by Doug Farren
A murmur of exclamation quickly swept through the room. Impervious to the crowd’s reaction, John continued, “We have been working to identify where the intercepted traffic is being sent. We discovered that all such traffic passing through Tanami station is either being duplicated or redirected to the Mojave hub. A team of programmers was sent there to continue the search and a few days ago we identified where these messages were being sent.”
A skeletal representation of a building took John’s place as Sorbith continued the presentation. “The Mojave hub was built by the Advanced Space Technologies Company. It is Earth’s original long-range FTL communications station. Our investigations uncovered a previously undocumented, high capacity data link wired directly into the hub’s primary data switch. We’ve managed to trace the line to a building previously owned by AST. Since the company was Earth’s primary supplier of military-grade stardrives as well as a major supplier of advanced weapons and given the fact that it built the first hub, it seemed natural for them to have a direct link to this communications system. What’s disturbing is the fact that the line, which runs through a deep, underground conduit, is completely undocumented. We’ve confirmed the line is active and carrying a lot of traffic.”
“How could this happen without anyone knowing about it?” someone asked.
“Because the malicious software has been hiding the traffic," Sorbith replied. "As far as the monitoring software is concerned the data link doesn’t even exist.”
“I would sure like to know who was responsible for building that link,” Tom said. “AST could have been monitoring everything that passed through Mojave station all along.”
“I have someone looking into it,” Peacekeeper Collins replied.
“Who owns the building now?” someone asked.
“Shortly after the war, AST divested itself of most of its military divisions. The building was sold to a Kenyan-based firm interested in acquiring alien technology and altering it for use by Terrans. They’ve owned it ever since.”
“What’s the plan?” the Rouldian Peacekeeper asked.
“First and foremost, we need to plug this leak and that means taking over the building. But we are also in need of intelligence. To accomplish this, we will need to capture as many of the occupants as possible while preventing them from destroying any valuable information contained within. I’m concerned the building might be rigged with explosives. We are dealing with fanatics who seem willing to give up their own lives to keep us from learning more about them. These explosives may be able to be remotely detonated as well. I am open to ideas at the moment as to how best to accomplish our mission.”
A Tholtaran Peacekeeper stood up and pointed to the bottom of the building. “What is this?” he asked. “It looks like a sub-shuttle tube.”
“It is,” Collins replied. “AST’s entire complex was connected by a private subway system. As far as I have been able to determine, the system is no longer in use because the various buildings are now owned by different companies.”
The Tholtaran seemed to study the situation for a moment then said, “I believe I might have a solution to your problem.”
“Let’s hear it,” Sorbith said.
After the meeting, Tom sought out Sorbith and asked him about Chyr. “She’s trailing another cargo ship,” Sorbith said.
“Are you sure that’s wise after the incident with the Barstock? Frankly, I’m surprised the AOH hasn’t recalled their cargo crews already,” Tom said. “They must realize we’ll track them all down.”
A huge smile appeared on Sorbith’s face. “The entire crew was away from the ship. Apparently, one of them had contracted a nasty case of Miluntia while on leave."
"Never heard of it," Tom said.
"It’s a highly contagious airborne virus that causes acute inflammation of the nasal passages followed a few days later by brain hemorrhaging and death. It’s not very common but some species, notably Shandarians, can have the virus in their system without any ill effects. The crewman apparently thought he had a bad cold when he reported back aboard. The ship was one day out with a full load when he reported having a terrible headache and difficult breathing. His eyes had started to bulge out because of the sinus swelling. When the autodoc identified the virus in his system, the Captain ordered them to return to base. The entire ship had to be decontaminated while the crew was treated.”
“You let them back aboard?”
“We did. I’ll have to personally thank Peacekeeper O’Neil for coming up with the idea,” Sorbith said. “While the ship was being decontaminated, a hunter-killer was attached to its hull. The yard-workers added a non-functional antenna to it making it look like part of the ship. The HK was placed in stealth mode and programmed to send a periodic SITREP. It will detonate if someone attempts to remove it or if it’s attacked. Chyr was in the area and is now following at a distance of several light years.”
“That’s brilliant!" Tom paused as an unpleasant thought popped into his head. “Given the fact that they have access to our communications network, are we sure they can’t detect the HK’s transmission?”
“It’s one of the latest models,” Sorbith confidently replied. “It uses a synchronized multi-band burst mode of communications. The receiver must be synchronized otherwise the transmission will appear as a microsecond burst of noise that virtually all receivers are programmed to ignore. Even our own ships can't detect them.”
“That’s a relief. I hope they head straight for their base.”
“As do I.”
* * * * *
The crux of the planned assault on the target building was a device that required four days to assemble. Another building located eight kilometers from the target was selected as the launch point for the attack. The employees reluctantly cleared out a storage room and showed Sorbith where the old subway had been walled over. They became quite upset after learning they would not be allowed to leave the building for several days but quickly calmed down after Sorbith told them they would be handsomely compensated for their trouble.
While the device was being built, the Peacekeepers gathered. Since the building was only a research facility, a sudden influx of delivery vehicles might have aroused suspicions. One of the employees suggested they fake a chemical accident, something that had apparently happened in the recent past. Sorbith agreed and a short time later, the entire building was surrounded by emergency vehicles. A convoy of chemical decon trucks arrived carrying the Peacekeepers and their heavy equipment inside.
Deep in the basement, the wall was cut away to gain access to the old subway tunnel. Luckily, the tunnel system had been built very well and only a half meter of water was found covering the floor. Pumps were brought in and the water level began to drop.
Tom was playing a game of chess with one of the Tholtaran Peacekeepers when Sorbith stepped into the storage room that now served as a staging area. It was just after three o’clock in the morning. “Suit up! We will be moving out in 15 minutes.”
Tom abandoned the chess game, which he was easily winning, and headed for his combat armor. The entire back wall of the staging area was lined with giant suits of black armor that appeared to be flayed open. Tom's half-ton suit was connected to a small, gently humming fusion reactor that kept it charged and ready for combat. A tiny anti-grav generator negated most of the suit’s weight, giving it the same apparent mass as its intended occupant.
Tom walked up the ramp toward the back of the suit then leaned forward and inserted first his right then his left arm. Clamps engaged, locking his cybernetic limbs to that of the suit’s. His legs were next. As each one slipped into the suit’s open leg, the flaps closed locking him in place. As the solid, domed headpiece locked itself shut, the combat suit’s electronics merged with the electronics built into his cybernetic systems. There was a brief feeling of disorientation as the suit became Tom’s new body. His vision was restored as a vast array of sensors fed enhanced images directly into his brain via his cybernetic eye
s.
After running the suit through its diagnostics, he said, “Wilks, suited and ready.”
Tom turned himself around taking care not to disturb the power cable. The other Peacekeepers were similarly suited. The most impressive suit in the room belonged to the Rouldian Peacekeeper Thanis. Since Rouldians were physically much larger than most other races, their suits were more like small tanks. In fact, they were large enough to be powered by their own fusion generators.
As soon as everyone reported ready, Sorbith ordered them to assemble in the tunnel. Tom unplugged his charging cable and joined the rest of the Peacekeepers as they made their way into the cramped tunnel. Despite the fact that it was pitch black, he could see perfectly well thanks to his suit’s powerful infra-red lights. They assembled around a large skid levitating just above the still wet floor. It held the key to the success of their mission.
Resting in the center of the skid was a shield generator. Next to it was a small fusion reactor with just enough capacity to power the generator at its lowest setting for a few hours. Thanis took the lead followed by Sorbith. The skid came next with the remainder of the Peacekeeper force trailing behind.
They proceeded down the tunnel at a leisurely pace, scanning the area ahead for any signs of monitoring equipment. Although it was unlikely they would find any, the Peacekeepers wanted to ensure they would have complete surprise when they launched their assault. A little over an hour later, they arrived at their destination. A solid wall of concrete blocked their path.
Thanis paused for a moment to examine the barrier as the skid settled to the floor. “I detect no monitoring devices within the wall,” she reported.
“Drill the hole,” Sorbith ordered.
Thanis produced a small thermal core drill, held it firmly to the wall, and then pulled the trigger. The outer edge of the bit quickly turned red then yellow before turning a brilliant white as its temperature rose to 1,300 degrees Celsius. The extreme heat caused the concrete to break down and crumble like sugar making it easy for the slowly turning drill to bore a two centimeter hole through the thick wall. A vacuum hose connected to the drill pulled the fumes and debris away from the drill head.
“I’m through,” Thanis said, after twenty minutes of drilling.
Tom checked his chronometer and noted the time. It was now 0445. The plan was to wait until 0700 before beginning their attack. This would give the day-shift workers time to arrive. Thanis extracted the drill and inserted a camera. After a moment she said, “The room on the other side is dark. It doesn’t look like anyone uses this area.”
Thanis took a few minutes to attach several shaped charges to the wall. The Peacekeepers then patiently waited, occasionally chatting amongst themselves. “The lights just came on!” Thanis suddenly said.
“Link to Thanis and display the boroscope’s video,” Tom quickly ordered his suit. An instant later, he was looking into the room. A door at the far end opened and a security guard stepped through. He quickly surveyed the area then turned as if he was about to leave. He paused then turned back around and looked directly at the camera.
Chapter 27
The image spun as Thanis quickly withdrew the camera. With a speed that only a cybernetic limb could match, she replaced the camera with the business end of a miniature rocket launcher. Two seconds after spotting the camera, the guard was startled when hundreds of little rockets suddenly emerged from the hole in the concrete. Like a swarm of angry bees, they flew around him and headed through the open door, each of them spewing a tiny stream of gas. The guard reached for his radio but collapsed to the floor before he could key the microphone.
Sorbith reacted just as fast. The shield generator sprang to life surrounding the entire building with a silvery sphere of energy isolating it from the outside world. Thanis waited until the rocket launcher had emptied its magazine then backed away from the wall. Grabbing a large sheet of prepositioned duralloy she climbed up on the sled and held it up like a giant Roman shield.
“Triggering the charges!” he informed the others.
Tom flattened himself against the wall of the tunnel a moment before the explosives detonated. The suit registered the impact of several large chunks of concrete as well as innumerable pieces of smaller debris. The dust was so thick that Tom had to resort to short-range radar in order to navigate. As soon as he was able, he squeezed by the skid and followed the rest of the Peacekeepers into the building. He wasn’t surprised to find that despite the presence of the shield, which effectively isolated the entire building from the outside world, the lights were still on.
The tiny missiles Thanis had released were rapidly spreading a quick-acting sleeping gas throughout the building. As the resident expert in communications, Tom’s assigned target was the room containing the communications link with Mojave station. He ran past the door barely registering that it was now lying on the floor about two meters from where it had once hung on its hinges. Hunching down to keep himself from banging his head into the ceiling, he ran down the hallway.
His suit continuously scanned the area looking for threats. Tom passed another downed guard, leaping over him after the suit confirmed he was no longer conscious. Alarm bells began sounding as he approached his target; a black door set into the concrete wall. His suit’s tactical display informed him that it was made of two-centimeter thick duralloy. The walls on either side were made of reinforced concrete lined with another half-centimeter of armor. Time was his enemy; every second he waited gave the people inside time to destroy the data he was after.
Tom ran through his list of options. He could burn through the armor but that would take far too long. He could blow the door with a small bomb but that would most likely incinerate any evidence inside the room. The handle wasn’t strong enough to pull the door off its hinges and there wasn’t any place for him to gain enough leverage to force the door open. Switching to deep scan, he took three precious seconds to examine the door’s latching mechanism.
Taking a step backward, he pointed his right arm at the concrete, selected simple kinetic armor-piercing rounds, and opened fire. Two more seconds were spent as he directed three rounds at each of the four pins holding the door in place. He then turned his shoulder toward the door, disengaged the anti-grav, and leapt. The floor where he had been standing crumbled against the sudden thrust as he lunged forward. The weakened pins gave way as over half a ton of combat armor slammed into the door.
Four men in military combat suits opened fire with hand-held automatic weapons. Another was rapidly making his way towards a large red button mounted in a panel hanging on the wall. Tom locked his eyes on the man heading for the button and said, “Priority target. Auto engage all.” What followed was something that only a Peacekeeper combat suit was capable of doing.
Reacting faster and more accurately than any biological brain, the computer instantly evaluated the situation and selected an appropriate attack sequence. It simultaneously took aim with both arms at two separate targets, moving the limbs so fast it would have pulverized an arm made of flesh and blood. Locking the arms in an extended position aligned the twin mini-railgun tracks that ran from just above the suit’s shoulder joint to the top of the wrist. Two projectiles emerged traveling at over 2,000 meters per second. The railgun recoil was counteracted by a quick jet of precisely calibrated thrust from a disposable chemical rocket that was ejected after use.
The man running for the switch died instantly as both projectiles penetrated the armor surrounding his head. The shredded remains of his splattered brain flashed to steam as the 1.3-gram duralloy bullets converted their kinetic energy into heat. One of the armed defenders suffered a similar fate. Before the first two men could hit the floor, the other three were rendered lifeless.
“The communications room is secure,” Tom quickly reported. “Four occupants eliminated. Scanning for explosives.”
His suit identified four large explosive devices. With the analytical abilities of his armor, it required only a few minute
s to render the devices inert. The other Peacekeepers began reporting their own progress. Tom desperately wanted to get out of his suit so he could start digging into the communications equipment but fought the temptation.
“The building is under our control,” Sorbith finally announced, 30 minutes after the attack had begun. “We have 16 prisoners, most of them security guards but four are workers who decided to show up early. The local authorities have been rounding up those who were left outside the shield. Seven have managed to kill themselves. As of now, they have 32 people in custody. Everyone is clear to unsuit.”
Tom couldn’t get out of his armor fast enough.
Sorbith arrived a few minutes later. He looked at the four dead bodies. “I hope they didn’t possess any knowledge we need,” he said, walking into the room.
“It’s not exactly easy to just wound someone wearing combat armor,” Tom said defensively.
“I know,” Sorbith replied, looking over the bodies. “The military has secured the surrounding area and there are two battlecruisers parked directly overhead in case the AOH tries to obliterate all evidence of their operation here. What have you found so far?”
“This is quite a setup,” Tom replied, gesturing towards the equipment in the room. Pointing to a rack in the corner, he continued, “That’s the link with Mojave station. The two racks next to it house a fairly powerful computer. This,” he said, pointing to the console in front of him, “is the primary interface. If I understand what I’m seeing, it has unrestricted access to the hub’s central switching system.”
Leaning towards the screen, Sorbith asked, “Any idea if it can access anything else?”
