Act of Vengeance
Background
Antarctic Peninsula – Antarctica – Earth - 2006
The rugged clothing didn't do much to keep out the cold. All it did was to keep the frostbite out and at bay, especially in conditions such as this. Visibility was down to thirty metres and the wind speed was reaching eighty kilometres an hour. Dr. David Miller was one of eighteen members of the first completely international expedition to Antarctica. The international team was composed of two members from nine different countries which were Australia/New Zealand, the United States of America, Canada, The United Kingdom, China, Japan, France, Germany and Switzerland. Their goal was to use the latest in sensor equipment to trace out the outline of the Antarctic continent, as well as a very brief exploratory mission for oils and natural gases which may be located underneath the ice. They had left the Haggland a while back and proceeded on foot to their next location of just over a kilometre away. There, they needed to set up and take their next sensor reading. The Haggland was dual-cab, medium class, over snow vehicle developed by Sweden. They were very useful throughout most bases situated in Antarctica, and were heavily used by the Australian Government which had territorial claims to more than one third of the continent. They were in the Australian Territory and had set out from Davis Station once being airlifted there from Casey Station.
They had arrived at their site and began to set up the sensor. They had to set up the central sensor unit, and then set up four sub-units which came out of it at right angles and had to be situated twenty metres away from the main unit. A pulse of energy would be sent out into the ice, and all five units would receive the pulse back, and interpret the data once it was hooked into their computer back at the Station. A number of pulses of different settings needed to be undertaken at every site, testing for different minerals and compositions of materials throughout the ice and underneath it.
The work was slow, and seven hours later, they were back at Davis Station. Dr. Miller approached the terminal that Dr. Galina, a Russian scientist which was with the team and interpreting the data. Apparently, she had found something underneath the ice and had called for everyone to come quickly. The crowd was already gathered around the terminal before Dr. Miller could get there.
"Here you can see where the ice ends and the surface of the land begins. It is simple metamorphic rock. The interesting thing is that approximately thirty metres underneath the rock is this shape," she pointed out to the monitor. "It is clearly rectangular and non-natural. From sensor wave three, we have determined that it is some kind of metal alloy, with traces of titanium and an unidentified mineral through it. We won't know what the mineral is until we get more detailed scans using SenSTAT3 on finer settings. It is clear that this object is a non-natural formation. It's only located ten metres below the boundary of the land mass and ice. I think we need to look into this more," she explained.
"We can't unless we get approval from our respective governments," Dr. Johnson, the American member of the international team commented.
"I think that we should get approval," Professor Fraser, the UK representative on the team stated. There were nods all around, as one by one, each member went to the phone or their own computer to contact their superiors and tell them about the discovery.
Antarctic Peninsula – Antarctica – Earth - 2007
Dr. Miller got out of the makeshift lift and approached the team which was awaiting for him. Ever since the discovery under the ice a year ago, all of the scientists who made up the original team were promoted to leaders of the international effort to excavate the ice, and then the substrate surrounding the metal object that they had found under the ice. The story that was given out to the public was that the largest oil reserves that the world had ever seen had been found and that it was going to be an international reserve, to help promote world cooperation. In reality, it was something different altogether. Dr. Miller looked upwards, looking out of the giant hole which had been dug through the ice. He was standing on the surface of the Antarctic continent itself, not the ice that covered it. He looked down into the crater that had been excavated, and in the middle of it was a very large metal object, which looked to be mechanical in nature. Most of the people working on the project agreed that it seemed to be some kind of extra-terrestrial ship of some kind.
"Dr. Miller. The tunnels to site 2 and 3 were completed earlier today," a member of his team said to him. "We've found smaller objects; they seem to be of a different nature than ET1. One of the sites has what appears to be smaller personal items littered around the larger object."
Osprey class shuttle – Outer Sol. System – 2063
Flight Lieutenant Samuel Johnson was the pilot of the newly developed Osprey class shuttle developed by the Planetary Defence Organisation, a coalition of the nine nations which had discovered the alien carrier underneath the ice of Antarctica. Apart from high level officials in the governments of all of the member nations, the people employed in the program, people employed in the manufacturing of the program, and key members of the UN, no one else on Earth knew about what had been developed from the technology found aboard the ship. Translations had been completed ten years ago on the hand written documents, almost perfectly preserved within the ship as there was no air present inside. What Samuel Johnson knew of the translations stated that a great race had set out from their dying homeworld years ago. The scientific dating around the ship had indicated that the substrate that it was located in was hundreds of thousands of years old, however additional scientific testing of the ice that had been excavated had shown that an impact had occurred which had affected the ice no more than four hundred years ago. Theories had sprung up that perhaps the ship wasn't that old, and that it had come to earth at least four hundred years ago. Others believed that the ice may have crushed something on the ship and that had set off an explosion which disrupted the ice. The translations had also warned of a great war upon the race's homeworld, causing the tribes to separate and go different directions. It had warned that future generations of the other tribes may someday try to come to Earth, and they may have hostile intentions. Ever since that was discovered, Australia and New Zealand, the United States of America, Canada, The United Kingdom, China, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland had been working on backwards engineering the technology that had been found within the ship. They had managed to manufacture better engines for non-atmospheric travel. The scientists had just figured out the systems on the ship which they said must have created artificial gravity. By studying the power-plant of the ship, Nuclear Fusion (Warm and Cold) had recently been cracked, which made powering of the ships that had been developed feasible.
Three kinds of fighter craft had been developed, the F/S 601 - Falcon, F/S 602 - Tiger, and F/SB 603 – Albatross. The F/S 601 – Falcon was a long and elongated fighter, with two wings coming out either side. Two large engines were attached to the underside of each wing and the hull of the ship, with a panel of smaller engines on the rear of the hull, which if ignited together could boost the speed of the Falcon fighter. Primitive rail guns had been developed by the United States Army, and two were located attached to the upper side of the wing and located next to the hull. Twin tails were located on the top of the ship, and electronic counter measures were launched from a small chamber located between the V shape of the wings. The cockpit almost sat on top of the engines and rail guns towards the rear of the ship, and had enough room for one person. It was 9.5m in Length and it had a 4.5m wingspan. The F/S 602 – Tiger was a completely different design. It was similar to a Stealth Bomber. Twin engines were mounted on the underside of the fighter on the main hull, and one larger engine was mounted on the top. A missile bay was located in the centre of the fighter, and two rail guns were located on the top of each wing, and two more on the bottom, making the rate of fire of the Tiger enormous. The two person cockpit was located towards the front of the craft, with a sensor package located in the nose. It was 7m in Length and had an 11m Wingspan. The F/SB 603 – Albatross was really more of a bomber than a fighter. The shape of the main hull of the fighter was similar to a long cylinder with a rounded cone at the front for the nose. Four large engines were located attached to the hull on the top and bottom of the wings which extended from the fighter. Two missile bays were located in the fighter, one fore and one aft, each capable of launching fifteen standard non-atmospheric missiles. Twin rail-guns were located on the top-front of each wing, near the hull. The cockpit was roughly in the middle of the craft, and it took two people to fly the craft. It was 13m in length and it had a 10m wingspan.
Perhaps Flight Lieutenant Samuel Johnson's favourite, because of bias, was the C-602 Osprey class shuttle that had been developed. It was the ship that he had trained in, and what he was flying now. Originally, it had been developed to serve as a small transport and construction/repair craft for ships, but it's success and versatility had shown that it was a good reconnaissance ship, as well as sensor/radar platform and support ship. They were a rectangular shape, with a loading/unloading ramp at the rear, much like cargo planes of Earth. Two very large rotational jets were located on the ends of two very small and thick wings. The jet engines could rotate three hundred and sixty degrees in a plane parallel to the length of the Osprey. Six VTOL jets were located along the length of the Osprey, which were used for stability in take off, landings and when hovering in an atmosphere. A turrented rail gun was located tucked away within the hull on the lower front of the ship. It could be locked in place for forwards fire, or it could rotate three hundred and sixty degrees laterally, and one hundred and eighty degrees vertically to the plane of the ship. The Osprey was ten metres in length, had a wingspan (including engines) of 6 metres, and it was three metres in height. The Osprey also contained a very powerful sensor/radar package, and an extendable arm which could be used for a variety of functions such as repair, welding, along with others. A crew of three was needed, one to pilot the vessel, one to man the navigation, sensors, and electronic countermeasures, and one to man the weapons.
The C-601 – Baleen class cargo ship had been developed to move large amounts of materials. It was basically a large truncated container towards the bottom, with a cockpit and twin rotational engines mounted on the rear, dorsal side. A number of VTOL engines and compressed air jets were located down the sides of the container. Two large electromagnetic plates were situated on the sides of the container, which allowed the recovery of ships such as fighters and Osprey class shuttles possible when something went wrong with them. One turrented rail-gun was located on the front dorsal section of the ship, as well as one on the rear, ventral part of the ship, located underneath the cockpit. The container part of the ship blocked the turrent from firing forwards, so it was used for rear protection of the ship. The container contained a loading and unloading ramp on the front and back of the ship, which made it easy for things such as vehicles to load in a drive on-drive off fashion. A large cargo lift was situated in the middle of the container, making it possible to transport cargo to the upper level of the container. The Baleen class cargo ships were 20m in Length, by 10 metres wide and 5m in height.
The BC-601 – Poseidon, until recently, had been one of the greatest achievements of mankind. It measured 250m in length, 70m width and 25metres in height. It's purpose was to support fighters, and to serve as a military cruiser and research platform. The crash of the ship in Antarctica had boosted the knowledge of shields, which at the time of discovery in 2006 had been little more than barely working prototypes of weak electromagnetic shields. Now, they were strong energy fields, capable of deflecting all types of solar radiation, and even rail gun rounds. Theoretically, they were capable of absorbing one or two nuclear impacts in space before failing. Three Nuclear Fusion reactors powered the ship, which had four very large engines located on the rear of the ship. The ship was a laterally compressed rectangle in shape, with two extensions at the rear which were effectively it's 'wings'. The ship boasted a number of rail-gun emplacements over the ship, as well as having a bay full of nuclear missiles. It was capable of holding up to ten F-601 Falcon, or six F-602 Tiger class fighters, as well as three C-602 Osprey class shuttles. One truncated rectangular docking bay was located in the centre of the ship, which was a perfect match for the shape of a C-601 Baleen class ship. The ship could dock the main part of it's container within the ship, while the cockpit and engine section remained outside the main superstructure of the ship. Because of the front and rear loading/unloading ramps, cargo could be easily loaded or unloaded from the ship. The Poseidon took a crew of eight hundred to operate, and it featured very, very, touchy Faster than Light Travel, which would create a wormhole to the seven-dimensional universe, where physics doesn't work the same way as it does in the three-dimensional universe. There, the ship can be accelerated to great speeds, and the wormhole opened up on the other side. Travel times to the Alpha-Centauri system were in hours, instead of years. The concepts for the technology were reverse-engineered from the crashed ship in the Antarctic. After many test drones were used, and the secrets of the technology were discovered, work began to reduce the size and power requirements needed for Hyperspace Technology. The Hyperspace Engines would easily overheat with prolonged use, and usually a stopover was required to let them cool down and not overload.
The BB-700 Triton, was the greatest achievement of mankind. The parts were being fabricated on Earth, and the ship was being assembled in the outer solar system, away from the solar plane so that observatories from Earth wouldn't spot it. The Triton measured 600m in length, 200m in Width, and was 60m High. It had a 'swollen' front, a narrow 'neck' and an enlarged rear sections. The front section was the main military part of the ship, as well as the 'bridge' and other critical parts of the ship. The neck served mostly as bunks and quarters for the crew, while the rear section was for cargo, research, development, repair, fabrication, food and oxygen production, as well as military transport and docking bays. On the top of the rear section was a large, transparent dome, and underneath it was a fully working greenhouse. When in combat, metal sliders would deploy over the dome, and three shields would automatically come online, two on the outside of the dome, and one on the inside. The greenhouse produced much of the oxygen for the ship, as well as forty percent of the food reserves, using genetically modified food and plant products. The 'workshop' located underneath the dome was in charge of fabricating new parts and repairing existing ones, as well as the maintenance of the number of Osprey class ships and various fighters located in the hangar bays in the ship. The hangar bays were located on the underside of the ship, and could deploy five fighters at a time, with an average delay between launches of groups of five, of two minutes.
It was this ship that Flight Lieutenant Johnson was approaching for the first time. He was the pilot in an Osprey class shuttle, and he couldn't believe his eyes. The ship was massive and he could see rail-gun emplacements all over it, as well as many missile bays and turrented missile launchers. Two of the four BC-601 Poseidon class ships surrounded the Triton, a stream of shuttles and Baleen class cargo ships travelling between them. They were serving as platforms for further assembly of parts before putting them onto the Triton, and from what Samuel Johnson could see, it was almost complete. Flight Lieutenant Johnson originally served in the British Air Force, butt was honourly discharged, only to learn that he was being recruited to the PDO, to be an air officer there, aboard an Osprey class shuttle. He was an only child, and his parents had died when he was twenty. He knew that he was chosen for his lack of attachments on Earth, although he knew of people who were in the service, but not with the same circumstances as him. Their new navigation officer, Captain Organ, had a wife and three kids, and he regularly made it back to Earth at least for a week at a time. Lt. Sharon Valerii was like him however, with no attachments towards anyone on Earth of any kind.
"This is Triton control to Osprey 041, we have an unidentified object which has just appeared on radar, bearing 063, 302 from your current location. Can you investigate that for us, over," the voice said over the radio.
"This is Osprey 041 to Triton control, copy that, over," the weapons officer, Flight Lieutenant Valerii replied. Lt. Johnson manoeuvred the craft to the heading and put the jet engines to maximum power. When they reached their maximum velocity, he powered them down so that they were barely operational, so that rotating the thrusters would manoeuvre the ship, but they would keep their main heading and forward velocity. Five minutes later, the contact appeared on their radar screen, and it was moving fast. Then, another, and another contact appeared. Captain Organ, the navigations officer stated that he was sending out an IFF request, but there was no signal returned. Johnson quickly saw that Lt. Valerii was already on the camera array, and was using the small telescope, mounted into the hull, to get a look at the contacts. He knew that it would just be a pair of stray meteorites, but when he looked over to Valerii, he was surprised at the view of complete shock on her face.
"What is it?" he asked her. She just looked at him and stared at him blankly for a few moments.
"Unidentified objects, flying roughly on a roughly perpendicular course to ours sir," Sharon Valerii replied.
"What do you mean unidentified objects?" Captain Organ asked her. She just hit a button and the image of what the telescopes had focused on came up on the screen mounted above the main viewport. Flight Lieutenant Johnson looked upwards and saw what Valerii meant. There were three scimitar shaped, metallic-purple coloured, and what could only be described as ships, travelling through space in front of them. Suddenly, in a flash, they disappeared out of sight.
"Did we record that?" Johnson heard himself ask, still shocked at the sight of unfamiliar space-craft and the implications.
"Yes sir, all of it," Valerii replied.
"Send it back to the Triton immediately and take us to the area where the ships were located," Samuel Johnson said to her. Just before they were going to send the transmission, they got a message, and Captain Organ grabbed the printout and gave it to Johnson. It read;
All Earth Ships report to Earth Orbit with top speed. Earth is under orbital attack from an unknown enemy. This is not a joke, or a Drill.
PDO – Commander and Chief.