[sachmo]

Alterations

2410.7

Grand Admiral Urian, along with his staff, poured over the intelligence gathered from Zekrat VIII. They had been at it all night, running simulation after simulation. The end result always came out the same…Xillantha Fleet did not have the firepower to take the Rage homeworld. While it would be an incredible achievement to take the planet, without sufficient firepower there was no way it could happen.
Urian sighed, and leaned back in his chair. He rubbed his eyes and gathered his thoughts. He hoped that Rear Admiral Shiro Sakazawa wouldn’t be too upset about this. Sakazawa was an aggressive commander, determined to take the war to the enemy, but Urian knew that he would follow orders above all else.
I might as well get this over with, Urian thought. He turned the com unit to face him, straightened his uniform, and opened the com channel to RSS Tarus, Sakazawa’s command ship. Quickly, Sakazawa’s face appeared on the screen.
“Good evening, Grand Admiral,” Sakazawa saluted.
“Good evening, Shiro. I’ll get right to the point. I know how you hate to beat around the bush.”
Sakazawa nodded, but a grim look spread across his face. “Thank you, sir.”
“We’ve looked at your situation a thousand different ways, Shiro, and we always come to the same conclusion. Your fleet doesn’t have enough firepower to take out Zekrat VIII.”
Sakazawa’s face reddened. “Sir, we might not have enough to take them out in one attack, but we can chip away at them. Eventually, they will break.”
Urian shook his head. “We’ve run it that way, too. Our calculations tell us that your fleet will not be able to penetrate their defenses. You can’t hurt them now, but we will get you more ships. Eventually, you should be able to break thru, but it’s going to take time.”
Sakazawa tried very hard to keep his emotions under control.
“Sir, I think this is a mistake. We could at least blockade the planet, cutting their homeworld off from the rest of their empire. The economic reproc…”
“Shiro, listen to me,” Urian interrupted. “You will get your chance, but I have to get some more ships to you. It won’t be long, I promise. We’ll get them as soon as we can.”
Sakazawa nodded into the screen, his face tight. “Aye, aye, sir. What are your orders in the meantime?”
Grand Admiral Urian filled him in on the alternate plan for Xillantha Fleet. He was to proceed to Zekrat IX and attack the colony there. RSS Badger was to return to Zekrat VII and pick up the 2nd Space Marine Brigade, and from their capture Zekrat IX. After this mission was accomplished, most of the remaining ships in the Lundra fleet should have been able to join up with the Xillantha fleet. They were then to proceed to Zekrat VIII and attack the Rage homeworld.

In the Regotha system, RSS Sierra, a Ganymede class light cruiser, and RSS Mongoose, loaded with the 1st Space Marine Brigade, met up with Captain Brennan and the rest of Providence Fleet. Once they joined up here, they were ordered to head back into the Lezzari system, to capture or destroy any Rage worlds encountered here.

Tony Harris watched out of the bLasteel window as the colony ship finalized its decent onto the surface of Cirius. A chill ran thru his body despite the heat of his environment suit. The front wasn’t very far from Cirius. If the Rage counterattacked, would he die here as his sister and nephew had? Would he cower in a shelter, waiting for the bombs and missiles to come and snuff out his life?
He wrapped his arms around himself and tried to chase the nightmares away. No, this time it would be different. This time, they knew what they were up against. Defense would be a top priority. If the Rage came again, they would find Cirius had teeth. Tony shook his head, and tried to think of happier times. He pulled a picture of his sister out of his belongings. It had been taken over thirty years ago, when they were children back on Remorhaz. In their wildest dreams, neither of those children would have dreamed that a place like Cirius even existed, let alone dream that they would live there. Nor would they have dreamed that a race of sentient machines would come along and bLast them and millions of other civilians into so many atoms…
Tony felt a shudder as the colony ship touched down. Soon it would be time for all of the colonists to begin rebuilding the Remorhaz settlement on Cirius. For Tony, the work would be twice as hard. Not only would he have to rebuild, but he would have to bury the ghosts of his family as well. That would be the hardest work of all.
Tony stood up and gathered up his belongings, eager to get started, or maybe he was eager to finish the grim task ahead.