by Andrew Beery
Cat’s sensors were picking up much more life in these outskirts than they had in the city center but even so most of the residents had fled or were in hiding. Every now and then Cat would catch a glimpse of a person peeking out a window or a door. About an hour into their walk they paused in the shadow of a collapsed supermarket.
“We have people watching us,” Private Stone said, as they rested on a scrap metal pile that had been a public transport a few days before.
“I noticed them, too,” Cat acknowledged.“However, I’m not detecting any weapons.”
“Our overlords did not allow weapons,” Debbu spat harshly.“Still, don’t assume they have none. A poison dart can be most effective, even if it lacks the range and power of a plasma rifle.”
***
Ricky Valen adjusted the trim on the Honey Dipper’s descent. He had finally gotten permission, after several hours’ heated debate with Commodore Ruck, to risk his highly modified shuttle in an attempt to get to Cat.“Permission” was a somewhat nebulous term in this instance as he had essentially saidhe” was going…”’ and the Commodore could court-martial him if and when he got back. Adding to his difficulties was a somewhat intransigent Heshe weapons platform.
The WhimPy had been reluctant to lower shields to release the Honey Dipper. The Modos fleet, which was growing with every hour that passed, used such opportunities to press the WhimPy’s defenses. This did not seriously inconvenience the WhimPy but it did typically result in serious, even fatal, damage to any Modos craft foolish enough to test the shield's integrity. The Heshe platform’s ethical subroutines sought to preserve life whenever possible– even when that life belonged to an adversary. For that reason alone the WhimPy was reluctant to needlessly taunt the Modos fleet.
A standoff had developed between the Syndicate and the GCP. The GCP effectively controlled access to the planet from space while the Modos planetary forces essentially controlled the airspace in and around most major cities. Neither side could easily reinforce their troops on the planet surface; leaving those troops to slug it out for control of the planet. In the middle of that slug-fest was Ricky's friend and commanding officer Admiral Cat Kimbridge. It was an intolerable situation for a man used to being in the thick of the action.
When Ricky made know his intent to take his ship down to the planet’s surface the WhimPy platform balked. After much additional discussion and debate, Honey intervened by reminding the WhimPy that Ricky would most certainly die should the Honey Dipper collide with the shields in question. The idea of playing chicken with an ancient and incomprehensibly powerful Heshe weapons platform was not something Rick was keen on trying but Honey insisted the WhimPy would never hurt them. She ended the debate by taking control of the Shuttle and flying it directly toward the shields. One point six milliseconds before they hit the shields flickered out of existence and the Honey Dipper slipped through.
"I told you he would lower the shields!" Honey chirped gleefully.
"And if he didn't... What would you have said, then," Ricky asked, with a sour look that matched the feeling in his stomach.
"Why not a thing! We'd both be dead and past the point of carrying"
Ricky turned to look at the beautiful android that was his friend and co-pilot. He raised an eyebrow. "And this is supposed to make me feel better?"
***
Snatch Bait grinned in anticipation. The Coalition fleet, which up to this point had been hiding in the shadows of a series of huge orbital weapons platforms, was advancing on their position. The various stealth devices that had been secreted on the hulls of numerous Syndicate ships had been neutralized. That said the Syndicate scientists and engineers that had worked on them had been careful to preserve the health-check telemetry that each device generated. The Coalition should have no idea that the devices had been taken out of the equation. When they were triggered the Syndicate ships would feign system-wide disruptions in their power grids. When the Coalition fleet moved in for what should be an easy kill, the full functional Syndicate dreadnoughts and capital ships would ravage the Coalition fleet.
In a few hours the war to control Coalition space would be all but over. True many of the planets were protected by those massive weapons platforms but Snatch Bait had no reason to believe they could move out of their orbits. That meant there would be plenty of worlds not protected by the platforms that would be ripe for the plucking. There would be time enough to deal with these few protected worlds later. Once the Coalition fleet was eliminated there would be no stopping the Syndicate from establishing a permanent presence in this universe.
Chapter Thirteen – Turning the Tide...
Admiral Bud Faragon winked at Lieutenant Commander Sherry Melbourne. The two stood on the bridge of the Yorktown-class GCP Victory. It was unfortunate that the Syndicate forces had discovered the hidden surprises that Captains Takei and Valen had placed on the hulls of various Modos ships but in truth they had been a gamble from the start. What the Syndicate had not yet become aware of was the total and complete situational awareness afforded the GCP fleet by virtue thousands of microscopic ENOs secreted on virtually every ship in the Modos fleet. These miniature observers reported directly back to the GCP.
The Syndicate had setup an elaborate trap seeking to decimate the Coalition fleet. The GCP would accommodate the Syndicate by seeming to fall for their trap while in reality setting one of their own. The nature of the GCP counter offensive was actually a result of an idea first floated by Admiral Kimbridge for use in the Naanac system. If you were grossly outnumbered by an opponent then one of the most effective things you could do was to change the math. Changing the math was what they were about to do.
“Sherry, are the projectors online?”
“That they are, sir. It should be quite a show.”
Admiral Faragon toggled the fleet-wide comm .“Attention, GCP Fleet Personnel. Synchronize all hyperfield projectors with the AI on the Victory. Arty will coordinate a simulated response that should be quite convincing. With any luck the Syndicate fleet will never know how we changed the rules of the game. Keep your ships cloaked and stay out of the way of return fire. Our goal is to keep the enemy firing at shadows and not our actual ships. Good hunting! Admiral Faragon out.”
***
Fleet Captain Dry-Bait sat with his senior command staff in the conference room of the Uruk Battle Cruiser Retribution. The technology in this battleship far and away exceeded anything in this system except possibly the Heshe weapons platform in orbit around Naanac. The presence of that platform confused Dry-Bait. The Overlords he worked for had been adamant. The Retribution’s enhanced systems were to remain powered down and offline.
This made little sense to Dry-Bait, as it seemed like his ship’s weapons were likely the only ones that would have had any chance at besting that orbiting beast. But the Overlord’s instructions left no room for debate. His family had been serving the Uruk since they dragged Dry-Bait’s ancestors out of the oceans of Modos Prime and taught them the art of subjugation. That had been many thousands of cycles ago. He was not about to start disobeying them now. The Heshe had no idea the Uruk were still active. That represented too great an advantage for the Uruk if the two greatest forces in the multiverse were going to go to war.
Dry-Bait looked around the table one last time before he began to speak.
“General Moss has been informed that the Central Office of the Syndicate has a dedicated Suppression Task Force whose sole purpose is to quash uprisings like the one being seen on Naanac. He is content to wait for the remainder of that task force to arrive in about a days’ time. Of course this task force is a fiction and the General will need to have his mind wiped should he survive the coming actions. In the meantime we need to find a way of shutting down the orbital weapons platform. Any solution cannot hint of our enhanced capabilities. Thoughts?”
An unusually light-furred Modos scratched an ear lobe with his trunk.“Sir…”
“Go ahead and speak your mind, Commander,�
�� Dry-Bait said.
Dry-Bait’s first officer Commander Wagtail cleared his throat.“Sir, we cannot engage that platform directly. We would need to bring the Uruk systems online to have any chance of surviving which, as you have indicated, is not an option.”
“Go on.”
“If our goal is to eliminate the global blockade we may have other options that do not involve direct engagement.”
***
Cat leaned forward to peak around the corner. Immediately a barrage of kinetic rounds began to bounce off the pavement scant feet from where the three were hiding. Cat’s head had been around the corner for less than half a second but it was long enough.
The small group had run into a squad of Modos soldiers patrolling this section of the city twenty minutes earlier. They tried to remain unseen and allow the squad to pass them by but Debbu had chosen that moment to stumble and draw their attention inadvertently. They had been engaged in a running firefight ever since.
She reviewed her visual logs and forwarded a copy of her quick peek to Private Stone’s heads-up display in his Mark Six combat suit.
“Three hostiles. Two are at 11 o’clock and the third is up that ramp just to the right,” Cat said.
“Got‘em,” Private Stone answered.“Those peashooters they’re using aren’t going to hurt our armor but the professor here is another story.”
“My thought too,” Cat answered.“I’m going to draw their fire. You take out the one on the ramp while I focus of the other two.”
If Private Stone had been inclined to argue he held it back. If the Admiral had proven anything in the last couple of hours it was that she was by far the better shot. As far as the Private could tell of the forty or fifty shots she had fired since he had met her… she had yet to miss a target. This despite the fact that she was firing at targets well out of his range.
True to her word Cat drew the attention of all three of the Modos soldiers by racing into the opening at a brisk but not impossible pace. She could have easily covered the hundred meters in under four seconds but the goal was to draw attention so she covered the distance in a more leisurely fifteen seconds.
As she ran she fired two quick shots. The rounds found their marks and the two soldiers farther out staggered back. Cat had been careful to target the Modos and not the Suhtii symbiot. Deprived of their Modos passenger the Suhtii typical dropped their weapons and sought cover.
As Cat was firing she heard Private Stone engage the final hostile. It took him four rapidly fired rounds to take the soldier down but when he did Cat was relieved to see the Suhtii had received only the slightest of flesh wounds.
"All right!" Cat yelled. "Let's move out! I've got another squad moving in from the south. We need to get a move on or we'll be doing this again."
As Private Stone picked Debbu up Cat scanned the surrounding area one last time. This had been a beautiful neighborhood once but no more. The homes showed signs of well-manicured lawns and flower beds both most were marred by pieces of shrapnel and fire damage.
Cat toggled her AI. "Cal... Anything coming our way?"
"Negative Admiral although I am receiving telemetry from the Honey Dipper. They are in route, fully cloaked and fifteen minutes out.”
Cat opened a channel to the Honey Dipper. "Ricky, I hear you are planning on paying me a visit here in Harromog."
"Why Madam Admiral...,” her friend said over the comm. "Has someone spoiled my surprise? Here I was planning on sneaking up all stealth-like and such."
"As much as I appreciate a surprise I'm afraid we have a situation here. We have a wounded Naan and a need to get somewhere quickly without drawing too much attention."
"Understood Cat... We're not traveling at top speed because we are trying to maintain a cloak. Do you want me to drop the cloak and make better speed?"
"That's probably a good idea. We have soldiers coming up from the south. I'd just as soon avoid tangling with them if we can."
***
Ricky Valen nudged the nose of the Honey Dipper down. He and Honey had picked up The Admiral's party a few minutes before. The shuttle had come in hot but quickly recloaked the moment they had picked up the Admiral and her party.
The observatory at JasNair was just below them now. It sat on a bluff above the city. Scans of the area indicated it was abandoned. The facility itself was untouched by the fighting that had ravaged much of the city below. Sensors even indicated an active power source. Debbu confirmed the observatory had its own solar array that stored energy in a subterranean array of ceramic super-capacitors.
"Touchdown in one minute, Madam Admiral," Ricky said over his shoulder.
Honey unclasped her safety harness. Ricky knew she wore it more to remind him that he needed to strap-in rather than any need of her own.
“I’m going to check on our patient.”
The patient in question was a Naan named Debbu. Honey had immediately hooked him into the med-bay when he boarded the shuttle. The advanced systems expertly tweaked the work that Admiral Kimbridge’s nanites had begun. The result would hopefully be fully fused bone rather than just a supporting scaffold.
Honey worked her way back to the cocoon-like seat that served as the shuttles miniature med-bay. Cat was sitting next to the injured professor talking quietly.
Cat looked up and smiled.“Our friend here is just about healed. The medical nanites have been fully reprogrammed for Naanac physiology and are moving at light-speed. Five more minutes and he should be good to take on a marathon.”
Debbu made a deep burping sound that Cat had learned was laughter.“I’m not sure what type of animals these marathons are, but I assure you, I’d be more likely to turn around and run the other way!”
“Trust me, my friend,you would not be the first,” Cat said.
There was a slight bumping sound as the shuttle settled on the lawn just outside the main entrance of the observatory.
“Looks like we are here,” Honey said.“Do we know what we’re looking for when we get into the building?”
Debbu began to work his way out of the med-bay cocoon. Cat placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him. She and Honey then worked together to disconnect the various sensors that had adhered to his skin. When they had them cleared away, they helped him stand.
“This is most amazing!” the Naanac professor chortled.“I feel as good as new… better than as good as new. Oh, how my people could benefit from a relationship with your Coalition!”
“If we want that to happen, we better find a way to save this planet. And that, ladies and gentlemen, means we need to find what we came all this way to find.”
Chapter Fourteen – The Observatory...
The lobby of the JasNair observatory looked like it could have been the lobby on any modern office building in New Tokyo on Earth. It was pristine, open and sported a refreshing mix of live plants and artwork. A computer-based reception kiosk stood in the center of the room. Cat, Debbu, Ricky, Honey and Private Stone approached the chest-high console.
Debbu looked around and smiled. All was just as he had remembered it. His family had been regular patrons of JasNair since it opened to the public some twenty cycles ago. There was a sense of freedom looking at the stars. Stars that were denied to most of his race. A chance to dream of going places and seeing things beyond comprehension. For most of his life he had been content with the dream but now… now in the face of what was going on he knew that he would be content with dreams no longer.
He approached the kiosk. He had been afraid that like most of the city it would be without power. He placed a webbed hand on the display and recited his name. A short whistling sound was emitted from the unit as his biometric signature was acknowledged. He uttered a short phrase that he had memorized as a child. A phrase he had thought he would never utter again until he passed it on to his children. A phrase that the kiosk had been waiting to hear since the day it was built.
“Free at last. Free at last. Free at last.”
At first not
hing happened, but then a second short whistle sounded. Debbu responded immediately with a single word.
“Five.”
The lights flickered, and a scraping sound could be heard from the back of the lobby.
“We have to hurry,” Debbu said, quickly.“I told the system that there were five of us that wanted to enter the vault room. It will hold that door open for only a brief moment before closing it again. If anyone should enter this facility before we get through it the door will seal automatically for a day as a security precaution.”
“Then let’s move,” Cat said, as she moved toward the opening at a quick pace. She was not being as reckless as it might seem to an outside observer. Her sensor net was fully deployed including microscopic self-propelled ENOs. In addition her reaction time was orders of magnitude faster than the others. Not that she would need it. Her ENOs had already informed her that the room on the other side of the hidden door was some type of turbo-lift.
As the last of them entered the door closed… more quietly this time.
The design of the turbo-lift was vaguely reminiscent of those found on the Bluefin which had been Captain Running Stream’s ship.
“This lift looks like a Modos design,” Cat observed out loud.
“Indeed, it is,” Debbu confirmed as he entered an encrypted destination code into the control panel.“We have been working with the Modos Liberation Front since the day after our world was annexed forcibly by the Syndicate. Much of what you are about to see is the result of that collaboration.”
Cat and the others shifted their weight as the turbo-lift began to accelerate downward.
“I don’t understand,” Private Stone said, from behind his now fully-sealed and combat-ready battle armor.“If you and the MLF have been working together for so long, why is it you never tried to free yourselves before?”
The professor looked at the imposing soldier clad as he was in his seemingly impervious armor. How to answer one so young? He sighed and finally responded simply.