“Alarm them!? Can you see the size of that thing?” Williams shouted.
“We don’t even know if those ships are meant for war.” Akulov responded.
“Oh c’mon! You can’t think that they are meant for anything else. I mean, look at them!” Williams said.
“Calm down, both of you!” Anissa shouted, before Akulov could open his mouth again.
“I believe that Igor is right. There is no point in alarming Olympus just yet.” Eldritch said in his calm voice.
“What? You mean for them to come and get blown to pieces by that?” Williams asked, pointing towards the hologram in the middle of the table.
Eldritch raised his arms and shook his head. “Nothing like that. It is probable that those ships will not be here when they arrive. They are obviously a part of a convoy. True, we didn’t know that one was scheduled, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t. As soon as they load the materials they should be on their way back to Ra’a’zani space.”
At that Jennifer calmed down a bit, “And what if they decide to stay?”
“Well then we can tell Olympus, they are still a year away. There is no point in alarming them with something that might not even be a problem a year from now.”
“Eldritch is right.” Jacob said. “They must be an unscheduled convoy. But those ships pose a long term problem for us.”
“Yes,” Anissa said. “Even if we liberate the system, if they have that kind of ships, it won’t take them long to take it back.”
“Their size doesn’t necessarily mean that they are better than ours.” Akulov said. Jacob looked at the tall Russian.
“Perhaps you are correct, but most likely you are not.” Jacob said, shaking his head. “For now none of this matters. We need to continue on the assumption that those ships will leave. Otherwise, our chances of success drop dramatically.”
“Yes, Jacob is right. And space is Olympus’ problem, let them worry about those ships.” Akulov said. Jennifer turned on him and was about to open her mouth when Eldritch put his hand on her shoulder and shook his head.
Clearing his throat Jacob drew attention to his side of the table, “We need to decide on the course of action. I will need to return to the belt soon.”
“Our priority must be the Rome base. It has the biggest number of Ra’a’zani and their pet thralls.” Akulov said.
“Yes.” Jennifer agreed reluctantly, “But it is heavily guarded, I don’t think that we have enough trained people to take it by force.”
“Then we need to raze it to the ground. Perhaps we can plant bombs? We have a few people inside.” Eldritch said.
“We could, but it would take a lot of guile to get the explosives inside. Ra’a’zani might not watch us that closely, but their sensors are good.” Jennifer said.
“The best course of action would be to take it out from the distance.” Anissa said. “With the fabricators now online, we have started to manufacture weapons for my submarines. The Lords and Colorado could get to the Mediterranean sea undetected, and fire missiles from close enough that they don’t have time to respond.”
“That could work, but their defense systems are good. It would be best if we could shut down their defense grid, even for a few minutes.” Jacob said.
“And what of our people that live there? No matter how much we try to contain the destruction it will spill into the city. We could be killing thousands of our own.” Jennifer said.
“Collateral damage, those people would gladly give their lives if they knew Earth would be free.” Akulov said.
Jennifer immediately blew up. “We can’t possibly make that decision for them!”
Eldritch intervened before Akulov could respond. “Calm down Jennifer. You are correct that we can’t make the choice for them, but there might not be another way. We can’t tell them as we risk exposure.”
Jacob could see Jennifer struggling to say something, but he spoke before she had the chance. “We might not be able to tell them well in advance, but we can send word just before we hit, for them to take shelter. It might not save everyone, but it is something.”
“Jacob is right, we can spread the word just before the attack.” Anissa said. Jennifer looked around the room and then nodded defeated.
“There are still other outposts spread out over the globe. Taking them all down at the same time will be difficult.” Akulov noted.
“Yes. But the other bases are much less fortified. Perhaps we could hit them from afar as well? At least those that are most heavily defended.” Jacob said.
“If we are to take down the Rome base we will need to lower the time they have to react, which means parking the subs right next to the coast.” Anissa said.
“Do we need to use both?” Eldritch asked.
Anissa grimaced, “Colorado has a lot shorter range, its missiles will not be able to reach all the targets at the same time. But the Lord could. We could use the Colorado for Rome, and the Lord for the other targets. But there will still be a lot of outposts we won’t be able to hit. That means attacking with ground troops.”
“Ra’a’zani have never seen our suits in action. I’m confident that we can take them.” Akulov said.
“It is your specialty Igor. It will be up to you to plan the assaults.” Jacob said, Akulov was a General in the Coalition’s army before the Ra’a’zani, “And I’m sure that Oliver can manage a few unfortunate accidents that will give you the opportunity to strike decisively.” Oliver Eldritch, was a spook during the war, and was now in charge of the Resistance’s spy network.
Eldritch nodded. “I can arrange a few power failures. We have been setting things up and planning for a long time.”
“Well then, I guess that we finally have a semblance of a plan.” Anissa said, everyone had grown tired of constant bickering and inability to agree on anything.
“Great. That means that I can return to the belt and start planning how to take control of the mines.” Jacob said. From there the discussion moved towards weapon fabrication. As the others argued over who gets to fabricate things first, Jacob looked at the three ships still shown on the hologram, turning in the air above the table. He couldn’t help but wonder what more Ra’a’zani had that his people were unaware of.
Chapter Seven
February 2171 – Leviathan
“We will be exiting hyperspace in two minutes Fleet Commander.” Ship Master Paul Isaacs said.
“Good. Be alert, we are not expecting any trouble, but…” Adrian said.
“Yes Fleet Commander.” Paul said.
Adrian turned to the person standing next to his chair, Retsar Isani.
“How long do you think it will take them to respond?” Adrian asked.
“Not long. The council will move quickly to meet with us and open dialog. The problems will come after that.” Isani said.
Adrian nodded to himself and waited. Then the Navigation Handler called out. “Exiting hyperspace.”
A moment later a portion of the forward wall turned into a screen and they could see stars. The holo in the middle of the CC started receiving the sensory information from the ship and updated its status. Two ships appeared almost immediately close to the Leviathan. The light cruiser Swift and the heavy cruiser Enterprise. Then the planets and the rest of the system.
“Damn…” Paul let said under his beard, but loud enough that Adrian heard him. Adrian felt the same. The holo now showed the state of the system as it was a few hours ago, when the light it read originated. The system had six planets, three of which had at least two moons, and one five. The second planet from the sun was Earth sized, and from Retsar Isani, Adrian knew that was Nelus, Nel home world. But that was not what shocked them. No, it was the amount of traffic in the system. Countless ships moved from one planet to the other, from one moon to the other or to stations in orbit of every planet. The holo had a hard time showing them all, as there were thousands. The stations were massive constructs that dwarfed the biggest ships around them.