by Martin HC
The
Corrupted
Star
Written by Martin H.C.
Copyright © 2017
This has been written as a work of fiction and is protected under copyright law. Any similarities to real persons, events or places are purely coincidental. References to any actual places, brands or people are also fictitious. All rights reserved.
Please enjoy the hard work put into this book. I hope it grips your imagination, and is as enjoyable to read as it was to write.
Authors personal note: A massive thank you to Yvonne, for if I didn't have you to talk with, this probably wouldn't exist. You're patience has been astounding.
Prologue
There are doors within our universe which mankind should not open, this isn't because the rules expressly forbid it, or because angry gods tell them not to, lest they be cast out of pretty yet seemingly pointless gardens, but because more often than not these dark pockets tend to contain locked away horrors, horrors which have a tendency of slipping out the now open door.
For the Desian Empire, one of these very doors sat in their own back garden, known to all as the Darkspace.
It appeared very much as it sounded, like dark space, and this was not necessarily because it was empty space, even empty space would show the stars and light from the other side, as if looking over an open lake and seeing the opposite bank. No, this was a completely blacked out region of space. It was widely believed that great technological marvels were hidden within it, the trouble being though no-one could see into it either to confirm or deny this belief, and anyone who ever ventured close enough to look inside, never returned.
After the end of the roving wars and at the height of their power, the victorious Desian Empire's mighty reach extended to just under half of their galaxy.
The Desians believed in their ignorance, that they had developed enough, become strong enough, to send an expedition into the heart of the Darkspace territory and claim it as their own.
Three systems bordering on the Darkspace territory Atios, Cerenion and Torros were chosen as the expedition fleet's home command and main staging area. Having never been attacked during the roving wars, these three systems still maintained their industrial hearts along with their powerful planetary and battle station defence networks.
The staging location was more tactical in nature, bolstered and supported by the heavy ship construction and repair facilities found in each of the three systems, six planetary support fleets were tasked with patrol and defence, providing a more than sufficient amount of cover for the colonies. Should anything track the expedition fleets outward journey back to any one of the three systems with the wrong intentions, they would meet with a nasty welcome.
Unmanned faster than light capable communications stations and early warning deep space sensor grids were launched on ahead of the fleet, reporting that no technological presence had been found. Entire sectors of the Darkspace border along with many individual star systems along the outer edges were scanned. Nothing was found, including life.
Some took that as a warning and tried to raise their concerns, they were all to quiet though in comparison to the voices of those who pushed for the expedition to take place.
The honour of expedition fleet command was given to Ellam Ertoris Wai, a revered commander of the Desian Empire. Known for his tactical prowess and brutal efficiency during the roving wars, most recently in the subjugation of three separate regions of space, who previously existed under their own chaotic and selfish rule.
They were of course at first resistant to the subjugation and many did die, however after reconditioning processes had been put in place, the people quickly began to see the light and glory of Desian life. Ideological and religious ways were wiped away and they were given a role, given a reason to exist beyond their own personal selfish desires.
Commander Wai was also intimately involved in negotiating the surrender of the exodus fronts, which led to the end of the roving wars so when the mission volunteers were assessed, he ranked the highest. It was the only logical choice.
Dressed in his finest medal covered uniform of a supreme fleet commander, adorned with diamonds and gold lace, his sabre hung by his left side long and deadly. Ellam Ertoris Wai stood straight and tall in the darkened hall, looking up to the majestic height of the assembled expedition council, sitting on their podiums of light.
One half step in front of him at waist height was a raised stone dais, on it was his own pulse pistol, normally kept in the now empty holster which hung by his right leg.
After his mission was detailed and the importance of the honour bestowed upon him explained, only one of two outcomes would play out.
With his right hand he drew his sabre, laid it across the palm of his open and already scarred left hand and pulled the blade away, cutting open his skin. Blood spilled onto his pulse pistol and the stone dais, and he spoke loudly the motto of his glorious empire before placing his sabre back into its sheathe. Finally picking up his pistol he slid it into the empty holster, and turning smartly left the council chambers.
The ceremony was more of a formality they all knew, as only one of the two available outcomes ever played out. The second required him to lift the pistol from the dais, put it to his head and pull the trigger.
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The fleet itself was the largest and most powerful ever deployed by mankind, with over three thousand two hundred battleships, carriers and combat cruisers. A further six thousand non faster than light capable destroyers and frigates, deployable from their carriers beside seventy thousand fighters and bombers were also available to augment the fleets defence.
Under the command of the great Commander Wai the Darkspace expedition fleet was launched.
As the fleet passed and disappeared into the darkened threshold, laser capable deep space communications satellites were dropped behind them, providing a daisy chain effect between the major faster than light or FTL communication stations, heavily bolstering their capabilities and for the first time ever, allowing mankind to see beyond the hidden veil of the unknown Darkspace.
After the expedition passed that empty threshold, smaller scouting fleets were dispatched and began to relay back reports and images of wonderful and resource rich star systems, asteroid belts and gas clouds. It became quickly clear the region wasn't empty as many believed, it was instead hidden, as the light from the Darkspace simply couldn't be seen from the outside.
Weeks pressed on, more systems were discovered and still no signs of intelligent life or technology was found, excitement grew and celebrations were held, they allowed themselves to believe that whatever was there before had run in fear of the Desian might. It was only a matter of time before they would find the technology capable of hiding space, the marvels and resources hidden by the Darkspace was finally within their reach.
They were wrong, and soon after their excitement began to taste like ash in their mouths.
Glitches in the expedition's communications packets were the first indicator of something not quite right, static mixing with video and small sections missing, reports came back telling the expedition's home command of scouting groups that hadn't checked in. Later a nervousness between the expedition's sub commanders was noted by Commander Wai, as they reported back the presence of an unknown background signal being picked up, spiking as entire scouting groups would stop communicating.
Soon after the initial problems, entire message packets were being disrupted as communication stations would drop out of the network. Only some data packets made it back and those that did had large amounts of data missing. No warnings or SOS calls were relayed back by the scouts, they had simply disappeared.
Then at last it was confirmed, the expe
dition fleet was not alone, a single powerful transmission made it back. The message was of the expedition fleet's final hour.
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Following the loss or disappearance of over three hundred and fifty ships, Commander Wai ordered the recall of all scouting and patrol groups along with the repositioning of the remaining FTL communication stations, in an attempt to reconnect his fleet with home command. They intended to track back and pull out of the Darkspace territory, but didn't make it.
As his fleet re-consolidated, they came under heavy attack from an unknown, unseen enemy.
The first strike was an untranslatable but powerful signal, heralding a wave of energy which shut down the faster than light drive of every ship, their safety systems incapable of shielding the delicate calibration and control components of the mass manipulators, allowing them to overload and burn out.
The disabling wave did however provide the fleet prior notice of an impending attack and all fleet ships were ordered to battle stations. Formations were detailed and the six thousand sub light destroyers and frigates were deployed from their carriers, smaller fighters and bombers were also deployed for additional cover.
The enemies presence was only made apparent to the expedition as ships of the fleet began to die around them. Brutal sweeping attacks worked their way through the formations.
Powerful radar systems and ECM suites blanketing the area by command-and-control ships built and fitted specifically for the task, found nothing to strike back at.
Up to twenty warships every ten seconds would come apart in blinding explosions as energy plants breached their controlled environment. Other ships would crumple in on themselves, as if being crushed inside the fists of giant and powerful gods before turning themselves too into brief miniature suns.
The expedition fleet descended into chaos, formations fell apart under the brutality of the attacks, ships fired into empty space, nuclear warheads were thrown in every direction hitting nothing. In only two minutes, the fleet suffered losses in the hundreds with not even a single glimpse of the enemy.
Commander Wai did notice a pattern though, given the amount of ships dying in space at any one time and the randomness of the attack locations, they weren't dealing with a coordinated enemy fleet. He surmised there were around thirty or forty enemy ships and they were not striking as one, the enemy were picking their own targets while advanced cloaking systems hid them from the powerful eyes of the fleet's sensor suites.
He figured that in order for them to survive he would have to find a way to see his enemy, which was becoming more and more difficult to control as his fleet appeared to fall apart around him.
A plan formed, orders to reform their formations were issued to his sub commanders, focussing on the trails of destruction, the routes his hidden enemies took through his formations became more and more apparent. Using this knowledge he instructed his command team to set up predictive targeting based on probable enemy locations. Orders were disseminated and coordinated nuclear missile bombardment commenced based on the given assumed locations.
With the fleet now focusing their fire on the coordinates provided and not wildly throwing their munitions into space, a small amount of composure was regained. Tracking and targeting vessels were instructed to recalibrate their sensor networks to hunt for the ghosts in the radiation filled space as warhead after warhead continued to detonate, adding their own fill of radiation and energy to the already saturated area.
Control returned, Admiral Wai began to feel more confident as his fleet retook its shape, he watched as nuclear missiles by the thousands disabled inbuilt safety systems and detonated their warheads, one after the other.
Some of his own ships were consumed in friendly nuclear fire, it was a sacrifice he knew they would dutifully make, a sacrifice they had to make and as they came apart under the bombardment, his tactic began to prove itself. Silhouettes in the energy and the heavily irradiated space were observed, sensor operators could now relay more accurate targeting data to fleet command, it was only a matter of time.
After several minutes, the energy waves of two warheads struck their enemy, with the fleet sensors having been calibrated to look for the ghosts in blast waves and radiation, the unknown vessel had finally been localised down to a manageable engagement zone.
In the vastness of space the word pinpointed is often misused but with several hundred more missiles redirected and sent to one single small area, the deadly ship had nowhere to go. Explosion after explosion lit up the enemy vessel, it couldn't hide now they could see it, several missiles directly impacting the craft itself, yet it still killed ship after ship and not once could they get a sensor read or image of it.
Those close enough to engage the silhouette did so, railguns and energy lasers filled the area, with tactical sensors occasionally reporting back direct strikes. A direct strike from a battleship's main railguns was not something easily shrugged off, the dual barrelled weapon was essentially a seventeen kilometre long gun connected to two purpose-built energy plants, and yet despite registering over eleven direct strikes with these weapons, the unseen craft slipped on through making its way ever deeper into the heart of the fleet formations.
In the end it took dozens more strikes from the rail guns and missiles armed with their deadly payloads to kill the craft.
It was more a calculated guess that a kill had been achieved, as the silhouette simply ceased to be where it was before.
Reports came back from the different fleet sectors with their own areas of control and bombardment. Three more of the silhouettes were localised and killed under the commanders tactics, although in the twenty five minutes it took to kill the four unseen vessels, the fleet had suffered over four thousand losses.
Wai, understanding a battle of attrition and how it worked, very quickly came to the conclusion that they were not going to win, despite their much greater fleet numbers. No one would survive this day, the enemy were simply too fast and hard to hit with weapons and armour generations beyond their own.
He had only one option.
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The remaining fleet sub commanders were ordered to reform once more and continue the bombardment protocols, the command echelon then extracted from the rear of the battle formations and into a space clear of the radiation.
Every single communications probe and satellite that remained in fleet control was fired off back towards empire space. The entire events of the battle from how it unfolded to how it would end, had to get back.
With the command group no longer in the battle and focused more on sending the details of the battle and enemy back home, the main fleet only lasted another twenty minutes, although not before quickly refining their local tactics and bringing down another five of the enemy vessels. One of the enemy died quicker than the rest after losing its stealth, but with every ship sensor in the fleet running, they managed to absorb a lot of information about the enemy killing machines.
They were sleek, black and shaped like apple seeds, very small with two single unidentifiable weapons pointing from a gap at the front. There were no visible means of propulsion and the material composition could not be determined. It never got a chance to use its weapons after losing its cloak, several hundred battleships of the Desian empire released their rage as one, the now visible enemy craft only lasted seconds.
The reason for the ships surviving so many strikes was also made clear, they were wrapped in a shield of energy, capable of absorbing or deflecting the terrifying power of the weapons and warheads, something the Desians were never capable of replicating.
Commander Wai was no coward, he would die for the empire that raised him so high and with no more faster than light drive, there was no place to run anyway. What was more important at this stage was information. The empire had to be informed of the terror lurking behind the veil of the Darkspace, and exactly just how powerless they were against it.
Instructing his command echelon to return to what wa
s left of the fight, and assist in delaying the enemy advance, he put all power to his engines and began to run. Pressing on as long as possible, continuing to transmit as much as he could, every second longer he lived gave more chance of the transmissions making it back in one piece.
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Those in the room stared on in horror, as hidden ships less than five percent the size of an Empire battleship boasted a shielding system, requiring a power source thousands of times greater than anything ever built by mankind.
They watched over twenty kilometres of steel and titanium armour, being crushed like paper before turning to miniature white suns, over and over.
Nine thousand of their Empires most diverse and powerful ships of war died, killing over three million seven hundred thousand fleet personnel. Sickeningly, enemy kills could be summarised by counting the fingers on both hands, if the numbers could be believed that is, being unable to verify the death of something that they could never see.