Starcraft
Title: Meetings
Deep inside UED-controlled space.
A man was walking down a corridor, looking for a particular door. His shoulder board showed his rank of Rear Admiral, Junior Grade. Looking at his own rank, he felt ridiculous as the word 'Junior' made himself sounded young, but on the bright side, the new name was more elegant than just the title Commodore. However, he knew that he can't really be fussy about the name as the rank itself showed that the UED Admiralty found him worthy of wearing it.
He finally found the door and went in. Inside the room, he saw five people looking back at him. Three men and two women were sitting behind a large round table. The younger woman was an Admiral. As for the older woman, she wore what was meant for a Fleet Admiral and having an extra insignia was another way to say that she controlled the entire UED military. One of the men had an Army rank of a Field Marshal, but based on the extra insignia, he was the Chief-of-Staff of the Army. The last two were Vice Admirals. The man then sat on the remaining empty seat.
"All right then, everyone is here," said the Fleet Admiral. "Before we start this meeting, I want to tell you this disclaimer. This room is reinforced with Level 10 EMP force field. No electronics, especially audio surveillance can ever penetrate this room. For any electronics that you brought in, you better get it replaced as the EMP will fry it. This room is also scan-shielded. Nobody outside will know that this meeting is taking place right now. With that in mind, whatever that was said in this room, stays in this room. Understand that point?"
The other five nodded.
"Let us start this meeting with introduction. Names will not be used in this meeting, just our ranks. Since there are two Vice Admirals here, so if you don't mind, I will refer you as Vice Admiral One," said the Fleet Admiral, referring to a very thin Vice Admiral.
"And I will refer you Vice Admiral Two," said the Fleet Admiral to the bespectacled man.
As for the Rear Admiral himself, he, of course, recognized all of them. He never thought he would actually be part of this meeting, let alone be in this room.
The Fleet Admiral was in her 60s, but she was amazingly attractive for her age. In his point of view, she was a good example of a person aging gracefully.
The Field Marshal was also his 60s. He was just like her too; still looking muscular with pure white hair. Still, if it wasn't for amputated leg, he would be part of the frontline command, not a desk job. Aside from being the chief-of-staff of the Army, he also heads the Department of Military Intelligence.
For the female Admiral, the Rear Admiral recognized her as the second-in-command for the Field Marshal in the Military Intelligence and also as the Chief Commander of the Military Police. She was already in her 40s and she was quite small for an Admiral. Sometimes he wondered how a woman as small as her could even be accepted into the military. There were nothing special with her features and if she wore clothes other than a uniform, he would have thought that she was a common housewife. Somehow, the Rear Admiral got a feeling that was the point if she were to go undercover.
Vice Admiral One was very thin and tall, yet slightly well-build. He was bald and his skin was pale white. Looking at him was like looking at a corpse or a zombie, but in actual fact, he was a Ghost. Not only that, he was also the Director of the secretive Ghost Program and Director of Field Operations for the Military Special Forces. He had the distinction of being trained together with Vice Admiral Stukov to become Ghost. The Vice Admiral should be around the same age, but having a calm, stone cold face made it hard to really determine it.
Only one group of his former trainees was made public: his own Elite Guards. The Vice Admiral had publicly sanctioned the Elite Guards in protecting whoever was considered as important military and civilian leaders, namely the Fleet Admiral and the President of the United Earth Directorate. However, the public only recognized them as similar role as the ancient Roman Praetorians, but the military knew what their true capabilities were. Still, the Rear Admiral knew that the man would at least keep a company of Elite Guards for his own protection.
Now for the bespectacled Vice Admiral Two, he was the Director of the Department of Military Planning, Supply, Logistics and Deployment. This man was about in his late 40s, but the Rear Admiral was not very sure. The Vice Admiral was very plump, with a round face and balding hairline. Seeing this kind of person in the service, the Rear Admiral wondered if the UED military had become decadent.
Even though the Fleet Admiral had differentiated both the Vice Admirals, in his line of work, the Rear Admiral had always make things much simpler. In this case, it was easier just to call the Vice Admiral One as "Baldy" while the second as the "Fat Admiral". Not really subtle, but the simplest way.
In any way, the Rear Admiral always knew that there was a high level decision-making body in the military, but he never thought it was this secret. He began to wonder the reason he was called upon to attend this meeting.
"I'm sure, Rear Admiral, that you're wondering why you have been called to this meeting," said the Fleet Admiral.
"Yes sir."
"Your intelligence network in Beta Centauri System is one of the major elements in eliminating the local rebels and pirates. We want you to apply your special skills in the Koprulu Sector to find out anything useful about these aliens and the...," she paused, as if to find a right word, "'rogue' human colonists."
Even though the United Earth Directorate had replaced the previous government, the Rear Admiral knew that it would take 2 years or more to fully integrate new members of the government. Publicly, a fighting force was about to be fully assembled. However, everybody knew that it was impossible to do it in short notice, especially with government restructuring and reorganization of the military. It was a good morale booster though.
One small part of the galaxy and three races, he would actually suggest 20 months of intelligence work. However, with the way things were going, the Rear Admiral realized that he had at least 15 months to do it; 17 months at best. That being said, every intelligence officer always knew the more accurate the information, the better.
"Right now, I can see that you are calculating the best time to accomplish your assignment," said the General. "Speak your mind, Rear Admiral."
"I would suggest 20 months to have proper and accurate information."
The General glanced at the Fleet Admiral and turned back, "We can only give you 10 months to operate."
"10 months? This kind of work needs a lot of time to get the information right. One mistake could cost a lot of unnecessary deaths."
"Your concern is duly noted, Rear Admiral. But it is not what you want anymore. The President wants it, the people want it, and the situation requires something fast for morale uplifting," said the Fleet Admiral.
"With all due respect, without accurate information, any expeditionary forces that we will send there would certainly fail."
"I understand that, Rear Admiral, but this is not a decision for you to make. The question is, will you do the job or not? Understand, there is always someone else who is willing to do the job," asked the Fleet Admiral.
There was a tension in the room, in which the Rear Admiral had to give in. "Of course I will," he replied quietly.
"Good," responded the Fleet Admiral. "General?"
The General nodded, "In addition to your skills, you will also be given two companies from the Lightning Watchers battalion to help out in expanding your network."
"Lightning Watchers? Never heard of the group before," said the Rear Admiral.
"Of course you never heard about them. If an unauthorized personnel like you heard it from an outside source, they are not doing their job right," said Baldy.
Hearing Baldy saying that, the Rear Admiral had to assume that the two companies were Ghost units. He began to wonder how many Special Forces out there were kept hidden from the rest of the military.
"Aside from information gathering, we also require some Protoss and Zerg specimens. With that in mind, we've hired three companies of big game hunters for you to use. We are also giving you a group of top UED scientists to implement initial research on site. After that, send the specimens and the reports to the nearest UED research facility," continued the General.
The Rear Admiral raised his hand.
"Yes, Rear Admiral?"
"Where would be my base of operations?"
"Our observers have already got their own base of operations, so you might use that. For more permanent home, we got a few candidates, but it is better if you follow the observers."
"Do you want real-time reports?"
"Weekly if you can," replied the General. "Don't worry; we have been observing the Koprulu Sector for quite some time. A weekly report by transmission had been made possible long before the aliens came," the General continued as he saw the reaction of the younger man.
"How much specimens do you actually want?"
"As much as you are able to catch."
"Will I be controlling the observers when I reach the Koprulu Sector?"
"I already sent orders to them to follow your command upon your arrival," said the female Admiral.
"When will I be leaving?"
"In 4 days time. All the information that you need is in this file," the female Admiral said, as she passed it to the Baldy.
He, in turn, gave it to the Rear Admiral.
The Rear Admiral opened the file and nodded in satisfaction.
"Any more questions, Rear Admiral?" asked the Fleet Admiral.
"More of a request actually."
"Okay, spit it out," said the Fat Admiral.
"I want to take some of my crew along to Koprulu Sector."
"If you do that, what will happen to your Beta Centauri Intelligence Network?" asked the Fat Admiral.
"I'll be taking a skeleton crew, sir. And I already know who to take with me. That way it won't really affect the entire network."
"All right, any other request, Rear Admiral?" asked the elderly woman.
"That is the only request, sir."
"Okay Rear Admiral, thank you for coming and good luck in your assignment. That will be all," said the General.
"Thank you sir," replied the younger man as he stood up and saluted. After receiving a response, he then left the room. The Rear Admiral sighed in relief and looking at the file, he knew he had just received a difficult assignment.
"Now that leads to another question: who will lead our expeditionary forces there?" asked the Fleet Admiral after the Rear Admiral left the room.
"Isn't it obvious?" countered Baldy.
"Is it wise to use him? He is the most decorated naval officer in the United Earth Directorate," said the Fat Admiral.
"All the more reason to use him. Who is the better leader than him to test the strength of those aliens and the colonists? It doesn't matter whether he survives being the tester or not, the most important thing is to get the end result," said the Fleet Admiral.
"You're willing to sacrifice him to that end? We don't even know if the result will be in our favour," said the Fat Admiral.
"I know your concern, Vice Admiral One," countered the elderly woman in a firm voice, "Knowing our enemies is important, but knowing OUR strengths and OUR weaknesses is equally important when it comes in dealing with this kind of situation."
"But if that is the case, our enemies would also know our strengths and weaknesses," replied the Fat Admiral.
"Skeleton," the General mused. "That is why we are sending the minimum amount of ships so that they won't know much about it."
"The situation will force him to acquire resources locally, hiding the fact on how strong we are. But do you really expect him to blindly follow whatever orders we give him? His performance record shows us that he can do things on his own."
"All those things were just to correct his mistakes, Vice Admiral One. Though, I have to admit that he is quite good in doing his job and all the achievements had gained him favourable light from the public and much of the military. The good thing that came out from all those was that he became…" the Fleet Admiral paused, "too overconfident to really question the orders. He will see this as another opportunity to shine much further. I think he is too proud to see through the objectives to know what his real role is."
"Are you demeaning him?"
"He may be a good strategist and tactician, but he is too blinded by fame now, Vice Admiral Two," said the General. "You do know that, don't you?"
"Yeah, I do," the Fat Admiral replied quietly.
"Well, if he succeeds, his national hero status will increase to godly status. If he fails, his pride will not allow himself to continue on living," said the Fleet Admiral. "That pride had caused a lot of problems to him and to us. The last major battle that we lost was more than 50 years ago and that was because of this same pride. We and the government can live without him; there are many others that are as good as him."
"Do you really want him to die, Fleet Admiral?" asked the female Admiral.
"As I said earlier, the most important thing is the end result. It doesn't matter if he lives or dies," said the Fleet Admiral. "So, the question had been answered, don't you agree?"
"There is no one better than him," said the General.
"I always agree," replied the Baldy.
"It's good for me actually," said the female Admiral.
"The question is answered," said the Fat Admiral quietly.
"Good. This meeting is adjourned."