Dark Fate: Book 24 - Naval Matters, page 1
Dark Fate
Book 24 – Naval Matters
Prologue – Trade Chat
(North American System Information Exchange Forum, formerly Community Building and Civil Defense Chat)
abby_gail, bento, RainyDayze, GringottsGoblin, DoritoMan, D.VaLuvr69, Carion, RadicalEdward, FusionGal, NotACop, Scholar, RamblingWreck, Anonymous4, Anonymous6, RedShift, SevenNationArmy, DarkLord, BagOTrix, White_Queen, Faraday, BackpageGal, FullServiceMassage, daytrader, LinaLuv, Skippy, shadow_clone23, THE_MERCHANT, jenny8675309, Rabbit, Angelus and Tracker are in the chat.
BagOTrix: So, any news on what those lizard guys are doing? Seen on the news that one of their ships is docked at Ceres, in the military side of the rock.
Faraday: Cultural exchange, from what I hear. One of their ships comes here, and some of Ceres’s folks go to their worlds, so both sides can learn from each other, and get stronger. That’s where the Tripoli went apparently.
Skippy: I do know that some of the lizards are down in Panama, at what people are calling Camp Demon Lord. No one can get close enough for good pics, but word from some of the workers there says they’re doing exercises.
White_Queen: Camp Demon Lord? Really?
DarkLord: The locals decided on that, after the incident with the Giant Kraken. That was the second choice, as far as names went.
NotACop: Second choice? What was the first?
DarkLord: Camp Succubus’s Wrath. It was quickly decided that name would send the wrong message about the type of training troops would be undergoing, and so it was scrapped. I acquiesced to Camp Demon Lord, because other than being a bit cringe-worthy, it is fairly unobjectionable. Plus, doing things like that helps keep morale up, which is always a plus.
White_Queen: You didn’t use to think like that.
DarkLord: Getting stabbed in the back by people you thought were friends has that effect on people.
White_Queen: You’re never going to let that go, are you?
DarkLord: I do not forgive, and I do not forget. Be glad I’ve decided on restraint, this time through.
Carion: So, what are the lizards up to?
DarkLord: First of all, they’re called the Ouran. Second of all, they’re teaching Ceresan forces System-enhanced individual combat tactics, while we’re teaching them unit tactics. The Ouran typically fight as groups of individual warriors, not as a unit of soldiers. If they can change that, it will be a powerful boon in their contests with other clans.
bento: Interestingly enough, not all of the Ouran are in Panama. Several people witnessed the ‘Huntleader’ and his second, along with their guards, entering Chalmun’s.
abby_gail: So? That supposed to mean something?
Scholar: A quick search says that Chalmun’s is the actual name of the cantina in Mos Eisley Spaceport in the Star Wars movies.
bento: And the reference makes sense, since it is owned by members of Rogue and Renegade Squadrons, and is basically their squadron bar. Other fliers go there, too, but there isn’t a night when someone from those two squadrons isn’t there.
RainyDayze: So, was he picking a fight?
bento: No, which is weird. Apparently, he was one of the ones commanding one of the ships that escaped getting blown up when the Ouran attacked.
DarkLord: The Ouran value strength, and cunning. Ceres proved itself to have both, and has been named a Peer to the Iscand. The survivors amongst the Iscand clan’s forces hold no true ill will towards Ceres, no more than a rational person would hold ill will against a rival team that beat them in sports.
DoritoMan: Uh, have you seen what happens when Alabama plays Auburn?
DarkLord: I said ‘rational person’, not ‘insane person’. Most sports fans aren’t like the ones you see in the news, just like most of any group aren’t like the ones of that group that make the news, because outliers are more newsworthy.
RainyDayze: So, what were they doing, if not picking a fight?
DarkLord: Sharing food and drink with fellow warriors, trading tales of all they had done. Also, it was Barbecue Night, and their grillmaster has System skills for cooking, in addition to years of experience, so they got to enjoy a good meal, while they were at it.
DarkLord: But while the Huntleader’s chat with the pilots was the most visible thing the Ouran were doing, the others on the station weren’t exactly sitting idle. I know for a fact that some interesting trade deals were set up by the merchant who came with them. And they had a crafter in the party who rose to Tier 3 during our meeting.
FusionGal: Huh? How did a crafter get to Tier 3 during a meeting? Surely they weren’t fighting monsters or making items while they were talking to you? Did they save up the XP until they were in front of you, hoping for better options?
Scholar: You can’t save XP to hold off leveling or going up in Tier until something happens. It doesn’t work like that.
DarkLord: Well…
Scholar: No. I don’t believe it. The information from the System Shop said that there as no way to do it!
THE_MERCHANT: It is true that no item, spell, or ability can allow someone to ‘save’ XP and apply it later. There are ones which prevent someone from gaining XP, usually either as a punishment or so that they can master some feat before being forced into another Tier, but that XP is lost, not saved. Which means there was a loophole.
DarkLord: Indeed. Crafters typically gain XP when they complete items. Some items, however, are not completed until they are properly bound, and sometimes Named. In this case, the crafter was already on the cusp of Tier 3 when she brought a spear she had made for me, but it was left on the final step, the one that would soulbind it to me, preventing anyone else from using it, while empowering the weapon with my blood. When I completed the binding ritual, she gained the XP for the spear, which pushed her into Tier 3.
White_Queen: Oh, god. What kind of monster did the spear turn into?
bento: not a literal monster, right? Right?
DarkLord: No, the spear did not become an actual monster. But it is extremely powerful. Just the first three abilities are enough to stagger the mind. It can be thrown at any target in line of sight, without range issues, never misses its mark when thrown (unless the target’s DEX or CHA is greater than my CHA), and returns to my hand when I call it’s name. And it gains a new ability for each ten levels I have.
White_Queen: Scaling weapons like that are extremely dangerous, when equipped by someone with high levels. That kind of weapon is a force-multiplier on its own, never mind anything the rest of his group brings to a fight.
DarkLord: I was so pleased with the crafter, that I officially gave her a second Name, something that is rarely bestowed upon a crafter, since they too rarely have time to attain true glory in a hunting-focused civilization like the Ouran.
jenny8675309: Well, that’s another great reason to never piss off the Ceresan Empire.
Chapter 231 – Tactics
(Main Bridge, CRN Mercurial, Incux Food Resource System 3)
Captain Griboyedov Ivan Tikhonovich frowned as he looked at the scans on the tactical display. Third Fleet was coasting silently in the void, at the edges of the system that the Commonwealth marked as Leyater, but was labeled in his battle plans as Food Resource System 3. The last of the three ‘cattle worlds’ he and his people had been set to ‘cull’.
It was bad business, and it weighed on everyone in the fleet. However, everyone knew that it needed to be done. As they stood, they were too weak to withstand the Incux threat in any other way. Mercy was a privilege of the strong, after all. The weak could beg for Mercy, but you needed strength to be able to be merciful without destroying yourself in the process.
Of course, everyone in the fleet was stronger, now. The System recognized their actions, after all. You could not destroy dozens of ships, thousands of defense stations, and billions of people without the System taking note, after all. The first planet they’d destroyed had put everyone in the fleet into Tier 2. The second had gotten them half-way through the tier, but it also gave all of them a title.
Genocider
You have slain countless people, without ever knowing their names, their faces. All of them a lower Tier than you. Over 100,000 souls have died on your command as you destroyed entire cities, wiping many cultural landmarks from the map. Damage taken from Divine sources increased by 100% (before defenses). Survivors and living kin of your slaughter gain 100% bonus to attacks against you.
The title was more condemnation than reward, of course. However, the general consensus around the fleet was that some condemnation was warranted. The System had rewarded them all greatly for the slaughter, so it was only fitting that they also took an appropriate penalty, as well. The System might not have morality one way or another, but it was fair, and that fairness kept warlords who might decide on slaughtering their way to godhood in check.
Thankfully, matters of philosophy or System-related ethics were not his problem, right now. His problem was less about his Status, and more about the status of the system they were coasting into. The last of the three worlds they needed to wipe out to be sure of putting the Incux on the back foot in their war against the Commonwealth was in this system, but the Incux were not blind to its importance, and they certainly were not ignoring the threat to their campaign that his fleet’s actions had become.
The Incux were in the system in force. His scans detected six ‘truehives’ (the Incux equivalent of dreadnoughts), twelve swarmships (carriers), forty hiv eships (destroyers), and over two hundred foodseekers (corvettes). And all he had were his Mercurial and four corvettes. That was a… significant disparity in weaponry.
He looked at the senior officers from the Mercurial, including the squadron leaders of his air wing, and the projections of the other captains in the fleet. “Well, this is how things stand. The enemy is between us and our target in force. No matter how good our stealth, there is no way we’re accomplishing our goals in the system without first dealing with the enemy ships. It would be a suicide mission to even try, and I have no intention of throwing away our people like that. I need options, people.”
Captain Andrew Grant from the Vulture spoke up first. “Look at the fleet distributions. The truehives and swarmships are staying close to the planet, with the hiveships, but they’re clearly in low-power mode, conserving energy. The foodseekers are following a standard patrol route throughout the system, trying to catch anyone approaching by stealth, but they’re concentrated along a single plane, within five degrees up or down from the ecliptic.
“We cannot take on a force like this in direct battle, sure, but we can try to whittle their numbers down, make them start jumping at sensor ghosts. All these foodseekers are on individual patrols. There are ships nearby, sure, but a Renegade could blast one and get back to stealth before they can react. Meanwhile, we have four corvettes armed with our Hellfire Cannons. Ballistic rounds might not be as sexy as pulse torpedoes, but anything moving a high fraction of the speed of light is going to hurt. We do a Time-on-Target attack, with all four rounds hitting at once? We can probably mission kill one of the truehives.”
“I like it,” said Captain Alma Hernandez of the Demon’s Roar. “I mean, we’ll be throwing rocks at the hornet’s nest, quite literally, but I like it. We’ll have to assume that, once they realize we’re doing stealth operations, the ships will start going to active scans. If they are able to see through our stealth, that’d be a problem. So, what’s the plan for when they start blasting enough sensor waves into space to pick up micrometeorites, much less starships in stealth?”
“With respect,” Slave-Squadron Leader Lelia ‘Heretic’ Carollo started, “my Cinders can’t move terribly fast while under stealth. If we pop a few foodseekers and their friends decide to swarm in, we’ll be found, sooner or later. That doesn’t count the fighters from the swarmships. If their complement is similar to what the swarmship we faced at Ulora put out, that’s north of fourteen hundred fighters. Plus any that are stationed on the ground. Angel and Beast squadrons are good, but that math doesn’t work out for a dogfight.”
Griboyedov nodded. This was why he had the commanders from the squadrons in the meeting, after all. They knew their birds best. “You have a suggestion to add to the plan, then?”
“Yes, sir. We adapt hit-and-run and siege tactics. These Incux may be alien, but they still need sleep, according to the System Shop. And even with a quasi-hivemind taking the heavy load of logistics and battlefield analysis, the individual units are vulnerable to fatigue. So, we exploit that.
“We can’t do everything at once, like we did at the first two targets. We simply don’t have the ships for it. However, we can do hit and run tactics easily enough. With their shields down, we can probably kill a swarmship with four pulse torpedoes, instead of the six it took at Ulora. Between Cinder squadron’s twelve Renegades and the four corvettes, we have enough pulse torpedoes to take out eight of the swarmships in one go. If we combine that with Captain Grant’s idea for a ToT attack on one of the truehives, we’ll be able to disable a significant fraction of their capital ships in one blow. It won’t completely turn the tides, sure, but when we then warp out of system and go to stealth, they’ll have to keep on alert and keep looking for us. Especially if we let ourselves be seen briefly in different parts of the system.”
“And since we’ll be attacking and retreating on our timetable, our crews will be fresh and rested, while theirs will start to be fatigued,” nodded Captain Sumisu Yoichi of the Promise. “They’ll have to react to every sensor reading as if it were a full alert, which will wear down any living being. But what if they call for more help, and get reinforcements?”
“Any reinforcements would have to come from somewhere,” said the Invader’s Captain Tara Cox. “The primary goal for this mission is not eliminating the poor souls on the planet below, after all, but to break the Incux’s offensive, and ensure that they are unable to properly prosecute their war of extermination against the Commonwealth. We’ve destroyed two-thirds of their known food-production facilities. That has to have been a heavy blow to them already. If they start having to pull even more units back from the front line to defend this system, then the Commonwealth Navy may get a chance to reverse the tides of battle, and take systems back from the Incux.
“Meanwhile, while we do not have unlimited supplies, we are fairly well-set, especially after visiting the Commonwealth’s Oritris Station. If we can use the Commonwealth Bases as a fallback and resupply point, then we could extend this campaign significantly, or switch to commerce raiding and targeting any convoys that go to take food elsewhere. Sure, the Incux could regrow the ships they lose, but I doubt a truehive can be done in a day, and their sailors and workers still need to eat. It doesn’t matter if we destroy the cattle if the cattle cannot reach market.”
Griboyedov nodded slowly. “If that happens, we’ll want to get reinforcements from Ceres. More Renegades, at least. No disrespect to your crews, Heretic, but a few months of constant action will wear even the best crews down, and I am fairly certain that Flight Boss Doyle would have my head if the maintenance schedules for Cinder Squadron were allowed to get significantly behind.”
The Succubus waved him off. “None taken, Captain. We all know that the Air Boss is the god of the flight deck, just like Doc is the goddess of the Infirmary. And we don’t want either of them on our case. However, unless they can get another carrier together, then any other Renegade squadrons that came our way would be living in their ships. While that’s doable, for a week or two, when you’re talking about months at a time, that’s going to cause problems, even with the most compatible flight crews.”
Captain Hernandez nodded. “If the first couple attack runs can take out the capital ships, then this becomes a much simpler proposition. The two hundred or so foodseekers are not something we can simply ignore, of course, but taking out the capital ships would do a number on their command and control through the hivemind. They’ll get a lot ‘dumber’ after losing all those drones and officers. And, spread out over an entire system, we can use the same hit-and-run tactics to pick off foodseekers in ones and twos. Then, we can focus on the planet’s defenses. Of course, by then, they’d be ready, and probably start building additional defensive emplacements, which will increase the danger for the actual bombing runs.”
Captain Sumisu frowned. “We would have to assume that the capital ships would at least turn on their shields, and probably begin maneuvering once the first strike happens. Some of the foodseekers would likely pull back from patrols to help guard them. They might stop patrols altogether, to protect the remaining capital ships.”
“That would actually be to our benefit,” Squadron Leader Luke ‘Critter’ Carter said. “If they pull back like that, they won’t have any patrols easily able to intercept the corvettes launching attacks with the Hellfire Cannons. Pinning the ships in place could be possible if you get a couple shots on areas of the planet with significant strategic value to the Incux. Make them believe they have to cover things like their spaceports to keep us from destroying them. If they don’t, well, they have no spaceports, and ‘getting the cattle to market’ becomes a lot more difficult, right?”
“And if they only pull some of them back,” interjected Slave-Squadron Leader Isis ‘Goddess’ Saliba, “we can start picking off the patrol ships. They’ll probably start sending them in groups, but with the Cinders and the rest of the fleet we could still take on several groups simultaneously. They’ll be in damned if you do, damned if you don’t territory, then.”
Captain Griboyedov smiled slightly. “Then it appears that we have a game plan, people. Inform your crews, and have your tactical departments begin running calculations for the ToT attack and our first attack run. Assuming that the gods and demons governing math and stellar cartography are on our side, we will begin the assault in twenty-four hours.”
