Chapter 2: The Dagger
Admiral Gaius Herschel
"Admiral on deck!"
A shout was heard as he entered the bridge. The officers manning each stations and their consoles stood with bodies straight, chin up and a serious expression as they gave him a salute.
"At ease." He commanded as he scanned the room briefly before going to his seat. The admiral's seat, as they call it, is a mixture of comfort and functionality. It allowed his body to relax and at the same time, allowed him to work efficiently. once seated, it connects to the users mind and the user can gain access and use it so long as they are authorised. Various logs, statistics and data flashed in his mind as hologram panels of different sizes appeared around him with various information strewn across them. He took a couple of minutes to digest all the information before addressing the officer beside him.
"Wyde, what is the situation?" He inquired as he opened one panel of the hologram and scanned it.
"We got orders straight from the Council to station the fleet at Notus System." The officer answered in a rough voice. The officer is a burly man who looks to be at his twenties, yet his real age is 42. With science advancing with time, the average human lifespan is 120 years and if one is lucky, reaching 180 is achievable.
"The order says go fast, assume defensive position and the admiral has the authority to assess threats on his own volition." The officer added as he looked at the order logs and opened the recent files.
"Tell the fleet, we are sailing towards the system Notus in full speed." He commanded in a loud, authoritative voice as the deck scrambled in activity. The comms officers communicated to the other ships nonstop, the nav officers planned the route they would be using on the trip as the other officers aided in preparing the fleet's departure.
After briefly scanning the information on the holographic panels, he went silent as he contemplated what should he do next. The news about the galactic war, dubbed by multiple races as the War In Heaven, is only to known to the upper echelons of the United Nations of Earth or UNE for now but rumours are spreading among the populace that a massive war is about to come. He scanned the faces of the officers on deck and saw that while most of them have either a busy or stern expression on their face, a few of them looked either confused or enlightened, some even worried. They might be wondering if the rumours about the war is true.
The 28th Fleet, the fleet he was commanding is a newly commissioned fleet. It was a tradition that whenever a fleet is wiped out, its name will be written in history and a new fleet will be built that will be named anew. There are about five fleets the UNE has, the 2nd Fleet, its oldest fleet, the 13th Fleet, its strongest fleet, the 15th Fleet, its weirdest fleet, the 21st Fleet, its most defensive fleet and the 28th Fleet, its fastest fleet. Each fleet has their own respective admiral. His fleet, the 28th, is the newest addition to Earth's armadas. Its composition is designed to be fast for rapid response, border patrol missions and guerrilla warfare. It sports about 50 torpedo strike ships, 20 assault corvettes, 20 heavy assault destroyers and 10 torpedo cruisers. Since speed is their goal, they have no battleships in their ranks but they can take down battleships of any empires with just their torpedoes alone. Although new, each ship of the fleet is commanded by a captain who previously worked as XOs of ships from the other fleets.
As they entered subspace, he looked at the visual outside as he examined the fleet. The fleet took on aV formation with the cruisers upfront forming the tip of the V with the corvettes filling the rest of the formation. The destroyers is one the back as they are designed to carry heavy weaponry. their default tactic when attacking is the cruiser at the forefront taking the brunt of the damage, exchanging fire with the enemies while the corvettes are swarming towards their targets as the destroyers is on the back, bombarding their assigned targets.
After arranging everything and setting things in order, he opened his mailbox as he read the various mail he received from his fans. Though he was old, he is famous. He just turned 72 yesterday and he was busy attending his birthday party to read his fan's mails. Herschel, the Dragonslayer, as he was known widely. He got an average body, paired with an average face that looks like a standard face you will see everywhere and his stature is also average. The only thing that is not average about him is the confidence and power that he emitted every time he moved. The confident of the strong. 5 years ago, they discovered the existence of a gigantic life-form. The life-form is bigger than an average star and it lives on the void of the outer space without using any forms of technology. This discovery shocked mankind as they dubbed it as the Space Dragon. They used all methods to communicate with it but all failed. In the end, they just left it alone. But their neighbouring empire have other ideas. The system inhabited by the dragon is rich in mineral and energy resources. They attacked the dragon in the hopes of studying its corpse and obtaining the mineral rich system. They failed and their fleets was wiped out.
It was a good day for the United Nations of Earth that day as they were in the midst of celebrating the new year. Then, reports came and flooded the all networks of communications. The dragon attacked its surrounding system and a colony of mankind was wiped out of existence. The UNE was previously worried about the Space Dragon so they stationed two fleets nearby, the 13th Fleet and the 27th Fleet. By the time they responded, four systems were wiped out and the dragon was busy wiping out the fifth. A bitter battle came as the two fleets struggled against the dragon. the 13th Fleet, though Earth's strongest, sustained 90% percent casualty rate an most of its ships were now scrap metal. The 27th Fleet, his previous fleet, was wiped out with all but his ship that survived. It was a torpedo cruiser and it dealt the final blow to the dragon. That battle was broadcasted live and the broadcast showed his battered torpedo ship charging towards the heavily injured dragon, firing its torpedoes unrelentlesly while dodging the debris that littered the battlefield and the dragon's attacks. He and the rest of his surviving crew overloaded the ship's core as they made a collision course towards the dragon. They bailed out at the last moment and from then on, the Space Dragon was history.
Back then, they were hailed as heroes and he was promoted as an admiral. His promotion was unobstructed back then as The previous admiral on the 27th Fleet along with his successors and other qualified officers that may be promoted to the position of admiral were killed in action so the Council assigned him as a new admiral. From a political perspective, giving a relevant high position to a hero is a good political move in times where your nation just lost a huge amount of its strength. The jubilation and celebration back then allowed the Council to immediately mend the situation and quell the public so that the 13th Fleet's prestige may be maintained.
Viewing everything from back then until now, everything was great. His career is stable and promising and if he continued to achieve heroic feats and missions then being part of the Council may be possible. The Council, the highest ruling elite of the UNE. Members of the council are called Councillors and each of them wields a considerable amount of power. Every councillor is elected by the public every 10 years and the one who received the highest vote will become the president of the United Nations of Earth. An admiral who becomes a member of the Council will be called Grand Admiral. The UNE currently has two Grand Admirals, the admiral of the 2nd Fleet and the admiral of the 13th Fleet. Both fleets have their reputation known not just to to mankind but to their neighbouring empires as well. As the oldest, the 2nd Fleet symbolises the hope of humanity. They are the torch of humanity, the one that gives humanity courage to face off the horrors of the galaxy. The 13th Fleet on the other hand is the greatest sword of humanity. With the 2nd Fleet as the hope that encourages mankind, the 13th Fleet is the one that eliminates any and all threats to mankind. The 13th Fleet of humanity is the one fleet humanity had that participated more battles than all existing fleets of humanity combined. It is the view of the common people that so long as the 13th Fleet is fighting, humanity will keep fighting.
The humanity has its torch and its sword now so if he wants to be a Grand Admiral, then he would need to find a way so that humanity will remember him. And the fleet in front of him is the fleet that he intends to be the third symbol of humanity. He planned to be the dagger of humanity. The dagger that attacks all threat swiftly and faster than the others. The dagger that will allow humanity to thwart the plans of their enemy. The dagger that will be fighting side by side along with the sword under the guidance of the torch. The dagger before him is newly minted, newly forged. And the coming war is the fire that will temper the dagger to perfection. That war that will disturb the peace of the galaxy will be the forge that will hone and harness the potential of this dagger and every life-form will know its terrifying might.