Those army personnel that survived the initial attack immediately formed the resistance and tried to fight back, but Ra’a’zani swiftly responded by destroying three more cities from orbit, killing – as they claimed – a third of our total remaining population. The resistance backed off, realizing that they had no way of countering Ra’a’zani ships in orbit. People from the remaining 7 cities were divided up, some sent to the asteroid belt, some to various mines across the planet, others forced to work the fields and provide food for the rest. A number was rounded up and moved to the camps Ra’a’zani built, the breeding camps. At best Jacob put the remaining human population between 1 and 2 billion. Most scattered across the globe living without the help of modern technology. The resistance had tried to recruit those living in those communities, but there was rarely anyone who wanted to fight, they were content with their life and didn’t feel the oppression of the Ra’a’zani, they were being left alone and didn’t want to provoke them.
Others, those under the rule of the Ra’a’zani were left mostly on their own with little supervision. People worked the land to provide the food for Ra’a’zani and the other humans. They were allowed only minimal equipment, and had to produce certain quotas every set period. Failure to meet the quota would be punished with a death of a family member or someone close. Those in the cities were tightly monitored, and performed various tasks that Ra’a’zani wanted done, from construction to acting as servants. Technology was controlled by them, any sign that we were building or hiding human technology was met with harsh punishment. People that were born after the war already had limited education, and Ra’a’zani made sure that no one learned anything of the past, anyone discovered teaching was immediately executed. Otherwise they were left to govern themselves. Some had more freedom, while others had none.
The resistance had five thousand people spread-out around the planet and the asteroid belt. But only a few were placed in more “trusted” positions within the Ra’a’zani society. The only hope the resistance had of beating the Ra’a’zani was to strike fast, decisive, and without being seen. And everything will depend on Olympus’s ability to draw away the Ra’a’zani ship in orbit. Otherwise even if they manage to deal with the Ra’a’zani on the ground they would just die when those on the ship realize that they lost control of the planet. And Jacob knew that this time their punishment would be much harsher, they might even wipe them all out. They had already sent people from Earth back to their space, and there are enough people in the asteroid belt to serve their purpose.
But not everything was as bleak as it seemed. The resistance had a few aces up their sleeves as well. One was a submarine developed at the height of the war by the Coalition. Although calling it a submarine was akin to comparing a shuttle and a car. The Endgame class and CS Lord were the pinnacle of human war engineering, capable of traveling around the world in less than a day, undetectable by any conventional means, with enough firepower to lay waste to half a continent. Its missiles were the most advanced humans could build, with advance defensive systems. Each had enough power to release energy equal to a 20 megaton nuclear bomb, only without any radiation. Even at the height of war, with all the death, destruction, and horrors that we unleashed on one another, no one used nuclear weapons, everyone honored the treaty. That was probably the only reason humans were still there to be conquered by the Ra’a’zani.
The Endgame class, as their arrogant name implied, were meant to end the war in a decisive win for the Coalition. But they never got the chance. Concordis attacked and destroyed the manufacturing facilities and the base where the Endgame class was being built. Years later it would come to light that they didn’t even know about the Endgame class, it was just a stroke of luck for them.
Although they lost everything in the attack, the Endgame class prototype CS Lord wasn’t at the base, but out doing final tests, and so it survived. After that attack the war for the Coalition went downhill, until a few years later all the factions managed to destroy themselves so completely that they couldn’t continue the fight. The sub survived and its crew later attached itself to one of the surviving Coalition cities. The sub was unarmed as it had no missiles aboard and they had no way of manufacturing more, but they did later acquire a few missiles of an earlier generation. Until Ra’a’zani came. The crew of the CS Lord formed the Coalition Resistance and went into hiding. It was they who found out that a part of Sedna city survived and made it their base.
The other ace has been Jacob’s trump card since he discovered it. A stealth ship, more of a shuttle really, capable of flying in the atmosphere and in space. That was the reason his part of the Resistance was the only one that had any presence in space. The shuttle was small, capable of carrying ten people at most. His people found it abandoned in a forgotten League base, it’s purpose unknown. It was an unimaginable asset that allowed them to have a presence in the asteroid belt, as it was undetectable by the Ra’a’zani. Any data concerning it and its systems has been destroyed before Jacob’s people found it. And other than a few personal datapads that had vague references to its systems, they had to figure out everything on their own. And they had few if any people that could even begin to understand the technology behind it, that’s why Jacob used it rarely and with great care for fear of losing it to a simple malfunction that they had no idea how to fix. Another fear Jacob had was because the shuttle had no means of defending itself. The design was clearly made in a way that assumed weapons, with room left open for such a purpose, but when they discovered the shuttle it had none installed. Jacob assumed that whatever happened that caused the shuttle to be forgotten happened before it was completely finished. He believed that it was created as a part of a top secret military project, as he didn’t know about it even though at the time he was highly placed in the government.
But now Jacob felt more comfortable with risking it. With the help of the Olympus Ai Jacob’s people managed to figure out most of its systems. According to Asumy – the Ai, the shuttle’s technology was derived from more than sixty year old Olympus technology. Of course it was far more advanced now than what Olympus had then, the League scientists that worked on it improved and adapted the technology in amazing ways. The most impressive one being the shuttle’s drive. It was based on Olympus artificial gravity technology. Or it used that technology as a starting point. The shuttle was proof that the League made amazing breakthroughs during the war. According to Asumy the shuttle’s drive generated a gravity field that exerted a force on already present gravity fields using them to move the shuttle. It didn’t emit any heat or light, and it didn’t emit anything easily detectable. Jacob knew that it was one of his greatest weapons. He even had Asumy send all the data concerning it to Olympus.
Now with Asumy and Olympus ships on their way, Earth had a chance of getting its freedom back. With the fabricators Asumy provided they could rearm the Lord, and maybe even arm Jacob’s shuttle. They had about a year to plan and set things into motion, and then finally strike back against the enemy.
Chapter Five
January 2171 – Earth
Dakar Vit’r’an watched over his subordinates as they worked. It was a part of his daily routine, his people needed to see him, lest they forget who was in charge.
“Dakar, one of our patrols has detected ships entering the system.” One of Vit’r’an’s subordinates said.
“When?” Vit’r’an asked.
“They sent the information immediately, so it was seven seka ago.”