Blockade

by Chris Hechtl

  As she began to issue orders, she felt something within her settle. People were looking to her to lead them out of the mess, and she intended to do just that. She'd have to worry about the future later. For the moment she had to worry about surviving the present.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Malwin cringed internally as centuries, nay, over a thousand years of work, of blood, sweat, and plenty of tears were torn apart in one vast orgy of death and destruction. He didn't know what the butchers bill would be, but he was pretty sure that in the end it would be heavy, heavy indeed.

  And he couldn't do a damn thing to prevent it. That was what sucked the most.

  He knew the war was lost at that point—not guessed, knew. There was no bouncing back from this. Not even with El Dorado and the entire galaxy in their corner. There was no way they could win the war of logistics when their primary yards were this torn up.

  Getting it through certain thick heads would be a death sentence though. All he could do was to ride it out and pick up the pieces when it was over.

  If, that was, he was alive to see it through to the end. That too was in doubt.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Lewis was too busy to feel sorry for himself or anyone else. Too sorry to stop and put a pulsar in his mouth or just take a long walk out of an airlock without a suit.

  Too many people were looking to him for answers. He didn't have many, that tore at him. But for the moment they were keeping him functional, forcing him to remain calm and be the center for everyone else. The guiding force to try to navigate the storm and act not just react to it.

  He knew there would be hell to pay in the long empty nights later but that was then. He had too much in front of him now to worry about it.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Admiral Rico felt his eyes go moist as he watched things come apart. Not just the yards and infrastructure but their entire vision of an Empire. Centuries of work lost in this single act. It was never meant to be apparently.

  He shook his head angrily as people came to him wanting answers. "No comment to the media other than for them to shut their computers down and shelter in place. Tell our people to jink and keep their cyber intrusion systems up."

  It was funny, his people were in the salvage business, even the “pre-salvage” business. They had dealt with A.I. and rogue computers plenty of times over the centuries. He'd thought they were better prepared.

  Now he knew better. It took him a long moment to realize why there was such a discrepancy in skills; they'd grown complacent. When they salvaged a ship, it was normally dead. They cut out its computer, its brain to keep the A.I. from ever waking up. Simple. They hadn't had to deal with many cyber-attacks.

  Well, they were dealing with that now. The fallout, both literal and political would come later he knew.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Captain Hough nodded as the reports came in. They were shifting targets as expected but some of the prowlers had begun to be localized and fired upon.

  The Zephyrs had to transmit and receive data. They had to keep their channels open and keep feeding the cyber-attacks. The Poltergiests ran the biggest risks with their weapons fire, much of it could be back traced.

  They had a few decoys out there, but the enemy had gotten better at localizing them. He winced when three of his ships went down and a fourth reported she was under fire. She too went silent, her icon blinked yellow as a last-known location.

  There was nothing he could do for them. By the time he got a ship to any of them, they would be long dead. Even if he could get a ship there, what could they do other than search and rescue?

  They all knew the risks; it was just something they had known in the back of their minds but had hoped would never happen.

  His eyes turned to the next phase as it went off as planned, striking at targets in orbit of the planet.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  A series of civilian industrial space stations came apart as cyber-attacks drove their computers mad from within and military strikes from outside hit them. As they came apart, they began to shed material, parts, and bodies.

  Since the orbits of the planet were so densely packed, destroying such a large number of stations had a domino effect called the Kessler effect. The destruction of enough hardware in orbit caused a cascade of destruction as pieces sprayed space around them, hitting more and more targets. Satellites were torn apart, they themselves adding to the cascade.

  Some of the parts and pieces fell out of orbit or drifted off into deep space after a severe impact. Within hours a rubble belt began to form around the planet.

  It was just one more climactic event to cap an already eventful day of carnage, death, and destruction.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Catherine watched it all unfold from a secure location inside the Admiralty station. The station was shielded and protected but still rang with the occasional impact.

  She wanted to run, but she sat on the impulse firmly. Running would expose her to the chaos outside the station. She felt the station move though and nodded. The jerk of a movement was foreign to her; she had never seen the station move in her entire career. She heard the pops and groans and then checked her skinsuit.

  She glanced at her security detail. They were suited as well. Paul gave her a silent thumbs-up so she returned to her vigil.

  There was nothing she could do for Elvira or anyone else. There was no way to find out if her lover had even survived. It bothered her, more than she expected. The not knowing part made her bite her lip but then her professional training kicked in and made her fight and lock away the concern.

  She couldn't know nor could she change anything even if she did. She just had to ride it all out and wait for the end of the storm.

  She was a spectator in all this so she might as well sit and watch and ride it out. She could see the distant sparkle of nukes and high C impacts. A warning played out over the station's speakers that they were going to continue to jink. She nodded.

  She could hear chatter over the intercom as some officers speculated that the next strikes wouldn't just be limited to military targets but to the planet and colonies as well.

  She highly doubted it. Irons would play it by the rules; he wasn't the sort to target civilians indiscriminately. Unlike her people she noted.

  But, he had just proven that he could be just as tough and ruthless as some of the best of them. She was pretty sure all bets would be off eventually though. If history was any sort of guide, she knew that eventually civilian populations would be targeted to break the will of a stubborn population who refused to surrender.

  When that change came was something she keenly wanted to know. Now so more than ever.

  Chapter 56

  Countess Newberry heard the reports and grimaced. The news was still coming in through the secure networks, but she already knew it wasn't good. Far from it.

  The lack of a warning to the civilians was proving to be a hard hit. The civilian network had been overlooked. Sure they'd overhauled the military and government networks, but apparently there had been enough back doors into the civilian network for the enemy's A.I. to get through and wreak havoc.

  She was pretty sure someone was going to catch hell over that little oversight. Quite possibly her, she wasn't sure.

  She had to admire the enemy's choice of targets. In one swift move, they'd hammered Horaths infrastructure and logistics. They'd set them back months, quite possibly years and in a war where Horath was already losing the war of logistics that was certainly bad to catastrophic, take your pick.

  It would be months before BUSHIPS picked their way through all of the damage. Months more before they found any subtle sabotage. Yes, the emperor's decision to try to hide the prowlers was going to bite them all in the ass.

  Not that he was going to admit that. No, not ever could the emperor admit to making a mistake. She knew why too; it would doom him.

  Sometimes she wondered if it would be worth it. Then her tired mind rememb
ered Catherine. Had Catherine waited, expecting this sort of an attack? It had come on her father's watch after all …could that be why she'd delayed so long? Or was she just being thorough?

  Either way she hoped something changed soon. And not just because her own neck was riding on the line.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  It took time for the Admiralty to gather assessments of the situation and find each other. Several of the flag officers were dead. Admirals Bradley and Nuert of BUSHIPS and BUPERS were both dead. Their chains of command were in utter chaos. Just getting their communications sorted out was taking precious time.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Captain Hough noted the enemy reaction coldly. He ordered the admiral's transmission even while his remaining ships were assessing the damage and compiling a list of fresh targets. He watched as message buoys played the signal out on any remaining civilian signal.

  "This is Fleet Admiral John Henry Irons, President of the Federation. My people have targeted legitimate targets of war in this engagement. We will give you one standard day to evacuate what you can and engage in search and rescue efforts."

  "I take no pleasure in harming innocent civilian lives. But I do what I must. I will speak again in one day's time."

  The message was simple and to the point. He was curious as to how the enemy would react.

  Probably not well but that was their problem.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Countess Newberry grimaced when she listened to the audio recording. It was simple, brutal, and cut to the point. It also matched Admiral Irons.

  When her people tried to do a voice analysis, they were dismayed to find the transmission was filled with viruses. It didn't matter though; they had what they needed.

  The attack wasn't over. For the moment that was all they needed to know.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Malwin scrubbed his face as he heard about the transmission and its implications. "Do what you can. They didn't target the habitats, get our people to them. Evacuate who we can from where we can," he said.

  Admiral Post nodded.

  "And damn it, reset our communications and encryption! Purge the ram and look for viruses!" Malwin snarled to a communications tech. The girl turned to her in surprise. "I mean it! This is a full cyber-attack, we planned for that!"

  "Yes, sir. Most of our encryption has held. The same for the firewalls."

  "Most," Lewis echoed sourly.

  She turned her head to nod to him. "Yes, sir, unfortunately so."

  "Pass the word to do it anyway. And pass the word through civilian channels that they need to do the same. Every firewall needs to be reset and passwords changed. Count on it like your life depended on it because damn it, it damn well does!" Malwin said.

  Lewis nodded soberly. The woman came to attention and then rushed off to begin issuing orders.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  The emperor was forced to address the situation in an emergency broadcast. He didn't have much choice. Saddam warned him that the rising panic in the population was spreading like wildfire. Rumors of a full invasion was terrifying many. Martial law had been declared.

  It was clear from the image of him that he was seething. The palace had been evacuated, and he was at a secure location.

  "A few hours ago our star system was attacked in an act of cowardice. I won't mince details; we'll mourn the dead later. The Admiralty informs me that another attack is coming."

  He took a breath. "I urge you to seek shelter and help those you can. Make every effort to engage in your own cyber security. The enemy is attacking us through our computers; if you can, shut them off. If you can't, disengage the communications systems and reset your firewalls. Run antivirus and do what you can to insure your own survival.

  His nostrils flared. "This will not stand," he fumed, hands gripping the lectern as his voice dropped into a bass growl. "Mark my words, this attack shall not stand!" he thundered. "We will have our revenge! I promise you that! Like the great countries of the past, the United States with Pearl Harbor and others, our enemy will find they have merely awakened a sleeping dragon. And that dragon will rise in fire!" His eyes were like fire as his clenched right fist was thrust above his head and the address concluded.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  The prowlers waited a full day before they transmitted a second broadcast from stealth recon drones and messenger buoys distributed around the star system. The transmission sources were immediately targeted by the Horathian navy. Forces were dispatched to hunt them down. Some commands fired energy weapons or rail guns in their direction.

  "By now you know what we are capable of," Admiral Irons voice and image stated implacably. He was transmitting on every frequency known to the Horathians.

  Viruses, worms and other bots reported back to other drones in burst transmissions using the enemy's hacked equipment. They transmitted what they had found while the A.I. sowed deeper penetration bots and then unleashed a new wave of viral attacks, some embedded in the admiral's transmission. Federation A.I. and cyber security experts had gleefully amassed the viruses after learning the hard lessons from chasing and dealing with the Xeno Wraith clones. They were only too happy to unleash their newfound knowledge on the pirates.

  "For centuries you people have preyed upon the weak. You have crushed any attempt to return to civilization. You have sadistically tortured and killed tens of thousands of other sentient species for your own sick twisted amusement. Worse, you've reveled in it and your bloodlust. You are no better than the Xenos," he said, pausing for a moment to let that burn in.

  "This was a legitimate attack by the rules of war on your infrastructure. Some would say this is also in retaliation for the plagues you have unleashed. Not just the plagues of piracy you've inflicted on the galaxy for the past seven plus centuries, but also for the more recent acts of genocide."

  Images were played out of the atrocities the Horathians had committed. They included images from Tau of the plague ravaged populations.

  Of course every image and video file had embedded viral strings.

  "Some would say that, and they would be only partially correct," Admiral Irons rolled on. "Those of your leaders and those who created these hell weapons will be held to account. Your navy has been beaten back to your home star system. By now you must realize that we are closing the jump points down. Soon there will be no escape."

  "I'm giving you this chance, to surrender. To end this suffering for everyone. One way or the other, we will find a resolution to this crisis you have inflicted on the galaxy. One way or another, it will come to an end. Your legacy of depravity, piracy, murder, sadistic torture, slavery, and rape will come to an end. It is now your choice how it ends—in surrender or in fire."

  Admiral Irons stern visage stared at them coldly, his eyes boring into their souls. For some, something shriveled and died under that gaze. "Your tyranny and genocide are at an end. Your empire, like many tyrannies before it is at an end. They say that the best way to end something is at the head. Well, we're cutting off the head here." He paused a moment.

  "For those of you who know your true history, you know about World War II. How the allies, seeing what an invasion of the Japanese home islands would cost with the invasion of Okinawa and other islands as an example, turned to an alternative. It was not an easy decision to make. I am so informing you of a similar outcome here."

  He waited a beat before continuing to let them wonder.

  "For those of you who know me, you know I was the architect of the Nova bomb. I'll let that sink in for a moment. Don't think for a moment I won't use them." He paused again. More than one person watching the broadcast felt fear turn to terror over that statement. "That wasn't a threat; it was a promise. As I said, one way or another, your genocide is at an end. Count on it."

  He paused for a full minute. "I'm going to give your leaders a full eight weeks to pick up the pieces and come to their senses and surrender unconditionally. If they do not, I will unleash the next atta
ck. We'll then wait a standard eight weeks and then launch another after that. If they don't see reason in a time period I have set, I will authorize what has to be done to end the problem once and for all."

  He waited another full minute then nodded once. "That is all … for now," he said and then his signal winked out.

  Any surviving recon drones and buoys immediately went back into stealth and moved their positions.

  Chapter 57

  "Bastard! He can't do that!" the emperor raged.

  "Yes he can. He just did," Catherine said firmly.

  "No! I won't let it happen! I will not knuckle under! I will not submit to such threats! Not now, not ever! No one makes me bow! No one, and especially not under the threat of a gun! I am the emperor!" Piotr thumped his chest for emphasis. Catherine was reminded of an animal or child trying to puff up in anger instead of the act of threat display her father was going for. Besides, it wasn't her that he needed to threaten. "I am the leader of the human race and the galaxy! I inherited this, not him!" He threw his hands up into the air to indicate the palace around them. "His Federation failed and was swept aside! It crumbled into dust!"

  Catherine wanted to laugh bitterly. She finally understood what many of the victims of her people had felt. Helplessness. Anger, tearing rage with no place to go, but also helplessness. She hated it. Hated the feeling, hated the empathy, and especially hated the man who'd caused it all.

  But it wasn't just her father's fault, a small corner of her mind reminded her. It was hers too. Hers, and her peoples. They'd gone down the path of piracy and murder for generations. Her father just put them on the final path that had led them to this point.

  "Whatever we don't like, Father, it is reality. Denying it will not help. We have to face it and find a way to stop it."

  His eyes flared as he latched onto that thought. "Yes! That's it! We have to … have to protect the star! He can't bomb what he can't hit!" her father insisted, eyes half mad. He began to scramble to find a way to mount their fleet around the star while also protecting the rest of the star system.