Star Crusades Uprising: The Second Trilogy

by Michael G. Thomas

  Kowalski grinned.

  “You have your skills. I have mine.” He traced a line of the display. “If we take this engineering route, we can take up a position three rooms away from the bridge. Now, if you look at these publicity photographs, you can see the bridge is quite small. The ship is heavily automated so that four officers can manage communications, engineering and navigation all from this one place. There is one way in, through this doorway at the rear of the bridge.”

  Sergeant Lovett examined the images carefully. The information on the ship was extensive but only described the vessel in its civilian guise. Any changes to equipment, personnel or procedures would not be mentioned in the data they had access to. He checked the area around the bridge one last time before handing the device back to Kowalski.

  “What about weapons and combat control?”

  “Nothing, this ship is completely unarmed. Most crew are here to serve the passengers. All we have to do is force our way inside, and overpower or persuade the crew to surrender.”

  “Easier said than done. What if they have guards? Even worse, there might be sensors or remote drones in the area.”

  Kowalski checked the data again.

  “We need a recce then. Until we’ve examined the area, we’re just spit-balling here.”

  “Agreed, let’s go.”

  * * *

  If Spartan didn’t know any better, he would have thought the Captain was deliberately delaying the tribunal. He must have been brought in at least half a dozen times, but he had still not been asked any questions. Hours, maybe even days, had passed, and his ability to think coherently was fading. Maybe it was sleep deprivation, or maybe it was drugs. It could even be a mixture of the two. Gun wasn’t present. He was back in the side room that was being used as a temporary cell during this process. As he stood, he spotted subtle movement to the right. In walked a marine carrying a datapad. He moved quickly and stopped to the side of the Captain. At first she said nothing, but something caught her eye. She looked at the device with relish, and a sickening smile started to creep across her face. She finally nodded to him and said something quietly. He turned and marched quickly from the room.

  “We will take a short recess. A critical development has just taken place that could prove vital in this investigation. We will reconvene in...” she checked the time and thought for a moment, “two hours.”

  Misaki wandered over and began speaking with her. It could have been Spartan’s imagination, but he was sure he could see a spark between the two of them. He shook his head in surprise. Misaki was certainly adept at bedding any man or woman she found of use in the military. He chortled to himself that even Gun might be vulnerable. The thought of the two of them almost made him jump though, and a shiver ran up through his spine. His question was answered when Captain Hobbs placed her hand reassuringly on Misaki’s shoulder.

  “What the hell is she up to?” he muttered quietly to himself.

  Misaki looked positively excited at whatever the news had been, and she left the room along with a marine guard. Two marines headed towards him, both with their weapons aimed low at his chest.

  “What?” demanded Spartan, but he knew perfectly well they were going to take him away. One pushed his metal rod forward until it connected with the attachment on his manacles. There was a gentle click, and Spartan was free, at least free to stand up. The guard pushed at him, and he moved in the direction shown. From the corner of his view, he could see Captain Hobbs heading for the door.

  “Damned bitch!” he snapped, unable to keep it in any longer. The marine shunted him and he lost his footing. His right foot slipped and down he went. The impact wasn’t hard, but being attached to the pole it was hard for him to maintain his balance. As he lay in a heap on the floor, he watched her leave. The possibilities of what might be happening were running through his mind. It could just be a gambit, something like the prisoner’s dilemma he had been taught during basic training. The harder he thought, the more his head ached. The one thing that worried him more than anything else was that Hobbs and her marines might have discovered Sergeant Lovett and the rest of his men. He had faith in the man, and they had fought in many different warzones with great success. He was an expert at getting into and out of trouble. He just prayed he was still safe. It wasn’t just his life. It was Gun’s and the rest of the Jötnar. If the fleet split up, there would be blood split on every single ship.

  “Get up!” snarled the guard. The second moved forward with his rifle muzzle just a few centimetres from his face.

  “Big mistake!” he snapped.

  The marine knew he was in trouble, but it was too late. Spartan kicked up high into the weapon and knocked it to the floor. The man tried to back off, but Spartan was on him in a flash. A savage kick to the marine’s knee dropped him down, and Spartan leapt on him. Using his knees, elbows and feet, he pummelled the man.

  “Get off him, now!” cried the second marine. “I need help in here, now!”

  The manacle stopped him moving his arms much, but there was enough movement to reach the man’s holster and pull out his issue pistol. Two guards, these two in what looked like civilian clothing, rushed in and both pointed thermal shotguns at him. He didn’t pause, just aimed low and squeezed. The gun clicked, but nothing happened. Another two crewmen entered, and both kicked and struck out at him. He tried desperately to get away, but was quickly knocked down and pinned to the ground. From the doorway, the shape of Captain Hobbs appeared. She stopped and looked down at Spartan.

  “Spartan, you animal!” she snapped.

  Behind her emerged two more guards, again in crew uniforms, not marines. This time they pushed a manacled woman. Spartan lifted his head just enough to see her.

  “Spartan!” cried the woman. Spartan knew instantly who it was.

  “Teresa?”

  He was answered with a rifle butt to the temple. He slumped to the ground unconscious, much to the amusement of Hobbs. She pointed at the marines who were on the ground, writhing in pain from the injuries inflicted by Spartan.

  “Take them to the brig. I want this area cleared of marine forces.”

  The two crewmen nodded and bent down to deal with the fallen warriors. Hobbs turned around to face the manacled Teresa. Marcus stood next to her with a bleeding cut running down his face.

  “Good work, Sergeant, much better than these individuals were able to manage.”

  To emphasise the point, she kicked one of the men on the floor. He groaned and looked up in surprise and anger.

  “You are probably wondering about the security? Well, with this trial I am getting very suspicious reports of possible unrest in the crew. These are marines and security specialists from the Cruz. Luckily they were here to help maintain the peace.”

  “Good idea,” he replied, though not too keenly. He didn’t want to sound too out of character.

  “Spartan has friends throughout the fleet, and we’ve already seen what his Biomech allies are capable of.”

  “Indeed,” she replied, looking at Teresa. “What I really want to know is what you are doing here? Trying to rescue your lover?”

  Teresa said nothing and just looked down at the floor. Misaki and a marine in full PDS armour entered the room. She moved up to Teresa.

  “You found the bitch?”

  Teresa looked up at the smiling face of Misaki. Though they hardly knew each other, it was clear the woman had some kind of vendetta against her. She knew Spartan was an honourable man, so it couldn’t be he had cheated on her. Perhaps it was something in their past, but she really didn’t know.

  “Wait,” said Captain Hobbs suddenly. She turned to Marcus.

  “Where did you find her?”

  “She was trying to access one of the computer systems near Bishop’s quarters. She drew her sidearm, but I was able to bring her down. I think she was trying to locate Spartan.”

  She stood still, looking at Teresa from head to toe. This went on for several more seconds until she wave
d over two of her guards.

  “Strip her!” she ordered.

  The older of the two men looked back at her.

  “Sir?”

  “You heard me. She might be carrying a bug, wire or even explosives. We’ve seen what these rebels are like. They’ve murdered the Captain, marines, crew and nearly me. Now strip her, or must I do it myself?”

  The man handed his rifle to Marcus and stepped closer to Teresa. He placed his hands on her shoulder and started patting her down as though performing a security check.

  “What are you doing?” roared Hobbs.

  She stepped forward and grabbed clothing around Teresa’s midriff. From her belt, she pulled out her service bayonet and slashed it across the stretched fabric. The material fell away to expose her stomach and sides.

  “There, it’s hard, is it? Now, get to it.”

  The marine stepped closer and tugged at her top. With little resistance, it fell away to reveal just bare skin and underwear. He knelt down and did the same until Teresa was stood in her black underwear and nothing else.

  “She looks clear to me,” he said finally.

  “Really?”

  Hobbs moved next to the almost totally naked Teresa. She ran her hand down the woman’s side until she reached her thigh, stopping when she reached fabric.

  “What is this? I said strip her. Now do it, or I’ll find somebody else that will!”

  * * *

  Kowalski did his best to look calm as he walked along the main corridor. His service clothing made him look like many of the other marines moving about. Without a rifle, or body armour, he felt naked. He had already placed a number of sensors as he made his journey, but on this last section he’d been unable to stop. The bridge was through the next set of double doors and up one level. From the plans, he could either take a short staircase or the command elevator. The decision became moot as he pushed through the doors. A marine guard in full armour blocked the entrance to both.

  “What do you want, Private,” asked the man in a bored tone. Kowalski had deliberately appropriated clothing below his rank so as not to draw attention. He was now wondering why he hadn’t chosen a high-ranking officer instead.

  “I’m looking for the bridge,” he answered quickly.

  “Really, why?”

  “I was sent by the engineering team to help establish a level two sentry system around the bridge,” he replied as he held out his case.

  “Level two?”

  “Yeah, it’s the new microwave-based security unit. It will monitor everything within fifty metres of the room. We’ve got sensor nodes and defensive weapon units.”

  “I’ve never heard of it. I’ll need to check this.”

  Kowalski’s heart started to pound. He hadn’t expected to be stopped this early on. They were still waiting to receive something concrete from the bug Marcus was carrying. Apart from the sadistic comments from Hobbs about Teresa’s body, she had said nothing incriminating. Kowalski was convinced the woman had a more than professional interest in some of the women under her command. The guard opened his mouth to speak into his communications unit, and that was his chance. He leapt forward and swung the case hard into the man’s helmet. It struck with a crunch and threw him against the wall. Kowalski pulled him to the ground and leaned in, checking that the man was still breathing.

  “Lovett, I’m one floor from the bridge. One guard down.”

  There was a slight crackle on the earpiece.

  “Guard down? Damn it, Kowalski, you’re supposed to be scouting the place, not attacking it.”

  “No choice, I’m moving in for a closer look.”

  “Be careful.”

  He dragged the guard into the nearest storage locker and checked again that he was still breathing. From the case, he then removed several items, including the derringer-type pistol and a few electronic devices. They were all designed for nighttime commando operations and counter-insurgency work. He never expected they would be needed on board one of his own vessels. He checked his datapad that was connected to the spider’s web of sensors he had spread about. They provided a basic sensor net that could capture movement and thermal readings. It wasn’t perfect but should at least let him know when somebody was heading in his direction. He moved to the staircase and proceeded up. Kowalski winced at even the slightest sound as he worked his way up towards the next level. He could have taken the elevator, but it would have made his arrival loud and obvious. As he reached the last step, he tapped his communications unit.

  “I’m approaching the bridge, what’s your status?”

  “I’m thirty seconds out, main corridor is secure. Be careful.”

  He had expected to find a guard at the door but instead found it sealed shut. It was a substantial blast door, designed to be impervious to weapons fire or hijacking attempts.

  “Uh, we have a problem.”

  “Why am I not surprised?” came back the reply. “Come on then, tell me?”

  “The door is sealed, and there’s no guard.”

  “Well, that isn’t so bad. We just need to find a way in.”

  Kowalski was already removing a small electronic device from his case. His years of studying the Confederate military had given him many useful skills. It was his slightly murky experiences prior to joining that really made the difference though. The device was a wireless communication node used for running diagnostics. In less than ten seconds, he was already connected to the low security section of the system.

  “I’m in, shutting down the sensors and alarms in this area. I suggest you get here. When the door locks unseal, it could draw attention. Who knows what we’ll find inside?”

  “I’m on the way, but don’t open it yet.”

  “No problem, three more levels to get through first.”

  His device showed him multiple access points, but that was of no use to him. He needed the service menus that were used by technicians and maintenance crews. With a little fiddling, he managed to damage one of the lesser subroutines and forced his way through the security centre software.

  “Man, this system is old,” he muttered to himself, pleased at both his progress and the confirmation that his skills were still good enough. At this point in the system, he could connect with any of the internal security systems in that part of the ship. As he moved through several datastreams, he spotted something unusual. It was a multiplexing stream of data that was easily ten times larger than he would have expected. He slid his finger on the small screen and attached two monitoring nodes to the streams, and watched. It was a series of control codes and heavily encoded traffic.

  “What the hell?” he whispered.

  A few more attempts and he was able to put on a trace. It was quickly clear that the bulk of the data was coming directly from inside the bridge, and then heading out to all the main systems on the ship. He scratched his head, surprised at what he could see. Sergeant Lovett appeared on the staircase, his sidearm already out and held low but out of sight.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “It’s the bridge. There’s a massive amount of computing power in there. From the streams I’m monitoring, I’d say there is enough traffic to control fifty ships like this one, and all from inside there.”

  “What?”

  “I know. It’s overkill. Why does a civilian ship have that much power? Last time I saw something like this, it was the data pathways back on Prometheus.”

  The two looked at each other, and the obvious solution occurred to them at almost the same time.

  “An AI system?” said Lovett.

  “Yeah, if Hobbs managed to get one aboard, she could remotely manage the ship’s systems with almost no crew.”

  Kowalski turned back to his device and checked more of the data.

  “We need to get in there. Come on, just get the door open.”

  Kowalski nodded, but said no more. The last two barriers were much tougher, and he was forced to move segments of code from one of the emergency subroutines di
rectly into the access point to create a breach. A click ahead indicated the first of the bolts opening.

  “Get ready, any second now.”

  They lifted their weapons and pointed directly at the door. Nothing happened, and Sergeant Lovett made to turn. A great clunk came from the hatch, and then it swung open with almost no sound. The two marines moved inside without hesitating. They each moved off to the sides of the doorway and scanned the room with their weapons out in front, searching for the enemy.

  “What the hell?” snapped Sergeant Lovett.

  The bridge was empty, apart from a capsule about a metre long with dozens of pipes and thick cables running from it. Kowalski examined it.

  “Yeah, it’s similar to the ones I’ve seen before. Not the same though.”

  Lovett lifted his pistol and aimed it at the object, but Kowalski jumped in front of him.

  “Hey, what you doing? Until we hear from Marcus, we have no evidence.”

  The Sergeant raised an eyebrow and pointed at the device.

  “What do you call that?”

  Kowalski nodded in acknowledgement.

  “True. That doesn’t look good. But it isn’t evidence against her. What if she say’s Spartan brought it from Prometheus and installed it?”

  “We need to keep this place secured until we get the data. Can you bypass the Hub, or do we need to destroy it?”

  Kowalski was already connecting up his device via a maintenance port on one of the consoles.

  “With this direct access, I should be able to run a parallel module. Just have to make sure it doesn’t detect me.”

  “It?” asked Lovett.

  “Yeah, you’ve seen these things. They’re a kind of hybrid, human brain matter and bio-electronic interface. It’s state of the art gear.”

  “You make it sound like its alive.”

  Kowalski turned to him for a brief moment.

  “Well, in a way it is.”

  Something seemed to alert Sergeant Lovett, and he lifted his hand for Kowalski to be quiet. Both stayed still for a moment as he listened.