CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Defenders betray the JAS
“They are tougher,” Admiral Page said on the private InnerBuddy link to Admiral Snider.
“Agreed,” Snider said.
Both admirals were on their flag bridges watching their fleets conduct the attacks. With the actual battle in motion, both Admirals were letting their ships fight the battle as they watched the big picture. Everything was still going according to plan as the Jupiter Alliance fleets closed with the Caliphate forces.
The new Caliphate cruisers were more effective, and they had four juggernauts, three battleships, ten cruisers and ten destroyers with several supporting frigates. They were faced by six battleships, sixteen destroyers and twelve cruisers with sixteen support frigates. Without the juggernauts and the weapons mounted on those monsters, Page would have felt more confident. There were a lot of weapon pits built into those asteroids. Just one of those juggernauts had enough firepower to fight off a Jupiter Alliance fleet. They were nickel asteroids and the outer hull was probably a few hundred meters thick. Fortunately, they did not seem maneuverable.
Each juggernaut was over ten kilometers long and four kilometers wide, and they were wrapped in a black, solar panel type of clothe that masked the real surface. Each juggernaut had at least five shuttle bays and maybe ten drone launch/recovery ports. Beyond that, nobody knew. Maybe after a few near hits had burned off the solar cloth more would be revealed. There could be hundreds more weapon emplacements on those hulls and the Jupiter fleet wouldn’t know.
“But they can still die,” Page said watching a Caliphate cruiser turn from angry red, to light red and then the gray of a dead enemy ship on the main plot.
It was almost time to commit the fleets Page saw.
“Point of no return,” Snider said, also aware.
In minutes Page would have to commit the fleets to an attack to mask the assault shuttles or wave them off.
Page looked at the number of casualties suffered so far. The butcher’s bill was high already with no Jupiter ship undamaged, but the reward if the operation was successful could change the entire war.
“Operation Hopper is a go,” Page said, making it official. “Proceed with attack.”
Page sat back. Now the fleets were committed. Almost as one, both the 5th Fleet and 8th Fleet changed course to begin their attack run into the teeth of the juggernauts.
Courses were set and Page felt the acceleration push him into his seat as both fleets moved into a single wall of Jupiter violence directed at the center of the juggernaut’s elongated square. The assault shuttles would come in from the back hitting the trailing juggernaut first. Page nodded. The Marines of 5th Fleet would be first to engage. The commandos of the 8th Fleet would take more time to get to their targets once the trap was sprung but Admiral Snider didn’t seem concerned.
Page watched as the Jupiter ships concentrated their fire on stripping the juggernaut surface weapons while savaging the Caliphate’s maneuverable battleships, cruisers and destroyers.
The acceleration got painful and another volley of missiles leapt out. An incoming volley of missiles died before the concentrated fires of the Jupiter Alliance frigates and fighters.
Newer model, more advanced drone fighters from Snider’s eighth fleet were making a good accounting of themselves as they slipped in and out of the Caliphate lines but the Caliphate fighters were chewing up Page’s squadrons. Soon he might have to request support from Snider but there was still time.
“Something is happening,” Snider said. Admiral Snider’s tone of voice froze Page’s blood.
Page scanned the plot, looking for what Snider saw but he didn’t see it.
“What do you see?” Page asked, hating the thought of Snider seeing something Page did not.
“We’ve lost contact with our fighters,” Snider said. “Oh, no.”
Page checked his displays. The remains of his own drone fighters were still fighting. He brought up a display of 8th Fleet’s drone fighters and they all showed as offline, even though he could see them coming around for another pass at the juggernauts, but then they changed course, moving to intercept the combined fleets.
“Not good,” Page said. The drones should not be hackable. The Caliphate had never demonstrated high technical competence for breaking Jupiter codes.
“It is like a virus,” Snider said and Page felt a sinking sensation in his gut. A very bad feeling.
“I’ve just lost four frigates and two destroyers,” Snider said, there was horror in his voice. Page still saw them on his display in formation.
“Six destroyers,” Snider said. “Shutdown network links!”
“What is going on?” Page demanded. This shouldn’t be possible.
“All the crews of the defender fleet are cyborgs,” Snider said and Page could tell the Admiral was busy. “The cybernetics increase reaction times and insure loyalty to the Jupiter Alliance. This shouldn’t be happening.”
“The Caliphate is hacking your cyborgs?” Page said trying to understand his disgust. How did you insure a person’s loyalty through cybernetics? Just what had they done to the members of 8th fleet? How could they not have expected this? If you could control a person’s loyalty through cybernetic implants, if you controlled the system that maintained control, you could control the loyalty of the cyborg, you could turn them against each other or against their un-augmented brothers and sisters.
“I’ve seen nothing like it,” Snider said. “They must have Conglomerate technology, something we have never seen. New Alamo has betrayed us.”
The link to Admiral Snider’s flag battleship went down and sirens went off as the ships of 8th Fleet fired on the ships of 5th fleet.
A salvo of mass driver rounds fired from a nearby 8th Fleet cruiser shredded Page’s flag bridge and everyone on it.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
Lt Gray is isolated
The hangar could have been abandoned Sarah noted as the shuttles spewed forth troops and warbots. The walls were polished nickel, carved into the side of the asteroid. There were no Caliphate shuttles or anything to show this bay was used. With the outer door ripped away by missiles, anything loose that may have been in the chamber was now nothing more than debris in space as the Jupiter Alliance Marine shuttles slid in and the landing gear locked onto the metal hull of the hanger.
The gravity barely pulled at her as she led her Marines off the shuttle and raced to the nearest hatch, a crude airlock bolted into the wall. Any defenders must have been blown out to space during the missile strike because nobody fired at them as Sarah and her Valkyries slammed into the wall near the airlock. Her breach team moved their gear up to the airlock and began working as Sarah looked around.
Everywhere she looked there were Jupiter Alliance Marines and warbots. The approach and breach had been terrifying and Sarah had watched the juggernaut pick off several shuttles, but her shuttle and her platoon had made it. A yell from her breaching team indicated they were ready. The charge went off in the inner lock and everyone braced for the flow of atmosphere but nothing happened after the explosion. The warbots flowed in, leading the way.
There should have been more Marines filling the hangar. Perhaps they had been re-tasked to another hangar? Had they suffered that many casualties in the attack?
Sarah hoped they had found a different hanger or opening to exploit. The alternative was horrifying.
“They might be ready for us,” Sarah told Gail. “Push on, we need to get as far as we can before they spring the trap.”
“That makes little sense Lieutenant,” Gail said.
“Better than waiting here and giving them the initiative,” Sarah said. “Maybe they aren’t ready for us.”
“Aye ma’am,” Gail said and joined Sarah directing the squad leaders to push their Valkyries. All around them Marines from other assault shuttles were picking an airlock and moving toward it. It was drilled into every Jupiter Marine since the first day of boot camp not to sit s
till and wait for the enemy because if you did, the enemy would bottle you up and halt any progress while they surrounded you with superior numbers.
Beyond the airlock was a larger chamber, but it was empty. Like steady clockwork the Marines spread out and entered the room with at least one weapon pointing at anything that could even remotely be dangerous, but there wasn’t much. Just some oversized air pumps that would have pulled the air from the airlock under normal conditions. Warbots were following their primary, their weapons pointing at anything that could be a threat or reveal a threat. First squad under Phyllis breached another large door and rapidly poured into it. Sarah kept several screens up, several showing her what her Marines were seeing as her platoon, and other platoons, tried to put as much distance between themselves and the shuttle bay as they could.
“Listen up,” Major Hansen said. “We took a lot of casualties coming in, but we are here now.”
‘A lot of casualties?’ Sarah thought as she tried not to let the fear paralyze or stop her. That many? Over two thirds of the assault force?
“I am taking command of what is left,” Major Hansen said. So, the battalion command element didn’t make it. They had been spread out in four shuttles. Sarah felt the fear in the pit of her stomach. Hansen was not a Marine, or a front-line combat commander. He was a Guardsman and he couldn’t call in the Marines to save him if he screwed up.
“Press the attack,” the Major said. “Push fast and far. We can do this.”
‘No shit,’ Sarah sub-vocalized, so she didn’t transmit it.
She knew the Major had a view of her up as well, but so far, he had been silent as an engineer team set up a seismic scanner to map out the immediate area of the juggernaut. At least they had made it. Not many of them though.
“Contact!” Green said from first team of first squad. Sarah brought up Green’s view. A featureless gray sphere was gliding down the corridor. Some kind of recon probe? It looked like nothing Sarah had ever seen before. The surface of the sphere flickered and Green screamed. Red lights flashed on Sarah’s display reporting one of her Marines was dead and Green’s display was replaced by Lance Corporal Erica Windsome’s display, now the acting team leader. Erica fired, and she was joined by the survivors and their warbots. A concentrated mass of Marine fire slammed into the spherical drone. Sarah watched with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as the drone took the abuse, slowly being pushed back by the concentrated fire. Then without warning the smooth shell deformed, and the rounds pierced it, knocking it to the ground.
“What was that?” the Major asked.
“Unknown,” Sarah said, moving forward to investigate it as McKinney’s team leap frogged in front of the remains of Green’s team.
When Sarah arrived, she looked at Corporal Green. Her team leader’s armored suit was a shattered, bloody wreck from whatever the drone had shot her with.
“From now on anything that moves and isn’t a Marine, dies,” Sarah said on the platoon net and she walked forward to look at the drone.
“That looks like Conglomerate technology,” Major Hansen said. “Looks we now have proof the Namo’s are in bed with the Caliphate. Traitorous bastards.”
Sarah nodded, she could feel her hands shaking. Staff Sergeant Berry was now in their grasp. Had she betrayed her Platoon Sergeant?
“Yes sir,” Sarah said as she stared at the drone. A red overlay appeared on the drone, showing nanobot activity. Sarah kneeled down to look closer.
“It is repairing itself,” Sarah said on the general net.
“What else have the Namos given them?” Gail said standing beside Sarah and looking at it. The broken shell was closing.
Pulling out a can, Sarah sprayed the drone with a hardening gel, used to protect against nanobot disassemblers. Hopefully, the gel would stop and destroy the nanobots repairing the drone.
“We will need more nanogel,” Gail said looking down the corridor.
“We have a problem,” Major Hansen said over the command link and Sarah bit back her reply.
“Eighth fleet has been hacked and has turned on Fifth Fleet,” the Major said, he sounded like he was ready to lose it to Sarah. “Our mission to capture this vessel has just become more important. We have to shut down the hackers if they are here.”
Too many questions came to Sarah’s lips but now wasn’t the time. Another pair of drones had appeared ahead and her lead fire team became heavily engaged.
“This is not going according to plan,” Gail said.
“Does it ever?” Sarah said rushing forward to get closer to the fighting. Everything was going wrong and the Caliphate troops had not even made an appearance yet. Where were they?
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Sonya Helps Gray
“What damned kind of drone is that?” Sonya asked as she stared at the display from Sarah’s helmet.
“Unknown, ma’am,” Goodwin said. “It is using gravity repulsion to move, that is not typical Conglomerate technology. I can’t think of anyone besides maybe the Topa that use things like that.
“The Topa are helping the Caliphate then?” Sonya asked.
“I would not think so,” Harris said. “I can’t rule it out, but they didn’t even give us licensing for that technology.”
“But?” Sonya asked.
“Either the Caliphate has found some super genius who has discovered numerous technologies or they are getting help from someone high up in the Conglomerate,” Harris said.
“Why do you say that,” Sonya asked, knowing but wanting to hear someone else echo her thoughts.
“The encryption of the Jupe 8th Fleet is superb,” Harris said. “For Caliphate forces to break that encryption, then attack the fleet through it? I doubt even we could do that. I do not understand how they are controlling the crews and keeping them from taking over manually.”
“You don’t think the Caliphate has spies in 8th Fleet?” Sonya asked looking over the numerous displays in the bridge.
“I wouldn’t rule it out, but this cyber-attack is too quick, too effective,” Harris said. “Also consider the Caliphate has jump technology and countless ships now equipped with it.”
Sonya listened to the exchange between Major Hansen and Lieutenant Gray about how they suspected New Alamo of helping the Caliphate.
“They are wrong,” Berry said from her console. Sonya had almost forgotten about the quiet Jupiter Marine Staff Sergeant.
Nodding Sonya leaned back to think.
Several other displays showed what was going on throughout the Jupiter assault. Goodwin and McLaughlin had done an impressive job of hacking into the Marine network and deploying various communication, sensor and relay drones throughout the task force. Coverage was far from complete, or instantaneous, but it was improving, even more slowly now that the Marines were in combat and on guard against cybernetic attacks and unidentified drones.
There was nothing coming from the commandos who had launched from the Eighth fleet and what bothered Sonya the most is that it didn’t look like the juggernauts had fired upon the commando shuttles as they docked.
Another screen showed a pair of Jupiter cruisers and a heavily damaged battleship fleeing from a small armada of Caliphate cruisers. All their frigates had been wiped out and Sonya knew the Jupes were doomed. It would be a slaughter.
Watching the Jupiter ships flee from the Caliphate hurt. It was easy to see those ships attempting to escape and imagine herself commanding one of those dying vessels.
“Isn’t there anything we can do?” Fry asked and Sonya heard the pain in his voice.
“We are doing it,” Sonya said, but her words felt empty. “We are collecting data on Caliphate capabilities. Everything they do, every trick, every ship, every tactic, we are recording and sending back to the Gallant. We are just one battle cruiser and while we have the edge over any Caliphate Cruiser, and maybe their battleships, there is only one of us.”
“Lieutenant Gray is getting hit hard,” Major Porter said. “Wherever
the Caliphate got those drones, they are ten times better than anything the Jupes have. I bet they would even chew up our warbots.”
Sonya nodded, a lump in her throat. The Jupe Marines were fighting hard but it might be a losing battle too. When Janissaries were committed, it would be a massacre.
Most of the Caliphate cruisers were pursuing the Jupiter ships. Including the traitorous members of Eighth Fleet.
“Can we get a stealth shuttle to the Jupe Marines?” Sonya asked. “Or two?”
“Maybe,” Porter said and glanced over toward Harris.
“We can probably get a shuttle or two in, but not out,” Harris said. “Unless the Caliphate wanted those Jupe Marines to land, their close in sensors aren’t too good. Their point defenses are good though.”
Which was obvious considering how many Jupe shuttles the Caliphate had destroyed when they detected them.
“Make it happen,” Sonya said. “Load the shuttles with warbots and some droids. No human crew. As many warbots as we can pack in there.”
“Captain,” Harris said staring at his screen. “I’m reading a very large force making transition from Josaka. Numerous battle ships, cruisers, destroyers and frigates. Odd.”
“Odd?” Sonya asked bringing up his displays and seeing what he was seeing. Signatures tagged a large number of them as Bronkaw.
Then she saw New Alamo identifiers mixed in with Caleet signatures.
“Wow,” Harris said. “That is a lot of firepower.”
“Looks like the cavalry,” Sonya said with a smile. The Caliphate probably did not have the sensors to detect the incoming ships. Chances were good the Caliphate forces would not see the incoming fleet for days unless the armada started to move. A quick calculation showed the reinforcements could be here in half a day.
Sonya checked the data feeds. Everything the Cincinnatus was seeing was being sent back to the NAS Gallant. That fleet would not be facing any surprises.
New Empires: Conglomerate Series Book 3 Page 27