Chapter 3
Outskirts of the Narn home system three ships moved about searching for prey. They were from the colony fleet that had recently become a problem for the Centauri republic. Consisting of two Northampton Stealth frigates Ryan Yestood and the Yoshi Komura escorting the Ark royal Special Forces Carrier Hikaru Ichijo, they were moving in to capture a centauri cruiser. Knowledge is power and that was exactly what was needed now, information on this new enemy.
With full stealth protocols in effect each ship was emitting the bare minimum of energy and all power that was in use was to keep her hidden, however if needed the weapons would capable of action in mere moments as the crew were aching too deliver the ships firepower upon the centauri. To say that the soldiers and sailors of the colony fleet were angry about the centauries cold blooded and cowardly attack upon the Narn home world was an understatement.
It didn't take long for the opportunity to present itself. Two vorchans on patrol with no fighter escort at the outer edge of the systems last planet. Patrolling, they flew through space with no knowledge that they were in for trouble. Traveling in the direction of the UN Spacey forces they moved. Within an hour they would be in position.
The ten fighters of SSS (special Space service) squadron 38 "Royals" piloting their VF-17S (Nightmare) models painted in a deep black to add to the already considerable passive stealth capabilities of the fighter, floated towards their objective. Five minutes later the vorchans continued on they were now within three kilometers of the squadron and the royals.
The silence was shattered as massive energy readings erupted on the screens of the centauri sensors, immediately followed by a powerful jamming of communications. The crew of one Vorchan would never know who or what was the cause as it was destroyed by the heavy laser cannon of the Komura going clean through the vessel amid ship directly where the cross section and neck meet. The strike broke the ship in two and a chain reaction finished off the majority of what was left killing all aboard.
While the second craft was assaulted by the royals, they quickly broke into two groups one targeted the weapons while the other hit the engines. The missiles on the fighters proved more than adequate to destroy their targets. With the ship now floating helplessly the fighters transformed to soldier mode and landed on the hull. Three grabbed special canisters out of hidden compartments and then attached them to the vessel. Following this each VF17S lifted off of the hull as the canisters extended special drill like instruments and proceeded to flood the ship with energy disabling almost all the systems. After which four other VF-17s landed and place larger canisters on the hull which proceed to release a gas that was believed capable of rendering any oxygen breathing creature unconscious.
They were right.
A few minutes later the Komura moved to within a hundred meters of the disabled craft and activated its fold drive and expanding the bubble to capture it. Leaving the system with its prize in hand it made best speed for the colony fleet. While the carrier took on the Veritech fighters it and the Yestood soon departed as well. Leaving the occupation forces unawares that two of their vessels no longer belonged to them.
Forty six hours earlier.
'End video. I cannot watch anymore.' Mayor Sol stated, 'Heavens, at least when Boddolza hit us, it was all at once and not this dragged out atrocity.' He continued turning his head the expression of sorrow and anger etched in stone.
'For clarity purposes captain, how much longer does this continue?'
Captain Valance stood and placed her hands behind her back as she ended to footage. 'Tul, this file contains another hours' worth. I wish that I could say this was all that occurred but when we finally acted it was at the closing of the second day of bombardment. Our scans indicated that they had at least two more days' worth of material. That is under the impression if they maintained the rate of fire they had been using thus far.'
'While on our way back, we received an update from the probe that was left in system' she paused and used the remote again to change the screen to that of the report. 'It states that our attack destroyed three of their heavier cruisers, damaged two other heavies, and three of their frigates. After two hours they were apparently satisfied that the threat was gone and recommenced bombardment. Three hours later the planets government which went by the name of the Narn Regime officially surrendered to what we have learned is the Centauri Republic.' She gave them a few moments to the information sink in.
'From their attack on Narn Prime we have only identified two warships and one fighter. We learnt only a small percentage of their true capabilities. I would like to point out that when they arrived they wiped out the three remaining heavy cruisers and a dozen defense satellites. This happened in less than ten minutes, leading to the conclusion that the Narn military was extremely outclassed from the start of this war.'
Before she could continue General Adoeette interrupted. 'Tul, have you ever encountered ships like these or the type of technology we have seen thus far?'
She shook her head. 'I want a copy of this sent to the Ursa Major and have them examine what records they have. Also once we are done here a full copy of this will be sent back to Earth.' An aide acknowledged the order and started working on it.
Receiving the nod to continue Captain Valance resumed. 'Both species use tachyons for communication. Right now it appears that they can talk at greater distances then us before relying on Hyperspace communications. Next we discovered they do not use a Fold drive for faster than light travel. Their arrival was announced when our sensors detected an unknown energy spike. A massive blue vortex appears and the ships come forth.'
'A Yellow/ brown vortex is formed for departure, a full detailed report on our readings have been sent to the Einstein.'
'Next they do not use mecha. These are the only fighters we saw from the centauri and as you can see their technology is not geared toward Overtechnology. Only these crescent shaped fighters appeared and appear to be a highly standardized craft. We did not observe them launching any missiles so at this time we don't know if they can/do. We have observed them performing several high stress maneuvers and appearing fine.'
Taking a break so she could drink down some water before continuing, 'Next are their warships, which have thick armor but nothing indicated a possible barrier system and we believe that our medium lasers and particle weaponry will have no problem piercing their armor. We already know that our average anti-ship missile with stealth technology will get past them and prove more than sufficient to destroy their heavy ships.'
She continued on for the next several minutes discussing the information she was able to gather. When she was finally done the mayor asked for the options which they three primary options. It was the Tul Dashima who laid out the options.
Option 1: We change course and search in a different direction to avoid this area of the galaxy. This will leave us having only minimally affected the local area.
Option 2: We continue to push on and if we encounter the Centauri again or anyone else we react accordingly depending on the situation.
Option 3: We go to war against the Centauri.
After an several hours debate on it the military and civilian leaders of the colony agreed on the course of action.
Macross colony 8 city 8 Mayor Office 1735 Colony standard time.
Mayor Sol stepped out in front of a podium with microphones and began his speech with a grave but confident voice. 'Ladies and gentlemen, Meltrans and Zentrans, today I announce that as of thirty minutes ago the Macross 8 colony fleet has declared war on a hostile alien race. Three days ago one of our long range scout ships reported that they had engaged an enemy. At first we did not know any more than that. Now we know and understand why they attacked the aliens we now know as the Centauri. They systematically bombarded a planet full of civilians after they swept aside the military defenses. At this time we estimate the casualties are in the millions.'
Almost all civilian and military personnel who were not at their combat stations were glued to their TV screens. Their attentions totally focused upon the mayor and this declaration. The majority of the colonial population was angered at the actions of these centauri many were understandably skeptical about this news.
'We are about to show the footage of this barbarity. I strongly caution parents to send young children out of the room at this time. We will give you one minute for this.' He patiently waited for the allotted time to pass. 'I warn what you are about to see is true and I want to warn those who are of the feint hearted this will be graphic.' The screen changes to show the bombardment of a world.
For three minutes it played. Several people were brought to tears while many others anger boiled up. Once the three minutes ended the mayor was once again on the screen.
'That is all we can bare to show you at this time. Our mission to seek out a new home is not forgotten we shall still provide adequate resources for this task while able to maintain our main objective in this war to neutralize the centauri war machines ability or will to wage any type of offensive war.'
'While it is true that the argument can be brought to the front that possibly the Narn brought this upon themselves, and yes we have considered that. Yet we cannot sit idly by with the indiscriminate killing of civilians in the millions followed by subjugation and oppression happens. Our firsthand experience of a world's devastation has forever burned into our being that we must prevent these acts at all cost.'
'This decision was not made lightly and every effort we can to ensure our fighting men and women are kept safe and every advantage we can provide will be our top priority. I thank you for your time and ask that you support our military in the coming storm.'
I apologize for how long this chapter took. We were swamped at work with all the New Year's resolution weight loss folks and my brother's family was in town.
