Rise of the Resistance (War for Orion Trilogy Book Two) by Conner Walworth

whispers. “If we
have ships, we need to try and stop them!”
    “No,” Pyrrhus boomed. “We will not attack now. The crodillians are more powerful and intelligent than
anyone initially thought. That’s why I abandoned the fight at Hera,
I had to make sure that every survivor knew just how powerful they
really are. There are too many leaders who think we can just go
fight the crodillians like another normal enemy we’ve read about.
We can't. Our only option right now is to lay low and keep a close
eye on the enemy.”
    “Coward!” Another shout erupted from the
room. “You left your men to die and want the same of all of our
families! They’re counting on us to save them. We won’t sit around
and wait for the crodillians to take another planet.”
    “I left them to die in order to make sure
that Orion survived! We haven't been defeated yet, though the
crodillians may think so,” his voiced boomed off the stone walls.
“If I would've stayed with my ship, I would've died and none of you
would know what to expect from them! You would've foolishly sent
our last line of defense to face sure death, and with that, the
death of your families you want to protect. The war is not over
yet, so stop acting like we've been defeated. I have knowledge that can help us defeat the crodillians! I’ve seen
how they fight and I know how they'll fight us when we go to finish
them off!” He looked around. “Some of you want to attack now, is
that right?”
    Pyrrhus looked around to see nods from some
of the races and looks of fear on the faces of others. These were
leaders, but none of them knew what to do, they’d never faced
adversity like this. None of them had ever thought anything like
this could even happen on Orion. Adira stressed peace so much, and
had been so good at keeping it, all had forgotten about the evil
lurking in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to lash
out.
    “They destroyed thousands of our
ships while barely taking a dent in their own numbers. What do you
think the outcome of three hundred of our remaining ships
against them will be like? The outcome will be no different!” The
room was dead silent for the first time since he’d come up to talk.
He’d finally gotten the reality of things through all of their
heads, though it really shouldn't have been hard after the display
at Hera. “What remaining forces we have, need to be used wisely,
and that doesn't include taking the crodillians head on again. It
failed once and I guarantee you it’ll fail again. I didn't abandon
my men just to end up losing the war against the crodillians. I
left them to make sure there is absolutely no chance the
crodillians take over! We’ll avenge the lives of all those that
have been lost and of those that’ll be lost in the coming months.
The only way to win this war, is to let them think that they've won
while slowly recouping.”
    A few cheers erupted from the crowd of
leaders and officers. He could see some were still skeptical, but
it didn't matter, after listening to what some of them had to say,
he knew he had to lead them now. If he let one of the other
General's lead, then the same outcome would most likely happen and
he wasn't about to watch that.
    “For those of you who question my
leadership, call the Queen's Council. There are seven of them
hidden safely on Nesoi. I'm confident that they’d rather have me
lead a rebellion strike than anyone else in this room,” Pyrrhus
stepped down from the stage and walked over to Gidon.
    “I didn't know the Council was on Nesoi,”
Gidon said.
    “We sent them there in case the fleets at
Hera were destroyed.”
    “So, you were prepared for this?”
    “I didn't like putting all of our ships in
one place, and luckily some other races didn't either and we were
able to get some ships here. Allocating all our defenses to one
spot wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but we had to follow orders,
and honestly, none of us had any better ideas.”
    “Do you think we