Chapter 4: The Hopeless Fallen(Continued)
System: System: Ribos
May 20, Year 2371, 00:45 hours.Bridge: (FORMER)GTD Destiny A'thor looked out over the bridge, thoughts consumed his mind. Everything had gone wrong, SOC picked up something, he wasn't sure what, he had been very good at keeping his footsteps clean. Still they had knew, but the question is how much. He shook off the thought, not all of it, or they would have acted much differently. What has was doing was right, his mission, to save the human race.
His communicator beeped. Reaching down and pulling it up to his mouth.
"A'thor"
"Sir, please come to the Command room. We have received disturbing news."
"On my way"
A'thor turned and walked toward the elevator, walking by several crew members. After he entered, the door shut and he pulled out a card and inserted it into the slot. The elevator shook a little as it moved upward. With a slight jolt, the elevator stops and the doors opened. and he walked through the doors into the command room. The magnetic locks clicked behind him.
"Sir" a middle aged man wearing an officers garb saluted and handed him a file.
A'thor flipped it open and as he read it, his expression turned sour.
"Are you sure of this, Boaz?"
"Yes sir, we have confirmation from three spies"
A'thor sat in the chair on the end of the long conference table and rubbed his eyes with his hand as he dropped the file on the table.
"Send a message to all the ships in the vicinity. Tell their captains to report immediately for a meeting."
"Yes Sir" Sidney Boaz saluted and walked out of the room.
A'thor sipped his coffee, things had just taken a turn for the worst.
May 20, Year 2371, 02:30 hours.
Command Room: (FORMER)GTD Destiny The room was filled with chatter as the ship commanders assembled. Everyone quietened down as A'thor entered and sat down with a stack of files in his hand.
"Gentlemen, I fear we have hit another snag."
"Another snag? You said this would be an easy operation." Kieth Brown, commander of the GTD Everest spoke hard.
"I never said this would be easy" A'thor retorted back.
"But yes, you can say that I was at fault earlier, but in this case, even the blame is not on my hands. Boaz." A'thor shook his head.
Boaz dimmed the lights and a large screen lit up.
A media reporter sat at a desk, the graphic on the screen stated" Link with Earth Re-established." The woman began to speak.
"Thanks for joining us, top story tonight is based on the report by the spokesperson of GTVA Command, the link with Earth has been re-established, wait, I'm getting word that a press conference is beginning, we are going live to it"
The screen changed to a conference room with the GTVA logo behind the podium, the room filled with reporters chattering. The room quietened as a man, dressed as high officer walked to the podium.
"Thanks for arriving on short notice, we felt the need for this press conference to assure the population of our commitment to your safety. As all of you know about the stand off in Ribos by Science Minister Paul A'thor, also of the standoff in Delta Serpentis. Well, the stand still in Delta Serpentis has been dealt with.."
A'thor watched the expressions of confusion among the commanders and they whispered briefly between each other.
"Early yesterday morning, by means we are still investigating, several ships entered Delta Serpentis through the jump node from the Solar System, the lead ship, the Galatea quickly destroyed the rebellious ships before making contact with the GTVA in Beta Aquilae. As of right now, SOL is now once again rejoined with the Galactic Terran Vasudan Alliance."
The room filled with chatter from the reporters.
"The commander of the Galatea has agreed to take the ship on the offensive and take back Ribos. We are...."
The screen turned off and the lights brightened.
The room filled with voices.
"Gentleman, gentlemen, please.."
The room quietened and order was restored.
"I didn't bring you here without a solution."
"May I ask, what is your solution?" Stephen Miller, commander of the GTD Superior, sternly said in a sarcastic, unbelieving tone.
"We will get to that soon enough"
"What is the size of that ship? Philip Clark asked.
"Recent reports from our spies say at least eight kilos, armed heavily and with armor we could barely scratch with our combined guns."
"Then what do we do?" Brown asked.
"First of all, we keep our wits. The only reason that was released to the press, was to scare us into action, thus doing something stupid and playing into their plans. We all must remember, it's only one ship and by my calculations, it would take quite a while for it to get into position to be used against us in battle.
"Is our primary goal still the same?" Miller questioned.
"It is, and I must know, what would we all give to protect humanity? After all, even if we don't risk anything, our lives will still come to an end. Therefore I ask you to put your lives on the line, so that your children will live, and not only will they live, but all of us in this room will be remembered as heroes. Saviors of the human race! And our families will bask in that glory. Our children will grow up respected! So, is our individual lives worth saving the ones we love?"
The men all sternly faced, looked at A'thor who was not standing.
"After all, our lives mean little compared to the sustaining of our race. But, I would not ask of you what I would not do myself, therefor my life will be on the line too. We must succeed, gentlemen. We must!"
A'thor slammed his hand on the desk.
"Any objections?"
The men looked around for a second, but not one raised his hand.
"Then it's settled, let us bring true peace to our civilization."
Chapter 4 End.
