“You want us to what?”
Commander Milani was, as always, clad in full body armor from head to toe. Today, their armor was a dull black color—except for the inevitable red dragon writhing around in a fit of what was either rage or passion. Kira wasn’t sure.
The command meeting was larger than she really liked, but Memorial Force was far larger than even Conviction and Memorial Squadron combined. Raccoon was enough smaller than Conviction had been that the cubage difference wasn’t as large as it could be, but it was still four ships instead of two.
Which meant Kira’s meeting aboard Deception had four Captains, four executive officers, two Commanders, Nova Group, herself and the ground-force commander.
The meeting room was large enough for them with room to spare—but Deception had been designed as a secondary flagship when she’d originally been laid down. She’d been intended to lead groups of destroyers away from the carriers.
“The plan calls for the ground forces to board Fortitude in deep space and seize control from her crew,” Kira told Milani, glancing around her officers. “She will have a minimal crew, likely with only limited security forces aboard, as she’s undergoing her trials.
“I presume, though we have no data yet, that Fortitude will be escorted by other NRC ships that we will have to destroy,” she continued bluntly. “Identifying the appropriate moment to make the strike will be key to carrying this out successfully.”
“The Navy of the Royal Crest,” McCaig repeated, his voice stunned. “They could surround her with battlecruisers, sirs. We’re a bit out of our weight class here.”
“And that’s why we’re going to play this very carefully,” Kira agreed. “We have received an advance payment that will cover our operating costs for the journey to Crest, so we are committed to at least making the attempt.
“That said, one of the things I do have is a complete listing of the current strength of the Navy of the Royal Crest, and they’d have a great deal of trouble filling space with battlecruisers,” she noted. “Their pre-Fortitude ships are comparable to the best of Brisingr or Apollo’s fleets, Twelve-to-Thirteen-X ten-kilocubic nova drives, pushing one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty kilocubics.
“Inside those parameters, they have six fleet carriers and six battlecruisers,” she told them. “They have another six older carriers in the ninety-to-one-hundred-and-ten-kilocubic range, along with ten cruisers in that range.
“All told, they possess twenty-eight capital ships supported by eighty-five lighter warships, including four fifty-kilocubic CVLs.”
There was a long silence in the briefing room and Kira smiled.
“So, yes, they have sixteen carriers to our one—and their baby flattops are bigger and better than our one,” she agreed. “They have sixteen cruisers in play, all bigger than ours, plus another eighty-one destroyers and corvettes.
“The Navy of the Royal Crest is a first-class military by Rim standards. Which makes them, what, eighth-rate by the standards of the whole galaxy?”
That was where Apollo and Brisingr tended to get classified, and the Crest was in roughly the same league as Kira’s home system and their enemy. Redward was still clawing their way into ninth-rate standards, though Konrad Bueller had given them some handy kickstarts.
That worthy leaned forward thoughtfully, looking at the hologram of the Crest System that Kira had hanging over the conference-room table.
“If they follow usual practices for first-round trials after completion, they’ll only have about twenty-five percent of the crew aboard Fortitude,” Bueller noted softly. “Security contingent will be yard security, not real marines or commandos. They might have some fighters aboard to test the systems, but in the main, she’ll be mostly empty for the first nova trials. Just in case.”
“All evidence suggests that the inspection will take place while her nova drive is cooling down somewhere in the outer system,” Kira said. “If we can take control of her before she novas to the ship with the Cabinet, we should be able to minimize the evidence of combat.”
“Sir, we have eighty mercenary ground troopers across four ships,” Milani pointed out grimly. “I have faith in my people—Captain McCaig will back me there—but to take control of a hundred-and-fifty-kilocubic carrier? That’s a big ask.”
“What would you need to make it less of an ask, Commander?” Kira asked them.
The dragon snapped across Milani’s chest and hissed.
“Full schematics of the ship would be a start, but I’m guessing we have those?” Milani asked.
“We do,” Kira confirmed.
“I’ll need to go over my people’s gear list,” the mercenary ground trooper admitted. “I have a few thoughts around breaching-and-intrusion gear that I don’t think we have. Our armor is as good as Redward can get us, so there’s no real upgrades there…”
They shook their head.
“We’ve accepted a signing payment from our employer,” Kira told them. Everyone in the room knew who that employer was—and no one else, even in Memorial Force, was going to find out from them. She trusted her people.
“If there is anything we can acquire in Redward that will make this mission easier, get me and Dirix a list in the next twenty-four hours,” she continued. “That goes for everyone, though most of that weight is on Milani.”
“I have some thoughts too,” McCaig rumbled. “If you want them, Milani?”
“Against this mission? I’ll take ’em, Captain,” Milani told their old boss.
“The other thing to remember, folks, is that the NRC is supporting a client network of twenty star systems,” Kira reminded them. “Even if everything goes to shit, we are not fighting an entire eighth-rate navy with a ninth-rate mercenary squadron.”
“Somehow, that isn’t as reassuring as you think it is,” her boyfriend, Deception’s XO and engineer, told her as he studied the map of the star system. “They only need to get one carrier-cruiser group on top of us, after all. Even one of the older ones can match Deception and Raccoon.”
“We will plan this to the nth degree,” Kira promised. “And if I don’t think we can pull it off, we will bail. But if we can do this, we might just change the fate of twenty star systems…and give the Equilibrium Institute an even bigger fuck-you than anything we did out here in the Syntactic Cluster!”
* * *
As the staff planning session dispersed, with most of Kira’s people heading to the shuttles that would return them to their ships, the room eventually condensed down to just her and Konrad Bueller.
“This mission is ridiculous; you know that, right?” he asked softly. “A single mercenary squadron against the Crest. Relying on intelligence that could damn us all if it’s even slightly wrong—and heading into space where we have no locals aboard.
“I checked,” he noted. “We have people from sixty-eight different home planets in Memorial Force, but none of them are the Crest. We’re in unknown territory there.”
“I know,” Kira told him. “And, from what I can tell, we’re in Equilibrium territory—a system where a group of their active agents have taken near-complete control.
“But we’re not fighting any of that, Konrad,” she said. “We’re hitting a weak spot and creating an opportunity. Leverage, my dear. If we hit the right spot with the right amount of force, everything turns the way it should.”
“Or your source of force bounces and is ruined because you miscalculated,” he replied. “This is risky. If we get it wrong…”
“We bail before it gets that far,” Kira promised. She wasn’t sure how easy that would be—if nothing else, paying the Panosyans back would be a pain—but she’d do it before she’d lose the squadron.
“I want to stick a knife in the Institute’s eye as much as anything,” Konrad admitted. “So, I’m in, all the way.” He chuckled. “I’m just throwing an anchor out to windward, Kira. We are risking everything here.”
“I know. But Jade Panosyan definitely found the carrot to bring me in,” she told him. “There’s some risk around stealing a carrier in trials. Think you’ll be able to get her fully operational?”
He snorted.
“Almost certainly,” he said. “Depends on what I have access to, obviously. I’m assuming not Crest yards, but if we bring her back here? Yeah. Anything they broke building her, I can fix.”
“I’m planning on coming back here,” Kira agreed, but a thought struck her and she grimaced. “I’ll take a copy of that list of folks by homeworlds, by the by,” she told him.
“I suspect more than a few of our Redward and Cluster natives will want the chance to step aside before they get dragged halfway across the Rim,” she said. “Replacing them will be a minor headache, but I’d rather deal with that than have people in Crest who don’t want to be there.”
“Makes sense to me,” Bueller agreed. “Maybe ask the King and Queen if we can recruit from some of the RRF?”
“Maybe even temporary swaps,” Kira said. “I know we have a few people with family and kids here. Long-term, I’m still planning on home-basing out of Redward, but this will be a four-month journey.”
“Four months we’re not getting our retainer, too,” her lover pointed out.
“Don’t remind me,” she sighed. “I have an appointment with Admiral Remington in a few hours to have that discussion. Hopefully, we can negotiate a temporary pause on the contract and resume it when we return.
“But that might not be politic for her.”
Admiral Vilma Remington was the commanding officer of the Redward Royal Fleet and the person officially responsible for negotiating contracts with Memorial Force. King Larry was definitely known for putting his substantial literal and metaphorical weight on the process, but the signature on the paperwork was Admiral Remington’s.
“Good luck,” Konrad said with a chuckle. “We seem to have quite a bit of work to do.”
“And I’ve got another wrench for you, Konrad,” she told him.
“Oh?”
“We haven’t operated outside the reach of the RRF’s logistics network since we acquired the destroyers,” she pointed out. “We need a support ship. I need you to find me a freighter that can haul torpedoes, parts, food, fuel…Memorial Force needs a logistics ship.”
Her boyfriend grimaced but nodded.
“Am I trying to rent one with a crew or buy one?” he asked.
“Buy one,” she told him. “We’re not going to need less logistics in the future.”
“All right. But I’m telling you right now: I am not commanding her!”
Kira laughed.
“What, the power core isn’t complicated enough for you?” she asked.
“Unlike you, my love the nova-fighter pilot,” he said drily, “I like being on the right side of a whole lot of armor.”