylen Zylna of the Luvon Gilrie, and my Marine commander, Lieutenant Kuskyn Daelen, requesting permission to come aboard?”

The officer returned the salute, in a style that was not quite Imperial or Confederate, but was its own style. Her background reading identified it as the same style used by an old blue-water navy on Earth long before the humans ever reached space. This ‘US Navy’ was apparently a major power in the world’s oceans before the wars that eventually lead to the planet’s unification and the birth of the Terran Empire.

“Captain Zylna, I am Slave-Captain Scott Cook, and both you and Lieutenant Daelen are welcome on the Dykhaniye Smerti. If you will follow me, the Master wishes to meet you both, to go over the details of these exercises.”

As they fell in line behind the captain, Daelen asked, “Were you stationed on the Smerti when it was captured during the war?”

Slave-Captain Cook winced at that, and said, “First, that is a… sensitive topic with many of the crew, and those of us who are still on board don’t like talking about the war. We were following the orders of our commanding officers, who we trusted. Unfortunately, it became clear that there were many of the upper echelons who were deeply complicit in crimes against the Empire. I was the second officer aboard the Radiant Dawn at Edena. With our fighters either on mission or destroyed, we were helpless against the enemy fire. Carriers of our type simply are not designed to do more than hold off aggressors until other fleet elements or their fighters take care of the threat.”

“The Slave-Captain of the Artemis stripped our shields with a shot from their primary weapon, and once they were hitting us with ion cannons, the systems that hadn’t been knocked offline by impact were quickly disabled. The Captain and First Officer both elected suicide rather than surrender to ‘privateers’. I was given the choice of either joining them, or surrendering to Black Star, once it became clear that the fleet would not be able to rescue us.”

Captain Zylna gave Daelen a look to discourage more questions on that specific line, and said, “As someone who has seen Black Star tactics ‘up close’ from both sides, what is your opinion of their effectiveness? I heard that the casualties in the battle against the X’thari were quite high.”

“That they were, Ma’am. But that is what happens when a force designed for intercepting light craft and organizing quick attacks from stealth are forced into a position where they cannot simply fade away and strike when and where they please. They managed to nail us to a point where we had to defend, which made us go against most of our ‘doctrine’, but we gave better than we got. Since then, the word is that the big brains have been designing some new ships that would allow us to anchor a defensive line if we need to.”

Zylna blinked at that. “Already planning for another war?”

Cook simply laughed, and said, “The X’thari will be back, they always come back. So we’ll be ready for them next time. And the X’thari aren’t the only threats out there, so if Black Star gets called in to help ‘negotiate’ between two sides in a conflict between, say, two Alliance worlds, then we need to be able to do the job properly.”

By then, they stepped through the doors that led them to the flag deck. The man in charge was immediately apparent, even with everyone wearing black uniforms, due to the way he was standing at a console with others coming up to speak to him, before returning to their duties. Slave-Captain Cook snapped to attention and saluted. “Master, the Captain and Marine commander of the Luvon Gilrie.”

The man looked at them, and Zylna could see how this man could get the ladies, even without wealth and power, which he definitely had. For a second, she wished she HAD been given orders to try and seduce him, but quickly put that thought out of her head. The intelligence report also suggested that he had some kind of Mental Psy training, and skill at using it subtly, without the targets knowing.

“Thank you, Captain, you are dismissed.” Cook nodded, and headed out the door, while the man looked them over, “I am Admiral Mirikon Mollen, at least while on one of my warships. Yes, they ambushed me and made me get the upgrades that would make me an Admiral. If I’m out of uniform, I am either Captain Mollen of the Starlight Raven, or Mr. Mollen, owner of the Black Star Company. With that said, the purpose of your ship joining Black Star for these exercises is to learn to properly use the ship we’ve made for you, using tactics that your Navy acknowledges are of questionable sanity but unquestionable effectiveness. So I will be treating you as one of my crews until the exercises are concluded, understood?”

Zylna let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. Looks like the ‘notorious womanizer’ wasn’t going to immediately start flirting with her, which was a good sign. And he was taking these exercises seriously, which was also good. “Understood, Admiral. What is the format of the exercises going to be?”

“We’ll start you off with the training simulations we gave to the Nuevo Edo Navy. Some of these things will be refreshers for you and your crew, but the tactical advice will constitute a core part of why you are here. Additionally, I’ve taken the liberty of sending you some reading for your free time. Black Star uses a lot of tactics from blue-water navies of the past, especially submarine warfare tactics.”

Zylna nodded, and said, “Why submarine tactics, sir?”

The Admiral chuckled, and said, “Because an Assassin is the closest thing to a submarine as you’re likely to find in the blackness of space. Quick, quiet, and able to strike without warning. Devastating against fixed defenses from ranges that are insane, even when talking about space, since all it takes is time and math to hit the target on a ballistic trajectory. And when you’re closer in, it offers a devastating first strike, to the point where a group of Assassins working together can take down a superdreadnought with ease.”

Daelen cleared his throat, and said, “Anything special for the Marines, sir?”

Admiral Mollen shook his head. “Fortunately, a Marine’s work on an Assassin is the same as anywhere. We typically use a tactical team based on the ship for boarding actions, and any ship-to-ground actions. The big change for you, compared to a more traditional Navy ship, as I’m sure you’ve already noticed, would be in EVA operations. Non-metallic hulls mean that magnetic boots do nothing for you, so climbing around the outside of the ship is done with grav-boots or grav-belts. I trust you’re already trained on those?” When the Lieutenant nodded, he continued, “Excellent. In that case, you’re already caught up. The Navy are the ones who need the tactical primer. However, I know that there are sims with various Marines running small-unit tactics competing against each other. For bragging rights only, of course. And as the owner, that is all I’m allowed to ‘know’ about that.”

Daelen nodded. “Understood, sir. My men will look forward to having someone new to test themselves against.”

“Well, let them know that their window is a short one. Now that you’ve arrived, the Luvon Gilrie will be shipping out with us as we provide a primer on anti-piracy tactics that we’ve found to be useful, after a quick tour of the Amazon system, to make sure no one has been naughty and found a way to set up areas on the planet that would be immune from Greenwave, and warn off any tourists that might be trying to do something stupid.”

Zylna nodded. “Who will we be grouped with, sir?”

“Starlight Raven will be the ‘bait ship’ for this mission, with Shadowdancer being the primary. You’ll be shadowing her, and learning from their crews. Once we’ve done a basic skills evaluation in the Amazon system, we’ll return to Confederation space via Desolace. And before you ask, the reason we’re going through Desolace is because the gate is within reasonable distance of several populated worlds, but there isn’t anyone there, and Assassins are still very visible when they come through the Gateway, just like any other ship.”

Zylna nodded her head again, and said, “I understand. When will we be leaving, Admiral?”

“We are scheduled to ship out in two weeks, so you may consider rotating your crew through the Spaceport for shore leave. That is at your discretion, of course. And Lieutenant, I’ve sent you a comm code for Major Khan. He will be extremely happy to have some ‘fresh meat’ to throw his people at in the ‘friendly’ sims.” The Admiral looked at both of them, and said, “Any further questions? Then you are both dismissed.”

As soon as they left the room, Lieutenant Daelen shook his head. Once he’d made sure that they were alone, he said, “I don’t know what I was expecting, but that man is nothing like what I thought he would be.”

Zylna chuckled at her Marine commander, and said, “Oh, what were you expecting? The roguish outlaw, the relentless womanizer, or the mad genius that gets victory from certain defeat? I’ll admit that I had not expected him to be acting like a professional mercenary commander, or even an actual navy man.”

Daelen frowned, “Well, he’s a Nomad, and they have lives they lead outside of our world, and there’s been scuttlebutt through the Marines that his Black Star Marines were all Marines in their world, before they retired or left the service for various reasons. So it may be that being put in command brought out some training from his other world.”

Zylna considered that for a moment. “That would fit with the information the intelligence people worked up on him. They say there’s a high likelihood that he is former military of some kind, even before enhancing his skills with his experiences in this world. His knowledge of naval tactics is more than just someone picking it up as he goes. He has to have actually studied ancient blue-water navy tactics, and worked to convert them to space. The design of the Assassins was clearly intended to play just the role he put them in.”

Daelen considered that. “Do the intel guys know anything about the person who created the Assassins?”

“Lost on Jagloth, to the Legion Plague. Still, they’ve heard some reports that the designer was a Nomad, so there may be a way to find him.”

Zylna’s comm beeped, and she checked it to find out that she had a new message. She read it through once, and shook her head. “Well, it looks like the reports weren’t all wrong. ‘Captain’ Mollen invited me to dinner at a restaurant in the capitol of Yokosaki tomorrow night. And tonight I have a request to meet the Confederate Ambassador for dinner at the Embassy.”

“Captain Mollen, hmm? So civilian clothes. Well, I’ll have the squad standing by in case of trouble. Just don’t do anything the politicians want you to.”

Zylna laughed at that as they walked back to their shuttle. “If I did what the politicians wanted, I’d be all but stripping for him in the middle of the flag deck. Thank goodness the Intel side was more sensible and put a stop to that.”