Operation Caché - Printable Version

Operation Caché

Gallic Royal Navy ship the RNS-Agincourt, a Taureau class armored transport had just entered the Tau 23 system. They had been tasked with an important mission, delivering highly classified data to the Royal Navy forward command aboard the Battleship Guillestre in Magellan. The information was deemed too important to be sent through the Neural Net protocols due to possibility of falling into the wrong hands.

"Capitaine, we are clear of the jump gate. All systems are reading green. We are ready to engage the cruise engines. Course has been set for the Guillestre", said the helmsman.

Captain Rochelle was a short, bald, chubby man of some 40 years. He had been in the Navy for 22 years, the last 4 of which at his present rank. Despite his somewhat unattractive appearance, he was a proud man, with his chin always raised high and his sturdy stance that would shame the King himself. He was a by-the-book type of an officer, the kind most hated by their subordinates. Jokes, of which he had no knowledge of course, were circulating around that he didn't even lay with his wife before reading the Naval manual book.

He was also an ambitious man, one who aimed as high as he could, despite his common origins, he dreamed of one day becoming an admiral, maybe even be granted a noble title. He never even objected to being appointed as a commander of a simple transport vessel, which was frowned upon by almost all proud naval officers. He knew all he had to do was do his job and his time would eventually come. Little did he know, all of that was about to change rather unexpectedly.

"Lieutenant, you may engage the cruise engines", said the captain as he sat into his chair. The bridge of the Agincourt was as common as was to be expected of a naval vessel. The crew, although a rather small one, was as efficient as one could get, and the captain was pushing them all to their limits, constantly reminding them of every line of the naval manual book. He took special pride of the fact that the ship was named after the recently conquered bretonian system of Leeds, ignoring the fact that his ship was a mere transport (a fact that showed how much the King actually cared for the system).

The Agincourt moved to a minimal safe distance and engaged its cruise engines, having no idea it was to be their last voyage. The first hour of their voyage went without any trouble. They had to do certain maneuvers to avoid some of the asteroids from the system's huge asteroid belt. All was going acording to the plan, and even the captain was getting relaxed in his chair.

As they were approaching a huge asteroid, out of nowhere, 3 Lynx class fighters unloacked next to them. One to the port side, one to the starboard, and one above them. The captain stood up form his chair, shocked by the sudden appearance of these unexpected guests. He ordered the ship to a full stop, and gave command to send out a standard hailing signal to them. As they stopped, so did the fighters. The one above moved infront of them and faced the bridge.

"Unidentified vessels, this is the RNS-Agincourt, please state your identification and purpose", was the message. It was transmitted on a continuous loop. Captain Rochelle was standing at the edge of the platform that held his chair, divided for the main floor by 2 steps. There was nothing coming from the other side, nothing except eerie silence. They stood like that for almost 2 minutes, but to the captain it seemed like an eternity. He was about to order all weapons to full power, when a brief message came through. It certainly didn't help that the scans of the ships brought back some fairly unnerving results. The scanners detected weapons, shield modulator, and various other equipment unknown to captain Rochelle, and furthermore, non-identifiable in the Royal Navy Neural Net registry.

"This is Colonel Jaques Fontaine, identification number 852019871991, to the transporter Agincourt requesting permission to come aboard.", Fontaine's face was pale and expressionless. There was something in the way colonel Fontaine said transporter, that captain Rochelle found condescending, but he felt like every officer piloting an actual combat ship was mocking him. He wasn't about to argue with another officer about it, especially not a Colonel. The ID number came through and it, along with voice and facial recognition came positive, confirming colonel Fontaine's identity.

"Colonel Fontaine, you are cleared to land, proceed to the airlock.", came the voice over the speakers. Fontaine headed to the airlock and engaged docking procedures.

Captain Rochelle mustered a few men, to represent a sort of an honorary guard and ordered them to follow him to the airlock. As he reached his destination, he ordered the men 2 to each side of the entrance with their rifles in the salute stance. The airlock doors opened and Fontaine appeared infront of him. He was a tall man in his late 20's. By the look of him, one could never guess his rank. As oposed to the captain who was wearing his formal uniform with all the medals and citations to show, Fontaine was wearing a simple flight suit, typical to any fighter pilot, and by the looks of it, he hadn't changed it in a few days.

"Monsieur Capitaine, permission to come aboard?", said Fontaine as the Captain's chubby figure appeared infront of him.

"Monsieur Colonel, we are honored to have you on the Agincourt", said Rochelle, "My name is Capitaine Emmanuel Rochelle, commander of the Agincourt. Permission granted, of course."

"If I may ask", the Captain proceeded as Fontaine stepped aboard his ship, "What is the reason for this sudden visit?"

"I have some important things to discuss with you Captain, but not here", Fontaine looked at the soldiers standing around them. "May we talk in a more private location?"

"Of course Monsieur Colonel, please join me in my ready room, this way, follow me."

They passed a few crewmen as they were walking down the corridor that led to the bridge, their escort at their heels.

"Would you like a quick tour of the ship? It is one of the finest in the fleet", said Rochelle, realising himself how ridiculous that sounded.

"No need captain, I have been on armored transports before, once you see one, you've seen them all. The matter I have to discuss with you is of utmost importance and I would like to get on with it."

"Oui monsieur, as you wish", said Rochelle, his face giving the slightest hint of dissatisfaction.

As they entered the bridge, the whole bridge crew stood up in attention.

"This way monsieur Colonel", Rochelle pointed to the doors leading to his ready room.

"Make sure we are not disturbed unless it's an utmost emergency", said Fontaine and moved to into the room.

"You heard the Colonel, we are not to be disturbed", repeated Rochelle, somewhat redundantly, as everyone had clearly heard Fontaine's order, and went in, closing the doors behing him.

Once they were in, Rochelle offered the Colonel a seat, and sat oposite to him.

"Monsieur Colonel, I don't mean to sound disrespectful, but we are on an important mission, carrying important documents to the Naval Command. Would you mind telling me the reason of your visit?"

"I am well aware of your mission Capitaine, in fact, that is the reason I am here. The documents you are carrying, regarding the Royal Navy ship and weapon blueprints, are highly classified and were deemed to important to be sent over the Neural Net, correct?"

"Oui monsieur, but how did you know...."

"That is not important", Fontaine interupted him, "I am here to issue new orders. You are to change course to this system, in here are the coordinates to a top secret facility, that is your new heading", Fontaine handed him the datapad.

"This must be wrong, we were to deliver those strictly to Guillestre, and this is showing a position in the middle of nowhere inside the Dublin system!" The Captain's expression turned to shock. "We were told our orders came from Gran Marechal LeBlanc herself."

"These are your new orders Captain, I came all the way out here myself to deliver them, are you questioning me?!", Fontaine's voice turned to anger.

"Certainly not, monsieur Colonel, I wouldn't dare to, but you must understand, I have to confirm this..."

"That won't be possible", Rochelle was interupted again, "You see, I am not even here, at least not officialy, do you understand?"

"Oui monsieur, but I would still like some more clarification..."

"This is on a strictly need-to-know basis Captain, and you already know all that you should, at least for now. The documents you are carrying are vital for our war effort, and they are to be delivered to the location I gave you. Gran Marechal's orders, although issued in utmost secrecy, were still false, just to take extra precaution."

The captain looked at the datapad again, rubbing his chin. "Monsieur Colonel, you will excuse me, but this seems like something a bit over my pay grade. I'll tell you what, why don't you and your escorts join us to the Guillestre, and once we deliver these to the Marechal, you do whatever you want. That way we can both carry out our orders.", the look on his face gave signals that he wasn't buying into Fontaine's story.

Fontaine stood up, faced the window that looked out to space, with his hands behind his back. "Captain Rochelle, I must say I admire your determination to carry out your duty. Alas, I had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but you leave me no other choice."

"What are you talking about monsieur?"

"You are about to find out!", said Fontaine as his voice suddenly got inhumanly deep, almost as if something else was speaking through him. When he faced the Captain, Rochelle was suddenly frozen with shock. Fontaine's eyes were glowing. It was a shade of purple, a sight Rochelle had never seen even in his worst nightmares.

"What the hell...?", Rochelle stood up. "Who are you, or rather what are you?"

Fontaine rushed to him, grabbed him and tossed him across the room, like he was a simple doll, intead of a middle aged, rather heavy man. Rochelle hit the oposite wall and fell to the floor. As he was strugling to get up, Fontaine came over to him, and picked him up into the air by the neck.

"You humans have irritated us for far too long. It is time to feel our might!", said the deep voice.

"No please, no...HELP!", the captain cried out as Fontaine opened his mouth. A pair of tentacles came out. He latched his mouth onto Rochelle's and spat something into his mouth.

Rochelle went unconscious and Fontaine dropped him to the floor again.

On the bridge outside the room, everyone was waiting, looking at one another, whispering amongst themselves, guessing the reason of this sudden visit. Since the captain's ready room was completely sound proof, none of the commotion inside was heard by the bridge crew. After an hour, the doors finally opened, and the 2 men stepped outside.

"You have your orders Capitaine," said Fontaine, "I will let you proceed and be on my way."

The Captain escorted Fontaine to the airlock, and the bridge crew could see his ship as it went infront of them again. The other 2 that were patiently waiting in silence fell into formation. All 3 ships engaged their cloacking devices and disappeared into the asteroid field. The crew was amazed. Some of them heard about cloacking devices, but none had actually seen one in action before.

Rochelle returned to the bridge. He sat down into his chair and entered the new coordinates into the bult in interface. "We have new orders, lieutenant Rousseau, you are to change our course to these coordinates immediately!"

"But monsieur Capitaine, these lead to a position with no recognizable objects in the Dublin system. We were ordered to the Guillestre!"

"Don't question me, just do it!", shouted Rochelle.

"Oui monsieur, new coordinates locked in, we are ready to move on your order."

Rochelle stood up, "Proceed, I will be in my ready room, notify me when we approach our destination."

He went into his ready room and locked the doors behind him again. The cruise engines fired up and the Agincourt resumed her cruise. Some members of the crew started mumbling and asking questions, with obvious look of worry on their faces. None of them doubted Rochelle though, neither did they have the courage to confront him.

After a long trip the ship entered Dublin through the unmonitored Edinburgh jumphole. From here onwards, it was a very dangerous task ahead. Not because of the mystery they weren't aware of, but because of the Bretonian patrols that transit the system. "Luckily" for them, the destination was in an isolated place, so encountering a hostile ship wasn't as likely.

An hour later they were approaching the marked position. The helmsman noticed something ahead - he saw a jumphole not shown on any of the Royal Navy charts. He quickly called Rochelle. "Captain, I see something. It's... it's some kind of a jumphole..."

"Good. Proceed into it." - said Rochelle. The ship was standing in front of the jumphole.

"But sir, we don't know what's behind it!" - said the helmsman.

"Enfer, do it! Do you question my decisions!?" - said Rochelle insolently.

"Okay, okay. My apologies, monsieur. Set the course for docking." - the helmsman sighed audibly.

The ship slowly went into the jumphole. She and the documents were never seen again since...