Chapter 034: Stress

Cruisers are the medium-size category of warships. They are cost-efficient and large enough to both armor and arm them properly while highly versatile in their choice of tactics and exact configuration, making them a preferred choice for the day-to-day operations of the majority of navies.

Cruisers are used for many things. During the battles between the capital ships they are delegated to screening work, similar to destroyers. Other than that, however, their usages are endless. Trade interdiction, raids, pickets, convoy escort, direct engagements over the secondary systems, long distance reconnaissance, etc.

Cruisers are divided between three weight classes. First are the light cruisers, which weigh around five hundred thousand tonnes, with a length of approximately two-hundred twenty meters, fifty meters of height, and one-hundred ten meters of width, crewed by approximately two-hundred fifty people. Then are the heavy cruisers, with approximately one million tonnes, three-hundred fifty meters of length, seventy meters of height and one-hundred fifty meters of width, crewed by approximately five hundred crew members.

Their last class are the battlecruisers, with around two million tonnes, five hundred meters of length, one hundred meters of height and two-hundred meters of width, crewed by around one thousand people. However this class is partially open, meaning that all warships larger than this but with tonnage beneath five million tonnes will also be classified as battlecruisers.

Encyclopedia Galactica

Book 9, Page 757

***

EGS Echo, Command Deck

22:11 20.07.2610 STT

Commander Lena Drathari

The Echo’s fleet left Hyperspace and entered the Tyra system just in time for the battle. The spectacle lasted only for a few minutes and ended when the third battlecruiser of the Seekers was split in half by a MAW round.

The battle on the orbit of the fifth world was over. The not-yet identified fleet had promptly dispatched of the Seekers and began making preparations for an orbital assault, with sporadic missile salvoes from the surface base trying to deter them from achieving that.

“Well, now, that came out of nowhere.” Keller said in the resulting silence. Innocent nodded, busy gathering data in the background. “Makes me wonder if the Seekers expected it.”

“Summary: Two small battleships of yet indeterminate class.” The priest announced. “Four battlecruisers, seven heavy cruisers, twelve light cruisers, fifteen destroyers, seven supply vessels of various sizes. Initial identification: Discord.”

“Certainly not a pirate raid.” Lena commented. “You could conquer the entire subsector with this much firepower, and without breaking a sweat.” The locals could muster something like four battlecruisers, and that’s if they pooled their forces. A single one of those battleships would have a chance to destroy that. The second battleship would wipe out everything else. The remaining ships changed that into an overkill of epic proportions.

“The Seekers, probably.” Keller said. “Discord and the Seekers hate each other, probably about as much as we hate them. It goes back to the time when the Discord stole one of the Seekers’ first gen Class-Threes and they fought a several years long war over it. If some local pirate noticed a Seeker ship in the area and reported back to the Discord, the Council of Woes probably sent a kill-fleet after them. They will totally murder, rape and enslave their way through the subsector in their spare time, though.”

“Announcement: First battleship identified.” Innocent interrupted them. “It’s the Heydrich. Pocket battleship from the Fourth German Reich. Its commanding officer, Rear Admiral Gunther Koll, went renegade seven years ago. If the unofficial explanation that Reich gave the Guild under the table is correct, he was too politically radical for his country’s leadership.”

Lena stared at him for a few seconds. She couldn’t imagine a person who was too spicy in their evilness for the Reich of all places.

“They are giving their vaunted pocket battleships to the best officers they have.” Keller remained unfazed. “These ships spend weeks behind enemy lines, waiting to maul some unsuspecting convoy, typically guarded by entire squadrons of cruisers and destroyers. So, a tactical genius, with several decades of combat experience. This is going to be a pain.”

“Announcement: Second battleship identified.” Innocent said. “It’s the Budapest. Early battleship. Constructed by the Solar Commonwealth during its heyday, and captured by the Robotic Technocracy during the Day of Sorrows. Heavily damaged and rebuilt multiple times during the War of Purity. Believed to be destroyed during Admiral Ostrowicz’ raid on Discord, but listed as only a potential kill.”

Exhumans. This is just getting better and better.

“You know, Admiral Okonkwo was seen as the best tactician the Commonwealth had back then.” The Captain said in the resulting silence. “If he was there, the entire Eastern Quadrant wouldn’t have fallen. So the Alliance had to get tricky. They sent the Technocracy’s fleet to join up with him, before he had time to learn of the Day of Sorrows. And when the fleets connected, they used the tactical network and hundreds of computer security vulnerabilities they knew beforehand to knock out the entire Fourth Fleet.”

She knew about it. The Asimov Massacre. She knew most of what there was to know about the War of Purity. The only thing she didn’t know was why the Captain was saying all of that.

“They deactivated every single thing they could.” He continued. “Each ship whose crew got it back online was instantly obliterated with MAWs before it could power up its shields or open fire. Four hundred thousand crew members died on the destroyed ships, when their life support failed, to the Robotics boarding parties or butchered on their knees after they surrendered.” She could see him gritting his teeth. He was angry. Furious, even.

“With all due respect…” Lena decided to speak. “... we can’t fight it.”

“I know.” He sighed. “The very existence of this ship is a grave insult to the entire Mankind. If I was sure that it would be enough to destroy it, I’d have us ram that thing.” She wasn’t particularly surprised by this reaction. Even some officers of her old Navy would have rushed over to try to destroy it, if only for a right to brag about this achievement. “But we can’t do that. Especially now, that the Godhammer is still offline and the ship is slightly beaten up. It would just be a stupid suicide.”

“That’s quite an assortment of enemies we got.” Lena said, hoping to change the subject. “The Reich, the exhumans, the Seekers.” Keller nodded. “Especially the Reich-exhuman pairing is odd. Isn’t the Reich all about genetic transformationism?” The genetic transhuman lines - the Pures and the Hivers - were wiped out during the War of Purity. Today the remaining transhumans and exhumans were all about cybernetics and computers.

“It’s ‘former’ Reich.” Keller replied. “The Reich knows well enough that exhumans are just as evil as they are. Which is why it will never work with them - it knows that it would betray them at any moment, and since the exhumans are just like them, they know that the feeling is mutual.”

The greatest source of misery in the modern Galaxy was that Mankind had, in fact, begun to learn from its mistakes and understand the lessons of history - mostly due to intelligence growth and education improvement over the past centuries. Unfortunately, the bad guys learned just as much as the good guys. Perhaps even more.

“Announcement: Seekers are Seekers in the end.” Innocent suddenly said. “The Discord fleet is attacking the wrong planet.”

“What do you…” Keller said, before he suddenly froze. “Oh yes, you’re right. These guys are so good at deception that it’s hilarious to see another bunch of baddies fall for it.”

“I think I’m slightly lost?” Lena voiced her concerns.

“They probably expected Discord to notice them.” Keller replied. “But they didn’t want them to run into whatever thing they were preparing for us. So the Echelon base is camouflaged very well, while a larger and more obvious base was established on the opposite side of the system. It’s probably staffed by a small number of relatively unimportant members, half of which failed some secret loyalty test. Plus three battlecruisers, each of them probably of an older design that the Seekers are phasing out and mostly automated. They filled all the computers in that base with disinformation made to throw the Discord off. The only screw up is the fact that both of us arrived at the same time, though it’s not a surprise - they simply couldn’t know who would be sent by the Council of Woes and when. So they couldn’t make their preparations perfect.”

She still couldn’t decide whether the Seekers were crazy prepared and super smart villains or whether the other officers were just pulling her leg. What they kept saying was outlandish and insane, but it made sense judging from the things that were happening.

“Innocent, how much time do we have before the pursuers arrive?” Keller said. His eyes were locked onto the display. He already had a plan, Lena was sure about it.

“Answer: If they fell for that last feint, something close to four days.” Innocent replied. “They are better with strategic and operational level trickery than the tactical one, so I believe that they did fall for it.” The Seekers didn’t take their predictive arrays with them, so the tactical predictions weren’t really a thing.

“Wonderful.” Keller smiled. “They wanted us to attack the Echelon base in their original plan, but changed their mind once they learned of Christopher. What’s more, if the recent Hyperspace storm map and my general idea of where this fleet was squatting before it started following us with malicious intent are correct, I believe that the Echelon base is yet to find out that the plan has changed. They will find out in about 30 hours, when the pursuing fleet enters the system and their order to wipe out information from their hard drives arrives at the base.” Lena understood.

“So we are going to attack the base, and learn of the original Seeker plan for us. To try to learn what they planned for us originally, or perhaps even to act on it, as the Seekers no longer want us to..” She summed it up. “What if this is some five-dimensional trickery and they actually still want us to follow the original plan, and the whole ‘we’re scared of angels’ ploy is just them making sure that we follow their actual plan obediently while thinking that we outthought them?” Silence lasted for several seconds, before the Captain finally figured out what to answer.

“That’s… surprisingly paranoid of you.” He said, looking at her instead of at the display. “I’m impressed and quite proud. But in the end, with that large fleet on our tail, we can only proceed in this one direction. We need to do something, and this is about the only option we have left.”

“Summary: So we rush to the Echelon base location, drop the planetary assault, seize all the data we can, and then we leave before the pursuing fleet or the Discord decides to visit us.” Innocent said. “Sounds like a plan.”

***

EGS Echo, Crew Deck

11:11 22.07.2610 STT

Cadet Christopher Hall

Christopher woke up with a splitting headache. He was weak, he felt like he had had a brush with death. He could see Tiriel standing next to the bed, but he could barely focus his eyes on her.

“Tir… Tiriel.” He managed to utter. “Am… Am I alive?”

She sighed loudly. “It is just a hangover, stop being a drama queen.“ She put something on the bedside table. “Hangover medication,” It was a sadistic torture to force him to grab it. She did that on purpose, just to show him that she didn’t like what he did.

A minute later he began returning to the world of the living. It was still bad, but manageably bad.

It was the second time she invaded his quarters - bringing something that made him be happy that she did so. Although now that he had a contact with reality again, he became painfully cognizant of the mess that his personal space was.

“Uhh.” He rose from his bed and shook his head. “I swear I’m never touching alcohol again. What were we even celebrating?” She looked down on him, both literally and metaphorically.

“Nothing.” She said. “We were celebrating our survival yesterday, and with a modest amount of alcohol. Today you had an idea to distract yourself from the incoming battle with a lot more of it. You started with beer. But at some point Rukh pulled out a bottle of Colonel Nowak’s very own moonshine and issued a challenge. Things went downhill from there.”

“Oh, wait, I remember that!” Christopher’s memory started returning to him. “Not much after that. What was the percentage on that bottle? Feels like two-hundred percent, at least.” He had no idea what Colonel Nowak used to brew that monstrous drink, but it should be included to the list of technological taboos of the Icarus Accord.

“Well, ‘after that’ things went downhill as I said.” Tiriel continued. “You started talking about women. It was at this point that I decided that I needed to intervene. Since the men of our team started losing contact with reality, I contacted Lieutenant Commander Innocent and asked him to remotely restrict your access to the shipnet before you do something stupid. He did that just in time, and thus the Chief Petty Officer will never receive the rather awkward love poem that you tried to send her.”

Christopher stared at Tiriel with an abject terror visible on his face. Just how drunk was he to think that was a good idea?!

“It was not a good poem.” She couldn’t help herself from stabbing his pride a bit more. “You did not even finish it; apparently you could not find a rhyme to ‘battleaxe’.” Christopher hid his face in his hands.

“Is… is that all?” He asked, hopeful that it was all.

“Tendrik was knocked out first, although not before he managed to come over to me, and ask me to make a robot with him.” TIriel replied, with a completely neutral expression. “I am still not sure if he meant something perverted, or if it was an invite to practice and learn something about engineering. Then you lost Rukh.” She paused for a second, giving him a rather complicated look.

“What… what happened to him?” He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know.

“You and Ryan had managed to persuade him to go fight for his love.” Tiriel informed him. “I believe he left the quarters to announce his love for Colonel Nowak and have the ceremonial marriage duel with her. I am not knowledgeable on the results, but he returned to quarters four hours later, looking like, and I quote Kivanna here, ‘someone who just got raped by a tiger’. Which, I assume, is a good description of the result of both fighting Colonel Nowak and having sex with Colonel Nowak. He has not said a word and retreated to his quarters, so the result of this love confession is anyone’s guess.” Sarcasm was oozing from her every word.

“I know I said that once, but I’m saying it again - I’m never drinking again.” He shook his head. He hoped to also shake off the remains of his headache, but he failed. “I just hope that Rukh won’t get to hate us.”

“Well, those Visegradians tend to not be the most morally rigid of all the RPC nobles out there.” Tiriel said. “Living in a state of permanent apocalypse does that to people. So hey, there is something like a one percent chance that he will actually love you for giving him a push.” Sometimes her jokes were obvious, sometimes he wasn’t sure if they were there. This time he decided to ignore the issue.

“What about Ryan?” Christopher asked.

“You engaged him in a vicious drinking contest.” She replied. “I do not know how you managed to hold the moonshine down so well, despite your lack of experience. I suspect that it was the result of the angels upgrading your liver over the two-zero average. You did manage to drink him under the table. Then, however, you decided that you needed to go to sleep. And that you needed a body pillow. Unfortunately, Nekia happened to return to the quarters right then.”

“Oh no, I didn’t…” Christopher was suddenly terrified that he had done something he couldn’t take back.

“No, you have not done anything really wrong.” Tiriel reassured him. “I did not give you enough time, as I used a sedative from my little medkit and put you to sleep. But you can expect her looking strangely at you for a while. I think she was surprised by you getting so drunk… and just slightly happy that this made you try to hug her real close.” She rolled her eyes. “Something about alcohol showing our real selves to the world.”

“Thank you for intervening, then.” He sighed with relief. “I think that surviving another close meeting with death made me a bit too… uhm… loose. At least you were there, sober and ready to keep me from doing something stupid.” She would make a wonderful team leader, probably better than him.

“I… would not exactly call my state back then ‘sober’.” She surprised him. “Let us say that I was ‘manageably drunk’. I guess I had some stress to burn out too, so it is not like I do not empathize.” She sighed. “Just please, keep yourself under control next time. You are the leader of this team, and you should act like one.”

“Oh my, how unexpected.” Christopher decided to jab her a bit. “Tiriel Artanis and such a human weakness? I sincerely thought you were above that.” It was a better option than to touch the ‘act like a team leader’ part, which was so much on point that it was downright scary.

“You were wrong then.” She replied with an unexpected coldness. “I can understand where it comes from, but it would be best if you did not say things like that.” He had no idea why she reacted like that, but he obviously missed the mark a lot.

“Sorry, Tiriel.” He decided to salvage what he could. “I might not be thinking very, uhm, brightly right now.” She seemed to have accepted his apology.

If they started drinking and the whole talk mysteriously ended on the field of girls again, it could only mean one thing. The boys of the Recovery Team Eight were in dire need of some romantic relationships.

However, Tendrik was Tendrik, and Rukh was Rukh. This left only Ryan and Christopher. Ryan was getting the entire team’s share of relationships (he seemed to be super-popular with the APD part of the crew’s women, and even some less fervent RPC’ ladies). And Christopher was slowly facing the realization that he was much too lonely and it would be very nice to change that. Even if it would be something that would be broken on the conclusion of his mission.

Should he ask Ryan for some tips? There had to be some lone and not religiously zealous girls that the engineer was yet to sleep with left aboard the ship. Probably. He never talked with him about that, so it was all second-hand knowledge, pretty much gossip that he wasn’t sure if he should put faith in.

Then again, it wasn’t THAT important. He had bigger problems to face right now. The chief reason why he started having thoughts about getting a girlfriend was because the subject kept popping up more often than it should. It was mostly a bother right now.

“Brightly, huh.” Tiriel decided to return to the subject. “You are just scared because there is going to be a battle. And unlike the Carmotia, Pristine Jewel and Hao Yunqi battles you have days rather than minutes to think about this.”

“That’s… harsh.” He was surprised. This did sound a bit painful. “Saying that I’m scared.” She gave him that look. “No, I totally am scared, I’m just saying that speaking about this openly is harsh.”

“Being tough is a nice trait for a man to have.” Tiriel said. “But it is also good to know where it is just an act. And an even better thing to know when it is time to fold. So I guess it is a point to you - I did not have to spend a few hours pulling the admittance from you.”

He still couldn’t get a read of her. Not just now, but in their entire history together. She was a mischievous noble, yes, but that assumption felt superficial. Was she a bigger enigma than Keller? Or was Christopher just really bad when it comes to interacting with women? Or perhaps he was bad with emotions in general?

“You’re one to talk about acting.” He said. One last jab to end that part of the talk. She made no indication of whether it was a successful stab.

Two more days until their arrival. He was terrified.

***

EGS Echo, Hangar Deck

09:15 24.07.2610 STT

Cadet Christopher Hall

The Echo was back to normal operations - which meant that its crew was scarce. There were no Texian recruits anywhere. As a result, the briefing was done much faster, and in much less crowded circumstances. Team by team, to make sure that every single person participating in the operation will know everything that is there to be known.

The Recovery Team Eight was invited to the briefing room, where Colonel Nowak and the Chief Petty Officer were already waiting for them. They took their seats.

“First, we are going to give you a brief run-through of the general plan.” Tiaa started the talk officially, and without any form of greetings. They probably had that talk a dozen times already.

A picture displayed itself on their implants. It was a mostly bland looking landscape (typical for worlds lacking atmosphere), with a number of places marked.

“This is the Echelon base.” Colonel Nowak announced while pointing towards one of the points. “They probably have a number of AA batteries placed around it to deter orbital assault, so the Echo is going to carpet-bomb everything in the fifty-kilometer radius, save for the area right next to the base. The LZ is here.” She pointed towards another point. “Twenty-four kilometers away from the base location.”

“Twenty-four kilometres in a recently bombarded area is going to be a tough trek.” Nowak continued. “We can’t bombard the AA batteries in the base itself without destroying the data we’re here for, so you will lose orbital support when you get close. I expect the defenders to counterattack when this happens. This is going to be a battle of maneuver, something you have no skills in, so you will wait it out.” Battle of maneuvers meant tanks and other vehicles. Not a necessary skill for a recovery team.

The Echo didn’t even carry an awful lot of combat vehicles. Thankfully, the Hercules’ stores were plentiful in that regard.

“Once this counterattack is dealt with, we’ll attack the base itself.” Nowak continued the lecture. “The defenders are estimated to be a battalion of Endless with no less than fifteen Perfects. We are going to go through the layout of the base in a while, for now we are just doing the general introduction to the plan.” It was rather apparent that this talk was going to be a long one.

“Once we reach the base, we’re splitting into two groups.” Colonel Nowak continued. “First one, under me, will maintain the perimeter and act as a reserve force. The second one will enter the base itself. It will be accompanied by Lieutenant Commander Innocent, who will be responsible for the data extraction. The assault unit will be commanded by Lieutenant Commander Athalia.”

Christopher stared at her in shock. He couldn’t imagine someone less qualified to lead an assault on anything. He wasn’t the only one to look like that - the entire squad seemed stunned by the news.

“Contrary to popular opinion, Lith Athalia is incredibly proficient in a surprising amount of things.” Tiaa noticed the reaction. “The real problem is to have him be serious for once. He actually has experience with commanding forces in ground battles.” She sighed. “He will do fine.”

“Now, enemy forces.” Nowak continued. It seemed that her job here was to provide them with data, and Tiaa was there to smooth issues out. “We had you learn about the Seekers. But we’ll reiterate now.” The picture on the display changed into a soldier with an armour that made him look like a sci-fi spec ops trooper. The uniform was something that used to be a simple tactical vest but has minimally crossed over to the realm of being called ‘armor’.

There were a lot of smooth surfaces, giving it a futuristic look. Not in the grim, black way of the Republic of Triana, nor in the slightly industrial and pragmatic way of the Echo. It was an aesthetic of someone who wanted to look like it was from an optimistic yet realistic future. Something that screamed WE ARE PROSPEROUS AND HIGH TECH, but also did its work without being pretentious.

“Endless.” Nowak announced. “Cloned meatshields. On the average combat skill level of regular armies out there. Expendable. But with good technology and decent training. Anywhere between four hundred and seven hundred of them. You are capable of holding your ground against them, as long as you do not chicken out.” She smiled wryly. “At least one of you seems to be very bold, so that shouldn’t be a problem.” To Christopher’s slight amusement, Rukh suddenly did his best to not look at Colonel Nowak.

Another picture. This time it showed a monster. Human-sized and humanoid monster, but a monster nonetheless. It looked as if someone took a human, made it thoroughly androgynous (and asexual, since that part was exposed), and then tried to make a monster out of it. Its skin was rough, angular, looking like armor.

“And this is a Perfect.” Nowak informed them. “Cloned, too, but heavily modified. On the biological level: improved reflex, improved strength, immunity to the majority of toxins, the bones and skin are made from a certain form of organic carapace, strong enough to bounce normal bullets off. Then cybernetics: further improvement of reflex and strength, expanded sensory abilities. They can hear and see a bullet being fired from a distance, making snipers ineffective - such distance gives them enough time to dodge the bullet or even catch it mid-flight.”

She kept talking, each word lowering the Recovery Team Eight’s survival chances.

“Each of them goes through extensive tactical indoctrination which includes direct mental upload of the combined combat skills and experiences of dozens of veteran soldiers.” Colonel Nowak continued, unaware of the listeners’ plight. “Then, equipment - typically light combat vest, which allows them to take full advantage of their mobility, while further reinforcing their defense at least in the critical areas. If they engage you outside, they will be wearing closed suits, sacrificing mobility for defense and environmental protection. The combination of an altered skeleton system, armor, external carapace and redundant organs means that they will be de facto impervious to all but heavy weapons, however anti-armor ammunition to your assault rifles means a chance to penetrate, which in turn will at least startle them.” She paused for a while, letting them swallow the news. “We expect anywhere from fifteen to thirty of those. If you spot one, report contact immediately and avoid fighting it. Instead wait for me, Athalia, Mendez or Innocent, as we’re going to be the ones dealing with them. Now, we’re going to talk about vehicles…”