by Chris Hechtl
The committees knew it was only a matter of time before a starship blundered into a transmission from Skynet with disastrous consequences. They had to win that race or all could be lost.
Jack ordered Drake to go to the exit of the Hyperbridge, and drop a warning satellite there. All ships that were contacted were ordered to go to Proxima Centauri and stay there out of danger. For the time being, they would use Proxima and Alpha Centauri as a potential long distance logistics and fall-back base in case the star system fell. It was well out of range of Skynet's clutches.
Transmitters had been set up in various places along the solar system to break up the Skynet transmissions. Once Drake's mission to the bridge was complete, it was to return to place transmitters in various locations along the outskirts of the solar system to jam Skynet. Some considered the idea a little overboard, but Jack made it clear that with Skynet there was no such thing as overkill.
Liberty ships were turned out of the yard on a weekly basis once the bugs were worked out of the design. Each was given a brief shakedown before they were loaded up and put into service with the convoys.
At one point the committees had considered sending them out in a steady stream. However, the convoy system was found to work better, not for defense but to get the right transit window due to the orbital mechanics.
The blueprints for the Liberty ships were shared with all of the shipyards to reduce complexity. Some built their own versions; others created their own designs. Pavilion did both, creating basic Liberty class hulls as well as their own custom designs for large orders.
They used sublight freighters as carriers, tenders, and colliers. Liners were the best as troop transports and hospital ships. The hospital ships were staffed with volunteer medics from all over the solar system.
The first ships brought a few hundred people to and from Earth and the Lagrange points. Each time a Liberty ship or another ship was added to the convoys, the number of hulls went up as did the number of people and materials carried.
By the September 2201 convoy, ten thousand soldiers were transported to Earth in one lump sum. The return flight to Mars finished evacuating people from the Lagrange habitats. The October convoy brought in sixteen thousand.
<>V<>
Jack shook his head as he made his way through the habitats to the shuttle bay. He had to catch a shuttle to the Neo habitat, and it had to be a regular run, not a special order. If it was special, someone would alert Glass and that would defeat his attempt at a surprise inspection.
He'd wanted to get in to see the Neos sooner, but he'd been so tied up with meetings he hadn't gotten the chance to get away. The first generation had been … hatched? Gestated? Birthed? Whatever the term was. They were already sorted out in crèches and in school. He hoped Roman had kept it well-rounded; it wasn't fair to just train them as soldiers.
“Hey kid, what are you doing here?” Bert the lead guard in his detail said. Jack frowned, attention drawn to the little boy staring out the wall. The boy's eyes cut to them, then back to the ships in the distance.
“Yo, kid …”
“He's into ships,” Jack said, recognizing the signs. “Aren't you?” he asked.
The boy turned to him and nodded. But his eyes kept being drawn to the view.
Jack's eyes turned to it as well. There were a lot of ships out there. Now that they were hitting their stride, a Liberty ship a day was being cranked out. They were going to be a pain in the ass to deal with once the war was over, but he was pretty sure they could find a use for them. Sell them for certain. Possibly create module hyperdrives? He frowned thoughtfully. “You like the Liberty ships, kid?”
“Yeah. I'm not a kid. That's a baby goat,” the boy said with as much quiet authority as he could muster. “You're him, right?”
“By him you mean …”
“Jack Lagroose. The big guy as my mom and dad like to say,” the boy, probably six, said.
Jack nodded. “That's me.”
“I'm Roger. Roger Daringer,” the boy said.
“Pleased to meet you, Roger,” Jack said in an amused voice. “You come here often?”
“Sometimes,” the kid said, eyes turning back to the gorgeous view. “You gotta admit, it's stellar,” he said with a breathy voice.
“That it is. It's one of my favorite spots too,” Jack said. “You want to be a yard dog?”
Roger looked at his reflection and then to him. He shook his head as his eyes met Jack's. “No. My mom and dad are workers, but I want to be more. I want to fly the ships. I want to be an admiral some day,” he said, lifting his chin.
“Well, we don't have a lot of use for admirals,” Jack said. “But maybe someday we will need them. But before that we'll need people to run the ships,” he said.
Roger nodded. “I think I can handle that,” he said firmly.
“Okay. Stay in school. Talk to your counselor about what you want and have her help you,” Jack cut off his good-natured attempt at help by the cold look the boy shot him. “You got it covered?” The lad nodded again. “Gotcha. Good luck then, Roger,” he said. He nodded and then motioned for his retinue to get back into motion.
“That kid will go far if he keeps focused,” Jack murmured, making a note of the name. Bert eyed him briefly and then returned to watching for threats.
<>V<>
Jack made his way through the new station to the Neo genetics lab. He passed through layers of security, all manned, in most cases by Neos themselves.
“Mister Lagroose?” a tech said as he came up to the last check. The tech seemed bewildered that he was there. “Sir, um …”
“Call it a surprise inspection,” Jack said, smiling thinly. She nodded dumbly. “How is it going?”
“Well, we've gotten through the headaches of the first batch. They are about ready to be birthed. Doctor Glass and the pediatricians have kept them in a bit longer to accelerate their growth. Um, shouldn't you be getting this from the Doctor?”
“I like to hear it from the people involved too. How are you doing?”
“Well, sir,” she said, bobbing a confused nod. She turned at the sharp clack of feet approaching. Jack hid a grimace as he saw a familiar Neochimp in the lead. Apparently someone in security had passed the chimp notice. He'd have Roman find out and transfer the big mouth.
“Mister Lagroose, I just sent this morning's SITREP,” the doctor said.
“I came down to see the progress with my own eyes, Doctor. No need to get upset,” Jack said as his detail formed into a line as they passed through the last security checkpoint. “You needn't come down to give me a personal tour. I'm sure I can snag someone to help me if I get stumped,” Jack said.
“I, um, well, I was working on something to be honest, but I suppose I can give you a tour,” the chimp said.
“Proud of your accomplishments, Doctor? Good. Lead on,” Jack said, motioning to the chimp to take the lead. Doctor Glass gave him a thoughtful look then nodded once.
“This way.”
As they took the brief tour of the facility, the chimp was moving them rather quickly, Jack noted in amusement. They ended near the first bay of gestation pods. There were thousands of pods lined in neat rows, far more than the few dozen Ursilla and Aurelia had used. He recognized a couple of them though. The artificial wombs had been refurbished, but they were still usable obviously. Good, he thought with a slight nod of approval.
“We've used a template approach to each biotype. We're expanding the ursine lines while also creating a true distinct feline line. They will both be primarily bipeds, though they can walk on all fours if they wish,” Doctor Glass explained. “We used Lieutenant Claudis, McGillicutty, and a few other chimeras as well as the Gentek surviving cats as the base material.”
“That's why you've made so much progress so quickly? Good,” Jack said with a nod of approval.
Something seemed to thaw in the doctor. He nodded back, seemingly relaxed. “Well, ahem, anyway, we've used big cats as requested. Also other
large omnivores and predators. The first generation has already been decanted; we've reset for the fourth. They look good, though we are monitoring their development closely of course.” Jack nodded. “They should have good strength, instincts, and knowledge. The good news is, their coats will help with the cold. And they will have good survival instincts as I mentioned, though there may be society behavioral issues, mainly dealing with conformity to criminal laws like assault.” Jack winced. “We've had a few issues with eye contact leading to an assault in the crèche.” Again Jack winced. The Neochimp shook his head. “Fortunately nothing too major, though a few have drawn blood.” He stopped for a moment, cleared his throat and then continued. “But training them, you do realize they will have a will of their own? You can't just take a rolled-up newspaper to some of them.”
Jack fought a smile. “We've got people for that. For the advanced courses I mean.”
“Okay, but if they don't want to fight? Cats aren't interested in doing as they are told,” Doctor Glass warned. “I've had enough dealings with the snarfs to realize that,” he said with a grimace.
“Snarfs?”
The chimp eyed him then snorted. “What, you don't know them?” Jack shook his head. “Well, they are the last survivors of Gentek's cat program—reddish orange cats with yellow strikes. Apparently Gentek had multiple clients interested in creating them, which was why some like Morris and Garfield were actors, or so they thought,” the chimp said, rolling his brown eyes.
“I see.”
“All of them have serious weight issues. Apparently Gentek didn't want them to breed outside of their control; they were all neutered early on. I was going to let them die off, but I admit, I had a change of heart so I used cloning techniques to allow them to have several litters.”
“Okay,” Jack drawled, unsure where the conversation was going.
“They are good people, Mister Lagroose. A few are a pain in the ass I admit, but they have all volunteered.”
Jack slowly nodded. “I can appreciate that.”
“Good. We've used them as a part of the base matrix then added species modifiers. I'm cleaning up the gene sequences now; filtering junk code is a pain in the ass. It has to be done, however; if we leave it in, it could bite them down the road.”
Jack nodded slowly.
“But otherwise on track?”
“Yes. They still have to volunteer however.”
“That is up to them. As you just said, the Snarfs did, so they might step up.”
“And if they don't? We're going to run out of room here soon you know,” the doctor warned.
“As I said, Doc, we'll give them a basic education and a one-way pass to wherever they wish to go. They will have to understand they will have to act under the laws of civilization, however, not the wild.”
“That is …,” the chimp shook his head, “that is so wrong in many ways, just kicking them out like that. I mean …”
“We have to make room. If they wish to be independent, then they can do so. Somewhere else,” he said firmly. “I'm not supporting free loaders. The same goes for all species, Doctor. If they aren't willing to step up and contribute, they can find their destiny somewhere else.”
Doctor Glass scowled but then looked away.
<>V<>
Lieutenant Claudis crossed his arms as he watched the descent. The only thing better would have been seeing it at night. Okay, and the real thing. But this was close enough he thought, watching the drop pods hit the upper atmosphere. They were like streaks of meteors; long plumes of superheated air trailed behind them as they got deeper and deeper into the atmosphere.
The barges and shuttles were following on behind them but at a less steep angle. The barges he knew he would be able to see by eye. The shuttles would take a bit of luck to see. They were supposed to be maneuvering and …
As he watched a couple of the decoys broke up. He heard a gasp beside him but ignored it. After a moment another decoy came apart; this one exploding into chaff pods which spun and sparked like fireworks. “Something's going wrong!” a female said behind him, voice rising in surprise.
“No, it's the decoys,” Claudis said mildly, not taking his eyes off the exercise. He'd performed his own landing exercise last week. He wanted two more under his belt before the real thing, but he was fairly certain they would be VR ones, not the real deal. “We're going to lose some pods. That's inevitable.”
“Not if we do it right,” the woman said.
Claudis turned to her, sniffed and then looked back to the sky. “Keep dreaming, lady. I don't know what universe you are living in, but I wish it was true.”
“If they don't all get down, someone did something wrong,” the woman insisted.
Claudis flicked his tail in annoyance. He turned to her, eyes narrowing. She was in a fur-lined parka, a white outfit with no rank insignia. She had long red hair and flashing green eyes. “Ma'am, the enemy is going to try it's very best to kill us. You can do everything right and still run into a round. If your number is up …,” he shrugged and looked away.
She seemed to take that in stride. After a moment she murmured a soft, “oh.”
“There are no guarantees in life beyond death. Get used to it. Death and taxes,” Claudis said as the chutes on the drop pods deployed. The chutes were small enough to begin arresting their descent but not completely slowing it. The chutes would be cut a hundred meters off the deck when the retros deployed. He knew that by experience.
“Any problems with the barges?” the lionoid asked, looking to the Sergeant.
“No, sir,” the young chimp replied.
“Good. Keep me posted,” Claudis growled. The chimp nodded in earnest as he kept his eyes on the board. Claudis's own eyes turned back to the heavens above.
The hardware had to be tested in as lifelike conditions as possible. Hence the exercises on Mars. Mars wasn't Earth by a long stretch, but it was the best they could come up with physically—at least until Titan or Venus was made habitable. They didn't have another century or two to wait however.
It wasn't just the hardware being tested, however; it was the men and women riding within and planning the ops as well. Also the people who packed the machines, built them, a lot was riding on the line. They had to get it right. There was something Roman had said about a bad dress rehearsal. He'd heard it but hadn't understood nor cared. They needed to get it right.
It bugged him that all of the senior officers involved in the drop were still on Olympus. None of them could spare the time to come out? Why? Jack Lagroose did so on a regular basis, and what was that about most of them sticking to just the officers’ areas? Not intermingling with the troops? They loved planning and VR training but … he shook his head slightly, putting the thought aside. For whatever reason they were there, he was here. Deal with it.
“Someone didn't adjust for the lighter gravity,” the sergeant called out. “Chutes on two of the drop pods have been cut early.”
“Crap. Alert the crash teams and medical,” the lion ordered.
“Yes, sir.”
“Tell them not to get too close. We don't want the birds falling on top of them.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Remember what I said about someone making a mistake?” a familiar female voice said smugly.
Claudis turned to glower at her over his shoulder. She had her nose in the air. His glare made her take an involuntary step backwards however. “Oh shut up,” he said slowly, then returned his attention to the op.
Hopefully the mix-up in coding would be the only hiccup, though he doubted it.
<>V<>
When Roman got to his office he checked the status update. He was tired but finally feeling like they were making some headway. He wasn't certain why someone wanted fighters. He understood the need for drop shuttles and assault shuttles, but fighters? But apparently they were in the works. Whatever. His finger flicked down through the write-up and then paused as he saw the 3D image. He grunted and then moved on.
They needed vehicles, equipment to take down electronics in large areas, not fighters. Were they airborne? Was that their purpose? To provide air support? Now that he could see a use for. He frowned and scrolled back. No. The answer was a decided no; they were space only. Lovely. He sighed as he pulled his weapon out with the holster and stuck it in his drawer.
He jotted a note asking why, then erased it. He didn't want to be drawn into the mess. Instead he turned to the latest grand invasion plan.
The plan was for a bombardment and then decoys followed by an orbital drop swarm to swamp the defenses and thus establish a beachhead. They couldn't spread out too much, or their forces wouldn't be able to support each other and would invite defeat in detail. But they also knew that Ares would target the Landing Zone area with nukes.
That was why they were using decoys and also a feint. During World War II the allies had needed the Axis to misjudge where the landing was going to be performed and the timing involved. One of their ruses had been Patton's phantom army and the obvious calls to land at Calle. The ruse had fooled Hitler into allowing the real D-Day to go through unmolested at Normandy.
Roman frowned thoughtfully. They were going to have to make several landings obviously and each time learn from the experience. The enemy would also learn. It behooved them to hit the easiest areas first, learn from them while blooding the troops.
He shook his head. He was stuck on Mars training personnel with Choji while Martell was detailed to be the ground commander of the African invasion. That sucked, though he'd heard Elliot was in line as the second-in-command there.
The generals better damn well keep their word that the security personnel would have their own people in the chain of command. This was a joint show, not some grab for glory damn it. He frowned, then shook his head in resignation. As long as it got done, he shouldn't care. Let the damn history books sort it out, right? Only he did care.
The MFI was finally coming along. The first units had passed muster with the doctors and was enroute to Olympus. They would arrive just as the kick off began, therefore lessening their exposure to zero G. All good.