CoH CoS (Chapter 36)

  Damien ran into the command room, no one stopped to salute. They were too busy. Chip saw Damien standing in the doorway and ran over. After a hasty salute, he began talking. He talked in short garbled sentences. Damien was more disturbed by his manner of speech than the content. Chip had always been well spoken and clear.

  “Oh God Damien.  I don’t know how it came about.  They came out of nowhere. I swear to you, we never saw them coming. Half the OS force wiped out in the first couple minutes…”

  Damien grabbed Chip by the shoulders and shook him lightly.

  “Calm down, take a few deep breaths and tell me what’s going on.  I need to know what is going on Chip and you need to be able to tell me.  Do you understand me?”

  Chip nodded and closed his eyes, taking deep breaths. His eyes were clearer when he opened them.

  “A large Randon force warped in out of nowhere. We don’t know where they came from.  We weren’t able to track them at all until they warped in.  The OS force didn’t stand a chance. Half the fighters were taken out right after they warped in.”

  “And the Sagittarius?”

  “It’s still fighting.  It’s fighters are still going hard, but they’re dropping like flies.  They need reenforcements.  I sent the Scorpious from outbound to help them and the Gemini is preping as we speak.”

  “Alright.  That’s what I like to hear.  Now, that’s taken care of as much as we can right now.  Tell me what we’re looking at for ground forces.  The when, the where, and the what.”

  Chip nodded and took another deep breath, “We’re not going to be able to stop the deployment forces that have already started.  It will take them at least 24 hours to get all their forces together.  It’s over a limited area.  We have it on scan and scouts are already on their way, but the force is massive, it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.  Even if we included the battle ready apprentices they already outnumber the Arias and us together by three to one.”

  Damien’s face hardened.

  “Chip.”

  “Yes sir?”

  “Put everyone on blue alert. I don’t care what else is going on.  Call every Knight back to HQ.  Tell them to start making choices on which apprentices they can quick pass on their sims.  Alert the Arias and let them know they better do something similar real quick.  I need every last Knight here.  If we don’t win this, nothing else on this planet will matter in 48 hours.  Let all the officers know.  We’re going to war…”

 

Damien