The New Species 25 (Patreon)

Chapter 25

Subject: Director 1

Species: Classified

Description: Classified

Ship: N/A

Location: Classified

I opened the data burst that Omega had sent me and set to work examining the details. Some directors don't bother familiarizing themselves with the details and instead rely on others, like me, to fill them in during the decision making meetings. One could expect that I'd be annoyed, after all to the untrained eye it would appear to be laziness. But Omega never suggested lazy or incompetent people as directors, no matter how ingenious they were.

A director's duties are important, but there are other duties that are just as important. Before my retirement I had been president of Alpha Centauri. Omega recruited me during that period of my life, and I didn't often have the luxury of fully examining the details. Thankfully other directors and even Omega itself had picked up the slack and kept me informed. Now it's my turn to do the same.

An enemy stronghold, several enemy held systems, evidence of xenocide, technical schematics for enemy ships and the warp disruptor technology. The Armstrong had even warped directly to Sol and given the data to Admiral Bakir so that he could enact the No Retreat Doctrine in the system despite knowing that it would result in them participating in defensive action. Outstanding, I'll recommend him for a medal. Distinguished Service, perhaps? Depending on how involved in the combat Captain Neil is we might even be able to swing a Medal of Valor.

The evidence of xenocide was troubling though. Something was bothering me but I couldn't quite place it. Not the xenocide itself, that was fairly standard. It was hard to find a race that didn't have its share of war criminals. Gont, human, alumari, even the knuknu had plenty. The knuknu were a peace-loving folk, but that made their war criminals all the more cruel. As if they feel that they have to prove themselves. General Onari "Vlad" Cluztan maintained his infamy even hundreds of years later for crucifying and impaling his opponents. He had drawn inspiration from human history and had stricken fear into the alumari before his summary execution.

That had been a troublesome war. Both sides were actively members of the United Systems, so humanity needed to maintain neutrality to keep it from falling apart. We had encouraged diplomatic solutions and kept the fighting as even as possible through weapon sales. The entire conflict was over a stupid platinum rich planet that was on the borders of their space. The knuknu had got there first, but the alumari had been planning colonization for a decade. The whole thing lit off over such a simple resource.

Oh, that's what's bothering me. Why would the machines just leave resources? The scans showed about three fleets worth of debris and several mineral rich asteroids. What's the point of killing everyone if not to claim a prize? It suggested that their goal for the invasion was to actually eradicate these aliens. I sighed. Motive is important in being able to determine what your enemy is going to do next. If their motive is eradication then we know they'll keep attacking Sol.

But that makes this stronghold a tad perplexing. Perhaps it WAS their home system. Or maybe they felt they didn't need the resources in the alien's system. Either way, the scans showed heavy industrialization in this stronghold system. They're manufacturing something, but the Armstrong hadn't gotten close enough to be able to determine what. The only thing we know is that there are several different types of factory, and they're nearly covering the entire surface of the five planets in the system.

A lot of mysteries might be solved if we were able to successfully invade these planets. We would be able to determine what they were making and maybe even get some clues about their motives. It would be SO much easier to just have the Nidhogg fry the sun, though. Not much can survive a supernova, the Nidhogg itself being an exception.

On the other hand an invasion might not be prohibitively difficult. I opened the scans of the alien planet. They hadn't been able to determine the specifics of the enemy weaponry, which is to be expected. You'd have to have boots on the ground for that, and the Armstrong didn't have landing craft.

I sighed again as I realized what I was going to have to do. Prior to becoming Alpha Centauri's president I had been one of the foremost minds in personal weapons tech. I opened the images of the bodies and tried very hard not to associate the corpses of the children with my own great grandchildren.

The wounds were indicative of energy weapons. Lasers. Crude ones too. Relatively low heat compared to what we normally use. The burns were enough to be fatal, but it didn't appear that they penetrated through the bodies. Hot enough to boil organs, but not hot enough to penetrate a Guardian Shield without extended concentrated fire.

Of course that's assuming that the aliens don't have some strange tolerance to heat. If they had been human or gont I'd have been able to determine roughly how many enemy lasers firing at once and for how long it would take to pop a Guardian Shield. If these wounds are analogous, then it's 12 for ten seconds. If not, then who knows.

Two message notifications interrupted my investigation. An after action report regarding the defense of Sol, and a short and simple communication from an unknown source.

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Seccomm: 1021A

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Secure Communication 1021 Alpha. Meeting time. I opened the secret application Omega had installed on my computer and entered in my credentials. Then I waited for the AI to finish scanning me and my connection.

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*Director 1 has joined the chat*

*Director 2 has joined the chat*

*Director 9 has joined the chat*

D6: Welcome all. This meeting will be held without Director 3, who is unable to join us due to his diplomatic assignment. Director 3's vote will be given to AI Omega as per protocol.

O: Understood.

D4: I've got the after action report opened. The Armstrong kamikaze'd?

D5: It would appear so.

O: Correct. The vessel's FTLD was crippled and Captain Neil was left with the decision to shut the ship down and certainly die, or to use the FTLD to destroy the enemy.

D4: An unenviable choice. I take it you know this because you were the classified crewmember?

O: Correct.

D2: Why were you aboard?

O: Captain Neil asked to speak to me. We became acquainted during his time aboard the USSS Nidhogg and he sought my advice. Before our conversation concluded the OU attacked and I volunteered to assist as shipboard AI.

D2: Did you retrieve your blackbox?

O: Yes.

D2: Death has long been a fascination of yours. Did you find it illuminating?

D4: That's irrelevant. Discuss it in your personal time.

D2: Forgive me. Returning to the subject at hand, what was our total casualty count?

D5: 48 damaged vessels. 1 destroyed. 103 total casualties. 72 dead, 31 injured. Better than it could have been, considering the enemy had more than double what we thought they would.

D2: Agreed. We need to not underestimate them further.

D10: We should send a fleet to protect Sol.

D1: Fourth fleet is halfway through their leave period and at full strength. We could have them defend Sol.

D13: Five million ships would be overkill.

D11: Overkill is better than no kill.

D1: I agree with Director 11. We will also have to formally issue the No Retreat Doctrine in regards to the Omni-Union.

D12: Are they really xenocidal?

D2: Yes.

D4: Yes.

D1: Yes.

D5: The evidence indicates that they are. It's pretty damning.

D12: Understood.

D9: What about the Republic? Did they have foreknowledge of the xenocidal traits of the OU?

D8: I have information to the contrary. Admiral Bakir and Captain Reynolds have interrogated Ship-Head Uleena. Uleena denies knowledge, and all present report that they believe he's being truthful. We'll still need an official statement from the Republic, though.

D9: I see. Well they're unlikely to openly admit it with Fourth Fleet in Sol.

D7: It doesn't matter. There are procedures for this. We should update Director 3 on the situation, get an answer through diplomatic channels.

D1: I'll send Director 3 the message.

D9: I'm more interested in what we do with the ships that are currently defending Sol.

D1: All but the Thanatos and the Lowelana are part of Tenth Fleet. The battleships and carriers are all still warp capable, so we can have the ships repaired in Wolf 359. Once they're repaired they can return to their former duties.

D2: Bakir's going to be sore about Heckett relieving him.

D7: And what about the Thanatos and Lowelana?

D1: Neither ship was damaged, and we'll need a liaison between Republic and US forces when the Republic arrives. Placing a single ship under our command is one thing, but there's no chance in hell they'd do the same for an entire fleet. So we'll need to coordinate, and the Thanatos and Lowelana are in a perfect position to do so.

D6: Regarding the defense of Sol the plan is to replace the current defenders with Fourth Fleet, have the current defenders repair in Wolf 359 and return to their previous posts with Tenth Fleet, and have the USSS Thanatos with the RSV Lowelana docked act as an impromptu joint command center between the United Systems and Republic forces. Admiral Bakir of Tenth Fleet will be relieved by Admiral Heckett of Fourth Fleet. The No Retreat Doctrine will go into effect in regards to the Omni-Union. Director 1 will send an update to Director 3 and Director 3 will get an official response from the Republic regarding foreknowledge of the Omni-Union's xenocidal actions.

D9: I concur.
D2: I concur.
D5: I concur.
D13: I concur.
D6: I concur.
D1: I concur.
D10: I concur.
D12: I concur.
O: I concur.
D7: I concur.
D8: I concur.
D4: I concur.
D11: I concur.

D6: The plan of action is agreed upon. Next agenda item is the invasion of the Omni-Union stronghold.

D2: A hasty invasion will not be to our benefit.

D4: I disagree. We know very little about our enemy and do not have the luxury of being able to set up a spy network. The only way to learn more about them is through direct confrontation.

D7: We should just call the Nidhogg in.

O: Respectfully, I disagree. After reviewing the relevant data I believe that we would stand to learn a lot from a ground invasion.

D5: The enemy has two hundred and fifty million ships at its disposal.

D4: Allegedly.

D5: Yes, allegedly. We haven't seen the full brunt of that in Sol, but if we were to attack this stronghold there's a good chance that the response would be extreme. We will need to be prepared for that.

D2: Not to mention the retaliation if we Nidhogg the system.

D10: They attacked us unprovoked and killed our men. They've repeatedly attacked Sol seemingly with the intent to commit xenocide. We should absolutely respond in kind.

O: Truth be told we don't know what this system actually is. If it's their home system then destroying it would set them back severely. If it isn't, and they have more, we need to know that. It would take a long time to scout all of their systems, especially if they realize that we're doing so. Which they definitely will after our attack on this stronghold.

D1: I agree. We should seize control of the system and learn as much as we can about the enemy. Hitting them is all well and good, but I prefer to hit them where it hurts the most. And I don't know where that is yet.

D13: We can seize the system, defend it while gathering intel, and once the intel is gathered we can remove our forces and Nidhogg the system.

D5: We would still have to have forces that could not only withstand a full attack from the enemy, but also a planetary invasion. We don't know how many boots they have, or what weapons they have available.

D1: I've done a rudimentary analysis of the attack on the now extinct alien world. They appear to use relatively low output energy weapons. Lasers. The Guardian Shields should be able to handle it.

D10: You're starting to convince me. D1, what munitions should we use, in your opinion?

D1: Standard issue kinetic weapons should do the trick. Mechanical enemies are more resistant to energy weapons than they are to armor piercing bullets.

D7: I'm coming around as well. Seventh Fleet would be able to be recalled. Halloray 3 is nearly pacified so their presence there isn't a necessity.

O: Second, Third, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth fleets are all able to be recalled for the invasion without devastating results to pacification efforts if Tenth fleet covers for them. First fleet is maintaining their vigil above the Daluran home world, Fourth fleet will be defending Sol, Sixth fleet's presence in Nrangur is necessary as there is heavy fighting. In total, six fleets, 30 million ships.

D2: How many marines is that?

O: A minimum of 750 million and maximum of 15 billion. At the moment there are 3,251,627,111 marines stationed with those fleets. The fleets will need to be refitted with spare landers if you plan to use more than one billion marines at a time.

D4: That should be more than enough, unless the enemy weaponry is more advanced than we think.

D1: We can use Alpha Centauri as our staging ground. We have a stockpile of landers stored on Proxima B.

O: I would also like to send some copies to assist with the intel gathering.

D2: Do you think their systems will be able to handle you?

O: Their systems can handle me, the problem is that they're confining and make it difficult to destroy the VI inhabiting the systems. I'm confident that I can manage, though.

D6: The plan of action regarding the invasion of the Omni-Union stronghold is to recall the Second, Third, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth fleets as well as the USSS Nidhogg to Alpha Centauri and begin preparations to invade. Once preparations are complete the combined fleets will invade the OU stronghold along with AI Omega and take control of the system and invade the planets with ground forces while the USSS Nidhogg takes position. The system will be defended from Omni-Union ingress until information has been gathered. Once intel gathering is complete, our forces will exit the system and the USSS Nidhogg will destroy it.

O: I concur.
D9: I disagree.
D6: I concur.
D1: I concur.
D10: I concur.
D12: I disagree.
D7: I concur.
D2: I disagree.
D5: I disagree.
D13: I concur.
D8: I concur.
D4: I concur.
D11: I concur.

D6: The plan of action is decided. We'll readdress it as needed. There are no further agenda items.

*Director 2 has left the chat*
*Director 1 has left the chat*

After I finished closing out of the application I leaned back in my chair with a heavy sigh. I rubbed the bridge of my nose for a moment before opening a new secure-mail. I addressed it to Director 3, care of Omega, and wrote down everything that had happened. 

I also made it clear that Director 3 would have to broach the subject of the OU being Xenocidal. It felt as if I was on autopilot as I typed. Once I was finished Omega wordlessly sent the message over subspace communications to his alter ego in Republic space.

Omega's avatar looked at me for a moment before winking out of existence. I wondered if the AI knew what had me feeling this tired. I knew what was bothering me. It's pretty obvious. A task that I had been looking forward to just a few minutes ago. Now it felt empty. Sad, even.

I need to send a recommendation for a posthumous Medal of Honor.