Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread

[CaptRR]

I had to slick my hard drive and I didn't back up NGC so I'll need one of the turns emailed to me so I can get my galaxy map back. As far as emailing all the turns, it probably won't matter, I'm about to take a big left turn in the story, one that the game has no way to simulate, I've been hinting at it in my Last submission, and it will be interesting to see what the Weyrlings do once this errr... event takes place.

About the gunners, you have to remember that both ships have some of the best Alliance Tech in them, even if the Troikens Pride is a little older. I think I will amoung other things write an addition tonight that explains what went on onboard the Troikens Pride.

[CaptRR]

Chapter 18

Captain Jalan sat silently in his chair; he always did that just before a battle. It was a time to contemplate what he would do, to weigh his options so to speak. Sometimes this time would give him the opportunity to change his strategy, but he knew he could do no such thing here. His plans has been laid out weeks in advance.

Jalan was amazed that his plan had been this easy, well most of his plan had been easy anyway. Jalan knew that his crew would never attack an allied ship unless that ship had attacked them first. So the trick was to make the crew, or at the very least the Command Deck crew think that the Indestructible had initiated an attack on the Troikens Pride, it would have to be convincing too, but not debilitating, after all the Indestructible was almost twice the size of Trookens Pride, and she had better shielding too, but Jalan had the element of surprise, and he knew that would help balance the scales dramatically.

Slowly Jalan had sought allies to his plan, it hadn't been that hard either, Troikens Pride hadn't exactly been the symbol of Draven Pride. In fact his ship had become sort of the dumping ground to much to the Republic's problem cases. The result was an almost endless list of people who were just begging for a little bit of revenge on the Republic. Jalan had chosen just 2 other people to help him in his plan, the Simulations Officer, and an environmental tech that had been sent to his ship after he had beaded most of the air out of a compartment that was being worked on. The tech and the work crew had been having some problems, and while it was never proven that the tech did anything, there were some suspicions.

Together the 3 co-conspiracier's worked on Jalan's plan, and with his command codes it had been easy to insert the program into the Tactical, and enviromental networks. In fact the hardest part had been waiting until the time was right, that part had taken 2 weeks.

Now here he was, the time was almost perfect, but their was a problem, and his name was Commander Lancer. Unlike most of the ships crew, Lancer was an exhalent officer. As far as Jalan could ascertain the only reason he was on Troikens Pride was to keep an eye on Jalan. Lancer was smart, too smart, he had even questioned the logic of moving behind the Indestructible when Jalan gave the order.

"It's not a good defensive position, and will weaken our combined point defense" Lancer had said in respond to Jalan's order several hours before. Still despite his objections, he followed the order, but Jalan was sure that if Lancer ever suspected what he was doing, that the man would take his sidearm and shoot Jalan dead on the spot. He would watch Lancer, if he gave the slightest indication of figuring it out, Jalan would kill him.

Right now though, Jalan had other things to worry about, it was almost time for his plan to kick off, the program had been set into motion even before the order to move behind the Indestructible had been given. Jalan looked around the command deck, it was the night shift, and it was at minimum staffing, only about 5 people in all. Commander Lancer was studying something at his desk in front of the main plot, beside him sat the night shift tactical officer who was going over something with the pilot. The other two officers were at their stations on the side walls engaged In their duties.

Suddenly a loud explosion echoed through the ship, almost instantly the battle stations siren sounded. Jalan knew it was the shuttle bay that had suddenly depressurized as per his program, the resulting sudden decompression would cause a lot of noise, and a few rattled shuttle bay tech, but otherwise no other damage. The damage computers on the other hand would report an explosion.

Jalan put on his best game face, and tried to look surpised, "Commander what going on!"

Lancer had jumped out of his seat and run to the damage control station and was quickly punching in commands. "Sir, theirs' been an explosion in the shuttle bay, no idea of the cause yet, we are reading loss of air pressure on that deck."

By now the Tactical officer had pulled up the main plot and run through a scan, Jalan knew that what she was actually seeing was a program super-imposed over the current scans, they showed her exactly what Jalan wanted. "Captain, if these reading are correct..." she trailed off quickly tapping buttons on her console, obviously double-checking her readings.

"Lieutenant, what is it!" Jalan's annoyance wasn't an act

"Y-yes sir, if these readings are correct, the Weyrling's fired at our shuttle bay.

"What?" it was Lancer "why would they do that, they are totally out of position."

"It doesn't matter, commander, Tactical, get me a firing solution on the Indestructible."

Lancer was at his side almost instantly, his voice lowered so the rest of the bridge couldn't hear it. "Captain, this doesn't make sense, they are totally out of position for a fight, we need to contact the Indestructible."

Jalan didn't bother to lower his voice, "Commander, we have been fired on by our so called allies, its obvious that they intended to hit our shuttle bay to prevent us from launching escape pods. Now I will defend this ship and if you try to stop me, you will be shot!"

Lancer didn't budge for a moment, and Jalans hand slowly gripped his phaser weapon. He was stopped by the sound of his tactical officer, "Captain, the Telekinetic Projectors are on line, and we have a firing solution plotted, shield will be up any moment."

"Good," Jalan looked back at Lancer, the first officer was moving to his station, obviously not wishing to press the argument now. "Pilot go full thrust, Tactical you can fire as soon as you are in point blank."

Jalan felt the ship suddenly accelerate, and the image of the Indestructible grew in his screen.

"Firing in 4, 3, 2, 1." The ship seemed to thump as the Trokens Pride's 4 telekinetic Projectors ripped through space, and into the Indestructible's armor. The damage though was minimum, and ever so slowly the Projectors recycled.

The Indestructible didn't wait though, the damage to her armor had been superficial only, she was a command ship and was heavy on the defensive systems, she also had good engines, and those engines went to 100 percent as her Captain accelerated in wide maneuvers designed bring Indestructible's weapons to bare, at the same time her RADAR image was lost in a hail of ECM.

"We've lost her on sensors," it was Lancer, he was running both the damage control station as well as the Sensor station, a double duty for sure.

"Tactical, estimate their course from the Last reading and forward them to the pilot." Troikens Pride shuddered at the sudden violent course change. Jalan wanted to curse, he had hoped to do more damage on the first volley. He still had the advantage, but only slightly. If he knew the Weyrling Captain, he would be trying to assess his damage, he wouldn't to contact Triokens Pride yet; it would give away his position if he did.

Space was big, and rarely did combat resolve itself quickly, that was certainly the case here. For 3 hours Indestructible and Triokens Pride volleyed for position, their ECM's keeping the other from getting an accurate lock on the other. Occasionally the two ships would come out of their ECM interference and exchange fire, but these shots rarely hit once the Indestructible had managed to come close and sheer off some comm. antennas. Jalan was getting impatient, this should have been over quickly, the first volley should have taken out Indestructible's engines, If the ship was unable to move her ECM's would be worthless.

"Sir," it was the tactile officer, the head one. By now the main command crew had come to their stations, also everyone was in EV suites, just in case their was a breach. "We are getting a several sensor ghosts off our port."

"Can you get a solution."

"Working on it, they have some good ECM on that ship."

"Work Faster" Jalan snapped.

Several minutes passed, suddenly the tac officer yelled, "Clear reading on our port."

The bridge erupted in activity. Quickly the coordinates where sent to fireing control, and a solution was plotted, and the Telekinetic Projectors opened up at the Indestructible. Most missed, but some got through the ECM. The shields on the Indestructible absorbed most of the volley, but their was few systems that could stop that fury for long, and inevitably a hole developed in the Indestructible's protective layer.

The tactical officer noticed this, and the remaining Projectors opened fire on the weakened part of the shields. Armor was torn from the Indestructible's hull like paper being blown off by a bazooka, but the armor did its job, and protected the vulnerable hull beneath it.

"Direct hit, I think we got some though, ecm is still playing hell with fire control"

"Noted" Jalan thought for a moment, the Indestructible's damn ECM had to be eliminated, and the only way to do that was to get in closer, use his Radar to burn though the ECM's, all he needed was one clear shot. "Pilot, bring us in closer, I want to get below its ECM curtain."

Lancer spoke up, "Sir? That will also make our ECM less effective."

"I realize that Commander, but we have more weapons than they do, so follow my orders or I will have you removed."

The command deck was silent, Commander Lancer wanted to remove the Captain, but in the middle of a battle? Lancer would be court marshaled for sure, no he had to play along, and just hope Jalan didn't get them all killed. "Pilot, you heard the Captain, take us in closer."

"Yes Sir."

The Troikens pride accelerated towards Indestructible, but Indestructible suddenly changed direction and began accelerating away, firing polaran beams as she retreated. Jalan was furious, he had been tricked, now he would have to slow his acceleration and then redouble back onto Indestructible in order to get a clear shot.

Jalan began to pace around the command deck. He was losing the advantage. If the Indestructible got away it would most certainly warn HQ, and his ship would be hunted down. That was when, a polaron beam finally made it though the Troikens Prides's ECM. It was a lucky shot, and hit right on the ships Telekinetic Projector, the shrapnel from the exploding projector hit several of the engine pods and ripped through them. Almost instantly 80% if Troikens Prides thrust vanished and Indestructible began pulling away quicly. Jalan knew the battle was lost.

Chapter 19

Josha went back into his office like a hurricane. He had just got the dressing down of his life by the Central Powers Speaker, the Weyrlings were furious, and who could blame them. A Draven ship had attacked the Matriarchs vessel, it was all Josha could do to keep the Weyrlings from sending their fleet into Lasat to take out Troikens Pride personally. Creator, what had that madman Jalan done!

Josha rubbed his head, it made no sense, why had Jalan been put into a position of escorting the matriarch in the first place, and why hadn't the approval for those orders come to him. Something was up, someone was trying to kill the Matriarch. Quickly Josha opened his computer, and began searching all the deployment orders concerning Troikens Pride. It didn't take long to find the order for deployment with the Indestructible. Then Josha looked in shock at what he saw. The approval had come through the Prime Minister himself.

Josha sat frozen for a second, not believing what he was thinking. The prime minister knew Jalans history as well as anyone, the only reason he would have approved the orders, were if he was hoping Jalan was going to do something. But that would meant the Yalare had plotted to kill the Matriarch.

Josha sat in his office for a long time, not knowing what to do. He couldn't tell the Weyrlings, they would tear into home systems, and while the new ships would probably stop them, it would be bloody, the Weyrligns were good generals, but the Dravens had probably the most Industrial Empire in known space. No this was a Draven problem, the Central Powers need to stay out of it, but what can he do. Slowly Josha took out a the keypad and began typing a letting to Central Powers speaker, he knew some of explanations seemed flimsy at best, but they should be enough to keep a war from breaking out. Although it would mean sacrificing Trokioens Pride, unfortunately he would have to offer up that ship as a sacrificial lamb to satisfy the Weyrlings while Josha took care of bigger problems. His second letter was to Commander Draval.

[ March 31, 2003, 02:38: Message edited by: CaptRR ]

[Ruatha]

Quick response CaptRR.
I'll send you a turn file later.
Just write on and I'll follow your plot!

I dont have any general empire spanning storyline anymore so I can follow you. My future plans mostly involve Try and Thurya. But the war against the Terrans will go on unless I'm diverted

Will write my next episode in a couple of days.

[Ruatha]

Weyrling Empire 2406.9
----------------------

Aboard the Light cruiser Desperation:

The ship was running in cloaked mode, it was one of the newest light cruisers the Weyrling empire had built, encompassing the newest and most advanced technology that could be found in the empire.
The ship didn't actually need any crew as it was run by an AI computer core that was capable of making intelligent decisions based upon it's orders and the current circumstances around it.
Despite this the Weyrlings didn't feel comfortable letting a machine capable of destroying worlds run on it's own without supervision, so there was a skeleton crew of three officers aboard.
One would have thought that there would be ample of space aboard this ship but that was not the case.
Aboard the Desperation was 323 Marines and an extra fleet officer, Thurya.
Their goal was to free Try, he was the first and only prisoner that the Terrans had taken and the Weyrlings weren't going to let them get away with it, it was time to send a signal to the Terrans and all other races out there, you don't mess with the Weyrlings!

The Weyrlings had become worried, the war against the Terrans was going to good, the Terrans should have defeated the Weyrlings by now but they seemed unwilling to go into battle.
The Weyrlings had lost two carriers, a light cruiser, a space yard ship and a destroyer since the sledgehammer operation was launched. Meanwhile they had glassed 18 worlds, invaded and occupied the three Terran homeworlds and destroyed 22 orbital space yards and three battleships. Something was wrong!
It would be easy to sit back and relax but that might be a fatal mistake, the Terrans had an impressive fleet, some of which was in the Kuat system but many ships had also left for the Terran-Nyran borders, and there was no war between those two races, this was uncomprehensible.
And now the Dravens, attacking the very symbol of the Weyrling empire!
The Argon confederacy, previously good allies, had declared war upon the Weyrlings as had the CCCP empire aswell. Still there hadn't been any hostilities from them but that might just be coming. There hadn't been any explanation for the war declarations, and with the Central Powers alliance on the verge of collapse and most of the Weyrling forces concetrated in Terran space the situation could turn critical very fast.

Aboard the Desperation was also a new device that had never been used before, it was time to send a signal, and it would be heard all over the galaxy!

The crew aboard the Desperation was in constant contact with Try and knew his location at all times, well almost all times.
There had been a lapse of a few days when Try had been comatose after to hard torture resulting in a brain bleeding. The Terrans had operated and treated him so that he had recorpurated before they started the torture again.
Try had told them all he knew, about the force concentrations of the Weyrlings, the awakening of the One, everything. But still the torture continued, coupled with psychoactive drugs. The Terrans had no psychic technology and if it weren't for this, Try would have been lost.
Along all this Thurya had been in constant contact with him, shared his pain. She had needed some medication of her own to cope with it but she wouldn't abandon him. Her burden was eased some by Elyssandra and many more who also shared Try's pains in some degree, but the close connection between Try and Thurya would have made it impossible for Thurya to shut out the pain even if she wanted.

Try was being kept on a facility on a barren moon deep inside Terran space close to the Nyran border, guarded by a battle ship in orbit, in the system was also a large concentration of Terran warships, posted there for an unknown reason.

Going along with the Desperation was the destroyer Runaway, also under cloak.
There would still be some weeks before they could get Try out, if they where successful. But with the pleasure the Terrans was getting out of torturing Try they wouldn't let hime die, he was the symbol which they could take out all their anger and revenge upon for the millions of Terrans killed by the Weyrlings and the billions living under Weyrling occupation.

Inside the Lasat system:

The two Psi corps light cruisers Gurkan and Tomaten was scanning the system with their long range scanners.
So far there was no sign of the Troikens Pride, but it was only a matter of time. They knew it hadn't left the Lasat system, and if it was here they would find it, and if they found it they would get some answers.
Captain Jalan would be happy to give them all the answers he could, he would love the Weyrlings when the Psic corps was through with him. He would be useless afterwards as his undying loyalty would be all that he could focus upon, the greatness of the Weyrlings.
The only reason he would be able to provide answers was becourse he would do his utmost to please his new masters.
The Psi corps personnel couldn't wait to get him under their care, they had never been allowed to test their arts on any Dravens before and now they had a whole ship to their disposal, this would be fun!
The only problem right now was the two Draven dreadnoughts that had entered the Lasat system, claiming that they would assist the Weyrlings in hunting down the Troikens Pride.

At Central Powers Headquarter:

Elyssandra was sitting with down with the Draven Josha, prince Dravel hadn't been at alliance headquarter when she arrived so she would have to do with this represantative.
The Draven assured Elyssandra that the Dravens had no intention of cancelling the alliance, that captain Jalan was somekind of renegade rouge and please, go ahead and destroy the Troikens Pride, he said.
How could it be that the Troikens Pride had been dispatched to escort duty, Elyssandra wondered.
It had all been Admiral Panars decision and unfortunatly he was no longer alive to be questioned, was the answer she got.
Hovewer she tried that was the brick wall she came up against, Panar was dead and if the Dravens had their way Jalan would soon be aswell, they seemed to think that the Weyrlings would destroy the ship in retaliation. Something Elyssandra thought was strange, the Dravens had access to psychic technology aswell and knew that the Weyrlings had Psi Corps ships equipped with alligiance converters in the vicinity of the Lasat system. But Elyssandra wouldn't point this out to them, if they wanted Jalan dead, let them think that the Weyrlings would do it for them.
Now she just had to find a way to get those Draven dreadnoughts out of the Lasat system, and she thought she knew how.
"-Now see here Josha, we have two state of the art Light cruisers in the area, well equipped to destroy the Troikens Pride.
But in the Lasat system neither you nor we have any forces right now.
Our Sledge fleet left that system to hunt down the Terran cloaker that we discovered in the neighbouring system, unsuccesfull by the way. Thereby leaving a heavily populated oxygen world with it's colonized moon in the Lasat system.
Your two dreadnoughts are well placed to go in and take out those planets, our two light cruisers can't stand up to the forces in that area. We lost two fighter carriers and a light cruiser that was dispatched to destroy those worlds.
To recall the Sledge fleet would cancel the momentum that our forces are having, the next month we will glass 15 more worlds if we can continue as planned."
"-I can't make a desicion alone on this Matriarch", Josha answered.
Ellysandra was growing impatient,
"-You are the Draven represantative to the Cental Powers alliance, if you can't decide that what are you doing here??".
"-Come now dear Matriarch, things aren't that easy! Could your represantive here decide the movements of your forces?"
"-Farth? Ofcourse he can if he thinks it's necessary.
Now you see to it that the Terrans are deprived of that world in the Lasat system, or that Terran fleet in the Lasat system might resupply and head into Draven space! SOmetimes I'm not sure why we fight this war for you, it's time you start doing some damage to the Terrans aswell. If your forces had followed orders this war should've been over by now.
If you can't decide what your forces will do, get me prince Dravel instead, he atleast does what he says. I'm sure the king would have been proud of him, but perhaps not with the rest of you Dravens."

With this she stood up and walked out of the room and went back to her quarters.

[Ruatha]

I got to put up a map over the area here.
I'm writing at work and uses the names of ships and systems out of my memory.
That's why I'm talking about "Neighbouring systems" "The border between Terrans and Nyrans" etc.
Not satisfactory.

Awaiting the future events...
(Have Tbontob given up the story? Now when we're free to write by our imagination he could get involved more in our stories... complicating it all even more )

[ April 01, 2003, 19:51: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[mlmbd]

WOW!!!!! You guys are really kicking! Ruatha and CaptRR, the additions to your stories are very very good!! Keep it coming!!

mlmbd

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by mlmbd:
WOW!!!!! You guys are really kicking! Ruatha and CaptRR, the additions to your stories are very very good!! Keep it coming!!

mlmbd

Hurray for our complete fanbase.
You make it all worthwhile Mlmbd! (and yes, she does love you best, dude!)

[ April 03, 2003, 17:58: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[mlmbd]

Ruatha,

Hurray for our complete fanbase.

I don't think I am your entire fanbase. Lots of "LURKER'S" out there.

mlmbd

[Raging Deadstar]

Yep, unfortuantly my computer freezes up a lot on these forums so i don't get much of a chance to post in other threads beside the cantina and troopers race directory. But i am definatly enjoying the story, it seems to have gotten better since you abandoned the game and turned it complete fiction. Keep up the good writing, also ruatha, check out my fanfiction site thread as i have some suggestions that i need authors to reply on

[CaptRR]

Chapter 20

Commander, Prince Dravel looked out the window as his skimmer headed towards the surface of Acamar VII. The blue white world, grew as the small craft went through its decent. It was so different than a Draven world, Dravel thought. So much water, and actual land. Of course that was part of the reason Acamar VII had been chosen as home for the Central Powers Headquarters, it was jewel nestled in the Draven Republic, yet controlled by the Thermolians, and finally its location close to the Weyrling Empire made it the ideal choice for greatness.

It had been a month since Dravel received a cryptic message from Josha. The message basicly said that Dravel was need at Alliance HQ now, and to take any ship he needed was need at Alliance HQ now, and to take any ship he needed to there. Fortunately Dravel had been Agamar, where he was forced to retreat to once the news that the Sledgehammer fleet had been destroyed. He hadn't retreated back alone though, he had captured a Terren Battleship, once the scientists had finished looking it over, Dravel had conscripted a crew for it, and it was now the primary defense for Agamar, his ship the King Dravel was their as well, though it was in the yards for repairs. Fortunately a replacement ship was available, it was old, and it weaponry was outdated, but it was fast, and that is the only reason Dravel had made it to Acamar so fast.

But why had he hurried? The note that Josha wrote didn't go into too many details, but it did have a passing reference to the Troikens Pride. Something was definitely up, and Dravel knew if he had been hurried off the war front so fast, that something involved the Draven Government. He shuttered slightly, not for the first time he realized that he was soon to be the President of the Draven Republic, a post that he had not expected to inherit for a long time. He would go from being a mere commander in the Draven Space Navy to the leader of all the Draven people, it was a tough subject for him to get his mind around, but he had been groomed for this since he was a child, he knew he would succeed at it.

The skimmer began to shutter violently as its gear extended, and it made its final decent to the Central Powers HQ. He had a great view of the main building, it was known as one of the most beautiful structures in the known Universe, incorporating the best architects from 3 races into its structure, it's sweeping 1 kilometer tall towers, the administrative centers for each race, seemed to keep watch over the central structure that housed the actual heart of the Central Powers. It' simple beauty never showing the trouble that lied beneath, the fact is the Central Powers were in trouble.

The Weyrlings were in trouble, what should have been a great occasion for their race after they took over the leadership of the Alliance, had turned into a nightmare, first with the opening steps of the War, then with the CCCP declaring war on the Weyrlings, and now the incident with the Troikens Pride. The Allinace was on the verge of collapsing, and if that happens, the glacier that is the CCCP would swallow up the Draven Republic, and then the rest of the Alliance soon after.

It wasn't all bad though, the Weyrlings had made great strives against the Terrens, even if the Dravens had been less than successful in that regard. The CCCP while declaring war hadn't made any overt action towards the Weyrlings, but it was strange, why had the CCCP declare war against the Weyrlings, and not the Allinace as a whole?

The skimmer thumped as it came into contact with the ground, and a few minutes later the door opened. For the next couple of minutes Dravel was escorted by Josha's aid through the sprawling Central Powers Complex. The towers were even more stunning on the ground than in the air, they seemed to stretch to the edge of the sky, yet each tower seemed to hold just a touch of its maker. The ones designed by the Dravens, which were also the shortest, seemed to take inspiration from the floating cities, their bases were narrow, and then they got wider us they raised from ground. In an age before Anti-gravity those structures would have been impossible, but now they rose to astounding hights.

The Thermolians Towers were simple yet their paint scheme that changed color depending the angle that you were looking at it from. The sudden change in color could be daunting at first, but all the colors seemed mix well with each other. Little was known why the Thermolians decided on this paint scheme, but rumor was that each color represented each one of their First colonies.

Finally their was the Weyrlings buildings, they were the tallest as well, yet they were a far cry from the nomally strait buildings that littered the Thermilian and Draven sections. These buildings seemed to all curve towards a central point. Dravel had once been told that it had something to do with their Religion, their worship of "the one", but no one had ever confirmed this since little was known of the Weyrlings Religious beliefs.

After a short ride though the Draven compound, Commander Dravel was finally brought to Josha's Office. It technically wasn't the office of a Central Powers Representative, since Draven was just filling that role while the real Representative was back on Konoephoras X, supposedly in meetings with the Prime Minister.

In the mean time, the Chairman of the Defense Committee Josha was also pulling duty as the main Draven Representative to the Central Powers. As Dravel walked into Josha's office the Chairman smiled and rose.

"Its great to see you Prince, its been too long," Said Josha as he extended his hand.

Dravel took it, and returned his smile, "Yes sir it has, I wish you could come to the King Dravel more often, my crew really enjoys showing off their ship to the Defense Chairman."

Josha, continued to smile, but directed Dravel to some couches at the far end of the room, at the same time his secretary came in and laid drinks on a small table.

"I'm sure they do," their was a slight air of laughter in Josha's voice. No crew liked to have their ship inspected by the top brass, but it would have been impolite for Dravel to at least not offer. Amazing, Josha though, Dravel was the prince of the Republic, yet he never forgot that he is an officer in the Space Navy.

Josha's mood turned more serious though. "I' sure you are wondering why I called you here in so much of a hurry."

Dravel took a sip of his drink, and swallowed it. He then leaned back in his chair, trying to anticipate what was coming next, "I think it has something to do with the Troikens Pride, but the look on your face tell me it goes much higher than just one ship."

Josha nodded, "yes much higher. To put it lightly Prince, the Central Powers is on the verge of collapse, and our enemies are ready to capitalize on that collapse. I think Captain Jalan may have been working under orders from the Prime Minister himself"

Now he had Dravels full attention, and he sat upright, he was about to say something when Josha raised a hand, letting him know their was more.

"It gets worse, I think the Weyrlings are suspicious of this, and are going to take steps to capture Captain Jalan, and then use whatever methods to extract that information from him."

Now Jalan understood the nature of Josha's worry. If the weyrlings found out the Prime Minister tried to murder their matriarch they would rip into Draven space demanding they hand over Yalare. Of course the armed forces would never turn over their Prime Minister to any foreign government, no matter how righteous the cause. There would most certainly be a war, the Dravens had the Industrial strength and the Weyrlings had the Scientific and Military tacticians, the war would be bloody, and would probably end up leaving one race extinct.

Dravel spoke softly, "You want me to hunt down and destroy the Troikens Pride?"

It was not so much a question but a statement, something he had to do in order to save his people, but Josha surprised him.

"Creator no", Josha said with a slight yelp, "your father would role over in his grave if I sent you on a suicide mission." The mention of Dravels father caused a slight uncomfortable moment of silence, even after 2 years Dravel still felt he would never be quite the man his father was.

Josha continued, "No Prince, I have already dispatched 3 ships to take care of the situation. 2 dreadnaughts on search, and an unmarked stealth ship tailing the Weyrling search party have been dispatched. If the Weyrlings find the ship before we do, the Stealth ship will destroy the Troikens Pride, and then try to escape, if it can't escape then the stealth ship will destroy itself."

Dravel took a deep breath, "What about the crew's?"

"The stealth ship is mostly computerized to prevent the Weyrlings Psi corps from using their subverters, the rest know how important their mission is, and that they not be taken. As far as the Troikens pride, we built the ship, we know its weak points, it will be destroyed, quickly, or at least their will be no life left on the ship. To be honest, we will probably lose 100% of both crews."

Dravel understood why Josha had giving those orders, and how difficult they must have been. Even if the ship destroyed the Troikens Pride their was almost no way it would be able to get away from the Weyrlings, and if Dravel knew Josha, he had ordered the crew to not fire on the Weyrlings, he could not risk making things worse. That stealth ship was being sent into the fire, with virtually no protection, it would die, without it or the crew every even having a chance to survive.

Their was still one thing though, "Sir, why did you call me all the way out here it the situation was already under control?"

The deadpan seriousness in Joshas eye's frightened Dravel for a moment, "My Prince we cannot sit idly by and watch our Prime Minister destroy our Republic. I'm afraid we must remove him from power."

"What?" Dravel's mind was realing, what Josha was suggesting was an act of treason.

"I know Prince, I felt the same way, but I assure you there is no other option. I have been looking over fleet movements, if we don't act now, we will soon be unable to act. Yalare hadn't secured his power with all the Military, once he has all the Military loyal to him, he will be unstoppable, we act now, or we lose everything."

Dravel thought, and now it made sense that Josha had called Dravel here, he was the Prince, next in line to the Presidency, if he demanded that Yalare step down it would carry much more weight than an exiled Defense Chairman.

"Prince, I have to be honest, Yalare has placed a lot of commanders in strategic places, but he hasn't been able to get much headway in Acamar. Don't get me wrong, most of the military commanders are honest, but Yalare has control of most of the Admiralty, and its going to take a major effort to make the Captains turn against what they perceive is the rightful government. I'm afraid, Yalare won't go down without a fight."

Dravel, dreaded what he might have to do, never had a Draven ship fire on another, but if Yalare had that much control over the fleet he might have to. He took a breath, it was time to get down to business, "What kind of forces are up against."

Josha took a small pad out of his pocket, and read it over, "So far, I think I can get you 15 dreadnaughts, 7 battleships, and about 17 other smaller vessles. Oh yes, and I think I can get you a warp point opener and closer."

Dravel shook his head, "That's not enough, home fleet alone has twice that many ships, and that's not including the new ships that are coming out of the yards as we speak."

"I know, but it's all we have, my Prince. Yalare has been keeping most of the new ships close to home, and I'm afraid all we have been able to gather are whats being put out by the Acamar shipyards. On the plus side, the ships I'm giving you are among the newest in the fleet. They were originally scheduled to deploy as part of the second Sledgehammer fleet, but since the Weyrlings have the situation with the Terrens in hand I don't think we will need them for Sledgehammer."

Now Dravel looked Josha square in the eye, and spoke slowly, emphasizing his point, "We are going to have to tell the Weyrlings eventually, and when we do they are going to want Yalare's head on a platter, plus I imagine they will be quite upset over us not telling them earlier."

"I know," Josha said, "I know, but they Weyrlings aren't stupid. A little arrogant, and annoying sometimes, but not stupid. They will understand why we are doing what we are doing, even if they won't be very happy about it. Hell, I might even give them Yalare after all this is done, the Weyrlings would probably be a lot nicer than me."

Dravel smiled slightly and stood up, "well I better be going, it looks like I have a lot of work in order to get my Fleet together, is their anything else, Josha?"

Now it was Josha turn to smile, "a matter of fact there is, Commander. You do know that commander of a fleet is an Admiral's position, and we can't have people you are commanding outranking you now can we?"

"Uhh, I guess not." Said Dravel a little flusterd.

"In that case Commander Dravel, I know promote you to full Admiral, with all the rank and Privileges." Josha shook Dravel's hand and gave a picture perfect salute to the new Admiral. Dravel returned it just as perfectly, "My aid has you new rank insignia waiting for you, good luck Admiral."

"Thank you Josha, I'll need it."

Chapter 21

That fool! That stupid idiotic fool! That was all Commander Lancer could think right now. Here he was on a crippled ship, being hunted by two weyrling Cruisers, and now he had been forced to throw his Captain in the brig.

Lancer looked at the Tactical display, it wasn't good. The Troikens Pride was out gunned and was losing ground fast to the two Weyrlings Cruisers, that weren't even trying to use their stealth systems. And why should they? The Trokens pride was not in good shape, she had lost several Engines, and was down a Telekinetic Projector. To make matters worse, his only salvation, 2 Draven dreadnaughts were clear across the system. He had no chance of making it to them before he was overtaken by the Weyrling vessles. And it was all the fault of that traitorous fool Jalan.

Once the battle was over, and Indestructible had gotten away, it had taken only a few hours to find the sabotage, and when Lancer checked that sabotage it had Jalan's codes all over it. Lancer had wanted to shoot the fool right their, but instead had settled for throwing him into the brig. That didn't help his current situation though.

Lancer had thought about calling out to the Weyrlings, explain to them what had happen, but he knew that would do little good. If the Troikens Pride's sensor's were working correctly, those were Psi corps ships, the elite of the Weyrling fleet, and the most feared. They were sent in for search and destroy, or Lancer feared even more capture. It was doubtful the Psi corps would be in a negotiating mood, it was more likely they would feign talking in order to get a lock on the Troikens Pride, and when that happens, it would over.

If only the Indestructible hadn't hit their long range communications antennas, then he might have been able to call fleet HQ, and explain the situation. Instead the Troikens Pride was out here, all alone, with their own allied hunting them down.

Lancer took a breath, "Pilot, change course I want randomize our course as much as possible, maybe we can evade those Light Cruisers." Lancer knew their was no chance of that.

The young pilot though didn't give any indication that he knew, instead he nodded and began to plot a randomized course, trying to put as much distance as possible between them and the Weyrling vessels. It was a losing proposition, the Troikens Pride was just too slow in its wounded state.

Lancer looked once again at the Tactical readout, it was only a matter of time.