“Report,” Admiral Chekoff commanded. “Initial long range scans of the mercenary base reveal multiple returns that read as metallic sources, similar to wreckage. We have also identified some unique energy signatures that the computer identifies as anti-matter discharges. We are also not picking up communications of any sort from the vicinity of the base,” reported his tactical officer. Chekoff scratched his beard. “Could they be Shivans?” he asked. “It’s possible sir, although we have no idea why Shivans would attack a mercenary base,” the TO replied. Chekoff considered this in his head. “Dispatch fighters to investigate, and put all hands on stand-by for battle. Order the Leveros to assist the fighters in their investigation,” he ordered. “Which fighter squadron?” his TO asked. Chekoff speared the TO with a withering glance. “I care not, as long as they get the job done and do not embarrass me,” he said coldly. “Now leave me.” The tactical officer saluted and left the Admiral’s private quarters. Alone, Chekoff sat down and pulled out the hastily hidden bottle and glass.
**********
“Hey boss. We gots fighters on an approach vector. They coverin’ one of dem cruisers too. Looks like a Fenrya,” said Lieutenant Dax over Thomas’s comm channel. “Fenris. That’s a Fenris, Dax.” That was Lieutenant Marklos, the fourth member in Thomas’ stick. “No, it’s a Leviathan. That’s what it is,” cut in Lieutenant Lin, his second in command. “Warbook tags it as a Fenris, people,” Thomas said. “We’re just here to scare them away. Take up your positions, keep your pectin shrouds on and watch it out there.”
The four members of his stick split up, using the asteroids to cover their approach on the GTVA patrol. Piloting Combat Frames, his pilots were station onboard the Dagger, and were one of the two sticks the Dagger carried. Together with another two sticks on the Lothar, the sixteen of them were the only Combat Frames in the fleet. He piloted a modified Angel-class CF, while Marklos and Lin piloted Ormus-class CFs. Dax piloted the fleet’s sole Poseidon-class, which, with its heavy, long range weaponry, suited Dax just fine.
The GTVA patrol consisted of a wing of Hercules IIs and two wings of Perseus fighters, in addition to the Fenris, identified as the Leveros. From what the mercenary Darrel had informed him, this would normally be considered a dangerous target to tackle for normal GTVA pilots. But he and his stick weren’t GTVA pilots, and were definitely not normal. Reaching up to a panel beside his command couch, he keyed in a series of tones, one high and one low, code for ‘In position’. All CFs had such a panel, using tones to spell out predefined words and phrases. Soon, the chimes for ‘In position’ reached him from his stick, and he sat in to await the Captain’s signal.
The Perolynn and the Lewolynn were ‘sibling’ vessels. One was a Shield class corvette, and the other was a Lance class corvette. The two were one of several dozen pairs of Shield/Lance corvettes, designed to work in tandem. The Shield was a defensive corvette, with a powerful blanket shield generator and an inhibitor field generator. The inhibitor field not only prevented the escape of ships to hyperspace, but had the added side effect of blanketing and area and preventing traditional laser and radio communications. The Lance, on the other hand, bristled with point defense weaponry and capital ship weaponry, but was somewhat slow, depending on the Shield to help it catch its targets. Situated in the asteroid field, behind the Lewolynn, the Perolynn took a moment to orientate itself, then activated the inhibitor field.
The round nose of the Perolynn opened, revealing a massive rotating core, pulsing with black and white energy. Slowly, the core began rotating faster and faster, as the bolts of black and white energy began striking out. As the core became a blur, the bolts began crawling over the surface of the ship, stabbing out at space randomly. Soon, the ship was covered with crackling black and white bolts. As the field came online, spreading outwards, the crews switched over to pulse transmissions, slower, but capable of penetrating the inhibitor field’s energy. While there were no other visible effects to be had, the W-space drive of the Lewolynn and Perolynn began shutting down. And soon, so did the subspace drives of the GTVA fighters and cruisers.
**********
Captain Samuel frowned, then tapped is console. “Leveros, I’m reading a jump drive failure. My computer’s telling me it’s not there.” Only static greeted him. Samuel stabbed the comm button again. “Leveros? Leveros, do you copy?” More static. Cursing under his breath, he was about to open his throttle, when he caught sight of Gamma 2’s wing lights. They flashed repeatedly, spelling out a message in Morse code. “Jump drives failure. Communications failure.” Samuel felt a cold shiver of fear run down his spine. He toggled his own signal lights, flashing a reply. “Me too.”
“Ambush?”
“Unknown. Possible.”
“All fighters communications failure. All fighters jump drive failure.”
“Leveros?”
“Unknown. Possible.”
“Will confirm.” Samuel opened his throttle up and flew in front of the Leveros’ bridge, and began flashing his signal lights, indicating the situation, then broke off to the side to see the Leveros’ reply. Soon, flashes from the bridge spelled out a message. “Situation identical, recommend breaking off and returning to fleet.” Samuel pulled in front of the Leveros again, and flashed the signal for “Affirmative,” then began to turn back, when suddenly a shudder ran through his ship, and to his horror, the display panel turned red across the board, then went out. Another shiver of fear ran down his spine. He began flipping switches hoping to restore his power, but to no avail. Unstrapping himself, he looked through the cockpit, and saw that all the fighters were drifting in space, powerless. The Leveros too looked unpowered, the bright blue flame of its engines gone, and its lights all turned off.
Samuel sat back, trying to figure what to do. Finally, he decided to do something bordering on insane. He searched his flight suit, until he found a simple looking knife. He unfolded one of the hidden attachments, and managed to pried open the panel next to his signal light toggle. “I hope to hell this works ... “he muttered to himself. He cut open the cables leading to the toggle, and then stripped the protective cables from them. He touched the two ends together tentatively. When nothing explosive happened, he touched them together again, peering at his signal lights. To his relief, the lights turned on. Quickly, he spelt out a message, hoping someone on the bridge noticed it. Someone must have, because he soon saw the forward airlock on the Leveros open, and a spacesuit exited the airlock, and boosted towards him, with a safety cable wrapped around himself. Samuel sighed with relief, then sat back in his command chair. For him, at least, the ordeal was over.
**********
“These GTVA kids are either a thousand kinds o’ crazy, or amazingly brave,” observed Dax. “I’d say the last one, Dax. Which is more than I can say for you,” Lin replied. “Aww, c’mon now,Ms Lin. I can be real brave, if the situation demands it,” Dax said. “Which would mean only if the situation involved you getting a date with a pretty girl,” Lin mused. “Not necessarily. I’d settle for you, Ms Lin,” Dax said sweetly. “Hey, Dax. I thought you only liked pretty girls. Now, I listen to that, and I look at Lin and, heh. I just don’t see the connection! I only see an inverse connection if there ever was one.” cut in Marklos. “Marklos, just wait till we get back to the Dagger. I’m gonna string you up from your own Ormus,” Lin growled. “Yep. She definitely wants me,” Marklos teased.
Thomas chuckled as Lin threatened to deny Marklos any chance of Father’s Day. He turned back to the view screen, watching the crew of the cruiser pull in another pilot. When his stick had cut loose with their invisible disruptor beams, they had timed their attacks so that the cruiser would be able to rescue them all, albeit with increasing difficulty. Thomas also had his stick gently bump any fighter drifting away towards the cruiser, to prevent unnecessary loss of lives, while maintaining cover at the same time. Now, his stick was to observe and assist, but only if it was absolutely necessary.
A series of blips indicated an arriving pulse message. He touched the console, opening it up. The message read:
WARNING, WARNING. PRIORITY ONE.
INCOMING SHIPS, PRESUMABLY HOSTILE. IDENTIFIED BY THE LOTHAR AS SHIVAN FIGHTERS, TYPE MARA. ENSURE SAFETY OF GTVA PERSONNEL. INHIBITOR FIELD DISENGAGED. LEWOLYNN AND PEROLYNN DISENGAGING. DAGGER INDICATES PRELIMINARY CONTACT WITH ONE(1) SHIVAN CRUISER, TYPE LILITH. DISENGAGE AT EARLIEST CONVINIENCE AND RETURN TO DAGGER.
PRIORITY ONE. WARNING, WARNING
----------------------------------------
Terms:
Angel Combat Frame : Close range specialist. Wields a single phase rifle as ranged weaponry. Main weaponry consists of two beam sabers, and two particle vibration blades. It also carries a pair of experimental 'slash sabers', essentially a grappling hook mated with beam edges. Thomas' Angel exchanges the phase rifle for a weapon bracket mounted on his left wrist, and carries a hybrid PV/beam blade, as well as C3 equipment. It is slightly heavier as a result, but the weapon bracket allows for multiple attachments depending on the situation.
Ormus Combat Frame: Primary main line combat frame, with modular armament. Normal armament includes a linear projectile rifle, a pair of waist mounted beam sabers, and a shoulder mounted, single shot rocket pod.
Poseidon Combat Frame: Long range fire support combat frame. Mounts no melee weaponry, but has a pair of laser cannons in storage packs on its wrists. Its primary weapon is a 325mm hypervelocity plasma cannon, and also mounts shoulder rocket pods. The Poseidon has no shield generators, but makes up for it with heavy armour.
Blanket shield: Creates a shield sphere, allowing nothing in, but allowing things out. The activation of this shield requires extensive amounts of energy, and Shield corvettes are immobilized while it is active.
Shield and Lance covettes: Sibling ships, these two classes are designed and built to work together, with the Shield providing support and the Lance keeping the Shield safe.
Slight retconning on the Thomas' Angel. Another retcon. On hindsight, I doubt a Rakshasa would threaten a Tyrean destroyer.
1 August 2372, Epsilon Pegasi
Supply Convoy on the outskirts of Epsilon Pegasi
“On your six, on your six!” screamed a voice over his comm. Jack twisted his stick hard right, throwing his Perseus fighter into a steep bank. As the fighter dived to the right, laser blasts streaked past him, followed shortly by a Mara. Lining up behind the Shivan, Jack cut loose with his primaries, the bolts from the linked Subach HL-7s and twin Prometheus cannons ripping through its shield and hull easily. Finding himself momentarily free of hostiles, he glanced at his secondary monitors. Of the eight fighters assigned to guard the supply convoy, three of them were gone, destroyed when the Shivans popped out of subspace. The remaining 5, including his own, were all damaged, and their pilots were getting tired. Yet the Shivans showed no signs of stopping, and the convoy was still a good 8 klicks from their jump point.
“Sir, fighter on your tail!” The call snapped him out of his reverie again, and he opened his throttle to full, even as he slapped his comm signal again. “Command, where’s that support! We’re getting torn up here!” he yelled into his mic even as he jinked to avoid Shivan fighter. “Stay calm pilot. Help is on its way, and should be reaching momentarily,” came the annoyingly calm reply. “That’s what you said two minutes ago! We need support now or this convoy isn’t getting out of here alive!” Jack said angrily. “We have already dispatched reinforcements, they will arrive momentarily. Until then, protect those freighters.” Before Jack could protest, the signal was cut off. He slammed his fist down on his couch furiously. “More hostiles incoming, boss. When’s backup arriving?” asked Delta 2. The pilot was fresh out of flight school, but had acquitted himself exceptionally well so far. “It’s arriving soon, kid. Hang tight.” Jack replied. Even as he did, he watching with a sense of despair as numerous Shivan contacts filled his sensor readout.
Without warning, a bright blue flash of light erupted behind him, and a ship materialised from within. Blocky yet sleek at the same time, the ship was painted snow white with gold highlights. A stylised spectre symbol adorned its hull. As it materialised, it began firing, spewing bolts of energy out at the Shivan fighters. Missiles billowed off its semicircle front hull, as beams made Shivan fighters the apex of deadly light shows. “GTVA pilots, this is the TRN Arrestor. Stand clear of our firing lines, pilots. Allied Command, the Arrestor is now on station and providing fire support.”
“Affirmative, Arrestor,”Command replied. “Pilots, secure the area and return to base. The Arrestor will take over the escort from here.” “Affirmative, Command,” Jack replied. Patching through to his two wings, he said, “You heard Command. Let’s clean up and get out!” Affirmations echoed through his comm system as Jack angled his Perseus fighter back into the fight.
*********
“Admiral, the Arrestor reports the convoy is in subspace.”
Chekoff grunted, and added another marking to the map. The map was of the Epsilon Pegasi system. Several markers dotted it, form a rough semi-circular shape. “So. The markers ... mark ... the location of Shivan attacks reported thus far.” Chekoff said.
David tapped the area encircled by the markers. “What’s over here?”
Chekoff looked at his tactical officer, who consulted his notes. “The last survey was during 2335. There was scheduled to be another a year ago, but nothing came of it because of the NTF Rebellion and subsequently the Second Shivan Incursion.”
“Hnnh. So what did the survey get?” Chekoff asked.
“Nothing conclusive. The survey team reported preliminary readings, but they were pulled out because the Shivans showed up. Here’s the report,” the officer handed over a sheet of paper to Chekoff, and one to David. David glanced through the report, then handed it to Ping. The report indicated that the team had detected faint energy signatures on the edge of the system, but nothing conclusive to warrant further investigation yet. It also stated they were going to move their ships closer, but the report cut off.
“So the only data we have is over 30-years old. Fantastic,” Chekoff said, irritation in his voice.
“Well, it’s obvious the Shivans have a carrier vessel of some sort, judging from the numbers they’re chucking at us. And fighters always need a home base. I guess we just have to go and check it out,” David said.
“That’s our only course of action at this point. But splitting up the fleet irks me to no end. If only the flaming Hammer of Light fanatics would just die out...” Chekoff cursed in Russian, then shook his head. A few days ago, various Vasudan ships deserted their positions simultaneously, each one broadcasting the return of the Hammer of Light. The Vasudan cult group had proven most troublesome during the First Shivan Incursion, and then hunted down and thought exterminated during Operation Templar. Apparently this was not the case. The sudden revolt had forced Command to divert ships meant to reinforce the Reverend’s fleet to other systems to deal with HoL raids. Currently, Chekoff’s fleet consisted of his original taskforce, two Mentu class cruisers, the Zenenet and the Serekh, a Sobek class corvette, the Khalim, and another Deimos corvette, the Relentless.
“We don’t really have a choice here,” David said. Chekoff glanced at him, then nodded. “Once the Arrestor returns, we will depart for that sector. I will leave behind the Warspite to guard Enif Station.” David nodded his agreement, then added, “I’ll order the Bulwark and the Avaric to stay behind too. I’d leave more, but I don’t really have many ships to spare as it is.” Chekoff nodded solemnly. “We both do not have many ships. But we will make do. It is not Life’s way to make things easy for us.”
David remained silent for a while, then said, “No. It sure isn’t.”
**********
David twirled the practice sword experimentally, testing its weight and balance, then took up a ready stance, sword held back against his arm, blade away from his flesh. Across him, Fang Admiral Leveros took a different stance, one sword held out, another held high above his head. The two were the only ones in the gym, David having cleared out the few personnel using it. With the jump commencing in an hour’s time, most crew members were at posts running last minute checks on the systems.
“Any time you’re ready – kid,” David taunted. Leveros smiled grimly, and the two began circling each other. “You’re going down this time, old timer,” he replied. “You couldn’t beat me then, you won’t be me now kiddo,” David said. Leveros chuckled, then launched himself at David.
David twirled aside, dodging his charge, and sweeping his free hand up to block and push aside Leveros’ off hand strike. “So, when did the Toa dispatch you?” he asked, as he brought his sword up in a sweeping arc.
“About two days after you left. He felt you might need the extra firepower, and I see he wasn’t far off,” Leveros replied, blocking David’s sword, then slashing low.
“Sometimes I think he’s psychic or something,” David said, throwing himself back to avoid the strike and lashing out with his foot at the same time. “He always knows when trouble’s about to pop up.”
Leveros rolled forward to avoid his kick, and swung round in a double strike aimed at David’s chest. “I think he’s just seen too much for someone his age. Which reminds me. He also said that if he didn’t hear from me in a week, he’d send backup.”
“What kind of back up?” he asked, slapping aside the blades easily with his own weapon, and following through with a counterstrike aimed for Leveros’ chest.
“I asked him, and he said he’d send the Wraith Born and its attendant fleet,” he replied conversationally, bringing up one blade to turn aside the strike, and stabbed another at David’s neck.
David started, shocked, and failed to block the strike, the blade stopping an inch from his neck. “The Wraith Born? He said he’d send the Wraith Born if you failed to contact him?” he said.
Leveros nodded solemnly. “He wasn’t joking around, I could see that. He was serious about sending the Wraith Born as backup.” He pulled the sword back, and sheathed both of them. “S’ why the moment I re-entered real space, I sent him a message bouy back through the warp tunnel, indicating my arrival.” He grabbed a towel from a nearby rack, and tossed one to David.
David grabbed the towel and wiped the sweat from their short workout from his brow. “I sent a drone through with data and a request for reinforcements. I hope he won’t send them. The GTVA might see it as a threat if we gather too many forces in system.”
Leveros drank deeply from a sports bottle, and passed it to David, who took it and nodded his thanks. “I doubt he’ll send reinforcements. I think he realises the same thing. The Toa might still be a kid, but he’s a bright one. Sharp as a razor too. And if it comes to it, I’m sure Lady Kathleen will know enough to recommend not dispatching reinforcements, or at least, not significant ones. He told me to send his greetings too.”
David paused momentarily, then shrugged. “Lady Kathleen and the Toa make a good pair,” he commented, then took a long pull from the bottle.
Leveros said, “You know, the seat at the Council room is still empty. You know the seat I’m talking about.” He watched David closely. “Your seat.”
David simply replied, “Not my seat anymore.”
“Why? You were the most respected member of the Council, and then suddenly you pull strings to have the Broadsword refitted and renamed, and pretty much drop out of sight of the world,” Leveros said.
David shrugged again. “You’re not an Immortal, Lev. You wouldn’t understand.” With that, he walked out of the gym, leaving Leveros alone in the empty room.
--------------------------------------------------
Terms:
Wraith Born - The Seventh of The Fifteen, the Wraith Born seems to be designed for close range combat, with multiple medium to short range weaponry, and suprisingly nimble despite its size. It also mounts plasma blades, which were copied and added to the Blade's design. The Wraith Born, like its brothers and sisters, has a Freia beam built into its nose.
Worldslayer-class superdreadnaught - Fifteen extremely powerful ships, they are the source of Tyrean technology. Most Tyrean technology, from teleporters to Combat Frames, are the result of research on, around and involving these ships. The Fifteen were found scattered in asteroids fields near each of the fifteen Core Worlds of the Tyrean Republic. The ships are partly biological, and as such, are sentient. Not one of them are same; their only unifying aspect is their unbelievable speed and agility as well as a devastatingly powerful Freia beam, capable of easily spearing right through a planet's core, hence their designation as Worldslayers. The Fifteen serve as flagships for each of the Tyrean's twelve fleets, with the exception of three: the Nerubian, the Reticent Core and the Lesale, who each serve as the Toa's flagship, Lady Kathleen's flagship, and the 2nd Ghost Fleet flagship respectively.
Next installment. Took a bit longer on this one.