by Andrew Beery
Right now the lieutenant was following the equally well-shielded and armed Lt. Commander LeAnder. The lieutenant checked his Navicomp. They were getting close.
“Sir, the target should be just ahead about thirty meters.”
“Looks to be the case, Andy. There’s a blast door that looks pretty substantial between us and the computer core.”
The capital city’s computer core and the information it contained about Syndicate-wide force deployment and strength was their target. It contained a plethora of invaluable data that would most certainly help the GCP in its fight against the Modos Syndicate. Unfortunately, the core was likely set to self-purge should unauthorized access to it be detected. This was where the multitude of ENOs the GCP had deployed had become useful. The commander had all of the right access codes. Because of a special set of nanites in his right hand, he could mimic the biometric signatures required. The only problem would be getting to the security console on the other side of those blast doors. Fortunately for them, they had access to two highly powerful plasma cannons.
The two men approached the door and ran scanners built into their armored gloves over the surface.
“Appears to be a titanium alloy. Tough, but not invulnerable,” McKinney commented.
Commander LeAnder scanned the frame and surrounding area.“I’m not detecting anything in terms of electronic counter-measures. We should be able to cut through either the door itself or the frame.”
“Is there a reason to choose one over the other?”
The commander considered the question for a moment, as he and the younger officer stepped back a few paces to assume firing positions.“Going through the door should be more fun. What do you say Lieutenant… feel like slagging a door?”
The younger man grinned under his visor.“Flame On!”
***
“Come about to heading one-four-zero mark two. Z-Axis plus 50 ahead dead slow. We want to come right up on their flank… without any sort of sensor ghosting”
Cat leaned forward in her command chair as she watched the main holographic display. The GCP Yorktownwas hunting prey… in this case one of the two Modos frigates parked in the Lagrange point located between Naanac and its only large moon, Tol. Lagrange points were popular places to park starships, because they only required minimal station-keeping thrusters to maintain position. The MS Redclaw was the first of the two ships they were hoping to disable. It had been the one firing tactical nuclear bombs into civilian population centers. There were some tactics that were just not allowed in time of war, and that was most certainly one of them.
Commander Ben looked up from his sensor console.“The Tidepool is powering up engines, Admiral.”
“I thought they might,” Cat acknowledged.“Troops have landed on planet from somewhere. They have got to be wondering from where. Their current position limits their ability to see the space surrounding the planet. I’m surprised it’s taken them this long to realize it, and move one of their ships.”
“That does indeed seem to be the case, Admiral,” Commander Kirkland said, from his station.“The Tidepoolis moving toward a geosynchronous orbit on the opposite side of the planet.”
“Once they get into position, let’s give them something to focus their attention on while we deal with the Redclaw. Chief Wroblewski, do you think you can arrange a brief distraction for our friends over on the Tidepool?”
“I believe I have just the thing, Admiral,” the Warrant Officer said, with a grin. He reached forward and pressed a button on his console that activated a series of surprises the Yorktown had left parked in various orbits around the planet.
“I thought you might,” Cat acknowledged with a matching grin.
Just as the Tidepool established itself in a geosynchronous parking orbit, it ran into one of the many cloaked gravimetric mines that had been placed in orbit by the Yorktownearlier that day. The mine’s hyperfield emitters folded space-time in such a way as to greatly enhance interactions with the Higgs field. The result was it quadrupled a victim’s relative weight. What had been a stable orbit for the MS Tidepool suddenly became a rapidly decaying one. Cat could imagine the chaos on the bridge of that ship as they fought to compensate. The ship and crew were in no real danger, but they would certainly be occupied for the next several minutes.
“Ben, spin up the primary and secondary generators to one hundred and ten percent,” Cat said, without taking her eyes off the forward view screen.
“Chief, I believe we are in position. I want you to power up the forward rail-guns and plasma beams. Target the Redclaw’s engines, communications, and weapons in that order.”
“Initiating pre-programmed firing sequence now, Admiral.”
“Keep a sharp eye on your boards,” Cat warned the Bridge crew.“We’ve been cloaked, up to this point, but once we start firing they will most certainly know where we are.”
Massive energy beams lashed out from the GCP flagship. The beams instantly vaporized the small amounts of interstellar dust floating between the Yorktown and Redclaw. The result was a spectacular light show, as a radiant blue-white beam suddenly seemed to span the gap between the two ships. This was followed milliseconds later by kinetic rounds fired at a sizeable fraction of the speed of light from the Yorktown’s powerful rail-guns.
Ben smiled. This was always a disturbing sight, as the six-legged D'lralu engineer had massive canines. He reported the initial result of their opening volley.
“Admiral, their shields attempted to engage. They flickered for all of half a second and then crumbled. As expected, their long range comm-array is toast. Kinetic rounds just hit their aft section… engines are offline for the foreseeable future. Additional explosions are occurring near their flight bay.”
“Must be something prone to going bang onboard that ship,” Chief Wroblewski commented dryly, as he worked his fire control board.
“Very good, Ben,” Cat said.“Chief, switch targeting to their weapons systems.”
Ken leaned forward to check a readout.“Admiral, they seem to be bringing a secondary shield array online.”
“Talk to me, Ken,” Cat said.
“It’s not something we have seen before. It might be related to their inter-dimensional jump systems. The bottom line is that their weapons remain hot and protected.”
As if to emphasize his point, the bridge of the Yorktownshook, as the ship’s shields attempted to dissipate a sudden barrage of energy. Cat grabbed her armrest to steady herself.
“That was a seventy kilo kinetic round fired at .1 C from their rear-facing rail gun. Our shields are holding, but it’s going to get bumpy if we don’t find a way to take out those rail guns,” Ben said.
“Locate their shield emitters and engage with continuous fire from the plasma beams. My guess is we can overload their emitters before our systems overheat.”
“Rigging for continuous fire,” Wroblewski confirmed.
“The Tidepoolis launching fighters,” Ken announced.
“ETA on the fighters?”
“Seven minutes, Admiral. I’m showing jump points forming for four more inbound ships.”
“That was faster than we expected,” Ben mumbled.
“Ziggy… send a message to Admiral Faragon. Let him know we might need those reinforcements sooner rather than later.”
“Aye, Admiral,” he acknowledged.
Cat hit the ship-wide comm button on her command chair.“This is the captain. Flight deck… I need all your birds in the air yesterday. We have incoming fighters. Intercept and destroy. Damage control teams brace for imminent action. Engineering, our shields are about to take a pounding. Top priority… keep them online. Kimbridge, out”
Chapter Eight– Data Mining...
“The Bluewater and Broken Claware backing off!” Ken yelled over the battle klaxon, which had chosen that moment to sound yet again.
“Cal! Kill that alarm, and this time disable it,” Cat barked at the ship’s AI.“Mr. Wroblewski, focus fire on the Tidep
ool, if you please!”
The battle for orbital superiority had been going on for the better part of four hours. Earlier, the Redclaw’s secondary shields had collapsed within moments of Cat giving the order to concentrate fire. Unfortunately, the Yorktown had been unable to capitalize on the collapsed shields.
As soon as the Redclaw’s shields had fallen, a lucky hit from the Modos ship’s rail-guns had temporarily overloaded a shield emitter on the Yorktown. Normally, adjacent emitters would have taken up the slack, but at precisely the same moment a twenty megaton nuclear EMP device exploded near the weaken shield. The resulting electro-magnetic pulse briefly scrambled nearby systems, and a ten foot piece of hull was compromised. Three levels on the Yorktownsuffered explosive decompression. Twenty-seven crewmen were exposed to hard vacuum, and would have died had their medical nanites not kicked in to induce a type of medical stasis. As it was, they were out of commission until they could receive proper treatment in the ship’s sickbay.
Within moments, the automated repair systems had sealed the breach and begun reintroducing atmosphere into the compromised sections… but the damage had been done. The Yorktown was forced to briefly withdraw, which allowed the Tidepool to enter the fray.
That had been several hours ago. Both sides had received reinforcements during the interim. The GCP Mador, under the command of Commodore Ruck, as well as the GCP TaPol, a D’lralu heavy cruiser under the command of Captain Tosh, had joined the fray from the Coalition. The Modos Syndicate had been joined by four ships; two dreadnought-class ships, the MS Stonefish and MS Broken Claw, as well as two frigates, the MS Bluewater and the MS Early Tide.
The Modos forces had more ships, but the GCP’s vessels were vastly superior in terms of shielding and weaponry. The long and the short of it was that the combatants were evenly matched. Cat knew that in such a draw the Modos won the day, because absent GCP help the insurrection taking place on the planet’s surface was doomed to fail. She needed to change the balance of power, and she needed to do it soon.
It was a shame that the WhimPy platform, cloaked in high orbit, was prevented from joining the battle by virtue of its ethical subroutines. The Heshe weapons platform was by far the most powerful force in this sector of space. Already on Cat’s orders it had destroyed several additional nuclear payloads launched at civilian targets on the planet below.
Cat opened a voice channel to the weapon’s platform.
“101?”
“Admiral?”
“I’m looking for ways to break the deadlock in this battle. I understand the Heshe have adapted your programming to limit your activities to defensive postures only. But within that context; what are the options you can offer to assist in our fight against the Modos Syndicate?”
“Regrettably, none, Admiral. Unless they directly threaten a GCP protected population center, I am prohibited from intervening.”
“So you cannot attack the Modos ships directly. Do your ethical subroutines allow you to intimidate?”
There was a pause before the powerful AI answered. Cat knew the WhimPy’s intellect operated many orders of magnitude faster than hers, so the delay was probably a subroutine designed to ease interactions with organic intelligences. When 101 did answer... it was a single word and not one she expected.
"Yes."
***
The sight was a startling one. One second the Modos fleet was facing three large but manageable GCP, ships and the next the unimaginable happened. A massive ship, that looked more like a flying brick studded with weapons and shield emitters, suddenly shimmered into existence between the combatants and the planet of Naanac. It was easily ten times the combined mass of all ships in system. Its shields rippled with untold energy. Sensors were totally useless.
A powerful message, in some cases coming close to overloading the communication circuits on the Modos ships, was transmitted on all Syndicate frequencies. The Heshe weapons platform called 101 declared this system under its jurisdiction and that all Syndicate vessels were commanded to power down their weapons and prepare to be boarded by Coalition personnel.
Captain Moss, the younger brother of General Moss, spun the Broken Claw around one hundred and eighty degrees and ordered a full strike launched at the weapons platform. This included six high yield nuclear missiles, a barrage from both forward rail guns, and a continuous-fire 16 peta-joule plasma beam.
Energy roiled across the massive ship's shields, but they showed no sign of weakening.
Frustrated, Captain Moss signaled his comm officer to open a channel to the other vessels in his battle group.
"All ships follow my lead. Redirect fire against targets I designate. Let's take out that beast!"
On cue all three Modos ships redirected their fire to a single point on the weapons platform's shields. The shields glowed and for a few brief moments they were brighter than the systems K-type main sequence star. When the barrage finally stopped the shields on the massive weapons platform were unfazed.
The coordinated attack was a strategy the Syndicate ships had used against the Yorktown, earlier. It had failed then, too, but for a different reason. If the GCP had not developed protocols for interlocking shields which allowed the Mador and TaPol to essentially cover the Yorktown with their shields, the outcome would have been very different. As it was, neither attack succeeded.
Having been attacked, certain constraints were lifted by the WhimPy’s ethical subroutines. In response, 101 powered up a single collimated anti-proton beam. It took the systems, which had been in a powered down cold state, exactly 6.2 milliseconds to power up. WhimPy 101 used the time to contemplate several thousand permutations based on the actions he was about to take. He choose one that offered the highest degree of success while minimizing casualties.
A blistering white beam lashed out from the weapon’s platform. It played across the shields of each of the Syndicate ships. In each case the shield array on the ship in question immediately overloaded and critical power conduits to various weapon’s systems were surgically cut. The ships were now essentially defenseless and with very limited offensive capability.
Captain Moss waved smoke out of his face as he looked around the shattered remains of his bridge. Various control panels that had been functioning just moments before where now dead, smoldering, and in some cases even on fire. Fire suppression teams were even now being dispatched all over the ship. The power of that new opponent was beyond imagination. Why had not the Coalition used it before? If the GCP had more of these weapon systems then the Chairman was in for a rough time… no matter how many ships he brought into the battle.
He nodded to the communications officer to open a channel to the other ships and at the same time signaled his older brother on the planet’s surface. The fleet, such as it was, would be forced to retreat. When the image of his brother appeared on the holographic projector in front of him, he bowed. This would not be a pleasant conversation.
***
The fully automated Modos Internal Auditor probe Bottom Line slowly backed away from the scene of the battle. The IA Bottom Line was an easy craft to miss. Although Syndicate stealth technology was nowhere near as sophisticated as that used by the GCP, it was still remarkably effective. Metamaterials designed to bend visible light and LiDAR signals coated its exterior. Special electronics and associated sensors allowed its electromagnetic signature to effectively hide within the normal background chatter present in everyday solar emissions. On top of this, it was small—far too small to carry a life-support system. Instead, it carried a sophisticated (although not sentient) artificial intelligence.
Like all IA ships the Bottom Line’s mission was a simple one: observe and report. It had seen all that it needed to. The automated probe opened a jump portal and exited the system. WhimPY 101 watched it leave and noted its destination was an uncharted nebula some six thousand light years distant.
***
Cat sat back in her seat aboard one of the Mador’s troop shuttles. She had left Ken in com
mand of the Yorktownand Jason Ruck in temporary overall command of the task force while she was on planet. She didn’t expect to be on the surface long. She was meeting Lt. Commander Pete LeAnder on the planet’s surface. He had located the computer core she had sent him to fetch, but there was a problem retrieving it.
It seemed the Syndicate’s engineers never designed the core to be moved. It was, in fact, constructed as a distributed storage and processing system that spanned a significant portion of the headquarters complex. Given that LeAnder’s forces controlled most of the area of Harromog near the Syndicate headquarters, Cat decided an on-site visit was in order. Ken had objected that her presence in a combat zone was too risky, but she reminded him that she wasn’t all that easy to kill and had an even harder time staying dead.
The transport was carrying the final load of Army Rangers from the Mador to augment the Marines already on planet.
“Admiral! We are detecting an active targeting radar from the planet’s surface.”
“Any other activity?”
“Negative, ma’am,” the shuttle’s copilot said, as she continued to scan her board.
“Report the location to ground support and continue to monitor,” Cat said.
“We should be at the landing zone in two minutes, Admiral,” the pilot reported.“Commander LeAnder is standing by to escort you to the headquarters building.”
“Thanks, Kristi. Have a shuttle on standby to take me back to the Yorktownonce I check out the situation down here.”
“Very good, ma’am. I’ll keep the Puddle Jumper on standby.”
Cat unbuckled her safety restraint as soon as the shuttle touched down. As promised, Commander LeAnder was standing by to guide her to the control center he and Lieutenant McKinney had discovered a few hours earlier.
“As you can see,” he began,“this does seem to be the server control room, but as far as we can tell they use a distributed information archive, much like Earth’s old-style Internet.”