The revised Chapter 1. Quite long, so make enough time to read it.
The Liberation of Sirius
by Allen Purvis
Prologue:
Officer’s Log: Admiral Jacob Moss
11/13/36
Three days ago in the Capella system, an armada of eighty Shivan Sathanas class juggernauts, created a subspace distortion field, which destroyed the star and forced it to go supernova.
Millions of people in the Capella system were killed by this supernova, but this does not disturb me, because I am the current leader of the NTF, which completely dissolves any connection I have, and ever had with the GTVA and it’s government.
Over the past three months, we as a whole have been dwindling because of the GTVA’s ‘Great Hunt’ for us. Yet, since the Shivan’s arrival in the nebula beyond Gamma Draconis, the GTVA has diverted all attention to thwarting the Shivan advance. This will be the GTVA’s biggest mistake, for we will take back our worlds, and our systems.
I have been thinking for quite some time on how to accomplish this task, but I cannot find a solution. The GTVA has too many forces in Sirius, Polaris, and Epsilon Pegasi, so a small strike would not be sufficient to take them back. We must turn to war.
Maybe with the forces we have, we could destroy some of the GTVA’s most powerful warships, which would then make an assault on our old systems much more possible. But yet, this seems so improbable for a small force such as us to defeat a force of that magnitude.
We need something big, something huge, something, unstoppable. . .
Chapter 1: Grand Theft
Jacob Moss, commander of the now dwindling Neo-Terran Front, sat in his quarters think of plans of how to resurrect what used to be a powerful space-faring Navy. He thought of ways he could do this, but to no avail. He even called in his subordinate’s, but they couldn’t concoct anything. He pondered for three days, wondering exactly what he could do.
Throughout his thinking he came across the thought of hijacking a Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance destroyer, but he rejected the thought. GTVA destroyers were too well protected, so that would be impossible unless the GTVA slipped up somehow.
One morning, he ran down to the bridge to check the sensors logs of the Vega system. He found a lone destroyer, the GTD Aquitaine, flagship of the devastated Terran 3rd Battle-Group, in the Vega system.
But he wondered yet again on how to go by capturing the destroyer. Could we use brute force from our marines we have, but no, we don’t have enough men. Could we use a cunning style of capture, maybe, we would just need everything to go our way. Wait, we could fake an inspection of the Aquitaine. We could get an ‘Inspector’ and one full squad of marines on the destroy as his bodyguards. We would first lock the destroyer’s marines in their quarters, then proceed to the engineering section and bridge. Once there, we would take the crew hostage. If anyone on the crew does not comply, they will be executed. I think the plan would work, if we had a diversion to have the GTVA not focus on their destroyers.
After coming up with the capture scheme, Moss informed all officers on board the Revelation, command ship. The Revelation is a Deimos corvette, outfitted with fighterbays to serve as the flagship of the short-handed NTF. It has been is Talnia for over a month, laying low from the GTVA.
The plan that was proposed, was for the next morning at 0900 hours, an Argo transport, Sleipner, and an escort of 4 fighters, to jump in near the Aquitaine. Once in position, the transport would send a message to the Aquitaine to power down and get ready for inspection. Once inside, the Sleipner’s marines would lock the Aquitaine’s marines in their barracks, and then move to the engineering section. A small group would escort the ‘inspector’ to the bridge Once on the bridge, they would take it over and make all of the crew hostage. Once that is done, the Aquitaine will jump Talnia.
"Boys, this a very important mission, so don’t screw it up," Ryan Hawkins informed to his squad after briefing them of their upcoming mission.
"Why aren’t we part of this mission sir?" Delta 1 asked, leader of Delta wing.
"Command has a different mission for you, I’ll brief you later," Hawkins replied to Delta 1.
"Yes, sir!"
"Alpha, remember you are not supposed to shoot anything, just act as escorts for the ‘inspector’."
"Yes, sir!"
"Beta, you are reinforcements if Alpha needs them, remember."
"Yes, sir!"
"OK pilots, dismissed! Delta 1, stay here with me."
The pilots then walked out of the room and walked back to their quarters. The only one that stayed behind was Delta 1, to get briefed on his wing’s mission.
Hawkins motioned Delta 1 to sit down, so he could explain Delta’s mission, and so he did. "Command is wanting your wing to create a suitable diversion for our attack on the Aquitaine," Hawkins informed.
"And how exactly are we supposed to do that?" Delta 1 asked.
"You are going to hit a supply convoy heading for Beta Aquilae. All you do is destroy one freighter or transport, then get out. This should provide our insertion teams enough time to capture the Aquitaine."
"This had better be an easy hit and run mission."
"You launch at 0830 hours tomorrow morning . Dismissed pilot, and good hunting!"
"Yes sir, thank you sir."
At that moment, Delta 1 walked out of Hawkins quarters and headed for his own to inform his wing of their mission.
"Sir, all personnel have been briefed and are standing by," Michael Williams informed to Admiral Moss.
"Good, thank you lieutenant. Sit down, I have a few things to tell you."
"Yes, sir"
"Well, what do you think would happen if we fail on this mission lieutenant?"
"I believe we would be found by the GTVA and we would become prisoners of war."
"That’s what I was thinking. We cannot fail this mission, so lieutenant, I’ll be having you fly with Alpha wing during this sortie, do you understand?"
"Yes sir, thank you sir."
"Good luck, lieutenant."
The lieutenant then left the room and went back to his quarters to rest for the long day ahead of him. On his way, he ran into his best friend, Randy Starr, one of the best fighters pilots on the Revelation. "Hey Randy, what’s up man?"
"Uhh, nothing much, I’m so bored. I haven’t flown in a fighter for at least two weeks. Oh I wish that I could fly sometime soon," Randy replied.
"Too bad, I have a mission tomorrow morning at 0900 hours. If all goes well, I’ll be back around 1200 hours, maybe we could do something?"
"You’re so lucky that Admiral Moss likes you, he wouldn’t let me fly again if he had a choice because of what I did last time."
"What exactly did you do?"
"I was just screwing around, firing random shots, and I accidentally hit another fighter. I’ll tell you something, that is THE most ticked that I have ever, ever seen the Admiral become."
"Only you would do that, Randy."
"You know it, Mike."
"So, you want to do something after I get back tomorrow?"
"Sure, lets go to the Recreation Room and waste some fresh recruits at hover-ball."
"Ya, we’ll waste ‘em. Well, I gotta get going. See ya later Randy."
"Later Mike."
After his conversation with Randy, Michael went back to his quarters. When he got to his quarters, he walked toward his computer and turned it on. He played the game that all the pilots played, Warfleets. The object of the game is to destroy the hostile ships, yet stay alive yourself. It is a pretty simple game, yet could be challenging with the number of enemies, obstacles, and the size of your own fleet.
This time, Mike had a mediocre sized fleet, one destroyer, one cruiser, and four fighters. He would usually get a small fleet of one cruiser and two fighters, but this time he got lucky.
He destroyed the enemy fleet quickly and efficiently, losing only one fighter. Mike decided that was enough for the night, and slumped on his bed and fell asleep, eager for the next morning’s assignment.
Mike was awaken the next morning to the sound of an alarm. Alarms were sounding, klaxons blaring, and the words "Pilots, get to your fighters ASAP," could barely be made out in the plethora of noise. He sprinted toward the hangar where his fighter, the Vengeance, a Myrmidon superiority fighter, was located.
"Sir, what kind of a loadout would you like?" one of the engineers asked.
"I don’t care, just get me launched!" Mike reported.
The engineers then began to load his fighter with Tornado Swarm Missiles, Trebuchet Anti-bomber Missiles, and Harpoon Assault Missiles. This configuration allowed Mike to dogfight hostile fighters with ease.
Moments after his fighter had been loaded, he got the signal to launch. He launched as quickly as possible so that him and his wing could get the mission going as soon as they could. Command informed him that he was the leader of the mission, Alpha 1.
Alpha had to wait about ten minutes for the Sleipner to undock with the Revelation, because of the crew required for the mission. But finally, Alpha wing and the Sleipner were able to jump clear of the Revelation.
"How long until we reach the Aquitaine, sir?" Alpha 2 asked as soon as the capture group entered subspace.
"It should take about ten minutes for us to reach them. Don’t worry, we’ll be there before you know it."
"Thank you, sir."
"How’s everyone holding up back there Alpha?" Sleipner asked halfway to the Aquitaine.
"I’m fine," Alpha 1 reported.
"Just dandy," Alpha 2 reported.
"Umm, I’m getting a malfunction here, AHHHHH!!!" Alpha 3 yelled.
Alpha 3’s fighter then suddenly exploded, taking her down with it. "Oh, no, Alpha 3!!!" Alpha 4 screamed, in utter shock of the explosion.
"Oh my, Sleipner we’ve just lost Alpha 3!" Alpha 1 reported.
"I’ll inform command, that’s just terrible." Sleipner replied.
Five minutes after Alpha 3’s death, the capture group exited subspace three kilometers from the Aquitaine, right on target. "Aquitaine, power down your weapons and engines and prepare for inspection," Sleipner commanded.
"I have receive no word of any inspection, please send your IFF verification codes to us."
"Transmitting now."
"These codes check out. OK, we’ll power down and prepare to receive your inspector."
"Thanks Aquitaine, we’re headed toward you as we speak."
The Sleipner then lumbered toward the Aquitaine and docked. After docking, the crew on board the Sleipner were loaded onto the Aquitaine, ready to ‘inspect’ the destroyer.
"Remember, do not shoot unless you have to. Omega squad you’re headed for the hangar, Omicron, you’re going to lock the remaining marines in their quarters, Epsilon, you’re headed for engineering, and my squad, we’re headed for the bridge with our ‘inspector’. Good luck everyone," Jeremy Flint commanded to the marines on board the Sleipner before docking with the Aquitaine.
"Yes, sir," they all shouted unison, ready to go on with their assignments.
Moments later, the door opened and the marines poured into the Aquitaine. They all moved to their designated areas, and Omicron began to search for the marines. Omicron was lucky and found only four marines on duty in the early hours of the morning. After leading the marines back to their quarters, Omicron reported, an hour after the operation had begun, that the marines had been locked in their quarters and would not be any trouble.
The ‘Inspector’ gave the signal to hold the crew hostage, a message over the intercom saying, "Inspection Complete." The Marines were able to take the remainder of the Aquitaine easily because of their element of surprise. All in all, the Marines took 3,000 hostages, and killed the ones that tried to fight back.
Meanwhile, Alpha wing engaged Theta wing. "Sir, we’re breaking to attack now," Alpha 2 informed.
Alpha 1 then began to chase after Theta 1, trying to eliminate it. He began to fire his cannons in salvos of four or five shots. Ten or twelve shots connected with Theta 1, but it wasn’t destroyed. Alpha 1 then fired a missile from his bank of Harpoons. The missile arched toward Theta 1, tracking the aspect lock it had. The missile then collided with the fighter, and an explosion of shrapnel and flame engulfed the fighter.
Theta wing was destroyed quickly, without being able to get a message of to GTVA command. After the area was cleared, Alpha guarded the Aquitaine, waiting for the confirmation that the Aquitaine was capture and that they could return to the Revelation.
Minutes later, Alpha wing received a message from the Aquitaine, "The Aquitaine is ours, we’re jumping to Talnia now, wait we have an engine malfunction. We’ll get this corrected. Keep our cover Alpha."
"Great, now we have to wait before we can finish this mission," Alpha 2 complained, pushing his burners to full so he could fly around.
"Quit complaining, just think, we just participated in the capture of the Aquitaine, one of the GTVA’s most prized destroyers!" Alpha 4 said.
Before Alpha even knew it, they received another message from the Aquitaine, "We’ve gotten rid of the malfunction, we’re powering up engines now."
"See Alpha 2, that wasn’t too long of a wait was it?"
"I guess so, it was just longer than it should have been."
"The capture of the Aquitaine took two hours and thirteen minutes, great job pilots. Alpha wing you may return to base," Command informed Alpha.
"I hear ya, getting out now," Alpha 4 replied, jumping into subspace.
The rest of Alpha wing jumped into subspace, tired of their long mission. Then, seconds later, the engines on the Aquitaine powered up. The blue-white vortex of subspace then opened up in front of the Aquitaine, and it slipped through the vortex, and into Talnia.
