Jenny added, “We just have to raid a couple centers that aren’t next-door to us. That downed ship has caused enough heat. We had our third low-level flyover by a Karthian scout this morning.”
Johnny looked at Mace. “We don’t have much time if we’re gonna do this. The Karthians may start moving our people out any day now.”
Mace gestured toward the shuttle. “Let’s go collect a few mini-reactors.”
Bontu Montak volunteered a team of four Mawga to assist with the reactor removal. The Royal Fortune was soon in the air, settling beside a community center in Mexico City.
The target building, a small factory now being used by the Karthians to produce packaged meals, sat largely empty as the center had been repurposed for training Human soldiers. A single Karthian guard was subdued and the mini-reactor removed. Two additional buildings at the complex were hit before the Royal Fortune moved on. Seven hours later, the shuttle returned to Organ Cave.
Holo-projectors were taken from a dwindling supply. The reactors were then painted with the gatrellium coating. Testing of the units followed, with all sixteen being certified as ready by Jeff Moskowitz and Gnaga Klept.
Jeff said, “We added the bits that should allow the unit to go critical. In addition, Gnaga has added a two-liter hydrogen store to each. When the unit goes off, the store will be fractured, giving ample fuel for a sizable explosion. This device would have the power to fully demolish a cruiser. The battlestations are quite large, but an explosion of this sort should easily take them offline for quite some time. They would no longer be an issue in the coming fight.”
“How do we set them off?” asked Johnny.
“Gnaga installed a comm device on each. They only listen, so there’s no worry of the comm giving the unit away during a sensor sweep. When the unit receives a message with the text ‘revengeoftherogers,��� a second or two later there should be a sizable hole in the interior of the battlestation it’s located on. You will want to be well clear of it at that time as it could set of larger secondary explosions if the hydrogen stores on those stations are breached.”
Mace picked up a unit. “Twenty-five kilograms? A good one person lift. Good job, Doc.”
Jeff nodded. “Twenty-six point four to be exact. We could work over the design and trim off a few kilograms, but we thought it unnecessary.”
Johnny said, “Let’s get ‘em aboard and get ‘em out there.”
Mace looked around the room. “Jenny, I’d like you to pilot for us. We have room for eight. That’s myself, Johnny, Mr. Crawford, Mr. Hobbs, Mr. Mallott, Mr. Mueller, Brad Johnson and Neil Franks.”
Johnny laughed. “Johnson and Franks.”
Jane sighed as she shook her head. “You are such a juvenile sometimes. Mace, what’s with the all male crew carrying this out?”
Mace replied. “Pick up the unit.”
Jane looked down, squatting before lifting it up.
“You feel secure? Think you can carry that for as much as a kilometer? Feel good about being able to dodge someone coming at you down a hall without banging it into a wall?”
Jane scowled. “With the exoskeleton built into this suit… I feel fine.”
“How about this: you come along as a backup; Jenny will drop each of us on a station. If someone calls for help, she can drop you on that station to respond.”
Jane shook her head. “Big problem with that scenario. We aren’t gonna be using any comms. They’d give us away. So here’s what I’ll do. I’ll ride out with you and then I’ll stay on the shuttle. If something does break out, I’ll be there for help.”
Mace laughed. “That’s what I just said. Of course we aren’t using comms. But if the situation warrants it, we do want to bring our people home. I do like the idea of you being there to assist. Anyone else have any questions or comments?”
No replies were returned.
Mace gestured toward the shuttle. “Let’s get these units aboard and ready to use.”
A return flight was made to Molingrad. One by one the eight stealth soldiers of the renegade Human resistance carried their reactor units onto the Karthian battlestations. Mace was the last to be dropped off.
Jenny said, “Keep it clean and be careful. I’ll be back here in exactly two hours for a pick-up.”
Mace nodded and smiled just before his holo-projector flipped on. In an instant he disappeared. The Royal Fortune moved into a docking bay. When the coast was clear, the rampway was lowered just enough for Mace to hop down to the deck. The ramp closed and the shuttle departed.
Mace Hardy, carrying the twenty-six kilogram reactor-bomb, slowly began to make his way down a long hallway toward the interior of the giant station, dodging personnel. As he came closer to the end, a balcony-way came into view that looked down on a room covered with rows upon rows of racks, a klaxon style alarm sounded.
The hallway was suddenly filled with Consortium soldiers, rapidly deploying to one station or another. Mace ducked into an alcove as the mayhem erupted. Two Consortium officers stopped just to the left of his location. The language used was unrecognizable; the officers, as well as all the personnel on the station, wore battlesuits with shielded helmets. Other than their unusually tall, thin frames, they appeared as most of the other bipedal species Mace had encountered.
Forty seconds after the alarm had sounded, it again went silent. The officers conversed for several seconds before turning and cordially walking back toward where they had come from. Evidently the alarm was nothing more than a drill.
Mace checked the translation algorithm running on his arm pad. It read 33 percent.
Several minutes later the foot traffic in the hallway had slowed to its previous pace. Leaving the device on the floor of the alcove, Mace took the opportunity to observe from the balcony. Without enabling a comm broadcast, a comm check was performed to see if the signal needed to detonate the device would have sufficient strength. It did.
Mace stood at the balcony rail, looking down over the rack room. Looking back, he had passed four major bulkheads. His confidence was high that he had reached a sufficiently interior portion of the ship. A short search located a nearby storeroom. The device was carried in and deposited under a number of storage crates. A long walk had him back in the docking bay awaiting pick-up.
As the two hour mark approached, two Consortium workers stopped in the middle of the bay. Their conversation continued as the two hour rendezvous came and went and no sign of the Royal Fortune could be seen. Five minutes after the appointed time, the two workers continued on their way. The shuttle ramp popped into view as the workers rounded a far corner. Mace was quickly aboard, flipping his faceshield open.
Jane said, “You’re sweating.”
Mace nodded. “Yeah, that was a bit nerve-racking. The suit couldn’t keep up with the cooling. Where’s everyone else?”
“They missed their pickups,” said Jenny. “We have to go around again in two hours. With those goofballs standing out there on the deck I thought we were gonna miss you, too. You get it deployed?”
Mace smiled. “Deployed and hidden. I took it through at least four bulkheads. When it goes off, the deep interior of that station should have little left. It looks as though it’s near some kind of storage facility. For what I’m not sure.”
Mace continued: “They ran a drill as I was carrying it in. Lasted all of forty-five seconds. I was sure I had been detected. The hallway I was in filled with people hurrying to get to somewhere. I got lucky and was able to duck to one side.”
Jane said, “Yeah, about those people, they aren’t bios.”
“What? They’re bipeds just like most everyone else. Taller than the others but still similar. And I have them speaking. Have a 78 percent lock on their spoken language now. Was thinking of asking you to take me back until I could get a full lock.”
Jenny shook her head. “No need. We’ve already got it. And as she said, they aren’t bios. They’re machines. AIs.”
Mace chuckled. “AIs? They can
’t all be that. There’s too many and they seemed too individualistic for that.”
“That entire station showed zero full-size bios. We got the same from the others. I went back and checked your scan logs from your first visit out here. No signs of large bios then either. Looks like the Consortium may be made up of androids.”
Mace sighed. “It just keeps getting better, doesn’t it? Were you able to gather any data from the planet?”
Jenny nodded. “First thing we did when we dropped you off. If we count comm indicators, they have close to a billion down there. Our little assault force is going to be drastically outnumbered.”
Mace sat in a chair. “Well, let’s get the others rounded up and get back. We’ll want to pay a few more visits to the Karthian ships to see if we can gather any more info from there. I did overhear them talking about fighting drones. Wasn’t sure what that meant at the time. Could just mean Consortium soldiers.”
The other seven stealth spies were collected on the second trip around. A run on the remaining eight battlestations went smoothly���all reactor-bombs placed and secured. After a short ride to free space, a jump was made back to Earth.
Chapter 9
*
Having just finished breakfast, Mace sat on the steps of the porch at the gift shop with Jenny. “Think this will ever be over?”
Jenny shrugged. “Don’t know. Not really going in our favor at the moment.”
Mace laughed. “That’s an understatement. An alien species is about to march a third of our people off to fight a war with some androids. Speaking of that, from what I saw they acted almost like any other species we’ve encountered. They were definitely patterned after bios. You have to wonder who built them.”
Jenny said, “I suppose once we invade we may find some of that out. One thing that’s been bugging me though: if the goal is to invade and attack down on the surface, how were the Karthians planning to get past those stations? You couldn’t just rush past and land. They could hit your ship any time from the moment you entered orbit all the way down to the surface. Something about this assault doesn’t seem right. I think we’re missing pieces of the puzzle.”
Mace replied, “Every community center we’ve been to has the same directive. Attack the cities.”
Jenny nodded. “While that’s true, we’ve barely scratched the surface when it comes to covering the community centers. What if all the ones in Asia, or in some other locale, what if they were being directed to assault those battlestations? We don’t want to be blowing up our own people.”
Mace put his hand on top of hers. “If that’s the case then we just make sure we blow those stations before our people get there. Otherwise we hold off, because those stations will obviously be cut out of the fight for the surface if they’re being invaded.”
Jenny took a deep breath. “I suppose.”
Mace said, “My bigger concern is, when are we gonna have another picnic?”
Jenny chuckled. “Just like a guy. We’re talking about war and you try to suddenly switch the topic to romance. Always working the angle for your one-track mind.”
“Is it working?”
Jenny smiled. “It’s not… not working.”
Mace leaned in for a kiss.
Johnny clomped up onto the porch. “Please, get a room already.”
Jenny pulled back and sighed. “Good morning, Johnny.”
Mace said, “Don’t you need to change the oil on the shuttle or something?”
Johnny laughed. “Nope. We have lifetime oil on there. Anyway, I was thinking, when this invasion starts, what are we going to be doing? Do we board ships? Do we go down and assist on the surface? Sit back and watch? What?”
“That’s what we have to figure out between now and then.”
Johnny said, “I would almost lean toward the ground assault. If we attack a ship, who’s to say the Karthians don’t then start shooting at it? Whatever we do, we can’t coordinate with them. We’d be giving ourselves away.”
A second shuttle suddenly appeared in the field. The ramp lowered and Jasper Collins walked out. Seconds later, he stood in front of the porch steps.
“That gatrellium paint is a wonderful thing. Had we had that earlier, we could have pushed these Karthians out of the galaxy. As it stands now, though, we don’t have enough ships.”
Johnny said, “You sure got that shuttle converted fast. You couldn’t have done much testing on it.”
“We did enough. What’s the topic of discussion this morning?”
Mace said, “We were just thinking about how we might contribute when the fighting starts.”
Jasper hopped onto the porch, settling into his rocking chair. “If you count the smaller ones, there are eleven hundred of these community centers in the U.S. alone. Each of those centers will be putting up anywhere from one to four brigades of first-liners. I looked over the data you collected for Molingrad. There are fourteen thousand cities of various sizes on that planet. We don’t have fourteen thousand brigades. The Karthians must have some ordered plan in the works for who assaults what. We need to get a hold of that plan.”
Mace nodded. “We could do another spy run with that as our goal. We’ll have to do it fast, though. We expect them to start moving troops any day now.”
Johnny said, “We aren’t doing anything right now. Should I gather the others?”
Mace replied, “I’d say yes. We may not have much time. Have everyone meet at the shuttle.”
Jenny smiled. “I guess this means our morning date is over?”
Mace stood, holding out his hand to help her up. “Once the fighting is done, we’ll take up where we left off.”
The team stood in front of the shuttle ramp.
Mace said, “Our mission today is to find out the full battle plans of the Karthians. Get with the brigade commanders and follow them up the chain of command. You might have to make several ship hops to get any information. All I ask is that you be mindful of the Karthians pulling out. We don’t want to get trapped on their command ships when we have no private way to communicate. So keep on your toes. We’ll be hitting the bigger centers this morning as they are more likely to have higher level people connected to them.”
Jasper said, “I have six of my people with me. Where do you want us?”
Mace replied, “I want you back at the Alpha where you can finish upgrading your fleet. We’ll use the Organ Cave as our command ship once the hostilities start.”
The Royal Fortune, piloted by Johnny Tretcher, lifted through the projected image that surrounded the complex and was soon depositing spies at the major community centers. The Army Ranger was dropped near the center at Boston.
A shuttle ride with the colonel had Mace Hardy on the command ship of the regional admiral, Pans Lukra. A second shuttle ride placed him in the company of the North American Karthian commander, General Flax Flox, who reported directly to the Karthian military council.
Flox greeted the admiral with a bow. “Lukra, I take it we are ready?”
The admiral nodded. “Twenty-five hundred brigades, six thousand battalions, as requested. And they are very much prepared, sir. I would add that I’m glad it isn’t our troops going up against them.”
“If all goes well, the Consortium citizens will soon be our troops as well.”
The admiral pulled back. “Sir?”
The general smiled. “The treaty we will be pressing for is one where the Consortium is eventually forced to join with us fully. And when that happens, imagine an army of those android drones attacking wherever we wish. If an android is killed we only need to replicate it. No more training conscripts or having to deal with unrest.”
Lukra replied, “The AI���s are foolish. They control vast resources and have the power to grow their force by billions. They aren’t bad fighters. With a bit of reprogramming they could be so much more.”
Flox said, “Yes. Whoever created them are fools. Such an asset, and yet each is made to be an individual. Imagine
what the hive mind of a billion androids could accomplish. I suppose we should be thankful they are programmed the way they are. They’re machines, and yet they have no direct links to each other besides the standard comms as we have. As machines, why the need to act as individuals?”
Lukra shook his head. “I don’t understand why our scientists can’t design our own android army.”
The general scowled. “The brain controlling those machines is still too complex for our people to understand. We’ve studied it for years. Every attempt to replicate it has been an abject failure. The android soldiers we created were either too docile or too aggressive to be controlled. Or just too dumb to be effective. We need access to the labs on that planet and the factories where they are being manufactured. That is the primary goal of our mission at Molingrad. We’ve trained the Australian force with the purpose of securing those facilities without causing damage.”
The admiral smiled. “We are only days away from making Karthian history, General. The lessons our children’s offspring will study will have great names in them such as Flax Flox and Pans Lukra.”
An aide interrupted with a message. “Important communiqu�� from Terrex, General.”
The general nodded as he opened a comm channel to the incoming message. After several minutes of watching, the general turned with a smile of his own.
“Such a weak response. The Consortium has attempted to use an electromagnetic storm weapon against Terrex. With the wormhole device, our ships were able to jump immediately to the source and destroy it.”
“Was there any damage?”
The general shook his head. “Only minor so far. However, those waves will continue for another month. Command has postponed our raid for a few days as systems are evaluated and brought back online. There is also an effort to move a blocking field into the path of the waves. Doubtful as to whether they will be able to cover a large enough area to stop it all.”
The admiral said, “That weapon was used to bring this planet to its knees.”
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