[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 Fortunately a replacement ship was available, it was old, and it weaponry was outdated, but it was fast, and that is the only reason Dravel had made it to Acamar so fast.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.