Fifteenth Year of the Nomads

Eight Hundred and Forty Fifth Year After the Battle of the Sol System

Polo’Liekki Laiska’Vanha’Verta braced his shoulders to attention as the briefing room door closed behind him. This meeting did not appear on anyone official calendar, and never would. That made it no less important, and the other three sentients in the room no less influential.

From left to right was Miekkailija’Vanha’Verta, Valo’Haltija of the Fleet, Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona, the Heir to the Crown, and Neuvonantaja'Kielen’Sanahaku, the Heir’s primary advisor.

Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona took the lead, gesturing to a chair, “Have a seat, Polo’Liekki, and we will get started.”

Laiska’Vanha’Verta sat down, interested that these three great sapients would be waiting for him.

Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona swiveled his neck, taking in the gathering, “As all three of you know, this meeting was arranged through the office of my father, the Emperor. As you may not know, he deliberately set it up so that he would not attend and would be seen elsewhere at the same time. This is because he, and therefore I, are in possession of certain bits of information that would be of use to all of you here. These facts, when put together, mark the beginning of a crisis the likes of which the Empire has never seen before.

“Valo’Haltija, Polo’Liekki, you both know of the Titans of Kuud’Estoista’Maailma. How one of them fought to the death and beyond in an attempt to deny the Empire of that system, and how the other fled to an unknown destination. That the Kuud’Estoista’Maailma ‘locals’ were in fact the descendants of the Fanatical Purifiers. Perhaps only second or third generation descendants, as it turns out, given the distance between Kuud’Estoista’Maailma and Toinen’Maailma and that race’s use of cryosleep colony ships.

“Neuvonantaja'Kielen’Sanahaku also knows of certain reports that he has brought to my attention. Reports from shipping and industrial concerns on the edges of Empire space, duly filed with the sector and crown Bureaucracies, that were either ‘lost’ or flagged as insignificant. These reports detailed disappearances of freighters, small industrial platforms, rich asteroids, and other valuable resources. All vanished without a trace. Until now.

“What the Valo’Haltija knows, and what you are finding out now Polo’Liekki, is that someone has been preying on on the Empire. The evidence was finally found amongst the wreckage of a freighter. It had been hauling ferrous ore to a forge station when it reported an emergency. When the station missived back for clarification, there was no response. The station had already dispatched a rescue ship to investigate, which managed to catch a glimpse of something on its scopes. Multiple ships, capital class or larger.

“The freighter was found, attacked and abandoned, stripped of its cargo. Etched into its walls and corridors, left in the only file on its terminals, was a single message. The same message that Titan two sent you just before exiting the Kuud’Estoista’Maailma system nearly five hundred Crown World Orbits ago.”

Polo’Liekki Vanha’Verta sat back in his chair and blew a plume of air out of his mouth. “They are back then.”

The Heir swiveled his head in agreement, “Indeed. Which is why you are here. You are the only flag officer the Empire has that has both killed a Titan and won against these Fanatical Purifiers. My instructions to the Valo’Haltija are to get to the bottom of this quickly and efficiently. The Politicians are pushing for control of the Fleet again, using the reported losses as examples of the Fleet not doing its job. My father the Emperor wished to have a strong Fleet, and cannot afford the risk of this order being delayed or misinterpreted, so he sent me as his messenger. The Valo’Haltija already has his orders, and has helped to shape this one. The BCG Viimein’Laiva’Elossa has already been quietly designated as a museum ship in order to free up that honorable name for a new ship that will be leaving the Toinen’Maailma shipyard within the Crown World Orbit. As for your orders,

“ ‘By order of the Emperor, Polo’Liekki Laiska’Vanha’Verta is hereby appointed to the rank of Kokko’Liekki. He is to take command of the Void Carrier (CV) Viimein’Laiva’Elossa and her attached battle group. His instructions are to bring your battlegroup to combat readiness, and to hunt down these Fanatical Purifiers for the good of the Empire.’

“I don’t expect the hunt to be easy, but if you managed to kill a Titan with only a BCG’s meteor cannons, then I and the Emperor have faith that you will be able to hunt down and slay a second one with a CV.”

“Solar Wind, Hawkwing. Scheduled status update. No new arrivals to this system. Out”

“Solar Wind, Raptor. Scheduled Status update. Orbital refinery still unloading the freighter. No other activity at this time. Out.”

“Solar Wind, Hunter. Scheduled Status update. Twisted sensor sweeps still below detection thresholds. No reaction at this time. Out.”

“Solar Wind, Vanguard. Voidstrike mines deployed. Returning for reloads. Out.”

“Solar Wind, Hearthfire. Scheduled Status update. Tentkeeper Squadron reports no unknown activity near the tents. Out”

Admiral Supesu frowned down at the display board showing the signal traffic. She wanted to page Engineering and ask how soon they would have that last load of ore smelted down and secured for transport, but held off. Paging them would not speed up the process, only annoy the engineers while they worked. At the same time, she really did not want to be in this system any longer then she had too. With the Protector branch being so short on hulls, she had to keep the Tents close to defend them. And with that orbital refinery in the system, she had to assume that her presence was suspected. The longer she stayed near her tenth prize, the more time she gave the Twisted Empire to get a response force together.

“Admiral, Engineering. Refineries operating at 100% capacity. Estimated time to smelting completion is seventy two hours. Will expedite if possible. Out.”

Admiral Supersu nodded in satisfaction. Shew would have liked to have broken down the Twisted freighter too, but the Solar Wind’s holds were already full. So she had decided to leave some mines around the freighter as a surprise for whatever showed up to chase her off. The Voidstrike mines weren't anything too fancy, just a missile in a single-use launch tube with a simplistic set of sensors. Once armed, they would attack anything moving under power within their range for about three days, after which the batteries would run out and they would self-destruct.

“Solar Wind, Hawkwing. New arrivals. Total of nine ships. One capital ship, type unknown. Four light cruisers. Four destroyers. Projected vector is towards the orbital refinery.”

“Solar Wind, Hunter. New scanner sources detected, military grade, well below the detection threshold. Out.”

“Hawkwing, Solar Wind Actual. Maintain emissions control, recall your scouts, and form up with Raptor.”

“Solar Wind Actual, Hawkwing. Maintaining EmCon, Recalling Strike Craft, forming up on Raptor. Out.”

“Hunter, Solar Wind Actual. Maintain emissions control and fall back on Vanguard.”

“Solar Wind Actual, Hunter. Falling back on Vanguard under EmCon. Out.”

“Vanguard, Solar Wind Actual. Go to EmCon. Expedite your mine deployment, arm the field, and fall back on Hawkwing.”

“Solar Wind Actual, Vanguard. EmCon set. Current mine pattern thirty percent deployed, will expedite.”

Admiral Supesu frowned. The Twisted were faster showing up then she had hoped. At least there sensors were useless at this range. Better yet, they had not figured out that they sensor sweeps could be detected from further away than they would provide a useful return. As far as the data collected, both by Hunter and from previous raid, indicated, Twisted civilian grade sensors were good to about three light-minutes. Twisted Military Sensors were better, good to five light minutes or so. Both could be detected by human ships at twice the range at which they were able to detect the human ship in question.

Going to Emissions Control (EmCon) shut down as much outgoing signals, including waste heat, sensor sweeps, and communications chatter, which made a human ship even harder to detect. Twisted passive sensors only had as much range as their ships active sensors, which was (in Admiral Supesu’s Opinion) a foolish idea. By going to EmCon, a human ship outright knew how close it could get to a given Twisted ship without being spotted. Against unsuspecting Twisted ships that were not using their active sensors, that range was ‘killing close’.

Kokko’Liekki Laiska’Vanha’Verta rubbed his grasper against his eyes. This was the fourth disabled freighter call his battle group had received. The first three had indeed been dead ships, stripped of their cargo. Often disabled by a single meteor cannon salvo or a single grasper-full of missiles, the hulk was then etched with the same message over and over again and left to drift. He hoped this one would have some clues instead of the same enigmatic message.

He had a little hope this time. The forge facility had not waited to relay the distress call. Better yet, they had forwarded it directly to the Fleet as well as the damned Bureaucrats. It had only taken the battle group two days to get to the outpost which meant that the humans, as he had learned the Fanatical Purifiers called themselves from the Fleet Archives, would probably still be in system.

He spread his light cruisers out into a picket formation, pairing them off with a destroyer each. The CV Viimein’Laiva’Elossa had enough missile defenses to look after herself, at least against any salvos the size of the ones Titan one had launched at him. The light cruiser on the other hand would need all the help they could get.

But Laiska’Vanha’Verta was not overly concerned about Titan two. It was likely a colony ship first and combat ship second. What concerned him more were the persistent reports of multiple capital ships in company with it. Some of them, perhaps all of them, had to be replenishment vessels and therefore not threats in combat. But they represented a construction capability, established from nothing and producing capital class ships in less than five hundred Crown World Orbits. Estimates put the number between two and ten, with perhaps twelve smaller ships in company.

The numbers were much fuzzier then Laiska’Vanha’Verta would have liked. Some of that was inevitable, of course. No one had perfect information in war, much less in a ghost hunt like this one, but the hulks of the freighters had even worse sensor data then he would have expected. The recovery teams had come up with dozens of scope recordings. On at least half of them, the first warning the freighter had gotten was a launch signature. On the other half, it was a meteor cannon round striking the hull.

Laiska’Vanha’Verta exhaled and shook in frustration. His battle group was spread out to extend the range of their scopes, and the forge facility had given him the last known vector of the freighter that had sent out the distress signal. All he could do now was close on the wreck and try to find some new information.