Ep.#13 - Return of the Corinari (The Frontiers Saga - Part 2: Rogue Castes)

by Ryk Brown

  “Like handing the con off to Jessica, Josh, or Loki,” Nathan surmised.

  “Precisely. I should point out that there are still numerous access privileges that still require your formal authorization. Until they have been set, my functionality will be limited.”

  “Can you give me an example?” Nathan wondered.

  “Should the crew become incapacitated, do I have authorization to assume control of the systems necessary to ensure the crew’s safety?” Aurora asked.

  “What kind of systems?”

  “Propulsion and navigation, for example,” Aurora explained, “so that I can navigate the ship to a safe location.”

  “I suppose that should be addressed,” Nathan agreed. “However, there need to be some limitations.” He thought for a moment. “Perhaps you should send a list of the access privileges that still need to be defined, for us to review before addressing them.”

  “Of course.”

  Nathan’s data pad beeped, and he picked it up, examining the list. He sighed and then pressed the intercom button. “XO, Captain. Are you busy?”

  “I’m always busy,” Cameron replied. “What can I do for you?”

  “I need to talk to you about something.”

  “Will it take long?” she asked. “I have to meet with Commander Verbeek later.”

  Nathan glanced at the list again. “Oh yeah, it’s going to take a while.”

  * * *

  “Good morning, General,” Corporal Vasya greeted as he entered the Ghatazhak development lab on Orswella. “You wanted to see me, sir?”

  “I did,” General Telles confirmed in his usual stern, business-like tone.

  “Listen, if it’s about that whole deal on Sanctuary, where I…”

  “Relax, Corporal,” Telles interrupted. “You’re not in trouble…for once. In fact, Lieutenant Rezhik reported that you did an exemplary job during that entire weapons deal.”

  “He did?” the corporal replied, a bit surprised. “Uh, thank you, sir. Then, why am I here?”

  “The lieutenant also said you’re very good at quickly adapting to new situations and at determining how to take advantage of unfamiliar technologies.”

  “Yeah, I love gadgets,” the corporal admitted. “I used to take everything apart when I was a kid. Didn’t get half of it back together, though, if I remember correctly.”

  “Well, we won’t be asking you to disassemble anything,” General Telles assured him. “Actually, I’d like you to test out our latest combat armor system prototype.”

  “I heard you were making a few improvements to our gear,” Corporal Vasya said, becoming more relaxed.

  “Oh, it’s much more than a few improvements,” Mister Ayseron corrected, his attention drawn away from his work for the first time since the corporal had entered the lab.

  “Corporal, this is Mister Ayseron. He’s the lead SilTek engineer for this project,” General Telles introduced. “Mister Ayseron, Corporal Kit Vasya.”

  “You left out ‘the one and only,’” Corporal Vasya joked, moving toward Mister Ayseron and offering his hand.

  “A pleasure,” Mister Ayseron replied, his attention and both his hands remaining on his work.

  Corporal Vasya shrugged, stepping back. “So, what do I do?” he asked the general.

  General Telles looked to Mister Ayseron. “Are we ready?”

  “I believe so.”

  The general turned back toward Corporal Vasya. “Please, step on that pad,” he instructed, pointing at the small rectangular pad on the floor in front of the work bench.

  Corporal Vasya stepped forward and examined the pad. “What is this? You need to weigh me first?”

  “That device will scan your physical characteristics, prior to deployment,” General Telles explained.

  “Deployment of what?”

  “The combat augmentation and protection system,” Mister Ayseron stated.

  “We call it CAPS for short,” the general added.

  “Clever.” Kit looked around the room. “Where’s the suit?”

  “In that locker,” Mister Ayseron replied, pointing to a large, black locker against the wall.

  “Shouldn’t I put it on?”

  “It doesn’t work that way,” General Telles told him.

  “The system reads your body dimensions and adjusts the sizing of each component before attaching it to the user,” Mister Ayseron explained.

  A look of uncertainty came over the corporal’s face. “Attaching?”

  “Donning would be a better term,” General Telles suggested.

  “My apologies,” Mister Ayseron said. “There are so many subtle differences in our languages.”

  “Donning?” Corporal Vasya wondered.

  “The combat augmentation and protection system is self-donning,” Mister Ayseron explained. “The user simply steps up to the deployment station, assumes the proper posture, and the system automatically places all components onto the user, thus making them fully combat ready in thirty seconds.”

  Corporal Vasya did not look convinced. His eyes shifted left, away from Mister Ayseron and toward the general. “This is a joke, right?”

  “It is not,” the general replied.

  “Wait, isn’t this what Eiselen was doing?”

  “Yes, Jannes has also been helping us test this concept.”

  “Concept?” Vasya questioned, concern in his voice. “Eiselen just got out of the infirmary,” he continued, putting the pieces together. “He had a broken leg and tore three tendons in his knee.”

  “All of which were quickly repaired by his medical nanites,” General Telles pointed out. “He was back to combat status in less than a day.”

  “Sergeant Eiselen’s injury is why we developed the body scanning device,” Mister Ayseron added. “However, perhaps we should reduce the deployment rate for the first few runs,” he told the general, remembering what had happened to the sergeant.

  “A wise precaution,” the general agreed.

  “Yeah, slow it down a lot,” Vasya insisted.

  “If you please, Corporal,” General Telles instructed, pointing to the pad on the floor.

  Corporal Vasya stepped on the pad, and a blue line appeared, encircling the soles of his service boots. The line began to climb slowly up his legs, continuing all the way up his body until it disappeared after having passed the top of his head. “Is that it?”

  “That is it,” the general replied.

  “Now what?”

  “Just a moment, while the system calculates the adjustments necessary to properly fit the corporal,” Mister Ayseron stated, studying his screen. “There.”

  “If you’ll stand there, with your feet on the markings,” General Telles instructed, pointing to the red marks on the floor in front of the storage locker.

  Vasya looked at both men. “You slowed it down, right?”

  “I did,” Mister Ayseron assured him.

  The corporal reluctantly walked over to the black storage locker, turned around, and placed his feet, slightly spread apart, on the two red marks on the floor.

  “Spread your arms out,” Mister Ayseron instructed, “about fifteen centimeters from your sides.”

  “Like this?” the corporal questioned.

  “Perfect.” Mister Ayseron pressed a button, and the doors on the locker opened, disappearing into the sides of the cabinet. Small robotic arms emerged from the locker, starting at the bottom, placing hard shells over the upper portions of his forefoot, and then across the back of his heels. The coverings immediately compressed, attaching to the upper rims of the soles of his service boots.

  The corporal could feel the casings squeezing slightly. “Whoa. Is that normal?”

  “Everything will be fine, Corporal,” General Telles assured. “Just relax.”

  �
��Easy for you to say.”

  Next were the upper portions of his foot protection, which encased the corporal’s ankles, followed by front and back panels over his lower legs. Knees, thighs, hips; one by one, the fast and nimble robotic arms pulled components out of the cabinet behind him and put them into place.

  “This is weird!” Kit exclaimed, an uneasy look on his face.

  “I would advise you to remain still,” General Telles warned as the system continued to slap components into place. “Especially when it gets to your head.”

  The corporal’s eyes widened as the system slapped components onto his hands, forearms, arms, and chest, continuing upward. As the system encased his upper torso and neck, he held his breath and closed his eyes, bracing himself for the worst. Seconds later, his head was completely enclosed, and the robotic arms disappeared into the storage locker, the doors snapping closed.

  “Combat augmentation and protection system fully functional,” a voice announced in the corporal’s helmet comms.

  General Telles and Mister Ayseron stepped closer, examining the system.

  “You can breathe now, Corporal,” the general instructed.

  Kit tentatively opened his eyes as he relaxed a bit and resumed breathing. Before him stood the general and Mister Ayseron, both of whom appeared to be examining him for any signs of defect. Green targeting squares appeared around each of their heads, with their names off to the sides of the boxes. Along the sides of his view, streams of data were visible.

  “No immediate threats detected,” the voice in his comms continued. “Shields and weapons are offline. Protection and augmentation systems are at condition one.”

  “Who is talking to me?” Kit wondered.

  “That is your combat augmentation and protection system interface AI,” Mister Ayseron explained.

  “We call him ‘Capsi’,” the general added.

  “So, it’s some sort of talking computer interface?”

  “Oh, it’s more than that,” Mister Ayseron corrected. “It’s a complete artificial intelligence.”

  “An AI?” Corporal Vasya looked at the general “I’ve got an AI in here with me?”

  “Correct.”

  “What the hell do I need an AI for?”

  “The system is far too complex for the wearer to operate without AI assistance,” Mister Ayseron insisted.

  “Capsi is there to protect you,” General Telles added.

  “How?”

  “In several ways,” Mister Ayseron explained. “He monitors your life-support systems, manages your biological parameters, and sends commands to your health nanites, and he controls your shields and defensive weapons.”

  “He can also find and identify targets both in and out of the wearer’s individual weapons range, giving you greater situational awareness.”

  “Slick,” the corporal replied. “Does it link with other units, like our systems do?”

  “Once we have other units, yes,” the general replied.

  “What do you think, Corporal?” Mister Ayseron asked.

  “Well, the automatic donning system is a neat trick, but is it really necessary?” the corporal wondered. “I mean, most of us can go from BDUs to full, level three gear in less than a minute anyway.”

  “This system is far more complex than your current armor,” Mister Ayseron explained. “It would take you ten times as long to put it on yourself.”

  “Maybe that’s a problem,” Kit mused. “The more complicated the system, the more likely it is to fail.”

  “This system not only gives you greater protection, it also greatly improves your mobility, range of motion, and overall strength,” General Telles added.

  Corporal Vasya began moving his arms around. At first, close to his sides, then expanding his physical range to extremes. “I can move a lot easier in this. How’d you manage that?”

  “The system uses thousands of tiny bonding links that constantly adjust the strength of their bonds to provide additional range of motion as needed,” Mister Ayseron explained.

  “Damn!” the corporal exclaimed, as he danced and contorted himself in every possible way he could think of. “You’re not kidding!”

  “Perhaps when you’ve finished demonstrating your dance moves, we could make our way to the testing grounds,” General Telles suggested.

  “What are we going to test?” Kit wondered.

  “We’ll start with the augmentation aspects of the system,” Mister Ayseron replied.

  “How do we do that?”

  “Strength tests, impact tests, that kind of thing,” the general explained.

  The corporal suddenly became less excited. “Is that how Eiselen was injured?”

  “Sergeant Eiselen’s injury occurred during the automated donning of the suit,” General Telles replied.

  “Seems like that would be the easy part,” Kit stated.

  “It is,” the general replied.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Nathan sat at the conference table in the Aurora’s command briefing room, just as he had every morning for the past month. Today, however, their daily briefing began with a different subject matter.

  “We don’t really know what it is,” Lieutenant Commander Shinoda admitted, “but they’ve been doing the same thing on Ancot and Corinair.”

  “Are they anywhere near completion?” Cameron asked.

  “Hard to tell. Work seems to have stopped on Ancot, so that may indicate they have completed the project there. The work has slowed considerably on Takara, so they may be nearly finished there as well.”

  “What about Corinair?” Commander Prechitt wondered.

  “They only started the same project on Corinair a few weeks ago. Based on the timelines for the other two worlds, I’d say they’re not even halfway done.”

  “Any guesses?” Nathan asked.

  “We still think it’s some kind of weapons transport system,” the lieutenant commander replied. “A way of moving ordnance around to keep it from being targeted.”

  “Or a way of moving troops without exposing them to undue risk,” General Telles suggested. “That would indicate the Dusahn feel their numbers are insufficient to defend against a ground assault.”

  “Our contacts on all three worlds confirm that access points to whatever the underground system is have been installed within law enforcement stations and military bases, which would support the general’s hypothesis,” Lieutenant Shinoda stated.

  “We have contacts on Ancot?” Nathan wondered.

  “One,” the lieutenant commander replied. “A guy named Dexter Soloman.”

  Nathan’s eyes scrunched together. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

  “He owns a string of small restaurants that specialize in something called glopsy.”

  “That sounds familiar as well.”

  “He invented it. Apparently, it is quite popular on Ancot.”

  “Golupzi?” Vladimir wondered, his eyes suddenly widening.

  “That kid,” Nathan realized. “From the Yamaro’s crew. His father was someone important on Ancot, and he said he worked in restaurants before the Takarans drafted him.”

  “That’s my recipe!” Vladimir exclaimed.

  “That’s right,” Nathan added.

  “That guy owes me a cut,” Vladimir insisted.

  “Are you talking about that smelly crap you used to make?” Jessica wondered. “Rolled up in lettuce leaves or something?”

  “It was cabbage,” Vladimir corrected.

  “If these are underground subways for the movement of ground troops, our job is going to be particularly difficult,” General Telles warned, changing the subject.

  “We need a way to take out whatever is down there,” Jessica stated.

  “Do we have any idea how deep this system might run?” Cameron wond
ered.

  “None,” Lieutenant Commander Shinoda replied. “We can’t get a recon drone in close enough to get detailed subterranean scans. We even tried sending the Falcon in for a quick close-up, but they were nearly taken out only ten seconds into their scan. Whatever it is, the Dusahn do not want us to know about it.”

  “Assuming it is a system to move troops around, we can counter it, to a certain extent, using Kalibris,” Master Chief Montrose suggested.

  “How many of them do we have?” Nathan wondered.

  “Fifty-seven, so far,” Cameron reported, looking at her data pad. “We should have sixty by day’s end.”

  “And we have pilots for them?” Nathan asked.

  “They’re fully automated,” Cameron explained. “Flown by AIs.”

  “And you approved of this?” Nathan asked Doran, surprised.

  “Not exactly.”

  “We didn’t have enough pilots,” Commander Prechitt explained. “Removing the pilot from the Kalibris also allowed us to increase the number of troops each airship could carry from four to six. SilTek also modified them so they are pressurized and can jump from orbit down into the atmosphere, and then back up into orbit, all on a single jump charge.”

  “How the hell did they manage that?” Nathan wondered, obviously impressed.

  “Using the same jump systems we use in our Eagles,” Commander Verbeek explained. “They even created an automated hot-swap system to change the jump cell out in less than a minute.”

  “Very nice,” Nathan commented.

  “So far, the AI pilots have performed remarkably well during exercises on Orswella,” Master Chief Montrose begrudgingly admitted. “The buggers are a lot faster than our old human-piloted versions, and they can land in some surprisingly tight LZs.”

  “Once in orbit, we should be able to detect troop movements through the tunnel networks,” Kaylah stated. “Assuming that’s what it is. Either way, we’ll know for sure at that point.”

  “If we can see where they’re headed, then we can have Kalibris pick up squads and move them to intercept,” Commander Prechitt suggested.

  “Sounds good,” Nathan decided. “Let’s just hope that’s what it is, and not some new kind of weapons system.”