WoWS2 Chpt 13

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==The Weapons of War Saga: Director-General and her KnightsChapter 13==
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===Shocked and Regroup===
Helena’s office, SLDF in Exile HQ
New Unity City, Lazarus
Lazarus System
1st April, 3062
14:10 Unity City Time
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Helena's perspective
“How bad is it?” Helena still felt terrible for the disaster that had unfolded because she had hidden away for so long.
“Billie Hoel, Lucy Heerman, Ottilie Lee Dennis, and Joana Clarice Butler will all need significant yard time. Inspections also revealed worrying levels of material fatigue. Fortunately things have sorted themselves out enough that with the salvage from our interloper and the insurrectionists we can also bring many vessels up to new standards while also performing the Service Life Extension Programs. The difference in yard time with how extensive the damage and material fatigue in our fleet will be quite small.” Regina Marbury Raymond was the temporary secretary while the others were seeing to their repairs and patrolling the outer system.
“What are we talking here timewise?” Helena sighed.
She wanted to hurt the Word and hurt them bad for what they had done but she knew the answer she was about to get would force her to have to wait too long.
“At M9’s maximum rate and how many hulls still need their SLEP refits while maintaining enough of a contingent for system defense based on 66’s best assessments of the Word’s Naval power? Our best projections show that it is going to be about 20 years before we have sufficient force to both protect the system and launch any sort of meaningful counter attack or offensive operation.” Regina answered.
“So we need to find a way to bolster our numbers and resources short term. Time to take some risks. Fortunately we’re all from the Star League era so we have some ideas about where to start looking and we have a guest that can tell us a whole lot about what the Word knows about what has already been picked over. One destroyer and one Jumpship at a time to recover what we can. That is all we can risk until the fleet is back in order.” Helena hated the current situation.
Part of her knew she was repeating an old pattern. Outside world gets scary, hide here, wait for it to pass, and things to get better. And while it seemed in her absence many things had gotten better it still felt like an excuse rather than strategic reality.
She just had to hope that the traitors at least had the decency to wipe their navlogs. Otherwise the Word could hurt them quite bad right now.
The bandages on her head itched. Simon was right. He had a fault that needed repairing and that meant surgery. It wasn’t the first time she had to go back under the knife to have something in Simon fixed but with how long her vacation was Helena was actually quite surprised at how long he had lasted before developing such a fault again.
As uncomfortable as it was it was a reminder that eventually Simon would fail and so completely that the chemical imbalance that her head trauma produced would kill her.
Despite how morbid it was Helena actually found some comfort in that.
If he had been fully functional she wondered how differently things would have gone.
She sat back and drank her herbal tea as she listened to the fleet chatter in her head.
As a tribute to a fallen sister, the fleet had taken up a new term. ‘Jump in Anger Close’ was the result of a minor fault in a language processor of THQ-M5D103 during her final combat. The fleet was now adopting it to mean jumping in so close to a target to almost crazy jane and expressing their anger at their enemy with heavy naval gunfire before they could react.
It made Helena smile. Then the light delay from Vicky made her smile even more.
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===Roughing Up Oscar===
An interrogation room
Little Ritchie’s Time Out Bin
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Victoria’s perspective
The man seemed to be fumbling with his forearms as she walked into the room.
“I am afraid those will not work on me. Neat trick those. Cybernetic implants to boost and dispense human pheromones. Based on what Helena told us that explains much. Even if you were to get loose and overpower me there is no where for you to go. You know you really did a number on Helena. She finally started connecting with another human being. After all the centuries of isolation. She really needed that. Now it is going to take a miracle to get her to ever be that trusting again.” Victoria said as she closed the door behind her.
“She really is Helena Cameron isn’t she?” Oscar stopped fidgeting.
“You do not seem entirely surprised by that.” Victoria stared at Oscar.
“The interrogation I was forced to perform on her revealed that fact. Despite that, part of me still doubted it. Now you, you should be putty in my hands right now so it seems you were correct in your assessment. What kind of cybernetics you must have , I wonder? Your limbs for sure based on the way you move.” Oscar stared back at Victoria.
“As remote as the possibility of your escape from this facility is, it would seem unwise to reveal the full extent of my true nature to you. Suffice it to say you broke the heart of and did significant emotional damage to a very dear friend of mine. No, friend seems wrong. More like sister. Yes that fits much better. You hurt my sister. Now I must break you.” Victoria smiled.
Oscar’s face drained of color at Victoria’s ominous tone.
Even with the light delay from the orbiting penal moon Helena’s satisfaction was not long in coming as Victoria shared the feed from her remote with Simon.
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