Reconnaissance in Force (Book 6 of The Empire of Bones Saga)

by Terry Mixon

  “Copy that. Come back and stand by for instructions.”

  “Will do.”

  She changed course and slowly moved back toward the Raider ship.

  * * * * *

  Princess Kelsey considered the situation. If they could capture the recovery ship, it might be very useful. It was a known factor on Dresden. It must bring materials in on a regular run. She could use that.

  The crew wouldn’t be on the lookout for trouble. Not the kind of trouble she was going to cause them, anyway. Still, an assault on the ship was fraught with danger.

  If the destroyer saw something, it could flip over and warn Dresden. They would have to deal with it one way or another.

  “Angela,” Kelsey said after a moment. “I have a very evil thought.”

  “Why does that fill me with dread?”

  “Because you know me. I want you to lead a team over to the recovery ship. I’m thinking a two-stage attack. First, I need you to get there undetected and plant charges all around the habitation section of the hull. I want to decompress it in as short a time as possible without compromising the ship.”

  The tall woman nodded. “A civilian crew won’t be likely to have suits close at hand. If we take the entire ship at once, they’ll be forced into rescue balls or die.”

  Anyone that made it into a rescue ball would be safe, but unable to do anything. The balls were meant to allow people to survive a sudden decompression, and then wait for rescue from their fellows.

  If they hit the entire ship—and it actually held only a very small crew—that would leave no one in a position to help the crewmen, except for Kelsey’s marines.

  “We have to assume that a few people won’t get to them or that some fail,” Kelsey admitted. “I’m sure things aren’t up to maintenance standards in a backwater like this. They’ve probably never had a problem like this.

  “That may or may not stop them from sending a distress signal, but the ship is close enough that the destroyer will see something. If it looks like an accident, they may move out of the flip point to assist the recovery ship. We’ll use Persephone’s stealth field to get close to the flip point and cut them off.”

  The marine considered the plan and slowly nodded. “I think we can make that work. It won’t be anything they’d expect, in any case.”

  It took an hour for the marines to get into position. Kelsey used the time to bring Persephone around to the other side of the flip point.

  The tension was as intense as she’d ever felt while she waited for the strike to happen. So this is what Jared felt like when she was off doing something stupid.

  “The charges just went off,” one of her people said. “The recovery ship is venting atmosphere and signaling distress.”

  The destroyer, much to her relief, responded exactly as she’d hoped. It came rushing out of the flip point and raced toward the distressed vessel. Its scanners were active, but focused in the wrong direction to see her ship.

  “Move us up into the flip point and prepare to shoot down any drones they try to get past us. We’ll leave them to Jared.”

  Once the destroyer was committed and far enough away from the flip point, Jared brought the task force out of hiding by accelerating all units in toward the Rebel Empire warship from every direction. Kelsey switched off her ship’s stealth field to make it apparent, too.

  The destroyer was outside the flip point, surrounded, and tremendously outgunned. Then the fighters made themselves known, seemingly popping out of nowhere and surrounding the recovery ship in a protective bubble.

  She listened to Jared ordering the destroyer to surrender with interest. Would they give up or fight?

  In this case, common sense won out and the ship promptly struck its battle screens. That was a relief, really.

  It took another twenty minutes for Angela to clear the recovery ship and report. Her image appeared on the main screen.

  “Good news,” she told Kelsey. “The crew consists of a dozen people, and we took them all alive.”

  “Excellent. What’s the status of the ship itself?”

  “Operational. They didn’t have time to lock the computers down. We have everything.”

  Kelsey smiled. It was about time something went her way. “Get them over here. We’ll question them and formulate a plan. I’ll call Zia and have her send someone to take over the recovery ship. I have an idea on how we can use it.”

  “Copy that.”

  * * * * *

  Jared listened to his sister’s plan with more than a hint of misgiving. Once she finished laying it out, he leaned back in his seat.

  “I can’t begin to tell you how risky that sounds,” he said after he considered her for a moment. “The crew we captured from the destroyer isn’t talking, but their body language tells me that they aren’t too worried about us waltzing over there.

  “They have a force to be reckoned with, I think. If you just blithely flip over there, they’ll spot you right away. Then they blow you up.”

  “Maybe,” she said with a shrug. “It isn’t as though we have much choice, other than going back the way we came. The Rebel Empire is still going to know we were here one way or the other.

  “The destroyer didn’t send a distress call, but the miners in this system heard the one from the recovery ship. We sent a follow up canceling it before they came out to investigate, but once the people from Dresden start asking questions, some version of the truth will occur to them. We have to strike now if we ever want to get the ability to make Raider implants.”

  He shook his head. “We have to know what you’ll find on the other side of the flip point. If they have ships right there, you’re screwed. We can’t risk a probe, either.”

  She smiled. “Let me work on the crew from the recovery ship while we make preparations to carry out my plan. If you decide it’s too dangerous then, we’ve lost nothing. If you decide we can go, then we’ll be ready.”

  “Admiral Yeats was clear that as the heir I needed to take your input, as if I wouldn’t.” He rubbed his face. “How do I ever let you convince me of these things?”

  “Because I’m right.”

  He sighed. “Probably. I still think sending you is more than we should do, but I can already anticipate your reasoning. The manufacturing plant might require your unique Raider implants to access. Sadly, I know you’re probably right. I can only hope that isn’t the case one day.

  “Fine. Go question the crew from the recovery ship. If they give you any reason to think your plan has a chance of success, we’ll give it a go. If not, we’ll shoot it out with them.”

  Kelsey shook her head at him. “You know that isn’t going to work. If we can’t get people into the manufacturing plant before they know about us, they’ll be able to destroy everything we came for. If my plan doesn’t have a chance of success, we’ll consider other options.”

  She was right, of course. The mission would be part stealth, part misdirection, and all crazy. Just like something from one of the adventure vids.

  He ran through the options one last time, but no other possibilities occurred to him.

  “Keep me in the loop,” he finally said. “Also, if you go, I’m sending Talbot and as many marines as we can stuff into your hull. When the time comes, I want to leave them no chance to fight back.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Kelsey entered the room where the prisoners were waiting. Each of the men and women were secured to a table by cuffs, not for her protection, but to make a point. They were prisoners and she was going to have their cooperation, one way or another.

  She’d dressed in a Fleet captain’s uniform for this little charade, also designed to intimidate. She had two very large and menacing marines at the corners of the room to emphasize the prisoner’s precarious position.

  “Well,” she said with a false tone of cheerfulness, “it seems as though you’ve gotten yourselves into a spot of trouble, doesn’t it? Which one of you is running your little enterprise?”
<
br />   They stared at one another in obvious confusion. One of the women cleared her throat.

  “Excuse me, My Lady, but if you’re asking who is in command of A-8257, it’s me.”

  Kelsey widened her smile. “Excellent. Then you can explain your little smuggling ring to me.”

  The woman’s jaw dropped. “My Lady? We aren’t smuggling anything.”

  The sound of Kelsey’s hand slapping the top of the table made them all flinch.

  “Then perhaps you can explain why we’ve been tracking large quantities of drugs in the raw materials you move to Dresden? Surely you aren’t going to pretend ignorance. If so, I may have to become…unpleasant.”

  She’d really put them into an uncomfortable position. Confessing to and explaining a crime they hadn’t committed was going to be awkward, at best.

  The woman lowered her head. “I don’t know who told you that, My Lady, but we aren’t smuggling any drugs.”

  “How tiresome,” Kelsey drawled. “Not surprising, though. This isn’t going to hurt me a bit. I can’t speak for you, though.”

  “It’s just tech, My Lady,” one of the men said. “It doesn’t hurt anyone.”

  Kelsey blinked in surprise. Thankfully, the prisoners were mostly focusing unfriendly stares at the man who’d spoken and didn’t see her reaction.

  She covered her expression of surprise with a sly smile. “I can see how that mistake could have been made. Tell me everything, and I promise you the lightest of the potential sentences. In fact, I may grant the most cooperative of you clemency, but only if you tell me everything I want to know right now.”

  “The crates don’t take up much space,” the woman said. “They come in with the supplies on the Dresden side and we drop them off when we pick up our load. We never see who eventually gets the stuff, but we get paid for every delivery.”

  “What kind of tech are we talking about?”

  The woman shrugged. “They didn’t say and we never asked.”

  “We’ll check it out. If it proves true, and you answer all my questions, your sentences will be much lighter. Tell me about Dresden.”

  They looked at one another again in confusion.

  “They make manufacturing equipment used throughout the sector,” the man who’d spoken earlier said. “Nothing of any merit, really. Farm implements, kitchen supplies, that sort of thing.”

  “I already know all this, but I’m leading to a specific set of questions and checking to see what you actually know,” Kelsey said. “Answer as if I know nothing about Dresden. Why the Fleet presence?”

  “To keep the Ghosts at bay,” the woman said.

  Kelsey stopped herself before she could frown. What ghosts? She couldn’t look ignorant about something that could be common knowledge, but she wasn’t going to fall for a trick, either.

  “Are they really that much of a threat?” she asked, with a taste of irony in her tone.

  “One such as myself has no way of knowing,” the woman said, bowing her head. “I am sure they are no threat to Fleet. I apologize for implying otherwise.”

  “I take no offense,” Kelsey assured her. “Tell me more. What precautions are you aware of around Dresden?”

  The woman took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Well, there have been a number of ships disappearing in the sector. The ships here patrol in search of the Ghosts who take them. The guard stations make sure that the Ghosts cannot raid here.”

  “And has Fleet found any of these Ghosts?”

  “I have heard rumors,” the woman said hesitantly. “Fleet sometimes corners a Ghost. They say they self-destruct to avoid capture.”

  That sounded suspiciously like the Fleet ships of old during the rebellion, except those ships just vented their atmosphere.

  “They blow up?” she asked carefully.

  The woman nodded. “So they say. Rather than fight a superior force, the ships blow themselves up. I suppose that is to keep Fleet from finding their hidden bases.”

  That wasn’t completely surprising, Kelsey supposed. The freighters delivering supplies to the Pale Ones had vanished from time to time, even with escorts. That implied someone working against the Rebel Empire.

  They’d all speculated about who that might be, but never got any further than a deeply hidden guerrilla force that occasionally struck out at their enemies. Much like what Olivia West and her people had been. Obviously with some warships, but probably not many.

  Honestly, this was still as much conjecture as before. Other than the fact that the Rebel Empire version of Fleet took the risk seriously. That implied the attacks were a real problem. One that needed a large number of ships occasionally.

  One more mystery to solve, when time and circumstances permitted. Right now, she had other fish to fry.

  “Tell me about the Fleet disposition you are aware of at Dresden. I want to see if it matches what we want people like you to see.”

  “There are three flip points, My Lady. Each has a guard station assigned to it. It sits far enough away that no surprise attack will overwhelm it. There are normally a number of ships assigned to it, as well, but the majority of the Fleet presence withdrew a month ago. The remaining ships are out at the unoccupied flip point.”

  Kelsey brought up a map of the system from the Old Empire records. The two flip points that led to occupied systems were only a few hours apart, but the third was all the way across the system.

  “You mean this one?”

  The woman nodded. “Yes, My Lady. I can’t tell you how many ships or what kind, but there are none left in Dresden orbit or at either of the other two flip points. Just the defensive stations.”

  “So the station scans your ship from a distance and allows it to proceed? Does the guard destroyer make transit with you?”

  The woman shook her head. “No, My Lady. It remains here. The station scans us and then allows us to proceed. When they had ships, they’d occasionally come out for a closer look, but no more than once or twice a year. Now, none.”

  Kelsey pursed her lips. “Do you know where the Fleet ships went or when they will return?”

  “No, My Lady. I assume the ones that left will be back soon enough.”

  She almost snorted. Wouldn’t that be a hell of a bluff? To send in the right kinds of ship and let them assume they were back?

  No, that would be far too dangerous. The Fleet units here would know what to expect, and they probably weren’t coming out of this system, so they couldn’t just waltz in.

  What they could do was execute her plan. It would take a few hours to arrange, but it was wickedly clever, even if she did say so herself. With a hint of luck, the guard fortress would never know what they were letting by.

  * * * * *

  Zia listened to Princess Kelsey’s orders a second time, certain that she must have misheard her. When the message repeated itself exactly as she’d heard it, she took a skeptical breath and called Brandon Levy.

  He appeared on her console a moment later.

  “Yes, Commodore?”

  “I need you to head over to the recovery ship. I’m detaching you to take care of an important special project.”

  He frowned, as well he should.

  “I’m not exactly free to leave my command in someone else’s charge. What’s going on?”

  She pulled her thoughts together. “The princess is going to sneak into Dresden hidden in a load of ore. Don’t worry, Audacious is going along for the ride, but I need my best commander on that ship while we’re under the missiles of the Rebel Fleet guard station.”

  He opened his mouth to respond, but closed it again. After a moment, he finally spoke. “That’s quite possibly the craziest plan I’ve ever heard.”

  “Welcome to working with Princess Kelsey. There’s the right way, the wrong way, and her way. We’re doing this her way. Time is short, and I need to have the most experience possible on that ship to give her harebrained scheme a chance of working. That’s you.”

  He shook his
head with obvious misgivings. “I’ll do my absolute best, Commodore, but I’ve never done anything remotely like this.”

  “Me, either. Welcome to the club. We’ll have some fighters stashed in the ore, ready to come out fighting. We can’t expose either ship enough to have clear missile tubes, so those fighters are all we have. Annette will be on one of them, and she’ll have our best people with her.

  “I’ll take over for you here, since we won’t be able to launch fighters or have other ships along for the ride. Get moving as quickly as you can.”

  The other officer nodded. “Aye, ma’am. I’ll do my best.”

  “Good luck, Captain.”

  * * * * *

  Annette thought this plan was crazy, but it wasn’t her call. Releasing the ore, getting the ships inside the arms on the recover ship, and repacking some of the raw material to conceal the hidden vessels had taken a surprisingly short amount of time.

  It seemed like a poor disguise to her. The shape of the ships was right there for anyone to see, if they bothered to look.

  That’s what they were counting on, she supposed. That the Rebel Fleet would scan the recovery ship and its cargo, see what they expected to see, and then wave them on through.

  If they didn’t, it was up to Annette and her fellow pilots to make sure they kept the bad guys in check until the larger ships could shed their disguises. Under fire, that wouldn’t be possible, so she certainly hoped the other side missed what was right in their faces.

  There were small pockets in the ore where the fighters could hide. They were small enough to blend in without being covered up, and close enough that they could receive short-range transmissions without risk of detection. They’d see the view as relayed by the recovery ship.

  Right now, she knew Brandon Levy was ripping out the scanner suite on the ungainly ship. He’d install a better set to improve the readings on the passive scans.

  If the enemy spotted their ruse, she had absolute certainty she and the other pilots would die in the ensuing fight. They’d trade their lives so that the bigger ships could get into the fight.