Screaming Silence

[Thunderer]

Some say that King Charles sold his soul to the devil so his armadas could fight so well. On that day, it seemed that the devil had abandoned us and God came to settle the accounts. La Rochelle was part of the Dax Fleet, but we were in the reserves, so we didn't see much fighting ourselves, although our experienced crew was impatient to make an impact. But I did see a fleet of dozens of Triumphs heading into the New London atmosphere from around the Dax. They were making preparations for a ground invasion, I thought. But one by one, the little dots of light that they became when they let their beams out, about the size of candle flames from where I was looking, one by one, they burst wider for a moment, and then snuffed out. And then we received the order: cruise speed to the Leeds Jumphole. I don't remember any of them coming back.

Everyone was on their maximum capacity to make the ship move as fast as she could, and we were constantly harassed by pursuing Sirian snubcraft. Crossing the Southampton Debris Field was easy for us, but the Dax had to literally punch through, with turret fire, and with her hull when her shield had failed. No one said anything during this time, except what was necessary to keep the ship running. The atmosphere was like this: confused, certainly confused, hectic and everyone's hands were full of business. The Dax stopped and stood guard when we jumped through, but we were ordered to head to Planet Leeds.

When we left the smog cloud, I was able to see what was going on. Everyone with access to a window was. A great number of Triumphs stood above, firing beams at the planet. This wasn't preparation for a ground invasion, the planet was already ours. This was genocide! Seven billion people! Mostly Sirians, but also millions of our own, for sure! The ship made a sharp turning at this moment and headed back into the smog cloud. Not literally back, actually, not towards the Dax, but only into the smog cloud, towards some undetermined destination. We stopped after about an hour of wandering. Thouars then spoke to us via the sound system, and ordered us all to leave our posts and meet in the messroom. My soul was devoured by the boiling sea of ominous curiosity, and forbidden questions were what remained, as they floated out to the surface.

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