Fulcrum: The Globur Incursion Book 1 by Rebbitt D

Author:Rebbitt, D [Rebbitt, D]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Rear Admiral Cranston stood on the bridge of her flagship near Outpost 37-alpha. All the survivors had been recovered, and they all told the same story. They came under attack without warning from a Globur battle group. The Globurs had a superior force, and their overwhelming firepower quickly overcame the outpost’s defenses. They verified that it was less than 15 minutes from general quarters being sounded until the command was given to go to the survival pods. The command had been given, as it only could be, by the commander of the outpost. Curiously, that had turned out to be a second lieutenant just recently assigned to the outpost.

The data assimilated by the rear admiral’s staff and the ship AI did not tell a very encouraging story. A Globur battle group of that size should have been detected days out, and yet it had simply appeared. The outpost did not serve a strategic purpose any longer, and yet the Globur had blasted it to atoms and then disappeared.

The communication from the grand admiral was equally puzzling. Had this happened somewhere else? If you believed the news channels, the grand admiral was on a goodwill tour with the home fleet around the rim. He did not seem to be on any goodwill anything from the message she had got. She did some digging and found that the so-called goodwill tour had only stopped at a few worlds so far and had not been heard from for over a month.

One thing Erika Cranston was not, was stupid. Something big was definitely going on. This outpost being destroyed was something that had not happened in over 20 years.

She had locked down communications. Her staff officers and captains were just unsettled by the idea that a Globur battle group could appear out of nowhere and destroy an outpost. She did not need them ramping each other up by sharing stories and theories. Sure, regular outposts were much more heavily armed. They also had more ships, better shields, and better armor. But from what she had gleaned, it was doubtful even a regular outpost could have survived the attack if its task force was out on patrol. Her science officer was at a loss to explain any of it.

She had uploaded her report to Grand Admiral Jones along with the technical data she had been able to gather. She had also asked for permission to brief her captains and senior staff. A communiqué had arrived from Fleet headquarters at Gateway, assigning her task force on “detached service” for an undetermined period of time under Grand Admiral Jones. So, for now, her task force remained waiting for a reply from Grand Admiral Jones.

She was still deep in thought when her comm came alive. “Coded message, ma’am. It’s from Fleet headquarters.” The communications officer was impassive, as usual. She accessed the message, and after it had confirmed her ID, Grand Admiral Jones’s face appeared.

“Rear Admiral Cranston,” he began. “I am routing this through Fleet headquarters as my current position is classified.

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