ARMS Domers Unite: (Book 6)

by Stephen Arseneault

  A half dozen bots walked past their position.

  The colonel asked, "I see you have them running all over this ship. Gathering data?"

  "That and enacting repairs."

  "Repairs?"

  "It's a warship, Colonel. And we're at war. After seeing that we get all the tech we can from her, I plan to send her into battle. A few dozen of those bots would be fully capable of flying this thing in a fight. Our fleet just grew by one warship."

  "Not a bad plan. Have you thought about how you're gonna present this to the Domers? It was their diplomatic vessel that was attacked."

  "I have our AI looking through the recordings from all that transpired before they spaced our people. Thankfully the Hoya were kind enough to copy the logs and just about everything else just as we began our assault. Those logs should show the captain did exactly as ordered before being slaughtered. I'll have the AI package it up in a comprehensive presentation."

  "You presenting this to the Domers?"

  "Nope. You are. The president hates me and would slap me in jail if given the chance. Baxter Rumford is working up a media campaign for us. I expect the president will be eager to take a meeting with you once Bax's work hits the broadcast channels."

  The colonel nodded. "Perhaps this will be the trigger that causes the Domers to unite behind a defense policy and not another worthless peace agreement. Far too many have already paid the price for the ideological stance this government continues to take."

  "Agreed."

  The following day, a blitz of commentary ads hit the broadcast channels. The administration failed to stop the images of the Domicile destroyer's entire crew being spaced. Social networks clamored with talk of war, and more worrisome to the current President and his staff, with calls for impeachment due to neglect of duty. They had failed repeatedly to protect Domicile citizens, and seemed to show no remorse for their actions.

  Bax sat at a console in the supply hut. "I really would be more effective if I was there."

  "Don't think we can risk it until we have the President boxed in. His cronies are still running the intel agencies. You should expect some of your resources to be rounded up."

  Bax shook her head. "I've taken precautions. The broadcast jockeys we're using are surrounded by supporters and cameras. The intel crews can't get near them. Give it until tomorrow afternoon before the Senate gives the go-ahead for a declaration of war. The people will demand it, leaving President Croft to accept a full military readiness campaign to begin or to resign. Vice-president Massey is a yes-man, but he'll listen to reason."

  "You think this may all turn as soon as tomorrow?"

  "I do. The evidence of a belligerent move by the Hoya against a peaceful diplomatic effort can't be argued away. I wish I was standing in front of Croft right now. He has to be in a panic."

  As Bax had predicted, the following day a unanimous vote came from the Senate demanding a declaration of war. The old soldiers of the defense industry were recalled, funds were allocated, and the process of rebuilding the Domicile fleet began.

  Harris placed his hand on Bannis Morgan's shoulder. "They're asking for you back. Almost demanding it."

  "Not certain I want to go through that ringer again. What happens if in a month there are no further sightings of the Hoya... or two months from now?"

  "We deal with that when it happens. Right now Domicile needs leaders, and there are none better than you."

  Bax walked into the room. "As an added protection, I'll be going with you. I can set up a security system around you that won't let Croft or his meatheads near you. And you'll hardly know I'm there."

  An image of the AI popped up on the display wall. "Harris, I'm now certain I can detect the Hoya interference signal. I expect to have their fleets located in the coming days."

  "How will you know you have a fleet and not just some broadcast ship?"

  "If detected, I'll thoroughly scan the vicinity of the signal with visual sensors. It may take several hours to fully log a fleet, but we now have a method to do so."

  "Get that going as soon as possible. It’ll be good to not be fighting blind."

  Gandy came into the room. "Is there anything I can do? Reggie has the food supply taken care of. He no longer needs my oversight."

  Tawn said, "We're expecting to have thousands of Banshees showing up from Domicile in the next couple months. We'll be jamming in the rail cannon and processor before putting them through their paces. I think you, Trish, and Sharvie should oversee that effort."

  "And Garvis?"

  "And Garvis. And we'll need a similar effort with the bots. We plan on turning out as many of them as we can."

  "Will they be building ships or fighting?"

  "Both. The AI has an assault craft design that we hope to use to place a boarding party of a dozen bots on a ship. We want to have as many as a thousand of those small raider ships ready before any fighting starts."

  Gandy grinned. "This is really moving forward now, isn't it?"

  Tawn nodded. "It is. We can't get these tasks done soon enough. So do what you can to make things happen."

  Alex entered the room. "We've done it! The gamma-ray bomb in simulation hit 60 percent! Such a beam should clear a ship of the living from five hundred thousand kilometers out. And we should be able to maintain 45 percent out to an eighth of a light-year."

  "That's fantastic news. When can we build a working prototype?"

  "We have the materials for a single bomb right here. The bots have already begun work on the assembly."

  Harris asked, "What resources do we need and how many of these can we build?"

  "I have the list with quantities for a single bomb. Scaling is linear. We want to build a thousand, we need a thousand times the material."

  "Can we get the needed materials?"

  "Do you now have access to Domicile's markets?"

  "Probably."

  "Then we're probably halfway there."

  Gandy said, "We may have an alternative for all our supplies now."

  "Where."

  "New Earth. It's toxic to us, but not the bots. They could go in and get whatever we need and then clean it before bringing it back. Could do the same for bot parts and Banshee parts as far as that goes."

  Harris nodded. "Excellent suggestions. Have the AI assemble a team to send in with the Hailstorm. On this first run I want the materials to build as many of these gamma bombs as we can make."

  Gandy turned for the door. "I'm on it."

  Tawn said, "If we can get bots down on New Earth and back safely, we may have just solved all of our supply problems."

  "Not that easy," Harris replied. "For raw materials yes, but for any manufactured goods, no. There aren't any factories running down there anymore. Everything is raw or salvage."

  "Still better than what we have."

  Over the three days that followed, the first gamma ray bomb was pieced together. A ride out to empty space, five light-years from the nearest star system, saw a test set up with a dozen probes scattered about for measurement purposes. The bomb was aimed into empty space and detonated. The results yielded a better-than-expected focus of 64 percent of the ultra-deadly gamma radiation.

  Alex had a wide grin. "Phenomenal. There should be no good defense from this weapon. Where shielding is concerned, I have yet to see a ship hull capable of attenuating the energy focus coming from one of these bombs. Our own Domicile hulls are possibly the best. From what we now know of the Hoya hulls, they are quite thick, but the material used is of low density. While this aids when being struck by a plasma round, it would be far less effective against this gamma beam."

  Harris nodded. "So you're saying this is gonna work?"

  "This will work."

  "Crew death may happen within seconds to possibly years later, depending on the exposure."

  "Years? That doesn't do us much good."

  "Those individuals will not be in the direct beam. Within that beam, we are talking seconds to possibly an hour
. For those who are unlucky enough to be in that hour group, death will not come soon enough, and incapacitation will be immediate."

  "Sounds like a horrid ending."

  "Very much so. You'll want to be in that group that only lives for seconds if you happen to be caught in one of these beams. And we'll want to be protective of this technology. I've designed an outer shell casing for this weapon that will incinerate the contents should it fail to detonate."

  "These will be kept fully under our control. And I know we'll want to mass produce them, but is there anything we can do without letting the knowledge of how it works get over to the bots?"

  Alex nodded. "The reflector assembly that focuses the output. It's the main component that differentiates this from a simple bomb. I plan on having the bots manufacture a number of its components, but not all. And I've designed a machine that will allow us to piece this reflector together without the bots’ involvement. I believe we'll be able to produce as many as a thousand a day once our assembly line is up and running. We can do that final assembly in a separate building."

  Several days passed before the AI got a hit on one of the Hoya fleets. It was in free space, traveling toward the Barrier colony. Estimates placed it at two months from arrival.

  Harris sat in the supply hut for a meal with Tawn. "Our production lines are running full-bore. The bots have just returned from New Earth with a load of materials that checked out clean. The Domicile industries are starting to see some initial activity after the return of Mr. Morgan. I'm beginning to think we might just have a chance at stopping the Hoya."

  "Twenty-five thousand ships in that fleet the AI is tracking. After it reaches Barrier, the next colony is Beinshee. There are still people there."

  "That's another two months though, right? By that time we should have a force big enough to take them on."

  "All I'm saying is we might want to consider moving the colonists from Beinshee as a precaution. You know Domicile doesn't have a lot of transports left after the Denzee melee."

  "We'll get them out."

  Tawn took several large bites from her meal, stuffing one side of her jaw with the food as she chewed. "What a different world we live in today. How fantastical is all that's happened?"

  Harris chuckled. "Very. Just think back to our first encounters with Bax. What a nightmare that was. We each could have died a dozen times over."

  "You maybe. I think she actually liked me. Probably because I was willing to take her crap, but at the same time wasn't a pushover."

  "She certainly had no love for me. Tagged my cargo so the Earthers would find me. That was low."

  "I certainly found her to be an irritant back then."

  "She kind of grows on you, doesn't she?"

  "Not on me. I think she's dirty, manipulative, self-centered, arrogant, and about a dozen other things that aren't flattering."

  "Then why do you talk to her?"

  Tawn swallowed. "Because she's on our side... at the moment, anyway. And she'll probably stay there from now on as her options are limited without the Earthers."

  "I feel bad with that all happening like it did, but I can't say I'm unhappy with the feeling of the Earther threat being removed. And now with the Domers united, if we can beat back the Hoya, we might just have a shot at prolonged peace."

  Tawn smirked. "That the pacifist coming out in you?"

  "Not sure why, but I do kind of miss the sandals and robes that group used to wear. They had personality, and conviction. Could frustrate you like nobody's business, but you knew you could count on where they stood."

  Tawn shook her head. "The ones back on Domicile, you can keep them. I don't trust Croft as far as I can throw him."

  Harris said. "He's kind of a small man."

  I bet you could get six meters out of him."

  "What?"

  "Six meters. You know, if you threw him."

  Harris chuckled. "I would have at least liked to have tried that. And yeah, six meters is probably a good estimate. I'd hold one arm and one leg, take a couple spins and chuck 'em. You think I'll ever get the chance to fulfill that dream?"

  "Not in this lifetime. Even if we manage to win this coming fight, I don't see him buddying up to us. He's more likely to have us arrested so we're permanently out of his hair. Although… he's kind of like you in that he's got no hair."

  "Bald is beautiful. At least that's what the ladies tell me."

  Tawn smirked. "Don't know why it is, but those jokes are so dumb they make me laugh."

  Alex walked into the hut. "I've completed my analysis. The gamma-ray bomb should be a ship killer. Entire crew, all within minutes, if not less. I've come up with a new plan for their use that should make them more lethal."

  "Minutes or less is pretty lethal, Doc."

  "I was referring to more casualties per detonation. If properly timed and aligned, there's no reason each detonation couldn't hit two ships at once. One after the other of course. And for that matter, even more if they are lined up in the beam."

  Harris set down the food he was eating. "Now I do like the sound of that. Should be a simple targeting algorithm to work up from a nav sensor."

  "Agreed. I've asked the AI to program that for us as part of the delivery system."

  "We still thinking missiles?"

  "Yes. At the moment I'm working on making those as stealthy as possible. Currently, we’re visually detected at twice the range required for a high percentage hit."

  "You basing that on the sensors from that Hoya warship we grabbed?" asked Tawn. "It's old. Those sensors may be old too."

  "I don't believe that to be the case. The logs suggest those were installed just over a year ago, so I'll be using them as a baseline. That is, unless you'd like to bring me another ship?"

  "Could be done, but I don't see it as likely. The only ones we know of are grouped together with another twenty-something thousand others. Unless of course the AI manages to find a loner like the one we grabbed."

  Harris said, "You know, the colonel wasn't happy with us taking the Hailstorm for that raid. He wanted to send in his own. Feels they're falling out of practice without a war to fight."

  "He would have lost at least three men, then. Not worth putting their lives at risk if we don't have to. How are they doing out at the Retreat since this unification broke? We should give him a comm."

  Harris punched in the commands. An image of the colonel showed on the display wall. "Gruberg, Freely, you have any news for us?"

  "Not right now. We're still tracking the one Hoya fleet. Haven't been able to find any others. How's life at the Retreat?"

  "Getting better. Since we signed the secession document, the DDI agents have all pulled out. Seems a purge is going on back at their headquarters. All the political appointees are being canned. Couldn't happen to a nicer group. We might be getting our actual intel corps back. My prior contact has been released and is being reintegrated into some of the more important roles.

  "I think President Croft is way out of favor with everyone, including his own. His economic reforms have been a complete failure, and elections are in three months. I've even heard Mr. Morgan's name being thrown around."

  Harris chuckled. "Knowing him like we do, he won't want anything to do with that. He'll want to stick with what he knows best, which is manufacturing. Speaking of that, how's your own attempts at bringing some of that to the Retreat going?"

  "We have plans for two research facilities and two medical facilities that will be stocked with the latest equipment once we finish paying for it."

  Tawn leaned forward. "What if we could get that equipment for you for free?"

  "I'm listening."

  "We have a bot team that's using the Hailstorm to go down to the surface of New Earth. They could decontaminate and bring back all the equipment from the emperor's private labs. From what we've heard, there was one of each on the palace premises."

  "So we're stealing from the Earthers?"

  "This is salvage. There
's no one left down there to use it. The other Earthers have no claim to it, and they answer to you. It's just unused equipment waiting for a new user. Wouldn't you want that user to be the members of the Retreat?"

  "I suppose I wouldn't be opposed to that."

  Tawn smiled. "I'll take this on as a secondary task."

  "We're planning a pair of manufacturing centers as well. I don't suppose the emperor had equipment lying around for that too, did he?"

  "I can look... or have the bots look. We can't go near the place without risking our lives."

  "I look forward to taking possession of whatever you can get us. Might be fitting for us to inherit Earther equipment after all they put us through. Not the payback I'd wish for, but one that I'd accept."

  — Chapter 23 —

  * * *

  The AI came over a comm. "Harris, I've located a second fleet. They're on a heading for New York colony. Given estimates of speed and direction, they will be arriving in fourteen weeks, three days."

  "Ship count?"

  "Eighteen thousand."

  "So that accounts for the forty thousand they started with?"

  "It does not. There are several thousand that remain unaccounted for. And remember, the fleet that attacked Jellon was in addition to the original fleet."

  "You have anywhere good to look?"

  "I've taken up the strategy of identifying the likely path from their original sighting at Jellon to all other habitable worlds. Given the speed at which they travel, I have a rough idea of where to prioritize my searches. That is how I came across the second fleet I just informed you about."

  "Excellent work. Keep at it."

  Gandy walked into the room. "Just came in to report on our bots. We now have four thousand twelve workers, two hundred four Banshees, and more than fourteen hundred spare processors."

  "Two hundred Banshees... I like the sound of that. What's our current production rate?"

  "Five a day. We're probably a week away from five hundred twelve new processors a day."