It had been decided early on that launching dead Humans into the voids of space was a bad idea. There were hostiles out there and any information we could keep from them would be an advantage that we could take away. The initial suggestion of sending them towards the closest star had been met with grumbles, so the Earth's sun was the only alternative offered.
My attentions and thoughts were soon directed solely towards the Por Hollis. I had given orders for much of the Borten fleet to be upgraded with many of our technologies. Their factories were quickly being refitted and their ships evaluated for the updates. Redundant systems of overrides were built into each ship that would allow us the option of disabling or destroying them if they were to fall into enemy hands. The senior staff on each ship would also be made up of Humans.
The Por Hollis factories continued to churn out Black Pearl ships at an ever increasing rate. The commands were soon given for the destroyers to launch half of their Driller compliment from behind the closest planet. It was hoped that the production could be stopped or at least the rate of production slowed if it was known that the enemy was nearby.
When the launch came we had 800 Drillers sling-shot around a far rocky planet in the Hollis system, they drifted silently towards the large space based factory. I was stunned when the Drillers were met with little to no resistance. More than 700 of them disappeared into their target.
The massive factory under assault was soon showing signs of its attackers. Surface explosions were followed up by a dark cloud of maintenance ships converging on the damage. For three days we watched as the output of the immense factory ground to a halt. Once again the Drillers had shown their worth.
But the damage they had caused was short lived. And as the number of Drillers began to drop offline, the factory slowly restarted its production. Orders were given to launch the remaining Drillers and another 800 were soon doing their dirty-work to the insides of the alien factory. The damage was repaired in half the time and the factory soon returned to full production.
We had hoped to stir the Black Pearl ships into action, but they had not moved from their stationary position. An entire fleet was then sent with orders to once again launch a Driller attack with half of the Drillers targeting the Black Pearl ships. The 11th fleet departed within the hour.
When the Drillers were launched they numbered close to 250,000. But the Por Hollis were waiting this time and the Black Pearl ships were put to use. The entire cube shape, made up of more than two million Black Pearls, moved as one unit. The same orange field generated by the globe ships was soon spread across the exterior ships, but with intensity far above what we had seen from the globe ships.
In addition, the cube shape began to spin. When the first of the Drillers encountered the orange field they were immediately overwhelmed and destroyed. The microscopic black holes that were generated were of little use against a shield that was continuously moving in a perpendicular direction. Moments later the massive Black Pearl cube was heading towards the rocky planet that concealed the 11th fleet.
The order was given to power up all ships and move away, but the cube already had the advantage of momentum. Instead of going around the small rocky planet it proceeded in a direct line from where it had begun, slicing nearly a third of the planet away as it passed.
I screamed at my monitor for the fleet to move, but our decision had come too late. As the fleet ships accelerated the spinning cube caught up to those who were last to leave. I watched in anguish as one ship after another was overwhelmed and disintegrated by the glowing orange field.
Two thirds of the 11th fleet had been annihilated before our speed advantage finally came into play. Our three battleships had survived, but most of the cruisers and destroyers had not been so lucky. We had lost 80,000 Marines, 32,000 crewmen and more than 100 ships without inflicting any damage.
We knew what the enemy had to offer in terms of their offensive and defensive capabilities, it was weaponry and shields that we did not have a counter for. I ordered that our efforts to unlock the secrets of the globe ships be redoubled and was told that the order had already been forwarded.
I paced the bridge and then sat in my command chair for hours replaying the video of the spinning cube as it tore through the rocky planet and then through our retreating fleet. I wondered how a race could command such power and deliver it with such precision. I soon got a reason why.
At the center of the globe ships was a small chamber. It was theorized by our science teams that the chamber at one time contained a continuous black hole, possibly only the size of a pea. But the power contained by a black hole, even of that small size, was immense. They had only learned of the chambers existence by following magnetically shielded conduits from the ships surface down to the chamber.
There was no evidence of the black hole that had once powered each of the globe ships and our scientists and engineers could find no machinery or any other evidence of how the pea sized black holes had been created. It was speculated that the space factories around the Por Hollis system were somehow producing or initiating the black holes and that we would have to seek any further answers there.
Word soon went out that a team of BGS Marines were needed for a dangerous mission. They would be sent drifting for weeks in an attempt to get them on-board the Por Hollis space factory. And there would be no return trip planned for their rescue. It was a one-way ticket into a hostile environment.
I knew Zack was back on duty and I was worried that it would be the kind of mission he would volunteer for. His sons would no doubt volunteer with him. I sent out a directive that volunteers should first be sought among those with no families. I knew it was an edict that would anger him and many others, but it was a mission that I felt was far too risky. Within an hour he was requesting to speak with me.
We talked for a while and in the end I lifted the edict. He was right. The war was to be fought by all of us, with each individual equally at risk on any given mission. When the roster came out Zack's name was on the top of the list. I would not stand in the way of his volunteering, but I could change the mission.
I had decided that we needed a recon team to land on the planet and to infiltrate a spaceport to see where they led. Our earlier thoughts of a species living underground still needed to be answered. The factory mission was as saboteurs while the planet mission was only recon. Although likely equally as dangerous, I hoped the one without planned hostilities would be less of a suicide mission. The teams were briefed and headed to their launch point within a few hours.
Our factories back home had been cranking out Starburst modules. Orders were given to bring as many to the front lines as possible. The first shipment was expected any day. The plan was to send a Starburst at the massive cube of Black Pearls with the hope that it would cause enough of a distraction for our BGS squads to be launched.
The squads would have to drift for 26 days from a drop-off point far behind the almost half sized rocky planet. One team was designated to target the factory while Zack's team would land on the planet. Neither mission was given a high chance of success by our planners.
On the day of the launch I paced the bridge with purpose. I had clashed with my planners repeatedly when I attempted to micro-manage the missions. It was their specialty, not mine, and I needed to give them the space they required to make the missions a success. Again, the adrenaline was flowing through my veins giving the medical computer in my suit a workout. I had prohibited the calming agents that it would have normally administered.
Word soon came that the teams were ready and the Starburst was directed at the cube from the opposite side of the Por Hollis system. As it screamed towards the cube the massive machine began to glow and spin. The cube next moved rapidly towards the incoming Starburst module and for a moment we feared that the Starburst would not activate in time. Hidden in the Starburst cone were a dozen Drillers.
As the cube sped towards the Starburst our Marines were launched to begin their 26 day drift. I wa
s soon thinking of the first times we had used the tactic when fighting the Kurtz so many years before. So much had happened since that fateful day when I had been taken captive. Billions of people had passed-on due to the ensuing wars and famine, the Earth had undergone tremendous upheavals and the Human Empire spanned five star systems with eight populated planets, although one of the planets had become uninhabitable.
With only a half second left the Starburst activated and the dozen Drillers following behind slipped inside the protection of its cone. When the orange field came in contact with the overcompensated black holes of the cone, its affect was nullified. Moments later the Drillers were loose inside the giant shield.
The great cube of Black Pearl ships continued to spin as it turned back towards the Por Hollis factories and planets. One of the Drillers had been equipped with a QE comm pair and we all watched intently on our monitors as it ripped into the first ship and began to gut it. Ten minutes later it left the ship and continued on to another. From the data we were receiving it appeared that all 12 Drillers were doing exactly what they were designed to do.
As soon as the second dozen ships were infected the massive cube countered our attack. The dozen already gutted ships along with the newly infested ones were ejected from the matrix, out into space beyond the shielding of the orange glow. When the first Driller exited its newly gutted ship and headed back towards the cube it was summarily destroyed by the brilliant orange shield.
Our attack at first appeared to have been wildly successful. But again our enemies learned fast and quickly countered any success we had. I wondered if we had wasted a first strike strategy in our attempt to occupy our enemy’s attention. Had we waited and attacked with 50,000 Starbursts and half a million Drillers would we have been able to successfully defeat the cube before the ejection strategy was brought into play? It was a question that would never have an answer.
Our Marine squads had been adrift for more than three weeks. I pulled Zack's QE comm up on my monitor and we talked to pass the time. I did not want to admit it, but the time I had spent with him ignited a bit of the old flame. He was happily married and I would do nothing to break that up, but it felt good to once again have a few stirrings of those feelings. It was something that had been sorely missing in my life.
As the days of drifting continued I spent time reviewing my command structure and handing out promotions. Two new fleets were heading our way and the repairs of our damaged ships were nearly complete. I was a bit uneasy with the upgrades we were doing to the Borten ships. I wanted them involved in the fight so they could also lay claim to being a valued member of the HE.
But the Borten were a race that I did not trust. Their leader seemed too eager to please which told me he would easily sell out to the highest bidder. I didn't want our own technologies to be used against us if the Borten once again decided to change sides. With the power of the cube it was a risk we were going to have to live with. The Por Hollis looked to have a formidable force and we would need whatever firepower we could muster. Even if some of it was only to be used as cannon fodder.
I sat in my chair contemplating the world and all the events that swirled around us. My elbow was set on the chair arm and a balled fist stuck up under my chin. My muscular face had its usual scowl on it as my staff walked hurriedly past. The waiting game was the worst.
Chapter 12
The BGS team assaulting the space factory was the first to arrive. The 13 members of FT184 were soon on-board the massive floating factory with orders to shut it down. When word came that they had all landed without incident an entire fleet’s contingent of Marines was ordered to follow. It would be another 26 days before they arrived, but with the immense size of the structure the planners felt a full out assault was needed.
I watched on my monitor as Master Sergeant Eric Von Pelt led his team at the space factory through bulkhead after bulkhead. They were attempting to move as deeply into the factory as they could before beginning any hostilities. His thoughts while drifting inward were that it might be easier, psychologically, to fight their way out rather than fight their way in. The risk was equally as high either way.
When they drifted through the 14th bulkhead they came into a cavernous assembly area. It spanned 12 kilometers and was easily two kilometers high by 20 kilometers long. At least 18 Black Pearl ships were in various stages of construction on the line. My staff was going nuts with the volume of intel coming in on our screens. Plans on how best to shut the line down were immediately put in the works.
The Black Pearls were constructed starting with a rigid frame that resembled the lines on a basketball. Six large tubes ran from the surface to the center of the ship, supported by the framework. Thousands of human sized robots were busy welding and otherwise riveting the framework together.
At the second stage of production the innermost sections of the ship were being assembled. We reasoned that it was the power source and control works for the continuous black hole that would at some point be active in its containment field.
As the ships moved down the line entire sections were moved in and integrated, again by thousands of worker robots. At the final stage of assembly the ship received the gloss black skin plating that had given it its name.
When fully assembled, the ship was moved into a chamber with a massive door. The order soon went out to investigate the chamber at the earliest possible time. If the chamber was where the ship received its continuous black hole it would be a critical point for an assault. Without the black hole the Black Pearls were nothing but another piece of space junk.
When Von Pelt and his team drifted through the next bulkhead they were in a chamber full of supplies. They used the opportunity to change directions towards the final chamber. Several minutes later they were drifting into area with the newest one kilometer Black Pearl.
With another BHD micro-burst they were soon inside the ship and powering down their active skins to their normal combat level. The outer rooms of the Black Pearls appeared to be lined with thousands of stasis chambers. Two person teams were soon put together and sent down corridors in opposite directions. The teams made their way through the ship, mapping rooms as they went.
It took nearly half an hour before the first team made it to the innermost control room. My planners became concerned that there were no other beings on-board the newly constructed vessel. And for that matter, we still had yet to see exactly what a Por Hollis looked like.
The team was busy analyzing the control panels in the room when the great ship began to vibrate and shudder. One of the displays in the room showed the exterior of the ship where a blue glow was beginning to move as little fingers across the glossy black surface. The fingers soon turned into arcs and the team was ordered to set their BGS suits back to full.
The blue arcs turned to green flames and the green flames soon after into orange bolts that were being pushed into the six magnetically shielded conduits that we had seen being installed at the first stage of the assembly line. The orange bolts continued to grow in intensity until they became a continuous field of blinding orange plasma.
The stats on our team’s suits began to show that their shield levels were rising and at the same time power was being drained from their power-packs at an alarming rate. Von Pelt ordered the team to micro-burst out before things got worse.
The orange glow continued to intensify and the ship continued to shake. Seconds later the team exited the ship into the sealed chamber surrounding it. Just as they were about to reach the wall of the chamber a bright white light shot out from it towards the ship. Their suit parameters shot to full and in an instant they were vaporized. The glow turned white hot. With one final burst the white plasma was sucked down the conduits into the black hole containment chamber. Another squad of 13 brave Marines had perished.
We had 310,000 BGS Marines adrift, heading for the factory. Again, the days of waiting were agonizing. The factory was as big in volume as a small moon, only spread out over a wide flat
tened area. On one end the stream of construction resources were continuously ferried in while on the other end the Black Pearl ships floated out, soon joining the ever expanding matrix.
When the Marines arrived at the factory they drifted aboard without incident. The orders were to avoid the plasma chamber and to instead seek out the power sources that kept the vast factory running. With the headcount aboard the space factory we hoped to be shutting it down within the hour. That's when plans changed.
The Marine teams had high yield explosive devices with them that could be placed, with timed detonators, in the areas needed to stop the production. Then, depending on the intel received from the planet’s surface, they would be diverted to the planet or sent floating back into space for eventual pickup. I watched the video feed on my monitor as a squad planted and armed an ED with the timer set for 16 hours.
Zack's team, in position on the planet's surface, was asked for a briefing as soon as possible. They would be arriving at the first spaceport just after nightfall. First, they would drift below the planet's surface where they would fire micro-bursts with their BHDs. They would then make their way into the nearest spaceport to begin their recon mission. If the spaceport proved a worthy target the BGS battalion would be redirected for an assault.
As the mission progressed I soon found myself pacing back and forth on the bridge, the current video feed was broadcast to the mammoth screen for the entire deck. Our squads were moving about at will, undetected by our foe. We had yet to see an alien being. Everything was being run by autonomous robots.
When Zack's team reached the spaceport my heart was racing from the excitement. Our first looks again revealed only the mechanized workers moving about. The spaceport was a mine and the robotic workers were busy loading containers of some sort of ore onto a waiting vessel. A quick analysis told us that the planet was nothing more than a giant mine with its resources being used by the space factory to build the Black Pearls.
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