Remnants of Empire Read online

  Remnants of Empire

  The Earth Saga IV

  Donald B McFarlane

  Copyright 2016 Donald B McFarlane

  www.donaldbmcfarlane.com

  For Fans of Science Fiction

  Acknowledgments

  I would like to thank the following people for their support since 1980.

  Andy Barnham

  Nick Beaudrot

  Nick Cryne

  Tom Lindley

  John McFarlane

  Zach North

  David Press

  Nathan Pullin

  Jim Sells

  Asa Sherrill

  Mike Tattersall

  Leo & Milos

  “The Real Joe Hunt”

  Remnants of Empire

  1

  60 Years Ago...

  Nadolo Prime had never been on any major trade routes or on the tip of anyone’s tongue back on Mechcharga, or back on the old Imperial Capital of Jarosis when the Empire was still in bloom for that matter, and after ten years of war, it was a backwater world on the fringes of the Borders, and just a few light years inside the Etelainen territory. All of which made it perhaps the most conspicuous place in the galaxy for a summit of politicians, military officials and defence contractors.

  Perhaps it was the renowned thermal pools on the northern continent that drew the ten individuals to the remote planet, but it was very hard for the inhabitants of the world to not recognize the significance of so many pristine ships arriving in orbit which drew a considerable amount of attention, but the arrival of a Fleet Command Ship, which stretched twenty thousand metres in length, and was one of just seven Alliance possession, really got the inhabitants attention, and especially that of the local garrison commander.

  When asked why the flagship of the 5th Fleet was now orbiting a world in the 2nd Fleets sector, a straightforward reply that it was on a classified mission, was sent followed by all off-world communications being jammed until the ship jumped out of the system.

  Like many planets near The Reach, Nadolo Prime was scantily populated, and had only a handful of occupied settlements, none of which were the destinations for the shuttles that were descending to the planet’s surface, landing not far from the Avatos Falls, a waterfall reaching over two thousand metres in height, and the only attraction on the entire planet other than the thermal baths which were too hot for biologicals to enjoy.

  As each shuttle landed, a sole occupant descended, and walked to the un-kept observation platform. The last shuttle to arrive was from the 5th Fleet command ship, and the one individual to exit the ship did so on a hovering chair that transported the morbidly obese Admiral Zalenious, who zipped away from his shuttle towards the gathering.

  When he reached nine other attendees, he started barking at them as if he were on a parade square. “Whose idea was it to come all the way out here?”

  A thin female with jet black skin from Sabir stepped forward, her long arms hanging well past her tiny waist. “My dear Admiral, this is the place in the galaxy we can be assured we will not encounter anyone who knows any of us.” She said in a very eloquent accent. She looked at the others that were standing nearby, “And I am confident that no one here wants any publicity of this meeting leaking to members of the Royal Council or Fleet Command.” She looked back at the Admiral, “Which makes me wonder why you brought your command ship, and not a less distinctive craft like the rest of us, Admiral?” Before he could speak, she continued. “As you know, the war has entered its tenth cycle, and my factories are continuing to make all forms of goods for the fleet, and I am beginning to wonder how we can ensure that this trend is not reversed anytime soon.”

  “What are you suggesting?” Asked a short Floxian on her right.

  “Admiral, is it not true that negotiations of truce are going to start with the Coalition?” The thin female asked.

  “That is true.” The Admiral replied.

  “Then we must ensure that those negotiations are not allowed to succeed.” She said. “I have been contacted by someone I have known on Mechcharga from a time before the war, and he informed me that the war has been immensely profitable for him, as it has been for us. He suggested that he had thought about options to prolong the war in jest, but on further consideration, he did mention that there is a group on Mechcharga of like-minded individuals who were benefiting too much from the war to allow it to stop.”

  Several attendees nodded, and then a young Porthian stepped forward to address the group. “But how can we interfere in this peace process?”

  “My contact on Mechcharga has several contacts in the military, and he would consider contacting them if the conditions are right.” She said confidently.

  The young male shook his head. “But is it really that simple?”

  “Disrupting the peace process is no difficult task on its own.” Commented the Admiral, “But extending the war will require something a little more dramatic to incense the citizens of the Etelainen into demanding that we not only continue the war but do everything possible to win the war, without actually winning it.”

  “What do you have in mind?” Ask another attendee, “Assassinate the Princess?”

  “Are you mad?” Snapped the thin female. “Something like that could actually result in the proletariat demanding that we end the war.” She rubbed her chin, “No, we need to convince the people that the Coalition has perpetrated some horrible crime.” She looked at the Admiral. “Perhaps the destruction of a small outpost or medical facility. Timed perfectly with the elimination of any peace delegation, of course.” She smiled and leant down to the Admiral. “Where are these negotiations expected to take place?”

  “Levava.”

  “In the Core.” She said, beaming a smile. “Perfect. Ships go missing all the time in the Core.”

  She turned and looked at an old male from Ruylor 3 who was staring up at the huge waterfall. “Dukot, what do you think?”

  The old man continued to look away from the group, and up to one of the great wonders of the galaxy. “We must not allow the status quo to change. Anyone that stands in our way must be eliminated, and in doing so, we can guarantee our prosperity for generations to come.” He turned and looked at the group. “The Empire was bad for our profits, and we cannot allow peace to return to the universe. It was the Prince’s quest for power that started the war, but we are the ones who are winning the war.” The comment drew several nodes. “All we need is for nothing to change,” The man paused for a moment, then smiled. “Nothing.”

  “Really?” asked the thin female. “You think it could be that simple?”

  “Yes, if the meeting is off Levava.” The old man shot back. “All we need is the cooperation of a limited number of our own loyal forces and the help of some pirates.”

  “Pirates?” asked another member of the group.

  “The Core is under control of neither the Alliance or the Coalition, and most of the worlds are completely devoid of life, but several rival factions are vying for control of what remains.” The old man answered.

  “Yes.” The Admiral said. “Made up mostly of forces that were loyal to the Emperor when the war started and didn’t pick a side plus a hodgepodge of other groups. There are also several powerful factions that were once part of a systems internal security forces.” The Admiral pulled out a long piece of tobacco from his tunic and lit it. “While Dukot is correct that almost all the Core worlds are in ruins, and without any major population bases, there are still powerful forces at work there.” He took a drag of the tobacco. “We just need to figure out who we can trust to, how shall I put it, assist us, with our cause.”

  Dukot nodded. “We need to pick a fraction with the most to win. Then offer them a way to prosper from
our alliance.”

  “What faction claims dominance in the Levava system?” Asked another attendee, looking at the Admiral.

  “Just a moment.” The Admiral replied, and pulled out a small datapad from his tunic and quickly tapped away at it until he found the answer he was looking for. “The Star Gliders. Ex-Imperial forces. Not an easy bunch to deal with. I know that the 7th Fleet has had some nasty scrapes with them.”

  Dukot smiled. “All we need to do now is find their biggest rival, and offer them the opportunity to knock the Star Gliders down a few notches.”

  “And then use them to blame for the attack on the peace process.” Added the thin female.

  “Exactly.” Answered the Admiral.

  “Do you have a team capable of this operation?” Dukot asked.

  “I do. I’ve used them before, and they are very trustworthy.” The Admiral replied.

  “What happens once the peace conference is sabotaged?” Asked the thin female.

  “We use our connections in military intelligence and Comms-Link to restrict all communications coming in or out of the Etelainen. Once that is accomplished we can control the message we want to the people to hear.” The Admiral said confidently.

  Dukot turned and looked back at the massive waterfall that was dominating the landscape in the distance. “We can’t allow peace to destabilise what we have grown over these past years.” He turned back to the group. “As long as we keep all the important pieces under our control, we’ll have total control behind the scenes within the Alliance.”

  2

  The ship jumped into the Fonua System at the furthest point that the scanners would operate from the prime world, Fonua. The once lush Core world had seen a full-scale evacuation during the middle of a nuclear exchange nine years ago, and while Fonua might have been uninhabitable, its moon was still occupied and had been taken over by a group of miners that were scattered throughout the system, and took the name Brotherhood of Fonua.

  When the citizens of Fonua were being evacuated to the Pohjois territory while being simultaneously vaporised in nuclear strikes, the miners had remained in the shadows, deep underground on the moons and minor planets of the system, and on the mineral-rich asteroid belt that slinked its way through the system. After the bulk of the fighting between the Alliance and Coalition had stopped, the miners appeared and took control of the system. They looted what military supplies and ships had been abandoned by both warring factions, and now could claim 150,000 souls underarms, and even four starships with jump drives.

  The detachment leader from the 5th Fleets Dynamic Operations premier team knew what capabilities the miners had, and wanted to make a strong first impression on them.

  The bridge of the ship was tiny. There was just enough room for the pilot, navigator and gunner to fit into the cramped quarters around the team leaders chair in the centre of the space. All the seats were positioned reclined and slightly recessed into the decking.

  Panels of dials and knobs covered the walls of the bridge, but somehow it managed to look uncluttered. The small Dynamic Operations insertion vessel was an old racing ship converted to military use and was nearly invisible to sensor technology, but not as invisible as a stealth ship.

  “Distance to closest contact?” Bender asked. The team leader had countless missions of experience and had managed to make it off Jarosis during the opening hours of the war while providing protection for several senior delegates. After that, he had quickly sworn allegiance to Princess Via and the Etelainen Periphery, but wars change people, and he and his team needed to be paid. Food rationing was starting on some worlds, and Bender knew that his family and those of his teammates could use the extra coin. This mission would provide that.

  “6000 off the port. Looks like an ore haulier.” Reported Standish, the lone female operator on the team who also served as the team’s pilot.

  “Clar, run a scan and pull up any data on file.”

  There was a pause as the navigator scanned the haulier, and ran a check through the ship's database. “NX-62497,” Clar responded. “No weapons listed. Crew of two. Its hold is large enough for our ship.”

  “Plot its course.”

  “Heading towards Fonua’s moon.” Came the reply.

  Bender rubs his hands together. “Looks like we’ve found our ride.” He looked at his overhead display of the system. “Standish, make a high-speed run on their stern, and position us over their rear docking hatch.” Bender hit the ships communications system, “Reyn, is your team ready?”

  The reply came swiftly. “We are in position at the airlock.”

  “Good. Zero kills. I want them alive.” Bender ordered.

  “Understood.”

  Bender brought his attention back to the front of the bridge and looked out past his pilot at the lumbering haulier that they were sneaking up on.

  “Clar, what scanners does that have?”

  “Front mounted only, and docking.”

  Bender nodded. This was a high-risk mission, but his team was going up against an unskilled force and had the element of surprise, and for once, Bender wasn’t looking for a fight.

  The slow haulier moved through space at a glacial pace. It was massive and had been built with the single task of moving ore and minerals from one of the hundred mines that dotted the system to one of the processing plants on Fonua’s moon. During the time of the Empire, the system was one of the greatest sources of minerals in the galaxy, but with most of the system evacuated, and Fonua uninhabitable, neither the Coalition or the Alliance had thought to reclaim the precious spoils that it held, which allowed the Brotherhood of Fonua to rise to power.

  Moving into a position atop the haulier, the small Alliance ship matched speed with the slower ship, and placed itself just a metre over the rear cargo docking hatch, in a perfect spot for the raiding team to seamlessly egress from the one ship, and make it to the haulier.

  “Ready deployment.” Came the call over the bridges intercom.

  “Deploy.” Bender ordered and quickly brought his attention to the four screens above his position that were receiving imagery and bio-data from the four assaulting team members. Each suit was also equipped with a tracking system that allowed Bender to monitor them over a large battlefield while allowing him to track medical data, ammunition expenditure and remaining suit life.

  The jump from the Alliance ship was something anyone who had ever done a spacewalk could accomplish, and considering the minuscule distance needed to cover, it was rudimentary to the extreme. The haulier was just under one hundred metres in length and comprised a small bridge at the front, and a large storage compartment at the rear. A pair of hatches were atop the rear of the vessel spread about fifty yards apart. Playing it safe, the team approached the hatch furthest to the back of the ship, and quickly opened the unsecured hatch, and slipped into the transition compartment, and waited for their suits to be decontaminated and for the room to be brought to the same pressure as the ship.

  “Air-lock secured. Proceeding into the ship.” Reyn reported.

  Bender knew that an old haulier like the one they were in the process of capturing probably wouldn’t have had sensors on its airlocks, so there was still an excellent chance that their presence had yet to be detected.

  Looking at the tracking monitors, Bender reckoned that it would be a good time to jam the ship's communications systems, a move that would probably not go unnoticed, but had to be done.

  “Clar, jam them.”

  “Done.”

  Bender nodded. If he knew Reyn, and he did, very well, he suspected that the strike team would have control of the haulier in almost no time at all. In his head, he slowly started to count, and before he could reach thirty, a call came through to the bridge.

  “Secure.” It was Reyn, and he sounded slightly out of breath.

  “Run?” Bender asked with a smile.

  “Had to. New record.” Came the reply.

  Bender let out a laugh. “Dump the cargo, an
d prepare the cargo hold for the racer.”

  “Give me a few.” Reyn replied in the usual nonchalant manner that set him apart from other operators that Bender had worked with, it helped that he was considered one of the best operators in the Dynamic Operations community.

  “Clar, nearest contact.”

  “Nothing within 300 million kilometres. A few small transports beyond that.”

  “Understood.” Bender looked at the weapons station, “Power down all weapons systems.” He ordered, and pulled himself out of his command chair, ducking down as he moved off the bridge. “Standish, you have the bridge.”

  Moving down the tight corridor that separated bridge and the operations room where Bender stopped at his locker and pulled out his fighting knife, and strapped the weapon to his right hip, it was all he would need for intimidation. Reaching the rear ramp, and waited for Reyn to dump the ore that the ship had been carrying, and for Standish to slip the diminutive raider into the cargo hold of the haulier.

  After several patient moments waiting, Bender could hear the landing gear extend from the underbody of the ship, and extend away from the ship. Seconds later, he could feel the ship make contact with something, and then the landing gear come to rest.

  Hitting the exit ramp command pad, a section of flooring to his front slid back, and a set of steps lowered out from under the ship, and onto the haulier’s decking.

  Ducking down as he moved down the steps, he exited the ship and suddenly found himself in the bowels of the old commercial vessel. The cargo hold had been emptied, leaving a heavily scarred, rusted large open space that looked like it had been hauling ore and other goods around the system for decades. Two of the strike team members were standing nearby and indicated the direction to the bridge.

  Walking down the empty hold, Bender couldn’t help but wonder why, if this was an indication of the limited capability that the Brotherhood of Fonua possessed, then why the Coalition hadn’t retaken the system, which was still rich in mineral wealth. Making it to the end of the hold, Bender passed through a hatch, and immediately found himself on the bridge, facing two Fonians that were hanging upside down from their feet.