Chapter 3
Gordon sat calmly in his seat in the room that had been appropriated for meetings of the Starship Council. It was circular, and rather large, with eight comfortable chairs arranged in a ring facing inward in the center. But its most interesting feature was the fact that the room could switch the rather bland grey walls for a fantastic view of space outside the ship. That was partially why he'd insisted that the Council hold their sessions inside it; the view of the planet below and the stars above impressed the gravity of the words spoken and decisions made in that room upon all who entered it.
He hadn't been sitting for too long when the other seven members of the Council trooped through the door. This meeting had not been scheduled, so most looked interested, and two or three seemed annoyed at having been summoned away from what they considered their more important work. The only one not curious or trying to hide their scowl was Nihlus, who had confirmed the need for the meeting, and thus already knew what they had to talk about.
Irritating though taking orders from a teenager may be, I happen to think this is worth the disruption. It won't take long anyway… Gordon thought.
After all eight of the highest individuals in the TSC had settled into their chairs, Gordon loaded the readings Nihlus had taken for him into the holoprojector, ready to by displayed for everyone.
Vice Admiral Harkin opened the session, in much the same way that he had every other.
"This unscheduled meeting of the Terran Starship Council, dated February 3rd, 2273 is now in session. As it was called by our Supreme Commander without prior notice, I cannot give you any indication of what he wants to discuss."
All heads turned toward the smallest of their number, who executed the command to display his data on the holoprojector.
"Thank you, William. In reading over Nihlus' most recent report, I spotted some data that concerns me. At 0945 ship's time February 2nd 2273, the ship's sensors picked up some strange readings from under the Atlantic Ocean, North 35° 36' 13.3875" West 37° 0' 7.0313". The data pattern resembled what my Pip-Boy recorded here on the Olympus. Naturally, I wished to gather more information before jumping to conclusions. Nihlus, what did you find on deeper scan?"
The middle-aged scientist looked rather grave as he leaned forward to give his report, the holoprojector switching over to the more detailed data.
"The more intensive sensor sweeps over the location has pinpointed a facility that could not have been built by any pre-War power, national or otherwise. The data that got picked up on initial scan matched that given off by discharges of the Alien weapons, and the deeper scan picked up the same thing, but at much lower rate of occurrence. The Commander and I can only conclude that there is an Alien facility there, and we must secure it."
General Jackson spoke up then, his aggressive militarism and southern accent on proud display.
"I agree. Any Aliens are a threat, not just to us, but to the whole human race. They must be eliminated, by any means necessary!"
The other members of the Council quickly followed suit, though most were more restrained in their language and vehemence. Gordon knew that the subject of Aliens was one of the few that he did not have to play moderator to some degree on; all members of the Council had been fully briefed on the atrocities these animals had inflicted on humanity, and that any attempt at peace with them was doomed from the start.
"I agree that the Alien threat must be purged from our planet," said Schmidt, "but how will we actually get there? And once there, how will we deal with the possibility of underwater operations?"
Nihlus replied, plugging his laptop computer into the room's holoprojector and bringing up a diagram of what looked like an advanced combat suit.
"I have been working on a special armored environmental suit, based on the Supreme Commander's excellent work, as a stopgap measure until research and development on Project Aegis is completed. The design is quite able to function in vacuum and underwater for short periods of time. Five suits are fully operational; prototypes, to be sure, as I just sent off the orders to Production for enough to equip our special forces. As for method of deployment, the sensors picked up a cargo transporter that we can connect to from our own. I'm confident that we can hack it to gain access and lock them out."
Gordon looked over to General Jackson.
"General, which is your best squad of special operators?"
The southern gentleman who lived up to the reputation of the last General with his last name replied quickly.
"That would be Fireteam Artemis. They have surpassed all others in skill and training. Whatever the mission, they are ready."
"Good. Inform Fireteam Artemis that they are being deployed tomorrow at 0600 for insertion in hostile territory. Their primary objective is to locate and secure the control center for the Alien facility, to ensure our regulars and other Spec Ops aren't drowned while they clear it for research and other civilian personnel to move in. I might insist on going with them myself, but I'm probably a little on the short side for the fifth suit, so I insist they deploy with four Mr. Gutsies and a Longsword for extra firepower and a set of my Xenotoxin grenades. Chemical warfare may be somewhat dishonorable, but these beasts don't deserve any quarter."
***Scene Break***
After the Council session had concluded, Gordon returned to his office to consider other problems. Assuming that the facility scheduled for clearing within forty-eight hours was the last of the Alien presence they would encounter for the foreseeable future, their only problems were on Earth and nowhere near as advanced, technologically or economically. That did not mean, of course, that those problems could be easily overcome. Reconstruction would take a long time, given the extent of the damage, and not everyone would be glad to see it.
His plan consisted of four phases, each one with a different objective. Phase One was simply clearing out all the dangerous and undesirable elements, the forces of chaos and death that had taken root in the centuries since Armageddon. Dangerous mutants, Raiders, Slavers, and more nefarious characters would not be good for the stability of his reborn civil society. This was projected to be the easiest and least time-consuming part, as most threats in his chosen starting point, Washington, DC, were either Raiders or beasts of some kind. The only real opposition in that area would be found in the Super Mutants and Talon Company.
Phase Two was primarily construction, as most of the infrastructure had been torn apart and never put back together. Communications, transportation, education, healthcare, law enforcement, technology, and production were all necessary to the function of a civil society, and very few places had any of these, really. Those that did were usually barely scraping by, and not inclined to share if they weren't. Vault 101 would probably give him the educated people he needed to start training maintenance and other technicians, as long as he could convince them to help. Or just plain intimidate them with soldiers in power armor. That would probably work better, given my observations of their behavior towards me. This part would take some time, but it could also take place alongside Phase Three.
Phase Three was repopulation. To fuel his new production base, and the military needed to defend and expand it, he needed men, trained to do the best job possible. He did, however, have a limit on this. I do not want dependent, needy refugees; I can't afford to spend the resources to sustain people who don't contribute. That is, after all, the rule in post-apocalyptia. He wanted all the citizens in his society to be productive, and that meant, first, finding something for them to be so at, second, housing to shield them from the elements, third, a steady supply of clean food and water, and of course, fourth, safety. All goals depended on having infrastructure in place to support his citizens either before they moved in, or shortly after.
To sustain this civil society beyond the short term, birthrates would have to skyrocket. All people age and die, and I must be able to replace them if I want to keep the reconstruction efforts going. And people living on the subsistence line are not inclined to reproduce. Then again, convincing them to get busy will probably be easier than civilizing them.
Phase Four was the most ambitious, but also the most distant. Simply put, Phase Four was to restart the engines of progress, so humanity could build grander and stronger than ever before. All three prior phases had to be completed to a certain degree first, as research and development is usually weak and understaffed in a post-apocalyptic environment. He could not rule out the possibility of a full-blown war with the Aliens if they were still out there and came to Earth, so Humanity needed to be ready for them. They most certainly weren't in 2273.
The best place to start was Washington DC. First, the city was politically important; nearly everyone in the post-War United States remembered tales of pre-War glory, most centered in the capital of the USA. Restoring it would give people hope for a better life more than anything else save actually lifting them out the hardscrabble remains of advanced society. Second, his father had built a reputation as a dreamer who actually tried to fix the problems of the world, rather than as someone who simply survived them. That gave him a bit of leverage to acquire the cooperation of most of the settlements and some of the better-equipped factions in the area, which would make the political unification easier. If he completed the work his father began, and delivered clean water to the common man, he would have an even stronger position. Third, much of the city had not actually been fully destroyed; all the raw materials were there waiting to be used to rebuild once he had the machinery and skilled labor to do so.
He looked at the map he kept on his computer, settlements and facilities marked with population levels, economic statistics, and various other indicators. Most had dates on them, denoting when expansion into those areas was scheduled to begin. The earliest were, of course, military bases, research complexes, and aerospace facilities. The first would likely have weapons and materials stockpiles we could appropriate, and then we can project power through them; they're already fortified against attack, so it wouldn't cost much to bring them up to our specs. The second might house valuable scientific information and technology, which will supplement and enhance what we looted from the Aliens. The third are a danger to us, even if I'm not sure they actually can be used against the Olympus. But better safe than sorry; only an idiot leaves his people and resources exposed to enemy operations, after all.
***Scene Break***
Early the next day, Gordon entered his office and activated the command suite within. Since his identity was unknown to the vast majority of TSC personnel, and the organization would fall apart if he revealed himself while still visibly a teenager, he couldn't just pop into the bridge and ask his XO for status updates. He planned to introduce himself to his entire organization before they began Phase One in earnest, but that time was not yet upon him. He wanted to build up a history of wise and effective policies and decisions that could convince the average man that he was not to be questioned on account of his age before it became an issue.
His Command, Control, Communications, Computer and Intelligence suite was the culmination of some of his finest ideas. Since he had an extremely small number of military personnel, he needed to find ways to increase what they could do. Their training was arguably the best in the post-War world already, so that worked in his favor. The manufacturing facilities on the ship and in Vault 101 provided his troops with the finest equipment Earth militaries had ever produced save for power armor, which was still in R&D. Antigravity pad, or repulsorlift, drones and vehicles made crew-served weapons just as mobile as small arms, so even without power armor they had heavier firepower than most other factions. They didn't have to worry about ammunition or other supplies, as the Alien teleporters let them transfer goods produced anywhere to anywhere else in seconds. Study of the Alien sensors even gave them a man-portable sensor module that could locate and identify targets by motion, heat signature or electromagnetic fields at distances of fifty meters.
Then he introduced Nihlus and Jackson to the concept of the Battle Network. There were two parts to the system, the Auxillia Combat Suits each soldier wore and the drone support.
The suits were composed of an armored shell over a latex body glove sealed against Nuclear, Biological, Chemical (NBC) exposure, and a computer in the helmet to provide tactical aid (called a Tac-Comp). The armor plates themselves were able to deflect or absorb anything with less energy than a 7.62mm steel jacket armor-piercing round, which greatly decreased their risk when in the field, as not many people had AP rounds available. The HUD in each helmet displayed the soldier's current health data, ammo count, a targeting reticle, a mini-map of the immediate area with sensor data overlaid on it, a small picture-in-picture to display camera feeds from other soldiers and drones, and a secure communications system, for both voice and data. All of it helped every soldier work together with his squad mates and exchange tactical data with them, his superiors, and any support elements in the Area of Operations on the fly.
Alien drone technology was quite a bit more flexible than the Aliens had known; a platform of this type could fly at up to one-hundred meters, moving or not, and perform a wide variety of functions. So, they built several types of automated drones to support their forces, and networked them into the same communications system used by the soldiers.
The most basic was the recon drone, or the Unmanned Arial Reconnaissance Probe, which would hover above the AO and supply sensor data on anything below it.
They had a ground-based transport drone, the Multifunctional Utility/Logistics and Equipment, which carried heavier gear and supplies for the troopers in the field, making extended operations much easier.
They built a dedicated combat drone, the UCGV-1 Longsword, equipped with dual 7.62mm Miniguns for anti-infantry and a 40mm automatic grenade launcher which could serve as both anti-armor and a light mortar.
They even built an Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle, called the Predator for airstrikes, usually loaded with a 20mm Autocannon and anti-armor missiles or mini nukes. Each drone was networked with the armor suits the soldiers wore so they could all order support where needed.
The C4I suite was a natural outgrowth of the BattleNet. Since all of the data was being collected anyway, it was little trouble to deploy transceivers so those not in the field could receive real-time updates and issue orders. It had not yet been used in combat, but all simulations and non-combat tests showed it performed admirably. Commanders with this kind of access could do a lot more good than any other of their job description in history, if they used it wisely.
This mission in the Alien facility, however, was a bit more dangerous. One, the interior was somehow shielded against the sensors aboard the Olympus, so Artemis team would be going in with no more than a basic idea of what the place looked like and no real-time tracking of threats beyond their own sensor range, assuming it worked in there. Second, it was all indoor space, so they didn't have the headroom for air or artillery fire support. That did not prevent them from using those meant to hover closer to the ground, so he'd ordered them to take robots and a drone with them to increase their odds of survival.
The four members of Artemis team were in the Main Hanger, gearing up for their mission. Gordon linked his suite to the BattleNet, and the previously-hidden screens popped our of the walls. Some displayed the feeds from each camera, while others showed him the soldier status data from the suits. Lieutenant Naoko Kurosawa, CO of Artemis, Sergeant Ethan Hawk, Close Assault Specialist and XO, Private Marcos Ruiz, Combat Engineering, and Private Seamus McManus, Heavy Weapons looked fine for elite operatives about to deploy into hostile territory.
Everything was working perfectly.
General Jackson then walked into one of the feeds.
"OK, Artemis team," he drawled in his official tone, "this is the most important assignment you will ever go on. You've all received your briefing materials for the mission, and you know what's at stake. If we can take this facility and exterminate the Aliens within, we will have ended the threat they pose for the foreseeable future. Ship sensors have pinpointed what we think is control room you must secure: it is at the top of the central tower of the surface section of the facility. What little we have on the layout has been uploaded to your Tac-Comps. Good luck, and Godspeed!"
He concluded his remarks with a crisp salute, which they returned.
Artemis team then trotted to the cargo transporter located just off the Main Hanger. Doctor Phillip Skinner, transport chief, announced that the teleporter was connected to the insertion point, and no attempt had been made to shut it down. Gordon noted that this was a bit unusual for what he thought was supposed to be a secret facility, and sent his suspicions to Lt. Kurosawa via text-file message-burst.
She ordered the Mr. Gutsies and the Longsword to deploy first and secure the immediate area, agreeing with her Commander that something that seemed too easy was probably a trap of some kind. But the robotic vanguard reported only an empty cavern with metal walkways going down from the pad to a large door built into one wall. The remote-controlled cameras mounted on them confirmed it. No enemy presence could be detected.
The elite special ops squad shrugged their shoulders, stood on the pad, took a deep breath, and beamed down.