Neptune's Massif: Talosian Chronicles, #4

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Talosian Chronicles

Olympus

Star Dancer

Talosian Alliance

Neptune’s Massif

*Raptor Squadron (First Quarter 2016)

Dedication

Respectfully dedicated to all the people of the planet Earth.

May we find harmony in our diversity,

Compromise in our differences,

And may we join together to finally reach for the stars, in peace.

Neptune’s Massif

The story so far...

Roughly forty-five hundred years ago, a Talosian Federation warship, the Heavy Cruiser, F.S.S. Olympus, crashed on Earth’s moon as the result of an attack. Faced with almost irreparable damage to the ship, the loss of ninety percent of its crew, and the total destruction of their ‘race’, Commander Zeus came up with a radical plan to try and save his race.

His plan was to leave the Olympus on the moon, go down to the beautiful blue planet, and breed with as many of the inhabitants as possible. The Olympus, under the control of the AI, would remain on the moon, make repairs, and then begin searching for someone with the correct genetic markers to assume command of the great ship.

A young pilot trainee that was orphaned in the attack asked the Commander for permission to take her own life since she no longer wished to continue without her mother and girlfriend. Zeus didn’t have the heart to grant her request, so he asked her instead to go into cryogenic suspension and assist the new Commander, once one was found. Believing that she would never wake-up, Talena agreed.

After watching the last of the crew depart, the ship’s AI had his hologram walk young Talena to the Cryogenics bay. He told her he would be there when she awoke. She just smiled sadly at him and said good-bye.

With Talena safely in cryo-sleep, the AI set about his first task of repairing and decontaminating the ship; it took far longer than it had estimated. Nine hundred years later it had finally completed all the repairs it could. However, it remained on the moon for the simple reason that since she was never intended to land; the ship had no means of lifting its large, multi-megaton mass off the surface.

Hoping its new Commander would have an idea, it turned his full attention to the planet its crew had emigrated to. After an exhaustive (even for him) survey, he was dismayed. It appeared that only a few of the natives showed traces of his former crew. Fearing that the Commander’s plan had failed, but bound by his final commands, the old computer resigned himself to monitoring the small planet and awaiting his eventual core systems failure.

In an effort to occupy his time, Olympus rechecked for the proper genetic sequences once every fifty or so years. Realizing that the planet needed help, but knowing that interference could very well make things worse, he avoided politics and religion. He began to influence man in small subtle ways that, while not correcting major issues, kept mankind from killing themselves long enough to learn how to fix it themselves.

Then one day, one of his probes reported finding two young people that were almost exact genetic matches for Commander Zeus and Colonel Hera, the ship’s second in command and bond mate to Zeus. Taken somewhat by surprise, the old computer shifted his full attention to the young couple. The fact that they lived only four blocks apart and were best friends amazed him. Excited and full of anticipation, he continued to monitor them as they grew and directed his remotes to continue to check the entire populace – this time with far more optimism. Shortly before Ian Williams graduated from high school, Olympus convinced him of his heritage, and Ian accepted the responsibility. He immediately began recruiting a crew after taking his best friend as bond mate. Suspecting that the ship had sustained further, possibly undetectable damage, Ian ordered diagnostics run on the ship. After rescuing young Talena from her impossibly long four-thousand-year stasis, the small group found out how badly damaged the ship actually was, and even Olympus was surprised by how close to killing his new crew they had come.

Not letting the unwelcome report deter him, Ian ordered major sections of the ship to undergo emergency repairs, to include the total destruction and replacement of its primary power reactor. While waiting for the ship to become safe for occupancy once again, Ian and crew set up a corporate township in New Mexico as a cover for recruiting new crew members, as well as forcing the introduction of suppressed technologies and ‘green’ research.

The ship repairs finally were finished and a method to lift off the lunar surface was devised. Shortly after officially assuming command of the newly rechristened Star Dancer, Ian and crew launched the old warship back into the heavens where she belonged. 

––––––––

Once back in space, Ian and his people focused on preparing for the arrival of a Caldarian ship and whoever else may be planning on showing up. After months of preparation and worry, the Caldarian ship arrives and immediately begins searching the system for Ian and his people.

Seeing the opportunity to play it safe and possibly save some of the lives of his people, Ian keeps a low profile and begins a guerrilla warfare against the Caldarians. During the attacks, it becomes impossible for Ian to keep his existence from the government of the United States and the rest of the world. However, that wasn’t the only government to notice Ian and his people; just as the Caldarian Super Nova hadn’t been the only ship to make the jump to Sol System.

In the aftermath of the final battle, other ships that had jumped to Sol were revealed to be Talosian Heavy Cruisers, the same model as Star Dancer herself.

Once the shock of discovering that all the Talosian people hadn’t been killed had worn off, Ian and the two newly arrived Commanders sit down to discuss the battle and what would likely happen now that the Talosians knew Ian had one of their ships.

––––––––

After discovering that the better part of the galaxy, the Alliance of Races of which the Talosians are a part, is at war with invaders from another galaxy, it soon becomes clear that there is a problem brewing in the Talosian Ruling Council.  Nowhere is that more evident than in the sour relations the Talosians have with the other races of the Alliance of Races.

Half the council believes that everything in the SOL system should fall under their control and in most cases dominance. While the leaders of the council believe that the SOL system is a separate, autonomous entity. Two members of the Council along with the two highest ranking members of the Talosian Military come to SOL system to negotiate the situation.

After a sabotage attempt perpetrated by one of the council members fails, Ian and the other members of the Talosian Council discover the extent of the corruption in the Talosian Ruling Council and the plot to over-throw the council. Ian and his friends work out a plan to help the Talosians prevent a civil war that would allow the Empire to over-run the Talosians.

During all of this Star Dancer receives a distress call from a Benesian ship; a civilian passenger liner registered to the Benesian ruling oligarchy. Cindy's new ship, the raptor Damocles, is the closest and responds to the distress call first. Ian puts the dignitaries ashore at the moon base and heads out to assist the Benesians as well. Arriving first, the Damocles is heavily damaged by an Imperial warship that is destroyed in the initial exchange with the Damocles.

The Benesian ship hides and begins repairs. When Star Dancer arrives, they locate the Benesian ship but not the raptor.

After locating the Damocles, Star Dancer helps the Benesian ship finish repairs but while escort it to a jump point, an Imperial Task Force arrives. After speaking to the Alliance of Races military, Ian and the Star Dancer remain in the system to gather intelligence for the Alliance of Races. Impressed with Ian and convinced that the humans of SOL sector are not the same humans of Talos, the Alliance of races open diplomatic relations with SOL sector and invite them to take part in the assault on the task force Ian gathered the intelligence for.

The diplomatic relations allows the people of SOL sector to take care of another issue that had been waiting for the Council to make a decision. The underwater Caldarian Base in the Atlantic Ocean under the sea mount called Neptune's Massif.

Chapter 1

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Phoenix Base

Finished spacecraft storage area

Selene, Earth's Moon

Sol System

Sol Sector

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Lieutenant Commander Alan Carlson looked at his specially modified Raptor with a smile. He noticed that there seemed to be a young woman looking over the ship with a proprietary attitude. He decided he would go see what her story was.

As he approached, the young woman stood up, brushed herself off, and saluted. I'm sorry Sir, this is a restricted area. Off limits to those not specifically assigned to these craft.

Alan returned the salute. Relax, I'm Alan Carlson and this one has been assigned to me.

The young women flushed with embarrassment. I'm so sorry, Sir. I didn't check your ID before greeting you!

That's all right, I didn't exactly introduce myself. Speaking of ID, may I ask who you are? Alan asked.

I, uh, I'm also assigned to this ship. I'm the Electronic Warfare and Electronics Countermeasure Officer. My name is Andreya Star.

Are you aware of our special mission, Andreya? Alan asked. He remembered from his briefing that by the description of her, she was actually an android avatar of the AI resident in the ship.

I am aware that we are the only Raptor team currently assigned to the planet Earth, our Raptor has also been equipped for underwater operations, Sir. Is that what you mean?

That's good enough, Alan replied. Have you met the rest of the team yet?

No Sir, you are the first person I've met from our team. I assumed that the rest of you would have been training together for the last few weeks. Will they be joining us here? Andreya asked.

After checking to see if anyone was close to them, Alan shook his head. Not yet anyway. Please access the files in my private area entitled Operation Neptune's Massif. As far as our team is concerned, we don't have one yet since Command hasn't made a final decision about what to do about that Caldarian Base.

I see that Sir, so for now, it's just the two of us? Andreya asked.

Pretty much. Care to show me around the ship? Alan asked.

I would be honored, Sir!

Since they had been assigned to Earth, but had no base on the planet to go to, Alan and the Raptor Poseidon remained on the moon for the time being. He did keep working on getting everything ready for the mission to get rid of the Caldarian base. For now, he just couldn't understand why Command was ignoring the enemy base at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. He finally got his answer, but not from Ian. Ian’s wife, Jenny Williams sent him a message that pretty much answered his questions.

"Alan, I'm really sorry you've been getting stonewalled over this. Ian would have called you, but his attention has been taken up by this crap with the Talosians, and now we're leaving to rescue a Benesian liner from the Empire. Unfortunately, because of all of this other stuff going on, the mid-Atlantic base has gotten pushed to a lower priority. I've been trying to keep working on it in my spare time, but it's been getting more and more difficult. So I'm passing that on to you. I managed to get you a Raptor and the rank to get things done. However, the rest will be up to you to get rolling.

"Raptor team members are hard to find. Currently, the only candidates available are from the Prometheus; so if you take them, I have no idea if you'll be allowed to keep them. They have only started the psych profile stage, so we don't know how many of them will pass. Sorry, but that's all you have for the time being as far as personnel.

"There are several special projects going on right there on the moon. Most of them are classified of course, but they will work so well for this mission that you might want to see if you can get them on board for you to use. The first project that comes to mind is a type of underwater attack craft called, ironically enough, a Shark. These craft have never been in the ocean, although I have been told that at least one of them has been built and tested in a tank there on the base. To the best of my knowledge, they are also currently unarmed.

"Part of the team that was working on the Shark split off to develop the combat systems for it. I am told it has been a real challenge for the scientists because of the properties of water. They had no issues developing a very accurate and long range sensor system for it, but the weapons have given them fits.

"The one weapon so far developed is called a Lamprey. It is basically a multi-functional, programmable, self-guided torpedo. With a variety of payloads available from sensor pods to small, anti-matter charges that would sink any surface vessel currently on the planet. The torpedoes would be deployed from a small internal bay in the belly of the shark. Reloads are available via a specialized replicator.

"The Shark is not detectable by current Earth technology. Substantial research has been conducted to mask the unit from advanced sensors, such as the ones used by the Caldarians. The current belief is that stealth can be maintained unless at extreme close range or at very high velocities.

I'm really sorry to drop all of this in your lap, Alan. But the truth of the matter is, there is no one else to handle this at this time. We are trying to get the Alliance of Races to at least have their Caldarian Ambassador make contact with us, but currently, there has been no reply from them. My advice to you is this, and it is only advice, Alan. Build your team, get those Sharks built, tested, and get trained on them. Basically, do what you need to get done in order to take out that base. In the meantime, the Council will continue to try to get ARC assistance. I do know that at some point, you will be given orders about this regardless of what ARC does. Alan knew that 'ARC' was the acronym for Alliance of Races Council.

Good luck, Alan. If you have questions or need advice, call me or send a message. I'll try to answer you as quickly as I can. The message ended there but was signed by the new Commander of Star Dancer.

Alan looked at his new best friend, Andreya. Well, it looks like we have a mission. We need to build our own team with the focus being the ability to take out that Caldarian base. Apparently, I've been given all the authority I'll need.

Oh, this should be fun! Andreya replied sarcastically.

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Phoenix Base

Transient Officer’s Quarters

Selene, Earth's Moon

Sol System

Sol Sector

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Because of his advanced security level, Alan was granted access to the Shark and Lamprey project notes. He had to admit both of these projects seemed to be custom designed for what he needed. He even asked Andreya to use his clearance to see if there might be other projects that could be of help to them. Although she didn't find anything, she did inform him that the 'FROG' project that he had been a part of had been completed, and the units had been approved for production.

Alan remembered the FROG project with amusement. FROG stood for Forward Roving Offensive Guard. Basically, it was a remote controlled combat drone that had the firepower of a tank platoon that could engage the enemy without risking the life of its operator. Drone technology had been available from Star Dancer's original database, but the interface with the human had been the truly groundbreaking part of that project. The FROGs used a neural feedback system that had been originally developed for the Shadow fighter. Although there had been problems getting it to work with the fighter, it looked like they had gotten the bugs worked out of it for the large drone.

Okay, so I guess the next step is to introduce ourselves to the researchers working on these projects. Have you gotten any word on the psych profiles for the Raptor applicants? Alan asked.

Yes and no, some of them are finished and have been accepted for training. Currently, there are six new candidates that we could choose from. There are eight more still pending, Andreya replied.

Alan nodded. I think I should call Ty and let him know we're in the market for a team. That way he can keep an eye out for us.

We could call him now. It's the beginning of his day currently, Andreya said.

Alan nodded. Might as well, the sooner he is aware of our needs, the sooner we'll have a team.

Contacting Colonel Anders, Raptor Command. One moment, Andreya said. Call connected, transferring to your comm device.

Hey Alan! What can I do for you? Ty asked.

Actually, I'm calling to ask you a favor, Ty.

Uh oh! Ty teased. You never ask for favors, what's up?

Well, I've been assigned a Raptor and given the mission of getting everything I need ready for an assault on the Caldarian base on Earth... Alan began explaining.

Ah, I see now, you want me to steer any likely recruits your way? Ty asked.

Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what I was going to ask you. I've got a ton of other shit to deal with too, but I need to get the people together so we can get trained and used to each other, Alan replied.

Ty chuckled. Jenny warned me before they left. I have four trainees already working hard to get up to a level I would feel safe sending them to you. All four are Talosian, so other than the English language, they don't really know much about Earth.

Wow, I appreciate it! I kinda expected them to be Talosian, since those were the only active applicants we had at the moment. If you are already working on it, that will make things go a lot smoother for me. Do you have an idea when they should be ready? I won't hold you to it if one of them screws up, Alan replied chuckling.

Actually, I don't think they will, at least not in this phase of training. You might have some issues during the team integration phase, but that's pretty much normal as the different personalities shake out. I will have a few others available if you think you might need them, but be aware that there isn't a lot of them, and all of them are Talosian, Ty replied.

I'm sure I can get them to behave. I was thinking about finding Sensei Nokisuno to assist us. Alan replied.

Your martial arts instructor from your time with the Agency? Ty asked.

Yeah, he’s one of the wisest people I know and I've been considering putting his name in for recruiting anyway, Alan said. I do know he resigned from the Agency once he understood exactly what they were using us for.

Well, that speaks well of him if nothing else does. I didn't think they would have let him 'resign' once he knew what was going on? Ty asked.

He wasn't at that level, his duties were to simply train us in hand to hand combat. He was also a great help in keeping our sanity, but technically, he wasn’t supposed to interact with us like that. I think he bailed out before they figured out he was talking to us, Alan replied. Anyway, I'll give recruitment a call and see if someone can't pay him a visit.

Knowing them, they probably already have! Ty said, jokingly. These knuckle-draggers (slang term for Marines) should be done in a week or so; I'll give you a call when they're ready for pick up.

Great! I'll need at least that much time to find some place to train and get the other stuff lined up for us. Thanks a ton for your help, Ty, Alan replied.

Hey, what are friends for? Ty replied. Take care, Alan.

You to, Ty. Later. Alan said and disconnected the call.

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Phoenix Base

Shark Project R & D lab

Selene, Earth's Moon

Sol System

Sol Sector

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Alan asked for and was granted an interview with the lead researcher of the Shark project. The scientist, Dr. Juno, seemed a bit confused as to why Alan would want to talk to him until Alan explained the mission to him. Then the man got excited.

I've been hoping something would come up that would give us the opportunity to contribute on a more active level! Please don't get me wrong, Commander, I don't mean to be happy about the need for underwater combat, but I am simply pleased that our expertise can be of use! The small Polynesian man replied. We have been feeling like we have been letting our comrades down by not working on something more directly related to the war effort and protecting the planet.

I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean, Doctor? The craft you have been developing are as important to the protection of the planet as a trans-atmospheric fighter is. After all, two-thirds of the planet is water. Those fancy fighter craft and even our most powerful ships would be useless if an enemy got into the oceans. Your research may not be getting the attention of the other programs, but believe me, it’s very much needed, Alan replied.

You are being kind, Commander. In all actuality, our goal was to develop the science that would be needed if and when we established underwater colonies for farming as well as mineral extraction. We have come a long way in understanding our world's oceans and what would be needed to allow human beings to live and work in the depths of our own planet. We have even developed a submerged plant that will help to remove the pollution that has been dumped in the world's oceans as well.

I think that would be something we need to get built and going as soon as possible. It seems I'm always reading something somewhere about how there is all this garbage in the oceans. It would be good to do something about that, too. However, for the time being, I have to focus on the mission at hand; that is getting the Caldarians out of their base and off our planet. Now here is the data file we have on the base. Will your equipment be able to operate at this depth? Alan asked.

"Yes it will. The real question you want to ask is will the Sharks function at this depth without shields giving them away; from the looks of this, the answer is yes. The Shark is designed to operate at depths of up to fifteen thousand feet without the need for external shields to help regulate the pressure. They can go much deeper, but to do so would require the use of shields that could be easily detected by energy sensors.

You should also understand that as they are now, the armor they are equipped with is a variant of the enigma armor Doctor Benson developed for the Shadow fighter project. This variant uses pressure to generate power to keep the pilot warm as well as to supply power to the engines as a secondary power unit. With enough pressure, the primary reactor could be set to standby, removing the risk of detection completely. However, you might not wish to do that in a combat situation," Dr. Juno explained.

I understand that, Doctor. Do you think you could have eight of them built and ready for open water testing in a couple of weeks? Alan asked.

Open water testing? As in the Ocean? Dr. Juno asked.

Alan nodded and winked at the doctor. I would like to take your babies down and drop them in the water to see if we can break them.

That would be wonderful, Commander! Will you allow us to come along to record the data? If there is a problem or something you would like changed we could most likely do it on the fly. Where do you have in mind for testing them? Dr. Juno asked.

Well, I don't actually have a place located yet, but I was hoping I'd be able to find a place that wouldn't draw too much attention... Alan began.

My family has an old resort in Hawaii. It's far from most civilization, so we should be able to use it undisturbed. I was considering using it anyway for when we decided to do our tests, Juno replied.

That sounds like it would be perfect. However, I also need a place for my team to train together and get ready for the assault on the base. Any place we took over would probably become more of an asset to all of us than anything else, Alan replied.

Dr. Juno shrugged, I don't have a problem with that, as long as it doesn't get destroyed. I'm the only surviving member of my family. I have no use for it, but it holds a lot of sentimental value to me. I'd hate to just sell it off to some developer that would turn it into a playground for rich 'haoles' from the mainland.

That might be the way to go then. I'll have to speak to a few people since we might need to build a few things, but if you don't mind, I'll get working on getting the place ready for us to use, Alan replied.

Doctor Juno nodded. Like I said, I just don't want to see the place destroyed. If you can work with that, then we should be able to do this there.

I'll tell you what, let me take a look at the place, I'll see what we need and what we might need to build. I'll get a design hammered out and send it to you for approval before we actually start building it, deal? Alan suggested.

That'll work just fine, Commander. I'll have the Sharks ready for testing in two weeks, Juno replied.

I'll be speaking to the guys developing the combat systems as well, Alan said. I'd like to make sure that they’re on board with this too.

Dr. Juno chuckled. I don't think you'll have to worry too much about them; it's my son's team. We simply outgrew this one lab, and so we split off the research. He's in the lab next to us, and we still do all of our reports and meetings together. I'll talk to him about this. He's actually ready for the testing, so I might need him to help get the Sharks built and ready!

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Phoenix Base

Transient Officer’s Quarters

Selene, Earth's Moon

Sol System

Sol Sector

Alan spent the next few days getting familiar with the systems on the Poseidon and getting to know Andreya. Mostly unknown to him, there was a lot going on out in the galaxy. Ian and the Star Dancer had played hide and seek with an Imperial Task Force. They destroyed a large ship yard and an Imperial battleship while planting listening devices all over the system. They managed to do all of that while only taking minor damage to the ship and crew.

The Talosian diplomats addressed the United Nations on Earth to ratify the Terran Council's promotion of Ian to the rank of Admiral. It also served to make the Earth governments realize that there really were forces out there in space