Kira gave the officers of the Coalition Fleet’s various contingents six hours to digest the news and whatever orders they’d received from home before convening a second all-hands virtual conference.
“Officers,” she greeted them all. “My understanding is that everyone has received the news updates and at least some orders from home, correct?”
The only officer who didn’t nod was Commodore Shinoda. The Yprian officer looked worried, his face a frozen death mask amidst the sheepish concern of most of the rest of the Fleet’s officers.
“Let’s make this easier, then,” Kira said. “Does anyone not have a recall order?”
The holograms surrounded her shuffled uncomfortably. She smiled mirthlessly.
“I don’t,” Commodore Shinoda replied. “On the other hand, the message I have from the Federation Embassy on Redward suggests that Ypres has been blockaded and any attempt to communicate will have been interdicted.”
That chilled what little humor the meeting had.
“I also do not,” Commodore Shang noted. “I in fact have a request from the syndicate contracting my services to remain with the Coalition Fleet…while they withdraw their own forces.”
Kira nodded.
“Nobody anticipated the losses we took here,” she reminded everyone. “But the overall political concerns of the Cluster are clear. The orders I received were intended for Admiral Ylva Kim.”
Everyone was silent, waiting.
“I am interpreting the silence from everyone except Commodores Shinoda and Shang as evidence that you all have at least partial recall orders,” Kira said. “I actually discussed this possibility with Admiral Kim prior to her death.
“Neither I nor the RRF have any intention of expecting you to ignore those orders. You are all released to follow whatever orders you have received from your home governments,” she told them. “Given what limited authority you have all given me and those prior discussions with Admiral Kim…I don’t see any reason to try to do something stupid.”
“What about the Kiln?” Westley asked. The new Governor was, correctly, concerned about his area of authority.
“There are two remaining RRF destroyers with the Coalition Fleet,” Kira told the Major General. “Between myself and Captain Hodzic, we have the authority to detach Providence and Repose to provide support for the RRA occupation.
“Guardian and Deception will join the rest of the Coalition Fleet in returning to our home system,” she concluded. “Commodore Shang, Commodore Shinoda, I believe I can fairly speak for Redward when I say that your presence would be both welcome and appreciated while Redward works out their response to this new state of affairs.”
She looked at the rest of the officers.
“We have achieved great things together,” she reminded them. “Three star systems and forty million people are being given a second chance because of the Coalition Fleet. We have broken piracy in the Cluster for years, buying your homes time to build new answers and new hopes.
“But the situation has changed and our losses already suggest against moving against the last of the Costar Clans’ systems. The dissolution of the Coalition Fleet is the next logical step.
“On behalf of my employers, thank you,” Kira told them. “For myself, thank you. We’ve fought together and won together. We are called to different duties faster than we expected, but the Coalition Fleet was only ever a temporary formation.
“Go home, people. Watch your people’s backs. We made the Cluster safer in one way…but it seems like fate had a different chaos in mind than we feared.”
* * *
Somehow, Kira wasn’t surprised that Hodzic, Shang and Shinoda remained on the channel as the virtual conference dissolved. A few mental commands to her headware changed the presentation of the “room” to bring the four of them into a more intimate meeting space.
“Shang, I can’t guarantee that Redward will be able to hire you,” she pointed out. “It seems very likely, but I have zero authority to actually commit them.”
“I have some authority,” Hodzic murmured. “Enough to guarantee you are paid for bringing us home.”
“There is a point, Commodore Demirci, where even a mercenary must consider just whose money they are willing to take,” Shang said primly. “I will not work for a military dictator imposed by coup d’état. That leaves me with one choice in what is about to happen, and I do believe in the depths of Redward’s bank accounts.”
“What Redward won’t fund, Ypres will,” Shinoda stated. “If my system has been blockaded, my ambassador and I will shortly be emptying our interstellar accounts to fund whatever counter-operation we can.
“My ships…” He exhaled and shook his head. “We have built no new warships since the establishment of the Federation, my friends. My two destroyers are all the nova warships left to my home system.
“The monitor fleets render Ypres unassailable by any rational enemy, but they cannot break a blockade by a nova-capable enemy. And while Ypres is blockaded…”
“The entire Syntactic Cluster is blockaded,” Kira finished. “Anyone coming from the rest of the Rim will almost certainly attempt to come through Ypres and collide with the Bengalissimo blockade.
“Redward Intelligence expects them to have moved a minimum of two cruisers and a dozen destroyers to impose the blockade,” she continued. “The destroyers may or may not be mercenaries; as of them sending my latest update, they weren’t certain how many destroyers Bengalissimo had built in secret.”
“We have confirmed that Bengalissimo has built four new cruisers,” Hodzic said.
Shinoda’s face was a frozen death mask again as he nodded.
“Ypres cannot defeat that,” he said quietly. “The Federation Fleet was just in the process of reviewing the combined tech base of the five factions to assess how large a cruiser we’d even be able to build. The monitor slips can be repurposed, but a nova warship has a far more complicated set of requirements than a sublight defender.”
“Bengalissimo would have started building their new ships years ago,” Kira said. “Someone has been preparing for this for a long time.”
“I was never a believer in Estanza’s little conspiracy theory,” Shang observed. “But I’ll be damned if reality isn’t determined to bring me onside. I’ll follow you back to Redward, at least.”
“As will my ships,” Shinoda agreed. “We need to escort the Redward Army transports anyway. I wouldn’t put it past our old friend to set up an ambush for them.”
“Anyone expecting to ambush transports with a few dozen sub-fighters between them is going to have a rude awakening when they collide with two cruisers,” Kira reminded them. “I almost feel like we should be escorting the rest of the Coalition Fleet home.”
“Gaspari can’t risk pissing off everyone just yet,” Shang said. “Not while she’s trying to pretend she’s the protector of the Cluster against Redward. Her propaganda requires her to focus her efforts.”
Kira nodded her agreement. That focus was probably their only real advantage—it meant that Bengalissimo couldn’t move against anyone except Redward or Ypres without risking the moral high ground she was trying to claim.
“On the other hand, she knows her propaganda is bullshit,” Kira pointed out with a sigh. “It’s going to be a mess. The sooner we’re back to Redward, the better.”
Not least because once she was back to Redward, the mess stopped being entirely her problem.