Star People

Chapter 20

Delusions of Grandeur

Jan 8^th, 13 AE…

A hidden factory in Euracon…

“Father, did you hear the news?” Vulkar asked as his father worked over a new prototype Mech engine, meant to power the larger Metal Soldiers.

“Yes, I heard.” Clurke replied. “It seems that there is a new nation out there that wishes to challenge the rest of the world. I believe they are called Zedan.”

“They don’t stand a chance against Free Land.”

“Of that, I am quite certain. However, this new conflict plays into the hands of Garres and Vexor. Free Land will be occupied battling with Zedan, giving those fools a chance to build up their power.”

“We don’t have to build the Mechs for them!”

“And do you wish to endanger the lives of your family and friends? In addition to your mother, your sister and our two friends, I learned that Garres had kidnapped several hundred of our fellow dwarves and equipped them with Obedience Collars. Just as we are.” Clurke tapped the thin band of metal around his neck. Vulkar also had one on his neck. “He intends to force them to help mass-produce his Metal Soldiers, once we have finished with this new Mech engine.”

Vulkar threw down his wrench in frustration. “It’s not fair! They’re forcing us to use all of our hard work and knowledge to build weapons that they’ll probably use against us!”

“Yes, I agree. I heard Garres during one of his delusional rants. Once he gets his army of Metal Soldiers, he’ll use them to conquer Euracon and Naran. And then he plans to retake the Merdov continent…”

“YOU THERE!”

Both looked up to see a Dreanat agent standing on an overhead walkway, holding a staff. The top of the staff glowed with a bright light, causing the Obedience Collars to glow as well. Both dwarves felt an intense wave of pain wash across their bodies, causing them to momentarily convulse in agony. The agent then turned off the power and gave them a moment to recover.

“Inactivity is not permitted! Garres and Vexor expect that new Mech engine to be finished soon! The next time I catch you not working, I’ll punish your family and friends! Understood?”

Both dwarves nodded as they recovered and started working on the engine again.

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The Empire of Zedan…

“I will not tolerate any more reports of these ‘primitives’ actually beating back our scouts!” Emperor Zendara growled. “

“Of course not, Grand Leader.” His Prime Minister nodded as he turned to Zedan’s greatest general and military mind, General Erstal Rommet. “General, the time for these probing attacks is done. You will lead our forces in the conquest of the Merdov and Bisra continents without delay!”

“Begging your pardon, Grand Leader.” General Rommet replied with caution. “We are still concerned over reports that a small fleet of our ships were defeated by a single ship from Free Land…”

“I will not tolerate any excuses!” Zendara roared back. “If they had been defeated then those officers were simply incompetent and their force was too small! I have already sent my ultimatum to this ‘Free Land’ place and they will be subjugated with the rest of these barbarians! You will carry out my orders and begin the invasions! Is that understood, General?”

Knowing that if he refused would mean his immediate execution, General Rommet could only nod.

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Jan 10^th, 13 AE…

The Council of Prime Directors…

“So we’ve been contacted by the Grand Leader of Zedan?” Ben asked.

“Indeed.” The Catian Director confirmed. “We had officially received a message from the Grand Leader of the Zadan, Emperor Vargil Zendara.”

“And what did he have to say?” As if I couldn’t guess. Anida thought.

“Oh it was the usual spiel that you’d expect from a petty tyrant.” Nerto replied. He then began reciting the message in a mocking tone. “To the people of Free Land. You have incited the wrath of the mighty Empire of Zedan. We hereby declare war upon you and will burn your civilization to ash with our mighty fleets and armies! If you are smart, you will immediately surrender!” The Velor then spoke in his normal tone. “Seriously, are all these warmongering races not aware of the basics of knowing one’s enemy?”

“If I had to guess, they’re like the Sath were previously. They’re too arrogant and too used to winning. Not to mention they didn’t take a large enough sample of this world’s technology levels” Viska suggested. “Wherever they came from, they probably were the highest power in their world and have the Victory Disease.”

“Victory Disease?” Naraak asked.

“I’ve heard of that.” Ben said. “It’s the attitude in which one believes one cannot be defeated. Back in the early years of World War 2, Imperial Japan had that attitude. Same thing goes for the Nazis.”

“So in other words, we have to put another bunch of mud-whompers in their place.”

“Well these ‘mud-whompers’ have a bit more teeth than the Sath did.” The Terran Director pointed out.

“Yeah, well we also gave some ‘teeth’ to the other nations and they’ve managed to bite back.”

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Jan 9^th, 13 AE

Flashback to a distant patrol of Atlans fighters…

“WAHOO!”

“Lieutenant Varns! Get back into formation!”

“Sorry, Captain! I just can’t get over the range on these Mustangs! We’ve never been able to fly out this far!”

“I know you’re impressed by our new fighter’s performance, but this is supposed to be a recon mission. Now get back into formation!”

The hot-blooded pilot nodded as he made his Mustang slide back into position as the number three man of a four-man flight. Their assignment was to search the area near their base for any sign of the new enemy, the Zedan.

Harocan Airbase was the most remote military airfield of the Kingdom of Atlans. It consisted of a small island with a runway and not much else. In a way, it was like the Iwo Jima airfield of World War 2. It was seen as an extremely vital outpost as planes launched from Harocan can either extend their range toward the Merdov continent, or use it to reach Bisra. One could understand its tactical importance.

After hearing about the raids on the Merdov continent and the Zedan Empire declaring war on the surrounding nations, the Kingdom of Atlans were put on full alert and assumed a wartime status. All factories and manufacturing plants immediately geared up for weapon production. And thanks to the enhancements they had received from Free Land, the Kingdom of Atlans was expected to put up a decent fight against Zedan.

Like the Sath, the Atlans people were new to the level of World War 2 technology. However, unlike the Sath, they quickly caught on and had begun mass-producing the technology on a larger scale. And it wasn’t just for wartime material. The improved engine designs of both the Warhawk and Mustang were being implemented into civilian aircraft. Internal combustion engines for tanks were also being used for heavy machinery, construction and transport. Advancements in radio and radar let to a huge jump in communication and surveillance. And in naval technology, new shipbuilding techniques and methods led to greater progress in both military and civilian applications.

As the flight of four Mustangs was reaching the limits of their extended ranges, one of the pilots alerted the others to distant specks that had just appeared over the horizon. Since there was no one else supposed to be out there, they assumed that it must be an enemy scouting group. Each Mustang pilot took their weapons off-safety and sped out to meet the newcomers.

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In his own fighter, the Zedan flight leader took notice of the approaching aircraft and signaled to his squadron to prepare to engage. They had taken off from a Zedan carrier and had been on a recon mission. They had been told that the best the enemy could offer in terms of air forces were antiquated biplanes and giant flying beasts. They were quite surprised to see aircraft similar in shape and performance as their highly-advanced Rakerat fighters. The Zedan squadron of 6 fighters quickly climbed to gain altitude and dive on their opponents. However, much to their disappointment, the Mustangs also climbed quickly to counter them.

The engine of the Atlans’ Mustang was a replica of the famed Rolls-Royce/Packard Merlin of World War 2. As a result, it had plenty of horsepower to spare at high altitudes and could easily keep up with its Zedan counterpart. Due to the additional armor of the Rakerat to protect the pilot from flak and small caliber rounds, the Zedan fighters were a little slower and less agile.

Captain Shindra Cors put his Mustang into a barrel roll and soon got onto the tail of an enemy fighter. He squeezed the trigger on his control stick for a half-second, throwing out forty rounds of 12.5 mm, armor-piercing, incendiary ammunition. The bullets lit up the tail of Rakerat, shredding the rudder and tail planes. A few rounds also hit the wing root on the starboard side, causing the whole plane to explode. Apparently, that was where some fuel tanks were located.

As the wreckage and pilot plummeted to the sea below, trailing a thick plume of oily smoke, Shindra mentally notched his first kill in the Mustang. As he looked over to his left side, he saw one of his wingmen being attacked by two Zedan fighters. It was that cocky Lieutenant Varns. He pushed his stick to the side, causing the Mustang to roll over and dive toward them.

Both Zedan fighters let loose with 20 mm cannon shells, taking pieces out of the Varns’ plane. One shell exploded near the engine cowling, scattering shrapnel into the plane and cockpit. Varns screamed as a piece of shrapnel shot through the canopy and into his left shoulder. As the Mustang began trailing smoke, the Zedan fighters closed in to finish him off.

At that moment, the lead Zedan pilot, incidentally the fight leader was suddenly hit by a barrage of 50-caliber ammunition from above. The entire cockpit was shot to pieces, causing the fighter to drop to the water in its death dive. His wingman broke off as Shindra flew in to check on the wounded Mustang.

“Lieutenant Varns! Are you all right?”

“Ugh… yeah… I think so.” The previously cocky pilot replied.

After losing their squadron leader and running low on fuel, the remaining Zedan fighters broke off and retreated back over the horizon. In that one engagement, the four Mustangs had faced an enemy of six fighters and destroyed two.

Shindra’s squadron then turned back to base, as Varns coaxed his damaged Mustang and body over the ocean.

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 Jan 10^th, 13 AE…

The present…

“Oh, I almost forgot to mention. We’ve had a very urgent message from King Verso of Merin.” Anida said.

“The king of the dwarves? What was the message about?” Nasaak asked. He had a soft spot for the dwarves due to their spunk and hard-headedness. He also appreciated their creativity and penchant for hard work.

“Over the past few weeks, several hundred of his citizens had mysteriously vanished. Chief among them was his top engineer Clurke and his son Vulkar. What was even more disturbing was the fact that all of Clurke’s notes, his blueprints, materials and his prototype Mech, the Gigaran, also turned up missing.”

“The prototype and its creator are both gone at the same time? That’s way too suspicious to be a coincidence.” Nerto speculated. “I’m thinking that the theft of Commander Vandelin’s Star Gladiator and the disappearance of the dwarven Mech engineer may be connected.”

“That connection also crossed my mind too.” Viska agreed.

“This is extremely bad timing.” Ben pointed out. “Since we will be occupied with Zedan, whoever stole that Battle Mech and kidnapped that dwarven engineer, will have quite a bit of time to study the wreckage and perhaps create his own version.”

“Though I doubt that they will be able to create a Battle-Mech equal to ours, I am concerned that even a shoddy imitation can be quite dangerous in the wrong hands.” The Catian commented. “I heard that the dwarven Mech prototype was almost ready for practical use and mass-production.”

“If they came up with a Mech that is certified as functional and is available for practical use, then the dwarves are far more capable than we believed.” The Velor Director commented. “Perhaps we should reconsider their application for Star Alliance membership?”

“All in good time, Nerto. However we have more pressing concerns to deal with first.” The Terran Director said. “The Zedan Empire has declared war on us and we must deal with them as soon as possible. And there’s another thing that we’ve discovered recently.”

“What is it?” The Nemonian Director asked.

“With the new psion-filters in place, we’ve been able to observe and scan the Zedan continent, despite the distortion fields. We’ve mapped and scanned all major cities and military installations in the Zedon Empire. And we’ve picked up a considerable amount of deuterium in one of their research facilities.”

“Deuterium? Isn’t that an isotope of hydrogen?” Nerto inquired.

“It is. It’s also an essential part of the formula D₂O, or deuterium oxide. Its common name is heavy water.”

“And that is needed for atomic research.”

The realization began to sink in for all the Prime Directors. It was almost 100% verified that the Zedan Empire had the capability to make an atomic weapon. The stakes were now higher. They weren’t worried about handling an atomic bomb. However, the same could not be said for the other nations. A single irradiated area could spell disaster for the ecosystem of any country or territory. Not to mention the fear of atomic or nuclear technology falling into the hands of those who were not developed enough to responsibly handle it. The former residents of Earth had narrowly avoided annihilating themselves in their history with fission reactions. This was before discovering alternative means of energy, such as cold fusion, liquid hydrogen, and meson/anti-meson thermoelectric batteries and reactors.

With this in mind, the Council had decided to begin plans to invade the Zedan continent as they had done with the Sath in the Merdov continent. The main goal was to neutralize the Zedan’s capability for war and shut down any and all possible atomic weapons and projects. The issues with the stolen Battle-Mech and the missing dwarven engineer would have to wait until after they had dealt with the Zedan war machine.

However, just as they were about to decide on whom to elect to lead the invasion, another urgent alarm rang out as the main holo-viewer began displaying an ominous image.

It seemed that the Zedan were done with raiding and skirmishing and were now sending most of their forces to conquer the Merdov and Bisra continents in a two-front assault. A large force was being sent out to invade Bisra while an even larger armada was being sent toward Merdov. It was like the Sath attempt to invade the Alder continent but on a much larger scale.  In total, the holo-viewer counted up to 2,500 ships in all.

In order to aid their ally Atlans, the Kingdom of Naran had already sent out a large fleet of destroyers, cruisers and battleships, along with two aircraft carriers. Although their technology was about equal or greater to Atlans, Free Land still didn’t have much confidence that they could defeat the force of 975 ships. Furthermore, since they were on the other side of the world, they would have to either circumnavigate the globe to meet with the enemy, or take the route through the ocean between Merdov and Alder and catch the enemy fleet from behind. Both routes were the same amount of distance and it was far easier for them to take to former. They would arrive about one day before the Zedan would be sighted.

The Merdov situation was even worse. Around one thousand, five hundred and twenty-five ships were heading toward the eastern coast of the continent. The Star Alliance knew that the inhabitants definitely didn’t have the ability to defend against an invading force of that magnitude, even with their enhancements. And they certainly couldn’t let Zedan get a toehold on the continent. So they would have to destroy the invasion fleet before they could make their landings.

“We just retired General Kurdo for the second time. Do we have to pull him back into the fight again?” Anida said with a tired sigh.

“Luckily for us, he never accepted that second retirement order.” Nerto said with a grin. “He’s still listed on active duty. In fact, he’s currently with the other generals, admirals and heads of staff. They’re planning for the counterattacks and invasion of Zedan as we speak. They have already unanimously elected him as Supreme Commander.”

“Well that certainly cuts out the middle man.” Benjamin mused. “Send word that we approve of this action and that they are free to use whatever means, short of an orbital bombardment, necessary to end the Zedan threat.”

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The War Conference Room of Andromeda Base…

General Kurdo stood before a gathering of high-ranking officers. Behind him was a holo-projection view of the entire world and the enemy movements as they were displayed in real time.

“My colleagues and friends, it seems that we are again at war against a foe who does not know whom he is dealing with. The Empire of Zedan had fired upon one of our ships and declared war upon us. In addition to that, they have ruthlessly attacked our allies and declared war on them as well. Their ultimate goal is the complete subjugation of this world. We of course, will not allow that to occur. Therefore, it is with the consent of the Council that we act to defend Free Land and to aid our allies. We will end the Zedan menace!”

“So what do you propose our first action would be?” Admiral Kajor asked.

Kurdo indicated on the map with a light pointer. “Since the biggest threat comes from the invasion of Merdov, then that is where we will focus our attention first. In addition to the 12 carriers and hundreds of destroyers, cruisers, pocket battleships and battleships, we have also learned that the enemy has sent a super-dreadnaught or super-battleship to act as their flagship. From our intelligence groups, we have learned that the ship is named the Kilgari and will be led by their best military commander.”

 “And what about the second front against the Bisra continent? Are we to leave the Kingdoms of Atlans and Naran to fend for themselves?” Admiral Tarhesse asked.

“Certainly not.” Kurdo assured. “However, since there is a much smaller enemy force heading towards Bisra, we will be sending in a sufficient number of our ships to deal with the threat.”

“And once we have dealt with both armadas?” Admiral Silana inquired.

“Then we shall commit ourselves to the invasion of the Zedan continent. However, we must take care. There is a near-100% certainty that the enemy has developed atomic weaponry. Therefore they are a far greater threat than the Sath, and almost as great a threat as the Planet Ravager.”

This revelation caused a lot of concern among the admirals and generals. In a conventional war, there was bound to be collateral damage and death, but atomic/nuclear weapons did so, on a massive scale. Not to mention there were the after-effects of fallout and environmental damage that took decades if not centuries to repair. The Terrans were only subjected to this once, during the end of World War 2, where two Japanese cities were hit by a uranium bomb and a plutonium bomb. All other events were due to nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. After the development of alternative energy sources, nuclear fission reactors and weapons were a thing of the past.

The other races also had their histories with the splitting of an atom, and had avoided total destruction as well. Now they would have to deal with a race that had just reached that deadly stage in its development. A race that was bent on conquest.

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Jan 12^th, 13 AE…

New Pearl Harbor…

“Captain and Commander on the bridge!” Harken announced as Mark and Reelan entered.

“As you were.” Mark said as he and his wife took their seats.

“Ensign Gatsbu, prepare to depart from New Pearl Harbor.” Reelan said.

“Aye Commander.” The Velor helmsman responded as he started up the Missouri’s engines.

Mark turned to his communications officer. “Lieutenant, signal to all ships of Battle Group A of the Missouri’s departure to Rendezvous Point Zeta. Our ETA should be 2 hours.”

Visera nodded. “Aye Captain.”

The Missouri was chosen to be part of the battle force that would intercept and destroy the Zedan invasion fleet that was heading toward the Merdov continent. Once again, Kurdo was commanding from the bridge of the Iowa, along with his friend Admiral Kajor. Admiral Tarhesse and the Yorktown would provide air cover, while her sister Admiral Silana and the Lexington would head towards Bisra.

A total of 300 ships departed to intercept the Merdov invasion fleet while 100 began making their way toward the Bisra continent.

On the bridge of the Iowa, General Kurdo and Admiral Kajor nodded as they received word that the Missouri was underway. Though the supernova-class battleship Iowa was more than a match for any of Zedan’s ‘super-battleships,’ the Free Land generals and admirals all agreed that sending the Missouri against the Kilgari would be good propaganda. It would only be fitting that the Missouri face off against another ship of the same era, though the technology gap between them was enormous. Technically speaking, there was no need for the ships to face off, due to the Missouri’s and all the other Star Alliance ships’ long-range weapons. However, both the military and the Council wanted to show the Zedan Empire the futility of challenging Free Land.

Both invading armadas would be intercepted before they could get within range of Merdov and Bisra to use their guns and aircraft. However, the Free Land forces would be within visual range of the weapons of Zedan. Let the Zedan military use its fighters, bombers, torpedoes and naval guns against them. It will soon be obvious that all of that will be useless.

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Two hours later…

“Captain, we have arrived at Point Zeta.” Ensign Gatsbu announced.

“Set us down into the water and hold this position, Ensign.” Mark said.

“Aye Sir! Starting descent!”

The Velor helmsman gradually made the hovering star battleship lower itself into the ocean. Once it settled down into the water, it resembled a World War 2 battleship that was maintaining its position. A few minutes later, more Free Land Ships appeared in the skies above them, and they too began lowering themselves into the water. Eventually, all three hundred ships took their positions surrounding the Missouri. In the very rear of the formation, the Iowa set itself down.

The fleet of 300 Star Alliance ships awaited for the arrival of the Zedan invaders.

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Meanwhile in Euracon…

“Father? What is that?”

Clurke nodded as he held up a burned-out and damaged circuit board from Jerry Vandelin’s wrecked Star Gladiator.  The elder dwarf had salvaged the component from the cockpit of the Battle-Mech. Although he knew that he and his son were breaking the promise they had made to Free Land to not dismantle any Battle-Mech machinery, they had no choice as they were being forced to doing so. Furthermore, they couldn’t help but be curious.

“Look at this.” He indicated with his index finger at the tiny, metallic, lines on the board. They were actually extremely efficient circuit relays and data linkages.

“Are those… rune engravings?” Vulkar asked. “I thought Free Land didn’t use any magic, except for those blue-skinned elven women… er, I mean Kyteeri.”

“This isn’t magic.” Vulkar’s father corrected. “You and I would be able to sense it. No, what we have here is some kind of… I don’t know what to name it but… I think this is some kind of connector.”

“Connector to what?”

“I do believe, it’s like the vacuum tubes that we have now, but far more compressed and efficient.”

“Like our vacuum tubes?” Vulkar looked over to their worktable where they had created a few vacuum tubes. Those were huge and quite bulky, each the size of a baseball. He made several double-takes between the tubes and the circuit board. “That doesn’t make sense. How could that small board, do the same kind of work as our vacuum tubes?”

“Remember that vacuum tubes are considered old technology as far as Free Land is concerned. What I have in my hand is an example of Free Land’s replacement of the vacuum tube. Look here. This line goes from this part to this part.” He indicated a certain area of the board where a control module was linked with a sensor-array, nanochip housing. “We know that our vacuum tubes direct the power of lightning or electricity, either to turn something on or off. They call that a switch. Our vacuum tubes are also used as amplifiers.  However, we also know that our tubes are bulky, generate too much heat and can only handle a certain amount of work at any one time.”

“Right.” Vulkar agreed. “That’s the reason why we can’t put much into our Gigaran controls and a lot of it still requires manual work.”

“Yes, but you’ve been inside the Scrapper cockpit, right? A lot of those controls are automated so you don’t have to monitor everything.”

“Yeah, and we never could figure out how Free Land did that. It would make controlling the Gigaran much easier.”

“I think this strange-looking tablet may be the key. Look at all these lines. Some of them connect to the same areas, while others don’t. What if, each line represents a different action? Say for example, this line means to lift the right foot, while this line says turn the right foot? For us, we’d have to build two separate controls to do those two actions.”

“Are you telling me that Free Land came up with a way to put in thousands, no hundreds of thousands of functions into that one tiny board?”

“It would make sense and it would be one heck of a space-saver. No wonder Free Land’s machines are so sleek and advanced.”

“But I still don’t see anything to direct the lighting… I mean the electric current to power it. This thing definitely doesn’t use vacuum tubes, so what exactly is directing the current?”

“I’m not certain, but I think if we figure that part out, then dwarven technology will take a huge leap forward.” The engineer took another look at the circuit board, and noticed tiny, black rectangles on it, each no bigger than a speck of dust. What he didn’t know was that he was staring at the solution to the vacuum tube problem.

Little did Clurke and his son realize that they were a hair’s breadth away from figuring out one of the most important technological devices of the 20^th century, the transistor. By the last quarter of the 22^nd century, Terran science had been able to create the hyper-quantum transistor bank, which not only operated on electricity, but also other forms of energy and was immune to EMP blasts. Each black speck that Clurke had seen was actually a bundle of over 100 quintillion transistors. And they were the key to Star Alliance technology.

To be continued…