Under Siege, page 27
“We’re above the Novarite military fortifications and the big city,” Derek said.
“Launch the assault,” Jack ordered. “Let’s not give them more time to prepare for our arrival.”
The Marine pinnaces swarmed out of his ship and dove into the atmosphere. They were screaming down toward the surface at high speed and were quickly bright specks of light at the front of the burning lines through the atmosphere that marked their paths.
The lead group was there to engage any air cover or ground-to-air weapons. Odds were that they would lose some of their pinnaces, and while he could hope that didn’t happen, the realist in him knew that victory often came at a price.
“The pinnaces are coming under fire from the ground and are shooting back,” Derek said. “There are aircraft engaging them, and they’re doing their best to eliminate those as well. The second group with the antimatter missiles isn’t being engaged at this time.”
Jack watched the screen showing the planet as impassively as he could. His people needed to see him in complete control and utterly confident, no matter how he felt.
He was about to ask for an update when a bright flash of light illuminated part of the planet’s surface. It was followed by two others in rapid succession. Then, a fourth that was somewhat muted. From the distance they were away from the planet, it all seemed to be happening right at the same spot, but he knew that wasn’t the case.
“The second wave has deployed antimatter missiles,” the tactical officer said. “All weapons struck as intended, and the pinnaces are withdrawing. The precision strike in the big city hit right where we wanted it to and the collateral damage should be minimal. We’ve lost some to ground fire and airborne fighters, but they’re disengaging successfully.”
He nodded his acceptance of that and waited to see how things turned out. Ten minutes later, the Marine pinnaces were back in space and heading for his ship.
“How many pinnaces did we lose?” he asked.
“Five, sir,” the tactical officer said. “All in the lead elements. They were blown up in the air, and there weren’t any survivors.”
It was hard, but he nodded. “Gather our chicks, and let’s head for planet number two. By the time we come back, maybe they’ll be willing to talk about giving up.”
He checked the distance to the Novarite fleet going after the kingdom vessels and saw that they were still probably fifteen minutes away from detecting his ship making a run for Vesuvius. It would be even longer for them to see him attack. The kingdom ships hadn’t turned around at this point, but they would have to make that decision soon.
That wasn’t his problem. He needed to focus on what was happening at the second planet. Dealing with them would mean that only the ships in the system would be left for him to fight. There were still too many for him to engage safely, but without their infrastructure on the planet and in orbit, they’d be a lot easier to deal with.
“What you did is utterly terrifying,” Durbin said quietly. “A world wouldn’t even know you’re coming before you dropped out on top of them and blew their defenses into pieces. How does one guard against something like that?”
Jack smiled at the man. “You make certain that the people that have that technology are your friends.”
The pale man nodded. “Allow me to assure you that I want to be your friend, Admiral Romanoff. Not only is your ship virtually invulnerable to our weapons except in great numbers, but you can also be on top of us before we even realize what is happening. I’m confident there is some way that that could be offset, but I can’t think of what it would be. I think you’ve made your point, and I shall pass it along to Field Marshal Strange in the strongest of terms.”
“Very good. Now, if you’ll excuse me, we’ve got to clean out a bunch of enemy shipyards and warships. Then we can see what’s happening with your people. I hope their luck is as good as ours.”
30
David sat in the analysis center aboard Specter and watched as the kingdom fleet continued heading toward the Novarite forces racing to meet them. The decision point would be coming up before much longer as continuing deeper into the system would guarantee a clash with the Novarites that they couldn’t win.
The plan was to turn around before then and retreat toward the edge of the system before entering hyperspace to get back to the rendezvous point. He knew this because Field Marshall Strange had passed those orders on, and he’d decrypted them.
The complication he saw was that they intended to push it until the last possible moment. They wouldn’t be turning around and racing away with much time to spare, and that kind of risk sometimes came back to bite one.
“How long until things start happening?” Professor Prescott asked from his seat nearby.
“We’re probably an hour away from seeing Hunter on our sensors, but the Novarites will see them first. I’d guess a maximum of ninety minutes until we start racing back toward the edge of the system. I wish they weren’t pushing things so close. Skating along the edge of disaster occasionally means slipping and falling.”
The old man raised an eyebrow. “Do you think they’re taking too much of a risk? After all, we have Amanda to worry about.”
David grimaced. “It’s hard to tell. I understand the desire to milk the situation for everything they can, but sometimes, the cumulative potential for failure grows too large, and I’m afraid they’re pushing the envelope. If they get into a fight with the Novarites, they have the force to win, and we already know our enemies are more inclined to vaporize everything in sight rather than taking prisoners.”
“That is a risk. What do we do if it happens?”
“What can we do? Yes, we do have some weapons, but there’s a limit to what one ship can do, particularly when it isn’t designed to fight. This will be a nailbiter, and we just have to count on the professionals doing their job the right way.”
The white-haired man nodded. “What about those strange signals? Have there been any more instances of that?”
“No. That’s bugging me because there’s no reason for them to be using a signal that we don’t have the key for. I can’t even understand how they could be communicating with the spy ship since Lisa stole all the encryption keys out of their computer.”
“We may never know because going back aboard that ship would be an undue risk. Frankly, her doing it the first time was far too dangerous. The chance of discovery is too high.”
“I have to say that I’m annoyed that we’re so far out of the loop. As an analyst, I’m used to it, but it still annoys me. We’re missing part of the puzzle, and it may be months before we understand what the implications of what’s happening right now are.”
The older man stood and walked over to the coffee maker. Lisa had been brilliant in seeing that coffee was available in all the workspaces. The professor poured fresh cups for the two of them and brought one over to him.
“Thanks,” David said as he sipped at the hot brew.
“In a way, being a spy is very much like being a scientist,” Prescott said. “You observe everything, but the implications of what’s going on behind the scenes aren’t always obvious. Did you know that the time to start taking the best notes is when something goes differently than what you expected? Those moments where things are at variance with what should be happening are where the science really happens. The greatest discoveries are not heralded by a cry of ‘Eureka!’ but more often by ‘Huh. That’s weird.’ Is it the same for a spy getting the clue that reveals everything?”
“Sort of,” David said, making a waggling gesture with his hand. “You definitely want to pay attention when something unusual or unexpected happens, but regular gathering of intelligence often turns up things that can be added together later to reveal events and facts that you didn’t fully grasp the first time around. I won’t say that your analogy is completely wrong, but it only loosely fits my situation. Right now, things seem to be going well, so maybe this isn’t anything to worry about.”
“Do you really believe that?”
David sighed. “No. Unexplained occurrences generally mean something is about to happen that I won’t like. Why are half of these ships talking to one another in a strange code? If it was something that could be shared openly, they’d be using a known code, and it wouldn’t just be half the force using it. We know this fleet is a combination of ships from two different feudal lords, so it has to be that one of those groups is having a private chat. The fact that they are using tight beam communications to hide that from the other group likely means it’s something they won’t like, and it could be a threat to us and our friends.”
“I’m sure you’ll manage to deal with any problems. After all, this is hardly the time for a squabble to break out, is it?”
David hoped so because he didn’t really trust the kingdom personnel not to betray them at an awkward moment. There was always too much intrigue going on behind the scenes with them, according to everything he’d been told by Lisa. If Patrick had been here, he’d imagine the man would have a lot to say.
Time dragged on as the two fleets continued closing the distance between one another. Thankfully, Field Marshall Strange didn’t push things to the absolute brink and changed course to head back toward the jump limit with what he considered plenty of distance between her ships and the pursuing Novarites.
Lisa changed course so they were once again following the kingdom fleet on its way out. With Hunter off on her mission, he didn’t have a firm location on the kingdom spy ship, but he knew it had to be close by. He worried it might be far too close for his comfort.
The temptation to send a signal and get a ping back from it was strong, but all that would do was reveal something odd going on that the kingdom ships would begin investigating.
“How are things back there?” Lisa asked over the comm.
He hit the communications switch. “I’m feeling nervous. I won’t say that I think something is about to go wrong, but I’m getting a bad feeling.”
“Me, too. I’m happy they’ve changed course and are headed back toward safety, but those transmissions keep bothering me. My brain goes around in circles, trying to think of why they would be using unknown encryption. None of the answers I come up with account for that.”
His console chimed to draw his attention to a change in status. “We just picked up Hunter heading into the system. That must mean the Novarites already saw her. Yep, it looks like about half of their forces are breaking off and heading back toward Vesuvius. That means that the forces coming after the kingdom ships—while still large—aren’t as overpowering as they were before. Still too many to fight, though.”
“Do you think they’ll be able to deal with the Novarite forces on Vesuvius without any problems?”
“Jack thought so, and I have no reason to doubt him. He’s the expert when it comes to this sort of thing.”
Another chime sounded from his console. This time, it was the probes reporting more signaling between ships. Again, it was that odd code, and though he wasn’t monitoring every possible path the transmissions could take, the tight beam communications did seem limited to that same group of vessels. Once again, they were chatting amongst themselves. Interestingly, there was a wider signal going out to the area he thought the spy ship was at. It seemed they wanted to include their hidden friend in the conversation.
“It looks like our friends are talking again,” he said. “Still no luck breaking the signal, blast it. What in the world could they be doing?”
While he was watching, the spy ship sent a signal back toward one of the kingdom ships, and one of his probes picked it up. That narrowed down its location, so he made note of the new data. “The spy ship is responding.”
“That’s a lot riskier than it was before,” Lisa said. “When they’re out here like this, there’s too much chance that someone else will pick up that signal. I understand it’s their ship, but it hasn’t been communicating with them openly thus far, at least as far as we can tell. That’s kind of weird, too.”
“It sure is. Maybe we’ll be able to figure that out before much longer.”
“It looks like their formation is changing,” Lisa said after a few seconds. “Some of the ships are spreading out little, and others are slowing down. I’m picking up signals between the various ships in codes that we can understand. It seems like someone is making inquiries about their course changes.”
Alarm bells began ringing in his mind. “If this were a military ship, I’d be calling us to battle stations. Something important is happening.”
“Well, we do have weapons, but I hope we don’t have to shoot anybody. I can’t figure out why they’re doing what they’re doing, but it’s starting to annoy the people in control over there. It sounds like they’re yelling at them to get back into position, and the ships are indicating that they will, but they’re not actually doing so. I agree. Something is going on.”
There was one more flash of signals between the secretive group, and moments later, those vessels turned toward other ships and opened fire. The betrayal was swift and complete. Some ships exploded, and others reeled out of formation, heavily damaged. There was some shooting back, but very little.
In less than ten seconds, the ambush was complete, and the traitors were streaming toward the jump limit with only wreckage and crippled ships left behind them for the Novarites to clean up.
31
Amanda walked around the circumference of the kingdom warship’s small bridge. There were no spare seats she could take, but she’d been given permission to observe, so she’d take advantage of it.
Field Marshal Strange’s ship was called Decadent Arrow, though she had no idea how that was appropriate for a warship or even what it really meant. Even though the words translated cleanly, the use of sleep-learning chips often left out some context. She made a mental note to ask about it later.
The fleet’s commander sat in the command chair, also acting as the vessel’s captain. From the brief tour she’d been given, the ship didn’t have a flag bridge nor the capability to support the staff an admiral would normally require. That seemed shortsighted to her, but it wasn’t her position to criticize. Once again, more mental notes went into her upcoming report.
When she’d come aboard, Strange had taken the opportunity to give her a tour of the ship, much as Admiral Romanoff had done for her when she’d had the opportunity to wander Hunter. Obviously, Decadent Arrow was much smaller, and the ship was quite a bit more automated than the battleship. The crew was small for a vessel of this size, and she felt the Confederation had things to learn here.
As a former tactical officer, she’d been interested in the weapons, but there wasn’t a lot to see. They had an antiproton beam weapon roughly the same size as what the Confederation had installed aboard their cruisers and an array of phased packet plasma guns. A small array. This ship would find itself outclassed by a Confederation cruiser in a one-on-one fight.
She also had an opportunity to meet the field marshal’s staff, with the exception of her personal assistant aboard Hunter. It wasn’t a large group of people, but it was eclectic. In addition to Senior Lieutenant Durbin, there was another senior lieutenant from the other feudal lord, Duke Ahren. Then there were two members of the ship’s crew that carried out the same kinds of duties that Admiral Romanoff’s stewards did. All told, that was a fairly hefty group of people devoted to the commanding officer on a ship with such a small crew.
Even taking her time on the tour, they’d still had plenty left for the field marshal to arrive back on her bridge before they even came close to the Novarite forces coming out to meet them.
Once the field marshal ordered the fleet to reverse course and head away from the Novarites, Amanda relaxed a little. There had been a lot of firepower coming their way, and it was good to see the field marshal taking that seriously. Now they were safely on their way back toward the jump limit, and even keeping their speed somewhat below maximum so they could get the maximum trolling effect to lure the Novarites out of position for Hunter to strike.
“Field Marshal, some of Duke Ahren’s ships are reorienting themselves,” one of the officers seated toward the front of the bridge said. “In fact, they all seem to be spreading out.”
The field marshal frowned. “Send a signal for them to get back into formation. I don’t know what they think they’re doing, but now isn’t the time to do it.”
“Yes, ma’am. Sending the order now.”
Because Amanda had turned back toward the command seat, she had a good view of the senior lieutenant standing behind Strange and saw the man pull a pistol out of his pocket. His attention was fully focused on the field marshal, and it was obvious in an instant that he either intended to kill or capture her.
Rather than shout out a warning that wouldn’t do any good, Amanda acted. Her pistol might be on her belt under her jacket, but it was quite accessible when she needed it. She did shout a warning as she drew her weapon, but it was more to distract the gunmen than to hope that Strange would be able to react quickly enough to save herself.
All that time spent on the gunnery range down with the Marines finally paid off. Her draw was smooth, and based on how everything around her seemed to be slowing down, she was moving much faster than she might otherwise have. Her shout had also momentarily distracted the gunmen as his eyes flickered toward her before returning to his target.
In what felt like no time at all, her pistol was on target, and she had fired twice. She could have saved herself that second bullet because the first one struck the man right between the eyes, knocking him back as his body reacted, not realizing he was already dead. The pistol in his hand fired as he convulsed, but he hadn’t had time to bring it onto target, and the shot went wide before he collapsed.
Needless to say, that brought the Marines outside the bridge, racing in with their weapons out. Amanda already had her weapon pointed toward the ceiling and her hands outstretched in a way that was meant to look unthreatening. Even so, simply based on their expressions, they might very well shoot her.
