Constantine stood, smoothing his white and gold uniform.
“At ease,” he replied in a deep voice, returning her salute.
Sarah knew he was around fifty, yet he looked much older. There were thin lines and wrinkles covering his face and his head was completely bald. His light grey eyes however, looked keen and alert.
Admiral Constantine fixed her with an intent gaze.
“I believe you have some information to report to this council.”
“Yes Admiral, with your permission I’ll begin,” she said indicating the computer terminal built into the podium before her.
“Please do Major.”
Sarah turned to face the room and plugged the data stick into a port on the terminal. Enormous view screens at the very back of the room came to life.
They displayed a solar system.
“This is an image taken yesterday by an automated intelligence probe,” she began.
“The system being shown here is called SX523. Ten days ago, the Imperial Frigate Dominance was ordered to pursue an unknown vessel into this system. The last communication we have from the Dominance, was a status report from her Captain three days ago. After the Captain failed to check in for his subsequent status update, a probe was sent to the system.”
Sarah tapped a few commands into the computer terminal. The image magnified and a Frigate came into view. A massive hole ran clean through the ship and small clouds of debris floated lazily around the wreck.
“This is what the probe found,” she continued.
“There appears to be hole running clean through the ship from stem to stern and another through her engineering section. There are no life pods in the vicinity, we believe the entire crew was lost with the ship. After analyzing this image, Imperial Intelligence has come to the conclusion that the damage we see here could only have been inflicted by a powerful weapon system.”
An outbreak of muttering erupted at these words. Admiral Constantine cleared his throat and the room fell silent once more.
“Does Imperial Intelligence have any information as to who is responsible for this?” He asked.
“No sir.”
A middle aged man with thinning black hair and blue eyes stood up from behind a desk in the front row. Sarah recognized him as Vice-Admiral Jones, head of the military’s research and development arm.
“With all due respect Major,” he said in a slightly haughty voice.
“Don’t you think you might be jumping to conclusions? I mean, is it not entirely possible that the Dominance fell victim to some accident or malfunction?”
“No sir,” replied Sarah.
“The analysts who examined the image assured me this kind of damage could only have been caused by weapons fire.”
“Must have been the shengyet,” A woman from the back row said.
“Impossible,” said another man.
“The shengyet don’t have the technology, or the resources.”
“What about the Danek?” An older man near the front piped up.
Admiral Constantine raised his hands.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, please. Speculation will get us nowhere, we need solid facts.”
“Then we should get them,” said Jones.
“Admiral, I suggest we deploy a task force to the system immediately.”
Sarah glanced over at Constantine.
“Admiral if I may?”
“Go ahead Major.”
“Sir, I would advise against such a course of action,” she said, noting Jones staring daggers at her while she spoke.
“A small stealth ship could investigate the scene as well as any task force and could be deployed much more quickly. There is also the fact that we have no idea of the strength, capabilities, or the motivation of whoever is behind this. I think it would be prudent to keep our response low key, in order to avoid any further hostilities.”
At these words Jones, who had sat back down, sprang to his feet.
“Further hostilities?!” He spat.
“In all five hundred years of its glorious history, the Human Empire has never backed down from a fight. We are the rulers of the galaxy, the mere mention of our forces instills fear,” declared Jones, his voice rising.
“And yet, you would have us grovel and plead for peace?! Whoever destroyed that Frigate, we should grind them into dust!”
“Enough,” Constantine cut across him.
“We will adjourn for now; I will consider all your suggestions and discuss them with the Senate when I brief them later today. We will reconvene when the Senate has made its decision.”
Jones looked like he’d rather throw something at Sarah, but contented himself with storming out of the council chamber.
Typical, Sarah thought bitterly. Jones’ reaction to her proposal was more than expected, but she had hoped that at least some of the council would have supported it. In retrospect, she thought it foolish to have expected anything else. Jones might be the most zealous in his beliefs but the majority of the council shared his views. So did most of humanity for that matter and why shouldn't they? The Human Empire had systematically conquered or destroyed all other intelligent life it had encountered.
It hadn't started out like that, Sarah recalled learning about the Empire's origins as a child. Five hundred and sixty years ago, a series of massive solar flares had hit the Earth. Billions dead, most cities and modern infrastructure in ruins, entire governments had collapsed. For the next sixty years, the world had descended into anarchy. Then, five hundred years ago, the worlds remaining governments banded together and formed the beginnings of the Empire. Over the next hundred years, the Empire rebuilt the world’s infrastructure, gradually absorbing those regions still outside its control. Eventually the entire planet was united under a single government.
This sparked the beginning of a golden age for humanity. Spurred by the memory of the recent disaster, the whole world became united in a single glorious cause, to go to the stars. Over the next fifty years humanity made enormous technological strides, allowing them to explore most of the solar system. Then, three hundred years ago, came what most historians agreed was the single greatest scientific discovery in human history. A group of the world's best and brightest scientists managed to create the first stable dimension vortex.
Suddenly humanity had access to not only its own solar system, but the entire galaxy. A feverish push of exploration and expansion had followed, with dozens of human colonies being established. Then came the moment everyone had been waiting for, first contact. A species called the Yakaan. They were technologically advanced enough to have explored a good portion of their own solar system. The decision was made that humans should introduce themselves. A delegation of scientists and ambassadors was assembled and sent to the Yakaan home world.
No one was sure of what exactly happened next, but the encounter went horribly wrong. The Yakaan attacked the unarmed ambassador ship and destroyed it. The Human Empire responded by sending a fleet of warships to the system. They swept aside all resistance and encircled the Yakaan home world. The humans demanded the unconditional surrender of the Yakaan civilization. The Yakaan refused and in the ensuing battle, their home world was devastated.
The human government had quarantined the system and declared it off limits to anyone. The government then used the incident as an excuse to expand the military. The next hostile race humanity came across might be far more advanced than the Yakaan, they argued. Over the next three hundred years, massive military expansion and conquest had turned a handful of peaceful human colonies, into the empire of today.
The tiny data pad on her wrist beeped, Sarah tapped it, a message from Admiral Constantine.
“Meet me in my office as soon as possible.”
Short and to the point.
“Well what did you expect?” She told herself.
As the council members left the chamber, they quickly spread throughout the vast military complex. Sarah headed down the large metallic gray hallway leading away from the
situation room. Smaller passages lead off to the right and left at different intervals. She took one to her right and walked down it until it ended in a pair of elevator doors. The doors opened as she got close and closed again behind her.
“Office of Admiral Constantine,” she said aloud.
“Brainwave scan match,” said a soft disembodied female voice.
Sarah felt a slight lurch in her stomach as the elevator began its decent. It came to a halt a short time later and the doors parted.
She walked through them into a wide hallway that ended in a large office door. It was guarded by two Imperial Security agents, standing on either side. As she approached, both of them placed a hand on the pistols in their side holsters. Subtlety was not one of Imperial Security’s virtues, but then again, they were here to guard the military high command, not to be diplomatic.
“Can I be of assistance Major?” One of them asked her.
“Major Clark to see Admiral Constantine.”
The Guards' grip on their weapons slackened.
“One moment Major.”
The guard to the left stepped up to the retinal scanner built into the wall. Holding his face against the reader, he waited several seconds, then turned to her.
“Major,” he said, indicating the scanner.
Sarah walked up to the reader and held her face to it as the guard had done.
A moment later there was a soft hissing noise and the nanite armor door next to the scanner slid open.
The room was a lot smaller than she had expected, or was it due to the fact that every wall was lined with massive book shelves? It had been a long time since Sarah had seen even a single book let alone this many. Trees were far too valuable oxygen producers to use as paper. In fact, the manufacture of paper of any kind was illegal. Which meant these books had to be centuries old.
“Admiring my collection Major Clark?” Came a deep calm voice from the far end of the room. Admiral Constantine sat behind a large white desk with a black computer console built into the top.
“Uh…yes sir, I’ve never seen so many in one place,” she had completely forgotten why she was here.
“They are my distractions from the chaos I have to sort out daily it seems.”
“I see sir…”
Perhaps it was time to steer this conversation back to the reason she was here in the first place.
“Sir, you wished to see me?”
“Yes Major”, replied Constantine.
“It has to do with the slight disagreement you had with Vice Admiral Jones.”
Sarah knew what was coming.
“Sir, I apologize for my outburst, it won’t happen again.”
Admiral Constantine smiled. It was the first time she had seen him do so and all of a sudden he looked ten years younger.
“It is I who should apologize Major, you seem to have interpreted my request for a meeting as a reprimand.”
“It isn’t? Then why am I here sir?” Asked Sarah.
“I want to discuss that proposal of yours.”
This was the last thing she had expected to hear.
“My proposal?”
“Yes Major, although I will ultimately have to do something along the lines of what Jones wants, I think it would be a very good idea to have some more information on who we’re dealing with before I send in half the fleet.”
“I see”, Sarah was still a little taken aback.
Admiral Constantine reached into a drawer and pulled out a data pad.
“Major Clark, I am giving you official authorization to plan and execute an investigation in to what exactly happened to the Dominance. This assignment is not to be on record and you are to tell no one of this; other than your team of course, but only after you have arrived at the actual site. This data pad has my personal seal, giving you broad discretionary powers. It should get you past anyone asking too many questions. It will also allow you to acquire any personnel or equipment you should need as well as your pick of any ship in the fleet.”
“I…thank you sir,” Sarah replied slowly.
“You're welcome Major and now I think I’ve taken up enough of your time. You have a great deal to do and very little time in which to do it.”
“Yes sir,” she saluted and turned to leave, then stopped.
She looked at the Admiral, could she trust him? He was trusting her with a very sensitive mission after all. Then again if she told him, not only could he have her court marshaled, but she would in all likelihood be charged with treason.
“Is there something else Major?” Constantine asked.
“No sir,” she replied.
Chapter 2
“Sergeant Williams, say again. You're breaking up, didn't copy that last transmission.”
Andrew popped out from behind the boulder he was using as cover and ducked back down again. Several gauss rifle slugs whizzed past the spot where his head had been a moment ago. He tried activating the thermal vision enhancement in his helmet's visor. No good, the high ambient temperature reduced its range to less than two meters.
He sighed and re-activated his com-link.
“This is Imperial Invictus Legion scout Williams to task force, do you copy?”
His radio hissed and crackled for a moment, finally a voice broke through.
“This is the carrier Shanghai, we read you.”
“Have made contact with rebel forces,” Andrew reported.
“No sign of the Tenth Legion.”
“How many rebels?”
“Unknown,” Andrew replied.
“The dense vegetation makes visual and thermal reconnaissance impossible.”
“Understood Sergeant,” came the static filled reply.
A moment later, his radio crackled again.
“Sergeant, we are picking up Tenth Legion transponder signals roughly two kilometers from your current position, sending telemetry now.”
The map on Andrew's heads up display refreshed, it now showed a way-point almost straight ahead of him.
“Your orders are to recon those coordinates.”
“Copy that, Williams out.”
Andrew looked around him. At the foot of the boulder there were a few smaller rocks, poking through the dense vegetation covering the jungle floor. Picking up a fist sized one, he moved to the left side of the boulder and threw the rock into the dense brush a few meters from his position. A cloud of small insect-like creatures, with silver colored wings flew into the air. Another salvo of slugs fired in the direction of the fleeing creatures. This time, Andrew was able to track where the shots had come from.
Not wasting any time, he pulled a grenade from a compartment on his armor and threw it. He heard a yell, followed by the ominous sizzling sound as the grenade exploded in a ball of ionized plasma. Andrew jumped out from behind his cover and ran towards the plume of smoke and fire emanating from the spot where the grenade had detonated.
The blast had created a small clearing in the jungle's vegetation. Andrew spotted three burnt corpses lying on the charred ground. One human and two aliens, bessra judging from the size and shape, although the bodies were so badly burnt it was hard to tell. A low moan from the edge of the clearing made Andrew spin round. He brought up his rifle, ready to fire. He needn't have bothered, a young man with burns down the right side of his body, was trying to crawl away into the jungle.
Andrew moved towards him.
“Stop,” he said through his armor's external speakers.
The young man tried to keep crawling, but collapsed. He rolled over onto his back as Andrew approached. The man's breathing mask and helmet obscured most of his face. Only his eyes were clearly visible, they stared up defiantly, even though they were watering with pain. The man looked at Andrew and his eyes came to rest on the Invictus Legion insignia on the armor's chest. He let out a hoarse, rasping gurgle that Andrew took to be laughter.
He knelt down beside him.
“Tell me where the Tenth Legion is and I can help with the pain.”
/> The young man laughed again.
“You're too late Imperial,” he rasped.
“What do you mean?”
The young man laughed again, but it quickly turned into a hacking cough.
“What do you mean too late?” Andrew pressed.
“They're dead,” the young man gasped.
“Them, us, everyone dead.”
“What happened?”
The man tried to speak, but all he managed was a gurgling noise. Andrew pulled out his armor's med kit but it was too late, the man convulsed and went limp. Slowly, Andrew got to his feet. He checked the way point on his heads up display and headed off into the jungle.
He was two hundred meters from the way point, when his radio crackled.
“Shanghai to Williams, do you copy?”
Andrew stopped and activated his comm.
“This is Williams, go ahead Shanghai.”
“Sergeant, we're detecting multiple heat sources up ahead. The planet's extremely dense cloud cover makes pinpointing them impossible, but given we're even detecting them from orbit.”
“Means they're very hot,” Andrew finished.
“I'm two hundred meters from the way point, will update you when I have more,” he added.
“Copy that, Shanghai out.”
Andrew continued on his way through the jungle. As he approached the way point, he noticed that the audio sensors on his armor were no longer picking up sounds from the local wildlife. Normally a cacophony of sound echoed through the dense jungle. Now, all he could hear was the steady patter of raindrops and a slight rustling noise as he pushed his way through the vegetation.
Up ahead he spotted several plumes of smoke rising above the treetops. After a few dozen meters, the trees and vegetation began to grow sparser. Finally he came to the edge of a small valley. In the center, was what looked to be a large settlement, or at least what was left of it. Smoke and fire rose into the air from dozens of small habitats that were on fire. They looked like the dome-shaped prefab units favored by human settlers. They were arranged in a circular pattern around a larger building, probably some sort of town hall or meeting place. One side of the building and part of the roof had collapsed and he could make out fires flickering amongst the debris.
Imperium: Contact Page 2
