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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2915055" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 361An hour had passed since the ambush and Rulae Nok was still peeling the adhesives off of his skin. After managing to get a rather large clump of it off of his neck, his large red eyes managed to shrink into what was most likely a glare, “Tsun would have murdered us if we’d done that to him.”    Jyren leaned back in his chair across the small desk from the Duros and folded his arms across his chest, doing his absolute best to hold back the laughter and just grin, “But you aren’t Tsun.”    “You’re lucky for that,” Rulae snapped, waving a long finger at the human and then sighing, “Very lucky, actually. You would have gotten it much worse if those kids didn’t need a little lightening up.”    The Duros had motioned to the scuff mark across Jyren’s forehead that he’d gotten from one of the training guns ‘missing’ their target. He was sure, however, that Rulae had gotten a hold of it and gotten at least some revenge. But his friend’s words were more than a simple jest, and Jyren caught it right away. His grin faded in a second, and he raised an eyebrow, “What’s that supposed to mean?”    “We received orders to join the defense fleet at Agamar,” Rulae answered a little more quietly than normal.    Jyren knew why, and even he was speaking in a near whisper for some odd reason, “They aren’t ready.”    “I know,” the Commodore sighed again and shook his head, “But it isn’t our choice and we are only one squadron. The others are ready, and we will have to be.”    “Why Agamar?” Jyren darted to the next thought on his mind suddenly.    Rulae shrugged at first, but then glanced down to a datapad on his desk before saying, “A small flotilla attacked there just a few hours ago...cruiser analog and some coralskippers.”    Leaning forward, Jyren ran a hand through his hair to get it out of his eyes, “Scouts.”    “That’s what Command is thinking,” Rulae agreed with a nod, “If there’s going to be a push on Agamar, its going to need more defense than just the tiny fleet they have and the local forces.”    Another thought hit Jyren, “What about Vortex?”    Again, Rulae shrugged, his long limbs taking a little while to find a comfortable spot afterwards, “It’s a bit more Coreward and should be safe for now.”    “That’s one hell of a gamble,” Jyren said quietly, more to himself than to his commander, “For all we know an attack on Agamar is just a diversion to pull us away and allow their forces to skip straight to the Core.”    Rulae took another glance at his datapad before addressing that, “Our own scouts are reporting that the Vong fleets are still a little small for that kind of attack.”    “You trust those reports?”    That got a silence in the small office. The two old friends held each other’s gaze for a long enough time that the question didn’t need to be answered, but eventually, Rulae spoke anyway, “No...but it is all we have to go on. We are fairly sure, however, that the Vong are still moving forces into the galaxy.”    Jyren waved a hand, “What you’re saying is that its bad now, but its going to get worse.”    “No, I’m not saying that,” Rulae shook his head, but then paused and sighed heavily, “But you’re probably right about that. “    ”So we’re right back where we started...” Jyren trailed off, then sat back again, “Vortex unguarded and Agamar, a relatively unimportant strategic planet, overly defended thanks to a small scouting ship. And then, of course, there’s still Ithor not far from either planets...”    Rulae, this time, said nothing. He was thinking the same thing that Jyren was, but could not bring himself to say it. So, for a long moment, the two sat in silence in the utilitarian office aboard the Star Destroyer. But it didn’t last too long, because Jyren finally spoke the thought out loud, “We’re overstretched. This war has barely started, and we already stuck trying to hold more planets than we can...” Rulae still said nothing, and so Jyren went on with something that even he didn’t like to speak, “...and the only solutions to this are to guess at the motives of invaders we nothing about and hope we know what they want...or fall back to the Core and hold the planets we know we can hold instead of jumping around the galaxy wildly everytime a planet encounters a scout ship.”    Still, nothing else was said. Maybe if he had been talking to Marix, there would have been a response...but he wasn’t, and the very thought of that hurt. Closing his eyes, Jyren got to his feet and managed a weak salute before turning and heading out of the office.    It was then that Rulae finally spoke up, calling out across his office, “Where are you off to, Raan?”    Still ‘Raan’. Jyren couldn’t blame the Duros, really, but it was strange hearing that after so many years. He did not turn around, but simply spoke to the still closed door standing there in front of him, “I’m going to go get the kids into the simulators.”    “Going to shoot them down some more?” to that, Rulae managed to add a weak laugh. It was forced, but the gesture was something that Jyren found slightly comforting. His friend knew humans well enough to have some idea of how to ease tension. Of course...Jyren wasn’t exactly human anymore...    “Nah,” Jyren cut his own thoughts off and shook his head, “I need to talk to someone before we all get in over our heads too much.”    And then, without wanting to answer the questions that would obviously bring up, Jyren hit the switch to open the door and headed for the turbolift.</blockquote>

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