Defender of the Mother Galaxy Chapter 3

  It was a couple days before we got back to Earth. I opened a connection with Derigan and informed him about the trickery.
“Admiral… As you guessed we didn’t encounter the Nirtan. In fact, it was Daac’ra…”
“What? He hasn’t shown himself for so long. We thought maybe the Nirtan caught him.”
“It seems not. And then guess what. Not only has he been slowly gaining our  ships, but he has also been stealing Nirtan ships. We saw a few Darrion Cruisers, and  several Skeet Bombers.”
This information was a surprise to Derigan. “How many ships did you lose?”
“Accurate numbers haven’t come in yet, but from what I saw, one Battleship, three Heavy Cruisers, four Cruisers, and three Destroyers were lost. Daac’ra made up in part for his losses.”
“What do you mean?” The Admiral was slightly puzzled.
“What I mean is, he captured, and now controls two of our Heavy Cruisers, and two Cruisers. I’m not sure how many Figh-”
Derigan cut my off abruptly. “Did he get the Dissention?”
“-ters… Yes, he did. Why do you ask?”
“I’m not at liberty to reveal this information to you at this time.” I took a moment to sigh. There was so much they wouldn’t say. But, I don’t decide what’s important enough for little old me to know.
“Admiral, if there’s something going on with my fleet, I need to know ab-”
“I’d tell you, but I’m not allowed. This goes high up in the chain. There’s know way I can get you in on it. I swear.” Derigan was starting to get a little frantic, but stayed quite. I was getting worried. If I had know that the Dissention was so important, I would have left it at Earth.

  We arrived at the West Sophia Shipyard just about an hour later, and docked in the appropriate stations. Each ship has it’s own docking station assigned to it… that’s how few we have. I got off the Sovereignty and preceded to take a Mono-Line, a huge improvement over the Mono-Rail trains, to the USC Headquarters in what used to be called Japan. There aren’t any ‘countries’ or ‘states’  or things like that. It’s all known as Earth. Everyone knows where everything is, and cultures and people have mixed so thoroughly that there was no need for borders. The world is one. Wow, that almost sounds like some of those science fiction movies from a hundred years ago. Hmm, but I’m almost to my destination.

  The USC Headquarters is a grand building. Maybe 980 floors high, and made of a pure metal not found on Earth. The metal came from Neptune, before the Nirtan took it. It’s scientific name is for too long for the average joe to even guess, but it goes by Beridilium with us commoners. It was also used to create our very first warships. It’s very strong, and has an extremely high melting point, though not enough to save a building from being melted by the Sun. It’s a nasty green-brown, smelly substance in it’s raw form, but exposure to oxygen removes the smell, and sun light turns it a very light grey. However, after losing Neptune we had to turn to Dentrilite for ship metal. It’s not nearly as strong, but the melting point is about the same, maybe a few degrees lower.

  On my way to Derigan’s office I saw Miranda again. She was on the Cruiser Cyprus one of the few that made it back. She looked like she had a broken leg, as she limped even while the two Medical Officers helped her to the infirmary. I wanted to know what happened, but I didn’t have the time, and it was pretty obvious. I have to be in Derigan’s office just as soon as I can. The report I wrote on the way back to Earth is very important as it’s the first encounter of the Dartfire Pirates for years.

  Upon reaching the office I tried to open the door, but it was locked. I didn’t even know this door had a lock. I tried knocking, but nothing happened. You can bet that I was worried. I got an Security Officer nearby to help me bash down the door. It took a good six collisions to break the door open. My fears were confirmed. Derigan was sitting in his chair with a hole in his chest. This was the work of a Jartac, an elite assassin. They work along with the pirates, but are a separate group of their own. This needs to go to the Armada Admiral. But, I won’t be the one reporting this. Not directly to the Armada Admiral himself. Only Fleet Admirals, like Derigan, can go right to him.

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  These past few days have been a mess. With Derigan’s death Armock, a backup incase of exactly this, was appointed Fleet Admiral, in place of Derigan. He is ordering my fleet to go to the Asteroid Belt. He says they’ve got some strange things going on there. Something about an asteroid that was just floating along just… stopping. I mean, not exactly stopping, but not following it’s normal pattern, as though it had jammed into something. I don’t see what’s so important about it, but I do have to follow orders.

  There’s something good about this though. Since the higher-ups, as some call the Fleet Admirals, are worried that the cloaking technology Daac’sha used might have been adapted to a ship‘s shields. In other words, they think that maybe Daac’ra is hiding ships in the Asteroid belt. So, the good thing? All my ships get fancy new scanners. They can detect cloaked ships in a few ways.
One way is to sound out a sound wave, like old-fashioned radar.
Another way is to use Brion particles, sub-space particles that can bring objects partially into the visible spectrum.
The final way is nice and simple. Just send out a few disrupter waves. It’s got Brion particles in the waves, so that if it doesn’t disable the ship, and it’s cloak, it will at least make an outline appear.
We all hope they work right, if there are ships there. But now my fleet is ready, so I must board my ship, and spend several hours getting to the Asteroid Belt.