Sovereign Protocol

by Will Crudge

  There was an audible growl… low… ominous. She knew what it meant. Even without the creature’s voice module, she could feel his meaning. She would have to his module to him in secret. In her position, she couldn’t afford to be caught with it in her own possession, so she would have to put her plan into motion. However, module or not, he knew what she was going to say even before she said it. His ability to subconsciously link to those of her kind was what kept both species in a symbiotic relationship that they both benefitted from. The relationship kept her kind grounded, while it gave his kind higher insight.

  “We will be starting our deceleration burn soon. The time is coming for the next phase to begin. Be ready to act when you feel his presence. I’ll need your strength to do the same.” She leaned in to wrap her arms around the creature’s neck. She could feel the immense musculature that was concealed by soft layers of silky fur and skin. She wasn’t concerned that her firm embrace would press the hard edges of her uniform into him and cause any pain. He was built for battle… and wouldn’t feel anything but her affection. The massive eyes closed as the creature tilted its head to accommodate the gesture.

  “Get some rest, my old friend. He will need you more than I ever did… And I have needed you more than anything!” He words poured out with pure compassion and kindness. She quietly stepped out into the brightly lit corridor, she looked to see if she had been detected, then retracted the cloud of nano-bots that had concealed any trace of her visit. The door closed. The creature was wrapped in darkness once again.

  A Date With Destiny

  Location: En Route to Unknown point in space

  Date Time: Post Interstellar 07/28/4201 0021HRS Local

  System: Creole System, 331 Light Minutes from Heliopause Inner Edge

  Darius woke up from his two hour slumber within the bowels of his birthing. The interior of his fighter was designed for relative comfort, and Darius wondered how many previous owners had rested their heads within these bulkheads. He had upgraded the interior furnishings over the years, but left the small all-purpose sink, toilet, shower, and miniscule cooking area in its original condition.

  His thoughts shifted back to Samantha… He had been too hard on her. It had taken hours for him to come to grips with her actions. He ultimately knew she did what was best, but there were so many unknowns that he still had to wrap his head around. Val had given him insights on the actions of the Crimson Alliance that struck him to the core. He had learned that much of the civilian UAHC government had been manipulated to believe there was no threat of war, and how they had been masterfully convinced that the Fleet’s primary role should to be a peace-time enforcement entity, rather than a weapon of war.

  Now better rested, Darius could finally begin to grasp the patterns Val had laid out before him. Many questions had been answered, but many more lingered. Val told him about how the UAHC super AI’s were likely acting on subverted data, which caused them to inactivate countless Soldiers for decades. Darius always had wondered why of the large volumes of Soldiers were such a rare sight. He had his own experience with nearly two years of inactive status, and had just written it off in his mind as just a lack of interest to interact with the general public. Val had informed him that the piracy problem was masterfully narrated as a bi-product of the peace time prosperity the inner human sphere had enjoyed. The Crimson Alliance, that comprised the collective factions of the outer regions of human civilization, had never fully recovered from the previous War of Humanity. The two centuries that followed the most tragic war in all of human history had driven the victorious UAHC to focus on a smaller, better trained, well equipped military that boasted a lack of power-hungry professional officers. Many of the atrocities of the previous war had been a direct result of hubris and the pursuit of personal gain.

  The UAHC Fleet would become controllable… Less threatening. However this came at a dire cost. The Officer core would be restored in a time of war. The restrictions on how ships were armed outside of designated training areas would be lifted, and the military side of the government would be granted war-time executive power. This pleased the younger generations that had never seen war. Soldiers were highly respected, but also greatly feared. Peace-time meant there was an abundance of time and economical resources to train masters of war, and cast away the old methods of quickly raising fighting forces and sending them off to die. In a direct conflict, these highly trained troops would theoretically be way more than a match for the weakened and impoverished shell of the Crimson Alliance to overcome.

  War Master Guilds had been wrongfully blamed for the atrocities in the previous war, as Darius had always been told. But now he could see the patterns for himself… As if he needed little to convince him. It just made too much sense. It was the corruption of the war-time leaders themselves that had driven the War-Masters away. Their temple seized… Their assets transferred to museums and institutions of higher learning. Val explained how the surviving Guild members had been on a two centuries old quest to reclaim their heritage. Assets that were in possession of public institutions had been left alone by the disenfranchised organization… But when pirates raided their relics, the War Masters would take action.

  Darius was told how the Crimson Alliance has been planning their revenge for generations. Without the hopes of a winning a direct confrontation, they would infiltrate, subvert, and create artificial crisis where none existed. They would lull the UAHC populous into a false sense of security, and drive the mighty UAHC into being nothing more than glorified enforcers of piracy and smuggling. The UAHC would be manipulated to fear their own military. They would outlaw privately owned weapons, and place harsh restrictions on how the Fleet could operate. The UAHC fleet would be dispersed, stretched thin, and devoid of any true heavy weapons of war. The Crimson Alliance had been secretly backing the acts of piracy.

  “Hey! You awake?” Kara’s voice came over the net.

  “Yes. Still… I just woke up.” Darius struggled to find the words.

  “Let me cheer you up! Turn around.” She said with a sultry tone.

  There she was on the HUD. At first Darius didn’t believe what he was seeing. He stepped closure to the entrance of the cockpit to get a better vantage point. Kara was fully nude. She stood seductively within her birthing… Her right hip jutted outward with her hand resting over the smooth curves it betrayed. Here left forefinger culminated in a highly polished fingernail that she seductively grasped between her pearly white teeth. Darius could see the subtle tip of her tongue sneaking through to her finger tip. All Darius could do was let out an approving whistle. He wasn’t wearing his armor, so his sex drive was conspicuously present. His breathing began to accelerate, and he could feel the warmth growing in his nether region.

  “I figured you might want to let your eyes see something better than empty space and… loathsomeness.” Kara shifted her hips in the other direction, and let her right hand slowly glide up her smooth mid-section and gently tease her perfect nipple. He supply breasts were in his field of view, and Kara saw his response to the tease. She rotated her upper body slowly left then back right… Arching her back to make her forward assets more prominently displayed.

  “It’s almost as if you know me.” Darius spoke with a deep manly voice and a crooked smile.”

  “What… What’s that at the bottom?” Kara’s eyes looking down to the top of the cockpit’s control stick. “My bird doesn’t have that… penile-looking thing.”

  Darius realized Kara’s choice of words hinted honest curiosity, but while keeping her seductive train of thought. “Manual controls. I found them un-installed under the floor plating in my birthing years ago. I normally use an after-market interface that links to my neural net… Didn’t get much training on manual flight when I was a fighter jockey.”

  “Manual controls? I guess things were different back then. Where did you say you found it?”

  “Floor plate. Check directly behind you… Under that rug of yours.”

  Kar
a winked at him. “I’m sure you want me to, don’t you?” She gracefully turned around to reveal the curves of her back-side. She paused to look over her shoulder to catch the big man’s reaction. Satisfied with Darius’ wide smile, she bent down… legs straight… on full display… leaving nothing to the imagination. “Well I’ll be damned!”

  She stood straight up and pivoted back to face Darius image. Her right arm was holding a control stick, while her left revealed a throttle lever. “I’ll need to play with this one!” She nodded slightly to the stick. It was far too bulky for any realistic use within Kara’s petite body, but it was all about the flirt with her. “Wanna watch?” She raised her right eyebrow and tilted her head slightly to one side.

  “Heads up! DECELL burn complete!” Val’s words came at the worst possible time. Darius saw Kara place her new found treasures on the foot of her bed and reach for a towel to cover up. She said nothing, but put on a flirty frown and cut the visual connection.

  Darius shook his head and took a very VERY deep breath. “So, we’re here?” The words were directed at Val.

  “Yes.” Was all Val said… quick and confident.

  “And where is here?” Steve asked before Darius could.

  “This is where the Crimson folks think they’ll be getting the better of us.” Val answered without a hint of seriousness… or fear.

  ***

  The light cruiser dropped out of slip-space with its flaring up in a majestic swirl of blue. Large ripples pulsed along the entire length of the ship, and began to settle. The impact of coming out of normal space would have completely destroyed the warship without the protection of energy shielding. The shield settled fully, and disappeared from view.

  “We’ve reached normal space, Sir. Thrusters on standby… shields normalized… shield generator at 75% and climbing.” Ensign Alba sounded off.

  “Very, well. Scan for contacts.” The Captain spoke with sinister tone while nursing a cup of coffee.

  “Aye, Sir.” Alba replied. Her fingertips manipulated the virtual instruments on her holographic display with mind-numbing speed. “Three contacts. Half-million clicks off our bow. Looks like they’re just coming out of a DECEL burn. IDENT from transponders read all three are LRF-90 series fighters. Putting data on main screen.”

  The Captain narrowed his eyes at the three digital tracks and noticed a red blinking icon coming from one of them. “Pull up that beacon signal.” He said… with a noteworthy lack of patience in his voice.

  “Aye, Sir…. Looks to be broadcasting a NAV system malfunction. They must have decelerated to make repairs before it took them off course. Apparently the NAV’s on the other two tracks were slaved to the malfunctioning unit, so they all had to stop or be separated in the deep black.” Alba rattled it off with a semi-confident, semi-nervous tone.

  The Captain sat back in his chair and let out a single audible hmmf. “Looks like our associates back on Station came through with a precisely calculated sabotage.” A sinister smile emerged from the man, as he began his own slow clap of appreciation for alleged maneuver. “Spool up the slip space drive before they have a chance to get us on scan. I’ve heard rumors of how those ‘90’s can out-run anything in normal space flight… Let’s not give them that chance!”

  ***

  “Our friends have arrived.” Val’s voice reflected his normal persona of absolute calm.

  “I don’t see anything on scan.” Kara said… Now fully clothed and armored up.

  “They’re here. They’ll be jumping back into slip space, and probably drop right on top of us any minute.” Val answered.

  “So, what are we expecting? I know the Crimson Fleet has some patrol craft, or even frigates that have limited slip-space capability… Are we going to pretend we’re armed and stick them up?”

  “No, my boy. I’ve put a fake transponder status signal out. They’ll think we have a malfunctioning NAV system that we have to stop and repair. That was my contingency in case we beat them here… We had to have some plausible reason to stop in dead space, or they would simply get spooked and make things more complicated.” Val said.

  Darius seemed to be mesmerized by Val’s demeanor. The holy man showed no sign of fear, which is not out of the ordinary for a man of faith, but he also always seemed to have some kind of deep… situational awareness that Darius couldn’t grasp.

  “Our previous conversation kinda went sideways with my emotional outburst, and I never got a clear answer on just who we are here for.” Darius minced no words as to what he wanted to hear. But the answer would evade him a little longer…

  A gigantic rippling blue flash came out of nowhere, and the sight of a massive energy shield trying to right itself dominated the view from all three cockpits.

  “What the hell, Val…” Sam spat over the net. They were he first words she had spoken in many hours. “That’s an effing cruiser!”

  “Light cruiser, to be more specific.” Val maintained his calm. “Please be patient as I handle this.”

  Darius supposed Kara and the AI’s were as pissed as he was… But it would do no good now. As a man well versed in tactics and strategic thinking, he realized their only play was to follow Val’s lead. They could out-run the cruiser in normal space easily enough, but their ion emissions would be at point blank range… The cruiser could just as easily jump into slip space and have a very reasonable chance at cutting off their escape. The cruiser would be totally blind in slip space, but the closer they were to a fresh ion trail, the more accurately they could reliably predict an intercept point. Now it was Val’s play.

  “CSS Cerberus, this is the Blood-Reaper requesting assistance with a repair to my NAV system.” Val’s voice was amazingly convincing.

  “Blood-Reaper, this is the Captain of the CSS Cerberus. You are ordered to power down your main drives and thrusters. Power down any weapon systems you may have. Comply or be fired upon.”

  “Ladies and gentlemen, watch this.” Val spoke on their internal audio net, so the Cerberus couldn’t hear. “Cerberus, be advised I am a Sovereign Head of State of Unum. I’m passing the required digital tokens, as required by treaty. Any attempt to engage will be a criminal act, and you will be forced to relinquish you Vessel to me!”

  “SHIT!” Kara blurted out on the audio net. You’ve just poked one hell of a bear, Val! How are you going to pass phony tokens without these assholes calling bullshit?”

  “Who said they’re phony?” Val calmly replied. “It could be handy to implicate their Captain in a criminal act down the road… You, know… for leverage and all.” Val sent a digital winking icon through the net.

  “I don’t care if you’re the last Emperor of China! Comply or be engaged by EMP burst!” The Captains voice showed no sign of deceit. Darius was now tensing up at the thought of provoking a powerful warship with such tenacity… But he would come to discover that Val wasn’t done escalating his provocation.

  “Make me.” Val said calmly, as he transmitted his reply. There was no audible response… But a very visceral one. The ship’s shields began to pulse and flash… Had it not been for the vacuum of space, the sounds would be unbearable. The shield retracted in to the array of small shield generator nodes that dotted the vessel from bow to stern. The energy retracted into the half-meter diameter ports as the concentrated energy started to combine into blinding orbs of light.

  “Fuck! They’re doing it! Their shield generators are dual purpose EMP blasters!” Darius screamed over the audio net. “We’re fucked!” He passed the mental message to his armor via the neural interface, and a split second later a full-faced ballistic helmet wrapped around his head and sealed itself off from the pressure of the cabin.

  A split second later the pulse came in a blinding burst of light and energy. It seemed like slow motion to Darius as he wtched the pulse envelope the three small helpless fighters. His thoughts of being abandoned in the cold vacuum of space raced through his mind. He closed his eyes and started to pray… for the first time in his l
ife.

  “Is that all you’ve got?” Val’s voice came out over the net, and was directed towards the cruiser. Darius opened his eyes and couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  “What happened?” Darius thought he was only asking himself in his own mind, but Val’s response confirmed it was audible.

  “LRF-90’s are immune to EMP blasts, silly.” Val spoke as if they should have already known that. “Luckily, for us… Not too many people alive are aware of just how deadly these birds are. Oh, and Darius?”

  “Yeah?” Darius responded the only way he knew how.

  “What is that awesome phrase you Fleet guys say when your enemy sees you, and you’re about to pounce?” Val said gleefully.

  “We say, the enemy has seen the wolf that stares them down…” Darius was interrupted.

  “So now we show them our fangs!” Val finished the saying with no shortage of dramatic inflection. Then something happened… something strange.

  Darius felt the audible sound of machinery beneath his feet. He could feel the deck shutter so much that he almost didn’t notice the control console light up and a panel emerge and fold up from either side of his primary controls. “Weapons console?” He said under his breath. The digital depiction of an LRF-90 appeared on his HUD, and two flaps that he recognized as weapons bays opened up on both port and starboard. They extended up and out and were swept downward as if it were a second set of wings fixed in a menacing stance.