Going For Broke

[Omi]

LeBlanc thought about sighing, but stopped halfway and just got angry instead.

"Don't so me, Général,", she snapped, rising to her feet at once. "This is a military briefing, not a coffee break. The situation here is serious." Her expression shifted a few times as the Commandant's theatrics played out, but when the time came to dress her down LeBlanc decided not to bother. The holographic display hadn't seen use since Xavier's day, and she hadn't been very good at working it even then. Fleurette might have been a loose cannon and an eccentric, but as far as LeBlanc was concerned the woman could have cartwheeled into the room humming the Bretonian anthem as long as the Valenciennes kept cracking Dunkirks and Zephyrs open.

"Thank you, Commandant. Lieutenant, you are dismissed." Lieutenant Epave almost looked towards the Commandant for confirmation, but the expression on Lucie's face made him think twice. He gave a theatrical bow before backing out of the room quickly, seemingly very glad to be free of all his boxes and papers.

"Hardly a problem, madame Maréchale," came Avignon's reply. The woman slid something else across the table with her stick, offering it to LeBlanc with a certain pride. Upon closer inspection, the object was a double-sized Valor figurine. The letters 'CDC' had been inscribed on the base. LeBlanc picked it up before continuing, sweeping away from the table to begin her initial speech.

"Now," she began, the brief levity of before draining away in an instant. "I will get straight to the point. Two days ago, at approximately 1930 NPT, a Maltese raiding party intercepted and hijacked a Royal Naval transport in the eastern half of Lorraine. The ship's last known location was here-" she rapped the offending area with her stick, marking out a broad region in the south-east corner Omicron-80. There was nothing marked by name on the map other than the Lorraine border minefield, but LeBlanc was pleased to see that Lebeau's intelligence had made its way onto Fleurette's printouts. "Our esteemed friend Général Lebeau has been fielding reconnaissance teams in this area all throughout the past thirty-six hours, and we have identified a number of key Maltese installations in this border system. Furthermore, we have enough signal buoy data from the Lorraine minefield cordon to confirm that the hijacked ship went off-grid due to a gravitational anomaly, not by weapons fire or having its transponder cut off." She tapped insistently at the indicated area again, making eye contact with each of the two to check that they were following. "That means, Général, Commandant, that there is a jump hole somewhere in that vicinity. An entrance point deeper into Maltese space, and the next breadcrumb on the trail towards finding our lost VIP."

LeBlanc let the last sentence hang for a while, allowing the other pair to digest the implications of what she had just said. No doubt there would be questions, but there was one final piece of the puzzle to slam them with.

"The VIP in question is Charlotte DeFrance, the crown princess, and the King is most anxious to have her back where she belongs. Her sister too, if I am not mistaken, although it will be on the King's authority that failure here will see us dead. As we speak, she has already been out of contact for over forty-eight hours, so time is of the essence. Preliminary plans have already been drawn up for our advance-" LeBlanc gestured towards her desk, which was positively festooned with paper "-but it is essential that our attack is carried out seamlessly. The Maltese Navy - what passes for it, anyway - may be yet unprepared for us, as it is possible they have not identified the princess for who she is or what value she holds yet. We have the element of surprise, but not for long, and with our other fronts to worry about it is imperative that our initial assault is also our last. The Chant du Cygne,, Royal Vauquelin, and Valenciennes will lead our battlegroup into Omicron space, along with the capital and snubcraft of the Second and Third fleets-" the Grande Maréchale swept each miniature Valor into place as she spoke, positioning them in the upper reaches of Tau-37 "-and proceed to establish a forward operating base. Solars within the system include a pair of Maltese outposts and one of their shipyards, and I will be directing elements of the Third Fleet to cordon off and contain these strategic objectives as our advance continues. Once a beachhead has been established, our column will push forwards as one towards the point of entry to Maltese space, whereupon teams of strike craft will reconnoitre the destination system and advise how best we should proceed."

Finishing her spiel, LeBlanc completed the effect by deftly manoeuvering the rest of the pieces into place, assembling one potential scenario on the table between the three women. The Commandant's set of figurines had no Maltese vessels, but the Bretonian set was a fine substitute. The overall effect was quite dated, but ultimately still good at conveying the desired outcome - a spearhead of Royal Naval forces was frozen mid-advance in the Omicron system, scattered elements of the Maltese defense fleet arrayed around the outer edge.

"Before I ask for input, I will point out that Général Lebeau has, as of yet, been unable to reconnoitre anything beyond Omicron-80. Whatever lies beyond that jump anomaly is very well guarded indeed, and that is the reason why we will be advancing towards territory yet unknown. That is why I need the best and brightest the Kingdom has to offer, as this is not the kind of tactical puzzle you have been taught to solve at the academy. We have no time to waste here, no alternative avenue through which to pursue our goal. We will pour ships and men through that jump hole until the other side is ours, and we will do so again and again until the eponymous Malta is broken. They are little more than rock-rats and bandits, with an entire navy barely a tenth the size of our Home Fleet alone. Employing such a large force of Valors will slow us down - it will likely take us hours to transit the Omicron-80 system alone, to say nothing of the rest - but it is the safest and most reliable way to break their backs with our first thrust. Once their fleets are shattered and we have them trapped, then the exact details of our retrieval operation can be worked out before we char their poisoned world to ash."

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