Hello guys, here it is finally the tenth chapter of Independence Day Counterattack. Some of you may have noticed that I've changed the story from weekly to biweekly. This has been done since I have some schedule issues between my fanfic writer life and my real life, I'm really sorry, however I don't think I will have any troubles now. As always I thank the people who have been reading following favoriting and reviewing this story.
To guest: I'm glad you are liking the story so far, as you can see I just needed some time to incorporate some of your ideas to this story. I'm glad you liked it.
To Ragnarok666: Thanks for your review and support, I'm currently reading your story although I haven't reached the final chapter yet, please continue with your support. (AN: To those who like Starcraft and haven't read Ragnarok666's story I suggest you take a look it's really good.)
To Orionastro: You will have your space battle's next chapter! Do keep reading!
To Jarjaxle: Things are moving indeed. Good rhythm by the way!
LD: I don't own Independence day or it's expanded universe.
Chapter 10: Search Operation
As David and Rodrigo walked towards the control room after the debriefing with the members of the Fighter Squadrons that would participate in the mission to retrieve the ship it was clear to the Director that his friend was angry at him. He couldn't really blame him. Mitchell's plan of having the Fighters attached to the frigate during a voyage between Earth and Saturn was dangerous. As they were reaching the Control room David stopped and looked at Rodrigo.
"Speak your mind" David said. "I'd rather you shout and me and ask me why the hell did I agree to Mitchell's plan than you glaring at me and looking all throughout the mission.
"Why the hell have you agreed to such a risky plan!?" He asked Mitchell, trying and failing to keep a low voice.
"It was clear that he wasn't going to back down and I didn't want to keep wasting time on a losing battle." David said. "Albert didn't seem to disagree with him either, and he is probably the only one Mitchell would have listened to anyway."
"That's not it and you know it" Rodrigo said calming down, seeing some logic on David's excuse. "If you had told Mitchell you didn't agree with his plan either he wouldn't have gone against you in front of the Ambassador. And I know you wouldn't agree on such a plan just to please Mitchell."
David sighed and nodded. In the end Rodrigo knew him too well. "Ok, I've agreed to Mitchell's plan because I think there is a possibility we will need to use the Fighters." David said and before Rodrigo could reply he added. "Everything in this mission is based on our speculations Rodri." He said using the diminutive of his name he had used with him in his youth, back when Rodrigo was an exchange student at MIT from the Politechnical University of Madrid, from which he had obtained a degree after flight school, and David was an student at MIT. "And we know that even if the Ship still exists, the aliens also know of it's existance. We can't say a hundred percent sure that there won't be troubles once the frigate reaches Saturn. However if it needs the help of the Fighters we won't be able to send help in time"
"I see" Rodrigo said visibly more calm. It was a rather good reason for David's actions even if it put his men in danger. However another idea came to his mind and some of the anger returned. "Then why didn't we wait for the Resistance's fleet to arrive here, I'm sure they are bringing their own Fighters and carriers. We could ask them to carry both squadrons with them and organize a mission then.
"Zarhok has agreed not to report whatever happens to the Council of the Confederation, I'm not sure the commander of the arriving fleet would be as understanding as he has been so far with us. The existance of this ship is a good thing but it can also bring conflict within our alliance." David said. "It probably still will be a source of discussion after we retrieve it but that situation will be more easy for Albert to deal with"
"Did you think of all that while we were discussing about the ship?" Rodrigo asked and David nodded prompting the spaniard to laugh. "I really can't compete with that head of yours" he conceded. "Although make sure to let the rest of the people there know about your true intentions. I think Okun was as pissed as I was that you would side with Mitchell"
"Figures" David said with a chuckle. "In any case let's get to the Control Room" He added and Rodrigo followed him. When they entered the control room Mitchell and Albert, who'd insisted on being at the control room during the operation, both greeted them with a nod and on the screen several Fighters were already on the frigate. Seeing this David prayed that he wasn't making a mistake. General Zarhok entered the Control room a few minutes later, it had been decided that the Princess would be in charge of the operation, and all aliens aside from the normal crew of the Frigate and the Prophet would remain on Earth.
"Night Huntress this is the ESD's control room do you copy?" Said one of the operators, thanks to the alien advances the ESD was now able to talk with all Resistance's ship within a certain range of their base, the whole Solar system in fact, also it this comm systems had been equipped with translators on their own which like the aliens personal translators worked both ways.
"ESDHQ this is Captain Miradine of the "Night Huntress" we copy, over" she replied.
"Night Huntress how are the "docking" procedures coming along?" The operator asked.
"The docking procedures are complete." Miradine said with a voice that said that she had reservations about this plan like almost everyone else "The system's check is also doneNight Huntress is ready for take off."
The operator looked at General Mitchell who just nodded and the operator spoke again. "Roger that Night Huntress you are cleared for take off. I repeat you are cleared for take off"
The Princess didn't reply and the radio was silent. Not even a humorous comment from Charlie or Troy could be heard, only tense silence as the ship took off. Not that David found that weird, they had been called out on their day off for an improvised mission based on just the probability of retrieving an ancient warship from the Rings of Saturn and to add salt to the wound there was a high risk of death, mostly by accident. As he thought of that, David couldn't help but feel a little bit nervous himself, perhaps Rodrigo had been right before the mission was too risky, and perhaps he should have tried to stop Mitchell even if he truly believed in the explanations he had given Rodrigo not to disagree.
He shook his head and pushed those thoughts aside as through the screens he observed the ship rising up and becoming smaller and smaller, those thoughts were futile now. He could only wait and hope the mission would be successful.
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The Alien Prison had been a secondary location built after the war of '96, it had been built in the case of a Second alien attack, more accurately in case the second alien attack brought in more alien prisoners. And even though the war of '16 hadn't really brought many more alien prisoners, in fact the current number of prisoners was about 60% of the number of prisoners they had prior to the war, the alien prison was selected as the permanent containment location of the aliens since they would compromise the security of HQ again in case of another attack. Like Area 51 it was also located on the desert of Nevada, about a hundred miles away from the HQ. The main difference however was that unlike HQ and most of the other military bases it barely had any structures, only a seemingly old military airfield, visible on the surface, the main structure and prison were underground and were accessed through an elevator after passing several security checks.
About 2000 active soldiers lived there guarding the aliens 24/7 365 days a year. Many were veterans of both wars against the aliens or just one, others former special forces soldiers from around the world, after the incident with the prisoners during the war of 2016 the neither the ESD, the US or the UN wanted to take any chances with the prisoners who'd returned to a letargic state after the aliens latest retreat. Most of the guards hoped they would remain like that forever, however all good things had to come to an end.
First it was one, one of the aliens began to scream and move around frantically, something that was promptly picked up by the motion detectors on his cell. The officer in charge of the control room that days, an african american man with short black hair and the complexion of a former basketball player, on his late thirties paled as he witnessed this. There was only one reason why the aliens would suddenly become active again and that was if they felt the presence of their comrades. Quickly he went to the phone and dialed his superior officer. The man picked up the phone annoyed that he'd been bothered on his day off.
"Williams speaking" the man at the other side of the line said.
"Colonel we have a problem." The officer reported to his superior as more and more prisoners came out of their letargic state. "The Prisoners are awake and making too much noise." The man at the other side of the line cursed loudly knowing what that meant as well.
"Contact HQ and let them know what's happening" he ordered trying not to sound panicked. "Have all our men on full alert in case some of those things try to escape and activate the base's outer defenses ASAP!"
"Yes sir!" The officer replied professionally as he hang the phone and proceeded to dial HQ ordering one of the operators to sound the alarm.
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Okun observed the screen that showed the cells at the alien prison, the scene before him seemed identical to the one that had happened in HQ just before the war of 2016, however to Okun something was off, just like he had known that the aliens had been cheering because of the arrival of the Harvester Queen and their comrades, right now they seemed to be angry, like he had been with David before entering the Control Room and finding everyone staring worriedly at the screens, he sensed they were angry about something but why he didn't know.
"What's happening with those beasts" Mitchell asked, his voice filled with hate for the imprisoned members of the Swarm.
"I can't be sure, but they seem angry about something." Rodrigo guessed.
"No, last time they did that they were cheering for something." David looked at Okun as he said this, he had heard him enter but hadn't said anything as he had been looking at the worrisome scene before him.
"General Quesada is right, David." Okun said. "They are definitely angry about something, however what about I can't don't know. Perhaps Umbutu would be able to tell us."
"You don't think the mission is in danger do you?" Rodrigo asked Okun.
"Don't be stupid, they can't possibly know about..." Mitchell began to chastise his aide before he took a look at Okun as if he had just thought of something. "Can they?"
"I'm not quite sure of the individual capabilities of the members of the Swarm. Since the UN has become increasingly careful on how to handle the prisoners they barely allow me to study them." Okun said, he then realized something. "Umbutu has a stronger connection with them than I do perhaps he will be able to make out what they are saying."
"Wouldn't it be prudent to postpone the mission until we know what's happening?" Albert said. General Mitchell looked at the veteran politician.
"Whatever is happening it can have nothing to do with the mission ambassador, plus our men could always retreat if things get too tough for them to handle." Mitchell said. It was clear that the General was eager to report the retrieval of the ancient alien battleship to the Secretary General since such an achievement would bring him out of trouble and back on Johnson's good graces. "Besides our speed may be key for the success of the operation." That everyone could agree on. Mitchell then looked at one of the operators. "Contact Major Umbutu and have him come here."
The operator obeyed and Umbutu entered the Control room followed by Rosenberg a few minutes later which were spent in silence as everyone seemed to just want to see if there were any changes in the situation. When he observed the scene before him he froze and seemed to concentrate trying to make out what the creatures were saying.
"Do you know what they are doing?" Mitchell asked after Umbutu observed the situation for a few minutes.
"They seem to be angry, really angry." Umbutu said and Mitchell sighed in frustration.
"We can see that Major" He said in an impatient tone. "What I want to know is why are they like that."
"They seem to have felt a presence, a presence they feel an extreme hostility towards." Umbutu said ignoring Mitchell's tone.
"The Battleship?" Okun asked.
"Not only that" Umbutu said. "There is something more, something they absolutely hate."
"Have they contacted anyone?" David asked and Umbutu shook his head energically.
"It doesn't seem like it." Umbutu replied. "However it could be something else they have picked up through their telepathic link with the rest of it's species, whether that's of interest for this mission or not I do not know."
"See ambassador" Mitchell said trying to sound reassuring but instead sounding smug about the information the former warlord had provided even though it didn't back it's earlier claim of it not having anything to do with the mission completely "It's perfectly fine to continue with the mission."
Albert nodded but said nothing as his eyes went back to the scene playing in front of him. However Zarhok spoke in his place.
"In any case I believe it would be wise to inform the princess of this." He said. "Just to be safe."
Mitchell looked at his alien counterpart for a few seconds and finally nodded, he didn't really want advise from Zarhok but he nodded and relayed his orders to the communication's officer.
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As the frigate reached it's destination Miradine let out a sigh she did not know she had been holding. The Planet of Saturn and it's rings which number of small satellites and asteroids had diminished after the war of 2016 was a very welcome sight. Every Fighter seemed to have survived the trip and no accidents big or small had occurred during the travel and her idea to have the frigate's ships cover the Fighters also seemed to have worked well as a protection. Now it was time to get to work, she motioned to one of the bridge operators to patch her through to Lieutenant Colonel Gómez and his men.
"Scorpion 1 this is Night Huntress" Miradine said. "How are your Fighters' systems holding up. There was a minute of silence before Carlos replied.
"Night Huntress this is Scorpion 1. The systems' check found no problems in our systems and the Fighters seem to be able to take off." Carlos replied.
"Then please do" Miradine replied and she looked at the operator in charge of the shields and the one in charge of the shields. "Lower our shields" She ordered and then she looked at the comm operator again. "Contact the Engine room and tell to reduce our speed to half our current speed." Both operators, both members of Miradine's race nodded and began working on their assigned tasks. A few minutes later very carefully and one by one the Fighters began separating from the frigate.
"Attention Fighters" Miradine said as she checked that all Fighters were spaceborne. "A few hours ago we received the news that the aliens that were imprisoned back on earth have come out of their letargic state. Apparently that is what they did during their previous attack on Earth. We don't know why have they come out of their letargic state, please be very careful when you begin the search."
"Oh I'm touched that you are worried about us" Sounded Troy's voice through the radio. Miradine groaned, didn't that man take anything seriously. Granted it was because of that easygoing personality that he had almost always which had allowed her to develop some friendly relationship with the members of both Fighter squadrons but they were in the middle of a mission.
"Troy concentrate" Isabel chastised her flymate.
"Dylan Isabel you will be with me" Carlos began as he had ignored Troy's joking comments. "The rest will be divided into groups of two as we begin the search.
Miradine looked at the Prophet which was beside her at the bridge of the ship. It had been silent for the most part immersed on it's own thoughts like and seemingly unaware of it's surroundings. She pondered for a moment if she should inform it of their situation as the fighters headed for the area the Swarm thought the ancient space battleship was.
"It's not here." The Prophet said cryptically. "I'm not feeling anything from the Asteroid rings."
"Well you said that the camouflage and cloaking systems were still active it's no wonder that you can't sense it." Miradine said sensing the Prophet's nervousness, then again aside from it's ship which had been attacked by the humans more than a year ago it hadn't had contact with it's race, neither beings nor technology, and she guessed it was normal.
"You don't understand I've performed an initial scan of the area already and I've not found a single trace of energy. I know what to look for when scanning for these kind of ships, I searched many systems after the war in search of survivors, I adjusted my scans and radar to look for very specific traces of energy or any object that could one of my people's ships and here there are none."
"Perhaps if we look for this traces with the Frigate and Fighters' radars we will be able to find it." Miradine argued as the Prophet sounded a little unreasonable.
"I updated my scanning abilities a long time ago, they are more refined than any ship the Resistance has ever built and even more refined than those of my own ship, I only used my ship's radars when I needed more detection power, but for the Sujkronodisska my systems should be enough." The Prophet said.
"But the aliens picked up something on their radars around that area didn't they?" Miradine asked more confused and a little unable to accept that their trip had been in vain. "If there is nothing here. Why would they think there was?"
"Perhaps they thought they had picked up something or perhaps..." The Prophet began as from the corner of it's visor it saw one of Saturn's moons, the largest one, Titan, it was currently far away from the zone where the ancient battleship was thought to be before but it was a good hiding place granted space bodies with atmosphere were more difficult to scan making it impossible to detect if the camouflage and cloaking abilities of the ship were taken into consideration and it wouldn't be the first thing the enemy would scan. Without finishing what it was saying it headed for the ship's radar operator, the alien observed the prophet for a moment and moved away as the Prophet connected itself to the radar system and scanned again. "Found it."
Miradine looked more confused than before, didn't it just say that she had found no trace of the Battleship's presence on the area why was it now saying that it had found it precisely as it had connected to the Frigate's radar which it said were vastly inferior to it's own.
"Where?" Miradine asked finally pushing it's own doubts away for the moment.
"The Ship is on Titan." The Prophet said confidently.
"But how did it move there?" Miradine argued skeptically. "Were the propulsion systems a part of the systems active if the ship's captain died."
"No" The Prophet said and Miradine could swear it was happy as it spoke at the prospect of another being of it's species being alive
"Lieutenant Colonel, tell your men to head for Titan." Miradine said contacting Scorpion and Legendary Squadrons.
"That's outside the search area." Carlos reminded her.
"I think the Prophet has found some traces of the ship on it." Miradine explained.
"Roger that" Carlos said and relayed the orders to the rest of the Fighter pilots and soon enough they all headed toward's Saturn's largest moon
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When the Fighters and the frigate entered the atmosphere of titans all of them were very careful to have their ship's shields up, they didn't think something bad would happen but they'd rather be cautious about both the enviroment of the moon or surprise enemies. Even after Russia had "colonized" Rhea, the largest moon of Saturn had been mostly left unexplored, aside for a few unmanned missions, by the Russians or the ESD, there had been plans of terraforming and colonizing Titan, the viability of those options was being studied, but Rhea Base had only been active for 3 years before it had been destroyed alongside the moon it was in and nothing else had come from it.
Miradine observed the Prophet as it searched for the ship. It was still connected to the ship radar as it helped it pick something up. They were approaching the North Pole of Titan when the Prophet spoke.
"I'm detecting what could be the ship" the Prophet said, we are fifty miles away." It informed her, and she once again wondered what traces were those the Prophet had looked for to detect the ship, which was if it's story was accurate camouflaged and was invisible to the radar. Miradine contacted Carlos again.
"The Prophet says the thing we are looking for is fifty miles away." She informed him.
"That's good at least we won't have to search the whole moon for it" Charlie's voice sounded. "I would rather return home without having to fight."
"We haven't found any enemies yet." Rain chastised her boyfriend.
"But the aliens know of this place." Charlie replied "And I'd rather not stretch my luck more than I need to."
There were several chuckles from the members of Scorpion and Legendary Squadron and even Miradine found herself smiling a little at this. She had to say that if Charlie was a member of any other race that it wasn't the human race, he wouldn't have been allowed to fight, which would have been their loss since from what she had mostly heard he, alongside the rest of the members of both squadrons, was a hell of a pilot. When the fun was over Carlos voice sounded.
"Do you want us to scout ahead?" The Lieutenant Colonel asked.
"That would be a good idea." She agreed. "Charlie you can stay near the Ship if you are scared" she joked, ever since she had started socializing a bit more with humans it seemed she had picked a little bit of their humor, something she was sure her family and race could find unbecoming of someone of her status.
"Thanks Princess" Charlie said. "But I think I'll join them they wouldn't know what to do without me?"
"Please remain with the ship" Troy and Jake said at the same time prompting more laughter on the radio as they flew towards their target.
"I will get ready too" the Prophet said as she disconnected itself from the ship's radar and began to exit the ship's bridge as Miradine nodded.
"I'll have a security team ready to go with you" The Princess said. "Please be careful."
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Even though it's camouflage system was working neither the Prophet nor the Fighters could say that it would have remained hidden much longer. The fact that it was on Titan and that it was still invisible to the radar were the only facts that had kept it safe because to the naked eye it was clear there was a ship landed on the satellite's surface and by the looks of it, the ship was much larger than the Frigate, definitely an imponent sight. The Frigate landed near the Battleship`while Fighters flew over them keeping watch not only on the massive structure but also for any still unseen threats. The Prophet exited the frigate followed by several black armored soldiers with their masks on to help them breath in the unknown atmosphere. Their mission was to protect the Prophet while also perform a search for lifeforms, both friendly and hostile, in case it was necessary.
The Prophet moved towards were she knew one of the entrance of the huge Battleship was. Upon reaching it she sent a signal towards a computer located nearby, or so the soldiers guessed since they couldn't see what was what with the camouflaged systems of the ship on, which seemed to scan the Prophet and recognized it as a friendly being. It was then the camouflage system deactivated completely, revealing the ancient Battleship in all it's splendor, revealing it's original metallic grey color, shortly afterwards a ramp descended and one of the entrances opened letting them in.
It was dark when they first and an eerie feeling came over all of them, however as soon as they entered the ship began to iluminate and the group found themselves on a group several metallic corpses, seemingly robots bulky and heavily armored laid on the ground inactive. The members of the team looked at the Prophet but it merely said.
"Security bots, and assault bots, unlike my people, these were created artificial." It explained and several members of the team nodded. However what the Prophet didn't tell the group was that if the ship's "captain" was active those things would be active too. It was like a bucket of frozen water fell over the Prophet and it severely decreased the expectations it had had of finding anyone alive. Now that it was inside the ship, it performed a scan, everything was silent, it didn't feel anyone from it's race onboard, however it had detected organic life on one of the ship's cryogenic suspension room. "We shall split up" It said. "Sargeant Krotoss" it motioned to one of it's escorts, an bulky Orwegian warrior. "You and five men will come with me to the bridge. The rest will head to this location." As it said that it projected a small scale map of the battleship. The place where the Prophet wanted the rest of the team to go was about five km away from their current position while the bridge was just about 2 km away on the other direction.. Krotoss designated another member of the group, a natrolean, to lead the other group and his subordinate seemed to memorize the map and the location where the Prophet wanted them to go. After this both groups split up from each other.
"Why have you split up the group?" Miradine's voice sounded through it's comm system.
"I have detected organic life" The Prophet said. "On one of the cryogenic suspension rooms." Miradine didn't ask how she knew that as she had always trusted the Prophet and they already had had a discussion that day.
"Why does the ship have a cryogenic suspension room. Your people had metallic bodies." She asked instead.
"It served as a prison." The Prophet replied.
"Then the lifeform you have detected was a prisoner?" Miradine asked.
"Probably" The Prophet said as it and the team of five soldiers continued advancing. There was a radio silence for the next fifteen minutes which was the time it took the Prophet to reach the bridge. Even iluminated the ship's age and abandonement was clear and they found several more bots laying on the ground and damaged parts of the ship, however the bridge's seemed just old, there was no apparent damage, just some inactive operator bots, which was good. However the first thing the Prophet noticed wasn't that, it was the Spheric corpse of the ship's captain. It clearly was deactivated, dead, the Prophet didn't need to scan throughlyit to make sure. It had rolled away from the place where it was supposed to be and not even the faintest trace of energy could be felt from it. The group that had accompanied the Prophet remained silent and some bowed in respect towards the fallen being.
"I'll need some time." The Prophet said then in her usual neutral voice heading for the place of the Captain and connected itself to the ship. Becoming one with the central computer which and binding it to it's will, it performed an scan of all the systems. Aside from the damage sustained from the battle so long ago the ship's systems had endured the passage of time well and it seemed that the previous Captain had done some repairs to the most damaged areas. The engines seemed undamaged and the reactors ready to go.
"We've reached the Cryogenic room." The Prophet heard the leader of the group it had sent to the Cryogenic room say. The Prophet accessed the cameras of that specific area, although it took it a while to restart the vigilance system. Then the Prophet saw the group of soldiers entering the room and saw them froze in place in front of one of the cryogenic chambers. Zooming on it, it realized what had elicited such a reaction. In front of them, frozen in cryogenic suspension, was a large specimen of the Swarm, not as large as a Harvester Queen but larger than the normal soldiers of that species
The group on the Cryogenic suspension room began reporting their findlings while the Prophet searched information about it on the ship's computers, and it found something surprising. The Swarm member wasn't classified as a prisoner but as a potential ally by the previous Captain of the ship. Before it could investigate further, Miradine's voice interrupted it.
"Do you think the Battleship will be able to take off?" The Princess asked nervously and not only because of their recent discovery.
"Why do you..." The Prophet began but then it noticed again, the ship's radars had detected several ships approaching saturn and the designation the radar had for them, it recognized as one of the first designations it's race had for the Swarm's ship "City Destroyer". "I'll begin working on it"