Chapter 56

[REDACTED]

Thaumor Revolutionary Front Headquarters

Liberator sat back in his chair, and pressed a button on his desk.

Instantly, every security feature bar one in his office sprang to life. Most of them were the best the Dominion had to offer, and a few, imported at great price, would have defeated even military grade Near Verge spy systems.

A second later, after the system had checked everything was secure, the conference call began. Holograms appeared around an imaginary round table, all equidistantly placed, seeming as real as if they were present in the very room.

"Is everyone here?" Simply asked Liberator, and everyone nodded. "Good. Then let us begin this emergency session of the high council of the TRF. The only topic on the agenda is the loss of the Hermes divinium mine, and the consequences."

"You mean the absolute disaster you and your incompetent minions caused?" Immediately barked out a man on the other side of the table, and Liberator smiled.

The man was the head of one of the Dominion's old dynasties. One that, until the Civil War, had a very good claim upon the Lord Protectorship. That was until the current Lord Protector captured and then executed their candidate for a long list of crimes, including mass murder.

He had been pardoned as part of the peace settlement, but he had only been biding his time ever since, and he barely hid his disdain for the TRF and their 'barbarian colonial revolution'. But he needed the TRF has a distraction for his own planned takeover of the Dominion, so here he was.

"My men, unless I recall incorrectly, fought to the death to prevent this disaster. And while I will freely admit they weren't necessarily the most accomplished spacers in the universe, at least they weren't smashed by an enemy they outnumbered ten times over, and managed to inflict significant casualties onto their foe."

The low jab at the man's ancestor, who the Lord Protector had handily defeated with a vastly inferior force with barely any losses, made him visibly red and sputtering with anger.

"Wha-How-How dare you-"

"Enough Poseidon!" Barked out another man, before turning back towards Liberator. "Excuse my friend. The news have...shocked us all I'm afraid."

Liberator nodded. The man went under the code name 'Apollo', and was one of Poseidon's allies in the conspiracy taking place in Elkator. And while he was similarly planning to use the TRF's uprising as a rebellion to take over the Dominion, then promptly betraying their alliance and cementing his rule by massacring his former allies, he was considerably more adroit and polite than his own friend.

"Of course. They shocked me as well. It was as unexpected for me as any of you."

"Indeed. Still, I have to admit the news do concern me."

"Not to worry, we still have sufficient Divinium stockpiles to sustain normal operations for a while, and worse comes to worse, I have made...arrangements to secure additional avenues of funding." He nodded towards Eterna, who used the code name 'Blood Moon', and she nodded back. She didn't need to know that one of those 'arrangements' was the kidnapping of her daughters and using them as hostages. There was a reason he had made their reassignment to headquarters indefinite as soon as he heard the news after all, although he had explained it as needing to re-evaluate their priorities and where they would be the most useful in the light of this development. "So while it will disrupt or plans, it will not be fatal to them."

"It's not our operations that I am worried about. It's the Dominion's." Liberator's eyebrow rose, and Apollo leaned forward. "Let me be candid here. A lot of our allies back us because they think the Lord Protector is driving the Dominion straight into a wall, or because they simply want to back what they see as the winning side. With the capture of Hermes...not only has the Lord Protector proven that he is competent as ever, but he has also made a lot of our allies...reconsider their current plans. None of them are considering betraying us." The unspoken yet was almost deafening. "But they are lowering their level of support. Furthermore a lot of neutral parties, which we either expected to sit the war out or side with us are now reinforcing their ties with the Lord Protector, and will almost certainly back him in an open conflict now."

"So? Assassinate the man. Without him, most of these groups will either throw in their lots with you or at least stay on the sidelines." Said Eterna.

Apollo smiled mirthlessly.

"Blood Moon, do you seriously believe that he would still be alive if that was possible? We have tried, and failed, to assassinate him before he ever became Lord Protector. Now more than ever, he is virtually invulnerable. His palace has been made to survive nuclear bunker busters, the entire Home Fleet sits in geostationary orbit overhead, and he has several battalions of commandos guarding him at any one moment. Unless you have a brilliant idea, I don't see how it could be accomplished."

"You misunderstand me Apollo. I did not mean using an assassin. I meant using a fleet."

Apollo frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"It's simple. Your current plan is to seize the Dominion's core industrial and military infrastructure. But without those groups siding with you, you will never manage to hold them, especially not with the Lord Protector to rally and guide them. But if you were to focus all of your forces on Seltari instead, and went for him..." Eterna opened her hands. "Those groups would hesitate. The Navy would hesitate. And you could still send your forces after the various industrial nodes. Except that this time many would be wary to join the Dominion Navy, at least the part that remained loyal, into the fight."

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Apollo looked at Poseidon and several members of his group, before slowly nodding.

"It might work. I will have to discuss it further with my colleagues."

"That is all I am advising."

"Thank you, Blood Moon."

"The pleasure is all mine Apollo."

Liberator cleared his throat, and everyone focused back on him, as he mentally swore. Eterna's plan made sense, but more importantly, everyone had heard and seen her casually help one of the factions that hated her guts. The last thing he needed was for her to start befriending her fiercest enemies and deepen her web of connections in his own damned organization. Especially not when some of his contingency plans hinged on effectively blackmailing her with her daughters' lives!

"We also have to discuss the ones responsible for this disaster. Namely, we believe those to be the crew of the mercenary gunship the Eternal Seeker, and its captain, Sarah Ciel-étoilé."

Poseidon chuckled.

"A pidly gunship? Do you seriously expect us to believe a gunship caused all of this?"

Liberator looked at him.

"Yes. I believe a black ops gunship, crewed by elite ex-Alterian Directorate Special Operations personnel, created this current mess."

That shut Poseidon up. What Liberator had said wasn't strictly true -some of the Eternal Seeker's crew were special operations, but not most of them, at least according to his information-, but it was close enough.

"We indeed seem to have had several run ins with them, each more catastrophic than the last." Said another woman, code named 'Rising Tide', who was a representative for the Condor Sector. "Should we send a death fleet after them?"

Liberator nodded at the same time Eterna shook her head. He turned towards her.

"Blood Moon? Do you have an alternative to propose?"

"Yes I do. As it currently is, revealing more of our capabilities would be extremely dangerous. If we were to send a fleet after the Eternal Seeker immediately the Dominion would realize that the loss of Hermes had not humbled us, and that we may be far in advance of our plans than they believe. That is even ignoring the fact that given the Eternal Seeker's strategic mobility catching them would be...complicated to say the least, as well as require considerable resources and might even need the deployment of several death fleets."

"Points well taken, but the alternative?" Continued Liberator.

"Well, it turns out that the Silver Syndicate has ordered captain Sarah's death, alongside that of her entire crew, for reasons unrelated to our current issues. They have also given their pet commodore the authorization to draw on their personal battlegroup if necessary. We already have significant contacts in their arms trading division, so let us use them. Worse comes to worse, the Silver Syndicate's forces get smashed or fail to catch the Eternal Seeker, and not only will we receive all of the information they have collected in the process if we play our cards well enough, but we will not risk any of our assets or our true strength being discovered."

Everyone around the table nodded, even Liberator.

"What about the Syndicate's old guard?" Said Apollo. "They have always been firmly loyal to the Dominion. If they realize how deep we are involved in this, they might cancel the operation out of sheer spite or loyalty."

"In which case we establish back channels. They got their pet commodore out of bribery, he is in this for the money and the power. Let us just offer him a bigger bribe. By the time the higher ups in the Syndicate realize what is happening, it should be too late."

Everyone around the table nodded once more, and Liberator leaned forward.

"Very well then, we will need to get started on that. Next, concerning Excelsior's supply chain disruptions..."

*****

Liberator sat back in his seat as the conference finally closed down, and poured himself a hefty glass of scotch. He took a larger than was perhaps wise swig, and sighed.

This...had been a disaster. There was no way around it. But fortunately it appeared like it wouldn't completely derail his plans.

He looked at his desk, and then sighed, and leaned forward. He knew they had been listening in on the meeting anyway, and he might as well get it out of the way now. He typed a complex code on his holographic keyboard, and his PC chimed.

A second later, the last security system integrated into his office sprang to life. This time, no one, not even the Infinite Systems Federation Navy, would be able to listen in on the conversation, and the secure communicator that accompanied that system activated.

Instantly, a hologram appeared on the other side of his desk, sitting on one of the chairs there. Many more holograms were standing behind it, although they were vaguer, their features hidden. The effect was rather ominous, to say the least.

"Greetings, Gerard." Said the seated hologram.

"Hello admiral. Have you listened to our little group session?"

"We have. It was...interesting."

"It was catastrophic you mean." Liberator sighed. "I'm afraid Apollo is right. With the current display of competence, the Lord Protector has tipped many who would have sided with them towards him."

"True. But that does not necessarily hinder our purpose."

"How so?"

"The objective, my dear Gerard, had always been to create chaos. We do not care who governs Elkator. As long as the systematic, outwards expansion of the colonies in Thaumor ceases until we are done, our objective will be accomplished."

Liberator nodded. After all, he had stumbled onto what they were trying to extract by accident, and his discovery was what had bought him their patronage, and guarantee that he would rule Thaumor once all of this was over, one way or the other.

"Of course. Then do you believe it will work out regardless?"

"As it stands even if they were to fail spectacularly it would still cause enough disruption to prevent the Dominion from stopping the uprising in Thaumor. And if they manage to drag the Dominion into a new, prolonged civil war then even better."

"Right, of course. Concerning the Eternal Seeker...."

"We will conduct a careful investigation. Our resources are vast, but those of our enemies are even more so, we must remain discreet."

"Of course. How about...taking more direct measures?"

"Unfortunately, that is...unfeasible. They had contact with colonel Jonathan Kitsu, and he even seems to have furnished at least some of the information they used to track down Hermes. Due to this, we will not take the risk to take direct action, not at this juncture."

"But a single missile would do the trick!"

"Yes. But the Imperial Army of Mara's investigation into our attack of the secure data facility is still in full swing. It will wind down sooner rather than later, but as long as the Empire remains on high alert we cannot risk to reveal ourselves. Especially not when a person who once had the ear of the Empress herself is involved. Am I understood?"

"Yes, of course. My apologies."

"There is no need to apologize Gerard. You are a competent partner, and we would rather you ask questions than blindly follow our word. Now, is there anything else you required?"

"No."

"Very well then. Farewell then Gerard."

The hologram got up, and vanished, alongside the rest.

Liberator contemplated the spot where, a few seconds ago, the hologram of an Infinite Systems Federation Navy admiral stood, before returning to his gaze to his desk. He had work to do.

*****

"Hyperspace emergence!"

Sarah jolted upright in her seat as she checked the display. It had been almost a month since they'd taken control of the divinium mine -apparently called Hermes for some reason-, and it had been stressful, to say the least.

During the first few days they'd had to guard the hyperspace beacon, intercepting ships that had begun their jump before they'd ever attacked the facility, and thus had no way to know what had happened. Most had self destroyed, but a few had been captured, heavily damaged, but captured, and some of the fights, especially with a couple of Q-caravans, had been very rough on the already damaged and depleted fleet. Fortunately, Dominion reinforcements had begun to trickle in as well, thanks to the hyperspace beacon Soliensky had brought with him. When they had finished mopping up the TRF's warships and begun taking control of Hermes in earnest, he had sent out an entire frigate squadron to spread the news and ask for any available Dominion Navy ship to rally to his position.

And ships he had got. Cruisers, battle carriers and frigates had streamed in during the last few weeks. And a week ago, a full battlegroup had arrived, headed by the battlecruiser Copenhagen. It had been an immense relief to have them here, although the commodore on board had been a bit annoyed at having a mere 'Fringe admiral' ordering her around, but that had swiftly changed when the news had reached them that the Lord Protector had promoted Soliensky, and created new command and fleetbase around Hermes, with High Admiral Soliensky as its commanding officer.

"How many ships?"

"Still resolving...Holy-!"

"What?"

Elteria swallowed, which was utterly pointless for her, physically speaking, especially as she was currently a hologram, but allowed her to get her thoughts in order.

"Incoming ships' IFFs confirmed. Three Avalon-class Dominion battleships, the Nottingham, London and Belfast. Accompanied by thirty, I repeat thirty, full battlegroups." Elteria turned towards Sarah. "The Arrival Home Fleet has arrived."

END OF VOLUME 1