Jovien stood on the balcony of his office on the upmost floor of the command centre, Admiral Greyward stood to one side of him and chief scientific advisor Jeff Blumberg on the other side. All three men looked over the city, its lights shimmered in the night air, in the distances the men called see rows after rows of darkened metal power generators, the heart that keep the colony a life.
Jovien turned and leaned back of the balcony’s railing, “Gentleman, my decision is final, no matter what the strategic, economical or technical issues I will expect it to be done.”
“Governor Jovien, you can’t expect us to fight a war with second rate crap!”, the Admiral outburst.
Jovien sharply turned his head and starred at the man, “Michael, I’ve known you a long time haven’t I?”, Jovien asked.
The Admiral calming himself replied, “Yes 23 years to be exact, I knew you when we were still attending military academic on Terra before the great exodus.”
“And have I even, in 23 years given you any reason to think I haven’t a plan or a reason for any of my actions?”, Jovien insisted.
“No, Jov, but…”, muttered Michael.
“But nothing, we are low on resources, we are low on morale, we have lost a major colony, and attack on this last colony is a VERY real prospect. We don’t have time to manufacture the best ships, we have just enough time to make decent ships, ships that will tie up our enemy long enough for us to mount a counter attack.”, Jovien interrupted.
“With all due respect Governor, Michael rises a valid point, even with the cost reduction on the MK2 engine the cost of production is still expensive. We currently only have a few of these engines built and building more with deplete our already limited supply of rare minerals. It stands to reason that if we field any new vessels they should be the best we can build, since once we have used the MK2s in storage, we won’t be able to reinforce our fleet anymore till we regain enough resources. Which considering the currently situation might be sometime!”, intervened Jeff.
Jovien listened to both mens reasons, while Michael spoke with concerned passion, Jeff spoke with cold hard logical. As much as Jovien hated it, there was a good reason to listen to both men.
“Damn it, we know Havoc has a fleet of corvettes and frigates on Planet 12, Planet 11 and now Planet 10 our Homeworld, everything on those worlds have been destroyed the citizens of these worlds are dead or dying, we have a fleet enroute, but by the time they get there we might be fighting to save this colony!”, Jovien explained.
“Then don’t send the ships…”, prompted Jeff.
Jovien turned to face Jeff, “WHAT!?”, Jovien cried. He reached over and grabbed Jeff by the front of his shirt and yanked him toward his face, “Are you suggesting that I abandon 800,000 kaidan citizens in favour of this one world? NO, I’ll tell you this you pencil necked tortoise, no matter what the cost, we will go to the Homeworld and defend our people from the further onslaught from this Havoc. We have already lost enough good people, I will not suffer more just because of your cowardice.”, Jovien threw Jeff back sending him toppling into the side balcony railings.
Jeff lay there for a second, shaking, and dazed, not sure if the war had finally gotten to Jovien.
A hand reach over and grabbed Jovien on the right shoulder, “That enough Jov, damn it man, you never had a temper like that at the academy.”
Greyward was a beast of a man, he easily stood a good 2 inches over Jovien in height and would easily weigh 200 pounds, Jovien knew pushing Michael around wouldn’t be a good idea.
The Admiral gestured to Jeff to get up and said, “Jeff, how about you head back to the lab, I’ll contact you in a bit about what we have decided.”
Jeff got up off the balcony floor, clearly shaking still. “Err yes…”, simply tumbling out of his mouth.
Jeff quickly heading into Jovien office and then out the office entrance, as he left, Jovien turned to face Greyward. “Michael….”, before he could continue a fist shot up under Joviens chin knocking him for six and sending him to the balcony floor hard.
Jovien laid for a moment seeing the countless blinding stars whizzing around his head before sitting up. While Michael was strong, Jovien was not a easy man to put down. The dizziness passed quickly and Jovien jumped to his feet expecting a fight. Michael on the other hand made no further offensive gestures.
“Supposed I deserved that one?”, Jovien finally asked rubbing his aching jaw.
“Do you really have to ask?”, grinned Michael.
Jovien grinned, “Suppose not, take it you thought I went a bit over the top?”
“Just a little Jov, just a little.”, the Admiral remarked. “You almost scared the poor man to death Jovien, you do realise he was only stating a opinion, one that very void of emotion, like scientists tend to do.”
Jovien glanced then looked away, “Yes I know, he didn’t realise what he was saying, he didn’t think of the lives of the people that have died or would die, but only at the numbers. You know sometimes scientists really scare me with how little humanity they can show.”
Michael walked over and lightly placed his hands on either of Jovien’s shoulders.
“Don’t tell me you’re going to head butt me now!?”, mused Jovien.
“Don’t tempt me Jov.”, joked Greyward. “You do realise he had a point though?”
Jovien looked up at Greyward with a guilty look, “Yeah I know, that’s what got to me. He was right, but…”
“I know, we are both military men Jovien, we are taught to protect and defend, to honour and obey. Nothing you could say to Jeff could make him ever understand that.”, Michael reassured Jovien.
“You think we should abandon our Homeworld?”, Jovien whispered in fear that he would be overhead.
Greyward pulled his hands off of Joviens shoulders and to his sides, he turned and walked from the balcony into Jovien’s office. Jovien waited and then followed.
“Truth Jov?”, asked the Admiral.
Jovien nodded, “The truth Michael.”
“You must see it by now surely?”, asked Michael.
Jovien pulled his hands up and and rubbed his face before running his hands through his hair and clamping them behind his head, “Yes I see it.”, he slowly replied with an exhausted sigh. “We are being surroundered on all sides by Havoc, while we can deal with a single fleet of his frigates or corvettes we can’t fight them all. He systemically wiping out all of our worlds and slowly moving towards this one. Now that he has pretty much destroyed our Homeworld it means he is going to field everything he has got against us here… but… he’s left our a massive number of our citizens a live on Planet 10 on purpose, he wants to draw out the fleet so this planet is a easier target.”
Greyward nodded, “Good, I see the academy wasn’t wasted on a politician like you then.”
Jovien groaned, “Problem is I can’t see a way to counter it!”
Greyward cupped his chin, “The Silver Fox’s would certainly make up our numbers but don’t deliver enough firepower to be combat effective unless in massive number. But Jeff was right, we need to keep the MK2 engines for good stuff and not waste them on crap like the Silver Fox’s.”
Jovien nodded in agreement, “Admiral unfortunately we don’t have any other ships that we can use the MK2 engines in at present.”
The Admiral turned and headed for the door, “I guess you now have a reason to apologise to Jeff then.”
“Then what…?”, asked Jovien.
As the Admiral walked out of the governors’ office he shouted, “…Then we’ll make those btds pay for Fadlar 10!”
Continue reading Flaming the Ignorant
