Hiya everyone,
Chapter four, huh?!
I'll do some formatting work in a minute; I'm gonna play a few games of Titanfall for now.
I'm also doing a quick 3D-model mockup of the Austraeus which might be done in time for chapter five.
Otherwise,
Happy reading!
The IMC regulars stayed somewhat calm, the civilian crew members flew into a state of panic and the officers on the bridge began making plans.
"Good morning, afternoon, evening and night officers," greeted Captain Roberts as the senior crew members of the Austraeus entered the bridge. He paced as he talked. "Apologies for waking those of you who are scheduled to be sleeping right now, but as you may have heard this is an important matter."
He heard the last of the officers taking their seat and turned to face them. His sensitive ears had earned him the nickname 'Psychic John', and now it was his eyes that stared deep into the souls of his crew members. The green seemed to glow under the blue lights of the bridge, a glow that contrasted his unusually pale skin.
"Demeter has been destroyed," he began. "We don't know what by, but there's nothing but asteroids where it should be. The IMC can't send ships with jump-drives into the frontier any more and the Militia will know this whether they destroyed Demeter or not. They'll likely have capitalized on this. Demeter may not be the only IMC base to have fallen on the frontier.
We need to inform the IMC command that military ships jumping to Demeter are going to be either stranded with no fuel or ambushed by terrorists. We need to evacuate the civilians in our crew. And if possible we should set up a beachhead at Demeter or outpost 207.
I've never been in this kind of situation before. If any of you have any ideas on what we should do, now's the time to make them heard."
The bridge was silent for a moment. The tactician saw a chance to speak.
"Permission to speak, Captain."
"Granted, Johnson."
"Well," said tactician Johnson. "What if we were the Militia? If I were the leader of the Militia, regardless of whether or not I'd caused the destruction of Demeter, I'd strike as soon as I knew Demeter had fallen. I'd hit every IMC base on the frontier because I'd know that there wouldn't be any reinforcements coming to save the IMC. And I'd attack each base from the side closest to Outpost 207."
"Why?" asked Nina Soryuu, chief of navigation. "You'd have to go the long way around each planet – or perfectly time your jumps to land just behind each base. What's the point?"
"Because I'd want to scare the IMC out of their bases, make them run. I'd do each base the same way – lots of shock and awe. I'd fill the sky with ships, make the clouds rain Titans. And the moment the IMC ran, I'd follow them with a couple of ships and move the rest of my fleet to perform the same tactics on the next IMC base. I'd chase the IMC away from outpost 207, systematically fire a few missiles to keep them on their toes – and the moment they run out of fuel I'd fire my railguns at them."
"Ah ha," chuckled Captain Roberts. "The Samson gambit."
"Enlighten me," requested Soryuu.
"Newton's second law of physics – things will continue moving at their current speed unless an outside force acts on them," explained battle specialist Jack Ireton. "That means a well targeted orbital railgun can snipe a battleship from the other side of the galaxy, and that a ship that's out of fuel can't apply a force to itself and thus can't dodge well targeted orbital railgun snipes.
IMC captain Samson Jordans was fighting in the Titan wars against a Militia fleet much larger than his own, but with less fuel. He lured the fleet out into open space with a corvette that the militant forces thought was carrying secret intel. After leading them on a wild goose chase, the militia had to stop as they only had enough fuel and Tritium remaining to warp back to their refueling station. Samson knew when the army would run out of fuel and thus predicted their course home, ordering his railgun artillery in orbit around an IMC base to open fire on their course in such a way that the projectiles would arrive as the enemy was warping through the area. Sure enough the enemy forces did attempt to warp home along the path Samson predicted, and because they'd only just left enough fuel to warp home they didn't have any spare to avoid the artillery fire. The enemy fleet commander, Vivian Shri'lek was forced to decide between dodging the shots - but crashing into the militia's refuelling station because she didn't have enough fuel to slow down - or taking the artillery fire. She chose the latter and her entire fleet was obliterated - by railguns four systems away, mind you.
Nowadays, The Samson gambit refers to any tactic relying on the enemy running out of fuel."
"Tactics the Militia would do well to utilize, considering that Demeter has fallen," added Roberts. "Johnson, you were saying?"
"Yes, Captain. I'd try and force the IMC forces to flee and waste their fuel reserves, and then train my artillery cannons at their position the moment they run dry."
"In that case," asked Soryuu, "are there any IMC forces left on the frontier?"
"We don't know for certain," replied Johnson, "but if there are, they'll be at the last base to fall, Outpost 207.
It has the facilities to repair ships, fuel reserves to refuel ships, ammunition to resupply ships, and some enormous stationary defense cannons to take down any enemy ships that show up. Any ships with the capability to warp and commanders smart enough to order them to do so will have abandoned their posts and jumped to outpost 207. Geologists – how long has it been since Demeter was destroyed?"
A tall, thin man with a straggly beard answered. "Judging by the radiation from it's core, we'd estimate between 2000 – 3500 hours."
"Great," muttered Johnson. "If anything, the IMC will be holding off the Militia at outpost 207, and I'd say they're probably running low on supplies. If 207 falls, the Militia will own the frontier. It'll be nigh on impossible for the IMC to take it back.
We have some unique opportunities. The Militia doesn't know we're coming. They have absolutely no clue that we're here. They expect IMC ships to be holed up at outpost 207 or to be arriving fuel less at Demeter. Speaking of which, that's another thing I'd do if I were leading the Militia – set up an ambush at Demeter, or at least keep it under surveillance. We've just avoided any such ambushes.
We can inform IMC command at the core worlds that Demeter is destroyed. The Militia will be sniping comms probes the moment they leave outpost 207 – but we're not at outpost 207.
We can trade with the settlers of the frontier to acquire resources to resupply our allies at outpost 207 with. We can find food and small ammunition at Venice 3, Fuel at Carlyle. We might even be able to purchase frigates and destroyers and space-space ammunition from Kodi Industries on Sorian. If we warp into outpost 207 with all that we might be able to hold the militia off until reinforcements come from Poseidon.
"Sounds good," replied Roberts.
"For now, we'll adjust our current course and drop out of warp near Venice 3's star, Solvenice, instead and use it to slingshot us towards Venice 3. We'll arrive about 30 hours later but it'll look like we came from New Tokyo instead of the core worlds. From now until we arrive at Solvenice we should direct all crew members to disguising the IMS Austraeus, painting new identification marks, etcetera. She's one of the two largest ships in existence, both of which belong to the IMC – we'll stick out like a sore thumb otherwise. We can shorten her by removing one of our centrifuges and some of the empty fuel tanks – even if we only cut off a few hundred metres we can claim that we're merchants from New Tokyo. From now on, we should travel under a new name. Any ideas?"
Mission specialist Ashley Stone raised a hand. "The TKY Shikinami?"
"I like it," said Johnson, nodding his head. "From now on, we're the TKY Shikinami. Anyway, continuing with what I was saying;
When we arrive at Venice 3 we'll deploy five teams to the surface.
Team one will be spies, searching for information on what happened at Demeter, where the IMC is, where the Militia is, etcetera.
Team two will acquire four comms probes and deploy three - one to Demeter, to scan for Militia ambushes, one to outpost 207 to scan for IMC presence, and one to Poseidon to inform them of Demeter's destruction and of anything team one has learned. When we get a reply from the two scanning probes team two will deploy the fourth comms probe to Poseidon to tell them what the scanning probes found. Hopefully Venice 3 won't be sniping comms probes.
Team three will acquire a shuttle and warp to Carlyle, where they'll take over the refueling control stations.
Team four will acquire a shuttle and warp to the Kodi Industries factory on Sorian where they'll purchase or steal as many spaceships and as much ship-ship ammunition as possible. Frigates, destroyers – hell, cruisers if they can find them. We will need them if we are going to be any help to our comerades at outpost 207.
Team five will purchase food, ammunition, weapons, body armor. Titans, if any, are being sold at the markets. If the IMC is present at outpost 207, the militia will be laying siege to outpost 207. This means dropships, this means enemy grunts, spectres, pilots and titans on the ground trying to take out our ground-orbital cannons. We will need to defend them. When team five is finished, they'll return to the Shikinami.
In addition, we'll allow all of our civilian crew members to leave our service and take refuge on Venice 3. We'll pay them everything they're due and tell them how to get a transport home. Even if we are destroyed at least the IMC's image will improve among the core worlds. 'We take care of our crew' is a good message for people to hear. We'll also offer to double the pay of any crew member who stays with us – because we'll be in need of crew.
As soon as team three has captured Carlyle's refueling controls we'll drop into orbit around Carlyle and suck the planet dry. I'm almost certain that there will be IMC ships at outpost 207 and they will need fuel. We will take as much as we can carry, team three will jump aboard.
After Carlyle we'll warp to Sorian quickly to meet up with team four. We'll then warp to outpost 207, team four will follow within our warp distortion. Team one and team two will purchase a shuttle on Venice 3 and warp to outpost 207 such that we arrive at the same time.
On the off-chance that teams one and two find that there are no IMC ships at all on the Frontier all teams will abort their missions and return to the Shikinami except for team three. The Shikinami will warp to Carlyle, we'll suck Carlyle dry and warp home.
Sound good?"
"Why do we have to steal fuel from Carlyle?" asked someone.
"They're a tiny refueling station and refueling a superfreighter like us would take almost everything they've got. That's bad for their business, they don't want to have to turn away other customers. Gives them a bad reputation. Usually we'd just buy enough fuel for a warp to Demeter, but today's not a usual day."
"I like the plan," mused Captain Roberts. "Johnson, I want you to put together a scenario. Run your simulations, do everything it takes to get this plan prepared. Tell me when you're done. Ms. Soryuu, set a course for Venice 3 that orbits Solvenice first. Thorick, tell the engineers, the builders, the architects, the grease-monkeys – hell, tell everyone you can to start disguising the IMS Austraeus. We've got to become the Shikinami as soon as possible. Ms. Stone, put together the five teams and command centres for each one. Ladies and gentlemen, I'll be frank.
We're outnumbered. Out gunned. Totally unprepared – hell, it's a miracle we're got all the spare frontier cash we're carrying, I don't know what we'd use to trade without it. But we're here, and the Militia don't know it. If we pull this off, we just saved the Frontier, and drinks are on me. Lets get to work."