Starship Vengeance

Chapter 32

***A/N***
I normally do these at the end, but I wanted to forewarn you. I changed the perspective of how this chapter is written. I'm debating on changing the whole series to be written in more third person instead of first. I'm thinking it would work better for what I have in mind for the third book. Let me know if you like it or not. I really want some feedback on the characters I'm trying to build up in this chapter. I would like to apologize for this chapter being so delayed. November was a rough month for writing. Thanks for the support and not giving up on me.
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They were finally off. Admiral Rodrigues learned two important lessons in his years in the military. The more people involved in the planning, the more time was wasted and the higher you were in the hierarchy, the less common sense and practical knowledge you had. Luckily, the combined fleet was only dealing with one of those two issues. However, it was compounded by the fact that they were dealing with alien races instead of those with different political viewpoints. That tended to make things unnecessarily complicated. At least they were on their own now. Admiral Rodrigues had left the moment he had his assigned search grid.

"Status?" he asked.

"Sky is clear. All ships are reporting negative contact with hostiles," the ship's captain, Lydia Reed, replied.

"I'll be in my quarters. Notify me of anything you find," Admiral Rodrigues commanded.

He made the short trip to his quarters and sighed as he reclined in his overly comfortable chair. His eyes, as usual, were drawn to a picture frame he had magnetically attached to his desk. Pain and guilt returned anew as he stared at the beautiful women holding his son. Her hair was disheveled and her makeup had smeared all over her face, but in that moment, he couldn't imagine her being any lovelier. His face suddenly hardened. This was the true cost of war. He sighed as he forced himself to review logs and reports. The life of a fleet admiral was not as glorious as one would believe. It consisted of an unholy amount of paperwork.

"Admiral Rodrigues to the bridge," a voice announced over the intercom. A completely uninteresting report remained unfinished as he purposely left the room. He waded through the sea of salutes that accompanied his position. He understood the necessity of rank and the proper respect thereof, but sometimes the little things could bother him. Crew shouldn't be required to stop everything just because he happened to walk by. Now on the bridge, with all the formalities out of the way, he could see why they had called for him. On the main screen was a live feed of a Zrynt facility. The facility was orbiting around a massive gas giant. It was the only permanent resident of this system besides a ring of asteroids that lay between the planet and its sun.

"Any indication of what is going on inside?" Admiral Rodrigues asked.

"Negative," replied Captain Reed. "A few ships were seen ferrying in raw materials. There are pylons going from the station into the atmosphere, presumably to collect more raw materials."

"Any other sensor data?"

"Whatever they are doing, it's using a lot of power." She paused a moment as new information appeared on a nearby screen. "It also appears that this system's asteroid field is rich with rare minerals."

"It was my understanding that the Zrynt didn't believe in mining raw materials."

"Either we have hurt then enough that they are starting to create their own ships, or our information about them is incomplete. Regardless, I believe this warrants further attention," she stated.

"I agree. Place the fleet on alert and begin plotting jump points. I want all exists covered."

The life of an Admiral felt foreign to Admiral Rodriguez. His previous military experience forced him to be more engaged with those under his command. While the whole fleet was technically his, command of each ship was somebody else's responsibility. Once battle was engaged, there was little for him to do. The final battle plan was given to him for his approval. Times like these, he was jealous of Admiral Ryan. He had the pleasure of being both a fleet admiral as well as the ship's captain.