Retribution (The Federation Reborn Book 3) (87 page)

:::{)(}:::

“Big flipping deal, they ran,” Dom growled as he listened to the news report. “You know they'll be back, right?” he demanded, eyeing Jo and Caitlin.

“You really love to look at the sunny side of things, don't you?” Caitlin demanded.

He shrugged. “It pays to be honest. It's kept me alive this far. You too,” he said, nodding to her and then pointing a finger at his brat of a niece. “And her.”

“Yes, Dom, we know they can be back. I doubt it though,” Jo replied, rolling her eyes to Caitlin as she wrapped her arms around her uncle's neck and shoulders. “Now, stop being a grump and let us enjoy the moment, okay? We won, not many of our people got hurt or killed, and we've got months to …”

“To do what?” Dom demanded. “Sit here like a big target?”

“For us, yes,” Caitlin said. “For the military, they'll bust their ass to hit the enemy hard.”

“Pushaw. Them? They'll sit back on their ass and pat themselves on the back till they’re bruised,” Dom growled.

Jo just shook her head and sighed heavily. She kissed her uncle on the ear then rested her chin on his head.

:::{)(}:::

Admiral Irons grinned when he read the report. “They were routed. It would have been nice if Amadeus could have arranged a knockout though,” he said.

“I know. Did you finish reading the report though, sir?” Sprite asked carefully.

“Obviously not but you have,” the admiral replied as his smile fell. “So … what am I missing?” he asked, eyes scanning the file.

“Check their heading and Admiral White's misgivings,” she said helpfully. A section of the report was underlined and highlighted to attract his attention. He scanned it and grunted, sitting back. “Is he right?”

“I'm not a navigational expert. I don't know for certain, but he could be. They could very well change course in hyper though.”

“But he doubts it. His gut says something else is up. Okay,” the admiral said with a nod.

“Do we say that when the press asks why he's not in pursuit?” Sprite asked.

Admiral Irons snorted. “Hardly. We tell them he's consolidating his forces and finishing his resupply before he goes after them,” he said.

“Ah, okay,” Sprite replied with a nod. “The news is hitting Protodon now. We're getting the first reports from Lieutenant Locke on the planet.”

“Keep me posted,” the admiral replied with a nod. “And brief Liobat so she's not caught flat footed.”

“Aye aye, sir,” the A.I. replied as he turned back to his scheduled briefing.

:::{)(}:::

The Retribution Fleet sailed for a day in hyperspace, transiting only a few octaves up through Alpha band as the various ships got their damage control sorted out. Then once they'd received a SITREP relayed from all ships, the admiral ordered them to halt their flight translate back down. Once back in the first octave, he ordered that they wait in hyperspace.

“We're not going further, sir?” Sedrick asked, now thoroughly confused by the change of orders.

Catherine wasn't certain either. Did the admiral have second thoughts?

“No. We have a limited time in hyper. We're going to wait some time, then drop a scout and see if they took the bait,” the admiral said simply.

Catherine froze. She glanced at the gaping intelligence officer and then nodded once. Her full attention turned to the admiral, studying him with new intent interest. “I see, sir. It was all a ruse.”

“Yes. One of the contingency plans I wrote. You didn't see it?” the admiral asked mildly, looking at her and then to the INTEL officer.

The INTEL officer looked down and away and then tugged on his collar.

“I guess I missed it or it was kept under wraps, sir,” Catherine replied, equally mild. “I don't remember it being brought up in a meeting so we could all be on board, nor any requests to disseminate it or drill on it,” she said pointedly.

“I'll make certain you get a copy,” the admiral said soothingly, “since you are my Operations officer after all.”

“Thank you, sir, that would be nice to be kept in the loop,” the princess replied in a slightly aggrieved tone of voice.

The admiral waved a gnarled hand. “Don't pout. I knew what I was doing.”

“Yes, sir. But it's my job to make sure you don't shoot yourself in the foot and that everyone is on the same page. Too many operations have been blown because someone assumed everyone else knew what he was thinking or intended. You, sir, taught me that,” she reminded him gently.

The admiral nodded and signaled a touché in the salle. The princess smiled a bit.

Chapter 36

Admiral White was initially tempted to turn the tables and run the enemy fleet down. Now that they were on the run and worse, damaged, he could foresee his taking them down. His training said to run them down before they did more damage elsewhere. But then there was that thing about chasing a wounded animal … cornering them could inflict damage on his own forces … that thought lingered in his mind. Timing was also of issue. His ships were faster than the enemy ships; he knew that based on rough calculations on how long it had taken them to get to Protodon. But how faster was he? Did he want to find out? He'd love to jump in to B-95a3 ahead of the fleet and set up a second ambush, but there was no guarantee it would work. They might jump short or not at all. They could turn around … that was an ominous thought.

He rubbed his jaw pensively, and then stroked his neck fur as he gamed out the various possibilities.

His staff worked on settling prioritizing the repairs once the fighters and bombers were recovered. Once things were under control, he called a meeting.

But he'd waited a little too long. As Jojo arranged the meeting, fresh missives came in from the planet as well as from Congress. They praised him and the fleet, but made it clear they didn't want him to abandon his post to go off in pursuit.

“As all of you know and some of you have pestered me about, I've considered chasing the enemy. We have the time to easily get ahead of them if they stick to their known pace. The question is, should we? That got complicated when I received this,” he said, waving his tablet. He set it down on the council table and then flicked a finger onto the icon to the main view screen. The files were transferred, including those he highlighted.

“Amadeus, I'm receiving a lot of political pressure for you to remain …,” Commodore Vargess read out loud only to be interrupted by a gasp and some protests. Admiral White waved them down. Slowly the room quieted.

Commodore Harris shook his head. “I can't believe this. It's not like Admiral Irons to armchair quarterback …”

“He's right. We could jump out, and they could jump right back in. They'd tear everything apart, and we'd be nowhere around to stop them, sir,” Captain Mayweather stated, looking at the admiral.

The Neochimp admiral eyed her, gauging her response against her personal history. She saw those wheels turning and flushed.

“I agree, sir,” Commodore Vargess stated. The admiral's brown eyes cut to him. “It is prudent to be cautious … to a degree. If we stay we let them get away to lick their wounds and fight another day. Well, we know where they will eventually end up.”

Amadeus nodded. “They will have to fall back to Dead Drop.”

“Yes, sir. If we split our forces to cover Protodon, we may not have enough to do the job right and also invite defeat in detail. If we follow with everything we can muster, we invite them to double back and possibly attack here. If we
don't
follow, we invite political backlash anyway,” the commodore said.

“Catch twenty-two,” Commodore Harris said with a grimace. “Damn, I'm not thrilled about the political calculus and hoops you have to jump through, sir,” he said, shaking his head.

“Welcome to flag rank. Glad you could join and get the same headaches I've got,” Admiral White said sarcastically. “Any ideas on how to untie this Gordian knot?”

“Cutting the knot would be nice. I think that's how Alexander handled it if I remember my history right,” Trajan replied. Harris snorted. “I'd say send one or more scouts to see if they did fall back sir. Drop everyone into stealth here that can manage it. Maybe toss some decoys to the cruisers and let them play cat and mouse in B-95a3,” he said with a shrug. “Your call, sir,” he reminded the Neochimp.

“I see,” the Neochimp said slowly, rubbing his jaw. “And I know it's on my head.”

:::{)(}:::

Admiral Irons grimaced as he read the report from Second Fleet. Amadeus had countersigned Trajan's suggestion. He had placed his forces back into stealth and then dispatched a pair of light cruisers to B-95a3 to check on the star system. They had orders to return if the enemy fleet showed up there but not until the fleet was halfway across the star system and therefore out of range. Until then they would work with the two pickets that had remained there to watch over the star system.

Which reminded him. He made a note to commend the picket force and to jot a reminder note out to Amadeus to get him a list of names of people who deserved awards. The fleet needed heroes and to celebrate them.

He was no longer willing to draw down First Fleet with
Bismark
and the First BC Squadron away.
Argus
was en route. Junior Valdez would get to Protodon in another seven weeks at the pace he was currently setting … barring any unforeseen break downs of course,” he reminded himself with a grimace. But Phil was balking at sending additional reinforcements for the moment too.

He scratched the side of his nose. And, truth be told, with the plans to send
Prometheus
to Tau sector, the eastern attack force entering its final stages to jump, the commitments in B101a1, and Bek, he couldn't blame the man.

He sighed heavily.

“Worried about turtling, sir?” Sprite asked him.

“Something like that,” the admiral responded. “We've given the enemy a look, a taste of what we've got. I'm just afraid he's going to run all the way home and sortie the entire Horathian Home Fleet.”

“Yeah, not something pleasant to consider. If they did, would you have Admiral White fight forward of Protodon?”

“He'd have to then. A fighting withdrawal all the way while we sent everything we could to him. Let's hope it doesn't come to that though,” he said.

:::{)(}:::

Sedrick scowled as he read Myron's report. The tactical officer had confirmed the presence of far more ships than their active sensors had managed to see after careful processing of the raw visual data. Once he'd gotten a peek at something his CIC ratings had nailed down enough to confirm at least one operative BC squadron that had been slowly stalking them.

That changed things. That shifted the odds too firmly in the enemy's favor. The battle cruisers, dreadnaughts … and where the hell had they gotten the second one from? The seven CEVs, the CLV, it was too much to handle.

They'd lost three ships. That hurt. Granted two of them were only tin cans, but one had been a
Nelson
. Her fleet defense roll couldn't be underestimated after what they'd just experienced. But that wasn't the worst of it.

Nimitz
had lost her
entire
fighter strength. That left them horridly vulnerable to another bomber attack.

No, the odds had shifted into the enemy's favor too much. So he considered the admiral's plan reckless to the point of madness.

But all he could do was complain about it in his report to his superiors and hope he survived to file it.

:::{)(}:::

“The DNs weren't decoys. We've confirmed that with the visual check,” Catherine reported during the next staff meeting. “The question is, where did they get the other one?”

“A better question is,
why
are we still sitting here?” Berney asked, addressing the admiral. “Sir, we're outgunned. We can't deny that. We need to retreat before it's too late.”

“They can outpace us in hyper. They could be there ahead of us. We'd be walking from one trap into potentially another one,” Jeremy warned.

“Potentially,” Berney stressed. “I for one don't buy it. They'll be defensive. That's Irons MO. I've read his bio Imperial Intelligence put together,” he said, nodding to Sedrick. “They have a lot to lose now that they know we're on the offense.”

“But we're not if we're the ones retreating,” Myron stated.

“We're not retreating,” the admiral said. That stopped the argument before it became too heated. “I ordered a tactical withdrawal. I want them to chase us. We're going to wait until
Death Shrieker
gets back to us with news of Protodon.”

“Hopefully, they don't trip up and show our hand before White departs,” Catherine murmured.

“I know. That's what bothers me. I'm not sure I got the timing right,” the admiral said, seemingly fretting. “I may have jumped the gun and sent them off too early.”