The Syracuse Deception

by T. S. Williams

  The ex-Palantine gestalt’s intention was to strike at all the Atlantis / Vespin bases, infecting any biologicals and technology found. With less resources than intended, the gestalt would have to direct its Lakedaemon lieges to work in stages. First infecting Cloud base, then striking again deeper.

  Far below, on Cloud base itself, unaware of the impending threat, Magnus felt disconnected. He had no official status on the station. With Dreadnought receiving a refit, he had no duties to attend. Gregory Jones had taken his flight department to enjoy Sharp’s Havoc, along with Armstrong and the Paras. Cartwright and Heisenberg were helping with Frankenstein’s extensive refit. Magnus didn’t want to have any more interaction with Hecate and her Lakedaemians than necessary.

  He’d retreated to one of Cloud base’s beautiful green-domes, spending his days strolling across kilometres of perfectly tended parkland and pondering the mystery of his new environment. Cloud base clearly shared an origin with White Spire city back home on Avalon. It was well secured. It had a huge capacity to support human life and there was no trace of Blight infection. So why had Cloud base been abandoned for the Laurentians to find much later?

  Humanity experienced a second dark age twelve hundred years ago. The Exodus from Earth and the First Blight destroyed hundreds of years of technological and cultural progress. The grim survivors colonized what habitable planets they could find. Lucky colonies had found unlighted examples of golden-age human technology.

  Laurentians counted themselves as amongst the luckiest of the new colonies. Their ship had arrived in the Laurentian system and discovered the twin Earth-like worlds of Avalon and Albion. Then like a lottery winner who just kept winning, the early Laurentians had discovered White Spire. As the colonists made orbit they found what looked like a close orbiting moon was actually a mammoth spaceport, connected down to the main surface city by an implausible orbital tether. The Laurentians found themselves inheritors to the advanced knowledge of their ancestors.

  White Spire asked more questions than it answered when the early Laurentians discovered their first ally in the abandoned but intact city. The Muses, enigmatic but friendly artificial intelligences, had riddled the city like tombstones for a lost society.

  Now here in Vespin’s atmosphere, within the star kingdom’s own borders, was another extraordinary example of the ancestors’ work. A question kept churning through Magnus’ mind. If those ancestors could build White Spire City on Avalon and the Vespin Cloud base, what killed them off but left their works intact?

  The Blight corrupted everything in its path, biological or technological so it had to be something else.

  Magnus walked on steadily, his feet following the rhythm of his thoughts. In the centre of the dome, he came to the great lake. He had come to enjoy a swim in the warm waters. The day before, he’d discovered a multitude of fish lived in the protective depths. Watching them flit back and forth had drawn his mind away from unsolved mysteries, but somehow he knew this peaceful interlude couldn’t last.

  Chapter 25

  After his swim, Magnus set off back to the Cloud base’s central column. It took him two hours on foot to get to one of Cloud base's transport tubes. Magnus wasn’t quite ready to go back to his temporary quarters in the central column. Instead he decided go watch the star dock. That way he could satisfy every Commander’s maternal instinct for his ship, when it was moored.

  Cloud base’s disc shape was a product of Vespin’s environment. The builders had wanted a permanent station hidden the depths of the atmosphere, so they settled on a holding the vast mass aloft like an ancient lighter-than-airship. The majority of Cloud base’s volume was taken up with a large doughnut shaped vacuum chamber, which provided lift. It doubled as safe harbour for visiting starships. Cloud base’s human inhabitants lived and worked in the central column. Her upper structure, sitting over the doughnut, comprised buoyancy trim tanks and a large terrarium park land, where Magnus had retreated to for some relaxation.

  The keystone ring ran around the top of the doughnut and now provided Magnus an excellent view the space dock through a section of transparent floor. He sat watching small craft fly to and from Dreadnought. Space dock lights reflected off Dreadnought's silvery hull, highlighting the repair remotes stalking her hull. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

  Magnus sighed wistfully. If he was sent back to Tor, he could use the security classification of Dreadnought's jaunt to taunt Mellor. Telling that little prick that he had insufficient clearance to know where Magnus had taken Dreadnought and what he and the crew had done would be mildly satisfying. But it was also possible that he’d never command another starship.

  Magnus felt a tremendous vibration run through Cloud base, followed shortly after by a lurch downward that left his stomach a metre higher in the air.

  By the time Magnus had recovered enough to look around he saw unidentifiable wreckage impacted against the bottom of the space dock and a hole in the upper surface. It had thankfully missed the central column, but not by much.

  The hole began to slowly close as Cloud base’s self-repair systems kicked in. There seemed to be minimal leakage from Vespin’s atmosphere, but Magnus couldn’t help but wonder how much buoyancy reserve Cloud base had lost.

  A second impact, lighter, drove Cloud base down again, shaking Magnus around badly. He couldn’t see much, but Magnus could see was a badly buckled set of inner doors that opened into the space dock.

  In Cloud base’s Operations room, the Lieutenant taking the watch stared at the main display in horror. The security feed from Ship Lock two showed the twisted, perforated hull of the Apollonius illuminated by flickering emergency lighting and stray power cables arcing. The Lakedaemon battleship Apollonius had slammed into one of Cloud base’s ship locks.

  The ruined battleship began to settle as parts of her hull never designed to carry her weight gave way. Cloud base’s self-repair mechanism began a desperate battle to re-establish a seal. The Lieutenant watched as human figures dropped out the Apollonius and began infiltrating Cloud base. They moved fast and were soon lost to his view. With so much damage in the area, the security systems struggled to track them all. The Lieutenant finally overcame his shock and called out “Sound a hostile boarders alert”. Messages flooded out of Cloud base’s mainframe into mind’s eyes across the station. Cloud base’s inhabitants reacted in a flurry.

  A few minutes later, Admiral Camperdown erupted into Operations like a volcano. “What the Devil’s going on Bigsby?”. The Lieutenant, for that was he, “Sir, this isn’t like last time. I haven’t touched the simulator software. This one’s real. We’ve been boarded”. Camperdown turned his angry glare to the main display he said “Oh Fuck!” a little louder than he intended. Camperdown followed much louder by “Get Major Sharp’s men moving immediately. Then get recon drones out looking for any more of the bastards”.

  Back in the keystone ring, Magnus picked himself up and ran for a transport capsule. He crossed the hundred metres of passageway at a sprint in less than 6 seconds, his mind’s eye gunned the cellular implants throughout his body, his muscles rippled with boosted strength. The capsule doors slammed behind him with a satisfying clunk, whisking him down towards Dreadnought. Magnus’ mind’s eye chimed with a number of alerts, hostile boarders, hull breaches, turbulence. They swarmed across his vision, thick and fast. Cloud base was hurting. The downside to a defence strategy based on stealth was that once you were found, it was too late to move to one based on combat potential.

  As the capsule moved Magnus towards his goal, his mind’s eye chimed, Camperdown called from Cloud base Operations, “Magnus, Dreadnought and Frankenstein will be flight capable in half an hour”. He paused and looked to his left off screen shouting “Yes, yes go now man”, then he turned back “I’ve got Cartwright and Llewellyn prepping both ships. There’s no point launching until the ships can fight”.

  Magnus looked concerned “I don’t think we have enough spacelift capacity to carry awa
y Cloud base’s population, Admiral”.

  Camperdown spat back “Don’t worry about that now. They may try and take the ships whilst they are vulnerable. Secure space dock”.

  Magnus could feel his feet itching as he stood in the transport capsule, waiting for it to arrive. He wanted to kick open the door and burst out to tackle the intruders. Instead he started arranging his defences. He sent a message to Armstrong telling him to gather as many paras as he could, kit them up and send them to hold the airways leading to Dreadnought and Frankenstein.

  Next, he directed his mind’s eye to open a channel to Dreadnought directly. Thankfully Heisenberg was already in CIC. “Hello Skipper, we’re spinning up the Casimir Turbines now, thirty-two minutes for flight, one hour twenty for combat, interstellar in four hours” she paused in frustration “We’re running off station power for now”.

  He responded “Very good Heisenberg, anything you can do to shave off time, do it”. He paused despite not needing breath when he spoke via his mind’s eye, “As a matter of extreme urgency, seal up the ship’s hangar and set barricades at airways”. Magnus paused, his mind galloped ahead, “I want combat suits and weapons for me and three Paras waiting at the barricades when I get there. Rig the ship’s hangar for life support, just in case we have to evac the station”. Magnus wracked his brain for anything he missed “And keep an eye on the attackers. If troops try crossing directly through space dock, burn them down with the maser turrets”. Magnus signed off without waiting for acknowledgement.

  His mind’s eye made the final call to Corporal Armstrong “Jack, how long to get you and the lads to Dreadnought’s forward air lock?”.

  “Skipper, we’re already on way. ETA zero-five-mikes” Armstrong confidently replied.

  “Good, there should be combat kit at the scene when you get there. I’ll arrive a little after you”.

  The transport capsule dropped Magnus off at the top of the central column. He had to change there for tubes down to the space dock. Unsurprisingly, these were in heavy use. He managed to find space on the third one that went passed, all the while his frustration built. The situation report running through his mind’s eye showed that Major Sharp was quick off the mark. He was already deploying his Para Regiment to counter the Lakedaemon force. What little security footage Magnus had accessed showed Imperial Soldiers boiling out of Apollonius like angry wasps. Even for Paratroopers, containing the intruders would be difficult.

  After what seemed like forever, Magnus reached Dreadnought’s airway level. He took off at a sprint and arrived at hastily extruded barricade thrown up inside Cloud base to cover the airway. He was just in time to see Armstrong, Lincoln and Thresher finishing kitting up.

  Chief Gunner Sarah Bryant and Able Telemetrist Kelly Devon were controlling access to Dreadnought’s forward air lock. Bryant and Devon stared out at their kill box. With combat suits and tightly grasped maser carbines, the pair looked like they could hold the Hot Gates by themselves. Bryant had posted two more ratings to cover Dreadnought’s stern airlock. As she saw Magnus approach she called out, “Skipper, CIC don’t need no Gunnery Chief. When the guns don’t work, an Officer ’ll do. Gonna do some hunting with this pop gun” she waved her maser carbine emphatically in the direction of his kit.

  Magnus nodded “Nice work, Chief”. He stripped down without a second thought, though he did notice a subtle glance back from Devon. Magnus popped an air regulator over his nose and mouth, then let the combat suit’s base layer flow over his body. In a hurry, with sweat on his skin from running, it itched chronically. As soon as the base layer sealed, Armstrong began methodically seating armour plates on it. He finished by hanging a smart missile magazine and thruster pack on his back. Lincoln handed Magnus a gauss pistol which he holstered on his right thigh plate. Magnus then picked up a maser carbine in his right hand and grabbed his psy-blade with his left.

  His heart should have been racing with unusable adrenalin right now. But his mind’s eye was ahead of his body. The implants in his brain cancelled fight or flight nerve impulses for now, leaving him feeling artificially calm.

  Magnus used his mind’s eye to recheck the Station’s situation. The new knowledge downloaded directly into his sub-conscious. Major Sharp’s 95th Paras had brought the initial breakout to a halt. Heat scans of the invading force bore a weak but familiar signature. Magnus could only hope Cloud base had up to date Blight countermeasures, or this fight was already over.

  Two timers popped up in the peripheral his mind’s eye, count downs until Dreadnought was ready for flight and combat. Magnus tried to open a channel to Frankenstein, but instead of the smooth connection, an unable to connect message popped up.

  His mind’s eye could still get through to Bryant, so he said “Chief, see if CIC can scare up any drones to thicken your defences here. I’m going to check on Frankenstein”. He signalled for the three paras to follow him, then moved off fast towards the Frankenstein’s berth.

  After a few minutes, the party of four got within sight of Frankenstein’s airway. She appeared intact but he still couldn’t get a connection. He saw two figures in Imperial armour outside one of the airlocks allowing access and his heart almost dropped. If they had advanced this far into the station this fast, the attack was over before the Laurentians could even fight back. When he recognised the markings as Admiral Hecate’s personal guard, the Hippeis, the relief was exquisite.

  A channel opened to his mind’s eye “Commander, it is I, Ypodekaneas Andreou” he paused, unfamiliar with reporting to a Laurentian Officer, even one that saved his life. “Your Lieutenant Cartwright gave us a comms unit to speak with your forces. It is only good for line of sight though”.

  Magnus projected as much positivity as he could into his reply “Good to see you again, Andreou. Give me a situation report please, Ypodekaneas”.

  The stoic Lakedaemon continued “As I left the CIC, Lieutenant Cartwright was arguing with a Sub-Commander Llewellyn about how quickly the ship could be brought to readiness. My Admiral ordered him taken off the ship, carried if necessary. She mentioned broken limbs were also acceptable”.

  Magnus was starting to feel this conversation was a bit like pulling teeth “Where is Llewellyn now?”.

  “He ran off to report us to Admiral Camperdown” Andreou said flatly, though Magnus suspected the tone hid a lot of derision.

  Magnus sidestepped any further interaction with the Hippeis “Very good Ypodekaneas, don’t let me get in your way”.

  The reply was in the same flat tone “You won’t”. There was a disrespectful pause before Andreou added “Sir”.

  Magnus walked over to the airway panel, placed a glove against it. Contacts in his fingers connected to the hard-wired network. His mind’s eye reported a successful connection to Frankenstein’s CIC “CIC, the is Dreadnought Actual. Sit-rep please”.

  Cartwright appeared on screen, sitting at the XO’s post “Skipper, good to see you” she sounded flustered “I’ve borrowed some crew from Heisenberg. Now we’ve got rid of some distractions, I should have Frankenstein ready for flight in fifteen minutes, and combat, fifty minutes after that”. She paused to glance over her displays “Interstellar should be up in three and a half hours”.

  “Have you got all the Lakedaemians onboard?”, Cartwright looked a little confused, Magnus paused while his brain caught up “I mean friendly Lakedaemians”.

  Her answer came back “Yes, Skipper” then she added “The Admiral helped clear the decks of any unnecessary personnel”.

  “Carry on. When you have the time, see what you can do to boost Frankenstein’s life support capacity. We might have to evac the station in a rush. I want to take as many as possible” he paused then as an afterthought add “Also, see what you can do to get wireless comms back”. As he said it, Magnus couldn’t help but imagine a harassed Lieutenant Cartwright sarcastically volunteering to stick a broom up her arse so she could sweep the decks too.

  He took his hand away from the airway panel and
turned to run. In the corner of his vision, maser turrets on both Frankenstein and Dreadnought deployed up through their armoured hulls and swivelled to acquire targets. The beams burned outward, fluorescing through the gases that had leaked in from the Apollonius’ attempt to force entry earlier. Human shapes vaporised in the beams’ path.

  Magnus didn’t like being out of contact with Cloud base Operations. The Laurentians couldn’t work together against the intruders without communication. His mind’s eye opened a private channel to Armstrong, Lincoln and Thresher “The ships won’t be ready for a while and we will need direction from the Admiral. Let’s see if we can sort out Comms”. Thresher grinned “No! Let’s go looking for trouble”.

  Chapter 26

  Major Harrison Sharp was ruthlessly exploiting his unit’s local knowledge for tactical advantage. He shut down the transport connections with the outer rim. As the senior Paratrooper on the station, he had the authority to do that during a boarding alert. He didn’t need Camperdown’s permission. That man was a Fleet spook and knew it. Fighting boarders was Sharp’s job. After years of inaction and tedium, this opportunity for blood was nectar from the gods, if you believed in them.

  The intruders had made one hell of a surprise landing. Riding a million tonnes of battleship through Vespin’s atmosphere to an uncertain collision took big brass balls. But now, Cloud base’s internal structure started to benefit the defenders. He’d set up a forward command post in the keystone ring. Sharp could look down into the space dock and see ship lock two which the Apollonius occupied like an unwanted salesman jamming his foot through the front door. Sharp ran the layout through his mind’s eye, his subconscious absorbing the details.