“Aye, sir.”
“Lieutenant?”
“Skipper?”
He smiled, her marine background was showing. “Well done. Anything else you’ve thought of?”
“Just that if the planet is habitable, we might find a lot more here than the navy can handle.”
“Oh?”
“Maybe a Merkiaari listening post, or the start of a colony, or... I don’t know what else.”
“All nasty possibilities that General Burgton will no doubt want to know about.” He looked to Groves again. “What have we got so far?”
Groves didn’t look happy. “Not much yet. Spectroscopy indicates an oxygen nitrogen atmosphere able to support life. The planet is Class M but only barely, it’s right on the limit of what we would call terrestrial. Not a good pick for a colony at just about 10,000 kilometres in diameter and pretty cold in winter. Survivable, just not that pleasant, Skipper.”
“Alright, anything else?”
“The Lieutenant is right about the ship being in geosynch over the planet. I’m concentrating on the land mass below it assuming there’s something of interest there. I’ll inform you when I have something.”
He nodded and checked the time. They had hours before the conference. “Pipe all this down to the conference room for the boffins, would you?”
“We’ve already been doing that, Skipper. It seemed the thing.”
“Agreed. If we want to use their brains, we need to give them the data to work with.”
Groves smiled and nodded her agreement.
* * *
26 ~ Conference
Aboard ASN Warrior, NGC 1511-2262, 1758 hours
Colgan entered the conference room accompanied by his officers and Lieutenant Fuentes, but paused just inside to take in the controlled chaos that always seemed to orbit his boffins. Really, how hard was it for them to keep the table tidy at least? There were many less of them than he’d had aboard Canada, but you wouldn’t know it by the mess. There were empty cups, plates, various flimsies and printouts, and of course the inevitable compads scattered all over the simwood surface. Why couldn’t they use one compad or one each at least? The things had huge memory capacities!
He checked his wrist comp. He had two minutes to tidy up before Louise and her people arrived by holo. The conference software would reproduce this room and its squalor aboard Shannon, and he didn’t want Warrior’s rep to become no better than a garbage scow!
“Quick, clean this pigsty up!” he said to Anya. “Everyone!”
The boffins looked around blinking at the mess. At least they had the grace to look shamefaced, but they didn’t move to help until Francis and Anya began collecting things and endangering their work. Colgan heard squawks about their file system being ruined. What system? Were they serious? Apparently they were as they darted about snatching things up, saving them from a terrible fate apparently, and neatly stacking them in groups that made sense only to them. Fuentez quickly grabbed all the cups and plates and shoved them into the autochef, almost force feeding the thing. They finished just in time.
Louise and her officers including the two vipers she had aboard Shannon appeared in the room.
“Welcome aboard Warrior,” he said and greetings were exchanged all around. “Let us find seats and get started.”
Colgan took his seat at the head of the table; it was his ship and he was hosting the meeting. His officers sat to his right. Louise and her people took the left opposite Francis and Anya, while everyone else took random places except for the three vipers. They sat close together already whispering amongst themselves catching up he guessed. The holographic conferencing software worked upon similar principals to the holotanks and sensim systems used throughout the Alliance. Louise and the others looked and sounded as if they were actually present in the room, as did he and his people to her on Shannon. Data was exchanged between the ships to keep everything synchronised and faithfully replicating what went on, so when he activated the tabletop holotank to display the Leviathan—their name for the huge Merki ship—Shannon’s tank also activated to show the same data.
“What a difference a few hours make,” Colgan said by way of a start. “It’s a derelict.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Vardell warned. “Those point sources indicate it still has power. It’s suffered damage, catastrophic damage even, but where there’s power there’s threat.”
“I agree,” Stone said. “I don’t know what that ship is, but one thing I do know is that it’s dangerous. We should blast it to atoms.”
That caused uproar among the scientists all shouting at once about the terrible loss to science of doing such a thing. Colgan sympathised against his better judgement, and came down on their side of the equation. They needed to study it, not destroy it. It was one of a kind and what they could learn was of incalculable worth.
He knocked on the table to bring the room to order. “Let’s discuss the matter like adults shall we?” He used the table’s interface to turn the ship in the tank so that all could see the damage it had suffered. “That ladies and gentlemen was not caused by weapon’s fire.”
“Agreed,” Vardell said. The huge rip in the hull on the starboard side had been hidden from them until they closed the distance, but it was obvious now that a rather large blast had blown the hull open from the inside. They were at station keeping right now, still at double the most pessimistic weapon’s range they could attribute to the Merkiaari. “That sort of damage looks like classic jump failure to me.”
That’s what he had been thinking too. He remembered being surprised that Tait hadn’t blown his ship or his jump capacitors at least, to flaming flinders when he mis-jumped in his panic to escape an earlier battle. The result had been his arrival here, which it now seemed the Merkiaari had done before him. He wondered if there was some property of this system that pulled such unlucky ships to itself. The star perhaps. It was supermassive, a red giant and at the top end of the scale for such suns.
“We’ll know when we go aboard it,” Colgan said. “We have to do that, I think we all know that?”
Vardell nodded grimly. “I’m sorry, Captain Stone, but I didn’t come out here to blow away a one of a kind artifact like that ship. If it were just a Marauder let’s say, or even one of their old style battlewagons the Alliance faced back in the day, it would be a different matter, but this is something entirely new. We have to figure out what it is.”
Stone shrugged. “The hull configuration is vaguely similar to their assault ships except in size. It’s almost as if they scaled one up. Why they would do that, I can’t answer.”
Colgan frowned at the image in the holotank. He could see the similarities that Stone mentioned, but in his mind they didn’t mean anything. All Merki ships had things in common. Maybe this ship, whatever its purpose, was built at the same yards as their dreadnoughts, or designed by the same team. Who knew? It might even be some weird carrier design. He hoped not because the Merkiaari didn’t have them last time, but they did use air power extensively in atmosphere. The Merkiaari had seen how useful carrier based fighters were in combat many times, and he didn’t like anything that smacked of Merki advancement. The Alliance was already behind the curve with their new jamming and stealth tech advances.
“Well,” he went on. “I don’t think they’ll be a problem getting in at least.”
Everyone laughed. The huge rip in the hull could almost swallow Warrior.
Stone didn’t laugh, and neither did the other vipers. What he said next quieted everyone. “If it doesn’t power weapons and blast the shuttles we’re using upon approach.”
Colgan nodded grimly. Now that they were closer they had detected the ship’s weapons. There were a lot of missile tubes and laser hatches in that thing. Not as many as a hull that size could theoretically pack in, but there were plenty nonetheless. About as many as three Alliance super dreadnoughts could carry he would judge. If the Merki had really wanted to, they probably could have doubled th
e number; the ship was seriously that big. It was a monster. None of its weapons were powered right now, and so far they hadn’t detected any targeting emissions. And they were looking. Oh yes indeed they were looking. If it twitched so much as a single sensor in their direction, he had told his people to go to evasive manoeuvres without orders and run for jump. There was no way to stand toe to toe with that thing.
“You’re joining the boarding party then?” Vardell asked. She could have ordered the vipers to go, and be technically within her rights as mission commander, but no one felt easy ordering one of them to do anything, especially not Stone who was a veteran of the Merki War. Definitely not on something that could turn out to be a suicide mission. “The marines can handle it.”
“Lieutenant Richmond and I will lead the first boarding party in case any special Merki related problems come up. Lieutenant Fuentez will lead the landing force... if you still plan to send one down?”
“Before you get to that,” Professor Bristow said. “I haven’t been informed about our part in the boarding of the ship.”
Vardell and Colgan exchanged a glance, and it spread among their officers. The truth was, there was no way in hell they were letting the boffins go into harm’s way, but how to say it diplomatically? He was willing to take a stab at it, but Fuentez beat him to it.
“You’ll go down to the surface with me, Professor,” Fuentez began. “But not on the first trip. You understand. I have to clear the area and be sure it’s safe. As for the ship, there are more places for hostiles to hide. It will take longer to clear, but you’ll get there. Don’t worry.”
Colgan smiled, that wasn’t bad, but of course Professor Bristow wasn’t in the least fooled.
“I want it understood that we are not in your chain of command, Captain Vardell, Captain Colgan,” Bristow said. “This mission is ours. You are in fact at our disposal, and not the other way around. The President himself gave us our commission.”
He blinked. Well... he turned to Louise and raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t care if God himself gave it to you,” Vardell began. “You can follow orders or we can take you to see the bloody President and ask him what he thinks of letting you run around in possibly hostile territory. How about that?”
Bristow grinned. “An idle threat. You won’t leave here until you know we’ve learned what we came for. I want one of us with each party. Put us in armour, put us in a tank for all I care, but do it. We need to see what’s in there and to put it bluntly; I don’t think soldiers are qualified to recognise what might be important.”
“And who do you propose to send?” Vardell said through clenched teeth, surprising Colgan.
She was actually considering allowing this? “Louise, I don’t think—” he began to say, but she cut him off.
“She’s right, dammit. Marines are for breaking things in a very fast and efficient manner, not researching alien artifacts.”
Fuentez chuckled.
True, but he would still hold the boffins back until the second or third trip. Louise was senior; it was her decision, but he didn’t agree with it. Like, at all!
Bristow nodded to James. “James has asked to accompany Gina with the landing force. Professor Franks will go with Captain Stone to the ship. Brenda and I will monitor the feed from their helmet cams from here.”
“You’ve thought this through,” Vardell said, grudging respect in her voice. “Very well. Marine hard suits for both of them, but if they can’t prove to me that they can use them properly, they’ll not set one foot on the shuttles.”
Bristow nodded. “That’s fair.”
Fair? It was utter madness! Colgan wanted to protest, but that just wasn’t done in a setting like this. Perhaps in private he could make his reservations known, but not in front of subordinates and especially not in front of the civs. He would do so in private after the meeting.
“You have no idea how long I’ve yearned for an opportunity like this,” Professor Franks said, his eyes gleaming.
“Let’s hope it’s not your last,” Colgan muttered and Louise shot him an aggravated look. He shrugged an apology her way. He might be hosting the meeting but she was senior. “Okay, let’s look at the other half of this meeting. I’ve already been over this with Captain Perry. You might be wondering why Captain Vardell and I did not invite the marines to hear this. It’s simply that we’ve already taken care of the operational side of things and they’re taking care of the details with their commands right now. I’ll brief them on any changes we come up with after the meeting. Anything to add, Louise?”
“Only that the vipers will be in command of each force, not Professors Wilder and Franks. Give suggestions by all means, ask that this thing or that be investigated to your heart’s content, but they’re in command. The marines are your bodyguard not your servants; don’t make me regret letting you go by trying to turn them into your assistants or something.”
James laughed. “I can carry my own books, Captain. No one has ever accused me of not doing my bit.”
Colgan heard the steel in James’ voice there at the end. The man had led a large part of the Shan resistance in the last campaign. If any civ knew war, this one did. He changed the holotank to display the planet and all eyes turned to regard it.
“Oxygen nitrogen atmosphere is confirmed. Liquid water, plant life compatible with us and the Merkiaari... all within acceptable, though not great, parameters. Basically, we could live on it but the weather is miserable and anyone stuck on that mud ball for long will be too. Cold and wet, frequent high velocity storms will threaten structures no matter how well built. Ground tremors have been detected, the result of the huge moons hereabouts, and solar radiation has done some bad things to the magnetosphere and ionosphere. Solar flares must be common, though the sun seems to have entered a relatively passive cycle. That can change at any time, so expect communications to be spotty.”
“Joy,” Stone muttered. “You think the satellites can handle it if we decide to deploy?”
They hadn’t deployed satellites yet, they were still at max stealth though they had discharged the jump capacitors now. They couldn’t keep them at jump stations indefinitely for fear of failure, and the wear rate was ferocious held at peak charge that way. Chief Williams was already bitching about having to recalibrate the system now that the equivalent of an extra hundred jumps had been burned out of his beloved drive.
“We won’t deploy until we’re confident the ship really is derelict, but yes I think so. The solar wind here is intense but our sats are mil-spec of course. They’re hardened against worse.”
Stone nodded. “As long as we have at least one sat up, we can communicate using TacNet or viper comm no sweat.”
That might be true between vipers, but the marines might not be so lucky. They had helmet comm and wristcomp, both of which were good tech but not on the same scale as viper hardware. Still, the vipers could relay information if push came to shove and the sun was quiet right now. There might be no need to resort to lash-ups.
“Good,” he said. “We think the Merki have landed a small outpost down there, but due to weather conditions we can’t estimate numbers. It could have a city-sized population, or have nothing more than a squad manning a listening post.”
Richmond snorted.
“You have something to add, Lieutenant?”
“Considering how many troopers are routinely carried aboard a Marauder class transport, which is way smaller than that thing out there, how many Merki are likely to be aboard the Leviathan? Half a million, a million?”
He didn’t want to think about that. “That’s one of the things we’ll discover I suppose.”
“Stone is right; we should blow it out of space. We can still learn stuff on the planet once that’s done.”
“The decision is made, but even if it weren’t, you’re assuming we could blow it away.”
“Enough high yield nukes will blow anything out of space if done right. Send your entire magazine on ballistic
courses. They won’t see them coming. Kaboom! Job done.”
Kaboom indeed. Colgan grinned. That would be how he would do it if told to take out the Merki ship, but the decision wasn’t his and wouldn’t happen now anyway.
“Your point regarding the planet?” Vardell asked.
Richmond shrugged. “With so many Merkiaari aboard the ship, how many do you think were sent down world?”
“Could be any number. Without recon we can’t know the answer.”
“Look, that ship is a wreck; a powerful dangerous wreck, but still a wreck. It can’t leave here. The Merki had no choice but this one planet as a destination when they blew their drive to hell and gone, right?”
Vardell nodded.
“Then what makes you think they didn’t send all of their people down? That’s not a listening post, Captain. It’s a lifeboat. It’s a colony now. I’d bet my pulser on it!”
“Okay, that’s a possibility I don’t like, but okay. We still need to verify and that means going down and scouting the situation.”
“I agree, but you don’t need an entire team for that. One unit, a viper unit, should go down first and check the place out.”
She was right about that. If there was a colony down there a single viper had more chance of scoping the place out and evading notice than an entire platoon of marines. He nodded to Louise that he agreed with Richmond.
“Lieutenant Fuentez, what do you say?” Vardell said.
“I’ve thought that I should go solo from the start, Captain,” Fuentez said and caused the scientists to mutter. “I don’t mean to cut out our science team from all the fun, and I certainly don’t think I can do their jobs, but along the same lines they can’t do mine. I would prefer to scout the situation alone before bringing them down.”
Louise nodded thoughtfully.
“And, Captain?”
“What is it?”
“I think you should reconsider your position regarding the ship. I know you won’t destroy it, but you should not send Professor Franks in with the first group to board. Seriously. He is irreplaceable where the rest of us aren’t. Send him with a second team or send him to join the first after a quick recon of the ship.”
Merkiaari Wars: 04 - Operation Breakout Page 33
