“Commodore, I must interrupt,” Prime Minister Layland said. “I just don’t understand how a race with jump technology can look upon the galaxy and see limited resources. I mean, I can understand when they were limited to a single system, but now?”
“It would appear the fundamental nature of their jump drive technology is in part responsible, Mister Prime Minister,” Tsukioka replied. “From the Siege of Earth, we know that the Nameless cannot jump to interstellar space. They must jump from one solar system to another and those individual jumps cannot be too far. Which means the vast starless void between galaxies is a barrier they cannot cross. When this galaxy dies, they will have no means of escape.”
When Layland opened his mouth to speak Tsukioka cut him off.
“Sir, this is an alien mindset. It is the worldview that guides them. As humans have demonstrated repeatedly, reality is a matter of opinion. Now moving on, after the attack, they rebuilt, improved their jump drive technology, tracked the aliens back to their home world and destroyed it. Since then, they have destroyed two more races. The Centaurs and a race that had achieve stone-age technology.”
“I’m sorry? Stone age?” Clifton asked.
“Yes, Madam President, the Nameless – an interstellar capable species – discovered a stone-age culture that had merely achieved flint knapping and basic mastery of fire. Yet they classed them as a threat and eliminated them.”
Lewis had been listening silently, but now he spoke up.
“So what you are saying is that the only certain way to end the threat posed by the Nameless would be to inflict genocide on them,” he said in an uncompromising tone. “Which is unfortunate; mainly because we are in no position to do it.”
“Well, that confirms merely what we already suspected – that the Nameless will not end the war on any terms other than their own,” Clifton said. “What else did we get?”
“The jewel in the crown of our discoveries is this.”
Tsukioka pressed a control and the conference table’s holo came to life, displaying a star map.
“This appears to be their region of space and ours as they know it. This cluster here at the top would seem to be the Nameless core worlds, with an outer ring of settled planets.”
“That looks to be a very long way from us,” Layland observed.
“They are located in the next arm of the Milky Way, which means that the distance between us and them is vast,” Wingate replied. “Up to now that distance has played in our favour, since it has meant that they have not been able to project against us anything even approaching their full strength. But now it means we cannot project our strength against them. Simply put, we couldn’t sustain a fleet that far from Earth long enough to win a campaign.”
“Raiding cruisers?” asked the Chinese premier.
“An option certainly but raiders won’t win a war on their own,” Wingate said.
“Alright, carry on Commodore,” Clifton said after a moment.
“Several months ago, Admiral Lewis put forward a suggestion that the Nameless used clones or some other kind of manufactured crews. Based on the initial examination of the bodies brought back by the De Gaulle task force, this could now be described as a working theory.”
Tsukioka paused to operate the holo controls and the star map was replaced by 3D images of two Nameless bodies. Both showed signs of bullet wounds.
“The De Gaulle group brought back over a dozen bodies, enough of a sample to identify two clear groups. The one on the left was what we refer to as the workers. The most immediately noticeable difference is here at the head – this computer socket, with wiring that goes deep into the brain. There is no sign of scarring, which suggests that this is not surgically implanted. The opinion from the medical experts so far consulted, indicates that the only way such equipment could be put into place would be by growing the brain around the wiring.”
“All examples of such Nameless were dressed in Blue. The specimen on the right was dressed in yellow. Other examples were found in various clothing of various colours and style, but never in Blue. The colour they were in, appeared to pertain to role or rank. None of these Nameless had the computer jack. Further examination indicated there were other more physiological differences.”
The image changed. This time they showed each body partly dissected. A few people in the room grimaced.
“The senior doctor with the De Gaulle group opened up two of the bodies to perform a basic analysis. She immediately noticed that compared to those Nameless without the computer port, those with it were missing a number of internal organs. Since one of the un-ported bodies was pregnant, she was able to establish the ported Nameless lack any reproductive organs.”
“So, is it an artificial life form?” Layland asked.
“Yes, sir,” Tsukioka replied.
“A stripped down Nameless,” Lewis interjected, “more or less a biological robot, fitted with nothing beyond the equipment it requires to do the job it was bred for.”
“But to what end such... modifications?” asked the Indian prime minister.
Tsukioka glanced toward Lewis.
“There is no real evidence at this point to support a genuine theory sir,” he said. “But Admiral Lewis had put forward the idea that the Nameless manufacture the ported drones, to use them as a workforce and as the bulk of their military force. It is suggested that these can be grown to a mature state much faster than a ‘natural’ Nameless. The computer port allows the drones to be ‘educated’ while they are grown, so when they are decanted, they are ready to serve as workers – soldiers – whatever Nameless society requires. The ones without the ports are the real Nameless. It offers a plausible explanation as to why the Nameless have always taken such a casual attitude to losses. If only the ship’s officers are classed as real people, then the drones are treated as lost equipment. Given that the Nameless have been seen to use modified animals from the Centaur planet as foot soldiers, with brain tissue used for computers, it seems they have thoroughly mastered bio manipulation technology.”
“Raising the veil seems to raise as many questions as it answers. To create such... abominations...” Clifton trailed off shaking her head.
“Abomination is a human concept,” Lewis said. “If you have the technology and the willingness, then potentially you can replace a lost soldier within a few years. Whereas when we lose a man or woman, it takes us at least twenty years to nurture, raise and train their replacement. So, they have a huge advantage.”
“It may be that after their original Diaspora, and particularly after the alien attack, the Nameless needed to ‘make up the numbers’ and from there, the practice took root,” Tsukioka said. “But now we are guessing.”
“If they are clones, is there any prospect of using biological warfare against them?”
Heads turned sharply. The speaker was the Chinese premier. He looked unperturbed.
“That question has been raised.” Tsukioka’s eyes flicked towards Lewis. “The answer appears to be no, or at least not in any timeframe available to us. With a completely new species, it will probably take ten years just to achieve enough understanding of their biology to even start work on a biological weapon. And that would still leave open the question of how to deliver such a weapon.”
“Regardless of ethics, for practical reasons biological warfare is not the answer,” Wingate added. “Anything too lethal will simply burn itself out before it can affect more than a small number of individuals. Anything slow enough to affect a multi-system species, would take longer to destroy such a species than we have. Even if we had such a compound, it would be a last strike revenge weapon at best.”
“Alright Admiral. I appreciate that we have not achieved a magic bullet, not yet anyway. What can you tell us of the situation on the front?” Clifton asked.
“It remains as it has since we broke the siege. The Nameless continue to avoid large-scale encounters or indeed any encounters likely to result in casualties. Principally, they are t
argeting our support ships, while we in turn engage in search and destroy operations against their gate network and supply dumps.”
“Is this the time to attempt to liberate Landfall?” the Indian prime minister asked. “Would this not force the Nameless to stand and fight?”
“It would also place a substantial part of our fleet a long way from Earth and make a large number of ground troops vulnerable to being cut off if the fleet were forced to retreat again,” Wingate replied.
“Furthermore, such a move would commit a lot of resources to an operation that could not hope to land a knockout blow,” Lewis said bluntly. “And a knockout blow is what we need, not a humanitarian mission.”
“Admiral Lewis, I appreciate your view that we must win the war with our next blow, but we cannot wait forever,” Clifton said. “As you yourself made clear, the window of opportunity is closing. Waiting for the perfect moment is likely to leave us hesitating until the moment is lost.”
Lewis nodded.
“We acknowledge that Madam President,” Wingate replied, “and our time resources are not being wasted. The fleet has gone a long way towards restoring its strength. When we next commit to action, it will be with a stronger and better prepared fleet than anything the Nameless have ever faced before.”
___________________________
A cynic would say that most military officers are promoted at least one step beyond their competence. Commodore Tsukioka was not such an officer. When he’d been assigned to head the fleet’s intelligence and analysis section, he’d known this was the role his entire career, perhaps even life, had been preparing him for. He’d done his time in line postings but let others command ships and fleets, let them win success and glory in action. He would play his part here in the role nature had equipped him for.
That was generally his view but here and now, if some kind spirit had made him an offer to transport him through time and space to the Nameless space station in return for ten years of his life, he would gladly have taken it. Captain Willis had done well, very well in fact, hoovering up everything she could, but so much remained un-gathered.
The footage from the helmet cameras of every marine involved in the assault had been analysed virtually frame-by-frame. In every shot there were computer panels, storage lockers and bits of equipment that had gone un-investigated. How he yearned to know what they were. But the very last image of the station was the one of it coming apart as plasma bolts tore through it.
“I suppose the big question is how much the Nameless know or think we got,” said Tsukioka’s deputy, Lieutenant Commander Zindzi.
“If we have been very fortunate the station’s last signal will only have warned they were under attack,” Tsukioka replied absently. “However, Admiral Nisman is probably correct when he reported the task force’s approach made its intent fairly obvious well before they could silence the station. Not that I believe there was any way we could have avoided that. So it seems more reasonable to believe that the Nameless will consider all information on the station potentially compromised.”
“The history is interesting. You can sort of see where they’ve come from since then. Their First Contact nearly ended in extermination, so why ever take that chance again? I just wonder when they made their offer to allow us to quietly die out? Was it before or after the siege?”
“Hmm. The Junction survivors lost all concept of time while in captivity. Most of them thought they’d been prisoners for no more than six months,” the Commodore murmured before lapsing into silence and beginning to drum his fingers against his collarbone. Zindzi knew how to read that unconscious action. Go away, I’m thinking, it said.
The starmap had indeed been the most vital piece of intelligence they had found. There had been no way to download the information electronically, so instead Captain Willis had used a number of cameras plus several of the marine’s recorders to save it in image form. She’d then managed to identify several parts of human space, which had enabled them to marry it to human starmaps. Good work that – he’d have to see if she could be poached for the intelligence section. At the top of the map, clustered like fruit, were the Nameless, tantalisingly close but out of reach. If there was an answer, then Tsukioka felt it had to be there.
He was still standing on the same spot an hour later when Zindzi once more approached him.
“Sir, a courier has just arrived from the front with an intelligence download. Spectre reached the front two days ago.”
After destroying the enemy station, Nisman’s force had retreated back toward Earth with its precious intelligence cargo. But he’d also detached the Spectre to confirm several points on the Nameless map beyond the station.
“Anything of relevance?”
“Yes, sir,” Zindzi replied, offering a computer pad. “We’re incorporating it into the map now, but this is the raw data. Captain Willis discovered it. She doesn’t believe she was spotted.”
The image quality wasn’t especially good. Clearly it had been taken from vast distance using optical sensors. But what could be made out was a gate station, an unusual one. Those they’d seen before had been one or two space gates tethered to a space station, usually at Nameless supply dumps. But this one was on a different scale, six gates formed into a wide circular formation with the station at the centre. At the moment the image was taken, four of the gates had been operational and ships could be seen both entering and exiting.
“Captain Willis reports they also picked up an FTL transmission from the station. It was low powered but steady and she believes it was being used as a homing beacon,” Zindzi continued.
“What is its position?” Tsukioka asked.
“Coming up on the map now, sir.”
On the screen the icon changed and shifted position slightly, moving further away from the Nameless worlds.
“Captain Willis got a better fix on relative position than we’ve previously achieved through distant observation,” Zindzi explained.
Willis and Spectre had been further from the world of their mutual birth than humanity ever had before – a fact that would normally have been worthy of comment but not now. Tsukioka stared at the map and frowned, deep in thought.
“Please overlay a complete starmap with positions of all known stars within scope of the map,” he called over his shoulder.
That set off a burst of activity behind him. There were so many solar systems in the galaxy, most were neither in useful positions or contained anything of interest or value, so were mostly stripped out of maps for the sake of clarity. But now all those blips appeared on the map. Except near the top where Willis had found the station. There few stars were visible and those that were, were widely space.
“Where one galactic arm becomes another,” Tsukioka said quietly.
The system that station was based in was remarkably isolated, a single star forming a spur out towards the Nameless worlds.
“Without that system, can they reach our region of space?”
Zindzi had seen it as well. She was already hurrying away, shouting at her subordinates to pull out all available starmaps of the edges of the galactic arms.
Chapter Fourteen
The Forgotten Army
23rd July 2068
There was silence within the small hollow as they waited for the Lieutenant to return. As she waited, Alice fiddled nervously with the computer pad. Somewhere out there was a roadway, leading from some kind of Nameless processing centre in the west to croplands they had established in the east. As soon as they had discovered that the Nameless were growing food crops, they’d become an objective. As the head of the small mortar detachment, the faded corporal’s chevrons on her sleeve meant something again. When the Colonel persuaded them to join his small command, she had been expecting to return to her former role as a medic and stretcher-bearer. He’d smiled and described her as overqualified for that.
He was a clever man, the Colonel. Grudgingly, she had to give him that. He had ways of getting people to do wh
at he wanted them to do, yet left them feeling he had done them some kind of favour. In the weeks since they’d first made contact with the marines, more groups of survivors had been discovered. Some wanted nothing to do with the marines and were bypassed, but they were in the minority. Most were desperately glad to regain contact, even if only tenuously, with the rest of the human race.
“Movement!” hissed one of the marines.
“We’re coming in,” someone else called out quietly from beyond view. Lieutenant Byatt crawled down and in, binoculars dangling from his neck, rifle strapped across his back. He was wearing his helmet and chest plate but the rest of his reactive armour was back at base. The power cells the armour required were too difficult to keep charged for regular use.
“Okay, forward party has signalled target is on the move, so we’re on,” he said. “We hit them as they slow to take the bend.” Then turning to Alice, he added: “Mortar section – put down four rounds rapid high explosive along the disengaged side of the road, then move to second position and be ready to drop smoke. Clear?”
“Got it,” she replied.
There was a definite nervousness among the pros about having their heavy support manned by what were, at best, enthusiastic amateurs. But there were only so many marines to go round and they lacked the means to really train the amateurs.
“Alright, get moving.”
Alice nodded and motioned her seven-man detachment to follow. They quickly made their way through the woods to an area that would barely justify the use of the word clearing. Still, there was an opening through the branches, which they’d widened a few hours earlier to give the mortar a clear view of the sky.
Even after all of this time around the military, it had come as a surprise to Alice to learn how simple a piece of equipment even a modern mortar was. Little more than a tube with a nail at the bottom, all the clever bits were in the support stand. Once hooked up to her computer pad, she could set the mortar to run through a pre-programmed firing pattern, within which it would make the necessary adjustments. Not quite idiot proof, but certainly close. Landfall’s GPS satellites had long since been blown from the skies but the pad had an inertial tracking system. All they had to do was to periodically re-zero it and it would do the rest.
The Last Charge (The Nameless War Trilogy Book 3) Page 27
