by M. D. Cooper
Elena held her breath and closed her eyes as the clear layer of protection flowed over her face, before it seemed to almost seep into her skin, and then took on a matte sheen.
“Oh fuck, that does feel intense,” Elena gasped when the armor had set and she opened her mouth and eyes again.
“Here,” Tanis tossed a shimmersuit at Elena. “Get it on and I’ll pass you the auth tokens. If Transcend-level of tech is where I think it is, we’ll be nearly invisible in these.”
She slipped into her own, recalling the fight against Kris on the Intrepid, when she first got her hands on the tech to make the suit. Like the armor, Earnest had improved on its design, and even their own sensors had trouble tracking a wearer in an empty, silent room.
“Our weapons will be stealth-coated, as well, though not when firing or once they’re hot, of course.”
Elena nodded, and they left the cabin to join Usef in the pinnace’s cockpit.
“We’ll be out of the exit shaft in a minute,” he said. “The TSF ships haven’t moved. Our precise time is an hour and forty-eight minutes to get to their flag. Fleet scan has spotted a few external airlocks that think we can link up to—our three ships won’t be breaching near one another.”
“Do you know the layout of that ship?” Tanis asked Elena. “We need to know where they’re likely to keep Sera.”
“Either the bridge, the brig, or the med bay, I’d guess,” Elena replied, her expression deadly serious as she Linked to the pinnace’s net and projected a layout of the TSF cruiser. The locations she mentioned lit up, and Tanis saw that all three were deep within the vessel.
“Well, good thing we have these three ships, then,” she smiled.
“What sort of weapons will shipboard security have?” Usef asked.
“Pulse rifles and flechette pistols,” Elena replied. “But they have heavier stuff in armories. I’d really like them to not get any of those. If we can keep this non-lethal…”
“We’ll try,” Tanis replied. “But honestly…no matter what the outcome, we’re probably going to start a war with this little assault.”
Elena nodded slowly and fixed Tanis with a penetrating stare. “Then why are you doing it?”
Tanis leaned back against one of the unoccupied seats. “This little jaunt? It’s just the thing that Lieutenant Colonel Richards used to do—the sort of thing that got me busted down to Major. But General—and especially Governor—Richards has become a lot more calculating over the years. Too much big picture, not enough of the small, important things.”
Tanis took a deep breath and glanced at Usef and the Marines, aware that her words would be repeated through the colony—if they survived.
“I realized…after I had my little spat with Sera, and after I had to tell Saanvi what happened to her parents, that if you don’t do the little things right, there’s no way you can get the big picture right. Secrets, and hiding, and machinations—it’s the shit that got us all in this mess. Us with the pico, you guys with not being fucked up in the FTL wars. I can’t undo everything that’s gone wrong, but I can help my friend no matter the cost—I’ll do right by her and hope the stars appreciate the effort, if not the path I took to get here.”
“That’s as good a reason as any I’ve heard of late,” Elena nodded. “I assume you have a backup plan, right?”
“Of course,” Tanis replied with a grin. “If we aren’t out in four hours, the stealth ships I have all around the TSF fleet are to attack.”
“Seriously?” Elena asked.
“Well, they’re to demand our release, but if that doesn’t happen, yes, the fleet will attack.”
Elena looked as though she was going to argue the point, but Tanis set her mouth in a thin line, and The Hand agent took the hint. “Then, I guess we had better get in and out as quickly as possible.”
Tanis nodded. “Get familiar with the shimmersuit and Link up with our combat net. I’ve sent you the auth tokens. We’ll be comms- and data-silent as much as we can, but you may need probe feeds.”
“Understood,” Elena said, and Tanis felt her join the network with the Marines.
“I’m sending you today’s hand signals,” Usef informed Elena. “Even when we have comms—which will be risky in there—that’s how we communicate when in line of sight, and we change them up all the time, so pay attention.”
Elena nodded, and Tanis turned her attention back to the view out the cockpit window. For now, there was nothing more to do than wait.
ORION GUARD
STELLAR DATE: 03.27.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: OGS Starflare
REGION: Near Normandy, Moon of Roma, 6th Planet in the New Canaan System
“This is it, people,” Kent addressed the thirty-five members of his strike force with calm assurance. “The Transcend president has left the tower. We have our window. We get in, take the governor, and then get her out. If our mission goes as planned, and we’re undetected, the secondary force will remain there and attempt to take the Transcend’s president when he returns the next day.”
The men and women racked in the transport shared hungry looks. The thought that in the span of two days they could take the New Canaan leadership, secure the picotech, and capture the Transcend’s president was almost too good to be true.
The only thing to temper the excitement was the fear that something would go wrong—that they would lose this golden opportunity to strike such a decisive blow.
He knew the soldiers under his command would feel the same, and he cautioned them, “Remember your training, your experience. Don’t let the magnitude of what we are about to achieve unnerve you. Trust in your teammates and we’ll achieve victory.”
“Sir,” their assault ship’s co-pilot called back into the bay, “we just got a ping from our agent. The New Canaan governor has left the moon. She’s on her way to the TSF flagship.”
“Did she say why?” Kent asked.
“The burst said it was a covert rescue mission. We’re on passive scan only, so we won’t be able to pick up any of their stealth ships. But I would assume it’s a small strike force.”
“Change of plan. We’re hitting the TSF flagship…the Galadrial,” Kent addressed his troops. “You already have our analysis of it. As best we can tell, it’s a modified Freeman Class ship. We’re going to be on a bit of a hunt, but a rescue will probably mean brig, med bay, or bridge. It could also mean their president’s quarters, but I’m betting those are near the bridge.”
“Then we’ll divide the nine fireteams evenly into three squads,” Lieutenant Lorde replied. “Sergeant Tress, you’re down a man, so your squad will hit the med-bay, it should have the least security. Doran, you’re with me on the brig, and Xecer, you’ll be with the Colonel, going for the bridge.”
The three sergeants nodded, and Kent knew that they were now going over breach protocols with their soldiers. Chances were that New Canaan’s governor had more than one ship and would breach multiple locations at once. Kent’s soldiers would have to move fast and hard, crippling as many ship-systems as they could while they moved.
He looked out the forward window of the assault craft; the countdown on the overlay showed just over under two hours to the TSF flagship. Either this would be the defining moment in the Orion Guard’s long struggle against the Transcend, or they would be swept into history’s dustbin, a failed and forgotten op.
the AI replied.
Kent agreed with Vernon. That was his largest concern, too. Orion stealth tech was ahead of the Transcend’s. He expected to detect the ISF ships, as well, but so far there was no sign of them.
He returned his attention to the specks of light at the L1 point between Roma and its moon, and prepared himself for the battle ahead.
INSERTION
STELLAR DATE: 03.27.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS Stellar Pinnace
REGION: Near Roma-Normandy L1 Point, New Canaan System
The pinnace hovered just outside one of the TSF flagship’s external airlocks. It was a small hatch, made for robotic maintenance, and would be impossible to fit through in powered armor. But, with the strike force’s armor only consisting of the flow-armor and shimmer suits, slipping through the small opening would not be a problem.
Tanis didn’t want to hide any breathing gear once they got across, and making an ES seal against the Galadrial would certainly show up on its active scan. That meant the strike force would have to hold their breath for the five meter trip through the vacuum of space. Their armor would seal over their eyes, mouths, and noses for the duration.
“You ready for this?” Tanis asked Elena. “Once the pico infiltrates their system and Angela opens the lock, we’ll depressurize the cabin here. It may be a minute or two before we all get across and re-pressurize the other side.”
Elena nodded. “We trained for ops like this. Never wearing so little that we felt naked in vacuum, but the end result was the same.”
“Good,” Tanis nodded. “Remember, no direct net access. If you Link up, they’ll spot you and that will end our little trip early. If we’re lucky, we can tap into their general net, but we may be blind. We’re counting on you to flag anything out of the ordinary.”
“We’re saving Sera. I’ll do whatever it takes,” Elena replied.
“Even kill?” Tanis asked. “If you’re not prepared to take a life when the time comes, then you’re not coming. There can be no hesitation.”
“This isn’t my first op like this,” Elena said. “I know what to do.”
Tanis raised an eyebrow. “You’ve taken up arms against your own people before?”
“Well, no, but I’ve had to turn on friends on undercover ops before. I imagine it’s going to feel about the same.”
Tanis nodded solemnly. “Yeah, it does.”
The Marines all toggled their status on the combat net to show readiness. Tanis opened the pinnace’s side-hatch to the vacuum of space and pushed off toward the Transcend cruiser. She covered the distance in a few seconds and slipped through the portal on the other ship without incident.
The space within was cramped, only a narrow walkway with bots racked along the wall. She moved toward the far end of the room to make room for the rest of the squad. Forty seconds later, Elena, Usef, and the twelve Marines were across.
The air pressure reading on Tanis’s HUD increased until it stopped at 98kPa, at which point she signaled her armor to unseal around her mouth and nose. The infiltration team followed suit and the small space was filled with the muted sounds of men and women rapidly replenishing their lungs with oxygen.
At the room’s inner airlock, Tanis deployed a dose of nano into the portal’s locking mechanism, and a second later it unsealed. She activated her shimmersuit and slipped through the opening, followed by the rest of the squad.
She slipped down the hall and glanced back at the rest of the squad. A random signature wave pulsed from each Marine, providing their position and rough outline to one another. Their HUDs filled in the data gaps, faking the appearance of their teammates.
While the signal introduced a risk of detection, decreasing the chance of friendly fire made it worthwhile.
When the last Marine slipped past, Usef closed the hatch and signaled for two Marines to scout ahead. Tanis felt blind without a cloud of nanoprobes surrounding her, but Elena had warned that the Galadrial’s internal scanners could detect her nano, so they had to rely on the Mark I Eyeball for this mission.
The scouts approached an intersection, and one held up a hand. Tanis listened carefully and heard voices in one of the cross corridors. The squad pressed up against the walls of the corridor and Tanis barely drew breath as three TSF naval officers walked by chatting about the likelihood that they would have to take out the colonists.
Two seemed to think it was a sure thing, while the third was holding out for a peaceful solution.
The squad progressed for several more minutes before Elena touched Tanis’s shoulder and made a direct Link.
Tanis tapped the lead scout on the shoulder and passed the hand signals for the route they needed to take. He nodded and slipped around the corner while the other scout crossed the intersection and watched the other direction.
She glanced back at Elena, who was staying close on her six. She trusted the woman—mostly; she was a spy, after all. Gaining trust and double-crosses were her tradecraft.
The scout at the intersection signaled for them to advance, and Tanis slipped around the corner to see the lead scout slide a panel off the wall, revealing a data trunk line aside. Tanis placed a hand on the conduit and felt a tingle in her hand as nano flowed through her skin and armor, and then into the conduit’s housing where they began to build a shunt.
Tanis confirmed the route to the med-bay and passed the path to the two scouts, who slipped ahead of the squad once more.
They encountered more and more TSF personnel as they progressed, some navy, some soldiers, and eventually a growing number of med-techs.
Angela said.
Elena nodded.
Tanis gave a slow nod. The thought had crossed her mind as well—the infiltration, so far, was far too easy.
Tanis pulled up against the wall as a group of engineers hurried past. One of them, a young man carrying a large case, tripped and bumped into her.
“What!” he exclaimed a moment before Tanis wrapped an arm around his throat and clamped the other over his mouth. The Marines moved with practiced precision, subduing the other four engineers and dragging them into a side-room.
A minute later, they were back in the corridors, moving double-time—they were now on a clock. It was just a matter of time before someone discovered those unconscious engineers.
They slipped through the entrance into the med bay and began searching the rooms. Tanis peered into one room where and the sheets were disheveled, and restraints mounted to the side of the bed were flipped open.
Elena followed Tanis into the room, and though she couldn’t see the woman’s expression, Tanis could tell from her posture that she was worried. She turned to the bed and was depositing nanobots on the restraints to see if there was any DNA evidence when a klaxon sounded.
Angela piped in an announcement from the general shipnet.