The Council Battleship Marseille, Cut a black majestic figure in the foreground of Languagedocs sun. Her massive proportions vastly added to the sense of Imminent danger one felt in her presence. Or at least thats the way it would usually be.
Bright Blue blasts of coalesced energy dashed across the black of space, launched from small darting metallic figures converging on the massive warship. The Gallic Royal Navy had spent the better part of the last week slowly wearing down the Marseille, forcing her captain Joc Renauld to expend his shield batteries and micro-repair nanobots. He was low on fuel and his gunboat escort had long sense been destroyed. Now with no resources left he faced wave after wave of bombers. His gun crews were visibly showing signs of fatigue. Every attempt to withdraw was met with cruise disruptor fire.
The Gallic royals knew it was a matter of time.
On the bridge of the Marseille the Command Crew wrestled with what to do next.
"What is left ensign Serat?"
The voice came from the center of the bridge, the captains chair, the last place most would want to be right now.
"Capitan Renauld, our shields are down hull sonar is showing us with only around one quarter of our full integrity, we can survive maybe two more runs.
Another voice came from behind captain Renauld at the ships tactical station.
"I'm showing six bombers all are more or less fresh with this new wave, they still have most of their disruptors loaded. We cant escape."
"I see", responded the captain. "Tactical officer Russo, how fast are the new TASEP's (Thrust Assisted Survivor Escape Pods) Can they out run those fighters?"
"Yes sir they can" came the response.
There was a tense pause on the bridge, but only for a moment.
"Captain, their inbound for another pass, I'm reading five antimatter spikes!, 30 seconds to impact!"
Captain Renauld sprang into action, this was his final chance to save his crew, even if he lost his ship. "Serat" he said, Serat Bordeaux being the engineer of the Marseille. "Can we reverse our tractor beams to pulse our remaining weapons power to disable those ships?"
The engineer though for a second, looked momentarily at the displays at his station. "Yes sir I think we coul..."
Impact!" Russo, yelled but only to be heard over the sound of shearing metal from the decks below.
"As I was saying" continued Serat, "It will probably work, but our weapons will be disabled afterwards.
"Do it!" the order was issued, and after several seconds of rushed actions by the crew of the Marseille a green pulse of energy emitted form the outside of the giant war machine. Her small darting attackers were completely arrested. Floating lifelessly in space, they were completely disabled. But this would only last for a moment.
Captain Renauld grabbed a microphone built into the armrest of his captains chair. "All crew board the TASEP's abandon ship, try to make it to Montilemiar base on the other side of the jump hole. Move fast we have no time". He dropped the microphone back into his chair, his eyes raised to meet those of his bridge crew. "You too, lets get the hell off this thing." The stress in his voice was evident, even though he tried to cover it up.
The half an hour long trip home in the escape pod was a time of great guilt and introspection, but the arrival of Captain Renauld at Montilemiar would change his life forever.
Moments after arriving at the base, members of the stations Maquis crew were guiding Captain Renauld to a private teleconference room to meet with the Council High Command.
Once Captain Renauld was seated in the room in front of a tele-view screen, the Maquis silently and un-ceremoniously left the, shutting the doors behind them.
The screen in front of the Captain came on and a figure Renauld recognized immediately appeared on it.
Hello Admiral Montcalm, I hope your day has been better than mine sir. He had a touch of humor in his voice mixed with some good old fashioned tiredness.
The image on the screen did not look happy, or amused by Renaulds joke.
You just lost a battleship and your still making jokes Renauld. Montcalm had a touch of contempt in his voice, tempered only by an heir of familiarity with its subject.
The politicians with in the council Assembly are becoming morejingoistic, Renauld, as you know even in time of war, politics has influence.
Admiral Montcalm started pacing around the room he was standing in, Renaulds screen following him as he walked.
Our people understand that we are going to lose this war Renauld, they are scared and demanding action from their leaders. Montcalm sighed, then continued Jocks eyes remained hard and fixed on his superior, and long time friend.
Its not like it used to be, when the members of the grand assembly were former officers like us. We now have career politicians at the helm of our revolution. Ill cut to the point, I cannot give you another Battleship to command. You can thank Councilmen LeVar for that, he would have the people believe that he is the greatest warrior who never fought a day in his life. He believes that if he takes more personal control over the military and manages to pull off a few victories he will ensure his place as head of the assembly at the end of this election.
I see Replied Renauld. Do I have a command to go to from here sir?
Montcalm sighed you do..
But.? Said Renauld, feeling like he was in for a disappointment no matter what at this point.
The Pitard Renauld, your getting the Cruiser Pitard, Im sure you know of her history.
I know her last six captains managed to die while the ship made it home each time, well at least its a warship sir, I will make a new name for her Admiral.
I have no doubt replied Montcalm, but there is one more thing, you are charged with opening up the negotiations with the Kusari and the Bretonians on the Sirian side of the minefield.
Renaulds face turned red but only for a second while he got control of himself.
I am a warship captain sir not a diplomat, Ill take the Pitard, but I am the worst possible person for this.
Montcalm stopped pacing and faced the screen, a slight grin emerged on his face.
I got you this assignment Jock, in-fact I begged to get you this assignment.
Renauld was visibly flustered.
Settle down old friend, I did it for two reasons. The first: You always take a thoughtful approach to every situation, you rarely rush in and unlike our other captains who fire first and ask later you will be able to avoid the confrontations that we cannot afford in trying to win favor with the Sirians. I mean your tactic with the tractor beam back in Languagedoc, no other captain has done that before. Ninety percent of your crew survived because of that little trick and, if LeVar had half the sense for talent he thinks he has you would be in the high command with me right now. The loss of the Marseille was the result of bad tactics on our part not the fact that you couldnt deal with the enemy in you area at the time. Simply put you were overwhelmed. Secondly, this is more important than anything else were doing right now. We need a new home world and allies for our people so we have a chance to defeat the royalists. We cannot last much longer on what we have now, and the Sirians cannot stand up to the Gallic throne right now either. Their too busy fighting amongst themselves. Youre the only captain I trust to do this, If you can get our people a home world or allies against the royals ill get you another battleship, and on top of that you will have added more to our cause than any front line commander could dream of . Look at the big picture Renauld, we cant let the Gallic Kings rule over humanity, and if they can control Sirria then they will eventually head back to Sol, can you imagine the GRN patrolling the skies of old Earth, literally owning part of the milky way! Your ships waiting at Champange-en-Chalons, I want you to keep as much of your old crew as you want, they will serve you well. Do this for me old friend, Montcalm out.
The screen went blank before Renauld could even assimilate enough of what had just happened to respond.
With in a week he was face to face with the emperor of the Kusari. Mutual trade would be his first small victory. In the end Renauld realized that Bretonia, and Kusari would be the first to fall to the Gallics if they could not end their war with each other. Baby steps and Mutual trade were accomplished today, but in the end he had to mediate a peace between the Bretonians and the Kusari, for the fate of his people, and their closest neighbors. Now its time to open up this brave new galaxy, and claim it in peace before the already brewing forces of war tear it apart.
