by David Nash
His plan was to build a growing divide between the personas people believed he and I represented. Once again, my respect for him grew as I realized he had skills that I was sorely lacking, and while our relationship took a hit and he lost some trust in me, he created a plan that allowed me back into the fold. Sabol was not betraying me; he was helping me make the right decision. Unfortunately the penance for my actions was to deliberately build a gulf between the Republic Government and the Legion.
I have no idea the long term impact, but humanity was taking sides. At least the chasm between security and freedom would make it believable when I took the Legion and left the Solar System. I just hope that after the battle, history shows truth of what happened.
34
Operation Blue Harvest: Orbit over Cecrops
Everything is set, our ships are in position, their cloaks are holding. Our decoy busses are loaded and ready for departure. All Kernel ships are located and marked on our screens. All three suspected hive minds are bracketed with targeting data plotted for the ships we are about to drop. The room is filled with the clicks and clattering of silent soldiers performing those last minute tasks before battle begins. No one speaks unnecessarily, as they are all waiting for the order to be given, yet a few muffled orders are passed between battle stations.
I hate this part of a battle, right now we can look toward victory, people are scared, but no one has died doing things I ordered. I want to call it off, I think all commanders do just a little bit, but we need to win, I have faith in the plan, and pride in my people’s training. We are in the right. We are going to win. I take a deep breath, hold it for a count of four, blow it out slowly and then calmly give the order. Execute Order 66.
The volunteer ram makes a high speed run toward the transit point; its backup ships are already in position above the punisher. Without using the enhanced cloak, its position is given away, and it begins to take fire. Ion cannons and lasers from the Punishment ship are inaccurate with the range and the speed our Bus is traveling. I pray it makes it to its target, but it is already accomplishing its mission as saucers uncloaked and head toward it.
Our fighters are prepared to take out any remaining Kernel ships cloaked near our shuttles targets. They are only waiting on my order. I watch the screen intently waiting for all the ships to get into the kill boxes we had carefully planned out. We can’t allow a single Kernel to survive to plant another hive mind on the planet.
Just one more moment….. There it is! “All ships fire!” The lasers make no sound in space, and the only light appears when they hit their targets, the ion cannons are a little easier to see, but it is the explosions of the ships that really let you know a battle is being fought. Space battles are not really for humans, we plan and set the stage, but as soon as the battle starts, the distances involved and the speeds of the players make it almost impossible to manage once chaos begins. Luckily, our sensors are showing our advantage. The corporal at the sensor display post notifies me that all three busses are engaged. It is now time to send in the shuttles.
“All shuttles, engage your kinetic payloads! Drop at will!” With that command issued, all I could do was to watch in agony as my Legionaries fought. I would have no real role to play until after the engagement was over
Volunteer Bus Team
“All Busses, this is Lieutenant Ross, we are a go for ramming operations, see you on the flip side!” I radio to the other two ram teams.
To my men I yell “Buckle up boys, we are going in hot and hard”
The pilot of the bus gives a thumb up signal as she floors the grav pads and accelerates at the limit of the buses capability. This is my third ramming operation and it never gets easier, sitting a metal tube of death speeding into a huge space faring ship at fractions of light speed is not something a normal person would do. Hell, only those crazy fuckers in Davis’s Dozers that willingly jump out of moving ships and float ballistically through space are crazier than us bus drivers. My thoughts come to an abrupt end as the muted jarring rocked me gently signaling that it is time to fight. “Time to make the doughnuts!” I yell, just as my dad used to say as he left for work.
My legionnaire entry team led the way in, blasting through the forward hatch and securing the corridor as my second team stacked up on the bridge door and third team prepared the breeching paste to burn through the hall.
“Ready” My breacher yelled into his Comms
“Set” said the second team leader, letting me know his team was stacked and good to go.
“Go!” I yell as the thermite paste and explosive compound simultaneously cut through and blast away a hole large enough for 32 combat united legionaries to rush in in a column of twos.
Killing the ridden on the bridge was an anticlimax, as most of the ship was automated by the kernel inhabiting the ship. Its ingrained cockiness came out as it broadcast though speakers throughout the bridge.
“Foolish Legion, your ways of combat are antiquated. There are no Captains anymore, yet you still send in your biologic waste cowering inside your mechanical bodies.”
“Yeah well, fuck you in the goat ass!” I say as I send a forearm mounted cannon blast into the speaker box. As planned, the team all took out any cameras and monitoring devices inside the bridge and in the halls around the command center.
Almost as if it was on cue, my security team radioed that we had ridden Barkun coming down the halls as well as what they described as large robot spiders.
“Defensive posture, my team let’s hold the hatch. LT Butler, take your two teams and secure the bus hatch, we will have them in a crossfire and force them to fight us in smaller batches.”
“Sir, if they overrun the position you will be cut off from the bus!” My second in command radioed.
“If the position is overrun, there won’t be anyone to get back to the bus!”
While my men fired at the targets designated by my assistant platoon leader I tried to make contact with the other two bus teams.
“Yankee 1 this is Volunteer actual over!” I used the Comms in my helmet as no one on this mission had implants.
“Volunteer Actual, this is Yankee 1 Actual, I assume you have the bridge, over!” The sounds of combat echoed loudly in both the background of his radio transmission and the room around me.
“Yankee 1, we are at the bridge, the Kernel is in the ship, so we are not in command of the ship at this point. We are fending off attacks from Ridden Barkun and a bunch of spider robots. How is it over there! Over”
“Same thing with the spider robots, we are facing heavy resistance, but are traveling toward the objective. Over.”
Volunteer Actual, this is Yankee 2 actual, I’m feeling left out, but at least the Kernel did not forget me, we are heavily engaged at the moment. They have a lot of reinforcements down at the engineering spaces. Over.”
“Yankee 2, do you need a hand? Over.”
“What I need is the diversion you were supposed to provide. Over”
“Alright, you asked for it, Yankee 1 attempt to disengage and return to your bus, support Yankee 2 as needed. I’m going to see if we can’t play smush the spider. Volunteer 1 out.”
“Butler” I say over my private command channel.
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“Have your men keep their heads down, and have your pilot fire some rail gun rounds down the hall. If she has any nuclear pen rounds hidden away, use one of those after the third shot.”
“They are going to be coming awful close to your head Ross, you sure?”
“Fuck no I ain’t sure, but we have to do something! Does she have any nukes or not?”
“The pilot says she has 4 hidden away, but don’t go ratting her out.”
“Alright, have her fire 4 rounds, last one a nuke, and then get out of my way as we are going to get back on the bus!”
“On three Ross”
After a count of three, the air and anything not bolted down whizzed past us as three railgun rounds the size of baske
tballs came zipping past and nearly 6000 miles per hour.
Each impact blew deeper inside the ship, so the fourth nuke was able to penetrate enough to blast a hole through the bulkhead on the top of the ship, sucking out much of the ridden in front of the ship.
“Dammit Volunteer 1, I asked for a fucking diversion, not a damn nuclear war. Tell somebody next time.”
“But did you die?” I reply
To my team, I yell to get to the bus, as we take advantage of the momentary lull in fighting caused by the impact of the rail guns.
“Volunteer 1 to Yankee 2, sorry about the lack of a waning, did it help, or do you want us to come give you a closer diversion?”
“Don’t you dare asshole; we are dropping the ordinance now. It’s on a short fuse, so I would ditty bop off this tin can if you don’t want to have your atoms spread through space.”
“Copy that Yankee 2, we are On the Move!”
“Butler, Report? We got everybody?”
“Yes sir, all present or are accounted for. We have casualties.”
“No time for that now, Pilot, let us GTFA!” I yell.
“Getting the fuck away! Rodger sir!” She replied over Comms.”
I feel another lurch as the bus screeches out of the hole it smashed into the side of the ship. The whoosh of atmosphere covers the sound, but you could almost feel the metal giving way.
As we backed away our shield came back over the bow of the ship, and nanites were realized to make a temporary repair. As always I tell myself we have to think of a better front hatch system, then brush such thought aside as I tend to my wounded legionaries.
As soon as we cleared the ship we came back under fire, I tell you I did not like this new experience in the least. The pilot was able to avoid most of the heavy fire as she accelerated away, but we were not under fire long when the strategic atomic demolition device Yankee 2 planted near the ship’s reactor core detonated. The resulting explosion was fed by the fuel in the reactor itself, and the ship spectacularly exploded, unfortunately a large chuck hit our ship and opened it like a soup can.
Operation Blue Harvest: Orbit over Cecrops - After Battle
We came close to, but not quite going overboard on the kinetic strikes. We had to estimate mass, but because of battle damage we added in a safety margin, which, in hindsight was not necessary. Three great swathes of Cecrops were annihilated, and the resulting dust cloud will impact the surface for some time, but our scans show clear of any Kernel in this system.
Our shuttles are out performing rescue operations for the ram ships, they detonated while still in the impact zone and two of the rams were destroyed. Luckily the McCall EVA training is though as the conscious legionaries immediately began self-rescue and used their shields to help collect casualties. The survivors bunched up as close as possible to assist the shuttles in collecting them.
Concurrently with the rescue mission, my communications team is trying to get in touch with whatever passes for leadership on Cecrops. We would like to provide assistance, but I want to make sure they know we are on their side first.
Once those two missions are underway, we plan to make use of the battle by collecting the debris and using it to feed our replicators. It is about time we got new sources of mass, as cannibalization by new construction won’t last much longer.
Lastly we need to send a long range fighter/courier to Earth to report our status.
“Commander Baumgarter, we have a Barkun representative on the comm.”
“Patch them through to my screen “I ordered. “This is Commander Baumgarter of the Orbital Fortress Oak Ridge, who am I speaking with?”
“Hello Commander, my name is Arina, and I can’t give you a rank, as the destruction has left us unsure of who is in charge, but before the Kernel came I was on the Planetary Council.”
“Well, Arina, I regret the mess, but with the situation up here it was the only option we had to stop the occupation of your world. We are prepared to offer humanitarian assistance during this time of disaster.”
“That would be welcome Commander, but right now I am in need of intelligence, while the planet bound did not condone in the enforcement actions of our space based brethren, we had considered your kind as an occupation force and the Kernel as allies. Now it seems the Kernel has turned on us and you have fought to end the occupation of our minds.”
‘Councilwoman, we have limited resources within the fortresses, as the Kernel sent a guardian ship against us first and all my available shuttles are busy performing rescue operations, but as soon as I can, I would like to land and discuss what little I know of the status of the Galaxy in person. Please let my communications officer aware of any emergency needs your people may have and I will see what help we can provide.
“Thank you Commander, I look forward to meeting you in person. “ With that the call ended and my screen went blank.
35
New York, Headquarters of the President of Earth
“President Sabol, it is nice to see you again, you have quite a nice office. It is a step up from the one in North Carolina. Say how is that secretary doing?”
“Can it asshole, you know all about this office and the fact that she gets a crap ton of alimony even after being married only 18 months. You only come when you want something, so what is it that I can do for you?”
The President looked pissed, but he broke into a smile and came over to shake my hand.
“Seriously though Adam, I am sorry about the divorce.”
“Shit Tell, you know what they say, can’t turn a hoe into a housewife, She was a better stripper than a secretary.”
“This is, if I recall the story correctly, why you hired her.”
“Yeah Yeah, So back to the reason you are here.”
“Hold on.” I say pulling out the cone of silence box and turning it on. I test it with Alan and see that it is working.
When the light turns green President Sabol looks at me and says, “Shit, is it that serious?”
“Yes, but we have a plan.”
After the briefing, and over a couple fingers of Jack Daniels, Sabol looks closely at my face and says, “It is not like the old days, he can shoot you for this if it goes wrong.” Taking a sip of the brown liquor he pauses “Tell, there is a lot that can go wrong.”
“Adam, I just don’t see any other options. Not any moves that allow us to win. We can play defensive for years, but the longer we wait the stronger they get, and they have dropped all pretense at abiding by the law. What they are doing is evil, pure and simple evil. We have to stop it.”
“I agree, but you need to tell President Eastman. You need his blessing.”
“I admire the man more than you know. More than that, I respect him. However, for this to work it was to look like Earth is defenseless, and he will never go for that. Do you remember the Hive-mind Battle?”
“Remember it, those damn kernel jockeys were scratching at my door before you blasted that hive mind.”
“Not me, Marvin. But do you remember how Eastman acted. He risked it all to reduce human casualties. I admit, it was the right call, but it could have easily been the wrong one.”
“This is the same thing, what if you are wrong?’
“Then we die.”
“That is not your call. This is not what the Republic is about.”
“Adam, what would you have me do, what if he says no, we can’t win a defensive war.”
“Tell remember the story you told me about Eastman and the terrorists. You know he has the will to make the tough call.”
“Yes, but this is a do or die mission, hell it is probably do and die, I think this one is better to ask forgiveness than permission.”
“Tell you’re stupid if you think you will get forgiveness if you do this off script.”
“I don’t give a fuck about forgiveness; I want to save the Universe from rabid ass computer chips. I don’t see another option.”
“William Tell, you need to take step back, this
isn’t about the options, it is about you. You’ve been at the helm so long you forget that you are not the only one in charge. Eastman needs to be in the loop. You have to tell him. Trust in the system you helped build.”
“Damn you Adam Sabol, alright you bastard, but the mission still requires secrecy, can you get him here without anyone knowing the three of us met?”
President Sabol smiles and presses a button on his desk.
The rear entrance to his office opens and an angry Republic President steps into the room.
For a second, it was a cluster, President Eastman looked like he wanted to punch me, and I wanted to punch President Sabol. Sabol stood bravely but quivered in anticipation that I may just knock him the fuck out.
“Sabol, what the hell did you do?”
“Commandant, I believe Sabol saved your life, I was prepared to shoot you if you decided to attempt your coup.”
“Coup, the hell you say! I don’t want power, if I wanted you job, I would have ran for it.”
“So what would you call suborning the entire military of a planet without authorization in order to undertake a personal scheme?”
Turning back to Sabol, “You sure worked fast. Did you decide to sell me out before you knew what I was coming to talk about?”
President Eastman motioned toward the sofa.” General Davis, I would ask that you sit down and listen. President Sabol had no idea what was going on. I approached him, and if you would shut your pie hole I will tell you what the plan is.” With that he walked to the dry bar, hitched his head toward Adam and said “May I”
Adam replied “Of Course Mr. President. I think I will get a refill myself. The scotch you like is to the left.”
Drinks in hand, both Presidents took residence in the overstuffed chairs.
President Eastman took a sip of his Dewar’s and said. “Davis, you have courage, skill, and a good amount of luck, but you are no strategist. Did you forget I grew up in the officer corps? I took me all of 2 days of seeing manifests and orders coming through my office to discover what you are planning. Oh I know you took precautions. You are a crafty SOB, but you forget that there is more to intelligence that just hiding the intent. Did you know that the Russians kept tabs on the Pentagon by having operatives in the four pizza restaurants just outside the Pentagon? Whenever the late night orders rolled in for takeout, it signaled that we were about to attack something.
