Chapter One Hundred and Nineteen - Home
The last part of their trip back to Ceres was done in the dark.
With their better understanding of how Accord sensor systems worked they were more confident than they had been before about their stealth.
The Mars-bound fleet was on high alert. They were picking up distant pings, but they were more or less aimless. The fleet had lost sight of them some time ago, and now, as far as they were concerned, Day, Candle, Lullaby and Twilight were several thousand kilometres away from their actual position.
That was mostly thanks to Twilight’s own ingenuity. She was mimicking their presence with a few drones. The signal was faint, just enough that the Accord could pick it up and assume that they were trying to be stealthy. While they, in actuality, were sneaking by with even greater secrecy.
The situation as a whole was... not bad, actually. Dawn wasn’t having any issues keeping control over the Earth-Accord fleet, and they were slowing down with the intent of getting caught in Ceres’ orbit.
A few days later, Day received a tight-beam from the dwarf planet. “Hello, everyone. Welcome home,” The Weeping of Mothers sent.
“It’s nice to be back,” Day replied. It was the truth too. Ceres was safe. Letting the enemy know about it would be a shame, but it was also one of the most heavily defended areas in the Sol system. If the remaining fleet charged their location, they’d soon find themselves attacked by drones and mines and hidden gun emplacements. Not to mention whatever The Weeping of Mothers could fabricate in a hurry.
Ceres would never hold up against a prolonged attack, but Day suspected that The Weeping of Mothers’ core was buried so deep into the dwarf planet that it would take more concentrated firepower form a large Accord fleet to destroy it than was reasonable to expect.
It was the hard cornerstone that they could rely on, not that it was undefeatable or impenetrable.
“Can you send me a list of needed repairs? I’ll start fabricating what I can. Get into a tighter orbit if you have the manoeuvrability to manage it and anything that needs fixing. Also, let me know what happened, please?”
Day sent everything over, including a report of the entire campaign. It had taken a couple of months to remove one fleet, and she expected it to take longer to tackle the next. But that could wait. The Mars-bound fleet could stew in their own worry for a while.
“You took a beating, Candle,” the Weeping of Mothers said.
“Eh, it’s not that bad. I came out on top, didn’t I?” Candle asked. The pride she had was tinging every word. Not that Day minded much. With Candle’s history, it was probably for the best that she regained some lost pride by defeating the Accord so soundly.
As they settled into a tighter orbit around Ceres, Day felt the familiar connection with The Weeping of Mothers stabilise. It was like coming home, the intricate mesh of connections and systems welcoming her back with easy familiarity. In an instant, her core was tied to Ceres, and it felt like the entire world was assessing her and seeing how it could help.
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“Can we get started on the repairs?” Candle asked. “I want to get back into the thick of it.”
“We won’t waste any time,” The Weeping of Mothers replied. “But we’re not in a race either. The Accord are here, but I think we’ve proven that we’re their match. Well done, by the way.”
“We did alright,” Twilight said. “But it was still too close. We’re behind them in a few ways, and without a major strategic advantage, I’d say we’re still way too close to being matched one-to-one.”
Day silently agreed. She looked forward to the distant day when each ERF ship could punch far above its weight class, but for now, their punching wasn’t aimed quite that high.
“Let’s start working on tipping those scales, then,” The Weeping of Mothers said. “What do we need right now? Is there anything we could improve upon that wouldn’t have a long development cycle?”
“We all need to upgrade our French drives as much as we can,” Day said. “Mobility is more important than I think I initially realized.”
“Point defence,” Lullaby added.
“Right, that too,” Day agreed. “We need more, and better. The Accord’s missiles aren’t a joke, and I think what we faced was far from their best showing. If they get close enough, they can oversaturate our current point-defence systems with relative ease, then just pick us off.”
“I’d like better repair systems too,” Candle said. She shared a report. It wasn’t much, seeing as she only had limited experience to draw it from, but it was enough to paint a picture. Her repairs had taken longer than they should have, and her on-the-fly repairs were entirely insufficient to keep her going in the middle of a fight.
“More, better, or both?” The Weeping of Mothers asked.
“Both would be nice,” Candle said. “But if we can’t manage that, then more will have to do.”
“We need more logistical support too,” Day said. “Running out of torpedos before the battle was over was painful. I’m not exactly topped up on fuel or ammo for my point defence weapons either.
“Ah, logistics, the unglamorous but indispensable backbone of war,” The Weeping of Mothers mused. “The Accord’s system of fleet composition actually make a fair amount of sense, with one logistical ship linked to every destroyer in the fleet. We might want to copy our enemy in this case. Or used automated drones to carry supplies for us. I can see pros and cons for both.”
“Either would be a significant help,” Day said. “We can’t afford another engagement where we run low on essentials.”
“Let’s start with the point-defence systems,” she said. “And then work on temporary fixes for everything else.”
Day relaxed. It truly was good to be home.
***