Dunedin station lay at the very edge of the Empire's influence, far from any real authority, hidden away in the obscure Inverness system for the quiet and the lack of visitors. Few just 'Happened' to come across Dunedin and it was for this reason, the Service chose to bring General Dominique Leval of the Royal Navy for interrogation. Something that few people actually took pleasure in, nonetheless it had to be done. Skirka wandered the empty hallways and corridors of the station until he reached the room where he was to begin his meeting.
The room was bare, a wooden table and two chairs in the middle of the room, Leval was secured to the table itself and a single file lay just out of her arms reach. He sat down without a word, looking at her with reserved eyes before he spoke in a cool and unusually calm voice.
There are no tapes here. No recordings, no images...nothing. Before we begin, I want you to understand. You are alone here. No one knows your whereabouts, no one is looking for you in this place. In this station, you are cut off from the rest of Sirius. So before you consider your answers, know that you are alone and should you consider lying, no one will save you. Do you understand?
Dominique had spent quite some time serving the Royal Navy in many forms. Commanding operations from the cruiser Aurora, she took part in ordering brutal experienced Royal Marines to land on Leeds to beat the Resistance into submission. She joined Battleship Castres in establishing the beachhead in the initial push into New London, and watched Southampton's scuttling during the invasion. A General with a consciousness that caught up to her, she couldn't bear any more. Her internal struggled resolved itself, and she surrendered.
The woman herself was still quite young for her rank, being 27 years old now. To most she'd seem like a more innocent, but others would know better. Looks are never truthful, most of the time. She hadn't been eyeing the room for much, merely waiting. She remained calm, attentive during Skirka's speaking.
"I understand. I know I am alone now, it's something I thought of quite a bit beforehand."
He continued staring at her for a few moments before he looked away for a moment, pulling the file towards him. You have already mentioned your desire to end your service to the Royal Navy. So we shall start at the beginning, who are are you, what is your rank, your background and explain why you've turned yourself in.
"Very well. Dominique Marie Leval, General of the Gallic Royale Navy, Commandant of Triumph-class cruiser Aurora. I was born on New Paris to a wealthy family. My Father serves onboard Battleship Castres, and most likely the reason I attained the rank of General so quickly. I've turned myself in due tot he fact that I cannot bear with my conscience any further. I do not buy into the Kings lies anymore. The threats, the lies, the propaganda. Attempt to retreat and surrender to the Council was not a possibility. Even I do not have the order to withdraw from the New London front. Anyone retreating without authorization is treated as a deserter and executed or imprisoned, which is just as bad.
She leaned back, looking down at the table. "The things I had done to your people are not right. It's not sometime I can live with, unatoned for."
Yes.. he said in a disinterested tone whilst looking at the file Atonement is a good start, unfortunately it does not bring back the dead nor heal the wounds already inflicted...in fact it could almost be argued that atonement really only serves to benefit you, to heal your guilty conscience. He continued to read in silence for a time, pondering over what he was going to do with the strange individual in front of him. He had little sympathy for her, but she was a useful asset if it could be confirmed she was telling the truth. You mentioned you had information regarding the state of affairs on Leeds and supply lines. Now would be a good time to start telling me about these things. He said again with his distant and disinterested tone.
"Oui. To begin with the basics, our entire assault force in Bretonia is comprised of the six battleships you now know of. The assault force, comprised of modern battleships, such as the battle-carrier Castres. While she retrains conventional firepower, it's not as dangerous due to the expanded hangar bays. As you know we lack our own carrier-class vessel, and Castres fulfills that role. For such she's a support vessel for the other two modern warships.
Comprising our rear-guard forces are three older but just as deadly warships. Battleship Le Candre for example, is an aged warship. She's not fit for frontline combat but was pressed into service as a support vessel for Beuvray, the command ship of our rear-guard. Beuvray has the most experienced crew of the three vanguard ships, she's a heavily modified warship, but she's still older. Ambazac is equally suited for defensive operations as Le Candre. Digging them out once they're entrenched is very difficult, but not impossible. These warships are used to being deployed in space where it's fully Gallic controlled and reinforcements are neigh-immediately available. Here they have no immediate support, they won't hold against sustained assault against modern Libertonian and Bretonian warships for long without reinforcements.
Which now brings me to Leeds. Our forces still struggle with your resistance fighters, while the vast majority is under Gallic control, we still suffer heavy losses. Now the prime issue is, there are no Royale Navy forces in the system whatsoever, aside from station defence fighters. There are no taskforces holding against a flanking maneuver, or anyone available to immediately respond to a counterattack in the Leeds or even the Tau-31 system. The only taskforces not currently engaged and able to render some form of aid would be La Riche's taskforce in Edinburgh, however they're protecting our forward drydock and repair base. The other task force is Guillestre's in Tau-23. All other task forces are in Gallia, it'd simply take them too long to arrive to make a meaningful impact on sudden developments on the front lines. The only wildcard is I've heard GRI agents joining raiding parties in Manchester however I have no idea where they base from, but that's likely above me.
If I were to devise a counter attack, I would attack in Leeds, cripple the new jump maintenance station and entrench a taskforce there. That would force the Royale Navy into few options. Option one is divert La Riche and Guillestre forces to counter attack and retake the gate site. This would, to my knowledge, leave the Tau corridor completely undefended from enemy incursions, and leave our forward drydocks with their own defensive force, though it is still considerable defenses. Option two, if this were my campaign during this hypothetical, keep in mind, would be to decide whether to commit all warships trapped in New London to attack and hopefully break the defensive line over the Planet before they run out of supplies. Or I would have to force the forward assault force to retreat and retake the jump gate in Leeds and re-secure supply lines while keeping the vanguard in place at Southamptons wreck."
I presume you've seen New London recently? A counter attack simply isn't plausible. In fact any attack isn't plausible. He spoke, this time with a slightly irritated undertone to his voice. He closed the file and put it aside and looked at her carefully. Why could you not surrender to the Council? It seems to have been on your mind for quite some time, so tell me, why would you surrender to us instead? surely you were not expecting kind treatment, so why?
"There is no leaving the front. Le Roi has declared full assault without reprieve to end the war swiftly. Naturally he did not count on Liberty somehow managing to arrive and halt our advance. I do hope your ally has not exhausted it's resources to halt the offensive, though I must say it came at a critical time. We're exhausted. Everyone was hoping once we entered New London, the war would be over. But now it seems it was merely the beginning of an even longer struggle against Bretonia and Liberty.
To fully answer your question, the rear-guard serves two purposes. Covering our flank and ensuring supplies can reach our forward forces, and to prevent any deserters from attempting to leave the battlezone without proper authorization. Even I could not order a withdrawl unless I made a request to return forces to our forward drydock. Even then, we would be escorted there to ensure no one attempts to abandon their post. Meticulious preparations were made to ensure that any unit put into New London either brings victory, or only leaves in death. I suppose it's fitting, as the Royale Navy is to be Le Roi's sword, to either bring victory, or die trying. There's no way I could evade Royale Navy patrols long enough to be found by le Council.
I do not ask for kind treatment. Nor do I ask for amnesty or protection. I will say you are wrong about one thing. Counterattacks are not always with the biggest warships available. If I had any advice to Bretonia and Liberty. Be resourceful. Use our ego and overconfidence against us. You see what a mere force of a couple cruisers did to Beuvray. Gallia's over reliance on large, hard to maneuver warships is an explotable weakness."
He tapped the side of the table for a moment wondering what he could do with the strange woman in front of him, there was the possibility that she knew more than she was letting on, pain would loosen her lips but then again, she may not know anything at all, which would render such practice pointless. His objection to causing pain for no good reason prevented him from thinking about it much longer. We're not going to torture you today madam. If we were to let you go, where would you travel too? what would you do? he asked with a bored tone of voice, yet with is eyes firmly fixed on hers.
"I couldnt answer that, honestly. Perhaps try to navigate my way to the Council through Kusari and their entrys to the Taus, but it would be more likely that I would be found and killed. Theres nowhere for me to go unless I change who I am. Perhaps I would find some place not amongst the houses. Perhaps I would be recognized by someone and killed. Though Ill never find enployment to afford a spacecraft regardless.