On Epsirt the battle took another turn, once the FSO agents disguised as Norcar’s sons were kidnapped, Sisopan ordered Báihuā to stay behind to negotiate the Brotherhood demands with Norcar. Báihuā tried to argue that it would be better for her to go with the hostages to the Reduviid base, but Sisopan would have none of that. In the end Báihuā was forced to agree, as Sisopan was starting to get suspicious. What happened next was something we had not foreseen; our nearby ships, on receiving word that the battles were underway elsewhere, rushed in to attack the Reduviid under-ice base. Even though they were cloaked, they were detected coming in; and once it was clear that they knew the base location and were heading there, the Reduviids opened fire on the incoming ships. What we hadn’t taken into consideration was that Sisopan and the hostages would not yet have arrived at the base and would be in transit somewhere between the base and the estate. As soon as the battle began, I had Marranalis contact the government on Epsirt and open a vid link with their leader.
Once his image appeared in the screen, I began speaking, “I am Fleet Admiral Thibodaux James Renwalt of the Galactic Federation of Planets; we currently have a number of ships and troopers entering your airspace in pursuit of agents and operatives of the Brotherhood of Light who have been using your planet as a base of operation. We have no wish to conquer your planet or invade it; we are only interested in the Brotherhood of Light members and their terrorist organization known as the Reduviids who have a training base under the ice at the southern area of your planet. Please do not interfere with our operation; we wish you no harm; but should your military interfere, we will destroy them.”
“This is preposterous," the leader exclaimed, red-faced. "We are a sovereign planet; you have no right to invade our airspace! This is an act of war, and we will not tolerate it.”
“I’m sorry you see it that way,” I said, “however, we will pursue the Brotherhood on your planet, and we will eliminate them, with or without your cooperation. Right now, we have enough ships in orbit around Epsirt that we could take or destroy your entire planet. We have no wish to do so; we only wish to extract, and put an end to the Brotherhood operations on your planet. Any attempts you make to prevent us from doing so will be considered as an act to aid and assist our enemy, and thus make you an enemy as well. At the moment, the Federation’s position is that you were unaware of the actions of the Brotherhood on your planet; otherwise we would have to assume you were assisting them willingly, in which case we would be at war with your planet.”
I could see their leader sweating and weighing my words. He had known fully well the Brotherhood was operating on his planet and was allowing them sanctuary either by choice, or because he was under some sort of duress and compromised in some way. It didn’t matter which, and he knew it; all he could do now was to look for an easy out.
“I don’t see that you leave us any choice,” their leader said. “However, I am putting our military on alert and should we see that you are making any moves against our planet, outside of your stated purpose of removing the Brotherhood and their bases, of which we were completely unawares, I might add, we will have to resist and defend ourselves.”
“I fully understand,” I said. “We shall make every endeavor to minimize our impact on your world as much as possible. I do ask, however, that for the moment, you request a halt to all ships leaving your planet; we would feel bad if we were to accidently destroy one believing it to be one of the Brotherhood trying to escape.” I saw the leader stiffen and get red faced when I said this, but he said, “I’ll do as you say. However, I must warn you, Admiral, I will be filing a protest with the Federation about this blatant violation of our sovereignty.”
“By all means do so; it is entirely within your rights, just as it is within our rights to defend and protect our lives and wellbeing by tracking down and eliminating any threats against our people, regardless of where they are. Know that we, likewise, will be investigating the roles and actions of your government and people; and in the event of any cooperation with our enemy, we, likewise, will take actions.”
I could see their leader starting to sweat now as he stammered… “Ah, I assure you, Admiral; no one in this government has any connections with the Brotherhood, if they are, in fact, here at all. I do hope that should you find them, you will honor your statement and remove them quickly and be gone from our world.”
“We have every intent to do so,” I replied, “now if you’ll excuse me, I have a war to see to.”
By now, we had ground troopers pouring through the Cantolla Gate set up in the storage locker. The locker and the gate were large enough to permit small mechanized armor units and surface transports to pass through. As soon as assault units were through and assembled, they were en route to the estate the Brotherhood had been using on Epsirt as their headquarters. The assault troops reached the Brotherhood estate at about the same moment as the Reduviid base near the southern pole came under attack, and the estate was caught off guard. A short battle ensued, but the estate was quickly captured. A quick search of the premises failed to find Professor Fass Hakwin, but it did appear that Roritat had spent some time at the estate at some point in the past.
So it was that several hours later, I found myself still in the War Room with Admirals Regeny and Wabussie as the battles wound down and cleanup operations began; the only place with fighting going on was at the Reduviid base.
“Tibby, what do you think happened to Sisopan and our agents?” Regeny asked.
“I’ve no idea,” I said with some frustration.” “The last thing we need is for her to escape again.”
“Sir,” Marranalis interrupted, “I have an urgent message coming in from Báihuā on Epsirt.”
“Put her through on the vid screen,” I said.
As soon as Báihuā’s image appeared she began speaking, “Admiral, Sisopan has returned here to the estate. I’m not sure what happened; she only has agent Tabgellis and three of her Reduviids with her. She knows that Tabgellis is an FSO agent, and that I am also; she opened fire on us as soon as they got out of their transport. I think they may have killed Mazukam. Tabgellis looked pretty beaten up and bloody when they dragged him into the house.”
“Do you know where they are in the house right now?” I asked.
“Sort of, we’ve been following them on the security cameras as much as we can; but every time they stop to rest, Sisopan locates the cameras and shoots them out. Then we have to wait for them to show up on another camera.”
“Why did she return to the estate?” I asked. “That doesn’t make sense. I would expect her to try to get off the planet or hide somewhere."
“I don’t know, sir, the only thing in the area she is in now is the Cantolla Gate we have set up, but that’s disguised. She'd never recognize it.”
“Wait, didn’t you say that Tabgellis looked beaten up, and you think Mazukam is dead? You don’t think she might have tortured them and gotten one of them to tell her about the gate to the estate?” I asked, as I realized what Sisopan was up to. “Is there a camera in the room where the gate is?”
“Not exactly, but there is a camera in the hall looking into the room; you can’t see the gate through it, but you can see the area in front of the gate.”
“Hook us into the security camera feeds there at the estate,” I said. A moment later, the vid screen split up into a series of framed views, each showing different area of the estate. “Isolate the view to the one in the hall looking into the room where the Cantolla Gate is.” The view enlarged and there we saw Sisopan and her cohorts dragging Tabgellis with them. I could see Sisopan staring at the wall and reach out like she was touching something. I could not see the wall, but clearly she was doing something. Abruptly, she stepped back with a grin as she looked at the wall. “Ah," she said, “looks like we have our way out. Dump him and get through there and make sure it’s not a trap”, she said, as she looked down the hall and around the room. Two of her companions stepped into the wall and vanished.
Moments later, Sisopan turned and looked into the opening, then she turned to the last of her men who was still holding Tabgellis up and said, “Kill him; we don’t need him anymore.” I watched while she took a small object from her pocket and placed it on the wall as her companion shot Tabgellis, and they both stepped into the gate. Seconds later, there was an explosion and dust and smoke filled the room. A team of Federation troopers burst into the room from several directions looking about. One of the house security team said, "they have blown up the Cantolla Gate.”
“Tibby, I thought all the Cantolla Gates were guarded,” Regeny said.
“They are supposed to be,” I said with some confusion, “Sisopan and her men must be somewhere here on the ship?”
“Sir, they haven’t gone to the MAXETTE,” Báihuā said over the vid link.
“What do you mean? We watched them go through the portal,” I said.
“Yes but that gate doesn’t go to the MAXETTE. It goes to the NEW ORLEANS. When it was created, the originating end was made on the NEW ORLEANS, and only the second gate at the storage locker was set up to correspond to its partner on the MAXETTE.” I realized she was right, when I had A’Lappe create the gates I never told him to relocate the first gate to the MAXETTE, and it still was on the NEW ORLEANS.
“I need to get to the NEW ORLEANS as quickly as I can; we’ve no idea what Sisopan and her companions will do on the NEW ORLEANS; and security on the NEW ORLEANS is not anticipating any enemy coming through. Sisopan is about the most dangerous of all the enemies that could get through. There is no telling what she will do.” In my mind, I was wondering if Kala and the twins were safe. “Marranalis, contact the NEW ORLEANS and let them know there are enemies aboard if they don’t already know.”
“Yes, sir,” he responded. I didn’t bother to reply and headed straight to the gate and through to the NEW ORLEANS where we entered a scene of chaos. Alarms were going off, and troopers and guards were racing down corridors. I turned to one of my guards, “Send the alarm to all our connecting gates and tell them to close their gates until we give them the all clear.” I raised my wrist com to my mouth, “Padaran; this is Tibby, what’s the situation?”
“Sir,” Padaran’s voice came back,” we have intruders aboard; there’s been some explosion in the area where A’Lappe’s and Cantolla’s lab is, and the main access to that area was closed by the explosion.”
“Are Kala and the twins all right?” I asked.
“Yes, sir, as soon as I learned there were intruders aboard, I had security remove them to your estate and instructed the estate to close their end of the gate. They are safe.”
“Padaran, the intruder is Sisopan and two of her Reduviids. They are about as dangerous as anyone we could ever encounter. Don’t try to take them prisoner; if you can take them out do so and don’t try to get them to surrender. I don’t think they know where they are; they saw a gate and went through it; but if they figure out where they are, Sisopan will do her best to take out the entire ship. Alert your men to shoot to kill. Where are they at the moment?”
“I’ve been tracking them on the monitors in the communications room that A’Lappe set up near the bridge. At the moment, they are aft of the lab area.”
“Are A’Lappe and Cantolla safe,” I asked.
“Cantolla is at the estate; A’Lappe called in and says he’s secured in his quarters. I told him to stay put; it’s about the most secure an area and hard to find as any space on the ship.”
“Thank the stars for that. Have there been any casualties?” I asked.
“Yes, sir, Padaran replied, “They are killing everyone they encounter. So far, they have killed eight people that we know of. I’ve sent two teams through the transit tubes to the aft end of the ship, and they are working their way forward. They should soon be encountering Sisopan and her cohorts.”
“Is Jenira with Kala? I asked.”
“Sir, I don’t know. I’ve not been able to locate Jenira since the boarding.”
All the time I had been talking to Padaran, I had been working my way toward the bridge and the communication room. When I arrived, I entered to find Padaran and several security people following Sisopan and two rapidly moving Reduviids with her on the vid screen. “Let me talk to them and see if I can get them to surrender,” I said.
Padaran opened a ship-wide communication channel and stepped aside. I stepped up to the microphone and said, “Sisopan; this is Admiral Tibby of the Federation forces; give yourself up, and we won’t have to kill you.”
Sisopan only paused a second, and then she and her two companions continued on. “Sisopan, we know where you are, and it’s only a matter of time before we reach you and kill you. Give yourself up and save yourself.” Sisopan turned and shot out the camera. We picked her and her companions up a few minutes later as they entered one of the atrium areas. Immediately Sisopan stopped and looked about and started to laugh. Her two companions stopped and looked at her like she had lost her mind. “This is his ship,” we could hear her say over the intercom system. “His…! Tibby’s ship! We’re on the NEW ORLEANS. If we can find their solbidyum reactor, we can vaporize the ship and him with it.”
“Won’t we blow ourselves up with it?” One of her companions asked.
“Maybe, and maybe not; I have a plan, but I’m not saying what it is. I need to know where we are on this ship. See if you can find a chart; there should be one on a wall nearby that shows the ship’s layout and see where the cameras are in this area and shoot them.” Seconds later, the camera stopped working.
“Our guards should be reaching that atrium area about now,” Padaran said as he switched the vid screen view to one from a body cam on one of the security forces advancing on Sisopan’s last location. One of Sisopan’s companions appeared on the screen, and immediately the troopers opened fire, killing him at once. There was a brief pause, and we could see the body lying on the floor, there was a streak of something flying through the air and a bright flash, and the camera image died. Padaran adjusted the camera views and instantly the image of the hall leading into the atrium area appeared, showing five immobile members of the ship's security lying dead on the floor. A minute later, Sisopan and her last companion could be seen moving among the bodies. I saw Sisopan reach down and take something from the belts of two of the security team and hand one to her partner. They continued going in the direction the security team had come from.
“What did she take,” I asked of no one in particular?
“Their cloaking modules,” Padaran replied.
“Why weren’t our men using them?” Someone in the room asked.
“If they did, they might shoot each other, or members of the second security team by accident if they got into a battle with the intruders.”
Padaran spoke into his com link to his second security team in the area, “There are two hostiles left. They have managed to kill Security Team One and are heading in the direction of the aft transfer tubes. They have cloaking gear, so be careful.”
“Can’t you evacuate the air from the aft end of the ship and kill them that way?” someone asked.
“We don’t know how many of our crew are back there,” Padaran said. “There could be as many as a thousand of our people back there. Right now, they have sealed themselves in rooms and compartments while our security teams try to find the enemy.” He turned to me and said. “I’m sending more security people in.”
“It’s your call, you’re head of my security,” I replied.
By now, all the screens in the room were monitoring some area of the aft end of the ship. Live body cams on my advancing security team showed the images of what was in front of them. Unexpectedly, there were flashes of light, and the views on the screens shook and then were stationary.
“They got our team,” Padaran said. “They’re dead.” As he was speaking, Sisopan and her companion uncloaked, and they could be seen standing about three meters in front of the bodies. The images were skewed as the camera
s were on the bodies lying on the floor, but it was still clear to see.
“See, I told you these things would work,” Sisopan was saying. I noticed some movement on one of the screens, and I realized one of the security teams was still alive, if only he had time to get his gun and shoot Sisopan. I reached past Padaran and activated the microphone, “Sisopan, you can’t get away, give yourself up,” I said, hoping it would distract her long enough for our man to get a shot off.
“You won’t get me that easily,” Sisopan said as she scanned the ceiling looking for security cameras. There was as flash of laser fire and Sisopan’s companion dropped to the floor; in an instant, Sisopan spun, leveled her gun, and fired, and the image on the screen from the live guard dropped. Sisopan fired several more shots into the already dead troopers, and she vanished.
“Now what do we do, Tibby?” Padaran asked.
“Seal off all the corridors in that area and send in more of our men,” have them send in drones with infrared cameras. Sisopan may be cloaked, but she’ll still have a heat signature we can detect.”
For the next several minutes, we stared at cameras with images from around the aft sections of the ship, but we saw no one. Then we detected the sounds of a struggle going on in one of the large open mall areas. Our cameras recorded the sounds, but we didn’t see anyone, though occasionally we would see objects knocked over or disturbed.
“What’s happening, Tibby?” Padaran asked.
“I’m not sure. It seems like two cloaked people are tussling,” I said.
I had barely finished uttering the words when Sisopan appeared where no one was seen before, and her cloaking device went flying across the room. She was obviously wrestling with someone else who was cloaked. She managed to swing her foot around in a kick, and when she did Jenira suddenly appeared, as her cloaking device flew across the room, dislodged by Sisopan’s kick. Somehow in the tussle Sisopan had also lost her gun and now stood there helpless.
Solbidyum Wars Saga 7: Hunt for the Reduviids Page 30