One of the heretic warriors from the second target had been spotted! The risk of being spotted while approaching the orbital shipyards was always a distinct possibility. Unlike their other target, the orbital shipyard would have continuous navigational surveillance around it from the point of safety. An alert operator or a well-tuned collision alert system would spot a free floating Shaitan, as they neared the station, and flag it as a potential collision alert.
The pilot smoothly went through his prepared script for such an eventuality. “Let me check Void master. The builder responsible for repairs had sent several beings outside to effect repairs, almost all of them were novices from the academy. It would not be surprising if one of them was incompetent enough to release his working anchor and somehow get disorientated so as to float away from the vessel.”
After an appropriate amount of silence, the heretic pilot opened the channel again. “It is true void master. One of the novices who had been tasked to effect repairs outside, is missing from this vessel. The builder in charge of repairs has displayed incompetency himself, in not keeping track of his workers. We request vessel yard #3 to assist in rescue of the being if possible. In the meanwhile I will try to reach this floating being over the radio. He is a novice and probably panicked right now. I will try to guide him to use his suit thrusters to reach the vessel yard.”
The heretic pilot then opened an encrypted channel with the two warriors who were drifting towards the ship yard, and informed them that one of them had been spotted, but he couldn’t say which one. “It is probably I who has been spotted vessel master.” Replied one of the warriors. “I had to use a large burn of my thrusters to stay on course, since my launch was slightly off course.” The other warrior confirmed that he had had to use minimal thrust and had anyway reached the ship yard, and was now attached to the outer skin of the yard. So it was unlikely that he had been spotted.
“All right. You know what to do in case of this particular eventuality. You have trained for it. Stick to your story, and trust in the Truth. The words of the prophet will show you the way!” The pilot instructed the two warriors and cut off.
It was just as the Marines were launching on their fifth and final target, that the controller started getting suspicious. “Shuttle 2667, what in the name of Ka is going on aboard that vessel of yours?! Have you lost another being?! Vessel yard #2 now reports that they find a being floating near their yard! It seems a mighty coincidence that you seem to be losing beings right next to vessel building yards! Even the most incompetent bunch of novices can’t be this incompetent and then this lucky to drop in right next to vessel yards for convenient rescue.
“If it is a game you are playing, what is the purpose and intent of this game shuttle 2667? I better be convinced by your next answer, or I report to higher authorities immediately. You know what that means in these times of war? The higher authority is the warrior command center. They are likely to shoot first and ask questions later. So you better be forthright and forthcoming in your answer!”
The pilot shifted to the next level of his script. “You are right void master. This cannot be a coincidence. You are also right that there is more than the stated intent at play here. It is just that whatever the undeclared intent is, I am not aware of it right now, but I am going to find out and let you know shortly. Two novices heading towards two building stations must have some purpose that I am unaware of. I will start with the builder supervisor and then interrogate each and every novice on board this vessel. I will get to the bottom of the truth, even if I have to send every being on this vessel into the liquefaction chamber. In the meanwhile I would request you to detain the two novices on those two vessel yards for questioning. If no one else but those two novices are involved in whatever mischief is being planned, then we would know whom to question.”
“All right vessel master. I will hold you to your word to get to the bottom of this in the next eight millicycles, after which I report to the warrior control center if I don’t get a satisfactory answer. In the meanwhile I will get the interrogation of the two novices on those two vessel yards started in any case. They are the beings most likely to know what is going on. There are warriors at all times on those vessel yards. I am sure they can handle the interrogation of a novice.” The traffic controller replied.
Lt. Pimenta heaved a sigh of relief. The traffic controller had given them about forty minutes, which was just about enough time for them to finish what they were doing. Unless the warriors interrogating one of the heretics that had been spotted, smelt a rat first. Lt. Pimenta mentally crossed his fingers and hoped for the best. Hopefully the seasoned heretic warriors would be able to stall their interrogators for long enough to give the rest of the assault team the time they require.
“Last package delivered. We are done here LT.” Lt. Pimenta could hear the eagerness to get away, in the voice of the Marine as he moved away from the hatch and hastily started dismantling the machinery they had spent the last few days installing near the hatch. He was right in being eager to get the hell out of here, because in a few more minutes all hell was going to break loose around the orbit of World #2, and if things had gone according to plan then around the orbit of the origin world as well.
Lt. Pimenta could see that the hatch was closing on command from the pilot chamber. He could feel the shuttle changing its orientation, preparing for the desperate dash they were about to make. The heretic pilot was aware of the urgency of the situation, so he was not wasting a moment.
Within a few seconds of the shuttle opening up its thruster full throttle to get away from World #2, the traffic controller was on the line. The traffic controller must have been monitoring the movements of the shuttle closely. “Shuttle 2667, give me a good reason why I should not be reporting you to the warrior command center right now?! Has Ka muddled the sorry excuse for a brain that you have? Why have you changed your vector and are moving away?”
The heretic pilot stuck to his script. “In fact void master, I insist that you report to the warrior command center because if you don’t then I am going to report to them, although if you do so immediately without getting the reason from me, it would make you look incompetent and probably get you demoted for missing vital intelligence critical to this war.” The heretic pilot replied.
“What is it you have discovered vessel master?” The traffic controller asked.
“First of all, there is nothing to panic. There is no immediate danger from what I have discovered. I am only moving away from World #2 as a matter of ample precaution to prevent any more of these errant novices from jumping off the vessel and trying to attempt landing in one of the structures orbiting the world.” The heretic pilot replied.
“There are more novices attempting to jump out of the vessel?” The traffic controller asked incredulously.
“As of now, we found two more novices missing. We presume that these novices have also jumped into the void in the hope of reaching some or the other structure in orbit. They may succeed, so don’t be surprised if you get more reports of suited beings floating in the void approaching some structure in orbit.” The heretic pilot replied.
That answer coincided with a report that the traffic controller got of another sighting of a being floating next to vessel yard #1. The fact that the heretic pilot had pre-emptively warned the traffic controller of such an eventuality, built some amount of trust. “Yes I am getting reports of another sighting near vessel yard #1. What is causing these novices to indulge in such madness?” The traffic controller asked.
“I just found out that before the space station had been blown up by a Ka-Baal missile, it had been hit by another missile, which was not designed to blow up. It penetrated the skin of the space station and released a gas, which I am assuming was some form of madness poison that we know the Ka-Baal have used earlier on the beings of World #12. At that moment the evacuation of the space station was still ongoing, and many of the novices were not in their suits.
“It seems that
all the novices who got exposed to the gas are displaying symptoms of irrational behavior. We have identified a few such beings here inside the vessel, and all the four novices who jumped were also exposed to the gas.
“It is important void master that we don’t harm these exposed beings, but take them to the curious castes and healers. I am not saying this just out of compassion for these novices void master, but because these exposed beings are the source of critical intelligence that would be required for the defense of our beings. This poison gas seems to be having a very different effect from the descriptions we had heard on World #12. If that is true, then the Ka-Baal may have developed a new, more potent and pernicious weapon. Our curious caste and healers will have to take samples from these exposed beings, find a defense and a cure for such attacks.” The heretic pilot gave the story that had been cooked up as a reason for the sudden retreat. How far it would be believed by the traffic controller, and how long it would stall the eventual raising of the alarm, was something that Lt. Pimenta could only hope and pray for. Every minute that the shuttle got was an additional bonus and increased their chances of survival.
The heretic warriors who had reached the orbital shipyards without being spotted got a timer alert signal on their suit interface. The sharp chemical taste let them know it was time. These heretic Shaitans released themselves from the outer skin of the shipyard where they had been anchored, and with a few deft thrusts from the suit thrusters were able to position themselves near the emergency hatch lining the shipyard’s outer hull. Shaitans never had organized warfare between themselves, neither had they ever faced treachery within their own species. So there were no reasons for installing security codes on emergency hatches, which would put an unnecessary hurdle in an emergency for swift evacuation, or for someone with a leaking suit from getting in quickly. All the heretic warriors had to do was to touch the control area of the emergency hatch, provide their unique chemical signature as an identification, and give it the command to open.
The central computer noted the command, sent a notification to the control room about an emergency hatch having been opened. Let the control room know the identification signature of the being who had commanded the hatch open, and opened the hatch. Like any hatch that opened to space, this hatch had an air lock as well. The heretic warriors had to wait thirty seconds before the inner hatch of the airlock opened, and they were inside. The shift operators in the control room noted that the being requesting the opening of the hatch wasn’t listed in the manifest of the shipyard. They immediately sent the information to the relevant beings occupying the section where the unidentified being had made an entry into the ship, asking them to investigate. The unidentified being may be in the need of assistance. If the being was in a position to reply, then to find out where it had come from.
This standard operating procedure was known to the heretic warriors. They knew that they would very soon be swarmed by innumerable bodies of non-believers, who would make their further progress into the heart of the vessel building yard impossible. So they ran as fast as they could through the sinuous corridors of the yard. They had already succeeded in their mission, but the closer they could reach to the center of the yard, the better would be the end result. To ensure that they would be able to finish the mission come whatever, and even if they were overwhelmed at this point, all of them engaged their dead man’s switch.
The dead man’s switch was triggered by the heretic warriors grabbing a small switch with their tiny beak like manipulators located in the central orifice present on their underside inside their suits. It was very similar to the beak of an octopus, which the octopus used for feeding. The Shaitans used the orifice for a different purpose, but right now those manipulators grabbing the switch ensured that even if the heretic warrior was killed on the spot, the switch would be triggered because a dead Shaitan would immediately release the switch and trigger the device.
The heretic warriors who had targeted the two space elevators had had a relatively easy time. There was no watch, or any being present on the huge counterweight of the space elevator. It was just a huge block of metal on a harness, which had a carbon fiber tether running from it all the way down to the surface. The actual terminus of the elevator was many kilometers below. The heretic warriors landed on the flat surface of the counterweight without any difficulty. Then they slowly made their way below to the base of the counterweight, where the harness was attached to the carbon fiber tether.
The attachment between the harness and the tether was one of the most elaborately engineered part of the space elevator. It was a critical point of failure, because it experienced shearing forces due to the mild random movements of the counterweight in addition to the tremendous forces of tension under which it had to operate. Consequently, the attachment point was the size of a small building, with access to the internals of the attachment device for performing maintenance and repair work. Those access points were basically holes open to space, leading to the internal core of the attachment structure.
Like all the targets, each of the space elevator had also been targeted by two heretic warriors to provide redundancy, in case one of them could not reach the target for any reason. All the four heretic warriors targeting the two elevators reached without any problems. They simply had to enter the access point, reach the core, activate their triggering devices, hold on to the dead-man’s-switch and wait. They faced no opposition to reach those unmanned spots.
“Shuttle 2667, you are far enough. You don’t need to go any further. Please cease acceleration and come to a halt immediately. I have had to report the incident to the warrior command center, because the warriors interrogating those novices have found several inconsistencies, which cannot be explained. First of all both the beings we have interrogated so far don’t taste of being novices, in fact there are no records of these beings either on World #2 or on the origin world! Acknowledge your compliance and wait for a warrior vessel to approach you. They will interrogate you and all the beings on board. I am afraid this is now out of my hands. It is now warrior business.” Lt. Pimenta heard the traffic controller over the radio.
So the cat was about to get out of the bag! It didn’t matter for their mission, which was almost done. It did matter for the chances of their getaway though. He had hoped for another twenty odd minutes before they got discovered. It would have helped them put enough distance between themselves and World #2, to have a fighting chance against any missile that might get launched from the World #2 at them. He was sure there would be space platforms orbiting this world, which could release a missile at a fleeing target within seconds.
The heretic pilot didn’t respond over the channel to the traffic controller’s command. He responded with the actions of his shuttle. Up until now the shuttle had been accelerating with a thrust of 0.8 G, which was the recommended maximum thrust for a shuttle of this class, when not faced with any life threatening emergency. The shuttle could accelerate faster, but couldn’t keep up the faster acceleration for a long duration, because at any acceleration higher than 0.8 G, the engines capacity to dissipate heat was lower than the buildup of heat. This caused overheating and eventual engine failure.
The heretic pilot notched up the acceleration to 1.2 G. There was no point keeping up appearances any further. The pilot was not going to stop and comply with the command of the traffic controller anyway, so might as well get away from there as fast as they could. The heretic pilot knew from his experience of piloting this class of vessels, that the shuttle should be able to take a 1.2 G or fifty percent more than the recommended maximum for fifteen to twenty minutes before one had to slow down to give enough time to cool down the engines.
The traffic controller tried for well over a minute in increasingly belligerent tone to talk to the heretic pilot. When he got no reply, he abruptly cut off. The Marines and the heretics got to know the next move a minute later, when the navigational scanners of the shuttle reported a ship appearing over the horizon from behind Wor
ld #2. The scanners couldn’t say the size or the class of the ship, but it could tell the direction and speed. This ship was clearly in pursuit of the shuttle and was accelerating fast!
So this was it! They were now running for their lives! Lt. Pimenta looked at his faceplate display which had the final countdown of this mission displayed prominently. T minus 302 seconds! So they had been caught five minutes earlier than they would have announced themselves and their plan anyway. Actually if things had gone exactly to plan, then they might have gotten a few more minutes after the five minutes due to the confusion that would have reigned, before someone put two and two together and gave a chase to the shuttle. So be it. This mission may not have gone perfectly as far a getaway timing was concerned, but it had gone far better than he had been fearing secretly. There was nothing much that Lt. Pimenta could do to help increase their chances of survival, it was all in the hands of the heretic pilot now. So he just watched his display, hoped and prayed.
The first explosion happened well before the scheduled time of five minutes. The first heretic warrior who had been taken into custody and was going through interrogation, couldn’t stall any more. The warriors interrogating him insisted that he remove the package strapped on his back for inspection, and get out of his space suit. When he refused, more warriors had been brought in to restrain him physically and remove the box like package strapped to his back. The heretic warrior after a brief struggle realized that he was going to be overpowered imminently and released his dead-man’s-switch.
The bulky backpack on the heretic warrior weighed nearly a hundred kilograms. Heavier than a fully grown man, and the size of a very large suitcase. It was a ‘backpack nuke’ literally, with a yield of 4.5 kilotons. With a yield of under a third of the Hiroshima bomb, the nuke, if it had blown just outside the shipyard wouldn’t have caused too much damage to it, as it would not have been able to transfer more than a few percent of its energy on to the shipyard.
Triumph & Defeat (Shaitan Wars Book 4) Page 33