Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread

[CaptRR]

I'm sick so this might not be that good, I hope you all enjoy these two chapters. I know this should provide Rutha sith some storie material.

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Chapter 11

Commander Dravel looked around the round table, most of the seats were empty though. The King Dravel was built to be a command ship, and because of that she had been designed with large briefing rooms in order to accommodate the staff of the various Squadron commanders that would fall under a fleet infrastructure, but now there was only one other ship with them in Agamar, that meant a lot of extra room. One of the results of that extra room was the inclusion of several people who normally didn't attend briefings, one of them being both ships Psychic Weapon Representatives. The PWR was basically in charge of the of the ships Psychic branch. That branch had become more and more important as the Draven fleets reliance on Psychic weaponry increased. But Psychics or Psi's as they were called tended to be an isolated group, there were relatively few in a crews company. Many tended to be receptors for what was termed stray thought, not mind reading per say, but the Psi would experience the same emotion as the person giving out the stray thought. Those emotions could be anything from joy, and happiness to paranoid delusion, and in some cases Suicidal tendencies. Many Psi's couldn't take handle this constant bombardment of stray thought, for that reason suicide among Psi's was extremely high.

For this reason children who demonstrated Psi characteristics were immediately taken into Government custody, before their use for military applications was discovered, they were simply isolated from the general public, it was found that the Psi's couldn't receive stray thought from each other only from Normal people. For many years Psi's lived an isolated existence, shunned away society. A special floating city had been built for them, though not as grand as the other floating Cities on Kornephoros X, it was adequate for the relatively few Psi's that existed. Their isolated life changed though once contact with the Weyrlings had been established. The Weyrlings were a psychic race by nature, and had even been joined together as a collective whole at one time, it was unclear how this collection had been broken, but it was clear that the Weyrlings retained much of their Psychic technology, and once the Central Powers Alliance had been formed that technology was shared with the Dravens.

The results had been staggering. Using amplifiers a Psi's could create bLast wave large enough to destroy a ship. The wave was more powerful than the Depleted Uranium Cannons that had been standard issue on ships in the past, even if it was larger. Almost overnight Psi's were drafted into the military, in order to power these Telekinetic Projectors. Dravel many times detested the way that the Psi's had been forced into military service, but he recognized the realities of the situation. The Republic needed those weapons, and despite basically conscripting the Psi's the Republic tended to treat them as best as they could. Dravel use to joke that the Psi's cabin were twice as big as the Admiral's, and they got twice the pay too.

Dravel knew however how important the Psi's were to the survival of the Republic, and the Psi's by and large accepted their role in Society preferring it to the total isolation of the past.

The door in slid open and the final guest arrived, the Captain of the Furies Edge, Captain Lanare of Acamar. The captain was a short man, probably the shortest man at the briefing, but he carried himself with an air of confidence that had served him well in the Academy were he aced every single command simulation on record. As a result he had become the youngest captain in the history of the Draven Republic.

Once the Captain was seated the briefing started. Dravel cleared his throat, "Welcome," he paused gauging his audience, "We have been given orders."

Anyone who might not have been paying full attention was now riveted on Dravel's words. They had been sitting on the Agamar-Ansuroer warp point for 3 months now, since the Terrens declared war. Since then they had not tried to attack. But there had been reports of several small engagements in the Lesat system, some rumors even of a Weyrling ship being lost.

The lights in the room dimmed and a hologram appeared in the middle of the table showing the warp points in the Draven Republic and the Terren Galactic Imperuim. Currently the northernmost warp point was blinking. "Ok people we are here, in 4 hours we will enter the Ansuroer system and begin unrestricted warfare against any Terren Ships that we find there. We will make our war though the Ansuroer where we will meet up with third fleet. Our goal is to clear Ansuroer so that Agamar won't be in direct danger while third fleet engages the enemies main force."

The PWR from Furies edge interrupted, "Commander, I've never hear of third fleet."

Dravel smiled, "that's because third fleet had never existed until now. Just before war broke out the Weyrlings and us began assembling our forces in the Acamar system. Once the Terrens declared war the Central Powers Representatives Enacted the Sledgehammer Plan. The plan is simple, a joint Weyrling- Draven fleet will go right into the heart of Terren space and destroy all its industrial capabilities. Once the Terrens have been neutralized we will begin annexing worlds for forward bases, with our combined fleets we will have virtual immunity to strike where ever we want."

"Lieutenant Sosha will read the rest of the orders." Dravel watched as Sosha stood, and began o recite the orders that had come a few hours earlier. Dravel never heard a word though, her voice was like a song, and the way she moved was intoxicating. Dravel was sure he had never seen such a beauty in all his life. He wanted so badly to tell her how he felt, to touch her, not as one officer to another, but as a man to a woman. He leaned back in his chair, not really caring how wrong his thoughts were, but just enjoying her voice while it Lasted. Maybe some day, when this war is over, and he was President he would tell her. If that wasn't a reason to survive this war nothing was.

Chapter 12

Golmen sat silently in his chair as the Prime Minister paced in front of him. Yalre was mad, no mad was probably an understatement. Golmen wasn't even sure furious would be strong enough a word to describe the prime ministers mood.

"That ignorant... idiotic, ball of fur. If she was in the same damn sector I would rip her head off with my bear hands!!"

"Yes sir," was all Golmen could say, the Prime Minister always had this reaction after he had talked to the Weyrling Matriarch. She seemed to have a gift for upsetting Yalare that few living beings could achieve.

"I can't believe, she wants to go ahead this Sledgehammer!! Doesn't she realize the cost, and then she wants us to Pay the majority of the cost. Why I ought to..." The rest was a series of curses that Golmen would have sworn were form 5 different Languages. He took a breath, Yalare would have sworn the Matriarch was out to give him a heart attack. Every plan he sent out to Alliance HQ she would have here Representative change just enough to put it against his favor. This time had been particularly bad. Yalare had proposed a joint operation against the Terrens that would have spread the cost evenly over all three Central Powers Members, the Matriarch had changed the proposal to a joint fleet that was mostly supported and consisted of Draven units, after all the Dravens had the most to gain from this operation. The Thermolians still entangled with their war with the Infernal Relms had agreed.

Yalare had been furious with the Matriarch, and he had told her exactly what he thought of her. In response, the Matriarch had the Central Powers Speaker which was also a Weyrling throw him out of the Headquarters building. Yalare had eventually been let back in to the building, but only with the promise that he would act civil. Imagine, a fur ball telling him, the leader of one of the greatest empires in the known Galaxy, what to do. It was embarrassing.

Finally Yalare was starting to feel a little calm, "its ok Golmen you can leave." Golmen left in a hurry happy to be relieved from his role of punching bag. Yalare sat back in his desk.

"Why do you listen the that foolish matriarch?" it was the voice again.

Yalare nodded his head, he really didn't want to deal with this now, not only was the Matriarch preventing him from fulfilling his goals but now he had to deal with that voice in his head, "I have no choice," he said "She has control of the Central Power, I can't do anything military related without her approval."

"You should be running the Alliance, not her."

Yalare smiled, the voice was right, but what did it matter what should be happening the fact is, she was in charge.

"You could be running the Allaince."

Yalare froze, he hated the voice, despite gifts it had given him. Still he wanted control of the Alliance badly, "How?"

"The Matriarch is leading the Weyrling fleet into battle, should something happen to her it would change the balance of power in the Alliance."

"Are you saying that we should kill the Matriarch!" Yalare couldn't believe what the voice was saying. Starting a war was one thing, but killing an Empires leader, especially a friendly one was unspeakable.

"I didn't say anything about killing, I simply said that Combat is dangerous, sometimes there are friendly fire incidents, and escape pods have been known to fail."

Yalare was breathing hard now. How could he even be considering what the voice was suggesting, it was an act of war. No he wouldn't do it, he would not kill an ally no matter how much he loathed her.

The voice seemed to sense his thoughts, "Don't get high and mighty on me now," the voice was different now, no longer cold and calculating, now it was rage, Yalare had never heard the voice so enraged, he was more scared now than he ever was in is life. "I know exactly what you are, I know exactly what you did it!" Suddenly Yalare was assaulted by hundreds of images at once, terrible images. He couldn't believe what he was seeing in them.

"No, that's impossible!" Yalare was not in a panic, what he was seeing couldn't be him, but somehow he knew the images he was seeing were him. Yalare looked down at his hands they were shaking madly, "Great Creator what have I done?"

Yalare was almost comatose for several hours as he struggled with the images now captured forever in his mind. In the end he typed a letter in his terminal, it was short and to the point. It was addressed to a friend of his who was the Captain of one of the Sledgehammer Fleet ships. As Yalare pressed the send key, he knew that he had gone too far.

[mlmbd]

CaptRR, I love the interaction between, the Matriarch and Yalare. Both chapters are very good. Being sick, does not seem to have affected you!

mlmbd

[Ruatha]

Weyrling Empire 2406.3
----------------------

The Weyrling fleet was preparing for the Worm-hole jump between the Lasat and Kuat systems. They would soon be in enemy territory for the first time and the fleet was set to full alert.
The Draven fleet was following a couple of days behind.

Aboard the Destroyer "Responder":

Thurya pressed the alarm button and spoke into the internal communication channel.
"-All hands prepare for wormhole jump.
Our intel says that we will meet light opposition on the other side of the wormhole. Our fleet will win but as to the individual ships no predictions can be made, so stay alert. Be sure that it's the enemy you are targeting. No one fires before my command to do so.
I have orders from fleet command to fire at all enemy targets, so today we might become warriors, make me proud.
Here we go!"
While Thurya saw the other ships in the fleet start to disappear into the wormhole she couldn't help herself from thinking of her dead sister, maybe I'll see you tonight Ari, she thought and gave the command to jump. The ship moved into the wormhole and was finally in enemy territory. The war had truly begun.

When they came out in the Kuat system the battle indicators started blinking. On the tactic screen they could see the fleet gathered after the jump and a single Terran Strike carrier class destroyer heading away from the fleet while at the same time launching fighters.
One has to admire the courage of those fighter pilots, Thurya thought as she saw the fighters go straight against the fleet and immediatly turn into debris as they came into range of the Weyrling main guns. After awhile a few fighters managed to come in closer but was then swiftly disposed of by the point defence cannons. From the tactic screen Thurya could make out that it wasn't inferior piloting skills that made the Terrans die. They managed to avoid most of the beams and guns directed against them but the sheer number of projectiles and energy beams heading towards them created an impenetrable net killing the fighters in the deadly web.
The fight was cleary going in one way only. It was only a matter of time before the fleet caught up to the destroyer and finished it off.
Another thing that was clear was that Thurya wouldn't get her sword blooded today, the Responder would never be able to reach the enemies before the battle was over. They could only watch and learn.

It took less than 30 minutes and then the battle indicators went limp and the tactic screen only showed friendly objects.
Thurya gave the order to the crew to stand down and leave the battle stations, those who where on the routine shift went back to their ordinary tasks, the rest of the crew gathered in the dormatory talking about what they had just witnessed.
The atmosphere in the ship was tense. In the same time as they felt joy of the victory they also felt disappointment that they hadn't been able to participate and prove themselfs as warriors, and also some shame over the overwhelming odds that the Terrans had faced, it didn't feel as any great heroic task that the fleet had delivered, more like being the school yard bully kicking the little kid around. There wasn't much glory in that.

The comm screen in the command bridge flared to life,
"-Destroyer Responder. Keep position in the fleet. Combat status Beta. New course is downloaded to your navigational array now."
The screen turned black again. There hadn't been much joy in that voice either Thurya thought to herself.
"-Anselm Jugg, you have the bridge". She got up from her seat and started walking to her cabin feeling somewhat tired after the battle tension.

Aboard the Battlecruiser Indestructible,
Flagship of fleet Sledge;

Elyssandra had sat up long past her sleeping period with the rest of her staff analyzing the short battle.
It didn't look good.
Inside the Kuat system was a large Terran fleet. Numerical it was outnumbered by the Weyrling fleet alone, not to talk about the Draven fleet.
The Terrans had about 30 ships, the Weyrling fleet was over 50 ships and the Draven fleet well over 70 ships strong.
With the current positions the Weyrling fleet would face that Terran fleet alone, the Dravens was too far behind to catch up to the faster Weyrling fleet that was heading on a straight course towards the Sladden wormhole, where the Terran fleet had took position.
Numbers aren't everything they had agreed upon during their analysis. In the Terran fleet they where facing they had spotted a deployed fighter group consisting of over 150 fighters. The rest of the fleet was made up of battleships, large carriers and some destroyers. The Weyrling fleet might be greater in numbers but in tonnage they where about equal.
They had faced 34 fighters in this first battle, and most of the fleet didn't understand how hard it had been to hit those fighters! They had been forced to use an overwhelming amount of weapons to defeat a single destroyer with it's fighter escort.
Those Terrans know how to fight, and we don't! Elyssandra thought to herself.

They now had several options.
They could continue as was originally planned and go for the Sladden wormhole. Elyssandra thought that they might succed against that Terran fleet but the cost would be great. After that battle, win or loose, the Weyrling fleet would be a beaten force. They couldn't continue as an effective fleet after such a battle.
Another option was to use the newly constructed worm-hole opener the empire had. Now they could open worm-holes between any systems in the known universe.

They could use that to send in a replacement fleet, better equipped and better trained. The Sledgehammer fleet had been assembled over years and many of the ships where really obsolete and had crews that hadn't trained at any of the new war academys.
But to open a worm-hole and send in a new fleet and bring out the current fleet would still take months to coordinate.
Months that the Terrans would use to strenghten their fleet.
Elyssandra looked out over the tired staff and spoke;
"-There is no use in making any decision now. Let's all sleep on this and continue our planning tomorrow.
You are dismissed."
She got up and walked to her cabin.
During the day she had also been given the news that the Empire had established contact with a new race. The Zax society.
They had received a very strange message from them, being what the analysts called "psychotic in it's nature".
It had been directed to the late emperor Ruatha. How the Zax society had heard that name she didn't know, but rumours would travel far she thought.

She remembered some lines in the message:
"May anyone who has said the slightest ill-word against you (Ruatha) or your descendants in the next ten thousand years suffer the worst possible torments.
May you be able to exact your revenge in full measure against anyone who expresses any criticism of you or your reign.
May you and your descendants rule the Weyrling Empire for the next 10,000 years and beyond.
If anybody should rule instead of or in place of your descendants, may they suffer the worst possible torments in this life and in hell, forevermore. May their bones ache to their core. May the fleas of 10,000 camels infest their armpits."

Well. They had been wrong hadn't they Elyssandra thought, ruathas reign hadn't Lasted any 10,000 years. And my armpits don't itch yet!
She had turned the issue over to the diplomatic corps to ponder, How do one respond to such a strange message?
She didn't really care about that now, it wasn't important in these circumstances.
We need bigger ships and more of them. I'd better contact Alliance headquarter and see if the Dravens have any funds ready for transfer, so far they hadn't payed all they had promised. Granted their contribution to the fleet cost was greater than the Weyrlings but the Weyrlings didn't expect to make any profit from this war. Secretly Elyssandra thought that maybe that was the Dravens main reason for participating in the war, to take over Terran territory and increase their already large production of resources. It didn't feel good to depend upon aliens to finance the fleet but what to do? The Weyrlings must keep forces in the empire territory ready to defend against unexpected threats, we can't send all our ships to this war. The dravens must understand this, or I must make them understand, again.
I hope I can talk to prince Dravel. He is a much more civilized alien than that Yalare character. Still it couldn't be easy for Yalare. To rule after the popular King Dravel. I had it easy, anything I did was far better than what Ruatha ever did. She smiled a little as she opened the door to her cabin.

She undressed and slid into her bed and when the head hit the pillow she was already asleep.

[ March 06, 2003, 14:06: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Ruatha]

The game is at 2406.6. The Last story from my part was 2406.3. So I have two months ready to be written, the synopsis is written.

It's only time to put down all the words that I'm missing. Perhaps this weekend I'll catch up to the game again. (Much has happened, the war rages on!)

[tbontob]

Exciting Ruatha.

And the relationship between you and the Dravens is intriguing. Makes one wonder if all relationships, no matter how beneficial, have their disadvantages.

I await the next installment.

[mlmbd]

Ruatha, thrilling stuff! I await, MORE!

tbontob, I believe all bad relationships have good and bad points. Conversely, all good relationships have bad and good points!

mlmbd

[ March 06, 2003, 17:36: Message edited by: mlmbd ]

[Ruatha]

Weyrling Empire 2406.2
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On Destroyer "Responder":

Thurya walked into the crew dormatory.
There where some people sleeping with their ears pointed downwards, effectively closing out all external sounds.
The only one awake in the dormatory was Try.
Thurya was starting to feel the craving for his company at nights and wasn't far from giving up what she sometimes thought of as a silly notion about not sleeping with her crew.

Try was deeply occupied with a device that was making weird noises, "beep, beep, beep..."
"-Try, what are you doing?"

Try didn't look up from the device, Thurya saw that it had some sort of communication screen fitted to it.
"-Hi Capt'n.
It's a new thing I've got from some of my friends back home with the Last mail delivary.
It's called a video game. See this little round figure is called Eat-man, he goes around in this maze and eats all these cokies while staying away from the ghosts."

Thurya was puzzled.
"-Ok, what's the purpose of it?"

"-You see, It's me controlling the little round figure that eats the cokies, I'm supposed to eat as many as possible before I die!"

"-Die, what do you mean?"

"-Well. It's entertainment. It get's harder all the time and eventually I die."

"-I still don't understand the purpose of it. Does it train your reflexes, can you win some prize?"

"-No. It's the challenge to get more cokies than I did the Last time.
My friends have implemented a new technology, computers, into this game. Now they need money to invest in it and they want me as a partner."

"-It seems like a bad idea. Pointless. It will never make any profit.
Now put that away, you need extra training at the point defence gun. You really stink at it you know, and if you don't improve soon I'll have you transfered to internal maintnance at one of the stationary weapon platforms, so hop to it.
I want you in that turret in five minutes, I'll be at the bridge.

"-Yes captain. I'll just play one more time then I'll be there!"

Thurya left while shaking her head slowly thinking that he might be cute but sometimes he seemed darned stupid aswell.

[Ruatha]

Next "month" comes later tonight.

[CaptRR]

Hmmm.... you can just tell that something bad is abut to happen

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Chapter 13

Admiral Panar gripped the sides of his chair as the familiar disorientation of a warp transit subsided. Dravens didn't handle warp transits as well as most other species, a side effect of their Genetic Engineering, but it was a small price to pay. The disorientation Lasted only seconds, it took that long for the Targeting system to cycle so the hindrance to combat was minimum. The system tactical display began to fill first with planets, then a few minutes later by known contacts in the system. Panar wasn't surprise by what he saw, it confirmed what the Weyrlings had reported, a lot of well defended planets, with almost every Terren ship sitting on the Sladden Warp point. The Weyrling fleet was in-route towards the Sladden warp point, but he knew that was only an illusion. Matriarch Elyssandra had already informed him that her fleet would only head towards them, but would avoid combat. It was an attempt to draw the terren forces off the warp point so that the Draven forces could run through into the Sladden system and crush the terrens home worlds.

However, even the matriarch didn't expect the Terrens to budge. They had the defensive advantage, and moving would expose their home systems to attack. If the terrens maintained their position the matriarch wanted to combine the Draven and Weyrling Sledgehammer fleets and then make a combined attack on the Terren's position.

Panar snorted, cowards he thought. The Weyrlings had no business in combat as far as he was concerned. Their first combat with the Terrens had been an embarrassment to the alliance. A single destroyer taking out a light Cruiser, Panar would have laughed at the thought had the consequences not been so severe, and now this. Elyssandras Ronda view point would add at least a month to their journey. A month that the Sledgehammer plans had not accounted for, sure the Terren Fleet was about the same tonnage as the Draven fleet but the Dravens had already proven that all things being equal a Draven ship could beat an equal Terren ship. No, Panar would refuse to join with her, he wouldn't put the plan in danger in order make the Matriarch feel secure, he was sure his fleet would prive victorious over the Terren's, and then he would lead the way into the Sladden system and prove that the Dravens should have been running this war from the beginning.

"Sir" it was the communications officer, "we have a message coming in from Kornephoros, it's addressed your eyes only." Panar took the pad from the young Lieutenant with a snap. He didn't like being interrupted when he was thinking, especially when the one doing the interrupting was a lowly Lieutenant.

Panar dialed his code in and submitted his thumbprint to the pad as the Communications officer disappeared into the background of the Command Deck. Panar noticed that it was from the Prime Ministers office. Panar had known Yalare for years, long before he entered politics. In fact his current position was probably because of the friendship he had with the Prime Minister. Yalare had pulled him from commander of Training operations, where the Dravel Presidency had basically marooned him, and put him in charge of the Draven Sledgehammer fleet. It was an honorable position, Panar had never commanded so many ships, and he knew it was the Ticket to his future. After he crushed the Terrens he would be ready to take on Politics, maybe even become Prime Minister some day.

He slowly read the message, and then reread it. He couldn't believe what the Prime Minister wanted to do, it was crazy, but there was something about it. A certain justice. Panar had never liked the Matriarch, she wanted too much from the Draven people and then wanted to run the show, with her out of the way it would give command over both the Draven and Weyrling Sledgehammer fleets, thus when he finnaly crushed the Terrens it would be a Draven Victory, it would be his Victory. But how to do it, he had to make sure it couldn't be traced back to him, or for that matter to the Draven Government.

An Idea came to him, it would be perfect he thought, the man had showed a tendency to be a loose cannon, and his hate for the Weyrlings was well known. "Lieutenant," He called out.

The communications officer appeared seemingly out of nowhere, "Send out a message to the Troikens Pride, tell them I would like to meet Captain Jalan as his earliest convenence."

The Lieutenant responded with a "yes, sir" and then disappeared again. Panar smiled. Yes it was a perfect plan, command might even give him a medal after all this was over, even if the most gratifying part could never be known to them.

Chapter 14

Captain Jalan of Acamar 3 felt the gentlest of thumps as the shuttle docked in the landing bay of the Fleet command ship. It took several minutes for the bay to compress, and still longer while the load officer on the shuttle scanned for any airborne contaminates and took care of the general post docking checklist. All in all Jalan guessed he had been waiting at least 15 minutes before he was cleared to leave the shuttle. He straitened his uniform made sure that his cap was on strait and then proceeded towards the hatch.

Jalan was annoyed, it was bad enouph that he was being forced into joint operations with the Weyrlings, but now he was being called away from his ship to this meeting with the Admiral. The old man was probably going to bust his chops for that little high-speed pass on the Weyrling Cruiser, but damn if that furry idiotic captiain didn't deserve. Jalan relished the thought, he had passed his ship so close and as such high speed that the backwash from his Engines had destroyed several sensor systems on the Weyrling Cruiser, the stupid cat would be spending many nights trying to repair those systems.

Jalan didn't like the Weyrlings, in fact his dislike bordered on paranoid hate. Jalan recognized that himself, and he didn't mind it, in his opinion he had a good reason for it. It was before the formation of the Central Powers Alliance, and one of the first times a Weyrling vessel had come across a Draven ship. There was mutual distrust, neither side knew very much about the other, and each others technology appeared to be radically different. The Draven ship attempted to scan the Weyrling vessel, unknown to the Dravens though, the Weyrling's fire control systems operated on the same frequencies as the Dravens scanners. This interstellar coincidence was a disaster, the Weyrlings thought that the Draven ship was attempting to fire its weapons, even though it no such intention. The lightly armored Draven ship was completely destroyed by the Weyrlings, along with it went 95 Draven's including Jalans Father.

Jalan had been just 7 when the military officer came to deliver the news to his mother. He remembered that night for the rest of his life, his mother's sobs seem to Last forever, and outcry of pain that Jalan had never heard come from her. Jalan thought that soon the military would strike back at the Weyrlings, but it was not to be, instead of a counter attack, the President had issued an apology of all things, and promised to work with the Weyrlings in the future to prevent any more accidents. It was at that moment that Jalan swore he would strike back at the Weyrlings. It was part of the reason he had joined the military, he thought for sure that this alliance would fall apart eventuntually, and when it did he would finally get his revenge on the Weyrling Empire.

Jalan's thoughts were brought back to the present as an Enlisted man, Admiral Panar's Secretary he assumed, met him at the bottom of the ramp.

"Captain Jalan?" the man said. Even though it sounded like a question Jalan knew it wasn't. The man damn well knew who he was, who else would be on the shuttle, but he had to at least act polite, it was part of the game that had to be played in the service.

Jalan managed his most sincerest smile, even if it did still look fake, "That's me."

"Sir," the man then gestured towards the hatch at the end of the landing bay, "I'm suppose to escort to Admiral Panar's day cabin, it right this way."

Jalan walked in the indicated direction, with the Secretary taking up position just in front of him. They didn't walk that far, though it did seem like it. Draven ships unlike the Weyrlings vessels tended to be over crewed. The Admiralty had long ago figured the best way to handle damage was to have plenty of trained people to fix that damage. With all the extra crew compartments, and the bulky weapon systems it made for a cramped ship, most of the hallways where just big enough for 2 people to squeeze by. The effect was to make a short walk an exercise in athletics.

They did get to their destination and the enlisted man stepped aside as he motion Jalan into the opened hatch. Jalan proceeded into Admiral Panars day cabin, if you could call it that. Being that warships were cramped already they didn't have much room for perks such as offices, the day cabin served both as a bedroom and office for the ships commander, or in this case the fleets commander. Still as small as the office was by dirt side standards it was downright large by ship standards, even a Cruiser. The Admiral stayed seated in his desk as Jalan entered the room, he closed the door behind him as was standard for meeting such as this, and introduced himself.

"Sir, Captain Jalan of Acamar 3 reping as directed." He held himself at attention for a few moments before the Admiral looked up from his console and motioned for Jalan to take a seat.

"Captian Jalan," said the Admiral, "I was just going over your record, it appears you have a rather colorful past."

Damn it Jalan thought, the Admiral was calling him her to bust his chops, maybe even relieve him command, although that was doubtful with the war going on. Before Jalan could say anything the Admiral continued, "in particular your relations with the Weyrlings leave much to be desired, I see no less than 9 incidents you have had with our alliance partners, if we weren't currently at war I'm sure the Admiralty would have you stripped of command and put on the first freighter headed for a court martial."

The Admiral sounded head serious, and Jalan could feel the fear welling up inside of him, but then the Admiral's frown turned into a smile and his voice seemed to lighten. "Fortunately we are in a war and I believe we have a good use for someone of your, uh, unique history." Panar saw the expression on Jalan's face; "lets just say that you aren't the only person who feels that the Weyrlings should get back to their own planet where they belong."

Jalan was confused, he had only met the Admiral a few times, and even though it was well known that the Admiral didn't share much love for the Weyrlings, he had never made any actual derogatory marks towards the Alliance Partners. "I'm not sure I know what you mean Admiral."

"Oh come now, Captain. You and I both know how our Alliance with the Cats have weakened us. We no longer even have total control over our own military, we have to bow down to this Central Powers HQ, and you know who controls that HQ? That Weyrlings that who."

Panar was now standing and walked around his desk to where Jalan was sitting, "I knew your father Jalan, he was a good man." Jalan was surprised by the mention of his father. "We should have drove our fleets right into Weyrling space and killed every one of them for that atrocity. Instead we form this ridicules alliance, and look what that brought us, under the command of the Matriarch of an alien empire. Imagine what the founders would have thought. A Draven having take orders from a cat."

Jalan was speechless; Panar was speaking exactly what he had thought since his father's death. "But sir," said Jalan, now relieved at having an ally in the Admiralty, "what can we do, we are under orders to obey the Central Powers HQ?"

Panar smiled so broadly that he was sure the Captain would see right though him. "I'm not sure captain, but what I do know is that the Republic would be a lot better off if that matriarch of the Weyrlings were out of the picture, with her gone, control of the Central Powers would fall back to the Draven's where it belongs, and then we could execute this war the way it should be run."

"I agree sir, but I don't think the Matriarch has any intention of stepping down soon, certainly not as long as it would give us back control of the Alliance."

Panar nodded, "your right, but the future of our people is at stake, we can't wait around for the matriarch to give us back what rightfully belongs to us, something must be done." The Admiral stopped and looked at Captain, "Tell me Jalan, how much do you trust your crew."

Jalan stiffened in his chair with pride, "I trust them completely, I hand picked them all."

Panar waved his hand, "no, no, what I should have asked is where your crews allegiance lies. Is it with the Alliance or the Republic?"

The response was instantaneous, "Definitely with the Republic, sir."

The joy Panar now felt was threatening to boil over, this had been too easy, now all he had to do was cap it off. "In that case captain, I have a special assignment for you. Matriarch Elyssandra has asked for us to dispatch one of our ships to escort her back to Headquarters. It appears she has some business there and all her ships are unavailable. I have decided to send the Troikens Pride. The journey will take you through Lasat where our sensor coverage is still weak."

Jalan was following along, and couldn't believe what the Admiral was proposing, but if it worked, Jalan would finally have his revenge. He decided to play along, "I'm sure there are some enemy vessles that are hiding out there, between our sensor nets."

The Admiral nodded, "that is of course my assessment as well, we are all aware of how faulty the Weyrling escape systems have been lately, and we wouldn't want them to have to use them with the Matriarch on board. It would be a shame if she never made it to HQ."

Jalan leaned back and listened as the Admiral explained what he wanted Jalan to do. It was so easy, he thought, the entire thing would be reported as a sneak attack by the terrens, there would of course be no Survivors among the Weyrlings. The plan was perfect, he would have his vengeance finally. Unknown to him, the Admiral had no intention of letting Jalan make it back to HQ either, he had already had the Troikens Pride's IFF transponder code changed. As soon as he entered the Acamar system the ship would be destroyed by the Automated defenses, the entire thing would be attributed to a damaged system from the "terren sneak attack" that had already killed the Matriarch, there would be no Witnesses.

[Ruatha]

2406.4 Weyrling Empire.
--------------------------

Aboard the Destroyer "Responder":

Thurya was astonished over Try's expertise at the point defence guns, he hit almost anything they could throw at him. The change in his results had been sudden and understandable she thought.
"-Try, training is over, excellent result. Meet me in my cabin for evaluation."

"-Yes, capt'n", Try responded and left the turret.
When he arrived at Thuryas cabin after having finished his post maintnance of the point defence cannons Thurya was waiting for him. He entered and sat down. Their relationship had developed and was now on the surface the same as what she had with the rest of the crew, a comradiere.
"-So Try", Thurya started. "I think we both know what has initiated this drastic improvement in your handling of the PDC's. Do you want to talk about it?
I know it must have been bad seeing that Terran fighter pilot hit the turret, and to clean up that mess he left on the turrets wievports must have been gross!"

"-No, it's not that.
When we moved away from the first battle and passed that debris field we where getting up speed so I didn't catch any close look at him. I just saw a flashing light and then the view ports where all red. I didn't understand what had happened until you up in the bridge informed me what it had been.
And to go out and clean it up wasn't all that bad either. The remains where mostly unidentifiable, blood and some small flesh and clothing strips jammed into the angles of the turret. What really got to me was this;"
He pulled out a strange looking wallet from his pocket and gave it to Thurya.
"There's not much in it. Some money and some id cards. But if you open that Last flap by pressing that button you'll see some pictures Of the pilot, Garret Jahson was his name. See there, that must be his family, his kids. Look, he was a person, just like you and me. It could have been me that smashed into a Terran ship if circumstances where reversed. We don't know if he was still alive and had time to understand what was about to happen.
This is no game Captain. I realize that now. If I don't do my best we might all die becouse of me."

"-Yes, I've feelt that way all along. Like living on overtime!
Still, don't let this get to you. We have a job to perform and so do the Terrans. They might be people like us but it's either them or us, so don't hesitate if you get them into your sights."

"-Never. I don't want to die. So if it means I'll have to kill them, I'll do that."

"-Good. I've diversified your training schedule to include more training with the beams. I still think you'll do better at them. And I've decreased your training time, the other gunners need more practise too.
That will be all. And if this thing about the terran smashing into your turret starts to bother you even more, I wan't to know about it. Is that clear?"

"-Yes."

"-Good, now you may leave."
Try got up and went to the mess to help out with the next meal.

Aboard the Battlecruiser Indestructible,
Flagship of fleet Sledge;

Elyssandra had thought about what to do for a whole day before reaching her decision. Now her new strategy was being put into action.
The Weyrling fleet and the Draven fleet would merge to form an unbeatable force. It was the only way to be assured of victory.
The Dravens hadn't exactly jumped of joy when she introduced them to her plans but eventually they had complied.
Now the faster Weyrling fleet would try to draw away the Terran fleet guarding the worm hole to Sladden while they at the same time waited for the slower Draven fleet to catch up.
If they succeded they would merge up with the Dravens at a designated sector and then head back to the worm hole and pass through it to utterly destroy the Terrans industrial capabilities.
If they didn't succed they would have to do it the hard way. But with both fleets merged Elyssandra was sure that they would win against the Terran fleet if needed and still have enough force left to destroy the Terran homeworlds.

The Draven military had complied she tought. But that Yalare was bugging her again. When Elyssandra had talked to the alliance headquarters the Draven attache had insisted that the Dravens had paid all they should. And that there wouldn't be anymore resources coming from the them.
It felt bad to abandon the fleet at this time, but with the fleets merging there wouldn't be much to worry about. So Elyssandra planned to take the Indestructible and leave the fleet, then make best speed towards the Alliance headquarters and straigthen this out.
If all went as planned she would make it back to the fleet in time to witness the end of the war. Still she didn't have to rush away, she would stay another couple of weeks and lead the coming joint operation. After they had a clear path into the Sladden system the Indestructible would leave. It would travel alone, the Lasat system was cleared of all enemy presence so there was no real danger for the virtually unarmed ship. The Indestructible was a one of a kind sjip, a battlecruiser built for leading. It was heavily armoured and shielded but with a limited offensive capacity, it was meant to assure the survival of the leader, not to win combats.
As it wasn't equipped with that much weaponry the Dravens had insisted that she should take a Draven ship with her as escort, to show that they were an alliance. A show of unity.
She actually thought it was a good idea.
She had ordered admiral Panar to send a ship to meet up with them at the wormhole leading to Lasat in a months time. She just hoped that it wouldn't be one of the slow ships the dravens had so many of. That would be a real annoyance.
During the time she was away her second in command, admiral Gryt would be commanding the fleet. The Draven admiral Panar had complained and meant that he should lead the fleet in Elyssandras absence. But Elyssandra was reluctant to let him. The Dravens might be good at the actual fighting but as to their strategic capacity she hadn't witnessed much and wasn't really capable of judging it. It was too big a risk to hand over command to them merely to show unity. They would have to accept that this was a Weyrling led operation.
Elyssandra and the Indestructible would stay one more month and lead the joint battle if the Terrans didn't leave the wormhole. After that she would have to leave for alliance HQ.

On Kalzeron Prime;

The research aiming to awaken the one had come to a complete stop as a second casualty had happened.
A cleaner in the next room had become comatose, just as Marit, when they had turned on the device one day.
Ilian didn't understand why.
The condition of the cleaner Jon and Marit was weighing heavily on him, he thought it was he's responsibility. He might have killed those people if they didn't wake up from their coma. The device was just too dangerous.
He was spending most of his time going between the two hospitals where the comatoses where placed.
He had fought this separation idea, they should have been placed in the same hospital he thought. Then the doctors would have two cases to work with and would have a better chance to cure them. But the Free council had fought him, and they where in charge. They said that it was too risky. Two comatose cases made up an epedemic and the authorities would surely investigate it. But one isolated case wasn't enough to draw their attention. So the patients where treated at different hospitals by different doctors who didn't know of the other case.
Ilian had a hard time not telling them when he went to the hospitals to visit.
And he felt inadequate, he was actually a theoretical practician engineer, not a medical proofessional. He couldn't understand what had happened, there was nothing in his theories explaining it.
He could understand the Free councils fear of detection. Under Ruathas reign they would have been executed. Now that Ely ruled that was unthinkable. But still, it was an attempt to undermine the authorities and they would surely receive some sort of penalty. Ilian thougt they would be fined but the others on the project feared life time imprisoment. Ridiculous Ilian thought. Yes, Ely had changed a bit since taking reign of the Weyrlings, their divorce proved that. But she was still the Ely he had known most of his life.
He didn't understand why she wanted the divorce. But he wouldn't stand in her way, even though it casued him alot of pain. Even more now that he couldn't bury himself in his project.
Oh Ely, I miss you so, he thought.