All the usual disclaimers apply.
253.15 NC – The Liberator, En Route to the Rendezvous Point
"Where's Cally?" Jenna asked.
"Where's Avon?" Vila countered.
Blake thought about what Vila was suggesting. He'd come within a hairsbreadth of going to Jenna last night, for fear of what was coming and hope that it could be avoided. But Avon was far colder than him, though if Cally went to him, the criminal programmer wasn't a robot for all he appeared to aspire to the role. What little he'd heard about the business with Anna, Avon's erstwhile partner made that clear. Some part of him wondered if such a pairing would be helpful in binding Avon more tightly to the group, or dangerous in giving Cally something to live for besides the rebellion. Most of him concluded that such a relationship would definitely be bad for Cally, who was a friend and didn't deserve to have the loneliness her exile had inflicted upon her so exploited.
"You don't really think…" Blake asked, then shuddered delicately.
"In my experience, no, none of them do really think. Though that hardly makes them unique on this ship," Avon said having arrived unnoticed during this conversation, his stare making it clear that he included Blake in with those who failed to really think.
"Where's Cally?" Vila asked, always willing to ask the stupid question, as he had nothing to lose.
"With Orac."
There was a communal 'what' as they tried to even picture how that would work, what with Orac being a transparent box housing an A.I. with neither body nor any moving parts.
"Well, if she was interested in Avon, I guess it's not a surprise that she'd end up with the most irritating A.I. in the galaxy," Jenna said.
"Second most irritating," Vila put in, giving Avon a supercilious smirk at having gotten one over on the programmer.
"Second most irritating what?" Cally asked from the door to the flight deck. She was lean and dangerous looking in the red jumpsuit she'd been wearing when they first met. "Sorry I'm late, I was using Orac—" Vila whooped drunkenly. She ignored that, though some part of her considered the punishment for drunkenness on duty back on her increasingly militarized homeworld. She continued as if he hadn't spoken, "…to contact Auron and warn them about what we expect. He was able to connect me directly to some people who might listen to me, despite everything. I'm afraid I lost track of time talking to them."
A communal 'oh' followed this and all three of them looked relieved.
"What's wrong with them?" Cally asked, drifting over to Avon, as he was the only one of the Liberator's crew not acting insane.
"Nothing new," Avon said.
Her lips quirked, almost against her will at the comment. It was so typically Avon. Vila didn't catch the potential insult, Blake and Jenna did, but they didn't reply, instead they looked a little embarrassed. She wondered what exactly they had been talking about before she arrived. It didn't matter. "Zen, time to detector range of the rendezvous point?" She asked, taking her station and unslinging her rifle, placing it within easy reach, but secure enough that it would go flying across the room if they took a hit.
"Five minutes."
"Activate the detector shield," Avon ordered, taking his own station, directly behind hers. She could swear she could feel his dark gaze burning on her neck, ready to ask about the rifle.
"Confirmed," Zen stated.
After joining the Liberator on Saurian Major, she'd replaced it with one of the laser side-arms the odd craft had had ever since it was salvaged by its crew. They might have been less accurate and slower firing, but at least they could penetrate the armor Federation troops wore. Avon wouldn't understand that the gun wasn't there as a weapon, but rather as a reminder that she was a soldier again, not a rebel, at least for the moment. So was the jumpsuit. She was a woman under authority again, something none of the others would really understand. Vila and Jenna had never willingly been subject to authority, Blake was a rebel born, and anyone having power over him drove Avon absolutely mad.
Cally looked around the golden flight deck as the others took their positions. It was hard to feel a soldier amongst this company. Blake, tall and handsome, every inch the charismatic leader, carefully dressed in earth-toned civilian clothes to draw a sharp distinction between himself and the elaborately coiffed Federation elite; Jenna looked more like one of those elite, blonde and elegant, the pilot enjoyed dressing glamorously from the extensive closet the Liberator had had when they took the ship, for the former smuggler understood just how much people judged and misjudged on appearances; and Vila, poor Vila, short and slight, he'd been raised under Federation rule like Avon and Blake, but lacked the privileges Blake's status as an alpha grade, and Avon's brilliance had bought them. The pride had been beaten out of Vila, but he still fought when he had to, she could respect that, but it was the fight of a cornered animal, not a soldier. That only left Avon, at her back, where he would not trust her to stand, he was all in black, strong, smart, ruthless, if not for his complete unwillingness to trust anyone she might have almost pretended he was a comrade in arms, but speaking to other Auronar reminded her how far from comrades the others truly were. Allies was the best she had. Allies whose minds were silent, making them impossible to truly understand for any telepath.
She shook off the malaise as Vila asked if this could be a trap.
"Anything is possible with the Federation," Blake answered, falling back on a cliché for lack of an actual answer.
"Perhaps, but if so, it's a good one. Detectors are showing no ships," Avon pointed out.
"Could they be using detector shields?" Jenna put in.
"No," Avon answered simply.
"Why not?" Blake snapped.
"Because I figured out how to detect the detector shields."
"When?" Blake snapped.
"Shortly before Star One. Why do you think I went along with that operation?"
"Because you'd get the Liberator while I—while we were uniting the worlds into a new order."
Jenna flinched at that. The space-born pilot had no intention of giving up the Liberator, the best ship in the galaxy, to Avon, or anyone else. The fact that Blake had no such love of the ship was apparently a surprise to the woman.
"That was the benefit of the cost-benefit analysis. However it was the existence of the detector shields detector which reduced the cost to an acceptable level," Avon's voice was even and uninflected.
"You mean we've been safe from hidden Federation ships for more than a month? Why didn't you tell us?" Vila asked.
"You didn't ask."
"I've been worrying about—"
"You're always worrying, Vila, that's nothing new," Jenna put in sharply. Taking out antipathy on Vila was half the reason the thief was still on the ship.
"Yes and right now I'm worried about where the fleet that was supposed to be here actually is!"
"Zen, how long until the battlegroup we encountered at Delarius 12 arrives?" Avon asked.
"Two hours, twenty three minutes—"
"Thank you Zen," Jenna put in, cutting off the machine's unnecessary precision. "They're in an awful rush," she noted.
"Information, the Federation battlegroup will have used 97% of its fuel upon arrival," Zen interjected.
"So there must be a Federation base around here somewhere to refuel them," Blake noted. "Anything on the detectors?"
"No," Zen replied.
"We should—" Vila began.
"We should do what we came here to do. Let's get on with this," Cally interrupted.
"And how do we do that? Where do we go?" Jenna countered.
"We've all said it, this is the rendezvous point near the Monolith, there's nothing else out here."
"Information, there is a five planet solar system within range of the battlegroups remaining fuel," Zen said.
"Sounds like a good place to look," Vila argued.
"We're here because we're afraid that aliens from another galaxy are invading. Do we think they're in a random planetary system or in a system with a massive alien artifact of unknown origin and purpose?" Cally asked, cold as ice, doing her best Avon impression.
"She's right," Avon noted.
"You can't be sure—" Vila began.
"You can check with Orac if you want to be sure," Cally said, producing the A.I.'s activation key and offering it to the thief.
"Zen, do we have enough power to keep the detector shield up while we go to the Monolith, without depleting more than one additional energy bank?" Blake asked.
"Yes," Zen answered.
"No," Avon put in.
"What?"
Cally could feel Avon rolling his eyes behind her. "Power is not the issue, so Zen is technically correct. What he isn't telling you is that the hull will start ablating off if the detector shield is on for more than twenty minutes while the FTL drive is active."
"What does ablate mean?" Vila asked.
"Be vaporized," Blake answered.
"WHAT?"
"Be destroyed, demolished, smashed, broken," Avon offered.
"I know what vaporized means! You've been using something that could destroy this entire ship? Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because—"
"Zen, set course for the Monolith, at Standard by Six, go," Cally ordered, tired of this debate.
"Confirmed," Zen said.
"And turn off the detector shield!" Vila put in.
"Confirmed."
"And turn it back on if you detect any Federation ships, or when we're ten minutes out from the Monolith, whichever condition occurs first," Avon added.
"Confirmed."
Blake's eyes narrowed, surprised by Cally's sudden action. "Avon, check the battle computers, Vila, the transporters, Jenna, the engines. I want everything in tip-top condition before we do this," he said, clearing the deck.
"Arm yourselves before you go. We don't know if these aliens have teleport capability and we can't have the force wall up all the time," Cally added as the others began to head out, Vila grumbling, Jenna fuming and Avon being Avon.
Vila and Jenna turned back, Avon didn't. He always went armed, as he didn't trust the others. No, Cally had to remind herself, he didn't trust anyone, even her. Probably. She wished she could hear his thoughts. It was impossible to lie with telepathy, but it only let her speak to the poor mundanes who lacked her senses, it didn't let them talk back. There was never any way to be absolutely sure with them, that's why she had to trust them, it was trust them or go mad, as Avon did.
"Cally, are you all right?" Blake asked, concerned.
"I am what I need to be in order to do what must be done," light brown eyes remained locked on the console in front of her, though one hand absently stroked the butt of her rifle.
"What does that mean?"
"You saw that thing, that Space-Kraken? What it did at Star-One? You heard its transmission? It said everything would die. I heard what it did to Travis. A laser blast through his brain and he still came after you." That was true.
"Yes, but—"
"This is not a rebellion. This is not a revolution. This is a war. I am the only one of you who is a soldier. I may have put it aside for a time to be something else, but that time is over," her voice dropped, cold and level, "I will do whatever I must to destroy them. And bickering will not accomplish that." Blake was reminded of Cally as he'd first seen her, the ambusher who'd interrogated him at gunpoint and intended to launch a one-woman attack on a base of two hundred Federation troopers.
"You don't have to—"
"Blake."
"Yes, Cally?"
"I'm going to go check the Neutron Blasters are cleared for action. Could you check the Plasma Bolt batteries?"
Blake thought about continuing the conversation, then thought the better of it. "Yes, Cally."
253.15 NC – Command Ship FNS Unity, Monolith System
"Three more destroyers down, ma'am, the 10th is down to five destroyers, there are no more to interpose between the Squids and the 10th's main battle line,"
"The Tolerance has been destroyed, ma'am, she ran right into one of the shells fired from the Squids across the system, the damn things don't give off any signals once fired, our computers aren't tracking them all—"
"Pursuit ship squadron seventeen has repulsed another attack from those one-man craft, but they're at twenty percent effectives…"
Servalan listened impassively as the crew of the Command Ship burbled facts at her, as if she could not read the displays herself as well as any of them. She ignored them. Admiral Lana would handle this portion of the battle. What mattered was what was about to happen.
They'd deployed perfectly, despite the difficult of integrating so many distinct units. A perfect inverted wave formation, like someone had dropped a bowling ball in the middle of a sheet, frozen the sheet and turned it sideways with the enemy placed in the center. It was a classic formation, though, like completely englobing the enemy, it ran the risk of friendly fire. They'd enveloped the group that was attempting to assault the base on the odd spherical artifact. The enemy had reacted even before their ships had arrived, abandoning their assault on the stations and racing to support the besieged fellows. Her ships were attempting to push the enemy back into range of the base's main guns.
The enemy was trying to keep the range open, and was keeping quite precisely out of range of those guns. Their security was compromised, though the mine-sweepers had made her pretty sure of that already. She made a mental note to light a fire under the researchers looking into how the hell they'd compromised the staff of Star One. They would win this battle, but that wouldn't be the end of it, she was sure.
Speaking of winning the battle, it was time. In just a few minutes the enemy would either have to retreat into range of the base's guns, or attack and try to punch through a weak point, which meant it was time to spring her little surprise. A brilliant smile crossed her beautiful face as she pushed a button and took control of the mines clustered behind the shields of the remaining base. They swept up and out, racing towards the enemy's rear. The moment the enemies light-speed scanners detected the mines' movement, the enemy instantly broke for the weak-spot left by the destruction of the Tolerance, but it was too little, too late. They'd thought she meant to use that set of mines to destroy her second base, just as she had the first, forgetting the damn things could move.
The swarm of mines was large and spread out. The enemy had chosen the optimal path to avoid most of the mines, and what rearward facing weapons they had were reaping a rich harvest of the mines, but there were simply too many mines to try to fight their way through. The first of the enemy ships entered optimal range of her ships main weapons and simply vanished, vaporized by the hammer blow of two hundred heavy particle cannon, firing from a hundred battleships.
Admiral Lana was screaming orders as the next two ships managed to use their secondary weapons to destroy a dozen pursuit ships and half as many destroyers and cruisers while the battleships' cannon were recharging. They were pounded apart by no more than ten battleships each as the remainder focused on the next wave.
There had been thirty enemy ships when they started and two had been destroyed by coordinated fire at long range when they'd first emerged from FTL. With the destruction of their three ship vanguard, the twenty-five remaining ships formed a tight sphere, roiling around to expose each ship to enemy fire for as short a period as possible before sliding back within the sphere, protected by its fellows shields, to recharge its defenses. Admiral Lana focused her fire on two ships at a time. The distance between her ships would have made that impossible with the railguns the enemy used, but with particle cannons which travelled at the speed of light, the time difference between the impacts was small enough to let them batter ships to bits before they could escape.
Admiral Lana laughed and typed in a set of commands. The battleships retargeted and blew apart the enemy ships at the point of their formation as they turned inward to retreat. The enemy formation scattered rather than run into huge fragments of their fellows at a significant fraction of the speed of light. The remaining twenty or so ships headed for the closest Federation ships, looking to find something to hide behind which the battleships would not fire upon. Unfortunately for them, in reforming and hiding, they lost their lead on the mines which fell upon their rear, nuclear fire bursting up and through focusing lenses, destroying the mine and propelling a massive burst of energy and radiation forward at the speed of light, spearing the enemy vessels from behind, shattering shields and armor alike. Only three of the vessels made it in and among the Federation ships. Those three ripped into her ships, destroying thrice their number in Federation ships before being brought down by the sheer weight of numbers, as the battleships couldn't shift targeting fast enough.
Servalan actually grinned as she saw the last of the enemy ships explode. The enemy ships were spread out across the system in eight groups, only one as large as that they'd already destroyed. "This one next?" Admiral Lana asked, highlighting the nearest of the groups.
"Agreed."
The admiral transmitted the commands to the rest of the fleet and they moved out to where they could make the jump to FTL, racing forwards for mere moments then dropping out as close to the enemy ships as they could, which wasn't that close due to the limitations on the use of FTL drives near massive objects. The enemy ships tried to kill their forward momentum, but even with their absurd maneuverability and powerful engines, they weren't able to do so before reaching optimal weapons range and the Federation fleet pounded them to pieces.
The remainder of the enemy ships began to move towards each other, seeking to consolidate, rather than let themselves be defeated separately. They were too close to the Monolith for the Federation fleet to repeat the tactic of using FTL to close the gap.
Instead the fleet raced forward at the best slower-than-light speed they could manage without creating relativistic problems for themselves. The enemy fell back, trying to escape the Monolith's gravity well and make the jump to FTL. Or so she assumed, she didn't actually know how their FTL drives worked. If they got away, those ships would wreak havoc throughout the Federation, especially since she couldn't track them while they were using their own FTL drives, unlike those using the FTL drives common in this galaxy. Instead the Squids simply appeared and disappeared. A truly unfair advantage.
As the enemy had been forced to kill their forward momentum in order to retreat, the Federation Fleet would be able catch up with the enemy, the only question was whether it would be soon enough. The computer said it wouldn't be for their FTL system, but who knew how the enemy's engines worked? They would overtake the enemy in ninety three minutes.
Servalan left the bridge and returned to her office for an excellent meal while her fleet and the mines raced across the system. No one on the bridge would ever know that she was watching events unfold on the display in her office. As far as they knew, she had absolute faith in their abilities and was certain of victory. Which meant that even before the ship shuddered, she saw enemy capital ships simply appear behind them, in groups of ten, floating near the Monolith, and the enemy vessels they'd been pursuing suddenly turned and began to burn back towards them, the enemy fleet would stop just short of where her fleet would be able to jump to FTL. If they slowed down any, then the forces behind them would crush them.
There was only one question left, up, or down, left, or right? Since the majority of the ships guns were mounted on the top, diving down, but continuing forward at full speed would decrease their exposure to the enemy fleet in front of them as they punched through and jumped to FTL.
253.15 NC – The Liberator, Outside the Monolith System
"Information, six hundred and twenty three Federation ships are within detector range. Detector shield is active," Zen said.
"Where are they headed?" Blake asked.
"The planetary system previously discussed."
"Weren't they supposed to have like a thousand ships?" Vila asked nervously.
"Information, 63.27% of the Federation ships show battle damage."
"Set course for the planetary system, keep us out of range of their detectors," Blake ordered.
"Confirmed."
"Disable the detector shield as soon as we're outside the range of their detectors," Avon added.
"Confirmed."
"Why are we doing this? We missed the battle. Shouldn't we be trying to take advantage of the Federation's weakness and distraction to break their control, I mean, isn't that why we went to Star One? Isn't that why we attacked Control? Isn't that what Gan gave his life for?" Vila argued.
Blake's eyes blazed with fury at the mention of the crewman who'd sacrificed himself in the futile attack on Control. "Don't you dare bring up G—" he said, stepping forward, hands clenched at his sides.
Cally interrupted them by sliding Orac's activation key into place. "Why is the Federation fleet heading to the planetary system?"
"Because the aliens ambushed them and forced them to retreat," Orac explained, without needing a moment to think.
"You just knew that?" Jenna asked, surprised by that and the absence of complaint about being distracted from his real work.
"I'm evaluating their data. The alien systems don't use tarriel cells, so I have to rely upon the data the Federation has gathered on the alien's technology. It is fascinating. I must know more. Their technology is entirely different from ours. I don't understand how it can be so advanced without using tarriel cells. These gaps in my knowledge are unacceptable. I insist that we investigate the—"
Cally pulled the activation key out, silencing the A.I. and leaving it to its investigations and research. The machine, created by the inventor of tarriel cells, could access any system based on that hardware system which had an external connector. As that was, previously, every computer system, its power was matched only by its arrogance, and its need for the activation key in order to take any action beyond information gathering.
"I vote to proceed to the planetary system," Cally said.
Jenna nodded. "Agreed, I wouldn't want to try to fight something that could destroy four hundred Federation ships on my own."
"I don't want to face anything that did destroy four hundred Federation ships!" Vila argued.
"Is that a 'no' vote?" Blake asked.
"I prefer to think of it as a vote for survival."
"Well, I vote to protect humanity," Blake put in.
Everyone turned to Avon, who simply continued working, reviewing the data Orac streamed to his console, despite the deactivation of his speakers. This was a disaster. Though the casualties appeared approximately even, with both fleet losing approximately four hundred ships. However, the vast majority of the enemy's casualties were from the mines and were escort vessels, while Servalan's fleet had lost almost two thirds of its capital ships and the remainder were amongst the most badly damaged of her ships.
"Avon, your vote?" Blake asked after almost a minute.
"There's already three votes in favor. My vote is unnecessary."
"Unless you have a better idea?" Vila put in hopefully.
"I do not."
"Then we continue on," Cally stated, passing the key back to Avon without comment, a silent peace-offering. It was unusual for him to let the tech out of his possession. It was probably simply that he had no interest in sitting up and listening to her talk to her people and he knew she was too honest to steal it. No other explanation made sense. No other explanation could be explored at this moment. Their eyes met for a moment.
"Is it too late to change my vote?" the typically Vila question broke the moment.
253.15 NC – Command Ship FNS Unity, at the edge of the Fortress System
"All fleet vessels are moving to refuel, rearm and repair, with the least damaged forming a screen," Admiral Lana stated.
"And the other fleets?" Pel asked.
"Moving to support us, but they're mostly lighter fleet elements, only about a hundred battleships in all," the admiral stated, as if the psychostrategist was somehow unaware. They'd already integrated the ships which had arrived too late to join in the first battle, but there was no disguising the fact that they'd been badly mauled.
Servalan ignored her staff officers as they went about bickering about who knew what. Instead, she was watching the feeds coming in from their remaining bases in the Monolith System. After their casualties, the aliens had blasted the space stations apart, but they'd been far more careful of the base remaining upon the spherical artifact. The smaller ships had suffered heavy casualties closing in then carefully picked off each of the cannon batteries. With the path clear, a set of what were clearly troop transports landed and began to offload troops.
The enemy troops were the first sight of the enemy and they'd all watched the assault avidly, slightly concerned to see a dozen types of oddly shaped creatures pour out of the transports into the volleys of fire coming from the mutoid troops stationed on the base. The discovery that the aliens had some sort of personal shielding was a nasty surprise. It took almost a dozen shots from one of the usual rifles to take one down, so the first defensive positions were quickly overrun. The base commander had resorted to venting entire sections of atmosphere to stop the advance.
While the enemy was delayed, they discovered that what they were seeing was probably not their true enemy, as the creatures dragged a struggling mutoid to an odd device which drove a spike directly through the mutoid's body and transformed the mutoid into a monstrous creature which promptly led the assault on the next defensive position. They did the same with the corpses of those who had fallen trying to stop them. The superstitious whispers about zombies were stilled with a glare around the room, but that didn't quell the terror on her subordinates' faces.
What was worse was when they'd brought in one of their massive capital ships. It had simply hovered over the base and she'd watched as the base's command staff began to change. General Alex Devor was a hard-bitten, whey faced woman who'd maintained order on the rebellious world of Mandilake for a decade before being assigned to this critical post. In her youth, she'd been captured and tortured for information by enemies of the Federation for three weeks, during which time she had given them nothing. Loyal beyond question (or as close as anyone came in Servalan's service), tough, intelligent and resourceful, she had been chosen because Servalan believed she would stubbornly hold the line even as her base was reduced to rubble, forcing the enemy to leave significant forces behind to deal with her, even if they'd overrun the system.
So it was something of a shock when she and three other members of her command staff pulled out there weapons and massacred their fellows, then vented the atmosphere of the rest of the base and sat down to await the arrival of the enemy forces. It was even more of a shock when they went along quietly and obediently lay down on the conversion spikes. Servalan had recognized the look on the general's face as she butchered her own troops. It was the look of someone under mind control. Usually that look was comforting, as the Federation specialized in mind control and brainwashing, but this was…There had been no surgery, no drugs, no painful hours of physical abuse to put the subject in the right frame of mind. And it wasn't mere physical control of the body, the general had disabled all the surveillance and communication systems of which she'd been aware, which wasn't all of them, of course.
The mere presence of the enemy seemed to corrupt and twist the mind, rendering them mere puppets. Which meant there was no way to launch their own boarding actions to discover anything about their true enemy, undoubtedly hiding within those massive capital ships. Without any real information about the enemy, many of the Federations preferred methods, especially bad-faith negotiation, blackmail, espionage, assassination and biological warfare were simply impossible.
Servalan's fingers danced over the controls as she watched her troops being transformed into servants of this horrifically overpowered enemy. She hadn't finished drafting the orders by the time the enemy capital ship's engines began to fire and she activated the base's Omega Protocol and destroy it utterly, doing cruel damage to the enemy capital ship and destroying two of their troop transports as well as their complement of monsters. Most crucially, they had denied the enemy any profit from their victory. It was that tactic which would force these aliens to communicate.
The others members of her command group were busy organizing the fleet operations and no one dared to question what the Supreme Commander was doing. None of them would ever know that she'd sent personal orders to every ground commander in the Federation, personally authorizing and ordering them to engage their own Omega Protocols in the event of attack by a force they could not defeat.
She'd almost sent a simple broad beam, but on consideration it was better to send individual orders. They were more likely to follow their orders if they believed that only a small part of the Federation would be sacrificed to protect the rest, and if they believed that they could hitch a ride on a commercial vessel and survive somewhere, which she was beginning to doubt. The evidence regarding past wars, which had prompted the fortification of the Monolith system, suggested that the enemy did not seek conquest, but destruction. But that didn't make any sense. What benefit could be gained by the destruction of a population without replacing them with anything?
If this was the enemy which had emptied their galaxy of life, opening it to the Federation's conquest, then why had they not remained, filling it with their own people? The only thing which made any sense was that both sides were destroyed by the war. Seeing the enemy now, that seemed…improbable, which meant that she did not understand what the enemy wanted. That was what made her fairly certain that she was going to lose. Especially as she watched the enemy fleet gather around the spherical artifact and simply vanish from all sensors.
At the psychostrategist's suggestion, a task force was dispatched to investigate the remains of the alien ships. There would be corpses amongst them. When they knew what the enemy was, then they would be able to turn the situation to their advantage, just as they always did. Just as she always did. She was Servalan, Supreme Commander of the Terran Federation. It had to be this conversion process, which turned her people into theirs. That was what they wanted, and so she would force them to negotiate for it. That would work. There were always slaves, or Delta grades to be traded, or sold. She would find a way. She could win. She would win.
And if not, well, she had a contingency plan. Like always.
Author's Note: Well, that went well. Comments/reviews are always welcome.