AMP The Core

by Stephen Arseneault

  Cominsky sat down next. “Fill me up, Chief!”

  I connected the tether and waited patiently as the BGS suit took half again as much bio-gel as my own. “Here’s your packs and helmet. Go see the sergeant.”

  Cominsky stood with a smile as the gel filled the remaining crevices on his body. “Hmm. Interesting.”

  After the final two suits were filled with bio-gel, I joined the others as York began to explain how to use the HUD. “Commands can be posted through eye movements or audio. For audio, just speak the command you want. For eye movement, look at the command in the HUD and wink to perform the action. You will find the sensors are pretty forgiving and will recognize squints as well as winks once you have trained the helmet computer.”

  Cominsky spoke. “Weapons. What will we be using for weapons?”

  York smiled. “You have two choices. Well, really three, but I will get to that in a minute. On your left hand, you have a standard ion blaster. A little less power than ours, but adequate. On the right hand, you have a new weapon. It’s a mini coil gun that shoots out these tiny tungsten pellets at about half the speed of light. They pack a big punch, but you do have a limited number of rounds available. I believe it’s about three hundred, if I’m not mistaken. It’s listed on your stats screen.”

  Cominsky raised his hand. “You mentioned a third?”

  York nodded. “This is not a real weapon, but it can be used as one. The suit you are each wearing has a sodium skin on the exterior. Doesn’t look like much, does it?”

  York continued, “In your command set, you will find a trigger for activating and deactivating what is called an active skin. When the skin is activated, a high-magnetic field is used to stop the spin of the electrons in that thin sodium layer. Due to the miracle of physics, once active, the exterior of your suit will not interact with anything.”

  Frost raised her hand. “What exactly do you mean by anything?”

  York shook her head. “Keep your panties on, Frost. I’m getting to that.”

  Frost looked down at her waist. “I don’t have any panties, Yorkie. Kind of feel like I’m at home.”

  York again shook her head. “If you are done, Frost, we have work to do here. Now, anything with physical properties as we know them, both mass and energy, is absorbed by this sodium layer, passed around the exterior of the suit, and expelled on the other side. A light ray will appear to go right through you. An ion bolt will pass through you, and even a metal object like this pipe will pass through you. I’ll demonstrate.”

  York handed me the metal pipe and gestured for me to swing it at her. As the pipe came around, York blinked out. The pipe swung through her position as if she wasn’t there. When the pipe was back at my side, York blinked in with her hands out to the sides with her palms pointing up.

  York spoke. “Ta-da! Now, the cool thing about that was, even though you couldn’t see me, I could still see you. Mr. Grange’s hand and that pipe passed around me without effect. Which leads me to the third weapon. Mr. Grange, if you could, hold that pipe out to your side.”

  As I held out the pipe, York again blinked out. As she blinked back in, her fist was positioned where the center of the pipe was. The remaining end of the pipe fell to the floor.

  York continued, “If you occupy the same space as a physical object when you turn the active skin off, the physical object will be displaced. It just vanishes, so please don’t ask where it goes, because we don’t know.”

  The next several hours were spent on training the new recruits. Frost was a natural at picking up the functions the BGS suit offered, while Cominsky struggled. Powell and Maxwell easily mastered the weapons, while they too struggled with the movement. As a final lesson, York demonstrated the reduced activation level of the sodium skin, which put the others at ease.

  Chapter 13

  Upon return to the quad, the others dispersed to go back to their units. I was once again on my own.

  A short while later, the Colonel came over the comm. “Grange, you are going to be working with me on trying to keep the Colossuns from landing on this planet.”

  I replied, “I’m all ears, Colonel. If you want to coordinate from there, I will follow your commands as best I can.”

  The Colonel continued, “If I was the Duke, I would mass that fleet between the planet and those Carions. We’ve created a kind of dead spot in our defenses there, as we want to try to funnel the attack through that point. We increased our gun mounts and positioned our men for the bulk of them coming right down that pipe. When the fighting starts, the Colossuns should naturally be drawn into the lower orbits of the dead zone. We will be waiting.”

  I brought the defense diagrams up on my holo-display. “What would you have me focus on, Colonel?”

  The Colonel replied, “The circular green lines on the diagram outline the funnel. Where I think your ship will be beneficial is around the perimeter of that funnel. Just keep circling and picking off everything outside of the outlined green area. I want a big flashing sign that says ‘Enter over here.’”

  I punched in the numbers for how quickly the Swift could turn while maintaining light speed. At the optimum speed, I would have one pass through the area every two minutes. I, and our high-orbit defenses, would concentrate on the ships outside the funnel, while the low-orbit guns and troops would handle the ships that chose to drop into our trap.

  As I lifted off to get in a few practice runs, an alert went out. The massive fleet was entering the Tresha system. I pulled up the tactical screens and immediately decided to take a shot at what had previously been the Duke’s ship.

  The Colonel spoke as I disappeared from his screens. “Tell me you are setting up as we talked about, Grange. We need that funnel to work, as our defense strategy is counting on it.”

  I replied, “Don’t worry, Colonel. I just thought I would take at least one shot at the Duke as they entered the system. I’ll be covering my area by the time the ships get there.”

  I pushed the throttle to full and quickly passed light speed as I scanned for the Duke’s cruiser. I set the target on the tactical display and let the ship’s computer do the rest. As I arrived at the fleet, the Duke’s cruiser and two destroyers were obliterated by faster-than-light tungsten rounds. Another four ships took heavy damage from the debris.

  As I turned back towards the planet, a warble came over my comm. “Tsk, tsk, Mr. Grange. Did you really think I would ride in the same ship that you found me on last time? Please give me a little more credit, Mr. Grange.”

  I threw my hands up in the air in disbelief. “What the—? How did you get on our comm channels?”

  The Duke responded, “Now, now. No need to worry yourself, Mr. Grange. Your communications are secure with me. I am only here as an observer. The Durians are running this show.”

  I attempted to raise the Colonel on the comm. If the Durians were truly in charge, we would benefit by targeting their ships first. The Durian command cruisers were easily identifiable. The Colonel would not respond.

  The Duke spoke. “I apologize for the communication issues, Mr. Grange, but I cannot allow you to use the information about the Durians against them. It just wouldn’t be fair.”

  I replied, “What kind of a sick, twisted game are you playing here, Duke! There are billions of lives at stake! Is this what you do for fun? Pit one species against another?”

  The Duke laughed. “Bravo, Mr. Grange! Bravo! It is called the game of survival, and the winner gets to continue to play!”

  I let out an angry sigh. “I am going to make you this promise, Duke. I am going to be there when we shut off your power for the last time. You picked the wrong species this time. You are going to be the one that loses!”

  The Duke let out his own sigh. “Ah, Mr. Grange. I do like the fighting Human spirit. You should, however, focus your energies on keeping your people alive. As far as your personal threats towards me, I have heard those same words a thousand times before. So, let’s focus on the task at hand. Relea
se that rage in your heart against your Durian foes. They are deserving of it, are they not?”

  I switched the tactical display to the funnel-shaped green outline diagram the Colonel had set up. With a handful of commands, the Swift was now set to continuously circle back into the area of interest, where the optimum number of ships would be targeted with each pass. The massive fleet did exactly as the Colonel’s team had envisioned.

  The battle commenced, with a heavy cruiser and one of its light destroyer escorts being my first victims. The Duke offered immediate congratulations for my well-selected kills. After my sixth pass, the Colossun and Durian ships began to focus their interests on the interior of the funnel. The Colonel’s strategy was working as planned.

  The Gonta fleet and the Carions were in a fierce battle of their own. The four great stations were not surrounded as the Gonta had planned, effectively cutting their firepower capabilities in half. The Durians had focused their efforts on a single station, the Orienta, with the Gonta fleet defending against the attacks against it.

  As the Swift circled for another round of tungsten death, I punched in the numbers to see how long it would take my glove BHD to slow me down from twice the speed of light, the speed at which the Swift circled. After the running of several scenarios of numbers, I came to the conclusion that the glove BHD was not a good option for traveling great distances or for traveling at great speeds.

  I again pulled up the tactical display, only this time, I punched in the commands required to bring the Swift to a stop on the edge of the target funnel area. I would exit the Swift in my BGS and then proceed to board the enemy ships as they presented themselves. The Swift would be programmed to continue with its circular attacks, with the added directive of avoiding any ships that I had boarded.

  On the next pass, the Swift came to a complete stop. I blinked out, and the active skin of the Swift shut down just long enough for me to slip outside. In an instant, it again went transparent and sped off. I powered up my glove BHD and headed for the nearest Durian ship. It was a destroyer that was more powerful than any cruiser we previously had in the Defiant fleet.

  As I moved towards the destroyer, the Duke’s voice came over my helmet comm. “Spectacular, Mr. Grange! I love to see leaders who think outside of the normal parameters. You continue to delight and amaze me, Mr. Grange! And to think, it was you whom I selected to have the Durian sell the enhanced ion drive technology to.”

  I changed the direction of the BHD glove and brought myself to a stop. “What? How did you know about that?”

  The Duke once again laughed. “Really, Mr. Grange. I just told you, I arranged for that sale. The Durian trader, oh, he was quite unhappy to part with a technology that his people had developed for such a small price, but this same trader had a propensity to make trades outside of the wishes of the Durian command, all for his own profit of course, so he was easily coerced into making the right decision when it came to selling the enhanced ion drive.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I always thought that trade was too good to be true. Who would have made such a deal to just some random buck Messenger in a sleazy spaceport? I couldn’t decide if the guy was in trouble or just stupid. How is it that you were able to pick me, Duke? That seems pretty far fetched.”

  The Duke sighed. “You really should give yourself some credit, Mr. Grange. You were selected to feed the technology back to the Humans. I will have to admit to being a bit perturbed when you initially kept it for yourself. However, as events unfolded and you began to take on the Milgari, pow! I got exactly what I was looking for! You have been the spark that once again ignited the spirit I saw in your species!”

  I turned back to the closest ship and continued towards it. “So, Duke, tell me how you were able to move every Human from one galaxy to another.”

  The Duke hesitated. “Hmm. Interesting, Mr. Grange. I am now curious as to how you know that. You see the fun I have with this game, Mr. Grange; there are always twists and turns that were not expected. I have been monitoring your movements to and from the planet Molov. Perhaps I should explore it further. Up until now, it has merely been an anomaly that I was unable to investigate. It seems that all of the agents I send to that planet do not return.”

  I replied, “We lost a fleet there ourselves. I’ve been making trips out there to look over the enormous fields of space debris for any tech that can help us.”

  The Duke chuckled. “If you say so, Mr. Grange. Either way, I will have to redouble my efforts to investigate.”

  I floated directly onto the bridge of the Durian destroyer I had targeted. The captain sat in his chair in the center of the room, barking commands at the massive holo-display that covered most of the forward bridge wall.

  The Durian captain spoke. “Bring us around, Lieutenant! Focus our shields forward! And someone get me a pattern fix on whatever is randomly destroying our ships!”

  I positioned myself directly behind the captain. With the officers seated behind his pedestal focused on their console screens, I took the opportunity to hold my fist out in the same space that the captain’s head occupied. I blinked in and out, leaving a gaping hole where the captain’s face and brain had once been.

  As the Durian captain slumped over slightly, I was surprised by the lack of a response.

  The Duke spoke. “Oh, Mr. Grange. How absurd! The Durian protocol is to not look directly at their captain. It is strictly enforced under penalty of possible death. I wonder how long it will take them before they realize that he no longer has a face? Oh, this is exciting! This is what war is all about, Mr. Grange!”

  As I moved back to a corner of the room, I replied, “You are one sick android, Duke. I will thoroughly enjoy pulling your plug.”

  The Duke moaned. “Mr. Grange, please don’t dwell on things that can never come to pass. You have so much work to do to save your people! Please, focus on what is most important to the both of us!”

  I fired a round from my coil gun into the power conduit that fed the Durian destroyer’s bridge. In the chaotic darkness that ensued, I sent repeated ion bolts into the Durian crewmen and the officers of the deck as they scrambled to determine what had just happened.

  I then turned my glove towards the rear of the ship, where its ion generators were pumping out the power that kept it under way and fed its weapons. I held my breath for a moment as I floated into the main energy storage well. The ion plasma was white hot, but my active sodium skin did not seem to care. I held up my left arm and let fly a tungsten round towards the front of the ship.

  A two-meter-wide hole was punched into the ion well retaining walls that held the energy in place. As I maneuvered back out into the internals of the ship, I could see a stream of ion plasma cutting its way through bulkhead after bulkhead. My visual display was filled with a light show like I had never before seen. The blue arcs of plasma coupled with the bright red and orange explosions of the surrounding materials were spectacular. With a single shot, the ion energy well became the destroyer of the Durian ship.

  As I moved back out into free space in search of another victim, the Duke spoke. “Impressive, Mr. Grange! I believe that, given the time, you could personally destroy this entire fleet!”

  I replied, “I’ve got the time, Duke. If you would be so kind as to just keep them in place for a while. Have them line up for me; might speed things up!”

  The Duke laughed. “As I told you before, Mr. Grange, I am only an observer.”

  I held out my fist and powered to the next closest ship. It was a Colossun troop carrier that was waiting for a clear path opening to set down on the planet’s surface. After floating through the transport hold and witnessing the thousands of troops waiting to be deployed, I had a twinge of guilt. These were lives, people; they had families, children, others that loved and appreciated them. They were soon to be the victims of war because fate had placed them on the wrong side.

  I moved into the small ion storage well on the carrier, turned, and did my deed. For an instant I
heard screams, bringing back that twinge of guilt. As I moved back out into free space, the carrier began to disintegrate from the charge well in the back going forward. Except for the certain loss of life, it was a spectacular event.

  York came over the comm. “How’s it going up there, Chief?”

  I turned towards a coming transport and replied, “The Swift is running on a program, so I decided to go ship to ship. What does the Colonel have you doing down there?”

  York laughed. “Same thing. Any ships that make it past the high guns, our BGS team is busting up as best we can.”

  As I neared the next victim, I spoke. “Try floating into the charge well and firing your coil gun towards the front of the ship. It makes for a fast, easy, and complete kill.”

  York replied, “Good to know, Sir. I will pass that along. Oh, one other thing; has the Duke been talking to you? Some crap about just being an observer and how he is so proud of us?”

  I shook my head. “I wondered if I was the only one he was messing with. Just don’t let him distract you from your mission, York. In fact, you should probably just ignore him.”

  York sighed. “I was, Sir. Until he said you had been killed. He says he suddenly lost track of you.”

  I entered the charge well of the transport and started another ship down the path of a fiery yet spectacular death. “Huh, well, maybe these suits make it difficult for him to track. Try not to contact me anymore, York. In fact, if he continues to bug you about it, tell him you can’t raise me on the comm. Let him think my time is over. He seems to have some fond attachment to me.”

  The next ship I approached was a Durian command ship. The long, almost completely blacked-out vessel was shadowing a much larger cruiser. As I moved closer, I took note of the small flashing icon on my HUD. “Deep Ultraviolet” blinked on and off continuously. I selected the Help menu and soon discovered that a special sensor in the helmet’s video circuit was the reason for the flashing icon. I switched off the DU amplifier, and the Durian command ship disappeared from my HUD.