The following morning there was a knock on the door to my quarters, "Sir, we have much to do. It is time to get up Sir." Frig continued with his annoying knock until I flipped the lock on the door. The door swung open. "What is so urgent that I have to get up this morning?" Frig handed me a cup of steaming hot coffee, "It is not morning Sir, it is afternoon. The Colonel and the Admiral sent me to check on you. And although I do not understand why they choose to rely on your tiny intellect, they would like your input on the day’s issues. There is much to be done."
I got dressed as I sipped the coffee and was soon on the way to Frig’s lab. The Colonel was waiting, "Grange! It’s about you showed up son. We have work to do and you can’t keep the hours of a teenager if we are to get anything done. I replied, "Sorry Colonel, I was up late listening to those recordings. I felt like that sleep was 20 years in the making. First good night’s sleep I have had in ages."
The Colonel grumped and we quickly got down to business. Several minutes later the Admiral joined us. The afternoon was spent pulling together all of the names on my father’s lists. I would be flying out in the Wren to meet with Doris to begin work on fully identifying the individuals now under suspicion and to setup quarters and office space for the Admiral’s and Colonel’s intel teams. Doris would be a busy woman.
Frig would continue work on the Durian virus and the wormhole generator, Gy and Rita on the construction of Hawks and George on cracking the Milgari drug. The Admiral and Colonel would be planning out our first wave of hit and run attacks.
When the Wren touched down in Alpha Bay on the Grid a familiar face was waiting there for me. Ashley Elizabeth had gotten word of my true identity and was eager to have a word, "Hello Don Grange." I stepped out of the Wren and onto the deck, "Hello Ashley, sorry about the alias, but I’m sure you understand." She was smiling, "I’m just glad you are OK. I can’t say that I like mysteries and when you went missing it was a bit unnerving that you did not leave a trace. I didn’t believe the charges, but in my position I was unable to look into what had really transpired. SCore was aware of our brief romance before the warrant. I was questioned quite extensively about us. It was not pleasant."
I replied as we walked, "Sorry you had to go through that. And I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to tell you who I was, but I did not want to again place you in a compromising position. I think you should come with me to my office as we have much to discuss."
As we walked I made small talk, "Romance huh, I’m kind of glad that you termed it as such. I was wondering if you were enjoying my company as much as I was enjoying yours. I think the use of that word is telling."
Ashley replied, "Well, I would not be getting a big head about it Don, but it was how I felt at the time. I did enjoy the time we had, however short that it was. If you were interested in restarting that relationship my answer would not be a definite no." I looked confused for only a second before her smile told me what it was that she had said. If I wanted to once again see Ashley Elizabeth, she was open to the idea.
When we arrived at the office Doris was waiting, "The office is ready when you need it Don. I will be out meeting some people about leasing the additional office space we talked about on your way in. Just call me if you have any immediate needs."
I thanked Doris and then sent her on her way. I guided Ashley into Doris’ office and then pressed the button to secure our privacy. The business at hand was pressing so I got right to work on enlisting the only SCore agent that I thought I could trust.
I began with my father’s data, "I know you worked briefly with my father back before the Tantilis disappeared. I have come across proof that will clear his name, it implicates the real traitor." Ashley began to raise her hand, I stopped her, "Please let me continue and when you have the bigger picture you can respond. My father gave me a data store just before he left for battle on the Tantilis. That data store contains information on an entire ring of spies both here on the Grid and within our military." Ashley sat up in her chair.
"The data contains recordings of conversations between politicians, industrialists, ship building workers and many others. The lists are extensive and I am going to need your help with keeping this out of hands of SCore agents who might be working for the other side. And yes, there are several higher ups in your organization that are implicated. We are attempting to enlist those that we have confidence in to follow through with this information."
I continued to detail many of the things we had found. The conversation then turned to the Admiral. Ashley spoke, "I have been tailing Admiral Zimmerman for several years. I know he has been building up a force outside of the Grid military. Evidence of that force disappeared almost a year ago. I have been working with Michael Felix to uncover whatever plot there was. Does the data contain anything on the Admiral?"
I shook my head, "No, the Admiral was not implicated. And he in fact has been one of the few willing to risk it all in defense of the Grid. The ghost fleet he was constructing was in response to the corruption he could see in the Grid politics. That force was infiltrated by another even more sinister race, the Durians. I have spent many months helping the Admiral to cleanse their influence from his ranks. It is something that just this past week we believe we achieved. The Admiral is working with us."
I then went on to explain the Nation of Defiant, our ships and people and finally our battles with the Milgari. She was shocked to hear of the Torrians and of how the Milgari were only pawns. I then went on to detail our current plans.
I continued, "We need your help Ashley. The enemy has agents in the deepest parts of the Grid. There may even be influence in the gravity drive studies area. I will need for you to bring me a short list of names of at least four other SCore agents that you trust. And none of what I revealed here today can be discussed with anyone. That knowledge could easily get you killed or get us killed. Silence is imperative."
We talked late into the evening. When Ashley had finished asking her questions she had a look on her face that was equal parts anger, fear and fatigue. Life as she knew it was only a small part of what was really going on. She spoke, "A part of me wishes I had not heard any of this. Even with all that I have access to in SCore, life was a much simpler proposition yesterday." Ashley would have a largely sleepless night before her.
In the weeks following my return the Admiral had arranged for a number of media interviews where I told of my running from the Grid when it became apparent that politics were involved in my being implicated in the murder of Dearest Creed. It had been the work of on overzealous prosecutor and his connection with a corrupt section mayor. The two men were in the process of being impeached from their positions in government over the ordeal. They had freely admitted to their mistakes.
There were still those who attempted to play the card of my fathers supposed traitorous act on the Tantilis. But counter reports were sympathetic to my cause as the son is not guilty of the sins of his father. I wanted badly to clear my father’s name, but I could not do so without tipping my hand of having knowledge about the spies on the Grid.
The news of spies would have to be planned out carefully so that all of the individuals implicated could be brought to justice at once. If it was leaked early on it was feared that many of those involved might flee. I was sure that they were promised asylum for their cooperation, but it would be an asylum that would never happen. The most likely outcome would be a quick execution by injection into the darkness of outer space.
The Admiral had the number three man within SCore, Walter Contin, counted amongst his allies. The four names that Ashley had given me of trusted SCore agents were turned over to Walter to build a special team. Their job, when the time came, would be to isolate and arrest any SCore agents or SCore managers who were implicated in the spy ring. Similar teams were being arranged throughout the workings of the Grid.
I desperately wanted to rekindle the romance with Ashley, but the tasks we had at hand kept her from closely associating with me. She was working with Michael Felix, trying to track down the whereabouts of the Admiral. Felix was becoming nervous that the Admiral was going to somehow derail his political machine. It was the Admiral that had gotten him to where he was, the absence of the Admiral had him worried.
Doris had been hard at work setting up the space for the Colonel’s intel team to occupy. When they arrived they immediately got to work on organizing the information we had attained. It would take months to put a plan in place to rid the Grid of its traitors. The task had only just begun.
With the commotion of the data store settling down I made my way back to the Suppressor to take part in the planned raids on the Milgari. The Dakar had repositioned much of their fleet along with the Prassi. The Torrians had responded in kind. The heart of the Torrian space was now guarded by smaller fleets of less than 100 ships. Those small fleets were our targets.
Our first such target was a system near the Teldaki world of Mortel. It was far enough from the Dakar border that it would be clear that it was not their doing. It would also leave us with four days before any Milgari response would arrive. By that time we would be well on to the second of our targets.
We had a chain of eight such targets laid out in a chain of strikes. If all went well the Milgari would respond by again dividing their large fleets. Once we were confident that event had happened we would again lay out a chain of new targets. It was a simple strategy, and if followed through properly, the Colonel and the Admiral were both confident of our ability to succeed. The Milgari elephant would be slowly eaten.
The Swift was loaded onto the Helix and we lifted off for the first of our engagements. Earlier intel had identified 76 Milgari ships along with two orbital ore processing facilities parked around the lone planet in the system. Our fleet consisted of 1,200 Hawks and 36 Raiders. If all went well the Hawks would decelerate and fire before the Milgari could even bring their cannons online. With our overwhelming force the battle would be over in minutes.
I sat in the mess hall with Frig and captain Jarrod over dinner just before our arrival. The topic of discussion was my father, "All those years I was angry that he might have turned his back on his own people. It was hard for me to swallow and as you know, kids of that age can be cruel. Prior to the event the walls of my bedroom were plastered with the battleships of the last 1,000 years."
"There were 27 classes and at the time I could name every one. I remember the Basserman being my favorite because of the protruding bridge. It just looked cool even though it turned out to be a liability. It took six months after the Tantilis’ surrender before I tore the posters all down. I was an angry kid from then until becoming an adult."
Jarrod replied, "Who can blame you. What kid wants to think his own father might have been a traitor." I responded, "I think I was angry because I let myself believe that it was a possibility. Had I held onto what I wanted to believe I would have been a lot less angry with myself, but you can’t turn back the clock."
Frig then offered a different thought, "I can only imagine what my father thought of me, his son, being a traitor to his people. I was angry that he was ignorant of the light that shown before me, but it was I who was ignorant. My father is no longer here to forgive me, that is a burden I will always carry. But you can forgive yourself for doubting your father. You were ten and you did nothing wrong."
When we arrived at our target 1,000 Hawks decelerated and attacked all at once. In less than a minute the Milgari fleet was destroyed and the orbiting refineries were now headed towards the planet’s surface as large chunks of debris. The Raiders, accompanied by the remaining 200 Hawks attacked every surface target that had a Milgari signature. A garrison of 2,000 Milgari foot-soldiers was destroyed in only a few minutes.
After eliminating five ground targets the Helix lifted back into orbit. In only fifteen minutes the Milgari presence on and around the planet had been completely wiped out. For the nation of Defiant the losses were zero.
It was a two day flight to the second target where 94 Milgari ships and a small space station were again parked in orbit. The planet was used for the production of building materials which were then transported to other worlds for whatever project the Torrians had going. The ground defenses and structures were far more numerous than those of the first target and the resulting raid lasted 37 minutes. Again our forces rallied and moved on without taking damage. The small orbiting space station had managed only two cannon shots with its weapons, both shots had missed.
The third target in the chain was a planet with several large orbital construction docks. Our earlier intel had identified 54 Milgari ships in orbit along with the two docks. When we decelerated we were in for a surprise. The original group of 54 ships remained parked near the construction docks, but a new fleet of 1,435 Milgari ships sat in a position near the planet’s second moon.
I immediately made my way to the Swift to join the fight, "Frig! Check the systems. We are jumping into this one hot!" The generators were powered on and the bay doors opened. We exited at near full throttle and immediately took two significant hits. I yelled, "Take out those two cannons!" Frig replied, "On it Sir!" Boom! Boom! "Cannons destroyed."
As I circled back towards another Milgari vessel I noticed the casualty count on my console, we had lost 56 Hawks in the initial exchange while taking out 89 Milgari ships. I yelled out for status, "Frig! Our ships took a beating in that first round. Those ships are packing a bigger punch and taking more than the last two sets we encountered. I wonder if our friends the Durians have been selling more tech!"
I flipped hard as two ion bolts came our way, one clipped out port wing. Frig responded as he fired at the cruiser we now had in our sites, "Sir, those cannon blasts, the first shot shattered our outer skin. Those are not your standard Milgari battle cannons Sir. The second shot burned through five layers of Tantric."
I pulled hard and then rolled up under the belly of a battleship. Frig fired our cannon repeatedly, but the damage it caused was minimal. The Milgari ships had new armor. I yelled out, "Well that’s just friggin great! Now we can’t touch the spots that were easy targets before." Frig replied, "Did you just say friggin Sir?"
I thought back as I pulled up on the stick, "I believe I friggin did! Ho! Look out! We have some type of a small fighter on our tail! That battleship just opened the bay doors on its side!" I again rolled left and threw the Swift into a flat spin. Frig fired the ion cannon and the Milgari fighter turned to vapor. "Woo! That’s what I’m talking about! Friggin beautiful!"
The battle raged for nearly an hour before the Colonel gave the order to retreat. We had lost nearly half of our Hawks to only 300 of the Milgari ships, we were losing. It was time to abandon the mission.
As we pulled away I noticed the Humphrey was in trouble. Two Milgari cruisers and a frigate were on his tail and blasting away. I had the urge to turn to assist when Frig grabbed my arm, "Don’t do it Sir. The Humphrey is lost." Seconds later the ion generators exploded, shattering the Humphrey into a million tiny pieces. Captain Rachel Blood and her crew were now only a part of history.
Four additional Raiders and 26 Hawks were lost in the retreat. The remaining missions were canceled and we headed for home. The hit and run strategy had been nullified. The Milgari ships were now on par with, if not slightly better than our own. It had been another hard day.
When we arrived back at the base I called Gy and Rita to my office. When they arrived and sat down I offered them a cup of coffee, "Is there anything we can do to beef up our armor or our cannon. We just got our asses kicked by the latest Milgari hardware. Their hulls had high resistance to our negative cannons as well as the regulars."
"And for our hulls, they have something that shatters the outer layer with the first shot. And each shot after takes out five layers. Look over the battle data from the sensors and see if there is anything we can do to counter their new capabilities. If we have to go up against more forces like that we will lose and lose badly. If they go after the Dakar or the Prassi our little alliance is going to be in trouble."
Gy and Rita left to do their best to better our fleet as I made my way to the Colonel’s office. Zimmerman was there waiting, "OK, we got our hats handed to us there. Do either of you have any alternate strategies that you have been holding back?" Both men answered no.
I continued, "Well, we need to come up with something or this whole strategy falls apart. And if it falls before we get a chance to clean up the Grid we run the risk of a jump never happening. All it would take is a single rogue operator to dump hydrogen fuel and to detonate it. That would do major damage to the Grid's exterior, maybe so much so that a jump would be impossible."
The Colonel looked at me with his brows low, "Where did you hear that? Is that rumor or did that come from a valid source?" I replied, "It came from my father’s files. It was something he worried about. I didn't mention it because I thought we were covering everyone on his list."
The Colonel sat back in his chair, "That list may not be complete. If they managed to get someone on the drive team we might be gone before we ever got started." I replied, "Sorry Colonel. At the time I was an emotional mess so that didn't register with me to forward that along. It was the only instance where anything like that was mentioned. It was the last transmission he made before it all happened."
The Admiral was immediately on the comm to one of his commanders, "Take a Hawk to the Grid and get a team working on possible infiltration of the drive personnel... No. You don't have to land, just broadcast the message when you are within range..."
The following week was spent repairing our damaged fleet. We had lost another 400 pilots; the Colonel was worried about both morale and recruiting. While everyone who had joined up was willing to risk their lives, no one wanted to be a martyr.
As I paced around my office, trying to come up with something we could do to give us an edge, Gy entered with news, "Chief, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is I think we can add another set of layers to our armor. The bad news is that it will be a slow and painstaking process. We still have an impressive stockpile of Tantric, but this will take a significant cut of that."
"What we would have to do is strip the ship back down to its hull, then add the pure Aquamarine layer back on, and we follow that up with 35 layers of our standard Tantric / Aqua combo. That will give you more hits versus a Milgari cannon while preserving that pure layer in case you get in front of a Durian."
"I realize it is not a significant improvement Chief, but it is about the best I can do." I replied, "Has Rita said anything about our weapons?" Gy responded, "Well, I do know she has been in her lab all week working on something, but she will have to fill you in on that."
I sat on the end of my desk and rubbed my chin, "Can I assume that the automated docks can be changed over so there is no real cost for doing this to our new ships?" Gy responded, "We can do that." I continued, "Setup the automated docks first and then begin with the Raiders. We will do these ships as we can. And when you get back down there have Rita give me a call."
I returned to my pacing as Gy left the room. Twenty minutes passed before Rita knocked on the office door. "You wanted to see me Sir?" I again sat on the end of my desk, this time scratching my arm, "Was just looking for status. Have you come up with any ideas?"
Rita moved up and plopped down in a chair, "I have been beating my brains out for a week Sir. I've managed about 2% increase in output power, but that was an expensive and complex upgrade, would hardly be worth doing. Sorry Sir, wish I had better news."
After Rita left I found myself in George's office, "Tell me something good George. We are running out of ideas and whatever advantage we once had is now gone. I'm in need of some good news."
George walked over to a counter in his office. He poured a hot steaming cup of coffee and walked back over to me, "A cup of good news is all I've got for you Don. We haven't made any progress with the Milgari drug since the last time we discussed it. I wish there was something else I had to offer but I'm all zeros."