This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to any persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
Published by Faolan’s Pen Publishing. Faolan's Pen Publishing logo is a trademark of Faolan's Pen Publishing Inc.
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1
“Governor Niska, welcome,” Mage-Lieutenant Roslyn Chambers told the old Legatan cyborg as he entered the big briefing room aboard the dreadnought Durendal. “Here’s your briefing chip. It’s still encrypted until the Mage-Admiral releases it.”
“I know the drill,” James Niska, Military Governor of Legatus, told the young blonde woman. He was the only native of Legatus in the briefing room on the warship orbiting the occupied capital of the Republic of Faith and Reason.
Roslyn was the Flag Lieutenant of Mage-Admiral Jane Alexander, the woman whose fleet had reduced the defenses of that capital ten weeks earlier. A lack of munitions and the murder of the Mage-King of Mars had kept Second Fleet at Legatus for over two months.
“Is this going to be much the same nothing as the last few were?” Niska asked, surveying the small collection of Martian flag officers with resignation.
Roslyn wasn’t supposed to give anyone any idea of what was coming, but Niska had been instrumental in getting them all this far. She shook her head silently at him, as much information as she could really provide.
“Interesting,” he said gruffly in response to her silent answer. “I will leave you to your duties, Lieutenant. If you could have someone bring me a coffee? It’s been a long few weeks.”
“Yes, sir,” Roslyn confirmed, tapping a quick set of commands on her wrist-comp. The stewards supporting the briefing would get the message—in a smaller meeting, coffee would be her direct job, but there were a lot of people coming today and she had to turn her attention to the next arrival.
“Mage-Admiral Medici,” she greeted the man in charge of Second Fleet’s cruisers. “Here’s your briefing chip.” She passed him the small piece of black plastic. “Do you need anything to get set up?”
“Please tell me Marangoz is seated on the other side of the room,” Medici muttered, the dark-skinned officer trying not to be heard. “If I hear the idiot rattle on about the ‘inherent versatility of our battleships’ one more time, I might engage in conduct unbecoming an officer.”
Mage-Admiral Soner Marangoz commanded Second Fleet’s battleships and was surprisingly twitchy over the fact that they were no longer the heaviest units of the fleet. Durendal and her two sisters in Second Fleet dwarfed even the largest battleships, rendering the former queens of the fleet into a secondary role their commanders weren’t quite sure of yet.
Roslyn checked her seating chart quickly. It probably wasn’t a serious request—it wasn’t even particularly professional as a joke to a junior officer—but when an Admiral asks, the Flag Lieutenant obeys.
“He’s in the middle and you’re on the left with your squadron commodores,” Roslyn told him quickly, before daring a small joke of her own. “He’s definitely out of reach of your retribution, sir.”
Medici chuckled.
“Shame,” he conceded with a wink. “If there’s water at the tables, I’ll be fine, Lieutenant.”
He gave her a nod and strode away, sliding the briefing chip into his wrist-comp as the six cruiser Commodores began to gather around him.
Roslyn shook her head, then refocused on the task at hand and smiled up at Mage-Commander Tirta Kruger, the captain of one of the older destroyers.
A hundred and one captains, fifteen commodores, seven admirals and ten civilians like Niska. She was one of three officers greeting and passing out briefing chips, but it still felt like they were going to be seating people for longer than Mage-Admiral Alexander would be speaking!
Once everyone was seated in the large briefing room, Roslyn’s job became simpler if not necessarily less important. She took her own seat next to the presenter’s dais and linked her wrist-comp into the controls for the room’s holographic projectors and screens.
She’d prechecked everything before the shuttles had even started arriving, but she checked everything again as Her Royal Highness, Mage-Admiral Jane Alexander, Crown Princess of Mars stepped up to stand behind the lectern and survey her officers.
Alexander was not quite into her second century and had spent an entire lifetime in the Royal Martian Navy. Her late brother