'--==DECRYPTED OUTPUT==--
LC/M Lodos, this is Olympus Mons Navy HQ; expecting vessel XO to contact in person via voice comm.
--==END OF DECRYPTED PACKAGE==--'
"This is damn peculiar. Why don't they contact the commanding officer directly?" I said. I turned around to call Mei, but instead, I saw Aziz still standing up next to me. If I squinted harder, I thought I could see his train of thoughts.
"Go to your quarters and get some rest, Ensign." I told him. "I want you back in service in 18 hours."
"Yes, sir." he said, and headed out of the bridge. He was a new recruit, and perhaps he just wasn't used to this sort of stress. But this was his job, and if he continued to be like that... I would have to permanently replace him. Unfortunately, considering the status of entire Navy personnel, the replacements were almost guaranteed to be worse; so I decided to give him a second chance.
"Commander!" I called Mei. She turned around.
"The HQ wants you to contact them in person." I said, and left the comms console to her. She sat down and grabbed the headphone. After contacting HQ, she listened to what seemed like a long set of instructions. Afterwards, she only said a single word and closed the connection.
"Copy."
She turned around and stood up facing me. We stared at each other for quite some time. I was expecting her to say something.
"What did they say, Mei?" I eventually ran out of patience.
"I am hereby relieving you of Lodos' command, Commander." she said.
The whole crew looked at us. They were shocked just as I was, except for Mei herself. She was, like most of the time, showing no emotions whatsoever.
"I am ordered to recall our fighters and bring Lodos to Obsidian Platform in the Asteroid Belt Cluster E-8." she said.
"What!?"
Obsidian Platform, just like Obsidian City, was named after the infamous Obsidian Carrier which served as the flagship of the Martian Navy during the War of Independence. It was a well protected Navy base in a relatively dense asteroid cluster which shared it's orbit with the dwarf planet Ceres. It was also the main shipyard of the Shadow Filotilla; the elite group of stealth warships of Martian Navy. Having a non-stealth ship travelling there was a very unusual thing to witness.
"The HQ is asking you to return to Olympus Mons as soon as possible." she continued.
There. That sentence was it. I had made the biggest mistake in my life. Recklessly 'stealing' a warship from the orbital shipyard... This was probably the end of my career. If that was the case, I had already lost my chance to recover Tachibana as well. But... right now, there was no reason to be bitter about it.
"I... congratulate you on your promotion to command, sir." I said to Mei. "I will be on my way."
"It is unfortunate for Lodos to have lost two commanding officers in row." Mei said. "But don't worry, Commander. We will get out of this just fine."
I didn't say anything in return and left the bridge with the pressure of everyone staring at me.
After Mei assumed command, the radiation levels were dropped to safe levels, and the fighters were called back. Shuttle Sivas was still waiting outside of the hangar bay for docking clearance. Meanwhile, I found myself a shuttle and left Lodos to fly down to the Navy HQ, acoompanied by a shuttle pilot who would fly the shuttle back to Lodos once I got off.
After I landed on the Navy spaceport, an officer waiting there saw me and came by. We saluted each other. He seemed to be in a rush.
"Welcome back, Commander. The Grand Admiral is expecting you. This way!"
On my way there, I was only trying to calculate how many hours of lecture I was going to get, and what job I could do after I was out of the Navy.
The officer knocked on the door for me, and I was in the room before I knew it. The Grand Admiral was inside, but there was someone else in there. From his uniform, I figured that he was a government official.
"Commander Kagan, reporting as requested, sir." I said.
"Welcome, Commander." Grand Admiral Rashid said. "Please sit down." he showed me the seat in front of his desk, across that goverment official. He then sat down himself.
"This is Director Chisomo of Ministry of Foreign Affairs." Rashid introduced me to the man. "We were speaking about your next assignment."
"My... what?"
"We will be sending you to Earth on a diplomatic mission." director explained.
"I thought we had aborted all the diplomatic missions to Earth." I said.
"That only applies to the Federation." Director explained. "We are not hostile to other factions. Not yet, anyway... That actually depends on their standing."
"And... What is my mission, exactly?" I asked.
"You will accompany our new envoys to our embassy of The Alliance of Asian Nations, in China. You will act as a military knowledge base for our envoys and the Head of Security in the embassy." Director said.
That was, needless to say, far different than what I expected when I got here.
Given the chance, I would like to remain in command of my vessel, but this mission sounded like quite an adventure as well. Besides... Lodos would do just fine in Mei's command. And I wasn't given a choice in the first place, so there was no point in thinking about that.
"I understand." I said.
"This is not some sort of... 'babysitting' mission as some in the Navy people like to refer to." Grand Admiral said to me. The director coughed lightly. "I can not stress enough the importance of this mission." Grand Admiral continued.
"Although they never openly fought each other in history, The Alliance has never been on good terms with the Federation." the director started to give some background on the diplomatic mission. "But, they do engage in a lot of trading. So, if we can get the Alliance to support our war efforts, this will be a huge setback for the Federation Navy."
I wasn't sure if I was supposed to listen to this. I wasn't going to be the envoy after all...
"...and, with a more optimistic approach, if we can persuade the Alliance to join the war on our side, this will be a huge blow for the Federation."
"The Alliance isn't stupid enough to declare war on the Federation!"
I had said that out loudly without thinking.