Federation Reborn 2: Pirate Rage (31 page)

When a Marine stopped a woman from getting out of line, she lashed out instantly, hitting him. The crowd started to turn ugly, abandoning the line to surround the Marine.

He swore and made his way to where the incident was going on, hoping that he could get there before something bad happened.

He also hoped the Marine would keep his cool and not get trigger happy. Things were already bad enough; if he did pull his weapon, even in self-defense it would have far reaching complications.

“Where were you?!? Where were you when my babies were being killed? When they raped my … my sister??” the woman raged, crying as she beat her fists on the armored chest of the Marine. He tried to murmur reassurances to her, to comfort her but he didn't know what to say. Finally, her hysteria broke down into sobs; after a moment someone took her away. She ducked her head, nodding and quiet as she was led off.

The private saw the crowd was ugly. He hoped and prayed it wouldn't turn violent. He seriously didn't want an incident. Just as someone started to flex, they heard a feline roar. It cut through the tumult, made them turn to see what was going on.

“Where? Where were
you
? Where were
you
when we fought and died to protect you?” Nohar roared. “You want an enemy; he's up there!” he pointed to the sky. “Gone! Gone with your friends! Gone,” he snarled, aware there were cameras watching and recording but uncaring for the moment. “The marines and navy aren’t the enemy. They fought, bled, and
died
to protect you cowards who hid or licked their boots!” he surveyed the sullen group for a long moment before he continued.

“Get back to work, all of you. Focus on helping the others like they are
trying
to do,” he snarled, seeing marines and police officers trotting near. He waved them off with a curt hand sign. They slacked their pace but kept moving forward. He saw that some of the rebellious people carrying weapons suddenly became aware of them too. They realized the odds were shifting far out of their favor. Good, the reality check would be like a douse of ice water on their hot tempers. “We've got a winter to prepare for. Don't waste your energy,” a cat growled, working his way through the crowd.

The crowd parted magically for the feline. The private saw the yellow Neotiger with the squinty right eye and limp. The tiger flicked his tail, eying the marines then back to the crowd. “They weren't the ones who hurt you. They are here to help. Don't get in their way,” he ordered.

“Sir, we've got bad thunderstorms coming in from the southwest. We need to get these people under cover soon,” the private said.

The tiger turned to eye him and then snorted. “Do yourself a favor and shut up,” he growled. The private nodded dumbly.

Nohar turned back to the group. “You heard the man. Prepare for it. Expect flooding, possible other problems. Get on it,” he ordered. They stared defiantly at him. “Well?” he snarled, flexing his claws. “Any of you got a problem you can step up and go through me first,” he growled. He let the growl go deep into his throat. The menace was clear to all. He might be old, but he was still a force to be reckoned with.

The tiger rested his hands on his hips and glared them down. Slowly, starting in ones and twos, but then in larger groups the heads ducked and then they started to melt away under his intense gaze.

“Thank you, sir,” Private Hamid Schnell said softly. He had known it was bad on the ground but hadn't anticipated a backlash. He doubted anyone had.

Nohar eyed the human Marine coldly. The elder cat's yellow eyes, even with his age circles was disconcerting to anyone. Throw in his being a Neotiger and it easily set the normally unflappable Marine on edge. The marine gulped, taking an involuntary step backwards before the wall behind him stopped him. “I didn't do it for them; I didn't do it for myself. I damn well certainly didn't do it for
you
. I did it because I've been there.” He turned away. “The important thing now is to help those we can and bury the dead.”

“And make sure it doesn't happen again,” the Marine vowed.

“Good answer. Make sure of that,” the cat said eying him again. “I'll hold you to it.”

He looked away, knowing an empty promise when he heard one.

---<>))))

The full Intel data dump held on the courier finally made its way to Pyrax on
Destiny
. The data dump was everything
Firefly
and the other ships had picked up, along with their internal reports and comments.

Commander Teague set a couple of analysts to sift through the data along with the computers. She immediately got a priority hit when she reviewed the files the following morning. Curious, she looked them up and was surprised that Commander Sprite had originated the tasking, but she was confused as to why.

When she checked on the flagged files she frowned, unsure of what it all meant since she was seeing the raw feed and not the whole story. She was even more confused when she saw the file highlighted was an audio transcript between fighters and a partially decrypted video file with a couple still images of a female pilot. She assumed the audio and video were of the same person, but wasn't sure why it mattered.

She sent an email query off to Commander Sprite through the ansible. It was faster than trying to schedule a conference.

Sprite received the email and immediately sent a reply. Commander Teague read it with a raised eyebrow and then shrugged. She dumped the file and analysis into a classified folder, encrypted it with Sprite's provided encryption key, then had the data sent out on the next vessel's mail packet to Antigua to be relayed through the convoys to Antigua.

Apparently it was important enough to send the entire file and raw information to the A.I. She was going to get it anyway when Antigua received their copy of
Firefly's
reports but this required special handling.

And Sprite wasn't ready to read her into whatever the hell was going on. So be it. She'd find out eventually, but for the moment she had other more pressing concerns on her mind.

“Anyone finish the ship analysis yet? We need the names, stats, rivet count, everything on them and I mean pronto,” she told her shop.

“Working on it, ma’am,” a noncom called back from the bullpen.

“Work faster,” she growled.

Chapter
19

“You wanted to talk about this Commander?” Admiral Irons asked, indicating the ticker with news splattered on it about Epsilon Triangula. He'd thought the story would have died a natural death but no such luck. He knew when
Firefly
finally did limp into port it would be like tearing a bandage off a scab to expose the wound all over again.

“I know you don't Admiral, but it has to be addressed. The news of what happened to Epsilon Triangula is spreading. Before they just as a bare bones factual account from our press releases. Now they are getting people on the scene. It's not pretty.”

“War never is commander,” Admiral Irons said.

“It's the first time the navy has failed,” Sprite stated, gauging his mood.

The admiral's eyes flashed. “They didn't fail; they just didn't succeed entirely. We got our asses kicked on the ground, I admit that. We weren't there too; I admit that as well. But we didn't lose
Firefly
. We lost a lot of fighters, and I feel for the families of the pilots. I feel for the crew members and officers lost as well. And I know ET got hammered, it's not … not something I'm happy about. We're down, not out. Not by a long shot,” he growled. “Remember that commander."

“No, sir. But some in the media are playing it up for all it's worth.”

He snorted. April was treating it with kid gloves, but he knew she was a special case. Toni Chambers was leaning against them, but that might be more her resentment and bitterness over losing her family on
Kiev 221
to pirates than against the Federation in general “Of course they are. And they are drooling to get their people on the ground. I'm just glad there is no ansible in the system. They'd plaster images all over the sector. It's going to be bad enough when they finally do get more popular reporters on the scene, but by then it'll be all over but the crying and rebuilding will have commenced.”

“Yes, sir. At least we haven't upgraded the ansible to video media coverage.”

“Yes, thank the spirit of space for small favors I suppose. Status on
Firefly
?”

“She's under repair. I understand she lost at least one nacelle and took heavy damage.
Prometheus
should have her buttoned back up and on her way back to Pyrax by the end of the week. She's going to be limited to the low hyper bands however.”

“Slow going. She's in for a reception everywhere she goes too,” the admiral mused.

“Undoubtedly.”

“And they didn't paint themselves with fresh glory sailing in fat dumb and happy like that. So it's put a crimp in my plans,” he said with a grimace.

Sprite's avatar blinked at him. “Captain Mayweather you mean? The board hasn't sat on her reports yet, Admiral. We only have the basics right now.”

“Yes. She was overconfident. She should have known better. It will serve as a warning to others I suppose,” he said as he flexed his jaw. Her trick had worked once in Antigua because she'd had surprise on her side and the opposition had been overconfident. This time she'd gone in against a better opponent with better tools and weapons …, and she'd done it blatantly, without stealth in order to draw them on her. Well, her tactic had worked, but a lot of her people had paid the price.

Then again, they'd drawn the attack away from the planet as the navy should do. It was in the best traditions of the navy to put themselves between civilians and harm's way whenever possible. He couldn't be too hard on her. “We'll have to get the review process moving along now. Under the wire so to speak. Get it moving with the data we have.”

“You're not planning to feed her to the wolves?” Sprite asked carefully.

He snorted. “Of course not. She made a mistake. It happens. This time she survived it. She's going to be her own punishment for some time to come. She's been humbled.”

“Admiral, you know the rule about one oh shit wipes out an entire ledger of attaboys,” Sprite said, eying him thoughtfully.

He reluctantly nodded. “True. And she could serve as a gory example of how not to do something. She will in fact,” the admiral said. “And she's going to have to live with the mistake she made. She knows she got her people killed. It will haunt her. It'll bug her when it is brought up in training too.”

“So …”

“So, we can't give her a white wash, but I'm not willing to lose her services—not when we have so few combat veterans to go around. She'll take her medicine. Part of that will be the freeze on her planned promotion to commodore,” he said with a fresh grimace.

“Your plan went out the lock?”

“Yes,” he agreed with a sour face. “I'd planned on sending her with a fresh raiding task force through B101a1 to cut up into enemy held territory. Dig in deep, tear up their infrastructure, then get out. But now I can't do that. She's going to need to be rehabilitated—in her own eyes, in the eyes of the navy, and in the general public.”

“That takes time.”

“Yes it does. And careful handling. We need good BC skippers,” he said.

Sprite caught on right away. “You're going to bump her?”

“I was planning on it anyway, but I'd thought to skip her to commodore. Now I can't do that since she's going to need time to be rehabilitated.
Firefly
is going to remain in dock for a while. Renee and the surviving crew can get some time off once she faces the music, though I doubt she'll want to with the media circus waiting for her. Getting a new ship under her will get her back in the saddle and give her something to focus her time and energy on.”

“She's been wounded, Admiral. She's going to need recovery time. I agree getting her back up on the horse, as you organics tend to say, is a good thing though. Her sister showing up a few days ago to kicker while she was done probably didn't help her much.”

The admiral grimaced. He'd heard that
Carib Queen
had finally put in an appearance in ET. He could just imagine how that reunion had went.

“Fortunately all the important bits are still attached. She is going to need downtime, that I agree with. How much I'll leave up to her; she's got plenty of leave time on the books.”

“Aye aye, Admiral. But that leaves us open for a raider commander,” Sprite reminded him.

“And I'm down to two I can think of, Vargess or Harris.”

“Both of which are in Protodon. And Trajan just took the reins of
Lady Liberty
. We can't send the ship south; it would disrupt Admiral White's command too much since she is his flagship.”

“Damn it,” the admiral muttered. He exhaled. “I admit; I hadn't gotten that far gaming it out. Harris …”

“And you're not sure of Harris's judgment?” Sprite asked.

“He's …,” the admiral paused and then deflated a bit. “I don't honestly know. Vargess yes. Trajan I know can handle the job. But he's needed with TF22 as you said.”

“At least until Mayweather shows up. You know they have a relationship.”

The admiral sighed and rubbed his face when that fresh reminder came home. “Wait,” he paused, then put his hands down. “When was I planning on sending
her
to TF22?” he demanded, eying the A.I. with scant favor.

Sprite didn't quite roll her eyes, but she did look heavenward briefly. “
Please
. Admiral, you know she's going to need to be rehabilitated. Most of the BCs are going to TF22 for the offensive there. She's not getting promoted, so she can take her ship and go to Protodon. Along the way she'll have time to work her up and get the ship and crew dialed in properly, not thrown into combat going east as you planned.”

The admiral slowly nodded. “True.”

“She'll be under Admiral White's command. Eventually they will see combat. If he thinks she needs more time, he'll make her sit it out, though I doubt it. He'll want the biggest hammer he can hold for going into enemy space.”

“Right,” the admiral agreed.

“So, she'll get a little fresh combat time. Planning the ops and executing them will help her put aside some ghosts and get some payback.”

The admiral cocked his head, considering the painting she had just laid out for him before he frowned. “You're forgetting one thing, Commander.”

“Oh?”

“Those ships that escaped went to Kathy's World.
Kittyhawk
is in transit to Protodon; they should get there ahead of them. That will make life interesting on the jump point I suppose. We haven't gotten word that they've gotten to Kathy's World yet. The picket there has orders to avoid action while protecting the planet.” He nodded. “There isn't enough defenses on the jump point to make them blink. Eventually they'll get through the system and then into Protodon.”
Kittyhawk
had made her repairs with the thanks of the small repair ship and then went on to Protodon to join TF22 before they had found out about Epsilon Triangula. She should be exiting hyper within a day or so. The repair ship had done some work with her limited supplies to service the picket in the star system before she too had returned to Protodon as well.

“No, I didn't forget; I just hadn't gotten that far. She'll miss out on any combat there for that, undoubtedly. The fleet will also need fresh reinforcements however. That part I did count on.”

“Reading my mind?”

“Familiarity breeds a certain amount of contempt, Admiral.”

“Cute.”

“Shall I cut the orders?”

“Write them up but don't execute them yet. Let's see how the review board jumps first.”

“Admiral Subert won't be easy on her,” Sprite warned.

“I don't doubt it. Nor should he be. But he's aware of our plans. He's also aware that she's good, and she did get her ass out of the trap she found herself in. And she did take down one of their cruisers in the process. That counts for a lot.”

The A.I.'s avatar nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. You can slip him a memo outlining my intent though.”

“To give him something to temper his zeal to make her a gory example? And to rein in those who want to scapegoat her?”

The admiral grimaced. “Exactly.”

“Aye aye, Admiral. The eastern raiding force commander?”

“Leave it for now. Harris is now settled in as TF22's First Destroyer Division commander. If necessary we'll swap him for Mayweather's division, have him resupply in Pyrax, then go east.”

“Admiral White won't like the loss.”

“He'll deal with it. He knows the plan. Besides,
Damocles
needs a refit after what she's been through. We've been holding off long enough because he wants Harris's services. Well, Harris deserves a better command now. We've got them going to junior officers, and I know that burns. He's good, and I don't want him going south on us.”

“You could give him
Firefly
.”

“No, a BC will work.”

“He'll need working up time. Probably a lot of it. You can't just throw a division with supports to the eastern mission without it.”

“We'll work something out.”

“And Vargess?”

“He's … damn it …”

“Some things just don't fall into neat holes, Admiral,” Sprite said with a chuckle.

He growled. “Don't remind me.” He scrubbed his weary face then shrugged it off. “For now, we let it slide. Renee isn't there yet. I think he's going to be fast tracked instead of her.”

“To commodore?”

“Yes. The promotion will bump him out of the flag captain position and justify us sending him south to Pyrax to pick up that Eastern division.”

“As a flag officer. We are light there," Sprite observed. "Are you going to form another fleet around him? The eastern attack perhaps?” Sprite asked, sounding curious.

“No. He'll work under Third Fleet's umbrella—a task force detachment to get his feet under him,” he said.

“Very well. It simplifies the paperwork at least,” she sniffed. "Once you get it past the admiralty board," she reminded him.

“Whatever makes it easier on the red tape brigade so they don't take their revenge on me later,” he quipped with a smile.

“Fat chance of that Admiral. You know that.”

His smile broke. “Yes, yes I do. Next problem?”

“Do you want them in order of importance or proximity to you?” she asked. He groaned.

---<>))))

Sprite popped in on the sabotage think tank and noted Fletcher as he left. The A.I. shot her an electronic salute. She returned it along with an updated intelligence file in passing. He took it but didn't respond as he went off to his next duty assignment.

Commander Wong, Sprite, Protector, Proteus, Fletcher, Lieutenant Commander Veber, and other coders were all assigned to a think tank to work on finding and fixing the Wraith sabotage as well as finding and killing the Wraith and any copies it had spawned.

Lieutenant Veber had been brought up to speed on the Wraith once he'd been read in. He'd taken a different approach, one of an outsider considering his background. The Centaurian hadn't the education of the others, so he didn't take anything for granted once he started researching the background. He had become fascinated with past A.I. viruses and attacks. He had compared the Xeno Wraith to the Skynet Virus during Earth's First A.I. War. It had been an apt comparison, however not quite accurate.