Opening: War Council
We spend the first hour recapping things that have already been discussed in the prior meeting. Tedious, to be sure, but it also gives me a good glimpse at the various fleet leaders that will be accompanying us on the battle.
Admiral Harlsen leads the Federation’s 1st Fleet. Although slightly unconvinced of the need to invade the galactic centre, he nevertheless retains enough dignity as a professional soldier to throw himself wholeheartedly behind the plan. I watch him speak as he points out the threat the Star League poses to our survival.
“Given what we know of the League’s religion, they will invade and conquer us to satisfy their gods.”
“This is nonsense, Harlsen. We were once under their thumb. We just have to submit to them again and spare us all the trouble of fighting.” Murmurs run through the room at Admiral Kadowaki’s retort. He does not stop there. “Why are we suddenly siding with the Empire that actually invaded us?”
Admiral Kadowaki leads the 2nd Fleet. Despite his reluctance to fight the League, he appears to be competent at his work and commands the loyalty of his subordinates. That means I won’t be able to replace him or any of his ilk, not on such short notice.
“Do you have problems with that, Federation admiral?” growls Vermilis, the commander of the Wolf’s Shield Legion. Along with Rahuk of the Devourer’s Hammer, who is even now glaring at Kadowaki in support of his comrade, they felt dishonoured by the actions of some of their fleet in attempting to desert; the two will have a tendency to try to overcompensate for that in the coming battles.
“I concur with Admiral Kadowaki.” Admiral Hasting, commanding the 7th Fleet – a fairly young admiral who had made a good showing for herself while in service to the League as a commander. She appears to have rather close relations with Kadowaki. “I still do not see the urgency in assembling such a large invasion force, not to mention what we did to Jupiter. I do not mean to offend, Admiral Harlsen, but are we being unduly influenced by outsiders in this affair?” she says, casting an obvious glance at Ean and the Imperial commanders even as she does so. Adrasteia, Vermilis and Rahuk begin to visibly bristle, each of them leading a force that outnumbers all the fleets of the Federation put together. You had to admire her courage and reckless stupidity.
“You would do well to speak with care, Admiral,” says Adrasteia icily. “Do not forget that we are now allies.” It is a remarkably restrained comment given her temperament. I half- expected her to have gone for Hasting’s throat.
“Only because you were afraid of defeat,” snaps Hasting. That is entirely the wrong thing to say, and I wonder if she said it knowing that implication of cowardice would really set the Imperials off. Adrasteia stands up angrily, her chair snapping as she does so. The lights in the conference room seem to dim. There is a rictus frozen on Hasting’s face, half with fear and half with anticipation. I give an inward sigh as I prepare to interfere.
“Sit down, Bel-Adrasteia,” says the Grand Marshal of the Galactic Core Invasion Force. His voice is sonorous and firm. The room is flooded with a warm yet oppressive feeling, radiating from his person and weighing down heavily on all of us. The commander of the Emperor’s Sword stares at him for a while before breaking eye contact. Attempting to sit, she finds that she has already broken the chair in anger and a sheepish look crawls over her face as an aide hurries over with a new chair.
The small smirk that is forming on Hasting’s face is wiped out when the Grand Marshal turns his attention to her instead.
“I do not appreciate being considered an outsider, Admiral Hasting. I was born on Earth, just like you. Would you like me to furnish proof?” asks Ean.
There is a hurried shake of the head. The pressure from the Grand Marshal lifts as he leans back in his chair and spreads his open hands, as if inviting us to continue the meeting.
“Well, I don’t really know anything about the bravery of the Empire, but you were hardly the one who faced them down now, did you, Hasting?” interrupts the Admiral of the 3rd Fleet.
“It’s Admiral Hasting to you, Admiral Grimrock,” she mutters. Grimrock, now promoted to command of the Third – I thought he was dead by now, that old bastard – laughs as he thumps the table once. “You’ll always be an ensign in my eyes. Now, if I’m not mistaken, it’s Hoshikawa there that was out at the frontlines. Alone.”
All eyes in the room turn to me. I shrug.
“That is right,” says Jheverg of the Serpent’s Wing. “We have decided to follow Sir Hoshikawa’s will, as he was the only one with any courage or foresight to replace the Emperor as the one who will carve our way to the heavens. The Star League may spare you if you surrender, but they will wipe us out to a man. We might not be able to hold back our forces from pre-emptive revenge upon those who betrayed us if that is the case.” He is the most devout of the Deities; though we had expected him to pose the most problems, he seems to have transferred his loyalty rather readily. Of course, I think that is contingent on me actually fulfilling my part of the bargain.
“That sounded like a threat,” muttered Admiral Kuran, one of the most senior and experienced admirals and leader of the 4th Fleet. “Are you sure you should be saying that?”
“I am sure he did not mean anything by this,” assures Admiral Fennell of the 6th Fleet. “Everyone should take a second to calm down. This is not professional at all.”
“That’s right. This is hardly the time for a tiff, my friends.” This time, Berith of the Raven’s Lance speaks up. She gives Jheverg a look of warning. “There is no need for that sort of language. We are all together in this.”
He protests. “I did not-“
“Bel-Jheverg, can we just continue with the briefing?” pleads Berith with a sigh.
“Bel-Berith is right,” says Adrahasis, leader of the Dragon’s Guard. “We are wasting valuable time here.” I grin at him, tapping the side of my head and his frown deepens. Well, he’ll get over it.
“Yes, exactly. Time is a-wasting here, ladies and gentlemen. By Ean we need to know what we’re up against and we need to know now, what?” Admiral Richardson of the 5th Fleet thumps the table excitedly, twirling his moustache.
“Oh, I agree entirely,” says Ean.
“Well! Now that everyone has aired their issues, let us have a look at something really important,” I say, bringing up the star charts of the galactic core. It looks like I will have to pay attention to certain leaders in our force.
“As we can see here, our final goal is located right on the brink of the supermassive black hole, within the Carneus Alpha star system consisting of a red giant and sixteen planets. The entirety of Carneus Alpha is filled with defense drones. These will fire upon anything that strays close to the system as long as the League is not yet defeated. Approaching it directly is not an option. The closest we can get before crushing them will be Carneus Beta, the last jump point before reaching our goal at Alpha. I assume all of you have been briefed on the new black hole engines powering your ships?”
The Federation admirals nod their heads, while the Imperial commanders appear to be slightly unhappy that they don’t get new toys.
“All of the slipspace routes into the galactic core are now controlled by the League. However, with the wormhole ability we are able to bypass those routes and jump directly to a system of our own choosing. However, we cannot transport unlimited amounts of material. Given the number of Imperial ships that we have to carry through, we will only be able to reach these three systems. Any further and we will drain the generators too much. We don’t want that to happen.”
The chart zooms out and back in further away from the core, highlighting three stars in red circles.
“These are the systems of Gelmark, Dormungan, and Tejat A. Each of them is close to a slipspace route that will lead us closer to Carneus Alpha.
Gelmark is one of the League’s fortress systems. Sector Armada Delta is stationed there at the moment, but it provides us with one of the quickest routes to Carneus Beta, allowing us to get there within four jumps.
Dormungan is also occupied, but we should not see any significant League presence. From there we can reach Gelmark in three jumps, or reach Carneus Beta within eight.
Finally, Tejat A is an uninhabited system and the most remote. However, it allows us to reach one of the League’s prize-worlds, Bainur, within two jumps. From there, we can reach Gelmark and Dormungan with just one jump each, or reach Carneus Beta with five.”
“What about the other armadas of the League?” asks Harlsen.
“Besides Delta, we expect Beta and Gamma to be currently stationed in Imperial territory. They will have begun pulling back now that they know of our mission, but it will take them another week to arrive in the region of engagement. As for Armada Alpha, they should depart from the League’s home systems and begin heading towards the core to lie in wait for us.”
“Alpha is commanded directly by the Council of Nine,” says Adrahasis. “It will be our toughest challenge.”
“I believe Beta is under Helkyon Farges, one of the best commanders they have and probable successor to one of the seats on the Council. Delta and Gamma are run by Volkin Swicks and Shan Goranes,” offers Hasting. “I served under Volkin and he prefers a more Imperial style of engagement – advancing with the support of heavy firepower, but I cannot tell you much about the rest.”
Ean looks at the list of fleets that he has and glances at me. “Do we know where Epsilon is?”
“No, Grand Marshal.” I shake my head. “Their whereabouts are unknown for now. Still, I would not put too much certainty in these reports. They are likely to be correct, but as Adrahasis has demonstrated before this, it is possible to camouflage fleet movements via slipspace. We may yet be surprised.”
“Very well. Am I correct in assuming that if we split up our forces, we will not be able to communicate easily?”
“That would be correct, Grand Marshal,” says Berith. “We would only be able to coordinate properly once we are in the same system again.”
“Timing via slipspace travel is consistent, however, so if we plan everything out and execute it precisely we should be able to launch a multi-pronged attack if we want to. That would give us the advantage of pressing multiple fronts on an initial strike thanks to our wormhole drives,” adds Admiral Fennell.
“By the way, Grand Marshall, I will be joining the 3rd Fleet,” I say. “The lynchpin of this assault lies with the bomb, and I should spend the majority of the operation in its vicinity. How should we arrange the rest of the forces, though?”
***
A. Gather all the forces together and pick a system to arrive in. Splitting up will become a headache later should anything unexpected happen.
1. Gelmark. Making their stronghold the first site of battle will definitely surprise them. This is a good chance to destroy one of their Sector Armadas, severely reducing their forces before the other fleets can arrive to reinforce Delta.
2. Dormungan. Playing it safe, we can still hit Gelmark or opt to travel further into the core. This will provide the least chances of encountering the enemy, allowing us to get into position and prepare in advance.
3. Tejat A. This gives us the most options to follow up on. Besides that, Bainur is an important planet to the Star League. Attacking and holding it is sure to attract the attention of every League force. This could be useful.
B. Divide the forces and hit the systems simultaneously. (Free form plan, but each Imperial legion must initially be accompanied by at least one Federation fleet. There are multiple branches from each initial system later on so there is no need to plan the entire campaign with too much detail. Just dividing and assigning general aims for each task force will do).
