Beyond Alpha Centauri :::

[Mr. President]

The Grand Temple, near Caledon, Vega Prime

"I don't like this at all."

Gary tapped feverishly at his Upson counter, trying to make sense of the data it was giving him. The device showed him a strong drop in the alien ruins' low-level resonances, and a drastic increase in the higher levels. Closing his eyes, the Thinker saw an overlay of the graphs onto a floor plan of the Grand Temple.

"It looks like it's building up huge amounts of energy, Derek," he said, "and the nexus is about twenty meters from here, in room 12."

"Are you sure?" Derek Sorensen asked incredulously.

"Reasonably," Gary replied, "Although -"

He was cut off by another strange event. The scientists felt the rumble before they heard it. Then the sound drowned out all others, shaking the walls and making the very air seem to ripple around them. Strange lights and colors danced before their eyes. And the walls came alive again, rippling with colors, not the serene yet alien green tones of before but angrier purples and crimsons and other shades without name.

"Evacuate!" Sorensen screamed into his quicklink. "Now!"

They hurtled unceremoniously out of the building, and were joined by a stream of other scientists and technicians. About a hundred meters from the Temple's main door, Gary turned and looked back. A column of amber light rose slowly from the Temple. Other beams joined it, rising majestically from other parts of the building. When all of them were in place, there was a flash as the combined beams turned fiery orange, and the light leaped out into space, moving impossibly fast. In a heartbeat it was gone.

"This can't be good," Gary said to no-one in particular.

***

The Capitol Building, Avalon

Gary hurried into the Capitol Building ninety minutes later to find Sorensen already there. "What did they say?" the Thinker asked breathlessly.

Sorensen's eyes were flat, his voice hollow. "The Grand Temple has been declared off-limits to civilian and scientific personnel."

"What?"

"And I think they're going to cut federal funding for Temple study."

Gary pondered this for a moment. "They're afraid of what it is," he said, half a question.

"Perhaps," Derek replied.

The Thinker shrugged. "I suppose there is also the issue of energy beams flying around."

Derek glared. "Fear should never be allowed to hold back scientific progress," he declared, the imperious inflections of a lecturer entering his voice. "You felt something alive in there, Gary. Just like the Planetmind on Chiron, sooner or later the Republic is going to have to deal with this."

"I don't know if I felt something alive," Gary said. "It was a computer, Derek. You can make a computer seem alive when it's not."

"You have a computer in your head," Sorensen snapped. "Does that make you less than alive?"

The Thinker bristled. Sorensen's face softened slightly. "I'm sorry, Gary. I didn't mean that. All I -"

"I understand," Gary said. He rubbed his forehead and looked at the floor for a long moment. "Let's get back to the lab," he said at last. Maybe there's something we can do there. Make an appeal against funds being revoked."

[Frankychan]

Hive Prime

Minister Zell ran through one of the numerous hallways at an urgent pace. Only a short while ago, Hive communication officers intercepted a message from an unknown race.

Zell continued to run down the hallway towards the Emperor's private office. The Emperor needs to read this.

After running for a short time, the Minister finally reached Yang's office. The entrance was decorated with red and green dragon's that seemed to stand guard and watch whoever entered. Zell pushed the panel on the wall notifying that someone wanted to see the Emperor.

The door hissed open. Minister Zell breathed in and entered.

Yang's office was dark and forboding. The room was dimly-lit and was furnished rather solemnly. Yang himself was looking at a map of explored space. Minister Zell watched as the Emperor ran his finger from Hive Prime to Sol.

"My lord, you have an urgent message." Zell spoke up.

Yang turned to face the Xiero. His face looked annoyed.

Zell handed the datapad message to Yang and bowed.

Pressing the "Open" icon on the datapad, Yang watched the message.

The figure on the screen sounded snake-like, hissing its words. It was dressed in flowing robes that obscured its face. Yang listened as the figure talked about the occuring incident at LP 658-2 and the ensuing battle.

The message made Yang's right eye twitch. What was this 'Protectorate' and why didn't Hive agents know about them?

Sheng-ji turned to Minister Zell.

"Send them a message. Tell this 'Lord Protector' that we agree to cease hostilities so they can recover their ship. Then send a message to the station commander there. Order him to take some of their dead for analyzation. Also, send two ships into that system for protection."

Minister Zell bowed once again while Yang walked closer to him.

"I'm going to call council again. We have to know more of these new people."

--------------------
Encrypted message
To: Protectorate
From: Minster Zell of Foreign Affairs, on behalf of Emperor Yang

To Protectorate, we will order hostilities to cease so you may conduct a rescue of your downed crew. Emperor Yang hopes that there is no ill will between us. He also wishes that our two people can establish a mutual friendship so that we can learn more about each other.
--------------------

--------------------
Encrypted Message
To: Spacestation Dragon Commander
From: Hive command

Cease and Desist all hostile actions to unknown forces. You are to recall all ground tropps and allow their ship to commence rescue operation. However, you are to obtain some of their dead so Hive command can analyze them.
--------------------

[Lonestar]

The Cold Harbor.

"Sir, there's a ship entering realspace; it's the Boromir."

Bradley grinned, the Ranging ship had finally arrived. As he watched the tactical overlay, his grin faded. The Hive ships were ceasing fire!

"Cease fire! cease fire, Damn it!"

"Incoming message for his excellancy, from the general region we beamed the His Excellancy's vid. It's...skipper, Yang's letting us pick up our boys."

"Send the message to Colonel Winters, then pass it along to Beta Hydri."

------------------------------------

Planetside.

"Hey you Bastards, live him alone!" Jennings was shouting at the hive men, who seemed interested in dragging away a poo, dead Protectorate PFC. They dropped him and walked off.

Turning to the Battalion S-2, he said "Sobel, we catch us any Hive folks?"

"A few pug-faced ones, but none alive, sir. They just didn't want to...give up."

Jennings nodded. The rumors about the Hive had been true, and they had fought as hard as his men would have for the Protectorate. Of course, they had to resocialized in order to do that, while he was every bit as proud in how his men were unaltered.

The wind suddenly picked up, and the Boromir, which had landed less than 100 meters from the Glorfindel to rescue the crew lifted off and left. The Sun blackened as the Cold Harbor moved over the site and fired it's grappling hooks. As the main body of the downed ship was being hauled up, Mjolnir MBT's moved forward and opened fired on the pieces scattered about. Star Marines did a police of the area.

Looking up as the [i]Cold Harbor[i/] re-entered orbit, Jennings wondered Now What?.

[Kassiopeia]

Corporal Kelsey T. Rickenbacker of the Team Delta 8-3-21 - Part One

The media waited. Thirty minutes had passed since the news of the disastrious accident costing the Coalition Navy a Battleship. And some hours ago, the Morganites had managed to take out a third of the joint blockade orbiting Callisto, taking down numerous capital ships.
Yet, the government remained silent. The word told that the Cabinet was in a heated session, trying to decide what to do next. And as usual, the rumors were not far away from the truth.

"What we must do now, is to stop and reassess the situation as a whole", the Prime Minister, Elise Drecaille started the meeting.

For the fourth or fifth time - she had already lost count - the Cabinet, or parts of it, was convening in a short period of time. President Tremaine, Defence Minister Adrian Koch, Colonial Minister Shauna Watkinson, and Ministers of Internal and External Affairs Peter Kalm and Trey Jacobs, were orderly present, and Supreme Commander Wakazashi was interacting via a commlink, hovering over the Moon, visiting the magnificent scaffold housing the future pride and joy of the Space Navy.

"The military losses suffered at Titan and Callisto can not be repeated", she continued. "The credibility of our Space Navy is at stake here. One more defeat of this magnitude, and we will lose our standing in the political play."

Wakazashi's face on the holographic display were slightly blushed as he replied in defence. "I am appalled by the performance of our military. But, firstly, the loss of the Flame of Odin, about which I will elaborate later on, was both a pure co-incidence and a result of misunderstandings in military intel and a communications breakdown between the central government and our fleet in Titan.
What comes to the defeat in Callisto, our forces were encountered with what was almost a suprise attack. Quick study of the debris tells that the bulk of the assault force was not of Morganite origin. The Naval Intelligence is working hard to find out who the assailants were."

"Very well, Admiral", Drecaille responded, "but you surely understand that we need a victory over Morgan Interstellar, soon."

"I have already discussed briefly with the Joint Fleet Commander of the Alliance, and he has decided that the retaking of Callisto will commence in a matter of hours. I have already informed Marine Commander Rosenberg, and our troops are ready to assist the Terran Marines. Callisto will be in Terran control in a matter of hours."

"Terran control? You mean Alliance control?" the Minister of Colonial Affairs asked.

"Yes. The Alliance has decided to leave a large contingent of men on Callisto, to ensure that this kind of blunder is unlikely to happen again", Wakazashi admitted. "Formal control will be of course ours and InEn's."

"Well, the Cabinet is trusting for you to succeed this time", Drecaille said.

The Supreme Commander nodded and terminated the connection.

"Now, comes the issue of the colony of Titan. Or, Kingdom of Saturn", the Prime Minister continued, using a most despising tone for the latter sentence.

***

Ten minutes ago, Corporal Kelsey Rickenbacker had been fast asleep in the small area of bunks located inside the Bargecarrier Lemuria. Eight minutes ago the Master Sergeant of the 8th Combat Squad of the 3rd Unit of the 21st Marine Battalion had woken him up along with the 49 other Marines in his Squad.
Rickenbacker was in charge of the Delta Team of his Squad, consisting of ten men. Nine equipped with a standard issue Gauss Rifle, one with a tripod-fixed Field Rail Gun.
The equipment varied from team to team, but the Team Delta 8-3-21 was a typical representation of a group of hardcore Coalition Marines.
Between the eighth and seventh minute Rickenbacker had dressed up, checked his vital signs with the medical scanner and done other chores required from a Marine when preparing for a surface assault.
Then he had assembled his team and moved to the central bay of their Transport Barge - a vast empty space - rectangular in shape, some five metres high and tens of metres wide - in the abdomen of the barge.
On each of the walls was a large door that would lower and allow the Marines and Combat Vehicles inside to disembark once the Barge had landed. The floor was full of straps, small straps for Marines and big ones for Combat Vehicles, their purpose being to prevent the passengers and cargo flying around sporadically should the landing be a rough one. Also, the Barge left the field of artificial gravity for several minutes before reaching surface, and by the time of landing, without straps the Unit inside could simply not function properly. Even deaths could of occurred as people would of been crushed by falling equipment and vehicles.
After suiting up in medium class air-sealed Personal Armour, Rickenbacker directed his Team to it's own spot, a clearly marked area with ten holding straps for personnel and two for equipment. They tied their weapons down carefully like all the other Narines in the disembarkment bay. Vehicle teams were seating in their respective vehicles, which had been already strapped down firmly since the departure from Earth three weeks ago.
He checked the straps of his men quickly as the lighting inside turned slightly bluish. It apparently was night on surface, and the troops were being adjusted to the level of brightness there. The ship's artificial gravity had made them accustomed to the a lower level of gravity of Callisto for the last 24 hours.
Then there was a wailing of the siren, informing the people inside that in thirty seconds, the Barge would detach itself from the docking clamps holding it steady inside the huge bay housing it.
After twenty-eight seconds, accompanied by four loud successive thuds, the Barge shifted slightly in it's bay. The wall below the Barge split in half and the parts disappeared inside the hull. The Barge fired it's thrusters against a sturdy wallframe inside the bay, and hovered out majestically simultaniously with the other five Barges onboard the carrier. Far in the distance, the second Bargecarrier of the fleet was going through the same process of launching her Barges.

***

"Titan is now intestellarly recognized as an independent nation. The problem here is, should we too recognize the colony's sovereignity?" President H.G. Tremaine presented the question.

"We should. We would soon be deadlocked in a similar situation as the ancient Earth powers, arguing over and over again when the Titanians present their national identity, whether it is in form of flags, people, action... it would mean a long period of diplomatic trouble." This was the opinion of Minister Jacobs.

"Trey has a point. It would end up in squabbling between us and the rest of humanity." The President backed him up, making Jacobs sit a bit straighter in his chair.

"I must disagree", the Colonial Minister protested. "That would mean admitting that the Titanians overthrowing their legitimate government was acceptable. We would have Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, the whole lot of them revolting to independence in notime!"

"What is needed is a compromise. All points presented are equally viable. Whatever we do, we are facing problems." The Prime Minister held a pause, looking at the Cabinet's members. "We have to recognize Titan, but not risk the loss of other colonies. I believe I have a conclusion for this dilemma. We can admit Titan, but we must at the same time tighten our leash on the other colonies. Groups like Nova Saturna must be suppressed as soon as possible, and with as much force as needed. Security measures must be increased and the population must be placed under a more careful eye."

***

The Barge started to shudder as it used it's powerful retro-rockets to fight the moons gravity. Corporal Rickenbacker was swiftly introduced to the usefulness of the straps as several G's tried to throw him away from where he had attached himself to the floor. The straps had an automated release mechanism that would allow them to be removed only after the ship had landed, to avoid people suddenly flipping out from causing any harm.
As soon as it had started, the shaking ceased. Rickenbacker sighed inside his helmet and activated his communicator to check out the status of his team. They all checked in fine, and a visual overview of the two equipment packs told that they had no need to use the auxiliary weapons stored in small lockers in the floor of the disembarkment bay.
There were now only small spotlights in the bay, to allow the Marines to disconnect themselves and to make their way out into the darkness waiting outside. The Barge continued to hover for a few moments, escorted by a Squadron of fighters, until a suitable site had been confirmed and locked on. The inertial dampers were activated for a fraction of a second, as the Barge placed itself on the crust of Titan.
In a few moments, the Marines were free of their straps, and were marching to the doors in the sides. Rickenbacker's team was to leave through the starboard side door. The Corporal looked around while walking towards it, listening carefully to the Command channel, a shared communications channel for all team leaders.
Once the Delta Team had stopped behind lines of other teams of their Marine Unit, the Channel came to life. Rickenbacker's team was ordered to provide support for two other teams, who in turn were ordered to proceed to establish a safe position in a given sector of the terrain ahead.
Then, after all was clear, the door opened and in front of the troops presented herself the capitol city of Callisto, a sprawling complex of lit domes clearly visible towering over the rugged grey volcanous and crater-covered surface of Callisto. Just before launching into a fast sprint alongside his fellow Marines, Corporal Kelsey Rickenbacker glanced a bit above the horizon, and admired the grandness and the red-white-grey stripes of Jupiter.

***

In the orbit above Callisto, a Coalition Battle Squadron held it's positions. It was replenishing the sphere of proximity sensors formed around the planet, and the ships with the ability to conduct orbital bombardment were placing themselves to establish secure firing arcs.
The four Coalition Bargecarriers and the several Alliance transport ships had emptied their Barges and were now heading to the moon Europa. The troops were planned to stay planetside, and thus there was no possible need of an immediate evacuation. Because of this, the lightly armed ships could pull back and wait for the dust to clear.
There were still several Morganite transports and, according to some, battleships landed near the population centres of Callisto. The spaceports of Callisto One held most of them, but some had landed in leveled plateaus outside smaller cities. Now that the counterattack was beginning, the blockade forces were keeping a careful eye on the moon.
The assault made by a so far unknown party some hours ago had caused worrying losses to the Battle Squadron and the Alliance Task Forces. The Battle Squadron was only at 60 percent of it's normal supplement, and a mere twelve ships were left unscathed in the attack.
The replacement ships were some half an hours' journey away. They could of not waited for the reinforcements to arrive, because of direct orders from the Alliance to immediately retake the colony.
The Carrier of the Battle Squadron, Pygmalion, had taken some distance to the moon, accompanied by two Destroyers. She had suffered greatly, with big black burns covering most of her hull and a small cloud of debris and gases still surrounding her.
Her fighter compliment had been reduced, but she still had enough Bombers to effectively assist the forthcoming ground assault. Fortunately, her abilities to refuel capital ships was not needed as all the required supplies were available in the near vicinity - at least in interstellar terms.

***

The battleground, some seven kilometres north of Callisto One, was silent. Much too silent, was the worried thought inside Corporal Rickenbacker's head.
Target Zone 67 was highlighted in the minimap in his helmet's visor. According to the computer, the Delta Team had just entered it.

"Calling Gamma Leader, this is Delta Leader. We are right behind you, Yzerman. We are holding positions at Zone Sixty-Seven."

"Roger that, Rickenbacker. We are setting up the POLAR. Power up in three."

"Roger, Delta Leader over and out." He checked with the Epsilon Team, which was the other team the Delta Team was to provide support for.

"Private Saunders, Private Rewell, fix Rail Gun here", he said, pointing a spot on the terrain with a light attached to his suit's arm. The soldiers carrying the gun laid it to the designated spot and started to fit the tripod down.
Rickenbacker activated the long distance camera of his helmet, zooming straight towards Callisto One. Even after adjusting the display, he could not get a clear picture of the domes, all he saw was bright lighting.
The minimap on his visual was updated as the POLAR, Portable Location Radar, was ready. The troop movements in the sector was now clearly displayed, telling that three Brigades of Rail Tanks were approaching their positions.

***

To be continued, scroll down please...

[Kassiopeia]

Corporal Kelsey T. Rickenbacker of the Team Delta 8-3-21 - Part Two

In the domes of Callisto One, Colonial Magistrate Trudy Napgraft was standing back in his office at the top floor of the local headquarters. Morganite details were marching in the streets, making their way to either at the outer plains to hold the invaders out or to the transport ships preparing for departure.

The leader of the Morganite forces, General Marmion, had left the headquarters, and the Command Nexus some fifteen minutes ago. To co-ordinate the desperate last stand outside the domes or to flee within the transport ships, she could not tell. All she knew was, that her family was fine, living in a temporary shelter in the western corner of the primary dome, and that in less then an hour, there would be no Morganites alive on this moon.

She looked at the distance, over an impressive array of tall office buildings. Bright flashes were twinkiling over the horizon, with white and green trails criss-crossing the landscape. Once in a while a larger flash erupted as something exploded violently into a cloud of debris.

The conditions outside in the Callisto night were horrible. No-one would survive out there without a firmly pressurized vacuum suit that had a reliable heating system. The darkness bestowed upon the moon made the temperature to fall well below - 100 Centigrade, not to mention the random toxic pockets of gases or the lack of any atmosphere altogether.

She turned her look once again to the north, were the largest starport resided. Former InEn transports and combat vessels were being loaded with supplies and men alongside the Morganite ships that had made it to the surface. There were no vehicles in the city; apparently all were in the battlefield to slow the Marines down so that the evacuation could take place unhindered.

The Magistrate looked at her office interior. The Morganites had stolen all the information in the central CallistoNet, virtually ripping off hardware from the walls and the mainframe. Lonely threads of electric wires protruded from empty sockets reserved for screens and consoles, and the floor was full of computer components scattered around. There had been other damage to the colony besides the raid of Napgraft's office - all the warehouses in the city and the starport, the local shops, even some homes all were emptied of anything that might be useful to the Morgan Interstellar.

In the blackness of Callisto, another explosion lit the view for a moment.

***

In terrestrial combat situations, Corporal Rickenbacker always enjoyed the moment when the fighter bombers came into play. A wing of them were now roaring over his head, or at least they would of roared if there would of been an atmosphere to transfer the sound to the soldiers' ears. They quickly changed into a "Plow", a formation specifically designed for taking out ground units. The fighters plummeted towards the ground, launched three volleys of missiles at the three Brigades threating them, and then pulled back to the sky, flying over Callisto One with the tips of the domes nearly scraping their wing pylons.

***

The Coalition Space Navy's Battle Squadron, or what was left of it, swiftly set to motion as the scanners picked up the first signs of ships rising from the moon. Six ships emerged from the ash-grey background, all carrying InEn insignia. The CSN ships asked for an identification, but decided to target their guns as the transports ignored them and started to accelerate into a FTL jump. In a rapid series of flashes, five transports were gone into FTL, while the crippled sixth one remained, transmitting an emergency signal.
Now, the Terran-Coalition ships moved to the exact spot from where the Morganites attempted to escape from. After three transports had been forced to crash on the moon, the Morganites started to make a rise from a location closer to the northern polar area. But the TAF reacted quickly, and a group of Battlecruisers applied their Ion Cannons, incinerating four Transports.
Three more transports rose from the surface, and all of them were either halted or crippled to critical levels.

The Coalition and Alliance Joint blockade was disappointed as it reported that exactly one third of Morganite evacuation ships had succesfully left the theatre.

***

The Marines were now striding towards Callisto One. There were only core defences left, and the soldiers had been ordered to proceed as soon as possible to the dome to capture as many prisoners as possible. Some Morganite soldiers would undoubtedly take their own lives, whereas others remained in their positions, firing berserkly until they were killed. The amount of Morganite prisoners taken in Callisto One could of been counted with the fingers in two human hands.

***

Colonial Magistrate Napgraft saw from her room as an explosion shattered the sealed airlock in the far side of the dome. Two doors remained intact, so the pressure level of the dome remained normal. Terran Marines started to pour in, taking out or capturing any remaining Morganites.

As her scavenged room had no use, except for perhaps a scenery room, the Magistrate descended to the ground floor. The other released workers of the headquarters stood there. Many of them had died, either in blasts or gunfire, and some of them, like the assisting Lieutenants of the General of Defence, had been taken prisoners by the Morganites. Not much, however, as the Morganites concentrated on colleting hardware and supplies instead of prisoners.

***

Corporal Rickenbacker strolled the streets of Callisto One. He had removed his helmet, which was strictly against recommendations as the area had not been fully secured yet. But he wanted to get a sniff of some fresh air - albeit recycled, the greenhouses of the domes kept the air somewhat better in quality then on a starship - before returning to space.
He was satisfied. His team had scored fifteen kills, with an ammo loss percentage of only six point three. He personally had eliminated three enemy soldiers.
This good performance always meant for a Coalition Marine that he would get both a leave, either back on Earth or in the closest colony, and a nice one-time bonus and a possible raise to his salary.
As he, accompanied by three of his teammates, crossed over a road, a person stepped out of a building. The foursome immediately raised their Gauss Rifles, targeted at the man's forehead. A single shot from the gun, from this range of ten metres, would even with the lowest level of power make the man's brain scatter themselves to a wide area.

"No!" the man shouted and raised his hands.

Rickenbacker lowered his rifle somewhat, but gestured his men to keep him in target.

"Identify yourself", he ordered the man, lowering the Rifle down to his hips. For a short moment he had a premonition telling him to put his helmet back on and stand back, but he ignored it and took a step closer.

"My name is..." the man started. Rickenbacker noticed that the man was sweating all over, and clearly nervous.

The man lowered his hand, keeping the other up, reassuring the soldiers that he was not in hostile intentions.

"I am..." he said, still keeping his hand in his pocket. The premonition struck Rickenbacker again, and he tightened his grip of the Gauss Rifle.

"...Brigadier Bismarck of the Morganite First Corps!" the man screamed and brandished a Shredder pistol. Rickenbacker quickly raised his Rifle, but could not make it in time. Bismarck fired once, a lethal shot tearing half of the Corporal's head away. The three others from the Team Delta fired their Gauss Rifles, punching a dozen of holes in the Brigadier's chest.

***

News of the new turn of the events in Callisto reached Earth, and in a wild (spontanious) applause the Prime Minister and Minister of Defence were welcomed into a media conference.

Firstly, the Prime Minister held a speech, recognizing the sovereignity of the new leader of Titan and Rhea and wishing to initiate peace talks with them.
However, she reminded that the other regions of Saturn, around Titan and Rhea, are still technically Coalition territory, but she then added that all negotiations would be possible.

Then it was the time for the Minister of Defence to talk. He congratulated the Coalition Marine Corps and the Navy for the excellent performance in Callisto, reading out different numbers and statistics very favorable to the Terrans.
But, after that, he concentrated on the Titan mishap. He apologized in behalf of all Earth for the accident, and blamed a Solar anomaly for the communications breakdown.
Also, he asked for the Titanians to return the Coalition any Coalition citizens and crewmen that might be in their custody, especially any possible survivors of the wreck of the Flame of Odin.

[Mr. President]

[double post, deleted]

[Mr. President]

Caledon, Vega Prime

Derek Sorensen did not even realize he had been asleep until the videophone's insistent beeping woke him up. Sitting upright, he saw that a soap opera about deep space explorers had come on. The only human character was the ship's captain; his first mate was a dinosaur cloned from Mesozoic DNA, and they got worse from there. Switching to MorganLink 3D News, Sorensen answered the phone.

He was mildly surprised to see Gary's face on the video screen.

"Derek," the Thinker said without preamble, "you've got to come to the Temple right away."

"Why?" Sorensen asked.

"The President flew in that xeno-computer guy from the University." That grabbed Sorensen's attention. Gary continued, "We have one week to get everything we need and then the ruins are being locked down again. For good."

Derek leaped up and started buttoning his shirt. "In that case, what are we waiting for?!"

***

The Mall, Orchard Valley, Firaxis Prime

A strange rainy day and strange unexplained events. By the road stood a medium-sized building with a Spartan banner flying over the gate. Outside were parked three Orchard Valley police cars, and there were more than a few military uniforms visible. Only a few hundred yards down the road, the sparkling commercial district was brimming with people going about their daily business, for the most part unaware of what had just taken place.

Few anywhere were brazen enough to throw a pipe bomb over a Spartan wall.

It had not gone off, but had caused a fair bit of confusion. Fortunately, the highly-trained Spartan guards had reacted quickly and effectively, locking down the embassy and summoning the police immediately. The unexploded munition had been disposed of, and local and embassy security personnel were combing the street outside for signs of the bomber.

Sergeant Adam Gibson conferred quietly with the Ambassador, a slim but muscular Spartan woman in their trademark black fatigues. "I'll be honest, ma'am," he said, "They've likely melted away into the crowds by now. But we're picking up evidence even now, and Headquarters is already compiling a list of suspects."

The Ambassador nodded, then turned slightly away as one of the detectives asked her more questions. Sergeant Gibson turned, shielding his eyes from the orange sun as he looked up at the Jagged Edge mountains. The snow-capped peaks reflected the bright morning light. In their foothills exquisite magnigoth trees swayed slightly in the wind, among the largest living things in the known universe, their red crowns almost a thousand feet from the ground. He could easily understand why someone would want to protect them, and the rest of the world. But the sergeant was, though he concealed it well, taken aback by the brazen attempt at sabotage.

Ironically, the Spartan Embassy represented one of the most effective methods by which the government protected Firaxis. The pistol hanging at his side was manufactured in a Spartan factory. Gibson moved slowly back to his car.

[Lonestar]

Colonization Fleet, Roving

The four 5 km Conestoga's were drifting idly in orbit of the first Protectorate Colony World farther than 4 ly away. The luck in finding this unused G-type star system had been fantastic, and the Lord Protector had authorized Colonization of it pronto.

The Name of the planet was "Roving", and it was startling Earthlike, with no indigenous intelligent beings save for some apes that may or may not achieve intelligence down the road. A Division of 5,000 Star Marines had been deployed, and the base had been named Fort Worth. The 50,000 or so settlers had opted to build the Colonial Capital near the base, and so the capital was named "Ft. Worth" as well.

Since a disproportianite(sp) of the original Endeavor colonists had been from the American Southwest, this fit in well with the personality of the LP's subjects.

3 Battleships orbited the Planet as well, the squadron to protect the colony. The number was expected to grow rapidly, with 3 more older Santa Fe class Ceramic/metal hulled Batteships to join soon.

The Incident at LP 658-2 had shocked the Protectorate colonial authority, the system had been presumed unclaimed and was 11 ly from Roving.

As the fleet gathered above the new Colony, the settlers waited anxiously to hear what the GHE was going to do now...

[Frankychan]

System LP 658-2
Spacestation Dragon

Commander Wilcox grimaced as he watched the now known Protectorate ships commence in their rescue operation. He really thought the Hive stood a chance against them.

Ever since he received the order to cease fire, he felt almost cheated out of, what he thought, victory.

Suddenly, as if from nowhere, two Hive corvettes entered the system. A comm-officer spoke up.

"Commander Wilcox, Hive ships Skipfire and Sliver reporting in. They say that they were sent here by Hive command to oversee the Protectorate operation. They also have a message for you. Shall I put it through?"

Wilcox turned to the viewscreen and motioned for the officer to put it on screen.

"This is a pre-recorded message from Minister Zell...

Commander Raymond Wilcox...we have sent these two Hive ships to oversee these 'Protectorate' vessels. Attached to this message is another message we want sent to their ships after this one is finished.

After your men have left the planet, we want you to load one of these two ships with whatever you have retrieved from these aliens. Our two ships will then leave the system. Send your report to command when you are finished."

The screen went black.

"Sir, that's the end of the message. The attached message is pending."

Wilcox looked away from the message viewscreen and turned to look at the planetary screen.

"Send it. I've had enough of these 'Protectorate' aliens."

--------------------
To: Lord Protector of the Protectorate
From: Minister Zell via Hive Spacestation

His excellency, Emperor Yang, offers his hand of friendship. We wish to discuss formal diplomatic matters. Therefore, in this message we have included the Emperor's link. Please respond in kind if you wish to conduct matters of diplomacy.
--------------------

* * *
System LP 658-2
Planet Surface
Hive shuttle landing area

Bulwark Major Largos K'rintak surveyed his men. Some were injured, many were dead. The first rule that the Hive military had was to never surrender, to kill themselves before being captured.

A couple men were pulling a load of corpses on a sled, waiting to board the next shuttle up into space. Major K'rintak walked over to the sled. More of our men dead. The Bulwark moved one body aside to see underneath.

A Protectorate soldier was staring back at him with cold, lifeless eyes. The body was masked by the dead Hive soldiers piled on top of him.

The major looked back at his men. More of the sleds were being pulled in...

[GeneralTacticus]

Encrypted Diplomatic Transmission:

To: Colonel Marcus Kessel, Spartan Federation.

From: Menelaus, Supreme Leader of the Laekdaemon Cadre.

Dear Colonel Kessel,

Although I know you are preoccupied with many matters regarding Sparta and the situation in the Sol system, I hope you will carefully consider what I have to say. Although the Cadre and your regime in Sparta have been mortal enemies since the founding of the Cadre, I see no reason to continue this situation. I am also sending diplomatic messages to your allies the Morganites and Free Drones, but I will make you the same proposal. It is as follows:

1. Spartan recognition of our independence and the mutual agreement to refrain from the use or threat of force against one another.

2. Opening of relations that would allow trade and investment to move freely between our two factions, as in the past seven years our surveyors have found abundant mineral resources on several planets and moons in our system, utilization of which could benefit us both.

3. Transferral to Sparta of several data files compiled on Progenitor technology located in the ruins of Tau Ceti. There is not much there, but hopefully your science teams can find a use for it. Ours have benefited from the use of their resonance and recycling technology.

We are open to negotiation about any point of this proposal, so if you have any problems with any part of this, please say.

Regards,

Menelaus.


Encrypted Diplomatic Transmission:

To: President Kirsty Adams, Free Drone Republic

From: Menelaus, Supreme Leader of the Laekdaemon Cadre

Dear President Adams,

Although I know that ever since the founding of our Cadre we have been effectively at war with Sparta, I see no reason for this to continue. I have therefore sent a message and proposal for a peace deal to Colonel Marcus Kessel. I would like to offer a deal to you as well, as we believe you would be a valuable ally. It is as follows:

1. Free Drone recognition of our independence and the mutual agreement to refrain from the use or threat of force against one another.

2. Opening of relations that would allow trade and investment to move freely between our two factions, as in the past seven years our surveyors have found abundant mineral resources on several planets and moons in our system, utilization of which could benefit us both.

3. Transferral to the Free Drone Republic of several data files compiled on Progenitor technology located in the ruins of Tau Ceti. There is not much there, but hopefully your science teams can find a use for it. Ours have benefited from the use of their resonance and recycling technology.

As I stated in my message to Kessel, we are open to negotiation on any of the above points, so if you have any concerns on this please raise them.

Regards,

Menelaus.



Encrypted Diplomatic Transmission:

To: CEO Nwabulike Morgan, Morgan Interstellar

From: Menelaus, Supreme Leader of the Laekdaemon Cadre.

Dear CEO Morgan,

Although I know that ever since the founding of our Cadre we have been effectively at war with Sparta, I see no reason for this to continue. I have therefore sent a message and proposal for a peace deal to Colonel Marcus Kessel. I would like to offer a deal to you as well, as we believe you would be a valuable ally. It is as follows:

1. Morganite recognition of our independence and the mutual agreement to refrain from the use or threat of force against one another.

2. Opening of relations that would allow trade and investment to move freely between our two factions, as in the past seven years our surveyors have found abundant mineral resources on several planets and moons in our system, utilization of which could benefit us both.

3. Transferral to Morgan Interstellar of several data files compiled on Progenitor technology located in the ruins of Tau Ceti. There is not much there, but hopefully your science teams can find a use for it. Ours have benefited from the use of their resonance and recycling technology.

As I stated in my message to Kessel, we are open to negotiation on any of the above points, so if you have any concerns on this please raise them.

Regards,

Menelaus.


Encrypted Diplomatic Transmission:

To: Emperor Sheng-Ji Yang, Greater Hive Empire

From: Menelaus, Supreme Leader of the Laekdaemon Cadre

Dear Emperor Yang,

Although the Cadre has been largely quiet since our secession from Sparta fifty-seven years ago, I feel that it is time to change this. I have already despatched diplomatic messages to Sparta, Morgan Interstellar and the Free Drone Republic, suggesting a deal with them. As I have not in fact offered them support against their enemies, I feel fully justified in proposing the following deal to you:

1. The transmission of some GHE security files to Laekdaemon Central (our HQ on Atreus Prime) to assist us in building up our security forces.

2. The potential transmission of some Hive technology re: cloning, cloaking, and genejack technology. I realize this is probably classified, but this is simply a request.

3. The transferral to you, if agree to point 1, above, of several data files compiled on Progenitor technology located in the ruins of Tau Ceti. There is not much there, but hopefully your science teams can find a use for it. Ours have benefited from the use of their resonance and recycling technology.

4. Potential transferral to you, if agree to point 2, of schematics of Spartan military technology in our possession. This is classified stuff in Sparta and very valuable, so we will require a significant incentive to transmit. I must also ask that you keep this proposal secret, as if it were known it could lead to troubles with Sparta.

Regarding point 1, there is a faction forming within our society that believes in the continuing of total war with Sparta until victory is achieved, and is willing to fight against me if necessary to go through with this. Any help received in suppressing them would be appreciated.

Regards,

Menelaus.

[Lonestar]

The Palace, New San Antonio

Once more the Holochamber rippled the Starchart into existance, showing a detailed view of the ongoing operations at LP 658-2. Lord Protector Ian I held up the small flimsy that held Emperor Yang's private link, and tossed it on the desk in the middle of the Chamber.

War Minister Kolasklar, and General of the Armies Matthew McCarty were in the room with him.

"Tell me Gentlemen, if we were to go to war tomorrow with the Hive, would we win?"

McCarty looked as if Ian had whipped out a knife and threatened to cut his balls off. "Only if the Dosi aided us all the way, Sire. Whatever technical advantages we may have are negated by the huge numbers of the GHE."

"That's my thinking too." Ian scratched his chin. Right about now they'll be finding out from our dead we not only resemble Humans, we are humans.

Turning to War Minister Kolasklar, he said " When will the genetic profiles be ready on some of the captured alien bodies?"

"Dr. Pym says in about a week, Sire. Then we can begin work on the necessary Genetic plagues. As a precaution, of course."

"Of course." There was a long silence in the chamber, common when Ian was thinking about something. "General, I want you to order the Cold Harbor to Roving when they are done with operations in the LP 658-2 system. Captain Bradley will then brief Admiral DuGalle on known Hive military doctrine."

Ian scratched his chin again.

"Open up a link to Emperor Yang. Don't bother with the Encounter Gram, he knows were Human by now. Send it through the Ansible, I don't want him to know where the transmission is coming from."
----------------------------------

Encyrpted diplomatic channel # 451-78Ba

To: Emperor Yang of the Greater Hive Empire
From: Lord Protector Ian I of the Protectorate of Man.

Emperor Yang, Greetings from the Protectorate of Man. As you doubt know by now, we are as human as you. (perhaps more, Ian thought) As such, there is no need for cheap theatrics. One day, perhaps, I will sit down and explain how we came to be, but not yet.

I have decided to accept your offer of friendship. Among other things, this transmission contains a file with a starchart of the Usurper worlds I promised. Consider it a act of good faith.

I would be interested in conducting further negotiations, opening rade and the like, but not in person. For the time being, I will transmit through the Ranging ship Crockett, which arrived recently in the LP 658-2 system to aid my other ships in the recovery of our vessel. Should you request the Crockett be moved somewhere else, we will honor it.

Do not attempt to cross us though, or me, for that matter. We are subtle and quick to anger.

Regards,
Lord Protector Ian McDiarmid I

[Silence]

Morgan Interstellar
CNSS Blessed Redeemer

Rear Admiral Gregor Kincaid was silent as the pinnace pulled into the boat bay of the carrier. After brining home the taskforce, he decided to move his flag back to the carrier while the ships of his taskforce were being worked on. He stood at attention when the door to the pinnace opened up and the medium sized lady with blonde hair came out. He saluted her and she saluted back and said, "At ease Admiral."

"Welcome aboard Admiral Demover." The shock of seeing Vice-Admiral Lisa Demover as the commander of the 8th, now actually 1st Solider of God Fleet was no on his face, he knew that she was coming but, he didn't expect her to be real. Ever since her father was executed for treason people hadn't trust a Demover in uniform, it only had been her great tactical ability that managed to allow the last heir of the Demover family to be given such a command. Gregor could imagine the feeling of awe that she must have in having control over that much firepower. He had been visiting the Morgan flight control talking with their director about how to increase security when the 8th Fleet came out of FTL. The Morgans had ships that were large and powerful, but when they saw the actual visuals of the flagship, the super-dreadnought Grace of the Lamb he had seen the young officer at the station had his mouth drop, when the mountainous ship came into view along with her 3 consorts and the rest of the fleet.

So they were walking towards to the admiral's cabin, Demover said, "I see you handled your first fleet action very well indeed, admiral."

"Thank you Ma'am, while we did much damage to the enemy, I am still unhappy that we didn't get the other 2 of their battlecruisers."

"Its spilt milk now and if you would of stayed, the TAF taskfore would of been able to squish you." Demover said, and they walked into the cabin, he offered her a drink and she gave him a order, while he was getting the drink she sat down and said, "So what is your unbiased opinion of the Terran naval capability."

"Ma'am, they are tough fighters, but we have the range advantage, the only weapons they have that are quite comparable to the our long range chaos naval riffles are their gauss cannons, but they are going good when they knock down our primary shielding systems at long range, and in close range they have other weapons that are much more powerful then those. I am still looking over the damage the fighters did to our escorts, but I am sure with a solid phalanx of our DE and your new CLE that we will be able to keep them from doing to much damage."

"Yes, the 8th fleet was outfitted with the latest ships and technologies to see how they would work in actual combat, now since the HOG campaign has been reduced to a piracy action, as the government calls it."

Gregor snorted and said, "Piracy? figures they would do something that stupid, I know you seen the reports from the captured destroyer squadron, they have a base out in deepspace on a rouge planet, and unless we find that base, we will have to keep our forces spread out across the Oort Clouds and asteroid belts to make sure they come back again."

"I know admiral, but that is neither here nor now, we must focus on helping Morgan win this war he has going on."

Gregor smiled, he knew that he was going to like this admiral but he had to ask a quick question, "Ma'am, am I under your command or what is going on, we didn't receive any orders dealing with the new fleet."

Demover replied, "Your taskforce will be merged with our existing force and you will be running the battleship squadrons, and act as my XO for this mission."

Gregor blinked, XO? Battleships squadron, that was what one gave a rising star and served as a step for a admiral to get his own..... He smiled and raised his drink and took a swig.

"So Admiral Demover, what are your plans for the fleet?" He asked.

"I am going to recommend to CEO Morgan that he allow us to take our ground forces (the 8th had brought alone several more 3 more corps) and take out saw Cappella and then began to work our way through the other systems, and use them as based to raid Sol
until they give up."

Gregor Kincaid raised his glass up and said, "Well then, a toast to the road of victory!"

[History Guy]

Total Eclipse

Morgan Interstellar, Central Plaza Building, CEO Nwabudike Morgan's Office

“Mr. Ku,” began CEO Nwabudike Morgan, pacing about the room, addressing the Intelligence Chief, “are you sure that there are several traitors from our company who plan to sell information on our strengths to our enemies?” Ku was a good man, a good Intelligence Chief, in some ways much better than Roze, the last Intelligence Chief, who’d left Morgan Interstellar on Chiron to found the Data Angels, whom had been no end of trouble for Morgan afterward. Now Mr. Ku was reporting to him that there seemed to be a conspiracy by disgruntled Morganites to sell their enemies information that could be extremely damaging to the well being of the Conglomerate.

“I am, CEO. Absolutely sure,” Ku responded.

“Are these men Drones or disgruntled members of the working class?” asked Imran Siddiqui, his arm freshly out of its sling.

“No, it seems they are all officials. I have the name of at least one, Mr. Siddiqui.”

“And who is that?” asked Morgan.

“Mr. Gervaise Binstead, a minor diplomatic figure, now retired. You may recall he served briefly as an ambassador to the Terran Alliance, but was replaced by Mr. Carlson and Miss Dewhurst. It seems that he has of late been making efforts to contact the Terrans to sell information to them on Morgan Interstellar’s military forces. Luckily, it seems no deal has of yet been reached.”

“It is a shame,” said Morgan, “I had always liked Binstead somewhat. But I suppose the fact we put him out to pasture aggravated him somewhat.”

“I am afraid that is most probable.” Ku seemed to be focusing his gaze on the pen Morgan was fiddling about with unconsciously. He was waiting for the arrival of the Saturn Kingdom’s dignitaries, and of the eclipse at 5 o’clock in the evening.

“I am afraid we can not allow Mr. Binstead to continue with this, and so action must, of course, be taken.”

“We must take action, CEO?” Ku asked, suddenly changing his glance from Morgan's silver pen to his face. Morgan nodded. Ku bowed slightly and turned to leave the room. But he after a few steps towards the door he stopped and turned to face Morgan and Siddiqui. “CEO, there may be a danger that Mr. Binstead’s associates wish to sell information on our military positions to the Greater Hive Empire.”

“How do you know this?”

“It is…suspected, we are not sure as of yet however.” Morgan considered this. He feared no one as he feared Yang and the ‘Greater Hive Empire’. He knew that the Terrans, as mighty as they were, would simply be minor concerns when the Hive was against him. If there were anything he would ever wish to totally destroy, to crush into dust, it would be the Hive. A knock suddenly came at the door, and Morgan bade the knocker enter. It was Colonel Jerome H. Motyer, the Adjutant.

“CEO,” he said slowly, “General Marmion sends word that the Terran Alliance has retaken Callisto, but he has managed to survive with over one third of his force, and is returning them to the nearest Morgan planet. Apparently, when the Terrans attacked they came in huge number, and we managed to kill a good many of them, but they overwhelmed our force, and took a large number out by rail gun attacks. Before his men left they rendered all InEn machinery useless, and they destroyed the Callisto Command Nexus totally. Callisto is no longer useful to anyone.”

Morgan was stunned. Only 15,000 men of his force were coming back with Marmion. They had fought a good campaign, but they’d been decimated. In a sense it was a victory, InEn would have to claim bankruptcy sooner or later because of this. A good deal of its military force was taken out, many Coalition ships were destroyed. Saturn was protected. But at what cost? What was it that Pyrrhus of Epirus had said? “One more such victory and I am finished.” Yes, this indeed was a pyrrhic victory. “Thank you for the information, Jerome,” responded Morgan, sadly, “I am sorry to hear of it. Is there anything more?”

“Yes, General Marmion states that his right wing commander Brigadier Harry Bismarck was killed valiantly in action against a battalion of Terran attackers, and that while he was surrounded he refused to surrender and died a heroic death. General Marmion asks that you consider Bismarck for posthumous promotion. The same goes for Ordnance Officer Nassar, who is mortally wounded.”

“Yes, certainly…”

“General Marmion has prepared a full report, sir, if you would like to view it.”

“Yes, thank you, Jerome.” Motyer walked to the wall alongside Morgan’s desk, on which there was the holo-map of the whole of charted space, and slipped a data-disk into a slot just under the map. The image of the map quickly faded and was replaced by the face of Major General Marmion. His was a weary face, and around his forehead he wore a bloodied bandage.

“Official Report of the 2nd land battle of Callisto, a moon of Jupiter,” began Marmion. “After the two tremendous victories over the InEn and Earth Coalition forces on and around Callisto, we made preparations either to hold or to leave en mass, and unfortunately we chose the latter situation over the former, and therefore wasted many good men in the defense of Callisto…” Marmion droned on for anoter fifteen minutes detailing the fall of Callisto. Marmion had stayed in Callisto’s command nexus to the end, of course, and barely made it to a transport. Luckily a good number of his men had also survived, and a good number of Earth Coalition men had not. In the defense, Colonel Nassar of the Artillery had been mortally wounded by the initial bombardment from the sky, which Marmion referred to as “cowardly”, and was not expected to live out the week. The Right Wing Commander Brigadier Harold Bismarck had been killed in action, valiantly. All in all, the defense of Callisto had been a magnificent affair, and would have been even more so had the Morganites won it.

“Thank you, Colonel,” said Morgan to Motyer as the recording ended and General Marmion’s face faded into the darkness of the screen from whence it had come, “General Marmion and his officers will of course each be rewarded a medal of heroism. I’m truly sorry of it all, but at least what we set out to do was accomplished. If only we could have accomplished it without so many losses…”

“One more thing, sir,” added Motyer, “the Soldiers of God forces wish to be given permission for an attack on Capella…”

“Capella?” Morgan turned his attention to the re-appearing map, and he saw the closeness of Capella to the Morganite territory, and how distant it was from Sol, “I don’t know. Let me think. Capella is close enough to our territory that it could be invaluable to them in launching an attack on us. Unless we make an orbital cannon or two that might just be very dangerous. But on the other hand, if we attack and take it, we shall eliminate that threat, destroy a major Terran holding, and take something from them that they can not so quickly re-capture. And furthermore, if we take that over…if we score a major battlefield victory over their armies in their land…if we totally destroy their armies in that sector of the universe…if this is accomplished we may have them exactly where we want them, they could not commence an offensive quickly against us, and we may have enough time to sue for peace…”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Gervaise Binstead opened the door of his private apartment, which was on one of the top floors of one of the huge skyscrapers in Central Plaza. Binstead was whistling a tune he’d heard somewhere that had now etched itself temporarily in his memory. In about twelve minutes those Saturnians were scheduled to land and to meet with Morgan and his dignitaries, who would leave the next day for the Saturn Kingdom to set up a permanent treaty (as well as embassy). Binstead wasn’t invited to intend any of that, of course, he was now out of a position in diplomacy. He had briefly been thought of for being sent off to this place Firaxis Prime, but that fat Grecian Mr. Physkon was sent instead. He was out in the cold, so to say. This Terran thing was not improving things for him as well, but he felt that fortunes would change shortly with the deal he was proposing.

Gervaise Binstead sat down in his real leather chair and turned on the tube, wondering whether to watch MorganMovieChannel, MorganLink3DSports, or MorganLink3DNews, or something else entirely. He settled on the News, and watched as Miss Kathryn Dewhurst, who Binstead had worked with in the Terran government embassy, was interviewed in 3D. No one had asked Binstead to do that stuff. Ah well. At least he would enjoy this eclipse tonight. The primary moon of Castor A, known as Achaemenid, would totally eclipse Castor for a full two minutes, but that wasn’t for another half hour yet.

As he waited, Binstead brewed himself a cappuccino; he’d need something warm to drink, as it would get a little chilly during the eclipse. As he left his kitchen with the cappuccino in his hand, he thought he saw something in the darkness of his TV room. It was very quick, a metallic glint in the darkness, something moving incredibly fast, and yet still remained totally silent. Had he imagined it? He reached to turn on the light, putting his drink down on the kitchen counter first. As he switched the light on, he saw for a split second a tall, square-faced man, clothed wholly in black, holding a small pistol in his hand. It was not a shredder pistol, but it looked deadly enough. So Mr. Ku’s intelligence men had caught up with the leak, he thought.

Binstead’s reaction was to turn quickly, and to try and dodge the intruder’s fire, but suddenly the room was plunged into darkness again. The eclipse blocked out most all light, and the intruder seemed to have quickly turned the light off again. A sudden light broke through the darkness, coming from seemingly nowhere, and then there was total silence. The intruder had done his work, and Gervaise Binstead would never see the light of Castor again.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Vera Sofia’s arrival at Morgan Interstellar had been relatively quiet and without much fanfare. The small diplomatic ship had come in at the Central Landing Pad in the City exactly as scheduled, and the light escort ship landed several minutes later. Luckily the Earth Coalition ships had either not seen the diplomatic ship, or had respected proper military protocol, unlike the InEn ships several months earlier. The Earth Coalition, it seemed, were a bit more respectable than that, though Vera Sofia would never have thought so of them. Enough members of her family had been murdered by the EC that she bore an intense hatred of the Coalition and it’s government.

Vera Sofia was now Titan’s official ambassador to Morgan Interstellar. It was her job not only to set up a permanent treaty, or perhaps even an alliance, with the Morganites, but also to make proper diplomatic deals and that sort of thing as time passed. Her first half-hour at Morgan Interstellar had been truly impressive. She very much enjoyed the eclipse about fifteen minutes after her arrival and the sight of the huge Central Plaza building of Morgan Interstellar was truly impressive. She also liked CEO Nwabudike Morgan very much, and found him the most charming fellow she’d ever met. His reputation had gone before him, and Vera had found all she heard of him to be quite pleasantly accurate.

“Good evening, Miss Sofia,” said CEO Morgan, coming to greet her in the ‘lobby’ of the building. She shook his strong hands, and found herself dwarfed by the giant fellow. He was dressed in some of his best, and was obviously out to charm.

“Good evening, CEO Morgan.”

“I trust you enjoyed the eclipse a few minutes back.”

“What I saw of it I did, yes.”

“Good, good. I’d like to invite you and the rest of the dignitaries back there to dinner with myself, Mr. Siddiqui, Mr. Walker, Mrs. Rabinowitch, and our own dignitaries to be sent off to Saturn. Would you like that?”

“Oh yes.”

“Good, then we shall have dinner, and then have a drink or something, and tomorrow Mrs. Rabinowitch and her gang shall leave for Saturn, and the lot of us can talk over these arrangements that I would very much like to cement.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[Lonestar]

Cerro Gordo Federal Lab, New San Antonio

"Ugly little buggers, aren't they?"

Dr. Pym chuckled at his collegues remark. The largest number of non-human GHE soldiers the Boromir had brought back were of the so-called "Bulwark" species. Very ugly indeed. The Dosi Datalink on them was small, merely commenting that they were a "Primative Species, unfit for membership in the Federation." Yang's meglomania wouldn't have allowed a Primitive species to exist near him, however, without them worshiping him as a God.

Henry Pym leaned over the corpse, and looked at it for the millionth time. The Genetic profile on this species was almost complete, and work on a gene-plague would be able to begin soon.

Also worth noting was the "Mindbend" techniques Yang used. It wasn't all that different from the resocialization the Protectorate used on some of it's more 'culturally challenged persons', which meant is was impossible to deactivate without a injection.

The Lord Protector wouldn't like that; it meant any war with the GHE would be a disaster for the Protectorate. While there was no doubt the GHE wouldn't be able to break through Home's defensive grid without great difficulty (to say nothing of the thousands of bunkers scattered throughout the system), and offensive action would be impossible. Fortunatly, the LP was taking the diplomatic route, at least until other avenues were opened up.

Pym put down his PADD and walked over to one of the Hive-human corpses. They were fortunate to get a Teep to do a "deathscan" on this man before he died, which gave some clues to Hive Society.

Pym shook his head. Entire cities buried under ground! The old Chiron recordings were true, then. It also appeared as if not many people in the Hive knew it's true extent, and where the Throneworld was. Interesting. It's military technology was unremarkable, prefering quanity over quality, although General McCarty pointed out that Quanity has a Quality all of it's own.

Pym rubbed his eyes. How did the LP convince him to become the Minister of Science? He knew the answer, the Lord Protector asked, so he served. Now he had to go back and inform War Minister Kolasklar that the Deathscan, while informative, gave nowhere near the amount of information needed for a campaign.

In any event, ties were being opened up between the two nations. Perhaps the precautions they were taking would prove unneccessary...




....for the time being.

[Sprayber]

So It Begins

Major Castor hated to be the one to disturb the Colonel in his private quarters. Not that she hated going there at all. She had spent many nights there in the past and even once or twice recently. But that was always as Lera and not as Kessel’s chief of staff. She hated to bother him because he spent so little time there, and too much time inspecting this or that or making sure Sparta was kept in running order. Kessel was a Spartan but he was also a human being. But the messages that had been received couldn’t wait for his duty shift. As she pressed the button to annouce her presence, she let out a sigh. Things were about to change in Sparta, and some of them meant that new enemies would be made and old ones drawn nearer. As the door slide open the familiar sound of Kessel’s favorite music filled the hallway outside. This time it was a man singing in an old earth language that few in modern Sparta knew unless they had either been there or had it uploaded into their MMI. She knew the words but the meanings had always been slightly out of her reach. But she knew that they sounded sad, and that was why Kessel appreciated it. He had told her once the songs were called the blues, but again the true meaning had been lost on her. Kessel turned from filling a glass and punched a button that ended the music.

As Kessel sat down he motioned to seat. ‘Come on in Lera.”

“I’m sorry to disturb you Marcus, but these messages that have arrived were important and needed to be seen right away” She said, as she walked over and handed Kessel three data pads.

“Let me have the worst news first, so that we can go from there”

Lera sat down and got out her own data pad. “Well sir, the Terrans have retaken Callisto. Our informants on the moon have reported in once again. Both are alive it seems. It appears the Morganites were able to evacuate some of there personnel. Maybe as many as one third, but that number is unconfirmed. Watchers in Morgan territory have reported roughly that many have returned. Our sources on the moon were successful in remaining hid among the Terran population. The agent that was uninjured was able to send us a rough rundown of the Terran attacks. That combined with information provided by official Morgan military contacts will be fed into the computer at the Command Nexus and a scenario will be available in a few hours describing the details of the Terran attack. Morganite officials have requested our data on the results.”

Kessel nodded approvingly “Of course, all information will be shared with them”

Lera made a note on her data pad and continued with her briefing. “On a side note, the Believer mercenaries performed admirable in their raid against the Terran fleet. They inflicted significant losses against them in a modest amount of time. A run down of their success will also be processed today and be available for review. Which reminds me sir. You have yet to reply to the Believer response.”

Kessel took a sip of water and sit it back on the table. “There is nothing to respond to. I made my point, either they agree or they don’t. But Sparta’s position will stay the same.”

Lera nodded and decided to move on to the next order of business. “Admiral Hans has asked for instructions on how to deal with the Hive ambassador.”

Kessel handed over a data pad to Castor “He is to transmit this to the ambassador. There is to be no discussion of terms, just relay the message. We will see if Yang wants to stall for time or if he is wants to move quickly.”

Lera placed the data pad on the table and looked down at her own pad again. “We received this message just a short time ago, sir. And is the reason I came here tonight instead of tomorrow at the regular time.”

Kessel leaned forward in his chair and looked intently, “A message from the Terrans already?”

“No sir.” Castor replied. “It’s a message from the Gorn. Or at least so it claims. It was authenticated of course and there is no possibility of human origin at least.”

Kessel looked visibly surprised at this bit of news. “We sent out a message two years ago. I had figured that they were ignoring us and didn’t expect a reply. By all means let me see it”

Castor produced the data pad that contained the message and Kessel input his code to allow access. What he saw was both hopeful and disappointing.

humanSpartans we watch for sometime your species. You are not united and do not pursue common goal. This is puzzle us. You are much like progenitor in that you do not follow logical course of cooperation. We do observe that some fight bree and some do not. We think some cooperate with bree but do not see where to be exact. Do know that humans that cooperate with bree will be enemies of Gorn and must be eradicated. But at time do not know who those humans are. We see that humanSpartans fight bree many times. We see that at times humanSpartans can out fight bree. We see that other times humanSpartans fight other humans. And still other humans fight other humans. We will not care who humans fight. We are not interested in fighting old ones at this time. But can when bree are eradicated. We will keep watch on humanSpartans and humans. But be warned humans best be small. Small things go unnoticed in big space.


Kessel read through the message three times before he finally put the pad down. “The translation was better than I thought it would be.”

“Actually Marcus, that is the way we received it, along with a sample text of the Gorn script. I think they were trying to teach us a little of their language. Or at least enough to understand them.”

“Knowing their language is all well and good Lera, but they didn’t offer much new. Except that they thought some humans were cooperating with the Bree.” Kessel got up and walked over the window that looked on the parade ground complex. “What was the other message you have there?”

“This is going to be stranger then the Gorn message. “ Kessel raised an eyebrow at that statement .

“What could possibly be more strange than the Gorn message?” Kessel walked over and took the offered data pad from Castor.

“Well I will be damned. The Cadre. Stay here while I prepare a message.”

An hour later Kessel had finished his two messages and handed them to Major Castor. As she was leaving to follow out his instructions. Kessel caught her before she left completely.

“One last thing. Inform the officers in the cryo detention facility to move the cryo tube for Cyan Solo out of deep storage. They are to put it in a secure lab and order a detachment of the Spartan Guard to maintain security.”

Castor went a little pale at this last order. She had heard Kessel talk about Cyan Solo and had been able to read some of her file. But she maintained an even tone and simply acknowledged the order . As the door closed behind her, she could already hear the music begin to play in Kessel’s quarters. The music was darker then before, but still very sad.

************Encrypted Message***********
To: Menelaus, Supreme Leader of the Laekdaemon Cadre
From: Colonel Marcus, Commander Of The Spartan Federation

Your group has been a thorn in our side for many years. You refused to abide by the doctrines and orders of your then superiors. There were numerous attempts on the lives of officers in positions of authority, including Colonel Santiago. But that was in the past. The Spartan Federation makes no claim on your system now or in the future. We do not consider you an enemy any longer unless you choose to go down that path. Your offers are acceptable as is. We will even offer you an official warning to other governments that your system is to be considered a Spartan ally. And that an attack on your system would be considered an attack on Sparta itself. Not because you are a dependent or apart of Sparta, but because you are an ally. There is one condition to our offer and our acceptance of your offers. It is something that all our allies know and understand. You are not to aid the Greater Hive Empire or any declared enemy of the Spartan Federation, be they human or alien. Your trade deals with any other governments are your concern. But any kind of military aid or support to the any enemies of Sparta will be considered an act of aggression and we will act accordingly. This includes accepting military support or aid from Spartan enemies. I hope we can come to some kind of accommodation between our two societies.

Respectfully, Colonel Marcus Kessel. Colonel Of The Militia COTM


To: Hive Ambassador Telhai M'rock
From: Admiral Aaron Hans: Commander, Spartan Taskforce Maya

Ambassador M’rock. Colonel Kessel of the Spartan Federation sees the benefit of cooperation. He asks that if the Greater Hive Empire is interested in peace, then Colonel Kessel and Emperor Yang should be the ones to handle the negotiations. After a general agreement has been worked out then a team from both sides can get together and work out the details. He believes that since neither side is interested in invasion, the process can be carried out over FTL COMM. This would of course require the FTL codes necessary to communicate with Emperor Yang on your homeworld. Since this is a stipulation already in place by treaty among the civilized and advanced societies, this would put the Greater Hive Empire in compliance. Colonel Kessel eagerly awaits your emperor’s response.

Admiral Hans ….

************Encrypted Video Message***********
To: CEO Morgan
From: Colonel Kessel

CEO Morgan. I am sending you this message to inform you that I have indicated to the Terran government that any attack on Morgan Interstellar outside the Sol system will mean immediate action by the Spartan Federation. Sparta will stand by Morgan Interstellar for as long as it takes to defeat the Terrans or any others that attack you.