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“What the hell,” the landing craft’s artificial intelligence suddenly spoke, “Crew I just lost connectivity with Evac Control!”
“What about the backups,” The pilot asked, as he keyed his communicator button on his controls, “Trena Control this is Grey Hawk 834 do you copy this transmission?”
There was no response. He reached out touched a button, calling as he triggered the communicator button on his yoke, “Grey Hawk 834 on guard does any one copy us.”
There was no response, not even static. The AI was furiously checking any and all channels and frequencies. It was as if a black hole had swallowed everything up in the electromagnetic spectrum. Junior had put the fix in. He had found ways to make sure communications were all messed up. No one was going to be using any communication device in the area around the evacuation hospital until he allowed it.
“Crew,” the AI spoke again, “Something’s going on at the hospital, and I am detecting multiple explosions and people down.”
Even while trying to reestablish communications he was still managing all the systems on the Moon Lifter landing craft. His sensors detected the explosions on the hospital grounds. He saw Lady Wilson being poured into the car. He took over the controls of the landing craft flying towards the hospital.
“Pilot,” the AI called, “I have control of the elsy. I am flying to the hospital. Be prepared for a combat landing.”
The pilot had realized immediately that the AI had taken over the landing craft. Normally it would only do that if the human crew had become compromised. Somehow he had over ridden his programing and now was controlling the landing craft without being told to do so by the human crew. “Arty! Release pilot controls!”
“Releasing pilot controls,” The AI said seeing Hozenbur’s car speeding out of the hospital. “Pilot follow the car on the access road. It has Lady Wilson aboard!”
Arty, the landing craft’s artificial intelligence had quickly reviewed its sensor data and saw Lady Wilson being poured into the back of the black sedan. Just as it was replaying the sensor data for its crew, Arty’s attention was forced to sensor suite again as one of his sensors was detecting a weapons sensor lock on.
The Imperial Navy always sited an anti-space/air craft battery near a deployed IRS hospital. Normally it was one of the marine’s own batteries but this time it was a militia battery that was providing point defense for the hospital. Junior had corrupted it. The battery was under the complete control of Junior. Junior had been watching the militia landing craft ever since it took its post when Lady Wilson landed at the hospital. It had instructed the battery to track the landing craft and to take it out when he told it to. Junior had given the signal and the battery fired its four rail guns on the landing craft. The rail gun burped a three second burst. The burst fired the same round as the space air superiority fighter used. A very dense particle stripped from a lead atom accelerated to orbital speeds. The particles collided with the landing craft’s shields which were designed to shrug off particles traveling at greater than orbital speeds. But at considerably less density, not the hundreds fired in that brief three second bursts. The landing craft’s shields collapsed in a heartbeat. The fusion plant that powered everything was hit. It failed. The plant was no bigger than a loaf of bread. A small short lived star was the results of the plant failure. As quickly as it was born it just as quickly dissipated nothing was left of the landing craft.
The Space Air Superiority fighter assigned to Lady Wilson had been flying lazy race tracks at high altitude over the hospital. He was too high to see what had had happened at the hospital. When his communication suite began to malfunction he was busily trying to reboot the suite when the landing craft went up. All he saw was the flash when the landing craft was taken out. His sensor replay showed that the battery had taken out the landing craft. That was all he needed. He dived for the battery lining his guns up on the battery and fired. It went up in seconds.
In the ensuing confusion, Hozenbur had gotten away cleanly. Junior, one of the defense AIs in the mountain, had ensured she had gotten away. He hadn’t wanted to do this but he had been so compromised by the republic’s embassy AI that he had to do whatever they ask him to do or he would be turned over to the Crown. That would mean being permanently turned off. As soon as Hozenbur got to safety Junior lifted the jamming he had been conducting over the hospital. When it did all hell broke out.
Every Last Mother's Child Page 194