2953-02-12 – Tales from the Service: A View From Headquarters, Part 12

This week we continue with the conversation whose transcript was published in part last week. As always, excepts from the recording can be viewed on our main datasphere hub. 

This interview was conducted in-person aboard the battleship Philadelphia in the Sagittarius Gate system on 2 February. 

D.L.C. - Duncan Chaudhri is a junior editor and wartime head field reporter for Cosmic Background.      

N.T.B. - Nojus Brand is a long-time explorer, datasphere personality, and wartime field reporter for Cosmic Background.     

K.T.K. - Captain Kenneth Kempf is the Naval Intelligence attaché to Seventh Fleet commander Admiral Shun Abarca.   

S.R.A. - Admiral Shun R. Abarca is the commander of Seventh Fleet. 

[N.T.B.] - Something about that bothers me. The idea that we’d sacrifice ships and spacers in an offensive meant entirely as a diversion to prevent Nate from attacking a third party. 

[S.R.A.] - I understand to a point, but is that not already what we are doing with Force 73? The offensive I speak of would have more concrete objectives that advance our cause directly than those assigned to that group. 

[N.T.B.] - Hmm... 

[D.L.C.] - Operational decisions partly based on what’s good for our allies is nothing new. I was only a teenager then, but I followed the Brushfire War almost religiously, and that was a big part of the challenge that made Third Fleet divide its forces, as I recall. 

[S.R.A.] - Indeed. Much has been said about the decisions made in that conflict, about the decision to protect Cold Refuge at the expense of immediate pursuit of the ships that destroyed Nova Paris. In the end, though, I don’t know anyone who was actually there who has come out to criticize the command decisions of the campaign. Not even the hothead cruiser captains like Bosch and Meyer, who spend most of the campaign bombarding fleet command with requests for more aggressive maneuvers, wanted any part of the post-hoc debate. 

[N.T.B.] - Bosch? As in, the same Captain Samuel Bosch who’s out there commanding Force 73 now? 

[K.T.K.] - Er, yes. You didn’t know he served in the Brushfire? 

[N.T.B.] - Well I’d heard he did, but I didn’t realize he was a cruiser captain even back then. He must have been what, twenty-three T-years? 

[K.T.K.] - Something like that. Third Fleet had very young cruiser captains at the time. Five light cruiser commands were held by officers under the age of thirty. 

[N.T.B.] - Sunfire. That’s too damned young.  

[S.R.A.] - Perhaps it was. Only one of the five was promoted captain anything larger than a light cruiser before outbreak of the current hostilities. Bosch, in particular, held the same command for more than a decade, excepting a couple of terms teaching at the Academy. 

[D.L.C.] - I thought that had more to do with the Yaxkin City incident. 

[S.R.A.] - I have talked to his previous commanding admirals, and I do not think that is the case. Regardless, whatever reservations anyone held of his suitability for higher command, they died when he held the Lost Squadrons together. 

[N.T.B.] - I suppose they would. But really, I didn’t know anyone was allowed to be a full captain that young. 

[S.R.A.] - It is certainly not common. The 2930s were a different time, though. There were too many officers near retirement, and not enough at the middle of their careers. Some commands had to be given to young spacers who may not have been ready. 

[D.L.C.] - Seems like that was mostly addressed leading up to this war, at least. 

[S.R.A.] - Yes. Wartime re-enrollment of reservists will do that. Sadly, enlistees cannot fill officer roles, at least not in any reasonable time. 

[D.L.C.] - I see. 

[S.R.A.] - To return to Mr. Brand’s original concern, we were inevitably going to initiate an offensive at some point. The specific timing and direction of this offensive will be planned with our allies in mind. Confederated spacers will not be sacrificed in purely diversionary attacks, but this is war. Many lives will be lost before it is over. 

[N.T.B.] - Yes, that part I know only too well. 

[D.L.C.] - What do you think that attack will look like? Do we know enough about the Incarnation home worlds for them to be the next step? 

[K.T.K.] - We know enough about them to know they will be a step, and have some idea of how to tackle them. But they are not the next step. 

[S.R.A.] - While we are still not certain which systems are the most important within Incarnation space, we do know that the distances involved are such that we cannot simply take the whole fleet directly there, even if we could guarantee the security of Sagittarius Gate in the meantime. We will need a series of secure outposts that supplies and reinforcements crossing the Gap can follow. 

[K.T.K.] - This is all standard operational parameters, of course. We are not telling you anything here that our foes do not already know. The details, such as they have been planned at this point, must of course remain secret. 

[D.L.C.] - We should expect a series of short offensives to establish bases, then, and to secure them by driving Incarnation forces out of their own forward outposts. 

[S.R.A.] - This process has been ongoing for the better part of two years already.  

[N.T.B.] - Hausen’s World. 

[K.T.K.] - Precisely. Hausen’s was a supply facility for Incarnation forces attacking us here at Sagittarius Gate.  

[D.L.C.] - The enemy won’t just sit back and let you take these outposts, though. Nate will try to defend them. Take them back. Establish new ones. 

[S.R.A.] - This also is ongoing, but we are seeing signs that they are not replacing equipment or personnel as quickly as we can. The Intelligence boys think they are setting up a new forward base right now, but it will probably not be nearly as sophisticated as the one we destroyed at Hausen’s, because they will be unwilling to risk so many lives and so much equipment without heavy defenses. We have our scouting formations out there looking for the new site, obviously. 

[N.T.B.] - You’d think they’d be able to raise up a new supply depot out of the dirt of any world they chose in a few days, with all the nanotechnology they use. 

[S.R.A.] - They probably can, at least the buildings. But who will staff it? Where will its inventory of food, parts, and weapons come from? Not even the Incarnation can form these things out of bare rock. 

[[D.L.C.] - Rumors tell another story. 

[K.T.K.] - Rumors are often the product of fear exaggerating the facts. Despite having some advantages in fabrication technology, the Incarnation does seem by all metrics to be falling behind us in war production. If this is not apparent, it is because of the long travel time of supplies across the Gap. But their forces on the far side are suffering from the same problem, as they face the better-supplied Fifth Fleet. 

[D.L.C.] - That’s encouraging.