Subject: Fleet Leader Barrilin Onaya

Species: Oyan

Description: Avian humanoid, feathered tail. 6'1" (1.8 m) avg height. 96 lbs (43 kg) avg weight. 161 year life expectancy.

Ship: RSV Nolbarinil {Majestic In Flight}

Location: Rigara

The Nolbarinil is one hell of a ship. She's been in service for forty-five years and only been disabled once. Over the course of her life she's had many, many modifications which have turned her into the absolute killing machine that she is today.

She began life as an Oyan battleship, but over the course of her service became a blended flagship that perfectly resembles the melding pot that the Republic strives to be. There isn't a single species that's prohibited from serving aboard the Nolbarinil. In fact, all of them do.

It's not exactly perfect harmony, but we get by. The occasional inter-species fight now and then, as well as the standard crew drama keeps things nice and spicy. The fighting was usually between the isolan and duhliki, but we would occasionally get confrontations between the other races as well. The most recent was a fight between a kinran and a juntor, of all things.

Other leaders might see this as a bad thing, but I see it as an inevitability. When different cultures are forced into close proximity with each other, there's bound to be misunderstandings and conflict. As long as they're handled appropriately, though, it gives birth to understanding and friendship. Of course, if it's mishandled it can devolve into bitter blood feuds, but that's why I take a personal interest in making certain it's handled correctly.

I chuckled to myself remembering the confrontation between the kinran and the juntor. The two most docile species in the republic laying into each other over the proper usage of a tool. They had ended up making up, and after their injuries were treated even became friends. Such is the way of life in the Republic.

I wonder about the so called "United Systems" though. The Nolbarinil had just finished repairs after our most recent battle with the OU and we had been expecting to leap right back into battle when we got our current orders. Lead a fleet to an alien system to help defend it. I had been receiving intel packets daily ever since, and their contents have aged me considerably.

The United Systems is a cooperative governing entity maintained by four species. They are more technologically advanced than we are, and seemingly more well-versed in galactic-scale conflicts than we are. After reading ship-head Uleena's reports on the aliens as well as their own explanations of their capabilities I could only come to one conclusion about their request for our help.

They intended to use us as number buffers, and perhaps even bullet sponges. I was a little sore about this, but it was also understandable. After all, we had dragged them into this conflict with our lackadaisical blind jump retreat policy. I knew that would bite us in the rear eventually. We're fortunate that they didn't ask us for anything more than a defense fleet.

I felt the corners of my eyes lift in a smile. I wondered what their reaction would be to our two million vessels showing up in their system. They hadn't told us their exact fleet make-up, but they had informed us that they only had fifty million ships. Our fleets typically had one million ships, so theirs must only have two hundred thousand or so. Maybe even a quarter million.

"Fleet-head, squad four has finished resupply and is standing by for orders," my second in command, Hindal informed me.

"Good. Have them continue to stand by until everyone's finished. Keep the FTLDs humming so we can jump immediately," I responded.

This fleet had been a logistical headache to muster. It was primarily composed of two fleets with fillers from various other fleets to make up for prior casualties. My command, the Yinori {rattling blades} fleet, as well as the Horis {mighty hammer} fleet made up the bulk of the ships. Fleet Leader Pulon had been sore about me getting the command of the combined fleet. Unfortunately for him Yinori fleet had more ships than Horis fleet, and plus Pulon had been due for a leave anyway.

I had decided to split the fleet into four squadrons of five hundred thousand ships and appoint commanders from within those squadrons. This would allow me to give orders more efficiently and keep us from stepping on each other's toes. A lack of proper delegation was poison for a large fleet.

"How's squad one doing?" I asked.

Hindal took a moment to check before she answered, "They've nearly finished the installation of the US tac-map on their command vessel, and are about three quarters done with resupply. We're on schedule."

Stolen novel; please report.

The United Systems tactical map. An absolutely ingenious tool of war that had actually alleviated most of my aversion towards leading a force this large. It uses a subspace communicator to sync ship sensors and display the information in an easy to access and user friendly interface. It was like being able to see through the eyes of all your individual soldiers at once.

Or at least that will be the case once they're finished being installed. The Republic had purchased more than enough units, but we didn't have time to install them aboard every vessel. The plan is to install them aboard the command vessels, jump to Sol, then install them into individual vessels when we have the time. We would be doing this one hundred thousand ships at a time, so we would constantly have one million and nine-hundred thousand fielded.

Even with them only aboard the command vessels it would give us a larger advantage than we've ever had over the OU. The Republic's tac-map relied on an individual vessels own sensors to display information, and only updated once every three seconds. And the interface was archaic and required special training to be able to use properly. There had been a lot of pressure to update the damned system, but the senate always found something else to spend the budget on.

But with this upgrade our time to fire will drop because we'll be able to gather a firing solution quicker, and our shots will be more accurate because we'll actually know where the enemy is rather than extrapolating their position. And with how intuitive it was I didn't have to worry about my commanders having difficulty with it. I was excited to put it to use.

"Fleet-head, a US destroyer just exited warp and is hailing us," intel-head Salin said.

"Are they transmitting video?" I asked.

"Yes, sir."

"Return the favor and put them on screen," I ordered.

A holo-display flared into life and I was treated to a visual of an alien wearing black full-body armor. I recognized him from his description in the intel briefings I had received.

"Director 3, I presume?" I asked.

"Yes. I am here to coordinate with you regarding the defense of Sol," the armored human said.

"Excellent. I don't like popping in without an escort," I said with a smile. I was briefly worried that he might not realize that I'm smiling. Most sentient species smile with their mouths, but oyans smile with our eyes. Due to the beak. Thankfully the human laughed, setting my mind at ease.

"Yes, that's understandable. However, I'm unable to return to Sol with you. I will be jumping to a different system altogether. My apologies," he said.

"Not an issue worthy of an apology, director. May I ask why?"

"The United Systems has a specific doctrine regarding warfare against xenocidal threats. Due to my position as an upper echelon commander, and Sol being the primary target of aforementioned threat, I might not be allowed to enter the system until the threat is resolved," he responded.

The intel regarding the United Systems had surprised and excited me, but then the intel regarding the OU came in. I wish I could say that the Omni Union being xenocidal came as more of a shock, but unfortunately that information perfectly answered a lot of questions that I had.

Instead of being shocked, I had grieved for my brother who had been aboard one of the trade stations that the OU captured earlier in the war. I know it was foolish, but I had been holding out hope he was still out there somewhere. I consoled myself with the fact that I now had closure regarding his death, and my family would be able to have a funeral for him.

"Understood. So what's the procedure going to be?" I asked.

"Once you've finished your preparations you will jump to coordinates that are outside of the system, where you will be hailed by Admiral Heckett or one of his subordinates. You will then be provided coordinates to your defensive position. You can then jump to those coordinates or approach via sublights, whichever is best for your vessels. Omega, please give them the coordinates," he said.

"It is done," another voice answered as a message appeared at my terminal.

Omega, the human made AI. I felt ambivalence towards the United Systems AI. On the one hand, they're incredibly dangerous beings that have already been at war with the US once. On the other hand, anything is incredibly dangerous given the right circumstances. Might as well just go with the flow, though.

"Thank you. Is Admiral Heckett our primary point of contact?" I asked.

"Admiral Heckett or his designated officer is your point of contact for tactical purposes. For anything else, please contact ship-head Uleena of the RSV Lowelana," Director 3 said.

I stifled my grin and asked, "You've got Uleena acting as a diplomat?"

"Yes, we don't have a permanent diplomatic envoy assigned as of yet. Do you know the ship-head?" Director 3 responded.

"He served under me in his first command, before the Lowelana was refitted as a scout ship," I laughed, "he's definitely got a diplomatic spirit, but it would seem he considers that to be his biggest character flaw."

Director 3 laughed as well, "Well, I suppose he'll have to tough it out until the Republic is able to assign a replacement. It's important for our continued diplomatic relations that we are able to understand the context behind any requests, and he's in a unique position to be able to help us do that."

"Indeed. Well, we will be finished with our preparations within a day and a half if things continue to go as planned. I look forward to meeting Admiral Heckett and working with the United Systems," I said.

Director 3 nodded and said, "We look forward to working with you as well. Godspeed."

As the holo-display powered off I once again laughed to myself at Uleena's expense. Uleena's father, High Commander Uliriona, was likely responsible for his current position. Uliriona was notorious for creative punishments and was known for being a harsh parent. He undoubtedly knew the exact buttons to push to make certain that his son got the proper amount of corrective action.

"Hell from on high" was a phrase that was created to describe Uliriona's punishments. Standard punitive measures sometimes felt unfair, but I knew personally that whatever punishment you got from High Commander Uliriona was exactly what you deserved. I stopped laughing as I remembered having to scrub my own ship's latrines as a ship-head for undermining the authority of my commanding officer in front of junior officers. It had taken a decade for Hindal to let me live that down.

Still, it had taught me a valuable lesson about authority and pride without relieving me of my command. If I had received the standard punishment I doubt that I would be as effective of a commander as I am now. I might not even have become a fleet-head.

"Sir, the US vessel has entered warp and squad one is finished with the installation of the tac-map. We can boot them up now," Hindal said.

"Good. Let's familiarize ourselves with the new toy," I said with a smile.