Ivan Kal - Sanctuary

The human didn’t respond immediately, which immediately put Sumia on guard. “You want something in return.” Sumia stated, slowly steeling herself. Immediately after she said her words, the human brought her hands up, and started shaking her head. Sumia knew enough to know what those gestures meant.

“No, no.” Kisaragi said, and then after a beat continued. “But there is something else.” She took a deep breath and then looked at Isani. “Our analysis concluded that, assuming your ships technological level is on par with the Sowir, there is very little chance for you to survive this attack.” Sumia knew that they gave the humans information on Sowir ships. Isani nodded his head gravely in a human gesture. “Yes, most of our ships are of older make.” He said.

“We thought so as well. Our leadership has decided to help you, they will send one fleet to Nuva to help you.” Kisaragi said.

Both Isani and Sumia looked at the human. They were shocked, but a moment later Isani managed to regain his composure enough to speak. “We appreciate your willingness to help. But there is no way for us to hold out for more than five months it would most likely take your ships to get here. By then, the Sowir would have most likely killed everyone on the planet.”

Kisaragi nodded. “You are right, it would take our ships around nine months to arrive using hyperspace.” She said.

“We will be long dead by then.” Sumia said dispirited. For a moment there she felt as if there was a chance for them.

“We are aware of that. That is why our ships won’t be coming through hyperspace.” Human said.

Isani looked at her strangely. “What do you mean?”

“Our ships can reach Nuva in nineteen days.” Kisaragi said.

“What?” Sumia said. “So they are already here.”

“No. I don’t know the details. But I know that there are no human ships other than the Traveler in this system. And our leadership instructed me to tell you that they can arrive in nineteen days.” Kisaragi said.

“How?” Isani asked.

“I don’t know, and I wasn’t told anything other than it is something new they discovered. They can make the trip from our world to this system in two days, and it will then take sixteen days to reach Nuva.” Kisaragi said.

“Amazing.” Sumia said. Isani remained silent, Sumia could see that he wasn’t really believing.

“Why would you do this? It is one thing to help our people survive, and quite another to involve yourselves in a war that isn’t yours. You had no contact with the Sowir, the only thing you know is what we told you.” Isani said.

Kisaragi looked from him to Lanai, and then back. “The truth is, that we did have an encounter with the Sowir. Around the same time the Traveler entered your system.” Kisaragi said. Isani and Sumia looked at each other and then back at the human. Under their gazes she finally started talking again. “One of our explorer ships, Voyager, the same class as the Traveler, was exploring a system some ten light years from here. Voyager entered the system and found it empty. Then proceeded to the planet to take scans. Then the Voyager was attacked by three unidentified ships. After the initial attack the Voyager tried to contact the ships while it was running away, but they refused to acknowledge the communications. The three ships ultimately destroyed our ship. Later, when we made contact with you we realized that the ships that attacked us were Sowir.” She said glumly. “So you see, we do realize the threat of the Sowir Dominion. We know that what you said is true because we already met them.”

Again, both Lanai and Isani were shocked. And again it was Isani who was first to recover.

“How many ships?” Isani asked.

“They will send one fleet of ten ships. They think it will be enough to defeat the Sowir. I have been instructed to install an FTL comm on your ship Retsar Isani. So that you can coordinate with our people.” Kisaragi said.

“Of course.” Isani said.

“I need to go and report back to my people.” With that the human bowed her head and then left the office. A second later Sumia turned to Isani. “What just happened?” Sumia asked.

“Hope Sumia, hope.”

Leviathan

Adrian walked in his ready room, after yet another game. This one was one of the hardest yet, and he just barely managed to win. In the last few days the two fleets had eleven encounters. And the score was now 7 to 4 in First Fleet’s favor. After that first battle, Fleet Commander Johanna Stern was much harder to beat. But then, she was chosen to be a Fleet Commander for a reason. This last battle was a close one, but Adrian managed to win in the end, bringing his win total to 7. Both he and Fleet Commander Stern, were learning a lot from the games, they were able to devise better tactics for battles, and to learn much more about the capabilities of the dreadnought class. And quickly it became obvious that these ships would be the core of their fleets. As he sat down, he brought the data from the last game on the holo-table. “What do you think?” Adrian asked.

“The command board is operating adequately. It will be even faster and more efficient in real battle, when I won’t need to manage the simulation.” Iris said. Adrian nodded, agreeing with her.

“I don’t think they imagined this system being so powerful. With the FTL comms it gives the commander of a fleet ability to control almost every aspect of the fleet movements and battle.”

“I agree, they believed it would be just a slightly more efficient way to present data, and send out orders.” Iris said.

“But, it is dangerous as well. With the ability to constantly send out orders some commanders might fall into the trap and try to micromanage their fleets. We will need to have people trained to recognize when to just let things play out.” Adrian said. Both Fleet Commander Stern and he, came to the same conclusion, future commanders need to be trained to avoid trying to control every aspect of their command. Adrian and Johanna both fall into the trap several times, and those instances were usually the ones where they lost. Scrolling down the various lists and reports he came to the report his High Prime sent, or rather now Ship Master Paul Isaacs. Adrian had promoted him, since he was the one in command of the ship during fleet actions, it was appropriate for him to have the title. Adrian knew that the Fleet as a whole was still very young and that they just now started to learn what were the most efficient ways of doing things. They tried to create their own way, rather than to emulate organizations from Earth based militaries. That was reflected in the report that Paul sent him. The ships that were commanded by those that were not affiliated with a navy or air force back on Earth tended to do better than those that were. Most stations that were manned by younger people, those born right before or shortly after Olympus started expanding into space, tended to execute their orders at least 12% faster and more efficiently. That was a huge number when you kept in mind that it was on the fleet level. The numbers in Adrian’s First Fleet have been steadily improving since the beginning of the war games.

“There is an incoming call form the Fleet for you Adrian, it is marked level 1.” Iris said, she usually monitored his comms when he was busy working and when he didn’t want to be disturbed.

Adrian frowned for a second. Level 1 comms were reserved for times of war. At least that was the intention, there was no need for that. Adrian cleared his holo, and then accepted the call. The call was not sent through the FTL comms, but rather ordinary lightspeed ones. They were not so far away from Sanctuary to make conversation impossible. As soon as he accepted the call an image appeared in front of him. As soon as he recognized who it was Adrian executed a sharp salute, fist to chest. He was very much surprised, he excepted Laura or someone else from the Fleet, not Tomas Klein.