Recap: In the last installment, Ohearah sat with Runish during a meeting with the leadership of The Confederation fleet. He ordered a full assault of all forces, while the Trisken fleet was weakened by the destruction of their flagship; thanks to Triple. At the end of the meeting some of the Rotchi leadership arrived to announce the construction of a devastating weapon, they were hoping to use on Trisk. Runish accepted, regardless of the people who questioned his decision.
Ohearah stood watching the monitors from the bridge of the ship. Every so often, one of the many blips on the screen would disappear, invoking slight cheers from the crew. The blips were enemy ships, in typical fashion, red was the enemy; the Trisken fleet. Blue were the friendly's; The Confederation. It had been a while since any of the blue blips disappeared, but, it was possible. Ohearah had lost count, he was sure it was somewhere in the area of four, maybe five at the very most. Runish had taken complete control of the entire fleet, and Yitias had been nowhere to be seen, not for a few days anyway. He must have slinked away with his tail between his legs. Ohearah thought to himself. Either that or his incompetence during the initial invasion got him locked up in the brig. That one was a suitable punishment for someone like him, he had cost The Confederation dearly, both in orbit and on the ground. How many must have died due to his poor leadership? Ohearah didn't want to think about the number. Not now, not here. Not while the little blips were fighting on the screens so ferociously.
Walking to the window to look out at the battle taking place not too far away, Ohearah could see nothing; nothing substantial anyway. Sure, there were a few dim fireballs occasionally, and the reaction of the crew let him know which side the fireball belonged to. Specs of dust, that's all it was. Specs of dust on an epic proportion. Spinning, flying, racing, dying. The battle had been waging on for the better part of two hours. The Triskens had no time to respond to The Confederation's advance. They must have been putting out the fires from their Flagship, most likely they were evaluating the situation, perhaps they were even planning to retreat before Runish gave the order to strike. How could they retreat though? Where would they go exactly? This was their homeworld after all. Ohearah turned from the window and started to walk the length of the bridge, occasionally glancing at the monitors above the backs of the crew manning their stations.
"Did you hear about Harvet?" One of the men asked as Ohearah walked past, he looked around to see that the man at his station directed the question to the person beside him. "The Director of glass?" The man beside him asked. "Yeah, apparently he lost his mind. I was speaking to a friend of mine in the med bay, apparently, he came in, disheveled and looking possessed. They were going to keep him in overnight but then he escaped." "Where'd he escape to?" The person who started the conversation shrugged. "Dunno, maybe he's crawling around in the ventilation system."
"Wrap up the chatter, keep an eye on your screens. You're here to work, not gossip." Ohearah said in a commanding tone, which almost spooked the two young men sitting at their stations. He would have cut their conversation earlier, but, he wanted to hear what was going on. Ohearah had heard nothing about Harvet losing his mind. He knew that for the last couple of days he had been unavailable and his second-in-command had taken up his role. There were no official reports about the man; it was hard to take the word of low-ranking screen jockeys. Ohearah did think they may have been correct, though. Harvet, crawling around in the ventilation system. The thought of it almost made him laugh. But, he held his composure and just kept the mental image in his mind while he carried on walking.
The enemy fleet continued to be destroyed. One by one, the blips disappeared. One side broke entirely and the blue blips flanked around the left side of the red blips, quicker now, they disappeared. Soon, there was nothing left, apart from the blue blips on the monitors. The crew of the bridge let out a cheer for Runish, for the admirals and officers, and for themselves. As he watched the last of the red dots on the screen retreat.
All the noise of cheering had him overwhelmed with joy, mixed in with the joy, however, Ohearah was choked by dread. Dread of what will happen to the planet below, what will happen to the men left down there, he felt guilt for sending the squad to their end. The cheering continued to grow louder, and the smiling faces of the men and women of The Confederation took him from his thoughts. The noise level grew exponentially as Runish himself entered the room, shadowed by his Rotchi guards.
"We did it! Our fleet won us a great victory here, but, our job is not over yet." He said to the stirring mass of people, who quieted down to give him a chance to speak. All eyes were on him, he must have felt proud of himself; his face had gone slightly red, most likely embarrassed by all of the attention he was receiving. "Give yourselves a hand. All of you helped to coordinate the assault and ensured we had a victory here today." Runish started to clap as he finished speaking and each person followed suit. Ohearah could feel the odd hand land on his shoulder, he would have brushed them away, but, decided to let them stay. Let them have their moment. He thought to himself.
"While we await our Rotchi allies and their ship, Solace. I would have a glassing run over the face of Trisk. I am going to order all of our ships to enter the Trisken atmosphere and to commence glassing of their planet's vital systems. Nothing can stand in our way now!" Runish shouted over the crowd, he was calm, although, he was also sounding zealous. He hated the Triskens, that was clear to see by his facial expression and the way he spoke of them.
Why though? What had him so pent up? Ohearah couldn't help but wonder. It became clear as his eyes diverted to the Rotchi guards surrounding him. There was no doubt in his mind that they were behind Runish's passionate hate. The funny thing about the scene was that nobody questioned it. No, they all cheered. Caught up in the moment of victory; trapped by the passions of someone else; left sapping someone else's emotions and making someone else's fight their own.
The Triskens had not attacked outside of their own homeworld and anyone who stayed there would meet their end. Melting under tons of molten liquid. Ohearah had no idea what made the glassing beams what they were, but, he saw them in action before. The aftermath wasn't pretty, the site of them was a thing of beauty though. Ugly beauty. Uncomfortable joy. Amazing and terrifying.
Glassing a planet was one thing, at least it could recover and be used after the glass cooled down. But, what the Rotchi had planned with their ship, Solace. That was far more disturbing.
Awesome to be sure. I have ancestors from Ireland on my father's side. I love the spirit of the culture and the music, like the Waterboys. They played in my home town of Cape Town last month.
Upvoted and following.