Part one

Admiral Blue was half-asleep in the medical room, soothed by the gentle humming and vibration of the HMS Pride. He had lost complete track of time. Both in the sense that he didn’t know what standard planetary time his body was set to or how long it was since he had defeated TIE at the FTL magnet. Someone nudged his shoulder. Blue forced his gaze upwards unto Fleet Admiral Estrix. Her face betrayed little emotion as usual, but Blue couldn’t help but notice a subtle sense of pity in the way she looked at him. It was patronising. Or maybe he was just imagining it. After all, his eyesight had never been the same since the explosion. Since she remained silent Blue decided to ask her first.
‘Achieved any more victories, Fleet Admiral?’
’We’ve destroyed another dockyard. I assigned Commodore Ignis to eliminate a military research base at Lacfillio. She should have secured the objective soon. There’s one more dockyard we need to strike. So far we’ve been unable to allocate additional resources after our first assault failed.’ she explained with a slight tone of weariness.
’Ah, the Dionysus system. Can we bring the battlegroup?’
’Admiral, if you’re so interested I will make sure the full report lands next to your hospital bed at once. This is not the matter I came here to discuss.’ Estrix said sharply. ’The admiralty and the Chief of Defence have a meeting. We’ve already discussed the campaign. I assume you were in no condition to pick up a report so let me deliver this information to you: they want to demote Grand Admiral Stantine.’
Blue looked at Extrix with seriousness but she showed no sign of discontent or indignation.
’I am opposing the preposition myself,’ she said, ’but Fleet Admiral Phoenix has suggested you take the role as Grand Admiral. Your strategic efforts have been outstanding so far and it better suits your skill set… according to the Fleet Admiral.’
Blue tried to convince himself that he had a duty to uphold on the frontlines. But he was aware of his own intent and pushed it aside to embrace his true desire. Being Grand Admiral would allow him to be safe in some command centre far away from battle. Far away from all the death.
’Grand Admiral Stantine is an excellent tactician. He insists on taking command of ship groups and being present for the battles himself. I think he’d be more comfortable in my position.’
’I don’t think you understand how much that man sacrificed to gain his current position.’ Estrix responded, ’He was practically raised to be an admiral. He never had a choice. You really wish to punish a man of duty? Everything he’s known is to sacrifice for the greater good and you want to rip the place he earned away from him.’ Estrix spoke slowly and coldly but with an edge to the words.
’You speak of the greater good. Then let the admiralty adapt in a way that will end this war faster.’ Blue responded while hardening his face. Estrix squinted at him and paused for a few seconds as if imposing judgement.
’You’re a coward, Admiral.’
’I understand your dislike of caution but it is no excuse to misplace Stantine. He is reckless and emotional. And you believe that his emotion cannot be sacrificed for the lives of my crew?’
Estrix scoffed. With Blue in a hospital bed, she could continue gazing down at him as if she was an unremorseful parent looking at her child. Perhaps she was tired or she decided it was a waste of time. Either way she had had enough and left, leaving a holopad on the table next to the admiral.

.

Orange light cast into the bridge of the TIE warship Redemption as Bastonian railguns struck one of his ships and tore through it. The Lacfillio system he was defending did not have a sun near its centre. Instead, Lacfillio was filled with the presence of a massive black hole with a bright accretion disk. It was within this system TIE had constructed a military research facility which Bastonia had sent a small task to eliminate. Hoscian was caught up in the battle with neither inferior nor superior forces. So far he had suffered heavy losses from the Bastonian artillery tactics as he was waiting almost idly for his turn. The Bastonian task force now was very close to the black hole. Their shapes were beginning to morph in the distance.
’All ships: full burn forward and initiate an orbital manoeuvre. PD craft should be at the front and ready all strike craft.’
’The Humiliator cannot comply, sir. Their main engines can’t be repaired. Neither can the Retaker or t-’
’Leave them.’

The warships Redemption’s main sublight plasma drive fired up and engulfed the debris behind it in a blue drive plume as Hoscians strike group followed. They closed in on the enormous black hole as Bastonian shells whipped past. Even the smallest hit could threaten to cripple a ship enough to be unable to escape the black hole Lacfillio. The accretion was close and cast a light so strong into the bridge that Hoscian and his crew were completely blind, trusting the computer to guide them in. As they got close they could feel the G-forces pulling on their bodies. The ships were shaking as the gargantuan black shape passed and obstructed the Bastonians. The were moving in an orbit around the black hole away from the enemy. It was a slingshot manoeuvre right into the rear of the enemy formation. Behind them, a couple of torch plumes emerged. The hostile ships flickered between reflecting the intense light of the plasma disk and flying in the shadow of the Imperial task group. They were Bastonian attack corvettes of the Redeemer-class and they were in pursuit. They were significantly quicker. Plasma weapons fired in bright blue flashes and torpedoes dropped down from the hull before catapulting off towards their doomed targets. Imperial point defences intercepted a couple before two struck the TIE light cruiser Korikans rear. Its engines went dark and it fell out of formation. Hoscian could only see it as a black shape, a shadow that fell backwards out of sight. The corvettes intercepted it and devoured its hull with plasma fire as they passed at ridiculous speeds. The light cruiser fired its plasma accelerators and launched every available missile. The Bastonian attack corvettes pushed their drives to the limit and evaded in multiple directions, throwing out all the PD ammo they had. Missile after missile connected with more than half of the corvettes. The rest continued forward and struck a TIE frigate's engines. The frigate fell out of formation just as the Korikan had. After finally being able to read the display Hoscians targeting officer exclaimed:
’Shit! They’re up our ass. We still have 4 hostiles in pursuit!’
’Will we continue a stable orbit if we cut our engines?’ Hoscian shouted over the rumbling and vibrating of the whole ship, not able to tell anymore what direction he was facing.
’No, sire.’ the lead navigation officer yelled back, "We'll be at a safe distance from Lacfillio for 2 minutes with how tight our orbit is.’
Maybe Hoscian was in awe because he became silent. Or perhaps his voice was drowned out by the noise. But in reality he was quelling his uncertainty. Hoscian knew that hesitating brought them, his people, closer to defeat and his crew closer to death. With a knot in his stomach, Hoscian yelled: ’This is a command only regarding this ship. Cut the main drives and turn us 180 degrees now! Bring all forward weapons to bare!’
The Bastonians fired more torpedoes. However, the brightest drive plume, that belonging to the Redemption flickered off. The ship began turning while still flying away from the corvettes, bringing its massive forward armament against the corvettes. Point defence intercepted every missile except one that struck the side of the ship instead of the engine. A storm of plasma now came down upon the corvettes. Each strike superheated them to the point that they could no longer operate and spun out of control and began their descent into the gaping black hole. The Redemption, facing backwards, was getting alarmingly close to the accretion and it was showing as the cruiser almost erupted into a fireball. The shaking and light on the bridge was even more intense, almost throwing all the crew out of his seat. The shaking threw the sweat off of Hoscians face. The navigator turned the main drives against the black hole and put it into full burn. He could not see his display, so he operated on muscle memory alone. Gravity stretched on the ship and on Hoscian as he was dragged onto the steel floor. The ship groaned and shook as pieces from the damaged side loosened and threw themselves into the singularity. The ship pushed itself back into stable orbit, catching up with the rest of the fleet which now only consisted of the Redemption, two destroyers and four frigates.