Chapter 1
THS Regents Honor
Orbital Approach Terra
Terran System
29 June 2788The view below brought back memories of her childhood in the Sierra Nevada mountains of North America. The time was a pleasant memory and one she badly wished she could be real right this moment. Instead here she was, about to land on the birthplace of humanity to meet with a man who had either clearly lost his mind or had a plan to save the world from the inevitable destruction at the hands of the Great Houses.
“Ma’am, we are about to make orbit. Traffic control is denying the Honor’s request to land. Instead we have been cleared to send a shuttle down escorted if need be.” Commander David McClellan her personal DropShip Captain.
“Fine let’s get the shuttle warmed up and alert Lieutenant Smith that I need an escort to the prom.” Duchess Alexandra Ryan commanded as she left the observation deck.
Alexandra made her way through her ship to the small craft bays. Boarding the Mk VII landing craft with her escort of Marines. The Shuttle cleared the small craft bay thanks to the Electro-Magnetic Catapult and was quickly joined by two EGL-R6b Eagle aerospace fighters launched from the Honor’s aerospace fighter bays. Together the three craft descended into the atmosphere of Terra.
Sitting in the jump seat between the pilot and co-pilot Alexandra watched as eighteen aerospace fighters surrounded her shuttle and their escort and the radio crackled.
“Shuttle Regent 1, divert to beacon 271 Hilton Head Island. Be advised that your escort will return to your DropShip in orbit or they will be destroyed. You have 1 minute to comply.”
This came from one of the aerospace fighters surrounding her shuttle. Alexandra looked towards her pilot and then back to her escorting Marines. “Why did I accept that Man’s invitation.” She said to no one in particular. “Alright James tell Smith to head back to the Honor and change course for the beacon.”
“Yes Ma’am.” Lieutenant James Ericson her shuttle pilot responded. “Escort Lance 1 return to the Honor orders from the boss.”
“She does know what she is doing. Roger Regent One, Returning to base.” The voice of Lieutenant Smith replied.
Smiling to herself she looked back at the marines again in the hold. “Captain break out the armor I don’t think I’m going to like what Blake has planned for us.”
The Captain in charge of her marine contingent smiled a feral smile and replied. “Yes Ma’am, if he has any other ideas than to shake your hand and toast Stellar Peace then he will have a surprise coming to him.” He turned back to his Lord. “Alright Marines suit up. Possible Hot LZ.”
As the cargo hold became a flurry of action as the three squads of Marines jumped into action. Two squads suited up in Night Hawk Mk XXII Powered Armor while the third squad strapped on additional body armor over their dress uniforms. One Marine approached Alexandra and handed her a laser pistol which she could conceal within her formal attire.
“Thank you Marine.” She said with a smile after accepting it.
Jerome Blake stood in the viewing gallery of the Hilton Head landing pad. With him General Lauren Hayes and Conrad Toyama.
“Why are we waiting on this woman? Who is she Jerome?” Toyama stated. “Someone very important.” Was all the General Hayes had to say.
“Then why have I never heard of her?” Toyama seethed.
“Because it’s a secret of the Hegemony going back to the formation of the Star League.
Something so secret that if the other Houses had discovered it they would have withdrawn from the League.” Blake said placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder.
“We found out about Ryan’s people during the war. They approached Kerensky just before the coup. Told him that they were going to reveal themselves to the First Lord as was tradition upon Richards coronation but saw what Amaris had done and instead left after offering him a gift. After that they approached Kerensky through contacts within his own command group revealing their existence.” Hayes elaborated.
“Then who are they?” Toyama insisted.
“You will find out in a minute my friend.” Blake said with a smile. “We still do not know who they really are. Just that they command an army in hiding and have for a very long time.”
“Here they come.” Hayes said as the shuttle appeared in the distance as it began aero braking maneuvers bringing the shuttle into a more controllable speed.
As the shuttle came into a hover and set down on the landing pad the engines cycled down and began to cool. After a few minutes the ramp lowered, and an escort of uniformed Soldiers descended the ramp and took up honor guard positions on either side of the ramp. At the same time the gallery doors opened and out marched a platoon of infantrymen in SLDF battledress.
Once both parties were in position Blake, Toyama and Hayes all walked to the edge of the pad and awaited their guest. Alexandra descended the ramp flanked by a half dozen Marines in the traditional dress of the Terran Hegemony Marine Corps. This caused General Hayes to gasp.
“What is it?” Asked Blake.
“Those are Hegemony Marines.” Hayes lifted her communicator and spoke. “Overwatch do not, I say again do not engage unless they fire first. Do NOT fire unless they fire first. No matter what happens.” A ripple of confirmations from the over watching Jump Infantry and snipers satisfied her.
“What is going on?” Asked Toyama and Blake in unison.
“I don’t know. But we are about to find out.” Hayes replied.
Alexandra after a brief pause continued moving towards her hosts. As she approached she noticed that the group was nervous but chose to leave things as they were. She approached the group. She recognized Blake and Hayes from intelligence reports and the Asian man with them she saw a glint to his eye and he would have to bear watching.
“Minister Blake, General Hayes. It is good to finally meet you.” Alexandra said extending her hand and shaking both in turn. “I am afraid that I have not had the pleasure Mr.?” She asked turning towards Toyama.
“Conrad Toyama, Chief Administrator of the Dieron HPG.” Toyama said trying his best charm on Alexandra.
“Well you’re a long way from the home phone.” She said rebuffing his charms.
An increasingly enraged Toyama was about to lose his composure when Blake interjected. “Why don’t we step inside, so we can discuss what brings you to Terra.”
“Very well, lead on.” Alexandra followed the group inside.
With the group inside one of the conference rooms and guards at her flanks with a pair of Hayes’ guards on either side of the doors inside of the room. The group watched each other for several long moments.
Blake was the first to speak. “So, what brings you to Terra Ms. Ryan?”
“You invited me.” Alexandra said stunning everyone.
Conrad spoke next. “We invited you, how?”
“Emergency protocol 7. The Space Defense System sent out a coded message alerting
me to the fall of Terra. This makes the second time this alert has been received by my people. The first being the Amaris Coup.” Alexandra said.
Conrad and Jerome were both confused. General Hayes spoke first. “You were the source of those mysterious Divisions and Warship squadrons assigned to General Kerensky’s personal command.”
“Yes, my Father sent them to fight at the Generals side.” Alexandra confirmed.
“Who are you?” Jerome finally asked.
Alexandra looked around the table and noticed no one had a clue as to whom she really
was. With a shrug and her command voice used to lead her troops alongside those of the Commanding General. “I am Duchess Alexandra Elizabeth Ryan, Duchess of Nova California, Lord Governor of the Nova California Province, Commanding General of the Terran Hegemony Armed Forces and Regent of the Terran Hegemony.”
The looks she received shocked her and the two guards at the door exchanged glances.
Jerome sat back in his chair for a moment contemplating. “You are telling me there are other worlds of the Hegemony out there hidden?”
“Yes, as part of Ian Cameron’s insurance policy in case the League backfired, and he lost control of it. It was later expanded by Jonathan Cameron in his vision inspired expansion of the Star League Defense Force and the hidden worlds of the Terran Hegemony.” Alexandra explained.
“You are full of shit.” Conrad exclaimed. “Jerome do you really believe this story she is telling us?”
Jerome sat there for a long moment. “Yes. It makes so much sense now.” He turned to Conrad. “Conrad. Remember our meeting not so long ago about the shadow addresses in the HPG network that wouldn’t allow us to manually access them but would allow for a remote connection and routing from those addresses?”
“Yes, but those must have been SLDF protocols.” Conrad countered.
“No, they are not because we have all of the SLDF protocols passwords while they would function like this we could still block them. These are buried much deeper and would not allow us to lock those commands out of the system. They are hardwired into the system not software.” Jerome looked back towards Alexandra. “You can control the entire HPG network currently in place if you wanted to.”
“More than that Director.” She chimed in. “I have people working alongside yours rebuilding the destroyed stations to include this facility. We have already installed the equipment needed to override and channel message traffic as needed.”
“You can cut us out of the system.” Conrad said.
“I could, however I do not plan to do such a thing. Nor will I threaten to do so in the future. I will sign your Communications Protocols along with the other House Lords. I will sign the same document as them not a new one to be hidden.” Alexandra looked around the table. “My people do not have the power to hold the Hegemony and if we try we will simply lose everything not just the current Hegemony. We will lose our hidden worlds as well. We will use our back door into the HPG network for our needs only not to undermine you in any way.
“Should you step out of line and begin harming those you have sworn to be neutral to. We will make our presence known and set the record straight. Remember we are out there and will be watching.” Alexandra said. “My people will be watching, we are everywhere, and we are going to protect as many Hegemony citizens as we can. If that means working with you or against you that is just what it means.
Two days later Duchess Alexandra Ryan, Regent of the Terran Hegemony and Commanding General of the Terran Hegemony Armed Forces signed the Communications Protocols of 2787. Taking her copy, she boarded her shuttle and lifted for the Regents Honor holding station in orbit.
As Alexandra watched the blue atmosphere fade to black she knew she would never come home to Terra again. Her home was now on Nova California. While Blake was easy to deal with his friend Conrad Toyama was a problem. He creeped her out and would need to be watched. Thankfully she had Lauren in place as head of their Armed Forces to keep them in check. With the two Divisions “destroyed” in the Amazon “resisting” Blakes takeover of Terra Lauren had cemented her place within the new ComStar Organization.
As her Shuttle was secured in the small craft bay of her Lee-class DropShip THS Regents Honor it maneuvered and made the long burn towards the nadir jump point and the waiting Merchant-class JumpShip from the Intelligence Bureau to take her back to Nova California.
* * *
Court of the Star League
Unity City, North America
Terra, Terran System
Master Sergeant Carlos Fitzgerald held against the inner perimeter wall of Unity City. Not in a million years did he expect to be creeping through the rubble of Unity City in his Night Hawk Mk XXI armor trying to avoid Star League Defense Force Infantry patrols. His twelve man A Team was split into two teams moving on two separate objectives. His team was moving towards the city’s data core while Captain Reynolds team was moving on the Throne Room complex and the SLDF Royal Command center located on that floor.
As the infantrymen passed by his position and disappeared out of sight he stepped from the shadows and continued on.
“Fitz, the entrance is just around the corner.” His wingman stated as they approached the corner in question.
“Terry take Wil and get to the high ground. I need eyes on the objective and overwatch.” Fitzgerald ordered Terry Yamaguchi his weapons expert to take a spotter and get to the high ground with her suppressed sniper rifle.
“On it.” She reported as her and the armored suit following crashed through a door and made their way an overwatch position.
Holding position until his sniper was in position Fitzgerald looked around at his three other team mates located with him. It was their job to breach the data core and extract the information required. What a sad day we have today. Fitzgerald thought to himself.
It took about four minutes before his radio keyed up and Yamaguchi’s voice came over the net. “In position. Two guards. No patrols.” Was all Yamaguchi reported.
With a resigned sigh Fitzgerald spoke. “Take them.”
Around the corner at the non-descript section of wall stood two guards in Star League battle dress complete with full face helmet and charged laser packs for their Mauser 960 Pulse Rifles. As they stood there guarding a section of wall both guards had thought was the dumbest thing they had ever heard of. Eric one of the two guards of the 151ST Royal BattleMech Division turned to look up the street when he heard a cough and the sound of a sack of potato’s hitting the ground. Eric turned his head back to where Rachel was standing just as he saw her crumpled form on the ground he saw a flash of white and then nothing...
“Targets neutralized.” Yamaguchi reported after firing her second shot killing the last guard.
“We have fifteen minutes until they are scheduled to report in or a patrol comes
through let’s move.” Fitzgerald reported. With that his team broke from cover clearing the distance to the hidden access hatch in seconds.
Switching his view from night time image intensifier flipping through the different viewing mode looking for the entrance. Settling on thermal imaging he was able to see the heat escaping from the seams of the hatch leading down to the core. Pointing to an access panel he motioned his cyber expert over to it. “Connor, you’re up. Bust this lock.”
Sergeant Connor Sprague stepped up to the hidden panel and swiped his RFID transmitter over the hatch and watched as the hatch recessed into the wall sliding up. Pulling a digital probe from his suits arm and plugging it into the data port on the access panel he went to work running standard Royal Command overrides. When those were not successful he tried the Intelligence Commands overrides, again with no luck. He had one more GOLD level access code to use without having to run a bypass or brute force attack on the system and possibly alerting the defenders.
Connor accessed the secure data bank within his suit tied to the self-destruct. The code labeled S.C. GOLD. The system accepted the access codes of the long dead First Lord Simon Cameron. The panel turned from red to green and began blinking.
“Got it.” He reported as he removed his probe and watched as the panel resealed itself and the door slid downward into the ground.
“Move.” Fitzgerald ordered.
The four vanished into the void that opened up. Descending the stairs into the bunker Fitzgerald used his image intensifiers to guide his path into the bowels of Unity City. Four minutes later they arrived at the core. “Connor run the package.”
“On it.” Connor reported as he moved up to the terminal. Snaking his probe into the slot on the side of the monitor he accessed the data core and the operating system. “Installing the package.”
It took thirty seconds before the program was on the system. “It’s on the server and extracting.” He was checking the mirror display in his suits HUD. “Looking for a transmitter.” A couple of eye blinks and flicks of his fingers later.