As the Star Dreadnought Indomitable Will left its homeport over the planet Ceruelion II’s Moon, Grand Admiral Ben McCannon looked out the glass at the endless expanse of stars in front of him as they prepared to sortie on another mission and sighed.

 

Years before, he’d been the United Space Defense Force’s top strategist ever seen and was on his way to becoming one of the elite brass in the military, and many people would think that he could win no matter the odds against him, but that all changed at the battle of Numidian Prime where another Admiral completely destroyed a planet’s ecosystem when the fight didn’t go their way and got away with it, which led to him leaving the Force. As his mind went increasingly into his memories, he let himself slide back in time.

 

Flashback

 

            As the battle raged outside of the Star Destroyer Indomitable Fortress’s bridge, there was chaos as well inside. “I don’t care what needs to be done to do it, do everything you can to get our troops off that planet and warn the troops not under our direct command that we can’t handle what’s going on.” Fleet Admiral Ben McCannon said, not quite yelling, but with authority clear in his voice, to his Communications Officer.

 

            “Y-yes, sir!” The communications officer said before turning towards his screens, voice shaking at what was going on, though Ben could understand it.  Lieutenant Smith was one of his newest officers on the bridge and hadn’t had the chance to see much action yet, but this situation they were in would cause many people Ben knew to feel afraid.

 

It had been a simple mission; to help take care of a planet that had been taken over by a terrorist group and capture or kill the ringleaders, but it had turned ugly pretty quickly as the defenses were tougher to crack than they originally planned, beginning with five older Golem defense platforms in orbit, which while they had known about the platforms in orbit, information had been given that all but one was out of commission aside from enough emergency power to keep them in orbit but now they had to deal with all five of them, but they were able to take them out but they lasted long enough for enemy ground forces time to launch more fighter squadrons than they had planned for, and even though the two fleets had landed ground troops, they had met stiff resistance when trying to take out the launch sites as they were trying to take the sites without destroying them, so the starfighters were more than enough of a nuisance to cause Ben to start trying to think of a new strategy.

 

Then once they finally had a foothold on the surface a few hours after the start of the battle, and after all of the fighters were off the planet, he got a report from his sensor officer saying that weapons were powering up in all of Kobanzel's ships and they were moving into a new formation in what looked to be a predetermined pattern.

 

After looking into the readings which he had sent to his terminal, Ben had a bad feeling about what it looked like as he recalled a picture in one of the databases he perused occasionally, and it clicked. Yelling for communications to open a line to Admiral Kobanzel's flagship, he waited until it connected and got straight to the point. "Admiral, don't tell me you're doing what I think you are. That won't end well for any of us." He started, knowing full well that Kobanzel wouldn’t let him continue, and he was right as he got cut off and only got a laugh back.

 

 

            "| don't care what you think Admiral." Was his response, spitting out the rank. Kobanzel had never liked Ben’s "I'm going to end this now before this goes any farther. And nothing you say or do will stop me." He said before hanging up.

 

This is when Ben started giving orders to his crew and wondering how they would fit everyone we could into the ships he had in his fleet.

 

His fleet was made up of 4 Star Destroyers, 10 Strike Class Medium Cruisers, setup for troop transport, and 15 Nebulon-B Frigates, which the transports could handle his troops he came into battle with, but not much more than that, though that didn't count what they could hold in the Destroyers.

 

Deciding to leave that to his second, he went to his office to start drafting the report he knew he would have to give once they reached command HQ. "I'm going to start on the report. Finish the prep and get us moving towards USDF HQ soon as we have all the troops we can carry aboard the fleet." Getting a nod from Anna who immediately stepped up and got to work. Though neither of them could believe what would happen when they returned to HQ.

 

Scene Skip

 

“While this council is thankful for the way you tried to handle the situation, but as of this moment, we will be doing nothing more than a standard debrief for both you and Admiral Kobanzel.” The chairman of the High Council stated banging her gavel ending the debriefing.

 

Standing in front of the USDF High Council, Ben was stunned into silence the way the Council had handled the debriefing. He had made it back to HQ not surprisingly before Kobanzel and had given his report as well as giving all of the data his destroyer had collected and then he’d been sent back out to wait until Kobanzel came back and gave his own report.

 

Now He’d been summoned back only to be told that they would be doing nothing to this situation aside from a debrief and due to previous occurrences of situations, none this bad, but where the Council had done stuff like this, he knew they wouldn’t change their mind so saluted the Council and left the room, immediately pulling out his communicator to call his wife Anna to let her know to meet him in their quarter's on board ship.

 

Admirals Quarters

            As the two sat together on their bed, Ben couldn’t help but hold Anna close as they talked, knowing that in this situation she had a hard decision ahead of her.

 

“I don’t know what to do here. We both know that what Kobanzel did was wrong, we’ve no way to know how many civilians may have been killed when he launched his attack, and now the Council is doing nothing about it.” She said, leaning back into him but Ben knew there was more going on behind her mind that she wasn’t saying, though he would never force her to decide on something this big.

 

Hugging her closer, his next comment made her flinch but finally fall back into his chest with a sigh. “I know exactly what you mean and you’re worried about how your father will react but whatever decision you make here, you know you’ll have my full support.”

 

Turning around to hug him close, she had just one thing to say and added a joke at the end to get a laugh out of him. “Even if my father disagrees I’ll continue to follow you. He has always said to follow my heart but it doesn’t change the fact that I hate disappointing my parents.” She said before laughing. “At least we won’t have to clean out this room when we leave.” Getting a forced laugh out of him at her try at a joke. ‘

 

Anna’s father was a Grand Admiral within the USDF, one of only three people who could hold the rank and are directly under the High Council in authority. He has also declined many attempts to put him on the Council ever since the battle off of the Cuitric IV asteroid belt but Ben felt that he would understand where the two of them were coming from and be ok with it. He didn’t have to worry about his parents having already retired from the military and had always been open about letting him do his life as he wanted. Anna’s mom had retired as well recently but she was more lax than her father was.

 

The joke was more of trying to lighten the mood as though the ship was listed as an official ship under the USDF, Ben had bought it himself and loaned it out to be used for USDF missions.

 

Hugging her close once more, his next words had her hugging him once more before standing up to get ready. “How about we go talk to your father now and then give our resignation to the council. And if you want we can even go see your mother once we leave here.” He said, before getting up himself and heading to the communications suite in the room. “Comms, this is the Admiral. Send a request to Grand Admiral Kilaren for a meeting as soon as he can, and then alert the High Council we would like a meeting with them after we meet with the Admiral.” He said getting a “Yes sir.” back in response as the two got ready for their meetings.

 

Scene Skip

 

            The meeting with Anna’s father went better than either of them could expect: he had said he knew something like this would happen and gave his full consent on their plans to leave the USDF. Anna couldn’t help but give her father a hug as thanks for understanding where they were coming from while Ben shook his hand before giving him a sharp salute which he responded with his own before the two left for their meeting with the Council which had accepted the request immediately.

 

            Once they reached the Council Chambers, they were let in where they gave their official response to the Council’s response to the mission and then waited for the reaction but they were happy with the response.

 

            Sighing as she knew this would happen, the leader of the Council gave the Council’s verdict. “We knew that our response would cause this reaction from you and have already decided to allow this if you came to us and are sorry to see you go. We wish you luck in all of your future endeavors.” Before banging her gavel once more ending the meeting and after Ben and Anna bowed their heads at the Council before leaving the Council room for the last time as part of the USDF.

 

Flashback End

 

            As Ben was reminiscing his past, he heard footsteps behind him before feeling arms wrap around his waist in a hug. Turning around, he smiled at his wife who’s facial expression made him realize she knew what was on his mind.

 

            “I know that look, but you don’t need to worry about that issue in this mission.” She said, getting a laugh and a hug as he grabbed her hand and walked to the viewscreen to look over their fleet.

 

            Ben was now the Grand Admiral for a fleet of his own that was the biggest PMC organization that was willing to do missions that most other militaries either wouldn’t or couldn’t handle themselves, and they were heading out on such a mission now. As they reached the viewport, no one on the bridge batted an eye at the public display between the two, well used to it by now, both from their time in the USDF and since then as a lot of the crew was the same still.

 

            Seeing that everything seemed in order, he ordered Lieutenant Smith to open up a fleet-wide channel. “This is the Admiral. The mission is a go.”