Sholan Alliance - AU Bk 04 Ch. 03

Missing Carrier 2

Inspector Montgomery ended up working with a fellow Inspector. She was in her office looking at Inspector Montoya. They had come up through the ranks of the Inspector General's office and both were very good at their jobs. He tended to specialize in earth based cases. Many of them were espionage or counter-espionage cases, "How do you want to handle this Inigo? I have some of my agents off planet currently. I don't want to sound untrusting but knowing all the governments have probably been infiltrated concerns me. I am not trying to say or indicate I don't trust you in any way. It is simply I have been ordered to keep this as classified as possible."

Inigo gave her a wide smile which showed his gleaming white teeth. They were a contrast to his dark Mediterranean skin, "Not to worry, I understand and share the sentiment. Not against you but those lower than you. We've come up the system together and I do trust you. I think what might be best if we keep our missions separate from those lower than ourselves. We only share information between us and Admiral Montgomery. Anything else we discuss before passing it down the chain. As you know I have been assigned to look into the Earth side of things. I have five agents I trust. I am keeping them separated from each other as best possible. Not sure if that will suffice but we can only do so much. Right now, I have one attached to Scotland Yard and the case with the shooter who almost killed the Ambassador. The next two are carefully digging through all the records related to the breakers. Not just this ship but all ships in the last twenty years. Financial records, those in the chain of command, who gave questionable contracts and such. The last two are digging through the records of all senior officers to see if they can find anything."

She rattled a pen on her desk since there was a certain overlap in their investigations. She also had people working on the records of the breakers and officers involved. There were civilians involved as well, "I have some of my agents looking into similar aspects. The rest are off world and looking into the records of the yards the ships were sent to. The carrier is one example. We have full documentation she was demilled and broken up for salvage. That obviously didn't happen since we found wreckage indicating she hadn't been broken up. Since this is our first meeting I am going to schedule one every Monday at 0800. After that we can create the brief for the Admiral. Right now, I am still gathering information. It is going to take some time to get the information we need without letting those being investigated know."

Inigo made a face, "I know the feeling. I was just called in and it is going to take some time to get started. I will see you next week and hopefully we will have something we can use. I do have some information from a reliable source. Don't know who they are but it was provided by the Admiral. It is going to take some time but I will let you know what I find." He stood and with a nod and a flip of his thick black hair he left the room.

~~~

Swiss release some pirate information

The Swiss had organized the information they had received from the pirates. It was a massive amount but the question was how reliable was it? Some could be trusted to an extent since it dealt with the types of ships they had. Others such as where the bases were located was far harder to verify. To verify the information, they would have to dispatch even more ships to the locations. That could be done but it was going to take time. They were going to have to pass the information on to the other hegemonies for processing.

That was something the Swiss wasn't comfortable with since they didn't trust everyone. It didn't matter if it was the American, Russian, or Chinese hegemony, they all had their own priorities. They did trust the American and Russian's more than the Chinese simply because their cultures were easier to understand. With the Asian cultures, they were vastly different in how they looked at people and how they were treated. Their culture was more inclusive and less independent than many other of the western cultures. It wasn't wrong but it was different enough they occasionally had trouble guessing how they might react to certain issues.

Eventually what they did was to break what information they into as discrete sections as possible. Once that was done they passed portions of the information which applied to the hegemony it most closely applied to. There was some carry over which they had planned. The information given to each hegemony had been adjusted and tailored so that if there was a leak it should be possible to track where it had come from. They knew the others would expect such but what portions had been modified they wouldn't know. The chances of the three-hegemony's sharing this information was slim which would help. As leaks were identified they would be plugged as best possible.

Since the Swiss had come to trust Admiral Demopolus he received an unedited copy with a request to keep it secure and to himself. This was another test to see if he was as trusted as they thought. It was somewhat of a cold method but based on what they knew, the Organization had penetrated many layers of the governments.

~~~

Scout ship finds pirate base

The captain of the scout ship had remained in the system for several days in case he received orders. During the entire time, he had kept the ship at Emissions Control, EmCom, just in case. They hadn't picked up any indications there were others in the system. It didn't mean they weren't but he wasn't taking chances. Eventually he ordered the ship to slowly accelerate. They were leaving the system and continuing their cruise. Their orders were to find the pirates if possible, or some of them and if possible the enemy.

He wasn't going to hold his breath since space was vast but places which worked to park ships were somewhat rare. Most places stations were located had a gas giant for fuel, maybe an asteroid belt for resources, and hopefully a green zone planet. It would give food, water, and even some R&R for the crew. What the enemy might want he wasn't sure but he was going on what he knew since they were alive.

The travel to the next station took just over a week. Much like the previous location he dropped out of warp well outside the Oort cloud and coasted into the system. They fired off a number of probes but ended up not being there all that long. Nothing caused their passive sensors go off and the probes didn't pick anything up. It still took them a week to scan the system and collect the probes. Once they were done and everything came back clean they jumped again. For the next system, it took them two weeks.

Even before they dropped out of hyper their sensors were recording some hyper traces. Due to this they translated out very slowly and moved into the system at a pace which was slower than normal. The captain was watching the data received very closely. Once he realized the hyper traces were Terran he accelerated slightly. The probes were sent out from a distance and were locked down to passive only. This location was showing as unoccupied which indicated this was probably a pirate base.

For this they actually spent some time going through the system. It was obviously occupied and based on the readings they were trying to be stealthy. His IT and Intelligence department had easily mapped the system and quality of stealth. It was old though not in bad shape. It just wasn't up to the quality of his systems. After two weeks, he slipped out of the system and sent off another hyper drone and again gave it the highest encryption. The same Admiral would get the information. From there it was up to what the military would do. For now, he was going to sit on the edge of the system and watch. It would allow him to collect even more data on the comings and goings.

~~~

Organization calls a meeting

The Organization had finally decided to call another meeting. It had been some time and from their sources they hadn't any indication of an investigation. They all knew there was one going on. Chances were good it was in all three hegemonies but they didn't have any indication. That indicated the investigation was being controlled heavily to keep any information going out. It was even possible some of their operatives were involved but keeping their heads down. It would be to keep themselves from being identified as their agents.

He understood that but it wasn't being helpful. Once the chat room was isolated and all the security checks came back Nelson logged in. It wasn't but a few moments later when the other 'numbers' showed up, "Report! What information do you have?" They needed to keep this quick to reduce the chance of being discovered.

Number 2 didn't bother with any fiddling or vacillating, "As of now I haven't received any information other than scout ships have been sent out. The limited orders I have seen indicate the scout ships are looking for the enemy. They are to enter a system, do a quickly search for high energy readings and leave to search the next system. Beyond that I have received hints that the ship which led the enemy into our system has been confined and removed from existence. Their ship has vanished into Switzerland as well. Nothing else beyond that.

Three did check the notes and looked up, "I have reports the former pirate ship Black Pearl has been sent to Shola. Why I'm not sure but I have a feeling it is related to what the Terran ambassador is doing with the ships. I do have an operative there but I simply don't know when or how he might report." To him every one of his agents was called a he to keep their gender from being known.

Four made a slight face, "I have some results of having someone inside one of the factories. My agent has managed to get some of the process information on recrystallization of the tubes. I have some of my tech's working on it but the math Madlax came up with is very complex. It is taking them time to understand what he worked out. I would guess it is going to take at least three more months before I will have further information."

Five shrugged, "Orders have gone out to our workers to try and identify the source of the others. If we can identify where they might be located, we can start looking into capturing one of the smaller ships. It would be costly if they have weapons similar to the ship which attacked the system. I think we can capture one or the remains of one. It is going to be expensive though.

Six shrugged, "I do have indications the Swiss are going to or have sent some highly-classified information out. It is potentially from either the first or second ship captured. I am leaning towards the second ship since nothing has happened since the first ship arrived. That was months ago and the pirates have been hung.

Seven smiled slightly, "I have access to some of the information the Swiss disseminated. Of what I have seen they appear to have identified one system we have used as a base though the other two we haven't. I have sent orders to have that one system abandoned and anything possible destroyed." They didn't need a fleet action taking out one of their systems.

One frowned since he hadn't see any information related to what Seven said, "Keep me updated on what else you might come across." He leaned back in his chair and stared at the others for a moment, "Keep everyone updated on what the pirate scouts find. Our R&D would love to get their hands on some tech from the others. Make that a priority and we will meet in one month. Gather as much as possible." He disconnected and walked out of his office in time for dinner.

Tonight, their children were at some friends' houses for a sleep over. He gave his wife a sly grin, "Shall we turn on the fireplace and relax on the sheepskin rug?" Nelson really hoped when or if they managed to take over she would realize he had done it for her and their children.

"I have the wine chilled and several plates of finger foods. Sounds like a good idea." She pulled the robe off and didn't have much on below it. Tonight, was going to be an enjoyable night and they needed it.

~~~

Events on the Valtegan homeworld

The R&D department at the Valtegan home world was stressing. The Emperor had sent several of their staff to the priests. They hadn't been killed since their minds were very important but it had been a lesson they hadn't enjoyed. Right now, everything was focused on trying to figure out how the primitives had generated a micro black hole. They could do it but not on the small scale the pale things had. If they produced one, it would be several magnitudes larger. That wasn't what the Emperor wanted. He wanted a similar sized bomb. It would give them a far better capability to terrorize and take over lesser people.

It didn't help that the Emperor's general was almost hovering and demanding answers and results. It was a daily occurrence but they couldn't tell him to just go away and leave them alone. That would get someone handed to the priests to be skinned and killed. The Emperor would have another skin sack but not results.

Even though they weren't having success with the Gravitonic bomb they had managed to massage a good deal of information from the drones. Even though the system the ship had been destroyed in was high tech, they appeared to be well below the Valtegan's or the others tech level. What their lack of tech showed they made up for by the sheer number of ships in the system. Now they had a good idea of the capabilities of the second aliens. They also knew the first enemy had a ship there and it was very powerful.

It wasn't as powerful as some of their capitol ships but it had one hell of a combat ability. If it had been one of their ships it would be a parasite carrier. The amount of parasite craft had impressed them as did the stealth. It was good and based on what they had gotten from the drone's, very effective. They had stealth as well but it was still being incorporated into the larger combat vessels. Once they had the stealth added to the new capitol ship it would increase their fighting capability vastly. It wasn't possible to incorporate it into existing ships without major refit. With two enemies, they couldn't do that right now.

Figuring out how it worked would give them capabilities to take down anyone they wanted. They would rule this section of the galaxy and once they had it secured they could expand. To do that they needed to give the emperor some version of that bomb. That and none of them wanted to end up being a skin sack decorating his throne room. If they irritated him to much their families could end up joining them there hanging from the beams.

~~~

Valtegan's scout the solar system

The scout ships the Valtegan's had sent out slowly crept up on the solar system. Much like the Terran scout ships they had dropped out of hyper some distance from the star and cruised in at a low speed. With the stealth, they could have achieve a much higher cruising speed if it was only the new enemy. Since they weren't sure what the scanning capability of the first enemy ship was so they kept it slow. There were three ships and they were all coming in from a different direction. One above the ecliptic, one below, and one on the ecliptic.

Orders had gone out from all three captains to lock down all active sensors. Just to ensure nothing would accidently go active the captains had used their command lock out. Unless they used that code the active sensors couldn't be energized. The same went for all the weapons as well. If anything happened which drew attention to them they might as well kill themselves. It would be far easier than being handed over to the priests.

The captain was looking at the projection of the system. It was incomplete and it was their job to fill in as much as possible. They were going to be taking three trips through the system. Each was going to be from different direction to get as much information as possible. As they were approaching point Igdra, he stood and looked at the sensor officer, "Prepare to launch drones. Ensure they are set to passive sensors only."

He walked over to the station and once he was satisfied with the settings he entered his code again. He could deactivate it remotely but that wasn't going to happen. When the ship hit the launch point he tapped the officer on the shoulder, "Launch drones." He went back to the projector and watched the four drones flash out and then vanish from the sensors. Now that they were up to speed their engines deactivated and the stealth activated. It would take them a week or so to cross the system. They would meet the drones on the other side.

He verified the path they were going to take and looked at the navigator, "Set course around the system to the arranged meeting point." Once the ship had altered course and he was satisfied he stood, "XO take charge. Set the watch and contact me anytime day or night." He left the bridge. Unlike many of the officers he didn't feel the need to threaten his crew to get the job done. Many he had been with for years and he was content with his job. Others might want to climb the ranks but it was too dangerous personally.

~~~

Valtegan scout 2

It was just over a week later when the three ships met up on the far side of the system. To help keep from being detected the three ships had docked with each other. The three captains were sitting on a coference room reviewing the data they had acquired, "The system is definitely populous and very active. There are a large number of in-system ships traveling all over the system. From above the ecliptic there wasn't much high energy signatures. It appears most of their population and manufacturing is along the eclectic."

The second captain tossed back a drink and a fresh ixitat. He crunched the small mammal down with enjoyment before taking another drink, "Same for me. The drones showed much what he said. Not much below the eclectic though there are indications of one or two hidden bases. Not positive about this since we didn't want to chance being detected. On the eclectic, we found much the same. Might have picked up a ship yard. Techs are checking the data."

The third captain had gone through the system. While they were talking, the projector was merging the data from the three ships. It would take longer to incorporate the data from the drones since there were a total of ten. Two hadn't made it to the rendezvous position. Without knowing why, they had to assume an equipment failure. If they had been picked up they were sure the system would have become far more active, "We found a number of remote installations, mining concerns, and probable military vessels. Most were small vessels, I would classify them as system patrol boats. There were some larger vessels as well. The information will be replicated to your ships systems. Tentatively there were parasite craft carriers, some heavy combatants, and a variety of lighter ships."

They discussed what they were seeing as the data continued to populate the projector. It took several hours before all the data had been processed. Once the data was showing they started making plans on how to enter the system again. Once they had their courses plotted they separated. Before they could go in again the drones needed to be checked and verified. They were large to contain all the sensors, the stealth, and engines. Due to this they could only carry so many.

It took a day to recertify the drones and the three vessels headed back into the system. Before they had headed back in one ship had launched a hyper drone to take the information back to the fleet.

~~~

Second Valtegan fleet dispatched

The Emperor's General wasn't exactly happy at the moment. A second fleet had been dispatched but had been ordered to start up independent operations. They weren't to contact the other fleet unless there was a critical emergency. As per the Emperor's orders a critical emergency was the fleet being discovered and needed support. How he wished the male would let the general's run the war. There wouldn't be any of this sneaking around. They could take that system even if they took heavy damage. The longer they left the others alone the better protected the system would be.