27

Three days went by where Spencer just 'existed.'  He became pessimistic about their war and depressed about Rilfor's death.  Eventually Colby and Lily came to talk to him.

"You have to stop being this way,"  Colby said flatly.

"Leave me alone,"  Spencer said turning away.

"No,"  Lily said.  "Everyone else was sad about Rilfor but we didn't all have a breakdown and give up on our goal.  Everyone here is still working to help bring down the Adican so stop sulking and lead this army like you're supposed to."

"We're going to lose this war,"  Spencer said.

"Please,"  Colby said.  "We all know that we're gonna win.  Everyone thinks you're just being a big baby who doesn't understand what war is.  Get up, or we're gonna have a problem."

Colby and Lily left and their words hit Spencer like a bus.  He realized he had an army to lead.  He called a council meeting to discuss their next move.  

Spencer went home and cleaned himself up before leaving for the meeting.  At the headquarters all the representatives met, except for Rilfor, Helena was the only Adican representative for now leaving only nine members of the council.

"First of all,"  Rojan began.  "Spencer, Arthur and the others are heading back to Earth now that it's back where it belongs.  They said they'll do a survey of the area, and contact us when they have something.  Colby flew to Arthur's ship to go to Earth.  He said he thought he could be more useful on Earth then here."

"Sounds good,"  Spencer said.  "I'll miss Colby though."

"Now,"  Rojan said.  "It's time to discuss strategy, we're as ready as we'll ever be.  It's time to begin our campaign against the Adican.  Every second we wait they grow stronger and stronger."

Spencer remembered something from Rilfor's funeral and said.  "Wait, before we deal with that we need a name for our army."

"Good idea,"  Kat said,  "have something for our enemies to remember us by."

After a few minutes of arguing they came up with a name that most everyone agreed with.  The Silver Company.  The Silver Company flag was a shiny silver, representing the Alpha One ship that had brought humanity into space. On the bottom of the flag were the words Freedom, Defence, and Peace.  Three stripes went across the flag diagonally to represent the other groups.  A black Adican stripe, a green Corinian stripe, and a red Rapirian stripe.  Across the center of the flag was the name of their army, The Silver Company.

"Looks good,"  Grace said.

"I agree"  Aeliana said.  "I'll put the design into the computer and see if we can get one made before the meeting is over."  She quickly typed some things into the computer.

"Okay," Rojan said, "Now let's talk about starting the campaign."  Everyone agreed they should start the campaign against the Adican empire.  Rojan continued, "Okay, let's discuss our first target."

"What do you mean first target,"  Spencer said.

Helena laughed, "You didn't think we could just walk into their homeworld and kill the empress did you?"  Spencer remained silent slightly embarrassed.

Rojan took over again, "Well you see, the Adican have an impressive 8, actually 9 now, planets they claim as their own.  We'll have to liberate at least three of the occupied planets before we can try to make a direct attack on the central planets and eventually the capital."

"Pardon my asking,"  Spencer said,  "but, why do we need to liberate Adican planets before we attack the Capital, how does that help us?"

"Good question,"  Rojan said although Helena was looking at Spencer like he was an idiot.  Rojan continued,  "You see, only three of the Adican's planets were originally theirs, the other six are Corinian and Rapirian.  In those six occupied planets, Rapirian and Corinian citizens live under oppressive Adican rule.  Freeing those planets would cripple the Adican military and free the citizens convincing many of them to join us in our campaign.  If we can have several planets worth of people on our side, we may have a fighting chance against the three Adican planets even with their military strength."

"Makes sense,"  Grace said,  "Can we see the six planets before we decide."

"Of course,"  Rojan said as he pushed a button bringing an image up on a screen behind him showing five planets of various sizes and colors.  "Here we see four Corinian planets as well as a two Rapirian planet."

"Why so many Corinian planets?"  Grace asked.

"These are the four planets that broke off from the Adican,"  Kat said.  "Unfortunately, as you know, we lost that war and all four planets were recaptured.  There are still strong anti-Adican beliefs on the planet, but the citizens are treated especially poorly."

"The other planet was captured by the Adican in a war many years ago,"  Aeliana said.  "Although it has been under Adican rule for a long time, the citizens are still Rapirian and refuse to conform to Adican beliefs.  The further Adican planet.  Is the capital, that was recently captured by many Adican forces."

"True,"  Rojan said.  "However, as much as I wish to take it back, is too well guarded and isolated to hurt the Adican much.  Best we stick to the closer eight planets, and then try to free it when we take down the empress."

"What do you recommend we do first?"  Spencer asked.

"I have a suggestion I think you'll like.,"  Rojan said as he pulled up three small Corinian planets of many different colors.  These three planets are fairly small and Corinian, so they are very anti-Adican.  We could split our army into three groups and take the smaller planets at the same time before the Adican could react."

"What's the problem?"  Spencer asked

"Well you see,"  Rojan answered, "They aren't the largest of planets so they don't quite have as many people as other planets, also when we split our army, if any of the three groups fail, that will probably end the rebellion."

"Do we have any other options?"  Grace asked.

Rojan pulled up a larger Rapirian planet.  "This is a large Rapirian planet."

"What's so great about it?"  Spencer asked.

Rojan replied, "It has lots of Adican living on it, and we wouldn't have to split our military."

"What's the problem?"  Asked Grace.

"If you'll look,"  Rojan said to Grace.  "If we try to capture this one large planet it will be quite a lengthy battle.  Losing this battle could also destroy the entirety of the Rebellion.  Even when we do manage to capture it, we would still need to capture two other occupied planets before assaulting the three main Adican planets."

"Those are our options?"  Spencer asked.

"Yes,"  Replied Rojan,  "What do you think?"

"We need to capture the Rapirian planet first,"  Aeliana said.  "The Adican can't really react and can't gather too much information on our army.  Plus we could get lots of Rapirian soldiers."

"Wait,"  Kat said.  "The Corinian planet is smaller and best for our soldiers.  Attacking a large planet is not a good idea for fairly inexperienced soldiers.  Anyway, there are dying Corinian down there that need our help!"

"Who cares?"  Helena asked Kat.

"Excuse me?"  Kat answered.

"Stop being so selfish."  Helena said.  "This is about all of us, not just your stupid kind."

"Stupid?"  Kat replied angrily.

"Yeah, that's right."  Helena said.  "Stupid."

The room was silent in all the tension.  Suddenly Kat exploded from her chair like a laser leaves a gun and tackled Helena who cried out in shock.  Kat had Helena pinned down choking her with her metallic hands.  Helena struggled, fighting with her own metallic limbs.  

Spencer looked around for something to stop this madness.  He grabbed a green Corinian pistol from a nearby table and fired three green lasers into the air, burning a hole in the ceiling, and causing everyone to stop what they were doing and look at Spencer.

"What are you doing?"  Spencer asked eyeing Kat and Helena.  "You're on the same side here!  Don't destroy this army from the inside.  If we can't work together, there's no point to this fight.  It doesn't matter if you're Adican, Corinian, Rapirian, or human.  It'll take all of us to take down the Empress.  Everyone is equal, no one species can outweigh another."

Everyone sat down in their seats after hearing what Spencer had to say.  Spencer set down the gun and sat in his own seat.  "Now let's discuss this civilly."

The council talked for about another hour or so, as far as Spencer could tell, before deciding.

"Okay,"  Rojan said.  "It's decided, we'll take the Corinian planets first-"

Helena cut him off.  "You're making a mistake."

"Please, Helena,"  Spencer said.  "It'll be better for our soldiers to attack a smaller target.  We don't want to lose this war in the first battle.  Anyway once we succeed we can try to directly attack the main planets."

Helena remained quiet as Rojan continued to speak.  "I'll give the announcement.  We'll have a week to mobilize the main forces before we leave."  He smiled,  "Silver Company."

The meeting was adjourned and Spencer and the eight other representatives left the meeting.  Outside Helena asked everyone to stop.  She had created a large silver company flag and began to raise it above the headquarters.  Spencer saluted the flag as it was raised and others, who noticed what Spencer was doing, saluted the flag of their army, their home, the Silver Company.

When Spencer began to walk home it was turning dark outside.  He was walking home alone when he heard footsteps.  Spencer turned around to see Grace quickly walking up to him.

"Hey,"  Grace said.

"Um, hey,"  Spencer replied.

"So,"  Grace said confusing Spencer.

"What?"  Spencer asked Grace.

"Remember,"  Grace said smiling.

What was he missing?  Spencer thought to himself.   "Remember what?"

"Ugh, you're taking away from this moment,"  Grace sighed.  "Remember what I told you the night before we went to the robot asteroid?"

Spencer suddenly remembered that night were he technically 'asked Grace out,' and was given a maybe if they both survived.  "Oh, yeah"  He said.

"Well,"  Grace said.  "We're both alive."

"Indeed we are,"  Spencer said.

"So,"  Grace said.  "Do you want to come over?  Maybe, eat some dinner?"

Spencer was nervous at Grace's proposition for some reason and managed to stutter out, "um, s-sure."

"Well okay then."  Grace said.  "Let's go."

Grace and Spencer walked side by side down the street until they reached a small house very similar to Spencer's.

"Here it is."  Grace said as she led Spencer to the door and unlocked it.  Inside it looked much like Spencer's quarters with a bathroom, bedroom, small living space, and a 'kitchen,' which was basically just a cupboard and a sink.  However, Grace's was much more organized than Spencer's with everything neatly put away rather than sprawled around the area.

"Is there anything you wanted to eat in particular?"  Grace asked Spencer.

"No,"  Spencer said.  "I'm not the hungry really, thanks."

"Good,"  Grace said.  "'Cause neither am I."  She sighed as she collapsed on to the couch.  She pat the spot next to her for Spencer to sit.  "Don't just stand there."

Spencer walked over to the couch and sat right next to Grace.  He was nervous with how close he was, their knees were touching.

"It's nice to relax,"  Grace said.  "It's been hectic the past week or so."

Spencer chuckled,  "I'd say it's been hectic since we left Earth!"

Grace laughed,  "It seems like years ago that I lived a normal human life.  Not fighting the empress of a galactic alien superpower threatening to conquer the galaxy.  How long has it been since we left?"

"I don't remember."  Spencer said.  "It doesn't really matter now does it."

"I suppose you're right,"  Grace said.  "Maybe it was years ago, so much has happened."

They sat in silence for a second, then Grace turned her upper body, facing him.  Spencer turned as well and looked into her deep blue eyes.  She began to slowly lean forward, towards Spencer.  Spencer was still, paralyzed with nervousness.  Grace was inches from his face and then.  Spencer felt her hot lips on his own as she kissed him.  He was frozen for a second but then, as if unfrozen from a block of ice, he leaned forward as well and kissed her back.  He put his arms around her with one of his hands going through her beautiful blond hair.  He felt her put her arms around him as she pulled him down onto the couch.