Neptune's Massif

by Ben Winston

  At first, this caused a few of the nations to accuse the Terrans of kidnapping; forcing some of the people to remain against their will. That was quickly corrected when the people in question, mostly from communist or other authoritarian controlled countries, were taken to the United Nations where they happily and freely signed documents making their immigration official.

  Unfortunately, none of the four hundred and thirty-six survivors of the Caldarian mines could be released right away. When the UN asked about them, the Terran Ambassador tried to explain, in as gentle a way as possible, what these people had gone through, and why they were still being treated for extreme mental trauma. It took the Ambassador actually showing the footage taken by Alan and his team as they rescued the slaves to convince them.

  The UN immediately offered any assistance the Terrans would need in the treatment of these individuals. In order to maintain trust, the offer was accepted and several 'medical visas' were issued by the Terran council, as well as a few diplomatic passports for visits to the Planet Atlas.

  Palace of Imperial Enlightenment

  Onalau City

  Planet Proferus Three

  Orgatan System, Gar Sector

  After reading the report she had just received, she stood and bowed to the raised throne and the man sitting at the desk at the foot of that dais. "Master, our spies at New Talos report that our allies has begun the rebellion."

  Shalo looked up the new battle plan he had been working up. "That is excellent news, Glamia. The timing will be perfect. Call the clan leaders to council. I have finished our new strategy."

  "At once Master!" Glamia replied. She returned to her desk and sent out the order. She had helped Shalo work out the details of this new strategy and she had to admit, it was very bold. If nothing else, it would certainly leave the ARC forces confused, thus ineffective. It might also serve to break the will of some of the races fighting at the behest of the Alliance of Races. It certainly will not help relations between them.

  "While we're waiting for the Clan Leaders. Tell me what our spy reported," Shalo ordered.

  She again knelt beside her desk. "Master, house troops have captured several primary federal facilities in the Capitol. Currently, more of the house troops have surrounded and have isolated the Talosian Council building. Today was to be a Grand Council meeting so all the heads of the houses were in attendance. He reported that the building security systems had been activated, and the troops were trying to gain entrance. Further information was cut off as a general comms blackout was imposed. Do you wish to dispatch an assault fleet to New Talos?"

  "No, this will actually play well into our hands and will foment even more confusion among the Alliance races. They will wonder and speculate over how the civil unrest of New Talos could cause our forces to withdraw. Their ethics will not permit them to interfere in what appears to be purely an internal matter. If we sent forces there, so would ARC. No, we will pass on this seeming opportunity. However, New Talos is close enough that the new humans might come to the assistance of their brethren," Shalo said thoughtfully. "Alert the mercenaries to this possibility and tell them we will pay bonuses for any information they can gather on these new humans. Triple the bonus for the location of their base."

  An hour later, Shalo and Glamia faced the assembled clan leaders for the assault forces in this galaxy. When Shalo stood, he was pleased to see that none of the leaders bowed. He nodded once and began. "The war has stalled. Because of this, the planets we wished to take are suffering far too much damage. Too much is being lost with little to no gain. This will stop now.

  "Effective immediately, all forces engaged in offensive actions are to withdraw back to our garrison planets. These forces will be reassigned to support those that are currently defending captured worlds. Once the enemy has been driven off, and sufficient forces are restored to the garrison worlds, the fleets will reform at Grimaria Base for refit and resupply."

  Soft mumbling could be heard among the gathered leaders. One bold leader stood and bobbed his head to Shalo. "My Lord, are you suggesting we seek peace?"

  Shalo laughed. "Nothing of the sort! However, if the enemy would like to believe such, let them. We are simply going to change our tactics; the overall goal of taking this Galaxy remains. This war is becoming too costly, and we have allowed ourselves to become bogged down on contested worlds. No, after you have reformed your fleets and have been resupplied, you will be given new missions that will confuse and frighten our enemies. Missions that will wear down and break their will to fight. Missions that will spread their forces out so thinly, that when we return to those contested worlds, they will fall to us so quickly that by the time ARC forces could arrive, we will have already taken the world for our own.

  "We possess hyperspace technology that is far superior to that of our enemies, it is time we began to use it. Two hours ago, I ordered the construction of three gates to be placed near the Failspire Nebula, eight light months out of Grimaria Base. These gates will allow us to drop our fleets on any target within a thousand light years with little to no advanced warning.

  "Your fleets will gate out to a target and jump away under normal drive as soon as you detect any inbound forces. While you are there, you will do as much damage as you can, then simply leave before ARC forces arrive to engage you. These raids will be against mostly undefended or under-defended targets. You will create chaos and fear in every household and more importantly, in the Alliance of Races council chambers.

  "Once they have spread out their fleets in a futile effort to protect themselves, we will return in force, destroy their ships and take their worlds!" Shalo finished to the applause of the assembled leaders. Many of them stood to show support for the bold plan.

  Chapter 9

  Admiral's Office

  TDF Star Dancer

  Pleiades One Orbital Shipyard

  Planet Atlas, Centauri System

  Sol Sector

  Ian looked over the after-action report from the Caldarian base assault and shook his head. How many people had those assholes taken off world while he had been ignoring them? Currently, there was no way they could go after the kidnapped people to rescue them; they didn't have the ships, nor could they leave for the period of time needed to travel to the Caldarian base.

  Later, after this mess with New Talos and Hyperion had been taken care of he could look at doing something about it, but not now - not yet. He silently hoped there would still be someone to rescue when they finally got there.

  There was a note from Luke that Mel had sent stating the Council was considering the re-purposing of the base as a Terran Emergency Response Base and requesting the permanent stationing of the Poseidon there, as well as a battalion of Marines. The redesign would include a full sized Terran medical center, as well as storage for large quantities of emergency relief supplies. The mines would be collapsed and or filled in. The Raptor team and the Marines stationed at the small base would be tasked with putting out the small fires that always seemed to crop up all over the planet. As well as maintain a large amount of supplies in order to respond to catastrophes such as earthquakes and tsunamis.

  Ian could understand the need for it. The Poseidon was already set up for underwater operations, and in conjunction with the new research base in the Hawaiian Islands, it would indeed be able to respond to emergencies far quicker than any space based assets.

  He took the time to send a return note with his approval and recommendations back to Luke and the Council. He felt kind of silly doing that since they were only down on the planet below them; a short shuttle ride away. Not only that, he could have easily called the man. However, both of them were busy and sending a message was the better way of dealing with low priority items like the new base.

  Getting up from his desk, Ian walked over to the balcony over-looking the new bridge of the Star Dancer. Several techs were still down there, working with the operators to work out any bugs or issues they could find with the new equipment. It was al
most like the old girl was a brand new ship; of course, after so many changes and upgrades, you could say she actually was.

  Since he had postponed the mission to Hyperion, Star Dancer was once again put on the schedule for Battle Cruiser conversion. Prometheus would still be completed first, but only by a few days.

  When finished, the two newly redesigned ships would be the most powerful weapons ever built by humans; until the completion of the Tiamat. Although an argument could be made that the two smaller ships were the more powerful, since Tiamat's primary role would be fighter support and space superiority combat operations. Tiamat was a really big aircraft carrier, while both cruisers would be even more like heavily armed battleships.

  Looking out the large view port, Ian could just make out the speck that was the frame of the Pleiades Two station that was now being built. Once that station came online, both stations would begin building a fleet of combat ships for the Talosian Navy, to replace the ships destroyed in the recent civil uprising. Those ships would not be the old heavy cruisers either; Ian fully intended to put everything they had learned into those ships that would consist of four carriers, at least eight more battle cruisers, twelve assault cruisers, as well as all the specialty and support ships the Terrans had designed.

  "Sir, you wanted me to remind you of the upcoming meeting?" Mel said.

  Ian nodded. "Thanks Mel." Commander Serena of the Prometheus, Commander Egran of the Pegasus and, John Harris, now commander of the Zephyr, would be arriving shortly, as would both Commodores Belirus of the Tiamat and Hawkins of the Pleiades Station. Jenny would be joining them as would Ty Anders and all available Raptor team commanders. Colonel Chloe Brighton from Operations, Major Eischens from the Intelligence division and even Beth in her official capacity as CMO were all getting together to build a preliminary plan for an assault on New Talos that would free the planet form the forces now controlling it.

  The ships being sent back by the ARC had not yet arrived, but they were due in soon. In fact, Ian expected them to call in any time. He knew there would have to be one more planning meeting before the mission could be launched; one in which the ships Commanders themselves would be present to provide their own input and alterations to the plans.

  Jenny and Star were the first two to arrive, but Cindy and the other Raptor team leader, Major Corvis arrived moments later. Ian had no more than let them in the door before the rest of the planned for people began arriving. The last to arrive was an out-of-breath Beth, who apologized for being late.

  "You're not late, Beth. We haven't gotten started yet," Ian replied. "In fact, everyone else just got here too. Grab something from the replicator if you want and we'll get started."

  Ian sat and took a drink of his coffee while everyone else got something to drink as well. When everyone had taken their seats, Ian began the meeting. "Folks, I've asked you all here today to help me form a plan of action to deal with the events transpiring on New Talos. At present, what intelligence we have on the situation is almost nonexistent. It is my intention to send the two Raptor teams ahead to evaluate the situation on the planet and take any immediate action that might be needed. They will also attempt to establish contact with Admiral Goya, or Councilor Noren.

  "The ARC has released a number of Talosian troops and ships to us for this mission, but as you all know, they have yet to arrive. Once they do get here, we will meet again to go over the plan one final time before we launch for New Talos. As I am sure most of you know, when this all began, a Council Command Override was issued to all Talosian ships. The ARC reports that roughly half of the forces that were assigned to them evacuated before the ship self-destructed. Since not all the Talosian warships performed the same actions, we believe that Goya and Noren had the time to tell the override computer which ships were loyal."

  "Sir! I apologize for interrupting you, but I have just received an encrypted message from Admiral Goya!" Star said anxiously.

  "Please play it as soon as you can," Ian ordered.

  Instead of the grizzled Admiral Ian had befriended, the image of his pretty young aide, Brekka, took shape on the screen. "Admiral Williams, please forgive the use of Admiral Goya's codes, but I am acting under his orders to do so. Currently, the Admiral is undergoing emergency surgery to remove a badly damaged leg.

  "Sir, he asked me to get a message to you to let you know what has been happening here and to let you know of the situation we are now in." She paused, sniffed while consulting her ever-present pad and continued. "Councilor Noren is in a stasis unit. She was shot in the chest by a laser pistol at close range when House Herecin and House Bjorin tried to kill the rest of the Grand Council. We currently lack the medical facilities to save her, but we did have a stasis unit. We did have the autodoc unit aboard the shuttle we escaped in, but it was damaged during our escape; Admiral Goya is being operated on by the Council Guard medic because we have no doctors with us.

  "We did manage to save most of the Grand Council and have hidden ourselves in an old civil defense bunker. I cannot say where we are at, but Commanders Serena and Egran hold this bunker in their hearts as a special place.

  "The situation on the planet is dire. Houses Boden and Westchurch have allied themselves with Herecin and Bjorin. We have discovered that House Herecin has taken the inmates from the Boden Lunar prisons as soldiers. One of the first things they did was attack all the main government facilities in Elysium. They are in control of the planet, although there are still isolated groups of loyal military and civilians still fighting them. Admiral, I have been asked to tell you that the population is being brutalized. The convicts released from the lunar facilities are performing every sick and twisted thing that enters their minds, there isn't any one to stop them. The constabulary was armed with stun batons and similar equipment. To the best of our knowledge, every one of them was hunted down and killed. The civilian population doesn't have access to weapons in order to defend themselves."

  Again she paused, but this time it was to compose herself. "Admiral, Goya told me that he believed that you would be planning to respond to this event in order to restore sanity to our world. He asked me to tell you that all military installations in the system have either been destroyed or are under control of the rebels. All of the 'House Ships' that were equipped with an AI have been destroyed by Council Override, but there are several smaller ships still functional that are armed, but do not have the destructive capabilities of the larger ships. There are also the House Westchurch fighter bases on the moon Demir.

  "We are not certain, but there is a possibility that one or two of the heavy cruisers might have survived the Override. Three ships had been undergoing massive repairs at the Herecin shipyards, and the special control programing might have been removed from them. We only suspect this is true based on rumors we had heard before the rebellion began.

  "Goya didn't know what you could do to help us, but he prays that you will be able to pull yet another miracle out of hyperspace, this time for us. We will try to send you more information as we can. I have attached a file with all the data we have on the system. A good portion of it is speculation as we have no way to verify it. That is all I was asked to send to you Admiral, but for myself; I pray you act soon, every passing minute is costing lives."

  As her image faded out, Star spoke again. "I have the data file ready for display."

  Ian nodded to her. "Thank you, before we get to that, Serena, Egran, do either of you know where they are hiding?"

  Serena blushed, but Egran spoke first. "Serena and I attended the Academy together. As cadets, we were rather smitten with one another and used a weekend pass to spend some time alone and away from the Academy. We thought no one had known about it."

  "They're in the Cayroll Bay emergency shelter on the northern continent, Gerymain Provence," Serena replied. "It’s a large bunker intended for use by ships caught in the Northern Ocean during the storm season. There is plenty of room and a lot of supplies. The bunker has an underground hangar capab
le of handling the large ocean-going cargo ships. They could easily hide their shuttles there. This time of year, the area is most likely getting pounded by storms pretty regularly."

  "I'll have a medical shuttle loaded and ready to go by the time the Raptors are ready to leave," Beth said. "At the very least, we can get them some help while the rest of the fleet gets into position."

  Ian nodded. "Okay, as long as the doctor to go isn't you; we're going to need you when we retake the cities." He paused. "Star, please show us the data file. Also include the Council's location."

  The office dimmed and a hologram took form over the large table. It was an exaggerated display of the New Talos system, showing all the facilities in the system. Each facility was marked in a different color depending of what was known about them. Red color was a hostile or rebel controlled area or facility, yellow was suspected of belonging to the rebels, and green was still friendly. No color meant no data was available.

  "Does anyone know anything about those ships she mentioned that might have escaped the override?" Ian asked.

  "I did hear a rumor that Herecin was trying to modify their AI to be independent of Council control. I don't think it would be a stretch for them to remove the self-destructs from their ships. After all, we all know they're built into the ships," Egran said. "The story I heard was that Herecin had actually lost the ability to build new AI which is why it was so important to them to reprogram the existing ones."