Diem Infamia Chapter 16
The bridge was once more a brisk picture of efficiency, filled with crew going about their business. Stations rang with industrious activity as the Averof roused herself for action, every soul eager to claim the glory during the upcoming wargame. Officers went to their duty with an eager step, every face shining and every uniform fresh and crisp, they had an Admiral to impress after all.
Captain Mandas looked over the bridge and was pleased that all was in order. The crew of the Averof were as ready as they could be and he was sure they would acquit themselves well. They were experienced and honed by combat, every officer knew their duty and would see it done, plus they were rested. Mandas had chafed at the delay, he had wanted to start these exercises earlier, but the strain of preparing the ship for her hasty departure had worn the crew down and they needed to rest. He himself had managed a full six hours of sleep and now the wooziness of his head had faded and his eyes felt only slightly bleary.
Mandas looked up into the strategic Hololith and saw their flotilla cruising through space, the Averof and Spartan flying alongside the transport ships and Escort carriers. Further out Moirai squadron formed a perimeter, expanding the flotilla's auspex range considerably. The convoy was approximately halfway to Lesser Tectum and this was as good a time as any to run their training exercises.
The Captain turned to Admiral Dimakos, who was standing on the Dais, and said, "Permission to transfer control to the secondary bridge?"
"Permission granted," Dimakos replied, his golden face moving perfectly in time with his words.
Mandas accepted the command and ordered, "Reroute control to the secondary bridge, isolate Logic engines from the systems and set your stations to simulation mode. I say again, simulation mode."
The crewmen scurried to obey, transferring their authority to a redundant bridge buried deep within the Averof. From this point forward the main bridge would be fighting a virtual battle, seemingly real to the bridge crew but unable to affect the wider ship. This was necessary for they would not be stopping to play wargames and they could not leave the convoy ship unguarded, thus the following exercise would be played out inside the Logic Engines buried under the main bridge.
Mandas waited until all stations signalled ready then said, "Commander Grenfeld, you have control of the ship."
From the secondary bridge the first officer replied, "Confirmed, all systems running smoothly. We will keep an eye on things."
"See that you do," Mandas said, "Alert us if anything happens."
"Don't worry about us," Grenfeld demurred, "Make sure to get the first kill."
"Count on it," Mandas replied with a grin.
The Captain turned to the Admiral and said, "All stations ready, we await your order sir."
Rear-Admiral Dimakos stepped forward and gripped the rail, his head held high and the pair of servo skulls hovering over his shoulders dripping wax from the lit candles upon their domes. The Admiral waited until all eyes were upon him then called, "Call forth a random environment. Two teams, Captian Elias will take the Spartan and Moirai squadron to play team Alpha. The Averof and our escort carriers will be team Beta."
The bridge crew leapt into action, instructing the Logic Engines to generate a random environment for the simulation. Across the flotilla the other bridge crews would be doing the same, delivering each ship commander the same scenario, ensuring each crew would be seeing the same thing. Mandas looked up and waited while the Hololith buzzed and tried not to fret but a soft tread beside him made him glance to the side and he saw Commissar Kaath-Dousmanis leaning in to whisper, "Something the matter?"
Mandas glanced at the Admiral's back and whispered, "I never like this part, handing over authority to another."
It was a hard moment for any Captain, when a Flag officer came onto a ship. To have another man assuming responsibility for all their lives sat ill with Mandas but it had to be done. The Imperial Navy was brutal and unforgiving in its enforcement of hierarchy, an Admiral outranked a Captain and there was nothing to be said that could change that fact. Dimakos was in charge of the flotilla but in theory Mandas was still in command of his own ship. Dimakos had wider authority than one vessel, but still Mandas was not the supreme authority on his bridge and that rubbed him wrong.
Thankfully his musings were interrupted when the Hololith resolved into a new image. Mandas peered at it and saw a theoretical environment emerging; they appeared to be in a nebula, surrounded by errant power spikes and sensor disrupting fogs. The Averof, the Phylarch and Choregos sat alone, their rivals absent presumably lost in the nebula. Mandas took in the scenario and decided this would be a game of cat and mouse, with victory going to whoever found their opponent first.
The Captain called out, "Run out the guns and load Torpedoes. Bring engines to readiness and prepare for extreme manoeuvres. Divert power to the auspex arrays, sweep the area and find us a target."
Mr Avergis bent to the task, coordinating his underlings to scour the fog surrounding them and after a few minutes called back, "Power fluctuations in the nebula are disrupting our scans but there's a strong signal off our starboard bow. Looks like a ship, running fast."
"Excellent," Dimakos stated with the most excitement they had heard in his voice, "Take us at them. flight control, order our fighter cover to deploy a CAP."
The Hololith spun as the Averof came to bear but Mandas was troubled by the sequence of events. He stepped nearer to the Admiral and said, "Sir, this is too easy. We're surrounded by muck but that energy signal is like a flare, Captain Elias is too cagey to reveal his position so blatantly. If we go charging after him we play into his hands."
Dimakos didn't take his eyes off the Hololith as he replied, "The Averof has a considerable size and firepower advantage over the Spartan. Elias knows this, he is trying to move deeper into the nebula, where he can blind us, but if we catch up before he can run this will be over in minutes."
Mandas wasn't convinced that was right but he had no recourse but to obey. The Admiral had given his orders. The Captain stepped back and called, "Stand by to engage, cycle the void shields and have the guns blessed again."
Mr Fotrum called back, "All weapons ready Captain, but this muck will throw off our aim. Recommend we close to point-blank range before firing."
Mandas accepted this but inside he was troubled, Elias was an experienced Captain and this was far too easy. He wanted to reduce speed and send out a Fury squadron to probe ahead, but couldn't question the Admiral's orders, it would undermine his authority. Mandas had to remind himself they were here to impress this man, questioning him would certainly not be a good way to start, so the Captain bit his tongue and kept stum. Dimakos seemed oblivious to his worry and remarked, "This is just like the battle of Matalla, hunting Demiurg miners who dared to poach Imperial asteroids. They were wily foes, but I flushed them out and burned them bow to stern. Let me show you how I did it, fire two torpedoes at that contact."
Mandas wanted to protest that this plan would give away their position, but he swallowed his retort and called, "Mr Fotrum, two torpedoes if you please, beat the quarry out of cover."
"Aye, aye sir," came the reply and then there was a blip as the Averof's logic engines simulated a launch. The pair of icons shot away into the murky haze of the nebula, vanishing into swirling fogs. A heartbeat later Avergis called out, "Energy spike! Looks like a ship turning hard, something is definitely out there!"
Dimakos drew himself up and said, "We've got them now. They can either try to run or turn to engage, but we won't let them do either. Order all fighters to sniff ahead and paint the target."
A young female officer replayed the command to the Fury wing and Mandas saw the 171st dash away, racing ahead of the Averof. Fury interceptors were designed to fight other strike craft, their feeble armaments would make no impression upon the meters thick armour of a starship, but they could track the quarry and make sure she could not evade the far larger guns of the Averof. Victory seemed certain, yet this was all too easy and Mandas was convinced something was off. He was sure Dimakos was making a mistake but he could not say so. Every fibre of his being urged him to say something, but all he could do was sweat as the Admiral waited for word from the scouting fighters. After two minutes the flight controller called out, "Contact! Fighters have seen the Spartan; she's coming to about to engage us."
Dimakos grinned as the Hololith blazed with a new icon and he exclaimed, "This is it, we will take her in one pass."
But Mandas' guts were falling for he had seen what the Admiral had not and he yelped, "The Spartan, she's on her own. Where are her escorts? Where is Moirai squadron?!"
Suddenly Avergis leapt up and shouted, "New contacts! New contacts, we have escorts coming out of the nebula at 000 mark 250 degrees… It's Moirai squadron!"
Mandas saw five Cobra destroyers emerging right above the Averof, attacking from a dorsal vector. They were coming in hard and their torpedo tubes were already gaping open. The Captain exclaimed in horror, "The Spartan drew us into a trap, she lured us into position for a torpedo run! Admiral what are your orders?"
Dimakos didn't reply, merely standing there staring at the Hololith. His mouth opened and closed silently and in his eyes was the mark of panic and confusion. He had frozen, Mandas realised, the Admiral had been caught off guard and had frozen in the midst of combat. He was locked in indecision, unable to process what he was seeing and was lost in denial. Mandas had seen this in younger officers but he had been able to shout them into action, but Dimakos was the Admiral, no mere Captain could overrule him.
Suddenly Commissar Kaath-Dousmanis stepped up and yelled, "We must recall the fighters!"
Mandas saw it was futile and spat, "It's too late, they are too far away."
Indeed Moirai squadron was already launching their salvo, ten torpedoes hurtling out of the launch tubes on pillars of plasma wash. The deadly missiles dove upon the Averof and all Mandas could shout was, "Point defence turrets open fire. All hands brace for impact!"
The crew raced to obey but it was already too late, the torpedoes had crossed the distance and begun their final run. Sprays of turret fire lanced upwards and billowed into clouds of flak, trying to swat them from the sky, but it was too little, too late. The cylinders were bigger than gunships and crashed through the clouds of defensive fire to fall upon the Averof, slamming into the hull before detonating in brilliant balls of plasma. Alarms wailed and consoles flashed as the Logic Engines calculated the damage, determining how badly the cruiser would have been hit.
Mandas slumped as rows upon rows of consoles went red and long experience told him it was bad. He steeled himself and announced, "We took five direct hits to the spine, four more missed and one failed to detonate. The superstructure has been damaged, shields off-line and life support is down in fourteen compartments. Fires raging in the port gun decks and the helm is non-functional. We're crippled and adrift… the Spartan can finish us off with ease."
The Captain turned about and saw Dimakos looking stunned, fear locked in his eyes and unable to understand what had happened as he stammered, "They were right in front of us… they were right there. Elias he… Elias."
Mandas realised the crew were staring in horror at the Admiral's panic attack and knew news of this would spread quickly unless he swiftly intervened. Were the Admiral to lose face on the Averof Mandas could kiss his command goodbye. The Captain drew himself up and declared for all to hear, "Well, Captain Elias has certainly been brushing up on his ambush tactics, that was a textbook feint. I thought he'd try to be clever, but he fooled us all with the simplest of tricks."
Kaath-Dousmanis frowned at him but Mandas glared him until the Commissar caught on and added, "Yes sometimes simplicity is best, but he won't catch us that way twice. We should congratulate Elias though, don't you think Admiral?"
Dimakos blinked slowly, seemingly regaining his senses as he stammered, "What? Oh yes… yes send him our congratulations. It was a good trick."
Mandas nodded as if that was high praise and said, "We shall reset and try again. Would you care to try immediately or take a break?"
Dimakos' remaining skin was sweating profusely and he answered, "Yes, a moment to reflect is needed. You carry on; I shall retire to my quarters."
Dimakos turned and strode from the bridge, followed by his customary armsmen. Mandas watched the man go and whispered under his breath, "Throne save us, he froze, he completely froze up."
Kaath-Dousmanis swallowed nervously and breathed, "I never thought to see a Flag officer, let alone the hero of Desoloia, freeze up in combat. What's wrong with him?"
Mandas felt overwhelmed by disbelief and muttered, "I don't know, but if we want to have any hope of salvaging our careers we need to find out what it is. Before the Admiralty hears of this debacle."
