[Ruatha]

Weyrling Empire 2405.8
The Weyrling Destroyer "Responder"
-------------------------

Captain Areia was sitting at the helm discussing with her second in command Anselm Thurya.

"-Thurya, you seem to always know what's going on. Have you heard anything about the Light Cruiser Reconsider that was sent out towards the Terrans? I mean the official Version of them hitting an asteroid field at full speed is pure bull****. No Weyrling ship would be able to such a mistake!"

"-Well Areia, When we resupplied at that Draven planet Troiken IV I happened to get some time over to visit a local pub. And the Dravens have an altogether different Version of what happened the Reconsider going around.
They said it was destroyed in a battle with a Terran Destroyer, and that we Weyrlings are so embarrased about loosing our first ever ship to ship combat that we are covering it up. But hey, I'm not saying that our headquarter are lying, but that's what I heard anyway."

"-I wouldn't put that beyond them. Our fleet hasn't got such a glorius reputation before, and if we lost a LC to a destroyer that would upset some people at home!
Remember all that fuss that was stirred up Last time we were at war, the four destroyers, glory of our fleet. Killing an unarmed colony ship and then being wiped out by mines! What a success!"

"-As Captain, do you know when the Matriarch will leave our ship. It's quite nervous having her around. I mean, she's nice and all that but I don't know how to treat her. I mean she's a war hero, our military leader and civilian leader. And Last week she was trying to chat with me! I didn't know what to say; Beutiful weather, eh? Was all I could blurt out, 2 standards away from the nearest planet!! She must have thought I'm daft."

"-I think she's a down to earth type. We've had some good talks during the trip. She's been teaching me some strategy and tactics. Trying to get me to apply for the Fleet Grand Officer school!
Yesterday she said we'd meet up with the Indestructible next month, and then shell transfer flag to that ship.
Not to be disrespectful but I too feel it's cumbersome. Here I am, fresh on my first command and I'm piloting the Flag ship of our fleet!

When you were at that Draven bar, did you find out what this buildup is all about?
I've never seen so many ships at the same location before!"

"-Well, this is as I said before pure speculation.
It was said that their Chairman of Defense Relations, someone called Josha was trying to get the Central Power alliance to go in and end the Infernal realms war. It seems he doesn't think the Thermoilans can handle it. I don't blame him, have you ever seen a Thermoilan? Scary people!!
On the other hand someone said that the Thermoilans had demanded that the entire CP fleet be used in a attack against the Sarnak. It seems the Sarnaks, never heard of them before mind you, has declared war on the Thermolians several times.
One guy said we were going to spank the Terrans butts for destroying Landing City and implanting the Devices into us Weyrlings. I can tell you that there is still a lot of upset feelings about Landing City, never mind what we don't hear in the news. There were even some there who insisted it was us Weyrlings who had destroyed the city.
Another rumour was that the Argon confederacy was planning a surprise attack on us and that we were planning a counter attack, the one telling this story insisted that the Argons already had attacked us, and conquered half the CP territory. And that it was just a gigantic coverup that was keeping us all from knowing. I guess if that was true though, we wouldn't see so many ships outside the hatches as we do today!
But there might be some merit to this story. I heard from reliable sources, the Matriarchs secretary, a real nice guy if you catch my drift...I'm going to get alot of more sleep when he leaves with the Matriarch!", Thurya started laughing.

"-If you can focus your thoughts for a second Thurya, please!
What did this hunk tell you?"

"-He said that there had been alot of communications with the Argons recently, and that the Matriarch, altough not revealing what it was about, seemed very disappointed after the Last communication with them!"

"-That's not much evidence of an Argon attack if you ask me, maybe you should go and pump him for some more! Information I mean", now both officers laughed.

"-If that's an order my Captain, I'll do my best to comply, for the Empire!", Thurya raised up and left.