by Randal Sloan
“Needless to say, we can’t allow the attack to take place in either case. We’ve requested from Space Tech, and are currently scouring satellite data to try to determine for certain that they don’t have a full nuke, but so far we haven’t detected the signature of enough nuclear material to make that a likely prospect. We would like you to have your people work with us to concentrate our efforts on looking for this material.”
Julie smiled. “You already know we’ll do it,” she told him. Speaking in her command voice, she went on, “AI, please coordinate this effort as requested. Make this the absolutely highest priority task at Space Tech Intelligence.” When the AI responded in an affirmative, she looked over at Zeke and then back to Jimmy. “Serial number 1,” she told Jimmy.
Julie’s grin faded as a thought came into her head. “I assume you don’t want us to use a kinetic strike?” she asked, her throat dry at even the possibility.
Jimmy shook his head. “We don’t believe a kinetic strike is appropriate due to its location. Of course, the effect would be multiplied by the risk from the nuclear material, which would possibly be distributed to a large population area by such a strike.” Jimmy activated his VR, showing a mountainous area that was obviously wilderness, but she could tell from the borders that it was much closer to large population areas than any of them would want.
Julie breathed a mental sigh. She wasn’t really ready yet, but it was time to move forward with her work on the powered armor and put it to use. She looked Jimmy in the eyes. “My Space Forces will be able to take them out at a much lower risk than if your forces attempt it, even if you bring the armed forces in.”
Jimmy grinned like a Cheshire Cat. “We were hoping you would say that. We know that you’ve agreed to supply us with your new armor, but we haven’t had the opportunity to train in it. Plus, if you’re willing to sell it to us, you must have something better.” He pointedly looked at Julie, fishing for a response. She didn’t give him a verbal reply, but she gave him a big enough smile that he knew it was true. What could she possibly have that exceeded the capability of that armor?
Jimmy sighed. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. “Nor do we have the air superiority that you have,” he told her, pointing to what was obviously surface to air missile defenses at the Organization stronghold. He had seen the VR of her ship and also had access from the intelligence of her battle that had just occurred with the pirates.
Julie smiled but didn’t add anything to his assessment. He had no idea. With the gravity plates and since Zeke had managed the tweaks to the fields that would allow them to use the full capabilities of her ship, even in atmosphere, her ship had gotten even more deadly. But she merely told him, “I need DHS forces in place to insure that no one escapes. Based on your intel, we’ll need to do this two nights from now. At least the moon is new this week, so we won’t have to work around that.”
Jimmy nodded. “That was our feelings also. While I don’t think this is the last of the threats we’ll see from the Organization forces remaining, this is probably the most significant.”
Looking Jimmy directly in the eyes, Julie told him. “I need you to take point with the DHS forces, and if anyone gives you any push back, let me know. I’ll go to the President himself if I have to, and they don’t want me to do that.”
Jimmy had expected that to come up. “After the last two times you got the President involved in something, no one wants that I can promise you. They are still smarting from the results of those smackdowns, not that they shouldn’t be.”
Jimmy knew his words were an understatement if anything. Allowing a much too young major with no experience to command a highly critical black ops operation was bad enough, not to mention the man was a traitor to his country. At least a couple of general level officers were at a minimum incompetent enough to allow that to happen, if not complicit to the planned failure. In the case of the air attack on her ship, the Congressional Inquiry that came out of it had ended the careers of several politicians and generals. The Justice Department was planning to try in court a number of men from both groups involved.
But Jimmy just smiled before answering her, “Don’t worry. My boss has already approved the position. He remembers our history with the Organization and the Space Academy too, and my history with you, so he anticipated your request.”
He looked at her closely. Time to get down to business then. “But tell me, just exactly what do you have that you will be able to bring to the table?”
Julie looked at Zeke for a moment. Jimmy could have sworn that the two were communicating somehow. Finally they shared a smile, and Julie told Jimmy, “We have a little surprise for them. We’re going to use the newest version of the Space Tech armor, which will allow us to drop a team of Space Forces right on top of them, and should prevent any casualties of our own. Not so good for them, as I intend to eliminate them completely. I’m going to lead that team, not that Zeke here likes that one bit, but I need Zeke to fly my corvette and take out all of their defensive armament.”
“The only reason I won’t argue with you,” Zeke told her, “is that I know just how capable the new armor is going to be. You’ll probably be safer in it than I’ll be flying overhead, not that I think they have anything that could even scratch your little corvette. Now that I have the drives working in the atmosphere, and the anti-gravity plates, nothing on earth can touch it speed-wise, none of their weapons can phase me, and I can land it on a dime.”
Julie laughed, “You’d better hope you don’t break anything. I wouldn’t trust just anyone with my little baby, and it’s not fair that you get to try out all the new stuff before me.” Turning to Jimmy, she told him, “My AI has already started the process of looking at our highest level of satellite data, something even more in depth than what you guys have seen since we weren’t unaware of the exact need.” That was just a tiny barb, but Jimmy nodded in acknowledgment. It was just so difficult to get the intelligence weenies to realize what sharing could get them. They were so used to keeping everything close to the vest.
Julie didn’t blame Jimmy who merely nodded agreement. She knew how those people worked too. “I’ll send you all of the satellite and other information I have on the site, as well as the deployment locations for your teams. And of course, if we find out anything on the nuclear material, you’ll be the first to know. As always, I appreciate being able to work with you.”
Jimmy nodded, “As well as do I, working with you. Although, I expect Homeland will have absolutely nothing to do this time. I saw the specs on your ‘old’ armor and if you say the ‘new’ version is that much better than that? No one stands a chance. I’ll be in touch with you tomorrow at the latest.”
#
Julie and Zeke set up an appointment with the two majors in charge of the Space Force teams. When she met with them in a conference room with a crate sitting in the middle of the room, both of the majors immediately knew something was up. The last time she had done that, she had shown them the armor that they’d used to successfully assault the Organization’s space station, with absolutely zero casualties. They wondered just what she was going to show them this time.
Seeing their eyes light up, Julie smiled. “You guys ready for some new toys? I have one here that I believe will make the last one I gave you look like a baby.” Speaking to her AI, Julie told it, “AI, open the crate!”
The crate immediately began to open. As they all came closer to look, Julie told them, “Welcome, gentlemen, to the new Space Forces powered armor. You’re not going to believe what this armor is capable of.”
Smiling, Julie ticked off a list of the capabilities of the armor using her fingers. “First, powered as in powered. Second, this baby carries its own personal shield, impervious to almost any conventional weapon.” She saw their eyebrows rise on that one, but she continued, “Third, the armor when activated contains a camouflage circuit, making it almost impossible to see. Just ‘almost’ for now, I’ve still got to work on that.” Folding do
wn her last finger, Julie said, “Fourth and last, but not least, this armor allows the wearer to complete a suborbital halo landing.”
The last one was the last straw. Both majors stared at her like she was crazy. Finally, Major Gonzalez was able to speak, “You can’t be serious!”
Julie had known that that last one would get their full attention. “I am. By activating the shield, the armor is able to easily protect the wearer from the turbulence and heat of reentry. That goes back to my second point. You’re not going to believe just how effective the shield on this unit is. As Brian said when I first activated his powered protection unit when we flew him up to the space station, it’s like lying in a bed of pure cotton.
“We have a new mission, gentlemen, that requires the use of this armor. I believe it will be the safest mission you’ve ever been on, but because all of this is so very new, I’m making this mission volunteer only. It’ll also be limited to five of your people because that is all the number of units we have at the moment, other than my own personal one. Not that I think we need five to successfully complete this mission, I just want five to make sure we don’t let any of them get away.
“Go talk to your teams and make sure you explain all that I just told you. Oh, sorry, the mission is to eliminate one of the last insurgent teams the Organization has left, a team that I believe intends to attack the Space Academy in three days. That means we have one day to train in the new armor and then tomorrow night we will complete the attack. Tim is off the roster for this mission, not that I believe he’ll be happy about that, but he has a more important job. And if, as I suspect, every one of you that is left volunteers, then we’ll draw straws to determine who’ll be on the mission. If it comes to that, I want five team members and five alternate team members, just in case someone has to drop out. I’ll explain that this afternoon.”
“You don’t do anything by halves, do you?” Major Newsome told her. “You’re right, they’ll all want to be in on the mission, so I’ll just carry the straws with me.”
“You’re assuming you’re leading the mission,” Major Gonzalez said to him. “The two of us are going to have to draw straws first. There’s no other way to do that either.”
“Well, I had to try, didn’t I?”
Julie laughed at the two of them. “Let me know, gentlemen, when you have your teams. We start training early this afternoon. I expect everyone will want to come and watch, even Tim. You’ll all get to train fully in the armor as soon as the mission is completed.”
As she left, she heard the two of them carrying on a friendly argument as to just how they would get an impartial person to hold their straws.
#
Early afternoon, Julie arrived in the training area to meet with her assault team. She guessed it was karma, because Major Newsome had drawn the straw he wanted this time around. Having missed out on the opportunity to be the one leading the capture of the Organization’s leaders the last time around, Major Newsome had led the assault on the Organization’s control center, still an important mission, but not as glorious. That had worked out to the good for her, since Tim had been on the lead team, and that was why he had been nearby to carry her onboard her ship. She would never forget what he’d done for her.
Julie was wearing her armor but she didn’t have her helmet on. It looked almost exactly like the armor they had worn before, just a little more bulky with a big hump in the back where the power unit was located. But what it did made up for the bulk many times over. She knew they were going to love it once they got a chance to work with it. The biggest drawback, she feared, would be that the armor made the wearer feel invincible, a feeling that was dangerous to allow, because no one ever would be. As long as man fought against man, he would be trying to find a way to kill his fellow man, and someone would figure out a way. But for now, this unit came pretty darn close.
Julie stopped in the middle of the training area, facing the five men who also had donned the armor. Gathered around were the rest of the teams, some of them displaying open envy of the five. Julie knew if she could she would have taken them all, and she would have taken none of them, if she had a different choice. It had become very important to her that all these men and women would always come back to their families. That was one of the reasons she came up with this armor, her best chance to keep that promise she’d made to herself when she watched Tim with his brother.
“So guys, I assume the majors told you the basic capabilities of this armor. I’ll go through each of them to give you an idea of just what that means. If at any point, you hear something you don’t like, any one of you, I expect you to say so, and if I can’t answer it well enough to make you comfortable with continuing in the mission, you may bow out with grace.” She knew not a one would do that, but she had to make sure they had the opportunity.
“First: Powered; what does that mean? It means that the wearer has near superhuman strength, can jump further and run faster than any normal human, quite probably for hours if he had to, and it should be able to absorb the momentum of a drop from many feet.” Julie saw the eyes of the teams light up already. She was only beginning.
“Shielded means you will be able to withstand without injury almost any conventional weapon. So far in the level of testing we’ve been able to complete out at R4, nothing has gotten through the shield. But I will stress, if you hear nothing else I have to say, you must hear this: Nothing is ever one hundred percent safe. You know as well as I do, someone will find a way to defeat one of these someday. Be sensible. Don’t take unnecessary risks, just like you’ve been trained to know before this.” Julie saw the understanding in their eyes. They would be ok for now.
Smiling, Julie told them. “Cloaked you’ll have to see to believe and understand.” She put her helmet on, activated her systems, including her voice circuits so they could all hear her next command. “AI, engage the cloak.”
To the eyes of the Space Forces, Julie seemed to glitter for a moment and then disappear. She then proceeded to move about the room. Every once in a while someone would shout “There!” and point to where she was moving, but by the time anyone looked she would be gone. Finally, she stopped moving. Everyone looked around, but no one could spot her. Suddenly it dawned on Tim. Smiling, he reached out in front of himself, saying, “Hey sis…”
Smiling herself, Julie disengaged the cloak and removed her helmet. “Ok, so now you see. I could have talked about it all day, but you wouldn’t have believed it or understood until you saw it with your own eyes. Or didn’t see it, as the case may be.” She knew they understood now.
“Before I talk about the halo jump capability, let me explain some of the things about your suit. Each suit is controlled by an AI. But I’m not talking about just any AI. The six suits each contain one of the most powerful AI systems in existence. Again, you’ll have to see some of it to understand. But one of the things that makes that true is that they are all connected to one of the most powerful data hubs in the world — quite possibly rivaling that of the NSA. That AI, among the many other things it does, controls the field generated by the shield unit. By controlling that field, the AI is able to accomplish some amazing things. One of those is the cloak, which you just saw. It uses a field shape that conducts electromagnetic waves of all frequencies from one side of the field to the exact opposite side, with no attenuation. So light waves appear to pass right through you and you don’t get a pattern of absorption and reflection, which is what we use to ‘see’ with. It’s not perfect and especially so when in motion, which is why you could occasionally see me as I moved around the room. But once I stopped moving in front of Tim, you had almost no chance to see me.
“But that gives you an idea of what your AI can do with the fields. The halo jump uses the ability of the AI to manipulate the fields, initially to form a heat shield and buffer against any g forces in falling into the atmosphere. It’s also able to precisely guide the flight by making minute changes in the shape of the field. It’s so precise, the AI c
an follow a laser to land on the exact spot the laser indicates. It can land on a specific GPS coordinate to the centimeter. I wouldn’t want to attempt a landing in a hurricane, but barring that, pretty well anything goes. Oh, and no parachute required, something that makes a paratrooper an easy target. The AI is able to use another effect of the field, whereby the field ‘pushes’ against the air to slow the fall.”
Julie knew she had lost some of them with that one. “It’s not that different from how my corvette works. Tim can testify to how well it can fly.” She laughed at the look on his face. “Plus, the anti-grav function starts to kick in at the same time, reducing your apparent weight until you appear light as a feather.
“So again, if anyone is uncomfortable with the idea of making the jump, they should bow out and I dare anyone to give them a hard time.” They all saw the look on her face. Not a one would dare challenge her she knew.
“We’ll do a bunch of jumps in the simulators, but a simulation never gives you the real feeling. We don’t have the time for a real test jump before we do it live. Once you start the jump, there’s no aborting it until you’re on the ground. We can reroute you to a safe location, but down you’ll go. Some of you may not be comfortable with having the AI in control, and you have to trust it to land you safely. If you do start to freak out, either myself or the team lead can have your AI sedate you so that you at least don’t land as a basket case, but you’ll be out of the fight, possibly putting the mission at risk.”
Julie stopped to stare at the five standing in front of her. “Now do you see why I’m so adamant about you needing to back out if you’re not comfortable with it?” She stood in front of each of the five until everyone of them had looked her in the eyes and nodded. Finally she smiled. “Ok, this is going to rank up there with some of the hardest training you’ve ever done, because we’ve got to hit it hard and fast. Hopefully, some of the most fun too. Those of you not in armor, I’m going to make sure you get as much of the training as you can, although some of it you just can’t do without the armor. But when your teammates are in the jump simulators, you can have a little armor time too. I’ve already been through it so I’m going to loan my armor to the teams to use for training. That means Major Gonzalez along with the first team, since I’m including Major Newsome in the promise that anyone, and I mean anyone, can bow out if they feel they have to.”