Dark Fate, Chapter 87

Chapter 87 – Arrival

“Admiral on the bridge!”

I nodded curtly as I stepped on to the small bridge aboard the Hellspawn. The ship was a corvette, and not designed with visiting flag officers in mind, but it was, effectively, my flagship, until I got something better. Of course, me being an admiral was a decision that had only just been put through, mostly by those under me.

I was the owner of the Hellspawn, and Dark Lord Industries, and I was, technically, reigning monarch and King of the Kingdom of Ceres. In the past, I had been both a Knight and a General. But I’d never been an Admiral before, and didn’t have the experience necessary for such a title.

However, my people needed a leader, and they had held a vote, and presented me with the results, before I even knew something was happening. Of course, being the guy in charge, I didn’t have to listen to them in the slightest. However, since it would improve morale, and give a solid framework for the future, I went along with it. No sense antagonizing your people when they have good ideas.

Thus, the Ceres Royal Navy was formed, with myself as the Admiral and Commander-in-Chief. A formality, certainly, since I owned most of the people in the ‘fleet’. Still, it would help for when we expanded in the future. A solid foundation would make building the future easier.

“At ease. Back to your work.” As the saluting knelfi turned back to their jobs, I looked over at Slave-Captain Elalana, and motioned for her to retake her chair as captain of the ship. “Captain, how much time do we have?”

Elalana looked to a screen beside her, and said, “Ten minutes, Admiral. Sensors are refining the tracks now. Numbers confirmed at fifty independent tracks, varying sizes.”

“Which means we have fifty ships, of different sizes, to deal with, while we only have the Hellspawn and twelve Renegades, plus our fighter pilots.” I took a breath, considering the options. “Have the Hellspawnand Renegades focus on larger ships first. Those will be the biggest threats. Rogue Squadron will strike at smaller ships or transports as they see fit, before covering the Renegades as they jump out to prepare their next shots.”

I looked around the bridge, and said, “Remember, we’re not here to have a friendly match with these guys. The only fair fight is the one you lose. I fully intend to cheat as early, and as often, as I can, and that means hit and run tactics, for now. Hellspawn’s got some teeth on her, but slugging it out with an entire pirate fleet is out of the question. I may end up spending your lives in the course of battle, but I have no intention of wasting them.”

I saw a couple of the officers nod nervously, and turned my attention back to the Captain, speaking in a slightly bored tone of voice, as though I had not a care in the world. “Well, Captain, while we have a few minutes, would you indulge me in a bit of speculation? I have two main problems that I would like to solve, if possible, and since you are the best expert I have on the naval situation in the wider galaxy, I’d like your advice on a few things.”

I saw the understanding in her eyes. She knew that the conversation was, mostly, for show, to bolster morale for the crew by getting their minds off the upcoming battle. “Of course, Admiral.”

“Excellent. First, while the Renegades and X-pattern Hunters are significant force multipliers, especially for in-system fights and patrol duties, it is obvious that we need to build more actual ships, especially if circumstances ever call us to look outside of this one system. Your thoughts on what we should focus on next?”

“Well, Admiral, there are two possibilities, depending on what you viewed was more important. The first option would be some kind of carrier for the small craft. Maybe not the size of a full carrier, but a couple pocket carriers would do. Something large enough to carry a half-squadron of Hunters or Renegades would be sufficient. That would allow you to take a small force with your, without the investment in resources and manpower required for an escort or fleet carrier.

“More importantly, such a design would not be out of place in the wider galaxy. I’ve seen more than a few converted freighters where the internals have been gutted to the bare minimum to transport fighters and small craft, rather than cargo. Adding something like that to the fleet would be useful if we ever wanted to disguise the origin of an attack.”

“Well, if someone has made me upset enough that I want to go kick in their door and smash up the place, I certainly don’t want them to be able to come back and give me hell about it later. That would entirely defeat the purpose of me breaking their shit.” I could see a couple grins on the rest of the bridge crew. “So, what about the other possibility?”

“Well, Master, as you said, the Hellspawn is not suitable for a sustained fight against a larger force. We could really use a class of ship that can stand up to punishment, as well as giving it back. Something with more sustained firepower than just two shots every twenty minutes. Something that could stand up to a dreadnought and take it down.”

“Hmm,” I frowned. “That is problematic. The easiest way would be to have a dreadnought of our own, but that would require ‘acquiring’ a much larger work force, all of a sudden. The logistics alone would be a strain if we suddenly went up to that level.”

“Of course, Master. But there are ways to compensate for that. For instance, if you took a freighter design, stripped out the cargo area, and armored it, before installing the pulse torpedo launchers, with more launchers and more reactors, then it could hold up against enemy fire, at least temporarily, while offering a far quicker turnaround on the torpedoes.”

I nodded slowly. “Yes, I can see that. Still would need more than just one or two to take on a fleet this size safely, but it could work very nicely otherwise. Yes, that is definitely something to consider, Captain.”

“Honored to be of service, Master.”

“Well, there’s just the one other question, then. Say you were trying to get into another system undetected. How would you go about it with this ship?”

“A system like this one, Master, or a more central system?”

“What is the difference?”

“Well, Earth has no interstellar trade, so every standard entry into a system would be very noticeable. There is no ‘background noise’ to hide individual ships. That makes sneaking in much harder, obviously.”

I nodded, “That makes sense. In that case, let’s start with Earth. How would you infiltrate this system with the Hellspawn?”

“Well, the biggest hurdle is that both the warp drive and the stitch drive are noticeable. However, there’s more options when dealing with the warp drive.”

“Oh, like what?”

“Well, the first thing that most people don’t realize about the detection systems is that they’re really only useful for ships coming directly towards a system. The bow waves are focused forward, so the further to the side you turn, the less detectable the bow wake is, on an exponential decrease. A five-degree deflection would keep any standard detection system from spotting you.”

“Ah, so that would allow you to get closer to the target system without getting spotted. But then you still have to make your entrance.”

“As you say, Master. There are a couple ways of doing that. Slower speeds create less of a bow wake. Something at ten lights would have barely any bow wake. However, going that slow would cause it to take months to get from here to the system you call Alpha Centauri. So, getting closer by going ‘off angle’ and then slowing down would allow you to slip in without being discovered.”

She paused, and then said, “There is another way, of course. Deploying an Attenuator would shape the warp bubble to minimize the bow wake by a factor of ten. So, you could approach at one hundred lights, and still be able to evade detection. That is much better for stealth attacks, obviously, especially if you set a rendezvous point somewhere outside the system, to gather and prepare, before rushing in.”

I grimaced. “Well, I am glad that my assumption that Navy officers would be more tactically and strategically aware than pirates turned out to be true. How hard is it to make one of these Attenuators? And does it have any other effects on the ship carrying it?”

Elalana shook her head. “Actually, building one is easy enough, but the hard part is tuning it. Each ship has a slightly different frequency to their drives, and the Attenuator has to match it perfectly to work. And if you suffer any drive damage, or even just did regular maintenance on it, the Attenuator would need to be re-tuned. That takes a good deal of time and specialized equipment.

“In addition, the Attenuator needs to be mounted on the bow in order to work, which means that you need to rework any stealth systems to account for it. That position also means that you cannot rely on the Attenuator surviving battle damage. Because of this, most ships just discard it once they’ve entered the target system, using it as a one-off device.”

“I see. So, it can be done, but in most cases there’s no real reason to do so, is that right?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Well, that’s a load off my mind. We’ll need to expand our sensor networks and get the stitch points mapped and covered, but securing the system against unwanted visitors should at least be possible, until more intelligent enemies show up.” I chuckle. “So, what about a more developed system?”

“Well, that depends on whether I wanted to be completely unseen, or whether I just wanted to get in without raising alarms.”

“Explain.”

“Well, if the idea is to jump in and launch a sneak attack right away, then just getting in without the alarms going off means you can get the element of surprise. Just jump in, and start shooting. The defenders will not be ready for you if you, say, pretend to be another merchantmen when hundreds are coming and going all the time.”

I nodded my understanding. “Ah, that makes sense. And if you wanted to ghost in?”

“In that case, I would treat it like I was trying to slip into Earth space, with the added knowledge that there would be far more satellites and sensors looking for visitors. So, you need to be sure to have stealth running as smoothly as possible from the moment you’re in the system. Otherwise, it is likely you’ll get caught. Slow and steady wins the race, there.”

She paused, and then said, “Personally, I would come in with the angled approach, and then go slow until I was just outside the system. Then cut to sublight and go in on a ballistic route, maximum stealth the whole way. Using minimal thrusters, you could slowly move through the system, and the chances of you getting spotted are damn small. Do it right, and the only way someone will notice you is if you cross in front of a star they’re watching.”

Chuckling, I nodded. “That sounds like a good plan, and one I’ll be sure to remember if it comes to it.” Looking up at the clock, I could see that the countdown was almost up. I took a deep breath, and called out, “All right, people, you’ve listened to us chatter long enough. Our guests are coming, so lets give them a warm welcome, yes?”

Slave-Captain Elalana nodded, and hit a button on her console. “All hands, battle stations!”