The Alabama’s shakedown cruise reveals two critical pieces of technology – the first is a quantum entanglement communication system, presumably connecting many – if not all – of the Clan vessels. Becker orders the system disassembled and duplicated. The second is a K-F drive focusing coil that allows the vessel to jump from within a gravity well, and jump into the space created by the device found on Prinis Prime. Because of the utter strangeness of the technology of the device, the crew has little choice but assume it is alien in origin. If confirmed, it would be the first instance of intelligent alien life in mankind’s history.
The ships make the two jumps to Cerberus, and head into the well to the planet to accept Black’s invite to a celebration. They make an extravagant show of their arrival, heading to the planet’s one major city – Hole – in the Thermopylae with a fighter escort. They meet Black at his manor, in addition to the second most powerful man int he Outworlds Alliance – Caleb Jones. Over the course of the evening, the crew learns of rumors that Caleb is moving a lot of weapons, and there is a lot of tension among his people.
After a brief argument over what the people of the Alliance could possibly do against the Clans, Summerville calls down with news that some ships in orbit have run into similar gravitational anomalies as they discovered over Prinis Prime. The party immediately takes their leave and heads back through town to the landing strip escorted by two trucks from Black. On the way, they are ambushed by men carrying advanced weapons and are forced to fight their way free. Vail sends two Wasp LAMs to provide covering fire, and the party escapes, but Lev Arris is killed in the firefight.
Shortly after arriving back on the Agamemnon, dozens of warships begin jumping into orbit around Cerberus. The Alabama jumps away, and the Agamemnon moves to engage her transit drives. A massive, ten-kilometer-long mass-driver jumps in, and fires a slug that destroys Hole and everything within a thousand kilometers. Agamemnon collects as much data as she can before engaging her transit drives and speeding out Cerberus’ gravity well.
3011-01-04:
I suspect mr. Black had someone waiting for us. They were certainly quick to arrive on the scene after we had taken control over the facilities. The first jump went well enough, and I picked up the data cache I left behind as well. As soon as our engines are re-charged, we’ll continue to Cerberus.
The Clan warriors are … interesting. It seems their skin contains clorophyl. The implications of _that_ are staggering. They also have nanites in their blood, and a small computer implanted in their brains. I suspect that is part of the reason they’re all fanatics.
At least the kids haven’t got the computers in their heads yet. Not that they’ll be out of those tubes for years yet, but there’s absolutely no chance for them to have a normal life, if we’re even alive.
3011-01-10:
We’re back in Cerberus. And, of course, mr. Black has invited us to dinner. I do not really think he’ll attempt any form of treachery. But it is time to show our strength anyway. So we’re going down in the Thermopylae, with a full complement of mechs and fighters.
3011-01-10:
(cont)
Mr. Black is dead. They destroyed the entire city, and pretty much everything within a thousand kilometers from the city.
Lev Arris is dead as well.
We went down for the dinner, and things started out well enough. We gathered quite a crowd, of course. That was, after all, some of the idea. There was a certain tension between mr. Black and a mr. Caleb Jones; not that it matters anymore.
Then major Summerville contacted me, informing me that they had detected large gravititional anomaly similar to the one we found on Prinis Prime. We warned mr. Black and left, heading back towards the Thermopylae, with some of mr. Black’s men as escort.
I suspect the ambush was set up by mr. Jones’ men. There is no evidence; whatever evidence there was would be lost, of course. And even if the evidence were there, I doubt it would make any difference now. I just hope the people who sold out their own world were there as well, when the attack hit.
Lev Arris was killed while helping me get away. Pure bad luck; a sniper got him in the head. In the fairly short time I knew him, he saved my life twice, most likely.
We did get away. Millions didn’t. They destroyed the entire city and its surroundings. And we ran away, tail between our legs. Not that we had much choice; there is no way we could have taken out the ships that arrived. The Alabama went first. She had the device installed, and could get away fairly easily. We had to get away from the planet first.
The warships that jumped in, while we could have handled some of them, there is no way, no way at all, we could have handled what arrived. It must have been ten kilometers long. It was a damn mass driver. And while there will be survivors down on the planet, their problems are just beginning. If, that is, the attackers let them live.
There has to be a way to beat them. And we’ll find it. So, we’ll continue on our way to our meeting with Natasha Kerensky. And I will have to see what I can do about gathering a fleet on the way.