Hell's Hoplites - Book 2 - Invasion - 2 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1 -

Sol System - Thebes - Capitol City Of New Crete

Theban Heavy Industries Corporate HQ - Board Of Directors Conference Room

August 8th 2575 AD - 09:33 STT [Standard Theban Time]

Jack looked through the smoked glass windows of the 172nd floor conference room of Theban Heavy Industries corporate headquarters and was proud of what he saw, not more than thirty years ago the area around the cliff now called Shield Point was nothing but lifeless plants and dusty land.

Now around the huge 250 story tower there was a thriving city of over twenty-five million inhabitants.

After winning their battle with the UEF courts the members of the Hell’s Hoplites mercenary group had pieced out some of the less important technologies to various manufacturers both electrical and medical and had built up a cache of funds over only a five year period and had finished building the Dry Lake Bed facility and built the HQ and the numerous factories surrounding it.

There were two major technological discoveries that Jack had insisted be gotten out as quickly as possible and most of the other members had agreed; these had been the molecular circuitry and the Telomere Enhancement Treatment that would extend the life of most people to over two and a half centuries and maybe once they had a better understanding of that technology even longer.

Jack turned around and surveyed the huge conference room, it was a large open area with support pillars scattered across it with a large conference table in the middle and dozens of desks and computer terminals and screens were arrayed along the glass walls. The pillars themselves had been sheathe in expensive hardwoods and tastefull décor and paintings hung from them.

Jack was currently waiting for his wife and the other board of directors to show up so they could get the meeting underway on whether or not to launch a system of satellites that would emplace themselves at the systems Yushima limit and would be able to detect any vessels entering or exiting the solar system.

Jack had given up his usual clothes of Hawaiian shirts and cargo pants for a suit and tie now since he was a corporate leader; shrugging out of the suit jacket he slung it over the back of the chair he would be sitting in later as he walked towards the opposite wall of glass that looked out of Shield Point.

Gazing downwards his still youthful face; he only looked to be in his forties even though he had turned eighty this year; and eyes taking in the gleaming black and gold painted hull of the TNS Thermopylae the first of her kind and built using mostly alien technology.

The ship sat in the shipyard known as the Dry Lake Bed Facility the skeletal structure of two more ships her size sitting off in their own dry docks along with a dozen other smaller hulls in various stages of completion scattered around the facility.

The Thermopylae had actually been built using completely alien tech; even though she had been a skeleton when they had found her the facilities under the now filled in lake held enough components and materials to build a single ship.

Jack sighed, the same couldn’t be said for her sister ships though the TNS Scota and TNS Hoplite had been under construction for nearly fifteen years and had only now gotten their frames finished.

Wandering around the huge conference room some more he loosened his tie and removed his cuff links so that he could roll his sleeves up and ran a finger under the front straps of his double shoulder holster.

That was definitely one thing that hadn’t changed, he may be all dressed up with too many places to go and not enough time to see them in. The shoulder holster held his old faithful and battered FN Five-seveN FS pistols two additional magazines in pouches on each side and a razor edged chisel tipped tanto was held in an vertical sheath on the left side next to the magazines.

Finally deciding to sit down he headed over to the chair at the head of the conference table and sprawled in the chair putting his feet up on the table and crossing them.

“Seriously love that is no way for a corporate big wig to sit,” Suzanne Di’Espinoza y Sikorsky said as she came through the stairwell door.

“Its my conference table isn’t it,” Jack said a bit petulantly.

“Still I guess its better than you sitting around in your boxers,” she told him standing at the other end of the table hip shot with hands folded over her breast.

“God you’re still as beautiful as when I met you,” Jack said eyeing his wife of over thirty years. She was currently wearing a dark blue silk pant suit, a white blouse with ruffled ascot and her lips and fingers were painted a dark maroon and her feet where in sensible but high heeled pumps.

“Flattery will probably get you a roll in the hay,” She told him her mouth quirking a small smile.

Jack started to get out of the chair and unbutton his shirt.

“Down boy, we’ll take care of that later,” she told him.

Jack sat back down in the chair with a hurt expression.

“Oh don’t get that expression at all, we spent half the night having our fun.”

“What kind of fun did you have,” Patricia Zion asked as she and her husband Samuel exited the elevator into the boardroom.

“The kind that probably kept them up half the night,” Samuel said with a leer at his wife.

“I swear all of you are like rabbits,” Patricia said in mock disgust.

“We’re like rabbits?” Jack asked in surprise. “Last time I looked Suzanne and I only had five kids and you and Samuel had what fifteen.”

“Hey one of those was triplets and two others were twins,” Patricia said in mock indignation.

“Are you guys arguing about how many kids you each have again?” Marie Kozlowski head of planetary security asked as she exited the stairwell.

“You’re more than welcome to join in with us in making fun of Patricia and Samuel,” Jack said. “I mean you do have two kids of your own.”

“Why is it with me almost being the youngest here I act like the most adult,” she said shaking her purple, blue, and pink spiked hair.

“At least you aren’t the youngest,” Jack said as the final board member entered the conference room with wife in tow and baby in arms.

“Hey Daniel,” Suzanne said and she, Patricia and Marie practically trampled the poor man as he handed over his three month old daughter to the older women and walked over to where Jack and Samuel were standing.

“How is Taki handling being a mother?” Jack asked his adopted daughter’s husband.

“She’s still trying to get a hang of treating the baby as a person and not a thing,” Daniel said shaking his head.

“And the nightmares?” Samuel asked.

“Still having them, not as bad though.”

Jack made a grunting sound in the back of his throat at the answer.

Not even the best psychologists Jack was able to hire could understand why the mostly human girl was having horrible nightmares.

The nightmares themselves were of dark masses of figures butchering other figures, people with no faces running in fear, cities being set afire, and planets looking like glazed gems.

Most of the psychologists said it was just her memories of when the War Machines were waging war against the Ancient Thebans but Jack had one of those itchy feelings at the back of his brain that meant something wasn’t quite adding up.

“Well I better go take a look at my newest grandson,” Jack said heading over to the group of cooing women who were making baby noises at the three month old.

“Dad,” Taki said pecking Jack on the cheek as he bent down to give her a hug.

“Hello Taki, how have things been going,” he asked her.

A small shadow crossed her face and then disappeared as she brightened up. “I finally figured out how to change Elijah’s diapers,” she told him proudly.

“That’s wonderful dear,” Jack said hugging her close to his side again. Pressed against his side he could feel the wire taut tension of her body as it practically vibrated with some emotion.

“Is something wrong dear,” he whispered to her.

“I have to talk to you in private,” she whispered back.

“Alright, give me a second then,” Jack continued to whisper.

“Folks go ahead and get settled in I left something for Taki down in my office and we’re going to run down there and get it,” Jack told everyone.

By this point the baby was back in Daniel’s arms and the invasion of women had stemmed for the time being.

“Suze if you want to go ahead and start the meeting we’ll only be gone for a few minutes,” Jack said.

Suzanne and Jack exchanged a look over Taki’s head that pretty much told Suzanne it would probably be more than a few minutes till the two would be back.

“Alright then,” Suzanne said giving him a short nod.

“Now if everyone will have a seat we’ll go ahead and start the meeting then,” Suzanne ordered everyone as Jack and Taki headed for the elevator.

“Now the third quarter so far is looking extremely good and with the first shipment of Vari-lances going out in the next six weeks we’ll be seeing…,” the rest of what Suzanne was explaining was cut off as the elevator doors shut and the steel box quickly dropped five levels to the executive office level.

Jack and Taki didn’t say a word as the two of them headed down the wide wood paneled and thick carpeted hallway to the door at the end.

Jack still had to chuckle a bit at seeing the brass plaque on the door; “Jackson Sikorsky CEO/President.”

Turning the knob of the wooden door Jack had to give it a larger nudge than would be normal since the wood was sheathing a solid core of titanium alloy making it heavier.

Pushing through the armored portal he entered the office and then motioned for Taki to take as seat in one of the chairs at a small conversation area off to one side of the large teak desk that dominated the back wall.

Somewhat timidly Taki walked over and sat down and Jack followed pausing only long enough to grab two cans of pop from the small refrigerator under the wet bar.

Popping the tab he handed it Taki and then took a seat in one of the other chairs and put his feet up on the coffee table and took a sip from his own cola after opening it.

Taki had a small smile on her lips. “You know mother wouldn’t approve of you putting your feet up on the table.”

“My office, my rules,” he told her smiling.

“Not if mom found out,” Taki repeated smiling a little more.

“True, your mother is a bit of a uh…,” Jack said trailing off.

“Harpy about things like that,” Taki said with a small laugh.

“Ah, well I wouldn’t quite use that word,” Jack said scratching the back of his head.

“No because she would probably break your arm,” Taki added.

“Well sprain maybe but not break,” Jack allowed.

Taki gave him a look and he just sighed and rubbed a hand down his face already feeling the stubble that was growing there.

“So what exactly did you want to talk about,” Jack asked becoming serious as he took his feet off of the coffee table and set his can of pop down.

For a second Taki looked down somewhat disconsolately at her can of pop swirling it in her tiny delicate hands.

“Come on lass tell me what ails you,” Jack said quietly.

“Something is coming,” she said so quietly that Jack had to lean towards her to listen carefully.

“Something large, something dark, something that will bring, blood, fire, death and leave nothing but glass and scorched earth,” Taki said the words spilling out in a soft torrent.

“Can you tell me what it is? Describe it possibly.”

“Red of eye, green of scale, and black of claw,” Taki said and Jack noticed for the first time that her eyes had rolled back in her head showing only white.

“Taki, are you alright,” Jack said in a worried voice and started to get up.

“They come, they come from the past, they come from the cold, they come to find what was part of them, but they shan’t find it, all they will find is the dead and gone, the bones of dust and ash amongst a green hell filled with scaled death but not as deadly as they. They’ll come and they’ll rain fire upon the worlds and cities and people and they will all burn the same,” Taki finally stopped talking her eye lids fluttering closed and then bonelessly slid towards the floor and it was only with the alacrity of Jack’s reflexes that he skull wasn’t dashed against the coffee table at the center of the sitting group.

“The world is safe with thought of mind and might of magic,” Taki whispered as Jack picked her up and lay her out on the low sofa.

“Now it’s prophecies,” Jack muttered to him self and groaned mentally.

Sol System - Earth - Duke University

Psychogenic & Para-Normal Activity Studies Lab

August 8th 2575 AD - 10:15 STT [Standard Theban Time]

“The message has been sent then,” the man with a main of silver leonine hair asked or more demanded of the short nervous fellow in front of him.

“Yes Magus Ashby the message has been sent and received,” Dr. Roland Cranston professor of Psychogenic studies told the taller man.

“Good, well we’ll be moving on now then,” Ashby said after pulling a silver pocket watch out and consulting it.

“You’ll be moving on then,” Cranston said in disbelief. “Look I just lost one of the most powerful members of the Esper Society,” the man said angrily gesturing at the limp body of Sally Caruthers; her eyes were wide and staring at the ceiling and blood slowly congealed around her nostrils and cheeks where it had dripped and thin lines of red could be seen trailing from her ears.

“It doesn’t matter, what matters is that the message wasn’t gotten through the girl and to the person who can actually do something about it,” Edmund Ashby as unflappable as ever said to the man and left followed by his two assistance.

“It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter,” Cranston muttered as the member of the Sons Of Merlin left the university building.

“Professor what do you want us to do about Sally,” one of his lab assistants asked.

“Call the paramedics and make sure you talk to Dr. Ha-Sing at the hospital to let him know we lost another one,” the short man said wiping a tired hand down his face as if he would be able to wipe away what had occurred, however it would never wipe away the look on Sally Caruthers face as she had convulsed and died delivery the cryptic message.

Sol System - Thebes - New Crete

Family Compound Of The Sikorsky Family - Recreational Area

August 13th 2575 AD - 13:53 STT [Standard Theban Time]

“Oh so close,” Bob Masters said as Samuel’s corn filled bag fell short of the hole. “But you known what they say, close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades,” he mocked as he powered his wheel chair over to the wooden box and picked up the bags.

Samuel let out a small grunt and went to reach for one of his cargo pants pockets.

“That would be a no,” Jack said sipping his beer and giving a pointed look at the hand in the cargo pocket.

“Well he said close only counts in horse shoes in hand grenades,” Samuel said.

“Geeze Samuel, it’s a game, I can see Patricia still hasn’t calmed you down any,” Jack said.

Samuel just grunted again and the two of them watched as Bob managed to get all of his bags in the hole without so much as brushing the sides of it.

Over by the huge brick grill Jack’s oldest son E.P. was taking turns kissing his wife and flipping burgers and hot dogs on the grill. Erskine had married Rochelle Samuel and Patricia’s adopted daughter eight years earlier and had already popped out two children of their own Patrick five and Nathan three who were off playing with the other children.

Off playing volleyball Sionead Zion her mom Patricia, Suzanne and Marie were kicking the butts of off Samuel and Patricia’s twin sons Robert and Randy, Marie’s boyfriend Alphonse Williams and Bob Masters Nephew Eric.

All around the large area children and grand children hang out, had fun, and played games while the older of the adults tried to relax as much as possible.

“Have you been to the grove lately,” Jack asked cracking a fresh beer.

“No, not since I stopped taking Sineoad,” Samuel answered.

“Come on then,” Jack said gesturing at him. “Bob, we’ll be back in about an hour so,” Jack called out to the man in the wheel chair.

“Alright, see you guys in a bit then,” Bob waved them off.

Jack and Samuel rounded the house and walked through one of the open stalls to climb into a rather battered SUV.

Even through there were close fifty cars in the long driveway it was fortunately wide enough for Jack to turn around and drive down to the gate.

“Hey Mr. Sikorsky, Mr. Zion,” the gate guard Albert greeted.

“How’s it going Al,” Jack asked.

“Not to bad sir.”

“Anybody bring a burger or dog yet,” Jack asked.

“Nope not yet sir.”

“Alright, call one of the house guards and have him relieve you for about an hour so you can get some food in your belly,” Jack ordered.

“Yes sir,” Albert said and slid his access card through the slot inside the guard shack and the three of them watched as the heavy gate wheeled open quickly.

After Jack and Samuel had exited Albert slid his card back through and called the house.

Sol System - Thebes - Archive National Forest

Corona Masloff Memorial Park

August 13th 2575 AD - 14:29 STT [Standard Theban Time]

“You’re right as long as she is happy,” Samuel heard echo through his thoughts as they approached the huge forest that now surrounded the Ancient Theban Archive.

“Hello, are you paying any attention at all,” Jack said.

“Hmm, what?” Samuel mumbled pulling his brain back from that conversation of forty years earlier.

“I said the family seemed pretty happy today,” Jack repeated.

“Yeah, its been awhile since we’ve all been able to get together and do something like this,” Samuel added.

“Yeah and it’ll probably be the last for a few months since next week we have to go to the graduation ceremony for the first class at the Military Academy,” Jack said.

“Ugh, I forgot all about that, am I supposed to write a speech for it or something,” Samuel groaned slumping down in the bucket seat.

“Well yes and no, yes you need a speech and no you can just have some flunky write it for you,” Jack told him with a grin.

“Ah the joys of having flunkies, all though they do get on the nerves at times,” Samuel said.

“At least after this class graduates we won’t have to go do them every year or anything like that,” Jack told him.

“No, I’m just glad we’ll finally have a trained officer’s cadre to go with our seasoned NCO core.”

“That will be nice, but they’ll still be wet behind the ears and green as Earth Grass,” Samuel threw back.

“That is true, but once we actually have the Theban Fleet Marine Corps up and running we’ll be able to start doing war games against other militaries such as the Martian Marine Corps and Jovian Mobile Infantry,” Jack told him as they finally pulled up to the huge automated and unmanned gate that was the only entry and exit point to the Theban Archive and the Archive National Forest.

Even though it had been Jack’s idea to do it he still found himself swallowing slightly at the thought of the half dozen 20mm Vulcan sentry turrets that were currently pointed at the vehicle and his and Samuel’s personage.

“Please present documents,” a fairly mellow feminine voice ordered.

Jack held first his own then Samuel’s documents in front of a scanner that beeped.

“Please state the nature of your business,” the voice ordered.

“Visiting the Archive National Forest,” Jack said.

“Identity Verified and nature of business verified, please have a nice day Chairman Sikorsky and Chief Security Officer Zion,” the mellow voice said politely and the huge portal slide smoothly to one side.

“God I hate that automated security system,” Samuel grumbled.

“Your just mad because it shot at you last time,” Jack said maliciously.

“It shouldn’t have it knew exactly who I was,” Samuel continued to grump.

“You were drunk and deviated off the road just so you could take a piss,” Jack told him with a chuckle.

“Hey you were drunk too,” Samuel told him.

“Yeah but I was asleep and not driving,” Jack told him dryly.

“Whatever,” Samuel said as they passed through the chain link fence that enclosed the acres upon acres of the Archive National Forest.

The vehicle finally came to a stop and the two climbed out to walk a path that they had followed many times before; it finally came to a halt in front of a huge tree that stood close to 100 feet and had a diameter of over twenty-five feet at the exact center of the tree’s front was the outline of a beautiful young woman her usual serene face marred by concern and worry.

“That’s not good,” Samuel commented.

“Huh,” Jack said and walked up to the tree placing his hand against the warm bark and felt it shiver under his hand.

“Where are the young,” Samuel asked quietly disturbed by the lack of younger Dryad’s that usually romped under the eves of their grandmother and mothers.

“Probably hiding, from whatever is causing Corona to shiver in fear,” Jack said patting the tree that had once been the young woman Corona Masloff until her father had experimented on her turning her into a pseudo-plant entity that had been nicknamed dryads.

Around the tree other similar but smaller ones also had the visage of beautiful women locked into them and each one carried the same expression as their mother.

“This is so not good,” Jack said. “I think we need to get those reconnaissance platforms in place immediately.”

“I’ll second that,” Samuel said and the two of them hurried back to the SUV and left the national park as quickly as they could without setting off the security defenses.

Sol System - Yushima Limit

August 19th 2575 AD - 02:22 STT [Standard Theban Time]

The fabric of space seemed to tear apart as it first bulged and then exploded outward disgorging dozens of small ships of no more than cruiser range and then seemed to let out an almost animal cry of pain as larger, much larger shape burst through like a cannonball being shot through a wet paper bag.

The larger vesseld dwarfed the others to infintessimalness with its vastness and was on the proportionate side of what would be kindly labeled a mobile planet.

Orders streamed from the larger vessel and then a portion of its hull split apart disgorging several large vessels; although still tiny compared to their parent; and these shot sunward with a guard over fifty or so of the smaller vessels.

The only vessels to witness this appearance were an automated survey craft and a mining explotation vessel. Both craft had their sensors and main systems scrambled by the amount of energy the huge craft had discharged when it had re-entered normal space from hyperspace.

The Automated Survey Craft overloaded and shut down waiting for its systems to come back to some meaningful organization.

The mining craft and its crew of half a dozen souls weren’t quite so lucky and a beam of particle energy larger than its target spat from an orifice in the round hull of the alien craft obliterating it and leaving nothing more than a few trace elements and a radiation signature.

The mining crew was dead before they knew what hit them and didn’t see the smaller vessels start making micro jumps inwards towards the sun’s far side.

Sol System - Niburu - Cretaceous Continent

Pre-Historic Recreational Park Headquarters

September 19th 2575 AD - 15:33 SNT [Standard Niburu Time]

The SSPF cutter set down at the visitors center building of the main headquarters or at least what was left of it.

Sergeant’s Aiken Pavoni and Derrick Nameth had been dispatched to find out why the Park Rangers hadn’t been answering hails from the local station and the two of them now saw why.

The visitor center had huge gaping burn limmed holes in it and the rangers station had been flattened to nothingness but stone and rubble.

Dead bodies lay everywhere, the majority of them in the green and tan of Park Rangers, most sadly of all though were the broken bodies of civilian visitors to the center some of which were the small forms of children.

Pavoni bent over and vomited, the smell of ruptured bodies and the fact that some of them were children overrode his gag reflex and he bent over hands on knees and splattered his shoes and the cracked ceramo-crete pavement with his breakfast.

Nameth glanced at him and wanted to heave himself but fought it down grabbing for the comm unit mike on the lapel of his jacket.

“SS…,” Nameth started shout into the mike and then there was a dull electrically charged thrum and a ragged charred hole appeared in his abdomen.

“Derrick,” Aiken yelled standing up and scrabbling for his gun.

“Uh,” Derrick said a small rivulet of blood leaked out of the corner of his mouth and he seemed to fold over the hole in his body and fall to the ground.

Aiken never was able to pull his gun as another bolt of particle energy vaporized his head, the headless body fell to the ground twitching, the heels kicking, and the hands scrabbling at the ground in a death spasm.

A chorus of hissing grunts and growls barked back and forth across the cleared area and then a green scaled shape wearing powered armor loped across the landing zone to examine and then kick at the bodies of the two police officers before loping away into the jungle.

Sol System - Somewhere Between Pluto & The Yushima Limit

Niburu Kingdom Mobile Naval Base - Golgotha

September 20th 2575 AD - 21:39 SNT [Standard Niburu Time]

The guard was caught unawares as the heavy goblet that the king had crushed in his hand but a second ago crashed into the side of his head denting his power armor’s helmet and breaking his skull.

“Repeat again what you just told me,” Zeph ordered the Scultor Scout in front of him.

“Milord, the troops found no signs of our colony at first until they detected decaying bio-matter and opened a mass grave containing over two hundred bodies of our people,” the scout repeated, if the Scultor could gulp he would have.

“And what else did you find,” the king asked.

“We found Tyerians on the planet, they didn’t really put up much of a fight and they didn’t seem to have that much in the way of advanced technology, they were still using ballistic weaponry,” the scout scoffed.

“And what did you do with the Tyerians?”

“They are dead sire, we killed everyone one of the last pink fleshy monsters,” the scout told him.

“Did you get any information from them before you killed them all?”

“No sire, we destroyed them all, they would have had no useful information anyway,” the scout arrogantly told his king.

“Shoot him,” the King ordered the guard standing next to his throne.

The guard didn’t flinch or say a word, he just raised the particle beam rifle and shot the scout in the head vaporizing it instantly.

“Now, have we gotten any information from the scout ships,” the king asked of one of his councilors.

“Yes Sire, besides the Tyerians killed on the planet this scout came from there is a large concentration of them on the third planet from the sun of approximately ten and a half billion, another 250,000 million on that planets moon, a few billion on the fourth planet, several moons orbiting the two largest gas giants have populations ranging from approximately 10 million to 500 million, the first planet has a population of 125,000 million and this planet here with the eccentric orbit has a population of about 1.2 million,” the councilor told him.

“So there is over eleven billion tyerians inhabiting this system?”

“Yes milord.”

“Their technology level?

“It is very odd Sire,” the councilor answered.

“How so,” the King said somewhat grumpily.

“There technological base is so backwards that I could almost believe that they aren’t Tyerians at all.”

“Prepostrous, they have the same genetic structure and physical appearance,” the King thundered. “Leave my presence at once.”

The councilor bowed his way out of the throne room and the King summoned his Admiral of ships.

“Yes sire,” the Admiral a rather slender and old Scultor with deep emerald scales and yellowish/tan under scales.

“Prepare a plan to glass all the Tyerian settlements and colonies and I want it within a week’s time,” the King ordered.

“Yes Milord, if you’ll excuse me I’ll be on my to do that now,” the older Scultor said and bowed to his King and left.

“Traveled so far to get away from them and come to reclaim some of our own people only to find that the Tyerians have perpetrated more of their heinous acts on our people,” Zeph muttered.

Sol System - Thebes - Dry Lake Bed Shipyard

Military Academy - Parade Ground

September 27th 2575 AD - 12:00 STT [Standard Thebes Time]

The Military Academies graduation ceremony had been pushed back, and pushed back, and pushed back again do to a horrible weather front that had blown through and had lasted for almost a month and a half now; unfortunately Thebes still had problems getting its weather patterns reset after not having any for over 10,000 years.

The parade ground had been set up for the graduation ceremony and a steel and concrete stage had been set up for the school’s hierarchy and the guest speakers.

Today’s gathering however would be capped by the introduction of the first of Theban Heavy Industries SSRUs or Semi-Sentient Robotic Units that had been developed jointly by the weapons division and the artificial intelligence division ran by Oz and Daniel.

Jack was currently sitting in a comfortable chair in the main offices of the shipyard’s commander. Admiral Warren Atherton who himself also wore the hat of commandant for the Fleet portion of the military academy.

In other seats around the luxurious office sat various members of the board of directors, Suzanne, Patricia, Samuel, Daniel, Taki, Marie as well as virtual representation of Oz who had taken on the holographic personae of Humphry Bogart at the moment and was blowing holographic smoke rings towards the ceiling from his huge Cuban cigar.

The seven of them would be waiting in the offices till the ceremony was to start to spare them from the now blistering heat that was permeating the area; unfortunately the heat had started up before most of the moisture had been allowed to evaporate and it was like walking into a sauna outside.

Leaning forward he grabbed up the 1/1000 scale model replica of the Thermopylae that was sitting on the front edge of Atherton’s desk.

Bringing the plastic model to his face he was surprised by the exquisite detail that had gone into the design and ran a finger across the hull of the model only to have his fingernail catch in the groove of one of the missile hatches.

Looking around somewhat guiltily he saw that the others were engrossed in their own worlds and he pulled his nail free only to have the hatch pop open. Thinking that he had broken the model he brought it even closer and saw that the hatch had teeny tiny hinges and the nose of a missile could be seen in the tube.

Jack was impressed even more by the detail and wondered how long it had taken Atherton to build the model.

At that moment the door to the office opened and Jack quickly put the model back and stood up as Admiral Warren Atherton entered the room.

Atherton was around six feet tall with a wiry build and the tanned and craggy complexion of a native Martian who had spent a lot of time out of doors.

Atherton was also extremely young for his post being only thirty years old. He’d also been a captain in the Mars Republic Navy and had been discharged for striking a superior officer.

Atherton had been the flag captain of MRN Admiral Higby Dennis who had been commanding a squad of Aries Cruisers when they had come across a group of Space Pirates transporting slaves to one of their hidden bases.

Dennis had ordered Atherton to fire on the pirate ships but the then captain had refused not wanting to kill the slaves being held aboard the ships.

Dennis had gotten furious and threatened to clap Atherton in the brig, finally having enough of the man’s ranting and posturing Atherton had knocked the man out with a right cross and went on to capture the pirate ships without losing a single slave, although the same couldn’t be said for the pirates after the Marine Raider boarders had finished capturing the ships.

Jack had read the article and had immediately contacted the man and offered him a job as commandant of the naval academy and as head of the Naval Yard at Dry Lake Bed, the promotion to Rear Admiral [Lower] had only come recently as a shift in command was planned and Atherton was to take over the initial command of the Thermopylae when she was complete and then be squadron commander once the Scota and Hoplite were completed.

“Chairman I hope you and the other board members have been comfortable while we’ve been getting ready for the graduation ceremony,” Atherton said as he came further into the office.

“We’re fine, and we appreciate your hospitality, but wouldn’t one of the waiting rooms or board rooms been less inconvenient,” Jack asked as he shook the Admiral’s hand.

“Not really, I regret to say that I avoid those areas of the facility as much as possible thanks to some genius making them to military,” Atherton replied dryly.

“Ah, let me guess, battleship gray or puke green/blue wall paint and tan or gray thin carpeting,” Jack said even more dryly.

“Yes sir,” Atherton said with a smile.

“No need to call me Sir, Warren, I’m not actually part of your chain of command,” Jack said.

“I realize that Sir, but are pretty much the commander in chief even if you are only the head of a corporation,” Atherton explained.

“And let me guess no matter what I say you are going to still call me sir,” Jack said with a small smile back.

“Yes Sir,” Atherton told him.

“You do realize I didn’t go above the rank of Sergeant Major in the Martian Marine Corps right,” Jack told him.

“Well Sir you aren’t in the Martian Marine Corps anymore you are the CEO and Chairman of one of the richest corporations in the Solar System,” Atherton rebutted.

“Stop trying to argue the admiral into not calling you Sir,” Suzanne said walking up behind him without a sound.

“You’ll have to forgive my husband Admiral,” Suzanne said with a small smile. “He still has that NCO don’t call me Sir I work for a living mentality,” she explained.

“Quite understandable ma’am,” Atherton said returning the smile.

“Is the parade ground ready for the ceremony?” Jack asked.

“Yes sir, everything is prepared and we are just waiting to seat you and the other board members before bringing in the cadets for the ceremony,” the Admiral answered.

Jack let out a sigh. “Well let’s get this over and done with then,” he said and headed for the door only to have it open by a Marine Corps Non-Com in dress black and gold open it from the outside.

“Thank you Staff Sergeant Mandel,” Jack said quickly reading the man’s name tag.

“Certainly Sir,” the NCO returned and then shut the door once everyone was through and fell into step behind Taki who was the last in the line of people headed out of the office.

A few minutes later found them all up on the stage being seated by a fussy woman with too much energy who was also making sure that they’re clothing was perfect and then shouting at the various camera crews to change position since the ceremony would be broadcast to the homes on Thebes and even SSNN or Solar System News Network was even picking up the feed as well and would be broadcasting it across the Sol System.

Jack heard Samuel grit through his teeth. “Touch me again and I’ll shoot you,” he growled at the fussy woman who got a startled look on her face and fluttered off like an annoying bird.

Finally as they were seated the Theban National Anthem started to play; it was heavy on brass instruments and was only a few minutes long and as it played the cadets resplendent in their dress uniforms; black with blue for Fleet Air Arm, Black and Silver for Fleet, and Black and gold for Fleet Marine Corps; marched onto the parade ground and created three perfectly symmetrical blocks without a hitch. At the front of each block was the class commander and the two NCO’s that were the advisors for the class.

As the last notes of the anthem faded away Atherton stood up and marched to the podium and cleared his throat.

“Today we honor the first graduates of the Theban Military Academy and usher in a new era of officer’s that will…

Sol System - Pluto

Theban Heavy Industries Outpost Pluto

September 27th 2575 AD - 08:00 STT [Standard Thebes Time] [Four Hours Earlier]

“Hey Steve I’m getting some sort of weird interference on the sensor systems,” Dave Galligan said to the only other person occupying the small outpost on the outermost planet of the Sol System.

“What do you have Dave,” Steve Linster asked as he stepped into the sensor control room.

“I’m not completely sure, some sort of interference on the long range scanners,” Dave told him.

“I am going to be so glad when they get those long range recon platforms in place,” Linster muttered and looked at the readings.

“Shit, this isn’t interference,” he shouted, as a former military sensor tech he knew what he was looking at. “We’re being jammed,” he managed to get out just before the impact of the missile bombardment flattened the outpost.

After flattening the small outpost at Pluto the massive Scultor fleet moved sunwards in small jumps and reached Neptune where it literally glassed the Jovian Union colony that had been set up there.

Sol System - Thebes - Dry Lake Bed Shipyard

Military Academy - Parade Ground

September 27th 2575 AD - 13:00 STT [Standard Thebes Time]

“…and now I’ll turn things over to our board of directors to present the graduates with their diplomas and new rank insignia,” Atherton finally finished after his, Jack’s, and Samuel’s various speeches.

There was a bit of shuffling as a pair of Fleet Marine Corps NCOs set up three tables, the first of which held fresh cut roses that Patricia would present to each graduate, the second table held the diplomas which Samuel would give out, and the third held small black velvet boxes holding the newly minted officer’s insignias which Suzanne would pin on and Jack pretty much stood at the end of the line and would shake their hand and congratulate them.

With over 750 graduates the procession took some time, basically the graduating cadets name would be called they march smartly up on to the dais, have Patricia pin the rose to their breast pocket, receive a handshake and their diploma from Samuel and then Suzanne would pin on their new 2nd Lt. insignia to their collar tabs and then Jack would shake their hand and congratulate them and would then salute each cadet crisply and smartly as they came to a halt and came to crisp about face heels clicking together and salute the Theban Flag and then the whole stage whereupon those who had done prior military service would return the salute.

About facing again with heels clicking together the cadet would then march back to his position with his class; Jack kept a particular eye out for three cadets Eric Masters, Sebin Markey, and Mason Storm.

While the three cadets weren’t at the top of their classes; which he had a feeling the three of them had purposely caused that to happen; they were still in the top twenty-five percentile and had shown that they were the most capable and able to plotting strategy and tactics as well as being able to oversee other aspects of their simulated commands such as personnel, intel, logistics and the like.

After the diploma’s were passed out the color guard from each academy appeared at the front of the blocks of students and as the planet’s national anthem played they marched by the stands and stage in review followed by the entire academy’s staffs and training cadre as well as the current enlisted, NCO and officer corps of the fledgling Theban Military.

Once the last vehicle had passed out of sight Jack let out a gust of a sigh and relaxed his back and shoulders from the attention position that he had assumed when the review had started.

“Not used to that anymore are you,” Suzanne jibed.

“Well neither are you dear,” Jack returned with an evil grin.

“Well no but I can think of other positions I might want to spend some time in,” she told him.

“Yo the car is here,” Samuel shouted to the two of them. Behind him Patricia, Marie, Taki, and David had already gone down the steps and were getting the stretch limo.

“Uh, maybe later,” Jack said with a sigh.

“Oh pooh,” Suzanne said with disappointment and the two of them followed Samuel to the limo and settled in as it took them clear across the shipyard to the graduation party.

Sol System - Jovian Union - Neptune

Neptune Gas Mining Facility & Triton Mining Colony

September 27th 2575 AD - 10:00 STT [Standard Thebes Time] [Three Hours Earlier]

Yaeger Schueller was sitting at the controls of his gas tug eating a sandwich and waiting for the Neptune A9 gas rig to finish filling his tanks with hydrogen and helium when he saw a bright light flash past his position and then he felt the entire gas rig and his tug shimmy strong enough for him to spill the entire thermos of coffee into his lap that he had just opened.

“Shit, shit, shit,” he hollered squirming in the cramp cockpit as he grabbed for a towel from one of the overhead compartments and wiped at his pants.

“What the hell was that,” he muttered leaning forward to peer out the armored glass port in front of his control panel and he was just in time to see another flash of light go past and then Neptune Gas Rig A7 exploded silently in front of his eyes followed in quick succession by A8 and then he himself was vaporized as A9 took a particle beam blast in the main hydrogen storage tank.

Just for good measure the Scultor glassed the entire surface of Triton melting the facility to slag and the personnel to ash.

Sol System - Thebes - Dry Lake Bed Shipyard

Dry Dock #1 - TNS Thermopylae - Main Salon

September 27th 2575 AD - 14:00 STT [Standard Thebes Time]

Jack and the others had been loafing around the main salon with other high ranking government and business officials not only from Thebes but from the UEF, Martian Republic, and Jovian Union, the Venusian’s were in the middle of some election so they hadn’t been able to send anyone for the ceremony.

Jack could really care less about it, the Venusian’s had been oddballs to start with even when he’d met them for training and a few joint operations.

“By jove my good fellow, smashing great party,” the UEF representative the right drunk Sir Percival Penrose Albiquist shouted at the top of his voice and slapped Jack on the back causing him to stutter step forward a few feet as he was caught off guard making small talk with Suzanne very quietly since that small talk involved what the two of them would be doing in just an hour or so once the party started to wrap up.

Suzanne rolled her eyes and walked away.

“Coward,” Jack mouthed to her and she just smiled at him beautifically.

“So my good fellow, how soon will this most excellent craft be launching for her maiden voyage,” the Brit asked.

“The Thermopylae only has a few more things that need to be checked over and she’ll be launching in just one more week,” Jack told him.

“Wonderful it’ll be interesting to see what kind of joint exercises we’ll be able to perform with out two navies,” the Ambassador said putting an odd emphasis on two navies.

That was when Jack realized that the ambassador wasn’t quite as drunk as he was pretending to be.

“If you’ll excuse me ambassador, I need to discuss something with my wife,” Jack said putting extra emphasis on the ass part of ambassador.

“Not a problem my good man, not a problem,” Albiquist replied in full tipsy mode once again.

“Thank you,” Jack said and then found Suzanne discussing something with some military wives.

“…so is it true that you and your husband actually tried to kill each other at one point?” one of the wives was asking.

“Well we have had a few fights now and again, but nothing I would say that would involve me wanting actually kill him,” Suzanne told them. “Possibly think of killing him maybe, but not actually kill,” she added and then laughed with other three women.

Jack had come up behind the other three women with a bit of a grin on his face at the conversation and let her squirm through a few more questions before answering her pleading look.

“’Scuse me ladies but I need to talk to my wife for a few minutes,” he said politely pushing through the women.

“Certainly, you go ahead and run along dearie,” one of the older military wives told Suzanne patting her on the hand. “I’ll keep the sharks at bay while you and your husband have your little discussion,” she said with a wink.

“Thank you Alexandria,” Suzanne said and squeezed through the women to where Jack was standing and the two of them left the party early to head for the Admiral’s quarters.

Sol System - Jovian Union - Uranus

Uranian Gas & Mining Facilities

September 27th 2575 AD - 11:00 STT [Standard Thebes Time] [Three Hours Earlier]

The huge planetoid flagship of the Scultor Empire didn’t even bother dropping out of hyperspace for the Uranus facilities sending only half a dozen heavy cruisers to destroy the shut down automated facilities that languished in orbit around the planet and its moons.

Sol System - Jovian Union - Saturn Orbit

Mining & Extraction Facilities In Orbit Around Saturn and the Colonies on Titan, Rhea, Enceladus, Dione, Tethys, Mimas, Iapetus

September 27th 2575 AD - 11:00 STT [Standard Thebes Time] [Three Hours Earlier]

The moons of Saturn was one of the most densely populated areas of the Solar system after Earth, Mars, and Venus having a population that was reaching almost 600 million inhabitants; in less than an hour of continous bombardment by the imperial flagship and some of its heavier consorts the seven moons populations were dead, the cities and surrounding areas glassed, and the atmospheres that had taken over a century to create were non-existant as they were boiled away.

The few Jovian Union ships on sight acting as traffic protection and anti-piracy craft were holed, exploded, and vaporized in quick succession before they could move out of their protective orbits of the colonies and nothing but melted and then refrozen metals and gases were left as their grave markers.

Sol System - Jovian Union - Jupiter Orbit

Mining & Extraction Facilities In Orbit Around Jupiter and the Colonies on Io, Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto

September 27th 2575 AD - 12:00 STT [Standard Thebes Time] [Two Hours Earlier]

Jupiter and it’s four colonized moons had the heaviest population of all the Jovian Union planets and the most densely populated colonies in the system since they were actually colonized even before Mars’s own atmosphere had been finished terraforming.

Jupiter also had huge gas extraction plants and was home to the Jovian Shipyards, these shipyards produced not only military and civilian vessels for the Union but also ships for the Martian and Venusian Republics but also built over 50% of the civilian vessels in the entire system.

Needless to say when the Scultor fleet was done with Jupiter the Sol System had lost a large portion of its ship repair and construction capability but lost over 17 billion of the systems living breathing life blood.

However the Scultor weren’t completely successful in their destruction and a packet ship that was trundling snail mail from Mars to Jupiter that was in the lee of Io managed to jump to hyperspace and head sunward to the next inhabited planet.

Sol System - Theban Cluster - Thebes Orbit

Solar System Mail Delivery Service - Packet Ship SS William F. Cody

September 27th 2575 AD - 14:37 STT [Standard Thebes Time] 

The William F. Cody popped out of hyperspace over and hour and a half after it had entered, the small three man crew found themselves retching at the unusual distortion that they encountered as they came back into normal space.

“Oh damn,” the Engineering Officer Gertrude Marlowe muttered as she saw the time and checked her damage board. Apparently the small packet ship had sustained damage by a fleeting shot from the invaders and that was the reason for all the extra distortion and extended time it had taken them to reach Thebes.

“Sir, we took damage and won’t be able to re-enter hyper-space until it’s fixed,” she told Captain Blaine Isalla.

“Alright, send a message to Thebes control telling them what occurred at Saturn and start bringing us in for a landing at the space port,” Isalla ordered his stomach still rolling as his mahogany hands gripped the chair arms.

“Aye Sir,” both Marlowe and the navigations officer Thad Sulemein replied before bending to their tasks.

Sol System - Thebes - Dry Lake Bed Shipyard

Dry Dock #1 - TNS Thermopylae - Admiral’s Quarters

September 27th 2575 AD - 14:45 STT [Standard Thebes Time] 

“Aw shit,” Jack mumbled sleepily as his arm fumbled around on the side table next to the king size bed for the comm unit that was beeping incessantly.

Finally snagging it he drug it under the covers. “Wha?” He mumbled into it.

“Chairman, this is Lt. Cottswald in CIC, we’ve just gotten a message from a packet ship that just jumped in from Saturn Sir,” the Fleet officer told him.

“And…,” Jack said still somewhat asleep.

“Yes sir, sorry sir,” the Lt. replied somewhat flustered.

“Sir, the message and footage that they have downloaded indicates that…that…oh dear god sir,” the Lt.’s voice was filled with sick disgust and horror.

“What is it son,” Jack said now fully awake.

“Sir, Saturn and all her colonies and attending stations, have been destroyed by some sort of alien fleet,” Cottswald told him.

“Listen very carefully Lt. send out an all points alert that all civilians are to make their way to the stasis shelters and all military and police personnel are to report to their war time duty stations,” Jack ordered.

“Yes, Sir.”

“And alert Admiral Atherton and tell him along with the Thermopylae’s command crew that I’ll meet them in the Admiral’s briefing room,” Jack ordered.

“Yes, Sir.”

Jack set the comm down and kicked out with one foot hitting Suzanne in the shin.

“What the hell,” she squawked having almost been knocked out of the bed. “Why’d you kick me,” she asked with a somewhat pouty expression on her face as she rubbed at her bruised leg.

“Sorry, but it seems that Saturn’s entire population has been wiped out,” Jack told her.

“Please tell me you’re kidding Jack,” Suzanne told him.

“No I’m afraid not and if they are this far in-system that means that all the colonies and infra-structure of Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto have been destroyed as well,” Jack told her quietly.

“Dear god,” Suzanne said quietly and then her face hardened into cold steel.

“I guess its time to go back to work,” Jack said a certain thrill and cold sickness running through his belly as he tapped another number into the comm.

“Miss Daverick, I need you to send the two garment bags and chests from the closet in the master bedroom,” he ordered his housekeeper.

“Yes Mr. Sikorsky, I’ll send a courier with them as soon as I can Sir,” the older woman replied.

“Thank you and get the children to the stasis bunker after that,” Jack ordered her.

“Yes Sir.”

Jack shut the comm off and turned to Suzanne. “Our stuff will be here soon,” he told his wife.

“Good, I wouldn’t want to go into battle without the proper clothing and equipment,” Suzanne told him with a wolfish grin.

“Suddenly I feel very sorry for whoever these murderous assholes are,” Jack told her.

“You do,” Suzanne asked him.

“No not really,” Jack said rather dryly.

“Good I was starting to wonder if you were getting soft on me,” Suzanne told him.

“I better get Samuel and the others gathered up,” Jack said moving towards the door.

“You also might want to put some clothes on first,” Suzanne told him pulling a sheet around her body and heading for the shower.

“Good idea,” Jack said and grabbed the end of the sheet and tugged it loose of her causing her to squawk and stumble away.

“Hey,” She said her hands on still perfect and muscled hips.

“Its not like you’re out in public love, now go get your shower,” Jack told her and tossed the sheet down on the floor grabbing up his pants and pulling them on and then his shirt and shoes.

Grabbing his comm he knew that he might need it to get ahold of Samuel even if he was standing outside his door.

Walking down the corridor he stopped in front of one of the VIP headquarters and knocked rapidly and loudly on it police style.

Tapping his foot impatiently he waited for a almost half a minute before knocking on the door again. Back in the Marine Corps unless it was an urgent emergency Samuel had been damn near impossible to wake and it seemed he’d found a perfect mate in Patricia who seemed just as hard to wake.

“Dammit Samuel,” Jack muttered and then used his comm to override the cabin door’s lock and pulled an ovoid shape out of his pocket and rolled it across the living room floor and through the bedroom’s door of the VIP cabin.

A loud shout came from the bedroom as it clinked against the bed frame. “Grenade.”

There was a scrabbling sound and then cursing. “You son of a bitch you could have just knocked on the door asshole,” Samuel called from the bedroom.

“I did and if you weren’t such a lazy prick you would have heard me,” Jack shot back.

What Samuel said next about Jack really wasn’t repeatable in polite company and Jack pretty much ignored him.

“Done yet,” Jack shouted.

“Yeah.”

“Okay we got a war meeting in half an hour so shag your ass and get dressed and geared up,” Jack ordered.

“A war meeting,” Samuel queried.

“I’ll explain everything at the meeting, we’ll be holding it in the admiral’s briefing room,” Jack told him.

“We’ll be that ASAP,” Samuel shouted.

“Alright see you in thirty then,” Jack said and backed out the door relocking it.

“What’s going on?” Patricia muttered as she sat up in bed and pulled her glasses on.

“SOmething’s going down, Jack’s holding a war meeting in thirty in the admiral’s briefing room.

“A war meeting, but we aren’t at war,” Patricia said confused.

“We are now,” Samuel told her and opened up two cases that he took with he and Patricia everywhere.

“And I have a feeling we’ll need this stuff as well,” Samuel said setting the cases on the stand in front of the bed and flipping them around.

“You really think we’ll need those,” Patricia asked seeing the contents.

“Yeah,” was the short answer he gave before going in the bathroom to shower.

Sol System - Thebes - Dry Lake Bed Shipyard

Dry Dock #1 - TNS Thermopylae - Admiral’s Conference Room

September 27th 2575 AD - 16:00 STT [Standard Thebes Time] 

It took a bit more than half an hour, actually almost three times that amount of time to get everyone to the conference room, and by that time everyone had changed from their normal business attire; or nakedness; into more functional clothing.

Jack was sitting at the head of the table with his combat boots up on the table, lizard skin BDU pants bloused out with a gunbelt holding one of his FN Five-seveN FS pistols with the other in a shoulder holster over a bright red and green Hawaiian shirt a base ball cap pushed back on his head.

Samuel for his part was dressed all in black BDU’s and a black T-shirt with his Glock’s in a twin shoulder rig and a massive S&W .500 Magnum revolver on one hip.

Patricia and Suzanne were practically twins, Suzanne had donned her old clothing style of skin-tight gray spider-silk body suit with knee length high heeled motorcycle boots and leather jacket with her own Glock in a shoulder rig while Patricia after seeing the protective properties of the Spider-Silk had gone out and bought a black one and a dark gray leather jacket and lower heeled combat boots her S&W .357 was canted forward on a belt just inside the jacket.

Marie was wearing her riot duty uniform shirt with Kevlar weave and built in extra padding a watch cap and had dug one of her old skirts and tight outfits out of the closet and wore low-heeled motorcycle boots.

Taki for her part had donned her old mono-film duty suit and had a plug connected from her neck to the conference table’s terminal.

David was just dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with a corduroy jacket over it.

“Okay Taki if you would please?” Jack said gesturing.

“Certainly father,” she said and closed her eyes and the holographic projector over the table sprang to life showing a representation of the Sol System.

“Starting with Pluto we haven’t had any communications with them in over a week, which isn’t odd but they haven’t even sent so much as an e-mail sunwards,” Jack said and the bead that was Pluto turned a bright red.

“Comunication with the Neptune Colony was lost eight hours ago, which after Neptune they seemed to have picked up speed,” Jack said as the planet turned red.

“Uranus and Saturn dropped off five hours ago, Jupiter four hours ago,” Jack told them and the others watched sickly as one after the other the three planets started burning a steady red.

“Jesus, how could they have hit them that fast,” Maria asked.

“Micro Jumps?” Samuel asked.

“Possibly, David?” Jack said turning to their resident tech.

“Its possible if they had enough of a power source and could create enough of a gravity well,” David said.

“This would probably do it,” Jack said nodding to Taki who even with her eyes closed changed the Holo-Projectors image.

Shouts and sounds of startlement ran around the table at the image.

“Is that to scale,” Patricia asked.

“Yeah it was taken from the packet ship’s rear camera’s as it jumped to hyperspace,” Jack told them grimly.

“Even our most crude gravitic sensors should have picked up a disturbance that large,” David said.

“Yeah, well frankly something that large really shouldn’t even be able to move on its own,” Jack shot back, since he’d found out his true origins he’d spent hours reading up on the advanced technology that Theban Heavy Industries had been exploiting.

“Do we have any idea who it might be, could it be these War Machine things returning to finish the job they started,” Marie asked fingering her police badge.

“It is doubtful; the War Machine’s require no further transportation than their own bodies and motive systems,” Taki told the group in a mechanical voice.

At that point the door to the conference room opened and Atherton entered. “Sorry I’m late Sir,” he said to Jack.

“No problem Warren, come in and sit down we were just discussing this wonderful new threat that just popped out of nowhere,” Jack said dryly.

“Is that…?” Atherton asked as he saw the image in the holo-projector’s field.

“Yes it is,” Samuel replied quickly.

“Go ahead and sit down Admiral,” Jack said waving to one of the chairs.

Atherton sat down at the table.

“So what kind of ETA are we talking about,” Jack asked and the rest of them spent the next several hours discussing what they would need to do to stop the threat looming over the rest of the solar system.

Sol System - Thebes - Dry Lake Bed Shipyard

Dry Dock #1 - TNS Thermopylae - Bridge

September 29th 2575 AD - 04:00 STT [Standard Thebes Time] 

Things had finally been hashed out and it was decided that the Thermopylae along with every still combat capable ship in the vicinity would go out to meet the invaders and try their best to stop them.

“Chief Bangalar bring the counter-gravity system to three-quarters power and take us straight up and out of the atmosphere and then put us in geo-synchronous orbit,” Admiral Atherton ordered.

“Aye, three quarters to counter-grav, 0 degree plane of incline out of atmosphere and take up Geo-Synch orbit,” the Chief Petty Officer repeated the orders and his hands flew across the touch sensitive keyboard.

“Lt. Ducairen, how are the techs doing on the main gun?” The Admiral asked.

“They said the main gun will be up and running by the time we need it,” the tactical officer answered the Admiral.

“That’s not a very good answer Lt.,” Atherton said in exasperation.

“That’s the one that I received sir,” the dark haired woman told the admiral without so much as bat of the eye.

“Alright Lt. inform me when either they have the main gun up or when the rest of our rag-tag little fleet shows up,” Atherton ordered with more annoyance than he was wanting to show.

Getting out of the captain’s chair he walked across the bridge to where the day cabin was and sat down at his desk.

Sitting down behind it he rubbed at his forehead where a small headache was starting to grow into a larger one, the state of the bridge he had just left didn’t leave him with much confidence.

Sol System - Thebes - Geo-Synchronous Orbit

TNS Thermopylae - Conference Room/Scultor Flagship Golgotha

September 29th 2575 AD - 08:00 STT [Standard Thebes Time] 

“Lt. I would really like to know if the main gun is on line yet?” Atherton asked his subordinate.

“Uh, the tech’s say another half an hour Sir,” Ducairn told him.

“Tell them have fifteen minutes,” Atherton growled.

“Yes sir,” the Lt. replied and bent to his comm panel.

“Lt. Estes have the fleet, as such as it is form up on us,” he ordered.

“Yes sir.”

The fleet as it was; all twenty-two ships, five UEF cruisers, nine MRN battle cruisers and eight Venusian frigates; the Martians had been more than willing to add more ships but they also had to perform anti-piracy duty since one of the stations that been destroyed was Haven the usual hang out for pirates and they had gone on a bit of pirating craziness.

However the UEF and Venusians weren’t really taking the problem seriously.

The rag tag mottley crew of craft finally formed up just as the unknown invaders massive flagship finally dropped out of hyperspace and caused gravitic distortions which ripped apart a small orbital platform around Thebes.

“Oh, that is really big,” Jack muttered as the huge craft stabilized.

“You sure have gotten into the habit of stating the obvious lately love,” Suzanne told him dryly.

“In a bad mood are we,” Patricia called from one of the bridge stations that she had taken over as had all the members of the board save for Taki and David who were with the tech team trying to get the ship’s main gun online and down in engineering respectively.

On the main viewer a large portion of the planetoid mawed open and started spitting out ships that were in the battle cruiser range.

“Oh fraggit,” Samuel muttered.

“Let’s go and have some fun people,” Jack shouted.

“Admiral if you would,” Jack told Atherton.

“Yes sir,” Atherton said and started spitting out rapid fire orders and everyone bent to their work stations and the Thermopylae and the other vessels started weaving around one another to make themselves harder targets.