A Deep Sleep (Valhalla Book 1)

by Tyler Totten

  Forty minutes later, Shadow bumped gently up against the hull of the space dock. The bump was so subtle that the inertial dampeners completely killed it, both for the station and the small stealth transport. Captain Kim only saw the results, her suit tied into the external cameras to see the transport latch itself to the hull. Special clamps with a fast acting glue bonded the ship to the hull of the station. The light above the door turned green.

  “Let’s go, keep it tight and move quick. I want all of you checking those corners. No rookie mistakes.” Sergeant Anabelle Hawkes yelled at first squad. “Get ready to move!”

  “Good to go, Sergeant. Good luck.” The crew chief told her.

  “Thank you, Chief.” Sergeant Hawkes switched to her suit AI only. “Activate the breaching protocol.”

  “Activating breaching protocol.” The annoyingly sultry electronic voice informed her. A shiver ran through the deck as the explosively-triggered plasma jets did their work. A moment after, with the station’s hull still cooling, a small ram pushed the cut section inward. “Activating cooling.” The AI announced as liquid nitrogen rapidly cooled the edges. Even before the nitrogen had all been dispensed, four grenades were launched from single shot launchers into the compartment. The first two were flash-bangs and the other two were high explosive. The flash-bangs detonated first, then an instant later the high explosives detonated.

  “Go.” Sergeant Hawkes ordered.

  The first fire team burst through the hatch and into the station. Captain Kim waited her turn, having located herself an appropriate distance back from the leading elements. She desperately wanted to lead from the front, but her order precluded such an assignment. She knew it was unnecessarily risky and irresponsible, but she couldn’t help but feel like she was sending good men to die while she remained safe. At least as safe as one could be in an active combat zone. She busied herself with listening to the reports as her fire teams secured the intersections and swept the compartments they encountered.

  “Resistance is non-existent. Two technicians have been detained and trussed in a storage room. We are proceeding towards the control room.” Sergeant Hawkes reported crisply. Captain Kim hadn’t worked with the sergeant long, she was a recent addition to the platoon, but so far Ava was thoroughly impressed. The sergeant got things done.

  “The platoon is all aboard. One fire team on drag, collect the rest as we go. Lieutenant Ramirez, you’ve got drag duty.” Ava ordered, hefting her rifle and advancing down the secured corridor. She still kept her rifle up and ready. Marines got killed when they got careless, veteran troops were no exception.

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  Lieutenant Commander Bill Sampson watched the plot, missiles inbound and approaching his tiny fighter. Indeed, the missiles were nearly the size of his fighter, carrying multiple nuclear warheads designed to gut large ships. Usually, Bill’s fighter carried shorter-ranged weapons with similar intent. Today, he carried a different payload. Today, he hunted the missiles.

  In all his time flying off Intrepid, Bill had never been tasked with anti-missile duty. Typically only a small subset of the fighter-bombers were, most used in their offensive role instead, leaving missile defense to Intrepid and her attending escorts. Admiral Harper apparently had other plans. As far as Bill could tell, the entire complement of fighter-bombers were outfitted in missile defense and they were positioned well ahead of the fleet. They were not as far out as they would be on a standard attack run, but still well beyond their friendly point-defense. Not that any point-defense was friendly once you were flying through it. Bill repressed a shiver. Too many bad memories there. He’d been in some very hairy battles in this war, often coming through with a number of kills. He even had a battleship painted on his fighter. Still, nothing had ever seemed quite as terrifying as being caught in your own point defense fire.

  “Approaching execution point. Arm all weapons. Transfer control to AI.” Commander Brady instructed, though all the pilots heard his reluctance. Pilots hated giving control to the AI.

  Bill tapped on his screen, yielding his fighter to computer control. The closure rate was too fast for human targeting. When attacking a large target, like a ship, human intuition and instinct played a role in the engagement. When shooting bullets with smaller bullets, it was all math. As he reached the execution point, his fighter subtly adjusted its thrusters. If Bill hadn’t known better he would have sworn that the fighter had just thumbed its nose at him. He’d been on the right heading, or near enough for good target locks. He let the thought slip from his mind as the launch sequence began. Each of the fighters carried four-packs of sprint missiles, one on each of the six hard points. The short-range missiles were typically used for shipboard launchers, one of the last lines of defense before the missiles reached detonation range. Intrepid’s fighters had just put hundreds of them into space and the kills racked up quickly.

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  “Results on your board now sir. Looks like the fighter-bombers got to the missiles before they separated. Two leakers.” Johnson reported happily.

  “Thank you Lieutenant.” Athena smiled back at her. Athena had suspected that the tactic would work. That and she was unwilling to sacrifice any more lives than absolutely necessary. The war was over and she would expend as much ordinance as she needed to save the lives of a few of her people. The accountants could quibble over the cost later.

  “All ships are to prepare to fire. Recall the fighters, tell them job well done.”

  “Aye sir.”

  Two minutes later, DSF-1 fired more than two hundred missiles into space in two successive waves.

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  Czar Yakimenko walked quickly to the command center, the guards stiffening and presenting arms as he swept past without acknowledging their presence. He also failed to register the disdain on their face as he passed.

  “Report.” He commanded as he strode into the room.

  “Sir.” Colonel, formerly Captain, Sukin said curtly. Sukin had proven to be one of Pavel’s most fervent supporters. Pavel had to admit, the man was effective, despite his lieutenant’s failure to capture the Russian fleet in orbit last year. He tended to be more argumentative than Pavel would like, but he was also often correct. That tended to infuriate Pavel as well. Still, effective was effective. “Our pickets have detected a large American task force entering the system.”

  “We must destroy them, at once.” Pavel declared loudly.

  “Yes sir.” Sukin said sourly. “I’m afraid that this task force is substantially larger than our available assets.”

  “I think you underestimate the potential of our battlestation.” Pavel said haughtily. He didn’t see several military men behind him roll their eyes at that statement.

  “While powerful, sir.” Sukin began carefully. “It is effectively a fixed installation. The American task force is mobile and can engage it at favorable angles and times. Or it can avoid the station altogether and raid out outer systems, much as several other ships have already done.”

  “Is this not what the cruiser, destroyers, and other vessels are for? Did you not convince me to expend precious state resources on acquiring new engine assemblies for that very same cruiser so that it could be space-worthy again?” Pavel demanded.

  “Of course sir.” Sukin said carefully. “However, the cruiser has not been finished.” He didn’t mention that the orbital dock was all but lost and that they were tracking enough inbound missiles to put the station’s survival in question.

  I think it is time to move to Plan B. He thought looking about the room and noting that his men had taken up positions accordingly. Good, it is almost time.

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  “Heavy fire in the south corridor. I think they’ve got a tripod mounted gun set-up there.” Corporal Wi
nters reported over the comm. Captain Kim frowned inside her suit.

  “Fire a rocket down the hallway and clear them out, Corporal.” Sergeant Hawkes ordered. “But make sure you set it to minimal blast and fragmentation. Don’t want to open everything up to space.”

  “Yes, Sergeant.” He responded.

  Captain Kim waited, she liked to think it was patiently. They had swiftly secured most of the station, but the control room turned out to be much more heavily fortified. Her casualties had still been light, but their rapid advancement had turned into a slow slog. Even the cruiser had been taken easily, with just under two dozen engineers and yard workers aboard her. Ava had left a fire team in engineering and on the bridge before pulling the rest back to assist in taking CIC.

  “Sergeant Hawkes.” Ava commed the sergeant.

  “Yes sir?” Hawkes responded at once.

  “The control station overlooks the dock yard, yes?”

  “Yes sir it does.” Hawkes began but trailed off. “Yes sir it does indeed and if you don’t mind the air getting a bit thin, I think I’d take a walk outside.”

  “That is precisely what I was hoping you’d say. I’ll meet you at this airlock.” Ava pushed the location onto Hawkes’ map.

  “Uh sir, meet me there, sir?” Hawkes stumbled for a moment.

  “Yes Sergeant. I fancy a walk myself. Haven’t gotten a chance to stretch my legs for quite a while now.” Ava said, not backing down.

  “Yes sir.” Hawkes sounded somewhat dejected by it. At least she knows a losing battle when she hears one. Ava thought with a satisfied smile.

  Sergeant Hawkes beat her to the airlock in question and stood, managing to look uncomfortable even through her armor. Ava looked at the network tags of the fire team she had brought with her. They were all veteran RASATs, all with EVA combat experience. Good.

  “Shall we take a walk?” Kim gestured to the airlock.

  “Yes sir.” Hawkes responded.

  The six Marines made their way out the airlock and onto the hull of the station. Each was careful to hook a safety line to the rings outside the hatch, lest they accidently push off from the station and drift off into space. After making sure each was appropriately secured, Hawkes led the way across the outside of the station. The airlock they had exited was ‘above’ the control room, so they approached it from out of sight. As they reached the lip of the overlook windows, two of the Marines withdrew charges and linked their detonators together. After that they looked at the Sergeant and waited. Hawkes looked at Kim.

  “Do it.” She said. Hawkes motioned to the two Marines and they gently pushed their charges downward in front of the window. As the small computer brain detected the window and computed its position from dead reckoning, it calmly counted down the meters until it calculated it had reached the appropriate point. As it did so, a small vectored cold thruster pushed the charge against the thick ballistic window. As it made contact with the glass, the high-powered explosive jetted plasma cleanly through the window.

  Because the station was a civilian construction, not a military one, there was no blast door to close over the ruptured window. The two holes quickly vented the compartment to space. Additionally, since the window was rated at far beyond anything that the designers ever expected would hit the window, it was not normal procedure for the control room crew to be suited up. While there were suits and oxygen tanks, these would take time to put on. This issue was compounded by the fact that there were nearly as many Czar security personnel in the control room as operators, meaning that the oxygen masks were in short supply. It became a mad scramble for them, leaving the hatches out of the space unguarded. Captain Kim, watching through a fiber optic periscope, commed Lieutenant Ramirez.

  “Go.” The Marines burst into the room, shooting anyone with a weapon who didn’t immediately throw it away or raise their hands. A Marine did take the time to apply quick patches to the holes in the window, temporarily restoring integrity to the station and preventing the technicians and security personnel from suffocating as the rest of the RASAT bound their hands and herded them together.

  “Connect me to Admiral Harper.” Ava ordered her AI. When the AI indicated she was connected. “Admiral, the station is ours. Would you like to see how the repairs to that cruiser are coming?”

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  “Sir.” Sukin had known it would come to this. “The last of our ships have been neutralized.”

  “Do we have any missile platforms left?” Pavel asked, knowing Sukin had already told him they did not.

  “No sir. Those have all be expended.”

  “Very well. What will they do next?”

  “They will likely enter orbit, eliminate our remaining orbital sensors and communications. They have several options at that point, depending on their goals.” Sukin said, knowing that the Czar would likely not react well to what he was about to say.

  “And what might those options be?” Pavel’s voice was wavering between fear and anger.

  “If they simply want to punish us, they may simply bombard the planetary surface, targeting key installations like spaceports and this building.” Sukin gestured around. “If they intend to take the planet, the bombardment will be more restricted and then they will land troops to secure key locations and population centers. They will overwhelm us with troops in short order.”

  “We shall fight to the bitter end.” Even Pavel couldn’t deceive himself into thinking they could fend off a determined assault. “We will teach these American dogs how true men fight.”

  Sukin’s stun pistol responded first. Pavel only got out a short gargled scream before the high voltage took him down. He was left a quivering ball on the floor.

  “No sir, we will not.” Sukin placed a derisive emphasis on the ‘sir’. He motioned to the guards who had rushed into the room at the scream. “Place him in one of the cells and guard him. We need him alive.”

  “Yes sir, we’ll see to it.” The corporal responded.

  “Use whatever means necessary to make sure he stays alive. Shoot anyone you need to, anything. Do you understand?” He stepped in close to the corporal and placed a hand gently but firmly on his shoulder. Sukin’s voice was firm and insistent, but not angry or imperious.

  “Yes sir. No one will harm him.” The private responded this time. Sukin nodded and stepped back.

  “Now then, I need to be connected to the commander of the American incursion force.” Sukin announced as more guards loyal to him entered the room and took up positions both inside and outside the entrances. Sukin didn’t want to take any chances that someone would do something stupid. Several of the officers and technicians were still sitting in stunned silence. “Now people, before they begin bombarding the planet and kill us all!” He boomed angrily.

  “Yes sir, on it sir.” A logistics officer responded, stepping forward quickly and shoving the cowering technician away from the communications station. After about two minutes the officer turned back to him. “Connected with Rear Admiral Harper, sir. She commands the orbiting battle group.”

  Sukin nodded at the man. He would ensure this man was included in his bargain. “Admiral Harper, I wish to discuss surrender terms.”

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  Six hours later, Sukin assembled an honor guard in full dress uniform, the old Russian ones. He had selected the military base closest to the command bunker. While Sukin had purged all of the bases of those he did not trust, either assigning them to other commands or having them executed, this base had been the most loyal from the start. It helped, he supposed, that it had been the base he had commanded before taking over as the military commander of the system under Czar Yakimenko.

  Now he had arranged to surrender to a representative of Admiral Harper. He had been surprised to get most of the terms he had wished for. He and a list of men he had provided were to be immune from prosecution for previous offense
s in the system. He would remain the military governor of the system, having only to submit to annual inspections by an international authority to check for human rights abuses and the like. They were to have full and unquestioned access to the population. He was also being allowed to field a defensive military force, even being allowed to keep the cruiser in the dock. None of his military ships were allowed to leave the system for a period of not less than five years, with repeal after that subject to a review of his government. He could deal with that. In exchange, all he had to give them was Govenor Yakimenko and his associates. He noted that the American Admiral had consistently referred to Yakimenko as the Mister Yakimenko, not evening acceding to his former status as a regional governor. Sukin couldn’t help but approve. Of course, she had also insisted on a full investigation, to begin immediately with her onboard JAG personnel and a follow-up by the civilian authorities.

  At least I know I have surrendered to a competent and capable commander. Sukin reflected. He had seen her tactics in space and while not a sailor himself, his advisors who were had been very impressed. His reflection was interrupted by a small commotion behind him. He turned to see a six guards, also in dress uniform but equipped with stun batons and stun guns, leading twelve shackled men. In the lead with Pavel Yakimenko, followed by the only uniformed official in the bunch. Major Ilya Dubasov had been the commander of the ground garrison and Sukin’s superior under Russian control. He had joined with the Governor early on and even helped to suborn Sukin. He had, however, failed to prevent an assassination attempt from nearly claiming the new Czar. Sukin’s timely arrival had dispatched the last of the assassins and he had whisked the Czar away to safety. Of course, having known the timing of the attempt had helped greatly. Sukin had been very careful, using several intermediaries and killing two birds with one stone. The men he had indirectly hired had been several whose loyalty remained in question at the time. The Czar had declared on the spot that he had been promoted to colonel and was to assume command of all military assets. Major Dubasov had been furious, but Sukin was beyond his reach. He had turned his anger on the populace of the mining region he had been left in command of. Sukin had seen the reports and even he had felt pity for those people.