Chapter 8
Rolling Out the Red Carpet
Hall of the Ascending Dragon, Forbidden Precinct, Tianjing
All the major players in the General Staff were assembled in the Hall of the Ascending Dragon. Normally the Emperor himself would not attend a meeting like this, but Sturla was not like other emperors. Some of the older generals had served as far back as his great-grandfather's reign and were visibly uncomfortable having the Emperor in the room with them.
"Alright, gentlemen," Sturla began, "let's start with what we know."
Marshal Fei, the Air and Space Forces Chief of Staff, looked around uncertainly at his colleagues before speaking up. He tapped on the panel in front of him and the holoprojector in the center of the table came to life. It showed the planet, which then shrunk down to form the nucleus of a sphere comprised of thousands of tiny points of light.
"As, as you are surely aware, Your Majesty, our early warning network is designed to alert us to any intrusion within a million-kilometer radius of the planet. Six days ago, we started to detect outages."
In a time-lapse animation, the points of light started disappearing.
"Now, such outages are not uncommon, I am afraid to say. Space Command is not a priority when it comes to the budget. Our equipment is outdated, we do not have enough personnel..."
"His Majesty is not interested in your whining, Fei Wulai," Marshal Deng the Army Chief of Staff growled, "or your excuses."
Sturla raised a hand to quiet Marshal Deng. He was not interested in interservice squabbling either.
"Continue, Marshal Fei," he said.
Marshal Fei bobbed his head obligingly.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
They projector continued to show lights going out as the Marshal continued, "They outages have been occurring throughout the network seemingly at random, to give the impression of a natural phenomenon, but we have noticed a concentration of outages here that we believe is the clearing of a route of ingress."
"Ingress for a fleet of warships?"
"That is the fear, Your Majesty," Admiral Hui the Navy Chief of Staff replied. "It could be that the intruders need the element of surprise, but it may be that they are simply being cautious as they assess our strength."
"And what is our strength exactly?" Sturla asked.
Marshal Fei switched the view on the holoprojector to a closer image of the planet with new highlighted points above the surface.
"We have a mere 24 orbital defense platforms and while we have enough satellite coverage for nearly complete 24-hour realtime surveillance of the surface, none of that surveillance ability is pointed outward. The early warning beacons have limited range and as we have observed, there are growing holes in the network."
"The Naval Space Forces are similarly limited, Your Majesty," Admiral Hui added. "A mere two cruisers and four corvettes defend the Capital while four frigate squadrons serve as our Orbital Guard. It should be noted that even the youngest of these ships is over one hundred years old, although enough parts have been replaced in refits and regular maintenance over the years that you could argue the fleet has been rebuilt three times over.
"While Your Majesty's declared intention of constructing a new fleet is most welcome, even exhausting our manufacturing capacity, it would take months to complete even a single ship. If the need is desperate enough, we could refit and repurpose our fleet of cargo and personnel transports, but their effectiveness against dedicated warships is dubious at best."
"What about our visitors?"
General Kuai, director of the War Ministry's Intelligence Bureau, stood up and replied, "Four days ago, an approximately 60-meter spacecraft crash-landed in Qingmu, as Your Majesty is well aware. Our analysis of the crash site indicates that it suffered an impact with space debris while in orbit. Despite the damage from the impact, entry and the crash, we believe a significant portion of the internal components were mostly intact. However, the propulsion systems, weapons and electronics were later destroyed by the crew to prevent them from falling into our hands. There was also residue that indicates the bodies of the dead were destroyed by incendiaries. Ultimately, we were left with precious little material for study."
"But there are survivors?"
"Almost definitely, Your Majesty. I believe it is safe to assume they will try to send a distress signal to their mother fleet. They will of course find great difficulty accomplishing that. Assuming they can survive among the Infernals, that is."
"What are their options?"
"The only transmitters capable of sending a signal strong enough are the Red Lion Network—which they should know nothing about and be unable to access it even if they somehow stumble upon it—and the communications relay towers, which is their most likely target."
"Increase security at all the towers and tighten the monitoring of all transmissions from the surface."
"All of them, Your Majesty?" Marshal Deng asked. "Not just the ones in Qingmu, or even Shanbeixi?"
"They might be clever enough to cross county lines, even go outside the province to shake off any pursuers. Mobilize the household regiments, levy the Infernals if you have to. Catching these survivors is our priority. Now, the only question is who they are. The Old Empire?"
"That is highly possible, Your Majesty," General Kuai said. "The Old Empire, the Martian Alliance and the Pan-Galactic Commune were the three great powers at the time of the migration, but who knows how the situation may have changed these past three hundred years? It could be another power entirely, something smaller, more local, but nevertheless a threat. We have no idea how technology has developed. These intruders could be to us as we are to the Infernals."
Marshal Deng pounded his fist on the table.
"I'll not be compared with those worms!"
"Yet we may be nothing more than worms to these people, my Lord Marshal," General Kuai replied. "We cannot afford overconfidence."
"You're right, of course," Sturla said. "For now, let's maintain a defensive posture, ears up and eyes out. If they come at us guns blazing, we'll just have to throw everything we have at them and see what happens. If they want to talk, however, we might be able to turn the tables on them. This is an opportunity, after all. This could be the first shipment of my galaxy-conquering fleet. No assembly required."
The officers looked at him uncertainly.
"Surely you cannot be serious, Your Majesty," Admiral Hui said.
Sturla grinned and replied, "Why not? You can defeat your enemy by breaking his strength, but it's much smarter to take his strength and add it to your own."
"It is a dangerous game you would play, Your Majesty," Marshal Deng said.
"You have to risk something if you want to gain something. For now, we wait. Let them make the first move. Find those survivors. They can't possibly blend in with the Infernals. It should be easy."
"We will scour every square millimeter of the surface if we have to, Your Majesty," Marshal Deng said.
"We will be looking for any sign of the enemy's movement," Marshal Fei added.
"And we will defend the Capital with everything we have," Admiral Hui said as well.
Sturla nodded.
"Good. Don't let me down. The fate of our Empire hangs in the balance."
On that happy note, Sturla left the room. He had preparations of his own to make for his new guests.