Chapter 7:The Third Battle of The Atarah Star-Zone Part 1: Through Flames

A Chapter by JoséNEO

October 8 Confederate Year 178. The Legitimate confederation High Council had yet another meeting pertaining on the “expedition” they desired to do against the revolutionaries as well as the supposed case of treason of von Ellwangen. Throughout the course of the meeting the Secretary of Defence showed the many communications von Ellwangen had reportedly had with the revolutionaries, these communications however had not yet been deciphered it was only certain that it had been sent to someone on the other side of the one corridor that separated them. The meeting continued in that order and in the end they finally agreed on a solution to the case, the solution was to late the man free on the basis that even though he may had communicated with the rebellious revolutionaries, they had broken his rights as a citizen before there was any reason for him to be detained. That is what the official record state however many speculate the real reason for this what that as they had been reaching a stalemate on many problems their approval rating had begun to take a massive dip even after the small increase it had following the news coverage of the von Ellwangen messages, furthermore it was already settled that the expedition plan would once again end on a tie of votes and if they had not decided on anything on that meeting then the government might have had entered a brief shutdown. In the end their meeting that day had once again not reached an agreement on the military sortie with the chairman still torn in between striking with a large force and attempting to win the war swiftly or trying to stabilize the country, which had begun to suffer from lack of manpower on many of its cities due to the military taking many talented people, this was something that Ricardo Meade would note in almost every meeting they had to keep it in the mind of the council as a point to not approve the sortie. Every time the secretary of defence would then say something along the lines of “If we win the war the people will return to their work”, which would then expand into larger discussions to try and convince the chairman to cast a vote, but it was all a fruitless effort.

Admiral Hopson called in to Hyde’s and Odenwitz’ residence to inform them about the council’s decisions as it had become customary of him, however while on the other times he would inform them the man looked like a typical soldier composed and collected, this time his eyes looked as if they were one second to closing, his hair that had begun to become grey was a mess, his face as a whole looked as if it was about to collapse like the democracy of a nation where politicians care more about themselves than of the people who elected them, this state was of course due to work he had been doing for the secretary and had he been informed that the revolutionaries fleet was on its way that day he surely would have collapsed from exhaustion. Skye Hyde attempted to ask about the Chief of Staff’s tired look, but she was unable as her husband interjected her by saluting Hopson and telling him they will continue to wait for their next assignment.

“Well at least they are keeping a democracy’s tendency to be slow” sighed Hyde towards her ward and husband. “Well at least it means you get some more free time Admiral, and it means that Admiral Hopson can probably look into those escape procedures I had done soon” said the young ward of Hyde. Nero’s words reminded Karl that he had wanted to check on something about the procedures that Nero had made, but for that he’d first had to go with Admiral Hopson and obtain some data from the army’s budget then go on and get information about the people of the nation all this to make sure there were not many points of error in what Nero had done. Once Karl left to meet with the Chief of Staff, Skye Hyde turned towards her ward and decided to ask him if he truly wanted to be in the military and if he didn’t want to get a discharge after all she could just ask Admiral Hopson to pull some strings and get him out. The young boy’s eyes appeared lost at her question, but he still rapidly answered “Of course I wanted to be in the military Admiral. I had wanted to become a soldier like my late father for a long time, but if you think that there is a better option for you aide then I will be fine with it.” Hyde quickly tried to calm the young boy whose self had become deflated “It’s not like that, I just thought that maybe believed I forcefully pushed you into this”. “Although I did” was what Hyde would had said if she had not realised that no matter what she said the young boy will try and make sure she did not feel responsible for the decision.

After a few hours passed and the conversation between Nero and Skye had shifted from the military matters to other things, it found its way back into the war at hand. Hyde essentially lectured the young boy on the war’s history and how it had begun, and this lecture eventually got Nero to ask the young Admiral “Why are you still doing this?” this question was one that Nero has asked before a few years ago after she had done something similar except talking about the many problems she saw with the war and how it was meaningless as it shed the blood of people of the same nation who had created an artificial split. Hyde’s answer back then was that she needed to stay in the military due to her scholarship at the military academy having the condition that she needed to become a soldier. Nero of course reminded her young guardian about her reasoning before, but he added more “You have done enough for you to retire and not have to pay back, and even then Admiral Odenwitz would still be in the military. You could leave at any moment and go back to try and become something else like you have always said.” Those words made Hyde’s mind come to small halt, she had in fact never thought of that. She had become so busy in wanting to retire of the war once the right time came that she never considered the fact that even if she left her husband would still be in the military and probably be able to solve any problems her discharge may cause. Hyde shook her head and told her ward that she had not thought of that before. Seeing the Admiral deep in thought Nero quickly told her that she shouldn’t quit just yet after all if she did not only would her fleet be disbanded without participating in a single battle, he would probably be sent somewhere far as he would no longer be her aide. Skye nodded her head and changed the subject by asking about the whereabouts of her husband. As she said that the communicator in her residence went off with a call from her husband Karl who said that the Fleet Admiral Trung Yin had requested for her to show up at the headquarters. This message was one sent to all Admirals, and it had been supposed to be sent by Admiral Hopson, but after giving Karl the documents he needed he was advised to take a small rest now that he did not need to continue what the Secretary of Defence had asked.

The Revolutionary fleet has mobilized with over 70,000 ships was the statement that begun the meeting that Marshal Yin had assembled to the shock of the admirals that had been convoked. These admirals were the Commander of the 2^ndFleet, Admiral Alexander Beatty who had been the one to report the mobilization, Commander of the 3^rdFleet, Vice Admiral Heinrich Adrian von Libenstein the Commander of the 5^thfleet, Admiral Lucas Carrizo, Commander of the 6^thFleet, Admiral Naim Qasseem, Commander of the 8^thFleet, Admiral Karl Odenwitz, and Commander of the 9^thFleet, Admiral Skye Hyde. They would all in accordance to the governments orders mobilize their fleets for a combined fleet of around 65,000 ships, as mentioned by the Fleet Admiral the head of the fleet would be himself as the fleet commander, Admiral David Hopson would be Chief of Staff in the operation and he added that preparations must be done in 3 days, they would discuss the tactics to fulfil their strategy of making the enemy retreat once they had left the capital planet. The meeting had been short before the Marhsal adjourned it and stayed with only Admirals Hyde and Odenwitz in the room the latter would comment once that everyone was gone about the short length of the meeting to what the Fleet Admiral responded “Well it can’t be helped, this is the job of the Chief of Staff not mine.” Karl nodded as in agreement before asking if he had thought of anything to defeat the revolutionaries to what Yin responded positively saying “I was planning on having my own fleet alongside von Libenstein and Qasseem, while having you two in charge of the flanks.” Hearing that Hyde tried to speak up as the flanks were usually the most important parts in their formation, but Admiral Odenwitz cut her off who said it would be a great honour to be given specifically the right flank.

The Fleet Admiral shook his head and told the two that he desired Admiral Hyde to take the right flank and obtain the particles that her friend Lieutenant Commander Haylie had been using. The fact that the Marshal knew about her friends usage of such particles shocked Hyde as for all she knew, Haylie had been using such things without informing the higher up, but before she or her husband could ask the Fleet Admiral revealed that he had known about the so called “Zephyr Particles” since the beginning as Haylie had asked Hopson to help her cover up their usage in the hope the enemy would not get wind of what was happening. The Fleet’s supreme commander then excused himself and left the room leaving only Hyde and Odenwitz, but even then they left shortly after the Fleet Admiral had left.

That night prior to their launching Admiral Odenwitz decided to send Nero out to watch a movie alongside Carrizo’s family as a ploy to keep him away for a couple hours. The Odenwitz/Hyde residence thus became quieter than it had been for some time, as Hyde was sitting upon the bed she shared with her husband, said husband slowly entered the badly lit room to speak with his wife who appeared conflicted. He did not directly ask her what was on her mind, he knew that Hyde would try and avoid saying it had it had been the first thing he asked, therefore he enjoyed a leisurely conversation before asking her if she had anything on her mind. She looked away from Karl’s face for a moment and returned her sight to it for another before looking away again and speaking “I was just thinking again about how I forced Nero to join the army, and not give him a chance to do whatever he wanted his life.” Karl immediately said that Nero was probably going to join either to what Skye responded that she knew that was true. She kept talking however and told Karl about what was really bothering her, the words she had with her ward about how she was still in the military despite being able to quit already. Karl did not respond to that, as he himself had not thought about that like how Skye had not thought about before Nero brought it up.

She told her husband however that she had already reached a conclusion as to why she hadn’t left. Karl was expecting something among the lines of “I can’t let the people down” or “This army needs me” but her reasoning was the following as noted on her biography as written by her ward “As things stand it is more than like that to future historians I’ll just be a mass murderer who spilled blood on a whim. You and I will probably just be called pawns of our government, I cannot change that so I might as well give up on becoming a historian myself.” Karl did not respond immediately, he was having trouble finding what to say. Eventually he shook his head and tried convincing her wife that future historians would look at her as one of the brilliant minds in the right side to what Hyde responded by questioning his words of claiming she was on the “right” side.

Karl looked at her expectant eyes as they awaited his response, he could so how her soul was expecting him to say they were in the right, but her heart wanted him to say there was no right or wrong side. Once he was ready to answer he closed his eyes for a brief period of time and spoke “I believe we are in the right side because this is the side I am fighting for, but whether we are wrong or right couldn’t matter less to me as long as you are happy then I suppose I am as well.” Skye’s eyes widened a bit before she began shaking her head looking around the room in disarray making her brown hair appear bristly although not enough for it to look terrible, seeing as she showed no signs of calming down her husband grabbed her by the waist and unexpectedly kissed her. The kiss worked for what it was given to calm the young Admiral down, Skye then pressed her head against her husband’s chest and said “We are launching tomorrow, just please don’t die.” She then parted her head from his chest and after a few seconds of trying to level with his height kissed him herself. Their stares were locked on each other’s eyes as their faces remained at an extremely close distance. “Nero won’t be back for quite a while” said Hyde before adding “Let’s enjoy ourselves tonight so that whatever tomorrow may bring we can not have many regrets.” Karl nodded and kissed one more time before carrying her towards their bed.

The following day the soldiers boarded the shuttles that transported them towards their ships; the last fleets to begin boarding were the 8^th, 9^thand 1^stFleet. Skye Hyde and Karl Odenwitz were exchanging some words before her ward and aide-de-camp arrived to inform her that she could begin boarding, Skye responding by ruffling the young boy’s hair and asking him not to be so formal when they are alone. “There are a lot of soldiers here though.” Answered Nero to what Skye rebutted by saying that as their commander there’d be no problem, following that she excused herself and boarded the shuttle that would take her towards her fleet’s flagship named “Desdemona” alongside Rear Admirals Hiroshi Kotobuki and John Starr, and Commodore Vinnie Massaro, now their shuttle was only awaiting Nero for it to launch and enter the ship. Nero before boarding commented about how Admiral Hyde appear different, mentioning how normally she seems to be detached from the world at times with the way she interacts even with them. Karl responded to his comment by saying “Skye is someone who knows a lot about the past, she also focuses a lot on what will happen, however that means that at times she does not see what is right in front of her.” Nero looked at the Admiral without saying a single word before Karl realised that the young man hadn’t understood at all what he was saying therefore he did the only thing he could to clear his mind up. He simply told him not to worry about it and excused himself to board his own shuttle, Nero followed suit and after a couple of minutes arrived at the flagship. Once all soldiers were on their ships, the commander in chief of the space navy Fleet Admiral Trung Yin alongside Chief of Staff Admiral David Hopson gave the order to launch. It would be a 2 week journey through the sea of stars before they reached their enemy, but that was no reason for them to slack off as they needed to finalise the tactic they would be using and for that the Fleet Admiral had ordered the Hyde fleet to get ahead of the main fleet and make a stop on the planet Musen.

The days passed and as the Legitimate forces made their way towards their first stop of Musen, reconnaissance ships sent by Fleet Admiral Stein had captured the enemy movement and relayed the news to his Chief of Staff Joahannes Laidler who himself told the news to Stein of course he had no idea that they were stopping at Musen first, instead he thought that they would head directly into battle, he reclined his chair with the Chief of Staff at his side and with the lights of his bridge dimmed looked out to the sea of stars. Just as he is travelling through this stars many others had, great commanders, bad commanders, fathers, sons, people. Many of them had to transverse through such ocean and never returned, his sister was now going to join the millions of people to had gone through the corridor separating their two nations. Would she join the thousands upon thousands of lost space rubble? Or will she successfully reach the other side safely? Those were the thoughts of Siegfried Stein heading into the battle and at a later date Admiral Jakob Thomas would note that such thoughts might’ve been preventing him from giving it his all on the battle. Still that did not change the fact that many people were depending on his orders to survive, including of course Lt. Jr. Yi Sun-Sin who would soon launch in a fighter for the first time. Who will win the next battle was not the questions of the soldiers, their questions simply was. “Who will survive?”

On October 18^thConfederate Year 178 the Hyde fleet arrived on Planet Musen for a quick meet-up between the fleet’s officials and the leader of the forces stationed on the planet Lieutenant Commander Haylie. The meeting was formal and lasted for only a few hours that they used to finalise details on the transfer of the so called “Zephyr Particles” that Haylie’s squadron held to the flagship of Skye’s fleet as they would be used in battle. Once the meeting concluded Skye approached Haylie and after a few moments of silence apologised for her way of acting when she first heard about how Haylie had such in her possession. She was about to keep talking when Haylie stood up from her chair and interrupted her “There is no reason to apologize, I knew that once the Marshal told you about the circumstances you’d feel apologetic about it anyways. Just make sure you take care of who you ‘lash out’ on, some people may not understand you as well as I and Karl do idiot.” Skye nodded and was going to leave until she realised that Haylie had called her an idiot therefore she did the only thing that seemed acceptable for her at the time, call her an airhead and leaving for her flagship.

When Skye’s flagship was once again on course she was met with a mountain of documents in her quarters that her Aide had organized in a way that they could be easily understood. Skye sighed at their sight, but immediately sat down on the chair her quarters provided to begin reading them as they contained all the information the fleet needed to know if the marshal’s plan would work out. She ordered her ward to bring her a cup of tea with some Gin in it and also told him to distribute some wine among the troops so that their spirits may rise before the upcoming battle. The few days that followed were not of note as the large fleet sailed through space every second become closer to their enemy.

III

October 23 of the Confederate year 178. Admiral Skye Hyde was leaning on her chair gazing upon the brilliant light of the sea of stars as their main fleet entered the Atarah star-zone; her peaceful and tranquil viewing was interrupted by her deputy Chief of Staff Commodore Vinne Massaro who spouted “The enemy has been spotted! They are closing in fast! Their current position is 00832, heading into sector 1227.” Skye quickly leaned her chair forward and glancing at her ward said, “So it’ll be here after all”. Skye was going to give her fleet a quick rest seeing the battle would not begin just yet, but her orders were not able to be given as the Fleet Admiral had already sent an order to all fleets for a two hours rest in order to prepare for battle. Hearing about such orders Skye rotated her chair to look at her four main officials. She scratched her head for a moment before saying “This will be our first official battle as a fleet, so everyone I hope you give it your all. Vice Commander.” Hearing his position called out Rear Admiral John Starr got up and asked for orders. “I will leave the matters of fleet movement to you, please relocate to another ship to get a better viewing of our fleet. Just make sure we don’t break formation.” The Vice Commander saluted and left the flagship’s bridge. “Is the commander sure it’s fine to leave Rear Admiral Starr alone?” were the words of Rear Admiral Kotobuki. Skye shook her head and assured him that there were no problems as they had been doing that even when they were not an official fleet.

In the Revolutionary side the troops under Fleet Admiral Konev were asked to be on high alert as engagement with the enemy could come at any time while Fleet Admiral Stein ordered his troops some rest to the disapproval of his Chief of Staff who claimed that they should make the troops concentrate on the battle. “The chief of staff has a point” said Stein “However a tired fleet will be sloppy in their movements, besides I am sure that commanding officers such as Admiral Carey will be happy to be given a small break before battle.” The chief of staff nodded agreeing with his superior’s statement.

When the fleet’s rest was over the preparation for battle were carried out at once. The minds that once had been relaxed came alive in a matter of second alongside the fleet’s ignited engines. Various channels seeking for the enemy had announced the presence of a huge enemy ahead, setting off an alarm in the hearts of every officer in both sides. “Distance from the enemy: eighty-two light-seconds.” The operator of the right flank that was Odenwitz fleet’s voice was beamed to all ships, and with the fiery voice the cold hands of soldiers gripped on their chests as battle became near. Their breathing and pulses quickened and their body temperature rose up. “The enemy is getting closer!” the conversations between the soldiers at gunports and turrets were a mixed bag of nervousness and uneasiness, if they allowed the guns to overheat then they’d blow flame and burn each other completely. “Enemy soldiers are breaching the yellow zone!” the operator’s voice started off dry but spiked up as he finished his sentence. “They are completely within firing range!” The gunners were ready, fingers poised at the firing buttons. The soldiers in each side held their breaths awaiting the orders from their commanding officer. Odenwitz, Yin, Hyde, Konev, Carey, Beatty, Carrizo, Stein and every major commanding officer took a breath before raising their hands and almost in complete unison unbeknown to each other swung it downwards.

“Fire!”

Tens of thousands of glowing dragons charged through the vastness of space. These opposing dragon’s fangs clashed with each other, exploding in dazzling offshoots of light. Bursts of light had filled outer space with their soundless music. Only thirty minutes after the battle begun it had plunged into a fierce fight, like many raging horses that despised their rider’s reins they stamped wild and free. Each side had a tactic they wished to perform, however they were to hold out on using it, as they both feared whatever the other was planning. Another 15 minutes passed before the Legitimate forces took initiative and Fleet Admiral Yin ordered Admiral Odenwitz to separate the Stein fleet from the Konev fleet. Admiral Odenwitz then ordered his fleet to advance forward leaving their position in the right flank taking a spindle formation to attempt a forceful breakthrough that would break off Stein’s fleet from Konev’s. Stein having seen Odenwitz’ movements ordered Carey to go forward and meet the opposing fleet before they could cut them off from the main fleet. Carey’s fleet was quick to follow the orders and not long after they were given met the Odenwitz in direct combat, realising that fighting the enemy fleet could put him in the middle of ally and enemy fire the Admiral ordered his fleet to turn back however they would do it so that the enemy followed them back making the distance between them and their main fleet larger and larger. After a few minutes of pursuit Carey ordered his fleet to retreat back to the main fleet, “No, we need you to follow our bait. Order to Admiral Beatty to wage a full frontal assault on the enemy for a few minutes then keep retreating.” Ecstatic the Admiral rose up from his chair and ordered his fleet comprised entirely of destroyers to strike quick fear in the enemy, thing that worked as in just 3 minutes the Carey fleet was turned into disarray by the fleet’s predatory fangs, which destroyed a large enough amount of ships to make Carey continue his pursuit of Odenwitz’ fleet.

This continued for half an hour with the same tactic, Carey would try to retreat but he would be halted by Beatty’s superb offense and continue his own assault until he found himself at a significant distance of Stein’s fleet. Fleet Admiral Siegfried Stein seeing his friend and subordinate in such a predicament ordered his fleet to move towards helping Carey’s fleet, which was at a significant distance from both fleets. Fleet Admiral Yin saw the movements of Stein’s fleet and quickly commented, “Good seems like that game of cat and mouse has worked out. Now just hold on Karl.” As Stein’s fleet approached his own Karl’s officers became wary seeing as their fleet was comprised of 25,000 ships while Stein’s was over 40,000. Karl dismissed such worries and ordered his fleet to keep pulling the Carey fleet as Stein’s fleet being large as it is would take some time before it could arrive therefore they should use such time to position themselves as far away as they could.

While the Stein fleet went to the Carey’s fleet aid, the Legitimate Confederation found the chance to continue their own strategy. Yin ordered the large fleet to begin spreading to resemble the shape of wings in an attempt to encroach the enemy, however as the fleet tried to encroach Konev focused his fire on the now weakened right flank as the absence of Odenwitz had forced Yin to reposition Admiral Carrizo to the right. Carrizo’s fleet was met with thousands upon thousand of beaming lights creating the most spectacular fireworks for one side and a tragedy for the other. “Maintain a defensive and pull back. Tell headquarters we are too thin to continue” screamed Carrizo attempting to minimize the losses in his fleet. Like that the original plan for the Legitimate side was thwarted and now needed a revision to be carried out, with their fleet losing many ships in the next hour Yin was found unable to think of something as he had to concentrate on not losing the fight and leaving Odenwitz alone in the battle.

Admiral Odenwitz himself was now found in a hard spot, as his main fleet was having trouble with Konev’s fleet. Stein’s main fleet had arrived to the aid of Admiral Carey and began an onslaught on the enemy half their size. Odenwitz could see that if they kept fighting the way they were that they would be wiped out from all space and therefore asked his fleet to take the shape of a semicircle rotating constantly the ships up front in an attempt to hold on. They would also reposition the semi circle every few minutes to attack the right flank followed by the left flank of the enemy fleet then they would take a defensive formation before doing the same once again. At times like this Karl hoped he had planned more on how he would take on an enemy twice his size, but at the same that never changed his approach in future battles. Karl also realised the danger he was in as such a large distance separated him from his main fleet that attempting to regroup would be almost impossible.

Fleet Admiral Conner Konev saw what Stein was doing fighting such a small part of the enemy fleet and decided that they should take that as an opportunity to show the nation that “The brat is nothing more than all show. We will crush the enemy all by ourselves.” Konev then ordered his fleet to take a spindle formation and breakthrough the enemy’s middle separating the left flank from the main fleet. “The enemy is attempting to separate us from the main fleet” said Rear Admiral Kotobuki in a rather cold and non-nervous way. “I can see that.” Responded Hyde, “Very well once the enemy is close enough to begin a ‘breakthrough’ separate the fleet from the main forces.” Skye’s ward’s eyes widened as he questioned the admiral asking if it was all right to let the enemy go through. “We are not letting do a breakthrough. We are simply making thing they did so that we can then extend ourselves and completely encircle them.” A complete encirclement was in all trueness hard to attain in space warfare as that would imply the enemy just standing there waiting to be encircled, but thanks to Konev being blinded with glory Skye had seen the opportunity to do one.

A couple of hours passed before the Konev fleet became close enough for Hyde to attempt the risky tactic she had thought of. As soon as the Konev fleet was minutes away from starting to break through her fleet began to swiftly separate from the main fleet making Konev think he was succeeding in his breakthrough. A major part of this should be attributed to Rear Admiral John Starr whose excellent fleet manoeuvres made way to the slick separation that fooled the revolutionary Fleet Admiral. An hour following the fleet separating, Hyde ordered her fleet to extend and join forces with the main fleet, which had itself began to extend itself after seeing Hyde’s trickery.

It took the fleet some time but eventually they had completely encircled Konev, and now his large fleet was met with barrage of glowing lasers. Each laser destroying a ship, each ship taking with thousands of lives in just a matter of seconds hundreds of kids are left orphaned, another hundred women are made widows, mother lose their children between many more things that the casualties caused. The enemy however could not think about such things, as they themselves would be found in the same predicament if they lose focus on the battle. Looking at the monitor showing the process of the battle and the rapidly depleting revolutionary forces Nero commented about how Admiral Skye made a right choice, Skye simple nodded, as her thoughts were lost in the millions of casualties that would be caused in the end. In the short lapse that she thought of such things Admiral Konev rallied up his fleet and keeping their spindle formation turned around and launched a full frontal assault upon Carrizo’s fleet in a matter of minutes the fruits of Hyde’s tactic had been lost as the thin forces of Carrizo were forced to make way for the enemy in order to not lose more ships. While Admiral von Libentstein called out for a pursuit the Fleet Admiral Trung Yin disagreed making his Chief of Staff explain that they needed to regroup the fleet. The next hour was one used for regrouping as Konev tried to think of a new formation with his losses and Yin moved von Libenstein to the right flank. Konev seeing as he had lost a lot of ships ordered some ships from Stein’s fleet to come and help his own.

Stein was not angry at Konev’s called for help, he allowed two small fleets lead by Rear Admirals Carl Gould and Khan Hensley, however what infuriated Stein was the two decided to retreat toward Konev in a disorderly fashion as this made Odenwitz take a small yet effective onslaught on Stein’s fleet which was trying to cover for the wholes left in their formation by the retreat of the two Rear Admirals. The onslaught managed to cause a problem large enough for Stein to order the two admirals to return immediately and reposition themselves in the fleet and subsequently asking his Chief of Staff to write a letter to Konev that read “Due to unforeseen problems following his Excellency’s orders, we are unable to send reinforcements.” Konev made a ball of the letter and threw it across his bridge “Damn that brat! Does he think that if I die he can take all the glory? All ships! Begin to retreat.” Like that Konev began to attempt a retreat, however the main legitimate fleet decided to pursue him therefore giving him some problems in his attempt.

Konev’s retreat had started as a well organized attempt, however as time passed the ferocious barrage by the von Libestein’s fleet combined with the fluid fleet movements of Admiral Hyde’s fleet on the left flank left Konev in a tough spot. Shaking his leg, and biting his lip the Fleet Admiral entered a nervous sweat, as he could not find an answer for his current predicament. Time continued to pass and more and more ships went down to space’s void on both sides, however the casualties were piling up for the most part on the Revolutionary Confederation. The attempt on a retreat was not over, however it was clear to Konev that if they continued the way they were that his fleet would be completely obliterated from the galaxy. “Screw it. All ships, take and offensive stance and attempt to charge through once more! If that fails retreat and then attempt again.” Konev’s orders should have ended the fleet as it went head first to a better organized enemy, but in perhaps an ironic situation the despair in the Konev fleet allowed for tactic that can only be seen in desperation as the fleet charged recklessly and then retreated to regroup and keep launching an offensive, in fact they would have broken through had it not been for Admiral Hyde’s constant pressuring in the left flank.

Stein and Odenwitz were now finding each other at a stalemate; however considering Stein’s fleet was larger if they entered a battle of attrition then he would surely come out on top. Stein and Odenwitz both realised that Konev had begun retreating and both finally knew what they had to do. Karl had to make Stein just not retreat and not regroup with his main fleet. He had to make him wait until his own main fleet could arrive, while Stein on the other hand had to find a way to retreat as fast as possible. Putting his hand on his chin with his legs crossed the handsome golden haired Admiral asked in a quick fashion his Chief of Staff about the amount of ships capable of carrying fighters in the enemy fleet. “About ten sir.” Stein grinned at the cold words by Laidler. ‘Then that’s it. All ships! Launch all of your fighters at once!” the hangars went from being fun and games with pilots betting on who would win the conflict to a disarray of people as they all were getting with their squadron’s on their respective fighters to launch.

Lt. Jr. Yi himself would be entering his first fight, but before that his two mentors and commanders of the fighter squadron came to remind him to always stay in groups of three when engaging with the enemy and the likes. Commander Texeira spoke last of the two adding, “If you can use at least half of what we thought you then you’ll survive boy. There is still a lot for you to learn outside piloting, we’ll see you later.” Having said that the young man saluted his mentors and went for his fighter. He went to the cockpit and pressed his ID card, which had imprinted all of his information against a certain part of the cockpit, and then the fighter’s automated voice began to speak and opened its hood up to welcome its new pilot. Yi settled into the cockpit, fastened his seatbelt and put on his helmet joining tightly with his combat suit due to an electromagnetic seal. He began to quickly check his instruments and inspect all around his fighter’s cockpit. “Control officer, I am ready for take off awaiting orders.” Following protocol Yi spoke first and then the reply came giving him his instructions. “Very well, proceed to launch gate.” Already more than 40 fighters had launched into the void from the mother ship. Yi’s fighter slid along the wall and towards its launch gate. When it reached the edge of the gate, the electromagnetic current moving him stopped. “Launch!” Yi’s fighter was cut loose from its mothership.