Chapter 24: Concentration 1
"Good morning ladies and gentlemen!" Don's jubilant voice greeted his temporary subordinates. Morning and evening were irrelevant when the sun was always in sight, but it was a pleasantry that people used none the less. "I take it you all have read the admiral's orders?"
The signs of affirmation from all of the major craft began streaming in in the form of a check.
"Great. Just to clarify, I only have ten hours with you lot, I expect you to spend it as if we are entering live combat. You are going to receive a lot of firing coordinates that are normally outside of your range. Many of the escort craft are going to receive VERY specific information about some Incoming Fire Alerts. Treat every single piece of information you receive from me as if it was coming from your own sensor pylons."
Seeing some of the markers attached to the ships turn yellow to signify 'question' he continued. "Any questions you have are to be directed to either the fire control team aboard the Ranger or the specialists aboard the Calibration."
Many of the yellow circles turned to green checks in response. "Admiral Adirondack. Just as much as this is a systems and strategies test for the fleet it is a chance for you to get used to commanding a task force with the use of highly detailed information. In combat it is likely I will be at my wits end trying to position myself in a way to get as much detailed information as possible. You need to position the fleet. Do you understand?"
"I hear you loud and clear Beacon. Do you have any suggestions for fleet positioning? It seems like a planar formation won't be required."
Planar formations were when a fleet positioned them as close as possible to a plane in relation to each other. The biggest draw of this formation was that each ship could use the readings of the others to quicker form an effective firing solution. This had a massive drawback in that it made your fleet take up a much larger area of the enemy's sphere and made it easier to detect thanks to the sensor emissions.
"I think some sort of formation prioritizing the protection of the carrier would be optimal, such as a spherical or cone layout. Keep in mind this is the time to experiment though. That goes for you, too, sub-commanders."
The various 'wilco's and 'roger's filtered in as Don and ARC got into position to give position data to the fleet. This time he had four large cruises, a battleship and a dreadnought to play with. The dreadnought, aptly named Bunker, would remain tight to the carrier to act as a wall but could still bring its railguns to bear to any targets within five degrees of a perfect broadside.
That was the extent of turret's turning radius in any direction.
Considering this, it may be prudent to call them 'casemates' as opposed to turrets, but the terminology stuck.
As he sent the first target of many to the crew aboard the ships, he couldn't help but wonder why they thought it appropriate that only one person would be assigned this job. There was enough room in the cabin to accommodate a second operator without issue.
Something to bring up in the reports.
"Once you have a solution on target you are cleared to fire. Take it sequential for now so I can see how your fall of shot lines up."
After two minutes of charging the weapons and refining a firing line, Gunnery Captain Dodder's voice came through on the radio.
"This is Ranger, firing one."
The recently updated interface indicated that Ranger had indeed fired with the white exclamation point.
"One impact confirmed. Looks like the other rod nicked something on the approach."
"Give us something harder Beacon! We're only at 25 thousand."
"No can do Ranger. I have to stay within the maximum range of the heavy and light cruisers. Calibration, status update on the strike craft? I have a rock right here the needs jumping around."
"They are being cleared for launch right now. Is the escort cruiser close enough to refuel them reliably?"
"Should be. Hey! Are your guns for show? Why haven't any of you fired yet?"
There was an immediate response.
"This is ah, er, This is Reliable, firing one." The gunnery captain aboard the Ranger's sister ship did not have the same confidence as Dodder.
"Two impacts confirmed. Good shot."
Despite not being confident, the accuracy of the ship did not falter.
Soon after, the rest of the group began launching their rods.
"This is Dearth, firing one." An older large cruiser.
"This is Damper, firing one." A sister ship to the Dearth.
"This is Bunker, firing one." The dreadnought.
"This is Imitation, firing one." The battleship was last to the party.
Every turret had at least on hit on target, unthinkable for a first salvo at this range. This was on a target smaller than a heavy cruiser as well.
ARC had done a phenomenal job with the target reporting.
"On to the next one. You are going to coordinate your fire to make sure that all shots land within half a second of each other. You don't need to do a full broadside, a fourth of your facing firepower will do. Imitation, you only need to fire four. You are likely to have the most concerns with ammo going forward."
The dreadnought had a lot of space for ammunition given its size. The large cruisers sacrificed armor in order to keep costs down, meaning they had more space for rods. The battleship was expected to take hits, so it had a lot of armor, but it wasn't big enough to make up for the lack of ammunition.
This drawback was remedied somewhat by the fact that the paths by which ammunition was replenished were prioritized, but reloading the magazines during combat was dangerous.
It didn't help matters that there was not a supply group to supply rods. One would join with the fleet a few days after first contact with the enemy, but until then the three hundred or so rods per turret would have to last.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone