by Ben Winston
The Captain looked thoughtful for a few moments, and nodded. “Agreed, Comms, get me the Commodore please.”
“At your console Sir,” the comm officer said a few moments later.
“Brasten,” Vance said by way of greeting. During combat, Vance was always as brief as possible so things could get done.
“Sir, Could I borrow a destroyer? My TAC officer thinks the rat we’re chasing is trying to lead us away from its nest,” Brasten explained.
Vance nodded agreement almost immediately. ‘We know very little about Veranorian tactics that might be a very plausible theory. I’ll dispatch the Roundant and the Trebushea to your area immediately. You’re senior. Jonti-Sa is also heading out there, but her primary responsibility is the safety of the station personnel,” Vance ordered.
“Understood Sir, I...” Brasten began, but was interrupted by the TAC officer.
“Multiple missile strikes on the station! It’s is heavily damaged, and venting atmosphere.”
“What’s the status of the evacuation?” Brasten asked.
The comm officer replied. “Sir, Master Halflan reported that all station personnel made it to the shuttles, but there are still four workers unaccounted for. He goes on to say that if they got to safety behind a big asteroid, the module they were in should have protected them. Heavy Cruiser Jonti-Sa has arrived on station and is recovering the shuttles.”
Atnon’s face appeared on the screen beside Vance. “We’ve got the shuttles from the station. We’ll be moving into the asteroids to the station’s previous location to search for the last four workers.”
“Good work, Captain Atnon. Unless there is a medical emergency, see if there is enough left of the station to salvage it. I think when we build it this time, we’re putting weapons on it!” Vance said.
“Will do Sir, Altuis Denay, Sir, Captain Brasten,” Atnon replied, nodding to each man before signing off
“I’ll have the two destroyers jump out there immediately. Keep your head down, and your eyes open,” Vance added.
“Will do Sir, thank you,” Brasten answered as the channel closed. “Tactical, we’ll have two destroyers jumping in, they are to support the bombers to check out those hiding spots we located. Flight, re-task the escort fighters to search for those missile launchers. The last bomber flight can help them.”
“Understood Sir, sending the instructions... now,” the TAC officer said.
“You know, First, this could turn into a nightmare if there are more of these ships in system,” Brasten said in an aside to his first officer.
“I was thinking the same thing, Sir. But we don’t have enough ships to cover the whole system do we?” the Commander asked.
“No, and that’s why this could get to be a nightmare. We are greatly out-numbered here. At least the Veranorians themselves don’t have any capitol class ships,” Brasten replied.
“If the scuttlebutt’s true, Sir, they actually have several fleets of them. The entire Aracnise Navy is at their disposal. But then again, I don’t give that much credit,”
“Why?” Brasten asked, looking at the younger man.
“Well, no one has actually been to their home world, we have no idea what they have in their home system. If they really are controlling the Grand Hive, and they’ve been hiding that for all these years, it seems to me that they could be hiding just about anything they wanted, and we wouldn’t know anything about it.”
The Captain was silent while he thought about what the man had just said. “Prepare for the worst, hope for the best?” he asked finally.
“Yes Sir, while on the base, I got to talking to that new AI, Sarah. She told me that if anyone had the time and the freedom to do the work, we would have seen a pattern in the tactics of the Aracnise. When we have a battle, the Aracs are able to target our weak spots exactly. So why haven’t they simply wiped us out and been done with it?” the man paused.
“The advantage given them by their knowledge of our ships should have enabled them to destroy everything we’ve sent against them. Until now, we’ve always believed they hadn’t because we were superior fighters. However, analysis of their performance shows that they are very good themselves and should have beaten us in every conflict, but they hadn’t.”
Since the man seemed like he’d finished, Brasten looked back at him. “Did she say why?”
“She told me her theory was that the someone had been holding them back, making sure they put up a fight, but not beat us every time. Over the whole history of the battles, there have been an equal number of wins and losses. Both sides have lost almost exactly the same amount of resources, there is almost no possible way that could be a random outcome.
“Basically, some agency is making sure that a balance is maintained between our two sides, so neither of us win, but hostilities are continued. She speculates that someone is intentionally keeping us at war,” the man finally finished.
“But that doesn’t answer the why; why would someone do that? What purpose would it serve?” Brasten asked.
“It would keep the races together, and reliant upon each other for protection and support. The Alliance has been relying exclusively on the Veranorians for our ships and computers. Keeping the Alliance together is a good thing, but if you think about it, currently, we are completely dependent on the Veranorians and Shallans for our ships and computer systems. Ships built someplace that only Veranorians and Shallans even know the location of,” the man finished. “Now we have a Veranorian scout ship up to mischief in the system, and it has already destroyed our attempt at building our own ship yard.
“Sir, Specter flight is in range of the hostile,” the TAC officer called, interrupting the private conversation.
“Ask them to try hailing them first, if they’ll surrender, maybe we can get some information out of them before we space their asses,” Brasten asked. Both men watched and listened to Specter flight while they tried to hail the fleeing scout ship.
The only reply they got back was two missiles hastily fired while the pilot tried to get more power out of his already overloaded engines.
“No joy on getting him to surrender, Maljesti,” Annes replied as the computer showed the hostile ship breaking up. “Scrap one scout. No life, no pods.”
“Understood, Specter Flight. Return to base,” Brasten ordered.
“Specter flight is RTB, out.”
––––––––
Operations Command Center
Alliance Apollo Base
Selene, Earth’s moon
Sol System
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“Sister! Are you alright?” Sarah asked as she felt Susan’s presence reaching for her.
“No, I’m not. This is an emergency! I couldn’t send to you before now, but you need to warn Commodore Vance! The Veranorians are planning an attack on you. If it hasn’t already begun, it will very shortly!”
“Let me get the Commodore for you!” Sarah said.
“No, I can’t stay on that long. I’m sending you a file with all the information in it. Get it to him as soon as you can! I love you, Sister!” Sarah felt the file arrive, but Susan was no longer there.
Sarah immediately opened the file, and saw that there was actually a great deal of information in multiple files. She saw that a good portion of the file was for Eric, but one file got her attention since it was marked urgent, and for Commodore Vance.
After a quick browse of the file, she took shape beside Vance without announcing herself, startling him, and a few others. “Sir, I’m sorry to bother you, but I just received an urgent message from Susan about this battle.”
Vance nodded to her, and pointed to a display unit for her to route the message to. She did as he asked, and played the file immediately.
“Commodore Vance, forgive my rudeness, but this is urgent. The Veranorians are planning an attack on the Sol System very soon, I just hope I’ll be able to get this to you before it happens
. The plan is to stage a small attack with a remote controlled, sub-light vessel. They expect you to search for the ship that had to be waiting for it to return, and commit forces to the search, pulling them away from the base and Earth. Depending on your reaction to the small attack, they will jump a ship into the system to make it look like its coming in to recover the small scout. When you send out your forces to destroy or capture it, they will jump their main fleet to Earth. Using Aracnise ground forces, they plan to take control of Earth like they have done to the Shallan Directorate. In that way, they will attempt to control you and everything you do there,” she paused.
“For some reason, they are afraid to attack you while your forces are still near the moon and in a defensive profile. Also, while the ships used for this assault will be Aracnise ships, we have discovered that the Veranorians have been secretly building a fleet of their own. We are still unsure of their exact location because they are having difficulty getting my AI to function in the ships computers. I do know that in at least one instance, the AI destroyed itself because there was a danger of discovering our real programming.
“I will send more information once we have gathered more on them. I apologize for the short notice of this warning, but they have been keeping a close watch on my communications. They do not suspect I am anything other than what they have written, but they are trying to get a handle on exactly how much bandwidth I use during normal operations. I hope you are well, and that you remain so. Your friend and avid supporter, AI Susan.”
“Well, fuck!” Vance said.
“Your orders, Sir?” Sarah asked. Looking up, he realized that everyone in the room had also heard the message and was waiting for him as well.
He thought for a moment, and nodded to himself. “Comm, get me the Captain Atnon on the Jonti-Sa. Sarah, please contact the Captains of the ships still near us. Set up a holo-meeting in the conference room in ten minutes. Bring the base to Yellow alert, but do not sound the alarms yet. Make sure our weapons systems are active though.”
He saw Captain Atnon on the monitor where the message has displayed. “Atnon, have you found the four missing men?
“We’ve located them, but have not yet recovered them, Sir,” Atnon replied. “Something else has happened?”
Vance nodded. “I’ll tell you all about it in the conference in a couple of minutes. For now though, as soon as you get those men on board, get back here as quickly as you can. Get all the civilians on a shuttle and send them back here. I’ll give you the rest of your orders in the conference.”
“Understood Sir,” Atnon nodded, and began issuing orders before the channel closed. “He’s a good Captain, I hope he survives, we’re going to need him.” Vance said mostly to himself, but Sarah heard him of course.
“Be sure that the conference has all our commanders at it. After the conference with the captains, I’ll want to see all the department heads, and their seconds. I don’t know how much time we have, so that might get cancelled.” He looked up and found the comm officer. “Comms, get me Dr. Ellis on Earth.”
The smiling Academic appeared on Vance’s screen. “Altuis An...”
Vance cut him off. “No time for that, Doctor. We have a major problem. The Aracnise are going to be attacking Earth. They haven’t arrived in system yet, so we have a few minutes. I need you to execute contingency order twelve-nineteen as soon as you can.”
Ellis had turned white at the information Vance had given him. “T-twelve-nineteen sir. That requires approval from the Alliance Council Commodore.”
“Yeah, I know, but there simply isn’t time to try to convince them, Doctor,” Vance said. “It’s time for you to make a choice; reality is about to bite us in the ass.”
Ellis nodded. “I will do as you ask, Commodore. The President will be notified first, then the UN. Will you have time to speak to either of them?”
“I doubt it, when this begins, it’ll be fast and brutal. We’ll do our best to try to keep them off the planet, but some of them are bound to get through. The Veranorians are sending a full task group,” Vance replied.
Ellis was seriously worried now. “I’ll get the ball rolling down here, Sir. Have Sarah get hold of me if you need anything from us.”
“Will do,” Vance said nodding. “I’m sorry to do this to you, Doctor.”
“This isn’t your fault Commodore, we’re at war. It was bound to happen sooner or later, that’s the reason the contingency orders were created in the first place,” Ellis replied.
“Good Luck, Doctor,” Vance said.
“To all of us,” Ellis replied and closed the channel.
“Sir, the Captains are waiting for you in the conference room,” Sarah informed him.
“Thank you Sarah, let’s go ruin their day.”
––––––––
“There you have it, people. The one question I have is why they are so nervous about attacking us when the fleet is near Earth,” Vance said, addressing the assembled Captains.
“Sir, the new computer systems have been installed in six of our ships, could that be the reason?” One of the Simonian Captains asked.
“The AI hasn’t been installed yet, but I will ask Doctor Cowan to see what he can do to correct that. No, I don’t think so, there have been no communications into or out of this base that Sarah hasn’t known about. Nothing has been sent back to the Veranorians, and very damn little has been sent to the Alliance Council. No, it can’t be the AI that has them spooked, because they don’t know it actually remained here,” Vance replied.
Atnon spoke up. “Sir, before you arrived here, there were plans to build new defensive batteries for the base all over the moon. That plan has since been changed and modified before it was implemented, but Order Fen did know about it.”
“It can’t be just that, Atnon,” one of the other Captains replied. “Although I imagine its part of it, there has to be more to it.”
“Excuse me, Captains, Commodore,” Sarah said, bowing to Vance and the assembled holograms. “By now, the Veranorians have to know about the theft of the warships from GMASS. Although those ships have not arrived, and most likely won’t for another week, perhaps it is those that they fear. Those three ships all but destroyed the defenses in that system as they departed.”
Vance nodded in thought. “Possibly, but like you said, they won’t arrive for at least another week. Navigation information is standard for everyone. The Veranorians would have to know there is no possible way for them to arrive in time to be used in this attack.”
“I doubt we are going to figure it out before they arrive, so how do you want to handle this, Vance?” Senior Fleet Captain Edgigly asked. He was a large, older Simonian that was the same rank as Vance, but refused this command on the grounds that Vance was the better choice.
“Misdirection. The only way we stand a chance at keeping them from taking over the planet is to appear to be where they want, while at the same time actually being where they don’t want,” Vance said thoughtfully.
“Edgigly, you’ll have the fleet for this. Sarah, I need to speak to Master Halflan, and Master Thompson,” Vance replied. “What is the status of getting the AI module integrated into the fighters?”
Sir, Sarah replied. Master Thompson is on his way here, so are Doctor Cowan, and LE Nori. The new modules are in production, and have been installed in thirty one percent of our total fighter compliment. That is to say, all the base fighters are finished, two of the heavy cruisers are also finished, and half the fighters for the Battle Cruiser Gra’nis Rain. If we swapped out the base fighters for the remaining fighters on the Rain, we could also replace the fighters on another heavy cruiser.”
––––––––
I arrived at the conference out of breath from running down the stairs to get here. I saw Commodore Vance and several holograms of ship captains, most of whom I’d already met. I was surprised though, when Vance saw me, he pointed to one of the armored guards beside t
he door.
“Corporal Wallace, take Doctor Cowan down to Marine country and stuff him into a suit of armor. Have a detail escort him around to the ships in an assault shuttle so he can oversee the activation of the AI for those ships,” Vance ordered. “He is not to be put in jeopardy, understood?”
“Sir?” I asked stunned.
He gave me a slight grin. “Sarah can brief you after you get the armor and are on your way. Right now there isn’t time to explain.”
I nodded to him, and looked at the Marine. “Lead on, Corporal.”
When we arrived in Marine country, I noticed Ced Sparks was getting fitted for a suit of armor as well. “Hi Ced,” I said.
“Ah, Eric! I see they drafted you too,” the man said and gave me a half grin. “Any idea what the hell’s going on?”
“Not a clue, Sarah’s supposed to fill me in after I get suited up. From what I can piece together, I need to activate all the AI as fast as I can,” I replied.
He nodded as he pulled on the suit liner. “I’m supposed to oversee the swapping of the fighters. Vance wants all the AI equipped ones on the ships. I guess that means that the Veranorians are coming.”
“That would certainly explain it,” I said. “I just wish we’d have had more time. I thought Harlan Thompson was handling the fighters?”
“He is, but he’s also claustrophobic, so I’m covering for him.” Ced replied.
“Less talking, more dressing!” the female Marine that was helping me said.
“Normally, you’d have to speak to Christy before getting me out of my clothes this fast, Sergeant,” I said, trying to get the no nonsense noncom to smile.
“If I were here simply to enjoy the view, I probably would, Sir. That’s not the drill this time, so strip!” she said. “Of course, I could always just use my knife and cut the clothes off you!”
“So you do have a sense of humor!” I countered.
