- CHAPTER 40 -
- The Octagon, Terra, Sol System -
Having not seen any cloaked assassins or hidden weapons other than the ceremonial yet fully functional daggers and type 2 phasers that were part of the usual Starfleet uniform, the point guards again transmitted the all clear to the rest of the party. A second stir swam through the room as the rest of the party entered Ops. Part of it was finding out that a Council Member was still alive, but most of it was generated by the Furies that accompanied him. Though the entire Terran Empire knew of their existence, very few were unfortunate or unlucky enough to encounter them in person, and those that did usually didn't live very long. As a result, many of the deeds attributed to them were largely hearsay and tall tales made up to scare children into eating their vegetables. Just the same, no one was about to doubt that Furies would do very bad things to those whom were branded as enemies to the Terran Empire.
"Well Admiral, what can you tell me?" Chambers said. He schooled his face into a concerned look, the better to play the part of the distraught politician. Jack needn't explain about what he wanted to know either. Old Momma Hayes didn't raise no fool, and only a fool would have to ask for clarification as to just what Jack wanted to know. As he spoke, the Section 31 troops moved into key locations around ops while two of their number strode out to guard the entryway. Only the two human Furies and their paired Hellhounds remained near him. It was evident that they had become his personal bodyguard for as long as he desired their presence. Despite expecting the Furies, expectation and experiencing their presence firsthand were two very different animals. While his fear was slightly irrational, knowing that he had done nothing against the Empire and thus had nothing to be afraid of, he felt it just the same. Perhaps the Furies were messing with his mind, making him feel fear where he otherwise wouldn't? Who could say for sure where those monstrosities were concerned. Shaking himself, Admiral Hayes spoke in his usual deep, rumbling near growl. He was slightly surprised and proud that he managed to let no sign of his fear show in his voice.
"So far sir, not much. We know that the perpetrator of this atrocity was a large bulk cargo carrier ICS Pearl Harbor, Security Ident 133394-Alpha-Beta- Twin-7946." As he spoke, he turned and typed in a few commands into his left-hand control panel. Above him, the massive holo display popped on and showed a rotating 3D view of the Luna Corporate Shipyards C-5000 class cargo vessel. She was basically a long tube, with crew quarters and control systems mounted in front, engines at the rear, and massive cargo containers docked to radial spokes that jutted out at regular intervals down her arrow like hull. While she was ugly as hell, she was perfectly suited for her design purpose, transporting bulk cargo across the vast reaches of the Terran Empire efficiently and as cost effectively as possible. Her cargo pods could house an entire Sovereign inside with room to spare, and she had 12 of them, 6 on the front cargo spokes, 6 on the rear. It was easy to see how such a vessel could hide a weapon in those pods. With a little creative ECM, Hayes thought that it could very well be possible for them to hide an entire warship in them, let alone a single weapon system. But it would have required a top of the line military grade ECM suite to do so, and as far as Fleet Intel knew no civilian agency or criminal one had a top of the line ECM suite. Chalk up one more goof in a steadily growing list of screwups on Intel's part.
"Wait, did you say Pearl Harbor?" Jack interrupted.
"Yes sir. Imperial Cargo Ship Pearl Harbor. Does that mean something to you sir?" Jack snorted.
"Quite frankly I am surprised that you don't know the analogy yourself Admiral, as it refers to an event in your historical bailiwick. Look it up later, under ancient Terran naval history, World War Two, America, Hawaii. Continue."
"Yes sir." Gabriel Hayes entered another series of commands into his terminal and the holo changed to show the Pearl Harbor near the outskirts of the Sol System. "From what we have been able to deduce so far, this is what happened. The ICS Pearl Harbor exited the Sol Beta subspace corridor 20 hours four minutes ago. It was an orderly transit, and everything seemed normal. Her ident and authorization were entirely in order, and the deep scans initiated by the outer perimeter battle stations showed no irregularities. She was authorized to enter the inbound transit lane 20 hours one minute ago." As Gabriel spoke the holo above him shifted as the vast cargo hauler entered the long line up of vessels headed insystem. Moving foreword rapidly in time, it passed through the intervening security layers without incident as well. "She entered Terra orbit roughly an half an hour ago, still everything appeared to be normal. Now is where things get interesting." The holo changed again. Instead of the Pearl Harbor floating serenely against the globe of Terra, a series of explosions wracked her, causing most of her cargo canisters to drift away from the severely damaged vessel. "Roughly 25 minutes ago the Pearl Harbor issued a mayday signal. It was thought that she had had a catastrophic engineering problem, but this is now known to be assuredly not the case."
The detached cargo canisters drifted free on seemingly mindless courses till the simulation paused again. "It was at this point that the Armageddon class Imperial Battle Station Guadalcanal picked up a faint sensor wrongness about the cargo pods."
"Wrongness Admiral?"
"That is how the watch officer that caught it described it to me sir. Apparently it was mostly a haunch that something was wrong, so he initiated a deep scan of the cargo canisters just to be safe. It, combined with the pod's dropping their own deception ECM allowed their true nature to be revealed, but unfortunately it was to late to do much about the situation."
"Oh yes, how convenient that an error on this scale was only caught after there was nothing to stop it." Jack said, anger seeping into his voice, playing his part to the hilt.
"I understand your anger sir, believe me I share it. Those responsible for this oversight in our defenses are being rounded up as we speak to answer for it. But the regrettable part of it is, about the only way we could have found out about the hidden weapons would be to physically board and search every cargo hold and crew compartment of every vessel entering Sol. This group, and we are still trying to determine exactly who they are, managed to get a hold of a current military grade ECM suite. It is only this fact that allowed them to pull their attack off. Any thing older or less capable wouldn't have been able to spoof the Battle Station's and Shipboard sensors. Shall I continue with the known facts sir?" Jack merely sent an irritated nod his way.
"After the Guadalcanal's deep scan was complete, the watch officer immediately realized what was up and declared a Case Zulu. It was at this time that the mysterious canisters dropped their ECM and lined up on their targets for final acquisition." The display shifted again and the time stamp indicated 21 minutes ago. The cargo canisters moved slightly along their drifting trajectories, then slowed to a stop as till then hidden thrusters activated. Seconds later, the bluish white and sliver lances of destruction vomited from the cargo pods. "They then proceeded to launch a powerful energy weapon of an unknown type. The damage they did to the space based installations was hideous, surpassing even a phaser lance in destructive potential. The attack resulted in the outright destruction of a few Armageddon class Battle Stations and severe damage wrought against the Bengal class Spacedock, to say nothing of the loss in starships and personnel." On the display, the final beam to fire sent its glittering sword of death towards Terra herself, charging down to the western coast of North America.
"The final weapon attacked San Francisco, striking the Council Tower nearly straight on thanks to the cargo pod's orbit after separating form the Pearl Harbor. Seconds later the Pearl Harbor was killed by the combined firepower of three Armageddon class Battle Stations, one Wraith, four Sovereigns, two Galaxies, five Akira's, 10 Intrepids and 20 Soulwolfs. There wasn't much left of the wreckage for analysis." The display showed the attack in vivid detail, for it had been recorded by a multitude of sensor sets in Terra orbit and beyond. Then it shifted again to show only Terra. The display was centered on what had been San Francisco.
What had been a vibrant metropolis, capital of the Empire, seat of power, home to 2.2 billion souls was now a rapidly expanding version of hell on earth. Seen from orbit, the true scale of the destruction was far more evident to Jack than his ringside seat had been. The smoke, ash and pulverized rock grew like some malevolent cloud to cover most of the state. The dust kicked up by the initial compression wave of fast moving air was even visible. Fires appeared throughout the state as flaming hunks of stone and building rained down. You could actually see a growing arch of wave form in the Pacific as it raced across the ocean. Asian and Australian cities were the hardest hit, some of them not getting their perimeter shields online in time. Those who had been faster off the mark or just plain luckier were treated to a massive wall of water 200 feet high lashing onto the shimmering protection of their defensive shields. A few unfortunate sections didn't get them up in time, letting the vast wave crash inland till it came up against the next layer of shields. Destruction was severe, and the loss of life which was already in the billions was bound to climb higher still once there was time to fully take stock.
"Why did the beam even affect the Council Tower? It's shields are supposed to be fully operational at all times."
"While we don't know the cause yet sir, sensor logs show that her shields were dropped moments before the attack. I doubt that the true party responsible behind that little act of sabotage will ever be discovered though, for whatever evidence of his or her crime that remained behind was obliterated along with the rest of San Fran."
"Are SAR operations underway? There are still many civilians trapped down there."
"We know sir, and yes they are. They are being hampered by the large amounts of debris that the attack threw up into the atmosphere though. It is tough for sensors and transporters to get an accurate lock on anything down there, so we have to send in teams in shuttles. Major towns and cities have already been evacuated to safer locations though, and Atmospheric Control is hard at work trying to limit the spread of the ash cloud."
"Very good. Now I have just one final question. How could whomever is responsible for this atrocity penetrate our defenses so?" As he spoke he waved to the Fury standing beside him. It must have been a preplanned signal, for both the human and his canine companion turned towards him. Their eyes glowed slightly more brightly and Gabriel felt a vice tighten around his neck and his feet left the ground. The vice wasn't very tight, but that was merely to let him respond intelligently instead of in a strangled gasp it would have been otherwise.
"As of this time I am not sure sir, but it is still early in the investigation.!" Gabriel managed to sputter out.
"You know what I think Admiral? I think that this is a far-reaching plot to take out the Terran Empire's government. And do you know what else I think, I think that Starfleet had a large part in it. They had to have someone on the inside, and whom better than the power hungry leaders in Starfleet to do it?" There was a slight grin on Jacks face now, and he again signaled the Fury.
Gabrielle's throat visibly constricted with a wet crunch, then the body that had been suspended in the air four feet off of the ground fell back to the deck without a sound. Jack turned to the now terrified personnel manning the Octagon's Ops.
"Effective immediately, First Fleet and all Sol System defensive installations are now under my direct personal command pending a top to bottom review of all senior staff for their involvement in this dastardly attack. Continue about your jobs until further notice." Then Jack Chambers turned to leave Ops, his entourage of Furies and Section 31 goons falling in around him. You could hear a pin drop in Ops for long after he left.
- The Octagon, Terra, Sol System -
Having not seen any cloaked assassins or hidden weapons other than the ceremonial yet fully functional daggers and type 2 phasers that were part of the usual Starfleet uniform, the point guards again transmitted the all clear to the rest of the party. A second stir swam through the room as the rest of the party entered Ops. Part of it was finding out that a Council Member was still alive, but most of it was generated by the Furies that accompanied him. Though the entire Terran Empire knew of their existence, very few were unfortunate or unlucky enough to encounter them in person, and those that did usually didn't live very long. As a result, many of the deeds attributed to them were largely hearsay and tall tales made up to scare children into eating their vegetables. Just the same, no one was about to doubt that Furies would do very bad things to those whom were branded as enemies to the Terran Empire.
"Well Admiral, what can you tell me?" Chambers said. He schooled his face into a concerned look, the better to play the part of the distraught politician. Jack needn't explain about what he wanted to know either. Old Momma Hayes didn't raise no fool, and only a fool would have to ask for clarification as to just what Jack wanted to know. As he spoke, the Section 31 troops moved into key locations around ops while two of their number strode out to guard the entryway. Only the two human Furies and their paired Hellhounds remained near him. It was evident that they had become his personal bodyguard for as long as he desired their presence. Despite expecting the Furies, expectation and experiencing their presence firsthand were two very different animals. While his fear was slightly irrational, knowing that he had done nothing against the Empire and thus had nothing to be afraid of, he felt it just the same. Perhaps the Furies were messing with his mind, making him feel fear where he otherwise wouldn't? Who could say for sure where those monstrosities were concerned. Shaking himself, Admiral Hayes spoke in his usual deep, rumbling near growl. He was slightly surprised and proud that he managed to let no sign of his fear show in his voice.
"So far sir, not much. We know that the perpetrator of this atrocity was a large bulk cargo carrier ICS Pearl Harbor, Security Ident 133394-Alpha-Beta- Twin-7946." As he spoke, he turned and typed in a few commands into his left-hand control panel. Above him, the massive holo display popped on and showed a rotating 3D view of the Luna Corporate Shipyards C-5000 class cargo vessel. She was basically a long tube, with crew quarters and control systems mounted in front, engines at the rear, and massive cargo containers docked to radial spokes that jutted out at regular intervals down her arrow like hull. While she was ugly as hell, she was perfectly suited for her design purpose, transporting bulk cargo across the vast reaches of the Terran Empire efficiently and as cost effectively as possible. Her cargo pods could house an entire Sovereign inside with room to spare, and she had 12 of them, 6 on the front cargo spokes, 6 on the rear. It was easy to see how such a vessel could hide a weapon in those pods. With a little creative ECM, Hayes thought that it could very well be possible for them to hide an entire warship in them, let alone a single weapon system. But it would have required a top of the line military grade ECM suite to do so, and as far as Fleet Intel knew no civilian agency or criminal one had a top of the line ECM suite. Chalk up one more goof in a steadily growing list of screwups on Intel's part.
"Wait, did you say Pearl Harbor?" Jack interrupted.
"Yes sir. Imperial Cargo Ship Pearl Harbor. Does that mean something to you sir?" Jack snorted.
"Quite frankly I am surprised that you don't know the analogy yourself Admiral, as it refers to an event in your historical bailiwick. Look it up later, under ancient Terran naval history, World War Two, America, Hawaii. Continue."
"Yes sir." Gabriel Hayes entered another series of commands into his terminal and the holo changed to show the Pearl Harbor near the outskirts of the Sol System. "From what we have been able to deduce so far, this is what happened. The ICS Pearl Harbor exited the Sol Beta subspace corridor 20 hours four minutes ago. It was an orderly transit, and everything seemed normal. Her ident and authorization were entirely in order, and the deep scans initiated by the outer perimeter battle stations showed no irregularities. She was authorized to enter the inbound transit lane 20 hours one minute ago." As Gabriel spoke the holo above him shifted as the vast cargo hauler entered the long line up of vessels headed insystem. Moving foreword rapidly in time, it passed through the intervening security layers without incident as well. "She entered Terra orbit roughly an half an hour ago, still everything appeared to be normal. Now is where things get interesting." The holo changed again. Instead of the Pearl Harbor floating serenely against the globe of Terra, a series of explosions wracked her, causing most of her cargo canisters to drift away from the severely damaged vessel. "Roughly 25 minutes ago the Pearl Harbor issued a mayday signal. It was thought that she had had a catastrophic engineering problem, but this is now known to be assuredly not the case."
The detached cargo canisters drifted free on seemingly mindless courses till the simulation paused again. "It was at this point that the Armageddon class Imperial Battle Station Guadalcanal picked up a faint sensor wrongness about the cargo pods."
"Wrongness Admiral?"
"That is how the watch officer that caught it described it to me sir. Apparently it was mostly a haunch that something was wrong, so he initiated a deep scan of the cargo canisters just to be safe. It, combined with the pod's dropping their own deception ECM allowed their true nature to be revealed, but unfortunately it was to late to do much about the situation."
"Oh yes, how convenient that an error on this scale was only caught after there was nothing to stop it." Jack said, anger seeping into his voice, playing his part to the hilt.
"I understand your anger sir, believe me I share it. Those responsible for this oversight in our defenses are being rounded up as we speak to answer for it. But the regrettable part of it is, about the only way we could have found out about the hidden weapons would be to physically board and search every cargo hold and crew compartment of every vessel entering Sol. This group, and we are still trying to determine exactly who they are, managed to get a hold of a current military grade ECM suite. It is only this fact that allowed them to pull their attack off. Any thing older or less capable wouldn't have been able to spoof the Battle Station's and Shipboard sensors. Shall I continue with the known facts sir?" Jack merely sent an irritated nod his way.
"After the Guadalcanal's deep scan was complete, the watch officer immediately realized what was up and declared a Case Zulu. It was at this time that the mysterious canisters dropped their ECM and lined up on their targets for final acquisition." The display shifted again and the time stamp indicated 21 minutes ago. The cargo canisters moved slightly along their drifting trajectories, then slowed to a stop as till then hidden thrusters activated. Seconds later, the bluish white and sliver lances of destruction vomited from the cargo pods. "They then proceeded to launch a powerful energy weapon of an unknown type. The damage they did to the space based installations was hideous, surpassing even a phaser lance in destructive potential. The attack resulted in the outright destruction of a few Armageddon class Battle Stations and severe damage wrought against the Bengal class Spacedock, to say nothing of the loss in starships and personnel." On the display, the final beam to fire sent its glittering sword of death towards Terra herself, charging down to the western coast of North America.
"The final weapon attacked San Francisco, striking the Council Tower nearly straight on thanks to the cargo pod's orbit after separating form the Pearl Harbor. Seconds later the Pearl Harbor was killed by the combined firepower of three Armageddon class Battle Stations, one Wraith, four Sovereigns, two Galaxies, five Akira's, 10 Intrepids and 20 Soulwolfs. There wasn't much left of the wreckage for analysis." The display showed the attack in vivid detail, for it had been recorded by a multitude of sensor sets in Terra orbit and beyond. Then it shifted again to show only Terra. The display was centered on what had been San Francisco.
What had been a vibrant metropolis, capital of the Empire, seat of power, home to 2.2 billion souls was now a rapidly expanding version of hell on earth. Seen from orbit, the true scale of the destruction was far more evident to Jack than his ringside seat had been. The smoke, ash and pulverized rock grew like some malevolent cloud to cover most of the state. The dust kicked up by the initial compression wave of fast moving air was even visible. Fires appeared throughout the state as flaming hunks of stone and building rained down. You could actually see a growing arch of wave form in the Pacific as it raced across the ocean. Asian and Australian cities were the hardest hit, some of them not getting their perimeter shields online in time. Those who had been faster off the mark or just plain luckier were treated to a massive wall of water 200 feet high lashing onto the shimmering protection of their defensive shields. A few unfortunate sections didn't get them up in time, letting the vast wave crash inland till it came up against the next layer of shields. Destruction was severe, and the loss of life which was already in the billions was bound to climb higher still once there was time to fully take stock.
"Why did the beam even affect the Council Tower? It's shields are supposed to be fully operational at all times."
"While we don't know the cause yet sir, sensor logs show that her shields were dropped moments before the attack. I doubt that the true party responsible behind that little act of sabotage will ever be discovered though, for whatever evidence of his or her crime that remained behind was obliterated along with the rest of San Fran."
"Are SAR operations underway? There are still many civilians trapped down there."
"We know sir, and yes they are. They are being hampered by the large amounts of debris that the attack threw up into the atmosphere though. It is tough for sensors and transporters to get an accurate lock on anything down there, so we have to send in teams in shuttles. Major towns and cities have already been evacuated to safer locations though, and Atmospheric Control is hard at work trying to limit the spread of the ash cloud."
"Very good. Now I have just one final question. How could whomever is responsible for this atrocity penetrate our defenses so?" As he spoke he waved to the Fury standing beside him. It must have been a preplanned signal, for both the human and his canine companion turned towards him. Their eyes glowed slightly more brightly and Gabriel felt a vice tighten around his neck and his feet left the ground. The vice wasn't very tight, but that was merely to let him respond intelligently instead of in a strangled gasp it would have been otherwise.
"As of this time I am not sure sir, but it is still early in the investigation.!" Gabriel managed to sputter out.
"You know what I think Admiral? I think that this is a far-reaching plot to take out the Terran Empire's government. And do you know what else I think, I think that Starfleet had a large part in it. They had to have someone on the inside, and whom better than the power hungry leaders in Starfleet to do it?" There was a slight grin on Jacks face now, and he again signaled the Fury.
Gabrielle's throat visibly constricted with a wet crunch, then the body that had been suspended in the air four feet off of the ground fell back to the deck without a sound. Jack turned to the now terrified personnel manning the Octagon's Ops.
"Effective immediately, First Fleet and all Sol System defensive installations are now under my direct personal command pending a top to bottom review of all senior staff for their involvement in this dastardly attack. Continue about your jobs until further notice." Then Jack Chambers turned to leave Ops, his entourage of Furies and Section 31 goons falling in around him. You could hear a pin drop in Ops for long after he left.