There was the exciting and competitive pack hunt, recorded at a large game preserve on the colony of Den 3. Another channel carried a match between two unarmed combat experts, both from Alpha pack, to determine an undisputed Den Home Alpha champion, to face champions from other packs.
The third channel carried a sort of public service message, a governmental broadcast of a budgetary presentation to the Pack Arbitrators, by the Dominate One, Fissloss Slassler. He proposed for them to retain, and increase all taxes formerly collected on behalf of the Thandol, and use them to pay for repairs to the immense Pack Command building, and for construction of replacement Eaters and Carnivores for a greatly expanded fleet.
He was also asking for funds for research into improved sensors, better stealth systems, and more powerful weapons, which the Thandol High Command inspectors had always prevented their Security forces from developing. They had long possessed secret designs, but had never risked development of them for fear of the promised severe and ruthless punitive attacks, if the Thandol discovered them.
The snarls and hisses of outrage of watchers of the first two channels was heard all around Den Home, with relatively little consternation at the interruption of the budget discussion, since only pack leaders, and corporate leaders interested in receiving contracts for the work were likely watching.
The images presented were of obvious Federation designed spacecraft, floating in space and in the foreground of an obviously large bloated planet. The latter suddenly started disintegrating, in seemingly slow motion because of the scale of the event and distance. This image quickly garnered intense interest, because the ship type shapes were well known, and had been proven to have advanced gravity controlled weapons.
Another perspective, from nearer the dying planet, showed glowing rocky fragments, both large and small, tearing through the bluish gray and expanding atmosphere, and spreading apart against the backdrop of a nearby red dwarf star. The shapes of the Federation ships, accompanied by several smaller versions, and several clanships seen nearby, provided perspective, proving the ovoid Federation ships were far larger versions of those Scouts that had landed within the Pack Command hunting preserve.
The general population was unaware of the details of the types of damage done to the combined pack fleet ships. However, those that went on that aborted mission knew that they had been attacked by more than conventional weapons. Particularly the Sky Hunters of Alpha pack, the Stalkers of Sissbalt, who suffered the brunt of the new weaponry while leading the attack. There also were Delta pack’s Tribalt Hunters who had experienced those weapons from their location at the rear of the hierarchy sorted fleet, reformed just before the attack on the Prada planet. When the ambushed Finth fleet had all Jumped towards One land, the small Scouts that first ambushed them had followed, and attacked the rear most Finth ships with the same gravity controlled black hole weapons.
It was now well known that advanced gravity control was needed to form weaponized small black holes, which were somehow guided into the Finth ships. Seeing larger versions of those type of ships, with a planet breaking apart behind them, there was an obvious inference made. The Federation could destroy entire planets. Giant ones. Obviously, smaller rocky and inhabited planets would be easier to destroy.
The broadcasts continued for only two repetitions on the three channels, and then the three small ships that were sources of the transmissions went into stealth mode and Jumped, long before several searching warships arrived where they had been poised around Home Den. A full cycle passed for the discussion to spread throughout the Finth pack leaders, and every pack member became aware of what had happened during the previous fleet action, and how that fleet damage matched with the destruction suffered at Den Home and their colony worlds. The Federation was back, and had just advertised what sort of damage they could do if properly motivated.
They weren’t left hanging in suspense very long. A cycle later the three drones returned, in new locations, and someone spoke to them in oddly stilted Slithan, but it was comprehensible.
“I am Captain Mirikami, of the Galactic Federation. When I sent representatives here previously to talk to you peacefully, you were uninterested, and hostile. This time I brought many hammers with me, like those ships you saw in the broadcasts a cycle ago, to get your attention if necessary, and to encourage you to show greater interest in preserving your civilization.
“Excuse the poor translation into Slithan, the data base is new to our translation software, and we will improve it over time. We thought it improper to try to speak to you in the version of Thandol used for weak and subservient species, which was all we had available for our prior visit. We acknowledge that you have earned our respect, more than any Thandol Emperor has ever granted to you.
“Now that we have removed the worst of the threats the Thandol held against the throats of your families and dens, you are free to expand to new worlds, to build colonies again. Your neighbors, the former subservient species, now have that same freedom. You do not have the freedom to make them pay for your expansion. This is the same message we have delivered to the Ragnar, and will deliver to the Thack Delos next.
“The Thandol now are split into two factions, and civil war will soon start, with two Emperor’s sitting on two thrones. It is advisable for you to not provide them reason to reunite their two fleets to confront you over your new-found freedom. It is even more advisable that you not provoke us, the ones who weakened the Thandol to make this freedom possible. We are not here to replace them, but we will not allow any of their former Security forces to do that either. The Empire will remain divided.”
From that point on, broadcasting in the blind, he knew he had their diligent attention because they had not sent warships to seek them in an aggressive manner. Watching an obvious giant planet fragment with the shapes of Federation ships in the foreground, made them perfectly aware that they had witnessed a greater mastery of gravitation than anyone in the Empire possessed. This had a subduing effect on the normal Finth instinctive aggression.
Fissloss Slassler, the Dominant One, and the other Alpha Pack leaders, had also just experienced the shift from aggressive predators to den guardians, in the face of a vastly stronger pack. Den Home, and all four of their colonies had been attacked by the Federation when the Sky Hunters were away, and the fleet had returned after suffering significant losses.
This powerful enemy had hit each one of their worlds with impunity, and had inflected considerable damage. In addition, they had delivered the same sort of damage to the Thandol and Ragnar, and it was suspected they had driven off an attack by the Thack Delos. Something that never happened, once the profit driven species had carefully studied a proposal, and reached an agreement for payment. They were tenacious and stubborn.
Mirikami repeated much of what he’d told the Ragnar, with the same restrictions on attacking their neighbors, who would have the means to contact the Federation instantly. He emphasized the advantages of trade, and cooperation, and the disadvantages if they became severely weakened militarily.
He didn’t directly threaten that the Federation would attack them, to produce that weakening, or destroy any of their worlds. However, he implied that if they did grow weak from fighting a superior force, they would place themselves at risk of Thandol servitude once again. He hoped his point was made, but inwardly, he suspected that there would need to be other painful lessons. The Finth would not willingly cease preying on their weaker neighbors.
Mirikami departed Den Home with the same admonition as he’d left with the Ragnar. “We will be watching you.”
He wondered if he’d have to pay royalties to The Silha if he kept saying that, or be accused of copyright infringement.
****
Sarge, on the Sneaky Bastard, traveling with the modest Kobani task force towards the Thack Delos system, wanted to know how Mirikami intended to engage them. “Tet, are you going to call them to talk, like you did the Ragnar, or just start sending the video like with the Finth?”
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br /> “Neither of those. They refused to talk to Howard or Foxworthy at New Glasgow, and never talked to Athena when her Scout squadron was here. I don’t think they’ll talk to us now either. Of course, we had to use the Thandol subservient species language those times, but that’s how the Thandol always communicated with them. They obviously understand it, and they often use that to communicate with other species they taxed and traded with. Per the Thandol prisoners we released, the TD are said to have data bases of other species languages, which they don’t always use, if they elect to use Thandol. However, it doesn’t appear that they have shared their own language with others, not even the Thandol.
I’ll eventually play our video for them in some format, but Athena couldn’t determine for certain what their video broadcast format was, since her AI never found any that were equivalent to Tri-Vid, or some other video entertainment transmissions. There were plenty of telemetry and radio transmissions, and even some security camera type images, which might suggest that any video entertainment format would be close to that one.”
Thad was linked in from the Ripper. “If you won’t call them, or play the video, how are you going to get their attention?”
“They killed nearly nine million people on New Glasgow, and never talked to anyone. We’ve tried talking, and were ignored. We may have killed tens of thousands of them outright from Athena’s attack here, but not a peep heard from them. They appear to only have profit and loss interests in dealing with other species. Five rebellious Empire species suffered the loss of an entire colony planet to the TD, via the same sort of nuclear bombardment they used on New Glasgow. Those are five of the seven colonies they now possess. I plan to deliver business losses to them that they can’t ignore. I predict they’ll call us when they feel ready.”
“What sort of business loss?”
“I had Athena return to reconnoiter the Delos system last week. They apparently brought their entire fleet home to this system. A quarter of the fleet is in orbit around the third planet from the central binary stars, named Dolbor Ver Delos, which was their first colony planet. Let’s call it Ver, and the reason for using the middle name will become obvious in a second.
“Another quarter of the fleet is orbiting the home world, Dolbor Gen Delos, which we’ll call Gen. They named the planets sort of like family members, and only the middle names are unique.”
Sarge offered his deeply considered opinion. “That’s cumbersome and stupid.”
“They’re aliens. They might think one name, like Poldark, is stupid.” Mirikami offered as his elegant explanation.
“Anyway, half of their fleet is on the surface of Gen. It appears that because Athena’s squad wiped out their orbital repair facilities, and the CME from the flares she triggered knocked out the power systems on the moon bases, they’re performing repairs ground side.
“It also appears they are busy building new ships to replace losses suffered at New Glasgow. There are several dozen keels of new Exterminators, their heavy cruiser class, being laid at five ship yards. I think they intend to take advantage of the weakened state of the Thandol to take full control of the sector they have patrolled for so long.”
“Ah ha,” Thad said in understanding. “Their upcoming profit losses are ships in orbit, and sitting on the ground.”
“You got it! I don't have the stomach to kill nine million of their civilians, as they did on New Glasgow. Although, if severely damaging their fleet fails to cure their avarice, I will return and endure that intestinal discomfort before I let them murder their neighbors, or attack our worlds with nukes again.”
“How will we do this?” Thad asked.
“Sarge will take two hundred clanships and fifty Scouts to Ver, spread out, and wait for the signal to start shooting. Thad, you will have the other hundred fifty clanships and fifty Scouts, to take on what is in orbit here at Gen. I’ll command the fifty Mark IIs, to use our larger gravity projectors to take out ships on the ground, and then destroy the ship yards. My targets are parked, so are easier targets, and I’ll have more time to take them out with just fifty ships.
“I’m sure the ships in orbit will fight back, and micro Jump. Those on the ground will attempt to launch, and fight as soon as they can crew them. Those in orbit may even try their radiation shield method to hide inside, using small nukes. Stay clear of that, and pound them from a distance. I don’t know if they’ll call to negotiate with us or not. If not, they’ll lose most of their fleet, or will until it flees. They don’t have the sensor changes the Thandol developed to see our ships if we stay out of radiation clouds, assuming they use nukes here at home.
“We’re only five hundred ships against close to their three thousand. This includes those that made it back from New Glasgow, some that were left here during that assault, or were at their other colonies. However, we’re stealthed against their sensor systems and half their fleet is on the ground, where we’ll be attacking them and their industrial installations.
“The orbital ships can’t simply withdraw, as they did from Human Space to stop fleet losses. If you keep those in space dodging black holes and anti-ship missiles, and the clanships micro Jump after every launch or energy beam they fire, they won’t locate many of us to hit. This isn’t like shooting fish in a barrel, because the fish can shoot back and are smart, but they are nearly blind fish against their attackers and are at a disadvantage despite their six to one numerical advantage.”
“OK.” Thad was onboard with that strategy. “Who shoots first, or do we all start on cue?”
“We’ll start together. I have no doubt they’ll react quickly, particularly in orbit, and they’ll have ships poised in Tachyon Space to receive instant warnings from message carriers, who will Jump to warn the other orbiting fleet element as soon as we start the attack at either planet. There might be minutes of lag time for the quarter of their fleet at Ver to learn about an attack initiated at Gen, but a radio warning would take nearly twenty-five minutes to cover the distance to the other side of the system to Ver. Therefore, there is certain to be a procedure in place to use their instant communications system. I don't see an advantage for starting one attack before the other.
“One other thing. I’d like to have some prisoners for Mind Tap. One or two captured from the orbiting ships at Gen and one or two at Ver. Their thoughts might be able to guide us on how their leaders will respond to a persistent attack. The Thandol managed to convince them to negotiate and cooperate at some point in their distant past, and it surely involved force before they were offered profits.
“We’re a few minutes from Exit. Jake has already made the assignments of ships to the two groups. Thad, you spread your people out around the fleet at Gen. Sarge, after a brief look around Gen, micro Jump your group to Ver and spread out around them. All of us need to be alert for debris that we could brush against or push through and reveal ourselves. They will have learned from fighting the PU how hard we are to detect, and they damn well know we have their address. That’s why they’re standing guard.”
That sense of caution proved prophetic, when a fine molecular mist of carbon based dust was passively detected, orbiting in a wide, thick belt around Gen’s equator.
Mirikami sounded almost respectful. “That must be artificial, it’s nearly a thousand miles thick, and over two thousand miles wide, with all but a handful of their ships distributed uniformly around the planet, just inside the lowest hundred mile orbitals, staying about two hundred miles above the atmosphere. The lowest levels of dust must experience some slight atmospheric drag, and will be drawn down and burned up.”
Maggi was linked to the AI, Jake, asking about the extremely dispersed microscopic particles. “Jake confirms we couldn’t approach them or mingle with them without disturbing that thin cloud. It would also be hard on our stealth coatings to move against or across that material in their orbits. It’s not carbon like graphite, or simple carbon particle dust or soot. It’s composed of microscopic diamonds.”
“Where in Hell would they get tiny diamonds?” Sarge asked.
Jake, in the link with Maggi, assumed the question was for the AI.
“Astrophysical diamonds are common around certain types of aging stars, when they are less than nine times the mass of Sol. These are Asymptotic Giant Branch, or AGB stars, when they evolve to burn their nuclear fuel faster. They cool, and dust begins to condense in an outer envelope, the star starts to pulsate, driving off the surface layers. There are microscopic diamonds in that mix, and they can be collected, and separated electrostatically. The Thack Delos must have done this. It is a less radioactive version of the concealing envelope they used at New Glasgow.”
Thad, surveying the orbital battlefield his force would have to navigate, noticed there were a few dozen enemy ships that moved slowly throughout the tenuous belt of diamonds, which were too small to see without an electron microscope.
“Tet, Sarge, I found the sources of the diamond cloud, and how they keep replenishing it around their orbiting ships. They have some bloated looking tubs of ships that move slightly faster than the cloud of particles at various altitudes. There is a thicker back trail of the particles behind them, and the cloud show signs of being charged, which helps the particles repel each other, and disseminate wider. My first shots will blow the damn things apart.”
“Don’t do that.” Mirikami cautioned. “You neither Sarge, if they did the same thing at Ver. That would add to the clutter in huge clumps. When we start shooting, have your Scouts project large event horizons directly in front of those ships. In they go, with their cargo of spare dust.”
Sarge liked that idea, and suggested they expand on Mirikami’s proposal. “Hey, after that, we can use the big holes to sweep up all the particles.”
Mirikami shot down another Sarge-ism, as some of his half-baked proposals had been called. “In thousands of miles of a belt of that volume around the entire planet? Not in a week of trying. They must have been spreading these particles for a month, expecting us to return. What I propose is that you use wide black holes to sweep down towards one orbiting ship. That ship will see them tunneling in and Jump away before they get close, but you’ll briefly clear a path for the following anti-ship missiles, which would leave a wake as they accelerated through the dust at hypervelocity.
Koban: When Empires Collide Page 46