Those Dirty Stinking Dogs We Call the Enemy

[Rebecca Talon]

~Meanwhile - Terra Alpha~

The office of the Secretary of the Defense was somewhat crowded with the Joint Chiefs, and the heads of the three uniformed branches of the Terra Alpha Government and the Jase’dasis Council’s representative. Rebecca was flanked on either side by General Shrin, and Fleet Admiral Tomarah t’Sei. The head of the Merchant Guard was giving a report to the SecDef that she wasn’t paying attention to.

“The Marines are ready Mr. Secretary,” Shrin said. “We have eight corps and thirty-two divisions ready for deployment. Camp Grant is running at full capacity and we should be able to field another twelve divisions by the end of the year. That’s assuming we don’t too many casualties. Our militia divisions will take on the role of planetary defense freeing up our regular troops for offensive campaigns.”

[Tony Ryder]

"Good, I'm also going to pull the 414th from Planetary Defense and push them straight into combat support operation." Tony said as he moved a holographic representation of Admiral Angel Ryder's fleet from one panel to another. "I know Angel won't like it, but she's got one of the more advanced ships in the fleet and we're going to need it against these..." he brought up a holographic model of one of the new ships Bellatrix was seen with. "Not as robust as an Alliance ship, but given that it looks built for pure combat, it'll put up a fight before we take it out." he leveled his gaze at Rebecca. "Becca, have you heard anything from Monastary since they went dark? Any back channels... mental links... visions? I'll take what we can get. Puts a sick feelin' in my stomach when Dommy and Trixy's kids can royally frak up a planet in a matter of a couple hours. A city, sure, but an entire world? We need to end this threat once and for all people. We're all in command of some of the best of the best that the Federation could have only dreamt about. We've got the manpower, the tech, the skills and the know-how to end this. Tomarah, the shipyard fleet will have to be tasked with planetary defense, they're knew barely shaken down ships, but they're still more than a fight for any comers, but we need our battle hardened and seasoned officers facing this."

Tony sighed and crossed his arms. "My brother leaving was the best thing he could have done to help, means that anyone sees anyone that looks like him. Shoot to kill. No hesitation, no delay, you get a clear shot. You take it. Dominus will no doubt have clones and alternate reality versions of himself around, so it make take a whole mountain before we get to him. Other realities will thank us. This is not the Imperium, these aren't misguided friends and allies, they're dark reflections. They're going to do here what they either already did to their home reality or were about to do." he walked over and activated a hologram. "This is one Dominus alternate I caught trying to sabotage this very complex." he opened a box and shook out a pile of dust with a badge that clinked onto the desk. "This is what is left of him. They are everywhere and it's only because we're vigilant that we're able to stop them before they start. So keep your eyes open! I don't want any of you to walk out of here without SKIN armor under those uniforms, sidearms and a security detail nearby. I see lone wolf bullshit. I'm personally dragging your ass into the Mount and you're remaining there until this is over and I'm removing your title. I'm that fucking serious. Even you Becca, you may be family but I see lone wolf shit, your ass is in a cell. This is not the time to screw around. I have no problem replacing any of you and President Price has given me permission to do so. "

[Rebecca Talon]

"I felt the pain when it happened. Made me s ream out even, but since I haven't sensed anything. Just a void and a sinking feeling in my stomach. Master Plo and a few other masters who were off world have established a interim Jase'dasis Council here on Terra Alpha while we figure out what to do."

"You need ships to get you to Monestary," Tomarah asked.

Rebecca considered it, "Yeah, I think that would give us the answers we need."

"I'll attach the Athina Carrier Group to this. I don't feel comfortable sending one ship."

"I would agree," Rebecca replied uneasily.

"Admiral Harrison," Tomarah announced, "Can the Guard maintain border defense."

Leslie Harrison gave the Romulan commander of the Navy an amused expression, "Admiral that's one of our many missions. We will protect as many planets as we can, but we need ships. I will need presidential authorization to mobilize us under the DOD and to press the merchant fleet into service."

[Tony Ryder]

"Consider that done." Tony replied as he held up a PADD. "This is Jon Price's unilateral plan, if we see the need, we have the auth. That's why all of us are in this room, we wouldn't be here if he didn't trust us implicitly to do what was right." he put the padd on the desk and looked at Harrison. "Only press the Merchant Fleet that can actually be useful, I'm not sending the glorified FedExpress truck against our enemies. Looks bad."

[Rebecca Talon]

"We should prioritize construction of Guard cutters and planetary gun batteries." Rebecca advised. "That means getting the ship yards to switch over and getting civilian contractors such as AlphaTech on board to build the artillery."

"The Navy's strength is adequate at the moment. No new ships shouldn't hurt us much." Tomarah added.

[Angel Ryder]

Angel's holographic form flickered to life as she walked over to the conference table. "Sorry I couldn't appear sooner, I was here the whole time." she looked around. "We're passing through some subspace distortions that were messing with comms, no doubt some of Dominus' doing with his weapons, subspace is in rough shape, we've been forced to go sublight more than we cared to." she tapped the table and another holographic display appeared. "For the planetary defense, Becca do you remember when dad was dead... he willed me his designs. There's a cloaked cargo container, 2838Z3E. Self replicating artillery battery set up. You activate it, set how dense you want the defense field to be and it'll build what it needs. AlphaTek will need to deliver fuel cores to the system otherwise it won't work. It's too detectable with the cores loaded - but once it's active, it'll do the job of 20 star ships."

[Shrin]

"I can have them crewed within a few hours. I don't have enough malitia artillery units, so I will have to pull from regular divisions, but this is far more important. The fleet can't be everywhere at once, and if you give them evil scumbags a weakness they'll take it. If nothing else to scare the daylights out of the rest of us."

[Angel Ryder]

"The sooner we ensure our home space is secure, the sooner we take the fight to Dominus." Angel said as she looked at the map. "There are a dozen spots that he could hit, but there are less than four that is probably GOING to hit and we need to get his forces weakened to the point that we can eliminate his support network..."

"Which is considerably larger than we realized originally. He's got access to numerous realities and their forces." Tony replied.

"That's what I meant about cutting off his support network. It's been five years and I live on a science and engineering vessel, the level of nerd, geek and genius is off the charts." Angel crossed her arms and smiled slightly. "We may have a way to fix the rifts that Dominus has been using and to get space back to some semblance of normal. Dad encountered the original set of rifts in the Pythus Sector, he studied them when he wasn't fighting wars. It's taken a lot of study and a lot of geniuses working on this, but we have a solution. We tested it last week, results seem promising, although it's still very much experimental." she ran her hand through her hair. "But it's going to take time, time that Dominus may not give us, so this is going to be a very bloody, very costly battle." she looked at Shrin. "I'm also imploring you to look into using the holographic crews, telepresence and simple drone systems we've been developing. I know you like real flesh and blood, but... my son in law will thank you for not making him write more condolence letters. He hates doing those."

[Shrin]

"With luck as a corps commander he won't have to. I would hate to lose division commanders. Good ones are almost as hard to find as a good company CO or first sergent. I will use any and all resources we can get, but war should never be cheap, and AI makes war something anyone can afford. Fifth Corps has been assigned to New Romulus, and Seventh Corps to Talaria. The 12th and 108th Divisions are working with Xenexian officials."

"I will assemble as many Jase'dasis I can. We will need them to help counter the Ajem'dasis threat. Dominus may be far more destructive, but Bellatrix is far more organized, and she will attack us with surgical precision."

[Kalia Lei]

"It's not about war being cheap... it's about using the resources we have so we can keep good men and women from being hurt or killed." Kalia replied as she lifted the hem of her skirt and tapped her knuckles on her leg. "I'm seeing far too many of our soldiers with legs like these than I'm happy seeing. AI and drones can take point, take the brunt of things, or in situations where it's a one way trip for us 'meat bags.'" she crossed her arms. "Bellatrix worries me more simply because she IS focused. Reminds me too much of my mother before she lost the stomach for the war. Burn her own comrades if it meant winning. My brother the Emperor is willing to commit Imperium forces to this, under two conditions... one they fight under the Starfleet banner and two which I'm not entirely inclined to grant. That Earth gets a seat at the table so to speak. He's a good man, but Earth's not exactly ready. And this is coming from me. They're not ready to join the Alliance, allies sure... but a voting member, hardly. Britain is very anti-Alliance. Australia is very anti-Romulan. Africa is very anti-Klingon after they tried to turn Egypt into a Klingon enclave and leveled a couple of Pyramids. Apparently mother covered that up by wiping them all out, but... the African Nations unified and they're not exactly happy. Planet's hardly at peace."