by Solea Razvan
“Good for nothing bastard!” Cuiunecas said and slammed his fist on the table.
“But we can still withdraw can’t we?” Zula asked.
“No we can’t, if we do, then the bloody Rainbows could use this as an attack against Octavia, they’d say ‘You’re fleet was victorious, you had all you’re supplies with you, the enemy fleet was defeated and you didn’t even attack Galiana!’ and with that we could lose our only supporter in the government.” Gerula said grimly as the full implications of the situation was now made clear to Zula.
“Also, that amount of supplies will be difficult to protect with our current fleet, if we withdraw we run the risk of having raiding fleets come from the other side of the Galiana Corridor and strike at us. Not to mention pirate fleets from the smaller nations around this area, if we retreat we risk being cut to pieces!” Cornelia with anger and contempt in her voice added to the conversation.
“What about calling the other frontier fleets to our aide, this way if it comes down to a battle we can at least have a chance to withdraw, won’t we?” Husainus asked.
“With what? From the attached inventory list, most of them are not with the convoy, those fleets will have to wait to be resupplied in order to join us; and by the time they come the enemy will no doubt also built up their strength, thus making retreat very difficult for us.”
“And if we fight there is still the problem of us fighting a battle at the very end of our supply line, with the enemy being at their very best position supply wise, looks like we will have to defend a siege and a hard one at that.” Gerula supplied the answer.
“Unbelievable! Our fleet, an attacking force reaches a fortress and we are the ones who will be under siege!?” The admiral added at the disgust he felt, for this was a clearly political move designed to discredit Octavia so that Aian can have full control of the government and for that he was willing to sacrifice millions of lives and a potential victory in war, all just to secure his powerbase.
“He’s afraid, the taffers afraid! Do you all hear me! When the story is written about the battle, the historians will remark that our Prime Minister was more afraid of an Imperial victory, then he was of a Federal defeat!” the Supreme Commander said and clenched both of her fists to try and real in her anger at the disgusting act Tiberius had just committed.
“What does Bismarck have to say? Let’s hear some good news!” Casper who up until now had been silent spoke up.
“We’ll it is good news, at least I think it is.” Cornelia replied and opened the letter.
