Galactic Rim Chronicles: SCS Liberty

[Condottiere]

"It wasn't a concern, at least, for the Navy, until about a month ago." Dubois started pushing virtual buttons, just over her desk. A holograph projector displayed what seemed rather poor quality surveillance footage.

Lee's eyes strained to make out the image, that now started to animate.

"What you're watching, seems to be an encounter with the natives, and the disembarked crew of a small spacecraft, analysis being a hundred tonne scoutship type."

The Confederation Navy had come to consider the hundred tonne scoutship as being too cramped to be actually useful for fleet reconnaissance, and too large for covert scouting, and so, the type had been discarded a century ago. Surplus to requirements, they were sold off to civilian buyers.

"Apparently, our interdiction satellites didn't detect the scoutship approaching the interdiction zone, nor landing on Jafar." That did not bode well for the naval personnel manning the sensor stations at the spacestation. Or would have, if the spacestation had been under her command.

Then, a firefight erupted.

 

[Condottiere]

The natives suddenly opened fire on the scoutship's crew, with automatic weapons. One crewmember fell down, while another made a dash for the scoutship. From the scoutship's lowered cargo hatch, someone returned the fire.

The downed crewmember started crawling to wards the cargo hatch. If Lee had to guess, the scoutship crew had taken the precaution of wearing cloth armour. The natives, appear to have not. Whoever had been shooting from the cargo hatch, was now joined by someone else from within the scoutship, and the dasher, who also had picked up a gun.

Three automatic guns seemed to be sufficient to break the nerve of the natives, and they ran away, leaving some of their number on the landing field; wounded, bleeding, possibly dead. The scoutship crew cautiously stepped out from under the protection of the cargo hatch, and approached them.

"If I may, Admiral," Lee said, as he used a hand gesture to take control of the projector, "enhance image of scoutship personnel."

Computer imagining technology had advanced a great deal in the intervening three millenia, and the image sharpened, self corrected, increased detail, and was likely ninety nine percent correct.

Lee recognized the guns the crew were carrying as CAVALRY Carbines, the most widely used paramilitary smallarm in the Sphere. It was an open secret that the Navy had designed it, and collected a license fee through one of it's owned defence industries for each copy manufactured by throughout the Sphere.

He looked at the crewmembers, and noticed the attire. Mormon missionaries, which explained why they were armed and prepared to defend themselves.

Lee shifted the focus of the image, and took a look at one of the guns that the natives had dropped. He recognized it immediately. If the CAVALRY Carbine was the most used paramilitary gun in the Sphere, the Clash/Seven was the most popular civilian firearm. The clones that had been manufactured since it's final inception, had remained surprisingly faithful to the original design, even after three millenia.

"I was under the impression, that the natives only had access to muskets," Lee commented.

 

[Condottiere]

"It would seem that FaCAff will have to revise that particular code in the planetary profile," Dubois observed.

She continued, "This footage was part of the monthly upload to Sector headquarters, and wasn't flagged. A junior naval intelligence officer noticed it, during the normal analyzing process, understood the implications, and notified his supervisor. To that supervisor's credit, he immediately sent it to CinCMag's Chief of Staff, who investigated, and then informed her superior."

"Needless to say, CinCMag was not pleased not knowing what's happening in his immediate backyard, and ordered an inquiry."

"The Chief of Staff wants an investigation into what's happening in Jafar, without tipping our hand, and has tasked Valhalla command to carry it out," said Dubois, "but discretely."

"So, the problem as to how to do that has been delegated to me, who will coordinating this semi covert operation, with authorization direct from Sector Command, which happens to be next door on Antaeus's orbitting satellite. This will bypass Western Quadrant Command, and almost certainly Iouo. We don't know how big of a problem this really is, and we don't know if either have been compromised, and to what extent. For all we know, there could be a secret base in Jafar, that could launch a surprise attack against Antaeus Anchorage, and destroy the Sector Fleet primary combat assets."

 

[Condottiere]

"Jafar would be reinducted into the Confederation, but in about one or two more generations, when the anthropologists would have more fully understood their society, and the best approach to do so." Dubois continued, "but that timetable has now been accelerated. CinCMag has allocated Navy resources into constructing a High Commission dirtside, to assist FaCAff in their role to gathering up one of our lost flock."

"You will be transporting the new High Commissioner to Jafar, and assist with setting up the High Commission compound, which will be fortified, considering the circumstances. Fleet Admiral Antonio de la Cruz has conferred with the Subminister in charge of FaCAff in the Magyar Sector, and discovered they have a mutual cousin in that Ministry, who's qualified to be assigned the post of Planetary High Commission."

Good old fashioned nepotism, to give the appearance of plausibility, in suddenly establishing a physical Confederation presence on Jafar, thought Lee.

"And what role will Security play in this operation?" Lee questioned, knowing that the two issues Jafar raised, subversion, and internal security, were considered to be their responsibility.

"Admiral de la Cruz had his Chief of Staff send a memo to their Sector Directorate, informing of their suspicions, and the actions taken to confirm this, and possibly, rectify it."

 

[Condottiere]

The appointment ended shortly after, as Lee received an encrypted set of his orders, burned on a microdisc. He and his crew would a have busy week, preparing for the mission, and picking up the passengers and cargo required to fulfill the initial phase of it.

Since it would be his last chance of liberty, before the Liberty itself jumped, he made his way back to his dinghy, and changed to civilian clothes. Lee attached a synthetic leather holster to his belt, that had been carefully molded to conceal the size of the revolver cylinder, and shouldered the shotgun scabbard.

He then walked to a train station that was opposite the one he had used to travel to the Navy administration tower, and boarded a car that was empty of other passengers, that was headed to next door star town, that had sprung up to cater to the military and personnel that worked in the spaceport, as well as the civilian contractors that maintained it.

It took a few minutes for the rail car to reach the centre of the startown. As Lee disembarked, he found himself coalescing with a swirling cloud of Anateus's civilians, that for the most part, were even more heavily armed than himself.

 

[Condottiere]

Lee felt that Antaeus was probably one of the safest places in the Confederation, being in the middle of the Magyar Sector, and being the headquarters of it's assigned fleet.

Any citizen or visitor could own, and carry, any hand weapon, the only requirements being that it had to be registered, licenced, and insured; depending on the damage they could potentially cause, could be astronomically expensive. Unsurprisingly, those that owned the insurance corporations, became the Antaeusian oligarchic upper crust.

Blinged out magrail pistol, in a stragically revealing holster that carefully revealed emphasized the decorations and curves of the sidearm, graced the hips of a little black dress, whose brunette possessor's matching black pumps clicked clacked to some likely intimate interlude, which, with lookover, Lee had wished had been with himself. Probably part of that uppercrust, or one of their hanger ons.

Less distracting subjects of observations continued on their business, a group of giggly girls out on a group date, had decorated gauss pistols in sparkly holsters, while the accompanying boys had theirs in some sports branded holsters, while across their backs were scabbarded gauss carbines. Upper middle class.

Suited office jockeys hurried back from their lunches, most of them having some variant of sleek looking advanced automatic pistols enveloped in matt holsters, off shift workers making their way home, or going shopping for groceries, with automatic pistols in plain looking, but serviceable holsters. Most of the male adults also carried some form of longarm.

The naval arm of the Antaeus Home Guard was basically customs, immigration, and search and rescue patrol spacecraft, but they had a very enthusiastic ground forces contingent.

 

[Condottiere]

In Antaeus, you could walk around in battle dress and a fusion gun, Solomani portable, but you'd be ridiculed, with likely the most common vocal insinuation being about compensating. Assuming you could afford the insurance.

Any weapon system could be built, or, with the local industrial base being technological level thirteen, imported, if the buyer can pay for all the taxers and tariffs, but it's the mandatory insurance that limits ownership, which restricts it to the really enthusiastic, or the substantially wealthy. It was at this point that the Confederation stepped in.

While not restricting the Antaeusians' right to import most weapon systems, they couldn't export them, without an end user certificate that had to be signed off by the Confederation.

With a population that had been substantially less than their neighbours, Antaeus had always been a possible object for annexation, which had resulted in citizens heavily arming themselves, somewhat contradictory to the style of government that encouraged this, who, as long as the society and economy weren't disrupted, were fairly free to do as they pleased.

Immigration was heavily restricted, the industry was mostly automated to make up the difference, which resulted in a rather well off society. A welfare net was established to assist any Antaeusian that couldn't quite make it, which removed any possible social tensions.

But, you needed insurance for almost everything, including children.

 

[Condottiere]

One interesting side effect of incorporating smallarms as fashion statements, was a thriving cottage industry that manufactured high quality sidearms, and customizing them. This has resulted in Antaeus being one of the primary suppliers of ceremonial pistols to the Confederation military.

A certain latitude was given as to the actual performance of the ceremonial pistols, the requirements were that they were suitable adornments, functional, and that sufficient ammunition was available, whether from logistics, or a private supply.

Having one became mandatory when receiving a military commission, so Lee had bought a five chambered snub pistol, with an exchangeable cylinder, and an extended handgun barrel, and had the entire pistol chromed, which should demonstrate enough bling to be marginally ceremonial. He invested in the Navy's technological level nine advanced projectile version, which allowed him to draw upon the ship's armoury stock, for target practice ammunition.

This increased the medium range of his snub revolver to ten metres, two and a half short, and forty metres extreme. He had a laser pointer accessory, that Lee believed added a form of virtual intimidation, should he ever end up in a Mexican stand off.

Or, increase his chances for rabbit stew, in the event he needed to apply all that wilderness survival training, if he had ever been shot down in orbit.

 

[whartung]

He had a laser pointer accessory, that Lee believed added a form of virtual intimidation, should he ever end up in a Mexican stand off.

If you ever find yourself in a Mexican Standoff (a Mexican is a large reptile on Gamma Zeta 12, the males tend to stare at each other as part of their mating dominance ritual) with a laser sight, aim the laser at the eye of your attacker. When they wince away, then shoot them (or run).

 

[Condottiere]

At a higher technological level, you probably could amp up the laser beam to a lethal one shot.

 

[Condottiere]

His other weapon of choice was an over under twelve gauge shotgun, that Lee had picked up at sport shop in a law level category six planet, he had been ordered to spend some leave on.

He wasn't too concerned about accuracy, since he had barrel sleeves crafted that were caliberred and rifled in more familiar Navy issued ammunition, all he needed was a way to disguise this, while undertaking some discrete reconnaissance, where the wildlife might be more dangerous than the hostile natives.

The shotgun turned out to work well as a two shot rifle, since he had two sleeves made to fit advanced combat rifle rounds, which were surprisingly the most cheap ammunition, assuming they are available, or swap them for assault rifle bullets, when they're not.

The sleeves could also be destroyed, in the event someone was interested in forensically identifying a round, that may or may not, have originated from his shotgun.

It's not that Lee thought he could win a shootout with anyone packing more modern hardware, in the unlikely event that the excrement accelerated towards a ventilator, rather, it was a distraction.

His snub revolver had chambered five bullets with high explosive caps.

 

[Condottiere]

Lee saw other Confederation naval personnel milling around the rail station, armed with personal defence weapons, carefully holstered, whether on leave, or on Navy business.

It wasn't a requirement for anyone to be armed on Antaeus, but even as a visitor, Lee would have felt naked without a gun. It had become a way of demonstrating any number of things, for the Antaeusians: status, for one, and possibly, a visible demonstration of a will to survive, and thrive.

However, without exception, every gun had to be registered, and that included those worn by Confederation Navy personnel, even if on official duties. So, the Navy issued guns directly from their respective armouries, whether ship or garrison, that were registered, to the personnel that left the military reservations.

Licence was required for each individual, for each type of gun they are permitted to carry and use, but an exception was made for the military and paramilitary institutions, that had a group licence, though not necessarily a group discount. That did limit it to specifically registered guns from their respective armouries, and the personnel had to be in their service uniforms.

Insurance was, usually, required for each individual gun and user, but again, each paramilitary institution had a collective insurance policy.

Lee hadn't wanted to wear his uniform when he was on leave, and so had his two guns registered and insured, and took out a personal licence and insurance.

Luckily for his pocketbook, a five shooter and a sports shotgun weren't considered particularly dangerous, and thus somewhere in the cheaper subcategories, and, at least, officially, his choice of career was considered mentally stable, in terms of licence and personal insurance.

 

[Condottiere]

Lee headed towards the working class quarter of the star town.

A five minute walk through the working class quarter of the star town, allowed Lee to reach his destination, a small restaurant with a splashy sign identifying the establishment as Spaghetti Western. The noise emanating from there clearly showed it's popularity, with a more rowdy clientele.

Walking through the front entrance, Lee turned to the side and picked an unused locker in the gun room, deposited his shotgun, and retrieved an electronic token. No one took off their handguns, and rumours circulating fleet claimed, after experiencing some amatory encounters, Antaeusians went to bed with them as well.

It was an open kitchen, surrounded by a bar and the requisite stools, with an outer orbit of tables. The restaurant's theme was mid Twentieth century North American, or so the owner claimed, currently in the middle of the kitchen, supervising robotic cooks, as they stirred and measured the ingredients associated with Terran pasta.

Lee felt that in most cases, you might as well eat pasta you cooked yourself, experiences in Navy messes and starport buffets would have indicated that the correct way to eat them was overcooked and rather bland. It needed a human touch, and restaurants that employed chefs who understood the correct way to make spaghetti, who usually outside Lee's budget.

But, the Spaghetti Western had managed to create pasta dishes that were both surprisingly good, and remarkable affordable.

 

[Condottiere]

Lee had explored the star town during his downtime. He wasn't that fond of the sports and extracurricular activities, extreme, or otherwise, that his fellow officers appeared to be so fond of, feeling, that his career offered opportunities that more than enough, sufficed for any adrenaline rush.

He came across the Spaghetti Western during one of these excursions, and despite his misgivings, decided to give it a try.

After he finished the meal, he struck up a conversation with the owner, turning out to be a dark skinned woman, who was a robotics engineer, and an amateur chef. Automation and robots were fairly widely used on Antaeus, but cooking seemed to be pretty much hit or miss, mostly miss. This had perturbed her, both as a robotics engineer, and a cook.

She tried to understand the problem, and came up with a combination of more precise software, and hardware more suited for cooking and moving around a kitchen. And, then found the missing ingredient: love.

Or, more specifically, human supervision to adapt to shifting conditions, and differing qualities of the both the cooking, and the ingredients therein.

 

[Condottiere]

Having soaked in the ambiance of a lost golden age, and washed down tomato sauced noodles with a glass of somewhat sourish red wine, that grew on the other end of the continent, Lee bid the restaurant owner farewell, recovered his shotgun from it's locker, and left for the nearby military spaceport.

The spaceport was the primary one of five naval spaceports planted on Antaeus, the four other secondary ones were surrounded by the heavy brigade combat commands that constituted the heavy division's frontline units, which really simplified and sped up embarkation of expeditionary forces. While enthusiastic for the basing of the Magyar Sector Fleet in their system, the Antaeusians were less so of foreign ground forces, and tolerated hosting a Confederation Army heavy division, plus auxiliaries.

There was a permanent Confederation Marine brigade garrisoning the Confederation Navy facilities, but they were rather spread out, and half of them were usually off planet training.

The Navy had some other aerospace fields, but by tradition, these had to be in the middle of an Army camp, fort, or base, mostly used for logistics or interception squadrons. Exceptions were satellites, natural or artificial, orbitting a primary, which was why the Navy preferred to drag an asteroid into orbit, to set up as base.

The light brigade headquarters was stationed near one of the port cities, since one battalion specialized in maritime environments, while the combat support ones clustered around the divisional headquarters, even as most of their assets were already distributed to the other commands. Confederation doctrine preferred to spacelift nothing larger than a reinforced brigade per spacecraft.

 

[Condottiere]

The dinghy managed a fairly smooth ascent into orbit, where Lee pointed it towards the Liberty, and accelerated.

Being the basic model, it had two fifty kilogramme manoeuvre thrusters, one aimed directly along the horizontal axis, and the other the vertical axis. With careful positioning, this allowed vectored thrust to float in any one and a quarter Terran norm gravity well, and propel itself incrementally, in any gravity field below that.

Ninety degree vectoring gave a twenty five percent thrust of rated, while complete reversal only managed an efficiency of ten percent. In most cases, safety protocols prevented any vectoring beyond one hundred thirty five degrees, to prevent frying of the manoeuvre drive, other ship components, and the crew and passengers.

To prevent prevent interacting fields perturbation, the dinghy thrusters had to be constructed at technological level ten, and rated upto factor/three. In order to save manufacturing costs, they were energy inefficient, which increases the power requirement by thirty percent, but lowers overall cost by a quarter.

The largest component, though, is the single cockpit at one and a half tonnes; controls, avionics, basic sensors, basic communications, and somewhere to attach the computer. Since only the manoeuvre and library programmes are installed by the manufacturer, intellect gets installed after delivery by the Navy.

Without an artificial gravity field, basic systems power requirements are halved, and two one eighth tonne early fusion reactors are installed, and a fifty kilogramme fuel tank, which allows a two tonne cargo/passenger compartment with two one tonne acceleration couches. that were retractable.

The hull was cast iron nickel, from the tailings of drilled planetoids.

 

[Condottiere]

Chapter Three

 

[Condottiere]

Lee decelerated, and approached the Liberty at the rear, where the hangar module was poking out, simplifying the procedure.

A crane gantry protruded even further out, and attached to the crane, was a forced linkage device. As the dinghy came close enough, it activated and grabbed it, and Lee felt a slight shudder, as the retractable arm extended it's magnetic clamp attached itself to the hull.

The crane retreated back into the interior of the hangar, the hangar doors closing behind it. While the crane was attached to what was termed the roof, ungravitated environment of the hangar could have had the crane smallcraft launcher and retriever installed on any wall, without worrying about the gravitational orientation of the smallcraft.

The crane moved to a full hangar, and as the hatches closed, it was aeriated. Lee opened the hatch on the side of the cockpit, and exited the dinghy, as two maintenance crew saluted, and then proceeded to down a checklist to ensure that their captain hadn't broken anything.

After freshening up, Lee walked to the bridge, where the Marine guard activated the automated door, allowing access to the frigate's central control room. His Executive Officer stood up from the captain's chair, and announced, "Captain on the bridge."

 

[Condottiere]

Lee acknowledged that he now was in control, and she vacated the chair.

The two gold circular suns, plus the new sun in eclipse pips, on the right side of her collar, marked out her current brevet rank of Lieutenant (Commander), as compared to his three full pips which identified his rank of Commander.

Lee had met Lieutenant Kane at one of CinCMag's get togethers and get to know each others buffets a year back. He was assigned as one of the (Wing) Commanders onboard Rear Admiral Costa's flagship. He was sampling the pasta, and found it wanting, when she introduced herself.

Lieutenant Kane have a rueful smile, as one of Lee's eyebrows did a Spock.

"My parents," she explained, "had a sense of humour; my sister was christened Candace."

Then began a briefing of what had happened during his absence, and what was expected.

 

[Condottiere]

"Ex Oh, we've been assigned by Valhalla Command to deliver a five kilotonne space station to Jafar, with it's passengers and cargo. We then will assist in setting it up, to become a temporary spaceport for the system. That's the first phase. The second phase, will be setting up a High Commission planetside, with a landing field."

"While the electronic upgrades have been completed, Captain, we still need to extensively test them, before the Liberty can be considered operational, "Lieutenant (Commander) Kane observed.

"They didn't touch engineering, so we should be able to accomplish the two parsec jump, and position the spacestation in orbit, Ex Oh. We'll shuttle down the cargo and personnel planetside, perform overwatch until the walled compound is completed, and then started testing out our new sensors in the Jafar system."

"We'll stay insystem, in case the High Commissioner needs anything, while they're acclimatizing themselves dirtside, and scan every object we can detect," Lee concluded.

Kane looked up from her electronic tablet. "Everything?" she asked.

"Yes, and very loudly," emphasized Lee.