Pieter Nordlung hesitated for a second before starting to gently shake awake four-and-a-half-year-old Frida. He had debated for a minute with Jehanne about what to do with their adopted daughter while both of them were leaving for the Gliese 581
System and probable combat, to finally arrive at a temporary solution. With a call to Janet Robeson securing her help as a temporary caregiver for Frida, Pieter did feel better about having to leave for combat but still worried about the sadness that news was going to cause to his cute Frida. The toddler girl was slow to wake up and was still quite groggy when Pieter gently took her in his arms and kissed her.
‘’I am sorry to have to wake you up like this so early, my little angel, but I must soon fly out on a mission.’
‘’What about Mommy?’
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‘’She also has to go at the same time as me, sweetie.’
That last sentence brought an alarmed look on the toddler’s face, whose arms tightened at once around Pieter’s neck.
‘’Mommy is going too?’
‘’Yes, Frida. We however have arranged for Auntie Janet to take care of you while we are gone. I will drop you at her apartment before leaving.’
‘’You’re going to go fight the monsters, Daddy?’
‘’Yes, I am, but I promise that I will be back, and this after giving those monsters a good beating. Let’s dress you up now, so we can go to Aunt Janet’s apartment.’
Pieter’s heart nearly broke when Frida started crying in his arms.
‘’I don’t want you and Mommy to go, Daddy.’
‘’I understand, Frida. However, we must go, so that other children like you can stay safe from the monsters.’
That seemed to assuage a bit the toddler, who then meekly let Pieter and Jehanne dress her up and prepare a bag of spare clothes and toys for her. Six minutes later, Pieter was leaving the family’s apartment with Frida after Jehanne had planted a last kiss on her adopted daughter’s cheek.
‘’I have tons of things to do and prepare and must go now, Frida. Don’t worry about me: I will be fine and will return soon. Be nice with Aunt Janet and listen to her.’
‘’I will!’ replied Frida in a tiny voice before Pieter, still carrying her in his arms, walked out to go to the centerline core section of the ship. Jehanne was next to leave their apartment but went down to the craft hangars, where her android force was assembling.
04:54 (Universal Time)
Command center of the battle station MJOLNIR
In orbit over the moon Hyanesu, Gliese 581 System
‘’Sir, the Space Predator fleet is now in orbit around Voronkia. They have found two of our surveillance satellites and have just destroyed them. I expect them to soon find and destroy our two remaining surveillance satellites.’
‘’That was to be expected, Lieutenant Zendaya. Hopefully, they will not deduce from our satellites’ presence that a ship was also around.’
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Orlando Reyes’ pious wish was proven wrong some four minutes later, with a sensors operator nearly shouting in alarm.
‘’Sir, two Predator ships just detached themselves from their fleet and left the orbit of Voronkia: they are now heading our way.’
Reyes made a sour smile on hearing that.
‘’They must be coming to Hyanesu in order to conduct a simple reconnaissance of the moon. If they would have suspected our presence here, they would have sent more than two warships.’
‘’Two Space Predator warships still represent a lot of firepower, sir.’ said Bini Zendaya, making Reyes nod his head once.
‘’True! We will thus soon have to show them that we are not exactly naked ourselves. We will open fire with a missile salvo while they are still transiting and not flying directly towards Hyanesu: I don’t want large debris from those two ships to impact on the moon, something that could only cause some tremendous damage on the ground. Prepare four missiles with their anti-matter warheads set to maximum power and with a micro-jump interception flight profile. We will fire two missiles at each of those two Predator ships. Load all our other missile launch tubes as well, so we could be ready to fire at the rest of the enemy fleet at the same time as we fire our first four missiles. That heavy starfighter from the NOSTROMO showed in the HIP 78288 System how effective surprise can be when you find yourself outnumbered. Let’s welcome those monsters the way they deserve to be.’
‘’Understood, sir.’
As Zendaya passed his orders to the weapons officer of the battle station, Reyes mentally evaluated the chances of his battle station in this coming battle. While he had good hopes to be able to destroy quickly those two approaching enemy warships, the outcome against the rest of the Predator fleet was problematic, to say the least. He didn’t have heavy disintegrator cannons, contrary to the major units of the Spacers League’s Navy, only heavy lasers, missile launchers and rocket-propelled meteorites.
The later ones, despite having worked miracles against the old Terran Federation orbital defense stations parked around the Earth, were basically next to useless against Space Predator ships, themselves converted iron-nickel asteroids with very thick shells. As for MJOLNIR’s heavy laser batteries, they were no more powerful than the ones possessed by the enemy, thus didn’t provide him any advantage in a one-on-one fight and much less in a fight against multiple Predator asteroid ships. He was thus going to have to rely
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mostly on his missiles for this battle. Unfortunately, he had a total of only eight missile launch tubes, with a total inventory of 32 missiles in his magazines, less than the number of enemy ships now in the system.
‘We are probably going to have to kiss our asses goodbye soon.’
Some four minutes later, with the two Predator ships still approaching Hyanesu, more bad news came on, with a sensors operator giving a warning via the command intercom network.
‘’Sir, a second Predator fleet is now arriving in orbit around Voronkia.’
‘’How many ships and of what type?’ asked Reyes, hiding his shock.
‘’They are still going around the planet’s terminator but I can count already 23
warships, 34 support ships and one gigantic asteroid ship of unknown type. That last ship measures at least 22 kilometers by thirteen kilometers, sir.’
Reyes was left speechless for a second on hearing those numbers.
‘’Coño7! That sounds like some sort of carrier or flagship to me. Lieutenant Zendaya, have the four remaining missiles of our first prepared salvo retargeted against that super asteroid ship. It will be our priority target after those two approaching warships.’
‘’Aye, sir!’
Two more minutes and his weapons officer announced that the two approaching Predator ships were now within effective range, to which Reyes replied with a firm order.
‘’FIRE MISSILES, ALL TUBES! FOUR ON THOSE APPROACHING SHIPS
AND FOUR AGAINST THE ENEMY FLAGSHIP.’
‘’FIRING MISSILES NOW!’
Everybody in the command center held their breath as the eight launch tubes of the battle station spat out their heavy missiles, each measuring fourteen meters in length and 1.4 meters in diameter. The missiles then veered on their preprogrammed interception courses and, once clear of the moon’s orbit and with the enemy ships directly visible to their own sensors, effected micro-jumps via their Koomak Drive generators, disappearing for a fraction of a second from normal Space before 7 Coño: Spanish swear word basically equivalent to ‘asshole’, used around the Latino-speaking islands of the Caribbeans. Often used the same way Americans would say ‘Shit!’ when facing a big problem.
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reappearing close to their targets, inside the protective force shields of the Predator asteroid ships. The Predators on those ships never had time to react properly before the missiles slammed against the hulls of their three targets, then exploded, with their conversion warheads transmutating tens of kilos of the ships’ nickel-iron hulls into anti-matter and causing cataclysmic reactions with the rest of their hull material. With each of the missile warheads detonating with the power of a 150-megaton nuclear bomb, the hulls of the two approaching warships were easily burned through and holed, with the blast waves then penetrating inside the ships, incinerating and eviscerating the machinery and Predator crews of the asteroid warships. Now being nothing more than dead, burned out hulks with bows melted away, those two ships continued on their original heading while stumbling wildly, to eventually pass by Hyanesu and continue towards deep Space. Loud cheers in the command center greeted their destruction.
However, Orlando Reyes stayed silent at that time, waiting to see what his four other missiles would do against the giant Predator flagship. His stealth reconnaissance drones placed around Hyanesu then showed him four blinding flashes of light erupting against the hull of the gigantic asteroid flagship, which had taken a low orbit around Voronkia. This time, Reyes shouted his joy along with the men and women of his crew.
‘’YES! LIEUTENANT ROMANESCU, TARGET THAT BIG FLAGSHIP WITH ALL
THE MISSILES OF OUR SECOND SALVO. LET’S FINISH IT!’
‘’AYE, SIR!’
One minute later, the launch tubes of the MJOLNIR spat again, ejecting eight heavy missiles and sending them on their way towards Voronkia’s orbit. Less than thirty seconds after that, eight more blinding flashes of light temporarily hid the silhouette of the Predator giant ship, attracting more cheers inside the command center of the battle station. However, Reyes fully realized that this was only the start of a desperate battle and that he now had only sixteen heavy missiles left in his magazines to face the remaining 47 Predator warships. He thus gave new orders to his weapons officer.
‘’Lieutenant Romanescu, target only one missile per Predator ship from now on: we will have to make each of our missiles count. Fire our third salvo when ready and concentrate on the warships. TO ALL THE CREW, SEAL YOUR SPACESUITS NOW!
MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE ARMED AND READY TO REPEL BOARDERS.’
As Nadia Romanescu worked her fire control command panel, one sensors operator suddenly spoke up, a mix of surprise and confusion in his voice.
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‘’What the... Sir, six nuclear warheads just hit the enemy flagship...on its side facing the planet.’
‘’WHAT? WHO...’ exclaimed Reyes before he understood what had just happened. ‘’The Vorlaks! They had nuclear-tipped long-range missiles before the KOSTROMA hammered them sixteen years ago. They must have rebuilt their nuclear arsenal since and are now defending their planet. Good for them! Let’s use this distraction for the Predators and let’s hit those warships in orbit. Lieutenant Romanescu, fire when ready!’
‘’Firing missiles now!’
As eight more heavy missiles flew out of their launch tubes, Reyes watched with intensity the reactions of the remaining Predator warships and tried to evaluate the status of their huge flagship, or whatever it had been. With the defensive force shields and laser batteries of the enemy flagship taken out by the twelve missiles from the MJOLNIR, the Vorlak missiles had been able to hit directly the hull of the Predator ship and to explode on impact, causing more destruction inside. Now basically turned into a dead, burned out and radioactive hulk, the Predator flagship started tumbling around in orbit. The crews of the surviving Predator ships, stunned and enraged, took some time to react properly to this catastrophe for their side, giving time to the incoming eight missiles of the third salvo from the MJOLNIR to slam and explode against eight more Predator warships, causing grave damages to each of them. At least five of those Predator warships saw their defensive force shields collapse or shut down, with power to their laser batteries either drastically reduced or cut entirely. As if the Vorlaks had coordinated their fire with that of the MJOLNIR, twelve more surface-to-Space missiles rose from the planet to engage the Predator fleet. Seven of those missiles, fired at intact Predator warships, were either shot down or harmlessly exploded against their force shields. However, the remaining five were able to slam against the hulls of four of the damaged warships which had their force shields down, then exploded with yields of ten megatons each. Finally understanding that Predator ships had some kind of defensive shields, the Vorlak air defense commander apparently ordered his batteries to concentrate their fire on the already damaged Predator warships, this time sending out a full regimental salvo of eighteen missiles.
On the MJOLNIR, Orlando Reyes watched that development with glee and gave another order to Petra Romanescu.
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‘’Lieutenant, fire one missile each at eight additional, still intact targets. Let’s give a chance to the Vorlak missiles to get to Predator warships.’
‘’Understood, sir, but they are our last missiles. After that, we will be down to our laser batteries.’
‘’I fully realize that, Lieutenant. Fire when ready!’
‘’Eight new targets designated... Firing missiles now!’
Just as those eight missiles flew out of the battle station, a sensors operator spoke up.
‘’Multiple new contacts emerging above us! Distance, 120,000 kilometers. I count 29 new contacts.’
‘’What kind of ships are they?’ asked at once Reyes. The operator answered him after a few seconds, her voice now triumphant.
‘’They’re ours, sir! I can now identify eight MAMBA-Class heavy starfighters, one cutter and twenty shuttles.’
‘’They brought shuttles for a battle against a Predator fleet? What were they thinking?’
The answer to Reyes’ question came another two seconds later, with a well-known female voice coming on their radio emergency channel.
‘’Battle station MJOLNIR, this is Captain Tina Forster, aboard the cutter MERCURY. What is your status, over?’
‘’Thank God for your timely arrival, Captain Forster. We are still intact and fully operational but I have just fired my last missiles and am down to my laser batteries. Be advised that the Vorlaks have started firing nuclear-tipped missiles against the Predator ships in orbit and have succeeded in finishing off a huge sort of carrier or command ship, over.’
‘’Good for them! My shuttles will now go land on Hyanesu, where they will deposit a force of security androids and of MRGSs, while my heavy starfighters will start engaging the Predator warships. You may concentrate on interdicting with your lasers any Predator warship approaching Hyanesu, over.’
‘’Will do, Captain Forster. MJOLNIR, out!’
Reyes switched off his spacesuit’s helmet microphone before blowing air out in relief.
‘’Good old Captain Forster and her NOSTROMO: always in the breach, ready to save your butt. But where the hell is our navy?’’
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On the heavy starfighter SHOOTING STAR, Pieter Nordlung received a radio message from his squadron commander, Keiko Nomura.
‘’To all Nova callsigns, fire two missiles per target, proceeding in groups of four targets leading the enemy fleet in order of orbital flight over Voronkia. Our second salvo will be against the tail end of the Predator warships procession. Fire when ready.’
‘’Time to tango, guys and girls.’ said Pieter to his three flight crew members.
‘’Felix, they’re all yours.’
His weapons officer, Felix Delgado, simply nodded his head in response while punching commands on his fire control panel, then spoke a short sentence four seconds later.
‘’Firing missiles now.’
Pieter, tense and excited at the same time, watched on as a total of 64 missiles flew out of the eight heavy starfighters of his squadron, then disappeared from normal Space as they effected micro-jumps towards the Space Predator fleet, which was presently busy defending with their laser batteries against a new wave of Vorlak missiles. Less than two seconds later, the leading half of the Predator line of warships disappeared temporarily behind dozens of blinding flashes of light. The voice of Keiko Nomura then came back on the radio.
‘’Nova callsigns, fire your second missile salvo now!’
Felix Delgado, who had quickly worked out his next targeting solutions while his first missiles were flying away, fired the eight missiles freshly loaded in their launch tubes a mere three seconds after receiving Nomura’s order.
‘’Firing second salvo now.’
Again, their missiles squarely hit their targets, either severely damaging or effectively destroying them as fighting ships. Their lack of long-range guided missile armament was biting back the Predators in the ass...again. Then, with most Predator warships either severely damaged, disabled or destroyed, the incoming Vorlak missiles which had survived the Predators laser fire impacted and exploded against the mostly defenseless Predator ships. Pieter then heard a female voice on his squadron’s radio frequency: it was that of Tina Forster.
‘’Nova Squadron, from command cutter: reserve your remaining missiles for any possible third wave of enemy warships. Jump to a position under the enemy fleet and switch to cannon fire in matter converter mode. Destroy the Predator support ships before they can flee: they must be carrying millions of invading troops. We cannot let those troops survive this battle, over.’
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‘’Nova Lead, understood. All Nova callsigns, jump to an altitude of 140
kilometers above Voronkia and fire at will on the enemy support ships from below them.
Execute!’
‘’Hey, aren’t we going to risk having the Vorlaks shoot at us as well?’ asked Lisa Wong in a worried tone. Pieter made a tight smirk then.
‘’Possibly but, by firing from below those Predator ships, we won’t risk seeing them being pushed into the atmosphere by the explosions against their hulls. If that would happen with a number of those big Predator ships, then the planet’s surface could be utterly ravaged by fallen ship debris. We are jumping now.’
Lisa Wong was tempted to say something like ‘who cares about the Vorlaks?’ but kept her mouth shut as Pieter effected a micro-jump. When they emerged into Space after a fraction of a second, she saw the blue and brown surface of Voronkia right under them, with the curve of the planet’s atmosphere clearly visible and nearly level with their starfighter. Pieter quickly rotated his ship in order to point his four disintegrator cannons up and towards the Predator ships in orbit above them.
‘’Make sure you switch our cannons to matter conversion mode and fire at will, Felix. Blow those bastards to bits.’
‘’With pleasure, Pieter. Engaging first target now.’
Four thick energy beams of intense red color then shot out of their four heavy disintegrator cannons, targeting a damaged Predator support ship. With those beams transmutating a part of the nickel-iron of its hull into anti-matter and causing a cataclysmic matter/anti-matter reaction, the Predator ship disappeared in a gigantic white fireball. When that fireball dissipated, it let Pieter and his crew see that the Predator ship’s broken and burned-out hull was now tumbling out of control while heading towards a higher orbit.
‘’Good shot, Felix! Pass to the next ship in line.’
‘’Hey,’ suddenly said Rose Gebran, their sensors officer, ‘’I see our command cutter flying below us. Are they suicidal or what? This is no place for a lightly armed cutter.’
‘’Ignore it, Rose: Captain Forster is not in the habit of doing stupid things. She must have a good reason to be there.’
What Pieter couldn’t know was that Tina effectively had a good reason to have piloted her command cutter to nearly within Voronkia’s upper atmosphere.
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‘’Spirit, start transmitting on the Vorlak’s defense command channel.’
Spirit’s avatar, who was sitting at the electronic warfare station of the command cutter, started at once to speak in her microphone, using the Vorlak language, which had been studied and analyzed by now for over sixteen years.
‘’Vorlak Command, this is the command ship of the Human force presently engaging the invasion fleet from low orbit. Please hold fire while our ships destroy those asteroid ships. I say again...’
In the big underground bunker that controlled the fire of the surface-to-Space missile batteries defending Voronkia, the division commander scratched his head on getting that message, repeated in a continuous loop. One of his regimental commanders looked questioningly at his superior, equally baffled.
‘’Aliens, fighting other aliens above our planet? Should we continue firing, Commander?’
‘’Well, those aliens at least called us and spoke in our language, while the first aliens to arrive simply came and started firing without saying a word. Let’s see how this will go on, then we will decide. PASS THE FOLLOWING TO ALL BATTERIES: HOLD
FIRE UNTIL FURTHER ORDERS.’
As his subalterns hurried to pass that order to all the firing units, the divisional commander opened a communications link with the central government command complex controlling the planet’s defenses: any decision about what to do with those newcomers was definitely well above his pay grade.
On the MJOLNIR, Orlando Reyes was again blowing out air in relief as the heavy starfighters sent by the NOSTROMO went into action after jumping to close to Voronkia’s surface, with the Predator ships now being destroyed wholesale. One of his sensors operators then reported something that confused him.
‘’What do you mean, those fighters are shooting red energy beams at the Predator ships? Disintegrator beams are light blue, not red.’
‘’I know, sir, but those MAMBA-Class starfighters are shooting red beams and those beams seem to be truly devastating.’
Reyes was still scratching his head at that when another sensors operator made another report.
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‘’Sir, a fleet of Navy warships is now appearing in the system, some 2.3
astronomical units away and in our lower nine o’clock quadrant.’
‘’About time!’ grumbled Reyes. ‘’They are about as timely as the Offenbach Carabinieris.’
‘’The Offenbach Carabinieris, sir?’ questioned a mystified Bini Zendaya. Reyes smiled as he answered her.
‘’The Offenbach Carabinieris were a military unit of the old Italy in the 19th Century. They were said to be the epitome of lateness.’
‘’Oh, I see! I believe that your epithet is a justified one in the present circumstances. Captain Forster’s force arrived just in time to save our bacon, sir.’
‘’Indeed! When I think that her force is not even part of our navy...’
Some three minutes later, Reyes got a transmission from the arriving flotilla on an encrypted channel.
‘’Battle station MJOLNIR, this is the VICTORY. Report your situation, over.’
‘’VICTORY, this is MJOLNIR. We are fully operational but our missile magazines are now empty. A force of heavy starfighters and of shuttles carrying security androids sent by the NOSTROMO arrived some seventeen minutes ago. The starfighters then started engaging the Predator fleet, while the shuttles went down on Hyanesu to land their troops and tanks, so that the moon could be protected from invasion by Space Predators. The starfighters are now in very low orbit around Voronkia, firing up at the belly of the Predator ships and doing a real carnage. Be advised that the Vorlaks also engaged the Predator ships with nuclear-tipped missiles, destroying a number of them.’
There was a notable delay before he got a response to his report.
‘’MJOLNIR, we acknowledge your report. We will now push towards Voronkia and assist Captain Forster’s force in their battle against the Predators.’
Reyes was nearly tempted to reply to that by saying to the battleship that it could take its time, as Forster’s starfighters were basically cutting to shreds the Predator fleet, but he restrained himself in time: the flotilla commander would probably not have appreciated much such a reply from him.
On the battleship VICTORY, Vice-Admiral Sergei Makarov clenched his fists in frustration on hearing that someone else had beat him to the Gliese 581 System. While that early arrival by ships and craft from the NOSTROMO had most probably saved the
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MJOLNIR from destruction, there would probably be some embarrassing questions in Providence about why a civilian para-military force had been able to react faster than the Navy to this Space Predators invasion. This was definitely not going to look good on his resumé...or for the Navy’s reputation. Some five minutes later, as his ships were speeding towards Voronkia, his communications officer passed on to him a message that did nothing to calm him down.
‘’Admiral, we just received a request from Captain Forster, who is in a command cutter above Voronkia’s surface: she asks that we help her by towing away the destroyed hulks of the Predator ships floating in low orbit, before they could fall back into the planet’s atmosphere and cause catastrophic damage on the surface of Voronkia.’
‘’Us, towing away destroyed Predator ships? Does she take us for a simple towing business? Contact her and ask her for a proper action report.’
‘’Uh, yes, Admiral.’
Makarov had to wait another eleven minutes before his communications officer handed him a printed message.
‘’Captain Forster’s action report, Admiral.’
Grabbing the two-page document, Makarov read it quickly. When he was finished reading it, he was feeling a mix of elation and frustration, along with some irritation.
Forster was reporting a total of 68 Predator warships and 48 support ships destroyed, all but eight of them by her starfighters. One so-called giant carrier or flagship and two warships in that total were reported to have been destroyed by the battle station MJOLNIR, while five Predator warships were credited to the Vorlak surface-based missiles. While Makarov was truly happy to learn of the extent of the losses suffered by the Predators and about the heroic defense put up by the MJOLNIR, he just couldn’t understand how such a small force of minor warships could cause such damage to an enemy force vastly superior in numbers and size. Was Forster’s report accurate or was she embellishing the picture to her advantage? There was however one way to judge that.
‘’Commander Lee, send a message to the MJOLNIR and ask it to send us a detailed report of the battle that was fought here, along with the recordings on the battle from its sensors.’
‘’Aye, Admiral!’
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Another twelve minutes later, as his flotilla was approaching Voronkia, the sensors of the battleship were able to detect and film what appeared to be a tumbling asteroid of monstrous proportions. A second look at it then told Makarov that this was in reality a destroyed Space Predator asteroid ship. The size of that derelict hulk however left him stunned for a moment.
‘’Twenty-two by thirteen kilometers! We never saw a Predator ship of such a size before. It must indeed have been either a flagship or a craft carrier. Commander Lee, tell the battleship HONDO to take this dead hulk in tow and to then send it crashing into the system’s sun.’
‘’Yes, Admiral!’
Makarov then straightened in his command chair, conflicted. He was not sure that his flotilla could have faced such a huge and powerful opponent and won. Yet, Forster’s heavy starfighters had managed to destroy over a hundred Predator asteroid ships, the smallest of which measured at least four kilometers in length. There was also the fact that Forster had personally led her small force and had placed herself at huge risk by taking a very low orbit, sandwiched between the planet and the enemy fleet. The courage and mastery of tactics shown by that woman could not be denied. Still, one puzzling question remained: how could eight heavy starfighters defeat over a hundred Predator ships in short order? Resolved to get an answer to that question, Makarov had an encrypted video link opened between his bridge and Tina Forster’s command cutter, which was still in a very low orbit around Voronkia. When Forster’s image appeared on the small display screen of his command chair, Makarov saw that she was wearing a spacesuit with its visor opened. He was also shocked to see another woman, one of great beauty, sitting at a nearby station and speaking in a strange, guttural language he could not identify.
‘’Captain Forster, this is Vice-Admiral Sergei Makarov, on the battleship VICTORY. I must first congratulate you and your starfighter crews for defeating such a huge Predator fleet. I however have many questions for you, the first one being: what language is the woman next to you speaking in?’
Tina Forster nodded her head soberly before replying to him.
‘’Thank you for the compliment, Admiral: I will pass it on to my crews. As for what language Spirit is presently using, it is the Vorlak language. We have established a link with the Vorlak missile defense headquarters at the start of the battle, in order to coordinate our actions in the defense of Voronkia and to avoid having my starfighters
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targeted by the Vorlak batteries. I must say that, up to now, the Vorlaks have proved surprisingly reasonable and cooperative. They must have the equivalent of our own saying that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’.’
‘’I see! My next question is about your present tactical location. Why take such a low orbit over Voronkia and thus take extra risks? You could have shot at the Predator ships from above at much less risks.’
‘’True, but then any missed shot would have gone on to hit the planet’s surface, something that the Vorlaks could then have interpreted as an attack by us against them.
Also, by shooting at the enemy’s bellies, we were both destroying them and pushing their hulks into higher orbit, thus preventing them from eventually entering the atmosphere of Voronkia and then crashing into the planet, something that could have spelled doom for the planet and for the whole Vorlak civilization.’
‘’But disintegrator beams would not have caused much damage then: they would have mostly dissipated their power while going through the planet’s atmosphere.’
‘’Yes, but the Vorlaks could still take our fire as being against them. Believe it or not but their nuclear-tipped missiles have proved surprisingly effective against Predator ships which had lost their force shields because of prior damage caused by the missiles from the MJOLNIR. I however would prefer to discuss that subject in a more discrete way later on, face to face, Admiral.’
‘’I understand, Captain Forster. What do you intend to do next?’
‘’Spirit will inform the Vorlaks that you are here to tow away the Predators’ hulks in order to avoid them entering eventually the planet’s atmosphere. Then, I will send my starfighters to take an orbit around Hyanesu and protect it in case more Predator ships show up.’
‘’That is fine with me, Forster, but I would like your cutter to come to my battleship, so that we could meet in person while my ships start towing away those destroyed asteroid ships.’
‘’That I can do, Admiral, but I would ask you to first move your battleship to a higher orbit, so that we are further from the Vorlak missile batteries.’
‘’A good idea. Follow my ship to a thousand-kilometer-high equatorial orbit, then come aboard the VICTORY.’
‘’Lead the way, Admiral. Forster out!’
Makarov eyed the now blank screen for a second, then gave an order to his ship’s pilot.
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‘’Lieutenant Ziegler, put us in a thousand-kilometer equatorial orbit over Voronkia and expect the command cutter from the NOSTROMO to join us there. Have our main craft hangar ready to receive that cutter.’
‘’Aye, Admiral!’
As the VICTORY moved to a higher orbit, with the much smaller cutter following it, Makarov’s chief of operations, Commodore Prabang, approached his command chair, a concerned expression on his face.
‘’Admiral, I have started reviewing the detailed action report we received from the MJOLNIR and there is something quite disturbing in it.’
‘’And what would that be, Commodore?’ asked Makarov while looking pointedly at him.
‘’It is about the weapons used by the heavy starfighters from the NOSTROMO, sir. They were not using common disintegrator cannons but rather something hugely more powerful. Instead of firing blue beams of energy, their cannons shot intense red-colored energy beams. Also, instead of simply causing a small flash on impact by disintegrating small portions of the Predator ships’ hulls, they caused huge, nuclear-like explosions which easily holed the Predator ships, knocking them out with only one or two shots.’
Makarov, stunned, stared with disbelief at his chief of operations, a very competent man and also a qualified nuclear engineer.
‘’Are you sure, Prabang?’
‘’Look for yourself, Admiral.’ replied the flag officer while presenting to him a tablet computer and starting a video sequence on its screen. Makarov was then able to see that it was a zoomed view from long distance, showing the Predator ships around the planet Voronkia. He then saw thin beams of red light shoot up from below the Predator ships and hitting their bellies. Every time a beam hit its target, it produced a blinding flash of light and a titanic explosion which clearly shook hard the Predator ship or sent it tumbling around, out of control.
‘’My God!’ exclaimed Makarov, shaken by such raw power. ‘’What could possibly cause such amount of destructive power, in your opinion?’
‘’Anti-matter beams, Admiral.’ answered Prabang at once, his expression hard.
‘’It seems that Captain Forster’s ships are armed with a new and devastating type of
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weapon and that Forster has been hiding that fact from everybody else, and this for some time already.’
‘’But, but such a weapon should be arming all of our warships, not only her own ships. We could then repel and destroy the Predator threat in short order. Why would she have hidden such a miraculous weapon from us?’
‘’You will have to ask her that directly when she comes aboard, Admiral.’ was the firm answer from Prabang.
06:03 (Universal Time)
Craft hangar of the battleship VICTORY
In high orbit over the planet Voronkia
Admiral Makarov in person was on hand, accompanied by two of his senior officers and two space marines, when Tina Forster stepped out of her command cutter, which was now inside the main craft hangar of the VICTORY. She had removed her spacesuit by then but was wearing a pistol belt at her waist and looked suspiciously at the two armed marines standing behind Makarov. Still, she came to attention three paces in front of the vice-admiral and saluted him militarily, to which Makarov saluted her back before speaking to her.
‘’Welcome aboard the VICTORY, Captain Forster, and congratulation for your stunning victory over those Predator monsters.’
‘’Thank you, Admiral. Could you tell me why you judged it necessary to have two armed space marines accompany you to greet me aboard?’
Makarov’s expression hardened a bit then as he stared into her eyes.
‘’Captain Forster, I have a few questions for you, questions to which I expect you to give me answers. Please follow me to my command conference room.’
Makarov then started pivoting around but froze and pivoted back when he saw that Forster had not moved at all.
‘’Why won’t you follow me, Captain Forster?’
‘’Why? Because I am not in the habit of being invited aboard another ship simply to be then basically put under arrest, Admiral. Put your cards on the table and be frank with me: what is causing you to act in a way I could call ‘treacherous’ towards me?’
Makarov stiffened, pricked by her use of the word ‘treacherous’.
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‘’Captain Forster, I have just been informed that you have been hiding from everybody else in the Spacers League the fact that you possessed a new kind of weapon which could ensure our victory against the Space Predators. Would you care to explain yourself about this?’
‘’Simply said, I kept the existence of my new weapon secret because I didn’t trust anyone else to not eventually abuse its use, Admiral. Human history is full of examples of power-hungry leaders using new weapons to either gain extra power of to force their will on others. Only a few years ago, then-Chairman Paul Stein revoked the citizenship status granted up to then to my security androids, which I treat as fully sentient beings with equal rights to the rest of my crew. What do you think that such a bigoted man would have done with my new weapon? How long would it have taken him before using it on other Human political entities, or against other sentient races? He would have most probably decided quickly that the Vorlaks deserved to be exterminated for having been a threat to the Hoshis of Hyanesu. Yes, the Vorlaks are quite an unsavory bunch, but destroying them with my secret weapon would still constitute genocide and I would never condone such an atrocity. Stein is now out of power but there are still too many people like him in the Spacers League, ambitious people hungry for power and with low tolerance for contrary opinions, or even being plain racists. That is why I kept my new weapon a secret. Admiral.’
‘’And what tells me that you have kept that a secret so that you could use your weapon in the future to yourself gain power?’
Makarov’s accusation apparently infuriated Tina Forster, who took two steps and got nose to nose with him.
‘’Admiral, you are frankly insulting, on top of reasoning like an imbecile. I have proved my devotion to Humanity countless times, often risking directly my life while doing so. The Spacers League itself gained independence from the Terran Federation in 2316 mostly because me and my KOSTROMA fought against the tyranny of Earth. I once resisted giving away another secret, that of the Koorivar matter/anti-matter propulsion system, then saw one member of the High Council plot to steal it from me while being ready to kill to get it. I now see that I have no useful reasons to stay any longer aboard your ship. You can tell the Admiralty and the High Council that I will explain my motives at the next meeting of the High Council, but as a free person and not as some kind of virtual prisoner of the Navy. Goodbye, Admiral!’
Tina was starting to pivot around when Makarov raised his voice in anger.
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‘’STAY WHERE YOU ARE, CAPTAIN FORSTER! I AM NOT FINISHED WITH
YOU!’
Tina stopped but didn’t turn back to face him, instead twisting her head to eye him with near contempt.
‘’Or you will do what? Have your space marines shoot me? And how are you going to explain that to the High Council afterwards? You are the one who may be dreaming about gaining more power, Admiral, not me.’
She then started walking towards the rear access ramp of her cutter as Makarov reddened with fury.
‘’GET BACK HERE, FORSTER!’
Seeing that she was ignoring him and was continuing to walk away, Makarov looked at his two space marines and gave an order to them.
‘’STOP HER! USE YOUR STUN GUNS IF NEED BE!’
‘’BELAY THAT ORDER, MARINES!’ shouted at once Commodore Prabang, who had been standing to one side of Makarov. The latter, stunned, gave an angry look at his chief of operations.
‘’What the hell are you doing, Commodore, contradicting my order like this?’
‘’What I am doing is trying to bring back some common sense into all this, Admiral. Yes, I found it disturbing that Captain Forster hid that secret weapon’s existence from us but I also found the explanation she gave of her reasons to hide her secret both plausible and reasonable. I also admire her for being a brave, principled and caring person worthy of the utter respect. Please remember that she is a member of the High Council, Admiral, thus has a much higher authority status than you. Yet, you were ready to arrest her on the strength of mere suppositions. She said that she was going to explain herself to the High Council at its next meeting and that should have been enough to accept...for all of us. Stand down now or I will be obliged to relieve you of duty for gross abuse of authority, Admiral.’
Makarov nearly choked with indignation then and looked at his two space marines.
‘’WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? OBEY MY ORDER AND STOP THAT
WOMAN?’
To his utter fury, his two marines didn’t move a single inch, instead eyeing him with something approaching contempt. What Makarov didn’t know was that both of those marines had fought alongside Tina Forster’s security androids during the Battle for Nordland and had developed a solid respect for them and for Tina Forster. Seeing that
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Makarov was not yet ready to become reasonable, Prabang took out his own stun pistol and pointed it at his admiral while giving an order to the marines in a calm but firm voice.
‘’Marines, put the admiral under arrest for gross abuse of authority and for threatening a member of the High Council.’
‘’WHAT? HAVE YOU GONE CRAZY, PRABANG?’ shouted Makarov, as the two marines came forward to disarm him and put handcuffs on him. Prabang shook his head firmly in response.
‘’You are the one who lost your mind, Admiral. Take him to his quarters, marines, where he will be confined until our return to Providence.’
As the marines cuffed and then escorted away a furious Makarov, Prabang looked at Tina Forster, who had stopped at the foot of the access ramp of her cutter and had watched the drama. She didn’t say a word then but saluted him, to which Prabang saluted back before she disappeared inside her craft. The commodore then contacted the hangar complex’ operators, using his miniature portable radio.
‘’Hangar control, open Airlock Number One and let Captain Forster’s cutter leave the ship.’
‘’Understood, sir!’
Prabang then started to walk out of the hangar, to return to the bridge in order to write a message to the Admiralty. He couldn’t help sigh then: he didn’t like at all to having had to place his commander under arrest but Makarov’s intransigeance had left him no choice in that matter. As he was heading for the nearest bank of elevators, Prabang thought about the long-term consequences of the battle that had just been won. Losing over a hundred asteroid ships in this battle was bound to hurt the Space Predators very badly. After all, you didn’t find every day a M-Class nickel-iron asteroid of the size the Predators used to build their ships out of. Gutting such asteroids in order to turn them into ships represented a considerable expenditure in time and efforts, after which you still had to install in that asteroid’s shell all the propulsion machinery, armament and crew facilities needed to make it a proper ship, a major job by itself. There was the fact that the Predators had for the first time showed up with a ship of a truly monstrous size as part of an invasion fleet. Why had the Predators sent such a ship for the first time and what could have been its intended role for this invasion? Maybe the Predators were running out of proper warships and had been forced to use that behemoth as an ad hoc stand-in? That last hypothesis was in fact far from implausible, as this day’s battle had only been the last in a growing list of stinging defeats suffered by the Space Predators
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against Human forces. That list of defeats included the destruction of what had been believed to be their homeworld in the 55 Cancri System, the failed invasion of Nordlung and of the TOI 700 System, followed by the destruction of their invasion force in the HIP
78288 and now this... Prabang couldn’t help stop for a moment when he realized who had defeated the Predators in all of those battles: none other than the NOSTROMO or its embarked heavy interceptors. And that Makarov idiot had wanted to put under arrest the woman who had made all those victories possible. Prabang then resumed his walking and entered an elevator cabin while shaking his head at this renewed example of Human stupidity.
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CHAPTER 11 – EXPLAINING ONESELF
09:43 (Universal Time)
Friday, January 15, 2337
