Captain Fearon - The syndicate battle

Lancers sliced through the ships shields, the ship violently shuddering with each impact, as if it was mere moments from coming apart all together.

"All crew, this is your captain speaking. The crew of the Proud and allied ships are ordered to evacuate their vessels with immediate effect."

Captain Fearon closed the connection, a swift movement of fingers against a holographic display. The display reported the state of his fleet and over the past few hours, the display had been reporting nothing positive. His fleet were under attack by a syndicate world, an off-shoot of humanity who decided not to be governed by the central federation and thus left to find a new world. The central federation was fighting a war against the syndicates on all fronts, ships were being redeployed whilst still under repair, new ships were falling apart at the seams in an effort to simply get more ships out on the playing field. Countless people were losing their lives every day, only to be replaced with new hopeful soldiers, told by their brand new generals that they're on the front foot of the assault and that if they simply press on they will come home to their family victorious. However they never did come home, they either found new homes in slave camps or in the cold vacuum of space.

Captain Fearon received a fleetwide communication channel request on his display, every captain under his command wanted to speak to him simultaneously. The captains chair was held within a audio bubble, as and when Captain Fearon requested, so that the bridge crew did not hear what was being discussed. Captain Fearon activated that feature now and then opened the communication channel.
"Captain Fearon." Lieutenant Newsky of the Hopeful said. "We have discussed your decision instructing us all to abandon our vessels, and we have collectively come to the decision not to abide by your order."
"Lieutenant Newsky, please understand that at our current rate of bombardment, we won't see the next ship day."
"Of course Captain, but we can win this battle without fleeing."
Captain Fearon perked up in his seat, could there be a chance of winning this battle, something he had overlooked in his simulations, or perhaps due to sheer exhaustion?
"Lieutenant, what is your proposal?"
"This star system has a super long range travel gate, a galaxy gate if you will. Our analysis of this particular gate shows that it's weakened, we can't flee through this gate safely. However, we can destroy it."
"Lieutenant you're speaking about a suicide mission."
"Captain with respect, this has been discussed and agreed by all ship captains and we know you wont abandon your ship. We're all in this together."
Captain Fearon scratched his head. Trying to do the numbers in his head.
"What's the blast radius of this galaxy gate, there is a civilised world in this star system, I'm not setting fire to this system if a civilised planet is in the way."
The line went quiet for a moment. "Captain, the blast radius covers the entire planet. We can't blow the gate without also destroying the planet."
Damn it, there has to be another way of doing this. He could send a communication down to the planet advising their evacuation, but without giving a reason they will probably ignore his request and if he gives the reason, the syndicate ships will be sure his fleet never gets close to the gate. Wait a minute. "Lieutenant, do you still have that syndicate prisoner?"
"Yes Captain, what are you suggesting?"
"I'm suggesting we release this prisoner via one of our civilian ships. Undefended, but capable of delivering a message and capable of carrying syndicates from the planet to safety. He will be the one who brings the message to the planet, they will listen to a fellow syndicate more than me, and since his ship is big enough to take most of the planets population it would make sense for them to board. If they don't board, we've given them the chance, but we can't allow this syndicate fleet to advance further into federation space."
"I'll get this prepared now. It will take the ship 12 hours to make landfall, we have to allow at least 48 hours more for the message to be delivered and for the ship to reach a minimum safe distance with the population aboard."
"Very well,we'll say three days, if nothing happens in 72 hours, we blow the gate. We'll use the civilian ship as a smokescreen so we can re-position our ships towards the gate and I'll request a ceasefire from the syndicate ships so that we can return a prisoner. This will give us time to rebuild our ships defenses."

48 hours later.

"Captain Fearon, I'm detecting a launch on the syndicate planet. It's the civilian ship, it's brimming with life signatures."

Thank God, they listened to me. "Okay, lets wait another 24 hours and blow the gate to hell."

Captain Fearon watched on his display as finally the civilian ship reached the minimum safe distance. "Okay, lets do this, fire at the anchors to destablise the gate." All ships fired simultaneously at the gate, the syndicated increased their firepower surprised at the suicidal tactic. The gate destablised and the shockwave smacked the federation ships out into space.

Six months later.

"Captain Fearon, we award you with this medal for your outstanding victory against the syndicate world." The audience applauded, as well as his fellow captains.

Captain Fearon sat in his room, he didn't deserve the recognition. The lieutenant installed hardware that counteracted the gates shockwave, she is the only reason they survived, but all anyone wants is to celebrate the fleet captain, the great Captain Fearon. He rolled over in bed, contemplating his next move. Perhaps this is what Captains do, take the credit.