Cerberus

by John Filcher

  The Fall began like many so wars began. One side thought they could take something they wanted from the other, and grossly misjudged the situation. Legend says the East wanted the wealth and colonies of the West, but the East couldn’t win a straight-up battle.

  In a diabolical assault, the East determined the most effective strategy was to leverage the trade and tourism that existed between the alliances as a pathway for releasing a bat flu among its own open-air markets in a free trade zone. Significant numbers of citizens traveling to Europe and the Americas entered that free trade zone and would spread the virus across the planet. From the perspective of the East’s leadership, another not-insignificant advantage of secretly releasing the virus was that it would cull its own overpopulated herd of people while simultaneously cutting down the numbers in the West.

  As a result of the East’s efforts, 400,000 humans were infected and unknowingly served as virus incubators and delivery systems, but the West almost immediately detected the nefarious scheme and swiftly reacted by shutting down their economies and travel. Initially their quick response successfully confined the spread of the virus and limited casualties to about a million. The virus containment did not hold, however, and it began to spread uncontrollably.

  The West’s defense strategy was to respond to an unconventional biological attack with a nuclear counter strike. When containment failed and millions more had become infected, the West launched nuclear missiles in a retaliatory strike. The forces of the West overpowered the East’s air defenses and as a result most Collective cities were laid waste. Soon, billions were dead and cities on both sides were reduced to radioactive or biological ruins.

  Ronin knew the old records got pretty sketchy about which side first sought to formally end the war, but he figured it didn’t really matter. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Midway on the small island where the Americans once defeated the Japanese navy during a WWII battle in 1942. Midway was chosen as the location of the treaty signing because its remote yet mutually accessible location was relatively sheltered from nuclear fallout and the virus.

  Even though WWIII was formally over, the remains of both civilizations effectively collapsed anyway because of the widespread planetary devastation and nuclear and biological horrors faced by the dwindling number of survivors. The Dark Ages had returned to Earth.

  Old legends and myths spoke of space travel by the West before the war. Moon landings, man-made satellites, asteroid mining, and eventually the discovery of a jump gate leading to habitable planets. As a kid in the old American state of Wisconsin, Ronin had been captivated by the old legends about the colonies that had been lost because of The Fall.

  A few old records uncovered at a place once called the Johnson Space Center in the radioactive ruins of Houston, Texas, mentioned colonies in some area called the Baidam Constellation, but there was no further information to help locate any such constellation. Those records either had been destroyed or, as Ronin thought was much more likely, never existed. In the 150 years after the record fragments had been found, nothing else had turned up to substantiate them.

  Space colonies don’t exist, Ronin snorted to himself as he caught his tired mind wandering. Even if those myths turned out to once have been real, they were probably wiped out in the war. They wouldn’t have thrived once cut off by The Fall if they hadn’t had time to sufficiently establish themselves. Too many technical details to overcome, and space is too hostile. Childish fantasies, he told himself.

  Chapter 2

  Magneto Bomb

  Corbyn turned to face Ronin and Toft on the Ike’s bridge, saying, “We’re ready. I ended up using some fuel from the ship’s fusion drive instead as it is significantly more refined, which makes it easier to control the reaction.”

  Ronin nodded and replied, “Excellent. Lieutenant, make it happen.”

  “Right away, sir,” Corbyn responded, turning to his station to begin the reaction.

  Corbyn opened a ship-wide commlink and announced, “This is Lieutenant Corbyn, prepare for electro-magnetic pulsing. Reaction begins in sixty seconds.” At the one-minute mark, Corbyn initiated the pulse reaction.

  Toft and Ronin looked at each other several minutes later. Toft softly asked him, “How do we know the reaction began? Isn’t there supposed to be some sign?”

  Ronin shrugged and was about to ask Corbyn for an update when Corbyn announced from his science station, “Sensors indicate field charge is building significantly. The iron dust is becoming magnetized and is starting to shift around. Scanning for pattern anomalies now.”

  Several more minutes passed quietly. As Ronin was reading the scans on his screen, Lt. Marcy Anzio, the weapons officer, broke the silence. “Scans of the dust show a pattern disturbance 70,000 miles out. Vectoring the nearest drones to investigate. One hour until they reach the area,” she announced loudly.

  The Ike continued scanning and watching the dust. After 50 minutes elapsed, Corbyn reported, “Captain, only the one pattern anomaly is showing up on long range scans as a likely target. The others are just pattern eddies. I’m going to run a high-power search focused on that location to see what turns up.”

  Ronin nodded and said, “Go ahead. It’ll light us up like a Christmas tree even from that far away, but making ourselves visible at a distance might help flush them out if they think we’ve seen them.”

  Corbyn entered the commands to focus the powerful sensors on the anomaly. At this distance, the return of the information was near immediate. “Captain, sensors pinged a hull with iron composition right where the anomaly is!” said Corbyn excitedly.

  Just then, Anzio loudly said, “They see us! We have launch detection. Eleven warheads inbound. No fighters launched. Tactical prediction is a shoot and scoot for evasion. Range to target, 70,000 miles and closing.”

  “Return fire and get us moving behind those rocks floating to our port side. We’ll hide from the incoming ordinance there and let the existing drone screen guide our birds,” ordered Ronin. The Ike’s powerful fusion engines quickly pushed the ship into position.

  “Launch countermeasures and more drones. I want eyes on what’s happening on the other side of these rocks so we know what’s going on,” said Ronin. The Ike shuddered with multiple decoy and drone launches. “Rig for silent running. Time to make like a hole in space,” he added.

  The Ike went dark again, with only power for life support and weapons systems. Minutes passed, when Anzio reported, “Inbounds time to target, two minutes. They’re locked on to our decoys because we disappeared behind the rocks. Drone screen telemetry says our missiles are tracking the enemy even though they’re running. Drone optics shows her to be a Type 054A frigate. Our AI reports we have positive ID of the ship. It’s the Shanwei!”

  Ronin nodded in satisfaction. The Shanwei would be a good prize.

  Crewed by over 500, the sizable AC frigate was a worthy and able opponent for a powerful destroyer like the Ike.

  Weighing in at 20,000 tons, the Ike was still swift and deadly despite being long in the tooth. She could achieve .20 lights (1/5 of light speed) using her newer model fusion drives, and launch 20 Tomcat fighters along with dozens of anti-ship missiles from her magazines. Those new fusion drives also enabled the ship to carry several turrets of light and heavy rail guns now attached to her hull plating as a result of a refit five years ago.

  There were newer, more powerful ships in the Confederation fleet, but Ronin was very proud of the Ike. During the current dust up between the Collective and the Confederation out here in the solar system, the Ike had demolished nearly a dozen frigates and one destroyer while largely avoiding being damaged in return. After five years of combat, the Ike had developed a reputation for being a tough, lucky, and well-run ship under Ronin’s command. Time to get lucky again, thought Ronin.

  Anzio reported, “Enemy missiles spent themselves on the decoys. No more inbounds. Tel
emetry reports our birds had no trouble locking on to the Shanwei as the drone optics and sensors have her in line of sight and her engines are flaring out all kinds of energy as she tries to run.”

  Another minute passed. “Impact! Drone optics confirms multiple warhead impacts on Shanwei. She’s drifting and venting gases. One bird impacted near her drive system. Target isn’t going anywhere,” said Anzio.

  “Excellent work everyone. Move the drones in close and have them scan for threats they can before we arrive. Helm, bring the Ike down to Alert Two status and move us in to the Shanwei,” ordered Ronin.

  Chapter 3

  The Shanwei

  Six hours later, after heavily scanning the area to look for possible traps, the Ike closed with the heavily damaged Shanwei.

  “She sure took a beating,” noted Corbyn. “Hull is holed just ahead of the engines and amidships. We’re not reading any power signatures over there. She’s dark and cold, Captain.”

  Ronin nodded and used the half moon shaped node attached to his collar to open a commlink to Toft, who was standing by down in the launch bay. “OK, Toft, did you hear that? Shanwei is still dark and cold. You’re a go for the away team boarding.”

  Toft immediately responded, “Roger that, Captain. We’ll launch immediately.”

  Toft turned to the Marine pilot officer. “All right, lieutenant, let’s launch and get this party started.”

  “Launch in three, two, one. Launch!” responded Lt. Travis Harris, increasing power with the throttle. Minutes later the shuttle was passing over the hull of the Shanwei. “Ever get this close to an enemy frigate sir?” asked Harris.

  “No, this is incredible. Captain Ronin would like to claim her as a war prize if possible. No one has captured an intact frigate before. We could learn a lot about their weaknesses by studying one,” replied Toft.

  “Over there. See that? Looks like a landing bay, and it’s not too damaged,” said Harris.

  “Bring us over and let’s take a look,” replied Toft.

  “Back at the Marine Academy in Bismarck, we studied advanced boarding tactics and had some vague guesses on what they believed AC ship layouts would be,” noted Harris. “But since space combat typically resulted in most enemy ships being completely destroyed, there weren’t any surviving ship hulls to guide our instructors so they focused more on improvisation tactics using what we might be likely to encounter. There haven’t been any boardings for the same reason.”

  “Velocity tends to make a mess of targets, doesn’t it?” Toft responded. “I saw one AC frigate get erased from a single rail gun round. It was akin to seeing a meteor strike on a planet. Boom! No more ship or even any parts of one. Just dusted it.”

  “Sir, I think there’s enough clearance for us to squeeze in next to that wreckage on the right,” Harris suggested as they inspected the landing bay. “You want to give it a whirl?”

  Toft indicated to proceed with a nod.

  Harris slowly guided the shuttle into the hangar. Other than a slight metallic scraping sound along the side of the hull, the landing was uneventful.

  “By squeeze, you meant push stuff out of the way to make room, Harris?” said Toft.

  Harris responded with a small laugh and smile. Commander Toft wasn’t as uptight as he thought. You never knew with naval officers. “Pretty much, sir. Seemed easier to try that than to try to stick the landing onto an exterior airlock somewhere.”

  Toft laughed and turned to the Marine landing party. “Alright, Gunnery Sergeant Sanchez, let’s do this.”

  Gy.Sgt. Juan Sanchez nodded and began issuing orders to the boarders. “We’re in! Complete your exosuit checks and let’s stay sharp out there. Sensors show dark, airless, zero G conditions out there, but there’s no guaranty someone didn’t survive in a spacesuit. Keep your heads on a swivel and stay ready in case we find an ambush or any survivors. Toft and Harris will keep watch from the command shuttle.”

  The Marines responded with a variety of grunts, ooh-rahs, and roger thats. Marine exosuits are a marvel of engineering. Essentially an armored, environmentally self-contained motorized power suit with guns and a small fusion engine, Marines could live in them for weeks before running out of fuel or food paste. The screens on the inside of exosuit helmets could display Tacnet data, or infrared and starlight vision as needed. Command exosuits even had adaptable AIs who developed personalities that mesh closely with the team leader. Perhaps the most startling innovation in an exosuit was its ability to intercept the nervous system impulses before they reached the muscles due to the bio-circuitry imprinted below a Marine’s skin. This early interception meant there was no lag time when a Marine decided to move, so it immediately feels natural to the occupant.

  “If you apes were actually able to read and write in something more advanced than crayons, I wouldn’t have to go through this again,” Sanchez said after the suit checks were completed. “Alpha team, look for a bridge. Bravo Team, head aft and secure the engine room. We assume it’s in the center of the ship, but no guarantees. Charlie Team, you have life support, so go aft with Bravo and see what you find.”

  “How do we know when we find Engineering, Sergeant?” said Cpl. Brett Mackey, doing a reasonably good job at sounding serious.

  “I don’t know, Corporal Mackey. Look for the big things that go vroom vroom or something!” yelled Sanchez. “Move out!”

  Alpha Team

  Alpha team jumped off first. Using their suit jets and lamps, they quickly oriented and began moving to the forward section of the hangar bay where they spotted a closed airlock door.

  “Alpha 3, can you open the door?” asked Corporal Ralph Tennyson, whose own call sign was Alpha 1.

  “Trying now Alpha 1. Knock knock,” said Private Devin Rodman (call sign Alpha 3), turning the locking handle and pushing it inwards. “There’s a bunch of junk floating around in a passageway Alpha 1. Multiple bodies included. Parts of them, anyway.”

  Alpha moved single file into the dark passageway. It wasn’t pretty. It didn’t matter none of the crewmen in this section had environment suits on when the life support died, as this section suffered some violent shaking that pasted their remains all over the surfaces and set various parts of them floating about.

  “There’s a service tube we can use to get further down into the ship. Let’s take it,” said Tennyson.

  Rodman acknowledged, and started floating down the service tube since he didn’t need to bother with the ladder while the gravity was out. “Reminds me of those dark scary tunnels we trained in at Camp Dakota, don’t you think, Colton?” said Rodman to Pvt. Sean Colton (Alpha 2) who was coming down the tube behind Rodman.

  “Quiet! Alpha 3, we don’t care about the good old boot camp days in the Bismarck right now,” hissed Tennyson. “Keep your head in the game.”

  The team went down a few levels, encountering little debris along their route. At each level, they silently stopped and look around. They came to a landing where they could see several passages intersecting outside a sealed double-width hatchway.

  Rodman radioed Tennyson, who was still down the ladder. “Alpha 1, I see a double hatchway that’s important enough to have several passages intersecting just outside. The configuration matches the predicted command and control indications we’re supposed to keep watch for when scouting enemy ships. Permission to proceed beyond the hatchway?”

  “Any signs of enemy troops or damage we need to avoid?” Tennyson asked.

  Rodman waited a few moments before replying, “No, Alpha 1. Empty of enemy personnel in all directions, and only small bits of debris floating about.”

  “Proceed, Alpha 3,” Tennyson said. “Alpha 2, Position your men to repel potential intruders from those passages.”

  Colton responded with a double click indicating message received.

  Once the boarding party was in place, Rodman went to work trying to manu
ally open the hatches. They were twisted slightly from the force of the missile impacts and unwilling to open. Grunting, Rodman tried using his powered exosuit to force them open but the doors did not budge.

  “Alpha 10, use the breaching jaws on the hatches,” ordered Tennyson.

  Pvt. Davy Hallard, a young, heavy-built redhead from Oklahoma, acknowledged and glided over to the hatches with his breaching jaws and found some leverage for both him and the jaws before announcing, “Ready. Alpha 3, can you pull on the door while the jaws do their thing?”

  “Sure thing,” said Rodman, as he got a firm purchase on the walls with his feet and a good grip on the handle of the door with his hands. It’s a good thing sound does not travel in space, because the breaching jaws would have created an ear-splitting screech as they brute-forced the hatches open and tore the hinges off in the process, thought Rodman.

  “Alpha 2, go!” roared Tennyson, which prompted Colton to spring from his ready crouch into the darkened beyond with his weapon pointed ahead.

  Looking around, Colton’s sensors revealed a dark, lifeless room with a large forward view screen, several work stations situated in a circle around a central command chair in what appeared to be a fairly conventionally arranged warship bridge. They also clearly identified enemy personnel, none of whom would be threatening anyone anytime soon. “Alpha 1, looks like we found the bridge and the remains of the command crew,” said Colton. “It’s as dark as your girlfriend’s soul in here. Looks like the bridge is not in terrible condition, though.”