Conquest (Star Force Series)

by B. V. Larson

  On Saturday morning I stood at the bottom of the hill of Fort Two, the central fort and the largest of the three. Barrera stood near me, and Sandra was even closer.

  “That is the weirdest-looking thing you’ve ever built, Kyle,” Sandra told me. “Except maybe for Marvin.”

  “Marvin designed himself, really,” I replied.

  Together we gazed up at the big projectors. The crews were testing them out, targeting and retargeting the Macro cruisers hanging over the eastern horizon. The black arms, the bright metal domes and the faintly golden projectors all functioned together smoothly enough, but they did appear bizarre to an observer.

  “They look like a man with thin black arms,” Barrera said, “aiming a golden pen or something.”

  I turned to Barrera with upraised eyebrows. “Such poetry!” I said. “Out of character, but well said, Lieutenant Colonel. Let’s hope they can hit what they aim at.”

  “We should test fire them,” Barrera said. “The brainboxes need to learn their new tasks.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not going to give the Macros a break. They seem to be on hold out there. I’m hoping they are waiting for a reinforcement fleet from the Venus ring. I hope they are going to wait out there for years. But I’m going to wait until all of these weird-looking forts are ready to fire. The moment they are, the brainboxes are going to get some on-the-job training.”

  The brainboxes were all taken out of knocked-out laser turrets, so they weren’t going to start the battle as green systems. They were, however, unfamiliar with these ungainly guns. Hopefully the task of hitting large, nearly stationary ships wasn’t too much for them. On a theoretical spreadsheet, these new weapons could punch through cloud-cover and atmosphere to a range of nearly fifty miles. They could reach all the way out into low orbit if they fired straight upward, as there was less atmosphere to get in the way the higher you went up. All that was based on computer simulations, of course. We didn’t really know what they could do yet. But I wasn’t going to test fire them in front of the Macros. I wanted to surprise the bastards.

  My forts had started off as a plan to drive the Macro fleet back. By positioning themselves over the oceanic trench, they were preventing us from destroying their undersea bases. If we could outrange them, we could push them out of position. If we put them under heavy fire at a distance too great for them to return fire, they would be forced to either engage us, retreat, or be destroyed. I figured they would choose to engage, so I waited. I wanted all three forts functional first, then I would allow the brainbox gunners to begin taking potshots at the distant enemy fleet.

  And so the Macro ships sat drifting in the sky to the east—sitting directly over the island of New Providence, in fact. I knew the Macro fleet was terrifying the inhabitants of the Bahaman capital, but I couldn’t do anything about it. At least, not yet. Every day the islanders waited, holding their breath. The enemy could decide at any moment to annihilate them. Each day passed uneventfully, but the dark ships clouded the skies and left doom in the heart of anyone who gazed up at them.

  The Saturday Assault did not begin with any action by the enemy fleet, however. The Macro ships floated up there, silent and nearly motionless. They resembled great, dark islands of metal, hanging in the skies.

  The first report came to Barrera. His face turned more serious even than his usual norm, and his hand flew up to his ear piece. Sandra noticed first and touched my shoulder. I was still marveling at my big guns and the black metal arms that held them on target.

  “Where are they?” Barrera said. His lips drew into a tight line. He turned around toward the east coast. He looked eastward, away from Fort Two. He took two steps and listened closely. “All three at once? ETA?”

  I almost interrupted him, but held back. I could see Sandra wanted to do the same. It was a bad habit everyone had picked up. If any sort of news came in, everyone was tense and demanded to know what was said immediately. Underneath our calm exteriors, we were all edgy.

  I thought of getting on the command channel and requesting the data they were feeding Barrera, but that would only slow things down by making them repeat themselves. Barrera was on duty as the commander of the daily ops. It was his shift, and I had to let him do his job.

  Barrera finished his conversation and turned back to me soon enough. “Three groups sir. Hitting Fort Pierre, our production base and a barracks area in the northern sector of the island.”

  “Hitting us?” I stared out at the Macro ships, they were still motionless. The beaches were quiet. None of the laser turrets were targeting or firing at anything. No sirens were going off yet, at least not that I could hear.

  “Where are they?” I demanded. “I don’t see any enemy.”

  “They are below us, sir. They have been detected tunneling upward from channels they’ve dug under the island.”

  I looked at him for a second. “We don’t have much in the way of cover down there. Only woven Nano-alloys.”

  “Exactly sir. Apparently, they surmised the same thing.”

  I stared out at the sea. They weren’t going to come in, I could see that now. I’d been a fool. They were going to drill up under us from the sea itself, never giving all my turrets anything to fire upon. I understood the beauty of their plan in an instant, and understood that I’d fallen in the classic trap of mostly earthly generals. I’d planned to win the last fight, when the next fight was going to be fought differently.

  I turned then and looked up at the big cannons.

  “Do it Kyle,” Sandra said, “don’t let them guide us.”

  I wasn’t sure if she was right or not. The guns weren’t ready, and they weren’t tested. “If we start this now,” I said, “we’ll be tipping our hand before we’re ready.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Sandra said. “They’ve already started it.”

  “I would have to agree with you,” Barrera said to Sandra. He turned his dark, intense eyes to me. “They probably already know what these guns can do. They aren’t exactly hidden up here, Colonel.”

  I nodded, and ran back to our flitter. It was a small, unarmed hovercraft. I grabbed up my headset and put it onto my head. I opened the command channel and ordered the three Forts to commence fire upon the enemy fleet. They might have forced our hands, but at least we would fire the first shot in this fight.

  Barrera walked up behind me. “Where do you want me to make my stand, sir?” he asked.

  “Take another flitter and go down to headquarters in Fort Pierre. Man the big board.”

  “Where are we going, Kyle?” Sandra asked.

  “We’re going to our production facilities. Their defenses are relatively weak there. We can’t afford to lose our factories.”

  Sandra climbed into the small vehicle with me and moments later we were skimming over the treetops at two hundred knots. I held the throttle down and kept it pinned there. The wind screamed by, and Sandra’s hair fluttered wildly. I waved at her until she reluctantly put on a helmet. At this speed, a stray insect could take out your eye, nanites or no.

  Internally, my mind and stomach were in turmoil. It had all been an illusion. Historically, preparations for war on a quiet front often went like this. One only saw your own improving defenses, not the growing strength and dark plans of the enemy. When the attack finally did come, the defenders were often dismayed by what they faced.

  In this case, I’d put all my defensive efforts into countering their fleet and stopping them on the beaches. I hadn’t considered a deep assault, one in which the enemy tunneled under the soft sandy soil ten or more miles beyond the eastern shores. They had outmaneuvered me and were striking at the very heart of my territory. They were trying to take out my factories.

  My mind was racing. I already considered two of the attacks to be feints. Even if they weren’t, the only attack that really mattered was the deep thrust at my Nano factories. If they took out my production capability, they could keep mining and building under the sea, while every asset I lost wa
s permanently gone. There would be no more fresh barrels of nanites to repair things. Only Crow’s factories would remain, which I wasn’t in direct control of, and which they might locate as well at any time. Once we were deprived of steady production, they could slowly siege my island. I would not be able to replace my losses, while they could produce an endless stream of Macro ground troops. They would win through attrition, and I wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it.

  -30-

  When Sandra and I reached the production base, hidden deep within the western interior of Andros, we found the garrison consisted of only two companies. I’d ordered a third to move to reinforce the position, but I still felt that was thin. We just didn’t have time to move our forces around at this point. The enemy were right under our feet and we didn’t have Crow’s ships to transport my men. Modified hovertanks were doing most of the work, puffed out to whale-size personnel-carrying form.

  I didn’t like seeing the hovertanks in that state, as big as buses with metal skins as thin as a soup can. They seemed so fragile when facing a serious enemy like the Macros. Branches could dent those ballooning skins when they were in that state, and any beam hit would punch right through and kill the marines inside. I made a mental note as I observed the transports: I needed heavier armor units in the future. I watched the hovertanks as they reconfigured themselves, folding down into a shark-like shape. Even in battle-configuration, they were easily knocked out. These hovertanks had the same design I’d come up with to repel U. S. forces from Andros, then used later for the Helios campaign against the Worms. They were really light tanks, not much better than a flying humvee with long range weaponry. When I had the time, I would have to come up with a new design for heavy armor. Something that could stand up to a Macro machine and take a punch or two.

  I felt more confident when I saw my marines piling out of the light vehicles, however. These men in their battle suits were superb fighting systems. They were the most versatile element of my forces. They’d managed to prove to me they could even be effective in an underwater battle. They could fight anywhere, including in space. I looked forward to seeing how they performed head-to-head against the Macro invaders on dry land.

  We landed the flitter in the central region of the base, bypassing protocol. A dozen men in battle suits swarmed, exactly as they should. They rose up into the air and encircled the flitter with their weapons trained on both of us. Only after we’d landed and identified ourselves to their satisfaction did they relax. The biggest battle suit landed on the flitter’s tail section and began complaining.

  “Colonel? This is a breach of protocol, sir,” Kwon said.

  “Indeed it is, First Sergeant. My apologies.”

  “We would have been within our rules of engagement to bring down your aircraft, sir,” Kwon continued.

  I could tell he wasn’t quite willing to let this one go. “The laser turrets would have fried me if I was a Macro, Kwon. Relax. The enemy is under our boots, not in the sky today.”

  “We don’t know that, sir. Remember the recent attack upon your person? Not every enemy is a machine today.”

  I glanced at Kwon as I marched toward the officer’s quarters, Sandra followed on my right side, while he followed on my left. Directly behind us, a squad of marines suspiciously poked around at the contents of our flitter, as if they thought we were robot mimics and the flitter contained a bomb of some kind. I chuckled.

  “That’s why your men are so jumpy. I think those assassins wanted to kill me, not all of Star Force.”

  “Why, sir?”

  I shrugged. “Not everyone likes me, Kwon. I make a mistake now and then, and they blame me for the entire situation. They’re all a bunch of armchair generals, enjoying the clarity of hindsight.”

  Kwon stopped asking questions. I was surprised he’d asked so many. Usually, he didn’t sweat the small stuff. I’d placed him here at the factories to guard them, but hadn’t really expected him to see much action. He knew the lay of the land, having fought here before. Now that the battle was on, I was glad to have him at my side again.

  The base CO was a new guy, Captain Francisco Diaz. At least, he was new to me. He’d joined Star Force over a year ago, but I’d never really had the time to chat with him. I didn’t have the time today, either.

  Diaz was a chunky fellow, built wide and low to the ground. He wasn’t fat—but he wasn’t thin, either. He was bald on top except for a scrim of hair around the ears and had eyes like twin drops of black oil.

  “Diaz, good to meet you,” I said, thrusting out my hand.

  He saluted first, then shook hands with me. He seemed somewhat surprised to see me. I supposed everyone on the base was.

  “Good to meet you too, Colonel,” he said.

  “Time for a full report later—maybe,” I said. “Right now, get your battle suit on, marine. We’ve got company coming.”

  Diaz stared at me with his liquid black eyes. “Uh, I had assumed you were going to ride this out at headquarters, Colonel.”

  I stared back. “Captain, I do believe I gave you an order.”

  Diaz jumped to attention. “Yes, sir,” he said. He snapped off another salute and went right to the lockers. He pulled out the first suit he saw and began climbing into the legs.

  “Help him, Kwon,” I said. “Full helmet now, Diaz. I’m suiting up too. Sandra, help me into this contraption. You’ll put on a lighter scout suit.”

  “I’m okay,” she said.

  I threw her a glare. “What is it with everyone ignoring my instructions today?”

  Sandra shrugged. “We know the machines are down there, but they might take hours to dig up into the base. And we have Nano-alloy nets to prevent it.”

  “Is that right? Get in your damned suits, people. If you have to urinate, use the elimination systems or let it run down your leg. The nanites will drop it out of bottom of your boots eventually.

  Kwon laughed at that. The other two seemed less amused. As we suited-up, two lieutenants wandered in. I ordered them into gear as well.

  “Kyle,” Sandra asked me quietly over a private channel as she helped me slide the helmet down over my nose. “Why the rush? We know where the enemy are. The Macros—”

  “Have fooled us once already today. I’m not giving them a second break. Now, everyone come with me up to the observation deck.”

  On top of the officers’ quarters, which doubled as the command post for the base, was an observation deck with thick railing that was perfect for a rifleman to fire over. I inspected it briefly, approving of the design.

  “Is this fortification your work, Diaz?” I asked the captain as he clanked after me.

  “Yes, colonel. I’ve been experimenting with programming and shaping constructive nanites.”

  “Good work. I need creative men. Take a look out eastward. Make sure your autoshades are on.”

  We all stood on the upper deck and stared to the east. I could see the nearest of the three central forts. From this distance, the black arms holding the projectors were too small to make out, but I could see the beam projectors aiming toward the distant ships. They hung over the eastern horizon, so large and black against the sky they could be seen easily with some adjustments to our helmet zoom controls.

  Periodically, as we watched, the big guns flared. There wasn’t much to see, a streak of burning atmosphere. A dimming of our helmets as the autoshades kicked in. Most of the dangerous light was in the infrared.

  “Enough power is being released that those heavy weapons could damage our optic nerves even at this distance.”

  “I don’t hear anything,” Sandra said.

  “You won’t. Not at this range. They are beam weapons, not cannons firing shells. If you were close enough, you would hear a thunder-like effect as the atmosphere has holes punched through it.”

  We stared and suddenly, one of the ships dipped forward, as if it were hung by wires—and one of the wires had just broken. It slid downward then, nose first. Smoke trailed behin
d it. The ship fell until it vanished below the horizon.

  Kwon hooted. “We got one, sir!”

  “Where did it go down?” Captain Diaz asked.

  “Either over New Providence, or into the sea itself,” I said. “It’s difficult to tell at this distance, even with the helmet zoomed to max. Because of the curvature of the Earth, we can’t see the endpoint of a crash landing.”

  “Why does it take so many hits to bring one down?” Kwon asked.

  “Because they are at the very limits of our range. We can damage them, but it takes a lot of pounding to do so.”

  “What are they doing out there, Kyle?” Sandra asked. “Aren’t they going to move? Are they going to let us just destroy their ships one at a time?”

  “Unfortunately, I doubt they will,” Captain Diaz answered her.

  I rotated my helmet to look at him. “What do you think they will do, captain?”

  He extended an armored arm. I followed his fingertip and zoomed in on the spot. There, engines were flaring. The ships in the farthest northern end of their formation were moving now. And they were coming toward us.

  “Looks like they are going to pull back, sir,” Diaz said.

  “Good,” I said, presenting a confident exterior that I didn’t really feel. Out of their three options, this was the least helpful. If they’d stood there, we could have had fun blasting them. If they’d advanced and committed themselves, we would have known this was it, the final battle was on. Since they’d retreated, we could concentrate on their burrowing forces, but with the knowledge their fleet could change its course and get into the fight whenever they wished.