Alpha One - Chris Burton [125]
“A drawdown facility in the first instance.”
Roslyn laughed. “I am sure you are. I shall make funds available, via a third party source to protect your interests. You realize I want something in return?”
It was Koenig’s turn to laugh. “I cannot commit to bring ECG controlling influence, you know that.”
“One step at a time, Admiral. Let’s commit to making this meeting a regular occurrence. We can look beyond that and the duration of any drawdown facility once it is in place. Do you agree?”
“Yes.”
“Very well, then; let’s eat, and we can discuss more specific details afterwards.”
The two leaders sat down to a three-course meal prepared by the President’s resident caterers. The dinner conversation was varied but difficult. Roslyn tried to discuss his interest in sports, in particular soccer and the World Series, but found Koenig to be severely lacking in knowledge in this area. He moved on to the environment and climate change, but Koenig was clearly uncomfortable discussing this issue too. Eventually they moved onto the Sentinel War, the wormholes and the Kryl.
This was inevitable. Small talk is not an option for Koenig, thought Roslyn. He is a shallow and one dimensional man. I can control him and Alpha too.
Chapter Fifty-Five
The Ionian Front
General Yoshi knew it was hopeless. They had been losing hard for a long time. They were outnumbered, and the only thing keeping Alpha from finishing them off was the threat of nuclear strikes.
The will had left as well. The idiotic humans had opened the wormholes, and the blue wormhole had appeared. The Sect would have you believe that the Kryl would come through the hole and destroy every living thing in the galaxy. The entire rationale behind the war with Alpha disappeared, and even the High Priestess was gone.
This was not just about the wormholes, not as far as Yoshi was concerned. He wanted Alpha destroyed and right now that was unlikely to happen. He could inflict one last and significant defeat on the Alpha fleet. He would attack the Alpha Flagship and destroy it, together with the fleet commander, Admiral Rose. He would die trying, but that was an acceptable loss. He would take away their leader and then fall on his own sword.
* * * *
The progress pleased Admiral Rose. They were being hindered by localized atomic charges, but in the last ten days avoided any further significant fatalities. This was critical after so many deaths. When the battle finally ended, he could declare final victory, achieved with relatively little recent loss.
He could not let this final chapter of the war drag on indefinitely. His fleet was needed elsewhere. Although the main reason for the war was removed, the Sentinel generals continued their offensive strategy, which suggested the war was about a good deal more than protecting a couple of wormholes. Tomorrow, he thought, I will commence the final attack and clear the remaining larger critical vessels
.
* * * *
Yoshi looked at the figures. His ship’s offensive capability was zero. The only high impact weapons remaining were three low-yield atomic charges; These were all that remained in his dwindling fleet. His shields were at thirty-five percent, and dropped each time Alpha delivered a deadly teutonic missile into the ship’s hull. A few got through and it was impossible to maintain parity. Put simply, his shields would give up completely within days and he had no answer. With no drive system to speak of, he had thrusters left. The most sensible action would be to surrender but Yoshi had no time for cowardice. He must finish the job. That meant he needed to get as close to the Alpha flagship as possible.
He put his plan into action. He set a course for the Pacific and crawled forward under thrusters at less than two hundred fifty kilometers per hour.
How close will she allow us to get? he wondered. There was no reason to suspect anything other than he brought his ship alongside to surrender. He gave the command for the ship to reduce speed and drop shields. It was now or never. His fleet thought