Novella Dragon's Nest

Dragon's Nest
Author	Strangelet

Marius could hardly keep the impatience from invading his body. His feet tapped, his fingers drummed. He knew that Commander Imir, Doctor Aram Faisal and Reus felt exactly the same way, and was vaguely annoyed at their apparent calm. Reus played Down-To-Fives with the deadhead weapons officer, the huge man picking thoughtfully at the pieces with his absurdly thick fingers while the officer - a Lieutenant named Harris, sat back chin in hands simply watching and waiting.

The Commander was discussing the latest pack-tactics with Faisal. From what little he could make out though the men's thick sidebar borderman accents, the crew of Imir's 24th Arm had noted numerous shortcomings in the fleet's latest additions, the new Chons class frigates. Never buy version 1.0 of anything, thought Marius dryly - although he knew as well as they that any new technology which had the potential to save Antarean lives was worth pursuing. Doubtless Faisal would be taking notes in that fine brain of his. Marius pitied the R'n'd team when Faisal got back to Parabellum. They would be working overtime for a month ironing out the umpteen tiny modifications which no doubt the Captain was at this very moment piecing together in his mind.

Faisal was a strange man. Full of quirks and tics, strange obsessions and faraway gazes. But he had designed some of the AISN's finest ships from the ground up, and with his hand-picked team and free run of the labs at Foyeri, the man could be as strange as he liked as long as he kept on coming up with the goods. The Vox Dei didn't like him. Said he was a risk, an idealist. But they always said that.

Even though Evocator Anaeus was at this moment attending the various dignitaries who had accompanied them on this auspicious occasion, Marius still felt somehow watched.

At the time of it's inception, this project would have looked impossible on paper. It was only with the navy's recent acquisitions of the bases at Lastford and the labs at Parabellum that it had even been conceivable. Therefore the project had grown in secret, away from the auditors and the nay-sayers in the senate. This had been Marius's own baby. His first command had been the first Dawnstar class cruiser (named Requiem class at the time), and she had been good to him. Although he always felt a little as if he had inherited rather than earned his command. The memories of Halifax still ran warm - looking up at the ragged scar where the bridge had been - knowing that no matter how much his fear tore at him to run and hide, He was next-in-command and the whole mess had just become his personal problem.

Well he'd survived that. Survived Lastford and Etienne and Lacroix and Parabellum too, along with a host of other battles which didn't have names, only memories of blood, smoke and neon death. The Dawnstar was the sole survivor of her class now following the loss of the Evenstar and the Northstar, but they had prevailed. No more did the senate whisper that a boy shouldn't be doing a man's job. Marius smiled grimly - perhaps that was more overly due to the persuasiveness of the Vox Dei.

"Marius," boomed Reus without looking up from his game "we broke sphere about ten minutes ago, you'd better go tell those clucking hens down in the hold what this little excursion is all about. They were incensed enough that the emperor would rather fly shotgun than converse pleasantly with them in the first place..." Marius chuckled and levered himself out of the copilot's couch. "You're the finest warrior in the imperium, and even you fear being bored to death by Patlas and Phoebe...".

Reus looked up at Marius and grinned his war-god grin - "they're not going to like your little secret, Marius..." Marius grinned back and hit the door toggle - "come on doctor Faisal, we don't want to keep our guests waiting..." The doctor rose to his feet "you can tell them better than I what she's made of."

In the hold, there was a hastily appointed lounge rigged together from starport furniture. The eminent persons in question were reclining on couches, smoking Tobian cigarillos and looking red-faced and self-important. Several other assorted high-and-mighties huddled in covenous groups about the room. Marius and Faisal stepped down the stairs, Marius's armour clanking on the metalwork.

"Ah, your majesty. I really don't see the need for all this - my esteemed colleagues and I are sure to be just as informed if you just hand disks to our respective assistants for later viewing." This was senator Phoebe, a tall tombstone of a woman with a tight core accent and tiny dark eyes set behind sturdy looking spectacles with greased-back silver hair atop her bright red face which tended to quiver when she was agitated.

"I really must protest at being dragged from my job to view some new military toy, my business on Antares is most pressing at the moment, and your reluctance to even inform us of the details of this trip-" ... He droned on. Marius had long ago decided that the redness of face of the politician was directly linked with how seriously one should take her. Right now, Senator Phoebe was borderline crimson. "...very serious matter if anything should occur while-" Marius cut her off.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. All shall be revealed shortly. Right now I have a few guilty secrets to admit to." That shut them up... "Unfortunately, for the last year the Antarean general treasury has not been taking orders from you at all. "The senator's eyes popped and they breathed in to protest but Marius continued. "Oh they've been sending you detailed receipts and reports for transactions and acquisitions that never took place. They've had to because I ordered them to. You see we're at war. I know it's hard to tell all the way back there on your cozy little core worlds, because the light from the battles won't reach there for another thousand years or so, and you can't hear through a vacuum." He had been calm and measured up to now, but talking about the millions of lost lives that were squarely on his shoulders always made him a little raw. And when the the emperor, the grand Marshall of the Antarean empire got a little raw, worlds could die.

He began to pace up and down in front of the men in order that they take a moment to focus their minds on what he had just said. When he resumed speaking there was a colder edge to his voice. "You've voted down every military project you possibly could, whilst using the war as an excuse to tell your citizens 'fuel prices are high, supplies are low, terrorist activity is tearing the universe apart because the emperor is provoking other nations'... You're taxing them at a level they haven't seen in decades. You're twisting the laws you introduce under the guise of national security to let your armed forces run amok, bullying and spying on your own people. You've been milking this war for all you're worth whilst never lifting a finger to aid the empire..."

He came to a standstill at the porthole with his back to the senators, looking out to space. "And whilst I was away there was very little I could do. We beat back the USN from one side of the district to another with a patchwork fleet of decades-old ships whilst their war machine is grinding out new marvels every week, and all the time I'm hearing reports from the senate of bickering, and squabbling and greed and cynicism".

He turned to face them "So i ordered the Vox Dei to interdict your finances. I didn't have the time to personally veto all the ridiculous legislature you've imposed so I used it myself. The people have been paying me, senators, not you. And we're here so I can show you what I've bought." The in-ship speakers hummed - "Approaching shipyard now your majesty..."

Marius signaled a guard at the other side of the room. The dumbstruck senators turned and watched as the shields covering a huge porthole slid back to reveal their destination. The window looked out of the front of the hold onto a vast glittering spiderweb of struts and supports that trailed of into infinity and curved round behind the blood-red horizon of Shakedown, fourth planet of the Lastford system. There weren't many artificial planetary rings, and Shakedown's was the biggest outside the USN. It was for this facility alone that he had ordered the capture of Lastford - a precarious move because of it's proximity to ULP core space.

Hanging there in the center of the web was a titanic ship which dwarfed even the assembled Sobek and Damocles squadrons, and made the pack of Chons frigates in the foreground look like minnows next to a shark. Its design was strange, almost animal-like, with huge fins protruding from its flanks and a long bulbous nose. It was obviously new, and all over it could be seen the myriad details of a shipyard, the sparks from welding lasers, the gantry lights and flitting loaders.

Marius gestured to Faisal, who stepped forward - "This man here is Doctor Aram Faisal of the navy research division. He has been working here for the past eight months on what you see before you, project codename - 'Dragon'. Doctor Faisal, please continue"

Initially cowed by the tension in the room, the doctor straightened his uniform and cleared his throat "project Dragon was to provide a high-impact single vessel solution for the AISN fleet forces, comparable to USN heavy dreadnoughts in firepower but with the maneuverability of a cruiser. The vessel has unique profiling of the hull to diffract long range scanning, as well as a host of advanced avionics and ECM able to jam an entire battlegroup, or render itself nearly invisible to detection."

Faisal pointed to the fins "we took the embryonic technology employed on our last heavy cruiser and upscaled it for use here, they're gravitic induction surfaces that enable the ship to steer with greater speed in space, particularly near gravity wells. We've had her on a thirty degree spin/dive over zero point four of a parsec in just under one minute... uh.."

Marius noted the blank looks of the senators... "She's fast and she spins on a dime, even a ship half her size can't outmaneuver her"... The doctor picked up again - "and the weapons systems are completely revolutionary. We have a stabilized fusion cannon, twelve heavy batteries and fifty IAP's delivering eighty eight point two thousand terajoules of energy. Torpedoes have a three sixty degree launch window and the new fire systems support individual debugging of jammed torpedoes." The senators began to look more impressed.

"She has a fighter specific bay on the ventral side, and two large hangars on port and starboard capable of supporting almost an entire frigate task force. In total she can carry eight thousand ground troops plus support vehicles with only 300 crew needed to operate her fully, skeleton crew minimum of 8.

"She has dual redundancy in power cores, each side is separated by 500 meters of hull and independently jettisonable. The power cores and engines themselves are utilizing new plasma-compression technology making them on average eighty-three percent more reliable and over a thousand per cent more powerful than anything we've currently got. In short sirs, she's the most lethal capital vessel we've ever incepted. There are bigger ships, but nothing that can perform or fight like this one."

Marius paced a little more as he let the senators take in what they were hearing "for the last year your expenditure has been redirected. A full tenth of it towards this project alone. When the other five are complete they will ensure our absolute superiority in large scale fleet combat. Until last week it was known only by it's project codename - now we have come to christen her in full"

It was Patlas who found his voice first - "this is preposterous! this must have cost a world's ransom! Marius what have you done?" at this Marius snapped. "I have done what is NECESSARY. You worms wouldn't know a war if I tied you to the front of a dropship. Do you know how many millions have died bringing freedom to Antares while you sat back at home and profiteered the whole deal? Imola!, there is your new network of spy cameras for the worlds of Ramul, Phoebe! There is your palatial new government building complex on Laguna!, Akbor! There is your food tax from Lellebah" he jabbed his finger at the monster ship berthed in the dockyard ahead as he became more agitated. "There lies your tax increases, your security expenditure, your education cuts, your transport tolls. This is the sweat of your own people."

He turned back to the porthole and gazed at the ship "and as it is now evident to me that Antares does not need you to direct her finances, you no longer shall. In fact the senate shall no longer decide any matters of state, instead they shall advise the throne. The decree will be issued formally in 24 hours"

There was a commotion at this, the senators erupted in protest. Eventually Phoebe's voice rose above the others "this is treason, Marius! you usurp the senate!". Marius turned viciously and grabbed the woman by her lapels, shouting into her face. "The only reason I LET the senate exist is because it served MY people. The moment you stopped doing that, I saw no need for it's continued existence. This is an EMPIRE now. MY empire. Do not forget it."

He dropped Phoebe who shrunk back into the group of now very quiet senators. "And my empire is in peril. Under the [[ULP}} they starve and they die, under you they do the same. I fight the ULP because it refuses to relinquish its hold on my people. You have seen how I fight." He looked at them hard "Would you have me fight you also?"

He took that as a 'no'.

"In your ways you are good men. You know how to lead, you know how to govern. What worries me is your lack of will in doing so when the matters in question are not regarding your own comfort. From now on you will report to the MVD in all matters of state. You will become part of the Imperium, not a thorn in it's side. Together we can crush the USN and the ULP and when that is done there will be a new order in Antares. Whether or not you are a part of that, I let you decide." He turned again to the ship and gestured at it. By now it loomed large in the window as the shuttle made for the tip of it's nose.

"We are here for a christening gentlemen. We have a tradition in the navy. Every ship has a ceremonial armour plate, always fitted last. This armour plate is special. When the plasteel is founded, the ashes of a dead crewman are mixed in with it. These are men who died young. Those who perhaps did not live to serve Antares as they had liked, but died bravely trying. We call this the soulshield or luckshield. Maybe you've heard of them. We believe the the soul of the young warrior will protect the ship from harm, given another chance to gain honor in battle."

"Now I know that after my words here, you will all do your best to support the empire and your emperor. And should you find it difficult to follow my commands..." He paused for effect... "After I have the Vox Dei peel the skin off your bodies, I may give you another chance to serve Antares sitting on the hull of one of our new ships here"

Later on that day, the assembled crowd of thousands of crew, staff and engineers in the vast hangar overlooking the dock cheered wildly as the tiny tug fitted the bright red plate to the nose of the titanic vessel amidst a stardust of brightly colored fireworks and drifting banners. Huge screens showed Marius standing at a podium in front of an assembly of very worried looking senators - "We the empire, christen this ship 'Morning Star', and bid it's guardian, flight lieutenant Dras Edgar Wells protect and watch over her until his duty is done."

Marius then stepped away from the podium and watched the fireworks.