"It's been a ~long~ weekend." The thought flickered through Phantasm Nova's mind. Being a member of the TG military caste had it's benifits, but it also piled a bit more responsibility on top of being a leader for an "empire" with all the various tasks that came with that title.
Moving the fleet to attack that God player hadn't been fun, and the logistics had been worse. However, writing the letters of notification for the crews lost during that battle took on nightmarish porportions. Far too many had been lost, and unfortunately part of it was inexperience of both the crews and the fleet admirals themselves. Even Nova himself wasn't used to such battles yet.
Added to this were at least three attacks by those termed Pkers, plus a kib hitting the strat defenses in the gold system shared with one other. The latter had been resolved peacefully pretty easily. Various construction projects from city improvements, revamping the recently bought second larium mine, and restructuring the defenses around the trade base a bit also added to the current tiredness that had settled upon the leader many of his citizens called the Phoenix.
Things weren't quite over for the night, however, as an incoming call sent a soft buzzing through the office to announce it's arrival. The swivel chair that he was sitting on was turned to face the vidscreen as the accept button was pressed. A moment later Twelve Worlds - otherwise known as Cain - filled the screen.
"What can I help you with, Cain?" Even the words normally full of energy were tinged slightly with weariness as they emerged.
"I was just going over my messages, and read one from Lord Badger...it said he was leaving."
This caused Phantasm to sit up and sharp blue eyes to open wide. "By the Gods...you're sure, Cain?"
The other's face looked grave for another long moment before breaking into a large grin. "Got you, Phantasm. Happy April Fools Day. I got Nitro with that one too."
A soft sigh was the response to that, and then a faint smile formed. "Remind me to hurt you sometime, Cain."
"You've got to catch me first, Phantasm."
"True enough. However, your time will come, sooner or later. The Law of Averages sees to that eventually. Try to keep out of trouble until then."
With that the connection was cut, and the chair creaked faintly as he turned to look out the window and the view of the stars around the space station Aurora. The sight of those pinpoints of light never dulled even after so long being out amongst them. It was time to turn in for the night, and face new troubles with the dawn...
Except the beep of another incoming message found Phantasm just as he reached the door of the office. "Who in the world could it be now, and gods above does their timing stink."
However, he turned to walk back into the room and pressed the accept button once again. The face that appeared was that of the afforementioned Lord Badger himself. Before any greeting could be made, Badger got right to the point, "I'm calling a meeting, Phantasm. I've had an idea on how to handle the Pker problem."
The mental sigh this remark caused never passed the physical lips, however a friendly smile was dredged up from somewhere. "Alright, Badger, I'll be at the meeting as soon as I wake up the crew of my flagship." Then the thought hit that Cain would be at the meeting as well popped into mind and as the connection was cut by the military leader a true smile formed. "So much for having to chase you. Now, what shall I do with this opportunity?"
Many options starting springing to mind as the quick preparations were made to get to the meeting site. Most were discarded for various reasons, but one caught fire and was selected with relish. Everyone would be meeting aboard Badger's ship most likely and in the flesh. A few nanobots reprogrammed, and a short trip to the meeting place and it was almost time.
Boarding the Military Caste's leader's flagship with due fanfare a small, secret smile formed upon Phantasm's lips when Twelve Worlds was spotted. Whoever said revenge wasn't sweet was definately out of their mind. The captain of the ship lead the group to the conference room personally, and all were seated after short greetings. Then things got down to business. The proposal was discussed and found to have merit, but both the tiredness from long hours and anticipation for what had been put into motion. During the middle of speaking the nanobots kicked in and Cain's skin started turning a bright shade of sky blue with pink polka dots here and there at the same time the display in front of Cain winked to life and the message "Gotcha!" flashed briefly upon it.
The others didn't know what to make of it, and Phantasm let them wonder if it might be some new virus while knowing that the nanobots' energy would be depleted at the end of April Fools Day
It should be noted that ship classes, system names, etc. are all part of the Mankind universe, and as such are copyrighted material under Vibes. I'm just using their colourfull universe and events that happen within it as story material. ;)
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