April; Iserlohn
Tanya
The primary command center for the Iserlohn Fortress was busy. Filled with soldiers who manned the various stations that over saw the daily operations of the Station from its power generation, to the massive Thors Hammer all the way to the always busy traffic control. Since capturing the Iserlohn Station and bringing it and its people into the Free Planets Alliance a steady stream of ships had begun to make their way out to the station and back to the FPA.
Most of the ships were supply ships being sent out by the military. But a few others were transport ships for the few people who wanted to leave the station and visit the Alliance now that they were citizens of it. I hope they see just how much better things are in the Alliance than how things are in the Empire. For both the hopes that someday in the future, when I am long gone. Both people from the Alliance and Empire can coexist. But for now, I will have to settle for some positive propaganda for the Alliance that we can use to convince the nearby Starzones in the Empire that we are not some backwater rebels trying to steal their homes and possessions.
But I am getting ahead of myself though how could I not? When I am reading over the most awful invasion plan, I have ever read. It stank of 'Victory Disease', a near terminal disease which had led to the Empire falling in my second life as it was dragging into multiple never ending series of battles that saw its strength bled out until its eventual defeat.
It was a sound plan in theory and had been proven in history. Make a breakthrough in the enemy lines and make a breakneck dash for the enemies' capital. I even did it before in toppling the Francois Republic in my second life. But that did not change the fact that things were different now.
For starters the sides in the conflict were different. The distance from the frontline to the enemy capital was further. The enemies' forces were still more or less intact despite a war that had been waged for roughly 150 years.
And that was not counting the likely thousands of personal or private militaries that individual High Nobles were liable to have raised. Going from what I have learned from both the database on Iserlohn on recent military buildup among the High Nobles and from what the Empire encountered during the Castrop Rebellion. Then we will have to face a numerically superior foe who if given cause to unite. Will push us back to Iserlohn. The forces of the Galactic Empire are just that much more numerous, and it shows just how lucky the Alliance is that the Empire and all prior Kaisers never took it seriously. Else wise things would be completely different right now. At least they did not take the Alliance seriously before. If the plan I am reading over is acted upon I can see the Empire taking the Alliance seriously.
There was also the fact that we had spent an entire month of rest and recovery which also gave the Empire a month to start making their own plans. I know it takes time to devise plans of action and get forces into place. But for a build up like this. You need more than a month of preparation which gives your enemy plenty of time to see your buildup of forces and to plan accordingly.
If I were on the Empire's side and I saw the military buildup on my border I would certainly be worried. But I would not be sitting there waiting to be invaded. I would be making sure my own forces were ready to repulse any invasion and making sure that the nobles in the pathway of the invasion were ready for war. But I was not an Imperial. At least I was not raised by them. But I did have a new advisor who did come from the Empire whom I could lean on to get tactical information from.
Myself, Ilia, Gale, Bruno, Avenir and Oberstein were all in a conference room reading over the latest tactical briefing making the rounds in the FPA military. One of the 'perks' from being an Admiral and the Theater Commander for the Iserlohn Corridor. Meaning I received notice of meetings happening back on Heinessen that High Command was conducting and one of those meetings was to determine the viability of invading the Empire and developing a plan to do so. One enterprising Commadore, Commodore Andrew Falk had come up with the idea to take two thirds of our pre-Battle of Astarte forces and make a rush for Odin to force the capitulation of the Kaiser and the entire Empire ending the war in a single push.
Holland was currently standing in front of a large display which showed the plan in detail. He was going over the merits of the proposed offensive. As well as the brilliance of his friend and likely ally Commodore Falk, who was also a Staff Officer underneath Fleet Admiral Lobos.
"Fleet Admiral Lobos as well as Admirals Munro, Riese, Lefebvre, Appleton, and Borodin have all agreed to the plan itself." I nodded and listened to Holland. Appleton and Borodin were once Vice Admirals who were promoted, and their fleets were assigned to my former subordinates. Appleton was succeeded by Euanthe and Borodin was succeeded by Manfred. I was surprised to see Lefebvre was in support of such a plan. I had been under his command for a time when I was a Commodore, and he did not strike me as one to embrace these types of plans while I was under him. There was a brief time when we were both in the running to be in command of a Numbered Fleet although I won out over him in receiving the 3rd Fleet. While he received a posting back on Heinessen. It would seem he got the better deal seeing as how he is now an Admiral after having stayed on Heinessen for so long.
"With them eight other Theater Commanders have agreed to this plan as well. Making for a full third of High Command approving of this deployment." Holland said proudly. "Fleet Admiral Lobos wants you to read over the proposed invasion plan before heading to Heinessen to vote on the passage of the plan itself." He said looking directly at me as if to say that Lobos expected me to vote yes on this poorly thought-out plan.
Younger me, impressionable me, would have gone along with this and in a way, I supposed I could. But a lifetime of being an Air Mage fighting in two worlds wars as well as twenty years fighting in a space war that has lasted for longer than my three lives combined. I was not going to agree to this suicidal rush to the finish without making some changes to it that I could bring to the High Command.
"When does the Fleet Admiral expect me to be at Heinessen and when will be the final vote?" I ask keeping neutral for now. Not wanting to encourage the man to be a nuisance.
"The Fleet Admiral wants you back on Heinessen as soon as you are done reviewing the tactical briefing. It would be highly appreciated if you made for Heinessen with all haste." He said smugly as he likely felt as if he were giving me orders as a Rear Admiral.
"As for when the vote for deciding on conducting the invasion. Considering the scale of the invasion and the proposed date for the invasion. Late June or early July is when the final vote is expected to happen."
"I see." I reply and look back at the data pad I had with information about this invasion plan. "I will review it at my earliest convenience then. You can tell Lobos I will be heading back to Heinessen by the end of the week Rear Admiral." I could see several eyes looking towards me as my command officers are looking to me to see if I would really go along with this half assed plan.
Holland then sat down at the table while Ilia stood up next. "Next thing of note, Admiral." She started as she pressed a button on a remote and the screen changed to show several Empire Ships.
"We have also received permission from High Command and the High Council to produce a small squadron of ships."
"How many and what types?" I ask.
"Twelve ships in total, all Fast Battleships." She tells me with a grimace as she knows as well as I do that we have very little in stock for the various parts needed to build them.
"I guess they want us to build as many as we can now. So our engineers have some familiarity building them when we eventually design and build our own." I say with a sigh. Though if we do build our own Fast Battleships. We will need to know how to build several parts that we are unable to replicate here inside Iserlohn and which the factories back within the FPA are unable to build right now either. It would be easier if we could replace or swap out several of the parts for something similar and far more easily produced within the FPA. But if we want to build more of these Fast Battleships. We would need to get our hands on the factories in the Empire that build the parts and maybe the shipyards that build the ships as well.
"It would seem so Admiral." She nods her head in agreement.
"Very well, I will sign off on the order later this evening. Do we have an estimation on when they will finish construction?"
"Since Empire vessels require more specialized construction methods that are not suitable to automation. A Standard Empire Battleship would take six months while a Fast Battleship will take eight months to build. If we go with how long it takes to build a normal Standard Alliance Battleship, it will take eighteen months to build an Empire Flagship. So for this order it will take about eight months give or take a few weeks. So at latest they should be finished before the New Year." Ilia informs me.
So if we live through this invasion. I will have a nice New Years present to turn over to High Command.
"Very well, is there anything else of note that needs to be brought up during this meeting?" I ask my gathered officers.
At this Gale speaks up. "Since you are going to be heading out to Heinessen. I would like permission to continue training our newest Rear Admirals." She asks
"If High Command does decide to go through with this plan? They are going to need all the help and training they can get. Send me the request and I'll approve of it." At this Bruno also speaks up.
"Speaking of training new personnel. Many of the former Empire soldiers who joined our Fleet have integrated very well with our command structure. While some have been surprised by the Aptitude Test, they managed to pass and have been given posts throughout the fleet." He said and gave a nod towards Oberstein.
The rather quiet and solemn looking man appeared to be rather worn after having gone through the testing. I could not help but smile a little. "I am glad to hear that. So Commodore, how do you find being a part of the 3rd Fleet?"
"While appreciate the confidence you have in promoting me Admiral and making me a Staff Officer. Is it necessary to have your officers and crew go through such hurdles for every promotion?" He asks calmly.
To that I nod my head yes. "I believe it is necessary. The physical portion of the Aptitude Test is often considered the easiest part by my senior officers. The actual skill, knowledge and leadership tests grow more and more complex the higher up in rank you become. Since your record from what I saw showed that you had been a Captain for a long period of time and further promotion stymied due to politics. I thought you would appreciate the opportunity for further advancement in addition to being taken into the Third Fleet as a member of my staff."
I did not expect Oberstein to do as well as he did in the practical portion of the test, what with transferring over from an entirely different military, mindset, and culture. But he scored well enough that I was willing to make him a Commodore for now and make him a Staff Officer under Avenir who I promoted to Commodore as my Vice Chief of Staff who worked under Rear Admiral Bruno my Chief of Staff.
"I find it helps to keep a level of competence and reliability in the upper ranks of my Fleets Command Structure. Lest incompetence be allowed to take root and fester." I say not looking at Holland. Whom I could tell from the corner of my eyes did not appreciate being considered incompetent. Well I didn't call him incompetent, if he took it to mean I was singling him out that was all on him.
"Additionally, soldiers are often more willing to put in the work and extra effort to go above and beyond the bare minimum when they see their superiors doing so as well." I add in.
"I see that is far different from how the Empire views promotion within its own ranks." Oberstein comments.
"The 3rd, 8th and the 12th are the only Fleets that do this while the rest do not. They will promote you based on other merits. If there is a position that needs to be filled. There is always someone there ready to fill it." I make sure to add in. I do not want him to get the impression that all of the Alliances Starfleets are the same.
He raised an eyebrow at that admission. "So a quarter of the Alliance forces follow the same standards as you do?"
"In a sense, yes. But each Starfleet is individually smaller than normal. As the 1st Fleet is the largest and holds the majority of all Alliance forces having to protect the many Starzones and colonies of the Alliance."
Pre-Battle of Astarte the Free Planet Alliance Navy consisted of 300,000 ships. With the 1st Fleet having the lions share for ships having 150,000. The 2nd Fleet having 15,000, the 3rd Fleet having 14,000, 4th Fleet having 12,000, 5th Fleet having 16,000, 6th Fleet having 13,000, 7th Fleet having 13,000, 8th Fleet having 11,000, 9th Fleet having 14,000, 10th Fleet having 15,000, 11th Fleet having 15,000 and the 12th Fleet having 12,000.
Post Battle of Astarte things look far different. With the destruction of the 4th, 5th and 6th Fleets and their survivors being folded together to create the 13th Fleet and the 2nd Fleet being savaged and in need of repairs, refit and a new commanding officer. The Alliance was left with 271,800 ships.
A quarter of the Alliances Starfleets may practice have similar high standards. But we only consisted of approximated 14% of the total forces in the Alliance that were not tied up in the 1st Fleet and defending the many Colonies and Starzones from piracy. Now if you did not take into account the 1st Fleet and its far greater number than yes, a third of the Alliances forces post-Battle of Astarte do share the same high standards and promotion practices.
Oberstein looks contemplative as he thinks over what I've told him.
The rest of the meeting proceeds mostly quiet and everyone is soon after dismissed. Though I hold both Ilia and Oberstein back to discuss the recent tactical briefing that we just sat through.
Once the rest of the staff officers from the fleet left I pulled up the invasion plan and shook my head at it.
"It is an ambitious plan. If I were younger and less experienced, I could see myself drawing up something similar to this. But as it stands. There is too much wrong with it and far to many ways in which our invasion can be crushed by the Empire." I start and walk over to the display of the Empire which shows a direct path from Iserlohn to Odin.
"A mad dash straight into the heart of the Empire. Hoping to overthrow the Empire and depose the Kaiser. It reads like something out of a holo novel or something out of the history books."
Looking at the map of both the Free Planets Alliance and the Galactic Empire. One would see that in order to reach the Valhalla Star Zone where Odin is. They would need to make five connections. A layman might think reaching the heart of the Empire an easy task. One that could easily be done in a handful of days maybe a week at most. What that larger map did not show was the numerous Star Systems inside of each of those Star Zones that needed to be traversed in order to reach Odin and each of those Star Systems needed to be secured in order to allow resources and supplies to be brought to the front. Making for an extremely long and extremely vulnerable logistics train.
"It will take a month at most to create a path through a Star Zone to the next. Meaning it will take four months to create a path to the Valhalla Star Zone and a further fifth month to reach Odin and lay siege to the planet. All while hoping the Empire does not send out their ace in the hole or their full might." I say shaking my head with a sigh.
"Oberstein, you once thought of joining Reinhard and his command before. Tell me, what would you do if you were him?" I ask and look back to Oberstein.
Oberstein looked at the map and thought over it for a minute. "Count Reinhard von Lohengramm would most likely encourage the nobles in our pathway to evacuate. Taking anything, they could with them, promising them the return of their lands." He started.
"When the nobles do this, the people will be without food or supplies and will view the nobles fleeing as normal High Noble behavior. They will have also prepared for such an eventuality by stock piling their own supplies beforehand. This way Reinhard can keep his hands clean from any supply shortages or deaths the occur while blaming them on the normal High Noble behavior and the invasion by the Alliance."
"Once we invade, we will come across these worlds without resources or supplies. Causing our invasion to come to a full-on stop as we wait for supplies to be brought from the Alliance. While we are waiting for those supplies. He would have one of his subordinates waiting to intercept the supply convoy and destroy it. Forcing us to choose between either starving ourselves or leaving the population to starve. At which point all he must do is wait a few days for lack of supplies and maintenance and a sharp drop in morale before attacking us with all of his forces." Oberstein explains.
"And what do you expect to be the outcome of such a tactic by Reinhard if he does decide to go through with this plan?" I ask him.
"I expect losses to be more than sixty percent of all deployed forces."
"And that is just if he decides to sit and wait for us. And doesn't have any support from the rest of the Empires Fleet and none from the High Nobles whose holdings will be in our path." I say with a frown staring at the tactical display.
"A force of 200,000 being taken by a force of only 100,000. That would be one for the history books." I say with a laugh. "Well, that is just one glaring method for Reinhard to ruin our day and he isn't the type to just intercept us as we make our push. Sacrificing himself for the glory of the Empire like any regular Empire Admiral might. No, he wants to crush us and do so in a way that leaves the Alliance an insignificant threat to the Empire for the next several years. Giving him time to secure himself and his power base within the Empire."
I then look to Ilia. "Knowing that our supply lines are our weakness. What would you do to secure it?" I ask her.
"I would increase the number of ships tasked to escort any convoy." I nodded in agreement.
"And what is the standard number of ships to be assigned to convoy duty?"
"Ten ships for every Hundred." Again, I nodded.
"How many ships would it take to supply an entire Star Zone?" I ask her.
"I do not know, Admiral. But I imagine it would take a lot."
"More logistics ships than we can afford to lose and all before considering the need to supply 200,000 ships and 30,000,000 soldiers. One lost or destroyed convoy and our invasion is over with. So how do you protect your convoy's if your enemy is planning to dedicate considerable resources to ensuring their destruction?"
"I would assign a Starfleet to defend it if it is that important." She states.
I nod in agreement. That would be the easiest means of protecting any supply convoy. But the convoy would need to be both fast and able to hide itself. Avoiding conflict for as long as possible. If only there was another Fleet that could be assigned to defend that convoy. As every Star Fleet is going to be deployed for this invasion save for the 1st.
"Oberstein, say we manage to defend the convoy. How long would Reinhard wait before he is forced to engage us?" I ask him.
"I believe he would wait until we are right outside the Valhalla Star Zone itself. As at that point he will be under pressure from both the Kaiser, the High Nobles and even Imperial High Command to do something or risk being removed from his post."
"What if we took our time in approaching Odin? Would the High Nobles and the Empire continue to wait?"
"No, they would force him to push us back before the end of the year or else he would be relieved of his posting."
"Meaning we can either take our time securing our lines and make him come to us or we secure a path to the Valhalla Starzone. Where he is only one Starzone away from reinforcements."
The Empires high ranking officers might not like Count Reinhard von Lohengramm. But if he ever called for aid or requested back up from the Imperial Navy the Empire would respond if he was fighting us one Star Zone away from Valhalla. While if we decided to sit for too long the High Nobles might get it into their heads that we are less threatening then they were led to believe. Meaning we would be facing both Reinhard and arrogant High Nobles all at once.
In a one-on-one match between myself and any High Noble response. I thought myself capable enough to best any of them. In such a match up against myself and any of Reinhards subordinates I expected to have fifty-fifty odds against the best of them. Reinhard though would be a different matter and would require me to be crafty. If said one-on-one were either of my former subordinates, they could also sweep aside any High Noble response and hold off any of Reinhard's subordinates long enough for reinforcements to arrive. And if they were to face Reinhard, they would have better odds than most to pull back and regroup with their allies to fight him off.
Vice Admiral Bewcock I was certain could handle any High Noble response and find a way to hold against or best any of Reinhards subordinates. Yang could also turn aside any High Noble response while also having similar odds as myself in handling any of Rienhards subordinates and if he were to encounter Reinhard himself. I expected better than even odds considering he bested the man several times already.
As for the other Flag Officers in the Navy. I was not so confident in their abilities. Hawood did not strike me as being able to stand up to any of Reinhards subordinates and would likely be forced to retreat or surrender. But if forced to face any High Noble fleet he would do well enough to hold and wait reinforcements. Al-Salem though seemed far more capable and would be able to hold off any High Noble fleet and any of Reinhards subordinates until reinforcements arrived. And finally, Ulanhu seemed to take after Bewcock. A good commander and Vice-Admiral he could very well take the older Admirals place in a few years with a little more experience. I expected him to do well against any High Noble and some of Reinhards subordinates but he like most would fold against Reinhard.
Really, if it were not for Reinhard, it was likely we could pull off this invasion with some alterations to the base plan.
Meaning I would need to come up with an alternate invasion plan or coopt this one and make it into one that isn't going to be a suicide charge into the Empire that will see us all killed. But I would need to get some support in making any drastic changes or getting approval for any different invasion plan.
It was a good thing then that I was going to be spending several months on Heinessen. Perhaps I could connect with Admiral Greenhill and work with him and his group? I'm certain they would prefer to not wind up being found in support of or out voted by those in favor of this abysmal plan. Ah, I should also make father aware of my plan as well. I'm sure he would like to know that there is going to be a second invasion plan being brought up. A plan not thought up by someone with a child's understanding of waging war.
"Ilia, can you setup a meeting with Admiral Greenhill please? I want to talk with him about this up coming invasion plan. I want to try and offer him an alternative to this." I tell her while waving a hand to the frankly laughable excuse of an invasion plan.
"Of course, Admiral!" She said with a wide smile.
"Oberstein, I would like you to come up with as many counter arguments and poke as many holes into this invasion plan that this Commodore has thought up. Then brief me on them all during the trip back to Heinessen."
"Very well." He replied with a nod.
With instructions given I dismissed the two of them and sat back down at the conference table once I was sure they had left.
I felt as if a great weight decided to settle on my shoulders as I took a deep heavy sigh. Why could no one just stop and take a step back? Did none of the people pushing for this invasion realize we were on the precipice of a collapse on a scale that surpassed any prior form of economic collapse seen in history. This was a collapse that would affect worlds not countries. If we pursued this invasion blindly and without consideration of established facts. We would be dooming ourselves to years of scrambling in the dark unable to recover.
Best case scenario, this invasion happens, we get countered by Reinhard and he sends us back behind the Iserlohn Fortress. Everyone who played a significant role in passing this invasion plan is forced to retire. Worst case scenario we all die and the FPA collapses. In either scenario the Empire simply has to wait for the FPA to become defunct and then come in to gobble up the whole of the FPA.
If I am going to be forced to go through with this invasion. I want to give myself the best hope for coming out of this as unscathed as possible. That way I could flee to the Dominion of Fezzan. I already had to go through the fall of one nation in the fallout of the first great war in my second life. I really did not want to go through that again.