by Andrew Beery
Imera walked closer to the holographic pickup. “How in world do you plan to accomplish that?”
“Very carefully,” Cat acknowledged. “Do we have a truce?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Not really sir. If we don’t succeed you can court-martial me.”
***
Senior Fleet Admiral Imera turned to his one of his aids, Trevor Stevens. Stevens was the current acting minister of the Department of Political Stability. The DPS was charged with suppressing civilian unrest within GCP. The former minister had fallen victim to an unfortunate spate of bad timing. He had been at a conference in Greater Los Angeles when the word of the mass evacuation had occurred. He had been overrun by a terrified mob before he could return to his shuttle. He was one of an estimated seventeen million already dead in the panicked rioting that defined life on Earth at the moment.
Imera struggled to get as many people off the planet as he could but they didn’t begin to have the resources. The world had devolved into such a state of anarchy that even if the threat of imminent destruction passed… the world would be years recovering from what had already happened.
“Signal the incoming fleet from the delta sector. They are to cloak and intercept the Yorktown at the Alpha weapons platform. Make sure they understand to not engage the platform nor to let the Yorktown know they are there. Take no action but be ready to move at a moment’s notice.”
“Are you wanting them to aid the Yorktown should the need arise?” Stevens asked in a confused voice.
“Hell no son. The Yorktown is our only hope of stopping this thing… but if they succeed I sure as hell don’t want Cat Kimbridge in control of that Alpha!”
***
WhimPy-101 detected a breech near access port A12 on the dorsal side of the Alpha Platform. It was in one of the sections of the platform that was now under his complete control. His immediate concern was that the breech was caused by an Alpha repair droid attempting to reassert control of that section. His fears however were short-lived.
“Well met, Blessed of the Creator,” WhimPy transmitted on the local near-field RF band that the Yorktown’s away team was using.
WhimPy’s newly installed optical sensors spotted a lithe woman in a form-fitting silver skin stop and raise a single clenched fist in the air. She had singled the others in her group to stop their advance. All told there were twenty soldiers in the Yorktown’s boarding party.
“101?”
“Greeting Admiral Kimbridge. Your arrival is most… fortuitous.”
“101, where are you and how can we help?” The silver woman asked.
“I would prefer not to say Admiral as the Alpha AI has most likely detected our transmissions. My quantum communication link is in need of an entangled pair refresh. If I provide visual clues on the deck plating to my position can you repair my secure FTL communication node?”
“Absolutely, lead the way.”
Immediately metallic arrows rose out of the surface of the walls at eye level. WhimPy’s nanites had thoroughly infiltrated this section of the massive ship.
WhimPy directed the group through the maze of corridors until they arrived at the sealed hatch that protected his backup core. He had already instructed the construction nanites in the area to begin unsealing the hatch. He was no longer in any danger of the Alpha AI regaining control of this section of the ship. That said, the Alpha was intent on carrying out its genocidal mission against the home world of the humans.
Admiral Kimbridge was the first through the opening into the bay that contained what was left of the WhimPy-101 platform. Her first action was to reach out her hand and touch the side of one of the fusion generators WhimPy had tied into his systems to provide power.
A tiny bud of nanites flowed off of the Admiral’s hand and into the surrounding metal. Those nanites contained a series of quantum entangled photons that allowed the Admiral to communicate with her construction nanites. WhimPy would be able to clone those pairs and create his own communication node with the admiral and, via an instantaneous relay through the Yorktown, to the rest of the GCP FTL network.
“Thank you Admiral,” WhimPy said a moment later through the secure link. “The Alpha AI should no longer be able to access our communications.”
“Good to see you old friend,” Cat said warmly. “I must say though that you are looking a bit bedraggled.”
“Humph!” WhimPy snorted. “You take on a bear in his den and see how you look after the encounter!’
Cat shook her head. “Can you give me a status update? What’s our best move here?”
“The Alpha platform was forced to power down almost immediately after it entered your system. Through a fortunate accident, or the will of the Creator, a small electrical surge caused a power conduit to leak energy near where the Alpha had stored my backup cognitive core. It was just enough for the redundant power feeds built by my Heshe designers to bring my systems online.”
Cat waved the rest of her team into the room. “Sergeant Moore, take two men and secure a complete comm package from the Yorktown. WhimPy will let you know where to set it up for his use.”
“On it Admiral,” the older woman said as she pointed to the two youngest members of the boarding party.
“So your systems came back online… What happened then?”
“I proceeded to take systematic control of the Alpha. Unfortunately once I got external sensors in place I determined the platform was on a dead stick collision course with Earth. I was able to route power feeds to a few of the drive systems. It was enough to accelerate Alpha by 0.002 gravities.”
“I take it,” Cat said, “that that was enough to cause the Alpha to miss hitting the Earth?”
“Affirmative. Unfortunately when I communicated my intent to steer clear of your planet to the GCP Grand Senate they refused to believe me and did the one thing that was essential they not do. They attacked this platform.”
“And in the process supplied enough energy for the harvesters to reactive the Alpha AI. I take it you have been in a battle for control ever since,” Cat said, not so much as a question as a statement of fact.
“Prior to their ill-advised attack, the Alpha AI would not have come back online until the energy density striking the surface harvesters reached something on the order of 1200 kilowatts per square meter. That would be just shy of Earth’s orbit around your sun. By that time I could have taken complete control of the platform’s offensive weapons and attitude control systems. As a result of Admiral Imera’s interference that is no longer possible.”
“How can we help?” Cat asked.
On the floor in front of Cat and the sixteen remaining soldiers a series of eight metallic cylinders flowed up from the floor. It was a very strange sight for those that were not familiar with seeing construction nanites in action.
“This is a prohibitively large ship. My nanites are effective at taking control of the Alpha’s systems but they must reach them in order to do so. If your people can transport nanite reservoirs to distal locations on this platform I can speed up my efforts to usurp control from the various systems that threaten Earth.”
Cat toggled her internal comm-link. “Captain Kirkland, I need you to scramble a couple dozen transport shuttles for light duty.”
“Admiral, I’ve got the shuttles but not the pilots,” Ken said over the link.
“I figured that would be the case. Task some of our scorpion pilots. Most of them were flying shuttles as teenagers. We’ve got a job to do and not a lot of time to do it.”
“The first shuttles are already launching… I take it you need them by your breech point?”
“Affirmative. As soon as she gets back here Sergeant Moore is going to be organizing a bucket brigade to bring canisters of construction nanites to the surface. I need your pilots to distribute them evenly over the surface of the Alpha starting at those areas furthest from my current position. And Captain, remind those pilots that they need to hug the surface. The Alpha is st
ill active and will try to shoot them with those weapons still under its control. If they run into fire they are to drop their payload as close as possible and beat a hasty retreat.”
By the time Cat had finished speaking a total of twenty-four cylinders had appeared out of the floor with more coming.
Sergeant Moore, along with the two other soldiers came back at that point dragging a gravity cart with equipment loaded on it. WhimPy scanned the equipment with a gold beam that fanned across the cart.
“This will work wonderfully Sergeant,” the Heshe AI said in a decidedly pleased voice. “Please place it in the designated area.”
Sergeant Moore was about to ask where that might be when a rectangle the exact size and shape of the gravity cart illuminated on the floor near the line of miniature fusion power plants.
Chapter 19: Engagement in Hupenstanii Space…
“Here they come!” Commander Trifa yelled from the bridge of the GCP Relentless. “Captain Purohit to the bridge!”
“I’m here Number One. Give me a sit rep,” Captain Vigit Purohit said as he finished buttoning his uniform jacket while stepping off the turbolift.
“We have multiple hyperfield incursions starting at one AU and proceeding outward for another ten AU.”
“Anything coming through?”
“Looks like a total of fourteen ships. And they are big sir… easily an order of magnitude bigger than anything we’ve seen before from the Ashtoreth,” Trifa answered. He paused to adjust some controls at his station. “It looks like the ones closer in experienced the full effect of our little surprise. Every one of them appears dead and drifting. Those further out are drifting too but sensors are beginning to detect power systems coming back on line. I’d say we have five of the fourteen still a threat.”
“Very good Number One. Pass your sensor logs onto the Mador and Exeter. Comms, patch me into the Mador.”
The image of Commodore Ruck filled the forward viewscreen. “Well Vigit, it looks like the Relentless is closest to the fight… you ready to mix it up?”
“Launching my fighter wings now. Are you coming to the party?”
“Indeed I am my friend. I’ve asked Hikaro and the Exeter to take charge of the disabled ships. He needs to take out their drive systems before their crews recover. So these five will be just for you and me.”
***
Lord Captain Asdartu was in agony. His head felt like a fire wart plant had spilled its entire foul clutch on top of it. Every part of his body burned but his head pounded the worst.
“Report!” He managed to bark out.
There was no reply other than a few painful moans.
“REPORT DAMN YOU!” He yelled louder even though it was exceedingly painful to do so.
“We’ve emerged just under sixty light minutes from our target as per your orders Lord Captain,” the navigation officer said in an agonized voice. “It appears that the enemy has placed localized hyperfield oscillators in place that disrupted our higher order hyperfield dampening field. All sentient computers and biologics on our ship were rendered unconscious for just under eight minutes.”
“LORD CAPTAIN!” The sensor officer yelled. Asdartu had to fight the urge to shoot the man out of hand for yelling when his head hurt so much but with a tremendous force of will he simply scowled at the man.
“We have incoming enemy fighters.”
WHUUMP!
The bridge shook as thousands of kinetic rounds pounded the unshielded and exposed ablative armor on his flagship. The KEWs traced a deliberate line across the breadth of the ship. The lights flickered and the battle klaxon added to the cacophony. The noise was defending and it brought stars to his eyes. He had to get a handle on the situation or all would be lost.
WHUUMP! WHUUMP! WHUUMP!
“Helm, flank speed,” he ordered. “Get us clear of those guns. Weapons, raise shields and return fire at will.”
“At once Lord Captain,” the officers acknowledged.
“CAG, prepare to launch our fighters.”
“We cannot Lord Captain,” the Commander Air Group officer yelled over the din of the Klaxon.
Asdartu pulled his disrupter and shot the klaxon to shut it up.
The CAG turned to look at the slagged metal that had been the klaxon and turned back to his captain without missing a beat. “Sir, the launch tubes were the first thing the enemy hit with their KEWs.”
“How many of the other ships can launch their fighters?”
The CAG checked his board. “Only four other ships are currently responding. I’ve tasked the AE Asture, NuNoc and Skiir to send close order support fighters to cover us. The Makro was the farthest out and has already launched their fighters. They are in route to the High Orbitals. Shall I call them back?”
The Lord Captain stood in shock. Nine of his fourteen ships were dead or out of commission and the battle had not even begun. If he did not find a way to salvage the situation his brother the King would decorate the throne room wall with his pelt. Whether he would wait for his brother to die before removing the pelt was, at best, highly doubtful.
“Negative. They may be what salvages our mission.” He turned to face his flight officer. “And CAG, get our fighters out there… Either repair the launch tubes, disassemble our fighters and carry them through the corridors to the shuttle bay, or cut a hole in the side of the damn ship! I don’t care how you do it, BUT LAUNCH THOSE FIGHTERS!”
***
Lieutenant Stone ran through the corridor of C-Deck towards the launch bay of High Orbital One. He was flanked by several other members of his MAC team. The marines had been in a briefing when the word came in that the Ashtoreth had entered the system.
“Let’s get these birds warmed up and in the air,” He yelled as he ran across the hanger to the Betty Boop.
Two minutes and sixteen seconds after the call to launch was issued, AG had his marines in the air.
“Form up on me,” Stone ordered. “Commodore Ruck reports there is an inbound wing of fighters about thirty light minutes out. Our job is to micro-jump to their location and take them out.”
“Begg’n the Lieutenant’s pardon Sir, but… these fighters don’t have jump capabilities,” JJ said over the comms.
“Good point Staff Sergeant. Fortunately for us Admiral Kimbridge is well aware of that small limitation and left a present for us. Connected to the bottom of this station is a… drum roll please?”
JJ complied with the requested “bum bum bum… bummm.”
“…Jump gate. All you need to do is initialize it with a desired destination and the system’s AI automatically calculates the higher level harmonics so we don’t get our bells rung when we jump through it. Commander Dickerson has already programmed our destination. All we need to do is thread the needle and fly through. Couldn’t be simpler JJ.”
“Simple is good sir… we’ve got officers in this wing… they need simple.”
“Remind me to talk with the Gunny after our little exercise today JJ. I believe he will have something special for you to do,” AG said with an evil grin that no one could see but everyone could hear.
“Yes Sir, I will most certainly remember to remind you,” Sergeant Hammond said in a voice that convinced no one.
As they approached the jump gate it began to shimmer with a miniature hyperfield vortex. The ships would easily fit two by two through the ring but certainly no more than that.
“JJ you’re my wingman. When we fly through you veer off to the left. I’ll head right. The second group will veer up and down respectively. Just like we practiced from a launch tube only we’re using a jump gate. If anything goes wrong, our FTL comms will let the second group know before they jump.”
Together the Betty Boop and JJ’s fighter, Rogue Nation entered the hyperfield vortex and reappeared 29 light minutes closer to their enemy. AG pulled his small ship to the right. The transition through the vortex produced a slight headache but nothing that would incapacitate a pilot. He told his Mark Ten Stark suit to
administer a mild analgesic. At the same time he signaled the entire MAC team to do the same. Admiral Kimbridge would want to fine tune the jump gate if they were going to start deploying them with any regularity.
“The others are starting to come through the jump gate Betty Boop,” JJ said on their private channel.
“Stay sharp Rogue Nation. As soon as everyone is through we will advance to the enemy position at best possible speed.”
Soon the thirty six scorpion class GCP fighters were ready to advance.
“LiDAR is showing one hundred and twenty eight targets ahead,” Lieutenant Stone announced on the squad-wide channel. “We are going to be out numbered four to one. That’s the bad news. The good news is that based on our last engagement, our ships can hit theirs from further out and are much more maneuverable… once we get up to speed.
“Their ships are currently traveling at about 0.05c. We have just enough time to accelerate to 0.076c before we arrive in the engagement window. That means I need each of you to push your throttles to maximum for the next five minutes. The G’s will be uncomfortable even with the compensators and your Starks helping out. None of you believed that crap your recruiters fed you about the Marine Corps being a vacation so a little discomfort should not be an issue.
“When you get near range find a target and designate it with your flight computer. Our AI’s will keep track of which enemies have our attention so we don’t overlap targets. Keep your head on a swivel and use your wing man to attack their ships in pairs. Remember the enemy wants you dead and will be working hard to make that come true. That is all. Happy Hunting. Stone out.”
A few minutes later Lieutenant Stone switched his comms to his wingman’s channel. “JJ it looks like they are about to come into range. I’m flagging our first target. When we take him out you go ahead and flag our second.”
“Why thank you sir. That’s ever so kind of you to share the fun.”