Third Fleet Decimated! Pirate Raiders Escape!
Tika watched the purple banner stream across the display as the news reporter was talking. The Raid on New Valoria was all over the news, every channel that did current events was covering it. Right now, she was watching a Valorian channel VHS, as they had been covering the events live. Discover more novels at ⓝovelFire.net
Now they were just recapping things she'd already seen, which was fine. She had paperwork to fill out. Her patrol may have been finished, but the work wasn't over. There were reports to be made, requests to be filled, and people to meet. The crew might be getting some leave, but she had to make sure the ship was getting refueled and critical systems checked for wear. Very important work, but sometimes she wished she could ignore it for some time off and just relax.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, "It's open!"
Tika looked up as the door opened and in walked a familiar figure. She stood up quickly, "Fleet-leader!? Forgive me, but I wasn't..."
The other woman giggled, "At ease, it's fine." She glanced at the screen, "I see you've been watching the news too."
"Yes, I've been keeping up on it. I haven't spoken to them in months, but they are good people. It's a shame they lost two ships."
"Right, I saw that. Never seen anything like it. How much antimatter were they carrying to result..."
Tika shook her head, "Not antimatter."
"I have some familiarity with their technology, they didn't share much but we picked up a few things when we had access to their systems."
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"Oh? What didn't you tell me?"
"Computer, access files on the Refuge Starship Enterprise, reference alien substance Rydium."
"Rydium? That new substance the researchers are interested in?"
Tika nodded, "Yes, not entirely new but largely unexplored prior to contact with the Sol Refuge. They have much more experience with it and some methods to synthesize it no doubt. We are still stuck working with natural sources, which are hard to come by. Regardless, their technology is heavily based on it."
She turned to the computer and brought up one of the files and displayed what they knew about it. The fleet leader peered at it, and frowned, "So you're telling me their ships are naturally that volatile?"
"No, causing Rydium to undergo a reaction like what you see in the files would be deliberate. They set those ships to explode on purpose."
"So you're telling me that the Valorians were playing with fire when they provoked this attack."
The Fleet leader gestured to the TV, "Media is all well and fine, but it's no substitute to our intelligence officers. As soon as I saw that, I had them look into the matter. They attacked the Refuge just three days before the attack and prior to that they had been tracking them, intermittently. They weren't even on course for New Valoria, based on previous data they were heading in our direction, then mere days after they got attacked, they attacked New Valoria. More importantly, their main target was Golden Sands. Intelligence indicates they made off with over a million liters of Deuterium."
Tika blinked, as she realized the implications. "You mean that entire circus, the loss of two refuge ships, and thousands of Valorian ones was over fuel?"
"It's worse than that, as of an hour ago, the Toral, the Voskar and the Malora proposed a joint meeting. Our intelligence indicates they plan to mobilize for war, this meeting is to discuss a mutual alliance."
"A war? I'm not surprised, with what I've heard regarding..."
"Agreed, speaking of war, the Council believes the current Valorian government has become a problem. I've heard they are considering war themselves."