“Yes, Sir,” she replied without batting an eye.
“We’ve finished our analysis of Wing Commander Buu’s scans,” announced his lead Tactical Analyst, Lieutenant Gwen Yore. She was a thin, bird-like woman who was ten years his senior, but she didn’t look it. A refugee of New Australia, she seamlessly brought her expertise to his crew months before, along with two hundred and three survivors from their capitol city, Sydney. They came from another in a long list of great cities and worlds that had been ravaged by the Holocaust Virus, then taken by Regent Galactic.
“Go ahead,” Oz said.
“Most of the scans are inconclusive, but he was right to respond quickly. There is at least a carrier in there, it’s able to shield its power core from scans, but close scrutiny of the asteroid field revealed the profile of a K-103 Class Combat carrier and three destroyers, E-309’s. Those are two generations older than the Barricade, but they’ve been modified with low emission shielding, not something we’ve seen in Regent Galactic technology before.”
“What do you think about the possibility of Citadel’s involvement?” Oz said.
“Too early to say conclusively, but there is external technological influence in play. I believe that this hidden battlegroup is in the solar system to launch stealth missions, to check on us and the British Alliance. I expect that they will withdraw if they think they were discovered.”
“Unless there is more than one carrier group in there,” Oz said.
“I understand your need to plan for the worst,” Lieutenant Yore said, “But there’s no indication that there is more than one carrier group from these scans. While this is not a complete scan of the asteroid field by any means, I don’t believe we’d find more.”
“Your recommendation?” Oz asked.
“The British have confirmed that they are not ready to act yet. This carrier group will be gone by the time they make a decision and formulate a plan. We are ready, and the Triton alone has all her combat systems operational for the first time in her history. The Warlord is ready as well, and its combat level is that of a heavy destroyer in a stealth-capable package one eighth her size. With that in play, I recommend we make the decision for the British Alliance and force their hand. If we depart to block the escape of this carrier group, they will most likely order ships to support us. We should disable and capture everything we can if we find ourselves with the advantage, except for the carrier at the centre of their group.”
“That gets destroyed,” Oz said.
“Exactly, in the first seconds of the engagement if possible. My only other concern is that there is another carrier group in or near the system standing by, waiting for the forces protecting Kambis and Tamber to diminish so they can execute a direct attack. If that were to happen it would be from Kambis’ daylight side, since most forces are in place to defend Tamber. I advise you to keep one ear turned its direction,” Lieutenant Yore said.
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Oz said. She didn’t stay at his side for further praise, but left to re-join her team and continue analysing data. “Five minute warning, we will be leaving orbit.”
Chapter 12
The Captain Returns
The temptation to explore the unfettered database of the Warlord for information that was kept from him while he was out of commission was almost too much to resist for Jake. He consoled himself with what mattered. The bridge of the relatively small warship was filled with some of the people he cared about most.
“I won’t be here during the action, my job is to take care of what’s going on aboard the ship and to be ready for incursions,” Alice was telling Ayan to Jake’s left as she showed her the security console.
Finn was getting Ayan’s engineering console ready behind the command seat. To Jake’s right Stephanie was giving Frost a brief kiss. “See you after,” she told him. He responded by attempting to pinch her bottom, but was thwarted by her armoured hand.
Ashley was concentrating on going through the pre-flight checklist with her temporary co-pilot, Jim Nethidge. He was younger than she was, but one of the few trained navigators the Rangers had. He was on loan since her regular navigators were all off ship. The bleach blonde soldier seemed extremely calm, concentrating on taking everything that Ashley was telling him in and helping with the checklist without any extra commentary.
Kadri Dutta, their communications and scan officer, was relaxing at her station and noticed Jake looking across the bridge. She offered a warm smile. “Welcome back, Sir,” she said quietly. “Sorry the reception was cancelled.”
Jake leaned forward in his seat, whispering conspiratorially even though he knew everyone on the bridge would be able to hear him anyway. “I’d rather come back to this than that crowd waiting for me in the Triton’s rear observation.”
“Well, we know your weakness then,” Kadri replied, “Large crowds.”
The mission timer started counting down from five, and the list of events that would take place during the countdown appeared in front of him. “I feel for the people who planned it though, I’m sure they went to a lot of trouble,” he said as he scanned through the mission timer details. The only ones that mattered to the Warlord were the orders to prepare while they remained docked, and the departure time.
“It’s all right, don’t worry,” Ayan said. “I’m more excited about the welcome I’ll be giving you when I get you back to quarters.”
“Okay, yuck,” Alice muttered under her breath.
Jake sobered himself by looking around the darkened bridge. The stations in front of him as well as those to his left and right were built more like cockpits, the seats sliding under the consoles and securing the people working in. There were extra stools that were stowed on arms underneath the consoles in between. Behind his command seat there was enough room for three consoles, two were related to engineering and one was multi-purposed.
Behind that, facing the rear wall of the small bridge were three more slide-in consoles, all spares that weren’t currently in use. Kadri had a plan for expanding the communications and sciences staff aboard the ship if the mission required it, and Jake mentally promised himself that he’d take a closer look later.
He sat in the centre, upon a slightly raised dais. The Captain’s seat was surprisingly comfortable despite its simplicity. Most of the displays he saw were holographically projected in front of him, the rest were at his crewman’s stations or projected on the hull at the front of the bridge.
Ayan took her place behind him at an engineering station. “Thank you for bringing me on for this, Finn, I hope I’m not crowding you,” she told her.
“Are you kidding?” Finn asked. “It’s an honour. Besides, you can take care of things for me here if I have to run off and help with repairs in person.”
The mission counter ticked down to three minutes and Jake nodded to himself. It didn’t matter how nervous he was, there were some things all Captain’s had to do before a major mission, a mission that could land them in the middle of a major conflict. “Kadri, open a channel ship-wide.”
“Yes, Sir,” she replied. “Your attention please for an announcement from our Captain,” she announced gently. A green circle appeared in front of Jake’s command seat, telling him that there was a channel open to the entire ship.
“We are at the fast end of the ‘hurry up and wait’ military paradigm, so this will be quick. I am proud of how this crew performed in my absence. You’ve made me proud, and now that I have returned to command, I vow to guide you through the coming war using all the resources at our disposal and whatever wisdom I can bring to this command. In two minutes we will be making a quick transit across the solar system, responding to a report that Regent Galactic have violated our borders. The Warlord’s assignment is three fold: to assist the Triton in securing the area. To capture a military ship and transfer our command flag to its bridge. To return to Tamber orbital space with our prize. That is what the Warlord does, it takes from our enemies, and whatever it cannot take it destroys,
so the Order and its allies are always thinking twice about continuing this conflict. I am proud to be with you again, there is no better crew.”
Frost whistled loudly and brought about a brief round of applause on the bridge and down the pair of narrow hallways leading to it.
“Well done, Captain,” Ayan said from behind him, only loudly enough for him to hear.
As the mission timer ticked to thirty seconds, the revelry was over, and all bulkhead doors were closing across the ship. A large wormhole formed in front of the Triton. As the large ship and the Warlord attached to it slipped inside, Jake caught a glimpse of a row of other medium sized vessels approximately the size of the Warlord forming up behind them. He knew who they were from the mission list, the reserves. If there was a real engagement on the other side, something that they could use help with, there were forty two more combat ready ships in the Triton Fleet, all ready to join the fray at a moment’s notice.
The size of the Fleet had Jake in awe, but he blocked out distractions and got ready for what awaited them on the other side of the wormhole.
“Here we go,” Finn sighed from his place at the Engineering station.
Chapter 13
Bafek City
It hadn’t become apparent to Governor Tate that he’d come to depend on the opinions and advice of his houseguest, the enigmatic Wheeler, until the man split off to go his own way for a day. He also trusted the man less and less as the distance between them grew. He knew Wheeler was keeping parts of his plan from him, and he suspected that time and distance would enable him, and if there was one thing he recognized in Wheeler, it was that he was a man that needed to be controlled.
The Governor had to put that out of his mind, however. He watched as the buildings of Bafek City drew nearer. The continent surrounding that tall skyline was a pit of brown marshes and blackened wastes. The planet was host to large deposits of heavy metals, and a unique soil mixture that released rare chemicals when it was burned. Lursur’s land could be burned until the entire continent was black, then tilled and burned again hundreds of times before the expensive resource was fully harvested.
His armoured shuttle passed through the barrier that kept the tall city’s air clean, and the grey-brown film that everyone outside of it had to live in. “May I ask you a question, Governor?” asked one of his new Order Knights. The soldier was a believer, a hero who saved two wealthy families from a rebel attack on Governor Tate’s home world. He’d also fought in the previous expansion as a boarding officer who was involved in half a dozen successful combat operations. For the life of him, Governor Tate couldn’t remember his name, but he was a perfect fit for one of the four Order Knight positions he decided to fill. The narrow faced helm muffled his voice, so it was almost indistinguishable from the sound of the other soldiers around him.
“Please do, it might distract me from the view,” Governor Tate replied.
“Thank you,” replied the Knight, one of a pair he took with him for this trip. “Isn’t it strange for our Lady to choose this as her first meeting place in the solar system? Wouldn’t one of the cleaner cities be a better choice?”
“She is here to recruit,” Governor Tate said. “I suppose she believes that the people here are ready to follow her because the place is so drab, but most of the free people in Bafek live behind the barrier, in the city, so I don’t know what she’ll accomplish.”
“I told you everyone outside the barrier was on indentured contract,” said the other Order Knight, a woman who was a celebrated police sergeant. Governor Tate heard that there was an entire day and night of celebration when she was given her position and the gift of immortality through the new framework technology. “She can’t recruit people who still owe money or are serving a punitive labour term.”
“Exactly,” Governor Tate said. “But there are still some free people outside of the clean air barrier, and on other continents that aren’t so heavily worked. I suppose there are people who would rather live the adventure of being an Order Follower.”
“If you pardon my forwardness, it doesn’t sound like you believe, Governor,” said the former police officer.
Governor Tate shook his head slightly. “I’m denied my place in paradise,” he told her. “As Governor I follow the calling to serve the public, and that requires a practical mind,” he said, trying to keep the practiced speech from sounding like a recitation. He crafted it at Wheeler’s urging, a part of the man’s advice on how to trick his people into thinking that he, their Governor, was one with the cause. The purpose? To keep from being put in an adversarial position across from Eve and her followers, something that Wheeler convinced him he could not afford. “I can’t daydream of living on a lush world where the food is fresh and plentiful, presented on a platter morning noon and night. Those blue skies and perfect, sacred nights filled with beautiful people are something you and your fellow Knights can count on when you’ve earned your way to them, whereas I must maintain the supply chains, the defence and practical considerations that build such places,” the flowery speech seemed so gaudy, overblown when he was practicing it with Wheeler, but aloud, in front of two Order Knights and twenty-six trained soldiers who were technically Regent Galactic military, it sounded like he really did believe, and he had their attention without even trying. He paused, sighed, and looked down at his hands as though they bore the callouses of endless work. They were perfect, manicured and clean, but he could almost convince himself of the fantasy. “Well, I will be here for decades longer, making sure paradise can be real for people just like you when your service elevates you to the worthy position. When my work is done, there will be a place for everyone who earns it, and maybe, just maybe there will be a place for me when it’s time for me to put my burden down.”
“Thank you, Governor,” said the hero soldier Knight. A few soldiers quietly echoed his thanks.
The rest of the trip took place in silence, and Governor Tate did his best to look as though he was considering the burdens of caretaking for entire worlds as he watched the tall buildings slowly pass outside. He couldn’t wait for the shuttle to touch down so he could move on with his day, and when they landed atop the central port spire, a tall, square structure with bays for over a hundred small and mid-sized ships, he couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.
The Order Knights led the way, with soldiers surrounding him, keeping pace as they walked down the broad ramp at the rear of the armoured shuttle. Five fighters, their escort, hovered near the edges of the landing platform. The unmistakeable scent of the Lursur continent, a slight burnt smell that seemed to stick to the nostrils for days afterwards, was in the fitful gusts of air around them.
A small Order of Eden combat shuttle swept down and landed expediently at the other end of the platform. As the ship eased onto the deck the ramp lowered, and before it had completely come down a group of three youthful people emerged, striding towards them. Something about their gait or disposition made the soldiers around Governor Tate tense.
He couldn’t put his finger on it, but there was something about them that made the Governor uneasy. They wore some kind of slender equipment bag firmly strapped to their left legs, and an unusual sidearm on their right thighs. Their armour was unlike anything the Order had, smooth, with flexible padding instead of plates, and coloured dark brown with black. The colour shifted as they moved across the deck, making them difficult to focus on.
As they drew to within comfortable speaking distance, Governor Tate stepped forward to stand between his heavily armed Order Knights, and stopped as he looked into the eyes of the newcomers. Within their dark hoods he could see that their skin was extremely pale, two of them had jet black hair, while the one in the middle had perfectly white hair that was cut to a practical short length. Their eyes were washed of colour, their pupils and irises just grey enough to be distinguishable from their perfect whites. “We come in service of Eve, to speak to Governor Tate,” said all three in unison.
“I understood th
at I’d be meeting with her personally,” Governor Tate said, trying to act as though he wasn’t completely taken aback by the performance.
“Lucius Wheeler avoids her, but he is a close confidant of yours. You will have to determine why he does not want to appear before her when he is so concerned with helping you inject yourself into the centre of the Order’s politics,” said the soldier in the middle.
“I don’t know what she’s been told, but I have no choice but to get involved, with her coming here.”
“She has not been told,” the trio said together. “We just learned it from the surface thoughts. Wheeler has become a part of your decision making process in very little time, and we know the man’s history. He is as dangerous as he is useful. You will have to appear with him at your side if you wish to meet Eve in person. He must be read by a Trio Cell, just as you have been.”
“I am the head of government here, no one ranks above me, especially not Wheeler,” Governor Tate protested. “He isn’t even a citizen.”
“We understand why you may find our determination insulting,” the trio said. The white haired woman in the centre stepped forward, speaking alone. “You have to put that aside. Citadel is allied with Eve now, and she trusts us to keep her safe so she can continue her work without worry.”
“Citadel, I understand,” Governor Tate said, doing his very best to disguise the fact that he had no idea what Citadel was. A slight smile broke the perfectly placid expressions of the trio in front of him, and he could only suppose they could hear the ignorance in his thoughts – if they could indeed read minds. It infuriated him, but he didn’t care as long as his ignorance was hidden from his soldiers.
The trio turned to leave and Governor Tate let them go, even though he wanted to force them to produce Eve so she could answer his questions, so he could influence her to leave his indentured workforce alone. He would return with Wheeler, but not before he got some answers from the man about Citadel and so many other pressing matters.
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