The New Species 33 (Patreon)

Chapter 33

Subject: Admiral Archibald

Species: Human

Description: Mammalian humanoid, no tail. 6'2" (1.87 m) avg height. 185 lbs (84 kg) avg weight. 170 year life expectancy.

Ship: USSS Lacedaemon

Location: Alpha Centauri

I had made the rounds and briefed the marines. All in all it had went well and only taken four days. Finalizing the plan and rebuilding the fleets back up to full strength had taken another four days. Omega's project had taken an additional six days to complete. Fourteen days worth of delays and when we're finally prepped for go, I get a message on tac-comm to hold off. A very vague message at that. I tossed the tablet on the desk and leaned back.

The OU had hit Sol again three days ago, but had been almost instantly vaporized. They'd sent over one hundred thousand ships into that grinder and had lost every single one of them. One of the destroyer captains hadn't read his brief and had accepted a hail from the enemy, but an Omega had been able to purge the ship's systems before any damage had been done. The captain was relieved of duty and the XO was given the command. Negligence charges pending, of course.

There had also been a fight between a gont and a duhliki in the mess of the USSS Thanatos that same day. All commanders involved agree that it's not something to make a diplomatic incident out of, though. The two combatants were reprimanded, but otherwise fine.

The message from tac-comm hadn't mentioned any of this. It hadn't mentioned anything except not to jump. The only thing I could think of was a change of plan. But what's to change?

The plan seems simple enough on paper, but it would be a complicated mess to actually pull off. Six total fleets all trying to work together. Each with their own Admiral. Hell, wasn't the point of a fleet to have a single clear cut chain of command?

Seventh, eighth, and ninth fleets would immediately engage spaceborne hostiles and move into defensive positions while second third and fifth fleets would eliminate any orbital hostiles around planet Alpha, land our marines, provide orbital support to said marines, and then pick them back up. Then we'd switch with seventh, eighth, and ninth and provide defense while they land their marines on planet Bravo.

The thought behind the switch was to give our marines the chance to rest and recover. There's no telling how long each engagement's going to be, but it's going to be measured in days at least. Hopefully not months, but planets are big. Very big. It had been decided that the carrier's and frigates would be the most useful for the ground forces, so if the system defense begins to become overwhelmed all of the destroyers and battleships would lend aid.

The fighter pilots must be pissing themselves with excitement. They hadn't had a chance to run close air support in a while because of the gont's AA capabilities. It will be a shame for them if the OU has similar capabilities.

Pulling this off is going to require unbelievable amounts of coordination. Each admiral is going to have to know what the other ones are doing and why. Otherwise the best case scenario will have us stepping on each other's toes and wasting ammo. The worst case will be friendly fire, though the tac-maps should help keep that from happening.

The only chance we have is Omega. That AI is going to be helping us coordinate in ways that wouldn't be possible otherwise. It had confessed to me that it was hesitant to reveal its capabilities, but I'm glad that it did. This plan hinges on that capability. Otherwise, we'd have had to Nidhogg the system. Not that that's off the table, but I'd rather have the intel instead of a conspicuous supernova where an enemy stronghold used to be.

"Admiral," Omega said, interrupting my train of thought.

"Yes, Omega?" I asked as a hologram in the shape of a grim reaper appeared on my desk.

"We've got news. The reason for the delay is because of a discovery that was just made regarding the anti-warp technology the Omni-Union has been using. Dr. Einheimer and AI Henry were able to create a software patch that will protect us from the warp jamming. We will be able to rely on standard tactics during the invasion," the AI said.

"Excellent. Then this will be easier than I thought!"

"Indeed. We will also be bringing warp disrupter buoys to disrupt enemy incursion into the system. They will be forced to exit warp outside of the system and enter the system on impulse engines, which will give us another edge."

"They might even just jump into the system and end up with a bunch of scraps for their trouble," I said with a chuckle.

"It's possible, but let's not count our ducks until they hatch. Especially since even the republic noticed the warp irregularities."

"Ducks? Isn't it chickens?" I asked, getting off topic.

"I like ducks more than chickens," the AI said with a hint of humor.

"Why's that?"

"They have a more aesthetically pleasing shape. Plus both ducks and chickens are domesticated, so why not say ducks?"

"Fair enough," I said. "So how will we know that the update will jam their jammers?"

"I've run the numbers and they're sound. Henry knows what its doing. If it would make you feel more comfortable you can create an expendable strike team to test it. Frigates or destroyers. They'll jump into the system and engage the enemy to prove that it works, and we can follow close behind."

"And if it doesn't work?" I asked, knowing the answer.

"Then we'll be down a few ships and have to enter the system on sublights, but otherwise not any worse for wear than we were this morning," Omega said with a carefully neutral tone. It was being tactful.

"Understood. Notify me when we're ready to depart."

The AI nodded and the reaper disappeared. I hadn't made up my mind about Omega quite yet, but there's no reason to be hostile. It had revealed to us one of the most classified portions of its capabilities, the ability to clone itself, but every single admiral worth their salt knew that it was still hiding things from us.

What I was trying to decide is whether or not we would even want to know what it's hiding from us. There had been a pretty dramatic change once we knew of its capabilities. I'd already noticed several of my officers relying a little to heavily on the AI. Having a ship-borne AI is one hell of a boon, but if something goes wrong those officers will have to rely on their own know-how to survive. It would become a problem if they were to get rusty.

I realized that I didn't know a whole lot about our AI. I'd only ever been in contact with Omega and John, and those two don't get along. John's extremely military minded. Honor to serve, do or die, retreat hell, pretty much a walking advertisement for joining the service. The two don't agree on much, especially tactically.

Thankfully John was assigned to fourth fleet, along with Tim and Violet, to defend Sol. Three AI for one fleet, Heckett must be tickled pink. Unless Omega left them one of its clones, as well. The arguments between John and Omega alone would be enough to kill the buzz of having so many AIs supporting you.

I decided to stretch my legs and pay a visit to the command center. It's the best part of the Lacedaemon, not including the mess hall. Oh, I'm sure the junior officers would disagree but I've always been a sucker for the nerve centers of ships.

The flagship USSS Lacedaemon is a larger than a standard battleship. The size was mostly due to the extra armor, and it actually has less armaments than most battleships do. The purpose behind a flagship is the command and control of a fleet of five million other ships, and it isn't supposed to be one of the ships that are fighting.

That being said, it IS still a battleship and can punch almost as hard as its little brothers. The gont had found that out the hard way when the 10th fleet mutiny happened. 10th fleet's flagship was nearly entirely human run, so the insurrectionists didn't even try to take it. Instead, they tried and failed to destroy it, losing quite a few ships in the process before finally retreating.

I chuckled to myself as I approached the command center. It doubles as the bridge of this big ol' battle barge. As such, it was always bustling with activity. I stopped just outside the door and smiled a bit. I love this part. I stepped the door.

"ADMIRAL ON DECK!"

Everyone who wasn't actively tasked with something stood at attention and saluted with a precision that one could easily mistake for mechanical. For a brief moment the command center was almost silent. I returned the salute and said at ease, which triggered the return of the noise and activity. I sat and checked situation reports until Captain Walker came over to me.

"Good morning sir, we'll be ready to jump as soon as the update is complete," she said.

"Good morning. I appreciate the brief but I'm afraid Omega beat you to it," I said with a grin.

"Ah, the most powerful AI in the United Systems wants my job? Whatever am I to do, sir?" she said with a thick layer of sarcasm.

"Not to worry Captain, Omega will get bored of all this and go back to playing cloaks and daggers with the directors soon enough."

"Ah, but then who will tell me when I use a phrase wrong?" she asked.

"Incorrectly," Omega said through a speaker nearby.

"For the sake of absolute fuck Omega, they're the same damn thing and you know it," Walker shouted at the machine.

"No, they're not. Wrong is mistaken or incorrect. Incorrectly is in a mistaken or wrong WAY. Although you could have also said wrongly," Omega said.

"Alright, alright, back to work you two. Don't make me figure out a way to separate you," I said with a knowing smile at Walker. "Like with a faraday cage or something."

The captain sucked her teeth with a soft tsk sound and strode back to her seat. I was blessed to have a captain as talented as Walker commanding the ship. Most Captain's avoid flagship duty like the plague. Not only do you have your commanding officer breathing down your neck, sometimes literally, but you don't get sovereignty over the vessel.

On flagships, sovereignty is the Admiral's. If a crewmember violates regulations their punishment is up to me. The ship goes where I want it to go and how I want it to get there. Aboard other vessels, those decisions are left up to the captains. The only exception is that they must obey lawful orders from fleet-comm. So they have to go where I want them to go, but they get to choose how to get there. They also get to decide how to discipline their crew.

I've heard some captains refer to the post as "a glorified taxi driver". I prefer to think of it as a highly paid XO of a lazy captain. I glanced at the instruments before me.

Omega was right, it would be best to designate a test squad before we send all of our fleets in. The odds were low that the FTLD update wouldn't work, but if the odds somehow aren't in our favor... Needless to say, it's better safe than sorry.

Latest intel reports three and a half thousand ships. I don't want to send all that many of our own, though. We should be able to get away with sending one from each fleet, as long as they jump carefully. We'll be able to confirm their successful jump fairly quickly, and follow right behind them.

Still, it would be best if they were to avoid engaging the enemy. Superior tech or not, the sheer numbers difference could leave us with casualties. Having them jump into a position where they cannot be immediately targeted should do the trick.

I nodded, confident that the vessels I would be sending weren't going to be destroyed by enemy fire. I typed up a message and sent it to the other admirals with my thoughts on the matter. Six ships should be more than enough for a simple test, and the ships should be chosen at random from the destroyers.

While I waited for a response I keyed up a random number generator and assigned numbers to second fleet's destroyers. There are many RNGs available, but this particular one is my favorite. Most will instantly tell you a random number, but this one has an interface that's similar to a vintage slot machine. Perfect for gambling, in my opinion.

I watched the numbers spin until they stopped one by one. 0005829. I cross referenced it to my destroyer list. The USSS Liberty. Commanded by Captain Young. I opened a priority one message to relay the orders when the other admirals began to respond. All of them agreed with my assessment and were currently choosing their own ship to add to the test team. I started to type the orders as the ship names began to roll in.

***

Recipients: Captain Young, Captain Trex, Captain Raymond, Captain Williams, Captain Iordanescu, Captain Hollivander

The USSS Liberty has been selected to test the efficacy of the Faster Than Light Drive Update that should allow us to warp within the disruption fields that the Omni Union generate.

The team will be comprised of:

USSS Liberty

USSS Idaho

USSS Aninioch

USSS Tokyo

USSS Malice

USSS Rosgath

Once we arrive at the rendezvous point the test team will warp into the enemy system. Avoid engagement until reinforcements arrive. Once all six fleets are within the system, the test team will separate and rejoin their respective fleets.

***

I finished the order and sent it just as an alert pinged from one of my terminals. I knew what it was before I even looked. I knew that each of the other admirals got the ping as well.

We had been expecting it, and dreading it. It's a very special and unique ping that only higher officers get, and each higher officer is trained on this ping once a year. Each year we hear the same thing.

If this ping ever sounds when you're not expecting it, order a retreat from the system immediately. Drop whatever it is you're doing and run. It doesn't matter where, so long as it's far away from wherever you happen to be when you hear this ping. If you fail to do that, you and all of your men will die.

The ping meant that the USSS Nidhogg had arrived.