Talosian Chronicles 5: Raptor Squadron (26 page)

The first image to come up was that of the Raptor Section Commander, General Ty Anders.

"Let me begin by telling all of you that you are definitely living up to your reputations. You're in the middle of running from the enemy, and you want to stop and set up a Bed and Breakfast. Well, you're getting your wish.

"Currently, we are refitting a medium freighter with enigma armor and stealth systems in order to deliver hard to get supplies to the Echelon system undetected. It will be flown by unassigned Raptor personnel in order to keep your exact location as confidential as possible. We will also be assigning two additional teams, as well as support staff, to you once the base is built. The replacement Raptors will be on the first load sent to you. Team
Ithica
is to return to Hades for retraining as soon as Circe is installed and verifies the new ship.

He paused and looked down a moment. "We all feel the loss when one of us doesn't make it home. Major Rathbone has been added to the wall. I feel I should tell you that Officer Ben Conan of Raptor
Damocles
died of injuries sustained in action on the planet Hyperion. Major Williams was also gravely injured but is responding to treatment and is expected to make a full recovery.

"In a moment, the Admiral will fill you in on the particulars and other pertinent info you might want to know. So, in closing, I want you all to know how proud you have made me. I am honored and humbled to be your commander. Good work, and God speed."

The next image to form on the screen was that of Admiral Ian Williams. "Ladies and gentlemen, thanks to you, the planet of Hyperion has been returned to Alliance control. Even with your amazing actions, the fight did not go well." He told the teams about the battle and the strange troops that appeared at the end as well as the civilian losses. "What happened at Hyperion will not be allowed to happen again. Now that we know of these strange suicide troops, we will be taking measures to prevent their interference in future battles.

"Now, to the heart of the matter. You have a very bold and dangerous idea. Alliance command is allowing you to proceed. That's actually what has taken so long to get this message sent to you; we needed to talk to the Croanians about using that system. Although there is a bunch of legal shit involved here, until further notice that system is yours. I mean that literally; Major Jana Cromwell has been granted Croanian citizenship and basically
given
that system as her property. Like I said, there is a bunch of legal shit involved, but the bottom line is, you can do what you need to do there. Considering its location, I wouldn't plan to set up a retirement home there.

"So, if you guys need anything out there, let us know, and we'll see what we can do to help you out. After discussing it with the Council and General Anders, it has been decided to promote Major Cromwell to Colonel and place her in nominal charge of the facility there. Due to my personal relationship with Major Cromwell, I removed myself from that decision. Included in this packet is an updated list of potential targets for you, and what we know of their defenses. We will do what we can to keep you as up-to-date as possible on new tech and weapons.

"Echelon Base will not officially exist. You'll be a combat version of Area 51 or Kapustin Yar, but with far less publicity. You'll also be an
Alliance
Base not a
Terran
one. Which means that some of the teams we send you might not be human, try to keep that in mind when building your living and recreational areas.

"The Croanians will be listing the system as lost and officially forbid travel there. Travel was pretty much out of the question before, but now it'll be official so to speak. Basically, it will be quietly added to the weekly navigation updates issued by the Alliance to non-military ships. No official announcement will be made, but Echelon will be taken off the books. There is a possibility that you might find pirates hiding there. The Croanians would rather you killed them than return them as 'pirates are without honor and do not deserve to live'. Honestly, your location needs to remain a secret, so you might have to destroy anyone you find there.

"Folks, to be completely honest with you, I'm not comfortable having people that far from home and relatively unsupported. I was against creating the base for that reason. However, Ty agreed with you, and Admiral T'rolith approved it, so you get your wish. I want all of you to hear me on this; if it gets too hairy out there, or it looks like you can't hold it. Rig it to explode and get the hell out of there. I do not enjoy adding names to that wall, and I have no desire to add any of yours; understand?

"You've been given mostly free reign to terrorize the hell out of the Empire. However, from time to time we will be calling on you to support this or that mission or maybe provide assistance for a fleet or mission in your area. We will need to know what you're doing, of course, in case it clashes with something else. So, keep us in the loop and don't get killed - that's an order."

While not a fully military target, the distribution center on the planet of Tekkera Nee was a massive supply distribution point for Imperial forces operating in this sector. The center itself couldn't even be called a military base, since it only had a platoon of soldiers as guards. Other than a small fleet of freighters, there were no fighters or guardian ships of any kind in the system.

Jana and her team were actually rather lucky in that during shift changes, the warehouses were all but unoccupied except for the guards, and the freighters were all Imperial. However, instead of a fully aerial attack, she and her team took the time to place charges in the warehouses in locations that would ensure the destruction of the supplies they held. Once all the charges were placed, they used the Raptor and its weapons to destroy the freighters. Although it was during a shift change, the workers ran for shelters when the freighters were attacked. With the civilians out of the way, it made blowing up the warehouses much easier.

Fourteen hours after their arrival, the Apache and her team were on their way back to the Echelon system. Compared to the other mission, Tekkera Nee had been a milk run.

The Imperial base on the moon 'Gar' in the Groth system was not as large as Grimaria had been, but it had the same function on a much smaller scale. Sizani frowned when he saw that there was a small fleet of warships in port for servicing. This mission would be far more complex and time consuming than originally planned.

Both capitol class ships were in refit gantries in the orbital yard along with two of the cruisers. Sensors reported all four ships were powered down and the carrier had its reactors removed. The battleship still had its reactors, but was powered down and a large section of hull removed for repairs. The two cruisers were getting weapons systems replaced and were also in a dormant condition. They were not, however, unprotected. Six light cruisers patrolled the system while two more heavy cruisers maintained parking orbits around the moon near where the shipyard was located. In addition to that, several wings of fighters patrolled the inner system continuously. The raptor team would have to be very careful in planning and executing their attack.

Sizani laid out a bold plan that called for the placement of demolition charges on the hulls of the ships in the yard, as well as the dry dock facility itself. The two heavy cruisers would also get charges, as would the large base on the airless moon. The fighters and light cruisers would be ignored.

Raptor
Zulu
would then set the timers on the charges and leave the system, using one of the large gas giants to mask their jump point. One hour later, the charges would detonate and destroy the facilities in the system.

However, the plan did not remain intact. While planting the charges at the dry dock facility, one of the heavy cruisers and four of the light cruisers departed the system. Major Sizani just shrugged; they would get those ships another day, for now, his team still had a job to do. With the charges at the dry dock placed, the
Zulu
moved on to the Heavy Cruiser and the base on the moon.

The charges themselves were mostly dormant, having only a small cloaking unit to hide them until detonation. The anti-matter inside them was heavily shielded and, until they were ready to detonate, were virtually untraceable.

Unless someone physically tripped over one.

Just as the final charges were being placed at the moon base, Nolwaz, the
Zulu
AI, informed her commander that one of the charges at the dry dock facility had been discovered.

"Just perfect! What else can go wrong with this mission!" One of the
Zulu
team members said over the comm.

"There is always a chance that the devices could be found before detonation. Nolwaz, what is the status of the device; do they know what it is?" Sizani asked.

"Negative Major, at present, a worker tripped over the device presently near the engineering section of the battleship. I do not believe he has reported it yet," the AI replied.

"Understood, continue to monitor the situation. Do not activate the device, but stand ready to detonate as quickly as possible.
Zulu
team, we need to leave. Now," Sizani ordered.

The team quickly returned to the Raptor and they left the moon for their predetermined exit point. "Nolwaz, what is the status of the devices?" the Major asked as he flew away from the moon.

"The worker has lost track of its exact location and is currently trying to relocate it. No alarm has been raised, nor is there panic in his actions," the AI replied.

"There sure as hell will be in a few more minutes!" one of the team members replied softly. Sizani ignored him.

"What are the odds he will relocate the device?"

The AI was silent a moment. "If he continues to search, he will eventually find it again. However, he has already been reprimanded once for dereliction."

"If he locates it again before he is called back to work, I will need to detonate all the devices at that facility immediately," Sizani ordered. "If not, we stay with the original time line for detonation."

The planned exit point for the team had been near the closest of the gas giants. Ironically, or perhaps luckily, one of the light cruisers that left the system was the only one that would have been able to see their jump. Since it had departed, they're escape should go unobserved.

Sizani felt they had gotten lucky, if such a thing as luck could be said to exist. The worker that tripped over the device was called back to work by his superior before he could relocate the demolition charge. The Zulu jumped to hyperspace without incident and the charges were detonated on schedule; as soon as the raptor jumped to hyperspace.

Groth-Gar base was completely destroyed in the attack. The event left the Imperial fleets in that sector mostly unsupported and susceptible to large scale attack by the Alliance.

Palace of Imperial Enlightenment

Onalau City

Planet Proferus Three

Orgatan System, Gar Sector

"Shalo, we have heard some disturbing reports of the battles there. Report," the hologram of the Emperor said from the throne.

Shalo bowed as was proper. "Imperial Majesty, we have indeed had some serious setbacks. It would seem that the Alliance has learned some new tricks." Shalo replied and outlined the losses sustained in the last weeks. "For the time being, I have halted all offensive activity until we can replace some of the key facilities. Specifically, the Grimaria Base and the base at Groth-Gar. We will also need to replace the ships that were lost in the fighting; I have sent the full report in just this morning. You should have it shortly."

"You would call a major defeat such as this a setback?" the Emperor asked.

"Yes, Majesty. That is all this is. We lost one very minor planet that we can retake. The rest can be rebuilt. I will admit we lost a great deal of materiel as well as personnel, but we did not lose the space. The Alliance did not invade. We believe that the initial attack on Grimaria was a distraction, whose sole purpose was to keep us from responding to the Hyperion invasion. The gates there were destroyed before they could be scanned by the enemy, aside from the damage done, nothing more was lost.

"However, we have learned that the Alliance now has a small, well equipped assault teams capable of operations deep in our space. They have superior stealth abilities that make them all but invisible to us, and the soldiers used are well trained in multiple disciplines of warfare. While we can track them in hyperspace, we can only do so if we can obtain a solid fix on them prior to their transition and we remain within four light years. I should mention that two of these teams were destroyed shortly after the main attack at Grimaria. We believe the attacks at Tekkera Nee and Groth-Gar were carried out by the survivors of the Grimaria farce," Shalo replied.

"After all this time, how do you see the Alliance gaining this new ability?" the Emperor asked.

"Imperial Majesty, the only thing that has changed here is the addition of the new humans. They were the primary force that captured Hyperion and defeated the Sword of Light there…"

"You are mistaken Shalo, the Sword was not defeated. They accomplished their mission," the Emperor replied.

"Of course, I am mistaken then. Still I believe it is these new humans that have brought new tactics and new technology to the Alliance. I have issued orders to double the effort to locate their planets before this technology can spread. These new humans are a grave threat to us and our plans here," Shalo replied.

"Yes they are. Shalo, as you know, I've spoken with the Gods on this matter. These new humans will rise to power in the Alliance and eventually destroy the Empire. If you cannot stop them now, in that galaxy, they will certainly burn our worlds to the ground around us. Shalo, the fate of the Empire rests on your shoulders. Find them and destroy them utterly. Destroy them before they destroy us." The Emperor sounded strangely different now. "I've seen it happen, Shalo. They showed me what will come to pass. Invisible warships, hidden demon soldiers killing… everyone. The Palace in flames." He said softly, in almost a whisper.