“The war situation has taken a turn for the worse,” Captain Smith said, as soon as the senior officers had gathered in the briefing room.  “New Russia has fallen to the enemy.”

He ran through everything they’d been told, then showed the images from the battle.  The senior officers stared in disbelief; by any reasonable standard, the battle had been hellishly short.  Humanity didn't have much experience at space warfare, but simulations suggested that battles should take longer.

“Their starfighters seem to be less capable than ours, excepting the stealth and their weapons,” Schneider observed, finally.  “Their stealth systems can’t be perfect or they would use them all the time.”

James couldn't disagree.  He’d watched enough bad movies where the enemy weapons fire had seemed to come out of nowhere to know that it was a viable tactic, if the technology could be made to work.  But the aliens had deactivated their stealth before engaging the human carriers, even though keeping it would have given them a decisive advantage.  No, the systems couldn't be perfect ... unless, of course, the aliens thought that going in without stealth was honourable.  But who knew how aliens might think?

“We will study all of the records during the trip,” the Captain said.  “Our orders are to engage the enemy in this system.”

He ran through their orders and the rationale behind them.  “I know that these orders are a gamble,” he added, “but I see no alternative.  We will power up our systems this afternoon, then leave tomorrow.  Prior to then, I want all section heads to brief their subordinates, then remind them to write wills and record final messages.  Please also remind them that the censors will have a look at them first.”

James had to smile.  The crew wasn't stupid, they'd know better than to say anything too revealing.  But there were plenty of messages they could send that shouldn’t be shared any further, certainly not with a bureaucratic asshole just looking for something he could use to pretend he was doing something useful.

“If there is anything else you need,” he concluded, “I want you to request it by the end of the day.  We should have priority shipping for anything we want – as long as we can get it before our departure time.  If not ... it will just have to wait for us.”

There was a long pause.  “Dismissed!”

James lifted an eyebrow as Schneider caught his eye, then nodded and waited for the room to clear before speaking to the CAG.  “Yes?”

“Sir, one of my pilots had a ... friend on Formidable,” Schneider said.  “She probably won’t be the only one to have someone missing, perhaps dead.  Do you want me to talk to her?”

James hesitated.  As XO, it was his duty to see to it ... but Schneider was definitely closer to his pilots.  And besides, she almost certainly wasn't the only one to have a friend on the destroyed ships.