Two more Growlers follow on from Liwei, one catching the edge of a GRASER wave and breaking apart. The other Growler hits the shielding, grinding away for a moment before being cast aside, the shield projector glowing and pulsing. Four additional battlestars from the passing Freedom Battle Group have joined the others at maximum firing range.
Eight PBWs release their tremendous arcs of broiling energy, finishing the overtaxed shields. A side display emerges to show energy readings from the pentalink climbing rapidly, followed by another display registering the initial phase of a warp anomaly. The battlestars are raking the ship with fire as their PBWs charge. Rail fire erupts from the battlestars as they recharge their PBWs for another volley.
Spike! A quantum glimpse prompts the battlestars to adjust shields and encase essential AI/quputer components just as a tremendous wave of gravitational force pulses out in all directions from the pentalink. The battlestars are tossed aside like ships at sea meeting a tsunami.
Health reports for each of the ships leap to the foreground. All are struggling with quantum decoherence, unable to function. Pollux and Castor have lost their shielding.
The pentalink begins a spin that accelerates, the edges moving up and down well outside a normal plane of motion, as though a giant central gyroscope is in control. It’s the precursor to a round of sustained fire with enough force to destroy all the battlestars. Grid filters activate as two flashes of light blossom into spheres of thermonuclear destruction reducing the pentalink to a smoldering slagheap, curtesy of HAKIs from SLSF Gagarin.
The battlestars are coming around, superposition restored. They will be fine.
Pentalink-1 and Pentalink-2 were destroyed by the combined forced of Liberty and Justice. The proximity of the two pentalinks, and the mutual support thus provided, made it a costly victory. Four battlestars were destroyed. All the SSC3 Growlers available to the Liberty and Justice Battle Groups were used in the fight.
Pentalink-4 never joined the fight. Soon after the battle was over, the ship sped off at flank speed, away from the Cygnus Prime system. A destroyer from Justice group was sent to keep tabs.
Only four SSC3 Growlers remain to the fleet, aboard the destroyers Gagarin and Jemison of the Freedom Battle Group. ISR reports are encouraging. 10 dreadnaughts remain, though only 5 are fit for battle. 5 cruisers are fit for battle. 1 pentalink continues moving at flank speed away from Cygnus Prime.
The battle for space supremacy of the Cygnus Prime system is over. During the fighting, ships of the Liberty and Justice battle groups were scattered over a wide area approximately 2-light-hours from Cygnus Prime.
The heavy haulers carrying SUGAR (heavy armored ground equipment) and SPICE (aerospace attack craft) have a particularly wide separation due to evasion courses undertaken during the battle. Liberty and Justice battle groups have begun a wide arcing course that will allow regrouping of the heavy haulers and supply ships in their vicinity. They will oversee and defend the SUGAR and SPICE drop for the ground work on Cygnus Prime that will take place once League troops have established shielded forward fire bases on the planet.
Freedom’s grouping is tighter, with the empty troop carriers and some of the supply ships in proximity, an ideal situation to move forward with troop deployment.
Solcom is hopeful the incursion of fortress complex 5 by the SpecOps under command of Captain Enroth will provide a model working plan to take down the domes. Regardless, with dominance of space completed, and the teleportation corridor still open over Prime, troops will begin landing as soon as Freedom battle group is in position.
***
Engrossed in the Viper action, we’re caught completely off-guard by our ready-room host; not a stellar moment for three resourceful SpecOps teams. “I see you’ve helped yourselves to the accommodations.”
After my initial startle reaction, and a scowl sent toward Communal, I try to redeem the situation as I reel around, the command already leaving my lips. “Attention!”
Everyone, including Wink, responds immediately. “Oh, my, be at ease.”
I’ve met Dr. Winkler several times, but mostly know her by reputation. She insists I call her Wink, to the point of being scolded by her. Yup, she still has her characteristic nervous... wink. She’s a huge part of the reason we have portal gates and FTL ships. I didn’t know she had a commission in the Space Force. This should be interesting. Wink is pretty famous, so everyone in the room knows who she is. I expect this will be a very quiet crowd. Let’s get this party rolling.
Wink has a smile for me. “Hi, Viz. It’s been a while. I’m glad your team is on this assignment.”
“I’m surprised to see you here, Wink. I thought this was a meeting to go over our op assignment.”
“And, so it is. Special Agent Enroth of the SID will be along in a minute to get into the actual operator details. I’m here to provide technical assistance for a new gadget we’ve been putting together. These days, they have me assigned to all things related to shielding technology, from Primer energetic fields, to the Dahnahaash domes.”
“You’ve developed a... gadget, to bust the domes?”
“No. The dome technology, frankly, baffles us. We’ll get there. Our gadget is designed to get you past even the most robust of Primer energetic shielding. We want, very badly, to get into the defense facilities that watch over the dome bases, and destroy them. That would make it ever so much easier to target the dome bases when they open to release the supplies streaming in from their Empire network. We want to cut off their supply line.”
“We were told there was already an active solution to target the dome bases when they open. I’m hoping this isn’t their active solution.”
“No. This is us hoping we can improve on the active solution. That sounds like Solcom-speak. Active solution. They didn’t bother to outline their active solution, did they? It may work. Most of the sites have at least a few hills in the general vicinity. Tanks will fire hyperbore munitions carrying a tactical nuclear payload. The hills will provide cover from the defense facility guns, which are line-of-site weapon systems.”
That got Roddy up on his feet, then he thought better of it and started to sit, only to bounce back up again. “Ain’t going to work. What are you thinking? The tanks won’t have air support, and besides, the Primer defense guns got that covered. They’ll send their own air-tanks to roast their positions. Ain’t going to work.”
You’ve got to like the unfiltered honesty, but I can’t let the poor timing of it just pass. “Sit down, Corporal. Major Winkler, here, didn’t come up with the tanks hiding behind the hill solution. She’s trying to give us a better option. Unless you already have one to offer?”
Roddy sat down.
Wink is definitely a delight to work with. “Thank you, Viz. Corporal, I appreciate your zeal. We’ll need that for this operation. You, brave soldiers, are going to get us the keys to the castles. This gadget will get you into the defense fortresses. I’ll show you how it works. Then Mr. Enroth, Captain Enroth, will give you the ops assignment.”
Here’s Roddy again. “You get us inside, we leave a little 10-kiloton package, and poof. That’s it, and done.”
Wink doesn’t agree, as she looks over to a strobing light on the wall. “Corporal, it may, in fact, come to that. I’ll let Captain Enroth explain the details, but here’s some food for thought. Our mission is to seize the facility, and find the off switch for the base dome. We’re certain it’s in the defense fortress, in a control room. Teams are on standby to seize every fortress complex as soon as we develop the game plan.”
I couldn’t help but notice. “Our mission. You said our mission as though you will be directly involved in the op.”
Wink nodded, and added a wink. “Oh, I am coming. You’ll want my fingers in the pie on this one. Trust me.”
Oh, I trust her alright. But we need her working on projects, not getting fried in a Primer fortress. The strobe light over the teleportation room shifted over to a steady green. Captain En
roth, I presume.
Wink seems genuinely happy to see Special Agent Captain Enroth. “Captain, we’ve been expecting you.
Captain Enroth is younger than I thought, dark complexion, deep voice, a picture-perfect SpecOps look to him. “Major. I hope I haven’t kept you waiting. A trunk-load of last minute this-and-that’s.”
No worries. “Perfect timing. We just finished a brief operations summary. Captain, I’ll let you handle introductions as you see fit. Oh, I should add.
“Teams, I’m not sure if I was clear. Captain Enroth will lead the mission. The silly bureaucracy has settled me into a major’s commission, though I have precious little training in such things. I am coming along only in the capacity of a scientist and technician. That’s it. It’s best to be very clear about that right up front. Let me know you understand. Very good. Captain, the floor is yours.”
A HARD DAYS WORK
The infiltration plan is pretty simple. It’s June 14th. The dust is just starting to settle in the vicinity of Cygnus Prime, with Viper fleet apparently in control. We’ve just transited the gate system and pushed out from the gate-ship in our modified AT-3 stealth ship capable of FTL-10. And there we go, warp field engaged. In an hour or so, we’ll dip momentarily into the upper atmosphere of Prime, inside that corridor of opportunity that is out of reach from the defense fortress guns, and port to our designated target facility.
Back in a bit. Enroth is calling us together for a final ops chat.
For this operation, we’ll be cloaked. 32 souls. I made it clear that everyone had better stay really close until we get into the facility. My cloaking field is going to be creaky at the edges. Hopefully, Wink’s gadget will get us into the facility on the quick. Then all we need to do is defeat any resistance, find the control room, turn off the dome shield protecting the portal gate bases, and blow the fortress to atomic dust. Then, multiply that times 50 gates, and we’ve won the war, and freedom for the Empire slaves of the planets tethered to the gates. Porting in 3, 2, 1...
So far, so good. Cloak, cloak, cloak. I can’t see the dome, which is on the other side of this fortress. Wink is placing the quantum tunneling gadget. It looks like a mirror with a shiny metal band around it, maybe 3-feet in diameter, supported by a sturdy stand. There’s a second piece that looks similar, though the mirror section is black, something to do with an extremely low albedo.
The two sections will be spaced apart at some prescribed focal length, then some sort of amplifier will drive the quantum tunneling current into a vortex that will raise the transfer ratio of physical matter to 100%. That physical matter will be us crawling through the one-way mirror. Fully intact, I hope. Hurry, Wink, extending the cloaking field is draining me.
I’m the last one to crawl into the fortress. Watch the last step, it’s a doozy. And my cloaking field is... down. No audible alarms. This lower floor is mostly underground and filled with what looks to be mostly power generation and control equipment, though a lot of stuff is completely foreign to me. There’s nothing that looks like it might be a dome shield control room. I find myself wondering, where is everyone? Odd that we don’t have some bad company by now.
There’s a lot of EM interference in here. Hard to know if it’s active signal jamming, or just a byproduct of all this equipment. The fuzzy scans show two separated sections upstairs. Just ahead is a Primer tube elevator, large enough for cargo. Doors on opposite sides of the facility lead to stairwells that should lead upstairs into the separate sections. Time to split teams. Gopher Guts is going to secure this floor and offer assistance upstairs as needed. Shockwave will go left as Dirty Feet moves up the right stairwell with Enroth and Wink.
The stairwell door is locked, no hardware, barely a seam. Para has a special alloy pry bar. She inverts, winds up, slams the bar into the seam, steps back and hammers it with a thrust-kick. There’s a screeching sound as the heavy door twists. Para has a handhold, braces a leg against the wall, wrenches, producing a terrible cracking sound and a deep clatter as the entire door slams to the floor along with Para. Now there are alarms. Kill sniffers are merging into an attack flock, then fall in a heap. Communal has an EMP radiator.
I put away my mini-20, miffed that they didn’t tell me of that capability, but stifle the emotion as I hear the det-cord blast at the other end of the facility. “Enroth, watch for sniffers!” It’s crackly, but I hear him answer, roger that.
“Move!” shouts Communal as he physical shoves us to the side. As I stumble over against the wall, my Ivees flash a quantum glimpse warning. A broiling cloud flashing with energy rumbles out of the stairwell and dissipates. Another call to Enroth to watch for traps, like energy clouds. Rock sends a floater up the stairs as I contemplate cloaking my team. The floater announces an all-clear. Communal suggests he take point. Agreed. I can hear the quiet buzz of his shielding as he ratchets the power up and moves into the stairwell.
“Clear!” calls Communal at the top of the stairs. “Another door to breach, it opens out.”
Para looks at me and points up the stairs. I nod. Communal has already stepped to the side as Para sprints upward with impossible speed, slamming into the door, making a large dent and a small opening.
We might as well have a look before we leap. “Hold a second, Para. Let’s send in some crawlers.”
Fierce throws a bag up to Para, who looks to be picking out several, one by one. They’re all exactly the same. Finally, she decides to send them all, feeding the rest through the crack, and bringing the reader online. She scrolls for a few moments and then, of all things, she giggles. That has me sprinting up the stairs to see what in the world is going on.
Giggling, Para hands the reader to me. Oh, this is kind of fun. But these are fliers instead of crawlers. Even better. These things are new tech to us, basically a knock-off of the Primer sniffers. Thankfully, the reader display is the same, so I can understand the distance measurements and such.
There’s movement from two directions heading toward our position. “We’ve got bots moving toward us. If we don’t move in now, they’ll have us pinned down.”
I push out the display to everyone’s Ivees and pocket the reader. Some details are lost, but the Ivees do a good job of representing the flier positions, and the quputer has already produced a decent map by integrating the observations of the little drones. Of immediate interest is the position of the bots. Now there are three of them merging on our position.
A blast of heat and flash of light sends all of us into crouched positions, and moving fast to cover. I’m noticing a decidedly dusty, musty ting to the large room. This place isn’t being used, with the feel of a room full of junk that will eventually be discarded. More fire comes our way. The bots aren’t showing any signs of caution as they roast the area around us. The junk in this room must be worthless. That’s no good for us, at all.
The bots have their own EMP projectors and have taken down our little fliers, and the floaters we’ve sent up. It’s time to go port-crazy on these bots. Facing the bots, left to right, bots 1, 2, and 3.
Rock and I untangle behind bot-1 and we both open up with our Shades carbines, half a mag, then we return to our hidey-hole to review our data. The Ivees show the spooky rounds doing their job, punching through the bot’s energetic shielding. But the rounds don’t have enough punch to penetrate the bot’s physical armor. Crud. These must have a shell upgrade.
Roll, Fierce, and Communal target bot-2 with an assortment of weapons. Roll tries an ultra-high-energy plasma tube, the energy bleeding uselessly across the bot’s energy shield. Communal hits it with an amped up Longarm blaster. Oh, and he has another surprise. It looks like a 20mm rocket round with a shaped charge. The bot doesn’t like the 20mm round and spins around scary fast. Roll ports them out just as Fierce tosses an armful of explosives. Whatever it was that Fierce tossed was powerful enough to ring my bell way over here. Rock does a flash-port to check out the damage. The bot may be damaged, but it’s still functional.
The Allenmor
e Four found a very heavy piece of equipment to drop on Bot-3. Sure enough, it looked as though the thing was flattened. But it managed to crawl out from under the thing in one piece. A drop with more altitude would probably have done the trick.
This isn’t going well. It’s clear there is no dome control room in this section, but we also don’t want to leave the bots roaming the facility to kill us later. They’re in no hurry, just lighting up our position from a distance. And it’s getting hot in here. I want to check in with Enroth, but comms are sketchy, can’t hear a thing outside of this room.
“Ow!” came out in a most undignified manner as a piece of melting goo from the ceiling fell and brushed my hand. “Okay, let’s have some ideas, folks.”
Primer mil-bots have a weak underside, like League bots, if you can get to it. Rock thought an RC might work. But you have to be close to push a rolling claymore. He ported to a secure spot around a piece of equipment near bot-2 and sent an RC around the corner. Bad luck, it almost got stuck in some sticky melt-off from a ceiling fixture. We had gotten a little overzealous with plasma tubes just before I called out for some ideas. But the little champ pushed through, ever so slowly, moved to the bot, then exploded. After a smokey sizzle, bot-2 flashed and died. Excellent!
We tried half of our remaining RCs on the other two bots, but the mil-bots proved to be wicked-fast, and destroyed them as soon as they came into view.
“Hold your fire!” called Roll. “I’ve got an idea. I’ll be right back.”
Within 30 seconds, two resounding RC claps echoed through the facility, followed by a grenade blast. There was a loud sizzle sound, like fat dripping on a fire, or a lot of frying Primer electronics. I’ve come to associate that sound with a dead mil-bot.
Roll untangled near my position. “They’re dead, though bot-3 was stubborn. Here’s the action-on report showing the method.”
As our port-techs take a few moments to clear the room, line-of-sight flash-ports, I have a moment to scroll through Roll’s report. There’s a running commentary, but I won’t have time for that. He has the underside of a RC open and is putting some goop on the track rollers. Roll next sends the RC around some equipment toward a bot. It’s moving very, very slowly. Explosion. Same setup for the next bot, though the RC has some track trouble, probably due to the goop, and explodes to the side of the bot, knocking it over. With the undercarriage exposed, Roll finished it off using a grenade.
Invasion: Journal Three (Shockwave Book 3) Page 31