Nate Novel looked around the small space of the Fluchtig's bridge, spotting one of the aides bringing food to the current scanner operator – He was about to call out and ask the man to bring him a drink refill – When it happened.
   The explosion was nothing compared to what they had witnessed a short while ago – No reactor went into meltdown this time and yet this one seemed far, far more important, and all eyes on the bridge shot to it to stare in disbelief.
   The Rinie had stood with them this entire time, positioned above them to the right side of the Fluchtig – The old-general, a ship everyone has atleast heard of. It wasn't a particularly impressive looking vessel, in fact it was the oldest ship in the IAFS fleet – Even its angular design had gone out of fashion, with more modern ships like the Valliere having much less aggressively triangular set-ups.
   It was a ship you never expected to be in charge per-se, but always expected to be there, ever reliable and steadfast.
   When Nate had suddenly found himself as leader of IAFS 12 hours ago, he hadn't hesitated to make Captain, no Commander Batty, his successor in the case the Fluchtig might sink.

'Commander Batty, Captain of the good-ship Rinie' – That was what she had been to so many for over a decade now – For all she acted bitter about constantly being passed over for promotion, Nate was pretty sure the only way Batty would of ever left the Rinie was in the eventuality of its destruction – She was more than just its captain, something akin to its matriarch.
   The Rinie had taken damage before, many times over the years – Even during Operation Deadlight – And yet, perhaps more so than even Admiral Louise – Nate Novel could never of imagined watching the Rinie sink.
It wasn't the impressive white void of a Hindenburg reactor meltdown, but rather the normal buckling of metal, explosions of fiery reds and oranges – Drifting apart of sections.

“.......The Rinie's been hit!” Charlie said after a while.
   Nate shook himself back into action, he couldn't imagine how angry Commander Batty would be if she saw him gawking like this;
   “Tell me what we know, speculate if you must!”
   He said in the scanner operators direction.

“Err, if I'm speculating sir, well...”

“Go on, you can confirm it later, I need to know what happened now.”

“Right Sir! Well, it looks like 3, maybe even four explosions. One was the Rinie obviously, but another looks like a Vijaik right in front of it and finally something weird out a ways from the Rinie, maybe a Fortress or something?”

Aurin stepped over to the operators terminal to look at the data too;
   “If that's the case maybe one of our Vijaiks managed to land a shot on that thing, destroying it!”

“That's what I think too Sirs. I'd guess we're safe.”
   The operator added with a nod.

“So we owe our lives to a nameless pilot then? Hmmmm, make sure and confirm it chaps, last thing we need is a Fortress hiding right under our noses. Charlie we lost comms with the Rinie a few minutes ago, see if you can't find any short range signals from lifeboats, and put me through to Kolme Nilas.”
   Nate wasn't really sure, if the loss of the Rinie felt so heavy on his heart because it was so reliable. Or because with it gone the Fluchtig was now the only remaining capital ship, all the rest in the defence line being smaller destroyer and frigate class vessels - Or if it was because there was now no one to take command should Nate fall ill or the Fluchtig sink –       Or maybe, it was simply that for the Rinie to fall, the end must surely be close.
   He beckoned Aurin to stand next to him and listen in on the call, the younger man ever in sunglasses stepped up and spoke solemnly;
   “I fear we owe our lives to quite a few nameless pilots today sir.”

“Yes, I suppose we do.” Nate said back quietly.

“Sir transmission from the lifeboats fleeing the Rinie! They say commander Batty and Lt.Wally.... Stayed with the ship sir.”
   Nate nodded, holding back his own feelings on the news, “Thank you Charlie, get me Kolme now please, than help guide those lifeboats to safety, fast as possible.”

Over the 12 long hours this battle had raged on for, Nate Novel had run dozens of scenarios through his mind – Once an hour he'd dictate these to one of the aides, give them numbers and have them transmitted to all remaining IAFS ships in range.
   In his head he now crossed off these contingence plans one by one – The sheer number of them that had been conceived with the Rinie in mind were heart-breaking – Nate and Batty hadn't gotten along very well.
   The woman was a bit older than him and had served in the military even before the First War, plus she had once thought Nate was hitting on her – Something she had never forgiven him for – But none of that had stopped Nate deep down respecting and depending on her over this last half years of the Tristain Flotilla's life.

“Sir, I know the Rinie meant al--” Kolme's voice suddenly emitted from the speaker affixed to Nate's chair.

“Indeed it did, so let us not waste whatever time it seems to have bought us yes?”
    Nate replied, cutting Kolme short.

“Right Sir.”

“Gentlemen I'm considering plan 9-c.”

“What?!” Aurin, losing for once his composure, burst out loud.

Nate shot him a kind smile, “Our forces are all but spent, we have just 6 ships left in the defence line and no way of recovering any more that might be stuck in No-man's land – Our number of mecha has dropped to around 70 as well – We can longer sustain our activates. We will abandon the line and retreat to the weapon's control centre to pick up the refugees.”

Refugees was the simple term they had been using to describe all those who had survived their ship's sinking.
   Although the exact numbers were unclear in all the chaos, around 90 IAFS ships had sunk today, many had sent off survivors in little life boats of metal – Some of these survivors had been put to work on still operational ships but others, especially the injured, had been sent to the weapons control centre – Which had adjoining it, large infirmaries and residential blocks to house the unwell – If it was time for IAFS to retreat, than they would have to first pick up the couple hundred survivors currently aboard the weapon.

“Once we have them, we head north and meet up with the Valliere and the Charon plus whatever forces Commander Scarlet still has active.”

“What about the advanced Remembrance forces!?”
   Aurin shot back, his voice dripping ever so slightly of indignation.

“If they have not been defeated, then we should still have plenty enough firepower to bust a hole through their ranks – That said I doubt we have to worry, the Scarlet Scourge has no doubt already cut that path for us.”

“You can count on it.”
   Kolme added jovially.

“But... But the main Remembrance Fleet behind that and... and....” Aurin continued.

Nate looked upon the man fondly – For all Aurin acted mature, he was still a fair ways younger than Nate and far less used to battles of today's scale. But moreover where most of the bridge crew had been able to swap throughout the battle, take short breaks while night-crew took their places – Nate and Aurin had been here for 12 entire, long hours now – Overseeing everything together as best they could – they were both exhausted and he knew exactly the things Aurin wanted to say;
   “Why did so many have to die if we were just going to retreat?” Nate said for him – The younger man looked up, clearly Nate had hit a bull's eye.

“Well for one, we had to rig the weapon for remote demolition, that alone took quite some hours – You would know as much considering you co-ordinated that process Aurin. By the time we had finished setting up the weapon to blow, we had already lost over half our forces and since then, well – I thought we might still be able to win – To force TSU-s into a retreat and scare off Remembrance.
   It seems I was atleast partially wrong on that front but we have not fought here in vain.
Had we retreated when the weapon was first ready for demolition, we would of left with 50% loses while TSU-s still had most of their fleet intact – Now? Now we leave them a shell of their former selves – Once we blow up the weapon, that remaining TSU-s forces will return home a shambling disgrace, the goverment will dissolve them.
   No we have not fought and died in vain this day – We have done what IAFS was created to do, to stop TSU-s authoritarian madness. The weapon's demolition will probably take out a few more of their ship's to boot."

Nate paused, looking around at all those on the bridge, his impromptu speech no doubt important to the others too;
   "We are not retreating in defeat Aurin, but in victory – One that has cost us a great deal, I know, but those who've perished today, I do not believe they would want us to pointlessly fight to the death – I believe they want us to make their sacrifice mean something and we do that by living to see TSU-s fall.
   Sure I could order the weapon turn around, order it fire into No-man's land, we could ensure a true victory that way – But we would also be firing on any IAFS survivors out there – Waiting for rescue, floating in escape pods and life boats – And it would be an act of pure bitterness, using the same weapon that took the Admiral and our home fleet brothers from us, in order to enact some petty revenge? Which no doubt would lead to the Remembrance fleet finishing us off from behind.
   No, we've lost enough today and done our very best – Its time.”

As Nate studied Aurin's face, he was reminded of how being a Captain was only in part about giving speeches or leading charges – Often, like now, even in their current dire straits, it was more about guiding people through the most painful of times.

“What if the Remembrance main fleet decide to chase after us anyway? Once they see the weapon destroyed they might do so?” Aurin finally said after some careful thought.

“Ah that atleast is easy – We surrender.”
   The jaws of a half-dozen people around the bridge, most of whom were still busy attending to their stations, gapped.

“Surrender?”

“Yup, we've done what we set out to do – Stopped this devil's weapon and dealt TSU-s a death blow, we have no reason to fight Remembrance and with the forces we have left, we'd be crushed.
   Remembrance on the other hand have no actual reason to destroy us outright – The Fluchtig alone is state-of-art, useful for study and of course, perhaps we can remind them that many members of IAFS are X-Remembrance.
   I'm confident we can either sneak past them or peacefully lay down our weary arms.”

“I see.” Aurin said – The young man had clearly realised that Nate had given this alot of thought, it was time to trust his Captain.

“Yes, I'm glad I talked this through with you both, my decision is made – Kolme see to it the Nemos are reorganised for a gradually withdrawal, we head north to the refugees and the rear defences - Then north-west, hopefully we can even catch the Tradech on our way, have the entire remaining strength of IAFS high-tail it back to Bannerman, leaving the weapon and TSU-s as just a fireball of a bad memory behind us.”

“Aye Sir.”

“Aurin, my friend – Will you transmit a formation for the remaining ships to the other captains?”

Aurin looked up and saluted;
“Of course, Sir.”

****