Rise of the Empire 1: Olympus (20 page)

Chapter Twenty-two

Adrian Farkas looked helplessly at the screen as the Cloud station blew up, there was nothing to indicate that it was going to happen, one moment it was there, and the next it was in pieces. Pieces that were now falling down to Earth, some will burn up in the atmosphere, but others, Adrian knew would survive and crash into the planet. Everyone in the Command Center shared Adrian’s feelings at the moment, the heavy weight in their chests, the feeling of total helplessness. Adrian allowed himself and others a second more of sorrow, and then he turned to his Comm Handler.

“
Comms, inform the Fleet of the situation.” He said coldly, there would be time later for sorrow for the souls that perished with the station, they had a job to do now.

“Bethany, I want tracks on movements of all three ships.” Adrian said. Bethany nodded and went to work.

“Weapons, get me targeting solutions on all three ships.” Adrian told Noah, who got to work immediately.

“Navigation, get us closer to the dissident ship, put us between it and the Concordis ships.”

“The Fleets Master Reiss is on the comms for you Ship Master.” Estevez said.

Adrian accepted the call, and immediately Laura’s face filled his screen.

“Ship Master Farkas, from this moment you have authorization to open fire on Concordis ships, try to avoid it, but if they keep ignoring your warnings, fire a warning shot. As for the dissident ship, disable them, it is now imperative that you take ship and its crew prisoner. Do you understand?” She asked grimly.

“Yes, Fleets Master.” Adrian responded.

Laura nodded and ended the call.

“Comms record a message for the Concordis ships.” Adrian said.

Estevez gave the go ahead.

“Concordis vessels, turn your ships around and leave Olympus space. This is your last warning.” Adrian said.

“Comms record another message for the fleeing ship.” Adrian said.

“Power down your drives, surrender and prepare to be boarded, you have-” Adrian looked at the estimated time it will take for
the Concordis ships to intercept it. It showed 13 minutes.”-five minutes to acknowledge this message, or we will open fire.” Estevez sent the message.

“I have the tracks, Ship Master.” Bethany said. Rather than sending it to his screen she turned on the holo-desk. Image of Athena was shown in the middle, with its current course represented in a white line, the other ships were shown also, with their trajectories shown also but with a blue line, a red orb signified where Cloud station used to be, other information was shown, distances between the ships, and their speed were shown on a board that floated above the hologram constantly updated. Adrian was amazed at the amount of the information showed there, much more than his screen could show, he knew that Bethany was playing around with the holo-desk since it arrived but wasn’t aware that she was this proficient with it. He looked at the fleeing ship, it was going a lot slower than Athena’s top speed, but they had slowed down in order to not over shoot the station, Concordis ships were closer, and even though they moved slower they would reach the fleeing ship around the same time as Athena did.

“Did the Concordis ships respond?” Adrian asked.

“No Ship Master.” Estevez said.

Adrian turned to Bethany. “Are there any signs that are going to comply with our demands?”

“None sir, they are still moving on an intercept course towards the fleeing vessel.” She said.

“Weapons, you have targeting solutions on both ships?” Adrian asked Noah.

“Yes Ship Master.” He responded.

“Arm two missiles, fire one at each of Concordis ships, and set them to detonate five hundred meters before impact.” Adrian said.

“Yes Ship Master.” Noah said.

A moment later, two new tracks appeared on the holo-desk, moving on an intercept course towards the two ships. Adrian hoped that they get the message.

***

“Power down your drives, surrender and prepare to be boarded, you have… Five minutes to acknowledge this message, or we will open fire.”
The voice boomed out of the bridge speakers.

Captain Reginald Smith of Bismarck, looked helplessly on his screen. Olympus ship was gaining on them, and he knew that it will catch them, that it will arrive after their sister ships did not matter. This mission was a failure, they will not be able to surrender into Concordis custody with an Olympus
warship there, it will not allow it, not after the station blew up, and if they open fire on them, well, then one of them will be destroyed. Which will start a war one way or another, if one didn’t start already. The Marine Major confessed that he had orders to place an explosive device and to destroy the station after they accomplished their mission. He looked at his screen trying to find a way for them to accomplish the rest of the mission without starting a fight with the Olympus ship and couldn’t find it. The Olympus ship didn’t seem concerned with the other two Concordis ships, which suggested that they knew they could take them in a fight. And Smith hoped that Captain Dowson was competent enough to back off. This just proved that they knew nothing about Olympus, who know how much more ships they had.

Captain Smith opened a channel to the Viking, a moment later it was accepted.

“Captain Smith.” Captain Dowson said, his face held a terrible expression a cross between hate and eagerness.

“Captain Dowson, you should retreat. The mission is a failure, turn around. We will surrender to Olympus, the government back home can disavow us, and try to salvage this.”

“No, you will follow the plan Captain Smith. Turn your ship toward us, we will block the Olympus vessel.” Captain Dowson said.

“Dear god man, we are in their territory, we have already broken the international law, let’s not burry ourselves any more than we already have.” Captain Smith said.

“You will follow your orders Captain!” Captain Dowson yelled at him. There was something profoundly wrong with the Captain of the Viking. Smith looked at his crew, he owed it to them, to see to it that they get out of this alive.

“No, Captain Dowson, my ship will surrender to Olympus.”
Captain Smith said, and closed off the channel. Just as he was to order a message sent to Olympus ship, his sensor officer yelled out.

“Weapons fire form Olympus ship!”

Before Smith had a chance to ask who was the target his sensor officer added.

“Two missiles
, one on course towards the Viking and one at Dauntless.”

Only two? They were warning shots Smith realized.

“Comms, send the message to Olympus ship, we are surrendering.”

***

Captain Dowson looked on the screen watching as two missiles speed towards his ships, and exploded before hitting his ship, they were faster than his missiles, yet again Olympus technology was superior, but his sensors officer told him that they were smaller, with a smaller payload. He knew that this were warning shots, no Captain would order only one missiles fired on a hostile ship, unless it was a warning. Dowson had no intention of heeding that warning.

“Captain, Bismarck just sent a message, they are surrendering.” Viking’s comm officer said.

“They are shutting down their drives.” His sensor officer said.

That fool Smith was going to ruin everything, not only will Olympus have proof that this was Concordis mission, they will also know that they were after their technology. He couldn’t allow that.

“Captain, we are receiving a communication from the Fleet.”

“Ignore them.” Dowson said. He had no time for bureaucrats and politicians.

“Captain! Dauntless is breaking off, they are going back!” His sensor officer said.

Dowson looked at the screen, one ship, just one Olympus ship had destroyed their entire plan.
He couldn’t let Olympus have this, he just couldn’t. All the anger inside him came to the surface in one big wave.

“Target the Bismarck.” Captain Dowson ordered.

“Captain?” His first officer asked.

“Target the Bismarck!” He yelled. “They have disobeyed orders, they are deserters!”

“Yes Captain.” His first officer said shakily.

***

“The Viking is ignoring our comms Mr. President.” Admiral Weiss said.

“What the hell is going on? I thought that we agreed that there will be no casualties!” President Von Holt said. He looked around the room they all looked at him with the same confused look that he wore as well, except for one. When he met his eyes he knew.

“Victor, it was you?” The Minister of Defense Victor Ross remained silent. “Why Victor?”

The rest of the room turned t
o look at him, their faces unbelieving of the situation.

“Because it needed to be done. And all of you are
too cowardly to have done it.” He said hatefully. No one had ever heard him talk like this, so they were all too shocked to say anything. “If we took the data and left the station, they would have known that we took it, hell, no matter what we did they would have known, when we started catching up to them in technology. And say whatever you will about Tomas Klein, but he would have remembered, and he wouldn’t have stayed silent.” He chuckled. “Hah! You thought that you could stay his hand with the press? With public opinion? He isn’t part of Earth! He doesn’t care about public opinion. His people are indoctrinated to follow him! They wouldn’t have cared either. So we needed to make a statement, to make him remember what happens when he tries to control us. And that station was the perfect target. He built it to remind us that they were better. He all but told us “Look, here we are above you, we are better than you.” So we made a statement of our own, that no matter how high he thinks he is, we can always shoot him down. And Captain Dowson will make sure off that.”

The room looked at him as i
f he was a madman, which he was.
This is why Tomas Klein didn’t share anything with us,
President Von Holt realized. He gestured for the security to take him away.

President looked at Admiral Weiss.

“Can we contact the other two ships?”

“The Bismarck has already surrender to Olympus. And I have already sent the recall to the Dauntless, they will turn back.” He said somberly.

“And the Viking?” President asked.

“Based on their actions and the comments the Minister made, we can assume that the Captain of Viking is his man. That also explains why they are ignoring our comms.” Admiral Weiss said.

President looked around the room.

“We need to get on damage control right away, contact the ambassador on the Moon. Let’s hope that Olympus can resolve the situation. And also I want to know how the hell we didn’t know about that warship.”

Chapter Twenty-three

Adrian looked at the holo-desk, the dissident, or rather Concordis ship has surrender,
and they identified themselves as Concordis warship Bismarck. They have turned off their engines and were currently firing their front thrusters in order to slow down. The intercept time on the board above the holo-desk was rapidly coming down. It now said 7 minutes. One of the other Concordis ships was in the process of turning around, while the last one kept coming, Adrian was studying it closely looking for any sign that it will turn and follow the first one, but with each passing minute he grew more and more certain that it would not.

Finally after three minutes Adrian
was sure that they meant to ignore his warning.

“Weapons, target the remaining ship, ten missiles, five at the
back, the rest spread out the ships length.” Arian said. He didn’t know much about the ship, but he knew that it had missile pods on its entire length, and he hoped to disable them and the ships drives.

“Captain! Missile launch from the Concordis vessel.” Sensors said. Adrian shifted his eyes to the hologram, a moment later fifty missile tracks appeared,
and all of them were targeting the Bismarck.

“Impact in six minutes.”

“They are going to destroy their own ship.” Bethany asked incredulous, Adrian filled her in about the Bismarck’s crew when they surrendered.

“
It looks so. Weapons, can we shoot down the missiles?” Adrian asked. They needed to keep that ship alive.

“No Ship Master, our missiles weren’t designed to track target
s so small. There is nothing we can do.” Noah said regretfully.

“What about our railguns? Can we shoot the
missiles down with them?” Adrian asked.

“In theory, but Adrian,
we would need to fire them at the place where the missiles will be. It will take minutes to calculate based on the missiles track, I can’t do it fast enough.” Noah said.

Adrian tried to think about any other way, the Concordis
ships didn’t have any point defense, and firing their own missiles wouldn’t work, they were all tracking missiles, and had evading capabilities. They might shoot down some, but not all.

“I can do it Adrian.”
Adrian heard Iris in his head.

“What?”
he asked.

“I can do the calculations. But I will need access to the ships computer.”
Iris said. Adrian thought about it, but he couldn’t see any other way.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, but you will need Bethany’s and yours codes in order to let me into the system, and they will know about me, I won’t be able to hide.”
She said. Adrian made his choice, he trusted Iris.

Adrian turned to Bethany
.

“Do you have any ideas?” He asked.

Bethany shook her head. “No.”

Adrian took a breath.

“I’m going to need you to trust me, and enter your command codes into the computer.” Adrian said.

“Why?” Bethany asked suspiciously.

“I have a way of saving that ship, but doing that will require allowing someone into the ships computer.” He said.

“Allowing someo
-” Adrian interrupted her.

“Bethany, we need to protect that ship.” He looked at her
imploring her to trust him.

“Alright.” She said, and entered sent her codes over her implant. Adrian did the same, and a then he gave Iris access to the ships computers.

“What the hell! Something took over my station!” Noah cried out.

“There is no need to panic Noah, she will do the
calculations for the railguns.” Adrian said.

Both Bethany and Noah turned towards Adrian. “She?”

“Hello, my name is Iris.” Iris said over speakers.

“Adrian, what is this?” Bethany asked confused.

“Everyone, meet Iris.” Adrian said. “Iris, is an Artificial Intelligence” Adrian said.

“But, how? W
here did she come from?” Noah asked.

Instead of answering Adrian just
touched the side of his head. Noah looked even more confused at the gesture. But Bethany got it.

“Your implant.” Adrian
simply nodded.

“I have th
e calculations, we need to fire in thirty seconds, or we will lose the window.” Iris said.

“Weapons, execute the targeting solution.” Adrian said.

“Yes Ship Master.” Noah said.

“And fire missiles at the Concordis ship.” Adrian renewed his previous order.

***

Captain Smith looked at his first officer totally helpless, the Viking has opened fire on his ship, and they had no way of defending themselves. The Bismarck’s hull was tough and t
hick, and Smith hoped that they survived, but he knew there would be casualties. He should have never agreed to this mission, he knew that it was wrong, and yet he followed orders, to do otherwise would have been treason.

“Impact in seven minutes Captain.” His weapons office said.

“Turn the bottom of the ship towards the missiles.” Captain Smith ordered, the hull was the thickest there. He hoped that it was enough.

“Captain! The Olympus ship has opened fire.”

“Good. At least the Viking won’t get away unscathed.” Captain Smith said.

“They fired missiles at the Viking, but sir
, there is something else going into empty space.” The sensor officer said confusingly. “The computer, can’t make sense of it, it says that it is a meteor shower.”

“Get me the tracks on that shower.” Captain Smith said.

A few moments later he saw that the new tracks interjected with the missile path. After a few moments of studying the tracks Captain Smith exclaimed. “Those are ballistic weapons, Olympus ship is trying to shoot down the missiles!”

***

Athena’s railguns turned as one, all pointed at an empty point in space, as one they started firing, in thirty seconds the railguns launched over five hundred metal shells at the fraction of the speed of light towards empty space, they were fired in such a way as to blanket the entire area, anything that crossed their path was going to be crushed with the kinetic force that would rip it apart. Six minutes later their path was interjected with fifty Concordis missiles. Missiles had evading capabilities, but their processors weren’t fast enough to recognize the danger until it was too late. By the time the evading protocols were initiated twenty missiles were struck by metal shells, and ten more exploded, hit by the blasts created from the destroyed missiles, the remaining ten engaged their evading protocols, but Athena’s targeting solution took every possible path in account, and the ten missiles were quickly destroyed by the defensive fire.

Six minutes before, after the railgun fire died down, Athena’s missile tubes opened, and ten 20 kilotons missiles shoot of towards their target. The missiles were slower than railguns at short range, it will take them a little over eight minutes to arrive at their target.

***

“All missiles have been destroyed Captain.” Vikings weapons officer reported.

“The enemy missiles will reach us in two minutes Captain.” Sensor officer said.

Captain Dowson glared angrily at the screen. The Olympus ship had managed to destroy all of the missiles he sent at Bismarck, something that he believed was impossible just a few minutes ago. And to add to it that they launched ten missiles at his ship that he had no way of stopping. He wondered what the designers of this ship thought when they came up with it. Sure
, they gave them thick armor, but no other defensive capability. He would have to have a talk with his superiors about that when he returned home. But for now he had a job to do.

“Target Olympus ship. Fire all missiles.” Dawson said calmly. Let’s see how they will deal with a full load of missiles.

***

The Viking’s missile pods opened and four hundred missiles left the ship on
an intercept course towards the Olympus ship. Two minutes later the missiles that the Olympus ship fired reached the Viking, five missiles hit them spread out across the ship doing minor damage to the hull, and destroying the ships communication relay. The other five missiles struck the back of the ship, three missiles hit and damaged the drives, one failed to detonate, but the fifth one struck and penetrated inside the hull, the explosion ignited the ships fuel tank, and a moment later the Viking exploded in a blinding flash that lasted only a second as fire consumed all the air inside the ship. Captain Dowson didn’t live long enough to see all his four hundred missiles struck down by Athena’s railguns.