WoWS1 Chpt 20

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==Weapons of War SagaChapter 20==
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Command Deck
HCS Victoria
Deep in the Oort Cloud, Sol Star System
2th January, 2784
09:45 Unity City time
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Helen's perspective
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It had been a lot of years waiting for General Kerensky to finally achieve victory. Still Vicky and her sisters had been busy. 
A few hand picked refugees and former Sol Belters had taken a few forays out to help bolster our numbers and find some useful things.
One of these I was about to put to use.
"You sure you can scramble this?" I hesitated.
"Yes. No more stalling." Vicky was in stern mode again.
It had taken a lot of time and effort but to me it was absolutely worth it. We had yanked Vicky's self destruct device and placed a portable HPG in it's stead.
I flipped the switch.
A coded pulse went to the Hilton Head HPG. It took a little digging but it seamed it was now the only fully functional HPG on Terra.
I sat and waited. I was dreading what came next.
"So how long you think it will be before we get a response?" I turned to Vicky.
The holo projector lit up answering my question.
"So who do I have the pleasure of speaking to?" The face of Aleksander Kerensky spoke.
Now for the next step to maintain operational security.
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"A ghost of the past." Vicky stepped forward to take up the holocamera's perspective.
" I don't recognize you." Kerensky looked like he was about to terminate the connection on his end.
"For the moment, I am just their spokes person. I would like you to clear the room General before I allow them to speak for themselves. The person I speak for asked me to mention the incident between you and a certain someone's wife during the party announcing you as Commanding General." I could swear even though I couldn't see her face she was smirking.
"Clear the room." Kerensky growled.
"Thank you, General. Now we can talk directly and freely." I leaned forward in the command couch.
"Helena Cameron. Of course. It pains me to confirm Richard and Elizabeth as dead." Kerensky was not pained in the slightest in his expression.
"We both know that is a lie. Still shall we get down to business?" I sighed.
"What do you want?" Kerensky's anger was making this easier in a way.
"Well ,General, I'll be honest. I know at best I'd be in a gilded cage if I publicly announced my existence and came anywhere near Terra. Most realistically, well at this point even though I have an explanation it'd tear what's left of the Hegemony apart between those who would follow me and those who would follow you." I let my lips slightly curl into a frown.
"That doesn't answer my question."
"No, I suppose it does not. The trouble with what I want is it is unrealistic. I can't have it. It took me a while to figure that out, but what I figured out quicker was something far more insidious. You see it struck me pretty much right away how quickly Amaris had gained control of the Hegemony. At first I just thought it was Richard's mismanagement and the greed of human nature. But we both know it was far more than even that. You put on one heck of a show saying how you were clearing house of incompetence and corruption but did you really? I think not. Not with it taking over a decade. Now I know I should have done more to help the people of the Hegemony but we both know how that would have really worked out. You though? While I do believe you didn't actually conspire with Amaris to kill Richard, I do believe you conspired with him to get the one thing you always wanted. To play hero at the head of the mightiest military in recorded human history. Thanks to you promoting and re-assigning to get your cronies around you a lot of people died for your vanity."
"You can prove nothing. Amaris is dead and my men believe in me." Kerensky was making it far too obvious I was at least close.
"True. Thanks to my inaction and trying to stay a master of my own destiny, I doubt I would get much support without a true verification. So you're right. I can't come out of hiding anymore. Not without making things a lot worse than they already are. Just the latest in a series of regrets I'll have to live with. So what I will settle for is you leaving. Get out of human occupied space. Take your cult of psychopaths with you. Humanity no longer needs the likes of you." I felt my hand dig into the arm rest.
"Tell me why I shouldn't find you instead? We both know to make a real time HPG connection like this it would not be hard to find where you are transmitting from. I could chalk it up to a RWR holdout causing problems and no one would be the wiser." Kerensky was clearly tapping on something off camera.
"I have a fully charged core. What did you think I was dumb enough to come here and have this conversation without one? We both know you can't track a jump. As far as accepting my deal we both know that's what you really want anyway. You want to play at making your idea of a better humanity a reality. It'll be a lot easier if the other member states aren't interfering and I could sway enough of the public and your troops if I did come out of hiding to make it worse." I smiled.
"If we ever meet again I will kill you." Kerensky growled.
"Seems we have a deal." I hit the jump initiation button.
~~unreality~~
I found I had actually grown to miss the jump dreams. It had been a while since I had one. This one despite being unpleasant was still welcome.
The abstract figures were easy to figure out and the dream was telling me what I already knew. The Great Houses were devouring the remains of the Terran Hegemony and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
~~reality~~
It was also an uncomfortable reminder that despite everything we had managed to build up at Lazarus I was never in a realistic position to save the Hegemony and that had not changed.
My only consolation was that history had recorded me as dead. I would still have to live with this guilt though of not having done more.
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- The End -
;Wiki Note: While this story has ended, it saga was rebooted in form of grander story: Weapons of War Saga: Director-General and her Knights!
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