Cogito ergo sum

[Akhetaten]

With the Akhetaten spending the majority of the last few months in Juneau's dry docks for thorough maintenance and upgrading of various components in order to ensure the warship is kept up-to-date with the most recent technological advancements, the warship and her crew barely saw any activity during that time. The flag officer's quarters had been kept rather free of noise, with the Vice Admiral often pondering in silence about the growing situation that the Government does not seem to react about, or even identify as a problem.

When the prototype battlecruiser was not grounded at Juneau, the missions it carried out did not extend further than simple patrols around sovereign Liberty space.

Recently, however, the warship undertook an important role.

During a typical patrol in the California system, and while in the vicinity of Planet Los Angeles, the ship's sensors picked up multiple hostile contacts belonging to Task Force Prometheus - a rather recently formed assortment of imbeciles that sought to revive the long-dead Hellfire Legion, referring to themselves as Legionnaires. With due haste, fighter squadron Alpha was deployed and they swiftly took care of the miniscule threat.

However, it soon would turn out that there were greater dangers looming in the dark, as multiple unknown contacts would begin to appear on the warship's long range sensors. With Nomad weaponry being identified on some of those vessels, it very quickly became apparent that the Navy had Wild ships on their hands, and the situation would grow even more dire as several additional contacts made their appearance on the battlecruiser's sensors.

With the Akhetaten undertaking the role of close support and acting as a mobile carrier for the allied fighter squadrons, the battle that followed was a significant victory for the Navy, during which they suffered no casualties. Fleet Admiral Kemp Smith's fighter was severely damaged during the fight, but with the battlecruiser being present and ready to initiate search and rescue, the Fleet's commanding officer was in no trouble whatsoever.



The engagement itself, a rather simple raid in the minds of most pilots and officers, was something far greater than that to the knowledgeable eyes of not only Uhmen, but Edwards as well.

And not one day later, the Vice Admiral's quarters would see the two of them discussing the ongoing matters yet again.

"It looks like they're not planning to give up anytime soon, hm?" The Vice Admiral spoke with a dissatisfied tone in her voice,

"It does not look like it, no," the Commodore replied, exhaling heavily, "not only are we not making any progress towards thwarting the looming alien threat, but I heard the Government ordered a full retreat from Ontario. Nobody's stationed there anymore, last I checked," he continued, his eye locked onto the flag officer, almost as if he was trying to read her thoughts while she sat in silence.

A thud. A wake-up call that something had to be done. The Commodore stroke his fist against Uhmen's desk.

"And as if the Nomads weren't giving us a tough time already, there's West's goons roaming free out there, apparently supported by the Technocracy. Get a load of that," he angrily continued, almost growling as he spoke.

The Vice Admiral deeply inhaled and stood up, turning her back to Christopher and looking out the window that was behind her.

"Task Force Prometheus is out there, looking for the perfect opportunity to prey on more of our people. And Nomads, Wilds, infectees and any other scum that follows them are not far. We cannot sit in silence any more, Uhmen, by the time the Government decides to act, it'll be too late."

"Then what is it that you propose I do?" The flag officer asked calmly, slowly turning towards her subordinate, looking into his eye as she raised an eyebrow.



A long pause followed. A few moments of quietness as the Commodore pondered in silence.

"You have the Navy's most powerful warship under your command, one of the most fearsome warships to have ever roamed Sirius. You have a task force dedicated to that very warship. You have effectively formed your very own battle group centered around this ship, something I could've never even dreamed of."

"You have the tools, technology, the people and all the support you require," Edwards paused for a second, allowing the flag officer to process his words. "You need to get Kemp-Smith involved. Inform him of everything that is going on, the looming dangers that are all around us, feeding off of the Governments inaction."

"But remember," a long pause followed, "offer solutions, do not just mention the problem. You have the most capable ship in the Navy's arsenal at your disposal. You have a fearsome battle group ready to follow that ship anywhere. Use what you have. Request unique rules of engagement, request operational independency for all of Task Force Akhetaten. Take the matters into our hands, maybe we still have a chance to fix things."

With that, the Commodore turned away, facing towards the door to Uhmen's quarters as he begun walking towards it.

"Do what you must."