Imprint of War

by Phil Huddleston

  Bruntel bared his fangs in a smile. "There is no other enemy within a thousand light years of Nest, Privend. And even if there were, half of Home Fleet could defeat any fleet ten times its size, and we both know there is no such fleet in existence."

  Privend nodded reluctantly. "Yes, sir, I know that is your position. But it's my job in Intelligence to cover all the bases. That's all I'm trying to do."

  "And we appreciate it, Commander Privend," said CNO Makvil. "Truly, we do."

  Makvil turned to Bruntel, effectively dismissing Privend. "How many would you take, if we approve this?"

  Bruntel showed his fangs, sensing victory. "Half the Home Fleet should be more than enough. With that, I could blow away two hundred Ape frigates!"

  Privend held his breath. CNO Makvil pondered for a moment. Then he nodded.

  "Present a plan to my staff, Bruntel, and if they approve it, so will I. Then you can go off to Earth and destroy these annoying Apes."

  Bruntel squeaked in victory, his ears pointing up hard and his fangs bared.

  Privend found it very hard to resist doing the same.

  61,252,000 km from Nest - Asteroid 1.0105-4605

  1 June 2207

  “I hope this works,” said Walker, strapped into his chair on the bridge of the Enterprise.

  “You and me both,” said Captain Davis, his XO. “Cobb’s no fool. He’ll be expecting us.”

  “This is our only chance, Jim. Otherwise he gets inside of us and we’ll never catch him.” said Walker.

  “Yep,” said Davis. “But God, when we were planning this, I didn’t anticipate the hairs standing on up the back of my neck like this. We are so damn close to Nest.”

  Walker grinned. “Closer than any Rim ship has ever been, and we’re the biggest ship in the RDF. With the entire Bat Fleet in orbit just sixty million kilometers away. If that doesn’t make the hairs on your neck stand up, you’re not human.”

  Davis shuffled nervously, staring at the large tactical holo in the center of the bridge, hoping for any kind of detection that would show where Cobb might be entering the Nest system. He turned away from Walker and walked over to the Comm console, leaning over the yeoman’s shoulder.

  “Anything?” he asked.

  “No, sir,” said the yeoman. “Just normal check-ins.”

  Davis muttered, looking back at the holo. It showed the Bat home system, with sixteen groups of A40 attack craft spread out at 6 AU from the planet Nest, like the tips of the spokes of a wheel. Each group contained eleven A40’s, powered down and waiting quietly. On the perimeter of the system just at the mass limit, sixteen additional A40s – each one spaced 1/16 of the way around Nest – also waited, their QE boxes ready to spit a burst to the Enterprise at the first sign of contact with Cobb’s renegade task force. Between each of the outer birds and the next were a dozen QE repeater buoys, laid by a small fleet of scout ships over the last few days.

  And one anomalous lone group of twenty-four A40’s rested quietly, seven AU from Nest, at 120 degrees away from the line pointing back toward Earth, thirty-five degrees down from the Nest system ecliptic. Finally, there was the Enterprise, latched like a big flea on the backside of the asteroid, hiding.

  “Got him, sir!” yelled the yeoman at the Comm console, turning excitedly toward Captain Walker. “Ten AU out, 135 degrees, twenty-two down – unbelievable, sir, almost right where you said!”

  Davis threw his hands in the air and looked at Walker. “How in the hell do you do that?”

  “Just playing the odds, Jim. Just playing the odds. Don’t forget that bottle of scotch when this is done, though.”

  Davis just shook his head. “It’ll be there. Remind me never to bet with you again.”

  At the seven AU point, Vitus sat in his A40, studying the holo. Captain Walker had predicted that Cobb would circle around the Nest system, come in from the backside somewhere around 120 degrees from the line to Earth – from the direction of the Galactic Core - and from somewhat below the galactic plane. Vitus understood Walker’s reasoning – Cobb’s biggest bargaining chip was the true location of Earth, and he would not do anything to make it easy for the Bats to discern that vector. Then Walker had said something about how lazy Cobb was - so he wouldn’t spend any more time disguising his vector than necessary. Just enough. That was how Walker came up with his prediction of 120 degrees from Earth, and thirty-five degrees down from the Nest system ecliptic – the minimum he felt Cobb would do to disguise his back vector.

  But now Vitus was here – his squadron inside the vector of this traitor, a man who would betray the Rim, a man who would allow the Bats to destroy Earth and its eleven billion humans.

  In the background of his comm, he heard the CAG issuing orders, directing all the other A40 squadrons to thrust quietly away toward a rendezvous point in the outer Kuiper belt, and await pickup by the Enterprise – they were too far away to join the action. Their part was done.

  Vitus issued orders to his squadron and felt the gentle tug of acceleration as his ship, and all the others in his squadron, turned and started boosting toward a point that would intercept Cobb in seven hours, at five AU from Nest – too close for comfort, but there was no other choice.

  However, his squadrons were not moving under their own power. They were mounted, temporarily, on a huge frame of plastisteel, with a core of large system engines in back pushing them on their way. Their own engines were powered down. The entire assemblage was a kluge – a construct hastily assembled while the Enterprise was on its way to Nest. From any kind of distance, the conglomeration looked like a Bat merchant ship. And it had a valid Bat merchant ship ID – where that had come from, Vitus had no idea, but it was starting to look suspiciously like the RDF had assets on Nest, he thought.

  At the Bat merchant ship standard in-system acceleration of 100g, the kluge headed for their appointment with Cobb’s task force. But now Vitus understood the complete plan – he would probably not get to fight this day. He was the backstop – the last ditch, fallback position to stop Cobb if Plan A didn’t work. And Plan A was a pretty damn good plan, he had to admit. Admiral Hammett had put it together eighteen years ago, as a contingency for this day. Vitus stood in awe of the foresight required to predict this event eighteen years in the past. But it had been done, and now Plan A would be executed. Only if it failed would Vitus and his squadrons enter the battle.

  On the Taizong, Cobb sat loosely in his command chair, studying the holo. Because he had no access to any of the QE detection buoys in the system, he was entirely dependent on lightspeed sensors – light detection, radar and lidar. Thus, his information on the configuration of ships at Nest was eighty minutes old. The Bat Home Fleet showed in orbital anchorage around Nest and parked at the LaGrange points nearby Nest and its moon. Various merchant ships vectored here and there throughout the system, most coming or going on a direct line from the outer system mass limit. Nothing was very close to him. All looked normal. He didn’t buy it, though.

  “They’re here somewhere,” he said to Flag Captain Oleg, pointing toward the tactical holo. “We just have to find them.”

  Oleg grunted. “I don’t see a damn thing. Maybe we beat them here.”

  “Not a chance,” said Cobb. “They’re hiding here somewhere. Just keep your eyes peeled.”

  Cobb turned to his Tac Officer, Commander Maxim Reznikovich. “Rez, anything?”

  “Nothing, sir,” replied Reznikovich. “Just a bunch of Bats going about their business.”

  Cobb nodded. “OK, start boosting in-system. Comm, prepare to start the broadcast.”

  Cobb looked down at the script on his tablet. The broadcast he was preparing to send was very simple. It had been translated to the Bat language and recorded. All the Comm officer had to do was send it on a known Bat Naval comm channel.

  “To the Bat Empire Navy: I am Admiral Cobb of the Human Federation. I am here to make you a very attractive offer. In exchange for certain considerations, I can offer you all the informatio
n you want about the capabilities of the Federation Navy – their locations, armaments, tactics, capabilities and plans. Please respond via this frequency if you understand my offer and have an interest. If I do not hear from you in three hours, I will reverse course and exit the system, never to be seen again. So please do not delay.”

  Cobb settled into his seat, getting comfortable in order to watch the broadcast go out. At that moment, all the lights on the bridge blinked, and every console re-booted. The tac holo blinked out, then came back on, slowly re-painting the environment from sensors. Cobb jumped out of his chair.

  “What the hell?” he yelled.

  “Don’t know, sir,” yelled Reznikovich. “I think the AI just re-booted.”

  “Crap!” yelled Cobb. “What is this shit?”

  The Comm officer looked over at Cobb, face white. “Sir – all ships reporting that their AI has just re-booted. Same as ours.”

  Oleg looked up from the Tac Console, his face grim. “We just had an AI core swap. It re-booted from backup media. Absolutely no clue why.”

  Cobb swore. “I know why. Those bastards at the RDF. They put a back door in our system.”

  Suddenly the holo blinked, and all the system information disappeared. In its place stood a large image of Jake Hammett. He stared directly at Cobb, as if he could see him. Then the image spoke.

  “Did you really think I would sit idly by for eighteen years, you son of a bitch, and never prepare for this moment? Welcome to hell, Cobb. The next few hours are going to be your introduction to it – soon followed by your real entry there. You killed thousands of people, you bastard, and now I’m going to kill you. Not directly, you stupid shit. I’m going to let the Bats kill you. And thanks for the opportunity to fox them even more. At least you can die knowing that you helped the RDF defeat them. Goodbye, Cobb. Enjoy it!”

  Suddenly the Taizong began boosting at 155g, directly toward Nest. All the other ships of Cobb’s task force did the same. At the same time, the Comm console lit up.

  “Sir!” yelled the Comm officer. “There’s a broadcast going out!”

  “Put it on,” snapped Cobb. The Comm officer pressed his console and James Cobb’s own voice came through their comms.

  “…Admiral James Cobb to the Bat Navy. We are tired of your aggressive colonization and wanton destruction. This will be a warning to you that we will no longer tolerate it. We are fully prepared to die to demonstrate - we are willing to do whatever it takes to stop you. Prepare yourself for justice!”

  Cobb chilled to the bone. “Stop it,” he yelled at the Comm officer.

  “I can’t, sir!” yelled the Comm officer. “The AI has taken over the console! I can’t do anything!”

  Oleg looked up from the Tac Console grimly. “We’re headed directly for Nest, at 155g. We can’t control the ship.”

  “Shut off the AI!” yelled Cobb.

  “We’ve tried, sir,” said Oleg. “No joy. We’re completely locked out. The AI has sealed itself and the engines as well, using the boarding defense protocol.”

  Cobb sank into his command chair, pounding his fist on the armrest in frustration. “Keep trying!” he yelled at the bridge crew, as they frantically worked to regain control of the Taizong. “Tell Engineering to disconnect the AI! Tell them to manually shut down the engines!” But in his heart, Cobb knew. He knew that the RDF had spent the last eighteen years secretly modifying his ship, and the other ships in his task force. Why he hadn’t thought of that, he couldn’t say. But it had never crossed his mind that Hammett would be that patient, have that much foresight. They must have infiltrated the maintenance crews over the years, slowly building up their presence, carefully putting in place the pieces to do this. And now – he knew. He knew in his heart it was too late. Hammett had him.

  ***

  Eleven hours later, the Bat battleship Warmonger – the second of that name – approached Cobb’s fleet, just about halfway between Cobb’s initial entry point and Nest. Around it, four other BEN battleships and their associated screening cruisers and frigates were under flank decel, to maximize the engagement window. Cobb’s fleet had also gone to decel about halfway to them, but had otherwise never wavered since their initial broadcast, and no other communications had been forthcoming. They did not respond to any messages from the Warmonger.

  Onboard, Bat Commodore Rashtal studied the holotank, shaking his head.

  “I’ve seen stupid before,” he commented to his XO, Caltel. “But this takes the cake. They’re committing pure suicide.”

  Caltel nodded. “I can’t even imagine what they hope to accomplish by this.”

  Rashtal grunted. “I call this a weapons test for our fleet.”

  Caltel grinned. “Not even a very good one.”

  A console pinged, indicating they were in range.

  “Open fire, Caltel.” Said Rashtal.

  Caltel nodded. The Warmonger, and the rest of Rashtal’s fleet, sent a massive wave of missiles toward Cobb’s puny task force.

  “Anything?” Cobb grunted, talking to Oleg. Oleg just looked back at him passively.

  “We’ve tried everything. The manual controls in Engineering are all disconnected. We can’t shut down the engines. We can’t change course. We cut our way into the AI core and found out it had been distributed all over the ship, into dozens of locations. We found one in the back of a reefer in the galley, disguised as a refrigerant motor. But every time we shut one down, another one somewhere else takes over. We have no control over any of the consoles. And all the weapons are powering up.”

  Cobb pounded his command chair in frustration. Tears came into his eyes as he heard all his weapons start firing at the Bat task force in front of him. Oleg looked at Cobb with disgust.

  “Thanks for killing us all, you stupid son of a bitch,” he said.

  1/2 AU behind Cobb’s task force, and off to one side, Vitus and his squadron stood by, just coasting along. Their recorders ran at full speed as the scene played out in front of them. Their primary task – acting as a backup in case anything went wrong with Plan A – was done. Cobb’s task force was a field of debris now, the more so because as each of his ships took even the slightest hit, they exploded, so that nothing was left – no survivors, no AI core to be examined, nothing. One by one, the ships had detonated, leaving behind only clouds of debris. When the last one was gone, and the Bat task force had halted, sifting through the wreckage, Vitus and his squadron stopped their recorders and slowly, carefully boosted back out of the system, still squawking their Bat ID code, looking to all the universe like just another Bat merchant ship on its way to a distant port. In the Kuiper belt, they rendezvoused with the Enterprise, which carefully sank out of the system, heading for its next stop.

  Bat Home System – Kuiper Belt

  15 June 2207

  It looked like an asteroid. It moved like an asteroid, in a nice, semi-stable orbit in the Kuiper belt of the Bat Home System, far from any perturbing influences that might be caused by inner planets. Nothing about the frozen, icy rock looked abnormal.

  Inside, a central hall ran down the center of the heavily disguised RDF Scout Ship Polaris. Crew quarters, a kitchen, an entertainment area, a gym, storage areas and life support centers came off the main hallway at intervals. At the rear, a propulsion unit, retracted inside the asteroid and covered by a thick rock-covered hatch, rested cold and silent.

  On the bridge at the center of Polaris, Captain Richard Eidson of the RDF Scout Service squinted at the console. His XO, Commander Rachel Aubrey, stood beside him, shaking her head.

  “They're still moving away from us," said Rachel. "At least 1 AU out. I think we're good."

  Richard nodded. “Fine, but it was damn strange that as soon as we shut down the reactor, that Bat scout showed up making a sweep through the belt. Makes me damn uncomfortable sitting here with no power. How’s Commander Aiken coming on the reactor repair?”

  "About another twenty-four hours," she reported.

  "And tracki
ng?"

  "Passive sensor tracking is good," said Rachel. "We're not seeing anything other than the one scout ship there, and it's no threat at the present."

  Richard grunted. "OK. Keep a close eye on things.

  Rachel nodded. "Aye, sir."

  Richard turned and headed towards the stairwell down to crew quarters. "I'm going to get some shuteye. If anything so much as twitches in our direction, I want to know it yesterday."

  ***

  His MEMSAI was screaming in his head. Richard woke up, with that instant attention that comes with years of military service. yelled his MEMSAI again.

  Richard jumped out of bed and ran for the bridge. He burst into the bridge just in time to see Rachel turn toward him, her face grim.

  "We've got a Bat frigate coming straight up our ass on a combat approach, he came out of nowhere. He clearly knows we're here."

  "Crap, crap, crap," said Richard. "How did they find us?"

  As the remainder of the bridge crew slammed their butts into the chairs around them, Rachel shook her head. "There's too much coincidence between our shutting down the reactor and the scout ship appearing, and now a frigate. I think the reactor must have shunted some stray RF through the hull when we shut it down. There's no other way they could know we're here."

  "Well, they know now. And we still have no power?"

  "No, sir. Commander Aiken says even with an emergency startup, he can't get the reactor back for at least an hour."

  Richard nodded slowly. "So - no guns, no power to move, nothing."

  Rachel's face was white. "That's about the size of it."

  Richard looked around the room at the scared faces surrounding him. Grimly, he turned back to Rachel.

  "I'm sorry, Rachel," he said.

  Rachel nodded. "I know," she whispered.

  Kamilaroi – Tolleson Base

  Jake hit the conference table with his closed fist, just one time, but hard. He bowed his head.

  Those assembled around the table waited silently. Those closest to him, at his end of the table, saw the moisture in the corners of his eyes.