Empyrean Rises

by Spencer Pierson

  Colleen held her breath, watching as the rocket seemed to arch directly toward her. Time slowed, and her hands clenched tightly on her chair. There was no way anyone could do anything, and then the Komodo lurched to the side as an explosion filled the front screen.

  However, instead of being incinerated, Colleen only heard cursing, and short cries of surprise and alarm before the Komodo righted itself. “Firing!” came a voice from the weapons officer on the bridge. Colleen looked up just in time to see the fireball clear, and the man who had fired the rocket ignited and screamed as he disappeared in a ball of flame from the laser that barely paused as it reduced the man to a pile of ash before melting deep into the metal behind him.

  “That was overkill, but good work Scholz. Get the mini-guns trained on that ship. I don’t want a repeat of what just happened.”

  “Yes, sir,” the weapons officer said.

  A moment later, Nathan called up his security forces that were in the belly of the Komodo. “Gonzales, Riley, Sokolov, get your teams ready for a boarding action. We’ll cover you from the air, but be ready for some resistance.”

  Chapter 14

  Time: May 28, 2036

  Location: 185 miles South of the Coast of Japan

  Gonzales cursed as she ducked behind the corner, then angled her own gun around, using her suits built-in cameras connected to the gun to see what she was shooting at. Firing off several rounds, she watched two of the black-clad crewmen drop to the deck before the last one scrambled back out of the line of fire. She doubted their bullets would have penetrated her armor, but she didn’t want to take the risk.

  She signaled her team to advance, chasing the last man down along the lower deck of the ship, stepping over several bodies that had been taken down earlier. A moment later, she heard, more than saw several intercept missiles scream up from the Komodo. They were heading up into the sky aimed at something higher up in the atmosphere. The Komodo itself rose slightly and then settled over the bulk of the burning, black ship they were currently boarding.

  “Alert,” came a voice over the command line. “Those missiles weren’t targeted on us. They were shooting at the enemy ship,” Nathans' voice said. “We’re going to hover above it to keep those jets from attacking you directly, but speed would be good.”

  “Roger that,” Samantha said, acknowledging the order before switching over to her local group. “Kelly, Johnson, Khalid, move forward. We’re going to have to trust that our armor can handle what they’re throwing at us. The Japanese are firing on the ship. I don’t want to be on it if a missile gets through!”

  Samantha’s squad paused for only a moment before all four of them pushed forward even more aggressively than they already were. Their armor would have been bad enough but coupled with the cloaking device; it was a foregone conclusion that the ship would soon be theirs. However, caution was ingrained into their training, and now they were about to push the limits.

  Khalid reached the doorway that the enemy combatant had ducked into, firing several rounds before pronouncing the area was clear. They had already moved past it, leapfrogging forward and taking out the few combatants that were remaining. Their task was to clear out the main deck areas, while Sokolov worked the lower areas, and Kelly took the bridge.

  “Gonzales, Riley,” came Sokolov’s Russian accented voice. “I’m running into combatants that weren’t killed by us. They look self-inflicted. Do you think they have some sort of self-destruct on board?”

  “I wouldn’t put it past them, but I think they would have triggered it by now,” Kelly said, breathing heavy from running. “The Bridge is clear. They put up a fight, but they’re all down. No one surrendered. Keep on keeping on.”

  Several minutes later, the last bullet was fired as Samantha found the last survivor working on something toward the rear of the ship. As she opened the door, the man reached for a gun and turned, angling to fire at her, but she got off her three shots far too fast. The man jerked from each bullet that pierced him, then collapsed. As she stepped further into the room, her eyes grew huge.

  There was a dull grey console that had half been melted by one of the lasers as it tore through the ship. Clearly marked on the front underneath a large red button were several Japanese characters, but it might as well have been in English. She had found the self-destruct button.

  They had been fortunate. It looked like they had melted the connection to the actual explosives which the man had been feverishly trying to repair. There was a panel open, with several wires hanging out. Activating the command channel, she let out a breath. “I found the self-destruct device. We damaged it in our attack, and they were trying to repair it. I think it’s safe now, but I’m going to leave Kelly and Khalid here to make sure no one sneaks in to finish the job.”

  “Good job, Gonzales,” Nathan said. “Sokolov found a lot of our equipment below deck. It was being sorted and categorized though it looks like they destroyed all of their data banks and fried their computers. I doubt we’ll get anything out of this mess.”

  “At least there’s no melting gas,” Samantha said, bitterly. “That’s not something I want ever to see again.” She was just about to sign off when she looked down at the dead man at her feet, seeing a tattoo on the inside of the man’s wrist. Bending down, she pulled the sleeve back, exposing the dark mark which she didn’t recognize.

  “What are you looking at, Gonzales?” Nathan asked, watching her helmet cam.

  “I don’t know, sir. It looks like seven squiggly lines converging on a circle in the center. Could be some sort of mark or organization?”

  Nathan frowned, nodding though he knew Gonzales couldn’t see him do so. “Could be. Bring that man back, and keep an eye out for any other tattoo’s. It might be nothing, but at this point, we’ve been coming up empty. I’m sending over more crew to begin retrieving all of our stuff, along with anything else we can gather from this ship. We can keep the jets off, but there are some navy ships heading our way. We’ve only got an hour to make it count.”

  “Will do, Sir,” Samantha said. She turned to Kelly and Khalid to take stations before directing Johnson to help pick the man up so they could transport him to the massive carrier. They carried the body toward one of several anti-gravity platforms that were lowering from the great ship and were currently filled with several armored personnel and transport equipment.

  After the body had been loaded, she ordered Johnson to stand guard and escort the body back to the Komodo before turning back to help with the ship. At least the Japanese jets had stopped trying to waste their missiles and were currently just circling at a distance, keeping an eye on what was happening below.

  Nathan turned his attention back to making sure the Komodo stayed over the black ship, protecting what he hoped might be some clues as to who the shadow organization was. They wouldn’t be able to take the ship back, even with the power of the Komodo. It would be slow, and they were needed to tow the Mary Eliza back, but they would strip every piece of information they could, leaving an empty hulk for the Japanese to find.

  “Sir,” the communications officer said, turning to him. “We just received a report from Tiger three. They found Doctor Harken and two children, alive and well.”

  Nathan took a deep breath before responded. “Some good news, at least. Send my respects to Tiger Three. Tell them we’ll be back as soon as we can. In the meantime, try to determine if the Mary Eliza will be sound enough to tow by the time we get back.”

  “Yes, sir,” the tech said, turning around to transmit the message.

  ***

  “This is an act of war! I demand that you surrender that floating ship of yours immediately, along with everyone aboard to stand trial!” screamed Akihiko Fushima, his face red and spittle hitting the camera screen. Alex remained impassive, watching the man lose self-control, though he doubted it was real. These professional politicians were anything if not artful in their craft.

  “We were chasing pirates, Mr. Fushima,” Alex said
evenly. “Pirates, I might add, that killed in cold blood several hundred civilians and hospital patients, many Japanese nationals, before stealing everything they could get their hands on. They also set several explosives on the ship which would have sunk the vessel if we hadn’t interrupted their attack.”

  “Fabrications and lies!” Mr. Fushima yelled. “This is crossing the line, Mr. Drake. You’ll regret violating Japanese airspace. I’ll have the entire international community up in arms about this!”

  “Will you now?” Alex said, leaning back in his chair. “Even after we show this black ship sitting right next to the Mary Eliza as it is on fire? And firing missiles at our relief ship? How about when we show your clearly marked Japanese Aircraft firing on that same black ship after we’d disabled it?”

  “You can’t prove that!” Mr. Fushima snarled.

  “I can and I will. It won’t be a difficult thing to show the telemetry of the missiles your jets fired. The public might not be able to interpret it, but I assure you, every countries military will be able to tell who you were firing at,” Alex leaned forward, his eyes suddenly flashing. “If you are behind these attacks. If your country is supporting these murderers, I assure you, you will regret ever taking their side, Mr. Fushima!”

  Mr. Fushima’s eyes flashed back, his lip curling up into a snarl. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but if you don’t comply. If you don’t surrender this ship to us, we’ll have the full might of the Japanese navy on your doorstep within a week. We’ll see how you like being bombarded into oblivion! Your little underwater city won’t save you, either!”

  “We’re taking our property back from the pirates, Mr. Fushima, and there is little you can do about it. You aren’t going to be able to stop us from finding out who these people work for, but I am sad to say its seeming more and more like your people are behind these attacks. I might just have to release this footage to the world on principle, along with other information we have available.” Alex frowned, then pushed a button, displaying a file for the Japanese diplomat. It showed seven snakes with their noses pointed inwards around a circle. “Out of curiosity, have you ever seen this symbol before, Mr. Fushima?”

  The Japanese man’s face froze, going completely motionless. His mask of rage melting off of his face like ice in the desert. A moment later, the signal from the Japanese embassy was lost, leaving Alex shaking his head.

  Chapter 15

  Time: June 6, 2036

  Location: Gateway Station, Mid-Earth Orbit

  “Charming man, isn’t he?” General Solmon said, grinning after watching the replay of the video with Mr. Fushima. The general had the stub of a cigar in his mouth, working it in his teeth though it remained unlit. Alex wondered if the man just enjoyed them for the image.

  Admiral Christopher C Roland sat next to him, nodding sagely. A few years ago the Admiral would have been strapped to a wheelchair, his wasted frame unable to move due to the accident that had left him paralyzed, but today, the man could move under his own power. He still had some difficulty walking, but he was no longer the scarecrow he once was, and in addition to that, he now had a purpose he could believe in. “There are some other words I’d use to describe him.”

  Alex, who sat across the desk where he’d most recently been talking to the Japanese diplomat, nodded in agreement. “How much trouble do you think he can make for us?”

  Admiral Roland frowned. “Don’t make that mistake, Doctor Drake,” he said, still sticking to the soft formality the man seemed to find more comfort in then familiarity. “It’s not him who we should be worried about, but whoever is pulling his strings. He is just the hand waving in our face, trying to distract us from the real enemy. He is the least of our worries. We need to keep watching the shadows.”

  “Agreed,” General Solmon said. “I think we’ve managed to shake them a little, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. I managed to get some information on that symbol while you were talking, Alex. ” He gestured for Benjamin, his DPA, to float forward and display a file for all three of them to see. A moment later, a hologram of the same symbol Alex had displayed for the Japanese diplomat appeared. “It’s one of the symbols for a supposedly extinct organization called the Society of Seven Serpents which made its first appearance in Germany in the fifteen hundreds. They were tied in with financial institutions, but so far, we’ve not found much else.”

  “It had to be snakes,” Alex said with a faint smile, remembering a favorite movie quote, but his face quickly resumed its serious tone. “I hope you can find something, general. These people have managed to avoid us for years. We’ve had losses, but never something like this. They are getting bolder.”

  “It could be in retaliation for what we did to their base in Brazil,” Admiral Roland said. “Either way, I’m going to recommend that we pull back our hospital ships,” he said. “We don’t have enough assets to cover the remaining six ships and protect Empyrean island, our undersea colonies, and keep up our launch schedule of materials into orbit.”

  “Which are you more worried about?” General Solmon asked.

  “Atlantis, though any of the undersea bases could be the next target. That city is the one most people would recognize, and it’s fairly close to Empyrean island,” Admiral Roland said. “It would be my target, and they’ve seen our ability to take out their missiles. They might think they have a better chance with the underwater ordinance.”

  General Solmon grunted his agreement. “I’ll get some data on any military movements around or toward any of our underwater cities, or Empyrean. I am hoping Mr. Fushima was bluffing, but we’re not going to take that chance. We should be able to see anything coming with our entangled graviton scanners.”

  “Have they come up with a better name for that, yet?” Admiral Roland asked. “It’s quite a mouthful.”

  Alex nodded. “The pool from our department heads came back, and most of them voted for EGS sensors.”

  “Well, that’s going to become eggs real quick,” General Solmon said with a smirk.

  Admiral Roland grimaced, realizing the General was right. The military and their penchant for jargon were going to have a field day with the new sensor’s name, but sometimes that could help quick adaptation. Besides, the sensors were amazing, letting them get detailed information that was only dreamed of in science fiction. Even at long ranges in space, it would halve the time it might take for information to come to them since it didn’t work by reflection, but by reading what happened to the entangled gravitons that would interact with whatever they encountered since their twin was retained within the sensor array.

  Alex watched the two military men, mystified at their interaction but letting them have their moment. Eggs would be just fine, as long as the capability worked, which it did. A moment later, he leaned forward, getting their attention. “I think we need to expand our operations on Gateway and the moon, with plans to be on Mars sooner rather than later. I’m getting tired of our people being under threat by this Seven Serpents group as well as the rest of the world. Even if Japan isn’t part of it, which I doubt, that they feel confident enough in their position to threaten us directly makes me very nervous.”

  General Solmon exchanged glances with the admiral before responding. “Even if we moved everything off the planet, they’d still get people on the inside and cause damage. Whenever you involve people, some can be turned or used. Besides, we’ll always have personnel rotating on and off of Earth.”

  “I know, but it should get them away from their power base and make it harder to reach us. Space is our playground, and they won’t have nearly as many options there as we will.”

  Admiral Roland nodded. “That is very true. We already have the Skytigers which are fully space capable, and I’m sure the Komodo startled them today. Something the size of a destroyer flying through the air is bound to make waves. Once their analysts get ahold of the images, they’ll figure out fairly quickly it’s probably space capable as well. On top of that, the shi
pyard on Gateway should have our first inner planet patrol ship ready soon.”

  “I bet you’ll be glad to have a fleet to oversee,” Alex said.

  Admiral Roland cracked a smile. “Well, I wouldn’t call it a fleet yet, but it’s a start. With the Peary station on the moon beginning to produce workable material, we’ll have the Iron Ring shipyard we’re building completed in no time.”

  “And we’re sure that it’s well hidden?” Alex asked.

  “Yes. It’s out beyond the moon’s rotation, and hidden by the bulk of the moon itself,” Admiral Roland said. “It will allow us to build larger ships without risking alienating the world’s nations further than we already have. We can also use Atlantis to build some of the ships destined for mars. I wanted to wait for Iron Ring to come online, but we can do just as good a job down here, and large transport ships won’t cause nearly the commotion as warships.”

  “In light of the recent happenings, I’d like to suggest we send Major Adamson as one of the main principles of the Mars settlement,” General Solmon said.

  “Nathan?” Alex asked, surprised at the suggestion. Nathan was a solid asset, and he’d run Empyrean security for many years. Alex wasn’t sure how he felt about a man he’d grown to depend on being so far away, though, in reality, it would only take a month to return, even at the farthest orbit. General Solmon had done a stellar job of taking over, but he was nervous there might be some professional jealousy. “Care to expand on your reasoning?”

  General Solmon squinted, then shook his head. “It’s not what you think. Nathan is a top notch man and is a great team player. This is to protect him. He’ll be high profile after having been in the middle of this Japanese incident, and I’m betting they send assassins after him. This will get him off the planet for a year or two, and he’ll be able to keep your sister in check out there.”