PtV - Backstory 1 - Chapter 2

Cza'o's Path: Captain's log of the "Red Raven"

Chapter 2 – Incoming Message

The door opened before Cza'o as he approached the bridge. He wasn't due for another 6 hours, but their mission was troubling him so much that he couldn't sleep. It wasn't that he didn't trust his men to deal with any circumstance that may arise, quite the contrary, he just felt that something was off, even though he didn't really know what it was. Yet. He approached the command chair, letting his  first lieutenant, who had watch at the moment, notice him before he spoke.

"How long has it been since the messenger left?"

"About 18 hours, he should have reached the command ship's location 4 hours ago."

"And still no message? They don't seem to understand what's at stake here..."

"Couldn't sleep, sir?" the lieutenant asked.

"No..." Cza'o answered, "I have a bad feeling about this."

The lieutenant chuckled. "No offense sir, but you have a bad feeling about almost everything."

"None taken. I'm mostly right though, aren't I?" Cza'o said and smiled.

"Yes, sir." the lieutenant answered and a little light flashed on the controls of the command chair, followed by two short bleeps.

"And, as always, your timing is impeccable." the lieutenant said as he rose from the command chair and walked over to the communications console. As he touched it, the screen lit up and he brought up the received message. "A hyperspace communique from Fleet Command, they're sending the Tornado and it's fleet."

Cza'o smiled. The "Crimson Tornado" was the newest and most powerful Avatar the Sajuuk'kar had, it had been commissioned just a year ago and had been retrofitted several times since then. It had been equipped with the strongest charging Phase-Ion-Emitter the Sajuuk'kar had ever built, it's defensive turrets were armed with modern Nanite-Lance technology and the additional Armor of Sajuuk was twice as thick as on those Keepers out of the front window . It even had a Preacher Comm array, a unique thing in the fleet of the Sajuuk'kar, it had been a present from the High Priests of Kadesh for lending aid to them after a battle.

The lieutenant switched off the communications console, walked back to the command chair and stood next to Cza'o.

"Sir?" he said and indicated the chair to Cza'o.

"Oh! No, you sit, it's still your watch, I'm just came by because I couldn't sleep."

"Yes sir" the lieutenant said and sat down. "How long has it been?"

"Hmm...8 or 9 months I think, our scheduled vacations just didn't meet. Either he was on a mission or I was on one. And we are always so far apart that we can't even communicate visually, it's always just messages and they're mostly very short."

"Nervous, sir?"

"A little. But mostly about the awkward situations that may arise."

"It isn't really unusual that fathers command their own sons."

"That may be, but they're mostly on the same ship together and the sons aren't that young."

"You are a great commander, even if you are younger than me, sir."

"Thank you Corrin, I appreciate that."

Cza'o was very nervous. His father, commander of the Crimson Tornado, was a well known man within the Cult, one of the oldest survivors of the first Sajuuk'kar and a wise strategist, the greatest the Sajuuk'kar ever had. And since he was getting old, he had already been 48 during the first Keeper War, and Cza'o was his only child, the Sajuuk'kar were expecting great things from him. He had proven himself, maybe not quite as good as his father, but he had always found solutions to problems that some commanders even failed to fully grasp. "He has the ability to think around corners." his father used to say.

"Is he really 7 feet tall?" the lieutenant said and brought Cza'o out of his thoughts.

"Wha...oh. No, he's actually just 5 foot 10."

"Really? Then he's even shorter than me." the lieutenant said in a bemused tone.

"Why do most people think of him as a larger-than-life person? It's not like he takes on High Gardeners in hand-to-hand combat, he commands ships from his command chair!"

"Maybe because of his many accomplishments and his age?"

"He's almost 84, if anything he would be getting shorter, not taller."

It wasn't until after a few minutes before Cza'o spoke again.

"Did they say when the fleet is gonna be here?"

"27 hours at max, probably 24, sir."

"Hm, that leaves us 6 hours to prepare, at best. Better get ready beforehand. Emergency start-up sequences?"

"All in place, ready to be activated."

"You'll wake me if anything happens?"

"I'll send someone to wake you when those metal monsters so much as sneeze, sir."

Cza'o laughed.

"They're allowed to sneeze. But I'm curious what that would look like." Cza'o said, still smiling.

"Yes sir. Any new message, I'll wake you. New Keeper ships arriving, I'll wake you. Keeper ships trying to blow us to bits, I'll wake you."

"Good. First Lieutenant Corrin, you have the bridge, I'll try to get some sleep before my next watch."