Badger by Kindal Debenham

Nivrosky paused on the threshold of the doorway and returned their salutes. His grey eyes swept over the assembled officers, studying them each with cool calculation. Then he strode across the room to the head of the table. He gestured for them to sit while he remained upright. “Please. I’ve spent enough time in a chair already.” A couple of officers chuckled at the feeble joke, but most took their seats without comment. Jacob watched as the High Admiral activated a control and lowered the lights in the room.
    “I thank each of you for your cooperation. I realize many of you have important duties and heavy responsibilities in your areas, and to set those aside, even for a short time, is more than I would normally ask.”
    Nivrosky shook his head. “Unfortunately, as you will see shortly, we are hardly in the midst of a normal situation. For this reason I have decided to plan and carry out an operation which, with your support, can preserve the defenses against Oduran aggression for the entire Celostian Union.”
    A projection appeared from the center of the table, a panoramic view of the space along the border. From the Abundance system at the far edges of Union space, to Celostia itself in the center of the Union, and on to the border with the Oduran League, the stars claimed by the Celostian Union glowed a bright blue. Beyond that border was a gap, where the stars were simple grey specks denoting neutral or unaligned systems.
    On the other side of the empty space was a much larger mass of stars of another color. Red points of light marked the systems controlled by Oduran member states as far as the intelligence assets of the Navy had been able to determine their extent. The area was enormous, easily five times larger than the Union. Partway through the uninhabited wilderness of stars between the worlds, the newly Oduran allied system of Telos glowing a bright yellow on the fringes of the projection, with their most recent acquisitions shining orange nearby. Their sudden spurt of expansion did not bode well for the Union either.
    It was discouraging to see so many enemies facing the small patch of blue, but the image only reinforced what Jacob already knew about the desperate situation in which the Union found itself. The slightest falter and the League would sweep the Union from the stars with barely a thought. The Celostian military had borne the brunt of the conflict, in battle after battle, campaign after campaign. Rigannin had not been the first struggle against the Odurans. In the time of the Regal High Seats, there had been other battles, victories that had taken all the strength and valor of the Royal Fleet—the embryo of the Celostian Navy—to achieve, and had required a price of blood and tears Jacob hoped he would never have to see paid again.
    Nivrosky spoke, and his voice reflected a lifetime of standing against that tide and paying that price. “Gentleman and ladies, you know the desperation of our situation. The Union fields nearly a third of the fleet the Odurans can support, and that was before the Telosians threw their strength behind the League. Unfortunately, we suffer from another disadvantage.”
    “The Odurans have little to fear from an offensive strike, and so they are free to concentrate their forces and strike wherever they choose. We are forced to spread our ships across the length of the border in the hope that we can intercept an attack before it reaches past our defenses. In fact, our ships have had to pull back to the second or even third line of systems because otherwise we cannot muster enough forces. The frontier and border are often open to Telosian and Oduran raids, save for those few patrols we send out on a regular basis.”
    “We have been able, however, to deal several setbacks to the Odurans. The Navy turned them back at Sirena and Wallard; more recently we caught them and beat them at Liandre. Each time, however, they have given us time to collect our forces and prepare