Retired

I've been more or less ordered to give you more my readers and more I shall give you. This is a work of fiction, and I am solely responsible for the content contained here in. Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely a coincidence and unintended, any mistakes are of my own doing. This story may not be reproduced, copied or retransmitted in any way known or unknown without the authors permission. If you like what you're reading please be sure to like, vote, follow and comment, I like to know that what you think of my writings. Please be careful out there during the silly season and don't drink and drive, I need you to read my stuff and keep me going.

Now on with the story.

13 August 2419

0025 Shipboard time

Cruiser Stone Crusher.

Ding ding,... Ding ding,... Ding ding. 'Admiral Storr Arriving.'... Ding. I heard the small bell ring, as the duty boatswain mate announced to the ship's crew, I stepped from the shuttle and crossed the quarterdeck and was saluted by the assembled welcoming committee. I had found my new dress blacks adorned with a solid gold cuff instead of the 4 gold stripes that I had retired with 10+ years ago.

I saluted the flag and the OOD and requested permission to come aboard, which was quickly granted. I had taken the mass of metals off the front left chest area only leaving my wings and space warfare combat badge where they belonged. I had never been one to show off, metal wise, as far as I was concerned you let your flying and fighting do the talking for you and everything else was just window dressing.

I spotted a familiar face and walked over to him smiling. 'B'nan, good to see you upright and with 2 legs.' I said to one of Marlin Officers who was waiting to greet me. I reached up and pulled his head to mine as we touched foreheads and noses in a kind of traditional greeting that was generally reserved for close friends and family only.

"Admiral, D'nal sends her greetings and love to you, your God son sends his love too Sir.' He said as the ship's captain came over and introduced herself. We all moved off the hanger deck and I felt a slight shudder through the deck grav plates, I knew that we were braking orbit and were headed out to the jump point. Several officers quickly detached themselves and headed for their stations while I was being escorted up to the Flag bridge.

'Admiral on the bridge.' I heard and noticed the 2 marines guarding the hatch, one was a Marlin and the other a Human, both were in power armor which told me that this ship expected to sail into harm's way. 'We'll be picking up a DesCru Squadron in 15 hours sir and a carrier task force 2 hours after that.' F'let the Stone Crushers Captain told me. 'If you'll pardon me sir, I need to get to the bridge before we jump, I'll leave B'nan to show you around Admiral, he is on your staff sir.'

I smiled and nodded. 'Thank you Captain F'let, if I encounter any problems, I'll be sure to get with you so that we can iron them out quickly. Besides if I do need you, I'm sure B'nan can locate you fairly quickly.' I told her and she quickly headed for her spot on the bridge just one level above me. 'What is our ultimate destination?' I asked.

'Sir, its Gamma Psi 3761, Sir.' A young female voice from the very back of the crowd spoke out very loudly. I watched the body's part as they all turned to stare at her.

'Well at least someone in this room knows where the fuck we're headed.' I said. I got the obligatory laugh for that one and smiled at her. 'Show me young lady and don't ever be afraid to be the smartest person in the room, especially when you are.' I told her as she stepped to the plotting table and brought up the correct system up for me to look at. From her memory she filled us in on system size, number of planets and moons and their orbital locations.

It was around 0230 when I finally dismissed everyone and let them know to be back at 1030 as B'nan followed me into my quarters and I pealed my jacket off and threw it on the arm of a small couch that was secured to one of the bulkheads. I flopped down on it and covered my eyes with an arm and exhaled loudly. 'Sit down B'nan and tell me how they conned you back into this shit storm. Last I'd heard you'd been discharged at 100% disability after losing your left leg.' I said and finally looked over at him. 'You're like me, we're fighter pilots that can't fly anymore, they don't trust your new leg and my nerves are shot to hell.' I recovered my eyes in the crook of my elbow. 'Oh, dear they are scrapping the bottom of the barrel aren't they.'

He laughed at my analogy, and I lifted my arm just enough to cut snake eyes at him. He told me of how they had come to him and with one hell of a song and dance routine and brought him back into the Navy yet again. 'As I understand it Jack, they're bringing back lots of older guy and gals. To many of these new kids have no clue about how to fight a war or how to stay alive during battles.'

I just laid there and took it all in, little pieces of the puzzle were beginning to fall into place, so to speak. Needless to say, I didn't like the picture it was starting to paint, we were going to knowingly step back into the shit, and I hoped I was wrong, but the small niggling itch at the base of my skull told me I was more than likely right.

A bit of background 1945 the United States had one of the 3 largest standing armies in the world and the Navy was second to none with over 6700 ships including nearly 1200 major combat ships. After the war the budget was cut and then SecDef James V. Forrestal argued with the President about the cuts that were being made and how that would affect our ability to respond. In 1949 Louis Johnson was appointed SecDef and then proceeded to gut the US Military with a series of budget cut and planed forced unifications of the branches. He slashed the budget of the 4 services and forced them to either scrap or sell off much of their surplus that should have been brought back, refurbished and then stored or used by reserve units.

In short, he didn't just cut to the bone, he cut through it and weakened the US as a whole. Thus, when the next battle came in Korea, they were caught flat footed and had to scramble to respond to the crisis. The sitting President Harry Truman finally removed him in September 1950 and replaced him with Former Army General George C. Marshall.

I remembered that little snippet from my studies of old earth late 20th, early 21st century politics and battles and thought about what the powers that be did after we had won the war, a war that I might add that lasted more than 25 years. Every planet's economy took a hit during the protracted confrontation and when victory came, they turned back to producing civilian related products and to hell with the fleets that had protected them during the conflict.

I just lay there and let my mind run through several scenarios, each more unpleasant than the last. 'Oh, we are screwed there me boyo, I can feel it in me bones.' I grouched out. B'nan just laughed yet again at my analogy. I knew that even though he was laughing he knew I was right. 'I need a meeting with F'lar in the morning, we're going to have to see where we are on this flying nursery, readiness wise. Plus, we need to know what to fix before our first battle.'

'I'll set it up for 0730 Sir and I'll let your command staff know to be there also.' He said and made a note on the data pad he was carrying. 'I'll inform Commander Sunn, Major Taylor down in the Mar. Det. and Commander Xun, Sir. I'm not sure if you've ever served with him, he's from Solar 16. He's your combat officer Sir, he's a Tilixian Sir.'

For several minutes the silence hung heavy in the confined space of my cabin, the Tilixians were a lizard-like people, roughly of human sized and weight, they were immensely strong and being from Solar 16 could withstand temps that would kill most life forms within a few hours if they didn't have special environmental suits. They had also fought for the Zims during the early parts of the war, changing sides when their home world system was attacked by a Zim destructor fleet. There wasn't much left after the destructor fleet left except a few burned planets and moons.

Several survey ships had managed to sneak in and get out of Solar 16, they had found no life forms on the 4 planets and 7 moon bases that had been known about before the war started. Around 123.8 billion, based on the last known prewar census data, beings had ceased to exist, nearly 4/5ths of the Tilixian population had been turned into powdered ash. In short, the Zim empire had committed mass genocide of nearly an entire race of beings.

After that had happened several systems that had either been on the fence or were marginally siding with the Zims switched sides, the Zim destructor fleets were hunted down and destroyed down to the last escape globe. I didn't agree with that order but luckily the fleet I was in never had to carry that order out, by the time we were called to relieve the 27th fleet, the destructors were little more than space garbage being recycled by salvage ships.

I let that little bit of information sink in and simply nodded, the lizards were smart as hell and could see tactical patterns forming before you could use them to attack or defend. I didn't like it, but what the fuck I wasn't being paid the big bucks to like it, just to turn my keen mind to the task and get it done and done quickly.

'Go get some rest B'nan, were going to need it.' I said with a light sigh. 'That itch is back and its worse than ever. On the scale of 1 to 10 we're well and truly fucked. Tell D'nal and C'tet I love them too and I'll try to bring you back to them, like they sent you to me.'

I felt him cover me with a blanket and let my body relax as much as I dared, I hoped to get more than the 3-4 hours of sleep like I normally got before the dreams and visions became too much. I really didn't want to do this again, but I'd said yes so do it I would. I knew I would add to the nightly parade of faces and places that haunted me before it was all over. I just wanted it to end.