“Ah, we’ve drilled that a few times,” Remmy said. “We’ve also done some flight practice in the hangar when it’s clear. You know, just some balancing and fine movement, but enough to get a feel for flying around in this stuff.”
“I’ve had a lot of EVA training,” Jake said. “I’m sure if any of us get detached or knocked off the beam, we’ll be fine to make a landing on our own. We’ll just have to start decelerating at the last moment.”
“Because using our barrier thrusters blows our stealth,” Remmy said.
Jake opened a private channel with Remmy. “You know this is more than an intelligence run, right?” he said.
“I have the virus loaded and ready,” Remmy replied. “If we find the link to their supply network, we’ll download all the data and send it out across all the depots and anything connected.”
Jake saw that everyone had checked in. Seven people in the troop module - that included Liara and Finn - twenty one soldiers affixed to the beam running behind the fighter, and the pilot, Hot Chow. “All right, Chow,” Jake said. “Lift off, stealth up and get us to one of those containers,” he said.
“Sir, if this works, you’re going to fry millions of computer systems in a few dozen or a few hundred depots and bases,” Remmy said. “And violate galactic law.”
“It’s time to burn them back,” Jake said. “At least our artificial intelligence won’t directly force systems to attack biological beings. If you have a problem with it, I can make sure I make the final keystroke.”
“No, Sir,” Remmy said with a snicker. “I’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time. Even Liara wants this to go according to plan. That’s why she named the virus after her sister.”
Mary, it was a common name, and not one that Jake would have chosen for a malicious virus, but any name was fine. Unlike Alice who had a personality when she was released aboard the Overlord Two, Mary had none. It was an artificial intelligence that was made to circumvent and deactivate security software as it learned from the system. They’d already let her loose inside an isolated Order of Eden computer they had on hand. It was loaded with every countermeasure they knew of, and Mary managed to burn it out in less than three seconds after learning everything she could and copying herself to the drive Jake had under his vacsuit and heavy armour. Finn, Liara and Remmy carried their own copies as well, just in case.
It would be a monstrous attack, especially since they she already knew what Order of Eden security software looked like and had already defeated a system. Jake hoped that the supply depot’s computers were well connected but unsophisticated. The galactic law he was violating was something he could live with. It was in place to prevent anyone from creating malicious artificial intelligences, but Jake didn’t see anyone from the galactic courts sending people after the Order of Eden, so it was time to get dirty. Only Remmy, Finn, Liara, Agameg, Stephanie and Minh-Chu knew about Mary. The most ingenious part of it was that Liara stole the base code from the Lorander database. It was created by another artificial intelligence they found on the other side of the galaxy. It would be hard to prove anyone from Jake’s crew made it.
They left the hangar behind, flying out between huge asteroids. “I’m proud to be on this mission with you,” Jake said, activating a laser link with everyone on the beam with him, and the fighter. Everyone would be able to hear him. “If this mission is successful, we will provide a distraction for the Nafalli who are going to be picking up more supplies than they need from orbit. We’re also going about some other business; stealing more intelligence for Fleet and shutting down their computer systems so they don’t blow our ride out of the sky before we get picked up. Every time we get over their walls, steal information from them and disable their infrastructure, we weaken them where it counts. Our strike will demoralize every enemy ship crew that discovers they can’t come here for supplies. They’ll know that they aren’t impervious, that there are bad asses that can kick down their doors, take what they want and burn the rest down. Let’s clear our heads, get ready for the first step in this mission, and get it done.”
Twenty-One
To Make A Name
* * *
Few things are more dangerous than being well cloaked in space. The chances of any collision between two objects that aren’t drawn to each other by significant gravitational forces are so low, that navigational software was designed to make it possible to connect two objects in space. The odds say that a person, or an object could hang out there for centuries, invisible, drifting, on its own and not run into anything. Those odds don’t seem to matter as much once you imagine what it must be like to get hit by a starship of any size rushing through the area at great speed.
Odds be damned, high speed collisions in the vacuum of space are always devastating. That was why cloaking isn’t always as much of a tactical advantage as many people assume. If the ships around you could see you, they could avoid colliding with you. This was one of the thoughts Alice had as she activated her cloaking systems and leapt from the airlock of her combat shuttle.
Yawen, Regan, Tran, Luu, Jessen and Knud were right behind her. Their training kept them from bumping into one another. Light airburst thrusters allowed them to disperse into a pattern that would see them all catch their own section of hull. Everyone was on course. Cosmically, the distance they were crossing was as thin as a human hair, but that gap between the shuttle and the cloaked enemy ship seemed immense forever as they drifted through it.
Any communication would tip the enemy off to their location. The cloaking systems could cover for a few airburst thrusts for course correcting and light acceleration, but proximity radio, laser links, or any other kind of broadcast would reveal them. Alice checked her position one more time, glancing up at the flaw in the enemy vessel’s cloak - a single panel that looked like a blurred patch of space, and saw that her feet were pointed almost exactly right. She made a small adjustment and took her heavy rifle from where it was affixed to her back. Armoured boot soles struck heavy hull plating and affixed firmly.
If everything was going according to plan, Alice would be facing the forward section of the ship, or at least the front facing section. The ship could be flying with its main engines facing forward, for all they knew. Her squad would be behind her, touching down on the surface of the hull.
Ten seconds passed, a mostly arbitrary number, but long enough for the rest of her squad to stick or drift. “All right, set tactical scanners on high,” Alice ordered. “Broadcast your findings to Fleet.”
“Aye,” Yawen. “Jessen is drifting, she missed contact with the hull but a fighter’s picking her up in a minute.”
A glance at her tactical display showed Alice that everyone was scanning the hull of the enemy ship except for Jessen, who stayed cloaked and was somewhere out there, thrusting away from the enemy so she could get picked up. “We knew someone would miss,” Alice said. “No worries.”
The shape of the hull in front of her became clear and Alice took aim at the base of a forward thruster pylon. A flipped switch on her rifle set it to fire a loud, non-networked beacon that would send a powerful signal through space, tagging the ship. The point she marked as her target was two hundred and three meters away. Other targets appeared, everyone who made the trip to the ship was ready to fire their own beacons. “Fire when ready.” The kick of her rifle only registered on the surface of her armour, but the movement of the weapon and the impact of her payload was satisfying.
A big, red blip appeared on her tactical system, then another and another until everyone on her team except for Jessen had an active beacon affixed to the hull of the ship. “Good job. Kill your sensors, cloak and retreat,” Alice said.
The new cloaking systems built into their armour were better than anything that Alice had ever seen. There were few ways to defeat them outside of a very powerful ship sensor system, which made the next part of the plan more dangerous than anything else. Alice was faced with a decision when she put the plan together.
At this point, they could either run aft along the hull, hide in place, or leap free from the vessel entirely and take their chances - hope that those odds held up while fighters and warships maneuvered around them, firing at the ship they just tagged. They ran towards the aft of the ship, moving across the hull like ants on an the bark of an ancient fallen tree. The data they collected from their scans told them that there was three hundred and forty three metres more to the ship behind them. Looking at the graceful curve of the hull, she felt there was something familiar about the style, but put the notion away for later.
A counter on her head’s up display told her that they had eleven more seconds before the Fleet would begin firing. It seemed like more time than they needed, but they didn’t run out of hull before the timer counted down to zero. “Deactivate cloaking systems, turn your personal shields on and ping the Fleet,” Alice said, breathlessly turning towards the front of the ship and following her own orders.
Her team appeared around her, Luu and Tran roughly thirty metres closer to the front of the ship than she was. If everything went well, they were about to see something memorable.
“This is Growler from Viper Wing. We see you down there, Gamma Team. Get ready for one hell of a light show,” a pilot said in Alice’s ear.
Doors opened on the hull and anti-fighter turrets rose up through the gaps. Alice’s team were right between two such doors. They were close enough to see the gunners in their pods. “Knut, set your rifle to its upper limit and pop that bubble. Yawen, kill the turret behind you.”
Alice raised her rifle as Knut fell in beside her and did the same. In the instant before she pulled her trigger, she realized that the gun pod looked like a more advanced version of the type used by the Triton. The gunner looked at her at first with confusion, then alarm. Knut and her opened fire, sending dozens of exploding guided rounds at the armoured bubble. They were under the ship’s shields, and the metal was torn through in seconds. A few shots later, the weapon emplacement lost power.
They turned towards a more distant weapon emplacement and did the same. Gunners were abandoning their posts, knowing that they couldn’t point their weapons at the hull walkers. To fire at the invaders was to fire at the metal skin of their own ship, and the system didn’t allow for that.
“Two down, moving on to a third,” Yawen announced.
The surface of the ship was alive with gunners trying to fend off the Haven Shore fighters that swept in, dropping electromagnetic charges towards the nose of the ship meant to burst through the energy shields. Alice and Knut competed with Yawen, Regan, Tran and Luu, bursting one turret after another in the aft section of the ship. After the first two, they were destroying empty gun emplacements, as the crews retreated before the hull walkers could reach them, which was just fine with Alice. “You’ve cleared enough opposition. We’re coming in to get you, Gamma Team,” announced the pilot of their armoured shuttle. “Get together at this position.”
“Aw, but we were just getting started,” Yawen whined. “I’m only on my third clip.”
“Pack it in, the big guns are coming,” Alice said, noticing that a new destroyer, The Honour Guard just appeared in the area. The interdiction signals erupted from it like a bloom of energy in all directions. Nothing would be able to escape using faster than light travel.
“This is Admiral Terry Ozark McPatrick to the Citadel Ship Exile. Surrender immediately or your ship will be incapacitated and your crew will be taken captive,” came the warning from the Honour Guard.
“We do not recognize your authority, McPatrick,” came the reply.
Six British Alliance battle cruisers, all over one kilometre long, bristling with heavy guns and enhanced shield emitters that looked like spiny fins emerged from wormholes. “This is Marshal Grant of the British Alliance Fleet. I advise you to recognize my colleague’s determination and firepower, if not his rank and authority in this region - which are valid and utter, for the record. Surrender.”
“Do not interfere, Marshal Grant,” replied the commander of the Citadel ship.
“We’ve gotta get off this thing,” Luu said. “They’re going to cut this ship in half and dissect the pieces.”
The shuttle lowered close enough for Alice’s team to leap and boost inside with their thrusters. “Get in, by the numbers,” Alice ordered.
“Fast! We’re holding this firefight back! Move, move!” Yawen said.
Alice’s tactical system noted several missile launches from the Exile. The Citadel ship was also turning quickly. It was everything the shuttle pilots could do to stay roughly in position so the team could get on.
Knut and Regan made it, crossing the short space between the hull of the Exile and the shuttle’s airlock, but barely. The smaller ship bashed into the hull of the Exile hard, denting the rear armour before clamping onto the hull with the forward landing gear. “We’re secure, go!”
Alice watched as all but Tran and her boarded. He was stuck to the spot, his heart rate rising by the second along with his perspiration and respiration. “Override walk-lock,” Alice said as she grabbed the bottom of his equipment pack. His boots decoupled from the deck and she pushed him through the airlock ahead of her. “We’re all on board, get us out of here,” she told the pilots as the airlock doors tried to close behind but failed to seal thanks to impact damage.
“It’s all right, we’re safe,” Luu told Tran as he collapsed into a seat beside her.
Alice was happy to see Jessen in the back of the shuttle. The slightly older woman returned her gaze sheepishly, and Alice responded with a half-smile and a nod. Jessen did nothing wrong, the chances that someone would miss the hull of the Exile were high, it could have happened to anyone. What followed - a by the numbers execution of a simple plan that would ensure her safe retrieval after missing - was just fine.
Yawen and Regan sealed the doors using a hardening foam kit from an overhead supply bin, filling the gap with the thick, quick-setting material. The cabin was pressurizing seconds later. Alice watched through the transparent section of hull as hundreds of missiles and thousands of shells raked the shields of the Honour Guard. The industrial style, heavy hull was untouched by the Exile’s munitions.
Most of the missiles were slowed down by the gravitational control field extending from the Honour Guard, then set off intentionally by anti-fighter guns and smaller beam weapons. The heavier torpedoes were struck by narrow beam electromagnetic pulse weapons, forcing a few to detonate, but most of them slowed and deflected off the shields.
The Honour Guard finally returned fire after closing to three kilometres. The civilian ship that the Exile hid behind was long gone, something Alice was thankful for as three beams of white light raked the forward sections of the Exile, reducing its shield strength down to nearly nothing. Particle cannons across the Honour Guard’s starboard side fired for nearly thirty seconds. The heavier guns aboard the Haven Fleet ship were silent, along with the beam weapons and whatever else might be in its arsenal.
The Exile’s hull finally cracked and burst, letting hundreds of high energy rounds inside the softer interior. Energy levels aboard the enemy vessel dropped to emergency levels, and the whole thing became visible. The style was graceful, like the Triton, but not shaped after any specific sea dwelling creature Alice knew of. It was a third the width of the Triton, with a full sized hangar beneath and a gunnery section running down its dorsal side.
When the Exile signalled its surrender, everyone but Tran and Luu cheered. Luu was too busy trying to calm Tran down. He wasn’t panicking anymore, but his anxiety levels were too high for him to go on.
“Lieutenant,” Terran addressed through Alice’s sub dermal communicator. “Status report.”
“Three of my team members are down, either with performance impacting stress or supporting members. None of them disgraced themselves in the field or should be punished since this is their first time out and, in my opinion, they have done nothing wrong. I will be recommending them for reassignment.
The rest of the team is holding up well. If you get us a new ship, we can move on to the next mission as a smaller, tighter group.”
“That won’t be necessary, Lieutenant Valent. Your team has performed brilliantly, but it’s time for you to stand down and return to base.”
Alice checked her tactical system and saw that there were warnings indicating that there was another wave of incoming ships. “I’d like to request temporary reassignment for myself and a few members of my squad to another team for the duration of this emergency.”
“I applaud your ambition, but we are pulling all the Special Operations teams. I’ll have more details for you once you’ve landed.”
“Yes, Sir,” Alice replied, realizing that it had been some time since she’d heard chatter from any of the other Special Operations teams. “Returning to base.”
Twenty-Two
Descent
* * *
Cloaked, hidden inside a container that once held supplies for an Order of Eden ship, Captain Jacob Valent and twenty seven fellow soldiers remained almost motionless as their suits affixed to the inside surfaces of the space. A heavy lifter clamped onto them, and Jake knew it wouldn’t be long before they headed into the atmosphere of a planet where life moved slowly at minus thirty degrees or less.
He closed his eyes, and after five seconds a small chirp in his ear told him that his systems were switching to audio notification mode. If there was something important for him to see on his tactical display or anywhere else in his system, audio notifications would tell him about it. Signal silence was the order, so no one spoke. Anything that could break their stealth was locked down.
Against the darkness of his mind, Jake made an effort to clear his mind. Ayan was there, and he hoped she was fitting in with the Fleet, finding her place there as it changed. He knew how important the defence of Tamber and the rest of the solar system was, and how badly she wanted Haven Fleet to become the example of a wise military, not just a powerful force. That terrible thought, that she was already surrounded by suiters who invited her to move on from Jake while he was lost with the Revenge was always there.
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