10
Darius, five hours later
The mission briefingroom onboard Battleship Resolution was not quite as big as the room we used at Arturri, but there was ample seating for the seven Titan teams, a handful of Starfighter pilots and Lily’s friend Mia and her pair bonded, Kassius, our only full Starfighter-level mission control specialists.
Lily’s other human friend, Jamie, an Elite Starfighter pilot, sat next to us on Lily’s right with her pair bonded, Alexius.
As the women had shortened their males’ names to Kass and Alex, I’d begun thinking of them the same way. We’d all shared a meal prior to this meeting, during which Alex had told me my name should be shortened to Earth speak as well and they would all call me Dar.
Thank Vega Lily had told them all an instant no. Saved me beating the other Starfighters into giving that one up. Kass and Alex had both laughed at her protest, but I had a feeling if I were ever alone with them, they would call me Dar just to poke at me. Which was fine. I wasn’t above forgetting the K sound at the beginning of Kass’s name. I hadn’t come up with ideas for Alex yet, but I would. We were family now, as our pair-bonded females considered one another sisters, per Lily. If they were important to Lily, they were important to me.
“Starfighters, we have an unexpected opportunity before us.” General Romulus paced the front of the room as the wall behind him became a massive screen.
At that moment the meeting room door slid open and General Aryk, General Jennix, and two Elite Starfighter pilots I did not recognize entered the room. General Romulus looked at General Aryk, who gave an imperceptible nod. He, in turn, gave a silent signal to Mia and Kass, who stood.
“All right. Starfighters MCS Mia Becker and Kassius Remeas will take over from here.”
Lily’s friends walked to the front of the meeting room and pulled up a nav grid that appeared to show placements of a large fleet of Queen Raya’s forces massing just beyond the planet Xenon’s moon.
“Is that a Dark Fleet cruiser?” A voice from the back of the room brought all chatter to a halt, the room suddenly eerily silent.
“Yes.” Mia pointed to a small dot near the corner of the nav grid. “And it’s not the only one. There are three cruisers in the attack formation.”
Lily leaned forward, squinting a bit to try to make out the ship Mia was pointing to. From our seats the small image was difficult to see clearly, no more than a dot on the wall. Otherwise she seemed unaffected. Unlike me. I knew how powerful those ships were. How massive. Dangerous.
A ship like that had killed my brother.
Lily looked at Mia. “So, are we going to go take them out or what?”
My chest tightened at the idea of Lily getting anywhere near one of those ships, and I answered her question. “No, we are not.”
Lily held up her hand, elbow on the table in front of us, palm turned toward me. “I didn’t ask you, Darius. Mia?”
“We have reason to believe that Queen Raya is on the third cruiser.”
“That’s not enough reason to attack. We’ll lose too many fighters.” That same voice from the back. I glanced over my shoulder to see Elite Starfighter Pilot Ryzix and his pair-bonded partner, Gustar. They flew the Lanix. I had met them a long time ago but hadn’t seen them since my brother’s death. They were very skilled. Highly respected. Merciless in a fight.
Neither one looked at all pleased at the prospect of taking on one Dark Fleet cruiser. But three? I was in complete agreement. It was a suicide mission.
Kass waited for the mumbles of agreement to die down before speaking. “We also have reason to believe Queen Raya’s forces are amassing in preparation for a direct assault on Velerion.”
The stillness was so profound I could hear my own heartbeat.
“When?” Jamie asked.
“In two days,” Mia said.
Up to this point in the war, Queen Raya had not dared assault our planet directly. She’d struck at our former Starfighter base, but that had not been located on our planet’s surface. Velerion’s satellite defense grid was formidable. When combined with the Starfighters stationed on Moon Base Arturri, our ground-to-air forces on the surface, and the Velerion space fleet, a direct assault on the home planet was unthinkable.
“Is this a joke? Because this is not amusing.” This time it was the golden-haired Gustar who had spoken. We all waited for Kass or Mia to respond. I hoped, prayed this information, wherever they had acquired it, was wrong. But when I looked at Mia’s drawn, worried expression, my heart sank into my boots.
This was no joke. And we, all of Velerion, were in serious trouble.
Mia adjusted the nav grid, enlarging sections as she detailed their intelligence. Queen Raya’s Dark Fleet allies, disturbed by her recent defeats, first at the hex port and then on the colony planet of Xenon, had decided the incoming Starfighter trainees from Earth posed too large a threat to their war efforts. To mitigate that threat, they were choosing to launch a direct assault on Velerion now, presumably before any more Starfighters from other worlds could join the fight.
I didn’t bother to ask how Queen Raya knew about Jamie or Mia. I knew Jamie had spent time as the queen’s prisoner. And like any other ruler, she had spies everywhere. Not to mention that the success of the Starfighter Training Academy program on Earth was big news on Velerion. It wasn’t exactly a secret, not after the first two Starfighters to arrive had won such decisive victories. Jamie had been captured, escaped, and managed to save an entire planet from an IPBM attack. Mia had helped plan and coordinate the successful attack on Xenon station and disabled the Dark Fleet’s primary communication and defense system on that planet’s moon.
Jamie and Mia had been too fucking good.