by M. D. Cooper
Instead, Tanis deployed a small passel of nano to create a film on the glass and dampen any motion or EM.
“They’ll be setting up AA emplacements on some of the tallest high rises,” Ayer whispered after a moment. “At least, they did last year. Niets aren’t known for changing up their tactics.”
“They ever infiltrated an enemy military like this before?” Brandt asked.
“Well…no, I guess not.”
“Less chatter,” Tanis said. “I can only mask so much.”
The group fell into silence for the next twenty minutes while they waited for the Nietzscheans to move on. Then they waited another five minutes before exiting the sublevel and returning to the streets.
They leapfrogged from building to building this way, all through the night, until dawn came and it was no longer safe to move.
Brandt led the group down into a utility tunnel that ran between two buildings. Partway down, they came to a small storage room with a door on the far side that connected to another passage.
“Three ways out.” Tanis nodded with approval. “Works for me.”
Ayer didn’t speak as she leaned against a wall and slid to the ground. Johnny sat on a table, resting his rifle on his knees.
“How long ‘til the Derringer gets here, do you think?” he asked.
Tanis had a countdown running on her HUD with several times listed, each accounting for different scenarios.
“Best time would be seven days,” Tanis replied. “But I wouldn’t count on that. They’re going to have to go slow to avoid detection with that many Niet ships out there. It depends on whether or not all of the SAF and Theban ships sided with the traitors. If the Niets drop more than ten-thousand ships, then the Derringer will wait for the I2. In which case we could be looking at weeks. Maybe a month.”
Johnny almost choked. “A month, Admiral?”
“That’s an extreme case. Derringer will already be on the QuanComm. By now, they’ll have seen the attack. Whether they wait or not, Rachel and the I2 won’t be far behind.”
Johnny didn’t look much happier, and Brandt placed a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Corporal. You get to spend quality time with me. What more could you ask for?”
THE CAVALRY
STELLAR DATE: 08.18.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS I2, Command Deck
REGION: Edge of the Lisbon System, Septhian Alliance
Bob’s presence in her mind startled Rachel out of a deep sleep. She rolled off the couch in her office and landed on her side, her face pressed against the floor.
Bob’s only response was to show her an image of the Aegeus exploding next to a space station that was torn apart in the resulting blast.
“Shit! Fuck!” she swore, rushing out of her office and onto the bridge without even checking to see if she was dressed. “Status!”
Major Jessie rose out of the command chair, her eyes wide. “We just got it…we don’t know anything yet.”
Her voice was hoarse, and her eyes were fixed on a replaying image of the Aegeus’s shields failing, the enemy missiles impacting, and then the nuclear fireball expanding through the cold vacuum of space, buckling the toroid on the nearby station like it was made of paper.
The attackers were former Theban ships with SAF idents, but there were also Nietzschean ships appearing deep inside the system.
“This is all we got in from the Derringer, so far,” Comm called out. “Oh, they just messaged that the Admiral was not aboard the Aegeus when it was destroyed. She was on the station…”
Rachel drew in a steadying breath. The station had been destroyed as well, but that had been a much slower event. Tanis could have gotten off. Would have gotten off.
“Signal every ship in the First Fleet to get to Pyra,” Rachel ordered. “Tell all ships to form up on the Derringer’s position, and pass this data on to Khardine.”
She paced back and forth on the bridge, chafing at the knowledge that without a jump gate, the I2 was a month from the Albany System.
“And, Comm,” Rachel called out. “Tell Khardine we need a gate delivered. Now.”
“How did they…” Major Jessie whispered as she replayed the attack on the Aegeus. “There were only five of them. No way they got through the stasis shields.”
Rachel clenched her jaw. “Oris.”
Rather than wear a hole in the deck while waiting for a gate to be delivered, Rachel left the bridge for the CIC. She nodded solemnly to Priscilla on her plinth in the foyer as she walked past.
Rachel wondered about Priscilla’s statement. If there was one thing she’d learned about Bob’s avatars, it was that they were often windows into his mind.
If Priscilla thought Tanis was alive, that meant that Bob also believed it.
The thought put a spring in her step—or at least helped her straighten her spine as she walked into the CIC and approached Major Grange, who stood at the room’s main holotable.
“Major Grange.” Rachel nodded. “What do you have?”
“I’m waiting on updates over the QuanComm, but here’s what I have for now. As you know, New Canaan just shipped another thousand Trisilieds vessels to Septhia, which means they’re all but out of the serviceable hulls that were surrendered. All that remains are two thousand functional Orion ships, and ten thousand ISF ships.”
“Which is the bare minimum fleet size for New Canaan,” Rachel replied.
That was something Tanis had carved in stone. New Canaan was not to overextend itself, offering aid to others. It was still one of the top targets in the galaxy, and any attack elsewhere could be a feint meant to weaken the home fleet.
“What about Diana?” Rachel asked.
“Latest word from Scipio is that they’ve taken their forward elements and engaged the Hegemony. They have maybe a hundred ships they could send us, if they’re still near the jump gates.”
“What about Khardine and Vela?” Rachel asked. “They should have ten thousand ships they can send.”
Grange nodded. “They do, but they just started ‘Operation Possum’. They have ships everywhere, many in dark layer transition. Krissy will need to halt the op and recall her bait ships before sending help.”
Rachel nodded slowly. “And Khardine?”
“Greer just launched a number of raids against the Dresine Combine. Right now, Khardine is at minimum strength.”
“Dammit!” Rachel swore. “I assume they’ll try to form up some sort of support for us?”
“Yes, we’re still waiting on updates. Stars…how did this timing line up so badly…” Major Grange’s voice trailed off and he leant against the holotable.
“We don’t need to match their strength. Even with ten-thousand ships, we could take out those Nietzscheans,” Rachel countered.
“Perhaps,” Grange replied. “But if we come in too hard, they’ll simply destroy the planet Admiral Richards is stranded on.”
Rachel swallowed. Grange was right. This was going to take some delicate maneuvering.
* * * * *
It took over three days for a gate to be delivered to the Lisbon system. Including initial light lag before the Derringer even saw the event, over ninety-two hours had passed since Tanis had come under attack.
The Derringer had sent so much data that the ship had disentangled all but one QuanComm blade. Now the updates following the first data burst contained only the message, ‘no change’.
Time for some change, Rachel thought as she watched the jump gate come to life.
“Take us in,” she ordered helm.
The I2 surged toward the gate, touched the negative energy at its center, and then
the stars around the ship disappeared for an instant before coming back in new positions.
“Confirming…” Scan announced. “Jump on target, we are at the edge of the Albany System!”
Rachel strode toward the main holotank and looked over the initial scan data as it poured in. Only seven other ships were in position near the Derringer. Three were members of the ISF First Fleet, and two were dreadnoughts from Khardine. Not much, but a start.
Though when she saw what lay within the Albany System, she felt the blood drain from her face.
That’s over seventy thousand enemy ships.
Rachel breathed a sigh of relief. That was good news—or it meant Tanis had died…
No! I’m not going to think that.
Rachel understood what Mel was getting at.
“Major Jessie,” Rachel called out to her XO. “I’m going down to see Grange in the CIC. You have the conn.”
“Aye, Captain Rachel, I have the conn.”
When Rachel arrived in the CIC, Grange was looking grim as he stood at his table. He was surveying the situation in the Albany system and shaking his head.
“That’s a lot of ships,” he muttered.
Rachel nodded. “Admiral Evans’s strategy is sound…it’s just going to take forever to be ready.”
Grange locked eyes with Rachel. “It’s his wife…wives—you know what I mean—down there. From what I see, all of the admirals agree this is our best shot.”
“It’s just going to take so long to get them in position,” Rachel said, trying not to sound like she was whining—except she really wanted to whine.
Grange was nodding silently when one of the fleet analysts called out from his station.
“Captain, Major! We were combing over the data the Derringer sent, and Bob found something!”
Bob amended.
“It was in data stripped from an outer relay,” the analyst said while nodding effusively. “Part of the buffers were corrupted, but we managed to piece them back together. There’s a message. From Angela.”
Rachel felt a weight fall from her shoulders, and was surprised at how much more easily she drew her next breath.
“Stars…” Grange sighed. “Suddenly I’m starving, I haven’t been able to eat more than a bite in days.”
Rachel gave a soft laugh, but felt no mirth. “Well, we know she was alive and where she was headed. Now we just have to get there.”
She held back the reminder that the intel was four days old.
It was something, at least.
THREE DAYS
STELLAR DATE: 08.24.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS I2, Bridge
REGION: Edge of the Albany System, Thebes, Septhian Alliance
Over the last three days, nearly a thousand ships had arrived at the edge of the Albany System: Scipian cruisers and dreadnoughts, a host of TSF ships from various locations around the Transcend, three hundred vessels from New Canaan, and even a small detachment from Silstrand.
From the messages flooding in, Rachel knew that Sera was beside herself with worry, though the President knew she couldn’t jump to the system and put herself at risk as well.
That didn’t stop her from sending a message to Rachel that was half encouragement, half stern warning that Tanis had better be OK.
Joe, on the other hand, had sounded almost deadly calm in his last communication—at least that’s how Rachel read the text.
He was ready, just waiting on the signal.
Rachel watched as the fleet elements settled into position, ready to begin the burn toward Pyra—and their conflict with the seventy thousand Nietzschean ships waiting insystem.
She opened her mouth to issue the command, only to have scan call out “Contact! A Nietzschean fleet, half a light second to starboard!”
Rachel felt her throat constrict, but then saw the number of ships that appeared.
“Is this some sort of joke?” she whispered.
Seven ships appeared on the main tank. Three Nietzschean cruisers, though one looked almost as large as a dreadnought, two destroyers…and a pair of Marauder vessels.
Even stranger, all ships were broadcasting Marauder IFF signals.
“Hail them, tightbeam on the dreadnought,” Rachel ordered.
“I have a response,” Comm replied a few seconds later. “Putting it on the main tank.”
Rachel rose from her chair and approached the tank, altering its configuration to ensure that whoever she spoke with would only see her, and not the rest of the I2’s bridge.
A woman appeared in the holotank—a woman unlike anyone Rachel had ever seen before. She was tall, and from the neck up, appeared perfectly normal. Her face was plain, but pleasant-looking, and was framed by long blonde hair that fell over her shoulders.
But that was not what had caught Rachel by surprise. Though the woman appeared to wear powered armor, it was plain to see that her limbs were nonorganic, especially her right arm, which was effectively nothing but a large, multi-mode rifle.
Even stranger, everyone behind her was also just as much machine as human—some, more.
Rachel nodded slowly. She knew about the mechs, studied them before coming to Septhia. However, seeing them, knowing there was a whole culture—civilization?—of these machine warriors was something else entirely.
The mech-woman spoke first. “Hi, there, I’m Rika, Captain of M Company, Marauders 9th Battalion. I assume the fact you’re floating way out here means you’re not on speaking terms with the Niets?”
Captain Rika’s words kicked Rachel’s mind back into action, and she gave a curt nod before replying.
“Nice to meet another friendly face. I’m Captain Rachel, commander of the ISF First Fleet. You’re correct in your assessment. We’re not fans of the Nietzscheans being here at all.”
Rika smiled, an expression that animated her face and transformed it from pleasant to vibrant. “Well, then. You’re our kinda people. What are you doing here, though?”
Rachel wondered what to tell this mech-woman. The fact that she was in possession of five Nietzschean ships offered new tactical options.
Rachel wanted to ask him what made him so happy, but only replied,
“Well, Captain Rika, we’re readying an assault to go in and rescue our leader, Admiral Richards. As chance may have it, she was meeting with your General Mill when the Nietzscheans attacked.”
An expression of appreciation came over Rika’s face. “I’m all for kicking Nietzschean ass and saving General Mill. But you do realize that there’s a shit-ton of Niets down there? You’re gonna need a bigger fleet.”
“We have very good shields,” Rachel said, wondering how to broach her idea to this newc
omer. “But you know what works better than that? Not getting shot at…at all.”
A smile came over Rika’s face, and she lifted her right arm, resting the weapon’s barrel on her shoulder. “I think I might have a way to help with that.”
* * * * *
Forty minutes later, a brief flurry of weapons fire was exchanged between the ISF fleet and the newly arrived Marauder-controlled Nietzschean vessels as they passed within a hundred thousand kilometers of one another.
Then the two Marauder ships split off and made an outsystem burn, while the six Nietzschean vessels made a short dark layer hop, disappearing from scan.
Rachel did her best not to pace during the twelve minutes that passed before Marauder-controlled Nietzschean vessels appeared on scan once more, just over an AU further insystem.
The I2’s captain chewed on her lip, wishing she could feel as confident as Bob and Priscilla, but not wanting to ask why they were so sure of success.
Rachel chuckled as she watched the mech ships—which were already moving at 0.6c from their dark layer transition—continue insystem.
“Helm,” she said, staring out into the starfield ahead of the ship. “Take us insystem. Let’s give a good chase.”
The FTN coordination officer relayed the order across the fleet, and the ISF First Fleet surged forward, appearing to chase the five Nietzschean ships racing ahead of them.
Good luck, Rika of the Marauders.
REINFORCEMENTS
