12 was the total count - It had taken a few days to make its way to Commander Nate Novel, Captain of the Am Fluchtig and Leader of the Tristain Group - In the end despite losing two pilots, the Valliere had actually faired the best, not taking a single hit in battle, it had suffered zero crew deaths, leaving its count as just 2.
The Fluchtig had sustained zero pilot fatalities but lost 4 members of staff from the enemy barrage, including Nate had been told, one of his bridge staff, Cally.
Another like her had been blown out into space when a part of the ship was hit. A third had suffered some sort of heart failure and a fourth had been impaled when a piece of shrapnel had shot through an outer wall of the ship, leaving the corridor in question in tact and air tight but the unlucky crewmember without lungs to breath with.
Finally there was the Rinie, though the Fluchtig had quickly moved to shield her, the battle had started with the Curadh's surprise attack against the old ship - And it showed.
One pilot now without legs, though alive - But aboard the ship 6 deaths, in general the Rinie was in bad shape, it had avoided fatal damage but was moving on half power - Were the Curadh to make a run for it right now, Nate would have to give serious thought to leaving the Rinie behind just to keep up the chase.
He had of course relayed all this back to IAFS HQ, and Kolme had attempted to use it as leverage to get them more reinforcements, but to no avail. If anything HQ seemed to think just 12 deaths and about 3 times that in injuries was pretty good going - It made Nate's blood boil, but regardless the orders were final, in two days time they would go into battle with just 11 machines left, a number just one less than the death toll of the prior fight.
He flopped down onto the couch, staring up at the night-club blue of the Captain's-Quarter's ceiling, his moppy blond hair swaying as he did so.
He pressed a button on, & spoke into his handheld; "Aurin old-chap, message Kolme, tell him that was the last meeting with HQ and to take the rest of the evening off would you? He won't do it, but its the thought that counts."
"Aye Sir, will do." Replied the lieutenant.
He was glad of Aurin these past 8 days, the man had been near constantly in command on the bridge as Nate floated from one meeting to another - He felt exhausted, certainly not alert and ready for a 'final battle'.
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"Oh Emilia my love, when shall we meet again?" He spoke softly to himself.
Emilia Sheen, Lt.Commander Sheen that is, had come up alot recently - People on his ship wanted to know where she was, why the Casnel technically meant to be assigned to the Fluchtig was off galivanting with the Tradech.
Nate was thinking about her for very different reasons.
They weren't actually dating, he wished they were, but there was never time;
"Star crossed lovers that we are, destined by fate to be divided on ships planets apart!" He wistful added.
Kolme's 'stupid face' suddenly popped into his mind, grinning boastfully - He liked Kolme Nilas alot and was glad for him, Nate wasn't sure he could of secured two Neo-Cs if he had been by himself without Kolme there to play 'bad cop' - But lately Nate had reason to hate Kolme, for Kolme had succeeded, he'd gotten the girl - Well, Nate hesitated to refer to someone as scary as Scarlet as 'the girl' - But the point stood;
"You lucky son of a--, Damn you Kolme Nilas, You Lover-Boy You!!" He shouted to the ceiling.
A hushed snickering suddenly came back at him, Nate flinched, 'An intruder, in here?'
He glanced around himself, looking for the source, "Hello? I say, hello?"
The snickering transition to outright laughter, and not that of just one person.
Slowly, sweat slide down his shiny forehead, Nate brought his eyes down to the handheld:
"...... Aurin, is the line still open....."
One of the laughing voices broke away with an obvious cough, "Ahem, err, yes sir, on your end."
The reply from Nate's second in command only served to cause more laughter from the other officers on the bridge.
Nate winced, his face flushed in embarrassment at the rookie mistake - He went to turn off the link as gracefully as possible but then smiled, it was nice, to hear his staff laughing again after such a hard week.
He grinned, then bellowed louder than before; "Curse you yet again Kolme Nilas!!"
In return, already unable to contain their amusement, the Captain's quarters was filled with the merriment of the whole bridge's laughter, while Nate just smiled.