Escalation

Escalation
By Adam Milton
5/16/2007

Captain Darren Price – Log – 2443.0

The past few months things have gone for great, to bad, to worse.

We have started construction on the Dungar station. The Sus seem more and eager to help in its construction. It is a smaller station and once it is on line trading will be much easier and more efficient than any other trading post in the galaxy.

As I mentioned a few log entries ago, Pirate attacks were stepped up near the Callus system. The 3rd Carrier fleet, out of Titan Shipyards, was dispatched. The Carrier fleet, with the Carrier Douglas and 5 support cruisers engaged the pirates. Two cruisers were lost along with 3 out of the 7 fighter wings. It was more than a little clear that the Pirates had high grade weaponry, and help. A lot of help.

The 5th, 6th and 8th fleets were dispatched to find out what had happened.

This is when we found out how bad things really were.

The first border war was a 5 month long conflict between the Jraenar and us. We colonized some planets they wanted. At the time the UNSF was still new and had not really been tested. After about 10 ships had been lost on both sides the war was stopped, and an uneasy peace accords were forged and humanity got to keep their planets. It would seem that that Jraenar were a little bitter about it and it would seem they never let it go.

Now the Jraenar seem to have found some extra technology. Early reports are that their ships have stopped using shields and are using incredibly powerful weapons. They managed to sneak up on the fleets and inflict heavy damage. That’s the rumor, anyway.

War has not been officially declared, on either side, but the Jraenar diplomats have left their offices and trade has been stopped between both empires.

This morning we were ordered back to the 9th fleet. An engineering ship will stay behind to finish the station. We thanked the Sus and with in an hour the Hero and Majestic were following us out of the system.

On the other side of the point was the 9th fleet. Surrounding the Tiger , a heavy carrier with 10 fighter wings, were three dreadnaughts, the Turner, Washington and Winston, all three were Akira class, and all three were equipped with tachyon sensors, and heavy mount incinerator beams, quantum torpedoes and a massive mount Wave Motion guns. Along with a full complement of point defense beams and cannons. Each dreadnaught had two battleships in support roles. Along with the Miller, we supported the dreadnaught Turner. The Washington had the Cooper and Capricorn supporting it. The Winston had the battleships Able and Yorktown supporting it. Along with all of that was a compliment of light cruisers supporting the battleships. Among them were the Hero and Majestic that supported me.

Admiral Wagener, aboard the Tiger was commanding the fleet. After we were in formation I took a shuttle to the carrier and meet with the Admiral.

The conference room on the Tiger was simple enough, it had a Holographic mapping system sitting in the middle of a circle table. I was a little early and the only other people were Captains Lynch and Getty of the Winston and Yorktown respectfully. Soon the rest came in and finally the Admiral.

Admiral Grant Wagener was only 55 years old; he had platinum grey hair on the sides of his head with dark hair on top of his head and on his upper lip. He walked to the front of the room and used a console, imbedded in the table, to bring up a holographic image.

Floating above the table and drawn in a lime-green was a 3d map of the system. The lights dimmed and we all sat there, basking in the sickly emerald light.

‘We are there.’ He pressed a few buttons and one of the dots representing a system turned red. Suddenly the image blurred and when it refocused the picture was of the specific system itself. ‘Ok, I wanna make this short and simple. The Jraenar haven’t made an open declaration of war but intelligence thins they are going to with in days, if not hours. The plan is simple, we plan on having the fastest counter punch in history. We have found a weak point in their defenses. Their shipyards in the Grousie system has a small defense force, just small enough for us to defeat, just big enough for us to inflict some real damage. If there is a declaration of war we will be the knuckles to that counter punch.’ As he spoke the map zoomed out and showed the area he was talking about. Bright blue arrows pointed to weak points in the Jraenar defensive line.

‘Does everyone have the upgrades and system calibrations needed?’ Wagener asked. ‘We don’t need holes in the Point-Defense grid.’
There was a chorus of ‘no sir’s. The lights came up and he looked directly at me. “Welcome to the 9th battle Fleet, Captain Price. Numquam Retrorsom!”

“Numquam Retrorsom!” They yelled back. It was the motto of the fleet.

‘Dismissed.” He saluted all of us, and we stood up and waited until he walked out.

After he left people began to talk and everyone greeted me personally.

“It means ‘Never Turn Back.’” Captain Deborah Willis said. “He is a Latin buff.”

“It shows.” I smiled and shook her hand.

“I am in command of the Miller. I read your report, you seemed to be able to handle yourself. Nice job with the Sus, by the way. The raw materials they have might come in handy before this is all over.” She was a small woman, with bright blonde hair. She had an eager energy about her that was welcoming.

“Hello Captain,” I turned to see Fleet Captain Clarence Sparks standing behind me. “I am glad to be working with you. I passed your report on to Captain Willis, after I read it, and I must say I was really impressed. Stay tight to my right flank and this should be easy. I heard about that stupid stunt you pulled with those pirates a few months back. No heroics, just protect the Turner we will protect you.” He saluted and walked off.

“Lets hope it is over quickly.” I said softly to Captain Willis.

“He is always like that, he meant what he said though.” She replied.

“We better get back to our ships.” I said as we walked out of the conference room. “It was nice to meet you.”

He nodded as we parted ways and back to our ships.

We were at the very edge of war, about to be pushed into a conflict that could erupt into one of the biggest in history. Intelligence had predicted that while there was empires who posed a bigger threat, who were stronger, who had more military might a war with the Jraenar would be, perhaps the most bloody, and drawn out. We were very evenly matched. Things were going to get very interesting.