Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Turmoil by Ryan Krauter Page A

leave
anything on the table and performed just as I'd hoped.  Now let's see how the
rest of our force is doing."  She looked at on of the conn officers, who
took the cue and placed the battle telemetry and tactical model on the main
screen.
     
     
    The Lemurians lost a
total of two ships destroyed and two mission-kills, but eventually the Confed
ship had broken off after soaking up some impressive damage of her own.  The
fighters had hacked away at the destroyers the entire time, losing five of
their number.  Overall, it was technically a success for the Lemurians since
the Confed ship broke contact and withdrew.  It was a Pyrrhic victory though,
because the entire Lemurian defensive force was essentially wiped out as a
fighting unit.
    The ships all
returned to normal settings as far as computers and weapons went and started to
regroup.  They were scattered all over a good chunk of the outer solar system
where the ships had been ruled destroyed or disabled, and it would be another
ten minutes before they were all back in some semblance of formation again.
    "Good work out
there everyone," Cory said over the Avenger Air Wing frequency. 
    "Next time I'd
like to blow something up for real, though," stated Web over the comms.
    "You say that
about everything, Web," she replied with a laugh.  "Why don't you
take your element and head out on a zero three five heading relative to me and
go shepherd in that last Lemurian destroyer."
    "On the
way," he said crisply, and took the five other Talons he was leading with
him as he rode off at maximum acceleration.
     
     
    That night found
Captain Elco and Commander Stone sitting in the Aft Quarter, the huge casual
mess hall at the aft of the main gun deck of Avenger.  It looked out through
two-story windows over the aft dorsal area of the ship, over point defense/AA
turrets, four torpedo tubes, and the aft main laser batteries.  Even with all
the firepower present in the scene, it was still a beautiful sight because of the
view it offered.  The stars sparkled, pinpoints of bright unfiltered white
light in the vacuum of space; the planet Lemuria filled up much of the viewport
on the ship's starboard side, and Loren was allowing himself to be distracted
by it as he and the captain ate their meals in silence. 
    Lemuria wasn't the
prettiest world in the sector, but it had its charms.  Though the equatorial
region was too hot and swampy, the upper and lower latitudes were quite pleasant
for most humanoid life.  As he gazed out at the planet, he could see the
capital city where they'd spent the last week, surrounded by fertile plains on
one side and edging up against a snow-capped mountain range on the other which
stretched across almost the entire continent.
    "You think that
planet's worth all those people suffering or dying for?" asked Elco as he
followed Loren's gaze and deduced what he was thinking.
    "To them, it
is," Loren said without thought.  "I thought that about Toral when
the Primans captured it; I would have fought and died for my home and
family."
    Elco just nodded
thoughtfully, the only sound between them the sound of the captain's fork
scraping the last remnants up off his plate.  "I said that to put some
perspective on what I have to tell you."  The captain's demeanor wasn't
usually chipper and carefree, but now he was especially somber.
    "Governor
Broadbent has informed me that they'll be officially asking us to leave the
system.  They figure if the Primans come calling and they see our ships in
orbit they'll assume we have some sort of pact with the Lemurians.  The
governor is set on trying to negotiate something between them, along with just
barely a majority of their Parliament."
    Loren was at a
loss.  He looked harder at the planet out the viewport, as if he could see the
governor and the other decision-makers in their chambers through the swirling
clouds of the upper atmosphere.  He wondered what they told themselves in order
to try and convince each