Talosian Chronicles 5: Raptor Squadron

by Ben Winston

  "He's not an officer, he's a civilian," the Lieutenant said. "It does indeed look as though we are at a stalemate Major. We cannot leave because of our orders and you will not surrender. What do you suggest?"

  Cindy shrugged. "It looks like we get to sit here until your orders get changed. You guys hungry; I can call for lunch? I heard there is a really awesome pizza place here."

  "We're here to capture or kill you and your offering to buy us lunch?" the Lieutenant asked.

  "Ell-tee, I have nothing against you or your men. You've never been, and I doubt you ever will, be my enemy. Like me, you're just following orders. We're both kinda stuck, so why not have lunch while we're waiting? I could get it from the ship, but I don't think you guys would trust it, so I'll buy it from a store in town." She grinned. "Besides, I can always justify the expense under 'diplomatic negotiations'."

  "We just tried to kill you and you're offering to buy us lunch?" another man asked.

  Cindy smiled at him. "I refuse to hold your orders against you. This fuck up isn't your fault, well, it might be some of his fault," she said and pointed to the asshole that tried to shoot her. "But the rest of you are simply doing what good soldiers do. Why should I be pissed off over that?"

  "Well, I think I would be a little less than charitable towards someone that just tried to kill me, but hey, I'm funny that way," the man said.

  Cindy nodded to him. "If there was even a chance that he could have hurt me, I doubt I would be as forgiving. What you guys don't understand, or maybe you weren't told, is our gear is designed to fight battles in space; against lasers, particle cannons, plasma guns and whole range of other high-tech shit that you just don't have access to here. You can't even gas me because the suit has its own air supply."

  "Yeah, but how long will that last for you? We force you to seal up and sooner or later, you'll need to resupply your tanks," the asshole said.

  Cindy shook her head. "No I don't; I could very easily spend the rest of my very long life in this suit and never have to take it off, refill any tanks, or even replace the batteries - because it doesn't have any."

  "We'll get you out of that suit, as soon as we capture the rest of the people you have down here. You'll do exactly what we tell you to do," the asshole replied confidently.

  "Really? You mean the people that are right now surrounded by civilians with cell phones that are recording the entire event? The same ones that are talking to the local police while our doctor works to save the lives of one of your men?" Cindy asked sarcastically. "The same folks that are wearing shields that prevent you from even touching them? Just how do you suppose you're going to capture them?" Cindy shook her head. "Look, Agent Smith, or whoever the fuck you are, you've been trying everything you could think of to get your hands on our tech for the last two years. Even when you did manage to get your hands on some advanced alien tech, we just took it away from you without hurting anyone. Why are you idiots still trying?"

  "Because you'll eventually make a mistake, and we'll get all of you traitors back in line and under fucking control like you should have been to begin with!" the man spat.

  Cindy slowly sat down on the snow. "Did you know that any of you, well maybe not Agent Smith there, can now buy a commercial ticket to visit the moon base or even the planet Atlas in the Centauri system? Our Council is allowing tourism!" She grinned. "But let me give you a little bit of a reality check 'Smith'. For the sake of argument, let's say you did manage to get your hands on some of our stuff; let's say you did manage to get my ship. Do you honestly think we would let you keep it?"

  "Like you'd have a choice! First, you'd have to find it!" the man replied. "Then, even if you did, you'd have to get through a lot of defenses! No, we'd never let you have it back."

  "Really? So you just gave us those Caldarian ships you tried to capture in the battle last year?" Cindy asked. "You have no idea what technology we have or how we're able to keep track of it. You couldn't even so much as steal a pistol from us and hide it so well we couldn't find it."

  "We don't have to steal the pistol, we just have to steal the designs. You can't track that," Smith replied.

  Cindy nodded. "I wouldn't be so sure about that, Smith. Anyway, Lieutenant, how about that Pizza? I'm getting hungry."

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Raptors Dynasty, Acadia, Gothem, Ithica

  Deep Space, Echelon System

  Contested Space, Alliance Border

  "Major we are showing small power readings in the old prison. It may well be that Pirates have indeed taken up residence here," Alicia, the Dynasty AI reported.

  "Well, that should make this a tad more interesting. Thomas, Cathy, should we clean them out, or just ignore them for the time being?" Carl asked.

  "Is it wise to leave a potential enemy this close to our base?" Thomas asked.

  "Normally, I would agree with you Thomas. However, if we leave them alone for as long as we can, it would give the Imperials something to focus on if they look here. I think we should leave them alone for the time being while we establish our base on the planet. We can always just deal with them if they become an issue. Until then, we should begin building our base and defenses," Cathy replied.

  Thomas nodded. "I can see that. We'll have to do something about them before we start putting in the remote installations, but for now we can ignore them."

  Carl smiled at his friends. "Okay then. Alicia, please set course for the ice world and let's get to work."

  "Course plotted. ETA is two hours, twenty-one minutes," the AI replied.

  "Let's leave a probe somewhere near the prison so we can keep an eye on these people. You know, they might not really be pirates, but simply refugees that fled the war," Thomas replied.

  "A probe drone is a good idea, I know I'd feel like shit if we found out they were only refugees after we cleared out the prison," Cathy replied. "The Croanians say they're pirates, but they could just be a group of people that steal only what they need to survive our here."

  "If they've actually stolen anything to begin with. We should talk to Jana about it before we take action against them. She knows more about the Croanian society than we do, besides, if she's the new 'Lord' of this system, then wouldn't these people be 'hers' by default?" Carl asked.

  "Who knows? Just one more thing for Jana to figure out when she gets back." Thomas replied.

  "Apache should be getting to their target, but Zulu is still a day out. I wish they could let us know how it goes and when they'll be back," Cathy replied. "I don't like being this spread out."

  "We'll need to get used to it if this is going to be our base. Either way, both of the other teams should be back here by the end of the week. Between now and then, we need to find a good place to build and get busy. I just wish we had a couple of construction drones already built." Thomas replied. "Instead we have to build the stuff to build the stuff before we get started!"

  Carl chuckled. "It does sound ridiculous, but it is what it is. The replicators we have are not capable of building the larger drones, but it can build a maintenance drone that can build a large scale replicator capable of building a construction drone. It's just the way it has to be."

  The four teams left two drones near the large asteroid that held the prison facility, and one near the largest of the mine sites, since there was a weak power signature detected there as well. They moved on to the ice planet, called Echelon, which took its name from the system. The Echelon system was a trinary star system consisting of one small yellow star, a small brown dwarf and a small, very hot 'white' dwarf that appeared blue to the naked eye. The planet Echelon had a nitrogen rich atmosphere but there was not enough oxygen to be breathable, then too, at a daytime high of minus one hundred seventy degrees Fahrenheit, it was far too cold anyway. Because of the distance from the closest primary, the noon-day sun cast only as much light as twilight on earth. It was a dark, frozen, forbidding world.

  After several orbits to survey the surface, the two ships decided on a s
pot near an old mountain range in the southern hemisphere. They found an ice cave with an opening large enough for the raptors to fly into. The cave system extended down under the ice for quite a distance. While there had been signs of tectonic activity in other areas of the planet, this area showed only very old evidence. They took the raptors a quarter mile into the caves before setting them down to begin their work. Cathy had gotten to work on how to cover the entrance with a shield while Carl and his AI began working on how and where to reinforce the cave system. The rest of the people from the teams, led by Major Thomas, began building the shelters and the housing for the big replicator they would need.

  By the time the Apache arrived the cave system turned hanger was complete, the shelters that would eventually become the maintenance facilities were finished, and three large scale replicators had been built. There were a dozen hangar buildings to house Raptors, a large warehouse near the command building for off-loading cargo and passengers, and three smaller hangars capable of servicing any shuttle craft or small freighter in the Alliance. While it was warmer in the cave system, it was still well below freezing so the hanger bays were heated to make repairs easier.

  From the Command building a shaft had been dug down a half-mile to where the main base and the reactors would be built. The administration areas and human quarters were very close to being finished, but the non-human living quarters, recreation, and training areas were still on the to-do list. Covering it all was a special shield; one that did nothing more than cancel out any and all emissions from within the base. One of the construction drones was tunneling out almost twenty miles from the base, laterally. It would then tunnel up, to the top of one of the local mountains to install one of the communications units. The unit itself would be on an elevator that could be raised or lowered from the command center in the base operations room. Two other, identical units would be built in other directions and distances in order to help conceal the location of the base itself.

  It would take another four or five days to finish building the base complex and hidden defensive weapons systems on the planet. In order to make sure they were hidden, one of the raptors climbed into orbit and scanned for the base. The only thing detected was the communication nodes, and those only when they were being used.

  When she returned, Jana listened to the explanation the team leaders gave her about leaving the 'pirates' alone for the time being. She agreed that more investigation was needed and reviewed the data from the probes left to monitor the prison and mines. The data showed that the teams working on the planet had not been detected by the occupants, nor had they actually left during the week-long base construction. The group did send out patrols during this time. Armed freighters would leave the prison and move around the system on a regular schedule. Jana smiled at the other team leaders. They had found a place to start.

  Major Sizani and the Zulu sent a data burst that their mission had been successful and they were returning. In his report, he noted that the situation had been different from what they had thought so the mission had taken them longer to accomplish. He ended the report with their expected arrival in five days.

  Jana also received word that Sol Sector command would be sending a company of Marines for security, along with the techs and other support personnel the base would need. She got the idea that there was getting to be a lot of people and supplies awaiting the completion of the special freighters to get them sent. The creation of the base had taken command by surprise, but they were adapting. Jana just had to make sure that the base would be large enough to house everything.

  Some of the equipment was sent as design data for them to build on site. Some of the lighter ground equipment for the Marines fell into this category, but one item caught Jana's eye. They had been requested to test a new type of land rail in the cold weather of Echelon. If it was feasible, the teams would be getting this as a replacement for their existing land rails.

  The experimental 'Storm Shadow' assault hover craft looked impressive as hell on paper. It was basically a small fighter craft that only lacked flight engines. It had a smaller mass driver cannon than the existing land rails, but also boasted two particle canons, two fixed-base pulse lasers, a missile rack and a mine layer in the under-carriage. It also had a top speed of almost twice the existing rails and did not require a relatively smooth surface for its use. She noticed in the developer notes that they were working on creating a user interface like that of the FROG drones, but for now it still had a two-man crew.

  Jana had no idea what a FROG drone was, but figured it had something to do with remote operation. Which for the Raptor teams would not be desirable. The rails were used as transport as much as they were used as weapons. The idea was to be able to get someplace the ship wouldn't or couldn't go. Shrugging, she authorized the replication of four units, but it would have to wait until one of the construction drones could build the special assembly bay used for small craft construction. They had one on the list to be built already, since it would be required for the base, but it hadn't been a priority so was left for later. She passed out the user manual to the other teams so they could read up on the new craft.

  Raptor Acadia was chosen to capture the freighter and interview the crew. Not that it was a difficult mission, but it was important to not actually hurt anyone until their status was clarified. Raptor Apache would head to the prison while the Dynasty took one occupied mining site. If these were indeed pirates, Jana intended to take them prisoner and return them to their people for punishment. However, if they were just a bunch of refugees… well, that could be a problem.

  Apache went to the prison because that seemed to be where the main pirate base was located. Once the Acadia took the ship, Cathy would report to Jana about the crew and Jana would proceed from there. While the ship assault was happening, Gouyen would search out any computer systems she could find and gather information as well as disable the remaining ships to prevent escape.

  Sensors told Jana that there were more than just Croanians in the old prison. There were members of two other Alliance races present as well. They did have weapons, but they were older and not very plentiful. She did note that according to their sensors, the weapons were kept in a central location near the ship bay.

  As the scanners probed more, they registered the presence of females and children. In Croanian society, neither was allowed anywhere near combat. The females because they did not have the strength of the males and, because they were the thinkers, Croanian females were far more intelligent than the males, and they handled logistics and strategy. It wasn't really chauvinism for them, it just made more sense to do it that way. Then too, Croanians tended to have a low female birthrate.

  The other two races were from nations that were spatially close to Croanian territory. The Frellic and the Tyrne. The Frellic were a small nation located between Croanian and Tyrne space. The nation spanned only five star systems, but those systems had a lot of occupied worlds. Apparently, the Frellic could adapt, either by altering themselves or their environment, to most climates. From what Jana knew of them, they were not a very warlike race and appeared to lack ambition in most things. They had only moved off their homeworld as a matter of necessity due to overcrowding. Before the Empire arrive, the Croanians moved to conquer them, but met with no resistance. The Croanians quickly found out that little would be gained by ruling these people, and promptly began ignoring them. They set up bases in Frellic territory to begin invading Tyrne space and found what to them was something glorious; a race that could provide a challenge for their warriors. The Tyrne stopped the Croanian war machine dead.

  The Tyrne were not a warlike or expansionist race. However, they did understand that they were not alone in the universe and that many of the other races were warlike. So they made sure that they could protect their people and continued on with their business.

  While Jana secretly viewed the Croanian race as 'dwarves' in her mind. She saw the Frellic as more 'troll-like' at least in appearan
ce, and the Tyrne as gnomes. Over the centuries of war with the Empire, the three races had come to many agreements. Commerce between the nations opened up and interaction began to influence their societies.

  To see these three races in the same place, living together showed just how much trust existed between at least the common citizens. More and more Jana began to feel that these were not pirates at all.

  "Colonel, I've finished with their computer systems. These are not pirates in the true sense of the word. They are indeed refugees, but have been forced into acts of piracy to obtain food and supplies. Some of their targets have been Imperial, but a few have been Alliance. The computer systems show that they have requested asylum on fifteen different worlds. All their requests have been either refused or ignored. They are aware of the fact that, since they had to raid a supply convoy, the Croanians have labeled them as pirates, but one thing of note; no one was killed in any of their raids. They only took what they needed, and left," Gouyen reported. "The leader here is the former Croanian noble that fell from favor when she ordered the system abandoned."

  "That doesn't make any sense; if she ordered the system abandoned, why would she return here?" Jana asked.

  "I don't know. That information is not in the computer systems. However, there are no military personnel here. Just people that have fled the war," Gouyen reported. "The possibility exists there is an Imperial spy here as well. It seems odd that the Empire would ignore this system completely. There is a great deal of minerals and ores here to be mined. It could easily be considered a strategic resource based on that fact."

  "Well, sending them to Sol Sector is out of the question then. But perhaps we can have the Council appeal to one of the other races to take them in. One way or another, we need to get them out of here," Jana replied. "Pass the word to the Dynasty and the Acadia about what you found. Then I suppose we should go talk to these folks."