Ascent to Greatness: A Junior Officer's Tale

[Azatol]

Chapter 8 – Out of Supply


To: All Military Personnel


The new Turnu Magurele light cruiser represents the pinnacle of power to date. Advancements in cannonry and point defense have lead to still bigger main cannon on this vessel. The Magurele supports four of these supercannons at an impact energy of 50 kilotons. In addition, the ship boasts three of the new point defense cannons with defensive range of 4000 kilometers. Ammo storage was also supplemented.

***

“The fleet is in grave danger, they are out of missiles and almost out of fuel, coasting back to the Nizzarum system, but the Amon’krie have shown they can still build warships, as another destroyer is on the tail of the fleet. The fleet is trying to devising some kind of strategy to fight off the destroyer with no supplies, but they don’t have much to work with.

Medias went into the Eskirk system to destroy an enemy colony ship, and so it is out of range. Within the coming month, the Amon’krie destroyer is likely to engage the fleet.”

“Why did they run so long before heading to base?”

“They wanted to clean up the Ashadra system before moving on. They know where the Amon’krie must be coming from now that the destroyer has showed up, they simply need to resupply and begin the campaign anew. Meanwhile, the Tarnaveni is waiting for repairs in orbit above the planet it conquered.”

Luckily, the fleet was not immediately attacked by that destroyer, and so the fleet entered the Nizzarum system, slowly proceeding towards the Amon’krie homeworld.

Yet more improvements to space cannon design forced a retrofit of the Turnu Magurele and gave it 20% more firepower. It was hard to believe a cannonball could hit with the force of a nuclear missile, but this one hit as well as the old style nukes in testing.

***

“They have no ammo, but the destroyer appeared from the wormhole just 500 kilometers away from one of the frigates, and the desperate fleet strategy was enacted. The Targul Ocna sacrificed itself, ramming straight into the body of the enemy destroyer and heavily damaging it, nothing else could get in range to ram the enemy before the fleet got its first taste of Amon’krie short range weapons.

While the Amon’krie did use some cannons, they also used a bizarre weapon that sent a stream of destructive particles against the Sarande 001.

Zalau 001 was now in range to ram the destroyer, and it did. The Zalau was not destroyed and neither was the enemy. Zalua was entangled with the enemy vessel. Finally the Mizil rammed the remains of the enemy destroyer, and neutralized it. Now the fleet hopes to avoid any more confrontations until they can get resupplied.

In the meantime, I have a question for you. Are you interested in getting trained in cannon operations?”

It was obvious to me, with missiles on the way out, that I should learn as many other specialties as possible.

“Certainly sir, do you have a training program for cannon yet?”

“Well next month, the class year will be out, and you will be available for reassignment. I’m willing to push for your posting on Turnu Magurele 003, which is due for completion two months from now. That will give you good experience in cannons, the best kind, honed in battle.”

This was more than I could hope for, the question was whether I could handle it. No one was quite sure what needed to be done in cannon operations, except for the cannon operators on the Medias.

“I’ll take it, sir.”

***

From: Colonel Dorn
To: Crewmembers Pai, Hal, Lea onboard Targul Ocna 001


I would like to offer you the opportunity of serving on the new light cruiser, Turnu Magurele 003, in the position of cannonry operations. I will be cannon unit leader for one of the four main cannons onboard, and I was informed the three of you were still serving on the Targul Ocna.

The Turnu Magurele 003 will be linked up with the fleet in the coming months, and transfer could occur then if you are interested.

***

From: 2nd Lieutenant Pai
To: Colonel Dorn, Military Space Academy

We are interested in serving onboard a cannon cruiser and learning all about cannonry operations, we will be waiting for transfer in the coming months. Currently the fleet is still ambling towards the Amon’krie homeworld out of supply, but soon we will arrive and be refueled and rearmed.

***

I must admit that I didn’t anticipate the size of these new cannons. When I was transferred onboard, I had a chance to examine the cannons mounted on the ship’s hull. They were enormous beyond anything I had seen in sea naval history. The cannons mounted a trajectory camera that was just above the cannon and showed exactly where the cannon would fire. With gravity out of the picture, firing the cannon was a matter of taking into account any movement of the enemy.

The computer could automatically acquire a targetting solution as needed, but skilled manual operation could account for impressive manuevering by an enemy vessel. The computer could only think in terms of current velocity of the target, whereas if you could outthink your opponent and find where he would manuever to next, you could deliver your round there.

I practiced manuevering the cannon to different firing angles. My cannon, which was mounted on top of the ship, couldn’t hit anything below. With the ship oriented well all four cannons could hit a target.

***

To: All Military Personnel

Advancements in weaponry and defensive systems are proceeding so fast that they will be incorporated in a new light cruiser design scheduled to begin production sometime next year. Point Defense and Main Cannonry continue to improve in effectiveness with hard work of the King’s technology team.

In addition, a new technology relying on exotic energy systems will be unveiled with the new light cruiser. This system creates an energy barrier that can absorb a rated amount of firepower before being overwhelmed. This shielding system will lessen need for repairs, as the shielding can be replenished between battles. Much practical testing and improvement is needed with these shields however.

***

To: All Military Personnel


Colonists in the Baksha system have made an amazing discovery. A bizarre weapon was found on a new colony in the system and sent to scientists who learned how to use it. It seemed to have no effect on ordinary targets, until the scientists discovered all of their mechanical equipment was dead as a result of their testing.

The weapon can disable much of a ship’s propulsion in one shot, and at up to 6000 kilometers. The King’s technology team is now working on replicating the design.

Immobilizing an enemy can be quite useful, but the weapon requires a large power source and won’t be mounted on any smaller vessels.

***

“Sit down Colonel, care for some Hzjar, its an amon’krie drink, a bit like tea. What with our logistics all coming from the Amon’krie on planet, we’ve had to settle for Amon’krie things. General Adram plans to bring a number of things from home after the war. One thing the Amon’krie do better than us is make Rum and Beer. They don’t make anything light, its all dark and potent, yeouw!

I visited with the General last week when we arrived, and the citizens were quite civil. In the countryside some riots continue, but in the capital city the General has made quite an impression on the Amon’krie people. They don’t seem to like their old leadership much.

Unfortunately, information leading us to the rest of the Amon’krie colonies hasn’t been found. Tarnaveni has arrived in system, and the general may call for volunteers among the Amon’krie people to finish off their own government. The transport currently contains 52 divisions from home, which may be sufficient anyway.

Meanwhile the fleet continues to limp towards us. Medias was involved in a brutal fight, and is just behind the fleet. Once the fleet is repaired and the transport ready, we are heading out through the far wormhole of Ashadra.

In the meantime, this ship is getting retrofitted with the latest cannon designs, 16% more firepower and 1000 kilometers extra maximum range on the cannons. Must be costing the King a fortune however.”

***

“Welcome to the Turnu Magurele 003 everyone!” I said to my old crew who were transferring over, “And welcome to the world of cannonry.”

“We had a chance to see the Magurele when the fleet entered orbit, those cannons are huge,” Lea answered.

“Well let me show you around.”

Each of the four cannons onboard had a control center on the second level, mine was #2. The room displayed the position of other vessels and computed targetting solutions constantly for them.

In manual mode a joystick controlled the orientation of the cannon.

“Like the missile systems, during war time we need someone in each control room at all times. This control center is #2. Firing can be manual or automatic. We will run practice drills in manual, but for now all live firing will be on automatic. It takes a lot of precision to hit a target at these kind of distances, and the computer system is good at precision.

Also, like in the missile systems, rounds are transported from a warehouse below which supports all four cannons. Unlike the missile system, the cannon is outside the ship, and so the loading system is different, none of the rounds are stored in these control centers. These cannonballs are significantly larger than a missile, but they are non-nuclear and so size is important in terms of impact. Despite their size, the cannonballs are not considered a security risk as the missiles were, and they are slightly less expensive as well, because of simple design.

In fleet operations with a mostly missile based fleet, as ours still is, we will serve as back up in case the enemy has point defense, and also we will destroy all satellites and incoming missiles. Point defense cannons are completely automated and use much smaller ammo. They are designed to repeatedly fire once they lock onto a missile.

When missile tactics work, the fleet is likely to stick with them, because they are less dangerous. Almost all close range operations will result in some damage to this ship. Cannon fire can’t be outrun, neither can the particle stream weapons the Amon’krie use be outrun. The best thing that can be done is to manuever erratically and confuse the enemy sensor systems.”

***

“Mizil will be scouting the neighboring systems of Ashadra and Baksha to find the remaining Amon’krie colonies. The Fleet will defeat any warships and planetary defenses then allow Tarnaveni and the Space Marines to conquer the colony. Satellites will be taken out by our trio of Turnu Magureles, and they can also knock out any missiles the enemy launches against us.

We are trying a new fleet formation during this operation, and orders pertaining to it will be relayed to each captain. General Adram will be handing administration of this planet off to a team that arrived recently, on orders from the King. Adram has stabilized the planet, but the King believes much more work needs to be done before the Amon’krie can be productive members of the kingdom.

It has been 7 years since the Alba Lulia was built, which jump started the Space Navy. The war with the Amon’krie continues, but it is merely a matter of exploration now.”

We had been on the Amon’krie homeworld for two weeks, stuck inside the new Amon’krie Interstellar Hotel which was designed to support oxygen breathers such as ourselves. The Amon’krie species used a completely different biological mechanism relying primarily on methane, and the atmosphere was inhospitable to us.