URGENT-GENERAL BULLETIN

No. 1109-33

Headquarters, Department of the Army

C. City, Corneria, October 12, 1109

ASSIGNMENT OF FORCES FOR KEW UNDER EXTRASOLAR COMMAND STAFF CONTROL, ARMY

1. Effective immediately, units procured under the Hired Forces Agreement (HIFA) and assembled under the Cornerian Mercenary Command (COMEC) (Unit Designation (UD): MRC:-111,-112,-113) are placed under direct command of assigned general staff.

2. Vetted and confirmed units to report to Macbeth Point. Purpose of deployment discreetly handled until arrival. Extrasolar Command Staff (EXCOST) (UD: CAB-100) will handle briefing.

3. EXCOST will designate and distribute HIFA resources to handle occupation of Kew and assist in **REDACTED**REDACTED** neutralization.

4. Location assignments for **REDACTED**REDACTED** will be split according to EXCOST, with COMEC remaining as major subordinate of EXCOST.

5. Seizure of **REDACTED**REDACTED** by **REDACTED**REDACTED** will be monitored jointly by EXCOST and COMEC, with special care given to observing rate of growth.

6. EXCOST will prioritize minimizing civilian casualties while also evaluating local cultural climate and public perception in order to gauge appropriate level of COMEC involvement.

[AFMP]

Irene T. Whittaker

General of the Army, Extrasolar Command Staff

DISTRIBUTION: This bulletin is to be distributed immediately to all general staff acting as part of Cornerian Army deployment to Macbeth Point. Possession and/or distribution of this document outside of intended recipients can and will be prosecuted as a state-level crime.


Prologue

The Squat Rock. Fort McDeath.

A single asteroid orbited several thousands of kilometers above Macbeth, bearing both these names.

Officially, people called it Point Macbeth: a former Venomian base built on a mined-out asteroid husk, reclaimed and rebranded by the Cornerian Army as a listening outpost and research site. Little buildings and artificial grooves dotted its surface, spread thinly across the pockmarked rock. The occupants 'enjoyed' a comfortable-ish three-quarters of simulated gravity, made by the asteroid's engineered spin.

Standing on the inner wall of the structure and looking straight up, you'd be facing the imaginary center that the structure spun around. What this means is that even though you felt pushed down and away from the center, everything moved in a circle around that point. Like a spot on a bicycle tire, you spun around the axle, moving sideways even though you felt pushed down. The Coriolis effect.

One ram figured this out as he threw up into the toilet.

Wearing a faded maroon Army utility uniform, the ram keeled over one more time, keeping his head a small distance to the side of the bowl. A mess on the opposite side came from his last effort. Coughing and heaving, the ram closed the lid and sat back down in the stall, rubbing his face. Pulling out strips of toilet paper, he wiped the stains that covered only one side of his mouth. Spitting out a few more bits into the vacuum disposal, he splashed his face with water from the sink and walked out the door, replacing the crumpled cap he held in one hand.

Licking his lips and swallowing several times, he made his way down the corridors, scowling. A green parrot saluted smartly as he passed, "Good morning, Pope, sir."

Pope barged past, grunting as he saluted back, quickly. The ram's stomach bothered him. The hospital corpsman already told him that he wasn't sick, and that he just needed to take a weak painkiller before getting back to his job.

He hated his job.

It all revolved around supervising the long-range systems on Point Macbeth: a combined set of LIDAR and thermal detection systems that could spot warships by sending lasers at specific target and bouncing them off the target so they'd get reflected back to a receiver on base. The reflected 'image' could let you see what a ship looked like, how fast it moved, and how fast it accelerated. The system also accounted for the time it took for the beam to travel to and from the target, since targets often appeared at distances greater than a million kilometers away, and the speed of light was only so fast. Thermals just let you spot heat signatures, like engines lighting up, or guns firing.

One more turn, and the ram entered a room filled with monitors and officers with maroon uniforms sitting in front of them. All wore thick headphones as they stared at their glowing blue screens. One black cat leaned back from his chair while flipping through a lingerie magazine. A uniformed meerkat wore slippers.

Rubbing his eyes one more time, the ram walked over to the nearest monitor, half-barking, half-groaning:

"Updates?"

"Sir," A lean gray horse looked up from his terminal, pulling one headphone away from his ear. Dark bags circled his reddened eyes,

"LIDAR at duct three kept getting a ghost image, but nothing consistent. Kept slipping away. It's probably not them, but..." The horse curled his lip, shrugging.

The ram gave him a look with yellowed eyes and a scowl, "...but we have to report it anyway, I know,"

The ram's hands went back to rubbing his face. The meerkat looked back, rolled his eyes, and tapped the toes of his slippers against the wall. Reaching for his mug, he brought it to his mouth when his eyes focused on his own screen as it started to flicker.

He leaned in, mug in hand, as his eyes focused on the image in front of him. Turning back, he called over for the ram,

"Hey, hey, sir, I'm getting something here-"

Pope looked over, pulling his eyes away from the black cat's magazine. Pulling his cap up and scratching his forehead, he jogged over, looking over the meerkat's shoulder to see the image.

"It's faint. Six hundred thousand kilometers out, but it's there."

The ram paused, getting a feeling in his gut. A weak stirring. leaned over to see the image. He traced his finger over it, squinting, "...big as a frisbee, isn't it? 'Course, may be stealthed, so it looks smaller on LIDAR, but still,"

He scratched his cheek, sighing. This happened on and off for weeks already. A faint image popped up, flickered in place, then disappeared, several times a day. He already reported it to the brass. In response, they got brisk orders: to report the thing every time it happened, even if they thought it was a bug.

This happened roughly twenty times a day. For two months.

Replacing some parts in the LIDAR stopped it a bit, but it kept happening. The LIDAR detected friendly warships and civilians, too, but this one didn't appear on any roster Pope remembered.

The meerkat screwed up his face as the ram's breath wafted over his nose, but he said nothing. The ram looked over at the black cat with the magazine,

"Call up command. Tell 'em what's happening and put up an alert again. Ask for a fighter squadron to try and spook it. See if they can get a closer look before it runs away again. See if it's actually real."

The black cat turned back to his console, replacing his headphones as he spoke into them. The ram looked back at the screen, then froze as the meerkat spoke:

"Sir, it's coming closer," The meerkat's jaw dropped a little as the screen's image began to change. The little blue wire-frame displayed began to change shape, growing in size.

"The hell-?" The ram leaned in more, and others started to lean over to look, too: a fox looked up from his console, and a bear leaned over from his.

The feeling in Pope's gut flickered a little more.

Squinting again the ram spoke, slowly, "That...is new,"

The ram looked back to the black cat behind him, speaking, "Finks, ETA on that squadron?"

The cat faced him, pulling his face away from his screen, "Thirty minutes, sir. Patrol is on route. Five fighters."

"Too long," The ram growled as he looked back at the screen.

The meerkat spoke up again, shifting his jaw, "It's moving at five kilometers a second. No acceleration."

"Satellite? Maybe something someone forgot about?"

This question ran against Pope's hunch, but he asked it anyway. No need to get worked up if it's a false alarm.

"Uh-uh," The meerkat shook his head, "This thing's been disappearing and reappearing for the past two months. Weird intervals. Same approach each time. Not civilian. Civilians don't make ships that look like that."

"Hm," Pope snorted, then looked back at the screen. The feeling in his gut died down, smoldering like an ember. He stayed there, looking over the meerkat's shoulder. After a while, the rest of the staff returned to their jobs. Finks started flipping through his magazine again, and the ram started to yawn.

"BOOM!"

The meerkat shouted, and Pope jumped, startled. The rest of the room looked over again as the meerkat went on,

"We got a thermal image! Whatever she is, she just lit up her engines. Hello, beautiful-!" The meerkat wore a wicked smile as the ram leaned in closer to see a reddish flare appear on screen.

"She's accelerating," The ram spoke softly, awed. The blip on the LIDAR was real. It was actually real. The crew wasn't imagining it-it just lit up, in front of him. Not a malfunction, but a real, actual warship trying to hide from view. The weariness and frustration, built up in his face over the course of several weeks, vanished as he started to shout, "Ladies and gentlemen, we've got a live one! Full alert, people! Full alert!"

The ram clapped his hands, barking orders as alarms sounded. He looked back at the screen, licking his lips. The feeling, once dormant, sparked up again, building up like a fire. Pope felt his breath get faster, and his heart raced. Not dread...

...But excitement.

Chatter started to fill the room, and Finks spoke up again:

"Squadron says they're near. Barely see it, but they're near."

The ram spoke fast, snapping. Every ounce of nausea wiped away from his features: "Right! Tell them to give us a close image."

"Right, sir," Finks turned back to his console and spoke into his headset again.

"Damn! She can move!" The meerkat spoke up, "She's accelerating away. She'll outrun the squadron, at this rate."

The ram felt a knot form in his stomach. It couldn't get away. No, it wouldn't get away. Not scot-free. Not without a fight.

"Well, we need a good look, at least, before she disappears again. Finks! Do they got it yet?"

"Not yet. Getting closer!"

"Shoot," The ram growled, "At this rate, it'll outrun the squadron before we even get a good picture-" The knot grew tighter. The ship already made a mistake, yes, but he needed more proof. Something to confirm his hunch.

"She's getting faster!"

"Oh, come on!" The ram shouted, looking at Finks again, "Anything yet?!"

"Not yet!" The black cat snapped back.

Beads of sweat. Face contorted in rage. He couldn't let this asshole just go like nothing happened. Not after he jerked them all around for weeks on end-

"She's fading!"

The ram's blood turned to ice. His chance so close, he could taste it.

"Damn it! Now!?" The ram turned to yell back at the cat.

"NO!" The cat barked.

Please, please, oh come ON-!

"And, and, she's gone," The meerkat groaned, slumping in his chair and pointing an open hand at the screen.

The ram roared, slamming against the wall and letting himself slide down onto the ground. Swearing, he took off his cap and rubbed his temples, speaking aloud,

"Did they get anything?"

"Squadron got a visual, before it disappeared," The cat slumped in his own chair, sighing.

A little flicker of hope. The ram swallowed.

"Recorded? And?"

The cat straightened up, looking grimly at the screen, "...It's not a great one."

A long silence. Taking a deep breath the ram relaxed, then spoke:

"Well, that's that. Did everything we could. More importantly, though, whoever they are:"

The ram paused, with the smallest smile forming on his grizzled features:

"They've just made a huge mistake."


Millions of kilometers away, in a portion of space far from civilization, a great ship held its position among several dark shapes.

Built like a long brick and solid black, with countless pinprick-small lights arranged in rows across its long nose, the great ship moved.

A great silvery orb grew out of the black monolith's midsection, locked in place by small pillars. Hex-shaped pockmarks littered the orb's surface like a great honeycomb. Massive engines pushed the ship as they glowed with a bright blue, moving the hulking mass towards a distant planet.

In the dark, the shapes began to stir. Decks flashed, with engines stirring one by one, like little beacons being lit. As the new ships woke, they lined up beside the great monolith, making a fleet.

As the fleet grew, the differences between ships grew starker: thin, angled white-and-blue starships prowled by great boxy reddish ones; small, tadpole-shaped ships swarmed by sleek, swept-wing machines in tight formation; one starship, larger than any other in the fleet save the monolith, flew up to the monolith's white orb.

As it came close long, spindly, hooked legs reached out of the honeycombs, probing into the dark. As it came within reach, the spindly legs arched, latching their hooked tips onto the starship's surface, like needles sinking into skin. Gently, slowly, the arms pulled the starship down until a long rubbery tube coiled out from the white orb, latching onto the smaller ship's midsection.

The starship, carried down by the spidery arms and latched into place by the lamprey-like tube, offered no resistance. Little shuttles flew from the honeycombs of the white orb, blue engines glowing like fireflies, passing to and from each of the other ships.

All at once, the white orb gave off an eerie glow: casting a faint veil, like an aurora grayed with age, over the whole fleet. The space around it shimmered, with the very edge of the veil rippling the darkness around it. The ripples smoothed, and the edge of the veil shrank. As the veil passed inwards, each ship within its fold disappeared, swallowed whole by the dark.

When the ships faded from view, one by one, the black monolith began to shimmer. Soon the veil it cast closed in on the monolith, too, and it began to dissolve from view.

As it started to vanish, it rumbled. A stuttering, halting, convulsion seized the ship as its image dissolved from sight, stopping and starting after short pauses until the last of its lights winked out from view.

For anyone not inclined to superstition, it looked like a metal cathedral, groaning under its weight.

For those who knew better, it looked like a laugh.


Author's Notes:

This is what I felt my story was missing. Sorry for the confusion-I spent a long while mulling over how I really wanted this fic to start, and this turned out to be the best setup. Ride'll hopefully be much smoother from here on out.

-NothingExtra