The Holo in the centre of the conference room of the Red Rose showed the position of every craft in the combined fleet. The officers viewing the three fleets combined and ready to advance to their jump points were awed at the sight.

Star Commander Vis Vistricer watched the forces under his command form up. He did not have all the craft he asked for at the palace conference of Fourth Tonkis, but he had three astonishingly powerful forces at his command. His command was called Empire Strike Fleet and it was divided into three Strike Divisions. Intellectually the Star Commander had known that the Empire had a lot of craft, but he had never had to deal with the actual numbers before. So he had left behind fifty two of the armoured planetoids, along with correspondingly larger numbers of battleships, heavy and light cruisers.

The reasons were simple: First of all, the number of craft he and his staff could control was limited. As it was, each division was comprised of two hundred and sixteen star craft of various types. This made for a total of six hundred and forty eight star craft. If necessary, reserves could be gathered from the Empire, although that would take time. The second reason was manpower, particularly senior staff. Even with artificial intelligent computers, they just did not have enough qualified flag officers to go around. The force was more than twice as large as that which had gathered for the projected invasion of the Andromeda Cluster.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

These were the reasons it had taken so long to put the Strike Force together. That apart from the fact that it simply took time to mould the forces into coherent groups. It was only now, 14th Dolmas, slightly more than two months after the palace conference that they were ready.

To test the Empires tactics and strategy, they had run several simulations of what they could face. Even assuming the toughest fortress, the Fleet Headquarters, had defences one hundred percent better than what they had gleamed from captured records, the Empire would be successful in a day. I hope, Vis Vistricer thought as he turned to his Chief of Staff, General Julia Resonier, who had just arrived in the room, sword swinging at her side. All officers were wearing swords this day.

“All reported in?”

“Yes sir, all ready to make the jump.” The General replied.

“Execute as planned.” The Star Commander ordered.

Julia Resonier smiled, saluted and left.

“Now we begin.” The Star Commander murmured. His staff exchanged looks of suppressed excitement. Except for Commander Rita Caenett, she had a greater appreciation then the others. Standing she threw a look that the Star Commander understood. All he could do was nod back.