Balada: When death did not exist, nor yet Eternity Part I 045

Volunian Fleet Flags.h.i.+p ‘Eternal Victory’, Admiral Yemen’s craft.

“Gentlemen, it is obvious that our plans are not going as expected, so I call this meeting in order to discuss our next move.” Admiral Yemen said to the holographic images around him, it was difficult to differentiate between them, since they all had short trimmed but stuffy beards and the only way to tell them apart was from their uniforms, which consisted of white tunics and pants, shoulder pads decorated with tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, and on their chests where present st.i.tched drawings of s.h.i.+ps, the more s.h.i.+ps one had, the higher your rank was.

“As you are all aware, our original plan was to use the heavies as a reserve, while we use the light s.h.i.+ps to stealthily raid the enemy’s supplies, by means of this alternate route and use Balisha to help with that.”

“Yes Admiral, it is clear that we have encountered an unforeseen obstacle, namely the 378th that is preventing us from hiding our location, which is surprising, considering that they’re commander Rear Admiral Ca.s.sius is a known fool.” Rear Admiral Kucklock, Yemen’s Chief of Staff said to those present, he had the distinction of being physically there, and not on a fleet flags.h.i.+p like the rest, since his position required that he be on the same boat as the commander.

“According to our latest reports from the Volun 4 task force, Admiral Ca.s.sius died a few weeks ago and was replaced by a new commander, called Metternich per Pelasgiamus.” Vice Admiral Codolatecas, commander of the First Fleet supplied the answer.

“The Fox of Marengo? Then it’s no surprise that we are having trouble, he is a very skilled warrior!” Vice Admiral Baflas.h.i.+n, commander of the Second Fleet added to the conversation.

“What house does he hail from, what are his qualifications and his service record?” Yemen asked.

“Apparently he is a commoner with no n.o.ble ties, the t.i.tle of ‘per’ is actually just part of his name.” Vice Admiral Dashuman answered the admiral.

“But, how could someone with no backing, rise to the rank of commodore so young?” Codolatecas asked.

“He is a licensed potions maker that has a medical supply business along with his partner Akanthos and apparently they were quite successful, going from a planetary intercity business to an interstellar 1.000 ton merchant transport s.h.i.+p in less than six standard months; He has no formal military training, but obtained a field commission to Captain Third Cla.s.s, after pirates boarded their vessel and the Solar Guard troops that came to his aide, discovered over 150 dead pirate cadavers on the aforementioned boarded s.h.i.+p, and ran into Metternich as he was finis.h.i.+ng up the Pirate leader, the infamous Barba Neagra, with nothing more than a emergency fire axe.”

“Following his commission into the fleet of Commodore, now Vice Admiral James Crackerjack, he was given a Corvette, which was apparently an error unit, accidentally produced by the s.h.i.+p yards, but for some reason was not sc.r.a.pped. According to our Intel, during his career of 37 standard months, he has rounded up a kill streak of 60 cruisers, 15 battles.h.i.+ps, and two carriers destroyed, not counting the many more s.h.i.+ps he has crippled in battle.”

“Also, from his tenure as captain until his promotion to Commodore Third Cla.s.s, he was responsible for discovering 72 hidden ba.s.ses, spoiling 37 surprise attacks and raids, and apparently has partic.i.p.ated as an ad-hoc commander of several light infantry and scouting regiments, brigades, two divisions  and even one corps and apparently has ama.s.sed thirteen victories against shock troop brigades and armored divisions many time his size and strength, while under the command of General, now Field Marshall Maclellan.” Dashuman paused to turn the page and catch his breath.

“But his most notable action was after receiving his rank of Commodore Third Cla.s.s, following the Siri Campaign, he was a.s.signed as the Base Commander of a unsettled system, namely PX5-L21, that contained a military outpost around the planet Marengo. A Republican Fleet from the People’s Republic of Free Citizens was pa.s.sing through on its way to attack the Empire, Marengo was not considered an obstacle, it was more like a target practice stop, towards the Imperial lines.”

“Apparently, he was able to hold the s.p.a.ce Station for about six months, before reinforcements managed to arrive and slaughter the Republican Fleet.”

“That is impressive, but it hardly makes him a threat to us.” Kucklock said to those present.

“Silly me, I forgot to mention that he had no s.h.i.+ps and no external defenses, also the Republican Fleet was 17.000 strong.” Dashuman replied with attempted humor in his voice, as if it were a joke, but it had the opposite effect on the room, as everyone went silent at what they just heard.

“17.000 s.h.i.+ps and he stayed them off for six months without external defenses! That’s unbelievable!” Codolatecas exclaimed breaking the silence.

“I know! But that’s what happened, the worst part’s that we can’t get the details, those who were stationed there, were sworn to silence in regards to how he managed such a feet and no records in either the Empire of Republic exist, the former doesn’t want to admit such a disgrace and the latter is on orders not to divulge anything from the Warchief herself, likely in an effort to preserve the mystique of the battle.” Dashuman added.

“A fox indeed and a dangerous one at that! Gentleman, I now fear that the Fox may have targeted Balisha.” Yemen said and that shocked everyone present.

“But that cannot be! Balisha is the most heavily guarded secret in the country; we purposely took our time building it, so as not to rouse suspicion in our national budget. No one, not even the Premier or our heads of industry who worked on it know of the project, the only ones that know more than the name are present in this room, it would be impossible for our own allies the Federals, let alone the Republic or even the Empire to know about Balisha!” Baflas.h.i.+n exclaimed.

“Yet here he is, following the route that leads to Balisha, also his fleet is composed entirely of heavy s.h.i.+ps, which are ideal for defensive actions.” Yemen countered.

“Admiral, surely it is nothing but a coincidence! They obviously are just using the Heavies as bait to let the Light s.h.i.+ps escape, the fact that they are using the same route as we are for Balisha is a coincidence, you will see that as we approach the jump points, they will turn their fleet to N’otuse or D’ese so as to get back to their lines.” Kucklock said and that seemed to settle everyone down.

“I’m afraid there’s a slight problem with your judgment my dear Kucklock.” Baflas.h.i.+n said to his colleague.

“What problem?”

“My vanguard s.h.i.+ps have reported that the enemy has just turned course for the jump point to the Ear system.” Baflas.h.i.+n replied and every admiral, including Yemen pressed commands on their respective farviews to see the message with their own eyes.

“As I suspected, the fox has smelled prey and is marching towards Balisha!” Yemen said and the others turn to him in surprise.

 “The enemy has been maneuvering their s.h.i.+ps faster and with greater flexibility than what is common for their tonnage, meaning they are pus.h.i.+ng the engines to the  limit, in addition they have maintained a formation that is not suitable for battle, but excellent for maneuvering, meaning they intend to get there before us, also…………….” Yemen said and pressed an icon on the table which activated a hologram showing a recording of Metternich laying on his back on the flags.h.i.+p and gazing at their fleet, while occasionally outstretching his head towards them.

“The package they dropped at Volun 4 along with their formation and what their commander is doing now is an old taunting trick practiced by my mentor Admiral Tsu, and was first applied by Admiral Sun in battle, its purpose is to goad us into even more acceleration, in order to deplete our power supply before battle, and it’s clear now that where he is going, he intends to fight!” Yemen added and they all looked astounded at the image before them.

“But why then separate from the lights.h.i.+ps!?” Codolatecas asked.

“Probably to perform raids against us, thing about it! His half goes to block Balisha, while the other half raids our supply lines and weaken us for the main fleet’s attack, he truly is fearsome!” Yemen answered the question and could not help but feel a tinge of admiration for this ‘bold’ enemy commander.

“But sir, in that case shouldn’t we accelerate to our maximum speed and catch them?  After all, there still remains the threat of Gerula and the main fleet, as long as Metternich is in front of us, they also know our location!”

“No admiral Dashuman, as I said we would burn too much fuel, which would be what Metternich wants, also even if he knew  in which system Balisha was, I doubt he could find its exact location, remember that in order to build it secretly, we ourselves transported the parts with only our person on the s.h.i.+ps, and did everything from building the walls to inserting the doors, and even if he found it, I doubt he would know how to enter it, it’s simply too well hidden.” Yemen replied and that seemed to calm them down.

“’The fox may smell the bird coup, but he cannot open the cage!’ Remember our predecessor’s wisdom gentleman. Also, we may be able to use this to our advantage. We can destroy the 378th in Ear, then lure Gerula to his logistical limit and with Balisha we can win a fight of attrition. We will win this, just a little harder and with more unforeseen circ.u.mstances than what we thought of originally.” Yemen said to them, an act which did seem to calm his commanders.

“Well, it would be foolish of us to still a.s.sume that our plans would still survive the actual fight as we envisioned them!” Kucklock said with a smile on his face.

“I feel a little bit embarra.s.sed by behaving like some greenhorn ensign on his first command!” Baflas.h.i.+n joked.

“Well that goes to show you that eventually, we all have grown old and senile!” Dashuman joked and a round of laughter came from all those present, thus the meeting ended with their holograms dispersed, all with the exception of Kucklock who had been physically present and in the room.

“Admiral, are you sure Metternich cannot find Balisha?” he asked concerned.

“Do not worry my friend, have you forgotten that there is no staff there, no sailors, no infantrymen, not a single trace of man on it, and thus it is perfectly camouflaged, there is not a trace of energy for the enemy to detect or any evidence of a presence that is not made by nature. Also, it’s situated in the last location you’d expect someone to place it, why nothing short of the G.o.d of War could find it!” Yemen replied and Kucklock gave an a.s.sertive chuckle, but his voice still carried a slight worried tone.

“I suppose your right, only the Great Dragon Wolf himself would know about that!”

Excerpt from the Diary Lieutenant Alexander Mackintosh.

Life in that dome was not as pleasant as one would have liked it to be, but fortunately for us, it was not as dreadful as it could have been.

 We had taken a beating, lost a lot of men and even more where wounded, but we were still ready for a fight.

We had a limited amount of supplies and ammunition, but thankfully our Battle Crystals where still intact, pity we didn’t get a chance to use them in the fight, since it did not last long enough and was not intense enough for the crystals to charge. With that in mind, right after the fight we seemed beyond hope, but that was then and this is now.

For you see, one of the strange mysteries of life happened during our stay in the dome.

Recall if you will, a time when you where in school and had the unfortunate luck of being bullied by a bigger and stronger kid, he pushes you around and at some point, he pushed you so much or rather hits you hard enough, that you wind up face down in the dirt.

The logical move during that, would be to just lie down there and let it be over with, since there seems to be little point in fighting back, but as you are belly first in the ground, something happens. You realize that you’re at the point of maximum hopelessness and despair, that you’ve reached rock bottom, and then something inside you  awakens,  a force which cannot be named or described but resides in all men.

This force makes you stand up and hit the bully back, despite the fact that he already beat you, despite the fact that you may probably loose, despite any common sense, you attack with renewed vigor and battle l.u.s.t.

And that was what happened during the next few days. We were badly crippled, but that was what awakened that ancient beast inside of us, the one that makes cornered rats jump at the throat of cats. We were eager for round two, to get back at the Imperials, which did wonders for our Creed Magic as the chief mages observed.

General Pompeii along with Al Hambra had devised a battle plan for the occasion, we had a limited supply of food, so we couldn’t withstand a long siege, thus the two devised a counterattack to break free of the encirclement and I suspect that had the attacked failed, our little food problem would not be an issue anymore, not that it ever was an one for the commanders, no sir, for them it was never an issue!

But anyway, getting back to the ‘issue at hand’, we launched a full scale offensive with what we had left off our heavy armor and artillery at the north-eastern section of the wall, where the defenses seemed strongest.

 In hindsight, it was actually a clever move, since one of the most basic grasps of an army that was laying siege, was to make its strongest point seem the weakest from the point of view of the besieged, and make its weakest point seemed like its strongest.

But, I seriously doubt that the decision to attack the north had anything to do with any logic from our then generals’ part, so we hit them hard and much to our surprise the defenses crumbled away! We broke through the various defiles, trenches and walls that surrounded our dome, but at a careful and measured pace, since the air around us was filled by a very thick mist, created by the enemy.

What was even more unnerving, was the relative ease with which we made progress, we encountered almost no Imperials for the first few minutes and the trenches and walls of the besiegers where eerily barren and quiet. Combined with the thick fog that also obstructed our pulsars and other magical navigational tools, it made for a very disturbing atmosphere, as we slowly and almost soundlessly advanced into the white mist.

I tell you, for a soldier the still of a battlefield was the most unnerving thing of all.

 Oh, sure the view of a powerful chariot attack or ma.s.sed infantry a.s.sault comes as a close second, but it’s the unknown that really gets to you, cause you don’t know from where it’ll eventually come.

You just stay there, with your heart pumping like mad; you’re lungs barely breathing and worse of all, your imagination to fill in the gaps, by running through every horrifying scenario it can conceive.

After about ten dreadful minutes that felt like days, we came to one of the major exits, that lead outside the complex of walls and trenches that surrounded the dome. And no one, I mean no one wanted to be the first to walk through that place, cause every soldier, good or bad knew that whoever stepped trough that exit would be shot to pieces if the enemy was beyond it.

“I can’t believe this, a whole army stopped by a lack of fortifications!” I heard general Al-Hambra shout and the mad man ordered his P78 chariot forward through the exit, with him standing upright out of the crew hatch, our own general Pompeii not to be outs.h.i.+ned in stupidity, did the same.

And so we watched, as before our very eyes the two most senior commanders marched into a kill zone, before our very eyes waved us forward into a kill zone, and before our very eyes, where immediately blown to nothing from a few placed air and fire spears in that kill zone.

With that sight in mind, a sense of gladness washed over us, not that we got rid of a pair of average and sometimes dangerous commanders, (though I must admit that was a bonus) but because we finally knew where the enemy was and we all had a tangible foe of flesh and blood to fight.

So we all went to battle positions, the s.h.i.+eld troops made barriers of water and earth for the wind and fire troops and a general skirmish was had.

We were hesitant to advance, since when you’re stationary you can draw the added support of the ground bellow you and the water within it, also that narrow exit was any attacker’s worst nightmare, our opponents also realized this and did not try to get into melee range, but keep us from breaking through.

At about 18:00 local time, the surrounding area was heavily charged with excess magic from the fight, this was where the battle crystals came in handy. They were a special kind of magic device that charged itself from excess magic that resulted from a fight, the bigger the sc.r.a.p, the more energy could be harvested.

Since our commander-in-chief was now exploring a new career path in the soil fertilizer business, it was general pandemonium in the rank and file, for you see, we had several crystals with us and depending on the spell that you wanted to use, they require a certain amount of energy to be activated. The minimum amount for the weakest spells of them all was categorized as One Power Bar, or one unit.

And with the chaos that came from the commander being well, dead, every regimental commander used their weakest spell as fast they could, and we were deprived of the more powerful ones.

Thankfully, what we lacked in quality we made up by sheer numbers and our ma.s.sive barrage of spears and arrows, that was strengthened by the crystals was working, since you could tell from the dwindling enemy fire, that the opposition was weakening.

Unfortunately or rather fortunately, as you will discover latter on, this made the enemy charge us in an attempt to prevent our forces from breaking through the exit, and thus depriving them of the advantage of a choke point.

And so, we engaged in a b.l.o.o.d.y hand to hand melee, pus.h.i.+ng, shoving, stabbing and cutting against each other like a pack of housewives at a holiday butcher sale that said: ‘Extra discount for the next 50’clients’ to a heard of thousands. I did the best I could with my fire spear, but much to my dismay, I had encountered a very tough opponent, who after a few blade swipes and s.h.i.+eld thrusts, managed to disarm me.

 He then lunged at my person, making me pace backwards to avoid a killing blow, but in doing so I tripped and fell on my back  and through that thick mist the enemy came on top of me, pinning me down with his boot and was about to spear me.

Thinking that that was my end, I screamed from the top of my lungs:

“d.a.m.n YOU IMPERIAL TAFFERS! KRIFF THE EMPIRE!”

And at that, my opponent paused just as his spear was about to pierce my neck, it was now close enough that I could see my own reflection in it, and though I must say, I was a handsome figure and it was nice to see that I somehow had retained a clean face throughout all this, what caught my eye was the fact that on the blade, there was a slogan inscribed on its surface.

It read ‘Strength trough unity, unity through purity’ and for a moment I was confused, for that was the slogan of the Holy Knights corps, but it was not uncommon for soldiers on the battlefield to loot the enemies weapons if their own failed, so I looked from the spear to my hesitant executioner, and I saw that he was also looking at me.

 Much to my relief and horror, the one on top of me was not an Imperial, but a Holy Knight, he too had the same expression of surprise and terror on his face from the sudden realization that, because of the fog, we had been unknowingly fighting and killing our own allies for the past few hours.

All around the battlefield the clash stopped, as we all realized our great error.

After a few moments in which we both came to our sense, the Holy Knight on top of me retracted his spear and extended a hand to help me up, I hesitantly extended my right palm for it, since the surrealism of it all had made me believe, or at least wish, that this was all just some illusion, but once I had hard tangible proof in my hand, literally since I grabbed the offered palm, and pulled myself up, there was no more doubting our situation.

“ACCURSED METTERNICH! THAT RED EYED DEVIL HAS d.a.m.nED US AGAIN!” the knight who had almost killed me, shouted in frustration.

And throughout the coming hour, as we regrouped our two forces, gathered our wounded, buried the dead and gave release to those we could not help, I heard all kinds of stories about the  then Commodore Metternich per Pelasgiamus, the Fox OF Marengo, that in the battle that had taken place, he seemed to have been omnipresent.

The knights told how he had smashed their rear flank, the supply guard and our Priest Turneissnen told how he was at the speartip of a chariot charge with nothing but a spider-wolf jeep. Even the survivors of our own cavalry had by now remembered that it was him, who apparently singlehandedly slaughtered the majority of our horse warriors in less than a few minutes. And now he had struck again, for we where now in even worse shape than before.

There was not a single man among us who was not wounded and a great deal of them where bedridden from their injuries. We were too exhausted or too hurt to be of any use in a fight, we had used up most of our remaining ammunition and what made it even worse we had no one in charge, since anyone above the rank of major had died in the ferocity of the fighting, from trying to hold the lines on both sides of the fratricidal battle.

The Volunians where even worse off than us and that was saying something!

We tried to form a new chain of command, but apparently no one wanted  to be in charge, we where to shook up to know what to do.

For what was there to be done?

Go back in the dome or occupy the trenches?

We where to badly beat up to hold any line.

March to the forest and hope the heavy bush keeps some of us alive?

 That was an option, but it would mean leaving behind the wounded and that left a bad taste in our mouths.

But that decision was soon taken out of our hands, for from over the hilltop overlooking our positions, we saw a group of two Imperial chariots coming down the hill.

In the state we were in, we stood no chance against them, so we formed what stood as a pitiful excuse for a formation and braced ourselves for the end, the chariots stopped a few meters away from us, the top hatch of the left one popped open and from the chariot emerged the last thing I would have ever imagined I’d see coming out of that killing machine .

Lieutenant First Cla.s.s Alexander Mackintosh, command staff member, Federal Expeditionary force.

Ear system 378th Heavy Fleet Flags.h.i.+p.

Metternich was on s.h.i.+p’s bridge and as usual Butz was by his side, but instead of occupying the Fleet commander’s seat, he was situated in the pilot’s controls booth. Butz was similarly, situated in the tactical operations officer’s chair, along with the other two sailors that where on the bridge, who occupied the pulsar screen and the communications relay, another eight where in the warp sanctuary keeping the engines running, such was the situation on every Imperial s.h.i.+p.

“At least they won’t have any trouble fitting us in their brig after we surrender.” he thought to himself and truth be told, the prospect of surrender was at this particular moment in time, not such a bad idea.

 During the warp journey to Ear he had studied the history of the galaxies various conflicts with the Volunian people and had discovered, much to his surprise and contained jubilation, that they had a record of being very careful with prisoners of war.

 Apparently someone long ago had realized, that yesterday’s lieutenant could be tomorrow’s fleet admiral, sky marshal or major general. Today’s private could be tomorrows MP, major entertainment star, author, politician, even prime minister or even higher. That and having a lot of captured enemy soldiers made great bargaining chips for war compensations and cessation of hostilities, since the Empire at least ‘officially’ cared a great deal about its citizens and liked to boast of how the government protects the common people.

 The Volunians, also knew that today they where enemies with the Empire; tomorrow they could be allies and so forth, so it paid to watch your step, less you fail to avoid the droppings or landmines. Or worser still, you’d miss out on shoving someone else in their path, and nicking his wallet while he’s down!

And that was what gave the Commodore peace of mind, namely greed and self interest for the betterment of society! The two most powerful forces in the sentient psyche, working together for the good of all (namely him and his force) or at least for now they were.

Metternich was not naïve enough to think that abuses and killing of soldiers that tried to surrender did not happen in the Volunian Army.

Oh, no sir! That unfortunately happened in even the most disciplined of forces, but with Yemen commanding this one, he doubted that would be the case.

And so with the above mentioned facts, he was happy to surrender and avoid battle, the fact that he was outnumbered almost 100 to one was also a factor of course!

“How long do they usually keep you imprisoned? One month, six months, a year?” he asked Valyria who was on the same s.h.i.+p as him, acting as both the s.h.i.+p’s captain and leading what could be considered the center portion of the fleet, Tarkan was leading the left wing,  and Georgaian the right one.

“Depends on your value and just how much the war escalates, at best we will be kept as prisoners until the whole conflict ends.” she replied.

“Shame that the pilots refused to abandon the carriers, now the poor sods will be captured along with the rest of us.” Butz added to the conversation.

“Well, they did get pretty upset of the fact that we ‘allegedly’ didn’t let them partic.i.p.ate in the Battle on Volun 4” Metternich said to those present.

“Oh yes! We didn’t have many fuel crystals for their Pegasus or other flying machines, and kept them in reserve, so as not to waste our military resources, but no sir!”

 “No siree! The reason they didn’t fight was not because we wanted to use them wisely, it was the fact that we intentionally left them out!” Valyria added to the conversation and many tried to stiffen they grins.

“Hey! My husband’s a Pegasus pilot, do I have to challenged you to a duel commodore?!” One of the bridge crew members asked in a supposed outraged tone, but it was obvious that he was just joking, from the exaggerated way he said the sentence and the sailor’s body language.

“THAT’S WHY I SAID IT OUT LOUUUUDDD!” Valyria replied with an exaggerated increase in volume, that did the trick and everyone in the room shared a good laugh, the aforementioned sailor being the merriest of them all, such kind of banter and for a lack of better word ‘nuts smas.h.i.+ng’ was practiced amongst the military, and used as a coping mechanism to help with the mental strain of the enemy being close.

Which was one of the few things that Metternich appreciated about the armed forces.

“A LITTLE LOUDER VALYRIA! I THINK THERE’S A FEW PEOPLE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GALAXY THAT DIDN’T QUITE HEAR YOUUUUUUUU!” He said and that drew a second round of laughter from the bridge crew, small crowd, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t put on a good show!

But now, in all seriousness Metternich could not help but be fascinated by the pilots and their fierceness when laying out their case to remain with the carriers. And by that, he meant that he was fascinated by their fearsome lunacy!

But if they were happy with their decision, Metternich supposed he had no qualm with that, helping people, or attempting to help them, see the error of their ways was one thing, but persisting in trying to prevent them from making, what was in his opinion, a bad decision despite knowing better, but still choosing to continue, was terrifyingly close to tyranny, and he was no tyrant.

Thus, he allowed them to remain with the Carriers in the Heavy Fleet, he could have ordered them to go with the Light Fleet, but he didn’t want to risk a possible mutiny or riot from the pilots. Soldiers, after all have the need to fight battles from time to time. He failed to see the logic in that……..…he also failed to see the logic in deep fried t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es, that were considered delicacies on some planets, but that was another story.

And that was how they arrived in the Ear system, with a skeleton crewed, close to rebelling Pegasus riders and their heavy fleet pursued by thousands of enemy s.h.i.+ps, all guided by laughter that came from the jokes of a giant locust.

 Just another weekday for him.

“Get me a visual of the surrounding area.” he ordered and the tactical officer displayed the map of the Ear system on their bridge’s main screen.

“Looks like a basic asteroid system, no planets, or anything with a diameter bigger than 3000 kilometers in it.” Valyria said and that was the most accurate description of the system, just a red dwarf sun, surrounded by a medium thick field of asteroids, with a small number large bodies...o...b..ting around, what could be considered the very edge of the system, and a few in close orbit around the star.

In terms of navigation and communication parameters, it was sort of a paradox; it had mark 27 T.S but only had about mark 3 C.S, making it like sailing back in the old age of wooden s.h.i.+ps and sails, through a thick mist.

Combined with the fact that, the pulsar speed was the same as the C.S, it made this system a nightmare for attackers, but it was a dream for defenders.

The area where it was situated was a ‘s.p.a.ce desert’, a zone where warp storms, energy waves or any kind of phenomenon which could jeopardize s.h.i.+ps rarely happened, if happened at all. But that did not make it an entirely calm sector of s.p.a.ce.

For like a real desert, storms rarely hit this place, but when they did, they made up for lost time!

And depending, on just how much time pa.s.sed between the last energy storm and the one coming, that’s how dangerous the eventual ‘monsoon’ would be.

Warp storms were cla.s.sified in terms of the number of standard years of calm, that had pa.s.sed since the last storm, up to the current one.

Levels 1 to 20 where bad, but manageable, levels 20 to 50 made for a very, very bad day in which a great amount of damage could be done to s.p.a.ce stations.

Levels 51 to 80 where even more beastly things, in which vessels should never be far from a planet, since its magnetic field could act as a s.h.i.+eld.

Levels 80 to 98 meant that you should either stay in a low orbit around a Planet, a gas t.i.tan or very close to the sun until it pa.s.sed, less you risk the destruction of your vessel.

Level 99 was the stuff of legends, where military s.h.i.+ps, would have a hard time surviving, and that was when they were near a sun!

And then there was level 100, the Infamous Centuria Storm, this was the one storm above all, the maelstrom, the gate to d.a.m.nation, if you were caught in open s.p.a.ce in a storm like this, then hope that the life you lead up until then had been a honest one, for you would soon meet the final judgment.

And if you somehow managed to get planeside, sunside or get to a station, you find the deepest darkest hole, you crouched down and prayed, and maybe, just maybe, you could last long enough. For what, n.o.body knew, since there were so few who survived the level 100, and even fever who dared to even read about those h.e.l.lish few moments in which Centuria pa.s.sed trough, it was more a mystery than actual knowledge.

“Head for that big rock that’s 30 degrees darkside, ten degrees up from us.” he ordered.

For navigating inside a system, besides using the Galactic Directions, there was also the method of using the system’s star as a fixed point in s.p.a.ce.

Lightside is, as the name suggest,  is the direction towards the star, while darkside was away from it, in the case of the orders Metternich had just given out, they meant that the fleet would turn thirty degrees away from the star or in this case to the left and 10 degrees upwards.

“Sir, shouldn’t we head towards an asteroid closer to the sun? Wouldn’t that be a more tactically sound maneuver?” Valyria asked and by turning his head and looking at her Metternich could hear the true unspoken question.

 ‘Shouldn’t we choose a place where we don’t have to give up without a fight?’

The closer asteroids would give them the chance to indirectly recharge their power crystals trough thermal and solar energy from them, if they managed to find one with a big enough crater for their relatively small fleet to fit in and on the surface it was the apparent logical choice.

At this, Metternich graced her with a smile and once more, for the very few times in his career, he told the truth about his intentions.

“We’re going to the edge of the system, because the greater distance from the sun would make them hesitant to attack, it’s true that where you suggested we should go, we could resupply our fleet with energy, but they being in the open, would have an easier time recharging. Also give the order for a maximum burst from the engines, I want this fleet to go to T.S speed mark 19, that will get us there faster and give us time to set up a proper defense.”

“I see your reasoning sir, with the rock being so far away we will not have access to the energy, but the enemy having the sun to their backs will be tempted to just stay back, lay siege from a distance and not attack, why considering we have so few crewmen on each s.h.i.+p, we could outlast a siege given the supplies we have and probably not be forced to surrender!” Valyria beamed and Metternich gave an approving nod and was using all of his willpower to not burst out in tears and do a dance of joy.

“Looks like I may not have to be a prisoner after all! Please G.o.d, let whatever enemy commander a.s.signed to the splinter fleet force  that no doubt will arrive after us be a smart sentient, someone who can see that they don’t have to fight, please bless the enemy with a skilled commander!” he mentally prayed while discretely clasping his hands in his lap in the traditional prayer sign.

“Please hear my prayers lord, please!”

“But isn’t mark 19 a bit too much? The G-force nullifiers  could protect us from harm, since we are so few, and the pilots could just stay in their Pegasus and crafts, but we could ruin our subwarp sanctuary by pus.h.i.+ng them so far, are you sure it’s wise sir?” she asked.

“I foresee that we will not be leaving this place within the coming day, and we could always fix them during the siege, and besides………..” he replied and gave a roguish smile.

“We must give our enemies a sporting chance now, mustn’t we?” he added which had the desired effect of bringing smile on Valyria’s insect like features.

Satisfied upon hearing the answer she would expect from a ‘true’ Hero of the Empire, she relayed the orders for mark 19.

A few hours and a few visits to the bathroom later, (now that the situation had calm down and so had his bowels) he returned to the bridge and sat down in the pilot’s chair.

“Has the enemy entered the system yet?”

“We estimate that they arrived approximately 3 standard hours ago, our pulsars should be able to pick them up in about 10 minutes give or take 5.” the pulsar officer replied.

“Seems rather rude of them to be five minutes late, wouldn’t you agree Butz?”

“Yes sir, no manners at all!” Butz replied straight faced, indicating he took the joke in its literal meaning, at which Metternich gave a discreet roll of his eyes, Butz was a decent fellow, but he had trouble with jokes and metaphors.

“Enemy fleet detected!”

“How many did they detach? Nine hundred, a thousand, three hundred?” Metternich asked as he sipped his hot kava drink from his mug that Butz had just handed or rather levitated towards him.

“No sir, pulsar confirms that the enemy fleet in its entirety is following us!”

“What!? Double check that data sailor!” Valyria ordered.

At this Metternich took a prolonged sip of his kava, which doubled as an excuse to bite the cup with his teeth in order to calm his nerves and help relieve his brain from the pain that now rose from his stomach, which was never a good sign.

“Why would the enemy send his full force against us? I’m not that big a threat to them! This system must have something here that they desperately want, something they’d do anything to protect!” he thought to himself as he nearly bit off a piece of the mug, before the pain in his incisors calmed him down and reminded him there where others watching. So he took another small sip and removed the cup from his mouth.

“Maintain course towards the asteroid, we still have a few good hours until the enemy catches up to us, until then, there’s no need to panic.” Metternich said with as much calm as he could convincingly fake.

“But sir, what about when we reach it and if they catch us, what then?” the comm.’s officer asked.

“Well, they’ve failed to reply to our offer for their surrender, so regretfully we will be force to kill them all of course!” Metternich replied as a matter of fact, even though inside he was mentally screaming :

MOMMY! MOMMY! MAKE THE BAD MAN TAKE HIS MEAN FLEET AND GO AWAY!

All the while taking another sip of kava and another bite of the mug to calm his nerves.

“At least there’s little chance of us finding out what they’re hiding here, maybe there’s still hope to avoid battle.” he though as he looked at his watch to see the date and time.

17:09 Imperial Fleet Standard time, Caliupus 28th Imperial year 1894, Federal year 3937, and Republican year 949.

“A hard day, a d.a.m.n hard day indeed!”