"So, what will our predictable man do next?" Makov asked.

"He'll fly around and waste time fretting over the loss of life. He'll try to pull CENTCOM back together, but we've gotten word the enclaves are already recalling their numbered fleets. Without crews for his modular ships, those are useless. As we hoped, the Federation remnants won't stand together and will thus be easy to subdue one at a time."

"Things haven't gone exactly as planned, but the goal is still within reach. We'll soon control the full military might of the ESA, and then we can easily handle whatever resistance the Federation's fleet tries to cobble together. It won't be much longer, Ella."

"Generations in the making, and we'll be the ones to see it through," Ersk said.

Makov just smiled and nodded as his ships continued to march down the well towards the ESA's seat of power. He'd been instrumental in forming the Alliance, helping break it off from the old Confederacy, and the entire time, he'd known he'd be the one to destroy it.

* * *

"The taskforce has transitioned out, sir. They're heading to a rendezvous with Admiral Wright's group. Shall we match course?"

"We need to go someplace first," Jackson said. "Set course for Arelius."

"Your traitorous aide?" Barrett guessed.

"No. Something else."

The Nemesis smoothly turned to their new course, hitting the only jump point into Federation space from the Xinjia System. They'd take a direct flight there, and then it would be one more leg to get to the ultra-secret base. After that, it was difficult to say. He'd been so focused on the immediacy of hunting Kohl down that he'd lost track of the big picture.

He commanded a warship flying the flag of a nation that, for all intents and purposes, no longer existed. How many of their remaining fleet would come to this same conclusion and return to their homes, taking their ships with them? Worse yet, how many would join the enemy?

* * *

"Thanks for dinner…darling."

Sam Trapp moved the pudgy master at arms over so she could get his key cards and weapon. The man took a few more shuddering breaths before finally succumbing to the crushed windpipe she'd given him a moment earlier. The slob had fallen easily for her flirtations and had suggested he could arrange for a meal with real food if she didn't mind the company of a guard while she ate.

She pretended to be confused at first, and then flattered by his obvious ploy. Sure enough, two nights later, the moron came rolling a cart with two covered plates into her cell along with two chairs. He'd taken off her restraints and made a big show of rubbing her wrists where the metal had bitten in.

While he ate, he tried to dig a little around the edges at why Wolfe had sent her there, so she intimated it had been an inappropriate workplace relationship and played up the innocent rube act. When he'd come over to comfort her, she'd shattered his larynx with the flat of her hand before driving his head into the concrete of her cell floor. The dumb look on his face before his eyes rolled back into his head almost made her feel sorry for him.