Free Storm' Fury: The Shenkar War by Seth Libby Page B

battle ready,” explained Fleet Admiral Saunders.
    “Well we better pray we won’t need them. Recall all pilots that are currently on-leave. Have all battle groups form up and double all our combat patrols. Also let us know the minute we get word from system 238,” directed President Sheehan.
    “Yes Mr. President,” Fleet Admiral Saunders said, and then his monitor winked off.
    “Mr. President, I would like to be up there if you could authorize my transfer,” asked Admiral Kelvin.
    President Sheehan was silent for a few moments as he seemingly was thinking over the request.
    “Very well my friend, I am sure I could try and say no but you wouldn’t listen to me anyways,” said President Sheehan, a smile showing on his face.
    “No sir I wouldn’t,” said Admiral Kelvin, a broad smile of his own upon his face.
     
                                     
     
    December 24 th , 2013 9:08am
                                                       EDF Phoenix , System 238
     
                  Earth Defense Force warships folded into existence one after another, quickly blotting out the stars. Immediately, the warships began to form up into a battle group. Both heavy and light fighters began to spill out and formed up ready to attack any enemy ships they found.
                  “Ensign Dow, give me a status report,” commanded Captain Donaldson.
                  The young operations officer scanned the radar screen for several seconds before he responded.
                  “Sir, multiple enemy contacts detected. Approximately eight hundred kilometers out. Five battlecruisers and ten Shirec medium cruisers are currently saturating the asteroid field with heavy energy fire. Due to heavy debris I am unable to get any readings on the outpost.”
                  This immediately set off warning bells in Donaldson’s head as these numbers did not match the numbers reported.
                  “What does this mean? Is the outpost destroyed?” asked the President of France.
                  “No, it is like Ensign Dow said, heavy debris is making it difficult. Let us deal with the Shenkar presence first and then we can search the asteroid field. Mr. Mendez, put me on with the fleet,” commanded Captain Donaldson.
                  Ensign Mendez’s fingers quickly danced across the panel in front of him for a few seconds before he signaled the link was established.
                  “Attention battle group, this is Captain Donaldson. We have multiple enemy contacts currently engaged in assaulting our outpost. Our men and woman are in need of our help. All ships move to engage, attack pattern Fire Storm one.”
                                             
                                                           
     
    December 24 th , 2013 9:07am
                                                                      System 238
     
                  Overlord Gyliene continued to watch as salvo after salvo pummeled the asteroid field in front of him. He wondered if the human outpost had survived the continuous pummeling his small fleet had been dealing out. He had a general idea where the outpost was located but he didn’t really care whether he destroyed the outpost or not. His job wasn’t to eliminate the humans in this system but only to pull the enemy fleet away from Earth to him. When they had first entered the system they had made sure the outpost was able to relay the number of warships the Shenkar had. Once they had intercepted the outgoing transmission they then destroyed the relay buoy to prevent any further transmissions.
                  “Overlord, I am picking up multiple