13.798th Chapter, 5.967332nd volume, 6th library of the 8th city of knowledge, 7th universe, 974.593 cycle of eternity.
The sight of you recalls the grief's that locked within man’s bosom bide;
BALADA: The sight of you recalls the grief's that locked within man’s bosom bide;
by Solea Razvan
Copyright 2015 Solea Razvan
Volun 4, Imperial Fleet, Cornelia’s Flagship Skyfall, orbiting outside the newly build Fortress 224.859
Ealiupus 17th, 13:50 local Imperial fleet time.
“Now that the battle is over, I would like us to plan our next step.” Cornelia said to Gerula, Zulanasai, Husainus, Casper and Cuiunecas, they were situated in the flagship’s main conference room for strategic meetings.
“The first logical step would be to heavily fortify this position; the problem is what do we do after that?”
“Well commander, in my opinion the nest step should be a march on Galiana itself.” Gerula said to which Cornelia almost palled when that name was mentioned.
“Attack the fortress!”
“No commander, not attack, just march on it, then we say ‘Look, we stop the war or our fleet will attack your stronghold.” Gerula quickly added which seemed to calm down Cornelia.
“A vise strategy Admiral, but I’m afraid that it’s very unlikely that it will bear fruit.”
“What do you mean your highness?” Gerula asked the Empire’s spymaster.
“The Volunian may sue for peace, but the Federals won’t; or rather they will not let the Volunian sue for peace.”
“But we’ve defeated the entire Volunian Fleet; we’ve captured their leading admirals and smashed two federal fleets!”
“Exactly sir Husainus, we’ve smashed ‘The Volunian fleet’ and captured ‘Volunian Admirals’ not federal ones, also the Federation has a dozen more fleets than what we’ve defeated, to them this is nothing.”
“In addition to that, we’re the ones who’ve invaded Volunian territory and since we didn’t receive any declaration of war from the Federals, combined with the fact that we’ve just killed a ‘humanitarian effort’ to help the civilian population, I’m afraid that in this war we are very likely candidates for being the ‘baddies’ my lady.” Cuiunecas said with regret in his voice.
“There’s also the fact that the Federation doesn’t recognize us a sovereign nation, rather we are ‘rebels’ who have risen up against the legitimate and lawful government of the entire galaxy, that and I’m pretty sure they won’t risk the fortress.” Zula cheerfully recited the reason for centuries of war to those present.
*Excerpt, from the works of Grand Scholar, and The Great War expert Djanus Todomari from the Imperium Archives*
The battle of Volun 3, fought from Daliupus 24th to the 27th was the decisive large scale fleet engagement of the Volunian-Imperial war of 1894 and thus turned the flow of the whole conflict decisively in the favor of the Empire.
The stunning victory had not only destroyed the Volunian Navy, but also effectively neutralized any immediate threat of Federal intervention, since what managed to escape the battle was in no condition to fight.
This combined with Field Marshall’s Cornelia’s rapid call for reinforcements and taking of Volun 4 now directly threatened not only Galiana, but much of the Federal and Republican economy.
Galiana was more than a fortress, it was located at the intersection of the entire western galactic warp highways, making it vital for commercial trading and military supplies and an essential route for previous invasions of Imperial territory.
But with Volun 4 now taken, the Imperial’s now had the means to effectively stop such a vital artery from flowing.
The war was now for the most part won, but we had to be careful, less we lose the peace!
For the battle was a complete success, the economy would flourish and our then foes where for the most part vanquished, too many it seemed like everything had ended well.
As such it was plain for the few wise ones amongst the Empire that it was a recipe for disaster!
The most effective way to explain this was by analyzing the words exchanged by the high ranking officer during the strategic meeting after capturing Volun 4.
The Empire up until that point had never been acknowledged as a sovereign nation by the Federation.
Despite the fact that it was not originally part of the Old Commonwealth, which the Federation and the Republic was its successor, they had always used as their main argument for battle the right of governance, since the Federation like the Commonwealth, claimed that it and it alone was the only legitimate body for ruling all of space.
And that was why the capture of Volun 4 was the recipe for disaster.
To them and the Federal public at large, it’s loss meant that Galiana, the fortress that was the only thing that stopped the ‘imperial barbarians’ was now directly threatened , thus any and all reservations for the war where being swept away in a sea of panic and hysteria.
Also, it was by then clear for all to see that the Volunian-Imperial was would escalate into the Federal-Imperial war and with Galiana on their side the Federation had a decisive advantage.
And although taking Volun 4 was a sound decision from a strategic and tactical point of view, from a logistical one it was a nightmare waiting to happen!
The supplies needed for such an endeavor could only be brought either by a convoy which itself needed a sizeable escort, or by a small warp train which could not be depended to supply the full needs of the fleet and fortress required to hold Volun 4.
In contrast Galiana had hundreds of trains, a huge storage capacity, massive defensive capabilities, and on top of it all it had its own agricultural, industrial and military facilities, along with access to solar and other means for energy made it a self sufficient fortress which even cut off from the rest of the galaxy could sustain a fleet of 60 to 80.000 ships indefinitely and a sizable population of 18.000.000 without too much difficulty.
Thus even with the fleet in shambles, they could still hold on against an Imperial assault and if and when the Federals would send a fleet to reinforce Galiana, the combined forces could in a battle of attrition defeat the Imperial forces and outlast them supply wise. And even worse the Republic who up until that point had maintained neutrality would no doubt use this instance to further their influence.
We had gained power, now we had to use it wisely!
Grand Scholar and Great War Expert Djanus Todomari
Imperium Archives
Volun 4, Imperial Fleet, Cornelia’s Flagship Skyfall, orbiting outside the newly build Fortress 224.859
Ealiupus 17th 14:00
“Then we withdraw.” Cornelia said all of a sudden, an act which made everyone else in the room almost jump from their seats.
“Commander! You’re highness, you cannot be serious! You yourself said that we would not make the blood spilled be in vain!” Cuiunecas replied, which surprised most of the room’s other occupants , for of the pair of him and Husainus he was the one whose strategy and tactics where more similar to Princess Cornelia’s, while Cuiunecas was the one who always offered alternatives, so it was quite a shock to have him disagree with the Princess.
“I am very serious! I said that we would not let the blood be spilled in vain and so it will be! Here is my plan!”
“We will finish constructing this fortress and then retreat back to our lines leaving behind no personal except automated defenses, the enemy will no doubly attack it and destroy
the fortress, drunk on victory and fearful of our success repeating they will no doubt want to pursue and avenge their comrades, we will in the meantime withdraw to our lines.”
“Where we will have the logistical advantage, where as the Federal’s will be the ones with problems; why it would be impossible to lose that way if we gathered our other fleets in this subsector!” where the words that came from Gerula.
“Not only that, but we would have home field advantage and this way we would not be seen as aggressors against the Federation, but merely defending our territory!” Cuiunecas exclaimed as he too realized the wisdom in that strategy and was a bit embarrassed that he did not see it coming.
“We could still send a few raiding parties to Galiana, they go there, fire a few shots and withdraw, that way we will get them angry and bait them out!” Husainus added his input to the plan, for although he was from the army, strategy was strategy and his addition was a sound one, which Gerula approved.
“You know Nelly you should consider being a politician after the war, you’d be a great Warchief or Prime Minister.” Zula said half-jokingly half-seriously.
“Sorry, that scene’s too savage for me.” Cornelia replied and they all laugh at the joke.
Just then her universas gave several ‘ping’ noises which notified her that she had received a few messages from the homeland.
She looked at the them, one was from Octavia, two where from the Prime Minister’s office and there was also a fourth one, but the listing setting was set so that you had to scroll down to see the last one’s title.
“Might as well start with the bad news first.” Cornelia deadpanned and opened one of the messages from Aian, the prime minister.
“Well this is unexpected! It seems that parliament has already approved of my request for Commodore Metternich to join the ranks of the Admiralty, looks like I can skip giving him a brevet rank and pin his star right away!” Cornelia with surprise in her voice said as she read the letter, good news was rare from Aian, especially to them, since their faction and the ‘Rainbows’ where rivals.
Al where surprised, except for Monas’, who although did not know the exact details of what just happened, she was certain that this seemingly kind act would had a hidden agenda behind it, which was to Aian’s benefit but to their detriment.
So Cornelia opened the second letter and its content shocked her.
The other’s seeing this quickly went to the other side of the desk and looked over the message.
“What! B-but how could this happen!” Gerula exclaimed as he saw the message.
From the P.M office of their most divine majesties government.
His excellency Tiberius Aian, Prime Minister of the Galactic Empire has upon seeing your struggle, given with the upmost haste the approval for the entirety of the frontier fleets full amount of supplies to be dispatched immediately by ship to your location.
The convoy has left on Daliupus 30 and will arrive in due time at Fortress 224.859 by means of warp travel.
To maintain animosity and prevent the enemy from discovering the maneuvers, dispatches where given directly to the supply convoy, thus bypassing the fleet admirals and communications where silenced imposed to allow for undetected travel.
Their estimate time of arrival is 21st of this month.
His Excellency wishes you well and the best of luck.