Shadows of the Sun CHAPTER 3

Shipyard Panamint, Earth,
Sol System

          A mildly hot breeze swept over the shipyard, giving light satisfaction to the Commander In Chief who was attending the departure of the small task force. Matthew Smith had made it a point to go to as many mission sendoffs as possible during his term. The CINCNAV (Commander In Chief—Navy) of the Solean Navy was also there, standing to the left of Matthew. Both were wearing stylish sunglasses and their formal uniforms—the CINC's embellished with "Naval Infantry Founder" and "Solean Guards Founder" medals, and the Naval Commander's sporting a "Five Year Officer's Service" ribbon and "Captain's Medal" with a bronze stripe on the ribbon portion, signifying that he had been a distinguished captain for two years and one additional year. Smith knew he had served as the captain of the God class heavy cruiser Artemis. The target of the pair's admiration was the Achilles, the CH leading the small force.
          "It's not the Artemis, but it'll do," said the CINCNAV jokingly.
          "I think that this mission is good for the experience of their crews," CINC Smith said with a lopsided smile, gazing at the stretching hull of the cruiser. The last of the supplies and weapons magazines had been loaded minutes before and the ship was ready for liftoff.
          "Commanders—" it was a well built black security guard for the shipyard who gave a salute, "I've been told to summon you both, if you'll come with me, the ceremony is ready to start."
          The Commanders In Chief proceeded to the area where the castoff ceremony would take place. They had to take a shipyard transport to go out of the immediate dock area and to a zone open to civilians. The ensuing ceremony listed the names of the ships in the flotilla and its mission—"the reinforcement of Customs protection of Solean shipping to the colony of Theta, and destruction of the hostile ship." In the nearly two days since the decision was made to send the ships to Thetan space, the story of the "Alton Incident" flashed across all of the Dominion's news. Many astonished people attended the castoff of the ships. Both men read their personal statements and the traditional words for such a ceremony. Finally, at the end, in the near distance the Achilles shot out and upward from its dock, leading the Rio and Guadeloupe until all three grew very faint and entered the black monstrosity.

Solean Hall, Earth, Sol System

          At the same time, William was just meeting with Ministers Zagorec and Clausen over the building of "biodomes," which were large orbital stations that specialized in food production. Such biodomes usually included the top section of four "fields," and two sections under that for packaging, housing, and docking of transport vessels. The idea for the domes was introduced at the end of the Dashwood presidency, and the company which prototyped them reminded the administration of their project. The three exchanged greetings, and sat down inside President Thompson's official office. Minister of the Interior Stephanie Clausen, who was in favor of the project of producing the biodomes, presented the other two with copies of the company's report on their product. The Dutch Groningen Scientific Company stated that the biodomes were a way to maintain enough food for Sol as well as the other dominions, while leaving planetary space for other things. MI Clausen outlined the report to the President and Minister of the Exterior, and made her position on the issue clear to her audience—building them in Theta. Once she was finished, Minister of the Exterior Zagorec expressed his favorable opinion on the matter and shared that he had been coordinating with the other Dominions, for the building of Groningen's domes in their space. Attica had embraced the initial idea of constructing the biodomes for them, while the newer New Byzantium maintained a more tentative stance, being that their population was not nearly what Sol or Attica's was. Those on Theta were ecstatic about them. The President, caught up on the details of the issue, dismissed the Ministers, for a Groningen representative was meant to meet him the next day to make concrete progress on the matter—Solean funding for Biodome construction in Sol and Theta. President Thompson reserved himself to rereading what he was going to say at the media covered event. He poured himself a drink, leaned back in his adjustable chair, and read his script. About fifteen minutes later, the phone rang and the President carefully returned his feet to the floor and picked up the phone—it was CINC Smith from his vehicle.
          "The task force successfully lifted off, and are on their way to Theta, Will," his voice announced.
          "Thank you, Matt. When will the ships reach the system?"
          "I'll get back before they get there—as you know I planned on looking around a bit here but I'll still get back before."
          "Right, I'll accompany you to the CIC (Combat Information Center) when you return," said the President.

          Commander in Chief Matthew Smith arrived at the front gate of Solean Hall a half hour before the naval flotilla was to enter Thetan space. It was raining somewhat heavily, darkening everything.
          "Mr. Smith, sir, welcome back to the Hall, the President told me to remind you to check in with him," said an armed security guard with rain gear who was holding an umbrella over the open rear window.
          "Thank you," returned Matthew, rolling up the window.
          The car lurched forward and then turned off on a guarded side road which led to a parking garage for administration such as himself. As soon as his car was parked, the CINC opened the door, stepped out, adjusted his uniform, and started for the elevator nearby.
          "Please take my luggage to my room—I'll take care of it from there," said he, to the driver.
          Once he reached the Presidential Office, he opened the door and closed it behind him. The President looked up, smiled, and set down his pen.
          "Ah, Matthew, welcome back!"
          "Good day Will…well…not all that great," he corrected with a smile.
          "It doesn't matter—I've been doing a hefty amount of work and haven't really noticed. Are you ready to go down to the Center?"
          "Yeah, I just need to use the bathroom first," Matthew said while starting out the door and to a bathroom nearby.
          As soon as the Commander In Chief had finished using the bathroom, the President and the CINC walked together down to the Combat Information Center inside Solean Hall which functioned as a military monitoring hub for conflicts on a planetary and system level. The Center could keep tabs on actions by the Solean Guards, Naval Infantry Guards, and the Naval Infantry. The two men entered through the guarded doors and were met by a large room with monitors on the walls, as well as horizontal and vertical plotting screens set to Thetan space. There was a buzz of activity, as the countdown clock on the far wall designated the time until the flotilla would enter Thetan space. The officer in charge stood on a raised platform with the "master monitors," and caught sight of the President and CINC.
          "President on deck!" he exclaimed at attention. The murmuring stopped immediately and the Information Center workers shot up to attention.
          "Alright, keep working," President Thompson said after a second. The workers momentarily returned to their duties.
          "Mr. President, Commander," the officer addressed with a slight bow to each, "the force is going to enter into Thetan space in…one and a half minutes," said he, looking at the timer.
          "Thank you Mr. Taksin, where may I watch it myself?" the President asked.
          "Ah, you, Mr. President, and the Commander In Chief can watch from the master control monitors with me—the holographic plotting board will show a model of the detector range of the ship with the longest range," the Thai man said.
          "Very well…"
          "Oh, and their detectors will take some time to become acquainted with the jump into Thetan space—they will be able to pick up some potential things, although not well, during the initial post-jump phase, sirs."
          "Please, hold off on the 'Mr. President' and 'Commander,' alright?" suggested President Thompson.
          The countdown timer reached zero, just as the SSC Achilles appeared on the holographic display with Guadeloupe and Rio in tow on the rear flanks.
          "Achilles and the other ships are now in Thetan space," announced a worker. The display that William and Matthew were watching appeared to be flickering slightly.
          "That is normal—the detectors of the ships try to pick up many things very quickly—the flickers are split second detections which are filtered out by the ship's database," Taksin explained.
          "Conn, Detect, I'm seeing an anomaly on the screen, on Achilles's port, and its detectors are having trouble filtering it out," one of the CIC workers reported.
          "I see it. It's too hard to make it out—make sure the Achilles knows to keep an eye on it, once we get a solid link with them," the officer in charge said.
          "Still not filtering…" CINC Smith observed on the display he was watching.
          "Detect, classify as possible spacecraft," ordered Taksin.
          "Aye, sir."
          "Conn, Comms, the link is solid and active…"
          "Sol, Rio here reporting in."
          "Guadeloupe here"
          "SSC Achilles is ready—what the…transient shot! Transient shot! Railgun slug went over the top of us!"
          "Conn, detect is declaring this a hostile battlespace!"
          When the President and the Commander In Chief witnessed the streak go across in the direction of the Solean ships, both nearly leaped in surprise.
          "Achilles, return fire immediately!" Taksin mandated.
          A second and third Standard Railgun slug lanced through the lower port bow of the Achilles simultaneously, blowing the section off of the ship.
          "Roger—we took damage to our bow—it got blown off, we're sealing the area! We can see the enemy—looks like an armored cruiser…yeah definitely a River II class…we lost half of our guns in that hit but we're shooting back—no hits though!"
          "Keep up the fire—we see the Rio and Guadeloupe moving to engage."
          "Yes sir, they are to engage with their light weapons."
          "Conn, SMW (Ship Monitor, Weapons), the Achilles has lost two Heavy Second Class Railgun single turrets from that bow hit. The remaining two are firing, weapon status is in the green, targeting is getting a bit better after the jump," said a systems operator.
          The President and CINC exchanged uneasy looks amid the fast paced action of the encounter.
          "This is…" Smith started, "ridiculous…how did this same barbarous ship manage to be exactly where we were jumping into!"
          "Sol, we've taken another hit!"
          "Confirmed, Achilles…hit looks amidships!"
          "SMW, how's the targeting?" Taksin inquired.
          "Guns are more accurate…charging, and—hit! The enemy cruiser is hit!
          "Yeah! We hit 'em, Sol!" the man on the Achilles yelled in semi-celebration.
          "Conn, detect, the two other cruisers are already in range and engaging, Achilles has also been moving closer to the confirmed River II class armored cruiser."
          "Sol, this is the Rio—we've taken a slug—critical hit…we're withdraw—"
          "Oh my God…I think they just destroyed the Achilles…" the detection systems operator thought aloud in denial of the fact.  
          "Sol, this is the Guadeloupe—the Achilles and Rio are down, I repeat, Achilles and Rio are down! Achilles took a broadside to the engines and blew up—we took damage from it. We're already withdrawing!"
          President William Thompson and Commander Matthew Smith watched in disbelief as the aft of the Achilles blossomed in a bright holographic glow which ripped through the ship. The secondary explosion near the larger cruiser on the display denoted the position of the Rio. The hostile River II class armored cruiser seemed to hover, guns silenced, as the Guadeloupe escaped behind the explosions and wreckage.
          "Conn, Comms, the skipper of the Guadeloupe has declared that this operation is terminated."
          "Detect—Guadeloupe is preparing for an immediate jump back to Sol. They're marking the location and vector that the River is on currently."
          "Thank you. I am sorry…that you both had to witness what happened, but there was nothing we could do, or that…they could do," explained Mr. Taksin dismally.
          "I agree," said the President with a sigh, "some of the worst luck a warship could receive would be an ambush right after a jump."
          "My ministry has been investigating the story behind this armored cruiser. The most logical explanation for its rouge state would be that it was stolen, but how in the world would one steal a cruiser?!" the CINC mused aloud, not withholding his anger and guilt at having sent the ships to their deaths.
          "Right—continue the investigation. We need to find as much information as possible. Jeez…this was just horrible-horrible!" concluded the President.

About two days later
Solean Hall

          "Matt, good day, I just got finished speaking with the President of the Phoenix Confederation himself about the, uh, problems…in Theta," President Thompson said on the video screen in his office.
          "It is a good day, and that is good."
          "So, you said you had something for me?"
          "I do—my people finally uncovered something decisive. It turns out that this River II class armored cruiser was stolen after all. It is…or was…the SSC Ohio. However, we have no idea who took it."
          "When was it stolen?"
          "As far as we know, whoever it was snatched it just…a while ago."
          "Eh…what about the crew?" returned the President.
          "No info on the status of the crew yet, but we're already working hard on that and other info concerning the Ohio."
          "Thank you for keeping me informed, my friend!"
          "Yes," the CINC began but stopped short, turning his attention to the left. An intelligence officer had entered with a piece of paper that was clearly important, as Commander Smith had ordered that he not be disturbed unless anything important was found. The officer was a female with a standard work dress uniform and skirt, and short blonde hair, who stopped hesitantly as she saw who was on the screen.
          "Yes, what is it, Miss? Oh…" he responded to what she was reporting.
          "Commander, what is it?" asked William.
          "Mr. President—we have found a piece of intelligence that the Commander In Chief just agreed was suspicious. However, the suspicious part is that a colonization ship and military transport cruiser were reported missing—we stumbled upon this while doing some extra research on other potential rouge ships," said the female officer.
          "Jesus…you're telling me…you're telling me they have the makings of a colony?" President Thompson realized.
          "Dissmissed, captain…anyways Will, it would look that way…this is some serious stuff."
          "And you're telling me."
          "Colony ships are meant to lay down some framework for a colony. They have shelters, some provisions, and some prefabricated buildings to build up rudimentary infrastructure. However, supplies are needed, namely food and water, and anything involving the extraction and processing of natural resources—tools," the CINC said as he looked at the specifications for the ship type.
          "Which would explain the attacks in Theta."
          "But it was reported that they destroyed the transports to Theta…unless they only destroyed a couple, leading us to believe they were just complete psychos, from the reports of fleeing ships, when really they took supplies meant for our colony, for their secret one."
          "Yes, but where—where?!" William exclaimed at a demanding whisper as he shot his right hand up towards the corner of the room with his open palm that quickly returned itself to the President's desk.
          "Supposedly the Explorer, the colonization ship they took, didn't have anything particular onboard that would suggest it was headed for a hostile environment such as high or low heat or gravity. It was meant to bring some shelters for settlers, and agricultural supplies—seeds, machinery, tools, among some other things. All very Earth-like stuff."
          "Ok, so the Explorer would logically be headed for an Earth-like planet. As a start, have your people run a search on all known planets that have conditions like here on Earth, that have been scouted by any Phoenix Dominions. I know that they probably were looking for a planet that was not known to us, but it's a start. You might want them to check the vector that the enemy ship was on, for such planets. Report back as soon as you find anything."
          "You got it. Bye," concluded CINC Smith.
          William Thompson stood up and began pacing around the room, pondering over the new intelligence reports. It became quite apparent to the President that the raiding enemies were by no means a simple enemy anymore.