Chapter 4: Meetings
November 30th 2152
Anti-witch coalition space
"The false Goddess is dead."
"Who did it?"
"The alliance. Many of the Colonies that we almost got to join in our flock have gone back to the heretics."
"How?"
"They deployed the abominations that they have taken to calling 'witches'."
"Damn them."
"Indeed, they shall be Damned for all eternity, for using such unclean Creatures."
"Those things were never human in the first place!"
"How long until we are ready?"
"Soon. Soon we will unleash a plague which will cleanse humanity of the Unclean. The Alliance will fall, and then we will rise. After which we will lead a grand crusade to wipe out all the Aliens across the Galaxy. Humanity's destiny is at hand."
"Praise be!"
December 1st 2152
Arcturus station
The admirals were once again sat around the table. This time however there were a few extra people: Commander Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke and Major Mio Sakamoto sat on either side of Lieutenant Admiral Hackett, while a nondescript man in a nondescript suit sat next to the Admiral of the Fleet.
Everyone at the table was staring at said Nondescript man.
"Please tell me that was a bad joke made in bad taste," the Admiral of the home fleet begged.
"It wasn't. The coalition is close to completing a bio weapon that will wipe out everyone with an active or recessive witch gene."
"Haven't recent checks shown that that would be roughly half of the human race?!"
"Closer to 2/3rds, actually. It's mostly a recessive gene."
"Do they have any idea what that will do to humanity?!"
"Yes, they're hoping to pass it off as an act of God."
"We cannot allow that to happen." Minna slammed her fist into the table, her magic flaring as she did so.
"Commander! Calm down. Everybody here knows that the release of the virus cannot be allowed to happen," came the calm voice of the Admiral of the Fleet.
"Yes sir. Sorry sir."
"Good. Now, agent Spartacus, do you have reports to make?"
The now blatantly obvious intelligence operative nodded. "Yes. It's not good out there, the coalition has taken to gassing any school that got even the remotest chance of having a witch. This has resulted in our operatives not having much success in identifying and extracting witches and their families from coalition territory. Quite a few families have willingly given up their daughters to the coalition forces to protect themselves at the slightest hint of being a witch, and others have gone to ground so well that it's impossible to find them."
"So, the operation to extract witches from Coalition territory is not going anywhere near as well as hoped?" came a question from the Admiral of the 5th reconnaissance fleet who had originally proposed this idea.
"That is correct."
His shoulders slumped. "Well there goes that idea." He sounded defeated.
Vice Admiral Picard in charge of the exploration fleet leant forwards and put his head in his hands. "It boggles my mind at how anyone could willingly give up a child to certain death to protect themselves."
The intelligence operative merely shook his head. "The coalition's propaganda has painted witches as an unnatural abomination and furthermore they have been forcing their religious dogma on everyone in their territory. They have gone as far as to burn down the places of worship that do not fit with their religion and destroy any copies of religious texts that go against their ideology."
Lieutenant Admiral Hackett growled "we can't just sit here doing nothing, every moment we delay they entrench themselves that little bit further, not just in terms of military but also in terms of society and economy."
"You are correct, Vice Admiral."
Hackett blinked in shock, "Sir?"
"You are being promoted To Vice Admiral and being given command of the Fifth Fleet alongside your current duties. Congratulations."
Everyone round the table began clapping, as Vice Admiral Hackett was given his new rank pins.
"Wait a moment... isn't the fifth Fleet set to receive Yamato when she's completed?"
"That's correct, construction has been going much faster than anticipated. Normally she would have a shakedown cruise in two weeks' time, but we don't have the luxury for that, so we are throwing her straight into the front lines. Once she is launched, you are ordered to take the Fifth Fleet, Five witches divisions consisting of: The 1st witches division, The strike witches, the 102nd witches division, the 103rd witches division, the 204th witches division, the 205th witches division, four marine battalions and 10 army groups on loan to the Systems Alliance from member nations on Earth."
Hackett stiffened in his chair. "But the 102nd, 103rd, 204th and 205th witches divisions have only just finished basic training. I don't think they're even remotely ready for this."
"Unfortunately, they're going to have to be. However, good news is we managed to finish production of our own first generation strikers for both Aerospace and ground usage. And no, they're not the hodgepodge versions that the first division had to use when dealing with Nayar, they are actual full production versions. Same with the weapons they will be using, even if they were developed in house rather than being developed by a large corporation such as Bofors or Oerlikon, both of whom have expressed interest in producing weapons for witches."
"I didn't think Bofors was still around."
"They are, they're just avoiding using Element zero in their guns."
"Enough. Back to business. The 11th fleet will commence raiding operations on the coalition while the 10th fleet, 12th fleet and 13th fleet will strike at their major industrial worlds. This is to lure their fleets away from their capital so the fifth fleet has a clean shot at it. This is our best shot to take the coalition down in one fell swoop. They have all their eggs in one basket; the propaganda ministry, the seat of governance, all their generals and admirals, everything and everyone of importance to the coalition is on that planet. As such it is going to be heavily defended, it is likely to still have a fleet in orbit and lots of soldiers on the ground, even with the luring away of their fleets. It's going to be one hell of a fight, but if we win, the coalition collapses and this war ends. Any objections?"
"It doesn't seem all that safe," came a reply from one of the Admirals.
"Do you have a better idea?" There was a pause. "No? Then this is what we're doing. You have your orders. Let's get to it."