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Chapter Seven
~ April 18th, 2292 ~
Of the seven vessels involved in the search for the Space Command base known only as Grumpy, the Ares was the third to arrive in the growing faster-than-light retinue. After receiving the message from the Ares, the Alamo had reentered the base so Lt. Gorcy could report to Captain Kalborne. Kalborne had then sent the Alamo back outside the station to await the arrival of the Ares. This was also to ensure the Denubbewa didn’t change course without their knowledge. If the course had changed, the Alamo would have immediately reported that fact to the Ares.
Since exiting the base for the second time, the Alamo had followed along with a separation of just a thousand kilometers. There was no danger of collision with the base should the cyborgs suddenly cancel their single envelope because the Alamo was enclosed in a double envelope and would simply pass through the base.
“Captain, the Ares is asking for you,” Lt. Gorcy heard via his CT as he sat as his office desk.
“Put it through to my office, Chief.”
“Aye, Captain. Go ahead, Ares. The captain has your transmission.”
“Captain Gorcy, this is Commander Eliza Carver.”
“Yes, Commander. We’re very glad to welcome you to the new Space Command base.”
“Captain Gavin wants you to brief him on the situation inside the base. I’m with him now in his office.”
“Aye, Commander. But we shouldn’t do that in a ship-to-ship communication. We understand that Denubbewa cyborgs are capable of intercepting all electronic signals.”
“That’s correct, Captain, but they can only pick up wide-band signals. This signal is narrow-band laser communication. It’s impossible for them to intercept it.”
“I see. Very well, Commander. You say the captain is there with you now?”
“Yes. Our signal contains both audio and video. Can you patch it through your vid system so we can see you?”
“Give me ten seconds, Commander.”
About nine seconds later the image of Captain Gorcy retaking his seat appeared on the monitor in Captain Gavin’s office.
“We have you on our monitor, Captain,” Eliza said.
“And I can see Captain Gavin. Greetings, sir. Your arrival here is very welcome. Our Marines are about out of steam from fighting those damn machines day and night.”
“Give me a quick rundown first, and then we can get into details.”
“Yes, sir. We had moved the base to the coordinates specified by Quesann and were getting set up at the new location when we received your warning about assigning Marines to guard the Gate rooms. Captain Kalborne did as you ordered and the Marines had begun organizing the sentry duties. Unfortunately, three Gate rooms weren’t fully staffed when the cyborgs began arriving, and they were able to establish a foothold in the base. We held the other eleven Gate rooms and restricted movement of the cyborgs to the immediate vicinity of the three Gate rooms despite their growing numbers. We knew we didn’t have adequate resources to suppress a large-scale invasion, so Captain Kalborne ordered that all other Gates be incapacitated. We had no choice, sir. Unfortunately, the three Gate rooms were pumping out three new cyborgs every few minutes.
“We thought we had them basically contained to one part of the base until we learned we no longer had the ability to open and close the port doors from the port office. Or at least what we had identified as probably being the port office. That meant the Denubbewa had somehow managed to take control of base operations. While we were still learning our way around this enormous base, they came in knowing exactly where to go and what to do in support of their invasion.
“We held our ground for days, waiting for a message from the Ares in response to the messages Captain Kalborne had been sending twice daily while we tried to hold back the cyborgs— but none arrived. Captain Kalborne thought that perhaps the cyborgs had found some way to prevent us from actually transmitting and receiving messages, such as cutting our connection to the antenna array mounted on the outside surface of the base, so he sent my ship, the Alamo, out to transmit a message.
“When we arrived outside, we learned the base was no longer at the coordinates we expected and was, in fact, under power. The Denubbewa had somehow managed to activate the FTL system. I followed my orders from Captain Kalborne and sent the message to the Ares. I was most relieved when you replied that you’d been looking for us at our original location because it meant you were close. I then took my ship back inside so I could report to Captain Kalborne. After listening to my report, he ordered us to return outside and remain there to help you find us in case the cyborgs altered course.
“That’s about it, sir. None of the Space Command personnel has seen any action against the cyborgs because no one has personal armor except the Marines. Some Space Command pilots are issued personal armor because they fly fighters or shuttle Marines down to hostile planets, but that activity is limited to destroyers and larger warships so no one aboard a CPS-16 or a Scout-Destroyer has the armor.”
“Space Command has never foreseen an occasion when personal armor would be required for personnel on ships the size of yours,” Gavin said. “I can only think of one individual on a CPS-16 who has the personal armor.”
“You know of someone in Space Command who’s assigned to a smaller vessel than a destroyer and was issued personal armor?”
“Yes, just one. There’s a lieutenant in the First Fleet who commands a CPS-16. She only has personal armor because she was a pilot aboard a destroyer. Her name is Sydnee Marcola.”
“The officer for whom Marc-One was named?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“If we’re going to be fighting cyborgs in ships and on planets, I hope Space Command will begin issuing personal armor to everyone who deploys from Quesann.”
“It may come to that. It’s obvious we’ll have to develop new tactics to fight this new enemy. Have your Marines suffered many casualties?”
“The first cyborgs only carried laser weapons, so the Marines were able to destroy them almost as fast as they arrived. But then they began arriving with RPG weapons. We’ve lost two Marines to those. But the worst enemy right now is fatigue. I understand some Marines can barely keep their eyes open because they’re getting so little sleep.”
“Nothing more powerful than RPGs?”
“Not yet, sir.”
“The Ares and the two ships that arrived ahead of us will enter the base now. I want you to remain out here until the other four ships arrive. Send them in when they get here, and then come in yourself. More help is coming but won’t arrive for several days because of our distance from the former battle site. You’ll probably have to come back out in a couple of days if we haven’t been able to reestablish communications outside the base.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“Ares out,” Gavin said, and the connection was terminated.
“Eliza, instruct our two CPS-16s to enter the base. Then follow them in and dock the ship.”
“Aye, Captain,” Eliza replied and left the captain’s office just off the bridge.
Gavin appeared on the bridge after the Ares was inside the port and slowly approaching a docking pier. Eliza continued to direct the approach without offering to surrender command of the bridge. She knew Gavin was there simply because it was protocol for the captain of the ship to be on the bridge during all docking operations. Eliza had his full trust and confidence in handling the ship.
~
Commander Kalborne was waiting to enter the Ares as soon as the docking procedure was complete. Since the Dakinium-sheathed hull prevented any and all internal communications from being intercepted outside the ship only when it was completely sealed, the Space Command lieutenant and Marine corporal posted to the airlock had already been ordered to keep the outer hatch closed and locked when no one was entering or leaving the ship. They would, of course, open it to admit the Ottawa’s commanding officer as soon the maneuvering was complete.
Anyone else seeking entrance would have to rap on the hatch to get the attention of the two individuals inside.
Kalborne was immediately escorted to Captain Gavin’s office just off the bridge, and he braced to attention after entering Gavin’s office, saying, “Commander Kalborne reporting, sir.”
“At ease, Commander,” Gavin said. “Have a seat. You know Commander Carver, don’t you?”
“We’ve met a couple of times. I know Commander Christa Carver quite well. Hello, Commander.”
“Hello, Commander,” Eliza said, “Welcome aboard the Ares.”
“Thank you. I’m very glad you’ve arrived. I was beginning to think we might have to abandon the base and then destroy it. Our Marines are about to drop from exhaustion.”
“We have a full company on board and they’re preparing to deploy. I want you to point out where your Marines are currently posted, as well as the additional Marines I sent in to support this base when I became aware there might be a problem developing.”
“Yes, sir. The reinforcements you sent were the only thing that kept us from abandoning the base. Without them, we wouldn’t have lasted more than a few hours. Uh, if you don’t mind, could I be told how you anticipated the situation? I mean, how did you know the cyborgs would be able to come through the Gates?”
“Commander Christa Carver gets the credit for that call. She had an incident where an engineer from Lorense-Four was accidentally transported to her base and appeared while she happened to be in the Gate room. She immediately realized that if someone from Lorense-Four could accidentally initiate a transfer, the Denubbewa could do the same, intentionally. She alerted me and advised that I send all available Marines in support of the limited protection forces already assigned.”
“Christa? I’m not really surprised to hear she’s responsible. She’s incredible. As I’m sure her sister Eliza is,” he said as he glanced in her direction.
Gavin had uploaded a floor plan map of the station on the large monitor in his office. Handing Kalborne a laser pen, he said, “Show us where you’ve positioned your people.”
“Yes, sir. There might have been some slight movement of positions that I’m unaware of because I’ve been unable to visit the locations, and the officers are too involved to come to my ship. I’ve had to rely on runners because we can’t use our com systems.” Pointing to the ship diagram with a red dot caused the image location to expand. The wrong deck level expanded so he lowered the pointer dot and the image changed back to the original image until he stopped at the correct level. He pressed a button on the pointer and the dot color changed to green. Pointing to the spot again opened up a floor plan of that area. He changed the color to blue so the diagram wouldn’t change as he simply pointed to different corridor locations.
“Here’s the first Gate room where cyborgs gained a foothold. We’ve created barricades using everything we could move to either end of the corridor where the room is located. Here and here,” he said as he pointed to the two locations. “As soon as the cyborgs try to rush these positions, our people open fire and cut them down. We’ve been able to hold them so far, but we’ve lost a couple of Marines to RPG fire. I understand the corridor is filling with Denubbewa corpses.”
Kalborne went on to show two other corridor locations where the situation was about the same. Manned barricades had so far prevented the cyborgs from breaking out of containment.
“So if the cyborgs are contained at each of the three locations, how did they manage to seal the port doors and build an envelope to move the base?” Gavin asked.
“We don’t know, sir. We thought we had them bottled up. When the Alamo reported that the base was underway to some unknown destination, we started viewing video history logs of the corridors. We saw no Denubbewa movement, but there were a number of corridor vids that were blank. Somehow, the cyborgs had gotten control of the cameras to prevent us from seeing what they were doing. They obviously know this base a thousand times better than we do.”
“It seems like a fairly straightforward operation, other than that there may be some cyborgs we’ve lost track of. I’ll order all of the Marines on the Ares to proceed to the three corridors to support those operations, and we’ll play the rest by ear.”
“Sir, may I offer a suggestion?” Eliza said.
“Of course, Eliza. What is it?”
“Before the Marines deploy there’s something we might try.”
“Go on,” Gavin said.
“We suspect the Denubbewa might be listening to all our communications since we know they have that ability. How about if we make an announcement to the Marines at the three corridor fortifications that we’re about reinforce their positions?”
“Give the enemy our plans?” Kalborne said with a shocked expression.”
“Yes. Sort of.”
“Explain, Eliza,” Gavin said.
“We’ve come to believe that when the Denubbewa cyborgs expected to see the reminder of their fleet destroyed at the recent battle site, the cyborgs aboard the warships returned to wherever they had come from via their Personnel CJ Gates, leaving just a skeleton operations crew in each warship.”
“Another company of Marines isn’t going to scare the cyborgs into leaving this base, Eliza,” Gavin said.
“No, sir, a company of a hundred or two hundred Marines isn’t going to do that. But if they have the freedom to control the port doors, they must also be able to view what happens in the port and know that the Ares has entered. But they can’t know how many Marines we have on board.”
A slow smile spread across Gavin’s face. Kalborne was a little slower to catch on, but he started to smile also.
“How many do you think we should send in?” Gavin asked. “Two full battalions?”
“I’d say a full brigade, sir. Let’s send a thousand Marines to each of the three corridor locations. Five hundred Marines converging on the Gate rooms from each corridor barricade should be more than enough to overrun the enemy positions. And we’ll hold back a thousand until we learn where the most resistance will be encountered and then send them to that location.”
“I’d have to agree with that,” Kalborne said. “It would be like trying to hold back the water after a dam has just broken. But how do we go about this? The Marines have all turned off their com units so they can’t be overheard. That means they’ll be unable to respond.”
“It’s not necessary for the Marines at the barricades to hear us,” Eliza said. “It’s only necessary that the cyborgs intercept what seems like a legitimate series of orders sent in preparation for a concerted attack on the three active Gate rooms.”
“That’s going to be the most difficult part,” Gavin said, “since they have to know the Marines have had their com units turned off until now. If they suddenly hear logistical data coming over the com frequencies, that information will be suspect.”
“We’ll have to make it appear legitimate, sir. How about if we move our Marine company outside the ship and communicate with them while they’re out on the platform? The cyborgs must be watching the port area. There have to be ten thousand cameras in this base, and the Denubbewa are certainly tapped into them. So we make a big show for them.”
“Captain,” Kalborne said, “you probably have a crew size of about three thousand five hundred in this battleship. How about if we dress your Space Command crew in Marine fatigues and send them onto the platform? They won’t have personal armor so they’ll have to remain out on the pier and docking platform, but they can put on a show of preparing to deploy into the areas where the fighting is taking place. With thousands of Marines visible to whatever cyborgs are watching, they’d have to believe we’ll be coming at them in overwhelming force.”
“Yes, that might work. Okay, Eliza, issue an order that Marine personnel should bring all of their clean fatigues to one of the gyms and stand by so our people can judge if the clothing from a particular individual will fit them. Then have all off-duty personnel and those not involved in essential
activities proceed to the gym and find fatigues that fit them properly. They must appear like the fatigues are their normal daily attire. When we’re ready to begin, all Marines will proceed to the docking platform in their personal armor while SC personnel wearing the fatigues will proceed out onto the pier. Once outside, everyone must look like they’re preparing for battle. The Marines can be checking their weapons and equipment while the SC personnel can be assembling into platoon-sized groups. Make everyone understand that this is deadly serious, and any SC personnel not exhibiting a professional demeanor will be accompanying the Marines into battle— without personal armor. And have all Marine officers report to one of the conference rooms so we can practice what we’ll say in this little stratagem.”
“Aye, Captain.”
~ ~ ~
“Listen up,” Gavin said as he entered the conference room where the Marine officers were waiting. “We’re presently fighting cyborgs inside this base. Two of our people have already died and I want to make sure no more make that ultimate sacrifice today. The cyborgs are basically contained at three locations, but we suspect a few may have broken out of containment at the start of the conflict and are now able to move around surreptitiously while they sabotage our efforts. At each of those containment locations— we refer to them as Gate rooms— there’s special equipment that allows someone, or something, to instantly travel to another location in the universe.” Gavin paused for a couple of seconds for that news to take effect. “I know how that sounds, but it’s true. And it’s been the most closely guarded secret in the G.A. until now. It’s how the cyborgs entered this base in the first place, and it’s why they’re able to keep increasing their numbers as we speak. Until this secret is released to the public by the G.A. Senate, you are not to talk about it— not even among yourselves. Just know that it’s possible.
“We’ve come up with a plan that we hope will make the Denubbewa believe they’re about to be attacked by a full brigade of pissed-off Marines. If we can convince the cyborgs that they’re about to be destroyed by an overwhelming force, we think they’ll abandon their positions and travel back to wherever it was they came from. This is role-play as in war games, but it’s very real, and you must be totally convincing for it to succeed. While inside this ship, our communications are secure. But once outside, the cyborgs can hear every word spoken by every person with access to a com unit. That includes being able to hear communications inside the ship while any exterior airlock hatch is open. Every time we have to open an exterior hatch, we briefly shut down the CT system aboard ship. So be careful with what you say. Assume that the enemy can hear you at all times, just as if they were standing next to you.
The Invasion Begins Page 9