- CHAPTER 51 -
- Terran Empire 80th Fleet, Romulan/Imperial Front, Galorndon Core -
Even as the first wave of Imperial Quantums raced out towards the clustered main body of Romulan vessels, the perimeter scouts volleyed their Breen energy dampening weapons at the Imperial vessels. Most targeted decoys, the ships they were mimicking melting away as their holoemitters and sensor signature generators died. Six targeted actual vessels. They contacted and penetrated shields as usual, but that was the extent of usual for this attack. The targeted ships didn't stall, as the Grand Alliance had grown accustomed to. They kept right on attacking, their powerful phaser arrays targeting the Romulan scouts and burning them down with practiced efficiency.
"All right!" The Warriors captain shouted, his voice going over the cheer from nearly every soul on the ship
The Imperial strike fleet rushed onward towards the now active and maneuvering Romulan fleet, launching volley after massive volley of quantums and getting only light, ineffecutal, uncoordinated return fire. Close to 100 Quantums slammed into each targeted Romulan, whittling away the shields of the D'deridexes and Shadows as the intervening distance dropped to energy range. The enemy had grown complacent, forgetting that some Imperial vessels possessed slipstream drive and grown to confident in their wonder weapon to protect them. 80th Fleet descended on the still forming up Romulans like a pack of wolves on a helpless heard of sheep. The maximum impulse attack run brought them to knife range with the Romulans with frightening rapidity. The enemy was still trying to get their units into combat formation when the Imperial fleet crashed into them.
Soulwolf wings and the Wraiths spat a carefully choreographed phaser lance volley into the enemy fleet as they closed, their powerful orange beams either gutting or mortally wounding their targets. The Warrior closed to visual range of the Romulan fleet. Her captain selected two targets, both D'deridex Warbirds. The Warrior streaked between the two Romulan vessels, executing a continuous barrel roll as she came through between them. Her powerful capacitors were rapidly drained as she laid into both Warbirds at once, scouring their shields away with near continuous phaser strikes and PPC bolts. With the shields gone, the orange red beams clawed at the hull and armor of the two D'deridexes. They replied with a few bursts of disruptor bolts, but it was a pitiful reply to the savage mauling they were being handed in return. The first Warbird vanished in a fiery explosion as her antimatter storage pods detonated. The other was cut nearly in half, her port double nacelle wing torn away and her power failing as the Warrior streaked past. A heavy photon spat from the rear tube, slamming into the derelict and finishing what the Warriors phasers started.
Nearby, Soulwolfs were sending everything they could at their targets. Steady streams of amber/red Phaser beams, yellow/orange bolts of Pulse Phaser Cannon and blue/white blobs of Quantum Torpedoes slammed into the Romulan's shields, causing them to shimmer green with the absorbed and redirected titanic energies released against them. But they could only hold out against the inevitable for a short time. The Soulwolf had been designed as a small, quick build Battlecruiser killer, and the small Shrikes and Griffins of the Romulan fleet died in rapid succession.
It wasn't all one sided for the Imperial Fleet however. Some squadrons of the Romulan Fleet did get them selves sorted out enough to get a small portion of payback. The D'deridexes and Shadows spat silver lances of energy from their single emitters in their beak like prows. The Mauler beams bludgeoned into their targets like battering rams. They were thankfully few and far between, and the Romulan's data net was still coming on line and not fully interlinked, causing more than a few of the survivors to target the same enemy and waste their beams on a dying target. One Wraith, the ISS Constitution NCC 1700-D, the latest vessel to bear the honored name and battle record of the original ISS Constitution, died as two maulers intersected with the area of space it was occupying from either side. The left one hit from slightly below centerline of the primary hull, vaporizing nearly half of the massive arrowhead including the bridge, leaving a ruptured and molten crater edge in its wake. By act of the Demon Murphy, the kinetic transfer of the first Mauler strike forced the Constitution around till it intersected with the second Mauler that had been spoofed by the Wraith's ECM into a shooting a near miss. The right had side of her secondary hull was spun into the beam, just aft of the twin port nacelle pylons. A good bite of the stricken Wraith's secondary hull was chewed away, causing the right hand side nacelles to spiral away from the dying capital ship as secondary explosions crawled across the exposed face of its twin wounds. A Shrike closed on the crippled Wraith as it shed lifepods, pouring disruptor bolts into the derelict. The remnants of the Wraith disintegrated even as the Shrike met a similar fate when five Soulwolfs fired alpha strikes into it.
Another Wraith, the ISS Hades, was struck a glancing blow by a Mauler beam on its upper port nacelle, tearing it away from the rest of the ship and throwing nearly every unsecured soul on board to the deck. The heavily damaged Wraith spat back defiance, even as it prepared to withdraw. Phaser beams and PPC bolts streamed out from her as she retreated to slipstream with one nacelle gone midway up the pylon, the broken, shattered stump trailing drive plasma like blood in its wake. Its departure was punctuated by a Soulwolf being split in half by an explosion, disruptor bolts stitching molten craters on both halves as they tumbled apart.
By now nearly all of the Romulan's D'deridexes and Shadows were either drifting hulks or expanding energetic plasma. A Gorn Heavy Cruiser, its rectangular, sharp cornered construction swinging on its target as it chased after it at full impulse, salvoed a massive volley of plasma torpedoes from its foreword tubes. The powerful warheads were the latest generation, close to one gigaton in destructive power each, putting them on par with a Pulse Phaser bolt but with the ability to home on an evading enemy. Twelve were launched and closed in on the Warrior, guided unerringly thanks to the Gorn's active ECCM. The Warrior's decoys did their best, but they only managed to lure three of the warheads away to mutual self-immolation. The other nine slammed home into the Wraith's already weakened rear shields.
Sparks flew across the Warrior's bridge as the massive warship rocked under the sudden assault, and the holodisplay above her captain flickered but remained active.
"Damage report!"
"Aft shields now down to 20%. Diverting emergency power to the regenerators. Aft ablative armor generators down to 40%. Regenerating to 100% in three minutes."
The Warrior's captain looked down at the running tally of the battle on his side panel. With the Hades' retreat, taking the Admiral with her, command devolved to the Warriors CO. Despite the probable occurrence of multiple drone kills, nearly all of the enemies Battleships were gone. 80th Fleet had done what they had set out to do.
"Order the Fleet, withdraw to Starbase 34, were done here for now." The ship rocked again as a fresh plasma torpedo salvo, this time a full 12- torpedo spread, slammed into the weakening rear shields. "Tactical, scratch that itch for me would you?" The Warriors captain said as his hands weaved in the air, selecting the attacking Gorn Heavy Cruiser as a primary target.
"Aye sir!" The Warrior's tactical officer growled eagerly from beyond the distortion of the holodisplay.
A shuttle-sized gap appeared in the rear generated ablative armor, and a Heavy Photon with a Matter/Antimatter warhead was spat into space. The gap in the armor closed after its passing. The massive torp flew towards the Gorn Heavy Cruiser. Realizing the danger his craft was in, the Gorn commander shifted his fire to the Heavy Photon. But the torpedo was heavily armored, and the range was so short that the Gorn's phasers and disruptors had only gotten half way through its armor before time ran out. If the Gorn had had a Plasma Torp to fire, it would have been saved. But it had just finished salvoing them at the Warrior and the tubes had only just begun reloading the next volley. If the Cruiser had been more maneuverable, it would have survived as well, for Heavy Photons weren't nimble by any stretch of the imagination. But the Cruisers design philosophy was one of ruggedness over nimbleness. The Heavy Photon detonated just in front of its shields, the white flare from its activation silhouetting the nearby enemy vessels. The Heavy Photon generated shield planes in a precise patter, lasting just long enough to direct the full fury of the blast at the helpless Gorn Cruiser. The front half of the ship was turned to atoms, but as a true testament to the class' thick skin, the aft outer shell, gutted on the inside though it may be, remained largely intact despite the warheads best efforts.
The remaining vessels of 80th fleet jumped to slipstream even as they shot the final bursts of anger from their weapons. The entire engagement had taken only 10 minutes, and it was the first decisive Imperial victory of the war. In exchange for one destroyed and one heavily damaged Wraiths, 29 destroyed and 10 damaged Soulwolfs, 11 destroyed and 5 damaged Prometheuses and 13 destroyed and 18 damaged Dauntlesses, the Imperials had destroyed (allowing for usual drone destruction ratios) 49 D'deridex class Warbird's, 23 Shadow's, 44 Griffins and 67 Shrike's. Most of the Battlecruiser kills were confirmed ones, for they had been done before the enemy had gotten organized and brought his ECM and Wild Weasel decoys fully online and deployed. One enemy Fleet was obliterated for acceptable losses, and what was more, the Terran Empire now had a perfect defense against the Grand Alliance's new wonder weapon.
- The Octagon, Terra, 10 hours later -
Jack sat with a glee filled smile on his face in the Ops command chair. What had looked like would be the final battle of the Terran Empire only a few hours ago had turned into something else. Upon hearing the news that the shield modifications worked, some Admirals had taken their fleets on the offensive. Though they had met with success, they had eventually ran into opposition to heavy for their small strike fleets to cope with and been forced to retreat back to friendly space. Both sides had reacted quickly to the new developments, but as the known fleet dispositions now stood, neither side possessed a decisive enough advantage to press on in their attacks. The odd strike fleets from both sides still sniped at each other, but the enemy had brought up a surprising amount of prefabricated defensive installations to add to those that they had liberated from their former master's service. The Grand Alliance had succeeded in both reestablishing their respective empires as well as expanding them beyond what they once were. While that wasn't as good as crushing the Terran Empire, they would settle for it for the time being. The reborn empires were settling in behind massive fortifications, and all recon in force sent to survey Qo'noS, Romulus, Cardassia Prime and the rest had been driven back with heavy losses in the outer system. Section 31 units would have to be dispatched for an accurate picture of what was happening there to be drawn, for only their phase cloak would allow them to penetrate the thick defenses springing up around the reborn empires homeworlds.
But that wasn't cause for Jack's smile. Once the true scope of what had been lost to the Barbarian Alien Horde had sunken into the public's consciousness, they had been terrified. No one in all of the Empire's long history, not even the Borg, had done as good. Sure the Imperial/Borg war had generated considerably more casualties, but by and large, that war had been fought in the distant Delta Quadrant, far away from Terran colonies and core worlds. This war had seen a staggering loss in core and colony worlds to mere slaves, and it had shocked the Imperial populace to its very core. The time was now ripe for execution of the final phase of Jack's original plan, far more so than he had ever dared hope for.
Jack schooled a look of sadness onto his features, it wouldn't do to have the public see him smiling at a time like this. Once it was satisfactorily in place, he activated the com systems pickup, sending his face out to every public pickup in the colonized Empire.
"Fellow citizens of the Empire." He began gravely. "As recent events have unfortunately proven, the hidden enemy fleet that I repeatedly warned the Terran Council about has finally stepped out from the shadows and pushed us out from territory that has been ours for generations. The former Council didn't have the stomach to do what needed to be done. All of this tragedy could have been prevented if my words had been heeded while there was still time to solve the problem easily. But my words went unheeded, and now the problem has grown beyond something that can easily be fixed. High-ranking officers in the Empire's service have been corrupted and brought under the influence by the Empire's enemies. Vanquished foes have risen from the ash heap of history to again threaten the Terran Empire with total destruction. The very heart of the Empire, Terra herself, has been struck by these enemies, resulting in the deaths of billions including nearly all of the Terran Council. These are truly dark times for the Empire, I will not lie to you, I have never lied to you." The statement came easy thanks to the long years of practice honing the skill in Section 31.
"Even when the other Council Members call me a fool and a rabble rouser, ostracizing me, making me the laughing stock of the Council, I still told the truth they didn't want to hear. You all know this. I am telling you the truth now. It was the divisiveness of the Council that allowed our enemies to grow strong, to strike at us and succeed." Jack growled, letting false anger sparkle in his eyes. He went on, rising both in volume and passion with every sentence. "Strong leadership is required to right that mistake! Strong, undivided leadership is required to ensure that it never happens again! Strong, undivided, unwavering leadership is required to put the Barbarians in their place and reaffirm the Terran Empire's predominance in the galaxy!
"I approach you now, as a lone servant of the Empire who has always done his best to protect and advance her. It is my belief that what the Terran Empire needs now is an Emperor, and I ask you now, as free citizens of the Empire, to affirm me as such." One could have heard a pin drop on the hundreds of thousands of worlds of the Terran Empire. The citizenry had expected something important to be discussed when the sole surviving Council Member of the Terran Council had scheduled a trans-Empire communiqué. But the had no idea that this is what Jack Chamber's had had in mind for the calls topic. As Jack finished his plea, small forms came up on every personal PADD and Com terminal in the Empire. They were similar to the voting forms for civic officials, but the choice now was of far greater consequence than a mere Mayor or Judge.
For what seemed like an eternity, nothing happened. Then, on every planet in the Empire, a roaring cheer went up, and numbers began to flood in from all far-flung outposts and planets. In mere seconds, it was clear that the civilians in the empire solidly backed his request, just like Jack had known they would. They were sheep lost in the night, looking for a shepherd to help them and watch over them. He was now that shepherd, Emperor of the Terran Empire, still the single most powerful polity in the known Galaxy (Aside from the isolationist Voth, but they didn't really count on the Galactic stage). And he had gotten there without conquering the Terran Empire and forcing the citizenry to accept his rule, the Empire's citizens had handed him the Emperorship on a silver platter. Aside from some relatively minor (in the long run) unforeseen side effects, his plan had unfolded exactly as he had envisioned. Now there was no way the Terran Empire would fall, for he had altered the prophecy, changed the course of the Empire, barring the events it foretold form occurring. There was only one source of power in the Terran Empire now, all internal divisiveness was a thing of the past. The Prophecy would not, neigh, now COULD NOT come to pass.
"On behalf of the Empire, I thank you for exercising your wisdom and making the right choice for the future of the Terran Empire." Then Jack closed the terminal. The long, hard laugh that followed its termination was dripping with Machiavellian contentment. **************************************************************************** **
- TO BE CONTINUED IN TERRAN EMPIRE: UNITY -
- Terran Empire 80th Fleet, Romulan/Imperial Front, Galorndon Core -
Even as the first wave of Imperial Quantums raced out towards the clustered main body of Romulan vessels, the perimeter scouts volleyed their Breen energy dampening weapons at the Imperial vessels. Most targeted decoys, the ships they were mimicking melting away as their holoemitters and sensor signature generators died. Six targeted actual vessels. They contacted and penetrated shields as usual, but that was the extent of usual for this attack. The targeted ships didn't stall, as the Grand Alliance had grown accustomed to. They kept right on attacking, their powerful phaser arrays targeting the Romulan scouts and burning them down with practiced efficiency.
"All right!" The Warriors captain shouted, his voice going over the cheer from nearly every soul on the ship
The Imperial strike fleet rushed onward towards the now active and maneuvering Romulan fleet, launching volley after massive volley of quantums and getting only light, ineffecutal, uncoordinated return fire. Close to 100 Quantums slammed into each targeted Romulan, whittling away the shields of the D'deridexes and Shadows as the intervening distance dropped to energy range. The enemy had grown complacent, forgetting that some Imperial vessels possessed slipstream drive and grown to confident in their wonder weapon to protect them. 80th Fleet descended on the still forming up Romulans like a pack of wolves on a helpless heard of sheep. The maximum impulse attack run brought them to knife range with the Romulans with frightening rapidity. The enemy was still trying to get their units into combat formation when the Imperial fleet crashed into them.
Soulwolf wings and the Wraiths spat a carefully choreographed phaser lance volley into the enemy fleet as they closed, their powerful orange beams either gutting or mortally wounding their targets. The Warrior closed to visual range of the Romulan fleet. Her captain selected two targets, both D'deridex Warbirds. The Warrior streaked between the two Romulan vessels, executing a continuous barrel roll as she came through between them. Her powerful capacitors were rapidly drained as she laid into both Warbirds at once, scouring their shields away with near continuous phaser strikes and PPC bolts. With the shields gone, the orange red beams clawed at the hull and armor of the two D'deridexes. They replied with a few bursts of disruptor bolts, but it was a pitiful reply to the savage mauling they were being handed in return. The first Warbird vanished in a fiery explosion as her antimatter storage pods detonated. The other was cut nearly in half, her port double nacelle wing torn away and her power failing as the Warrior streaked past. A heavy photon spat from the rear tube, slamming into the derelict and finishing what the Warriors phasers started.
Nearby, Soulwolfs were sending everything they could at their targets. Steady streams of amber/red Phaser beams, yellow/orange bolts of Pulse Phaser Cannon and blue/white blobs of Quantum Torpedoes slammed into the Romulan's shields, causing them to shimmer green with the absorbed and redirected titanic energies released against them. But they could only hold out against the inevitable for a short time. The Soulwolf had been designed as a small, quick build Battlecruiser killer, and the small Shrikes and Griffins of the Romulan fleet died in rapid succession.
It wasn't all one sided for the Imperial Fleet however. Some squadrons of the Romulan Fleet did get them selves sorted out enough to get a small portion of payback. The D'deridexes and Shadows spat silver lances of energy from their single emitters in their beak like prows. The Mauler beams bludgeoned into their targets like battering rams. They were thankfully few and far between, and the Romulan's data net was still coming on line and not fully interlinked, causing more than a few of the survivors to target the same enemy and waste their beams on a dying target. One Wraith, the ISS Constitution NCC 1700-D, the latest vessel to bear the honored name and battle record of the original ISS Constitution, died as two maulers intersected with the area of space it was occupying from either side. The left one hit from slightly below centerline of the primary hull, vaporizing nearly half of the massive arrowhead including the bridge, leaving a ruptured and molten crater edge in its wake. By act of the Demon Murphy, the kinetic transfer of the first Mauler strike forced the Constitution around till it intersected with the second Mauler that had been spoofed by the Wraith's ECM into a shooting a near miss. The right had side of her secondary hull was spun into the beam, just aft of the twin port nacelle pylons. A good bite of the stricken Wraith's secondary hull was chewed away, causing the right hand side nacelles to spiral away from the dying capital ship as secondary explosions crawled across the exposed face of its twin wounds. A Shrike closed on the crippled Wraith as it shed lifepods, pouring disruptor bolts into the derelict. The remnants of the Wraith disintegrated even as the Shrike met a similar fate when five Soulwolfs fired alpha strikes into it.
Another Wraith, the ISS Hades, was struck a glancing blow by a Mauler beam on its upper port nacelle, tearing it away from the rest of the ship and throwing nearly every unsecured soul on board to the deck. The heavily damaged Wraith spat back defiance, even as it prepared to withdraw. Phaser beams and PPC bolts streamed out from her as she retreated to slipstream with one nacelle gone midway up the pylon, the broken, shattered stump trailing drive plasma like blood in its wake. Its departure was punctuated by a Soulwolf being split in half by an explosion, disruptor bolts stitching molten craters on both halves as they tumbled apart.
By now nearly all of the Romulan's D'deridexes and Shadows were either drifting hulks or expanding energetic plasma. A Gorn Heavy Cruiser, its rectangular, sharp cornered construction swinging on its target as it chased after it at full impulse, salvoed a massive volley of plasma torpedoes from its foreword tubes. The powerful warheads were the latest generation, close to one gigaton in destructive power each, putting them on par with a Pulse Phaser bolt but with the ability to home on an evading enemy. Twelve were launched and closed in on the Warrior, guided unerringly thanks to the Gorn's active ECCM. The Warrior's decoys did their best, but they only managed to lure three of the warheads away to mutual self-immolation. The other nine slammed home into the Wraith's already weakened rear shields.
Sparks flew across the Warrior's bridge as the massive warship rocked under the sudden assault, and the holodisplay above her captain flickered but remained active.
"Damage report!"
"Aft shields now down to 20%. Diverting emergency power to the regenerators. Aft ablative armor generators down to 40%. Regenerating to 100% in three minutes."
The Warrior's captain looked down at the running tally of the battle on his side panel. With the Hades' retreat, taking the Admiral with her, command devolved to the Warriors CO. Despite the probable occurrence of multiple drone kills, nearly all of the enemies Battleships were gone. 80th Fleet had done what they had set out to do.
"Order the Fleet, withdraw to Starbase 34, were done here for now." The ship rocked again as a fresh plasma torpedo salvo, this time a full 12- torpedo spread, slammed into the weakening rear shields. "Tactical, scratch that itch for me would you?" The Warriors captain said as his hands weaved in the air, selecting the attacking Gorn Heavy Cruiser as a primary target.
"Aye sir!" The Warrior's tactical officer growled eagerly from beyond the distortion of the holodisplay.
A shuttle-sized gap appeared in the rear generated ablative armor, and a Heavy Photon with a Matter/Antimatter warhead was spat into space. The gap in the armor closed after its passing. The massive torp flew towards the Gorn Heavy Cruiser. Realizing the danger his craft was in, the Gorn commander shifted his fire to the Heavy Photon. But the torpedo was heavily armored, and the range was so short that the Gorn's phasers and disruptors had only gotten half way through its armor before time ran out. If the Gorn had had a Plasma Torp to fire, it would have been saved. But it had just finished salvoing them at the Warrior and the tubes had only just begun reloading the next volley. If the Cruiser had been more maneuverable, it would have survived as well, for Heavy Photons weren't nimble by any stretch of the imagination. But the Cruisers design philosophy was one of ruggedness over nimbleness. The Heavy Photon detonated just in front of its shields, the white flare from its activation silhouetting the nearby enemy vessels. The Heavy Photon generated shield planes in a precise patter, lasting just long enough to direct the full fury of the blast at the helpless Gorn Cruiser. The front half of the ship was turned to atoms, but as a true testament to the class' thick skin, the aft outer shell, gutted on the inside though it may be, remained largely intact despite the warheads best efforts.
The remaining vessels of 80th fleet jumped to slipstream even as they shot the final bursts of anger from their weapons. The entire engagement had taken only 10 minutes, and it was the first decisive Imperial victory of the war. In exchange for one destroyed and one heavily damaged Wraiths, 29 destroyed and 10 damaged Soulwolfs, 11 destroyed and 5 damaged Prometheuses and 13 destroyed and 18 damaged Dauntlesses, the Imperials had destroyed (allowing for usual drone destruction ratios) 49 D'deridex class Warbird's, 23 Shadow's, 44 Griffins and 67 Shrike's. Most of the Battlecruiser kills were confirmed ones, for they had been done before the enemy had gotten organized and brought his ECM and Wild Weasel decoys fully online and deployed. One enemy Fleet was obliterated for acceptable losses, and what was more, the Terran Empire now had a perfect defense against the Grand Alliance's new wonder weapon.
- The Octagon, Terra, 10 hours later -
Jack sat with a glee filled smile on his face in the Ops command chair. What had looked like would be the final battle of the Terran Empire only a few hours ago had turned into something else. Upon hearing the news that the shield modifications worked, some Admirals had taken their fleets on the offensive. Though they had met with success, they had eventually ran into opposition to heavy for their small strike fleets to cope with and been forced to retreat back to friendly space. Both sides had reacted quickly to the new developments, but as the known fleet dispositions now stood, neither side possessed a decisive enough advantage to press on in their attacks. The odd strike fleets from both sides still sniped at each other, but the enemy had brought up a surprising amount of prefabricated defensive installations to add to those that they had liberated from their former master's service. The Grand Alliance had succeeded in both reestablishing their respective empires as well as expanding them beyond what they once were. While that wasn't as good as crushing the Terran Empire, they would settle for it for the time being. The reborn empires were settling in behind massive fortifications, and all recon in force sent to survey Qo'noS, Romulus, Cardassia Prime and the rest had been driven back with heavy losses in the outer system. Section 31 units would have to be dispatched for an accurate picture of what was happening there to be drawn, for only their phase cloak would allow them to penetrate the thick defenses springing up around the reborn empires homeworlds.
But that wasn't cause for Jack's smile. Once the true scope of what had been lost to the Barbarian Alien Horde had sunken into the public's consciousness, they had been terrified. No one in all of the Empire's long history, not even the Borg, had done as good. Sure the Imperial/Borg war had generated considerably more casualties, but by and large, that war had been fought in the distant Delta Quadrant, far away from Terran colonies and core worlds. This war had seen a staggering loss in core and colony worlds to mere slaves, and it had shocked the Imperial populace to its very core. The time was now ripe for execution of the final phase of Jack's original plan, far more so than he had ever dared hope for.
Jack schooled a look of sadness onto his features, it wouldn't do to have the public see him smiling at a time like this. Once it was satisfactorily in place, he activated the com systems pickup, sending his face out to every public pickup in the colonized Empire.
"Fellow citizens of the Empire." He began gravely. "As recent events have unfortunately proven, the hidden enemy fleet that I repeatedly warned the Terran Council about has finally stepped out from the shadows and pushed us out from territory that has been ours for generations. The former Council didn't have the stomach to do what needed to be done. All of this tragedy could have been prevented if my words had been heeded while there was still time to solve the problem easily. But my words went unheeded, and now the problem has grown beyond something that can easily be fixed. High-ranking officers in the Empire's service have been corrupted and brought under the influence by the Empire's enemies. Vanquished foes have risen from the ash heap of history to again threaten the Terran Empire with total destruction. The very heart of the Empire, Terra herself, has been struck by these enemies, resulting in the deaths of billions including nearly all of the Terran Council. These are truly dark times for the Empire, I will not lie to you, I have never lied to you." The statement came easy thanks to the long years of practice honing the skill in Section 31.
"Even when the other Council Members call me a fool and a rabble rouser, ostracizing me, making me the laughing stock of the Council, I still told the truth they didn't want to hear. You all know this. I am telling you the truth now. It was the divisiveness of the Council that allowed our enemies to grow strong, to strike at us and succeed." Jack growled, letting false anger sparkle in his eyes. He went on, rising both in volume and passion with every sentence. "Strong leadership is required to right that mistake! Strong, undivided leadership is required to ensure that it never happens again! Strong, undivided, unwavering leadership is required to put the Barbarians in their place and reaffirm the Terran Empire's predominance in the galaxy!
"I approach you now, as a lone servant of the Empire who has always done his best to protect and advance her. It is my belief that what the Terran Empire needs now is an Emperor, and I ask you now, as free citizens of the Empire, to affirm me as such." One could have heard a pin drop on the hundreds of thousands of worlds of the Terran Empire. The citizenry had expected something important to be discussed when the sole surviving Council Member of the Terran Council had scheduled a trans-Empire communiqué. But the had no idea that this is what Jack Chamber's had had in mind for the calls topic. As Jack finished his plea, small forms came up on every personal PADD and Com terminal in the Empire. They were similar to the voting forms for civic officials, but the choice now was of far greater consequence than a mere Mayor or Judge.
For what seemed like an eternity, nothing happened. Then, on every planet in the Empire, a roaring cheer went up, and numbers began to flood in from all far-flung outposts and planets. In mere seconds, it was clear that the civilians in the empire solidly backed his request, just like Jack had known they would. They were sheep lost in the night, looking for a shepherd to help them and watch over them. He was now that shepherd, Emperor of the Terran Empire, still the single most powerful polity in the known Galaxy (Aside from the isolationist Voth, but they didn't really count on the Galactic stage). And he had gotten there without conquering the Terran Empire and forcing the citizenry to accept his rule, the Empire's citizens had handed him the Emperorship on a silver platter. Aside from some relatively minor (in the long run) unforeseen side effects, his plan had unfolded exactly as he had envisioned. Now there was no way the Terran Empire would fall, for he had altered the prophecy, changed the course of the Empire, barring the events it foretold form occurring. There was only one source of power in the Terran Empire now, all internal divisiveness was a thing of the past. The Prophecy would not, neigh, now COULD NOT come to pass.
"On behalf of the Empire, I thank you for exercising your wisdom and making the right choice for the future of the Terran Empire." Then Jack closed the terminal. The long, hard laugh that followed its termination was dripping with Machiavellian contentment. **************************************************************************** **
- TO BE CONTINUED IN TERRAN EMPIRE: UNITY -