Chapter 7: Unexpected Visits
Jakk Jayce, director of the Chimaera Interplanetary Intelligence Corp, stood hands clasped on the small of his back, staring through the window pane and into the quarantined patient's room in the Nebula Military Hospital. Outside the room, standing in the long, depressingly clean and fluorescently lit corridor, two fully equipped and uniformed Chimaera members, guns at ready, stonily stared at the wall opposite to them. A Saragan agent in the dark blue robes of his tribe walked towards Jayce, nodding to one of the Ghosts. The man returned the nod.
"Can't see why she's worth tying down two intel operatives for sir," George Weisengarder asked. "She's UED Ghosts Ops, but it doesn't look like she's going to be anywhere fast."
The prisoner who escapes is one who has unwary guards, Zami thought. Weiss smiled and moved on, saluting to Commander McAllen as he strode down the corridor.
"How is she, JJ?" he asked, a grandfatherly smile on his face.
"Doing fine enough for a person whose survived a crash landing with two corpses right besides her, sir. I gather you have something to tell me?"
"Chimaera will be shut down by the UMI if it doesn't proves something. Fingers are starting to point to some shady Umojan/Korhalian undercover work for the responsibility of the suicide bombing. The Minister has no choice but to order it inoperative if our little clique can't prove ourselves."
The younger Ghost agent sighed. "I figured as much. Thing is, we're trying to keep a helluva lot of tabs on Kliven Strom's groupies. He's got a hundred Ghosts running between this goddamn sector, and the political unrest he's causing requires more agents than I've got to deal with."
No more of my Saragans can be spared, my friend. We have our own intelligence scurrying to uncover anymore of the Zerg's doings, Zami telepathically communicated to the human agents.
Jayce nodded grimly. "I thought that would be so. It's okay, Praetor Zami. Aragas and the others are doing fine working with Chimaera now. For the time being."
"Don't take it so harshly, Jayce. Your team still has another chance to prove themselves."
"Just as long as we don't have to get in the way of another brainwashed suicide bomber."
"No. You're going over to Char to cover Kerrigan if Strom tries to kidnap her."
"Are you fucking joking? Excuse me, Commander."
McAllen held the young commander's gaze for a moment, and then smiled. "Last I heard from you, Chimaera is running out of options and time. Minister Hamline has reluctantly agreed that this interplanetary intelligence agency can try to its worth one last time before he cuts it off."
"Why would Strom do it now?"
"See the chaos he's created, JJ? He can keep up with it, but why continue? His dream is to quickly destroy all of the things he deems unworthy of existence, and the quickest way is through Pandora. He will try to capture Kerrigan, if he can manage it. Chimaera has to counter this and try to capture Kerrigan at the same time."
"That's...impossible. No one's ever do it, how do you expect a bunch of Ghosts to do what a whole UED armada couldn't?"
"No one's ever grouped that many Ghosts together though, JJ. Not even the UED, which wasted its operatives in one-man missions to sabotage the Dominion. The Dominion used their Ghost Corp for the same reason. No one's ever thought about using Ghosts, grouped together, to do this."
Jayce nodded, however faintly. "If you say so sir. How many operatives can do I get?"
"We're pulling back all Chimaera operatives from any operation and replacing them with normal Umojan Military Intelligence Agents. You'll be outnumbered by Strom's one hundred or so Ghosts, you'll be able to handle it."
"And getting in..." Jayce trailed off. If there was one unfortunate thing about the location of the Zerg base of operations in Char, it was the thin atmosphere surrounding it, making it susceptible to a daily showering of meteorites. Getting in a handful of men would be no problem.
"Same way you and Aragas got into Chau Sara. By meteorite."
"Anything else, sir?"
"One. Just a briefing and the information has nothing to do with your operation, but we've gotten word of another UED fleet that's going to be in the Sector."
"Odd, that was fast. They must've followed the first fleet."
"Maybe. It's a relatively small force than what they sent last time, though a few of the ships are equipped with long range nuclear missiles. The military has sent the nearest force, an expeditionary fleet under Sarius to the outskirts of the Sector where they are entering to counter them."
"Bella Sarius? The one who raped the UED fleet trying to invade Umoja?"
"To put it in a obscene way, yes."
Koprulu Edge Space
Aboard the Pathfinder
Fleet Admiral Bella Sarius watched the two starfighters escorting her battlecruiser zip past bridge of the Victory-class vessel, circling around the slim, flat arrow-headed ship and return to their positions after scanning the vessel's perimeter. Trailing behind the flagship were two antiquated Juno-class escort carriers, with a litter of frigates and corvette size ships surrounding them. Sarius had never understood the concept of naming something an escort carrier that had escorts of their own.
"Contact?"
"Nothing ma'am," the detection officer replied, with a faint trace of weariness in his curt answer. Of course, he had a right to be tired, the way Sarius was driving them. She was a bit fatigued herself, as the fleet arrived from a straight thirty-two hour drive to reach the BRAVO rendezvous point. "Communications, get the rest of our vessels in standard positions; I want all pilots and off-duty personnel well rested. Launch a flight to scout this area."
Another complement of crew, fresh from rest, took over for the weary officers on the deck. Explorations fleets were like that, Sarius thought. Odd. Never thought I'd have a deck with two shifts of officers. Never thought I would have to defend Umojan with a bare essentials of an aging fleet.
She stared at the spacial miles that surrounded them, the vast and infinite amount of space. There was a line on the holomaps that showed where the Koprulu ended, and where the vastness of space took over. But there was no line in reality, no wall, no boundary. Space was endless.
But where she was now was the place the UED would try to enter, and staring in front of her, there was an invisible line. A line that the UED could not cross.
Just one more to go, Bell. Hang in there.
Her Umojan Expeditionary Fleet had just finished mapping the unknown region bordering the Sector when an urgent message ordered her ships to move towards point BRAVO to counteract the threat of another UED invasion, this time armed with nukes. She was to be reinforced with the First Defense Task Force, under Admiral Pio Luska, who would be arriving shortly.
Hopefully, they would arrive soon. Her replacement crew was only half-trained, newly commissioned officers fresh out of the Umojan Naval Center. Her only worthy capital ship was her own, and the Pathfinder's shields would not last long under a constant bombardment of ATD and ATM batteries of the Behemoth II's. The Juno escorts had been reactivated from the decommissioned shipyards, relics of the Guild Wars. They carried a motley crew and only half their complement of seventy-two Wraith Superiority Fighters. Even worse, many of the fighters were not upgraded, lacking cloaking fields. Taking on even one Behemoth II battlecruiser, let alone half a dozen, would be suicidal with this expeditionary fleet.
That was what they were. A peaceful, albeit well-armed, exploratory fleet.
Sarius was on her last mission for the Umojan Naval Defense Forces, after an illustrious career, being the first generation of women cadets at the UNC. It was controversial, sending women to fight in a male dominated profession, and Umoja, considered by many the most democratic of the Koprulu factions, debated long and hard about whether to allow women into the armed forces. Umoja's legendary neutral status had made it the "America of the Koprulu Sector," a comparison to an modern Earth nation that had disappeared. The Umojan Military tried hard to live up to this title, participating in both inter-sector PKOs—peacekeeping operations—as well as defending Umojan's neutrality with the best military hardware.
But that neutrality could not be kept by a population of dwindling young males and a volunteer based recruitment program.
The Symposium of Umoja, where lawmakers met, debated fiercely, with the left wing shouting their traditional opinions on equal rights for both sexes, and the right wingers confusingly opposing women in the military.
This had changed in the Guild Wars, when the mobilizations of Moria and the Confederacy made Umoja realize they needed all the men- and women- they could get.
Sarius was one of these women, a perky, stout girl whose blonde hair could not be stereotyped with the 'dumb blonde.' She was anything but what her hair suggested, with a cunning mind and a calm, relaxing manner. Her first command, a Pacifier-class corvette, showed her placid manner, even though her ship was exploding under the bombardment of five pirate vessels during a patrol run into unknown territory. She had outmaneuvered the enemy, instantly grasping their weakness and smashing through their formation with her guns periodically blasting at their ships.
That had been almost twenty years ago.
She was called 'Bell' by her colleagues, though most described her, albeit raunchily, as the 'Horatio Nelson with a vagina.' She had found it as a sign of respect and acceptance in a male dominated Fleet.
Like Commander Cameron, she was one of the primary defenders of Umoja when 'Operation Thunderstrike' commenced by UED Task Force Five, under Fleet Admiral Takai Ming-ju, began. The UED Expeditionary Fleet had launched this task force to capture all of Umojan within a few weeks of initial attacks. Most planetary captures of a single planet could take months or a few years. But 'Thunderstrike' failed because of Bell Sarius. On the flagship of the Defense Force, the Protector of Peace, with the Fleet Admiral wounded, Sarius took charge and took the brunt of a hundred ship UED attack. With her wily tactics, she crippled the fleet and delayed, for several months, both the landing attacks launched by the UED. It had also delayed the attack on Dominion, much to many Umojans' dismay.
But her name was etched forever with the symbol of victory for the citizens of Umoja, as with other military leaders: Nelson, Washington, Grant, Napoleon, MacArthur. A woman had joined their ranks.
And she was expected to live up to her legend here.
The detection officer of station number five looked up from his position. "Approaching ships, Admiral."
"Vector?"
"Alpha-Delta Zero-Nine."
Sarius turned around. "From our rear?"
"Yes, admiral. ID lists them as...UED Remnant."
"Weapons?"
"Cold, Admiral. I don't think their looking for a squabble."
Communications at station one poked her head from a monitor. "Rear Admiral Lewis Jonson of the Canberra is requesting permission to speak with you, ma'am."
"Alright. Standby, weapons, shields, pilots. We'll call you if we need you. Comms, bring the Admiral on screen."
A image flickered and settled on the massive screen to the side of the bridge, and the young face of Rear Admiral Jonson politely saluted to his counterpart. The UED had lost many of its senior officers during the slaughter by Kerrigan's Zerg, and the UED Occupying Forces found had to find quick, but younger replacements, for the battered remnants of their fleet.
"Admiral Sarius. My regards, admiral. I was on the Jakarta during Thunderstrike."
Sarius smiled. She had many enemies, but her respect was often shown by enemies and friends.
"Thank you, Admiral Jonson. I believe you are not planning to attack us?"
Jonson hesitated, his blue eyes shifting a little. Technically, UED Remnant and Umoja were still at war, since there was little time or safe place for all leaders of the governments of Koprulu to meet and arrange a permanent cease-fire. But they had little reason to fight, and both shared a common enemy.
"Yes, Admiral. No doubt you've noticed our weapons are off and shields down."
He still had not stated why he was here. I guess he wants me to ask him.
"Your purpose?"
The young admiral hesitated. "Matters of a certain delicate nature. I presume you are waiting for the arrival of the second UED force?"
"Yes. We will deter them, with force if necessary. They have not stated their intention for arriving here, again. That is why I am a little edgy about have you on the rear."
"Our intentions towards your fleet is harmless, admiral. We wish to rendezvous with this UED force as well."
"Why?"
Jonson's face became stone, his lips hardly moving as he spoke.
"I am instructed by my superior to only say that they too, have not stated their intention for arriving here to us."
He put a peculiar emphasis on his last words, and Sarius frowned. "Let me meet with my captains to discuss this."
Jonson nodded. "Of course, admiral." His image flickered off.
"Communications, contact Captain Yuris of the Guardian and Captain Alvarez of the Protector." She referred to the two escort carriers captains guarding her ship.
"Yes, admiral."
Sarius turned her attention to the screen showing the UED forces. Monolithic Behemoth battlecruisers, in a standard and precise formation of the UED style. And yet, those ships showed signs of wear and repair; many were probably fresh from repair jobs from the UED defeat near Char. What purpose were they here for?
"Done, admiral."
A stout man with a mustache and beard appeared first on the screen, and then another image of a grim man with dark eyes. "Morning, Admiral Sarius!" The stout man said with more jolliness than he could have felt.
"Good day, Captain Yuris, Captain Alvarez. We have a situation here."
"My fighters, all of them, are currently deployed in the asteroid belt near here, scouting for any other enemy," Alvarez replied.
"As are mine, admiral. Shall we alert them for attack?"
"No. You heard Jonson, he's not here to attack, he wants to wait to see what the new Earthlings do. It seems like Earth hasn't bothered to contact their remaining forces here."
"Which is undoubtedly strange. Perhaps a ploy, for our forces to be confused." Yuris persisted. "I can have my fighters out of the belt and have those ships on fire in ten minutes, Admiral."
"No, Yuris. They have the sufficient firepower to destroy all of our ships easily." She motioned to the screen of waiting UED Remnant ships. Six Behemoth battlecruisers, three Reliant class carriers, and fourteen Ankara class frigates. A substantial fleet. But why so many ships, and why was there a communications fault between their forces?
What is this second UED fleet up to? Could Jonson be lying? Her gut-feeling told her that he was not. The UED, though bastards, were professional and reliable. They would not use treachery in the Sector because they felt that they needed to demonstrate a superiority over the factions of Koprulu.
"This Remnant fleet is not here to trick us," she said quietly to her two captains. "They're here to observe something strange, as we are. Let the Wraiths remain in the belt. We'll send the R-56 out to refuel them. Until our third party arrives," she nodded to them, "good luck, and Godspeed."
They saluted and flickered out, while the image of Jonson came back on.
"Well, Admiral?"
"It looks like we'll both be waiting for something, Admiral."
"Very well, Admiral Sarius. My fleet will be moving twenty spacial miles from your ships." He smiled, briefly. "It may be that we will have much in common before this...incident is over."