Chapter 4: "Noble Cause"

Chapter IV Noble Cause

I

    May 5^th, Confederate year 178. At that time Siegfried Stein alongside his sister were at a party, a party to celebrate the official retirement of Fleet Admiral Raphael Dalton, which subsequently meant Siegfried Stein, would pass from being commander of half the space fleet to being the commander of all the space fleet. Everyone at the festivity was having a marvellous time with the exception of Sieg’s sister who was being isolated by many of the people there and had to stick by her brother the entire evening. Siegfried was having a talk with Fleet Admiral Connor Konev, a talk more out of necessity and formalities than to actually interact with the head chief of staff. Admiral Konev then told him that there had actually been a change of plans and that Sieg would still only have control over half the fleet with Konev having the other half. Siegfried did not seem bothered at that fact as he still kept the most talented men on the force under his wing, when Konev left a Lieutenant approached Siegfried and whispered to him what had happened in Musen. “I see so Commodore Packwood is gone, no Vice Admiral Packwood is gone. Please bring whoever was the highest-ranking official or the vice commander of the operation to my office tomorrow morning. I will like to see if anyone should be put at fault for the operation’s failure.” The Lieutenant left to do as his superior ordered; Sieg looked at her sister and muttered “Although there is no need to blame someone on the failure, if anyone is to be blamed that would be me for recommending the operation.” Sieg then apologized to his sister for he had to leave and report to the Chief of Staff. Sabina nodded and proceeded to leave. Siegfried approached Marshal Dalton before going up to Fleet Admiral Konev. “My humblest apologies Marshal, I had planned to surprise you on your final day as a Fleet Admiral with the news of Musen’s conquest however our men have failed to make this gift come to you.” Dalton stared at the young officer bowing slightly out of respect for him “There is no need to apologize for such a thing. I have no necessity for Musen’s conquering to be under his military career in addition to that it is not your fault that the invasion has failed.  You are a bright commander; I thought you knew better than to blame yourself for something like this.” “Marshal, I humbly will take your words to make myself a worthy successor” following those words Siegfried Stein saluted Marshal Dalton and left to see Fleet Admiral Konev, little did both know that this would be the last time they would ever talk to each other.

     Marshal Stein approached Fleet Admiral Konev but before he even got to speak the Fleet Admiral looked at him directly in his blue eyes and a disgusted face and spoke “Fleet Admiral Stein, your little plan about invading Musen has failed not only that but the commander of the operation died in battle as well. I hope you are ready to accept the consequences of this operation and take the blame for this failure” Stein squinted his eyes giving more focus to his death yet alive gaze before he himself speaking “Blame? Why should I take the blame for the operation failing? I admit that I came up with the idea of invading the planet, however I did not force you to take the operation. If anyone should be blamed it should be Vice Admiral Packwood however he died valiantly in battle” Konev was dumbfounded for a moment, he could have sworn that Packwood was not a Vice Admiral but he did not press further on that matter. “In any case Marshal, I will let you take control on what happens next. I have no need to worry about a meaningless operation made by some golden brat.” Stein saluted the Fleet Admiral even though he had just insulted him, he then left and reached his sister on her self-driving car. Sabina looked at her brother for a few seconds “Marshal Konev wants you to take blame for the operation doesn’t he?” Sieg smiled and closed his eyes for a moment before saying, “I guess it is not surprising that you can tell by just looking at me, but he really is a despicable person. I am sure he wants me to take the blame and resign from my role however if I did that then he would be the only Marshal in the force and would have full control over the military. Something like that cannot be allowed even less if it is an incompetent leader.” The car began moving and started to make its way towards Sabina’s house where Sieg was staying at due to him never buying a house for his own instead he was more concerned with advancing his military career for his goals and ambitions.

 The air grew silent, you could almost think that you had gone deaf in an instant due to the quietness at the time, like when two old friends meet each other after a long time yet realize each other has changed so much that they are practically a different person and they have nothing to talk about. It is said this is how the relationship between Sieg and his sister had become not because they disliked each other or even because they didn’t know what to talk about, but because their personalities had changed, Sieg hadn’t changed a lot but his sister had become a lot more docile than before. She used to be caring and polite however she also showed a stronger character when she saw it necessary, now she did not instead she became apologetic and spoke less and less about how she felt to her little brother. She started to isolate herself from the nation around her or perhaps her nation closed in its doors to her, perhaps there was no place for someone desiring peace in their time on a warring nation and maybe everyone was glad that a war was occurring, maybe she just was someone who could’ve lived a regular live had she lived in another era. She however did not act to erase her uneasiness in her mother nation until later on. 

     The next day on the Legitimate capital the news of the successful defence of Musen was publicly announced, most civilians seemed uncaring for the news and it was just seen as important for the military, particularly by Admirals Odenwitz and Hyde who were excited to get the news that their friend Haylie would be getting a promotion for her efforts although the happiness they felt for her was short lived as they realized that they would likely set out on an expedition in the next few months, in fact they both thought that the government might pressure for an attack into Revolutionary mainland sooner than they originally expected to attack them with their heads down following the defeat at Musen. Ensign Nero who was carrying tea to his wards eventually broke their conversation and thoughts about this. “Exquisite as always Ensign” Karl’s words made the Ensign stutter for a moment trying to say that his tea was not perfect. “This tea is in fact not perfect, it is a little too sweet for my taste however considering the bitterness I taste everyday thanks to my work, also do not call Nero Ensign, Admiral” “Well I have to say you are right, it is a little too sweet however I must say that I quite enjoy my work” Hyde seemed to had disliked that comment and also looked like she was about to speak but before she could probably think her response as someone who got into the military out of necessity and not of actually liking it, Nero spoke and told them about the situation with the leader of the anti-war movement Von Ellwangen who had been reportedly taken into custody for disrupting public order, Von Ellwangen had actually been taken in due to suspicion of treason and espionage by collaborating with someone from the Revolutionary forces although the government had proof of this at all, it was simply a knack that the Chairman of the High Council had about him like a rumbling in his stomach every time he thought of the anti-war movement, due to his beliefs that no one could be against a war which is to reclaim what rightfully belonged to their nation. The constitution of the Galactic Confederation of Planets claimed that no one could be taken in without any evidence against them and that no one could be imprisoned without a trial however the High Council which once was a symbol of hope and good governance to the people slowly had its core values faded away as some the newer politicians claimed having a “heart of gold” was an obsolete concept and began using their status and power for their own benefit. The leaders of the nation began to break their own laws and the constitution started rotting away with the Supreme Chairman Barack Biden at the year 132 making a decreed which claimed that the High Council could vote to break a constitutional law if they all agreed it was “necessary” and the Council had of course voted that Von Ellwangen was worthy of a constitutional law being broken. The masses did not know of this however and the media just exaggerated the events that happened when his party had their confrontation with the Supreme Chairman that led to his unwarranted arrest, the reason why the masses were not told about the espionage and treason is believed was out of the Supreme Chairman concerns essentially meaning that he thought the people might lose faith in the government for letting a supposed traitor run a relatively big organization. This could be seen as a good thing as he was simply thinking of his people but it must not be forgotten that it was just a lie buried deep within a bigger sea of lies caused by his political corruption. 

         Having heard this Admiral Hyde spoke “Well it’s to be expected, the high council’s values have diminished over time alongside their tolerance to people who disagree with the government, well it could be said more like those who say that attacking the Revolutionary government instead of attempting a diplomatic solution is useless they are the ones who the High Council are intolerant to and they prosecute them under disruption of public order. The more I think about it perhaps it was a good thing I did not have money to pay a school otherwise I probably would have become a writer as I hoped to and probably would have written some nasty stuff about the government and about the war itself.” “Well Admiral, had you been able to pursue your dream then Admiral Odenwitz would probably be cleaning up your body from a trench” “You are terrible Nero, if you are not careful Hyde might prosecute you for treason.” At times like this it was easy for them to forget that at the time they were embroiled in a war and that at any moment they could be called to battle against the Revolutionary forces. 

         The day continued ordinarily on the Legitimate Confederation without any thing of importance occurring. On the other side of the conflict however the fate of one young Junior Ensign was to be decided as he stepped into a room that appeared to be completely devoid of colour due to one shining ray of light, brighter than the sun itself called Siegfried Stein although blinded by his light Junior Ensign Yi mustered up the courage to salute the youngest Fleet Admiral in recorded history without bearing any legends. “Junior Ensign Yi, I have been informed that you were the Vice Commander of the failed operation to capture Planet Musen. I will like to hear your side of the story as to what happened so that I may decide whether to settle this matter myself or pass it up onto higher authorities.” This words by Fleet Admiral Stein were merely out of formalities as he had already made up his mind on the subject of Yi’s treatment however once he heard about what had happened and about Yi’s tactics he changed his mind and decided to give Yi a different treatment, but before telling him about his fate, he spoke to the Junior Ensign “Your tactic was not bad, to completely encircle the enemy was the right choice that is certain however had the enemy commander not changed his tactic mid battle and continued with his semi-structured plan then once you had encircled the main enemy troops the reserve groups would have just shot at you and you would have probably encounter yourself in a two front battle. Thankfully of course the commander pulled all his forces into the main battle which allowed your tactic to work nearly perfectly” Junior Ensign Yi apologized for him overlooking what he said. “There’s no need to apologize, from now on you will be part of my fleet’s fighter squadron. I know you have no experience, but I think you can do well Lieutenant Jr. Grade.” Lt. Jr. Yi accepted his new assignment and double promotion by saluting his superior who had just given him a type of promotion practically reserved for those who fall on war against the enemy. He had no experience whatsoever on fighter crafts, however he was ready to do his best for the ever victorious Admiral and for that he would need to either practise on a simulation or get lucky once again.

II

     Almost 2 months had passed since his appointment to the Stein fleet, yet in aircraft combat simulations Lt. Jr. Yi was still seen as a poor fighter. He found it hard to aim and dodge furthermore he became nauseous at the sharp turns and spins that he had to do. The commanders of the Stein aircraft squadron Commanders Clint Ambrose and Ricardo Texeira however did not give up on the upstart kid, perhaps because everyone on the military saw him as the Marshal’s favourite per he had gotten a double promotion or perhaps because they themselves saw something in him that made then want to teach him to be a good pilot. Having tried a lot of ways for him to be good enough for whenever the next battle occurred, Commander Texeira suggested that perhaps for Yi to be as great as them he would need to copy his life to this the bleached commander Ambrose responded “If he copied your life choices then he would die before even getting to fight” “So What?” refuted Texeira “In any case, Lt. Jr you must at the least try and find a way to not become nauseous, if you only did that then there is a chance that you will be able to aim properly” this training session was then interrupted by the Chief of Staff of the Stein Fleet, Captain Joahness Laidler. He had come to check on the training of the aircraft pilots, as he desired to evaluate how effective the squadron could be in battle for when Stein decided to use them. He was simple and straight to the point saying he would like to see the training session. Of course he was not impressed and uttered, “Commanders, you both are considered the ace pilots of this revolution. Make sure your squadron is as good you two.” Following that he left leaving a stoic feeling on all three men. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that man smile” said Texeira “Well he seems like the most traditional military man in the Stein fleet, however he sure seems like a hassle to work with” “Well commanders, if you want to make him smile upon you why not go and talk to him outside of duty?” both commanders looked at each other in the eyes after Yi’s words then they both refused what he said and told Yi that they could never associate themselves with such a gloom individual. Yi was arduously but slowly working to better his piloting craft, however what he and his two instructors did not know was that the training for upstart pilots would soon meet an abrupt end.

     Times were rather peaceful for the Revolutionary Confederation even when in a state of war, their soldiers and people all were carefree in their nature even when the expressing of one’s own personal beliefs in public was somewhat prohibited, the citizens were joyous. That was different from the “Legitimate” Confederation in which its citizens although by technicality had more freedom than the revolutionaries were at the time in a state of discomfort and had distrust towards their government after the full details of Von Ellwangen’s arrest were leaked by the press, the people believed it to be an act of complete insincerity by those in charge and some papers called out for a re-election stating that if a government cannot treat their people as it is stated in the nation’s constitution, this papers called them out for a week before one day stopping their print it was not until the next day when the papers were out once again with all the previous writers who had criticised the government in no article to be found. At that time Karl Odenwitz was in the home of his senior from Military school Admiral Lucas Carrizo alongside Admiral Hyde and Ensign Nero. They were there for a simple dinner which was to have no political or military talk, but when the two Admirals took the Ensign into a separate room leaving Admiral Hyde alone with Carrizo’s wife and daughters the conversation quickly shifted into the topic that all three Admirals in the house desired to talk about.

    “So Karl, what do you think of Von Ellwangen’s situation?” “Well, what can I say? He should have known better than to go to the Supreme Chairman. “ Those words were the foundation for their conversation with both seemingly beginning to agree that in the end it was the fault of Von Ellwangen that was however until Nero barged in bringing his own thoughts “Well it’s not like Ellwangen did anything illegal, in fact he used his rights to protest in a peaceful manner to try and get the government to care about his beliefs and to perhaps contemplate or begin to contemplate about peacefully ending the war” the two admirals looked into each other’s eyes before Odenwitz spoke up “He certainly did nothing illegal, but he did impede the regular operations of the High Council and made them be unable to fulfil the duties they had been chosen for by the people. Sure some of them do not fulfil them anyways however you cannot gloss over that fact” Nero appeared to want to say something else, but he decided to stay silent for the rest of the small talk between two friends.  Nero becoming bored at the talk eventually closed his eyes and began to sleep “Oh, look like he fell asleep. Whatever are you doing to him Karl? Nero is a good kid, you shouldn’t be teaching him to sleep at times like this specially considering the fact that he is now in the military.” “I thought him nothing of this, if I were his fleet commander I would be forcing him to wake up right now, no matter how boring this conversation might seem to him.” Carrizo poured some wine on the Admiral’s cup before pouring some on his own as Karl muttered “Still I must admit that I am surprised Skye decided to go through and making Nero her aide, even though he has no experience whatsoever she just decided to go with her heart instead of giving a chance to someone who had worked their way up the ladder…” “And whose fault is that Karl? You were the one encouraging nepotism, were you not?” “That is true, but I would have expected her to know better than to just agree with me. Whatever, I guess at least I know that she will have an assistant capable of making her not slack off on any of her duties” Their conversation continued for 2 hours before Karl and Hyde along Nero left the Carrizo household and went back to their house.

    As they made their way towards their home on a self-driving car the atmosphere became silent as the young Nero was on a slumber and the Admiral Skye Hyde entered in thought. She began thinking about how she never really wanted to join the military, about how she had always hoped to become something else. Perhaps a historian due to her interest in history or maybe become a doctor practically anything else that did not have “kill people” as a must. She thought about how he had essentially made her ward a soldier without really allowing him to choose what he liked and what he wanted, she chose a future for him disregarding his feelings by just following her own feelings and by following Karl’s piece of advice. Was it really ok? Making him her personal assistant when there are people who had been working for even longer than her and were of lower rank and perhaps more adept for the job? Was she not forcing herself on his future life? Was she not doing precisely what she hated not too long when she was forced to enter the military academy by her late father as when he had passed away, she was left with no way of paying any other school besides the free academy? These thoughts began piling up on her head, and although not showing it she began feeling distress. Not knowing what to do about her present situation, should she just remove him from the post without questioning? She rejected that idea, as it might seem to Nero that she does not believe in him. Then shall she ask him if he really wanted to work as her assistant? She had to reject that idea as well, since if she did ask for what he thought then Nero would say he wanted to dot regardless of what he actually wanted due to his loyalty to the Hyde camp. She began thinking that the kid was being stubborn at his loyalty towards her, if he really wanted to be a better citizen and a better democratic person she thought that he needed to not have any loyalty towards a person, but to the system itself. Not believe in the system because someone he trusts and cares about him believes in it, but because he on his own volition trusted the system. Her thoughts were eventually stopped when they arrived at their house, Nero woke up and went to his designated room in the household while Skye sat down on their couch and poured herself a cup of brandy. She was thinking of having a couple of drink alone, but she was joined by Admiral Odenwitz before even getting a sip of her drink as he himself poured himself a cup.

  “Come on now… could you not wait for me before indulging in such earthily pleasures?” Hyde said nothing as he sat down next to her. “What are you so looking so down for? Worried that your aide will screw up?” Hyde stayed silent to Karl’s remark changing his expression to more of that of a frown than of a smile. “It’s not that… I was just thinking about..” “About how you forced the young prince into war? “ said Karl in a joking tone while laughing although his laughed stopped at the realization that Hyde was not accompanying him in his laughter. “Actually that is what I was thinking… I mean I myself never wanted to be in the military, I would have rather been anything else yet I still essentially forced him to become a solder. I did not even allow him a chance to think about what he wanted I mean I am sure he did not want this and…” at that moment Karl stopped her words by speaking himself “How do you know that? You don’t know what he thinks about this do you? You might think that what you did was the wrong way of doing and I would agree with you, but thinking for somebody else is a different thing entirely. Why don’t you just ask him?” “B…b…because even if I ask him then he will just say he is fine with it…” “Then what is your problem? Ask him and if he says he is fine with it then that’s that, he is ok with being a soldier” “No, if he says is fine then he would just be saying because I am asking him it, because he wants to be like me and he wants to be with me. That is not democratic, to trust democracy because I trust it.” “That he is trusting the system because you trust the system is in itself a choice he himself made. I know you are worried about him that you do not want him to go through what you went when you had to forcefully join the military, but I am sure this is what he wants. Every time he is working on something to help you he does it in such a joyous way. He wants to be a soldier, because he wants to help you and wants to be with you that is a choice that he made. Well that is my take at least, you won’t know unless he tells you.” Following that Admiral Odenwitz drank all the alcohol in his glass and left Hyde alone, who proceeded to continue to drink by herself for a while thinking about the words she had just heard and she also began to read the reports of how her friend Haylie drove off the Musen invasion.

III

      On July 4^th of the Confederate year 178, the anti-war movement protested against the wrongful imprisonment of Ermenrich von Ellwangen outside of the same building where he had been taken away a few months prior. The ruckus of their protest made the meeting on-going in the building go at a rather slow pace still the meeting managed to reach the most important topic that of whether they should invade the Revolutionary forces or not. The first one to speak about the issue was the Secretary of Defence and the Military Armada Joao Pereira “Right now the citizens are in a state of small distrust, a small part of the people are hostile towards the council due to what has been going on with Ermenrich Von Ellwangen therefore we must win back their trust by attacking the Revolutionary Forces and claiming the land that is rightfully ours, is this not right?” At that time the Supreme Chairman gave a positive remark about the secretary’s words, his positive remarks were followed by more approval by Secretary of Natural Resources Land and Social Department Summer Wilder who claimed that if they managed to obtain the resources in rebel territory then they would be able to do quite a lot of projects that her department had to put on hold due to the war. “If we subjugate the land of the Revolutionary Confederation then we will have to use their resources alongside our current ones to feed their population, we cannot just take them in and expect them to grovel at our feet. We must get their trust and more importantly we should earn that trust.” Interjected the Secretary of Human Resources Ricardo Meade, his words were then followed by the Secretary of Treasury and Economic Development Takehito Koyasu “To add to what the Secretary of Human Resources said if we took in the land of the Revolutionary then apart from the people coming in that we would need to keep employed we would also have to use quite a hefty sum of money in fully integrating them into the Confederation. Furthermore if we launch a full scale attack then we would be losing quite a lot of money due to the last battle’s damages and… well our economy won’t hold, we need more prep time to try and do things safer for our economy.”

    Joao Pereira interjected this argument by stating that if they got a hold of the resources held by the revolutionary Confederation they would be able to pay for the costs of launching a large-scale expedition, to this Meade responded, “Did you even hear what the Secretary of the treasury said? If we were to somehow beat the rebel confederation then we would have to reintegrate the citizens into our legitimate Confederation and that would make us not able to fully use the resources of the revolutionaries” Pereira having heard this argument looked towards the Supreme Chairman of the Confederation hoping for him to back him up and vote in favour of an expedition.  “I personally would like this expedition to take place, but having heard the arguments of the Secretary of the treasury and the Secretary of Human Resources then I will have no choice but to oppose the expedition…” Summer Wilder however rose up from her seat and spoke “Supreme Chairman if I may, the concerns of the secretaries of the treasury and human resources are things we should keep in mind however I believe the benefits we will obtain from setting out on an expedition will more than justify taking a little bit more of time in dealing with the citizens of the rebel confederation. Subjugating the land that is rightfully our and ending this war before it takes more lives should be our top priority and...” before she could finish the Supreme Chairman rose his hand up for a moment asking her to stop her speaking, 

“I see no reason to continue this discussion further, you all will just repeat your points over and over so let us proceed to the voting. Everyone who is in favour of the expedition with the exception of me who shall remain seated no matter my vote please stand up.” Once he had finished speaking, Summer Wilder and Joao Pereira stood up from their seats voting for the expedition while Takeito Koyatsu and Ricardo Meade stayed seated voting against the expedition, glancing over the Supreme Chairman Pereira told him that it seemed the final say was now in his hands. Now something that had not happened in the history of the High Council ever since the 14^th Supreme Chairman Ivan Cherdykov reduced the High Council from 10 members to just 5 was about happen as the Supreme Chairman parted his lips and announced his vote “I am neither in favour or against the idea of an expedition therefore this matter shall be looked upon further in our next meeting.” 

    This decision slightly infuriated Joao Pereira who responded by saying “Sir, if we wait any longer the enemy may attack us, we must protect our territory and the inhabitants of our territory from being invaded by the rebel confederation, you must agree to the ex….” “Pereira. The Supreme Chairman has made a decision please restrain yourself from doing anything that may damage your career” said Takehito Koyatsu ending shortly the words of Joao Pereira. “My apologies sir, it seems my emotions got the better of me” following his words the Supreme Chairman dismissed the High Council meeting and asked them to leave the building. Once the 4 members that composed the High Council had left the Supreme Chairman decided to sit down in his chair once again and using his electronic tablet began reading news and articles about the incidents that had been occurring because of Von Ellwangen and he began pondering whether or not his own actions against the man were justified. In the end he decided that in their next meeting they would discuss about setting the man free so that the protests may end or at the very least become less. 

 

      What happened in the meeting was released to the public a couple of days after its conclusion, however there was nothing about how the decision in the military expedition was tied. The only people who got the chance of being told about this were the top officials in the military Trung Yin and David Hopson who then of course told most admirals that were not in their household doing absolutely nothing. One of those admirals was Alexander Beatty an admiral who was known for his short temper that was often compared to his crimson hair in battle and the destruction his fleet could attain in a short amount of time. It might seem like he would be a fantastic offensive commander, however when commanding the entire fleet Marshal Trung Yin would in fact order Beatty to work defensively. The Admiral who was in good terms with Admiral Karl Odenwitz after he saved his fleet from being wiped out from all of space, therefore he reported what had happened to Odenwitz who was in his house attempting to get his wife to get out of the household after nearly a week of staying inside. The news of the voting draw were however not heard by Nero, they were just heard the two admirals.

Crossing his legs and putting his hand on his chin Admiral Odenwitz spoke up about the situation “This does concern us since it probably means we will not go in a expedition for a while, but I don’t get why he was talking so seriously about it. It just means that we will stay in here a little bit more.” Hearing this the eyes of Admiral Hyde lit up looking like pine trees in the forest as she excitedly and confidently told his husband about the importance of a draw, the history of how draws in voting had occasionally affected the running the High Council until the 14^th Supreme Chairman reduced the High Council number from an even number to an odd number. She also stated that the last time the High Council did not reach a conclusion due to something other than just wanting to postpone the issue had been in the confederate year 82 under then Supreme Chairwoman Von Tafelin when discussing the matter of reducing the Council actually. Odenwitz found himself amazed at the knowledge that Hyde possessed, he had known that his wife was quite fond of history yet he never thought that she could just as easily remember such things that he couldn’t, therefore he asked Hyde as to why she hadn’t enrolled for a history degree. The question was a guaranteed one even though they had been together for a long time Hyde never really talked about her past with the exception of how her parents died when a ship they were in was accidentally fired. Hyde turned her head for a minute before sitting down next Odenwitz and telling him the reason was quite ordinary in fact. Once her parents died she received no sort of heritage or any sort of money that could pay off the cost of studying something like history or medicine, so she just had no other alternative but to take military history in the military academy that was free in charge as long as she became a soldier, but the history department had been abolished that year and therefore she decided to take a test that would tell her in what department you would fit in better which ended up being the department of military strategies and like so she entered the army and the rest was history. Odenwitz just nodded at her as she stood up and talked about how she had wanted to put an ensign with the same name as the 14^th chairman until she was told by her aide that was not allowed, she continued to talk about this as she made her way into their room and her voice became lower and lower until her rambling could be heard no more, she eventually returned to were Karl was this time in her full military garb as she told him she was heading out

IV

Hyde made her way towards the Military headquarters to go and ask Fleet Admiral Trung Yin for a small favour, which was to allow her to use his communications room in order to talk with Lieutenant Commander Haylie. The Fleet Admiral allowed her to do this despite the rebuttal from his aide Lieutenant Commander Ralah Sanadiki who claimed it would be against military protocols to allow her to use his communication system, to this the silver haired marshal responded by saying that if he as the most important player in the military allowed it then there should be no reason for anyone else to attempt and go against that idea. The Lt. Commander still attempted to claim that it would be unwise even if any other communication line that Hyde could have used didn’t reach the Musen HQ there was no reason to allow her to use the Marshal’s system, she then suggested allowing her to use another communication room apart from the Marshal’s private one. The Fleet Admiral succumbed to his Lt. Commander’s better judgement and agreed with the idea of making Hyde communicate to the Musen commander. Hyde of course accepted the offer of using a separate room and after saluting the Fleet Admiral she was escorted by the Lt. Commander towards the room she would use to speak with Haylie. 

Haylie’s image was blurry and occasionally showed static due to distance between Musen and Der Millineun, however it was still a good enough image as for Hyde to look at Haylie’s amber eyes and begin nearly interrogating her about how she managed to drive off the invasion. Haylie answered her questions honestly from how she made the ship she was in go faster than it ever had and how she launched a form of grenade to the enemy flanks in order to keep them all in the centre. She was composed and relaxed, however with every word she said she could see Skye looking at her through the small screen she was given by the Fleet Admiral, her emerald eyes became and sharper and sharper, almost as if exposing a lie in Haylie’s words until finally slamming her hand on the desk that was hosting her small screen Hyde told Haylie to shut up and tell her what she really used to attack the flanks. Haylie answered by saying she really did just use grenades to blow up the enemy flanks, but Hyde shook her head and said that a grenade would not produce the sort of explosion described in the reports. Haylie kept denying the claims of it not being a grenade and Hyde kept raising her voice, she was not someone to raise her voice that much instead she usually spoke in a gentle and relaxed manner this was something that Haylie knew of course and for that reason she became dumbfounded as to why her friend was caring so much about the ways she had defeated the enemy. Haylie finally claimed for one last time that she used a simple grenade, nothing more and nothing less. Hyde seeing she was in a losing battle composed her posture and cleared her throat and put on the sternest face she could muster and talked in the most dignified way that she could “Lt. Commander. As your superior I demand that you give the real information about this invasion otherwise I will be forced to court-martial you for falsifying an official statement.” Haylie then saluting to her superior began to reveal the contents of what she had used and in fact what she had been using in various of her battles. She claimed to had bought some sort of gas particles from an independent merchant that when exposed to the laser used in ray guns caused the area such particles were in to combust into flames causing an explosion like scene, Haylie said that with such particles they were able to use the superior strength of her squadron to beat enemies without worrying as most of them were not good enough to fend them off in hand to hand combat. Hyde nodded with her hand on her chin through all of Haylie’s word and once she finished Hyde lowered her hand and asked where she could find the merchant to what Haylie responded that she had not seen him for almost 2 years when she restocked herself with such particles. Haylie then asked why she wanted to know where he was to what Hyde answered that as her superior she had no reason to answer her questions. Hyde then saluted Haylie and dismissed her ending their call, in a bitter manner. She continued in her manner throughout the rest of they day, which surprised even the Director of Joint Operations David Hopson and Fleet Admiral Trung Yin when she reported since she had been known by all admirals as one of the most relaxed officials in the military never really buying into the military culture. In fact she still did not buy into it, but rather she was in such a state of disappointment towards her friend for never disclosing her use of these particles that she began acting like an actual official. 

Hyde did not disclose on the finding of this particles with anyone as she had the slight hope of perhaps one day using them in the battlefield, but that did not mean she was the only that found the attack on the flanks strange. Commanders Ambrose and Texeira were about to being more training with the young Yi who had been improving slightly although still not enough for either getting the chief of staff to be ok with his progress or to be ready for real combat, but their training of that day was cut before it could even begin since as soon as the commanders entered while joking around with each other almost as if they were doing a comedy skit and seeing the chief of staff with a stoic look in his face, almost disgusted at their relaxed attitudes. They then both looked next to the Chief of Staff and corrected their posture to salute at the man who was standing next to him with his sapphire eyes and golden mane the youngest Fleet Admiral in confederate history Siegfried Stein saluted back at his subordinates before asking them both to allow him to take Yi for the day. They both agreed to release their trainee for the day even though he really needed the training. Stein then told them both that the chief of staff would be evaluating them to see if they have not gotten any rust in their game, they nodded and saluted once again as they stepped to the side in order for Stein to pass through. He then took the Lt. Jr with him into his office and began asking to him about the attack on their flanks in the Musen invasion. Lt. Jr. Yi tried to explain what had happened to the best of his abilities, but nothing that he said truly satisfied Stein who like Hyde had come to the conclusion that something else must have happened than just a grenade or something else, he had theorized that the “legitimate” confederation may have discovered something that combusted when exposed to something. Stein was right in a way, as he did not know that it was a gas that could combust when in contact with the lasers used in their guns. Once Yi was done with his explanation the Fleet Admiral allowed him to leave and report to the commanders. He then tried to use the explanation that Yi gave him to come up with some sort of explanation, but it was futile as nothing that the Lt. Jr gave him was actually useful, so instead he began rethinking about his choices. About why he joined the military and how to anyone aside for himself it would look as if he had joined to take revenge of his fallen father this was far from the case, as he had thought about before he wanted to be a beacon of hope for the people he was protecting. He also had decided that he would not just protect them form a foreign threat such as a the other confederation but that he would also if necessary protect them from the politicians of the Revolutionary Confederation if needed, at the thought of seizing power for himself Stein could not help but smile after all he did really believe that if he obtained power then he could do a way better job than the those who were holding on to power at the time after all their current leader had been the same since the war began claiming that he was just stabilizing the government. Stein saw this as just an excuse to stay in power, an excuse to never relinquish it and due to this he began thinking that if they would not give up their power towards someone who deserved more then he would be forced to take it upon himself to take that power for himself, but for the time being Siegfried Stein had more pressing concerns than taking power as he had been formulating an invasion plan on the Legitimate Confederation. A plan that could help him be closer to achieving his goal and that would surely taint the void of space.

Author's Note

Feedback is much appreciated as this is still somewhat of a draft.