Dmitrios Rummolo

Dmitrios Rummolo
Character Profile
Affiliation Star League
Rank Admiral[1]

Dmitrios Rummolo was an admiral in the Star League Defense Force.

History[edit]

The Amaris Crisis[edit]

When Stefan Amaris launched Operation APOTHEOSIS, his usurpation of the Terran Hegemony, one of the initial stages of his campaign was to secure naval domination of the systems within the Hegemony. Rim Worlds Republic naval forces consisting of WarShips, DropShips, and aerospace fighters attempted to secure the two major jump points in every inhabited system, including New Earth.[2]

There were eighteen assorted Star League Defense Force WarShips in the New Earth system when a task force of twenty Rim Worlds Republic WarShips jumped into the system, intending to interdict New Earth and destroy any SLDF ships present. New Earth was a vital supply world for the SLDF, and Commodore Altran Serdamba was responsible for the security of a major SLDF supply convoy assembling in the system at the time, intended to transport supplies and reinforcements to the war effort in the Periphery. Commodore Serdamba commanded a convoy protection flotilla of four destroyers and nine corvettes from his command ship, the Luxor-class cruiser SLS Van der Bergh; also in the system at the time was Vice Admiral Dmitrios Rummolo and his flagship, the Texas-class battleship SLS Wales, along with a squadron consisting of a Congress-class frigate and two Essex-class destroyers. Vice Admiral Rummolo was due to take command of the Ninth Fleet on promotion, and had only been in the system a few days when the Rim Worlds vessels arrived.[2]

The Rim Worlds vessels targeted the two SLDF command vessels, striking at the SLS Wales and the SLS Van der Bergh. The SLS Wales was caught by surprise, but the SLS Van der Bergh and her flotilla had been engaged in combat drills in preparation for their return to the Periphery, and had remained at combat stations as the Rim Worlds vessels approached. When the Rim Worlds ships fired, they scored several significant hits against the SLS Wales, but found the convoy protection group immediately returning fire and launching Fighters. Commodore Serdamba's group screened Vice Admiral Rummolo's squadron for several vital minutes as the crew of the SLS Wales and the other vessels raced to battle stations.[2]

When the heavyweight SLS Wales and the other ships of Rummolo's squadron joined the fight, the greater combat experience of the SLDF troops began to tell; the battle lasted more than half an hour before the Rim Worlds fleet retreated, having lost fourteen vessels. The combined SLDF forces had lost eight of their own ships in the battle, and still didn't know anything more beyond the fact that they had been attacked by a Rim Worlds Republic fleet.[2]

Vice Admiral Rummolo ordered Commodore Serdamba to take the remains of the convoy escort group and jump to the Lagrange point near Tau Ceti V to defend the Apollo-Four shipyards there. With Serdamba's ships defending the Nicholas Spacecraft's facilities, the SLS Wales and the two destroyers from his squadron which had survived the attack fought a holding action at the jump point for the next twenty four hours, while quick charging their drives. Rummolo then had the two destroyers jump to the Apollo-Four shipyards; Rummolo and the SLS Wales then led thirteen assorted government and military JumpShips to a secret SLDF naval base designated Freedom Station.[2]

Promoted to Admiral, Dmitrios Rummolo had been traveling from the Hegemony to the Periphery to take command of the Ninth Fleet, and had been caught up in the coup; Rummolo and his flagship SLS Wales had been in the New Home system when Rim Worlds Republic forces attacked, and Rummolo had led the defense of the system. He had then gathered up ships that had survived the initial attack and led them to a hidden Hegemony installation, founding what became known as the Secret Fleet. Ten years later, with SLDF forces liberating Hegemony worlds from occupation, the Secret Fleet had linked up with the SLDF proper, and Rummolo had taken up command of the Ninth Fleet in time to lead the campaign to liberate New Earth.[1]

Rummolo led an unconventional campaign from the outset; having obtained approval to destroy the HPG in the New Earth system, as the need for security—and the need to prevent the SDS network sharing information on SLDF tactics, techniques and procedures—outweighed the need for the HPG, which could be replaced on a temporary basis by mobile HPG systems. The attack on New Earth began with three civilian vessels[1] who had been operating as a part of the Secret Fleet for some time, the DropShips DeBritta, Memphis Tale and Rojo Caballero, each of which had been modified to carry capital missiles.[3] Although all three modified civilian DropShips were swiftly destroyed by Amaris Empire Armed Forces aerospace fighters, they managed to destroy the HPG and crippled several important command and control nodes.[1]

As the DeBritta, Memphis Tale and Rojo Caballero were making their strike, Admiral Rummolo brought the Ninth Fleet to the nadir jump point and quickly crushed the defenses there before jumping the fleet to the zenith jump point and destroying the defenses there. The Ninth Fleet had secured the zenith jump point well before news of the strike at the nadir point could reach the defenders at the zenith jump point. As the Ninth Fleet recharged their jump engines Admiral Rummolo called in elements of the Fourth Fleet to secure the remainder of the system as Amaris' forces retreated back to make a last stand at New Earth.[1]

Rummolo's plan for taking New Earth called for the Ninth Fleet to jump to the L1 Lagrange point above New Earth and then, pushing through the SDS drones to enter low orbit above the planet, where their fighters and assault craft would divide their efforts between attacking the orbital defenses and various ground-based targets, while the WarShips would operate close to the atmosphere, attacking ground targets directly. That plan proved successful - operating so close to the planet was completely against standard naval doctrine and many of the Ninth Fleet's WarShips took damage as a result, but the Caspar drones experienced even more problems, with many burning up in the atmosphere.[1] However, the Xmucane wasn't a part of the battle; making the jump into the L1 Lagrange point was a chancy maneuver at best, and two WarShips experienced technical problems and failed to jump. The Xmucane jumped - and vanished. The remains of the Xmucane were never recovered; speculation amongst the survivors of the Ninth Fleet was that the Xmucane was stranded somewhere in deep space with a crippled drive.[3]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2, pp. 52–53: "Space Age Sacrifice"
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, p. 72: "Command of the Stars"
  3. 3.0 3.1 Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2, p. 54: "Space Age Sacrifice"

Bibliography[edit]