FREESPACE 2
MASQUERADE
SEASON THREE
EPISODE ONE

CHAPTER ONE

 It was the beginning of the end as a small Elysium transport hurled itself through the void towards a construction of vast proportions.

 The GTVA Colossus sat within a vast spaceyard, a maze of pylons and construction drones, waiting for the day in which it would awake from it’s hibernation, and bring a swift, just, decisive victory against forces hostile to the alliance.

 The six kilometer long behemoth took nearly half a lifetime to construct, and surely was the most powerful spacefaring vessel ever constructed. It had the firepower of twelve Orion class destroyers combined, and in simulations not even the Shivan’s Lucifer could stand to the Colossus.

 As the transport settled onto one of the thousands of docking ports upon the Colossus’ outer hull, Lieutenant Commander Hale Taluet emerged from it’s docking port and stepped onto the Colossus.

 A party of Admiral Ferrington and his entourage welcomed Taluet aboard the Colossus, though doubts filled their minds why Admiral Barrett insisted on his command of the Colossus during it’s maiden voyage, testing of it’s propulsion systems.

 “It’s quite amazing the timing of this all, this vessel appears fully capable for combat situations,” Taluet stated with his arms crossed behind his back as the entourage walked through one of the many corridors on the vessel towards the bridge.

 “We had hoped for several more weeks before this engine test, so that we could have the weapons grid fully operational,” Admiral Ferrington replied.

 “I was told by Ms. Talvart and the Senate that the Colossus would be fully combat ready,” Taluet responded while glaring into the Admiral’s eyes.

 The Admiral stopped, and his eyes narrowed as he turned to face Lieutenant Commander,” Get one thing straight… Though you might be under some very high orders to have command of this vessel, the Senate does not control this ship, the GTVA security council would have canceled these orders, if it was not for the loss of the GTD Leonardo in a recent NTF raid on Epsilon Pegasi.”

 “I know the tactical situation,” Taluet said while sneering,” I need the Colossus to be out of drydock by 04:00 hours, and I need the weapon grids online before we reach Capella.”

 Taluet then turned about and walked down the corridor to the bridge, Admiral Ferrington stayed behind in the corridor with his entourage, one of the officers in it then whispered into the Admiral’s ear,” Sir, I’ll contact the security council immediately and try to get this orders revoked.”

 “Good Captain,” the Admiral replied to the officer,” See to it that we can revoke as much power as possible from Mr. Taluet… he is already abusing it…”

* * *

 Captain Stashef was within the Excalibur’s bridge, he glanced at Admiral Barrett, who seemed to be simply facing the stars, not paying attention to the events which surrounded him.

 The Captain stepped towards the Admiral,” Sir,” he stated,” Chief engineer Vladmir has ordered us to power down the antimatter array, it has become unstable in the past few hours and it must be repaired and recalibrated.”

 Barrett did not even face the Captain when he spoke,” How long will these repairs take? and… how will it effect our rendezvous in Polaris?”

 “We won’t be able to jump, and we’ll have only minimal power during the repairs, which will take several hours,” the Captain replied.

 “How many hours… Captain?” the Admiral replied while turning to face Stashef.

 “At least eight,” Stashef replied while swallowing.

 “Eight hours…” the Admiral repeated as his head turned back to face the stars,” Very well… but as soon as these… repairs are done we must reach Polaris with no further delays.”

* * *

 Captain Stashef sat in a chair infront of a circular table, across from him was an empty seat and he grasped a glass full of a red liquid as his head was bowed low, he was surrounded by the commotion and countless people that inhabited the rec room.

 He took a deep swag of the drink, which burned his throat as it went down, in a moment a man walked over to the seat across from him and sat down.

 “Good day sir,” the young man with short black hair in a GTVA officer’s uniform across from him stated.

 Stashef looked up slowly at the officer, who spoke again,” I’m Lt. Christopher Staffinger, commander of the 52nd Darkstars, I had hoped to meet you earlier Captain.”

 The Captain then looked at the man straight in the eyes though his voice was slightly gruff when he spoke,” Alright Mr. Staffinger, what is it?”

  “Captain, Paula Morrison and Vladmir would like to speak to you in engineering, it seems our delay with the engines wasn’t good enough, and we have more news on the subspace pulses,” the Lieutenant replied.

 “Alright, good,” the Captain replied just as Lt. Staffinger was about to stand up, only to have the Captain grab his arm and speak again,” Lieutenant, remember that we are not trying to stop Barrett out of sympathy for Neo-Terra… but it’s the humane thing to do… I cannot live with thousands of lives… on my conscience. Maybe this assignment has made me soft… I used to just several weeks ago follow orders without question… but now…”

 The Captain loosened his grasp, but the Lieutenant replied,” Sympathy is what separates us from them… if we don’t question things we’ll be susceptible to the same corruption that made the VPE fall and makes the Neo-Terran Front live today…”

 “Yes…” the Captain said as he grasped his drink and took a sip,” and that very… trait… is what let us win the great war… if we did not have sympathy, we would have fallen to the joint force of the Shivans…. and Vasudans as the Vasudans would have surely fallen to the joint force of humanity and the Shivans….”

 Lt. Staffinger then saluted and walked out, the Captain then turned back to his drink, slowly rotating it at eye level and starring at it, before taking the final swag of it’s contents.
CHAPTER TWO

 Captain Stashef entered the engineering deck, it was empty all but the bodies of Paula Morrison, Commodore Vladmir, and Lt. Staffinger.

 “I expected Commodore Smith to be here…” Stashef said as he stepped in and the door slid behind him.

 “Omega is on the bridge, keeping an eye on Admiral Barrett,” Paula replied while grabbing a pin that was within her pocket and handed it to him.

 The Captain grapsed the pin and then spoke once more,” What is this?”

 “A communications device,” Lt. Staffinger replied,” You’ll be in a secure channel with the Commodore and you’ll be able to hear what’s going on in the bridge.”

 Stashef then swallowed before speaking again,” The Admiral expects us fully operational in five minutes, after that it’s only ten more minutes to reach Epsilon Pegasi and then Polaris.”

 “Yes I know,” Valadmir replied,” Which is why we need to work now…”

 Colonel Morrison then spoke,” We have three security contingents working for us fortunately, however we’ll need to convince the crew before we can fully have the ship back under our control and have Barrett and Talvart under custody. I’m quite sure that the security council did not infact legalize those orders and they are punishable under BETAC for plotting to kill the civilian populace on Polaris.”

 The Captain then nodded,” It almost seems as if Talvart is trying to start an all out war, but why?”

 “I don’t know,” the Colonel replied,” But we’ll find out soon enough, let’s get started.”

* * *

 Outside of Senator Talvart’s quarters, several armed GTVA security officers approached, each taking flanking positions. 

 The entire deck was clear, and sirens waned warning of a fusion battery leak of the backup generators only two decks below. The guards positioned themselves at the opposite sides of the doors, only to have it slide open.

 Senator Talvart emerged, she was in a night gown that she brought aboard in her wardrobe, and then she spoke,” I was expecting you.”

* * *

 Commodore Smith was aboard the bridge where Admiral Barrett was in a flaming rage,” Why in hell is there a battery leak? Why have we not jumped!?”

 The Commodore walked up to the disgruntled Admiral and then said,” These reactors are on the verge of collapse, this ship hasn’t even had her shakedown cruise after the refitting, we’re lucky as hell that the core hasn’t breached yet.”

 The Admiral then narrowed his eyes as he turned towards the Commodore and then slowly said,” We must reach Polaris, the fate of our alliance, of humanity! Is at stake! We MUST reach Polaris!”
 The Commodore then slowly replied,” What’s at Polaris? Are you after Bosch? Have you forgotten that he would be on a ship, not on the planet? Have you forgotten all about BETAC?”

 Barrett then sneered,” Policies are formalities, when the fate of an entire species hangs in the balance we can afford to expend them for the sake of survival.”

 The Commodore was silent and so was the Admiral, but it was broken as several security contingents broke into the bridge and quickly surrounded Barrett and he then raised his arms in the air.

 “If you knew Commodore… if you knew…” he replied with a grin.

 Omega then walked over to the intercomm,” This is Commodore James Smith, we have the Admiral. Do we have our little senator friend yet?”

 “Negative,” Stashef replied over the intercomm from the engineering deck,” It seems we lost contact with our security details, I’ll be heading towards the bridge, and we better send some more teams to find out what’s going on down there.”

 “Alright,” the Commodore replied with a smirk,” I just hope that our friend here will shed some light on his little sharade.”

 “Sharade?” Barrett replied while laughing, his hands still in the air and surrounded by the contingent of guards in the bridge, each holding a ML-16 assault rifle at his head,” The GTI, Bosch, and now me, we know what they want… and we know how to save humanity! But Bosch is too soon… too soon…”

 The Commodore walked up to Barrett and then squinted his eyes as he stood directly infront of his face,” So tell me, “’Admiral,’ who are ‘they’?”

 “You know who they are, Commodore,” Barrett slowly replied.

 Omega’s eyes narrowed and then a grin filled his face,” You’re as nutty as a fruitcake!”

CHAPTER THREE

 Captain Stashef entered the bridge of the Excalibur, as he walked in the security guards around the Admiral forced him to leave the bridge through the lift, which the Captain came through.

 “Well it seems your ex-girlfriend made the good Admiral become a nutcase,” Omega replied with a wide grin on his face.

 “I heard…” the Captain unemotionally responded as his mind wandered,” Set a course… for Gamma Draconis, that unstable jump node to be precise…”

 The helm officer quickly entered the coordinates into the console, and the Excalibur quickly shifted into subspace.

 “Any word on Talvart?” the Commodore then said.

 “No… none,” Stashef replied,” None at all…”

 “Maybe we should pay a visit…” Omega replied.

 “I have Paula down there now I…,” the Captain was interrupted with a chime from the intercomm system which he then walked over to a panel on the wall beside the lift,” This is Stashef,” he then replied.

 “Captain,” a voice sounded over the intercomm, which was clearly Paula Morrison’s,” You better get down here, these bodies have been… mutilated… I’ve never seen anything like it, there’s also definitely been sidearm fire, the deckplates are scorched.”

 “I’ll be down there right away,” the Captain responded as he swiftly exited the bridge, followed by the Commodore.

* * *

 The Captain exited one of the lifts aboard the Excalibur onto the deck, which the fighting occurred, he immediately saw scorch marks, tears through the molybdenum hull plating, and dead and severed bodies filling the corridor.

 “My god..” the Captain said as he beheld the remains of the slaughter,” What in hell did this?”

 “A Shivan…” the Commodore soberly said.

 Colonel Morrison was with a marine contingent examining the debris for any survivors, she quickly noticed the Captain and walked up to him,” Well I guess I’m back to being the XO now…” she said with a slight smirk,” However, what you see here… is definitely bad news…”

 The Captain nodded and she then continued,” Whatever did this cut through two contingents like butter, and managed to get into the lift tube system via cutting through the deck plates and somehow welding it shut again, then managing to survive the… deadly to say the least… radiation levels of the fusion battery exhaust tubes and then being able to climb through the shafts…”

 “So this thing could be… anywhere?” the Captain replied.

 “Yes,” the Colonel stated coldly,” It could be anywhere… Also, there are no signs of Ms. Talvart, and we found a device in her quarters, which might be of some interest.”

 One of the guards handed a large old oaken box to Colonel Morrison, which she slowly opened, it’s interior glowed a dull green and had a green spherical shape within it.

 “What is it?” Stashef replied.

 “Well that’s up to the scilab to determine, all I know is it’s not Terran or Vasudan in origin,” the Colonel replied.

 “Well maybe I’m the first to state the obvious,” the Commodore began,” But let’s see here… we have a missing senator, a weird gizmo in her quarters, and a rampaging Shivan aboard… doesn’t it add up to our little missy might be a Shivan or a conspirator, especially when we had subspace pulses coming from her quarters?”

 “That would work…” the Colonel replied,” But there has been no recorded or documented Shivan communications… but it could explain the purpose of this device, the sensitivity of Shivans to subspace jumps and… maybe why some of the GTI black ops where so dependent on subspace research…”

 “Yep,” the Commodore replied,” Even the Thermal Lance weapon that the Hellwolf Pirates and Han Ronald Corp developed with Senator Taulus back in 2338 was based on subspace tech…”
 “Let’s not be kidding ourselves,” the Captain replied,” But these are logical connections, and I’m damn sure that this is going to wind up so classified that we won’t live to tell about it… that is if we live to tell the GTVA…”

 Stashef then swallowed,” We must reach Gamma Draconis, and collapse that unstable node if possible, if this is a prelude to an invasion, let’s make it as tough as possible for the Shivans to start one. Paula, get the scilab to scour that device, lets get some facts behind this theory, and let’s get all security details fully active, all crewmembers at least carrying an SD-4 sidearm. We must make sure our little friend can’t catch us off guard and start another massacre!”

CHAPTER FOUR

 The Captain stepped into the Excalibur’s bridge, which was nearly silent, and he saw through it’s clearplast windows the shimmering blue light of subspace.

 “We’ll be approaching the Gamma Draconis system in eight minutes,” a navigation officer replied.

  Stashef did not respond, he instead was silent and slowly walked up towards the front of the bridge and stepped onto the upper platform filled with the manned navigation consoles.

 At the dead front of the bridge, he stopped, and then he turned about, his face which was grim then slowly began to lighten up, and he began to slowly walk out of the bridge quickly interrupted by a chime from the intercomm system, as he walked out he said,” Notify them that I am coming down.”

* * *

 Stashef entered the scilab, which was swarming with engineers and technicians, in this maze of bodies Paula Morrison quickly found the Captain.

 “Sir,” she replied with a smile upon her face,” The device we found in Talvart’s quarters was of Shivan origin, and is a subspace transmitter of some type. We discovered that it has advanced circuitry, all of which is fitted with traps and failsafes to keep it from falling into the wrong hands, our hands that is. We managed to disarm these failsafes, and the device has an active record of transmissions as well as a decryption algorithm.”

 “In other words, we can translate these subspace pulses?” the Captain asked.

 “No,” the Colonel replied,” But we can translate the code within Shivan electronic systems, we can finally fully use the Shivan ships acquired during the Great War, this technology is a valuable asset to the alliance. As well as Senator Talvart.”

 “What do you mean?” Stashef replied with a confused look.

 “From these logs, three months ago she was in the Capella system working with several merchant guilds, including the Laramis conglomerate,” Paula began.

 “Yes, that’s when I last talked to her before this assignment…” the Captain replied.

 “After that meeting, her transport was delayed for several weeks, when infact according to these logs it was captured, by who or what I’m uncertain, but it seems to be that it wound up in the hands of the Shivans, most likely the capturers were hired by the Shivans…” she stated.

 “Captured by Shivans? That’s rediculous, the only time any communication between our races has been proven was the failed diplomatic rendezvous in Antares, and even then it was infact the Shivans who began the dialogue and simply said ‘die,’” Stashef replied.

 “Also from these logs, after the transport was captured, the senator was taken and somehow replaced with I suppose a Shivan operative. After examining her quarters, we detected a vast amount of nanite-based technology, so it appears that maybe the Shivans plan to capture key GTVA personnel and take their roles,” Paula continued.

 “This is a lot of information for simply a data log…” Stashef responded.

 “Clearly, the Shivans never expected us to break their failsafes, also it seems that the Shivans since they have so little knowledge on our culture have to keep the people they plan to imposter alive for I suppose interrogation. Michelle Talvart is still alive, and from this data it seems that the Shivans are coming through the unstable jump point in Gamma Draconis. Also the fact that we have the communication device means that the imposter can’t warn the main Shivan force of her being discovered, so I’m quite sure they won’t try to kill her until it’s realized,” Paula said.

 “Alright, so there’s a damn good chance she’s still alive, but what condition is she in? and most importantly… where is she?”

 “I don’t know…” Paula soberly stated,” I honestly don’t know…”

 The Captain took a deep breath and then spoke again,” We must find her… it’s the… humane thing to do, and what she knows about project Colossus and the GTVA could lead to an eminent Shivan invasion of our home systems… Even then, we still have a Shivan somewhere aboard this ship… and we must also collapse that node in Gamma Draconis, or else we might just face annihilation a second time.”

 A voice then boomed over the intercomm system,” Captain Stashef, we have emerged from subspace, initiating in system jump to the GTVA Colossus’ position.”

 “Colossus’ position?” Stashef replied over the intercomm,” That vessel is still within drydock…”

 “Negative sir,” the officer who was speaking replied,” The Colossus is in position at the unstable jump point in this system."

* * *

 Taluet paced the vast bridge of the GTVA Colossus after several moments, one of the myriad of officers in the bridge spoke,” Sir, we are detecting an incoming jump signature, it’s energy readings match the Excalibur.”

 What the hell is Barrett doing here? Taluet thought to himself I was the one who was supposed to spearhead our exploration, and most of all establish contact with the destroyers…

 “The vessel is initiating an in-system jump,” the same officer replied.

 “Very well…,” Taluet sneered,” I will be in my quarters, send all data gathered from our probes to me.”

 “Yes sir,” another officer replied as Taluet walked out of the bridge.