Alliance cruiser Ural and Republic transport Centaur had met in a circular solar orbit a few hours ago, roughly 185 million kilometers away from the Sun; between the orbits of Earth and Mars.
Not being a crew member of Ural, I was simply watching people working around. I didn't roam around the ship too much, because the interior design was way different than those of Republic ships. Instead of the Republic's submarine-like corridors and decks, the Alliance warships had large rooms and the computer consoles were much larger. The screens also had full color palletes, unlike the monochrome or 8-color displays widely used in Republic military.
"Commander, the Republic ships are approaching for rendezvous. LC/M Lodos has sent you a message." said Colonel Sergey, the CO of Ural.
"Thank you." I said. "And-"
"It is okay, you can just use any console you like." he said. Apparently, Alliance computer consoles were highly flexible with very little specialised tasks... unlike their Republic counterparts. Maybe the general modularity of the Alliance military was the key here for their fast war preparations.
'--==-- TRANSMISSON --==--
LC/M Lodos ---> GC Ural
We will expect Commander Kagan to come aboard LC/M Lodos as soon as the rendezvous is complete.
--==-- END TRANSMISSON --==--'
"Lodos will be here in a few minutes, so you better get ready for transfer, Commander." Sergey said.
"Thank you for everything Commander." I said. "Oh, I mean... Colonel."
Colonel Sergey chuckled.
"We will be together for some time, Commander." he said. "Take good care of your ship."
As the Republic fleet approached to meet with spaceships Ural and Centaur, I left Ural in a shuttle.
The Republic fleet matched their orbital velocity with Ural, and came to a 'relative stop'. Afterwards, Lodos opened it's hangar bay doors to allow my shuttle to dock.
After such a long time, I was stepping aboard Lodos again. I have served in this ship for many years, but I still had the same excitement as before.
After delivering me, the shuttle travelled back to Ural while I made my way to Lodos' bridge.
The bridge's door opened, and I came inside.
Everyone turned around to have a look.
"Commander!" The first voice was that of Lieutenant Karl's.
"Welcome aboard." said Mei. She was still in command of Lodos since I've left.
Ensign Sungho started applauding and the whole bridge crew joined him. I was feeling good, but I was also a bit embarrassed. I... I had forgotten that this crew was so much like a family.
"Thank you, thank you all!"
The applause stopped, but smiles remained.
However, there was something missing... Something important.
"What happened to Ensign Aziz?" I asked.
"He was... arrested because of treason." Mei said.
"I... I can't believe it!" I said. "All this time, he was-"
"Yeah." said Lieutenant Karl. "He had been transmitting our communications to Federation vessels in secrecy."
"How did you find out?" I asked.
"How did we what?" This was Aziz's voice behind me! He had just came into the bridge.
"OH, COMMANDER! You are back!" he said in excitement when he noticed me.
Mei bursted into laughter.
"Just kidding, he went to the toilet." she said, trying to handle her laugh. Lieutenant Karl was also laughing.
"Very funny." I said with a serious face.
"Anyway..." said Mei, finally taking control of her laughter. "Commander, I am ordered to transfer the duty of Commanding Officer back to you."
"Wha- wow." I wasn't really expecting this, after being sent to exile on Earth once, because of my mistakes in commanding a warship. "Well..."
"...and you will have to, as it is a standart procedure, choose an XO." Mei said.
"If that's the case, you will continue your duty as an XO, Commander." I said to Mei. "Wait, hold on a bit."
"What happened?" Mei asked.
"If you were the CO of Lodos, then... who was doing the cruise-nav duty?" I asked. Looking over to the cruise-nav consoles, I saw another crew member. I had never seen him before.
"Ensign Eliott. He can not talk because of a medical condition." Mei whispered this to me. "But he has a speech synthesizer to help him communicate."
I walked over to his duty station.
"Ensign?"
He turned to me.
"Yes, sir?" he responded with his robotic speech-synthesizer.
"Nice to meet you, comrade." I said.
"Thank you." the robotic voice replied.
Eliott had a weird, mystical aura. He couldn't talk of course, but his face had no emotions whatsoever. He was looking like if he was tired of everything in life. Perhaps an anti-social... I wanted to know more about him, but I couldn't keep the conversation going.
"Sir, new message." Ensign Aziz said.
"What is it?" Mei asked.
"The Joint Command wants us to start our approach to Luna. We are to protect the transports AND cruiser Ural as it is performing it's electronic warfare... thing."
"Alright." I said. "Mr. Eliott, keep our velocity matched with Ural and start moving towards Luna."
He nodded. This was not a military standart way of communication, but maybe he just didn't want to use his speech synthesizer so much. I couldn't really blame him though, because honestly, the voice of the synthesizer was ugly.
"What are the transports carrying?" I asked to Mei. "Why does no one ever give me a briefing!?"
"Oh, yes, my fault." Mei said. "The transports are carrying troops, military ground vehicles, stationary artillery pieces and base materials. We are going to silently approach, and land troops on Earth's moon. The fleet will try to keep Luna between us and Earth, and with the electronic warfare suit, we hopefully won't be identified until we are very close."
"That's such an ambitious plan." I said. "The Federation vessels will be patrolling all around Earth and Luna." I said.
"The Federation has sent so many vessels away from Earth to fight on outer fronts like Jupiter or Ceres, and besides, the Alliance has been monitoring the moves of the remaining vessels." said Mei. "This could be our only chance to make a strong blow. If we can take over at least some part of Luna..."
"Okay, I got the idea." I said. "Just try not to forget to give me a mission briefing, should this ever happen again."
"Yes, sure." said Mei.
"I can't hear you!"
"YES, SIR!"
Lodos, along with Ural and the rest of the Republic fleet, was now enroute to land troops on Earth's moon; starting perhaps the most important battle in the war so far, even more important than the Ceres campaign. Controlling Luna was an important step in gaining naval superiority in the vicinity of Earth, capital planet of both the Federation and the Alliance.
I wanted to believe that this was a well-planned strategic move, and not a 'last hope' mission that was invented out of Republic's desparation...