Shadow Core - The Legacy (25 page)

Zen said in a derisive tone, “He's a weird one.”

“You really don't like it?” Toby asked, wondering why Zen seemed to despise it so much.

“No, it makes me feel strange, like the ship is trying to control me, it's... hard to explain,” Zen said.

“I can certainly understand that feeling. Right now I'm not sure I could tell you where I end and the Zenith begins. It's borderline exhilarating, yet frightening. Feels like I could get swallowed up whole,” Toby said.  

“You see, I told you!” Zen said, feeling vindicated.

“Zen, that just means you need more practice at controlling the system so that it doesn't overwhelm your senses,” Static said, leaving Zen pouting.

It took Toby a few minutes to learn how to interpret what felt like limitless information, but he was quickly getting to grips with understanding and managing all of the systems under his control.

“It's hard to believe how much the Zenith has changed since I last saw it. It may look the same from the outside but every single system has been updated or replaced since I last walked its halls,” Toby said.

“We like to keep the technology up to date and try out some prototypes from time to time. But one or two things haven't changed,” Static said.

“The Vortex drive?” Toby asked.

Static said encouragingly, “Yes. I see you're getting accustomed to the system.”

“The power generator is completely new, and this field the ship is generating right now is insane. How can the ship generate enough energy to sustain such a large area... oh! I see!” Toby said with a surprised look as the system answered his question before he could even finish the sentence.

“Are you talking about the disruption field that surrounds the ship? We flew through the thing on our way in and according to our calculations you could hide a whole planet inside it.” Kade said, hoping for some sort of explanation on how such a feat was possible.

“It isn't really a field. In the simplest terms I can think of, we are disrupting the dimensional intersection of the surrounding area. The only reason we can do it on a wide scale is because this area of space is already unstable to begin with,” Static said.

Kade asked with a dumbfounded look, “That's what you consider a simple explanation?”

“You should listen to the complicated one. It's all about cross dimensional interactions across the primary universal layers. Leading on to the 27 dimension theory. It even gives me headaches.” Static smiled.

“You... what?” Kade said, completely confused.

“Just nod and smile, that's what I do when they start talking about this kind of stuff,” Zen said.

“Good grief, you actually made it work?” Toby asked with a stunned expression.

“You need to be a little bit more specific,” Static said, looking amused.

“The main gun. I can't believe you actually solved the firing recoil problems,” Toby said.

Static said proudly, “Oh that, yes, some time ago.”

“What firing recoil problems?” Kade asked Zen.

“The main gun on the Zenith used to have a few... issues. The recoil was so powerful that trying to operate it at more the 1% power would physically damage the superstructure,” Zen explained.

“Really?” Kade asked with a stunned look.

“Tends to happen with Linear Burst cannons. The recoil from firing an artillery shell at hyper-light speeds is a killer,” Static said as if it was a perfectly natural revelation, leaving Kade speechless.

“Crud,” Toby said with a disappointed look.

“What?” Static asked.

“I bet Drake 100 credits we would never get that damned gun working properly.” Toby smiled.

“I can't believe that...” Toby was starting to say when he suddenly went quiet, as though something had caught his attention and had him worried.

Concerned, Kade asked, “Something wrong?”

“Kind of... I just figured out why the approaching fleet made that second manoeuvre. We need to leave, and I mean now,” Toby said.

“We were scheduled to leave as soon as we're done with the probe retrievals, we should be almost done by now. Why? What did you find?” Static asked.  

“Yes, two probes are still outstanding. Estimated time of arrival... approximately 10 minutes. We will be cutting it close,” Toby said and then started walking towards Drake, the others following behind.

Kade didn't really understand what was going on, but she could tell that Toby was visibly shaken by whatever it was he had just discovered. And on the other side of the room, Drake and Jude were also looking puzzled by something.

“Did you figure it out as well?” Toby asked a confused looking Drake and Jude.

“So far all we've managed to figure out is that the fleet seems to be trying to stay out of the firing path of something which is probably somewhere in this area of the system,” Jude said, pointing to a location which was between the orbits of Venus and Earth.

“Thing is, there's nothing there... so we're probably looking at this wrong,” Drake concluded.

“Yes, that's what had me confused,” Zen said.

“There is something at that location,” Toby said as the wall screen changed, now showing the schematics of an installation deployed in that region of space.

“You've got to be kidding me,” Drake said, recognising the design.

Static said with a concerned tone, “Well... that could be a problem. In more ways than one!”

“How the hell did our scan of the system miss that thing?” Drake asked.

“It was incorrectly classified as a station because the unit was inert at the time of the scan,” Toby said.

“Do you know what they're going on about?” Kade asked Zen, who also seemed to be at a loss.

“No idea. Without direct access to the Zenith's systems I don't know anything beyond what I learn for myself, and I've never seen one of those.” Zen said, feeling a little frustrated.

“That's a Goliath system defence platform. An older design that can harness the power of its host star in order to project extreme fire-power capable of vaporising iron core asteroids,” Static said.

“That's impressive. I had no idea the Union had toys like that,” Jude said.

“They don't, or at least they're not supposed to. The Goliath platform is Shadow technology,” Drake said, clearly concerned as to why the Union had one.

“We're too far out, right? Could that thing really harm us at this distance?” Kade asked.

“We are currently outside its optimum firing range, but its orbit will eventually bring us into its lethal range. We'll be in real trouble soon if we don't do something. I'm sure I don't need to point out that we are effectively anchored in space so long as we maintain the disruption field, and the field will not offer protection against such a powerful attack,” Toby reported what Drake and Static were already painfully aware of. The disruption field was a tool of subterfuge, not confrontation.

“So that's why the fleet is hanging back. They don't want to make a move on us without support from the Goliath platform,” Zen concluded.

“Can you blame them?” Drake asked.

“What do you mean?” Jude asked, wondering what was so special about the Zenith that could drive the Union to hesitate like this.

“The last time the Union attacked the Shadows both sides suffered significant losses, but the Union lost the battle that day with the loss of its Second Fleet. It is the single biggest military loss in its history to date. It's only natural they would try and play it safe this time around,” Drake said.

“The Second Fleet Massacre? Is that what you're referring to? I thought that was down to a botched first encounter with an alien race,” Jude said.

“No. That was just a rumour used to hide the truth, probably started by the Union itself. They like to rewrite inconvenient parts of history like that,” Static said with an annoyed look.

“You have to give them credit for their public relations arm. Not only did the rumour hide the truth, it enabled them to triple their military spending overnight with the blessing of the people,” Drake said and then continued with bitterness in his voice, “And to add insult to injury they used the death of those freaking butchers to drive up military recruitment by painting them as 'heroes'.”

“Toby, you think you're comfortable enough to Vortex the ship out of this system? I can get Nexus to take over if you're not feeling up to it,” Static said.

“I'm fine actually. The system is very intuitive, and the ship is in perfect working order. I can do it if you'd like, but are we really going to leave the system without dealing with the Goliath platform? You know the rules about letting our technology fall into the wrong hands,” Toby said.

“I don't really know what to do about it. Since we don't know where they got the information they used to build it I'm not sure if destroying it would actually accomplish anything. For the moment it is best to retreat and let the Council know. Let them decide what to do about it,” Static decided, concerned about taking action before fully understanding the situation.

Concerned, Drake said, “For all we know, the Council, or at least someone on it, sold them the information. You know who I'm talking about.”

“It has crossed my mind, yes. He was really upset at our presence in this system. But I don't want to believe that someone on the Council would betray our people like that. And we can't jump to conclusions, his call could have just been a coincidence,” Static reasoned.

“You said it was an older design. Could the Union have salvaged that unit?” Jude asked.

“I don't see how. According to all our records no Goliath platform was ever deployed in the Sol system, and they can't be moved between systems. They had to build it here, though they could have made their own version of it based on scans of our platforms,” Toby said.

“If it can't be moved out of the system, then is this thing really a threat?” Kade asked.

“As powerful as the Goliath is, it's just a tool. A tool designed to compress the power of a star into an energy beam capable of destroying small moons, granted, but a tool nonetheless. The threat comes from having a potentially tyrannical power having control of it. If the Union were to deploy one of these things in a disputed system they would be able to blockade planets and decimate local forces with brute force. There would be no need for mediation, dialogue or understanding. That kind of power is dangerous in the right hands, let alone the wrong ones,” Static surmised.  

“So why design it then?” Kade asked.

“Deploy one in the right place, and couple it with a good quality early warning system, and the platform can protect planets against large impactors. It is especially useful in systems with large numbers of free asteroids and complex gravitational set-ups. Unfortunately, military forces only ever tend to notice its sheer destructive potential,” Static said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

Kade couldn't help but stare absent-mindedly at the schematics of the Goliath installation, for it was truly aptly named in both scope and size. She had actually seen orbital space ports of smaller size than this behemoth.

The bulk of the installation was comprised of what appeared to be solar arrays and particle harvesters: designed to collect and compress the stellar matter being ejected by the sun into a gigantic storage chamber at the core of the structure.

A set of toroidal particle accelerators were designed into the superstructure itself, allowing the platform to speed up the stored particles to near light speed before firing them at the target.

In Kade's opinion this was not a 'problem', this was a full blown disaster just waiting to happen. For even with its heavy armour there was simply no way that even the Zenith would be able to survive being hit by a blast from such a monstrosity.

She could see what Static had been talking about as clear as day. In the right hands this structure could save a planet. In the wrong ones it could probably destroy one... literally.  

Toby was right, they had to leave and they had to do it now. If that monster were to fire on them there would be no escaping the inevitable end.

The Regent

It was the end result of a ten year long concept engineering effort, commissioned and coordinated by the Solarian Union military. The project's singular purpose had been to merge the tactical capabilities of a traditional carrier with the brute force and stamina of a dreadnought. And by the time the work was complete the new ship design managed to out-gun and outperform all other ship designs in the Union, past and present.

To this day it is still unknown what originally inspired the union to design such a beast. Which in theory is capable of tackling an enemy fleet on its own. Not that the captain has been born yet who would be stupid enough to actually want to put the claim to the test.

It was the Jupiter class capital ship design.

Six Jupiter class ships have been pressed into service since the design's introduction into active service over a decade ago, with four more still under construction. And each ship serves as the command and control centre of one of the Union's strategic combat fleets. The most notable being the First Forward Fleet, under the command of the Regent.

The First Forward Fleet, or the 'triple effed' as it is sometimes called by those who would oppose it, is the premier damage multiplier of the Union. And is often dispatched into theatres of war out on the fringes of colonised space. Bringing a swift and often brutal resolution to any dispute it is sent to deal with.

Over the years it has gained an almost mythical status among Union forces, with officers old and new competing for the privilege of serving in it.

The fleet is comprised of the Regent, five carriers, ten support cruisers per carrier, one hundred destroyers and close to one thousand frigates of varying types. Or put another way, enough fire-power to eradicate all life on a planet down to the microbial level in no time flat. And that's without taking the fighters, bombers, corvettes and nuclear armaments into consideration.