Disclaimer: All characters in this story are mine. 'Master's of War' takes place right after 'Master's of Violence'.
Master's of War
by
AJ Marks
Part 4
President Boris sat in his office surround by his top advisors. They had been talking about the possibility of a prolonged war against the Kalliki.
Most of the advisors were against such an action. They felt that the people would protest as losses mounted for the liberation of someone's home world that they may not have seen in hundreds of years.
The few that were for it cited a few good arguments. Earth's resources would not be able to keep up with the demand of an influx of immigrants and there might be the possibility that there could arise hostility between the aliens and the human race. There was also the possibility that there were human prisoners that the Kalliki took.
Boris decided that he would consult with his friend Jeff and see if the military intelligence had come up with anything that they could use. Boris, himself, thought that if there was a chance that at least one human was a slave then they should do everything in their power to free them. He also thought that a few liberated planets could serve either as a buffer zone or as new homeworlds. But he also knew that a prolonged war would not be popular. Boris felt like he was walking a tight rope and that if he swayed to either side he would fall, and that he was working without a net.
Jeff Cerial walked with his friend Toncor to the president's office to begin his report and offer his proposal.
"What do you think your president will say?" Toncor asked to break the silence they had been in since they had left Jeff's office.
"I don't know." Jeff replied honestly. "I do know that Boris is walking a fine line."
"A fine line, I don't understand." Toncor said a bit confused. These human sayings continued to confuse him ever since someone told him to 'break a leg' the first time he talked in front of the Earth government. He had since learned that it was a good luck saying.
"It means that if he acts to strongly in either direction then there will probably be intense public pressure to change his policy." Jeff replied trying to explain the saying.
"I think I understand." Toncor said as they arrived at the office.
The secretary sent them on in when they got there. They found the president sitting behind his desk looking at some papers.
"Ah, Jeff, I'm glad that your here." Boris said looking up from the papers to greet his visitors. "I find myself in a bit of a bind. It would seem that most of my advisors are against a long term war against the Kalliki, yet the polls show that if nothing is done then the people will lose confidence in the government to find those who were taken prisoner."
"Actually I have a proposal that I want to run by you, it might answer some of your questions." Jeff replied to Boris who looked extremely interested. "It seems that our intelligence has found out that there are six keys planets to the Kalliki Empire."
"Six, that's all?" Boris said in a bit of amazement.
"From what the prisoners say those six are the key to the entire empire. They control everything from their economy, to their slaves to their military." Jeff told him watching him for any reaction. "We've outlined a plan of attack order of the planets." Jeff said bringing up a star map and pointing to one of the systems. "This is planet Xeti, or what we have nicknamed 'Freedom'. This will be the first target even though its the least important of the six."
"Why attack the least important one first?" Boris asked wondering why the first target was not the most important one.
"Its the least important one to them, but the most important one to us. We believe that this is where they took our people. From what I've been told its for those races that are hard to train or show a strong spirit." Jeff said before outlining the rest of the plan. Boris looked on quite interested in this plan.
"Attacking here first would serve several purposes, first freeing our people, second testing their defenses, third would be the time to strengthen our own forces and last it would mask the knowledge that we know about their planets until it was to late for them." Jeff said listing the positives of the plan.
"What tare the defenses like at this place?" Boris asked with some concern in his voice. He was worried about casualties and the public morale.
"Our intelligence reports put the defenses at several warships that are present at all time, and an unknown number that fluctuates as deliveries are made." Jeff told Boris. "The ground forces are made up of only a couple of units and there is almost no planetary defense system in place yet."
"The only thing I don't like about this plan is we are not striking against their military industry first. A quick blow there would cripple their ability to bring the fight to us." Boris said reasonably.
"Two reasons Mr. President. One is that if we should lose that battle then we will be on the defensive again and it will be hard to regain the offensive. The second is perhaps the most important. Most of our military is made up of volunteers who have someone who lives on NewSol, and there is still a majority of them who are missing loved ones. I fear that if we don't make this our primary objective then we could face a revolt by the military." Jeff said wondering how Boris would take the news.
Boris sat back in his chair thinking about Jeff's comments. A revolt by the military was something that he had never had to consider. The thought about a rogue group of armed rebellious people did frighten Boris a little bit.
"I had not even thought about that!" Boris said looking right at Jeff.
"It was Admiral Schuppe that mentioned it to me. He has had several crewmembers ask if we are going to be continuing the war." Jeff replied.
Boris sat there in silence for a couple of minutes taking in what Jeff had told him. "What do you think?" Boris finally said breaking the silence.
"I think that we should go for it." Jeff replied without any hesitation in his voice. "We either break them, or we live in constant fear that they will attack again. If we take into account their record then it is very likely that we can expect another attack regardless what course of action we take."
"Okay, I have a council meeting tomorrow, I'll run it by them." Boris told Jeff.
Sammie had made back down to the planet to see her cousin Angie fro the first time in several days. Her cousin was still staying at her friend's house. Sammie could notice a slight spring in her cousin's step and figured that it was the thought that there was a chance that one or both of her parents were still alive.
"So what's the word cuz?" Angie asked her hope coming through her voice.
"EarthGov is considering the options and General Cerial will let us know what the decision is hopefully sometime today." Sammie answered her cousin.
"Do you think that there is a chance that they could be alive?" Angie asked, needing to know what her cousin thought.
"Well, we've been talking to several of the people and it seems that there were quite a bit of people that were taken." Sammie said carefully not wanting to burst her cousin's bubble. "If we do this mission it will be one part of a larger plan."
"So the rumors are true, we are going to continue that war against the Kalliki?" Angie said and Sammie could tell if she was for it or against it.
"It looks like it." Sammie replied.
"Good!" Angie spat surprising Sammie. Usually Angie was very good-natured, but Sammie figured that the loss of her parents and some of her closest friends could change anyone.
"That's not like you?" Sammie said wondering about her cousin.
"I just hoped that they are stopped before anymore innocent people are killed by their selfish ways." Angie said and Sammie realized that her peaceful cousin was still there, it would just take some time and love to bring it back out. "So how's Robert?"
"Wonderful, he takes my moodiness quite well." Angie said.
"The guy must have the patience of a saint." Sammie teased.
"Hardy har har!" Angie replied.
"I knew you would see it my way." Sammie said smiling as they bantered back and forth.
"How are things there Iccol?" Toncor asked his longtime friend.
"Thing right now are peaceful Toncor. The newly freed aliens are adjusting quite well to their freedom. The humans are helping any way they can, from doing nothing to their full support. Its a bit strange that they can understand the psyie of the former slaves so well." Iccol replied back and watched as Toncor took everything he said and thought about it.
"Perhaps that has something to do with their history. After all, for most of their history they were enslaving themselves, so perhaps that part of them that understands freedom so well can also understand the slavery part." Toncor replied doing some thinking our loud.
"Perhaps, but they are helping, keeping the aliens busy with thing to do while they adjust to their freedom." Iccol said. "I have learned that there are several scientist in the group and I have invited them to join us." Iccol said remembering the conversation he had with a couple of them.
"They would be willing to help out the humans?" Toncor asked and they both knew that it meant helping the humans in their war against the Kalliki.
"I talked to them in depth and they want their revenge Toncor. They said they would be happy to help the humans." Iccol replied back to Toncor.
"Well, I'll talk to Jeff about it and see what he says." Toncor said signing off.
Charlie sat at his desk waiting for General Jeff Cerial to reply to his questions about what the military was going to do. He hoped that the decision was to go forward, otherwise they would be fighting a defensive war, and Charlie did not think that they could win that type of war.
"Admiral incoming message sir!" The bridge officer said breaking Charlie out of his thoughts. He acknowledged and picked up the phone.
"Admiral Schuppe here." Charlie said hoping that it would be Jeff.
"Hello Charlie, how are things there?" Jeff said.
"Things are going quite well Jeff, has EarthGov decided about anything yet?" Charlie asked.
"You know how the council is. They are talking and talking. The president himself had to intervene saying that time could be essential to this operation." Jeff relied back to Charlie knowing that it was not the answer that the admiral was looking for.
"Well, I guess that's a start." The big man sighed.
"Don't worry about it too much, they will make the right decision, there are many who are passionately arguing to begin this operation today." Jeff told him remembering one of the council members approaching him on the subject. He personally did not feel that they could begin an attack like that real soon.
Charlie looked though about that and came to the same conclusion that Jeff had. "We are not ready for that kind of operation just yet, we would need more intelligence, which we are in the process of getting, and then gathering the men and equipment for the operation."
"I know, that's what I told him, and we still need to have significant forces to protect Earth and NewSol as well." Jeff told him.
Charlie thought about the numbers of the fleet and if they did indeed have enough ships to begin this sort of offensive engagement. It would require taking ships from both the NewSol fleet and the Earth defense fleet.
"How long would it take to commission the new ships?" Charlie asked working some numbers in his mind.
"The battlecruisers are coming along and the smaller ships are ahead of schedule, we should have five new ships joining the fleet by the end of the month, and an additional battlecruiser and six more smaller ships by the end of the year." Jeff replied looking at the reports in front of him. He figured that Charlie had some sort of plan that he was thinking about.
"Twelve ships including one heavy." Charlie said more to himself.
"What do you have in mind Charlie?" Jeff asked wondering what was going on in that mind of his.
"Oh, nothing much, just thinking about numbers, I think that we could be in a position to attack in a couple of weeks, we concentrate some more on fighters for defense and use our ships for attack." Charlie said waiting for Jeff to protest, which he started to do. "They still don't have an answer to our fighters, they are faster and more heavily armed than anything they've been able to throw at us, and with the introduction of the bombers it gives us a good chance to stop their capital ships even better."
"I guess I don't like the fact that we will be using all of our ships in these attacks." Jeff replied.
"Not all of them, we'll leave a token force behind to help the fighters and bombers but we need the ships for the attacks." Charlie said.
"Hmm, draw up a plan and I'll submit it to the council." Jeff said.
"You'll have it tomorrow morning." Charlie said signing off.
End Part 4
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