Read Online Dawn by Yoshiki Tanaka - Free Book Online Page A

“If it shows up on radar, it must not be an enemy ship.”
    Nothing was more dangerous than ossified wisdom. And when he thought about it, wasn’t that also the reason he’d been able to beat Wideborn in the simulator back in his academy days? He’d been able to surprise an opponent who had clung to the idea of a decisive frontal assault.
    Know the psychology of your enemy. That was the most important point of military strategy. And after that was the point that on the battlefield, resupply is absolutely essential in order to make good use of your resources. Taken to extremes, you didn’t even need to strike the enemy’s main force at all—it was enough if you could just cut their supply lines. If the enemy couldn’t fight, they’d have no choice but to withdraw.
    Yang’s father had emphasized the value of money in every aspect of his life. If you treated the entire military as a single individual, money would be the supply line. When he thought about it that way, his father’s words turned out to be pretty valuable after all.
    After this, nearly every other time that Yang participated in combat operations, he would mark up an unexpected achievement of some kind. And with those achievements came promotions to commander, then captain, and by age twenty-nine, commodore. His old classmate Wideborn was a rear admiral, but that was because as a captain he had stuck to orthodox strategy, taken a surprise attack head-on, and thus received a special double promotion posthumously.

    And now Yang Wen-li was in the Astarte Stellar Region.
    Suddenly, a commotion broke out on the bridge. Not a pleasant one. It had been caused by an urgent message received from the surveillance craft.
    “The imperial fleet is not in the area we predicted. They are accelerating rapidly and will intercept the Fourth Fleet.”
    “What?!” Paetta cried. His voice was shrill and tinged with hysteria. “That’s insane … They wouldn’t!”
    Yang reached over to his console and picked up the document lying almost shamefacedly there. A paper document. Four thousand years had passed since the ancient Chinese had invented the stuff, but humanity had still not come up with anything better for writing on. The document was the operations plan he had submitted earlier. He fanned through the pages. Lines of text written in the impersonal letters of his word processor jumped out at him.
    … if the enemy wishes to take aggressive action, they may view these circumstances not as a threat of envelopment, but as a prime opportunity to attack our divided forces and destroy them individually. Should this happen, the enemy will first take the offensive against the Fourth Fleet, which is positioned directly ahead of them. The Fourth Fleet is numerically the smallest and therefore the easiest to attack and defeat. Furthermore, after defeating the Fourth Fleet, the enemy will then be able to target the Second Fleet or the Sixth Fleet at its discretion. One way to resist this strategy is as follows: After meeting their challenge, the Fourth Fleet should return mild resistance for a time, then begin a slow withdrawal. As the enemy pursues them, the Second and Sixth fleets will strike them from behind. When the enemy turns to engage, the Second and Sixth fleets will return mild resistance while withdrawing, and then this time, the Fourth Fleet will strike from behind. Repeat until the enemy is exhausted. Then surround and destroy. This strategy has a very high probability of success, but close attention to force concentration, communication, and flexibility in advance and pullback is essential.
    Yang closed the folder and glanced up at the ceiling’s wide-angle monitor. Hundreds of millions of stars were glaring back at him coldly.
    The young commodore almost started whistling but stopped himself and began working busily at his console.

I
    Vice Admiral Pastolle, commander of the Alliance Navy’s Fourth Fleet, was flummoxed when he heard the report: “Imperial