Spinward Fringe Broadcast 14

by Randolph Lalonde

  "No idea whose calling?" Alice said as the lighting increased to a comfortable level. She was happy they were still dressed.

  "No, but Captain Lucas is on the whitelist, so he can be in the room while you answer it. The whitelist is short, and I'm not on it, so I'll activate privacy mode when you accept the call," Elise explained.

  Sitting up, Alice said; "I'll take it."

  Ayan's holographic torso appeared above the bed, then it adjusted so it was sitting cross legged in front of them. She was in full uniform, and other than a little smile that came when she realized that Noah and Alice were lounging in his quarters, she was in what Alice had come to call 'full admiral mode.' "I'm always happy to see the Captains of the Fleet getting along," she said, her British accent and dimpled but fading smile adding sugar to the remark. "I'm afraid I won't have time to look through the details of your latest report."

  "Everything's going well here," Alice answered, a little embarrassed, feeling like she'd been caught with a boy in her room for a moment before reminding herself that she wasn't a teenager. Her short time as a teen didn't include much fascination for the opposite sex, either. "We have a local lead, and Noah's becoming well known in the system. Not much has changed from my initial report."

  "I know, not much time has passed," Ayan replied. The last of her joviality slipped away. "I wish we had time for a social call, but a lot has happened for the Fleet. We initiated Phase Seven in the Haven System. That is a secret plan to rescue our people there or wipe the Order presence out using assets we hid when we were driven away. Unfortunately, the time we had to rescue our people was shortened, and while we were able to get most of them out of the system aboard the Pelican, new interdiction drones and several heavy warships are holding essential ships there."

  "Dad? Oz? Minh? Grandma?" The last felt strange. Taking Admiral Jessica Rice on board as her grandmother was still a new notion, and it still didn't feel right considering how hard it was for Ayan to gain Jessica's acceptance.

  "They're all trapped along with the most of the experienced Freeground people in the fleet," Ayan admitted.

  "So, Dad's aboard the Merciless, working with Oz and Admiral Rice?" That situation could get them out of trouble. The three of them were formidable on their own, so together they could be great.

  "The ships we have there are coordinating, of that we can be pretty sure," Ayan said. "The War Forge and the biggest fleet of allies we've ever assembled just jumped. We've managed to get our transit time down to twenty-one minutes. With the interdiction signals in the area, we'll be arriving on the edge of the solar system, but we have a plan. We're taking the Haven System back."

  "I can have the Clever Dream on the way in seconds," Alice said.

  "Same with the Corsair, we just need to detach from a container and we'll make the jump," Noah added.

  "Stay there," Admiral Anderson said firmly. "Intelligence predicts that this is a trap. The Order could turn it around on us. We'll be using a little ingenuity and a lot of firepower so we can hold the solar system without a great loss of life, but regardless of the outcome we need both of you out there. If we're successful, then we'll be able to send you resources so your mission is even easier. If the worst happens, and we're driven out of the system or blockaded in it, then your mission will be even more important."

  "That could happen? There's a good chance of that happening?" Alice asked, trying to be serious and stoic instead of worried, even frightened.

  "Yes," Ayan said. "The chances are that the results of this fight will land us somewhere in the middle, though, with a large portion of the fleet concentrating on defence for weeks before we can start supporting you. My point is that we need you out there, using whatever methods you see fit to recruit people who are already fighting the Order. If they're not willing to join or coordinate with us, make sure you support them using whatever backstory they'll accept. I can't tell you what method will work best, I'm not out there meeting these people, so we leave it in your hands."

  "And if you all get yourselves killed or imprisoned, we're supposed to build our own resistance out here?" Alice asked, realizing that it was a useless complaint the moment she finished speaking. "No problem," she told her with a smirk Alice hoped was convincing, cocky.

  The sudden surge of surprise and confusion from Noah almost made Alice laugh. He was probably having all kinds of trouble reading her. That was no surprise, since she was having trouble negotiating her own conflict with the whole situation. Her instincts told her to rush back to the Clever Dream so they could jump to the Haven System. Everyone she cared about other than her crew and Noah were in jeopardy, there had to be something she could do. At the same time her sense of duty and every rational instinct told her that obeying orders was the right thing to do. That her mother was making sense. After all; if they already had the largest fleet Haven had ever seen assembled, if they were already on their way, what could two corvettes do?

  "I'm happy you're out there," Ayan said, her voice and expression softening a little as she regarded Alice and Noah. "I believe what you're doing is important, but don't rush so you can show us results. Build something, get connected to important people who can help, and look forward to my next call. I'll have good news."

  A brave face. Alice recognized it immediately, especially since she looked so much like Ayan and she spent time every morning studying her own expressions. "Good hunting, Admiral," Noah said.

  "Be careful," Alice said, aware that she was specifically talking to Ayan as a daughter. The instinct to rush to the Haven System surged again, and she crushed it down, adding; "And good hunting."

  Ayan regarded them both for a moment, was about to say something, but closed her lips instead, ending the call with a pleased expression that made Alice wish she could read her mother more than ever. It was as if she was satisfied with where Alice was, who she was with, and that was all Ayan needed before rushing into a hopeless situation. Then again, that could be all in her head, the results of an imagination running wild on a diet of frustration and anxiety.

  "They're going to kick ass," Noah said, putting his arm around her. "We'll get another call in a couple hours telling us to fabricate a bottle of Champaign, because they've got the whole solar system locked down, you'll see."

  "I hope so," Alice said. Then she voiced a dark thought; "She dodged my question about Dad."

  Twenty-Three

  Breaking Out

  * * *

  Trust. There were signs everywhere on the island of Haven Shore that the people that were just evacuated, those tasked with protecting it, and the soldiers that were fighting in that very moment had trust in something. As Admiral Jacob Valent was confronted by a sapling planted on a low, earthy spot on the landscape facing the beach in the middle of a little circle of stones, he got a sour feeling in the pit of his stomach, like all that trust had been taken away. The promise of a tree had been planted there by someone who expected to be around to watch it grow. The longer Jacob's soldiers spent on that beach, the more troops their opposition were allowed to land, the less likely a return to Haven Shore was.

  The sky was black with smoke from the spreading fires in the jungle. Dark, giant jungle cats, big shouldered apes, smaller monkeys and everything in between were starting to come down from the massive flat-topped mountain that ran the length of the island. They were going towards water, maybe they were reacting to this fire like a few that happened before, but this one was man-made, war-made. It would consume every jungle on the strand of land.

  Buildings that people called home, that filled their designers with pride, and were once wonders in themselves had been reduced. Some to ruin like the shard, which was more like a dark, broken, ruined spike in flames, others to lesser versions of themselves like the Everin Building, which had been robbed of most of the bulbous apartment compartments that were once the outer layer of the structure. Those compartments had been picked up and flown away under shuttles and corvettes, taken whole with residents inside l
eaving the Everin Building thin looking, almost sickly compared to its former robust shape.

  The worst damage, as far as Jake was concerned, was underground. The hostage negotiations quickly turned to disaster. Everyone suspected that would be the result, no matter who went down, but someone had to try to free the captives. Order Knights were zealots, willing to do anything to turn any situation into a victory, no matter the cost. The details leading up to the detonation of a bomb would be sorted out later, but the life signs from the bunker told him that Remmy Sands, Masterson, and Bedel, who was known as Dotty or Dot throughout the fleet were all killed. They'd managed to save most of the civilians, cramming them into an armoured elevator that Alaka's team was bringing up, and the other soldiers in Remmy's team were finished regenerating. They were cutting their way through the upper floors, making their own way to the surface while a couple members of Alaka's team cut down from above.

  Gorev, a volunteer with Remmy's team, had taken the least damage. He explained that the bomb was made to wipe out junk matter around heavy metals during asteroid mining but at such close range even heavy metals could be obliterated. That's probably what happened to Remmy and the other casualties. It was a quick death. That wasn't much of a consolation to Jake, who felt the loss of the Captain and his partner, Dot. Why do we only realize how much we like some people when we realize they're gone? He asked himself, not for the first time in his life.

  They were both likeable people, something Jake knew while they were alive, sure, but the depth of that was revealed as he saw flat lines and verification scan results after the bomb went off. There was a chance that their memories would be imprinted on new bodies, that another Remmy and Dot could be in the universe again, but Jake knew the mortal divide more than most. It wasn't the same. Death was death, and those two people's journeys were finished. Any new copies didn't serve them, they would serve everyone else. The Fleet, their friends, and the people who didn't appreciate them enough the first time around.

  They would be like him. Jonas became Jacob, and the two were more different every day. Different from the very start, he was sure. Like Ayan knew she wasn't her previous self, didn't feel the same, even though her father took every measure he could to avoid differences. Even though he knew it was self-serving, he hoped Remmy and Dot could be copied. He hoped the new science could work miracles.

  A barrage of light shards ripped the dirt around him and the squads. They backed around cover, letting their shields regenerate. Every electromagnetic grenade and pulse bomb they had were recharging, hanging off their backs.

  The black sky was lit by fire behind and in front of them the few fighters Haven could spare were blasting at Citadel shuttles as well as similar looking oval lifeboats as they tried to come down near one section of the island's beach. That broad cove was important. The stony shelf was lowest there, earthy in some places, only a metre or so above the gradual slope of the sandy beach. Invaders could rush up, dig in, even approach by water like several of the armoured lifeboats that made it through the fighter screen did.

  Squads under the command of Jacob and Frost were in the lead, looking for a way to destroy a strategic point near the water where Citadel soldiers set up in a cave. Its mouth was dense stone, and the enemy had set up four rapid-firing cannons that already tore several of his heavily armoured soldiers up as they attempted to ascend. The shuttle that was coming down to pick them up was nearly destroyed as well. Fighters had to take turns at lower altitudes to let their shields recharge. There was a lot of firepower on the ground, pointing up at the sky, taxing the defences of Uriels from over twenty enemy positions that were well dug in.

  The cave was certainly not the only emplacement, either, the Citadel troops were quick, focused and well-armed. The lifeboats they came down in were well armoured, ships that could carry seven people comfortably and served as good cover. There was every chance that they were generating new frameworks, too, but Jake hadn't seen evidence of that yet, even on scanners.

  "We've got a clear line of sight on Lifeboat Nine," Stephanie said from her position a kilometre down the rocky shelf facing the beach. "Watch this."

  A rapid series of bright explosions drew his attention to his right. One of her people's micro-missile launchers had unleashed a barrage at the ship they spent ten minutes creeping up on. That would be enough to split the hull, or at least temporarily kill most of the soldiers inside.

  "Charge!" Stephanie called, and the three squads followed her lead, rushing the flaming lifeboat to finish the framework soldiers inside off while they were regenerating. Longer range fire from soldiers peeking out of hatches in the second nearest lifeboat down the beach taxed their shields and threatened to stop their rush, but it was too late. Stephanie would accomplish her mission, their grip on the shoreline and the lower altitudes over the island would be loosened that much more.

  As if in retaliation to that small victory, two of the heavy guns in the cave Jake's squad was about to assault again came to life, lighting the sand and earth around them up with white bolts of energy. He wondered how mindless these framework soldiers were. They seemed much more capable, more coordinated than the ones he'd defeated before.

  They still weren't smart or quick enough to stop bots from boarding the second Citadel carrier and providing a good connection so it could be hacked. A combined effort by the crews of the Merciless and the Triton got that done, and that carrier - in a sorry state, but useable - fell under Haven control. The crew abandoned ship, but instead of breaking for open space, they turned to Haven Shore in their shuttles and lifeboats.

  There was one test he wanted to do before he led his people against that bunker. From his hip pocket, he pulled his last fully charged throw rocket. It was the length of his hand, set up with a high-powered electromagnetic warhead. With a jerk he tossed it over his head, the rocket activated, aimed itself at the cave opening and started its short, quick trip to the shield protecting it. Before it made it ten metres, one of the autocannons set up in the cave sighted and destroyed it with a short burst of rounds. "Worth a try," Jake said to himself.

  "Aye," Frost said from his left side. "Maybe we should back off, come around and take out one of the positions covering it from the side. That way we might be able to take it from the side or the rear."

  It took a second for Jake to push his irritation at the suggestion down. Of course I thought of that, but it would take time. There's another squad working on it already, and even they're finding it slow going. All these bastards dug in the instant they touched the ground, but if we take the cave, we have a chance at ascending in our suits, they have the biggest anti-air guns, we can turn them to the left and right, leave them behind so they can cover us as we crack a few more positions. "We're way past our mission time," Jake said. "Tell me you've got a better idea than taking the long way around."

  "What do you think I've been doin' here? I'm wracking my brain!" Frost snapped.

  Sometimes you had to sacrifice, it was just a fact. One squad could take the cave, but half of them would die doing it if they used quick tactics. He looked at the status of his eight electromagnetic grenades and six hand rockets, they wouldn't be finished for a couple minutes. Jake opened a channel to Oz as Frost sighed and apologized, promising to come up with something. "Oz, tell me you can free a corvette up for a few minutes to give us some support. I know we've got a bunch of combat shuttles, but they won't take the beating."

  "I've got… wait…" Oz started. "All right, we can't get a firing solution on that beach from here, and the fleet is busy, but one of my guys says he's putting something together. Hang in there, hold for a few minutes and we'll have something for you."

  "All right, I'm going to check with the merciless again," Jake said, switching over to a direct channel between him and Agameg. "Captain, can you get a clear shot at the cave I'm marking?"

  "We can't break formation with the rest of the ships in orbit," Agameg replied. "Did Admiral McPatrick tell you someone was working on a s
olution?"

  "Yes. Listen, I'm begging: just send down one torpedo, or a guided missile on an approach that will hit that cave from behind," Jake knew what the answer would be the moment he glanced at the tactical information streaming from the Merciless.

  "The moment we launch slower projectiles, even cloaked, they are destroyed. I'm afraid that is too much to ask, Admiral," Agameg replied.

  "Right, we'll get this done down here," Jake replied, irritated at the situation more than any person. "Leave us down here if you find a way to break through up there."

  "I understand my orders, Admiral," Agameg said officially. Then, with a more personal tone, he finished by saying; "Good luck."

  A small status tracker showed that Stephanie's group just finished taking a position up the beach. "There's something strange about these frameworks," she said on a channel reserved for captains and higher ranks. "I recognize three of them. They look like a synthetic person we have on file."

  "Aye, that's Spin's face, all right," Frost verified, highlighting a comely visage that had been rendered still, her eyes glazed and unfocused. "Why, though?"

  "We'll have to figure that out later," Jake said, smiling at an idea as he glanced at the charge levels on his grenades. "Steph, could that lifeboat fly?"

  "Scanning," she replied, then; "Yeah, it's not space worthy anymore, but it'll fly."

  "Great. Get your guys ready to move. I need you to establish a remote link with that lifeboat. I'm going to fly it up remotely then bring it down on the entrance of that cave. Even if it doesn't bring the portable shields they've set up down all the way, it might cause a collapse, or cost them so much energy that we can finish them off with the EMP's we've got."

  "I knew you'd come up with something," Frost chuckled. "We're in for a show, boys!" he told their squads as they huddled behind the cover of thick, dense stone and portable shields.