'I might have been a bit heavy-handed,' Verloff confided in Captain Lannic as he rejoined the de-facto commander of the dreadnaught on the bridge. 'But I needed to make a point, you know? They need to focus on the enemy, we're already stressed to breaking as it is.'

'With the NavInt lass?' Lannic asked, looking up from the display. Red and green and all the colours in between warred for dominance on the holographic map as thousands of engineers crawled through the damaged systems, determined to restore the ship as much as possible within the allotted timeframe. 'Can't say she didn't have it coming,' the old, experienced Captain commented. Lannic was a veteran from several dozen skirmishes with pirates and a renowned victor from hundreds of wargames, where he had lead every type of ship, from the smallest frigates to the enormous dreadnaughts through countless simulated battles and onto victory, or at least a terribly hard fought defeat. He had been commanding Verloff's flagship for well over a decade now, refusing several promotions to stay at his station, despite frequent arguments with his commanding officer in how to best run the ship during offences. They had ended it reasonably amicably by splitting the tasks. While Verloff lead Nemesis, Lannic ran the ship. When Verloff ran the ship, Lannic slept. Normally the Captain would have been in charge of the flagship during this assault, but Verloff had deemed it wiser that they rotate shifts. Despite their frequent arguments the two men shared a deep friendship of the type that only years of intense military service could foster. As a result the Admiral counted Lannic as one of his few confidantes.

Verloff sighed. 'She did. I'm tempted to forget it because she's so awfully young, but she's still an Admiral. You don't get there by being a pretty face.'

Lannic coughed loudly and slipped Idrina's name in there, causing the older Admiral to grin. 'We ain't the Novicans,' he countered, to which Lannic nodded in agreement.

'What is it she's trying to find out anyway? Is Genesis really that important?'

'The battalion itself… Yes and no. They nabbed us the bug ships and I pity any human force going up against them, but its not the men themselves that worry our friends in Intelligence. It's the massive budget allocated to them. They're worried about Eisel going off the rails with a team of highly equipped crack soldiers going with him. And me tagging along with the guy, of course. They haven't yet figured out that Genesis isn't fully human and we're not telling them yet either. So they turn their suspicion towards me.'

Lannic frowned, slowly turning towards the Admiral to gaze at him in disbelief. 'They doubt your loyalty?'

Verloff grinned. 'It's their job to look for trouble before it finds us.' His grin fell away. 'Still, I don't like people doubting my loyalty.'

Lannic nodded. The Admiral had served the Empire loyally for decades, serving out of a sense of duty towards his fellow soldiers and climbing the ranks for them rather than for any personal ambition. The old, weathered veteran had shed countless tears for the millions of men and women that had fallen in the line of duty under his command and it was an ill kept secret that the man was so devoted to his troops that he had sacrificed everything for the sake of duty, including setting aside his much beloved fiancee. The only thing the Admiral hadn't set aside was his faith, which was as strong as ever. You had to know the man well to find that faith though, buried as it was underneath the persona of a stern soldier. Verloff didn't attend services or ceremonies, keeping his religion close to his chest. Instead he practised his beliefs through actions and by standing by the tenets even if he struggled to align them with what duty demanded of him at times. It was little wonder that he had taken tremendous offense at Naval Intelligence when they deigned him a possible threat to the Empire.

'I agree there, sir. But as you said, it's their job. Probably more to do with capability rather than them actually suspecting you,' Lannic tried to sooth his quietly fuming superior. 'Besides, they're probably more concerned with Frankenstein than you. Heh, bet you a twenty that they've send the lass along just to make sure you're still you and not a flesh-puppet slaved to his will.' The Captain held his arms out and imitated a very cliche zombie walk to reinforce his argument and, as he had predicted, his superior burst out laughing.

'God in heaven, am I so glad there's only one of you, Lannic. That has to be the most stupid thing I heard all day.'

Lannic shrugged. 'Guy made the supers in test tubes. Fully grown humans, lab grown. Reckon flesh-puppeteering another bloke is actually a step down from that,' the Captain muttered.

Verloff's thick arm wrapped itself around his Captain's neck. 'Well, apparently you have me all figured out, Captain. Reckon I'll have to flesh-puppeteer you as well now,' he whispered in his most threatening voice.

'Gerroff!' the smaller man struggled, laughing. Verloff leaned back, pulling the man off his feet and held him there for a few seconds before dropping him back to the deck, leaving Lannic to rub his neck in mock indignation. 'Murderous ancient relic,' he swore with a grin.

Verloff bowed graciously before stepping beside Lannic and calling up the battle map. He tapped another few buttons and opened a line to his second-in-command, Vice-Admiral Lessirk. He didn't have to wait long before a hologram popped up, showing a happy, much younger officer swaggering around a bridge near-identical to his own. 'Lessirk. Enjoyed the battle?'

'Yes sir,' came the instant reply. 'Should've seen the Novican's face when we switched our generators on. They probably were so happy that they finally spotted our logistics train and then I got to spoil their fun.'

'Yes,' Verloff chuckled. 'I believe that a dreadnaught running under stealth could ruin anyone's day.'

Lessirk shrugged. 'Not like we gave them a lot of time to feel bad about it, sir.'

'Full report?'

'No losses on my end sir. Handful of logistical vessels got a fright when the strike forces opened fire, but generally they were too busy turning tail while our frigates intercepted whatever sporadic fire they threw our way,' Lessirk reported, smiling widely at his superior. The man was visibly pleased with the results, as he ought to be. Lessirk was his protegé and Verloff hoped that the kid, as he fondly thought of the middle-aged man, would one day fill his shoes when age or fate finally laid claim to him. The Vice-Admiral had a mischievous streak that translated perfectly to the strategic level and underneath his easy-going personality laid the character of a war-hardened officer. Lessirk had been one of the task force commanders of Battlegroup Artemis and had been the one who initiated the all out assault on the Kra'lagh positions that forced them to close in with the planetary defence grid, after which Verloff immediately had him transferred to his own command. His faith in the man had been rewarded many times over, but never more than during this battle. Stealth was a fairly easy thing to maintain in space, for most ships. Battleships and especially dreadnaughts were the exception to that rule, their drive wakes and enormous energy signatures were impossible to hide in open space. So Lessirk had circumvented that entire theory by simply turning the power off while the many tow ships of the fleet he was protecting pulled them along. Those ships could operate under stealth procedures despite their size, lacking the same armament their brethren built for war had. A brutal start up was harsh on the systems, but the pay off had been well worth it. The officers commanding the Novican task forces had immediately seen the danger they were in as the dreadnaught and battleships came online and had made a hard turn and redlined their engines to escape the death trap. Lessirk had timed his big reveal flawlessly. The enemy had been far out enough to see a window for safety, which they took rather than risking a suicidal rush towards the logistical fleet, which was still difficult to spot. Lessirk's battlecruisers had waited for that moment, not striking until the enemy vessels had turned around and the threat to the logistics train had passed. Then they had pounced.

'Roughly half of their strike forces were destroyed. The others were too far out and retreated before I could get them. They also huddled up pretty quickly and I didn't want to send my battlecruisers after them. Those men knew what they were doing,' Lessirk summarised, frowning in annoyance at the recollection of the ones that got away, drawing a smile from Verloff.

'Can't be helped. Kola assigned proper crews to his strike forces. How is Nemesis?' Lessirk had taken over fleet command while Verloff had caught some much needed relief in the form of a shower, a change of clothes and a short but solid victory meal.

'In high spirits. I'd say we'll finish rearming in about an hour and then the support fleet will switch to recovery. Repairs will take a bit longer on some vessels,' he said diplomatically, 'but that won't impede our combat ability. We're good to go in an hour. Fifty-four minutes, to be precise.'

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'How are our fighter wings?'

'Damaged, but not beaten. Their experimental fighters took one hell of a beating, but they dished out exponentially more. I saw some of the videos they're putting together to draw in recruits and I must admit that those guys have balls the size of asteroids. They dived into odds I'd have run from. They lost a lot of good pilots though. Admiral Vaslow gave me the report and most of his losses were sustained by the Triglav wings, which won't be easy to replace. He's asked for you to mediate there, get some more support going, give him a positive report, so he can get some more funds thrown his way so he can increase production. I'm inclined to agree and wrote my own as well. His pilots are another matter, those can't be replaced easily.'

Verloff knew his second-in-command well enough to hear the impressed undertone under his casual manner. 'That impressive?'

'Sir, the g's they pull to manoeuvre those craft like that… Badass as they look, I think I'll be staying put. Takes a special breed to just make it through that training, let alone go on to excel.'

'Noted. Consider your report as co-authored then and we'll send it when we get back. How are our ground boys holding up?'

'They're anxious to get dug in. We've updated our intel with live feeds and NavInt got it spot on. Only things that have changed are last minutes alterations. They've made no changes to the plans and are ready to pounce on any hole we open up in the orbital defences. Genesis is hanging back in their transport ships, but I've not got a word from them aside that they're ready. Creepy bunch,' the Vice-Admiral said, shaking his head with genuine dismay. Just like Verloff himself, Lessirk did not much appreciate the thought of artificial humans or sentient weapons and the combination of them was way too far out the left field for him. The difference was in the attitude after that. Verloff had been special forces before transferring to the admiralty and as such possessed the inborn attitude of every front line soldier that anyone who stood and fought beside you was a comrade for life, and a person you couldn't fundamentally hate. Lessirk was much younger and a naval officer true and through and didn't connect to Genesis in that way. So when Verloff opened up a channel to the battalion's commanding officer, Lessirk ended up swallowing everything else he was about to say as the connection opened almost instantly.

'Sir,' came Dreamer's voice from behind layers of armour.

'Fuck me, those suits are massive,' Lannic commented, seeing a few normal sized humans roam around in the back. Verloff nodded absentmindedly. He was used to power armour adding a metre to people's height and the Svalinn that the Genesis wore was even larger. They were more akin to walking tanks than infantry, with the weight and firepower to boot.

'Lieutenant,' greeted the Admiral. 'Did you observe the battle?' He could feel Lessirk's hidden frown at the superhuman's presence. His Vice-Admiral didn't understand the purpose of this conversation. Which is fair, I suppose, Verloff considered. He doesn't know Genesis.

'Yes sir,' came the instant reply.

Verloff waited for the man to say more, but soon realised that no more was forthcoming. 'What did you think of it?'

'The enemy was caught unaware and the plan was executed as expected, aside from one deviation that was dealt with without altering the plan.'

Verloff sensed the unvoiced wonder behind Dreamer's voice. 'If you have questions, ask them. You are here to learn.'

'Yes sir. Why did you not call in reinforcements? You choose not to thicken your line at the point of the counterattack, nor did you give orders for the other wave to reinforce you, even though they were available to you.'

Verloff grinned as he saw Lessirk bristle at what the younger man saw as impudent remarks. He would have to explain it afterwards. Genesis had to learn naval combat. If they could follow the combat happening overhead as they made landfall, they would be able to take decisions in joint coordination with his forces, even if communications were impossible. He had seen how quickly Genesis had evolved in combat situations. Their ability to adapt, to process information and incorporate them into their strategies defied belief. Their innate strength, reaction speed, equipment and armour were levels beyond what the Empire had ever fielded before, but only after those joint exercises had Eisel's creatures revealed themselves as veritable gods of war. They were an entire army compressed into the size of a reinforced battalion. In any mobile conflict they would utterly dominate the battle. And unlike his own Nemesis, they could afford to be horridly outnumbered. They weren't the Empire's strongest weapon, but given time, given experience… They would be. And, as Eisel had discovered after their first mission, their cells didn't degrade over time, no matter how many times they replicated. They didn't age. An utterly loyal, unflinching, officer corps that wasn't bothered by morals and didn't age, that accumulated the experience of hundreds, of thousands of battles and wars would give the Empire an edge beyond belief. Of course, the very notion of officers that were unburdened by age would raise all kinds of hell over at NavInt, which was why they were keeping it under wraps. Until they had a chance to support their claim with plenty of proof.

'If I called in reinforcements it would have been a waste. The ships that could make it in time to interfere are as of yet unknown to the enemy, and informing the Novicans of their existence would make the upcoming phase of the invasion much more difficult. Now, we have the luxury of hitting them while they're spread out rather than having to send in the fleet to clash with them directly across selected strong points. The other ships would not have made it in time and would have been stuck with the risk of friendly fire. The concept of distance in space is vastly different than the same concept on the ground. Mass rounds don't exactly stop here and their lethality and impact is unimpeded by distance travelled. Only energy weapons lose strength in that regard. Do not let the map fool you. Next time I'll try to have you on the bridge during a skirmish, so you can witness it better.'

'Yes sir,' the supersoldier replied stoically, something the Admiral was used to at this point. He knew better than to assume that the curt answer meant that the Genesis officer wasn't paying attention.

'I'll give you a detailed debrief after we clear this operation. For that, it is imperative we lose as few men as possible. This is our only joint venture. Keep in mind that the moment you clear our coverage the enemy will rain down fire on you. Disable the shield networks and ground-based cannons and we can lend our fire to yours, keeping the orbital defence grid from turning you and yours into glass.'

'Acknowledged, sir.'

'Good. Prepare yourself for the attack then. I assume your turn will come within...' Verloff looked over the display and called up a few reports. 'Fifteen to twenty hours.'

'Yes sir.' The connection ended.

'Sir, with all due respect,' Lessirk began, the polite language informing Verloff that his second-in-command was really put off, 'I don't understand why you brought that thing here.'

Verloff replied with his trademark feral grin. 'You weren't present when they hijacked the Kra'lagh fleet, were you?' he asked.

Something akin to a pout formed on the veteran officer's face. 'You know I was sent out on blasted guard duty while you had fun. And you still haven't made good on your promise to show the footage,' Lessirk grumbled.

'Then I suggest you keep your sensors trained on the surface,' the old Admiral grinned back. 'Because you're in for one hell of a show.'

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