TA15

==Chapter 15 - The Armada==
LCS Tranh Truk Ngo
Landmark Class Destroyer
Strana Mechty Star System
Kerensky Cluster
3167 CE
----
[2 years till ZERO DAY...]
This time, the local commanders who showed up were at least somewhat intelligent. Meaning that they didn't try to open negotiations with a challenge for possession of the ship or an attempt to trial away the facts by denying it at gunpoint.
This in turn was facilitated by a demonstration of the cutter's firepower and gunnery over Arcadia. An experience for the Star Adders that 'got around' to the other Clans.
This is what happens when a Warship crew picks off individual fighters by rank at extreme range with weapons the Clans would insist couldn't focus on a target that small.
Four Star Colonels were waiting near the arrival point aboard a shuttle. One from each of the Clans remaining in the Homeworlds.
Now, they're sitting comfortably in the ship's wardroom.
Mike steeled his nerves for another round of 'stupid damned arguments', before entering.
"Ladies, Gentlemen." he said, "I assume the four of you constitute what passes for authority here?"
"We are the elected leadership of the Warrior Caste...I guess we are standing in for the Grand Council."  An older woman, Mike wasn't sure HOW much older, said.   Her uniform looked a bit moth-eaten, the Star Colonel ranks were visibly tarnished, and the nametape said 'Heller'.  "Your news was...not entirely unexpected, but still deeply traumatic for many of our people."
"The whole 'someone is trying to make you extinct' or the part about your previous leadership abandoning you to die horribly?" Mike asked.
"Yes." a slightly younger (but still at least middle-aged) man wearing a Cloud Cobra uniform interrupted. "Yes to both."
Mike shrugged, "I guess you know what it felt like for our ancestors when yours packed up bag-and-baggage and abandoned their oaths at the end of the 28th Century.  The good news; Someone isn't going to let your people burn. The bad news is; I can't tell you where you'll be resettling to, Except that it IS in Star League territory, because they're still debating that in the Star League council. I can tell you that while we're a big part of getting your folks out alive and safe to a new home. My people have limited influence on the First Lord and Council."
"Who is the First Lord?"
"That would be ilKhan Alaric Ward of the Wolf Empire, Ma'am.  He was elected by a vote of seven to two-notably. For your 'edification' he himself voted for the runner-up instead of himself. His first act as First Lord was securing the finest naval mind in the Inner Sphere to organize and run this operation."
"Who?"  The Coyote Star Colonel, Heller, asked.
"Admiral Sharon Ngo, Ma'am. She's the reason we have enough ships to even try this.  She reorganized the Lyran Commonwealth Navy along Coast Guard lines. She cleaned out the corruption, the deadwood, and her planning won two wars. Who like me, she's not a ruler. She already turned it down once...now, this meeting is being simulcast back along the route. That's because we have out of date information on demographics. The Coast Guard's mission in this is to make sure nobody gets left behind."
"What does that mean, exactly?"
"It means, while you're sipping mai-tais somewhere in the Inner Sphere and the wavefront is scorching planets. I and my crew will still be here evacuating any stragglers." Mike told her, "Because that is what we do.  There are five hundred cutters spreading out along the route and when the main body of wave four has left. We'll still be looking for survivors out here. When that's done, the survivors of that effort will be looking for the sons of bitches that tried to kill your people and we will find them."
"What will you do then?"
"Make them stop. We suspect it's the same bunch that our exploration teams have pinned the extinction of at least two non-human cultures on. We're fairly certain their technical superiority isn't significantly better than yours was at the opening of the Clan Invasion."
"Where do I sign up?" asked one of them.
"You don't. YOU are needed to lead , support, and protect your people both on the journey back to the Sphere and after." Mike told her, "Just like looking for stragglers is my job, protecting and supporting your kin is yours. Especially since you can't rely on the Trueborns that abandoned you to do it.  If everyone does their job, we can succeed, but it takes everyone doing their jobs."  he sat down at the table, "So...that segues into the main business here. Which is to say, the 'scutwork' of implementing evacuation plans.  We have twenty four months. Wave One will be arriving in eight..."
-----
Previous Story Arc - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter
Category:Works by CannonShop
Category:The Armada Chapters