Solbidyum Wars Saga 7: Hunt for the Reduviids

by Dale C. Musser

  “Well I’m glad to hear that,” I responded.

  “Yes, and after the test they were convinced I was loyal to their cause, they opened up and told me way more than I expected. Normally, the Brotherhood is tightly compartmentalized and they only tell you what you need to know and nothing beyond that, so I was shocked at all that they revealed.

  “The first thing you need to know and this is of an immediately concern, is that the Brotherhood wants to kidnap Norcar’s family and hold them hostage, so they can blackmail him into doing as they wish. They aren’t totally in agreement with what all they want, certainly they want him to channel money to them for their operations, basically from accounts of others not being monitored for long periods of time, possibly unsettled estates in escrow, but that would amount to quadrillions. They even discussed having him drain money off your accounts at the Weccies banks.

  “Another thing they discussed was trying to see if there was some way he might be able to disable the Weccies defense system that they could invade and take over the entire planet. However, they weren’t sure that would work. Their intent is to capture Norcar’s family is a sure thing they want and intend to do. That’s where they wish me to play a part. I’m to let them know when Norcar is bringing his family here. They don’t know anything about his family. They didn’t know his wife was dead, or how many children he has. I’m sorry I messed up telling them Norcar’s wife was dead before I realized what they were intending to do. We could have used that to put an agent in her place, now I’m afraid that’s not an option. Fortunately, they have no idea how old his children are, so we might still be able to use some young agents to take their place.”

  “How soon do they want this to happen?” I asked.

  “As soon as Norcar brings his family to Epsirt,” she said. “They were very emphatic about that. Norcar seems to be a focal point for their future operations.

  “The next thing you need to know is that there is a large training center for Reduviids on Epsirt. It's somewhere near the southern pole of the planet and it’s under the ice. According to Sisopan, its deep enough under the ice so it is undetectable by sensors.”

  “Wait – Sisopan? Did you say Sisopan?”

  “Yes, she’s the one who interviewed me and conducted the loyalty testing. She heads up the Reduviid training operations here. Merdak is the top Brotherhood agent and oversees all the Brotherhood operations on the planet, but Sisopan is responsible for the Reduviids and a lot of off-world operations from what I could tell. I get the feeling that she and Merdak don’t particularly like each other and there is some power struggle between the two of them as to which is higher ranking in the Brotherhood.”

  “We’re going to need you to find out as much about Sisopan’s operations as you possibly can, especially any time she is going off world and where she is going. At the moment, next to Ming and Roritat, she is our number three target in the Brotherhood.”

  “I didn’t know that. I’ll certainly try to find out all I can. Oh one more thing, Sisopan wants me to install hidden vid cameras with microphones about the estate, so they can spy on Norcar and others here. That will make it difficult for anyone coming to the estate through Cantolla gates because if they get in range of any cameras, it's going to alert the Brotherhood. It also means we will need to be very guarded with our conversations, more so than usual anyway. Right now, we are guarded, to some extent, because most of Norcar’s staff are not FSO and don’t know we are there. So we don’t need to worry too much about them. However, the first time one of us slips up or someone comes through a gate that shouldn’t be on the estate our cover will be blown.”

  “How soon will you be putting cameras out?” asked.

  “Sisopan is supposed to contact me in a day or two, she had to order more surveillance equipment as she said they needed more.

  “Oh, one more thing. The third drone we shot down apparently belonged to a wealthy investor, who was hoping to use the drone to spy on Norcar in an attempt to get early leads on investments. The Brotherhood was very unhappy about it because they believe it was the investors drone that alerted Norcar’s security team to the drones.”

  “Well, at least that’s one mystery solved,” Regeny said.

  “What more can you tell us about the Reduviid training facility?” Wabussie asked.

  “Not much I’m afraid. Sisopan mentioned it was there and that was about it. My impression is that it must be quite large, since Merdak was complaining about all the provisions they require and how hard it is to stay supplied without arousing suspicion. Sisopan didn’t think that would be any problem, since most of their ships now have cloaking capability. They can bring ships in from orbit to supply the base and pick up and transport Reduviids unseen.”

  “So they must have some sort of landing area, even if it is hidden, that we might be able to spot from space,” I said.

  “Possibly,” Báihuā responded. “But you’ll need to be very careful. According to Sisopan, the Brotherhood maintains cloaked ships in orbit around the planet that are equipped with their new detection equipment. They will be able to locate any cloaked Federation ships that approach the planet.”

  “Was there any mention of Fass Hakwin?” I asked.

  “I don’t think so. Who is he?” Báihuā asked.

  “He is a university professor kidnapped by the Brotherhood. We believe they are using him to advance their gravity wave drives.”

  “Sisopan mentioned someone they called the Professor, but I never heard them say Fass Hakwin.”

  “What did she say? Do you remember?” I asked.

  “Something about miniaturizing some explosive device and that he wasn’t doing very well and that maybe some additional incentive was needed to help him along.”

  “Torture or drugs?” Regeny asked.

  “I have no idea, that was all I heard her say. She was talking to one of her assistants at the time.”

  “It sounds like he’s there on the planet, like we thought. Tell me, Báihuā, do you think he’s at their estate on Epsirt or at the Reduviid base?”

  “I think perhaps the base. The assistant Sisopan was talking with said he needed to get back to the base and he was one of the people in the argument with Sisopan and Merdak about supplies for the Reduviid base.”

  “All right gentlemen, I think we have the information we needed. The Reduviids are training on Epsirt. Fass Hakwin is on the planet and Sisopan is there also. Now, what are we going to do? Do we send in an armada and flood the planets with troopers?” Regeny asked, rubbing his hands together as he looked back and forth between Wabussie and me.

  “Admiral, I don’t think that would be wise at all,” Wabussie said, interpreting Regeny’s enthusiasm as support for an invasion. “Epsirt is an independent planet. While there are Brotherhood operatives there, I seriously doubt most of the people there are Brotherhood members or know there is Brotherhood on the planet. The very fact they are hiding their base from the locals should tell you that. If we go in with guns blazing, we’ll do a lot of collateral damage to civilians and innocents, and the Federations image would be greatly tarnished. We need to work covertly and do this with as little notice of the locals as possible.”

  “I agree with Wabussie,” I said. “If we attack on a large scale on this the planet, we’ll create one inferno of a mess and, in the confusion, Sisopan may get away again. She’s very masterful at using chaos and confusion to facilitate her escapes. I’m betting she doesn’t do anything without first figuring out several escape routes in advance, should the need arise.”

  “So what is your plan?” Regeny looked at us with anticipation.

  “I guess we look for some young FSO agents who look like they could be Norcar’s sons and make arrangements for them to visit his estate. Norcar has two boys. If I recall right, they would be around 15 or 16 years old now, but it’s unlikely the Brotherhood would know that. We’ll need to use two very young-looking FSO agents to take their places. In the meantime, we can inves
tigate potential locations where the under-ice Reduviid training base might be. One thing I want done before Báihuā gets the spy cameras in place is to have a second Cantolla Gate set up at some other location on the planet, away from estate. We need to be able to have our agents come and go as needed without being spotted.”

  “I think I know the perfect place,” Báihuā said. “We had to rent a small storage facility on the planet for some of Norcar’s gear. It’s about five kilometers from the estate on the outskirts of the town. The door locks and unlocks from both sides. We can set up a gate inside the facility and pass through it without being seen. A pinhole security camera will make it possible for anyone inside the storage facility to see if someone is outside before opening it to leave. If you can have the gate nodes ready before I leave, I can take them back with me.”

  “Good, I’ll call Marranalis and have him see to it that the items are here before you return.”

  We spent the next few hours going over the details of Báihuā’s encounter with Sisopan and the Brotherhood and making plans for what she would do on her return. Marranalis was able to get Cantolla Gate nodes from A’Lappe before Báihuā returned to Epsirt.

  After Báihuā had gone, Regeny turned to Admiral Wabussie and me and said, “Well, that went well, I think. I’d say we’re in a great position to hand the Brotherhood a real hurting.” He glanced at Wabussie whose face reflected anything but victory.

  “Why aren’t you looking happy?” Regeny asked.

  “If this was our only problem, I would be. I got word this morning that in less than a week the Brotherhood is will attack the point where they believe the Cantolla Gate station to be. That wouldn’t be so bad and we are expecting that. However, they also plan to coordinate this assault with some other event or events and, at the moment, we are unable to identify what those plans might be. They’re assembling a lot of ships and resources for this onslaught.”

  “I think I need to schedule some training exercises moving ships from one sector to another by rapidly using the Cantolla Gates,” I said. “I’ll leave it to you to find two operatives to play the roles of Norcar’s boys. Remember though, they should look similar and be the same age. Norcar’s boys are twins.”

  I was busy over the next three days. I called emergency drills, moving ships from sector to sector in mock battles. My fleet admirals were upset that I didn’t give them any notice or time to prepare. I came back telling them they were expected to always be ready, and the enemy didn’t give advance notices. I held exercises defending the Cantolla Gates, both large and small. Finally, at the end of the third day, I called an emergency meeting of all the fleet admirals. I could see the looks of irritation on their faces as I stood in front of them.

  “The response times of your fleets have been deplorable,” I said. “Had there been a real emergency threat, thousands of lives and who knows how many ships could have been lost as a result of the performance of your crews. We need to tighten up.”

  “Why?” One of the older Admirals named Prezallie asked. Prezallie headed up the fleet in Sector 5. “We’ve done perfectly well at defending our territories and have routed the Brotherhood whenever they have attacked.”

  “Really?” I asked. “How is it that in the past ten years, the Federation has lost a little over one thousand worlds to the Brotherhood? How is it that thirty-two worlds have been completely destroyed with no life remaining on them? How is it that the Brotherhood has been able to attack thousands of our planets and hauled off nearly one billion Federation citizens as slaves? And how is it that almost daily we hear of Reduviid attacks on defenseless citizens? The stars help us, if you consider that as holding our own!

  “It’s not all that long ago that we lost one of the finest admirals in the fleet to a ruthless battle. Stonbersa was a veteran fighting the Brotherhood and where is he today? Do you see him sitting here in this room? Stonbersa believed in preparation. Even so, with all his skill and training, the enemy still prevailed and killed him. Do you think you are so much better than Stonbersa was?

  “Every day the Brotherhood is coming up with something new. Are you prepared to face their latest battle plans and armament?

  “In a few days, we are anticipating a large armada of Brotherhood ships to descend on the last location of the Cantolla Gate Station; the station has been moved, but the Brotherhood doesn’t know that. In its place, we will have nearly one thousand ships waiting and we hope to do some serious damage to the Brotherhood fleet. However, we have word that the Brotherhood also plans another attack of a large scale elsewhere and we don’t know where. We will need to deploy quickly and efficiently when they attack, or we could face serious consequences.

  “I don’t want to see any more lives lost. I don’t want any additional ships lost. One is one too many. I’ve drawn up specific battle plans for each fleet in response to the impending attack at the last Cantolla Gate Station site. I expect you to familiarize yourselves with them. There is also an alternate set of plans in the event you need to divert to a second location in response to simultaneous attacks by the Brotherhood. Unfortunately, we will not be able to have practice drills for these battles, because we want to be certain not to alert the Brotherhood to our preparations. You will have to do it all using computer simulations on your ships. Everything discussed in this meeting today is classified top secret. The only persons you can communicate with about this is your second in command and the captains of your flag ships. The enemy doesn’t know we now can match their speed with our ships. They do know we have our slow penetration torpedoes that can get through their shields, but they also know that their asteroid-ships can take a lot of hits before they are knocked out of commission. In their minds, they still have the upper hand; they don’t know we’ve leveled the playing field. Our best hope is to catch them off guard.”

  I looked around the room and saw the looks on the faces had changed from one of irritation to one of trepidation.

  I spent the rest of the day going over battle plans and tactics with the admirals. When we finished, I could see that the seriousness of the situation had sunk in. Several of the admirals stopped by to tell me they would do all they could and to prepare for whatever the Brotherhood throws at us. Admiral Kophious was the last to leave.

  “That was quite some speech you made, Admiral,” he said.

  “I hope it sank in. We’ve sustained enough losses,” I replied.

  “Yes,” Kophious added as he lowered his head a moment, “losing Stonbersa like we did was a huge shock. I’m glad that now all the admirals are using carriers for their flagships and not the old starships at least that reduces the risk of being taken out like Stonbersa was.”

  “I agree, but that’s not to say the Brotherhood won’t come up with a way to get to the carriers, too. They haven’t figured out the technology for the slow torpedoes so far and they don’t have access to the solbidnite needed to power them; but that’s not to say they won’t come up with some other technology.”

  “Do you think they can?” Kophious asked with a shocked expression.

  “They managed to figure out how to make ships faster than ours. They came up with proven design for their asteroid-ships, and they developed the sound recording fungus,” I said. “Regardless of how they acquired this technology, the point is they did it. There’s no reason to believe they cant do other things as well.”

  Once Kophious had gone, I went back to the NEW ORLEANS. I was feeling tired and it had now been five days since my last treatment. Two more days and I would need another. I was hoping the Brotherhood didn’t attack during a time I was at my lowest performance level, but that was something over which I had no control.

  As soon as I returned to the War Room, Marranalis informed me that Wabussie had received word that Báihuā had been given the vid bugging devices from the Brotherhood. She had placed them about the estate as instructed. So far, it looked like the Brotherhood was accepting Báihuā as one of them and didn’t seem suspicious about her at al
l. Wabussie also announced that he believed he had found the perfect pair of men to play the parts of Norcar’s sons. Both men were newly recruited FSO agents and they had scored high in their skills tests. They received training in the Weccies language and customs by using the learning headbands. It was hoped that this, coupled with the fact that very little was known to outsiders about the Weccies, would fool anyone meeting them. Báihuā had been instructed to tell Sisopan that a visit to the estate by Norcar and his sons was coming in a week or two.

  I was going over reports in my office about an hour later when I was interrupted by Marranalis.

  “Sir, we received word that there have been major explosions at three Federation shipyards where we have new ships being built.”

  “Are they under attack from space?” I asked as I rose to my feet?

  “No, sir, they appear to have either been from planted devices or from surface launched attacks. At the moment, we are not certain. The planetary defense units responded immediately, but no signs of the attackers can be found. It looks like it was the work of the Reduviids again, sir.”

  “Are there any casualty reports?”

  “Only that there are some and damage to the production facilities appears to be extensive.”

  “Damn… we need those ships!” I fumed.

  “What about the ones from the androids?” he asked.

  “That would be great, but they haven’t received the machinery and raw materials to start building them. I need to get that expedited. However, it will be at least a month or more before they are able to start building ships. In the meantime, we’ll need to do with what we have. Not that we’re hurting for ships; it's just that they’re spread so far apart and we have no idea where they will be needed.

  Two more days went by and nothing happened. I know I should have felt happy about that, but I wasn’t. I wanted to get it over with and the waiting was killing me. Wabussie called and asked me to come by his headquarters. When I arrived, Admiral Regeny was there, as were two young men who looked like they could be in their late teens or early 20s. Admiral Wabussie introduced them as Tabgellis and Mazukam and said they would be impersonating Norcar’s sons at the estate. The plan was that Norcar would fly to the estate with them and shortly after landing, would feign getting an urgent call to return to Weccies. He would leave the two imposter sons, claiming he would return in a few days and that they should enjoy themselves in the meantime. To make the event more realistic, orders were issued to the estate for them to stock up on exotic foods and they were instructed to check for special events such as musical events or live entertainment. If anyone was monitoring events at the estate, it certainly would look like Norcar and his sons were coming and intending on having a good time.