With the move to two planets, two super-colonies were established. It was the natural order of things. Yet, there could only be one Kreahaam. There had always been one Kreahaam. All the queens were shaken to their core at the establishment of two Kreahaams. The two planets mobilized for war, despite knowing the Empire would bomb them out of existence. It was a logical assumption since the Empire was already displeased with the bugs.
The inhabited planet closest to the local star is known as Kreahaam-In. The planet farther out is, yes, Kreahaam-Out. But there could be only one Kreahaam! In a decidedly wise move, the queen of Kreahaam-In stood tall, pumped her head up and down, and directly challenged the queen of Kreahaam-Out to mortal combat. The winner would be High Queen of Kreahaam, sovereign of both worlds.
At a glance the challenge had an appearance of nobility, a way to spare destruction from the bombs of the Empire. Looking more closely, the move had a clever twist. You see, the Queen of Kreahaam-In had trained from the egg to be a warrior. The outmaneuvered Queen of Kreahaam-Out was more akin to a pampered lifestyle. To back down would give the appearance of cowardice. That would not set well with any of those of Kreahaam. Further, it would demoralize the troops of Kreahaam-Out.
As could be predicted, the High Queen of All Kreahaam lives on Kreahaam-In.
The primary ground offensive will be directed against the palace of the High Queen of Kreahaam, on Kreahaam-In, and the Empire fortress conveniently situated next door to the palace.
Anyway, I’m glad we’re going to free the bug worlds. And now, all those bugs sent out by the Empire on invasion fleets will have a welcoming home when they return. When the SID took over espionage operations on Cygnus Prime, they hacked all around, and were rewarded with all sorts of actionable intel. Early on, they found the courses and destination of every bug invasion fleet. Then, port-techs transport bug allies to all the command ships. Most bugs, including the queens, were in stasis. With the queens in stasis, the pheromone levels were low. That wouldn’t normally be a problem. Bugs do what they’re told in the absence of another opportunity. It’s in their nature.
But when the bugs on watch were told of the human victory, and that the reign of the queens was all but over, they woke their ship mates, and mutinied. The queens and their consorts walked the plank, so to say. Then, the fleets, all of them, turned for home. Port-techs are of utmost value to the war effort. So, it hasn’t been practical to transport the bugs off-ship. They merely turned for home and went into stasis. We’ll get them home, as quickly as the war effort and technology allow.
***
Meeting time.
Tee looks rushed. “Good morning all. I’ll apologize up front for being short, and moving this meeting along quickly. My day is full of meetings, I’m afraid. Unless there are any questions about the briefing report? No? Let’s get to it.”
A quick Tee smile and he’s down to business. “Shockwave is going to be tip-of-the-spear for the League’s first big move along invasion road. We are going to be directly involved in the offensive to take control of Looking Glass.”
Everyone sat up straight at the tip of the spear talk comment.
Tee went on. “Looking Glass is in orbit around a smallish brown dwarf named Sleepy, located about 4 light years from Earth. You know that already, but it is part of my canned speech for the day. A brown dwarf is a failed star. Bigger than a gas giant planet, but too small to sustain the fusion cycle of a star. This particular failed star is very dim and rather small even for a brown dwarf.
“The Empire has a means to use large gravity wells as a power source for bridge gates. A full-sized star isn’t needed. Well, for that matter, they have portal gates all over Cygnus Prime. They don’t have a problem sourcing the power for portal gates apart from a large gravity well. Our best guess is that using a gravity well for power is quick and convenient, though not as stable as other power sources.
“The Empire has no reason to suspect their secret portal has been compromised. Our recon work shows minimal defenses in place at Sleepy. After we take Looking Glass at Sleepy, we will set up a gate pair to bridge Oort-to-Sleepy.
Tee is looking around the room and eying the door. He’s got something going on the side, besides this little meeting. So far, we haven’t heard anything new.
Ha! There’s Scotty, just outside in the hallway.
That must be Tee’s signal to continue. “Like I said, my day is full of meetings. My job, today, is to establish facts of the mission with several groups who have little knowledge of the situation. Scotty is part of the act, and wanted a friendly group for practice. So, be nice.”
Tee is smiling at that last comment, as he continues. “Perhaps you have wondered why the Empire dropped their extra bridge so far outside the Solar System? Why not hide it by Jupiter or Saturn?”
With that, Tee is waving Scotty into the room. Very cool. Scotty’s wearing his Scottish Plaids and rose-colored glasses, if you can imagine. Here’s a quick, unnecessary introduction, and it’s Scotty’s turn to talk.
Scotty has a shy bug smile for us and is jumping into his speech. “Ahhh, so ya can know, we dropped the gate at Sleepy, as ya name it, by way of an accident. A miscommunication as it twere. Sure, and an order caught up to the Kreahaam invasion force at the 36-light year mark, or so, from home. A garbled message it twas, sayin to set up a minor ancillary portal gate at the ‘gas bag’, so it seemed to say. The whole of it twas a mite confusin, for asure.
“Seldom it tiz, an order is sent once the invasion force is off and sailin. Tis true, it tis, the message was choppy an abrupt. The coordinates for the ‘gas bag’ as given were no intact. Just so, nary much for coordinates atal, a jumbled mess for coordinates, an so what twere we to do, I’m askin? We were no to be sittin for 70 years and more to wait for some clarifyin message to go back and forth. And we were plenty low on reaction mass to boot.
“There it twas, lo and behold, there was Sleepy the failed star, just so. Gas bag, there ya have it, an close enough. Right before our eyes, as it twere. Empire wonders and all that. Of the course, now it tis, I wish I’d of paid more thought to markin the location so to have let ya know the whereabouts and such. Acourse, we were in the invadin mood at the time. Apologies. But, to wit, there was Sleepy settin before us. And there ya have it. Twas not as tho the Sleepy portal gate would be needed. A mere emergency gate twas all.
“Why should they need an ancillary portal gate any the way, for the love of Ahaam? Now, mind ya, tis not to say Jupiter would no have done in a pinch. Sure, and twas what they had wanted all along, to set up at Jupiter. That twas the ‘gas bag’ they wanted. I expect they had been intendin to say ‘gas giant’ or some such along with proper coordinates. An, good it did no happen as they did so desire.
“Sure, and if we’d held for Jupiter, well that would no have been good atall, no good for any of us. Tho, I fear it twas us made them Primers in the pentalink so grumpy. The years in stasis and all a-that.”
Tee nodded and smiled, then continued with his talk. “And so, we free Kreahaam. We bridge Oort to Sleepy. We take Looking Glass to Kreahaam. We secure the Kreahaam-Prime gate. Then we continue on with a full-scale invasion of Cygnus Prime from Kreahaam. The Empire limits travel from world to world. We think all Empire gate-bridges start at Cygnus Prime and end at the planets that have been conquered, except the odd gate, such as Kreahaam to Sleepy.
“We need to hit Kreahaam and move on to Cygnus Prime before the Empire can react. There are some items to smooth out. But that’s the gist of it.”
Scotty looked like he was going to cry, with Tee apparently just now spilling the details of the invasion plans related to Kreahaam. “Aye, and will the wonders never cease? Will ye help ol Scotty free his folk then, capin?”
Tee can’t help but smile at that. “Indeed, we will Mr. Scott. And we will then go on to free all the other worlds held slave to the Empire, together.”
Rock has caught the cheery mood. “And now we have the new and improved port-able
gate sets to bridge Oort-to-Sleepy.”
“Exactly,” said Tee. “We can erect a portal gate in a matter of days. Humanity is officially in the remote portal bridge business. Best part, the new system opens, and closes. Consistently.”
Roll hasn’t caught the mood. “It’s the moving on from Kreahaam to Prime that has me concerned. The domes. We detonated a 50-megaton nuke inside one of those domes, with no effect. At least, no effect to the dome.”
Tee has a contemplative look, probably considering whether or not he should divulge need-to-know information. “The plan is to use what they’re calling a Growler Warp Field Missile. The missile will be sent over the portal bridge from Kreahaam to Cygnus Prime, then open a particularly powerful warp field. Tearing up the very fabric of space-time may just crash the dome.”
Roll just shared a look with Rock. “Awe-stounding. I was never a fan of the multi-front portal attack strategy, because our troops would end up inside a dome on Prime. Maybe the first few platoons would be able to port out past the dome. But it wouldn’t take long for the Primers to hit the online button for some sort of nasty automated system to kill us, even if all of our port-techs were all adept at flash-porting, and most are not. No doubt the domes have teleportation dampening systems.”
Rock agrees. “Trued-up. Any contingency plans if the Growler fails to breach the dome?”
“None that I know of,” said Tee. “We had better hope it works.”
I am ever the curious sort, though one should think I would have learned by now. “Wait a second. Am I the only one concerned that a missile powerful enough to tear up the very fabric of space-time and destroy an Empire defense dome, will also destroy the gate on Prime?”
Para is sitting there with her lips closed so tight they’re turning white, so she doesn’t know the answer. Fierce is about to say something, here it comes. But no, he’s decided to clam up. Someone, just answer the stupid question. Fine, I’ll choose.
Let’s see, I choose... Rock. “Okay, how about I direct my simple question to... Rock. We can’t use the gate on Prime if it’s blasted to atomic dust or melted into a pile of slag. Right?”
Rock really shouldn’t fidget so much just to answer a simple question. “The gate system should be fine, Viz. Didn’t you read the summary report? The math was particularly compelling, especially since the Growler field can be tuned. In this case, the gate is made to handle gravitational forces like those produced by warp fields. There may be some blowback through the bridge system, but the gate should be fine. Hopefully, the dome won’t be able to compensate for the massive warp field energy load.”
What can I say to that? “Okay. Just a second. That was the summary report titled, High Level Mathematical Support for the Use of Growler Field Technology in a Kreahaam-Prime Gate Incursion?”
Rock, Roll, and Fierce are nodding and smiling as if they want to pull up the report and read it afresh. Para is lit up like Steve in his Christmas tree outfit at the New-Years party, though likely for a totally different reason, like watching me squirm.
By all means, let the missiles fly. “You read the report too, didn’t you, Para?”
I can just make Para out, on the other side of all those shiny teeth. “I did. The math wasn’t too bad. You really should read the reports. Remember the savage beasts of Ringolar?”
I should just give up. “Do I remember? You’re the one... never mind. You’re right. My math is a little rusty. After this operation I’ll shell out for a cortical stim refresher. For pity’s sake.”
***
Shockwave is at the Solcom Portcenter in Heidelberg, a base mostly used by Port Tech Brigade troops. Evidently, the PTB like their bases on the austere side. It’s May 24th, though we’ve been here a couple of days, running drills with three other squads in preparation for the Looking Glass mission. And getting used to, well, austerity.
A clever architect with a dedicated port-tech were given the task to teleport some old semi-trailers to the Inbetween, beyond Mars, and weld them together to look a little like the Empire control station at Sleepy. We’ve been running drills and getting to know the operators of the other teams ever since. There’s concern the defenders of Looking Glass will be able to register a teleportation signal, so Rock and I did the recon work to log the control center site and take a few pictures.
Communal is coming along for the ride, which caught me by surprise. He must have managed to secure a dedicated QuIM line to his server farm on Earth. I suppose having a big part in saving the world from Sybil gave him some leverage with Solcom.
Finally, drill time is over and they’ve hurried us to our port zone, so we can sit and wait.
Here’s my chance. I’ve wanted to catch up on things with Communal, but he’s been the center of attention ever since we arrived.
“Hi, Communal. Ready for the big mission?”
“Hi, Viz. All systems pegged, ready to go.”
“Stellar. On a sidenote, I’ve been wanting to ask about that Sybil crash. You seemed so sad and introspective... afterward. For a while, you did.”
“Yes. I would have rather turned Sybil to the good, instead of destroying her. But she either had no real volition, or was just evil to the core.
“Oh. I didn’t know about that part. But there was nothing else you could have done.”
“That is our assessment as well.”
“Hey, Communal. Do you remember when I was worried about Grandad, that he was blaming himself for things that were not his fault? You told me that was like the pot calling the kettle black.”
“I remember.”
“You have also said you’re trying to programmatically... you’re trying to emulate us in your programming. To be like us.”
“I do remember, Viz.”
“Do you blame yourself for things that are not actually within your control? You know, human things like that.”
“No, Viz. So far, I managed to miss out on that part, as I’ve worked through my human mirror programming. It was difficult, but we persevered in our efforts.”
“Huhhh? Oh, I get it. That’s smart Communal. Real smart. Some parts of the human condition are probably better to leave behind.”
Finally, there’s the 60-second warning light. Almost time to go.
Final check, combat vac-suit, systems at optimal. We’re cloaked. Teleporting in 3,2,1... Embrace the momentary bout of disorientation. There’s the target! No fire coming in, meaning my cloaking field concealed the port signal. No other obvious facilities or ships in the area. We won’t scan and give ourselves away unless absolutely necessary. I see only one gun emplacement. No activity. It looks as though Sleepy is an aptly named star system.
These gate control stations are packed tight. Safer to breach the old way, rather than entering via teleportation.
Rock has pinged our Ivees, and he’s circled something. An airlock hatchway. That’s our way in. Port countdown, 3, 2, 1... No handle, only a thin seam to show the hatchway. There’s a minor discoloration, about the size of a finger, a sensor unit. Good thing we’re cloaked. Para winds up and hammers the sensor with a hardened tool, then inserts the other end into the small cavity, attaches a gripping bar. Both feet planted on the hull to get leverage. Snap!
And we’re inside the airlock. Cloaked or not, the breach will have rung the station like a bell. Outer door is closed and Fierce is sealing it with fast-drying epoxy.
There’s a steady beep tone, an alarm. Inverted Para slams the inner door which gives away with a rending creeech sound. A guard looks up, surprised, and is downed with a stun bolt. There are two corridors. Fierce and I are still cloaked. We’ll hold the room and wait to see who might need an assist. Corridors to the right and left. Para and Roll go left. Tee, Rock, and Communal go right. There is the sound of high voltage stunners. Right corridor team is calling clear, followed quickly by left team.
Fierce is already on the computer, scanning the station, then the surrounding area. There’s no indication that an outgoing alarm was sent;
no scheduled gate traffic. Next, he’ll set up a minor malfunction and emplace a spoofing error he learned from Steve. If anyone on the Kreahaam side checks in, that should satisfy them, at least for a while. Hopefully the SID will find some actionable intel from the network data. We’re basically done here.
Sometimes it just goes down simple like that. Like clockwork, other squads have ported in with Logans to deep scan out to five-light-minutes from Looking Glass, just to be sure there isn’t some sort of overwatch position in-system. Then they’ll watch over the area as the construction crew sets up a robust perimeter defense and builds the sectional gate that will bridge Oort base.
The Oort-Sleepy bridge should be functional within 48 hours. It really is something to behold, the military machine at work. It’s not much more than 10 years since the first invasion. The bugs gave the wake-up call that we couldn’t even defend our own planet much less reach out to strike the enemy in a distant star system. How quickly all that has changed.
I know, I’ve done my share of griping about the machines. But we needed the Synergistic Artificial Intelligence Quputers. And by default, I suppose the visionaries who set them free were also a necessity. They go by many names, but... it was those Wizards of AItopia that propelled us to this point, by allowing the AIs to help with their own programming. From there, you can take your pick. That the machines didn’t go rogue and kill us all in our sleep may be a testament to the architect’s planning. Or, perhaps it was their vote of confidence for the future of humanity.
The machines, with their raw processing power, and, yes, their subtle perception, made all of this possible. They helped to merge all the new alien technology with our own burgeoning scientific discovery. Many would shake their heads at our militaristic, even our warmongering past. Most of the time, I would be one of them. Yet, that hard road helped prepare us for this moment. And going forward, with the Empire intent on our destruction, what choice do we have? We chose correctly to become the preeminent military power in the known galaxy.
Invasion: Journal Three (Shockwave Book 3) Page 17
