Xanthe Away!

Xanthe Away!

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. The timing, maybe, but the attack, we should have been more ready. Commodore Arriaga’s task force was just plain whipped at Mercury, despite what the press is blaring. It’s all-out war with the Venusians now; we just have to bully the Belt into staying neutral or we’ll have a real mess on our hands.

We were just pulling into Phobos for maintenance when the news hit. The Captain had already gone down to deal with some business in Lowell when we got our orders. So much for shore leave. I got everyone back on board, borrowed a fresh company of Imperial Marine Guards, fuelled up and set out as soon as the Captain was back aboard.

As soon as we clear Phobos Control, Captain wants to push us out at full fusion cruise - 1.2 standard gees. Those twenty hours of thrust will be tough on the ratings, but it’ll cut over a day off the trip. Still, we’re a hundred hours away from Mercury and what’s left of Arriaga’s command. We should get there concurrent with Hesperia and Phobos Yard’s not wasting any effort on getting Elysium out of dock. But even with three battle cruisers and handful of destroyers it’s going be a tough slog to relieve Mercury.

We should have been there waiting for them, not reacting like this.

- Personal log of Commander Rohan D’Aramis, Executive Officer, IMN battle cruiser Xanthe, 1 March 2633CE, the first day of the Mercury War.