Star Wars_ The Black Fleet Crisis 03_ Tyrant's Test - Michael P. Kube-McDowell [27]
“We’ve taken casualties and can expect to take more, but I will not stand for any commander under me becoming blithe about that fact. We should be prepared to accept every loss by enemy action that is necessary to the success of our mission here—but I will not accept a single casualty due to inattentiveness, incompetence, carelessness, inefficiency, or preventable failures of ships and munitions. Our enemy is smart, strong, and determined, and we’re on his turf. I’m asking for the highest possible level of combat readiness at every level of your respective commands.
“While we’re on the subject of losses—Colonel Corgan?”
Corgan nodded. “Fleetwide, we are twenty-six combat pilots and eleven support pilots short of our authorized strength,” he said. “Those numbers reflect net losses from the Doornik Three-nineteen engagement and the coordinated recon of the Cluster interior.
“Between reserves and resupply from Coruscant, we have rides available—just no riders. One of the down sides of being a new combat division scratch-built to specs is that we had very few experienced pilots banked in nonflying posts, and most of those carry ranks that ordinarily would exclude them from front-line combat units.
“When you return to your commands, please examine your crew and staff rosters with an eye toward locating a minimum of six and a maximum of eight pilots whom you could make available by transfer. We are particularly hurting for experienced recon pilots.”
Commodore Poqua leaned forward and rested her folded arms on the table. “Between the expansion to five fleets and the number of Rebellion veterans returning to civilian life, none of us is in a much better position than you are,” she said. “I know that up until two years ago, Task Force Gemstone typically had forty or more names in the bank. Now those bank pilots are scattered on forty worlds, making babies and tending gardens and flying commercial shuttles—if they’re flying at all.”
“We’re aware of the effect the drawdown has had throughout the Fleet,” said A’baht. “But the need to balance our assets remains. Please submit your transfer lists by fourteen hundred today.” He looked to his right. “Colonel Mauit’ta—the Yevethan force assessments.”
Mauit’ta slid a datacard across the table to each of the task force commanders in turn. Commodore Grekk 9, the Norak Tull, inserted the card into the input stage on his armored thorax, and Poqua produced a datapad from an inside pocket. The others let their copies remain on the table as finger toys.
“Those datacards contain our complete and most current knowledge about the Yevethan fleet,” said Mauit’ta. “That includes recognition holos, sensor profiles, an order of battle and ship inventory, last and best sightings, and preliminary specifications for the hyperspace-capable thrustship design now code-named Fat Man.
“The data we are providing to you is incomplete and in some respects speculative. For example, the order of battle is based primarily on astrographic deployment, since we have no direct information about the combat organization of the Yevethan fleet. But as the General has already noted, one of our jobs right now is to fill in the blanks. We’re particularly eager for a chance to make a kill on a Fat Man—right now we don’t even have a good sense of what that will take.
“I’ll let you review the force assessments in detail with your command staffs, and limit myself to a summary overview. Based on a complete analysis of our contacts with the Yevetha, we are currently estimating their fleet strength at no fewer than ninety-three capital ships, of which at least twenty-nine are Imperial-design vessels and the balance are Fat Men.
“There are at least nineteen occupied