Citation Series 1: Naero's War: The Annexation War (26 page)

Her friends followed her from casket to casket, letting her vent, keeping their gentle hands on her. T
hey tried to steady her.

When Saemar reach the last one–once she had said to them all whatever it was she mumble
d to each of them–she collapsed to the floor like puppet with all its strings cut.

Naero dove and caught her, keeping her from smacking her head
on the hard floor.

Saemar
shrieked, struggled free, and scrabbled like a crab into a dark corner. She continued to sob and mourn. She curled up again, shaking violently, hugging her knees in tight.

Naero and her friends stayed right with her, trying to hold and touch her, to give her whatever solace and comfort they could. Tyber hovered over all of them protectively
.

It was Zhen who finally tried to speak to her and bring her back
.

“We love you, Saemar. Come back to us. Talk to us. We know you’re hurting very badly. It’s Zhen. Chae and
N and Ty are all here too.”

“We’re here for you, Saemar,” Chaela added
.

Saemar kept her head down, but her hands shot out like claws in front of her, fingers twisting, clawing, and curling repeatedly at the air
.

They rested their hands lightly on her forearms
.

Naero tried to hold one of her hands
.

At first, Saemar clawed at her and fought her off
again, while continuing to sob and gasp, like she couldn’t draw in enough breath.

Then she reached out frantically and grabbed Naero’s hand, and would not let go
.

Saemar exploded into semi-incoherent babbling, strained and breathless
.

“It’s…they. They killed them all. The bastards killed everyone…”

She couldn’t get any more words out for a long while. She was still having trouble breathing, gulping in air like she couldn’t get enough.

“Hikaru…just like Hikaru. Like losing him…all over again. Every one of my people. Over and over again. I watched them die. I listened to them all get killed
.”

Saemar clawed at the air desperately with her free hand, helplessly straining and reaching out in vain
.

“Tried…I tried to help them…tried to reach them. Bastards…They cut us off. We
all got cut off…So many foes. We fought, and fought, and fought. We fought for each other. We fought and died to help each other. To save as many of us as we could and break out…First Wing. My beloved First Wing…they saved us, Chae…saved us all…First Wing fought…they fought like champions…fearless…like angels of heaven in their fury. In the end…miracle…that any of us came back.”

She kept gasping for air
.

“I…led the rest of us back
, N…we fought our way out of that hell…and we barely got out…Death trap. We lost so many…all of us…shot to pieces…Barely made it…back to our…our…”

Zhen pushed her way in.

“She’s hyperventilating!” Zhen pulled out a plastic respirator bag and placed it over Saemar’s red, gasping face. She forced Saemar to breath in and out of the expanding and contracting bag. Calming her all the while.

After several tense moments, Saemar finally started to relax and breathe easier
.

Naero still held her hand
.

Zhen stroked her hair and spoke to her softly
.

“Saemar. I want to have Chae carry you to sickbay. I want you on a medbed. We’ll all stay with you if you want. We’ll stay with you all night if you want us too. Or if you’d rather get some sleep, I can give you something to help you with that. One of us will always be in the room with you. Don’t worry. We aren’t going to leave you
.”

Saemar nodded, still wincing and sobbing
, shaking her head.

“You don’t get it. You just don’t understand
, none of you.” She gasped again and put her head down.

They tried to be quiet and give her whatever time she needed to work through her pain and grief and get it
all out.

Sh
e exploded again suddenly, blurting out a bunch of stuff.

“We fought and died for each other! To save each other. First Wing gave their lives for the rest of us. So that the rest of us could get out. I had to pull the others together and lead the break out, and
first wing fell back without question. They held off the enemy, for barely a few seconds while we broke out. Then…they got swept away. They sacrificed themselves. Without any hesitation. And we let them do it. I let them do it. We left them behind. I left them behind…to die…
for the rest us
.”

Naero finished reading the crew report summaries, flashing across the floating holo screen before her
eyes.

“Saemar, I know you’re hurting bad. Believe me, I understand. Every battle I lose people I know. Sometimes hundreds. Sometimes entire warships and
their whole crews–all hands lost. Thousands at times. But you have not read your reports from the survivors of your last engagement. Without exception–every pilot of the 129
th
that came back alive–all seventy-two of them insist, for the record, that First Wing fought with the highest valor to the very end.”

Saemar bowed her head and slowly nodded
.

“They did. That they did
.”

“I’m not finished, Saemar. Not only that, but your pilots also concluded–
unanimously–that only their commander, Wing Commander Saemar Maeris, could have kept the rest of them together, and led them back to safety out of that nightmare. And she did so, they said, at great risk and at constant threat of losing her own life, heedless of any damage to her own craft and herself.”

Naero put her hand on Saemar’s head, bent down, and kissed the top of her crown
.

“Can’t you see, Saemar? All of you could have died in that deathtrap. Every one of you. You lost one quarter of your command. Your own wing sacrificed itself bravely, for the rest of you. But you were the only one with the knowledge and experience capable of saving the rest. You saved three quarters of your people. They are all alive and thankful today because of you, and clearly state that fact. For the record
, I want you to know that I’m putting you and everyone in First Wing up for commendations and citations for bravery, valor, and courage, well beyond the call of duty.”

Saemar waved her hand at the caskets. “Give the honors to my beloved dead. I don’t need them. I…I don’t deserve them
.”

Naero shook her head. “No, Saemar. If you had died, everyone else in your wave would have perished
with you. You all deserve these honors. They gave their lives, so that you could have the chance to save all the others. They understood and accepted that fact instantly. You trained them to be capable of seeing what had to be done. And they did so, without question or hesitation. Only the elite of our elite could have done such a thing. It was a miracle of the highest honor and bravery. You need to trust their judgment, and accept that, in honor of them. I want you to see and admit that to yourself, when you reach a place where you can do so.”

Saemar sniffed and wiped her red face, her nano make-up either rubbed off or smeared around
in weird patches and patterns.

She kissed Naero’s hand, and then rubbed it. She blinked and looked up at Naero and then around at the rest of them and smiled weakly
.

“Thanks, everyone. You are all my good friends–my sweeties. I’m…I’m sorry I lost it. I can’t really go nuts. You guys know. I’m pretty much already there.” She laughed a little
.

“Saemar,” Zhen asked, “You can still come to sickbay and we can stay with you. Are you going to be okay
?”

Saemar sighed heavily, getting serious. “No, none of us are going to be okay after this war,
Z. We’ve all seen too much. We’ve all lost too much, and we’re going to lose even more, before everything is done. But we’ll find a way to salvage and save what we can, and make do. We’ll all find a way to live and love and be all right. Because we don’t have any choice in the matter. Because we’re Spacers, and that’s just what we do.”

She got to her feet and stood up, wiping her face
.

She glanced back at her lovers and friends lying dead in those caskets all around her
.

She sighed and held out her hands. “I’m sorry guys. Seeing my mates all in here in the dark, all alone. Knowing I would never see any of them again in this life. It just broke me down like you wouldn’t believe. I thought I could take it. I had told myself that after losing Hikaru, nothing could ever hurt me like that again. I wouldn’t let it. But I was wrong. If you love people, even for a short time, losing them is still incredibly hard
.”

“These kind of things are obviously hard on all of us,” Chaela said. “And we should talk about them more often, amongst each other and our crews. Instead of letting them build up inside us until we can’t take it anymore. To tell you all the truth, I’ve come close to have a similar breakdown like yours Saemar. I just haven’t had severe losses like this to tip me over the brink yet, thank goodness
.”

“You’re right, Chae,” Naero said. “If all of us are hurting like this, the rest of our people must be dealing with the same feelings and issues. All of us struggle to be brave and ignore what’s going each day, until it turns toxic and festers inside of us, and builds to a breaking point. Eventually, something finally happens to set us off. We need to address these issues more and relieve some of this pressure, for everyone’s sake, before it gets this bad
.”

Saemar leaned against the wall, shaking hear head wearily
.

“Thanks again, sweeties. Gotta go somewhere now and get some rest. I haven’t slept well
, for days. I think I can pass out now for a while. Just stick me anywhere with a bunk”

Naero put her hands on her hips. “Saemar, you’re coming directly to my quarters. That’s an order. Anyone who wants to join us, I have plenty of room. I’ll have some food and drinks sent up
.”

Tyber’s face beamed. “Yay! Just like a sleepover when we were all kids and teens!
”

Naero smiled. She herself forgot sometimes how young they all still were
.

Chaela punched her wristcom. “I’m game. Just let me message Remy
.”

Zhen smirked and folded her arms in front of herself. “If
Ty is going to spend the night with a bunch of pretty girls, I’d better be there to keep and eye on him.”

“Awww, mom…”

Chaela snorted. “Yeah…you don’t want him to come to, curled up with Saemar.”

Most of them chuckled at that. Just not Zhen
.

“No need to worry,” Saemar
assured them. “Ty and I settled that issue a long time ago, sweeties. He’s just not my type, that’s all.”

Tyber looked
hurt, confused, and indignant. “Settled what…when did we do what? I don’t remember any of this.”

And for some strange reason, Zhen got mad
.

“Not your type? What do you mean, not your type? Anything with three legs is your type!
”

Saemar looked at them indignantly. “I know you all think that, but in my own way, I’m actually very choosy and particular
.”

“How so?” Chaela asked. “What, they have to be male and still breathing
?”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Tyber asked again, even more offended now than before
.

Naero chuckled and covered her face briefly with one hand. “Enough you, guys.
Easy. We’re all tired and not a little rattled. Let’s just cut each other some slack and watch over Saemar tonight. And one thing more: Ty and Z, you two can sleep and snuggle together all you want–but no fooling around. Seriously. I’ve want to say this since we were all teens, and I finally can, now. Even when you two
think
you’re being quiet about it–trust us–we can still hear
exactly
what you two are doing. It’s awkward and embarrassing–for everyone.”

Zhen turned bright red, but did not say a word.

34

Tarissa-1 resisted all attempts to crack its complex weave of heavily layered defenses.

Twelve alli
ance fleets, including Naero’s Strike Fleet Six, formed up in four equal groups to probe and assail the extensive enemy battle lines.

They sought out
weaknesses.

They tested
strategies and tactics.

When nothing worked, t
hey shifted from one attack formation to the next.

They tried several optimal attack vectors
.

Yet e
ach time they wore the enemy down, the damaged enemy elements retreated behind their defensive screens of attack probes, drones, and AI seeker mines.

And thus the tables were turned, and the Alliance fleets
quickly found themselves being worn down.

Ensign Nick Alexander called out from his
Shields Station.

“Captain.
Hippolyta
shields down to forty-seven percent. Fleet shields reduced on average of twenty-nine percent–most by half. Eleven vessels below twenty percent.”

“Send those eleven ships to the fixer clouds. My orders. No arguments
.”

They kept fighting, but Naero began to see the futility of their
current efforts.

Captain Mike Marshall called in from
The
Condor
.

“Looks like we’re beating our heads against
a duranadium hull, N. Are we going to keep doing so?”

“No…we’ve got enough of a headache. All ships, withdraw to the Beta line and regroup. Surina, advise Admiral Maeris of our situation and advise same for the other three attack groups. None of this is working. We should pull back
, before we lose someone for no good reason.”

“On it, sir
.”

Naero sighed
.

“The enemy can keep this up all day long. At this rate, they can hold us off and bleed us
dry–for weeks. We need to create, or discover a better way.”

They sent all of the data feeds to Intel. Perhaps Admiral Klyne and his people could figure something out
.

She took a c
all from her aunt within that same hour.

Naero saluted. “Admiral Maeris
.”

“At ease, Captain Maeris. Good work today. I wanted to pause for a moment and commend you
.”

Naero blinked and looked aside for a moment
.

“I’m…confused, sir. Our efforts today were
completely futile. We accomplished nothing.”

Her aunt smiled. “Of course the mission was a bust. What I’m referring to is you. You continue to progress and mature as a command officer
.”

Naero snorted a little.
“How exactly did I do that? By failing miserably?”

“
We could all see what was happening. That was no one’s fault. Yet, I was curious as to how you would react.”

Naero grinned. “And…apparently, I did well
?”

“You did in fact. You assessed the situation
, and you retreated.”

“Sir? I’ve never heard of anyone awarded a citation…for retreating
.”

“No, but you’ve seldom retreated on your own before, unless
specifically ordered and forced to do so. Usually by then–in the past–you’ve already lost a few ships and the rest of your fleet is all beat to hell.”

“Thank you, sir
…I think.”

“Admit it, captain. The old Naero would have beaten herself and her people bloody against defenses
such as these, stubbornly trying to find or blast her way through at any price. You are a better, more balanced, and seasoned leader now. You’re not making all of those new leader mistakes any more. I just wanted to commend you on that fact. I’m proud of you. Your parents would be also.”

“Mom once told me: ‘You can’t always win, and sometimes even the cost of victory is too high.’
”

“Exactly. You have grown both in experience and wisdom
.”

Naero smiled. “Thank you, sir. I understand now. I really appreciate that
.”

*

The Alliance fleets actually recovered quickly from several coordinated enemy counter-attacks, and responded by making another serious feint toward Tarissa-1, to throw the enemy off.

After
the Triaxians swept all of their forces that way to head them off, the Alliance changed course abruptly, and drove straight on to encircle and capture the rest of the unpredictable Hevangian Homeworlds.

Especially the Capital World of Valkeggoth-6
.

It took the Alliance three days of heavy fighting to destroy or chase off the Triaxian fleets in that region, and hold off the rest that tried to intervene
.

T
wo more days allowed them to set up a blockade of those same worlds, complete with salvaged mines, defense drones, and refitted, robotic gunships from Triax itself.

The
Alliance learned quickly from many harsh lessons. They knew better than to make any attempt to pacify any of the Hevangian worlds while in the middle of a war.

Isolating and containing them
proved difficult enough.

The Alliance
continued the process of constructing a complete blockade–and more–a containment sphere around Valkeggoth-6.

Without warning
, the entire planet ruptured from within its core and exploded violently.

The Alliance ships attempted to flee the destruction
.

Over two dozen Alliance
warships and their crews lost that race and perished, along with a population of nearly three billion Hevangians.

From all reports,
Intel was baffled by whatever bizarre tek the enemy had used to destroy their entire planet. The enemy’s insane methods and actions defied all logic and reason. There was simply no justification for such senseless death and destruction.

Many in the Alliance felt that if the Hevangians were crazy enough to slaughter themselves rather than be set free of Triax—then
so beit–let them do so.

Any
long term answers to the Hevangian question would be decided well after the main war ended. Until then, the rest of their worlds were isolated by the blockade and given an even wider berth.

Naero’s strike fleet and the Alliance could now return full time to the prosecution of the primary war
against Triax.

Day by day, they blasted their way through the defenses swarming around Tarissa-1
.

Many of the so-called Triaxian fleets and crews were still those from the other fourteen Gigacorps. They
just changed their outer markings and insignia and their designations to those of Triaxian fleets, but their tek varied, and even their leadership and tactics were different.

They did not obey the Triaxians blindly
.

Nor did they allow themselves to be used a cannon fodder
.

But they remained
competent foes, and resisted all efforts to get them to surrender and turn neutral.

When the fighting got too hot,
only then did the mercs attempt to jump out.

Naero and her people had captured enough of the
se ships after battles to know very well that their vessels and their mercenary crews were not Triaxian.

It did not matter what
they claimed.

And they gladly sued for mercy and surrender at the last need, while Triax maintained its policy of no prisoners. No mercy. No exceptions in the heat of battle
for captured Alliance forces or vessels.

Naero had Tyber and his fixers pour over the captured
merc ships, one after another, searching for solid evidence. But they were clean.

T
hat was the problem–they were always too clean.

No
ship was that clean. No past histories or maintenance records? No ship’s logs? No direct proof that the ships were anything but Triaxian vessels. Not even military records of where their crews came from. None of it made any logical sense.

Then Tyber
and the teks discovered traces of a self-erasing aggressive virus in the computers of all of the captured enemy vessels.

This was, in fact,
a virus that erased and destroyed any incriminating traces of information that could prove that these enemy ships were in fact–illegal mercenaries–fighting for Triax. When they clearly originated directly from the other Corps navies.

How
very convenient for the Corps.

Together, Naero’s teks worked with Spacer Intel to devise a counter-strategy. If they could expose the enemy ships and their true origins, Triax and the other Corps could be revealed to be
caught in direct, flagrant, wholesale violations of the Fourth Spacer War Treaty.

The same
exact treaty that the enemy hid behind, and held up constantly, to keep the Alliance using only private military vessels and forces against them. While the most advanced Spacer Navy warships were effectively barred from the war.

Once Intel developed a strategy, they only had to wait for the proper opportunity to put it into action
.

That day would come
.

Meanwhile, in honor of the fallen Admiral Sandusky, hundreds of liberated Triaxian worlds joined the Alliance wholesale
.

And as such, thousands of captured enemy vessels were refitted by fixer clouds, updated with the
latest weapons and tek, and joined the fight against their former tyrants.

Thus the Alliance increased its raw numbers by over a third
.

And where their crew rosters could not be filled completely from the new Alliance worlds, there were finally plenty of new leaders and crews coming out of the
extensive training programs that Joshua Tech had implemented, from the very beginning.

The Alliance led a bold
, concentrated assault on Tarissa-1.

At first the Alliance forces nearly had Tarissa-1 encircled and enveloped
.

Out of seemingly nowhere, enemy fleets flooded in from the final Triaxian stronghold Capital World of Najindo-9
.

Far m
ore enemy fleets than any Intel estimates could ever imagine.

The Alliance was forced to pull back and
completely break off their attack on Tarissa-1. They fought a full-on, fighting retreat against overwhelming superior odds.

The Alliance used every delaying and punishment tactic that they knew to slow the enemy advance
.

Many of the
se were the same, very effective punishing tactics that Triax had used against the Alliance advance.

But no
w the tables were completely turned.

Where had this sudden, massive influx on Triaxian fleets come from? And right when it appeared that Triax was on the ropes
.

Reeling, the Alliance forces struggled to maintain good order
.

They fled back through several pacified systems in a vain attempt to spread out the charging tide of
waxing Triaxian numbers.

But
the enemy kept up their counter-attack, bolstered by those same raw numbers of countless fresh fleets that only continued to grow.

The
enemy threatened to roll back the entire front line of the war.

The Alliance forces struggled to regroup, and conspired to make their stand around the critical forward starbase
and Naval shipyards of DaVinci-5.