United Front

by Will Crudge

  United Front

  Book 3: Humanity War Saga

  This saga has been a complete thrill ride to create. But just because the trilogy comes to a conclusion, doesn’t mean the story does as well! But before we can see how humanity fares against a dark an ancient threat, we’ll need to see if they can find an end to the war between the Crimson Alliance and the UAHC. Humanity may be despised by our galactic neighbors, but it may be their only chance for survival. However, all of the peaceful sentient beings in the cosmos cannot hope to find a savior in the human race… Not unless humanity can set aside their grievances, and forge a United Front!

  -Will Crudge, 2018

  A Threat Revealed

  Location: Crimson Headquarters Facility, Geneva Command Orbital Station, Orbiting Planet Carrion

  Date Time: Post Interstellar 09/10/4201 1015HRS Crimson Standard Zulu

  System: Carrion System

  Military Chancellor Varle Singleton paced back and forth in his office. The wondrous view of open space through the window did nothing to sooth his tormented mind. His Crimson dress uniform was adorned by five shimmering stars. Their highly-polished glare reflected the soft lighting that filled the space.

  He had spent his morning reviewing reports of a war not going well. He could only imagine how the Crimson Alliance’s dark benefactors would do in response to their strategic blunder. It had been nearly six weeks since the Battle of Tangine, but due to the vastness of the cosmos, it had taken most of that time for all of the data to make it to the Carrion System. All the hyper gate stations within UAHC controlled space were now back in the enemy’s direct control.

  The Chimera had failed to cripple the UAHC Military, as most had been eradicated upon discovery. He stopped his pacing as a frown fell over his face. The surging feelings of disgust rippled through his entire being.

  Singleton was not yet in command of the Crimson Alliance’s combine forces when the Mwargoth’s had delivered the Chimera. Had he been in command, then he supposed, he would have rejected infecting any human tech with alien constructs. Enemy or not, the thought of cheap tricks and alien weapons made Singleton cringe.

  Slimy creatures! He spat. Some good they did us! Two centuries of planning our triumphant vengeance, and these late-comers show up.

  Singleton had been on the planning staff for many of the proposed courses of action the Crimson forces planned to employ against the UAHC decades prior. The mysterious Mwargoths emerged from nowhere, and convinced the Crimson Alliance to utilize their assistance.

  That was three decades ago. Singleton was a Vice Admiral at that time, and had a robust planning staff beneath him. His plans were nearly ready for execution before the alien race had won over the senior Crimson leadership. The abrupt change in strategy rendered decades of careful planning null and void.

  Singleton’s plan for a more conventional attack would have been highly viable during the period of which it was conceived… and very nearly utilized… The UAHC had been dedicating vast resources into refitting their capital ships. The reluctance of funding the endeavor was due to the palpable – anti-military – sentiments within the UAHC’s Civilian Quorum. The resulting political pressures had slowed the refit down to a crawl. Nearly fifty percent of the UACH Fleet’s battlecruisers were being retired. Nearly all of their purpose built dreadnaughts were on the chopping block also. The new class of battle cruisers were costly, and it took fifty years of pleading with the tight-wad civilian government to fund them.

  The largely anti-military UAHC civilian government was the Crimson’s greatest weapon. The UAHC had superior ground troops that could easily overwhelm the Crimson regulars or conscripts. However, the Crimson Alliance accounted for this by superior numbers in combat vessels. Their strength in numbers were partially negated by the superior quality of UAHC warships, but that had been accounted for. During the UAHC Fleet’s refit, the Crimson had a better than eighty percent chance of winning a prolonged campaign by sheer numerical advantage.

  Chancellor Singleton had spent years being apart from his family and friends. Missing his children, being the hardest part of all. He was a bitter man to begin with… but the presence of an alien race only made it worse. A presence that he had yet to experience himself. Contact between the Mwargoths and the Crimson elite were sparse at best. Very few humans had even seen one of these – creatures – in the flesh. He wondered if the news of the Crimson defeat would change that…

  Even though the entire strategy that set the stage for the Battle of Tangine had not been his decision, it was already put into motion by his predecessor. Too many resources had already been committed for him to scrub the mission by then. The Crimson Alliance was wracked with poverty and lawlessness as it were. The pandemic lack of resources made it impossible to rescind the operation.

  He had only been made aware of the decade’s long covert efforts to destroy the War Master Guild. The Mwargoths must have deemed the Guild as a threat even though it had been driven underground two centuries ago. He was proud of himself for scrapping those costly operations when he took command. Although the overarching strategy to invade Sol was not ideal, in his opinion, he could take solace in the fact that he’d repurposed the clandestine operational resources towards the main effort.

  Perhaps the Mwargoths would be none-too pleased with him, but he didn’t care. It was a human war. But then… it begged the question that had haunted him for thirty years. What could these aliens have to gain by supporting the Crimson Alliance against the UAHC? He had many theories, but none made any sense. At least none that involved his own people from gaining anything but perpetual enslavement when the dust settled.

  He’d always thought that if the Mwargoths were so concerned about the UAHC, or the War Master Guild, then why not invade themselves? The answer had always eluded him, and casted a shadow of doubt over the true strength that the Mwargoths could even bring to bear. None of it made any sense at all.

  “Chancellor?” Melody, the HQ AI asked audibly.

  “Yes, Melody?”

  “You’re needed in the situation room.” She said with a sense of urgency.

  “Very well, Melody.” He replied. “I’ll be right there.”

  Singleton made the trip on foot in about ten minutes. The entire deck of the station was so secure, that he didn’t require any security escort, nor did he see many personnel along the way. He could have taken a quick hop on the transport train, but elected to walk. Walking allowed him time to digest his thoughts and build focus.

  Soon he arrived at the security access point, and two fully armored soldiers stood on either side of the door. They each rendered a salute before ushered their Military Chancellor through the door that led opened up to the cavernous situation room. The room was filled with workstations and displays of all sorts. The gigantic holographic display pedestal was the centerpiece of the circular room while most of the other workstations faced inward towards it. They were arranged in concentric circles with intermittent spaces for foot traffic.

  Standing by the base of the pedestal were a man and a woman, both in dress uniforms. The man had short blonde hair with grey streaks that topped off his pale angular face. The woman was a brunette with her hair tied up in a tight bun. She wore a sparse amount of makeup, and didn’t seem to take much stock in personal vanity. Her generally plain features seemed to flow nicely with her minimalist style of grooming.

  Singleton approached the display, and noticed the somber faces on his two colleagues.

  “Why the long faces?” Singleton asked.

  “Sir, we have some – disturbing - images to show you.” The man spoke up. Singleton knew him as Fleet Marshal Silvio.

  “Oh?” Singleton said as he turned to look at the woman, which he knew to be Vice Admiral Carter w
ho served as Silvio’s Chief of Staff.

  “Yes, Sir…” Carter hesitated, and then seemed to fight off a frown. “We’ve been receiving reports of anomalous attacks on our vessels.”

  Singleton huffed. “We are at war, remember?” Both Carter and Silvio just nodded in agreement and then turned to the display behind them.

  The image of blackness emerged and filled the bulk of the display. Stars dotted the backdrop, and then a single point of light began to grow in the center.

  “What am I looking at?” Singleton asked.

  “If I could answer that, Sir… We may not have bothered bringing to your attention.” Silvio said without taking his eyes off the three dimensional image.

  The image began to enlarge as the single point of light increased in fidelity until it painted a familiar picture in Singleton’s mind. He recognize it as the thruster array of a Crimson dreadnaught. It was facing the opposite direction from their vantage. The image of the thrusters seemed to grow larger, so Singleton realized the ship was in a one hundred and eighty degree attitude.

  “Why am I watching a dreadnaught in a DECEL maneuver?” Singleton grumbled. He had no idea what was so important about a dreadnaught performing a routine maneuver.

  “Keep watching, Chancellor.” Carter replied without taking her eyes off of the image.

  The vessel seemed to be in the final stages of deceleration, and the thrusters began to wane in intensity. Then the attitude thrusters shot out plumes of exhaust, and the image of a standard dreadnaught rotated into view. After a few moments, the prow of the imposing ship was facing towards the vantage point of the three onlookers.

  “Where is this image being captured from?” Singleton asked.

  “STC shipping lane deep space unit.” Silvio replied. The Crimson STC’s had a network of these deep space visual units emplaced throughout all common shipping lanes throughout Crimson space. Crimson scanners didn’t have the long ranges that their UAHC counterparts had, so their solution was a network of low cost automated sensor units.

  “So, this is Crimson space?” Singleton asked. Why is my time being wasted? This is our own ship travelling in our own shipping lanes… in our own space! Singleton made no effort to hide his frustration as he thought to himself. His eyebrows furrowed and his lips formed a sneer.

  “That’s correct, Sir.” Silvio said with a nod. “But now is the strange part…” he never finished the sentence, but instead just gestured for the Chancellor to look back up at the display.

  Singleton then saw the energy readout in the lower left of the STC unit’s display flicker. He turned to give it a second glance, but it appeared to be normalizing. He began to look back at the center of the image once more. Before he refocused his eyes, the energy readout went berserk. The four-figured energy readout quickly hit all 9’s across the board then froze. The outline of the energy reading began to flash red to indicate a sensor-overload, followed by some kind of blinding light that flashed into view. The display glowed intensely.

  Singleton put his hand up to protect his eyes from the glare, but it soon faded. The screen rippled and distorted, but righted itself a moment later. When the image returned it showed the massive ship listing to its starboard side and drifting in the same direction. Ripples of the energy shield trying to restore itself pulsed down the length of the hull, but the ship appeared to be lifeless, otherwise. Just a floating hulk in the vastness of space. The once imposing warship was now a helpless hunk of space debris.

  A moment later, ripples of fear surged up and down Singleton’s spine, and all he could do was shake his head to stave off the shivers. What the hell just happened?!

  By the time he composed himself, a new object emerged. The - thing -appeared to be some kind of ship, but the hull type was something he’d never seen before. It looked almost trumpet-shaped, but with a squared off superstructure above - what would have been - the large opening of the trumpet. It just hovered motionless but then began to rotate to expose its broadside to the dreadnaught.

  “What the hell is that?!” Singleton gasped as his eyes grew large and he took a step back. Under normal circumstances, he would never allow his subordinates to see him have a single shred of doubt, but these circumstances warranted otherwise.

  “We have no idea, Sir.” Cater answered up. “But in a few seconds you’ll see why we’re concerned.”

  Singleton could have swallowed his own tongue at that moment, but he was glad it wasn’t anatomically possible. The alien vessel blazed an array of violet energy that seemed to envelope the Crimson ship. The energy field flared in response, but snapped out of existence within a few seconds, and the hull of the mighty ship began to glow red…then white. Atmosphere burst from dozens of cracks in the hull and the entire ship looked like it was turning into a kilometer-long block of molten slag.

  It was all over in a matter of seconds. The alien ship seemed to explode into oblivion a few seconds later, and Singleton realized it was some sort of FTL jump.

  “Mwargoths.” Singleton said with an ominous tone. He was still staring through the display, despite the fact that the footage had been closed out completely.

  “That’s what we believe, Sir.” Silvio shook his head. “It would seem they didn’t take the news of our defeat very well.”

  Singleton huffed. “Well, I never told them anything. I just got the comprehensive reports this morning. Besides… if this is some kind of retribution for failing at our own attack, then why punish us?”

  “There’s no telling.” Carter shrugged. “They are aliens, after all. They may have their own unique frame of logic that we can’t begin to anticipate.”

  “Bullshit!” Singleton spouted. “I know what this is…. I’ve always known, but up until now I had no way to confirm it!”

  “Known what, Chancellor?” Silvio crossed his arms and looked inquisitively at the Chancellor. Carter followed suit as she rocked her hips over to her right side.

  “These – Mwargoths – want humanity at war.” Singleton said as he glared back at the two. “They want humanity divided… so we don’t pose any kind of threat to them… or whatever their grand scheme is. Somehow they fear us… or just were hoping that we would destroy each other and make the conquest of our part of the galaxy easy for them! Either way… fighting this fucking war is the last thing we need to be doing! We need to call for a cease-fire, and try to get the other human nations this data!”

  “Well, Sir.” Silvio changed to a more sinister tone. “Whether you’re right or not, I can’t let you prevent our eventual victory against the UAHC!”

  Silvio drew his sidearm, and Carter froze in fear. Singleton ducked to one side as he spun around, but the ballistic round managed to clip his right shoulder. He didn’t even feel the impact from the rush of adrenaline coursing through his veins, but somehow he managed to draw his own pistol and return fire.

  Luckily for Singleton, his marksmanship was slightly better, and Silvio’s brain matter splattered across the holographic pedestal. The Chancellor wasted no time as he trained the pistol on Carter a split-second later. She threw up her hands in submission as she stuttered in fear. Her fingers trembled as they pointed upward.

  The door guards sprinted in with their rifles at the ready and scanned the area for threats. Singleton heard them, but didn’t budge. He remain motionless like a statue. He could have been a still frame photograph, had it not been for the blood trickling down his uniform.

  He shot Carter a deep scowl as he spoke. “Are you drinking the same water as Silvio?”

  “Wh-what?” Carter could barely get the words out. Her lips were too busy quivering in fear.

  “Let me rephrase…” He cocked the hammer on his priceless Colt 1911 model pistol. “Are you going to be a part of saving humanity, or dooming it?”

  “I-I didn’t kn-know he would do that… I sw-swear!” She stuttered.

  “Answer the question.” Singleton repeated himself with a far more assertive tone than before.

  “No!
” She pleaded. “I never wanted war! I only wanted to do my duty, I swear! I had nothing to do with Silvio’s treachery.”

  At this point, Singleton noticed that the door guards had their rifles trained on her. Good. He thought to himself. He realized he didn’t know if the guards were a part of some kind of plot against him, or if they were just soldiers that had assessed the Chancellor wasn’t the threat.

  “Good.” Singleton said as he un-cocked the lever on his ancient pistol before it back into its holster. He gestured to the guards to lower their rifles. “I already have to promote someone to Fleet Marshal today. No sense in promoting someone to Vice Admiral before their time, I suppose.”

  “Yes, Sir.” She replied with a sheepish voice. She slowly lowered her arms, but she couldn’t keep from trembling.

  “Now you work directly for me, understood?”

  She just nodded in response. There was a slight pause as she drew a deep breath to regain her composure. She exhaled slowly before she spoke. “Orders, Sir?”

  “Simple.” He replied. “Do everything possible to stop this war, and inform the rest of humanity of the real threat.” He didn’t wait for her to acknowledge his words, but rather he turned to walk out of the situation room. The guards followed behind him without hesitation.

  It will take weeks to recall the fleets. I pray they’re still intact when they receive the order! Singleton thought to himself as he walked out of the room.

  Ground Pounders

  Location: Folly Moon, Equatorial Region, Orbiting Planet Symbian

  Date Time: Post Interstellar 09/30/4201 1456HRS UAHC Standard Zulu

  System: Faust System, Goldie Locks Zone

  Corporal Gail readied her laser designator on a small tripod. The tripod was barely tall enough to crest the heap of rock and sand that provided cover for the dug-in fighting position that her team occupied. She could see Lance Corporal Thomas had his heavy multi-function rifle pointed outward and scanned for threats, so she could stay on task with confidence.