Author's Note: You may be confused as to what is going on at first as there is lots of military mumbo-jumbo in this chapter. The chapter is a setup for the 'Alterna-verse' that A -Brief- Moment in Time takes place in. Please bear with me for the minor tangent.
Disclaimer: DB/DBZ/DBGT belong to Toriyama and other rich Japanese guys, not me.
A Brief Moment in Time
Chapter 4: A Day in Infamy
Sirrus Four, March 15, 794 AD. The day of the coup…Sirrus Four was the fourth planet that orbited Sirus, the North Star. The system comprised of five planets and was a strategic system near the border of the Empire and unknown space.The fourth planet from the star was habitable but it was nothing unusual in the countless worlds of the Imperium. The system itself, however, was very unique. Over the outermost planet of the system hung a gigantic space station. It's cyllinder shaped sphere housed thousands upon thousands of men and material. Sirrus Four was known throughout the Imperium not for its beauty or wealth, but for the fact that it was the home of the most famous of all the military forces of the Empire-it was home to the sixth fleet of the Imperium designated Victrix.Victrix was extremely famous for the exploration missions they conducted for the Empire. No one knew what lay out there in the vastness of space, and time and time again Victrix task forces had been sent out to open new and unexplored territories. The missions weren't always peaceful.The soldiers of Sixth fleet were a hardened bunch of veterans that were well versed in negotiation as well as purging missions. Yet, it was not just these missions that made them truly famous. The true reason for this lay in one person, their commanding officer, the Duke de Sirrus.
Their Leader was the stuff of legends. He was said to be the Emperor's personal apprentice. Despite knowing the Emperor personally, he had not been given any favoritism. At the age of eighteen he had entered the army as a young officer and had proceeded to distinguish himself time and time again. His rise up the ranks was meteoric and no one who had ever met him ever accused him of cronyism.
His deeds spoke for themselves. He had been the commanding Brigadier of a light infantry division when they made their fateful stand against an unexpected assault by Freeza's heirs. They had been ambushed and for two weeks they had held out on a strategic planet against almost twenty to one odds until they were relieved.
Afterwards he had been given command of an additional unit to command. He then had been the one to relieve the Emperor's Own when they had been trapped on Orion. He had always been a high ranking member of the Emperor's court and his success earned him more and more fame.
Finally, when Victrix had been formed and he given command, they had marched from one end of the sector to the other destroying the remaining warlords that had refused to acknowledge the Emperor's rule. They had lost battles, but never had they lost a campaign. Nor had they ever failed the Emperor. Their leader was a powerhouse in the Empire, second to only the Emperor himself in Ki. He was officially known as the Duke de Sirrus. Among the common folk and the soldiers, he was simply called the Saiyan. A mere thirty years of age he had an unprecedented amount of prestige in the empire. Some even whispered that he would be made Heir since the Emperor was childless. Yet, his fame and close ties with the Emperor made him a target, and Victrix would pay in blood.
On the fateful day of March 15th, Commander Jaric Sutherland was on duty on the Imperial Star Cruiser, Erudite. The cruiser was one of three hundred vessels in the fleet. Almost one hundred and fifty of which were idling or docked in space around Sirrus four. On this day the Erudite was returning from an overhaul at Space station Shikoku. They were simply just in the wrong place at the wrong time or perhaps the right place at the right time.
"Commander, I'm picking up lots of noise out there. It seems like there is almost an entire Strike Fleet out there heading this way," said his Sensor specialist with a hint of concern.
"Are they ours? I don't think Cooler could mount such an attack and pierce Fourth and Fifth fleet without us being notified," replied the Commander calmly. He was sure that there was a logical explanation to what was going on.
"Yeah, they look to be from fifth fleet. You don't think that something could have happened to send them here do you?" replied the specialist.
"Well from the readouts it seems that their ships are in tip top shape. I can't imagine them running from a battle without getting hurt," said Sutherland, "Well we'll go out and meet them. Mr. Sponse, send a message to the Vice Admiral and tell him we have company."
"Aye aye sir," replied Sponse. As the communications officer he was in charge of relaying messages from ship to ship or ship to HQ.
"Sir… something is wrong," cried Sponse, "What the… we are being jammed sir…"
"Sir! The ships from Fifth Fleet are launching fighters and lining up in battle formation sir… something isn't right here," came a cry from the tactical officer.
"This is some type of joke. I'll have their heads for this. Get shields up and break that damn jamming. Get me a direct line to one of the flagship of that task force now," commanded Sutherland. He was sure this was something ridiculous. However, he wasn't about to fail to take the minimal precautions.
"Sir, they aren't answering us sir. No response at all," came the news from communications.
"What the hell… ok back us up and head us towards the inner system. We have to get out of their jamming range and report this shit. The least I can do is turn their joke on them. They may find this funny in their outfit but I'm sure the Duke won't find it funny at all."
The crew quickly complied with his orders and the ship slowly turned and headed towards the inner star system. However, this maneuver caused a response from the incoming squadron. The ships from fifth fleet began to gain on the Erudite for an obvious purpose.
"KAMI, SIR… WE HAVE INCOMING," screamed the tactical officer as he immediately began to prepare counter measures.
"WHAT? Are they firing on us?"
"Yes sir we have over THREE HUNDRED bogies coming in," said tactical with fear in his voice. He knew that they had no chance of stopping three hundred missiles.
"How long until impact?"
"Two minutes sir."
"Sponse can you break that jamming in two minutes?"
"No sir… I can't. They have our codes and are using them against us."
"Alright evasive actions… shields at maximize and let the oxygen loose."
"Sir… the oxygen?" asked a confused tactical.
"If we're going to blow up then we're going to go up big… Hopefully someone will notice the damn explosions. And god damn it keep trying to break that jamming!"
Two minutes later three hundred missiles came hurtling in at .6c. The Erudites anti missiles system were swiftly overloaded and almost two hundred missiles crashed into the ship sending some fifteen hundred souls into the next dimension.
Victrix HQ - Sirrus Four…
"MA'AM!" cried a young adjunct to Vice Admiral Emma Aethefel, the senior commander of Task Force 1.2 of Sixth Fleet.
"You don't need to shout Nelson. I'm not so old that I can't hear you," smiled the Admiral to her young officer. Emma had grown up in the service together with the Duke and they were pretty good friends. She had begun serving with him within three years of his own entrance of Imperial Service. They had met when she had been young brash LT who had been in command of one of the relief shuttles that had pulled the 19th Light out after almost fourteen days of hell. Apparently she had some how struck up a friendship with the younger Duke then and as he had risen in the ranks so had she. This was not to say that it was due to favoritism. She was extremely competent at her job. A daring tactician and excellent administrator she had been nick named "Frost", by most of her own people. Others had the tendency to call her the "Ice Queen." This was not only from her demeanor, but rather the cool that she always kept even in the most adverse situations. Her looks also didn't help the matter. She was of Celtic blood and her pale skin, white blond hair, and light blue eyes didn't help her dismiss the name. All in all, she didn't really mind the term. It suited her well.
"Sorry ma'am but our sensors picked up a massive explosion near the outer system. The pickets that were posted went to take a look and they haven't reported in. They should have ma'am. Something is going on," spit out the young man breathlessly. He had just received this post and was a junior lieutenant from Chikyuu. One interesting fact about the Victrix was that half of its composition were humans, all of whom had left Chikyuu for greater opportunity in space.
"Alright then… Tell Commodore Furizma to power his two squadrons up to battle readiness. We'll give it ten more minutes before we go to yellow alert."
"Yes Ma'am." The young officer quickly ran to carry out her orders.
She didn't like what was going on. Something inside of her told her that something was very wrong. That was the reason she had Furizma power up two squadrons. Those two together comprised of twenty-three vessels. Ten of which were Imperial Dreadnaughts, one of the most lethal vessels in the known universe. The other thirteen were Battlecruisers. With that much firepower he could hold off any force of raiders until the rest of the fleet could come down on them. She, like Captain Sutherland, couldn't fathom that a powerful fleet could strike at Sixth Fleet without Fourth and Fifth Fleet notifying them in advance. This was simply because Sixth Fleet was located on the other side of the empire from the border of Cooler's empire and they were the only other force in the known Universe that even possessed the technology to strike at Sixth Fleet.
Deciding to follow up on her feelings, she opened a com link with her aide. "Jim, I want a shuttle prepared for me. Tell my flag captain that I will be joining him on the Tiberius in a few minutes," she ordered.
Fifteen minutes later she strode in on the bridge of her flagship. TheTiberius was one of the newest ships in the Imperial Navy. She could see that the crew of the ship was busily carrying out their duties. She also noticed that her staff was patiently waiting for her orders.
"Status Report on the missing pickets?" she asked coolly.
"Ma'am the pickets are totaled. We just received news from a Fifth Fleet task force that they had been chasing a small squadron of Coolers ships that broke through the front lines. They have taken care of the problem and would like to enter the defense grid for supplies and repair," answered her chief of staff. His name was Arlis and was an insectoid type creature from the planet Arlia.
"Hmm… well we can't deny them that, it would be most discourteous. Grant them permission," she said without much thought. Her mind was still racing about how a squadron could have broken through the defense line. It really didn't make sense. "Captain Hartfoot," she addressed her flag captain, "Tell the flag squadron to power up. I want to take a look at the wreckage of the pickets and the enemy squadron. We'll leave as soon as I have spoken with the commander of this Fifth Fleet squadron."
She watched her view screen absentmindedly and watched the ships of fifth fleet slowly enter the defensive grid. It took a moment before something finally registered in her mind.
"Arlis, how many ships do you count there?" she asked. She wasn't sure if she was losing her mind.
"Hmm… Looks like… What the… fifty-five and umm thirty of them are Dreadnaughts?" boggled Arlis.
"Right… that's what I'm seeing. Riddle me this. What type of raiding squadron would require that much firepower to destroy… and if that much fire power was needed then our sensors would have picked up a battle of that magnitude," said the Admiral carefully. She really didn't like this but to order her entire squadron to battle stations would have been a total political insult to Fifth fleet. It would put her in very hot water with the Emperor and that wasn't something she wanted.
"Ma'am I'm counting seventy ships," came Captain Hartfoot's voice, "A full Imperial Strike Fleet."
Admrial Aethelfel sat slowly trying to decipher the puzzle before her. It was not normal that a full Strike Fleet would be sent half way across the Empire to hunt down a group of raiders. Her own forces could have handled the problem if they had been notified. This was very, very bizarre.
Suddenly before she finished her musings her screen lit up as red dots suddenly appeared streaking towards her fixed defensive positions.
"MA'AM that fleet just opened fire on our defense grid… MY GOD they totaled them."
Years of honed battle instinct immediately snapped the crew into place. They took their positions and looked at their commander waiting for orders. She did not disappoint them. Without any emotion passing over her face she acted quickly and decisively.
"Move our squadron to intercept anything that heads for the space dock, captain. Tell Commodore Furizma to jump into hyper space and the moment he gets there to open his red folder and commence Option Delta."
"Yes Ma'am… but I don't think commodore Furizma will like those orders. He won't want to run like a whipped dog."
"That's his problem. He will follow orders or be run up on charges. Tell me, do they have an interdictor1 out there?"
"Yes Ma'am… we won't be able to hyper out of here. Furizma is the only one far away enough because they were powered up before and went to check on the pickets."
"Good that's what I thought. Get every ship power upped and we are to protect the space dock at all costs. Got that? There are over 90 ships there and we will not lose a third of our fleet to some pathetic ambush. Get a communications out to the Duke as well," She looked around and saw her people stare up at her. On the inside she was completely flustered. She wanted to break out and cry "WHY ME?" She wanted to run away and hide, to avoid the responsibility that was hers. But on the outside she looked completely calm. There was neither shock nor any hint of nervousness in her voice. To those who looked to her for direction, they saw the ice queen. No emotion could be gleaned from her despite the fact that they all knew they were going to die. Emma ran her eyes over her bridge one more time knowing that it would probably be the last time she'd ever seen them and in a voice that made the situation seem to be a mere stroll in a park, she said, "Well… Lets move it people."
"YES MA'AM," came the unified chorus. Her calmness and apparent confidence began to spread. All of them knew at some level they were going to die, but they were Victrix. They would go down fighting to the last man and take out as many of the bad guys as possible. With a smile and song on their lips, the flag squadron of TF 1.2 went into battle to buy their comrades time to defend themselves.
On the way to Sirrus 4…
Bulma was tired. She had spent the last twenty hours lost in the studies of hyperspace technology. It was simply fascinating for her. She had loved science ever since she was a little girl. Her father had instilled in her a love of wondering why things happened, and that was the source for her unquenchable thirst for knowledge. She simply loved to learn new things.
Finally forcing herself to the close the book, she went to check on the injured Emperor. She walked into his room only to find him sleeping soundly. She couldn't help but move closer and brush her hand across his cheek. It had been so long since she had last seen him like this. He looked so vulnerable when he slept. The hard lines that streaked his face seemed to soften. She only knew a little bit of his story, he had never confided completely in her. It was something that always intrigued her, what exactly could have caused a man such as Vegeta to become as complicated as he was. He was handsome, masculine, and he had always worn an air of dignity around himself, but those were not the reasons that truly made him attractive to her. Rather, it was the mystery that he shrouded himself with. Her inquisitive nature could not resist the challenge. She wanted to know who he was, what made him the way he was, and what made him tick. In her attempts to do so she had found herself falling in love with him. Unlike Yamcha, Vegeta was someone whom she could never hope to unravel. He would always present a challenge to her, and always surprise her. Life, she knew, would have never been dull with him. Of course the key words were 'would have'. He had died, but not before he had left her. That hurt. Oh did that hurt, to fall for someone and to think that they reciprocated only to find out that in truth they cared nothing for you. Yet, he still had completed her in a way. He had given her Trunks, her pride and joy. That brought another pang to her chest. She didn't know if she would ever see her son again. She worried about him even though she knew he didn't really need her anymore. He had grown up after all.
Taking a deep breath she took a look around the room. She knew that they had stolen the ship from a woman that knew her family. All the clothes in the closets of the bedroom were female. She looked at the two pictures that were on the dresser. There was one of a teen with black hair standing in front of a scholarly looking man and an attractive middle-aged woman. The other was her standing with Mr. Satan, she recognized him, and a pink monster. Mr. Satan had his arms around the young girl in a great big bear hug and the monster was making some sort of face at the camera. It seemed that these were perhaps the childhood pictures of the young woman that they had taken the ship from. She felt sorry that she had stolen the ship, but it wasn't really like she had a choice. Rising she left Vegeta's room and went to her own and laid down for a few hours of sleep. According to the navigational charts they would be arriving at Sirrus Four in two days. That would mean that she would probably have to cook a days worth of food for Vegeta. Now that was something she hadn't done in years. As she drifted off to sleep her mind was filled with past images of a happy time. Times when Goku and the others were alive. Times when she and Vegeta were together and when she had deluded herself in believing that he loved her.
Imperial Capitol…
"Do you have any idea where we are going?" asked Trunks as he followed the young black haired woman down a dark alleyway. He could sense several Ki's following them and was sure that they were going to get into some trouble.
"Yes. I know where I'm going and don't worry about being mugged. Buu and I can take care of anyone who tries," she scoffed. She led the three-person party for several more blocks until they came out of the alleyways onto a main street. She then followed the street down until they came up to a large building. Turning left she led him through a large archway into what was obviously a huge bazaar. There were vendors everywhere hawking their wares from behind booths. Clothes, carpets, jewelry, watches, and countless of other trinkets were lined up along the walls for customers to browse. The scent of freshly baked cinnamon bread floated through the air and Trunks found himself to be a little hungry.
"First time to the Grand Bazaar," asked Pan as she noticed the look of mild surprise on Trunks' face. "Don't stand around gawking or they will know you are a tourist. Come on, lets get going."
"Ok," replied Trunks feeling somewhat like a bumpkin. The new planet he was on was immense and far different from the devastated Chikyuu he knew. Without further encouragement he followed Pan deeper into the market place.
It seemed that they had walked for about twenty more minutes. The whole place was insane, it was just endless lines of shops selling everything imaginable. Trunks swore he saw people selling six legged antelopes and pigs with wings. He also saw some of the most scantily clad women with quite generous assets dancing in the window. He had tried very hard not to stare but the way they were dancing, with the little shake in their hips and a jiggle in their shoulder, caused him to lose track of where he was. Without meaning to he crashed into Pan who had stopped walking in front of him. It felt like running into a brick wall.
Trunk swore when he landed on his butt and looked up at the young woman standing with a smirk above him. It was a very familiar smirk but he couldn't quite place it.
"You should pay attention to where you are walking and not to the... uhh... attractions around, eh Trunks?" said Pan with laughter dancing in her eyes. "Anyway we're here. Why don't you stand right here and gawk at the girls some more while I go in and take care of business."
"Uhh.. ok?" replied Trunks as he slowly stood up. He looked over at the pink thing that she had called Buu and noticed that he was playing with some sort of wierd purple contraption that he couldn't even begin to describe as anything more than wierd. He then noticed that Pan was patiently looking at him with that familiar smirk.
"What?" he asked.
"The diamonds? I'm going to exchange them for some hard credits."
"Oh," he said. Trunks reached into his pocket and took out three fourth of the multi-carat diamonds that he had brought with him. For a moment he thought about whether he should trust her, but the point was moot he decided since he could probably blast every living thing on this planet into micro-quarks if he chose to. There was no reason for him to not trust her. Smirking to himself, he put the diamonds back into the bag and tossed her the entire set as if it was worth nothing.
Pan caught the bag effortlessly with one hand. She cocked an eyebrow at him in wonder as she looked him over. He didn't seem like the trusting type of guy. He had a hardness around him that she only saw in battle hardened soldier, yet he had just given her a sack of diamonds worth more than two years pay for most people. This man was either ridiculously wealthy or naively stupid. She was sure that he wasn't that wealthy and she was sure that he wasn't stupid. A mystery indeed. She didn't say another word as she turned and walked into the jeweler's tent. It didn't really matter after all. If she needed to, she'd just slit his throat. It wasn't like he could stop her.
Trunks watched Pan turn and walk into the tent. He couldn't help admiring those long legs and that firm body. He was after all, a male in his prime. But as he appraised her physical looks and began to brush himself off from his little fall onto the ground he realized something. Even though he wasn't using any ki, he had just been knocked down by a hundred pound and some change woman. That was physically improbable if not impossible. He outmassed her by a hundred pounds easily. He was an atheltic god even without using any Ki and yet he'd been knocked down by a slight bump? Had she done that on purpose?He reached out to sense her ki but it was absolutely negligible. This was a mystery, and Pan was a mysterious woman. He smiled to himself... he did like mysterious women. This would be an interesting trip indeed.
That day Sirrus 4, In the midst of a raging battle…
"Admiral… Curtis, Fortuna, Rumania, and, the Ingrid are gone," came the report from her new chief of staff. Arlis was dead, killed when a nuclear tipped missile had smashed against her flagship. Luckily that had been the only hit they had taken so far. Somehow they were still alive, but the last of her active dreadnaughts were gone. The crews of the remaining ones were frantically trying to get their ships powered up to join the battle, but dreadnaughts took a long time to power up. Most of the ships had undocked from the spaceport but as they had been doing so, enemy fighters had taken their toll. Almost fifty of the ninety ships that had been docked were already nothing but scrap. Of the surviving forty, ten were too badly damaged to do anything, ten more were still trying to finish powering up, and the last twenty had joined the fray. Of the 14 ships of the Flag squadron, only two remained. Yet, the rebels of Fifth Fleet hadn't gone unscratched yet. They had come blazing in with seventy some ships. Thirty of which were dreadnaughts. Of those seventy, fifty remained, with twenty dreadnaughts. Unfortunately that was more than enough to destroy the remains of Sixth Fleet.
The senior lieutenant who now had taken over as her chief of staff and was relaying her orders to the other surviving ships was amazed at his senior commander. The battle had gone on for almost two hours now and there had been a cat and mouse game where she had done her best to buy time for her ships to power up. She had succeeded in that, but the odds were simply too great and the surprise too total for them to win. Despite the fact that she had inflicted some casualties to the attacking fleet most of those were to the lighter vessels of the enemy fleet. The core of fifth fleet, the dreadnaughts and battlecruisers, were still strong. If one were to count the ratio of loss, she had actually lost more than she had destroyed. She was now more outgunned than ever. Yet, none of this showed. Bleeding from a cut over the eye and from a shrapnel wound in the arm, she didn't seem phased a bit.
"Lt. I want to bring all our vessels in close together. Its time to make a stand, all we can do is hope that those dreadnaughts can power up in time to join us," she said calmly. She even had a smile on her face.
"Yes ma'am," said the Lt. As he quickly dispatched the orders.
Slowly the remaining ships under her command came together and went into a line formation. It seemed that they were going to make a stand and go out in a blaze of glory.
"Ma'am the last squadron has powered up and are moving to join us. That's ten more capitol ships," said the first officer of the ship to her. He was acting as her flag captain now since Captain Hartfoot had been killed in the fighting.
"Very good. Have all the ships move into formation Gamma Seven. Perpare to engage."
"Aye aye ma'am."
The ships of Sixth fleet moved forward to engage their treacherous enemies for the last time. As they came within missile range they opened with everything they had. Of course their enemies too opened fire at the same range since their technologies were identical. Not waiting for the results of their missile duel, Admiral Aethefel led her ships down the throat of the enemy. They all knew that they could get one, maybe two volleys of energy weapons off before they were all destroyed. As they reached beam range Emma gave the order to fire and her well-trained crews responded. Of her thirty-three ships, twenty-five had made it close enough and they all opened fire with lasers, energy cannons, plasma cannons, and disrupters. Their first volley and missiles had annihilated ten ships of fifth fleet, and crippled four more. That left only thirty-six fully functional battle ready ships to retaliate against Emma's twenty-five battered hulls. The crews of Sixth fleet continued to attack like bats out of hell, yet they were being swarmed under. They simply couldn't manage the fire power to defeat the remainder of Fifth Fleet.
Admiral Aethefel knew it was over. Perhaps if she hadn't sent the twenty-three ships of Furizma's squadron out then perhaps they could have won. She doubted that, but the decision haunted her mind as she watched another of her ships, this one a heavy cruiser blown to bits. She had given it her best. Turning to her tactical display she hissed in surprise.
There before her she could see seventy blue dots of various sizes symbolizing another group of ships and they were slicing into the remainder of fifth fleet. She could see the formation of enemy dreadnaughts break and then scatter. The new comers began to split and chase them down.
"M'lord Duke de Sirrus…" came a message sent on a open channel to all ships. The voice was serpentine and male.
She quickly moved over to the communications counsel and opened a channel. "His lordship is not present. This is Admiral Aethefel of Sixth Fleet. May I have the pleasure knowing the male I should be thanking for our timely rescue?"
She heard a hearty laugh from the speaker. "You should thank your Commodore Furizma. He ran into us and was able to guide us here in time. I'm Rear Admiral S'lithssas Sssassasssa. You can just call me Slith like everyone else. Admiral we have a lot of wounded and would like to unload them. We were ambushed by fifth fleet also. We are the only survivors of third fleet."
"Third fleet? Admiral Slith please you have whatever you need. I will personally be going to the Star Dock in a moment. Please meet me there. We need an update of the situation."
"Thank you Ma'am. We don't know what exactly is going on ourselves, but we have some data leeched from some captured vessels."
"Ma'am," came another voice. "Ma'am we have forty more vessels inbound. It's the Duke Ma'am. He's back."
Admiral Aethelfel felt a surge of relief and let a small sigh out. She saw the young aide smile a bit at the small crack in her emotional mask. She gave him a small smile in response. "Please tell the Duke to meet me and the Third Fleet admiral at the Star Dock."
"Yes Ma'am… Take it easy Ma'am, its over and we've won," chirped the young aide in attempt to cheer her up as much as to let out his own elation at being alive.
"No… No it's not over. It's only just begun," she replied.
Two hours later on Stardock 341 in orbit around Sirrus 4…
Admiral Aethefel was exhausted but she still hauled herself to the meeting that was about to take place. She walked past several Sakimori who looked at her with open admiration as she stepped into the large cabin where a briefing was being held. As she entered she noticed that she was the last of the senior officers to arrive. There sat the Duke himself, with his black hair that spiked up and forwards. He was attired in his usual white armor. Underneath he wore a blue skin suit. Around his shoulders he wore a large black cloak pinned by a circular orange brooch. He looked completely human except for the tail he had snuggly wrapped around his waist. His charcoal eyes settled on her and in them she could see a great deal of sympathy. She had, after all, lost almost all of her command and then some.
"Emma please sit and relax. This will be an informal briefing. I think that is more appropriate in this situation then a tense hearing. Please speak your minds," said the Duke with all seriousness, yet with a hint of relaxation just to set his people at ease.
"Yes, Lordship," came the response from around the table. Emma quickly glanced around the table. She recognized everyone except one. There was Vice Admiral Hideyoshi, commander of TF 1.1 and the Duke's right hand man. Next to him sat Generals Dodo, Swein, and Thorkall. These three were the commanders of the three ground divisions that were stationed on the star dock. General Swein looked at her with open thanks on his face, as he knew that he and his men would have been nothing more than space dust if she had not stopped the enemy fleet. To the right of them and next to Vice Admiral Reese, commander of TF 1.3, was the one face she didn't recognize. The lizard-like Rear Admiral Slith sat quietly as he slowly looked upon the living legend in person. Last but not least Colonel Cnut, the commander of the Sakimori stood behind the Duke appraising her carefully. His gaze made her shudder inwardly as it always did. He was a very dangerous man and seemed to exude an aura of terror. They had served together for almost ten years and yet he still made her uncomfortable when he laid his piercing gaze upon her.
"Slith, please tell us what happened to third fleet. I think this will help us all understand the situation," said the Duke as he reclined slowly into his chair.
"Yer Lordssship," began the Rear Admiral, "Yesterday a detachment from fifth and fourth fleet came upon us at unawares. They had the codes to our fixed defenses and half of our entire fleet had been annihilated before we even knew what was happening. Admiral Erssi gave the orders to my detachment to break through the blockade and to spread the news of a rebellion to the Emperor."
The admiral took a breath for a second and composed himself before continuing. "We arrived at Imperial Capitol earlier this morning. We found that second fleet had taken possession of the capitol and that the Emperor is most likely dead…"
"The Emperor is not dead. This I know for his passing would have been felt by those of us with significant Ki," interrupted the Duke. "I apologize for interrupting please continue."
"That is good news Lordship. Well… second fleet attacked us and we barely made it into hyper. We lost two ships at Imperial Capitol. We really didn't know where else to go but here. We needed supplies badly and to get our wounded treated. I'm glad that we found you alive. Apparently they tried the same thing on you as they did us."
"Yes… apparently they did. Emma please tell us what exactly happened," said the Duke softly. Quickly Admiral Aethefel recounted on how they went to check on the missing pickets. About the lies the Fifth Fleet commander had given them, and how they had been caught off guard but not that off guard. She told of the valor that her men had conducted themselves with. She told them hows and whys of her strategy. After about twenty minutes the Duke finally waved her to conclude. She did so promptly.
"I do not mean to interrupt but we run short on time. Do you all understand what is happening?" He looked around the room and saw some confusion. "There has been a coup. General Bojack has proclaimed himself Emperor. Quite a foolish move since the Emperor is still alive. Unfortunately it appears that all the other fleets have thrown in their lots with him." He paused for a second to make sure that everyone was with him.
"Now, that Bojack struck at the third and sixth fleets is not surprising. Erssi and myself have been with the Emperor since almost the beginning of the Unification wars. He undoubtedly did not want the Emperor to have a military force to rally around. He succeeded in this."
Gasps could be heard from across the room. No one could believe the words that the Duke had just said.
"Your Lordship with all due respect, I think you are wrong. We can find the Emperor and strike back," said Admiral Reese with a bit of indignation.
The Duke raised his hand to stop further outbursts. "No. We cannot do this because Bojak will be hunting for us all. When his fleet does not return he will know that it has been destroyed. He will then dispatch even more forces against us."
"The Duke is right, we have but half a fleet left and three divisions of ground forces. We cannot stand up against the might of the entire empire. We have to consolidate and then strike back," interjected Hideyoshi. He was human of short stature. Five foot five he kind of looked like a monkey, but his flair for tactics was well known. He had earned his position countless of times over the years.
"I do not know… I think it would be best if we strike now, before the Usurper can consolidate his holdings. He is weak now and not everyone supports him. A victory now would swing much of the forces back towards us. If we give him time to consolidate then he will be harder to defeat," warned Aethefel. She could not understand the Duke's passivity on this matter. The course was obvious, strike when your enemy was unaware.
"The Vice Admiral is wise," agreed Slith, "If we strike Imperial Capitol now before he knows that we have defeated his forces we can have the element of surprise. We can defeat them."
"The risks are too high. I am not willing to wager on this. We have but eighty vessels in fighting shape. Only thirty Dreadnaughts and my flagship. We cannot assault an unknown enemy with such few forces, especially… especially one with as much Ki power as Bojack."
"Ki power m'lord… Bojack has never shown great Ki," said Aethefel.
"Apparently he suppressed it somehow. Today I felt a source of ki greater than any I have ever felt before. It was dark and malignant. I am sure it was Bojack's."
"Lord are you advising flight?" asked an incredulous Breese.
"No, I am proposing patience. Today we destroy everything here. We will withdraw into deep space where only we of Sixth Fleet know. Our years of exploration give us an advantage against our opponents. There we will assemble and send calls to loyalists everywhere. We will lick our wounds and begin to ferment rebellion. After a few months we will establish a base and begin outright raids against Bojack."
The Admirals and Generals looked at one another. They did not know why the Duke was not taking up a more aggressive stance but they had followed him for years and he had never led them astray. Slowly they nodded their agreement and they began to plan out the evacuation. After another hour of work the briefing broke up and the various officers went their own ways to accomplish their various tasks. As Aethefel began to leave the Duke stopped her.
"I have a task for you Admiral. I need you to take a squadron to the Mersis system. When you arrive there I want you to drop Colonel Cnut off."
"Sir?"
"It is important Emma… please do this for me."
"Yes sir, as you wish," she replied. Glancing at the Colonel she again felt a shiver up her spine. There was just something about that man that made her tremble. Firmly putting a lid on her runaway instincts she turned and left to carry out her duties.
The Duke de Sirrus remained in the empty room. Slowly he stood and walked over to a porthole in which he could look at the stars. He had not told them the complete truth. He knew that if they went against Bojack now they would be destroyed. He had not revealed to them that Bojack was much more powerful than he, a super saiya-jin, and even more powerful than the Emperor himself, even transformed. That Bojack had convinced the vast majority of the empire to follow him was also disturbing. He needed time to plot, time to train, and time to find Vegeta. There was one place in the Universe where he could take his men and be relatively safe. It was a remote blue planet he hadn't seen for five years. It's time for me to go home, to go home to Chikyuu. With that thought in mind Son Goten the Duke de Sirrus turned and strode out the room.
Author's End note: Many people were confused when I first wrote this. The military stuff is pretty irrelevant, though several of the minor characters show up from time to time. What is important is that, just in case you missed it, Goten is not a happy go lucky Goten of GT. He is something entirely else. Stay tuned to find out exactly what. .
1 An interdictor is a ship that prevents other ships from jumping into hyperspace. I think this is out of star wars but I'm not 100 percent sure. I forgot where I got it from.
Next time:
What are Bulma and Vegeta going to find when they reach Sirrus 4? What are Trunks and Pan up to? Why is GOTEN in space? Why is PAN in space? Stay tuned for more…