2976.265
TCS Concordia, Reach Fleet Command Orbital Yards
Epsilon Eridani System
It had been almost twenty hours since the encrypted hyperburst message was sent to the Dauntless, advising the admiral that they were ready to being rendezvous operations. By now, they should have been receiving a message back to start tethering the fleet into slip space, if all went as expected. Last message that they had received was that the Dauntless had run into a Kromus megaship and been forced to abandon the Dakona System.
Which meant that Calliope-IX was already gone. Dane had told him about the Kromus plasma bombings seen during the war. The media never dared show any of the actual bombardments from ship data records, but how it had been described had been enough to paint the imagery for him and many others who had grown up in the war, and the images of what had been done to Beacon at the beginning of the conflict told the rest.
"Seventh fleet reports all final checks cleared, Commander. We're just awaiting word from the admiral."
A silent nod as Malkovich continued to look at the main screens. The trouble was that they had no idea how long hyperburst would take to get to the Dauntless, let along for a reply to come. Just because he knew now the name and system designation of where the Chozo homeworld was, didn't mean he knew where in the galaxy that actually was. A name meant nothing without astronavigation coordinates to know where you were going. And unfortunately for him, Adam didn't rank high enough for clearance to find out the coordinates for Zebes. For all he knew, the system could be anywhere in the galaxy, out beyond the rim, or even into the core regions.
And all that affected how soon it would be before they would hear back from Dane.
"Any peep from the Dauntless yet?"
"None yet, Commander."
It was the wait that was wearing on him now. Adam was a ground soldier, expecting the action of the moment, not the long wait for movement orders of a ship, less alone an entire fleet. Even when he had served as unit commander on the Vixiv with Captain Eison, his job had been commanding troops on the ground. Commanding a ship had proven far different.
Yet that difference in tactical thinking was what Dane said he wanted in command of the Concordia. A super-dreadnought masquerading as a carrier. A ship that could crack the crust of a planet with just one of its three super magnetic acceleration cannons alone. Adam found himself a bit perturbed with the sheer destructive power of the ship he had been given. The Federation Assembly would have had a fit if they had known Terra had been constructing this vessel, even during the war.
And that was just what he had been able to access on his clearance as ship's commander. There was plenty about it that was still restricted from him, and Adam entertained no illusions that asking Cora would circumvent that.
Speaking of the ship's AI. The sky blue avatar was suddenly projected before him, a sharp salute given as Cora made her entrance. "We just got a response from the Dauntless, commander. Admiral Dane wants the fleet to wait for his return, looks like things didn't go so well when they got to FS176 to meet with the Daedalus battle group. Expected arrival is by mid day Reach time today."
It had been over eighteen hours since they had sent their message out. For the Dauntless to take so long to return meant that they were coming from well beyond the reaches of the Orion Spur. Insane as it was to consider the distances as he had never really even been outside the confines of the Sol Sector, let alone the regions claimed by the Galactic Federation, Adam was starting to understand just how far the entire crisis really went. Like anyone else who had grown up in that era, he knew that the Kromus has come from the Large Magellanic Cloud, though the how of their oddly near-instantaneous transit from the satellite galaxy over fifty thousand parsecs away was to this day still not known. It had taken the united knowledge of the Confederation and the Sangheili to develop what was now called the Reclaimer-class slipdrive, and even then, it had taken almost two weeks for the unified fleets to cross the expanse between the Orion Spur and the Large Magellanic Cloud alone. For the Kromus to cross that distance, they either had insanely advanced slipdrives, or Chozo technology.
And as Malkovich knew, the answer was likely both. After what he had witnessed and was aware of, it was hard to imagine otherwise.
"Cora, I know it's likely a stupid question, but just what are the Concordia's full capabilities?"
The AI avatar raised a glowing brow at the commander as she clicked her tongue. "Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to disclose that, commander. I can tell you the offensive capabilities of my current weapons loadouts and rated speed ratios, but quite a bit is still classified, and my fastest travel speeds are still, as of yet, unknown."
The way that Cora referred to the Concordia in a first person point of view, as if she was the ship. It was peculiar as Aurora Units, permanently mounted in the ships they served as AI cores for, always referred to themselves and the ships they were mounted into as separate entities. Cora seemed to consider herself and Concordia one and the same.
"They never opened up the throttle before they sent this flying planet cracker out on patrol?"
"As Admiral Dane made you aware, sir," and she was clearly being careful as he may have been let in on the Confederation's secret projects, but the rest of the crew hadn't yet, "the experimental drives aboard this ship are of unknown capabilities. We've tested up to seven fifty lights an hour transit velocity, but we never have actually hit what seems to be my full FTL speeds. Full firing velocity of the central mag-accel cannon array hasn't been actually tested yet, but estimates put one round of a thousand tons mass at a firing velocity of nine point five percent speed of light."
The math was complex, but Malkovich narrowed his eyes as he tried to sort that in his head. "I'm not absolute on the numbers, but that puts damage potential in the upper double digit gigatons of impact force."
"Estimated at a hundred gigatons impact per thousand ton shell."
More than enough to crack the surface of a planet in one shot, let alone the shields of any ship less than the Sangheili CSO flagship, or that Kromus monstrosity. He had guessed right when he assumed the real purpose of this assault carrier; it was intended to take out things like the Cunning Death in brute force ship to ship conflict, and put the fear of whatever gods the Kromus and whoever else would think to mess with the ship might believe in, into them.
And as he had already concluded, it sent a message to those in the Federation who would think to hold a leash on humanity.
"Patience isn't exactly your strongest trait, commander."
"The admiral talk about me that much to you, Cora?" Malkovich would give the artificial intelligence a wary look as he tilted his head. "Being he never saw fit to tell me much about you and this ship."
The sky blue avatar frowned as she pulled the officer's cap from her head. "Commander, you have to understand. This ship was classified code black up until two years ago when HighCom decided that humanity needed to remind the galaxy what we can do, and what we do best."
"The fact that the current chairman of the Federation is outspokenly supportive of Sol's defensive independence likely contributed."
She again sighed in response, but Cora gave a confirming nod. "Kea'ton's sympathies, and those of the Mantu in general, toward humanity and our various plights did assist that decision, yes, commander." A pause as she glanced a moment at the main view screens. Holographic illusions that they were looking outside through a viewport, when in truth they were deep within the ship, behind over a hundred meters of decks and armor. "The obvious and sharp upswing in Kromus activity also was considered enough justification to send Concordia on our first tour of duty." Again, Cora hesitated, though with a wry smile. "Even if it was just simple peace keeping efforts at the borders of Sol Sector."
"And soon to fly far beyond Federation borders into the outer rim."
"Discretion allows me to inform you that you're aiming the wrong direction, commander." Cora noted the raised brow from the human man as she tucked her cap under her arm. "You have enough clearance to know which general direction we're going in, commander. Exact astronavigational coordinates are classified, but our expected destination is actually coreward."
He'd always assumed the Chozo had originated in the outer rim of the galaxy, out in the Unknown Regions that lay beyond the Perseus Transit. Yet when he considered it, and what he knew about Samus, it made sense that the ancient Bird People had come from the inner regions. It had taken Adam a moment to recall that K-2L, in the IR271 system, had been coreward from where the Spur split from the Sagittarius Arm, in the Archite Span that lay inside the Orion-Sagittarius Transit. And Samus had been rescued by the Chozo after the massacre fifteen years ago, meaning they had to have come from the coreward regions.
"System long range network is picking up activity from the Canarus jump point, commander."
That got his attention. The Canarus point was out at the further reaches of Epsilon Eridani and led to a system at the coreward edge of Federation space nearest the Sol Sector borders, with jump points leading in all directions into the unknown regions, many of which had not been fully charted yet. "Reach Fleetcom probably already has it on scanners, but keep an eye all the -"
"Incoming transmission. It's the Dauntless!"
That certainly grab Malkovich's attentions as he nodded to the communications station and looked toward the nearest monitor screen. Seconds later, the image of Dauntless' Captain Ran appeared, worn, haggard, and relieved to be alive. "Commander Malkovich, I've already sent our relay to Reach Fleetcom, but Admiral Dane wanted me to open a line to the Concordia directly. He can explain more."
The ship's captain stepped off screen, replaced by the tired and clearly harried visage of Castor Dane. With a sigh of relief, Adam dropped his head but a moment in release of much tension. "Guess I should say welcome home, admiral. I didn't realize the rendezvous destination was that close."
"It normally would take a day and a half from FS176 to Reach, commander." The admiral was clearly recovering from a very stressful journey, one that Malkovich was sure he'd hear about soon enough. "We managed to catch a pair of pulsar jumps that saved us about half the trip and lost the idiots dumb enough to follow us in, but I would not advise repeating that maneuver."
If Adam knew enough about Dane from the admiral's wartime record, that meant they had skirted very close to not making the jumps at all. Not as dangerous as attempting to make the jump via a singularity, but pulsars were plenty destructive and dangerous on their own. The magnetic fields of neutron stars were enough to play horrible games with most navigational AIs trying to calculate the jump points that could stretch hundreds to thousands of light years due to the intense compressed gravitational fields. Slamming into the jump points that formed around pulsars at full speed with a pursuit following was almost tantamount to suicide.
"I'm not going to sugarcoat this, Commander. It went bad. Very bad." The worn dullness in the admiral's eyes spoke much for how little he had slept and how high his stress was. "We were over a month late to head this off, Malkovich, and I sent a dozen ships and all their crews into a kill box because I panicked and didn't wait for intel." Another sigh as Dane shook his head wearily. The last twenty-four hours had very much not been kind to him. "I'm notifying General Morris as soon as we make berth and I can report to FleetCom. Those deaths are on my hands, so it remains to be seen how this operation will proceed."
"Admiral, how did we get any intelligence on what is going on at this precursor category site?" They both knew it didn't take Adam that much to put the pieces together of what they had been intending to fortify defensively. But being that Dane had not informed the fleet yet if what was going on, it wasn't his place to circumvent that and carelessly throw information like that around. "If the Kromus have been there for a month now-"
"She's on board the Dauntless, Adam." As if those words said everything needed, Dane hesitated to say more. He could see the wide eyed expression given by the younger man, and it didn't take much even over the communications link to see Malkovich's apprehension. "She told me what happened there, I'll tell you more once I've debriefed and updated General Morris. Dauntless out."
It was only after Dane had vanished and was replaced with the illusionary image of outside the ship that Adam realized he was holding his breath. He hadn't even thought to consider who Dane's informant was until now. It should have been obvious, though. And to that point, it meant that he was going to have to resolve some issues that she rightfully had from when they had last spoken.
"Slipspace rupture detected coming into Reach orbit. ID codes as the Dauntless coming in, commander."
A slow nod. A quick slipspace jump after coming in from the Canarus point was nothing unusual. The jump line itself lay close to fifteen Sol astronomical units from Reach itself, a trek that would take a ship like Concordia over three and a half months at fastest sublight speeds. Even the lowest grade basic jump drive's slipspace could make those distances in seconds, making the combination of transit methods invaluable to the galaxy. Without them both, intersystem travel could still take days for the smaller ships that crisscrossed the sector, let alone travel between Sol and the Al'kya system.
"I'll meet the admiral and his guests down at Fleetcom," Malkovich finally stated, turning his head toward his own executive officer. "Lieutenant Commander, you have the conn and command."
"Acknowledged, sir. Good luck."
A quick salute between them to formalize the change of command, and Adam made his way out of the command bridge as he strode for the main lift. A displayed message on his wristcom from Cora informed him that she had already arranged a shuttle to take him down to the planet. The longer he was around the unusual AI entity, the less apprehensive he was getting. But he still had questions.
Those in particular would have to wait. He had other questions now for when he met with Dane on the surface. Granted, he hadn't been given orders to do so, but he was still the commanding officer of the Concordia, and even if Dane was going to formally assume senior command, it hadn't happened yet. And Adam was still the nominal CO.
GFS Dauntless, Reach Orbit.
She was hungry already.
Hours had passed since they had made the jump from the last pulsar system, where a set of Kromus battle cruisers had gotten caught in the gravitational field of the raging pair of neutron stars and failed to make the jump point out. The fact that said neutron stars were far higher mass ratios than were considered normal had been the least of the risks they took, considering the system had not been charted until they had emerged from another previously unmapped jump line and nearly slammed through the gamma ray laser jets firing from the poles of one of the pulsars.
Samus hadn't been on the bridge to see it first hand, but Dane had told her once they had arrived in Epsilon Eridani, though it had been far more off handed and more trying to praise the talents of the ship's navigations crew than to alarm her with how dangerous the situation had been. Regardless, they had spent a good deal of time, once half a dozen Kromus ships had emerged from slipspace in pursuit, trying to evade a drawn out engagement. That the Kromus would have pursued them as far as they did and only gave up because their ships were sucked into the gravitational field of a pair of pulsars said quite a bit for how much they did not want what happened at Zebes to be found out.
They were trying to buy time still. Find a way into the ancient Cryptum under Chozodia City, maybe even storm the Halls of I'ya'dn and find what relics were kept there. It meant they weren't too late. Not yet, at least.
The notification chime that someone was at the door of her temporary quarters. A sigh as she stood up from the small desk and crossed the room to tap the door controls. As Samus had expected, it was the admiral. "Sir."
"I'm about to head down to the surface and make my report in person to FleetCom." The worn tone in the older man's voice betrayed him of his worry and concern for the situation. "I've made arrangements for private quarters for you once we make groundside, but after that, I'm not sure what you're going to do." A heavy sigh escape his lips as Dane felt the weight of the universe on his shoulders. "I know your father was all but disowned by his mother's family after he entered the service, even if she supported him before she died, so even if we sent you back to Terra-"
"Zebes is my home." The response was quick, without thought, and instinctive to her. Samus shook her head at any other consideration. "Admiral, my birth-parents did everything they could while they still were alive. I don't remember much of them, but I know they died protecting me." She hesitated as Dane seemed to soften at her noting her parents. "But I was raised by Maru. He was the one who was my father in all my memories since the massacre on K-2L." Again, Samus stopped, but she visibly flinched when mentioning the colony, and it wasn't missed by the admiral. "I may be able to live on Terra, but it will never be home, sir."
The admiral was silent. He couldn't refute the young woman's words, and he was more than aware, possibly more than Samus herself, of how she had been rescued by the Chozo. He had known her actual parents, considered them like his children after his own wife and sons had been taken from him in the war. But he also had known the Chozo who had raised her, to a degree. He had been told everything that happened; the child they had found wandering in the devastation, the advanced augmentation and fusion of her genetic structure and biological makeup with that of Maru's own so that she could survive the harshness of Zebes beyond the Nest city.
He knew how much Terra could never be her home. But it could be a sanctuary, at least. "We'll get it sorted, Samus. Your parents were part of the service, ÆSIRs who gave everything they had. The Fleet watches out for its own and theirs."
Her eyes turned away, not sure she could believe that would be the case. Not this time, at least. "I just want my home and my father back, admiral." Samus didn't meet his gaze this time. "The Kromus can burn in the twelve Hells, but I just want my father back."
As she walked past him now, Castor Dane let out a deep sigh once more. It would be hard, but he would have to help her as best he could. The trouble was the inevitable discovery by less morally guided agencies of what she was, as the "who" was without any doubts
"That's all I want, admiral. To go home to my father."
He could only nod an agreement to her sentiment. "I'm doing what I can, Samus. That's all I can guarantee of myself."
ConFleet Headquarters, Reach Branch
New Alexandria, Eposz, Reach
The landing pad was heavily staffed as the Goshawk troop ship fired the underside repulsors to bring itself to a soft landing. A few moments passed before the rear hatch lowered, allowing Admiral Dane to descend to the tarmac with his blonde companion trailing behind him. He had expected to meet an escort considering the circumstances, but not the man wearing silver oak clusters and the three goldenrod bands of a commander on the epaulets at his shoulders.
"I don't recall giving you orders to rendezvous here at FleetCom, Commander Malkovich."
"Respectfully, admiral, I'm still active commanding officer of the Concordia, and thus attending any tactical coordination is without question."
Despite his general mood as of the escape from Zebes, Dane could not help but allow Adam's statement a satisfied smirk. "You learn fast, son. I'll let you two catch up while I head in and meet with General Morris."
And as Dane continued on his way, the taller man with a head of black-brown hair would stare in uncertain silence at the blonde girl dressed in blue light armor plates over a thick half-sleeve jacket and pants, who stood just half a head shorter than him. He expected rage in the blue-green eyes that met his, anticipated the scars over her left eye and cheek to scrunch and tighten in anger at seeing him again after nearly a year since they last spoke.
The surprise was that he was greeted by none of that.
"So, how are Madeline and Melissa?"
The casual question threw him off guard even more than he had been prepared for. Adam shifted uncomfortably as he nodded for his escorts to join the admiral before pulling his cap from his head and breathing in. "Look, Samus...I know that I'm the last person you wanted to see-"
"No, I've had time to-"
"What I mean is-"
"Adam, look, it was almost-"
"I get that you're still angry at me-"
After the constant interruptions, Samus took a deep breath and held up her hand in a pinching gesture for Adam to stop while he was ahead. "Malkovich, I swear to I'ya'dn, I will break your jaw to shut you up if you keep cutting me off." The girl sighed as she dropped her hand, then finally gave a faint smile as she looked at Malkovich with a tilted head. It's been almost a year. I've had time to cool my head and think about what you went through...and I get it. It wasn't any easier for you to make the order than it was for me to watch him go. If you hadn't made that call, though, Captain Eison would have."
That had not been what he was expecting, but his shoulders relaxed as Malkovich let out the breath he had been anxiously holding. "Maddie is doing fine, my parents are staying with her for the next few months to help with the new baby while Melissa is in pre-school now."
"New baby? I guess I should say congrats. Have you named them yet?"
"Hector, after Maddie's grandfather."
There was a faint smile on Aran's lips. "A boy? And you didn't name him after my birth-father? I'm surprised." She tapped his shoulder softly as she continued to walk by the taller man, noting he was not getting her attempt at humor. "Probably a bad joke. I'm not exactly in the best of moods with all this, so we probably should get going and I can tell you and Dane what's been happening."
As the blonde girl continued on down the tarmac, Malkovich sighed and shook his head as he followed her. "We need to have a talk about respect and command, cadet."
"I'm not your cadet anymore, Adam, and we need to get back to Zebes as soon as possible, or the Pirates get everything my parents fought to keep safe from them."
