"He's twenty years older than she is. You mean she and him ...?"
"It worked out well if it motivated him to get them away. I don't know where he took them but I can guess." Donal reached to the captain's chair, waited for Lieutenant Sullivan to acknowledge him, then popped a hologram into existence.
"That's his summer home!"
"I know, Cletus. Sean lacks imagination, but if he moves quickly enough and Kori understands what's going on, it can be a brief haven. Otherwise, Weir will find them in a matter of hours."
"Less. Look at what Riddle has ordered."
"Is that a spy drone swarm?" Leanne stepped closer, as if she could make out the tiny twinkling stars that spread over a quarter of Burran's western coast. "What are their capabilities?"
"I will give you the specs later," Donal said. "Right now we have to figure out how to reach my wife and daughter. And Scarlotti, too. He's shown himself to be loyal and we can use his skills crafting propaganda to counter Weir."
"Sir," Lieutenant Sullivan said, looking up from the captain's chair. "I ordered a priority rush on fixing a dartabout. One will be ready to launch in ten hours."
"Too long," Cletus said. "The rescue has to be made now. Weir isn't going to be fooled long as to who saved them. The swarm will locate them within an hour."
"The warbots can be assembled, prepped and dropped in five hours."
Donal looked at Leanne as she made the estimate. Cletus started to speak but clamped his mouth shut when he saw how surprised his father was. He hadn't guessed that the warbots were in the hold.
"I thought you were only shipping the exoskeletons. How many warbots are there?"
"Two. They are self-assemblying. We will need armaments other than the lasers and aurora guns already mounted. What missiles can you provide?"
Donal looked at the acting captain. Sullivan pressed the helmet down so the electrodes formed a better bond on her sweating scalp. She closed her eyes a moment, then looked at him.
"Sir, we have both five and 10 centimeter rockets in storage. There are 25 centimeter missiles with seeker warheads."
"How many of each?"
"Can you use a hundred of the five and 10s? We only have a few of the 25s. Some were damaged in the explosion that took us amidships, but none was in the marine armory."
"The detonators might be faulty in the remaining ones," Cletus said. "Those were surplus added at the last minute before we Lifted to Far Kingdom."
"We will chance it, with that in mind. The 25s are my preferred missile. Unguided rockets are good for diversion but not for serious fighting. 'Fire and forgets' give a broader mission capability for both attack and defense."
"The aurora guns─" Cletus began.
"Get the warbots in fighting condition," Donal cut in. He knew a little about the warriorobots' capabilities. After all, he had angled for them to be purchased, while keeping at a distance to provide plausible deniability. That Cletus─or Leanne─had them loaded under Sorrel's nose came as a pleasant surprise. It was about all that had gone right if he wanted to rescue his Kori and Bella. "Can you launch from the cargo bay or do you need the dartabout to get you in close?"
"The warbots are capable of planetary insertion from orbit. If we drop that way, though, there won't be fuel enough to return to orbit unless we refuel." Leanne held out her petite hand, measuring distances on the floating globe in the middle of the control room. "Once we land, even jump capabilities will be limited."
"We can still crash through walls and use the weaponry," Cletus said. "I read some of the manual on the Mark V."
"These are Mark IV," Leanne said. "They are similar but─"
"Get down to the cargo bay. Save my wife and daughter and I'll make sure the dartabout is there for pickup if I have to carry it down on my back."
As his son and Leanne rushed the bridge, both chattering at the same time about technical specs, Donal hoped he wasn't going to have to make good on that promise. He silently accepted the control helmet from the lieutenant and settled into the captain's chair, a great deal of work ahead of him.
"So I read the wrong manual?" Cletus watched as the warbot assembled itself with some small help from auxiliary robots. He stared up at the huge war machine. Rockets were already loaded at the shoulder hard points. The 25s were divided between his and Leanne's equally awe inspiring warbot, loaded into the hip launchers.
"You field tested the Mark V on Far Kingdom. This is similar. For our purpose, this model is better. It is lighter and quicker. We won't face heavy artillery or tank fire, so the lack of armor isn't a concern."
"What do you mean by that?"
Leanne used a laser pointer to trace out the torso armor.
"Hardened steel plate, not the STF, but adequate for this mission."
"Can the Mark IV be outfitted with the liquid armor?" Cletus worried other aspects of this model were similarly lacking.
"They are capable of being retro-outfitted. The existing armor is almost as good." Leanne looked up at him. "My life will be at risk. The armor is better than any you have on even your MBTs."
"We can be sure to draw missile fire from aircraft."
"There are countermeasures built in. You won't even need to activate them. If the missiles home in on either radar or heat signatures, this model will scramble the signal and cause a miss."
"Much of the weaponry is laser guided." Cletus worried about Leanne's easy dismissal of Burran firepower. The warbot was spectacular, unlike anything in their arsenal, but even the metallic behemoth could be brought to its knees with sufficient high explosives detonating all around it. The Mark IV was even more vulnerable without the STF reactive armor.
"You might consider tracking such missiles and manually interdicting. If we move fast and keep a low profile, we can reach your mother and sister in time to protect them."
"What do we do? Open up and let them into the cockpit? There's hardly room for the driver."
"The warbots have a cargo hold large enough for a human or two. The ride will be rough for anyone there if we engage in a prolonged fight. We need to believe the Programmer General's promise of a quick retrieval."
Cletus walked around the warbot and saw that the armor was lighter around the joints. If he were the attacker, the ankles and knees would be his primary targets. Damage there affected the balance and ability to use the main drive rockets to lift over small mountains. The next target would be the missiles on the shoulders. A decent strike there detonated the unfired warheads. Such an explosion high on the frame would rattle the driver, no matter how well protected from shock he might be in the belly of the robot.
"You see the weaknesses of such an attack vehicle. Good. But do not become fearful. Boldness wins the battle. Your fighters have never faced such a war machine."
"I've trained with many of the Low Guard. They'll be on the lookout for weaknesses. And the Air Force─the Middle Guard─will simply exhaust their missiles, then break off for their home base to refit for a new sortie."
"Make sure none escape. Your systems will warn of incoming missiles. Track the ionization trails back to the fighter launching the missiles and blow them out of the sky."
Cletus took a deep breath and held it. She made it sound easy. Perhaps the Far Kingdom equipment made it easy, but those were his soldiers on the ground, his pilots in the air. If the orbital defenses came into play, those were his spacers. Every death he caused was a fellow citizen, another Burran by birth and loyalty.
"It will be difficult," Leanne said softly. "Those trying to kill you and your family are ignorant of the true situation."
"If there were some way to alert them, to let them know Weir is usurping power."
"The heat of battle is not the place for such conversions of faith."
"Have you been in many battles? Using a warbot?" Cletus had seen how cool she was in a firefight wearing the exoskeleton. She was even more at home in the armored giant. How much of her expertise came from training and how much from actual combat?
Leanne said, "Your chariot awaits. So does mine. Do you want to mutually connect, as we did on Far Kingdom?"
"Make sure I don't get into too much trouble," he said. "Don't stop me if I risk my neck to save my mother and sister."
"When you call up your HUD, look for the purple panel. The small cargo compartment hatch is controlled there."
"Mission," he said. "Rescuing them is the primary goal, fighting is secondary. It won't matter if the soldiers see us launching back for orbit since the Low and Middle Guards can't follow. The orbiting station is on the far side of the planet for another three hours and won't come over the horizon able to fire on us for almost four. That's our time window."
"Your space-borne batteries are powerful enough to destroy a warbot?"
"The lasers are powerful enough to level a city. That's why Eire and Uller depend on guerrilla warfare and minor incursions along our borders rather than mounting a full-scale attack. Their capitals would be reduced to plasma within a day if they tried."
"They do not have orbiting fortresses of their own?"
"Burran has prevented it."
"Yet another reason for your neighbors to hate you."
"Our politics is of no concern," he said, ire rising. She looked steadily at him, a slight smile curling her lips.
"There is no need to hide fear for your family behind anger at me. You know the true enemy. Let's mount up."
She climbed the ladder on the warbot's leg and swung lithely through the hatch above where a human's navel would be. She sat for a moment, short legs dangling. Then she lithely swung about and disappeared into the guts of the robot. The clang of the hatch and sound of the unit pressurizing prodded Cletus into motion.
He climbed with less agility but still wiggled about into the cockpit. He settled into the upright frame, fitting arms and legs through the surrogate controllers after he fastened the web belts around his hips and chest. Cletus twisted to and fro, then found a comfortable position. A nod brought up his HUD. The virtual display proved less comprehensive than the warbot he had driven on Far Kingdom. He scrolled through the panels, saw that the automatic check down program worked satisfactorily, then drilled to the purple panel. He acquainted himself with opening and closing the hatch to the cargo compartment, then turned his attention back to the weapons systems checks.
He ran at full power. He had forty rockets on his shoulders and five 25s loaded at his hips. The fusion reactors hummed with power, and the warbot's propulsion system quivered in anticipation.
"All we need now is my mother's location." He anxiously searched the display for the blazing white star that would show his mother and sister had been located. The com officer had worked wonders, considering the Shillelagh's dilemma and their need to keep from being discovered still in orbit.
"They are located." Leanne's voice carried a sharper edge than before.
Cletus verified, locked in on the target and superimposed a map of the terrain around the white star. He recognized the locale immediately. It was near a Low Guard base used as a military prison. He wondered if Leanne ought to give the order, then he decided. His family, his world, his problem.
"Launch," he said, seeing the cargo master had opened the bay doors.
The kick from the warbot's driver rockets almost blacked him out. He kicked up the oxygen level to clear his head, then plotted the descent vector that would bring him and Leanne to the base.
He made a silent promise to his mother and Bella that he would see them safely off-planet, then let the inboard computer handle the flight. Cletus hardly noticed the buffeting as he slashed into the upper atmosphere or the rising heat from the descent. He focused entirely on how to approach for the rescue, dozens of simulations flashing through his battle computer to find the optimal solution. It was going to be a quick insertion, grab and exfiltration.
He had not anticipated antiaircraft fire before he reached five kilometers.
Chapter Ten
"A drone! It's picked us up." Kori Tomlins peered over Sean Scarlotti's shoulder and then tapped the flight collision warning light. "We've got to go lower and evade it."
"Let him pilot, Mama." Bella tried to pull her mother back, but Kori violently shoved her daughter away.
"You don't understand anything," Kori said. She had no idea which of them she spoke to. Both? Having an affair meant both were empty between the ears. Scarlotti was too old for Bella, and her daughter had led such a sheltered life that she had no idea about what such a liaison meant for the rest of her life. She jeopardized her tenure as Programmer General for a minor bureaucrat like Sean Scarlotti?
"That's an aircraft guidance drone, not anything for us to worry about." Scarlotti eased the carrier lower, though, until they skipped across the tops of the highest waves. Every touch caused the small craft to buck and yaw as salty white spray hammered against the windshield. "When I heard what Weir intended, I flew straight for Emerald Isle."
"They can see us from the orbital sats."
"Probably," Scarlotti said. His matter-of-fact answer infuriated her further.
"You're going to get us killed."
"I'm open to suggestions. This carrier is running short of fuel sooner than I expected. Too much weight."
"What are you going to do, CIO? Throw me out so you and Bella can fly off into the sunset?"
"Mama."
"Shut up. Your savior is flying us to our death." Kori saw the heading and knew Scarlotti took them to his summer home on the rocky coast northwest of the capital. They would be within fifty kilometers of the major military base at Cork.
"You'll be safe at my home for a few hours while I lay a false trail. Weir thinks he knows how to use the Blarney Stone. I can sabotage some of his subroutines and cause enough trouble that he has to tend to it before hunting for you and Bella. If he doesn't, he will lose control of the entire border with Uller."
"Can he do that? Distract Weir enough?" Kori glared at her daughter, demanding an answer.
Bella stayed silent. This confirmed what Kori thought. Scarlotti was an amateur and dipped into a vast ocean with only a teaspoon of wit and even less ability. She settled in the rear of the carrier, crushed against her daughter. Bella glared at her, so she ignored her. Weir had to be stopped. The time for this was now, before he consolidated his power. If the Shillelagh had been destroyed, it was at Weir's hand. Starships were most vulnerable during the Lift phase and especially when they left StringSpace in a Drop. Transit time was tiny, if done right. If the captain and navigator made a serious mistake, the time passage could be extreme. Scientists theorized that ships lost in StringSpace might appear hundreds of years in the future, though not a single ship had returned after being more than a few days overdue. But the explosion told the real story. Weir wasn't the sort to depend on chance. He had sent a warship from the orbital station to blow up the Shillelagh.
Donal was lost. Cletus was lost. And Weir seized power in such a way that most citizens would never understand. If daily life remained unaffected, what did anyone care who put on the control helmet and ran everyday life?
"Are you going to the capital?"
"What's that?" Scarlotti leaned back to better hear over the rush of air and the harsh splatter of seawater against the windshield.
"Divert and go directly to the capital. I have to organize opposition to Weir before he gains complete control."
"He has to break the firewall on the control algorithm before he becomes a real threat. Papa was the best programmer ever. Weir can never do it."
"Bella, Bella, listen to yourself." Kori made a dismissive gesture. "Given time, even Weir can break the CA and replace it with his own. This is why we have to organize against him now."
"But without access, he─"
"Bella," she said sharply. "The CA gives complete control. Weir is able to run most things without cracking the code. Your father let him run day to day tasks, after all. If we don't stop him, no one will. No one will even know." She sank back and fumed. N
o one knew or cared that a revolt had occurred. The new regime would become increasingly autocratic and no one would care.
No one except her.
"There is a security alert in the capital," Scarlotti shouted back over the rush of wind. "Trying to enter, even with my high security pass code, will be suicidal."
"Because of your code," Kori said. "You're a marked man. If you monitored the official news channel, you'd find you've already been replaced. Possibly with an explanation, but more likely none was given. You know why that's so, Sean? Because your job isn't important."
"Mama, he─"
"He's a propagandist. A puppet doing what he's told by whoever's in charge."
"I didn't have to risk everything to get you off the island," Scarlotti said, his face florid now with anger. "You should be grateful I dropped everything and flew directly there or the commandos would have murdered you by now."
"I'm grateful, Sean." Bella reached forward to put her hand on his shoulder. Kori batted it down.
"Thank him when he's taken us somewhere safe. That's not your house, Scarlotti. We have to go somewhere else, somewhere Weir won't expect us."
"The fuel is almost gone. We either crash at sea or land at my home."
"How long before Weir can bring the ground forces at Cork against us?" She looked at her daughter. Bella had spent more time poking about in the control algorithm than anyone but her father. Some data must have seeped into her silly head as she played with running the Blarney Stone. If it hadn't, they were in worse danger than she believed.
"Once alerted, they can be at Sean's house within two hours. If the troops weren't already on alert, it might take three hours."
"Does he have a ground car?" Kori found it harder to even speak Sean Scarlotti's name. He took them straight into a trap, whether he admitted it to himself or not.
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