Annihilation: A Rose Grows In Weeds by Saxon Andrew Read Free Book Online Page B

go see,” Dorg said.
     
    Kosiev nodded, “I must reluctantly agree. We must be careful in planning this; we don’t want to lead them here or to our Galaxy. We also don’t want to reveal a Megaship to them or that we can jump into a system close to the star.”
     
    “Ok, then I’ll go and investigate,” Dorg said.
     
    “I don’t think so,” Kosiev countered. “This is your show here and you have fifty new Megaships that just arrived to assign positions in the fleet to bring up to speed on your tactics.”
     
    “Are you saying you’re going to go?” Dorg asked in a strained voice.
     
    “No, for the same reason; it’s time we started trusting our subordinates to handle the dirty work. You and I are needed much more here.”
     
    Dorg didn’t like hearing what Kosiev said, but he knew he was right in his assessment but the warrior in him was not happy with the assessment. “Then who do we put in command of this expedition.”
     
    “I would send Captain Mikado. He was the captain of my fleet flag ship in all our confrontations and has watched first hand all the decisions that were made. I would assign two Ultraships and maybe three of the old Empire class battleships so we can see how they match up to the Plants. Unless you have someone that you feel better about, I think he would make the right decisions.”
     
    “I’ve just learned another lesson from you; you’ve groomed him to take your place. I’ve always worked on my own without helping someone grow in their command skills. I’ll resolve to solve that problem immediately. Tresk will begin an accelerated education. However, your choice is obviously qualified to command this .”
     
    “I intend to promote him to Admiral once we have enough ships here to constitute several fleets. Let’s call him in and brief him on our plans and see if he has anything to offer.
     
    Dorg smiled and said, “Good idea. How do we find a Plant Fleet to attack?”
     
    “I would guess that there are still ships at the Pydres world. It takes a long time to completely strip a planet clean. We’ll go there first. Of course we’ll jump in from a completely different line from here. Then we’ll wait at the jump limit for them to come and visit.”
     
    Dorg pressed his com console and said, “Tresk, please invite Captain Mikado to join Kosiev and myself on board the Moscow at his earliest possible convenience.” Dorg released his com and said, “Until he gets here, have you decided how we should organize the ships we have here?”
     
    “Yes I have,” Kosiev said, “but I’m not married to my plan and I am open to any of your suggestions.”
     
    Recently promoted Commodore Lin Mikado stood on the bridge of the Zeus; it was like a homecoming. It had been a fast four weeks since the meeting with Kosiev and Dorg. He had been assigned a new Megaship for his command with Captain Kelly as his ship’s captain upon his return from this mission but he had to select the crews going with him to confront the Plants and train them on the tactics to be used. He had brought Kelly and members from his old crew with him for this assignment and his former Ultra ship felt like home. His five ships were now in the Pydres system watching the Plants as they continued to strip the planet they had invaded and destroyed. He thought about the meeting he had with the five ship commanders to make sure they understood their roles. “We will jump to the Galaxy we have designated gamma. We will then jump into the Pydres system on the line from that Galaxy on the chance they can read Star Drive direction. Once the mission is complete, we will jump back to gamma and then to delta, then to beta with no pause in our jumps. Make sure your jump officers have the coordinates preprogrammed into their jump drives before we exit the system. We will wait at the jump limit for them to come to us. If other ships jump into the system after we’re detected, we will jump forty five degrees around the