by Andrew Beery
“First,” She-Who-Would-Sing said, “I am an officer in the Empire’s Navy. Second, he’s not my supreme leader! My obligations and oath were to the Empire… as were, I might add, his.”
“Be that as it may. He is the supreme leader in this system and he is used to getting what he wants. He has signed an executive order stating that all alien technology passing through Quadra becomes the property of this system. Your prize will stay with us. If you wish to contest it in the courts, after we have seized the vessel, you are of course free to do so. I would certainly advise against it however, unless you have very deep wells from which to draw your treasure.”
“That’s ridiculous,” the Glory’s Prime Captain spat. “He has no authority in the Empire to do that!”
“He feels his position gives him license to do pretty much anything he wants. Right now, he wants your prize vessel. You will reverse course and surrender your prize for… let’s say 80% of the original offer.”
She-Who-Would-Sing’s front claws were no longer touching each other.
“Captain,” Commander Martinescu interjected, “I have three fast pursuit ships leaving the orbit of the second planet and another two approaching from the ring-gate on an intercept course.”
“Prime Captain,” Ken said quietly, “I’m afraid our options are becoming more limited.”
“Agreed, Captain. Might I suggest a more aggressive approach?”
“I think that may be the only option left. Target engines only. We want to keep casualties to a minimum,” Ken ordered.
“I’m afraid the design of our smaller ships is different than yours Captain. Targeting the engines will likely result in a failure of the power-system containment fields. The resulting explosions will likely kill the entire crew.”
“That’s not an optimal outcome to be sure,” Ken muttered in frustration. “How in the name of the Creator could they build a ship with such an obvious flaw?”
“It’s called ‘the lowest bidder wins’ in military procurement circles,” She-Who-Would-Sing answered with disgust.
“How about an EMP device to shut their power-systems down?”
“Same result,” the Prime Captain answered.
“Damn,” Ken said. “OK, we are going to have to do this the hard way. Instruct the CAG to launch fighters.”
***
“First squadron, you’re with me,” AG barked over the flight comm, “We are going to intercept the first three fast pursuit ships. Second squadron … your targets are the two coming in from the gate. These are lightly armed fast-ships. Their shielding is passive ablative only. Apparently, they are somewhat fragile by our standards. DO NOT go for a kill shot.
“Our instructions are to burn away their sensor and communications nodes. We want them flying blind and force them to disengage so they can conduct repairs. Both Squadron commanders, acknowledge your orders.”
“Roger that, Rubble Maker,” two newly promoted Lieutenants, JJ Hammond and Jon Robison, responded in unison.
JJ had adopted a new call-sign with his promotion. He now went by the call-sign Lady’s Man while Jon had kept his Hacker designation. Jon had First squadron, while JJ was now commanding the Second squadron. AG was in overall command and led the much smaller Third squadron.
AG had completely reorganized the Scorpion fighters based on what he had seen in the Beta-2 system and their experience with attacking the NE Glory. Third squadron was the smallest but it was composed of the most experienced pilots. First and Second each had thirty-two fighters to AG’s twelve.
AG’s squadron, however, were armed with additional counter-agents designed specifically to neutralize some of the technology the Yorktown had been surprised with in their first encounter with the Nesters.
Of specific concern were items like the artificial hyperfield dampening field that the Nesters had used to nullify the Yorktown’s shields. Although the engineering team on the Yorktown had developed an effective countermeasure, there was a lingering debate as to whether or not the Nesters had access to other hyperfield disrupting technologies.
In the Galactic Coalition of Planets, new member races quickly integrated their technological base with that of the other GCP member worlds. The result was a common core of technologies. That was absolutely not the case with the Nester Empire. This made dealing with them… especially from a combat perspective somewhat of a crap shoot. One moment you might be facing antiquated weapons… the next, you might be facing state-of-the-art systems that challenged your ability to counter them… all within the same engagement with the same ship or ships.
AG angled his fighter towards the three interceptors approaching from Quadra. “Let’s see if we can’t ruin their day boys and girls.”
“Roger that, Rubble Maker. We’ll just see if any of them gals care for a dance,” Jon answered.
“Just a light waltz, Hacker. None of those aggressive moves you tried on Gamma Four with Admiral Faragon’s great granddaughter.”
“What! She was the one who attacked me… I just have that effect on women. I can’t help it if they find me irresistible.”
“When we get back to the Yorktown report to the med bay. Full concussion protocols. You’re obviously hallucinating,” AG answered the younger man.
“Ah now see that’s just plain unkind, Sir. Those sadists in the med bay are always sticking sharp needles and things in places I don’t like talking about,” the Lieutenant responded.
“Need I remind you, my girlfriend runs the med bay?”
“With obvious exceptions, of course, Sir… when it comes to the sadism… unless you are telling me you two…”
“I think we’ve carried this conversation far enough Hacker. I need your mind focused on the mission. Ten minutes to weapons range.”
“Sir, yes Sir!” The words were barely out of Lieutenant Robison’s mouth when his LiDAR lit up. “Incoming!”
Each of the approaching fast pursuit ships had launched sixteen missiles. That meant forty-eight purveyors of death were on their way towards the forty-four scorpions.
“Hey, Rubble Maker, does that missile count seem a little low to you,” Jon asked. “Like maybe they don’t respect us or something.”
Before AG could respond, each of the forty-eight missiles split into twenty-four smaller projectiles. They were now facing well over a thousand oncoming missiles.
“You had to say something Hacker…”
“I guess they do respect us,” the younger man said.
AG looked at the number of oncoming missiles. “You seem to have a genius for understatement Mister Robison.”
“It’s a gift,” Jon acknowledged with a glint of amusement in his voice.
Chapter 15: White Hat Hacker…
“Evasive maneuvers!” AG yelled. The missiles that were pursuing them began to detonate in a series of tightly controlled thermonuclear explosions. Already roughly ten percent had detonated.
The detonations were odd. They were nowhere near the Yorktown’s scorpions and so the explosions themselves posed little or no risk. Still, AG had a bad feeling about them. His fears were confirmed when several of fighters in First Squadron suddenly went red on his status board. His onboard AI identified a series of powerful x-ray pulses… some of them very close to his position.
“They’re using bomb pumped lasers!” He yelled over the comms. “Deploy counter-measures and swing wide. Those things can’t have much fuel. We need to force them to waste it trying to follow us. Tune active shielding to favor the x-ray band.”
As he spoke he released two of his special chaff missiles. The devices were a decidedly low-tech solution to a high-tech threat. The missiles flew straight out from AG’s scorpion. When they were about thirty kilometers away they fired opposing lateral thrusters, and began to cartwheel through space. At the same time, they began to discharge large amounts of what was essentially tin-foil.
The foil lit up as x-ray lasers washed over them and converted them to super-hot plasma. The plasma itself was a seco
ndary barrier that blocked and defused the lethal beams, preventing them from reaching the Yorktown’s fighters.
AG was pleased to see that each of his third squadron had released two of their so-called window bombs. The term “window” was an archaic name for a chaff bomb from Earth’s Second World War. The Chaff opened up a window in a radar screen allowing Allied flyers to enter enemy airspace without the enemy knowing the number and composition of the invading aircraft.
The Infinity Brigade Marines were using a similar technique to hide from the bomb-pumped x-ray lasers. The technique would not have been effective against powerful shipborne energy weapons that could fire repeatedly at the same spot in space… but they were the perfect defense for weapons such as these. The Quadra bomb-pumped lasers were single-use weapons and once they had all fired… they would no longer be a threat.
“Alright, they took the first shot. Now, let’s show them what riled-up marines can do,” AG whispered softly over an open mic. Somehow when he whispered the tone was ominous in the extreme.
The Rubble Maker circled in and clipped the lead ship with plasma beams set to forty percent. It was enough to bubble the exterior skin of the ship without rupturing it. Every place one of the marine’s beams raked; the surface of it blistered. In moments, the Yorktown’s scorpions had disabled the three ships that had been on a heading from Quadra towards the Yorktown.
Shortly after the captains of those ships realized they were flying blind, and without functioning steering thrusters, they powered down their engines and began to coast.
The two fast-ships that had been approaching from the vicinity of the ring-gate were further away. As soon as they saw what happened to their compatriots, they began to vector away. AG ordered the wings chasing them to disengage. He also saw a problem developing with the three ships his group had already engaged.
“Hacker, I need you to use your repellers and slow that lead ship down. They are going to end up crashing into the ring-gate or one of the asteroids behind it in about twelve hours if they can’t get control of their maneuvering thrusters.”
“What about the other two ships we barbequed?”
“She-Who-Would-Sing has sent instructions to the ships that had been vectoring in from the ring-gate to tend to those ships. The only one left that needs a tow is the lead ship.”
“Understood, Rubble Maker. Hacker’s 24-hour Shoot’m and Tow’m is on the job!”
***
Lieutenant Jon Robison scanned the Nester Fast-ship in front of him. The ship was a mess… that was for sure. At a minimum, she would need a new paint job. The entire exterior surface was slagged. Even the docking ports looked to be welded shut.
If he had to guess, the ship’s exterior was made of low-grade steel. Even a ceramic alloy would have stood up better to the punishment the Yorktown’s fighters had dished out.
“Hey Rubble Maker, I’m on site. The lead ship was pretty royally roasted. I’m going to try to use my repellers to slow it down but I’m not sure how much structural integrity they have left. I may bust them open like a can of beans if I push too hard.”
“Understood, Hacker. Be careful. Your call, if it goes south and the ship’s skin ruptures… you have my go ahead, at your discretion, to EVA with a foamer to seal them up.”
“Here’s hoping it doesn’t come to that. My seat’s comfy.”
Jon instructed his onboard AI to monitor stress on the other ship’s hull. He applied his hyperfield repellers and thrust at twenty percent to slowly try to arrest the forward momentum of the Nester ship. It was ironic, given Jon’s predilection for hacking computers, that he did not like computer interfaces that emulated human personalities. For that reason, the unnamed AI in his scorpion had just the basic factory-installed conversational interface. In fact, Jon had installed a special emotion inhibitor that prevented the unit from developing its own natural personality… he like his computers the same way he liked his coffee – plain and boring.
“Structural integrity at seventy-two percent,” the AI reported after a few seconds.
“How long will I have to maintain repellers and thrusters at twenty percent in order to prevent a collision with objects along its current flight path?”
The AI answered immediately. “Collision is unavoidable within the stated parameters.”
Jon knew a thing or two about computer AIs so he didn’t take that answer at face value. A ship traveling at any speed in a straight line would eventually hit something… even if it took tens of thousands of years to do so. The literal nature of his scorpion’s AI might be confusing his intent.
“Refine query. How long will I have to maintain repellers and engine thrust at twenty percent in order to prevent a collision with ring-gate three or any of the surrounding structures or asteroids?”
Again, the AI responded immediately. “Collision is unavoidable within the stated parameters.”
Fine, be that way, Jon thought to himself.
“Computer, how much thrust must I apply to meet the earlier stated objectives?”
“One hundred percent thrust will be required to affect the desired course change. Said thrust must commence within nine point eight minutes,” the AI responded in its characteristically metallic clipped voice.
“OK,” Jon responded. “Ramp up thrust in five percent increments. Pause between each increase and reevaluate structural integrity. Advise me if their structural integrity falls below fifty percent.”
“Increasing thrust,” the AI acknowledged.
Jon watched as the thrust ramped up over the course of the next few minutes to ninety percent. His little ship was starting to shudder. Normally a little ship like his would have employed a mass dampening field to make countering the momentum of the larger ship easier to manage but the vagaries of this region of space made hyperfield dynamics infinitely more difficult.
“Structural integrity falling rapidly. Currently at forty three percent.”
“Decrease ramp up speed to two percent intervals,” Jon ordered.
A few moments later Hacker had reached one hundred percent of its rated output. Unfortunately, the Nester ship’s structural integrity continued to fail.
“Estimate how long until their hull ruptures verses how long we need to continue to apply thrust.”
“No meaningful estimate can be given on structural integrity. The current rate of decline is non-linear. Current thrust levels must be maintained for an additional twenty-eight minutes.”
Jon’s scorpion fighter began to shudder. The vibrations began to pick up in intensity.
“Computer, calculate frequency of structural vibrations and modulate the intensity of the thrust to dampen the oscillation.”
Immediately, the shaking began to diminish. Jon thought they might actually make it but ninety-two seconds before the end of the burn he heard the message he was dreading.
“Structural integrity of target has failed. Target craft venting atmosphere.
“Cut thrust!”
“Computer, how long before we impact with objects in and around the ring-gate?”
“Four hours and twenty-six minutes.”
Jon checked the seal on his helmet. It was silly because the cabin in his scorpion had been depressurized before he launched from the Yorktown. Still, when exiting the cockpit of his small fighter and heading into the vacuum of space he felt more vulnerable… more exposed to the harsh realities of living in space.
The relative velocities of the two ships were essentially identical so he was able to use his survival suit’s thrusters to easily move between the two vessels. The survival suits now being used in scorpions were essentially special-purpose Stark suits that included both the armor and rebreather functionality but sacrificed most of the offensive weaponry in favor of enhanced momentum inhibitors that made the incredible acceleration profile of the modern scorpions possible.
There was a very obvious rupture in the skin of the Nester ship that was venting a small but steady stream of moist atmosphere in
to space. If he hadn’t cut his thrust when he did there was every reason to suspect the Nester ship would have completely broken apart under the strain of deceleration.
This, of course left him with a conundrum. He contacted Commander Stone while he retrieved the breach sealant foam from a small cargo hatch on the exterior of his scorpion.
“Stone here,” came the immediate reply. AG and the rest of the marines that had been flying scorpions where already back onboard the Yorktown which was in a station-keeping position near the ring-gate.
“Sir, this is Hacker. I’ve got an issue out here that needs more shoulder brass then I’ve got in order to address it.”
“Go ahead Hacker”
Chapter 16: Prime Caste…
AG sent a subvocal command thru his internal AI to invite Captain Kirkland to monitor the conversation.
“Go ahead Hacker.”
“Well, Sir, that Nester ship has gone and sprung a leak. Its small at the moment but because of the moisture in their atmo-mix it’s like a snow storm out here.”
“I take it you don’t like snow?” AG asked in a bemused voice.
“It’s not that, Sir. It’s like my grandma used to say… Everyone complains about the weather, but no one wants to sacrifice a virgin to change it.”
“Hacker, your grandmother had an interesting outlook on life… I can respect that.”
“Yes, Sir. The thing is this, Sir. I’m patching up the hole right now which should keep them warm and cozy for a while… but the minute I try to decelerate them again…”
“They’re just going to bust open again,” AG finished for the younger man.
“Roger that, Sir.”
Before AG could offer advice, the door to his office beeped. Captain Kirkland was outside. As the Captain, he had the right to access any area of the ship at any time but courtesy dictated that he knock first.