Anuria High Orbit
Archangel class cruiser [i]Persevering in the Face of Adversity[/i], Bridge

Captain Rodel Ilturade gazed blankly at [i]Persevering[/i]’s primary display; a beautifully high fidelity holographic representation of the space around the ship that surrounded the elevated bridge platform. Ilturade had picked up a particular expression from some humans a few decades back, one he’d grown rather fond of and used quite frequently. “Well this is something of a clusterfuck.” he said out loud.
His first officer let slip a sigh of exasperation on hearing the Captain’s overused slang . “Indeed sir.”

The Ashtar had been hoping to sneak into orbit over Kol’Kora and deploy a surprise invasion force to take the city. Every cruiser’s hangar was full to the brim with loaded transports. They would’ve needed no more than ten, maybe fifteen minutes to deploy to the surface and catch the Jasaran’s off guard. But scarcely a minute before arriving in position, Jasaran and Vaegir ships that were supposed to be engaged over the southern hemisphere had appeared and begun to try and blast each other out of the sky while deploying their own forces.

“We will not be able to safely deploy the invasion force, sir.” Commander Ayluna reminded Ilturade.
“No, we will not. Cancel launch orders, seal hangars and charge FTL drives. Teleport the reconnaissance teams to the surface, and charge weapons. Let us at least bloody some noses before we disengage; target the Jasaran dropships.

With a flashing surge of excess gravitons, the Ashtar task force jumped from their holding point at 1 AU directly into the Jasaran-Vaegir battle, weapons blazing. Swarms of missiles raced after the descending dropships, followed closely by wolfpacks of Strelnikov corvettes. Omega pulse cannons and torpedoes lashed out against enemy heavies. In the midst of the confusion, a handful of recon teams teleported down to the surface.



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Anuria, Arctic Northlands
Point Jakurna

General Lith Diae tentatively poked at the mass of scarred flesh along the left side of his face. “You could not provide one a little more...intact?” he asked the med techs.
“Apologies sir. We have been forced to scavenge additional bodies to supplement our cloning procedures, and front line soldiers have priority. If you give us a day, we could grow a replacement eye.” one of them apologized.
“No, no time. Give me the cybernetic option and I’ll be on my way.”

Less than an hour later, General Diae stepped into Point Jakurna’s operations center. No sooner was he in the door than a sheepish looking hangar deck worker accosted him.
“Sir, once again I am deeply sorry about the incident, such a thing will not happen again. I submit myself to whatever disciplinary measures you deem necessary.”
Lith sighed. “No permanent damage was done, specialist, but we are running short on bodies, and losing five to an accidental weapons discharge is unacceptable. You are assigned to facilities maintenance until further notice.”
“Thank you sir” the specialist replied, and hurriedly left the room.

“That was rather lenient,” Colonel Telryk said, her voice distinctly amused.
“What should I do instead? Execute him?” Diae retorted, and the two of them chuckled. “I gather Captain Ilturade encountered complications.”
“Yes sir. The Jasarans spotted the same vulnerability we did.”
“It was something of a long shot anyways. At least he got the recon teams deployed. Let us figure out what to do with them…”

Diae and Telryk pulled up a series of holo-maps, and got to work, as they had a hundred times before. Lith couldn’t help but feel that nothing was ever going to change on Anuria.