Dimension

Chapter 4

Chapter Quatro!

Nothing to say really...

Except I got this out earlier then I thought I would! Hooray!

So here goes nothing!

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The military heart of the United Planetary Republic was situated on Endura, surpassing even Oscomn, the capital of the Republic, in wealth. Covered in artificially sustained forests and a large, natural ocean situated in the western hemisphere and dotted with towering autocrete skyscrapers extending deep into Endura's crust, with some even breaking into open space - one could quickly forget what the system's true purpose was.

However, it was impossible to ignore the enormous weaponized battlestations, hundreds of which were locked in geosynchronous orbit with Endura, armed with intergalactic antimatter warheads powerful enough to crack a planet in half. It was impossible to ignore the planetside coilguns, always pointed at the nearest Coalition world, standing ready to devastate any one of them with the press of a button.

Joseph Kuznetsov glanced at the safe in the wall of his office. In it were the codes which could initiate the beginning of the end of this war, but doing so would result in the loss of an uncountable number of lives. Kuznetsov could, if nothing else, avoid the annihilation of both nations. 

The Grand Admiral ran his hand through his hair as he skimmed through the latest reports from the front lines. He'd hear the last five reports in person at the briefing later this afternoon. There was no need to read them in detail. 

His eyes fell onto a PDA buried under a stack of papers. 

Before he could reach for it, his door buzzed.

"Enter."

A grizzled old man entered, flanked by a guard in powered armor.

"Mr. Lyctove. Good to see you." Kuznetsov said, presenting his hand in greeting.

Lyctove returned the gesture. "Admiral Kuznetsov. We need to talk."

"Of what?"

"I hate to pressure you," Lyctove said a few seconds later, "But the public is demanding answers."

"I haven't got any," Kuznetsov replied. "There is no trace of her. I have nothing to go by, and neither does anyone on that group of specialists you commissioned."

"I'm sure I don't need to explain the situation this puts us in."

"No. That won't be necessary. That also doesn't change the fact that the Aurora Flare simply doesn't seem to exist anymore. She just vanished-"

"How?" Lyctove asked, abruptly cutting Kuznetsov off. "Puddlejumpers don't just vanish. She's three hundred kilos in diameter. How does a moon just... go away?"

Kuznetsov glanced at Lyctove with an irritated look. "That's not the question we should be asking."

Lyctove sighed. He had always valued the Grand Admiral's advice- what was different now?

Nothing, he determined.

"What do you suggest?" he inquired. 

"We have black ops teams in the Assembly and the Union. Activate them, and see if they can dig anything up."

"They're out of position. Omega was captured last month and three of them were executed- the rest have gone dark. On orders."

"Watchtowers, then. Get the Bureau to dig something up."

"They're already doing that."

Before Kuznetsov could respond, Lyctove's watch buzzed. He looked briefly at the alert, swiped it aside, and glanced at Kuznetsov apologetically.

"I have a meeting in five minutes."

"Of course." 

Lyctove slid out of the Grand Admiral's office.

The Republic was on a slow, steady march to defeat. The loss of a puddlejumper was devastating- it was the only category in which the Republic's navy had numerical superiority over the Coalition. Or more accurately, used to have. With the destruction of the Eclipsys at Taurus Alpha three weeks ago and now this, even that advantage was gone.

At least the burden of the war was not his alone. Six other Grand Admirals controlled six additional sector fleets, all of which were in bad shape.

Once again that same safe fell into Kuznetsov's vision. He desperately hoped he would never have to open it. Perhaps, one day, Paragon would see peace, but that wouldn't be happening anywhere in the near future.

"Tactical map online," Kuznetsov said as he grabbed a full liter of coffee from under his desk. A large, holographic, three-dimensional map of the galaxy appeared in front of him, taking up the entire office. Projected onto it were green counters for all UPRN forces and red ones for presumed locations of the Coalition Navy. 

Brooding over what may happen in the future wasn't going to help anyone. Either he would use those codes, or he wouldn't. 

In the meantime, he had work to do. 

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Wow. My chapters have gotten a lot longer.

This chapter was pretty inconsistent. I had to change quite a bit. I don't really plan my story out- I just kinda write whatever comes to mind, so that's why stuff like that happens a lot. It sucks that I was this late to change it, but the more you know, I guess.