Ravens of Eternity

377 Pulled to the Front, Pt “That’s absolutely preposterous!” the Star Dragon yelled out. “Didn’t you hear the part where all of our fleets are already engaged? We have ships out there that are in dire need of repair, and yet are still on the front lines. And you want to thin them out even further?!”

“While I have you in mind, Dregha,” said Lady Felrahn. “Didn’t we just hear from the parliamentarian that we’re losing on all fronts? That our territory is slowly getting whittled down, House by House? But it isn’t exactly true, is it?

“No, the truth is that Parliamentary Records show that there are dozens and dozens of fleets in the Hegemony that aren’t losing. The 5th Fleet included.”

The Lady Felrahn turned to one of her aides, and gestured at him with a frail hand. It shook so badly that it almost threatened to break off at the wrist.

Not that he paid any mind – he quickly dug into his personal compact holoterminal, and transferred data to the Eternal Hall’s projectors. There, House Felrahn displayed rows and rows of data regarding every single troop movement and fleet engagement that the Hegemony had committed.

The block of data was so vast that it was difficult to parse, much less read. It was simply, raw data.

But the aide picked open the dataset labeled “The Grand Parliament’s 5th Hegemony Fleet”, which revealed countless reports on their activities. Among them was an overall performance dataflow, which enumerated the entire fleet itself.

How much it cost. Which officers were serving. The names and families of every single crewmember. Every engagement. Every loss. Every ducat spent.

And, of course, their engagement win/loss ratio.

.....

It was a number so surprising that there were loud gasps from all around the vast hall. Especially from the nation-states located around the outer edges. It was currently sitting at 5:2, with a total of 126 engagements all in the past month.

“And your fleet isn’t the only one with preposterous victories under their belts,” continued Lady Felrahn.

She feebly gestured to her aide once again, who quickly zoomed out of the datablock, then picked another field altogether. This one was labeled “Temple of Discord”.

And just like before, their wartime performance dataflow became public for all to see. The numbers were wholly impressive as well – many all around gasped loudly. A few even shouted out in denial. They simply couldn’t believe what was on the holoprojector.

It wasn’t so much their win/loss ratio, which was an astounding 6:1, with a total of 256 engagements. It was their House Ledger, which revealed a staggering and steady upward trend. Sure, there were spikes when they fell.

But any recovery was quick and more than made up for any losses shortly after.

Seeing such impossible earnings absolutely shattered a few of the leaders present. War was devastating for almost every economy, and wore nations down to their foundations. Except, apparently, for the Discordians.

Eris whistled at the sight of it displayed. The very size of it awed her.

“Isn’t it beautiful,” she cood. “Just look at those sexy ratios.”

“You know, that woman’s using you to justify... whatever it is she’s trying to justify,” said Claire. “Doesn’t that make you mad? To be used like this? To have your data free for everyone to see?”

“Let ’em see,” Eris replied. “And I gotta admit, the old bag’s got a point. I can’t deny that.”

“Wait, what? Are you on her side now?”

“Agreeing with her and conceding a point are two different things. But to answer your question, she can go and slag herself for all I care. What matters is if her performance sways everyone else in the hall.”

“Why isn’t this fleet at the Drogar front?” said Felrahn. “Look at its impressive numbers. If they were present in my home system, none of us would be here right now! We would have driven back the Imperials!”

“Lady Felrahn,” said one of the Voices, “that House’s designation is clearly marked Alpha-Rho. And we all know that means that-”

“So what?” Lady Felrahn interrupted. “We’re at war, and wartime needs precede our designations. Besides, maybe the Temple of Discord should be speaking for itself. Let’s see what they have to say, hm?”

Numerous eyecast and spotlight drones sped towards Eris’ seat, or at least where she should have been. When they got there, all they found was a floundering man who had no idea what was going on. His confusion was momentarily infectious, and many murmured in bewilderment.

“Hey!” shouted Eris. “I’m up here!”

She even stood up and waved, which prompted the drones to speed over to her position. After numerous identification checks, they streamed her face up onto the holoprojectors up in the center.

“What are you doing over there?” shouted one of the Voices. “Why aren’t you in your seat?”

“It’s kinda hot down there,” Eris replied, rather nonchalantly. “Thanks for the offer, though.”

“But that isn’t your designated seat!”

“Does that even matter?”

“Yes! Of course it does!”

Eris narrowed her eyes questioningly, but in an obviously playful way.

“To whom?” she asked.

“None of this is important!” shouted Lady Felrahn. “What’s important is the question as to why you haven’t been assigned to the Drogar front?”

“Phew, that’s a lot to unpack,” said Eris. “First, we don’t have a Drogar front. But we’ve got an Imperial front. I know you might think that’s the same thing, but it isn’t.”

She was met with a few chuckles around the hall. And that began to nip at the old woman.

“Second, and way more important, is that my House is Alpha-Rho,” Eris continued. “And that means we’ve got full autonomy, even in war. We choose where we fly, if we want to fly at all. You oughta feel lucky that we’re even engaged in any of this at all.”

Eris’ nonchalant attitude and combative stance dug deep into Lady Felrahn. She was used to a certain formality when it came to addressing her. And Eris spat in the face of it.

“The insolence!” Lady Felrahn exclaimed. “I won’t stand to be spoken to like that!”

“Sounds like a You Problem,” Eris replied. “And since you haven’t figured it out by yourself yet, I guess I’ll tell you the best reason why. The Temple of Discord is a privateer fleet. We’re not some highly disciplined military fighting unit.

“What we do is hit Federation supply lines and passenger liners and cargo depots. Hard and fast. We wipe them out, take what we want, burn the rest, then vanish. We couldn’t possibly match up against a hardened Imperial warfleet. That’s suicide.

“No, we like fighting Feds. It’s easy. They’re easy pickings. Their armor’s so soft – you would know, right? I know the Star Dragon knows what I mean.”

There were more chuckles around the vast hall, as Eris’ insult dug deep. In fact, it hit the old woman so hard that her mouth hung open. She was rendered speechless from the anger bubbling beneath. In fact, her face began to redden further and further as the seconds passed.

Before she could completely explode and lose her composure, High Admiral Albrecht stood up next to her and took over quickly.

“What my cousin was about to say,” said the High Admiral, “is that you’re underplaying your victories. From the data, and by your own admission, you’re assaulting Federation Naval cargo fleets. They don’t fly unprotected.

“In fact, they are always escorted by highly disciplined and heavily armed fleets. Armament efficacy aside, this means you have great experience winning against hardened military targets. You can’t deny this.”

“What I can’t deny is getting shot at, a whole lot,” Eris quickly replied. “We’re pirates and privateers. We get shot at all the time. And we’ve gotten really good at not getting hit. Don’t mistake military precision for knowing our enemy. We’ve had years to harass them, and understand the way they operate.”

The High Admiral guffawed.

“So you made a strategic decision to adapt to their tactics?” he said. “All while operating solely in enemy territory? That sounds suspiciously like a well-oiled military machine to me.”

Eris exhaled at length. To Claire and Xylo, it also seemed performative. In fact, everything she had done thus far while in the spotlight has been part of the show. Her own improvised addition to it all.

As she shook her head in seeming frustration, the High Admiral continued. But he had stopped talking to Eris, and turned back to the Grand Parliament in front of him.

“Which brings House Felrahn to another point,” he began. “In our research through the data, we uncovered dozens and dozens of Hegemony fleets, all of whom with equally impressive win/loss ratios. Many are small, yes. Take for instance this Corvus Republic.”

Claire and Xylo immediately shot up in their seats when they saw their data splashed across the holoprojector. The numbers on their sheets were staggering for just about everyone there.

For a few moments, the hall was filled with gaping jaws and absolute silence.

Though their military engagements were relatively low, only in the few dozens, their win/loss was what captured all of the attention. It was an utterly impossible 1:0. No losses at all.

Even Eris turned to the two girls next to her, her eyes wide open in surprise. Then she clapped with clear admiration.

As she did so, the drones that hovered around her quickly flew in front of Claire and Xylo, and splashed their faces up on the holoprojector in the center.

“So you two lead this Corvus Republic?” asked the High Admiral. But before they could answer, he simply continued with his question.

“It doesn’t matter. Your fleet – registered as an entertainment adventure fleet – is, if I’m seeing this correctly, never lost an engagement. And deep inside Drogar territory on top of that. No other fleet in the Hegemony has done this.

“If these numbers aren’t lies, then we all must know why your fleet isn’t on the front lines!”

Claire was visibly shaken by everything in front of her. The last thing she expected was to address the entire Hegemony all of a sudden.

While she recovered, Xylo took the initiative to answer.

“Because we obviously aren’t just an entertainment fleet,” Xylo answered. “We have a designation of Omega-Tau, and like Alpha-Rho, we have executive decision powers that give us operational autonomy. Our fleet best operates in conditions of our choosing, which explains our... numbers.

“We wait, gather information, pick our battles, and strike at the most opportune moment. We do not lose because we never overextend ourselves, and if things turn sideways, we run.”

“If we go into the front lines,” added Claire, “we would be decimated in an instant. We might have military training and discipline, but we will not be able to weather direct fire on a sustained front line. We’re not equipped for long-term engagement, not even a little bit. Especially since we have civilians living aboard our ships.”

“This does not stop your fleet’s effectiveness against the Drogar,” said the Lady Felrahn. “Or of the many fleets like yours in the Hegemony. Fleets that, if put together, could reshape this war. Why hide all of you away in these dark little corners, when you could be the jewels that lead us out.

“Therefore, I, Exarch Queen Felrahn, call for a Priority Referendum. One that advocates for the formation of a special fleet formed by elite units, which as a whole would be designed to eliminate the Drogar threat.

“One whose first mission would be to retake Felrahn space, as a symbol of our collective desire to drive back against the lizard invaders.”