Cerberus

by John Filcher

  “Omega 1, Omega 5. Ready for detonation on your command,” said Priest after only ninety seconds.

  Longman thought fast as he saw Dannon die in Guthrey’ arms. They couldn’t risk having Dannon discovered as they would figure out the Confederacy had infiltrated the Kremlin and try to shut down everything as a precaution. “Drag Dannon’s corpse behind the detonation point and let’s get outta Dodge.”

  In the chaos of the firefight, no one questioned what initially seemed to be a bizarre order, but one that made sense upon reflection because it would hide their identities and not suggest it was a Confederate attack. Instead, the Kremlin would believe it to be a Rabos attack that coincided with the surface assault to distract them.

  Guthrey used his suit’s strength to hoist Dannon’s corpse onto his shoulders and he sprinted back past the bomb planted by Priest. “Sorry buddy, we’ll have to let you go out with a bang instead of taking you back with us,” muttered Guthrey as he gently lowered Dannon to the floor. Guthrey then loosed his remaining weapons drones to guard the hall and prevent anyone from gaining access before they closed it down. Seconds later he was back with the rest of the team.

  “Omega, leapfrog down the stairs!” ordered Longman.

  As the team quickly made their way down, there was always one man in rear cover who was expending a lot of ammunition to discourage any chasers from following. As they scrambled, the AI spoke to the Pirate over his commlink. “Longman, I have received notice a large number of missiles launched under manual control before our virus could assert control over the defense grid. They are not responding to self-destruct commands and are flying on auto-programmed coordinates. The remaining missiles will not be launched and self-destruct commands have been accepted. They will be destroyed in four minutes.”

  Trying not to puff too much from the exertion, Longman asked, “Are there any troops in our exfil route?”

  The AI responded instantly. “Coverage of the oldest, lower levels is incomplete, although they also appear to have been little used. Best estimate is to expect light resistance.” As expected, Longman thought while they ran.

  When they reached the lowest floor, there was a massive explosion from the upper levels that could be heard deep down and violently shook the walls and floor. Force Omega was knocked off their feet by the power of the blast, and thick clouds of dust billowed everywhere.

  “Longman, I have prevented the activation of the fire suppression system to allow the fires to grow and prevent more troops from accessing your location. The stairwell on the level where the detonation occurred was shattered for two levels, and is impassable.” said the AI over the team commlink.

  Longman and the team slowly picked themselves off the floor. As soon as they could see a little bit, Longman ordered them to move out again.

  “Boss, I don’t like the looks of the ceiling,” called Pak as they ran through falling dust and small chunks of rocks that we’re steadily breaking loose.

  “Me either. Run like you stole something,” Longman commanded over the team commlink.

  Soon they reached the storeroom containing their now hidden entry point. The Rabos lookout had alerted the rest of them that Force Omega was hauling arse back to the entry point.

  “We’ve set the detonators for ten minutes, and the clock starts running when we get to the tunnel down below. The cave-in will block the entire access tunnel to the platform down below. Hurry!” yelled Dimitri as the Marines swiftly crawled through the hole in the wall to the rappelling ropes they would use to quickly get back to the bottom.

  Their horses had been fed and watered while they were playing commando in the Kremlin. As the team leapt onto them using their powered exosuits, Dimitri yelled, “The clock is now running! Let’s go!” and they galloped away down the tunnel.

  Chapter 29

  Taskforce 3

  As Captain Ronin and Commander Mueller left the virtual strategy meeting, Ronin removed the holographic visor from his head and thought about how he felt disconcerted to suddenly return to reality onboard his own ship following virtual meetings.

  “I hate those virtual meetings,” commented Mueller, as though she were reading Ronin’s mind.

  “Yeah, me too. I’d rather do it in person, or not at all,” replied Ronin as he stood and stretched. They had been sitting in his ready room for hours while Cerberus lurked unseen among the asteroids in the belt.

  His collar node commlink buzzed. “Captain, Bulldog 7 has returned from delivering Force Omega to the rebels for insertion. Chief Taylor has them on landing approach to the landing bay now.”

  Ronin tapped his link and replied, “Acknowledged. Contact the CAG and tell him we need his presence in my ready room asap.”

  He looked at Mueller. “The clock is ticking already. We’ll loop Sunderland into the plans when he gets here so his pilots will be ready.”

  They didn’t have to wait long, as Sunderland arrived simultaneously with the coffee Ronin had also summoned. “It’s a coffee kind of meeting, Captain?” asked Sunderland as he ushered the steward in ahead of him.

  “Yes, it is, CAG. We have a job opportunity for you.” At hearing the Captain’s use of the ever-cynical phrase “job opportunity” and “CAG,” Sunderland clicked on. There was serious work to be done when those were used together.

  Hours later, Mueller sat in the Captain’s chair while Ronin got his kids into bed before catching a few precious hours of shut-eye himself. LeCroy broke the silence on the bridge when a new ship jumped into their vicinity. “Commander, sensors indicate a new ship has jumped in. It’s not a Cerberus-class vessel, though. It’s squawking Confed ID for the Kitty Hawk!”

  Before Mueller could respond, Lieutenant Delgado said, “Commander, we’re receiving a communication from Kitty Hawk Actual.”

  Mueller looked over at Delgado. “Put it on the forward view screen, Lieutenant,” he ordered.

  The screen shifted to show an image of Capt. Hu Nagun. “Commander, good to see you again. Ronin getting his beauty sleep?”

  Mueller smirked slightly at Captain Nagun’s irreverence and disregard of commlink protocols. “That he is, Captain Nagun. We weren’t aware Kitty Hawk had any jump engines, is that a new upgrade?”

  Nagun smiled broadly. “Yes, it is, Commander. We don’t have a lot of range yet due to our smaller power plants, but I do appreciate having any kind of jump capacity. And it answered all my questions as to how Cerberus seemed to be everywhere when it defied the known laws of physics. I understand you have a package for us?”

  It was Mueller’s turn to smile. “We have some toys to send your way, because Cerberus plays nice with others and we share our toys. Are you ready to receive them? Time is running short.”

  Nagun nodded with a slight laugh at Mueller’s choice of words and her emphasis on the word “share.” “We are. I promise to return as many of them unbroken as I can when we’re done playing with them.”

  Mueller looked over at LeCroy. “Lieutenant, notify Chief Taylor to begin the transfer.”

  LeCroy nodded and began issuing the orders. When they were done, Cerberus and Kitty Hawk continued with their preparations.

  After five precious hours of sleep, a still-exhausted Ronin stumbled out of bed. The kids would still be sleeping for hours yet. After stretching and a shower, he brewed a cup of coffee. It was going to be a long day.

  The door chimed. It was Dahlia, smiling as she loved spending time with Ronin’s kids. “Dahlia, are you ready to ride cowboy over my herd?” Ronin asked.

  “Yes, Captain, I’ll rope ’em and wrangle ’em as needed.”

  Ronin got a small laugh from the mental image conjured up by Dahlia’s words. “You’re welcome to them! You know where I am if you need me,” Ronin replied as he grabbed his coffee mug and walked out.

  Moments later, Ronin walked on to the bridge and made eye contact with Mueller.

/>   “Morning, Captain,” she said, somewhat envious of the few hours of sleep Ronin clocked in, even if it was at her insistence to keep him from becoming too tired.

  “Everything coming along?” Ronin asked in response.

  “Yes-sir. We’re as prepared as we can be.” Mueller replied, saying the two words as one, as she stood to exit the Captain’s chair.

  Ronin nodded. “Good. Go grab some sleep while you can. We’ll wake you when things start to heat up.”

  As Mueller walked back to her quarters, it occurred to her she should wear her duty uniform to bed to save time after she woke up. So, she did.

  While Mueller went to get some rest, Ronin rotated the bridge crews with their backups and settled in to read the latest reports and get up to speed on the past few hours.

  ***

  “Action stations, action stations! All hands, man your action stations!”

  Mueller awoke with a terrible start as the ship-wide call to man their battle stations sounded. She was running down the hall to the bridge by the time her mind woke up enough to even realize where she was or what she was doing. As she entered the bridge, she saw it was a beehive of activity.

  “Commander, we’re jumping into action momentarily,” Ronin said, catching sight of her out of the corner of his eye.

  “Captain, Kitty Hawk reports their jump drive is synced with ours. Both ships are at Action Station and ready for combat,” said LeCroy, from his tactical station.

  “Ships are ready to jump,” added Perez quickly as he plotted the coordinates.

  “Lieutenant Perez, jump the ships,” ordered Ronin without delay.

  Both Cerberus and Kitty Hawk appeared in Earth orbit with simultaneous jump flares. Seconds later, they were joined in orbit by Cygnus and Ceres from the location they had also been awaiting their own orders to jump.

  “Captain, the full complement of Task Force 3 has arrived,” reported Delacroix from his scanning station.

  “Bandits! Multiple squadrons. Three enemy destroyers have taken up position behind their fighter screen!” yelled LeCroy from his tactical station.

  “Are they in Grasshopper range?” asked Ronin.

  “Negative, they’re too far,” LeCroy replied after taking a second to confirm the range.

  As he was commander of Taskforce 3, Ronin quickly issued more commands. “Order Kitty Hawk to draw off the fighter screen, and task Ceres to jump behind the destroyers to launch a hit-and-run, jump bomb strike.”

  While Ronin issued the strike order, LeCroy and Delacroix were rapidly scanning to develop a more complete tactical picture. Delacroix spoke first. “Captain, scanners are receiving intermittent readings coming from low orbit below the destroyers. There’s a blanket of electro-magnetic interference being generated down there to mask sensor readings, but optical resolution shows three satellites. AI presumes they’re anti-sensor platforms.”

  Ronin wasted no time. “Plot them on Tacnet. Any other threats, friendly or otherwise?”

  LeCroy shook his head. “No sir, nothing on screens at this time.”

  Ronin thought for a moment. “Launch Grasshoppers at those satellites. Hostilities have begun, and we need better sensor coverage of the planet.”

  LeCroy nodded and immediately launched the missiles. “Satellites destroyed,” he said moments later.

  Ronin nodded before moving on to the next thing.

  Kitty Hawk

  “Captain Nagun, message from Cerberus. They’re ordering Kitty Hawk to draw off the fighter screen.”

  Nagun smiled a cold half-smile. “Looks like we’re doing business right away! Navigation, plot a course to take us close enough to get them to come after us. I want to pass by close enough to get off a few shots at them and kick the hornet’s nest.”

  As Nagun spoke, Ronin stepped over to the tactical station to get eyes on the Tacnet plot with his tactical officer. “Benton, can we get the fighters to slew over to this area?” Ronin asked Tactical Officer Mary Benton, pointing his finger to a spot that was located over the Pacific Ocean.

  “With pleasure, Captain. If the helmsman can get the fighters to commit with a reasonable sized space buffer, I recommend our velocity be just below the max speeds of the fighters to keep them interested so they stay committed,” Benton responded with an evil smile.

  “I like it. You’re thinking along the same lines I am. Lead ’em on and keep their heads in the game thinking they have a chance by slowly catching up. Hopefully they’re not terribly disciplined or experienced enough to catch on to what we’re doing and break contact,” Nagun said.

  He turned his head to the helmsman, who was seated next to Benton on the small bridge. “Thatcher, you catch all that?” asked Nagun.

  “Yes-sir, we’ll play hard to get and be the rabbit for the dogs to chase!” responded Helmsman Ned Thatcher, who was already plotting the course and speeds based on the known acceleration of the enemy fighters. Seconds later, Thatcher added, “Captain, we’re ready.”

  With a nod over to Benton, Ronin simply said, “Rotate the ship, and open fire.”

  Both Thatcher and Benton reacted instantly. Benton initially fired the forward rail guns, followed by a few high-speed, anti-fighter missiles. “Captain, initial salvo away. Our chosen attack profile should indicate to the fighter screen we are intending to stick around and slug it out. Missiles are tracking and should arrive in five minutes.”

  The minutes passed slowly, because everyone was glued to the Tacnet plot. “No change in fighter posture yet. Rail gun slugs passed harmlessly. One minute until the missiles arrive.” Benton commented, somewhat distractedly sounding. “Targets acquired by the missiles. They’re homing in. Fighters now reacting, at last.”

  Nagun wondered why the fighters were so slow to react. Their sensor net should have alerted them to the incoming threats much earlier.

  “Impact! Now multiple impacts. Six fighters destroyed.” reported Benton. “Fighters are splitting off. Looks like we finally got their attention. Some of them, anyway. Only two groups coming after us.”

  “Helm, we still on our approach?” Nagun asked with a perplexed look on his face.

  Thatcher nodded, without fully turning his head to look. “Yes-sir. We are rapidly closing. I don’t understand why they aren’t already chasing the big, juicy looking spacecraft that’s coming so tantalizingly close.”

  Neither did anybody else on the bridge.

  The People’s Fighter Squadron 254

  “Comrade-Commander, where did those missiles come from?” yelled Pllot Wu, the squadron’s second in command. “My scopes aren’t showing anything, but I can see the enemy corvette right there!” His garbled communication was just barely discernible through the static on the channel.

  “I don’t know. Calm yourself, comrade. We can attack what we can see, so let’s attack.” said Squadron Leader, Alexander Kasparov.

  “Squadron 254, attack pattern bravo. Attack the corvette. Confirm,” Kasparov said over the squadron’s channel, adding “confirm” as was their protocol when communications weren’t reliable. Only some of the pilots confirmed, and followed him.

  Kasparov couldn’t understand what was happening because they hadn’t detected any enemy broadcasts to interfere with their communications. Why were all their defense systems suddenly so wonky? He even had to eyeball an approach vector to the incoming corvette because his nav system crashed.

  Kitty Hawk

  “Fire some more missiles at the other squadrons. Get their attention,” ordered Captain Nagun. Tactical Officer Benton launched the birds, and they waited some more minutes.

  “Captain, the partial squadrons that have turned to attack us won’t even come close. They took approach vectors that look like someone eyeballed it instead of calculating anything. There’s still room for us to close with the main body. Show the flag and get their attention i
f we want.” reported the XO, Steve Fisher.

  Nagun concentrated on that report and recommendation for a few moments while he slowly nodded his head slightly. “Yeah, I think that’s prudent at this point. I’m not sure what the story is over there. Helm, make it happen.”

  Thatcher laid in a new course. One that was guaranteed to get some attention.

  Cerberus

  LeCroy looked hard at what Tacnet was telling him. He could hardly believe what he was seeing. “Captain, Kitty Hawk reports only a few scattered fighters are giving chase, even after the missiles destroyed some of them. And we can hear the enemy communications! They’re not encrypted for some reason, but they’re filled with static and fading out from time to time. They seem very discombobulated over there,” he reported.

  Ronin half-smiled as he looked at Mueller and she did the same while looking back. They knew why.

  “We can only surmise that our Marines operating as Force Omega were successful,” Ronin responded cryptically.

  Mueller nodded. “I wonder why they haven’t reported in?”

  Force Omega

  “Argh!” yelled Longman in surprise, as a piece of shrapnel pinged off the back of his helmet while the ground shook violently and making their horses stumble a bit while they galloped down the tunnel deep underground.

  “Tunnel is sealed, Omega 1,” commented Pak, catching his breath. The shockwave from the demolition charge was stronger than they expected.

  “Looks like Omega 5 followed the Marines P for Plenty formula,” Longman commented dryly as he glanced to the smoke and dust billowing from their rear.

  “We still too deep for commlinks to Cerberus?” asked Pak.

  “Yep. They’ll have to figure out whether we were successful on their own until we reestablish contact.”

  They galloped on down the long, dark tunnel. They could clearly see where they were going because the dark tunnel was displayed in a ghostly green night vision projected on the inside of their helmet screens.