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.
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