The journey to Epsilon Eridani took only twelve days instead of the planned fourteen; Hal had ordered the engines pushed to military acceleration for the entire journey, which was not good for the long term life of the engines, but he didn’t care.
Once in the Epsilon Eridani system, Hal contacted the warship he detected on long range sensors: The SSS Skofnung which was orbiting New Midgard. Given Sleipnir’s distance, he had to wait an hour for the reply.
There was a long message with details and condolences, but only one fact registered with Hal: New Midgard had been nuked.
As Sleipnir approached New Midgard he saw the planet on the view screen as he expected, green and blue, and alive. But as they got closer, and the resolution increased, and they could see down to Norvik…
Hal stood slowly out of his command-chair and ambled close to the view screen, reaching out and touching it. Where Norvik had been, there was now a crater and scorched earth for at least a one-hundred kilometer radius. Destruction out to a twelve kilometer radius was absolute. Everything in that circle was gone. Including his home. Hal could hear Ailan’s music box playing in his head, over and over.
Hal shook his head gently, took a deep breath and walked back to his command-chair and sat down.
“Comms, hail the Skofnung,” Hal said..
“Aye, sir,” O-1 Idwal replied.
The Skofnung was Earth’s new interstellar destroyer and was named after the sword of legendary Danish king Hrólf Kraki. She was the class’ namesake. She was a typical destroyer: with middling arms and armor, but fast and versatile, and although not atmosphere capable, she had pinnaces for that. Her nine-thousand tonne class was the workhorse of the new SID Stellar Fleet.
On the Sleipnir’s view screen appeared an image of a young Hispanic man in his thirties, sitting in the Captain’s chair of the bridge, O-4 Antonio Cadena, who happened to be an old friend of Hal’s
“Tony, good to see you old friend.” Hal’s voice was flat and emotionless.
“Same here, Hal. Although I wish our reunion was under better circumstances,” he replied.
“What can you tell me?” Hal asked.
“Honestly, not much more than in Saeran’s message. There are no survivors, and of course we know they used a nuke. We’re estimating a one-hundred mega-ton yield. Seems they only used one, but a big one. Once we arrived, we stayed as picket and the LSS Llangernyw went back to Alfheim at max speed to pick up a new stellarcom array and to bring back reinforcements.”
Hal nodded. “Saeran contacted us twelve days ago. Governor Zelinski called her on the stellarcom as the attack happened. Apparently there were dozens of ships abducting our people; most likely those Hrymar bastards. Once they breached the MAC, the Governor set off the self destruct to the ERBT and they lost connection to Alfheim, so we don’t know what happened after that … until now. We made best speed here right after we talked with Saeran.”
“That’s good news, Hal. I mean, there’s hope your family is alive if they abducted people. The Hrymar are slavers, so they probably gathered up the local population, then dropped the bomb.”
“I can’t think about them right now, Tony.”
Tony nodded with understanding. “Well, apparently you and this new S3 outfit of yours outrank us fleet squids. Orders, sir?” Tony asked.
“I’m gonna go down to the planet.”
“Hal, there’s nothing within the ten clicks of Norvik, not a damn thing.”
YOU ARE READING
Star Wolves - The Tribes of Yggdrasil: Book 1
Science Fiction- “Stargate meets Lord of the Rings!” A century ago a beneficent alien race, the Alfar, uplifted mankind to the stars and unwittingly seeded their doom. Humanity had just begun to ply the dark interstellar seas and were wholly unprepared for the mal...
