Comet C34A didn’t appear to be anything more interesting or unusual than any other comet. It showed up as a glowing blue sphere on the dark background of deep space. It was the largest known comet in the system with a nucleus of over eleven kilometers in diameter. A light blue coma expanded around it like a shimmering cloud, and its trail extended millions of kilometers behind it. At the heart of the comet was a dense core of dust, rock, organic compounds, and ice that might have made it a rich target for mining and exploitation.
With the failure of the initial mining and explosives operation, the Helion flagship Horizon moved into weapons range and unleashed over a hundred atomic missiles. They rushed out from the missile tubes and covered just a short distance before each detonated prematurely, sending their cargo of fissionable material into the swirling cloud that was the coma of the comet. Thirty second later, every single ship opened fire with kinetic weapons. It was a hopeless attack and could be expected to achieve nothing more than adding a few more craters to the comet. In the middle of the onslaught, they suffered their first casualty. Horizon split in half, and a dozen blue explosions ripped through her superstructure as she was torn into fragments. The remaining ships were unable to change their course, so opened fire at whatever targets their scanners could identify. Some of their missiles locked onto their own ships and IFF systems failed. In a matter of minutes, the fleet and the comet became one, as chunks of debris, missiles, and pieces of rock moved about. The last phase of the battle for Comet C34A was over in less than six minutes, leaving the shattered hulks of the ships and over five thousand Helion dead.
* * *
“Gentlemen, I don’t have long. The stories of this impending doom are starting to unnerve the public, and the President wants it squashed, fast. What is the problem that you want brought to his attention so urgently? Has something happened on the Helion colonies?”
General Rivers, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs shook his head in reply.
“No, Mr. Secretary, our operations are continuing as planned. I asked you and the Joint Chiefs to come together to listen to something of much more concern. I have received a number of disturbing reports from the Helion Naval Institute, as well as from Naval operatives via Admiral Jackson, of a potentially devastating threat.”
He looked at the officer who waited patiently around the table along with the others.
“These reports could indicate a threat even larger than the current insurgency we are helping to eradicate. If I may?”
The Secretary of Defense sat down and sighed.
“Go on.”
All it took was a quick signal to the pair of scientists, both in their fifties and who were waiting patiently next to the display unit. They wore smart, though ill-fitting suits that suggested they were not their usual clothing.
“Doctor Steiner, if you will.”
The senior scientist nodded politely and then pressed a button on his personal secpad, and a video stream appeared. All of those present looked at it with a mixture of intrigue and surprise. The video shuddered and flickered before finally freezing to a still image of the massive comet. It was very grainy and to most of them was nothing more than a blue blob on the screen.
“Now, if you look here you will see the object,” said the senior of the two.
There was a deathly silence in the large briefing room. It was easily capable of seating nearly thirty people, but on this occasion less than a third filled its space. The ceiling was low, yet the inlaid sculptures throughout the room gave it a feeling of ancient opulence, almost decadence. All of the imagery documented the colorful past of Terra Nova, dating back to its first colonies and its struggles in the Great War and the Uprising. A slightly lighter section of wood showed the most recent artwork, one of the Fall of Terra Nova, a key event that saw the agents of the Biomech enemy driven from the capital world of the Confederacy and the founding of the Alliance, and the modern age. The room was windowless and only one door provided access. Two Marine Guards waited with their carbines resting up against their shoulders. They all watched the video stream as the comet continued on its path before it vanished with a white light.
“What exactly is that?” asked General Hammerstein, the Chief of Staff for the Colony Guard, the new military force that operated defense forces on each of the colonies. The scientist tapped several buttons. The comet shrunk in size and moved back to its initial point. The man pointed at a dark shape to the left of the comet. Admiral Jackson stood up and walked to the screen.
“Alliance ships have already charted this section of space during our patrols near the Black Rift. At first glance it looks like a piece of debris, flotsam if you will. In reality, however, this is actually the abandoned Helion remote outpost that used to provide long-range support for fleet operations near the Black Rift. It was being used to store materials and supplies but luckily was unoccupied at the time of the impact.”
The video stream continued, but this time at a much slower pace. The quality was still grainy, but it was possible to make out the shape of the orb and the spot that marked the station. The comet moved though the black dot and continued on its original course, with nothing but a bright white flash to indicate the fate of the station. The General gasped, but the others remained completely still. Admiral Jackson moved back to his position and sat down. The chief scientist continued.
“Our long-range scientific scanners indicate there is nothing left of the station, and the comet has continued on its path.”
The scientist paused and looked at the group of older men and women. All were military, apart from the Secretary of Defense who wore his civilian suit.
“Go on,” he said.
“Well, if you look at our projected trajectory, you can see the comet will pass through the orbit of the outer moons of Helios before striking the planet itself.”
“I don’t understand. You said just a few kilometers. It doesn’t seem that big, are you sure this is as significant as you say it is? We have enough problems, what with the Helion insurgency, and this political stand-off with the other aliens.”
The image on the screen was evidently insufficient to show the sheer potential destructive energy of such an object, and it clearly frustrated the senior scientist. He looked about at the group, rubbed his forehead, and then repeated his earlier summary, but in a language he hoped the Defense Secretary would actually understand.
“Defense Secretary, you recall the massive asteroid impact that was responsible for a planet-wide mass extinction of dinosaurs back on ancient Earth?”
The look on the man’s face was clear enough, and rather than wait the scientist continued.
“This is one of the most famous impacts in our history and was responsible for a shift in ecology, as well as in the biology of Earth. Hundreds of thousands of species were wiped out, and if there had been cities and humans, the casualties would have been catastrophic. We know with certainty that in exactly one hundred and twenty-four days and seven hours, the planet of Helios will face an unavoidable extinction level threat.”
The Defense Secretary seemed to take this description as a personal affront.
“Doctor, I am well aware of what happened to the dinosaurs. I need to know how this will affect the security situation with regards to Helios and to our treaty with them. I am briefing the President in ten minutes, and I need everything we know.”
“The Helions are aware of this threat, I take it? Why can’t they put asteroid defense measures in place for something like this?” asked General Cornwallis, the Chief of Staff for the Marine Corps.
Admiral Jackson nodded.
“Indeed they are aware, General, but this isn’t an asteroid. This is a comet.”
The General shrugged as if it made little difference.
“So?”
“Well, for starters, comets are made up of ice, dust, and rocket material and follow extended orbits. This one vanished from sight a long time ago, and the Helions are not sure why they missed it.”
“Why can they not do something about it?” asked General Rivers.
Admiral Jackson pointed at the object.
“As you know, the Helion military is fractured, and many of their commanders took their ships away after the collapse of their military government. Even so, their basic apparatus still exists. One of their regional commanders took a small force of about twenty ships on an intercept course a week after the base had been destroyed.”
“Now we’re hearing about this?” complained the General.
As the Chairman, General Rivers took this question with the usual ruthless efficiency he exhibited in political situations.
“Yes, we may have a treaty, but that doesn’t mean they pass on all information directly to us. The Helions are a proud people, General. They don’t want to come crying to us with every single problem they have at their back door.”
General Cornwallis said no more and waited as Admiral Jackson continued.
“One of our Crusader class ships detected the object in Helios space and notified the regional commander. We assumed that was it until in the last hour we received the news.”
“Go on, Admiral, give us the details. What happened?” goaded the Secretary of Defense.
“The Helions set an intercept course, with the initial plan of placing explosive weapons at key points to break up the object. This failed for unknown reasons, and so they resorted to placing a single gravity well generator or a similar type used on our ships for artificial gravity.”
The look on the faces of the Chief of Staff for the Marine Corps and the Colonial Militia suggested they had no idea what the Admiral was saying. The Naval officer considered trying to explain but motioned for the chief scientist to do it instead. The man nodded and wiped his brow before starting.
“At the start of the twenty-first century, an aerospace engineer on Earth suggested making use of ballast to alter an object’s center of mass, so the object could be moved safely from the intercept course.”
“But this didn’t happen?” asked General Cornwallis.
“Exactly,” Admiral Jackson answered. It seems this also failed, so they resorted to assaulting the object from space with heavy weaponry. Now this took place six days ago and without informing us. They were a day away from making contact before they lost communication.”
He paused for a moment while long-range imagery loaded on the viewer. It didn’t show much, and the small dots had to be highlighted with bright circles.
“According to the Helions, each of these dots is the shattered wreckage from their fleet. They lost the entire fleet, including the flagship Horizon with all hands. It was veteran of the war with the Biomechs.”
General Rivers looked at the man who had now sat down with a grim look on his face. The Admiral was of a similar age to him, and like most of the High Command, a citizen of Terra Nova. There was always a degree of professional courtesy but no friendship between the two. The Great Uprising had reinforced the differences between many of the military families, and they were still resentful of those from the worlds of Proxima Centauri that had brought fire to the planets of Alpha Centauri.
“I see, well this is something the President will need to be briefed upon. General Rivers and I will bring these details directly to him. Is there anything else?”
Admiral Jackson indicated for the chief scientist to continue. As the man loaded up more imagery, General Rivers looked at the new Secretary of Defense. Sam Mithy was one of the new intake of politicians, following the recent Alliance elections. He knew the man by reputation only, and although he had some experience in the Confederate Army as a junior officer a generation earlier, he understood it to have been on stations or barrack moons with the reserve fighter squadrons that had seen no actual combat in the war. It didn’t impress the General at all, even less when after just a few days in office, the man had laid accusations of incompetence at military commanders that seemed to be prevalent with the new regime, one that was on a personal mission to rebuild the Alliance military around a rigid core of politically reliable leaders. It made him uneasy.
“Well, this object could potentially wipe out all life on Helios, what else is there to know?” answered General Rivers with an irritated tone.
“This is serious, of course, and we will do what we can to help. The President has to answer to our citizens, however, and there is a growing weariness of the strain on our colonies at our involvement in the affairs of these alien worlds. We will endeavor to assist them in any way we can, but not at the expense of our own national interest.”
General Rivers shook his head angrily.
“What do you mean? We are already committed to action on a number of fronts,” he snapped.
The others were stunned by his lack of diplomacy, but the General continued.
“We have only just helped them win their fight for freedom on their world, and now you say there are more pressing concerns than the wiping out of all life on Helios?”
It was clear from the expression on the Secretary of Defense’s face that this was exactly what he was thinking.
“We benefit greatly from our contact with our comrades in Helios, as well as the other worlds. Don’t forget the Biomechs intervened politically and technologically in our last internal conflict. We cannot adopt an isolationist viewpoint right now, if ever,” General Rivers added quickly.
The Secretary of Defense moved his head slowly as though he was disgusted by what he had heard.
“General, do not suggest this regime will abandon its friends. Trade is booming between our colonies and these new regions. The number of ships moving through the Prometheus-T’Karan Rift is in the hundreds a day now. That is why we have started construction work on a whole new layer of support Rifts that will link every colony world in less than a decade.”
All of them waited for the ‘but’.
“Even so, based on recent events, it is imperative that our military capabilities are prioritized, and it is the view of the President that the top-priority for our entire military effort should be on one place.”
The conversation was already starting to drift off-topic, and it led General Rivers to think the Secretary of Defense had an ulterior motive in bringing it up.
“The Black Rift, Mr. Secretary?”
The room fell silent once more.
“Yes, that is correct. The Black Rift is the elephant in the room. With the increasing trend in newly discovered Rifts and isolated occurrences of Biomech warships, our citizens are becoming concerned. Helios is important but is irrelevant when compared to the great threat of the Biomechs themselves. Does the lack of this supply base cause us additional problems at the Rift?”
Admiral Jackson shook his head.
“No, we have the 4
th
in the Helios system with ample resources coming through the Rift to T’Karan. Our remaining Strike Groups are undergoing deployment or taking part in a number of exercises. We’ve never been stronger.”
“We said the same in the Uprising, and it went on for years,” General Rivers hissed through his teeth.
“The fact of the matter is that the Black Rift is more than just a Spacebridge to what we are told is the home system of the Biomechs. It is the longest range Rift we have ever come across, one that we cannot begin to match in terms of our own technology. From the information given to us by the T’Kari, it would take over a millennia to build enough conventional Rifts in sequence to get from Helios to the Biomech homeworld. Because of this vast range, the Rift generator equipment requires vast reserves of power to open, and is incredibly volatile. It can only be opened within a short range of the guard station, and with the express permission and access data from one of the five Powers.”
Admiral Jackson ignored the General’s previous retort.
“On top of that, the defensive measures are impressive. Any Rift within a light year can be collapsed in less than seven seconds, with the destruction of anything in it. According to the logs of the Helions, t
he Biomechs have never attempted the creation of a Rift back to Helios.
The Secretary of Defense seemed a little more relaxed at this information, but General Rivers couldn’t see why. None of it was new, other than the comet and the threat it presented.
“Why not? Surely it would be worth trying from time to time.”
General Rivers lifted his hand slightly.
“If I may,” he started. “The T’Kari say the station build by the Narau is more than just a way of controlling the Rift to the Biomechs. It is a doomsday weapon, one that has never been used. It can render the area of space useless for at least a millennia if they choose to trigger the device. This is the threat that stops the Biomechs from coming.”
Admiral Jackson nodded in complete agreement.
“This is true. The Biomechs are an ever-present threat. Their ability to encourage support from many directions is impressive. We have seen ships in other parts of space that are loyal to them, and this comet has arrived at just the time when the Helions prophesied the return of the Enemy. This is the matter that concerns me the most, and I feel the comet and the safety of this sector are the same thing.”
The Secretary of Defense looked at his watch and sighed before looking back at him.
“Yes, why?”
“What if this prophecy isn’t the Biomechs, but instead is for the comet itself? It could potentially destroy Helios and with it the only military power in this sector. If Helios falls, a Biomech assault could soon follow, and can we rely on the others to help?”
Star Crusades Nexus: The Second Trilogy Page 24
