Epilogue

“Here’s the final after-action report, Admiral,” Commander Dolan said, bringing up the report onto the room’s screen. They had been in control of Sulas space for two weeks now. It had taken this long to get the full picture of the results of the battle.

Sartori looked up from the casualty listing she had been reading. She knew almost none of the names on the list, but she still made it a point to read over everyone who died under her command. She would do the same once a list was compiled of the rebel dead. They were rebels, but they were still Alliance citizens.

The large screen Dolan had activated showed statistics about ships damaged or destroyed on both sides. There were numbers of estimated troops that had landed on Sulas and numbers of prisoners captured from onboard the rebel carrier. The screen also showed a 2D map of Sulas and the areas the rebels now controlled. Most of it was empty swampland around the defense batteries they had captured. Another map showed the odd orbits her ships needed to take to avoid coming under fire from those same guns.

All in the all, the operation would be called a success. But to her, it had been a failure. The rebels had had one capital ship escape, along with several gunships, and the vast majority of the transports had delivered their troops safely to the surface of Sulas. They also controlled three defense batteries, which would make clearing them off Sulas more difficult.

But it would not be impossible. With the reinforcements of the Marine Expeditionary Force, she now had thousands of highly trained marines, in addition to the army defense forces already on the planet. She also had undisputed control of three quarters of the Sulas sky.

“I see one of our prisoners was Major Ocaitchi,” Sartori said, surprised by this discovery. She would have expected a zealot like Ocaitchi to die rather than allow himself to be captured.

“Aye, Admiral,” Dolan confirmed. “His ship turned out to be the one our spy was aboard. We avoided destroying it, and he managed to disable the ship from within.”

“Excellent. With Ocaitchi in our hands, we’ll be able to put some pressure on the rebels.”

“Speaking of our spy, his plan to break free and remain ingrained with the rebels worked. We had to let the carrier escape, but he should have information on their remaining fleet strength in a few weeks. Before we released them, we checked the ship’s computer for the location of Irod. Unfortunately, the crew had already managed to destroy their navigational data before we took it, so no record of the location of their secret base remains. We could try interrogations. Ocaitchi will almost certainly have those coordinates,” Dolan said.

Sartori frowned. The location of the world of Irod had been a bit of intelligence their spy had been unable to acquire. They knew it was somewhere in the sector, relatively close to Sulas, but not what direction. This sector of the galaxy had a very dense cluster of stars, most of which had only been casually surveyed. She could check them all, but only if she had the resources to dispatch a dozen scout ships for a few months.

“Hold off for now. There might not be much of a rebel fleet left, but they still managed to do repel our task force on Kol. Plus, we still have an operation on Enro to plan. The location of an isolated world is of little consequence,” Sartori said. “For now, let us concentrate on trying to remind Major Ocaitchi of his oath to the Alliance. If we can break him, make him remember what it meant to serve us, that will be our best weapon against the rebels.”

“Aye, Admiral.” Dolan nodded. “The task force commanders are waiting to meet with you.”

Sartori sighed. “Very well. I’ll join them in a minute.”

Dolan nodded and left the room. Sartori sat there alone for a moment. Victory against these rebels was going to take longer than she had originally hoped. Her retirement would undoubtedly have to be postponed even further.

They had lost a few ships to the rebels, mostly due to the incompetence of the mercenaries and the rebels’ willingness to make suicide attacks. The reports of the FX-21 appearing to be operational at Kol had her worried. That one ship had driven off an entire task force, coming through the battle without a scratch.

But it was only one ship. If she could turn Ocaitchi back to the Alliance, she might be able to undermine the rebels’ will to fight. It could take time, but a few more victories like the one today would show that the Alliance would not surrender to terrorism. The rebels could keep their shipyard on the backwater world of Kol. She would take back the rest of the sector.

Saracasi stood before the airlock onboard Chavatwor’s new orbital shipyard. In the three weeks since she had fought off the Alliance task force, it had arrived and the Kowwok shipwright had moved work on all large ships into orbit. This included the repair work being done on the Audacious.

She wasn’t alone in the airlock chamber. A team of marines led by Asheerah Aru and a medical team led by Dr. Istru waited a short distance away. Beside her, Fracsid Relis and Solyss Novastar stood silently. Up until a short time ago, Saracasi had thought that these two men and their ships had comprised the entirety of the remaining Union fleet. But then the Defiant Glory had appeared.

When the carrier jumped into orbit, she had debated simply blowing it away. It did not seem possible that it could have broken free from the Alliance after being captured. Her instincts told her to suspect a trap. Unfortunately, she had held onto hope that her brother was still onboard.

“What do we do if General Ocaitchi isn’t there?” Fracsid asked, breaking the silence. “We can’t just follow his orders, knowing what we know.”

“What exactly do we know?” Solyss said. “General Dustlighter said he thought Commander Brieni was the traitor, but he didn’t have any evidence. We can’t arrest a man on suspicion.”

“But if he is the traitor, and General Ocaitchi isn’t here, then he’s the senior officer. We can’t have him in command of the navy!” Fracsid argued.

“So our choice is to either let a potential Alliance mole lead us, or arrest a man without evidence, just like we’re fighting the Alliance for doing?” Saracasi said, exasperation in her tone.

A tone sounded from the airlock, and the light above the door shone green, interrupting their conversation. Saracasi decided that they would just have to hope that her brother was on board and he could decide what to do. He trusted Davidus, but he didn’t like the man, so she had no idea what decision he would make.

The airlock door slid open, revealing a dirty brown Kowwok with his left arm in a sling. She recognized the Kowwok as Tadashio, the Defiant Glory’s operations officer. As she had still been half-expecting a troop of Alliance marines to be on the other side, she breathed a sigh of relief.

“Major, am I glad to see you,” Tadashio said, pain evident on his furry face.

“Same here. Now, Specialist, go see Dr. Istru,” Saracasi immediately ordered.

“I was told to escort you to the CIC, ma’am.”

“We know the way. Get that arm looked at,” Saracasi insisted. Based on the quality of the sling Tadashio wore, the medic who had gone with the Defiant Glory must be among the injured or dead.

Saracasi stepped aside to let Tadashio through the airlock. Before she could board the ship herself, Asheerah moved forward with two marines and proceeded onto the ship. The Liw’kel marine had wanted to seal off the airlock and storm the ship, but Solyss had insisted she wait further down. He had more confidence than Saracasi did that the ship was still in Union hands.

Following the marines onto the ship, Saracasi walked down the corridor toward the stairwell that led up to the bridge. Several lights were non-functional. There were blaster burn marks on the bulkheads. There had definitely been a firefight aboard.

Emerging onto the bridge, Saracasi found what looked like a scene from a horror story. The metal decks were stained with blood. Computer terminals flickered or were dark. Fortunately, whoever had died up here had been taken away a while ago.

Among all the chaos, Saracasi’s wish for a happy ending was crushed when she saw Davidus Brieni standing at the command terminal. Kaars Aerinstar stood beside Davidus, the two Terrans talking quietly. The rest of the bridge crew went about the task of shutting down the ship now that she was docked.

“Commander,” Saracasi said, deliberately not using Davidus’ honorary title of “captain,” “where’s General Ocaitchi?” Davidus turned toward her group as they came up the stairs. His expression was dark, worry lines creeping out from his eyes.

“I wish I knew. When we managed to break free and retake the ship, he and Colonel Cargon were not aboard. For the first day after we were captured, they were imprisoned with me and the other officers. But then the Alliance started taking us each out for interrogation. I never saw them again after they were taken.”

Saracasi sighed heavily. That meant her brother was still a captive of the Alliance. But he had survived the battle. That meant he was alive. He had gotten her out of an Alliance prison once, and now she would have to return the favor.

Unfortunately, that would have to wait. For now, she had a hard choice to make.

“Commander Brieni,” Saracasi began, “evidence has come to light that the Union was betrayed to the Alliance at Sulas. You have been implicated in this treason. I’m afraid I’m going to have to take you into custody until we can sort everything out.”

Her words hung in the air. Davidus just stood there, his cheek quivering, either from exhaustion or anger, Saracasi wasn’t sure. He said nothing in response, which surprised her. After a moment, Solyss gestured for Asheerah to come forward and arrest him.

Shrugging off the marines, Davidus straightened his back. He cast an accusatory glare at Saracasi. “Just like your brother, you can’t stand being forced to serve under me. Justice will prove me innocent.”

As she watched the marines lead Davidus down the stairs, Kaars stepped up beside her and said, “I never would have thought him a traitor.”

She ignored the man. Davidus was an arrogant ass, and she couldn’t take the chance that he was the traitor, but she wasn’t entirely convinced that he was.

“Now what?” Fracsid asked. “With General Ocaitchi a prisoner, General Numba dead, Commander Brieni arrested, and General Dustlighter trapped on Sulas… what do we do now?”

Silence filled the air for an uncomfortable moment, and Saracasi took a deep breath.

“We keep fighting.”