Chapter 10 – Preparations
Master Sthenys watched the activity in the space over Cortex with glee. The battle that had occurred after the peace talks had taken its toll, but the Mentarchy's navy had quickly reorganized. The remains of 1st and 3rd Fleets had been consolidated into a new 1st Fleet, and ships from other worlds had arrived for reassignment. In total, there were now six full-strength battle fleets in orbit.
The assassination attempt hadn't worked out as planned, and Jerry Harper's escape was a source of frustration, but it wasn't a total loss. The Sunfire battle group had been hammered pretty hard. Those Commonwealth Navy ships had limped into cross-space and barely made it home. One of the advantages of the Reliant Breed was its industriousness, so attrition tended to hurt th
