* * *
The Sisters on the bridge of the Papa San Gregorius watched with practiced patience while Tia Nguyen paced the chamber. Yanik and Sarno each kept an eye on her as she grew increasingly agitated. She kept casting her eyes furtively to the operational clock on the command holotank.
"They are not overdue yet," Yanik reminded her. "You do them a disservice."
"Do I?" It's a cultural thing, remember that, she reminded herself. It was hard to be charitable given the feelings this stirred within her.
"Do not doubt them. They will succeed."
"Your friend speaks the truth, if perhaps harshly," Sarno said. Her tone was sympathetic. "It's hard, being in command. Waiting to hear from comrades, friends, who have gone into danger while you remain behind."
"I wish I was with them," Tia muttered. "I should've gone too."
"No, you shouldn't have." Sarno's tone turned firm. "Chairwoman Nguyen, whatever I think about your politics, even I recognize your qualities, and more importantly, that you've inspired the Hestians here. Even among Lou's mercenaries, there is respect for what you've done, what you've survived, and what you seek. If something happened to you there, even if we won, we would likely lose in the end from the resulting blow to morale. That is why you are in the right place."
At first, Tia had no response to give. "I can't help it. I… they're my crew too."
"Yes, so show faith in them." Sarno clasped her hands together and ran a finger over a rosary bead. "If nothing else."
She's right. You know she's right. Trust in them. Tia nodded briskly. "You're right, of course. It's just not easy."
"The day it becomes easy is the day you should worry about yourself," the elderly nun answered.
* * *
On the newly-renamed Liberator's bridge, Henry watched the approaching transports. The main holo display now showed the feed from the Venture Star sensors and the approaching transports. They would soon be in firing range of the station point-defenses, which meant that at a strong burn, they could land within minutes as well.
"We should have the computerized systems set up in a few minutes. Then it's all on Pieter," Miri informed him. "You at least have comms if you need them."
"He's standing by to bring the reactors online." Henry glanced toward Vidia. "Put Sister Innocentia back on."
Vidia nodded. "Yes, Captain."
"Sister, prepare to open fire with the station weapons."
"Should we not give them a chance to surrender first?" There was an edge to her voice.
We probably shouldn't, he thought. But the Sisters didn't go for lethal force when it wasn't absolutely necessary, and neither he nor Tia would oppose them on that. "I'll broadcast a surrender demand." He glanced again toward Vidia, who acted quickly before gesturing that he was on. "Attention approaching security transports, you are not permitted to land. Turn around now."
A reply came a moment later. "Who is this?!"
"Someone your bosses really pissed off." Henry folded his hands in his lap. "I don't want to hurt anyone I don't have to, but we won't let you land on the station. If you continue to burn in, we'll open fire with the defenses."
Silence was the initial response. "You wouldn't," the voice retorted. "This is a bluff. If you destroy us, you're dead. Our ships will blow that station apart if they have to."
"Even if they did, you'll still be dead. Going to risk it?"
While another silence continued, Cera's head rose toward a display. "I've got helm control," she said.
On the screen, the shuttles' position markers moved even faster. They were accelerating up to evasive velocity. Either Rigault's put a lot of fear into these folks or they're just as arrogant. Henry used his chair's controls to switch back to his tactical channel with Sister Innocentia in the station command room. "Sister, they didn't accept."
"So I see." The resignation in her voice weighed it down. "God forgive us all."
"He will, I think," Henry replied. "Vidia, think you could patch us through to an external cam? Show me those transports."
Vidia did so. On the screen, the transports were burning in on full thrust and already crossing into the station's point-defense range.
Emplacements across that section of the station swiveled to meet them. In an instant, several streams of projectiles met in the course of the lead transport. Due to its size, its deflectors were only for navigational purposes, not deflecting fire. The magnetically-accelerated rounds virtually ripped the ship apart, hulling it in so many places none aboard were likely still alive.
The transports behind started maneuvering while the turrets swiveled onto their courses. Within five seconds, another took several hits to its front section and started drifting. Henry figured the pilot was either dead or wounded beyond the ability to retain control, his ship continuing on a course that would take it away from the station.
The turrets moved toward the other ships, but they were already breaking off. One took a couple hits that blew out one of the two plasma drives propelling it. Only Innocentia's crew disengaging the guns saved that ship from further hits.
"Looks like we did it," Vidia said. "They're runnin'."
"Yeah, but we've just confirmed hostile action to their bosses. We're now at zero hour for the invasion." Henry turned his way again. "Vidia, get on interstellar comms. Let Tia know it's time to bring the fleet in." His finger keyed his link. "Pieter, get those engines going, ASAP. We're going to need them."
"Beginning startup now."
* * *
Antoine's attention was on the Assembly when his link went off. Given the situation, he kept himself from cursing. Whoever proposes laws should be read and voted on with such length should be shot, he thought viciously while reaching for his link.
Below, Awang banged his gavel again, silencing another protest to allow the clerk to finish the final reading of the Workplace Security Act.
Satisfied that everything was continuing as desired, Antoine returned his attention to his link. This time, it was an audio call from the HSF's on-watch commander in Planetary Defense. So there is something wrong, he thought, scowling. He raised the link to his mouth. "Report."
"Director, the transports we sent to the Rigault Lunar Station were fired upon by the station defenses. Rigault Security is no longer under our control!"
The news made his stomach twist in agony. My cruisers! No! "Scramble more transports and fighters! Blast through the point-defenses and get troops aboard! Now!" His words carried through the galley and even down into the Assembly, where the voting stopped for the moment.
"Continue on!" he bellowed before rising from his seat. From there, he rushed from the galley, his mind racing. Kepper should be aboard… or is he? His worst fears about the delay rose within him. Have I been betrayed? Tricked? Is he even on that damn ship?!
"Yes, Director, we're ordering them out now."
There's more to this than a mere raid on the station. They couldn't have known we relocated the project to the station. My security was too tight! With the suspicions in his mind intensifying further by the moment, he entered the hall of the Assembly Building. I need to get to planetary command. "Put defensive squadrons on alert," he ordered. "I want the entire planet under martial law by—"
"Sir, we have ships jumping into the lunar L5 point, unscheduled arrivals!"
Antoine's grip on the link intensified. "What kind of ships?"
"A number of transports. Local buoys confirm many are armed. Some armed security force or military vessels as well. They're burning toward Hestia orbit, sir."
"Prepare all security forces, send out an invasion alarm!"
"Sending… sir, a transmission is coming from the fleet on all civilian channels."
Antoine's link noted the same. He switched it to display the incoming signal.
Tia Nguyen appeared on the screen. His face curled into an angry snarl, which did little to show the fury now raging inside of his heart.
It wasn't just seeing her. It was seeing
how she looked. Civilian clothing, but she had an arm band on her right arm, red and black in color, bearing the five-pointed gold star of the original Hestian settlers' flag. A pistol was holstered on her hip. It was clear she was not simply here to fight but to lead a revolution.
"People of Hestia, I am Tia Nguyen of the Hestian Workers' Party. Please hear me! I come to you as a daughter of our people, of our world, to warn you of the threat posed by Antoine Rigault's so-called 'Workplace Security Act'. The law was explicitly written to permit him to implant a neural control implant in the people of Hestia. This would allow the megacorps to control our bodies as if we were machines, to reduce us to the most complete slavery imaginable!"
As she spoke, the screen divided to show images. They were of the neutral control implant and the scarred necks of Hestians. Footage from a surgical theater showed a scrubs-clad doctor removing the implant from the back of patients' necks.
"I have suffered this device myself. It is nothing less than a living death! We cannot and will not allow this atrocity to continue!" Tia declared. "In the name of our liberty, I have gathered forces from across Neutral Space, forces ready to fight for a free Hestia. They have come to free our world from the Hestian Business Council and end, once and for all, the threat of enslavement that Rigault and the other megacorps pose to all worlds!
"This is the time to rise up, my people! Rise and fight for your freedom! It is the only way to save ourselves and our children from the most cruel slavery imaginable, the theft of our own bodies! Together we can—"
He shut his link display off and re-opened his communication to Planetary Defense Command. "Get General Rousseau, now, and alert all HSF detachments to begin arresting every Hestian on the suspicion list! We cannot allow this uprising to start!"
"Yes, General."
Antoine rushed out of the Assembly Building. His security detachment brought him to his secure helicar, and the driver immediately took off for Planetary Defense. He looked down upon the streets of Thyssenbourg. Most of these sectors were offworlder-inhabited, but even here, he noticed people gathering. They'd better be preparing to fight. Nguyen and her radicals will slaughter them to the last man, woman, and child.
Helicar travel meant the trip took only a few minutes, as PDC was in a bunker beneath HSF headquarters. He rushed through the building and down the lift to the bunker. General Rousseau met him. He had a dusky yet Caucasian complexion, with ash-gray hair already thinned to a crown around a bald head, one he kept covered. "Director." He saluted.
Antoine didn't return it. "What's our status?"
"This was planned, sir." He gestured toward a liquid crystal display showing a Mercator projection of Hestia. To Antoine's fury, multiple cities were now flashing red. "Every district on the planet has an uprising. Armed guerillas are attacking HSF and corporate security posts in every major city and industrial center. We've outright lost contact with rural patrol units in half of the districts, and we have reports of corporate officials being assaulted and physically removed from their properties."
Fury gave way to incredulity. "This isn't possible," he insisted. "The Hestians don't have the weapons for this!"
"It's possible they were more careful than we anticipated in rebuilding their arms caches," Rousseau speculated.
"Or someone provided them weapons." Could the League be betraying me? Aristide, or her superiors? Or… Lou. That jumped-up little bastard; he's behind this, isn't he? The more he thought of that, the more it made sense. Nguyen's "coalition" could only have been formed with the aid of a wealthy benefactor, and the HBC's assets would've been sure to find such if it came from an actual government. But Lou's corporate security always proved sufficient to prevent penetration from their espionage assets.
"The battle is still early, Director. We can recover this," Rousseau promised. "As it is, the uprising in Thyssenbourg seems limited to the outskirts. They're not daring to invade the inner heart of the city like they tried in their last revolution."
"Because they expect Nguyen's troops to lead that assault." Antoine balled his fists. His rage flared anew. "I want every unit mobilized, now. All rules of engagement are suspended. If they must burn a Hestian town down to reclaim it, let it burn. Torch the farms in the countryside to hasten starvation. Execute any armed Hestian adult found. Let these stubborn, dirty little…" He struggled for the right word to use. "...peasants learn the price of revolt, and let them learn it so harshly that, in the end, they will bare their own necks for the implants rather than risk defiance!"
Rousseau swallowed, but did not object. "I will send the orders. And what of the invading fleet?"
"Sortie all of our defense squadrons and destroy them!" Antoine roared. "Send that bitch Nguyen to hell along with her followers!"
"What about the station?"
And my cruisers. "Ignore it for now. We'll finish them off once Nguyen's dead."
The general nodded and went to work. Antoine let him go. He walked to a corner of the room and used his link to connect to a QET he kept, one not part of the regular corporate network. "Aristide," he growled into the link. "Nguyen has provoked an uprising across the planet, and her people have taken the station. I can't verify Breivik's status now. And there is a chance they will take control of my cruisers. We may need your assistance."
There was a pause before her reply came. "Keep us informed, Director. My squadrons stand ready, if we are required to save the situation."
44
On the bridge of the Papa San Gregorius, Tia turned away from the recorder. Shahkrit and Sarno nodded at her. Yanik merely blinked his eyes. "Do we have any word from the others?"
Shahkrit consulted his link. "The cells are all in action. Every district has an active uprising. The HSF hasn't organized a response yet." He grinned at Tia.
I shouldn't hope so early, but I can't help it. She felt a vibration within her very being, energy that demanded it be released. We can do this! We can end it all here!
The quiet eyes of Mother Sarno brought Tia back from that elation. The battle hadn't even started yet; it was too early to get so confident. Indeed, she already recognized the issue with the HSF's lack of an organized response. "They will, unless we give them another threat to worry about." Tia's gaze fell on the holotank. Her fleet of ships were burning in at the best common thrust possible. The L5 jump point meant they would be able to land in the next few hours.
"Now that we're getting real-time data from the planet, we should check our landing sites again." Sarno gestured to the holotank. One of her subordinates brought up the city in question. Blue fields appeared over park areas near the city center as well as the spaceport, not far from the Cả River, which ran from the northeast to the southwest through Thyssenbourg. "It would appear our identified landing points are already being covered by local forces."
"We expected that," Tia said. "But you'll note their spread out at other possible landing points across the city." A vicious grin crossed her face. "This time they don't have the League supplying our plans to them, so they have to guard everything."
"And a force trying to defend everywhere can be overwhelmed in one spot," Sarno said. "Still, we may need to reconsider some of our landing targets."
With Shahkrit's participation, they debated shifting forces around, to better deal with the apparent HSF dispositions. Sarno was cautious, Shahkrit aggressive, and she found her own instincts conflicting or agreeing with them depending on specific suggestions. So she accepted some recommendations and refused others.
One of the Sisters, Beatrice, raised a head from the sensor panel. "Mother Sarno, we have bogeys coming in on two attack vectors… no, three."
"Hayabusas?" Sarno asked.
Beatrice checked the profiles. "Yes, among others. They will enter engagement range in thirty minutes. Other squadrons are further behind, estimated time to combat range is forty-five and seventy-five minutes."
She nodded. "Order the fleet to launch our fighters and prepare the point-defense systems."
>
The order was sent. A couple of the ships had hangar bays with their own fighters, which launched directly from said hangars. Two of the Sisters' warships had fighters attached to their hulls before the jump, already armed for space superiority combat. Their pilots had to use magboots to get to their craft, but they would sortie in time as well.
What followed was thirty minutes that felt like thirty hours to Tia. While combat klaxons briefly sounded and the ship went into combat alert, she had nothing to do. For all her years spent in space, coordinating space fleets was Henry's specialty, and Sarno's people were better qualified than her to do the job.
The first wave came in, numbering at least sixty craft. They ripple-fired missiles into the fleet's formation. The tactical action officer of the San Papa Gregorius announced the point-defense systems were engaging. Some of the fleet's weapons were mounted in gimbal mounts, others on barbettes, and all fired their projectiles to intercept the incoming missile strikes and the bombers firing them.
The holotank no longer had Thyssenbourg displayed. Blue arrowhead icons for friendly ships remained in formation, surrounded by the smaller blue triangles of fighters, as red triangles lobbed little red dots toward them. The number of those dots looked overwhelming. Tia swallowed nervously at the thought of how much damage those missiles could do. Elation filled her as one by one the dots started to disappear, representing successes from the fleet's point-defense volleys.
Several dots got through, striking various blue icons. A couple got all the way to the center. "Possible impacts! All hands brace!" the ship's commander, Sister Patricia, called out into the ship intercom.
In the end, one dot died just before it reached them. The entire ship shook under Tia's feet while she held on to a railing. It was a good shake, but not the worst she'd felt.
Their counterfire hadn't been ineffective, at least. Twenty enemy bombers were gone, and the remaining were breaking off.
"Deflectors took it, but are down to partial efficiency," noted another Sister.
Breach of Trust: Breach of Faith Book Four Page 35