Random words were flying across the command deck from all but few crew members. This was their first time facing a war, and a military failure.
"Sir? Is it over? What do we do now?"
"Should we regroup?"
"We need to shoot down those escape pods!"
"Get back to your seat, soldier!"
"Sir, the warship will be on top of us in a minute!"
No matter how hard the ship commander tried to restore the order, the pointless chatter went on for some time. Only when I spoke, everyone else went silent.
"Alright, people. We will need to switch to plan B."
"What is plan B?" Mei asked me.
"Shut up, you know what it is." I said. She instantly got the message - we were pretending to know what we were doing in front of the inexperienced crew members. "Now, since the enemy now knows that their ship has been attacked, they will send out their warship. This might give us a chance to know where their almighty force projection device is located."
Little did Mei know, I actually knew what I was doing.
"And? How will we oppose them?" the flagship commander asked.
"The Second Flotilla will keep it away from us as we attack the enemy mining fleet." I said.
"Sir, the Second Flotilla will stand no chance against a warship." he argued.
"Their three remaining flak missiles might scare them off for a while, even if they do not do much damage." I said. "They will have to buy us enough time."
"How do we execute the plan?" he then asked.
"Transmit my orders to the Second Flotilla. As soon as the enemy warship is located, I will signal both flotillas to go. Commander of the Second Flotilla will have full command of his ships."
"How will we save the Second Flotilla from the enemy warship's attack after our assault on the mining fleet is complete?"
"We will merge fleets and-"
"Sir! The enemy warship has been observed approaching the location of Second Flotilla!" the comms officer reported. "They will enter engagement range soon!"
"This was much sooner than expected." I said. "Action stations! Begin the assault, tear the enemy apart!"
Just as I ordered that, the First Flotilla moved away from the large asteroid they've been hiding behind, and started raining projectiles on the enemy mining fleet. They've been caught by surprise, and were significantly outgunned. Without even retrieving the mining equipment, ships boosted away from the asteroid they were mining and tried to escape. Meanwhile, Second Flotilla engaged the enemy warship.
"Be careful with the cargo ships." I said. "Just disable them, do not destroy!"
Quickly predicting projectile trajectories required some training our crew did not have, but still, they tried their best to comply with my orders.
"Sir, the Second Flotilla is reporting." the comms officer said. "They are taking heavy losses, they can not evade incoming shots!"
"They MUST buy us enough time!" I said.
The mining fleet has been taken care of in a short time, but so was our Second Flotilla. Both were obliterated in a few minutes. Now, only the First Flotilla of the Order and the warship of the Imperium were remaining, albeit pretty far from each other.
A direct attack would make our destruction certain, and I would certainly avoid it. But I had a better plan.
"Move in to intercept that warship!" I ordered. "We are finishing this here."
"Commander!" Mei tried to argue. I signaled her to keep silent, and although with much discomfort, she did.
The First Flotilla was now approaching the warship head on.
"Sir, I estimate about half an hour before we can engage." the sensors officer reported.
"Onwards!"
Now, I had about half an hour to think of many ways to get close to the enemy warship without having myself killed. I thought, to double the brain power, I would tell Mei about the bigger plan I was playing for here.
"Okay, so how do you plan to defeat that warship?" she asked me.
"I don't." I replied. "I plan to lose... in a certain way."
"Wh-what? What good would that do?"
"Look." I said. "Professor Yamamari is in big trouble."
"How do you know that, and what does this have to do with anything happening here anyway?"
"Think." I said. "Professor Yamamari knows who Professor Kukulkan is - the mastermind of this Vineura project and the following apocalypse."
"Professor Kukulkan is not to blame for that." Mei said.
"Yes, but if the public knew, they wouldn't think like that, at least not all of them. Disorder and chaos would follow. The Council would fall out of power."
"I don't get it." Mei said.
"Look, Kukulkan does not trust Yamamari. He doesn't trust us either, but at least he has a use for us. So, Yamamari, the guy who lead us here in search of a way to save humanity, is either imprisoned, or..."
"Or?"
"Or on a death row." I said. "Mei, we need to free him and continue our quest. We didn't come here to be military officers! That stupid council stalled our plans..."
"So? What is the solution?"
"I need enough power to threaten The Council. Only if I could get to that warship, and gain control..."
"No, you do not." Mei said, frightened by my crazy idea. "You simply do not attempt something like that."
"You are overreacting, it is not that hard. The enemy is inexperienced just as our crew is." I said. "We will act as if we want to defect, and we will transmit a secret message to the enemy commander. During the battle, only our flagship and the enemy warship will remain. They will then dock or send a shuttle to get us onboard."
"What if they don't believe us?" Mei asked.
"Oh, they will. They most certainly will. No one will lose the chance to capture two experienced military commanders, one of them also being the president of a former superpower."
"What after we defect?"
"We will not really defect. The enemy commander will be given false intel." I said. "The moment they come to get us, our crew will fight back strongly, contrary to their expectations. We will, either by airlock or via their shuttle, board the enemy warship. If the Order manages to capture the ship, we will collect all resources in the vicinity and challenge The Council. This should force them to release Yamamari and perhaps even give us Kukulkan as well, in return for our keeping secrets from public and not destroying whatever infrastructure they have."
"What if we lose?" Mei asked.
"If, however, the Imperium wins the shootout and gets to control the warship, we will act as if we have really defected. We will then give them further intel about Professors Yamamari and Kukulkan. With their warship and The Order's defenseless position, they should have no difficulty capturing both of them. The rest is up to, what I think, is their emperor. Four of us should be able to convince him to allow us to work freely."