‘Great… armed to the bloody teeth,’ Vinter observed. ‘Two rail guns in the bow, two more amidships.’
‘Exactly,’ Ferreira agreed. ‘Anything else?’
‘Big enough to be carrying up to four hundred and fifty troops between them,’ Yung-Sien interjected.
‘They could be,’ Vinter acknowledged. ‘However, as I said, I doubt if their original mission parameters included boarding us, so there’d be no need for a large Marine detachment on board. Hell, if they originally intended to nuke us they wouldn’t need to take any Marines or troops for that, would they? Just enough military personnel to fly the ship and launch the missiles.’
‘But if you’re wrong?’ Ferreira persisted.
Vinter sighed, wondering how many more times he would have to say this. ‘As I’ve said already, Colonel, we’ll be well and truly fucked. We won’t be able to stop them. We never have been.’
Ferreira nodded slowly; clearly, he had been clinging to the hope that Stalker might not have had three shuttles available, but he hadn’t really been thinking it through, because Stalker was primarily a colony starship, not a war vessel, despite its armament, and so would need shuttles with planetary capability at PlanetFall, the same as Terra Nova. ‘And you’re still certain that there’s nothing we can do at this point?’
‘Yes, I am,’ Vinter replied, making no attempt to conceal his impatience. ‘Look, Colonel, can we talk in private?’ Seeing Ferreira’s glare, he went on, ‘Look, there isn’t anything you can usefully do here at the moment – they’re still four hours away, for God’s sake – so can we talk about this?’
Ferreira hesitated, then nodded reluctantly. ‘Very well.’
They went through into Ferreira’s office, but neither man sat down. ‘Well?’ demanded Ferreira.
‘Look, there’s no point in asking me if I’ve thought of anything, because if I had, I would have told you by now – or do you think I’m deliberately holding out on you?’
‘The thought had crossed my mind, yes.’
‘Well, if I am, I’m hardly likely to start letting it all out now, am I? But do you really think I want EarthCorp to win? How would that benefit the UN personnel on board? The fact is, I’m not keeping anything back – there literally isn’t anything we can do at this distance. You know as well as I do that firing the rail guns at them isn’t going to work – they’re adopting a random zig-zag pattern, so anything they can’t blast with their lasers isn’t going to hit anyway. The only way you might hit anything is if you fire continuously from now on and hope for the law of averages to come out in your favour. Only we haven’t got enough projectiles stockpiled to do that – we need to keep them back until they’re closer in and we have a better chance of hitting the target. Sending out the shuttles to take them on will simply mean our shuttles get destroyed, because they’ve got military spec firepower and we haven’t.’ He shook his head in exasperation. ‘You know all this, Colonel, so why bother even asking me? The only thing we can do is wait – and that’s what soldiers have had to do since some stupid bastard invented war.’
Slowly, Ferreira nodded. ‘You’re right, of course. It’s just that, whenever soldiers have had to wait in circumstances such as these, getting them to do something helps boost morale.’
‘I know that – I’m your military genius, remember? It’s just that it’s never good for morale if that something ends up with a lot of them dead, with nothing achieved.’ He looked away and slowly let out his breath. ‘OK, Colonel, this is what I suggest we do. Fire off a rail gun at them every few minutes in a random pattern, just to keep them on their toes. Nobody likes being shot at when they can’t shoot back, even if they know they’re not going to be hit – but that’s about all we can do.’
Ferreira gave him a long, considering stare, then nodded heavily. ‘Very well. I’ll issue the orders.’
*****
‘They’re not slowing at the optimum rate,’ said Yung-Sien, almost conversationally.
Vinter glanced up at one of the readout screens above the main display, and nodded; the three shuttles were using their forward thrusters to reduce speed, but they were still coming in too fast to match velocities with Terra Nova. They were coming straight at Terra Nova, looming ever larger in the digitised image. They had executed a deceleration turnover twenty minutes earlier but had then flipped over a second time so that they were now once again head on. All that could be seen of them now were the iceshields, but the image resolution was sufficiently detailed now for pockmarks and slashes on the shields’ surfaces to be visible, the effects of impacts from cosmic debris that had been too minute to be worth targeting by the automatic lasers. Even so, there was a constant flickering from each shuttle’s laser batteries as they homed in on larger targets and flashes of light as these were destroyed.
‘Any thoughts, Major?’ Ferreira asked.
Vinter nodded. ‘Either they want to get into close range as quickly as possible and they’ll slow down more once they’ve done that or they’re going for an impact assault.’
Ferreira nodded in turn. ‘You still think they’re going for the Primary Target?’
Oh, for God’s sake, talk plain English, will you? It’s the Shuttle Bay, why call it anything else? ‘I don’t think they have any choice.’
Ferreira picked up a comms set and spoke into it, dragging Vinter out of his reverie. ‘Are all units in position? Report.’ He nodded as each Unit CO responded, then put down the set. ‘Range?’ he asked.
One of the officers seated at the consoles in front of the main screen replied, ‘Coming within optimum range in ten minutes, sir.’
Vinter could almost see the temptation on Ferreira’s face to give the Open Fire order, but he resisted. The old adage, taken from the naval days of sail – make sure that the first broadside is well aimed. Until then, wait…
As fighting men have done ever since the dawn of history… The warriors manning the walls of Troy must have felt like this as they watched the Greek galleys – the ‘thousand ships’ – heaving over the horizon. Nothing they could do to prevent it – they just had to wait.
The worst part…
Suddenly, the alarm sounded, a high-pitched oscillating shriek that set everyone’s teeth on edge. A moment later, a voice came through over the ship’s speakers; they could hear gunfire in the background.
‘Sleeper attack Four Epsilon. Four – correction five – down… Sleeper neutralised.’
A second voice came on: ‘Fire in Two Gamma. Emergency Team on the way.’
And a third: ‘Software crash in Environmental Network. Switching to backup system.’
A fourth: ‘Explosion in Six Delta. Extensive casualties – Full Med Team required immediately.’
Ferreira turned to Yung-Sien. ‘It’s starting.’
‘So it would seem, sir.’
Vinter inclined his head briefly, acknowledging their calm voices. It was either genuine sang-froid, or simply an act, but it was damn good leadership either way.
Ferreira turned to Kari. ‘Take over, please, Lieutenant.’
Kari nodded, took a seat at the vacant console in front of her and picked up its comms set, clipping a Bluetooth over her ear. ‘Route all sleeper alerts through this channel immediately.’ The ship’s speakers went silent; from now on, Kari would be in charge of sleeper counter-measures.
Vinter’s attention went back to the screen, knowing with a cold certainty what was about to happen – and he was right. From all three shuttles came a ripple of flashes from their laser projectors and rail guns.
A second later, he heard the laconic report from the sitrep console: ‘The Enemy has opened fire.’
‘Acknowledged,’ said Ferreira, his voice perhaps too controlled.
‘Permission to open fire, sir?’ asked – what was his name? Watanabe’s replacement? – Shojaei, that was it.
Ferreira paused for a second, convincing Vinter that it really was all an act, before saying, ‘Permission granted.’
‘Fire!’
Now it really has started…
*****
The EarthCorp shuttles came on, lasers and rail guns firing continuously – and effectively; Terra Nova was being struck repeatedly by laser blasts and projectiles moving at four, maybe five, thousand metres per second, slamming into the hull and leaving impact craters in the armour plating. More importantly than that, however, the external cameras and sensors were being taken out with almost contemptuous ease – every few seconds, a screen would go dark or simply display white noise before the operator could switch to an alternative. At this rate, we’ll be blinded before they even get here…
‘They’re still not decelerating, sir,’ Shojaei reported, his voice just too controlled to be convincing. ‘They should have done by now.’
‘Sir!’ A panicky voice from somewhere over to the left. ‘The Shuttle Bay doors are opening!’
‘What?’ Ferreira asked incredulously. ‘Who ordered that?’
‘Er… nobody, sir. They just started opening – eight seconds ago.’
‘Well, close the damned things, then!’
‘Yes, sir… Executing closing procedure… No response… Initiating over-ride sequence… Negative… Repeating over-ride sequence…’ The officer turned and looked up at Ferreira who was standing behind him now. ‘Negative, sir. I can’t get access. I’m being locked out.’
‘Sir!’ This time, it was Varaphan. ‘Telemetry indicates that we received an encrypted microburst signal from Shuttle Two thirty-six seconds ago – five seconds before the doors started opening.’
‘You mean EarthCorp ordered the doors to open?’
‘It looks like it, sir. The signal must have contained the necessary passwords.’
‘But how would–’ Ferreira broke off, shaking his head, and Vinter could almost read his thought processes; it didn’t matter how, the priority was to deal with it. ‘Initiate counter-measures. I want control of those doors restored immediately.’
Ferreira stared at the tactical display. ‘Damn,’ he muttered, almost to himself, then shrugged and turned to Vinter, frowning, evidently suspicious about whether he’d had anything to do with this latest development, but Vinter sensed that Ferreira would be weighing up his next order as well, all the while knowing that he had no real choice in the matter. ‘Very well, Vinter, you were right all along,’ he said, reluctantly. ‘You’d better get suited up. I want you to take command in the Shuttle Bay and to defend it at all costs if we can’t get those doors closed again in time. EarthCorp must not penetrate any further into the interior than the Shuttle Bay. Understood?’
‘Perfectly. What about the units guarding the airlocks?’
A momentary hesitation, then, ‘I’ll order them deployed to the Bay as well. If they get in, we’ll need every soldier we can get.’
‘Agreed.’
Ferreira was still staring intently at him and it was only too easy to read his thoughts: could he trust Vinter – but who else was there? Vinter, with his command level military training, was far and away the best candidate to lead the defending troops in the Bay, but, all the same… Abruptly, Ferreira turned away and called out, ‘Trabelsi!’
‘Sir?’ A stockily-built captain stiffened to attention.
‘Get suited up as well and choose an experienced trooper to accompany you. I want you to keep an eye on Major Vinter here.’ He reached into his pocket and handed the control device over to Trabelsi. ‘If he shows the slightest sign of deviating from his orders, you are to immobilise him by activating this device. Is that understood, Captain?’
‘Understood, sir.’
Now, Ferreira spoke directly to Vinter. ‘Understood, Vinter?’
‘Loud and clear.’
‘Get moving, then.’
Vinter nodded and turned away, seeing Kari still seated at her console; she did not look in his direction at all, but as he headed towards the Vacuum Environment Section, he heard the Persephone chime.
‘Here.’
‘Best of luck, sir.’
‘Ready to go?’
‘Yes, sir – everyone’s been briefed.’
‘Thanks for that as well. Good luck to you, Kari – I think you might be needing it more than me. Proserpina.’
*****
So Vinter Two had received the message and had passed it on to Shadrin. Between them, they had decided to go for the option of attacking the Shuttle Bay on the basis of it being the fastest way into Terra Nova. They might have wondered if it was a trap, but the opportunity would be too tempting to ignore, especially in the light of wanting to capture Terra Nova with as little damage as possible to the starship. Anyway, who amongst New Dawn in their right mind would open the doors to them like that? It had to be from an EarthCorp agent aboard Terra Nova – after all, it had contained the correct encrypted protocols and passwords, hadn’t it?
As well as not looking a gift horse in the mouth… Of course Shadrin had gone for it. What else would he have done? Why had he ever spent a single moment worrying about it?
Because Vinter Two would almost certainly have realised it was a trap and might have talked Shadrin out of it…
‘Inner lock door sealed. Depressurising.’ The disembodied voice came through his suit speakers, as it would for the other twenty spacesuited figures in the central air lock, clinging on to whatever handholds they could find in the weightless conditions. Not for the first time in this kind of situation, Vinter noticed that they were all oriented the same way, even though there was no perceptible up or down; it was as if they were taking refuge in some sort of uniformity or solidarity. Vinter could see the expression on the faces of the troopers on each side of him; their eyes were fixed on the outer lock door, waiting for it to open. The lips of the man to his right were moving – some sort of prayer, presumably, the same as any soldier going into battle – please let it happen to someone else, not to me…
Seeing this, Vinter felt a sudden pang of guilt, because he suddenly realised that, if events today went the way he had envisaged, none of the troopers in the airlock with him would be coming back alive… None of them.
Not one.
‘Outer lock door will open in three seconds… two… one… lock door opening.’
The massive doors swung outwards and Vinter pushed himself forward into the opening, followed by Trabelsi and the trooper, the three of them emerging onto the central trackway of the Shuttle Bay; he grabbed a handhold, then swung round to take hold of the rail that led up to the Control Centre, a single pull sending him floating towards the entrance as, behind him, the other troops exited from the lock, choosing their guiderails to take up their positions around the outside of the Bay. Vinter swung himself into one of the seats at the control consoles, strapping himself in as he clicked the comms button; Trabelsi and the trooper took up positions behind him, hooking their boots into slots set in the floor.
‘Vinter here. Am in position.’
‘Acknowledged.’ Ferreira’s voice.
‘Request update.’
‘Shojaei here. The enemy shuttles are coming in. ETA seven minutes.’
‘Have we damaged them?’
A brief hesitation, then ‘Negative. Not to any significant extent.’ The hesitation had probably been Shofaei checking with Ferreira how much to tell him over an open circuit, but it was hardly anything EarthCorp wouldn’t already know.
‘Any progress on closing the bay doors?’
Ferreira’s voice now. ‘Go secure, Major.’
Vinter typed in the necessary instructions on the comp. ‘Secure.’
‘No, there isn’t. Our so-called experts aren’t getting anywhere with it.’ Even with the distorting effect of the scrambler system, there was no mistaking the disgust in Ferreira’s voice. ‘I’ve enlisted Adebayo’s help, for all the good that’s doing.’
Vinter grinned to himself in the privacy of the suit. Well, it wouldn’t, would it, considering she wrote the programme you’re trying to hack into… ‘Are we going to get all ava
ilable units here in time?’
This time, there was a delay lasting almost half a minute, presumably as Ferreira consulted the various situation reports, before he replied, ‘We should, yes.’
‘And then you seal the airlocks?’
‘Affirmative.’
‘Until when? Who gives the order to unseal them?’
‘We cannot afford to let EarthCorp personnel into the Main Body under any circumstances. The ship becomes indefensible once they break out of the Bay. You know that.’
‘That wasn’t what I asked.’
There was a pause of four or five seconds before Ferreira replied, ‘The airlocks stay sealed until EarthCorp forces are defeated.’
Vinter took a deep breath, biting off an angry response, before he said, his voice carefully expressionless, ‘Understood.’ It’s all right for you, isn’t it? You and your bloody precious Command Team are on the other side of those sealed doors, aren’t you?
Bastards.
A snatch of song came into Vinter’s head at that moment, lifted straight from Vinter Prime’s memories, a song by The Doors, one of the TwentyCee bands that had been in his collection:
Five to one, baby.
One in five.
No one in here gets out alive…
It pretty much said it all.
*****
‘All units deployed. Sealing air lock doors.’
‘Acknowledged.’ Vinter glanced quickly across at Trabelsi, then subvocalised, ‘Persephone.’
‘Here.’
‘Report.’
‘We’re in position, sir. Ferreira’s sent almost all of the New Dawn troops into the Bay – there’s only the Bridge Party left. We managed to keep most of ours back. They’d already been deployed to deal with the sleeper attacks.’
‘But not all of ours?’
‘Afraid not. Sorry.’
So there would be some UNSEC personnel in the Bay, after all… Damn. ‘Not your fault. Stand by for next phase. Proserpina.’ Only to be expected…
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