Ivan Kal - What War Had Wrought

Nair stepped into chaos. The command center was a flurry of activity as people shouted and tried to make sense of the data. His eyes were immediately drawn to the large holo-table in the middle of the room where the entire system was represented, and which showed large red shapes moving from the hyperspace barrier and towards Sanctuary.

Nair approached his command chair and the Ship Master of his flagship, the command ship Astarte. “What do we have?” Nair asked, announcing his presence.

The command center crew calmed down and waited. The Ship Master stood from the command chair, allowing Nair to take his place, and moved to his chair just below the podium.

“Erasi ships have entered the system and are on course towards Sanctuary. They haven’t responded to any attempts at communication, and are assumed hostile,” the Ship Master answered.

Nair nodded, projecting the image of a calm commander. “How many?”

“Early reports put them at just over nineteen thousand—ten Erasi fleets.”

Nair winced. The Sanctuary system was defended only by his single war fleet; the rest were drones and defensive platforms and installations. It was very well defended, but most of its defenses were focused around the trans-stations. Since the location of Sanctuary was inside of the nebula, it had always been assumed that any attack would be forced to come through the lanes. The Erasi had come through hyperspace, which could only mean that they knew the coordinates of the system. It didn’t matter now how they got here, only that they had.

“Status of the fleet?” Nair asked.

“All ships reporting ready status, Fleet Commander.”

“Good,” Nair said. He looked at the holo. The Erasi fleets had come out of the hyperspace near the orbit of the fifth planet in the system, Gem, and would pass close to Eurus, the system’s only gas giant, where most of Sanctuary’s shipyards were as well—on their path towards Sanctuary, assuming that Sanctuary was their intended target. He couldn’t let them reach Sanctuary. The system’s population lived mostly in stations in Sanctuary’s orbit, and any fighting close to the planet would certainly finish with many civilian casualties. His best chance of stopping them would be at Eurus. “Open a channel to Fleet Command.”

“I agree with you, Fleet Commander,” Fleets Master Laura Reiss said to the hologram of Fleet Commander Nair Hakeem. “We’ll contact the Eurus shipyards and start evacuating people. We are bringing the drones online from across the system; they will rendezvous with your fleet as soon as possible.”

“Thank you, Fleets Master,” Nair said, and closed the channel.

Laura turned to the room, looking at the top officers in the Fleet. “Alright, contact all the stations and assets we have in system. Those close to the Erasi should start evacuating now; those that are unable to do so are to lay low and wait until we can get to them. Olympus City should raise the shields; I don’t want any chances taken with the Emperor’s life. And keep all of our eyes on that fleet. I want to know what they are doing before they do.”

“A lot of our mining operations are vulnerable; they’ll need to shut down mining ops before they can evacuate,” said Oswald Mein, Commander of Fleets, as Adjutants moved to follow Laura’s orders.

“They will need to hunker down and hope for the best,” Laura said. “We are going to need to move the defense stations to support the First Fleet.”

“The stations can’t move much without the skim drives; once they are moved, they will stay wherever they arrive,” Oswald said.

Laura nodded, agreeing. “We will move them once the fighting starts.” She studied the holo-table for a few moments before turning to Oswald. “How long until Star-Guard One can bring its weapon system online?”

Oswald shook his head. “They are inside Apollo’s corona strain testing their shields; as far as I know, most other systems are offline. They would have to resurface first, then bring the weapons online. Assuming that nothing goes wrong, it would take them maybe twenty hours.”

Laura glanced at the holo, bringing the data about Star-Guard One up. “They are on the other side of the sun; they will be facing Sanctuary in sixteen hours…” Laura said. “Contact them, tell them that they have fifteen hours to bring the station out of the corona and get the weapon online.”

“Uh… Yes, Fleets Master.”

“Tell me the truth, Laura.” Tomas looked at the hologram connecting him to Fleet Headquarters. “Can we fight them off?”

“Yes,” Laura answered immediately, then after a bit added, “but, most of our defenses are gathered at the trans-stations, and in Sanctuary’s current orbit, they are not in range. Even if we skim the defense stations to help the fleet, there is still so much that can go wrong.”

Tomas nodded. “I understand. I will call the other Clans and see if anyone can send help. Do your best,” he told her, and closed the channel. The only two Clans that were close enough to actually send help in time were Dai Ven and Warpath. He knew that Laura would’ve called on the two fleets from the other sectors, but they wouldn’t be here in time. He looked around the well-lit room at the people assembled there. They were inside of the bunker below the palace; the rest of the Olympus City’s population was underground as well, but then, most of the city was underground, so it was not that much of a bother to most of them.

“We are sure that it is the Erasi?” Seo-yun asked from his left.

“Yes,” Tomas said, trying to keep his anger in check.

“We tried to make peace with them at every turn. Why would they do this?” Seo-yun asked aloud.

“I don’t know…” Tomas said. He looked at the holo-table that had the relayed information from the Fleet. The Erasi were moving fast, deeper into the system. His system, his home, a place that he had hoped would never know the horrors of war, the Sanctuary of his people. “I need to make some calls,” Tomas told Seo-yun, and opened a channel to Warpath and Dai Ven.

Isani closed the link with the Emperor, and immediately sprang into action calling the guard commanders.

“Get the Vanguard ready, Sanctuary has been attacked. We are sending everything we have as soon as you can get it ready,” Isani told them. Tomas had called a conference with him and Clan Leader Jusan, asking for help. Jusan could send only three thousand drones that served as the guard for Waypoint system, but those drones would reach Sanctuary within hours. Isani’s Vanguard ships would take longer; they would need to travel to Waypoint and then to Sanctuary, but they should be there in less than a day. The Vanguard was based on the older designs of the Vanguard fleet—ten unique ships, now upgraded and slightly larger than the older versions. The Vanguard consisted of one thousand ships, ten classes with a hundred ships each.

Isani only hoped that they got there in time.

Sanctuary — Command Ship Astarte

Nair watched as the Erasi fleet bombed the mining facilities on the surface of Gem in passing. Seeing the devastation on the planet, he barely managed to hold off on ordering his fleet to skim and engage them. He wanted to do it, but he knew that it would be futile. The skim drive was powerful, but also limited; once used, he would need to wait for it to recharge, and by then he would’ve been surrounded and defeated. His fleet arrived in orbit of Eurus and rendezvoused with another thousand drone ships just as the Erasi fleet passed Gem and headed straight for his fleet. They were taunting him, he could tell—they didn’t need to touch those facilities—but Nair wasn’t about to take the bait. He would wait for them to come to him.