The battle of Devastation reef

Not that he would ever get the chance the way things were going.

“Tufayl, Caesar’s Ghost. On final approach.”

“Tufayl, roger. Approved to dock.”

Sedova brought the Ghost to a precise stop a few meters off the armored doors accessing Tufayl’s hangar. Michael was impressed; the difference in vectors was only a few millimeters per second. Reaction control nozzles flared, and the lander drifted smoothly into the hangar air lock.

“You have the ship, Jayla,” Michael said. “I’m going down to meet our new arrivals.”

“Aye, aye, sir. I have the ship.”

“Welcome to Tufayl,” Michael said, lifting his beer in salute.

“Thank you, sir,” Sedova said, raising her glass in reply. “It’s good to be here, though … can I be frank?”

“Of course. Shoot.”

“Well, sir, I don’t understand why dreadnoughts need jump-capable landers. Our primary mission is interdiction operations against low-level, low-density threats, acting as a force extender. We’re also good for remote, small-scale dirt-side operations in support of the marines. As I understand it, dreadnoughts are intended to take on high-level threats, targets too risky even for conventional cruisers. I cannot see how we fit into a frontal assault on something like a Hammer battle fleet deploying antimatter weapons, for example, nor can we operate in high-threat missile and rail-gun environments. Assault landers are tough but not that tough. We wouldn’t last five minutes. So what exactly is our role?”

The minute Fleet approved the deployment of Block 6 landers to his dreadnoughts, Michael knew he would be asked that question. Now he had, and by someone he suspected would not respond well to a serving of bullshit.

“Why? Well, it depends,” Michael said, weighing his words carefully, “and I am not ducking the question when I say that. The decision made by Fleet to give each manned dreadnought a lander was politics. Pure politics”-he could not help noticing Sedova’s hastily suppressed frown-“because Fleet was concerned that the cuts in crew size had been taken too far. So we had to increase the numbers. There are plenty of landers in our order of battle, so-”

“Why not make use of them?” Sedova interrupted with a touch of bitterness. “That’s what I was afraid of.”

“Steady, Lieutenant,” Michael said.

Sedova’s face reddened. “Sorry, sir. Excuse me.”

Much as he disapproved of her bluntness, Michael understood her frustration. Nobody minded being asked to a job, however tough. But professionals did mind-rightly-being asked to undertake missions for purely political reasons.

“As I was saying, expediency and politics is where this started. But it’s not where it ends.”

“Oh?”

“No,” Michael said with a firm shake of his head. “No, it’s not. Once we knew we were getting a Block 6 lander, we started to look at how we would get the best out of it. You’re right. Unless you and your crew are willing to commit suicide, there’s no part for you in a conventional frontal assault. Like you say, you would not last five minutes. But for operations that take dreadnoughts deep into enemy space, operations where conventional ship losses would be unacceptably high, we will need you to get out alive. So that’s one mission.”

“What are you saying, sir? We’re a glorified lifepod?” Sedova said. “That’s it? That’s all we are?”

“No, that’s just the bad news. I thought I’d better get it out of the way first”-Michael was pleased to see that Sedova was still able to smile-“but given the places we’ll be going to, don’t be surprised if you have to fight your way out.”

Sedova nodded.

“Much more importantly,” Michael continued, “there is a role in taking down heavily defended targets too big for dreadnoughts alone to take care of. Asteroid-based support facilities are a prime example; there are a lot of them out there we’ve never even thrown a rock at. Fleet does not consider them a priority, and rightly so: too small to be worth the ships needed to get through their nearspace defenses. But dreadnoughts can, and with a lot fewer ships. Tufayl’s proved that. Once their defenses have been cracked, these support bases are sitting ducks. They only have platoon-sized security forces-they’ve never needed anything bigger-and your lander can drop more than enough marines in to finish them off after we’ve destroyed their space-based defenses. That’s what Tufayl and her sisters are good at, and we can do it with far fewer ships. In many cases just one dreadnought will finish the job. But we cannot get in to finish the mission. That’ll require you.”

Michael waited patiently while Sedova mulled that over.

“That all makes sense, sir,” she said finally, “except that we don’t carry marines. No point cracking open a dirtside target unless we can send the grunts in to do whatever it is they do when we’re not watching.”

“True, we don’t. But I’ve talked to Admiral Jaruzelska about that. She has confirmed that we will carry marines when we need to. They won’t like it much, but we can carry as many as you like in temporary living modules in the hangar. We’re a long way from our mass limits.”

“Still, sir, it’s a long way from taking on antimatter-armed Hammer ships.”

“It is. But that will be only one of our missions. Dreadnoughts are brand-new, so it will be up to us to write the tactical handbooks on how to use them. There’s a lot more we can do, and Admiral Jaruzelska is not one to leave us sitting around scratching our asses. I think we’ll find plenty to keep you occupied once we’re let off the leash.”

“I hope so, sir. I did not become a command pilot to sit around waiting for something to happen.”

“I didn’t think so. And guess what?”

“What, sir?”

“I didn’t become captain in command of a dreadnought to sit around, either. Trust me, Lieutenant. We’ll be busy, and so will you.”

Friday, December 29, 2400, UD

Offices of the Supreme Council for the Preservation of the Faith, McNair

“To summarize. The operation to return the heretics of Salvation to the Faith is scheduled for the end of January. Supported by a task group, the planetary assault vessels Kerouac and Mitsotaki will drop three marine brigades onto Salvation to secure the city of New Hope and its spaceport. Once they are secure, a DocSec brigade will round up and evacuate the heretics. We expect the operation to be completed in less than two days, enough time before the Federated Worlds can respond in force. That concludes my briefing, gentlemen. Does anyone have any questions?”

Fleet Admiral Jorge’s eyes flitted across the councillors seated around the Defense Council table. “No? Chief Councillor?”

“No, Admiral. That sounds good to me. Moving along,” Polk said. “Next item. Operations against the Feds. Admiral?”

“Thank you, sir. If you turn your attention to the holovid, you can see a summary of the week’s operations. It has been a successful week, I have to say, an outstanding week in fact. The Feds stayed quiet, continuing their focus on defensive operations. We were more active. Coordinated antishipping operations around the Paderborn, Xiang, and Vijati reefs successfully disrupted the Fed’s main trade route to Old Earth despite heavy Fed opposition. The routes to Szent-Gyogyi and Merritt’s were shut by offensive mining operations around West Kent Reef that claimed the lives of six Fed merships, the pinchcomm relay station on Gok-3 was destroyed, and Fed supplies of helium-3 from mines in the Clarion system have been disrupted by the destruction of two storage facilities.

“To conserve war stocks, antimatter missile operations were limited to attacks on two Fed deepspace forward operating bases in the Panguna and Lagerfeld sectors, both destroyed. Looking at each operation in more detail …”