Admin39

==Chapter 39 - The Administrator==
The Nagelring
Tharkad System
Lyran Commonwealth
3143
"Excuse me, Professor, you have it wrong." Admiral Sharon Ngo stood up, which got the attention of every student in the room. "About Brian Castles and SLDF doctrine, you've got it wrong."
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Fleet Admiral Sharon Ngo, the current Chief of Naval Operations for the Lyran Commonwealth Navy...Admiral, what do you mean I have it wrong?" asked the Professor.
"Retreating to a castle is exactly what you do right before you lose. In maneuver warfare, fortified installations are targets, not safety." she said, striding down the aisle between ranks of students to the center of the room. "I can provide multiple examples of this, beginning with the Periphery Uprisings of the twenty-eighth century, through each of the succession wars, into the Clan Invasion..." she reached the lectern, "And finally the Jihad. Castles do not work as a line of defense and relying on them exclusively. As you were positing to these young people, will lose a war quickly if the attacking force's objective isn't inside that castle."
"The Siege of Tharkad would disagree!"
"Their objective was Melissa Steiner, she was inside Mount Asgard." Sharon said smoothly, "Note what was done prior to that-" she swept a hand altering the displays. "First stage of the Wolf assault eliminated bases and control sites in the system, trapping the bulk of the system's defensive assets in port, where they were easily dispatched, or simply trapped and unable to influence the outcome."
She tapped another display, "The Clan landings then bypassed the fixed defenses on the ground, cutting off supply and communication routes and reinforcements. Ground forces present were defeated in detail. Remaining undamaged elements were cut off. This is while LCAF forces and reserves outnumbered the attacking Clan forces by around fifty to one-the problem being, that forty nine out of those fifty were confined..." She brought up a map representation "Here, in these. Bunkers, bunkers that were easily kept suppressed and closed by a mere fraction of the Wolf forces."
The displays changed. "The defensive plan for Tharkad resembles most the defenses at New Dallas at the start of the Succession Wars." she turned, "Who here has taken Succession Wars history and can tell me the outcome of the seige at New Dallas?"
A young Cadet raised his hand hesitantly. 
"Cadet Schrodinger?" she acknowledged the cadet.
"New Dallas was destroyed by orbital bombardment, Admiral."
"Correct. In spite of having a functional SDS system, New Dallas was reduced and it did not take spectacularly long. Do you know why?"
Another Cadet raised her hand. "Cadet Bueller?"
"Because they were not relieved?" the young woman asked.
"Also correct. Castle doctrine is not entirely useless-if you have a mobile relief coming, it can be used to delay an enemy force and pin that enemy for destruction by maneuver units, however, as seen in the Periphery uprising, a sufficiently ruthless opponent, or sufficiently motivated, can render that castle into a death-trap and neutralize its value, as seen in the Siege of Terra in the late 3070s."
She turned to the professor, "Kommandant, your impressions? what did I get wrong?"
"You're asking me?"
"I'm asking you. Rank does not equate to omniscience, Kommandant."
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