Shuttle near HD 40307g (aka Jikse)
Fleeing to the Canada
Diana stared in horror at the gaping hole on the other side of the shuttle. Only a moment ago, the other half of the ground team had been sitting there; now all that was there was open space, with a small Imperial ship bearing down on them.
Diana had nearly sat down on that side of the shuttle, but switched to the other side when she found a jacket on the seat she wanted. If that hadn’t been there, if she had been sitting on the other side… Diana shuddered and tried not to think about it.
“Hang on!” shouted the pilot as he swung the shuttle around, narrowly maneuvering out of the way of another burst of energy from the Imperial vessel.
“Get us to the Canada!” shouted Young as the Pilot continued to perform evasive maneuvers, even with half of the shuttle missing. Bellona had built all vessels to operate even if a significant portion of it was damaged or missing.
The shuttle swung around, and Diana felt the remaining engines being pushed to their limits. Looking out into the void in front of her, Diana spotted the Canada quickly approaching the Imperial patrol vessel.
The patrol ship was only slightly larger than the shuttle, and could hardly have more crew considering how tightly packed they were in the shuttle. Like the ship that had attacked Earth nearly a decade ago, though, the small ship was a sinuous shape – more organic then what humanity usually constructed for operation in space. A thick central sphere that housed the weapons array was the most menacing thing on the small vessel, and Diana watched in horror as it released another bolt of energy.
This one didn’t miss. With a bright flash of light, the shuttle began to spin again.
The strange matter systems were either offline, or too badly damaged to actually do anything, and were not able to compensate for the extreme g-forces being generated by the spin. Diana grunted in pain as what felt like an enormous hand grabbed at her and pulled her up against the front of the restraints keeping her in the seat.
“Shuttle, please respond!” Arik shouted over the comm.
“We’re alive!” shouted Diana.
“Shuttle Respond!” shouted Arik.
“Long range comms are out!” shouted the pilot.
The Imperial patrol ship was turning away from them to face the Canada. The view of the two ships quickly disappeared however as the shuttle continued to tumble.
“Are we in orbit?” asked Young.
“No!” shouted the pilot, “We never got into it, we were going for a ballistic rendezvous!”
“Damn.”
The pilot managed to slow the spin of the shuttle to something manageable and turned around in his chair. “We don’t have anywhere near enough of a profile to re-enter the atmosphere like this.”
Young, who had already unstrapped himself from his restraints and clipped into the shuttle was rummaging around the seat beneath him.
“I know. So we get to use the fancy equipment,” Young said as he extracted the packs from underneath the seat and clipped them to what remained of his seat so they wouldn’t float away.
“There are only four, sir,” the pilot said, not turning around.
“I’m aware,” said Young, his voice tight.
The pilot turned back around, away from the back section of the ruined shuttle, and stared out at the planet in front of them.
“I’d like to try landing her sir.”
Young didn’t say anything, but reached forward into the cockpit and put his hand on the man’s shoulder, nodding. “Alright, we’ll meet at Beta rendezvous coordinates.” Turning around from the cockpit and back to the aft section of the shuttle, he gestured at the packs in front of him and shouted, “Suit up!”
“Are these what I think they are?” asked Minerva, picking up the mass of material and carefully unfolding it.
“The HALO suits? Yeah. We got all of what Bellona manufactured, although half of them are still on the Canada.”
Reaching forward, Diana picked up her own suit and unfolded it carefully.
The mass of cloth and solid panels was only slightly thicker than the suit she was currently in, but it would hypothetically protect her for re-entry. Earth had been working on the suits near the end of the Sol war, and afterwards they had managed to get several working prototypes during the peace before the aliens had shown up.
Bellona had only in the past year managed to re-synthesize the necessary components, and to Diana’s knowledge the newer suits had not yet been tested in anything but the lab.
“We’re jumping!?” Minerva exclaimed, looking at the floating stack of suits like it was radioactive.
“We’re jumping,” Young confirmed, and pushed one of the suits into her hands.
Stepping into the suit, Diana felt the material seal itself in the back and connect to the small HUD in her helmet to display status. At the moment the suit was reporting that everything was in the green.
“Follow the descent pattern it automatically plots and you should be fine. We’re missing the orbital guidance packs so we’re going to drift. Everyone has five days to get to the Bravo point unless you hear otherwise from me or the Canada,” said Young as he stepped into his own suit.
Bruno was silently getting into his own suit when the pilot turned on the single remaining monitor in the back of the shuttle.
“The Canada,” he stated, unnecessarily. The image on the screen showed the Canada and the Imperial patrol vessel directly in front of one another, nose to nose. The guns on the Canada were extended and were firing, pounding into the shields of the opposing vessel causing great gouts of blue plasma to spill off of them. The Imperial vessel was laying on fire as well, hitting the hull of the Canada and causing the metal to glow and appear as if it were on fire, but it held. The Canada, unlike the vessels that had orbited Earth and Mars, was built to survive energy weapon blasts. A feat which had been theoretical up until right now.
“We’re about to hit the atmosphere, you’re going to want to be clear of the shuttle. If I can’t keep her profile correct, she’s going to spin and shred herself up. I wouldn’t recommend being onboard if that happens.”
Young turned to look at the pilot again, and the two experienced soldiers simply looked at one another for a moment.
The pilot turned and faced forward squaring his shoulders.
“You heard the man!” shouted Young as he unclipped himself and, tapping his feet on the floor of the shuttle, flew out through the hole in its side and into the void.
Diana glanced over at Bruno and Minerva. “Let’s go!”
Unstrapping her own restraints, Diana followed the Commander out into the void.
The Canada
“The patrol vessel has fired on the shuttle!” Arik shouted through the PA systems on the bridge. As the entire crew watched, the shuttle begin to tumble violently through space. Thankfully it looked as if they had already decompressed, so there were no doubt survivors.
“All systems to full power. Put us between the patrol vessel and the shuttle!” shouted Stagg. Before the words were even out of her mouth, her crew was in action, moving to carry out the directives. It was their own people in that shuttle, and the aliens had already taken enough from them.
Stagg felt the slight push as the Canada flipped and, going retrograde to her orbit, burned towards the patrol vessel.
“Hail the shuttle and the enemy!”
“I have no communication from the shuttle, their communications are down. But I am seeing moving heat signatures. Someone is still alive. The alien vessel is responding.”
An image of a red alien appeared on the front view screen, he was fatter and far younger than the one that was in the recordings from the Mars communications. His uniform was the same though.
“You come to this world and don’t pay what you owe to your protectors? You are carrying one of the largest shipments of strange matter in the sector. You’re late in paying your dues so hand it all over or I will destroy the smaller vessel,” said the alien almost casually, as if he shook down the inhabitants of the planet on a daily basis. Which, for all Stagg knew he did – or no one was dumb enough to not pay the tribute that they demanded.
In any case that didn’t matter.
Stagg squared up to the screen. “You fire on that ship again and I will destroy your vessel.”
The alien on the other side of the communication laughed. “You don’t even have shields, and I’m detecting no weapons. You are not a threat, so hand over the tribute or I will be forced to pick it out of orbit from the smouldering wreckage of your ship!” shouted the alien as he leaned forward in his seat.
“Final warning,” said Stagg.
The alien shook his head and the communication line was cut.
“All hands, tactical decompress!” shouted Stagg as she stabbed down on the intercom and set the timer for one minute. Reaching over, she unhooked her helmet from the back of her seat and slipped it over her head.
The rest of the bridge crew and everyone else on the Canada did the same. Within moments, all sections reported ready and the air was alternatively pumped back into storage or bled off into space within moments.
“Arik, their computers?” Stagg asked.
“I am attempting to break into the computer systems, but it seems the military encryption schemes in use are beyond those utilized by the public. I’m not able to gain any significant inroads into their computer systems!” she reported, sounding panicked.
Stagg nodded and turned to the weapons station. “So much for digital warfare. Give them a grazing shot, and crank up the rail to full. We want their attention.”
“Aye!” As the Canada adjusted course to line up with the Imperial patrol ship, a baited silence fell over the bridge, facing directly at the enemy like this, their main gun – the rail, which was built into the entire length of the ship – was aligned. No Terran or Martian vessel would have ever been caught in the sights like this; to do so meant instant death. This would be the first time Humanity’s improved weapons would be used against an enemy military vessel. Like most everything else on the ship, the effects of it were theoretical.
The Canada shuddered slightly and fired. The metallic slug, only a kilo in size, was accelerated to just under 2% the speed of light in a fraction of a second via magnetic induction. The extreme acceleration also had the effect of melting the slug, transforming it into a molten gout of plasma, not unlike what a star might eject from a solar flare.
The projectile struck the alien patrol vessel, and was absorbed by the shields in a massive flash of plasma fire.
Stagg smiled slightly as the alien ship turned.
“The ace in the hole, ma’am?” asked the weapons officer.
“No, we’re not going to show our hand too early,” Stagg said, shaking her head.
The officer nodded and turned back to his controls.
“All hands brace!” said the defensive system officer as a beam of energy arced out from the alien vessel and hit the Canada. For a moment Stagg wondered if they had missed; there was no feeling of an impact with the energy weapons.
“The hull is holding. We’re bleeding off the excess heat and feeding as much of it as we can back into our own systems.” said the defensive officer.
Arik displayed a schematic of the Canada up on the main screen, showing where the shot had hit. Stagg glanced over to her right; the impact of the shot had been only a few meters in that direction.
“Project how long we could stay in a fight,” said Stagg.
“Approximately thirty minutes under this rate of fire and intensity. However, my calculations show that they will be able to maintain a consistent firing pattern for only twenty minutes before they must cool their systems.”
Stagg smiled. For the first time in an alien encounter, Humanity had the upper hand. Of course, this being a human Battleship against a patrol vessel, Stagg was under no illusions. This vessel was likely one of the weakest at the Empire’s disposal. Still, it felt good.
The Canada was now in between the shuttle and the patrol ship. It was the best they could do; Stagg was not going to launch the second and only remaining shuttle in the middle of a battle, but they could at least give them a chance to survive.
“The alien patrol vessel is now transmitting a general distress call. I cannot jam it.”
Stagg winced. “Continue firing. Let’s get them to surrender before the reinforcements get here.”
A Memory
“Why do you want to know?” [Charles] asked, looking up from the primitively bound book he was reading. The Human language was simple enough, having less than thirty characters which represented the entirety of the sounds common to their language. Once he knew what each letter or combination thereof meant, he could sound them out and his translator would convert them.
By this point, he hardly needed the thing. His own grasp of the Human language was now sufficient for basic communication.
“I’m curious,” said Emily.
[Charles] dismissed her. “It’s not something you will ever see. You are not even going to see the surface of this world again,”
Emily frowned. “You don’t have to be needlessly cruel about it.”
“It is the truth,” deadpanned [Charles].
The silence between the two of them quickly grew again. [Charles] tried to ignore it, but inside the Doctor’s own office he couldn’t very well refuse her as she continued to stare at him.
“The buildings are old, but majestic, each carved from a rock on my world that is laced with silver. You can see exactly how old a building is based on the pattern. The entire capital is also host to some of the most beautiful plants on my world. The temperature is moderate, so something is always in bloom, even during the winter months. In the center of it all you cannot help but feel as if you are standing in the presence of history – the very seat for the might which the Empire,” growled [Charles] as he continued to read the book in his hands, not looking up at the young Human.
“That sounds beautiful, but what else is there? You can’t just have old marble buildings.”
“No, that is simply the oldest section of the city, its center. That is the seat for the Senate, and the Emperor’s power. The rings outside of it possess more modern architecture. The personal transports flying through the air, buildings so tall they almost seem to reach up to space, metal and glass. Outside of that is the suburbs, where I hope to retire to someday if I ever leave this hell-hole,” said [Charles]. He put the book down on the desk in front of him and looked sharply at the Doctor. “There, does that sate your useless curiosity?”
Emily nodded, “Yeah, sounds like what we had back on Earth for the most part. Old buildings that all the big-wig politicians liked to use, with all the new stuff crammed in around it. That’s why I came to Mars; none of that here. Here it’s always been ‘rebuild it better before it kills you’. No use in saving something just because it was here first. Hell, even the first landers were recycled for scrap when we needed it.”
“How am I not surprised that you placed no value on what was in the past. Every class C species is like that, never caring about what came before them, always thinking they are the pinnacle of development.”
Emily laughed. “We could be sentimental! We’re just not sentimental about the places we live. Mars will kill you without a second thought – asphyxiation, the cold, the god awful food – hell, maybe even the Tharks if you’re unlucky! But we are sentimental about what Mars could be, if that makes any sense. We look at the wasteland that is our home right now and see it as it will be a thousand years from now, a paradise of our own making.
[Charles] rolled his eyes. “Which is why it is absolute lunacy. The fact that you are here only proves my point: Humanity is just another crazy class C species that needs to be eliminated. You do not need to make your own garden, there are plenty among the stars.”
“It’s manifest destiny, part of our survival as a species. Mars was the most hospitable planet in our solar system – next to Earth, of course – so it was the first one we challenged ourselves to conquer. We did it, too. Sure, it’s dangerous, but that’s life.”
“It’s needlessly risky.”
“So what about spaceships? Those are riskier than a colony.”
[Charles] nodded, reluctantly agreeing with her. “True, but that is done out of necessity.”
Emily spread her arms wide. “And for humans, so is this. We’ve looked up into our night sky since ancient times and seen this little red world going across the heavens, and we thought we might want to go there someday. So eventually we did, and before you showed up, we were looking at the stars in the sky like this little world. Places we could go, explore and learn from.”
She paused and brought up an image on her data tablet and showed it to [Charles] it was an image of a dead human on a medical bed, half of his face missing and bone exposed. His body was covered in burns and lacerations.
“This is what you’ve done to us. We used to look up with hope… now all we see in the stars is the need for revenge.”
[Charles] didn’t say anything.
He glanced back at the picture and gasped, “He is still alive?” he asked looking at the man.
“He was hit by some new weapon your people are using on the surface. They tried to breach our lines again today,” said Emily almost sadly.
[Charles] looked at the image again, slightly disturbed. “They are using flash lasers?”
“You know what kind of weapon did this?” she asked.
Slowly, [Charles] nodded. “Even against class C species, the use of flash lasers is forbidden. They are cruel weapons; as you can see with this man, they are hardly ever fatal. Instead most victims die from infection after having the upper layers of their skin removed.”
Emily nodded and extracted a data report. “That was my assessment. It looks like his flesh was scored off in one big fire ball but there was no evidence of an explosion. How do we defend against them?”
[Charles] looked at the woman for a moment. “What makes you think I would tell you that?”
“You just said that the use of such weapons is illegal.”
“It is.”
“Then why let your crew continue to use them?”
[Charles] shook his head. “They would only be using them if they had to. I will not help you kill my own people.”
“Then do you want to be responsible for ending this man’s suffering, and all the other men like him who I will have to treat from now on to slow and painful deaths?” asked Emily.
Reaching into her desk she extracted a small medical dosage gun and held it up to [Charles].
“If we were still at full functional capacity I would be able to heal him with a massive dose of regenerative nano-machines, but we don’t have those kinds of reserves. Now you’ve said we’re all worthless class C’s, so you might even get enjoyment out of killing him.”
Emily placed the vial down on the desk in front of him. “He’s over in the next room. You want to kill him, and be merciful about it?”
[Charles] looked at the small class C woman and then at the medical injector. Slowly he reached for it.
The Imperial, flagship of the Empire
In FTL Transit
[Vann] stood and carefully poured tea into the cup in front of [Sam], following an older custom in the Empire where a person of a higher station recognizes that they had respect for someone in a lower station.
The woman took the tea with shaking hands. “Thank you, sir.”
[Vann] poured his own and sat down at his desk.
“You’re welcome.”
For several minutes the two of them sipped their tea in silence.
“I want you to give me your opinion of C1764.” [Vann] finally said.
[Sam] put her tea down and slowly nodded. “Alright,” she said, collecting herself. “I was there with [Charles], part of the patrol that detected their antimatter FTL device. We thought they had destroyed themselves with some advanced weapon like most class C species do, so we went through the beacon into their solar system to investigate. There we found the evidence of that they had done. An FTL drive not restricted by the beacon system and its limitations. I think [Charles] was the only one who really understood what it meant at the time.”
[Sam] paused and took another sip of her tea.
“[Charles] wasn’t always like he is now. He used to be one of the most loyal officers I had ever met.”
“I read the reports; it is hard to imagine that the man described in them turned into the drunk he is now.”
[Sam] nodded. “He was different after he came back.”
“What do you mean ‘after he came back’?”
[Sam’s] eyes widened slightly. “He was captured and held captive by species C1764 for nearly two years]. It took us [years] to wipe out what was left of the humans on the red world they had colonized, and [Charles] was taken captive during a ground assault. We finally beat them, got [Charles] back, and took what little data we could from them about the FTL systems they created. He got slammed with investigation after investigation for his failures to obtain the FTL technology, and he eventually retired to escape it all.”
[Vann] leaned back in his seat, and slowly took a sip of his tea choosing his next words very carefully.
“You don’t believe he’s a dissenter, do you?” he asked.
[Sam] shook her head. “No definitely not, whatever his opinion of the class C species and the Empire’s policy towards them, he would never betray it. He’s a drunk asshole at the moment, but I can’t ever imagine him becoming a dissenter!” said [Sam], leaning forward in her seat slightly angrily.
[Vann] raised his hands. “It had to be asked.”
[Sam] paused, took a breath and sat back. “I am sorry. It was not my place to take that tone with you, Emperor.”
“No it was not, but I will forgive it. Your loyalty towards your past commanding officer is admirable,” [Vann] paused and picked up a data tablet on his desk, passing it to [Sam].
“Loyalty is something I fear I might have to rely on more so than in the past. It seems that certain events have been kept from me, as well as the general population of the Empire at large.”
[Sam’s] eyes were daring back and forth over the data quickly absorbing it.
“Emperor…” she trailed off.
“I had a similar reaction. [Charles] knew about it, somehow.”
Carefully, as if afraid the data tablet might explode, [Sam] put the thing down and nodded. “Like I said, he changed after the imprisonment on their colony. He’s determined to prove something.”
[Vann] nodded. “I guessed as much. He also knew about the other class C species. I doubt that is all he knows.”
“Why not simply ask him what else he knows?” asked [Sam].
“I doubt he would answer, and in any case I need evidence. The rantings of a single man are not something I can use to justify large changes in the Empire even if I feel that is appropriate. My position is a precarious one.”
[Sam] frowned, dubious. “Your position, Emperor?”
[Vann] chuckled. “I understand your unwillingness to drop the façade, but I am fully aware of those within my own government who grew too comfortable with the power they were able to obtain while I was a child. Taking that power back is something I have only just started to do, and even so it is going to be many more years before I once again have the entirety of the Empire under my control.”
“That has been something evident to the general population,” [Sam] admitted. “The people remember your Father’s rule more fondly then they do the current government, and he had a civil war on his hands!”
[Vann] took another sip of his tea and didn’t say anything, it was hard being compared to a man he had hardly known. The legacy he was expected to live up to went back literally thousands of years. There had, of course, been Emperors who were less than stellar, but [Vann] did not want to be remembered as such.
Before the conversation between the two of them could continue, [Vann]’s comm chirped,
“Yes?” asked [Vann] turning the device on.
“Sir, we’re getting a military distress call from an outer colony along our path,” the on duty comm officer reported.
[Vann] smiled slightly. An outer colony military distress call would be pirates. An unfortunate fact of the outer colonies’ unwillingness to contribute to the Empire meant they received less protection, so such attacks were not uncommon. Still, the soldiers serving on patrol vessels were loyal to the Empire.
“Divert us to the system,”
“The patrol vessel has activated its emergency tachyon beacon. We will be dropping out in [8 minutes].”
[Vann] stood. “I’m afraid we will have to finish this chat some other time. You’re welcome to come and join me on the bridge.”
[Sam] smiled at that. “I think I will. I’m itching to see what the bridge of the flagship looks like.”
Stepping out of his office, [Vann] guided the woman to the bridge elevator and within moments the two were on the bridge of the Imperial.
The bridge was dominated by the large forward display, with a holographic projector in front of it to show all pertinent tactical data and make it easier to understand spatial relations in regard to enemy and friendly ships. The lighting was dim for the most part, large windows letting in most of the light along either side of the wide space, which since they were in FTL was an ever-changing array of red or blue light.
Off to the sides, underneath the windows, were the seats and data consoles for the bridge crew. None stood as [Vann] entered, instead continuing to focus on their jobs. A display of respect towards him every time he entered the bridge took too long in [Vann]’s opinion.
Sitting in the command seat, [Vann] relaxed into the cushion and pointed at the seat next to him. “You were a data analyst correct? Before you became my aide’s aide.”
“Yes sir!”
“Well, analyze away then.”
[Sam] nodded and sat down in the seat and, copying [Vann], pulled the data console in front of her up so she could see all of the data being absorbed by the Imperial’s sensors.
[Vann] watched, somewhat impressed as the woman turned off all of the filters for the data and confidently began to rearrange the layout of how the data was being fed to her. She apparently had a system.
The Imperial dropped out of FTL, the red and blue lights outside the windows dying. [Vann] turned back to the main display. The world was like most standard garden worlds, Jikse as it was named. In front of him, much more importantly, were the two ships. One was an obviously outdated patrol vessel, and the other was one of the strangest ship constructions he had ever seen.
“The ship’s not squawking an IFF,” said [Vann], frowning down at the data referring to the strange ship. It was barely larger than the patrol vessel, but the energy reading coming from it was enormous.
“That’s common at outposts like this, sir,” [Sam] replied, her eyes wide and locked on the data in front of her as if not believing it.
[Vann] turned back to the main view to study the vessel. It was a solid block with hardly any protrusions or extensions for weapons or shield emitters. No portholes were visible on its hull, and [Vann] couldn’t see the telltale haze of energy shielding.
A bright flash showed the patrol vessel taking another shot at the enemy ship. Much to [Vann]’s amazement, it was not absorbed by energy shields but rather by the hull of the vessel itself. The metal briefly glowed, before returning back to the dull gray it had been moments before, seemingly unaffected by the energy blasts.
“Weapons, fire a blast at 40%.” said [Vann].
“Emperor,” [Sam]’s voice was barely audible over the din of machinery on the bridge. “The markings. They’re Human.”
[Vann]’s eyes widened as he turned back to the main display as the ship. The Human ship began to turn towards the Imperial. The lettering on its side in blood red paint becoming visible, the translation did little to help his confusion.
The Human ship fired, just as the Imperial let loose a blast of energy at the foe.