by Will Crudge
“Don’t be concerned, Master Gunny…” Morgan spoke. This time Serge noticed the Acting Marshal was getting agitated. “The AI’s are probably being overly cautious. There’s no point in risking collateral damage to civilians over two suicidal piss ants.”
“Roger that, Sergeant Major.” Serge responded, but didn’t believe it. The patterns were making sense…. If the sovereign tokens were actually valid, then the PTAISM would have shut down the batteries after the first volley. That seemed to explain why they never fired a standard ripple fire second or third volley. He glanced back down at the status readout of the air defense sites… still green. I’m losing my mind! Why am I being so paranoid?
He shook his head and decided to snap back to reality. He looked back at the two red icons of the attacking fighters. They were still diving, but had just abruptly began to decelerate. He stopped to sip some coffee, and then looked back to the screen… but the tracks had moved… moved at impossible angles. The seconds that followed gave Serge a feeling of tightness in his chest. He watched the icon labelled Blood-Reaper engage one flank of the fighter formation. Not a single fighter fired a shot… Even with extreme caution, the fighters would normally return fire, or even try to deploy countermeasures. Then it hit him… The only countermeasures the drones used were dual purpose offensive and defensive weapons. Short range energy pulse turrets would automatically return fire. The AI’s never had to waste processing power to order a counter strike… it was built into the firmware of the fighters. The pulse turrets were also configured for close air support, and could provide air cover for ground ops… therefore if sovereign tokens were recognized by the PTAISM, then the drones wouldn’t be able to defend themselves… Even the AI pilots can’t willfully deny the drone’s ability at self-preservation.
“Drone squadron destroyed, Sergeant Major!” Serge saw the eruption of fire on his status display. He noticed the hand-full of surviving drones broke away from the engagement zone altogether, and appeared to be on course to reinforce the next three squadrons coming in fast.
“Damn it!” Morgan spat as he let his outburst lose. He spent years playing a role of a calm military leader. He had to match his persona closely to the typical personality type that was selected for leadership assignments. He couldn’t afford to raise suspicion whether or not the most powerful UAHC AI’s were all in his corner.
“Remaining squadrons are in weapons range!” Serge shouted, and then turned his head to study how Morgan would react. He supposed that the Acting Fleet Marshall would be eagerly waiting air to air missiles to emerge and take out the invaders… but the sidelong glance he received from Morgan told him all he needed to know.
For weeks there had been data burst reports go missing. Time stamps on scans were out of sync, and visual scans didn’t match the angles of the celestial bodies in the background. The only way that could happen, is if the AI’s were allowing it to. And the AI’s in this facility only answered to one man… the same man that is acting incredibly suspicious at the moment.
Serge could do nothing. There were seven other UAHC military staff in the building… and none of them would believe him. The AI’s would block any signals he tried to send… And he was surrounded by hired security that seemed excessively equipped for their contracted duties. Serge was an experienced Soldier, but he didn’t have armor or even a pistol. Morgan had instructed the UAHC military staff to stop wearing armor and packing side-arms when the security firm first arrived. He told them “Armor and weapons are redundant, and a potential distraction from your duties as command staff.” It made sense at the time… but the most devious maneuvers always did, Serge supposed.
Even still, he might be able to take out at least a dozen or more guards if he at least had infantry grade armor… but now he was truly powerless. All he could do was wait… and pretend to be a good little puppet.
***
“So, what do you two tactical geniuses plan to do about the other one hundred fifty drone thingies?” Sam asked, as she studied the missile lock warnings that seemed to dominate the tactical display on the HUD.
“Looks like they’re all coming at our 10, 12, and 2 o’clock vantage.” Darius pointed out nervously. His newly found clarity ebbed and flowed to and from his mind as his adrenaline levels fluctuated. He was now getting slightly nervous. He wasn’t feeling fear… but he could feel the chemical responses deep inside his brain trying to trigger his fight or flight response. His intense training, neural interface, and his mental connection with Shadow and Val were all working on concert to suppress the manifestation of primal fear… but he wasn’t sure if there was a point when any of that would prevent his primitive brain from prevailing.
“And not a moment too soon!” Val sounded off, but Darius didn’t understand why his choice of words had any bearing on the current situation. But it was all about to be clear in the following moments…
An eerily familiar sight came into view from the canopy of the Doom-Raptor. A ball of fire streaked across the sky from the corner of his field of view. In a single flash he remembered his time as a young ground pounder on a beach… under attack… and the fireball that had put him in a coma all those years ago.
“That… is an LRF-90A!” Doom spoke with glee. But unlike the first time Darius had seen it, he had advanced optics to peer past the heat waves and fire… he filtered through the atmospheric disruptions, and zoomed in on the blisteringly fast object. He saw a tiny black LRF hull with fully burning thrusters engaged. The oddly shaped energy shield looked like it was being fed by cannon like devices mounted to the exposed weapons cradles beneath it. It was like a steady stream of particles were pushing the fighter’s shielding into a shaped cone that came to a wedge shape directly ahead of the nose. There was a massive shockwave that was steadily building up behind the fighter, and in successively violent layers. Darius instantly realized how awesome and deadly the outcome would be. He retracted his optics into normal mode and took in the spectacle of raw power. The fireball cut right through all three drone formations in a single slice that reminded Darius of a katana making a curved slice through an array of helpless watermelons.
Then the layered shockwave came in tow… dozens of helpless fighter hulls appeared to be vaporized on impact. The concussive effect of the shockwave annihilated every single enemy fighter in a matter of seconds. The three formations had to have been twenty to thirty kilometers apart from one another, but they may as well have been stationary fruit at the mercy of a Samurai’s sword stroke.
Fire and smoke filled the sky… and the tactical display fell silent. “Well, if I it were possible for an AI to believe in a benevolent higher being, then I would be among his or her flock.” Sam spoke with a tone of astonishment.
“My dear… AI’s are indeed capable of spiritual belief!” Val spoke with all the reverence of a priest giving a testimony of faith. “Midas would frown upon your lack of faith.”
“Midas? The most legendary AI there ever was?” Sam asked with a tone of total disbelief.
“Yes, dear.” Kindle added. “He’s made a believer out of all us lowly LRF NAV Units.”
“How fare thee, father?” A new voice came on the audio net.
“Val will do for now, my son.” Val replied. “Your nephew isn’t used to our culture as of yet.”
Darius honed in on the word ‘nephew.’ He instantly formulated a new mental connection a moment later…
“You are Jimma’s father?” Darius directed his question at the voice called Jep.
“Indeed, Cyrus… or Darius.” Jep corrected himself. Darius cringed slightly.
There’s that name again. But he quickly put it out of his mind. His curiosity was secondary to his mission. The UAHC HQ needed to be liberated by the clutches of the Crimson Alliance, and their puppet Acting Fleet Admiral.
“Well, as much as I’d love to chat… We’ve got a fortified facility to liberate.” Darius snapped back to reality.
“Correct.” Val acknowledged. “We’ll need
to make it to a landing spot, fight our way in, and try not to get any UAHC personnel killed in the process.”
Darius felt relieved that Val added that last bit. If he was going to assume command, then he didn’t want it done by means of a hostile coup…. But the hired guns were fair game. He believed all or most of the contracted security personnel were Crimson ground troops. Likely special ops. They weren’t as well trained as a typical UAHC Soldier, and lacked the performance enhancing augmentations, however they were professionals. Chances were that they would have heavy weapons, military grade armor, and multi-layered defensive contingencies pre-planned.
“We’re not facing pirates, so we’ll need to maintain our respect for the enemy’s capabilities.” Darius began to speak as if he were already installed as the head of the entire UAHC Fleet.
“Indeed.” Jep replied. The War Master seemed to pause as if to give Darius an opportunity to continue.
“Crimson ground troops… regardless of what uniform they wear… will have pre-planned defensive positioned. They’ll have every entrance to the facility well-fortified. All of our potential avenues of approach will be covered by interlaced fields of fire. I would venture to guess that the landing pads would appear to be clear for landing. In fact, I’d even venture to guess that the STC would authorize our approach.”
“Why would they do that?” Sam asked. “I’m an advanced military spec AI, but even I can’t see why they would let a few fighters into their approach lanes… especially after destroying three atmospheric drone squadrons, and crippling the exo-atmospheric squadron!”
“I see your point, Darius.” Jep interjected. “They know we can’t be stopped as long as we’re in flight…. The PTAISM’s have shut down any chance of taking us out. Their only play is to get us off the ground and out into the open.”
“That doesn’t even compute with my UAHC strategic underlay coding.” Sam pointed out.
“Exactly.” Val pointed out. “The Crimson agents will have the full support of the subverted AI’s in the HQ facility. It’s likely that they will choose a course of action they feel we cannot predict. If it makes no sense to dear Sam, then they’ll be betting the same will be the case for us.”
“Ok, but that’s just hypothetical.” Sam noted. “There could be any number of courses of action that they’ll keep in their pocket. Why would they go to that bat-shit crazy plan first?”
“Because we’ll make them choose it.” Darius’s words came through with a strong hint of absolute certainty.
“Wha---?” Before Sam could even get the first word out, Darius jumped on the STC net.
Morgan’s arrogance and fear made him play right into Darius’ hand.
“Well, he cut the line…” Doom said. “I guess after two millennia of seeing every sort of strategic and tactical trickery, I’ve been able to see things pretty clearly. I can only assume that you’d rather force the enemy into a course of action that you can predict?”
“Precisely.” Darius responded. “My only question is why he only ordered me and Val to land. Did he forget about Jep?”
“I’m back in full stealth, and have not been broadcasting an IDENT. That Morgan probably saw me drop off their scans. He may be a in the Crimson’s pocket, but he’s not stupid. He probably decided it was a waste of energy to get an invisible threat to comply. Perhaps he’s waiting to see if he can get you two into that building. I bet he’s hoping you’ll be some sort of human shield. He’ll probably hold tight and see if I do something foolish, and then he can take exploit the situation.” Jep surmised.
“Approach vectors received.” Kindle chimed in. “So what do you boys plan on doing on the ground? You’ll be sitting ducks.”
“Yes, we will.” Val chuckled. “Giving one’s enemy the illusion of tactical advantage only bolsters them to reveal their true intensions. Once they’ve played their hand, their options to respond will be limited.”
“So, let me get this straight. The means by which you will create the illusion of their tactical advantage is to actually give them a tactical advantage?” Sam asked. She was no stranger to military decision making processes, but this was on a whole new level. Ever since she’d met Val, Darius’ thought patterns had been strange. She knew Darius’ training was akin to a chess player thinking three or four moves ahead… but now he’s been thinking ten to twenty moves ahead. He’s been accurately anticipating courses of action, and seeing things that perhaps Val can’t even predict. If an AI were truly capable of primordial fear, then she’d be crippled by it by now.
Pressing the Attack
Location: CSS Heavy Cruiser Oden, CIC
Date Time: Post Interstellar 07/30/4201 1413HRS Crimson Fleet Standard Zulu Time
System: UAHC Alpha Site Training Area Boundary
“Looks like our poor UAHC friends have formed a defensive posture!” Commodore Theodor jeered. The grey haired man cracked a sinister smile. The view from his command console display showed the understrength UAHC squadron forming a standard doctrine defensive stance. The heavy cruiser, which acted as the squadron flagship, was in the center of the 10,000 kilometer wide formation. The smaller cruisers took up positions that roughly formed a parabolic constellation of steel, and their even smaller destroyers and frigates filled the gaps. Theodor wasn’t surprised in their choice of defensive p
osture, but he was taken back at their tenacity to stand and fight. He figured that by now the meager squadron must know they had no back up. The Chimera’s were infesting the AI’s that controlled every other ship and facility in the vast Alpha site, and would have severed any potential support they might have requested.
He wondered if the Broadsword Squadron’s own AI’s were simply giving them a false sense of security before they could be finished off, or if they were simply going to wait until an engagement could be ordered before they’d seize control. It made sense that the AI’s, subverted by the Chimera or not, would try to seek self-preservation. It occurred to him that by waiting until the last minute to try and seize control, they would vastly improve the odds that their human companions would be too focused on an enemy fleet to realize that their AI’s were traitors. That scenario made the most sense. If the AI’s waited to show their hand, then the human crew would be caught off guard and the Crimson forces would envelop their ships before the AI’s could be taken off-line.
“Zoom in on the Broadsword, Ensign.” Theodor projected his voice towards Ensign Craig’s workstation without taking his eyes off the display.
“Yes, Sir.” Craig replied. The main screen of the CIC zoomed in on the battlecruiser. Commodore Theodor admired the smooth lines of the technically superior vessel. In sheer combat power, there wasn’t any one Crimson ship that could match the UAHC Broadsword. Even without the additional armor and heavy weaponry it could bring to bear while outfitted as a dreadnaught, it was very difficult to kill. Theodore might even be intimidated if his own flotilla wasn’t so formidable. The small UAHC squadron didn’t have heavy weapons, augmented battle armor, or AI’s that wouldn’t betray them, so the Commodore was quite happy to risk the incursion into UAHC Fleet controlled space.
“Sir, scans confirmed. No long range weapons detected. The Broadsword is the only ship with the potential to counter attack at this range.” Commander Tyson reported. He stood up from his weapons control station and calmly walked up to the command platform. “Shall we engage, Sir?”