Triplanetary · Chapter
Fleet Against Planetoid explained
The Triplanetary League's heavy cruiser Chicago responds to the distress call of the Hyperion, which has been gassed with Vee-Two.
What happens
The Triplanetary League's heavy cruiser Chicago responds to the distress call of the Hyperion, which has been gassed with Vee-Two. A secret Service operative, Cleve, reveals himself to the captain using a golden meteor badge and begins using a new communicator beam to locate the invisible pirate base. The fleet mobilizes into a war-cone formation and engages Roger's pirate fleet in a massive space battle. Despite the pirates' superior individual power, the Triplanetary forces use ultra-wave-controlled atomic torpedoes to destroy enemy ships, discovering that the vessels are unmanned robots controlled from the planetoid. As the fleet closes in on the pirate stronghold, a powerful Nevian vessel arrives, seeking a precious substance and threatening both sides.
Themes in this chapter
Hidden Manipulation of History
The Triplanetary Service operates in secret, with operatives like Cleve hidden in plain sight, and uses advanced technology (golden meteor, new communicator beam) to counter the invisible pirate threat.
Sacrifice for the Greater Good
The fleet sacrifices ships and crews (e.g., the Fearless and twenty other vessels) to destroy the pirate fleet and protect the League.
Characters to notice
- Cleve
A Triplanetary Service operative disguised as a Quartermaster private; reveals himself to the captain of the Chicago using a golden meteor badge and sets up a new communicator beam to locate the pirate base.
- Virgil Samms
Head of the Triplanetary Service; orders Cleve to report to the captain and authorizes the unprecedented revelation of Service operatives.
- Roger
Leader of the pirates; commands the invisible planetoid and the robot-manned fleet; his forces are largely destroyed in the battle.
- Captain Nerado
Commander of the Nevian vessel that arrives at the end of the chapter, seeking an ultra-precious substance and threatening both fleets.
Key passages
“Sector alarm! N.A.T. Hyperion gassed with Vee-Two. Nothing detectable in space, but. …”
An emergency alert reports that the liner Hyperion has been attacked with a poison gas, with no visible enemy in the area.
This event triggers the fleet's response and the revelation of the Service operatives.
“I've been ordered by Virgil Samms to report to the Captain, at once. See this? Touch it!”
Cleve identifies himself as a Service operative under Virgil Samms' orders and presents the golden meteor badge as proof.
The golden meteor is a symbol of the Triplanetary Service, granting access to the captain.
“Not a man in that great fleet had even an inkling of the truth; that those great vessels, those awful engines of destruction, did not contain a single living creature: that they were manned and fought by automatons; robots controlled by keen-eyed, space-hardened veterans inside the pirates' planetoid!”
The Triplanetary fleet is unaware that the pirate ships are unmanned robots controlled remotely from the planetoid.
This revelation underscores the technological and strategic sophistication of the pirates.
“Space became suffused with a redly impenetrable opacity, and through that indescribable pall there came reaching huge arms of force incredible; writhing, coruscating beams of power which glowed a baleful, although almost imperceptible, red.”
A mysterious red opacity fills space, and immense, powerful beams emerge from it, signaling the arrival of the Nevian vessel.
The Nevian intervention introduces a new, powerful faction into the conflict.