Shadow Core - The Legacy (26 page)

The main gun of the Regent, a one kilometre long spinal particle accelerator, is capable of discharging a compressed plasma burst that can punch through even the heaviest of armoured targets, or be discharged as a narrow beam that can carve up targets with strategic precision.

Enemies flee from it and colonies surrender before it even enters the system. Such is the fear that the First Forward Fleet invokes in its enemies. For only a fool would oppose it, or so the saying goes.

Since the day of its formation, the Solarian Union has remained at the vanguard of military might throughout the known systems, and it's arguably the strongest of the known human forces. However, despite what its detractors would like the galaxy to believe, the Union does not see itself as conquerors out to subjugate the colonies; though few can agree if this is because they are unwilling or simply unable to do so.  

Despite the overwhelming force it is capable of projecting, the simple fact remains that space is so vast and human colonies so numerous, that even the Union would never be capable of maintaining control over more than a fraction of it at any given time. Territorial defence becoming a big issue when neighbouring colonised systems can be days, weeks or months apart even at hyper-light travel.

The Union's sphere of influence grows with each new fleet it adds to its roster. But even with its considerable economic power it is still limited by the massive logistical support required to keep the massive fleets operational for any significant length of time. And this is what has led to the current galactic political climate: where each colonial power enjoys and fiercely protects its independence.

While the Union was much more aggressive in the past, these days it favours the use of the subtle tools of economic and political influence to get the job done. With strategic deployment of its strike fleets performed only against those undesirables who would dare threaten the stability of their sphere of influence.

On board the Regent, the executive officer stopped near the closed door to the situation room and spoke into the intercom.

“Sir, I have the report you asked for,” said the female executive officer, dressed in the standard navy blue uniform of the Solarian military.

“Enter,” came the reply from the intercom.

The door opened and the executive officer stepped inside the room, immediately heading towards the Admiral who was overseeing the operation. He was an older man with silver hair and a neatly trimmed beard, his weathered appearance granting those around him the immediate understanding that he had seen more combat than most of the officers currently serving on the Regent put together.

The area was filled by a low hum, coming from the multitude of highly skilled analysts sitting at the workstations which lined the walls of the room. And at the centre was a holographic display map with three chairs around it, with the Admiral sitting in the chair which would normally be reserved for the captain of the Regent; a fact that the captain, standing by the Admiral's chair, was clearly not happy about.

As the X.O. approached them she could hear that they were arguing again.

“The fleet is getting restless Admiral. It has been almost a full month since you pulled us from active duty and recalled the fleet back to Sol without an explanation. And I'm sure I don't need to remind you that the situation in the Lagos system has seriously deteriorated since our withdrawal,” the Captain respectfully related his frustration.

“Yes, yes... shut up about it already!” The Admiral snapped back, tired of listening to his junior officer saying the same thing over and over again.

“Sir! The information you requested,” the X.O. said as she stood at attention, saluting them.

“Ah! Miss Arrington was it?” The old admiral asked without taking his eyes off the holographic situation display in the middle of the room.

“Yes Admiral. I have finished compiling the information you requested, but I'm afraid the report is not as complete as you may be hoping for,” she said as she typed some commands into her Echo, causing the information to be transferred to the Admiral's display.  

“Any particular reason? I was led to believe by your captain that you were fairly competent. Was I miss-informed?” The Admiral asked in an insinuating tone, obviously displeased.

She said with pride, “No sir, you were not. Some of the information you requested cannot be obtained at this time, but technical is working on it.”

“At ease Ashlyn. You're going to sprain something if you stay like that for too long,” the captain said to the X.O, who was still stood at attention.

“Thank you sir,” Ashlyn said as she adopted a more comfortable form, with her arms behind her back.

“Now, what happened with the information?” The Captain asked.

“Sir! Some of the information requested was apparently deleted from our main data-centre approximately 40 years ago using unknown means. The technical division is attempting to reconstruct it from older backups as we speak, but they say the process could take several hours before it is complete. So I thought you would want to review the remaining data before then. Sir!” Ashlyn said.

“Yes, good work,” The Admiral said, satisfied with the explanation. “What's missing?” He asked.

“The crew profiles sir. As well as the detailed scan results of the target's hyper-light drive system and weaponry,” Ashlyn reported.

The Admiral placed his hand on the chair's identification pad, causing the holographic screen to momentarily display his credentials and then unlock the sensitive information. The holographic display now showed a detailed 3D representation of the Zenith.

The expression on the Captain's face changed instantly. Until this point he had not been made aware of what his mission actually was. The fleet had been operating under direct orders from the Admiral.

The blood seemed to drain from the Captain's face, going pale as he recognised the ship's silhouette from the combat briefing he had received when he had been granted command of his first ship.

“Sir! If I may ask, why the Shadows?” Ashlyn said.

The Admiral replied brusquely, “Why what?”

“Why use the Shadows as an exercise target? Why not the Outer Rim Alliance, or maybe an unaligned colony?” Ashlyn asked, curious as to why this exercise was aimed at a non-existent enemy.

“You have the wrong idea, this is not a drill. Our target is quite real,” the Admiral said as he pulled up a live feed from the system defence grid, showing the Zenith in all its splendour.  

“Sir?” Ashlyn asked with a confused expression. She had never seen any official documents relating to the Shadows. As far as she knew they were just a myth created by the trash inhabiting the outskirts of human controlled space.

“It's in this system? Admiral! Why was the fleet not informed?” The captain asked, incensed.

“Because you would have done something stupid. Consider yourself informed,” the Admiral said.  

“I need to inform the rest of the fleet,” the captain said as he raised his hand to his earpiece.

“Not yet!” The Admiral ordered, causing the Captain to stop just moments before activating his communicator. “This operation has been planned out to the smallest detail. I will not have some trigger happy moron compromise it, am I understood?”

“Yes... sir!” The Captain replied.

“Good. Now take a seat, both of you,” the Admiral gestured to the Captain and his X.O.

“Now then, this is the situation. The enemy is sitting midway between the Earth and Mars orbits, but at an elevated position relative to the ecliptic plane. This places it outside all established travel routes but still relatively central to most of our assets in the system. Strategically, this location is almost perfect for a reconnaissance mission,” the Admiral said.

“Question: Why don't we have a monitoring station at this location if it is so strategically significant?” Ashlyn asked, causing the Captain to smile.

“Because the area is also a death-trap. Burst drives do not operate properly, either failing to engage or becoming unstable shortly after. The area is also littered with particulate debris which is a hazard to navigation and interferes with sensors, negating any advantage the location itself could provide,” the Captain said.

“For our sensor technology yes, but the admiralty is working on the worst case scenario. We are assuming that the enemy has full sensor coverage. We are also assuming that the enemy may have found a way to make use of its Burst drive in order to enter and leave this area. So, in short, we are assuming they chose this area specifically for its impact on our ships, putting us at a disadvantage,” the Admiral said and sat back on his chair.

“By sensor disruption, is it safe to assume that we just can't distinguish between objects in the region due to clutter, or are we dealing with jammers?” Ashlyn asked.

The captain said confidently, “The science division has classified the entire area as a class 5 navigation hazard. Which basically means they haven't got a clue what's wrong with the place. But the solar system monitoring grid is not affected by it, so we can just tap into the data feeds for accurate real time information.”

“In theory yes, but unfortunately our target does not show up on active scans conducted by the grid. It registers the occasional sensor echo but that's it. We can't even be sure how long it’s been in this system. Our best estimate being three months,” The Admiral said.

“If the grid can't see it then how was it detected? And what are we looking at right now?” The captain asked as he pointed at the live video feed.

“I didn't say the grid couldn't see it, we are looking at it right now after all. The satellite cameras can pick it up just fine. But according to the radar and all the other detection methods at our disposal, that ship isn't actually there. We wouldn't have known it was there at all if someone at the grid maintenance centre hadn't gotten curious at the number of echoes being registered from this one location. Even then, it was a month before the patrol forces decided to do something about it, and they had no interest in risking ships in that area, so they did something rather inspired.” The Admiral smiled. “They spread rumours about cargo ships using the area and then waited for pirates to take the bait. The sensor grid tracked a Shrike in and picked up clear signs of an engagement of some kind, quickly followed by the pirate escape pods exiting the area. The patrols intercepted the pods and interrogated the pirates. The captain was less than cooperative, but his crew talked... eventually. The telemetry the pirate ship had collected was analysed, and that's when the military were called in. We recalled the fleet in preparation for a strike, but the Intelligence service put a stop to that plan,” the Admiral said, clearly upset at that turn of events.

“The S.I.S is involved? Is that why the fleet was not informed sooner?” The Captain asked.

“Yes,” the Admiral said in a strained voice as he looked away, clearly angry at the S.I.S interference.

“Apparently, they couldn't run the risk of someone in the fleet deciding to rush the enemy before all the parts of their little plan were in place, or some such stupid nonsense... morons... bah!” The admiral said in disgust at having the integrity of the military questioned by the people in the Intelligence branch, as Ashlyn tried to contain her amusement at his hypocrisy.  

“Sir, do we know what the S.I.S plan was?” Ashlyn asked, hoping for more information to work with.

“Those intelligence...” the Admiral started to say and then seemingly got side tracked by his own commentary. “...intelligence, hah! Those idiots couldn't find their own backsides with both hands and a star-chart. But anyway, they had some operation going to plant a spy on some ship, and then use that ship to gather Intel on our target. I never did get the full details on what they were up to.”

“Probably the Patriarch we saw disappear from sensors not very long ago. So the distress signal we picked up was from this spy?” The Captain asked.

“Yes. According to the S.I.S he was supposed to fire the thing once he had confirmed the target. But only if he could not extricate himself from the area within the hour,” the Admiral said and then asked with an amused expression, “Can you believe those Intelligence dimwits actually ordered me to deploy the fleet into the area and board the Zenith if we saw that signal?”   

“Against this target? What were they thinking?” The Captain asked, completely shocked.

“That the fleet is expendable,” the Admiral replied.

“Sir, forgive my ignorance, but is this one ship really such a threat?” Ashlyn asked, confused as to why her two senior officers were talking as if this target was somehow a threat to the whole fleet.

“Tell me commander, how's your military history?” The Admiral asked out of the blue.

“Reasonably good, depending on how far back you wish to go. Any particular event Sir?” Ashlyn asked.

“The Second Fleet Massacre,” the Admiral said.

“According to the records of the day, almost the entirety of the Second Fleet was decimated by an unknown enemy approximately 94 years ago. One destroyer and three frigates managed to survive the encounter, albeit all having sustained severe damage. All other details are classified above my clearance level sir,” Ashlyn reported.

“That is the official story. But all high ranking members of the military and congress know there was nothing unknown about the enemy. It was that ship,” the Admiral said as he pointed at the Zenith.

“Sir, with all due respect, that was almost 100 years ago. Our military technology has progressed considerably in that time. And when it comes to fleet engagements the First Forward Fleet is the best there is,” Ashlyn said.

“There are two problems with your rationale. The first is that the enemy has also had almost 100 years to upgrade their capabilities, so their current strength is a complete unknown. And the second is that you seem to be assuming our fleet was lost in combat with an enemy fleet, and that's not the case. It was lost to just one of those monsters,” the Admiral explained.