Chapter 16: Front 10; Operation Deadlight – Part 1/3

Next in the line of chairs was Batty's first mate (in more meanings of the word than one) - 1st Lieutenant Wally.
Unlike his Captain, Wally was a small man in both posture and stature. He had what you might call a 'rat-faced complexation' but not in that he was a weaselly looking individual but simply that he seemed meek and ready to run for cover at any given moment.
 Probably at Batty's insistence he too was overdressed for the occasion, flourished gold over-trims, medals and all - Although somehow they looked less impressive on the small man than on his superior.

As Hoki took her chair she redirected her attention back to the other two members of the warship Rinie present in the row. As Kolme took the chair nearest the wall to the leftmost side of the room, that left Hoki next to the aforementioned well built man.

 Hoki recognised him as someone she had interviewed not so long ago as a potential candidate for the Fluchtig's pilot team, though he had politely turned her down at the time.

His name; 1st Lieutenant Tomo Chujits, a veteran of the 'Remembrance Incident' a few years back and Commander of the Rinie's own Vijaik team. Their equivalent of Kolme Nilas in a manner of speaking.

 He was the essential ideal image of a mech pilot - Tall and stocky but in a manner of pure muscle, yet not in any needless excess. His face a relatively gaunt picture that suggested approachability and consideration for every situation.

 Known as something of a model pilots who always played by the book and Hoki had found her previous conversations with him pleasant enough.

Next to him was a woman with the startling white hair. Matching that hair was even more alarming features;
 Long pointed ears, alabaster skin and discoloured pupils - A pure-blooded elf.
2nd Lieutenant Erfu Shiri was her name and again Hoki knew her from the interview process.

Less experienced then her team-leader, Erfu had joined up a few years back and had stood out ever since.
 Pure-blood elves were rare even back home on Bhaile, sure some like Hoki herself could trace back ancestry of that nature but only by delving deep into her family tree.

 You might have one of the elven features, the snow-white hair, albino skin or the pointed ears - But to have all the hallmarks meant you were from a line with no none-eleven blood and those sorts seldom found cause to go into space.

 Add to this the woman's small height at barely 5 foot and what you were left with was someone who gave a very strong visual impression.

The four from the Rinie certainly made for an eclectic bunch, but the other four in the front of the room were a little less conspicuous, thought not by much.

 The Vallière's Captain was possibly the youngest person in the room; Lt.Commander 'Louise' was a woman of average height and lean build. Unlike Batty, Louise let her fair hair grow out past her shoulder and rather than her best dress uniform she seemed to be suited almost causally, with a red bandana around her neck in place of a collar or tie.

Hoki had only interacted with Louise at a few functions back in her instructor days and could describe the young woman with just one word - Smug.

 The daughter of IAFS's highest ranking officer, Vice Admiral Louise, it was the opinion of many that the young 20-something had been given her Captain's posting almost solely based on her family ties rather then her merit.

 Compounding this view most had of the up and coming woman, was her immediate second in command - 1st Lieutenant Tabitha.

Tabitha was a person of similar height to Commander Louise and yet seemed smaller in the way she seemed to sink into her chair, not so much out of shyness it seemed but rather like it was her natural posture.

 'Miss.Tabitha' as most referred to her as, had long chestnut-brown hair that swept over her face in places, topped with a quant pair of glasses.
It was a poorly kept secret that she did most of the day to day work that kept the good-ship Vallière 'afloat' - The power behind Louise's smug front as it were.

Rounding out the row were two people Hoki had no recollection of whatsoever; A pair of muscle bound, square headed men. One about a foot shorter than the other, they had a quintessential bodybuilding look to them and Hoki could only presume them to be the senior officers of the Valliere's Vijaik team.

Similarly Hoki failed to recognise many of the people who sat a few rows back from the front.
 A collection of engineering and mechanical staff by their overalls - That she could only presume were there to offer their respective expertise when or if necessary, rather than actually part-take in the mission briefing.
 Of them she could only really put a name to the Fluchtig's Chief mechanic who nodded respectfully in Hoki's direction when they briefly locked eye's.

All told it was quite the gathering of colourful people strewn about the chairs of the medium sized drab room - Hoki found herself already growing exhausted just from putting all the names to faces and trying to recall relevant details of each person attending - A part of her wondered what it must be like not to have a reason to remember such details - Someone like Una only needed to be familiar with her squad mates - For Hoki details of everyone present were tantamount.

 
After a few more minutes of waiting (something Hoki was growing use to at this point), Commander Nate Novel finally took his place standing at the top of the room in front of everyone else bar two.

 These two sat by a small table at a perpendicular angel to the rest of the seats, attending to terminals that would presumably control the visual elements of the day's proceedings.

The two Hoki remembered as bridge officer from the Fluchtig, in particular the man who ever wore sunglasses even in the brightest of situations - 1st Lieutenant Aurin Kolasit (Or in her mind simply 'Sunglasses') - Kolme's equal in rank and Nate's second in command in matters concerning the admin of the ship.

 All told that made for 4 of the senior-most officers from each of the three ships that had rendezvoused together that morning.

 Kolme and herself as Vijaik pilots, representative of the Fluchtig, along with Nate himself and Aurin (plus the nameless aide sitting next to him at the terminal) as management.

 Tomo and the elf woman Erfu, along with their leaders Commander Batty and Lt.Wally of the Cruiser Class ship Rinie.

 And finally the two blocky men accompanying Lt Comander.Louise and 1st Lt.Tabitha of the Cruiser Class ship Vallière.

A meeting of primarily 12 individuals that would go on to decided the course of a great many details in the upcoming days.
 A briefing that thought unnamed must surely be one of histories most important.
  A meeting which, if truth be told, Hoki would really of rather not attended....

****

At long last the meeting had kicked off in earnest, starting with Commander Nate giving some fairly rudimentary housekeeping notes. As he talked a screen of easily 3 metres long by 2 wide emitted onto the wall behind him.

 Unlike the cheap holographic displays one could find through-out many parts of the ship, this projection was a state of the art affair. Where lesser screens had that strange faint blue tinge one might recognise from a sci-fi story, this display was a flush single layer.
 No projector was present, nor any Tv screen border - For all purposes it looked more like a window that had been built into the wall despite having been completely absent moments ago.

What showed upon it was a somewhat less impressive series of fairly disorganised slides, the sort Hoki had seen a dozen times before and that failed to grab much attention.

 This continued for a short-while with little fanfare until a particular slide appeared - A faint stirring at it finally bringing some life back to the room.
 On it was a diagram of 3 warships - The Rinie, Vallière and of course the Am-Fluchtig itself.

Looking at the 2D image of her home filled Hoki with a somewhat odd feeling.
 It isn't uncommon for a soldier to spend months at a time in space aboard a vessel and even when one does disembark, you seldom get an opportunity to see your 'home away from home' in any great detail from the outside.
 
Were Hoki to describe the feeling she mused it would be somewhat similar to living in an apartment block that, for some improbable reason, you couldn't leave for a large period of time.
 Sure you wouldn't exactly forget what the exterior of the building looked like but the nuance of it - The small alleyways or places where disrepair was present, the corners of faded paint peeling off the walls - Those places might start to fade from memory, just a little.
 Of course you would still remember your room, the place you spent those hyperbolic months locked inside and maybe even know what your neighbours apartments pertained but would you ever know what the room of someone a few floors below you looked like?
 Moreover would you notice if a series of vehicles parked in your carpark and than filled into your first floor neighbours apartment?

That last point was the one that caught her as the most surreal. That very morning three ships had come together and yet she struggled to visualise the reality of that.
 Even though she now sat in a room with people who hadn't been on the ship the day prior, there had been no sounds or vibrations to disturb her sleep when the other two ships had arrived.
 In fact it wasn't like you could feel the ship moving through deep space. For all purposes it seemed nothing had changed despite the presents of new people.

In a way that surprized her, Hoki felt oddly dis-associated as she looked on the images of the three space-fairing vessels. She did her best to refocus on the waffle of the presentation, while trying not to get any more philosophical.

You are reading story UnderCurrent – Can You Break The Cycle at novel35.com

The Fluchtig itself could be described as iris shaped with the ends of said eye stretched out to the East and West.
 A Large Oval section at the centre that to either side narrowed into a long shaft, along which were lined the vessel's massive main-cannon emplacements and arrays of lesser anti-aircraft guns.
 These long outcroppings were also filled with storage, power generation facilities and of course thrusters to either end that propelled the ship on its long journeys. Atop the centre oval lay a large Hexagonal dome - Inside this dome was where the majority of the ship functioned from.

The hexagon was by no means symmetrical, to the south side was it's largest face - This being the hanger bay with it's massive shutter doors. Opposite it to the north was the narrowest face where the bridge lay.

 Said bridge could be lowered into the bowls of the ship, however having the large reinforced window during non-combat periods was apparently good for moral and allowed for navigation if the computers failed or more likely were scrabbled by an enemy attack.

 In-between these two extremes lay the recreational areas and living blocks. The dome couldn't of been more then two thirds the diameter of the main oval, nor was it as tall and yet most of the ship's crew would never leave much past it's confines - Someone like Una would never have any reason to give thought to the ships layout of visual design.

 Hoki herself had never followed out the internal tram lines to the ships East and West extremities. She'd never had cause to visit the main batteries and wondered now if any of the mechanics and engineers sitting half asleep in the rows behind her, had possibly come from that direction.

The other two ships differed greatly from the Fluchtig.
 The Rinie was a decade old cruiser class vessel from The First War and although it had seen extensive retrofitting it's aged design philosophies certainly showed - It looked essentially triangular in shape at about a 60 degree angle, that levelled into straight flats near each corner.
 This triangular shape was dotted with double barrel cannons as well as pinpoint AA guns and series's of small windows looking in on various parts of the ship.

 On it's 'back' slope were simply two massive thrusters which controlled all movement. In this was what showed the vessels true age, essentially being a ship designed to fight in one direction despite the lack of 'up' or 'down' when in space - At its very front edge was a rectangular 'mouth' section which acted as an opening for one Vijaik at a time to deploy from. Said opening hadn't initially been designed for such a purpose, what with the Rinie begin a ship constructed before the inception of Mass-Mecha-Combat.

A small tinge of guilt ran through Hoki as she considered the image. This type of ship was after all the same as the one Scarlet had been aboard before the 'Skirmish of the 4th'.

The very category of vessel Hoki had so heartlessly mocked Scarlet over a couple of weeks ago. '....I'm glad she's not here.....'

Oddly enough the Vallière, though 5 years younger than the Rinie, had a fairly similar design.

 There were some changes, with the angle of the triangle now being more around 45 degrees, in turn making the length of the ship longer - Further the Mecha hanger while still single file was much more deliberate on the updated model - But all told the two ship's were clearly made by the same shipyard, as it were.

 Considering her degree in Vijaik history it was maybe no surprize that while Hoki puzzled over the individual differences of the three ships, everyone else around her stirred for entirely different reasons.

On the image was more than just pictures of the three ships but additionally their new 'designations'.
 The Fluchtig was placed centre-top, with the word 'Flagship' beneath it - While below to either side of it were the other two vessels labelled 'Escort'.
 Finally the words acting as a heading at the very top of the diagram;

Autonomous Flotilla Battlegroup 'Tristain' (Tristain Group)
Flotilla Commander; Nate Novel.
Command Vessel; Battleship 'Am-Fluchtig' (Celtic Class)

To Hoki these words seemed completely natural - The Fluchtig was the largest ship and Nate the highest ranking officer, yet those around her seemed to disagree...

"And who gave you such arrogance as to appoint yourself leader Mr.Novel!"
 Bellowed the voice of the Rinie's Captain, Commander Batty. 'Bellowed' was an apt description of her tone, it had poise and indignation laced throughout.

"Indeed where exactly did you get such an idea?" Chimed in Vallière Captain, Lt Commander.Louise.
 She contrasted Batty greatly - Speaking while barely moving a muscle and in a lackadaisical tone of disinterested mischief.
 For his part Nate reeled in on himself, trying to speak in between a continued line of insults and questions from the two other Captains. His short moppy hair swaying from side to side as he attempted to follow the complaints of the those before him.

 

Hoki sighed internally. 'What sort of officers are this childish? I knew it would be a long day.... I wonder what the others are up to?'

 Of course she and most people in the room knew what was occurring, without even having seen them Hoki had no doubt the official orders from the board above would list Nate as fleet leader.
 No this was little more than Batty and Louise trying to push Nate off balance. For what purpose Hoki could only imagine but it seemed to be working.

Soon the room was filled with the bickering of the trio;
 "Well I have to be in charge don't I? I have rank!"
Nate proclaimed as thought staggering upon a half-hearted revelation.

Batty visibly sneered at this comment, "Rank? You ignorant fool, we rank the same."

Nate winced again realising the school boy error in his choice of come-back. As though to further compound his loss of control over the meeting, Louise piped up once more;
 "If you think about it Ms.Batty and you could actually swap ship's if that's all it's a question of."

Hoki could of sworn she saw Batty bristle at the incorrect labelling but clearly deciding to keep on with this temporary alliance she redoubled her efforts against Nate.
 "Well then, One feels it's settled. My Staff and I shall transfer to the Fluchtig and take over command of this new fangled Tristan Flotilla."

Hoki's jaw fell agape, she had seen meetings like this before but this really was quite the bold assault.
 Similarly poor Nate's mouth seemed to flap like a fish as he strove to understand what had become of his simple briefing session;
 "I-i wha-ha-,...... Eh??!"

----

A sudden but deliberately drawn out cough from the left most side of the room suddenly broke everyone present's attention. Hoki turned, her face a picture of embarrassment at what she feared was Kolme having drifted off to sleep before awakening with a coughing fit, but instead she was greeted to something else entirely.

Sitting almost slouched into his chair as though he had no interest in what ships were present, what orders where given or which officers were which, arms folded and eyes half shut - Kolme began to lecture the rest of the room without ever turning to make eye contact with those he addressed. His voice was sterner than Hoki had ever heard it in her short time with him;

"If the warm-up act wouldn't mind exiting the stage about now that'd be just 'splendid.
 Some of us have actual work to get to before day's end. We all know the rules don't we?
 Art'cle D42 of the IAFS charter, crap that it is, states ship classification dictates seniority. Ergo the Commander here outranks everyone by a minimum of one. We ain't any'n bloody democracy so if you don't mind getting on with it Sir?
 Or should I call the day'care and tell 'em they've lost some students?"

Hoki couldn't tell anymore what she was more shocked by, the senior officer's petty squabbling or her team leader suddenly talking about being time conscientious (among other things).
 Lt.Commander Louise for her part sighed but then followed it with a small grin, clearly betraying her intentions to simply cause a ruckus in aid of livening up the meeting all along.
 Batty however glowed bright red.

'Well' - Hoki mused - 'She's always sort of red, just more so now.'

"I'd advice Vice-Squad Commander-oh what was it? Nils? Nile? Nelly? That you watch your manners, lest you wish to find yourself down for insubordination. And for that matter, where is Lt.Commander Emilia out of interest?"
 Batty finished, bitterness dripping from every-word, though her answer had been more composed than Hoki had expected.

Again Kolme didn't even bother to sit up straight or face his superior officers as he spoke;
 "I'm sure the presentation will address all yere' questions. That is if we ever get that far".

With that said he nodded respectful (as one can while slouched) at Nate, whom in turn almost seemed to glance around as if looking to see if Kolme was addressing some other lecture giver.
 Upon failing to find this phantom speaker Nate shoulders slumped before finally he took a deep breath and attempted once more to get the meeting back on track.

****

You can find story with these keywords: UnderCurrent – Can You Break The Cycle, Read UnderCurrent – Can You Break The Cycle, UnderCurrent – Can You Break The Cycle novel, UnderCurrent – Can You Break The Cycle book, UnderCurrent – Can You Break The Cycle story, UnderCurrent – Can You Break The Cycle full, UnderCurrent – Can You Break The Cycle Latest Chapter