The East PacificBoard

“Captain!” Sprague turned towards the young weapons operator. “We’ve scores several hits on the enemy vessel, they seem to be attempting to back off.” The small destroyer seemed to shake slightly as another round of missiles and torpedoes were launched, being sent downrange at incredible speed. Suppressing a grin, Sprague turned to the navigator.

“Bring us up to full speed, we’ll go into knife fighting range.” Not bothering to suppress her own grin, the navigator pushed the lever up to the maximum, before radioing engineering, telling them to squeeze every bit of power they could put of the ship’s engines. As the ship accelerated even further, the deck seemed to lurch slightly, the result of the vessel tearing through the waves ahead of it.

“We might actually win this one...” Sprague muttered, thinking of the bottle of scotch he’d kept in his cabin since he’d first been assigned to the Subtlety, waiting for that big victory. It seemed as though this might be it...

/———————————\

Captain Nika complied with Marianne’s request, the shame evident on her face. First things first, she opened a line to her air wing, closing her eyes as she delivered the news. “Air Wing Alpha. Disengage and return to base immediately. I repeat, disengage and return to base, immediately.” Hearing the shouts of protest in the background, she stifled a sob, and began to compose a message to Sergeant Cora, the MP who had taken custody of the pilots.

Sergeant Cora, the bridge of the Cohort has been seized, and the enemy is threatening to turn the Cohort’s weapons against the base. Return the sole Charitian survivor to their helicopter immediately, before continuing to the pre-designated rendezvous.

With any luck, Cora would understand the message, and only deliver one of the two pilots. Nika knee she couldn’t explicitly state the message, what with Marianne practically standing over her shoulder, but she could do her best.

/———————————\

“What the...” Cora said, looking down at her TAC-Pad. Rapidly grabbing the Jeep’s radio, she barked out “CONVOY HALT! All soldiers dismount!” Before the Jeep she was in had even stopped completely however, she had already leapt out and was re-reading the message on her wrist. “Sole survivor, what does she mean...” As her men slowly gathered around her, she finally caught on. Turning to address the soldiers beside her, she spoke up. “The enemy has seized the Cohort and we are to stand down. However, Captain Nika has ordered us to only take one of the prisoners back with us. So here’s the plan; we let both prisoners know of the situation, and begin to head back to the base. Somewhere along the way, one of the prisoner Jeeps will fall out of line, and will head to the side of the road. The crew will pretend to be having mechanical issues, and one of the people in the other car will ‘accidentally’” Cora emphasized that part with heavy air quotes. “Let that slip to the other prisoner. Got it?” As a series of affirmations rung out, the MPs mounted their Jeeps again and set back off toward the Port.

/———————————\

Back on the bridge of the Subtlety, Captain Sprague was interrupted by a surprised shout from his XO. “Sir!” Li shouted, “It appears as though the Cohort’s Air Wing is falling back. Rushing over to the battle map showed Sprague that this was indeed the case. Growling, he reached over for the direct line to the Cohort, only to be interrupted by it ringing. “Nika better have a damn good explanation for this,” he growled, furiously picking up the phone.

/———————————\

“Captain Sprague,” Nika began, unable to suppress the wavering of her voice any longer. “I need you to...” she coughed slightly, almost unable to spit the words out. “I need you to disengage, the enemy has seized control over the Cohort, they’re threatening to use our weapons against us.” On the other end she heard a muttered ‘Nika?’ and she squeezed her eyes shut before continuing. “Please, Sprague. We’ve known each other for years. You know I would say this if it wasn’t necessary. Please, just trust me.”

After several seconds of silence, Sprague growled out “Fine.” Before proceeding to immediately cut the line. Letting her head hang down in shame, Nika turned to Marianne. “What do you want.” Seeing Marianne in the Captain’s chair only further amplifies her sorrow, and ignited a burning fire for revenge. I worked my way up the ranks for damn near a decade to sit in that seat, and this high born b*tch thinks she can just take it?!?! She’ll regret that.