The War Is Over

The holographic headline read "Blackjack single handedly returns the fleet after syndicate trap fails enemy fleet all but destroyed in Varandal space overwhelming superior alliance forces causing the cowardly syndicate forces to flee even abandoning just over a dozen damaged escorts unable to keep up. The ships have been captured and their surviving crew as with the rest of the forces captured has already been shipped to dozens of systems to join their comrades already imprisoned."

"Holy Shit" I whisper as I watch the holographic news reel in awe surrounded on all side by thousands of cheering men women and children. "I'm actually here."

Twenty minutes earlier in a quiet and somber hospital room on our Earth in a small town a 26year old woman lays in bed reading the Lost Stars Shattered Spear as the heart monitor beeps quietly in the background. Maggie Jonson closes the book and sigh's contently mental images running through her mind of the battles the ships soaring through the blackness of space. And wondering how Iceni and Drakon will be able to protect their people and continue to survive against both syndicate worlds and the approaching enigmas. and if the Phoenix stars will ever continue.

Ever since the lab accident that killed three of her colleagues when a small experimental hadron collider duel superconductors had overloaded and exploded killing three and lightly wounding her and a dozen others in MITs Applied Engineering zone nicknamed the puzzle box by the students and staff who worked and studied there.

As she lies there thinking of the amazing tech that John Hemry writes about unknown to her a small shard of metal slightly glowing from the otherworldly electrical forces caused by the accelerated atom of Tantalum passes the spine and interacts with the electrical signal of the central nervous system. Causing her body to vanish with a thunderclap of sound and air, this shattered the windows and broke the bed beneath her.

When Maggie awoke she was sitting at an outdoor cafe gripping her head as she was flooded with her and yet… not her memories the war… her graduating high school… her parents going on trips between planets and space stations being accepted into MIT thanks to her Coast guard service helping to cover tuition… her mother's business as one of the top five commercial and military transport companies. Spending three months a year stationed on the USCG Campbell… before solidifying but not replacing her new life... her draft into the alliance navy four years ago a backbreaking six month cramming of naval training before being shipped off on her first ship the destroyer Flint only to have that ship shot out from under her and be transferred to a light cruiser before that one was destroyed and it happening three more times before her dad had died in a shipyard accident her mom overwhelmed in grief died a day later and in a promotion her last survivor status was taken into effect and after being promoted to Fleet Captain posting on the Battleship Relentless and assigned to the forces guarding the Molnir Star system and its pair of habitable and populated worlds and its large shipyards just behind the line.

To protect the system and the infrastructure here task force Relentless was relatively small a single battleship Relentless six Heavy cruisers fifteen Light Cruisers and thirty Destroyers under her personal command those ships were currently broken into five smaller formations. The Relentless and the four heavy cruisers were patrolling a light minute from the massive shipyard complex. Relentless-2 a single heavy five light cruisers and ten destroyers were in orbit of the planet Odin another identical force was in orbit of Thor. The last ten destroyers were evenly split guarding the two jump points that led to the stars Varandal and Petit both who were populated and rich enough to have a Hypernet.

Currently however it was Relentless1's shore leave in order to keep crew morale and ship supplies sufficient once a month the taskforces would rotate stations allowing the crews to relax for a week as supplies are loaded and as they guard the shipyard routine shipyard level maintaince is done. so it was here on Thor's capital city Maggie sat sipping a cup of coffee when she is interrupted as alarms go off curiously no one panics as everyone looks to the holographic projectors on every corner a reporter looks excited and her voice matches

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Alliance we have won the war a feed opened above her head helpfully titled Battle of Varandal showing hundreds of Alliance ships sweeping down on almost as many Syndicate ships a flurry of firing passes that wiped almost half of the Syndicate ships out they fled anonymous tips from inside fleet headquarters report that after a flurry of battles as the fleet attacked anywhere they wanted on their way back including the destruction of the large fleet guarding as well as a major capital shipyard in the Sancere system at the cost of a single ship heavily damaged and repaired." she puts her hand to her ear and listens for a moment "We have just received word that Blackjack has just returned from his mission to end the war leading the entire fleet back into the Syndicate home star system and this is unconfirmed as of yet but word is spreading of the fleet meeting and engaging an alien species in combat. We will bring you more information as it becomes available but for now rejoice The War is Over…"

That had been two weeks ago and how Maggie wished it had stayed that simple with the memories of this body that funnily enough was also named Maggie but she preferred Mags at first she had to think for a moment before she said or did anything but now it was instinct now the shipyards that had churned out warships nonstop over the course of the war now sat dark and cold hulls far enough along had been completed the ones too that were far enough along it would cost more to scrap was towed out to the orbit of the gas giant Hemdal for storage the others were fully scrapped. Her force had been taken as had other task forces throughout the alliance individual ship Captains were all getting the same message "Report to new post Alliance First Fleet" she however had received word to report to Thor's Primary Fleet Command post.

And then just a day later after being made into a staffer for the now defunct naval command she received the notice

"Dear Fleet Captain Mags Giddings,

The people of the Alliance thank you for your many splendid and exceptional years of service in the war. However with the ending of hostilities and the calls of budget cuts by the people of the Alliance effective 06083152 1800hrs you Fleet captain Mags Giddings are released from naval service.

At the bottom in what looked like hand written ink was a personnel message "If you need anything the fleet doesn't forget its own even when the people do ADM Timbale" looking at the clock on the wall she still had twenty-four hours as an Alliance Fleet Captain "Well could be worse "