(INS Jethro Gibbs, Earth Orbit, Sol System)
Rear Admiral Anthony DiNozzo was less than pleased with the current arrangement of forces in the system. One of four flag officers now commanding the defense of Earth, he had only gotten this position because the highest-ranking admirals, as well as the fleet commanders who would normally be in charge of such an important post, were caught in the first attack of the ‘Ghost Fleet’.
That fleet (the damn Intelligence department couldn’t pin down how many ships they actually had, but thought it was at least six) had played a critical role in reversing the tide of the civil war, to the point that an invasion of Sol seemed all but inevitable. That left a lot of room for new promotions, but the most promising candidates were either dead, already assigned to other fleets, or were going to the new ships that had been coming off the line since the war’s start.
DiNozzo had been promoted, sure, but he knew his career was going nowhere. He wasn’t politically reliable enough for the new Emperor and the new Navy. He wasn’t cult material, basically. So until someone more reliable was at a point where they could do the job, he was in a position of some authority, but still under the command of those who were cultists.
He commanded a third of the overall defensive fleet for Earth. Just Earth, not the whole of Sol system. But it was still impressive, on paper. Unfortunately, most of his ships were either completely new hulls without even a shakedown cruise or relics from the reserve fleets that had been ‘prettied up’ to look like top of the line vessels. His ships also were on skeleton crews, and all his captains and officers were the ‘unreliable’ types, like himself. And they were flying in a lazy, predictable formation in orbit of Earth.
In other words, they were sacrificial lambs left out for the slaughter, in hopes that they’d draw in the Ghost Fleet and the Empress’s forces to attack, letting the rest of the fleet hidden behind Luna ambush them. And so his crews were all the problem children and general nuisances that all navies had, but also those that were, like him, not willing to join the Emperor’s cult. Well, for the most part. There were a few cultists in the fleet, but mostly they were in the ships that were expected to survive the battle.
One thing that had been concerning him, though he hadn’t mentioned it in any of the high-level planning missions, because no one wanted the opinion of an admiral of questionable loyalty, was that this whole thing was dependent on the ‘rebels’ flying directly into the trap. Sure, it looked good, on paper, and his flagship the Gibbs had been modified to look like the fleet flagship from a distance, but he could do basic math, like anyone else. It had been just under a month since the fleet base at Alpha Centauri had fallen. Plenty of time for the other side to use that Ghost Fleet to scout Sol and report back.
Which is why, when the attack finally came, he was not entirely surprised to find out that the Empress’s forces knew exactly where to hit them.
Rushing onto the flag bridge as the alarms began to sound, DiNozzo called out, “Report!”
Lieutenant McGee looked up from the sensor station. “Sir! Enemy ships have entered the system and are moving to attack! We’re showing forces at Mars, Ceres, and Venus. It looks like a timed attack. Both sides have deployed tarpits, locking down the system. The fleets in the outer planets won’t be able to get to us in time to help.”
“If that’s true, then why isn’t there an attack here? I’d think they’d attack Earth while they were at it.”
Another Lieutenant (Palmer, wasn’t it?) spoke up from the com station. “Sir! Message from the fleet! The ships on the other side of Luna are under attack! The ships just blew through the sensor screens, and opened fire at point-blank range, almost as though they knew the ships were there!”
DiNozzo shook his head. “That’s because they DID know the ships were there, Lieutenant. The whole area has probably been scouted by the Ghost Fleet.” Looking back at the first lieutenant, he said, “McGee, what is the status of the fleet?”
“Not good, sir. They were on minimal power to try and run as silently as possible while we drew the enemy in, so their shields were offline. Damage reports are still coming in, but it looks like they concentrated fire on the superdreadnoughts. The Aurum Throni is gone, sir, as are the Prince of Saiyans, Cleopatra, Marcus Aurelius, and Glory of Rome. The other superdreadnoughts are battered, and some probably won’t be able to rejoin the fight.”
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“Who is in command of the fleet?”
“Rear Admiral Norgaard has taken command of the fleet in lunar space and is organizing the lines of defense. It is turning into a chaotic situation.”
DiNozzo nodded. If half the command structure gets wiped out before anyone is able to fire back, that certainly would turn things into a fairly chaotic situation. In fact, he would be hard pressed to find any situation that was more chaotic, short of coming out of warp into the teeth of a supernova. And neither situation was one he was too eager to jump into the middle of.
“Send to all commanders, keep the fleet together, and keep scanning local space. The attack may be a diversion to allow the Ghost Fleet to make an attack on Earth. We will hold position and prevent any attacks upon the Imperial Palace or other facilities on the ground.”
Palmer spoke up again. “Sir, message from Admiral Norgaard. We are to move immediately to support the fleet!”
“Ignore it. My duty is to Earth, and the Empire, not Norgaard. We’re the same rank, so he can’t order me around like some cadet.”
Captain Todd looked up from where she was going over her own reports of the battle, and walked over to his station. In a low voice, she said, “But sir, shouldn’t we help support the fleet? They’re getting torn apart out there.”
DiNozzo shook his head curtly, and whispered, “And what good would we do, Captain? A few extra hulls, all on half crews if that, most barely out of the yards and untested? Maybe without the tarpits, but right now we’d be running straight into the fire. I’m not throwing these people’s lives away for the sake of those damned cultists who left us here as bait, expecting us to die.”
Todd shook her head. “Your career will be over for this. You’ll be lucky to keep out of prison or enslavement.”
“My career was over the moment I refused to join the cult. Now all I care about is keeping these people alive, if only for a bit longer.”
Palmer called out again, “Um, Captain? We’ve just gotten another transmission from the fleet. It says ‘Commence Twilight’. What does that mean?”
Crewman Haswari (one of the few cultists in the fleet) looked up from his station at the helm said, “It means this ship will be brought under direct Imperial control by those loyal to the Emperor and the Lord Deus.” As he spoke, he turned, and pulled his service weapon, aiming at the Admiral. There were four shots, two from Aswari, and two from Commander David, the marine on duty at the entrance to the bridge. She cut down Aswari without a word, but Admiral DiNozzo’s attention wasn’t on her, but on Captain Todd, who had stepped in front of him at the last second.
Todd fell, but the Admiral caught her before she hit the ground, a look of shock on her face as she fell. She tried to say something but couldn’t speak as blood came from her mouth.
Looking up at the bridge, DiNozzo called out, “Medic! Get a medic over here, and get the captain to sickbay, at once! Palmer, get on the horn, see how many other ships this happened to. David, call security. Every member of the cult is to be put in the brig, across the fleet. If they resist, shoot them. McGee, I need a status report on our fleet, now!”
The medic came quickly, but DiNozzo could already see from the grim look on the man’s face that there was nothing he could do. The captain was dead. Looking over to Commander David and the shooter, he sighed, seeing that two head shots had taken the damn cultist down. At least she’d been avenged.
Palmer called out, “Admiral, all ships except for the Bounty reporting in. Captain Bligh is not responding to hails.”
McGee cursed. “The Bounty is arming weapons and targeting us! Admiral, I believe they mean to shoot us!”
“Of course they mean to shoot us, they’ve been taken over by cultists! All ships should already be at battle stations, but sound it anyways, and have them open fire on the Bounty, we can’t afford to be taking chances with the enemy on our doorstep. Damn cultists!”
The Bounty was one of the ships that had been brought into service just recently, just a frigate, and so taking on a superdreadnought, even without the rest of the fleet, was a death sentence, but then the cultists were ‘immortal’, so what did they care about death? The whole thing was far too suspicious for DiNozzo’s liking, which is part of why he had refused to join the cult. It encouraged suicidal tactics like this.
Soon the Bounty was nothing more than a flaming wreck, taking with it all hands, cultists and sane men alike. They had fought with the devotion of the insane, and had managed to take the Calypso with them, actually ramming the other frigate while their ship was in its death throes. Half the fleet were missing their commanding officers, thanks to those bastards, but none of the other ships had been taken over.
“Admiral! We are being targeted by the planet’s automated defenses!”
“Damn it all! Move the fleet! Take us out of range of the planetary defenses, and tell all ships to hold station between Earth and Luna. I am about fed up with ‘surprises’.”
When they had moved the fleet to the midway point between Earth and the moon, DiNozzo breathed a bit easier, since it would be harder for the Empire’s forces to attack them now. “What is the status of Norgaard and his forces?”
“Sir, it seems that Admiral Norgaard was killed when the Gorgoroth was destroyed. The remaining ships have either surrendered or been destroyed. Fleet chatter suggests that the only ones to surrender had mutinies on board, as the cultists were killed to allow other officers to take command and surrender.”
“Some small silver lining. But fine, I’ll take it. After this war, we’ll be decades rebuilding the fleet. Assuming we don’t have one of the other powers invade us, thinking we’re weakened.”
“Sir, receiving a transmission from Triumphant. It says that it is from True Empress Merida Vaughn.”
“On screen, then. Let’s see what the Empress has to say.”
“This is the True Empress Merida Vaughn, rightful heir to Emperor Alexander Vaughn. To all servants of the Usurper Travis, I offer you the chance to surrender now, and join me in ridding the Terran Empire of the stain that my brother has brought upon our honor, first by conspiring with nobles to commit regicide and patricide, and then by falling to the temptations of a mad AI, and becoming the slave of a machine! Join with me, and we will end this wasteful conflict, and bring peace back to the Empire!”
”Or you can fight, and be destroyed, as the other members of the Cult of Deus have been. Mars, Ceres, and Venus have all fallen. The fleets in the outer planets are cut off, and unable to assist you. So I offer you this chance. Surrender or die.”
DiNozzo sighed, and hit the transmit button. “This is Rear Admiral DiNozzo. We surrender. Be warned that the planetary defenses are not under our control. We will hold station at the midpoint between Earth and Luna until we receive further orders. Admiral DiNozzo out.”
Looking over to McGee, he said, “Well, our part in this is done, now. A shame that it cost so many lives.”