Spinward Fringe Broadcast 14

by Randolph Lalonde

  They came through one at a time, rushing to the middle of the floor, which was massive. Remmy's sensors could see the end of the shelving, but he couldn't, not even with the augmented vision in his helmet. Heavy duty storage racks had been rummaged through. Equipment had been thrown around in a rush to take what was useful without any consideration for organization or caretaking. "Well, I'm guessing whoever dug into this gear didn't think the Order would be sticking around for too long," Remmy said.

  "Kinda goes against what Wheeler was saying," Masterson said. "Maybe he's the only one who thought this occupation would turn into a full-time government."

  If that was the case, then the Order's behaviour may have been vastly different. Remmy ran through the possibilities in his head briefly. There could be booby traps, listening devices, or other objects of interference planted anywhere on Tamber, especially in Haven Shore. That was in conflict with what was happening in orbit, though. They were fighting tooth and nail to defeat Haven Fleet forces there. From the few progress reports he'd gotten, the Order had already lost nearly two hundred manned fighters, over a dozen corvettes, sixteen destroyers and a carrier since Remmy and his team entered the bunker. The Order wanted to dominate the system, but they probably wanted a souvenir, too. A working quad drive, or maybe a whole ship.

  They finished rushing to the last row of shelving and the Order Knights came into sight. They wore red and dark blue armour made from thick plating built over strength augmentation and a skin suit. It seemed heavier, more up-to-date compared to the ones he'd killed before. The circle of captives was between them. "These guys like sending false scans. When we were up top it looked like they had a lot more captives, but we haven't seen evidence of any more civilians since we got down to this level. I hope I'm looking at holograms, but I'll have to assume I'm negotiating for real people," Remmy explained. He handed his rifle to Dotty, who affixed it to her back, keeping her own in hand. "All right, spread out, stay cloaked. I'll have words with 'em."

  With a look to a series of icons in his helmet, he turned his shielding all the way up and disengaged his cloaking systems. The barrier crackled around him at first. He deactivated the hologram that made it look like there was a laughing skull in his helmet, revealing his own face through the armoured plate, and amplified his voice. "Hey guys, you've got our attention," he said, raising his hands and stepping out from cover.

  Three of the Order Knights trained their heavy rifles at him while the rest looked around. "You're not alone. They never send someone like you alone."

  "You're right," Remmy said, glancing at the captains' slashes on his arm. "There's no way to know how many people I have with me, but I speak for the whole fleet here. I'm Captain Remmy Sands, you can call me Remmy or Captain."

  "Diseased disgrace of a human," one of the Order Knights growled.

  "Or that. It's new, but I could get used to it," Remmy said, keeping his tone friendly but not candy-coated. "Does he speak for all of you?"

  "I'm Lieutenant Rayes," said a different Order Knight.

  "Oh, is that where they get the Razer Knights thing? Not because you guys raze things to the ground, but because your name kinda sounds like 'raze?'"

  "My older brother sacrificed his life for the Knights," Rayes said. "He led us to a great victory for New Eden, so I was allowed to rename the unit."

  "So, you're the leader?" Remmy asked.

  "I have control of this situation," she replied.

  "You definitely do," Remmy said, looking to Science Minister Lourdes. His eyes were glassy and his skin was patchy. There had been reconstruction done recently. There was a chance that he'd been subjected to a more primitive kind of torture than most Order captives. Around him there were government workers, a couple guards from the bunker and a couple scientists.

  "Eyes up here, Captain," Rayes said, directing his view back up to her from the captives.

  "Right, so what do you want? You're holding hostages, so let's trade," Remmy said.

  "A working quad drive, the control codes for it, and full schematics," she said flatly.

  "I know someone who could get you all that," Remmy said. "You're starting at the top, though. What about safe conduct off Tamber in a shuttle of your choosing? I could get you a nice combat shuttle with regenerative plating that your engineers would love to sink their scanners into."

  "We don't have to worry about rescue. You'll be wiped off the surface of Tamber soon enough," Rayes rebutted.

  "All right, but I don't think you want a quad drive. I mean, we could set it off whenever we want," Remmy said. "Just one little transmission and it becomes a bomb that could crack a planet. A shuttle with regenerative plating and some advanced computing power is a lot less risky, and hey, if the Order takes Tamber back, you can always turn around."

  "That's your counter? A ride out on a shuttle type we've probably already captured?" the Knight asked. "I don’t think you fully understand the situation." Her rifle lowered, pointing to the back of the nearest hostage's head. A single blast would kill him easily.

  "You know, I could get you the schematics for a quad drive," Remmy said, wondering how he could manage to make a fake set of quad drive schematics in minutes without an artificial intelligence or even a peek at the real thing. "That's better than the real deal. Schematics can't blow up in your face."

  "Send them to me," Rayes told him. "Now."

  "What do I get if I send you a copy?" Remmy asked.

  With a kick, Rayes moved a young blonde man to the side, revealing a cylindrical case. The metal shielding raised at the touch of a button, splitting at the top to reveal a bright blue and white glowing liquid in a transparent metal tube. "This is a Mergillian reduction bomb. They use this type of device for mining asteroids, setting it off to destroy lighter elements, leaving denser metals behind. We found it in this bunker. It is active. If I let the substances intermix it will collapse this bunker. If you give me the quad drive schematics then I'll deactivate it and release three captives."

  "Hey, our quad drives are the most critical component of our fleet other than man power. This trade only works if I get all the hostages, that bomb deactivated and in my hands. How about I throw in a shuttle as a bonus. Just in case your fleet loses up there."

  "If you provide the schematics before one-minute elapses, then you have a deal," Rayes said.

  Remmy caught sight of the Science Minister closing his eyes. As soon as a tear rolled down his cheek, it was obvious that he was about to do something everyone there might regret. There was no way for Remmy to tell him that he wasn't going to give the Knights the real schematics. "Don't do it!" was all Remmy could shout before the worst happened.

  Science Minster Lourdes leapt for the bomb, flipping two heavy duty switches on the transparent metal lid before one of the Razer Knights at the rear decimated his head, neck and shoulder with a burst from his rifle. Rayes knelt down and hurriedly flicked switches. It was too late. The substances inside were already mixing and starting to glow.

  "Everyone run for the elevator!" Remmy cried. Control was lost. The hostages were stunned, slow, but they surged to their feet once Remmy drew his sidearm and scored a hit squarely at Rayes head. Her shields deflected it upward, where a shower of sparks rained down for a moment.

  If plan B was going to work, Remmy had to drive the Order Knights back, give them enough pause to get behind cover. He couldn't let them gun down civilians. A barrage of zip rounds earned their name as they made their trademark noise, curving around civilians to strike the Razer Knights with zip-pop sounds as they exploded against their shields. They weren't doing enough damage to put the Knights at real risk yet, but it was enough for them to worry about their shield integrity. Ooram, Dotty and Masterson were firing those rounds, scoring dozens of hits in opening salvos from an arc behind Remmy. "Everyone out! That means you, too, guys!" he told them. "We don't know how long we have, but those Knights are moving like it's seconds."

  They were abandoning the hostages and not tak
ing the time to return fire. Instead they were running for the vault at the far end of the sublevel. That was a very bad sign. He turned, running for the elevator, dropping his sidearm against his thigh and pulling every shield generator puck he had on him. Following behind the hostages, who moved at what seemed a snail's pace, he dropped one after the other, setting layers of shielding up in his wake. Dotty and the rest of his people followed orders, running ahead to get the main elevator doors open. Yeah, that's exactly what you should be doing. "You're awesome, Dot!" he said as he watched her push the first set of civilians through the double hatch to the lift as it opened.

  Seeing a means of escape, the civilians sped up, their quick stumbling turning into a desperate mob rush. There was no time for anything else. The Order of Eden Knights' jamming field wasn't enough to mask the power build up in the bomb. Remmy's tactical system told him they only had seconds.

  "There isn't enough room for them all!" Ooram said, standing beside the elevator.

  Using the remote control he set up for the bunker, Remmy closed the elevator doors and sent it upwards in emergency mode. As soon as it was on its way, he was about to command the doors to open so his team could get the remaining civilians up the shaft using their thrusters, but the world shook abruptly. It felt like something powerful struck Remmy's whole body from behind amidst a roar that was so loud that it must have come from between his ears.

  Twenty-One

  The Sympathy Owed

  * * *

  The latest report from the battle in Tamber Orbit was complex, many-faceted but Admiral Scanlon saw stories in the raw data and holographic scans as she reviewed them in the Tactical Assessment Room. It was large, round, with no features other than its tall shape and metal sides. The lights were only bright enough so people weren't bumping into each other.

  Scanlon had the prized centre spot in the space, where holograms from every situation she was following surrounded her in a tall circle. Two of her Rear Admirals assessed data from the opposite side, orbited by holograms of their own. "The data link is very clear, very quick considering how much noise the interdiction systems around Tamber are generating," said Rear Admiral Iaffer. He was smart, which didn't make him as rare as the kindness he showed the people who were in debt to him. There were thousands, and he made sure they had what they needed even if they were a little late with their payments. He could afford it, being one of the wealthiest men in the fleet. "I'm wondering: do you think there would be any strategic value to sending Data Package Zero to our forces in the Haven System?"

  Instead of dismissing the idea out of hand, Scanlon gave it some thought as she reviewed the status of the ships around Tamber. The Pelican was gone. It managed to escape moments before the net of interdiction signals fell around Kambis and its moons. That meant that no matter what happened over the next day, there would be a resistance group with leaders out there. Citizens who watched their home get invaded, then ravaged during their rescue. Citizens who didn't have a chance to see the benefits of life with the Order of Eden. It took time to find prosperity unless you joined as a member of the military or administration branches, so none of them had a chance to see how civilized the lifestyle could be. Many of the people aboard the Pelican would become fighters for Haven, and one of the most frightening things about Haven Fleet, at least to Scanlon, was their ability to train people quickly. The Pelican was an outstanding question that made her brain itch.

  Wheeler had been captured, however, and that was good news. The Order promised a rescue in exchange for whatever plan he had for the leadership of Haven Fleet, and he kept reassuring them that he had one. It was easy to dismiss Wheeler's hate of Freeground, Ayan, Jacob, Minh-Chu, and the rest of the people who served aboard the First Light as madness. The man was devious despite his paranoia and overconfidence, though. If getting captured was part of his plan, then Admiral Scanlon didn't object. Haven Fleet wouldn't get any valuable information out of him, and if Wheeler actually did have a plan that would harm several of the leaders in Haven Fleet then she would learn something from him by watching it play out. The original Wheeler managed to take out Jonas Valent, so it would be interesting to see if the copy could do something just as significant.

  Remembering that the Rear Admiral asked if they should send Data Package Zero to their fleet in the Haven System, she looked back to the Haven ships trying to break free from orbit. They were organized in a circle, the Merciless, Rassaaga, five Sunspire class ships, and several destroyers sharing shield energy. It was brilliant. Each one of those vessels had enough independent power generation capacity to withstand over a minute of direct fire from everything the Order of Eden had in the Haven Solar System. Together, combining their gravity shields, which didn't allow torpedoes or missiles to reach optimum range against them, and their energy barriers along with point defence systems, they were incredible. Nearly indomitable, and the entire ring was slowly moving towards Freeground Alpha, which had enough mass to hold out against any bombardment the Order of Eden forces could bring about them for hours at least, even unpowered.

  How long can you keep it up? Scanlon thought to herself as she looked at the images of the most significant commanders; Admiral Rice and McPatrick. You're chipping away at your attackers. We've lost a few ships since you started moving in this formation, but I'm going to order it to an end. Can you survive ramming actions from three of our destroyers simultaneously? We only need a little break in your defences to start taking sections of your wheel out. What will you do when you see your defences collapsing? Self-destruct? The mental image of multiple quad drives causing cataclysmic explosions as they were set off made her shudder visibly. Everyone on those ships would be killed, and the rough math they had on the destructive power aboard those ships going off all at once indicated that Tamber would be rendered unliveable, its orbit destabilized, and it would eventually collide with Kambis. No, your fleet doesn't have a scorched earth philosophy. If you use a dimension drive as a bomb, then it'll happen right in the middle of the Order Forces pinning you down, but this fight is so close that all your ships would take damage as well. Some would be destroyed.

  "Admiral?" Rear Admiral Iaffer asked quietly.

  "Data Package Zero," Admiral Scanlon said with a nod. "I'm taking another look at the situation, one moment."

  "Oh, yes, I apologize," he said.

  There were plenty of incompetents in the middle officer ranks, and a few Rear Admirals if you considered the greater Order of Eden organization, but Iaffer wasn't one of them. Nor was he asking an unimportant question. Data Package Zero was the code name for the scanning protocols the Order had for detecting cloaked ships that used newer Haven technology. It was a pertinent question, and it had to be answered soon. "You're assuming that Haven Fleet will fall for the trap I've set. That they may have already sent reinforcements to the Haven System?"

  "I believe they'll be there within an hour," Rear Admiral Iaffer said. "Your strategy here will provide the best results possible: we'll have them trapped in the Haven System. We'll know where they are, Ma'am."

  "Right now, there's little benefit to sending DPZ to our forces in the Haven System. You worry about what happens after the Haven Fleet reinforcements arrive, when they slip into the system from an area that isn't flooded with energy and gravitational disruptions."

  "Yes, Ma'am. Specifically, I think a larger fleet of Haven ships could begin firing from several points further out from Kambis and Tamber, striking before we have a way of countering. I'd like to give our ships there a chance."

  "You really believe that my gambit here will work? That Haven Fleet are responding by sending everything they can to turn the tide?"

  "I would bet my shares in the company on it, Ma'am," he replied.

  "You have more sympathy for our forces we have there than I do. I know that you'd have broken their defences by now if you were on the bridge of one of those command ships. The commanders are losing ships because of fear and selfish thinking, we both know it."
<
br />   Rear Admiral Iaffer stared at the tactical overlook, where they could both see the Order ships blocking the Haven vessels from escaping, trapping them in orbit. That was a general overview, there was another fight going on between fighters and other small ships as Haven Fleet vessels tried to get even closer to the Order ships so they could cause great rifts in their shields or worse. It was working. Few Order of Eden fighter pilots or gunners were better than most of the people Haven had, and they had Uriels. Worse, the fighters that were offered up by Citadel were so incompetent that it was shocking. It seemed they couldn't accomplish anything without the influence of one of their Geists, which was currently hidden and blocked behind a telepathy shield. They were waiting for reinforcements to arrive before committing more of their own forces. The Rear Admiral finally nodded. "I would have forced several ships into that circular formation they have, rammed their shields and scattered them. It's a brute force manoeuvre, but the Haven commanders have proven that nothing else will work."

  "All right, then send them Data Packet Zero, and they'll be able to use scanning drones to see through any Haven Fleet cloaking device. I'll also order them to bring this conflict to a conclusion in the next thirty minutes. They are to withdraw any support for Citadel forces as well. I don't know where these ones came from, but they're not worth our help." Admiral Scanlon looked at the holographic model of Haven Shore, where there may be a battle soon, one that would result in the capture of several Haven Fleet Infantry, she hoped. Meanwhile, the Raze Knights would do their best to transmit scans of everything inside and take out as many members of government that they could. That was their primary mission; to interrogate then eliminate the heads of Haven civilian and military government, and they already managed the first part well enough. The information they managed to send was enlightening, even if a lot of it wasn't new to the Order. "Lastly, send a correction to my previous orders. The Order commanders are to retreat the moment they detect the arrival of significant Haven Fleet reinforcements."