ARMS Beckland's Fall: (Book 5)

by Stephen Arseneault

  "With these hulls coming in and the ones we expect to follow in the next few weeks, we should have a force large enough to take the Denzee fleet on directly. We're talking a hundred fifty ships a side."

  "If possible, I'd love to follow on a live stream of that assault. Or better yet, get us a transport to the surface and we'd be happy to go through one of those buildings and clean it out."

  Harris shook his head. "With this bot force we shouldn't have to risk anyone. That's the beauty of it."

  The casual conversation continued for ten minutes before the comm was closed.

  Harris turned to his partner. "You want to do the honor of connecting to Bax?"

  "You're the one who likes her. You do it."

  Harris chuckled. "I think you mean she likes me. Which is the same for all the ladies."

  "Pfft. Right… Harris Gruberg, the babe magnet."

  Bax's face appeared on the wall display of the supply hut. "So you finally found me. Didn't think it would take you this long."

  "We thought you were dead," Harris said. "Not that we care either way."

  Bax scowled. "I heard the president outsmarted the two of you with his move."

  Tawn shook her head. "What's with either side allying with them at all? They've killed millions of us already."

  "The emperor got it in his head he was going to use them as a tool. They would give him the truce worlds and threaten the pacifists on Domicile into submission. He could then combine fleets and manufacturing, and in a few months time have enough ships to kick them out of our space. Your stunt at Eden threw a major wrench into his plans."

  "Why'd you leave Eden?"

  "Are you kidding? I could see the two of you coming for me. Only a moron would have waited for an attack to start. Slipped out with my key people while I had the chance."

  "So, were you working for the DDI?"

  Bax shrugged. "Can't say. Even if I was, it's not something I could tell anyone. And you do know they are probably monitoring this channel, right? They gave me this comm."

  Harris said, "We made a deal with the emperor too. Since Domicile denied us, we went there instead. He's building hulls for our fighters, which we'll use in his defense."

  Bax winced. "I would be extremely careful with that. He'll turn on you in an instant if he thinks he can gain from it."

  "Not to worry. We've got the leverage in this deal. He's making the hulls, we're making the weapons and the AIs to fly them."

  "Still can't believe you have a machine capable of doing that. What else do you have on Midelon you're not talking about?"

  "That would be the stuff we're not talking about."

  Bax sighed. "Listen, morons, the warning I just gave you is real. If the emperor thinks he can make another deal with the Denzee, he'll do it. There's a lot at play here. The winner in all this gets to control all the worlds we can get to. And I'd watch out for the Denzee. I wouldn't trust those little furballs as far as I could throw them on a zero gravity moon."

  Bax leaned back and kicked up her feet. "If I were you, I'd look into the planet outside our system they claim to be heading for in six months. If it can't support them, look for one beyond that can. If there are none, they aren't planning on leaving."

  Harris replied, "Not going to be an issue in a few more weeks."

  "Yeah, well, hope it works out that way, but I wouldn't count on it. You have two groups of Humans and an alien species who all have very different goals. Just be alert is all I'm saying. Expect the unexpected, because it's coming."

  Bax stretched out one of her long fingers, closing the comm.

  "She didn't really have much to say," said Tawn. "I expected a revelation or two out of her."

  "Being stuck in that apartment must be driving her nuts."

  Gandy said, "We going out to pick up those hulls or what?"

  Harris stood. "Let's see to that right now."

  Tawn stared at the blank display for several seconds. "You find that last warning odd?"

  "It's Bax. She's messed with our heads from day one."

  Tawn turned. "Let's stop for a moment and think about what precautions we can take. The few minutes won't hurt us. I'm a little worried about us going in there all excited to get these hulls. Excited puts blinders on you. I want to go in with a clear head."

  "Fine. I'll be excited, you be cautious."

  "Not going to happen. We're partners. This is where I exercise my half of that relationship. If we're going straight in, we give ourselves at least one out."

  "What would you suggest?"

  "Maybe instead of the Hailstorm with us aboard, we send one of the Legions down to the surface. They won't know the difference, at least not initially. If everything checks out, we follow up with the Hailstorm. And while that's happening, we watch from free space in the Bangor."

  "Guess this means I'm not going," said Gandy.

  "I think it best you sit this one out. For whatever reason, my radar is giving off a giant alert signal right now."

  Harris chuckled. "They say the first sign of losing it is paranoia."

  "Yeah, well, at least if I'm out of my mind when I go, I won't care. So what do you say? A Legion followed by the Hailstorm? We don't have to be on that ship for the pick-up. We can send in a couple bots to manage it."

  Harris placed his fists on his hips. "Fine. Now can we do this?"

  The jump was made to New Earth space. A Legion ship was sent forward. As it neared the atmosphere, more than a hundred Ratoons came through a set of wormholes.

  Tawn grabbed Harris by the arm. "Comm back to Midelon and bring those other Banshees!"

  Harris sent the command, recalling the lone Legion right after. The entire Denzee fleet turned their way, as did the Earthers.

  Tawn shook her head. "Cancel that comm to the Banshees. They’re working together."

  "We've got five minutes to leave. I want to see what the emperor has to say."

  A comm link was established. The emperor's face came up on the display.

  Harris asked, "What's the deal here, Mervin? You changing teams again?"

  "The Denzee and I came to an understanding. We will provide them with the materials they need, and in return they will desist with their attacks of our worlds. In addition they will turn over the colonies they have taken, excluding Rumanta and Jellon, and turn over all of the truce worlds. Your president and his scheming has once again been bested."

  "I'll tell you the same as I told him. You're a fool. The Denzee will turn on you the moment they feel it's in their best interest. And we won't be there to support you."

  "Yes, about that. I didn't really care for your terms. My ships should be under my control, not yours. The prior deal left us vulnerable to you and your scheming. Under these new terms, we are free to do as we wish. And the Denzee? Again, they gave assurances they would leave our space in six months when their harvest is in."

  "They won't honor that, Mervin. They'll run over you the moment that harvest is secure."

  Two dozen Ratoons fired their weapons at once. The fleeing Legion was caught at the convergence of two beams and vaporized, disappearing in a single bright flash as its molecules dispersed.

  "No more deals for you, Mervin. You'll be fighting the Denzee on your own."

  The emperor returned a smug smile. "Yes, on our own. And if you should decide to interrupt our efforts at Eden, you will find a much larger and more capable force there in defense. Oh, and I'm certain you neglected to check the contents of the crates we gave you for building your own Banshees. Pop one open. I hope you can make use of the scrap steel we gave you."

  The comm closed as several Ratoon beams began to come their way. A wormhole opened and the Bangor safely slipped through to Midelon space. Twelve minutes later they were landing on the grass beside the bunker. Tawn followed Harris as they walked to the supply of crates stacked high beside one of the assembly buildings. Harris reached for a latch on one of the crates.

  Tawn grabbed his arm. "I wouldn't do that
. That scrap steel he mentioned might be in the form of an explosive. I'm thinking we pack the lot of it up and move it up to that moon. We can have one of the bots open it there."

  "Probably not a bad idea."

  Harris stepped back. The order was given and the materials moved back aboard the Hailstorm. Six trips had all the containers supplied by New Earth spread out on the surface of Midelon's lone satellite. As Tawn and Harris watched from the bridge of the Hailstorm, a bot was sent forth with a plasma rifle. The first crate was obliterated with no further detonations. A scan revealed the scrap steel the emperor had alluded to. A second and a third revealed the same.

  Tawn said, "Do a couple more. Two of those bigger ones."

  As the plasma round entered the first of the large crates, a massive explosion saw a hundred more go off exactly like it. The bot was thrown back by half a kilometer, coming to rest against a rock cliff, damaged, and no longer functioning.

  "Wow, that could have been any and all of us."

  Harris shook his head. "I have to wonder now why the emperor warned us."

  "Because he's a moron who can't keep his mouth shut. That, or because we hadn't yet opened one of those and he was prompting us to do so. Either way, looks like we dodged another catastrophe."

  Harris put his hand on her shoulder. "Thanks for being a pain in the ass about picking up those hulls. That would have been us getting vaporized back there at New Earth."

  "We can't trust either side on any issue now. We truly are outcasts."

  Harris nodded. "Outcasts with ships and guns."

  "We have the last three Banshees coming off the line tomorrow. We'll have twenty-one. Counting the Bangor, Hailstorm, and the two Legions, that gives us twenty-five. Not a lot to work with."

  "We'll just have to be careful with picking our fights."

  The damaged bot was collected. Back on the surface of Midelon, the group gathered in the supply hut.

  "No more materials for ships," said Trish. "What do we do now?"

  Harris replied, "We build as many bots as we can. After that, we'll have to try salvage again. We left downed ships on those colony mines we destroyed. Maybe we start there."

  "If we go inside free space, we're vulnerable to any Ratoons that jump in behind us."

  Tawn nodded. "Easily solved by dropping a boson bomb. That will give us about two hours to pillage whatever we can get a hold of."

  "Two hours is not a lot."

  "No, but it's safe. No one will be jumping in to trap us there."

  Harris said, "We should do this now. We downed a couple of those ships on the surface of Nesua. Alex, can you give us the data from your last scan of Nesua? What do you think we could pull from the debris there?"

  "Each Ratoon has enough materials to build seventy Banshees when fully intact. Much of what remains of those ships has been damaged or burned. From the information I have, I believe the materials required to build five to seven Banshees could be salvaged."

  "That's not bad."

  "However, given the time required to attain the materials in question and the time window you have available, I would place my estimates at one to two."

  "How many bosons do we have?"

  "Two."

  "So if we blow those two we could possibly salvage the materials we need for another four or five Banshees?"

  "Possibly. However, I would caution that our materials for the boson devices are running low."

  "There's always a however. How many more can we build?"

  "Eight."

  "That's all? Why didn't we go after the materials for more of those?"

  "You didn't make it a priority."

  Harris rolled his eyes. "Always trying to pin the blame back on the Humans."

  Tawn said, "Can we get the materials needed for more boson negators from this salvage?"

  "Mostly, yes. The rare element dysprosium is required. This can be mined from the mineral xenotime. It has a high thermal neutron absorption cross-section."

  "A what?"

  "It allows the explosion of the device to happen in a controlled manner, maximizing its effectiveness. We will need to mine xenotime."

  "Any idea of where we might find some?"

  "Detection of this mineral will require in-atmosphere deep scans."

  Gandy asked, "Was any found in our scans of this planet?"

  "Midelon does not show any deposits of xenotime."

  Harris rubbed his forehead. So we're stuck with excavating it from one of these other places."

  Trish said, "Maybe they have it at the Retreat. We could have the colonel scan for us. And even mine it for us. We would only need to pick it up."

  Harris nodded. "Good suggestion. Alex, if we go in to Nesua and find it there, what kind of extraction times are we looking at? Assume its close or on the surface, and we have fifty bots to mine it."

  "Those assumptions leave many unknowns. Given data from other mining operations, a best guess would be half a standard day for the amount required to produce a single boson bomb."

  Harris scowled. "Takes us two hours to deep scan a planet. This is not sounding promising. Alex, open a comm to the colonel."

  An image of the colonel appeared. "How goes the Banshee construction?"

  Harris shook his head. "It doesn't. We're out of materials. The emperor sold us out to the Denzee. If Tawn hadn't gotten all suspicious we wouldn't be here right now. You can pass along to your DDI contact that the Denzee and the Earthers just made an agreement. It includes all the truce worlds going to the Earthers before the Denzee supposedly leave."

  "That's not good news. Were there any other terms of this team-up we should be concerned about?"

  The Earthers are supplying the Denzee with all the raw materials they want. We suspect the Denzee are building more ships, which confounds us as to why the emperor would make that deal. Anyway, we commed about another issue. We're in desperate need of a rare element called dysprosium. It can be mined as a mineral called xenotime."

  "And why are you telling me this?"

  "We need you to do a deep scan of your planet. If you find it, mine all you can. We'll have to figure out how to get it from you when we can without drawing the ire of the president and his cronies."

  "I'll have a look. If we have it, I'll see to it we get you as much of it as we can."

  "As I said, we're in desperate need of it. We can't effectively conduct our warfare against the Denzee without it."

  "I'll see what I can do. And if we don't have it, I'll bet Domicile does."

  "Don't risk anyone unnecessarily, Colonel. We're trying to keep you out of this mess so when a real need comes you'll be there to assist us."

  The colonel chuckled. "Don't know what you think this mess we're in is, but it seems real to me. Let us handle what we put ourselves at risk for."

  The colonel glanced at his doorway. "You have any other sunny news for us today? If not, I'll get started on your request."

  "That's it, Colonel. And as always... thanks."

  The comm closed.

  "Alex, of the colonies we destroyed Ratoons at, are any others better candidates for salvage?"

  "It would appear Nesua is the optimum selection, given the data we have."

  Harris looked at the others. "Time to put on your salvage hats."

  Tawn asked, "We doing two hours or four?"

  "Two. We'll send a Banshee around to scan for xenotime."

  — Chapter 26 —

  * * *

  Tawn, Harris, Trish, and Sharvie rode down in the Hailstorm with a hundred twelve worker bots. Gandy remained in the Bangor with a boson bomb at the ready. If a wormhole opening was to be detected, the bomb would be detonated and the two hour clock begun.

  Harris jogged down the ramp as it hit the dusty surface of Nesua. Spread out before them were the remains of a Denzee Ratoon, its parts and panels ripe for the picking. The entire force of worker bots sprinted past his position, heading off to their assigned salvage operations.

  Sha
rvie trotted along behind Harris. "What's an ion catheter and why do we need one?"

  It's a special tube that juts out into a plasma chamber. The ions farthest from the walls of the chamber have the highest charge. The gravity drives use them. We need just under a meter of it for each Banshee."

  "And where do we find it?"

  "In the drives of this ship, right here near the back."

  "OK. How do we get it from wherever it is?"

  "We have to bust open the chambers on those drives with our plasma rifles. Then we go in and cut out what we can."

  "Doesn't sound that bad."

  "Usually it's not, but plasma chambers sometimes hold a residual charge. You go in and touch a charge wall, you might lose an arm."

  "What?"

  Harris chuckled. "Just playing with you. It's not dangerous. It just takes time. Oh, and they're fragile. You might spend ten minutes busting into a chamber only to find the catheter has shattered."

  "What do you do then?"

  "You move on the next one."

  Harris was in and out of the first drive in five minutes. The catheters on the Ratoons were short at only forty centimeters. Multiples would have to be bonded together for each Banshee.

  As Harris neared entry of his second drive, Sharvie made her way into her first. "It's broken."

  "Just move on to the next one."

  Deep scans of the surface of Nesua revealed no sign of xenotime. The salvage operation entered its third hour before the first wormhole was detected. The boson bomb was detonated. A Ratoon was caught in mid jump, cutting it in half with the front remains flash-freezing in a matter of seconds.

  Gandy commed to the others. "We're on the clock."

  At ninety minutes into the boson event, Harris called it quits. "We have the items required to build five new Banshees and another hundred bots. Let's wrap it up and head home. We'll call this outing a win."

  After landing, the gathered materials were sorted and stacked beside the Banshee-assembly building. The horde of bots immediately got to work on turning the items into the next ship drives, systems, and weapons.