Faith & Empire: Book One of The Holy Terran Empire

2. Mission Briefing

Colonel L'Amour paused to bow to Lords Zoltan and Kolchick before continuing, "As for myself, the Imperial Marines of 3d Regiment and on behalf of Commodore Alba and all the officers and crews of the Lepanto and her escorts, we welcome our lords and Austros' finest into our ranks.

"Be assured dear brothers in Christ, it will be our great honor to fight alongside you if it be our good God's will that our mission lead us into battle. Is that not so, gentlemen?"

Third Regiment and the assembled Angel fighter pilots sprung to attention again and responded with an enthusiastic and quite loud, "I-O!"

The men on stage smiled. Lords Zoltan and Kosta bowed deeply in gratitude.

Colonel L'Amour gestured to the pair of empty seats in the front row. "My lords, if you would."

Once Zoltan and Kosta took their seats, we took ours.

Colonel L'Amour aimed a thin, two-inch long remote at the bulbous, volley ball-sized holographic projector floating ten meters in the air above us. A holographic representation of the Muvurunian system appeared between the dais and our seats.

Muvuru was a yellow star, similar to Sol in both size and age. Seven planets orbited Muvuru, none of which were habitable. Muvuru one, two and seven were presently on the far side of the system. The other four were spread across the hemisphere before us. A broad asteroid belt separated the inner two planets from the outer five. Icons representing the Lepanto and her battle group were clustered just outside the sphere of orbits.

"We are farther beyond the Empire's borders than any Imperial ship has ever gone," Colonel L'Amour began. "Up until three weeks ago, Muvuru was just a name overheard on pirate chatter. Imperial Intelligence guessed it was their secret base, the lair from which they struck out and retreated to, but until La Valette and the Shimabara began purging the sector of its pirate infestation, I.I. had no idea where to find Muvuru.

"Since our arrival, we have determined that, as well as serving as the pirates' Alliance home base, Muvuru is also a heretofore unknown system of the old Dominion of Man. More than that, it appears to be a remarkably well preserved system.

"From what our probes and long range scans have been able to determine, this system was being mined for various ores and gases when the Dominion collapsed. It must have been abandoned about that time and then simply forgotten until it was rediscovered by the pirates who presently hold it. We've detected several facilities throughout the system, processors and refineries mostly, some automated and others dormant.

"There are also three large, deep-dug personnel bases where our pirates are presently holed up. The first two are found on the moons of the gas giants, Muvuru 5 and Muvuru 6. The third and largest base is on the planet Muvuru 3."

The planet and moons were highlighted in the hologram by glowing auras.

"Now, as much as we would prefer to just bombard the bases from orbit, reduce them to dust and be on our merry way, we can't," Colonel L'Amour said. "Unfortunately, this system is an historic find. Muvuru could turn out to be an archaeological treasure trove and..."

"We're not going to bomb them from a safe distance so that archeologists and historians can have something to scribble about?"

The question was put forth by Hervis Bucci, a pale, red-headed corporal in our company. The major smiled indulgently at him, but it was Captain Obey that responded. "One of those scribblers happens to be our Emperor, corporal."

"Oh yeah?" Corporal Bucci asked with what struck me as feigned surprise. The corporal was one of the biggest recipients of my prayers in the company, for I so disliked the man.