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  "That it will, Commander that it will. I will notify my people to begin final preparations for the move. At least if we forget something, it will not be difficult to retrieve!" Juno replied. "We will see you in a few hours."

  "We'll keep in touch, Doctor. Poseidon out."

  Chapter 5

  Ruling Council Chambers

  New Caldaria

  Prime Stalk Facility

  Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy

  The old being chastised himself. 'The humans have a saying - be careful what you wish for - that certainly applied to this situation. Since the Talosians at Earth had been leaving the supply base alone, it had been able to delay the discussion of what to do about Earth.

  It knew that discussion would be forced out today. His spies in the other clans had reported that concern of their last remaining source of food was by far the most significant singular issue troubling the clans. A decision would have to be made once and for all. It knew that this decision would be the deciding factor for the survival of his race. But the issue was not as simple as many of the Praetors believed.

  It knew most of the Praetors on the council preferred invasion and openly taking control of the human world once and for all. They believed that the remaining Great Ships would be more than sufficient protection against the Alliance should they discover and object to the Caldarian dominance of Earth.

  The old being knew better. It remembered the war. It had been there when Caldaria fell. It knew that openly taking the human world would solve a lot of their problems, but doing so would destroy them when the Alliance arrived to free the planet. It understood the one thing the other Praetors did not; the Alliance strongly objected to any race being dominated by another. They would respond to the invasion of Earth, and they would do so in force.

  There was also the existence of the force that had destroyed Dren. In all the reports received from the great ship, none of them had ever been able to identify the forces that had destroyed them. There had been reports of Talosian fighters in the system, as well as the one troubling report that three Talosian heavy cruisers had been sited shortly before all contact with the Great Ship had been lost.

  Three Talosian cruisers should not have been enough to destroy one of the Great Ships. Defeat it, possibly. Dren had little combat experience, so the possibility existed that they had been defeated, but the reports from the base on Earth tell of the destruction of the Great Ship and that had included a visual report of its destruction.

  If the report of the Talosian ships was real and not the panicked report of a scared underling, then some of the Talosians had survived the hunt and destruction of Talos. So, if that were true, had they made technological advance in the last thousand cycles? Very possible, if enough of them had survived the hunt. No report on the final success of that hunt had been received before the Alliance arrived at Caldaria.

  Perhaps the humans of Earth had been the ones to create the mysterious weapons that had destroyed the Great Ship? No, that was less likely than the existence of Talosian survivors. They simply needed more information! It would have to prove to the other Praetors of the need for further observation before any plan to invade could be considered.

  While it had been musing the issue, the other leaders had been arriving and the feeding was about to begin. It stood. "Welcome my brothers! Let the feeding begin!"

  As it lowered itself back down to its stool, a server placed its evening hydrocarbons before it and retreated quickly. It opened the container and quickly began ingesting the contents. It wanted to finish the meal quickly so it would have the first opportunity to speak and head off the demand the others would make for the invasion of Earth.

  It had just finished the container and was about to stand when it felt something was very wrong. Its legs refused to work! Annoyed, it tried to turn to summon a server but the turn only dislodged it from its stool. It fell, but lost its awareness on the way. When its large bulk finally hit the floor, it was dead.

  Next to where the old being had been sitting, another, younger being stood. "Now, that we have that artifact taken care of, we may begin our planning. You!" it pointed to one of the now very frightened servers. "Get that mess cleaned up." It waved toward the remains of its former leader. "My brothers, I have reviewed our production and output quotas for the last cycle. It is clear to me that we have reached the end of the usefulness of this system. I propose we load our ships for battle, load the freighters with the remaining supplies, ore and slaves, and move into the human system. We have plenty of food there, as well as much more ore to build more ships and a planet full of slaves to do the work. We all feel this to be our best course of action, am I correct?"

  "Calisa, it is not our best course of action, it is our only course of action!" another being replied from across the room as it stood to move to the center of the room. "However, we do need to choose a new leader for this assembly, you are far too young to assume such a roll."

  The servers quickly cleared the center of the large room. Assassinations like had just occurred was not uncommon among lower castes, but it was very rare at this level. A new leader simply assumed the roll and if anyone didn't like it, they fought. The battles would take place in the center of the room and no weapons were allowed. Any participants that surrendered simply retook their seats. The last one to sit was the new leader.

  Staff Briefing Room

  Admiral's Office (Temp.)

  Pleiades One Orbital Shipyard

  High Orbit, Planet Atlas

  Centauri System, Sol Sector

  "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the planet Hyperion located in the Aurigae star system, Durnam Sector. Before it fell to Imperial forces fifteen years ago, it was a Talosian agricultural colony." Ian paused while he looked over the holographic image. "We are going to retake it."

  From the assembled group of officers he heard Chloe Brighton reply. "Excuse me, Sir, your accent must have thrown me there for a minute. I thought I heard you say we were going to retake this planet from the Empire?"

  Ian nodded and grinned. "You heard me correctly, Chloe. In two weeks, Star Dancer will be departing for the Aurigae system for the purpose of retaking the system from the Empire. There are a few reasons we are going to do this. First, this is the closest Imperial incursion to our space. It's not that much further away than Beta Hydri is and that makes me nervous from a security stand point.

  "Secondly, retaking the world would go a long way in helping to quell the civil unrest currently developing at New Talos. I'll grant that retaking a more industrial or more heavily populated one would be better, but this one is the closest to us. It is also not very heavily guarded, since it isn't considered a priority target by either side. Like I said, it is a farming colony.

  "Thirdly, we have received an official request from the Benesian High Priestess, Matriarch T'gan M'orel, to investigate the possibility of recovering missing Benesian ambassadors that were on the planet when it fell. She has only asked us to find her missing people, but after reviewing the Intel on the place, I decided we are going to reclaim it.

  "Hyclarion is defended mostly by ground forces, but includes two light cruisers, a medium cruiser, and eight squadrons of fighters. The difficult part of this operation will be the ground troops. The Empire has a division of infantry on planet, but spread out to provide local security and to control the population. These troops are not front-line and have poorly maintained equipment. However, we have very few ground troops at all, even though ours are much better equipped, it'll still be a hard fight simply because there are so many of them."

  "Not really, Sir," Major Reise replied. "You said yourself that they were spread out; divided into smaller units. It shouldn't be too difficult to deal with them as long as we can keep them from rebuilding into one unit. If we could borrow another battalion or two from the Talosian ships, we could easily handle them. But my question is, once we take the world, how are we going to keep it? We don't have any ships we can leave there for defense, do we?"
>
  Ian shook his head. "No we don't but that will not be our responsibility, not fully anyway. As soon as we clear the system of ships, a defense network aggregator will be turned loose in the system. It will be up to Admiral Goya and the Talosian Defense Forces to man the system as well as assign ships for system defense."

  "Who'll protect this system while we're out doing this, Sir?" another officer asked.

  "Captain Serena will have overall command, and the Prometheus, Pegasus, and the Zephyr will also remain here for sector defense. In addition to that, I have been informed that several ARC ships will be remaining here indefinitely to bolster our defense. Folks, we can do this, and I feel we can do it pretty damn quickly, too.

  "Star Dancer will stop a quarter light year outside the outer planet's orbit. We'll launch both our Raptor teams and four Condor-AS variants before proceeding in system on a slow, low-emission hyperbolic course.

  "Our Raptors will head straight in. Damocles will set down near the continental capitol of Stardoc, while Hephaestus picks a spot near the planetary Capitol of Greywind on the southern continent. Their mission will be recon, evaluate and disrupt. They are also to determine if there is a resistance movement, and if so, try to make contact with them. Once the attack begins they will be free to raise all the hell they want for the enemy commanders on planet.

  The Condors will hunt down and destroy the two light cruisers and try to soften up the medium before we arrive. When Star Dancer gets close enough, we'll splash the medium if the Condors haven't. At that time, we'll drop our Marines, and the fight will be on. We'll launch fighters for air support and enemy air suppression. At that point, I will call the Imperial Governor and demand his immediate surrender. Now, we all know that no plan lasts beyond first contact with the enemy, so it'll be adjusted as we go, but that's the gist of it. Questions?" Ian finished.

  "How will we locate the Benesians the Matriarch would like us to find?" Someone asked.

  "I would hope that once the fighting is over, they would simply come forward to tell us they are there. If not, I suppose we can simply start searching for them. Scanners are good for stuff like that," Ian said playfully.

  "Do you have an over-all timeline for the operation, Admiral?" Chloe asked.

  "I'll send you the planning file Chloe, but the operations time-line is four days, give or take a day. I tried to remain flexible until we get a handle on those infantry folks," Ian replied. "We all know how unpredictable Marines can be!"

  "You got that right, Sir!" Major Reise said, laughing.

  Ju'nio Ha'ena Beach

  Hawaii

  Mid-Pacific Ocean

  Planet Earth

  Sol System, Sol Sector

  Coming in low from the east, over the ocean, Alan led the small fleet of three shuttles with his Raptor. They were very low because of their proximity to Hilo International Airport, they tried to stay out of the airspace a commercial flight might be using. They came in quietly, very early in the tropical morning, before the sun had risen, in order to land and get the ships under cover as quickly as possible without being seen.

  Alan knew that the drones had built a large, underground hanger as part of the construction, but really hadn't paid attention to how big it really was. As the small ships crossed over the small abandoned resort, Alan saw lights on the ground form two circles indicating where the craft were to land.

  Andreya, who was acting as the flight controller, ordered the Raptor and one of the shuttles to hover while the remaining two shuttles landed in the circles. Alan watched in amazement as the shuttles were lowered into the hanger, then moved to the side, and the elevator returned to the surface; far quicker than he thought they would be able to.

  After all four craft were inside the hanger, and the 'doors' were once again closed and hidden, Alan and his team got out of the shuttle to meet Doctor Juno and his band of researchers. Alan was surprised, as there seemed to be a lot of them.

  Andreya found something to stand on so she could speak to the crowd. "Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to Hawaii. The base computer system is not an AI, but it is smart enough to be able to assist you with most questions. Mathias is also available via comms for the time being. All of you have been assigned quarters here and can be guided to them by the computer. For the time being, however, I would recommend you assist the drones in unloading your ships so they can take the equipment to the appropriate place. Current local time is zero-two-forty, so for now, please limit your surface activity. Your team leaders should have been briefed on the rest of this on the flight down, so let's get busy folks," she finished and stepped down. She joined Alan who was standing with a shocked looking Doctor Juno. The older, shorter scientist was looking around him in awe.

  "This is amazing, Commander! I had no idea the drones could work so fast! Now I am curious to see what was done with the buildings on the surface!" Juno replied.

  "I am told that they even built an aqua dome out in the ocean for use by other researchers. That is in addition to your own special facilities, Doctor," Andreya said. "The designers tried to follow what they felt was your desire and made sure this place was able to handle as broad a spectrum of oceanic research as would be possible after our team departs. There is plenty of room for further expansion as well. I would be happy to give you a tour."

  "This is truly amazing, Officer Andreya," Juno replied. "Over-whelming actually."

  "If you will excuse me, Doctor, I need to get my new team into their quarters and ready for morning training," Alan grinned. "Sensei does not appreciate students that are late for his classes."

  Beside him Michi smiled. "Considering the timing of our arrival, Alan, Today's class can be delayed I think. We will need to adjust to the time zone we now find ourselves in. I believe a short evaluation class would be in order. Perhaps around noon. If possible, I would like to accompany Doctor Juno and Andreya on that tour."

  Alan bowed to his teacher. "As you wish Sensei." He turned to the six new people. "Let’s help get the gear unloaded, then we'll find our quarters."

  As Alan excused himself to begin helping the other scientists and researchers, Andreya took Michi and Doctor Juno on the promised tour of the facility.

  After getting the gear unloaded, there had been time for a shower and a short nap before meeting Sensei outside for their first lesson. When he arrived, he was pleased to see that, while he was still ten minutes early, he was also the last to arrive. Michi had been using the time to chat with the new team members and get to know them a little better. Alan also noticed that little Mulan was there as well, dressed in a black shozoku. Even though she was not carrying any obvious weapons, she very much looked like a small ninja or 'shinobi' as it was called in Japanese. Since she was dressed in this outfit, Alan noted that she did not speak at all; she simply sat at the edge of the training area and waited.

  He bowed as he stepped passed her, and she returned the bow silently. Shinobi did not speak when their face was covered. He nodded a greeting to his team, and bowed to Michi in greeting.

  Michi returned the bow and finished his conversation with one of the team members. He walked to the front of the seated group and bowed to them. "Good morning, as you all know I am Michi Nokisuno. I will be your instructor for advanced hand to hand combat disciplines. Before we begin, I must mention that what we will be teaching you has not been proven against non-humans, but instead prove to be effective against most of these opponents.

  "As with all things, you will need to be evaluated so I may better understand what knowledge you already have. This will give me a better idea where to begin. I feel I must stress that this knowledge can be lethal if misused. However, as warriors, lethality is what you are here to learn.

  "I do have certain rules that must be followed. Whenever we meet, you will bow to me. In my culture, this is a show of respect for the ancient knowledge I carry and as an acknowledgment of me as your instructor or sensei. Before you enter the training area, you will bow to show respect to your opponent a
nd to show respect to the art I am to teach you. While we are in the training environment, you must always show respect for each other, the art, and finally me as your instructor," Michi finished.

  "As I have said, before we can really begin, I must evaluate each of you. I will evaluate Alan first. He will fight my assistant. While the information will mean little to you, she has reached a ranking of Master Shinobi. As we progress you will come to understand what that is. While they duel, Alan will be evaluated first on his offensive abilities against her. Then they will switch rolls and Alan will attempt to defend himself against her. Each of you will be evaluated in this manner." He turned to Alan and nodded. "Alan, if you will please begin." He gestured to the area behind him, and the small seated girl.

  Alan stood, bowed to Michi and walked into the training area. Before crossing the boundary, he bowed toward Mulan. She stood and returned his bow.

  Alan quickly learned how good Mulan really was. Although Sensei had said she had reached a Master ranking, he found no matter what he tried, he could do nothing to the little black clad figure. At a signal from Sensei, Alan suddenly found himself on the ground looking up at the ceiling and wondering just how he had gotten there.

  The rest of his evaluation was much the same, nor did it deviate for the rest of the team. None of them could do anything against the small ninja. When Sensei finally called a halt, and the last victim limped out of the training area, Sensei bowed to Mulan who returned the bow and resumed her original position.

  He turned back to the assembled team. "Thank you. I now have a much better understanding of where to begin with all of you. We will begin tomorrow morning at oh-six hundred right here. I would suggest not eating breakfast before you arrive." He bowed to the team in dismissal. Alan returned the bow, and the rest of the team followed his lead.

  As Michi stepped aside, Alan stood and spoke to the team. "As I'm sure all of you are aware of, this is not the only training we will be doing down here. You may return to your quarters to freshen up, but be in briefing room four-alpha in thirty minutes for the overall mission briefing. Our first class on our special equipment will be immediately after in the same briefing room. Dismissed."