Briefing on the United Nations of Earth
The United Nations of Earth is the successor of the old United Nations organization. It possesses a General Assembly and a Security Council much like its predecessor, but the composition of both bodies is somewhat different reflecting the fact that the UNE is an actual government whereas the UN was little more than a forum of often ineffectual discussion.
The General Assembly is the legislative body of the UNE with delegates being directly elected by residents of their respective districts. Each delegate serves for a period of six years and elections are held on a rotating basis with a third of the Assembly seats up for election every two years.
The Security Council is composed of ten members, four elected by the GA and six appointed by the regional governments. Members who hold key portfolios are almost always one of the appointed members while the secretary general him or herself tends to be one of the GA elected members. The most prominent portfolios are defense, economics, justice, and education. The colonial affairs portfolio was the fifth of these but since the start of the rebellions and the defection of the previous holder of the portfolio colonial matters have been increasingly subordinated to defense.
From the perspective of the Colonial Independence Movement, the attitudes of the secretary general and the secretary of defense have tended to be the most relevant when gauging the mood and intentions of the UNE. The current secretary general, Fernando González Pineda, is generally considered a patriot of Earth but a political moderate. He inherited a nation at war and has continued pursuing an outright military victory instead of a diplomatic solution.
Secretary of Defense Xia Jiang was appointed by Secretary General Pineda when he first assumed office to replace her predecessor, whom public opinion had begun to regard as inept and unable to properly prosecute the war against the colonies. One of the first acts of Secretary Jiang was to initiate a thorough house cleaning of the UNE military's upper ranks, forcing out officers regarded as either incompetent or too passive. Secretary Jiang has adopted a policy of continually forcing confrontations with CIN fleet elements but the majority of these have involved frigates. The core of the UNE's battle fleets have been held in reserve whenever possible and not because of any timidity on the secretary's part. All indications are this is part of a buildup in preparation for a major campaign against the colonies. Considering the strong support Secretary General Pineda has provided Secretary Jiang, it would appear that the UNE is truly not interested in resolving the current conflict peacefully and wishes to re-impose the economic and political restrictions that caused the rebellions in the first place.
Fleet Admiral Evangeline Kosygin
Commander in Chief
Colonial Independence Navy
Chapter 2: In Blood Drawn
As Reynolds climbed out of her fighter she and her squadron was met with cheers by the men and women of the Arcadia's flight crew. Reynolds waved as there was little else she could do.
"Ma'am," a tech greeted her with a salute as he approached. He had a few bandages on his face but otherwise looked steady on his feet. "Master Chief Petty Officer Harkens. The captain requests that you meet him on the bridge immediately."
Looking about, Reynolds saw dozens of men and women with hastily applied bandages. It was obvious Arcadia had taken a beating before Reynolds and her squadron arrived to drive off the Colonials. The way Harkens had approached her was also indicative of the holes in the command chain the casualties had blown.
"Thank you Master Chief," Reynolds said and glanced over at her pilots as they too disembarked.
The master chief chuckled. "Don't worry ma'am, we'll get them washed, fed, and tucked into bed for ya. We owe you that much."
Reynolds allowed herself a smile and nodded. "That would be very helpful, Master Chief."
Handing the man her helmet, Reynolds exited the hanger still in her flight suit. When a ship's captain, especially the captain of the carrier she and her squadron would likely be calling home said he wanted to see her immediately, that meant immediately.
Most of the other men and women Reynolds passed on her way were still in suits with entire sections of the ship still decompressed. The hiss of atmosphere could be heard throughout as that changed and by the time Reynolds arrived at the bridge the crew had removed their helmets. Reynolds walked over to the chair at the center and came to attention.
"Lieutenant Reynolds, reporting as ordered sir."
"Damn good to see you Reynolds," McCallum said as he slumped back into the chair. "I guess you really can beat any odds."
Reynolds nodded, waiting for McCallum to get to the point.
McCallum sighed. "I don't think I need to tell you how bad things are. I've lost basically all of my fighters and most of my interceptors and I was about to try sending out bombers before you showed up."
Reynolds winced. A carrier's usual complement included two squadrons of fighters, one of interceptors, and one of bombers. McCallum had lost two thirds of his light craft and effectively that many of his pilots. To have that many people under his command die would weigh heavily on an officer like him, just as it would have for Reynolds.
"To be blunt, we're short on ships and manpower. I'm contacting rear units and those that weren't pulled into the combined fleet to try to get reinforcements, but things aren't looking good."
"Reinforcements sir?" Reynolds said. "Does that mean you have a plan?"
"I at least have an idea," McCallum said. "Whether it works or not will require every man, woman, and ship I can pull together, not to mention a fair bit of luck."
Reynolds nodded. She had no doubt the odds were as bad, if not worse, than what McCallum suggested. At the same time they could not simply give up.
"What do you need me to do sir?" she said.
"I need you to act as my wing commander, Lieutenant Commander Reynolds."
Reynolds blinked a few moments before finally blurting out her surprise. "Sir!?"
As a captain McCallum was perfectly within his rights to grant a brevet promotion such as this. She was also only being bumped up a single grade and combined with her time as a senior grade lieutenant the promotion was not out of place. Command of an entire carrier's wing that came with the promotion however was something else entirely.
"You're the best pilot I have right now," McCallum said. "You also saved the lives of everyone on this ship so you already have their gratitude if not respect. That you did it without losing any of your own squadron doesn't hurt either. Now I need you to turn that gratitude into belief, belief that we can win. That's something we're going to need as badly as actual reinforcements if we're to stand a chance."
Reynolds opened her mouth to say she would try her best, but something in McCallum's eyes gave her pause and a few more seconds passed before she responded.
"Leave it to me sir," Reynolds said instead. "I'll make sure the wing pulls through."
McCallum nodded and even cracked a smile. "That's what I wanted to hear, Reynolds. I'll leave the personnel details to you, promote whomever you need to fill in the holes, just get me my wing flying again. Dismissed."
"Aye sir," Reynolds said with a sharp salute before leaving the bridge.
Once outside, the sudden loss of tension made Reynolds want to collapse. She kept herself steady though as she headed back to the hanger. The captain had placed a lot of trust in her, just as she was trusting McCallum actually had a plan to deal with the Colonials that would not see all of them killed for nothing. That mutual trust meant both needed to do their damned best to fulfill it and Reynolds had no intention of coming up short.
The hanger was still a flurry of activity when she arrived but the master chief immediately caught sight of her and came over.
"Ma'am," he greeted. "We've got your boys and girls stashed away."
Here was another man whose efforts would be crucial to Reynolds upholding that trust. If Reynolds' impression was correct and Harkens was the senior noncom if not the outright highest ranking crewman of the hanger, the master chief would be the link between the people that maintained and armed the light craft and the person that commanded those who piloted them. It was his job to make sure the people who left in those light craft had every chance of making it back in one piece.
"Thank you Master Chief," Reynolds said.
"Would you like to join them ma'am?"
"In a bit," Reynolds said. "For now however we need to get to work. Captain McCallum has appointed me as wing commander for the Arcadia and I'll need your help to make sure things go smoothly."
Harkens' eyes widened but he immediately snapped to attention. "Whatever the Commander needs ma'am."
"I want a rundown of the remaining ships and material we have," Reynolds said. "I'll also want you to attend the planning meeting I want to hold half an hour from now. Please inform the other squadron leaders that I want a general idea of their readiness at that meeting."
"Yes ma'am."
"And for the last thing, where are the lockers? I really need to get out of this damn suit."
Harkens grinned and waved over another noncom. "He'll show you the way ma'am, and I'll see about your other needs."
"Thank you Chief."
The next half hour passed far too quickly as far as Reynolds was concerned and she was still chugging down a ration pack as she walked to the conference room. She probably should not have spent nearly as long in the fresher but she really needed it. Adams was as busy wolfing down his own pack and he had two more stuffed in his pockets. The strain of flying light craft could burn a lot of calories, enough to make even standard rations seem palatable.
The other officers were already present and waited politely as Reynolds walked to the head of the table. Standing next to the master chief was another man and woman. Reynolds quickly identified which ships they were responsible for and grimaced. With the losses suffered by the wing, her options for force projection were severely constrained.
"Ma'am," Harkens said. As the only person who had actually formally met her, it appeared he would be taking the lead. "Allow me to introduce Lieutenant Tobias Kern and Lieutenant Gabriella Dubois."
Reynolds nodded to the bomber and interceptor pilot respectively.
"Thank you Chief. I'll assume the Chief has already told you who I am, so I suppose that just leaves me to introduce my people. This is my second, Lieutenant Abdullah Khaldi, and my wingman, Lieutenant Daven Adams."
The two men nodded, since they were actually equivalent in rank to the other squadron leaders. Khaldi would probably have been given his own squadron in a few more months before the recent turn of events.
"Now Chief, if you would?"
"Yes ma'am," Harkens said. "Basically, Arcadia's wing is down to half an interceptor squadron, a bomber squadron, and your own fighter squadron. We actually have enough munitions to last quite a bit, but we're not looking so hot in terms of spare parts. I've only got one extra fighter, two interceptors, and two bombers in storage. The ship took a hit in one of the main cargo holds and we lost basically everything in there. If we end up having to write off anything from battle damage, we won't be able to replace it."
"The captain said he's trying to pull in reinforcements from other outposts," said Reynolds. "I'll make sure he also tries to grab any parts as well."
"That'd be mighty helpful ma'am," Harkens said.
"Now, what's the status on the rest of my squadrons?" Reynolds asked.
The two lieutenants exchanged looks before Dubois shrugged.
"The bomber squadron is currently intact ma'am, but my own squadron is down to half strength. We'd shot ourselves dry before docking to rearm, but Arcadia got jumped before the captain could redeploy us."
Reynolds nodded. When ships landed or launched there was a window of vulnerability that an enemy could exploit and a carrier's own defenses were not perfect. As such, carriers generally stood far outside an actual engagement to act as a supply depot for light craft. If a carrier was unlucky enough to get caught with its light craft still embarked, her captain ultimately had to choose between risking major damage to the ship by launching regardless or trying to fight it out until the ship reached a position where it could launch relatively unmolested. Arcadia had been trying, and failing, to do just that when Reynolds and her squadron found the carrier.
"Alright, have I been tied into the command channels?" Reynolds asked Harkens.
"Yes ma'am," the master chief replied.
Reynolds tapped a few commands into the console and brought up the messages the captain had dispatched. Some were brief status reports back to Earth about the disaster that befell the fleet but those would need to wait. Other messages were more immediately pertinent.
"The captain's requesting squadrons of fighters and interceptors from Sixth Fleet to replenish the wing," Reynolds said as she read through the message, "along with more capital ships to serve as escorts for the Arcadia. Assuming we do get reinforced, we're going to have effectively no time to stop and actually work up the new units before throwing them into the fire."
"We do have simulators ma'am," Harkens said. "We could run the new arrivals through them with the rest of the wing on our way to whatever targets the skipper picks."
"Simulators are hardly adequate for something like that," Dubois said. "And our pilots are going to need at least some downtime between missions to rest, otherwise they'll be too worn out to fly when the time comes."
Reynolds raised an eyebrow. "Regardless of how 'adequate' you may feel the solution to be lieutenant, it's the best option we have right now. We need to get the wing in proper shape if we're to stand any chance. The tables have turned and it's the Colonials that outnumber us now, meaning we need to be just that much better than them. If I have to drill the wing until every pilot is ready to drop to get there, then I sure as hell will."
Dubois flushed slightly but made no further comments so Reynolds let the issue drop as she turned back to Harkens.
"How many simulators do we have?"
"Enough for two full squadrons," the master chief answered.
"Alright, according to the flight plan, we're twelve hours out from our intended destination. Once I get the mission parameters, I want sims set up no later than two hours from now. We'll run through them with my squadron and the interceptor squadron first and assuming nothing goes horrifically wrong stand them down to rest for the rest of the jump. Lieutenant Kern, I want you to start putting together sims for your own squadron in the meantime. We'll record my squadron's performance and use those to mock up digital versions for your use when my boys and girls are down. Once Dubois and my squadron are done with the simulators, I want your pilots to run through them."
The bomber commander nodded in acknowledgment.
"Adams, go with Harkens and give him any help he might need getting our ships ready. Khaldi, work with Dubois to work out basic formations while I get more details about our target from the captain, then we'll hash out the final sim parameters."
The others nodded as well and Reynolds waited a brief moment before turning and marching out of the conference room. She pinged the captain and was pleasantly surprised to see an immediate response inviting her to come up to the bridge. If nothing else, McCallum seemed on top of his responsibilities.
The captain was standing before the plot when Reynolds entered and spared a single glance as she stopped beside him.
"I hear you've hit the ground running," McCallum said.
"Just doing my job sir."
McCallum chuckled dryly. "Well, I have another one for you. We're on our way to the Thule research outpost to pick up an, important package. The Cindies probably know we're headed that way and I wouldn't be surprised if they sent a few ships to try to take the place before us. I'll need your squadron to move in first and secure the area before I bring in the Arcadia and Mercury."
Reynolds nodded, but McCallum was not done yet.
"Taking into account the possibility of resistance, I'll be sending in a shuttle of marines to take control of the station. You'll need to make sure they get to the station and then protect them once they are extracted."
"Yes sir."
"The only real question is how heavy of a resistance the Cindies may put up."
"Are you thinking they might deploy additional capital ships sir?" Reynolds asked.
"That's always the possibility. They've certainly got the ships to spare now that they managed to wipe out so much of the fleet. I don't think they'll send too many however and the Mercury should be enough of an escort that we'll be able to weather whatever they throw at us."
"Should we deploy the bombers anyway?"
McCallum fell silent for a few moments as he considered the suggestion before shaking his head. "No, if we really end up facing a threat bad enough to need bombers, I'd rather run than fight. In that case, we'd need to make a quick exit and the bombers would have a hell of a time fighting their way out."
Reynolds nodded in agreement. Her own fighters and the interceptors could at least make a run for it but the bombers were simply too slow and unwieldy. They would need support to escape pursing light craft, which would require the rest of the wing to hang back to protect them and thus slow down the entire withdrawal.
"In that case sir, I've got a list of supplies and equipment the wing could really use," Reynolds said, handing McCallum the pad.
The captain scrolled through it quickly, grunting here and there in acknowledgment of the requests. "That hit in the cargo bay really hurt us, I see."
"Yes sir, but Master Chief Harkens seems to have things well in hand."
"Harkens. Good man," McCallum commented as he downloaded the data from the pad to his own console before handing it back to Reynolds. "Alright, I'll see how much of the Master Chief's shopping list I can get. Won't be able to make any promises, but we might get lucky."
"Yes sir."
"In the meantime, I've ordered the XO to get you a data dump on Thule. If you find you need any additional info, ask and he'll see what he can do."
"Thank you sir."
The nod dismissed Reynolds and she turned to leave after a brisk salute. Even before she was off the bridge Reynolds was busy browsing through her pad to check out the mission data. According to the overview, Thule was a UNE Mark IV station that housed a major research project started up shortly before the war broke out. It was also shut down not long after the Akira Incident, which was a surprisingly short lifespan considering the expenses of setting up deep space stations. The station itself was now little more than a backwater outpost with only a skeleton crew to keep an eye on things.
The majority of the station's active defenses were apparently never actually installed, meaning there was no way it could possibly hold off a Colonial attempt to seize it. At the same time, that at least meant there were no major fixed defenses the Colonials could take over and then turn on her ships. That meant any opposition was likely to compose of mobile units, probably light craft and corvettes. Based on the distances involved, the only Colonial capital ships that could reach Thule in time to try to intercept Arcadia and Mercury were frigates so she had to take into account that possibility. A single frigate would be no match for their current numbers and even a pair would be manageable if her light craft did a good enough job shutting down torpedo attacks.
By the time Reynolds returned to fighter control, she already had a good idea of how she wanted her units deployed. The only thing left to do was see how closely they aligned with whatever Khaldi and Dubois had come up with and make adjustments as necessary.
"Ma'am," Khaldi greeted when he saw her enter.
"Alright, we've got some firmer orders," Reynolds said, getting down to business immediately. "We're headed to the Thule outpost to pick something up. The outpost is UNE, but it only has minimal defenses and if the Cindies push, they're likely to beat us there. In that case, they'll likely have control of the surrounding space and may even have boots on the station waiting for us. Our job will be to take control of the area to allow for boarding parties to kick the Cindies off our property."
"Excuse me ma'am, but do we know exactly what it is we're picking up at Thule?" Dubois asked.
"The captain didn't say and I didn't ask," Reynolds replied.
Dubois rolled her eyes, eliciting a frown from Reynolds.
"Is there a problem, Lieutenant?"
"Well ma'am, I guess I'd just like a bit more reassurance that what we're doing will make some kind of difference," Dubois said. "We just got our asses handed to us at Sybille. If the Captain thinks he's got some way of doing what the entire navy failed to do, I'd love to hear it."
For a moment Reynolds nearly succumbed to the urge to bite off Dubois' head and hand it to the lieutenant. Reynolds did not have a reputation as a loose warhead, but she did have a reputation for not suffering fools lightly. She was still not quite certain if Dubois was simply trying to cover her ass, a rather pointless exercise at this point, or if she was still suffering from the shock of the fleet's catastrophic defeat, and that uncertainty was the only reason Reynolds did not snare at the lieutenant. Instead, she responded politely, clearly, but sternly.
"Whether the Captain has elected to fully inform us of all of the mission parameters is a moot point, Lieutenant. He has issued his orders and provided us with what we need to know to achieve our portion of the operation. Collecting whatever it is on Thule that is needed is the job of the marines. Ours is to secure the space around Thule, escort the marines to the station, hold the space while they go about their job, and then see them home safely. As such, I suggest you focus on our assignment and not on matters that are not immediately relevant to the task at hand."
This time Dubois' face flushed in what was obviously not embarrassment, but the lieutenant had the sense to simply nod and keep her mouth shut. Reynolds barely suppressed a sigh before looking over at Khaldi.
"Now, Khaldi, why don't you go over what you and Dubois have come up with?"
The lieutenant nodded and began laying out the basic formation. It was simple and straightforward, which was to be expected considering their available numbers. Now all they had to do was make sure to win against the entire Colonial Independence Navy.
End of Chapter 2
It says bloody sad things that I'm so swamped with work that I can't even work up the focus to chop up and upload a story I already finished in its entirety. Ah well.
Honor as a story was meant to show more of the rank and file perspective, of the men and women actively fighting in the thick of things, so the social, economic, and political dimensions of the war took a back seat. The opening snippets are therefore intended to try to fill in some of the holes here, to show the perspectives of the people that Adams and Reynolds are killing. The developers only hinted at the wider backstory of the game, but it was never developed further. A shame, that. But it does leave me considerable leeway in carving my own image into the universe.