The Analytic Commander
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Prologue+Chapter 1 Ten years ago, the CON (Coalition of Nations) was an active Empire, spanning 37 planets and a territory extending for several thousand light years in any direction. Free from dissent, free from poverty, free from all those factors that brought down a major empire. We were enduring. That was ten years ago. That was before I was conscripted into the DSN (Deep Space Navy) to combat an advanced alien race known as the Svark. That was before we lost two dozen planets to their inexorable advance. They were looking for only one thing: our destruction. They saw us as an inferior race that did more harm to the Galaxy than good. This forced us to enact strict protocols to protect our most vital knowledge from falling into enemy hands. They were looking for something, something that would seal our fate if they succeeded. Earth. Earth was our stronghold, the greatest symbol of strength and fortitude. If we lost Earth, chaos would erupt, riots would break out, and our doom would be assured. Due to this pivotal piece of information, no less than 17 protocols were enacted to ensure that Earth remained secret. But everyone knew this knowledge would not, could not, stay a secret forever. The Svark would still search for Earth, no matter the cost, and it would be impossible to keep them from reaching their goal. This is the story of our desperate struggle.
>>Opening File: Chapter 1<<
>12/25/2439 6:57 PM >Jasper System Jacob Sparson was sitting in the dining room of his parents’ house, exchanging small talk and sipping on wine. It was Christmas, and the whole family was home for the holidays. That is, any family that lived on the planet Jasper was home. No one else could logically make it, because the nearest inhabited planet was a nine day journey away, and that was at trans-light speed. None of that mattered right now, he was caught up in the festivities, and he refused to think about anything negative, lest his good cheer be ruined. He’d eventually need to come back to reality though, because he was only on temporary leave, and would need to return to base the very next day. Nonetheless, he chose to ignore this and instead focus upon the positive aspects of the present, which he had no trouble whatsoever doing. The fun lasted well into the night, and he at last tumbled into bed at 2 AM. Sleep was immediate and complete. The alarm blared in his ears at 9 AM, and, cursing, he got up and stumbled over to the bathroom, but only after hitting his clock viciously. Jacob then turned the showerhead on as hot as he could, and waited until the steam gathered at the ceiling. Then, turning the water down, he took a refreshing shower that left him ready to tackle the day. He chose a dress uniform, packing everything else into his duffel. Jacob then let his family take copious amounts of pictures, though he was eager to be gone, to end the pain of parting as soon as possible. When that time finally came, more than a few tears were shed, though none by Jacob himself. Climbing into his small rental car, he set it to automatically take him to the base. The first half hour of the ride was largely uneventful, though the car swerved to avoid a deer early on. Jacob just took in the sights quietly, not letting even music disturb his thoughts. This was what he enjoyed, being in his home area, and seeing what it had become. If only it could stay like this Jacob thought. No more fighting, no more navy, no more Svark, just peace and quiet in his rural home area. At that moment, while the car was venturing across an intersection, a shockwave ripped Jacob from his reverie, slamming him into the door panel, pinning his arm. The car spun several times, though the built in stabilizers kept it from rolling, and causing more damage to him than just a sore arm. His car came to a stop 100 feet from the intersection, in the grass. Jacob got out, a stream of curses rolling off of his tongue, and inspected the damage. By some rotten luck, the object that had collided with him had hit the small engine block, damaging it beyond repair. “Dammit! Now I’ll have to call a new car in, and be late reporting to base. My CO will have my ass.” At least I won’t have to pay for the damage, Jacob thought. Jacob looked over at the intersection, and found another car settled 75 feet away, its front hood horribly crumpled. It was settled on the ground however; its antigravity unit must have sustained a serious hit. He reached into his wrecked car, and grabbed out his Data Pad. Aside from a scratch on the back, it appeared to be unharmed. Sure enough, when he pressed the power button, the screen lit up, and it ran a swift diagnostic check. Finding nothing wrong, it presented Jacob with the home screen. He then filed a moderate crash report, which would automatically deploy a couple of police cars and an ambulance. The Data Pad would also send for two rental cars. Once Jacob confirmed that the report was filed, and authorities were on the way, he called his CO.
>>>Initiating Call Log >CDR Johnson: Yes Chief, what is it? >CPO Sparson: Sir, my car was involved in an accident, and I’ll be late reporting. >CDR Johnson: How the hell did you get in an accident? >CPO Sparson: I had the auto-drive activated, so I’m not exactly sure what happened sir. >CDR Johnson: So have you filed a report? >CPO Sparson: Yes sir. Authorities are on the way. >CDR Johnson: Good, so can I expect you here maybe fifteen minutes late? >CPO Sparson: Probably closer to an hour sir, my car was totaled. >CDR Johnson: Dammit. Very well Chief, but expect to give me fifty pushups once you get here. >CPO Sparson: Yes sir. >CDR Johnson: Then I’ll see you here, Johnson out. >>>Terminating Call Log
Jacob was glad he got that cleared up. He was rarely late for reporting, and when he was, it was always for a good reason, such as a car accident. Jacob rubbed his arm, the one that had hit the side in the impact. He’d have to get it looked at, to rule out more than a bruise. Several hours and many phone calls later, Jacob was allowed to go. As it turned out, the other driver was drunk, no doubt from the previous evening. The man was loaded into an ambulance, and rushed to the nearest hospital. Jacob sighed; this is why there are strict laws forbidding drunk driving. After calling his CO to inform him that he would in fact be a few hours late, much to the Commander’s displeasure, he once again started to drive to the base. Jacob kept his hands firmly on the wheel at all times now; he was sure as hell not risking another accident. The Commander would not forgive him a second time. The rest of the drive was utterly uneventful, and he arrived at base an hour and a half after the incident. The trees and brush slowly gave way to asphalt and concrete, and before long, the actual facility came into view. Jasper DSN Base was enormous, the largest on the planet. It was of such importance, there was even a spot set aside for kilometer long frigates to land, as well as for new ones to be launched. The airfield itself took up nine square kilometers, as was necessary for a large enough deployment of the jets needed to adequately defend the base in times of need. Even as Jacob watched, a pair of larger jets, affectionately known as “trikes”, due to their prominent three engine design, made a pass over the base, leaving the air to fill in the space they were at a moment before with a loud bang. Jacob then navigated the complex set of roads to the interior of the base, and underwent the numerous checks required to identify him. The process took nearly fifteen minutes, but he eventually got to the parking zone. Climbing out, he set the car to return itself to the rental company, and stood only for a moment as the car travelled out of the garage. After assuring himself that the car was heading where it needed to go, Jacob reported to Commander Johnson. Johnson was one of those officers you weren’t sure whether to like or to hate. On one side, he would assign arduous exercises for those under his command, but he made up for it by doing the exercises with them. Johnson was slightly tall, but not so much as to stand out in a crowd. His average weight and stature, along with a rather nasty scar stretching across his jaw and a certain determination in his eyes, gave him the look of someone who knew exactly what he was doing. Johnson looked at Jacob critically, no doubt looking for a flaw. At last he said, “Chief, how the hell did you get in an accident and manage to keep your uniform looking perfect?” “Sir, because I made sure to clean up before I got here.” “Are you sure there isn’t some coffee stain you’re hiding from me?” Jacob almost smiled, but suppressed it. “Sir, I don’t drink coffee, it’s far too bitter.” All throughout this talk, the Commander kept a perfectly straight face. “Okay then, drop and give me fifty!” Jacob sighed, then got down and did fifty pushups. Normally, fifty pushups was no big deal, but this exercise only exacerbated the pain in his left arm. He refused to complain however, it would not be good to have the Commander think of him as weakling who couldn’t withstand pain of any sort. So he finished without a single sound. His Commander loved to give him pushups, and would occasionally throw Jacob off by counting backwards, or saying the same number twice, but he never lost track. When he said fifty, he would make sure you did fifty, no more, no less. Jacob got up once he finished, his arms burning, and stood straight as a rod. Johnson left him that way for nearly ten minutes before he dismissed Jacob. He headed to the barracks, deposited his stuff in his locker, and socialized with his squad members. They discussed what they did over Christmas, how many people got completely drunk, and especially Jacob’s accident. After half an hour or so, they broke off into their close knit groups and talked about somewhat more personal matters. Jacob looked around, and found one of his good friends Peter. Peter, like Jacob, was of middling height, thin as a rail, and had an excitable personality. He and Jacob would regularly have lengthy conversations about topics most others had no interest in. Archery was one of their favorites, and so a conversation about that topic regularly extended several hours. Commander Johnson came in a little ways into their private discussions and gave the schedule for the next day. “If you were drunk over Christmas and are currently hung over, you had better hope you get over it by tomorrow morning. No exceptions will be made.” Johnson then left and checked in at the other barracks. The entire squad looked over at one bunk, were the passed out figure of Benjamin could be clearly seen. “Oh, I’d hate to be old Benny in the morning,” one of the squad members, William, said. “Just you wait, Johnson will be even harder on him than us!” another squad member shouted. That was Francis. Jacob could recognize his clipped voice anywhere. Yet another, Patrick, said, “At least he’ll get a good night’s sleep, I know I won’t.” “Then you’re screwed tomorrow, my friend” Francis said factually, and this elicited a chuckle from everyone, except for Benjamin, who only gave a particularly loud snort. Everyone looked over, and the William asked, “Should we prank him?” A new member, who had remained quiet throughout, piped up, saying, “You can, but we won’t. I don’t trust anyone when they’re hung over and angry.” Jacob thought his name was Dustin. This statement brought silence. William then slowly said, “Okay, so we don’t prank him.” A few seconds after that, the PA system came alive, announcing Lights Out was in five minutes. Everyone got in their cots; trying to find your way around the barracks in the dark was impossible. A few toilet flushes and lots of shuffling later, everyone was lying in their cots, waiting for Lights Out. When it came, darkness was complete and profound. Jacob calmed himself, and tried to fall asleep, hoping he would be prepared for the next day.
>>Closing File: Chapter 1<<
So there I was, back at base. We were expected to make the transition from civilian life back to military life, “Immediately, if not sooner,” as Johnson put it. Half of our squad had drunken more than one glass of wine (or beer, in a few cases) over the holidays. I thought Johnson was just kidding when he said tomorrow would be just like normal. I thought he would make the day partially easier, on account of those who came to base hardly sober enough to salute. That couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Chapter 2+Partial Chapter 3 >>Opening File: Chapter 2<< >12/27/2439 5:00 AM >Jasper DSN Base A burst of light burned its way into Jacob’s retinas, tearing him violently back to wakefulness, groaning. A commanding voice shouted, “Come on, get your asses out of bed! We have a long day today, so we’re getting started early!” Jacob was used to this, so he was up and out of bed in less than a minute. Several other squad members were not so quick off the mark, and some even had the temerity to place their pillows over their eyes in a feeble attempt to fall back asleep. Jacob went over to each of them, five in all, and yanked their pillows away. When he got to Patrick, the sleep deprived man asked, “Wuz goin on?” Jacob replied, “Get your lazy ass out of bed. Breakfast is in half an hour.” Tossing Patrick’s pillow a few feet away, he roused the others. While everyone sat on the side of their beds, rubbing their eyes, Jacob went and took a cold shower. The cold water flowed across Jacob’s skin, causing his nerves to send a thousand angry protests to his brain. Wrapping a towel around himself, Jacob walked over to his locker and got dressed. When he got done, he looked over at the bunks. Everyone was fully awake by now, and was either in the showers or in line for one. Jacob nodded to himself, and walked over to the command barracks. After requesting entry to speak with Commander Johnson, he walked over and asked what the schedule for the day would be. Johnson handed over the list, and Jacob read over it, trepidation forming in his stomach the longer he looked at it. They started out with a ten mile run, stopped to do push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and a decent amount of stretching. After that, there was the obstacle course, the “mud pit”, and numerous other exercises, so many, Jacob wasn’t sure if he could finish them all, much less the squad members. Jacob then asked, “Sir, don’t you think this is a bit much?” Johnson just grinned and replied, “The best way to get you adapted.” Jacob made no comment to the contrary, and took the list to his barracks, where the squad members were socializing, waiting for his return. They looked over expectantly, waiting to hear the schedule for the day. Jacob recited it, and most everyone had a negative comment to make. In fact, the only one who didn’t make a protest was Benjamin, because he was just staring blankly at the wall. Jacob sighed; Benjamin would not make it through the day. Patrick then asked, “I though you said breakfast was in half an hour?” Jacob replied, “Well it’s been moved until after stretching, so we’ll just have to deal with it.” He emphasized the we’ll slightly, to make it clear that he would have to wait as well, even though his stomach was noticeably empty. Commander Johnson then walked in, and ordered everyone to follow him for the morning run. As they jogged out of the corridors to the large grass courtyard, Jacob noticed it was still dark, though there were floodlights to illuminate the track before them. They jogged out to the track, and Johnson automatically picked up his pace, causing everyone else to hurry to follow suit. During their run, the sky slowly brightened, and soon was tinged with yellow and orange off to the east. They completed the run in decent time, and went over to the grass to perform all those stationary exercises. The grass was still slick with dew, which stuck to Jacob’s hands, combat boots, and the seat of his pants. Jacob’s arm burned like fire after push-ups and pull-ups, a warning that admonished his laziness. Besides that, Jacob performed superbly, and went on to stretching with the rest of the squad. This too was harder than usual, but everyone managed, even Benjamin. After this was over, it was time for breakfast in the mess hall. Jacob looked at the choices, and grinned with satisfaction. There were eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, bagels, cereal, fruit, and pretty much every other breakfast item you can care to name. Everyone left a little room in their stomachs, because they didn’t want to get to some arduous task, and end up regurgitating all of their hard earned breakfast. The day continued as such, and ended after a hearty dinner. Jacob and his squad, exhausted, started to walk back to the barracks. Jacob happened to look through one of the windows in the wall, and saw several suited men talking into headpieces, tapping on keyboards, and doing other important looking actions. He recognized what they were doing; they were trying to establish contact with the Svark, although Jacob personally thought such a thing was impossible. The odds we would recognize their language, or them ours, was pretty much zero. As Jacob watched, one man’s shoulders dropped. His communication vessel must have been destroyed. What they did was they took autonomous vehicles, placed long and short range communication equipment on it, and tried to contact the aliens via the ship. They couldn’t do it directly from Jasper, because the Svark would undoubtedly track the signal back to the planet, and over the course of a week, the planet would be destroyed by them. Jacob sighed, more DSN money going up into, well, not smoke, but rather ionized bits and plasma. He chuckled at the visual image that thought conjured, and caught up with his squad. When they got back to the barracks, everyone formed a line for the showers. Jacob, of course, got stuck towards the end, and it was about an hour before he got his turn. Being your squad member’s superior didn’t grant bathroom privileges. Jacob was talking with Peter when his Data Pad alerted him he had a message. Holding off Peter’s questions, Jacob opened the file, and groaned; Commander Johnson wanted to see him. Jacob bid his friend farewell, and left the barracks, heading over to the command barracks. After providing his ID and business, he was admitted and hurried over to Johnson. While he walked, he noticed all the other officers seemed to be more tense than usual, which boded ill. “Chief Petty Officer Sparson, reporting as ordered” Jacob said. “Chief, thanks for getting here so fast. We’ve got bad news. Really bad news.” Jacob tensed, “What is it sir?” Johnson hesitated, then, as if to get it over with immediately, said, “The Svark may have discovered Jasper.” Fear, cold hard fear, sank into Jacob. “How?” was all he could manage. “One of our communication vessels was hijacked by the Svark. We normally have security software to either prevent this, or shut down all in and outbound signals if the threat is imminent, but we had a systems failure that rendered that feature useless. It could have been spontaneous, or triggered by a new type of Svark virus, but they managed to trace the signal back here. “A little bit of good news however. Our technicians on duty managed to shut down the signal before the Svark got exact coordinates, or so we hope. But we have to take every precaution, just in case the Svark did in fact find us. I need you to head back to the barracks, and prepare the squad to leave. Do not tell them the truth; tell them it’s for an assignment. We are going to be boarding the frigate Forgiveness. Everyone on the ship, except the officers and second in commands will be left untold of this incident. We’ll be briefed on board. So go, get them ready to go in five minutes.” “Yes sir” Jacob said, and left, jogging back to his squad’s barracks. Entering, he announced that they had been assigned onto the frigate Forgiveness. The entire squad cheered, they hated being down on solid ground when they could be up in space. Even as he spoke, a bass rumble could be heard, and the sound waves caused their very bones to reverberate. Benjamin, still slightly unsteady, asked, “What the hell is that?” Jacob smiled, “That is our ride.” as one final shock wave rippled through the entire base, signaling the landing of the Forgiveness.
>>Closing File: Chapter 2<<
I was scared, scared as hell, if truth be told. The thought of facing those alien bastards up front was both exciting and nerve wracking. In the next week, I would either be perfectly safe, or perfectly dead. I hoped that I would not end up heading back to some planet in a casket. That was not my plan, at least.
>>>Opening File: Chapter 3<<< >>12/27/2439 6:43 PM >>Jasper DSN Base
The corridors were packed. Everyone was apparently ordered onto the Forgiveness at the same time, a telltale sign of the urgency of the situation. Jacob imagined that a similar experience was happening with civilians. They would actually be more informed than the troops were. He thought that was somewhat backwards, which it was, but it was something he didn’t have to deal with. He was informed of many pieces of information, for which he was rather pleased. But he was expected to keep it to himself, which made the privilege seem a lot less appealing. Jacob glanced at the other soldiers in the corridor. Many were excited. Some were curious. Even fewer were somber, even sorrowful, and Jacob noticed they were almost exclusively officers. The ones informed of Jasper’s imminent fate. They were going to fight tooth and nail, but there wasn’t anything they could do about the Svark. It was just a pretense. It was just for morale. Everyone knew the war was being the lost, but no one was willing to admit it. Commander Johnson led a winding path through the throng, heading towards the spacedock. They would find an empty dropship, and fly it to the Forgiveness. That was the fastest way onto the frigate. Of course, they might get there too late, and be forced to take a land route, which would take far longer. That, and it was bumpy. Despite that, they made it with time to spare. They were assigned a dropship for the squad, and soon they were flying the kilometer or so to their destination. The land slid by underneath Jacob, and he began to wonder if he would ever see this place again. Jacob shook the thought from his mind. Of course he’d be back, how couldn’t he? He was born here after all. They then passed through the hanger bay doors into the belly of the frigate. They were immediately assailed by sounds of repairs, machinery, ion engines, and other such noise. The onboard AI then took over, and guided them through the tight maze of structural lattices, pipes, and ships, before finally finding an open dock towards the rear. The craft hovered for a moment before the magnetic clamps took hold of the ship. It wasn’t going anywhere. The squad disembarked, and assembled into an orderly group before setting off for the barracks. The flat paneling and diffused lighting was nowhere to be found onboard. Here, it was all external piping and high capacity lighting. The smell of lubricant was also prevalent, which gave the Forgiveness an appropriately mechanical feel. It was not meant to look good. It was meant to function, and function it did. The squad eventually made its way to the barracks, a large room subdivided into sections for individual squads, with enough bunks in each section to harbor the groups. An opening in the far side of every section led to the communal bathrooms, one of the few places on the frigate that didn’t have leaking pipes everywhere. On one side, a faint outline betrayed the presence of a rather large screen, used only for displaying broadcasts from the bridge. The Captain generally preferred to use the Com system, but important briefings would be shown on the screen.
More will come.
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