Three Months after the opening battle, the Confederacy launches a counter-attack at a weak point in the enemy lines.

Admiral Nelson was on a subspace call with a humanoid. He had navy blue fur, a light blue furry tail, and white paws. The room the diplomat was in had mirrored paneling inside eight block paneling. The blue furry was on a brass-plated chair. There was also a polished wooden desk.

“Just so you know, the Vendalfi Federation is behind you! We will wait and see the outcome of Hoth Prime before making an official declaration. However, we don’t want the Federation to win. For too long have they felt entitled to the galaxy’s resources. We have been on the receiving end of their claims. It is good to see they met their match.”

Admiral Nelson smiled, “We will be in battle within a few hours. My captain should be issuing a yellow alert in twenty minutes and a battle-stations order. What can you give us as far as support should we start winning the battle?”

The Vendalfi diplomat leaned back in his chair. His fur flashed neon blue and returned to the navy blue color.

“If you’re winning, we won’t need to intervene. We are the ones who provided your AI with the data it needed to calculate the vulnerability.”

“What the...?!” Admiral Nelson flicked his cat ears and swished his tail side to side. “What does that mean?!” He slammed his hands on his epoxy wood table.

The diplomat’s fur flashed a bright reddish blue. They said in a fake, polite voice. “We are partners. We are obligated to help the federation in a time of war. No one wants to help them. So, the others?” The diplomat’s fur flashed again. “You really should wonder why the intergalactic community has not intervened on the Federation’s behalf. To summarize, everyone hates the federation. We pledge our support by not interfering. The other major powers will not interfere. We will provide arms, munitions, and logistics—the others offer their thoughts and prayers for your soldiers. Our medical and repair facilities are twenty clicks northwest should you need any services for your wounded. We will charge your ships at cost for services. Good day.”

The call ended. Admiral Nelson realized just how much the Federation isolated the Confederacy.

He called his son on his comm device. They answered. Admiral Nelson spoke, “Hey, are you okay?”

“Yes, sir. Everyone on the bridge is tense. I know we were in subspace heading to the Caliver System. The captain made me his secretary. I really shouldn’t be on Comms with you right now.”

Admiral Nelson looked surprised. “I love you. Be safe and be alert. Remember what I taught you. It only takes a second to be a causality.”

“Yes, sir. I have a question...”

A red alert was issued. “I have to go. Bye.” He cut comms.

Admiral Nelson closed the call and ran onto the Bridge. Just in time. Admiral Nelson thought as he laughed.

Captain Plato stood with his paws behind his back as the entire third task force exited the transwarp on top of the enemy fleet.

The Battle Begins

Admiral Nelson deployed the fleet into a double line, using frigates and picket ships to cover the bigger vessels. The ships moved into battle formation while the enemy sent wave after wave of fighters and bombers to try to disrupt the formation. They strafed the Battleships and the Squadron Command Ships, sending debris everywhere. The picket ships placed themselves between the bombers and the capital ships, knocking out hundreds of enemy bombers.

Fighters left the hanger bay on all sides in rapid succession, one after the other; they began pursuing the enemy and sending disrupter bolts flying in all directions. The fighters looped the loops and Corkscrews, trying to evade each other.

Federation supply ships deployed marine boarding craft.

The fighters shot down as many as they could. There were one thousand, one-hundred-person boarding pods. They were sacrificed in a grand, sweeping charge at the fleet. Admiral Nelson stared at the enemy in shock. The bridge was so quiet only the hum of machines and the computers could be heard.

Captain Plato turned to Admiral Nelson. Out of the one thousand boarding pods, only four hundred made it through the fighters and the wall of fire. They boarded on five capital ships.

“What just happened?” Asked Captain Plato.

Admiral Nelson approached Captain Plato and put his paw on his shoulder. “When an enemy is desperate, they will do anything to forestall the inevitable. Tell the Fleet to push forward. Get to those supply stations at all costs. I hope my son is okay.” Admiral Nelson looked visibly distressed, with his tail flicking from side to side, and his fur was puffy. However, he gathered his composure again. One of his two sons was on the ship that had just boarded, and he had to focus.

The charge into the Unknown

The entire line of capital ships and Cruisers began moving forward. The picket ships and frigates cleared a path in front of the line.

The AI officer at her station shouted, “Sir, Alexa calculated. There is a ninety-four percent chance the enemy is trying to lure us into a trap.”

Admiral Nelson waved his hand at the tech and then said, “Continue the charge. Do not question an order when given.”

The officer shrugged, “Yes, sir.”

The AI decided to comply and said nothing. Your wish is my command, sir. The lights flickered as she laughed to herself, which the bridge staff thought was odd but said nothing about.

When they reached the five supply bases, ten thousand fighters and bombers flew out of the landing bays in a massive swarm of spacecraft firing disrupter blasts and proton bombs at the fleet. The AI was right. Then, the enemy fleet closed up behind him in a giant circle.

“Form a wagon circle with the capital ships and activate the AI mode for the Turbocannons.” Admiral Nelson was calm on the outside. He put his paw in his pocket to hide the shaking and began praying to the temple spirits. His paws were sweaty, his pupils were fully dilated, and his breathing was deep and forced in order to keep from hyperventilating.

Over the next two hours, the Federation could not break the third Task Force or deliver the death blow on them. Every time they reached a weak point in the circle, Admiral Nelson would order picket and screen ships to close it up. With the autocannons activated and the fleet in a wagon circle, the enemy took a beating.

The end is neigh

After two hours of constant fighting, The Federation fleet began warping in all directions out of the solar system. One by one, they deserted the field, leaving warp trails in their wake. After three hours, most of the Fed fleet was gone.

Admiral Nelson Said, “Bombard the Supply stations with tricobalt torpedoes. Continue with using AI mode for the Turobcannons.” The admiral closed his eyes and thanked the temple spirits for victory. He had a strong feeling they granted him victory because of a mage on board the ship they were protecting.

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The supply stations exploded in a shower of torpedoes. White hot debris rained down on Hoth Prime from space, and the comms officer was flooded with requests for medical aid. The remaining fighters and bombers then attempted to fly into the Confederation fighters, picket ships, and frigates; mass explosions of star ships and spacecraft made a shower of debris and bombs in all directions, marking a dramatic end of the battle. The Federation fleet was destroyed. Admiral Nelson lost a third of his fleet.

In that moment Admiral Nelson realized his wife was dead. He didn't know how, he just knew.

Three hours later

Brinus had his toolkit with the salvage team when they boarded the landing craft. He was with the petty officer and the three shipmates.

There were also seventeen new crewmates and a petty officer third class.

The new commander looked at his squad once it assembled. “We are heading to the frigate The Indefatigable to be their engineering crew.”

The new crew pulled up next to the airlock at the frigate in a shuttle-craft and, 3 minutes later, opened the door. The lieutenant commander greeted them.

The group leader tilted his head and sighed. “Sir, Where’s the captain?”

The commander sighed and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Dead. The bridge had ten fighters crash into it. Everyone on the engineering bay was electrocuted in a power surge.”

Brinus nodded and then his crew headed to the engineering bay.

The Engineering Bay

After arriving at the engineering bay, Brinus saw forty dead bodies and eight damaged droids in pieces. This section had a three-deck warp core, which looked like a nuclear reactor behind an air-locked plexiglass dome. There were three floors with protective railings and computer consoles. The central console was damaged. The floor was blue carpet, but there were bloodstains on the carpet, and burnt bodies hung over the railing.

The crew began repairing the central command console. He reassembled the astromech, which was in pieces. The two computer techs began taking apart the command console. The three repair techs began regenerating the bio-neural network cable in the war core. The other techs were assisting in repairs.

The computer tech replaced the Navi chip on the command console as Brinus welded the new servo motors on the leg. A computerized voice said ten hours until oxygen was depleted. The bio-neural network would take hours to regenerate. However, they would need to finish fast. Reviving the neural network required a Navi chip, an astromech, and a functional computer console with an active WiFi.

After reassembling the droid, the astromech came to life and conversed with Brinus, who was designated the droid master.

The droid then released nanites into the starship’s neural network. It then interfaced with the ship’s computer.

The navi chip was then successfully integrated into the command console. After this, they began reassembling the console. Seeing as they only had two hours of oxygen left, they hurried the process. Once the console worked, they noticed two buttons on the holographic keyboard did not activate.

The computer techs replaced the two burnt-out switches and activated life support.

The air began to thin out and become more breathable. This particular starship’s AI introduced itself. Their name was Georgia and they didn’t have a gender. After the introductions, Brinus entered some command codes and redirected bridge functions to the engineering console.

Ten minutes later, The guys piled the dead bodies and the arms and legs into the airlock and then ejected them into space.

After making the engineering bay functional, they took a smoke break and started body recovery and removal. The women were working on getting the wiring in the other consoles regenerated.

Brinus was cleaning the blood off the engineering bay floor with hypogene peroxide and rubbing alcohol when he heard a cough behind him.

Brinus turned and saluted the Commander. He then spoke. “I understand you were an engineer. And are you about to complete your middle school diploma program?”

“Yes, sir.” Brinus wondered what the intrusion was about.

“I looked up your credentials. You are up for a middle school diploma exam next week. You're certified for EOD, droid maintenance, metallurgy, machine parts assembly, die-cast molding, 3D printing, and blacksmithing. Basically, you’re certified in workshop tech and engineering. My name is Captain Toz. What you’re real name?”

Brinus wondered if he was about to be promoted, so he smiled. “Yes, sir. My name is Brinus.”

Captain Toz looked at Brinus and then shrugged his shoulders. “I am giving you a field promotion to midshipman. Whether your captain keeps your promotion is up to him. I need someone who knows what to do in charge of the engineering bay. I am also giving you a temporary promotion to chief engineer. Get your midshipmen’s asterisk.”

Sammy slapped Brinus’s shoulder. “First command. Congratulations!”

Brinus smiled even after he spent an hour disposing of bodies. Even though he was cleaning blood out of the carpet, he did get a promotion. Even in the worst times, there are happy moments

Brinus was covered in a layer of dirt and grime. Captain Toz gave him a triquarter, which was a device like a smartphone but with quantum computing chips and instant, interplanetary communication ability. All the software he would need to manage the engineering bay was on it.

He had pinged the two petty officers.

A human woman and a human male came up to Brinus, and they both saluted him. Brinus began talking. “I drew up a repair schedule. We’ll be twelve hours on ’n twelve hours off. Petty Officer Marchella, you’ll be in charge of the night shift. Petty Officer Mikita, you will be in charge of the day shift. It’ll take me half a day to make the new magnetic coil spanner in the machine shop. It will take me a few minutes to install them. I put workers under you based on specialty and personality. Questions?”

Mitika spoke. “Sir, might I suggest we let the droids replace the magnetic coil spanner?”

Brinus raised his eyebrows. “Why?”

Mitika shifted his feet. “You are a duke. You technically shouldn’t be here.”

Brinus snapped and waved his hand dismissively. “I don’t wonna hear that again. I’ll install the coil spanners in half a day.”

“Yes, sir.”

They all went to the mess hall as the dinner bell rang

Commander Toz ate at one of the four long tables. Brinus noticed there were only 250 other people at the mess hall. He sat at the senior officer’s table, being a chief engineer. The only other senior officer was a commissioned lieutenant.

“You’re the pirate!” said the lieutenant, putting a bottle of whisky on the table.

Brinus nodded.

“What is it like to be in command of a military vessel?” she asked with a slight sneer in her voice, laughing with several people.

Brinus slammed his knife and fork down. “what does that mean?”

The commander interjected, looking at the lieutenant. “I think she meant it will be an adjustment from commanding a pirate crew.”

Brinus knew that was not what she meant but just dropped the matter and said nothing.

Making the Coil Spanner

After supper, he started to work on the new coil spanner in the machine shop.

The crew was very professional. Therefore, he didn’t expect any issues that needed his attention to appear.

He had the AI draw-up plans for a Mark magnetic coil spanner in a Marco Class Frigate. He printed a wax mold in about 10 minutes. melting down four ingots of tungsten, nickel, and copper alloy in the exact ratios needed, the furnace was set to the proper temperature. He then poured the molten metal into the mold. It took twenty minutes to mold the coil spanner. It was a two-and-a-half-foot rod that was three inches thick with two-foot, diamond-shaped nodes at the ends.

Brinus tied a room-temperature superconductor wire about one inch thick around the metal rod with two diamonds at the end. He then taped it down every half inch with metal tape.

After soldering the metal tape to the alloy bar, Brinus then walked into the engineering bay. The time was half way through the night watch when the midnight watch bell rang. Everyone on the deck saluted him, and he saluted them back.

Brinus barked in a military voice, getting into Marchella’s face, “Get a radiation suite. I’m gonna install this myself.”

Marcella shook her head. “Sir, you’re a duke and not certified for warp core maintenance.”

Brinus looked at the petty officer, “I gave you an order.”

Marchella crossed her arms. “And I have an obligation not to follow it, sir.”

Brinus handed the rod to one of the men, who almost dropped it because it was so heavy. He then looked at Marchella. “You’ve got the engineering bay. Wake me up at the morning watch bell.”

Marchella saluted Brinus, and Brinus saluted back.

Brinus was irritated. The refusal of orders had nothing to do with his qualifications. He knew the reason was that he was a duke.

It annoyed him how many people suddenly danced around him, not to mention the choosing beggars who wanted this, that, and more. Brinus looked up at the ceiling. The lights activated.

The coil spanner was replaced. The sudden brightness took him off guard. Brinus also noticed the ship was now in transwarp. He washed his clothes in the guest quarters laundry room and realized they had brought him four days of uniform change. His boyfriend must have brought in the laundry while the ship was disabled.

On each of the uniforms were midshipman’s asterisks and a note from Simmie congratulating him on his new promotion. Brinus figured they must have brought the uniforms over when he was repairing the engineering bay.

He wondered if he was promoted to midshipman because of his family connections. However, he may have been promoted because of ten years of previous experience. He has also proved his skills over the last six months. Brinus really didn’t want to know. He lay in bed and dozed off. He had just fought at the Battle of the Caliver System and was dead to the galaxy.