Open war erupts in the Republic!
The news arrived as fast as humanly possible to Empress Katharin’s workdesk. Imperial Spymaster Klaris was off-world, negotiating with a number of nobles about mining rights of a certain sector. So she summoned the Imperial head of military, Marshal Karl von Marbach, instead. The marshal had also received reports.
“Their country has been divided between the pro-war and the anti-war factions for as long as I remember,” Marshal Karl said with a flat smile. “I suppose it’s only a natural conclusion.”
“And so, the facade that is democracy unravelled at last,” Katharin said, legs up on the table—utterly unbefitting of an empress. “A nation divided against itself cannot stand. And their nation has always been held up by such severe division.”
Marshal Karl murmurred a slight hum. “I believe the question now is what we will do—and what we can do,” Katharin continued.
“We’re not in a good shape to launch a full-scale invasion, if that’s what you mean,” Marshal Karl said immediately. “Limited incursions might work. Since Marshal Tang’s faction is moving their forces inwards, naturally there’d be very few defenses left in the frontier.”
“Hm. I don’t intend to make war right now. I keep on thinking I should do something ... but perhaps we should let them tear themselves apart. After all, they did the favour of staying out of our own civil war, didn’t they?” Katharin let out a low laugh. “Once this is over, I’m thinking of peace. What will be the result, I wonder?”
“Marshal Tang is on the side of the government. She’ll win,” Marshal Karl said unambiguously.
“You hold her in such high regard, don’t you? I can’t fault you ....”
“That’s not the full extent of it. I also hold the Aten government’s admirals in very low regard.”
“It seems they lack a unifying leader, those rebels,” Empress Katharin remarked. “In the end, order decides everything.”
Everywhere in the Republic, the Armada was making good progress. Having smashed Battlefleet Ouroboros, Vice Admiral Yue Fangling continued to lead the Armada’s vanguard.
Meanwhile, Battlefleet Aegis had a major problem. All of its high-rank officers had been executed by the Aten government, leaving Rear Admiral Isakov the sole officer above the rank of commodore; he was the logistics chief, unsuited to command as he himself admitted. Furthermore, the composition of this fleet was utterly mixed; less than a half was drawn from the original crew. A third of its ships had been lost to the enemy; another third badly damaged.
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In response to this, Marshal Tang handed over temporary command of the fleet to Abbas.
“It’s easy to command a well-built fleet,” she said to her student. “Now I want to see you rebuild one.”
It was merely 10,000 warships strong. Abbas silently worked to recreate the fleet’s command chain.
Even though the resources commanded by the Aten government were vast, they were plagued by infighting and political plays. This was obvious as the admirals of Aten convened to discuss battle plans.
The most developed plan was that of Admiral Frida Agnarsson’s, supported by a young, ambitious Admiral Fattah. “Essentially, we draw all of them to one spot,” she said. “Here, in the Wettan Starzone, for example. We can spread false news about planning to execute prisoners or something. Once they fall for it, we can ambush and destroy them at leisure. Repeat this until the enemy runs out of fleets.”
Gazing left and right, Admiral Agnarsson saw no support arrayed for her. The reason was blindingly obvious. If the plan succeded, it would be her who would reap most of the credit. No agreement was made that day.
As a little side show, Admiral Fattah attempted an ambush against Marshal Tang’s headquarters, only to be brushed off with 30 percent casualty rate (“a young cat ought not play with old turtles, for his claws are dull,” was the observation of Vice Admiral Yue afterwards). The main shift in the war’s paradigm, however, was the activation of Starfort Almus, officially called Starfort A.
“Starfort Almus has been activated?” was the astonished reaction of Abbas when news first came to him. “I suppose with their forces in the Capital, they can afford to mobilize it ....”
Starfort Almus was one of the two major ‘flying’ fortresses of the Republic. It usually guarded the Capital alongside Battlefleet Aegis. It was a fearsome war machine, equipped with hundreds of anti-fleet guns, and numerous anti-fighter armaments. It was able to support millions of humans, and tens of thousands of warships.
Abbas threw his weight against the back of his command chair, eyes emptily staring at the space where his aide Alice used to be. “Anyhow we can’t do anything about it. We only have our orders to follow. Though, do tell the scout ships to pay extra attention to it. If any of our squadrons encounter it, by no means are they to engage; rather, they are to retreat and rejoin formation.”
It has been almost four months since the Aten uprising took place. Most of the coreworlds remained in their firm hands, with military law enacted within those worlds.
While they had to contend with the Abodemi government, supported by the Legitimate Fleet of the Armada, an equally immediate concern was the economy. The coreworlds import many goods, especially foodstuffs, from the outer worlds. Now that that line of supply was cut off, several worlds were starting to draw on their last food reserves. Pressure was high to finish the war.
Commodore Anton Zach was one of Abbas’ captains. He led his vanguard, two thousand warships strong. Young and talented, Commodore Zach hailed from a long line of naval officers. At a time when his commanding officer was in deep discussion with his fellow fleet commanders, he flew deep strikes into Aten territory. He was in the middle of such a raid when the space itself tremored.
Emerging like a behemoth from the black void adorned by twinkling stars, Starfort Almus stood unflinching. Its grey hull made of super-alloys gleamed murderously. A pinnacle of efficient, ruthless engineering, the cube-shaped starfort flung itself at Commodore Zach’s fleet.
“Retreat! Retreat! Get us out of here!”