VICTORY AND SURRENDER
Somewhere in the universe insignificant dots fought each other over things unimportant to the cosmos--or so it seemed. The dots composed two rival flocks. The first was of the Humans--you may have heard of them. The other the Zell: hideous little monsters that seemed to love violence even when the violence was perpetrated against themselves. Their obsession made them comical little fellows--well 'comical' to one who could overlook all the mass murder. The Humans couldn't overlook mass murder and therefore: War!
The ships of the unwelcome Zell devils were made of organic materials--as a matter of fact a Zell spaceship WAS a type of Zell that had grown into a ship. The outer hull was of hardened black carapace which had an uneven and random bumpiness to it and from any opening or crevice a sickly green glow emanated. The Zell themselves could survive in space and often walked on the surface of their ships.
On the surface of one large Zell ship a runty Zell named Slatch sat attentive to the distant fireworks of battle. Slatch looked to his side as his friend Greebz approached.
Greebz: "Me thougtz we giving supplies, Why the humans come play with us?"
Slatch: "Igumz say humans give us nice 'ambush'"
Greebz: "Thanks Humans!"
The two Zell watched as the battle continued to unfold. Slatch was correct: the nature of this minor skirmish was that of the humans attacking a Zell supply run. Most space battles of this era started with phalanx formations and shield wall contradictions, however, the Zell lines never got a chance to form on this day and the humans were already ripping up the disarray.
Some pensiveness grew in Greebz body...
Greebz: "Me am bored! Why-fore they not come get us!? "
Slatch: "Am too. Me want kill some humans then get blowed up--not sit and watch other Zell have fun!"
The surface of the Zell ship gave a great rumble.
Greebz: "Huh?"
Rubbling and crashing sounds increased.
Slatch: "What those guys doing in there?"
The Surface started to swell.
Greebz: "Is they having more fun in there than we is on here?"
Suddenly cracks started to form over the superstructure.
Slatch: "Wowie!"
Cracks ripped all over the surface. The light emanating from the cracks turned from Zell green to the red of fire.
Slatch & Greebz: "YAAAAAAAY!"
The ship burst beneath their feet sending both Zell sailing into space.
Slatch & Greebz: "We love you!"
From the exit wound burst The Red Destiny. A sleek and state-of-the-art attack craft. She boosted away leaving only her signature orange contrail growing from the ruined Zell spacecraft.
The Red Destiny had just executed her signature move: a shearing attack. By temporarily property shifting her density to a million times that of a diamond and activating her razon offensive shields The Red Destiny could slice through anything unprotected by energized armor.
The Red Destiny banked and boosted towards the center of the fray.
Inside her cockpit another drama unfolded:
“It is over. You are done.”, A hologram of Supreme Commander Mudd asserted with finality.
At least a dozen other politicians, lesser officers and bureaucrats surrounded Mudd forming a holographic chorus of baddies. All concurred with Mudd. All with fight or flight mechanisms strung to near breaking.
The Red Destiny shook as she evaded enemy fire.
Alexander Holmes--the captain of The Red Destiny and leader of the Ronin Fleet--Gave no tell that he was in the heat of a minor battle; he held a stoic demeanor as he sized up his flickering haters. He slumped forward slightly as if his body had finally accepted a some unwanted reality.
“Surrender now, and we will treat you and those you have recklessly lead to hell with fairness and dignity.” A politician added – presumably an important one.
A sudden light show decorated Alexander's face as the battle outside The Red Destiny continued. The cockpit settled down to darkness again.
The stakes of this meeting were high as the Human race was presently engaged in two wars.
The first war was between the Humans and Zell.
The second war was waged between two factions within the human race. So far the conflict had been purely political in nature teetered at times on the verge of violence. The root cause: Circumstances had produced two completely independent fleets that battled the Zell. There was the Alliance Fleet which was under Supreme Commander Garreth Mudd who in turn answered to the politicians empowered by the democratic structures of three large human populations. And the other was the Ronin Fleet whose loyalties fell to Alexander Holmes.
The cause of the multi-fleet situation requires some explanation:
Before the Zell the local galactic neighborhood was sparsely populated with Human colonies and settlements. The overwhelming bulk of humans were clustered among seven mega populations – each containing many billions of inhabitants and each an independent sovereignty with a fleet of ships for defense. Four populations were traditional planets and three more were giant space Arks–human constructed spheres that housed billions of tenants.
The initial Zell blitzkrieg eight years prior took the human race completely by surprise. The Minor Colonies and Settlements were immediately wiped out. The planetary civilizations fell within the first two years of the war. In space combat stationary assets are exceptionally challenging to protect.
The Arks had survived by virtue of their mobility. In the three years before the battle of Ilus the location of the Arks was unknown to the Zell. But that had just changed. On the other side of the Rift of Ilus a Zell fleet waited. An uncountable number of Zell reinforcements approached from many directions. In two days the entire human race would be completely surrounded. Battle projections – which normally varied between outcomes of victory or defeat – seemed to be in rare agreement that the human race was doomed and only differed in predicting how long the defeat would take (with ranges between several hours to several minutes.)
The Alliance fleet was vast. It was composed of the fleets from the intact governments of the remaining three Arks. In the middle portion of the war the Alliance fleet had barely held its own against the Zell. After experiencing significant losses in a battle three years ago the Alliance fleet adopted a purely defensive posture choosing to protect the Arks forsaking attack.
By contrast The Ronin fleet was small – about one tenth the size of the Alliance fleet. Unlike the Alliance, Ronins were not the lapdogs of any government. The Ronins had formed in the absence of political influence. The fleet had grown over the years by annexing military remnants once bound to the now gone planetary sovereignties and included dislodged warships, scientists, engineers, space factories and all the resources to facilitate a respected war machine.
Alexander was the leader of the Ronins… actually he WAS the Ronin fleet. The Fleet existed because of his brashness, his charisma, his magnetic leaderships, his vision, his ambition and his uncanny ability to produce victories from seemingly impossible scenarios. He spread hope to the disenfranchised elements that had lost their homeworlds speech by speech, stirring them to a greater cause… making them part of the effort that would not only save the human race but actually defeat the Zell.
The central difference in doctrine that set the two fleets apart: The Alliance meant to merely survive the Zell while the Ronins meant to completely destroy them. Most believed fleet unification was prerequisite to achieving either goal therefore the dire situation of the Zell’s encroachment created great urgency for unification.
Back to The Red Destiny:
"Gravimectron at 90%. Standing by", reported Peter Dartanian the Ronins Chief Tactical Engineer. There is a lot to say about what a Tactical Engineer does but for now in short they are the wizards of the battlefield always applying science and engineering to outwit the enemy. Clearly Pete, in collusion with Alexander, had some trick up his sleave... something they would unleash on the unwitting Zell to finalize the skirmish.
Alexander acknowledged the updated and returned to his depressing meeting. In a resigned fashion he delivered the climactic proclamation: "I will come to you in ‘The Red Destiny’ for the surrender eight hours from now," The offer was irresistible to Mudd and his counterparts would soon be taking custody of the very symbol of the Ronin fleet.
“AND you will make a speech. A unifying speech announcing that your fleet will be peacefully folded into the Alliance under Commander Mudd.” A Second possibly also important politician inserted.
To them Surrender wasn’t enough… for everything Alexander had put them through the only remedy was public humiliation.
Alexander shut his eyes, tilted his head slightly backwards and--CRASH!--the meeting feed was temporarily cut off as The Red Destiny tore through another ship.
"Fae, No more sheering attacks during my meeting please."
A young girl sat in the pilot's seat of The Red Destiny. She appeared to be no older than nine years old and her face held a glassy expression like her mind was deep within, and yet she piloted to expert precision.
"Just lure them to the gravimectron, Fae, it's almost ready..."
"Fae*Dra lures zell.", Fae responded robotically.
The static abated. The meeting was back on. Alexander shut his eyes, tilted his head slightly backwards and inhaled as if he accepted poison into his body and said “I will make a speech.”
The holograms seemed satisfied, and they faded away like ghosts that had fulfilled their earthly purpose and now had only to be whisked away to the afterlife.
Alexander’s posture shed all signs of duress.
"Fae Kills that man", Fae offered.
"You can kill another human!" Pete scolded.
Fae looked cross.
Alexander placated: "It's all right, Pete. And Fae you're not going to need to kill anyone except the Zell. All of them."
Fae seemed to refocus on her task after Alexander gave her such a challenging murder quota.
"Gravimectron ready.", Pete reported.
"Excellent... Fae's got them in a tight spot now! Ha!", Alexander flicked a comm switch on his console and commanded: "Execute!"
The Red Destiny and companion ships released a smoke screen of nanoparticles named The Shimmer which occluded the Zell's vision but not the sensors of the Ronins. Then All Ronins including The Red Destiny disengaged the Zell and boosted towards the gravimectron at a slight off angle. In an exactly timed maneuver Pete engaged the Gravimectron slingshoting all Ronin ships away with great velocity, but the Zell were confused and not momentarily aligned to slingshot the gravimectron and therefore fell deeper into the gravity well. Pete triggered the gravimectron's detonation and the tiny Zell supply run was no more.