The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Guardian

by Jack Campbell

  “Instinct, Admiral. He was one hell of a good ship driver.” Desjani took another deep breath. “Better than me. So, the hypernet gate here was damaged?”

  “I think there’s a very high probability that it was too badly damaged to save.”

  “What a shame.” One more slow breath, then Tanya straightened, her expression smoothing out. “Lieutenant Yuon.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  “Dauntless took out one of those couriers. Well done. Notify the weapons crews that I will be coming to personally congratulate them.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  As Desjani began to rise from her seat, Geary gestured for her attention. “Is there anything I can do?”

  “There are lots of things you need to do, Admiral,” she said. “You’ve got a fleet to take care of. And I’ve got a ship to look after.”

  “True. I’ll talk to you later, Tanya.”

  She sketched a salute, then headed off the bridge.

  Geary turned back to his display, watching his ships re-form into one large grouping, while shuttles winged their ways from two of the auxiliaries toward the hypernet gate.

  The one thing he wished he could do right now was order ships to search for survivors from Orion. But that would be a meaningless order and a hopeless task. The dead could not be forgotten, but he had to focus his attention on the living.

  As Geary’s hand moved to send further orders, he paused, looking at his display. Invincible was still struggling to get into position, huge and unwieldy.

  Invincible. None of the attacking ships had gone after Invincible.

  Had the ships ordered to strike at Invincible been destroyed far enough short of their target that their tracks didn’t point to that target?

  Or had the attackers been ordered not to strike Invincible?

  Because the Syndics wanted that ship. He knew they did.

  Which could mean—

  “Tanya! Captain Desjani!”

  She heard him just before the bridge hatch closed. It reopened almost instantly, and she was back beside him almost as fast. “What?”

  “I think you’d better stay up here.” He hit a comm control. “Admiral Lagemann, do not relax alert status on Invincible.” Another control. “All units in First Fleet, remain at full combat alert.”

  Desjani was in her seat, staring at her display. “What do you see?”

  “It’s what I didn’t see.”

  “You think they have other things planned? Another attack about to go down?”

  “I think it’s a certainty. They made us come to this star system so those courier ships could hit us, but even under the most optimistic scenario for the Syndics, those suicide attacks couldn’t have stopped us.”

  “But what can they be planning to do when there’s nothing else—?”

  “Admiral Geary!” the comm watch yelled at the same moment alarms burst from the combat systems. “Invincible reports she is under attack!”

  “The other shoe just dropped,” Geary snapped, as a virtual window appeared next to him.

  “We have intruders aboard,” Admiral Lagemann said quickly yet calmly. Lagemann’s face was in shadow. The entire area of Invincible that he was in was darkened, with only stray lights from displays providing light. “They cut what looked like the main comm line out, but that was a decoy.”

  “You had a decoy comm line, too?” Geary asked, tapping controls to bring up a display showing the Marines aboard Invincible as well as a direct line to General Carabali.

  “Of course.” Despite his light words, Lagemann sounded worried. “The indications of the boarding party are still scattered and weak. They must all be in stealth armor, which means Syndic special forces. We know they’re on board, but not how many and not exactly where. We’re trying to find out more without revealing the real location of the area we occupy inside Invincible.”

  “You and Major Dietz certainly called things right. What about your sentries at the air lock? Did you lose them?”

  “No,” Lagemann said with a half smile. “They weren’t there. We pulled them back inside with the rest of us when those suicide attackers came at us. Maybe that was part of the Syndic boarding plan, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s just as well. We might have lost a squad of Marines before we knew we were facing a boarding party in stealth gear. As it is, the Marines with me are fully alert and armoring up.”

  Geary paused in his reply, glancing at Desjani.

  Desjani had uttered an obscene term that he hadn’t realized she knew, and now continued speaking with white-hot rage. “A diversion! Those damned suicide ships were a diversion! While we were dealing with them, stealthed shuttles were able to intercept Invincible and put their assault force aboard!”

  “Yes, Orion died because of a diversion.” That should have made Geary’s own anger flare hotter, but instead he had gone bitter cold inside. “The shuttles the Syndic boarding party used must still be near Invincible.” There was a maneuver to deal with that, a preplanned operation he only had to order into action. “Search and Destroy Pattern Sigma.” He hit his comm control. “All light cruisers and destroyers in First Fleet, immediate execute Search and Destroy Pattern Sigma. Reference point for search is Invincible. Search targets are Syndic stealth shuttles. Engage and destroy any detected.”

  “Search and Destroy Pattern Sigma?” Desjani checked her database. “I’ve never actually done one of those. How old is that pattern?”

  “More than a century,” Geary said. “But it’s in the maneuvering systems of every ship in this fleet. All they have to do is punch it in, and the fleet’s automated maneuvering systems will get the right ships moving to the right places based on how many ships the formation has for the mission.”

  “That’s a lot,” Desjani said, smiling unpleasantly as she watched her display.

  Every destroyer and every light cruiser in the First Fleet, roughly two hundred warships, was swinging into a tight, overlapping search pattern focused on the region of space near Invincible and the track she had taken through space. Stealthed shuttles, especially if they were not maneuvering at all, could be incredibly hard to spot. But with hundreds of ships searching, all of their sensor readings being combined and compared automatically by fleet combat systems, even the best stealth technology would find it hard to avoid revealing the sort of anomalies that combat systems would pounce on.

  If only I’d had time to implement that search pattern as a defensive measure before the Syndics got aboard Invincible, Geary thought bitterly. But that was the whole point of the suicide attack, to keep us too busy and too distracted to even think about other threats.

  “They’re at the decoy main engineering control,” Admiral Lagemann announced. “Lamarr sensors on the main hatch report they are being spoofed. And . . . the Persian Donkey there has ceased emitting.”

  One decoy dead. Geary fought down an absurd sense of sorrow at the “death” of the faithful and deceitful little Marine Donkey. “What about the decoy bridge?”

  Major Dietz’s image had also appeared near Geary. Dietz was in full combat armor. “The Syndic boarding party should have coordinated to hit both targets at the same time, but probably ran into delays because of the unknown deck plans of this ship. There go the Lamarr sensors at the decoy bridge. Decoy bridge has been hit. That Donkey is dead, too.”

  “We’ve got everything running on minimum power in this area,” Lagemann said. “We’re all in our suits, so we shut down life support and everything not necessary to communicate and keep track of the action. The boarders will have a hard time finding us, and if they do, they’ll find Marines here ready for them.”

  “Admiral Lagemann,” Geary said, “those Syndic soldiers can’t be given the run of Invincible.”

  “They won’t be,” Major Dietz said. “I’m leaving one company to guard this area, reinforced by the sailors.” He managed not to sound sarcastic at the idea of armed sailors being effective reinforcement for Marines. “I’m taking the other company
out in squads to go after the decoy compartments the Syndics captured. If they brought nukes on board, it’s a near certainty they would have left those nukes under guard in the two decoy compartments. We can’t hunt people in stealth suits, not with this amount of space to cover and so few Marines, but we can make life difficult for whatever guard force they left in those compartments and hopefully gain possession of the nukes.”

  “Have you confirmed the presence of Syndic nukes?” Geary asked.

  “No, Admiral. That remains an estimate of what the enemy probably intends. I strongly recommend that we operate upon the assumption that the Syndic boarding party does have at least one nuke with them.”

  “Your estimates have proven to be extremely good, Major Dietz. I approve your recommendation. Admiral Lagemann, General Carabali, we will operate on the basis of the Syndics’ having nukes inside Invincible.”

  General Carabali’s circuit had come to life and now she nodded in response to Geary’s words. “We’ll operate on that basis, Admiral. Request permission to land reinforcements aboard Invincible.”

  “How many are you planning on and how quickly?” Geary asked.

  “Everybody on Tsunami,” she replied. “Almost eight hundred Marines. As soon as Tsunami can come close alongside Invincible. I want to bring Typhoon close to Invincible in case the Marines aboard her are needed, too.”

  “Permission granted. Get those Marines onto Invincible fast.”

  “Understood, Admiral. We’re going in.”

  Geary turned back to Major Dietz. “Did you copy that? You have a lot of friends on the way.”

  “Yes, sir.” Dietz studied some of the dim displays near him. “Another Lamarr sensor in one of the passageways just went off. They’re looking for us. I’ll take my grunts out and make the finding a little easier for them. Two squads will head for the decoy engineering control and two more for the decoy bridge compartment. As our counterattack goes in, it will also distract the Syndics from realizing we have a lot more Marines boarding this ship.” He began to move away, then halted with a puzzled expression. “Firing? Admiral, we’ve got sensors reporting weapons being fired in an area where there’s nothing of ours.”

  “Shooting at shadows?” Admiral Lagemann suggested.

  “Shadows? These have to be Syndic special forces. Maybe even those security-force fanatics I fought once. Vipers. They’re very tough and very well trained. They wouldn’t shoot at shadows . . .” Dietz’s expression changed. “Standard tactics in stealth suits is to operate singly, or in groups of two or three at the most. Even if they’ve got a battalion aboard us, they would only converge into larger groups at an objective. More likely they’re at company strength at the most.”

  “So?”

  “The ghosts, Admiral! Those Syndics are wandering around in the dark alone or in pairs in areas of this ship we only go into at squad strength! One of them just snapped and started shooting at nothing!”

  “Isn’t them panicking a good thing?” Geary asked.

  “It would be, Admiral,” Major Dietz said with an obvious attempt at patiently explaining something his superiors should already have realized. “It would be if they didn’t have nuclear weapons.”

  Geary drew in a sudden breath. Isolated soldiers with nuclear weapons, assailed by mobs of unseen, ghostly presences. “Stop them before they go crazy and blow the ship apart from the inside!” he ordered both Major Dietz and General Carabali.

  “That’s the idea, Admiral,” Carabali said. “Move out the instant you’re ready,” she ordered Major Dietz.

  “Got one!” Desjani and Lieutenant Castries both cried out, surprising Geary.

  Refocusing on his display, Geary saw a Syndic shuttle symbol sputtering into and out of existence as the fleet’s sensors localized the tiny indications of its presence. One of the nearest light cruisers got a fire control solution, and a single hell lance shot speared down and into the shuttle.

  The hell lance scored a hit, and a moment later the shuttle blinked fully into view as its power and active stealth systems failed. A half dozen more hell lances tore into it, tearing the shuttle apart.

  “There’s another,” Desjani said, as indications of a second shuttle flickered on the display. “We’ve got them boxed in with that search formation. If they don’t move, it’s only a matter of time until we locate them. If they do move, we’ll find them a lot faster.”

  It took a real effort of will for Geary to pull his attention back from the shuttle search, not to turn immediately to the situation on Invincible, and instead to concentrate on the entire situation, the entire region near the fleet. “The suicide attacks were at least partly a diversion,” he told Desjani. “Maybe the boarding operation is, too.”

  She bit back an angry reply, thinking. “Maybe. I don’t see anything, though, and nobody can stealth a ship bigger than a shuttle effectively enough to keep it undetected by the sensors we’ve got. Nobody human, anyway, and I doubt the Dancers have shared their stealth tech with the Syndics.”

  The nearest visible ships were all Syndic freighters, and none of them were within half a light-hour of the Alliance warships. Geary took his time examining his display but saw nothing. “Captain Desjani, I want to watch what’s happening on Invincible.”

  “Sure you do. Lieutenant Castries,” Desjani called. “Keep track of how many hidden shuttles get blown away. I’m going to be watching everything else while the Admiral keeps an eye on that Syndic attack on Invincible.” She lowered her voice. “Go ahead. We’ve got it covered.”

  “Get my attention if you think you see anything—”

  “I’ve been fighting Syndics for more years than you have, Black Jack! I know my job!”

  “Yes, Captain,” Geary said. “I’m still learning mine.” He focused back on the situation aboard Invincible as Lieutenant Castries announced the detection and destruction of two more stealth shuttles.

  Invincible was by far the most important issue at the moment. Only there could another devastating blow be inflicted on this fleet if the Syndic boarding party could establish secure positions and threaten to destroy the ship from within.

  With only two companies aboard Invincible, the number of images of Marines he could monitor was relatively small. Half of those images were unmoving, as the units to which they belonged stayed hunkered down in defensive positions.

  But the others were moving. Geary picked one, tapping the image to get a view through the helmet of the Marine squad leader he had chosen.

  The window that popped open before him offered the same vision as the Marine had, complete with the symbology on the Marine’s heads-up display overlaid on the view of the dark, empty passageways on the Invincible. Geary felt an involuntary shudder as the memory of the Kick ghosts crowding those passageways came back to him.

  The Marine he was monitoring was nervous, too, her vision shifting rapidly around as she sought to see the invisible presences. But her voice stayed steady as she led her squad through the maze of Invincible’s passageways, the Marines pulling themselves along in the zero gravity aboard the ship. “Not too fast. They’re in full stealth. Watch for the indications. ’Ski, wake up and watch our six, dammit.”

  “I’m watching it, Sarge!”

  “Like hell.”

  The Marines pulled, kicked, and glided down one dark passageway to a junction, turned left there, floated up a ladder sized for feet and legs much smaller than humans’, then down another passageway. Familiar with the layout of the alien ship from their constant patrolling, the Marines could move with only occasional glances at the deck plans displayed on their helmet shields. “Watch it,” the squad leader warned. “The major says they’re in this area.”

  “Sarge! There’s something coming!”

  “I don’t have movement, Tecla.”

  “There. Look. Like somebody in stealth moving a lot faster than they should, bouncing off stuff.”

  “Got it. They’re coming our way. Watch for when they come around the corner.”<
br />
  But the unseen Syndic special-forces soldier didn’t come around the corner. Instead, the soldier must have been staring backwards while moving fast, because the corridor resounded with the sound of the Syndic impacting on the bulkhead when he or she failed to make the turn.

  “Got ’em!” one of the Marines yelled, firing.

  Shots glanced off something unseen, then the image of a human in battle armor appeared, and moments later a dozen shots riddled it before the Syndic could react.

  Geary rubbed his eyes, imagining what the Syndic had been running from. Kicks crowding around on all sides. Real ghosts or something generated by a last-ditch Kick defensive system or the structure of the ship as Captain Smythe had speculated? Whatever it was, it felt real enough to rattle anyone.

  He switched to another Marine squad leader who was approaching the decoy main engineering control compartment. The Marines were moving in rushes, several covering their companions as they pulled themselves forward, then those Marines in turn kicking off to fly ahead while the others covered them. It wasn’t the fastest form of movement, but when faced with invisible enemies, Geary could understand the need for it despite the urgency of the Marines’ reaching that compartment.

  The squad halted around the corner from the passageway holding the main air lock into the decoy compartment. The squad leader stuck the tip of one finger around the edge of the turn, the tiny camera in that finger providing a clear image of what was around the corner.

  Nothing, apparently. The air lock stood open. No one was visible.

  “Why’d they leave the hatch open, Sarge?” one of the Marines asked.

  “So we’d go in that way,” the sergeant answered. “Old trick. Leave an easy access to where someone wants to go and hope they’ll use it without wondering why it was left open. You’d be surprised how often people fall for it.”

  “What do we do, Sarge?”

  “Major?”

  Major Dietz answered the sergeant. “We need to get in there as quickly as possible, Sergeant Cortez. If the Syndics have nukes with them, one of those nukes is probably in there. They need to get overwhelmed fast.”