Federation Reborn 1: Battle Lines by Chris Hechtl

will.”
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    “They had nothing for the ground?” “Major” Gustav asked, shaking his head.
    “No. The encrypted chatter is all we have. And we don't have the time or processing ability to decrypt it,” Marshall stated.
    “Great,” the marine drawled, looking the tablet in his hands over. “Can you at least give me a location on where the transmissions on the ground were coming from? We're working without dated intel to begin with. Something would be nice,” he said sarcastically.
    “I can look into that. The majority of the transmissions came from the area near the listed spaceport and capital city location.”
    “Ah.”
    “It is logical to assume that the enemy's HQ is located there. The other locations are most likely detachments out taking control of the planet.”
    “I hate assumptions,” Gustav murmured as he stared at the map. Protodon was a forest world but one cooling since its terraforming had been aborted. It wasn't quite in the ice age that Kathy's World was in, but it was bad enough. Fighting in the forests and hills was going to be tricky.
    “They didn't do a map of the planet I suppose,” he said, looking up. “Too far. We'll have to wait for when we're in orbit to do that I believe.” Which meant they would have precious little time to process it properly before they had to move in. He hated being rushed too.
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Great. Can you set up a program to compare the terrain from our files with what we see when we get there? Run it on my system if you have to? An overlay? We'll need to see where the old towns were, mines, that sort of thing. Anywhere the enemy is hiding out.”
    “I can look into that, sir,” Marshall replied.
    “Good. It's something at least,” the major drawled setting the tablet down. “Training is going well. Or at least as well as expected.” Lieutenant Tricia Ebensher had her hands full there.
    “Yes, sir. Will there be anything else? I need to cut the connection. Admiral White is getting ready to move the force out soon.”
    “Go. Thanks Ensign,” the major stated, waving a hand. The AI cut the connection to the ship.
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    Once Hecate was refueled and rearmed Admiral White ordered her to join his force instead of returning to Antigua with the news as had been in his original orders. “We can use all the help we can get.”
    Captain Gruber nodded. He couldn't help but smile in anticipation. “A pleasure to help kick some pirate ass, sir,” Captain Gruber stated, eyes gleaming.
    “Good. See you in Protodon. Good hunting, Captain.”
    “To all of us, sir,” the captain said with a nod as the admiral cut the connection.
    “You know you're going to catch a little flack over the change of orders right, sir?” Marshall asked when the call concluded.
    The admiral shrugged and turned to where the AI avatar was projecting himself on his desk. “I doubt it. I'm pretty sure John knew I'd pull something like this. He didn't say I couldn't, so I'm exercising the right of any commanding officer in the field to take forces and use them. He'll see it my way.”
    “If you say so, sir.”
    “And I do. So let's break for lunch and then get back to it. I want Hecate finished and ready to jump by the end of shift. That goes for the rest of the force.” He had been about to say squadron. He shook his head mentally at the thought. As if! “I want us out of here no later than tomorrow morning.”
    “That doesn't give us a lot of time to go over the download, sir,” the AI cautioned. “I am still processing the signal intelligence. The marines will need it.”
    “Then you'd best be about it, hadn't you? We'll go over the download further while in flight.” Amadeus was fairly certain the AI wouldn't be able to break the encryption. At least not totally, there was too much of a likelihood of something being missed in the transmission. If it was caught midstream or something occluded the transmission or if Hecate's ears had missed