<Post Warp: 1 month 22 days>
Lincoln took a breath testing the air and then pulled her helmet the rest of the way off of her head. The other technicians and personnel from the General did the same behind her.
“This place is a mess!” Said one of the men as he took his helmet off.
Lincoln nodded in agreement, they had done as much as possible to surreptitiously re-enforce the tunnels around the accelerator and the lab she would be using as a control center, and although they had survived and the rest of the complex was buried under rubble the insidious Martian dust was still everywhere. If one speck got into the accelerator and was not properly flushed out then it would set them back by days if not weeks to repair any of the damage when they turned the thing on.
The lead technician a man by the name of Anton stepped forward.
“We have a lot of work to do, so stop complaining and get too it!” he shouted at the assembled crowd which consisted of around thirty people that the General had enough trust in and were technically competent. The man was a second generation Martian but both of his parents had been Russian and the accent bled through as he started to give orders divvying out the duties.
“I’m going to my lab,” said Lincoln. Anton nodded and moving through the rubble Lincoln could not help but feel some excitement, they were actually starting to work on the project, within a few weeks they would have enough antimatter to reach the stars!
<Post Warp: 1 month 24 days>
“Any idea why he wants us on the Bridge?” asked Megan.
Ben shook his head, “No idea, the preparations for the flight I would imagine,” he said.
“What does he think I’ve been doing? We’re nearly done retrofitting everything but we still need to do an EVA to install the controllers on the hull,” said Megan.
“That’s all? I could have sworn we had more to do, like the regulators,” said Ben with a yawn.
“We did those last night,” said Megan.
Ben thought about it for a moment and then nodded, “So I didn’t dream about that?”
Megan rolled her eyes ignoring him.
Making their way to the bridge the two found the rest of the crew assembled floating around the captain, technically they were supposed to line up in some fashion but without gravity and any way to stabilize themselves it was a formality that the captain had long since dismissed.
“We’ve got an incoming communication from Dr. Lincoln,” Said Captain Takuya addressing the crew at large.
“Every one of you know what we are going to be attempting, and it is against all regulations to ask this of you so I once again offer any of you the chance to disembark.” He was silent for a moment and no one in the room moved, Captain Takuya nodded and continued, “We all lost people in the war, and with the way things are now we will be fighting in another very soon. I never dreamed of exploration, but I can see why humanity needs it. We as a species need something to focus on, and room to grow. We have the technology but our governments have little will to do anything, so we will have to do it ourselves,” he said and turning to his screen he opened the communication link.
“Dr. Lincoln?” He asked.
“I’m here Takuya,” Said Dr. Lincoln. Glancing up at the forward screen where the doctor was projected Ben could see that she was standing in an underground room with banks of monitors and equipment around her. In the background Martian technicians were moving to and fro working on what he assumed was the particle accelerator to produce more antimatter.
“Your crew is present?” she asked.
Captain Takuya nodded, “They are,” he said.
“Good, I want to thank all of them for this. For trusting that the calculations I have made will let them be the first to explore another solar system,” she said.
Captain Takuya smiled, “It hardly took that much convincing, most were just happy to have an excuse to dump the politicians,” he said.
Several of the crew laughed in agreement.
“I have the final control program, I’ve included hook in’s for the navigation system on the Yamato so you can perform on the fly adjustments if needed. Your engineers should be able to optimize it further, and I’ve done as much as I could but their might be unforeseen circumstances due to the greater distances,” Said Lincoln, “This could be one way, you do know that right?”
“We are aware, and it is something my crew is prepared to face,” said Captain Takuya.
Lincoln nodded, “Godspeed Captain.”
Pushing the baseball cap down tighter onto his head James stepped out of the car and into the mostly empty parking lot of one of the larger warehouses in the district. With only a few other cars and the fog rolling off of the sea it would have been the perfect setting for a horror movie.
“I still don’t get it. Why the hell are they meeting in a warehouse? I thought that was something of a cliché,” said Ares through the comms unit in James’s ear.
James rolled his eyes, he was really going to regret leaving the channel open, especially when he wasn’t going to be able to shut him up.
“And along with that what is that smell?” He asked.
In the background James could here Red saying something, “Seriously? How can you stand it? Smells like something rolled up and died inside a helmet,” Said Ares, “How can you swim in that muck?” He asked.
James knew he was going to have a headache after this. Red and Ares continued to argue inside the helicopter and for a moment James considered activating his mike and telling them to shut the hell up but he had already spotted the Terra Supremacy guard lurking very conspicuously near the entrance to the warehouse.
As he approached the guard raised his handgun pointing it at James, who paused and slowly put his hands up. The small display inside the guard’s helmet which looked like a surplus military helmet from at least three decades ago lit up as it scanned him. Not that James would show up in any of the databases they had access to. His cover though would show him to be a wanted man in connection with several Martian ship sabotages.
The guard nodded and lowered his gun, and as was protocol for most Terra Supremacy meetings James rolled up his sleeve to display the tattoo of earth on his forearm. The guard glanced down at it and opened the door to the warehouse without saying a word.
“Seriously what kind of security is this? A tattoo and a face scan can be fooled as easily as anything else these days.” Said Ares.
James ignored him as he stepped into the abandoned warehouse, the small HUD in his eye was working overtime as he scanned the faces of the crowd around him. Quite a sizable amount appeared to be former military if looks were anything to go by so he fit right in.
The people were milling about the warehouse apparently waiting for whoever was supposed to be speaking to take to the crudely constructed stage in the back of the room. Already a few people with minor warrants had been identified, but they had not been deemed war criminals like the bigger fish that James was supposed to be looking for so he let them be and continued to scan the crowd.
After several minutes the lights dimmed and a man who had been lounging near one of the walls pulled off his hood and stepped forward.
“That’s Henry Waldo, the right hand to our Jon Doe of a leader for this organization,” said Ares through the comms.
Red cut in a moment latter, “James you have another five minutes to identify everyone for the strike, the teams are getting ready to drop.” He said.
James didn’t say anything as he followed the rest of the crowd forwards towards the stage where the man had put his arms up ready to start his speech whatever it was.
“Brothers!” he shouted.
“Oh god really?” Said Ares.
“We are the ones who have cared for our Earth, we are not the ones who abandoned her for another world! We are the ones who provided the Martian’s for decades giving them all the needed to survive on a world that they should not have been on! We asked that they repay us and they refused, and incurred only more debt as they attacked us!” the man continued to rant, and the supporters in the crowd only continued to get more riled up. Looking around James carefully marked the positions of all the guards and anyone else who had a modern firearm. The coordinates were sent to the targeting scanners of the incoming drop units, and would remain accurate down to the centimeter as long as James was in the room to see them move.
As the rant continued going on to something about impure genetics James slowly turned his eyes to the roof, he had rarely seen a drop from this perspective. He was usually the one doing the dropping.
“Here we come, I’ll try not to shoot you!” said Ares.
James ground his teeth together but didn’t say anything.
“We have impact in five seconds,” Said Red.
James snapped his head to the side activating the hearing protection and what little armor the simple hat could provide. Several of the terrorists looked over at him for a moment and James simply smiled.
The roof above the man yelling at the crowd split open, as Terran mech suits and a single Martian unit dropped into the warehouse. The automatic turrets on the shoulders of the Terran’s suits automatically targeted the individuals James had painted, and fired the nonlethal darts.
The men around the perimeter of the room all collapsed, the man on stage was crushed under one terrain unit and the rest of the crowd had barely had time to react, the fight was over before most of the debris had hit the ground.
“On the ground now!” Shouted one of the Terran units broadcasting it through the loudspeakers in the suit. A man next to James moved to pull the antiquated gun from his jacket, and in one smooth motion James’s fist shot forward hitting the man squarely in the jaw sending him sprawling onto the ground.
“God damn it!” Said James as he shook his fist, hitting people point blank like that always stung like hell without any padding on.
The rest of the supports slowly went to the ground, and were quickly cuffed. Additional units in mech suits streamed in through the main door to the warehouse now that it was secure and began dragging the men off.
Still rubbing his knuckles James walked over to the Martian unit, which as he approached popped up its visor revealing Ares.
“You got em!” said Ares smiling.
James pulled out his combat knife and flipping it in his hand rammed the hilt of it into the side of the helmet, producing a very satisfying clang.
“Ow! What the fuck!” Said Ares as he cringed away brining his arm up to try and swat at James who had already stepped away from the man.
“That’s for being a prick and not shutting up!” growled James.
Ares’s grin widened, “I’m sorry?” he said.
James held up the knife again and Ares raised his hands in surrender.
“Where’s Red?” he asked.
“Landing in the lot outside, he was a little pissed when I jumped though.” Said Ares.
“I can’t imagine why,” said James. Leaving the commander to clean up the rest of the terrorists James stalked back out of the warehouse with Ares in tow behind him, moving silently despite the exoskeletal suit. The Martian models were nearly silent, it was unnerving considering the ones on Earth made quite a racket when they moved.
Stepping outside James glanced up to the sky to see that it was beginning to rain, and out in the middle of the lot the helicopter was just touching down. With a sigh James pulled his hat on tighter and ran out into the rain soaking himself in moments as he sprinted towards the helicopter.
The side doors opened and Red leaned out.
“I thought we would get him this time,” he said.
James nodded, “I thought so too, we’ll see what information we can get from them maybe we’ll get lucky,” He said.
Red snorted, “Yeah maybe. Doubt it though.”
“Ah come on we got a whole lot of them! Can the two of you be happy about that for once?” asked Ares as he stepped into the helicopter and collapsed into his seat.
“Considering they want to kill you I’m surprised their not more concerned,” Said Red.
“Well if they want me dead they want you to die a thousand times over Red,” Said Ares looking up at the traitor who had defected from Earth to Mars in the beginning of the war.
“Is this a competition?” asked James as he stepped into the helicopter.
Red shrugged and walking back into the cockpit began to spin the blades back up, “It’s not one I would want to win.” He said.
“Are we ready?” asked Captain Takuya.
“Almost!” said Megan over the comm as she turned to Ben.
“Give me that wrench,” she said pointing at the one sitting next to Ben. He quickly pushed it towards her.
“You’ve been saying that for the past two hours, are we ready or not?” asked Captain Takuya.
Megan raised the wrench and making sure she was lined up banged it into the array sending herself spinning from the impact. The displays on the monitoring system all lit up green.
“We’re ready,” said Ben as he reached out to offer Megan his arm to stop her spinning. She grabbed it and caused the both of them to slam into the bulkhead behind them.
“Ow, fuck!” said Megan.
“We’re going to launch in five minutes then, I would suggest locking down for acceleration,” said Takuya, he muted the line to the engine room and Ben groaned.
“Why the hell is it every time you do that I end up being the one to hit my head?” he asked.
Megan glanced down at him and shrugged, “the universe hates you, and rightly so,” she said.
Ben ignored her and pushing off form the wall went to what was the floor and pulled out two of the acceleration chairs, “Well then let’s see if that’s true, if the universe hates me I doubt we’ll make it to Epsilon Eridani,” Ben.
Megan rolled her eyes but floated down to her seat and strapped into it, both of them flipped their confirmation’s that they were ready for g’s.
In the bridge Takuya glanced down at his readiness display, all of the crew were strapped into the restraints ready for acceleration. The engineering crew being the last to get into them, most of the crew had been in them for an hour or so at this point.
“We sure this won’t send a report back to command?” asked Takuya referring to the magnetic rail they were about to commandeer around Saturn.
The pilot shook his head, “The war overrides are still in place and we’re on the far side of Saturn nothing can see us and it won’t transmit back.” He said.
Takuya nodded, and then looked at the display in front of him.
“Well than, launch us,” he said.
The pilot nodded and activated the countdown. On every screen around the ship the standard acceleration countdown appeared, with a smaller subset clock underneath of it in blue instead of red for the FTL jump.
The crew held its breath as the two clocks slowly wound down, even the ship itself which was usually humming with activity was silent waiting for its moment. The clock hit zero, and Takuya grunted as the g-forces from the launch pushed him into the back of his seat, he heard a few objects that had not been secured go flying into the bulkheads like with any other launch. This one lasted slightly longer however, the track around Saturn being twice as long as any normal magnetic launch system.
“We’ve cleared the track, we are on an escape trajectory from the sun. The FTL drive will activate in ten seconds while we are still in the blind spot Saturn provides.” Said the pilot.
“Roger, engine room all green?” asked Takuya.
“All green!” said Megan.
She glanced back at the display in front of them, part of her wanted to close her eyes and brace for whatever was coming but an even larger portion of her wanted to watch, she quickly switched the camera feed on the monitor to show the prow of the ship.
“FTL engaged!” shouted the pilot over the PA.
The more precisely tuned charges were ejected from the Yamato, the strange matter in front and the antimatter in the back. The two detonated and once again formed the tear in space, for a half second Megan could see it, the coiling rip inside the fabric of reality bending and already starting to close. The Yamato plunged inside.
Megan blinked as she tried to comprehend what the screen was showing her, but couldn’t, it looked as if everything was composed of metal and wire, and infinitely complex machine that she could spend an eternity studying and never understand. Ben tried to process what he was seeing but it looked like a multitude of flashing lights and incoherent projections of matter forming into impossible shapes moments before unraveling.
As quickly as it happened the images faded and stars were once again in view. In front of Megan and Ben the fusion power plant started blaring out warnings.
“Shit!” Said Megan, she quickly undid the straps holding her in place and launched off of the wall towards it with Ben inches behind her.
“Engine room, what’s going on!?” asked Captain Takuya through the intercom.
“Overload!” Shouted Megan as she quickly began to manipulate the controls on the reactor dampening down the nuclear reaction inside.
“The reaction temporarily went above expected tolerances, the efficiency spiked and almost breached the containment unit!” said Ben as he looked down at the readouts, “Holy shit! Our efficiency spiked to almost 98%”
Megan finished adjusting the reactor, bringing it down to its absolute minimum levels while still keeping the fusion reaction stable.
“Engine room report!” Said Captain Takyua.
“We’re good Captain, although next time we perform a jump we need to dampen the reactor. The fusion reaction nearly breached containment and I don’t feel like breathing plasma,” said Megan.
“Understood, any damage?” he asked.
“Nothing permanent, a few blown relays. I want to inspect the reactor housing before we go back up to full power though.”
“How much thrust can you give me?” asked the Captain.
“Forty percent for now, once the inspection is done in two hours full thrust.” Said Megan.
“Good, inform me when you’re finished, and be prepared for ship rotation the scanners are going to be running,” said the captain referring the array of sensors in the belly of the Yamato originally designed to monitor enemy movements but had been repurposed to observe the planets of the system.
“Ben I want you to go and start flipping all the load tests, make sure we didn’t fry something with that burst,” Said Megan.
“What I can’t even look at the star?” he asked pointing at the monitor now showing the first analysis the guys on the bridge were running on the solar system.
“Sure, you can watch it. I’m going to work on making sure we don’t blow up and die!” said Megan.
Ben sighed, “You know sarcasm really is the lowest form of comedy,” he said as he moved over to the relay junction box and plugged in his diagnostic computer to start running the load tests. The first minutes into the historic exploration of another solar system and he was stuck running diagnostics. Really he shouldn’t have been surprised.
[Charles] looked down at the ship in her hanger, the frame of the [Singer] was one of the oldest in the Empire. She had originally been built to curtail the threat of the Outcasts long ago, and had been outfitted during the rebellions with the more advanced technology of the age. She was old now but had a legacy of brining victory to the Empire, a task just as much reliant on the ship as well as her Captain.
Smooth and almost organic in form the [Singer] represented the architecture and construction of the ships of old, her surface marred only by the slight bumps of the cloaking system she was now famous for. The rest of the hull was a black material which when looked at for too long made one’s head spin and eyes tired, even without the cloaking system activated she bent light around herself.
“When will she be ready?” asked [Charles] turning to the lead engineer for her refit.
The man scratched at his head and then glanced back down at the ship, “we’re nearly done, about the only thing left is to load the classified cargo,” said the engineer.
“Classified cargo?” asked [Charles].
The engineer shrugged, “I don’t know what it is,” he said.
“You have the transfer orders right?”
The engineer nodded and quickly pulled them up on his display handed it to [Charles]. Once glance at the orders confirmed what he had thought, the signature was that of [Marcus].
“Thank you.” Said [Charles] and he handed the document back to the man. He nodded and turned back to look at the hanger.
Stepping away [Charles] quickly exited the small room and stepping into the elevator rode it down to the ground floor. Exiting the facility he quickly flagged down an official transport, “The Palace,” said [Charles] as he settled into the back seat. The Driver paused and turned back to look at him.
“Sir?” he asked.
[Charles] glanced up the man a class B from the looks of it, his skin tinged slightly blue and eyes much lighter than was proper for a Dorvakian. He was not permitted anywhere near the Palace under normal circumstances, allowed only on the outskirts of the Capital.
“Take this,” said [Charles] leaning forward and giving the man his authorization chip.
The man hesitated but then slotted it in, the control computer of the transport flashed and then opened up, giving the driver [three hours] of access to all airspace around the Capital.
“Go.” Growled [Charles].
The transport shot up into the air and breaking quite a few of the speed regulations shot towards the center of the Capital.
In the back of his seat [Charles] fumed, whatever the political games were, putting something that not even he had knowledge of on his ship was out of the question.
The transport slowed as they approached the Palace, the man was trying not to show it but he was looking in every direction taking in the sights. This was perhaps the closest he had ever gotten to the Emperor in his life and was taking it all in.
[Charles] rapped on the separator and the man looked back at him sheepishly before speeding back up and landing in front of the Palace at its security checkpoint. Stepping out [Charles] felt the multiple scanners reading him as he stormed towards the office he knew the Consul would be in, none of the guards or automatic defense moved forward to detain him so he didn’t pause.
Entering the building [Charles] walked down the hall towards the office housing the Consul, further security measures disengaged as he moved through the building, shield generators snapped on and off as he moved, and several large security doors swung out and moved as he approached them. Whatever else was going on he was expected.
The final obstacle was the old wooden door of the office, and hesitating for only a moment [Charles] pushed it open and stepped inside. The office was ornate, blue and yellow in color but not gaudy by any means. Like the Consul it projected a calm control.
[Marcus] glanced up from his desk and carefully put down the data he was working on and stood up, “I was wondering when you would make it.” He said.
[Charles] glared at the man, “am I still the Captain of the [Singer]?” he asked.
[Marcus] nodded, “You are. May I ask why you are storming into my office? I had to delay the talks with the trade minister when I was informed you were tearing across the capital to see me,” Said [Marcus].
[Charles] placed his own data pad down on the desk showing the order for the object that was being loaded onto the [Singer].
“You completely bypassed the military chain of command and placed an object on my ship that is classified higher than I even knew was possible. I want to know what it is,” said [Charles].
“If I don’t tell you?” asked [Marcus].
“Then I file a complaint with military command and continue with my mission. I want to know if this object will endanger my crew that is all,” Said [Charles].
[Marcus] looked at him for a moment and then nodded, “I was going to inform you Captain, it is one of the latest development from Hygonix, a breakthrough that was made near the end of the rebellions that was never tested,” said [Marcus]. He stood and reaching into his desk pulled out a secure data pad and pressed his hand to it unlocking it, then offered it to [Charles].
Hygonix was one of the oldest planets in the Empire, and a site exclusively for dangerous scientific testing, the planet’s atmosphere having been accidently poisoned by a reactor overload which sent dust and debris into its atmosphere [hundreds of years] ago.
“The scientists who created it call it The Cleansing, it will within a matter of hours eliminate any impure Dorvakian variants from a planet leaving the local flora and fauna as well as any infrastructure intact, a much cleaner method than cracking the crust. If the local wildlife is also too far gone that can be easily eliminated by ground forces,” said [Marcus].
[Charles] read through the report on the weapon as quickly as he could absorbing the details, a detonation in the hold of the [Singer] would be as toxic as any gas leak due to the concentration of the toxin but other than that it would have no greater threat to any of his crew that were pure Dorvakian.
“Thank you Consul.” Said [Charles].
“Thank you Captain. Once you have the FTL technology in hand I want this to be used.”
“On the Class C species sir?” asked [Charles].
“The High Scientist came to their conclusion, this species will present too much of a threat in the future if they are allowed to develop. Once we have the technology plant the device on their home world. The colony they have constructed will no doubt easily fall without assistance. A garden world even as badly damaged as the one this C species possess is a valuable asset to the Empire,” Said [Marcus].
[Charles] placed his hand over his eye, “yes sir.”