Chapter 5 – Aftermath
BBC News – Earth
"It has been three weeks since the attacks, and cleanup is still underway in various areas around the World. Since the United Nations has been dissolved, the Planetary Defence Organisation made legitimate, and the International Affairs Organisation been created in the United Nation's place, the number one priority has been relief efforts, as well as planetary defence. Later this week, every major nation on Earth which recognises the Planetary Defence Organisation will be equipped with the latest "Star Wars Defence Missile" Platforms which the United States, Russia, China and Germany have developed. More Osprey class shuttles, as well as Falcon, Tiger, and Albatross fighters have been produced following the release of specifications of the craft to all major nations of Earth, and to major aeronautical manufacturers Lockheed and Boeing. Currently, all developed craft will be put to the Planetary Defence Organisation's use for relief efforts as well as planetary defence."
"The International Affairs Organisation today successfully completed negotiations with Korean officials which had withdrawn all international trade following the disclosure of 'The Great Ship', and all technologies which had been produced, claiming that such technologies should have been equally shared among all peoples, and that Western Powers were trying to monopolise other nations of Earth. Following this comment, the Planetary Defence Organisation released plans for Poseidon and Triton class ships to all government agencies, using the threat that any military action against another nation using the new technologies would be met with harsh penalties."
"Two Poseidon class ships left orbit today, as the Triton was completed today in the outer solar system. It will come into Earth orbit and serve as the primary defence. At more than sixteen times a Poseidon class ship, the Triton will serve as a docking port for all orbital traffic, and will launch all replacement satellites which were destroyed in the attacks. Sensor platforms have already been placed in strategic places around the solar system, giving a much greater coverage than what was previously in place, and should adequately provide enough warning in-case of future attacks."
"NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency) and AIMS (Australian Institute of Marine Science) today announced that they have successfully developed a hybrid Osprey class shuttle capable of underwater travel, which they are calling the Manta. The plans were released to the two agencies by the Planetary Defence Organisation two weeks ago, with the idea that the organisations were to develop an underwater working model for the Planetary Defence Organisation. The PDO announced today that the Manta class shuttles are capable of hovering up to ten metres above the ground using VTOL engines as well as an atmospheric/liquid operable turbine engine located within the two rotational engines on each side of the craft. The hull has been reinforced, and the Manta is capable of free falling from orbit into an ocean and being fully operable. It is expected that a number of Manta class submersibles, once completed, will be loaded with supplies, and dropped from a Poseidon class ship in the upper atmosphere into the middle of the Pacific Ocean, to start construction of a permanent underwater liveable habitat which is hoped to house some of the four-hundred million refugees which have been displaced out of their homes since the attacks."
"Recruitment levels are at astounding levels for the Planetary Defence Organisation
"Contracts have been given to major mining companies Rio Tinto, Newmont, and Broken Hill Productions, to being mining Jupiter's Moons, as well as the asteroid belt. Plans for Baleen class cargo ships, as well as Osprey class shuttles have been given to all three companies, and preliminary exploratory missions are set to begin within the month… This is D'Anna Biers, reporting for BBC News."
Research Vessel Copenhagen – Unknown Location.
Dr. Wotresser looked up at the hulking metal frame of the enemy robot in front of him. He had been locked in the makeshift brig of the Copenhagen for three weeks. He was the only survivor of the Copenhagen's crew, except for those who were enemy agents. They had killed all the rest. The only thing that he had said to spare him was that God should have mercy on their souls when they die, and for some reason, that got their interest. Ever since then, they had been torturing him for all kinds of information, not just about Earth's military assets or capabilities, but religion, the political setting, technology, economics, anything that they could think about. For what must have been days, he had been kept in the dark, with no stimuli whatsoever. After that, the entire time that he had spent in the cell, he had been convinced that he was crazy, although he could remember a quote he had heard stating that 'if you know you're crazy, you're not crazy' and Dr. Wotresser was fairly sure that he was crazy. They had taken him out of the darkness a couple of days ago and then withheld food from him. He doubted that it could get any worse than what it was.
Earth – London – England
Commander Heidi Galtua didn't know what was going through the minds of her commanding officers. It was her decision that had killed over four hundred crew members on her ship, and injured more, but here they were giving her a medal, and the command of the new state of the art, Poseidon Class ship which had just finished construction in the Canadian construction yards, the Solaris. She was being transported to the ship immediately after the ceremony so that she could begin onboard her new command post. She knew that she didn't deserve it, and she had voiced her concerns to her commanding officers. For that, she was being appointed to a psychiatrist for basic therapy and to talk out how she felt about the situation. It was only her and a handful of personnel which walked off of the Arawan alive, and the young woman that she had found in the dark on the bridge wasn't one of them. According to the paramedics, the woman she had found had died from internal bleeding shortly before Commander Galtua had been found in the bridge.
Apparently, the Solaris was built with completely state of the art technology, meaning increased sensors, more powerful shields, more weapons, better hyperdrive systems, everything. She had been given a brief rundown of the ship via an email from the commander of the Canadian manufacturing facility. The one thing that she had taken particular note of was the fact that the hull was stronger than all other ships, more reinforced, so hopefully the disaster which occurred on the Arawan would not happen again. When she took command of the Solaris, she would make sure that it wouldn't happen again, and that the people responsible for the death of her crew and the loss of her ship would pay dearly.
Headquarters of the Planetary Defence Organisation – Office of Board Member Dr. Bruce Miller
Bruce Miller was sitting in his office going over the latest reports that had been handed to him. He was the grandson of Dr. David Miller, one of the original scientists on the Antarctic Peninsula who had discovered "The Great Ship". This latest report was very encouraging. A week and a half ago, they had discovered what had allowed the enemy to shut down their fighters; malicious code within the weapons and navigational programs that was standard for all the fighters, cargo ships, and shuttles. According to their experts, it had been impossible to remove the code from the programs, as it was far in advanced than anything that they'd ever encountered before, so new programs were developed in the strictest of confidence and secretly uploaded into each and every ship under the Planetary Defence Organisation's control. The International Affairs Organisation, which was launched by the PDO, to act as a replacement for the United Nations, as well as a major, international intelligence service was currently trying to root out the person or group responsible for implementing the code in the programs in the first place. The fact that two ICBM's were launched from American missile silo's towards China and the Middle East, but then were later shot down by America's own "Star Wars" missile defence program was additional proof that there were traitors in their midst, who could even be agents of this new enemy that they had encountered. A fully comprehensive background check was being done on all personnel, but they had yet to find anything.
Bruce Miller was one of three board members in charge of the scientific section of the PDO, and they were coming along nicely with some new developments. Preliminary research had been conducted onboard the Copenhagen and New Jersey into artillery sized rail guns, but the results were never collected following the destruction of both ships. No matter how hard he had tried to convince the other board members that at least one new research vessel was needed, over the production of more Poseidon and Triton class ships, they wouldn't listen. The majority of the board had been swung towards vengeance for the attacks against Earth no more than three weeks ago, as Dr. MacGuwyre, sister of Dr. Wotresser who had designed the ships, had rallied most of the board members into vengeance over the loss of her brother. Quite frankly, Dr. Miller was almost ready to join them, after all, Dr. Wotresser had been a very close and good friend of his, and if he could see vengeance payed, he would, however with their current arsenal, they would get slaughtered if they launched any kind of force against the enemy. Even if they knew where to start looking.
Falcon flight wing – CAP Duties around Earth
Flying Officer Henry O'Connell, Red One, and Officer Cadet, Red Two, were the only two surviving pilots from the attack on Earth three weeks ago from Red Wing. At the time, Henry had been Red Two, but since the death of Wing Commander Anders, he had been promoted to the rank of Flying Officer and therefore the leader of red wing. It was up to him, who hadn't even completed all the training modules for a Falcon to teach the new Falcon pilots how to fly the machines. Therefore, while they were flying large orbits around Earth, he was making the rest of the wing do manoeuvres, formations, and battle tactics. They had an Osprey class shuttle with them all the time, for additional sensor range and sensitivity. It was because of the Osprey shuttle flying in the wing with them that they were able to detect a series of Hyperjumps which occurred very close to the earth.
"Red One, this is Osprey 079, be advised, we've detected unknown radar anomalies approximately one thousand kilometres behind you, over," Flying Officer O'Connell heard over the radio.
"Rodger that, we're on it. Call in all additional fighters in the area for support, over," O'Connell replied to the Osprey. "Red Wing, turn one eighty and engage full throttle to intercept, over," O'Connell said into the radio. He pushed forward on the joystick and pulled back on the throttle, turning the ship downwards in a very tight one-hundred and eighty degree turn. When he was nearing the intercept vector, he pushed the throttle up to maximum and felt the fighter go shooting forwards. He looked down onto his radar screen and could see that the unknown object were at a distance of at least five-hundred kilometres.
"Red leader, this is Osprey 079, be advised, a squadron of Tigers are in the area. Enemy fighters are approaching Earth, the Tigers have engaged, over," the communications officer of Osprey 079 said over the radio to O'Connell. He looked ahead and saw a brief flash, and hoped that it was one of the enemy fighters.
Five minutes later, Flying Officer O'Connell could see the battle. He looked down to the radar screen and saw that three fighters had left the main battle and were heading towards the atmosphere, and he could see that it was above the United States. Although Flying Officer Henry O'Connell was from Australia, he knew that the United States couldn't suffer any more damage as they were the main manufacturing body of the PDO, and they needed all the numbers that they could get at the moment.
"Red Two through Five, form up on me. Red Six through ten, join the Tiger wing in battle and join us afterwards, over," O'Connell said into the radio. The nose of his Falcon fighter dipped downwards and he moved off at maximum speed towards the atmosphere. When he was within a shorter distance, and could just barely see the outlines of the fighters, he could see that they were a different type than the scimitar shaped fighters which had been involved in the initial attack. He couldn't make out any details, but these fighters were boxy shaped things, and reminded Henry bombers, as well as the Osprey class shuttles.
"Red Leader, be advised, F-22s are in the air and flying towards an intercept course. SAM missiles have been launched, over," a voice said over the radio. Henry took that into advisement, and kept approaching the enemy fighters. He and the rest of his wing were now directly behind the enemy fighters, and to his surprise, were closing the distance. It was then that the enemy fighters in front of him scrambled off into all directions, and Henry instantly saw why, once they were out of the way. Ten missiles were heading for the four fighters, and Henry immediately pulled up on his joystick, pulling the fighter up and out of the path of the missiles.
"Incoming friendly fire," Henry said into the radio, knowing that he was already too late and hoping that his pilots had seen the missiles. "Status," he said into the radio, and thankfully, all of his fighters in the group replied that they were fine. The enemy fighters had now split up and were heading in different directions. "Red wing, split up to follow them. Red five, go with Red Four, over," O'Connell said into the radio.
They had passed the upper atmosphere long ago, and his fighter was now shaking with vibrations at the air around him got thicker. Luckily, the fighter was capable of a very fast re-entry into the atmosphere, or that's what he remembered hearing at one of his training lectures. He hoped that it was true, and that his fighter lived up to the expectations. He let off a couple of shots towards the enemy fighter, and it didn't even try to manoeuvre as the shots went wide from the vibrations of the craft.
Flying Officer O'Connell could now see the frame of his cockpit module glowing red hot and he doubted that the fighter could take much more. He could now see the upper cloud layer and they were approaching it fast. Instantly, Henry had to roll his fighter out of the way as the enemy fighter suddenly pulled it's nose up, so it was facing perpendicular to the course that it was flying on, greatly reducing it's speed. Henry's fighter went shooting past it, and he couldn't believe how a craft could have that much manoeuvrability within an atmospheric environment. Pulled up on his joystick to raise the nose of the craft, but he could barely move it from the sheer velocity of the craft. By the time he got his fighter to a horizontal flying position, the enemy craft would have been long gone. He pulled the throttle right down so that the engines were on minimal power, and engaged the air brakes. He hit the switch which put the fighter back into Zero-Gravity manoeuvring, using bursts of compressed gas to manoeuvre the craft. He pulled back on the joystick as hard as he could, and the Falcon's nose pulled up marginally, but at least now, he wasn't travelling downward and he could reduce his air speed until he was more maneuoverable.
He looked down to his Radar screen to see four additional contacts approaching, and he was thankful to see an IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) signal coming from them. He saw them each launch missiles at the enemy craft, but the craft easily dodged the missiles, some of which just went dead and continued on a straight course before exploding.
More objects appeared on the radar, which were identified as more missiles incoming.
"F-22's be advised, enemy fighter has the capability to jam the missiles. Use heat-seekers only," O'Connell said into the radio, having guessed the reason why the missiles stopped tracking the enemy ship.
By now, he had pulled his fighter around, and was heading straight towards the enemy fighter on a collision course. Rail-gun rounds streamed out from Henry's Falcon fighter, but the enemy fighter easily dodged them. It began flying in a helix spiral pattern horizontally directly towards Henry's fighter, and then at the last minute, it dived down from an upwards arm of the helix spiral it was flying and headed straight down. Henry could see the friendly F/A-18 Hornets in the distance, and he rolled his fighter downward so he was following the enemy fighter. He just now realised that they were over a city, and from the looks of it, it must have been Chicago, as no other American city had been bombed as bad as this one had.
He let off another volley of rail-gun rounds and was surprised when this time, they struck their mark, damaging the enemy ship ahead of him. Instantly, smoke started emerging from the rear of the enemy ship, and it began to spiral out of control. Henry knew that they wouldn't survive the impact, but he kept on firing anyway. The only other strike that he got was on the rear corner of the ship, jarring it's vector upwards so it wasn't going to crash head on into the ground. He pulled his fighter up and watched as the enemy ship crashed into what was a built up area of the city. Later, it would be revealed that the enemy ship crashed into the former "Federal Reserve Bank" building.
Osprey 062 – Approaching Chicago
They were all staring out of the front cockpit of the Osprey as they approached the outskirts of the city of Chicago. Cars were abandoned on the highways, rubbish littered the surrounding areas, and the farms looked like they hadn't been tended to in days. They had to land on an airfield called Winkler Airport, on the other side of Chicago, and had to make a slow overpass of the city to look for survivors. It was doubtful that any would be present now, as radiation sickness would have set into those who did survive the blast wave created by the enemy's nuke.
"Contact," Lieutenant Sharon Valerii said out loud. "No IFF signal present," she added. "Another contact. IFF Signal. Falcon 099. It looks to be in pursuit of the other craft, bearing eighty degrees north, by fifteen degrees incline." In a few moments, Lieutenant Valerii had focused the various telescopic cameras onto the enemy ship, and had them automatically tracking it. Samuel Johnson could see that it was indeed an enemy fighter from the attacks three weeks ago.
"Weapons?" he queried.
"Rail-gun turrent is active," Valerii reported.
"Sir, if we fly lower, the enemy ship shouldn't be able to detect us," Captain Organ said to him.
"Brace yourselves," he said to the crew of the Osprey. Momentarily, Flight Lieutenant Samuel Johnson was twisting various levers, punching buttons and moving joysticks. Instantly, the rotational engines the Osprey moved from being locked in place in a horizontal position, to having the main exhaust pointing fifteen degrees above the horizon. The VTOL jets on the side of the craft had swivelled downwards. The craft jerked downwards and continuted to accelerate towards the ground. When they were a hundred metres off of the ground, Flight Lieutenant Johnson hit various switches and moved a number of levers again, and the VTOL engines activated, shooting jets of air towards the ground, and the rotational engines now moved so that they were pointing fifteen degrees below the horizon. The Osprey almost jerked so that it's downwards velocity was zero. The rotational engines moved back to a horizontal position where they were locked in place, and the VTOL engines shut down. The Osprey had successfully dropped two kilometres of altitude in less than half a minute. They looked up just in time to see the enemy craft, trailing smoke, crash into one side of the remains of the "Federal Reserve Bank", and emerge out the other side.
They diverted from their flight route and hovered above the crash site of the enemy craft. Using the telescopic cameras, they surveyed the area for any movement of any kind. Then, they switched to infra-red vision for heat signatures, and they could see a couple which may have been residual heat from the ship's engines and power plant. Deciding that there were no survivors, they moved on and continued on their original flight path, radioing in that the preliminary survey indicated no survivors. Little did they know, that the survivors of the crash had just shut down their systems until they had detected that the Osprey had vanished. They then waited half an hour, and then activated their systems and cut themselves free of the crashed Heavy Raider. Four mechanical, hominoid, type frames emerged from the wreckage, then followed by a more human looking figure with dark skin and went by the name of Simon.