“I am glad to be here Retsar Isani.” He said in Nel. Now it was Isani’s turn to be surprised, none of the other humans had spoken Nel.
“You speak passable Nel.” Isani said.
Fleet Commander Farkas smiled, “Only a few words.” He said in humans language, which were then reproduced via the translator. Isani noticed that Fleet Commander didn’t have the earpiece that the other humans claimed served as a translator, and yet he responded to Isani’s words almost immediately, just like how Ship Master Kisaragi did. He didn’t comment on it, there would be time later to solve that mystery.
Fleet Commander turned to his compatriots. First, he gestured to his left.
“This is Ship Master Paul Isaacs.” And then to the human with the dark, almost black skin on his right. “And this is Company Leader Dayo Okoro.” Both humans bowed their heads in Nel way, and Isani returned the greetings. When they finished their greetings Isani led them to a nearby meeting room that had already been set up to receive them. Isani had opted for conducting the meetings with the humans while seated. They entered the room and sat on the backless chairs that Nel used to accommodate their tails. Few assistants went through the room offering refreshments. A few minutes later the assistants retired.
“We owe your people a debt, and you will have the gratitude of Nuva forever.” Isani said.
“There is no need for that, we couldn’t have stood by and watched.” Fleet Commander said.
“Nevertheless, we are grateful. Now at least we have a chance of survival.” Isani said.
Fleet Commander bobbed his head, “I’m surprised that there was no change with the Sowir ships. I thought that they would at least slow down when they saw us. Did they try to communicate at least?”
“No, they stopped communicating when they started the war, there has been no talks since then. Sowir don’t retreat. They will keep coming even if they were completely outnumbered. If they fail, they will just send a bigger force next time.” Isani said.
“Did you try contacting them?” Ship Master Isaacs asked.
“There is no point, they will not respond.” Isani said.
“Perhaps we should try.” Fleet Commander said.
“I don’t know if it will matter, even if they respond they will still come.” Isani said.
“We had no official contact with them. If they turn back, don’t return and stop the expansion towards our space, we are ready to set aside the incident with the Voyager.” Fleet Commander said.
“There is no lasting agreement with the Sowir. They will break any agreement as soon as it suits them.” Isani said.
“I agree. But our leaders want us to at least try.” Fleet Commander said.
“It can’t make things worse for us.” Isani said.
“Good, then we will send them a message. In the meanwhile we should start planning for the engagement.” Fleet Commander said.
“According to their practices in the past, I believe it is safe to assume that they won’t bomb the planet. Nuva is an agricultural world, they will want to keep it preserved if possible. That means taking control of the orbit, and then slowly taking control of the surface.” Isani said.
“Yes, that is what we determined as well.” Fleet Commander said.
“But we still need to meet them close to the planet.” Isani said slowly, “We can’t risk that a ship will get past us. While they probably don’t have plans to bomb the planet, if they realize that we will defeat their fleet and a sole ship remains at the planet, I have no doubt that they will open fire on the surface and destroy everything in the planets orbit.” Isani said, this was all assuming that human ships were on par with the Sowir. The Sowir usually wanted to take control of any assets in the orbit of the planet they were conquering, but if they see that they will lose they will destroy.
“Alright, we will meet them here.” Fleet Commander Farkas agreed. They spent the next hour talking about possible strategies, quickly they decided that the two fleets should act separately but try to support one another. As the meeting grew to a close, the humans stood and got back to their ship. Isani gave them an escort back, and left to for his office to contact Sumia. As soon as he entered, he opened a communication using the human FTL device. He still wasn’t used to the way it worked, where one needed to record and send a message, then wait for the other person to respond.
“How did it go?” Sumia’s message said.
“About as I expected it to.” Isani said. “We will fight separately, there is not enough time for us to learn to fight together.”
About a minute later came Sumia’s response, “What about the planet?”
“They have brought five hundred soldiers. The Fleet Commander said that he will have all of them on the planet by the end of the day. They will coordinate with our people down there to help should Sowir land.” Isani sent.
“Will their weapons be able to harm the Sowir?”
“Humans believe that they will, their weapons are alien to us and I have no time to go down to the planet and see them fired. We will have to trust them, and hope that no dropship reach the planet.”
“I shouldn’t have let you convince me to go with the refugee ships. I belong on Nuva.”
“Our people will need you Sumia. They are going into unknown with people they have just met. They need someone like you to look out for them.”
“I know, but I don’t need to like it.” Sumia’s final message said.
Leviathan
Adrian watched on his command board as the Leviathan’s shuttle left on its last trip to the planet to deliver Olympus soldiers. Company Commanders Okoro, Hughes, and Mao will be in charge of the land battle, if Sowir manage to land anything on the planet, but Adrian was not going to make it easy on them. He understood why they needed to keep the Sowir occupied, to give Sanctuary enough time to grow, to become strong enough to protect itself against any threat. Adrian turned to Ship Master Isaacs.