Dark Haven 2 - Chapter 5

[crunn]

Chapter 01 (Survivors)
Chapter 02 (Excursions)
Chapter 03 (No Place Like Home)
Chapter 04 (Rising)

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DARK HAVEN 2

Chapter 5 (Politics)


Discoverer (Pierson)


Pierson and the ship computer speak in unison.
"Entering system Teladi Way."

"I knew you were going to say that."
*Chuckle*

'I don't see the Jubilee.
Probably over by the roids somewhere.'

The small ship speeds away from the gate.

...

'Ah there it is. Parked in the path right in-front of the East gate.'

"Pierson to Jubilee."

"Go ahead Lieutenant." The Ensign answers.

"I'm back.
And I brought the Advanced Satellites."

"Good." The Captain this time.
"Six? And reasonably priced?"

"Yes six, and with the EC's and all, it worked out at 9043 each."

"Ok."

'She hasn't a clue.
None of them do.
It's amazing how little these military folk know about even the simplest matters of economy.
I'm sure the only person to appreciate or even notice the good price I got will be some lowly book keeper back at AFC'
"Do you want me to dock or deploy them with the Disco?"

"It will be quicker in the Discoverer.
Place the first in the centre of the sector.
Second at the edge of the path near the gate. Fifty metres behind the Jubilee would be perfect.
Third, deep in the asteroid field. I'll send the co-ordinates in a moment.
Number four we'll keep for the Xenon gate. Five and six are spare...
Ok, there are the Co-ordinates for number three.
Call back when you are done."

"Yes sir. Pierson out."
'No rest for the wicked. I must have been really really bad.'

'Ecliptic Projector on. Find the centre.
There.
Not far from the Xenon battle.
Still some debris.
I see the Teladi have wasted no time in salvaging anything of value.
You've got to love the Teladi, you know exactly where their loyalties lie.'

'Almost there.
Opening cargo doors.'

"Warning cargo bay open shields are down."
"Cargo bay closed."

'Number one away.
Signal strong.
Receiving sector information.
Good.'

'Not much more in the sector than I could already see.
Now for number two.'

...

'I'm approaching the Jubilee and the gate.
I really don't like being so close to that gate again.
Twice now I've fled from that sector with thousands of bad things hot on my tail.
Not again.'

'There's number two away.
Signal good.
Now for number three. Co-ordinates...
That is deep.
Well, the sooner I get there...'

Pierson, with some difficulty, slowly navigates the dense asteroid field.

...

Fifteen Mizuras later.

"Rocks and rocks, and guess what, more rocks. Wonderful!"

'Nearly there. One K.
Anywhere near that small roid ahead will do fine.'

'Deployed.
Signal strong, good.'

"There you go, Terracorp, quality products."

'Now back to the Jubilee.'

...

Discoverer (Sina)


"Entering system Elena's Fortune."

'Pirates.
Three.
Blood Moon again.
Bayamon and two Mandalays.'

'Upgrades...
Not many
Max weapons and shields on all.
Good speed and rudder on the Mandalays.
Speed, strafe and boosters on the Bayamon.'

'I think I can take them.
Better say to the Admiral first.'

"Admiral, we have..."

A communication cuts her off.

"Argon Fleet ship, this is Blood Moon fighter squadron we have taken your attack on our sector as an act of war.
"Prepare to die!"

"Five Kilometres Admiral.
I can take them."

"I believe you.
But we don't have time for this.
We can outrun them, go around."

"Yes sir." A slightly disappointed Sina answers.

The young Lieutenant turns hard right and hits the boosters.
4K... 3K... 5K... 7K...
She brings the ship back to face the Presidents End gate.
The pirates gradually disappear into the distance.

...


Jubilee


"That's Lieutenant Pierson reporting in. Satellites deployed."

"Very good Pierson.
Dock then get some rest.
We are all tired."

"Thanks Captain.
I'll be docked in a few miz.
Pierson out."

"That goes for us too Ensign Jareat, rest.
We'll leave the ship in the capable hands of Lieutenant Keswen and Ensign Tarr.
Normally Sina would have been with you, but I'm sure you will manage.
Once Pierson docks take us out of the field and patrol the sector.
Take care of any Pirates and Xenon that come through.
Anything bigger than your average raiding party, call me.
Anything black and evil looking, run like hell.
See you in a few stazuras."

...


Discoverer (Sina)


Sina calls through to the living area.
"Admiral, we are in Argon Prime, docking at Argon Fleet Command in a couple of mizuras."

A voice from somewhere behind.
"Thankyou Lieutenant."

"Argon Fleet Command, this is Lieutenant Sina with Admiral Illandas, requesting permission to dock."

"Granted."

...

"We have docked now Admiral."

"Yes. And thankyou again Lieutenant."

A dishevelled looking Illandas, having just finished transferring the logs from the battles to Ornovs office, gathers up his crumpled jacket and collection of PDP's then exits the Discoverer. Sina follows.

"Oh, yes Lieutenant, report to the flight academy, say I sent you to complete your training."

"Yes Admiral."

As Sina turns to re-enter the ship she notices two rather irate engineers loosing their temper with a control panel.
Illandas makes his way to the elevator. The doors slide open.

An apprehensive Illandas steps out and heads towards Ornov's office.

He pauses a moment and stares at the name on the door...

Just as he reaches up to open the door he is startled by Commander Reamus who has seemingly appeared from nowhere.
Reamus speaks in a hurried, almost panicked manor. "Admiral, Admiral I'm sorry I couldn't meet you at the dock. I was rather... Emm..."

Illandas resettles himself and presses the button.

Reamus speeds up. "Anyway, I made the appointment with the President and..."

With the door now fully open Illandas glances into the room and is rendered speechless by the sight.

"...She is here." Reamus concludes.

President Tsoli is sat in Ornovs chair looking through the logs from the Armadeaus. She looks up expectantly at Illandas who after a moment musters some words.
"...Thankyou Commander."

"Come in General." The President says. Illandas takes a step forward allowing the door to close behind him.
Reamus returns to his office.

"Good day Madam President. I am a little surprised to see you here."

"I didn't want to waste any time so I came straight here.
Do take a seat General.
First thing's first. You are next in line for the position of Admiral of the Fleet.
I read through your record and am quite impressed.
So, let's make it official.
Do you, General Illandas accept the position of Admiral of the Fleet?"

"Yes I do."

"Congratulations Admiral Illandas.
We can sort out the paperwork and ceremony later.
Right now we have more important things to deal with."

"Of course."

"Your Commander Reamus was good enough to show me to the high security records office.
I wasn't aware that existed until now."

"I've only been there once myself, some jazuras ago."

"I saw the old Xenon record of these...
These Alien ships.
Do we have a name for them?"

"No.
Captain Monroe was closest to them but even he didn't know their name.
He referred to them as 'The Black', The Black ships The Black Spore and so on.
But that was more descriptive than name."

"Descriptive certainly.
Well until we have a name, descriptive will do.
I had just started on the Armadeaus' logs."

"By all means let us continue.
The Teladi Solar Power Plant, you see there, was owned by the Blood Moon Pirates, who are becoming a little troublesome, and with us having lost most of the fleet...
Anyway, this Black Spore attached itself to the station and actually started to consume it.
You see here it had covered most of the exterior.
Captain Monroe's personal logs, we'll get to them shortly, explain that it was breaking apart the interior of the station and eating it, along with the docked ships and personnel.
As you can see the sensors couldn't penetrate the black substance.
Now if we bring up the station again as seen by the Jubilee a few stazuras later."

Illandas switches to the next image.

"The Spore had consumed much of the station and was beginning to take its own shape.
The third incursion into Dark Haven, this time the fleet, we only managed to get close enough for long-range scanners, so just a silhouette."

The image is changed again.
The President moves closer intensely studying.

"Now you see the fully developed Spore, or as Monroe would have said "The Spore has Erupted"."

"This Spore, it acts like a gate of sorts?"

"We believe so.
Monroe thought that this Spore links back to another somewhere in their home sectors.
Once the Spore Erupts they send their fleets through to secure the new sector.
Now, their ships..."

He brings up the video footage of the small ships chasing Pierson.

"We counted nine hundred and seventy there."

"That is a lot of ships." Remarks the President

"These small ships always seem to travel together." He says as he zooms the image on one.

"They look quite insect-like."

"Yes.
The size puts them around the M5 class.
We believe they were responsible for the destruction of the Armadeaus.
They seem to act as guardians to the Spore. If anything comes within range they attack it and feed the debris to the Spore."

"Weapons capabilities?"

"Not entirely sure.
We have no idea how they destroyed the Armadeaus.
They attacked the Discoverer with long-range area effect EMP weapons, fired like artillery.
The Jubilee was leaving the sector as they attacked the few remaining fighters. So no clear readings, but it looked like some form of standard energy weapon."

"I see."

"Next, another ship you saw in the old records.
Their huge capital ship.
We have only ever seen them travelling in the group of four.
As you can see, they are far bigger and more powerful than anything we have.
If I were to classify it I'd say M0.
Length is less than the Xenon M0. But volume, weapons and hull strength are greater.
Shields... They don't use shields but the toughness of their hull makes up for that.
Now, here are the video records from the Argon One. No noticeable difference between these M0's and the ones in the old records. That's probably the only good thing here."

The President raises a sceptical eyebrow.

Illandas continues. "Their acceleration is much faster than that of the small ships but they do seem to have a top speed, 540, fast."

The President's sceptical eyebrow descends. "I'm hearing alot of 'seem to', 'probably', 'perhaps'."

"Yes. You see most of the information we have is purely from observation. Scanners are virtually useless on them, so other than size, shape and speed. The rest is observation, deduction and simple guess work."
The Admiral gets back to the information. "The weapons on these M0 ships are utterly formidable. You have seen them in action on the Xenon records.
Forward and rear weapon spikes. Single focused burst or multiple spread shots. Remarkably efficient at taking out Capitals and fighters alike.
Their weapon discharges look like electricity. I'll pass the scans of the discharges on to the research team, maybe they can come up with some form of defence against them."
Illandas' expression betrays his desperation and weariness.
"The third and final ships type we saw..."

Another silhouette image is displayed.

"...is this.
We only caught this glimpse on long-range as we fled.
Slightly larger than a Titan, possibly their M2 class. Much thinner than their M0.
It looks like, here... and here..." The Admiral points to the front and rear of the ship.
"They have the same weapon spikes. Perhaps smaller and less of them, but I'm sure no less deadly."

President Tsoli speaks again "So this all the information we have on their ships, and what of the aliens themselves?"

"We have nothing atall of the aliens. Even Captain Monroe never saw them. He said that he had a brief 'connection' with the spore while it attacked him. His personal logs and the logs he took from the station give us some information on the way the Spore took over the station.
What little he told me on board the Jubilee suggests that they may be nothing more than hostile expansionists looking for territory and resources.
I am, in a way, hoping that this is the case. If we prove to them that we are more trouble than we are worth they might leave us alone.
If they have a greater intelligence behind them they might be upset that we killed several of their ships and want to retaliate...
Oh yes, I say 'killed' because we believe they are organic. Appearance, certainly, and when they take heavy damage they appear to bleed."

...

Illandas has now finished showing Tsoli through the important sections of Monroe's logs and the pirate station logs.
He then presses several controls. A large view screen is revealed from within the back wall, the lights dim and the play-back begins.
"Now for the Battle of Dark Haven."

A few mizuras later the video ends and the lights return to normal.
Both sit in silence for several sezuras.
The President is clearly shocked by the footage, Illandas no less so despite having been there.

Finally Tsoli breaks the silence "We faired better than the Xenon... But...
Did Monroe get nothing more from his 'connection'? How to kill them? Anything useful?"

"Perhaps he could have told us more, But as you know he sacrificed himself to save the rest of us by destroying the gate."

"So with the gate destroyed do you think we will see these aliens again?"

"That is a difficult one.
I certainly hope not. But I have this bad feeling..."

"Me too.
Do you think they could find another way in?"

"Definitely. One way or another.
Most known sectors have more than one gate. There are usually two or more routs to get from any one sector to any other.
Also Monroe said that they periodically send out large numbers of immature Spores through deep space.
So regardless of Dark Haven there are other Spores out there."

"I see.
So generally speaking, everything looks bad."

"And we have no fleet."

"Yes.
I believe all we have left are the ships which couldn't make it to Dark Haven.
That would be Tirnocks Titan, engine trouble, something about a Jumpdrive?
The Jubilee and several other Corvettes in various distant sectors. Also a handful of fighters."

"Exactly right.
At the moment our strength lies only in the Corvettes.
However, the Jubilee had no noticeable effect on the Black ships so they may be no strength atall.
Also we have the possible new Xenon sector north of Teladi Way and the Blood Moon Pirates causing trouble. They seem to be specifically targeting Argon Fleet ships. Understandable really, they think we destroyed their Solar Power Plant. One of their Fleet Captains wouldn't believe us about the Black Ships so they attacked the Jubilee and lost. I was almost attacked by another group on my way here.
Not a major concern, but they picked a bad time."

Illandas, who's eyes had been wandering, now fixes his stare intently into the eyes of the President.
"Madame President, we need to rebuild the fleet and we need to increase the size of the fleet considerably.
Our very survival depends on it."

President Tsoli is now returning the intensity of the eye contact.
"Agreed.
On my way here I reviewed the finances.
Very bad.
We still haven't recovered from the crop failure two jazuras ago. We had to spend an extraordinary amount of credits on imports and new orbital food facilities, Wheat Farms and such, which we are still paying for and will be for jazuras to come.
I have done some reshuffling of the finances. Some people will be incredibly unhappy with me, but it is done.
I have got you enough credits to rebuild the lost ships, some extra to ensure they and the surviving ships receive full upgrades including Jumpdrives."

'This is not enough, this is not good enough.' Thinks Illandas getting rather frustrated.
He remembers Ornovs last words to him, 'Rebuild the fleet, I don't care what the finance department says, you know what fire power is needed here, do whatever it takes.'
'This is not the finance department, but whatever it takes.'

The Admiral speaks before the President can continue. "With all due respect, I don't think replacing the lost ships will be enough. Almost the entire Argon Fleet and half the Boron and Teladi Fleets could only take down three of their ships. There were a thousand enemy ships there and we were only fighting four. We were dead before the rest could reach us."

"Please let me finish." The President jumps back in, raising Illandas' frustration all the more.
"I realise the importance of this.
I have put the Shipyards and Wharfs of Argon Prime and Omicron Lyrae fully at your disposal. All civilian work will be handled elsewhere."

"Thankyou."

"We will talk again about increasing the fleet once it is back to its original size."

Illandas nods in appreciation.
"What of the other races?
I'm sure we can count on the support of the Boron again. Possibly the Teladi. The Paranid and Split are a different matter. Ornov did his best but they refused."

"Well let's face it. Ornov was an excellent soldier but a terrible diplomat I'll talk to the other races. I will need all of these records transferred to my office, including the old Xenon record. I'm going to need to look through them again first. Maybe seeing this will scare them into joining us.
Can you think of anyone else who might be able to help... when it comes to it?"

"You mean the Pirates or Xenon?" Illandas looks puzzled.

"Not quite what I had in mind, but do you think they would?"

"No.
We tried contacting the Xenon before they attacked us in Teladi Way. No response as usual.
The Pirates wouldn't get involved. In fact I believe they would try to take full advantage of this situation if they found out we lost the fleet.
I'll be recalling the M6's, in part, as a show of force incase the Blood Moons decide to try anything more."

"Right.
I was thinking more of Kyle Brennan.
I know he has helped us several times in the past."

"That he has, but I don't think he'll be much help this time.
He is no longer a young man. He sold all his fleets to pay for his commercial and research enterprises. He has nothing more than standard station defence fighters."

"Pity. Still, I'd like him to know. He of all people deserves to know what's happening.
Perhaps there is some other way he could help?
He sells jumpdrives?"

"Yes."

"Have you ever met him?" Questions the President.

"Once briefly some jazuras ago."

"That's more than I.
I'd like you to go see Brennan personally.
Your reason is to secure a contract for jumpdrives for the fleet. See about getting a deal, bulk order, price reduction, whatever.
But while you are there warn him of these aliens. Show him the Xenon video records and the Battle at Dark Haven.
Make him think that you are letting him know as a favour that he might better defend his stations.
Don't ask for any help in the matter, I don't want him thinking you are there begging for help.
Ok, so he's probably not able to help anyway, but at the very least him buying more defence fighters will help the economy a little."

"Certainly.
Let me know how it goes with the other races. I'd like to know if we can count on their support if or when the time comes."

"Of course.
Well Admiral, if there is nothing else I'd better get back to Argon Prime."

"No, I'll speak to you again soon."

President Tsoli leaves the office.

Admiral Illandas steps behind his desk and looks dauntingly at his chair.
'That is a big chair.
Am I big enough to sit in it?
I need to be...'
He sits.

[KiwiNZ]

Very good read! Good re-collection of the events

Yes, they are facing a bit of a problem there. What you possibly could have had the Admiral point out is the effect of the DHEPT, so they will outfit the ships with those rather than only one turret.

Looking forward to the next chapter!

[Moss]

Good chapter Crunn, looks like Illandas has a lot of work ahead, and a huge fleet to build up. Considering how badly things went and how many different races lost so much in the battle, I'd think some super weapons will be needed rather than just more ships or as well as more ships.

[crunn]

Ahhh, super weapons... hmm nice...
Yes super weapons would be good.

Ad Illandas will be dealing with the outfitting of fleet weapons soon enough.
DHEPT's of course, but will they be enough?
The prototype on the Argon One tore appart the Xenon ships, but didn't seem to do as well against the Black ships as they'd hoped.

Sooo... some super weapons would be nice


Thanks guys.

[FourFingers]

good stuff there!

They are in real trouble.. they got their collective behinds handed to them on a platter at the battle of dark haven.. unless they can come up with some sort of weakness or weapon to ballance the odds they are gonna get deja vu!!

awaiting to see what plans are formed