***** ***** ***** ***** CHAPTER SEVEN ***** ***** ***** *****
Written by Eric Fischer
Edited by Champ11 US Army ROTC


Out in the dark space between Trathala and its’ moon, a small high-speed transport roared towered the green surface of the planet. It had taken him about two solar days to reach the planet, and he had spent much of that time going over the information the others in the council had given him. He had a few ideas on where to go to find the leader of the primitives below. First and foremost was the simple matter of language.

Most reports from Imperial Soldiers reported that the Trathalans seemed to be able to understand both Qwintoni and Tejlini speech, how this was no one had any idea, and so for, none of the ciphers had worked out the Trathalns language. Jakenenth was trying to finish his plans on how exactly he would handle his first encounter with the Trathalan rebels if and when he ever discovered them. He felt a tremendous burden on his shoulders from his duty, he knew what was expected of him by the others knew he could not fail.

Yet he found himself second-guessing himself, thinking twice about things. His mind was distracted and dwelled largely on the event that had taken place half way between Trathala and Hurn. It was there that the transport received word of the first direct attack by Alliance forces…

Since the start of the war, each side had brought their ships, albeit slowly, to the territory around the Trathalan star system. The Imperial ships, free of their Asteroid transportation, took up patrols of the primary asteroid bases and mining instillations that had been captured in the initial attack. Of course at the time, there had been no real military to face in the System. The imperial forces largely walked over the outer asteroid facilities and moved in with troops. But within the past month or so, the ships of the Alliance forces, the Tri-Star Federation as Intel said their official name was; had arrived on the borders.

Jakenenth regarded the dancing and daring that had taken place at first. He knew that neither the Imperial nor Alliance ships wanted a direct encounter. Of the few fictional books smuggled on bored by the movement, Jakenenth remembered a precious few where listed as ‘Science Fiction’. He had read of great starships with powerful weapons, energy guns and odd fields that prevented damage, physic bending drives that went faster then light and hull armor that could brush aside multi kiloton nuclear warheads. Taking a moment to look around the cramped, official and utilitarian interior of his shuttle, he found himself wishing his ships had such great power.

He recalled from his training of Imperial warships, the average armor was built just strong enough to keep out most micrometeorites as well as standard background radiation. The average weapons consisted of long-range tactical warheads geared to fire at ships no one might ever see. And even the great Asteroid ship, which had the most powerful drives ever constructed by his people, at full burn could barley push .20 of c.
It was all of this that made the initial attack on the asteroid base of K-2567 all the more shocking to the entire Imperial military in the system.

Tracking incoming ships was largely a game of luck; immense linked infrared sensors and light sensing interferometers peered endlessly along space trying to pick up a microscopic blip. Sometimes they would catch the infinitesimal small heat of a ship tens of thousands of miles away, and sometimes not.

When three five-megaton nuclear missiles impacted against the Asteroid, the shockwave immediately incinerated a destroyer and the EMP scrambled most of the other ships computers. It took nearly five minutes to locate the source of the attack, three small blooms of heat about 18,000 miles from their location. The remaining two destroyers, their targeting systems questionable, each launched over twenty missiles, over half their payload, in response. Five minutes after their counter attack, three more missiles came into range of the base. Anti missile counter measures were now operational, though it seemed the Alliance missiles were emitting a scrambling single, it was only by saturating the incoming field with anti missile fire, that two of the missiles were destroyed; the third however struck the lead ship, the cruiser Jahentro, which evaporated in a ball of atomic fire.
A survey ship sent to the location of the alliance heat signatures found wreckage, but it was virtually impossible to tell what type of ships, or how many, may have been destroyed.

Jakenenth suddenly found his finger nails embedded in the chair he was strapped to. He shock his himself a day later he still could not get the report out of his head. Since the initial invasion, Trathala and his movements plan to oust those in charge had largely taken up all of his thinking and concentration. He had simply taken it for granted that no one would risk a direct engagement so soon, giving his people time to act. All of that seemed to have changed now, if the Alliance forces had started to push against the Imperial outposts, regardless of casualties, it would put in jeopardy everything his fledgling movement had so far worked for.

His thoughts where interrupted as a warning light came, on signaling that the shuttle had begun descending toward Trathala. Shaking his head he tried to focus himself. In a short time he would meet up with the small group of members planet side. He would have to relay all the communications and information updates from the main group on the moon as well as find passage to the island that the attacks had so far been taking place on. He gathered his material in his travel bag, locking the security clearance for his personal computer pad just as the shuttle began to hit atmosphere.

The old, rickety transport lurched as it become engulfed in the planets atmosphere. The speed increased as the peace of space was replaced by the growing roar of heat building beneath the thin poly-ceramic heat shield. The thin plates that separated the ships occupants from being incinerated glowed ever brighter as it descended into a blazing fireball. Between the din and heat caused by re-entry, Jakenenth could hear a few of the others mumbling about certain death. To Jakenenth, it didn’t concern him, old as this ship was; its poly-ceramic heat shield was the exact same type used on1st class transports. And in over 120 rotations of use the amount of failure could be counted on a single paw.

As the glowing fireball that was once their ship descended into thickest part of the atmosphere were radio blackout occurred Jakenenth began to focus on how to implement his plans. After contacting his friends, exchanging information and then travelling to the island of ‘Lonti’ he would need to track down a member of the primitives resistance, hopefully without anyone killing each other. As the ship began to emerge from the fireball surrounding it, its wings tilted to a higher angle, slowing its descent to proper speed. A few moments later and it burst through the Trathalan sky. Jakenenth watched from above as the craft neared the northern continent that was his destination.

Out in the dark space between Trathala and its’ moon, a small high-speed transport roared towered the green surface of the planet. It had taken him about two solar days to reach the planet, and he had spent much of that time going over the information the others in the council had given him. He had a few ideas on where to go to find the leader of the primitives below. First and foremost was the simple matter of language.

Most reports from Imperial Soldiers reported that the Trathalans seemed to be able to understand both Qwintoni and Tejlini speech, how this was no one had any idea, and so for, none of the ciphers had worked out the Trathalns language. Jakenenth was trying to finish his plans on how exactly he would handle his first encounter with the Trathalan rebels if and when he ever discovered them. He felt a tremendous burden on his shoulders from his duty, he knew what was expected of him by the others knew he could not fail.

Yet he found himself second-guessing himself, thinking twice about things. His mind was distracted and dwelled largely on the event that had taken place half way between Trathala and Hurn. It was there that the transport received word of the first direct attack by Alliance forces…

Since the start of the war, each side had brought their ships, albeit slowly, to the territory around the Trathalan star system. The Imperial ships, free of their Asteroid transportation, took up patrols of the primary asteroid bases and mining instillations that had been captured in the initial attack. Of course at the time, there had been no real military to face in the System. The imperial forces largely walked over the outer asteroid facilities and moved in with troops. But within the past month or so, the ships of the Alliance forces, the Tri-Star Federation as Intel said their official name was; had arrived on the borders.

Jakenenth regarded the dancing and daring that had taken place at first. He knew that neither the Imperial nor Alliance ships wanted a direct encounter. Of the few fictional books smuggled on bored by the movement, Jakenenth remembered a precious few, which had been listed as ‘Science Fiction’. He had read of great starships with powerful weapons, energy guns and odd fields that prevented damage, physic bending drives that went faster then light and hull armor that could brush aside multi kiloton nuclear warheads. Taking a moment to look around the cramped, official and utilitarian interior of his shuttle, he found himself wishing his ships had such great powers.

He recalled from his training of Imperial warships, the average armor was built just strong enough to keep out most micrometeorites as well as standard background radiation. The average weapons consisted of long-range tactical warheads geared to fire at ships no one might ever see. And even the great Asteroid ship, which had the most powerful drives ever constructed by his people, at full burn could barley push .02 of the speed of light. It was all of this that made the initial attack on the asteroid base of K-2567 all the more shocking to the entire Imperial military in the system.

Tracking incoming ships was largely a game of luck, immense linked inferred sensors and light sensing interferometers peered endlessly along space trying to pick up a microscopic blip. Sometimes they would catch the infinitesimal small heat of a ship tens of thousands of units away, and sometimes not.

When three five-megaton nuclear missiles impacted against the Asteroid, the shockwave immediately incinerated a destroyer and the EMP scrambled most of the other ships computers. It took nearly five minutes to locate the source of the attack, three small blooms of heat about 18,000 miles from their location. The remaining two destroyers, their targeting systems questionable, each launched over twenty missiles, over half their payload, in response. Five minutes after their counter attack, three more missiles came into range of the base. Anti missile counter measures were now operational, though it seemed the Alliance missiles were emitting a scrambling single, it was only by saturating the incoming field with ‘flak bursts’ that two of the missiles were destroyed; the third however struck the lead ship, the cruiser Jahentro, which evaporated in a ball of atomic fire.
A survey ship sent to the location of the alliance heat signatures found wreckage, but it was virtually impossible to tell what type of ships, or how many, may have been destroyed.

Jakenenth suddenly found his finger nails embedded in the chair he was strapped to. He shock his head, a day later he still could not get the report out of his head. Since the initial invasion, Trathala and his movements plan to oust those in charge of the plane had largely taken up all of his thinking and concentration. He had simply taken it for granted that no one would risk a direct engagement so soon, given his people time to act. All of that seemed to have changed now, if the Alliance forces had started to push against the Imperial outposts, regardless of casualties, it would put in jeopardy everything his fledgling movement had so far worked for.

His thoughts where interrupted as a warning light came, on signaling that the shuttle had begun descending toward Trathala. Shaking his head he tried to focus himself. In a short time he would meet up with the small group of members planet side. He would have to relay all the communications and information updates from the main group on the moon as well as find passage to the island that the attacks had so far been taking place on. He gathered his material in his travel bag, locking the security clearance for his personal computer pad just as the shuttle began to hit atmosphere.

The old, rickety transport lurched as it became engulfed in the planets atmosphere. The speed increased as the peace of space was replaced by the growing roar of heat building beneath the thin poly-ceramic heat shield. The thin plates that separated the ships occupants from being incinerated glowed ever brighter as it descended into a blazing fireball. Between the din and heat caused by re-entry, Jakenenth could hear a few of the others mumbling about certain death. To Jakenenth , it didn’t concern him, old as this ship was; its poly-ceramic heat shield was the exact same type used on1st class transports. And in over 120 rotations of use the amount of failure could be counted on a single paw.

As the glowing fireball that was once their ship descended into thickest part of the atmosphere were radio blackout occurred Jakenenth began to focus on how to implement his plans. After contacting his friends, exchanging information and then travelling to his to the island of ‘Lonti’ he would need, track down a member of the primitives resistance, hopefully without anyone killing each other. As the ship began to emerge from the fireball surrounding it, its wings tilted to a higher angle, slowing its descent to proper speed. A few moments later and it burst through the Trathalan sky. Jakenenth watched from above as the craft neared the northern continent that was his destination.