AN: Just a note of thanks to anyone who left a message following my decision to go on a Hiatus for this story. Without further ado...
Chapter 8 Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts
The offer of aid from a previous unknown Bureau caused alarm bells to ring in the minds of many of the HAF's Admiralty, especially when they showed up to the meeting at New Earth with a small fleet of ships never before seen even by those Admirals in the Procurement Division. The arrival of four ships that were larger than anything else seen up to this time in the HAF Navy or Marine Corps was a surprise to everyone, even more so when the technology on the ships was a complete blend of Terran and Kirishiac.
The even more shocking moment that came after these new ships were revealed was that the leadership of Bureau 13 was composed of the Kirishiac Remnant with several of the lead researchers from the HRAD (Hegemony Research and Development) offices outside the Sol system and the Ring Worlds. High Lord Ch'Lorna was chosen as the spokesperson for the group and revealed that after the Terran Senate had voted to restrict funding to the HAF, he and several of the top Terran and Kirishiac researchers decided to work together to produce the technology that would be needed by the Hegemony. They knew that humanity was not alone in the galaxy and that there was other more powerful species out there and the short sighted political decision would doom the Hegemony if they ever had to deal with a more powerful enemy.
The might as shown by the Centauri fleet, even using older ships, was more than evident to all the admirals present when the footage of the Centauri fleet firing their particle cannons into the Tyche formation was shown to them. The loss of so many of the refitted Tyches almost caused the admiralty to sue for peace since so many veteran crews had been lost and the most experienced non-flag officer as well. The pincer attack of the Epimetheus destroyers eased the sting a bit and production was ordered to proceed further for the graviton missiles and for more Epimetheus destroyers to be produced instead of the larger Tyche. The few Tyches in service would be further refitted at the newly upgraded shipyards at the Ring Worlds and those few still in mothballs would be given priority to bring them into service faster.
Hanging as a back drop to the discussion by the admiralty were the four newly produced Constitution Frigates, each measuring almost a full kilometer in length and bristling with the latest Terran/Kirishiac technology on each hull. The eventual plan of action to gain the Hegemony the time needed to bring older Tyches out of mothballs and for increased production of the Epimetheus was to send the new Constitution ships out to harass and raid Centauri worlds. The location of several of House Refa's holdings in the Centauri Republic along with several important depot worlds were located by use of scout ships of the Intelligence Division. Each of the new frigates would also be sent into battle with the latest Terran fighter, the newly produced Tiger and it would give the HRAD a chance to see the new technology in action against a non-simulated enemy or an inferior enemy like the Ch'Lonas.
*-EH-*
Bureau 13's Sordid Past online article found across a multitude of forums, original published date unknown
Bureaus were the old departments of the United Nations of Earth and were considered by many pundits as the reason why the old government failed so spectacularly. The surprise that a new Bureau has come forward is somewhat distressing that old hardline elements from a previous government are still out there and that the various conspiracy theory groups are right in some of their thinking.
The evidence is there for those who are willing to look for it, but most tend not to look quite that far for it. The little information available at Bureau 13, or B13 as they tend to call themselves, goes back to the formation of the Terran Alliance and later the Terran Hegemony. The need for more advanced systems and to fully unlock the information given to humanity by the Kirishiacs was the principle driving force behind the development of the later HRAD, but others had the same thought much sooner. This collection of business owners, scientists, and later the Kirishiacs came together to form a Bureau of their own that would continue to develop new technology for Terra to make use of in coming years.
The patent for the Inside-out World concept is one of those technologies unlocked by B13 and sold to the Explorer Division and used so extensively. With so many of these worlds being setup in systems around Terra and even in those systems that have habitable worlds, B13 had enough start-up capital that they were able to execute their intended plan: a "secret" location where they could continue to develop new technologies and to tinker with "older" technology to improve upon it. The use of much of their funds to build their own private "navy" caused enough of a stir that the patent for the antigraviton cannon was released that quickly rebuilt their funds. It would be several small patents each year after B13 was started that would go to increasing the standard of living for Terran citizens or another piece of weaponry or an upgrade for an existing weapon system that would continue to fill up their coffers. The pace of development was enough that all of the ships built by and for B13 had the latest in "experimental" weaponry and the best of the patented gear released to the Hegemony.
This private navy was originally setup to test out new weaponry and concepts and never really intended for combat operations, or so says many of the documents "found" by researchers and conspiracy theory pundits. The Terran Senate gave B13 the impetus to carry out their plan for a new research complex nearby to Terran space, but outside it when they passed into legislation the drawdown of the HAF Navy following the conflict with the Ch'Lonas. With so many ships sent to mothballs and the crews cashiered, the B13 navy was able to take on many experienced crewmen who had experience fighting the Ch'Lonas and more than a few who also had experience against the Koulani.
The lack of hostilities with the Ch'Lonas rather than a negotiated peace, unlike how the Koulani conflict ended, led to some uneasy feelings by many border worlds. The unexplained silence from Ch'lon was later attributed to infighting about the Ch'Lonas and not to any other sinister happenstance. Documents released by B13 and interviews have shown that the B13 navy, augmented now by actual combat veterans, traveled to Ch'Lonas space and exterminated the species. No quarter asked or given and the Ch'Lonas ceased to exist. Ships were shot down as they tried to flee and the Jump Gate there was taken offline completely for study by B13. Their homeworld was destroyed by numerous heavy coilgun shots that used antimatter against the planetary population and every spacestation was destroyed as well. The systematic destruction of the Ch'Lonas was declared complete and every crewman was sworn to secrecy over their act of naked aggression.
With a safe location for their research to continue, B13 arranged an "accident" for the second of the Babylon Stations by diverting it away from the L5 point (opposite the L4 location of Babylon Station where the Terran Senate has their offices) and into an "unexplained" jump malfunction that took the station into a black hole. Instead the massive jump capable station was diverted to the L2 point between Ch'lon and the native star in that system. Now that they had a station with which to do their research, B13 began to work towards improving the technology of the Kirishiacs had developed.
Where the HRAD Division found their budgets shrinking and in some cases removed entirely, B13 focused their capital towards several projects. Chief among them was the development of a more efficient artificial womb that could include nanobots earlier in the development of a fetus. Other projects included the complete deciphering of the Kirishiac memory cores and the building and testing of the various military technologies available to them from these cores. The most intensive project to date was the one that combined biological elements, namely polyp, to the construction of warship hulls. The intended goal was for some sort of ship to have a biological component rather than the usual blending of different metals. All in all, the various HRAD groups along with B13's own research teams were quickly at work developing new systems and upgrading and uprating older systems.
*-EH-*
HAF Navy specialists assigned to the newly commissioned THS Constitution, THS Genghis Khan, THS Admiral Graf Spee, and the THS Jan Smuts were surprised at the amenities on the four frigates. Not adhering to the design philosophies present on the current ship designs in the HAF Navy, the B13 inspired ships made full use of advanced technologies once considered too extravagant by the Terran Senate. The use of modified polyp to literally grow the internal hull was one of the features that were most surprising about the new Constitution class frigates. The other surprise came in the form of the main armament, weapons considered "normal" for a Kirishiac warship, but unheard of on a Terran Navy ship. Hypergraviton blasters and cannons were combined with Terran inspired Interceptors and twin medium PPC turrets. Even more surprising was that the ship contained two different jump drives: a "normal" Terran system that made use of emitters and a revolutionary system taken by the Kirishiacs from one of the other First Ones that was termed a phase shift jump drive. The phase shift jump drive did not create the usual vortex in space, but rather moved the ship from hyperspace into normal space with only a small ripple.
All told the new battle plan of harassment of Centauri shipping and surgical strikes on key supply depots and worlds excited the crews at the prospect of paying back the Centauri for their attacks on Terran colonies. The untold danger though was that it could open up the Hegemony to greater reprisals from the whole of the Centauri Navy. This concern was waved off as inconsequential and dismissed by the admiralty that was in a bind due to the need for decisive action on their part. The political situation was poor as well after the battered HAF Navy showed up at New Earth where a film crew caught the heavily damaged ships limping home. The once proud ships came back beaten and bloodied and it played very poorly across many homes and the event was made known to the Senators for each district as well as a major point of contention.
The will of the people of the Hegemony was backing up the military leadership and this was documented in multiple locations to remind the people and the Senate that they supported these measures. No more could the Senate say that they didn't back the military's plan of action or put forward their own plan. To do so would be political suicide from those few moderates and those who backed the original Social Democrat plan for a reduced fleet. The people had spoken and they gave their blessing to the ships of the HAF Navy and to the newly christened frigates as well.
*-EH-*
Quadrant 15
Centauri space
The location of the first series of raids by the Constitution class was the Centauri transfer point identified by Intelligence Division ships at Quadrant 15. A desolate set of space that did not have a habitable planet, instead it was known more for the location and the Jump Gate present there. The THS Genghis Khan exited out of hyperspace with a quiet emergence using their phase shift jump drive, characterized without the usual funnel in space and quietly made their way towards the transfer point and its spacestations.
The enhanced ELINT (ELectronic INTelligence) platforms on the ship were able to identify several patrol ships sweeping through the system and a large ship that had an unfamiliar shape also at the transfer point. Passive sweeps quickly built a picture of a powerful warship that had a gravitic drive capability and secondary plasma or ion engines for tactical maneuvering. Power signatures showed that the ship was currently offline and the presence of numerous shuttles and other small craft around the ship showed that it was most likely taking on supplies. The few weapons noticed appeared to be turreted double cannons of an unknown design and what appeared to be four particle weapons split in twos on each of the wing structures.
Continuing to catalog the various other ships, the Genghis Khan's crew quickly identified over twenty cargo ships and aside from the single large warship, only smaller ships were present in the system. Bringing the main reactors to full power and feeding power directly from the gravitic reactor to the hypergraviton cannons and the spinal blaster, the other turrets began to swing into firing position. Taking great care to aim for what appeared to be the reactor spaces, the spinal hypergraviton blaster fired out a massive orange beam that blew through the central portion of the large warship and neatly bisected the ship with the single shot. The smaller hypergraviton cannons opened up and sliced cleanly through the hulls of the spacestations around the transfer point and the Jump Gate. Secondary PPC turrets began firing pulses of particle fire into the various cargo craft as the Constitution frigate powered its way through the startled Centauri shipping.
Within moments the attack was done and nothing remained of the Centauri cargo ships or any of the patrol ships. All had been destroyed completely by the advanced Kirishiac weaponry on the Terran warship. Sending out recovery shuttles and escorted by Tigers, the Genghis Khan's crew took the brief respite to load their cargo bay with some of the cargoes left behind by the Centauri ships. A few judicious beams were sent to rip open cargo containers and in the case of the large warship, an entire section was captured with the ship's gravitic augmentors and brought nearby to dissect at their leisure. The double barreled turrets turned out to be a form of ionized plasma cannons, but of a yield far higher than seen before. Two of the turrets were relatively unharmed by the hypergraviton shot that split the ship in half. The other six turrets had taken damage, but were salvageable. Under orders to take in as much salvage as possible, the captain of the Genghis Khan decided to take as much as possible and had his shuttles bring in as much of the cargo from the cargo ships as well.
Once everything that could be salvaged was removed from the Centauri ships, the secondary weapons were turned on every currently floating ship and they were completely destroyed leaving nothing but the Jump Gate behind and little evidence that the Genghis Khan had ever been in that system.
*-EH-*
The other Constitution class frigates had similar orders as the Genghis Khan and the other three moved through various Centauri systems and continued to hit transfer points and a number of House shipyards. Not as successful as the Genghis Khan to date and only the Constitution had to deploy their gravitic planar dissipaters in actual combat against a Royal Navy patrol of destroyers. The quick application of the hypergraviton cannons and the PPC turrets ended that engagement with no losses for the Terran forces.
As the four frigates delved further deeper into Centauri space, the news of their attacks reverberated through the ranks of the Centauri Royal Navy and through the various House Navies as well. News of ships employing weaponry never before seen and entering and leaving a system without an apparent jump point were quickly written off as the nonsensical rambling of madmen. The results of the raids soon began to mount pressure on the Centaurum brought there by the minor Houses that did not have the same political connections as the larger Houses. This pressure resulted in even more ship deaths as the various House Navies attempted to bring their larger ships to bear and created some runs on commodities as the losses began to mount. Finally the Emperor was forced to send in the Royal Navy to deal with the ships marauding their way through Centauri space.
*-EH-*
Gorash
Centauri space
With so many ships destroyed among the various merchant ships plying their trade in the Republic, the Royal Navy decided to set an ambush in the Gorash system and quickly set about replicating the conditions at Quadrant 15. A series of spacestations were moved nearby to the Jump Gate and several transfer points were setup around these stations. A few scattered merchantmen were placed in the system under remote control and a few of the older ships still used by the Royal Navy were placed near the stations or on patrol in the system. A full fleet of the new Primus battlecruisers and Vorchan attack frigates (from surrounding areas and all that were available) were placed nearby in hyperspace and set to ambush the marauding ships. It was hoped by the Royal Navy that these ships would be enough to discourage the raids or even to destroy the enemy ships. It was still unknown why these ships were attacking into Centauri space and it would take time for additional ships to be moved away from the Orieni border.
The plan had been to lure a single ship or even a small group of ships to the area, going by the assumption that a single ship would not be able to do so much damage as these were purported to have done, but that plan went out the proverbial window when the Jan Smuts detected increased Centauri naval traffic using their ELINT gear. Using another layer of hyperspace to hide their ship, the Constitution class ship was able to detect over fourteen of what appeared to be a destroyer sized analogue and close to twelve larger cruisers keeping station near the Gorash system. Tachyon data traffic showed that more than usual communications were being used into and out of the system and much of the data was heavily encrypted; a sure sign of military frequencies.
Deciding that the odds were not in her favor, the Jan Smuts' captain sent out a quick message to the other raiders to meet nearby if they were able to do so. Only the Constitution and Admiral Graf Spee were able to join up, but the three ships were more than enough for the situation presented to them. Even though the original orders had included some eventualities, nothing covered the present situation and the three captains quickly hashed out a plan to trip the trap and to see what these new ships could do in combat. The data sent over from the Genghis Khan about the salvaged ion weaponry and particle cannons was interesting enough, but until they were seen used in combat it was not quite believable what the weapons could actually do.
The battleplan put together by the HAF captains was fairly simple; one ship would go in to set off the trap and would only use their twin PPC turrets, at least until the Centauri fleet transited back to normal space and then the rest of the frigates would pounce. As each captain was well aware that ambushes can be deadly, but an informed foe can easily turn them around if they have skill to do so. To further "muddy the waters," the Admiral Graf Spee would only use their "normal" jump engines to go into the Gorash system and not their more advanced phase shift jump drive. The Constitution and Jan Smuts would use their phase shift jump drive to ambush the Centauri fleet once they showed themselves. The captains selected for each of the Constitution class frigates were some of the best that B13 had to offer to the HAF and were all veterans displaced from service following the Ch'Lonas War.
For the Centauri, their battleplan was simple enough: they would wait until the raider or raiders showed up in system then they would come out of hyperspace to trap them. A call for surrender would go out and if ignored they would open fire and destroy the enemy ship. Protocols were put in place to prevent the ships from entering normal space unless over half of the robotic ships were destroyed in the system. With only a few "real" ships taking part in the battle, the Royal Navy captains were well assured of victory and many were already planning their victory celebrations.
The stage was set for an epic battle, but only if both sides were willing to play to each other's plans. For the HAF ships, the Admiral Graf Spee came out of hyperspace using the familiar blue funnel into the Gorash system (having lost the coin toss for who would play the "ambushed" ship). Using only their twin PPC turrets, both dorsal and ventral mounts, against the assembled shipping in system they instantly began aiming to disable the cargo ships to keep up their raider ruse. As the Centauri system patrol ships came closer, their appearance as older ships easily gave away the intended trap. They lasted no longer than the cargo ships and as the last Jenas was destroyed, the Centauri Primus battlecruisers and Vorchan attack cruisers exited out in an englobement maneuver. The larger Primuses supported by the smaller Vorchans released their fighters, in this case the well-designed Sentri instead of the older Glaive, and the task force moved into position. As the Centauri ships were about to complete their maneuver, the Admiral Graf Spee sent out the pre-coded message "Climb Mount Niitaka."
Using their phase shift jump drive, the Constitution and Jan Smuts exited from hyperspace in a position "behind" the Centauri fleet. Just before they came out of hyperspace, they had begun to fully power up their reactor system and started putting that reserve power into their hypergraviton blaster and cannons. As both ships made their transitions, the hypergraviton blasters shot out more shots than usual and skewered the rear drive systems of the Primuses of the ambushing fleet. Their hypergraviton cannons and twin PPC turrets opened fire shortly afterward firing into the larger perceived threat of the cruisers. An alert Vorchan captain managed to get the "left" flank in a turning maneuver that saved two of the Primuses from destruction by the hypergraviton blasters and cannons firing through the rest of their sister ships. At the same time the Admiral Graf Spee began firing their hypergraviton blaster and cannons and the rout was on for the Centauri.
The rout was not a complete loss for the Centauri fleet as the young enterprising captain of one of the Vorchans managed to warn his fleet element and they managed to break off while the Terran ships began firing on them from behind and in front. The side profiles of each ship did little more than expose a larger targeting area and many of the Vorchans were heavily damaged by Terran fire, but the larger Primuses were able to escape unscathed. The Sentris began their attack runs on the Terran ships, but were quickly destroyed by the effective Point Defense systems on the Terran ships. Making an executive decision Captain Lucien Mollari ordered the rest of his Vorchans, numbering just four ships, into a high speed intercept of the Terran ship that started the attack on the Gorash trap.
Each of the Vorchans accelerated quickly and they began using their spinal mounted heavy ion cannons to saturate the defenses of the Terran ship. The vast majority of their shots and others fired from their dorsal and ventral twin ion cannons did little damage against the enemy ship with the ion bolts coming apart well away from the enemy ship or striking an invisible physical plane away from the ship. Soon enough the rate of fire was accelerated as each ship magnum launched their torpedoes and missiles at the Terran ship. The massed fire from the four Vorchans soon overwhelmed the point defenses of the Terran ship, but not before two of Captain Mollari's ships were destroyed from enemy weapons fire. The fiery explosions of the two attack cruisers were able to temporarily blind the sensors on the Terran ship and it was hit by half of the fired torpedoes. The explosions shattered hull platings across the Terran ship and weapons fire began to taper off. Using this as his cue, Captain Mollari signaled the other Vorchan and both ships dove through the same jump point away from the Gorash system. Their fallback coordinates in place, both ships made their best speed to that point.
For the remainder of the Centauri fleet, the initial shock of being counter-ambushed tore through the fleet not unlike the incredibly powerful Terran beam weapons. By the time that Captain Mollari's group of Vorchans broke away and attacked the ambushed Terran ship, the other Primuses and Vorchans were heavily engaged with the other two Terran ships that ambushed them. Their ion fire reduced in effectiveness due to the Point Defenses on both Terran ships and the few Battle Laser shots reduced in effectiveness as well as they all seemed to intersect a point in space away from the hulls of both Terran ships, the Centauri were left with few options. Captain Terns Jaddo was forced to choose between saving those few ships that remained or to throw his fleet against the Terran ships and hope for the best. After a few seconds, his decision was rendered moot as his Primus was destroyed by the insidious Terran beam weapons. Leaderless, the remains of the Centauri ambush fleet watched as several Vorchans escaped to hyperspace and the remainder chose to do the same. Left behind were the damaged and destroyed remnants of ten Vorchans and eleven Primuses.
As the last of the Centauri ships escaped into hyperspace, the commander of the Constitution noticed that the Admiral Graf Spee was drifting in space and heavily damaged by Centauri weapons fire. Contacting the Jan Smuts, a coordinated rescue attempt was put into place while the two frigates began to use their gravitic augmenters to gather up the wreckage. After several hours of salvaging and repairs to the Admiral Graf Spee, the captains came to an agreement on what would need to be done. The Admiral Graf Spee would return to Hegemony space while a number of salvaged Centauri ships including an almost pristine destroyer analogue (put out of action by a single hit from a hypergraviton cannon that went through the bridge space without striking the rest of the ship) would be towed by the other two frigates using their gravitic augmenters. Taking the time to resupply, the Constitution and Jan Smuts would then resume their raiding duties and communications would contact the Genghis Khan to let them know of the situation. Plans in place, the Terran captains set about their work. An unlikely convoy began to travel back to Hegemony space with their spoils of war and a limping Admiral Graf Spee.
*-EH-*
Vorlon space
Location Unknown
It was virtually unheard of that the Vorlons were perturbed for any reason, especially when a supposedly younger race was doing things that should not be possible. Every seeding attempt for the past fifty human years had failed. At first they sent a few small ships since the world should only have satellites and a few rudimentary spacecraft, but instead they were spotted by a human craft and even fired upon. It was unthinkable that something like this would happen to them! To make matters worse, at least from the point of view of the Vorlon High Council, every subsequent seeding mission had failed and some in a spectacular fashion.
The humans had deployed more and more warships around their space and later in hyperspace near their world. The worrisome jump engine design of the humans allowed them to colonize different systems that were normally unreachable for even the Vorlons to travel towards and because of that they were stymied when trying to find other human worlds. Those few worlds that were colonized by humanity were already stripped away by the other young race, the Centauri, and this new war had the implication of the human's death. That was intolerable as well that their Circle would be jeopardized like this and before the Others even awakened from their usual slumber. Something had to be done to fix this situation!
The goal laid out before the rest of their species was that the Circle must be maintained and therefore humanity must be modified for their own good and for the good of the universe. It was for the Greater Good after all. If a ship was found outside the human's domain, it was to be taken without damaging the crew and then modified as was appropriate. The ship would be returned to the humans and the genetic modifications would be allowed to flourish through humanity as was the right of the Vorlons. With those goals in mind, the Council sent out the command through their psychic congress to all the brethren. The only thing left to do was wait for the appropriate ship…
*-EH-*
Alpha 3
Centauri space (near the border with the Vorlon Empire)
Cruising slowly through hyperspace, the Genghis Khan was making time doing some exploration while the tech crews made some repairs to the ship. Using some of the captured ion cannons from the Centauri, the dorsal twin PPC turrets had been refitted using the ion cannons in place of the particle cannons. The newly christened PIC (Pulsed Ion/Coilgun) turrets just needed to be tested before the particulars would be sent back to B13's HRAD facility. Phasing out of hyperspace back into normal space, the Terran frigate slowly approached some asteroids in the outlying Centauri system known only as Alpha 3. Locking on with the new cannons, it was quickly found that they tended to overheat far quicker than before since the ion cannons generated a far higher heat load than the previous particle cannons. A series of software interrupts were setup with the targeting system to regulate the pulse system to a slower cycling rate of fire than the original particle cannons. The increased damage capability was well critiqued and the revised software brought the heat produced by the cannons well within the cooling capacity of the heat jackets around each mounting.
Called back to the bridge after the main Kirishiac sensors spotted an anomaly, the Genghis Khan's captain made his way from the primary research facility onboard his frigate. As he made his way back to the combat bridge, the ship shook as if struck by weapons fire. The alert system onboard switched to Condition 1 and the captain quickly made his way to the bridge in time for the lights to flicker and eventually go out. The sensor operator had barely made out a quartet of ships that looked suspiciously like the same ones spotted near Terra and driven off by the HAF before they came out of multiple jump points. The weapons fire was just enough to damage the hull and knock out the conduits and power cabling to the main weaponry (incidentally knocking offline the new PIC turrets on the dorsal surface) leaving the ship without weaponry.
Fearing that the enemy ships planned on boarding his ship, the order was given to repel boarders and to prepare the self-destruct system in case of enemy success. Pathways were blocked throughout the ship and the fighter launch bays were sealed. The main reactor spaces were also evacuated and all crew were told to report to secondary defensive stations. Weapons were handed out to those crew members without nanobot enrichments and more than a few of the specialty operatives seeded by B13 prepared their weapon enrichments and nanobots as well for the perceived encounter.
Two of the enemy ships, tentatively identified as being of a type that similar to a Vorlon cruiser or strike cruiser hull, came alongside and grappled the Genghis Khan. Several armored suits came across once a hole could be burned in the hull. Luckily the hole was in the relatively unmanned forward hull and the Vorlons would have to transit through numerous passageways to get the habitation sphere towards the rear of the frigate. Making their way through particle and coilgun fire, the Vorlons survived each shot with little to no damage, though for two of them they lost their encounter suits. The now unarmored Vorlons were shown to be little more than glowing balls of light that looked superficially similar to their ships. These unarmored Vorlons proved to be even deadlier as it took several crew members working together to bring one down. A roar of anger was heard, but unlike the seeded races it did not incapacitate the humans, and the group of crewmen was eventually subdued instead of killed.
Once the Vorlons had incapacitated enough of the crew, they brought roughly ten of them over to one of their docked ships. They chose a mix of male and female and unknowingly brought over three of the modified B13 specialists. Each of the humans was placed in a lab structure where they would be modified. Knocked out by the aliens, the crew did not know what was happening to their bodies or even to their DNA. The presence of nanobots in the blood and marrow of the humans surprised several of the Vorlons and the integrated nature of the nanobots made the genetic manipulation incredibly difficult as every change was returned to human "normal" by the nanobots. Discarding their work at the moment, the Vorlons took some time to map out the areas where the nanobots could be found and several liters of blood were taken to see what effect that would have on the humans.
One of the modified humans was brought back to consciousness by her specialty nanobots. The woman woke up groggy and disoriented, but quickly remembered what happened to her and the rest of the crew. A quick thought brought her combat nanobots online and she reviewed her options. She had to escape and to rescue the rest of the crew onboard the ship. The scanner built into her head identified the rest of the crew on the Vorlon ship by their locator chips and mapped out where each of them was held. Of greatest interest were her fellow modified shipmates who would need to be freed first so that they could affect a plan to escape from the Vorlon ship.
A quick slice of extendable claws from her right hand allowed her to escape from the area where she was sequestered. Several large cannon muzzles extended from her now bulging left arm and the specialty micro gravitic reactor came online to power her weapons suite. Making her way slowly through the unfamiliar corridors, she kept getting the feeling that she was being watched and it set her on edge. Quickly finding the pair of doors that led to the other captured crewman, a blast from the small scale coilgun destroyed the doorway with a breacher round. Freeing the other B13 operatives first, she quickly passed on what she knew through their battle network. Giving an explanation that the three crewmen were part of B13's Internal Security Division gave the others pause, but better explanations would be given later. The most important thing that they could do was to escape from their captors. Several of the other crew members used their nanobot weapon enrichments to produce micro scale weaponry and joined in the exodus from the Vorlon cells.
Several of the captives related that their blood had been taken and it quickly became imperative that those samples be destroyed before escaping back to the Genghis Khan. Scanning for Terran nanobots, the blood samples were found outside the main lab. Unfortunately for the crew, the lab was heavily guarded by six Vorlons in armored suits. Those crewmen who were augmented would provide covering fire as the three B13 operatives rushed the guards. Those few crewmen who did not have augmentations created a distraction to allow the rest to get into position. Opening fire as a group, the massed micro coilgun and micro graviton warheads made a mess of the Vorlons guarding the doorway. Each Vorlon let out a scream as they were blasted out of their armor and forced to flee before they could be destroyed by the upstart humans. The first human, also the operative who started the break out, through the door fired off all of her micro graviton warheads and wrecked the lab completely. Finishing up the task, she fired numerous coilgun rounds and particle weapons fire into the room as well to make certain that the samples and lab were destroyed. A quartet of her companion operative's remaining micro graviton missiles completed the destruction in the room and left nothing behind for the enemy to use.
The former captives all made their way back to the Genghis Khan with the three operatives leading the group and dispatching Vorlons sent their way with bloody minded precision. Swiftly making their way back to the ship, they came across several Vorlon boarding parties that were dispatched like so many others and continued on carrying some of the survivors who had become injured on the way back. Fortunately for them, the majority of the crew had been held on the frigate and they were the first to be taken for experimentation by the Vorlons. A quick check in the engineering spaces and the main reactor pyramid was reset and power was quickly restored to the ship. Using the shared knowledge, the group of operatives began to manipulate the controls in Engineering to bring the ship online and to prepare the phase shift jump drive to escape into hyperspace.
Disappearing away from the Vorlon ships, the Genghis Khan's crew slowly made repairs to their ship and searched it in its entirety to locate any stowaway Vorlons. Two were found and quickly neutralized by the Operatives and the ship limped towards home with a cargo of salvaged parts and a fantastic story to tell.
*-EH-*
As the four frigates returned back to the Hegemony's space and most notably to the main fleet base at New Earth, they brought back fantastical tales of hostile alien species and new technology finds aplenty. The time and resources that the Centauri had been forced to use to hunt down the raiders had allowed the HAF to rearm and reform several combat groups centered around the Epimetheus destroyer and the newly produced Sagittarius missile ship that used the hull of the Epimetheus, but lacked the antigraviton cannons in favor of more missile bays. The new fleet elements were formed into mutually supportive squadrons and would be ready once hostilities resumed against the Centauri.
The technical specifications for the new PIC cannons caused more than one HRAD facility to clamor for the design plans to see what else could be done. The release of the new Ultramatter Cannon, another Kirishiac weapon system, by B13 to the HAF was even more of a surprise. Several of the oldest Tyches were refit with these new weapon systems (the PIC cannons and the Ultramatter Cannons) and put into battlegroups for the planned offensive. Most important of all were the maps brought back by the Constitution class frigates as they showed the best areas to attack the Centauri and where they might be the most vulnerable. Tactical plans were brought together in anticipation of the next series of attacks.
The biggest find of technical data was when the nearly intact destroyer analogue was brought into orbit around New Earth. The ship was a treasure trove of data about the most advanced Centauri systems and the pieces of technology salvaged were slowly put back together and the latest cruiser design could be analyzed as well. The more advanced particle cannons on the Centauri cruisers could be integrated into the next generation of HAF warships and the ion cannons were already put into production as part of the PIC system. Already plans for the reactor systems and even the gravitic drive were examined, but discarded after they were found to be more primitive than what was already in use by the HAF Navy. The particulars of the technology were released onto the 'Net for use by civilian companies and spaceflight enthusiasts as it was of no use for the HAF. The more advanced Centauri fighters were sent to be examined and the best elements to be incorporated into the next generation Terran fighter that was tentatively called the Nova.
For the Centauri, the raids across their space and the loss of so their latest Primus battlecruisers and Vorchan attack cruisers were a major setback. Once House Refa was identified as the instigator of the attacks, the punishment set down from the Centaurum was to set a precedent for other upstart Houses. Stripped of their fleet and several of their worlds, the Centaurum hoped to meet diplomatically with these Terrans to see about a peace treaty. They knew that the current decline of their society it would be tough to bring other Noble Houses together into a combat force or even to bring the Royal Navy away from so many stations without further destabilizing the Republic. The Emperor had even been heard making inquiries as to why his meals did not have the very best wines or why the food quality on Centauri Prime had fallen so far of late. Other worlds starved without the shipments of food and essential supplies that had been taken or destroyed by the latest group of raids across Centauri space. That the raiders could only be the mysterious Terrans was of no surprise, but proving it would be far more difficult.
The stage was set and the fate of two nations would be decided; either at the bargaining table or through gunsights.
AN: Another semi-cliffy. Not intentional, but rather the best place to end this chapter. Also, take a look at my profile page (if you have not already done so) and you'll find the write-ups for those ships seen thus far in the story (a la in the style of the EFNI's site).
