Maria’s fingers gently caressed her silver crucifix. It wasn’t exactly standard military issue. Of course, neither was her black lipstick or nail polish. Her chocolate brown eyes scanned her holo-tablet as she scrolled down the page. The intelligence brief was painting a picture that spelled disaster for the Mars Rebels. Rail guns, missiles and flak guns. No shields to speak of. Their rag-tag group of ships that they had gathered together to mount a blockade of the planet was woefully underprepared for a WTO ship of the line. Of course, they had no idea that a WTO ship of the line existed. The entire system was about to see the full might of the WTO Chairwoman.

Maria started to look over the list of active members of the RDRM. She shook her head at the rediciulous wordy name the rebels had given themselves, it did not even make a good acronym. Revolutionaries for the Democratic Reformation of Mars. It was not the first revolt against corporate rulership of a planet. She hoped with the show of force to come it would be the last.

Maria swept the holo-tablet screen away and looked down at her youthful crew. Best and the brightest the WTO had to offer. She tapped a button on her chair and another holographic display lit up showing fighter readiness. The FTL drive had been tested thoroughly they’d made the two-year journey back and forth between Alpha Centauri and Earth. This jump would take an hour at the outside maximum. Pluto Space dock to Mars wasn’t that far when you could travel almost five times the speed of light, six with the new drives. She looked to her XO. A slip of a girl in her twenties, newly promoted to fill a void left when her old XO took command of an assault carrier.

“Commander, have pilots report to their briefing rooms. I want them in their cockpits in ready to launch as soon as we exit FTL.”

“Aye ma’am.”

She watched her XO go about delegating the request for a few moments then went back to looking over fighter and weapons readiness. She looked down to her comms officer.

“Sync up with our escorts please. I want our arrivals to be simultaneous.”

“Aye ma’am.”

Maria continued to go over readiness reports. This time for the escort which was two escort class and two destroyers.

“Ma’am, Captain of the Malice for you.”

Maria had predicted this communication and was fairly certain what it was about. She stood up and tugged the hem of her skirt gently to straighten it out.

“I will take it in my ready room.”

Her ready room was sparse as were most spaces on the ship. It was the first FTL warship built so most of the funding went into other things. She ran her hands along the hard metal of her desk. She was old compared to her escort, but The Endeavor was the first human ship to enter another star system. First human crew to make touchdown on an extra-solar planet. First human ship to break the speed of light. First human ship to break the 5x speed of light barrier. None of these firsts were known to the human race as a whole. The population of the solar system was completely unaware that going faster than the speed of light was even possible. Everything was about to become clear to humanity because the Endeavor was about to jump into Mars space with her escort and wipe out a bunch of rebels flying glorified armored space shuttles and it would be broadcast system wide. Maria sighed at the flashing incoming holo-comm warning. She straightened her uniform and put on her I’m the commander and bitch face and tapped the console to accept the call. Captain Ellis appeared and started speaking immediately. He was in his forties and had never quite accepted the youthful vampire as his commanding officer.

“Fleet Admiral we should be first in.”

“Captain, not even a hello?”

“Sorry ma’am, hello.”

“Please Captain, go ahead, tell the commanding officer of WTO Space operations, exactly where she is going wrong, do not hold back.”

“With all due respect, To you and your flagship. The Endeavor is old and not needed on this sortie. You should not risk her by being in with the initial assault. Show up later.”

“Captain when is the last time you talked to the President?”

“Never.”

“I talked to her this morning; She is the one who wants it to happen this way. I agreed with her goals and approved this plan. Once you are the head of the WTO Space Forces you can feel free to disagree with her all you want. But for now, the plan is we arrive at the same time. So, your maximum speed will be our maximum speed. That is an order.”

“Aye ma’am. Permission to speak freely ma’am?”

“You have not been doing that already?”

She could see him blushing on the holo-screen. She motioned for him to continue.

“Speak freely Captain.”

“Ma’am I just don’t understand, this tactic makes no sense to me. Standard operating procedures that you wrote specify the escorts arrive first commence area suppression then the carrier and battleships show up.”

“I wrote that tactical manual with an enemy who was equal or superior in mind. In this case they are not warships, they are rebels in armored shuttles with a hodgepodge of salvaged weapons, mostly ones meant to be used in planetary atmosphere. With our shields they will be lucky to scratch our paint. The point of this exercise is a show of massive force. The President believes the entire fleet appearing out of nowhere will make for the most dramatic entrance. With the level of risk being so low I agreed.”

“So, we’re risking our people’s lives for a publicity stunt?”

“No, we are risking our people’s lives so that the citizens of Mars do not starve to death. The rebels have cut Mars food production by seventy-five percent with their terrorist attacks and now they are blockading the planet, so the WTO and Mars Trade Association are forced to capitulate to their demands for a democratically elected government. There are six million people down there starving right now. People suspect that we have ships like this at our disposal, today will prove it, the President hopes it will be the first step to a system wide corporate governance. So, follow your orders and maybe next year at this time we will be the System Alliance Military instead of the Earth Military.”

“Aye ma’am.”

“Anything else Captain Ellis?”

“No. I apologize for my behavior Fleet Admiral.”

“Accepted Ellis. Let us go get some people fed.”

Maria closed the comms channel and walked back out to the bridge and took her seat. Her XO glanced at her.

“Just some disagreement with strategy Commander. It has been straightened out. What is our status?”

“All ordnance is secure or loaded on fighters. Fusion reactors are ready for combat load. Shield generators are online. Crew has secured for battle stations. FTL jump plotted and synchronized with escort fleet. Rules of engagement have been established and passed to escort fleet and pilots. Flight deck crews report ready for rapid fighter deployment. Weapon capacitors are charged. We’re ready ma’am.”

“Any issues with that last one Commander?”

“Yes ma’am, I am to remind you that SOP is to not have capacitors charged during an FTL jump due to risk of catastrophic failure. And that the Chief Engineering Officer will not be held responsible for your blatant disregard for the rules.”

“What else is new?”

Her XO smiled. The ships computer announced to the entire crew.

“Thirty seconds to FTL jump. All personal report to battle stations. Damage Control teams at the ready.”

“Ma’am, have you ever been in a battle before?”

Maria glanced to her XO her usually stoic face showing rare compassion.

“More than I would have liked, it is always frightening. Do not worry in the heat of battle your training will take over. You are a good officer. Just trust in that.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

Maria touched her crucifix absently and looked over the rest of her bridge crew. They were attending to their stations.

“Twenty seconds to FTL jump.”

Maria tapped a command on her arm console and sent out her own announcement to both her escorts and her own ship.

“This Fleet Admiral Aurelius, upon arrival I want rapid deployment of all fighters. Weapons free. Remember if we can minimize loss of life let’s do it. We will accept all good faith surrenders. Good luck.”

She closed the channel.

“FTL jump proceeding in 10, 9, 8…”

As the countdown ended the old carrier creaked and lurched forward. Space outside twisted and formed into a funnel of white-blue light. One hour later the fleet appeared in Mar’s space and flickers of light lit the arriving ships and fireballs started to light up the Mar’s sky seconds later. Maria watched the holo-viewscreen as fighter after fighter deployed from her carrier. Within fifteen minutes the blockade was floating wreckage and drop ships were landing with surface troops and tanks. Maria’s face would be enshrined in history as she demanded the surrender of the rebel forces. Mar’s citizens would call her a hero. Believers in democracy and freedom from corporate greed would call her a war criminal, a Nazi, and other manner of thing they had heard on the system net. Either way the human race now knew that Earths WTO and its military were powerful enough to wipe out all resistance at a moment’s notice, anywhere in the system, without warning. The human race had entered a new era where they could kill each other among the stars.