SotU3 Chpt 6

=Chapter 6=
==State of the Union - Book 3==
----
The Triad, Tharkad
Donegal Province, Federated Commonwealth
June 29th, 3067
----
A chill went down Yvonne Steiner-Davion’s spine. “I’m sorry, say that again?”
“There was a warship engagement in the outer Coventry system this morning.” Admiral Martin Raeder was the senior naval officer on Tharkad and he filled the uniform well, though he hadn’t had an active command since before Yvonne’s mother died. Admittedly, at the time the Federated Commonwealth hadn’t had any active warships in two hundred years...
“We don’t have any warships at Coventry. Do we?” Yvonne turned and looked at Caesar Steiner.
The General of Armies folded his arms. “We don’t, no. We weren’t the combatants.”
The youngest person in the room pressed the heels of her hands against her forehead. Yvonne had been was about to go to bed. It had been a long day and she was going to need more caffeine to deal with this; and that meant she’d not sleep well and she wanted to just put this off but Uncle Caesar wouldn’t come to her at this hour unless it was time critical…
Restraining the desire to scream, she tightened the robe she’d thrown on when the staff interrupted her ablutions. “Coffee. Then an explanation, please.”
The ever-efficient staff had a steaming mug ready for her and Yvonne added two sugar-cubes, stirring vigorously to dissolve them. The first mouthful was almost scalding; and the hit of caffeine and sugar burned away the cobwebs.
“Alright. Who besides us had warships in Coventry? The Clans?”
“We only have remote data and a transmission from the other vessel, but we believe that six of the seven warships involved were one of Clan Jade Falcon’s Naval Stars. Field Marshal Steiner believed at the time of transmission that one of the Falcon’s vessels is out of action as a result - it’s harder to tell whether the others are damaged.”
Well that’s one less, Yvonne thought. “Who else?”
Raeder looked uncomfortable. “Before it was destroyed, the vessel sent a transmission claiming to be the Word of Blake ship Immortal Spirit. That’s a -”
“Aegis-class cruiser. I thought it was missing… jump drive damage was the theory.” Yvonne heard no reply and then looked up to see the two military officers staring at her in surprise. “It came up in conversation once. What is it doing in Coventry of all places?”
“They didn’t tell us.” Caesar told her. “All we received was a tactical feed covering from the moment they picked up the jump flares until a few seconds before they were destroyed. And a brief text message stating ‘go tell the Spartans’.”
“The… who?” She hated feeling out of the loop. “Who are the Spartans?”
“It’s a classical reference, Your Grace.” Caesar explained. “‘Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, here the obedient lie’. It’s the translation of a classical Greek inscription on the memorial to a unit of Spartan soldiers who died to the last trying to hold a narrow pass against overwhelming numbers. Essentially, ‘tell our families we died with honor’.”
Yvonne paused and sipped her coffee again. “I see. And the Falcons?”
“They’re making for Coventry itself, your grace. And once they knew to look in that direction, the Field Marshal’s headquarters were able to confirm that transport jumpships also arrived. There is an invasion force on the way.”, Caesar told her
Even she realized that this was bad: losing a major logistical and command hub like Coventry would seriously endanger operations across hundreds of light years. “Can they hold?”
Caesar Steiner spread his hands. “Adam is very able, and two Regimental Combat Teams would be a match for a Clan Galaxy of comparable experience… but we don’t know exactly what forces are being committed and the Eighth Deneb Light Cavalry may be shaky. They were posted to Coventry to give them time to recover.”
“And now that time is down to what, a week?”, she asked
“About double that.” Raeder corrected her. “Coventry’s star has an unusually deep gravity well. Fortunately, the message from the Immortal Spirit alerted us or they might have managed to get much closer before we detected them.”
“And what can we send in response? Where are our nearest warships?” Running reinforcements in if the Jade Falcons had warships blockading Coventry would be suicide without warships of their own. And after the effective loss of the Second FedCom Regimental Combat Team on Tomans, and the Third Lyran Regulars on Newtown Square, it was safe to assume that the Jade Falcons would go ahead and use their warships for at least tactical level fire support from orbit.”
“There are none that can arrive in time.” the Admiral advised flatly. “The nearest available force to respond is the squadron protecting Tharkad, but unless we send parts of the capital garrison with them, they’ll also need to rendezvous with troops pulled off the frontlines. And Coventry is four jumps away, it would take most of a month to get there.”
Caesar Steiner gave his subordinate an irritated look. “With the lithium fusion batteries and not waiting for ground units to embark and reach transports, the warships could make it via a proximity point in time.”
“Even without ground forces, I wouldn’t recommend less than twenty days.” Raeder corrected him. “It’s not just charging the drives, they also need to cool. Pushing faster than that has a high risk of losing vessels to a misjump. We only have two cruisers and four corvettes here at Tharkad. The Falcons may have lost a corvette, but we aren’t even sure of that yet, and the data from the Blakists supports that they have at least three cruisers and a battleship in their force.”
“They’ve been damaged.”
“But we don’t know how much!” The Admiral shook his head. “Losing just a single ship could mean the squadron arrives too weak to do anything useful, and we could lose half of them - billions of sovereigns of hardware and hundreds of irreplaceable trained space crews - for nothing.”
Yvonne raised her hand. “Enough.”
Both men fell silent as she rose to her feet and walked to the window, looking out at the frozen courtyards and gardens around the Triad. At this time of night they were almost deserted, lit less by the stars above than by the lights of the palace. It was an odd mix of pools of light among shadows that didn’t quite hide the outlines of the formal hedges and flowerbeds.
“If the squadron makes it, they can’t realistically prevent landings?”, she asked the Admiral
“No.” Raeder admitted. “The sheer weight of numbers is against them.”
“Can they contest orbital dominance? Buy time for more forces to arrive?”
“Yes.” Caesar Steiner nodded and then glanced gruelingly at Raeder. “Assuming that they arrive at full strength. The Fox-class can punch above their weight and the Jade Falcon warships appear to be old Star League designs that we’ve wargamed against extensively.”
I wish I could pass this to Peter, she thought. Or call Catherine. Either of them has a better feel for this sort of decision than I do. “And since you’re here now, we need a decision urgently?”
“If the warships are to arrive in time then every hour will count.” admitted the old General.
What had Victor said once to Peter? An adequate plan now was better than a perfect plan too late to be used? Something like that. She leaned close enough to the window that it fogged. Maybe she could call Tancred and…
In the reflection of the window she saw Caesar Steiner looking at her, while Raeder was looking sidelong at his superior.
No, Yvonne realized. I am Peter’s regent. Tancred could advise me but at the end of the day, I must decide. And I trust Uncle Caesar not to withhold information I need. At least, as long as I realize I need it and think to ask.''
What to do? What to say? What would they do?
“Uncle.”, she asked
“Yes, Yvonne?”
“Catherine mentioned something… actually she mangled it in trying to express something else, I think. But something about three years to build a ship and three centuries…”
The general tilted his head in thought. “I believe I know the one. When asked if he should hazard his ships in a dangerous evacuation of ground forces, an old wet-navy admiral declared that it would take the navy three years to build a new ship, but it would take three hundred years for them to build a new tradition. The tradition being that the navy would deliver his nation’s army to hostile shores and evacuate them if needed. Which was often necessary at the time, as I recall it.”
“Yes. That sounds fitting.” Yvonne looked up, wondering if she could see the ships of the squadron up in the sky. Unlikely, given the lights of the palace, and she had no idea where they might be anyway. “Admiral, you would not hesitate to take the squadron into battle?”
Raeder drew himself up. “I would not, your grace.”
“If we can afford to risk them in battle, then we can afford to risk them in a dangerous voyage.” Yvonne told them, turning to face the two men. “I pray that they will arrive safely and I pray that they will emerge victorious. But these are the hazards of the service.”
“Your grace.” The admiral drew himself up and saluted formally. “With your permission, I will accompany the vessels.”
“Does the squadron not have an, admiral?”, she asked aging Admiral
“They do.”, he replied
Yvonne shook her head slightly in denial of the request. “Then I must ask that you continue in your current post.”
Caesar Steiner reached over and put one comforting hand on the admiral’s epauletted shoulder. “Their burden is to run the risks, Martin. Our burden is to watch them go without sharing those risks. No officer of good conscience enjoys the latter.”
----
Previous Story Arc - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter
Category:State of the Union Chapters