Chapter 5

October 31st, 2241: Caliban Sector, Omelos system, ICV Marron

In the farthest corner of the Caliban Sector is the Omelos system. Though it shows up on every star chart in this part of the galaxy, it is rarely visited. It is perhaps the most well-known system in all of recorded history: it was here that the final shots of the Dilgar War were fired. It was here that the Prime Dilgar jumped out into the galaxy and gave terror a new name and face. It was here that many of the famous names from that conflict were born: enigmatic Supreme Warmaster Gar'shan who rammed the Earth Alliance flagship Hannibal rather than be taken as prisoner; his idealistic son Ari'shan who was shot down and taken alive by Commander David Sinclair, but not before he racked up an incredible (and probably never to be duplicated) 937 confirmed fighter kills; the diabolic Len'char who organized the dreaded 'Special Missions Group' that caused so much grief on the conquered League worlds; legendary Battlemaster Dar'sen, who fought the Drazi to a stand-still with a vastly inferior force and whose skill in battle made any victory against him Pyrrhic; mysterious Warmaster Ka'Ramas whose work with the Dilgar's Special Weapons Agency caused even Earth Force military leaders to consider twice about invading the Omelos system; and of course, the most infamous of all, Warmaster Jha'dur, or as she was most commonly known: Deathwalker. Her list of crimes and military victories would fill more pages than could be easily written. She is still burned in effigy every year on no less than thirty League worlds that suffered from her fell hand directly.

But that is all the past. Omelos and her people, the Dilgar, will never be again. The star in the Omelos system shed its outer corona not a year after the war was finished, irradiating and burning the surface of Omelos so that nothing would grow there for centuries. The remaining Dilgar on Omelos perished as well rather than let the victorious Earth Alliance know the imminent solar event and the extinction of the Dilgar was the cause for the war. Some say it is a proper charnel-house monument to those that caused so much death.

Commander Trelain watched the swirling spectacle of hyperspace. Though he had commanded squadrons before, this one was the most unique: two gunboats, a scout, and his own destroyer the Marron. He had volunteered for this mission before really knowing what it was all about. As Commander Trelain was distantly related to House Banadine, he was a client of Lord Tesu, the unlucky, and some said incompetent, governor of Quadrant 17. Trelain had been out with most of the fleet attacking the Drazi in the Heptharg system when the infamous 'Massacre of Quadrant 17' had happened. He shuddered as he remembered all of his associates that had died there, 'destroyed to the very last man' as that Lord Roglark had put it. Once Lord Tesu's proscription had been announced, he had graciously taken his own life rather than have his family suffer that indignity. Things were beginning to look a bit grim as many wondered if any of Lord Tesu's client Houses (Banadine, Jindalo and Rayann) would be proscribed as well. When the call had gone out for volunteers for escort duty, Commander Trelain was among the first to respond. His thinking had been that perhaps a bit of time away from the back-stabbing and finger-pointing would be a good idea.

Now he wasn't so sure. In times past a little escort duty meant going into the core Centauri systems, or somewhere in Brakiri or even Terran space. Instead here he was crawling along through hyperspace trying to find a particular spot without the help of a hyperspace beacon. What sort of place had no hyperspace beacon? The officers and crew of the gunboats and scout were so tight-lipped Trelain wondered if they weren't Imperial Guardsmen. All that they had grudgingly told him was that their mission required them to pick up a scientific sample, and his mission was to defend them and ask no further questions. He wasn't even sure where they were. All that he knew was that the squadron had to bypass their normal route. He had been told that this group had made this particular trip several times, though they normally traveled through Drazi space.

Now that the Republic was at war with the Drazi, this mission had been forced to detour core-ward around the entire Drazi Freehold and then come back to course. The scout ship's captain had assured him they could find the proper point to jump. Trelain wasn't so sure. He had a deathly (though common) fear of being lost in hyperspace. There had been frighteningly few beacons on this detour, and dead-reckoning was an art rather than a science. Commander Trelain was fighting a very bad feeling about this entire mission, and had began to wonder if perhaps the back-stabbing and finger-pointing might not have been better.

His angry musing was interrupted by the comms officer, "Commander, the Ellian is signaling."

Trelain sighed, wishing he had something to drink. But this trip had taken twice as long because of the detour, and his captain's stores had run out two days ago. "Patch them through."

The slightly nasal tones of the captain of the scout Ellian came over the comm, "Commander we have found the proper place. I am sending you vector and jump information. Please standby to activate your jump engines."

"Did that pimmel just give me an order?" Trelain thought. He quashed his indignation and said, "Navigator, prepare to jump into realspace, on my mark." He paused to watch the tactical display, noticing that there was a lot of radiation wherever they were going. The clock ticked down to zero. "Jump," Trelain commanded.

The jump point opened. First through was the scout, then the two gunboats, and finally the Marron went through with the jump point closing behind her. As his sensors had shown, lots of radiation was coming off the primary star in the system. They were in the outer part of the system going closer inward. Something about this place seemed familiar to Trelain: the number and arrangement of the planets; unstable yet main-sequence star; no jump gate or hyperspace beacons. He turned to the navigator, "Find out where we are. Something is familiar about this place." Trelain watched as the navigator cross-referenced various star charts and galactic markers. As the answer popped up on his screen he hissed in surprise, then promptly made the sign of the Great Maker across his face.

Commander Trelain was a seasoned combat veteran, and not one to be given to nameless fears, but seeing his navigator react in such a way made his blood run cold. He slowly asked, "Where are we Navigator Senes?"

Navigator Senes looked over his shoulder, fear clearly evident on his face, and said, "Omelos."

With that one word Trelain's ephemeral bad feeling crystallized into genuine fear. What in the Seven Yellow Hells were they doing here? No one, or rather no one in their right mind, went to Omelos. Besides the fact that the Dilgar had destroyed their own jumpgate and the nearby hyperspace beacons in the last throes of the war, the star was decidedly unstable. Even now it was still shunting off massive amounts of radiation. Even though this system had been wiped clean of life by its star eight years ago, many felt it was still occupied: populated by the spirits of the extinct Dilgar, and haunted by the spirits of the billions they killed in the war.

Though Commander Trelain was no more religious than the average Centauri male, he made the sign of the Great Maker as well. If any place in the galaxy was haunted, it most certainly was Omelos. The atrocities and massacres committed by the Dilgar had made child's play of anything the Centauri had ever done.

Trying to get a grip on himself, Trelain spoke, "Comms, get me the captain of the Ellian."

The comms officer complied with his order as Trelain walked up behind him. "I am hailing the Ellian sir."

"Visual," Trelain growled, "I want to see that pimmel's face."

An image of the captain of the Ellian slowly emerged on the comm screen. It was full of static and wavered in and out of focus. The comms officer tried to clean it up, then apologized, "I am sorry sir. The stellar radiation is interfering with the visual. It is emitting radiation into the theta range. Even a tight beam will have some interference."

Trelain grunted then said, "But voice is fine? He can hear me?"

"Yes sir," the comms officer replied, "its only visual that is malfunctioning."

Trelain addressed the obscured viewscreen, "Ante-Commander Lasio, Marron actual here. Are you receiving me?"

Ante-Commander Lasio's nasal voice came out of the mangled picture, "Commander Trelain, I am receiving you, though the visual is rather bad. What can I do for you?"

Trelain inhaled and began, "First off you can tell me why we are in an Interdicted system."

Lasio immediately replied, "Technically this system isn't on the Republic's Interdiction list, though it does appear on the list from the Abbai, Hyach, Balosians, Drazi, the Earth Alliance…"

Trelain's temper snapped at being lectured by this supercilious pimmel. "What in the Name of the Great Maker are we doing at Omelos?" he yelled.

Trelain's outburst was heard by the entire bridge crew. Some gasped, and others murmured in fear. Trelain heard a whispered "Ghosts of Omelos…" Trelain had heard the phrase in reference to the supposed haunting spirits, but he never thought in his wildest nightmares he would actually be on hand to put the rumor to the test.

Lasio's sigh could be heard over the comm, "Commander Trelain, we are to obtain soil from the surface of Omelos for the Emperor. You are here to make sure we are not molested in our mission by any wayward raiders or Drazi."

Trelain was thunderstruck. Soil? "Why are we to obtain this 'soil' for the Emperor?"

Lasio sighed again, "I do not ask the Emperor why he does anything Commander, I simply do what I am ordered." Trelain grunted as Lasio continued, "I have made this trek once a year for the last six years, and have suffered no serious mishap. We shall only be here for a few hours and then return for home." Trelain was silent. Lasio judged by Trelain's silence that he had realized the futility of arguing further.

Commander Trelain could find no real fault with Lasio's words. "Very well Ante-Commander. Carry out your mission and I shall carry out mine."

Lasio bowed from the neck saying, "Yes sir Commander. Once we make orbit over Omelos it will only take an hour to garner the samples. We shall be as quick as possible." Lasio hoped his show of respect would mollify the Commander.

"Marron out." Trelain dismissed Lasio. He still had a very bad feeling about this, but would gather his courage and complete this mission. And who knows, perhaps participating in their mission would make the Emperor look favorably at Trelain's House in the future.

With thoughts of possible Imperial favor, Commander Trelain watched the system of the Dilgar fly past his viewport. They flew past one of the outer gas giants, and swung close to a larger moon. The moon was surrounded by a halo of rocky debris. As the Marron passed it, Commander Trelain saw that the moon looked like it had nearly been cut in half. Trelain remembered the report of a combined Earth-Hyach force that had destroyed some sort of weapons facility on an outer moon, just before the main invasion of the Omelos system. Supposedly Warmaster Ka'Ramas had developed some new sort of weapon that Earth Force had not wanted the Dilgar to use in the defense of Omelos. They had used Hyach spinal lasers to cut through the moon's crust. Then, in true Terran fashion, they had dropped nearly forty-thousand megatons of nuclear warheads into the moon. Trelain shuddered. He fervently hoped that he never had to face Earth Force in combat. The way they made war seemed almost…uncivilized.

At long last, dead burned Omelos came into view. It was a nearly uniform brown, with only a few scudding cloud formations in a lighter shade of brown. Surrounding Omelos was the detritus of the final cataclysmic battle of the Dilgar War. Hundreds of warships had fought here, and much of their wreckage was still here, or at least the larger Dilgar wreckage. The Earth Alliance had towed off their own ships for salvage, as had most of the League races.

"Slow us to one-half. Lots of junk floating around here." Trelain ordered. He saw that the gunboats and the Ellian had slowed as well. "Well, at least they are competent spacers", he grudgingly thought.

The squadron wove through the wreckage surrounding Omelos. Commander Trelain picked out classes of warships he never thought to see: Ochlavita destroyers, Targrath strike cruisers, Jashakar frigates. All in various states of destruction. They vectored around a shattered defense platform, and Trelain gasped. Before them was the horn-curved prow of a Mishakur dreadnought. Or at least a bit more than half of one as the entire drive section was a debris trailing mess. "Great Maker she was big," Trelain thought, "nearly as big as an Octurion battleship."

"Commander," the comms officer broke into his musing, "The gunboats are requesting permission to enter the atmosphere and land. Ellian is asking to enter polar orbit."

At least they were following proper military protocol. "Advise the gunboats we are tracking a Coriolis storm across the northern continent." Trelain paused then continued, "If it fits within their mission parameters suggest one of the two southern ones."

The gunboats acknowledged and thanked them for the alert about the storm. Trelain nodded to the comms officer about Ellian's request. The comms officer sent the order and the scout flew off into a high polar orbit.

Now that his initial fear was subdued, Commander Trelain wished he could accompany the gunboats down to the surface. But, the Marron was an older Altarian-class destroyer. She was never meant to go down into an atmosphere or a gravity well. Trelain sighed as he knew he would have to settle for a low orbit, and see the planet of the Dilgar from space.

Commander Trelain reached around the weapons officer and turned on the gun cameras. He wanted footage to watch at his leisure, and also as proof he had actually been here. He spoke to the weapons officer, "When we pull out of orbit make sure you put the cameras on that Mishakur, I want some video of that as well."

For the better part of an hour Trelain watched the surface of Omelos speed past his viewport. Their low orbit was relatively clear of debris as anything this close had fallen into the gravity well long ago. Trelain called up a surface map of Omelos from the military archives. It was easy enough to see where several large seas had once covered part of the planet. Now, most of whatever water was left was probably underground.

His examination of the surface map was interrupted by the comms officer. "Excuse me sir, but the Ellian is signaling."

Trelain immediately stopped his virtual exploring and said, "Patch them through." His recently quashed fear of this system returned. Ante-Commander Lasio would not signal for the pleasure of his company.

The visual was still out. Lasio's voice came through the comms officer's speakers, "Commander Trelain are you receiving me?"

"Marron actual here," Trelain said. "Is there a problem Ante-Commander?"

Lasio paused before replying, "I am not sure anything is wrong sir. A few moments ago we tracked an unusual energy signature on the far side of Omelos' moon."

Trelain swallowed before asking, "Exactly what kind of energy signature?"

"Well sir, it appeared only for an instant before another solar flare created more background distortion." He paused again, and then took the plunge, "It looked like the kind of energy spike one would see if a scout ship in hyperspace was scanning through to realspace."

Trelain snapped his fingers at the comms officer while motioning for his headset. As the officer handed over his headset Trelain said to him, "Signal the gunboats and tell them to hurry up. It is time to leave." The comms officer followed his orders as Commander Trelain spoke into the headset microphone, "Are you sure Ante-Commander"

Lasio hesitated then said, "No sir, I am not positive. We only saw the spike for a moment. I actually doubt we would have seen it except we were pointed directly at it and in the shadow of the planet. All of the stellar radiation is wreaking havoc on my sensors."

Trelain chewed his lip for a moment, then snapped into action, "Comms, order the gunboats off the surface, no excuses." He spoke into the pickup to the captain of the Ellian, "Ante-Commander get into the shadow of the planet again and tight-focus your sensors in a pattern with the spot as its center." He turned to the weapons officer and barked, "Weapons get the guns online. I want full charging for the matter and ion cannons, all arcs." He turned to Navigator Senes, "Navigator, spool up the jump engines and plot us a way out of here."

The crew of the Marron carried out their orders professionally. Within ninety seconds the Marron was ready for combat or escape. Commander Trelain watched on the tactical screen as the gunboats began their slow ascent out of the atmosphere of the planet. He could just now make out the Ellian with his naked eye as she came around the planet. As ordered she was coming into the shadow of Omelos and beginning her sensor focus.

"I have plotted a vector to a jump point Commander," Navigator Senes announced.

Trelain turned to the Navigator, "How long until we can jump?"

Navigator Senes considered for a moment then said, "Once the gunboats are out of the atmosphere, we can reach the jump point in four minutes."

"I guess that is as good as it gets," Trelain thought. "Send the navigation orders to the gunboats, then vector us out as soon as they are in space. I don't want to waste any time." He paused then added, "And tell them to heat up their weapons." The gunboats packed a bit of a punch if it came to any sort of conflict. They were deceptively well armed for such small craft, though their armor left much to be desired.

At last they came out of the atmosphere, then accelerated sharply out of the gravity well of Omelos. The Marron let them pass then flew in behind them. Commander Trelain saw on his tactical display that the gunboats' weapons were ready. He also saw the Ellian circling just ahead of them, passing the area near the moon with her powerful sensors.

As they neared the searching Ellian, Commander Trelain said, "Signal the Ellian to follow us, if we have company its too late to do anything about it. Order them to prepare their jump engines as well, and to keep a channel open just in case." His officers carried out his orders, and the graceful fan-winged shape of the scout ship turned and followed the others. Once they were in formation they began to accelerate even more as they passed Omelos' moon. The emptiness between worlds beckoned, as the jump point was a mere minute away.

But it was all for naught. Just as Commander Trelain inhaled to give the order to activate the jump engines the open channel from the Ellian screamed out, "We have multiple jump points opening at three-four-seven!" That position blocked their planned jump out. At least thirteen jump points opened from hyperspace, their glittering blue energy seeming small when set against the wild stellar display at the moment.

Commander Trelain stood wide-eyed as he saw ships from the past rocket out from the scintillating jump points. Dilgar warships of every sort poured out of hyperspace: Ochlavita destroyers moved to intercept his squadron as larger Targrath strike cruisers assumed fire support positions. A wave of Thorun Dartfighters swarmed out in escorting patterns as he saw a Ni'Tratha heavy command cruiser bolster a formation of lighter Abrithi cruisers. Trelain saw the legendary Dilgar 'Pentacon' formation of five-ship squadrons. The Dilgar were the only race ever known to have such fine command and control for five-ship squadrons. Then his jaw truly dropped. Like some nightmare given physical form, a pair of horn-curved Mishakur dreadnoughts sailed out from hyperspace, quick and maneuverable for ships of such size. Their dappled green hulls reflected the continuing mad display of solar radiation.

For all of his awe, Commander Trelain was still a Centauri House line officer. "Order Ellian to open a jump point and escape with Gunboat 21 while we try to hold them off. Gunboat 14 stays with us."He knew it was hopeless, and he believed the crew knew as well. But the Dilgar were known to be notoriously…sinister when it came to the treatment of captives. Trelain vowed he would not be some sort of biological experiment for a Dilgar scientist.

The Marron and Gunboat 14 roared into action. Trelain was counting on the fact that the Dilgar had no scouts in system before they jumped. This would give him about one minute to fire with impunity before the Dilgar could return in kind. "Target closest Pentacon of Ochlavitas." The Marron shuddered as the matter and ion cannons fired a split second before the weapons from Gunboat 14 fired. One of the Dilgar destroyers took the full brunt of the salvo, crumpling inward. Though he had never faced them in combat, Trelain had heard that Dilgar warships packed weapons out of proportion to their size and armor, and seeing the destroyer be crippled by his fire supported the idea. In the corner of his tactical screen he saw an alternate jump point open for the Ellian and Gunboat 21 to escape.

Trelain saw that the Dilgar had recovered from their jump to realspace. Long-range fire from several Dilgar missile ships lash out at the Ellian, but the scout was equipped with stealth jamming systems and was untouched. All of the missiles fired went wide around the Ellian as she moved toward the jump point for escape. Commander Trelain knew it was a race to see if the Centauri scout and her gunboat counterpart could escape into hyperspace before the Dilgar could burn through the scout's jamming effect.

"Fire at those destroyers again!" Commander Trelain ordered. The Marron jumped slightly as her weapons salvoed at the Dilgar destroyers. He saw that Gunboat 14 had finished off the crippled destroyer with its fire as the Marron crippled a second destroyer. Trelain knew it wouldn't be long.

A Pentacon of strike cruisers opened up at him, blossoming vast amounts of destructive energy. They split their fire almost evenly between the Marron and Gunboat 14. He was knocked to the deck as the yellow-hued Dilgar bolters smashed into the Marron. He caught a split-second view of Gunboat 14 haloed in yellow bolter fire, and then it exploded, catching the Marron with some of the explosive backwash. Two of the bulkheads on the bridge collapsed down amid sparks and the shrieks of torn metal and torn flesh.

Acrid smoke had begun to fill the bridge as Commander Trelain shakily got to his feet. The bridge illumination clicked over to the greener emergency lighting. Trelain knew that only happened when the ship was crippled. He was surprised they had even survived the salvo. Never before had he seen such power unleashed from such a small number of ships.

On the barely functioning tactical screen he saw Gunboat 21 escape into hyperspace. He felt a small gleam of accomplishment that it had gotten away. The Ellian had chosen not to escape however, banking around and moving into attack position, firing her popgun laser at the Dilgar. Trelain's opinion, for whatever it was worth at this moment, went up a notch for Ante-Commander Lasio. It was bold staying behind to help, bold and foolish, but Trelain couldn't help feeling some small comfort his ship wouldn't die alone.

Finally on his feet he glanced at the ship's status readout on the tactical display: all forward weapons were offline and the engines were severely damaged. He opened the inter-ship comms and gave his final order, "Engineering, give me ramming speed." Navigator Senes was dead in his chair. Commander Trelain reached around him as he set the coordinates to ram the closest Dilgar strike cruiser. Just as he was nearly finished setting the collision course, the Dilgar were finally able to burn through the Ellian's jamming. Much like Gunboat 14, she was engulfed in bolter fire. Her fan-winged shape briefly made a dark spot at the nucleus of the fire, and then she added her own explosive brightness and was gone.

Just as Commander Trelain finished setting his ship to ram the Dilgar, another gout of fire from the strike cruisers engulfed the Marron, knocking him to the deck again. Emergency lighting grew dimmer and he heard over the inter-ship comms, "Commander, Engineering here, can you hear me? Commander I cannot give you ramming speed, we are adrift! I say again Commander: we are adrift!"

Trelain pulled himself to his feet again, tasting blood in his mouth. Most of the bridge crew were dead. The ventilators could not keep up with the smoke as it hung lazily in the air. Trelain noticed the comms light flashing indicating an incoming message was being received. He flicked the comms switch, allowing the message to come over the bridge speakers.

"Altarian-class Centauri warship. You are trespassing in a system claimed by the Dilgar Imperium." Though the voice spoke the Centauri language with schoolroom perfection it carried a harsh accent that Trelain knew only a native Dilgar speaker could muster. He had heard such an accent before, nearly twenty years ago while on another escort duty, that time into Brakiri space. His commander at the time had entertained a Dilgar ShipCaptain for dinner. While his commander knew only a few phrases in the Dilgar language (mostly epithets), the Dilgar had been conversant in the melodic Centauri tongue, but it had sounded just as harsh as the voice coming from the speakers today.

"I say again, Altarian-class Centauri warship you are trespassing in a Dilgar system." The voice paused then said plaintively, "Centauri warship you are outgunned and outnumbered. Your support ships are destroyed or escaped. Out of courtesy for our two races' past friendship we ask for your surrender." This was a pretty point, the Dilgar were not known to ask for surrender.

Trelain thought for a moment, looking at the firepower pointed at his ship. Though the Dilgar were known for many, many, manyatrocities, none were to the Centauri. Perhaps the mention of 'past friendship' would allow them to survive capture. Trelain pressed the 'send' button and said the fateful words, "Commander Dilgar forces: I am Commander Regilio Brokano Trelain, Na-House of Banadine. I offer the surrender of my command to you."

"We accept your surrender after such a hopeless encounter," The voice grated on, "I salute your valor."

Regilio Trelain nearly swooned from blood loss. He steadied himself against the console and said, "We have wounded here. I ask that my men have proper care."

"Of course Commander," the voice continued. "I will send over surgeons teams immediately."

Trelain inhaled deeply and noticed for the first time a sharp pain in his side. "Probably broke a rib" he thought. He addressed the comms again, "And to whom do I have the honor of surrendering?"

There was a short pause before the voice continued, "I am Warmaster Ka'Ramas of the Dilgar Imperium, Prime Expeditionary Fleet." Trelain mulled that over: "Prime Expeditionary Fleet? What in the Seven Yellow Hells was that?" To Trelain's knowledge the Dilgar had only fielded three of what they called Strike Fleets, one Home Fleet and one Reserve Fleet. Their Home fleet, Reserve Fleet, and the remnants of the three Strike Fleets had been destroyed right here nine years ago. Just before that battle the combined Earth-Hyach force had destroyed Warmaster Ka'Ramas' weapons facility: Trelain had seen the destroyed moon himself. "How long have they been gone and how much do they know?" he wondered.

"Thank-you Warmaster." He paused then said, "I am looking forward to meeting you."

"And I you Commander," the voice said. Moments crawled by as Trelain found his breathing getting more difficult.

The voice spoke again, "I have a question for you Commander."

"Yes Warmaster?" Trelain asked. As his vision began to dim some, he could see on the tactical display several shuttles coming over from the nearest Targrath-class strike cruisers. Hopefully they contained medical teams.

"Tell me Commander," the voice said, "How did the war end?" It then dropped to an almost hissing whisper, "And where is the new homeworld of my people?"

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