This post is inspired by a writing prompt in the Worldbuilding Community - Worldbuilding Prompt #514 - Infighting
It's the next part of the space opera tale of Alex Deroma.... enjoy !
The massive mess hall smelled of freshly applied paint and brand new plasteel.
The ship was newly built, fresh out of the shipyard on Tarnyu VI, one of the first wave of warships built to replace the recent terrible losses, so new that the chairs hadn't even had time to leave scuff marks. One pale blue wall carried a sign in letters three feet tall;
The hall held a couple of hundred tables, and maybe a quarter of them had people around. A mix of races, genders, and uniforms. They clustered in groups, talking quietly among themselves. An observer would soon realise that most were strangers to each other.
At one table....
A blonde man in the red-trimmed uniform of the Imperial Marines looked over at a brown skinned reptilian in the blue trimmed with green jacket of Engineering. "So which outfit were you from ?"
The reptilian, a native of Jarrus, didn't look up, but did respond in a quiet voice, "1022-C, cruiser Marvellous Luck. She wasn't so lucky, burned up in the first minute of battle. I'm one of three survivors. You ?"
"6204-B, SSM Carrier Mad Axeman," the Marine replied. "We were sort of lucky. Got hit and crash-landed on some nameless moon. Then had to wait around for a month until someone took notice of our distress beacon. We only lost half our people."
A dark-skinned woman wearing the insignia of a Weapons Senior Gunner on the other side of the table piped up. "What's with him ?" pointing at a crewman with his head in his arms, face resting against the table.
The marine answered her. "That's Viard, comtech from 5022-C. His girlfriend was some Mufl girl, and we know how hot they're all supposed to be. He was next to her when she was taken out, exploded all over the poor sap. We're gonna have to be gentle with him."
The reptilian was the next to speak up. "So does anyone know anything about our new C.O. ? They're rebuilding 3275-A from survivors of a thousand units that got trashed at Tharwell, turning us into something useful is going to be one hell of a job for whoever it is !"
The dark-skinned woman reached into a pocket and pulled out a data slate.
"Yeah, it's someone called Alexandra Deroma. She was a Commodore in the original 3275-A. Looks like she's got a bit of a reputation. Comes from an old family and acts like it. Hard-ass bitch and a glory-hunter. She was allowed to pick the name of this ship after some crazy but top secret stunt she pulled as the Confeds drove in on Tharwell. Which probably means she got all her people killed, but no-one is saying. Oh, and rumour is, she's shagging her X.O."
There were groans around the table. Everyone knew the type. The kind of officer hungry for promotion, and never mind who got killed on the way up.
As the shuttle came into the docking bay, Alex checked her appearance in the 3D holomirror. First impressions would definitely matter here, she had to somehow meld the battered and shaken survivors of the Battle of Tharwell into a coherent force.
What she saw in the mirror was a well-proportioned woman in her late twenties or early thirties, with lightly tanned skin and chestnut hair neatly coiled in a regulation-pattern braid. Her uniform was the navy blue trimmed with yellow of the Imperial Fleet, with a generous helping of gold braid and heavy bullion epaulettes marking her new rank of Admiral. On her chest was a discreet selection of medals, nothing too ostentatious but certainly enough to show she had plenty of actual combat experience.
Then she frowned. The injuries she'd picked up at Tharwell were a lot better but still visible. One brown eye was hidden by a black eye-patch, and she still had to use a cane until her leg was fully healed up. Sitting on her shoulder was Shade, the Endellian Magpie that Yalandri had persuaded her to adopt on their recent R&R stop at Relat.
She turned round to Yalandri, struggling to look cross but utterly failing to hold back a grin.
"Dammit, Trass ! Shade was your idea ! You've made me look like a bloody pirate ! Oh well, let's go and say hello to our people...."
Image created by AI in Wombo.art. You really don't want to see the monstrosities spawned when I added an eye patch to the prompt and discovered the limitations of AI art generators !
To be continued.....
Previous parts of Alex's Saga;
Part 1
The First Saga, the Tale of Fedric - Final Part - with links to all the previous parts.