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Stillstorm: "I want you to trust me!"

Alex: "Well, that will take a while, considering your past actions. However with time and shared respect I'm sure we can form a relationship that will last the ages and bridge the gaps between our two peoples-"

Stillstorm: "PSYCH! I was only foolin! I only wanted to deceive you for my own ends!"

Alex: "..."

Stillstorm: I lied about having lied. Get naked!

Might become an actual plot point in chapter 6 or so.

After a few seconds of silence, a reliefed Alex spoke again. „I must say Commander, you really had me there. I thought Loroi to be always direct and truthful. Your trick caught me totally by surprise.“

Stillstorm barked out a sharp laugh as an answer. Then she fixed Alex up with a stare.

„That was payback for making me belief it really wanted an ecnounter with me after Gora Relay. So I gave it some ideas of my own to consider, too. A simple matter since the advantages of Sanzai with perfect Lotai are apparent.“

Stillstorm had just admitted to having such thoughts about him, realised Alex. Thoughts, she knew, he'd also now have and couldn't act upon without looking like an ass. Strange how this Loroi time and again managed to make him feel played.

whichever direction you guys have planned to take it, is perfectly fine by me as a reader and fan, however, I could see the Tinza fleet and the reserve fleet having been surrounded and almost destroyed in the battle for Sala-128 and admiral Duskcrown dead. Seeing how hopelessly outgunned they are she would have gone out in one final blaze of glory in typical loroi fashion. If the two strike groups manage to get the Tinza fleet remains back to Enedd, Stillstorm might find herself in overall command and having all the sector defense now dumped onto her. That would be a good internal conflict for her in a "I never asked for this" kind of manner. After all, while not having an acute death wish, she is jaded as can be and has pretty much written herself off as it is - she has made enemies in the government and High Command that want her dead and her military career is effectively at an end. Now, I don't remember where exactly, but I remember reading that Stillstorm lost both (?) of her daughters, with whom she was apparently very close, in the war and revenging them is the sole thing that keeps her going (and Tempo, assigned to watch over her to keep her from doing something stupid).

I am leaning onto about 50% to 60% loses with the numbers taken from this post here: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 035#p31035

So at best 3 to 4 divisions still left after disengaging from Sala-128 with 1 more division left at Nezel as a reserve. In my head I planned to have Duskcrown still alive but both Soshrets that went to Sala-128 to have died, for some political drama and to have her promote Stillstorm to Soshret after some much needed explaining.

This is because the seven divisions that jumped to Sala-128 didn't immediately go there because of a dire need of replenishment and ship reshuffling due to casualties sustained, so they lost some extra time doing that, I would say about a day, day and a half. Until the arrival of these seven divisions the fighting at Sala-128 should have been somewhat balanced with about 7 to 8 Loroi divisions against 9 divisions which are led by the Stray. After the arrival of the reinforcement things would go to hell really fast but in my estimates the numbers should align. I planned to put Umiak loses in Sala-128 to 4 or 5 divisions.

P.S. I plan to have this offensive be the tip of the spear that wasn't detectable via farsense, the shaft that is detectable is on the way. And there have to be probing attacks underway throughout the Seren front, not the numbers arrayed against Tinza but enough to keep the main fleets busy.