Storm' Fury: The Shenkar War (31 page)

              “Nope, that’s what we have you for, kimosabe,” Steve said, a broad grin upon his face.

              Liam stared flatly until the grin upon Steve’s face faltered. Once Liam had felt he had sufficiently made Steve uncomfortable, he then smiled. Relief showed upon Steve’s face as he spoke.

              “You know you really are an evil man.”

              Liam smiled again but said nothing.

              “So, what is on the agenda for today?” Steve asked, nodding towards Liam’s datapad

              Looking back over his shoulder, Liam first confirmed that Cryta wasn’t listening. To his satisfaction, he seemed to be completely engrossed in what Evan was saying before he leaned in to speak.

              “First of all you and Evan are here at my request. Both of you will be given larger roles with our upcoming offensive, at least that is what I was told although I did not get specifics. I am assuming they will be looking for more of your new inventions.”

              Steve had been helping the scientists invent newer more efficient technologies that continued to baffle the Meshtrell. His
Prometheus shell
had already proved very useful as did his new neural inhibitor. He also had been working on some other technologies but he had been very secretive of what they were, even Liam did not know the nature of the project. All he did know was that Steve had secured a large storage bay aboard the
Kraken
to continue the research of his project.

              “Also, we have the final word, we jump within the next half hour,” Liam whispered.

              Surprise bloomed upon Steve’s face at hearing this.

              “But I thought we weren’t due to leave until two days from now. Why the sudden move up in the departure and how come I didn’t know about this?” he whispered back.

              “We have always been planning to depart today; the reason for the secrecy is if Cryta is setting us up. Granted, he will find out today, but by then it will be too late. This meeting is really only to gauge his reaction to hearing the new departure times. Only the council, Admiral Kelvin, Captain Dunklin, me and a few essential personnel know. We figured it was the safest way to keep the secret.”

              Steve seemed to think this over, glancing over at Captain Dunklin as he entered the room, before something seemed to occur to him.

              “Hey, earlier, how come you suggested I go see Kimino? If we are leaving I wouldn’t have be able to get clearance to leave the ship.”

              Liam looked up from his datapad and smiled.

              “Yeah, but it would have been funny knowing you went all the way to the hanger bay only to find out we were leaving.”

              Steve’s mouth dropped open, a stunned expression upon his face. After a few moments his face dissolved into a smile.

              “And here I thought you forgot how to joke around…you truly are an evil man.”

              “Actually I am glad you didn’t take me seriously as I wanted you here for this meeting. You seem to have gained the ability to understand technology on a level beyond any other. This could be useful when we cover the plan to take the fight to the Shenkar.

              Before Steve could say anything Admiral Kelvin enter followed by General Leonid.

              The room descended into silence as the two took their seats. Only when it was clear all present had turned their attention to the meeting did Admiral Kelvin address Captain Dunklin.

              “Is everything set?’

              “Yes sir, the last of the supplies were loaded a hour ago. We only await the command.”

              “Give it.”

              Captain Dunklin keyed his personal comm unit.

              “Attention all hands, this is the captain speaking. All of you have been under the impression we were not due to depart on our mission until two days from now. I apologize for the subterfuge but I assure you it was necessary. We depart now, all hands to action stations.”

              Captain Dunklin keyed his comm unit again.

              “Commander Trent, you have the go, begin fold sequence.”

              A few minutes passed in silence before a voice emanated throughout the ship.

              “Standby for fold sequence in 5…4…3…2…1, fold sequence engage.”

              Liam felt the familiar tug at his navel when the fold sequence engaged. The queer feeling, which always accompanied folding, ended almost as soon as it took to really think about how it felt.

              The fold sequence complete, Liam turned to study Cryta, too his surprise Cryta looked completely at easy at hearing the recent news.

              “You are not surprised at this new turn of events?”

              Cryta paused at the question, noticing the room was quiet with all present looking towards him.

              “No, it is what I would have done. I can accept that you do not trust me to share this information with me. Can I ask why you did not share this information with your own people?”

              Liam thought this over for a few moments, should he share with one of the race of Earth’s enemy that some humans cannot be trusted? Liam couldn’t see the harm in it as even if the Shenkar somehow learned of this they really didn’t have the means of making use of it. Luckily, he did not need to answer as Admiral Kelvin spoke up.

              “We felt we didn’t want to run the risk of certain people learning of our planned departure. I do not know about your people but we have some within our society that are of a rather fanatical religious faith. They believe this is the time of the apocalypse for the human race. These radical groups will go as far as killing their own people as they believe they are doing the work of God.”

              Crytas lips pressed together in a grim smile as he nodded.

              “We, also, have these types of people on my home world. They, however, are not very outspoken as people that speak against our Shelecore tend to disappear.”

              “If it were only that easy for us but we believe every citizen deserves to voice their opinion no matter how ludicrous it may be. But the religious fanatics are the least of our problems. The biggest problem we were trying to avoid is we have humans among us that will do anything for power and wealth…even sell out their own people. These people would even help the Shenkar if they thought they could secure position and wealth.”

              Cryta looked aghast as such a thought.

              “But surely they couldn’t believe the Shelecore would honor such agreements? He possibly would let them believe it but he firmly believes the human race should be exterminated.”

              “Sadly they would, it doesn’t matter to some people what facts you present before them as they will believe what they want,” explained Captain Dunklin.

              Cryta nodded his understanding but otherwise didn’t say a word.

              The silence was broken when the door to the briefing room opened and Shizta was escorted in. The restraints severely restricted Shizta’s movements so it took him a few moments to reach his chair and be seated.

              “Well now that we are all here. We are here to discuss our mission. With Cryta’s help we have narrowed down our main target.

January 20
th
, 2014 5:35pm

EDF
Kraken
, En-route to Shenkar space

              Shizta studied the men assembled before him with growing conflictions. The knot that had formed in his stomach over the past couple weeks was ever present as usual. Every day he tried to convince himself that these humans were a race that needed to be subjugated and yet even now he knew it not to be the case. The real question is should he help them?

              As the meeting began Admiral Kelvin spoke.

              “Welcome everyone. I assume everyone has read their mission briefings so you should know the agenda for our mission?”

              Liam turned slightly and saw Steve and Evan shrink back into their chairs slightly, attempting to make themselves less noticeable, a clear sign they did not read the mission brief. Smiling slightly he turned his attention back to the admiral as he continued.

              “Welcome everyone to
Operation: Black Briar
, our mission is simple and yet as the same time difficult. Simple, in that we know what we must do. What is difficult is we do not have a lot of information to work with. True, we have obtained valuable information from Cryta, but that will only go so far. Our mission will be to disrupt shipments and destroy military targets of opportunity as long as it doesn’t put too much danger to our limited forces. In short, we are to create chaos on a scale that disrupts the Shenkar from concentrating on rebuilding their fleet and attacking Earth again. The longer we can do this the more time we give Earth to repair and rebuild the ships we lost in the last attack. We are on our own on this one although once the home fleet has been rebuilt, and not before then, we can expect to receive reinforcements. Are there any questions so far?”

              “What kind of military presence are we looking at in the way of warships?” asked Captain Dunklin of Cryta.

              “Outlying colonies for the most part have light military presence in the way of warships but the closer you get to homeworld the chance of encountering patrols rises. Most of the heavier battlecruisers are stationed around the bigger more valuable military targets as well as worlds that we feel need to have a large military presence. These targets are usually races that could become potential problems if given the opportunity. Around
Shryka
there is always one fleet at any given time, the type of warships can vary but there should be about fifty various types of warships with an unknown number of fighter support. If I had to hazard a guess I would put their numbers in the thousands. The Shelecore would also have the ability to call up another one hundred warships from around the immediate federation territories. For the most part the most common warship you will encounter would be cruisers and destroyers, a large amount of battlecruisers have been destroyed in the war with you.”

              “With those numbers the Shelecore could have easily overwhelmed our forces and wiped us out, why did he not send every warship he had?” asked Steve.

              “While I firmly believe the Shelecore is insane, he is not stupid. He knows there are many within the Federation who would welcome the opportunity to be free. Without the presence of the military they could attack and possibly overwhelm key installations before the fleet could return. Also, he clearly did not believe you humans were that formidable, even after presented with evidence that clearly stated otherwise. For this reason, he did not send an overwhelming force, as he did not feel it was necessary. This is another reason: it is very important we force him to look closer to home as this will prevent him from dedicating everything he has to destroying your homeworld.” 

              When Cryta had nothing more to say Admiral Kelvin looked around the room for several seconds to see if there were any further questions before continuing.

              “We have several secondary targets to choose from which are outlined in the mission brief but with Cryta’s help we have narrowed down our main target to the
Dreklic
shipyards orbiting the world known as
Tyria
.”

              Shizta couldn’t help what happened next, as he unintentionally let out a snort of derision, at hearing the name of the target.

January 20
th
, 2014 5:39pm

EDF
Kraken
, En-route to Shenkar space

              The room grew silent as everyone turned to look at Shizta at the sound of his snort.

              “You don’t agree?” asked Cryta, not bothering to hide annoyance from his voice.

              Shizta remained quiet, looking around the group until he caught Liam’s gaze.

              “Shizta, why do you not agree with Cryta’s choice of the target?” Liam asked.