Vice Admiral Robert Sheridan sat at his desk in his private quarters on board his flagship, Colossus, a newly commissioned battle cruiser. At fifty-five years of age, Admiral Sheridan was at the top of his game. He was the commander of the newly formed Sixth Fleet, currently assembling in orbit around Jupiter. In superb shape, the admiral liked to run ten kilometers a day before breakfast. Like his son, he had black hair, which was slowly turning white at the temples. What caught people’s attention the first time they met him were his deep green eyes that seemed to glow in the light.
“Sir, your priority message is coming in now,” announced the ship’s communications officer over a speaker on his desk.
Admiral Sheridan turned to look up at the screen on the wall across from him. A second later, the image of Admiral Oshiro, the Commander in Chief of the fleet appeared. “Good day, Admiral,” he said in greeting.
“Good day to you too, Robert,” replied Oshiro. “Please accept my deepest heartfelt condolences on the loss of your son.”
Admiral Sheridan felt a pang in his heart. “Thank you, sir.”
“Robert, I know you’re busy, so I’ll make this short. How goes the shakedown with the Sixth?”
“Not too bad, sir, there’s still a few kinks to work out, but I have the staff working day and night to get us fully operational.”
Oshiro smiled. “That’s good news. I want your ops and planning staff to look at options to tackle the Kurgan Fleet in orbit above Derra-5. My people have already transmitted the necessary information that they will require to formulate their plan. I want you to be able to defeat the enemy fleet, establish a perimeter and then support a ground invasion force, all in very short order. You should know that the president has expressly forbidden us from using nuclear weapons. It would appear that the Kurgans have yet to use them, and he does not want to be the one to initiate a tit-for-tat exchange of nukes like what happened in the last war. Robert, I also want you to keep this close hold, use only those staff officers you absolutely need to.”
“Got it, sir. How’s it going elsewhere?”
Oshiro’s usually stone-faced visage, saddened. “The Second Fleet was on the border when the Kurgans struck. It put up a good fight but has had to be withdrawn to refit and reorganize after losing almost seventy percent of its strength. The Third and Fourth Fleet have replaced the badly beaten-up Second and are engaging the enemy as we speak. I have the Fifth and First in reserve. I will not commit either formation until I know what the Kurgans’ main effort is. I still don’t know if they are going after our populated outer colonies or after our resource producing planets.”
“They attacked on such a broad front that it’s hard to determine just what they’re after,” noted Admiral Sheridan. “Admiral, has there been a formal declaration of war given by the Kurgan Empire? It seems so odd that they would decide to attack us out of the blue after a century of relative peace between the Kurgans and us.”
“We still have heard nothing from them and I don’t think we will either. Our listening stations along the border heard absolutely no chatter indicating that the Kurgans were planning to attack us. This was an extremely well planned and executed operation. Secrecy was maintained right up until the day they started shooting at us.”
Admiral Sheridan took a sip of water and then continued. “You have to wonder at the timing of their attack. After decades of budget cuts, the government back home finally decides to increase the defense budget and increase the size of our armed forces by ten percent. Which I might add would still leave us with a military half the size of the one we had when I first joined as a lowly ensign.”
“My thoughts exactly. It’s no coincidence that they hit us before we could modernize our forces. If they can snatch a quick victory and force us back to the negotiating table like they did one hundred years ago, then we’ve lost this war already.”
“Well, whatever the reason may be, we’re at war with the Kurgans and that’s all that matters right now. The historians can tell us why later.”
Oshiro sagely nodded. “Robert, I’ll be in your location in three days’ time. I’m bringing General Denisov, the ground force commander, with me. I want you to brief me on your portion of the plan at that time.”
“Right, sir. I also take it this means that you want my fleet ready to deploy in seventy-two hours.”
Oshiro smiled.
“Very good, sir, I look forward to your visit.”
“Robert, before I sign off, I want you to place your fleet on yellow alert. There have been rumors of saboteurs trying to gain access to the nuclear arsenals on board our ships. If they were to set off a single bomb anywhere within the fleet, the result could be crippling.”
“Yellow alert it is, sir.”
Oshiro’s image vanished from the screen. Admiral Sheridan called for his chief of staff. If his staff thought they were busy before, they had no idea of the amount of work he was about to dump on them. While he waited, he brought up a picture of Derra-5 and its solar system on the screen and studied it. A plan already began to percolate in his mind. He wondered if his staff would see the same thing. If they did not, they surely would before he gave his briefing to Admiral Oshiro. His thirty-seven-year career was about to be tested in battle for the first time, and he did not intend to fail.
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