As the White Eagle's escort fleet was trying to withdraw, Lodos' drone fleet kept harassing the ships with ultraviolet laser fire. Gunship Persephone also joined the action by activating it's railguns. The railgun fire wasn't accurate from that distance, but they weren't actually trying to hit the target anyway.
"Sir, Transport Bronze says that they are aiming to crash-land somewhere just west of Mare Imbrium. Transport Centaur is following." Aziz said.
"Keep following them, Mr. Eliott." I ordered. He nodded silently as he did the last time.
Lodos, like most other main-line warships, was a space-only design; which meant that it had no planetary landing or atmospheric flight capabilities. We had to remain in orbit while the transports made their way to the Lunar surface.
However, we couldn't just send those transports to the ground by themselves...
"Mr. Sungho, launch our fighters and two ECM shuttles to escort the transports." I said.
"Copy, sir." Sungho said. "Fighters are preparing to leave, shuttles will be prepared for an ECM mission ASAP."
"Very good."
"Sir, the White Eagle's escort fleet is getting quite distant now. Shall we recall our surviving drones?" Mr. Sungho suggested.
"Yes." I said.
"Recalling drones..." Mr. Sungho said.
"Sir, casuality reports from the previous missile hit on our starboard side." Katyusha reported. "We have one engineer dead, and seven people suffered light injuries."
"Understood." I said.
We were very lucky. The missile which exploded near Lodos earlier (during the battle with the White Eagle) had a faulty approach vector. If an anti-ship missile like that scored a direct hit on us, we would all be dead now, so although we had lost a fellow crew member, only one casuality was actually a pretty awesome outcome.
"Sir, ECM shuttles are now leaving the hangar bay." Sungho said.
The escort fleet of fighters and shuttles boosted away to catch up with the transports on their way to surface.
"Any threats, Lieutenant?" I asked.
"Nothing yet, sir." Karl said. "It seems like it will take the Federation some time to assemble a new fleet to wipe us out."
"So, we are in the clear right now?" Mei asked.
"Seems so." Karl said.
"Mr. Aziz, send a battle report to Olympus Mons HQ." I ordered. "Commander Mei, please come with me."
"Yes, sir." Mei said and came by.
"I want to talk about something." I said. "In private."
"Yes... sir." she said with a lower voice, and followed me out of the bridge.
I brought Mei to my quarters, the most private place I could have in Lodos.
"What do you want to talk about?" she asked. I sighed.
"You know... " I didn't know where to start at first.
"I know... what?"
"I lost the command of Lodos for some time, and I was sent to Earth on a diplomatic mission, and the-"
"Yeah, I know all that." Mei said.
"I lost the command of Lodos for a reason." I said.
"To... go to Earth?" she said.
"No, no, perhaps my choice of words is weird..." I said. "I mean... I was trying to do something good, and rescue a rear admiral... also a friend."
"Tachibana." she said. "You did all of this for Tachibana. I know. He is my friend too. We are friends. But why, Kagan?"
"It is not about Tachibana." I said. "It is about the Republic. He is an infiltrator in the so-called Mars Freedom Front. He knows a lot of things that we have to know but don't. I had to save him, but I couldn't."
"It is not your fault." Mei said. "Sometimes... Things happen out of your control, and you can't accuse yourself."
"Mei, you don't understand..." I said. "We are closer to Earth together than we have ever been in history. If we have a chance to rescue Tachibana, this is it!"
"You sound crazy." Mei said. "Forget about Tachibana, okay? He was our comrade. He was our close friend. He was an admiral of the Republic Navy. I get it."
"No, you don't!"
"Whatever information Tachibana has is no longer relevant, and we will not pursue his little spying adventure." Mei said.
"Espionage is a key element in this war, and we can not ignore Tachibana's efforts." I argued. "Alliance is fighting on our side just because of our espoinage missions, do you know that?"
"No, you delusional idiot." Mei said. "The Alliance isn't fighting on our side just because you and your colleagues found a ****ing script in a ****ing network. The Alliance already had that information. They are on our side because the Republic promised to give some of it's lands and resources to the Alliance in return."
I was frozen in shock.
"W-w-what are you saying?" I asked.
"The Republic promised it's lands on Callisto and Io if the Alliance declared war on the Federation. See for yourself, if we get to survive this war." she said.
"Who told that to you!?" I asked.
"An admiral in the Shadown Filotilla, when Lodos was under maintenance there." Mei said. "This is actually supposed to be a top secret of the state."
"Then why is this information out in the open?" I asked. "Everything here is outright wrong!"
"Yes, indeed it is." Mei said. "You missed a lot when you were on vacation in Beijing. There is a lot of discomfort in the military. People don't trust each other anymore. Commanding officers with similar political views started grouping up in the Navy. They issue fake commands, lie to their superiors, manipulate the cadets for dirty jobs, and generally just try to save their own a**es. Martian national unity is nothing more than a cold joke now."
"I thought-"
"This is not even the worst thing." Mei added. "After our major losses in Ceres, the president issued an order. They stopped the assembly lines in half and put every under-construction ship in military service. Some of those ships don't have proper armor plating, some doesn't have emergency reactors, some of them are just skeleton ships!"
"This-"
"...and they have enlisted all the young people who study in the military academy to put them in those half-completed vessels that can hardly stay in one piece!"
"This must be a really bad joke..."
"Except it isn't. The president is scraping the barrels, and let me tell you in your face: We are destined to lose this war! Honor, glory, pride... It is all meaningless. If those 'kids' die in war, there will be no one left to remember them!"
I was left speechless.
"Forget about Tachibana." Mei said. "He is in a much better place down there."