Chapter Text
This work is a collaboration between myself, u/unbrokenmonarch and u/explodoboy
Query: Alpha Centauri
83,075,427 results found
Accessing database…
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Opening logs…
03.29.2309
NETCOM reports significant enemy presence in Arcturus. Bastion ”Stalingrad” reports loss of system control. Task Force Hades status unknown. Enemy likely to push into UNSA core territory.
All stations stand at battle-ready.
Task Force Falcon report to colony Elysium.
Task Force Warthog report to colony Arcadia.
Earth Defense Fleet report to Mars shipyards for retrofit.
Good luck and godspeed. NETCOM out.
04.16.2309
NETCOM reports significant enemy presence in Alpha Centauri system. Initial intelligence suggests multiple fleets emerging from Arcturus hyperlane. Numbers unknown.
Task Force Falcon prepare for immediate engagement with enemy.
Task Force Warthog report to colony Elysium to provide emergency assistance. ETA 05.04.2309
NETCOM reports Vitrian Warfleet ”Vokt” en route to Sol. ETA 08.12.2309
NETCOM reports Federation Fleet ”Unity” en route to Elysium. ETA 04.29.2309
Good luck and godspeed. NETCOM out.
End logs…
Accessing archived reports.
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Opening log…
Personal log, Strike Wing Commander Jeremiah Wright
We were ready for them. At least, as ready as we could have been. We had the hyperlane from Arcturus covered every way to sundown. No way in hell that anything was getting through that killzone unscathed.
Of course, the geckos didn’t really care about how many of their ships it would cost to establish themselves in the system. They bred so fast that they’d have replaced their casualties within the month and the little ’vettes that they led with were little more than an airtight box with guns and engines bolted on. All they cared about was spilling as much xeno blood as possible.
They breached the hyperlane right at the end of my patrol. I saw the warp point bulge and open up like a goddamn flower. At least two hundred of their ’vettes popped through, already flaring their engines to close with TF Falcon. I spotted more ships exiting the hyperlane, but lost them behind the corvette swarm that was massing just outside seeker range.
My comms lit up, all these little outbursts that did nothing except clog up your headspace and fuck with your decision making. I blocked them out, waiting for my orders like a good soldier.
Then the NET went silent, and Admiral Dietrich’s callsign flashed on my HUD. I just sat there as I waited for our orders, watching an endless wall of vessels pour out of that hyperlane in complete fucking silence. That was some eerie shit that I’ll never forget.
Then Admiral Dietrich’s voice crackled to life over the NET. I’d never heard the cold, demanding tone in his voice before, so I damn near crapped my flight suit. He’d been a part of Earth’s admiralty since the early 2200’s, dating all the way back to before the hive wars. If the geckos had him spooked, I should have been neck deep in the brown stuff.
”Our enemy has chosen to come to Elysium. Let us show them that was a poor choice.”
He paused for a moment, the entire damn fleet hanging on his words.
”You have your orders. Fight hard. Fight smart. Fight brave. Most of all? Make them pay for every fucking inch.”
End log.
Accessing flight recorder, Battlecruiser UNSA Valiant...
“Status report!”
“Shields down, armour buckling on decks four through seven, twelve through twenty. Significant hull damage in all port sectors. Weapons are non-responsive and engines have barely one good thrust left in them… We’re dead in the water, Admiral.”
”Keep the battle onscreen. Are comms still up?”
”Yes, admiral.”
”Get me the Defiant before we lose comms.”
”Yes, admiral.”
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”Defiant responding to emergency hail. The Valiant isn’t looking so good, admiral. What are your orders?”
”Fall back to Elysium. We’ll do no good spending all our ships trying to hold them here.”
”Admiral Dietri-”
”That is enough. I’m enacting command protocol Eternal Retribution. We’re gonna take as many of them with us as we can.”
…
”Acknowledged. Give them hell, Admiral.”
”That’s the plan, Captain. It’s been an-”
”PRIORITY TARGET IDENTIFIED”
”Onscreen.”
”Mother of God… Admiral, are you getting this? It’s massive… It’s turning on us.. Oh Go-”
”The Defiant is gone, sir. That thing tore her in half with it’s first barrage.”
”Enact command protocol Eternal Retribution. Let’s give that big ugly bitch a nasty scar to remember us by.”
”Yes, Admiral… It’s been an honour.”
End recording.
NETCOM reports enemy ”Titan” class vessel in Alpha Centauri. Starbase ”California” reports significant loss of outer-system defences. Enemy fleets numbering in thousands of ships. Enemy intent likely complete system-kill.
Task Force Falcon reports loss of two-thirds of overall fleet strength. All heavy fleet elements reported lost with all hands. Captain Naomi Mann-Foster of Frigate UNSA Unyielding Resolve has been granted provisional rank of Admiral. Task Force Falcon is hereby ordered to retreat to orbit of Elysium and hold at all costs.
Task Force Warthog is ordered to rendezvous with Federation Fleet ”Unity” and Army Group ”Battleaxe” in Eta Cassiopeia.
Good luck and godspeed. NETCOM out.
~~---~~
ACCESSING ARCHIVE
PROCESSING…
PROCESSING…
ACCESS GRANTED
QUERY?
-ELYSIUM AFTERMATH-
SEARCHING….
2,397 FILES FOUND; ADDITIONAL PARAMETERS?
-HEARINGS_MANN-FOSTER-
1 FILE FOUND; OPENING FILE…..
TRANSCRIPT OF UNITED NATIONS SECURITY OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE HEARING #2486
TOPIC: SIEGE OF ELYSIUM TACTICAL FAILINGS
TESTIMONY PROVIDED BY: PROVISIONAL ADMIRAL NAOMI MANN-FOSTER
COMMITTEE CHAIR: THE HONORABLE MARK JOHANNES
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
CHAIRMAN: First of all, I would like to thank Provisional Admiral Mann-Foster for appearing before this committee. We know you are very busy defending your homeworld and we don’t want to keep you from your duties any longer than we have to.
PROV. ADMIRAL M-F: It is an honor, Chairman.
CHAIRMAN: Now, as you can no doubt personally attest, the Siege of Elysium is without question one of the most costly engagements our military has ever engaged in, with casualties in the millions and an entire battle-group annihilated.
PROV. ADMIRAL M-F: That is correct Chairman.
CHAIRMAN: As such, Admiral, many of us here would like to know how our military was so thoroughly routed. In your opinion, how did the system defence strategy go so wrong?
PROV. ADMIRAL M-F: Well, Mr. Chairman, I feel that you are approaching the debacle at Elysium from the wrong angle if you think that Admiral Dietrich’s strategy failed.
CHAIRMAN: What do you mean by that?
PROV. ADMIRAL M-F: Simply put, Chairman, the Admiral’s plan worked. His defence rested upon the foundation that the enemy’s tactics would be relatively unchanged from previous engagements; with the geckos simply rushing at our defences without any consideration for their own casualties or the acquisition of strategic objectives.
CHAIRMAN: Your defense plan was built around the assumption that the enemy would make a suicidal attack on your fleet?
PROV. ADMIRAL M-F: Correct, and they obliged. In that regard the Admiral’s plan worked perfectly. For every ship of ours that was destroyed or incapacitated, six of theirs were blown into the void.
CHAIRMAN: So what happened? If the strategy was working why did the line collapse?
PROV. ADMIRAL M-F: The Enemy’s Imperator happened. You see, sir, the new Imperator of the Prikki-Ti is not, despite what many would claim, a blood-mad fanatic like previous enemy Imperators before him. He knew that we would be ready to engage a head-on assault, so he obliged us. He sent wave after wave of the most fanatical and untrustworthy elements of his command at us, letting them martyr themselves in glory and sparing him the trouble of purging them himself later on while also wearing us down in the process. Then, once we were truly engaged with his zealots, he sprung the trap.
CHAIRMAN: The trap being?
REAR ADMIRAL M-F: A Titan, sir. And let me assure you, no strategist in their darkest nightmares saw that one coming. You say that the defense plan failed, Chairman, but there was no plan in place for a Titan. That is why the defence failed.
DATA LINK INTERRUPTED
ATTEMPTING TO RECONNECT
FAILED
~~---~~
DATA LOG ENCRYPTED, TYPE-ALPHA KEY. KEY REQUIRED TO ACCESS. INPUT HEXADECIMAL, DECIMAL, OCTAL, OR NOX.
f17398ad
TRANSLATING KEY FROM HEXADECIMAL TO OCTAL…
36134714255
CONVERTING OCTAL KEY TO NOX
T̴̖̗̒r̵͍̼̓̽̽̌à̴̻͔̖͘͝ń̷̦̤̱̆ͅs̵̛̝͖͐̽l̷͙̲͎̂ä̴̼̲̖̑t̴̙̤̗͌̅͜͝ĩ̴̭̥͍̺̓̋̄ǭ̷̣̪̳͐̿̚n̸̙̈́ ̶̡̂e̶̫͓͗͝͝r̷͕͌̆r̶̺̺̣̦̍̐ȯ̶͈̇̕r̵̜͚̜̓̌.̶̞̜͖̮̈́
KEY ACCEPTED. RETRIEVING LOG b1f96d2c
VIDEO FILE DETECTED.
UNEXPECTED ATTACHED DATA ON FILE, PLAYING.
My Brethren! This is the Hateful Starhunter reporting, we have downloaded the requested files and got out of the Abyssal Cluster unharmed and untracked.
Keep that data safe, Telia. Get back as soon as possible. Kal'nox received a vision, she says if the Timeless find out then it will surely mean that not even the Holy Eternal could save us!
Krun-doct, my enlightened friend. I will report to Gift as soon as possible. May the Eternal bless me on my fates journey home.
May the Sanctum guide you home.
I will be there before the Cycle ends, shutting down comms until I return.
END FILE
View is on some sort of space station, high in orbit of an Ecumenopolis. A throne with a human-like seems to be sitting upon it. Some lights are visible across the body, but don’t illuminate anything.
They are typing on what seems to be a holographic keyboard, with holographic screens surrounding them.
A light is visible in the room as the sound of a pressurized door opens, the light not reaching the humanoid on the throne, likely from outside of the initial room.
The man upon the throne looks in the direction of the light, and speaks in a hoarse, deep voice. “Clockfrost, I hope that this intrusion is important.”
An off-screen Timeless, supposedly Clockfrost speaks. “Voidholder Kaold Abyss, I come with information of a pressing matter. The Prikki-Ti, a primitive empire has recently become capable of producing Titan-class starships, similar to the size of our own Titans, and their technology has reached a point that their starships have superior firepower to ours.”
The Voidholder barely shifts in his seat, body language suggesting he isn’t very worried. “Scion, what is their strength relative to the Stagnant Ascendancies?”
Clockfrost speaks. “They couldn’t even kill an Escort, Voidholder, but that’s not what’s so worrying. Our primary issue is their technological progress. They’re advancing at such a pace that they could outclass even a Cosmic Escort within three millenniums.”
The Voidholder seems to not react, at least not externally. “Clockfrost, the upstarts, as the Stagnant call them are known to advance technologically at a rapid pace, but you remember the upstarts of the last Genesis Cycle, yes? They Ascended, fought great wars with each other, and finally broke apart and stagnated, and are now the Stagnant of today. They will fall long before they reach our pinnacle.”
Clockfrost does not seem convinced. “But Kaold! This is combined with the presence of the Penthulan, Humans, and the C-” Clockfrost is interrupted.
The Voidholder stands from this throne, still shrouded in shadows, obviously irritated. “Clockfrost. We do not speak of that mistake of a modification here. They no longer exist.”
The Voidholder takes a deep breath. “First, the Penthulan, while able to predict future events are across the board mentally unstable. They will probably destroy themselves through some psionic shock eventually, and the Human empires, the ones from Earth and Unity are bound to clash with each other until one of them dies. They’ll be preoccupied with each other for long enough that they’ll probably Stagnate. Finally, it was destroyed the last time we sent a fleet from our star cluster, one-hundred-fifty thousand cycles ago.”
Clockfrost does not get an opportunity as the Voidholder opens his mouth again. “None of them, not a single one has suffered the Age of Darkness. They have always basked in the light of the Stars, and they will always do so until we ascend, and continue our cycle. They will not, for we will reach so far that any attempt to grasp at our eternity will result in their annihilation.”
“We will overcome. We’ve done it once, we will do it again, and for a thousand more times if we have to. Now leave, Scion. I have an immutable empire to tend to.”
END OF FILE.