CHAPTER 24 - STRANDED

DATE POINT: APRIL 20th, 7 A.U. (AFTER UNIFICATION)

LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD UTRN INDOMITABLE WILL

LIEUTENANT PAUL KARST

It had been several hours since Henry had broken the news to the crew that they were stranded. Small bouts of anger and protest had flared up, but largely the news had been absorbed fairly calmly. Henry’s decision to speak directly with their chain of command ahead of the mass announcement of their predicament had shown its wisdom. Everywhere, he heard snippets of Henry’s defenses of the decision to stay being repeated by people as if they were their own thoughts. Sheep. By the beginning of the shift changeover, the buzz had died down tremendously. The worst risks to stability, it seemed, had passed.

Henry had split checking in with the last few section chiefs between Paul and himself as the clock ran ever closer to their twenty four hour check in time to return to the Alderei ship. This had allowed them to get the pulse of the crew rather quickly, which remained strongly behind the captain. Having good news for once may have been the perfect backdrop to the solemn and ominous journey ahead. Well, at least his list was completed in time as he made his way over to the rendezvous point. Paul and Jenkins rounded the corner, able to catch their breath at last as they caught sight of the armory.

“Oh good, they’re here.” Lucas quipped. “Took you long enough.” Paul pivoted as if to charge the sarcastic man, even though he towered over him in his Paladin suit. Lucas still recoiled slightly; Paul smirked as he walked past him, heading straight to the suit he had used last time. Paul turned towards Henry before he stepped into the boots of the armored suit in its charging cradle.

“Everyone is behind you Henry, no issues to report in any of the sections on my list. I’d say we are in the clear. If we have detractors they are staying mighty quiet. That is what I would call a mandate to proceed with this alliance if there ever was one. We just need to make sure we assert our independence throughout this arrangement. We also need to get more information about augmentation and about our enemies while we are at it in this round of talks.” Paul said, his head swimming with the many issues that required solutions still.

“Perfect, glad that something is finally seeming to go our way. I remember sections three through five of the briefing packet had to do with treaty negotiations and maintaining independence and flexibility while maximizing cooperation and aid. I also have the treaty templates pulled up and ready for negotiations along with a whole host of notes.”

“Right, they put you through all that schooling for this possibility, I almost forgot, awesome. Are you ready for this, Captain?” Paul asked as he stepped into his Paladin suit and stood up into the padding, causing it to close around him. A shudder and a clack meant his suit had been released from the clamps that held it in the charging cradle. Paul tested his range of motion and then grabbed himself a helmet.

“Yes. I just… we are placing a lot of trust in this working. What if the people down there resist us? We don’t have even a fraction of the numbers we need for a contested occupation. We need at least one soldier for every twenty hostile locals to successfully keep the peace in a contested occupation. We will maybe be able to hold a few cities, but we will get stretched thin fast. We are going to need to know a lot more information in order to plan this out meticulously.” Henry said, sounding frustrated.

“Captain, if I may?”

“What is it, Vic? You know you can speak freely.” Henry replied.

“If we treat this like we are conquering and occupying a world then we have lost already. We need to find the people who will freely choose to work with us and build out from there. Whatever we do we need to be seen as helping the people we work with. We need to be seen as liberators, not conquerors.” Victor said gravely.

“True, last thing we need is to spark an insurgency. We're also going to have to hide a lot of our technological advantages and keep them in reserve. We should only need to make one trip to Earth to drop troops into our designated landing zone. The Indomitable Will should stay close to Jupiter afterwards to begin an industrial base and asteroid mining operation, our frigates can handle supply runs once the system is cleared of enemy ships. The Fist of the Argonauts can support several augmented ground teams performing multiple missions simultaneously and can serve as our command hub for the mission to take over the surface of the Earth. ” Henry said, thinking though everything out loud.

“I think it is no secret right now that most of you in this room are candidates for augmentation. I will not force you to make changes to your bodies, but if you do request augmentation remember that it means you will be called upon to fight whenever we encounter one of these so called God-Kings. It sounds like they are hybrid bodies with augmentations of their own that will make them tougher to kill.” Henry continued.

“Oh great, boss fights. Just what we need. Count me out when it comes to fighting Thor. Thank you, fuck that.” Jenkins said from the corner as he filled his armor slots with magazines.

“Think about it this way. When Thor is shooting you with lightning, would you rather have sub-dermal armor and enhanced speed, strength, and reflexes to fight back? I’m taking the augs, as I will likely be at the front lines of every major battle. Don't forget that you’ve been assigned to my command so where I go, you follow. I would rather you be able to keep up.” Paul said, watching as Jenkins squirmed at the concept.

…so much fear in this one… push him… harder… toughen him up... more... time is short...

Get ahold of yourself and enjoy what fear scraps you get. I’m not going to terrify the kid just for you to get your jollies off. Paul thought in reply.

…that is… a gross misrepresentation…

“Well, when you put it like that…” Jenkins trailed off.

“Don't be afraid, I know you can fight, you have been winning your sparring matches more frequently, and that is a huge accomplishment. You gotta remember little man that you are training against career warfighters, so your performance is pretty damn good framed in that context. You are quite the fighter, for being so tiny.” Victor said, putting his mammoth hands over Jenkins' shoulders, emphasizing the near foot in height difference.

“Enough picking on the lad, it’s high time we mount up. Is everyone loaded up, checked, and kitted out? Our ride is here, and our hosts are waiting.” Henry said.

A chorus of grunts and hand signals showed they were ready; Paul slapped the side of the gunship near the cockpit. Moments later the gangplank began to lower down to allow them entry. Paul grabbed a crate of spare ammo then loaded it onto a magnetic saddle in the gunship before he settled into an open acceleration cradle.

“We will be observing the same rules as before, stay silent, strong, and disciplined, and be ready to speak or act if I signal for you.” Henry said.

“Indomitable Will STC has cleared us for launch, Captain. On your order, sir.” Their pilot said over the intercom.

“Go ahead release the clamps and set us to hover then. Patriot four, systems check. Ready for escort duty?” Henry asked over squad comms to the Patriot mech suit that would serve as their escort.

“Systems green, ready to escort VIP one.”

“Mission is a go, see you on the other side.” Henry replied.

The gunship pitched as it lifted off and began its flight from the Indomitable Will to the slowly rotating triad of alien saucers in the distance.

“So do you think this is real or bullshit, this whole alien gods thing?” Lucas asked, breaking what had been a brooding silence.

“The Alderei seem to believe it, and they don’t appear to be the lying type, except perhaps by omission. I guess the big question is what would they gain by lying about something like that. It wouldn't take long to discover the truth, and then what? We are not openly hostile now, why make it so after this comes out? Doesn’t make sense.” Victor responded.

…If they were to lie… it would be more subtle… a twist of motivation… a corrupted grain of truth… made to manipulate an outcome…

”My read of the Alderei is that they are more likely to offer up misdirected truth, and they would avoid getting caught in an outright lie.” Paul said, “Because of that, we can likely believe them on this topic. We do have to remember that there could be major changes in history and mythology, we don’t know how close our timelines actually were together, or how much randomization we can expect.”

“Well, if anything we have assembled a large list of things we don’t know about that we need to ask. We just don’t know to what extent we can trust the answers we can expect to get. If it wasn’t so dire I would want to laugh it off as terribly ironic. Can’t do that, not now.” Lance said.

“Then we trust in our instincts and discernment. We have a whole group to check reality against, so stay alert. Watch for signs of manipulation instead of education, point it out to the group when we reconvene. Remember radio silence, stay vigilant, stay strong.” Henry said.

As they approached the lead ship, glyphs of light formed between them once again, indicating a flight path. The smooth exterior of the silver saucer craft silently quivered and slid apart to create an opening through which they could land. Both the gunship and their escort, Patriot-Four decelerated smoothly together into a slow descent and landing side by side on the cleared landing pad. Patriot-Four paced a few meters away and stood in a spot with full visuals of the entire visible hangar bay, holding its rifle at low ready.

“All right, everyone, let’s disembark. Patriot-Four, keep an eye out for the status lights. Timed check in is every ten minutes, do you remember the code sequence?” Henry asked.

"I remember, and I will be watching for it." Patriot-Four responded.

Henry was first down the ramp followed moments later by Paul. Roh Thaad’at and his companions were again arrayed and ready to receive the human delegation.

“Greetings Commandant, permission to come aboard?” Henry asked.

“Granted, Captain. I do so like this custom of asking permission to board; learning new things like this is an unexpected pleasure of cultural exchange between sophonts. Technologically advanced intelligent species are incredibly rare, so your potential partnership is quite exciting to us. If your party would please follow behind, we have much to discuss, and time works against us.” Roh Thaad’at said with even enthusiasm.

“I can imagine. How many technologically advanced intelligent species have you come across again?” Henry asked, picking up the thread of conversation as they began to move through the maze like interior.

“Humanity of planet Earth would be the fourth, and the only one with common enough physiological and ideological similarities to be fertile grounds for trade and cooperation. The Cxzthroi are intelligent but are so alien to us that our only areas of real cooperation are in mutual defense.”

“How are they in combined arms fleet operations?” Henry asked.

“Great when given specific orders, terrible when they are required to adapt their strategy without a queen to unify and command the fleets. We have come to use them primarily to bolster defense fleets in key systems and in mass swarm attacks to turn the tide of battles.”

“Are they a hive mind or something?” Henry asked.

“No, but they have a huge population density of quasi-intelligent male drones and relatively few females. The females tend to have harems of drones bound to their service and to be available as a mating pool. Their society is built upon hierarchies amongst females with queens at the top. Pheromones, visual appeal, age, ambition and the quality and quantity of acquired drones all play a role in their internal politics. It is a chaotic system compared to the superior order of Consensus, but it works for them. We do not judge them as lesser for this system, but the difference in worldview has made our alliance weak.”

“So, to read between the lines you are hoping we are going to become a greater partner in your galactic political order." Henry said, folding his arms.

Paul nodded at him in encouragement, Henry nodded back subtly. Roh Thaad’at seemed taken aback.

“First… we would seek a solution to the political crisis brewing on the surface of Aht’Lantis through your assistance. If you succeed in liberating Aht’Lantis from Nephaeli’im control, we would be able to provide a waiver of the ban against the technological uplift of a young species due to the… unique circumstances of your arrival in our timeline and your near perfect genetic match to the Adamu. As a democratically unified and ethically industrialized human society, if you were to wish to join us as allies then the door would be open to you.”

“In essence, we break your galactic treaty due to our strange circumstances and have arrived just in time to solve some crisis you haven’t fully explained. If we can do the impossible and liberate an entire world with our one ship and crew using extraterrestrial body modifications and upgrades for our soldiers to help even the odds fighting god kings. The reward for this would be an offer to join you in your fight against Apophis.”

“That is a concise summation of the facts and the offer on the table. Though you are missing the ride back to the middle solar system, invaluable intel, freely provided advanced weapons and armor, and access to future trade and technology transfer agreements that will advance your species by millennia.” Roh Thaad’at said after a long pause. It’s alien facial features betrayed hints of what must have been smug satisfaction. Even Paul had to admit the offer was damn tempting in spite of the clear risk.

“We have arrived. Before we discuss this further, let us at least be seated.” Roh Thaad’at waved at the wall, which melted away to reveal a meeting room ready made for their party with a table and chairs already formed. Everyone took their seats, except Victor who leaned on the wall with his arms folded and his breacher slung but still close at hand. Henry and Paul sat next to each other at the center of their delegation.

“Thank you, Commandant. We have given your offer much consideration, and having reaffirmed our understanding of its nature, we can accept it pending certain clarifications and addendums. The first and most important is that we maintain our own political and strategic autonomy. Our long term goal is to survive and return to our home timeline with the strength left to still have an effect on the war. We will not be interested in engaging ourselves into a broader conflict that ultimately doesn’t concern us, certainly not without significant reward.”

“Very well, that is understandable. We can address that within the treaty documents by clearly enumerating different rewards for different levels of involvement and cooperation at key milestones.”

“Sounds fair, naturally we will want some time to review and suggest amendments to any such treaty documents.” Henry said, keeping up the momentum nicely.

“Reasonable timeframes to review the treaty documents can easily be provided. Not all review and political decision making processes are as efficient as Consensus, we understand.” Roh Thaad’at replied smugly.

"Very well, the next agenda item we wished to discuss was the matter of these upgrades or augmentations you had previously mentioned. Can you prepare a full list and description of our options and inventory levels, along with any rules or side effects and send that information over? We will want to plan out the most efficient use of these resources, naturally.” Henry asked calmly.

“Of course, we can prepare such an information packet for you. The side effects are minimal, generally some pain at key moments of integration. We will scan everyone who is a candidate for augmentation to determine which options their body type will take well to, or if there are pre-existing issues that may preclude their candidacy.”

“Like what, for example?” Henry asked, clearly getting tired of vague answers.

“Well, for example, musculature and skeletal enhancements require a certain starting bone density and health, there also needs to be an adequate body frame capable of supporting the extra growth. Other examples is that certain genetic defects or diseases such as autoimmune issues can also prevent safe augmentation in certain circumstances. We will scan everyone to provide a list of available augmentations that their body can safely accept without requiring full genetic modification and cellular replacement therapy.”

“That helps, you can predict these complications ahead of time? Have you ever failed to predict them? What options do we have to reverse damage done if a person’s body rejects an augmentation?”

“Those are non-issues, and we have medical options on the table to reverse most augmentations should there be a rejection issue. Modern materials are non-reactive to bodily immune systems or are made from recognizable materials to the body, so augmentation rejection is only an issue to those with pre-existing auto-immune issues and a few other isolated and predictable exceptions. The process will be performed safely, what will not be safe is challenging a physically superior being in battle without augmentations to help even the odds.”

“Alright, fair enough. You keep bringing up these god-kings. You have name dropped a few of them already and we have confirmed many of them line up with names of deities in our mythology. Do you have a full list of names for us to review? What does the political situation look like on the ground down there?” Henry asked.

Paul winced at the slightly clunky wording. Henry was clearly struggling to pin down exactly how to pivot the conversation to the rather awkward topic of the supposed god-kings. The mood on the topic had been mostly disbelief and sarcasm when they had returned to the ship after the first meeting.

“That is a big topic. We cannot speak to your mythology, but it is likely that some of the events of this age were recorded in myth at least in some form or another. I would expect most of the tales they told your ancestors about the origins of the universe and the nature of the world around them would be intentional misinformation to delay scientific advancements and obscure their true origins. Be careful trying to apply your mythology to these entities, there may be significant divergences from the truth to contend with. Furthermore, while we assume you are in a close parallel timeline, there may still be significant differences from timeline changes. We will provide a full diplomatic packet for you to review including what we know about the current political situation on the surface. We must warn you; we have no working plans on how to solve the various issues on the surface as our efforts thus far have failed.”

“So ultimately, we cannot count on your support once this process starts is what you are saying.” Henry said.

“We did not promise that this would be easy. We can give you the information you need to succeed, some weapons and tools, but little more. Manufacturing additional augmentation doses can be done, though that will take some time to spool up production. Ultimately your efforts, motivation, and perhaps some luck may be enough to win. If you intend to reap the rewards of victory, you must first sow its seeds and protect its growth. How you accomplish this task is ultimately up to you, but you will not be starting unprepared.”

“Very well, when will you have these informational packets ready for us?” Henry asked.

“They are being prepared as we speak by various subcommittees within Consensus. We expect to have them ready by the end of this meeting.” Roh Thaad’at replied.

“Excellent, because we have a number of things we would like to discuss and have added to the agreement from the beginning of negotiations.” Henry said. Paul’s status light began to wink with the signal to take over.

Paul pulled up the large file that contained their treaty requirements and requests with a smile. It was time to put the screws to the Alderei, the deal was good as it was right now, but there were loopholes that needed plugging, commitments that needed pruning, and extra concessions to be won. It was time to get to work.