Olympus (Rise of the Empire Book 1)

by Ivan Kal

  Only two? They were warning shots, Smith realized.

  “Comms, send the message to the Olympus ship—we are surrendering.”

  ***

  Captain Dawson looked on the screen, watching as two missiles sped towards them and then exploded before hitting his ship. They were faster than his missiles; yet again Olympus technology was superior. But his sensors officer told him that they were smaller, with a smaller payload. He knew that these were warning shots; no Captain would order only one missile fired at a hostile ship, unless it was a warning. Dawson had no intention of heeding that warning.

  “Captain, Bismarck just sent a message—they are surrendering,” the Viking’s comms officer said.

  “They are shutting down their drives,” his sensors officer said.

  That fool Smith was going to ruin everything. Not only would Olympus have proof that this was a Concordis mission, but they would also know that they were after their technology. He couldn’t allow that.

  “Captain, we are receiving a communication from the Earth.”

  “Ignore them,” Dawson said. He had no time for bureaucrats and politicians.

  “Captain! Dauntless is breaking off, they are going back!” his sensors officer said.

  Dawson looked at the screen. One ship. Just one Olympus ship had destroyed their entire plan. He couldn’t let Olympus have this, he just couldn’t. All the anger inside him came to the surface in one big wave.

  “Target the Bismarck,” Captain Dawson ordered.

  “Captain?” his first officer asked.

  “Target the Bismarck!” he yelled. “They have disobeyed orders, they are deserters!”

  “Yes, Captain,” his first officer said shakily.

  ***

  “The Viking is ignoring our comms, Mr. President,” Admiral Weiss said.

  “What the hell is going on? I thought that we agreed that there will be no casualties!” President Von Holt said. He looked around the room; they all looked at him with the same confused look that he wore as well, except for one. When he met his eyes, he knew.

  “Victor, it was you?” The Minister of Defense Victor Ross remained silent. “Why, Victor?”

  The rest of the room turned to look at him, their faces unbelieving of the situation.

  “Because it needed to be done. And all of you are too cowardly to have done it,” he said hatefully. No one had ever heard him talk like this, so they were all too shocked to say anything. “If we took the data and left the station, they would have known that we took it. Hell, no matter what we did, they would have known when we started catching up to them in technology. And say whatever you will about Tomas Klein, but he would have remembered. And he wouldn’t have stayed silent.” He chuckled darkly. “Hah! You thought that you could stay his hand with the press? With public opinion? He isn’t part of Earth! He doesn’t care about public opinion. His people are indoctrinated to follow him! They wouldn’t have cared either. So we needed to make a statement. To make him remember what happens when he tries to control us. And that station was the perfect target. He built it to remind us that they were better. He all but told us, ‘Look, here we are above you, and we are better than you.’ So we made a statement of our own. That no matter how high he thinks he is, we can always shoot him down. And Captain Dawson will make sure of that.”

  The room looked at him as if he were a madman, which he was. This is exactly the reason why Tomas Klein didn’t share anything with us, President Von Holt realized. He gestured for the security to take him away.

  The president looked at Admiral Weiss.

  “Can we contact the other two ships?”

  “The Bismarck has already surrendered to Olympus. And I have already sent the recall to the Dauntless; they will turn back,” he said somberly.

  “And the Viking?” the president asked.

  “Based on their actions and the comments the minister made, we can assume that the captain of Viking is his man. That also explains why they are ignoring our comms,” Admiral Weiss said.

  The president looked around the room.

  “We need to get on damage control right away. Contact the ambassador on the Moon. Let’s hope that Olympus can resolve the situation. And also I want to know how the hell we didn’t know about that warship.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Adrian looked at the holodesk. The dissident, or rather Concordis ship, had surrendered, and they identified themselves as Concordis warship Bismarck. They had turned off their engines and were currently firing their front thrusters in order to slow down. The intercept time on the board above the holodesk was rapidly coming down. It now said 7 minutes. One of the other Concordis ships was in the process of turning around, while the last one kept coming. Adrian was studying it closely, looking for any sign that it would turn and follow the first one, but with each passing minute he grew more and more certain that it would not.

  Finally, after three minutes, Adrian was sure that they meant to ignore his warning.

  “Weapons, target the remaining ship. Ten missiles, five at the back, the rest spread out on the ship’s length,” Adrian said. He didn’t know much about the ship, but he knew that it had missile pods on its entire length on top, and he hoped to disable them and the ship’s drives.

  “Captain! Missile launch from the Concordis vessel,” the sensors officer said. Adrian shifted his eyes to the hologram; a moment later, fifty missile tracks appeared, and all of them were targeting the Bismarck.

  “Impact in seven minutes.”

  “They are going to destroy their own ship?” Bethany asked, incredulous. Adrian had filled her in about the Bismarck’s crew when they’d surrendered.

  “It looks so. Weapons, can we shoot down the missiles?” Adrian asked. They needed to keep that ship alive.

  “No, Ship Master, our missiles weren’t designed to track targets so small. There is nothing we can do,” Noah said regretfully.

  “What about our railguns? Can we shoot the missiles down with them?” Adrian asked.

  “In theory. But Adrian, we would need to fire them at the place where the missiles will be. It will take time to calculate based on the missiles track, I can’t do it fast enough,” Noah said.

  Adrian tried to find any other way; the Concordis ships didn’t have any point defense. And firing their own missiles wouldn’t work. They were all tracking missiles, and had evading capabilities. They might shoot down some, but not all.

  “I can do it, Adrian,” Adrian heard Iris say in his head.

  “What?” he asked.

  “I can do the calculations. But I will need access to the ship’s computer,” Iris said. Adrian thought about it, but he couldn’t see any other way.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, but you will need Bethany’s and your codes in order to let me in. And they will know about me; I won’t be able to hide,” she said. Adrian made his choice; he trusted Iris.

  Adrian turned to Bethany.

  “Do you have any ideas?” he asked.

  Bethany shook her head. “No.”

  Adrian took a breath.

  “I’m going to need you to trust me, and enter your command codes into the computer,” Adrian said.

  “Why?” Bethany asked suspiciously.

  “I have a way of saving that ship, but doing that will require allowing someone into the ship’s computer,” he said.

  “Allowing someo—?” Bethany started, but Adrian interrupted her.

  “Bethany, we need to protect that ship.” He looked at her, imploring her to trust him.

  “Alright,” she said, and sent her codes over her implant. Adrian did the same, and then he gave Iris access to the ship’s computers.

  “What the hell! Something took over my station!” Noah cried out.

  “There is no need to panic, Noah, she will do the calculations for the railguns,” Adrian said.

  Both Bethany and Noah turned towards Adrian. “She?”

  “Hello, my name is Iris,” Iris sa
id over the speakers.

  “Adrian, what is this?” Bethany asked, confused.

  “Everyone, meet Iris,” Adrian said. “Iris is an artificial intelligence.”

  “But, how? Where did she come from?” Noah asked.

  Instead of answering, Adrian just touched the side of his head. Noah looked even more confused at the gesture, but Bethany got it.

  “Your implant.”

  Adrian simply nodded.

  “I have the calculations; we need to fire in thirty seconds, or we will lose the window,” Iris said.

  “Weapons, execute the targeting solution,” Adrian said, “and fire missiles at the Concordis ship.”

  “Yes, Ship Master,” Noah said.

  ***

  Captain Smith looked at his first officer, totally helpless. The Viking had opened fire on his ship, and they had no way of defending themselves. The Bismarck’s hull was tough and thick, and Smith hoped that they could survive, but he knew there would be casualties. He should have never agreed to this mission; he’d known that it was wrong. And yet he’d followed orders, because to do otherwise would have been treason.

  “Impact in seven minutes, Captain,” his weapons office said.

  “Turn the bottom of the ship towards the missiles,” Captain Smith ordered. The hull was the thickest there, as his ships missile launchers and their magazines were on the top side of the ship. The bottom contained only sensors, and there was less chance that a missile hit would reach their weapon systems and blow up the ship. He hoped that it was enough.

  “Captain! The Olympus ship has opened fire.”

  “Good. At least the Viking won’t get away unscathed,” Captain Smith said.

  “They fired missiles at the Viking. But sir, there is something else going into empty space,” the sensors officer said confusingly. “The computer can’t make sense of it. It says that it is a meteor shower.”

  “Get me the tracks on that,” Captain Smith said.

  A few moments later, he saw that the new tracks interjected with the missile path. After a few moments of studying the tracks Captain Smith exclaimed, “Those are ballistic weapons; Olympus ship is trying to shoot down the missiles!”

  ***

  Athena’s railguns turned as one, all pointed at an empty point in space. In unison, they started firing, and in thirty seconds the railguns launched over five hundred metal shells at a fraction of the speed of light towards empty space. They were fired in such a way as to blanket the entire area. Anything that crossed their path was going to be crushed with the kinetic force that would rip it apart. Five minutes later, their path crossed with that of fifty Concordis missiles. The missiles had evading capabilities, but their processors weren’t fast enough to recognize the danger until it was too late. By the time the evading protocols were initiated, twenty missiles were struck by metal shells, and ten more exploded as they were hit by the blasts created from the destroyed missiles. The remaining twenty engaged their evading protocols, but Athena’s targeting solution took every possible path into account, and the remaining missiles were quickly destroyed by the defensive fire.

  Five minutes before, after the railgun fire had died down, Athena’s missile tubes had opened, and ten 20-kiloton missiles had shot off towards their target. The missiles were slower than railguns at short range; it would take them a little over eight minutes to arrive at their target.

  ***

  “All of our missiles have been destroyed, Captain,” the Viking’s weapons officer reported.

  “The enemy missiles will reach us in two minutes, Captain,” the sensors officer said.

  Captain Dawson glared angrily at the screen. The Olympus ship had managed to destroy all of the missiles he’d sent at Bismarck, something that he’d believed was impossible just a few minutes ago. And to add to it, they launched ten missiles at his ship that he had no way of stopping. He wondered what the designers of this ship had been thinking when they had come up with it. Sure, they gave them thick armor, but no other defensive capability. He would have to have a talk with his superiors about that when he returned home. But for now, he had a job to do.

  “Target the Olympus ship. Fire all missiles,” Dawson said calmly. Let’s see how they will deal with a full load of missiles.

  ***

  The Viking’s missile pods opened and four hundred missiles left the ship on an intercept course towards the Olympus ship. Two minutes later, the missiles that the Olympus ship had fired reached the Viking. Five missiles hit them, spread out across the ship, doing minor damage to the hull and destroying the ship’s communication relay. The other five missiles struck the back of the ship; three missiles hit and damaged the drives and one failed to detonate. But the fifth one struck and penetrated inside the hull. The explosion ignited the ship’s fuel tank, and a moment later, the Viking exploded in a blinding flash that lasted only a second as fire consumed all the air inside the ship. Captain Dawson didn’t live long enough to see all his four hundred missiles struck down by Athena’s railguns.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “The Concordis ambassador came clean. They told us the truth, or rather a version of the truth,” Tomas said. He was still in the meeting room, which was now converted to a command room. Elias, Seo-yun, Laura, and Nadia were all still there as well. It had been two hours since the Concordis ship surrendered to Ship Master Farkas, and Athena was currently escorting the ship to the Moon. Ship Master Farkas had put two security teams on the ship to make sure that nothing happened, but for now they were cooperating. Concordis leadership, on the other hand, was trying to shift the blame. They blamed their Minister of Defense as the man who’d arranged for everything. Tomas managed to keep his cool, even though he was burning up inside. He still hadn’t made any demands of Concordis. He didn’t even contact them; it was them who initiated every conversation. Tomas knew that his lack of response was what scared them the most.

  Other countries from Earth had also learned of what happened. Their reactions varied; the League was condemning Concordis’s action, while the Coalition condemned Olympus for having armed ships in space.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Tomas said.

  “What doesn’t matter?” Seo-yun asked. Everyone in the room was shocked; they had just lost three hundred people.

  “This,” Tomas said, gesturing around the room. “Them, us, everything. They will never change. And I can’t do this anymore,” Tomas said tiredly.

  “Tomas, it’s going to be alright,” Elias said.

  “No, it’s not.” Tomas closed his eyes. No one spoke for a few minutes. Laura quietly instructed the staff members to leave the room, leaving only Tomas and his closest friends in the room.

  “Tomas—” Laura started.

  “I want you to call for a meeting,” he said, interrupting her. “I want all the leaders of Earth to attend. We can hold it at Sedna.”

  The others looked at each other.

  “A meeting? Tomas, are you sure? Is that the right move?” Nadia asked.

  “Hmm, yes. I have something to tell them all. But first, I need to do something…I need to speak with Olympus. With every member of Olympus. I need to ask them something. And then we will see about the conference. Can you arrange that for me?” Tomas asked Nadia.

  She started to respond, but thought better of it and just nodded firmly and said yes.

  “Good, good. Seo-yun,” he said, turning his attention to her. “You said that you recovered charts that the alien ship made, scans of systems it visited on its journey?”

  “Uhm, yes. We have them,” she responded slowly.

  “Good, I want you to do something for me,” Tomas said, conviction creeping back into his voice.

  ***

  Three months later

  Concordis President Lucas Von Holt sat in a comfortable chair in a large conference room in Sedna. The room was filled with leaders of every government in the world and their staff. Olympus had limited them to four per party, and everyone had agreed grudgingly. T
omas Klein and Olympus had remained silent since the incident that took place three months ago. There was no retaliation, no prosecution, nothing, at least nothing on the political scene. On the other hand, every country from Earth that had the capability noticed an increase in Olympus activity. They had brought more ships to the Moon, more than anyone knew they had. At least five more warships were also confirmed orbiting the Moon.

  They started pulling people from their colony on the Moon and dismantling the colony facilities and the station they had in orbit. And not just that; there had also been increased traffic from Sedna. There were no more people living there, only a skeleton crew of staff. Everyone had been sent out towards Mars. They knew that Olympus had facilities there, and apparently they were big enough to sustain their entire population. The scariest part was that no one knew the reason. Most believed that they were preparing for war.

  He was brought out of his thoughts by the door opening. Tomas Klein entered the room, alone, and he made his way towards the speaking platform without a single glance at the people gathered in the room. When he reached the platform, he finally looked around the room at all those gathered there. He spent a few minutes in silence. The other leaders and their advisors were discussing quietly among themselves. The Russian president stood up and addressed Klein.

  “Are we going to start this discussion or not? Why have you invited us here?” he asked. His voice was heard loudly and clearly through the speakers hidden throughout the room.

  The others voiced their agreement, though not so loudly.

  Tomas Klein looked around the room one more time before finally turning his gaze to the Russian ambassador.

  “I did not invite you here to discuss things. You are all here only as listeners. I will talk and you will listen,” he said.

  Tomas took a deep breath, and suddenly a text file appeared above every table in the room. And then he started talking.

  “These are written confessions—one by Captain Reginald Smith of Concordis’s navy ship Bismarck, the other from Major Denis Taylor of Concordis’s army forces. These confirm that they were given orders by their superiors to execute a plan that resulted in the destruction of the Cloud station and the deaths of three hundred Olympus citizens.” Tomas turned to the Concordis party and President Von Holt felt his mouth go dry. “The plan was for them to acquire data about Olympus technology. I have been keeping Olympus technology from your hands, and you all held it against us, even though you would have done the same thing if the roles were reversed—although you would have done it for a different reason.”