Alpha One - Chris Burton [54]
Satisfied, she addressed some of the conflicting issues preventing her earlier slumber. Carla returned to her bed and within minutes she fell fast asleep.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Yoshi’s Frustration
General Yoshi sat in his Salu chair and pondered. He couldn’t understand why his fleet, ready to launch an attack, was hiding in a cowardly fashion behind the Ionian cloud. To complicate matters, he knew Alpha amassed along the Ionian corridor, ready to attack.
The Betanica Sect were at fault. They insisted they were ready and yet they kept reversing their decision ‘requesting a short delay’ to ensure the timing was correct. Why? What did they wait for? Yoshi was prepared to launch an attack without the support of the Sect, but restrained himself for another reason.
The issue, like so many things, was not simple. Certain Sentinel power lords noted Alpha had not infringed the Tri-Star territorial limits for some time. They felt they couldn’t engage in a battle with Alpha based on a prior incursion into the forbidden territory. To complicate matters, some felt war with Alpha was no longer about the protection of the Tri-Star region. They saw an infringement of the Tri-Star territory itself as akin to an infringement of territorial limits within Sentinel space.
The power lords each headed a regional power base in Sentinel territorial space. Each governed their own planet within the sector. They were Sentinel governors, and collectively determined both regional and central policy. At present, they were at loggerheads about whether the attack should proceed. Neither side created a sufficient working majority on their side to force the issue either way.
Yoshi’s hands were tied and he just must wait until the power lords ruled in his favor. Yoshi was a war lord. He was powerful and, should the delay continue, could take matters into his own hands. There would be a battle anyway. What did it matter who started it?
Yoshi sat quietly for a few moments before concluding he would wait for a while longer, but not indefinitely. When the attack commenced, he would destroy the humans.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The Partacian Delta Cloud
The Alpha mini-fleet was half way across Partacian space. There were no further confrontations with the Partacians but Admiral Shenke and his team were aware of a group of twenty Partacian ships following the mini- fleet for the last few days.
Partacian space was small in comparison to many of the territorial boundaries in this section of the galaxy. It was dominated by a huge anomaly. the Partacian delta cloud: a massive gas cloud, which, billions of years from now, would form a new star. The cloud was too large to avoid going through it if you wanted to travel from one side of the territory to the other. Nebulae of this intensity and size were not usually particularly problematic. They did mean a significant reduction in velocity for vessels travelling through them. One must be careful to avoid the thicker, more impervious areas of the nebula, for fear of igniting the gas and causing a huge explosion.
The Partacians charted the nebula and plotted safe routes through the cloud long ago. These were passed on in friendlier times and loaded to the Alpha fleet’s navigation systems to ensure safe passage.
What concerned Admiral Shenke as they drew nearer the nebula were the Partacians and their intentions once both fleets were inside the cloud. Certainly, Alpha’s defensive capability would be severely restricted. Jump ships could not be used as their close-fire weaponry ran the significant risk of destroying them all should they fire their weapons. The plasma weaponry was far too volatile in a gas cloud, which left Shenke with few options. Most of these were ineffective, again because of the cloud, which left Shenke with the unpalatable decision to use his precious teutonic torpedoes as his main form of defense.
Over the years, the Partacians developed Plasma weaponry effective within a confined gas cloud. This gave them an advantage. It was possible the