02:51 (Universal Time)
Tuesday, January 12, 2337
Spacers League’s battle station MJOLNIR
High orbit above planet Voronkia (Gliese 581c) Gliese 581 System, 20.5 light-years from Earth Commander Orlando Reyes was sleeping soundly in his cabin when the sudden beeping of the intercom unit sitting on his bedstand woke him up. Still groggy and half-asleep, he pushed the ‘open link’ button and looked at the image of his night watch officer, Lieutenant Bini Zendaya, on the viewing screen of the intercom.
‘’Yes, Bini?’
‘’Sir, one of our surveillance satellites orbiting around Voronkia has just signaled the arrival in the system of a large fleet of ships which emerged from the direction of the Southeastern Quadrant. Nineteen ships have been detected but more are emerging as we speak.’
A sudden rush of adrenaline hit Reyes on hearing Zendaya and he quickly sat up in bed while still looking at his intercom unit.
‘’Do we have a tentative identification for those ships?’
‘’We are still analyzing the images and data retransmitted by our satellites but, due to their size and shapes, my bet is that they are Space Predator warships, sir.’
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Now fully awake, Reyes nodded once and spoke in an urgent tone.
‘’I’m going to go to the bridge at once. In the meantime, put the station on combat alert and prepare to send a courier drone to the Navy headquarters on Providence.’
‘’Yes sir!’
Closing the intercom link, Reyes then got out of bed and hurried to his clothes locker to put his uniform on. Once he was fully dressed, he hesitated for a short moment before grabbing his gun belt and buckling it on, then checked that his disintegrator pistol had a fully charged power cell in it. Now ready to leave his cabin, he grabbed in passing the large, rigid suitcase which contained his personal spacesuit and walked out. With his cabin being on the same level than the bridge and command center of his battle station, he took less than two minutes before arriving at the command center. His mind was working furiously as he walked at a hurried pace, thinking about the actual situation and reviewing the combat capabilities of his battle station when pitted against Space Predator warships. The battle station MJOLNIR had been built out of the emptied shell of a M-Class large asteroid in 2316, some 21 years ago, during the Jovian Uprising. It had then been used to destroy the network of heavily armored giant orbital defense stations turning around Earth and defending the government of the now-defunct Earth Federation. MJOLNIR had then proved to be well up to the task, destroying all 26 orbital stations with rocket-propelled large meteorites which delivered a devastating kinetic energy blow against the orbital stations. MJOLNIR itself had easily withstood the heavy laser fire from the orbital stations, the thick nickel-iron shell of the 1,900 meter-diameter converted asteroid absorbing those laser beams without any true damage. Put in reserve after the war, the battle station had then been recalled into service in 2320 and, now equipped with a Koomak Drive interstellar propulsion system, had been sent to its present orbit around Gliese 581c, also known as Voronkia, some 20.5 light-years from Earth. It had been orbiting the large planet ever since, keeping watch over its troublemaking inhabitants, the Vorlaks, who had been forcibly quarantined to the surface of their planet for having attacked another sentient race, the Hoshis, who lived on the moon of Voronkia. The Vorlaks had aggravated their case by trying to destroy the Hoshis by launching a massive attack with nuclear-tipped missiles against their moon.
Thankfully, the mighty KOSTROMA, which had been at the time searching for two lost Koorivar refugee ships, had been present in the system and had defended the Hoshis against the Vorlaks, a cruel race that was butchering Hoshi prisoners for their meat. In a
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way, the Vorlaks mirrored to a point the Space Predators, who also butchered other sentient beings for their meat and who showed no regards for other races. However, the difference in the technological levels of the Vorlaks and of the Space Predators was huge. While the Vorlaks’ Space travel technology was still quite primitive, being about equal to that of Earth’s late 21st Century, that of the Space Predators, who possessed advanced gravity propulsion systems and interstellar drives, was about equal to that of the present Spacers League and even surpassed it in certain domains, like with their matter tele-transportation techniques. While the MJOLNIR had received a few modifications in the last few years to help it face a Space Predator attack, Reyes fully realized that, against a large Predator fleet, his 21-year-old battle station would be at a severe disadvantage.
When Reyes entered the command center, he found there a steadily growing crew frantically manning their work stations and exchanging urgent clips of information between them. Seeing Lieutenant Bini Zendaya standing next to the large Space visualization sphere of the center, Reyes walked quickly to the tall African woman, who came to attention on seeing him.
‘’Sir, the identification of those arriving ships is confirmed: they are definitely Space Predator ships. Right now, we have counted 26 warships and fifteen support ships, with more ships still arriving at intervals in the system.’
Reyes couldn’t help hesitate and pale on hearing those numbers.
‘’Twenty-six warships and fifteen support ships? This is a full-fledge invasion fleet, similar to that which had attacked Nordland. As for their probable goal, it is too easy to figure out: the Space Predators want meat, lots of meat. The question is: are they coming only for the Vorlaks ore are they going to go after the Hoshis as well?’
‘’Any source of meat they will encounter will be fine for those monsters, sir.’
replied Zendaya. ‘’If they have demonstrated something, it is that they will eat any race other than their own.’
‘’True! I am going to compose a short alert message for our courier drone. Our Navy must be warned about that fleet. Prepare the station for battle in the meantime...and don’t forget to activate our anti-teleportation scramblers.’
‘’Yes sir!’
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Letting Bini Zendaya giving orders around to bring the station to full combat readiness, Orlando Reyes went to a communications station and started typing a short but concise message addressed to Navy Headquarters on Providence. After a short reflection, he added a last sentence, then attached to his message a data file containing the sensors readings from his surveillance satellites concerning the incoming Predator fleet. Electronically loading his message aboard one of the courier drones held inside his battle station, Reyes then pressed a button, launching that drone into Space and on its way to the Alpha Centauri System and Providence. He felt much better once he saw that the courier drone had safely jumped away, and this before the Predator ships could possibly detect it. Going back to the main sensors display sphere, Orlando called to his side his four most senior officers present in the command center and spoke to them in a somber voice.
‘’Alright, our alert message has now left for Providence on our courier drone.
Before the Predator fleet can get close enough to detect our station, I intend for us to do a micro-jump and go take an orbit behind the moon Hyanesu, where we will wait and watch while staying in electronic silence mode. Remember that the primary mission of this battle station was to protect the Hoshis of Hyanesu from the Vorlaks and to enforce our Space quarantine against those same Vorlaks. Hopefully, the incoming Space Predators will believe us to be a simple asteroid captured by gravity and orbiting Hyanesu. We will then wait for the arrival of reinforcements in the system while standing ready to defend Hyanesu if any Predator warship approaches it. Lieutenant Zendaya, contact at once our embassy on Hyanesu and warn it to immediately stop all electronic emissions and shut off all external lights, so as not to attract the Predators’ attention on the moon.’
‘’What about our marine biology study team on Oceana, sir? They should also be warned about that approaching enemy fleet.’ replied the young woman, referring to the ocean planet Gliese 581d, the third planet in the system.
‘’Right!’ agreed at once Reyes. ‘’Send at once a message to Oceana and tell them to go into total electronic silence and take shelter. If they could take refuge in the ocean’s depths, the better: the episode about the attempted invasion of HIP 78288
showed us that the Predators have only a limited capacity for underwater operations. To all of you, make sure that everyone aboard has a disintegrator weapon with them at all times and to be ready to repel Predator boarders in the event that our scramblers fail to prevent the monsters’ teleportation beams from working.’
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‘’Uh, and the Vorlaks in all this, sir?’ asked young Ensign Jiro Kumitomo, attracting a pinched smile from Reyes.
‘’We can’t be in two places at the same time and our priority is to protect the Hoshis. The Vorlaks will be on their own, at least until our fleet can show up. Frankly, I can’t think of two races which deserve each other better than the Predators and the Vorlaks.’
03:29 (Universal Time) / 11:42 (Providence Time) Spacers League Navy Headquarters
City of New Dawn, Providence, Alpha Centauri B System Admiral Jiro Yamashiro felt a growing frustration as he reviewed the status of his operational ships: most of them could not be spared to go help the battle station MJOLNIR, for the good reason that they were often the only major warships available to defend the systems in which they were presently. Despite great efforts and expenses spent in enlarging his combat fleet, Yamashiro still had less than 25 cruisers or battleships in his fleet’s inventory. Building a major warship took years, while forming new crews took at least as long. He shook his head slowly as he looked at his ship’s status board.
‘’Only two battleships and four battlecruisers available to oppose at least 26
Space Predator warships and fifteen support ships. With such numerical inferiority on our side, any battle in the Gliese 581 is bound to finish in a disaster for us.’
‘’But, sir...’ protested his duty operations officer, Commodore Henry Perkins, ‘’a lone heavy starfighter from the NOSTROMO managed to destroy by itself four Predator warships and a number of Predator support ships in the HIP 78288 System a year ago.
That indicated that, when using our disintegrator cannons and our jump-capable missiles, we can overcome Predator ships, which are still armed solely with high-power lasers.’
Yamashiro threw a skeptical look at Perkins as he replied to him.
‘’Yes, but that lone heavy starfighter benefited from complete surprise and was a difficult target for the Predators’ lasers, due to its agility, speed and small size in comparison to its firepower. Even then, that starfighter ended up being hit within seconds, sustaining serious damage. Our main units will have a hard time to gain the kind of surprise that this starfighter enjoyed at that time.’
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‘’Then, what about sending whole squadrons of heavy starfighters along with our six heavy units? They could conduct multiple flank attacks and harass the enemy fleet while our major warships hold the line off Hyanesu. If handled well, they could cause severe damage to the Predators with long-range missile salvos.’
‘’Hum, you’re right, Commodore Perkins. How many MAMBA-Class heavy starfighters could we spare to go to the Gliese 581 System?’
Perkins took a few seconds to review the Navy’s status board before answering Yamashiro.’
‘’We could gather quickly and send a total of 39 heavy starfighters, Admiral.’
‘’Then, alert them and assemble them here at once. Vice-Admiral Makarov, on the battleship VICTORY, will lead our rescue force to the Gliese 581 System. Do you know where the A.M.S. NOSTROMO is presently? Having it as well for this coming battle would make me feel a lot better.’
‘’Uh, it is presently in the XO-1 System, some 552 light-years away, but I doubt that it will be available for combat operations today, sir: it was carrying over 26,000
citizens from Earth’s ASEAN countries, plus millions of tons of prefabricated structures and supplies, in order to start the populating of planet XO-1c, which is now known as Asiana. There is as well a high-level delegation from the ASEAN Federation aboard the NOSTROMO, intent on officially inaugurating that new colony. We can’t possibly ask Captain Forster to risk so many civilians still on her ship by ordering her into combat on short notice, sir.’
Yamashiro sighed deeply on hearing that.
‘’Damn! You’re right! Stil , send a courier drone to at least warn Captain Forster about that Predator fleet in the Gliese 581 System. She needs to know about it, in case that another Predator fleet would show up somewhere else. We still don’t know how many ships the Predators have left in their fleet, or even where they are based.’
‘’I will prepare a message for your signature right away, sir.’
04:12 (Universal Time)
Executive Apartment Number Three, Executive Deck A.M.S. NOSTROMO, in low orbit over planet Asiana (XO-1c) XO-1 System, 536 light-years from Earth