Chapter 24.
This is the Interstellar Network News, broadcasting live from Geneva, across the Earth Alliance and to our affiliates across the Inner Sphere. Your headlines for today, March the twenty first 2253, or 3012 by the local calendar.
"Good evening, I'm Jane Egan, with tonight's top stories across human space. Earlier today, President Luis Santiago declared space station Babylon Three fully operational. The space station, constructed in neutral territory provided by the Lyran Commonwealth near Terra, is the largest object ever constructed and a marvel of human engineering and perseverance.
"After the loss of Babylon Prime to an industrial accident, and Babylon Two to sabotage by unknown parties, there was growing opposition to continuing to create such a large and expensive station for the purposes of trade and diplomacy. With the completion of Babylon Three, former President Elizabeth Levy's belief in creating a forum for the galaxy appears to have been realised.
"Babylon Three will be officially opened for business later this year."
"In the Lyran Commonwealth, the first new shipyard to be built in over a century was commissioned by Archon Katrina Steiner. This joint venture between House Steiner's industrial holdings and Krausse Breguet is being hailed as the first successful partnership between Alliance and Commonwealth corporations.
The civilian yard is fully automated and will create a new range of jumpships capable of greatly exceeding previous weight limitations. The first ship, the Alessandro Steiner, will transport chemical fertilisers from the core Lyran worlds to frontier farms in order to boost agricultural production."
"Tensions have increased among Periphery nations in the galactic south. The Taurian Concordat and Magistracy of Canopus are currently disputing what action to take regarding a series of raids against the Aurigan Coalition. Lord Arano of Auriga has been accusing the Taurians of attempting to destabilise his nation, an accusation vehemently denied by Taurian Protector Zarantha Calderon.
Lord Arano has since requested assistance from his neighbours to discover the truth of these raids. The Alliance Foreign Office has agreed to send an Ambassador at large to help mediate this potential flash point."
"Closer to home, an Earth Force munitions ship has crashed on Mars. The vessel impacted in the deserts of Syria Planum on the Tharsis plain, away from any settlements. While Earth Force has confirmed no lives have been lost, the vessel was stated to be carrying nuclear munitions and there is a severe danger to life.
Syria planum is now under strict military quarantine until all radioactive material can be cleaned up and any munitions secured. Access by crawler is restricted and any aircraft or ships in orbit must divert or be intercepted. Earth Force expects the recovery to take two to three months."
"In sports, the Brooklyn Dodgers have lost their latest game against the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs go on to face either the Yokohama Hawks or the Vancouver Chippers in the next playoffs.
We'll have more from across the galaxy, including Dan Randall's exclusive report on the rebuilding of Sian, after these messages."
"Red Squad, Jade Squad, accelerate to combat speed." Major Kenichi Akamatsu took a few steady breaths to center himself, to focus his mind on the task ahead. He could not afford to fail. "Execute attack pattern."
With a kick, the Aerospace fighter accelerated, his body adjusting after an instant of dizziness. The improved engines were a notable improvement over the models he had flown in the past. Hopefully, it would be enough to keep him alive.
"Target set, Omega Destroyer at zero three zero." He tapped a few controls on his flight computer. "Jade Squad, focus your attacks on the engines. Red Squad, we're going for the weapons."
At this range, the target was just a tiny grey smudge reflecting the local sunlight. It was about to get a lot bigger. He checked his status screen revealing his twelve fighters were all in the green, the large unit a reaction to the large Earth Force squadrons.
"Keep your spacing and prepare for acceleration. Remember, your targeting computer wasn't designed to handle approach velocities this high. Deploy weapons manually and do not fuck this up."
He pointed the nose of his craft at the distant warship, his radar giving him the blocky outline with the distinctive rotating habitat block. It was an ugly ship, but he appreciated its functionality and its raw destructive power. Both fighter units were closing from opposite directions to split the enemy fire, timing was critical.
"Standby for emergency acceleration, you cannot turn at this speed, so line up on target now," Akamatsu spoke sternly. "The Dragon has invested too much into your training to watch you pancake into the side of a warship! No mistakes, maximum throttle in three, two, one, go!"
This kick was much stronger, the fighter going to war emergency throttle, dumping its considerable energy reserves into the thrusters. The Sabre was a lightweight fighter and very swift in its standard model. The improved version took that quality up a level, turning it into the fastest fighter anywhere in the Inner Sphere. It took considerable skill to handle such a vehicle. Fortunately, the Draconis Combine had always placed a lot of effort into its pilot schools.
Akamatsu focused entirely on the job at hand, fighting the G forces and keeping his eyes on the target and his information displays. All systems were still green, fuel consumption was alarming, but it was only going to be for a few seconds. Ahead, the grey block of the Omega began to approach very rapidly and in that moment as he watched, the ship opened fire, tiny flashes of sparkling light showing the turrets engaging.
He was committed now. There was no turning back, no altering course, speed was his only defence. He was at the front of the attack, so he couldn't see what was happening behind him. His only clue was the status readouts on his squadron going from green to red as fighters were knocked down. He could do nothing about that. It was all in the hands of fate, all he could do was arm the torpedo slung under the Sabre and wait for the moment.
It arrived fast, quicker than he expected, but his reactions were adequate to the task. The fighter jolted as the torpedo detached and accelerated away, the Sabre streaking over the forward hull of the Omega, just metres clear of the grey mass. Any evasive action would be pointless at this acceleration, he just blazed past and hoped the ship would be too busy burning to shoot at him. Fortunately, he seemed to be right.
"Already, Red Squad, Jade Squad, braking manoeuvres and form back up. Exercise complete." He flipped his fighter and cut thrust to see the rest of his squadron scattered behind him. "Those who survived are invited to drinks this evening, those who did not will have simulator time. Position yourself in the blindspots next run!"
It took another half hour before the fighter groups returned to their carrier, the long hulled Vengeance class DropShip Akagi. The airwing was a mixture of Sabres and Rapiers, common designs, but greatly enhanced these last few years. Akamatsu's unit had been putting the enhanced designs through their paces for the last year, tweaking the performance here and there, developing new tactics, finding the limits of both the machines and the pilots. By this point, they were ready to go operational.
Today's exercise was the culmination of those experiments. The end goal of the entire project, an effective weapon against the warships of the Earth Alliance. Everyone in the Draconis military, from the Coordinator down, was acutely aware that if Earth Force put a destroyer group over Luthien as it had Sian, there was little to be done about it. Of course, publicly, the Combine loudly announced its aerospace units were far superior to the Capellans, that its planetary defences were mightier and such a defeat would never occur here. Privately, the Dragon had dumped as much treasure as it could afford into vastly improving its fighter wings.
In an ideal world, the Dragon's response would have been to field warships of their own once again, but that was far easier said than done. They could not wait to relearn how to make such titans, they needed an immediate solution to the threat of Earth Force and it had fallen to the aerospace divisions to deliver it.
Several senior officers were aboard the Akagi watching the exercise and congratulated Akamatsu as he passed through the ship. They shook his hand, grinned, then went back to chatting and joking among themselves, happy with the results. They didn't understand, and Akamatsu reviled them for it. With this exercise done his fighter group was operational. It would join others in forming the new first line of defence for the Combine, the new Kido Butai of the First Aerospace Fleet. A glorious title and one his pilots were worthy of, but the expectations placed on them were unrealistic.
He placed his feet down inside the simulated gravity ring inside the carrier, grabbing a drink and dropping into one of the lounge chairs with a long sigh. He wasn't as young as he used to be and the intense acceleration was not good for his body. At this rate, he'd be out of the service in a few more years, assuming he survived that long.
"That was a thrilling display."
Akamatsu tilted his head and peered at the source of the comment, a robed man smiling down at him. Comstar. Great.
"Glad you enjoyed it." The pilot had little to say with a pseudo religious telecoms operator.
"With your squadron at the vanguard, I have no doubt the Combine will be victorious." The man took the seat beside him, much to Akamatsu's annoyance. "Precentor Harrow by the way, Deimos station."
"Major Akamatsu," he replied. A Precenter was pretty high ranking he recalled, best play nice.
"How do you like the fighters?" Harrow continued. "You know they are ours?"
"Ours?"
"Provided by Comstar. Those are Star League designed vehicles. We still have the original factories available to build them," the Precenter continued, smiling. "We also improved the magnetic constrictors within the engine assembly. Greatly improves acceleration, don't you think?"
"Yes, actually it does."
"I'll tell you a secret, those constrictors are a copy of Earth Force technology." Harrow grinned even wider. "Not as efficient, but it does the job. We had a few bits of their fighters to study after Sian."
"Lucky you."
"Also why we increased the number and power of your RCS thrusters, try to let you match the sort of manoeuvres you'd see a Starfury pulling off."
"We've been working on dogfight tactics, we still have a way to go."
"Understandable," The Precenter allowed. "But still, you did well today."
"Yes." Akamatsu drained his glass, immediately regretting not having another one.
"That must make you confident."
Akamatsu was not a social man, he was grumpy and short tempered, especially when he didn't have either a drink or a woman within arms reach. He absolutely had no patience for the political classes, which was why he was still a middle ranking officer despite his talents. The grinning man beside him had become more than an irritant and clearly wasn't getting the message to just leave.
"I'm confident we can take one ship, if we are lucky two," He answered. "Then we are done, finished, dead."
"That isn't bad for one air group."
"No, the whole air fleet, all twelve carriers, five hundred fighters," Akamatsu clarified with a grunt. "We'll get one of them, and it will slaughter us all."
The Precenter's smile faded, but his eyes remained fixed on the pilot.
"I'd like to hear your assessment. Your superiors tell me they could have won at Sian if they had been there. Tell me why they are wrong."
Akamatsu glared at him, quickly reassessing the man. Perhaps this meeting wasn't a casual little chat.
"Alright. You saw our attack?"
"Yes."
"Then you saw that we attacked from multiple directions in loose formation. This is a formation to try and split the enemy fire," Akamatsu explained. "It would be better to attack in close formation, so all our torpedoes strike together in close proximity, but to do so invites attack by the Alliance anti-proton bombs. You saw those at Sian? Wiped out entire airwings in one shot."
"I saw."
"So we attack in loose groups, each craft individually. Problem is the target we use, that fake destroyer made out of shipping containers and balloons, its weapons are based on our technology, our own PPC batteries. I've watched the Sian battle a hundred times, the real Omega Class guns are far more accurate than anything we have. I lost four fighters on the way in. If this was real, it would have been probably eight or nine."
"Two thirds of your force." Harrow noted.
"Plus our torpedoes are worthless. Five kilotons each? We might as well be spitting on those ships!"
"That is true, standard anti-ship weapons seem inadequate," Harrow considered.
"You don't even know the best bit." Akamatsu grinned darkly. "Loose formation is fine for avoiding defensive fire, but you know what it isn't good for? Dogfighting. Those destroyers, they aren't just gun platforms, they carry thirty six fighters each. Thirty six! And good fighters too! We go in scattered, unable to support each other, and those Starfuries eat us for breakfast. We go in tight to handle the fighters, we get vaporised by an anti-proton bomb. So yes, we can probably get one ship assuming it is alone, but casualties will be almost total."
"That is what my people told me," Harrow wasn't cheerful anymore, his voice cold and businesslike. "What if I told you we had data on an attack by eighty fighters against a unit of older Earth ships?"
"I would like to see it."
"Impossible, but it confirms everything you just told me. You are a very astute man, Major. Your assessment is extremely insightful." The Precenter nodded. "So how would you do it?"
"A vanguard goes in first to clear the fighters, then the main force follows up," Akamatsu guessed. "Estimate eighty percent casualties at least, and we probably won't put enough missiles on target to kill it. But if we knock out engines and weapons, that's good enough."
"Which is what you practised today." Harrow understood. "Very wise. What would you need to kill it?"
"A lot more firepower."
"I wonder Major, do you know what we in Comstar do?" Harrow asked. "Not just our HPG operations. You know that we preserve knowledge? The wealth of information from the glorious past?"
"I'd heard something like that." He shrugged. "I guess these fighters count, and the carriers."
"Yes, we are making them for the Combine, but we lack the skilled pilots to operate them. This is why the Primus and the Coordinator are working together. We both have a shared goal, to counter the threat of these new warships, but it seems we are still falling short." Harrow pursed his lips in thought. "Did you know, back before the Age of War, before the Aries conventions, the old Terran Hegemony had a way to manufacture nuclear weapons far smaller and more efficient than current models?"
Akamatsu raised an eyebrow "How much more efficient?"
"They could put a five hundred kiloton warhead on a standard LRM body," Harrow observed. "The Star League banned this, of course. It would be far too dangerous for such weapons to proliferate. After the Age of War, these sort of smaller nukes effectively became extinct. Unless one owned the old Hegemony plans for such weapons. Indeed if we go back further, the Terran Alliance also had such weapons."
"They would make a great difference. With weapons like that, we could actually kill even the biggest warship."
"Perhaps we can find something on Terra to help." Harrow smiled once again, but this time there was nothing cheery in the gesture. "Perhaps you should work on some tactics and strategies to take advantage of such weapons? Blake may smile on such an endeavour."
Syria Planum
Mars
Earth Alliance Territory
By shuttle, the journey would have taken minutes. Instead, Talia Winters had been trapped on the rustic seats of the crawler for four hours, as the driver appeared to hit every bump and rock on the planet. It was torture, not helped by the covered over windows and nauseating halogen lights in the passenger compartment. Her fellow passengers, half a dozen telepaths pulled at short notice from the nearby Psi Corps facility, were all equally uncomfortable and decidedly unenthusiastic.
The news had spoken about an accident in the deserts and they had even seen the distant smoke from their accommodation within the glass dome of the Psi Corps facility, but it was just an oddity. Their seniors had, from nowhere, rounded up a bunch of unassigned personnel with nothing in common, loaded them onto this crawler, and four hours later they were finally approaching their destination.
The lights inside turned red telling them at last to suit up and be ready to get off. The Martian environment had improved since efforts to terraform the planet had begun a century and a half ago. It no longer required a full pressure suit, but it was still bitterly cold and the air remained too thin to breathe. Talia dragged on her thick paska coat and the rebreather mask, checking to make sure all was in order as the vehicle wobbled to a stop and the back doors clanked open.
"This way." The rebreather communicator crackled in her ear, a similarly masked figure waved at them from outside the doorway. "Assemble here."
Talia took her turn stepping down from the wheeled crawler, noting the figure that welcomed them had the Psi Corps patch stitched into his coat. They gathered a short distance away under the Martian sun, the sky above heavy with black smoke suggesting they were at the crash site. Around them were multiple vehicles and prefab buildings all bustling with activity. To her eyes, it was a surprisingly broad selection of people for such a task. She recognized the badges of the EA Engineering corps and various HazMat workers, but to her mild surprise she also recognized the logo of IPX, Interplanetary Expeditions, who were best known for xenoarchaeology.
"Attention please." A clipped female voice addressed them. "I am Emma Kelsey, you will each be operating under my authority. Everything you see and hear while assigned to this operation is classified Ultra Secret. The penalty for revealing any details of this operation is Death of Personality. Are you all clear on this before we go any further?"
"I, I don't understand?" One of the group raised a hand. "What are we doing here?"
"Your jobs as telepaths." Kelsey replied curtly. "Anything else? Good, understand you are here to serve the Corps. Follow my instructions and all will be well. Now, proceed into that building behind you and we'll get started."
Talia did as instructed, her mind filled with questions that she instinctively suppressed. The Corps had sent them here and the Corps would not put them in danger, nor would it assign them to a task they were unsuited for. They entered the building through an airlock and were directed to a locker room where they hung up their equipment. It was a large building with lockers for about a hundred people. This was definitely not a small operation.
"All settled? Good, I have your assignments."
Talia's anxiety lessened a bit when she saw Emma Kelsey without her mask and coat, the long haired woman wore the black of a Psi Cop, with all the automatic trust that brought. She quickly went down the list of individuals in the group and sent them to different departments within the building.
"Talia Winters, P5 Commercial." She made it to the bottom of the list. "You will monitor the IPX contingent. Conduct frequent scans to ensure they are maintaining security requirements. If you detect anything unusual, report back to me and I will conduct a deep scan."
"Have they consented to these scans?"
"Yes." Kelsey nodded. "It's part of their contract for this operation."
"If I may ask, what is..."
"Any questions you have will be answered by your team." Kelsey cut her off. "Stick to your assignment, report to me and me alone. Are you clear on that?"
"I am."
"Then begin Miss Winters, door to your left."
There was no arguing with a Psi Cop, her instructions were clear and the matter resolved. Talia headed for the door as instructed and entered a plastic tunnel that stretched to a different complex of rapidly assembled buildings. These were filled with scientific instruments of various types manned by studious looking technicians, clearly the IPX wing. She searched around for somebody who looked to be in charge, eyes alighting on an elderly Asian man.
"Excuse me." She interrupted his reading of a data report. "Talia Winters, I've been assigned to help with security."
"Ah, our watch dog." He chuckled to himself. "Doctor Evan Chang, make yourself at home."
She decided not to take offence at being called a dog. "Thanks, and just to be sure, you know why I am here?"
"To scan us and make sure we aren't leaking information. Yes, we know." He accepted. "A little awkward but a small price to pay."
"Provided consent has been secured, you probably won't even notice. I'll be very low profile and keep clear of your work."
"Appreciated, it's going to be very busy here." Chang went back to his papers. "That's Doctor Kirkish, over there is Doctor Morden. If I'm not available, speak to them."
"Got it." Talia committed the names to memory. "Anything I can do to help?"
"Talk to Dr. Kirkish, she's probably got something."
Talia made her way over, nodding a greeting to Dr. Morden who seemed too deep in study to notice her. Beyond him, Dr Kirkish was shuffling papers. Her hair was frazzled and it looked like she could use some decent sleep.
"Dr Kirkish? Talia Winters, Psi Corps." She held out a hand.
"Oh? Oh, what happened?"
"Nothing I think, I've been assigned to help with security here. I was wondering if there was anything else I could do?"
"Right, maybe." She relaxed and shook Talia's hand. "I don't suppose you have PhD in Geology or any form of Chemistry?"
"Sorry, but I'm pretty good with numbers and organising things."
Kirkish looked at the mass of papers on her desk, then up at Taia with a sudden look of glee. "Call me Mary."
"Then it's just Talia." The telepath looked over the papers. "That's a lot of data for a freighter crash."
Kirkish paused, looking left and right before addressing Talia. "They didn't tell you?"
"I... no, I guess not...?" She frowned. "Is there more happening here?"
"You'll get it when you start scanning us anyway, come, over here."
Kirkish led her to one of the windows and pointed out of it. What Talia saw sitting partially exposed to the Martian sky was absolutely not a crashed freighter.
"That was the last group, all telepaths are assigned." Ms. Kelsey filed the papers away in a secure cabinet, her superior nodding in approval.
"They were specially selected by Department Sigma as expendable. If something goes wrong, they won't be missed. Though ideally, if things go smoothly, we can simply run a memory wipe."
Behind his desk, the man steepled his fingers, lost in thought for a moment. This operation was potentially the most vital currently underway, nothing like this had ever happened before and the long term results could be game changing.
"The dome technicians will be here soon," Kelsey continued. "Earth Force has supplied enough materials for an emergency dome structure about a mile wide. We can cover the entire digsite."
"Time frame?"
"Two weeks."
"Then we will have to keep up the smokescreen for at least that long. Let ISN know the radiation is so severe we have to let the crashed freighter burn itself out."
"Yes sir."
"The smoke will shield us from observation until we get the dome up, then we can begin the full excavation."
His link chimed, the man tapping the device to receive the signal.
"Four, speak."
"Thirteen." A female voice introduced herself. "Initial analysis of samples confirms the ship is alive."
"Is it sentient?"
"Unknown, recommend attempting telepathic contact as a priority. Has Sigma sent the candidates?"
"Affirmative."
"Begin expending them. Thirteen out."
He steepled his fingers again, mind churning through options.
"A living ship buried in the sands of Mars for at least a thousand years. Maybe longer," he considered. "Assessment?"
"My question is why, why is it here?" Kelsey mused. "It matches nothing in the records."
"It does. IPX has some devices they recovered elsewhere which have a similar construction." The man known as Four corrected. "But those devices were not alive, and there was no suggestion they ever were."
"How do you define alive sir?"
"That is an open question, and I think once we begin a thorough examination, we will have to change our definition of life." Four spoke simply, unemotionally. This was an incredible discovery, but for him it was just a job, another assignment. He set about it without any joy or enthusiasm, just utter dedication to achieving the goal by any means necessary. That was, after all, what he had been programmed to do.
"Once the dome is up we begin, not before," he decided. "Select one of the telepaths. When the time comes initiate contact."
"The team who initially found this ship - one of them touched it with his bare hands and died instantly," Kelsey warned. "Direct contact may be difficult."
"Department Sigma will provide more telepaths if required," Four dismissed. "We will begin experiments when possible. Can you maintain control of your people?"
"Yes."
"I will maintain control of the rest," Four asserted. "Earth Force requires the secrets of this technology at any price. Our task is to ready that payment."
The SRMs will be swapped for Yellow Jacket missiles, which are the EA version of a TOW or hellfire, the LRM 10s probably are going to be where the new pulse cannons go, 2 on each side. And a rapid fire PPG for anti infantry work
