Dimension

Chapter 14

Hello everybody!

I hope you had a happy holiday season! Also, happy (slightly belated *ahem*) 2019! And holy cow we broke 400!

Well, I do actually have a semi-explanation for the like month-long absence. I was with family over break, and couldn't find time to write... and then finals. Actually, I really shouldn't be writing right now cause I have a calc final in like 4 days but...

Meh. I've been gone long enough already.

Edit: What the 980th place in Sci-Fi? Out of 62.5 k?

Edit 2: Finals are over! Yay!  

This is an unusually long chapter though! I hope you enjoy!

Here goes nothing!

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The Alexandra.

So many touted her as the pinnacle of Republic engineering. And there was little reason to doubt this claim- the vessel was truly beautiful, contrasting sharply against the industrial, utilitarian spaceframes of the two Centurion-class battlecruisers on her flanks. 

Yet Lyctove couldn't appreciate her as the marvel of technology and design that she was. To him, she represented the very thing he had worked so hard to eliminate. For the Alexandra's primary mission was to stabilize Carok, specifically the Prythian Assembly. She was there to drag a failing nation out of the furnace of civil war.

Of course, that was all just a facade. 

Carok maintained only a symbolic level of independence. Isilon Station, the Aurora Flare, even Alru all those years ago- they all tied back to a single, deceptively simple truth. 

Paragon dominated Carok- oppressed it, under threat of war. 

And as much as Lyctove hated to admit it, there seemed to be no other option. Carok was the lifeline of the Republic. Eight out of the twenty Caroki protectorates fed material and food directly into the Republic's heartland. It had dragged a destroyed nation out of the depths of the Great Famine, and rebuilt it from the ground up.

Lyctove had spent the majority of his first term trying to repair the damage that had already been done. To the outside observer, it would appear as if he had been at least partially successful- the Prythian Assembly did maintain open and friendly relations with the Republic. 

Evidently, its people disagreed with that decision. 

The Assembly was in a civil war because of the Republic. Because of the oppression and the militarism. Just that thought alone made Lyctove nauseously sick.

It was getting worse. Half of the Assembly would technically fall under the purvue of the Republic protectorate system- therefore, its defense would be the responsibility of the UPRN.

Which meant war.

War with a nation that was at war with itself. 

As of now, Republic bases had remained untouched. The relays had been taken down, but that hardly warranted a full-scale war. UPRN forces may be understrength due to issues at home, but there still were enough ships to punch back.  

He glanced at the holopad he held in his hands. It was blinking furiously, awaiting Lyctove's fingerprint. The full detail of Alexandra's battlegroup and her mission were arrayed in dizzying detail. 

Alexandra would operate as the command ship. Two Centurion-class battlecruisers comprised the next heaviest hitters in her flotilla, closely followed by an Augustus-class light cruiser and a trio of Terminus-class assault destroyers. Three Marathon-class frigates each operated as an independent fast attack wing, all supported by a single Hyrosis-class multi-role corvette.