Rumors of Honor (System States Rebellion Book 2) (22 page)

Janicot
sighed with fatigue from his battle-induced adrenaline rush. By any normal
standard, this battle was a decisive Union victory, but all their simulations
had led them to believe that P2 could engineer an even more lopsided victory.
Crippled ships drifting in Sparta orbit could be repaired, resulting in an
increase for the SSU and a corresponding decrease for the FEDs. But even with
those repairs, if 9 out of 20 did manage to get away, the balance of forces
would still favor the FEDs. And if they could get their damaged ships repaired
first, the ratio in the short run would be even more unfavorable. There was one
bright spot though. Even crippled as they were, a lot would be revealed about
their anti-missile laser defense system when those cripples were salvaged. With
that technology plus the home grown second and third generation anti-missile
missiles, SSU ships would be very difficult to hit in the future.

As
Janicot turned away from the main display to head for the exit and home, he
took note of the fact that Palmgren’s boats were heading toward Sparta to be
rearmed as well. Both groups of boats would be back in orbit or on alert status
as soon as possible just in case the FEDs tried to catch them with their pants
down. Janicot had made up his mind that that wasn’t going to happen on his
watch as Chief of Space Operations.

Day
018/2547

Trojan
winced when he saw that Romanov had his arm in a sling and one side of his face
covered with ugly red scar tissue. He kept the greeting friendly and informal.
He wanted to wait until they were in his office before getting down to
business.

When
both men were seated and had lit their cigars, Trojan took a puff and said,
“Majestic reviewed the tactical playback data. It’s now of the opinion that not
only were the Spartans ready for your attack, they wanted it. That implies that
the battle for Earth really was a setup. The fact that you managed to get eight
ships back here is a testament to your tactical ingenuity. Without that
unorthodox use of Mark 1s, there was a very good chance that none of your ships
would have made it back, so congratulations are in order, Admiral. I mean that
sincerely.”

Romanov
sighed. “Thank you, General. That means a lot to me.” He took a puff from his
cigar and continued. “What does Majestic think we should do now?”

“Well,
our repair facility inside that dormant volcano here on Hadley can only repair
one ship at a time. Makassar obviously isn’t in any shape to repair ships yet,
so most of your ships will have to head to Earth to be repaired there. You may
as well go with them. You’ve earned some leave, and I’m sure you’d rather spend
it on Earth than on Hadley. As far as our next move is concerned, we can’t do
much until Makassar is able to start delivering a few warships, and as you know
that’ll take at least 18 months. I’ve decided that I’m not letting the SSU
interfere with our buildup on Makassar again. We’ll rebuild our x-ray laser
satellite network, plus there’ll be warships on patrol there from now on, and
if that means leaving Earth vulnerable to another Rebel attack, then so be it.
By the time Makassar is able to mass produce warships, we’ll have the troops,
the transports and the infrastructure we need to start building the Empire.
When you get to Earth, I want you to order the four warships left behind to
come back here, and you can fire Stevens too.”

Romanov
raised his eyebrows. “That won’t go over well with the Old Man. What if he
countermands that dismissal?”

Trojan
laughed. “He probably would at that. Okay, don’t worry about Stevens, just get
those four ships back here, and if Stevens comes back with them, I’ll just fire
him when he gets here and ship him right back again.” Both men laughed.

“How
soon do you want 1st Fleet, or rather what’s left of it, to head back to
Earth?” asked Romanov.

Trojan
shrugged. “You’ve got wounded who have to be brought down from orbit, the ships
will need to be provisioned for the trip back, and there may be some simple
repairs that can be done while the ships are in orbit. I’m not concerned if it
takes a few extra days to do all that. Nothing’s going to happen anytime soon.
Besides, after that battle, which must have been pretty hairy, your crews
deserve to get off those ships and breathe real air under a real sky for a few
days.”

“Thank
you, General. They’ll appreciate that as do I.” Romanov paused and Trojan
waited. “I had a lot of time on the way back here to think about that battle. I
think Majestic is right. The battle for Earth was a setup to entice us to
attack prematurely. Somehow they managed to create a situation that even fooled
Majestic. We know they managed to steal the technology to build their own
Oracle machine, but I have difficulty understanding how their Oracle could
outfox our Majestic.”

Trojan
leaned back and stared at the ceiling while he puffed on his cigar for a few
seconds. When he finally did respond, he spoke slowly. “I’ve watched Majestic
generate results long enough to realize that it is far more capable than our
Oracle could ever be. I think you’ve seen that too. Therefore their Oracle
can’t outfox our Majestic, regardless of the fact that it might appear that
way. What I suspect happened and is happening is that they’re not relying on
their Oracle to outthink our machine. Instead, I think they’re brainstorming
ideas themselves and are using their Oracle to evaluate those ideas. The attack
on Earth fits that theory. Prior to that attack, if anyone had suggested to me
that the SSU would deliberately sacrifice 16 ship crews to lure us into a
premature attack on Sparta, I would have said they were crazy.”

“But
that’s exactly what they did,” interjected Romanov.

“Did
they? I know it looks that way, but what if those 16 Union ships had no crews
at all and were controlled by computers?”

“But…”
Romanov left the sentence unfinished as he thought about Trojan’s conjecture.

Trojan
smiled and nodded. “You see? If those ships had no crews, then suddenly the
whole sacrifice gambit becomes a lot less crazy, doesn’t it? Our Majestic might
be capable of coming up with that kind of unorthodox strategy on its own if it
was helping the SSU, but I don’t think any Oracle computer, our old one or
theirs, could have thought of that without being asked specifically to evaluate
it. A human being thinking unconventionally came up with the idea, and their
Oracle figured out what they had to do to make the strategy viable. I’ll bet
you that’s what happened.”

Romanov
nodded. “It all fits. But I still don’t see what they hoped to accomplish in
the long run even if 1st Fleet was totally wiped out. With our four ship
reserve to protect Makassar from future attacks, we’d eventually out-build them
in warships and simply overwhelm them with superior numbers. Surely they have
to know that.”

“If
they can brainstorm ideas, then so can we. Let’s you and me do some
brainstorming right now. Put yourself in their shoes. What would they have to
be able to do in order to prevent us from getting an overwhelming superiority
in ships?” asked Trojan.

Romanov
thought for a bit and then said, “They’d have to either be able to work on a
lot more ships at the same time, which implies a whole lot more shipyard
capacity, OR they’d have to be able to build ships a lot faster than us, but I
don’t see how they could do that.”

“I
agree on that last point. When Makassar starts building ships, it’ll be using
robotic equipment for the actual construction, and those robots will be working
far faster than humans could. I don’t see how their robots could possibly work
five to ten times faster than our robots, which is what it would take to offset
the capacity that Makassar will eventually have. So I think we can dispense
with faster. That just leaves working on more ships at the same time. The
obvious problem there is that if they’re building ships the old fashioned way,
in shipyards built with private sector capital using raw materials purchased
from private sector sources, then their economies would have to be a whole lot
bigger than we think in order to be able to afford the cost of those extra
ships.”

“What
if they have their equivalent of Makassar, a planet with abundant resources
that doesn’t belong to any private sector owner?” asked Romanov.

Trojan
snapped his fingers. “Exactly! That’s the only way I can see how they might
think they have a chance to at least match us ship for ship, and Majestic can
figure out where that site would be. Even if it comes up with a short list of
possible locations, we can send scouts to recon those systems, and when we
confirm the location, we’ll launch a strike and destroy it. Let’s see how they
like having THEIR main shipbuilding site smashed!”

Day
071/2547

Romanov
was surprised to see Army Chief of Staff Masterson sitting next to Admiral
Chenko when he entered the conference room. Then again, maybe he should have
expected that. Masterson had lost 50,000 of his infantry at Sparta and could
argue that he had a right to be present.

Chenko
waved Romanov to a chair opposite to him and Masterson. “Have a seat
Commodore.” Chenko waited until Romanov was almost seated before continuing.
“Naturally General Masterson and I have read your  report that you transmitted
while your ship was approaching Earth. Both General Masterson and I agree with
the conclusion that your overwhelming victory here was a setup for a trap at
Sparta. I know it’s little consolation to General Masterson regarding the loss
of 50,000 of his infantry that Majestic and General Trojan both supported the
mission to Sparta, and I’ve already offered the ACoS and the Army as a whole
personal apologies for my own part in this debacle. I think it’s also
appropriate that you be congratulated on managing to get eight of your ships
out of that trap.” Turning to Masterson, Chenko said, “Take my word for it,
Frank. If the Commodore hadn’t used his Mark 1s for anti-missile defense, NONE
of his ships would have made it back.”

Masterson
nodded. “I WILL take your word for that, Sergei. I’d like to ask the Commodore
a question or two if that’s all right with you.” Chenko nodded.

“Commodore,”
said Masterson as he turned to look at Romanov, “knowing what you know now, do
you still consider leaving the four troop transports unescorted in high orbit a
wise move?”

Romanov
took his time answering. “General, knowing what I know now, the answer clearly
has to be no. However, given what I knew then, which was that there were no
Union missile boats or any other Union ship within five light seconds, it was
reasonable to conclude that the transports were in no immediate danger. Any
missile boat or ship approaching in normal space would have given those
transports plenty of time to micro-jump away. No one…not even Majestic,
suspected that the Union had figured out how to piggyback missile boats onto
jump-capable ships. I would also point out that even if I had detached some of
my ships to escort those transports, the outcome would almost certainly have
been the same as far as your infantry were concerned. The Union ships dropped
off their missiles boats too close for anyone on either the transports or any
escorting warships to react in time. They planned that micro-jump to perfection
and would have targeted the transports first knowing that without ground
troops, our mission to conquer and pacify Sparta could not proceed, regardless
of what else did or didn’t happen. I’m sorry for your loss, General. I don’t
even know for sure how many of my crews were killed or injured, but a
conservative estimate is at least 1,100.”

Masterson
didn’t look satisfied and said nothing. When some time had passed, Chenko said,
“Did you have another question for Commodore Romanov, Frank?” Masterson thought
about that for a while before saying no. Chenko turned back to Romanov.

“The
Battle of Sparta is water under the bridge. The best thing we can do now is
learn from our mistakes and move on. I want to talk now about your orders from
General Trojan to send Commodore Stevens’ Task Force back to the Franklin
system. I have to admit, Commodore, that I don’t understand the logic of that
order. Majestic’s prediction that the SSU would attempt to force a political
end to this war by attacking Earth has already been verified by two attempted
attacks. Why would the SSU switch to another strategy now?”

“We
know, and we’re certain that the SSU knows, that an uninterrupted buildup of
industrial capacity and ships at Makassar will eventually give us a military
victory over the rebels. We also think that they know that it will take over 24
months for Makassar to start delivering warships in quantity, even if the
buildup is allowed to continue without further setbacks. During that period of
time, it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to achieve the kind of numerical
superiority that will allow us to defend both Earth and Makassar at the same
time. General Trojan is of the opinion, which I share, that Makassar now has to
take priority over Earth, and if Earth is attacked, 1st Fleet/Army Force will
have to resist the political fallout in order to break this stalemate that the
SSU seems to have engineered.”