Volunian system, Planet Volun 4, Area around newly erected Federal and Volunian Dome.

Caliupus 14th 11:53 Local planetary time

Metternich raised his binoculars and looked at the Volunian/Federal army.

“Things could be better, but I suppose they could also be worse.” he thought to himself as he pondered his next move.

He then made his way towards the command tent, where they would see how much they gained, how much they lost and decide what to do next, since the situation although favorable to them, was still in the balance.

The battle was a victory for Empire and now was the chance for a great triumph if they played their cards, or rather the soldiers’ right.

 “Or potential disaster if I mess this up!” the young commodore thought to himself as he entered the tent ,where the gathered commanders stood up from their seats and all saluted him as he walked in.

He replied with his imperfect and non crisp salute, sat down on his designated chair and stole a gaze towards the other commanders, Adrian’s words echoing in his mind, reminding him that the officer before him where some of the finest in the whole Empire.

Metternich stared at these beastly warriors and it took a lot of willpower not to show that he found himself inferior to them and even more willpower not to vomit the contents of his stomach, and not to run away screaming or curse them as abominations and shoot them dead.

He may be racist, species and in the eyes of vegetarians worst of all, a meat lover, but he desperately tried and succeed, at least for now to suppress his more savage urges, at least until he could find a magazine.

 “We have managed to capture approximately 75% of their supplies, including most of their energy crystals; we have encircled their whole army, with the exception of the Holy Knights force with which we are currently skirmis.h.i.+ng in the forest.”

“We started off with 300 chariots, 2.800 Light vehicles, 400 artillery pieces, 3.500 Black Berets  of which 1.000 where cavalry, chariots and light vehicles, and 48.000 sailors, we currently have lost approximately 140 chariots, 800 light vehicles, 89 artillery pieces, 500 black Berets dead and wounded and approximately 8.000 soldiers wounded, with 900 dead and 1.350 missing in action.”

Adrian gave the report of what they’ve gained weighed against what they lost to his commander, his features grim from what was written on the casualty list.

“But, with the blessing of the most merciful and might I say kicka.s.s Creator we have dealt the enemy a great blow, they had 56.000 warriors, 1.000 chariots, 2.000 artillery pieces, 9.000 light vehicles and 2.000 cavalry; we caused them 30.000 casualties, 900 chariots destroyed, 7.400 light vehicles and almost their entire cavalry corps decimated!” Horatia added the enemies casualties to the conversation, which did manage to lift Adrian’s and the others spirits.

“Better than I feared and worst than what I had hoped.” Metternich thought to himself as the impact of the numbers struck him, but he used all of his willpower to keep his emotions from showing.

“What are our options?” he asked, since he couldn’t come up with any and hoped that brighter minds than his could conceive a few.

“We can launch one final attack on the surviving enemy, and then bait Admiral Yemen’s coming fleet; or we can besiege the remaining infantry, while also facing Yemen, what is your command sir?”Oscar asked phrasing it as someone would a dare.

“Great! First Mister Fluffy gives me a hard time, and now four arms akimbo over here is joining the game, you think destroying an army would give me some slack!” he thought to himself before realizing what he just went through his head, he gave a slight shake to help him regain his composure and then Metternich addressed his officers.

“We will withdraw as soon as possible from this place.” he said and immediately a cacophony of surprised shouts and loud questions bombarded him.

“NO CAKE, UNLESS YOU ALL SHUT UP!!!” the voice of Tarkan vas heard bellowing out and order and silence was brought to the meeting, for they considered that a very serious threat.

No really! Cake or any other kind of candy or sweets for that matter where very hard to get during war, since they had lesser nutritious value than meat or vegetables, harder to cook, and much more difficult to store and they had a faster expiration date than the before mentioned foods.

That, combined with the fact that none of them knew if they would survive the next battle, and the fact that they hadn’t had cake in months and they only just now received some sweets rations with the warp train with which Metternich had arrived, made cake worth its weight in gold and sometimes more to them.

After they settled down, Metternich gave a nod of grat.i.tude to Tarkan for his help, and to Adrian who unlike the others, had remained silent during the outburst.

 “I see that you all object to this plan, may I ask why?”

“Sir, our mission was to come here and destroy the enemy, to claim this planet for the Empire, in order to draw out the bigger foes; with respect wouldn’t we be failing in our mission?” Antonius asked.

“Commodore, I am afraid you have things mixed up, that was the mission given to your previous leader and my mission was to take command of the 378th, I have no additional orders beyond that.”

“Sir, it’s safe to say that HQ expects you to carry on our original mission and conquer the planet!” Valyria said to those present.

“And where is that written, exactly? All I know is what is on the ink and paper command given to me, and forgive me for saying this, but guessing what the higher ranking officers want instead of following the orders I was given by them is not my modus operandi!”

“You’re what? Is that some new fortune teller thing?” Dalius asked.

“Sorry, forgot you don’t know my planet’s lingo, it means that it’s how I do things.” Metternich replied as he got up from the table, placed his arms behind his back and started pacing along the room.

“Also, when this fleet was launched it had supplies, ammunition, opportunity and a tactical advantage. Could any of you honestly say that we have enough resources to take this planet and deal with Yemen’s response?” he asked and at this a silence reigned over the room, they where soldiers and soldiers didn’t like admitting they can’t do something.

“The commander is right, even with what we captured today, we are at a disadvantage, also Yemen is no fool, whatever force he sends against us will be in great numbers, since he too knows the value of superior numbers in a fight, I’m afraid we must withdraw without capturing this world.” Oscar said to those present.

“That and I am quite sure, that we have accomplished our original objective, I think our actions today will be enough to bait Yemen.” Was the sentence with which Georgaian contributed to the conversation.

“At least drop a rock on their heads before we leave, then we can at least say that we killed them all.” Werner added, which did manage to brighten the mood, with the exception of Metternich, who almost barfed from the sight of them all cheering up at the thought of killing thousands, who were already in a bad shape and no longer a threat to them.

“We will avoid that.” the young commodore replied and before they could protest, he activated the map and set it to display the local system.

The sun was in the center of the map and there were six cardinal points depicted, these where Galactic North, South, East, West, Up and Down.

 These points had been established many years ago by the three Galactic Superpowers, in order to create common grounds for orientation and navigation; after all it would be pretty hard for them to kill each other if they didn’t know in which direction the other was.

The Jump Point where the Volunian Fleet was the most likely to come was situated on direction of Galactic North, the Planet was currently in an orbital position South East of the Jump Point, and the Jump Point back to Imperial controlled s.p.a.ce was South West of the  Volunian Jump Point.

The two jump points and planet formed an isosceles triangle, the two identical legs of the triangle where the distance between the Volunian Jump point to the Planet and from the Planet to the Imperial Jump point.

The third and shortest of the three represented the distance between the Imperial Jump point and the Volunian one.

“As you can clearly see, if we drop a rock on the troops here, the enemy fleet will immediately pursue us for revenge thinking we destroyed their allies, but if we let them live, they will first be forced to help their allies and then come after us, giving us extra time to get back to safety.”

“Yes my lord, in principle I agree with your decision, but won’t High Command and other factions view this as cowardice, even if ‘technically’ you are not under orders to conquer this system?” Adrian asked, his voice filled with concern.

Metternich paused for a moment and looked at Adrian, he was certain that Adrian’s feelings for his wellbeing were sincere, he had know him long enough to judge his character and was certain that Metternich’s success and well being was on his top priority list, since he himself benefited from that.

Thus, his concern was not just out of caring, but also out of selfishness and those two where very powerful forces indeed, making Adrian’s question a very solid and very valid one, at least that’s what the young commodore thought, or rather suspected of his knight.

With that in mind, Metternich took out a sheet of paper and a pen and started writing down what he was about to say out loud.

“I Metternich per Pelasgiamus, sound of body and mind, of my own judgment have, after careful consideration, decided that on this day, Caliupus 14th 11: 58 Local Planetary Time, Planet Volun 4, to undergo the decision to withdraw from the system. I declare that I and I alone am responsible for this action, and would like to add that my subordinates advised to conquer the planet before withdrawing, and that I and I alone will bear any of the consequences that would befall, as a result of this action.” he finished and then signed the paper and with a smile on his face, as he looked at the aforementioned commodores.

They where speechless, for in any organization, especially the military the commander always took all the credit and when a mistake happened, he was never the one to blame and here before them, was a leader  that had without hesitation declared in writing that he would shoulder any responsibility for this action.

“Any other questions? No, very well then, transmit the order for all stragglers to regroup with the main force at once; whoever doesn’t arrive before nightfall will be left behind, also we will have to make some effort to cover our tracks during our withdrawal, any suggestions?”

“We could raise a huge dust ball, at least 1000 kilometers in diameter around this perimeter and charge the particles with energy. That should cloak the area around the dome.” Tarkan was the one who broke the stunned silence and offered his suggestion.

“We could build dirt mounds in the shape of s.h.i.+ps; combined with the dust cloud they should fool long range sensors.” Oscar said with a friendly smile on his face, one that for some reason made Metternich’s stomach ache once more.

“We could also leave behind some heavy crossbows and artillery pieces and rig them to fire at fixed intervals. That would create the illusion that we are still besieging them.” Horatia added and there was a general nod of agreement for the above mentioned suggestions.

“I also suggest splitting our forces; the wounded should be packed in the lighter and faster s.h.i.+ps and sent full speed ahead towards our lines, while the more heavy craft should act as a decoy, but the problem is who should lead such a risky force?” Oscar asked and then his intention was clear.

Metternich after looked into his eyes for a confirmation for his suspicion, realized why Oscar’s smile had unnerved him earlier, it was part of a setup for this, to either make Metternich lose face to his subordinates by refusing to volunteer, or be put in a position where he could lose even more face to HQ by giving someone else command of the heavy s.h.i.+ps.

Adrian also realized what was happening and gave Oscar a death glare, the other commodores held their breath nervously, while waiting for this train wreck in the making to play out. Werner for his part looked like he was one step away from snacking on some popcorn and with a smile on his face, he continued to view the show.

Metternich suddenly gave the biggest smile he could muster, and in that very moment, the Hero of Marengo, the liar, the coward, the sentient who was more yellow than the sun itself replied with:

“Capital idea sir! But I think a slight modification is needed!” he then outlined what he wanted changed to the heavy s.h.i.+ps fleet. After he did that, the smile from Oscars face faded, Adrian stopped scowling and looked like his eyes were about to bulge out, Werner looked like he would have chocked on his popcorn and everyone rose from their seats as their eyes bugged out of their sockets, and in Tarkan’s case, since he was composed out of thousands of smaller beings, they exited his sockets, hovered for a few minutes and then returned to his ‘skull’.

“Sir, I think you might have hit your head in the fight, since what you just suggested is insane!” Dalius spoke up.

“We’re in the military commodore; insanity is a requirement for the job, and I know some of you may object.” He glanced in Adrian’s direction “But my decision is final!”

“But what if, Creator forbid worse comes to worse, what will you do then sir?” Horatia asked as she moved her right hand towards her neck collar, closed four of her six eyes and looked like she was about to start a sermon.

“Well…….that’s life I suppose!” Metternich replied cheerfully, with the same gusto as someone would comment on missing out on the freshly baked cakes at the bakery and had to settle with an older batch.

To that they had no retort, he was their commander, he had proven himself capable and said that this was his final decision; there was nothing else poor Adrian or anybody else could do, even Oscar was appalled at what he just witnessed and the fact that part of the blame was on his shoulders, for he never wanted for his plan to end up like this.

“By the way sir, the fellows found some silverware after we took the supply dump, some are considering incorporating them into our meal ware, what do you think of them?” Dalius said all of a sudden as he extended a knife, handle first towards Metternich. The commander was only too happy to oblige, since it changed the subject of the conversation and would no doubt prevent any more questioning or objections to his modifications.

He took hold of the handle and gently pulled it out of Daliu’s hand, only for Dalius to suddenly scream in pain and grip his hand, and after Metternich and the others reeled back from the shock, they saw what appeared to be his arm, bleeding heavily along with a great lump of it that fell to the ground.

Looking at the dagger he had just acquired made Metternich come to the horrible realization that he had just cut off Dalius’s hand, and possibly inflicted a mortal wound upon him.