saw wonder on the people’s faces, but I think that the quarg and lizards also experienced similar emotions, just I couldn’t recognize them.
I smiled a little and continued, “In all the battles I have named, we were forced to fight being in the minority, or, like near Kappa Ceti, with an enemy far ahead of us in terms of military technology. Then the fate of the entire war and the lives of billions of people and lizards depended on the outcome of the battle, and at that moment, we were obliged to fight, regardless of any losses. The situation is different now. There are no our fellow citizens on the planets orbiting Groombridge.
If we turn around and leave right now, no humans, no lizards, no free quargs will be harmed, and no military disaster will occur, which means we have to pay the price we’re willing to pay to win. For any loss of personnel, the commanders who have allowed this loss will be held strictly accountable. The General Staff and the Admiralty made such a large force available for this operation for a reason. Decades of war have cost us so much that it is time to stop losing the best of our races in battle. We have to win with minimal losses, or better yet no losses at all. I consider this to be a priority. You could use up all allowance of ammunition, lose all the boarding drones and the unmanned landing robots, cripple or even lose the ships, but I don’t want to see any casualties among the personnel. Any commander who will have allowed his subordinates to die in the coming battle must be prepared to be subjected to an investigation with extreme prejudice. I understand this is a war, and it’s almost impossible to reduce casualties to zero, but in this case the responsibility for them will be dozens of times greater than it was before. Is that clear to everyone?”
I awaited confirmation from the officers and continued, “Now, let’s talk about the enemy. It’s never been our job to spare the lives of the enemy, but there’s a first for everything. You are all familiar with the general plan of the operation, but again. In the first stage of battle, I only allow the use of special ammunition. All the ships in the fleet are equipped with them in sufficient numbers, but we have never used them in battle, so there may be some slips and different surprises. In case of emergency, I forbid the use of conventional ammunition without my order. Any questions?”
There were no questions. In principle, the ship commanders already knew most of what I just told them, but I still felt it necessary to put the right emphasis just before the fight.
“Torpedo weapon opening line in one minute,” told Admiral Fulton, “The enemy is deploying an anti-torpedo network.”
“«Invisibles» 1 through 25, ready for three-wave torpedo launches. Target of attack – orbital fortresses. Commanding officers, receive target assignment. Fleet, start deceleration, do not enter the effective range of enemy weapons. Supply transports, reduce distance to fleet fighting formation and prepare to reload the «Invisibles» with special warheads’ torpedoes. In case of enemy counterattack, a general retreat with distance holding. Titans, be ready to cover the departure of the main fleet forces with their guns.”
“The point of opening fire with torpedoes.”
“Fire!”
In planning this operation, Nelson, Knyazev and I have been racking our brains, trying to figure out how to simultaneously solve seemingly mutually exclusive problems – to defeat a strong and dangerous opponent who is unlikely to surrender without a fight, while preserving the lives of his soldiers and civilians. We were banging our heads against this wall until I called Jeff, who had risen to the rank of Colonel of Engineering and held the general’s position of head of my former department, to a meeting at the General Staff. Professor Stein came with him. The two of them worked together really well, despite Stein’s constant teasing about Jeff’s relationship with Lieutenant Yakovleva, who was literally playing the talented engineer like a violin, but she still knew when to stop.
“Well, young man, what do you want to bewilder us with this time?” asked Stein, cynically taking advantage of our long-standing acquaintance and his civilian status, which allowed him to ignore subordination.
“Ivan Gerkhardovich, let me be honest, we are stumped,” I joylessly smiled at the Professor. “We have an excellent weapon, perfectly capable of destroying enemy ships and ground forces, but it’s almost useless in a situation where we need to capture the enemy alive, and that’s the challenge we’re facing now. And we don’t have time to invent something completely new and start manufacturing it.”
“Well, we almost never have time,” the Professor laughed, “Jeff and I are used to it.”
“Fleet Admiral, Sir, as I understand it, these are not new weapons systems that we simply cannot develop in time, but shells and warheads to existing cannons, missiles and torpedoes?” Jeff decided to bring a practical perspective to the discussion.
“It would be ideal,” Knyazev agreed with this conclusion.
“Then we need to know if it’s critical for you to seize enemy equipment and weapons in relatively serviceable condition, or is it just about saving the lives of the enemy?”
“We are not interested in the quarg equipment,” Nelson replied categorically, “After the battles in the star systems of Ran and Kappa Ceti, we have more than enough of that.”
“What about the equipment of the toads?” asked the Professor.
“Neither. We already have their cruiser, even though it’s pretty damaged, but it’s not doing much good. We’ll get the new technology from the Empire faster, and it’ll be much more effective than trying to understand the less advanced equipment of the toads.”
“Then the task becomes much easier,” Jeff smiled, almost rubbing his hands with pleasure, and there were lights in his eyes that were familiar to me. The engineer liked to solve such problems, and, most importantly, was brilliant at doing it. “I don’t think we’ll have to redo that much.”
“Do you already have the concept of a new weapon, Colonel?” Knyazev who knew Jeff worse than I did was surprised.
“For now, this is just an idea, Chief of General Staff, Sir,” replied Jeff, it was clear on his face that at the same time as he was talking, he was already actively considering the thought that had just emerged, “and as I said, it won’t be a weapon, it’ll be ammunition. The point is simple: we must abandon the classic design of a shell or torpedo, which is aimed at penetrating the armour and destroying the internal structure of the target being attacked or at striking the personnel. We should focus only on the destruction of weapons and propulsion systems and, if possible, control and communications.”
“And do you know how to do that?” Admiral Fulton’s interest in the matter was clear.
“Of course. Theoretically, there is nothing complicated about this, although there will certainly be a lot of technical problems at the implementation stage, but I am sure that all this is solvable. Take, for example, a warhead of an anti-ship torpedo. What do we have now? We have a three-part combat unit. When in contact with the side of an enemy ship, a shaped charge is activated, burning the armor and allowing the warhead to enter. Next, almost simultaneously, the blast part of the charge and the cassette with capsules containing an active combat substance produced by the lizards are activated. As a result, we have a combined damage to the inner structure of the ship, which the quargs are not able to cope with easily, as the combat use of these munitions has shown.
It’s a very effective weapon, but what we need now is a very different result. If we don’t want to destroy the crew, a warhead is in no way allowed to penetrate the ship’s interior compartments, which means that it is necessary to direct all the casualty effects of its operation parallel to the side of ship and not inside its hull. Thus, we
