Commit y/n?
Rear Admiral Ronald Seffiran looked out of a holo window in to the very depths of space, his green eyes gazed across the star filled canvas. He seemed to be lost in deep thought, but one couldn’t blame him, the size of the universe was often humbling even to the most powerful of nations. Seffiran had been in the Terran Stellar Forces for most of his life, being over one hundred and fifty years of age, he had seen quite a bit. From the Fall of Chronosia prime and the subsequent loss of several Terran fleets in the warp storm that followed , to the fringe wars in the beta sector. Indeed he had served with then lieutenant Commander Niscane during the fringe conflicts. He couldn’t shake the feeling of wanting to be on the front lines against the resurgent cultist that seem to now be a staple in the galaxy.. They had attacked Talos, putting the allies on notice that they were now at war. But he was here, on the GRV Belisarius. Assigned to take point in exercises with some of the other allied commanders, while indeed this was an important assignment the fact that he wasn’t directly in the fight did weigh on him slightly. However it wasn’t as if he could do much about it, and so his mind turned to other things.
He stepped back from the holo-port and then turned to face the slender but quite expansive semi circular desk that graced the center of the room. He let out a soft sigh and made his way to the conformal seat behind it, the pale skinned brown haired Admiral sat down and sunk back in to his chair placing a hand on his chin. He used his free hand to tap a section of the table unveiling a holographic interface before him. He waved a hand and shimmering from seemingly no place the ships avatar appeared. Belisarius stood there at parade rest , he donned a full uniform complete with a hat. At a glance he seemed to be rather young but then avatars would always appear to those that summoned them in forms that the user could recognize. His face seemed devoid of any lines or wrinkles unlike Seffirans features. He placed his hands behind him , and said in a plain tone.
“Admiral Seffiran, the rest of the task force is ready to jump to the theater of operations. Shall I inform the commanders and avatars to jump?”
Seffiran replied with a nod, his eyes averting their gaze from the holo display to the avatar for a split second.
“Very well, proceed with hyperspatial jump.”
Belisarius nodded, it took nearly an instant for every ship in the command battle group roughly forty in total to receive instructions to jump through the incomprehensible realm of hyperspace to their destination in the alpha sector it took another mere split second for the ships to initiate their jumps.
The sleek , slender and angled forms of the Terran ships merely flickered out of existence, there was no gratoritus flash of light as they traversed the vast distance from the Savvara system to the alpha sector , specifically the Illyria system. Belisarius and the rest of the Terran ships merely appeared at the edge of the Illyrian system. Belisarius of course was one of the larger Orion class dreadnoughts measuring over three kilometers in length, several other Orion class dreadnoughts. The GRV Ajax, the GRV Indomitable , and the GRV Cygnus. All leading detachments of ten ships per dreadnought. Illyria was a binary system, with a class K red dwarf and a class O white giant orbiting one another , this resulted in quite a bit of solar and stellar radiation, it contained a few gas giants and small rocky moons perfectly ideal for hostile environment training. The Terran ships slowly hung in the darkness of space facing the twin suns that were over 40 astronomical units away from their position.
Seffiran had made his way to the CIC rather quickly, his executive officer standing to attention as he entered the command center, he nodded toward her and smiled. “At ease Captain Eruin, well.. They sure picked a fine system for us to do a mock battle in, any word on the drone ships or on allied forces?”
Eruin replied as she sat down folding her fur covered digits on her lap.
“ The drone ships are already in the system, Allied forces should be inbound any time now . At least that’s what GRF command is saying.”
Belisarius had once more shimmered next to admiral Seffiran, he chimed in to the conversation.
“ We can be certain that several allied task forces are on their way to this system..”
Eurin looked toward Belisarius with a nod.
“I would have thought all hands would be at the front but I guess we always need a rear guard. Honestly we should be driving the point home that no-one messes with the allies.”
Eurin knew that statement seemed to be irrational, but the statement resonated with a lot of others on the ship and in the fleet. It was only natural after all, not because they enjoyed war or death or fighting. But they had signed up to protect those that couldn’t protect themselves to preserve their way of life. Patriotic, perhaps, nive , most certainly but only in the sense that ships were indeed needed to guard other fronts or to dissuade opportunism from other hostile or even wary powers.
Admiral Seffrian replied with his own thoughts on the matter.
“I know how you feel captain”-
He looked toward the black wolvian.
“But you know as well as I do, we can't all be in the fight. The galaxy is a big place, and we’ve got allies across it who need reassurance. We’re not the only ones paying for the war after all.”
Eurian let out a sigh , Seffrian took a seat quickly sinking in to it , he placed his hands on the armrest before looking over to the vast holographic globe that displayed in detail most every relevant aspect of the system. It seamlessly shifted from a system wide view to a more local view then back again.
Belisarius made his way to the other side of the hologlobe that vast mind at his disposal reaching through ever superluminal processor it had searching for possible scenarios in which they would find themselves in. This wasn’t out of the ordinary however , often times attempting to predict things was a large part of his job as the ships sophont, amongst other tasks. In this particular case the events that they were about to simulate were not only completely random by the method by which they are generated was kept a deliberate secret by high command. After all it would hardly be a test if you could accurately generate similar scenarios by which complex method this happened was all but a mystery. This was a simple fact of reality, weather those subject to it liked it or not .
GRV Odin , Olympia class assault transport.
The Odin and her retinue of fellow transports had made their way to the system jumping in behind the third task force. The group of transports numbered roughly twenty and had embarked within their holds several mechanized brigades, while normally the Terran's used automated forces for the bulk of combat operations, there were some specialized forces with soldiers still front and center. Colonel Gene Bercor was the leader of such a force, Stellar Operations Team five.
He and his team had more than a few successful indirect combat operations and internal security operations under their belt, not once had they needed to bury one of their team members. Colonel Bercor slipped his nimble digits across the frosted glass on his desk he picked it up and tipped it back as he drank the water within it. His brown eyes gazed at the holo consoles in front of him, using his interlink he changed screens and “pages” with his very thoughts.
He had received the last data stream from home that he’d get for the duration of the exercise, he and his seven other team members were used to it of course, even with real time communications Stellar Operations personnel had to get used to the fact of being cut off, because there was never a way of knowing how long they would be out of contact during a mission.
Bercor Smiled as he went through the data in an instant, his mind eye filling with private messages or projections. His lips curled up the smooth contours and lines on his dark face rippled slightly just as he let out a laugh. After a time he pulled himself away from the holo-console, he stood up glancing about the smooth slender yet spartan room he had called home for the past several days.
-”Colonel Bercor “ - a voice rang in his head, it was first lieutenant Charles Samson.
-“What is it Sam?”-
Samson replied somewhat casually.
-“Me and the guys were gonna play a game of chance and wondered if you’d wanna join us. Its double or nothing house rules. I mean we got a few hours before we gotta put on our exo-suits right?”-
Colonel Bercor replied his voice wasn’t as gruff as Samsons but had its own markedly unique depth .
-”Sure as long as our credit proceeds aren’t going to a tontine…”-
Bercor needled Samson with a jovial yet stern tone.
Samson replied seemingly taken aback. Though obviously it was in a sarcastic manner..
-”Hey how was I supposed to know those guys on that planet were doing that? They told me it was an investment! You guys still aint sore about that eh?”-
Bercor replied with another needle at the comical situation.
-”You’re lucky that working guy… Vouched for you otherwise you might have j have been in deeper shit than you were haha.”-
Samson was mute but before he could respond Bercor had walked to the door of the lounge then stepped in to find his team sitting around a table with a deck of cards stacked in the middle. The room was foggy with smoke from certain cigars, Samson and the rest of the team stood up to attention as Bercor walked in.
Bercor quickly waved them down to at ease, he smiled the burly Samson shifting his chair forward, he quickly tossed a few cards to the blank space on the table dealing Bercor in.
Bercor Sat down next to Lieutenant Grekacori , the slender lizard like being nodded to Bercor, his black scales had a slight sheen about them even in the smokey light of the lounge.
“Ok folks, double or nothing house rules, I’ll let our distinguished team commander go first..”
Bercor huffed and replied. “Gee thanks..” .
Samson smiled, Bercor shifted forth some chips and then placed a card down.
“I bet twenty five , and put down Official malfeasance .”
The game had begun, but soon enough the table would be empty and they’d be on one of those rocky radiation swept airless worlds, fighting a mock battle with their allies.
Indeed even though Bercor and his team didn’t care much for political machinations, they were about to take part in exercises meant to show the GESO as a continuous unified front , with allied powers standing shoulder to shoulder against their outside threats.
