Amantus
Copyright© 2026 by QM
Chapter 22
“Are you disobeying a direct order from an Admiral, Sub-Commander?” Yarrik asked with menace.
“An order to disobey Fleet Regulations, sir?” Amantus asked calmly. “I fear I must, sir.”
“Expect to face a disciplinary tribunal!” Yarrik exploded before cutting communications.
“Hoo boy,” Carva exhaled. “Hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I couldn’t give him permission even if I wanted to,” Amantus chuckled, noting the exchange on the ship’s log. Commander Lachra would have rescinded it.”
“True, you have your back covered,” Carva chuckled.
“It’s why I asked him,” Amantus smiled. “Or rather engineering.”
“I expect the Captain will be seeing you at some stage,” Carva shrugged.
“I followed regulations; he may not be pleased, but I doubt it.”
Carva was correct; Amantus was called to the Captain’s day cabin halfway through his rest shift. Once inside, he saluted Dorce and an as-yet-unnamed Admiral.
“Sub-Commander Amantus reporting as ordered, sir,” Amantus began the conversation.
“Sub-Commander,” Dorce nodded. “This is Base Admiral Kleevi, who is investigating a complaint made against you by Base Admiral Yarrik.”
“Yes, sir, how can I help you?” Amantus replied.
“Did you refuse permission for the scheduled fitting of the internal grav coils, Sub-Commander?” Kleevi asked.
“No, sir, that was Commander Lachra in engineering,” Amantus explained. “The scheduled fitting was not reported in the duty roster, nor was there any message from Senior Commander Virik in the log.”
“Admiral Yarrik then requested you give authorisation to fit the coils, did he not?” Kleevi asked, frowning slightly.
“No, sir, he ... requested an explanation for the delay,” Amantus explained. “To fit the coil system, a one-day notification is required by engineering to avoid injuries and disruption to the crew due to gravity fluctuations. Regulation eng-727#. Hence, I could not permit the yard crew entry to the Sabre.”
“That is the regulation,” Dorce confirmed, looking it up on his perscomp. “Commander Lachra could have authorised it, though likely would not, due to the safety aspect.”
“Senior Commander Virik had signed it off, though.”
“I saw no such sign off, nor did Admiral Yarrik produce such,” Amantus replied. “If he had, I’d have contacted Commander Lachra again and let him sort it.”
“Yarrik did not produce the documentation?” Kleevi asked.
“No, sir, he did not.”
“Send the relevant logs to my perscomp,” Kleevi sighed. “It appears I have a lot more investigating to do on the yard side.”
“Sir,” both Amantus and Dorce saluted as Kleevi left the cabin.
“Well done, Sub-Commander,” Dorce smiled. “You covered your and the Sabre’s back with your response to Yarrik.”
“Thank you, sir,” Amantus nodded. “The Admiral seemed to be unaware of Fleet regulations.”
“He does, though, please don’t speculate, what an Admiral has is power, and it remains unclear what it is he intends to do about it,” Dorce warned.
“Yes, sir,” Amantus saluted and left the day cabin.
The orders for Sabre came through whilst Amantus slept. Amantus had guessed right in that the flotilla was to be split up, with a capital ship being escorted by five destroyers and a frigate for scouting. The plan was to flood the various systems, disputed or not, with constant patrols transitioning in and out, hopefully catching the Tarpheli and other undesirables as they attempted to move to target either the Protectorate or individual vessels.
“Do you think it will work?” Commander Trin asked Amantus.
“Potentially yes, assuming individual squadrons can be supported quickly if they run into trouble,” Amantus replied thoughtfully. “It would be better if the squadrons also transitioned into systems at a randomly selected point.”
“You aren’t the only one thinking we’ve become too predictable,” Trin agreed.
“Guess so, but it’s the Commodore and his crew that set policy, not the likes of you and me,” Amantus chuckled.
“According to the grapevine, he got a hell of a reprimand for Corone from the Admiral for his complacency,” Trin said, shrugging before completing the handover.
“We’ll be transitioning in five rotations,” Gille informed Amantus, the bridge crew now more relaxed as they got to know Amantus better.
“2G random side thrust for one rotation when we emerge,” Amantus ordered.
“Yes, sir.”
The squadron emerged without incident, though Amantus noted all the ships randomly manoeuvred in different directions. ‘Lessons have been learned,’ mentally nodded in satisfaction.
“Orders from the Gauntlet, we’re to make a sweep around the inner planets, checking out any anomalies detected,” Carva announced. “Plot received.”
“Take us away,” Amantus ordered. “Active scanning, we aren’t here to hide.”
“Yes, sir.”
The squadron spread out as it headed for the closest planet, all ships actively scanning the areas around them, looking for anomalies. The system, however, was currently quiescent, and no mining vessels or Tarpheli ships had been detected when Amantus handed over the shift.
“Boring?” Commander Tukle asked.
“Beats the alternative,” Amantus chuckled.
“Heh, true.”
“Ship’s yours, hope it stays quiet for you,” Amantus said after the handover.
“Me too, get some rest.”
Amantus awoke to the sounds ... though it was more the feelings of battle, with the hull vibrating to missile strikes and hyperbeam collisions.
Pulling himself from his cot/bed, now covered with grav loss webbing, he requested a situation update on the Sabre’s situation.
“The squadron is now engaged with a Tarpheli flotilla, which appears to be determined to force the squadron to abandon the system and withdraw,” the perscomp replied in emotionless tones.
Amantus did not enquire further, but dressed and headed for the bridge. What he found was chaos: Commander Tukle and Captain Dorce had been invalided, and no one appeared to be in overall command.
Situation report!” Amantus ordered, his raised voice calming several rattled officers.
“We’re getting hammered, sir, the Tarpheli have us surrounded,” Lieutenant Tori on tactical replied.
Amantus glanced at the screen. “Take us to bearing 115,102,956, and begin evasive manoeuvring,” he ordered. “Weapons status?”
“One forward primary is down, the rest are ready,” Sub-Commander Spinks, on weapons, replied.
“Mark targets of opportunity, stiletto any enemy we pass,” Amantus ordered.
“Course set, sir,” Lieutenant Varr, on navigation, spoke up.
“5G burst for a rotation, then begin jinking.”
“Jinking, sir?” Lieutenant Jovv, the pilot asked.
“Keep to the vector, but dodge from side to side or up and down randomly,” Amantus replied. “Don’t give them an easy target!”
“Yes, sir.”
Amantus moved back to the tactical screen and checked the situation. Elements of the Tarpheli flotilla were in pursuit of the Sabre, though the 5G burst had caught them out, and the rear primaries were efficiently targeting them. The rest of the Protectorate squadron was being hammered by the capital ships of the Tarpheli flotilla, with the cruiser Gauntlet looking to be out of action.
“We have a Protectorate squadron entering the system,” comms announced.
Amantus glanced at the screen and calculated the time that the squadron would take to approach them, realising it was far too long.
“Calculate a course to take us through the centre of the Tarpheli formation,” Amantus ordered. “Select targets; we’ll put on a burst as we approach and try to do some damage to their capital ships.”
“Yes, sir,” Varr replied. “Plot set.”
“10G burst when we approach range, keep dodging, and hit them with everything we have,” Amantus ordered as Commander Trin entered the bridge.
“Risky,” she murmured after coming across to tactical.
“A distraction for them,” Amantus replied. “We’ll have other squadrons, plus the main body en route, and I don’t want to give them the Gauntlet as a prize.”
“Agreed,” Trin nodded. “So we weave in and out and keep them busy?”
“Yes, and target anything approaching the Gauntlet,” Amantus confirmed.
What followed was one of the craziest battles that many of the Sabre’s crew had ever been involved with, as the ship, instead of slugging things out as was normal for most battles, darted in and out of the Tarpheli flotilla, moving randomly and hitting the capital ships hard as the Tarpheli struggled and failed to cope with the bizarre tactics the Sabre was using. Things improved when the squadron that had entered the system joined the battle and surrounded the Gauntlet, enabling the Sabre to focus on the capital ships of the Tarpheli. Not that the Sabre was coming away unscathed, the ship had been rocked several times by missiles, though fortunately not by hyperbeams, which would have ended its fight. Amantus used every tactic he’d learned under Captain’s Mance and Vinns to keep the Sabre in the fight. Finally, though, the Sabre’s luck ran out, and a primary from the Tarpheli battlecruiser sheared the main grav coil, leaving the Sabre to drift away at high speed away from the battle.
“Use the secondary grav coils to slow us down,” Amantus ordered.
“Yes, sir,” Lieutenant Jovv, the pilot, replied.
“Damage reports?”
“Well, we’re still in one piece,” Trin replied. “But most of our equipment is stressed out, and we’ll be in the yards for a long time, assuming we get out of this.”
“We will,” Amantus replied. “The Tarpheli will have to retreat now or be trapped themselves.”
“Ah, right,” Trin nodded, seeing the main body bearing down on where the battle had occurred.
“Butcher’s bill?” Amantus finally asked the question he’d been dreading.
“Seventeen dead, and fifty injured,” Trin replied. “Including Captain Dorce and Commander Tukle. They were caught in the initial missile strike and thrown into the bulkhead by the grav overcompensation.”
“I think that was what woke me up,” Amantus sighed.
“Yep, woke up with restraint webbing all over me,” Trin nodded.
“Same here,” Amantus replied. “I take it the pair of them were standing?”
“Probably, if they’d been seated, the autowebbing in the seat would have restrained them before retracting.”
“The Suphrar is hailing us,” Comms announced.
“Put them through,” Trin replied.
“This is Captain Dorrus of the Suphrar,” a female voice came over the speaker. “We are here to offer assistance.”
“Commander Trin here, ma’am,” Trin replied. “It’s good to hear from you. I suspect we’ll need a tow.”
“No problem, happy to help and glad to be alive.”
“Same here on the being alive bit, ma’am.”
“You put up a damned good distraction,” Dorrus replied. “We’re tractoring you to a standstill, then we’ll see if we can get another ship to aid us.”
“Wasn’t me, I just happen to have a damned good strategist as a Sub-Commander,” Trin smiled.
“Interesting,” Dorrus noted. “I suspect he’ll be getting a medal for that.”
“Sadly not,” Trin replied. “He’s an involuntary enlistment.”
“Oh, that’s a shame. Give me his name, and I’ll request him if we have need,” Dorrus chuckled.