by Daniel Gibbs
“Aye aye, sir!” MacDonald immediately responded, pulling a tiny drone out of its casing. No larger than a fly, it was linked directly into the HUD in his space-armored suit. Controlling it via a simple neural interface, MacDonald willed the drone to fly around the corner. As it did see, both Singh and MacDonald could see through the return video feed that two League soldiers stood guard outside of the control room. Thankfully, neither were wearing power armor.
“How’d you want to do this, Captain?” MacDonald asked.
“I was thinking we use our silenced sidearms and shoot both of them in the head, using the drone’s feed for precise targeting. What about you?”
“Exactly what was going through my mind too, sir.”
“Excellent,” Singh replied. He drew his sidearm and attached a long suppressor to the end of the barrel. Once set, he glanced at MacDonald, who had done the same. “Execute.” He stepped forward at the same time as MacDonald and sighted down on the enemy soldier to his right, while MacDonald took the one on the left. Using the real-time information feed transmitted from the drone, he adjusted his aim by a couple of millimeters, and they fired at the same time. Both Leaguers dropped to the floor, killed instantly. The sound their bodies made hitting the deck was louder than the report of the two pistol shots.
“Tango down,” MacDonald commented, stepping forward with his sidearm still trained on his target. He expertly felt for a pulse from both men, before turning back toward Singh. “We’re clear.”
“Rostami,” Singh said into his suit’s communicator. “Get up here and get us into their network.”
A few moments later, Rostami came jogging around the junction in the passageway, his small tablet at the ready. Kneeling next to a data port, he plugged directly into the station’s network. “I’m in, sir. Give me a few minutes.”
Singh stood behind Rostami as he hammered away at the tablet, first obtaining access to the network by circumventing its firewalls, then using a set of captured League of Sol officer level credentials to log in to the primary operations system.
Rostami glanced backward. “Captain, I’m in. Good news and bad news. Good news is I’ve got full access. The bad news is this compartment doesn’t have direct atmospheric ventilation capability, nor is it close enough to the hull for us to use limpet mines to blow it out.”
Singh cursed under his breath. “Does it have a fire fighting system?”
Rostami nodded. “Yes, sir, it does. It’s a halon-based system... I see. Yes, I can trigger a false fire alarm and flood the control room with halon gas. We’ll need to lock this specific area out from communications traffic, though, or they’ll figure out what we’re up to when the call for help goes out.”
Singh pulled out a jamming device from his suit. “How about this? Reconfigure it to jam known League comms frequencies, instead of the frequencies they use to set off explosives.”
Rostami took the device and plugged another cable from it, into his tablet. “That’ll do, sir. Give me a few minutes.”
Singh watched his man work the tablet, his mind racing as to the time it was taking. The very soft report of two shots jolted him. A transmission to his commlink came through before he could ask what happened. “Captain, League security patrol neutralized. No alarms.”
“Hurry it up, Rostami,” Singh hissed.
With a final theatrical flourish, Rostami punched the last button on his tablet. “Atmosphere in the control room, neutralized. Communications jammed.”
The men suddenly heard pounding on the door and screaming from within the control room. Over the next couple of minutes, it subsided… then ceased altogether.
“Alpha and Beta teams, stack on me,” Singh commanded. The two commando teams lined up, weapons at the ready, with the point man of each team aiming their weapon at the doors of the control center. “Rostami, open it up.”
“Aye aye, sir!” the electronics expert replied, punching a button. The doors slid open quickly, revealing the control room within. There were bodies everywhere, and the commandos rushed in. A few unlucky survivors stirred; one had even made it to the weapons locker and withdrawn a sidearm. The commandos efficiently dispatched them with silenced shots, mostly to the head.
“Clear!” MacDonald shouted from one side of the room, while another commando tasked with the opposite side also shouted, “Clear!”
Rostami sat down at a central control console and went to work.
Singh glanced around the room. “Master Chief! Set up defensive positions on both exits and place some remote-controlled claymores in the surrounding passageways,” he shouted. While the explosives powering them and the projectiles expended had become more technologically advanced, old-fashioned claymore mines were still employed by the CDF. They remained highly effective anti-personnel weapons.
“Aye aye, sir!” MacDonald responded crisply. “Bravo team, take up defensive positions on the port exit. Alpha team, you take starboard.”
As the commandos filed out, Rostami fist-pumped the air in celebration. “I’m in, Captain. We’ve got operational control of the mines.”
For the first time since they launched on the mission, Singh relaxed ever so slightly; while there was still a tremendous battle to be fought, this piece was the most critical and hardest to execute successfully. They’d succeeded beyond his wildest expectations, coming this far without being discovered or losing anyone to enemy fire.
“PO,” Singh began, addressing Rostami by the abbreviation of his rank. “Signal the Lion of Judah on the high energy communication system, burst transmission. Inform them we’ve secured the minefield and they’re cleared to jump in.”
“Yes, sir!” Rostami replied with evident pride in his voice.
His pride is well deserved. The young man had been on the team for eight months and had just gotten out of his probationary period. He was, in the parlance of Space Special Warfare Command, a full-fledged tier-one operator. He’d come very far in the last eight months, and Singh hoped with continued experience, he would, in time, be an elite within the very elite. Now they just had to survive the next few hours and get off Unity Station alive.
27
David stared at the mission clock as it ticked ever onward. Several hours in, they’d yet to hear from the commandos. Anticipation was thick in the atmosphere of the bridge.
Taylor’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “Conn, Communications. I’ve got flash traffic from Captain Singh, sir. The minefield has been disabled!”
Shouts rang out across the bridge of the Lion of Judah, and even David was swept up in the excitement. After giving the bridge crew a moment to savor the success, he nodded to the master chief.
“As you were! Maintain proper bridge protocol!” Tinetariro barked.
The effect was immediate as quiet broke out almost as quickly as if a thunderclap had been heard.
David cleared his throat. “Okay, people, back on point. This is only the first step of many today. Communications, signal the fleet to prepare to jump back to Unity Station using the pre-arranged coordinates distributed earlier this morning.”
“Aye aye, sir!” Taylor replied crisply. “Conn, Communications. All command ships are reporting confirmation of your orders. The fleet awaits the final order to engage.”
David glanced forward to Hammond. “Navigation, confirm Lawrence drive coordinates.”
“Conn, Navigation. Coordinates confirmed and locked in, sir.”
“TAO, confirm high explosive rounds loaded into all magnetic cannons.”
“Conn, TAO. High explosive rounds loaded into all magnetic cannons, energy weapons capacitor is fully discharged,” Ruth replied.
David looked to Aibek. “Anything else, XO?”
Aibek shook his head. “I think we are ready, General. At least, this Saurian is.”
David cracked a smile. “Here we go. Communications, signal the fleet to jump as soon as we transit.”
“Aye aye, sir,” Taylor said.
“Navigation, engage Law
rence drive.”
“Aye aye, sir!” Hammond answered, engaging the massive Lawrence drive generators housed deep within the armored keel of the Lion. The lights on the bridge dimmed, and a vortex of swirling colors opened up in front of the mighty vessel. Once the artificial wormhole had stabilized, she engaged the sub-light engines, and the Lion picked up speed, entering the anomaly. A split second later, they emerged on the other side.
During the transit, David bowed his head and whispered a prayer in Hebrew, asking God to watch over the fleet and spare the lives of their soldiers, Marines and pilots if was His will. The first few seconds after a Lawrence drive jump were always spent on edge for him; blind and without sensors, they were sitting ducks for enemy ships. The stealthy drones from the Oxford had helped immensely in determining where they would jump in, but something was still left to chance.
“Conn, TAO. LIDAR online… numerous friendly contacts appearing all around us, sir. Unity Station is thirty thousand kilometers away, and we’re five thousand kilometers from the outer edge of the minefield. Unity Station now designated as Master One.”
“Status of enemy ships, TAO?” David asked.
“One moment, sir,” Ruth said as she waited for a full count to come in. “Sir, I’m showing three hundred and fifty-four enemy vessels, led by two Napoleon class carriers and six Alexander class battleships. Many escorts and small craft are present.”
“It would appear the Oxford’s observations were correct, Colonel,” Aibek commented.
“Yes, it would, XO. Let’s hope our luck continues to hold. We still need a few things to go our way.”
“Conn, Communications. I’ve got an incoming transmission from Unity Station. It’s Admiral Seville, sir.”
“Maybe he wants to gloat,” Aibek said with a smirk.
“Communications, put Admiral Seville on my viewer.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
A moment later, David’s personal viewer snapped on, showing the drab interior of Unity Station’s central control room, with Admiral Seville taking up most of the visible space. “Ah, we meet again, Colonel Cohen… oh, wait no, General Cohen! Congratulations on your promotion! Stepping over the body, as it were, of your former admiral?”
David’s face contorted; Seville was able to get under his skin in ways few men could. “Temporary rank, for this mission only, Admiral.”
“And what mission might that be, General?”
“Taking out your fleet and your space station,” David said with a hint of a smile.
“Have you forgotten our minefield? Your fleet doesn’t have enough missiles to clear it all out, though I’ll admit it was an inspired response to our new weapon.”
“Well, no, actually… as a matter of fact, we didn’t forget about your minefield.” David smiled widely. “However, I think you might find it’s no longer effective.”
David clicked off the communications channel from his chair as Aibek laughed. “I’d like him to sweat a little for once.”
“What’s the phrase you humans use about chickens and counting them?”
“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch,” Ruth intoned.
“Yes, that one,” Aibek said.
“Let’s find out for sure, XO. Navigation, intercept course, Master One.”
“Aye aye, sir,” Hammond immediately replied.
“Communications, signal the fleet to hold position,” David commanded while glancing toward Hammond. “Navigation, ETA to the minefield outer edge?”
“Forty-five seconds sir.”
“Conn, Communications. Receiving a transmission from Captain Singh.”
“On my viewer, Lieutenant!” David barked.
The viewer came alive, showing Singh with his helmet off. “Good to see you, General.”
“Likewise, Captain. What’s your status?”
“We’ve got the minefield in inactive mode, and our electronics expert has given us a couple of options. We can either try to flip the IFF receiver on Unity Station and configure the field to attack League ships or we can remotely destroy it.”
David and Aibek exchanged glances. “If we could use their own weapon against them…” he began before Singh interrupted him.
“Sir, that option will take some time. Destroying the field can be done as of now.”
“Navigation! Emergency stop, all back full,” David ordered.
“Aye aye, sir,” Hammond said as the ship bucked and the crew was thrown forward in their seats.
“It’s only a matter of time until Seville figures out what we’ve done,” David began. “Destroying the field now evens the playing field between our forces. Blow the field, Captain. Then find a good defensive location until the Marines arrive.”
“Understood, sir. We’ll detonate the field momentarily. Singh out.”
Aibek glanced at David. “I could see trying to flip the IFF, General.”
David shook his head. “Look at it like this, XO. We blow the field, the mines are off the table for either side. That’s a win for us because they distort the battlespace in favor of the League. If Captain Singh were able to change that IFF code, it would be a major win, yes. But if he failed and were overrun, then it’d be an absolute disaster.”
“Sometimes there is a place for daring, sir.”
“Yes, there is,” David admitted. “But not on this one. When I’m playing for all the marbles, I’ve got to be conservative.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
“Conn, Navigation. We’ve reached minimum safe distance, sir.”
“Navigation, all stop,” David ordered.
“All stop, aye.”
“Conn, TAO! Aspect change fore!”
David felt the ship begin to shake as Ruth was speaking.
“Thousands of mine detonations, sir! As far as our sensors can tell, that was every mine in the field!”
“Nice work, Captain Singh,” David said to no one in particular. “Well, fortune favors the bold. Navigation, take us in. Communications, signal the fleet to advance.”
The various stations responded affirmatively as David watched the tactical plot; however, there was another side effect of the mines all going off at the same time. It appeared their sensors were having a hard time penetrating the cloud of charged particles and ionization.
“TAO, you seeing the sensor distortions?” David asked.
“Yes, sir, I am. My assessment is our approach will be covered, but it’ll be hard for us to see them at the same time.”
“Which favors us yet again, General,” Aibek interjected. “Especially our Marine transports.”
“Yes, it does. Good news all the way around,” David commented, agreeing with his XO. He turned toward Taylor. “Lieutenant, I believe you have a shuttle to catch.”
“Thank you, sir. My relief is here and standing by,” Taylor replied.
David stood from his chair and made his way over to the communications station. “Lieutenant, I’d like to shake the hand of a brave man,” he said while extending his hand toward Taylor.
Taylor took the offered hand and shook warmly. “Thank you, sir.”
“Lieutenant, you’ve got nothing to prove. I hope you know that. I consider it an honor to serve with you, and I’m thankful you were posted to my ship.”
Taylor pursed his lips together. “That means a lot coming from you, sir. Sometimes we have to prove something to ourselves, though.”
“Just come back in one piece, Lieutenant. There’s a lot of League transmissions left to crack once we start pushing toward Earth.”
“I’ll do my best, sir,” Taylor said while David took note of the beads of sweat apparent on his forehead.
“Good luck, and Godspeed.”
Taylor offered a final nod in David’s direction before turning and walking out of the bridge with purpose.
David watched him go, then strode back to his chair and sat down with a sigh. “I hope I don’t regret letting him do this, XO.”
“Lieutenant Taylor is a warrior
. All warriors must sometimes answer the call.”
“I just want him to come back in one piece.”
“The Prophet’s will be done,” Aibek said with finality.
Simultaneously onboard Unity Station, Admiral Pierre Seville was sitting in stunned shock, observing the aftermath of his secret weapon being destroyed. Damn these religious fanatics! He fumed mentally but kept the sentiment bottled up inside; it wouldn’t do for his underlings to see him out of control.
“Captain Monet!” Seville shouted. “How did they do that?”
Monet’s face turned ashen. “Admiral, we can’t raise the technicians in charge of the mines on internal communication systems. Station security is responding.”
Seville stood, immediately on guard. “Captain, scan for communications jammers on the lower decks.”
“Sir, it is highly unlikely—” Astrid began.
“Don’t tell me what’s unlikely, just do it.”
Astrid nodded to the crewman whose station she stood over. After a moment, the results came up on the screen. “Admiral… we appear to have an enemy force on board.”
“Forget your internal security forces. They’ll be going up against the Terran Coalition’s finest space-based commandos and will be nothing more than cannon fodder. Get power-armored Marines suited up and in there as fast as you can. Save the security forces for the invasion of this station that is undoubtedly to come.”
“Admiral, you’re overreacting,” Astrid stated, her voice low and betraying her worry at the escalating situation.
“Overreacting? Overreacting would be to have you shot for your incompetence on the spot, Captain. Our sensors are blind. If I were the Terran commander, I’d use this opportunity to get as close as possible, deploy my Marines, and then turn aside to engage the fleet. We may be fighting against religious fanatics and people who can’t see reason and logic, but that doesn’t mean they’re not good at their business. Never underestimate this enemy!” Seville thundered.