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*Rise of the Warspite*
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by HappyTarget: [QB] CHAPTER 17 [Harrington Steading, Grayson] Thad made his way towards Harrington Steading's hospital. The more seriously injured of the marine boarders and their prisoners had been brought here once the Warspite had entered orbit. Shipboard facilities were first rate on the Warspite, but nothing could beat a dirtside hospital. Entering the wing where the marines had been transferred, Thad noticed a concerned looking man in the green and black of the Manticoran Marines. Col. van Yurgen was pacing briskly back and forth in the waiting room. Looking up as he sensed Thad's approach, Linus turned to him and gave a ghost of a smile. "I always hate waiting to find out how bad my people are. During a battle I can at least do something constructive. Letting someone else look after 'em is very hard for me to do." "I know the feeling. Being unable to do anything more for them is tough to accept. All you can do is save as many as you can then let the doctors pick up the pieces of those you couldn't." Thad returned the concerned smile, one commander to another. He had seen more than his fair share of comrades at arms killed in the line of duty. Despite that, a part of his brain screamed at him for causing their deaths. Taz curled his tail around Thad's neck as his subliminal purr intensified. Forcing his thoughts away from that dark corner of his mind, Thad again thanked the stars for dropping the cat into his life. Linus blew air through his lips explosively. "My brain knows that, but my heart sometimes insists I could have done something else." Pulling Thad towards him, he lowered his voice so only the two of them could hear it. "You did the right thing Captain, despite what anyone else says. Stopping those weapons was worth much more than the price we paid. You saved many lives on Masada because of your actions today. You are a good man, don't let anyone tell you different." Linus' free hand griped Thad's shoulder firmly. Pain was the most apparent emotion on his face, but Thad saw respect in his eyes as well. The moment between them was broken when a doctor rounded the corner to the waiting room. Both officers straightened and three pairs of eyes sent questioning gazes to her. If the hospital's doctors had been upset at her insistence on looking after HER patients even after they left her sickbay, they had hidden it very well. Surgeon Commander Viola Romanoff looked bushed, but she still managed a tiny smile. "Well, it looks like everyone is going to live. Corporal, no Sargent" remembering his post battle promotion a second to late, "Carter will need to be shipped out to Manticore ASAP so that he can get his missing feet replaced, but I expect that he will make a complete recovery. It was touch and go there for a while, and he lost an enormous amount of blood, but he is a tough one. Sargent Carter should be able to return to duty in about eight months. His wounds were by far the most serious of those injured. The rest can be treated here on Grayson and should make complete recoveries as well." Grins sprouted on anxious faces as the Warspite's CMO announced the good news. "Well that’s a relief! Thank you very much Cmdr. Romanoff." Col. van Yurgen said. The doctor's hand disappeared from view as his meaty paws clasped around it. "Can I see them?" "I suppose so, just keep it brief! They really need to rest." "You have my word as an officer and a gentleman." Linus said in a very solemn voice. Then he disappeared around the corner to his people. [Midas System, PRH, One Week Later] Adm. Sarah Grant made her voice silent by sheer force of will. Inside though she was going through every curse and oath she had ever heard. Some of them were quite colorful. One didn't stay in the Navy for over 20 years and not pick up a rather large repertoire of them. She looked down at the list of ships assigned to her battle squadron again, hoping that it has somehow magically changed. The ship names remained, unwavering, unaffected by her seething emotions. True, they were mostly new build units, and any commander should have been damned near ecstatic to get so many of them. But far to may names on that list weren't even Naval vessels at all. They were State Security ships, crewed and commanded by the SS personnel. Though it would have gotten her killed if anyone learned about it, Sarah still though that giving SS first pick of the newest units was utter stupidity. She wasn't naive enough not to see why they got them, she just thought that they would be of better use in Naval hands. When you ruled with an iron fist, you needed the best tools to crush all opposition. Hence State Security got as many, or nearly so, of the new cruisers and battle cruisers as it wanted. Thanks to illegal Solarian League tech transfers to the PRH, these new designs came much closer to their Manticoran brethren than any that had come before them. Their ECM suites were generations more advanced than those they replaced, though still not up to Manty standards. Their missiles and penaids were also several orders of magnitude better than any previously carried by a PRH ship. Finally her anger won a small victory. Sarah softly uttered one word, yet it dripped with the fury that boiled inside her. "F***!!!" It wasn't that the ships themselves were bad combatants, despite the changes SS had made to the Navies original designs. No, it was the crews and officers that inhabited them. Many were in the SS because their warped minds thirsted for the terror and unspeakable acts that SS personnel were required to implement. Some had even had previous naval experience, but had been unable to rise above junior rank due to their distorted sense of right and wrong. Yet in the Office of State Security they had been able to let their dark desires flourish, heck they were probably even encouraged. The admittance chime to her personal quarters aboard her flagship, the battleship PNS Lion, chirped. Forcing down her emotions, she answered the door. "Enter." Her chief of staff, Commodore Vic Walker entered with Commissioner Gunther Foche and a man in the red and black of an SS commodore in tow. Vic's face held no expression, yet Sarah's practiced eye detected disgust mixed with a hint of anger behind the mask of his features. Sarah sincerely hoped that the SS officer and the commissioner wouldn't pick up on it. Walker was a good officer and it would be a shame to lose him. "Citizen Admiral, allow me to present Citizen Commodore Charles Braganovich, the commander of the battle cruiser squadron that has been assigned to our order of battle." Vic said, his deep voice devoid of any emotion. Charles Braganovich's mouth turned up in to a silky smooth smile. His dark brown eyes roamed up and down his new CO, taking in her curves. She was about 150 pounds and six feet tall. Her red hair was woven into a braid that ran down to her shoulder blades. It contrasted surprisingly well with her sea green eyes. What he would give to get a piece of tail like that… Sarah shuddered inside as Charles' lecherous eyes roamed her body. Best to chop that off at the get go. "Citizen Commodore!" Sarah's voice was as cold as liquid helium. "I don't know how your last CO was, but while you are under my command you will show superior officers proper respect." She took particular relish at the double meaning of superior officers. Her tone had the desired response as Commodore Braganovich's spine went ramrod straight and he cast his eyes to a point just above her shoulder. "Charles Braganovich, CO of the 56th SS Battle Cruiser Squadron, reporting for duty!" He snapped off a precise salute. Sarah let him hold it for five seconds before she returned it. Charles cursed himself for allowing her to get the better of him. He had grown used to ferrying naval personnel who had fallen from favor, not reporting to one who was his superior. The Admiral before him wasn't the cowed or terrified prisoner he usually dealt with. She had been hand picked for this mission by the Committee of Public Safety itself, which meant that she had every reason to feel secure. And if the mission succeeded, it would also give himself an excellent chance to rise still farther within the SS. Gritting his teeth, Charles apologized for the first time in recent memory. "I'm sorry Citizen Admiral, it won't happen again." "See that it doesn't!" Sarah paused to let the warning sink in, then continued. "Now, down to business, what is the status of your squadron?" "Once we finish taking on reactor mass in about two hours, we will be fully combat ready." "After you finish that, get your allotment of the new missile pods under tow. Then form up with the rest of the battle group. Your squadron is the last to arrive, so we are all waiting on you. We are running on a tight schedule, so I suggest that you hurry. You are dismissed Citizen Commodore!" With the SS battle cruisers, Sarah's force consisted of 10 battleships, 15 battle cruisers, 10 heavy cruisers, 8 light cruisers, and 20 destroyers. It was a very strong force. And with a supply of the Peoples Navy's first missile pods in tow behind them, Sarah felt confident that they had enough firepower to take their objective. It was supposedly poorly guarded, relying on secrecy instead of armaments for defense. Saluting again, Commodore Braganovich turned smartly on his heel and stalked out of the room. As he left, he made a silent vow to himself that some way, some how, he would put a certain Admiral in her proper place. No one in over five years, since he had first joined the SS, had made him feel as small as she just had. She was untouchable now, but even the best commanders had been known to make a mistake now and then, and Charles would be there when she did. Commissioner Foche approached his primary charge. "Are you sure that was wise? Pissing off State Security is not the best way to advance you know." Gunther Foche wasn't the worst sort. Her previous Commissioner had been a real pain in the posterior. He had known nothing of military operations, which was bad because the Peoples Commissioners needed to sign off on every military plan. Foche at least had served in the military, he even made it to captain before he left. Being a fellow Doleist, his career had stalled because he didn't have a Legislaturalist supporter. But that had been over 20 t-years ago, before the war with Manticore even started. Once the Committee had started putting civilian watchdogs on every naval vessel, Gunther had joined in order to serve the Committee of Public Safety, which he saw as a step forward compared to the corrupt Legislaturalists. Yet in the years since becoming a Peoples Commissioner, Gunther had found that the Committee was in many ways just as corrupt and dangerous to the Republic as the Legislaturalists had been. The excesses of the Office of State Security were a case in point. Thus he had made a decision to protect his officers as much as possible. With a commander of as high a caliber as Sarah Grant, he would go to great lengths. The Republic needed officers like her now like never before. Sarah turned to the wrinkled Commissioner with a wry smile. She had been surprised when she and the commissioner had become friends, or at least as close as a naval officer and her civilian watchdog were likely to come. "I know Gunther, but I just couldn't stand his insolence, his lack of respect. I admit it my temper got the better of me. But DAMN it felt good to put that ass in his place!" [Flag Bridge, PNS Lion, Near the Hyper Limit] Sarah gazed at her plot with mixed emotions. Part of her was cheering wildly as she saw the sloppy maneuvers and poor formation that the SS portion of her command was executing. Yet a larger part of her was terribly concerned over the same thing. Those poor ship-handling skills would be a dangerous handicap in a standup fight. Intelligence said that there should be no opposition, but it had failed miserably on several occasions. "Mr. Zamphir," Sarah said to her staff com officer, "see to it that there is a extensive set of sims set up for the battle group." Showing him teeth at him through her smile, she continued. "It looks like SOME of us need a little practice on fleet maneuvers, and it's not like we won't have the time." Getting to the target via a round about route to avoid early detection was going to take nearly two whole months. Grinning back he replied, "It certainly does, doesn't it Ma'a-Citizen Admiral." Cmdr. Ali Zamphir's tan face turned crimson as he nearly reverted to the old 'elitist' honorific. In the current Peoples Navy, only People's Commissioners were to be addressed as Sir or Ma'am. It was one of the Committees dumber plans, yet there was nothing Sarah could do about the order. Nothing except ignore it whenever possible. Her current staff had been together for over two standard years. They knew eachother well enough to trust and be open with eachother. They were also very good at their jobs. What had been Battleship Squadron 21 was almost up to Manticoran standards in the ship-handling department. The People's Navy Battle Group 109 finally got all of its elements into proper position. "All units report ready Citizen Admiral." Cmdr. Zamphir reported. "Very well, inform Citizen Captain Wells that he may order the fleet to go to hyper at his discretion." Sarah just hoped that two months in hyper would be enough to sort out the dog's breakfast the SS called a wall of battle. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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