Heart of Steel: Book II of the Jonathan Pavel Series

by J. S. Hawn

  “Ames what?”

  “Just Ames. Creatures such as myself are a resource. Rank and position is wasteful. You wouldn’t give your gun a promotion or title would you?”

  “Well at least you know not to try to lie,” Garrett said his tone unchanged.

  Ames smiled, “No point it lying when the game is over.”

  “It’s not over yet. The coups have been crushed and order will be restored. The whole thing will be presented as a plot by fanatical nationalists with the support of Colonial Intelligence. It was a valiant effort I will give you that. Tell me how did you manage to organize coups in five League systems and convince them they were taking directions from OMI?”

  “I didn’t organize anything Colonel. History is a river that carves out its own course, all I did was nudge it. A word here, a bribe there and you can divert the flow just enough to wash away whatever you want.”

  Garrett blinked his face still blank.

  “A philosopher I see. Well, that should make this interesting. You're coming with us.”

  “Oh but Colonel don't you want to see the final act?”

  “The final…” Confusion crossed Garrett's face then he saw Ames was looking past him. He turned and his eyes followed the creature’s gaze. Ames was looking at one of the Solarian Marines on the top of the embassy's outer wall.

  “No..” Garrett said reaching for his com, but it was too late.

  The parapet came up to the waist level of the Marines who were on guard in their light combat armor and fully armed. On the parapet right beneath where one of the Marines stood, Ames had used a micro drone to install a slick. It was a small hole which contained a device of his own. A tube which could fire one shot of the same make and caliber as a Solarian Marine’s battle rifle. The device had a nanite camera and was able to tilt itself slightly. Once its tiny computer brain processed that there were enough people outside the embassy, it fired. Upon being exposed to the heat and gas, a gel that coated the device became an acid which ate through metal dissolving it in seconds and sealing the small hole it had fired from. As if it had never existed. The bullet meanwhile flew straight and true into the head of a megaphone wielding man, the leader of a popular Turkic Nationalist Group. People screamed as they were splattered with blood. Some ran and others pointed to where the shot had come from directly at the Solarian Marine.

  Personal firearms were not illegal on Freeport. The Galt delegation had seen to that because of their ridiculous notion that letting people go around armed defended their freedom. As a result, several members of the crowd had weapons and began firing at the embassy. The Marines in their confusion acted on orders to defend the embassy and started shooting back. Panic spread, people screamed, and ran every which way trampling each other.

  Ames laughed as he looked up at the News drones hovering overhead. With the collapse of the putsch on Freeport, the networks had been airing everything overtime. Now, suddenly the whole League would bear witness to Solarian soldiers firing on a crowd of civilians. Time for Ames to make his exit. In an instant, the unnatural fingernails on his hands grew long and thick like claws sliding out. Ames stabbed downward, his enhanced muscles letting him break his captors hold easily. People always worried about their throats but one of the biggest human arteries was in the thigh.

  Ames punctured both his captors in an instance. They fell screaming only to be trampled by the crowd. Ames grabbed Garrett and pulled him into an alleyway as the crowd ran away, or as some did. Others were running toward the embassy, bricks, molotov cocktails, and other crude weapons in hand. Ames smiled as he pointed his sharped finger at the man.

  “I win,” he said.

  Garrett looked at him, his face...blank. There was none of the fear, anguish, or pleading Ames had expected or wanted.

  “Well played,” Garrett said hitting a switch in his jacket. The Nexten self defense system was marketed as a guard against sexual assault and mugging. It was a vest that when activated shocked anyone making unwanted contact with the wearer with 10,000 volts of electricity. Even with all his enhancements it was enough to stun Ames. Garrett kneeing him in the balls at the same time caused him to fall to the ground in the fetal position. Ames’s vision blurred and he began to lose consciousness, as Garrett disappeared into the crowd.

  Chapter XI

  Abreu System, Solarian Republic

  On board RSNS Sound of Fury

  November 5th 844 AE

  Jonathan’s face grew still as he read the latest communication print out the Yeoman had handed him. Silently, he passed it to George whose own face grew ashen as he read. Over the last several days as the convoy transitioned first from Solaria to Yimir then from Yimir to Abreu, they had begun receiving a flurry of transmissions. At first it was just vague reports that the war had begun. From there, the messages and their content had begun to paint a grim picture. The 3rd Fleet had been badly mauled and the 5th was falling back to Cylira, and the League was in chaos. The Colonials had also managed to get a sizable force of raiders into Solarian territory, and were inflicting considerable damage on Solarian commerce and infrastructure. The messages from Fleet command had not been very informative to Fury’s current situation. Jonathan supposed they had a lot on their plate back at Macran. A message from the 1st Admiral ordered all Solarian navy ships to remain on alert, and local commanders to exercise their own initiative.

  “Gather the officers George, best they hear it from us before I make the announcement,” Jonathan said as his XO put down the paper.

  “Aye sir,” George replied.

  Fifteen minutes later, the Fury’s senior officers assembled in the wardroom. One of the benefits Jonathan realized of a larger ship like Fury was the room for junior officers in departments. While Jonathan was holding his staff meeting, Lieutenants Sing and Hilper remained on duty, which put a junior officer on the bridge and in engineering, respectively two of the most critical parts of a warship in the event a situation occurred. The rest of the staff had assembled as ordered. They were all curious and a bit nervous. Scuttlebutt about the conflict had no doubt already begun to circulate. One Fleet Admiral about a hundred years ago had somewhat accurately noted, ‘rumor aboard ship had broken the light speed barrier, sadly the Navy could never harness it’s power to transmit accurate information.’

  “At ease,” Jonathan said as his officers snapped to attention when he came in.

  “No doubt by now you’ll have heard rumblings of what's been going on. Well, the picture is pretty incomplete but here’s what we know for sure. One, we are now at war with the Colonial Confederacy. Two, the Free Worlds League has collapsed into civil war so we won’t be getting any aide material or otherwise from there. Three, with the League in chaos Kratos Naval station has evacuated, so our original mission is scrubbed. Instead, we're going to escort this convoy to the Matosa system. Once there, we’ll leave the transports under the protection of the local garrison, and proceed to Cylira to join up with the 5th.” Jonathan paused before continuing.

  “It appears we, which is to say the entirety of the Republic's armed forces, underestimated the Colonials. We were mistaken in believing a nation at peace so long would be unready for all out war. Apparently they were not. They have used their advantage of having a smaller more easily defensible territory to concentrate their offensive forces against us. In all likelihood as the Admiralty begins to redeploy our forces to compensate for the changing conditions of the conflict, we will find ourselves in one of a variety of missions. Till then, I will make an all ship announcement informing the crew of what has happened, and I expect you to brief each of your departments in detail. Many of our crew are reservists who spent a long time on the active duty roster. They’ll all have friends and comrades on ships that have been lost. A complete casualty list will be posted in the mess hall and rec rooms. Mr. Heath...”

  “Yes sir?” the communication officers answered.

  “You’ll be in charge of keeping those lists up to date and accurate.”


  “Aye sir.”

  Jonathan noted the huff in the man’s voice. He probably thought he was being singled out for scut work because of the earlier incident involving the Gremlin, and his other bad attitude. Jonathan didn't have time to register his BS right now.

  “Moving on,” Jonathan said. “We need to focus on our mission at the moment, which is to get this convoy safely to Matosa, something that may now prove more difficult. The Colonials have deployed wolf packs all through this sector and are hunting convoys like ours, as well as blowing as many rings and stations as they can. For that reason, we will make a direct run to Matosa, which has a sizeable picket force. Mr. Tang how long to plot a direct course to Matosa?”

  “Sir,” Lt. Tang said his New Bali accent coming out thickly as he spoke. “It will take me a few hours. From here, Matosa is a ten day trip through Linux, and then Casaopia. We could make the run in seven days, but with these slug a bug transports in tow we’ll be lucky to make ten days, more likely twelve.”

  “It’s going to be hot zone for raiders sir,” Ben Elman, the ship's tactical officer said. “Both Casaopia and Linux are relatively undefended. As I recall, neither have habitable worlds, Casaopia has a penal colony on a desolate moon and some heavy industry, but Linux is pretty sparsely populated mostly water miners, scientists, and rogue traders. Sir, it occurs to me that we could make better time if we deposit the transports here,” Elman said. “Lagosa, Abreu’s habitable world, may be an agrarian world, but she has a good size militia, and I am sure they’d appreciate a combat brigade and the supplies. We can then make a speed run to Matosa.”

  “I don't doubt you're wrong, Mr. Elman,” Jonathan replied. “The problem is one of proximity. If we leave the convoy here, they’ll be stuck here until another convoy can come fetch them, and this area of space is too remote for the supplies and troops they are carrying to make an impact on the coming campaign. On the other hand, Matosa is anything but remote. She’s a daughter colony and was previously the edge of the northern frontier. She’s got two inhabited worlds, half a dozen asteroids, local shipyards and orbital elevators. The system is also only one jump away from Cyrila and three jumps from the Colonial border. It will be a critical link in preparing for the counter attack that is going to come. The supplies, transports and troops we are keeping safe along with our own firepower will be helpful to that counter attack.”

  Elman nodded as did the other officers. Jonathan smiled internally. Solarian officers had a rigid adherence to discipline, but they were trained to think and adapt. They could see the logic in moving a supply convoy to a staging area rather than leaving it in a remote system. Armies and fleets moved on their stomachs after all. The victor in any war in human history was rarely the side with the biggest guns. It was the side with the best logistics operation.

  “It’s going to be a hot run to Matosa though,” Tai Heath said. “We have had reports of hostile activity throughout this whole sector, specifically life pods from client and Solarian flagged merchant ships being picked up after their vessels are destroyed. Information is sketchy of course, but there's at least one wolf pack between us and our objective.” The communications officer Heath also doubled as the intelligence officer, and despite his frequent attitude, Jonathan had to admit he wasn't a bad one.

  “Now if I was a commerce raider, Casaopia would be an ideal system to target,” George said pulling up a holo of the system.

  “Yup, three big gas giants, lots of moons and debris. Plenty of places to hide. Even in peacetime, we had to operate a constant anti-piracy patrol. Of course commerce raiders are use to hitting convoys that have a couple of destroyers. If they see a light cruiser they’ll bolt, or they’ll try to hit us then bolt before we can catch them.”

  A devilish grin played across George’s face.

  “Of course they haven't seen the legs on this girl, no one has in a while. I’ll bet you we can close the gap between us and any Colonial frigate and break it like a match.”

  Jonathan nodded.

  “We’ll pull the convoy in tightly, and put the ships on high alert. I doubt any enemy raiders are going to try to take on a light cruiser or even a Solarian destroyer. We build them tough after all, but if they do give us an opportunity to engage, we should take the opportunity to neutralize a wolf pack and make our rear a bit more secure in the process.”

  “A secure rear in the navy, what a contradiction,” Elman said dryly.

  Everyone laughed at that, even Heath smiled.

  Jonathan shook his head. Centuries after the age of sail no navy could fully expunge buggery jokes.

  The meeting broke up soon after, and Jonathan proceeded to the bridge. Once there, he activated the ship's PA system.

  “Attention all hands this is the Captain speaking,” Jonathan paused for a moment before continuing, “We are at war.”

  Casaopia System, Solarian Republic

  On board RSNS Sound of Fury

  November 7th 844 AE

  Fury and her consorts reached the Casaopia system two days later, which gave Jonathan and the other escort captains not to mention the continually nervous Captain Mao time to plan the convoy’s defense. The seven merchantmen were grouped in a cluster with Oeillet and Charon leading while Cronus and Fury brought up the rear. The plan was to put George’s notion that any commerce raider that approached would underestimate Fury's speed, and bring itself into a trap. Captain Mao was unhappy at the notion of being bait, but Jonathan assured him it was the safest strategy. A destroyed raider was one that was no threat at all. Jonathan didn't seriously think anyone would be foolish enough to attack the convoy though. Captain Mao in his capacity as the convoy’s senior officer had chosen what could be considered the shortest course through the system, rather than the safest. Casaopia’s three gas giants were called Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei. They were each twice as large as Jupiter in the Sol system, and a fourth larger than Zhong in the Solarian system. Their gravity wells had for a millennia collected massive amounts of space debris. One of those was a frozen, harsh moon called Dante that had been converted into one of Solaria’s harshest penal colonies. Aside from the 15,000 prisoners and their guards, the system had 6 million inhabitants most living aboard two space stations. The people in the system were for the most part zoners, they lived on the edge of what was called civilization and had a distaste for law and order. They tolerated the Republic and its presence in the system, but they didn't love it. Solaria had necessarily kept a light footprint. There were two CRS stations to help with search and rescue and watch out for smuggling and a monthly naval patrol to keep the peace. Other than that, the only evidence of the Republic’s presence was the penal colony. George had been right though. As a far as systems went, it was an ideal area for an ambush. Raiders loved asteroid belts and uninhabited worlds, and the convoy’s course took them straight through the gap between Liu Bei and Guan Yu and their rings. Though the gap between the gas giants was millions of miles, their debris field was very close and in astro-navigable terms practically touching.

  “Any contact from the CRS Mr. Heath?” Jonathan asked the com officer.

  “No sir. Just a message from Dante station. They report CRS post went quiet four days ago. Since then, several ships have disappeared. They advise caution.”

  Jonathan nodded. Although Dante and the two space stations were Solarian, they hadn't thus far been attacked, which made sense. All three installations orbited Zhang Fei, which was close to the Abreau wormway this time of year. A wolf pack wouldn't want to smash up the Solarian outpost by the front door of the system. Incoming convoys would see that, and head back to Abreau. No, better to lay and wait and strike at the opportune moment. Jonathan nodded and looked at the Yeoman at the ship's control.

  “All ahead full. Mr. Heath signal to the convoy, stay tight everyone.”

  The convoy moved at a slow but steady pace. It would be five days across the system, and Jonathan had adjusted the duty rotation to place himself on the bridge through as much of
the transit as possible. Especially when they crossed through the Hazin Cloud, the thickest part of the debris field between Liu Bei and Guan Yu. Despite all the tension and danger, Jonathan had to admit it made a very lovely sight. The two gas giants’ debris fields were mostly nickel iron asteroids, frozen ice, and a millennia worth of gas and dust. The Hazin Cloud formed a gold and purple nebula between the two planets and around them. In a few millennia, the giants would become stars in Casaopia which would become a trinary system. The younger and smaller Zhang Fei would join them in a few more millennia and Casaopia would become a star forge, or a place where stars were born and new worlds were fashioned from the debris caught in their gravity wells. It was hard not to marvel at the scale of it. On the third day of the convoy's passage, Jonathan was beginning to think that they might make it through the system unscathed then technical at the lidar station called out.

  “Sir, two new signatures resolving from Liu Bei belt, wait one...” tension built as the lidar computer processed the information. They had endured a number of false alarms before. Merchantmen and prospectors skimming the belt to avoid getting stepped on by the interstellar conflict. Most of those merchantmen had been headed away from the conflict zone. A few had fled Fury and her consorts very rapidly, leaving Jonathan to suspect that smugglers were taking advantage of the chaos that came with war. Fury’s computer was still processing the new signatures when Heath called out from the communications station.

  “Sir, signal received from Oeillet. Confirmed. Both signatures are tangos and match Jane's profile of New Congo class frigates.” Jane's Fighting Ships was an onboard manual that had a profile and the EM signature pattern of every class of ship in human space.

  “They are requesting instructions sir.”

  Jonathan pondered for a second looking at the relay. The Frigates weren't moving toward the convoy. In fact, they were moving away from it, but not at their full speed. They were obviously bait, but the question was would he take it? Jonathan decided the best way to neutralize a trap was to spring it.