It’s hard to believe, but at this juncture, humanity actually has a slight numerical advantage in military spacecraft. And each of those Earth ships has a high-power laser canon. We’re coming for you, Darkside.
***
NEMESIS 12
+ BEGIN TIMELINE DROP.
NOTE: Nemesis 12 was an important mission with respect to the history of the bug invasion and the war effort in general. It was years before I was allowed to include Shockwave’s involvement. That’s because I sort of ran afoul of an Earth Defense Forces directive. It was a misunderstanding really. For the most part it was. With the help of some powerful friends in Solcom, I was able to petition for a review of the squabble and set things right.
Part One is the practice report that got me into so much trouble in the first place. That was seized by the authorities. I suppose that warrants an explanation.
Part Two is the original Journal reporting of Shockwave’s involvement in the Nemesis 12 story, which was also seized and locked, under Global Security Directive Three.
PART ONE.
The “interdepartmental briefing report” was merely journalism practice, written shortly after the Nemesis mission. Shockwave didn’t have any actual departments when I wrote the piece. I had no reason to communicate with, or report to any other agencies. My error was to treat the practice report as an actual document. I used my personal pad rather than writing within the Shockwave Journal, AND included a little Ad-Stamp.
The Ad-Stamp had an embedded script in a nice 3-D arrangement which stated: “There was one survivor who was rescued in a manner that would be hard for most people to believe.” I was practicing with embedded holo-stamp scripts as a catchy attention grabber. Yeah, it was an attention grabber alright. I did not directly mention quantum teleportation. Besides, my personal pad was secured with the same encryption protocols as the Journal. And it bugged me that there was no reporting of the survivor. It was a long time before that information was pushed out. I have no idea why.
It wasn’t long after I had finished the practice departmental briefing report and added the Ad-Stamp, that two special agents from the FBI stormed in and seized my pad and copies of anything stored with the tag-name Nemesis. They had a warrant. I was denied opportunity to make any calls. The agents were very serious, saying I had committed a breach of Global Security Directive Three, whatever that was.
At the time, it didn’t seem like a stretch to think they might haul me in. I was told to never again write about Nemesis 12 or other matters of Global Security, under penalty of law. It’s hard to know if caving in like I did was the right thing to do. Grandad was furious. He began making waves but found out soon enough that it would probably be best to leave the situation alone.
Someone in a position of great authority was obviously involved. Formal charges had not been filed. The whole affair seemed odd, including FBI involvement in a Global Security matter. We were warned soon enough that additional attempts to mitigate would evolve into a court martial hearing. At that point I convinced Grandad it wasn’t worth it. We had a war to fight.
Here is the practice report that got me into so much trouble.
***
BEGIN REPORT.
Nemesis 12. This is an interdepartmental briefing report developed from the Incident Report of the First Moon Expeditionary Force presented to The Cabinet, Earth Defense Force [Top Secret].
Results of the First Lunar Expeditionary Force. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of those who did not return from the First Lunar Expeditionary Force. Many saw that courageous battle for the future of humanity as a terrible disaster.
In that all ships and their crews were lost it definitely was a disaster.
<AD-STAMP: “There was one survivor who was rescued in a manner that would be hard for most people to believe.” >
Yet, intelligence data gathered by the expeditionary force supplied critical information necessary to conduct the next phase of the war effort. With that perspective, the mission was a brilliant success. It is not an exaggeration to declare, we are here today because of those brave souls.
10 bug nest ships were positioned in blockade formation toward Earth approximately 25,000 miles (40,000 km) from the Moon. The Earth strike force consisted of 12 military spacecraft of the Nemesis class and one reconnaissance craft.
Nemesis class ships are based on a platform first developed under the XS-1 Program. Engine type and fuel requirements are listed as classified. Actual performance data of the Nemesis ships suggests they used powerful but conventional solid-fuel rocket propulsion systems.
The weapon systems were sophisticated, consisting of high acceleration thermonuclear missiles and an advanced directed energy weapon system. Six of the ships were equipped with lasers based on upgraded HELLADS project models. The other six ships used a next-gen extremely high output fiber laser system specifically designed for offensive capability. There had not been enough time to upgrade all of the weapon systems to the more powerful fiber laser system.
The next-gen energy weapons would qualify as pulsing laser cannons, with some similarity to the weapons used by the bugs. Though these DEW (directed energy weapon) systems were more powerful than those used in prior battles, such as at the Battle for Los Angeles, they were still underpowered as compared to the bug systems. Yet, these machines and weapon systems were the apex of human military and technological achievement.
The Nemesis ships had been newly coated with a reflective film designed specifically to shield them from the DEW weapon systems used by the bugs. More than one engineer agreed with the remark: the thin film evokes only a thin hope of protection.
Even before the actual invasion, there were government officials around the world who knew
