Under Siege, page 15
As shocking as it was to say, the Tardan military had used a rather light touch in comparison to their Novarite masters. She wasn’t inclined to cut them any slack, but honesty compelled her to point a finger at the true villains in this piece.
The Novarites had used the time they’d had wisely and built a number of military fortifications on the surface. It didn’t look as if they were trying to dominate the surviving human population but rather defend against it in case there was a counterattack.
Not that there was much chance of that. The Tardan military would’ve crushed the organized resistance early on, and the Novarites had taken advantage of that by destroying the major population centers.
They were setting up three cities of their own. She saw several areas that were likely being used to house Tardans near each of those cities, very much like what Derek had seen on Leaping Deer. The Novarites wanted their slaves close by, not living among them. After all, the Tardans had betrayed them, and they wouldn’t be trusted.
This was a right mess. No matter what they did, they didn’t have the forces to put boots on the ground and beat the Novarites one-on-one. Those military centers could be destroyed without feeling guilty, but digging the Novarites out of their cities and separating them from the Tardans would be a challenge. One that she didn’t think they were up to just yet.
Using her tablet, she marked the areas where she thought the use of antimatter missiles would be most advantageous and then examined the cities in more detail. One was definitely higher class than the others.
She’d wager that would be where the Novarite leadership resided and governed. Were they valid targets for a direct assault? She would say yes, but Admiral Romanoff might disagree.
She’d need to be very convincing if she intended to strike that city as she believed the leadership were indeed valid targets. If they could behead the monster, what was left could be dealt with. One way or the other, the cancer had to be cut out.
Bringing up each of the cities, she examined the layout in as much detail as possible and then looked at the military fortifications that were scattered around the cities. Her people didn’t have any fighters right now, but that problem would solve itself in relatively short order.
It would mean that they wouldn’t be attacking the surface until they were ready, but that couldn’t be helped. Even if they still had the single stealth fighter Derek had used, it would have been foolhardy to try and do what he’d done. He’d been lucky to survive, and she’d told him that many times in as emphatic a manner as possible.
For planning purposes, she imagined they had dozens of stealth fighters, and then she started working out the best ways to approach and bomb each target in as rapid a manner as possible. The military defenders would have to go first, and any fighter craft in the air would need to be defeated, but they couldn’t delay too long, or the leadership might find other places to hide. In fact, a surprise attack that took out the leadership first would be best.
A knock at her hatch distracted her, and she looked up from where she sat cross-legged on the bunk. “Enter.”
The hatch slid open, and Lisa walked in. The hacker raised an eyebrow as she leaned against the bulkhead inside the cabin. “David said you were pissed, and I wanted you to know that I agree with you.”
“While I appreciate the support, he’s probably right. I still want to kill them all, but I know Admiral Romanoff won’t let me. That means I need to come up with a good argument for killing the worst of them.”
Lisa chuckled and walked into the compartment. “Even if you kill them in job lots, it wouldn’t solve our problems. How many Novarites do you think are down there?”
Amanda shrugged, setting aside her tablet. “It’s hard to guess, but based on the number of Novarite colony ships in orbit, millions. Maybe tens of millions. The only thing that I see as favorable about this is that based on what we saw at Leaping Deer, the leadership would’ve betrayed most of their senior followers and taken regular citizens to do the hard work, leaving the wealthy and powerful high and dry. That means there’s probably a core of what they might consider nobility, but the vast majority of the Novarites are just normal people. Well, as normal as Novarites get anyway.”
“So, how can we use that to our advantage?”
Amanda explained her plan to Lisa, emphasizing how they could bomb the more opulent of the Novarite cities to eliminate their leadership. Even that could be restricted to hitting the government buildings at the center of town if they struck during the day. That would mean all they had to deal with after that were scattered survivors of the leadership caste and the military. The regular civilians wouldn’t resist, not really. If they proceeded to bomb the military areas and destroy all the combat vessels, that would reduce the number of military personnel drastically. Perhaps once that was done, whoever was left would be willing to talk. And by talk, she meant surrender.
Once she’d finished, Lisa pursed her lips and nodded. “That sounds like a good plan. Hell, it might even work. Unfortunately, it calls for equipment that we just don’t have. It’ll be weeks before we have any fighters at all, much less the ones that can’t be detected on approach. That will allow the Novarites to dig in deeper. What can we do without those assets? Do you think the admiral will sit back for a month and wait?”
“I don’t know that he has much of a choice,” Amanda said as she stood and began pacing. “When it comes right down to it, there is nothing we can do on the planet’s surface. Nothing. I suppose we could drop some rocks from orbit, but those aren’t very precise. There are far too many targets to try and take out using just your stealth cutter. And, as Derek proved so well, being undetectable might not save you from a counterattack. Your cutter can’t go as fast as his fighter did, and you’d be much more likely to be shot down. Without an ejection system, that’s a death sentence.”
“It’s not something I’d volunteer for,” Lisa agreed. “Even so, the admiral won’t be happy that he has to wait to free whoever’s left. I’ve seen the pictures, and a lot of people have to be dead. David was tossing around numbers like hundreds of millions. I think it might be more, and it’s only going to get worse.”
Now she sighed. “If it’s not somewhere between two and three billion people, I’d be shocked. Almost half the population of Vesuvius is probably dead, or they will be in very short order. I want to save every single person, but we don’t have what we need to win. If there was an answer—even a risky one—I’d pursue it with everything I had. Sadly, I haven’t been able to think of a single thing.”
“A friend of mine was fond of saying that not every problem had a solution. We could be the best hackers in the universe, but sometimes, we just didn’t have the tools we needed or the access required to solve a problem. That doesn’t translate cleanly to a military issue, but I think the sentiment is worth considering. It’s not your fault that you can’t solve the problem now. It’s horrible that so many people have died and that even more will perish while we’re trying to find a solution, but if you can’t fix the problem, you can’t fix it, and no amount of wishing will change that.”
Amanda scrubbed her face with her hands. “That’s not helping. I’m going to have nightmares about this. I just know it.”
“We’re about ready to head toward the second planet. Is there anything else you need from here before we depart? Once we’re gone, we can’t update what the satellites are observing and reporting on.”
“As long as we have continual observation on the Novarite cities and the biggest of their military fortifications, I suppose that’s good enough. That’ll allow me to keep working on making the attacks as precise as I can.”
“I’ve got you covered, then. I dropped some more geosynchronous satellites to keep an eye on all those things. It won’t help us in the short term, but we’ll gather enough information to make the best plan we can, and then we’ll free these people. Don’t doubt it for a moment.”
“I want to smash the Novarites,” she growled. “All of them. They’ve done something so monstrous that they deserve death.”
“I respect that, but Admiral Romanoff has the final call,” Lisa said as she headed for the hatch. “I suggest you get something to eat and then try to sleep. I know that seems impossible, but we’ll want to be rested when we arrive at the second planet. Not only do we have to figure out what the Novarites are doing there, we’ve also got to locate that kingdom spy ship and figure out what to do about them.”
“I don’t envy you that particular task,” Amanda said as she followed the other woman. “From everything Patrick said, whoever’s aboard will be a real ass.”
“A treacherous ass,” Lisa agreed. “Thankfully, we know a lot about them, but they know nothing about us. Better yet, they have no reason to expect we’re here, and I’ll bet I can arrange a little surprise that will get us even more information about them and their intentions. It would be really useful to know if we’ve got a force of kingdom warships lurking in the general vicinity.”
“Wouldn’t that be a mess?” Amanda asked as she followed Lisa into the corridor. “All we need now is yet one more enemy to have to deal with.”
Lisa grinned at her. “The best kind of enemy is the one you deal with before they can become a threat. If I can manage it, I’ll neutralize the kingdom forces or at least figure out everything they intend to do. As long as we can keep them struggling to catch up with us, I think we might be able to come out on top.”
“I admire your confidence, but you’ll forgive me if I’m a little doubtful.”
Amanda separated from Lisa and headed toward the galley. She’d get something to eat and try to sleep, but she didn’t think it would work. After seeing everything she had, she knew tonight would be a sleepless night where she tried to find an answer to a problem that was likely unsolvable.
She hoped she was proven wrong, but no matter what actually happened, far too many people had already died, and even more would be following them soon. What had been done to Vesuvius would fuel rage throughout the Confederation, and even the Novarite civilians who had surrendered would be in for a rough ride going forward.
Thankfully, that was also not her problem. Her job was killing the people that needed killing, and she wouldn’t shirk that responsibility.
16
Lisa examined the data Hunter had sent them and was both pleased and somewhat dismayed to notice that they had her location pegged pretty closely. Well, she supposed she was dismayed about that but pleased that they’d nailed down the location of the other spy ship just as well. That would make part of what she was doing easier.
If Admiral Romanoff knew what she had in mind, he would no doubt forbid her from doing it, so she supposed it was a good thing that she didn’t have to run it past him. David had been a harder sell than she’d wanted, but he’d eventually decided she was the expert when it came to this and deferred to her experience, such as it was.
Amanda was focused on the military activity around the second planet, so at least she wouldn’t be complaining about what Lisa had in mind. In fact, the amount of raw information they’d already gathered indicated this was definitely something that needed to be considered from a military perspective.
As Amanda had guessed, it looked like the Novarites were building shipyards and an orbital station that was no doubt meant to be a central control hub. There were also a lot of Novarite warships. Far more than had been in orbit around Vesuvius.
This world would be the defensive hub for the system, and it was so deep in the gravity well that they would have plenty of time to see anything that was coming. The skip drive would be roughly effective to Vesuvius’s orbit. After that, Hunter would be limited to the speed she could generate with her fusion drives. That would mean the Novarites would have plenty of time to prepare for her arrival.
While that was definitely something Lisa had to worry about, it wasn’t technically her problem. It was Amanda’s, so she’d let the other woman focus on that while she worked on the kingdom spy vessel.
It was currently located a fair distance away from the second world, obviously taking a good look at what was going on just like she was. Lisa wondered if that was because the other ship would be passing information along to a military force or if it was gathering background information that it would eventually take back to the kingdom. There was no telling without executing her plan, so she supposed she might as well get about it.
She made her way from the bridge down to the computer room, where David and Amanda were examining the information that was coming in. The two of them were fully absorbed in what they were doing, and she hated to interrupt them, but this next portion of the operation required their assistance. Well, Amanda’s assistance, anyway.
“My apologies for interrupting,” she said. “Amanda, I need you on the bridge. I assume you know how to maneuver a ship in normal space from playing Locust War Online. Is that right?”
“Enough to get by,” the other woman said as she stood. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll be off the ship for a while, and I need you to make sure that if anything starts coming too close to Specter, you maneuver away from it with the antigravity drives. I don’t anticipate anyone detecting you, but if they do, you’ll need to get clear.”
“If I have to do that, how will you find us again? We’re undetectable, remember?”
“David has a number of rally points that the ship can retreat to. They’re in numerical order, so if it’s available, you’ll go to the first one, and that’s where I’ll check. If you’re not there, I’ll go to the second, and so on.”
“Smart. What will you be doing?”
“I’ll be visiting our new friends. Spy stuff, you understand.”
“Why do I feel like there should be some exciting theme music playing in the background when you say that?”
“That’s a great idea. I’ll have to see if I can find a catchy tune I can play inside my cutter while I’m working.”
“I know you need to do this, but I want to stress that you need to be cautious,” David said. “The people aboard that ship will be very dangerous, and if they think they’ve been discovered, they’ll lash out. I realize you’ve armed your cutter, but that won’t save you if they open fire first. While Patrick’s original vessel wasn’t armed, that doesn’t mean this one isn’t. Remember that a couple of centuries have gone by, so they may have changed their operational doctrine.”
“I’ll be careful. If I think there’s too much risk, I’ll abort. As much as it pains me to say this, I have to respect those people, and from what I’ve heard, they’re definitely not the kind of folk I want to cross. The best result is if they never realize I was there, so you can rest assured that’s what I’ll try to do.”
“Just be careful.”
“I will. You do the same.”
Lisa headed for her cutter. It only took a few moments to climb up the ladder and through the airlock before boarding it. Once she was aboard, she brought the cutter to life and double-checked to make sure there were no problems. This was one of those situations where she couldn’t afford to have even a minor malfunction. She was on her own, and that kind of thing could lead to her death.
Once she felt she’d checked everything as thoroughly as she could, she detached from Specter and began maneuvering toward the kingdom spy vessel. This wouldn’t be a quick trip—especially since she intended to come around behind it—but she didn’t want it to take any longer than it absolutely must. It would be awkward if the other vessel decided to relocate while she was still trying to sneak up on it.
Maneuvering into place took a solid three hours, and the closer she got, the more nerve-wracking things became. Her passive sensors continued tallying data about the other vessel, and it roughly matched up with Patrick’s ship, minus some of the alterations he’d made. It had a similar cutter to what they’d found stashed at the spaceport back on Argent.
Thankfully, the other ship was focused on the second planet, so in coming up from behind, the vast majority of its passive sensors were focused away from her cutter. That wouldn’t stop her from being seen if someone saw her in a video feed, but the odds of that were low, considering where she was coming from.
Using as deft a touch as she could manage, she brought her cutter in behind the kingdom one and attached herself to the hull of the ship. She was exceptionally careful because any kind of noise could reveal her presence, and that would be disastrous.
Luckily, this was one of those things she’d practiced for, and Derek had programmed some automatic controls for the task. Once she was close enough and activated them, the cutter brought itself gently to the hull, and the magnetic clamps grabbed on. She didn’t feel or hear anything, so hopefully the docking had been silent inside the other vessel.
Now that she was in place, she waited. If the other crew had heard something, they’d come to investigate. Either the cutter would come to life, or someone in a suit would come out to try and figure out what was going on.
After fifteen minutes with no reaction, she decided to assume she’d successfully snuck up on them. That meant she could proceed with the next phase of her plan.
She released a small number of the drones she’d brought along—three in this case—and the little crab-like machines began scuttling along the hull toward a maintenance airlock that wouldn’t be used unless someone had to do repairs on equipment mounted to the hull, like the passive sensor arrays. So long as everything aboard that ship was working, there would be no call for anyone to be watching that airlock.
The only way she could safely communicate with the drones was via short-range directional communications lasers. Radio was out of the question, except in one specific area. Even if the power of the transmission was stepped down as much as possible, the chances of being detected were significant, and that had to be avoided.
