Final Countdown[]
“Hail them!” shouts Dominic at the comms staff, early impacts shaking the Raven’s Nest.
“Galaxy Commander! They are ignoring our hails!” comes a female voice back from comms.
“Keep working on it!” he shouts back, “Captain, just keep us moving.” He says turning to him.
“Aff, Galaxy Commander, return fire, quiaff?” asks the Captain.
“Neg, Captain.” Dominic says through gritted teeth, his anger clear on his face, looking now at Erik Sandoval, standing nearby. “So, what now Prince’s Champion, you said we would be able to talk to them.”
“Galaxy Commander, I had no idea they would shoot on sight. This must be Chancellor Danai Liao’s formation, with the warship present. We need to keep hailing them, not try to kill them!” urges Erik, trying to keep his tone urgent and not commanding. He did not need the Galaxy Commander thinking he was trying to give orders.
Dominic’s head shakes slightly, glaring at Erik. He yells to the bridge staff, without changing his gaze, “Continue to hold fire and hail them!”
***
Why aren’t they engaging? They should at least think they can win with the three warships… Danai thinks to herself, watching weapons fire from her fleet successfully impact the enemy ships.
“Chancellor, we are still being hailed.”
“Again, ignore it!” she yells back, her eyes piercing the bridge crewman. Small tears begin to form at the edges of her eyes, remembering the staggering loss of life and the death of her father on Sian.
“Yes, Chancellor.” Comes back a now terrified sounding voice, even though the crewman tried to hide it.
“Chancellor, status update, fleet in position and pushing toward the enemy fleet, formations of fighters are deploying and forming up. We will break into their lines in mere moments, ma’am.” Adds the Captain.
“Good, this is a mere pittance in repaying for Sian.” And for Caleb, Danai snarled, wiping and throwing the pair of tears that sat at the edges of her eyes.
***
“Prince’s Champion, my patience is running thin.” Dominic speaks with rage as he witnesses the damage his fleet is taking. Watching his hologram display, he can see a dropship blow up. Commanding the bridge in a thunderous voice, “Bridge staff, relay the adjustments I am making, we have a new line of engagement.”
He draws a line on his tactical display showing a boundary, then speaks loudly and firmly, as he stares into the eyes of Erik, “Relay to the fleet that if the Capellans cross that line, the entire fleet engages at will, primary target is the Capellan warship.”
“Galaxy Commander, something must be wrong, all of the information my ship’s staff is sending my holopad is that this is the MAC where Danai Liao is in command, we need to speak with her. We have lost too many to the Word of Blake so far!”
“I will not continue to sacrifice my people, my fleet, for your cause. I have aided you out of good will due to my mentor’s teaching. Our debt from Palmyra is more than repaid.” Dominic’s eyes, surrounded by his dark, tattooed warpaint glare at Erik.
“Comms, status?!” shouts Dominic.
“Galaxy Commander, they are not accepting!”
***
“Chancellor! Still no return fire. They are deploying dropships and making a shield formation. Their lateral movement is keeping our effective fire at thirty-five percent at this range. However, weapons are clearly being aimed at our ships. Still unsure of why they are not firing.”
Danai nodded at the Captain, confirming she received the update. A flash in the distance shows that a dropship blew up from Capellan fire. What is going on, I wanted a straight up fight… Something is wrong… She gritted her teeth, making a snarled face, shaking her head back and forth a couple times before recomposing herself.
“Put me through.” She says in a reluctant quickness, forcing herself to calm.
Before her a hologram starts to appear of a man in a Federated Suns uniform, then the audio kicked in, he is looking off to the side, clearly talking, “Galaxy Commander, just a few moments more! We cannot risk her dying!”. Then he turns towards her, obviously surprised to see her hologram on his end, he positions himself in a respectful posture quickly.
“Danai Liao, this is Erik Sandoval, Prince’s Champion of the Federated Suns, cease your attack, we are seconds away from the Ravens returning fire and I came here to talk, not fight.”
“Chancellor Danai Liao. What do you want?” she asks sharply.
“To find out why you are attacking the Federated Suns, you know we do not have the ship you are hunting for.” Responds Erik.
Off to the side of Erik comes another man’s voice, full of rage. “I will authorize fire if they cross that line!”
He turns to face the other man, “I need a few moments more, the data is already en route.” Erik says firmly but diplomatically to the Snow Raven. A brief moment of shock enters his mind as he considered the outcome of disrespecting the Galaxy Commander, what Dominic would be able to do in a sudden Trial of Grievance against Erik, right in front of the now Chancellor, while the Ravens would be returning fire….
Erik is the reason we have not been fired on yet… “What data are they sending us?” Danai asks the crewman receiving the data.
“Chancellor, it is an ‘eyes only’ classification of ship logs.” Says a male voice from the Capellan bridge.
“We saw the markings and the data before the impact at Sian, we know it was you. What am I looking at Prince’s Champion?” she asked impatiently, returning her gaze toward Erik.
“We do not have a vessel or capabilities to rig up an asteroid that can destroy a planet, we are not responsible for Sian, and I am guessing, neither is the Free Worlds League.” He says quickly, rushing the words to Danai in hopes to stop the onslaught.
“You lot put your emblem on everything and any data the Maskirovka uncovered pointed to you, why would I believe you?” she questions.
“Because Prince Julian does not want to fight you! Because the Word of Blake is slaughtering our people and they will come for you too!”
That name… The Word of Blake. She froze. They’re dead. Then a wave of images and video replaced Erik’s hologram from the completed data upload. Demons… Spectrals… Celestials… Omegas… Federated Suns and Republic… Wait, Republic??? Mechs all fighting the onslaught. One video showed a civilian evacuation getting carpet bombed. Another showed Word of Blake militia troopers that were part machine. It just kept coming.
“Chancellor Liao, we implore you, cease fire!” she hears Erik’s voice raising and interrupting her thoughts.
“I will give the command!” roared back the off-screen voice of a Clanner seeking blood.
Erik just stares at Danai Liao, urgency across his face. So many times in the past he had control of diplomatic situations but here, the rage of the Capellan Chancellor and the Snow Raven Galaxy Commander next to him about to slaughter each other… He didn’t know what to do, it was entirely faith that was guiding him, that Danai would foresee the consequences and stop the attack. Each second ticked by like an eternity.
“Stormhawk Galaxy!” shouted Dominic McKenna into his headset, his voice echoing through the Aleisha Kris’ bridge, “All ships…”
“Cease fire, all Capellan ships, cease fire at once!” shouts Danai Liao, talking quickly to interrupt and stop the Galaxy Commander from giving the order.
Erik closes his eyes, lowers his head slightly, and takes a deep breath in relief. The Capellan bridge goes silent, the flashes of weapons fire no longer lighting up the space between the two fleets. Glaring at Erik and at Danai’s hologram, Dominic is the first to say anything. “Stormhawk Galaxy, all ships begin rescue and repair.”
Chapter 2: Rage Before Diplomacy