Hi, thanks well 19 days straight of 12 hour days, and some much needed "me" time afterward. Anyway on to Chapter 5
Squadron Regent: 2638-2640
Culling the Herd:
My new assignment is squadron regent of the 352nd CRURON, seems DIRPER thinks I like light cruisers. Anyway the 352nd, the screen of the 35th CTG was in a sorry state both equipment and personnel. Frankreich is deep in the reserve and so the units of the 23rd Starfleet have been raided by the front line commands. However the situation was getting rather desperate near the corporate border so the 23rd was called up to relieve the 15th Starfleet. We were given six cycles to become 100% green for combat deployment. My first assessment was I would need six years, not six cycles. To make matters worse several of the senior leaders in the squadron as well as the CTG were cronies of Her Grace Duchess Lydia Pitt, the same matron of my former boss at Fleet Plans.
“My Lady, what is the meaning of this, Lady Walters has a valuable position in the squadron….” Asked my Flag Mistress Lady Equetassa Rita Pitt and former Assistant Vice Regent for Planning: Squadron Social Activities, a post that had no practical value in a scout force.
“Lady Rita do be quiet, and no Lady Marie has no useful position in the squadron, we don’t need a deputy regent for protocol, especially in a screening force. My staff will consist of one other Lady, and that is my vice regent, is that understood.” I explained probably for the eighth time today to the various ladies of the boated staff of the squadron.
“No it is not, Lady Veronica says that all squadrons need a staff of ladies commensurate with the status of being landed nobility….”
“Then I suggest you find a nice spot in Command and Combat Kommand. As Her Highness Princess Dianne wants SAN to be fighting trim, modeled after what Princess Sylvia is doing with the AEF. Now Lady Equetassa Rita Pitt, you have two choices, first leave the squadron or you can resume your duties as my Flagship Mistress, but in either case you are not on my staff. Which one will it be?”
“Damn it Lady Cynthia, you know I need time in command for promotion…”
“Then I suggest you get the AISS Fortitude to a state where it can live up to its name if not reputation, that is all.”
“But…”
“That is all Lady Rita you are dismissed.”
“Aye my Lady…” she said with a sigh and stalked off.
So after removing eight ladies and senior officettes from the bloated squadron staff, I looked over the roster of my ship mistresses. The aforementioned Lady Rita Pitt had command of the AISS Fortitude, her sister the AISS Flapjack was commanded by Lady Gloria Ritter, the head of the Frankreich Ladies Society, but with limited combat experience.
Ladies; Debby White, Harriet Winston, Grace Smith, Tabatha Walker, and Yvette Monroe were my destroyer skippers. White, Winston, Smith and Walker had Tyches. The AISS Lemming III, Loosy Goosy, Logjam and Lady in Waiting were their respective ships. Lady Monroe commanded the AISS Hermit Crab, my Hermes scout destroyer. Lady Smith also was the defacto commander of the DESTRON, although I had my Vice Regent Lady Paula Tyler stationed on the Logjam, much to the chagrin of her aide who wanted the more spacious Flapjack.
The squadron had six frigates, all of them Vulcan class, two Oracle corvettes and eight Phoebe LAV. My predecessor had the squadron in three groups. The DESTRON was group 2, Group 1 was both cruisers and all of the other Tyches, and Group three was the Hermes with the rest of the frigates. I am not sure why she had that arrangement, Outside the DESTRON. So I went to what worked at Fujiharra and Goddard. Task Force 1 was the Fortitude with the Lemming III. Task Force 2 was the Flapjack with the Loosy Goosy. Task Force 3 consisted of the Lady In Waiting with four frigates. Task Force 4 was the DESTRON sans Oracles, so that was the Logjam, two frigates and the eight LAV’s. Task Force 5 was the Hermit Crab and the two Oracles they were my long range eyes and ears. I debated taking TF 3 and bolstering TF 1 and 2 but decided since we were a screening force; concentration was not the name of the game.
Once I had the ship organization down, it was time to meet all of those pretty faces. We met at the conference hall at the SAN post on the moon Martel. The uniform was formal dress, as I wanted my two Gold and Silver Star Clusters quite visible showing the pampered ones that I really know what I am doing.
“Good Morning Ladies, now most of you have had a nice time playing sailor in garrison, well that is about to change. The 23rd is scheduled for rotation to the Goldstone front, as it seems our constant antagonists are getting antsy again. This is, for those who might not be in the right spot, the welcome brief and warning order for the senior personnel of the 352nd CRURON, Scout and Screening.” I pause then smile with a predatory grin,
“Let’s take a moment and just digest what exactly all of that means. Ok we are the second squadron of the 35th Task Group, in our case it’s a Carrier group. So the 351st has a couple of those big nice juicy targets we call aerospace carriers. The other squadrons the 353rd and 354th are another carrier squadron and a support squadron respectfully, that means two more big targets as well several not so big but rather weak support ships. We, ladies are the mobile force for the task force. “ Again another pause.
“ The Neptunes and Venuses are going to be tied down protecting their charges while it up to us to keep anything that is nasty away from those. AIDOF High Kommand has decided that CTG’s no longer need battle cruisers, so outside the rather impressive aerospace craft, we are it for offensive power.” I let the information sink ink then move to the crux of this little speech.
“What does all of this mean? It is simple, we will be the eyes, ears and skirmish line for the task group. I expect that the squadron will be asked to perform many duties, and will rarely operate as full force. That is why I have organized the squadron in distinct task force packages. You will train as a Task Force, as groups of task forces and just in case it happens, as a full squadron. Cruiser Mistresses, I expect you to be able to run your task force like a mini squadron, the same goes with Ladies Monroe, Walker and of course Smith and Tyler.” Then explain the fact of life in the new Squadron.
“Lady Tyler has operational control of not only the DESTRON but also TF 5. TFS 1-3 will be under my operational control, unless on independent patrol. We can expect some serious action, as the Corps think our carriers are their true threat, which they are right, I have it on good authority, that our aerobabes can smoke any corp pilot, granted that authority might be a bit biased herself, given the fact she is an aerobabe.”
I wait for the group to finish their polite laugh, though Lady Barbara is well known to several of them as well. “TF 1-3 will focus on long range engagements using on board aerospace as well as missiles. Our guns are for small fry and desperate situations. TF 4 will focus on massed torpedo strikes, as well as using the missiles on the destroyer and frigates to harass and confuse. Unless ordered by someone with more braid than me, we will not fight to the death, our job is to screen, that means delay and harass. Let the escorts sacrifice themselves if needed, we may not prevent an attack on the carriers but we can hurt and blunt that attack. TF 5 your job is to scout, I almost wish no offensive weapons were on either the destroyer or corvettes but, hiding and running are your best weapons. Are there any questions?”
I waited for questions and answered a few, then dismissed the skippers and destroyer matriarchs, sans Ladies Monroe and Walker. I then went in detail how I envisioned the squadron and task forces to operate. All but Lady Pitt seemed happy to get away from the dull routine of garrison duty.
One problem I did not quite expect to reach the state it did, was the request for transfer, it seemed quite a few of the department heads especially on the cruisers were not interested in combat, and wanted a safe staff office. I discussed the situation with Lady Paula and Ms Marks, the personnel officette.
“So you see Ma’am the problem is that we have been a garrison force for so long, that none of the people with vested interests in Frankreich want to leave…” Ms Marks said, showing the data pad with the latest number for transfer requests. She was in her old ship board dress, rather than the vacuum suit that is our new daily uniform.
“I gather as much Madame Marks but the issue is we are two Kommandettes, and five Kaptains short, and three from the same ship..”
“Well uh my Lady you should have used a bit more tact when dressing down Lady Ritter the other day…” Lady Paula chimed in.
“I did, she should be lucky I did not toss her butt in the brig, I am not disappointed in seeing the chaff fall to the wayside, but where in Soro’s name can I find not only an executive, but a chief engineer and weapons officette?”
“Good question, uh Ms Marks might as well show her…”
“Show me what?”
“Uh Ma’am the situation on the Flapjack has gotten worse, I might say off the griddle into the fire…”
“What do you mean?”
“Lady Ritter has tendered her resignation and has opted for a staff assignment in C&CK.”
“Well not to be unexpected now I need a mistress for that ship. Oh and Madame Kaptain Marks did you distribute the standing order regarding ship board attire?”
“Yes Ma’am…”
“Then why are you in ship board dress rather than your vac suit?”
“Uh Ma’am I was working with my counterpart on the station…”
“Ok, well change into the vac suit as soon as you can, oh and order section heads to collect all shipboard duty dress and stow them, squadron wide directive. We are a combat unit not a damned tourist agency, so we will train as we fight.”
“Aye Ma’am…”
“Ok Paula go and draft the request for a cruiser skipper, in the mean time take command of the Flapjack and move her to dock, she needs a refit and missing half of her senior staff, this as good time as any. Also Loosy Goosy will be attached to TF 1, while TF 2 is stood down for refit, upon completion of repairs. Besides the senior staff issues, how is the rest of personnel strength?”
“Ma’am we are 97% strength junior officettes, the 3% difference is due to rotation and waiting for the next batch of Kaydettes. We are 99% strength on senior enlisted; the Chief Engineer’s Mate on the Loosy Goosy broke her arm in the collision with Flapjack. We have 89% with junior enlisted, we have twelve in hospital all but two from the collision incident and the rest are routine transfers waiting replacements.”
“We were lucky that nothing more serious happened, damn a cruiser clipping the stern of a destroyer, but the LG will be laid up for a few weeks, I guess we still have time to train her up along with the replacement command team on the Flapjack. Oh Edith…”
“Yes Ma’am?” Ms Marks replied,
“Send a request inquiry to the Home Fleet, and see about the possibility of transferring a Madame Kommandette Wendy Travis, she is the executive on a Dreadnought, but knows light cruisers, she would make the ideal executive for the Flapjack.”
“Yes Ma’am…” she saluted and then headed off.
Two days later we were still working on the shortage of senior personnel when Miss Underhill, the OOD came and handed me a dispatch from the Imperial Home Fleet. “Inquiry for Kommandette Travis unsuccessful, however a Lady Wendy Travis, JA-DAVR personnel management replied that she would be more than happy to take any posting. In addition a personal note explaining that Ms. Bernard was killed in a training accident so there is nothing keeping her at Teri….”
The news of Terri’s death was shocking but, if Wendy could deal with it, I now had my skipper for the Flapjack. My reply back was “Done, welcome to the 23rd Starfleet.”
I did not tell her that the position open was for a cruiser matriarch, and when Wendy reported later that cycle she was thinking I was offering a staff position, but more on that later. Now that I was going to have a first class warrior for the skipper of the Flapjack, I needed to find some top notch officettes and a senior engineering mate.
The last turned out to be easy as Sarjenette Upper Class Tamara Andrews (yes the same one who was on my Kaydette cruise as a Junior Mate) was available and knowing her early reputation, and looking at her personnel file I knew she would be a good fit. Turned out after the Golgotha almost all of her time was on frigates and destroyers so she knew the Tyche in minute detail. I decided to transfer Ms. Watkins, the BDCO on the Fortitude over to the Flapjack as acting Executive Officer, knowing that finding a Kaptain for BDCO would be much easier than finding a Kommandette and executive officer.
So this meant finding six Kaptains and one Kommandette, as the frigate Barnacle’s skipper was promoted out, and Ms. Franklin the vessel’s executive was just way too junior. But believe it or not finding a frigate skipper is easier than finding a cruiser rated executive. Light cruisers are kind of like the unwanted orphan children, the glory hogs want the big cap ships, while the adventure seekers want the smaller ships and vessels. For example I get interesting glances from other capital ship types as most of my time has been in light or medium cruisers, I have no ship time to speak of on board a carrier, outside staff assignments, and my time on dreadnoughts and battle cruisers is limited to my junior officette days. Anyway I digress, so after about half a cycle the replacement issue is solved.
Short one setting up the next part
Dress Rehearsal: Once the personnel issue was resolved the next step was to train the squadron. Since Frankreich was a quiet area the only options were war games. The first such training scenario pitted us against one of the CARONS. Our task was to attack and “destroy” at least one carrier. Our opposition was the 343rd CARON. They had two Juno class carriers, two Neptunes, three Venus class escort destroyers, two Tyches and four Aphrodite class frigates. This carrier squadron did not have any Oracle corvettes so, we were going to use that oversight to our advantage.
As usual I met with my senior skippers, ie the Task Force leaders on the command briefing room on the Fortitude. “Morning Ladies, let me be the first to welcome Lady Wendy to our fold, as well as the other new faces, now on to business the deployment to the front is still on schedule so we are going to increase the training tempo. Our first major task is to spar with our sisters in the 343rd.” I paused so the holo tank could fire up showing the 3D projection of the system.
“They are now presently deployed near Aachen and conducting operations against the Argonistias an imaginary ally of the Empire. Our task on behalf of the Argonistaian government is to deprive the aggressor the use of her carriers. Any questions? Ah yes Lady Rita?”
“My Lady are you suggesting that we are going to fight a CARON, that is not possible…”
“Well Lady Rita, it is quite possible and with the right deployment we can decimate a carrier squadron, especially the sorry excuses the Corp bastards employ, but this exercise we are not only testing our ability to take on a carrier squadron but also testing the defenses so when it is for real our own forces know what to expect. Yes Lady Wendy?”
“Ah uh Ma’am, I know you have done some amazing stuff in the past, but I agree with Lady Pitt, this might be a bit more than we can chew.”
“Actually Lady Wendy, I agree but our task is to disrupt carrier operations, not to survive, Now I am not saying we are going in as a suicide, but all assets are expendable as long as at least one of the two carriers is toast. Besides their aerospace what other threats are there Ms. MacDonald?”
“Uh, Ma’am the Juno’s themselves carry secondary armament akin to the Tyche class destroyer, plus the Neptunes, Venuses and Aphrodites all are equipped with their fearsome broadsides. The two Tyche’s are a potential long range threat, especially if we get distracted by the overwhelming aerospace force.” The Intel officette replied
“Right what do we know about the leadership?”
“Baroness Marquez is very conservative she will have her escorts in the standard box format, that is assuming Countess Winton allows her. The RAG is Lady Wilma Durning, she is a big player in the FLS…” Kaptain MacDonald added
“Fascinating but what about her tactics and technique?”
“Oh by the book, actually she lets her wing matriarchs operate independently which means coordination between the two carriers will not be that good.” Wendy chimed in, before someone would say something though accurate, probably not career enhancing.
“Very good, what is complement of offensive platforms on the two carriers?”
“The AISS Immediately has the standard mix of two fighter squadrons, one attack squadron and one interception squadron. That means twenty Tempest most of them B or C versions, and 12 Shaman or possibly JDA bombers. There are 48 warrior and 24 Raptor fighters and interceptors…”
“They are not a concern, how about the other ship?”
“The AISS Injustice has an unorthodox mixture of two Attack Squadrons, one Fighter Squadron, and one Interception squadron. Furthermore the Attack squadrons are all Tempest C or even a few D, that means 48 fast torpedo capable fighters…”
“Right ok this is the game plan, TF 1 and TF 2 are tasked with destruction of the Carriers. TF 3 your task is to destroy the Tyches, with use of the aerospace that survives. TF 4 you will clear out any escorts as well as assist TF 1 and TF 2 with their mission. TF 5 you will continue to be our eyes and ears, do not engage, in fact you will deploy to Aachen two days ahead of the rest of the squadron, so go hide and collect data. IRIS will be used to establish contact Her Code name is Alarm Clock….”
“Yes Lady Rita?”
“Sending the scouts ahead like that is not according to custom….”
“So, we are training to fight and win, and hopefully stay alive, not abiding by custom, the enemy doesn’t do that nor should we. Ok once main body arrives, all of the aerospace will launch, Tempests and Shamans equipped with aerospace missiles. We will fain attacking the carriers with the aerospace but instead they will go hunting the carrier aerospace, I am sure Lady Durning will take the bait and try to wipe out our “strike” package. I want all of our training missiles to be set on pillium that is all that can fit the pillium rail and inventory, the rest will be speculum. Any survivors will return and rearm with torpedoes. In the meantime TF 3 you will do whatever you can to destroy or cripple the Tyche’s. They will probably leave the protective fold of the escorts so to initiate their own attack. Remember the two destroyers are about an even match for your entire TF Lady Grace, so don’t get cute, just smoke ‘em.” I pause as the group laughs, then continue.
“Once the aerospace is knocked back a bit, TF 4 will move to engage the escorts, I want the LAV’s to concentrate on the destroyers and cruisers. Any questions ladies?”
“No Ma’am” was the reply.
“Right, ok to your ships and let’s give those carrier slugs something to think about.”
The exercise went pretty much as predicted we “smoked” one carrier and “seriously damaged” the second. As for the escorts the two Neptunes were knocked out as well as four of the five destroyers. Our losses were two destroyers “lost” plus five of the eight LAV’s. All other ships were “damaged” to one degree or another but overall it was a successful as well as educational training exercise. Which for the women and girls of 35th CTG and especially the 352nd CRURON proved invaluable as we just received our marching orders; we are going back to Goddard. As well as the new RAG for the 35th Aerospace Group, a Lady Barbara Foster-Parker, she was a direct result of the shellacking the mere CRURON did to the CARON.
hi sorry been busy, anyway FLS: Frankreich Lady's Society; Think of it as the Red Hat Society meets the Masons but with a emphasiss on career and social enhancement at the expense of non members (ie those not connected) especially talented but socially inferior upstarts