First Strike (Hammer's War Book 3)

by James McEwan

At the start of the attack, Carl was fast asleep in his cabin, snoring away like a bear. Eve’s body was in her cabin undergoing some maintenance, while her A.I. mind was linked to that of the heart of the Eden. She was busy researching places for Thad and the twins to take Ruby for fun over the next few days while she continued doing her best to hack her way into the Sky Marshal’s computer system. She was impressed with the A.I. that worked for him as he was good… really good, but she was still better.

  Eve was down to the last few bits of encryption to break down when all the channels were suddenly flooded with noise. There was so much noise that it was clear she was being jammed. She started to check other lines of communications and found that they were also being jammed. At first, she thought it was her specifically, but when she couldn’t access anything else she knew that something was going on and it definitely wasn’t good.

  She fired up all of her long-range sensors and found that most of them were being jammed as well. She tried to contact Thad and couldn’t get him on his comm. She tried the twins and got the same noise on their channels as well. Even the short range radios between the ships and traffic control was being jammed.

  The only reason for such interruption in communications was either a massive sun flare, though one big enough to interrupt even hard lines would destroy the planet, or someone was jamming everything for the purposes of attacking the planet.

  It wasn’t long before Eve’s conclusions were confirmed as she started to track space debris as it fell to the planet. Eve figured that if it was a planet wide attack then the spaceports were definitely not a safe place to be. Having a large database covering all of human knowledge and some alien as well, she knew that the spaceports would be one of the first targets to be captured by the enemy. Eve didn’t wait to act, her own survival was at stake, so she fired up the Eden’s engines and took off without clearance, not that she could talk to a traffic controller anyway.

  Eve did a quick search of the planet’s geography and determined the only place to adequately hide the Eden was in the world largest lake, Lake Avalon. Several hundred square miles across and nearly three miles deep, Lake Avalon would not only hide the Eden from sight, but the strange blue green bioluminescent algae that helped scrub the planet’s atmosphere also created a natural electromagnetic field that would hide the Eden from any prying sensors.

  The Eden flew as fast and low as she could. Eve had to dodge buildings, and traffic, as well as pieces of falling flaming debris. Several times she had to activate her weapon systems to destroy falling debris to make it to the lake. The Eden cleared the large circular tower that pumped oxygen into the atmosphere, then dropped low and powered up her screens to full. Eve slowed the Eden, pointed her nose down, and slipped beneath the glowing blue green surface of the lake.

  Inside the Eden Carl was still sleeping soundly, completely unaware that anything had happened. Eve turned on the artificial gravity and cranked it up enough that even when she had to roll completely upside down to avoid a collision Carl stayed comfortably in his bunk.

  The battle in space above the planet was fierce, but short. The defenders fought hard, and inflicted heavy damage upon the invading fleet, but it was a losing battle from the start, as they were vastly outnumbered. It was not more than an hour before all of the defenders where shot down.

  Once the air space was cleared and under the control of the invaders, they brought in their troop ships. Landing all over the planet and securing the spaceports first. It seemed that each district was given to a different race of the invading force. The Lake District, an area of the city that was built around a series of bioluminescent lakes, was being invaded by the Alyn Rue; a bear like race that was closely allied with the Ralnai, a bipedal reptilian race. The Capital District was being invaded by the Fabian and Ralnai forces. The Fabian Empire was built by the remnants of Russians and other Eastern bloc countries from old Earth. They had left Earth after the Days of Empire wars.

  As the ground troops landed, they were met with fierce resistance from the planetary defense forces as well as the rearguard of the 101st Rep Com Police Core. The local police and emergency services were busy trying help get the wounded to hospitals and emergency medical centers.

  Amanda and Ruby were both sound asleep when the attack began. Amanda had taken a sleeping aid and was out hard. Ruby, who would have normally heard the minds of the invading force hours before the attack, like she had on Nome, was sleeping soundly, having figured out how to push out the constant drone of so many minds. Here on Isis there were so many minds that the noise was so great to her brain she had figured out how to process it like white noise. Ruby liked it here on Isis because for once in her life she could focus to hear the thoughts of any one person where as in other places where there were far less people she had to fight to not be overwhelmed by the flood of voices. She was having one of the best nights of sleep she had ever had. It was too bad it was about to be so rudely interrupted.

  Riding in the lift were two LPM-48 (Leland Police Model) Robots and six SPs (Security Police) from the StarGuard Fleet Command. The doors slid open and the SPs were met by Charles, “I’m sorry gentlemen, this is a private residence. You will need to leave.”

  The leader of the group stepped out of the lift, “This is the residence of StarGuard Admiral Amanda Hayes?”

  “Yes it is sir,” Charles answered.

  The man held up a hologram, “Good! I have a warrant for her arrest.”

  “On what charge? I have no knowledge of a crime being committed by the admiral,” Charles said with almost a hint of concern in his voice.

  The SP pulled his sidearm and pointed it at Charles’ head. Without saying a word he pulled the trigger. The laser bolt burned a neat hole through Charles forehead. A white fluid poured from the wound. The love bot’s head sparked and a thin whiff of smoke exited the hole. Poor Charles was trying to process what had just happened to him. His central processor was located in his mid-section and his limited programing could not deal with the damage done to his main sensors, which were all packed in his head. The bot’s processor overloaded and shut down.

  As Charles powered down his shoulders slumped and he started bending forward at the waist. Afraid that the bot would fall on top of him, the SP kicked Charles in the chest sending him toppling backward. Charles fell over and landed on the carpeted floor with a soft thud, a pool of the white coolant growing beneath his head. The SP turned to his men, “I hate those things. They creep me out.”

  A visibly younger man asked, “Hey Sarg, how’d you know he was a love bot?”

  The man shrugged, “Easy, he wasn’t sweating. Any human faced with this motley crew should have been sweating bullets.”

  Even the drug-induced sleep couldn’t keep Amanda out through the building shaking and the sound of the laser pistol. She rolled over and sat up trying to clear the fog from her mind. The building shook a little again as another hit struck the city. That was enough to snap her to her senses. She rose and reached her bathroom where she slipped on her silk robe that matched her cream silk nightclothes. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail and turned to leave her bathroom when she was met by an SP standing in the doorway, pistol in hand. “Show me your hands Admiral. I would really hate to shoot you.”

  “Well Sergeant I would really hate to get shot in my own bathroom. Care to explain yourself?” She asked as she held out her hands slowly to show that she was unarmed.

  “I have a warrant for your arrest,” he answered as he showed her the hologram warrant with is other hand.

  “Let me guess, issued by Sky Marshal Drake?”

  “I don’t know, and forgive me for being blunt Admiral, but I really don’t care who or why it was issued. I’m just doing my job. Now turn around and place your hands behind your back.”

  “I see,” she said as she complied.

  He holstered his sidearm and pulled out a set of mag-cuffs. He placed the cuffs on her wrists and was not gentle about it either. “Hey easy there
sergeant, I’m still an Admiral you know.”

  He placed one hand on the cuffs and the other on her shoulder, “Frankly Sir, I don’t give a damn. Any chance I get to stick it to one of you high and mighty officers just makes my day, now move!”

  Meanwhile the other officers were searching the rest of the rooms looking for anyone else that might be home. The sound of the pistol fire alerted Archie to the danger. He was in a low power state, but it only took a few milliseconds to return to full power. The first thing he did was open his link to the apartment building’s computer. He checked and learned that the security-damping field had been turned off using a police override code. Next, he checked all of the building security cameras to try to get a visual idea of what was going on. He played back the last few minutes of footage from all the cameras. Being a walking computer, he was able to do this in a matter of seconds. He was able to see the SP’s entering the building and riding the lift up. He was able to witness the SP shoot Charles from the camera in the hallway.

  Archie was tasked with protecting Ruby and was prepared to do that until he no longer functioned. He wanted to charge into the hallway and attack, but he had been given a tactical awareness program written by Eve and enhanced by Thad on the trip to Isis. This new program kicked in and reasoned that he was out gunned and didn’t have any tactical advantage. The only option was to try to hide Ruby and hope that it worked. He reviewed the plans of the building and found a void space between walls. He found the section of the wall he was looking for and using his finger laser, cut a square hole in the wall.

  Ruby was stirring, then she sat straight up and looked toward her grandmother’s room, “Archie grandma’s in trouble.”

  “I know Miss Ruby. You are in danger too. I need you to come here right now.” Archie said as he removed the cut out section of wall. Ruby had really come to like and trust Archie, so she slid out of bed and ran to him. “Please get in, and stay quiet until I tell you it is safe to come out, okay?”

  She nodded that she understood and climbed into the wall. Archie nudged the section of wall back into place, and Ruby was suddenly pitched into darkness. She was scared and having a hard time controlling her fear, but somehow she was able to stay quiet.

  Archie moved a dresser over to cover the hole in the wall and then Archie stood where the dresser had been trying to hide the marks on the carpet that showed that a dresser had been there. Just as he appeared to go into a low power state, the door to Ruby’s room opened and a SP entered. He looked around a bit then he stuck his head out of the door, “Hey Sarg the little girl isn’t here.”

  The sergeant and an LPM-48 entered the room. He looked around and then walked straight up to Archie, “I wonder what the hell this thing is supposed to be?”

  “Robot nanny maybe?” The other SP offered.

  “Strange looking nanny if you ask me, he looks more like a surgical bot. Rather creepy to be in a kids room at night. Man if I had to wake up in the middle of the night with this thing standing over my bed I think I’d shit myself,” the sergeant said as he looked Archie up and down. He drew his sidearm and using the butt of the gun, he rapped on Archie’s forehead, “Hey, you on?”

  Archie powered up and answered, “Yes sir. I was just in standby mode.”

  “You have a name bot?”

  “Archie sir.”

  “Okay Archie, I’m Sergeant Dahl, StarGuard Security Police and I’m here to arrest Admiral Hayes and take her granddaughter into protective custody. Do you understand?”

  “Yes sir,” Archie answered.

  “Good, then can you tell me where the little girl is?”

  Thanks to Eve, Archie could do something that no other bot could do, he lied. “Miss Ruby is still out with her parents and has not returned.”

  “Really, that’s interesting. Then can you tell me why her bed is unmade and looks like it’s been slept in?” The sergeant asked, pointing to the bed next to them.

  Archie’s processor was working overtime trying to formulate the next lie when Ruby stretched out and touched the man’s mind. He stood there looking like he wanted an answer then he shrugged his shoulders, “I guess it’s no big deal.” He turned to his second, “Have the LPM check his data base and see if we can get any more information out of him.” He then left the room as if programmed to do so.

  The other SP looked at the police robot, “You heard the boss, check him.”

  The LPM-48 was a large heavily armored robot that was created to do all the things deemed too dangerous for humans to do. They were tough and the scourge of criminals everywhere, but they were not the brightest bots out there. It stood there unmoving just looking at the SP who smacked the bot on the back of the head, “Don’t stand there looking stupid, hook up to the other robot and check it for data.”

  The police bot seemed to understand the command this time because it crossed the room, grabbed Archie by the neck and in a robotic voice said, “Don’t move while I interface with you.” The police robot reached into what looked like a belt pouch around its waist and pulled out a wire and plug. He then rammed the plug into Archie’s data port that happened to be located on his waist just above where his groin socket would have been if he’d had one.

  “Not even going to buy me a drink first?” Archie said, thinking that would have been Mr. Thaddeus Hammer’s response.

  The police robot didn’t say anything it just went about its business, but the SP was shocked to hear a robot talk like a human, “What did you say?”

  Archie didn’t answer as his own processor was too busy back hacking the police robot. Unknown to Archie Eve had really tweaked his operating system and there were several programs that were lying dormant, but were there just in case something like this ever happened. The back hack did two things, first it filled the police bot with a bunch of meaningless data that tricked it into thinking it got a lot of good intel, and second it placed a virus in the bot that would slowly open a link to Eve allowing her to take complete control of the bot anytime she desired.

  After the police bot was done it disconnected and turned around, “I have everything you have requested.”

  “Good lets go,” The SP said, and they left Archie standing there not knowing that he had just effectively bugged the police using their own robot.

  Chapter 17

  The young Terrain Emperor and his pregnant girlfriend, the former assassin, were both asleep in their room at the home of the Terrain Ambassador. He had been a longtime friend of Connell’s father, but more than that Colonel Grunt trusted him having spent time in the past as the ambassador’s security chief. Grunt knew the ambassador to be a good man and loyal to Earth.

  Just outside the Emperor’s room Colonel Grunt sat in what would have been a comfortable chair, made uncomfortable by his armor. Being a career Marine, he had come to except discomfort as part of the job. He was sleeping lightly with his weapon leaning next to the chair within arms-reach. He had also learned over a long career to sleep when he could. On the other side of the doorway was one of Grunt’s Marines wide-awake and ready for anything. The rest of his men were either on watch or sleeping.

  When the bombardment started, Grunt was on his feet in a flash calling for all of his men to check in. He got no response and tried again, but all he received was static. He turned to his marine, “Can you raise anyone over the radio?”

  “No sir, just getting static. I can’t even hear you and I’m standing right next to you.”

  “Damn it, we’re being jammed. Go get the lads up and tell them to stay frosty. Something’s going down and I don’t like it.”

  “Yes sir,” the Marine said. Normally he would have snapped off a salute, but no one saluted in this unit because Grunt felt that rank aside they were all equally ready to die in defense of the Emperor and to him that made them equals.

  The Marine on over watch was stationed on top of the Ambassador’s home. He had found himself a nice high perch on the flat roof and was watching the private driveway that lead fr
om the road to the front of the home. He was sweeping back and forth with his night vision looking for anything that might be a threat. At first there was nothing, but it was not long after the attack began when an armored StarGuard Security Police vehicle pulled up out front of the house.

  He picked up his sniper rifle and put the cross hairs on the driver’s head.

  Down below the two Marines guarding the front of the house were on edge when things started to fall out of the sky, and when the orbital bombardment started they were ready for just about anything. One Marine stepped out in front of the vehicle and it stopped. He went to the driver’s side and had a few words with him.

  The sniper watched through his scope as things spun quickly out of control. The passenger, another security police officer, fired through the open window striking his fellow Marine in the face. Luckily for the Marine he was following combat protocol and had his armor buttoned up tight. The laser bolt splashed against the front of his helmet. It fried all his forward sensors blinding him, and the force of the bolt knocked his head back and caused him to stumble backwards.

  That was all the authorization he needed to open fire. Normally he would have obtained authorization from the Colonel, but with the comms being jammed, each Marine knew they were on their own. He squeezed the trigger and the large rocket assisted rifle spat fire as the bullet screamed out of the barrel. In a flash the drivers head was gone, replaced by a mess of blood, bone, and brains.

  The other Marine opened fire on the vehicle, but it had no effect due to the armor plating. The back of vehicle opened up and two LPM-48s exited. They rounded the side of the vehicle and were met with a burst of laser fire from the Marine guarding the door. The laser bolts slammed into the heavy armor of the LPM-48s chest. The armor glowed white hot, but didn’t penetrate. The robot returned fire and the tri-barreled power gun spat nearly a hundred yellow beads of light that tore through the Marine. His armor gave little protection against such firepower, and he was killed instantly.