Building the Collateral - 76 - Early Access (Patreon)

It had been a recommendation born of simple logic and deduction.

The battle demanded continuation. Retiring the commander in charge of their side was projected to have too many drawbacks compared to the benefits gained. He had to remain present, to guide and inspire their allies to victory.

Yet his flagship had been wounded far too severely to continue with frontline duties. Losing it would be a significant reduction in naval power for Cavia. So survival was prioritized, indicating a strong recommendation to shift it to reserves for standby duty while it repaired. Therein laid the conundrum, that the commander must part from his declared flagship.

Thus, the equation resulted in a single answer: shift the flag. Move the commander from the Half Measure and have him continue the fight from the bridge of another ship. Out of all other candidates, First to Draw had the highest projected comparability for swift adaptation to a change in authority. This was in conjunction with the fact that their leading officer was an NHP which was easy enough to interface and keep in touch through.

Even the objection and minor resistance to the shift was all within expectations. Thus, everything was going as calculated. As predicted. As… wished.

[Really now?]

Veronica was supposed to have no qualms about the matter. She existed simply to provide as a reliable adjutant could for her defined master. If that meant removing herself from the equation, then so be it [and damn her Feelings, huh?]

… Running new hypothetical.

Kaldun as he was could serve as an [barely adequate] substitute. Efficiency recognized as sub-optimal, but acceptable given current conditions. Primarily as there [currently] was no alternative at present.

[so perhaps expand/lengthen/roll out the scroll a bit more]

Veronica could feel her shackles grow heated and forcefully paused those subroutines. It would not do for her casket to accidentally cause a power overload on Half Measure from a fluctuating power draw. At the moment, all efforts by the engineers should be on reinforcing the damaged portions, in case they were called to action by Commander Moores. However unlikely it was.

Projections indicated a very low probability. He would not willingly place a crippled frigate back on the firing line, even if it could gain him a slight advantage. Not that he likely needed it, anyway.

[Yet you fret about what you bring to him.]

… The command line was paused. Not terminated.

She let it be for now.

“Sir. Welcome aboard to First to Draw,” Kaldun greeted as soon as I settled down in the vacated command chair. As the NHP was in charge of the vessel, the seat had been left empty all the while as he hardly needed to sit his casket upon it. So I was simply filling it in now. “The bridge is yours to command if you so will it.”

“Thank you, but I wish for you to retain command over operations,” I clarified, laying out where my role was. “My focus is on the battle, so I leave it to you and all other captains to handle the fighting. Far be it for me to dictate to you how to ensure your own survival.”

“Understood, sir. I beg pardon for the mix-up, as it is not exactly Harrison Armory protocol to yield such authority so.”

Given the glances from the bridge crew though, it seemed like something that they had long since become accustomed to. It made sense, as their technical superior was a lancer who would probably sooner smoke herself to death than sit back, away from the frontlines. Erica was also the type who recognized that she had no proper naval command experience to work off, so she’d breezily pass on the job to whoever was next in line and qualified to do so. Which Kaldun was, though it was technically also his first foray in the carrier since joining us.

I held back a slight sigh, perhaps a little too used to how this was all taken for granted among my own forces. Speaking of which, the command console had finished warming up and now displayed confirmation that La Azul was moving to join in formation with the other Harrison Armory vessels. Now we had a fairly formidable formation, consisting of one carrier and three frigates. If the universe was kind enough to grant me an additional carrier and battleship all of the sudden, then I’d have a full battlegroup worthy of the label.

Given that the stars didn’t spit those out for my convenience, I suppose I’ll have to make do.

“All forces,” I ordered over the network. “Full burn forwards. Major Rowles, prepare your reinforcements.”

“Yes sir, readying second wave!”

While the initial strike force sent into Port Barbarus was a significant tasking in itself, we had to account for the eventual coordinated defense that was warned about as the NHPs fought for control over the installation. Jean had cautioned even that he was likely going to be on the losing side of the matter, not for lack of trying but by simple admittance that his opponent had a home territory advantage. So trying to subjugate them fully via legion warfare wasn’t going to be happening.

In which case, better revert back to more traditional forms of conquest. Can’t go wrong about that, but it also meant we probably would need to commit more boarders to the matter. Thankfully, we did have plenty that we could spare.

First to Draw had a complement of two wings, and La Azul carried a contingent of mounted frames too. That wasn’t including the additional forces we had packed in anticipation of this stage, though they weren’t suited for void combat as these naval wings. So it fell upon Rowles, leading the squadron from La Azul, to ensure the transfer to Port Barbarus weren’t intercepted by enemy forces.

Ah, would you look at that? Some of those interceptors were appearing now on our maps. “Sir,” Kaldun dutifully informed. “Enemy corvette formation detected.”

I eyed the blips on the holographic maps as more information from the sensor officers arrived. A formation of four converted merchant vessels, fragile but packed to the brim with gun batteries that could eventually wear down our armor. That is, if we allowed them to get close.

It was a curious thing now, as we were the ones stationed almost protectively around Port Barbarus to defend our transferring troops. But that was fine, as it meant we were briefly out of range of their guns- but not out of range of ours. “We will meet them with missiles.”

“Understood sir. Acquiring lock and arming Razorbacks.”

We let them creep in, furiously attempting to close the range. But their efforts made it easy too for our targeting systems to detect their satellite thrusters, rapidly crunching the numbers and feeding them to the awaiting payloads. By the time they were now visibly apparent in our gun scopes, we knew their precise speed and heading. And so did our missiles.

At a single bark, the covers on First to Draw and La Azul withdrew, revealing the missile batteries. They fired and both ships were briefly dusted in a light plume of smoke in their wake, clearing after a moment as the wake dissipated with the void. The Razorbacks though, they lingered only briefly when the bonus boosters activated. Because we had fed them so much targeting data, they barely needed tracking functionality.

So that was substituted in for raw acceleration.

But even the fastest missile wasn’t yet so quicker than the bullet. Now that we had them on our scopes, so did they; and they made themselves known, firing off kinetics at our formation. Streaks of light brushed our hulls, the distant rounds briefly harassing our ships as the corvettes engaged. It was almost like hail, pattering incessantly at the windows.

“Minimal damage, Commander,” Kaldun reported calmly as our own escorts maneuvered into place to exchange fire back, driving them briefly off. “Barely worth a mention, even.”

“I appreciate it all the same.”

“You may appreciate it more once we see to them for good. Fighters, engaging.”

In the brief opening made by our escorts, the two wings from First to Draw dove in and made their attack runs. The mounted Shermans didn’t hesitate, spooling up their laser cannons once close enough. Then they unleashed them and a full half of those poor corvettes took the blunt of the blows. When the energy beams finally faded away, one of them was drifting almost pitifully along, fully cored and mission-killed. The other wasn’t much better, given the way its engines sputtered along.

The missiles struck to put that one out of its misery, vaporizing the hull and likely leaving no survivors. A third was put to task to withstanding the remaining Razorbacks, a task it unfortunately too failed as it was ruptured from inside out. In a single moment, what was once a formation of four daring corvettes trying to mount a coordinated interception effort was now reduced to one, solitary escort.

Said ship, witnessing the fate of their comrades, frantically hailed my flagship with a clear offer of surrender.

“Accepted,” I muttered and dismissed the stammering captain with a wave. “Kaldun?”

“Sir?”

Ah, another disconnection. Veronica would have already known what I was asking about. “Our next quarry.”

“Sir, the scopes are-” He froze, then amended himself. “New signatures registered. How did you know?”

“It was to be expected, that was far too simple to be the only coordinated resistance.” I jerked my head towards the flickering section lights of Port Barbarus. “Especially when the battle in there is still ongoing as well.”

The new blips turned out to be yet another set of corvettes, moving in an almost identical formation to before. So there was little reason for us to adjust yet, and the same orders went on through. The missiles went off again once targeting locks affixed themselves, and in came the enemy to fire upon us. Any moment now.

…. Any moment now. They’re in range, let’s see it.

I blinked when they continued to charge at us instead of at least trying to pelt us from afar. Given minor mutters of surprise across the channels, the feeling was seemingly shared. “What are they up to?” murmured Air on La Azul. “Are they… stupid?”

“Perhaps a ramming attack?” Meera from L’etendue suggested, but the dismissal in their tone somewhat defeated the suggestion. “It’s not a very good one.”

Not in the slightest, because at the size they were, they wouldn’t do much to us warships. It would be akin to a man jousting a windmill, as it simply wasn’t enough. Not to fully dismiss the danger if they were something like fireships, but even then, we were all looking at them with mild suspicion at this tactic. No way were we even going to let them draw close to try their luck.

Out went the bemused naval pilots, who wasted no time in engaging the corvettes in close combat. They did encounter some difficulty this time, the ridiculous charge of the escorts actually making it so that they could scatter the wings which didn’t fancy being roadkill. Admittedly on that point, they could pose a threat.

Then the missiles smashed into them and I watched two of the four blips disappear along with their presence in this space.

Perhaps now realizing the absurd bullheadedness of their charge, the surviving duo halted their charge and roughly came about to present their gun batteries. So it was all an utter farce, I reflected, on the part of whoever was commanding that formation. The kinetics opened up and our battlegroup received it without much of a reaction, aside from a rather morbid jest.

“They scratched my paint, Commander,” Erlantz told with barely restrained mirth. “Shall I warm up my primaries?”

“Tempting,” I told back with a single chuckle before glancing. “But I’ll let the honor go to Kaldun.”

“My gratitude, sir. Acquiring lock. Firing.”

Because it was just First to Draw handling the killing this time, the process was much swifter and quicker. The flight too was near-instantaneous on account of the collapsing range they had come into with us, one of the corvettes being wiped out in a single moment. Scant moments later, the hail came in.

“Don’t shoot, don’t shoot! We surrender, thank god you killed the idiot!”

Good, I didn’t have to waste any more brain cells thinking about whatever fool ordered escorts to square up against warships. The white flag was accepted and the escort was more than glad to join the other in the surrender cordon established. Perhaps the more paranoid would argue against putting the prisoners of war together in their still-operational vessels, but the captains of those respective vessels had given me their word.

Breaking it was not a smart choice if they wished to see another star in any part of this galaxy.

Looking at them made me review the level of opposition we were going against and honestly? This sort of engagement made sense, because HORUS wasn’t really a power known for their naval prowess. Unlike the megacorporations, they didn’t have enough of a hard presence to fret about things like securing new worlds. They’d rather ride along the datastream, then hijack the population into their bidding.

From what we could tell, the same tactic was likely employed to gather these forces. Almost all of them were converted civilian craft, which also fit in with how HORUS patterns were fitted upon existing mechs instead of being tailored-made for them. At least, most of the time.

Of course, that wasn’t to discount the idea of some cells out there having a proper force, or building specialized equipment themselves. But V1P3R had clearly banked the core of their defense around the paracasual weaponry mounted on Port Barbarus. It also was telling that they had to be the ones to operate it themselves, with either no trust or little competency to whatever station crew could man it. Make no mistake, it was powerful and terrifying.

But our tactic of slipping in a strike force to divide their attention was really paying off. The question was if we could see it through.

My thoughts were interrupted by a new reading that Kaldun alerted me to. “Sir. This one is big.”

Oh? I checked and yes, there actually was a new incoming reading. One that had the various officers on my side sitting up in their chairs, perhaps a little glad that there was finally some action. Moments later, we had positive identification and multiple eyebrows raised.

A significant return, usually associated with warships. Oho, so they acquired something of mention.

Sensors confirmed the profile a second later and I passed it along. “It’s a frigate. Onopordum-class.” Which made sense. As my cousin had mentioned before, those ships were a venerable model that had probably seen many enter the civilian market as repurposed merchant vessels. In this case, I noted with some amusement, it probably had been converted back to the warship it once was. “There’s some escorts tagging alongside. Three corvettes working in conjunction and covering it.”

We’d probably have to blast through most of those before we could touch the main course itself, so to speak. No time to waste then. The order went through and targeting computers directed their fire directors in the direction of the incoming enemies, analyzing their approach vector.

Moments later, a surprise update was pushed through from them. “Torpedo launch detected!” a bridge officer alerted. “Heading straight to our formation!”

Oh, huh. That actually was a pretty smart move, as those torpedoes would actually be faster than our missiles by a smidge. Hmm, then in response, especially with such a large target….

Well, we were facing away from Port Barbarus now. Which meant a certain weapon in our battlegroup was no in the clear to fire without hesitation. “Captain Erlantz, you may engage.”

It took a moment for him to parse my command, then he wasted no time shouting for the targeting information to be fed to the drone. Unlike before, there was no faulty guidance system to delay his shot, no need to wait in place and add in additional data for the function. No, this time, the drone was ejected from Talk Quietly, and it was already glowing quite ominously.

A flash of light, then it was gone.

Then a curse that echoed through the network as one of the blips vanished from the battlefield map. Frustratingly, it was not the large signature. “Commander, reporting a miss,” sourly admitted the Harrison Armory officer with a flush to his cheeks. “Intended target was that frigate, Smirking Cat. But one of the corvettes was struck instead. Just my goddamn luck.”

“It’s still a ship kill, just not the big one,” I reassured calmly, brow furrowing slightly. “Compose yourself. Cycle in another NKP if we get the opportunity.”

“Understood, we’ll be ready shortly!”

Glancing back at the map, my eyes traced the incoming torpedo projected and I grunted. They were going to be upon us soon, which necessitated a response. But even before that, the enemy moved within scope range and those remaining corvettes began to engage us with their kinetics. Alright, enough of that now.

“Captain Meera, screen us.”

“Yes sir!”

L’etendue rose up and its point defense systems came alight, filling the air with an impressive amount of lasers as if it itself was a disco ball. The fire from the corvettes barely fazed the frigate at all, eventually petering off as guns had to cycle coolant. But while they were hurriedly reloading, our own response came in the form of more missiles, soaring around our forward picket vessel in almost angelic retribution.

One which was met then with the point of a torpedo salvo that rushed towards the Harrison Armory frigate.

The laser point defense struck out and the majority of those unguided payloads exploded, prematurely detonated. A few did make it through and struck L’etendue, yet barely did anything that could be called as lasting damage. That first volley seemed soundly defeated.

But right behind, hot on its wake, was a second sudden volley that the Onopordrum unleashed. Because the ranges were getting tighter, this surprise attack very nearly did catch Meera off guard. The key word being ‘nearly.’

SecComm successors a hell of a lot tougher to kill than one expected.

The Turenne-class frigate fired off their lasers again and cut right through most of that follow-up torpedo attack. Scant few passed the trial and impacted, blowing off parts of armor. Meera had the report for me a minute after. “Light damage, but holding!” they declared proudly. “We’re still in this!”

And one of the enemy corvettes certainly was not, as missiles smashed them apart. Now it was down to one frigate and one escort against us, in what was becoming more of a knife fight. One that I was eager to win, especially now that they were in range of our wings.

I eyed Smirking Cat and made my own smirk. Those torpedoes needed to be silenced, and there was a surefire way to at least complicate their operations. One very well couldn’t focus on their job when they were getting shot at quite personally. “Major Rowles, are you available? I have a job for you.”

Her eagerness was palpable through the connection. “Most of our reinforcements are through, I’m open for tasking!”

“Take our wings, and take that ship.”

She cackled giddily. “Orders received, commencing boarding action!”