Frozen Soul, and other works: Chapter 205

(Conference Room, Black Star Shipyards, Star’s Reach system)

“So, as you can see, the damage to the Black Star Navy was relatively minor. We did suffer high casualties amongst the fighter and gunboat squadrons, and all surviving ships suffered some damage. Still, considering the numbers we were facing, the fleet performed superbly.”

Raven turned from the projection she had been pointing to, looking back at the assembled leaders of the Black Star Navy. Well, only the leaders of First and Third Groups were in the room with us. The leaders of the other groups were here by remote, with every captain, commodore, and admiral in the Navy that wasn’t on assignment being present (or telepresent). This was our big after-action review for the Second Battle of Coldana, and it was important that everyone, even those who weren’t at the battle, was present. Fresh eyes might bring fresh suggestions for what we could do next time.

Newly promoted Slave-Commodore Virstina frowned at the numbers on the screen. “If I may, Master?” At my nod, she continued, “The losses amongst the gunboats are problematic. While it is true that the gunboats are made to be disposable, I think we would be better off if, instead of sending them into combat against capitol ships, they were held back for picket and convoy duties, instead of attempting to fight against cruisers or dreadnoughts.”

Slave-Commodore Aymar Erlar of Third Group nodded thoughtfully. “That’s a good point. The gunboats are perfect for a system defense picket. Between them and the Imperial-design corvettes we have in Third Group, there really isn’t any pirate force out there that can sneak up on us and raid a planet Third Group is set up around, especially if we’ve had time to set up defenses. But the ships of Third Group are primarily defensive, designed to defend the Nightforge and the Smerti until they are able to escape the area or reinforcements arrive. For offensive units, the gunboats are the wrong choice, unless you have them in X’thari numbers.”

“Admiral, if I may?” Commodore Keerla Zyrsys, the knelfi woman in charge of Second Group which was defending the Dimiya base, had been quiet so far. Having not seen much in the way of combat until now, that was understandable. Which made me all the more curious about what she wanted to add. Seeing me nod, she took a breath, and then launched into her suggestion.

“I believe that we should reorganize the fleet groups, creating new defense groups for our primary bases, modeled after the current Second Group at Dimiya. This would entail expanding the fleet, but will not leave us short-handed if we have to pull an ‘all hands on deck’ maneuver like we did prior to Coldana. Nuevo Edo has cover from the Nuevo Edo Navy and Star’s Reach had the static system defenses in place, with Third Group backstopping them, but Madrigal was completely undefended save for base weapon emplacements. On my own authority, Second Group dispatched two Assassins and six gunboats to cover the base temporarily, but if we had faced anything other than a small group of pirates, the base would have been desperately outmatched, without any Black Star ships able to reinforce them in a timely manner.”

I looked over to Raven, who gave a slight nod, letting me know that she was aware that it had happened, and turned to face Zyrsys’s projection. “Well, Commodore, you are to be commended for your foresight in an unprecedented situation. It is clear that we’ve been giving all our thought to offensive operations, and have not taken the time to properly begin working on a defense doctrine. So far, we’ve been lucky, thanks to the placement of our ships, but it does not change the fact that an enemy could have hurt us, and hurt us bad, if they had thought to try something while our attention was elsewhere. That they didn’t speaks more to our good fortune than our planning, and I dislike relying on good fortune when it comes to the safety of Black Star property and personnel.”

Leaning back in my chair, I said, “From this moment, Commodore Zyrsys, you are promoted to Vice Admiral in charge of Defensive Operations. The former Second Group shall be reclassified as the Dimiya Defense Group, and all existing bases will have their defense forces built up to match the DDG. Admiral, I want a preliminary list of changes you would make to the Defense Groups going forward, ready after we discuss the new shape of the Fleet Groups.”

“Aye, aye, Admiral.”

Turning to look at the rest of the onlookers, I said, “Now, a new Second Group will be formed, and stationed at Star’s Reach, to deploy from the base we’re building here as needed. While we’re building it and repairing the ships that were damaged in the battle, we have the opportunity to increase or alter the composition of the Fleet Groups. Floor is open for that discussion.”

That part of the meeting went on for quite a while, as everyone had different ideas on the composition of how the groups should be comprised. In the end, most people agreed that, while the gunboats were definitely useful in smaller roles, they were ill-suited to the large-scale engagements. So their role in a fleet battle was to guard the carrier and logistics ships of the fleet train, while the heavier ships led the attack. That removed quite a few guns from the line of battle, however, which most people were less than pleased with. The compromise, naturally, was to add more ships to the group.

Black Star Navy, First Group:

Wrath-Class Battleships - Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, Kunwu

Reaper-Class Cruisers – Shinokage, Shifrat Almawt, Thanatos, Azrael

Knight-Class Destroyers – Lancelot, Galahad, Bedivere, Kay, Gawain, Tristan, Lamorak, Percival, Geraint, Gareth

Assassin-class Corvettes – Shadowdancer, Simo Hayha, Wisteria, Artemis, Spitfire, Whirlwind, Zephyr, Reliant, Voidseeker, Surprise, Boston, Felhand

Gunboats – Able, Barbara, Chekhov, Dixie, Echo, Falcon, Gabriel, Hestia, Isis, Jester, Kilo, Laurence, Maxwell, Night, Oscar, Peru

Fleet Carrier – Pandora’s Box

Escort Carrier - Hearthstone

Fighter Squadrons – Ghost Squadron (Raptors, Pandora’s Box), Red Guardian Squadron (Thunderbolt IVs, Pandora’s Box), Silver Sentinel Squadron (Thunderbolt IVs, Pandora’s Box), Gold Squadron (Thunderbolt IVs, Pandora’s Box), Black Dragon Squadron (Dragons, Pandora’s Box), Wraith Squadron (Raptors, Hearthstone), Warbird Squadron (Thunderbolt IVs, Hearthstone), Warlock Squadron (Dragons, Hearthstone)

Logistics Freighters – Davenport, Sandalwood

The build plan decided on had each of the current groups expand their order of battle by one Wrath-class Battleship, two Reaper-Class cruisers, four Knight-Class destroyers, four Assassin-class corvettes, a new class of escort carrier, one Traveler-Class Heavy Freighter, and three squadrons of fighters. Typical deployment for a fleet battle would see the gunboats protecting the carriers and fleet train. The other ships would be split into groups, with each of the Reapers getting three Assassins and one Knight as a cohort. The remaining Knights would be split as cohorts to the Wraths, providing the battleships with a significant increase in point defense and close-range weaponry, to go along with their devastating stand-off weapons.

At that point, Major Khan spoke up. “Before we move to the defense groups, I should mention that the Black Star Marine Corps has been getting significant numbers of recruits, ever since we first took the X’thari carrier at Nuevo Edo. There has been a massive increase since Coldana, however. We’re approaching the numbers where we need to organize a third group for the Black Star Marines, complete with the ships to support them, even while having enough Marines in training, or protecting the various bases and forming ship-board tactical teams.”

I considered that. A third group would definitely be useful, when we needed to do something big, or needed people in more than two places at once. Moreover, I trusted Khan to keep his command at a level that wasn’t getting bloated. The company seemed to be growing at an astonishing rate, but our successes bred more success, and more demand for our services. Khan’s interview with the reporter had done more than stir up interest in people to join the Marines, it had also gotten more than a couple requests for Black Star Marines to act in their mercenary capacity to take care of some difficult problems.

“Right. You know that side of things best. Third Group, Black Star Marines, will be added to the build queue, and we’ll get them to you as soon as we can. I assume you’re happy with the format for the naval support your men are getting?”

Khan nodded. “Yes, the Crows performed beautifully at Coldana, and the Marine Assault Transports and pocket carriers both performed just as we had hoped. As you know, at the Dharram enclave, the Thunderfury used her shields to plug the hole the X’thari had blasted in the walls of the enclave, helping to stem the tide of enemy reinforcements. Combined with the point defense of Thunderfury and Vicious Return, we were able to keep the X’thari at bay while cleanup inside the enclave began. Orgrim’s Hammer and Acherus performed similarly well at the Darboldor enclave.”

“All right, then. We’ll keep the structure of the naval side of the Marines the same, and add on a third group. That will make some potential clients happy, when they are ready to go. Your people are going to be seeing a good bit of work in the future, thanks to your efforts on Coldana.” With that, I turned and looked at Admiral Zyrsys. “So, Admiral, do you have preliminary recommendations for the Defense Groups, yet?”

The Admiral nodded, looking as confident as she could. The fact that she had only needed that long to finalize her ‘preliminary’ report meant that she had come prepared. No doubt she expected to be put on the spot the moment she offered her suggestion, and had come with numbers in hand. That spoke well of the decision to put her in overall command of the defense groups. That position would be mostly a logistical one, due to the way her command would be spread out over two arms of the galaxy, but logistics were key when it came to long-term goals, and she looked as though she had the proper mindset for the kind of planning needed.

Dimiya Defense Group (Proposed):

Reaper-Class Cruisers – Breath of Hades, Black Death

Knight-Class Destroyers – Excalibur, Cortana

Assassin-class Corvettes – Lyudmila Pavlichenko, Dragunov, Vendetta, Black Mesa, Dead Man’s Hand, Gambit, Templar’s Bane, Cutter, Stiletto, Kukri

Gunboats – Guardian, Protector, Intuition, Ingenuity, Honor, Loyalty, Tenacity, Avenger, Maker, Breaker, Dalmatian, Oslo, Dunkirk, Tamberlain, Boxer, Dagwood, Shodan, Hammond, Wesley, Fang, Thaddeus, Rex, Yancy, Zod, Carolyn, Rastakhan

Pocket Carriers – Providence, Destiny

Fighter Squadrons – Shinobi Squadron (Raptors, Providence), Hammer Squadron (Thunderbolt IVs, Destiny), Black Knight Squadron (Thunderbolt IVs, Black Star Shipyards), Crimson Blade Squadron (Thunderbolt IVs, Black Star Shipyards), Demon Squadron (Dragons, Black Star Shipyards)

“Yes, Admiral. As you can see on the chart, I propose that the Defense Groups be organized much as the former Second Group is. However, I would add two Assassins and two Knights to the order of battle, and increase the number of gunboats to twenty-six. While this is a modest increase in ships and tonnage, it provides far more defense capability, especially when we have ships out on patrol duty, away from the fleet. With this allocation of forces, we can keep the standard formation of one Reaper, one Knight, and three Assassins used by the other groups, reducing the need to formulate new operational doctrine for the Defense Groups, while leaving four Assassins available for patrolling trade lanes, convoy escorts, or whatever else might be required by contracts when Fleet Group units are not available, or are deployed elsewhere. Each of the four ‘roaming’ assassins would have a cohort of two gunboats unless operations demand otherwise, leaving a further eighteen gunboats available for in-system pickets and defense of primary targets.”

I leaned back in my chair and considered all of that. All told, we would be adding a LOT of ships to the Navy, but they were mostly the little ships, which could easily be hidden through stealth, and it would free up more of our units for deployment elsewhere. That would give us more flexibility, and wouldn’t leave us shorthanded like we were during the last deployment. And when we had contracts with local groups, they wouldn’t see all the ships disappearing all at once if something big happened. Other than the fiscal costs, which were outweighed by the benefits and the potential revenue gains, I couldn’t see any downsides to this proposal.

“All right. Consider your request approved. We’ll phase in Defense Groups to the build plans as we are able, after the Fleet Groups have been repaired. If there is nothing else?” No one spoke up, so I nodded. “All right. Good work, everyone. Dismissed.”

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Memoirs of a Supervillain - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R9NWS8J

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