Terran Resistance

Alex Chou's Log for: 1/14/2352 20:41

I had Cortez meet me in our strategy room. From the front of the room I turned on the holo display. I showed a 3D still image of the tactical layout of the system. Vinak ships included.

Cortez was on the opposite side of the display just watching. He had a big smile plastered across his face. "So what's the plan?", he asked.

"huh?"

"The plan. To get out of the system."

"That's Kind of the reason I asked you here." I picked up a holo pen.

"Great! What is it?"

I took a deep breath. I've never briefed a superior officer about anything other than repair or maintenance schedules. "Here's the situation. There are over 52 Vinak ships guarding the system. 36 are wasting their fuel by patrolling the system. 3 at the entrance of both warp points and, according to your pilots, 5 more each on the exit side of the warp points. Therefore, any attempt to blast through would be impossible. We would be able to make a run past the 3, but we couldn't possibly hope to escape the ships on the other side."

"What about luring them away?"

I pretended I didn't hear him. "Another thought is to build up so much speed and momentum that by the time they see us coming they won't be able to stop us. However, the way they are deployed we would surely hit one of them no matter what angle we came in." The point was illustrated by some lines I drew on the holo display.

"What about luring them away?"

"There is no way we could create a large enough distraction that the Vinak would invest 52 battle cruisers to take care of."

Cortez let out a sigh. "So what's the plan?"

"Well, since there are no pro-active options. Such as a running or battling through a warp point. Nor is there a way to lure away enough ships. Therefore, as you can see-".

Cortez let out a groan and started rubbing his eyes. "Just tell me the plan." I think he was getting either annoyed or bored.

"My plan is to just sit tight."

"What? Damn it Chou", he started waving his finger at me. "I gave you 3 fucking days and that's all you've got? " He began yelling. "The rules of guerrilla warfare are clear. We have to keep moving."

"None of the rules matter if we're dead", I said. "Just wait until some of them are gone."

Cortez raised his voice even louder. "What good will that do?"

"Less Vinak ships, gives us more options."

"You don't know if they'll leave."

"Think about it. It's a dead system that isn't part of any major travel routes. Why would the Vinak waste so many resources on one dumb ship? If we just hold for a week."

Cortez pulled back and narrowed his eyes. He began scratching his chin.

He reminded me of my mother. Growing up I would argue with her about everything. I was usually right and she knew it. After she could no longer deny my logic she'd pretend to think long and hard and then concede everything in exchange for one insignificant condition. It was a childish way for her to try and save face. I remember when I was 13 and I argued for a curfew as late as my friends. After a screaming match she told me, "Fine", she conceded, "but I don't want you sleeping in the next day." It was insignificant because I never slept in back then. Anyways, I was guessing that Cortez was as immature as my mom, so I just let him sit and think.

He kept moving his head from side to side and finally said, "Fine. We'll stay put" he conceded, "but I want daily reports on the number of ships" - an insignificant condition.

System Command: End Log.

Alex Chou's Log for: 1/14/2352 11:32

The fighter reports came back. They both reported that 3 Vinak cruisers were guarding the other side of each warp point. That is a lot of cruisers to try and blast through.

I've decided to try and convince Cortez to change his orders to leave the system. If he's still in as subdued mood as he was last night, this should be easy.

I went to his quarters only to find a handwritten note on his door.

"At 1100 hours all Marines are too report to the exercise room for drill."

I rolled my eyes. I then made my way to the exercise room.

I got to the room and beheld a sight to be seen. All the marines were running around the room in sync. I could tell by the noise that the gravity on their boots had been turned up. They were all running in sync with each other. He had half the guys running up the port side wall, across the ceiling, down the starboard side wall, across the floor and then repeating the circle. Meanwhile, the other half were running perpendicular to the other half: up the aft side wall, across the ceiling, down the bow side wall, across the floor, and then repeating their circle.

All of the exercise equipment had been moved to the center where Cortez was yelling at them. "Stay in Sync. You will hit a fellow marine if you don't. If you slow down, the marines behind you will and then they will hit a fellow marine. If you're tired, too bad. A battle doesn't stop because you're tired. Just like in a battle, a fighter wing is only as good as it's weakest pilot." Just then his weakest pilot must have gotten tired. A group of them had collided into a mass of humanity.

"Stop!" Cortez yelled. He then walked over to one of the 2 marines who originally collided. "What are you?"

"I'm Markos-"

Cortez cut him off, "I didn't ask for your name, marine. I asked what you are."

"I'm a marine", he shouted while gasping for breath.

"No, You are the sorriest excuse for a marine I have ever seen. Gawd Damnit we've only been in zero-g for a few days and you're already weak!", he was only a centimeter from the poor guy's face. "You have to always be ready." He then looked at the rest of the people in the room. "This was going to be a 30 minute drill, but thanks to your weakest member here it's now a 40 minute drill. Line up!" They all scrambled into position. "Now Begin again! 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4". After verbally setting the pace, he stopped counting, but it looked like he was muttering to himself. I couldn't hear what he was saying over the stomping, but he didn't look happy.

I left shortly afterward. I decided it wasn't the best time to have a rational discussion with him.

System Command: End Log.

Alex Chou's Log for: 1/13/2352 20:05

I think Cortez is bipolar and off his meds or something. I went to Cortez's quarters this morning. I knocked and the door opened a moment later. I walked in and found Cortez floating in midair, reading his PID. "I want to use 2 of your fighters for scouting", I blurted out.

"Of course", he said without looking up.

"I want them to sneak through each warp point to see if there's any Vinak ships on the other side."

Still staring at his PID he asked, "I already said yes. What else do you need?"

"Waiting for the scout reports may take some time.", I said. I paused before continuing. "I won't be able to meet your 48 hour requirement." I stared at his face looking for his reaction.

"That's fine. I'll inform Lieutenant Taylor to prepare 2 of the fighters."

"Thank you", I said. I stood there for a few seconds. Considering our last... disagreement, I was hesitant to ask anything remotely antagonistic.

"Is there something else, Lieutenant?"

"Why do you want us out of the system so quickly?"

Cortez looked up from his PID for the first time. "Do you know anything about guerrilla warfare, Lieutenant?"

At University I took any history class that dealt with people resisting an occupation. In ROTC I must have taken every class that involved non-traditional tactics. In fact, I probably know more non-traditional tactics than traditional. However, I wanted to know how much he knew first. So I lied.

"Not much", I said trying not give away my white lie.

"You should learn. Do you realize that you and I are now solely responsible for organizing resistance against the Vinak?"

"I hadn't thought about that", I said. I hadn't thought about it because I'm not planning on sticking around that long. As soon as I can get off this ship without being shot by the Vinak or hung by my crew or Cortez's marines, I'm outta here.

"I've been reading up on everything from the H.A.F. field manual to history books about past occupations. One rule of guerrilla warfare is to always keep moving."

"Another rule is, 'don't get killed'", I replied.

"I thought you said you didn't know anything about guerrilla warfare?", he said. He didn't give me a chance to reply before continuing. "No guts no glory" he told me. Which isn't a strategy as much as a marine slogan.

I told him that I "understood". In reality, the only thing I understood was that I was carrying out orders based on a book he had probably read as recently as yesterday and a slogan used to lure people to join the marines. I never thought I'd be nostalgic for Captain Harris.

System Command: End Log.

Alex Chou's Log for: 1/12/2352 20:21

I must have floated in my bunk wide awake for hours last night. I must have fallen asleep at one point because I was awoken by my alarm. I made my way to the Command Center. Miller was there with some other crewman and Junior officers. I turned the tactical layout of the system. I was studying the routes of the patrols. One looked like his patrol route would bring them close to us. I was about to order moving the ship further into space when Cortez showed up.

"Lieutenant, what's our status?" he asked.

I took a deep breath. It helped to resist the urge to give a sarcastic answer. "There are 37 Vinak ships in the system. 3 guarding each of the warp points and the other 31 are searching the area. One of the patrol routes will soon come close to us, I'm- "

"How do you know that?", he asked. I then spent 15 minutes slowly explaining to him the search patterns I'd witnessed. The non Linear patterns only seemed random to the untrained eye. If you plug the pivot coordinates into the computer it was able to spit out a very simple mathematical function. At the end of the explanation he just nodded his head.

"Oh, I get it." No he didn't. "Moving us is the first thing I'll do." I was about to ask what he meant by that. Before I could, another marine walked into the Command Center.

"Commander, Lieutenant William Taylor reporting." He directed a salute to Cortez. My view darted between the 2 men. I was trying to figure what the hell was going on.

"Lieutenant Chou, I'm told you've already met Lieutenant Taylor." He was one of the marines I talked to about salvage. "He was my second in command of my Wing. Starting now, you'll be reporting to him. I want you to retake your Damage Control station." I stared at him blankly. He then put it more bluntly. "You're relieved. I'm assuming command."

"What!?" Steele shouted. She had just walked in.

"Lieutenant Steele, you're late." Cortez started chastising her, "That is unacceptable for-"

All of a sudden I found my voice. "Commander Cortez, this ship and her crew belong to the H.A.F. Fleet. You have no authority to relieve me of command." I walked up within centimeters of him. I was staring up at his chin. Until then, I hadn't realized how tall he was.

"The Captain of the ship is dead. He didn't explicitly leave you in Command. Therefore, it falls to the currently highest ranking officer. That's me, Lieutenant." once again he emphasized my rank.

My eyes were locked onto his, and his onto mine. "Irrelevant. Any ship run exclusively by one branch of the H.A.F. cannot be commanded by another", I explained to him.

"He's right", Lieutenant Taylor informed him.

Cortez broke our staring contest to look at Taylor. "Shut up!", he shouted. He looked back at me. "I outrank you, that makes me the Supreme Officer."

"Only to make strategic decisions. This ship is still mine until a higher ranking Fleet officer tells me otherwise."

He looked over at the tactical display that was still up. "Fine, your first orders are to get us out of this system."

"There are Vinak ships guarding each of the warp points." I reminded him.

Taylor decided to join the conversation. "It's a stealth ship. Just sneak past them."

"That'll tear apart our Active Camo material." I tore my stare away from Cortez. "Unlike your fighters, this ship doesn't achieves it's stealth by just absorbing all light. It's too big for that. The material analyzes the incoming light and then projects it on the other side of the ship. That material is very sensitive and cannot survive the gravimetric turbulence involved with approaching the event horizon of a worm hole." Now it was Lieutenant Taylor's turn to stare blankly. "In other words, we cannot stay in stealth mode when going through a warp point." I looked back at Cortez. "Our best coarse of action is to hold our position until the Vinak give up their search. Once there's fewer ships in the system, the easier our escape will be."

"Lieutenant, I want this ship out of this system in 48 hours. Make it happen." Cortez walked out of the Command Center. He motioned for Taylor to follow him. Like a lapdog, he obediently followed.

I spent the rest of the day trying to devise an escape plan. I even asked Steele and Lee to help me out. We still don't have a plan though. We're taking a small break right now. Just long enough for a 2 hour nap.

System Command: End log.

Alex Chou's Log for: 1/12/2352 03:28

Cortez was the last pilot to land. My intent was to greet him the moment he disembarked. Instead, he was mobbed by nearly 100 marines rushing past me to shake his hand, pat him on the back, and go "who-ra!". The whole time Cortez just smiled and kept saying, "What I tell ya? What I tell ya?". I'll never understand marines. He made his way over to me. He looked at me and said, "Chou?" I nodded my head yes. "Lieutenant-Commander Phillipe Cortez requesting permission to board."

"Lieutenant Alex Chou, commanding officer, granting it. Welcome aboard Commander." I hate formalities like that. If he didn't have permission to come aboard I'd have his butt in chains by now.

"It's good to be aboard. We've had a long, tough journey, Lieutenant. It's good to have a reason to celebrate."

"Of course", I said, "I'd be interested to hear all about it." That was a lie. "But first, you must be exhausted. I had some quarters prepared-". He held up a hand to cut me off.

"Don't worry about me. What I'd like is information." He motioned me towards the door. "Let's take a walk." I walked out of the shuttle bay and he followed, but not before giving out one last "who-ra!" to his fellow pilots. They all answered in kind. I have to admit the sound of a 100 marines making that ridiculous noise in unison can be quite intimidating.

"If you're interested in the capabilities of the Constant, I'm sure my ops officer can help you learn everything you want", I offered.

"Don't you mean your 'Damage Control' officer?" he asked. I gave him a raised eyebrow. He's right, most vessals call it the Operations officer. The Constant, however, was build for one thing: battle. Therefore that role was renamed to what an ops officer does in a battle: Damage Control.

"You seem to know a lot about the GC-1 class cruisers."

"I was a test pilot for an earlier concept of the GC-1." He explained. "Back then, it was still called the X-421. Originally, they were supposed to have fighter bays, just like every other cruiser since the BC-5. Eventually, the fighter bay idea was abandoned because they required too much space. After that, I was given a wing of stealth fighters and I've been on the front lines ever since. That's enough about me, how about your story. How did a Lieutenant as young as yourself end up in Command of this fine piece of hardware?"

While walking I told him everything. I started with our disastrous escape from the Earth system and the death of the original Captain. I then told him about how we evaded the Vinak and then escaped from Volga. I ended with our discovery of the Vinak ambush behind the Crimean star. He didn't say a word the entire time.

I finished my story. A minute went by before he said anything. "So you're it?" I looked at him sideways. "What I mean is, you're the only ship in this system?" I nodded my head. "Then that means we're all that's left of the Human Armed Forces."

"We're the only ones at this location. There were 2 other rendezvous points. We have to somehow hook up with the ships that were at the alternate locations", I told him.

He started shaking his head. "We were at those other 2 location, Alex. No one else ever showed up." I stopped walking. I stared at his face for any indication that he was lying. I didn't find it. After a long moment, he broke the silence, "Why don't you show me to my quarters?"

After showing him to his quarters, I made my way to the Command Center. Once there, I didn't really do anything. I turned on the tactical layout of the entire Crimean system. I watched the search routes of the Vinak ships. Once in a while, more Vinak ships came through one of the warp points. Steele kept asking me what we were doing. I just kept telling her we're going to hold our position. It's late now, but I still don't feel tired.

System Command: End Log.

Alex Chou's Log for: 1/11/2352 17:04

The rendezvous was out in open space far from Crimean 3, but Cortez and his other pilots were exactly on time. I had Creyer pump his voice through the Command Center. "Lieutenant-Commander Cortez to the H.A.F. Constant: Are you there?"

"This is the H.A.F. Constant, we read you." Creyer answered back.

"Where the hell is Lieutenant Chou?"

I picked up a headset. "I'm here", I answered back.

"Don't ever let me talk to your comm officer when you're available. Is that Understood? Good." He didn't paused long enough to let me answer. "Now, angle your Landing Bays away from the Vinak patrols and open them up. We're coming in. Cortez out."

"Just who the hell does that Jarhead think he his?" Steele blurted out for the whole Command Center to hear. I don't like it when people use the term 'Jarhead' to describe members of the marine corp. It's not because It's insulting, rather it's because it's not derogatory enough. 'Jarhead' does not even come close to describing the undeservedly cocksure attitude of a marine. The entire Corp is an aged dinosaur eating the resources of the fleet; The only branch that's managed to avoid being absorbed by fleet Command.

"Marine or not, he's still a superior officer", I eventually responded. I looked at Lee and Quid who were operating the helm and operation stations. "Carry out his orders, gentlemen." I then looked at Chavez, "Let me know when Cortez's fighter lands, I'll be in my quarters."

And so I sit here waiting. I'm really not looking forward to Commander Cortez coming aboard. The regulations for the separation of Marine and Spacefleet are clear. We cannot command each other's equipment or crew. However, When working together, a supreme officer is appointed. The point is so that only 1 person is making the strategic decisions. In practice, this just means that I'm still the commander of this vessel, but I have to follow Cortez's orders. Personally, I can't think of a worse fate. I'm still going to be running the ship and taking orders from some arrogant marine.

System Command: End Log

Alex Chou's Log for: 1/11/2352 15:34

When I woke up from my chem nap, I was in a great mood. After all, we were on our way to rendezvous with my new Commanding Officer. Once Cortez comes aboard he'll be the highest ranking officer. I figured he'd take command of the Constant and I could go back to finding a way off this doomed mission without being hung for treason.

My good mood soon ended. While waiting to meet up with Cortez, I arranged to meet some of his pilots. I had Chief Miller gather up the 3 most senior members we had on board. I wanted to meet them in our shuttle bay to discuss salvaging some of their bent up fighters. I made my way down to shuttle control. As soon as I walked in, Chief Miller introduced everybody. In spite of the introduction, I don't remember their names or ranks. I was too fixated on their uniforms. Instead of proper, red uniforms that are worn by all fleet pilots, officers, and crewman, they had on the unmistakably dull grey uniforms worn by the H.A.F. Marine Corp!

"You're Marines", I blurted out.

One of them, A First Lieutenant, I think, looked at me with a sidewise glance and said "Y-Yes, we are".

"Is Lieutenant-Commander Cortez a marine?", I asked.

The same guy responded, "Of course!"

My heart sank. That means I'm still stuck in command. This is a fleet vessel. A marine -even an officer that outranks me- can't assume command. We spent some time actually talking about salvaging their damaged fighters, but I found it difficult to concentrate.

System Command: End Log

Alex Chou's Log for: 1/11/2352 01:48

The time of the rendezvous point was to be exactly 20 days since receiving our final orders and was to take place in the orbit of Crimean 3's only moon. That is exactly where we made contact with a wing of stealth fighters. We didn't even know they were there until we received an "Ahoy" message on the radio from their Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Phillipe Cortez. I then contacted him on the closed military network.

"This is Lieutenant Chou of the H.A.F. Constant. Commander, are you incompetent or ignorant? Stay on the closed network", I yelled into the communicator.

"Our orders were clear, Lieutenant", he emphasized my rank to remind me I was talking to a superior. "We were to assume the closed network was compromised and make contact via radio only."

"Commander, there is an entire fleet of Vinak warships hiding behind the Crimean star and as soon as your radio message reaches them, they're going to know we're here." That shut him up for a minute.

Chavez broke the silence. "Captain, Vinak ships are heading our way. They're coming in from the Chateau warp point." There's only 2 warp points in or out of this system. If we'd made a break for the other warp point, the hiding Vinak ships still stood between us and that warp point.

"You have to let us on board!" Cortez told me, his voice had more worry than authority.

"We're not equipped for fighters you'll -" He cut me off.

"Many of my fighters are running out of fuel or low on power. You have to find a way."

"We have space in our 2 shuttle bays." Steele suggested.

"Yeah, but those are meant for only a slow moving shuttle, and only about a dozen.", Quid reminded her.

"We'll have to improvise. Creyer, tell shuttle control we need to clear those decks for incoming fighters. Quid, Miller, get men down to our shuttle bay. They'll need help to clear those decks." I then got back on the communicator. "Commander, if you don't mind ruining your fighters, we can squeeze you into the shuttle bays."

"There's 58 of us, will we all fit?" he asked.

"We're about to find out", I told him. "Order your fighters with the least amount of fuel to land first. And tell them to be careful. The landing bay won't be as long or as wide as they're used too. We don't have any magnetic guiders to stop them if they screw up. And tell them to hurry, we have 5 hours before the Vinak will be on top of us."

"We'll do just fine. These are some of the finest pilots humanity has" he assured me. Well, if they're the finest pilots humanity has to offer, no wonder we lost the war. The first pilot missed the hole and tore off his port side wing. The second pilot, learning from the first pilot's mistake, managed to avoid tearing off his port side wing, and instead went too far right and tore of his starboard side wing. The next 6 (that's right! 6 pilots in a row all made the same mistake) came in too fast and ended up crashing into our back wall. The next few all either came in too high or too low. One guy came in backwards(I have no idea why), he manged to tear off one wing and bang up the other. 20 trashed fighters later, Cortez's pilots decided not to go so fast.

The fighters that were trashed we would get the 2 people out of them and eject it into space to make room for more fighters. That of course slowed us down because we can't be pushing a fighter into space at the same time one is coming in. It took us 5 hours to do 47 of them. That's 5 hours to do what a proper landing bay should be able to do in 5 minutes. The Vinak were now closing in on us.

"Commander Cortez, how much fuel do your last 11 fighters have?", I asked.

"Enough to make evade those Vin bastards. I'm transmitting some coordinates to you. Activate your stealth and meet us there in 16 hours. Until then, maintain communication silence. Cortez out."

That was that. We reactivated our stealth and are heading to the coordinates. Since then, the Vinak are now guarding the only 2 warp points out of the system, and the ones that were hiding are now patrolling the system. I hope Cortez has a plan to get us out of here.

System Command: End Log.

Alex Chou's Log for: 1/10/2352 02:12

We are totally screwed! There is an entire fleet of Vinak ships hiding on the other side of the Crimean Star. I don't know how, but they must have found out the rendezvous point. If we hadn't searched the system, we would've been destroyed when turning off of our stealth at the designated time. I've ordered Lee to search the rest of the system, and quickly.

I'm keeping the ship on alert level 2. We could end up in battle at any moment. Everyone is back on chem naps so we can stay at the highest alerts possible. If any HAF ships show up, we'll warn them to run and, if necessary, help them fight off the Vinak. The Vinak fleet is way too big for us to hope to take on, but we can't just stand by while they ambush unsuspecting HAF ships.

For now I'm going to steal a 30 minute chem nap with some of the other crew. We're going to need the rest. The next 24 hours are going to be interesting.

System Command: End Log.

Alex Chou's Log for: 1/9/2352 20:01

We arrived at the rendezvous point. We're now orbiting the only moon of Crimean 3. We were also more than a full day early. I guess my previous worring was unnecessary. Ensign Chavez, (who's first name, I finally learned, is George) hasn't detected any other H.A.F. ships in the area.

"I guess we're the first ones here." Creyer said.

"Maybe, or maybe they're stealthed too." I said.

"I could send out an ahoy message to see if anyone's out there." he suggested.

"No", I replied, "let's just hold position until the designated time."

Steele chimed in, "Chou, we should search the rest of the system, make sure that it's secure". The second she said it, I knew she was right. Regulations clearly state that the first ship to a rendezvous is responsible for securing the area. I paused a moment before responding. I tried to make it look like I was carefully pondering the suggestion. I didn't want it to look like I had to actually be reminded of regulations.

"Lieutenant Steele is right. We need to secure the area." I looked at Lieutenant Lee who had a grimace on his face. "Lee, I want the ship to make a quick trip around the star and any planets in between."

"Yes, sir" in a barely audible voice.

"Chavez, keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Also let me know if you see any other H.A.F. ships come through a warp point"

"Yes, Sir. And," he paused a moment, "What if no HAF ships show up tomorrow. Then what?"

"They'll be here", I told him. To be honest, that question has been burning in the back of my head for a while. I had managed to keep myself from thinking about it. Now that someone actually said it, It was all I could think about. I still want off of this ship, but I'm not going to sneak off while still in command. [*sigh] I'm going to try not to think about it so I can sleep.

This is the command center. Full alert: BattleStations

Why can't this crap ever wait until morning?

System Command: End log.