Steel Apocalypse

by Rodney Hartman

  Maggie smiled. “I calculate you’re a hundred and ten percent correct, Tiger. I may be able to help you with a couple of them though.” She pointed at the mini-light Casey was still holding in her hand. “That device your sister gave you may be our salvation.”

  Raising the device in front of her eyes, Casey said, “How so? Didn’t you hear me tell Jake the key-code Trish gave me doesn’t work? The communicator in this won’t do us any good. It can’t get a signal past the planet’s shield.”

  “True,” said Maggie. “However, I was thinking about tomorrow’s battle. With the controller network offline, we’ll be short intel. Even if I could hack into the network, it wouldn’t do us any good if it’s offline.”

  Jake shifted in his seat. Sometimes Maggie took the long way around the galaxy to get to the asteroid belt. “I assume you’ve got some point with this discussion?”

  Standing up, Maggie’s dress whites were replaced by a camouflaged flight suit. “Of course I do. I want you to activate the tele-bots Casey’s sister gave you.”

  Jake exchanged glances with Casey.

  The Trecorian wiggled the mini-light between two of her fingers. “What good will that do? This device can pick up the tele-bots’ data, but it can’t transmit it through the planet’s shield. I already told you that.”

  Maggie grinned. “Sometimes carbon-based life forms are so dense. Uh, no insult intended.”

  “Insult taken,” Jake said. “Maybe I am dense, but how’s activating the tele-bots going to help us get off this stinking planet alive?”

  Maggie did a one-leg spin like Jake had once seen at a ballet on Trillian. Coming out of the twirl, she laughed. “Off the planet? It doesn’t. But…it may help the two of you survive the battle tomorrow. That’s worth something, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, I suppose,” Jake admitted, eyeing her to make sure she wasn’t just pulling his leg. “So how’s activating the tele-bots supposed to help us fight the pirates?”

  Maggie rolled her eyes and turned to Casey. “I suppose we girls will have to spell it out to him, won’t we?”

  Feeling outnumbered, Jake turned to Casey. “Do you know what she’s talking about?”

  Nodding her head, Casey held her mini-light in his direction. “Once you activate Trish’s tele-bots, they’ll spread across the entire planet. That includes the battle area. Any information they pick up will be received by this.” She wiggled the mini-light between her fingers again. “We may not be able to send the information to Trecor, but it will be available to us.” She turned to Maggie. “The only problem is that this device doesn’t have enough processing power to store the received data or use it. Its sole purpose is to forward the data back to Trecor for analysis. How’s that supposed to help us tomorrow?”

  Maggie laughed. “Easy. I can reprogram that mini-light of yours to send the data to me. All modesty aside, I’ve probably got more processing power than any cluster of mainframes that duke uncle of yours has back on Trecor. I can use the data from the battle area to give you an advantage tomorrow when you fight the pirates.”

  Casey looked over at Jake. “The girl’s making sense. What do you say? Is it worth a try?”

  Jake felt both women’s eyes burning holes through him, even if one set of eyes was a hologram. Coming to a decision, he pressed the icon on his armrest to open his father’s secret compartment. Reaching inside, he pulled out the thumbnail-size container given to him by Trish Bistoria.

  “It looks smaller than I thought it would,” said Casey. “It’s hard to believe two billion tele-bots are in there.”

  Jake held the container in front of his eyes. “Maybe it doesn’t. For all I know, it’s a bomb.”

  Casey punched Jake hard in the arm, almost making him drop the container. “Trish is my sister. She wouldn’t kill me.”

  He wanted to argue that Lieutenant Fisher, or Trish, or whatever her name at the moment was, wouldn’t have known he’d be activating the device when her sister was with him. Shoving the thought aside, he took a deep breath and pressed the activate button. The thumb-sized device tingled, but that was about it. He didn’t see or hear anything.

  Casey clicked the button on the mini-light and directed the beam of light onto the copilot’s computer screen. Streams of numbers scrolled up the screen faster than Jake could make them out.

  “Well,” said Maggie, doing another one of her twirls. “Looks like we’re in business. It’ll take the tele-bots a while to spread out, so I’d recommend the two of you get some rest. I calculate we’re going to have a busy day tomorrow.”

  Jake glanced at Casey. “You ready for bed.”

  “Oh, no,” said Maggie. “I said the two of you need your rest. My databanks are full of information on the love lives of carbon-based life forms. I calculate the first thing the two of you will do when you leave here is tell each other how sorry you are and start getting all snuggly together. Neither of you will get any rest. Jake will be sleeping right here in the Paladin’s cockpit tonight, and that’s an order.”

  Glancing at Casey again, Jake turned back to Maggie and laughed. “Sir, yes sir!”

  Casey gave a mock salute. “You’re a hard woman, Maggie, but I like you anyway.”

  Maggie’s eyes turned a light green. “Like I said earlier, I’m growing kinda fond of you too.” The cockpit’s access door slid open. “Now get out of here before you make me cry.”

  Casey stood and walked to the door before turning around. “Crying’s part of being alive.” She glanced at Jake before looking back at Maggie. “Everybody cries if they’re hurt enough. It doesn’t matter whether you’re made out of carbon or gas.” She touched her right hand to the left side of her chest. “Sometimes things just hurt in here.”

  Maggie nodded, her eyes turning the deepest green Jake had ever seen. “I think I know what you mean. I’ve lost those I cared about. It does hurt.”

  Jake thought about how he’d felt when he’d been told his dad had been killed. He knew Maggie was right. It did hurt. He hoped he’d never be hurt that bad ever again.

  Chapter 28 – Infantry

  ____________________

  Maksim, Casey, and Jake’s UHAAVs were the last three cats to be picked up outside their maintenance hangars and transported to the battle area. Jake didn’t think it fair all the other contestants had an hour’s head start on them and had already told Maggie as much several times. Sitting in the Paladin’s cockpit while his assigned shuttle towed his cat to their debarkation point, he had nothing else to do but complain.

  “Not that there’s much I can do about it,” Jake told her. “All I can do is sit and wait.”

  Maggie laughed from the copilot’s seat, kicked her black boots up onto the forward console, and leaned back in her chair. “Then relax and enjoy the view. The shuttle’s got us ten thousand meters in the air this time. We can see for a hundred kilometers in every direction.”

  “You mean you can see,” Jake said as he pointed at his windscreen. “All I can make out is the shuttles carrying Casey’s Macron and Maksim’s Warcat. Other than that, there’s nothing to see but clouds.”

  Grinning, Maggie touched an icon on her armrest. The scene through the windscreen changed to a bunch of gray and white images. “You poor carbon-based fool,” Maggie laughed. “Thankfully, I’m not limited to just one type of vision. Try looking at it through my thermal filter. Is that any better?”

  It was. Although thermals weren’t as clear as regular vision, Jake had to admit he could see a lot better. About fifty kilometers ahead, he made out the battle area.

  Turning in his seat, he faced his copilot. “Are you still picking up the data from the tele-bots?” He glanced at the makeshift docking station Jason had installed in the copilot’s console for Casey’s mini-light. The Trecorian’s device was plugged in and the green light was on, but from experience, Jake knew things tended to go wrong at the worst possible moments.

  “Oh, I’m receiving lots of information,” Maggie said, flashing him a
smile. “The tele-bots have located two hundred and seventy-three storage caverns with four-point-two billion pieces of equipment. I calculate that’s only about a tenth of what’s on the planet. The tele-bots are still searching for the rest.”

  Jake looked back out the windscreen at the rapidly closing battle area. “At the moment, I’m more worried about what’s happening down there. What kind of surprise do we have waiting for us?”

  Taking her boots off the console, Maggie sat up in her seat. “Surprises? Ha. Don’t make me laugh. I know where every cat in the battle area is, and that includes the Warcat and Tomcat scouts. I’ve got a dozen of Trish’s tele-bots following each one around, so you can relax. They won’t be slipping up and putting a missile through your backside without us knowing they’re there.”

  “How about putting our objective on the tactical hologram?” Jake said. “We’ve got to come up with a better plan than a frontal assault on that shipyard.”

  “Compliance.”

  The hologram between the two seats changed to show the western harbor section of the battle area. A large ocean freighter moored to one of the docks was their objective. Their mission was to rescue two hostages on the ship. Eleven orange dots marked the locations of the pirates’ cats. Two of the orange dots located on the deck of the ship were labeled with a W and a T for Warcat and Tomcat scouts. Seven of the remaining orange dots were spaced behind warehouses and containers near the dock. Two more orange dots were in the water two hundred meters from the ship.

  “Where’s Commander Donalis and that Leviathan of his?” Jake asked.

  An orange dot located at the corner of a warehouse a hundred meters from the ship shone a brighter orange. The letter L appeared beside the yellow dot.

  Jake took a closer look at the hologram and noticed numerous small yellow dots moving on and around the ship. They resembled yellow ants scurrying around a piece of food. “What are those yellow dots? They look like infantry? How’s that possible? This is supposed to be a fight between armored vehicles.”

  Maggie laughed. “Don’t be naïve. Creao Gegorma owns this planet. He can do whatever he wants. And yes, the yellow dots are infantry. There is a hundred and twenty-seven stationed on the ship’s deck and spaced out among cover on the dock. Another forty-eight ground personnel are in the lower levels of the ship.” She eyed Jake, growing very serious. “They’ve got orders to shoot to kill, so don’t hesitate to kill them first. Contrary to what the Gegormas said, this isn’t part of the tournament. From what you told me, Creao Gegorma wants to put us in a life-and-death situation to increase the emotional link between us. Well, this mission is what he’s come up with to do it. I calculate he doesn’t care all that much if you’re killed. It’s me he’s interested in…once I’m emotional enough.”

  Jake couldn’t argue the point. He’d been thinking along the same lines. He forced all thoughts of mercy and kindness to the side. Any pirates that got in his way had best beware. It was kill or be killed.

  The hologram of the freighter turned translucent, showing the inside levels. Yellow dots were spread out around the inside of the ship. A concentration of a dozen yellow dots was located near two blue dots.

  Jake pointed at the blue dots. “I’m guessing those are the hostages.”

  “Affirmative.”

  Drumming the fingers of his left hand on his armrest, Jake studied the layout of the ship. “How are we supposed to get our cats inside to rescue the hostages? Blow a hole in the side and come in with guns a blazin’?”

  Maggie shrugged. “I can give you a hundred and twenty-eight plans that are logical methods of attack. Unfortunately, the pirates’ computers will also have come up with those same plans. That decreases the odds of success to less than eight percent. I’m thinking we need an illogical attack strategy, and that pretty much leaves me out. Soooo, the question is what do you think we should do? Oh, and by the way. No pressure, but we’ll be landing in a minute and sixteen seconds. You promised Casey and Maksim you’d have a plan by the time we touched down. I hope you didn’t lie to make them feel better.”

  Unsure why he’d stupidly made the promise, Jake continued studying the hologram. The sight of a water tower near the dock caught his eye. “Maggie, overlay the schematic of the maintenance tunnels I gave you onto the hologram.”

  “Compliance.”

  Dozens of dotted purple lines crisscrossed from one side of the harbor area to the other. One of the dotted lines ended at the water tower.

  Jake noticed other dotted lines near the dock end at a silo, a large smokestack, and of all things, a rotating billboard advertising a vacation on one of the neutral zone’s pleasure planets. “Maggie, highlight the maintenance tunnel that comes closest to the ship.”

  She laughed. “Did you say close? I’ll do you one better. The wheelhouse on the freighter isn’t a wheelhouse. It’s a facade covering a 50 gigawatt plasma cannon.”

  The freighter’s wheelhouse shone up bright purple. The outline of a large-bore barrel with a gunner’s seat could be seen on the inside.

  Jake whistled. “50 gigawatts? What’s it doing here? Those things are found on star destroyers. They’re not intended for ground-based installations.”

  “Smaller star destroyers carry 50 gigawatts,” agreed Maggie. “Large ones are outfitted with 100 gigawatt weapons while cruisers and dreadnaughts carry 200 gigawatt cannons.”

  Rolling his eyes, Jake said, “Thanks for the information. I’ll try to remember that the next time I take a Paladin up against a space dreadnaught. In the meantime, what’s a 50 gigawatt cannon doing here?”

  Shrugging, Maggie said, “Does it matter? It’s here. If you need to have a reason, I calculate Old Man Gegorma wants to make this objective as tough as he can for you. Even a Kraken’s force field and armor wouldn’t stand a chance against a 50 gigawatt weapon.”

  The idea of the massive firepower didn’t make sense to Jake. With only a short time until they landed and no plan to give to Casey and Maksim, he pursued the one thing he could. “It doesn’t make any sense. That size of a weapon would turn our Paladin into a pile of melted brerellium-steel. The old man wants us alive.” Jake thought about it a moment. “Actually, I take that back. He wants you alive. He’s not going to risk destroying you.”

  Maggie drummed her fingers on her chair’s armrest. “My processing unit’s encased inside a solid creallium case. It has its own force field powered by an emergency battery. I can survive even if my Paladin body is destroyed. If what you told me is true, Gegorma helped design and build this Paladin. He’ll know her limitations and strengths. He may think he can put the Paladin out of action without destroying my processor.” Her eyes turned green. “You, on the other hand, won’t stand a chance inside the cockpit if we take a direct hit.”

  Something she said tickled at Jake’s mind. “If I’m inside the cockpit.” He slapped his chair’s armrest. “That’s it Maggie. You’re a genius.”

  Maggie’s eyes switched to a bright blue. “That I am,” she laughed. “I’m glad you’re finally figuring that out.” She stopped laughing. “Uh, now how about telling me why I’m a genius. And you’d better hurry. We’ll be landing in fifteen seconds.”

  Jake’s mind was going a hundred kilometers a minute. He eyed the tactical hologram again. Fifteen seconds was plenty of time to figure out what to do. He had a feeling a born fighter like Casey was going to be mighty proud of what he’d decided.

  Chapter 29 – Suicidal Plan

  ____________________

  “Are you out of your freakin’ mind?” Casey said after Jake finished explaining his plan. “That’s the stupidest, craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  Casey, Maksim, a full-size hologram of Maggie, and Jake were crowded into the Paladin’s cockpit. Jake had gathered them there as soon as the shuttles released their tractor beams and went on their way, leaving the Paladin, Warcat, and Macron standing next to a warehouse on the opposite side of the harbor from the docked freighter.

 
“That’s what I tried to tell him,” said Maggie. “He won’t listen to me. Maybe the two of you will have better luck.”

  Major Maksim shrugged. “Maybe he’s right.”

  “Don’t you start,” said Casey. “It’s suicidal.”

  Maksim laughed. “This whole setup is suicidal. I have the strangest feeling my dear uncle and cousin are hoping I won’t come out of this alive. I’d like to give them a major disappointment. My foolish friend’s plan has a slim chance of succeeding. That beats zero chance any day.”

  Casey eyed the Covian major. “You call letting Jake use one of the maintenance tunnels to enter the ship alone a chance? He’s a cat pilot, not some special operations expert. He’ll be killed as soon as he steps foot inside the freighter. If anybody goes, it should be me. I’ve trained for these kinds of things since I was five.”

  Maggie cocked her head and looked at the dark-haired Trecorian. “You’ve been trained to walk a couple of kilometers through a tunnel and enter a ship infested with pirates armed to the teeth with nothing but an M63 lightweight plasma assault rifle to keep you company?”

  When Casey started to open her mouth, Maggie raised her hand in a stopping motion. “Look,” she said, “I don’t like the idea of Jake going in alone any better than you do. But, he’ll need all three of our cats attacking the ship’s security to draw attention away from him while he rescues the hostages. I can operate the Paladin without him. Can Ensigns Freeta and Dresh operate your Macron at peak efficiency without you?”

  The lack of protest from Casey gave her answer.

  “All right then,” Jake said. “It’s settled. The three of you will give me twenty minutes to make my way to the freighter. Then you’ll attack. That should draw their attention. I’ll slip in through the maintenance tunnel for the gun turret, grab the hostages, and get out the same way. You press your attack for five minutes and then get the hell out of there. I’ll meet you back here twenty minutes later with the hostages. Mission complete.” He gave what he hoped was a confident smile. “What could be easier?”