Chapter 3: Exactly One Year Later

October 23^rd, 2350, would see a dramatic change in the overall spectrum. The red planet of Mars stands in the background as the vestiges of space are construed about. An amassing fleet of seven warships is gathering far from the gate array of Fort Prisidia. Six of these warships are of the Magellan class Battleships. Their centripetal rings spin at a slow continuous rate. Their formation indicates that of a guard formation protecting the single most crucial ship in the center.

This UHN warship is that of a fleet carrier design. It is much larger being over 400 meters in length. As we get closer, the full detail comes into view. Unlike the battleships, this vessel carries a limited armament. There is only one small light railgun mounted on the starboard section of the hull and only a few AIO turrets and four torpedo tubes. While the vessel follows a cylindrical design similar to the other warships, the ship seems to have a series of connecting modules. The shuttle and hangar facility is mounted behind two spinning centripetal rings. A series of small antennas could be seen jutting from portions of the hull. In the forward section of the vessel are two large jutting box-like structures. A series of tiny tubes line these sections. There is much activity that is going on with this central vessel. Shuttles are making continuous trips to the facility. Personnel is getting transferred back and forth.

As we get closer and closer, we can finally see that this is some sort of command ship. The name “UHN Ark Royal” is painted on the forward section near the four torpedo tubes. It is written in both English and Chinese with the registry of MCD-9. We eventually fly deep within the gray hulls as a series of habitable hallways line the interior section of the vessel. The ship is quite spacious, but there is some activity that is going on. Maintenance personnel seems to be double-checking each other’s work. Great care is being put in to make sure that the carrier is in full operational readiness. We eventually reach a central room near the centripetal ring as we move through these hallways. Two marine guards are posted by this door. Their fully laden power armor shimmers in the overhead lights. The bottom deck is painted with the red, white, and blue symbol of the UHN.

Many high-ranking officers seem to be gathering in this room as the guards remain in place. Only the magnetic boots keep everyone floating around in the zero-gravity environment. Most of the female and occasional male crews have most of their hair cut or tied down to avoid having it float around in the air. In total, there are about fifty officers. All of them seem to come from respected ships in the gathering fleet. Their red and blue jumpsuit uniforms and black magnetic boots are their respectable form of uniformity. Many of the enlisted are staying clear of the hallway even if their maintenance duties may require them to cross the respected area. The severity of the situation alone was enough to make people more tense than usual. Of course, everyone seemed to have some form of apprehension in some form or manner.

Humans were not the only personnel that was heading to this singular room. A few of the alien officers were that of the T’rintar clan. These Itreans mostly consisted of the Yutilian variety being about four feet in height. Their shorter stature was reminiscent of an anthro Velociraptor. Their black, white, and green skintight uniforms had tiny dress rank insignias to them. They walked on their digitigrade legs and had red magnetic wrappings to their feet. They had feathers on their arms, head, and long tails. They would occasionally bump into others due to the amassing officers. Many of these humans didn’t even show a look at their new allies, even if such an alliance happened almost ten months ago. Much as everyone knew by now, all of these Itreans were women. Their breasts pressed against their uniforms. However, these individuals were a little more attuned to themselves than the taller humans that walked around them.

Among one of the many human officers is that of a bald-headed individual. He had a black mustache and facial features reminiscent of someone that came from former Mexico on Earth. The name tag of Ramírez could be seen before he reached the door. The other officers barely noticed him, even if he seemed like he was being prudish. He only knew enough of what was going to come on this briefing. At the same time, he was still partly apprehensive. He had only heard so much as to what was coming. The whole concept of this planned operation seemed ... ridiculous or foolish.

The door in the corridor opened up as Ramírez stepped in. There was already some commotion as the main stateroom lounge was getting filled to capacity. Many officers already had found seats to sit down with others that were standing. Most of them were talking with others about everything that was about to transpire. With zero gravity, such a problem was mostly mute. Those that sat down had to strap themselves in. However, even then, it almost seemed to Ramírez that many of these officers had been used to sitting down for most of their lives. He folded up his arms and got a fair distance from the doorway.

The room itself was typical for a lounge. It was widely decorated, consisting of a metal table and numerous displays of the Ark Royal, including pictures of an ancient aircraft carrier of the same name on former Earth. There had to be at least thirty chairs. Ramírez already knew that these carriers had the best accessories and equipment to appease the highest of rank. The stateroom also had two large projectors that could be displayed for crew members to watch movies or shows. A portion of the room also had a large allocated wall for various forms of theater or presentations to be delivered.

As Ramírez was about to fold up his arms and perch his back to the wall, he spotted somebody in the diverse crowd of officers and aliens. One of these aliens grabbed his attention. This one, in particular, was an Aksren of the T’rintar clan. Unlike the Aksren of the Aksren clan, these anthro oviraptors were much friendlier. He already had experience with such an interaction long ago, but he looked very closely at this one. She was dressed similarly among the other Yutilians. She had red and green colored scales along her skin, face, and sides. His jaw almost dropped as he wondered if it was really her. The meeting hadn’t started yet. He still had a few minutes to go and ask her. He walked up to her as her gaze went to him. Her reptilian eyes seemed to light up upon seeing him as if she had recognized him too.

“Tara’Talar?” Ramírez asked her.

“Commander Ramírez,” she replied back with a slight wisp in her voice. She seemed pleased as she gave a slight smile from her pointed beak. She even approached him and gave him a brief little hug. Her smaller stature naturally made her press into his side. He momentarily responded in kind with a light pat on her back before she quickly let go of him and retreated away a little bit. A few of the Itreans looked upon her briefly before they continued on with their conversations.

“It really is you. I’ll be damned,” he remarked with a slight smile on his face. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

The oviraptor gave a slight nod from her crested head. “I’m not so surprised. The T’rintar clan wanted me here.” Her accent reflected the similar Japanese, French, and Spanish inflections as she spoke. Her tone seemed calm but slightly severe.

“Agh ... I hope it isn’t because of the whole ‘token Aksren’ idea, right?” He was partially snippy but didn’t mean to be cruel in his words.

“I don’t understand that term...,” she seemed to think about it for a brief few seconds.

Ramírez waved his hand. “Don’t worry about it. How have you been?”

“I am good. How about you?”

The officer nodded his head. “Well enough. Not looking forward to this whole shit.”

“You don’t wish to participate in this coming cam ... cam...,” she stuttered as she tried to find the word.

“Campaign?” he corrected. He folded up his hands as he gave a brief smirk. “Nothing but a bunch of officers talking about a situation that they have little prepared for. This is just a meeting of some half-assed op.”

She seemed to fidget her four-digit scaly fingers for a moment as her tail twitched. “I don’t think that you know everything.”

“Apparently so,” he commented and waved his hand to point at her. “They just grabbed you and threw you in this whole mess too?”

“No, but the T’rintar has interests in fighting the Aksren clan. I am ready to fight for both of our people.”

“You say that so easily. Don’t try to act like this is going to become some glorious campaign. I know better.”

“Then you know why you are going to be a part of this upcoming battle?”

Ramírez’s eyes seemed to show a hint of partial confusion. “No ... I don’t know enough, unfortunately. Pretty much like the rest of this upcoming op, they just clean up house on much of the resources and give half-assed answers. It isn’t being misleading to enemy intelligence. It’s only letting them know everything that is going to happen and become confusing to all of us, instead.”

Tara’talar tilted her head somewhat as she looked away. Perhaps he had made a point in his discussion, and she had nothing to say about it. He sighed as he tried to change topics.

“Ugh ... anyways,” he said. “They didn’t give you a promotion after the whole peace treaty signing?”

She looked at her uniform and shook her crested head. “No ... why do you think they would?”

“Because of how important of a role you played, or ... both of us.”

She shook her head quickly. “Fleet Adjunct is hard to achieve. Few become one.” Her sentence followed with a series of clicks.

He sighed. “Shame ... Finally, get the rank of Captain in a month.” He didn’t show any hint of true satisfaction in his voice.

“You’re being promoted. Good.” While her tone was generally somewhat serious, she continued to show a hint of happiness.

“Still surprised and all. All we did was escort a bunch of ambassadors around several months ago.”

“We did much more than that. You convinced the others to let us in your space. Without you, it would have been harder for the alliance to happen.”

“Hmm ... perhaps.” He paused and changed the topic again. “Your English is much better than it was a year ago.”

“Thank you.”

“So the question arrives of why both of us have been assigned to this whole ... shit storm. Still have the Atra?”

She did a couple of quick nods. “Have they given you a new ship?”

He shook his head. “Had desk jobs since after the peace treaty. Hated it, mostly. Apparently, the UHN wanted to keep me close ... complaints with the crews on the UHN Gabatrix before ... well ... before it was destroyed. I’ve been asking for a new ship.”

“It would be their mistake not to have you command a ship of your own. Maybe that is why they want you to be a part of this.”

“Not so sure about that. I know who is in charge of this fleet action. Knowing him, he purposely wanted me to be a part of this. I don’t know if I should kick his ass or tell him ‘thanks.’” He shook his head.

There was a sense of comfort in Ramírez in being alongside Tara’Talar. Even if he had associated with her once ten months ago, it was like seeing an old friend. Even the Aksren woman appeared to have a similar feeling. He felt a little bit closer to her than most others were in the room. The last of the officers had entered the room. It was going to be a matter of time before the admiral was going to show up.

“Are you ready?” he asked her.

“For what?” she replied.

“This whole op ... from the amount of personnel coming in, it’s going to be a big one.”

She seemed confused as if it was difficult to answer him. “My ship is ready. I will be one of many. My people don’t usually fight this way, but ... yes. My crew and I are ready to fight.”

“It’s been through a fight before. No doubt you can handle this.”

“Many fights. The Atra has survived three battles. Your former Captain, I can thank the last.”

William ... he was about to think about it when the door slid open. The Admiral stepped in as everyone unfasted their straps and started to stand up.

“Admiral on deck!” yelled one of the officers. Everyone stood in attention with the exception of the Itreans that clasped their hands together. A very slight bow came from their heads. Ramírez noted that this might have been how the Itreans paid respect to higher-ranking officers.

The admiral that entered was similarly dressed like everyone else but wore a red and blue fleet cap on his head to symbolize his place of importance. Ramírez recognized this man immediately, almost rolling his eyes. The nametag of Admiral Rex was displayed on his jumpsuit. He had a pale complexion and had a sizeable burly sideburn that ran down from his short curly brown hair. He looked at the others and waved his hand down.

“At ease,” the admiral said as he stepped toward the wall display. His accent already gave off a hint of Scottish to it.

“Rex ... he’s going to command this ... shit,” Ramírez quietly said under his breath. There was a mild sense of annoyance as he pretended to be content.

Rex went and tapped a few buttons on his wrist. His augmented hand easily looked like a real arm, as most augmentations were. A digital display screen popped up that he used to access a main menu file. He went and then grabbed the file and waved it towards the main display projectors in the room. They both started to power up for the officers to look at.

“Listen up, everyone,” the officer addressed everyone. “My name is Admiral Rex Colin of the UHN Ark Royal. This will be our final briefing before we initiate Operation Desert Shrike, the Op that will liberate Cipra from Aksren clan hands.”

A few officers in the room gave a subtle clap, but it was very brief. Then, it suddenly dawned on Ramírez what was going to happen with this operation. It was lightly rumored but never truly confirmed. Most of the officers seemed slightly tense about the situation. Rex seemed somewhat partially enthusiastic, but it might have been possible that he was faking it. Finally, the room’s lights began to darken to give a maximum viewpoint of the projected images. The projectors had started to display a holographic three-dimensional image of the UHN symbol and the T’rintar clan flag. The alien symbol consisted of a green background, a triangle, and a slash mark in the very center. A series of ship schematics also began to show up.

“As many of you know,” Rex explained. “Operation Desert Shrike has been a planned assault for over nine months. Our resources have never been on par with the Aksren. They beat us over a year ago. Now ... we will take it back! Reclaim it!” His hand was barred up in a fist as he briefly raised it. “With the help of our new allies, a joint task force will be launched directly towards Cipra. There, we will launch a landing invasion where we will retake the capital of New Hong Kong.”

The display switched over to show the faces of individuals that will be in charge of the attack. Rex’s face was the first to appear as another person’s face appeared.

“This joint operation will be handled in a position where the UHN will command their forces and the T’rintar will command their own forces. As we speak, the T’rintar are doing their own briefings. Both of our acquired goals are the same. It is our job to reconquer Cipra. I will be placed in overall command of the entire operation. Captain Peizhi of the UHN battleship Bingham will be the XO of the Op in case me or my ship are incapacitated during the assault.”

Ramírez briefly looked over to the former Chinese-looking officer. He didn’t know this captain, but it distracted him long enough that he didn’t notice that his own portfolio picture appeared on display. The commander’s eyes momentarily widened in surprise before he regained his composure.

“Commander Ramírez will be given the tertiary command role in case Peizhi and I are both knocked out during this fight.” The admiral turned his head and looked at the commander. “Commander, Adjunct Tara’Talar, I will need to talk to you after this briefing to convene further on what needs to be done. Ramírez and Adjunct Tara’Talar, your goal is to also serve as the intermediary between our taskforces. Ramírez, you will be stationed onboard the T’rintar battleship Atra.”

Ramírez practically choked upon hearing everything that was just said. He was doing his best with the sudden shock of what his role was going to be. A few of the officers looked at him as he had no choice but to answer professionally and in a military bearing.

“Aye ... Aye Admiral,” he firmly said. His fingers gripped onto his uniform with a rigid stiffness.

“I understand, Admiral, and I give my word that I will follow it,” Tara’Talar responded in her words. Several more of the room looked upon her. She seemed to be handling it better, but then again, Ramírez already knew that she had way more time to understand this whole plan. This was at the very last minute for him. Needless to say, he was set back with everything as he had to make sense of what was going to happen next.

The display altered the image as it displayed the entire planet of Cipra. The desert world was seen in its full glory. The small green patch of land lined between two large canyon walls with the rest of the world mostly covered in sand. A series of tiny green and gray dots began to fill the far spectrum of the planet. A series of red dots also appeared but were much closer to the world. Tactical schematics of various warships were showing up that pointed out the multiple dots, including both allied and enemy vessels. The admiral pointed at the 3d image.

“Much planning has been established,” Rex explained. “Two months ago, the marines, assault carrier crews, and aircraft pilots went through Exercise Awakening Hawk in preparation for prolonged battles on most planetary surfaces. This was in preparation for Operation Desert Shrike, that is to transpire now. The entire siege of Operation Desert Shrike will be set in two different theaters. There will be the battle that will occur in space and the battle that will occur on the ground. While the COs of the assault carriers will be present for this meeting, they will also be conducting a separate meeting in how they will perform the ground invasion. Because of the critical nature of this operation, we will try to keep this short for those captains. The UHN Ark Royal, Bingham, Teixeire, Henson, Mawson, Posseulo, and Mikkelson will be a part of the main attack fleet that is going to lay siege to the planet. The T’rintar clan has assembled a fleet of 400 warships. Their fleet CO is Fleet Adjunct Yuio’larin.”

He gestured and pointed at a single Yutilian amongst the few. This Yutilian had two rows of long blue and green feathers that ran from her top head. Her uniform also had a single large white stripe that lined down the side of her shoulder to her chest. Her green scales reflected the common color of most Yutilians. Ramírez couldn’t make any further observations about this character as Rex resumed his briefing.

“In this joint operation,” Rex explained as he paced the room. “The T’rintar clan are going to place most of their assets towards pressing the attack against the Aksren clan fleet that is in place. Their goal isn’t necessarily to attack and engage on the ground but to wipe out the Aksren fleet orbiting the planet. Our seven warships will be a part of this fleet formation. Yuio’larin does not command our assets, but I will be listening to her advisement during the ongoing attack. Our objectives of this overall battle plan are as follows. One, we maintain the attack and draw the Aksren clan forces away from Cipra. Two, UHN battleships and the Ark Royal are to maintain defense in T’rintar squadron 29. We will be near the left-most portion of the entire formation in place and protect the Haltov Mark 2 Class Replenishment Vessels that are resupplying half of the entire offensive operation in place. Three, we are to provide combat support and provide assistance to our ground forces as we see fit. Objective three is of a paramount rule to this op. When the UHN marine assault carriers reach the planet, we are to break off and try to provide any fire support that the marine forces will need.”