There were few things Hooruets loved more than Plum Moth hunting. The Bluervael wild game preserve was beautiful this time of year. The Grandalas trees were in full bloom and everywhere Hooruets looked, small tufts of furry looking petals waved gently in the breeze. Humans and Yazirians tended to prefer more colorful flowers, but to the colorblind Dralasites, texture and shadows were the most important attributes. Grandalas trees created the most interesting play of shadows and light because of the many stamen growing out of their unusual flowers.

This is the life, Hooruets thought, as he waited for his prey at the top of a narrow ravine. He glanced again at his right hand. He had changed it's shape into a large net, his fingers now joined at the tips so that his whole hand formed a bowl shaped catching glove just as he was taught by his parent. It was still in perfect form, so he settled in again for the wait. Ever since he was a small bud on his parent, Hooruets loved the taste of Plum Moths. They were fairly large and difficult to catch, but worth the effort. Hooruets found that he really enjoyed this free time, and the thought of his slightly early retirement from Spacefleet didn't trouble him one bit today.

It had been over a month since his confrontation with Fleet Admiral Bralloff, and it rarely crossed his mind. He was at peace, after having served the Federation for some one hundred ninety years. The way he saw the universe, he was due for a little reward.

Then he saw it, flying toward him from across the ravine was the biggest Plum Moth he had ever seen! It's thorax was fat with the nectar of the flowers and it had a wingspan of at least fourteen centimeters. In his mind, he could taste the moth as he absorbed it into his torso! He felt a small rumble as his digestive juices began to move toward the surface of his body. Hooruets drew back his arm ever so slowly and waited for the moth to draw within range. He mentally counted down the meters and willed the moth not to change course.

Seven, six, five, almost.... there.....

"Admiral Hooruets?"

The voice startled Hooruets and disturbed the moth, which veered off from it's course. Now the moth would pass about twenty centimeters beyond his grasp. Hooruets jumped up and made a desperate dive for the moth, but it darted away so fast that his hand swept through empty air several centimeters short of his prey. Caught off balance by his sudden lunge, and futile efforts to catch the moth, Hooruets felt himself falling head over heels as he began to tumble down the ravine. The slope was fairly steep and covered with thorny vegetation that scratched his skin as he rolled and bounced downhill.

He finally stopped his sliding descent by stretching out his arms and legs and grasping the passing branches. He came to rest with his head laying downhill. Hooruets cursed aloud and began to untangle himself from the bushes by retracting his fingers and arms. This took a good bit of time, during which he continued to curse, soon exhausting the list of swear words that were commonly and uncommonly used in the Pan-Galactic language. Finally, he had freed himself and rolled to his feet. He began to trudge back up the steep incline, prepared to kill whoever had interrupted his hunt. By the time he'd reached the halfway point from the top, he'd run out of swear words in Pan Galactic, and was forced to switch to Yazirian. Now there was a race that knew how to swear! Confident that he had several hours worth of invectives remaining, his mind turned to the question of who could have interrupted him.

At last, Hooruets crested the hill and tried unsuccessfully to hide his surprise as he came face to face with Chief Council Member V'rick'krck. The Vrusk leader of the Federation was flanked by Star Law Rangers wearing power armor suits. While it was normal for the Chief of the Federation of Planets to be accompanied by Star Law Ranger guards, they normally dressed inconspicuously and weren't so heavily armed. The distinctive silvery sheen surrounding V'rick'krck told Hooruets that the Vrusk was expecting trouble, or else he wouldn't be wearing an active laser defense device.

Hooruets fervently hoped that V'rick'krck hadn't heard the words he'd uttered during his climb, and felt quite embarrassed about it now. It was hardly proper language to use around the leader of the Federation. Fortunately, if the Vrusk had heard anything untoward, he gave no sign, instead addressing Hooruets in a pleasant tone of voice.

"Admiral Hooruets, I trust this day finds you well."

Hooruets fumbled for the proper formal Vrusk reply, but in his surprised and distracted state, all he could think of was, "I'm fine, uh, how are you?"

V'rick'krck studied the admiral's roughed up and scratched appearance, but chose not to make any remarks about it. Instead, he replied, "I have been better, Admiral. I have come with a request from the Council of Worlds."

Admiral Hooruets was wise enough to know that meant there was serious trouble, and suspected it had something to do with the F.S. 37 strike, but now that he was retired from active duty, he knew little more about it than the general public. The general populous had not been told of the impending strike due to fears that Sathar agents would catch wind of the plans and alert their masters. Hooruets had been camped in the game preserve without a radio, so he was even less informed about recent events than the public. Now he was wondering what news he'd missed.

"A request from the Council of Worlds to an old retired admiral? I must admit to being most curious."

V'rick'krck gave Hooruets an appraising look before he continued. "The situation is far more grave than you might imagine Admiral. As you may have guessed by now, the Sathar have destroyed the fleet sent to F.S. 37 with few losses among their own fleet. Then, at 0400 Galactic Standard Time today, Sathar agents made a concerted attack against military targets all across the Frontier. Reports are still coming in from the farthest worlds and outposts, but so far we have received reports of over three hundred strikes. Targets of these attacks have been Spacefleet and Landfleet barracks, Orbital Defense stations, ground based laser batteries, Star Law bases, military production facilities, and interplanetary communications facilities. They've also destroyed most civilian government buildings in order to make it more difficult to organize relief efforts. The Capital building here was also hit. Most of the council members are dead. Several Sathar agents drove hovertrucks loaded with explosives into the building. If I hadn't been on an unscheduled shuttle flight to Fortress Gollwin at the time, I too would have perished."

V'rick'krck paused for a moment and seemed to consider his next words carefully. "We are still assessing the total effect of these attacks, but if we were in jeopardy of total defeat before, we are in much deeper trouble now. Fleet Admiral Bralloff and most of the other admirals died when a series of bombs exploded in Fortress Gollwin."

"Before the explosion," V'rick'krck continued, "she said that she expected a major Sathar counterattack within the week. We need you back in order to prepare a defense. Admiral Hooruets, I'm offering you the position of Fleet Admiral"

Admiral Hooruets' thoughts were in turmoil. Just a few months ago, he was looking forward to a peaceful retirement after a long and faithful service in Spacefleet. Then things were shaken up by the scouting report that revealed the presence of the Sathar just five days from the Zebulon system, his confrontation with Admiral Bralloff, and subsequent earlier than anticipated retirement. Now, just as he'd grown accustomed to the idea that his career was behind him, the leader of the Council of Worlds was standing in front of him, asking him to return to Spacefleet as leader of the entire war effort. He briefly considered telling V'rick'krck that it wasn't his mess. He'd been passed over for promotion to Fleet Admiral by V'rick'krck's Council for not being aggressive enough. His arguments for caution had fallen on deaf ears. Now that the results of aggression against the Sathar were known, V'rick'krck wanted someone to rescue the Federation from the counterattack.

Hooruets found that he was equal parts annoyed and flattered at the request. If he had been put in charge to begin with, this never would have happened. On the other hand, in the Frontier's darkest hour since the First Sathar War, V'rick'krck went to him of all beings for help.

Then, another thought hit him. I've served Spacefleet for most of my life, not for beaureucrats and commanders, but because our way of life had to be protected. It's the civilians who will suffer most if the Sathar win this war. It is they I have pledged to serve and protect. I may have retired from active duty, but duty always remains. I can't turn my back on them just because of a grudge against the Council of Worlds.

Admiral Hooruets straightened up to his full height and solemnly said, "I accept the position of Fleet Admiral. It is my honor to serve the United Planetary Federation."

V'rick'krck motioned one of the Star Law guards over and opened a compartment in the man's power armor suit. He then withdrew a large datapad and handed it to Hooruets.

"This is the latest estimate of damage, casualties, fleet strength, and status reports. Take my shuttlecraft and proceed to Fortress Gollwin. It's been secured and a temporary command center has been set up in the hub. Some of the remaining command staff are already enroute, but you'll have to promote other officers to fill the gaps in the command structure. I've already invoked the Executive War Powers Act and will assist you in any way I can. You have complete military authority in all matters. Good luck Admiral."

Admiral Hooruets threw V'rick'krck a salute and was escorted by two Star Law troops toward the waiting shuttlecraft. Hooruets learned why he hadn't heard the shuttle land when it took ten minutes at a brisk pace before the shuttle came in sight. It was a standard Cricket-class military shuttle marked, "Council of Worlds System Transport One". Flanked by the power armor-equipped Rangers, Hooruets boarded the shuttlecraft and quickly strapped into the copilot's seat.

Soon after, they were underway. Hooruets peered through the lower porthole as the sleek shuttle lifted above the tops of the Grandalas trees. He noticed a procession of Star Law transport hovercars nearing the location of Chief Council Member V'rick'krck and knew the Council leader was in safe hands. The shuttle passed over V'rick'krck at an altitude of only two hundred meters, and Hooruets was able to see V'rick'krck wave at his shuttle. The shuttle continued to ascend as it roared away from the game preserve. On the horizon, Hooruets saw several columns of smoke. Seeing Hooruet's quizzical look, the pilot of the shuttle pointed at the one on the left and said, "That was the Council building. The fire crews said they'd have it out in a few hours. The other column of smoke you see is from the Star Law Rangers' local station. Two Sathar agents walked into it wearing vests made out of Tornadium D-19. Fortunately casualties there were pretty light."

Hooruets wanted to know more, but the pilot had turned back to his radar display and was requesting a flight vector from Space Traffic control. Hooruets settled on studying the information on the Datapad V'rick'krck had given him.

After reading for awhile, Hooruets decided the Sathar had been very thorough in destroying UPF defenses. By striking at military barracks, the Sathar had eliminated more than three quarters of the trained Spacefleet crews. The ships not sent to F.S. 37 were mostly undamaged, but without trained crew to man them, they would do little against the Sathar armada.

Only two ships had a full complement of Spacefleet crew, both of which were not at a space station at the time. The assault carrier Vengeance was still on it's way to the Zebulon system, and the heavy cruiser Challenger had just left the Pale Shipyards when the attacks occurred. Spacefleet security procedures for ships were strict enough that Sathar agents had only been able to successfully attack one ship. The Spacefleet frigate UPFS Shimmer was damaged by a shuttlecraft that rammed it. The shuttlecraft was totally destroyed but the damage to the Shimmer could be repaired within three hours.

That repair estimate was the only good news in the whole report. Everywhere else, demand for replacement parts far outstripped the supply. To make matters worse, Spacefleet and civilian repair depots were among the sites hit. The lack of repair parts would be felt soon as the damage to UPF facilities that would be able to be repaired in a matter of days normally were instead impossible due to lack of replacement parts.

Admiral Hooruets was astonished by the sheer numbers of Sathar agents that had been in place prior to these attacks. Prior to today, the best Star Law Ranger estimates of Sathar agents placed their numbers at between four-hundred to one-thousand members. In order for these attacks to succeed against all of these heavily defended facilities simultaneously, the actual number of agents had to be much higher than expected. They also were probably much higher placed than expected, some obviously having been Spacefleet or Landfleet members with security clearances giving them unquestioned access to the facilities hit by the attacks.

Hooruets glanced up from the datapad and noticed that the shuttle had made the transition to space. It would still be several minutes before the shuttle docked with the Belvedere-class spaceyacht Star Transport One. After that, it would take almost a day before they arrived at Fortress Gollwin. Fleet Admiral Hooruets had that long to come up with a plan to save the United Planetary Federation during it's darkest hour.

He thought back about his last talk with Fleet Admiral Bralloff. She had said in their final talk that Hooruets thought of himself as some sort of knight defending the Frontier against overwhelming odds. Well Bralloff, Hooruets thought, this knight now has to draw his sword against all odds one last time. I just hope I can hold the enemy at bay.

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