The Shattering War

by James Edward

  “I think I have talked enough for the moment. I wish we had good news, but I believe that the time for good news is long past, and all you will get from me is doom and gloom.” Weatherfew glanced around at the somber faces of the board members. They were allowing the situation sink in. Weatherfew knew that as ex-Fleet they would recover and be ready when the time came, but there would be no respite for this crew from now on. Life had changed.

  “Thank you, Admiral,” Ray said. “The picture you paint is a gloomy one. We have some news for you as well, but let us answer some of your concerns. We have enough room for immigration for a fair amount of families and can increase that. The more that come, the more that can work to build up the system. We have more than enough room for a large influx of refugees, and we are developing an agricultural base as well. There is an asteroid by the name of Haven that we are making into that agricultural base. Although this system has no planet, it is totally inhabitable. The lack of monetary concern is a major change from the AGW. It is communal living at its finest. If you don’t want to work, you will end up on an ore carrier. That is a dirty job. If you refuse that, you are deported and taken to a free world and dropped off. So far that has never happened, but we expect at some time immigration will pull in some bad seeds.

  “After debriefing of the Battle of the Gate, we were able to surmise that the station could survive a direct hit from a Tiger and still fight back. Of the eight pirate ships that attacked the station, a total of sixty-four missiles of various strength were fired at the station. Countermeasures removed or destroyed exactly fifty-eight of the missiles. Six impacted the station, causing minor damage. They were trying to hit one spot to get a breach. Our ceramic coating and reactive armor defused the missile impacts by 90 percent. The beam weapons and laser strikes were negligible. As the station has approximately two meters of plating together with the shields up, they are as tough as a dreadnought. The station was the only ship to fire; the rest stayed cloaked. The minefield took out most of the ships as the attack fell into disarray, and the pirates tried to flee and ran into the fields. I believe that entry into this system, even for Fleet ships, would be very costly.

  “You are unaware, Admiral, that we have developed a second-generation ceramic and shielding that makes our ships virtually invisible, and with the ceramic coating along with the reactive nano armor, our ships are extremely deadly. The reactive armor will heal itself, so in battle the armor will be self-repairing, and after battle, the nanobots will repair the entire ship.

  “You also know through Lyn that the medibots will keep you alive and will heal you of minor injuries, but you still need a medibay and nanobots to heal you entirely. The reduction of injuries allows the medical bays the chance to deal with the more major cases. It also allows us to keep more people in the fight.

  “We have developed a line of warships that have been named Viper ships. Taipan is our first. It is actually a fighter that has the firepower of a corvette. We are at this time building and developing a carrier to carry one hundred Taipans at a time. This carrier will have the firepower of a cruiser with a hundred corvettes to back it up. This carrier is called an Anaconda. It is going to be developed, but our shipyard is actually at this moment building another shipyard.

  “I will say that we are waiting for more experienced crews to man our ships and some people to come in and help with our infrastructure and civilian side. You mentioned that Viking will be lost?”

  “Excellent work, Ray. Again, you and your people deserve medals,” Weatherfew said. “I am very impressed with the after-battle report that you sent me and the explanation today. If we had an extra five years, we could take on the PRC and defeat them, but we don’t have five years. We can start activating the program Ark as soon as you let us know. That will start the immigration process for families, slowly at first and then fast as required. Project Noah will begin as soon as there is a need to get our loyal fleet out of harm’s way.

  “What is your plan for the tank farms at Omicron 2 and Sempter?”

  “Oh we have that under control. It will be a disappointing surprise for the PRC when they do take it over. That was something that was anticipated a long time ago, and we have made some final provisions to that effect,” Ray responded. “Now tell us about what will happen to Viking.”

  “Yeah, Olaf is one of the best of the best as far as Fleet is concerned,” Weatherfew said. “We go back a long, long way. Fugs wants him arrested for refusal to submit to a loyalty test and refusal to comply with direct admiralty orders. He was supposed to turn over that heavy cruiser for a new crew. He refused, and I managed to get him out on the rim. His entire crew is handpicked by me, so they are all loyal also. I have managed to get him out on his own far enough away from anyone else so that they are isolated. I then instructed Olaf to inform Fleet that his ship is in distress and that he requires assistance. We expect that there will be no one going to the rescue. After a reasonable time of hiding, he is to make his way here and join you with the protection of this system.”

  “We will look forward to seeing him here,” Ray said. “Lastly, as you know, there is a cloaked ship in the Cappa system with a contingent of marines on standby to pull you, Charles, any member of the loyal AGW, and Vixen out if there is an incident. Our problem is that we won’t know when that is or what will trigger it. I would like to have some kind of alarm system put in place so the marines can be ready sooner instead of later. The shuttle won’t be cloaked, as we don’t have that capability, but it should blend in with all the vehicle traffic going on in that system. We were thinking that you could put a small transmitter in your office so that as soon as it is pushed, we would activate the extraction plan.”

  “I have a book actually that is already in place. It is a transmitter used for taping my conversations with anyone in my office. I use it for record keeping and protection—the old ‘he said, she said’ deal. If I reconfigure it, I can have it ready to transmit a coded word, let’s say ‘sinking ship.’ If you hear that, get me out because my ship is sinking,” Weatherfew said.

  Ray closed the meeting, and everyone went their respective ways. Weatherfew spent the rest of the day touring around the system, seeing what was new and what had been developed. He was hugely impressed with the ceramic coating and the nanobots. He did request to be injected with the medibots.

  He was more than fascinated with the building of the solar forge. This forge used the energy of the star to increase temperature far past the normal forge range. The star’s heat was channeled by successive mirrors to a smaller and smaller point until they hit the forge, which was made with a combination of rare earth metals and ceramics. This forge could melt and join metals at higher temperatures, and when fused with the nanobots, they could make alloys that were super strong and flexible. When building the skeletons of a ship, it was preferable to have it strong and flexible. By using the star as a furnace, they were able to create the alloys for a fairly reduced cost in energy and material. The production of the metal alloys was increasing, but as the engineer said, ‘If we had another one, we could produce at twice the rate.” As Ray had learned a long time ago, you can’t please everyone.

  The new shipyard was moving along. There were a lot more robots working in and on the new yard. Weatherfew was told that it would be operational in a month, and because there were five bays, it would be able to turn out a Taipan fighter every three days. There was room for expansion to double production, but manpower was the hindrance there, as were the lack of fighter jocks.

  Ray`s proudest moment was when he showed Cul Dar off. This was a fearsome ship now. Rearmed and re-armored, it was capable of taking on most warships. It was completely capable of fighting another battleship and surviving.

  Ray walked Weatherfew to the airlock, joining his ship to the station. Weatherfew was a little more spirited as he shook hands.

  “You have given an old man some hope, Ray. I might not be around to
see the end, but I have seen the start of a new era. At least I have hope that the worlds will unite for the better sometime in the future,” Weatherfew said.

  “I hope that I have relieved some of your concerns,” Ray said. “I would like you to pass on my regards to Sinclair if you would. Tell her that there is a home for her here at Conrad whenever she tires of the cyber games.”

  “Of course, my lad. She seems to be quite fond of you too. She has asked me to pass on her regards as well,” Weatherfew said. “Too bad about her husband. He has come out firmly on the side of the PRC. He believes that the AGW is a dinosaur that is holding the unification of all worlds back. He has been agitating quite openly now. I believe that he is trying to pressure Sin into joining him.”

  “Well that’s going to be tough on Sinclair for sure. She must have some torn loyalties to the task and to the husband.” Ray said.

  “Frankly I believe that Sin is tougher than anybody gives her credit for. She will stand with the AGW, but it could be detrimental to her ability to stay hidden if Dan starts to push too hard. The PRC will start to question her loyalty. If that happens, then they will try to isolate her from any sensitive material.”

  “Tell her, and you remember too, Admiral, that there is a cloaked ship hidden in the Maurian system. As soon as they are contacted, they will start operation Sinking Ship and get you out. I think that at the same time we will have to pull Sinclair. With your protection gone, the PRC goons will purge anybody in a secure position. We have already heard reports of people going missing. A squad of marines and a few operatives will come and get you. I would have liked for Sinclair to also be equipped, but she hasn’t been out here again. That’s the best we can do for you, Admiral. Anyone else that is close to you should be considering a move to Conrad.”

  “I am hoping that I will be forced to retire and not forcefully removed,” Weatherfew said. “I will be in touch with Charles Redone on a regular basis. My concerns for Sin could be unfounded, but I am relieved that you will include her in the evacuation if it is required. As to anyone else, nobody really. After my wife died, I lost contact with her side of the family except Sin, and that was because her parents were killed in an accident years ago. Any of my relations are very distant. No, Sin is my only concern.”

  “Excellent.” Ray smiled. “It will help with extraction plans. Charles has been warned as well. We believe that the PRC will try one more move to get into this system through the guise of Great Ursa. Then they will go the more direct approach, which will be to expropriate the tank farms on Omicron 2 and Sempter. When they realize that their efforts have failed to get any fuel, they will try to enter the system by force, claiming that we are a pirate base. That is when we will pull all personnel and prepare for a war with the PRC.”

  “An interesting prognosis, Ray.” Weatherfew blew out air through his mouth. This was the same thing that those in the AGW thought was going to happen. With Conrad ceding from the AGW, it allowed more flexibility for the PRC faction in the government to conduct operations against it. It also allowed Conrad to hide developments from the government. If the PRC did do a raid, it would have huge repercussions in government. The other worlds that were not supporting the PRC would see this as the method of annexing their worlds and systems. The present form of the Assembly of Governing Worlds was about to fall or be absorbed by the PRC within six months anyway. “What will you do when the Fleet arrives at your doorstep?”

  “We will asked them to leave, and then we will fight them. We hope we will win the first round, as we expect that they will vastly underestimate the defenses of the system or our firepower. They might have debriefed the pirates, but they would only know that we have a weapons platform at the gate, not the ships or quantities. They will know we are mined, so they will try to run destroyer missiles to activate the field, not knowing that the field will be activated by the platform. They will be in the middle of it before the mines go active. These are not regular mines either. Of course they are cloaked, but they also pack three times the explosive power.”

  “The next six to nine months will be very interesting,” Weatherfew said, shaking Ray’s hand. “I hope to see you again before it becomes too dangerous or I require a permanent move. Until, Ray, carry on. You are doing wonders here and are, I must say, the only hope in this darkening time. Oh and remember ‘Barbarossa’; those will be your support ships and, once in the system, yours to do what you want with them.”

  Ray watched as Admiral Weatherfew’s ship cleared the dock and proceeded to the gate. The next time he would see him, he would be welcoming him and hopefully Sinclair to the station as permanent residents. The speed at which things were developing and changing was getting faster and faster. Ray went back to going over the paperwork and okaying projects.

  CHAPTER 11

  Olaf

  OLAF TROGSEN SAT IN THE captain’s chair on the bridge of his starship, the heavy cruiser Raptor. His engineers had found the disabling bomb that was planted in a very remote spot in the engine room. This devise was programmed to cause significant and unrepairable damage after it received a special signal from an outside source or a certain amount of time passed. He had been warned by Admiral Weatherfew to search his ship closely as he had suspected sabotage. Weatherfew had also given him a separate set of orders that overrode the Fleet orders. He had opened these orders now and pondered the reality of those orders. How well he knew that the AGW was falling apart. His was a prime example, ordered to turn over his ship and crew to that prat, Fugs. Thirty years ago, they wouldn’t have even considered such a move; now through Fugs it was commonplace. Good men mustered out, discharged, court martialed or ruined, crews replaced by incompetent whiners and toadies. How could the AGW allow this to happen? Incompetency, complacency, galloping stupidity, everyone getting used to peace and having no need for the great warriors; just fools that looked good and made impressions for news and cameras. Now a good 60 percent of the Fleet had been replaced or removed. Newer ships that were built by committee rather than by Fleet requests and standards. Now the ships were smaller and more efficient, but weapons hadn’t changed in decades. New research was stymied years ago by budget cuts, so they were just the same ships with a few minor improvements.

  Ah, he thought. Ray Hunter had that breakaway system that was going wild with new developments. Soon it will be a powerhouse and a danger to the PRC. If he went there, he would have to fight his fellow Fleet captains and crews. But crews were now not the same. It wasn’t like the old days when you could trust your crew. Ray Hunter and a score of good captains were removed by ambitious XOs and lieutenants that wanted to be captain. Sabotaged, trumped-up charges and in some cases accidents had replaced good, experienced, and competent captains with prats. Olaf wasn’t at all interested in teaching or coming to the aid of those simpering fools and toadies.

  His orders were to report to Ray Hunter and surrender his ship after he had proven to the crew that the Fleet was going to cut them adrift. He knew that the crew was loyal, and he also knew that they were all old-timers. They were handpicked over two years to get the best in one ship, and they were all loyal to the AGW, Weatherfew, and Trogsen in that order. Olaf still tried to believe that the Fleet wouldn’t abandon them, that they would do something, but in his heart he knew that they were all in the same boat. Well time would tell. Tomorrow he would initiate Operation Shadow. But first he would talk to his XO and crew.

  “Those are the orders as they stand, and you all know the circumstances. The AGW and Fleet now being led by the PRC have in their minds to rule by dictatorial force the entire empire,” Olaf said over the PA system. “You now know as much as me in regards to these orders and what is happening. In a sense, we are defecting from the AGW to join Conrad, which will make each and every one of us criminals. It will all hinge on the reply from Fleet to our distress signal. If Fleet cuts us loose, then they will be actually committing us to death. The time it would take us to reach a
shipping lane for help with just impulse engines would be in the range of six hundred years. The Fleet will crunch numbers and will either cut us loose or send a repair ship.

  “XO, tell coms to contact Fleet,” Olaf ordered. “Let’s just see if I am right.”

  Because of the distance that the Raptor was out in space, it took two weeks for the request for help to get there and three weeks for Fleet to reply.