Dreamscape Saga Part 1: Project Falcon

by D. L. Sorrells

  “Are they Confederate?”

  “Yes, sir, it appears so.”

  “A prototype?”

  “No, we don’t believe it is. Keep in mind of course that all of our technology is dated from a good thirty years ago. However, there was something in there we found that may be of even further interest that hasn’t even reached the prototype phase.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s a weapon sir, a turret to be exact. We haven’t looked too far into it, but we believe it to be incredibly powerful.”

  Frost’s curiosity was more than piqued. “Just how powerful are we talking about? Is it like a new version of the heavy turrets on cruisers?”

  There was a brief pause. “No sir. A cruiser couldn’t carry it. Even if it had the physical capability, which even that would take considerable modifications, it wouldn’t come close to the energy requirements.”

  “What were they planning to put it on?”

  “We don’t know sir. It may be set up for planetary defense. That’s the nearest we can figure.” The man allowed Frost a moment to digest the information before continuing. “We have an incredible opportunity here. From what we can tell, they haven’t sent the design to anyone else.”

  “Are you telling me that--?”

  “Yes, sir. If we take people out of this facility as prisoner and then take them off the influence of the serum, there is a slight chance they would remember what they’ve learned here.”

  The greatest thing about Sykes’ leadership was his ability to persuade. In so short a time, he convinced everyone that the reason they fought was more than justified. “A man that does not live in freedom never really lives!” he had proclaimed over and over. He used that same logic to justify killing anyone who stood in their way because, ultimately, even most civilians were under at least some form of control.

  Even so, the Lieutenant understood that the only way they could ever dream of a victory against the billions of people under the control of the Confederacy was to take prisoners. Odd as it seemed, Frost held onto a quiet belief that, ultimately, the Order controlled these people in much the same way as the Confederacy. They may not use injections and brainwashing, but they still used propaganda and mob logic. If that was the only way to obtain victory, could it be justified? Maybe only time would tell. That was his only hope.

  “Soldier, was there something else down here?”

  “Yes, sir. We found a facility off to the other side here. We don’t know what it is exactly. Inside there are a bunch of men lying on the dreamscape beds. Most are dead. From what we could see, there was only one alive in there. In the next room, there are several hundred computers in what appears to be a lab. Beyond that, there is another room with three men lying on the dreamscape beds. One is dead, one is barely alive, and the third seems to be perfectly healthy.”

  “What kind of a lab is it?”

  “Sir, I’m afraid we don’t know. If I had to guess, I would say that it’s a genetics research lab, based on the little bit of information I was able to see on the data disks, but I couldn’t say for sure.”

  Frost stood for a moment with a heavy heart. So many had already died and beyond a single door, there were more. If he was to be perfectly honest with himself, his stomach couldn’t stand to see any more dead bodies. “Have your team gather all survivors and gather information from the computers in there. I’ll lead a salvage team into the next room to retrieve the information about the weapon and the fighters.”

  The Lieutenant got on his radio, “Campbell, come in.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “Order the demolition team to initiate start-up procedures. Send a flight-capable company down here. We have an undetermined number of fighters we need to fly out. Also, send in an intelligence team to extract information from data disks, priority one.”

  In no time at all, everything was stripped from the facility, and Lieutenant Frost found himself back on his troop transport, which was now filled with people he didn’t know. Far below, the power generators let out a viscous scream that could be heard high into the atmosphere. As the generators were intentionally overloaded, they burst into flames and exploded into a ball of fire that engulfed everything in a giant wave.

  As his ship lifted into the sky, Frost and his men looked down at the destroyed Gentech Research colony. The attack resulted in their first victory against Confederate forces. As they rose, they felt the Order rise with them.

  Chapter Five

  Sykes awoke with a sense of exhilaration. Regardless of whatever anyone might say about him, he had just led the Order to an incredible victory. For the loss of only a couple hundred men, they gained almost twenty thousand. For the loss of a few squadrons of fighters, they gained one hundred and thirty new and improved ones. Beyond all that, they gained the blueprints for a weapon whose destructive power they could only begin to imagine.

  Walking through the dimly lit halls of the Mobile Space Station, Sykes could only imagine what would be said about the victory. In his head, the battle resulted in only good things. Still, there were losses, and he was afraid that some of the other council members planned to use that against him. He knew he would have to answer for his lack of preparation against threats that were only discovered after the battle began.

  The battle, despite the overwhelming victory, shook the council leader tremendously. The way the Confederate soldiers fought was incredibly intimidating. Had the Order not been able to overwhelm them in sheer numbers, there was almost no doubt that they would have lost the battle on the ground.

  Sykes continued out of the habitat sphere and into the engineering section of the station. Every time he made this passage, it nauseated him. On the habitat sphere, the motion of the structure created gravity. On the engineering decks, it was created artificially using a series of magnetic fields. The difference between the two may not have much of an effect on the actually weight of a person, but the two types pulled on objects differently.

  Taking a few more minutes than necessary, William Sykes made his way to the lift that would take him to the war room, where he and the other councilmen would discuss the battle. No matter what happened, he knew he had to remain in control. The lift came to a stop and he stepped through the doors and into the room.

  “Councilman Sykes, you’re late,” snapped Gina Kerrigan.

  Sykes felt his skin grow hot, but forced a smile, “My apologies to the Council. I am afraid that my duties took a while longer than anticipated. Surely all here can relate to such setbacks.”

  “Perhaps,” Kerrigan sneered, “but the fact of the matter is that we were all here on time, regardless of our duties, as this is the highest of priorities. Surely you, as the council leader, should be held to a higher standard?”

  Grieves spoke in his deep, raspy voice, “Let’s stay on topic. We have far too much to discuss with concerns to this war.”

  Kerrigan stood angrily. “There is no war. If there is, who here condoned it? I certainly didn’t, and I would love to see in the minutes where a war has been declared.”

  “I don’t care what you call it. Ultimately, we are fighting the Confederacy for our right to survive. In the history books, they’ll call it a war. We may as well get used to the idea,” Clayton whispered in her usual steady way.

  Kerrigan’s volume won out.

  “Until it’s been voted upon, this shall not be considered a war. It’s a conflict and that’s all. We are fighting for the right to survive and nothing more. We do not have the assumed right to declare war.”

  Sykes rolled his eyes and looked at her bitterly. “We don’t have the right to declare war, but we have the right to commit acts of war? The latest of which even you voted in favor of?

  “There are many things we could sit here and argue about,” Sykes continued, “but the fact of the matter is that we have committed our first act of war against the Confederation and it was an incredible victory.”

  “Incredible? How?” Kerrigan spat out the
words as though they were a poison in her mouth, “You do realize that we lost over two hundred men, right? And what about resources? Do you realize how many fighters we lost? These are incredible grievances that we have to deal with. How can you sit there and call this a victory?”

  “Because that’s how a battle works, Gina. You pit your men and resources against the men and resources of the opposing force and try to make sure you lose as few of your people as possible while taking out as many of theirs as you can.”

  “And you consider two hundred men a few people?”

  “No, that’s a devastating loss. But we sent thousands to fight on the ground, and thousands more fought above the planet. When you consider those numbers, two hundred is a nominal figure.”

  “You do understand that those are people don’t you? You can’t put a price on their lives.”

  “You’re right there. However, they can. They fought because they believed in what they were fighting for. They were fighting for freedom and they died for their cause,” Sykes said. “They were out there because they agreed to fight. While I understand your sentiment, there’s a reason they say that war is hell. People have to die for the process to move forward. If you honestly feel that the Confederacy would let us all go free if you just went and talked to them, then by all means, I would love to prepare a transport for you. We all know that isn’t going to happen.

  “You must look at the brighter side of things in the name of those who died. Look at what they accomplished, not what they lost. We now have almost twenty thousand people freed that are currently being integrated into our group. That twenty thousand people could have lived and died like mindless slaves down there. We have a handful of new fighters that are the very top of the line. With those, we can transform our current fleet to compete with the newer technology of the Confederacy, ultimately saving hundreds, if not thousands, of lives in the process. Is that not worth the lives of two hundred people? I know it sounds cold, and I’m not saying that there should be no sentiment of sadness and remorse shared on an individual level. Leading the resistance, we have to look at it from a much larger standpoint. Two hundred lives for what we gained is a bargain.”

  For a moment, the council stayed silent. Even though several disagreed, they couldn’t help but appreciate the fervor with which it was spoken.

  Atkins raised his hand awkwardly into the air.

  “Yes, Richard?”

  “I’ve been informed that there was a discovery on the surface in one of the research labs. What exactly was found?”

  Grieves smiled broadly, straightening his wrinkled skin in many places across his face, “Would you object if I were to explain this, William?”

  Sykes shared a similar expression on his face. If anything was going to convince the council of a victory, then this would be it. “No, not at all. Please, Thomas, enlighten us.”

  “It would seem that William’s instincts were better than we could have hoped in this case. In one of the two research labs found under the surface of the primary facility, there was a weapon being produced. The likes of which could change the course of this… dispute with the Confederation. Now, there are three types of energy turrets. However, imagine a turret so powerful that it could destroy a fully armed and shielded destroyer in a single shot. Before, such ability was laughable at best, but now, we have the plans to produce it.”

  Rosenberg’s mouth dropped. “What is it?”

  “Well, it doesn’t have a name, but our engineers are calling it a Super Turret. We believe it was designed for planetary defense because the Confederation has long since put any ships capable of carrying it out of commission. If it were a grounded weapon, it would cause considerable damage to the atmosphere of any planet. Even as a planetary defense device, the weapon is simply too big for practical use, but we believe we have the perfect way to utilize it.”

  Rosenberg still had a dumbstruck look on his face. “If the Confederation doesn’t have the ability to utilize it, how do we?”

  “Well, you’re sitting in it. To the best of our knowledge, this vessel is the largest ship of any fleet in the galaxy. With a little time and effort, we could turn this vessel into an incredible weapon with unlimited capability. Just think of what an advantage we would have.”

  “I don’t believe we need to think about it,” Kerrigan said, “The fact of the matter is that we are in this for the long haul, and we simply do not have the resources for creating a weapon we know almost nothing about. What if we create it and it blows the ship up? What then? Think about all that we have that could be lost and ask yourself if the weapon would be worth it.”

  Sykes had to shut her up and decided to do so with a power move. “Alright, let’s put it to a vote then. All those for attempting to build the device on the station, please voice your opinion now. For those against, feel free to object.”

  Around the table, red and green lights glowed, showing who was for and against the project. Sadly, the vote was four to four meaning the project would not be carried through. Sykes felt as though an arrow had just pierced his heart. In his mind, he had helped to discover a weapon that could bring the Confederacy to its knees, but the development was blocked by a tied vote.

  From the very beginning, Sykes saw Kerrigan as a rival, and she only added to that sentiment at each meeting. Her incessant objections to his ideas wore thin, and his conscience allowed his mind to wander to places no man should consider.

  Instead of reacting upon his horrible desires, Sykes tried his best to move the conversation forward. “Very well, before we consider the construction of the weapon I will have a team of engineers consider the design and run basic tests. When I feel they have made considerable progress, I will again present the prospect to the council.

  “In the meantime, we have another issue to discuss. As many of you understand, we have obtained many new men after our raid on the research colony. Even though we have the capability to house them for a short while, we are faced with the prospect of running out of room if we make another raid, no matter how small it may be. Therefore, we need to begin exploring options of expansion. Grieves and I have spoken on multiple occasions about the possibility of using the space station to build up our fleet.”

  Rosenberg leaned forward cautiously onto the table, as if he was testing waters he knew were too cold. “I hope you won’t take me as a pessimist, but where are we going to get the resources to build new ships? As it stands, we barely have enough material to repair the ships we have.”

  Grieves stood up and pointed to a holographic display shown in brilliant color over the center of the table. “Currently, you are correct. We have nowhere near enough supplies to build new ships. However, a relatively short distance away, we have discovered a large shipping line that is heavily trafficked. All we would have to do is send in a frigate with a handful of fighters. The fighters would disable the head of the ship, leaving it unable to communicate with anyone. From there, we use the frigate to tow the cargo vessel to a safe location. At that time, we have a few more frigates cut apart the cargo ship. They then jump out of there with their assigned segments.”

  “What sort of casualties are we looking at?” asked Rosenberg.

  Sykes said, “Presumably, there would be no casualties. The cargo ships are large and slow, with only minimal defenses. We have a huge upper hand at the moment, because the Confederation still isn’t expecting a large resistance. If we can manage to get in and get out, there is only a minimal threat of detection. With the acquired goods, we could build several ships of different classes.”

  Kerrigan couldn’t help herself. “Are you telling us that we are to become pirates? If we carry out this attack, then we’re going to fuel the desire to do it again and again. Is this really what we want?”

  “Yes,” whispered Clayton. “It’s what we have to be and what we have to do. If pirating gives us the resources to ultimately mount an effective coup of the Confederation, then I say we do it. However, we should keep the primary f
leet as far away from this mess as possible. If something were to go awry, I would hate to see all hopes of the Order crushed.”

  “Agreed. Even if we’re not to consider this an official war, we are in this for freedom,” Atkins said. “Not just for ourselves, but for as many people as we can possibly reach. I personally find the idea of piracy deplorable, but if it’s what is necessary, then I feel we need to do it. After all, this is being done in the best interests of the Order. We started this organization to rid the Confederation of their control of the Dreamscape beds and the Serum. We aren’t going to do that by asking the Confederation to surrender them. We have to mount a massive attack. The only way we can do so is with more ships.”

  “Let’s vote,” said Sykes.

  As the sides of the table lit up, so did William’s face. Every side of it turned green, including that of Kerrigan, despite the fact that hers turned a little more reluctantly than anyone else’s.

  “With that done, let’s begin planning.”

  Chapter Six

  The days since the first battle, proudly referred to as First Strike by the Order, caused considerable trouble for the men pulled up from the colony. Of the thousands, all were under the influence of the Serum. Most made it through detoxification without difficulty. A handful were so confused by their addiction that it lead to their deaths.

  For the men found in the underground facility, matters were more intense. Of the four that survived their journey back onto the MSS, two died within a day, one woke up only to kill himself, and the fourth lay in bed, undisturbed. Malone was most interested in that man.

  Malone began putting on a clean-suit and looked up toward the ceiling. “Intercom on. Wendy, could you come in here for a moment?”

  A second later, a plain but eager looking woman entered the room already dressed in a white clean-suit. She smiled at the doctor to alert him of her presence.