Existential Threat: Chapter 12 Part 3 of 8 (Patreon)

“Delta Organize requests coming in from the Legion forces.”

Jan grunted crisp barcode under his left eye, gold and silver ringing his left ear.

“Echo work with them to understand the normal layouts and container shipments, then anticipate what they are going to need, not just what’s on the packing list.”

Sam bobbed their purple hair, looking at Jan, nodding to one another.

Tao pointed at the zoomed in hologram.

“Fox, find out the status of that Sphere World. What is the status of the factories. Is it alive, is it dead, can we use it?”

“Sir,” Allen’s voice a deep gravelly thing, his brows pinching together as he turned and threw up a hologram of the station in the middle of his section, with his metal hand, calling out to one of his people who pulled up terminals, the others moving close.

Chris added information from the different sections throwing out terminals for Tao, splitting the holographic space to show a map. Different colored clouds encompassed the different factions. The map of known systems zoomed out, showing a much larger map, with the white and black markers of the Legion over several systems.

Tao shot Chris a look.

“Looks like we know where those veteran freighter fleets were going and where those new ships were coming from,” Chris said.

Tao nodded slowly, taking in the new map, understanding it, familiarizing himself with it.

“Empty ships I want as red, ships partially loaded as yellow, loaded as green. Give me a list of where ships are, where their going and the next location after that, and the time to get there.” Tao opened a terminal to his right, long and thin.

He worked with Chris, organizing how he wanted to get information.

“Boss, we’ve established communications with all ships,” Lela said.

“Good work Alpha, keep in contact with them, all ships that are in human space are to head to the nearest jump location. Coordinate with the,” Tao snapped his fingers. “Dark space people. Coordinate with Charlie, we need them in places that have the gear we need.”

“Boss,” Lela and Kleo said together.

“Delta, we have requests?”

“Fleet is asking for a full reload as well as repair supplies, ground forces are requesting Firebase drops for the planet and two reloads for the Armada’s ground forces.”

“Anything from the air support?”

“Not at this time.

“Can confirm weapons fire on the ground?”

“Yes sir,” Chris said.

“Make sure that the Armada has a triple load of rail cannon rounds, inert and the new orbital flashers. Double up on the number of shuttles. Load water, nutrition for Orkaran people, Sally can you get that from the Federation?”

“Done.”

Tao grinned. Doubting very much that it was done through legal channels. When you have the most powerful AI known to man, use her. “Okay, large freighters are to dump their loads first, ten percent of them are to then convert to hold Okaran personnel, command posts, food and water. I want,” Tao wiggled his fingers, “Two full reloads of hellcats and dropships. Five full load outs of reloads, then I want six landing forces worth of bots and ground forces.”

“We don’t have that capacity with the fleet,” Davin said.

“I want them in that order, not all loaded to go now. Work with Charlie and Alpha, First is resupply of those air vehicles, change over ten percent to hab-ships, two ground force reloads, then fleet orbital strike packages, then ground force reloads. Leave fifteen percent of the ships’ empty until they leave for pickup. If I don’t tell you anything, load them as you want.”

“Boss,” The station heads called out.

“That Sphere World?” Tao pointed at it.

“Sally?” Allen interjected.

Tao turned, Sally wearing her Legion uniform, her hair pulled into a severe pony-tail, coming to parade rest.

“What condition is it in?” Tao asked.

“The station has been heavily damaged and ripped apart, there are weapon systems on the station but none of them are active. If there is anyone aboard they do not know how to use the weapon systems. Based on the destruction, the Orkaran left in a hurry, which makes me think that there should be un-looted sections.”

“Allen, coordinate with the Engineers. I want a plan to bring that station back online as soon as possible. Any sign of Adraxi on the station?”

“None that I can determine,” Sally said. “Diego is tasked to clear the station, best to communicate with him, can load the bots clearing the station with repair tools for engineers to jump into afterwards?”

“That would be a dream, Delta, you’re already talking to Legion navy and ground. Ask them what they intend to do with the station? I’d very much like to bring it back online and use it. Loop with Sally.”

“Yes boss.” A double of her appeared next to Jan.

“Allen, if they okay turning it back on, then I want you to operate it, the others will coordinate with you.”

“Boss.”

“Chris, have a chat with the transportation gurus, see if they can’t use their warpgates to punch us up some wormholes so we don’t have to slow our people’s movement. Dead-space of course.”

“Yes sir,” Chris tapped his eyebrow, in a half-circle of terminals.

Tao silently scanned his people, watching for the nerves that would lead to panic, the fear that would overpower their thoughts.

People talked to one another rapidly, not trying to yell over one another, or dismiss one another’s thoughts. Everyone was engaged, with terminals or one another or others unseen.

Now to keep them like that. Yelling and screaming at them, threatening to replace them might work in the games, but here he needed his people.

That was why he had built up his staff, trained people how to deal with stressful situations and lead. Not now he’d had to with the guilds, but the way he wanted to, the way he had when he’s started gaming. Stress and fear were the mind killer and he needed his people at the top of their game. Without a constant flow of ammunition and supplies it could mean people died.

He would be the calm, the one reaching out to hand those in the fight the weapon they didn’t know they needed until a split second before.

He let out a sigh, to call Dana and Minnie or not. They don’t need me jostling their elbow. I’ll get this done and then we’ll chat.

His eyes chilled, balling his fists, feeling the limits of the net-suit’s gloves, pressing against them, clenching his jaw, staring at the Adraxi ships.

In his mind eye he saw his niece and nephew playing in the garden of his sister and brother-in-law’s apartment on Luyten.

He released his fists with a hot breath. Here he would do all he could to destroy the Adraxi. Here he would support OBE, stripping away the power the Federation vainly held onto. There was more than one way to kill an organization, Tao Walker knew this well.

***