Alpha Centauri - Rise of the Kentaurus AIs (Aeon 14: Enfield Genesis)

by M. D. Cooper

  He checked that Ashley’s cylinder was safe, then shouldered his pack and directed a thought toward the AI to hang on. A moment later, Jason was sprinting toward the cargo bay and the remaining Icarus fighter.

  He rode the cusp, conserving his remaining strength for the flight, dipping just far enough into his altered state to dodge a startled ship’s steward who called out in fright as he passed. He slewed around a corner, then ducked as a woman registered his presence and began to raise her firearm.

  He dipped again and dodged, delivering a quick hand chop that connected with the woman’s arm and sent the weapon flying.

  He was two-thirds of the way down the hall before the woman registered that her weapon had been forcibly knocked away; half a second later, the pain receptors in her arm had her curling it into her body in agony.

  Another alarm sounded briefly before getting cut off. Tobias said tersely.

  The cargo bay doors were in sight now, but they were closing.

  Jason hissed warningly, but he refused to slow. If the AIs could just hold it for a fraction of a—

  The whine of a railgun sounded behind him, and Jason dove toward the bay's entrance, sliding through the doors, just as white-hot projectiles shot over his head. Then the doors snapped closed, and he heard the impacts peppering the other side.

  He directed the thought at Tobias as he scrambled to his feet and bolted for the fighter.

  Tobias had the canopy open, and Jason launched himself upward and slid into the cradle.

  He had himself hooked into the craft and the fighter ready to go in seconds. With a thought, he sent a quick burst from the ship’s weapons at the bay doors, a warning to those in the corridor to think twice before following him through.

  Ten seconds later, he was spaceborne, his HUD already tracking the pinnace that had launched moments earlier.

  Jason sank deeply into his altered state, his voice staccato and clipped.

  An icon showed up on his HUD in red, two more in green.

  Shit. It looked like the pinnace had seen the other two vessels, and was angling to intercept.

  Jason boosted hard, grunting as the web of nano that was threaded throughout his soft tissues hardened to protect his internal organs against excessive gs. It was the first time in recent memory he'd experienced the nano's activation, outside of a flight review.

  * * * * *

  Calista instructed the AI over the combat net that Shannon and Tobias had created for the three Enfield craft. Before initiating her own burn, she ran a quick systems check of her suit and its connection to the ship; everything read green.

  This, plus her nano-enhanced pilot's mods, were the means by which she would survive the punishing g-forces she was about to subject her body to.

  She kept one eye on the Enfield shuttle containing the rescued AIs, and the other on the pinnace that had abruptly changed vectors a moment ago.

  They’d been spotted. The pinnace was hailing them.

  She ignored the call, focusing instead on guiding Shannon through the evasion plan she’d decided would give the shuttle the best chance to escape.

  They heard the occasional grunt over the Link as Shannon abruptly changed vectors, but Daniel remained silent. The retired ground-pounder knew his expertise wasn’t of any use at the moment; he'd said as much as they'd prepared to launch from the Sylvan.

  He'd also assured her that his years in the service had included more than his share of insertions in a dropship. It may have been a few years since he'd experienced such extreme vector shifts, but his mods could withstand whatever gs Shannon could dish out.

  Right on schedule, the shuttle's path altered, taking it around one of the spire’s spurs to keep moored ships between it and the pinnace as much as possible.

  While Shannon led the pinnace on a twisting, curving game of hide and seek, Calista peeled off to engage.

  * * * * *

  Tobias warned, as Jason slalomed through the ships tied to the spire at speeds that would be considered reckless even in combat.

  In his altered state, the flight path seemed almost leisurely. Absently, he noted his HUD flashing a warning that his mods were reaching their upper g-limit as he directed the craft through a series of tight, complex maneuvers.

  He'd pushed the tolerances before; as far as he was concerned, the upper limits were more of a suggestion than a hard and fast rule. He ignored the warning and pressed the pursuit.

  He cleared a transport hauler and got eyes on his quarry. He brought the fighter’s weapons online while guiding the craft into position, falling easily into the rhythm of the red dot and the reticle as he tracked his target on his HUD.

  The dot that was the pinnace lined up for a breath, and with a thought, Jason squeezed off a burst from the fighter's rail-gatling gun. A flashing indicator showed that he had tagged the pinnace—but not where he'd intended.

  The shot should have gone through the pinnace’s engine, but its pilot jinked just as Jason launched the strike, and it holed the ship’s aft cabin instead.

  Tobias whistled appreciatively as the ship’s sensors tagged the hole that the gatling gun had punched in the side of the pinnace.

  Jason said dryly.

  the AI chuckled quietly.

  The pinnace banked sharply, and Jason duplicated the maneuver to keep the craft within his sights. As his fighter leveled, the pinnace fired a shot at the shuttle. Calista’s fighter jinked to intercept, placing her craft directly into the line of fire.

  Jason held his breath as the shot scored Calista's craft, its rear port fuselage purposely taking the hit intended for the escaping shuttle.

  Icarus’s Elastene surfaces transmuted the shot from an initial blindingly bright point of superheated metal to a diffuse, coronal glow. The metal foam performed admirably, dissipating the shot with minimal effect to the craft.

  And now it was Calista’s turn to get a bead on the pinnace.

  The fighters had flown between the planet and the ring, not far from where Shannon had first landed with the warehouse team. Had there been any inhabitants on that part of the ring, they would have been dazzled by the impossibly swift changes the fighters made above them.

  Only Gladys—and those manning space traffic control—saw, in real-time, the true measure of the new Icarus design, as Calista and Jason pushed the fighters to their limits, determined to protect the shuttle's precious cargo.

  Free of the spire and all industrial traffic, the flight had now turned into a dogfight. The fighters engaged the pinnace in a deadly dance as they looped and swerved, jinked and dove.

  Once more, the pinnace maneuvered to get a clean shot at the shuttle. Calista altered course to shield it, and Jason banked hard to bring the pinnace once again into his sights.

  His aim was dead on. The cannon speared the pinnace's engines, and its trajectory sent the rounds through the craft's left dorsal section, rending a hole just behind the pilot's compartment. Just then, Jason’s HUD flashed a warning that the craft's pilot had ejected.

  Tobias’ voice sounded urgently over their private Link, as Jason maneuvered the fighter to avoid collision with the broken pinnace.

  Jason asked, as he automatically began reconfiguring the craft for standard flight.

 

  Well, damn, Jason thought. That just complicated matters, didn’t it? He took a deep, steadying breath as he began to unstrap himself from the cradle’s restraints.

  he asked Tobias, as
he double-checked its seal.

  The AI nodded assent.

 

  Before he could give it much thought, Jason triggered the canopy and launched himself after the cartel boss, straight toward the surface of the planet.

  * * * * *

  Calista’s voice sounded sharply in his mind, but Jason ignored her, his focus intent on the man ahead of him.

  Mack had used suit thrusters to adjust his heading, and he was now on a direct intercept with the planet's surface. He gave no indication that he knew Jason was in pursuit.

  Configuring himself into a trajectory for a least-time interception, Jason made micro adjustments with his own thrusters as directed by Tobias. These increased his velocity, bringing him ever closer to the man speeding toward the planet below.

  He was counting on Mack not to realize he had a tail until he began his heavy braking. That braking was going to become necessary soon, to counteract the rapidly increasing velocity from the planet's pull. Even from thirty-five hundred kilometers out, they were experiencing an acceleration of four meters per second squared, straight down—and that number would continue to climb as they approached the surface.

  Ordinarily, a recreational ring dive would involve a gentle braking maneuver that began around the thousand-kilometer mark. Aggressive divers wearing suits with exceptional cooling, and who were willing to subject themselves to extreme g-forces, could push that mark to five hundred kilometers, but no further. To do otherwise would mean incineration once they entered the atmospheric boundary layer that began one hundred kilometers above the planet's surface.

  In Mack's case, Jason didn't think the man had ejected just to immolate himself.

  He caught the pinnace tumbling away from them out of the corner of his eye, then his vision of it was occluded by one of the fighters, as it maneuvered to pace him. The other fighter matched its attitude and position on his other side.

  Jason was sure that he'd later find his own personal fighter escort for a ring dive vastly amusing. Right now, his focus was riveted to the man he needed to overtake, and to the numbers on his HUD that indicated his rate of descent.

  Those numbers were rapidly increasing. His velocity was seven thousand kilometers per hour, and then twelve thousand. Jason was closing on seventeen thousand when he saw the man ahead of him turn. He'd been spotted.

  Tobias' voice cracked in his head, sharp with warning.

  Calista's voice sounded in his head, calm, detached. Professional.

  Jason’s world narrowed to a pinpoint focus. He used his ocular augments to zoom in, his attention centered on the man’s hand. He saw Mack bring the weapon to bear, saw the moment his finger squeezed the trigger.

  Jason's heart raced and he fired a micro burst with one of his suit’s thrusters, hoping the maneuver would be enough to avoid getting hit. The shot narrowly missed, and he saw the man raise his weapon once again.

  A part of his brain gibbered at him, the part that was screaming, someone's actually trying to kill me! He ruthlessly stomped on it, realizing now was not the time to lose his shit. Instead, Jason shouldered his own weapon and sighted along its length, Tobias's warning ringing in his head. Seventeen missing AIs. That meant Jason could not risk killing the man before the team could extract their locations from him. But he couldn't close on the man either—not while Mack kept taking shots at him.

  Jason knew his reserves were all but depleted. Shooting to incapacitate at these speeds without NSAI assistance was impossible—yet he had to try. He had to make the attempt.

  Again he waited as the red dot danced with the reticle. His first attempt went wide, and he took a deep breath, forcing himself to wait patiently for his next opportunity. Twice more, he had to abandon his own targeting in order to direct his suit's thrusters to evade as the two traded shots.

  He closed his eyes for a moment. He was running out of time and he knew it. Their velocity was approaching insane levels and if he didn't close on the man and begin braking within seconds, they were both dead.

  Jason forced his eyes open and squinted doggedly down the weapon's sight. I can do this. I have to do this. Ordering his suit's arms to lock in place, he waited for the red dot to slide inside the reticle...and squeezed gently, sending the signal for the rifle to fire. This time, the shot hit its mark, severing the cartel boss’s hand from his body. The weapon tumbled free—along with the hand—and a puff of air indicated the suit's momentary loss of containment before its systems automatically resealed around the man's wrist.

  The shot's impact caused Mack to begin a slow tumble. The man struggled to counter the rotation and keep his trajectory stabilized, reorienting his body along the spin axis and applying short bursts from his suit's thrusters.

  Jason used the man’s distraction to close the rest of the distance between them. He was just tens of meters away and he hoped to hell he'd fired his thrusters in time to slow and match velocities, or the impact would end up killing them both. Just then Mack looked up, the cartel boss's eyes widening as he realized the two men were about to collide.

  Mack attempted to dodge using his own thrusters, but it was too late. Jason tucked and slammed his knees into his target’s back, the delta-v knocking the other man unconscious. Jason’s pilot's mods, his reinforced musculature and his carbon nanotube-laced bones, kept him from following in his enemy’s wake.

  Jason flipped through the settings on his HUD as he waited on the combat net for an answer. He gritted his teeth, willing himself to stay alert. He could feel the crash looming, a result of operating for too long, deep within his altered state.

 

  Jason's voice sounded strained to his own ears as he manipulated the code Tobias had just sent.

  Once the man was immobilized, Jason directed both suits to interlock with rupture sealant at key points of contact, reinforcing his hold on the man for reentry.

  He flipped through the unconscious man's suit interface searching for thruster control to augment his own, cursing mentally as his now-overtaxed brain fumbled and refused anything faster than an L0 transmission. He eyed the twin readouts in his suit's HUD—velocity and countdown—and his heart stuttered as he realized he had less than five seconds to initiate burn.

  He demanded his body dip again into its altered state and felt it refuse to obey his orders. With one second remaining, he found the command and ordered both suits to apply full reverse thrust. The burn that began at three hundred fifty kilometers lasted seventy-seven seconds. It was the minimum required to slow their nearly twenty-three thousand kilometer per hour velocity.

  The suits kicked in hard, and Jason fought to remain conscious as the nano threads laced throughout his body once more hardened under the force of the deceleration.

  They were nearly a hundred kilometers above the planet's surface when they finally slowed to a safe entry velocity. The suits' thrusters shut off automatically as they reached three hundred sixty kilometers per hour—at this point it was up to El Dorado to bring them in.

  Jason blinked to clear his vision and saw the numbers on his velocity indicator begin to rise once more. Next to it flashed the number of seconds remaining until that velocity reached maximum: ninety-eight seconds to go.

  Jason took a few deep breaths; he just needed to remain conscious for another few minutes, then he'd give himself permission to keel over. But not yet.

  Tobias asked cautiously.

  he replied. But he sent a feed from his HUD to Tobias, wishing he could get back in the fighter, but matching v while holding the cartel
boss without the fighter accidentally clipping him was riskier than a planet dive.

  Tobias responded privately, and Jason sent him a mental nod.

  He passed the token for his suit over the Link to the AI.

 

  Jason's lips twitched at that.

  The trip turned bumpy as the two figures began to be buffeted by air resistance, and Jason’s HUD's temperature readouts began to climb as friction increased their drag.

  Those frictional forces were working to transform the kinetic energy of each man into more than twelve million joules of thermal energy, as their speed rose to nearly thirty-four hundred kilometers per hour.

  Sweat began to trickle down Jason's face, and he gave his head a quick snap to keep it out of his eyes.

  His eyes.... He began to see black spots, and his vision began to tunnel.

  His jaw set. I will not pass out.

  At one kilometer, they had slowed to almost two hundred twenty kilometers per hour.

  It was time. Jason triggered the suit's drogue chute, rapidly slowing their descent. Total time would be just under twenty-three minutes from when Jason left the fighter to the moment freefall ended.

  He glanced up at the ring and then back down, his gaze catching on the puffy cotton clouds that were drifting lazily below. His eyes flicked up to the readout that showed his suit rapidly cooling in the crisp, El Dorado air as the canopy floated them gently to meet the ground.

  The breeze caught the chute, twisting himself and his passenger around.

  The last thing he registered was a spectacular view of the planet's 'wink and smile' before his eyes rolled back in his head, and he knew no more.