Coeus?

by Andur

  Gideon raises a finger. “But! How do the Drazi know that attacking here allows them to punch right through their opponent's defences?”

  “The Forlorn and the Drazi are fighting a long and exhausting conflict. The Drazi surely know the topography of Forlorn space.” I argue.

  “Yes, yes. That's for sure. But the Forlorn aren't as stupid as to announce the positions of their military ships to merchants or other vessels. I've studied the encounters between Forlorn and Drazi. Did you realize that they never attacked this sector.” Gideon asks.

  I call up the comprehensive file we got about Forlorn and Drazi history. “You are right. So the Drazi deliberately prepared this attack over several decades?”

  He shakes his head. “No. The Drazi didn't do it on their own. I think they are being guided by an insider.”

  My head snaps towards him. “The Drazi have a spy under the Forlorn? Isn't it much easier to believe that they simply captured information from a Forlorn ship?”

  “Of course it's possible. But I am not thinking about a spy. I doubt that the traitor is a Forlorn or an Drazi... for obvious reasons. Who else has access to Forlorn space?” He looks at me with questioning eyes.

  I furrow my forehead. “You can't mean Ayo?”

  “Not necessarily, though I am finding it very suspicious that he gave us the new technology. Either his people are very naive or it's some sort of test.” Gideon explains.

  I try to think of the new technology. The zero-point generator is a pretty normal reactor, but it works by using positrons to raise matter to a higher energy state. The result is antimatter which annihilates itself with the rest of the real matter inside the reactor. You end up with generating more energy than you've put in, but it's a dirty and radiation heavy process. “So what reason do the Zeen have to give us that tech?”

  “To stop the Drazi of course.” Gideon answers.

  Now I am confused. “But didn't you just accuse them of using the Drazi against us?”

  “No, no. You see. The Forlorn are a very patient bunch. As are we. Both of our races knew of each other and did nothing for several hundred years. We simply leaned back and told ourselves that everything is fine as long as the other party stays on its side of the fence.” He smiles.

  “Things only started moving when a few Drazi ships led that Forlorn ship to Sol.” Gideon scratches his chin.

  “They were chased.” I point out.

  “It's suspicious if someone gets chased in a straight line to us. The Drazi could've split up and saved two thirds of their fleet at any point. I think they are taking us for fools. It's a plot to get us involved. I believe that someone inside the society got impatient and used the Drazi to force first contact. I wouldn't go so far to say that the unknown chased the Drazi away from their homeworlds to use them against the Forlorn and us. But they certainly used them in some form.”

  He ends his explanation. “I don't know who, but I think we'll find out if we visit this gathering of theirs. Ayo and the Zeen are a very good candidate. It's a really strange coincident that they sent him here just at the right time.”

  My head starts spinning. “You know that you are spinning a story which will cause real headaches to the elders?”

  “That's why I want one of those Drazi ships. They are a hint we can legally lay our hands upon. I also would like to take a look inside Ayo's head, but that would probably cause a diplomatic incident.” He smirks and taps onto his armrest.

  “They are here.”

  42. ~Unforeseen Reactions.~

  “

  Shadows and Light!

  ”

  -Cryptic Message

  System 82456, Coeus

  Gideon

  “That's still one heck of a theory.” Cyla comments after a few minutes of watching the approaching Drazi fleet. “I think your sister mentioned that you like crafting such theories. And that I should be careful in believing them.”

  “But you didn't find an argument against it!” I point out. “I admit that many of my theories don't turn out to be true, but I predicted the plot behind the teleportation spell and aliens!”

  “Ahem. Your sister also explained the thing with gods, chocolate and acquiring limitless power?” Cyla raises an eyebrow, looking at me questioningly.

  Yeah, I guess I started fantasizing on that one. I avert my eyes and notice that it's the first time that I actually can't stand her looking at me. “Okay. I admit that I get carried away... sometimes.” She is still looking at me. “And I admit that reading old religious texts can't be considered as gaining actual knowledge.” Her gaze is still on me, but this time I decide to put a stop to it. “Give me some leeway, I was experimenting with alcohol and got drunk.”

  Finally my girlfriend stops looking at me in 'that' way and returns her attention to the tactical display. “So, what do we do if the Forlorn lose to the Drazi?”

  “We turn tails and run?” I ask. “We just made a deal to transport their fleet. We didn't say that we fight their battles.”

  “We also kind of forced our strategy on them. Doesn't that make us responsible for what happens?” She asks.

  I shake my head. “It's the best we can achieve within the limited time. Of course we could try to stop the Drazi later, but that would involve fighting them in Forlorn space.”

  Cyla doesn't reply to that.

  We sit and wait for over an hour while we watch the Drazi fleet approaching the gas giant. Someone once said that war consists of eternities of waiting and seconds of pure terror. The waiting part at least he got right.

  It's also a little anticlimactic if there is no one on the bridge who updates you constantly on the tactical situation. Maybe having an actual bridge with more people has a certain amount of style. But as techno-mages we don't need that. Once we link up to the ship there is no need to control it. We are the ship. It's like an extended part of our bodies.

  Then the Drazi arrive at their destination and twenty ships start descending into the atmosphere of the gas giant to refuel. Apparently they decided refuel in turns so that the others can stand guard while a few of them are trapped in the planet's gravity well.

  It's understandable if you think about their insufficient drives. Once they are down inside the atmosphere they are pure targets.

  Firing lasers like theirs inside gas results in creating something unpleasantly hot right next to their ships. I am not entirely sure if it would only burn out their lasers, or melt a hole into their hulls. Such weapons are only usable inside vacuum.

  With the enemy fleet reduced by twenty ships, that's the moment the Forlorn were waiting for. At our current distance from the gas giant we can't really see what exactly is going on for ourselves, but we solved that problem by leaving a stealthed sensor platform with the Forlorn.

  From one moment to the next Drazi ships are turning into miniature suns. The Forlorn decided to focus fire them down ship by ship. It's saying a lot about their perception of this kind of warfare.

  The Drazi were taken by surprise, but that didn't stop them from fighting back. Seconds after the first Drazi ships start counter-attacking a Forlorn ship lights up in blazing laser fire and disperses into atoms.

  Both parties prove one thing to me. “They rely entirely on their shields and lasers to slug it out. The one who can take the most damage while dishing out enough to overwhelm the others defences wins.”

  “It's understandable if you think about their shields. When we fought that Drazi ship, we forced it into a short encounter.” Cyla gestures at the hologram above us. “I calculated the energy their shields can absorb. If they fight by doing short flybys, they aren't able to dish out enough energy to take down the enemy. They have to force long encounters.”

  I scratch my chin while watching the two forces. The entire encounter was brutal and took less than a minute. It reminded me of two brutes who are beating each other with blunt weapons. The Drazi took a hell of a beating. Much more than the Forlorn anticipated. It's good that we transported a
s many Forlorn ships as possible.

  “This must be another generation of Drazi ships. But it seems like the advantage of surprise is enough.”

  Cyla nods as the first Drazi ships start accelerating away from the encounter. With their formation broken the Drazi can't oppose the Forlorn fleet any more. “The Forlorn waited until some of the Drazi went down to refuel, which further reduced their fleet's fighting power. The Forlorn still lost eleven ships to the Drazi. Now they can wait until the other Drazi climb back out of the planet's atmosphere. They'll have a nice head start in dishing out fire while the Drazi can't do anything else but take it.”

  I snort and split the tactical hologram into three, one for each group of fleeing enemies. “Two are rising above the solar ecliptic. One is going downwards. It's unlikely that we'll get those in time with our fleet's main body.”

  I still order five of our ships to hunt the lone Drazi and send ten for the other two. Their commands are only to hunt and destroy. Even if they don't get them before they go FTL, they'll catch them in the next system.

  The pilots of the ships in question acknowledge the command and start accelerating. “Their superior numbers should be enough to destroy the Drazi relatively safely and it'll give them fighting experience.”

  “You don't want to try to capture those?” Cyla asks. “Isn't it better if we try as many captures as possible?”

  “No. I am not sure how feasible it is to capture a Drazi ship. Do they blow up their ships before they get captured? Can we even damage them to the point where we can attempt to board them? We'll try it with the third group which is heading our way. We have the weapons platform here. That's the only reason why I want to try it.” I explain.

  Cyla concentrates on the eight ships which are coming our way. “You were right to position the fleet at the point where they entered the system. Apparently they have a tendency to flee back the way they came.”

  I shrug my shoulders. “It was really just a guess. If you run into something unexpected and get a bloody nose, you run back the way you came. You don't pick a random unexplored direction, but one that you know is safe.”

  Then I command our fleet to accelerate towards the eight Drazi ships. I designate seven of them as instant kills for the new disruptor weapons and one to be left alone. That one will be taken down very carefully by using lasers.

  Cyla interrupts me. “You've chosen the hunting parties to have a five to one superiority above the Drazi. We've just thirty five ships here. Doesn't it make the engagement dangerous?”

  I purse my lips. “I thought the weapons platform counts for a few ships?” I answer.

  “Only if it doesn't turn out to be just one, huge target.” Cyla answers a little less optimistic.

  She's right, but the platform got several layers of highly heat resistant ceramics as armour in addition to reflective shielding spell-circuits. I really hope that it can take a beating to make this plan work.

  The two battle groups approach each other until the Drazi enter our maximum weapon's range. It doesn't look like they've seen us, probably they are paying much more attention to possible pursuers. It would make sense to have a big part of their sensors on the Forlorn. We wait for several more seconds while our battle group accelerates to match the speed and direction of the fleeing Drazi.

  I give the order. “Fire.”

  Then it happens all at once. Our ships aim their disruptor fields at the seven enemy ships, five for each of them.

  The Drazi disappear in a flash of light as bright as a sun and all radiation alarms go off. If I could've done so I would have used my hands to cover the sensors, but the Coeus doesn't have hands. What happened instead was the complete shut down of the sensor platform.

  “What the fuck!” I still try to make sense of what happened as I command the Coeus to roll. There is another sensor platform on the other side of the ship and it didn't get burned out. The rest of our ships report a similar problem.

  The only ones who still have vision are the pilots on the weapon's platform. And that's only because we designed it as a juggernaut with heavily shielded sensors. You can't have a juggernaut which goes blind as soon as it is attacked.

  “Apparently we made some miscalculations. The disruptor field must have created some unpleasant interactions with the Drazi energy generators.” Cyla tries to explain.

  “Good! But whatever it is, we need some really good sunglasses if we ever use those weapons again!” I rub my mental eyes. “And a better feedback protection.”

  But this might have worked to our advantage. The ship which we didn't use the disruptor on survived and is still flying on its course.

  Explosions in space, even big ones, aren't all that scary if they aren't really big. On an interstellar scale you can sit right next to a nuke and be fine as long as you shield yourself from the radiation.

  Nukes are only a problem if they go off inside an atmosphere or you are practically hugging them in space.

  “The Drazi must be blinded completely. They were inside the blast. Proceed with the plan.” I order the Coeus on an intercept course with the Drazi vessel. If we were blinded, then the Drazi must have gotten the outer layer of their ship scrubbed off.

  Lasers stab into the Drazi ship. First one, then more. One by one as it becomes clear that their shields are still holding. This phase of the battle is a very delicate one.

  Our whole fleet has to close in as much as possible to reduce the time delay of our weapons. That also means that the Drazi can fry us if they get a good shot with their weapons.

  And indeed they try. Their lasers are shooting in random directions, proving that their sensors were burned to a crisp.

  The Drazi shield flickers as thirty beams from low energy lasers stab into it from all directions, aiming at weapons and other essential components. Then it winks out of existence and we start peeling the ship like an onion.

  First go the weapon systems, drive modules, sensors. Everything that doesn't look like a piece of hull. After a few minutes the formerly claw-shaped ship looks like a burned potato. Luckily it didn't blow up. According to the Forlorn the claw-shape is a necessity of the warp-drive.

  The enemy ship is now a dead hulk in space as far as we can tell. I contact Ed and his men in the living quarters. “It seems like we managed to prepare one for you. Are you ready?”

  Ed snorts. “As far as someone can be ready for such a stupid idea. Please remind me once more why they shouldn't simply blow up their ship?”

  “There is no particular reason. We are hoping to get lucky.”

  “I see.”

  43. ~Illegal trespassing.~

  “

  Throwing a chicken into the weasel’s den is? - Feeding the weasel.

  Throwing a weasel into the chicken house is? - A massacre.

  ”

  -Making distinctions

  System 82456, Coeus

  Gideon

  “Then I'll activate the drones.” I inform Ed and activate the swarm while drifting closer to the enemy ship. I already used similar devices not too long ago. They worked so well that I decided to use them again instead of putting the faceless in danger. Ed and his men are as close as it gets to an elite fighting force, but they aren't immortal and we have just a few of them.

  In addition we have no idea how many Drazi there are on the ship. Do they work like us? Or more like the Forlorn. I fear that the innards of a Drazi ship are bursting with them. The Forlorn told us that the Drazi tend to crew their ships with as many people as possible to have a sufficient stock of colonists wherever they go.

  I observe the drones in silent fascination as they flood out of my remaining freight hangar and towards the Drazi ship. Priority number one. Find their computer systems, access them and hack them. Priority number two. Poke the ship full of holes and remove the Drazi infestation. The easiest way to clean their ship should be exposing them to vacuum. At least I hope so.

  A ringing sound in the back of my head informs me that the drones s
ucceeded in connecting to the Drazi network. That's about as much as our previous attempts managed to do. The drones aren't very smart, so I guess they always tripped over some sort of firewall to alarm the Drazi of our intentions.

  This time we'll attempt the hack ourselves. “Are you ready, Cyla?”

  “Of course, Dear.” She answers.

  “Dear?” Since when am I her dearest? It's like we are a married couple and already have grandchildren.

  “I just tried out how it sounds. Should I not call you that?” She asks.

  “Never mind.” It just startled me. “Let's get this over with.”

  I enter my own virtual reality and dive into the Drazi network, closely followed by Cyla. Together we sift through the strange information. It always feels a little weird if you suddenly have to use different protocols. Imagine it like changing from riding a motorcycle to a horse.

  Being inside the Drazi systems feels like working with a PC that's ten generations behind. You do something and it takes seconds to respond. Of course the Drazi systems are as good as electron based computers can be, but they are still slow. Aaaah, the benefits of quantum based computing.

  Cyla and I start copying protocols, intercepting messages and observing the network until we finally find a way to disguise our data packages as the ship's own system.

  It takes a short eternity, but finally I manage to map out the Drazi network and request access to the main computer core. What I find there is stunning and fascinating at the same time. Another virtual reality. I don't hesitate and request a merging of both virtual realities.

  A virtual reality isn't really needed to control a computer or a ship. We are only using it if we want to feel our own bodies while we are working. It's just a question of comfortability for a techno-mage.

  So why would the Drazi need a virtual reality? How do they even link up to a VR-simulation? Do they insert ports into their heads?

  In the next moment I find myself in a room with five Drazi. They are standing in a circle, facing each other and working on holograms which are representing their ship.