Chapter 27 - Small Victories
ISS Valley Forge, Commissar Stevens' Personal Quarters
Commissar's Log, Supplemental The situation at Starbase 2000 has rapidly improved, due in large part to the actions of my primary charge, Ulysses Vanguard. While at first, I found his command style strange and unworkable, I now am pleasantly surprised by its results. The base has changed in the few short weeks we have been here from Starfleet's unofficial dumping ground for those that irritated their superiors to a potent fighting force. Where I thought his light handed approach would cause no end of problems, it seems to have had the opposite effect.
One development that I am keeping a close eye on, and one that is an offshoot of the previously opposite effect, is the rising cult of personality springing up around young Mr. Vanguard. It has merely intensified after the successful repulsion of the Galactic Unity assault. While still not of a level warranting any special action, it is something I am keep a close eye on. The base personnel have begun speaking of him with a sort of reverent awe, even dubbing him with the honorific moniker 'The Skipper'. The civilians of Lilith are even more unabashed in their hero worship, for it was Mr. Vanguard that saved them from being overrun by the forces of the Galactic Unity. The local government has even declared a yearly celebration to be held in Mr. Vanguard's honor, to the wild jubilation of Prescott's Star's civilians.
I endeavor to remain on top of both the Starfleet and civilian side of Mr. Vanguard's rampant and growing personality to ensure neither becomes a threat to the Empire. One never knows just how loyal an officer truly is, especially if he becomes to well aware of how powerful a position he has.
I have encouraged Starfleet Command to expedite the relocation of Flag Officers to Starbase 2000 to prevent exactly that. Both the public and military of Prescott's Star have become too fixated on Captain Vanguard for my liking. It will be better once there are others in-sector to assume command from him, but till then I must remain vigilant.
ISS Valley Forge, Flag Dining Room
The cobra necked alien delegation was at the far end of the long dining table, seated next to Cavit and his senior officers. To their left, man tall vertical windows allowed the snowy orb of Lilith to shine through. Voyager's Captain was just finishing up recounting how the Vaadwaur and his command had met.
". so then we lit off of Vaadwaur Prime and set a course for Prescott's Star because it was the closest Imperial base." Cavit said as the stewards cleared away the remnants of dinner from the spotless white linen table cloth.
"An interesting tale Captain. And I must say it was very fortunate that the Vaadwaur decided to lend us a helping hand when they did. They made the GU forces at Loci Kappa pay a far stiffer price than they would have otherwise, and they bought us the time we needed to intercept their other pincer before they could join together. I wish to offer my thanks to both the crew of Voyager and our new Vaadwaur friends." Ulysses said. All things considered, the mobile forces at Loci Kappa had gotten off with only a handful of casualties, and it was due in large part to the Vaadwaur's Flux Wave weapon. "The Emperor has sent word of his personal thanks as well, and hopes that diplomatic talks between the Empire and the Vaadwaur will be as fruitful as our partnership in the defense of Prescott's Star has been."
A beat after Ulysses had finished, one of his aides entered the dining room and whispered into his senior's ear.
"If you will excuse me, I have to take care of something that cannot wait." Ulysses said, standing to leave.
The rest of his personnel clustered around the dining table stood out of respect as he left, then reseated themselves as the stewards brought in desert. It was apple pie a la mode, and the assembled Imperial Officers and Vaadwaur began to make polite small talk amongst themselves as they pecked at it.
ISS Valley Forge, Flag Ready Room
Ulysses forced the snarling darkness that threatened to engulf him back into its cage. Seated across the desk from him was the cause of it. The officer was a Captain, but not of Starfleet. He wore the black, crimson and silver uniform of Section 31, the uniform of the real enemy, the uniform of those that had killed his parents in cold blood. Ulysses made his face remain neutral and his voice normal, having had years of practice in ensuring a seamless mask over his true feelings was in place. It wouldn't do for both the Section visitor and his personal watchdog leaning against the wall to have him erupt in front of them.
"So Captain, to what do I owe you and your Battlegroup's visit?" Ulysses said with a casual wave to the false window behind him. The flawless computer projection framed the ebon black and red forms of Section Akiras and their escorts back dropped against the yellow boil of plasma that was Prescott's Star.
"I have been ordered to distribute a new weapons system to you by Section High Command." The Section officer said, his tone clearly indicating what his personal opinion was of those orders.
"And what might those new weapons be exactly?"
The Section officer made a sour face, like he found the mere mentioning of the weapons to a Starfleeter offensive. But he reached down and pulled a PADD from the leg pocket of his uniform. He seemed to hesitate for a brief instant, his ingrained desire to keep the new weapons a Section only system warring with orders from on high. Then he slid the PADD across the desk to Ulysses. Ulysses scrolled through the description and statistics of the new weapons Section was giving his command. His eyebrows rose upwards and his lips pursed in a silent whistle.
"So these new torpedoes have a reach basically the same as that of the GU's PPD as well as improved ECCM, speed and yield wrapped up in a same sized package?"
The Section man bobbed his head once in a curt nod, a scowl on his face.
"Well now. this changes things a wee bit. How many are you planning on leaving me?"
"I have orders to give you all of Section's local stockpile. It should be enough to outfit your Battlestations for an extended engagement as well as most of your launcher heavy Fleet units."
"And with these plans, the local armories can begin to turn out more of them almost immediately." Ulysses said. Starbase 2000 was designed to be the stepping off base for colonization of the Delta Quadrant. As such, it was very nearly as industrialized as many Imperial core worlds.
"If that is all Sir, I'll take my leave of you and depart from local space." The Section officer said, already standing and turning to leave. It was a coldly calculated act of disrespect on the Section Captain's part, but Ulysses chose to let it slip. It would make what he was about to spring all the more satisfying.
"Actually, there is one more thing Captain." Ulysses said, and the Section officer stopped in his tracks and turned to face him again with narrowed, suspicious eyes. "As per General Order 9, I am impressing your ships into service in defense of this sector until such time as I deem them no longer necessary." Ulysses dark inner demons howled in glee at the stunned expressions that flashed across both the Section officer's face and his Commissar's.
"But. you CAN'T." the Section officer sputtered.
"On the contrary, G.O. 9 says I can, and in my current situation, I WILL." Ulysses said evenly, but the look in his eyes left no room for a contrary opinion.
"But you're only a Captain." the Section officer tried again, only to be cut off a second time by Ulysses.
"And I'm also a Brevet Vice Admiral and Sector CO until my relief arrives on-station. As such I can invoke G.O. 9 on any Imperial asset, ANY, Captain, that I so choose. Your Battlegroup will make an excellent addition to my force, and it is not one that I intend to let slip away."
"But you have no right, my Battlegroup is under Section jurisdiction, not Starfleet."
"'Any Sector or Fleet CO, in a time of emergency, can override the orders of a locally deployed asset of military, intelligence or civilian sectors of the Terran Empire, save for the fact that they are already under orders from a higher authority. G.O. 9 Section 1 Paragraph 1." Ulysses said with a sly smile. "Now my good Captain, since you are currently under no such orders, you will obey my lawful order to join my fleet. If you choose not to, I will place you and your seignior officers in the brig and have you up on charges of treason and dereliction of duty. I need more ships, and you have them. So either you cooperate or you face a court martial and I place prize crews in control of your ships. The choice is yours Captain, but I suggest you choose quickly." The corners of Ulysses mouth continued to remain upturned in a satisfied smirk, complimenting the devilish gleam in his eyes.
"Admiral Vanguard, I must say this course of action is most unprecedented." Commissar Stevens said, casting an irritated look at her charge.
"Commissar, Section 31 is an Imperial asset. Unless you can prove to me otherwise, I don't give two hoots as to how unprecedented my actions are. They are allowed by both Starfleet and Imperial law. I am charged with defending this sector and it's civilians from invasion, and that is something I take deadly seriously." He turned his now icy gaze on the Section Captain. "Your ships won't be much additional tonnage to my order of battle, but I'll take any additional tonnage I can get, no matter where it comes from. Am I understood?"
The Section Captain turned a startling shade of puce but a jerky nod twitched out of his rage filled body. Section didn't like being told what it could and couldn't do, especially by a hopped up Starfleeter. Yet in this instance, with the invocation of G.O. 9, they could dislike it all they wanted and it wouldn't alter a thing.
"And I assume you have decided to join my forces to defend this sector?" Ulysses continued. The upgraded Section Akiras and their supposedly normal Defiants and Achilles that escorted them would pose very little actual combat firepower, but Ulysses truly would take any and all ships he could get his hands on.
Again he got a jerky nod in reply, and the Section Captain's eyes were filled with venom. He was most certainly not used to being treated this way by a Starfleeter, let alone a Captain with delusions of grandeur.
"Fine, my staff will contact you shortly for your fleet assignment. Captain, you are dismissed." Ulysses spun his chair 180 degrees, turning his back to the impotent Section officers, and began entering commands into his personal terminal, acting as if they had already left.
The pair of Section officers stared at the back of his chair for a few moments. Then, with a primal snarl, the Section officer spun on his heel and stalked sullenly out of Ulysses ready room. Commissar Stevens followed him a moment later with an exasperated sigh. Ulysses smiled like a Cheshire Cat. It was a minor victory, but even small victories can be very fulfilling when they allowed one to tweak Section's nose and get away with it.
ISS Valley Forge, Flag Briefing Room
". now with these new torpedoes, we have the range and firepower to pretty much level the playing field with the GU's PPD." Ulysses said to his assembled cadre of command officers. "They might still be faster than our heavy units, but our ships with slipstream can get past this deficiency by using tactical FTL micro jumps and our fast attack and fighter squadrons should hold em in range. The orbital factories are already spooling up to produce more of the torpedoes, and I hope we can get some more before the next GU assault comes in. Now I was planning on placing a majority of the new torpedoes on the battlestations and on Starbase 2000 herself. I would like to hear your thoughts on this."
Ulysses sat back in his chair. There had been a visible release of tension when he had told them that the next time the GU fleet came calling they would have a little surprise in store for them.
"I'd say it's the best platform for them Skipper." Davenport said almost immediately. "At least until we get more of them anyway. With all the launchers on the battlestations and Starbase 2000, they'll be able to put out an ungodly number of them, and their long range punch should come as a nasty shock. What I really like about them is their new overloaded shield grid paired with the new impulse thruster assembly. Normal torps shields are impenetrable, but the suicide overload shield grid limits their max range. These have a time delay activation that is reprogrammable from tactical. This means that they still have the near invulnerability normal torpedoes do, but you can extend their range considerably by having it come on once it nears the enemy rather than immediately. When paired with the extended range thrusters, you have a potent weapons system."
Ulysses nodded his agreement. Making an impulse drive with enough endurance to cross light minutes of distance packaged into a torpedo sized casing while still including all the other things a torpedo needed to execute it's primary function had been so far unachievable. When one needed space for the warhead, seeker systems, datalink and penaids, it put a crimp on a weapon as small as a torpedo. Starfleet had looked into larger torpedo weapons systems, eventually resulting in the heavy photon. But till recently, most Starfleet ships were too small to mount effective numbers of these weapons in their internal magazines. Starfleet had even experimented with external box type launchers, but had dropped the idea when they proved excessively difficult to harden to weapons fire and to reload in a combat situation.
"In addition, I'm also happy to report that the 501st Marine Expeditionary Unit has found its way here. Their Galaxies have already dropped their troops, and General Bradley tells me that Lilith's militia is surprisingly good for a group of civies. Add to this their extra Phaser Lances will be a welcome boost to our overall long range firepower. But best of all, the 501st MEU picked up some mine layers for their fleet train somewhere. I've already put them to work seeding the most probable avenues of approach." For a major system with a lot of infrastructure, Prescott's Star's secondary defenses hadn't kept up with the near constant expansion of deep space industry. Minefields were light, as were the systems anti warp and sensor nets. Past station SOs hadn't made making and emplacing better fortifications a priority, hence why they were in such a sorry state.
"But I think that the GU won't be as accommodating as they were in their initial assault." Ulysses went on to his attentive officers. "They'll likely drop out of the corridor network early and come in at warp from an unpredictable bearing. And they'll be concentrated this time, without the fancy coordination and maneuver that cost them last time." Faces pinched around the conference table. They were experienced officers, and they knew that an enemy that had resources to burn like the GU seemingly did would hit them hard when they inevitably returned.
"They are coming back ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake of that. But when they do, we'll give em another black eye, just like the first time." His officers' faces showed determination mingled with a small yet healthy dose of fear. They knew they would likely have to pay a stiff price when the enemy came calling, but they were ready and willing to do so in order to protect the civilians on Lilith. They were no longer thinking or acting like the gang of rabble they had been when he had first came on station. They were now a finely honed blade, tempered in the crucible of battle. They were also willing to follow wherever Ulysses led them. They were, many for the first time, guardians, caring more for their duty and their protection of others rather than themselves. Ulysses felt extreme pride in getting them to rise to their present status. Yet doubt stalked deep in his soul. It asked him in a seductively sweet voice just how many would be left alive after the next attack, preying on his weaknesses. It caused Ulysses to wonder just how many empty chairs there would be around his briefing table after the next battle.
ISS Valley Forge, Commissar Stevens' Personal Quarters
Commissar's Log, Supplemental The situation at Starbase 2000 has rapidly improved, due in large part to the actions of my primary charge, Ulysses Vanguard. While at first, I found his command style strange and unworkable, I now am pleasantly surprised by its results. The base has changed in the few short weeks we have been here from Starfleet's unofficial dumping ground for those that irritated their superiors to a potent fighting force. Where I thought his light handed approach would cause no end of problems, it seems to have had the opposite effect.
One development that I am keeping a close eye on, and one that is an offshoot of the previously opposite effect, is the rising cult of personality springing up around young Mr. Vanguard. It has merely intensified after the successful repulsion of the Galactic Unity assault. While still not of a level warranting any special action, it is something I am keep a close eye on. The base personnel have begun speaking of him with a sort of reverent awe, even dubbing him with the honorific moniker 'The Skipper'. The civilians of Lilith are even more unabashed in their hero worship, for it was Mr. Vanguard that saved them from being overrun by the forces of the Galactic Unity. The local government has even declared a yearly celebration to be held in Mr. Vanguard's honor, to the wild jubilation of Prescott's Star's civilians.
I endeavor to remain on top of both the Starfleet and civilian side of Mr. Vanguard's rampant and growing personality to ensure neither becomes a threat to the Empire. One never knows just how loyal an officer truly is, especially if he becomes to well aware of how powerful a position he has.
I have encouraged Starfleet Command to expedite the relocation of Flag Officers to Starbase 2000 to prevent exactly that. Both the public and military of Prescott's Star have become too fixated on Captain Vanguard for my liking. It will be better once there are others in-sector to assume command from him, but till then I must remain vigilant.
ISS Valley Forge, Flag Dining Room
The cobra necked alien delegation was at the far end of the long dining table, seated next to Cavit and his senior officers. To their left, man tall vertical windows allowed the snowy orb of Lilith to shine through. Voyager's Captain was just finishing up recounting how the Vaadwaur and his command had met.
". so then we lit off of Vaadwaur Prime and set a course for Prescott's Star because it was the closest Imperial base." Cavit said as the stewards cleared away the remnants of dinner from the spotless white linen table cloth.
"An interesting tale Captain. And I must say it was very fortunate that the Vaadwaur decided to lend us a helping hand when they did. They made the GU forces at Loci Kappa pay a far stiffer price than they would have otherwise, and they bought us the time we needed to intercept their other pincer before they could join together. I wish to offer my thanks to both the crew of Voyager and our new Vaadwaur friends." Ulysses said. All things considered, the mobile forces at Loci Kappa had gotten off with only a handful of casualties, and it was due in large part to the Vaadwaur's Flux Wave weapon. "The Emperor has sent word of his personal thanks as well, and hopes that diplomatic talks between the Empire and the Vaadwaur will be as fruitful as our partnership in the defense of Prescott's Star has been."
A beat after Ulysses had finished, one of his aides entered the dining room and whispered into his senior's ear.
"If you will excuse me, I have to take care of something that cannot wait." Ulysses said, standing to leave.
The rest of his personnel clustered around the dining table stood out of respect as he left, then reseated themselves as the stewards brought in desert. It was apple pie a la mode, and the assembled Imperial Officers and Vaadwaur began to make polite small talk amongst themselves as they pecked at it.
ISS Valley Forge, Flag Ready Room
Ulysses forced the snarling darkness that threatened to engulf him back into its cage. Seated across the desk from him was the cause of it. The officer was a Captain, but not of Starfleet. He wore the black, crimson and silver uniform of Section 31, the uniform of the real enemy, the uniform of those that had killed his parents in cold blood. Ulysses made his face remain neutral and his voice normal, having had years of practice in ensuring a seamless mask over his true feelings was in place. It wouldn't do for both the Section visitor and his personal watchdog leaning against the wall to have him erupt in front of them.
"So Captain, to what do I owe you and your Battlegroup's visit?" Ulysses said with a casual wave to the false window behind him. The flawless computer projection framed the ebon black and red forms of Section Akiras and their escorts back dropped against the yellow boil of plasma that was Prescott's Star.
"I have been ordered to distribute a new weapons system to you by Section High Command." The Section officer said, his tone clearly indicating what his personal opinion was of those orders.
"And what might those new weapons be exactly?"
The Section officer made a sour face, like he found the mere mentioning of the weapons to a Starfleeter offensive. But he reached down and pulled a PADD from the leg pocket of his uniform. He seemed to hesitate for a brief instant, his ingrained desire to keep the new weapons a Section only system warring with orders from on high. Then he slid the PADD across the desk to Ulysses. Ulysses scrolled through the description and statistics of the new weapons Section was giving his command. His eyebrows rose upwards and his lips pursed in a silent whistle.
"So these new torpedoes have a reach basically the same as that of the GU's PPD as well as improved ECCM, speed and yield wrapped up in a same sized package?"
The Section man bobbed his head once in a curt nod, a scowl on his face.
"Well now. this changes things a wee bit. How many are you planning on leaving me?"
"I have orders to give you all of Section's local stockpile. It should be enough to outfit your Battlestations for an extended engagement as well as most of your launcher heavy Fleet units."
"And with these plans, the local armories can begin to turn out more of them almost immediately." Ulysses said. Starbase 2000 was designed to be the stepping off base for colonization of the Delta Quadrant. As such, it was very nearly as industrialized as many Imperial core worlds.
"If that is all Sir, I'll take my leave of you and depart from local space." The Section officer said, already standing and turning to leave. It was a coldly calculated act of disrespect on the Section Captain's part, but Ulysses chose to let it slip. It would make what he was about to spring all the more satisfying.
"Actually, there is one more thing Captain." Ulysses said, and the Section officer stopped in his tracks and turned to face him again with narrowed, suspicious eyes. "As per General Order 9, I am impressing your ships into service in defense of this sector until such time as I deem them no longer necessary." Ulysses dark inner demons howled in glee at the stunned expressions that flashed across both the Section officer's face and his Commissar's.
"But. you CAN'T." the Section officer sputtered.
"On the contrary, G.O. 9 says I can, and in my current situation, I WILL." Ulysses said evenly, but the look in his eyes left no room for a contrary opinion.
"But you're only a Captain." the Section officer tried again, only to be cut off a second time by Ulysses.
"And I'm also a Brevet Vice Admiral and Sector CO until my relief arrives on-station. As such I can invoke G.O. 9 on any Imperial asset, ANY, Captain, that I so choose. Your Battlegroup will make an excellent addition to my force, and it is not one that I intend to let slip away."
"But you have no right, my Battlegroup is under Section jurisdiction, not Starfleet."
"'Any Sector or Fleet CO, in a time of emergency, can override the orders of a locally deployed asset of military, intelligence or civilian sectors of the Terran Empire, save for the fact that they are already under orders from a higher authority. G.O. 9 Section 1 Paragraph 1." Ulysses said with a sly smile. "Now my good Captain, since you are currently under no such orders, you will obey my lawful order to join my fleet. If you choose not to, I will place you and your seignior officers in the brig and have you up on charges of treason and dereliction of duty. I need more ships, and you have them. So either you cooperate or you face a court martial and I place prize crews in control of your ships. The choice is yours Captain, but I suggest you choose quickly." The corners of Ulysses mouth continued to remain upturned in a satisfied smirk, complimenting the devilish gleam in his eyes.
"Admiral Vanguard, I must say this course of action is most unprecedented." Commissar Stevens said, casting an irritated look at her charge.
"Commissar, Section 31 is an Imperial asset. Unless you can prove to me otherwise, I don't give two hoots as to how unprecedented my actions are. They are allowed by both Starfleet and Imperial law. I am charged with defending this sector and it's civilians from invasion, and that is something I take deadly seriously." He turned his now icy gaze on the Section Captain. "Your ships won't be much additional tonnage to my order of battle, but I'll take any additional tonnage I can get, no matter where it comes from. Am I understood?"
The Section Captain turned a startling shade of puce but a jerky nod twitched out of his rage filled body. Section didn't like being told what it could and couldn't do, especially by a hopped up Starfleeter. Yet in this instance, with the invocation of G.O. 9, they could dislike it all they wanted and it wouldn't alter a thing.
"And I assume you have decided to join my forces to defend this sector?" Ulysses continued. The upgraded Section Akiras and their supposedly normal Defiants and Achilles that escorted them would pose very little actual combat firepower, but Ulysses truly would take any and all ships he could get his hands on.
Again he got a jerky nod in reply, and the Section Captain's eyes were filled with venom. He was most certainly not used to being treated this way by a Starfleeter, let alone a Captain with delusions of grandeur.
"Fine, my staff will contact you shortly for your fleet assignment. Captain, you are dismissed." Ulysses spun his chair 180 degrees, turning his back to the impotent Section officers, and began entering commands into his personal terminal, acting as if they had already left.
The pair of Section officers stared at the back of his chair for a few moments. Then, with a primal snarl, the Section officer spun on his heel and stalked sullenly out of Ulysses ready room. Commissar Stevens followed him a moment later with an exasperated sigh. Ulysses smiled like a Cheshire Cat. It was a minor victory, but even small victories can be very fulfilling when they allowed one to tweak Section's nose and get away with it.
ISS Valley Forge, Flag Briefing Room
". now with these new torpedoes, we have the range and firepower to pretty much level the playing field with the GU's PPD." Ulysses said to his assembled cadre of command officers. "They might still be faster than our heavy units, but our ships with slipstream can get past this deficiency by using tactical FTL micro jumps and our fast attack and fighter squadrons should hold em in range. The orbital factories are already spooling up to produce more of the torpedoes, and I hope we can get some more before the next GU assault comes in. Now I was planning on placing a majority of the new torpedoes on the battlestations and on Starbase 2000 herself. I would like to hear your thoughts on this."
Ulysses sat back in his chair. There had been a visible release of tension when he had told them that the next time the GU fleet came calling they would have a little surprise in store for them.
"I'd say it's the best platform for them Skipper." Davenport said almost immediately. "At least until we get more of them anyway. With all the launchers on the battlestations and Starbase 2000, they'll be able to put out an ungodly number of them, and their long range punch should come as a nasty shock. What I really like about them is their new overloaded shield grid paired with the new impulse thruster assembly. Normal torps shields are impenetrable, but the suicide overload shield grid limits their max range. These have a time delay activation that is reprogrammable from tactical. This means that they still have the near invulnerability normal torpedoes do, but you can extend their range considerably by having it come on once it nears the enemy rather than immediately. When paired with the extended range thrusters, you have a potent weapons system."
Ulysses nodded his agreement. Making an impulse drive with enough endurance to cross light minutes of distance packaged into a torpedo sized casing while still including all the other things a torpedo needed to execute it's primary function had been so far unachievable. When one needed space for the warhead, seeker systems, datalink and penaids, it put a crimp on a weapon as small as a torpedo. Starfleet had looked into larger torpedo weapons systems, eventually resulting in the heavy photon. But till recently, most Starfleet ships were too small to mount effective numbers of these weapons in their internal magazines. Starfleet had even experimented with external box type launchers, but had dropped the idea when they proved excessively difficult to harden to weapons fire and to reload in a combat situation.
"In addition, I'm also happy to report that the 501st Marine Expeditionary Unit has found its way here. Their Galaxies have already dropped their troops, and General Bradley tells me that Lilith's militia is surprisingly good for a group of civies. Add to this their extra Phaser Lances will be a welcome boost to our overall long range firepower. But best of all, the 501st MEU picked up some mine layers for their fleet train somewhere. I've already put them to work seeding the most probable avenues of approach." For a major system with a lot of infrastructure, Prescott's Star's secondary defenses hadn't kept up with the near constant expansion of deep space industry. Minefields were light, as were the systems anti warp and sensor nets. Past station SOs hadn't made making and emplacing better fortifications a priority, hence why they were in such a sorry state.
"But I think that the GU won't be as accommodating as they were in their initial assault." Ulysses went on to his attentive officers. "They'll likely drop out of the corridor network early and come in at warp from an unpredictable bearing. And they'll be concentrated this time, without the fancy coordination and maneuver that cost them last time." Faces pinched around the conference table. They were experienced officers, and they knew that an enemy that had resources to burn like the GU seemingly did would hit them hard when they inevitably returned.
"They are coming back ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake of that. But when they do, we'll give em another black eye, just like the first time." His officers' faces showed determination mingled with a small yet healthy dose of fear. They knew they would likely have to pay a stiff price when the enemy came calling, but they were ready and willing to do so in order to protect the civilians on Lilith. They were no longer thinking or acting like the gang of rabble they had been when he had first came on station. They were now a finely honed blade, tempered in the crucible of battle. They were also willing to follow wherever Ulysses led them. They were, many for the first time, guardians, caring more for their duty and their protection of others rather than themselves. Ulysses felt extreme pride in getting them to rise to their present status. Yet doubt stalked deep in his soul. It asked him in a seductively sweet voice just how many would be left alive after the next attack, preying on his weaknesses. It caused Ulysses to wonder just how many empty chairs there would be around his briefing table after the next battle.