PROLOGUE
DATE: NOVEMBER 17TH, 6 A.U (AFTER UNIFICATION)
LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD THE UTRN PINATUBO; FLAGSHIP OF THE JUPITER FLEET
ADMIRAL DANIEL YOUNG
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What in hell is taking him so long?! Admiral Young thought with clenched teeth.
He resisted the urge to look through the internal camera feeds again. The Lieutenant’s ship had docked already, he just had to be patient. The question was whether the Council would be so forgiving.
A crackle of static from his intercom broke him from his reverie.
“I have the Lieutenant Karst for you, sir.”
“Send him in. While you’re at it, inform the Captain that short of an attack on Ganymede Station, we are not to be disturbed.” Admiral Young replied through the desk intercom.
“I’ll make sure of it, Admiral.” The man replied.
Moments after, the door to his system map room slid open to admit the Lieutenant.
“Lieutenant Karst, reporting as ordered, sir!” He said as he swaggered over to stand at attention and snap off a salute. Rather than return it, the Admiral simply narrowed his eyes and set his jaw.
Beyond his special training and abilities, what the Council sees in this young man is beyond me.
“You’re late, Lieutenant. You of all people should know that nobody keeps the Council waiting.” The Admiral growled, making no effort to mask his displeasure.
“I was held up by events outside of my control, sir.” The younger man replied as he continued to stand at attention.
“I am not a man easily moved by excuses, son. True leaders take responsibility for their failures as readily as their successes. You would do well to remember that. Especially if you plan to rise above Lieutenant someday.” Admiral Young replied.
“I will, sir.”
“Hmph… We’ll see about that.” He said before he looked at the time and decided to finally relent. “At ease, Lieutenant. Before we begin, I should get us some privacy while I fire up the Q-Comm.”
With the push of a button, a heavy steel door slammed shut, sequestering them in the Dreadnought’s map room. The lights in the room dimmed down as one by one the screens on the walls around them switched from the logo of the United Terran Republic navy to an interface that showed the connectivity status of each of the twelve councilors.
Even now, he still marveled at the miracle of instantaneous, secure communication made possible by the advent of twinned quantum entanglement communicators. What felt even better was the idea of using technology invented by their hated rivals against them. Losing more than half their population and industrial capacity after first contact had utterly shattered North American technical dominance.
Despite the surface unity projected by the new world Federal government humanity had formed to fight the alien menace, many of the old national rivalries still smoldered under the surface. That was the reason behind the formation of the Council in the first place; to advance the interests of America; the Old Republic. They truly had their work cut out for them, yet their progress had been nothing short of miraculous considering the odds against them.
“All members present and accounted for. This special meeting of the Majestic Council is now in session.” The Chairman said. “Today’s primary order of business is to discuss the ongoing search for a commander for Project Exodus. Admiral, you have the floor.”
Best cut right to the chase I suppose...
“Thank you, Chairman. Esteemed ladies and gentlemen of the council, I’m afraid I bear unfortunate news regarding project Exodus. The Lieutenant’s trip to Earth turned up no candidates willing or capable to lead from amongst the current round of approved dossiers.” Admiral Young stated.
“That is not entirely unexpected, especially after the Space Wolf himself refused to take command. Though we might count ourselves lucky he agreed to the commission of executive officer. Courting retired naval officers was always going to be a long shot. Has the Lieutenant addressed the loose ends?” The Chairman asked.
“They have been taken care of, discretely, as ordered. Our operational secrecy remains intact.” The Lieutenant replied.
“Our spies confirm that both Naval Intelligence as well as the world Federal government remain in the dark as to our mission. We will continue to take active measures to prevent the curious from breaching the veil of shadows, but that is no guarantee. Every body we leave behind us bears with it the risk of discovery should one pull hard enough at the thread. Every day we delay the launch further compounds this risk.” The Intelligence officer replied.
“Then I will use my power to ensure that any investigations get derailed before they can get too close. All the candidates were citizens of the North American Union, so I will have jurisdiction. We won’t get discovered; I’ll use every scrap of my power to make sure of it.” The Executive stated.
“So where does that leave us now? Project Exodus must move forward and must remain secret. The very survival of the human race might well depend upon it. We know another invasion is coming, what we don’t know is how much time we have. Furthermore, let’s not forget that some of us have invested quite heavily in the success of this venture. It is imperative that we find a new way forward.” The Industrialist said with a note of concern evident in her voice.
“Perhaps it is time we reconsider the private sector. I know of several trustworthy candidates that could, with some training, take on the role and perform it well. As stated, many of us invested significant portions of our own wealth into Project Exodus. We must consider all options. If it is the will of the Council, I can put forward dossiers of my own to lead.” The Investor said.
“No, civilians cannot be entrusted with the command of such an expensive, one of a kind warship. Even with the Space Wolf as XO, we need an experienced Captain at the helm should they find the enemy waiting out there. This is a hostile galaxy, and the blood of billions cries out to us to do this right. If we lose Earth… We need this colony, and it needs to remain utterly secret. We know the enemy will return and in greater numbers, and by then it will be too late. We will not get another chance at this.” Admiral Young stated firmly.
An argument broke out as several councilors tried talking over one another in an increasing cacophony of voices.
“ORDER! I WILL HAVE ORDER!” The Chairman shouted over the rest.
“There is one more dossier we haven’t pursued. He’s active duty, in command of a Battlecruiser of his own, and he fits the psych profile. A loyal American with no surviving family entanglements.” The Lieutenant said as the infighting died down.
No! He’s not ready... Not yet at least. I have so much more to teach him… The Admiral thought with a heavy heart as he shot the Lieutenant a look of warning. He got an apologetic look in response.
“I thought we ruled out active duty servicemembers in favor of the recently retired. Something about it being too risky, too visible. Are we sure there are no other options?” The Industrialist replied.
“It’s high risk, high reward. However, active duty does have one advantage over retired; we can give them orders. We can use the very bureaucracy of the navy to obscure the transfer and the chain of command to replace them quickly.” The Lieutenant stated.
“Are there any objections from the Council?” The Chairman asked.
When none seemed willing to speak, the Chairman cleared his throat and asked; “Admiral, are there any reasons you haven’t already brought before the council that would disqualify the candidate?”
The Admiral took a slow, deep breath before he responded.
“No, Chairman… I have no objections. He’s a solid candidate and an ideal motivational fit. He may be young and relatively inexperienced in battle, but he has proven himself an able commander thus far under my wing. I had hoped to have more time to train him extensively in small fleet tactics, as I always envisioned him a future Admiral, but that isn’t enough to hold him back for consideration.”
“Good, now we need a plan to cover our tracks while we make the transfer. I trust you can come up with a suitable plan for that?” The Chairman asked.
“I’ll draw up and submit the orders now, then make the necessary background preparations. We’ll say that we need him at Liberty Station for training at the new Fleet Carrier command school. That should provide enough cover to avoid raising red flags within either FleetCom or NavInt.” Admiral Young replied as his mind got to work creating a list of tasks he’d need to complete.
“Then the matter is settled. We will expect regular progress reports from you. If there is nothing else, you are dismissed. The rest of the Council will stay to discuss the remaining agenda items. For the Glory of the Old Republic!” The Chairman replied.
“For the glory of the Old Republic!” The Admiral replied before he cut the feed.
“Now. You and I need to have a little chat.” Admiral Young hissed as he turned to the Lieutenant.
The way the younger man’s back stiffened betrayed the truth that his otherwise stoic expression masked.
You and I have a lot to talk about, indeed.
CHAPTER 1 - ORDERS
DATE: DECEMBER 2ND, 6 A.U. (AFTER UNIFICATION)
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD THE UTRN GUADALCANAL, JUPITER FLEET
CAPTAIN HENRY O’TOOLE
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Captain Henry O’Toole stared at the orders on his screen as he ran his fingers through his crimson hair in disbelief.
Report to Liberty Station for imminent reassignment?! My XO will assume temporary command until a new captain can be assigned to my ship!?
What in the hell? Am I being punished for something?
It couldn't be, he had always served with honor with an exemplary record, he hadn't made any enemies in his current posting… had he? This wasn't how things were normally done!
Thinking back, just the other day, Admiral Young had told him that he had taken notice of his talents, that he was destined for great things.
At least this puts some of the Admiral’s more recent comments into perspective.
Henry smelled conspiracy the more he thought about it. Recognizing he could do little to fight the orders from above, he resigned himself to his fate and packed his sparse belongings into a pair of duffel bags.
Starting over, it is, dammit.
He heard the door behind him slide open along with a gruff clearing of the throat by his XO.
“Sir, reporting as ordered, sir.” His executive officer, Commander Ortega said with a salute.
“At ease, though, based on these orders you're in command of the ship now. Maybe I should be saluting you.” Henry said with a smirk.
Might as well run with it.
“You know that’s not how it’s supposed to work, skipper. This is hardly how I envisioned getting my first chance at commanding a ship. Even if it is a temporary situation, it still doesn’t sit right with me.” He replied, looking conflicted.
Henry waved it off and motioned for Ortega to follow him. A message popped up in his expanded vision, sent through FleetNet to his neural implant.
“A VISITOR HAS ARRIVED FOR YOU, ALONG WITH A RIDE BACK TO EARTH. REST EASY, ALL WILL BE EXPLAINED TO YOU SHORTLY. YOUR TRAINING FOR YOUR NEW COMMAND AWAITS, GO WITH THE FLOW FOR NOW. TRUST ME, IT WILL BE WORTH IT. YOUR PCS ORDERS ARE ATTACHED.
VR – ADMIRAL YOUNG”
“The admiral just messaged me, apparently my ride is here already. I guess it sounds like I have a new command awaiting me. One that will be 'worth it' he says. I've had last minute orders before, but never like this. I gotta say there's something really off about all this.” Henry stated flatly.
“Cryptic. Better than a court martial and a dishonorable at least. I don’t know what we'll do back here without you to crack the whip, but I'm sure whatever the brass has planned for you will be an improvement.” Patrick replied, smirking, as he slung one of Henry’s overstuffed duffel bags over his shoulder. Henry grabbed the other with a grateful nod and motioned for Patrick to follow.
“Nah, they'll be fine, they have you to deal with now, heaven help them. I suppose I'll know soon enough what's in store for me.” Henry said as he moved towards the opening in the wall that housed the quick lift.
Henry reached out to grab onto a loop to catch a ride on one of the long, constantly running cables which allowed the crew to quickly traverse the kilometer-long ship, even in micro gravity. He rode it up three levels to the gunship bay where the ship he was to board would be waiting. Along the way he motioned for a passing ensign to take his bag as he prepared to meet the visitor in the next room. Henry paused for a moment to center himself before he strode purposefully through the doorway.
Standing and speaking to a female warrant officer stood a man who stuck out like a sore thumb in his North American Union Defense Force dress blues. He had several medals on display and was pinned with Lieutenant’s rank insignia.
What the hell is the NAUDF doing interfering in Navy business?
The man broke off the conversation he was having with the smiling warrant officer after the ensign following behind Henry yelled out. “Officer on deck!”
The lieutenant jumped up and saluted Henry just a bit too smartly with a cocky grin plastered on his face. While Henry didn’t let it bother him, it was logged away as he began watching the Lieutenant’s behavior. He could tell already that he probably wasn't going to like him.
“At ease” Henry stated coolly, staring the interloper in the eyes, and returning the salute after a long moment of appraisal. “Why don’t you introduce yourself, and maybe tell me a little more about what's going on here.” Henry opened curtly.
To his credit, the man didn’t flinch or look away. He simply smiled before speaking. “You must be Captain O'Toole, I've heard quite a bit about you. My name is Lieutenant Paul Karst, and I'm to take you back to Earth for a special briefing before you assume your new command. We can talk more in the ship if you like, I have a timetable for us that is pretty exacting. I hope you can handle one and a half gees during waking hours on the way back.”
“This is the navy, Lieutenant; one and a half gees is nothing. Might as well be a Sunday morning breeze for us. A proper screamer ride is two and a half gees the whole way, though that requires a full crew complement with enough pilots to trade shifts. Your skiff looks too small to have the extra crew for that. One and a half will be no trouble at all.” He looked back at Ortega, who had mirth in his eyes. Paul simply examined him without blinking.
“Good. I've had my share of screamer rides, could be worse. Maneuvering during combat acceleration is where it gets really nasty. Once it starts breaking five or six gees that's when I start to tap out."
Henry’s read of the man changed immensely in that moment and his spine tingled while he re-examined the lieutenant. A bronze star was pinned to his chest, meaning he had survived ground combat with alien forces with some meritorious act to his name.
It had been more than 6 years since human had fought human and since the United Terran Republic had been born, and almost eight years since humankind had finally forced the alien expeditionary forces off the surface of Earth and into retreat to their staging bases in the asteroid belt. He looked too young to have fought in either of those conflicts but looks could be deceiving. Since then, the only way to get an equivalent medal would have been to join the Navy and be good enough for assignment to either the inner or outer belt fleet. Seeing as he was NAUDF, that clearly was out.
The assorted armies of the Earth had slowly become akin to the national guard in the former USA after Earth unified under the banner of the United Terran Republic in the aftermath of the invasion. Just when had the Lieutenant seen combat? Suddenly, it all clicked.
Clandestine work.. it’s gotta be.. Which means he’s a damn spook. Gonna have to remember to be extra careful around that one. At least now all this cloak and dagger shit makes more sense.
“Well then, Let’s be on our way. Time's the one thing we must never waste, after all. Wouldn’t you agree?” Henry asked, testing the young Lieutenant, suddenly taking as keen an interest in ensuring the precision of his own wording as he was in observing Paul’s reactions.
“Naturally, I couldn’t agree more. After all,” Paul said, with unflinching eye contact, “you never can know just when it is your time to die, especially in our line of work. Gotta get it all in while you can, right?” The Lieutenant delivered his line with crackling mirth in his eyes.
Definitely a spook. Henry thought as he stepped toward the unfamiliar ovoid craft he’d arrived in.
The ship, labeled the UTRN Special Delivery, was parked on a cleared landing platform in the cavernous hangar bay of the behemoth warship. It was of an unfamiliar hull type, which was especially strange, as Henry had previously thought he knew every type of spaceship yet produced by human hands. The size was substantially larger than that of the Sparrowhawk gunships that ferried their complement of marines about on their missions. Because of this, it took up a significant portion of the busy hangar bay floor.
“Well said. Let’s be on with it then. Permission to come aboard?” The Captain asked, partly from bowing to formality, and partially due to the fact that Paul had planted himself in their way.
“Granted.” Paul said with a smile and moved up the gangplank into the belly of the craft. The ensign and Commander Ortega followed behind, as Paul led Henry to a room on the bottom level full of lockers large enough to fit a standard issue duffel bag.
"You can take these two lockers, Captain. Welcome aboard." Paul said with a slightly sarcastic tone.
Henry motioned to the ensign who brought up Henry's bags so they could be put away. Henry turned to his XO.
"Well, the Guadalcanal is officially yours, for the time being at least. Take good care of her, she's a hell of a ship and she's got one hell of a crew." Henry told Ortega with a firm handshake.
"It's been an honor, sir. I still think something about all of this stinks to high heaven, but orders are orders. She'll be in good hands, don't worry, I’ll make damn sure of it." Ortega said with one final long salute before he walked down the gangplank. Now alone, Henry could feel Paul's eyes on the back of his neck.
"All right, here I am, as ordered. Nice ship you got by the way, what can you tell me about her?" Henry asked as he admired the incredibly space efficient design of the small craft.
“She’s got dual Archangel grade micro Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor cores, six stacked and twisted graphene capacitor tubes, life support’s over there along with some of the other essential systems. She also has twin Telekinetic drive generators and a cooling upgrade to her Null Barrier generator system.”
“Impressive, who built this ship? I'm not familiar with the hull type. Up until now I was positive I’d worked with every type of spaceframe mankind has put into service.” Henry asked, finding himself slightly concerned at the gap in knowledge.
“She is an experimental model assembled on Earth by a conglomerate of surviving North American Union aerospace companies for certain, rather discrete missions.” Paul said, clearly taking his time to carefully word his answer.
"What kind of armaments does she carry?” Henry asked.
“Bog standard multi-spectrum laser arrays just like on one of your screening frigates, just two though instead of six. We also have a small suite of assorted missile types, primarily anti-fighter missiles. Thankfully we do have a few anti-ship missiles and a launch tube for them, no nukes though. Those are a bit too tightly controlled to acquire, even for us. Truth be told, she is made to sneak in and around the fighting rather be in the thick of it.” Paul replied with a hint of pride.
Henry whistled. "Not easy to get your hands on extra surplus of any of that kind of tech right now, even for the Jupiter fleet. Thought that was mostly earmarked for the fight in the asteroid belt. So, when are you going to tell me just what the hell is going on here?” Henry asked in a low, serious tone.
“All in due time, Captain. First, I need to swear you to secrecy. The proper files are already in your display waiting once we get to your acceleration couch. All you have to do is take a seat and read and give your biometric signature. It’s all there, or at least enough that you should no longer be running completely in the dark. The full briefing will have to wait just a little longer I’m afraid.”
Henry followed Paul over to the small quick lift that separated the lower level from the upper level which likely contained the crew compartment. He grabbed a loop and rode it upwards then followed Paul over to one of the empty seats.
"This one is yours, Captain."
Henry settled into the acceleration couch and a workstation screen lowered itself down for his use. He then strapped himself in and manipulated the hand controls embedded in the armrests to read over and sign the forms.
“Classified level Omega? Summary execution for breaking secrecy!?” Henry scoffed. “You've gotta be kidding me.” Henry stared over to Paul in his seat who simply stared at him without blinking before he nodded gravely.
Just what in the hell has the Admiral signed me up for?
Henry re-read the Admiral’s text from earlier twice over again before he silently went back to reading. He was interrupted by their pilot’s voice coming through the speakers embedded in his chair.
“Jupiter fleet STC says we are cleared for liftoff. Ready to depart on your orders, boss." Their pilot said from the cockpit.
“Thanks Jessie. Go ahead and ease us out of here then, will you? Captain’s in a rush to get underway.” Paul replied, winking at Henry.
“Aye sir, demagnetizing landing gear and hovering us while we wait for the doors.” She replied.
Power was fed into the primary telekinetic drive generator and its associated focal field generator. Together, their overlapped fields distorted spacetime immediately surrounding the craft, creating an artificial gravity well centered above them. It’s pull was just strong enough to counteract the inertial forces that had otherwise held them fast to the deck of the accelerating warship.
“We’ve been directed into launch bay one.” Jessie said as they eased forward, and the launch bay doors sealed behind them.
The doors in front of them slid open from the middle, revealing the colorful swirling clouds of Jupiter’s majesty as the launch indicator ahead of them changed from red to green. More power was fed into their telekinetic drive, and the focal point was moved outward, pulling the craft along for the ride straight through the doors and into the black.
Henry busied himself by returning to his reading. He needed to wrap his head around this "Project Exodus" and this new ship, and he needed to organize his thoughts before questioning Paul about it all. He was in for a long flight, the spook had nowhere to hide, and he had a feeling pulling information from him would be aggravating. There would be plenty of time to grill the snake over it all once he had a firmer grasp of what kind of new future he was currently flying towards.
Trust me, the admiral said, though he hadn’t said with his life. I suppose I’m committed now, let’s hope he’s right…. With that thought, Henry signed the papers.