“Commander Yoon Gao,” I called our scout on the laser-optical link, “How many people can you put on your ship if you don’t give a damn about all the rules and regulations and instructions? I have 42 people here who want to keep your crew company.”

“Captain, Sir, are you serious? You flew with me. We have a crew of five.”

“What if otherwise these 42 people just die?”

“Well…There’s nothing to think about, let’s have your passengers. Just how? ”

“Pull up close and open the outer hatch of the small cargo hold. Transports have a universal docking unit. We’re lucky we didn’t dismantle it. The rest is about the skills of the pilots.”

The modernized medium-size recon ship had an incomparably better camouflage than the transport, that’s what Yoon Gao and I have seen more than once during the previous raid, so without fear, he made a careful maneuver, approached three of our ships and joined the docking unit of the nearest transport.

The pilot of Yoon Gao’s ship clearly knew his business, or maybe Yoon himself was driving the ship now, who knows, but the docking was done with maximum accuracy.

“Pilots of the command machines, take positions in the pursuit planes and get ready to receive a combat mission.”

“Commander, Sir,” asked me Commander Matveyev, “Maybe my pilots should prepare for takeoff, too?”

“No way. Unless, of course, you want to ruin us all. From this distance, your machines will be like Christmas trees with garlands and balloons for the enemy. Only our command machines have a chance, so prepare your men for an emergency evacuation. Transport crews, leave the ships and prepare them for self-destruction.”

“Ready to take off,” our pilot’s commander reported.

“Pursuit planes, simulate an attack in the direction of the sixth planet with the task of diverting enemy forces from our ships. Do not engage in close combat, but keep the enemy as far away from here as possible. You need to hold on for 20 minutes. You’ll get further orders from the recon ship. Mission clear?”

“That’s right.”

“Do it!”

I have met the expression „to pack like sardines” before, but until now, I didn’t give it much attention, and it turned out I should. For the next 15 minutes, I had to feel the depth and lexical precision of this idiom the hard way. It was really cramped.

Three simultaneous flashes behind the stern of Yoon Gao’s ship marked the end of the active phase of our operation and the beginning of a painful journey home. It was especially distressing to us when the ship, already overcrowded, was filled with eight pilots of the surviving command machines, that caught up to us in 40 minutes. By the way, their passage to the ship has become a distinct headache, as the pursuit planes had no fixed docking units, but we managed somehow. The command machines had to be destroyed as well as the transports, because there was not the slightest possibility of getting them into space under human control.

When we arrived a week later at the rendezvous point with Admiral Nelson’s destroyers, half the passengers on our ship were unconscious. The life-support system for a maximum of 10 persons could not sustain five times as many people for an extended period. But as it turned out, we got off easy.

There were five scouts and only two transports at the rendezvous point, the ones that attacked the single-dock systems. Of the remaining teams, apart from the scouts who were not directly involved in the battle, only a few of the command machines’ pilots survived. Command pursuit planes have proved to be very survivable in combat conditions due to high speed, good maneuverability and excellent EW systems, which allowed them to evade missiles and deceive enemy scanners.

We lost 80% of the ships and half the people who took part in the raid, but eight out of ten nearly completed Titan-class battleships have ceased to exist. Unfortunately, the quargs were able to defend two shipyards.

On the way home, I couldn’t help but think that a few more docks with giant battleships being built we certainly couldn’t find in the first raid. But how many?

I learned the answer to that question much sooner than I would have liked.

* * *

“Your permission, Mr President?”

“Is there something new, Ignat?”

“You instructed me to gather information on the preparations for Captain Lavroff’s last raid. The necessary investigation has been conducted, and I am ready to report the results.”

“Take a seat, Ignat, let’s hear it.”

“The Minister of Defence is only indirectly involved in this operation. He found out about it 48 hours before it started. Technically, the order for combat testing came from him, but it was Captain Lavroff, assisted by Minister of Military Production Zwerev and Fleet Admiral Nelson, who organized the entire operation, including reconnaissance of targets, development of a new type of torpedoes, modernization of troop transports as carriers, organization of preliminary tests of new weapons and then their serial production.”

“Well, everything is clear about Nelson, there is much history between him and Lavroff, but Zwerev! Why did he agree to help the Captain?”

“It remained unclear. They had a private meeting, the details of which are unknown to us, but after this conversation, Lavroff was given shipbuilding capacity to convert ten medium troop transports into torpedo weapons carriers.”

“With what funds could the Department of Lavroff have built an industrial batch of its torpedoes?”

“The Federal Advanced Weapons Corporation had money from the sale of the battleship Titan to the Fleet. Global Weapon Industries and the Russian Weapons Concern have concluded contracts with FAWC for the supply of torpedoes. There was no competition, Lavroff entered into contracts in violation of the standard procedure, but after a price check, it turned out that the weaponry companies had provided him with torpedoes and command machines at almost cost price.”

“Well, the GWI didn’t surprise me with that,” the President laughed, “After that failed attempt to buy his company, they seek to establish a relationship with the new head of the Commission of the Ministry of Defense in any way they can. But I didn’t expect it from RWC…”

“That’s not all, Mr President. The money was still insufficient, and then Captain Lavroff paid the outstanding amount from his personal funds.”

“But why didn’t he apply to the Ministry for funding when the regulations allow it?”

“That was the problem of time, Mr President. Lavroff was in a hurry, and as practice had shown, he was in a hurry for a reason, but getting money out of the Ministry’s budget isn’t quick.”

“And how much did he invest in this operation?”

“One billion 300 million rubles – almost all he had.”

“However, captains in our army, they are not poor guys at all,” grinned Tobolsky, “Ignat, am I correct to understand that Captain Lavroff has overstepped his authority and simply disguised a real fleet operation as a combat test of a new weapon, and thus managed to implement part of the plan that he was promoting at the High Command meeting? ”

“In fact, it is so, but technically Lavroff did almost nothing wrong. The combat test of the torpedoes were carried out in accordance with the order of the Minister of Defence. The assistance of the Fifth Strike Fleet is also well documented. The aptain made an official request to the Minister of Military Production as the head of the Commission of the Ministry of Defense. This is somewhat unusual, as it was done directly, bypassing the immediate authorities, but such a violation is not substantial, it is nothing more than a breach of the chain of command. Signing contracts without competition? Yes, that’s a violation, but the audit revealed no abuse, and so the maximum penalty is just to point out that such actions are not allowed in the future. And the result of the operation clearly does not imply…”

“I remember the results, I watched the reports more than attentively. The commando Captain, with minimal casualties, swapped eight transport ships and three dozen pursuit planes for eight nearly completed Titan-class battleships, even though our admirals couldn’t destroy even one such ship at the cost of losing the entire Fourth Fleet. No, Ignat, I’m not going to punish Lavroff for this initiative, I’m just thinking about what we should do with him. He doesn’t fit into the Federation establishment, his methods are unusual, and his pursuit of purpose borders on fanaticism. Except his goal isn’t money, his career, not even power, but our victory, and the longer I look at his actions, the more I think he’s the only person in the whole Federation who knows the right path to it. ”

* * *

Bronstein called me in as soon as I arrived at the Ministry. After listening to my report, he pointed me to the conference table chair.

“Congratulations, Captain, you did well,” the Admiral spoke with approval, “I confess I feared you would fail, but you came back, and as promised, along with my headache.”

“Did I do something wrong again, Minister, Sir?” I pretended to be surprised.

“Well, I probably won’t have the audacity to say that to destroy eight out of ten targets with the means at your disposal, there’s „something wrong” in that,” grinned Bronstein, “but the consequences of this raid of yours have touched me directly. Look, Captain, this concerns you, too,” my tablet sent out a vibrating signal accepting the file.

The document Bronstein sent me turned out to be a copy of President Tobolsky’s decree, it concerned the restructuring of the Ministry of Defence. As of today, the New Equipment and Weapons Commission has ceased to exist, it became a separate department with the same name, which was still formally a unit of the Ministry of Defence, but operated virtually autonomously. For example, the budget of the new unit was set separately and its amount was determined personally by the President. The head of the department, that is, I, Captain Lavroff, still had to coordinate with the Minister of Defense to test the new weapon, which made sense, but from now on I was able to make relations with other ministries and agencies perfectly official without looking back at Bronstein, and the President has obliged these very ministries and agencies to implement my requests as a matter of priority.

“Yes, Minister, Sir, this is unexpected,” I was not quite prepared for such a development, although of course I could only welcome it.

“Well, as far as I’m concerned,” Bronstein grinned, “as soon as I got the report on your operation, I was wondering if it was time for me to pack up and clear out my office.”

“Well, that’s hardly possible, Minister, Sir,” I smiled, “I don’t think it’s enough to be a good guy to take on such a post. To do that, one has to become a political Figure, with a capital „F”, and I’m not a politician, as you told me, and I totally agree with that.”

“All right, Captain,” Bronstein has moved on to practical matters,“Your department is organized on the basis of the former Commission of the Ministry of Defense and the Federal Advanced Weapons Corporation. You’ve already led both, but now we’re going to eliminate this strange system of governance and we’re going to merge the two structures into one. As I have already seen, you are not inclined to procrastinate, so I expect from you tomorrow a detailed plan of the reorganization I have announced. And this is for dessert, as an additional incentive to hurry,” Bronstein grinned, and my tablet again signaled the received file.