by Terry Mixon
Jared looked at Kelsey. “If they’re going to conduct an orbital bombardment, that means there’s something down there that they don’t want us to have.”
“Do you think there are humans on that planet?” she asked. “Ones not converted to Pale Ones?”
His blood ran cold. “Probably. The descendants of the people they subjugated here. The AI needs a source of new recruits. My God, what if they’re going to exterminate all the slaves they have under their control? Courageous, can you determine how large the asteroid is?”
“Negative. This unit will need to redirect one of the probes to make that determination. However, this unit can gauge the remaining time before the object impacts Erorsi in just over twenty-five hours.”
Jared thought furiously. “Whether they’re destroying people or equipment, it might be in our best interest to see if we can stop them. Kelsey, I’m sorry, but it looks like I’m about to put you in danger.”
Jared turned to the front of the bridge. “Flip the ship into the Erorsi system. Zia, give Commodore Sanders a heads up. Pasco, flank speed to the asteroid. Everyone, keep an eye out for enemy ships. Our speed gives us an advantage in controlling an engagement. Let’s use it.”
Pasco gave the ship a thirty-second warning and flipped them into the Erorsi system. As soon as they’d recovered from the transition, Kelsey unstrapped herself and stood. “I’m getting my pistols.” She headed for the lift.
He eyed the tactical plot. “What’s our ETA?”
“A little short of three hours, Captain.”
The lift doors opened a few minutes later and Kelsey walked back on the bridge. She now had a gun belt around her waist with two large, unfamiliar weapons holstered on her hips. The one on her left hip was in a reverse holster with the butt pointing forward.
She gave him a look as she sat back down. “What?”
“It’s hard to wrap my head around you wearing a gun, much less two.”
“You’re lucky I’m not wearing my powered armor. I’d feel much safer inside it, but wearing it on the bridge seems like overkill.”
He leaned over and lowered his voice. “Have you seen the tactical situation through your implants?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Are we going to be able to stop that thing?”
“I don’t know. We just have to change its course enough to miss the planet. With the drives already installed, I’m hoping that will be possible. The tactical plot shows about a dozen ships guarding it, so we’re going to be in for a fight. Thankfully, Courageous is a much more capable vessel than Athena was. I think we can win that fight.”
“Even in her current condition?”
“I hope so. I’m thinking we don’t have a lot of choice.”
He turned to Zia and raised his voice. “We don’t know exactly where the remaining vessels have gone, so let’s not assume that they’ve left the system. I don’t want to be caught off guard thinking that every Pale Ones ship will come howling after us the moment they see us. We’re going to have to cross the asteroid belt, so keep your eye out for ambushers. They may not be capable of it, but I don’t want anyone jumping us like we did Spear in the war games before we left on this mission.”
“Aye, sir.”
It took them less than an hour to reach the asteroid belt. Jared kept the ship on high alert, ready to respond to any offensive moves.
Unlike the entertainment vids, a real asteroid belt had lots of space between the asteroids. And most of those hunks of rock were not very large, so hiding places were few and far between. That didn’t mean nonexistent, however.
Zia stiffened in her seat. “Enemy vessel detected! Multiple enemy vessels detected! They were hiding behind two large asteroids. We’ll be able to fire on the closest vessels in fifteen minutes. We don’t have time to retreat to the flip point. Passing scanner control to operations.”
Jared tapped his console and opened a channel to operations. “Charlie, what are we looking at?”
His executive officer’s face appeared on his console. “Three dozen vessels, Captain. Twelve will arrive in the first group and the remainder will come into range about five minutes later. The guard vessels from around the asteroid are also heading our way, but they’re an hour out. If we can take care of each wave quickly, we may be able to defeat each group separately.”
“Keep me informed of any changes in their status.” He looked at Zia. “What’s your assessment? Can we handle them?”
She nodded. “I believe so. I’m more worried about the second group. We’ll want to pick off as many of them as we can at long range. My people have seven of the twelve launchers online and sixty missiles refurbished.”
“This is your chance to show off, Lieutenant. Engage the first group as they come into range. Eliminate as many as possible and then overwhelm any stragglers. Be certain to destroy any of the vessels that use that stunning technology first. Tailor the electronic countermeasures as you see fit.”
“Aye, Captain.”
The Pale Ones vessels entered Courageous’ offensive envelope long before they got into range to fire missiles of their own. If they were using data from the fight with Athena, they were in for a rude awakening. The old Empire missiles had a considerable range advantage over the Pale Ones’ observed offensive capability.
“Opening fire,” Zia said. She touched her console and the tactical plot showed missiles streaming away from Courageous and toward the lurid red icons of the enemy. “Missile tube seven has misfired. We’re working to get it back online.” Zia fired a second wave of missiles just before the first set merged with the enemy. Unlike Athena, this ship had missiles that could do more than attack. Some of them transmitted incredibly powerful bursts of energy that worked to blind the ships they were attacking with the plan of minimizing any defensive fire.
She could have saved the effort. None of the Pale Ones attempted to destroy the incoming missiles. The first wave wiped out five of the enemy. The remaining seven staggered into the debris cloud. Two more salvoes destroyed the remaining Pale Ones in the first group.
Time seemed to drag before the second group came into missile range. The next engagement mimicked the first one with the exception that some enemy vessels got through and launched missiles at Courageous.
Jared resisted the urge to order the ship to change course. It wouldn’t help them. It would only make him feel like he was doing something.
“Beam weapons online in defensive mode,” Zia said. Short, powerful beams of energy shot out to meet the incoming missiles, incinerating every one that they touched. They were much more effective than the railguns Fleet currently used, and they had a higher effective rate of fire.
But, they weren’t infinite. Several of the attacking missiles smashed into Courageous’ screens and the overhead lights flickered slightly. “Screens down to eighty percent,” Zia said.
The enemy swirled around Courageous, firing into her screens at almost point blank range. The beam weapons reached out and incinerated them. In sixty seconds, they had destroyed the last of the second wave.
“Screens down to fifty percent. They should be back up to eighty percent by the time the stragglers arrive.”
With the ambushers dealt with, the last dozen ships were somewhat anticlimactic. They didn’t even try to flee. Zia destroyed them before they fired a shot. “Enemy vessels destroyed, Captain. We have seventeen missiles remaining.”
“Great work, everyone. Keep a good watch. They surprised us once. Let’s not give them another chance. Pasco, ETA to the asteroid?”
“We’ll be there in a little bit more than an hour, Captain.”
“Very good.”
He turned to Kelsey. “Well, that certainly went better than it would have if we’d still been in Athena. Hopefully that’s the worst of what we’ll encounter in this system.”
“I hope you’re right.” She didn’t seem confident that he was.
* * * * *
There were no more surprises on the way to the asteroid.
The large piece of debris looked very much like most other asteroids Jared had ever seen, only bigger. The scanners pegged it at almost 10 kilometers in diameter.
It had massive, crude grav drives mounted in a large circle on its surface with a small facility built in their center. They detected no weapons systems, but that was never a certain thing.
Graves called him from operations. “Why build something on a throwaway asteroid? To control the drives? Why not plant some scanners on the front, plot a course, and send it on its way.”
Jared nodded. “That’s what I’d do, but we still don’t know what makes those things tick. Are they some kind of hive mind? Do they do things simply because someone programmed it into their heads? Or do they have some type of controller? A queen bee.”
“The question on my mind is, is it booby-trapped?”
“We’ll have to be careful. I don’t want to lose any people. We also need to take the drives intact or we won’t be able to change the course of this monster. Not in time. Courageous calculated that the impact would plunge Erorsi into deep winter for years. Perhaps decades. It would be short of an extinction-level event, but not by much.”
Jared opened a channel to engineering. “Baxter, we need you to form a team to go over to the asteroid and figure out how to change its course. We’ll be sending some marines and a navigator to help plot a better course for it. How long will it take you to get ready?”
The engineer grinned. “We’re suited up. Is the Princess ready?”
Jared frowned and glanced over at Kelsey. “No, why would she need to go?”
“I figure the chances are very high that this equipment requires an implant interface to control. It’s not as if the savages programmed the course in by hand. It’s very likely that we’re going to require her assistance.”
That wasn’t what he wanted to hear. “Go meet the marines at the pinnaces. I’ll get the last of this ironed out and let you know.”
After he closed the line, he turned his full attention to his sister. “You don’t have to go, but he might be right.”
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and let it out. “Of course he’s right. It was the only real way to interface with Twelve, and it’s going to be the method they use to control this, too. We should’ve realized that. I’ll go get ready.”
He watched her leave with more than a hint of trepidation. The very last thing he wanted do was put her back in danger. But if the Pale Ones thought something was worth destroying, he was certain that it was worth saving.
Chapter Sixteen
Kelsey sat next to Lieutenant Reese in the marine pinnace and tried not to hyperventilate. It’s going to be fine, she told herself. If there were any trouble, the marines would take care of it. Besides, shouldn’t she feel safer in this badass armor?
The answer turned out to be “not really.” The commando armor might protect her more effectively than the suits Reese and his men wore, but fear wasn’t exactly rational. She knew that she was well protected because they’d shot up a couple of these suits just to see how tough they were. Her heart still pounded in her chest and she was covered in sweat.
Reese turned his head and looked at her as though he could sense her uneasiness. He probably could. “You okay, Princess?”
“I’m a little nervous,” she admitted. “I know I’m probably overthinking this, but I can see so many ways this could go bad.”
“You’re not alone. The trick is deciding which possibilities are reasonable. We’re going in with overwhelming force, but we have no reason to believe that the Pale Ones have packed this thing with their people. Or that they’ve booby-trapped it.
“Look at their space station, for example. The damned thing was huge and had plenty of Pale Ones on board, but they didn’t effectively counterattack until we were on the way back out. You probably don’t remember it very clearly, but they were not prepared for an incursion. My advice? Don’t borrow trouble.”
Kelsey nodded. “That’s true, but look what happened when we came into the system this time. They had ships lying in wait for us. They expected us. Or something controlling them expected us. What if they took the same kind of precautions on the asteroid?”
“Then we deal with it. If it’s too tough, we withdraw. This isn’t a suicide mission.”
Talbot bumped her shoulder from the other side. “Besides, you got me and the boys keeping an eye on you. As if you need it. You’re a major badass in that suit.”
She’d certainly loaded it down as though she’d expected she was going into combat. Her pistols were on her hips, including plenty of extra ammunition. She also had a flechette rifle built for the armor resting between her knees. She’d strapped a similarly large plasma rifle across her back. Extra ammunition and power packs for those were also on her belt. A couple of old Empire grenades and an insanely sharp knife rounded out her weapons load.
She felt ridiculous.
Talbot had insisted she bring everything along. Just in case, he’d said. She might never need it, but if she did, it wouldn’t help her if it were back on the ship.
Kelsey was certain that they wouldn’t be letting her use any of her hardware. If they got into a situation where they were exchanging fire, Talbot would pull her back. She knew he had orders to keep her out of trouble. All this gear was to distract her.
But having it along provided some distinct pluses. Her armor’s scanners had significant advantages over what the marines around her carried. She also had a few little toys that she hadn’t discussed with Senior Sergeant Talbot in her pouches. If she was playing at being a marine, she should come ready to dance.
The pilot opened a link to Lieutenant Reese. “We’re not taking any fire, Lieutenant, so we’re going in. ETA five minutes.”
Kelsey wasn’t supposed to be able to overhear that remark, but her armor had informed her that there were encrypted communications on the pinnace earlier and she’d asked for more information about the transmission.
Apparently, the combat computer in the armor had decided she’d asked for it to tap into the communication channels. It took less than five minutes for the armor to crack the encryption. She’d tell Lieutenant Reese about that after they returned to Courageous. She was certain he’d want to do something about that, though she had no idea what that would be.
“Everyone, we’re going in,” Lieutenant Reese said. “Final equipment check.”
She sent a status query to her armor and it came back green on all systems. “My armor indicates it’s ready. That’s going to have to be good enough for us.”
“Fine, but I’ll check just to be sure.” Talbot had someone read the checklist that she’d pulled from the armor to him as he looked at everything.
Patching her suit into the pinnace’s scanners was more complex than tapping into the encrypted communication link, but she’d figured it out just before they landed. The images and readings were somewhat crude based on her experiences tapping into Courageous’ scanner suite, but they told her what was going on well enough.
They were landing at the Pale Ones facility. Of course, from what she could see facility might be too grand a word. The scanners showed a crude, low dome with standard old Empire docking clamps. It didn’t look too well put together to her. In fact, it seemed like a deranged child had built it.
Lieutenant Reese’s plan was to dock as quickly as possible. If something went wrong, the marines would retreat and attack from the surface, blowing a convenient entrance through the exterior hull.
And probably dragging her along like a cat in a bag as they rushed in. She still hadn’t gotten any zero G training. Perhaps her implants could help her out with that, too.
A tense few minutes went by as the pinnace docked and the marines breached the facility. They reported that they were inside with no resistance, so Lieutenant Reese ordered his remaining men in. The facility had gravity.
When he nodded to Kelsey, she went through the boarding hatch with Talbot and his squad close around her
. She held the flechette rifle to her chest with the muzzle angled down towards the floor as Talbot had trained her to do. The remainder of the marines came in behind her.
The corridor upheld the Pale Ones’ low building standards. The facility was small enough that the marines had most of the floor occupied. The reports flowed back that they hadn’t discovered any Pale Ones. They had discovered a lift, however. It seemed this facility had more than one floor.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Ralph Phelps, the engineer assigned to the mission, frowned. “There’s no reason to have an underground facility. All they need is a scanner package and a control computer. That could fit into this building easily.”
“Welcome to combat, Lieutenant,” Reese said. “The enemy is never obliging enough to do exactly what you’d expect. We’ll have to go down and see for ourselves what they’ve left for us.”
The young cutter pilot, Ensign Danielle Cruz, nodded. The two non-combatants were in borrowed armor, but unarmed. They’d be behind Kelsey, keeping out of any fracas. Unless things went to hell.
They would’ve taken the stairs, except there weren’t any. The only way down was the lift. So rather than obliging the enemy by going down in small groups, Lieutenant Reese ordered them to cut the bottom out of the lift. It made quite a clattering noise as it fell to the bottom of the shaft. If the enemy didn’t know they were there before, they did now.
The marines nimbly went down on ropes. The shaft only went down one level, so the drop was very short. Kelsey looked down, picked a spot without debris, and jumped. Her heart was in her throat for a moment, but her suit absorbed the landing easily.
“Don’t do that to me, Princess,” Talbot said over their private channel. “You’re going to give me a heart attack.”
“Don’t get your panties in a knot,” she muttered before she activated her microphone. “I don’t know how to use those ropes, but I’ve done enough with the suit to know what I can do. That was a breeze.”