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The Admiral and the Empress
24. The Dawn of a New Age

24. The Dawn of a New Age

Hundreds of thousands of beams of light were exchanged, but at such long ranges, the damage had been minimal on both sides. After ten minutes of steady fighting, Marshal Karl gave his approval for the plan by a light signal.

“Alright!” Scarnhorst exclaimed, standing up from her command chair. A cool flame was burning around her; a controlled yet overwhelming passion. “Sixth Fleet, advance at full speed!”

“Advance!” Marshal Karl ordered. Almost ninety thousand warships charged in unison. Thompson’s Second Fleet lagged behind, however.

So majestic was the march of the Loyalist warships that the Tollerwald forces grew desperate, despite their numerical advantage. The Starlight retreated some 120,000 kilometres, away from the fiercest fighting. “If we don’t do something, they’ll destroy us! Attack with everything we have! Attack! Attack!”

Vigor and maniacal energy could often turn the tables on logic and cold, rational tactics, and Marshal Karl knew it. Admiral Valentina’s First Fleet was committed to the battle only half an hour later, and together with the other fleets, formed a thick wall against the attack.

“This is where we must hold firm. Don’t flinch from their firepower!” Marshal Karl ordered. Then, in a lower voice, he whispered to himself. “Perhaps you know a thing or two, Dortmund.”

Admiral Dortmund ordered his forces to concentrate on whittling away the wall that his opponent has created before him. “We outnumber them. We will bury them, ship for ship!” he said, galvanizing his soldiers.

That was when Vice Admiral Thompson’s Second Fleet, which was around 80,000 kilometres behind the other fleets, abruptly retreated. An urgent communique, which ‘leaked’ from Marshal Karl’s flagship, flew:

“Vice Admiral Thompson, why are you retreating? You’re jeopardizing our formation. Advance immediately, and rejoin the formation!”

“Now!” Dortmund ordered excitedly. “Deploy all reserves, push on our right flank!” The reserve forces were led by Vice Admiral Hohenlohe, a marquis.

Looks like your well of luck has dried, Marbach!

“Contact Radbruch. Tell him to wring the life out of the enemy’s neck,” Marshal Karl ordered with a firm nod. “This flagship will push forward alongside the center and right fleets, and widen the gap between the enemy’s forces.”

As the Tollerwald warships rushed to engage Thompson’s retreating fleet, the latter artfully turned around and stood his ground. “Hold the line, don’t let them pass!” Thompson ordered from the bridge of his flagship. “Send in the starfighters, engage them in close combat!”

Vice Admiral Hohenlohe tried pushing forward, but Thompson held firm. Ships went up in flames, bringing their crew to Thanatos’ embrace. Starfighters launched out of their motherships from both sides. At one point Hohenlohe managed to breach Thompson’s left wing, but this gap was rapidly filled. Hohenlohe might be a noble, but he was a notch better than his peers; he was able to keep even with the young star.

With Hohenlohe fully in combat, the Loyalists executed their stratagem. Radbruch’s Fifth Fleet charged like a horde of wild bulls, crashing against the right wing of Hohenlohe’s fleet. At this point Valentina’s First Fleet withdrew from the main formation and attacked the left wing of Hohenlohe’s fleet. Hohenlohe found himself assailed from three sides.

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Meanwhile, Karl launched a frontal attack that Dortmund was barely able to fend off to distract him from the carnage that was happening to Hohenlohe. He sighed and turned to Holm. “And here lies the weakness of our young comrades’ tactical planning, which we will have to compensate with individual fleet strength.”

Karl glanced at Holm, who looked pensively at nothing in particular. “They have a temporary numerical advantage. If they use all their resources now ....”

“Precisely,” Karl said, nodding in satisfaction. “It would require the enemy commander to realize the thinning of our lines, and quick fleet maneuvers; thankfully those two factors seem to elude them.”

He then turned to his communication officers. “Send shuttles to the Empress’ fleet with this message: ‘be ready to join the main formation at moment’s notice’.”

Eventually, the combined efforts of the First, Second, and Fifth Fleets decimated Hohenlohe’s fleet to around two-thirds of its original numbers. A difficult decision was dawning upon Hohenlohe. Continue fighting and hope for reinforcements, try to break through the fleet in front of him, or withdraw and take casualties?

“Why aren’t reinforcements arriving?” Hohenlohe cursed out loud. “Can Supreme Command not see the situation we’re in?”

Neither Hohenlohe nor the Loyalist commanders could’ve known, but an internal dispute between Admiral Dortmund and Duke Gerlach were brewing. Admiral Dortmund had, in fact, spotted the same weakness that Marhal Karl had highlighted, but was unable to commit forces directly under Duke Gerlach’s control to the endeavour.

Hohenlohe finally took the decision to retreat. It was a difficult effort, but he managed to extricate half of his fleet from the carnage. Both sides were exhausted from the battle, and both withdrew some 800,000 km.

Two days later, combat resumed when the Tollerwald centre advanced against the heart of the Loyalist formation. “A frontal attack,” Scarnhorst remarked. “Are they still trying to whittle us down through attrition?”

“Hmm.” Karl was observing the battle from his flagship, and in a few moments had spotted the weak point of the enemy formation: Hohenlohe’s depleted fleet, deployed at the far right of the enemy. “Contact Valentina, and have her attack Hohenlohe. And have the Empress’ forces prepared to launch an attack on the enemy center.”

“On the enemy center, commander?” the communications officer confirmed; to him, it seemed far more natural to pile up the pressure on the right wing of the enemy. Karl merely nodded.

Vice Admiral Valentina of the First Fleet was a young prodigy; rather than something so simple and unsophisticated as a frontal assault, she battered Hohenlohe’s fleet on several points, forcing Hohenlohe to spread his forces to those points, at which point she switched targets. Two hours of such combat and Hohenlohe was reduced to one-fourth of the forces he had commanded at the beginning of the battle.

It was only natural that Dortmund would shift forces from his center to reinforce Hohenlohe, completely falling to Karl’s trap. The entire Loyalist center, spearheaded by the Empress’ fresh squadron, utterly routed the Tollerwald center, and the battle was won. A hole was opened in the Tollerwald formation.

“Use everything we have, crush their center!” Radbruch said, pumping his fist, “there’s nothing left but victory and glory—don’t let the other fleets overshadow us!”

The Loyalists rapidly rammed their train of warships into that gap, splitting the Tollerwalds into two. Admiral Dortmund, whatever his other faults might have been, fought courageously, and did not retreat to safety. Perhaps he had realized that the battle was lost, and rather than face the consequences, decided to fight bitterly to the end. Or perhaps he considered it a slight against his traditional honor to hide behind his lines of ships.

“Hail to the Empire!”

was his last words before his flagship burst into a fireball from three missiles striking its hull.

Admiral Dortmund was the glue that was holding all the broken pieces that were the Tollerwald fleets together. Without him, a clear chain of command could not be discerned, and the Tollerwalds fell apart. Many looked up to the Starlight, Duke Gerlach’s flagship, for instructions. However, the Starlight had already begun departing, fleeing the battlefield. Radbruch, ever the aggressive hothead, wouldn’t stand for it. A squadron of nine destroyers were loosed after it, and the Starlight was sunk.

The death of Duke Gerlach triggered a severe loss of morale within the Tollerwald ranks. Empress Katharin stood up, absorbing the historical moment.

It’s the dawn of a new age!