by B. V. Larson
“Riggs, your offer is very tempting. And I do believe you mean it. But we have our orders. The trouble is that Eden is technically rebel territory. Earth claims the system, and must reassert control over it. Naturally, I know this state of affairs makes it hard for us to cooperate. What I can do is bend my orders in your favor. If you will fly forward, surrendering yourself and the cruiser you’re aboard right now, I’ll move into the Eden system peacefully. Let us scout the Macro enemy, and if they’re poised to strike, our combined forces will wipe them out. There is no need for either of us to shed the blood of a single biotic in a pointless command struggle.”
Everyone behind me made sounds of frustration and exasperation. They quickly looked at me. I knew what they were thinking: what was Riggs going to do? Capitulate for the greater good, or go down fighting for the independence of Star Force?
I stared at the screen. I realized that Kerr had put me in a very bad spot. He’d set me up to be the bad guy. Was I so vain I would waste the two greatest forces humanity had ever assembled, letting them destroy one another?
Finally, I was ready to speak. My staff listened with glassy eyes. I think they were in shock at the scope of the disaster that loomed before all of us.
“General,” I said. “I’m going to have to decline that offer. I’m going to make an offer of my own in return: reverse course and go home. If you don’t want to help, then let us do our jobs out here guarding the frontier against the machines. We will not cross the no-man’s land of Alpha Centauri again. Let that remain a buffer zone between Earth and Star Force territory. Maybe we can set up a trade route in the future. Whatever your decision, this conversation is at an end. Good day, sir.”
I ordered the channel to be closed. I then turned my ship around and retreated back through the ring. When we were safely on the far side, I pointed to Sandra, who ran the communications console.
“Jam the rings,” I said. “Both of them, right now. I don’t want anyone passing any more notes under my desk. Let them both wonder what happened to the force on the other side.”
Sandra worked the controls, finally sending the resonant signals to the rings that my entire staff had been begging me to send for weeks. Oddly, none of them looked happy now that they had finally gotten their way. I guess there’s just no way to please some people.
Over the next day, events slowly unfolded. The Macro fleet hung back. They didn’t advance toward the ring that led to Eden, but instead slowly traveled toward the Crustacean water-moons. On the opposite front, the Imperials were moving. They would soon be ready to push through and invade the Eden system.
I grinned at the screen. I’d had a good night’s sleep and kicked off the morning sipping caffeinated beverages. My crew looked disheveled, and I ordered several of them off the command deck for some R&R.
“You all look like hell,” I told them, “particularly you, Sarin. Go get a shower and something to eat. Take a nap, Miklos. You people need to learn how to pace yourselves.”
They left the deck, grumbling. Only Sandra looked relatively fresh, so I let her stay and brief me. She had stamina, that girl. I guessed the Microbial treatments had helped in that regard.
“The Macros are just sitting out there in the Thor system, Kyle. If both sides are supposed to hit us at once, they have already screwed up. The machines are at least a day behind the Imperial fleet now.”
I nodded and bit into my second donut. It was plain, glazed, and so fresh it was almost juicy. “This could all be over before the machines make their move. Either they are bewildered by the lack of data coming through the ring, or the Blues took our threats seriously and told them to delay.”
“The Blues are cowards. I think they told the Macros to hang back after your threats.”
“You could be right. I hope you’re right. If that’s how it’s going down, the Blues have clearly decided to screw the Empire rather than risk a bombing from us. In that case, we only have to face one front, rather than two. Pull those ships back we have orbiting the Blues’ homeworld. I want everything here at the Helios ring except for a few scout ships posted at the battle station. We’ll mass everything we have against Kerr, who is still advancing.”
We spent another day watching the Imperial fleet approach. They stayed in formation as they flew, displaying tight discipline. It struck me then how different a race like the Worms were. The Worms reminded me of barbarian warriors: a mass of gifted pilots flying in a shifting swarm, every individual eager to get to the enemy first and prove himself the braver warrior. By comparison, Earth’s forces were very self-controlled and resembled the Macros.
I had time to study the Crow’s ship-designs as they made their stately approach. The core of the fleet was made up of big, almost gaudy ships. They weren’t quite like anything we had. I figured Crow had combined the crude, mass-production capacity of Earth and used nanotech for the detail work. The ships therefore resembled old-fashioned sea-going vessels. They were built with flat planes of steel plating and cemented together by nanites. I could see how this approach would greatly increase his production rates. He’d harnessed the output of traditional Earth industry and build hybrid ships, rather than constructing them entirely with Nano materials. With limited Nano factory production, it was a logical thing to do to stretch his production to the maximum that could be achieved.
It was also bad news for us. The Imperial fleet was huge. I’d previously calculated they could have produced about twenty cruisers and a hundred or so destroyers over the months since I’d left Earth. That would have been bad enough. But instead, we saw over a thousand ships. They were of designs we’d never encountered before. Long, steel weapons-platforms with engines in the back, they appeared rectangular in shape. They looked something like old Earth battleships, but without a triangular lower hull and keel. They bristled with weaponry on every side. Their weapons and sensors protruded unevenly, making them look ugly and threatening. They were the very opposite of my comparatively sleek designs. No matter how displeasing they were to the eye, I had no doubt they would be effective in combat once they were in range.
The biggest ships were at the forefront of the formation. These surprised me. As they approached, I kept expecting a missile barrage. Instead, they didn’t fire until they were at medium-long range. At this distance, they were outside the reach of our heavy beams, but still within the reach of missiles.
“Railgun projectiles incoming, sir!” Miklos called out the alarm.
I startled awake in my command chair. I took a deep breath and squinted at the holotank. “Railguns? Who’s firing at what?”
“The Imperials sir. Those big ugly battlewagons of theirs. We now know they have railguns of their own, and they are firing at the ring. Fortunately, it will take nearly half an hour at this range for the projectiles to reach us. Should we order our scouts to stand, or pull back?”
I nodded thoughtfully. “He’s chasing off our scouts. He’s probably not inside his effective range, but we can’t very well leave our ships sitting there, waiting to find out if they’ll get a lucky hit. Pull back the scouts. We’ll wait for Kerr on the Eden side of the ring.”
Miklos relayed the orders, and our view of the approaching enemy changed from solid red objects to outlined wireframes. That meant the enemy positions were now theoretical. We could no longer see them directly.
Sandra came up and touched my shoulder. “Do you think they’ll really come through the ring, Kyle?” she asked me quietly. “Is Kerr that crazy? He has to know we’ll put up a good fight, and we might even win.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But I think he will come. He doesn’t know how strong we are, and I’m not about to show him until he gets here. He doesn’t know about the Centaur marines, how many gunboats I have, the mines we set up and the rest. He’ll expect tricks, but if you do the math, we shouldn’t be able to resist him. We’re stronger than we should be, due to having captured the Macro factories. The trouble is, I can’t tell him that to warn him off witho
ut giving up critical information. It’s maddening.”
She touched my cheek and tried to comfort me. I stared at the holotank, and I knew in my heart the battle I’d always hoped to avoid had finally begun.
-27-
Within minutes after I’d ordered the rings to be jammed, Marvin was on the command deck. His tentacles and cameras were moving like palm fronds in the wind, even though the stale air in the ship was oppressively still. He was clearly agitated.
“Colonel Riggs,” Marvin began. “I was under the impression that you were going to allow me to finish my decoding work before jamming the rings.”
“That was the original plan,” I admitted, “but they’re advancing into range and firing on us now. We don’t have time to screw around any longer. Did you manage to get anywhere with the code?”
“The key is nowhere near complete. Less than seventy percent of the symbols are cataloged, and my mapping of their protocol is woefully inadequate. If you were to ask me to generate a false set of instructions, I would surely fail and be detected at this point.”
I blinked at him. “That sounds like you got pretty far. Let me get this straight: you can now transcribe most of what their transmissions say?”
“Yes, but critical details are constantly left out. I would not consider such documents in any way accurate or reliable.”
“Just give me what you have!” I roared at him. “It doesn’t have to be perfect. Send it to a text file and put it on the consoles. For every unknown reference, print a set of Xs or something.”
“Incomplete data can be dangerous.”
“Only to them. Give me what you have.”
Reluctantly, Marvin sent a flurry of files to my attention. I opened them immediately and began reading. Within thirty seconds, I relayed the data to everyone on my command staff and ordered them to open the attachments.
There had been traffic between all three of our enemies. The Blues were clearly in the middle of the operation, talking to both the Macros and Earth’s fleet. We were still missing much of the data, such as the signatures of the transmitting parties. Unlike radio communications, there was no easy way to determine the source of the transmissions technologically. But that really didn’t matter. Following the context of the messages, such as references to fleet positions and intentions, it quickly became obvious who was talking to whom. When a message described a large fleet advancing into the Helios system, for example, I knew the transmission had come from Earth.
“Crow is talking to the Blues?” Sandra asked.
“Yes,” I said. “Or at least Kerr is. It’s undeniable.”
“But does this indicate they’re in league with the Macros themselves?” Miklos demanded. “We have to know that. Are there any direct messages from Crow to the Macros?”
After going over the messages Marvin had translated, I shook my head. The earlier ones were mostly garbled. Only the most recent transmissions were relatively clear. I marveled at Marvin’s mind once again. It was the fantastic moments like this which gave me the strength to put up with all his antics. He was a gifted problem solver. Upon reflection, I imagined that mad geniuses had always been critical to every war effort, and were probably always difficult to deal with. I recalled reading that both Michelangelo and Da Vinci had designed amazing war machines. I didn’t doubt for a second they’d both been a pain in the ass to deal with personally.
“This puts us in a different strategic situation,” I told my people when we’d all had time to digest the transcripts. “The transmissions don’t really tell us much that we didn’t already know concerning enemy fleet movements. But, we now know the two advancing fleets are in cooperation. The Blues seemed to be involved as go-betweens, having called upon both Crow’s Imperial forces and enticing the next wave of Macros to advance. Does anyone have anything to add? Give me input, team.”
“The strategy of the Blues is very clear, Colonel,” Miklos said, speaking up before the others. “They don’t like us being here, so they formed alliances with the largest powers in the region. I’m not sure how they expect to survive the coming conflict as a sovereign entity, however.”
I shrugged. “I guess they made a deal. They’re helping the Macros, and when the machines march in, they’ll sweep us aside. Just to make sure, they brought in Crow, too. Maybe they hope the three of us will annihilate one another in an orgy of destruction.”
“In return for helping them,” Captain Sarin said, “I imagine the Blues have been assured their neutrality will be respected by all sides.”
“Perhaps,” Miklos said, “and perhaps the machines will keep their deal. But I doubt Crow will, if he wins the day. He’ll screw the Blues over and enslave them.”
I nodded in agreement. “But the Blues don’t know Crow the way we do,” I said. “They seem to be good at sticking to the letter of their agreements, if not their spirit. I’ve noticed the same tendency when dealing with the Macros—I guess that only makes sense, since the Blues built the Macros in the first place.”
“In that case,” Miklos said, speaking slowly, “the Blues have miscalculated by including Crow. I’m reminded of the Pact which Russia and Germany signed before invading Poland. Stalin had no idea Hitler would violate the deal as soon as possible.”
I thought about it, frowning. I didn’t like Miklos’ analogy, but I had to agree that it fit the situation. What I didn’t like about it was that we were Poland in this scenario. No one wanted to be compared to Poland’s grim fate in World War II.
“We’re stronger than the Poles were in their horrible situation,” I said firmly. “I have no intention of being crushed within days by a surprise attack from both sides.”
Everyone looked at me seriously, but no one said anything. I wasn’t sure if they believed me or not.
“The key is in the timing. The Blues are holding back. With luck, Crow thinks they are holding up their end of the bargain and still advancing. Instead of being hit on both sides and being forced to split our defenses, we’ll stop Crow cold, then worry about the Macros, if they come at all.”
For once, no one argued with me. We broke up the meeting and went our separate ways. There was a mountain of organizational details to attend to. Many hours of hard work followed, and about a day later, the time to test our theories finally came.
“Sir,” Miklos said, “the Earth fleet has reached the ring. We’ve snuck through a few scouts to check on them over the last few hours. They’re about to enter the Eden system.”
I reviewed the holotank, which showed both systems in detail. The Imperial fleet was dauntingly huge. There were so many red contacts the holotank was having difficulty displaying them all.
“Speed and course?” I demanded.
“They’re heading directly toward the ring, but they’re still slowing down. It’s my belief they intend to come through slowly in an organized fashion. This is an opportunity, Colonel.”
“Explain.”
“They’re moving so slowly, we can throw space marines in front of them and allow direct boarding.”
I frowned at the boards and the holotank. As I watched, the enemy fleet flickered from red to orange. This meant their positions were now theoretical again. Our scouts had retreated to our side of the ring and we could no long see the enemy directly. It was either that, or they would have been destroyed.
Our own green line of ships had been arranged in a parabolic pattern a good distance from the ring. We had a few mines out there, but hadn’t bothered to overdo it with static defenses. I’d noted that over recent battles, those weapons hadn’t yielded much in the way of enemy casualties.
“No,” I said firmly. “I don’t want to commit any assault groups yet. They’re worried about our mines, which means they’ll put some big defensive ships in the lead. Those are the worst class of vessels for our marines to assault: heavily-protected ships with thick hulls and a lot of point-defense cannons to detect and shoot down mines—or other small targets.”
Miklos nodded, but
looked unhappy. I could tell he wanted to commit the marines anyway. I understood his logic. The marines had trouble when assaulting any ship that was moving too fast. They had to be at close to the same relative velocity to operate, and right now the enemy was gliding slowly through the ring. This represented the perfect opportunity for landing on the enemy vessels instead of splatting upon them due to a huge difference in relative velocities.
“Don’t worry Captain,” I assured Miklos, “our troops will get more than their fill of combat today. Instead of throwing them at the first Imperial ships we see, we’ll hold them in reserve. We’ve got our gunships in a line at maximum effective range. The moment they come through, wallowing and slow, we’ll bombard them with everything we’ve got. They all have to wriggle out of that ring, remember. Just a few ships at a time will be appearing.”
“As you say, Colonel,” Miklos said. He sounded miffed.
I glanced at him and thought: too bad.
A few minutes later, it began. As I’d expected, the most monstrous ships with tons of forward armor came through in groups of three. I was reminded of ancient battling rams. These ships had been built for this purpose. They were intended to absorb punishment so the lighter vessels behind them didn’t have to.
Now that we were much closer, we could see the details on the enemy vessels with our long-range optics. The forward section of these ships had an interesting series of design elements. I was intrigued, and studied them intently, zooming in as closely as I was able. I saw a series of dark, textured masses moving in front of each vessel.
“What the hell are they holding in front of them?” I asked.
“Shields, sir,” Miklos said. “Probably made of asteroid rock, rather than metal. They’re pushing big chunks of thick stone in front of them, like bulldozers hiding behind their lowered blades.”
I nodded. “Or like Greek hoplites hiding behind their interlocked tower shields while they steadily advance. In a way, I’m proud that Old Earth could put together a force like this. It’s comforting. If we lose today gentlemen, we can be confident that our species will still prevail in this cosmos.”