Storm' Fury: The Shenkar War (8 page)

“Captain, a Commander Sukita of the
Okinawa
is requesting to speak with you,” said Ensign Mendez.

              As the captain opened his mouth to speak the President of France cut him off.

“Put it on the overhead.”

Throwing the President of France an annoyed looked Donaldson then spoke aloud.

“Commander Sukita, you are on with Captain Donaldson and the President of France.”

“Captain Donaldson, something isn’t right here. Why would the Shenkar hit an outpost when they aren’t even sure we have anyone there? I have fought the Shenkar before and this just doesn’t fit their modus operandi. I suggest we contact Fleet Admiral Saunders or Admiral Kelvin before we proceed.”

Again as Captain Donaldson opened his mouth to speak he was cut off by the President of France.

“We are well aware of your service record aboard the
Sacrifice
Commander Sukita. You will obey my orders or do I need to remind you that I am part of the Council of Earth,” Jacque Lecroix said angrily.

“But sir….” Kimino began.

“Enough commander! You will inform your captain he is to proceed to the sector 22 for the rendezvous or you all will be brought up on charges.”

December 22
nd
, 2013 4:59 am

                                                     EDF
Okinawa,
Terran system

Kimino Sukita fumed at the way France’s President had spoke to her. Pompous ass, was all she could think after he so unceremoniously cut the link after commanding the
Okinawa
to proceed to sector 22. She would be damned if she did so without speaking with someone of greater importance than the President of France. Thankfully, Captain Dvares arrival saved her from exploding.

“Commander Sukita, what is the situation?” Dvares asked as he entered the bridge.

“Outpost 238 is under attack from Shenkar forces. President Lecroix had invoked a priority one directive and has ordered all forces to sector 22. He wants to fold the entire defense force to help them,” explained Kimino.

“Who the bloody hell is President Lecroix?” asked Dvares.

Under different circumstances Kimino would have broken out into fits of laughter at the captain’s question. She didn’t think the captain ignorant; it was more that the President of France, was such an insignificant part of the Council of Earth that no one remembered his name most of the time.

“He is the President of France sir.”

“That irritating fellow? Yes I remember him now, spoke with him once and that was enough to leave a sour taste in my mouth.”

Kimino couldn’t help but like Captain James Dvares. Captain Dvares had previous servred with the British navy and was now entering his twenty sixth year in the military. At the age of forty five, he was one of the oldest captains of the new military. He wasn’t full of himself like some of the other captains of the new Earth Defense Force. When it came to regulations he was pretty relaxed for a military man and had learned to value the opinion of those with experience.

“Tell me commander, what is your opinion on this matter?” Dvares asked.

“I think the Shenkar are up to something. Why would they give away their fleet numbers on such a minor attack? I believe they are looking to draw the fleet away from Earth and her massive defense platforms to make the odds more even. Either way I feel we shouldn’t make any moves without contacting Fleet Admiral Saunders or Admiral Kelvin,” explained Kimino.

“Did you advise these recommendations to Mr. Lecroix?”

“Yes sir.”

Captain Dvares thought for several moments before he turned to his communications officer.

“Open me a channel to the fleet.”

              The communications officer’s hands moved about his console for several seconds before he spoke again. While he did this the captain retrieved a communication headset and donned it.

              “Sir, I have the fleet for you.”

              “Attention all defense forces; this is Captain Dvares of the
Okinawa
. Recently we have been ordered to respond to an attack on Outpost 238 by Shenkar forces. It is in my opinion we wait for orders from fleet headquarters before taking any such action.”

              It looked as if Captain Dvares was about to say more the President of France’s voice cut across the fleet net.

              “Men and woman are dying and you wish to debate this? I for one wish to rescue them before the Shenkar murder them or…..”

              But Captain Dvares wasn’t intimidated by the President of France. He in turn cut into whatever the President had wished to say.

              “Do I need remind you all that no one councilman can invoke a priority one directive unless under dire circumstances.”

              “I would say this qualifies for dire circumstances. Anyone who doesn’t join us will be subject to inquiry and most definitely having charges brought against them.”

              Captain Dvares, emitting a disgusted noise in his throat, pulled the commset from his head and tossed it onto his nearby command chair.

              “Fool!” he muttered angrily.

              Kimino studied the tactical display, only two thirds of the fleet was moving to the rendezvous coordinates. Six battlecruisers, twenty five various types of cruisers and ten destroyer class warships had either stopped moving to the coordinates or hadn’t moved at all.

              “Captain, only two thirds of the fleet is moving to the coordinates,” Kimino said.

              Captain Dvares turned to the tactical display and studied it for a moment.

              “Well at least one third of the fleet has captains that don’t have their heads firmly stuck up their own arses. We need to get in touch with someone at fleet headquarters, something isn’t right here. I don’t believe the Shenkar would waste their time with that outpost when they need all the ships they have to attack Earth again.”

              The captain stood there and pondered this over in his head in silence. The silence was broken by the young communications officer.

              “Captain, the fleet has just folded.”

Kimino looked to the captain at this news but he just stood there in silence with a grim look on his face.

              “This isn’t going to turn out well,” was all he said.

December 22
nd
, 2013 6:59 am

                                                     
Olympus

                                  Earth Defense Force training facility, Texas

“HE DID WHAT?!?” yelled Admiral Kelvin.

Frank Kelvin fumed at what he had just heard. A transmission had come in from Outpost 238 calling for assistance because they were under a Shenkar attack. The President of France, who had apparently been onboard the
Phoenix
for her shakedown cruise, had invoked a priority one directive. A directive that is only supposed to be used under the most dire of circumstances. The directive that can only be invoked by a member of the
Council of Earth
. It was designed in case most of the council was killed that any survivors could assume the leadership. This was to prevent any military squabbles for assuming control of the fleet. For that pompous ass to take control of most of the fleet, infuriated Frank. What made it even the situation worse was nearly two thirds of the fleet captains had listened to that pompous ass’s threats. Luckily some of the captains had some sense and had refused the orders without contacting someone of real authority. Kelvin looked to the bank of monitors that was now showing all of the remaining members of the Council of Earth as they listened. Besides Admiral Kelvin, Fleet Admiral Saunders was also listening to Captain Dvares explanation of what had taken place.

“He folded out just under three hours ago sir. Like I have already said, I tried to reason with the man but he refused to listen,” explained Captain Dvares.

“That fool, does he not realize he just took a bulk of our defenses with him? If the Shenkar were to attack in force like the one they had last year then we would be hard pressed to defeat them,” said the Prime Minister of England, Colin Denshire.

“We will have to deal with Mr. Lecroix when and if he returns. As for our current situation, if the Shenkar were to attack then where does this leave us?” asked Adam Sheehan, President of the United States.

“Well Mr. President, when President Lecroix left he took two thirds of the fleet with him. Luckily the ships that remained are all run by captains who fought last year. My own ship, the
Ronald Reagan
, I am happy to say was one of the ships to remain behind. Totals remaining; six battlecruisers, seventeen heavy cruisers, eight light cruisers and ten destroyers. We also have fifteen of our new fast attack support ships available but they are all untested in combat and currently docked at the shipyards,” explained Fleet Admiral Saunders.

“What is the status of our pilots? How many do we have available if the Shenkar attack?” asked President Sheehan.

“We only have around five hundred as most of the veterans were aboard the ships that left. We have another thousand pilots in various stages of training. Latest reports only puts about two hundred of those as battle ready,” explained Fleet Admiral Saunders.

“Well we better pray we won’t need them. Recall all pilots that are currently on-leave. Have all battle groups form up and double all our combat patrols. Also let us know the minute we get word from system 238,” directed President Sheehan.

“Yes Mr. President,” Fleet Admiral Saunders said, and then his monitor winked off.

“Mr. President, I would like to be up there if you could authorize my transfer,” asked Admiral Kelvin.

President Sheehan was silent for a few moments as he seemingly was thinking over the request.

“Very well my friend, I am sure I could try and say no but you wouldn’t listen to me anyways,” said President Sheehan, a smile showing on his face.

“No sir I wouldn’t,” said Admiral Kelvin, a broad smile of his own upon his face.

December 24
th
, 2013 9:08am

                                                   EDF
Phoenix
, System 238

              Earth Defense Force warships folded into existence one after another, quickly blotting out the stars. Immediately, the warships began to form up into a battle group. Both heavy and light fighters began to spill out and formed up ready to attack any enemy ships they found.

              “Ensign Dow, give me a status report,” commanded Captain Donaldson.

              The young operations officer scanned the radar screen for several seconds before he responded.

              “Sir, multiple enemy contacts detected. Approximately eight hundred kilometers out. Five battlecruisers and ten
Shirec
medium cruisers are currently saturating the asteroid field with heavy energy fire. Due to heavy debris I am unable to get any readings on the outpost.”

              This immediately set off warning bells in Donaldson’s head as these numbers did not match the numbers reported.

              “What does this mean? Is the outpost destroyed?” asked the President of France.

              “No, it is like Ensign Dow said, heavy debris is making it difficult. Let us deal with the Shenkar presence first and then we can search the asteroid field. Mr. Mendez, put me on with the fleet,” commanded Captain Donaldson.

              Ensign Mendez’s fingers quickly danced across the panel in front of him for a few seconds before he signaled the link was established.

              “Attention battle group, this is Captain Donaldson. We have multiple enemy contacts currently engaged in assaulting our outpost. Our men and woman are in need of our help. All ships move to engage, attack pattern Fire Storm one.”

December 24
th
, 2013 9:07am

                                                                  System 238

              Overlord Gyliene continued to watch as salvo after salvo pummeled the asteroid field in front of him. He wondered if the human outpost had survived the continuous pummeling his small fleet had been dealing out. He had a general idea where the outpost was located but he didn’t really care whether he destroyed the outpost or not. His job wasn’t to eliminate the humans in this system but only to pull the enemy fleet away from Earth to him. When they had first entered the system they had made sure the outpost was able to relay the number of warships the Shenkar had. Once they had intercepted the outgoing transmission they then destroyed the relay buoy to prevent any further transmissions.