"And you're sure that they'll do well in command of an entire fleet?" I asked Kyouka as she and I went over her Horseman candidates. Finally.

"I am," she nodded. "They've all shown promise with their commands up to this point and I feel that raising them will be a good decision."

"I agree with your judgement," I said. "Combat is a different issue though. You've seen them in non-combat commands and while they've done well in them, that doesn't mean that they'll do well in combat commands. I reccommend that you send them to BSG-9786 so that they can have some experience with fighting Scourge. I know that my people still there will welcome some extra hands. If you want, you can even pair them up with those that have experince with leading assaults while they're there."

"I see," she said. "You raise a point that I had not considered."

"Don't worry about that," I told her waving my hand. "You're a Horseman, not a Demigod. I'm the one that's supposed to catch these things, not you. When you reach Demigod, you'll be able to beat yourself up over it all you want."

"If I do not strive to reach mastery over these things while a Horseman, then I will make a poor Demigod," she said seriously.

"Well, if you have any questions then I'm here for a little longer to answer them," I said with a smile. "Keep a hold of that idea to strive for excellence though, that's how you do best as a commander."

"Thank you sir," she said with a bow as she stood. "If you will excuse me, I will send word to my candidates that they will be moving to BSG-9786 for further evaluation."

"No trouble," I told her as she exited my office and I pulled up other work I needed to do. So many problems, so little time.

"I sent word to the factory planets that we need extra armor and weapons," Carrie told me as I dug into the food she'd brought me. "They all griped because of the attacks, but they shut up pretty quickly when I pointed out that they would be fixed up first. Then, the food production planets asked for more hands to help them with repairs and those upgrades we wanted put in place. I was able to find them some from the planets that had been hit badly enough to evacuate, but they got snippy and asked for even more."

"Snippy?" I asked as I took a drink of my water.

"What?" she asked. "I can't use words like snippy?"

"Just never heard you use them before now," I said.

"People change, Rickshaw," she told me. "Even you do. When I met you, you were a wiry, scrawny guy with a little muscle starting to show up and always acting like you were in charge of everything you walked into. Now you're pretty buff and fit and you don't need to act like you're in charge anymore."

"It's still an act," I assured her. "Am I really that buff now?"

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Men," she shook her head as I flexed a bicep and squeezed it.

"These are the recruiting numbers this decade?" I asked Cai as I went over the graph of numbers for the applicants and the acceptance rates compared to drop-out rates.

"Indeed," he said. "I have also included a rough projection of the expected numbers of recruits in the next decade."

"Let's see what that looks like," I muttered as I flicked over to that graph. "You're confident in this projection?"

"I am," Cai answered. "I have asked several other Cybernetic Artificial Intellects to look at the same data available to me and they have also given similar projections. Following the attack by the Children of Hyn'bel, there will likely be a significant boom in our Cadet applications."

"Well that's good, I guess," I said. "Makes me feel better about sending more people to help Julio and finish in Andromeda. How're Kyouka's choices doing?"

"They are performing well as they make preparations to join with their selected partners for the remainder of their evaluation," Cai said. "I have a high confidence that they will perform excellently."

"Good, I'd hate to have to tell her that her choices didn't make it for some reason," I said. "Most of her people were new, so they're probably green when it comes to most combat. What about our candidates?"

"Horseman Applewood made her choices and they have performed excellently," he answered. "The choices you made have also met all expectations we had for them up to this point."

"Great. I need to name a new Horseman to take charge in Andromeda, since I'm going to be chasing the ghost of the Rif'nay'fex now," I said. "How about we go ahead and make Chen's appointment official?"

"Will you be performing a ceremony for him?" Cai asked.

"I don't think I can," I admitted. "Maybe we'll record a special message for him the way we did for whoever hits Demigod if we're not here."

"Very well. What will you say? I can begin recording," Cai said.

"Give me some time," I said. "I need to put on my dress uniform and think of what I'm going to say."

"I can wait," Cai pointed out.

"Are you sure about this, Rickshaw?" Carrie asked as we waited for the final checks of the Phoenix's Wings to finish so that we could finally start our chase of the now cold trail that the Children of Hyn'bel had left for us. Also going with us were the Screaming Banshee, the Soaring Dragon, the Laughing Leprechaun, the Crouching Tiger, the Hidden Dragon, and the Jumping Goblin. Seven Galaxy-Jumper class starships, each of them filled with the largest fleet I'd ever personally commanded.

"I am," I told her as Micheal and Benjamin finished their final checks and indicated that we were ready to jump to the galaxy CG-08623. "They attacked us and they all but said that they're some sort of fanatics that want to see the Scourge triumph over everything. We need to end them. It's only practical."

"I'm a little more worried about all the ships were taking," Carrie said. "Ten Galaxy-Jumpers is a lot. Are you sure that we'll need that many?"

"I wish they were all ours," I laughed. "One of them is going to Andromeda and two of them are staying with Julio. We're only going to have a total of seven with us. We'll have to hope that's enough for us."

"I guess so," she said. "Doesn't mean I don't think that this is overkill."

"Better to use too much, than to not use enough," I said.

"Who said that one?" she asked. "Sun Tzu? Napoleon?"

"Try every mechanic who ever lived," I said with a smile. "Let's get to it then, boys. We've got some asses to kick into the dirt."

"Yes, sir," Micheal said before turning his attention to the controls of the starship and announcing over the comm lines. "All crew to stations. Preparing to begin jump between galaxies."

"All systems show green," Benjamin told him. "Fuel levels are high. Tempature levels are holding steady."

"Beginning jump in five," Micheal began to countdown.

"Hope we all used the bathroom before this," I joked to Carrie. "We're not stopping for a while."

She swatted at my arm as the starship lurched into the fastest speed it was capable of hitting.