Song of the Void

”Misunderstandings and lack of communication are two of the most tragic reasons for hostilities. Everybody knows misunderstandings can happen and are constantly told to try and avoid them during whatever training or education they receive, yet they still happen. Sometimes you just don’t have the time to find out the truth, so you have to operate on the information you have, which can lead to misunderstandings. Sometimes emotions and prejudices take control. If you see a Shinzen ship combing through the wreckage of one of your ships, you don’t stop to ask questions. You already ‘know’ what happened. That isn’t to say all assumptions are purely bad. Often the obvious answer is the correct one, and further investigation will simply waste precious time and resources. You can’t do anything if you’re unwilling to deal with certain levels of uncertainty. However, sometimes misunderstandings have dire consequences.”

- High Ambassador of the Mrrroww

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Leon had been nervous and irritable for the last few weeks. The crew was aware of the reason why, so they didn't make a big deal out of it. Leon was also good at hiding his irritation and usually didn't take his emotions out on those around him. Still, he was stricter and terser when someone made an error or wasted time. Today was no different, except in that he was displaying his irritation a bit more openly with his fingers tapping at the armrest of his chair on the bridge of the ‘Slingshot’.

“Captain, we have been sitting here for weeks now. Is there something we should know? This is highly unusual.” Lieutenant Dieudonné asked. The crew had always been pretty good when it came to not asking questions that should not be asked, but Dieudonné had a point. The ‘Slingshot’ was a valuable asset both to the military and otherwise, and having it just sit in an almost abandoned system for weeks was odd, to say the least.

“There are many things that you should and shouldn’t know Lieutenant, but this time you may be on to something. I was expecting new orders as soon as our last mission ended as well, but I’ve heard nothing besides the usual ‘stand by’ which is the fleet’s way of saying ‘no orders, now stop asking’. I can only imagine they have some kind of plan in mind, but they aren’t in a sharing mood. Which isn’t exactly new, in case you were wondering.” Leon replied in a resigned voice.

Suddenly the bridge was filled with the beeping of instruments and several alarms. “Captain, we have incoming phase jumps! Lots of them!” Lieutenant Finck reported clearly agitated.

“Any communications?” Leon asked.

“Not yet sir!” The Lieutenant Dieudonné replied, and Leon was already preparing to call for battle stations. The ‘Slingshot’ wasn’t exactly heavily armed though.

“Wait, we have more incoming ships and we’re getting readings! The ships read as standard Tetrarchy combat vessels. I’m reading several battlecruisers, a handful of combat frigates, and a whole lot of destroyers, and battleships. Sir, there’s a dreadnaught at the center of the fleet. The IFF identifies the dreadnaught as Manticore!” Lieutenant Finck announced.

“Manticore? What's the Port Aurora fleet doing here?" Leon asked in confusion. "Lieutenant, get me an exact count of the ships and start the procedures for assisting the fleet with a long-range jump. I doubt they brought the entire fleet here for a social call, and the only thing worth a damn in this system is us."

“Captain, the flagship is hailing us. It’s Admiral Gestalt.” Lieutenant Dieudonné interjected.

“Captain, they brought over a hundred vessels and well over sixty of them are destroyer class and above!” Lieutenant Finck gave the information Leon had asked earlier. “We still have some of the stragglers arriving so the number is not exact yet.”

Leon gave a small whistle. "Put the admiral through," Leon ordered. He and the admiral were acquaintances. They were not close enough to be called friends, but they had mutual respect and the admiral apparently had hopes for Leon's future. Good officers were worth nurturing and Leon had shown his skills before.

“Admiral Gestalt!” Leon made an official military salute by bringing his right fist to his heart.

“Leon. I imagine you have some questions. Some I may even be able to answer. You might want to make this private though.” The admiral suggested with almost a gentle expression, which meant that he had bad news.

Leon inserted an ear-piece and gestured for the others to clear his surroundings. “Is this about Miyo?”

“In a sense.” The admiral replied. “As much as I adore your fiancée, we don’t move entire fleets just for that. The news is slowly trickling out anyway so you’d find out in a few weeks, so I might as well give you heads up. The ship that you helped make a long jump missed the time they were supposed to report in. They had maintained darkness protocol until arrival and sent a simple signal to signify they had arrived successfully. They were supposed to report in soon after with details but didn’t. They have already missed three scheduled communiques and we have to expect the worst. We have no idea what has happened, but the situation doesn’t look good. I’m sorry Leon.” The admiral had always been a fan of Leon’s fiancée.

Leon’s mind was in turmoil. He had been feeling a growing sense of dread and now the worst was happening. He cleared his throat. “I’m assuming the fleet isn’t here just to deliver the news.”

“Obviously. Like I already said, I wouldn’t move the fleet for your lovely Miyo, even if I’d love to find her. I certainly wouldn’t do it just to give you the news. Even if something happened to them, they did manage to send the all clear about their arrival. That alone has great strategic value. A viable second route to the rim is exactly what we need, and we are going to secure it even if their original mission has failed. If we can help finish the mission or even save the missing crew, then even better. Our fleet will need your Phase Jump Accelerator to give us a little boost. Once we arrive and have secured a beachhead, we will start fortifying the target system and we’ll build a stable warp lane hub between this system and the destination system. The constructor vessels are already on the way and will start their work as soon as they arrive.” The admiral explained.

“Admiral, take me with you.” Leon suddenly requested.

"Leon…" The Admiral started with a warning tone.

“Admiral, my crew is good at what they do and can perfectly handle any duties assigned to them. Since the need for secrecy is already gone with a full fleet here, my presence is not necessary. You know I need to do this admiral and why. You also know that if I have to find another way, I will.” Leon’s mask of calmness was breaking.

The admiral was quiet for a long time. “I suppose I could use an adviser. I’ve already mentioned to some of the others that you would make for a fine admiral someday, assuming you get real experience in battle and extra training in the more strategic parts of leadership. This might be a good opportunity to provide you with both. But Leon, realize that I’ll need you focused on this. We can’t have you running off on some desperate hunt to save Miyo. We also can’t have you break down if we find her and she’s dead. Are you sure you want to risk seeing her like that?”

“I need to know admiral. I need to see what happened with my own eyes. Not knowing will destroy me even more than seeing her body would.” Leon’s voice finally cracked with suppressed emotion.

“Have it your way then. Report on the Manticore before your fine crew finishes preparing for the jump." The admiral gave the permission and closed the connection.

Leon drew a deep breath. “Lieutenant Dieudonné, you’re in charge while I’m gone. Prepare to aid the fleet in making a long distance jump. The coordinates will be provided soon.” He announced in a loud voice. The crew had heard his side of the conversation so they knew what to expect. Mostly.

“Oi! The doofus in charge? Really?” Lieutenant Finck protested.

Leon simply gave a suffering gaze to the Lieutenant. Dieudonné, on the other hand, was all smiles despite knowing Leon just got bad news. He was trying to lighten the mood. "Sir, how long do I get to lord this over Finck?”

“At least a month. Now snap to it, I still have to swing by my quarters to pack in a hurry.” Leon stated and almost ran out of the bridge. As soon as he did, everyone got serious expressions.

“Miyo’s gone huh?” Finck said quietly.

“Looks like. Captain still has hope, it seems. Otherwise, he would be much worse." Dieudonné replied.

“Captain always has hope. That’s one of his better qualities. We have to keep him grounded.” One of the other officers stated in a sad voice.

“I always liked Miyo. Sad to see her gone.” Finck shook her head sadly.

“Unfortunately we are at war and it seems like things are heating up. We will lose many more friends before this is over. I just hope the Captain won’t become one of those we lose.” Dieudonné stated in a somber tone. The size of the fleet suggested they were preparing for battle.

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Amaterasu entered the council chambers wearing her official regalia, a stunning red and white dress that was far less practical than she liked. It did have the additional advantage of covering her entirely aside from her eyes. The gathered officials clad in simple but detailed attire stood while she entered and waited until she was seated and gestured for them to take their places. “Report.” She commanded. The High Lords knew what to report first, as they were already familiar with her preferences.

“Your Majesty, the new shipyards around Tempestus are finished and they are starting operation as we speak. As the shipyards have been a major project for years now, we have freed up a lot of materials and personnel for other projects. The new shipyards will require investments for their production as well, but only 30% of the personnel that was used earlier. We expect our production of combat class vessels to double once the shipyards get into full operation and we have added a second facility capable of handling projects of dreadnaught size and up. We may be able to start our Titan class project given enough testing.” The High Lord in charge of large public and strategic works stated.

“We have increased the training capacity of our naval academies by three hundred percent and are doing our best to facilitate more military and officer genetic enhancement and nanite insertion. That will be the largest bottleneck for now. We expect to have enough personnel ready to take their new positions as soon as the new shipyards start completing the ships.” The High Lord in charge of personnel supplied.

“Good. We have been quiet for far too long. The Tetrarchy has lulled themselves into a comfortable sense of security since we have not made large moves since we secured the passage to the galactic arm and the war stagnated. Our new offensive should take them by surprise and push them closer to the brink. The new ships and personnel will make sure we will not be losing due to attrition. How are our current forces?” Amaterasu looked towards the High Lord in charge of the fleets. Most called her the Grand Admiral.

“We have over three thousand capital class vessels ready and armed, waiting for orders. Ships under the size of destroyers number over ten thousand, plus all the support vessels. We have the technological advantage and match the enemy in numbers. We have also prepared enough supplies to last ten years even at extreme levels of consumption, and that’s assuming all our forces are suddenly cut off from all additional supplies, which is unlikely. We have already made plans for the eventuality of our supply lines stretching due to our fleets pushing into Tetrarchy territory. All in all, we do not have an overwhelming advantage but we have reasons to be confident.” The Grand Admiral reported, underselling their advantage a bit.

“You have my permission to go ahead with the operation and look further into the Titan project. Remember, we are not aiming for a quick victory, although that would be nice if you can manage it. This war will last for years to come and the situation will inevitably change in some unpleasant ways. Prepare accordingly. Now, tell me about the other thing.” Amaterasu turned to the subject that might turn out to be equally important, or might be just bad news.

The High Lord of information gathering and exploration cleared his throat. “Your Majesty, We have sent a sizeable fleet to the coordinates provided. We found the wreck of a Psicom special operations vessel with most of the crew still alive. We have finished questioning some of the crew, and we are still questioning the higher ranked ones that are trying to keep their mouths shut. As Psicom, they have trained against mental intrusions so this might take a while. Half of them are scientists though, and they were much easier to handle."

“So what did you find?” Amaterasu asked.

"Well, your hunch was correct, though on a larger scale than we imagined. Apparently, a Tetrarchy scout had made a jump from the galactic spiral arm to the rim, and accidentally stumbled on a fully intact ship that was determined to be built by the Progenitors." The High Lords stated and only iron discipline kept the others from making a ruckus.

“Was this ship recovered?” Empress asked with excitement. This could be huge.

“Not by us, and according to what we found out, not by the Tetrarchy either. Someone else had gotten to it first. They had just launched an expedition to the ship’s hangar bay, and Envoy Miyo Tsujii had managed to enter the ship proper through the use of a transport device. According to what we have managed to piece together, they think she accidentally entered the transportations device, but we assume Envoy Tsujii was attempting to steal the ship by reaching the bridge in hopes it was still operational.” The man explained.

"Good girl," Amaterasu said with a smile.

"Agreed, the plan was not without merit considering the situation. Unfortunately, that's where things went wrong. It seems some other being had already entered the ship before, although they found no sign of other ships. This is where things get a bit confusing and the reports vary. According to some this being was a powerful Deity that took out everyone aboard the Progenitor ship and then proceeded to disable the Psicom vessel and kill the Deity they had brought along as protection. Sometime later the progenitor ship just vanished. We have no idea what happened to Envoy Tsujii, but it doesn’t look good.” The High Lord ended his report.

“Well, I wouldn’t count her out completely as she was alive when the mindshield broke, but we should assume she is gone. Such a shame the ship was lost and I hope we can figure out more once we get the officers to talk. The least we can do is find out who got the ship and see if we can work out a deal. We’ve had a lot of luck deciphering the technology of the Progenitors.” Amaterasu tapped her chin through the veil covering her face. “The Tetrarchy is unlikely to abandon this new route even with their ship lost, and will likely send a sizeable fleet to secure the system. Set up an ambush for them. Assume they are serious about the whole thing and expect an entire fleet. Make sure we can deal with that.”

“Yes Your Majesty!” The Grand Admiral acknowledged with a grin. She had already been planning this very thing and it was nice to get the go-ahead.

“Do we know anything about the third party?” Amaterasu asked.

“Nothing concrete just yet. We did hear that they may have used one of the mechs the Progenitors had left in the hangar bay the Tetrarchy troops first entered. That and the fact that they are strong.” The High Lord replied.

“That’s not nearly enough. I don’t care what you have to do to get the information in the heads of the people we captured, but get it done!” Amaterasu ordered, and her figure suddenly vanished as it had been a hologram the entire time.