was a little puzzled by this start of the conversation. It hasn’t surprised me for a long time that Nelson and Knyazev are willing to listen to my opinions, but still, they were both my supervisors, and, in theory, they should have given me the task first, and then ask my thoughts on the method of accomplishing it. But since this is the case, let’s lay it out…
“We know too little about the enemy’s defense system, Mr Minister,” replied I, picking out my main doubt from the pile of thoughts about the upcoming operation, “Our scouts, even those equipped with imperial camouflage fields, are still unable to gather information on the composition of the cover forces of the toads’ planetary systems. Apparently, their planets and orbital fortresses have scanners that are superior to imperial models.”
“But then why didn’t they use them on their ships?” wondered Knyazev.
“I asked myself the same question," I nodded to the General, “I think this is stationary equipment, too cumbersome to use even on battleships. There is one more point. From the interrogations of the captured toads, we know that there are some weapons on their planets and in the orbital defense system, inherited from their ancestors. All this is so classified that even the commanders of warships can’t properly describe these weapons and their capabilities. Their fleet commander, of course, had this information, but he died in the Delta Trianguli system with his flagship.”
“So we may encounter something very serious when we try to hit the metropolitan toads’ system?” Knyazev rubbed the bridge of his nose with his bent index finger.
“It is difficult to say,” I shrugged my shoulders, “the same prisoners claim that the state of these weapons systems is not well known. In their memory there have been no exercises on their use, which means that it is a perfect pig in a poke. But of course, we must take into account that this pig can be very toothy and clawed. In my opinion, we should not start with hitting the planets, but with reconnaissance-in-force. Since we can’t even send unmanned probes into their systems, we’ll have to go in with a strong squadron, not to take over the planets, but to find out the combat potential of the enemy defenses.
This operation has another purpose. As far as we know, the key toads’ star systems are connected by transport rings, or hyperportals, as they are called in the Empire. We need to find and destroy these devices. Modern toads can’t build them, and if we succeed in destroying the portals, we will deprive the enemy of mobility and gain a decisive advantage in this matter.”
“I see another plus in this version of the plan,” added Knyazev, who clearly liked the suggestion, “that such a strike can be prepared quickly. It would not require a giant fleet. After the defeat in the Delta Trianguli system, the toads are clearly short of ships, which means that they can only counter us with stationary defense systems, as a result, they are unlikely to be able to effectively protect their transport rings, always located far away from the planets.”
Nelson was silent for a while, and then he grinned faintly at the corner of his lips and abruptly changed the subject adopting an official tone.
“Late last night, a conference of the heads and top military leaders of the Allied nations was held via hypercomms. It was about our future plans together, but the operation that ended with the battle in the Delta Trianguli system was also discussed. Your actions, Fleet Admiral, Sir, were highly appreciated by all participants of the meeting. The President of the Earth Federation, the Senior Lizard and the Headman of the Quargs have instructed me to inform you of their joint decision. You have been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet by the Council of Heads of State. You are tasked with planning and executing a strategic operation to capture enemy star systems and force the adversary to surrender. During the preparation and conduct of the operation, the general staffs of the armed forces and the heads of military-industrial complexes of the allied states are ordered to give you every assistance as a matter of priority. Congratulations, Igor,” Nelson suddenly switched back to his usual tone, lowering his voice slightly, “It really is an honor and a great trust. However, you know it as well as I do.”
We had a meeting of the Chiefs of Staff and the Allied war industry ministers the very next day. I knew the military-industrial potential of the Federation and the lizards quite well, but the capabilities of the quargs really shocked me. After listening to Head Kosh who led the military-industrial complex of our former enemies, I clearly understood the danger we had got rid of by avoiding further confrontation with the quargs. Now I understood how the quargs managed to rebuild their defeated fleets at such a fast rate. Yes, technologically they lagged behind the Federation in many respects, but they far exceeded us in production and shipbuilding capacity. The amount of extracted and processed resources they produce, our industry could not even dream of. This is what can be achieved when the economy is fully mobilized for military purposes. About this I once told Tobolsky, but at the time the highest officials of the Federation were not too inclined to listen to me. Well, all that power was now ready to work for us, willingly and enthusiastically, and I wasn’t going to pass up opportunities that fell into my hands.
According to my calculations, ten to 15 Black Dragons accompanied by a large unit of «Invisibles» and other drone torpedo carriers would be enough to raid the toads’ systems. At this point we only had two Black Dragons, and they were under repair, but with our newfound capabilities, we could build the right number of ships in a couple of months. Unfortunately, the discontinued supply of components from the Empire reduced the combat characteristics of the new ships somewhat, but just somewhat, because we were already quite capable of producing the protective field generators and plasma weapons ourselves, albeit less advanced than the Imperial ones.
The situation was worse with the camouflage field generators. We managed to get quite a few of these generators from the Empire, enough to equip many dozens of ships, but we also used imperial generators for drone torpedoes, and torpedoes, as you know, are disposable. So now the torpedoes will inevitably have to be equipped with camouflage devices of our own making, which were very inferior to the imperial ones, and that meant their consumption will be much higher than in the last battle. However, I planned to solve this problem by using giant quarg aircraft carriers as torpedo carriers.
The quargs were also to take over 70 percent of the torpedo production. The Federation was left with the sole responsibility of manufacturing electronic warfare systems and warheads with disposable plasma weapons. The lizards supplied the auxiliary engines, and everything else, including the final assembly of the torpedoes, was taken care of by the quargs.
With this approach, we could have provided our entire fleet with torpedoes in the time we had left.
About a week after the first part of the operation plan was approved, I got a call on my tablet from Lit-ta.
“Good to see you, Admiral,” I smiled at the image of the lizard on the screen.
“Hello, Igor,” Lit-ta was very serious, but that didn’t stop her from addressing me by my name, “you’ve climbed so high now, so I’m tempted to ask if you can give me some of your time.”
That was an astonishing politeness for the lizards, who simply do not accept such curtsies. But knowing this cunning reptile quite well, I guessed that she was just slightly mocking me, not maliciously, but just for fun.
“I always have time for you, Lit-ta, you know that,” I grinned back.
“Who can understand you, people,” the lizard showed me her forked tongue, “sometimes you get so blown away by the career ladder that you become unrecognizable.”
“Isn’t that how it works with the lizards?” I was genuinely interested.
“It happens. It’s true, mostly in males, but it’s a rare phenomenon for them, too. Don’t get worked up, I’m
