Fall of the Terran Empire - Traci Ganner series book 1

FTE - Ch 11

 “Roule, bring up our dispositions,” Admiral Pearson said. He reclined slightly in his chair at the briefing room table, and his eyes were flinty steel as he reviewed the display panel above it. He had tasked his junior officers with putting together the details of the operation based on their latest orders and intel. Throughout the process, he had met with several of them, many times, as they plowed through the preliminary planning stages, but now it was ready to come together and become an actual operation, waiting only for the proper assignment of forces to set it in motion.

“Data from several star systems has come in to the sector commands,” Rear Admiral Roule Charleton stated for the record, not taking his eyes off of the display, and Pearson smiled. Charleton wanted to pay these invaders back eye for eye just as much as Pearson did, especially since many of the losses had come from his units. “Their reports are consistent with a single prong attack from Antares to Sol. We could make best speed through the Polaris cluster and rendezvous with Second Fleet here, at Sirius, assuming they have survived the assault. We haven’t been able to communicate with any sectors beyond Regulus.” The best-guess enemy force predictions, based on encounters and sensor stations that the invaders had passed as they marched, unparried, straight through every defense, were displayed on the map. The invading force had been assailed by elements from both Third and Fourth Fleets in separate engagements, both with the same result. Now, the Terran forces were preparing to make best speed to merge with Home Fleet, under the command of the First Space Marshal, Knight Admiral Elbazi, to make a united stand against the threat and repel them, lest they break through all the way to Earth itself.

Pearson was not entirely dissatisfied with the prospect of serving under Elbazi. He had once attended a lecture from the then Fleet Admiral at the Elfhame training base on Alpha Centauri. Although Pearson had never actually served in combat with the Space Marshal, he knew the man’s reputation for attacking relentlessly, taking no quarter, and serving up rapid and brutal victories.

It was at that moment that Commodore Santos and Captain Ganner entered the compartment, followed by various subordinates and junior officers. Pearson looked up at his tardy ops officer and choked back a comment as the officers made their way to their seats.

“You’re going to want to see this, Scott,” the commodore said, settling into his chair. The use of the fleet admiral’s first name caught his full attention, and several eyes turned to face Captain Ganner as she slid the data card into the reader on the table. As she penciled in commands from her seat, a new set of images appeared on the map, showing some new details not available before.

“You can see here,” she began, obviously in her element, working with the data, “the primary thrust of the attack originates from Antares and penetrates axially in a direct line of star systems toward Earth. However, we have just received intelligence that sheds some light on the origin of this new enemy.”

Ganner used her light pencil and zoomed the resolution into the Antares star system, where a strange, semi-black shard appeared, like shattered obsidian, on the display near the outer planets. “To the best of our analysis, this is a spatial rift.”

Stunned, Admiral Pirelli was the first to respond. “Say that again, Captain.”

“Certainly, sir,” Ganner repeated, looking slightly flustered as the absurdity of her statement impacted upon her as well. “We have begun receiving a tactical feed out of Antares for the first time, a few hours ago. Based on the detailed information emanating from that feed, we are able to piece together not only the starship dispositions in the system, but we also ascertained a sensor recording of this.”

She adjusted the controls slightly, and the map was replaced on the screen by the enlarged image of the obsidian shard in space. Except it wasn’t a shard; it was a hole. As the room watched in silence, a starship emerged from the hole and made its way in-system. Suddenly, the room was filled with questions.