The Long Run

[DoS Archive]

From: jondbrock@aol.com (JonDBrock)
Date: 21 Oct 1998 10:09:21 EDT

0400 10.13.109

Again, the dark room. How many times had he done this? A hundred times? More?
How many days of standing in front of the liquid plasma monitors while some out of touch intel diplodink tapped the sections of the virtual vector projections map and tried to tell him and his men how things were?
Jon leafed through the intel brief with a bored expression, the information was more than likely out of date, and the sitrep was a bunch of bunk as far as he was concerned. He knew the Ul'Kuva, he'd killed hundreds of them with his own hands.
The Xav Empire had been completely unprepared for the attack of the Ul'Kuva, the humanoid species came upon them like the darkest wind they had ever known. They matched the Xav in technology, but in pure warrior rage the Xav were outmatched. All attempts at diplomacy had failed, what was left the diplomatic party sent into Ul'Kuva space was returned to Xav Prime with N'gala biosymbionts attached to their brainstems. After release from
quarantine they went insane, killing anything near them. It took nearly an entire platoon of the Xav Imperial Army to bring them down, and after the deaths of their hosts the biosymbionts released a polymorphic viral neurotoxin, nearly decimating half of Xav Prime before the Xav Medical Consulate could arrest the bioagent.
Jon closed his eyes for moment, putting a hand to his forehead while the memory of the Foul Plague came back to him. He had lost both his wife, Ayna and his three year old daughter Shayla to the Ul'Kuva neurotoxin, While he had stood by,devastated emotionally and immune physically, due to code word secret immunizations he had recieved upon induction to the Xav Imperial Elite.
The war was horrid, of the once great Xav Empire of nearly thirty star systems only two remained. The Ul'Kuva would move into a system, and systematically overrun entire solar systems, taking no prisoners, nor leaving colonies behind. The word was that the Ul'Kuva were orbitally mining the planets they took in the far outlying systems, but no one knew for sure, no Xav fleet had survived long enough to get out that far and confirm the
rumor.
"Major Brock," Colonel Draden said, slamming his hand down on the podium quickly to get Jons' attention. "This is a briefing, and if you can't pay attention here you could put the lives of your men in danger!"
Jon looked up quickly, his brows coming together at the sound of the colonels hand smacking into the hard steel podium.
"Your not telling us anything we don't know Colonel,.....with all due respect of course." Jon offered.
The colonel looked at the men before him for a moment. And then rubbed a hand on his forehead, leaning into the podium.
"Men, I don't have to tell you that we're losing this war." The colonel offered, getting a general murmur of bitter agreement from the platoon of men in the briefing room. "We have fourteen planets left, thats all we have. The stress has gotten to all of us."
Jon nodded in agreement, looking around to his men. Fifty of the Empire's finest soldiers, all of them with killmarks riddling their uniforms. Had the fight just been on these men, the Ul'Kuva would have lost years ago.
"What we have planned men," The colonel said, straightening somewhat behind the podium and running his hands down his uniform quickly. "Is the mass exodus of the remainder of the Xav race to a system nearly eighty light years from Xav Prime."
The briefing room erupted in a wave of quiet disbelief, the men speaking among themselves as quietly as possible, but the noise level still to high to be heard over.
Jon stood up quickly, kicking the bottom steel panel of his briefing chair and producing a loud report from the steel. The room immediately silenced, the eyes of his men turning to him and back to the colonel.
"Colonel," Jon began, the logistics of the operation sliding somewhat into place in his mind. "For starters, we're talking about upwards of three hundred billion Xav here, to move that many would take a huge fleet of ships that we don't have now. And on top of that even if we did have the fleet, it would take nearly fifty years at maximum phase velocity for any of those ships to reach the system your proposing."
The colonel raised a hand for a second, dimming the lights and cueing the main screen up, quickly the image of Hades IV coalesced on the screen.
"Your answers are here, Major Brock. On the dark side of the planet, in orbit, cloaked and anti-fielded are nearly forty Class Five Fleet shipyards. The Imperial Directorate anticipated this situation nearly two standard years ago, as we speak nearly four hundred BlackStone Class freighters are approaching our last planets, the evacuation has already begun."
"Our scientific community has also been busy in the last two years of this war. But until now none of their advances have been able to be put into practical use in any military scenario presented as yet in our war with the Ul'Kuva." The colonel tapped his console again, showing a piece of technology none recognized, looking somewhat like an extremely widemouthed energy cannon. "This men, is the Nexus Gate. Our scientists say that
when utilized, it will open a wormhole through subspace, allowing our fleet to traverse the space between here and our destination within moments. All the new freighters are equipped with them."
Jon nodded to himself, slightly appreciative of the planning that this had taken. He thought it over for a moment, then raised a hand to the colonel.
"Sir, while this plan has its merit and its chances for success, the Ul'Kuva have detected cloaked fleets before. And our last intelligence reports they have a large fleet within a light year of Xav Prime as we speak. Whats to stop them from detecting the evacuation fleet and overtaking them?"
The colonel looked as if he was thinking deeply for a moment, and then keyed in another data request on his keypad. The screen cleared and then showed a picture of a medium cruiser of a design Jon had never seen before.
"Men, this is our one hope for deterrent of the Ul'Kuva fleet." He again keyed in a data request, specs and cross sections of the ship appearing on the screen. "The Gladiator Class Cruiser, fully manufactured of stealth stasis crystal polymers, advanced Vision Field ECM systems, Future Tense LTA tracking system for multiple targets and multiple weapons systems, phased deuterium torpedoes, full scale ArcLight gunnery system
capable off three hundred and sixty degree mobility, VectorLock shielding with random phase modulation, and a full cloaking system including particle recycling system that negates ion trail tracking. It has a full Tri-Phase drive system with a Gel Field tac accelerator that has been designed to outmanuever and outrun anything the Ul'Kuva has in the skies."
"Well then, "Jon said. Making a sarcastic face. "Now all we need is about two or three hundred of them and we're fine."
The colonel shook his head for a moment, looking old suddenly.
"No Jon, the Directorate decided that the evacuation fleet was the priority, there is only one Gladiator. And the Imperial Directorate has ordered that you men be the ones to delay the Ul'Kuva fleet while the freighters attempt to get far enough out of their systems to make the Gate Jump."
"Colonel....your asking me and my men to commit suicide, it doesn't matter how fancy you dress that ship up, if we run into twenty Ul'Kuva battleships and carriers its still noting but a pretty coffin."
The men nodded behind their commander, the murmur of bitter dissaproval obvious.
"We had the Gladiator outfitted with its own Nexus Gate," The Colonel said, raising a hand to quiet the room. "The Gladiator itself can survive a standoff battle with a few battleships with little problem, and its manueverability will make it quite hard to take down by the slower Ul'Kuva vessels and air wings. All you have to do is hold them off long enough for the evacuation fleet to make the jump. Once the fleet is off your
scanners, turn tail and hit the tac drives and give the Tri-Phase every ounce of speed you can pour into it, then active the Nexus Gate, once through it, close the Gate and head for the nearest habital planet you can find, the subspace transceiver on the Gladiator will send a tracking becon, and we will send ships for you."
The men were quiet, Jon looked over his shoulder, seeing his right arm, Master Sergent James Malleck scratching his stubbled face. Jon raised a brow for a moment, the question fairly obvious.
James looked around at the men for a moment and then cracked an insane grin at Jon, which was answered in kind.
"Sounds like my kind of party!" James said, standing up quickly and turning to the platoon. "Hit the stockroom ladies, time to suit up, this here party starts at 0600 hours, and that ain't Guildan time either."
The men laughed, mostly to ease the tension, Jon could see the strain they were under, some seperated from families and loved ones in the war, others to be orphaned by this exodus, he knew they were scared, hell he was. He watched them file out to the stockroom, his chronometer showing they had less than ninety minutes to suit up and get the Gladiator into space.
"Thats a fine group of men you have there Major." The colonel said at Jon's side, causing Jon to turn his head in surprise, having not heard him approach.
Jon nodded to him, and gave a quick salute, then reached out shook the colonels hand.
"The finest group of evil bastards you'll ever lay eyes on." Jon grinned the insane grin that seemed to ride the faces of most of his men in these times."We'll hold em off sir, see you on the other side." He saluted again and strode out of the room, heading to the stockrooms to join his men.
Colonel Draden watched him leave, hoping against hope that all the scientific garbage the science councilor had dumped on him would perform as planned.
"Good luck Gladiator." Draden said simply, and left the room, heading to his shuttle that would ferry him to the waiting freighter.

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(TBC)
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((Author's Note: This is a storyline I am developing to flesh out the character of John Darius Brock. And while it might seem a little out of context with the Duel of Swords at the moment, I assure you it is not. So read on and enjoy.))