Shelby 9 Snippet 5

 Sitrep: I received an update from Goodlifeguide, they are on vacation so I do not expect the manuscript back for another week. Bummer.

Oh well, on to the snippet!

Chapter 5

 

Renee Mayweather Naval Station

 

Admiral Janice Yu looked at the latest plan and frowned. She had to hope that she wasn’t the only one concerned about the IFF with the Confeds if they did end up working together. Tempers were going to naturally run high with the tension of the moment. She trusted the navy side; the Taurens though … she wasn’t so certain about.

Herd instinct might kick in and they might flip sides. It has been known to happen on occasion. Fire discipline was therefore crucial. Hopefully, Rick was on top of things.

The other point of concern were the civilians, especially the highly important VIPs in Confed space in Purple Nights and elsewhere. Not to mention the naval personnel escorting them. If things did go to shit … her frowned deepened before it smoothed as she realized something important.

If it did go south in a big way, the Federation would know before the Taurens. She slowly began to nod to herself. Yes, and they’d transmit an encrypted report to Fed space, and Shelby would act by sending a signal to the ships in Confed space to pull out. By the time the Taurens knew what was going on, hopefully the secretary would make her excuses and get out of the line of fire.

Hopefully.

If it did go to shit, well, she had five times the firepower as before. And Kara Danvers was in 63 to back her up if she was forced to fall back. Not that she expected to have to do so again. One fighting retreat was enough for her career, thank you very much.

Her lips puckered ever so slightly at that thought.

In a small way she was hoping it would cross a line and the fighting would begin. She didn’t like having a tarnished reputation and would love to rectify that.

But, then again, if ONI was right about the threats incoming from Omicron, avoiding a conflict with the Taurens was imperative.

Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that. Hopefully, it would end quickly and quietly and then they could shift focus back to general peacekeeping once again.

Hopefully.

>>>~<<<

Tau-Bin63A4

 

Admiral Kara Danvers smiled as the current training exercise unfolded. She was monitoring it and was playing referee but was otherwise out of it. Normally she liked to play the op force but not at the moment. She was a bit distracted.

Rick was trucking along to Confed space. Her smile slipped. She didn’t envy the snake pit he was stepping into. A hostage situation and questionable IFF, plus the potential to kicking the war off again? No, she didn’t envy him, not one bit.

Well, okay, she did envy his command. Ninth Fleet was nothing to sneeze at. Her task force had been reinforced but it was just that, a task force. He had an entire damn fleet to play with.

Speaking of playing … her eyes shifted to the main plot. Marsal’s attack force was lurking in stealth in an asteroid field. It wasn’t a dense one; she’d set that up with the other referees so his forces were … dispersed.

That might come back to bite him in the ass soon, she thought as the op force crept in.

Instead of a Tauren force, she had opted for something particularly nasty, a Xeno force. The AI in the task force had worked out the best way to replicate the Xeno ships. Setting aside the cyber war aspect of a space battle with the Xenos, they were still fierce and deadly enemies.

Marsal didn’t know what he was up against. She’d left that part out of the briefing, just that he was up against an “unknown enemy force.”

Her Spirit’s eye view of the 3D virtual battlefield allowed her to see his ships and tasking. If she wanted she could pull up a video feed. She noted he had placed recon drones in the probable approach paths to the planet, but he hadn’t … ah, there, one had just tripped.

She flipped to the video cameras watching Commodore Marsal’s flag bridge. The time delay was compressed, but when the data came in, his reaction was at first puzzled and then beautifully disgusted.

“Shit,” the commodore muttered. “She wouldn’t …”

“She did,” the tac officer said.

“Son of a …”

Kara couldn’t help but grin as that curse was cut off.

“Okay, pass the word, we’re up against Xenos. Full cyber security protocols in place. We’re going to have to watch our approach; if I remember my briefings right, they like to spit nanites into the path of ships.”

Kara nodded. He was taking the surprise very well and adapting. Excellent. It was nice to see.

She wondered what his reaction would be when he found out that the attack on the planet was just a ruse to get a Xeno ship into position to deliver the coup de grace, a nova bomb against the local star.

She made certain the computers were recording for that moment.

>>>~<<<

Governor Magistrate Scrooge kept his trademark slight scowl in place as he toured the space station. It was impressive, and it was one of three under construction.

 Two other space stations had been completed. They were a transport and freight hub. There were orbital warehouses as well. The navy still leased or owned half of those. His people only received a small token from the leases but it was still profitable.

The newest station was a central transport hub; it would take the place of some of Station 1. It was larger and set up to handle five times the throughput.

In other words, plenty of people like those coming from a liner.

Word was that liner companies were starting to line up stops in the sector. He had been surprised by the news that the sector capital was their first stop. Once he saw the news about the planet being constructed there, it suddenly made sense.

It was a wonder, he thought, glad he was still alive to see it all unfold. He was grateful to the crew of the Oliver Twist to give him a new lease on life. What would come next? He wasn’t certain, but it would be interesting to find out.

The metal tip of his cane made a tapping sound as he followed the guide and nodded politely to her enthusiastic explanations of the spaces she was showing them.

>>>~<<<