Sovereign Protocol
Page 4
“Well, my dear,” Sam switched to her doting mother tone. “Our grumpy NAV fella has picked up a transponder code of the UHCSS Hailstorm. She’s docked within a half a click of our posh celebrity status cradle!”
“Nice!” Kara chimed in across the net. Darius didn’t realize the audio net was still linked. “I’ve always wanted to see the inside of a UAHC ship!... Well, once it’s fully outfitted and operational of course.”
“Sam, hook her up with a request for visitor access.” Darius said.
“Yes, dear! Unlike you, I still have full UAHC net privileges, after all!” Sam stuck Darius another below the belt jibe.
“Har, har!” It was the only retort he could muster.
“She just wants to see eye candy.” Now Steve joined the party.
“Hey, now! I’ve got needs! Let’s see you stay on an even-keel with hormones floating around inside you!” Kara’s words made Darius blush.
The two fighters were now on their final docking vector and the massive space station came into view. Unlike most space stations that were either built on, or in orbit of some astral body, stations that boast a Hyper Gate have to be built to be stand-alone. The gravitational forces of anything larger than a small asteroid can throw off the vector of the gate launch, and consequently have their clients jump out into normal space several light years away from their intended destination. The complex array of magnetic and inertial shielding around the station could compensate for the incoming vessels and associated space debris.
The station appeared to be a small artificial planetoid. The smooth metallic domes that comprised the northern and southern hemispheres were largely featureless. But the equatorial region was ring that seemed to be affixed to the structure itself, and was at least a thousand kilometers in diameter. Tiny specs of light and metallic colors slowly too shape as a wide variety of space faring vessels.
The station seemed to grow to immense proportions as it filled the view from the cockpit of the Doom-Raptor. The canopy of the cockpit was designed for maximum forward and peripheral fields of view, as would be expected of a fighter. However this expansive structure that lay before the two tiny starships took up most of their fields of vision. The station was in a steady rotation that provided 0.95g, which would make anyone used to Earth-like gravity feel right at home.
Darius looked towards what would be the station’s west in relation to their current inbound vector. He could see the luminescent blue tunnel that shielded the taxi lanes to and from the hyper gate. The gate itself wasn’t visible, but the blue hue of the tunnel betrayed a massive opening that jutted directly away from the station. He could see the distortions of tiny specs coming in and out of the gate. They appeared from nothing at all as the distorted shapes coalesced gradually in the distinct shape of ships as they materialized out of the abyss. It was the reverse for the outgoing vessels that seemed to start off with smooth lines of a human built craft, and then because visually warped in to dull shapes and colors before vanishing altogether.
“That’s a huge mother fu…” Kara must have seen the Hailstorm come into view. The 5 kilometer long warship was long and sleek. The hull slightly tapped forward to an abrupt flat bow. The dark blue-purple matt color seemed to have a translucent grey coating that almost made it reflect light. A vast array of small turrets seemed to run forward and aft, but in a very viscerally pleasing arrangement. It betrayed no other weapon systems that could be seen by the naked eye- but they were there. They most certainly were there.
“Is that a battle cruiser or a dreadnaught?” Kara asked over the net. She didn’t seem to direct the question to anyone in particular.
“You know, for a Major in the Unum Security… Whatever you call it. You don’t know your ships very well!” Darius took a turn at the jibes now.
“Hey! I see ships of nearly every type!” Kara retorted.
“Evidently not!” Steve’s words were timed flawlessly.
“I said nearly every type.” Kara was on the defensive now.
Darius waited until his own laughing subsided to speak. “To answer your question, it’s technically both.”
“Okaaay, I’ll play your silly game… Explain.” Kara’s words were a mixture of sarcasm and sincerity.
“The Fleet only has a handful of pure dreadnaughts.” Darius’ speech was back to a more serious tone, which Kara had already recognized was his comfort zone.
“Go on…” Kara pressed.
“By treaty, dreadnaughts are too powerful a warship not to be commanded by a flag officer – Commodore, Admiral, or General that is – or directly by a sovereign or a civilian with direct authority thereof. Well, obviously the Fleet only has NCO’s. The only loophole is to operate them in Military Training Space. Our slang term for these MTS’s are the Box.”
“You really take too long to get to the point, don’t you?” Kara stuck out a virtual tongue over the visual link.
“I’m getting there… Obviously we need to have dreadnaughts in our inventory.”
“Obviously…” Kara was feigning attentiveness.
“The Hailstorm and other ships in her particular class, are battlecruisers in their base configuration. Whenever they leave the box, they have to shed their additional armor plating, half of their plasma cannons, and all of their heavy arsenal.”
“Ahhhhh!” Kara seemed satisfied with that explanation.
“Fun time is over, folks.” Sam chimed in as she and Steve took over flight controls and did their final docking maneuvers. Steve was perfectly happy to use the stations docking cradles to put down the Skull-Crusher, but Sam knew Darius would flip out if anything messed up his shiny bird. The Doom-Raptor deployed its own landing pads and gracefully settled onto the surface of the deck.
Both craft positioned themselves with the nose facing out into the abyss. Both AI’s had internally agreed they wanted to be able to blast out of there at the first hint of trouble.
Darius stepped down into Doom-Raptor’s small birthing area and opened the drawer containing his pile of MEDLOG chips and carefully scooped them up with his hand. After placing it a cargo pocket along his upper right leg, he started for the side hatch.
“I’ll keep the audio net linked to your neural interface.” Sam reassured Darius. “Nothing will happen to your prec—HATCH NOW!”
Darius opened the hatch at blistering speed. He saw half a dozen men and two women combing about the two LRF-90’s. They were obviously not uniformed security, or uniformed – anything.
“Nice toys you have!” One of the pirates shouted up to Doom-Raptor’s open hatch. He was bald, but probably on purpose Darius thought.
“This is our bay! Leave! Security will be here in less than fifty seconds.” Darius called down to him. The Soldier knew they didn’t care about security. They likely spotted two priceless ‘90’s rolling in to the docking lanes and decided to set up a snatch and grab. STC transmissions weren’t encrypted, so anyone could be snooping. It was probably easy to get the docking assignments. They likely had people already on the station. That would explain why they were waiting. But there must have been one little detail their pirate buddies didn’t relay to their ambush team… One of their would-be victims was a Soldier.
All Kara heard was a THUD followed by a blood curdling scream. Profanity of every known type filled the air. By the time Kara saw the coast was clear and hoppe
d down from her hatch, it was over.
Darius had jumped down and landed squarely on the bald pirate’s shoulders. After a brief outburst of pain, the man was limp and free of the burden of consciousness. Darius stood beside him and glared an emotionless look at the dumbfounded pirates that had regrouped towards the bow side of both vessels.
Nothing frightened a pirate more than a Fleet Soldier. Although it was a time of peace, the UAHC forces honed their combat skills by patrolling for, and combating pirates in close quarters missions. Fatalities inflicted on Soldiers by pirate crews were exceptionally rare. Pirates, on the other hand, rarely lived to tell the tale…
Kara ran over to Darius’ side and placed her hand on her sidearm. She watched in awe as this human tank that called itself Darius stared down the enemy without a hint of fear… or even a weapon.
Several pirates were pulling out an assortment of small arms. Plasma pistols, pulse pistols, and a gnarly array of edged weapons seemed to come out of every pocket or conceivable hiding place. The vulgar speech that spewed from the enemy’s mouths droned each other out.
Kara slowly raised her pulse pistol in the direction of the enemy, and then in one fluid motion she pulled her back-up pistol from her bootleg and held it with grip out so as to make it easy for Darius to grab.
“Here, take it.” She tried to motion to him in his peripheral vision, but he didn’t even blink. His eyes continued to menace their foes. “You need a weapon!”
“I am a weapon.” Darius’ words were cold. Kara wondered if they were out of hubris or sheer fact.
And he instantly lunged forward, closing the 20 meter gap between them and the pirates in, what seemed to Kara to be, a split second. Darius grabbed the shoulders of the first man he reached and slung him into the air and directly at a cluster of pirates standing adjacent to him. Bodies were bowled over while a flurry of kicks and punches took out three more enemies in a flash of armor and flesh that had once been Darius.
It was over in under three seconds. Not a shot fired.
“Security! Stay right where you are!” the voice rang out and was accompanied by the sound of boots thudding across the deck and racing towards them.
Baiting the Hook
Location: CFS Cerberus, Light Cruiser
Date Time: Post Interstellar 07/24/4201 1807HRS Crimson Fleet Zulu Time
System: Contested Region, Interstellar Space
“Captain, I have a hyper-burst transmission.” Ensign Alba craned her around her right shoulder to make sure Captain Zedd heard her voice.
“Where from, Ensign?” The Captain replied and he stepped into her view.
“Origin is Tangine Station, Sol System.” She said as she straightened her back.
“Message type?”
“Read only, Sir. It was addressed directly to you, and requires your command token to decrypt.” Alba said. She studied the Captain’s response and watched him hold his chin as if he was in deep thought. He may not have been the tallest man onboard, but his barrel chest made his crimson colored uniform appear intimidating. His pronounced jaw line and short neat black hair almost added to the effect. The ensign thought he almost resembled an old depiction of the Judeo-Christian Devil she had once read about.
“Put it on my console.” Zedd spoke without eye contact, and he turned towards his Command platform. - More like an elevated desk in the back of the bridge than what the term command platform would imply, but it gave the Captain an image of total authority - He pulled up the icon on his holo-display and confirmed his credentials.
“Helmsman, manual plot the following coordinates.”
Security Measures
Location: Tangine Station, Interstellar Port, Open Space
Date Time: Post Interstellar 07/24/4201 1933HRS Local
System: Sol System, Mid Region
“Major Elder, it’s been a long time!” The older man spoke. His off white uniform trimmed with grey closely matched Kara’s sub-armor. His status display on his right arm bore the insignia of a Sergeant Major.
“Sergeant Major, it’s been too long!” Kara extended a hand shake that was met in kind. “So, as you can see the trouble was over before it started.”
“Obviously!” His eyes scanned the suspected pirates as his men were busy searching them and applying restraints. Then he glanced over at Darius. His eyes methodically scanned the Soldier from head to foot and then came back up to lock eyes with the human mountain.
“Greetings, Gunny! I take it Major Elder is quite upset with you since she didn’t get to bash any skulls before you beat her to it?” The Sergeant Major chuckled as he spoke.
“I didn’t mean to hog all the fun. I’ve been busting pirates for decades. Muscle memory and all.” Darius caught himself smiling as he spoke.
“The name’s Jason Gunnar. Sergeant Major, that is. I prefer to be called by my rank or my name, but not both. You can only imagine how I felt a few years back when they called me Gunny Gunnar!”
“That would be awkward. Good thing I don’t have a family name.” Darius said.
“That’s right, you UAHC Fleet folks relinquish you familial identities when you get indoctrinated, don’t you?” Gunnar chose his words carefully. He wasn’t sure if it was a touchy subject or not.
“That’s right. Soldiers are trained to suppress self-identity beyond our rank or position. Ego, ambition, or anything that could drive us to gain authority past what we’re prepared to wield is forbidden. In my case, however, it was a simple transition. I was a ward of the state since birth. I have no clue what my family name really is.” Darius said it as a matter of fact, and with no emotion. He had made peace with his mysterious past years ago. It never bothered him to open up about it at all.
“Wow, I guess that’s –good then?” Gunnar was taken back slightly, but brought himself back to the task at hand. “These punks overwhelmed our checkpoint with foam grenades and stormed right past.”
“That would explain why they got this far into this section without any resistance.” Kara noted.
“Precisely. Thanks to a friendly AI named, Samantha we were finally able to locate these jack-offs.” Gunnar added with a smile.
“You’re always welcome, Sergeant Major!” Sam chimed in over the external speakers mounted on the aft of Doom-Raptor.
“Where are your officers? It not normal for a Sergeant Major to be actively engaged in a search.” Kara spoke as a matter of fact. Darius seemed to let her guide the conversation. He might be an elite warrior, but physical security was her expertise.
“Oh them?” Gunnar let with words spill out with a half-laugh half-snort. “They’re being dug out of the foam as we speak. There’s a Company CO and her XO that will be needing a shower right about now. Poor things couldn’t even hit the audible alarm, or voice activate it. Our AI Node at the check point is in the process of being upgraded, so we had no help there either.”
“I’m not an expert on security outside of a battlefield, but I am very experienced with smashing pirates…” Darius couldn’t complete the sentence before being interrupted.
“What he means to say, is that this is a very sophisticated attack.” Sam chimed in. “I’ve seen these pirates in action. To them, a Fleet Soldier is the one thing that keeps them up at night. Had they been tipped off by another pirate then they would have steered clear of Darius.”
“Always stealing my thunder, girl!” Darius shook his head. “But I was going to say, they were sent here for a prize worthy enough to bust through a security controlled area but weren’t fully briefed on what they faced when they got here.”
/> “Suggestions?” Gunnar looked at both Kara and Darius for a response.
“This is a civilian matter, legally speaking. But I would venture to guess sharing your report with the command crew of the UAHC battle cruiser docked out there. This is UAHC controlled space after all, and when it comes to piracy, they are the primary enforcers.” Kara said.
“Well it’s settled. Luckily we have what we need from you two to submit our report. I’ll make that recommendation to the CO here. Then my old grumpy ass will finish the inspection I was supposed to have been doing before all this mess started.” Gunnar’s words were slightly agitated. Darius suspected that a Sergeant Major wouldn’t be under any Company Command, and he had to be here conducting business from a higher level.
“Always a pleasure, Gunnar!” Kara grabbed Darius’s arm and started pulling him along. “We have a battle cruiser to tour!”
The two made their way through the docks, and out past the ruined security station. Apparently the officers had been dug out, and several lower ranking guards were chiseling dried foam and other debris from what no longer resembled a check point. They ventured on to train station and boarded the station car. They elected to remain standing, since their destination was only a single stop away.
“So, I take it you’ve met Gunnar before?” Darius broke the silence. He already knew the answer, but decided it would make for a good conversation.
“Yes. A few times over the years. His company and mine are affiliates. He works for Terran Security Inc. Our companies are independent from one another, but we have many joint ventures. We even run our academies in tandem, and have an agreement to formally recognize each other’s rank structure as well. It’s a smooth arrangement actually.” Kara spoke while her eyes took in the view of open space that laid beyond her window.