Chương 122: Chapter One Hundred and Six - The Sweep Around

They swept around Uranus, using the planet's powerful pull to turn their straight path into a tight curve that had them coming in hot behind Oberon. Their arrival didn't go unnoticed, not when the Sappho's guns were still hot from her last altercation and she was followed by a pocket cruiser that was larger than most of the ships gathered around the large moon.

"We're getting hailed," Aurora said.

"From the UDF Stormiest Skies."

"UDF?" Twenty-Six asked.

"Is that the... Uranian Defence Force?"

"Defence Fleet," Aurora corrected, "but close. It's the flagship of this operation, I think. Certainly the largest ship here." She threw the hail up on one of the monitors and then projected what they could see of the ship. The Stormiest Skies was a heavy cruiser. An Earth Alliance pattern ship, from late into the Second Inter-System War, Ivil guessed. There had been several hundred of those ships built by the tail end of the war.

She wasn't too surprised to see one still in service and not in the hands of its original navy.

"Pretty," Twenty-Six said.

"She has nice lines. Look at that bow curve."

"So you like them curvy?" Ivil asked teasingly. Twenty-Six grinned.

"I do like a lady with a little something to grab onto." She tried very hard to sound seductive, but her accompanying giggle-snort ruined it. Aurora sighed, though she didn't truly sound exasperated.

"Shall we answer the hail?"

"Go ahead," Ivil said with a gesture. Aurora adjusted the way she was seated, as if she could sit any straighter than she was already, then cleared her throat before accepting the hail. A tinny voice came from the comms console.

"Unidentified ship, this is the UDF Stormiest Skies, please identify."" Stormiest Skies this is the Sappho," Aurora began, "Permission to join your fleet formation? We are here to assist against the Earth Alliance on behalf of Phobos and Mars."

"Received," came the reply.

"One moment, Sappho, we're just confirming something."

"What are they confirming?" Twenty-Six asked.

"Who we are?"

"They might be talking to the representatives that were around the Jovian system," Aurora said.

"I made friends with the representatives of Umbriel and Titania. They should be able to confirm that I'm on board, at the very least. Thought it might take a moment for communications from Jupiter to reach here. We might have to fly into a holding pattern until then." Ivil half-turned, glancing back at the bridge's entrance a moment before the door opened and Pixie stepped onto the bridge. Her hair was wet, and she looked a little more fresh.

"I heard something about a holding pattern?" she asked. Aurora and Twenty-Six filled the pilot in as she slowly made her way back to her seat and settled in. There was a very loud silence around the reason why she'd left in the first place. With Pixie at the helm, they shifted their flight pattern until they were flying in a wide orbit around the large moon, a north-to-south orbit, that avoided the moon's equatorial region as much as possible, since that was where the Uranian fleet was assembling.

Assembling being the correct term, as more ships were flying in from around the planetary system. A lot of those were civilian vessels, but a few looked like they could take on a pirate or two in a pinch, and they were willing to add their firepower to the mix. Aurora adjusted something, then pressed a headphone over one ear.

"There's someone talking over the air," she said.

"On the emergency channel."

"Put it on?" Twenty-Six asked. Aurora nodded and did just so. A moment later they were listening to a man speak. He had the impassioned sort of cadence that Ivil expected to hear from an orating politician, or one of the male leads in a romantic soap trying to convince the clone of his dead second wife to give him a chance after she caught him in bed with her secretly-not-evil twin sister from another mother.

"--We are not one people. We are many people, from many creeds, from many moons, and yet in some things we are one. For decades we've been oppressed by the likes of Earth and Mars, and though Mars may be sitting back now, we don't know what actions they may take later. Earth is here. It is at our doorstep. A fleet of disguised warships is parked within our jurisdiction, in our neighbourhood, and its goal could not be more obvious.

They are here to steal what we found, what we discovered and so kindly decided to share with our fellow moons. The Earth Alliance would rather see us dead than gathered together in a union of Free Moons!" Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"He's kind of yappy," Pixie said.

"I don't know, he sounds like he's passionate," Twenty-Six said. She nodded fiercely.

"I kinda feel my blood boiling a little, you know?"

"Hmm, I guess. Speeches never did it for me," Pixie said.

"You've heard one, you've heard them all. Listening to politicians prattle on is never a good idea. Uh... no offence?"

"None taken," Aurora replied dryly.

"We all know what does do it for you," Twenty-Six said. Pixie stared ahead, but there was no hiding the blush crawling up her neck. Cute, Ivil decided. Why was it that she found embarrassed women so much more attractive? Did she have a reverse-humiliation kink? Or were blushing girls just cuter? She made a mental note to talk to her therapist about it. Aurora jumped, then tapped a button on the console." Sappho here, come in."" Sappho, this is the Stormiest Skies space control.

We're sending you some coordinates now. Your clearance checks passed, and two of our representatives vetted you. Thank you for joining us."

"You're welcome," Aurora replied.

"Who should we talk to with regards to tactics? We're the representatives from Phobos. I'd like to have an ear in any important discussions."

"We'll tie you in to HR." Aurora pouted and shut the outgoing line.

"HR? Am I going to have to argue my way up the entire chain of command?"

"I can think of a few ways to expedite that," Ivil said.

"No thank you," Aurora said.

"I imagine your methods of reminding people of your place in the chain of command involves involuntary space walks."

"I once heard this funny expression about the chain of command being the one you beat someone with if they don't listen," Ivil said.

"But the actual chain of command is metaphorical, sadly, and you can't beat someone with an allegory."

"Not with that attitude," Pixie replied. Ivil placed a hand over her mouth to keep an inappropriate giggle in. She was not going to giggle in front of anyone, but for a moment there...

"I think our senses of humour mesh surprisingly well, Pixie," she said.

"They do?" Pixie asked. Meanwhile, Twenty-Six made happy little claps in the background. With new coordinates, Pixie was rather busy realigning their flight so that they fell into the Uranian fleet. The Silent Sentinel Washer at the Gates hurried to catch up, and soon a space was cleared out for them near the front of the fleet's formation.

"I wonder if we're here because we have more firepower than the rest, or if the Uranians are placing allied vessels in front of locals on purpose," Aurora said. She brought up a display of all the ships in local space, and there was a definite pattern.

"Oh, I know this one," Twenty-Six said.

"Seen it before. You place the ships that aren't part of your group in front because then they'll take the worst hits first, but also, it makes it less likely that they'll run first."

"That's... rather messed up," Aurora said.

"Yeah, a bit. But otherwise people that don't have as much invested are more likely to run away," Twenty-Six said.

"And usually this is the kind of thing that's done while fighting pirates, not like... a proper navy."

"How'd you know all that?" Pixie asked. Twenty-Six huffed.

"I know how to read, you know! Not just tech manuals either."

"Us being at the vanguard is fine," Ivil said.

"Perhaps we can let the Silent Sentinel Washer at the Gates sit before us, but I don't mind being at the front. It'll make guarding the fleet behind that much easier."

"If you say so," Aurora said, surprisingly without any hint of doubt or insincerity. She trusted Ivil in this.

"Uh," Twenty-Six said. She squinted at one of the consoles, then zoomed in.

"Hey, does it look like the Earth Alliance fleet is moving to you? Like, more than just shifting around?" Ivil sat up straighter. She was right. The enemy fleet was slowly starting to peel away from Caliban. There could only be a few reasons for that. Either they were retreating--which she found unlikely--or they were launching their attack now, before the Jovian fleet could arrive and even their odds.