Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread

[CaptRR]

I know it been a long time, but I am back. I'll try to keep the story going between studying and school, that means I will only be able to write about once a week. So here goes.
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Chapter 26

"..and that about covers it, Questions?" Dravel looked over his assembled officers as they exchanged glances. For the Last hour he had filled them in on his plan, they had raised an occasional question here and their, but overall they had sat and listened, most no doubt were still trying to their mind around an invasion of their home system. Dravel had to admit he knew had they felt, no one had ever mounted an invasion of the Draven Home system, the place was like a fortress. The defenses started with mines, lots of mines, just under a hundred on every warp point going into the system. Backing up the mines are 3 Large Bases, 2 of which were heavily armed with the latest Telekenetic Projectors. Then assuming you were able to get through that hailstorm you still had to face the wrath of home fleet, an armada of almost a hundred ships, 25% were the latest Dreadnaughts.

All that didn't even take into consideration of the Weapon Platforms located on the planet. Usually when a fleet attacked a planet, it would engage the weapon platforms on the surface. Once those platforms were out of the way, the assault on the planet itself could begin. The problem here was that more than half the weapon platforms were located inside the floating cities themselves, taking them out would kill a great many Dravens, and that was something Admiral Dravel was not willing to do."

Captain Hanack was the first to ask as question, "Why not hit the shipyards at Kornephoras VII first?"

Dravel thought about it for a second, "If this were an operation to destroy the home system then yes, Kornephoras VII would be the best target, its shipyards account for most of the systems production. However, Kornephoras X is the home of the Republic, if we can hit there, with minimum civilian casualties, I'm sure the rest of the Republic would fall in line." Dravel had to admit that leaving the shipyards intact could come back in bite them later, after all having an intact industrial area that close would leave most of the systems war fighting elements intact. Most of all though, Dravel didn't want this to turn into a long and drawn out civil war. For the most part almost all the republic was taking a wait and see attitude, no one wanted to upset whoever was going to be left after the cards fell, as of now this little war was between Kornephoros and Acamar systems. If Dravel could win this war quickly, it would mean keeping the conflict from spreading across the rest of the republic.

The next person to ask was Captain Tenal, Dravel's fleet XO, that short Draven was almost a legion amongst the Republics Navy. The captain had managed to beat almost every "unbeatable" scenario in the Academy, and he was almost single handedly responsible for putting an end to the piracy in the outer colonies, so when the man spoke he got respect. "Admiral, I was wondering sir why are we charging in so fast to the planet? Why not just go in slow, and try to get some extra support from the rest of the system?"

"Tenal, I don't think we can count on getting much support from the rest of the system. Yalare hasn't got them locked down as tight as the Capital, but he still isn't very well liked there. I imagine, with the exception of the shipyards, that the rest of home system will want to stay as far away from this as possible. Besides, we will want to draw as much of home fleet away from the planet as we can before we hit them with our little surpise. The more that are left to guard, will make it that much harder for us down the road."

Tenal simply nodded, Dravel noticed that no one had any more immediate questions, although he was sure to get a flurry of fresh ones as the days went on. "If there are no more questions, then we'll adjourn for today, and meet back up here tomorrow at 0800." With that, most of the captains stood, and began to confer with their various aids. For the next servral minutes, Dravel walked around and answered various questions and signed other documents for approval. After a few minutes the room was almost empty, only the aids were left to sort out the details of his plan, that was when Dravel noticed Sosha in the corner.

Her smile immediately lit up the room. Sosha had come with Dravel on his trip to Acamar to help out with any communications with him and the small fleet in Agamar. Since the terrens had surrendered though she had found herself with little to do. The only thing that the King Dravel was doing now was overseeing the reconditioning of a couple of Terren Battleships for use of the Alliance, the work was important, but slow.

So Sosha had busied herself as the Captains secretary, that meant the two had spent a lot of time together, which Dravel didn't mind at all. Even if he couldn't have a relationship with her, that didn't meant he couldn't spend time the beautiful officer. As Dravel approached her now, she noticed his smile as well, and the two locked eyes for a moment. It was strange in a way, and heartbreaking in another. If Dravel hadn't joined the Navy he would never have met Sosha, yet that same Navy also had rules about Relationships within the ranks. Yet somehow that didn't matter right now, all he wanted was her, and after all this was over, rules be dammed, he would throw away his commission if he had to, some things were worth it. Besides after this fight was over, Dravel was sure that he will seen enough of war to Last him a lifetime.

Up to a few weeks ago, Dravel had no idea if Sosha felt the same way towards him as he for her, but as they had worked together the Last couple of weeks she had let on subtle signs that indeed their was an attraction their, even though she did her best to hide it.

"Sir," she said now, her voice strong yet fragile, "I just got back your requisition request from Troiken I. The administrator over the bone yard at first was hesitant to grant you the ships, but I simply informed him that it wouldn't be a good idea to upset a war fleet parked right off his back door."

"So we are getting the ships?"

"Yep, plus a few extra that he failed to report as space worthy to command." Her smile was as wide as now. The Administrator of the "bone yard", a place were ships were sent in storage when they had run their life cylces, was known a fierce negotiator, often times wrangling headquarters for months over the smallest budget expenditures. The fact that Sosha was able to get almost his entire inventory was amazing. "He wanted to warn you though, that almost none of the ships are armed, and the few that are armed have weapons that have been obsolete for years."

Dravel waived a hand, "For our use it doesn't matter. Dispatch as many techs as you can space, I also want the Engineers their ASAP. It is imperative that they get that armor in place, or all this will have been for nothing."

Sosha nodded as she quickly took notes on her pad. "I'll have them leave immediately, also we are going to be running short on armor, which ships should get it first."

He had to think about that for a moment, "make it the first group, they are going to be taking the brunt of the damage." Once again sosha nodded as she wrote it down.

Once she finished and looked up, their eyes met again. "God," Dravel though, "she certainly a beauty."

"Also" he said, "How would you like have dinner with me, we could use the time to finish."

A small twinkle showed in her eyes, "Why, Admiral, are you asking me out?"

The sentence was obviously a joke, but it still made Dravel's temperature rise, and he stumbled over his own words trying to speak, "Uhhh... well, that is of course, if you are available."

"Thank you Prince," she said, the smile never leaving her face, "I would be honored."

Dravel watched for a moment, and for a second his future didn't seem that bad.

Chapter 27

"What do you mean, we have lost contact with Acamr!" Yalare was screaming at the top of his lungs. The victim of his rage, Golemen just looked up. "How do you lose contact with an entire star system, what happen did you misplace it?"

"No sir," Golemen said as humbly as possible. The Last thing he wanted to do is upset the Prime Minister any more, people had turned up missing that had done far less. "It appears to be a complete communications breakdown, every time we try to send orders into the system, or even try to communicate with the Central powers, we run into a road block. Whatever it is, its being done on purpose from Acamar"

Yalare slammed his hand on the desk, it hit so hard, a couple of object fell off, and hit the floor only added to the drama of the act, "its Josha, I'm sure of it. He's trying to orginize some kind of rebellion I bet, fine, if he wants to be mortar the so be, dispatch home fleet, I want Josha taken into custody."

Goleman shifted in his chair uneasily, "That may not be a good idea Mr Prime Minister."

"Why not." Goleman could see that he prime ministers rage was about to boil over, this Last bit of news might send him over the edge.

"We have been getting some reports that a large formation of Draven ships is headed through Troikens. Unfortunately astro control for the system says there are no unusual movements within the system. My sources are pretty reliable, so I am inclined to believe that astro control is lying."

Yalare stared in silence this was bad news indeed, Probably worse than the communication problem in Acamar. For weeks now, responses from most of the planets in the republic had been strange. Not anything concrete but, their responses seemed too robotic, as though they were sending in enouph information just to get the job done, but trying not be overly friendly. Now with Astro control not reporting the movement of a large group of ships, it was obvious that what they were doing. A war was coming, and they didn't want to take sides. If they had sided with Josha in his band, the communications would have stopped completely, with that Yalare was thankful, at least he wouldn't be fighting the entire republic just a portion of it.

"In that case, pull back the home fleet to Kornephoras X, if they come through the Warp point, we'll engage them at that time. Also put the Base crews on alert, if anything comes through that warp point, I want it dead, understood?"

"Yes Prime Minister."

"If Josha thinks I'm going to let him destroy me he is mistaken."

Out in space, the home fleet of the Draven Republic began their movement towards the Capital, and silently the stealthed fleet of the CCCP took note, and followed.