Ian. Smethurst - E. D. F resurgent

Michael Alexander was sat at the bar of the ‘black hole’, a bar-cum-meeting place aboard Delta base. It was a reasonably large open plan area, and one of the more popular haunts on the station. Surprisingly, it escaped major damage from the utter devastation wrought on the massive installation by repeated Krenaran attacks just over eight months ago. Even now repairs were still ongoing in some of the more badly damaged sections of the station. It was finally adjudged by E.D. F command that it was sufficiently operational again to resume its role as fleet command installation for the navy barely three weeks ago.

Although right now the black hole was quiet, only a handful of other men talked and drank. In the background soft jazz music was playing, though Michael; not being particularly schooled in the jazz players, had no idea who played it. He had come here for one purpose, and one purpose alone; to forget.

Having just arrived back from an escort mission with a small flotilla of converted Lincoln class supply ships carrying a force of E.D. F troops from the 8 ^th ‘black jacks’ infantry company to the fighting around the Aurelias colony. It had been a fairly routine mission, with only a little resistance around Aurelias itself.

He was nursing a scotch; rolling the small whisky tumbler around with his fingers and contemplating the past. Of happier times, before he had become haunted by the loss of his wife Jana, and his son Theo.

Most nights when he slept, he would dream that he was still with them; tonight would be no different. Some nights would be worse; asleep, he would long for them to come back, seeing their faces in his dreams. Then he would awake, and know they couldn’t for they were now dead; it didn’t make it any easier, the sense of loss was devastating.

He had celebrated his 35 ^th birthday last week; alone, nursing a scotch just as he did tonight.

“ Would ya’ mind if I pulled up a chair next to ya’ cap’n?” said a familiar Irish sounding voice. It was Lieutenant Commander Quinn Kinraid.

Michael silently gestured for the tall, ginger haired man to have a seat.

Quinn had been hand picked to be second officer on board the Liberty, after Televis had been placed in command of the Solarian battle cruiser Faeriath. He was a tall man at 6 feet 5 inches, and had a long mane of flowing auburn curls which ran just past his shoulders, held together in a tight ponytail, he also sported a medium length yet neatly trimmed goatee. Personally chosen by Michael; they had been long time friends, but also Kinraid was a hell of an officer and could more than handle the ship when Michael wasn’t around.

“ Ya’ lookin’ kind a down to me sir, if ya’ beg ma’ pardon.”

“ I miss them Quinn….I miss them a lot.”

“’ Tis the tragedy of war so it is; not all wounds can be healed, sir.”

“ Ten months on and I still miss them. I remember them like they were still here.”

Michael and Quinn had already talked about the deaths of Jana and Theo, although Quinn had barely been serving on the Liberty a little over a month. The commander had explained that at an early age, he had lost his mother in a chemical leak at a local research laboratory in Aberdeen, and had spent the rest of his life before the E.D. F, with his father in Dublin.

Michael drained what remained of the whisky, and stared blankly at the empty glass, it reminded him of his empty life.

The viewer blazed into action, directly across from where the two were sitting, the brightness of the screen cast an almost eerie glow across the bar, as well as the two men’s faces.

“ This is the outer colony news service, I am Annika Raumov; the headlines today. The war continues to go well for the E.D. F — Solarian alliance, and notable victories at the Perseus and Malthus colonies have been recorded. We take you now to General Macken of the 14 ^th E.D. F battalion ‘head hunters’ to describe the engagements.”

The picture changed to a young looking man, barely in his thirties, his camouflaged features stained with the soot and grime of battle.

“ Generals are getting younger everyday,” Michael pointed out, before turning his attention back to the viewer.

“ Thank you. The Malthus victory was a textbook rapid deployment. Firstly E.D. F and Solarian naval forces drove the Krenaran ships back, and quickly launched God-hammer bomber squadrons to knock out any Krenaran air defences on the surface. Once this was complete Stockholm class landers deployed almost seven hundred troops and one hundred armoured vehicles to the surface, to commence the ground war in conjunction with God-hammer bomber raids; the colony was re-captured within three days.”

“ So they finally re-took Malthus,” Michael raised an eyebrow, “funny how they don’t tell you the casualties.”

“ Or what ships we mighta’ lost buying their way in.”

“ Well Lieutenant I am going to retire, I have an important briefing with Admiral Mc’Kenzie in the morning,” Michael said suppressing a sigh.

“ Okay, I’ll see ya’ tomorrow cap’n.”

With that, Kinraid watched the remainder of the outer colony news, while Michael returned to his quarters.

His new officer’s quarters were located on deck 14, forward section of Delta base. They were considerably smaller than his previous family quarters; the deck his old quarters were located was still not fully repaired yet. However his new place was nicely laid out with a large comfortable bed, an opulent lounge and separate eating area.

Michael undressed, slid into bed, and settled down to his usual restless night’s sleep.

The next morning arrived; he awoke, got dressed, had a small but appetizing breakfast, and headed to one of the myriad briefing rooms on the upper sections of the station to attend the briefing with Admiral Mc’Kenzie.

“ Come in captain,” The deep voiced admiral spoke.

Michael filed into the dimly lit briefing room; it was deceptively large an large oval table, lit and surrounded by chairs dominated the centre of the room, there was also a large viewer fixed to the far wall.

Michael saluted the man, who appeared to be in his mid forties with slightly greying hair, and sat down at the impressive table.

“ How is your new second officer, Kinraid isn’t it?”

“ Yes admiral, he is proving to be an excellent officer sir,” Michael replied, wondering what exactly the admiral was getting at.

“ Good, because you’ll need him, orders have just come through from E.D. F command; they are preparing a big push towards Gamma IV. The Krenarans in that area have not yet captured Echo base, but enemy ship numbers in that area have increased dramatically over the past few weeks. We think they are building for an attack on the base itself, and if it falls it could swing the entire war back in their favour.”

Michael quickly realised the stakes were high; Echo base was the primary base for the engineering services. As well as the main shipyard for the navy; without it, repairs to naval vessels would be drastically cut as they would have to rely much more heavily on the smaller, less equipped substations. It also supplied a vast proportion of armoured support, arms and equipment to the Troop division.

“ What kind of ground forces do they have there admiral?”

“ The majority of the 3 ^rd armoured company, the “Hells angels”, as well as a sizeable proportion of the E.D. F Commandoes; led by your old buddy Colonel Vargev,” The admiral smiled.

Michael chuckled a little, remembering his exploits with the enigmatic and notorious former Major Vargev.

“ Something funny, captain?”

“ Err…no sir, it’s just I haven’t heard from Colonel Vargev since just after we were both promoted together.”