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When my entire fleet had gathered at the Helios ring, waiting around for Phobos to catch up, I noticed it looked pretty impressive. Even after Phobos had nailed us twice, I had a grand total of six super-carriers. They were the latest motherships loaded with four fighter squadrons each. These ships formed the core of my fleet—or rather, their fighters did.
Surrounding the carriers were over twenty cruisers and two hundred gunboats. We had a few destroyers and frigates as well, the old saucer-shaped Nano ships, which we used mostly as scouts. They were faster and more maneuverable than the core ships, but much more lightly armed.
Trailing behind the battle fleet were the transports. There were about sixty of these. I felt ambivalent about bringing them along, but I didn’t see how I could expect to take Earth without ground forces.
All in all, the fleet was over three hundred ships strong. We could launch over eight hundred fighters as well, swelling our numbers. These vehicles were tiny in comparison to the rest of the ships, especially the big battlewagons, but they were very sophisticated. I’d been under the impression the ships needed to be updated, but I’d since been informed Miklos had worked on them tirelessly, improving them every few weeks. There were so many versions and plans for these tiny ships I’d lost track of it all during my own downtime. I decided that today was a good day to reacquaint myself with the latest technical data.
My entire armada slipped through the Helios ring in good order, and I felt a familiar shiver go through me as we were transferred from one star system to another. The Helios system had a big red giant star in the middle of it, and every planet seemed all but burnt to crisp. The world of the Worms was here, near the next ring that led to Alpha Centauri. The Worms were an allied species who I quickly instructed to stand down when they saw the Blues’ ship following us. I didn’t want them to take another beating for us this time around.
In order to consult with Miklos about the fighter designs and other logistical issues, I left Gatre and boarded Relentless, one of our heaviest carriers. Miklos had taken up residence aboard her after Defiant had been lost. I’d yet to give him a new command as I felt he might do better with pure strategic thinking—after all, his ships kept blowing up. Defiant had been his third lost command by my count.
“Are we ready to start, sir?” Miklos asked, coming into the conference room. He had a tablet bursting with data he wanted to show me. I could see at a glance there must be twenty windowed tabs open. The volume of stuff made me wince.
“Almost. Where’s Gaines?” I asked.
I’d put Gaines in charge of the landing forces. He was a top level marine even if he was green compared to some. I knew he had personal reasons for wanting to return to Earth and remove the Imperials from power. That kind of motivation to win never hurt.
“He’ll be up here in a minute, sir. Can I connect to the main display and distribute my data?”
As he said this, he was already doing it. I felt like sighing but let him carry on. Logistics were never as much fun as battle-planning to me. Miklos, on the other hand, seemed to love counting every bolt.
“Where are Marvin and Kwon?” I asked as he worked.
He looked up at me. “Sir? I thought this was a strategic design meeting.”
“It is,” I said, “but we’re about to go into battle. I want my senior people here to listen.”
It was his turn to release a tiny sigh. He summoned a lieutenant and relayed my orders. The lieutenant ran off, and I leaned back in my chair.
While we waited, he rattled off facts and figures. We had a shocking amount of men and materials at our disposal—with the emphasis on materials rather than men.
“The crews are thin, Commodore,” I complained.
“We’ve automated many basic subsystems, allowing fewer men to operate even the larger vessels.”
“That’s all well and good,” I said, “but what happens when they’re boarded or lose a few key personnel? With everyone covering several operational centers, we can’t take a hit on any crew without lessening the effectiveness of the ship in question.”
Miklos cleared his throat as Gaines walked in.
“Hey, Gaines my man,” I shouted. “Take a seat!”
“Thank you, sir,” he said, seating himself across from me.
Miklos looked like he smelled something foul for a moment, then went on. “I know that smaller crews are not optimal, but we have to deal with certain realities, sir.”
“What realities? I don’t want to hear excuses. If just one of these ships is knocked out in the coming action due to undermanning them, I’m going to have to hold you responsible.”
“Sir,” began Miklos, looking pained again.
Gaines leaned forward and joined the conversation. “If I may speak, sirs.”
“Of course,” I said.
“What the Commodore is trying to say, Colonel—and do stop me if I’m wrong, Nicolai—is that we’re short on men in general.”
I looked from one of them to the other. I frowned at them. “What about new recruits? Fresh volunteers from the colonies?”
“There’s hardly been enough time for them to breed a new generation, sir,” Gaines said.
“Huh,” I said rubbing my chin in thought. “I know we’ve lost a few people, but—”
“Approximately twenty percent in the last year alone,” Miklos said.
“That much? And what you’re telling me is they’ve stopped coming from Earth, and they’ve stopped volunteering from the colonies. I guess all the brave ones have joined already.”
“Or died, sir,” Miklos said.
I frowned at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Sir,” said Gaines, leaning in again. “I had to do the same thing with our marines. You see the troops out there in those sixty transports? They’re mostly native contingents.”
I made a disgusted sound. “Mostly? Are you saying more than half? Give me a percentage.”
“The ground forces following us are made up of more than eighty percent Centaurs, Colonel. There aren’t enough humans in the Eden system to fill all those ships. Not anymore.”
I nodded and felt depressed. “It’s not your fault, gentlemen. We’re having manpower problems, that’s all. It’s plagued many conquerors in the past, you know. The Mongol Horde, for example, conquered countless nations but was mostly made up of non-Mongols by the time they reached Europe.”
At the mentioning of an historical precedent, the two men exchanged glances. I ignored this. I felt knowing something about military history was a necessity when trying to comprehend our new, modern form of warfare. Whenever I had a spare moment, I read up on such topics. It provided a man with perspective, and it was an old habit for me. I’d done the same thing long ago while serving in the U. S. military in Middle Eastern conflicts.
Kwon and Marvin arrived shortly after this, and we began the meeting. It was stupefying dull. I liked designing new ships and planning tactics, but this meeting was really about supplies, fuel and the like. I found myself watching the big enemy ship as it came through the ring behind us on the screens. Some had wondered if it would even be able to make it through. The ring was bigger than Phobos, but only just. No one had ever tried to send through something the size of a small moon before. We didn’t know if the ring could do it, or if it might choke.
I watched with interest as the ring gave birth to Phobos. It took nearly a full second to pass through, but it made it.
“Looks like our dogged pursuer has made the jump,” I said, putting my tablet down.
Miklos was listing the number of meals each ship had in store, and he managed to make that into a long, drawn-out affair. We could siege them for a year or so with our recyclers working overtime.
“That’s all very interesting, Commodore,” I said, “and I’m sure you’ve done an excellent job. But want to talk to Gaines for a while about the ground forces.”
I turned to the Major and nodded to him.
“Well sir, we’re ready for anything. We’ll assault Earth, the Luna fortresses, or even the Imperial ships, if we have to.”
“You know, Gaines,” I said, “I originally wanted to hold back on the troop contingent. But I figured we might get an opening if Earth is surprised. If we can get down there suddenly and paralyze their government with a lightning-fast drop from space—”
“Excuse me, sir,” Marvin said.
“What is it?”
“There seems to be an emergency situation developing.”
We all looked at him. He’d been pretty quiet throughout the meeting. But often, Marvin was the first to know about a recent event. Usually this was because he was tapped into the command centers directly. Occasionally, it was because he’d known disaster was coming for days and hadn’t said anything about it.
“What are you talking about?” I demanded.
Before he could say more, the klaxons went off. Miklos and Gaines stood up as if to head for the hatch. I waved them back into their seats.
“The captain of this ship can steer his own command. Bring up the situation on the table, Marvin.”
All of Miklos’ facts, figures and diagrams vanished. In its place the Helios system appeared, with the big red sun in one corner.
I don’t know what I was expecting. Maybe that Earth had shown up with a fleet of their own to intercept us. Or maybe I thought the Worms had gotten frisky, paranoid at the sight of so many “allied” ships in their system. Wildly, I thought maybe a flotilla of fresh Macro ships had just poured out of a hitherto undiscovered ring in the system.
None of these scenarios were revealed. Instead, our fleet was displayed moving away from the ring in formation. Behind us, the spherical ship Phobos lumbered in pursuit.
I frowned however, tapping at the rear of our formation.
“One of our ships has fallen out of position,” I said. “What ship is that, Marvin.”
“That’s Gatre.”
I looked at him with widening eyes. I zoomed in until I could read the designation tag. The robot was right.
“What’s wrong with her?” I demanded.
“She’s been hit, Colonel Riggs. Her engines have been compressed down to approximately fifteen percent of previous mass. Interestingly, the total weight of the engines seems to be close to previous estimates. I can only surmise that—”
“Marvin!” I shouted, standing up and smashing the table with a fist. My hand sunk into the table, and the image of Gatre was gone. Fortunately, the surface was made of smart materials, which began reforming themselves around my offending knuckles and tried in vain to gently push me out of their rightful space. “What are you talking about? The Blues can’t hit us from this far out. We’ve ranged their weapons carefully, and we’re at more than twice their maximum reach.”
“That was our previous estimate, sir,” he said with perfect calm. Several of his drifting cameras examined my fist with interest. “You seem to be bleeding, Colonel.”
“I don’t care about that. Just tell me what happened.”
“My report would only be conjecture at this point.”
“Give me your best shot,” I said, pulling my fist out of the command table and flexing my fingers. My bones were too hard to be broken so easily, but I felt the burn of many cuts and abrasions. Droplets of blood showered the cracked screen as it worked to repair itself.
“There are two reasonable conclusions,” Marvin said. “One, the enemy has improved their weaponry and only just gotten the improved technology online.”
“You’re saying that Tolerance fired a new, long ranged gun the minute he managed to get it working? What’s your other theory?”
“That the enemy had this capability before, but withheld use of it until we reached the Helios system.”
I stared at him. I didn’t know why, but I knew he had the right idea.
“That’s it,” I said. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. The timing is too perfect.”
Then, I had another flash of realization. The Gatre was hit and had lost power.
“Marvin, are there casualties aboard Gatre?”
“Yes sir.”
I nodded. I desperately wanted to ask if Jasmine and Kate had survived, but when you are in command of thousands, personal fears had to come second to keeping the entire fleet safe.
“Miklos, order the ship abandoned. Order everyone to board the fighters and zoom to a safe distance immediately.”
“We should go to flank speed and pull the rest of the fleet out of harm’s way as well,” he said.
I nodded, pressing my lips into a firm line. “You’re right. Do it.”
All of us moved then toward the command deck. No further hits had been reported yet, so I figured we had a few minutes while Phobos recharged whatever it was that had exerted such awful power. The crisis was on-going, and Relentless was full of scrambling personnel.
“Sir?” Gaines asked me in the hallway outside the command center. “If we increase our speed, will the fighters from Gatre be able to catch up to us?”
I looked at him sternly. “We’ll do that math soon enough. We have to protect the fleet. Let me remind you Major, your transports are in the rearguard.”
His eyes widened a fraction, then he nodded firmly. “I understand sir. Where do you want me?”
Usually, a ground commander wasn’t needed on the command deck during a fleet engagement, but I had no idea how this was going to play out.
“You can join me at my station on the bridge, Gaines.”
We moved to the biggest table in the chamber, and I took the time to tap at the casualty lists. I scrolled the list by flicking my fingers. There were really only two names I was looking for.
Jasmine’s name was not there, but Kate Swanson’s was. It didn’t have an X through it, but it did have a question mark. Status unknown. That made sense. Her medical lab had always been in the aft decks, close to the engine rooms.
I tried not to think about it as I closed the list and eyed the screens. Streaks of exhaust plumed from every vessel in the fleet. We were escaping at flank velocity, even though we didn’t know if the enemy would hit us again or not.
From the crippled Gatre, tiny contacts erupted in a continuous flood. They spread out and flew for all they were worth. The fighters had launched from the doomed ship, and they were chasing us as fast as they could.