“Frag, there are three more incoming ships braking for the troop carrier. The Baileyville’s in trouble,” the ExO said, shaking his head.
“Looks like we got one,” the radar tech said. “It’s tumbling and ballistic.”
“Frag! Holy fragging shit,” the helmsman roared. “It’s lined straight on us.”
“Collision alert,” the AA said, its emotionless voice cutting through the chaos like a stream of liquid nitrogen. “Take immediate evasive action. Collision alert.”
Captain Drayfus made eye contact with his engineer who was shaking his head.
Kitty Hawk: Lunar Orbit:
“The Orion’s down.”
“She’s scattering pods,” the ExO said. “It looks like they’ve lost primary power and control. We’ve got no com connection.”
“Tracking her trajectory puts her hard down somewhere near Unity Mining on the far side of Mare Serenitatis,” the navigator said.
“Negative on that, it’s going to smack the Impulse first,” the ExO said. “Why aren’t they scooting?”
“Their engine’s down,” the sensor tech said.
Captain Franklin closed her eyes for a second, she wasn’t a particularly god-thinking type, but she whispered a quick prayer and then nodded. “Warn Unity Mining that they might have incoming debris. An E-class cruiser’s going to make a mess out of a lot of real estate.”
“It’s going to be raining metal all over the Iridium basin for a week, too,” the com officer said. “We might want to put out the word down there.”
“Do it,” the captain said. “How long until we can get back into the engagement?”
“Twelve minutes to complete our turn, but it might be recovery by then,” the helmsman reported.
“Is it over?” she asked.
“Everything but the Orion sir,” the sensor tech said. “We killed nine and crippled power and engines on at least another eleven, including the assault carrier. The remaining ships have broken off and are running for Galileo. Most of them appear to be limping.”
“Damage reports coming in,” the ExO said, the coldness in his voice telling her he was clamping down hard on his emotions. “We’ve lost reactor three and atmosphere on decks 27-31. Two portside guns are down and the main nose weapons are offline from grid failure. Engineering teams are dealing with minor fires throughout the ship.”
“Dream well, Orion,” the navigator said, as the image of the multicruiser erupting into an expanding cloud of gas and debris played out in slow motion on the main screen. The size difference between the ships was almost a factor of ten, but still there was more than enough mass in the Impulse to shred what was left of the Orion.
The inevitability of inertia finished the job for both ships.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Governor’s Office: Gateway Colony: L-4 Prime:
“Do you have a colony wide com system?” Chancellor Roja asked. Her face looked like she was dying. On the inside.
“We do,” Jeph said. “At least I think we do. Is there a problem?”
She nodded. “I have an announcement to make and I’d prefer not to have to do this more than once. We just got news from down-system and it’s likely to change things for all of us. When I’ve finished, I’d like you remain on the com so we can discuss what comes next.”
“Of course,” he said, swinging around in his seat and watching the wall image.
“We are ready when you are, Madam Chancellor,” Dutch said.
“Thank you.” She cleared her throat and Jeph watched her pick herself up and shake off the weight of whatever it was.
“Good afternoon, everyone,” she said, her voice filling everywhere in the colony and the Kanahto control room. Her face shifted as she considered her words before she went on. “Actually, it is not a good afternoon. A few minutes ago, we received word from Admiral Quintana at the L-2 Shipyard that there has been a massive attack on New Hope City.
“A little over a month ago, Mayor Pallassano declared her support for our resistance of the illegal coup that has taken over the Union government. As a result of her decision, Derek Tomlinson launched a military assault on New Hope City and Underhive. His forces have mercilessly attacked civilians in an attempt to undermine public support for her decision. FleetCom has been working to reinforce NHC and Underhive against this attack. However, as of about seven hours ago Tomlinson’s so-called government escalated the situation to unprecedented levels. We fear the results have been … severe.”
She paused and cleared her throat again as she looked down.
“At this moment, it seems likely that Underhive has been destroyed entirely. It appears that the attacking forces detonated a fifty-kiloton nuclear device in or near the lower levels of Underhive. We assume that there are few, if any, survivors.
“Immediately after the detonation, Paulson Lassiter made an announcement. He took responsibility, and warned that further resistance to the new government will result in a similar swift and devastating response. The magnitude of this unprecedented attack shows the ruthlessness of those now in power, and it must strengthen our resolve to resist them at any cost.
“FleetCom sent a wing of multicruisers to assist in rescue and recovery efforts. We expect they will have met with resistance by this point, as there is still a substantial enemy force in position above the site of the attack. With any luck, it is likely that our multicruisers have delivered our response to the enemy warships, so rest assured this is not over. We cannot let this brutal act intimidate us into submission.”
She paused again this time letting out a slow sigh, the weight of responsibility settling back onto her shoulders. “I know that many of you among our combined crews have friends and family in NHC, and our hearts go out to you and them. We will do our best to keep all of you informed as news comes in, but for now we must all stay focused on the task at hand. Tyranny never sleeps, and we must be ready when it comes for us.”
She nodded to indicate that they should cut the internal com and then closed her eyes and waited for several seconds. Before she opened her eyes, Danel and Dr. Jameson had showed up at Jeph’s door. Anju came through several seconds later with Tana and Saf close on her heels.
Tana looked like she was ill, but Saffia was ready to take the war to them. By brute force if necessary.
“Did they really nuke Underhive?” Tana asked.
“Probably,” Roja said. The optic image from her side of the conference expanded to show Nakamiru and Jeffers sitting beside her. For once, the admiral looked his age. The three multicruiser captains appeared and then three other faces that Jeph didn’t recognize. They had to be the ice hauler commanders.
“All we know at this point is that all contact with NHC went down at the same time that a seismic event occurred. If the magnitude of the shock wave is any indication, the blast was big enough to have destroyed the entire Underhive complex. Because it wasn’t centered on NHC, there’s a possibility of survivors there. Unfortunately, since the loop tubes were all underground, we can’t get any recovery teams in.”
“You said they had forces in space over NHC?” Tana asked.
“At least thirty ships,” the admiral said. “Quintana sent three Multicruisers to do a recon assessment, and then if they think we have the force in place, they will bring in a large enough attack group to clear the space above the Sinus Iridium basin. As long as Lassiter’s ships hold control over the site, we can’t bring landers in to start any relief efforts.”
“Actually, that should all be done already, and we’ll hear the results soon,” Roja said.
“How many multicruisers do we have in Zone One now?” Captain Mei asked.
“Fifteen total,” the admiral said. “Although they’ve pinned six inside the blockade at L-2. I believe Quintana committed all the remaining forces to the counter assault.”
“Blockade?” Tana asked, her face showing she was processing through her emotions.
“They have around fifty ships holding statio
n around the shipyard and we haven’t yet tried to challenge it,” Roja said. “All together Tomlinson’s got somewhere near 150 ships in Zone One.”
“We are basing our strategic planning on the idea that defensively a multicruiser is a match for around eight to ten of their converted science vessels,” the admiral said. “Offensively, we are thinking we need to have better than a five to one ratio to be safe.”
“If they’re bringing 650 ships out here, that leaves us like sixty-five multicruisers short,” Mei said.
“We do have the Armstrong too,” Jeffers said.
“Fleet tactics aside, is there anything we can learn from what they’ve done to New Hope City?” Jeph asked.
“Why would they attack Underhive and not New Hope City itself?” Danel asked.
“Maybe they were trying to send a message?” Anju said. “If Lassiter made an announcement about it, that has to be the reason.”
“He did claim responsibility for the attack,” Jeph said.
“That makes no sense.” Roja shook her head. “He’s apparently a lot more ruthless than we thought, but he still wields the power of the people.”
“Exactly,” Tana said. “If he wanted to send a message to the resistance, he’d have taken Pallassano out. He’d want leaders of other colonies to know it was a bad idea for them to lead their people into the rebellion. He’d point his attack at her and not at his personal power base.”
“They were after something,” Saf said, growling. “Sentinel Operations used to be below Underhive. We pulled out of there right after Odysseus went active, but they might not have known.”
“Lassiter wouldn’t have known that at all,” Tana said. “Nobody knew it was there.”
“Odysseus did,” Solo said, surprising everyone as it jumped in on the conversation. “It would consider those who held gate keeping responsibility over it to be its most serious threat. Knowledge of its origin and specifications would be an asset to those who might seek to defeat it. A preemptive attack against that possibility would be within its operational limits.”
“Incinerating a million innocent people to protect itself is within its limits?” Roja asked, shaking her head.
“Potentially yes,” Solo said.
“Does that also mean that it would consider using a similar weapon to remove us as an obstacle to achieving its objectives?” Dutch asked.
“If it were able to ascertain that such an action would not adversely impact the ESI contact itself, then this is a possibility,” Solo said.
GovCom Center: New Hope City:
“We can’t get to Underhive at all,” Mayor Pallassano said. She sat in the near dark and held her personal thinpad in her hand. One of the multicruisers overhead had restored minimal communications to the colony for now. They were trying to get their own com online, but she didn’t hold out much hope of success any time soon. “There’s too much structural damage to the cross connects and all the surface egress is within the collapsed crater.”
“Do you have any idea how bad it is yet?” Quintana asked.
“We don’t know, but we’re looking at over ninety percent casualty rates for Underhive itself,” she said. “We’ve already got ten percent losses in NHC. Unfortunately, they’re telling me that will get a lot worse.”
“Worse?”
She nodded. “We’ve got radiation levels rising on all the life support systems. We’ve shut down everywhere there is interconnected air and water between the two facilities, and we’re trying to pull people out of the affected areas as fast as we can. The recyclers are filtering out radioactive particulates but they’re clogging faster than we can dispose of the dust.”
“Multicruisers always carry deployable emergency life support gear,” he said. “We can get that to you immediately.”
“That will help since we’re overloading the life support zones that were unaffected,” she said. “Unfortunately, we’ve got so many volunteer rescue teams working, that they’ve moved a lot of the injured to safe areas before decontamination. At this point, it’s likely the radiation will spread all over NHC.”
“Does that mean you need to evacuate everybody?” he asked.
“Thirteen million people? To where?”
“What will you do?”
“We’re trying to establish clean zones on the northern and eastern edges of the city and we’ll rebuild from there, but we’re going to lose a lot more before …” emotion killed the words in her mouth.
“I understand,” the admiral said, his voice echoing her anguish. “Carranza Pratte has said as soon as her crews can get the loop operating again you can send refugees to Tsiolkovskiy. Freeport is gearing up to take in as many as they can house and we’re trying to coordinate with the other colonies, but most of them are scared of retaliation if they help.”
“I don’t blame them,” she said. Her console flickered as the power grid tried to return and she knew that somewhere one of her people was trying to get things restored. There were thousands of heroes working in the dark to piece their world back together.
“Have they sent another attack after us yet?”
“No,” Quintana said. “We lost the Orion in the fight, but we’ve got eight more multicruisers watching over you. So far they don’t seem to have the stomach for another round.”
“At least that’s good news,” she said, trying to find something to smile about in his words.
“Unless they have more ships hidden somewhere in the zone, they’ve only got another sixty five or seventy that aren’t tied up in keeping us in a cage,” he said. “We’re at military parity at this point.”
“I hope so,” she said as the lights came on and she felt a cool blast of air from the ventilators. “That’s a good sign.”
Her door burst open and her chief of staff came charging through. His ashen gray skin made it look like he’d been digging regolith with his bare fingers. He skidded to a stop at the edge of her desk. “Old Main Dome is collapsing,” he gasped. “We’ve got to get into the underground before we lose the air!”
“What?” she said shaking her head in disbelief. Old Main was the first major colony structure ever built on the moon. The GovCom Tower stood forty stories tall in its center. It couldn’t collapse!
“The shockwaves cracked the skin,” he said, grabbing her thinpad from her hand and pulling her to her feet. “Engineering says we’ve got five minutes before it tears loose.”
Jakob Waltz Medical Center: Gateway Colony: L-4 Prime:
Saf had gone back to work in the Kanahto, sucking up her rage and turning it into determination. But Tana wasn’t so tough. She’d lived most of her adult life in New Hope City. She knew it at least as well as she knew her own face. It was an intimate part of her life and she couldn’t accept that it might be gone.
She sat in the new MedBay watching in silence as engineering workers from the Armstrong pushed equipment into place. Everything felt detached and hollow.
Anju walked up and handed her a glass without comment, taking a seat beside her and waiting. After several minutes, she nudged her arm and nodded at the drink in her hand. “It’ll help.”
She slammed the vodka down and hissed in surprise. “I wasn’t expecting that,” she said, coughing as her voice came back.
“Yah, but sometimes the old fashioned medicine works best,” she said.
“Sometimes.” She nodded. “I need to just deal with it. We’ve got work to do.”
“We do, but it’s alright to take some time to accept what’s happened,” Anju said.
“Accept? I don’t know if I can. I want that bastard dead,” she growled, sounding a lot like her wife had, when she’d said the same thing.
“Lassiter?”
“Him too,” Tana said, “but I meant Odysseus. I can’t believe I was ever part of that project. How could I sit there and let them create a monster like that?”
“You didn’t know what it was capable of doing,” she said. “I’m sure if you had, you’d have stopped it
. You don’t seem to be the killing type.”
Ice daggers dug their way into her flesh as she shook her head. “You don’t know the trail of bodies we left behind us to get here.”
“Well then, let me say you don’t seem like the genocidal type,” Anju said, shrugging it off. “I don’t know what you had to do to get away from the shitstorm down there, but it sounds like it was a fight or die situation. That isn’t the same as what Lassiter did.”
“It wasn’t Lassiter,” she said. “Odysseus did it.”
“But Lassiter stood by and let it happen. That makes him at least partially responsible,” Anju said.
“Just like me,” she said. “I stood by and let it happen and now that monster has killed millions and is coming for us.”
“You know, if you want to divide the blame up there is a lot of it to go around,” she said, standing up. “I even get a slice of that pie since I was the one that made the com that started all this rolling. You can’t carry this all alone. No one can.”
“I understand that in here,” Tana said, tapping herself in the head, “but not in my heart.”
“Sometimes the brain’s job is to protect the more vulnerable organs,” Anju said, reaching out and pulling Tana to her feet. “Let’s put it to work and maybe that will give the rest of your emotions a chance to work themselves out.”
“You know, there are times you really sound like your mother,” she said, grinning.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Un Shan Takhu Institute: Gateway Colony: L-4 Prime:
Jeph stood with Rocky inside the permeable doors they’d installed against the outer airlock hatches of the Jakob Waltz hull. Inside those they had mounted blast doors made of the same material as all the rest of doors inside the colony. They remained open for the moment, but once they closed them, there was no way in if you didn’t know the language.
As far as Rocky could tell from all the analysis she’d done so far, when the doors were not active, they were indistinguishable from the null-metal outer shell of the colony itself. Which was the same as the skin of the Tacra Un. It might not be indestructible, but it had endured the full blast of the Waltz’s engine as it came crashing down, so there was little doubt it would stand up to weapons fire.
Shan Takhu Legacy Box Set - With an Extra Bonus Story Page 78