Dark Deeds and Black Flights - Part VI
27 Sep 2017Jellicoe
Maia System, Orbit of Maia 2Commander John Roberts was deep in thought as he sat in the captains cabin of his ship the Corvette Thunder Child, his Singularity movement had scored a number of notable successes in their campaign to end the Federal blockade of the Palin Research Base including routing the Battlecruiser Perseus but with the Federation's apparently implacable determination to maintain its grip and President Hudson's public denouncement of Singularity as terrorists the campaign risked becoming bogged down which in turn risked their pilots losing heart. He needed a way to reinvigorate his forces and breathe new life into their cause, but what?
"Incoming holo-coms, maximum encryption." His computer announced.
"From?" Roberts asked, curiosity vying with irritation at his train of thought being interrupted.
"Commander Stannis Jellicoe."
"Put him through." Roberts said urgently, curiosity winning out. Jellicoe was another Singularity operative and the two had worked closely together on the project.
"Stannis?" Roberts said questioningly as a tall man with a slightly unkempt mop of blonde hair shimmered into view.
"Hello John, got something that might interest you old boy." Jellicoe drawled languidly.
"Yes?" Roberts rather liked the other man but he did have the extremely irritating old Earth habbit of appearing to never take anything seriously.
"Transmitting it now. I'm not risking this over coms however secure, there's a rendezvous in the message, if you're in I'll see you there. Out." Jellicoe gave a jaunty salute and vanished.
"Incoming message received." The computer said a moment later.
"Display." Roberts said urgently and immediately began reading the text on his desk display, his interest rising as he devoured the details of Jellicoe's activities at Communications Hub Zeta and Relay Station PSJ-17. "Computer plot me a new course." He barked. "We have a rendezvous to make."
[Asterope System, Deep Space
Deep in the uninhabited system, over three thousand light seconds from the Asterope star two Core Dynamics Corvette's cruised side by side, one bright blue the other darkest black, both hulls sporting a number of non standard augmentations creating a diversity of form between two identically built ships that would have looked strange had any prying eyes been there to see it, and had those hypothetical prying eyes looked more closely they would have noticed a docking tube connecting the two mismatched hulls and maybe wondered why two powerful warships were holding a secret meeting deep in an uninhabited system. In the captains ready room of the black vessel two men sat across the desk from one another, one, tall and pale with a mop of rather unruly blonde hair was leaning back in his chair, legs crossed and hands thrust deep in his pockets as he waited. His companion was shorter and more heavily built, shaven headed with a swarthy face covered with intricate tattoos was intently studying the holo-display above his desk, presently he looked up.
"Is this all of it?" The tattooed man asked.
"That's it." The blonde man replied with a nod. "Now you know as much as I do."
The tattooed man rubbed his chin deep in thought. "A secret black ops military unit murdering civilians to keep something hidden, what could be that important?"
"I don't know, but I'd very much like to find out."
"You only just got away last time, will the two of us be enough?"
"I wasn't shooting back last time. Two Corvette's and four fighters? Yes I think we can take them."
Relay Station PSJ-17
The Corvette's dropped together, energy dissipating and the dark, foreboding bulk of station PSJ-17 loomed large up ahead.
"Multiple contacts skipper." Claude called on the bridge of the blue ship, the Resolution.
"Same as last time, an Annie, two Pythons and four D-backs." Vik added from tactical.
"Concentrate your fire on the Anaconda." Commander Roberts voice came through from his ship, the Thunder Child.
"Roger that." Jellicoe replied. "All fighters engage at will but try and keep those D-backs busy."
The Corvette's opened fire together, a torrent of laser and multi-cannon fire hammering into their targets shields.
"Incoming fire." Vik called. "Looks like they're concentrating on us."
The black of space was ablaze with the flash of lasers, the flickering of shields and the brief blooms of explosions. The bigger ships pummelled each other with their heavy guns while the agile Diamondbacks dances and weaved and tiny fighters flitted hither and yon, tiny, fragile hornets but with a savage sting.
The Anaconda's shields were strong, stronger even than military spec, but under the savage barrage it would never be enough."
"Shields down to 54%" Vik called. "Targets are down, the two Pythons are hitting us hard though." The Anaconda's pilot was good, very good but a ship that size does not take evasive action easily, especially not close in the a base.
"Go for the power plant." Roberts voice came over coms
"No." Jellicoe replied, you finish him off I'll take one of the Pythons." Jellicoe fixed his target and unleashed the full fury of the Resolutions gunnery into the lead Python, it manoeuvred frantically while its wing mate fired continuously, but the Resolution was well shielded and one Python's fire would never be enough, first the targets shields fell, then her hull integrity drained away to nothing.
"Re-lock the Annie." Jellicoe ordered, checking his display. "John's got it down to 30%. Shouldn't take long." He positioned his ship to bring all his guns to bear and fired, adding the Resolution's guns to those of the Thunder Child as they tore into the Anaconda.
"Target Destroyed." Two computers on two Corvette's confirmed simultaneously.
"Last Python." Roberts called the target, the Python twisted and turned, trying to outmanoeuvre the bigger, slower ships, the pilot was good, verging on superhumanly good but no pilot can avoid that much fire from two expert pilots for long and gradually they wore the Python down.
"Second wave incoming." Vik warned as the ship blew. "Long way out though, we should have time to knock over those D-backs first." The fighters had done their job well, though several had been lost their replacements had launched and re-launched and the constant stream had ground down the four Diamondbacks, the two Corvette's made quick work of the two survivors.
"Seen the second wave?" Roberts asked. "Pick them off as they come in, Anaconda first again." A tornado of fire broke from the two Corvettes as soon as their foe's came into range.
"This is a turkey shoot!" Claude yelled exultantly as the frantic manoeuvring of their foe came to nothing. The fight was short, intense but decisive, the Anaconda lasting longest before blowing her structure largely intact.
"Looks like the last of them for now." Jellicoe called to the Thunder Child. "Let's get the logs and get out of here, fast." He flicked off coms to Roberts and opened a link to Harry Soames, once a Federal Marine Lieutenant, now the Resolution's chief of security. "Harry take and E.V.A. team and see if you can find anything in the wreck of that Annie, quickly as you can."
"The base isn't answering our hails." Claude broke in.
"Did you ever think they would?" Jellicoe asked with an amused snort. "We can't hurt them so let's get the rest of the logs scanned, we don't know how long we've got.
"I've put a subroutine in the scanner, we'll be able to access the logs as we upload them, same with the Thunder Child."
They scanned the logs, listening in silence to the accounts of ships attacked, civilians murdered, secrets hidden and unexplained disappearances.
"Are you getting this John?" Jellicoe asked the captain of the Thunder Child.
"Yes." Commander Roberts replied, his voice a quiet rumble of supressed anger. "I think we should consider switching our focus from Palin to these people."
"I think you're right. That looks like all the logs, time we went."
"Agreed. We need to discuss this further, I'll be in touch." John cut the coms and boosted for open space.
"E.V.A. team's back aboard." Vik said.
"Harry did you get anything?" Jellicoe opened a link to his security chief.
"They'd purged all data but we've got a prisoner, he's knocked about but alive and in one piece. Taking him to sick bay."
"On my way, make sure he's restrained and under guard. Claude get us out of here." Jellicoe rose and left the bridge, his face set in a vicious scowl.
Pleione System, Deep Space
The Corvette is a warship, and a big enough warship to have a portion of its sickbay set aside for treating potentially violent prisoners, a sensible precaution on a military vessel and it was here that Stannis Jellicoe arrived to find an unconscious man in a plain black flight suit held to the bed by security restraints, Harry Soames standing at the door cradling a plasma rifle.
"Looks like he was knocked out in the battle and his Remlok deployed automatically." Doctor Firman said looking up from his console. "No serious damage just a bang on the head."
"Bring him round." Jellicoe said harshly.
"He'll wake soon enough." The doctor protested mildly.
"Wake him." Jellicoe replied, his voice taut with fury. The doctor gave an uncomfortable shrug and administered a stimulant. The man came round looking groggy, shook his head to clear it and looked around.
"I am Commander Stannis Jellicoe and you have a lot of talking to do."
"Jellicoe? I know that name." The man said uncertainly, then more confidently. "Yes, you were one of that Loren woman's followers. You dreamers don't have the balls to make me talk."
Jellicoe moved toward the bed, pausing to pick up a razor sharp surgical knife. "Were I one of the others you may be right, but I am no other worldly explorer or starry eyed dreamer, I was a bounty hunter, I've tracked scum from one end of the bubble to the other so long as the price was right. I've seen the very worst of humanity in action, I've seen the good and gentle cut down just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time so trust me I have no romantic notions about the perfectibility of man or the innate nobility of the human soul, if there's one thing I've learned it is that where liberty still exists in this galaxy it does so because men like me stand in the shadows ready to do what is necessary in its defence so that better men can keep their hands clean so you will talk, the only questions are how long it takes and how many parts of you I have to cut off." Jellicoe's voice was eerily quiet and terrifyingly calm. The man nodded, looked around, breathed deeply and bit down hard. It was his eyes that changed first, going from those of a hard veteran killer to an almost childlike innocence, then his breathing began to slow, then stopped altogether.
"Doc?" Jellicoe called in surprise and alarm. Doctor Firman sprang up, checking the mans pulse while looking to his readouts.
"Hex-edit." The doctor said. "He's dead."
"Bastard." Jellicoe spat. "Chuck his carcass out of the airlock." He turned on his heel to leave.
"Stannis." The doctor called after him, Jellicoe stopped and half turned back. "Would you really have taken that knife to him?
Jellicoe frowned. "Let's be glad that neither of us know the answer to that."
Thanks to Commander John Roberts for letting me use his character in this story